From Brand Story to Brand Guidelines: All of Your Branding Needs, Covered
Make the brand of your dreams a reality.
When you’re launching a business today, there’s one crucial element you can’t afford to leave out: your brand’s identity. In fact, businesses who focus on building a strong identity around their brand have a higher credibility, integrity, and loyalty among customers.
Branding is essential to successfully market your business, but at first attempt, shaping a brand identity can be an overwhelming task. Traditional branding agencies can be expensive, especially for a modest start up budget.
Thankfully, ZeBrand is removing the traditional barriers to branding and putting the reins in your hands to take the first step. The platform’s AI-powered algorithm learns your preferences and goals, providing a more agile and streamlined approach that allows anyone to brand their way—regardless of skills, budget, or expertise. With ZeBrand, emerging businesses can find their brand voice for a fraction of the time and cost than when hiring a branding agency.
From building your brand story to crafting brand guidelines, and everything in between - ZeBrand offers accessible tools that eliminate the barriers that stand in the way of making the brand of your dreams a reality.
So what elements constitute a strong brand identity? The checklist below contains the essentials to get you started.
Mission Statement – A strong brand identity is anchored in an enduring mission statement. A brand mission statement determines your brand’s purpose, and explains WHY you exist. It’s the essence of your business’s goals and the underlying philosophy. This is the foundation of building a brand that truly represents your organization.
Vision Statement – Simply put, vision statements are an extension of your company mission statement, which describes what you want to do and achieve in the long run. Whether that’s five, ten, or even fifteen years ahead, your vision statement sets a definitive direction of what your company will look like in the future.
Core Values – Like a person, a company has a set of guiding principles that help you connect with your target audience and build trust. These are the values that you uphold and emulate through your brand and business. They are the heart and the soul behind your ‘WHY’ and help govern decisions – small and large – across every facet of the business.
Positioning Statement – In order to help your customer realize your brand’s value, you must identify and amplify what is uniquely distinct about your brand and offering. This is often referred to a positioning statement, which tells your customer, either explicitly or implicitly, what they can expect from your product or service.
Brand Story – Summarize your brand personality, what your mission statement is, and the vision of your brand. Define where you are and where you want to go. By reading this, users will feel inspired and have a deep understanding of the essence of your brand and what makes your business unique.
ZeBrand just launched their brand story module which takes users on a journey to craft their brand story and narrative, including background, mission, vision, core values, and solutions or offerings.
Brand Guidelines – As your business grows and you start to interact with more stakeholders, it’s important for everyone to be on the same page as you when it comes to communicating your brand identity. Brand guidelines instruct others on how your brand should be presented to the world. In addition to your brand story and some or all of the terms above, brand guidelines also include visual components such as your brand’s logo, color palette, typography, photography and specific use cases for other styles of content.
Start with this free 5-minute questionnaire to discover how ZeBrand can help turn your vision into a reality.
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How Wordaful Founder Liz Hernandez Prioritizes Her Mental Wellness While Working From Home
From meditating to journaling, she takes time for mental health breaks.
Photo: Johanna Brinckman
Welcome to our editorial series A Day in the Life where we ask successful women we admire to share the daily minutiae of their professional lives, from the rituals that set them up for success to their evening wind-down routines. This month, we sat down with Liz Hernandez, creator of the innovative storytelling platform WORDAFUL. Her secrets to success? Keeping a detailed daily schedule, prioritizing mental health breaks, and going to bed before 10 PM. Read up on her WFH tips below.
Tell us a bit about WORDAFUL. What inspired you to create a platform focused on the importance of how we communicate with others and ourselves?
I was inspired by the need for connection. I spent ten years on morning radio engaging with listeners through storytelling. It’s a special format because you can’t see each other and you’re relating purely through words and emotions. Sharing my vulnerabilities was a catalyst for listeners to call and share their same experiences. The connection was powerful.
Once I left radio and started in television, I missed that human interaction. At the same time, I had a strong desire to make a positive impact in my community. I understood the importance of self-talk and how the words we choose can shape our lives. Any negative messaging we grew up with can be overridden and replaced with encouraging words.
WORDAFUL launched as a passionate project shortly after my mother lost 90 percent of her speech as a result of Alzheimer’s. The gift of communicating is often taken for granted. When my mom lost her ability to use her words, I wanted to be responsible with mine.
Are you a night owl or a morning person? When do you do your most important work and why?
I’m a morning person. The most important work I do is writing. I’ve learned to write in the morning when my mind is fresh and I’m firing on all cylinders. However, when inspiration strikes at night, I have to go to the computer and get it down on the page.
What time do you get up, and what’s the first thing you do upon waking?
I wake up around 6 AM. As soon as I open my eyes, I say “thank you” to my Creator. Then it’s coffee accompanied by gratitude journaling.
What does your morning, pre-work routine look like?
I take a quick glance at my emails. If there’s nothing urgent, I head out for a morning walk with my french bulldog, Albondiga. Breathing fresh air and moving my body is a great mood and energy booster before I start work.
Mark Twain said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” What’s the first thing you do when you get to your desk?
I light a scented candle. It makes my workspace more inviting and it’s a nice way to do self-care. Then I open up my planner, review my to-do list and prioritize my schedule.
What are you working on this week?
I’m currently writing new WORDAFUL episodes. I’m scheduling the rollout of our new tees and sweatshirts and prepping for the launch of our Affirmation Cards for Kids!
Photo: Johanna Brinckman
What’s been the most rewarding part of running your business? The most challenging?
The most rewarding part of running this company is the community that is being created and the support it’s giving people. Before the pandemic, we held a monthly event for women to gather, connect and share their stories. They walked in as strangers and left as friends. It was amazing to watch these WORDAFUL Women events grow across the country as well. Last year, we launched an online membership where we could all meet and continue the conversations. It has been a place of comfort, growth, and healing.
The most challenging part is wearing all the hats from creative, marketing, finances, scheduling, and so on. I am very fortunate to have two women on my team whose efforts and energy are equilivant to a team of ten.
Do you ever reach inbox zero? How do you handle the constant influx of inquiries and communication founders are so familiar with?
I feel fortunate that most days my inbox doesn’t feel overwhelming. My team does a great job of filtering emails by their degree of importance or urgency. Then, I schedule time on my to-do list to send replies.
What is your go-to work lunch?
Salmon over salad. If I’m craving more carbs, I’ll add in some rice. Followed by espresso, of course.
What advice do you have for balancing the minutiae of day-to-day tasks with big-picture planning?
Create a detailed daily schedule with your most important priority on top and the steps that are required to move you towards your goal. I’ve learned that if it’s not in your schedule, it’s not going to happen.
What are some work habits that help you stay healthy, productive, and on track to reach your goals?
I take my mental wellness seriously. Staying committed to daily self-care rituals is important to me so I start each day with gratitude journaling. Then, I take a break midday to mediate for 30 minutes. Both of these exercises help me to remember my “why” in pursuing my goals.
Any favorite apps you use regularly?
Instagram is what I use most. It allows me to stay connected to friends and our online community. I also love Duolingo, a language app that keeps me on top of my Spanish.
What are you reading/watching/listening to right now to help you wind down at the end of the day?
I’m listening to early episodes of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” I love how she used her platform as a classroom to teach us about ourselves and the importance of sharing our stories. She says a powerful line in the beginning of the podcast: “Every single person you ever will meet shares that common desire, they want to know, do you see me, do you hear me, does what I say mean anything to you?” It inspires me every time I hear her say it.
When do you go to bed? What’s your “optimal” number of sleep hours?
I go to bed around 9:30 PM. When I get 8 hours of sleep I perform my best.
What’s the most rewarding part of your day?
I really cherish going on my daily walk. I love being outside in nature, listening to good music, and playing with my dog.
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You Need to Ditch This If You Want to Be a Better Leader—Here's How
It’s time to get your boss on.
Photo: Create & Cultivate
Millennials are not only taking over the workforce, they’re quickly stepping into more and more leadership roles. In fact, a 2017 study found that the millennial leadership trajectory is as follows:
2.6 years: Entry-level to mid-level
5.3 years: Higher mid-level to senior
6.9 years: Senior level to c-suite
8.4 years: C-suite to CEO
More millennials are moving into leadership roles where they can finally execute on visionary ideas and implement change that they wished those who came before them would. Despite the value millennials bring to the workforce, we’re all a work in progress, and becoming a better leader is necessary for many of the millennials who are new to the role.
Keep these ideas in mind as you grow into your leadership position, which bodes well for your career and the organization. You may find that you garner greater respect and get more done as you learn and develop the skills necessary to manage an organization. Read on to find out what you need to do (and ditch) to become a better leader.
Let Go of Fears
Be better: Stop second-guessing yourself.
Fear of personal failure was the number one fear in a 2016 poll of Americans. And for millennials, this fear is often masked as “imposter syndrome.” Imposter syndrome can be defined as the feeling of being inadequate, despite continued success. A whopping 70% of millennials experience this, in both work and life, but why?
“Millennials might feel impostor syndrome more as they’ve entered the workforce at a time of outrageous technological advancements and constant comparison on social media,” says Breena Kerr of The Hustle.
She continues, “Technology is growing so fast that most of us are learning something new on almost every project we work on. And that can make you feel like you don’t have the expertise you should.”
To be a better millennial leader, you must ditch the fear and find confidence in what you do, and channel that when managing employees and making decisions. Trust your intuition and your skills—this is a requirement for leaders who want to see growth and success in their position.
Strategize Effectively
Be better: Find solutions that are effective—not just fast or easy.
A McKinsey and Company study of 80 organizations around the world, of varying sizes and industries, found that effectiveness was one of the top four attributes of a great leader.
When you focus on being effective, rather than making decisions or problem solving based on what’s easiest or fastest, you become a stronger leader. “Often leaders assume that as long as they have ideas, a vision, and a sense of purpose, that will be enough to lead the way forward,” says David Grossman, CEO of Grossman Group. “If only it were that easy. In truth, good leaders know the importance of planning and clearly spelling out the path ahead.”
Find the best brainstorming style for you and use that to flesh out ideas fully and effectively. A simple pros and cons list may be all you need to shake out the best solutions.
Communicate
Be better: Be authoritative and flexible.
Being a leader requires great communication skills, which can be challenging for some millennials. “The real reason millennial leaders struggle to communicate doesn’t lie in their ability to have reasoned, productive exchanges with other people,” explains Kimberly Fries, a millennial communication and leadership coach. “Instead, it lies in their circumstance, the very style of their leadership, and their personality.”
She breaks it down further, explaining that this struggle with communication comes down to three things:
Their disposition to be diplomatic and non-confrontational
Differences in generational preferences with communication
A credibility problem
To combat these innate issues, focus on communicating clearly and effectively while embracing the strengths of your employees and maintaining your authority. Be flexible and willing to adapt communication skills as employees need, especially when working with a mixed generational team. For example, some employees will do better with emails and chat, while others need more in-person time; adjust for both to be a better millennial leader.
Be Authentic
Be better: Listen attentively.
In a world filled with social media, where we’re surrounded by the perception of who someone is, it’s easy to be inauthentic. Especially in a role of authority, where you want to command the respect that a leadership role commands. Yet, authenticity is critical in business.
When you’re hyper-focused on the image you’re portraying to others, it’s hard to build true and lasting relationships that you need to be successful in business—relationships with mentors, financial advisors, and most importantly, with employees:
“Authenticity—both in business and in networking—is important for establishing reciprocal relationships with others,” says Ted Rollins, entrepreneur and founder of Valeo Groupe. “Long-term, rewarding professional partnerships don’t begin with a selfish attitude.”
When you listen and remain authentic in both your decision-making and interactions with others, you’ll be better at driving the ship.
Start Leading
Keep these ideas in mind as you grow into your role and take steps in your career. Authenticity, effectiveness, communication, and confidence are all critical for all high-level roles—both getting and keeping them. When you work toward becoming a better leader, you boost both your career and your position within your current role.
About the Author: Jessica Thiefels has been writing for more than 10 years and is currently a full-time writer, content marketing consultant, and business owner. She’s been featured in Forbes and Business Insider and has written for Manta, StartupNation, Glassdoor, Lifehack, and more. Follow her on Twitter @Jlsander07 and connect on LinkedIn.
Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.
This story was published on August 29, 2017, and has since been updated.
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How to Take Control of Your Finances and Cultivate Confidence Around Money
Your budgeting game is about to change.
Welcome to this special episode of WorkParty titled Money Talks, a Budget Broadcast Series in partnership with You Need a Budget (YNAB), designed to educate everyone on the power of building a budget.
Whether your financial goals are aimed at booking the vacation in Europe you’ve been dreaming about pre-lockdown, paying off your high interest credit card debt, or simply starting to save for the future—a budget (of all sizes) can help you accomplish those dreams.
To kick off our first of three Money Talks episodes, Jaclyn is joined by Jesse Mecham, the founder of YNAB, the app designed to be your best money-saving friend.
Get your notepad ready and press play on episode one! Your budgeting game is about to change.
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Mom Point: Perfect Presents For Mother's Day
Shop Mother’s Day gifts from Hallmark.
“Motherhood” can be described in as many ways as there are many kinds of moms. Moms are tough and tender, fancy and fierce, warm and wise. They’re nurturing, compassionate, resilient and bold. And sometimes, they’re not actually your mom, but rather a mother figure – someone whose advice you can always trust, who has stood by you through thick and thin and who you love like family.
Moms also make mistakes. They teach us it’s okay not to be perfect. How to say, “I’m sorry.” How to forgive others. And how to forgive ourselves.
And after so many years of love and laughter and tears, they know when it’s time to let go … just enough, but not quite all the way.
So this year, let’s show all the moms in our lives how grateful we are for their giving, loving, perfectly imperfect selves. Let’s tell them how lucky we feel. And let’s thank them for all that they are.
We asked three stylish women to reveal the perfect presents from Hallmark for every kind of mom. Keep scrolling to see what gifts they’re giving to the leading women in their lives this year.
“I love that Hallmark has a wide variety of products. No matter who you’re shopping for, you can always find a card and gift that fits their personality perfectly!”
–Maddie Obray
To whom did you send a Mother’s Day card/gift to and why? Which card and gift did you choose?
My mom loves flowers so I picked out the Loved Mother’s Day Card With Floral Heart Wreath in Gift Box and the Bright and Happy Day Vase of Flowers 3D Pop-Up Card. My mother-in-law loves the spa so I got her the Spa Day Self-Care Kit.
What makes it a great gift?
These are great gifts because the products I picked have specific meaning for my mom and mother-in-law–they will know I was thinking about them when I picked out the gifts.
What message did you want to get across to them? How did sending a card and gift help convey your message and emotions in a more meaningful way?
I just wanted them to know I love them and care about them. I know when they get these gifts they will feel loved and appreciated!
Why is Hallmark your go-to shop for Mother’s Day gifts?
I love that Hallmark has a wide variety of products. No matter who you’re shopping for, you can always find a card and gift that fits their personality perfectly!
Best advice you learned from your mom?
My mom leads by example and I’m always trying to be more like her. She is kind, compassionate, strong, caring, loving, genuine, and always puts God and family first. She is also the best grandma to my daughter! I don’t know what we’d do without her.
How did sending a card make you feel?
I always love sending cards because it’s such an easy gesture to let people know how much they mean to you. I love knowing it will brighten their day when they see it and read the message inside.
Maddie’s Mother’s Day Gift Picks
HALLMARK
Loved Mother's Day Card With Floral Heart Wreath in Gift Box
HALLMARK
Spa Day Self-Care Kit, 6 Pieces
HALLMARK
Bright and Happy Day Vase of Flowers 3D Pop-Up Mother's Day Card
“Gift giving is one of my love languages and a way I love to express my love to others. I love being able to shower my mom with gifts on her special day to remind her just how special she is.”
– Jalisa Vaughn
To whom did you send a Mother’s Day card and gift to and why? What card and gift did you choose?
My mom to make her feel special this Mother’s Day. I got her a Hallmark Paper Wonder pop up card as well as Lavender-Infused Crew Socks and a Spa Day Self-Care Kit so that I could express how much she means to me not just on this special day but every day
What makes it a great gift?
I love the variety of self-care gifts because she deserves to feel pampered, and the pop-up card really makes a statement! I know she’ll be wowed when she opens this gift.
What message did you want to get across to them? How did sending a card and gift help convey your message and emotions in a more meaningful way?
The importance of self-care and self-love. It was a tangible expression of my feelings for my mother.
Why is Hallmark your go-to shop for Mother’s Day gifts?
Hallmark is always my go to for Mother’s Day gifts because they always help me tangibly express my emotions and their gifts allow my mom to have keepsakes that she can reflect on for years to come.
Best advice you learned from your mom?
One piece of advice that I hold tightly to is, “when you keep God first, He will take care of His.”
How did sending a card make you feel?
Gift giving is one of my love languages and a way I love to express my love to others. I love being able to shower my mom with gifts on her special day to remind her just how special she is.
Jalisa’s Mother’s Day Gift Picks
HALLMARK
If You Can Read This Lavender-Infused Crew Socks
HALLMARK
You're a Blessing Hummingbird 3D Pop-Up Mother's Day Card
HALLMARK
Spa Day Self-Care Kit, 6 Pieces
“Hallmark always has the perfect cards to express exactly how I am feeling.”
– Dayna Bolden
To whom did you send a Mother’s Day card and gift to and why? What card and gift did you choose?
I decided to send a Mother’s Day card to my mother-in-law because she has been such a huge help to our family, from watching the kids, to keeping the house in tact while I am busy working. She has been a great help to me and has made my job easier.
I chose a Hallmark Mother’s Day Card and Hallmark’s Spa Day Self-Care Kit.
What makes it a great gift?
I love this gift for my mother in law because she works so hard she deserves a little me time at home. She also loves painting and doing my daughter’s nails, that is her favorite thing to do on the weekends, so this kit would make her so happy!
What message did you want to get across to them? How did sending a card and gift help convey your message and emotions in a more meaningful way?
The message I want her to know is that she is valued and appreciated. By giving a simple gift that I know she will love will show how much we love and value her presence in our life.
Why is Hallmark your go-to shop for Mother’s Day gifts?
Hallmark has always been my go-to destination–Hallmark always has the perfect cards to express exactly how I am feeling and the selection is great. I also love the selection of meaningful gifts that all moms will love and appreciate.
Best advice you learned from your mom?
My best advice from my mom is to work hard with everything that you do. She has instilled this in me by not just telling me, but showing me daily with how hard she works in her career and for her family. I knew I would always be successful solely on how she instilled work ethic in me.
How did sending a card make you feel?
Sending a card made me feel happy and blessed that I have mothers in my life that I am close to and value every day.
Dayna’s Mother’s Day Gift Picks
HALLMARK
Spa Day Self-Care Kit, 6 Pieces
HALLMARK
My Mom, My Friend Mother's Day Card
HALLMARK
Home Is Where Mom Is Quote Sign
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"For Years, I Struggled With Mom Guilt"—These 3 Things Helped Me Pursue My Passion Guilt-Free
And “balance” isn’t one of them.
“You can be a mother and have a successful career or business, but you have to let go of perfectionism.”
—Tanya Dalton, Productivity Expert, Bestselling Author, and Speaker
The perfect mom always picks her kids up from school. The perfect mom always bakes homemade cookies for the class bake sale. The perfect mom never misses her kid’s game.
Chances are you’ve said a version of one of these sentences to yourself at one time or another. Perhaps it’s a regular occurrence, plaguing your thoughts with intense feelings of guilt with every move you make.
I have been there. In fact, at my breaking point, I found myself turning around in circles in my kitchen, unsure of where to begin on my mile-long to-do list—a to-do list that I believed would make me into a failure of a mother if I did not check off every single box. Needless to say, overwhelmed and guilt-ridden, I crumbled to my kitchen floor. It was in that moment I realized there had to be a better way. I realized I loved my children more than anything, but I would not be of any value to them if I was unhappy.
I had to remind myself that going after my own passions did not make me a terrible mother. And I am here to tell you it doesn’t make you one either.
In reflecting back on the day I sat on my kitchen floor 10 years ago, there are three major shifts I made in my life that changed the way I think forever. By doing so, I was finally able to relinquish the hefty side helping of guilt and shame that came with my favorite role in life: mother to my two children. Learning to finally let go of those feelings, and give myself the freedom to pursue other roles in my life—like business owner and CEO—has made me an even more present mother.
You can be a mother and have a successful career or business, but you have to let go of perfectionism. Perfection is the monster I’ve grappled with my entire life, and no matter what, I have always lost. Perfect does not exist, and the sooner you realize it, the sooner you can get out there living your life. In fact, I challenge you to stop using the word “perfect” in your life. Yes, things can be “ideal,” but if you are waiting around for perfection, then I hope you’re ready to wait for quite a long time.
Here are the three steps I took to get to where I am today. I hope by sharing these, many of you will decide it is time to do the work and kick “mom guilt” to the curb for good. Because you only have one life to live and it's yours.
#1: I uncovered the limiting beliefs I had that were holding me back.
We all have limiting beliefs that hold us back. Some common ones I hear are: “I will never be a morning person. I just cannot start my day early like some people.” Or maybe it’s something like: “I’m so bad with numbers, so there is no way I can handle the finances for my business.” Okay, now just add on being a mother to those statements and you can see how these beliefs really just begin carrying on a life of their own…
“I will never be a morning person. I just cannot start my day early like some people...and maybe if I actually could I would have time to pack lunch for my kids every day like a good mom should.”
See where I am going with this? Out of nowhere, we made up a rule in our own head that does not even exist in the real world! As I like to say, we have to stop telling ourselves these old stories.
If you are having trouble uncovering what your limiting beliefs are, allow me to share the “fifth why” exercise, something I use with both the women I coach, as well as my own kids!
The first step is to focus on the areas of your life that feel challenging right now—there is no wrong answer here. Don’t think, just write your thoughts down. Start by looking at the painful parts of your past—the things you regret or perhaps feel remorse for not doing. Where are the places where shame blooms and grows, the parts of your past you don’t want to repeat?
As a next step, you’re going to start the fifth why exercise, and yes, it is as easy as it sounds. Like any three-year-old you’ve been around recently, it really is as simple as asking yourself “why” until you uncover the true meaning behind your limiting belief. As an example, let’s say you wrote down “I am afraid to start my own business.” The next question would be, you guessed it: Why? From there, I find it is usually right around the fifth why that you get to the true root feeling, such as, “I am afraid to fail.” “I am afraid my family will go broke.”
After doing this exercise, I think you will find that your limiting beliefs aren’t as scary as you think they are when you put them down on paper and get them out of your head. Only when you acknowledge that they exist can you actively make choices to disrupt those patterns and make strides in the direction you really want to move. After all, the first step to overcoming our limiting beliefs is to first recognize what they even are!
#2: I got really clear on my core values so that setting boundaries and saying “no” became easy.
What you value in life needs to be the North Star of your business or career. Every single move you make in your career should be in alignment with your guiding values.
Once you get clear on your values, it is amazing how much easier the word “no” becomes, a word that used to trigger that feeling of guilt inside of me, which is the theme of this article.
For example, one of my core values is family, which is a deciding factor in each and every business decision my husband and I make for our company. If I am invited to speak at an event that conflicts with a family event or doesn’t really resonate with the message I am trying to bring to the world, then the answer really becomes crystal clear: No.
#3: I permanently removed the idea of “balance” from my life because balance is bogus.
Here’s a secret many productivity experts won’t tell you: balance does not exist. Trying to achieve balance will inevitably lead to you feeling like a failure. It is all about achieving harmony and leaning into what I like to call “counterbalance.” There is never going to be a time in your life where you can perfectly balance all of the important roles you carry. Remember, we are avoiding the word “perfect” because it too does not exist.
Instead, I encourage you to lean into your different priorities when the time comes. If I have a huge launch to prepare for at work, then I make a point to tell my family that mom is going to be focused on work for the week. But that doesn’t mean the following week won’t look completely different. There are weeks where my entire focus is college trips with my son or volleyball games for my daughter. In fact, last week I went on a much-needed vacation with my family and did not turn my phone off of airplane mode for 10 glorious days. Why? Because the priority I was leaning into for those 10 full days was my family. Nothing else.
If I had “balanced” then my kids would have risked waking up to mom sitting at the breakfast table, beautiful beach scenery and fresh air be damned, clutching her cell phone and furiously typing, wasting away the precious moments we have left before my son goes off to college and begins his future.
Balance is bull. Let’s achieve harmony together. I know we can.
About the author: Tanya Dalton is a nationally recognized productivity expert, best-selling author, and speaker. Tanya serves as a growth strategist for female leaders in the corporate and entrepreneurial sectors. Her 12-month mentorship program, The Intentional CEO, helps entrepreneurs grow thriving businesses and thriving personal lives. Tanya is also the founder and CEO of inkWELL Press Productivity Co., a company that provides tools that work as catalysts to help women do less while achieving maximum success.
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How I Launched an Online Business During Covid-19 While Pregnant
No big deal right?
Photo: Courtesy of Liz McVoy
While safely huddled under a thick cozy blanket in my home office, smackdab in the middle of the stay-at-home orders, I hit the figurative launch button on my online video and marketing business. Oh, and I was 37 weeks pregnant with baby number two.
Yep, due in a matter of weeks and launching a business in the middle of a pandemic. No big deal right?
Some backstory: A few years ago while on a walk with my hubby, I started to dream about what life might look like if I could work less, be more present with my family and yet somehow have a greater impact. At the time, I was taking on intermittent video and web design projects with a small number of corporate clients, but I’d hoped 2020 would be my year to grow my side hustle into a full-time job. And then COVID hit.
I’d love to say that I had this brilliant business plan from the get-go, but in reality, I just listened and responded to the needs I was seeing. Businesses were moving online as fast as they could and people were relying on video and social media now more than ever, but something seemed to be missing. I saw a gap. I saw incredible women business owners trying to scale to that next milestone and coming up short. I knew that adding video and storytelling to their marketing strategy was the answer.
That’s when I realized I could leverage my 10+ years of experience working as a video producer, designer, and storyteller to help other women build premium brands through video, branding, and marketing. It was the perfect opportunity to combine my passions and skills.
Long story (that should be told over a bottle of wine) short, I launched an online course to teach entrepreneurs how to create great video content for their business in April, I had my son in May, and then I began coaching other women in July.
Talk about a whirlwind of a few months.
Thinking back, what began as a desire to have more freedom and flexibility quickly morphed into something else, something much bigger and more meaningful. Not only do I get to support my family but I have the joy of coaching other powerful, kind, amazing female entrepreneurs on their video, branding, and marketing. And I’m not just coaching these women on visibility strategies or the how-to aspects of video, but we’re tackling what it means to lead with authenticity and a posterity of service. I’ve watched my clients go from overwhelmed and insecure to boldly showing up as the leaders that they are and making positive waves along the way.
I used to discount myself thinking that my background and skills were too broad to ever lead to a successful corporate career. I loved video editing, storytelling, and design but I never identified as that super creative person who could come up with groundbreaking ideas. Rather, every personality and career test pointed me to relationship-driven work like teaching, managing and basically being the person to build everyone else up.
But now those “soft skills” are the heart of my business. I took my technical knowledge and industry experience and created a business that helps other women thrive and I wouldn't change it for the world.
If you are a mom or mom-to-be looking for another way to support your family or get unstuck from a dead-end 9-5, here is my advice to you.
1. Start before you’re ready.
Take the risk. It’s amazing how many reasons and excuses you’ll come up with if you’re waiting for the perfect time or opportunity. Becoming an entrepreneur is scary and it is not for the faint of heart. But you just have to start. Every success story has a starting point, don’t compare your day 5 to someone else’s year 5.
2. Connect with a community.
When I had my daughter, people said it takes a village. They were right and the same thing can be said of entrepreneurship. Find your core people, support them with all you’ve got, and lean on them too. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, celebrate the wins, and journey through life together. You’ll get farther together than on your own. Leave competitiveness and ego at the door.
3. Have faith and focus.
There will be hard days. There will be days when you are like, “Holy smokes, I can’t do this.” There will be days when you cry to anyone who will listen that you made a mistake. You have to have faith and focus on what you can control. There’s so much power in hope. Entrepreneurship is a lot of work. It’s both super hard and super rewarding. Stay focused on those needle-moving tasks and trust the rest to work out how it should.
But beyond any of the advice above you have to believe in yourself. You have to remember, you are worthy of the big, amazing, beautiful life you’ve been dreaming of. Dream big and dream often.
About the author: Liz McVoy founded her creative marketing agency to help entrepreneurs and brands have greater visibility and impact in their field. Her mission is to help entrepreneurs build premium brands through video, branding, and marketing so they can position themselves as the authority, tell stories that convert, and scale their income to gain financial freedom. Liz is a west-coast native living in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her husband and two kids. For more tips, training, inspiration, and resources, sign up for her newsletter on www.lizmcvoy.com and follow her on Instagram @lizmcvoycreative.
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My Nana's Battle With Cancer Inspired Me to Help Women "Glow Through What They Go Through"
How the founder of The Stay Beautiful Foundation is paying it forward.
Photo: Courtesy of Ashleigh Cortes
When my grandmother was battling cancer, we’d often visit her with beauty products squirreled away from the spa she owned. She hated the hospital-grade products because, as a spa owner herself, she always knew what she wanted and what made her look and feel her best. When we lost her to cancer when I was 21 years old, I found myself down and empty.
While grieving my nana’s death, I would often ask my mom to visit me to walk on the lakefront together to feel some connection and peace. During one of our walks along Lake Michigan, we joked about my nana’s proclivity for spa products when she was battling cancer. I reminisced with my mom on the memories of collecting items from the spa and bringing them to my grandmother to help her feel a sense of beauty and comfort. She would always say, “When you look good, you feel good.”
It was my nana’s passion for making women feel beautiful at her spa, so I was grateful I could bring her some items that would do the same for her during this difficult time. After my grandmother passed, we had to close the spa. It was absolutely heartbreaking and felt like a whole new loss. I thought about ways to carry on her legacy, to honor her, and to help other beautiful women who were battling cancer.
I will never forget when my grandmother was checking in on the spa after not being able to visit for quite some time. We walked into her spa and were stopped by a security guard. My grandmother looked so different from her treatment that even her own employees did not recognize her. I felt so many emotions in that moment. I felt sad and embarrassed, but most of all, I felt angry. I felt angry because I felt powerless, and I believed my grandmother did too. Nauseous from chemotherapy, mentally exhausted and barely unrecognizable, my grandmother found herself having to prove who she was because cancer had taken that from her.
It was that memory that fueled me. I wanted to make sure any woman battling cancer would not have to feel what my grandmother felt, and that’s how The Stay Beautiful Foundation was born. I started searching for clean beauty products that were safe for women undergoing cancer treatment, and from there, I began boxing up products and giving them to family and friends who had been diagnosed. Fast forward to today, we have a community of beautiful women across the globe to whom we deliver clean beauty products as a way to helping them feel beautiful inside and out.
While The Stay Beautiful Foundation started with a personal mission to give back, it’s also been an incredible crash course in building an organization. We supply hundreds of boxes each month to women, completely free, and rely on donations and brand partnerships to fill our boxes with clean beauty and wellness goodies. We’re a logistics company–shipping has been one of our biggest expenses and challenges since we began. Sadly, there is never a shortage of women requesting boxes, so as we have grown, the challenge I have faced is partnering with brands who can help us help these women.
My work on The Stay Beautiful Foundation became an anchor for me in my grief and sense of loss. And I am not alone. So many women begin businesses and organizations after a personal experience just like mine. It can be challenging to channel the sadness into productivity and action. While there is no sure way to find the rainbow, here are some ways to help you find clarity and silver linings along the way.
1. Work on yourself first, your business second.
In order to be successful, you need to set yourself up for success. Take the time to level up and focus on you. You are the foundation to your dream, and without a solid foundation, you’ll never be able to build. After losing my grandmother, I had to work on myself in order to move onwards and upwards. It took therapy, meditation, and prayer to help me find a path forward. In the words of my therapist, “You can not secure the bag, without securing your internal bag first.” In other words, no external circumstances will make you feel whole, that happens from within.
2. Comparison is the thief of joy.
Now more than ever, social media is part of our daily lives. We are constantly scrolling just to see what someone is doing with their life. We may not be fully aware that we’re doing it, but we are constantly comparing ourselves and our situation to others. At times, I even found myself comparing my career to my partner’s, which is a recipe for disaster. In order to appreciate your path to finding your purpose, you must relinquish the urge to compare. Comparisons are for apples and oranges, not your life.
3. Eliminate all fears.
My parents used to have a magnet on the fridge when I was little that read, “If you knew you could not fail what would you attempt to do?” It took me months after starting The Stay Beautiful Foundation to actually deliver our first beauty box. I was so scared of what people would think or how they would judge me. Feel the fear and do it anyway! Start the business or apply for that job, sis!
4. Celebrate the small wins.
It’s important to not always focus on the negative. Appreciate every milestone along the way, especially after experiencing loss. Give yourself grace and celebrate those small victories to help get you through tough moments, even when things feel unbearable.
5. Rest when needed.
Whatever stage you are in after experiencing loss, remember rest is essential for recovery. I live by this saying and so does Lebron James who mentions he gets 8-10 hours of sleep and even naps throughout the day to maintain homeostasis within his mind and body. So if Lebron James can squeeze in a cat nap, so can you.
There is no blueprint on how to turn a loss into a win. From my experience, I learned there’s no fast track to healing or finding your passion. My advice to anyone who is searching for their Northstar is to look within themselves and recognize it is already inside of you. You just have to start to do the self-work!
About the author: Ashleigh Cortes is the founder of The Stay Beautiful Foundation, a nonprofit organization that delivers free boxes of clean beauty and skincare products to women undergoing cancer treatment. Ashleigh was inspired by her grandmother, a Black Chicago entrepreneur in the beauty space who passed from cancer. Ashleigh saw firsthand the effects of cancer on a woman's self-esteem. Since her grandmother's passing, she has made it her mission to help these women “glow through what they go through,” providing them with an exciting, fun, unboxing experience of clean beauty products for them to enjoy.
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3 Proven Strategies for Generating Hot, Inbound Leads Without Spending a Dime
That’s right, organic lead gen *is* possible.
Photo: Create & Cultivate
“I'm struggling with attracting hot leads because I can't figure out how to get myself in front of the right people and resonate with them.”
“When we’ve been able to get in front of the right people, it’s great—and we see a huge influx of new members. But I’m struggling to find them, attract them to our platform, and retain them”
“I’m not hitting my income goals because I can’t get in front of the right audience.”
Generating quality customer leads is one of the most persistent concerns for entrepreneurs. One of the things I hear most often from our potential clients and community is that they struggle to get in front of, and convert, the number of clients or customers they want to (and need to) in order to meet their goals.
Plus, constantly promoting your business can feel exhausting for you and redundant for your community. But, the fact of the matter is, you’re running a business, and a consistent flow of leads and reliable client or customer-acquisition method is necessary for the sustainability and success of your business.
Here are three ways to generate leads for your business without burning yourself (and your community) out.
1. Perfect Your Brand Messaging (Really Perfect It)
Ultimately, generating inbound leads starts with rock-solid brand messaging that is unique enough to capture your customer’s eye, but not too creative that it gets confusing and forms a barrier to purchase. Start by getting clear on your ideal client profile, your company values, and unique value propositions. Then, craft a transformation statement or brand bio. This is a one-sentence statement that describes what you do and who you do it for. You’ll use this statement on the home page of your website and in your social media bios.
Example: Curate Well Co. helps impact-driven entrepreneurs intentionally scale while maintaining the integrity of their work and leadership, and without losing connection to their community.
Next, write your elevator pitch. This statement answers the question, “So what do you do?” and highlights the problems you solve and the unique ways you solve them.
Example: Impact-driven entrepreneurs want to transform the lives of thousands of women but they lack intentional systems to scale. At Curate Well Co., we help you amplify your impact while maintaining the integrity of your work and without losing connection to your community. We take a data-based approach (because spreadsheets are sexy!) Best of all? We provide a top-shelf experience that you don’t have to put makeup on for.
Finally, create a mission statement. This is your big picture “why.” Why did you start your brand or business? Why are you so passionate about it? If you really want to stand out, know how your ideal client self-identifies and speak to their personality, values, and soft skills — not just their goals and challenges — and get clear on the role your brand plays for them in their journey.
Example: When I first entered the entrepreneur space, I noticed there were a lot of people doing high-level strategy and vision work, and there were other people doing purely execution. But there wasn’t anyone teaching women how to exist (and see success) in the space between manifesting and making shit happen. So I created Curate Well Co. to help impact-driven entrepreneurs put processes behind their purpose (by connecting their big vision to the data-driven details) so they could implement thoughtful strategies, instead of copy-paste solutions, to scale their businesses intentionally. The best part? We believe you don't have to change who you are to be successful — everyone has a gift that uniquely and exceptionally solves a problem.
Make sure that your messaging is consistent across your whole online (and offline!) presence, and test it to ensure it resonates with the right people. Testing your messaging will lead to higher conversion rates because you can verify that your ideal client feels a connection to you and your brand, feels confident you can support them, and feels like your product or service is a no-brainer purchase for them!
2. Prioritize Community Activation and Relationship Building
Building relationships is never a waste of time, even if they don’t seem to pay off immediately. Not only is relationship-building essential with your potential customers and clients, but being active in your community and generating a network will also help you become omnipresent in your space, and garner referrals for your business.
By building relationships and ensuring every person feels seen, heard, and known, you’ll create champions of your brand. While there are plenty of ways to market your product or service, very few are as effective as a glowing review from someone who has experienced it first hand, can speak to specifics about their experience, and is excited about sending someone your way.
A few of our favorite ways to activate a community are to:
Bring humanness to your online connections.
Slide into someone’s DMs and ask them to a Zoom coffee date, send voice memos, and ask personal questions to really get to know someone! Aim to get to know someone, rather than convert them.
Co-host an event, workshop, or giveaway.
Partner with like-minded peers to cross-pollinate communities and support each other’s endeavors.
Ask for introductions.
Need to hire someone? Looking for an expert in X? Ask your current connections to make an intro for you! This is one of the best (and easiest) ways to organically grow your community.
When it comes to engaging your community, it’s really about removing anonymity. We pull from leadership practices to infuse connection in our business model. A few of our favorite ways are:
Speak to each person.
Welcome people by name onto your webinar, share individual customer or client stories, hold space for people to ask unique-to-their-situation questions.
Send personal invites.
Hosting a masterclass? Opening enrollment for a new program? Pre-selling a limited run product? Make your best customers and most engaged clients feel like VIPs by sending personalized invitations—they’ll feel special, and it supports true relationship-building.
Make connections.
Introduce two people in your network to each other, send referrals to businesses you believe in, share a guide of resources you love.
Once you have effectively enrolled people in your community, be sure to reward their stewardship! We love to send holiday cards at the end of the year, birthday cards, and support our clients’ businesses by leaving reviews, promoting their offerings, and offering them our platform (such as our Instagram Stories or blog) to share their voice on.
One of our favorite ways to encourage community participation and reward our brand champions is through a referral program. Since we focus so heavily on our client experience, a lot of our business comes from referrals. By formalizing our referral program, we not only build long-term relationships with current and past clients, but we can also maintain a consistent client acquisition funnel.
Plus, our leads that come from referrals are generally more bought in, faster to make a buying decision, and excited to talk about their experience with us.
3. Create a Holistic Brand Experience
Last, but not least, focus on the details to create a holistic brand experience that embodies your values, which reinforces your brand messaging and community activation efforts.
When generating leads for your business, steer clear of hard sells, pushy conversations, and anything else that feels “salesy”—after all, we’ve all had that awful sales experience that left us traumatized. Instead, try the following strategies:
Ask permission.
Whether it’s telling someone about your program, or getting on a call, offer people a choice.
Have clear tone guidelines.
Ensure your communication is straightforward yet empowering so your community knows they can count on you for tangible info that genuinely supports their goals. Answer strategic questions thoroughly, with consideration for each individual’s nuances.
Ask for feedback and involve your community in your evolution.
Listen to your ideal clients and community and make changes that account for their experience and feedback. This will allow you to continue to hone your brand experience to embody your values, and also meet your clients and community exactly where they’re at with what they want and need.
From investing in high-quality photo and video assets, sending carefully curated client gift boxes, sharing discount codes to your favorite brands with your community, to asking for objective feedback from your clients and community (and actually implementing it), ensure that everyone who interacts with your brand has an experience you feel proud of.
Just because you say your business is something, doesn’t mean it is. You have to show up, create processes, and grow in a way that really brings those qualities alive. Doing this will result in authentic word of mouth, leading to inbound leads that already have awareness and affinity for your unique value add.
By merging your selling strategy with your brand experience and incorporating community-based selling tactics into your processes and systems, your ideal client will already know who you are, what you stand for, and why they want to work with you before it’s actually time to close the sale—making the process of generating hot, inbound leads more natural and efficient.
Everything you do on a daily basis—your content creation, your client touch-points, your problem-solving—will do the heavy lifting for you, so you can do what you do best. And, in the meantime, you’ll build relationships that will have incomparable ROI for years to come.
“Just because you say your business is something, doesn’t mean it is. You have to show up, create processes, and grow in a way that really brings those qualities alive.”
—Pia Beck, CEO, Curate Well Co.
About the Author: Pia Beck is a life and business coach known for turning pain points into action items. As the CEO of Curate Well Co., coined “the queen of implementation,” her expertise is in connecting the big picture vision with the nitty-gritty details in order to create an instinctual strategy, systems, and steps. She helps her clients and community organize, implement, and execute.
At Curate Well Co., she combines purpose and process to help emerging and established entrepreneurs start and scale savvy, streamlined, sensational businesses, make an impact, and launch a life they love and leave a legacy. At Curate Well Co., we believe in a curated life on purpose through sharing your unique gifts. Curate Well Co. has been featured in Thrive Global, Darling, Buzzfeed, Medium, and more, and has collaborated with brands like Bumble, Havenly, Lululemon, and The Riveter.
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How the Founder of Hike Clerb Is Reclaiming Space for WOC in the Outdoors, One Trail at a Time
"Everything we strive to do is for our community."
We know how daunting it can be to start a new business, especially if you’re disrupting an industry or creating an entirely new one. When there is no path to follow, the biggest question is, where do I start? There is so much to do, but before you get ahead of yourself, let’s start at the beginning. To kick-start the process, and ease some of those first-time founder nerves, we’re asking successful entrepreneurs to share their stories in our new series, From Scratch. But this isn’t your typical day in the life profile. We’re getting into the nitty-gritty details—from writing a business plan (or not) to sourcing manufacturers and how much they pay themselves—we’re not holding back.
Photo: Courtesy of Evelynn Escobar
Whether she was hitting her local trails or road tripping through a national park, Evelynn Escobar couldn’t help but notice how homogeneous the outdoors were—and she decided to do something about it. In 2017, she started Hike Clerb, an intersectional women’s hiking group, to reclaim space for women of color in the outdoors. By sharing photos of the group’s excursions on Instagram, it didn’t take long for Escobar to cultivate a diverse and inclusive community of women who also wanted to see themselves represented on the trails—and in other outdoor spaces like beaches, parks, and pools.
Once Hike Clerb reached over 20,000 followers on Instagram, it was clear Escobar had a movement on her hands. And, although the club has always been dedicated to serving the community, last year, she officially registered Hike Clerb as a 501c(3) nonprofit organization. “Everything we strive to do is for our community,” she tells Create & Cultivate about the decision. “Not to turn big profits. Not to make an organization that must run the capitalistic rat race. Something for us, by us.” And her mission has attracted the attention of publications by the likes of Teen Vogue and Condé Nast Traveler, as well as major brands such as Nike and Free People Movement.
Ahead, Escobar shares how she’s paying it forward to her community, partnering with brands to do good, and leveraging social media to start a movement.
Can you tell us a bit about your career background and what you were doing professionally before launching Hike Clerb?
Before I launched Hike Clerb, I worked in the fashion and beauty industries as a social media marketer.
What was your “lightbulb moment” for Hike Clerb and what inspired you to pursue this path?
My experience as an outdoorsy Black Latina inspired me to create Hike Clerb. Whether it was hiking alone or realizing just how homogenous the outdoors were on road trips, I wanted to create a solution to the issues I noticed out there.
How did you come up with the name Hike Clerb? What are some of the things you considered during the naming process?
To be honest, it was something that came very intuitively without much mental exertion. Clerb is just a funny word that I and many friends use when talking about clubs of all types, so it was just a natural fit to go with something that felt familiar and lighthearted.
Last year, Hike Clerb registered as a 501c(3) nonprofit organization. Can you tell us about that process and why you decided to take this route?
It was actually a decision that I sat with a bit. For us, it was between creating a social enterprise or a nonprofit. Ultimately, the nonprofit won because everything we strive to do is for our community. Not to turn big profits. Not to make an organization that must run the capitalistic rat race. Something for us, by us.
Photo: Courtesy of Hike Clerb
What were the immediate things you had to take care of to set up the organization?
When I started the organization, a little over three years ago now, the only place we existed was Instagram. I’d post all of our events, recaps, etc. there. Later I created our site and secured our handle on other channels. We are currently in the legal process of securing our trademarks etc.
What research did you do for the organization beforehand? Why would you recommend that due diligence to other nonprofit founders?
Before embarking on our 501c(3) journey, I took a look at the way other nonprofits in the industry were set up from a financial perspective just to give us a sense of direction. Things like, what type of donation platforms are commonly used? What types of programs and grants exist that we could apply for? Etc.
Did you write a business plan? If so, was it helpful? If not, what did you use to guide your organization instead and why did you take that approach?
Yes and no. Yes because I do have a business plan in a very nontraditional sense, and no because the bulk of this has been learning as I go. I have a sense of direction and bigger goals, dreams, collaborations, etc. that we are actively pursuing, but at the end of the day, where our strength lies is that we are very much intuitively led and it has allowed us to transcend and innovate in the space like no other.
How did you fund Hike Clerb? What were the challenges and what would you change? Would you recommend that route to other founders?
It has been a mix of self-funding and donations from our community. Now we are receiving bigger corporate donations from time to time for collaborations etc. I think it can be hard at first for people to want to invest and buy-in when you’re just getting the funds to get off the ground. Nonprofits don’t magically churn out content, events, etc. out of thin air. There is always a team behind the scenes that needs to be compensated for their labor and creativity that brings the vision to life and a lot of people forget that. The operational costs have to be covered before you can move on to plan b and c, but most people want to invest in the shiny event or program, etc., not the non-sexy organization costs of what’s needed to even be able to run.
Do you pay yourself, and if so, how did you know what to pay yourself?
I do not pay myself from any of the funds we have raised for the organization and it is a very intentional effort to not do so. I value my team and the initiatives and programs that we are trying to get off the ground. As long as I’m able to sustain them, I’m happy to finance myself through my own platform, etc. It was really a no-brainer for me to proceed this way.
How big is your team now, and what has the hiring process been like?
We are a team of three! Me, as the founder and executive director, Jennifer Martinez as our director of operations who also assists with collaborations and partnerships, and Stephanie Sleiman who is our art director and designer at large. At first, accepting help was difficult for me because I didn’t really know where to start. I had been running things by myself for the first two and a half years before they came on. Both Jen and Stephanie were Hike Clerb members who volunteered their skills and time in any way that I needed and that’s how it all started. There was no formal call to hire. Now that we have a small but mighty team, we are looking to bring on a few more members to really help make our bigger plans come to life.
Did you hire an accountant? Who helped you with the financial decisions and setup?
We do have an accountant who was already someone I had a relationship with because of my personal finances. They didn’t come along until after the 501c(3) status was solidified.
What has been the biggest learning curve during the process of establishing Hike Clerb and running a 501c(3) nonprofit organization?
The biggest learning curve has been finding the resources needed to really legitimize everything. When it comes to legal and financial recommendations, they can be hard to come by. These things aren’t widely spoken about, but they should be! Just getting everything needed to run smoothly has been a process!
You’ve been featured in Teen Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, Women’s Health, and many other notable publications. How did you promote Hike Clerb in the beginning? How did you get people to know who you are and create buzz?
Our main source of news, promotion, etc. was our Instagram! We created content from all of our hikes to promote what we were doing, who our members were, etc., and it organically grew from there.
Photo: Courtesy of Hike Clerb
Hike Clerb has also partnered with major brands by the likes of Nike and Free People Movement. How do you choose which companies to work with and how have they helped you grow and spread Hike Clerb’s mission?
We are very intentional about the brands that we choose to partner with. They not only must align with our mission and vision but play a role in helping our community in a tangible way. Whether that’s making a donation, donating items to help BIWOC get outdoors, or all of the above! They’ve helped us introduce our work to new sets of eyes which has only strengthened our platform.
Do you have a business coach or mentor? If so, how has this person helped, and would you recommend one to a fellow founder?
I do have many mentors, but not a dedicated business coach per se. I am thankful to all the women of color who have invested their time and efforts in helping me along my business journey. I would absolutely recommend that everyone have at least a mentor or someone in their corner they can turn to about these things.
What is your number one piece of advice for any new founder in the nonprofit (and/or for-profit) space and why?
Be married to your mission. If your mission is not a natural extension of you—something that comes so naturally to you that you can talk about it in your sleep—then sit on your idea until it becomes that. You should be so clear on why you’re doing what you’re doing that there is no question in anyone’s mind of why what you’ve created exists. When you create out of an authentic place, you’re setting yourself up for ultimate success.
What’s next for you and for Hike Clerb? What are your plans for 2021 and beyond?
World domination! But really, bigger in-person events, more programs, a new way to consume our editorial content, ways to participate across the country, and, for me, a new little addition to my growing team and family.
Photo: Courtesy of Hike Clerb
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13 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Accepting a Job Offer
You deserve the job, but does the job deserve you?
Photo: Ekaterina Bolovtsova for Pexels
The New York Times published a piece titled "13 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Getting Married." And since a job is a marriage of sorts, we started thinking about 13 questions you should really ask yourself before accepting a job. We aren't talking first jobs, but career makers. The kind you stick with for the long-haul, through thick, through thin, through sickness and in health; marriage material kind of jobs. It's a mistake to accept a position with the intention of leaving.
In the same way that hiring mistakes can be very costly, the same can be said for accepting the wrong offer. If the position is not the right fit, you are going to end up on job boards and sending out résumés all over again. While landing a job is tough, accepting the wrong position can be detrimental to your career. We're thinking long distance, not sprints.
1. Started from the bottom, now you’re where?
Is there room for growth? If for instance, you're starting as an assistant, is the company prone to promote from within? Before accepting, make sure there is a "here" to get to.
A good way to figure this out is to check out the following:
2. What’s the turnover rate for employees?
With a little research, it's easy to find how long the oldest employee has been at the company. If the turnover rate is incredibly high, or the oldest employee has only been working there a year, consider why this might be the case.
Are there employees who started in your current offered position? Where are they now?
3. Do you want your boss’s job?
This is a tricky question to answer.
Because sure, the idea of being the boss might seem illustriously tempting to you, but taking your boss’s job should not be the end goal. Excel at your position and work to be promoted, sure, but your takeover strategy shouldn't revolve around taking over someone else’s position.
4. Are you willing to work weekends? Nights? Early AMs?
What kind of hours are you willing to clock? For most of us, the 40-hour workweek myth is just that. So think about how you're going to feel when you get an email from your boss on a Sunday.
Do you need a position that has a clear clock-in and clock-out, or are you comfortable with stress-related rapid-fire texts from your boss on the weekend? (They happen. They're real.) Your heart needs to be in it, in order to win it.
5. Could your boss double as a mentor?
Is your potential boss someone you admire and respect? At least from the outside. Unlike a relationship or marriage, it's impossible to predict how well you will work with someone—especially during crunch time or in high-stress, high-pressure situations, before you work with them.
So do the research. What kind of reputation does your boss have? How do the current employees seem to feel about their jobs? When you went in for your interview, what did the office environment feel like? Was it sunshine and butterflies and rainbows or were there grumpy cat rainclouds above everyone’s desk?
Working well with someone who is "bossing" you is a major factor to consider.
6. Will you be challenged?
Forget a cushy job. At this point in your career, you should desire a position that grows your skills and expands your offerings as an employee—just in case you wind up having to divorce this position.
If you know you'll be able to set goals to outperform yourself, you will not only make yourself invaluable to the company, but you'll also be making an investment in your future that will pay in dividends.
7. Will you resent your salary in six months?
It's very rare to be head-over-heels in love with your salary from the start, but around 40% of women report being unsatisfied with their current pay. It's one thing to accept a salary or wage that is below asking, it's another to accept a wage that is well beneath you.
You'll end up angry, frustrated, and ultimately, less productive.
8. Are there benefits?
Health care costs add up, and they are something you should factor into your decision. Don't get blind-sighted by the salary without considering other costs you may incur on your own.
Most companies that offer benefits do so after 90 days. Be sure to ask what the company policy is, and if they don't have benefits, check out our post on how to negotiate benefits.
9. Is it corporate, startup, or freelance? And is the environment right for you?
You know you best. So when it comes to choosing the right office culture, think hard. The corporate job might pay more, but are you going to become frustrated and disillusioned when every idea you have has to be vetted by ten people up the ladder? Are you willing to commit to the kind of hours a startup requires?
If you're accepting a freelance job make sure to set parameters before committing. Don't accept a job where the expectations are so high, you're primed for failure.
10. What’s your commute?
The average U.S. worker commutes approximately 26 minutes to work each day. Could you imagine commuting more than that?
Here's the rub. Most employees are spending much more on commuting than they realize. From gas to maintenance, it's an important factor to consider in the long-run.
A nasty commute can contribute to a nasty attitude. If you're spending over an hour in the car in the AM, you're not going to arrive at the office bright, cheery, and ready to put in work.
11. What are the potential problems?
As with any relationship, there will be issues. Outline what you think they will be—from long hours to travel complications to communication issues, and be honest with yourself if they are problems you can accept.
Once you accept them, don't moan and groan when they crop up.
12. Have you checked out Glassdoor?
With a database of millions of company reviews, CEO-approval ratings, and salary reports, you can do a bit of online shopping before you buy into the company.
13. Is this your dream J-O-B?
By all means, what are you waiting for? Sign that offer letter and get ready for a lifetime of career happiness. (But also remember, that it's when the dream becomes a reality, the real work starts.)
Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.
This story was originally published on April 4, 2016, and has since been updated.
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15 Cannabis Products to Shop on 4/20 That Support Women in Weed
These women are breaking the "grass” ceiling.
Photo: Courtesy of Stevie
Since the widespread legalization of marijuana, there has been a steady increase in marijuana-based brands, but the most interesting part of this story is the rise of women-centric cannabis products and services. From CBD lotions and topical oils to tinctures, low-dose mints, and even CBD intimacy products, there are a lot of woman at the helm pushing the industry forward with innovative products.
But despite this progress, women in C-suite level positions at publicly-traded cannabis companies has been on a downward trend, falling from 36% in 2015 to 27% in 2018 with many women trying to break into the space reporting that they’ve started to bump into the so-called “grass ceiling”—which has in turn seen more women go out on their own and carve their own slice of the $19.6 billion industry.
So, this 4/20, we’re celebrating women in weed who are not only making major moves in the cannabis space but making major money, too. These incredible female founders are bringing us brands designed with women in mind. Read on to learn more about these feel-good brands and the badass women behind them.
Tetra
Del Mar Pipe
$85
Tetra brings beauty to the smoking experience. The brand makes the most aesthetically pleasing smoking accessories, thanks to amazing designers. Enjoy the moment more with enchanting pipes, ashtrays, and more.
Brown Girl Jane
Rest Wellness Drops
$104
Brown Girl Jane’s collection of broad-spectrum CBD products are formulated with balance and rest in mind. The brand, founded by women of color, also donates a portion of its sales to non-profits aligned with its mission to better the lives and wellness of WOC.
Mendi
No THC Gummies
$25
Designed with athletes in mind, Mendi’s products deliver all the pain-relieving, stress-reducing, inflammation-beating benefits of CBD, without the THC. Athlete fans of the brand include Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, Nneka Ogwumike, and more.
Barbari
Airplane Mode CBD Spliff
$10
Barbari’s pre-made spliffs contain an herbal blend of organically grown CBD-rich hemp flowers that boast 5% calming CBD and less than 0.3% THC. Opt for the Herbal Blend and combine with a pinch of bud if that’s more your style.
Undefined Beauty
Glow Elixir
$18
Undefined Beauty taps into the anti-inflammatory powers of CBD to soothe, brighten, and balance the skin. Combined with rosehip, jojoba, argon, and other powerhouse skin-care ingredients, CBD shines in the brand’s Glow Elixir.
Mello
Organic CBD Chocolate Bar
$20
Mellow was founded to help people calm anxiety through the powers of CBD. Mellow’s products bring you all the benefits like pain relief, reduced stress, better sleep, and improved mood in whatever form is right for you!
Dreamt
All-In-One Pen
Available at California Dispensaries
This female founder knows just how painful it can be to stare at the ceiling night after night willing yourself asleep, so she solved that problem. Carolina Vazquez Mitchell created the perfect blend of THC, CBD, melatonin, valerian root, for a great night’s sleep.
Equilibria
Balance Bath Bombs
$45
Made for women, by women Equilibria was created to serve women’s specific needs through CBD. Their products work to support the female body through everything from menstruation, menopause, and childbirth.
Prismatic Plants
Have a Good Day
$70
When founder Sarah Polansky found herself struggling with chronic illness, she found CBD to be the support her body needed. Prismatic Plants was created to give women the help they needed with a mission to protect the planet while they were at it.
Besito
Grapefruit Vape
Available at California Dispensaries
Besito is cannabis with a purpose. Not only does the brand bring premium products to the market, but it also advocates for LGBTQ rights, criminal justice reform, and the advancement of scientific research in cannabis. In other words, Besito makes safe vapes that you can feel good about buying.
Sweet Reason
Cucumber Mint
$30
Sweet Reason is the drinkable solution to CBD. Harness the benefits of CBD in the most refreshing way. Take a sip, calm your mind, and kiss stress goodbye.
Foria Wellness
Intimacy Natural Lubricant with CBD
$44
Foria brings CBD to sexual wellness. Foria believes people with vaginas are underserved and deserve products just for them. This CBD has been designed to keep your most intimate bits happy and healthy.
Stevie
CBD Tincture
$60
Influencer turned entrepreneur Courtney Trop found her followers more and more interested in her daily cannabis use than her fashion blogging and decided to give the people what they wanted, CBD. Stevie is an organic, ethically, and sustainably sourced supplement to make cannabis a part of every day.
Lord Jones
Old Fashioned Hemp-Derived CBD Gumdrops
$45
CBD with a sweet tooth. Lord Jones makes the most delicious way to get your dose of CBD. Soothe your stress as you let these melt in your mouth candies go to work. And once you’re hooked, check out Lord Jones many other CBD delivery products.
Leune
Desert Gold Pre-Roll
$7 (Available at California Dispensaries)
Leune is taking it back to basics with the cleanest possible products. Whether pre-rolled joints or vaporizers, Leune’s products are top-notch. They are working to elevate the cannabis experience and are raising the bar for the whole marijuana industry.
This story was originally published on April 20, 2020, and has since been updated.
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This Founder Has Raised Over $4 Million in Venture Capital From the Backers of Warby Parker, Casper, Peloton, and More
Here's why she wants you to be picky about the investors you choose.
You asked for more content around business finances, so we’re delivering. Welcome to Money Matters where we give you an inside look at the pocketbooks of CEOs and entrepreneurs. In this series, you’ll learn what successful women in business spend on office spaces and employee salaries, how they knew it was time to hire someone to manage their finances, and their best advice for talking about money.
Photo: Courtesy of Nicole Gibbons
In 2018, Nicole Gibbons launched a brand like no other: direct-to-consumer paint company Clare. After navigating the outdated paint industry on behalf of her clients for years, the longtime designer made it her mission to disrupt the space. “Frankly, shopping for paint has always been a huge hassle,” Gibbons tells Create & Cultivate. “There are thousands of overwhelming colors, too many product lines, the store environments are completely uninspiring, and there’s a lack of design guidance throughout the process.” So she set out to take the guesswork out of decorating by founding DTC paint brand Clare, which carries a curated selection of 56 designer-approved swatches.
But it’s not just about reinventing the fan deck. “At Clare, developing paint formulas that are healthier for our customers and the environment has been a priority since day one,” the founder explains. Clare’s paints are zero VOC, meaning they’re free of toxic carbon-based solvents that pollute the air and pose health risks, and Greenguard Gold-certified, meeting rigorous emissions standards, which is significant when you consider air indoors can be up to ten times more polluted than the air outdoors, according to the EPA. “People care now more than ever about the products they consume and the impact those products have on their health, their home, and the environment,” notes Gibbons.
Ahead, the founder shares how she’s raised over $4 million in venture capital funding for her clean and conscious DTC paint brand (including funding from the backers of DTC darlings by the likes of Warby Parker, Casper, Peleton, and more) and offers her best fundraising advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to replicate her success.
Can you tell us a bit about your background and what you were doing professionally before launching Clare?
Prior to launching Clare, I was an interior designer, running my own design firm and also doing a lot of work in the media as a design expert, including appearing for three seasons on a DIY home makeover show on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Before that, I spent 10 years working as a PR executive for a large retailer while dabbling in interior design on the side. I’ve always been passionate about the home space and about helping people create beautiful spaces.
What was the “lightbulb moment” for Clare? What inspired you to start your business and pursue this path?
Frankly, shopping for paint has always been a huge hassle. There are thousands of overwhelming colors, too many product lines, the store environments are completely uninspiring, and there’s a lack of design guidance throughout the process. After realizing that the paint shopping experience was broken and outdated and that no legacy paint brands were focused on delivering a seamless shopping experience for their customers, I had the lightbulb moment for Clare. We’ve reimagined an entirely new paint shopping experience that’s easier, faster, more inspiring, and more convenient. Our mission is to help people everywhere create a home they love and to become the go-to paint brand for a new generation of consumers who are passionate about their homes.
Clare’s paints are zero VOC and Greenguard Gold-certified. Can you tell us why was it important to you to create non-toxic paints?
At traditional paint brands, this is generally an afterthought, but at Clare, developing paint formulas that are healthier for our customers and the environment has been a priority since day one. People care now more than ever about the products they consume and the impact those products have on their health, their home, and the environment. The cost associated with achieving our Greenguard Gold certification for indoor air quality, which is a top tier, EPA-endorsed green certification, was not inexpensive for us as a small startup. However, we felt this was an important step to take in order to give our customers confidence in our products.
You’ve raised over $4 million in funding for Clare to date, no doubt you’ve learned a lot along the way. What are three crucial elements everyone should include in a pitch deck when raising money and why?
First, tell a great brand story. Investors see hundreds of deals, if not more, so it’s important to present your brand in a way that grabs their attention and tells a compelling story. You want investors to immediately have a clear sense of your brand, your mission, what sets your company apart, and why they should get excited about both you as a founder and your company.
Second, tell a great numbers story. Your business model, or how you’ll make money, should be clear, as should the basic unit economics of your business and your growth projections. And these numbers need to be super compelling. A favorite line from one of our biggest investors is: There’s nothing like bad numbers to f*ck up a great story!
Lastly, do all of the above with conciseness, clarity, and a laser focus on the most important takeaways that you want the investors to remember.
Your investors include First Round Capital (an investor in Warby Parker), Imaginary (Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet's fund), and Bullish (a Casper, Peloton, and Harry's razors backer). What advice can you share for entrepreneurs on partnering with the right investors?
At the beginning of your journey, the power dynamics feel very much in favor of the investors. They have the money you need and, especially when you’re a first-time founder, you tend to believe they also have the secret sauce that’s going to help your business get to the next level, especially if they’re a bluechip fund with a lot of cachet. In reality, that is typically not the case. Most investors aren’t super hands-on, will never know as much about your business or category as you do, and often they don’t add a ton of value beyond the check. Founders often feel pressure to take whatever money you can get, but the investors YOU choose and the energy and influence they bring to the table can make or break your success. So the best advice I can offer is to be picky about the investors you choose and bet on yourself over betting on any individual investor being the key to your success.
Startups led by Black women receive less than 1% of venture capital funding. Why do you think there is still so much inequality in the venture capital world, and what advice can you share for BIPOC entrepreneurs who are currently seeking funding?
The venture capital world is incredibly homogenous. I’ve met a ton of venture capitalists and, overwhelmingly, they’re white men who are already rich and often born into privilege as well. So when it comes to deal sourcing, they’re focused on their own insular network of people who come from similar backgrounds which naturally leads to an extreme lack of diversity.
VCs are also taught to “pattern match,” which is to look for patterns in founders that mirror previous founders who have been successful, but there’s an inherent bias in this approach when all of their founders come from similar backgrounds. Data proves that diverse teams lead to higher returns yet it’s still difficult for VCs to get out of their insular bubbles and actually invest in diverse founders and teams. In order to create more equality in terms of who gets funded, funds need to diversify their own teams, especially at the partner level since partners are who ultimately make the investment decisions. This will lead to a more diverse pool of deals to source from, and in turn, more BIPOC entrepreneurs seeing their ventures get funded.
For entrepreneurs of color seeking funding, I’d say to first focus on funds that have a track record of funding diverse founders. This might mean funds that have a specific diversity focus, or simply who have a more balanced representation of founders in their portfolios. Next, don’t be intimidated by any data that shows the odds may be stacked against you. Instead, let your passion and confidence in what you’re building guide your process. Finally, be relentless and don’t get discouraged by the “no’s.” Raising venture capital is an incredibly difficult and draining process for any founder and even those who are very successful at raising capital face a lot of rejection. Trust that the right investors will be aligned with your vision.
What was your first big expense as a business owner and how should small business owners prepare for that now?
My first big expense was building out our website. I was lucky enough to find a team who really believed in me and the business and agreed to help start the high-level conceptual and creative direction work for the site without pay before I raised capital. Once I closed our financing, I was able to pay them properly. We started working on that before I actually put any physical product into production.
Photo: Courtesy of Clare
What are your top three largest expenses every month?
We don’t replenish inventory monthly, but during the months we do, that by far is our biggest expense. Payroll and marketing are our next biggest expenses.
Do you pay yourself, and if so, how did you know what to pay yourself?
Most people assume that being a CEO of a highly publicized company means you’re rich or you have a hefty salary, but most startup founders, especially at the early stage are grossly underpaid because everyone is incentivized to put as much value as possible into the business. I’m lucky that because we had an influx of capital from venture investors I was able to pay myself a modest salary, but the salary I’m paid is around a 60-70% decrease from what I was making before Clare and a huge short-term sacrifice. I basically pay myself enough to cover my monthly expenses and not much more. The hope when you’re building a company is that the upside will be significant so any initial sacrifice or temporary discomfort are both necessary but also well worth it in the long run.
Would you recommend other small business owners pay themselves?
Absolutely. To the extent that you can pay yourself a liveable salary, you should absolutely do so. Running a business is incredibly stressful, and it will be difficult to stay focused on the business if you’re also highly stressed about your personal finances and don’t have enough money to cover your basic necessities. The only exception is that if you’re lucky enough to have someone else taking care of you financially (i.e., family support, a spouse, etc.) then, depending on your situation, you might be better served not taking a salary and investing everything you have into growing your business. It all boils down to your goals, your plans for growth, and what you need to get you to your next milestone.
How did you know you were ready to hire and what advice can you share on preparing for this stage of your business?
With Clare, as a venture-backed company, the goal is to build a venture-scale business, so I knew there was no way I could do this on my own. I hired people as soon as I possibly could to help fill expertise gaps and also increase my bandwidth. When I started out, key hires included a digital marketer and head of supply chain since those were areas that needed a lot of attention and where I lacked the skills and expertise.
What are some of the tools you use to stay on top of your business financials? What do you recommend for small business owners on a budget?
We have an outsourced CFO and an accounting firm who manage all of the day-to-day finances but keep a close eye on everything. In terms of tools, we use Quickbooks to manage our accounting. Google Sheets and Excel are tools of choice for building out reports to look at trends and gain deeper insights into how we’re doing.
Where do you think is the most important area for a business owner to focus their financial energy and why?
This really depends on your goals. If your goals are growth then investing in marketing is probably going to be the most important area to focus on. If you have a highly technical product with a big innovation roadmap, you might invest in hiring engineers. If you have a capital-intensive supply chain, investing in building efficiency there might make the most sense.
Do you think women should talk about money and business more? Why?
Absolutely. Having collaborative discussions around business, finance, and sharing best practices with peers is often the best way to learn and grow.
Do you have a financial mentor? If so, how did you find one and do you think all business owners need one?
I’m lucky now that I do have people around me who I can go to for guidance, but I haven’t always. This is unfortunate because I feel like I could have prevented a lot of costly mistakes in both my business and personal finances if I had someone guiding me. I’ve had to figure a lot out of my own over the years, so if you have access to a mentor, lean on them to help you navigate all the things you don’t know.
What is your best piece of financial advice for new entrepreneurs?
Ruthlessly prioritize what’s most important to your business and what’s in the best interest of your brand mission. When you’re running a young company, everything feels like a priority and so many opportunities come up that seem worthwhile, but when bandwidth is slim, you have to prioritize like a boss. Focus both your dollars and your human capital on the initiatives and opportunities that will propel your business forward and deliver the most value.
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Ask a Confidence Coach—11 Tips to Take Your Career to the Next Level
The “fake it ‘till you make it” mantra works… until it doesn’t.
Photo: Create & Cultivate
Show of hands: Who has heard the phrase “confidence is key” before? Are you with me on this? From elementary school murals to iPhone screensavers, this common phrase is plastered everywhere, and for good reason. I truly believe that confidence is key for many areas of your life, but if you’re like me, I only think about confidence in personal settings. My personality, looks, and sense of humor are all things that I easily see as areas needing confidence. But the one area I’ve always struggled feeling confident in? My career. And that’s where Heather Monahan comes in.
Monahan is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and founder of Boss in Heels. Having successfully climbed the corporate ladder for nearly 20 years, Monahan’s book “Confidence Creator” illustrates the tough lessons she’s learned throughout her career that have helped her develop the self-assurance necessary for getting what she wanted in life. Below, Monahan shares 11 ways you can take your career to the next level by feeding your own. Here’s what she recommends.
Figure Out Where Your Passions and Talents Lie
When you are spending your time in your superpower you feel so confident. What I mean by that is if your talent is highlighted when you are interacting with others, but you are currently in a job where you only interact with spreadsheets on your computer, you need to change roles. Figuring out where your passions and talents are is critical to becoming your most confident self at work. This is the single most important thing you can do. When we speak about what we know and love, we are more confident. Identify your superpower and spend your time there.
Bring Your Confidence to Work (Even If You Have to Fake It Sometimes)
Confidence everywhere is important. Here is an example: I was hired by an association to give my keynote speech. On the conference call the week before the event, the new president was laying out expectations for me. This is what he said: “Heather, this is my first year as president and there is so much pressure on me to create a stellar event. If your speech is amazing then I am golden, if you blow it I fail. You cannot blow it.” I laughed in my head. I could hear how he was lacking confidence in his new role. Thankfully, I am very confident in my speaking abilities, and here is what I said: “Have no fear. I will nail this and you will look like a superstar. You can take that to the bank.”
He started laughing and thanked me for being so confident, it put him at ease. However, if I had said to him, “I am so sorry you are feeling this pressure. It sounds really hard. I can promise I will try my best,” (while a fair response) it would not have been the confident response my client needed in his moment of fear. Bringing confidence to work is the difference between existing and excelling. People want to work with people that are confident because it makes them feel comfortable.
Confront Your Misconceptions and Limiting Beliefs
This is the million-dollar question. Statistics show that women feel less confident than men beginning at age eight. What this says to me is the way we are raised—the self-limiting beliefs that are imposed on us through culture, society, media, and the “lanes” that are created for women—all impact our confidence. We are told to be a certain weight, look pretty, be kind and gentle, be smart but not too smart, and on and on. What I have learned over the last two decades is pretty much everything I was taught as a child needs to be re-examined now.
I was raised as the “social” one and my sister was the “smart” one. I walked through life carrying these labels with me and allowing myself to be limited as a result. Confronting these misconceptions and moving into my fear allowed me to create confidence in myself; however, it was pretty scary. Realizing that we create our own reality and we allow for or choose not to accept others’ opinions or limitations is incredibly empowering. For years, I had played small at work because I saw that it allowed others to feel more comfortable. When I would rise up or step into my power I would see others feel uncomfortable.
Deciding to own my power has allowed me to take off in business and in my life. It starts with you and me deciding to live our lives by our own rules. Confidence is a choice.
Make Goals and Stretch Yourself Every Day
There are so many things. Leverage LinkedIn. Everyone has a personal brand. Make the conscious decision to hold the pen when orchestrating your personal brand. If you don’t do this others will be writing the outline for your brand and deciding your story. LinkedIn is a fantastic place to showcase your highlight reel at work. This is where you want to list your accomplishments, accolades, and reviews. We live in a word-of-mouth society and the best words are the ones others share about us.
The next time someone says, “Great job!” convert that feedback in the moment and ask that person to write a review of your work on your LinkedIn wall. Get in the habit of doing this and watch the credibility and traction you create. Have a goal. Whether it is to make 10 sales calls today or to reach out to three new potential mentors, you need to have a big picture goal and vision of your future and you need to have micro-goals that you will accomplish each day. Surround yourself with people that are ahead of you, as they will help to stretch you beyond what you see as your current potential.
“Make the conscious decision to hold the pen when orchestrating your personal brand.”
Be Prepared to Step Into the Uncomfortable Sometimes
If you lack confidence, you will not pitch yourself for the job that doesn’t exist or for the promotion right in front of you. The first time I pitched myself for a vision I had, which was not an existing job, others said to me that it wouldn’t work and others had the same idea, but the company wouldn’t want to implement it. In that moment, if I lacked confidence, I would have accepted that answer and backed away. Thankfully, I was confident in my abilities at work and I called the president of the company, met with him face-to-face, and closed him on my idea.
That idea more than doubled the company’s revenues during my tenure at the company. If you want to move up, you need to create confidence so you can step into the uncomfortable and move beyond what has always been. When you create confidence, you also allow yourself to innovate and see things others might not be able to see. Confidence allows for creativity and authenticity which are key in getting ahead at work.
“Faking it ‘till you make it will help you to get through difficult times, but it is never the long term answer.”
Confidence Is Earned
Confidence is such an interesting thing. I believe we are all born with the same baseline. However, we are immediately impacted by our surroundings and the individuals we are interacting with. There are so many people that I meet who have amazing parents, wealth, and health and create confidence immediately from their surroundings. What is interesting is those same people as adults when faced with losing their parents crumble. When your confidence comes from an external place it can’t be sustained.
I know this first hand. I had associated my confidence with my job title and my paycheck. The day I got fired, my confidence came crumbling down. The important thing to know is regardless of if you have confidence today or don’t, you can create it in any moment. The act of reading this article is creating confidence as you are accessing knowledge to better yourself. Confidence is not something that some are born with and some are not. Confidence is something that anyone can create and that can falter at different times in your life or different areas of your life.
Some may be confident in their personal life but not at work and some may be really confident in their workout but not when dating. Confidence is different at different times in your life and different situations, but through practice and discipline, you can become masterful in creating it and realizing your true potential.
The “Fake It ‘Till You Make It” Mantra Works… Until It Doesn’t
This mantra served me well in corporate America. Back in the day, I lacked confidence at work for many reasons. One of the big issues is because I had been told by many to dress a certain way, look a certain way, and change how I really am. The more you move away from the authentic you, the more you chip away at your confidence.
Over time, my confidence was dropping. When that happened, I began to allow others to treat me poorly at work. When I allowed for that, my confidence started spiraling. I still had a very high position in the company and would have to address employees and audiences often. In those moments, I would fake my confidence. I would take the stage or the mic and “pretend” I was ultra-confident. This worked and so many people believed it. The real fail is I didn’t believe it. Faking it till you make it will help you to get through difficult times, but it is never the long-term answer.
Practice Gratitude and Visualization
Using affirmations daily works. As does:
Writing notes on the bottom of your shoe, which is a great reminder to pick you up when your confidence dips.
Wearing your power color to work will allow you to feel your best.
Putting yourself first and investing in you will build your confidence.
Deciding to no longer apologize and instead thank others will help you to feel stronger.
Taking others off of the proverbial pedestal will allow you to feel on level ground with others which creates confidence.
Scents like lavender or anything that resonates with you can help when you are lacking confidence.
Creating a confidence playlist and theme song will help you to ignite confidence before a big meeting. -Writing down three things you are grateful for each day will shift your mindset.
Practicing visualizing the life, promotion, meeting you want to happen will start things in motion and ready you for your dreams to manifest.”
Clothing Can Be a Powerful Tool
For years, I would wear a navy blue pantsuit because I had listened to the prescriptive direction others had imposed on me. These days, I rock ripped jeans and bodysuits and I feel powerful. Being true to your style and what you feel great in will always help you to be more confident. Trying to follow what others tell you will work is a recipe for failure. You have the answers for you. You know what you like to wear and what you don’t like to wear. Show up as you and shine your light ripped jeans and all.
Ditch the Fear and Do It Anyway
For years, I sat paralyzed by my fear. I would go to work in a toxic environment and cry at home at night because I felt stuck at the job that paid my bills. I was so fearful I would make excuses as to why I had to stay. I never thought, “Why don’t I leap and see what happens?” I now see fear as a green light that means GO! Not only go, but go faster. If I had leapt years ago, I would be so much further now. Done will always be better than perfect and failure only occurs if you quit. I am not a quitter.
I have had countless failures since I was fired and re-invented myself as an entrepreneur but each failure leads me to a new place, a better place as long as I just keep going. Like anything, you can build your strength and conquer new levels of fear. Start small and take baby steps. Talk to a new person in line at Starbucks today. Then tomorrow use that experience to allow you to share your new idea at work with your boss. Keep amassing these small wins by confronting your fear, and before you know it, you will have momentum that will propel you to smash through fear. What’s the worst that can happen?
This story was originally published on July 15, 2019, and has since been published.
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How This Wellness Brand Founder Finds Work-Life Balance Despite a Constant Influx of Emails
Hydration and daily walks are key.
Photo: Courtesy of Trinity Mouzon Wofford
Welcome to our monthly editorial series A Day in the Life where we ask successful women we admire to share the daily minutiae of their professional lives, from the rituals that set them up for success to their evening wind-down routines. This month, we sat down with Trinity Mouzon Wofford, co-founder and CEO of the wellness brand Golde. Read below to learn how she manages her overflowing inbox, stays focused, and finds the time to take daily walks around her neighborhood.
Tell us a bit about Golde and what inspired you to launch your business. What whitespace did you see in the market? What need did you want to fill?
Golde was inspired by my own experiences as a consumer in wellness. I was feeling caught between the crunchy granola stuff I’d grown up with and this next wave of offerings that felt really prestige. I was centered on this idea of making superfoods easier and more accessible for the next generation.
Are you a night owl or a morning person? When do you do your most important work and why?
I’m a total morning person. I definitely prioritize anything important before noon because that’s when I’m at my sharpest. That being said, I also always make time for something non-work-related in the mornings, too, like going for a walk around the neighborhood or reading for 30 minutes. I think it’s important to bring your “best self” to work and play.
What time do you get up? What’s the first thing you do upon waking?
I usually get up with the sun. Now that we’re edging up on springtime that’s usually around 5-6 am. First things first, I drink a tall glass of water to rehydrate!
Mark Twain said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” What’s the first thing you do when you get to your desk and start your workday?
Check my inbox, which sometimes feels like eating a live frog! Usually, I just start by triaging to see if there’s anything urgent and get a good sense of anything else I need to work my way through for the rest of the day.
What are you working on this week?
We have a new product launching at the end of this month (!!), so a big chunk of my focus has been making sure that everything is good to go there. I’m putting together fact sheets for the team, building the marketing strategy for the launch, and taste testing a couple of fun recipes.
What’s been the most rewarding part of running Golde? The most challenging?
The most rewarding part of running a business is the relationships—with my team, our community, and my partner and co-founder. It’s been so cool to see this business really blossom into an ecosystem. The most challenging part is continually reevaluating how to get everything done without blowing through a sense of work-life balance. I’m constantly reminding myself that it’s okay to not be able to get to absolutely everything.
Photo: Courtesy of Trinity Mouzon Wofford
Do you ever reach inbox zero? How do you handle the constant influx of inquiries and communication CEOs are so familiar with?
I aspire to, but no. My inbox is flooded daily with everything under the sun. I accept that I am human, not perfect.
What is your go-to work lunch?
My partner, Issey, puts something together for us every day. We usually batch cook a bunch of veggies and then throw that together at lunchtime.
What advice do you have for balancing the minutiae of day-to-day tasks with big-picture planning?
I allocate Mondays to be meeting-free so that I have time to do focused, quiet work. I try for Wednesdays to also be meeting-free, but that’s a harder one to pull off!
What are some work habits that help you stay healthy, productive, and on track to reach your goals?
I just took my work email off my iPhone, which has been fun. I think it’s important to have clearly delineated working hours and to do something else outside of that time frame. From 8:30 to 6:30 I’m all in, but outside of that, I make time for the rest of my life.
Any favorite apps you use regularly?
I live by Superhuman for keeping my inbox in good shape. Asana is our team’s productivity tool.
What are you reading, watching, or listening to right now to help you wind down at the end of the day?
Right now I’m educating myself a ton on gardening. While we’re upstate we’re going to be planting a bunch, so I’ve been reading books and even watching a couple of shows to learn all of the tricks of the trade.
When do you go to bed? What’s your optimal number of sleep hours?
I’m usually in bed by 9:30 pm and asleep by 10:30 pm, so I think that ends up being around 8 hours!
What’s the most rewarding part of your day?
I really love the time I have to myself in the early morning before anyone else is awake. It doesn’t last long, but in quarantine, that’s about all the serenity you can ask for!
Photo: Courtesy of Golde
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8 Million Tons of Plastic End Up in Our Oceans Every Year—This Entrepreneur Is on a Mission to Change That
How the co-founder of Blueland is ending single-use plastic.
We know how daunting it can be to start a new business, especially if you’re disrupting an industry or creating an entirely new one. When there is no path to follow, the biggest question is, where do I start? There is so much to do, but before you get ahead of yourself, let’s start at the beginning. To kick-start the process, and ease some of those first-time founder nerves, we’re asking successful entrepreneurs to share their stories in our new series, From Scratch. But this isn’t your typical day in the life profile. We’re getting into the nitty-gritty details—from writing a business plan (or not) to sourcing manufacturers and how much they pay themselves—we’re not holding back.
Photo: Courtesy of Sarah Paiji Yoo
When Sarah Paiji Yoo became a new mom, she was shocked to learn the water she was using to make baby formula contained hundreds of pieces of microplastics. She discovered that most of our everyday products, from toothpaste and lotion to household cleaners, come packaged in plastic that, when discarded, finds its way into our waterways and oceans and leads to it showing up in our drinking water and food. “That’s when I decided to cut back on my own plastic consumption, but I quickly realized there were so few non-plastic choices as a consumer,” Yoo tells Create & Cultivate.
Yoo, who started her career in finance at McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, and Berkshire Partners before becoming a serial retail entrepreneur, decided she could have a positive impact on the environment if she built a business that offered everyday products in reusable packaging, which is how Blueland was born. Founded with the goal of ending single-use plastic, the brand pairs reusable glass bottles with revolutionary refill tablets of either hand or dish soap, household cleaner, or laundry detergent, eliminating the need for plastic spray bottles, refillable containers, and the like.
Ahead, the entrepreneur tells Create & Cultivate how she built Blueland from scratch, including why she didn’t write a business plan, how she knew VC funding was right for her company, and what the future holds for the brand post-COIVD.
Can you tell us a bit about your background and what you were doing professionally before launching Blueland?
I’ve been a serial retail entrepreneur for the past 10+ years. I started my journey in startups after I “dropped out” of Harvard Business School and founded Snapette, the largest mobile platform for local fashion shopping at the time, and was eventually sold to leading e-commerce platform Pricegrabber in 2013. I was then a founding partner at a startup studio LAUNCH and helped launch a range of brands including M.Gemi and Rockets of Awesome. Prior to jumping into start-ups, I built my career in finance at McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, and Berkshire Partners.
How did you come up with the name Blueland? What was the process like, how did you know it was the right name, and what are some of the things you considered during that process?
The name Blueland derives from the idea that our planet is all our collective home. We thought of it through the realization that we may rid all this single-use plastic from our houses, but it continues to exist for centuries on this planet, our collective home. It encompasses the notion that our home does not stop at our doorstep, or even the water’s edge, and embodies our hope to return the oceans to their natural, pristine state. We also wanted a name that was very simple and strong, easy to spell, and for which we could own the domain name.
Did you write a business plan? If so, was it helpful, and if not, what did you use to guide your business instead?
I didn’t write a business plan. In fact, while I’ve launched several businesses in my career, I’m actually not exactly sure what a “business plan” is! My co-founder and I did lay out for ourselves the problem we wanted to solve (single-use plastic packaging), our mission, vision, and potential solutions. We weren’t attached to a single way or path of solving this problem and instead wanted to make sure we had the flexibility to change our plans based on testing, learning, and iterating.
What were the immediate things you had to take care of to set up the business?
Secure the domain name, trademark, and social media handles and incorporate the business.
What research did you do for the brand beforehand, and why would you recommend it?
I scoured the internet for publicly available information related to sustainable consumer products and cleaning products. I spoke with over 50 different scientists, industry experts, and manufacturers. Starting a brand new business is really hard, so do your research and whatever you can to become an expert on the space and products.
How did you find the manufacturers you work with? What advice can you share for fellow business owners on finding the right partners?
We had to be incredibly creative in finding a manufacturer since these products simply did not exist, and traditional cleaning product manufacturers do not have tablet-making capabilities. We spoke with over 50 different potential manufacturers, across a range of industries (even candy manufacturers) before finding the perfect set of partners. My biggest advice would be to make early strategic hires who can help you with the process. One of ours was our head of product development, who was formerly the director of formulation at Method. He’s been a critical part of finding the best manufacturers and developing the cleanest, effective formulas.
How did you fund Blueland? What were the challenges and what would you change? Would you recommend that route to other entrepreneurs?
My co-founder and I did bootstrap it for the first year of our work and self-funded our idea and product development. Eventually, we raised a $3 million seed round led by a VC firm. Venture capital is likely not the best type of funding for most businesses. Ultimately you need to understand what the expectations are with the form of funding that you are taking and if that matches how you want to build your business over time. VC investment often comes with expectations of high, fast growth, getting to a large valuation, and giving up some control in the form of board seats.
How much did you decide to pay yourself, and how did you determine what to pay yourself?
We paid ourselves a fraction of what we were making in salary at our previous roles. For us, we wanted to be able to use as much of the capital to build the business.
How big is your team now, and what has the hiring process been like?
Currently, we have 24 employees. Hiring has always been one of my highest priorities. Some weeks I still spend hours on LinkedIn looking for and reaching out to interesting talent, for both current open roles as well as roles that we may not be hiring for right at the moment. I’ve learned to start hiring early and be patient because it can take a long time to find the right person, but the right person is absolutely worth searching and waiting for.
Did you hire an accountant? Who helped you with the financial decisions and setup?
I actually started my career in finance and management consulting. I really loved and valued my experiences at places like Goldman Sachs and McKinsey, as they helped me develop a strong foundational understanding of business and also enabled me to go deep in areas like accounting and finance, which I still lean on today.
My advice would be for founders to really know their numbers. Always hire great talent in the fields you need help with, but when it comes to finances, make sure you know critical numbers like your costs and customer economics in detail.
What has been the biggest learning curve during the process of establishing your business?
I would say my biggest learning curve and takeaway has been don’t see problems, see opportunities. In all my past failures, I had to stop and realize there was little-to-no value in being stressed or upset, and a lot of value in learning from them and pushing myself to be better the next time around.
How did you promote your company? How did you get people to know who you are and create buzz?
Marketing is incredibly important because it’s all about figuring out and delivering what matters most to consumers, and how to do it profitably and at scale. At the very start, we were focused purely on organic growth and wanted to focus on achieving product-market fit before investing in any paid marketing. Today, we are more active in running paid social ads, search ads as well as TV commercials. Social media has also become one of the most important marketing channels for us—we grew to almost 200K Instagram followers in just one year. It allows us to both reach new customers organically as well as engage with our existing customers every single day.
Do you have a business coach or mentor? How has this person helped, and would you recommend one?
I feel very fortunate to have a range of people that I consider as both mentors and friends who I can turn to with my biggest business, career, and life questions. They include former bosses, current and former investors, and even a former professor. I’ve never asked someone formally, “Will you be my mentor?,” but rather these relationships have all developed organically out of close working relationships and genuine connections.
How has COVID-19 impacted your business operations and financials? What tactics and strategies have you put in place to pivot and ensure your business is successful through this period?
Demand for our cleaning products and hand soaps increased by over 300% within the first few months of COVID hitting the U.S. as effectively and frequently cleaning down surfaces and hands became a priority for many consumers. Many conventional brands were also sold out both online and in-stores, and many consumers were hesitant to venture into physical retailers and opted to shop online. We’ve continued to focus on how to make it increasingly convenient to purchase online, including our subscription offering, which we introduced during the pandemic.
We’ve continued to see the elevated level of sales remain through today. For us, despite the pandemic, we’re finding that our environmental mission continues to resonate with and attract new consumers who are still cleaning and washing their hands at elevated levels.
What short-term changes will be crucial to your business strategy long-term post-COVID-19 and what plans are you making for when we get back to “normal?”
We believe we are well-positioned for long-term success beyond this pandemic as we continue to focus on building a strong foundation and fundamentals for the business that will continue to benefit us in a post-pandemic world. This includes our robust portfolio of effective but money-saving products, defensible innovation with over 40 patents pending, an authentic mission-driven brand with a large and engaged community, and a financially sustainable business model. We’ve also increased our focus on highlighting the efficacy of our products and showcasing the test results we have from third-party labs that show our products work extremely well. Previously, we were much more focused on our eco messaging, but believe that going forward, consumers will be equally interested in efficacy.
What advice can you share for small business owners, founders, and entrepreneurs who are also reeling in response to COVID-19?
Brands that can prove that they are providing an essential or desirable good/service, even during a pandemic, will emerge stronger. It’s also critical for brands to also make it increasingly convenient to purchase online and not focus energy purely on brick-and-mortar for the foreseeable future.
For those who haven’t started a business (or are about to), what advice do you have?
Break down your big goals into small steps. For example, with Blueland, the initial goal to tackle creating cleaning tablets seemed massive. We needed an amazing chemist with relevant experience, we needed to find a manufacturer that could make dry tablets, we needed to find a way to package them in paper instead of plastic, etc. We started breaking the problem down into daily actions that we could take to keep moving forward towards our goal (i.e. we got on LinkedIn one night and literally messaged hundreds of chemists to see who would speak with us). You also really need to hold yourself accountable for the things you commit to doing each day. It ensures important steps are moving forward and at a good pace.
What is your number one piece of financial advice for any new business owner and why?
Shop around and sign up for a high-interest savings account. After raising funding, we had millions of dollars that were now in the bank and could be earning interest. We looked around for savings and money market accounts to find which banks offered the higher interest rates. The difference in annual income we could earn just from interest rates could support one to two full-time hires, so it definitely was an area worth spending time on and only took about 5-6 hours in total.
If you could go back to the beginning with the knowledge you have now, what advice would you give yourself and why?
I would tell myself to stay tenacious and relentlessly optimistic. It’s going to be a long, iterative path, and most of the time you’re not going to feel 100% ready, or 100% prepared, but there will be breakthroughs when you least expect it and you can’t let doubt thwart progress.
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79% of Women Are Feeling Weighed Down by Money and Stress—The Millennial Money Expert Is Here to Help
On the WorkParty podcast, Tonya Rapley shares her top money tips.
Photo: Courtesy of Tonya Rapley
One year into the COVID-19 crisis, women are more financially stressed than ever.
Studies have shown that women typically suffer from more money stress than men, but the coronavirus pandemic has put even more of a strain on women. In fact, a recent survey by Fidelity Investments revealed 79% of women are feeling weighed down by money and stress, which is up from 67% last fall.
To talk about practical ways to take control of your finances, manage your money anxiety, and make smart money moves during these trying and stressful times, Jaclyn Johnson sat down with Tonya Rapley, a.k.a “The Millennial Money Expert” and founder of My Fab Finance, on this episode of WorkParty.
Tonya has completely changed the game, turning the once stuffy financial industry into a fun, familiar, and, dare I say, cool space. She’s been named the “New Face of Wealth Building” by Black Enterprise magazine, lauded as a modern “history maker,” and honored on Create & Cultivate’s CC100 List.
Scroll on to tune into the episode (and grab a pen because Tonya drops some serious knowledge!) and read on for just a few of the many, many mic-drop moments.
Subscribe to WorkParty and never miss an episode.
On setting your financial goals…
“Your financial goals should be based on what’s most important to you. Is it important to you to retire early and travel the world? Is it important for you to continue to work and build passive income and then retire? What’s most important to you?”
On assessing your unique financial situation…
“A lot of people want to do things the ‘right’ way because they’re afraid of doing things the wrong way, but right looks so different for so many people.”
On managing COVID-induced money anxiety...
“First, we have to question where that anxiety comes from and if it’s own or if it’s external or environmentally induced anxiety when it comes to our finances.”
“A lot of times it’s helpful to just go sit and look at the numbers. Sit down and look at your bank account, look at your expenses. Really face the numbers.”
On leaning on your support system…
“If you are dealing with things like a loss of income, then really lean on your support network. Be honest and transparent and ask for what you need.”
“Ask for what you need and don’t be ashamed to do it because everyone has seasons when they need support and help.”
“No one is going to judge you for what you’re going through. It’s a collective experience.”
On investing your money as a beginner…
“Start small. Use that money to learn. Don’t put it all in one place at one time and don’t go out and buy what is trending, such as Game Stop.”
“Don’t be afraid to hire someone else to do it. If you don’t feel comfortable doing it on your own or if you don’t have the space to learn.”
On her top three money tips for WorkParty listeners…
“Make sure that you’re saving. You always want to make sure you’re saving so you can be your own emergency fund.”
“Don’t overcomplicate your finances. Start with what’s simple and try to keep things simple for as long as possible.”
“If you don’t know how to do it, find someone who does.”
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The Answers to These Two Questions Might Make or Break Your Interview
No pressure.
Photo: Edmond Dantès for Pexels
Transition time in between jobs is common and isn’t necessarily bad, however, it is important to figure out how to handle time in between jobs so it benefits you and doesn’t reflect negatively on your career.
Whatever the reason is for your temporary unemployment, you’re not alone; there’s at least one person out there in the same or a similar position as you. People will often be understanding about temporary employment gaps as long as you explain yourself.
Having a break in employment is okay.
But be prepared for hiring managers and/or recruiters to ask you two questions…
Why do you have a break in employment?
What have you been doing/what did you do during this time?
The answers you provide to these two simple questions could make or break you in an interview. A recruiter for a nationally recognized company recently told me a story about a candidate the company interviewed. They initially thought she would be a great fit for the position because she had the qualifications, but she had a six-month gap in employment. The employment gap wasn’t the deal-breaker, however, her answer to the question about what she did during those six months was. She gave a very vague answer that she hung out and relaxed with friends. That doesn’t sound like a bad way to spend six months, but it also isn’t a good answer to give in an interview. The company ended up going with another candidate who seemed to be more motivated and goal-oriented.
If she had said something about how she wasn’t happy at her old position so she decided to take time to figure out what she really wanted from her career, things might have gone differently for her.
Perfect your elevator pitch.
Elevator pitches are often used for companies and brands, but having a personal elevator pitch is also important. If you do have a gap in employment, come up with an elevator pitch to explain your situation.
A good example of an elevator pitch is something like this:
“I always thought I wanted to be in [industry], but when I got the position I wanted it wasn’t the right fit for me. I did learn a lot about myself and decided to take some time off to figure out what I really want from my career. I did a lot of research, and I’m ready to take on new challenges with this role.”
An answer like this shows that you made a conscious decision to leave your job for your long-term benefit and have since taken steps to ensure you’re moving towards the right career path. This answer shows thought, confidence and ambition to reach your goal.
When you’re thinking about how to handle time in between jobs, answer the following questions…
Is there something you could do during this time that would benefit your career in any way?
Could you volunteer somewhere?
Could you take a class?
Could you learn a new skill?
Is this downtime worth it to you?
The point of answering these questions is to put a value on your time and make it useful. Volunteering, taking classes, or taking up a hobby will not only help you make use of your time, but it will also help you give a good answer about your time off when asked in an interview.
Stay active.
While you may not be working for profit, one of the most important things to do when you’re in between jobs is to stay active. Start volunteering for a local charity or at local businesses/community centers.
When you have a large employment gap and you’re looking for a job, the worst thing you could do is sit around. Staying active in your community will give you something to put on your résumé and it will help you network. You never know who you’ll meet and who will notice your work ethic. A recent government study found that volunteering is associated with 27% higher odds of employment.
Volunteering isn’t only about networking, but it gives you something current to put on your résumé. If the first thing someone sees is a large employment gap, your résumé may get overlooked simply because of the fact that there is nothing current on it. However, if you start volunteering, you can use that to fill in the time where you weren’t working.
If you haven’t done anything in your transition time, come up with a good reason why.
If you have just been sitting around, you better come up with a good explanation for it, or you can kiss your chances of landing that great job goodbye.
An example of a good answer as to why you didn't do much during your transition time is this:
“While I learned a lot at my last job, it wasn’t the right fit for me, and it became draining. I made the decision to leave that position, take time for myself, recharge, and figure out my next career move. Over the last few months, I have really focused in on what I’m looking for in a job, and that is x, y, and z. Now that I’ve had the time to recharge, I’m ready to get back into the swing of things and follow my passion of ___.”
If you’re going to take time off, make it worth it and clearly explain your reasoning in an interview.
About the author: A native San Franciscan, Michele Lando is a certified professional résumé writer and founder of writestylesonline.com. She has a passion for helping others present the best version of themselves, both on paper and in person, and works to polish individuals' application package and personal style. Aiming to help create a perfect personal branding package, Write Styles presents tips to enhance your résumé, style, and boost your confidence.
This story was originally published on March 7, 2018, and has since been updated.
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The Fashion Industry Accounts for 4% of the Globe’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions—So These Founders Are Doing Things Differently
Proving sustainable fashion can be profitable.
You asked for more content around business finances, so we’re delivering. Welcome to Money Matters where we give you an inside look at the pocketbooks of CEOs and entrepreneurs. In this series, you’ll learn what successful women in business spend on office spaces and employee salaries, how they knew it was time to hire someone to manage their finances, and their best advice for talking about money.
Photo: Courtesy of Londre Bodywear
It’s no secret that fashion has a sustainability problem. But while the industry currently accounts for 4% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, consumers are advocating for change and spending their dollars accordingly, investing in brands that are committed to reducing their impact on the environment. Londre is the latest sustainable fashion brand to catch our attention at Create & Cultivate, and we’re not the only ones. The Canadian fashion brand recently received a $208K investment on “Dragons’ Den” (a.k.a the “Shark Tank” of Canada) and we’re eager to share the story behind the brand before you see it all over your Instagram feed (because trust us, you will).
Based in Vancouver, Ainsley Rose and Hannah Todd launched Londre in reaction to the startling amount of plastic pollution in the world's oceans. To date, the brand has recycled 100,000 plastic bottles off of the streets and beaches of Taiwan into their sustainable swimwear offering. But sustainability isn’t just about the planet for Rose and Todd, it’s also about the people. “Our products represent 360-degree sustainability, and this is something we heavily invest in,” Rose tells Create & Cultivate. “We believe that you can’t take care of the planet without taking care of its people, so ensuring our internal and external teams are treated fairly is critical,” Todd adds.
Here, the co-founders share how they bootstrapped the brand with an initial investment of just $15,000 and turned it into a business that generates seven-figure revenue.
Talk us through your bootstrapping process. How did you self-fund Londre, and would you recommend that route to other entrepreneurs today?
AINSLEY ROSE: We took an initial $15,000 CAD investment from a close friend to help with our first round of samples. Since then, we’ve completely bootstrapped our business and have been self-sustaining. As a sustainable mission-driven brand our finances have to be looked at strategically to ensure that we can make choices that enact positive change and benefit both the planet and our business.
HANNAH TODD: Since inception, Londre has seen a 300% year-over-year growth, and a big reason why is that we’ve been scrappy. This has helped us develop clarity in our business because sometimes having too much cash allows you to put a bandaid on a problem instead of fixing the issue from the start. This has also allowed us to grow organically, putting community first and ensuring market need. Not being beholden to a VC or large stake investor also has allowed us to work without an additional layer of pressure, and better tune into our intuition about what is best for our business.
Can you share three crucial elements everyone should include in a pitch deck when raising money?
HT: Because we were pitching to someone we have a strong personal relationship with, our pitch was super simple. We didn’t even have a sample made yet. Ultimately, they chose to invest in us because they had faith in the values and ethics we hold as people, and less so in the product offering itself. Being empathetic, speaking from the heart, and having a good understanding of market trends helped us in our pitch.
AR: The person who invested in us originally is still a trusted advisor and has been able to provide incredibly helpful insights over the years.
What are some of the most common mistakes people make when raising money?
AR: I think the most common thing we see is valuing skills over the relationship. In choosing an investor, or business partner for that matter, ensuring that you feel comfortable communicating honestly and have a strong foundation of trust is key.
HT: We also see people asking for too much too soon. If you are creative enough, you can likely get by with less than you think, and having too many controlling voices involved can complicate things.
How much do you pay yourselves, and how did you know what to pay yourselves?
AR: Londre started out as a side hustle for Hannah and me that eventually became our main gig and source of income. I was working as a photographer, which allowed me to set my own schedule and develop a great network. I eventually stopped taking on new clients once Londre had reached a point where I felt comfortable taking a meaningful salary.
HT: I was working as a yoga instructor so also was able to make my own schedule. We chose how much to pay ourselves based on our lifestyle. To decide on our salaries we budgeted how much we needed each to live comfortable, satisfying, and sustainable lives in Vancouver and worked backward from there! We also allocated a bonus structure to celebrate when sales goals are hit.
How did you decide what to pay employees?
HT: Currently, we work with a team of contractors who are all small business owners in their own right. We find that this gives both parties more flexibility and freedom. We collaboratively decide on compensation and offer performance-based incentives. We believe that you can’t take care of the planet without taking care of its people, so ensuring our internal and external teams are treated fairly is critical.
AR: We look to third-party certifications like Oeko Tex 100 for our fabric and work with Vancouver-based companies with an A+ Better Business rating to ensure that our ethical and sustainable mandate is met. Although working this way is more expensive than using a more traditional fashion model, ensuring value alignment in our brand has made our business thrive, generating seven-figure revenue and feels deeply rewarding.
Where do you think is the most important area for a business owner to focus their financial energy?
AR: Our products represent 360-degree sustainability, and this is something we heavily invest in. We notice more brands are using more recycled materials and it’s something we love to see! However, if sustainability isn’t looked at from a holistic lens, it may easily be greenwashing.
HT: For example, even if a product is made from recycled materials but isn’t functional and high quality, packaged using sustainable materials, and without a plan for the end of its life cycle, it ultimately will end up in a landfill contributing to further waste. We’ve focussed most of our financial energy on product development and quality control. Ensuring that our products are high quality and long-lasting is our first concern, not only from a customer satisfaction standpoint but also from a sustainability perspective. We just launched our first loungewear collection, The Essentials, and a lot of research went into finding fabrics and components that stay true to our 360-degree approach.
What was your first big expense as a business owner?
HT: Our first round of samples. What we thought was going to be a $5000, two-month project turned into a $16,000 venture, nine months later. The first suit we created, the Minimalist in Matte Black, is still our biggest seller, so ultimately the hundreds of revisions were worth it.
What are your top three largest expenses every month?
AR: Production costs (ethical manufacturing and sustainable materials); shipping and compostable and recyclable packaging; and digital ads (we actually only started running them in the last year).
How much do you spend on office space?
HT: $0. We are fully remote.
How much do you spend on employee salaries?
AR: Contractors and our salaries: ~$25,000 a month
How much are you saving, and when did you start being able to save some of your income?
HT: We as co-founders save about $1,000 a month each. We’ve only started paying ourselves enough to save within the past year.
Did you hire an accountant? Who helped you with the financial decisions and setup of the business?
AR: Yes! We have an accountant who supports our year-end and we use QuickBooks for day-to-day accounting.
HT: Ainsley’s fiance is a CPA and he’s stepped in to help us with inventory forecasting and budgeting when we need support with more complex financial modeling
What are some of the tools you use to stay on top of your business financials?
AR: We use QuickBooks for our accounting. We also have a detailed model which helps us plan our inventory, forecasting, and budgeting. Additionally, we have a recurring calendar event monthly to go over inventory and budgeting.
What do you wish you’d done anything differently in your financial journey as business owners?
HT: We overspent on in-person events. The most successful event we held was actually the least expensive, as connection trumps extravagant details every time.
Do you think women should talk about money and business more?
AR: Absolutely! There is so much stigma around gaining wealth, particularly for women. We’ve both taken courses by Lacy Phillips to break down any blocks and baggage we may hold around money and learn how to move into abundance.
HT: We feel privileged to have a community of entrepreneurial womxn who we can talk candidly about finances and this has helped us immeasurably.
Do you have a financial mentor, and do you think all business owners need one?
HT: Our investor, who still has a small stake in Londre Bodywear, is our financial mentor. This relationship works for us because we can communicate openly with them and have been able to lean on their entrepreneurial experience. We check in every two months so we can ask general questions.
AR: We don’t think you necessarily need a mentor because your intuition is best, but having a mentor who you can trust to gather advice from and see if it fits has been helpful for us.
What is your best piece of financial advice for new entrepreneurs?
HT: Get super clear on your values. There are tons of shiny things to be distracted by but when you have a foundation of nonnegotiable sustainability (or whatever your chief value is) it allows for further clarity.
AR: Also, don’t be afraid to negotiate and see what transactions you can do as trade instead of monetarily. Get creative with your trades! We asked for tons of help and in exchange would not only offer store credit, but also services that lined up with our skills. For example, Hannah was a yoga instructor and would offer a private yoga session in exchange for someone helping us build a financial model.
What have been some of the hardest money lessons you've learned along the way?
AR: We originally wanted to start our business in Bali. Our fabric and samples were stolen, and I was left waiting at the airport at 1 A.M. for the sample maker, who never showed up, and had nothing to show for a two-week-long trip. We ended up restarting in Vancouver (where we live), and now are able to have eyes on production. Keeping things close to home so you can directly oversee everything gives you more control over how your money is used.
HT: Wait until you have clear market approvable before creating a huge run of your product. We’ve always valued organic growth and doing small runs and which has contributed to increased demand and zero wasted product.
What is your #1 money tip for small business owners?
HT: Be scrappy, don’t be afraid to ask hard questions, and negotiate in a kind and empathetic way.
AR: Keep your values at the forefront of all of your financial decisions.
MORE ON THE BLOG
The Power of You–How to Discover Your Purpose and Pursue Your Passion
You are worth every investment you make in yourself.
On Thursday, March 25, 2021, we heard from an incredible lineup of diverse panelists and speakers at The Power of You event presented by Rodan + Fields, in collaboration with Create & Cultivate, on how we can empower one another to be our very best, happiest and most confident selves.
It was an engaging day of empowering and inspiring conversations–moderated by actress, model, author and philanthropist, Molly Sims–and centered around YOU, delving deep into discussions about:
Purpose and what it looks like to be personally and professionally fulfilled
Self-care and how to prioritize a wellness routine that takes care of the WHOLE you: mind, body and spirit
And finally–it wouldn’t be a Rodan + Fields event if we didn’t talk SKINCARE–tips to create a healthy skin routine and most importantly, how to see confidence and beauty when you look in the mirror every single day, no matter what.
To everyone who came, thank you for joining us—and to those who couldn’t make it, keep reading to feel empowered, inspired and very much in touch with The Power of YOU. Below, we’ve compiled the highlights from the three panel conversations aimed at helping you pursue your purpose and passion, while reminding you of the importance of taking care of yourself and your skin. After all, you are worth every investment you make in yourself.
Panel #1: Creating Purpose Where You Are
On dharma…
“Your dharma is your soul’s purpose––it’s the reason why you are here. It’s so much more than what you do–-it’s why you do it and how you do it.” – Sahara Rose
“You already know your purpose. You were born with your purpose. It’s not so much about finding it as it is about remembering it.” – Sahara Rose
On being your authentic self…
“Success comes from being your authentic self.” – Stephanie Pullings Hart
On taking calculated risks...
“To really think bigger, and to think outside the traditional dreams is sometimes really scary for people, but if it’s hysterical, it’s historical–and probably worth doing.” – Julie Solomon
On finding purpose in different places..
“There is a difference between what you’re good at and what you’re passionate about. Experiment, be flexible, and be open to new experiences to find your passion-driven purpose.” – Sofia Montijo
On cultivating confidence to become an entrepreneur…
“Confidence can grow from complacency – you are in control of the change.” – Julie Solomon
“Sometimes those ‘ah ha’ moments are actually a process of long-term commitment. Meaningful change is not often an instant occurrence.” – Sofia Montijo
“Have the courage to try new things, even if you can’t control the outcome.”– Julie Solomon
The role of mindset when it comes to a thriving personal and professional life…
“I like to go beyond mindset to what I call ‘soulset’ because we can’t always listen to the mind when it’s clouded by our conditioning, limiting beliefs, etc. Tune into the voice of your intuition vs the voice of your fears––what feels right to you? What feels resonant? What feels expansive to you?”– Sahara Ray
On finding purpose and meaning when you’re feeling stuck...
“Sometimes you may not know your purpose but the way that you interact with or impact others really ends up being part of your purpose. Don’t be misguided on the potential impact you may have on someone else’s life.” – Stephanie Pullings Hart
"You have to get comfortable with hearing 'no.' As a matter of fact, the more 'no's' you get, the more that you’ll be able to pivot and redirect.“ – Julie Solomon
On the traits that make a successful leader...
“Authenticity is the most important trait of a successful leader – it’s about staying true to who you are, and about being YOU.” – Stephanie Pullings Hart
Tips on growth–within ourselves, within our business, within our purpose...
“We are always growing, but we get to choose the direction. Be the leader of your own life.” – Sahara Rose
Panel #2: Prioritizing Self-Care (and Your Sanity!)
On the importance of self-care…
As the World Health Organization states, ‘there is no physical health without mental health.’” – Dr. Janet Taylor
“Self care is about paying attention to what you need and putting yourself first.” – Dr. Janet Taylor
“Put yourself first–without guilt and without shame –but recognizing that when you can attend to your own needs in a way that is healthy and positive then you are raising the bar on not only for your physical health but your mental health.” – Dr. Janet Taylor
“The better you are to yourself, the better we are to each other.” – Candice Kumai
“If we can learn how to reset our minds, and shift the way we think about wellness as better self-care, we can make it a priority so we can ultimately grow.” – Candice Kumai
On the role of mindset and positive self-talk...
“Growing up, I never saw my body type reflected in the media. And when you don’t match up to society’s expectations, it really takes a toll on you. It’s about showing up everyday as authentic as possible, showing my insecurities, and choosing not only to accept my body but to respect my body.” – Kristina Zias
“It’s time to let go of negative self talk, self-doubt, guilt, shame, fear, or anything you’re holding onto. We all have those feelings and we all experience them, and that’s ok – but we also have to experience the joy, the love and the blessings around us in the present.” – Joey Tracy
“Positive self talk is so important–we all have that individual power to change the way that we feel, and we have to tap into that.” – Dr. Janet Taylor
“By repeating a mantra to ourselves, we are embracing ourselves with our flaws, embracing ourselves with our trauma, embracing ourselves with our suffering, in order to lift ourselves to where we need to be.” – Dr. Janet Taylor
“You have to be your biggest fan. Once you believe in yourself and you are radiating that confidence, everyone around you will see that too and you will begin to attract people to it like a magnet and it becomes very empowering.” – Kristina Zias
Addressing work-life balance, challenges, and pressure
“Comparison is absolutely the thief of joy.” – Kristina Zias
“Breathing is so important...when you’re feeling stressed or unbalanced, try to be present with your breath and let go of the tension and stress.” – Joey Tracy
“We don’t have to go to extremes to feel better. Sometimes it’s as simple as removing ourselves from a space and getting a change of scenery.” – Joey Tracy
On the role of community...
“We are social beings and we have an innate need for community and connection. When you are taking care of yourself, it makes it more likely that you can notice other people. We need a community of compassion.” – Dr. Janet Taylor
“Empowering other women is so important, and my R+F community is my hype squad–when one of us succeeds, we all do.” – Joey Tracy
On knowing your worth…
“Self-care isn’t selfish, it’s compassionate. We all have the choice, and the need and have earned the right to put ourselves first.” – Dr. Janet Taylor
“Self care is absolutely necessary–every single day.” – Joey Tracy
Panel #3: Skin Deep: Reflecting Confidence in the Mirror
On what’s trending…
“2020 enabled a lot of women to take skincare into their own hands. We had to learn how to get a glow at home. One of the ingredients with staying power is hyaluronic acid.” – Courtney Kerr
“A lot of people are coming to me for the ‘no-make-up, make-up-look’, which is about bringing out your very best self – hydrated skin and a natural glow that stems from a less is more approach, and more of an emphasis on skincare rather than make-up.” – Vincent Bracamonte
“With everyone working from home and staring at themselves on screens all day, and now they are noticing things that maybe never bothered them before. I like to prescribe a combination approach of injectable procedures, laser treatments and of course skincare to tie it all together.” – Dr. Arisa Ortiz
“People are taking more time on their skincare routine to distance themselves from the stress and uncertainty of life itself right now. A lot of women are less focused on colored cosmetics and more focused on products that help them feel clear, bright and confident.” – Janine Weber
“It’s not about vanity––it’s about confidence that comes from a confident, glowing complexion. Less filters and more reality, please.” – Janine Weber
On the importance of routine skincare routines…
“Nothing replaces quality skincare. We believe that how you take care of your skin daily, has a greater difference on your appearance–and your future appearance–than any procedure you could get done.” – Janine Weber
“The regime approach is so important. There’s no way to know if mixing products from different brands will be synergistic. The Multi-Med regime has been tested and is proven to drive results.” – Dr. Arisa Ortiz
On confidence...
“Your confidence increases when you really take time to take care of yourself–people can tell when you feel good in your own skin.” – Vincent Bracamonte
“Everyone sees beauty through a different lens.” – Vincent Bracamonte
“Beauty is not about matching someone else’s standards, looking like a celebrity or following to social media trends–it’s about authenticity and your character and your values and how you treat people and how you show up everyday.” – Janine Weber
On beauty…
“Beauty is being confident in your own skin. Confident shines from the inside out.” – Janine Weber
“Beauty is your true authentic self.” – Vincent Bracamonte
“Beauty is loving yourself as you are right now.” – Dr. Arisa Ortiz
“Beauty is fun–confidence is fun.” – Courtney Kerr