Desk-Side: This Fashion Blogger Shares The Best Part of Being Her Own Boss
The opportunity to create, to write, to dream—it just never stops.
Jessi Afshin is no stranger to success. With 300k Instagram followers, Jessi spends her days working on her fashion blog, The Darling Detail, and her new clothing line, Shop Darling, which supports victims of trafficking. We partnered with Glade Essentials Room Mist to find out what inspires Jessi and makes her feel most at home. Read on to get to know Jessi!
Q: How long have you been in Austin?
A: So I’ve lived in Austin since 1999, that’s almost 20 years. I actually went to the University of Texas, that’s where I studied fashion and business. Hook ‘em!
Q: What do you love most about fashion?
A: My favorite part of fashion is just all the positive emotions it evokes, like self-confidence and encouragement. So many good feelings just through comfort.
Q: We heard you just launched a clothing line, congrats! Can you tell us about it?
A: I just launched a clothing line, and I’m so excited about it because this has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. They’re soft, cozy sweatshirts and they have joyful messages on them. Every single one of our products is actually shipped and fulfilled by survivors of trafficking in Austin. So we’re actually employing women who are recovering from trafficking.
Q: Where do you draw your inspiration from?
A: I get almost all my inspiration from dreams. I have like 10 dreams a night. I wake up and I write them down, and I instantly have so many new ideas. I also LOVE to Pinterest, and mood board, and collage.
Q: What do you love most about your office space?
A: I like to keep this space feeling so fresh and inspiring. We’ve been using Glade Essentials Room Mist Mandarin & Mimosa and it seriously smells like an Anthropologie store in here!
Q: What’s the best part about being your own boss?
A: I love my job. The opportunity to create, to write, to dream—it just never stops. One of my favorite parts about working for myself is the flexibility and the hours. It’s amazing. So much of what I do happens right at my desk. But most of all, my very favorite part about what I do is writing my faith-based account, it’s called My Darling Diary and it’s where my heart is.
See Jessi’s full interview here:
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"An Overnight Success is 10 Years in the Making" & Other Mic-Drop Moments You Missed From Our Desert Pop-Up
Palm Springs, you did it again.
There’s nothing like coming together with hundreds of women in the middle of the desert to mingle, share knowledge, and hear from some of the best in the fashion, beauty, and entertainment industries. Saturday’s Desert Pop-Up was all that and more, with jaw-dropping keynotes from Jameela Jamil, Rocky Barnes, and Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott. They shared the priceless advice they’ve gained over the years, and we couldn’t take notes fast enough! Don’t worry if you weren’t there—we’re bringing you all the key takeaways below…and if you’re a C&C Insider, you can watch videos of every speaker & panel here!
The New Standard: Influencers Reshaping the Beauty & Fashion Industry
“I want to be on the field playing, not on the bench.” - Annie Lawless, Lawless Beauty
“Everything you post is an online resume.” - Jill Wallace, Little Black Boots
“I’m not going to do a job I’m not 100% about. I will never compromise my style.” - Brittany Xavier, global style influencer
Don’t do it for the likes or the comments. Post what you’re passionate about. - Carolina Lindo, I’m Not Sorry Darling
On starting a new venture: “There really is no true five year plan. Everything you do should be short-term planning.” — Jessica Franklin, HeyGorJess
““The only person I’m in competition with is myself. Where was I three months or six months ago, and where I am now?” ”
On being an influencer in a rapidly-changing digital landscape: “It’s a bit like the wild wild west. We’re making the rules up as we go.” - Jill Wallace
“There’s never a right time to start a company, so you might as well start now. Just have faith.” - Annie Lawless
“You don’t need to know exactly where you’re going. Just be really focused and passionate about what you do and everything will fall into place.” - Jessica Franklin
“The only person I’m in competition with is myself. Where was I three months or six months ago, and where I am now?” - Jill Wallace
Fireside Chat: Rocky Barnes
“An overnight success is 10 years in the making.”
“I think it’s so important to find the right person or brand to collaborate with. Don’t be afraid to say no and find the right match. It’s like finding a boyfriend.”
“I don’t want anyone to think there’s a quick easy shortcut to success — It may look like there is, but it’s all about hard work.”
“Make time for face-to-face interactions, taking the time to have coffee, say hello—make a personal connection. You have no idea how far that will go in this industry.”
“The best advice I’ve ever received is to never take anything personally.”
“No one is bigger or better than anyone else. Everyone started in the same place.”
“Instead of focusing just on that dream job, focus on the way you want to feel. That’s where you should put your focus.”
Keynote: Katrina Scott & Karena Dawn, Founders of Tone It Up, in conversation with Jaclyn Johnson
“The secret to being business partners is to allow each other to be who you are and find your strengths.”
“There’s never enough time in the day—don’t try to do everything. If you can choose to do one big thing once a day, think of how much you can achieve in a month, or a year, or 10 years.”
“Be in tune with the community you have, even when you think you know what’s best for your business.”
“For us, because we’re so focused on relationships, hiring is really about culture. Hire smarter than you are. Hire people who know what you don’t know.”
“Life isn’t all about work. You have to set boundaries—we’ll go on vacation together and spend the whole week not talking about work. Life is meant to be enjoyed.”
“You have to OK with change. Evolution is great. You’re not the same person you were 10 years ago, and your brand should evolve as well.”
“We’re really guilty of doing every job ourselves. You shouldn’t do that—you should be creating and connecting with your community.”
“Hiring is an investment of time, but think about how it will pay off in the long run.”
“From the very beginning, you’ll never find any Tone It Up workouts about ‘problem areas.’ We’ve always been very body positive. We have before and afters, but we’ve highlighted women who’s gained weight, who’ve gotten stronger, who’ve gone from being not confident to confident.
“Live in the moment and learn. When we’re younger, we’re so concerned about what other people are thinking about you. Just live.”
We Mean Biz: The Content Creators Building Buzz & Businesses
“There’s a reason people sit around the table and talk about their invention ideas and don’t follow through on them—because doing them is no joke. If you have that idea and there is something in you pulling you to do it, figure it out because I have to say, going forward with TOPTOTE, I would have regretted not making it happen.” - Lindsay Albanese, TOPTOTE
“Whoever is paying you is always going to say there’s no money available. There is always money available. Be difficult. Ask for the big money.” - Keltie Knight, TV Host & Founder, Ladygang
Focus on your niche. Focus on what your friends ask your advice on. What are you getting questions about? What are you really good at? Focus on that. - Jaci Marie Smith, Influencer & Founder, What We Said
“If it’s not something I would wear myself, I won’t put it into production.” - Nicole Williams English, Nia Lynn Collection
““Some of the biggest opportunities I’ve gotten are because I’ve asked for it. If I’m not asking, someone else is.””
“Hard workers only. If you’ve got it, you’ll make it happen.” - Lindsay Albanese
“Tap into your resources. You know more people than you realize that can help you take that next step in making something happen.” - Lindsay Albanese
“Ask for what you want, because you are worth it. It is so hard to find a passionate, smart woman to work for you—and you are that. Get that money.” - Keltie Knight
“I’m at the point now where I’d rather level up on everything I’m doing than doing something new.” - Jaci Marie Smith
“A lot of people are so nervous to ask for what they want, but some of the biggest opportunities I’ve gotten are because I’ve asked for it. If I’m not asking, someone else is.” - Lindsay Albanese
“Take ‘just’ out of your vocabulary. Not ‘just following up.’ Say, ‘Hey. I’m following up. I’m fucking awesome. Reply to me.’” - Keltie Knight
Keynote: Jameela Jamil in conversation with Jaclyn Johnson
“If you’re going to be an activist or feminist, you have to be willing to take an L and know that we don’t know everything. We have to be willing to shut up, listen, and learn, and not be too proud about it.”
“The next generation is f*cking done being excluded and looking up to a white straight thin version of what we are supposed to be. We’re done with the dinosaurs…and I’m here to kill the last of them.”
“I weigh the sum of all my motherf*cking parts.”
“Stop being so worried about being fucking likable—it’s not your responsibility to make people happy.”
“This is now a time of sisterhood. Seeing how high my activism has risen, seeing how I’ve been embraced for being so outspoken, so rude—-by even the media and men—-is a sign that change is here.”
Shoutout to Kelley Anderson for creating these gorgeous fern walls for our video backdrop! We loved seeing all of your creative OMBooth vids!
Next up: Our New York conference! Didn’t get tickets in time? Hop on the waitlist. We can’t wait to see you there!
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17 Steps to Leading a Mind-Blowing Meeting
Don't succumb to bad meeting fate.
Once upon a time, I worked for a woman who was known as a star meeting facilitator. CEOs would call left and right, asking her to organize strategy sessions and management off-sites, and she would prepare for these sessions meticulously and down to the last detail. Frequently, as I helped her prep for a meeting, she would remind me in an ominous voice: “Romy, if the room is too hot or too cold, people are going to blame you for it.”
While room temperature is sometimes tough to control, her broader point stands: if you’re going to lead a successful meeting, you have to think constantly about the participants. What’s going to make them feel good about the experience? How can you make sure everyone is engaged and heard? How do you make your participants a part of the meeting process, instead of just an audience? Fortunately, there's a process for that.
Here are some ways you can steer your meetings in a positive (dare we say, exciting?) direction.
1. Have a clear objective
Make sure everyone knows what you’re there to accomplish. If you can come in with a single item you want to achieve and then achieve it, everyone will leave feeling good about the meeting.
2. Have an agenda — and make it obvious
Make sure everyone knows what you're going to cover and in what order. It helps you keep the meeting on track, and gives your attendees a sense of inclusion in the process.
3. Keep it short
Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Everyone has lots to do and a short attention span. The more you can keep the meeting brief, the more people will thank you. That means you need to keep the scope of the meeting highly focused.
4. Book a comfortable room
...with chairs at the table for everyone. Seriously. If people feel uncomfortable or are marginalized to “back row seats,” they're not going to be receptive — and what they’ll remember later won't be the great discussion, but how uncomfortable they felt.
5. Choose the right seat
If it’s a meeting that’s around a long table, as the leader, you should sit in the middle, not at the head. That way, you are closer to everyone, sending a message that says, “this is a discussion.”
6. Bring bribes — EHM, snacks
Everyone likes food. Especially not completely unhealthy food.
7. Phones down, heads up
At the start of the meeting, ask everyone if they wouldn’t mind setting aside their phones for the duration of the meeting so everyone can have a better experience.
“Send a message that says, ‘this is a discussion.’”
8. Make sure all key stakeholders can and will attend
Nothing's worse than assembling a group without a key decision-maker so then nothing gets decided. Confirm RSVPs for everyone, and send a meeting reminder the day before.
9. Keep the tone purposeful but light
Inject humor wherever possible. If you can find any way to make the meeting fun, people will thank you. But please: no dad jokes.
10. Keep on track
If someone tries to take the meeting in another direction (and they always do), say, “that’s a great thought. Let’s schedule a separate meeting to discuss it."
11. Make everyone heard
Pay attention to people's reactions to the discussion. Often you'll spot someone trying to speak up but missing their shot. If someone is being drowned out, call attention to them and give them the floor.
12. Elicit participation from everyone
If someone seems quiet or thoughtful, ask them directly for their input. And if someone is not paying attention, call them out on it!
13. Take group notes on a whiteboard
If you jot down people’s thoughts, it gives them weigh t— and it also helps bring participants along to a conclusion or solution with you.
14. Blatantly wrap up
Recap key findings and next steps. Reiterate how the group has successfully accomplished the task at hand. The mental “checking of the check-box” will make everyone feel good.
15. Thank everyone for their time
These days, time is the most precious commodity anyone has. Thank them for making time to join you.
16. End five minutes early
If you can wrap up the meeting five minutes before the scheduled time, people will LOVE you. These days, so many people’s schedules are so booked, they will be forever grateful if you give them five extra minutes to catch up on email or — God forbid — take a bathroom break.
17. Send a meeting recap, notes, and follow-up
THAT DAY or the next day at the very latest. Make sure it is clear who is responsible for what follow up and by when. And if you need a follow up meeting, send the invite for it immediately too. It gives people a sense that the project is progressing.
Ultimately, it’s all about anticipation. If you can think through the purpose and the flow of the meeting in advance, and map out the participants’ experience, you are sure to have meeting that is no less than mind-blowing. And if all else fails, for God’s sake, check the thermostat!
An original version of this article appeared on Career Contessa.
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Motivation Monday: 10 Quotes to Awaken Your Inner Beyonce
We're out here making Monday our B.
Oh Bey. You brought all your lady-boss power to the Super Bowl and Coachella, and since someone once reminded us that we have just as many hours in the day as you, we're kicking off the week with ten quotes to keep us motivated and feeling good. (And shoutout to that all female drum line. #ladyboss.)
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How Refusing To Compare & Despair Helped Me Build a Unique App
“We focused less on standing out, and more on what we had to offer.”
I initially didn’t love the idea: an app that livestreams meditation. My boss suggested it amidst a lunchtime brainstorm, about the intersections of the wellness and technology spaces. I questioned whether live meditation really offered something different than other meditation apps. We brushed over the idea.
It wasn’t until I coincidentally began offering an optional Friday meditation to my coworkers via conference call (most of them were remote in different parts of the US) that I began to connect the dots. The real catalyst was a feeling my coworker experienced during this weekly meditation call. As she listened in and followed my voice, she noticed that her mind was not spiraling with anxious thoughts in the same way she had experienced when listening to guided meditation alone. She explained that it felt like everyone was meditating there with her in Seattle, even though the rest of the team was actually in Brooklyn, Toronto, and Walla Walla.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it: live meditation. Hundreds of people meditating at the same time across the world. Meditating in collective energy. I was reminded of studies that showed that group meditation has had a resonant effect on surrounding areas, reducing conflict and violence. This led me to a question that many of our great thinkers have explored: is there a single unifying force that joins us all together? And if so, can we tap into it?
I went back to my boss. Luckily, exploring and investing in this idea aligned with our company mission to start creating our own digital products again.
So, we went for it.
I kicked off the process, ushering myself through the same steps I often usher clients through: research, strategy, design, build, refinement. I was confronted with a sea of well-designed meditation apps from credible meditation experts, funded by lots of capital. There was a small opening in the market: no one was offering live meditation. We also had a unique scenario rare to the “app” world, where we were our own clients. We focused less on how to stand out, and focused our effort on what would allow an authentic manifestation of this idea.
As I began digging into design, I realized that if I continued to face the challenge of designing a meditation app, it would likely look and feel similar to other apps. In order to stand out, I needed to nurture what was unique to us. How do I help people feel the presence of others? How do I create a space in which people feel a sense of community, perhaps the presence of something “bigger” than themselves, without drawing away from the meditation practice itself? We focused less on standing out, and more on what we had to offer.
I used these questions as guard-rails. Functionality, structure, and aesthetic all had to contribute to accentuating this “feeling” of calm and the collective.
We started by stripping away anything that might distract people, or feed into our familiar behaviors of consuming content. I thought about how well-established apps (Twitter, Instagram) started, and noticed that these now refined, polished products launched with a single function. A small focused product could create big impact. We removed functionality— sign-ups, likes, comments, noted meditations— and interactions — scrolling and double taps—that weren’t 100% necessary to our experience. We landed on one single UI element: a button that allows you to Tap In and listen to a live meditation.
Our meditations wouldn’t be stored. We committed whole-heartedly to the desire to bring people together at the same time. Storing meditations would mean there would be less people sitting together daily.
We used a working prototype internally for 8 weeks prior to our beta week. During that time, we learned what being live really meant. For example, while in our internal prototype phase, I led one of our first meditations using the app from my home in Brooklyn. A man, outside my window very loudly yelled “F*** you!” It was a quintessential New York moment, but not one that was conducive to meditation. Being live meant things could go wrong: teachers could cough, a fire truck could go by, a man outside the window could yell profanities. It introduced a rawness that felt uncomfortable in a digital world that obsesses over curated experiences. We’d be removing the mask of curation, revealing our imperfections. Meditation teaches us to notice all of the facets of being human, including the environments we’re in. The more we can turn into ourselves and our breath, the more we can turn down the chaos around us. With some loose guidelines in place to ensure a relaxing experience, we chose to embrace it.
The remainder was primarily aesthetic, and relied on details and metaphors. We landed on the idea of each user being represented by a light orb, rather than photos or videos. As users “Tap In,” we could create a celestial ecosystem. With a halo identifying your own orb, you flock together and shift shapes with the other meditators. We aim to accentuate the feeling of togetherness— or at least ignite the imagination. Our backgrounds are blobs of colors, with ribbon-like shapes intersecting, visualizing what energy looks like to me. They continuously undulate and shift back and forth, up and down. We created a space that users can walk into, in hopes of immediately promoting calm.
As I reflect back on the creation experience, I noticed it’s often easier to look at other products and see value in their solution, rather than mold your own unique but raw ideas. Looking out rather than in often moves us into a space of comparison instead of creation. What is it that you are really trying to solve? And how can you share your unique take on that idea. In the creation of Tap In, solving the design for the app meant borrowing deeply from meditation traditions: silencing the noise in order to stay clear and true to the pure “essence,” the seed, the soul of the idea.
Originally from Montréal, Margaux Le Pierrès works as the design director at Fictive Kin, a digital product studio, where she had lead branding & digital product design for fabulous companies like National Geographic & Kickstarter. Margaux is also a certified Reiki Master, and Akashic record practitioner, with experience working with clients one-on-one to help facilitate opportunities for people to connect to themselves more deeply, and live a more authentic life. Along with Fictive Kin, Margaux recently launched Tap In, the first live, collective meditation app.
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Making Moves: Directorial Debuts, Helping the Homeless, & Advances in Science
Women are helping science, film, and each other this week.
Every Friday, we here at C&C like to celebrate all of the great contributions women are making in the world. Read on to see what women are doing in film, science, their communities, and more!
Get ready to laugh! On Thursday, Netflix dropped the trailer for its next big female-led film: Wine Country. The film will be powerhouse comedian Amy Poehler’s directorial debut and will be released to the site on May 10th.
This week, the first picture of a black hole was released. The source of the photo? An algorithm created by MIT graduate student Katie Bouman. Bouman, who studied computer science and electrical engineering, led the team that created the new algorithm three years ago. High fives for women in STEM!
Creativity, style, and beauty have no age limit. Professor, blogger, and model Lyn Slater is starring in GoDaddy’s newest ad campaign. The 65-year-old creator of Accidental Icon will soon be featured on GoDaddy’s television, social media, and event advertisements.
You get a show, and you get a show! It was announced this week that Oprah will be joining forces with Prince Harry and Apple to create and executive produce a series centered around mental health. The series will be available to stream in 2020 and will aim to fight the stigma surrounding mental health around the world.
Female students at Carmel High School came together this week to collect roughly 6000 pads and tampons for women unable to purchase them themselves. The group of students, led by Clementine Chamberlain, has been working all year to gather sanitary products for homeless and low-income women. Every Tuesday should be Tampon Tuesday!
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Behind The Stage: How Our Team Built The C&C Austin Pop-Up
It takes a team of amazing women to get things done.
At Create & Cultivate, we truly believe that teamwork makes the dream work—FOR REAL. We’re a small but super mighty crew of ladies fostering a community of badass working women who deserve the very best. And we take that to heart! Whether they’re juggling a 9-to-5 and a 5-to-9 or putting in the work 24/7 for their own company, we know how hard our fans work. So we work just as hard to make sure our events are best-in-class with top-tier talent, tangible takeaways, and moving moments that make our events so unforgettable. To do that month in and month out takes a serious amount of collaboration, communication, and of course, problem-solving.
In the spirit of collaboration, we want to share our team’s experience with YOU. We’ve teamed up with Microsoft Teams to give you a behind-the-stage look at the hard work that goes into bringing our buzzed-about events to life. After all, most small companies face a lot of the same problems as us, so we’re all about sharing our solutions with you. Dive into our first-ever Create & Cultivate documentary to find out why our team is the DNA behind everything we do.
Watch Our Austin Pop-Up Team Documentary Below!
How We Use Teams To Bring Events To Life
0:52—On the go? SAME! Having the Microsoft Teams mobile app has changed the way we communicate. Chats, @mention notifications, file sharing, and handy tools like meeting transcription and background blur keep us professional and in constant communication to help us make fast, informed decisions on the fly.
1:00—For easy collaboration, we split everyone working on our Austin Pop Up into different channels on Microsoft Teams based on their roles within the big project. For example, We created an AUSTIN 2019 Team and broke out individual channels for production, talent, marketing, and partners. Each channel has their own chats to have discussions specific to their tasks, and then we also had an all-hands channel for general Austin event communication + encouragement. We like to use team chat to pump each other up the day of the event with fun GIFs and shoutouts!
1:25—When we’re in full-on event planning mode, we’re rarely all in the same room. Our events team might be scouting locations, our account managers might be at client meetings, and our marketing team might be off-site working with talent. That’s where online meetings come into play—when we need face-to-face time, being able to link up and work through things like last-minute production changes, campaign details, and digital edits is a lifesaver.
Need to streamline your team’s processes and create a collaborative hub for your business? Download Microsoft Teams today to get a jump start on teamwork success!
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C&C Classifieds: Marie Forleo, The Stylist LA, Serena & Lily, & More!
Consider us your Fairy Godmother of job hunting.
Serena & Lily - San Francisco, CA
Pottery Barn - San Francisco, CA
Create & Cultivate - Los Angeles, CA
NestSet - Remote
Verge Creative Group - New York, NY
R\West - Portland, Oregon
Pilot - New York, NY
Menin Hospitality - Miami, FL
How This CEO Is Saving the Planet, One Vintage Dress at a Time
“Our society needs your leadership, our community needs your representation, our economy needs your businesses.”
Shilla Kim-Parker wants you to save money—and the planet. That’s why she started Thrilling, an online marketplace for vintage and secondhand clothing stores. Shilla saw a disconnect between her favorite shops and the shopping method that best fits her lifestyle, so she filled the void herself.
Here, Shilla shares how she made her dream a reality, how Thrilling is working to better the planet, and the advice she has for other women of color in business.
How did you come up with the idea of Thrilling, and how did you transform that idea into a reality?
The goal of Thrilling is to make secondhand shopping more popular, modern, accessible, and most importantly - more of a habit for more people.
Secondhand shopping has always been near and dear to my heart. Not only is it a treasure hunt, but growing up in a household with limited means, it was a great way to find unique and fantastic clothes at a great value. It’s also one of the best ways to reduce your environmental impact and support local business owners. Win-win-win.
As I’ve gotten older - I’m now a working mom, with a toddler at home and a baby due in just a couple weeks - I no longer have the time to shop in this way.
Secondhand shopping is about the journey, it’s a fun afternoon or weekend activity - but I found that I no longer could dedicate the time to sift through racks. I yearned for a way to shop these stores from the palm of my hand, in the few spare moments I have between meetings or on the couch post kids’ bedtime. And that’s how the idea of Thrilling was born.
Tell us a bit about how your business model works. How does Thrilling support small businesses?
There are more secondhand stores in the US than there are Starbucks and McDonalds, combined. These stores are mostly run by women, who are typically the sole breadwinner for their families. All together they do about $15 billion in sales, but 95% of these sales are completely offline.
The thing that makes secondhand shopping so much fun - the fact that every item is unique - makes it extremely difficult for e-commerce. The amount of work involved is huge, which is why most of the current e-commerce platforms don’t work for these store owners. And yet, these store owners feel enormous pressure to go online, as relying on local foot traffic for business no longer pays the bills.
That’s where Thrilling comes in. We do all the tech and logistics for these store owners and put whatever items they want online. We create a custom page for them on our site, which they use that page as their website. Now they can finally sell to customers across the country or around the world.
What are the environmental implications of your company?
It can take up to 1,000 gallons of water to make a single item of clothing. New apparel production is a leading contributor to pollution, and Americans wear clothes on average 7 times before throwing them in the trash. Worse, clothes are not easily biodegradable.
Buying an item of clothing secondhand reduces its waste impact by nearly 75 percent. In this day and age, when the environmental issues facing our planet is an urgent crisis, shopping secondhand is a fantastic way to do our part.
“I am black, I am the daughter of a Korean immigrant, I am a mom, I am pregnant, I am mid-career. Needless to say, Silicon Valley did not know what to make of me!”
What advice do you have for other women of color looking to start businesses of their own?
I am black, I am the daughter of a Korean immigrant, I am a mom, I am pregnant, I am (was) mid-career. Needless to say, Silicon Valley did not know what to make of me!
For my fellow women of color - Perseverance! Many people will tell you “no" or “you can’t.” The standards you’ll have to meet will be higher. There are institutional barriers in place that will prevent you from getting funding as easily as others.
But keep fighting. We need you. Our society needs your leadership, our community needs your representation, our economy needs your businesses.
The real problem is that people from underrepresented backgrounds face greater risk in starting a business - usually we don’t have the same family resources, the same networks, the same access to capital others do.
So my real advice is for those in positions of power - be a part of the solution, be an agent of change. And especially help women of color in the very earliest phase of their company/idea building process.
What are you most proud of within your work at Thrilling?
Giving back is built into our ethos. And we are proud to incorporate community service and outreach whenever and wherever we can.
As an example, we are delighted to be partnering with Goodwill Southern California on “best of Goodwill” collections that will be sold exclusively on our site. The first collection goes on sale March 15th, and it is curated by Ali Mandelkorn, Janelle Monae’s genius stylist. The majority of the proceeds go towards Goodwill SoCal’s incredible workforce development programs, in particular job training and assistance for the homeless.
What’s next for Thrilling?
We have been (happily!) overwhelmed by the response and demand from local vintage and secondhand store owners, from across the states and even as far away as Japan and Sweden. So we will continue to quickly ramp up the number of store partners we work with and the number of cities that we operate in.
We are also working on some fun and innovative partnerships with artists, celebrities, and designers - stay tuned for more on that front this spring!
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Screw the Cue Cards: 5 Tips for Mastering a Live Audience
Channel your inner Adele and go for it.
There's a reason public speaking is feared more than death.
It’s scary as hell! So many eyeballs staring at you. A crowd of faces reacting to you. People are paying attention to your every word, all of your movements, and they’re all vibin’ your energy. HI PRESSURE!
If you’re nervous just thinking about that possibility, you’re not alone. Even the most well-versed stage goddesses still get nervous and still want to know they did OK (lookin’ at you Queen Bey). Knowing that nerves are part of the process is a little encouragement to keep pushing through. I’ve spent the past four years in front of groups as small as ten and as big as 500. Whether it was a workshop in Paris, a small presentation in Miami or a massive conference in NYC, I’ve learned a few things through screw-ups, mentorship, and simply getting on stage and doing it that have helped make public speaking easier.
Because you and I both know your success depends on you summoning those 5th grade diorama presentation skills in order to build thought leadership and visibility. You want that panel seat at Create & Cultivate one day. You most definitely want the hot seat on a morning show. Or the viral Ted talk. Dreaming big requires starting small and mastering the moments with live audiences. Eventually they’ll be the big ones and you’ll crush it, and your business will follow suit.
Power pose ahead of time
The position of your body can literally affect your mind. If you’ve never watched Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk, do it now.
If you’re feeling so physically nervous you do not know what to do – power pose in the bathroom stall, in a corner, or back stage. What's a power pose? Stand like superwoman. I always make it a point to be moving before I go on stage. The physical movement lets the nerves flow through me instead of getting so jammed up I start shaking. Sometimes I’ll dance. Other times if eyes are on me before I have the mic, I’ll stand in a half power pose with my feet wider, my chest out, but overall relaxed and ready to take the spotlight.
Minimize unknown variables
There’s nothing that will throw a wrench in your public speaking game like a variable you didn’t know about. We’re talking audio, clickers, live streams, timing, props, and beyond. The best thing you can do is get a feel for the space before you go in to crush it. Stand in front of the room. Walk the stage. Click the clicker. Talk to the A/V guys. Know the positioning of your slides and who’s managing them. The more you understand all the tiny variables, the more comfortable you’ll be. And the better chance you’ll have at a home run.
Remember: you know something they don’t
As in...your material. Your content. Your script. Your presentation. If you skip a section, forget a word, or flip flop the sequence, the only person who will ever know that is you. So when it happens, and it most definitely will, don’t immediately stop, apologize and freak out. Your audience was none the wiser until you brought attention to it. So just channel your inner Adele during the 2016 Grammys and KEEP GOING.
Tell stories
The woman and mentor who has gotten my public speaking to where it is today (Oh, Hi Tiffany!) gave me one of the greatest pieces of advice when it comes to leading an audience: People will not remember the information you give them but they will always remember the stories you tell. So if you’re being interviewed for a webinar or giving the first big keynote of your life, create an emotional connection with your content by telling stories to prove your point. These stories can be harvested from your own life experiences or the journeys of others. It’ll provide a memorable experience for everyone involved.
Start small. And set the date.
When I used to be in broadcasting, they’d tell us newbies to go make our mistakes in small market gigs first. It makes sense, and luckily those small opportunities aren’t hard to find. Pitch your local community group to host a workshop, Q+A, or talk. Women’s groups, networking groups, and communities are always looking for amazing people with strong content. You can get a feel for the spotlight which will push the momentum and your comfort level for the “big” stuff.
If you get an invitation to speak, say yes. If you get nervous, you’re not alone. Command that spotlight and have fun while you do! There’s no greater thrill than one from rocking out with a live audience.
Maxie McCoy is the energy designer of Maxie, where she shares soul wisdom on the digital video series #maxie and her weekly writings. If you want your spiritual and emotional IQ shooting to the stars, Maxie is the place to be.
Let Maxie be your guide to unlocking your brilliance by following along at maxiemccoy.com. Maxie offers soul sessions, workshops, one-on-one coaching, and words of wisdom you really shouldn't miss. And get tickets to #createcultivateCHI to land a seat a our Mentor Power Hour with Maxie.
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#GirlCrush: 5 Small Business Owners We're Loving This Month
You’re gonna want one of everything.
We’re so stoked to bring you another edition of #GirlCrush! This month, we’re sharing some amazing founders from the fashion, jewelry, fragrance, and design spaces. We’d be lying if we said we didn’t already have some of their product in our shopping carts…
Ana Sofia Gomez, Sofia Los Angeles
Ana Sofia got her entrepreneurial start when her full-time employer filed for bankruptcy. Not wanting to leave the fashion industry, she decided to go it alone and launched Sofia Los Angeles—and now she’s got a cult following thanks to her 3D floral set.
Brooke Reynolds, Socialite Pink
After eight years as a commercial real estate attorney, Brooke Reynolds decided to leave it all behind to bring her dream of starting a jewelry company to life. Thus began Socialite Pink, a jewelry brand focused on making gorgeous hyper-functional jewelry, women encouraging women, and giving back to the community.
Carina Chaz, Dedcool
Named after Lauren’s Icelandic great-grandfather, Sigfus Jewelry began after she encountered a newfound obsession with polymer clay and started creating beautiful statement earrings. Oh, and Sigfus is a woman-owned and -operated company—holla!
Audrey De La Cruz, Annotated Audrey
Inspired by the desert surroundings in her home in Tucson, Audrey De La Cruz creates art, gifts, and accessories you’ll want to show off everywhere in your home. Plus, we’re pretty obsessed with her mission: “I strive to make art that people of all ages can enjoy because I firmly believe that art should be accessible.”
Come back next month to read all about our May girl crushes!
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How the C&C Team Finds Inspiration in the Everyday
From long walks to team bonding, here’s how we get inspired each day.
Here at C&C, our team is constantly on the go. Down time is rare, so when we’re able to relax, we really make the most of it. Many of us like to do a little digital detox time and step away from our phones, while others chill out with a good Netflix binge. Regardless, we know recharging is integral to getting inspired for when we step back into the office. That’s why we partnered with Glade® at our ATX popup to bring you an immersive self-care experience complete with a manicure bar—and now, we’re bringing you some of our favorite ways to find inspiration in the everyday. Glade Essentials Room Mist is the perfect way to wind down after a long day (psst…the Mandarin & Mimosa scent smells like the inside of an Anthro store!).
Below, our team shares their favorite ways to get inspired each day.
“Reading the news always helps put things in perspective for me. I feel inspired by people overcoming great (or awful) things and it helps to level-set my worries about problems I'm facing so they feel more manageable.”
- Heather Records, VP of Marketing
“I get my inspiration from my team and their hard work!”
- Alyssa Torma, Junior Producer
“I find inspiration by taking a few minutes to myself in the morning to stretch, spray my favorite fragrance (it’s currently Glade’s Mandarin & Mimosa Essentials Room Mist!), and try to clear my mind to prepare for the day ahead.”
- Chelsea Evers, Editorial Director
“I find inspiration by having an innovative approach to my work. I ask myself, ‘How can I cut budgets and do something new and different for half the cost? How do I solve this logistical issue and find a way for 1000 attendees and 200 sponsors to move through one space seamlessly?’ It’s like a puzzle and I get inspired by solving it!”
- Lainey DePompa, Senior Producer
“Turning off my phone and going for a walk with no distractions, just some me time, lets me actually look around at what’s going on in beautiful LA.”
- Elyse Wasserstrom, Account Manager
“Pinterest inspires me in so many ways, from my personal style to design inspiration to meal prepping ideas. I love a good Pinterest scroll when I need some inspiration during my day.”
- Tyeal Howell, Marketing Manager
“Taking my dog for a walk around the neighborhood gives me a chance to disconnect and think clearly.”
- Caitlin Shier, Director of Accounts & Brand Marketing
Your turn: How do you find inspiration in the everyday?
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What to Expect at Our Desert Pop-Up
Palm Springs is about to get even more Instagrammable.
We’re coming for you, Palm Springs! We had such an amazing time at last year’s inaugural Desert Pop-Up with Kate Bosworth as our keynote speaker—and we’re coming back even bigger and better this year with more fun in the sun.
On April 13, we’ll be hosting another FREE one-day pop-up event with amazing panels, delicious food and drinks, shoppable pop-ups, and everything else you’ve come to know and love about Create & Cultivate events. Here’s what you can expect this year…
Location
Commune at The Ace Hotel
701 E Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA
What to Bring
Your ID! We’ll have drinks onsite for those 21 and up.
Arrivals
Doors open at 10:30 a.m. Space is not guaranteed, so arrive early (seriously—this event will fill up fast!). The first 100 guests will receive a gift bag full of goodies!
Want to skip the line?
Sign up for our new Create & Cultivate Insiders program and use your membership to get front-of-line access to all of our events for the year! Did we mention it also unlocks some pretty amazing perks? Get excited to gain access to our entire archive of panel videos, monthly digital mentor sessions where you can join live to ask your questions to some of the best in the biz, plus an entire library of career worksheets & downloads that we’ve created to help you THRIVE.
SHOPPING, FOOD, & FUN IN THE SUN
We’ve partnered with some of our favorite brands to bring you amazing shopping experiences, to-die-for photo ops, and delicious food and drinks! Peruse each booth to find your new go-to brands for home, beauty, and fashion!
LIFESTYLE
Want a behind-the-stage look at how the C&C team produces events? Stop by the Microsoft Teams booth to watch a documentary that shows how we use Teams to bring all our events to life!
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Stop by the main bar to grab a Ketel One Botanical cocktail, or visit the fresh market cart for delicious and refreshing Botanical Spritz!
Need an afternoon pick-me-up for a day full of panels? Chameleon will be serving organic black nitro cold-brew coffee to keep your day going strong!
Cool off with a Lemonade Freeze from Not Your Father’s, our favorite boozy root beer brand!
Stay hydrated with bottled water from CORE—it is the desert, after all!
Snap some IG-worthy pics in LaCroix’s interactive booth and (duh) pick up your favorite flavor, too.
Visit the Napa-inspired Chandon pop-up to grab a mini bottle of California Sweet Star—then take advantage of a fun photo opp and enter for a chance to win a Summer Kit!
FASHION & BEAUTY
Get glammed up at the glittery Supergoop! pop-up! Try out the brand’s Shimmershade eye shadow and get your ‘gram on!
Own your style. Own your journey. Express is launching something super secret! Stop by the booth to learn more—you’re not going to want to miss this!
Stop by the Cotton On booth to shop their latest clothes and accessories—and grab a pair of free sunnies when you follow them on Instagram!
BEAUTY BAR
Need a beauty refresh? Pop over to the beauty bar and get your hair done and makeup touched up by Glamsquad!
SCHEDULE
#WakeAndMake | 10:30 - 11:00
Wake and make the most of your day with our killer beauty treatments!
Panel: The New Standard | 11:00 - 12:00
Hear from influencers reshaping the beauty and fashion industry.
Panelists:
Brittany Xavier, Global Style Influencer & Founder of Thrifts & Threads
Jill Wallace, Founder of Little Black Boots
Jessica Franklin, Founder of Heygorjess
Carolina Lindo, Founder of I’m Not Sorry Darling
Moderator:
Chelsea Evers, Editorial Director at Create & Cultivate
Fireside Chat, presented by Express: Rocky Barnes | 12:00 - 12:30
Hear some top-secret news from Rocky Barnes in this intimate one-on-one panel! Plus, learn the ins and outs of her work as a model, blogger, and content creator—and stop by her meet & greet afterward to say hello!
Break | 12:30 - 1:30
Take a break and shop ‘til you drop! Visit our pop-ups, get a beauty treatment, or grab a refreshment.
Afternoon Keynote: Katrina Scott & Karena Dawn of Tone It Up | 1:30 - 2:00
Learn from these two business babes on how they built a fitness empire over the past decade.
Panel: We Mean Biz | 2:00 - 3:00
Who doesn’t want to build buzz around their brand? Learn how in this panel with content creators who’ve scaled their businesses to new heights.
Panelists:
Lindsay Albanese | Celebrity Stylist and Inventor + CEO of TOPTOTE
Annie Lawless | Founder & CEO, Lawless Beauty
Jaci Marie | Co-Host, What We Said Podcast & Founder, Getaway Frame
Nicole Williams English | Model & Founder, Nia Lynn
Moderator:
Heather Records, VP of Marketing at Create & Cultivate
Keynote: Jameela Jamil | 3:00 - 3:30
Hear Jameela’s take on what it’s like to be a woman in Hollywood and why she’s challenging harmful body standards on social media and beyond.
DJ Set & Happy Hour, presented by Ketel One Botanical | 3:30 - 5:00
We’re toasting to a great day filled with amazing advice from the best in the biz. Grab one last beauty treatment, shop the pop-ups, and #treatyourself with a Ketel One Botanical cocktail in an Instagrammable (duh) Tossware glass while you get your groove on! Cap of a day well spent with a scoop of Craig’s Vegan Ice Cream!
FAQs
Can I leave and come back?
Yes, but as soon as you leave, we’ll let other people in—which means if you come back, you’ll have to wait in line again!
Can I save a seat?
Unfortunately, no. First come, first served.
I didn’t RSVP. Can I still get in?
You must RSVP to gain entry! Don’t forget!
Am I guaranteed entry?
We cannot guarantee anyone entry. Please line up early to secure your spot!
Will I have fun?
Duh! We’re throwing the best #WorkParty in town.
Who's ready? Comment below to say hello to fellow attendees!
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Team Talk: How to Collaborate With Anyone at Work
Effective team collaboration is built on trust.
Great teams don’t source their greatness from being completely the same. Rather, they’re diverse. They have different sets of strengths and weaknesses. And they know how to work together despite what makes them unique. If we want to get really big things done, collaboration is required. This comes in all forms – we collaborate within our own teams, across departments, and sometimes even with external colleagues. That’s why we’re partnering with Microsoft Teams—to help you master the strategies to collaborate with anyone, so you’re guaranteed to have more success.
Teamwork requires flexibility. I remember the first time I worked with a team that was wildly different than me. I was a part of a group of creatives, emotionally forthcoming, dreamers who knew how to get shit done. And I was tasked with overseeing a project that included managing a team of engineers, who were structured in their thinking and very discerning in their timelines and guarantees, and who also knew how to get shit done. A question as simple as “When can we have this feature built by” launched me into a half hour discussion on how no timeline can be accurately promised (and my frustration followed suit). It was the first time I’d come face-to-face with my own rigidness in thinking and process. I had to take time to understand this team’s flow and tendencies in order to make the project a success.
But great ideas, and brilliant outcomes, are born from coming together as a team...across teams. Whether you’re working with a new set of freelancers for the first time or collaborating with teams of hundreds of people, you’re bound to come across someone from a team who works and thinks differently than you do. Person to person and team to team, adjusting tools, methods, and strategies will help you get and stay on the same page with your coworkers.
Here are a few ideas that will help you collaborate across any team:
Work to Understand Them – “The Work” of collaborating across teams isn’t just the day-to-day deliverables. It’s working to understand the personality behind who you’re dealing with. Super effective team collaboration is built on trust. Think about it: if you’ve ever been on a great team (personally, professionally, for fun), there’s this unspoken trust factor. You depend on your team to do what they said they’re going to do, to deliver on their goals and due dates, and provide a certain level of excellence. Much of the collaboration that breaks down across teams happens because we don’t have the shared experience or trust built up with these other people that we’re working with. To better understand and get to know them in order to build this trust, you can consider:
How does their mind work? Dawna Markova and Angie McArthur have broken down the talents and mind maps in a book call Collaborative Intelligence – it can help you understand both yourself and those you’re working with. It’s really simple and easy to understand. And it easily categorizes someone’s talents in 4 different categories: Relational, Innovative, Analytic, and Procedural. Those words alone give you an insight into how someone may be approaching a problem or a project. If you want to better know yourself, the people you’re collaborating with, and how each of their minds work, consider taking this quiz created by that team.
What are their strengths and weaknesses? To collaborate with different teams, you’ll want to understand who should be on first and for what. You don’t want to throw someone you’ve rarely worked with to present on your cross-team ideas if they hate being in front of people. Take the time to understand what the people you’re now collaborating with bring to the table.
Don’t be afraid to share this information about yourself too. As much as you need to understand them, the team you’re working with needs to understand you, too.
“Super effective team collaboration is built on trust. ”
Align on Best Practices – So much of great collaboration (especially with people beyond your team) comes from a common set of operations or standards. For example, if you want to project plan in a group chat but they want to use their collaboration tools, it can cause a lot of unnecessary frustration for both parties involved. All of this can be solved by asking questions up front and agreeing on some best practices for working together.
Share how you prefer to communicate and ask if that would work for them. The more you can stay on the same page, the better. Think instant message, group chats, online meetings, instant message, or a conference call.
Share how you prefer to project plan and ask if that would work for them. This may require one of you getting used to new collaboration software, but it’s worth it.
Share what you expect for deliverables and timelines and ask if that will work for them. Never assume that everyone knows this already. It’s OK to repeat yourself.
Share how you see responsibilities divided, who’s accountable for what, and ask if that will work for them. Make sure everyone understands how they fit into this collaboration.
Pro Tip: You can handle project management, communication, and file sharing all in one place with Microsoft Teams.
Remember, for cross-team collaboration to work, you must be flexible. You’ve got to be open and amenable to new ways of doing things. This diversity in thought, background, and operations will absolutely get you to the best outcome if you do it together in harmony.
Reiterate Intention and Goals – Making sure everyone is working towards the same goal will help your collaboration function. You’d be surprised how many times one team is operating with one goal in mind only to find another department is operating under the assumption there’s a different goal. Make sure intentions for the project and goals for the project (and how it’s being measured) are aligned from the get go. And make adjustments as needed. Never hesitate to re-state the intention and goals for your work together at each meeting. Sometimes you’ve got to hammer home what’s most important, especially with people you’ve never worked with before (and who’ve never worked with you!).
If you can work to understand the other team, understand and agree on best practices for everything from communication to collaboration tools, and stay aligned on the intention and goals for the work you’re doing together, you’ll have most of what you need to work cross-functionally.
Want a handy guide to working with anyone? Enter your email below to download our Team Talk worksheet!
We’d love to know: What are your best tips for being a great team player?
About the author: Maxie McCoy is a writer and speaker obsessed with giving women the tools they need to believe in themselves. Her book, You're Not Lost: An Inspired Action Plan for Finding Your Own Way, is one of the top motivational guides for professional women and is carried at Urban Outfitters, Barnes & Noble, and everywhere books are sold. Maxie specializes in creating meaningful offline experiences that provide practical action in workshop and group formats. She's worked with top brands, conferences and companies to create original events that engage their target audiences both online and off. Her work has been featured on Good Morning America, TheSkimm, Forbes, Fortune, INC, Bustle, Business Insider, MyDomaine, Women’s Health, Marie Claire, Billboard, CNN and many more as an expert in women’s leadership.
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Blog Better Have My Money: From Blogger to Entrepreneur
Hilary Sloan of ShopStyle talks monetizing your blog and more!
The best part about being a successful entrepreneur and influencer is not the freebies or VIP access; it’s being able to use your creativity to share your passion with the world. Arguably, one of the biggest measures of success is to take your creative output and turn it into a business. Our successful colleagues in this industry who are savvy about monetization wear so many hats! Photography, styling, editing, PR, and sales, to name a few skills. So . . . how are you going to get from blogger to entrepreneur?
BE AUTHENTIC
It sounds easy, but it’s going to get much harder when the prospect of a much-needed paycheck is dangled in front of you. We all have been fans of a favorite blogger, only to watch her scale in following and then see her content become one irrelevant ad after another. It feels inauthentic. It alienates your hard-earned user base.
Don't be afraid to say no when a proposed partnership feels off-brand. Be polite, and if you choose, perhaps keep the door open for the future. Focus your brand partnership outreach where partnerships feel organic and where you know you can really create fun and compelling content. Here’s an example from my own social media platform (actually it's my dog's platform, but she's truly fabulous): I passed on a partnership with a brand because it didn't feel like it made sense with Ella Bean’s luxury persona, and I later saw the brand partner with some of the biggest names in social media. The campaign TOTALLY worked on those social channels, but it wouldn't have worked on mine. I was excited for my colleagues, and the agency actually told me they respected that I was so honest (polite, of course!). The flip side is we partnered with a luxury vacuum cleaner to make a fun video, and it was one of my top-performing posts in terms of likes and comments. The content was fun, on brand, and relatable. Engagement that is aligned with your organic content should be a benchmark of success for your business as you negotiate deals.
ORGANIC INCOME
Monetizing your platform(s) isn’t all about giant deals and big paychecks.
Are you using affiliate links? No? Then stop what you are doing and go sign up for ShopStyle Collective. No, really. It's hands down the easiest way to monetize your content from day one. The open platform makes it easy to sign up no matter where you are in your blogging career, and the tools make it simple to create tracking links on all your favorite products, enabling you to monetize all the content you are creating anyway. Vloggers and Instagrammers: you can optimize with these tools, too. We've got you covered. Don't wait until you've got a certain amount of followers or think because you might be newer to blogging that affiliate monetization isn't for you. Starting to consistently create affiliate links from day one ensures you'll grow your revenue as you scale your following. Bonus: you’ll also have insights into products and brands your users click and purchase. You can use this information to help guide some of your content and glean insights into consumer trends. You’re now empowered to be a consumer expert AND you are making money.
OPTIONS, OPTIONS, OPTIONS
While you are creating content with all those affiliate links, don't forget to give your readers options. We all obviously want the gorgeous Chloé crossbody bag you are rocking in your post, but your readers may have budgets that fall on the lower end of the spectrum. Use widgets to create options at the bottom of each post to give options at multiple price points. This is also a great tool when you are showcasing something from a past season or if you focus on vintage. Experts tell me that the rule of thumb is to have three to five options on the primary focal piece in your post. That amount of product is digestible for readers and manageable for you. Plus, you can just plug in your search term into ShopStyle and voilà! Options galore. You are welcome.
THINK MOBILE
We all know that converting users to make purchases on mobile is challenging, and that really is a bummer considering more and more users are spending time consuming your content on mobile. It’s time to get creative. One idea could be to create a newsletter signup so you can email users links to what you've worn. Make sure you stay up to date as new innovations roll out to get your users shopping on their smartphones. Challenge your affiliate partner to give you mobile monetizing options. Don't forget your mobile ad placements. If you've got banners and widgets on your site, optimize some of those placements for mobile, and don't miss out on that audience. Prepare yourself — mobile money is going to be all of our BFF.
THINK BEYOND THE BLOG (AND INSTAGRAM)
Your properties are incredibly important, and you should be creating content that drives users across your various channels. That said, maybe your photos are incredible. Have you thought about marketing your photography to your clients and time as a photographer for brands to use on their content? Are you a killer stylist and could crush the styling on your favorite brand's next lookbook? Can you edit a closet or stage an insane vignette? Brands crave unique content ideas. Get experience doing something that sets you apart from the pack as you grow your business. Offer those services to small brands or powerful influencers that you align with, build your portfolio, and barter for social and blog post mentions while you grow. You'll make deep relationships that will last a lifetime. You’ll benefit from editorial features and social mentions that will help you scale and gain experience that makes you totally unique.
Bonus tip: not all payments happen to be made via money. Social currency is incredibly valuable when scaling your presence online. If a brand doesn't have a budget to work with you but you know that brand is an ideal partner, think about how to make it worth your while. Trade content for features on their various channels. Make the content and social exchange a recurring feature.
Through all of this, don’t forget to have fun. You got into this world to create your own business, so enjoy the process and remember to savor the wins and view challenges as opportunities to push your skill set and learn. Cheesy but true: in my experience, the hardest challenges I’ve come up against have made me smarter, made me faster, and allowed me to score higher revenue opportunities than before.
Hilary Sloan leads ShopStyle’s East Coast business development team and works with top brands like Net-a-Porter.com, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Barneys New York to monetize via affiliate and creative partnerships. In building relationships with brands and working with ShopStyle and ShopStyle Collective’s blogger community, she realized that many young bloggers don’t quite have the tools to get started on building their business. She’s spoken in the past at Create + Cultivate, IFB, and other blogger conferences on the topic of monetization, revenue, and brand partnerships. When not at ShopStyle, Hilary can be found applying all her skills to her own mini influencer, her dog, Ella Bean.
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Work Habits to Say Buh-Bye to in April
Let 2016 be your most amazing year yet.
Like bad relationships, bad habits (looking at you late night fridge runs), and bad hair days, there are some work habits you should leave behind at the beginning of a new month. The sometimes small, sometimes large, decisions you make day-to-day aren't beneficial to making big moves.
Let April be your most amazing month yet.
1. Complaining about Monday.
Sometimes the weekend is so good that going back to ole office Monday AM feels like you're being sent to school. But Monday's are equally hard on everyone. Think positive and the day will follow. Make this the year of amazing Mondays.
2. Checking Instagram on the clock.
We all do. WE ALL DO IT. Instagram has almost become like a nervous tick. But it's also a deep, dark hole of non-productiveness. If part of your jobs requires you to be on social media, that's fine, but for the rest of us it's time to stop the continuous scroll.
3. Leaving the coffee pot empty.
If you drain the pot, make a new one. That's bad coffee karma, and no one wants that.
4. Comparing yourself to your co-workers.
Don't compare yourself to others because here's the hard truth: you aren't as good as everyone. However, that doesn't mean that you can't be amazing. Comparison is the thief of joy, but it's also going to keep you from finding where you excel.
5. Settling with your job.
Your career should be something you love. If you feel like you're stuck in a rut, this is the time to reevaluate the professional choices you've made.
6. Showing up hungover.
This is big leagues now. Stop behaving like you just got out of college. A glass of wine or two the night before work is fine, but showing up painfully hungover isn't a good look. Not now. Not ever. Don't do the walk of work shame.
7. If you freelance, get out of the house.
Working from home is blessing and a curse. Inevitably, working in your PJs every day is going to bum you out. To get the creative juices and flowing, you need to be a part of the world, see other adults, and have a conversation.
8. Overtasking yourself.
What does this mean? Multitasking is fine, but when you're jumping around from email, to project, to cell phone, to social media, to conference call, you're overtasking yourself out of productivity. You end up not getting nearly as much done. Focus on one task at a time, cross it off, and move on. By the end of the day you'll find you have more time focus on.
9. Showing up late.
Maybe you Netflix-binged until the wee hours of the morning, but it doesn't matter. You need to show up ready to work when you're supposed to be there. Showing up late makes you look unprepared and like you don't respect others' time. If your co-workers are showing up on time, so should you.
10. Stop procrastinating.
The bad habit of all bad habits. Putting something off, saying you'll handle it tomorrow, moving it down a to-do list. These are all excuses that keep the task at hand from getting done. It also takes up valuable space in your brain. Even if you aren't doing it, you're still wasting energy thinking about it. The sooner you can cross it off, the more time you're giving yourself for a project you really care about.
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C&C Classifieds: ID Group, Jen Hansen Jewelry, Graduate Hotel Seattle, & More!
Looking for a job? Look no further.
Looking for a job? Look no further.
ID Group - West Hollywood, CA
Assistant Architect/Designer/Hospitality Manager
Jen Hansen Jewelry - West Hollywood, CA/Remote
Graduate Hotel Seattle - Seattle, WA
Blended Strategy Group - Los Angeles, CA
Pottery Barn - San Francisco, CA
Serene & Lily - San Francisco, CA
Create & Cultivate - Los Angeles, CA
Creative Circle - Austin, TX
Epidemic Sound - New York, NY
CyberCoders - Santa Monica, CA
How This Med School Student Is Helping End Childhood Hunger
“Trust your vision and don’t let fear deter you from making an impact.”
Shanay Thompson does it all: medical student, NBC contributor, former model. But she didn’t stop there. In 2017, upon realizing the prevalence of food insecurity among at-risk youth she mentored, Shanay founded Every Kid Fed, a nonprofit organization that focuses on ending childhood hunger.
Below, Shanay shares how she manages her time, what advice she has for women of color looking to start their own nonprofit, and what she wishes people knew about food insecurity.
You were a Wilhelmina model before you quit to pursue medicine. When did you realize you wanted to change careers, and how did you go about making that career shift?
When I started modeling, my intent was to do shoots here and there for fun while I was in school, until one day I started getting booked for shoots and shows that I didn’t want to pass up. Throughout college and graduate school, I would be on the plane or backstage in hair and makeup at New York Fashion Week, doing coursework, and when I got into medical school, I knew I had to make some serious adjustments. After having modeled for spectacular designers, fashion magazines, and doing pageants in between - as thrilling as it was, I wanted to do more in terms of impactful work. I knew I wanted to empower women on a larger platform and put my education to good use, so I met with my agent in 2015, and terminated my contract amicably. Modeling will always have a special place in my heart, as it was such a integral part of my life for years. I still keep in touch with friends in the modeling industry and attend shows, so I’d say it’s certainly a win-win!
How did you first come up with the idea for Every Kid Fed? How did you transform that idea into a reality?
I mentored at-risk teen girls in Berkeley, CA, where I held after-school workshops and field trips that focused on self-esteem, empowerment, and academics. I started noticing after a few years there was a substantial increase in my mentees asking to take some of the snacks I provided during our workshops home for them and their siblings, and if they could borrow money for lunch. That’s when I started asking questions. I asked counselors and teachers if they had encountered students asking them for food and they said all of the time. I even asked an elementary school cafeteria manager, and she said on multiple occasions her kindergarten students asked her for seconds and thirds during lunch because they don’t eat enough at home. Hearing that made me spring into action. Not only is the public school lunch system flawed, there’s the severe affordable housing crisis in the Bay Area, along with gentrification. Families, who have worked hard to build a comfortable life for their families in cities like Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose, etc. are now struggling financially and are at risk of being displaced or already have been. But there’s more:
Parents who struggle to make ends meet but still make slightly over the amount required to qualify for free/reduced lunch program have children who are food insecure. Those children often resort to stealing food.
Students who do qualify for the free/reduced lunch program, often get bullied, and are labeled as poor in front of their peers, so they skip eating altogether.
Students who utilize the free/reduced school lunch program still go hungry, as the meals aren’t enough to sustain them throughout the day.
With that information, I created Every Kid Fed. Each food pantry location is on campus in a discreet location for students in need. The school pantries complement the free school breakfast and lunch programs by providing access to food for all food insecure children during and after the school day has ended, on the weekends and during holiday and summer breaks. The pantries are stocked with non-perishable food and vegan/vegetarian-friendly options. I started off by using some of my funds to stock the pantries, and now we have secured partnerships with local businesses and companies to keep the pantries stocked. We now have fed over 9,000 students in need, since launching in July 2017.
““Trust your vision and don’t let fear deter you from making an impact.””
You’re in your last semester of medical school, and you were recently made a medical contributor at NBC. How do you manage your time with all of your different responsibilities?
It is truly such an exciting time for me, and life is certainly busy! I feel like I do a great job with keeping a great work/life balance and the key is organization and simplicity. Each week I make a small list of my goals in my agenda, and I keep a set schedule in the Awesome Note app of everything from my clinic schedule, business travel, meetings, events, yoga and pampering time, and more. I highly recommend that app.
What does a typical day look like for you?
6am: Yoga or pilates and while getting ready, I’ll have Project Juice delivered for breakfast and check the stock market since I have shares in few companies. I then check my schedule for the day, emails, and check in with my executive assistant Elaine regarding Every Kid Fed, then head to the hospital.
8:30am-Noon: Morning Clinic
Noon to 1:30: Lunch - I spend that time studying, replying to emails, sometimes squeeze a meeting in, or do the online food shopping for my pantry locations.
1:30-5:00: Afternoon Clinic
6:30ish: Cooking a vegetarian dinner while listening to podcasts, or going out to dinner with my love.
9pm: Catching up on health news and working on my next assignment for NBC.
10:30-11pm Bedtime!
What do you wish more people knew about child food insecurity?
The facts. Whenever I explain Every Kid Fed, I always give statistics. Currently, 1 in 4 children in California are food insecure, and 7.9 million Californians are living in poverty. Second, is the devastating ramifications that go beyond a growling stomach - hunger impedes on the ability to learn and achieve optimal physical and mental health. Low-income children are the most vulnerable especially in schools. Many of them suffer in silence, so it’s our duty to be an advocate and to make sure no child ever has to worry about where their next meal will come from, and to give parents who are struggling to feed their family a helping hand.
What advice do you have for women of color looking to start their own nonprofit?
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. As black women, we have been conditioned to jump higher, run faster, be stronger, independent and yes, we are strong, independent warriors full of black girl magic - but it is absolutely OK to ask for help. You can be great, but behind every successful person or business, there is help. I had trouble with this in the beginning, but when you decide to start a nonprofit or anything for that matter, it is 100% a collaborative effort.
How do you go about creating change in a community?
Know what you want to accomplish and be passionate about what you do. Creating change doesn’t happen overnight, so you have to be prepared for the long haul. Your conviction to the end goal is what allows it to come into being.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Trust your vision and don’t let fear deter you from making an impact.
What and/or who inspires you?
Meeting new people inspires me everyday. As a student doctor, medical journalist, and social entrepreneur, I’m constantly meeting new people and listening to their stories. It truly keeps me motivated to do everything I can to cultivate positive change and inspire the next generation.
What’s the next step for you and Every Kid Fed?
We have now transitioned into serving high poverty elementary schools exclusively, and are continuing our work to end childhood hunger by partnering with city councilmembers and the CA Department of Education to implement universal school lunch in all California schools. This will erase the stigma, peer shaming, and increase free school lunch participation. We are also launching our $10 or less meal recipe division on our website in April for parents. As for myself, I’m preparing for the launch of my new book, She Can, releasing on June 18th, graduating from medical school, starting residency, working on more exciting projects and gearing up for a much-needed vacation to Italy! If you’d like to help Every Kid Fed in any capacity, please visit everykidfed.org.
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Five Ways to Find Career Compatibility with Your Life Partner
Don’t choose between a career and a relationship.
In 2019, more men and women are entering the workforce than before, pushing many of society’s antiquated norms. Just a few decades ago, men were often the only ones to venture into the workforce, leaving women to tend growing families and other household responsibilities. Now that many couples are pursuing simultaneous careers, the dynamics of their relationship have begun to shift in a major way.
There are many ways that two individual career paths can affect and ultimately harm a relationship if issues are not identified head-on. If you find yourself recently exhausted with both your career and your relationship, here’s how you can balance the scales.
Discuss the expected “division of labor” in the home.
It’s easy to slip into society’s pre-set roles where somehow the woman feels responsible for cleaning the house and making dinner, even after working her own shift in the field. In order to avoid the frustration that the infamous “second shift” can bring, sit down with your partner and have an honest conversation about what needs to be expected of both of you. By setting expectations, it will be easier to know what you need to accomplish at the end of the day and will ward off those exhausting fights that pop up when you’re both hungry!
Invest in one another’s goals and dreams in the workplace
While you’re each on a different path in your careers, it’s important to take time to support the other’s career and interests as often as possible. This could include going to a networking event with them that may be outside of your comfort zone, or giving them an online class that touches on something they’ve said they want to get better at. By just showing your partner that you support their career—and vice versa—your relationship will naturally grow stronger.
Use one another as a sounding board for career advice
Not too long ago, my significant other and I sat down with a glass of wine and discussed my upcoming performance review. I was going to ask for a title and pay increase, and I was so nervous. After going through scenarios and explaining lessons we’ve each learned in the past, I felt much more confident about my meeting. While it doesn’t always need to be a sit-down discussion, asking one another's opinions about issues that are coming up at work really helps to draw a team mentality that is very healthy for your relationship.
Find ways to include your partner at work when they physically can’t be present
There’s nothing I find shadier than not knowing when a coworker I am close with has a significant other that they never discuss. It’s important to introduce your partner to your coworkers, even before they can physically meet. By sharing tidbits of your life outside of work, you are not only solidifying your relationship with your coworkers, but also making sure that your partner feels welcome when they come to your work functions.
Schedule time to invest in your relationship without work distractions
Whether or not you have conflicting schedules, make a point to set aside time where the two of you are able to reconnect without the distractions of a work phone or even “shop talk.” Spend these moments completely present with one another. Use this opportunity to bring up things that may need to be fixed in the relationship, or discuss ways you appreciate one another’s efforts during especially hectic times. These designated dates will be the crucial part to being 100% on board with your partner’s career while still feeling as though they are also putting the effort into your relationship.
Implementing even just one of these ideas on a regular basis can begin to reshape not only your individual relationship and career, but also push against what was once the “status-quo.” As the years roll by, generational change is inevitable—and so are the tactics we need to employ against having to choose between our love lives and a fulfilling career.
Samantha Rosenfeld spends 40-some hours a week working to promote the study of surface science as the head of North American Marketing for a German-based manufacturing company. Outside of that (and any time in between) she creates content and marketing campaigns for her freelance clientele and professional development website, Samantha Rosenfeld Marketing. Follow her at @FormativeStory on Twitter or @FormativeStoryteller on Instagram.
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6 Ways To Use Copywriting To Build Your Personal Brand
Write the right way.
Doesn’t it feel like advice about building a personal brand is everywhere lately? It’s true that a big part of building your personal brand is showing up on social media and maintaining an aesthetically pleasing, strategic website. But the thing that really makes or breaks your personal brand is your messaging. From blog posts to newsletters (and even Instagram captions), you’re the one shaping how others view you through words.
When you’re struggling to bring it all together, the best place to start is on your website. Social media platforms will come and go, but website copywriting is one of the seven pillars of your personal brand as an entrepreneur since brand clarity— how you want to be perceived by others— is where it all starts after you define the purpose of your business.
Writing your website might totally freak you out, but it doesn’t have to be such an undertaking. Keep reading for six ways you can use copywriting to build your personal brand and have confidence that what you want to say matches up with how you say it.
Start by writing your website.
Going through the steps of writing your website copy and then moving outwards towards other communications like blogs, newsletters, social posts, and even podcasts is a solid strategy for finding the brand voice that fits you.
Before you start writing, make sure you’ve given plenty of thought to what you’d like to be known for. Which topics are you an expert in? Which services or products are you selling, and who are you selling them to? These are the questions you should answer before digging into your homepage. If you’re lost, look back on your social media posts. How did you use these posts to communicate with your ideal client or reader?
To make the process of bringing it all together a little less scary, try writing the homepage headline first. A typical format is “I help [ideal client] with [specific goal] by [list or one-liner of what you do.” Yours might look a little like this: I help creative service-based businesses shore up their marketing strategies through SEO and social reach.
But this isn’t the only way to write a homepage headline. Feel free to get creative here!
Find the intersection between your voice and audience.
As you’re writing the pages of your website, you’ll want to bank words, lingo, and stories you find yourself using a lot. While you’ll want to avoid repetition, it’s definitely a good idea to know which words work with your personal brand. But you’re not the only one reading your site.
When writing, you should always remember to speak to your ideal client. If you’re unclear about who that is, pause the writing process and poll them. If you don’t have readers yet, pop into a Facebook group in your niche and ask for feedback. Genuinely, of course.
You’ll want to know what their pain points are so that your offerings will be much more specific to them. Plus, you may get some ideas for what to write straight from your audience.
Make a brand guide with core values.
If you make a brand guide before you write anything, it’s all too easy to fall into analysis paralysis. Instead of banking all your words and ideas beforehand, a better way to solidify what you want to write is by quantifying what’s unique about your service in the form of core values.
What do you believe and how is that absolutely necessary to run your business? What is unique about what you offer? These are questions you should ask yourself and write down, especially in a saturated niche.
Look at unique words for inspiration.
An important element of writing your website is characterizing the tone and style of your brand. Is it exuberant? Bookish? Classy? If you’re stuck describing what you want to write as fun or nice, get inspiration from out-there or untranslatable words on Pinterest or the thesaurus. You may not be packing your copy with these words, but you’ll definitely benefit from the fresh ideas.
Learn from voices outside your industry to really stand out.
Staying in your lane and not interested in the competition? While it may seem like a good idea to avoid looking at the competition at all costs, it’s a good idea to see where your competitors stand so your pricing and offers match up with the industry. It’s also a great way to see how your website copy can present you as a unique and separate solution from your competition. Still, you don’t want this to drive your entire strategy.
Look to those slightly outside your industry.
As a copywriter, I would not want to pay too close attention to a fellow writer, but I love looking to designers’ websites to see how other creatives present themselves.
When you’re writing, don’t look at their webpages. Try to focus on what you want to do. Take notes on what works, and use those to guide you instead.
Don’t rely on design to tell you if your copy is good.
When you have a pretty website, it’s all too easy to get swept away by design. That’s why you should avoid writing your website words directly into your template. Open up Google Docs and type away. Check for errors, read aloud, and don’t let your design tell you that the copy is working when it isn’t. Wording should come first, and then you can beta test it in the live preview.
Kayla Dean is a website copywriter and content writer for visual creatives helping entrepreneurs say what they mean with confidence and strategy. Her byline has appeared in publications like Bustle, The Believer, and Darling. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her planning her next big trip or marking a book as “Currently Reading” on Goodreads.
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