"Keep going and be consistent" with Sophie Bibbs

Sophie Bibbs

Sophie Bibbs is a digestive health coach that helps women struggling with IBS and uncomfortable digestive problems to take control of their gut. She works virtually with clients all over the world, so they can take control of their gut from wherever they are. She offers personalized support to work out what's triggering your problems, and feel better, so you can get on with living your life! She has trained with IIN, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and Monash, the creators of the low FODMAP diet.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

Sure! I graduated with a degree in business and worked for 8 years in sales, digital media and marketing. I more recently followed a passion and trained in health and nutrition coaching. I combined all these skills to set up my business as a digestive health coach, helping women struggling with IBS and nasty digestive symptoms to feeling more comfortable, in control and confident.

 What inspired you to start your business?

I was inspired to start my business by a personal problem, actually! I suffered with IBS for most of my life but, when I moved to Malaysia a few years ago, I caught a parasite infection and my symptoms got much worse. I was given all the tests under the sun and eventually diagnosed with IBS. The doctor wrote ‘low FODMAP diet’ on a bit of paper and sent me on my way. I was so relieved to have a diagnosis but, at the same time, totally lost as to what to do about it.

I didn’t want to give up, so I trained in the low FODMAP diet (not really a diet, but a process for figuring out your IBS trigger foods, founded by Monash University) and took myself through it. I worked out what was triggering my IBS and I felt better! It really did change my life.

As I talked to more and more people with IBS, I found I wasn’t the only one who’d been sent on my way by my doctor after my diagnosis. I felt the urge to pass on my knowledge and help other people in this situation through it, so they didn’t have to feel so alone. So, I trained in health and nutrition and I set up my business.

 Where is your business based? 

I set my business up in Malaysia, and have recently moved to Chicago. However, I work virtually and see clients online through video call, so have a worldwide client base.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

 The first step I took when starting my business was to make a plan. I planned where I wanted to get to in a year’s time and then I broke that plan down into little pieces. Looking at the huge goal of ‘setting up a business’ sounded totally ominous, so I broke it down. By figuring out what I needed to do each month, then each week, then each day, it seemed manageable.

Sophie Bibbs


What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

The most effective way of raising awareness for me has been through blogging and social media. The key for me has been consistency. Ever since I started my business, I’ve made sure that I post every day on social media and I blog every week. Sometimes, I haven’t wanted to do it, but I haven’t missed a week. It’s raised awareness slowly, but it’s been organic and has gradually built up.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

My biggest challenge has been not getting disheartened. It’s so easy to feel like you’re working so hard but getting nowhere, and to want to give up. There have been a few times where I’ve felt like I just wanted to have a little cry. I’ll tell you my little trick for getting through this, which might sound totally weird. I’ve got a folder in my phone where I keep photos/screenshots/testimonials from everyone who I’ve helped and who feels better because of my work and my business. When I’m feeling disheartened, I take a look at that. It reminds me why I’m doing what I’m doing and inspires me to keep going so I can help more people feel better.

How do you stay focused?

At the start of every week, I write a plan. I write out my 3 big goals for that week and then list out all the tasks I need to do to achieve those 3 goals. Once I’ve listed out all those tasks, I plan when I’m going to do them and block the time out in my diary. I then stick to those commitments just like I would any other.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

This may sound silly, but I focus on being me. There are loads of people out there doing the same thing, but nobody will do it in the same way that you will. I focus on telling my story and talking about the approach I take. Some people will resonate with me, and some people won’t..and that’s OK.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Great client service! I focus on giving every client I have the absolute best experience I can. Obviously, that benefits them as they finish up working with me feeling great, but it benefits me too. They write me a glowing testimonial, that will help me to market myself to new clients, and they talk about me and refer me to their friends, acting as free marketing!

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Keep going and be consistent! There will be days when you feel like you’re doing all the things and getting absolutely nowhere. However, keeping your head up and consistently putting yourself out there, whether it’s with your blog, social media, workshops or calls, will pay off in the long run. Being consistent builds trust with your potential customers and shows them they can count on you, which will make them much more likely to want to work with you.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

App - Evernote. I’ve got it on my phone and laptop, and love it because it lets me record everything so easily. I’ll be out and about listening to a podcast, and hear a great tip, so just jot it into Evernote on my phone. Then, when I get home, I can pull the notes up onto my laptop.

Blog - I’m actually much more of a podcast listener, as I love being able to listen to something when I’m walking or exercising. My favourite podcasts at the moment are Rise by Rachel Hollis and Brand Yourself by Blair Badenhop. They both interview inspiring women who’ve set up their own businesses, and they always leave me feeling empowered and energized.

Book - I’ve just read Take the Stairs by Rory Vaden. A fellow business builder recommended this book to me and it really resonated with me. Rory says in the book ‘success means doing things you don’t want to do,’ which doesn’t sound glamorous but is so true. It was a great reminder for me that building a business isn’t glamorous and you’ve got to put in the hard work, but it’s so worth it.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why? 

Sounds simple, but I love Google docs. It allows me to access my documents from wherever and also to share documents like food diaries and coaching summaries with clients seamlessly.

Who is your business role model? Why? 

Rachel Hollis. I have a serious girl crush on her. Why? I just love her attitude and approach to business. She is a firm believer that you can do anything, BUT that you can’t just hope it’ll happen. You have to put your head down and work your ass off for it.

What is your beauty routine? What are some of your favorite products? 

I use a natural cleanser every morning, that one of my best friends made for me. I was dubious, but my skin has been amazing since I started. Aside from that, I love Liz Earle skincare as it’s gentle on my sensitive skin. I don’t like to wear loads of makeup, but Bare Minerals is my favourite brand as it looks super natural. I just bought all of my wedding make up from there.

How do you balance work and life?

I am really strict about making sure I have weekends and evenings. I don’t work after 7pm and I don’t work on weekends, and I stick with that. That’s been a hard one to balance as a business owner, as it can be so easy to keep going, especially when you love what you do. So, those rules have really helped me keep the balance I need.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

I love running! For me it’s a form of mediation. No matter how stressful my day has been, just popping in my headphones and going for a run outside acts as a form of meditation for me and really clears my head. If I’m lacking energy for a run, a walk normally does the trick too.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

 Over the next 6 months, I’m opening up more coaching slots, so I can work with more and more clients one on one. I’m also looking at putting together DIY resources for IBS sufferers, so more people can get the help they need.

How can our readers connect with you? 

You can check out my website at www.sophiebibbs.com or I’m @sophiebibbs on all forms of social media (although Instagram is my fave).

www.sophiebibbs.com

“Nothing like a small win helps motivate you to push through to the next challenge” with Delane Mazaheri

Delane

Delane and her partner saw a need for change in color cosmetics.  They began to challenge the norms and fought to understand formulations that would be safer, eco-friendly, and most importantly—good for humans. Seeking expertise from professionals within the beauty industry and focusing on the science of beauty, STARE was born.  Delane guides STARE Cosmetics with expertise, love, and excitement. 

Bringing a new generation of long-wear color makeup to market is what STARE Cosmetics is all about.  Commitment to our customer, enhancing beauty through science and consciousness.

What inspired you to start your business?

Inspired by an idea, “makeup should complement your skincare routine”.  My team and I set out to create a color makeup line focused on high performance without skimping on quality ingredients.  We had one goal in mind, blend nature and science and make a product line healthy enough you would want your own family to wear.  Thus our gluten-free, paraben free and cruelty-free makeup was born.

Where is your business based?

We are based in Santa Barbara, California.  

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I first focused on the core items like product development, R & D, and business infrastructure then hired the right partners and employees so we could take our brand to market.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Brand awareness is a process of steps taken to get your name recognized.  We set goals, hired specific teams of experts to help us achieve attainable milestones month after month. This collaboration helped us to finesse our brand ethos. Effectively garnering STARE press and media coverage, connecting STARE with our customers globally and also focusing on our local community, hosting events and aligning with charitable causes.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

The route to ROI, I think all indie beauty seeks this relentlessly.  We dialed into our sweet spot (Indie Beauty – Gluten and paraben-free color cosmetics) and are creating opportunity within that space.  We know what we are good at, and to tell that story so it resonates with our audience is the most important aspect of sharing STARE with others.

How do you stay focused?

Having a brand consultant who keeps us focused and on task is very helpful.  We believe this has been the biggest asset to our recent growth. Setting goals and meeting frequently with our team to understand our business, what works, what might need to be changed and what we need to better.  I constantly check in with everyone to get feedback and take note of the successes along the way too. Nothing like a small win to help motivate you to push through to the next challenge, which always seems to be the case in small business.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

We are only trying to be us.  STARE is committed to providing a luxury high-quality product. I am always working to discover ingredients designed to aid in the benefit of great skin.  We don’t skimp we will wait until we know a formula can be done just the way we want it. Performance, ingredients, and quality are paramount in how we differentiate ourselves.  It’s crazy but when you combine great ingredients with amazing beauty science, you get wonderfully high performing long wear makeup. Over 70% of our line is vegan, and we have worked hard to make that happen.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business? 

STARE’s strategy has involved being nimble, learning from our mistakes and focusing on quick responsiveness to all categories within marketing a new business.  Adapting to new technologies, listening to customer feedback.  Our success is connected to our customers and the invaluable insight they share about our products.

What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Research and ask questions.  When starting a business there is so much to think about.  Knowledge is power and will help you map your plan of growth effectively.  

What’s your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

One of my favorite books that comes to mind is “NOT TAUGHT” by Jim Keenan and Backblaze is one of my most helpful apps I have discovered.  It gives me the ability to back up and have access to all my data right on my handheld device. 

What’s your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

The ability we all have to source the great world wide web.  I love the access the internet provides, invaluable for contacts, information, and resources.

Who is your business role model? Why?

In business, you try to cultivate relationships designed to serve both parties.  I have had many mentors and within those relationships; I have learned so much about myself and experienced growth because of the wisdom shared. It was a cumulative effort and the best part of having great business role models.  A collective is better than one in my opinion. Supporting someone in their dreams seems valuable to me and I am grateful to those have done the same for me.

What is your beauty routine? What are some of your favorite products?

Great skin and beauty is a combination of internal and external awareness.  Even self-care at home can be beneficial in keeping yourself glowing. I love STARE’s Eye Revive Serum and our Botanical Hydration Mist. I don’t think I go a day without using either.  

How do you balance work and life? 

The age-old question of balance!  It is hard as an entrepreneur to find this balance.  I schedule “me” time and family time as much as I can to achieve balance.  If there are times I work too much, I ask myself what can I do to work smarter not harder.  Social media can be a time sink, I guide my team but they manage the brunt of that task.  STARECosmetics.com and @starecosmetics is always a work in progress but what we hope to achieve is to inspire all genders and all skin types to find their own beauty and enhance it with our “good for you” products. Our Facebook page shares a little more about events we may host throughout the year.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

I love naming STARE products.  I find it relaxing and fun. Inspiration comes from all around, it’s definitely a very personal task and connects me to the STARE brand a little more intimately.

What do you have planned for the next six months? 

It’s a great time for STARE—we are rolling out our brand in several luxury hotel properties like The Ritz Carlton, Dallas and Gurney’s in Montauk this summer, and hosting amazing events like master classes with celebrity makeup artists throughout the US.  We will be at Miami Swim week this year and then co-hosting a fabulous event in DTLA this August with The Collective Affair and Christine Kong of Daily Kongfidence. STARE is planning to be in London and Dubai soon too! Big goals worldwide for this little indie brand.

How can our readers connect with you?

I am always an email away at info@starecosmetics.com or our Instagram DM is great too. @starecosmetics. 

“Don’t let the perfect get in the way of the good" with Molly Beane

Molly Beane

Molly Beane is the founder/CEO of clean beauty startup From Molly With Love. Molly started the company as a kitchen-table startup in 2016. Less than three years later, her products are sold in hundreds of retailers with international distribution. Molly and FMWL have been featured in Good Morning America, Well + Good, Pop Sugar, Huffington Post, Thought Catalog, BuzzFeed, Forbes, and other publications. frommollywithlove.com

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I am a first-generation college graduate who was determined to succeed and break the cycle of poverty that I was born into. I began my career in PR, communications, and marketing - working for PR Firms and in communications positions with the U.S. EPA and U.S. DOE.  

Although I liked my jobs, I was always searching for more. I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur 10 years before I ever started my first business.

What inspired you to start your business?  

After experiencing early childhood trauma, I began to self-medicate by “working hard and playing hard.” In 2016, I realized that I was “playing too hard” and entered myself into rehab to quit drinking. During that time, I lost my job in PR.  

I’d always wanted to have the courage to branch out on my own and now I was being forced into it. 

Years before that, I became obsessed with all things “clean” skincare and started crafting my own concoctions and reading up on ingredients and formulations. I took a trip to Seoul in 2015 that really inspired me because I was so enthralled by Korea’s innovations in skin care.

Although my friends urged me to turn my hobby into a business but I didn’t think I could. Until I was fired from that job. 

I had a full product line already created, just no labels, website, or money. So with $300 and without proper labeling, I put From Molly With Love on Etsy.

I started getting good reviews and invested in labeling, proper branding, and developing an eCommerce website. We also starting pitching our products to small retail stores like boutiques and gift shops.

Less than 3 years later, we are sold in hundreds of stores in 4 countries, including major retailers like Urban Outfitters and Francesca’s! We’ve even won local small business awards!  

Our baby business has grown from my kitchen to selling around the world.

Where is your business based?

 We are based on the beach in Sunny San Diego, California. But we have distribution centers and labs based in Texas and Florida, respectively.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

My motto is “don’t let the perfect get in the way of the good.” I started before I was ready.

I knew I could put my oils, sprays, and creams in jars, take some photos on my iPhone, and put them up on Etsy and social media just to get them out in the world. I was able to gather proof of concept while making revenue so I could iterate and improve as I went. We were also using customer feedback to fine tune our products and selection.

I started selling at craft fairs - anywhere that would let me put up a table, really. I could see the buyers’ reactions to help refine my line, and I also noticed what kind of branding they were drawn to. I began collecting email addresses.

This helped me when, 3-months in, we hired Loki Loki (another woman-owned business) and it was time to “really” create the brand. I had a clear idea already of what was going to sell, who our target customer was, what look & feel would work best with that audience, etc. We also developed a clear brand narrative, which is part of our USP.

Before we even had our e-commerce website launched, we had labels, so I knew I could pitch our line to stores. So we started pitching 25 stores a day, 5 days a week. And we did land wholesale accounts before that site was ever launched!

And to be honest, we’re still iterating and improving. But if I had waited to start until it was perfect, we wouldn’t exist today.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Our business is both B2B and B2C. I asked myself, “what is the least expensive way of marketing FMWL to those audiences?”

●      For B2B, it was researching stores, sending emails and providing samples. It cost me almost nothing to acquire long-term retail customers.

●      For B2C, our magic bullet was using subscription boxes to grow. There is a myriad of subscription box companies, and they’re all looking for new products to include. We would provide the product heavily discounted (always with just a sliver of a margin), but it exposed our company to tens of thousands of new customers we wouldn’t have had without it. This was not only “no-cost marketing,” but it also helped us get sizable revenue on our books.

  • We used Facebook funnels/ads when we launched our website and we’re just beginning to work on new Facebook campaigns, but this requires significant resources, so we couldn’t truly dive in right away.

  • And of course, we used organic social media and growing an email list as free/low-cost ways to engage with our growing audience.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

Hands down, cash flow.

You can literally grow yourself out of business - and we’ve almost done it. For product-based businesses, if you want to retain more of the earnings, growing slower is actually a better approach. But I am ambitious, so I wanted to sprint. That means times have been hard.

We invest nearly every penny of our profits back into the company and have also used debt financing. Most of the time, this means I don’t pay myself.  

Last year, a retailer ordered 14,000 units for a nearly $100,000 deal. I couldn’t say no! But I’d need to fund the production and not get paid until net-45 after the shipping date. In these situations, seeking out gap lenders or invoice factoring companies can be helpful.  

50% of small businesses fail in their first five years. I’ve seen a lot of storefronts in my neighborhood go up and quickly come back down. Cash flow challenges are real, but if you have the resourcefulness and iron stomach to stick it out even when times are rough, you will make it through.

A lot of the time it just comes down to not quitting. Keep putting one foot in front of the other.

We now have a professional bookkeeper and accountant to help us. We’ve asked our network for help. I’ve googled until my eyes bled to get find solutions to cash flow issues. If you have proof of concept, are growing, and have devoted customers, then every problem is solvable.

How do you stay focused? 

This is a pertinent question for me. I fell down a flight of stairs in August 2018, knocked myself unconscious, fractured my skull, damaged my frontal lobe, and caused my brain to bleed. I was in the ICU for 4 days with that traumatic brain injury and am lucky to be alive.

I couldn’t earn disability benefits or fully take time off work. So thankfully, my two employees were well-trained and could handle the bulk of the work for a few months. I am forever grateful to them. 

Today, I am back to working mostly full days, but my focus and cognitive ability have taken a hit.  

What helps for me is to have a master calendar & use it for goal setting and scheduling, I have posted it on the wall in our office and even includes when certain employees will be away. But I can look at that calendar and think:

-       What do I want to accomplish this month?

-       How much bandwidth do we have?

-       What is going to drive the most revenue?

-       How do we need to plan out this month to achieve these goals?

-       What time of year do we need to be pre-planning for, etc.?

I use Trello & Slack to help with the implementation and to communicate with my team members. And now, I am trying to only give myself 5-8 things to do each day. I work on them one-by-one without trying to multi-task. And that helps me work less and be more effective.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

  1. Cost: Clean beauty is expensive and it doesn’t have to be. With a proper pricing strategy, I am able to offer products that look, feel, and perform like luxury without the luxury price tag. Our line ranges from $8.99 - $46.99. I wanted to make these products accessible to anyone. And our retailers love it, too!

  2. Brand narrative: Millennials and Gen Z are the most inclusive generations in history. Our models/marketing show EVERYONE as beautiful - from the obese woman to the trans woman to the 80-year old woman. 

 We don’t use terms like “anti-aging” to beauty shame our customers. We don’t prey upon your insecurities to make a buck. Instead of selling you something that you “need to fix about yourself,” we sell items that can be used for self-love/self-care. Our product descriptions, emails, social media content, and blog posts are empowering and encourage our customers to question the toxic beauty standards that we’ve all absorbed. Everyone deserves to feel beautiful.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Early in my career, a very smart person told me, “If your competitors have more funding/resources/name ID than you do, you will never beat them by doing what they do. The only way you can win is by doing what they’re NOT doing. When they zig, you zag.”

So, I knew we’d need to get creative with our marketing strategy. As stated earlier, working with subscription boxes was key to our growth in the first year. We also got pull-through from our physical presence in retail shops. This way, we weren’t paying for marketing, but getting paid FOR it.

We also have had success running promotions/flash sales on random days. During Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, Labor Day, etc; you are competing with every other retailer on the planet and the average person has a zillion marketing emails to sift through (ignore).

When I have a 1:11 sale, or 34% off for Molly’s 34th birthday, we see MUCH better success because we’re competing with fewer retailers.

Those are just a few examples of how we “zag,” but this approach is working for us.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

●      Start before you’re ready, yes, but make sure you have a solid business plan in place and know how to get proof-of-concept. We researched key trends, followed economic data, developed a strategic pricing strategy, and more before we launched our website. Passion and work ethic count for a lot, but you first have to make sure that people want to buy what you’re selling.

●      Stick it out when times are hard and be resourceful when it comes to solving challenges.

●      Take care of yourself first. Working 80 hours a week isn’t cute anymore. Burnout and stress can literally kill you. Set reasonable goals (even if they’re ambitious) and delegate what you can. You don’t want to end up resenting what you created. And I have become MORE productive by taking my time and doing less.

●      Be decisive and go with your gut.

●      Finally, tell a good story. People connect with people, not companies. I have shared very vulnerable information about myself on my website. This can feel scary but it provides a means for connection with people. My customers feel like they really know me, which gives them a deeper connection with the brand.

 What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

APP: I use Insight Timer every day. I meditate twice a day, every day, no excuses. I think more clearly and it is a vital tool for keeping my mental health in check.

BLOG: I am obsessed with astrologer Chani Nicholas. She writes the most brilliant, poignant, and moving horoscopes that go WAY beyond the norm. She also offers inexpensive courses that give insight on what’s going on in the sky right now and how it may impact you. And you don’t have to be an astrology expert to understand her teachings. Just to remember to read for your rising sign!  

BOOK: A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson. This book changed my life and how I view and operate in the world. The ideas presented in this book have helped not only my personal life but also my business relationships.

 What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Bench.co is amazing for bookkeeping.

 G-Suite has all this functionality that I just started taking advantage of recently. If you pay Google to have a @yourdomain.com email address, make full use of what you’re paying for. We use Drive to store our files, and Keep is amazing for taking and organizing notes.

We also use Trello & Slack for internal communication and project management. I couldn’t survive without Canva.

Who is your business role model? Why?  

Emily Weiss, founder of Glossier. She created not just a brand, but a cultural phenomenon in just a few years. She tells a cohesive story and their social channels are incredibly engaging. The customer experience is on-point. And her marketing and sales strategies are brilliant.

Being well-funded helps, but Emily and Glossier are aspirational to me.

What is your beauty routine? What are some of your favorite products?

AM: I should cleanse more thoroughly in the morning, but I am a human, so meh.

Of course, I swipe my face with our From Molly With Love Micellar Water on a cotton pad. I am also currently obsessed with Caudalie Cleansing Milk. The product is both a makeup remover/cleaner and has a moisture effect. I like how it multitasks. I am getting inspiration for how to get 2 or 3 steps into a single product.  

Next, I tone with From Molly With Love Glow Juice Vitamin C AHA Toner. The AHAs in this toner gently exfoliates dead skin so it can better absorb the Vitamin C. Brilliant. It tingles just slightly, which is fun before I’ve had my caffeine. 

I like to keep the morning simple, so I will finish without any other serums. I either use From Molly With Love Maracuja Oil or From Molly With Love Skin Magic Moisturizer, which is loaded with goodies like hyaluronic acid, squalene, peptides, and vitamins E, C & B.

For Sunscreen, I love Suntegrity. They’re a non-toxic sunscreen company that WORKS. And then for lip balm, I am obsessed with Yes to Coconuts Cooling Lip Oil.

PM: I do a more thorough cleanse in the evening, especially if I’ve been wearing makeup. I cycle between From Molly With Love Rosewater Facial Cleanser and Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser.

I don’t use AHAs at night, so I skip the Glow Juice Vitamin C AHA Toner and instead use From Molly With Love Sea Kelp Bioferment Essence. This is a cross between a toner & a serum, but I like to use it with a cotton pad like a toner. You could also pat it into your face or squirt some into your moisturizer. My trip to Seoul inspired me to create this product, as essences are such an important step in the Korean skincare routine. It is as if K-Beauty and La Mer had a baby. This essence contains many of the same active naturals in Creme de la Mer. Oh la la.

I might massage or jade roller my face while the essence sinks in. Then I apply our new Pro-Repair Serum, which has HA & a shot of multivitamins. Finally, I’ll re-up on the Skin Magic Moisturizer. Four times a week, I also use retinol. An amazing, gentle, affordable version is French and it’s called A313

How do you balance work and life?  

This became very important to me after my accident. Especially because I was in full burnout-mode when it happened. My TBI literally forced me to slow down.

Today, I have a morning and evening routine with meditations, readings, gratitude, and journaling. I take breaks when I feel like I need one and rest my brain with Hulu or Netflix. I am a member of a support group, which I attend three times a week, and my husband and I make an effort to get out & about, whether for fun with friends or to participate in the community.

Usually, I feel the most creative or insightful when I am resting my brain, so I always carry a notebook with me to capture ideas just-in-case.  

And frankly, once I learned how to properly delegate to my team, we started getting more done while working less.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Hulu, reading, walking my 13-year old Pekingese, spending time with friends, meditating, reading, journaling, coloring, or going to yoga.

I have a list of these things written in my notebook as part of a tool-kit when I’m feeling stressed and need to unwind.

 What do you have planned for the next six months?

Preparing for the holidays always starts in August! Woo hoo! 

We are also in the process of negotiating on some big projects, so I have a loose framework for our next six months, but also need to have room for flexibility, as plans can often change in real time. For example, we’d been developing a new product but had to put that on hold because a large order took up all of our resources. But I know I can always launch it in 2020.

We’re also working on building up the e-commerce (B2C) side of our business since the majority of our revenue is currently B2B. This will help improve our margins and put us in a good place to attract our ideal investors/VCs.

How can our readers connect with you?

Facebook: facebook.com/frommollywithlove

Instagram: instagram.com/frommollywithlove

Twitter: twitter.com/heymollyb

website: frommollywithlove.com

"If you try to appeal to everyone, you won’t affect anyone" with Jennifer Woodward

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Jennifer Woodward is a Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist who specializes in helping women to get to the bottom of their chronic health concerns.  She believes in finding the root cause to autoimmune disease, weight issues, hormonal imbalance, and chronic fatigue. Drawing on her extensive clinical and practical knowledge of the body, she crafts individual healing programs to help women thrive.

 Can you tell our readers about your background?

I have been a student of the body since I was a young child. My mom suffered from brittle Type 1 diabetes and our lives were run around her disease. If her sugars were too low, she would have a “reaction” and pass out and the paramedics would have to be called. If she was too high, she was manic and spacey. She was a great mom, but my sisters and I learned how to care for her early on.

In college, I constructed a special minor in Nutrition and pulled from nursing and pre-med and biology to learn all I could about the body while I was pursuing Psychology, which I thought was going to be my career track.

Life pulled me in another direction and I started working in a lucrative position for Abbott Labs, selling pharmaceuticals to physicians. The training I received also gave me plenty of information about the human body’s physiology and me found it fascinating, though the job itself was pretty repetitive and dull.

 I took a 12-year hiatus from the workplace to raise and homeschool my four kids, but when they were ready to go back to “real school”, I was ready to pursue my true passion: nutrition. I went back to school and studied to become a Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist. FDNs are integrative health practitioners that look at the body. We are trained to disseminate traditional and functional lab work to look for the hidden causes of disease. 

I finished school and went into private practice as soon as my kids were back in the classroom.

What inspired you to start your business?

 Most of us are in the integrative health field because we have our own health problems traditional medicine not solved that. I am no exception to this. For years, I just did not feel “well”. I was exhausted and had skin issues like psoriasis and suffered from major digestive complaints like IBS, pain, bloating, and food allergies. I had undiagnosed thyroid issues and was plagued by recurrent Epstein Barr reactivations. These problems led to anxiety, mild depression, and severe insomnia. My hormones were all over the place. I had gone from doctor to doctor and had found no help. In fact, I had gotten worse, and I was at the end of my rope.

As I was searching for help on the internet (!), I came across a few FDN practitioners and the healing modalities they used made sense to me. All of my doctors were treating my symptoms, one at a time. Functional Diagnostic Nutrition treats the body as a whole. I asked my husband for his thoughts on enrolling in the program and he was all for it. So I did. As I started to feel better, I was inspired to bring this information to as many women as possible. I couldn’t get my business started fast enough.

Where is your business based? 

My physical location is in Bakersfield, California. I work in an office with some amazing chiropractors. But much of my business is non-local. I work online via a HIPAA-compliant platform with women all over the world.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I finished school and realized I had a passion for helping women but no business training. My husband has started many businesses on his own, so I asked him a bunch of questions and he helped guide me toward the logistics of starting a business. I’m a girl, and I love pretty things, so I started with my website and branding just to get my creative juices flowing. I spent countless hours on trainings and seminars on how to brand and advertise via social platforms.  A local business here offered me a great deal on their excellent two-day immersive branding workshop. That stuff was fun for me after so many months dealing with the headiness of my studies.

On the practical side, I registered my business with the state, obtained my reseller’s permit, drew up documents with my lawyer, found some sweet office space with some wonderful people, and started hustling to promote my business.

I taught cooking classes in my home with a friend and then made my attendees stay for an informal class on food and hormones. These were fun (good food and alcohol and music!) and became popular. I started getting clients who liked my message. 

Jennifer Woodward

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Social media is hands-down the most effective way of raising awareness for my business. 

I actually, am a private person. I had no social media before I started my business, and I was a happy abstainer. But I realized that social channels would be excellent and organic means of promoting my business, so I sought out people to teach me how to use these. Some of my friends with established businesses gave me pointers, I paid for some classes, and I taught myself the rest.

I realized I love to teach. Public speaking does not scare me, and I can speak better in front of people than I can in real life (like when I am talking to my kids and tell them to “go get an apple out of you know, that big cold thing!”)

Teaching on social channels allows me to connect with people and share information that is of benefit to them. A wise friend told me one time, “give 95% of your content away for free”. Holy shit, I thought. No way. But it was a great piece of advice. If I learn something new, I share it right away so people see me as a helpful teacher. That’s really what I want to be, anyway.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

 I knew nothing about starting a business. It felt super daunting to create something out of nothing. My first year in business, I overpaid the state by $1600 by double-paying taxes because I didn’t know enough about business financials. It took me countless hours to learn how to build and maintain a busy website. I was constantly worried that I was doing something wrong on the business side. To overcome this, I prayed a lot and took things one day at a time. I realized that I couldn’t be too prideful in wanting to do everything myself, so I sought out advice on how to run the business side of things, and now I feel like things are running smoothly on that end.

A huge challenge for me was to not take things personally. I am a perfectionist, and I am super empathetic. When things were going great for my first clients, I was on top of the world. But when clients were not progressing in the way I thought they should, or when I could not unravel a complicated health problem, I would start to doubt myself personally and professionally. My husband had to remind me of my role- as teacher and educator, not a “fixer”. Our FDN model is “an opt-in model of self-care”- meaning that we teach and encourage, and the client has to do the work. Results aren’t really attributed to us either way. Once I saw this more, I became a better practitioner.

How do you stay focused? 

I can’t do vision boards or even daily checklists. It drives me nuts. I am very good at looking at the big picture and working backward. Once I see the desired outcome in my mind’s eye, I can take the steps necessary to get there. 

It helps me to incorporate daily exercise, eat really well, spend quality time with my family, and be present wherever I am. My husband and I have our morning a ritual where we get up early, drink coffee and read our Bibles, chat about random stuff, and get ready mentally for the day. 

I also go to bed by 9:30 most days. Ha. 

How do you differentiate your business from the competition? 

I teach wellness, but I am not all or nothing. I am a mom of four with a husband who has to entertain for part of his job. While a healthy body is a necessary part of overall wellness, I focus more on teaching my clients how to relax, relieve stress, sleep well, and enjoy the life they have. I take a more balanced approach to wellness and I think my clients love that. I teach them how to nourish themselves so they can nourish others. 

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business? 

My weekly Instagram videos are an effective marketing tool. I love to share information every Tuesday, and my followers are always appreciative for health tips. Most of my free 15-minute discovery calls start with “I have been following you on Instagram for a while….

What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Find exactly who you want to serve. I work with men and children and families and corporations and group homes and I love all of it, but my passion is women’s hormonal health. This is where I focus all of my studies and classes and programs. I want to be the best at what I do, so I have to focus on my niche. If you try to appeal to everyone, you won’t affect anyone. 

What’s your favorite app, blog, and book? Why? 

My favorite app is Mint. Fiscal responsibility is one of the primary rules of having a successful business. I can track my expenses and income here. I don’t naturally take to rules or budgets, so this is a great tool to keep me on track financially. Having the Mint app made me delete my second favorite app, that devil Amazon. Stop stealing my money with tchotchkes I don’t need, damn it!

What’s your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite app is Mint. Fiscal responsibility is one of the primary rules of having a successful business. I can track my expenses and income here. I don’t naturally take to rules or budgets, so this is a great tool to keep me on track financially. Having the Mint app made me delete my second favorite app, that devil Amazon. Stop stealing my money with tchotchkes I don’t need, damn it!

My all-time favorite blog is Mark’s Daily Apple. I have camped here on the weekends for years. I’ve read all of Mark Sisson’s books and most of his free stuff on the blog. I’m bummed he followed the recent keto trend because he has always risen above the diet rabble, but his insights on integrative health are unparalleled. He was living this lifestyle before most of us were born. I love the way his site balanced health and real life, and the research articles I pick up from his blog are incredible. Thanks for everything, Mark. 

My favorite book is Kelly Kapic’s Embodied Hope. We don’t know how to deal with suffering as a culture. The church is even deficient in this area. Kapic looks at physical suffering from a personal perspective and gives a great framework for how to deal with it yourself, and how to help others who are suffering.

What’s your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

My online HIPAA-compliant platform is everything right now. I can work anywhere I need to with Healthie. I invested in it last year and it has been a game changer for me. I can host video chats with my out of state or out of country clients. I keep all records securely online. Clients can book via the website, change appointments, and get reminders. I set up a series of welcome videos and worksheets for the first 28 days of working with clients so they can stay motivated and encouraged. They can use the app to check in with me daily- log food, mood, exercise, weight, and chat with me right there on the platform. I love how it helps me separate business and personal life. I was getting bogged down by client texts at 9:30 on a Friday night, so this is a great way to keep everything in its place. Instead of using 4 or 5 different programs to run my business, I have one. And it’s awesome. 

What is your beauty routine? What are some of your favorite products?

 Oh hell yeah- fun question. I am an earth mama at heart and try not to put anything on my skin that I know is not good for me.

In my morning shower, I use a Rose Beldi soap that my friend gifted me. It reminds me of a Turkish spa and is great for my skin. I’ve got a full line of Kevin Murphy hair products that my sister-in-law and hair stylist insists I use because there are no harmful ingredients like phthalates or sulfates.

After my shower, I use Jason Vitamin E 25,000 IU cream on my face and body. I use Old Spice Men’s deodorant because it is stronger than the weak shit they put out there for women and I feel like I smell sexy all day long. In regular deodorant, there is no aluminum.

Thanks to my friend Sarah, most of my makeup is from Kosas. She is militant about her beauty products’ ingredients and I have benefitted from her research. On days I feel like I need a power move, I’ll apply Darkroom lipstick and prowl about my day. I wear minimal makeup. My skin is clear and usually looks fine without anything on it, thanks to a great combination of food and supplements. If I am speaking at an event or on TV or filming a video, I will go heavier on my makeup. Most days it is mascara and lipstick though.

At night, I use a trick I learned 10 years ago from - wait for it- Keeping up with the Kardashians.  To take off any makeup and clean my face at night, I use a piping hot clean washcloth and steam my face, then gently wipe off and buff my skin. It works like a charm.  I will put more Vitamin E cream on my face. Sometimes, I’ll put a layer of carrot seed oil or Le Prunier plum seed oil on my face or hands too.

How do you balance work and life?

I have four kids, a husband I adore and love spending time with, I coach school and club volleyball, teach Sunday school and host a life group at church, and am trying to build a two business while I take classes for my Master’s degree in integrative health. We love to entertain, and my husband is constantly coaching a sports team besides his fast-paced job. Writing it out feels overwhelming. Every day is packed, but I remind myself that I chose this life and I am blessed to have my family and get to pursue my passions.

I make sure I exercise, but not too much as I know now that overexercise destroys my hormone levels and causes my Epstein Barr virus to flare up. I’ve been into swimming lately because I live in the desert and it’s easy to swim in my backyard and I get a lot of great ideas while I am doing the meditative work of kicking and pulling and breathing. I can’t take my phone or computer in the pool, so swimming is a mental break for me.

I fuel myself with plenty of protein and produce. I have learned to rest when I am tired and make sleep a priority. I read for pleasure to balance my studies for work or school, and this helps refocus my brain. 

I love to cuddle with my kids and my puppy on the couch, and we will watch a movie as a family a few times a week. 

Since it’s just me at my business, and I am in the building and learning phase, I can get into the bad habit of working all the time. If I am not working at Reformed Metabolics, I am taking classes for school or researching medical mysteries for clients. It can get overwhelming to work all the time, so I set time limits for myself on projects and give myself grace. 

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/reformed_metabolics/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100017962119133&ref=bookmarks

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

I have two.

One is a great workout, and the other is a slow and luscious evening of cooking seasonal food while drinking an amazing glass of wine and lingering long into the evening with good friends, enjoying great conversation.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

I am partnering with an amazing businesswoman locally. I am creating a line of superfood powders. She will be incorporating these into her storefront’s smoothies and juices, and we will be marketing them directly to consumers. In my trial runs, they have gotten great feedback already and I am so excited to bring them to people. I love it when I hear that clients and friends are sleeping better, experiencing less anxiety and anger, and enjoying more balanced hormones.

I’ll be making headway in my Master’s program and creating four programs for eating well and balancing hormones based on the four seasons. I’ve been studying Eastern medicine as I delve into herbs and superfoods. The Eastern cultures have used food as a medicine far longer than Westerners have, and the gentle, nourishing nature of foods and herbs to support health blows my mind. I want to bring this grounding wisdom to the fast-paced, reductionistic culture that so many women in the US are a part of.

How can our readers connect with you?

You can find out about what I do at www.reformedmetabolics.com.

My Instagram is a great place to get tips and tricks on health: https://www.instagram.com/reformed_metabolics/ . I respond to DMs within 24 hours and love connecting with people in this way. 

I am on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100017962119133&ref=bookmarks

You can book a free 15-minute discovery call to discuss your chronic health concerns and autoimmune issues and see whether we are a good fit to work one-on-one here:

https://www.reformedmetabolics.com/services

"Absorb everything. Read more about what you're trying to do" with Lanae Dedeaux

Lust Swimwear

Over the years, Lanae wanted nothing more to achieve confidence in her everyday life, so she set out to create a new meaning of the word ‘lust.’ At lustswim, they strive to combine the sensual undertone of the word with a hint of simplicity and elegance to create high quality pieces that are guaranteed to make you love your body.

Redefining what it means to be sexy, these detailed designs accentuate your every curve and celebrate what makes you, you. 

The Lust team is passionate about creating a community of diverse women all over the world, promoting self-love, and ultimately delivering timeless pieces each and every time. 

What made you want to start your own swimwear company?

I grew up in Las Vegas where the sun is always beaming, which called for a lot of swim activities. Unfortunately, I was never able to find swimwear shops that suited my style, so I created my own pieces with the hopes that other women would relate and gravitate towards them as well.

What can buyers and influencers expect to see at this year's show?

Buyers can expect to see bold, vibrant colors this season. Generally, I have always stuck with safe, neutral colors, but this summer I want my consumers to see a different side of me. The pieces are free-spirited, playful and full of life, fit for every woman's skin tone.

What's one thing you'd tell your younger self about starting a business?

Absorb everything. Read more about what you're trying to do, listen to what others have to say including friends, family, peers, and even yourself.

What advice can you offer other women wanting to start their own business?

Don't let fear dictate your future. You just have to go for it and learn from your trials and errors. Never be afraid to fulfill your dreams because you're worried you will fail.

Start to build your clientele, never stop being a student of your craft, and hustle hustle hustle. Turn your boundless energy, desperate innovation, and relentless determination into your entrepreneurism.

To see the entire collection, visit LustSwim.com.

"I delegate and hire support people and ask for help" with Penny Bauder

Penny Bauder, Founder Green Kid Crafts.jpg

Penny is an environmental scientist-turned-entrepreneur. Motivated by a deep passion to raise a generation of environmental leaders, in 2010 Penny founded Green Kid Crafts, a children’s media company that provides kids around the world with convenient and eco-friendly STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) activities. Today, it’s become a leader in the subscription industry, with over 1 million packages shipped worldwide.  Penny has over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship, management, strategy, and finance.

Can you tell our readers about your background?  

I grew up in meager circumstances “out in the country” in a tiny town in Michigan, where I was the first of my extended family to ever graduate with a college degree. I’ve always found solace in nature. In college, I was drawn to the natural sciences and I eventually received a B.A. in Environmental Management and an M.S. in Environmental Science. I worked as an environmental scientist with the National Park Service, working all over the western states. In 2008, I had my first child and like many new mothers, I re-evaluated my career. Motivated by a deep passion to raise a generation of environmental leaders, I launched Green Kid Crafts, a children’s media company that provides kids around the world with monthly educational STEAM activities.

What inspired you to start your business?

I started my company, Green Kid Crafts, for many reasons.  I wanted to help solve the “creativity crisis” facing our nation’s youth; I wanted to foster future environmental advocates; I wanted to help families spend quality, unplugged time together, learning about themselves and the world around them. As an environmentalist scientist, I immediately saw a need for a convenient solution that would allow families to spend quality time together enjoying screen-free, nature-based STEAM activities that fostered a child’s creativity and confidence. I knew the importance of making safer materials more accessible and was passionate about building a company to inspire the next generation of creative leaders that could serve as a model for environmental sustainability and corporate citizenship.

Where is your business based?

I started Green Kid Crafts out of my garage in Anchorage, Alaska in 2010. In 2012, I moved to the suburbs of San Diego, CA and it’s been flourishing in Southern California ever since.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

As an environmentalist scientist, I immediately saw a need for a convenient solution that would allow families to spend quality time together enjoying screen-free STEAM activities that fostered a child’s creativity and confidence while helping to raise the nation’s next generation of creative leaders. And like other parents, I wanted to make the most out of the limited time I had to spend with my kids, not scramble for ideas and spend hours researching and shopping for product supplies. I knew the importance of making safer materials more accessible and was passionate about building a company to inspire the next generation of creative leaders that could serve as a model for environmental sustainability and corporate citizenship. So, I started putting together craft kits for myself and my friends, and soon enough word spread and I found herself immersed in the concept full time.

Penny Bauder's Family.jpg

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

We have a very strong affiliate program that boasts thousands of influencers. We’ve nurtured this program since we launched and it’s been very effective at spreading the word about Green Kid Crafts. But first and foremost, we have an amazing product that kids love and which makes life easier for parents. We’ve always put product development first and marketing second.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

My biggest challenge is juggling parenting and entrepreneurship, which can be very tricky. I knew that something had to give during a 60-hour work-week a few short months after giving birth to my second child. I knew there had to be another way to live with myself, be the mother I wanted to be, and also run a successful company. Since then, I’ve been able to keep to a 25-hour work-week by following some simple guidelines:

·      I’m very disciplined and schedule out my work time in 15-minute increments. I do not work or look at my business email when I’m not working.

·      I’m intentional about not being a perfectionist. You can waste a lot of time trying to make everything perfect when “good enough” will work just fine.

·      I work from home and video conference and teleconference. I schedule in-person meetings only when necessary

·      I delegate and hire support people and ask for help from my advisors, employees, family, and friends all the time.

How do you stay focused?

My main tool for staying focus is to practice self-care. Science shows that people that look after themselves and practice self-care are more productive and have better cognitive ability. My morning routine includes a morning trail run in nature, meditation, and journaling. My nightly routine includes painting and reading. I also make sure that I spend quality time with friends and family. Practicing self-care wasn’t learned overnight, though, and it’s a constant struggle to make my physical, emotional, and mental needs a priority. Self-care is a skill though, and by definition, a skill is something that can be improved!

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

Here at Green Kid Crafts, we take the concept of sustainability seriously and we are the only kid's activity subscription box that focuses on this niche. As a values-driven company, Green Kid Crafts strives for sustainability and takes a step beyond to try and create positive change.  This commitment to being a socially responsible, green company is at the heart of Green Kid Crafts and a part of every aspect of our work and this differentiates us from our competitors.

We are carbon neutral and we offset 100% of the carbon dioxide generated by our business. We minimize packaging and printing and use recycled materials. Our kits are bundled in special bags that are made of 100% recycled materials. And we integrate sustainability into our box themes as much as possible. Green Kid Crafts also gives back. We plant a tree for each online order and at least 1% of sales are donated to environmental organizations through our membership in 1% for the Planet. Our desire to benefit people and the planet is at the very core of our business, from our mission to the way that it is translated into action. Our mission to foster the next generation of creative leaders by engaging kids with the planet in positive, hands-on, creative ways has exposed hundreds of thousands of kids to think about and take a leadership role in sustainability.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Our content marketing strategy has provided exceptional value to our business and it’s tied to our Pinterest page, which boasts over two million followers. We regularly post DIY science experiments, art projects, and thought leadership on our company blog, which receives hundreds of thousands of visits a month. For us, it’s worked to build trust, improve our brand awareness, generate leads and cultivate customer loyalty.

What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Be easy on yourself. Love yourself. Tell yourself that you are doing the best possible job that you can be doing. Celebrate your successes, both big and small. Take quarterly vacations so that you are able to re-energize. Take them by yourself, with family, and with your friends. Take them without your phone.

What’s your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite podcast is “How I Built This with Guy Raz.” It’s entertaining, accessible, and I love learning about the inner workings of businesses both big and small. As far as books go, I’m a huge reader and average a few books a week so it’s almost impossible to pick a favorite as it changes every time! Right now, I’m reading Melinda Gates The Moment of Lift and I love her message about lifting up women everywhere; her narrative leaves me feeling very empowered. One of my favorite business blogs is Entrepreneur. I receive the posts via Feedly and read them there. I find the content useful for my own learning, especially the marketing, PR and digital media ideas. My favorite app is probably Slack; it’s been a great way to organize my team’s conversations into separate private or public channels.

What’s your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

My favorite business tool is probably Google Analytics. It’s something that we use daily. It’s allowed us to get a deeper understanding of our customers and it provides the tools that we need to analyze our business data in one place. It helps us to make smart, informed decisions about Green Kid Crafts by helping us identify trends and patterns, problem areas and successes, and potential next steps.

 Who is your business role model? Why?  

Maxine Clark, fellow retailer and Chief Executive Officer at Build-A-Bear Workshop, is one female entrepreneur that I admire. I can relate to her story of leaving her career to start her own business and am so inspired by how she’s taken the child’s shopping experience to the next level.

 What is your beauty routine? What are some of your favorite products?

I live in Southern California so my most used product is sunscreen! As for beauty products, I’ll always choose natural, non-toxic, clean beauty products above all else.

 How do you balance work and life?

I try to practice balance by making deliberate choices about what I want in life, on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis. Instead of just letting life happen, I am intentional about how I spend my time. I have a road map of what is important to me and then I commit to following the path. I also have a very strong support network I depend upon in good times and bad and this keeps me centered.

 What’s your favorite way to decompress?  

As far back as I can remember, I always loved being outdoors. Being in nature reminds me of the beauty of life and instantly puts me in a place of gratitude. Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed, I find walking by the beach and hearing the sound of waves to be instantly calming and soothing. Spending time in nature gives me this sense that there is something greater than myself, that everything works in tandem with everything else. That everything (good and bad) happens for some greater reason. For me, it is one of the most reassuring things.

 What do you have planned for the next six months?

My passions include environmental and youth advocacy, STEAM education, and international connections. I’m combining these passions into a new program that is part new product line, part project for world change. It will touch the lives of tens of thousands of youth across the globe.

Tentatively called “Kids Saving Critters,” the purpose of this project is to connect kids all over the world to learn from each other, help wildlife, and develop the skills to make the world a better place. Through online and offline opportunities, kids around the world will be connected through monthly STEAM activities linked to international conservation projects.

In 2018 we partnered with two international schools in Costa Rica and South Africa. We facilitated relationships between them and local wildlife parks and centers and sponsored wildlife field trips and internships. We’re using this model to develop connections in other countries and to further develop the product line component. In this age of global divide, I believe that art and science are the most powerful unifying force we have at our disposal, and I want to do what I can to put these skills in the hands of the world’s youth.

How can our readers connect with you? 

Please visit Green Kid Crafts on our website. You can also connect with me on my social media pages: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin

" Just go for it! Don’t let fear hold you back." with Clara and Jacquelyn of Whoa Glow/Glow Radio

Clara and Jacquelyn

Glow Radio is a podcast for the sassiest of b*tches who are looking to dump their 9-5 for that #entrepreneur life. You can expect weekly conversations with unapologetic creatives, business owners and influencers. We discuss tips on how to reach your goals, manage your time and keep your sanity while being a major boss babe. Jacquelyn & Clara are life & career mentors, wellness advocates and your fave hype women who will cheer you on and push you to create the life that you want. 

Can you tell our readers about your background?

Jacquelyn: My background is in marketing and fitness. I’ve done social media marketing in a few different roles and also worked as a personal trainer/health coach for almost 5 years.

Clara: I have a background in business/project management and fitness. I’ve worked in management in the construction and the car industry and am currently a personal trainer.

 What inspired you to start your business?

We both have a very entrepreneurial spirit and knew that we wanted to have our own business. Our day jobs were unfulfilling and our goals were to work for ourselves. We discussed many other business ideas, but ultimately decided to start with the podcast because we both enjoy speaking and it didn’t require a lot of startup capital.

Where is your business based?

Glow Radio is based in Vancouver, BC. However, we are fortunate enough to have interviewed our guests internationally!

 How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

The podcast life chose us actually! We originally were going in a different direction and but decided on Glow Radio because it was a simple and fun project to start! We started by investing in a mic, we met up twice a week, and that was the birth of our podcast! The first key steps were finding a podcast hosting website and settling on a launch date. After that we planned out our episodes about 1-2 weeks in advance and here we are today!

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

The most beneficial thing we did for Glow Radio was to attend entrepreneur networking events. We got to meet so many amazing people that ended up being guests on our show! It was also extremely effective that our guests shared our links with their audiences as well.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge we encountered was when we were gaining a lot of traction for Glow Radio but we were still working at our day jobs. We ended up working 15 hour days and not having enough time to maintain work life balance and manage our stress. We overcame this by deciding to quit our day jobs! Now we are able to dedicate more time to our passion and have more balance in our lives.

How do you stay focused?

We set huge goals that make us excited to wake up in the mornings. We also have consistent meetings to organize our tasks and make sure to write everything out. For any projects that we are working on, we create timelines and work backwards from our goals. It helps that there’s two of us because we keep each other accountable.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

We’ve found that many other business podcasts are male-dominated and quite serious. For us, we are two Asian females who like to keep it real and raw. We do our best to be relatable and create informative, yet entertaining, content.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Instagram has been a great tool to grow our business. We have been able to connect with so many of our loyal listeners and also reach new listeners as well. Whenever we have a guest on the podcast, we make sure to cross promote each other on Instagram and it has helped us widen our reach.

 What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

 Just go for it! Don’t let fear hold you back. We often say that we wished we started sooner. It’s definitely okay to make mistakes along the way, but if you don’t go for it you will never know what you can achieve.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

Favourite app: VSCO because we have to do a ton of editing and VSCO is a beautiful app with amazing filters and makes my day so much easier!

Favourite blog: Song of Style, we love her style and can relate to her a lot as we are also Asian.

 Favourite book: Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling. We just absolutely love that she is a badass Asian that made her way into Hollywood with her hard working ethics and it is so inspiring.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

 Our favourite tool is Google Drive. It makes our lives a lot easier as we can share all our documents and work on our projects from anywhere.

 Who is your business role model? Why?

One of our business role models is Jenna Kutcher, a photographer, self-made millionaire and host of the Goal Digger Podcast. We love her podcast and all her valuable resources and tips. She also started from nothing and we really respect her journey.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

We are currently developing an online course teaching others how to start a podcast. The course will offer specific tools on how to brand your podcast and make money from it. We found that most of the current online courses about podcasting are mainly run by males and are very technical. We wanted to create a course that is valuable, but also fun and business-focused.

How can our readers connect with you?

You can follow us on Instagram @GlowRadioCo, Facebook.com/GlowRadioCo and subscribe to Glow Radio on iTunes, Spotify and Youtube.

" I naturally plan everything" with Julie Stobbe

Julie Stobbe

Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Gold Leaf member of Professional Organizers in Canada.  She has a Level I Certificate in Chronic Disorganization from Institute of Challenging  Disorganization and coach training from Coach Approach for Organizers.  She started Mind over Clutter Professional Organizing & Coaching Services in 2006.   She helps residential and office clients, on-site or virtually, become more productive and less stressed by reducing distracting clutter, managing time, streamlining systems and coaching them to live free from emotional clutter.   

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I have a number of life experiences that have impacted my abilities to be a Professional Organizer. As a student I worked in an office do filing, answering phones, computer programing, accounting and may other tasks.  It provided me with great learning experiences which I bring to the many facets of office organizing.  I have a Bachelor of Education and a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. My studies in education led me to become an elementary school teacher, gymnastics coach and a sessional instructor at Brock University.  I love speaking and teaching about organizing skills and concepts.  I am a mother of 3 young adults.  Raising children, balancing busy activity schedules, running a household, preparing them for university and moving them many times has given me skills to draw upon to help clients with time management, residential organizing, downsizing and relocations. In 2006 I started Mind over Clutter Professional Organizing and Coaching Services.  

What inspired you to start your business?

Inspired might not be the best word for why I started my business.  I was a sessional teacher at Brock University and my contact was not renewed after 6 years of working in the Faculty of Education. So, I needed a new career. I am a naturally organized person.  I had known about Professional Organizing for approximately 25 years so with the motivation of, needing a new career, I was inspired to see what was happening in the Professional Organizing industry and I found Professional Organizers in Canada.  It was the right time in my life to become a business owner and not an employee.

Where is your business based?

Part of my business in based in the Niagara Region of Ontario where I go into homes and offices and remove distracting clutter, streamline systems and routines and help clients manage their time.  I work globally in my lifestyle organizing coaching and virtual organizing using technology to support my clients.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

The first step I took in starting my business, Mind over Clutter, in 2006 was to do a google search of the Professional Organizing industry.  When I found there was a thriving industry, I looked at websites of Professional Organizers to see what type of education they had taken to become an organizer.  At this point I found Professional Organizers in Canada and located the closest chapter to me and attended a meeting. As Professional Organizing is an unregulated industry, I could immediately call myself a Professional Organizer and I started in business.  While I learned how to market my business and get a website, I took courses to increase my knowledge, worked as a sub-contractor for other organizers to get practical experience and continued to attend my association’s local chapter meetings to be mentored by experienced organizers.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

A good website is a must for people to become aware of your business.  It gives you credibility.  In addition to that, it is necessary that clients can put a face to the name of my business because I am going into their homes or offices and going through their possessions.  Networking and speaking give people an opportunity to meet me and become aware of the Professional Organizing industry as well as my business, Mind over Clutter.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge for my business when I started in 2006 was the public’s lack of knowledge about the Professional Organizing industry.  It was important for me to network so as many people as possible could learn about the benefits of working with an organizer. With a variety of television shows being produced more people understand the industry and marketing is easier.  Another challenge for me was becoming a risk taker.  I like to think things over and be confident in my decisions.  I think that made my business grow slowly.  I once heard,” even falling on your face is moving forward”.  After I embraced that idea, taking risks became easier and I tried new approaches to marketing.

How do you stay focused?

It is easy for me to stay focused because as an organizer, I naturally plan everything.  That is not always good but it does help me to stay on task, complete goals, schedule my day, week, and month. The other reason it is easy to stay focused is I love being an organizer, I enjoy the challenges of running a business and meeting people. I enjoy focusing on my business.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

I differentiate my business by approaching organizing as a customized service working with clients to find organizing solutions that suit their personality and lifestyle. It is not a one process fits everyone approach. I enjoy figuring out how my clients think and feel about their stuff so I can help them let go and reach their goals. I help people, get their mind in the right place so they can put their things in the best space.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

My most effective marketing strategy in the past 2 years has been using my blog effectively.  I developed a system to ensure each of my blogs will be posted on 10 different social media sites over a 2-week period. I will usually be posting 4 different blog posts or events each day on 4 different sites.  People will see my company name attached to 4 different pieces of information each day.  This approach has allowed me to consistently give a variety of good information, helping to market me as an expert and have my company name in front of businesses, referral partners and potential clients regularly.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

My best piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to get your finances in order before you begin.  If you have a full-time job take out a line of credit and increase the spending limit on your credit card before you quit your job.  If you try to do it after you start your business you may not have enough collateral to get these loans in place.  Having these funds available, will give you time to work on the business and make better decisions.  If you have no financing available you can put yourself in a position of not charging enough or making quick decisions that cause your business to grow more slowly than you had anticipated

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

For starting a professional organizing business, my favourite books is by Dawn Noble how to start a home-based Professional Organizing business.  This book tells you everything you need to know.  It gives scripts for intake telephone conversations, many ways of pricing, how to estimate a job, set up a business, market etc.  how to start a home-based….. is a business series of books.  Check and see if there is a book written for the type of business you want to start.  For $15- $20 or, checking it out of the library for free, you can get everything you need to know to get started on the right foot. Learning the basics allows you to plan how to move forward and decide in what areas you will need to get additional support through education or hiring services.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

My favourite business tool is a paper agenda.  I like writing things down. It helps me to remember my schedule better.  I have everything in one place.  Client appointments, tasks I need to completed that day, personal events etc.  I can see a week all at one time and a month at time.  I don’t need internet or data when I am booking an appointment with a client.  It is much faster then getting out a phone, going to the correct app, connecting to the wifi/data to check out information. I do have an electronic back up should I lose my agenda and I have a paper agenda should my electronic system fail me.

 Who is your business role model? Why?

I think my Dad is my business role model. Having grown up in a family of a business owner you learn how dedicated you need to be to make a business survive.  It is not for everyone and learning how to balance the commitment to running a business and to family can be challenging. He bought a business just after World War ll and met many challenges, developed new and better products for the environment, patents, learned and embraced technology and treated employees as people attempting to use their talents in the best way possible. Running a business is not for the faint of heart and having a role model who met challenges head on, innovated and made his industry a better industry is a good example to follow.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

For the next six months I am working with a startup business focusing on kitchen organizing. It is a new experience to come in on the ground level of a new business and learn how they operate, how I can help them and they can help me.  This venture is important for my business to help increase my virtual organizing and lifestyle coaching services.

How can our readers connect with you?

Please feel free to send me an email to julie@mindoverclutter.ca and ask me a question.

Check out my website www.mindoverclutter.ca

Follow me on

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Julieorganizer

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mindoverclutter 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliestobbemindoverclutter/

Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.ca/juliestobbe/

YouTube   http://www.youtube.com/c/JulieStobbe 

Google my business - https://business.google.com/edit/l/16613622548077080738

 Join my Facebook group Organizing Mind and Space

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/1881280812154271

"Disable your social media push notifications" with Liz Theresa

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Liz Theresa, business mentor and founder of LizTheresa.com, has been helping entrepreneurs find clarity and uniquely market themselves with confidence for the past eight years through her strategic website design and clever copywriting services. She wants every entrepreneur to rise and be the star of their own business. She’s also the creator of Concept to Creation, her flagship branding and web design program and you can download a free copywriting training video from her at freecopyvideo.com.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

Sure! I’m a business mentor, web designer, and copywriter. I’ve proudly been helping small businesses and entrepreneurs find clear and unique ways to market themselves with confidence since 2011 at LizTheresa.com.

I started this business after I completed my Masters of Arts degree in English at Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. I graduated with my degree knowing I wanted to help entrepreneurs improve their online presence. To give you context, 2011 was two years after Twitter was invented. Online marketing was a hot new field - so I didn’t have a ton of competition. And then it hit me, my web design hobby (yes, hobby) was essential to businesses who want to improve their online presence. Because let’s face facts - your marketing doesn’t work if your website doesn’t work!

What inspired you to start your business?

Before I had the realization I could start my business, I was applying to jobs in the online marketing world. Most positions required 3 to 5 years experience - even though, like I said, Twitter was 2 years old. How on Earth could you have 3 to 5 years experience doing online marketing in 2011? Nearly impossible.

Anyway, I finally got ONE interview for a company in Massachusetts to write product descriptions for wigs. Yep. You guessed it. Like “Let loose and wear this sassy wig out for a fun night with the girls!” Believe it or not, I was over the moon excited about the job opportunity, especially since they invited me to interview for it. There I was, in a brand new outfit with a tricked-out, graphically designed resume. The art director looked at my resume (and me), sighed, and said, “You’re way too creative for this job. It will literally suck the soul from your body - and I can’t do that to you.”

I remember nodding respectfully and thinking, “I wonder if this is a compliment or not.”

Next thing I knew, I was back in my VW Beetle, calling my mom (my unofficial business) and telling her what happened.

 “Mom, I know I want to help people market themselves better. Why won’t anyone hire me for that?”

 And she said something so revolutionary - I never forgot it. “Liz, you don’t need permission to help people with their businesses. Just go do it.” And LizTheresa.com was born.

 Where is your business based?

Norwell, MA (a small town south of Boston, MA).

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I started by creating a website - which is something I’d known how to do, but for some reason, didn’t see as a monetizable skill. Silly me! I ended up launching under my legal name (at the time) - LizDowney.com. I realized that there’s a lot to naming a business - and I felt hampered by my own name as far as how I saw myself, which is why it became LizTheresa.com. LizTheresa.com (to me) symbolized a clean slate and allowed me to feel free to show up as the best version of myself.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Success in business is 100% who you know. Meeting the right people at the right times can take you to some amazing places. In the beginning, I’d met a girl on Twitter who was doing social media marketing (very cutting-edge for 2011) - and she taught me so much in the early stages. She was my mentor - for sure - and ended up introducing me to my first few clients. Things exploded from there - and I’ve had different mentors and coaches since my beginnings, all of whom lift me higher.

 My podcast Liz on Biz, as well, has connected me to some incredible minds in the business world and I’m incredibly grateful for that.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

Our biggest challenges can also be thought of as our biggest growing pains. In 2015, I remember going to bed late one night - to only get up 2 hours later because I had a client launching a program at midnight. As I lay in bed waiting for midnight, I thought to myself, “This is not life. This is not living. This is not the business I started.” It was then that I knew I needed help - and I hired my very first contractor to support me in times like that.

How do you stay focused?

I absolutely love time hacks - and I’ve blogged pretty extensively on how to make the most of your time. Especially for service-based businesses like mine, time is your #1 asset - above people and above money. Those two things are replaceable but TIME is the only thing you don’t get back.

Once you realize that about time, it will level up how seriously you take the hours you get in a day - and then you can start implementing some time management strategies. I always recommend people start with time auditing - because you need to critically examine how you’re spending a typical day in order to know what needs improvement.

Something quick you can do right now - disable your social media push notifications. Those things can eat up an hour if you’re not careful!

 How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

When you’re a service provider, it’s your best bet to differentiate yourself based on service rather than on price. In other words, competition should have very little to do with how much you charge - and more to do with how you position yourself, the quality of customer service you provide, and the quality of your product (outcomes). Service is definitely how I stand out. You know that - and my huge personality. People love the way I show up in my business so I try to bring that in as much as possible.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Word of mouth and networking. Leveraging and nurturing my professional relationships has been the most impactful part of growing my business.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

 Don’t quit early and don’t expect results immediately. Work on your idea and do everything you can to make it work, and you’ll be OK!

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

 App: The Calm app. Meditating for 10 minutes a day has greatly improved my mental health which, of course, leads to a clearer head so I can stay focused on my business.

Book: Wuthering Heights - This was the first book I ever loved. I read it my sophomore year of high school and it really lit up my love of reading. I would have never majored in (and got my Master’s in) English had I not read this book.

Blog: Elephant Journal - I read this for spiritual and mindset tips and I’m proud to say it was the first place I’ve been published.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

I use Freshbooks all. the. time. Freshbooks is amazingly underrated. It gets slotted in the same category as Quickbooks but does a TON by comparison to invoices and expenses. It has a pretty slick project budgeting and time tracking system built for teams.

Who is your business role model? Why?

I have a few role models but I would love to tell you about Farnoosh Torabi. Farnoosh is a personal finance expert and host of an amazing podcast called So Money with Farnoosh Torabi. I absolutely am so inspired by following her. Knowing her has taught me so much about business.

 What do you have planned for the next six months?

My biggest plan is actually maternity leave! I’ve done a lot of preparation to keep my business and team fully operational during leave time which will go from July to August. I take great pride in having a team that works well together and look forward to the unique challenge motherhood will bring to my business.

How can our readers connect with you?

You can find me over at LizTheresa.com, on Facebook in my group: Internet Fame (http://internetfa.me), on Instagram @LizTheresa, and on Twitter @LizTheresa.

"Hustle and network" with Monica Weintraub

Monica Weintraub

Monica Weintraub hails from Phoenix, Arizona, where she has temporarily moved back to after living in China for the last seven years. Monica is the founder of charity subscription service, Down to Donate, where she doesn't want some people to donate a lot; she wants a lot of people to donate a little. Her long-term vision is to create the world’s most extensive network of philanthropists. She also hosts a podcast titled Good Work, which focuses on speaking to for-profit founders who make social good their life's mission.

Prior to Down to Donate, Monica founded her first startup at the age of 23. Monica’s writings and photographs have been featured in various outlets such as CNN, Elite Daily, Inc.com, Thrive Global, and Refinery29.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

 Sure! I got my start into the world of philanthropy when I was an AmeriCorps member through their program Public Allies. The apprenticeship I had at a nonprofit, Asian Pacific Community in Action lasted 10 months with weekly community building and personal growth workshops at Public Allies. I was about 20-21 during that time, so I didn’t fully understand the importance of what I was doing and why it was impactful. After the 10 months were up, the members of our cohort were given an education award and would potentially try to get hired by the nonprofits in which they were apprenticing.

I had already made plans early on in the program to move to China and teach English, so I kind of checked out mentally from everything. It wasn’t until seven years later that I wanted to get back into the world of social impact and philanthropic work. It took me being in my late 20’s to understand why every little bit counts.

 What inspired you to start your business?

Frustration, mostly. The idea of Down to Donate came to me when I was scrolling through Facebook and saw post after post of people who wouldn’t stop complaining about the election and the results it yielded. This was September 2017, and we had only just begun to feel the wrath of what this administration was capable or incapable of. I had thought to myself that if people actually showed up and took action instead of complaining on the internet, that things may have turned out differently. I was equally guilty of internet activism, also called Slacktivism. So I decided to create the product I wished I had, a charity subscription service that helped me give small amounts to the nonprofits who had more resources and could make a bigger impact than me.

Monica Weintraub

Where is your business based?

On the internet! My team is small and we work remotely, but we will be relocating to LA in August.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

The first step was research. I started seeing if there was anything out there like it and saw a few similar projects that were no longer in existence. I then started visiting hundreds of nonprofits sites to see how they were asking for money, and it was all the same old thing; an automated $50 donation suggestion, which is way too high for a generation like mine that’s suffering from low income, a guilt trip, which is not the way to make people want to give, poor tech, which just doesn’t work in this day and age, and overall lack of community.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Press. We’re still so far off the radar. Any press helps us. But we’ve recently launched a podcast called Good Work that focuses on people in the for-profit world who make social impact the focus of their business. Our first episode launched mid-May, and our fingers are crossed that it will open people’s eyes up about what it means to be a philanthropist and how that definition has drastically changed over the last decade.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

Trust! For both potential users trusting us and us trusting the people/companies we choose to work with. I haven’t had any major breakthroughs with that, other than being cautious and being transparent.

How do you stay focused?

This is a tough one. Being a founder means doing a laundry list of boring tasks. The best way to get those done is to just sit down and start. Even if it means filling out a single line of an application or merely entering in the first few letters of the email address you need to send something to. You really just have to sit down and do the work.

Once I complete the boring tasks, I kind of reward myself with the fun and colorful ones. It’s all work, but the part where I get to be creative and have freedom makes the tedious stuff worth it.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

Our overall attitude and brand are completely different than any nonprofit’s out there. We’re kinda done being nice and cute. We demand action. And to be honest, we’re not even sure if people are ready for that attitude about donating. But we really do believe the clock is ticking when it comes to the future of the world’s success. We need to be putting money into the hands of nonprofit’s who can secure a safe and successful world for us and generations after us.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

We haven’t entirely gotten there yet being that we’re still in beta. What we have found that works best is that people want to be connected to something smaller and more personal. Something they can relate to. Story-telling is imperative to any brand’s success, and we’re slowly trying to get out the stories of what our nonprofit partners bring to the table.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

 Hurry up and do it. Failure can be a win too and I have had a significant amount of failure on this journey. In the end, people care too much about how others perceive them. Show ‘em you’re not afraid to win or lose.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite app is probably Quip. It helps me stay on top of everything on all my devices and share ideas with my team. I don’t really have a favorite blog these days. I’m more into listening to podcasts, and my favorites of those are How I Built This, Girl Boss Radio, and Masters of Scale.

I’m admittedly a really bad reader and rarely have the mental capacity to sit down and fully indulge in a book, but recently I’ve read The Subtle Art by Mark Manson, which helped me more than I thought it might have, and I Might Regret This by Abbi Jacobson, which made me feel strangely okay about having such bad anxiety.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

I’m a huge fan of the Female Founders Community on Facebook. Honestly anywhere I can connect with women going through what I’m going through helps. I’m also a part of the Ladies Get Paid Slack group, and those gals will help you with anything.

 Who is your business role model? Why?

I say this in every interview I do, but almost 10 years later, I’m still obsessed with Sophia Amoruso. Not only her but the collective of founders she’s introduced the world to. She got me excited about business and all of the hard parts that come with it. She made being professional not lame.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

Hustle and network. I’m relocating to Los Angeles in August and am so excited to start connecting with women there who are pushing it. My podcast takes up a lot of my time, so I'm really hoping to start building a team and focusing on the success of Down to Donate.

How can our readers connect with you?

Visit and signup for www.downtodonate.com and listen to Good Work FM!

IG: monpuffycombs/_downtodonate

Twitter: IG: monpuffycombs/_downtodonate

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