Danielle Bernstein Opens Up About Her Life But Be Warned, This Is Not a Fashion Story
INTRO
We’re pretty sure you’ve heard of Danielle Bernstein. If that still isn’t ringing a bell right now then you definitely know her as We Wore What on Instagram—you and 2.4 million others.
On getting personal…
I've been doing this for 10 years and people definitely think they know who I am through my social media but there's so much more to me than fashion, so I finally felt ready to share my full story. From my successes and failures in both relationships and business ventures, I'm hoping that my readers not only learn more about me but gain inspiration and motivation to go after what they want.
On landing a book deal…
I didn’t have an agent; I was introduced to my publisher through a friend. One of the things that got me excited was how they encouraged me to be involved creatively.
On the writing process…
I originally started writing this book five years ago but decided I wasn't ready to share my story. Almost a year ago, I picked it back up and worked with a co-writer to create This is Not a Fashion Story. I was surprised by how vulnerable writing made me feel and how much work it actually took.
On the biggest lesson readers will take away…
There's so many, whether it's how to pick business partners, spot a red flag guy, or to follow your gut.
On her favorite chapter…
That's like asking to pick your favorite child!!
On the most rewarding part of launching a book…
I've become even closer to my audience by writing my book. Being able to talk to my readers directly while hearing their thoughts and feedback has been amazing. The most challenging part, I knew when writing the book there would be a lot of criticism coming my way, and dealing with any negativity is always challenging, but something I know comes with the territory.
On COVID-19 interrupting her book launch plans…
I'll be doing a few nights of a digital book club at the beginning of June, where I’ll discuss the book with readers and be able to have a more intimate discussion with them.
On advice for fellow authors…
I'd say to make sure you're ready and make sure that your story has a purpose!
How to Become a Millionaire and Live Your Dream Life, According to Rachel Rodgers
“Stop making broke-ass decisions.”
What is your relationship with money? Do you live in scarcity mode or do you have an abundance mindset? Either way, we need to get better at talking about money if we ever want to be better at managing it, and eventually having more of it. Well, our new series, The Money Files is set to change all that by helping women become masters of their own finances so they can manage their money and their future.
Imagine having to work eight extra months just to earn the same pay as your white male co-workers. This is the likely reality for Black women in the United States as we marked Black Women’s Equal Pay Day on August 3rd this year. According to the National Women’s Law Center, on average, Black women are paid $0.63 for every $1 their white male counterparts earn. That equates to $964,400 (nearly $1 million) in lost income over a 40-year career.
In honor and support of Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, we spoke with Rachel Rodgers—who's leading the conversation around social injustice and Black wealth—about her mission to change these statistics and close the pay gap. Through her company, Hello Seven, and her recently published book, “We Should All Be Millionaires,” she is empowering other women to hit seven figures by changing their relationship with money, stop procrastinating, and start making million-dollar decisions.
How do you become a millionaire? What does it take to hit seven figures?
These are questions most of us have asked ourselves at least once in our lifetime and while you might think it’s a pipedream, Rodgers is here to tell you that it isn’t. The author, intellectual property lawyer, business coach, CEO of Hello Seven is on a mission to help other women hit seven figures without sacrificing their family or sanity. Over the past eight years, Rodgers has worked with New York Times-bestselling authors, tech startups, coaches, consultants, doctors, accountants, nutritionists, and so many more to take their business to the next level by creating and protecting their own intellectual property to scale their businesses to a million-dollar (or more) enterprise. (She outlines her four steps to becoming wealthy in any climate over on our Ask an Expert series on IGTV.)
In addition to her work at Hello Seven, Rodgers is also leading the conversation around social injustice and Black wealth with her Anti-Racist Small Business pledge. Instead of calling them out, Rodgers is calling companies in to have an honest discussion about racial justice and to help them determine how they can and should be part of the solution—that pledge has been signed by 2,200 businesses and counting.
So, do you want to learn more about Rodgers’ strategy for how to become a millionaire without sacrificing your family or your sanity? It’s time to stop procrastinating and start making million-dollar decisions by investing in yourself to build your dream life.
“One of my s’ heroes, Madam C.J. Walker, became America’s first female millionaire back in 1906,” Rodgers explains. “She was born to slaves. She was poor. She was Black. She was oppressed. She had every obstacle you can imagine and more. All the odds were stacked against her. Yet, she became fabulously wealthy. She launched a haircare company, built her fortune, and provided dignified jobs for hundreds of people. She bettered herself and the world. If she could do it then, you can absolutely do it now. And you can start today.”
Of course, there is no magical solution to gaining wealth but there are fundamental objectives that can help you get there. In the words of Rodgers, “Instead of obsessing about how to trim your budget down to the bare bones, focus on exponentially expanding your income.” And you can start with as little as $100 (or less). Are you ready? Let’s go!
Photo: Courtesy of Hello Seven.
Stop procrastinating
The sooner you start building wealth, the better.
If you’re struggling to motivate yourself to make and save more money, the main thing to remember is that having more money is never really about “the money.” It’s about the people you love and the causes you care about.
Here’s an example: A few years ago, I was traveling out of town for work, and I received a phone call about an emergency situation happening at home. I was immediately panic-stricken. All I could think was, “I need to get home now. Get me on the next flight home. I don’t care what it costs.”
I booked a super-last minute flight with three layovers and it cost $1,700. An outrageously expensive flight, but I didn’t care, and it didn’t matter. I could afford it. No problem. Done.
A typical American does not have an extra $1,700 laying around for emergencies or pleasure or any other reason. And this is a problem.
You need more money because money provides more options for you. The option to fly home immediately if you need to. The option to send your kids to the best school. The option to leave a bad relationship without worrying if you can afford to live by yourself. The option to donate to causes like Black Lives Matter. The option to live as you choose, in freedom, in peace.
Again, if you’re struggling to motivate yourself, remember, it’s not about the money. It’s about the people you love. It’s about the lifestyle you want. It’s about having options instead of limitations.
Look: do you want options, or not? If you do, then get after that coin!
Start Investing
Like so many things in life—jogging, cycling, twerking—investing may seem intimidating at first, but you just gotta dive in and start!
Start small and keep it simple. I love the app called Mint which is a great way to get started with investing. You can start with $100 (or less) and go from there. Once your $100 investment brings you an extra $20 that you didn’t have before, you’ll be like, “Omg, I just made $20 bucks! Yay, free money! I love this!” and you’ll be inspired to keep going!
Make Million-Dollar Decisions
If you want to start earning more money than ever before and build serious wealth, these are the three fundamentals:
1. Stop making broke-ass decisions.
A broke-ass decision (a.k.a., B.A.D.) is any decision that steals your money or steals your time, energy, peace, joy, or power, and therefore, blocks you from becoming wealthy. For example, allowing your spouse (or child) to interrupt you 15 times an hour when you’re trying to work from home, thereby making it impossible for you to concentrate. That is a broke-ass decision. Stop doing that.
2. Start making million-dollar decisions.
A million-dollar decision is any decision that brings you more money, and/or more time, energy, peace, joy, and power. It’s a decision that makes you feel rich—financially, emotionally, or both! Investing in a new blazer that makes you feel like a CEO instead of a shlub? Yes! That’s a million-dollar decision. Raising your hourly rate? Yes. Starting a side-hustle so you can start earning an extra $5,000 per month? Yes. Fueling yourself with high-quality food? Yes. Exercising daily? Yes. The path to millionaire status is paved with million-dollar decisions.
3. Surround yourself with people who are doing it.
Fact: You are heavily influenced by your social circle. For instance, one study found that when low-performing students start hanging out with straight-A students, the low-performing students start scoring higher grades too. Success is infectious. It’s true with grades and it’s true with money, too.
If you want to become wealthy, start hanging out with ambitious people who are already wealthy, or, who are committed to the same goal.
That’s why I launched my Club, a place for women who want to make serious money. Because when you hang out with millionaires and millionaires-in-the-making, the golden-money dust rubs off on you!
Invest in Yourself
To me, “investing in yourself” means doing anything that makes you feel powerful. Because the more powerful and confident you feel, the more money you’re gonna make.
There are infinite ways to invest in yourself, and it looks different for every person.
You can throw out your stained yoga pants and invest in a new wardrobe that makes you feel like a boss. You can invest in hiring a part-time personal assistant five hours a week so they can clear 1,000 tedious tasks off your plate and free up your mental bandwidth. You can invest in education, training, coaching, therapy, or all of the above. What’s going to help you feel your best? Whatever it is, do that.
Swap Budgeting for Expanding
Many people, especially women, are told, “You should go on a diet,” and, “You should cut back on your spending.”
Both of these statements are deeply offensive to me because what you’re really saying is, “You should shrink and make yourself smaller.” “You shouldn’t reach for too much.” “You should find a way to be satisfied with much less.” “You shouldn’t take up too much space.” “You shouldn’t want too much, have too much, be too much.”
Boo to that oppressive patriarchal nonsense!
I take the opposite stance. I say, “How big do you want to live? What’s your dream life?” and then, “Cool, so what’s your plan to make that happen?”
Try this: get a piece of paper and write down everything you would love to have. Your ultimate dream life.
Do you want a three-bedroom house in the best neighborhood in town? Do you want a full-time nanny? A tutor for your kids? A new car with all the latest safety features? Make a list of what you truly want.
Then, take your dream-life-list, head to Google, and find out how much each item costs. Crunch the numbers. Find out what it would cost to have your ultimate dream life. It might not be as much as you think. You might realize, “Huh, okay, my dream life costs $10,000 per month,” or $20,000, or $30,000, or whatever it is.
Once you have this information, it’s empowering, and it leads to new questions. Now you can ask yourself, “Well, what’s it going to take to earn $10,000/$20,000/whatever amount per month so I can have my dream life? How can I pull this off?” Get creative and write down 25 different ways you could earn more and make it happen.
I do this exercise with my clients and it’s fascinating to see what they come up with.
Instead of obsessing over how to trim your budget down to the bare bones, focus on exponentially expanding your income.
Ditch the Debt Stress and Focus on Earning More
Stop stressing about debt, and instead, just focus on earning more money. It’s really that simple.
Start a side hustle. Ask for a raise at work. Double your hourly rate. Text your cousin and tell him it’s time to pay back that loan. Focus your attention, time, and energy on one question: “How can I bring more money in the door?” Focus on that. Get that cheddar. And before too long, you’ll be able to pay off whatever debt you owe.
Learn to Trust Yourself
Taking a risk really just means, “doing something that’s going to change your life in a positive way before you feel totally 100% ready to do it.” And guess what? You are never gonna feel 100% ready. If you’re waiting for that moment of perfect readiness to arrive, it never will. So you might as well take the leap now.
Part of becoming wealthy is learning to trust yourself. Trust your instincts. Trust that you will always land on your feet, one way or another. Trust in your creativity and resourcefulness. Trust in your ability to get things done. By taking a tiny risk now, and thriving, you build a little more trust in yourself. You gain evidence that it’s okay to take risks. This emboldens you to take bigger risks later on. So, start with a tiny risk today and build from there.
Diversify, Diversify, Diversify
I’m all about multiple revenue streams! In terms of how to do this, step one is, you need to leverage your intellectual property. Leverage your what, now? This just means, take something you’ve created (a system, method, process, formula, system, secret recipe, etc.) and package it so that people can purchase it 24/7 even when you’re asleep.
A great example is, let’s say you’re a dog trainer. You have a unique training process that your clients love. They get amazing results and always rave about you but you can only see 10 clients per week so that’s limiting your income.
So, you decide to create an online program (with tutorial videos) so that people all around the world can learn your special process. You sell your program on your website. Cha-ching! You just turned your intellectual property (a.k.a. your unique process) into a cash-generating product.
You might be thinking, “But I don’t have any intellectual property!” but that’s not true. You do. Almost everyone does. You probably have some blind spots and you’re not seeing yourself clearly. Chat with a friend, hire a business coach, or join my Club and you’ll quickly see, “Oh, wow. I’ve been sitting on a million-dollar idea, and I didn’t even realize it.”
Make Wealth Your Reality
What’s a one-million-dollar decision you could make today? One decision (big or small) that would bring more money, or, more time, energy, peace, and power into your life?
Do it. Make that decision. Then another. And another. This is how you will build wealth, and enjoy the freedom and options you want. “Other people have done this, and I can do it too” needs to become your new daily mantra. It’s the truth. And the more fiercely you believe it, the sooner it will become your reality.
This story was originally published on August 13, 2020, and has since been updated.
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How to Land Your Dream Business Collaboration (and Double Your Revenue)
It’s a win-win.
Photo: ColorJoy Stock
The word collaboration is being thrown around like gifts in Oprah’s Christmas special. From brand-to-influencer collaborations to employee collaboration and collaborative playlists, there are so many contexts in which collaboration is used. However, when it comes to growing a community and a business, collaboration marketing is the strategy you need to know about.
If you’ve ever spotted the likes of Uber x Spotify, Allbirds x Shake Shack, or Rimowa x Supreme, you’ll know how brand collaborations have the power to spark interest and, in some cases, cause a social media frenzy. So, how do you find your own dream collaborator?
Much like networking, collaboration marketing can be likened to dating in more ways than one. You could say that a dream brand collaboration is like a “friends with benefits” for your business, and you’d be right. Collaborating with a complementary brand has benefits, for example, you can use them to:
Double your organic reach
Build buzz and engagement
Attract media attention
Boost a new or existing revenue stream
Grow your community across social media, event audiences, and email lists
Grow your network
In fact, Collabosaurus ran a research study that found collaborations to be up to 25x less expensive than digital advertising. Want to get on the collaboration marketing bandwagon? Here’s what you need to know.
1. Know your value.
Collaboration marketing is all about win/win value exchange, and you likely have a lot more to offer in a collaboration than you think. You don’t have to have an immense social media following, significant cash flow, or the ability to just give away “free things” in order to collaborate. Collaboration is about leveraging what your business already has to benefit another business and vice versa.
Perhaps you have a cool office or event space, content creation skills, excess product, an engaged social media community, or an email list—collaboration is possible for all brands, big or small, it’s about getting creative with value. Start conversations with what you can offer in a collaboration, then ensure that you’re communicating your marketing objectives.
2. Find the right partner and tie your collaboration to a marketing objective.
How do you find your dream collaborator? Start with complementary industry spaces. Look for companies that share values, objectives and have a similar brand aesthetic and target market to your business (so that any cross-promotion is super valuable).
Platforms like Collabosaurus are incredible for finding amazing brand collaborators for all sorts of campaigns in social media, products, or events. They also have a nifty idea and strategy generator that generates creative collaboration ideas for your business.
When it comes to finding a creative idea and executing your collaboration, don’t forget that it’s a marketing activity. Just like any marketing strategy, make sure you have a goal in mind, an objective that you can track against (such as growing your email list, getting content created, or increasing event shares on Instagram).
3. Leverage, leverage, leverage!
You could have secured the coolest collaboration in the world, but if no one knows about it, what’s the point? It’s crucial to have a promotional plan in place, for both yourself and your collaborator, that reflects a mutually beneficial sharing of marketing responsibilities. Identify all of the promotional channels and opportunities available to both yourself and your collaborator. Then, set a schedule so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to who is promoting what and when.
Want to keep things #legit? Consider signing a joint marketing agreement, or MOU document to keep things in writing, and using platforms like Bit.ly or Sked Social to track the impact of your collaboration against your original marketing goal.
4. Use collaborations in your broader marketing strategy.
Don’t be afraid to incorporate collaborations into your strategy frequently. Mix up your collaborators, as well as the types of collaborations (social media, product, event, etc.) you explore to keep your exposure opportunities fresh, and engaging.
The benefits of brand-to-brand collaborations are endless, and if you’re interested in giving it a try for your own business, check out Collabosaurus, a match-making platform for brands to collaborate for win-win marketing collaborations that help businesses grow. It’s free to start, takes less than five minutes, and from over 6000+ collaborators to choose from, including Porsche, ASOS, Olay, and RedBull, your dream brand could be waiting for you.
“You don’t have to have an immense social media following, significant cash flow, or the ability to just give away ‘free things’ in order to collaborate.”
—Jess Ruhfus, Founder of Collabosaurus
About the Author: Jess Ruhfus is the founder of Collabosaurus, a marketing platform that match-makes brands for clever collaborations and partnerships. With a background in fashion publicity and marketing education, Ruhfus was frustrated sourcing cool brand partnerships in events, products, and social media. So, she launched Collabosaurus in 2015, which has now attracted over 6000+ brands including Porsche, ASOS, Olay, Topshop and one of the largest global retailers in the U.S. Jess has also spoken for Apple, Vogue, and The College of Event Management, splitting her time between Sydney, New York, and Los Angeles as Collabosaurus continues to grow.
This story was originally published on August 5, 2019, and has since been updated.
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6 Ways to Establish Yourself As an Expert Using LinkedIn
And stand out in an oversaturated digital world.
Photo: Vlada Karpovich from Pexels
Strong personal branding, when done right, is an act of service. It’s greater than your ego and bigger than your fears. It’s about your audience, your customers, and your network. Trust me when I say: they are waiting for you to show up.
But how do you find your community in such an oversaturated digital world?
You go to LinkedIn.
Yep, you heard that right. And here’s why.
LinkedIn has 675M users, but only 3M—a tiny drop in the bucket—are using it to its full capacity. LinkedIn is this wide-open white space ready for the taking, a place to build authority and thought leadership, and most importantly, a place to show up authentically in the context of your career. Despite the great opportunity LinkedIn provides, less than 0.5% of users are maximizing its potential.
Linkedin is today what Instagram was in 2012—our most underrated platform. In the last few years, the LinkedIn algorithm has generated a 50% increase in viral activity year over year.
LinkedIn is the only platform where career and authenticity merge. If you’re ready to up your thought leadership game, here’s how you can master LinkedIn for your own personal brand.
Optimize your profile.
Looking at other people’s profiles is the #1 activity on LinkedIn. That means optimizing your profile is critical. Update your cover photo, headshot, headline, summary, exemplary media, and work experience to reflect a full, 360-degree story. Think of Linkedin as a search engine and your profile as your own personal website. This is your ultimate business card.
Be human.
The olden days of LinkedIn are long gone. This is no longer simply a place for job search. This is a place to connect. Sure, show your expertise, career history, and your resume, but also show who you are. If you’re building a brand of your own, yes, people care about what you do, but they will do business with you based on who you are and how you show up. You need to be extremely intentional about your humanity and your professional expertise. And if you're able to blend both, you will cut through the noise.
Be true.
Being real, approachable, and relatable isn’t always likable. In fact, if you’re disrupting any industry, you’ll come across some haters. The aim isn’t to be likable; the aim is to be true to yourself, and THAT will gain you the right clients, business, network, etc.
Publish quality over quantity.
Every platform serves a purpose, and LinkedIn has established itself as the leader in top-quality long-form content. Publishing natively to the platform has proven to be a successful marketing strategy and an effective way to position yourself as a thought leader. If you’re worried about sounding self-promotional, focus on telling real stories and sharing in a way that can be of service to others. You're trying to create value versus adding to the noise.
I’ll say it a million times—no one cares about what you do, people want to feel something. They want inspiration, education, and entertainment. They want to feel uplifted, less alone, and more empowered! Know your audience, but also know this: if you’re willing to open up and be human and real, that's where the good stuff lies.
Own your niche.
One of the biggest complaints I hear is that LinkedIn is only for the corporate world and that it’s not for creatives, artists, entrepreneurs, or disruptors—that it’s not for you—but that’s wildly untrue. People of all industries, not just corporate, play here. LinkedIn is not industry exclusive; in fact, its algorithm favors “small” creators. It’s a place to showcase your niche and own it.
Be consistent.
Like most things in life, you get out what you put in. LinkedIn is by definition a social networking app. You have to be willing to join the party, not just when you need a break, but consistently to connect, learn, and support your community.
The making of a truly powerful personal brand sits at the intersection of your humanity and your expertise. And there is no better social media platform to bring it all together than LinkedIn.
“Think of Linkedin as a search engine and your profile as your own personal website. This is your ultimate business card.”
—Jessica Zweig, CEO of SimplyBe. Agency
About the Author: Jessica Zweig is the CEO of SimplyBe. Agency, a premier personal branding firm based in Chicago and serving clients across the globe. Named a “Personal Branding Expert” by Forbes, a “Top Digital Marketer to Watch” by INC, and honored with the Gold and Silver Stevie® Award for “Female Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2018 and 2019, Jessica facilitates sold-out workshops and speaks on the power of personal branding to corporations including Google, Salesforce, Virgin, Nike, Motorola, Red Bull, and Bank of America. She also hosts the top-ranked marketing podcast The SimplyBe Podcast. Jessica’s debut book, “Be: A No Bullsh*t Guide to Increasing Your Self Worth and Net Worth by Simply Being Yourself,” launched in February 2021 with Sounds True, an imprint of Macmillan.
This story was originally published on July 7, 2020, and has since been updated.
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3 Thoughts That Are Holding You Back From Everything You Want in Life
Words have powerful consequences.
Photo: ColorJoy Stock
Raise your hand if you spend your time stuck in the past reviewing all that went wrong today, yesterday, or maybe even your entire life? How about time spent in the future hoping, dreaming, and wishing that people, things, or events were different than they are? Yes, I see you. Any time spent out of the present moment is time spent creating everything you don’t want. So why do we do it? Our thoughts, beliefs, and actions will lead us to where we are now. We can create change by identifying what our core beliefs are and transforming our belief systems.
I’ve been trained to start with noticing where we are holding our trauma in the body first and then re-programming the mind—learn more on my Emotional Reset Method—yet awareness is still key. I have seen thousands of people reclaim their lives to create what they truly desire in their lives. I recently worked with three completely different people struggling with the same core thought patterns. Ahead, I’m breaking down three thought patterns that will destroy the chance of creating your desires. Read on to learn what they are and how you can turn it around.
1. “I feel like if I let go, something bad will happen.”
Imagine holding a balloon and then squeezing it as tight as you can. That balloon is going to fight you on it. It’s most likely not going to pop unless you poke it with a sharp nail or object. It’s just going to resist you until you’re frustrated, exhausted, and let go. Nothing bad happens, it just isn’t going to change anything.
This goes for life, people and events as well. The more you control something, the more it will control you. More importantly, expecting something “bad” will only increase the chance of you unconsciously creating the “bad.” It is when you release your expectations that you can open to all that’s possible.
The Fix: Experiment with letting go, and setting yourself free. Until you try it, you‘ll never know what is possible.
2.“I feel guilty going and doing my own thing.”
Katie is a wife, mom, daughter, and owner of a successful small business. She wakes up every morning to make breakfast for her husband and girls before running off to work to be available for her staff, then she picks up the girls after school, checks in with her aging mom to be of any assistance she needs, and gets the household ready for dinner along with anything necessary to get done before taking on the next day. For the last three months, she has been feeling a sense of guilt for her desire to start photography classes and fulfill an inner creative calling. As we dialed in on the core root of her pain, she stated, “I feel guilty going and doing my own thing.” Can you relate?
Ignoring our desires and stuffing them down will eventually spiral into anger, resentment and ultimately, a life lived with regret. Any desire that we feel from our heart is meant to show us our own unique path to fulfillment. The more you ignore it, the more unfulfilled you will be. The more you listen and follow, the more inner peace, joy, and fuel you will feel and have to share with the ones you love.
The Fix: Ask yourself, “Do I want to live with regret, or do I want to inspire myself and others with my gifts?” Write down what those gifts are that you want to share. Then start actively working towards making that change.
3. “I am ___.”
Take seven days to write down any words you say on a daily basis that precede the words “I am.” This is what you believe about yourself (and sometimes what you believe about everyone else). Is your mind saying, “I am happy” or is it saying, “I am so mad?” You choose your state.
The Fix: Keep a running list in the note section on your phone and at the end of the week, take the negative statements and re-frame them into the positive. State the positive statements each morning until you feel the change. This is who you really are. You’re welcome.
About the Author: Robin Emmerich has spent close to a decade coaching some of the most successful women in business. Even with their considerable success, the common denominator is that as much as they seemed to be cruising through life on the outside, they were melting on the inside. It’s why Robin just launched Beauty and the Mess—an athleisure brand creating a sisterhood who understands that life is messy and difficult and challenging, but together, can find the strength to prioritize passion over perfection and fearlessly seek beauty in their everyday lives. She currently offers the “Live the Life You Desire” self-transformation course based on the legacy she was graciously gifted from her mentor Dr. Coletta Long, a pioneer and expert on the power of the subconscious mind, individual coaching, and worldwide retreats. Need some inspiration? Download your free meditation to get clear and tap into your inner wisdom at robinemmerich.com. Additionally, you can connect with Robin on Instagram or beautyandthemess.com.
Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.
This story was originally published on August 7, 2019, and has since been updated.
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Did You Know These Seemingly Innocent Interview Questions Are Illegal?
Be prepared.
Photo: Smith House Photo
So, your interview is off to a great start. Your résumé is perfect, and the hiring manager is clearly impressed. It’s going so well that it almost feels like a meetup with an old friend rather than a formal interview. This is usually a good sign, but be careful—you might be offering up unnecessary information that could hurt your chances of landing the job.
It’s widely known that federal laws prohibit direct questions about race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and all other protected classes, but sometimes the question isn’t so direct. So, what are the seemingly innocent questions to be cautious of during an interview? We break it down for you below to ensure you know the best way to successfully navigate your job interview.
Are you planning to start a family soon?
Starting a family is an exciting and monumental moment in a person’s life, but unfortunately, employers could potentially view it as an inconvenience or question your commitment to the job ahead of you. A new hire looking to start a family could mean possible lateness, frequent sick days, doctor’s appointments during work hours, and long absences at the company’s expense.
How to Answer: I’m not at that point in my life yet. I am interested in what a career path looks like at this company. Can you give me more detail?
Can you work on the weekends?
Most corporate employees are off the clock on the weekends even when overtime is required. If you’re a salaried employer, the company might expect you to be available on the weekends or on short notice if there is an emergency. But unless Saturday and Sunday are required workdays, the interviewer shouldn’t ask about weekend availability. This question could be seen as an attempt to find out the applicant’s religion. Although it may not be, candidates may feel forced to share religious obligations when asked this question.
How to Answer: Of course, if you nailed an interview for your dream job and are eager to put in the extra weekend hours, then, by all means, say “yes.” You can also assure them that you will attend to any unexpected emergencies at your earliest convenience without divulging any other information.
Do you own a car?
Much like asking about weekend availability, an employer shouldn’t directly ask you if you have a car unless the job requires you to use your own vehicle. Most job seekers have seen “must be able to commute to X location” on a job post. The employer most likely wants to make sure that you’ll be able to make it to work on time, especially in places where public transportation is limited.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Office has a different take on this question. They consider it protected financial information, so not hiring someone based on their answer is discriminatory. This question also puts physically impaired individuals who are unable to drive at a disadvantage. Asking why someone doesn’t have a car could leave a disabled candidate feeling forced to disclose their impairment.
How to answer: Politely inform your interviewer that you weren’t aware the job required you to use your own vehicle. This will prompt them to share their true intentions for asking the question which will most likely be related to attendance. Assure them that you will be able to get to work at your scheduled time.
Are you a member of any cultural organizations?
Being a member of a cultural organization has many benefits. Members are usually required to do volunteer work and/or maintain a high grade point average and are able to obtain prestigious internships through alumni connections. Sounds like a great bullet point on your résumé, but it can also be used by interviewers to discern your race.
A simple statement like, “Which one is that? I think I’ve heard of it before,” during a phone interview could be seen as prying for that information.
How to answer: You can list the member requirements and benefits without sharing the cultural aspects of the organization. This information can be found online with a quick Google search, so keeping it on your résumé is a great way to avoid any company with such bias.
Can you list your emergency contacts?
Has your interview ever gone so well that the interviewer replaces “if you are hired” with “when you start” while listing off the day-to-day duties of the position? They may have suggested that you complete some paperwork to get it out of the way even before an official offer has been made.
One part of the new employee packet that you can ditch without an official offer is the “Emergency Contacts” page. This information can reveal your sexual orientation and national origin if you decide to list your significant other or parents’ names. Additionally, questions about the relationship between you and the people you live with are prohibited for the same reason.
How to answer: Inform the interviewer that you need a bit more time with one or more pages of the packet. Ask them if you have the option to fill it out at home and bring it back on your first official day.
Do you drink?
More companies are starting to offer unique perks in order to attract and retain amazing talent. Happy hours and on-the-clock fiestas have become a common occurrence. Casually asking if you’re a social drinker while explaining the company culture could be their way of trying to see if you’ll fit in.
However, this question might not fly with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Asking about alcohol consumption could force a candidate with a prior substance abuse issue to disclose their medical condition/diagnosis.
How to answer: Keep it short and sweet. Feel free to answer with a simple “yes” or “no.”
What was your previous compensation?
Try to put yourself in a business owners’ shoes for a moment. You’ve found the perfect employee on paper and they’re even better in person. The only thing that could make their dream candidate even more ideal is if their salary expectations are within budget.
Don’t talk yourself out of the salary you feel you deserve by mentioning your past pay. Employers know that one of the keys to retaining amazing candidates, like yourself, is offering a competitive salary and benefits package, so know your worth going in and be prepared to confidently navigate this conversation.
How to answer: Try to steer the conversation away from past compensation by politely but firmly stating why you deserve your desired salary. Mention that this number is based on your skills, experience, current salary trends, and the work required for the position.
Tip: Be Prepared
Ultimately, it’s up to you to determine whether or not you feel comfortable answering possibly coded questions. Before proceeding, consider how your answer will affect your chances of receiving an offer of employment. If you’re confident that you want the job, then be sure to craft a response that steers the conversation in a positive direction.
Practicing your answers to these and other standard interview questions will make sure nothing throws you off your game. When interviewing, keep in mind that employers are most likely not trying to trick you, but you should always do your research and be prepared. It’s a good idea to understand the law and know your protections.
About Career Group: Career Group Companies is a boutique recruiting firm that specializes in temporary and full-time administrative placements. We work with leading businesses, constantly raising the bar to provide a premium approach to search that others can’t reach. We take the time to get to know our clients and candidates, so we’re in a better position to make well-informed matches that we know are going to work.
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This story was originally published on June 10, 2019, and has since been updated.
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How I Empower My Team and Create a Culture of Systematic Trust (Yes, It Is Possible)
“It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” — Steve Jobs.
Photo: Create & Cultivate
The proof is in the stats. Millennials value company culture more than any other generation that’s come before them. In fact, according to Forbes, on average, millennials would be willing to give up $7,600 in salary every year to work at a job that provided a better environment for them. At We Are Rosie, our culture is built around systemic trust. We have a core belief that people have the best chance of success when they are treated with dignity and respect, and that comes along with trust. We want a team that can confidently demonstrate self-motivation, personal responsibility, and confidence.
My goal as a founder was to create a more human-centric approach to work and to build a community that reflects the company’s core values. My diverse childhood experiences as the child of a refugee have made me truly aware of what it is like to be overlooked, underestimated, and marginalized. This inspired me to want to cultivate a professional experience for my team where they are seen and appreciated as whole human beings.
Trust can be tricky for all leaders but particularly challenging for founders. I’ve used the analogy more than once that We Are Rosie is my third child. As a leader, it’s important to find the balance between seeing your vision through to fruition (helping your baby become a productive member of society) and identifying the friction points where you (and your baby) are better served by allowing others to take the reigns.
Ever heard the phrase by Steve Jobs that says, “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” This is the crux of trust and it’s one of the many reasons we are so tedious in our hiring process for both our core employees and the incredible freelance consultants we deploy into large organizations. I actually believe that trust can, many times, be more important than experience when making a new hire. When you establish trust during an employee screening process, you are better able to create an environment for this person to thrive within your organization. You are also creating an opportunity for you to be the best leader you can be by avoiding the pitfalls that come along with mistrust.
As we move into an era where distributed and remote teams are the new norm, trust, or lack thereof, can make or break your team’s ability to achieve. When employees feel heard and respected, they will deliver their best work. I want people to be seen. I want people to know how much we appreciate the unique treasures they bring to our business. I want them to take ownership of their work and time. I want to support individuals as they recognize that there is a better way for work to happen.
Through my experience starting and growing a business, I’ve found six concrete action items that create a culture of systematic trust.
1. Embrace the Model You Serve
In addition to helping our clients discover better talent solutions, we also tap into our dynamic community of consultants. We turn our client's needs into possibilities through a fresh perspective and expertise. Our core team is small, but our power, by way of the We Are Rosie community, is mighty.
If you're unwilling to use the product or service you're providing to your clients, you are missing out on truly understanding the pain points that your clients experience and how to speak directly to them with solutions.
2. People First
Within the advertising industry (and many others if we're honest), the focus remains on the product or service, not the people producing the work. We're humanizing the way we do advertising by keeping our people first. Time is precious, and people want to work in a way that makes sense for their lives. The work comes and goes. It will always be constant. The people are what makes it magic.
3. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
Our work moves fast and quickly. I set the example for my team to let go of the small things, which keeps us focused on building and collaborating together. When problems arise, we address them quickly, learn the lesson, and forget the details.
Most people start businesses so they have more control over their lives. It’s all for nothing if you are miserably trapped within your company. If you aren't having fun, you might want to reconsider your perspective. A small trick I’ve learned is that any time I catch myself saying or thinking “I have to” do something, I reframe it to “I get to” do this thing. That small mental shift takes me from a place of complaining to a place of gratitude.
4. Honesty Is the Best Policy
Embracing difficult conversations fosters an environment of trust. Being truthful about strengths and weaknesses keeps everyone clear on the best way to approach the work. If you're not being honest about your perspective, your energy will reflect that to all of those around you. Show up every day in your truth, and everyone around you will do the same.
5. Communication
It sounds cliché, but communication is vital. We achieve all of our goals through simple, clear, and timely communication, both internally and externally. No jargon allowed. Furthermore, we hold ourselves accountable to our timelines, our words, and our shared values. There is no blame game. We own it, address it, and move forward. It's a powerful, crazy concept that also works in all relationships.
6. Be Candid in the Hiring Process
When hiring great people, you must be honest about expectations. This is especially true with consultants that have other client responsibilities and time commitments outside of your business. This is actually one of the best benefits of working with consultants. There’s no need for the fake mask that tells you, “I can do it all because you’ve asked me to.” There’s no reason for the fluff, so don’t add any. Speak candidly about what’s expected and be open to hearing what’s expected from you. This process builds a tremendous foundation for trust.
When you establish trust during an employee screening process, you are better able to create an environment for this person to thrive within your organization. You are also creating an opportunity for you to be the best leader you can be by avoiding the pitfalls that come along with mistrust.
About the Author: Stephanie Nadi Olson founded We Are Rosie from a genuine realization of what it feels like to “not belong.” As a young mother with a career and also as a daughter of an immigrant parent of color, she knew what it felt like to be overlooked and marginalized. Because of this, she wanted to create a home and opportunity for people who often feel discounted. We Are Rosie is an extension of the work she has done with refugees her entire life and her soul’s calling to create a better way to do business. Stephanie has worked closely with big brands and major tech companies her entire career, so she has a unique 360 view of industry practices and the need for transformation.
This story was originally published on August 8, 2019, and has since been updated.
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Do You Have the Top 7 Traits for Entrepreneurial Success?
Trait #1: You’re curious.
Photo: Create & Cultivate
Are you cut out for the crazy, hectic, and yet super fulfilling life of being an entrepreneur? We’ve worked with countless business owners over the years, and thanks to our conferences and digital summits, we spend a lot of time with startup owners, owners of growing companies, even people juggling four or five companies at once. Unfortunately, not every business owner will make it for the long haul, but I’ve definitely noticed seven traits that are common threads among those who do well.
Do these traits sound like you? Read on to find out if you have all of the elements required to be a successful entrepreneur.
1. You’re Curious.
You don’t ever think you know it all, and you’re always learning, experimenting, and hungry for more, no matter how long you’ve been in the business. Your vision and passion inspire others to action and your curiosity keeps your business innovative.
2. You’re Highly Engaged.
You always know what’s going on with every aspect of your business. When there’s something you should know but don’t understand, you talk to the experts on your team until you get it (whether that’s your manufacturing team, your CFO, your company’s attorney, etc.).
You’re also actively engaged with your employees. You understand that the success or failure of your business ultimately relies on you.
3. You Have a Big-Picture Vision.
You understand why you’re in business and you’re able to take a step back and see your company for what it is. You understand that entrepreneurs tend to be serial business launchers and you aren’t overly attached to your current projects.
You also have an end desire in mind, whether that’s where you’d like your business to be in 20 years or when and how you’d like to sell it.
4. You Have an Even Temperament.
You maintain a calm, even-tempered demeanor at work no matter what’s going on. You don’t take out your stress on others or let the urge for control of the call of anxiety get the best of you. You can be relied on to always keep your cool. This trait helps you make clearer and more balanced business decisions. It also sets the tone for a healthy-functioning work environment.
5. You Have Excellent Negotiation Skills.
You walk into every negotiation situation knowing what it is you want and what you’re willing to give up to the other side. You work on improving your negotiation skills every time. Negotiating is a huge part of business— from negotiating with vendors to everyday smaller negotiations with the members of your team.
6. You Surround Yourself With Top Talent.
You aren’t threatened by the prospect of not being the smartest person in the room. You know that you don’t know everything and that there’s always more to learn. As such, you make it a point to surround yourself with people who excel in different disciplines and areas of business. This extends to your social groups but also the members of your team and your consultants.
7. You’re Willing to Work on Any Area of Your Business.
You don’t reserve your efforts for CEO or co-founder activities. You take care of whatever needs taking care of and don’t make a big deal of it.
About the Author: Syama Meagher is the CEO and founder of Scaling Retail, which has launched brands around the world using a combination of expert advice and creative marketing strategy. We believe in the power of hard work to grow and build your businesses. Discover Scaling Retail at www.ScalingRetail.com.
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This story was originally published on August 25, 2019, and has since been updated.
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10 Money Questions to Ask Yourself (So You Can Afford the Life You Want)
Can I reverse bad credit?
What is your relationship with money? Do you love to save and budget for the future, or are you all about enjoying that hard-earned money and prepared to go into debt for it? Either way, we need to get better at talking about it if we ever want to be better at managing it, and eventually having more of it. Especially when you consider that globally, women control upwards of $20 trillion in annual consumer spending. But sadly, when it comes to managing money and planning for their financial future, women aren’t as independent as you’d expect. A study found that more millennial women cede control to their husbands than women of older generations. Well, our new series, The Money Files is set to change all that by helping women become masters of their own finances so they can manage their money and their future.
Photo: Smith House Photo
Money. We all love spending it and we all want more of it, but saving it is the hard part. It’s not that we don’t want to see more money in the bank (duh) but striking a balance between saving for the future and living the life you want isn’t always an easy one to master. Too often, the pendulum swings farther into the spending camp and before you know it, you’re in the red and playing catch-up with the interest charged on your credit card debt.
Don’t worry, we get it. That’s why we asked Priya Malani, partner of Stash Wealth, to help us all get our finances in order. So, she sent us 10 important money questions to ask ourselves so we can bank that cash, pay off that debt, and live life like a millionaire (well, that’s the dream).
1. What can I realistically do to improve my income level?
Negotiation is never a bad idea as long as you’ve planned for it. Most managers plan for you to negotiate and so there’s wiggle room in your salary range. An annual negotiation is perfectly appropriate. Use the months leading up the conversation to prime your manager and document the proof that you’ll use when going in for the ask.
When is a negotiation not smart? When you go in cold and demand a raise. You’ll want to have data to support your request and documentation of your value-add (even if it’s qualitative, not quantitative). Stay factual and unemotional and above all, leave politics at the door.
Side note: IMHO, wanting to upgrade your lifestyle is not a strong reason to demand a raise. I was recently speaking to someone who was advised to use this strategy and as a business owner, I can say that not only would it not work, but it would leave me with a poorer opinion of the employee’s ability to #adult. Taking e-courses that are tangentially related to your field is an excellent way to demonstrate a commitment to increasing productivity and value and certainly supports your case for a raise.
2. What can I do to reverse bad credit and get my score back on track?
This may sound counterintuitive but start using a credit card and paying it off in full every single week or more often. This is one of my favorite FICO hacks (FICO is an abbreviation for the Fair Isaac Corporation, the first company to offer a credit-risk model with a score). It’s a quick and easy way to positively impact one of the most important parts of your credit score—your credit utilization ratio. Make sure to never charge up more than you can pay off.
If your credit cards are maxed, find ways you can pay down that debt ASAP. Consider selling stuff on FB Marketplace or via Poshmark, getting a roommate, cutting any unnecessary expenses that may free up cash that you can put towards your debt. And once you find the extra money, set up a regular debt repayment automation, so you don’t accidentally spend it.
If you want to explore other actions that may bump your score, download the CreditWise app (it’s free) which includes a credit score simulator. It shows you how different actions will impact your credit score before you actually commit to doing them. I’m a huge fan of this app and use it myself.
3. How much should I be saving for retirement?
There’s no easy answer here because retirement is not one-size-fits-all. You can start by using an online calculator to find out how much you’d need to put away to ensure you’ll replace a portion of your current income by the time you hit your desired retirement age.
Here are the main things you need to think about:
How much you earn now?
Is it just you in retirement or are you providing for someone else?
At what age do you want to retire?
How long do you expect your retirement to last (aka life expectancy—MORBID, I know!)
Once you determine these things, you’ll have the major inputs that will help you decide how much you should be putting away for the exact retirement you picture for yourself. Yes, it’s very hard to picture what your life may look like years from now, but I have three words for you: Playing. Catch-up. Sucks.
4. If I’m planning on having children, how can I ensure I have enough funds to take care of them on one income? When should I start saving for their schooling?
A good exercise is to stash away 10-15% of your income today and see how it feels. That’s the percentage of your income that will go toward your children for basic day-to-day expenses (not including schooling). If you feel you can manage on 85-90% of what comes in the door, that’s a good indication that you have room for kids, financially.
When it comes to saving for school, it all depends on how much support you want to provide them. 100% of four years at a private institution? 50% of four years at a public institution? Once you have a sense of what your priorities are here, you’ll be able to back into your savings goal. Add that savings goal to the 10-15% I spoke about earlier and plan to live without that money—is it doable? If so, start saving as soon as possible.
Once again, it’s no fun to play catch up and the longer you wait, the more you’ll have to save to be on track for your goal.
5. What would happen if my spouse passed away? How can I plan for that?
This is a not-so-fun thing to think about and plan for but it’s pretty important to do so. When it comes to the financial support your spouse provides, the first step is to decide whether you feel dependent on your spouse's income or if you own property or have kids together. If so, life insurance may make sense. A life insurance person can help you evaluate how much coverage to obtain to ensure that if your spouse passes away, you wouldn’t have to change your lifestyle, in other words, you’d still be able to pay your mortgage and take care of your children in the same way you are now (monetarily speaking).
“Yes, it’s very hard to picture what your life may look like years from now, but I have three words for you: Playing. Catch-up. Sucks.”
6. When should I start investing money? And how do I know what to invest in?
This question deserves a whole article in and of itself. But the long and short of it is this. Investing is a way for your money to grow over time, not overnight. If you think investing leads to a “quick win,” you’re thinking about it all wrong. Wall Street loves to portray investing more like gambling but the fact of the matter is that the sooner you start investing, the more successful you’ll be because money grows with time and you need to be patient for it to work.
As far as what to invest in, this is another area that Wall Street (and the media) portrays completely incorrectly. They make it seem like you're supposed to pick stocks and trade frequently when the opposite in fact is true—slow and steady wins the race. If you’ve ever heard of index funds, you’re on the right track.
Investing is a means to accomplish your financial goals and so technically, no one should tell you what to invest in until they know what you’re investing for. Goal-setting is the first step to knowing what to invest in.
7. How can I save for a house? What do I need to do?
Speaking to my point above, the first step to take is to commit to homeownership as a financial goal. If you’re in a relationship, you’ll want to have this conversation with your significant other. Define the timeframe in which you’d like to accomplish buying a home. Using sites like Zillow can help you evaluate what kind of home you’d like to buy and how much it will cost. Once you know what you’re aiming for, you can back into how much you’ll have to save for a down payment. About 20% is a relatively standard down payment, but many Millennials are opting for 10% down to get into a home sooner. This is totally fine as long as you have the cash flow to cover the mortgage with wiggle room. You don’t want to end up #housepoor.
8. How can I make a budget that still allows me to live the life I want? Are there any apps that I can use?
YNAB is a great app that helps you segregate your cash into different buckets so you can set money aside for your priorities first (rent, bills, student loan payments) and then blow the rest, guilt-free. At Stash, we call it reverse budgeting.
9. Should I have a financial planner? How do I find one that’s right for me and isn’t going to cost too much?
Financial planners serve many purposes, but their main job is to help you consider your short-, mid-, and long-term financial goals and then reverse engineer a game plan that puts you on track in the most cost-effective, tax-efficient way. Some people feel comfortable figuring this out on their own while others feel they might benefit from a guided conversation. A good financial planner can also serve as a mediator when you’re in a relationship and provide that unbiased outside opinion that’s sometimes the exact thing your spouse needs to hear from someone else. Some people feel they’ve done things right and use a financial planner simply for a second opinion from an experienced professional.
Finally, a financial planner knows that you may not know all the things you should be thinking about and makes suggestions to make sure there aren’t any holes in your plan. Stash Wealth is a virtual financial planning firm for H.E.N.R.Y.s™ (High Earners, Not Rich Yet) who are in their 20s and 30s and want to take their financial life to the next level. Stash Wealth is a fiduciary (no conflicts of interest) and charges a one-time flat fee to build you a customized game plan, called the Stash Plan®. Is the Stash Plan® right for me?
10. Do I have enough for an emergency fund? How much should I keep in that fund?
Unlike most financial professionals, Stash Wealth believes your emergency fund should be no more than three months’ worth of your fixed expenses (rent, bills, etc). Most personal financial gurus talk about six to 12 months, but we think that’s crazy for four reasons:
Your emergency fund is supposed to be your first line of defense, not your only line of defense.
Millennials are hustlers. If sh*t hits the fan, we’re at a time in our careers where we are able to reset our incomes pretty quickly (of course, you know your industry best)
We have so many other financial priorities. Waiting until we’ve saved up 6 months in cash, has us wasting precious time that could have been better used to help us achieve other financial goals.
That’s way too much money sitting in cash. As good as the online banks are (and that’s where we’d recommend you keep your Emergency Fund), your money is technically still losing value every year thanks to inflation. Millennials want their money to work harder for them.
“If you think investing leads to a “quick win,” you’re thinking about it all wrong.”
-Priya Malani, Entrepreneur and Founding Partner at Stash Wealth
About the Author: Priya Malani is an entrepreneur and founding partner at Stash Wealth, a financial planning firm for H.E.N.R.Y.s™ (High Earners, Not Rich Yet). After years of working on Wall Street, Priya left to work with millennials, who are largely ignored by traditional financial firms. Stash’s clients are 20- and 30-somethings who make good money and want something to show for it. In addition to running Stash, Priya serves as the resident financial expert for Refinery29. She is a featured expert on numerous sites and speaks regularly at businesses and universities around the country. She appears regularly as a Millennial Money Expert on SiriusXM.
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This story was originally published on August 1, 2019, and has since been updated.
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22 Powerful LGBTQIA+ Leaders, Educators, and Advocates to Follow and Support Now and Always
Listen, learn, and advocate.
Until last year, federal law in the U.S. did not protect employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity—that means just over half (52%) of LGBTQIA+ people in the U.S. lived in states where they could be fired, refused a promotion or training, and harassed at their jobs based on their gender identity and sexual orientation.
It’s little wonder that LGBTQIA+ workers experience high rates of discrimination when looking for work and on the job. In fact, 25% of LGBTQIA+ people reported discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity—half of whom said it negatively impacted their work environment, according to the 2018 MAP report—and 27% of transgender workers reported being fired, not hired, or denied a promotion in 2016 to 2017.
Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court took a long-overdue step in ending these discriminatory practices by ruling that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and sex, also applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. And though we are seeing some progress on state-level legislation, there is plenty that needs to change.
LGBTQIA+ voices are still underrepresented in the workplace and in the media. Last year, Fast Company partnered with Lesbians Who Tech & Allies to compile the Queer 50—the first-ever list of LGBTQ women and non-binary innovators—recognizing the need now more than ever to highlight queer trailblazers and advocates across the tech, finance, venture capital, media, and entertainment industries. For their inaugural Pride issue, The Hollywood Reporter honored 50 of the most powerful LGBTQ people in the industry who are making global culture more inclusive.
It’s as Billy Porter so poignantly put, “We as a nation are at our tipping point, the tipping point. One that has been heating towards boiling over for hundreds of years.”
So, we’re using our platform to celebrate and amplify powerful LGBTQIA+ leaders, innovators, and change-makers to support and follow today and every day. This list is ongoing and we plan to continue updating it with more voices who inspire us with their story and their mission.
Ashlee Marie Preston
Cultural Commentator, Social Impact Strategist, Political Analyst, and Civil Rights Activist
As the first trans woman to become editor in chief of a national publication and the first openly trans person to run for state office in California, Ashlee Marie Preston has become a powerful voice for the LGBTQIA+ community on intersectionality, representation, and humanization. “As a black trans woman, I never experience discrimination on a single axis,” she said at our STARZ Summer Speaker Series. “I experience everything at the intersection of race, gender, socio-economic disparity so I felt like all the cards were stacked against me… I got really sick and tired of people presenting us as these hyper-sexualized characters that existed to satisfy a man’s libido. We’re so much more than that.” Preston encourages all of us to be just who we are. “Don’t be afraid to take up space,” she went on. “You should never have to shrink your fatness, your blackness, your brownness, your transness, your queerness.” We couldn’t agree more.
Indya Moore
Actor, Model, and Writer
Indya Moore skyrocketed onto our screens as the aspiring model, Angel Evangelista on the hit FX series, Pose (which features more transgender actors than any scripted television series in history) but the model and actor is also highly regarded as a thought leader and activist and was honored on the Time 100 list as one of the most influential people of 2019. They use their social influence to create awareness and opportunity for marginalized communities, particularly Black trans women. Their work and message have both garnered the attention of fashion brands including Nicolas Ghesquière of Louis Vuitton who featured Moore in the luxury brand’s pre-fall 2019 look book, alongside Michelle Williams and Jennifer Connelly and made them the host of Vuitton’s Paris fashion show. Prabal Gurung sat Moore front row at his fashion show while Joseph Altuzarra took them to the Tony Awards as his date.
Brit Barron
Speaker, Teacher, and Author
In her book, Worth It, Barron shares her story of growing up in an Evangelical megachurch in the '90s where she eventually became a pastor at 26. She eventually met Sami, left the church, came out, and got married. Since then, she has pursued her passion while encouraging others to turn their fears into courage and live a fuller, more vibrant life. As she writes on her website, “choosing freedom is always worth it no matter the cost.” With 10+ years of experience in diversity and inclusion work, Barron recently created a 65-page digital guide Understanding Racism 101 to start educating yourself and for those around you who are asking where to start.
Buy her book and buy her digital guide.
Erica Chidi
CEO and Co-Founder of Loom
It was during her first year as a practicing doula that Erica Chidi had an epiphany and the seeds were planted for what would later become an inclusive wellness space, LOOM. “I looked at the pregnancy, parenting and reproductive health education industry and looked around and realized there was inertia,” she told us in her CC100 2018 interview. “There had been very little innovation and didn't reflect what myself or other people like me would want. It still felt hyper-feminine, dogmatic, essentialist, and polarizing. There wasn't a fresh, moderate, evidenced-based, and inclusive brand that brought together a lot more untraditional modalities and yet worked side-by-side with the medical community to give people better overall outcomes in their pregnancy, their parenting, their reproductive health experience.” Now her vision is a reality. With a focus on sexual and reproductive health, LOOM provides health education to empower everyone. “When people have body literacy and can advocate for themselves, they have better health outcomes. That’s what women and people of color need,” she told Kinfolk.
Liz Kleinrock
Anti-Bias, Antiracist (ABAR) Educator, and TED Talker
We’re often told that religion and politics (and money or consent) are strictly off the table and not open for discussion, but anti-bias anti-racist educator-in-progress Liz Kleinrock strongly believes that we should be discussing these topics often and from an early age. As she explained on the TED stage, “deliberate avoidance of these conversations speaks volumes to our students because kids notice when their teachers—when their textbooks—leave out the voices and experiences of people like women or people of color. Silence speaks volumes.” The key is to break it down into a format that is accessible for young learners.
And if you think kids are too young to learn about issues of equity then hear it from them, in their own words: "We're big enough to know about these things because these problems are happening where we live. And we have the right to talk about them because it will be our life in the future." Hear, hear.
Raquel Willis
Writer, Activist, Media Strategist, and Founder of Black Trans Circles
Through her initiative, Black Trans Circles (BTC). Willis is developing the leadership of Black trans women in the South and Midwest through the creation of healing justice spaces to help heal oppression-based trauma and incubate community organizing efforts to address anti-trans murder and violence. In an excerpt for the NY Times she wrote: “As a writer and a media creator, I want to liberate others and help elevate voices that are often the target of ridicule and erasure. So many of my Black trans sisters have been denied the chance to share their stories and it is my duty to them to help expand that master narrative while also expanding the narrative of queer and trans folks in general.” Here’s to more progress and narrative shifting.
Ashley C. Ford
Writer, Host
If you aren’t familiar with Ashley C. Ford’s work, then we suggest you read this powerful profile she wrote on Serena Williams, or this one with Anne Hathaway, and start following her on Twitter, ASAP. Her work, which has been featured in almost every publication both physical and digital from The Guardian to ELLE and The New York Times, doesn’t shy away from traditionally taboo topics in her work from race to sexuality, and body image. She is also the host of the Brooklyn-based news and culture TV show (and podcast!) 112BK and is in the process of writing her memoir, Somebody's Daughter.
Roxanne Gay
Writer and Author
“As a black woman, as a black queer woman, specificity is incredibly important, because diverse experiences are rarely seen in literature,” she tells The Guardian. It’s racial honesty like this that has positioned Roxane Gay firmly on our must-read list ever since she landed on the literary scene with her The New York Times best-seller, Bad Feminist—a collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism. She has written several best-sellers since then including Difficult Women, Hunger, and Not That Bad, among more. And while some of her books about her experiences are hard to read, Gay encourages us to read the stories of other lives, of difficult lives, of different lives to engender empathy and understanding. “I read everything. The No 1 thing I tell my students is read diversely,” she explains. “And I’m not talking about demographics, though that’s part of it. Aesthetic diversity, genre diversity. It matters because it just makes us better informed, and it protects us from our worst instincts.”
Janet Mock
Writer, Director, Author, and Advocate
As a writer, director, author, and advocate Mock has brought the stories of other trans and gender-nonconforming people to life, including her own. In her memoirs, New York Times best-seller, Redefining Realness and Surpassing Certainty, Mock shares her struggles with identity, recognition, and purpose and in a world without a roadmap to guide her forward. Now she is bringing the power of representation from the pages of her books to our screens with the hit FX series, Pose. “The fact that I get to go on set and supervise production, write scripts, direct ... it's astounding," Mock tells NPR. "I watch the monitors sometimes ... with tears in my eyes, realizing that these were the sort of stories that I was craving as a young person. There's no over-explaining of our experiences. ... It's just: 'Welcome to our world.'“
Billy Porter
Actor, Singer, Writer, and Director
He is renowned for his showstopping red-carpet outfits (who could ever forget this Met Gala moment) but Billy Porter’s influence reaches much further than his fashion style. The singer, writer, director, and actor (he stars on the FX series, Pose) is a passionate advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community. In a recent video on his Instagram page, Porter shared his message for America, calling for action and advocacy for Black non-gender conforming and trans people. "As Black people, we risk our lives every time we leave our homes. As queer people of color that risk is doubled," Porter said. "We move about our days sucking it up, hiding our pain and terror from the world, trying to make ourselves small, so white people and straight people feel comfortable. Our parents try to prepare us for the realities of this world: the fact that the playing field is not leveled, the laws that protect white people do not do the same for us, and that we have to be at least 10 times better at anything we choose to do in life to simply get in the rooms where things happen."
Shantell Martin
Artist and Producer
Exploring themes such as intersectionality, identity and play, Shantelle Martin is a cultural facilitator. Her work has garnered the attention of major brands that resulted in collaborations with Nike, Vitra, Max Mara, Tiffany & Co., and in 2018, Puma launched a global capsule collection featuring her drawings. Her live art performances are visually arresting and take you into her signature stream-of-consciousness and meditative process—watch this monologue and you’ll see why. Her work is a powerful exploration of intention, purpose, and exploration of humanity.
She explained this process in her CC100 2019 interview: “Intention is a very powerful aspect of existence. Essentially, and I think many people whether “artists” or not, can relate to being fueled by a purpose or the search for purpose. This purpose is like the internal line which for me becomes something external with the lines of my art. I have a purpose which is very much tied to exploring the essence of humanity and the world… it comes from a place of pure curiosity and empathy and I feel that intention to connect with the deepest part of myself and YOU is a universal feeling.”
Blair Imani
Educator, Historian, Author, and Influencer
After she realized that the history many of us have been taught was seriously flawed, historian Blair Imani dedicated her career to educating folks and opening people’s eyes to the systematic oppression that endangers marginalized individuals today. She has authored the books “Modern HERstory: Stories of Women and Nonbinary People Rewriting History” and “Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and The Black American Dream” all while educating the public on institutionalized bigotry via Patreon.
Ingrid Nilsen
Content Creator, YouTuber, and Host of One Step Podcast
Ingrid Nilsen came onto the scene with her first video in 2009, now the California native has over three million subscribers on YouTube and is basically a household name when it comes to beauty and wellness advice. But in June 2015, Nilsen released a coming-out video that went viral (it now has over 17 million views) and she has been a vocal advocate online for the LGBTQIA+ community ever since with videos that cover the best LGBTQIA+ places in New York to the 3 LGBTQ people who inspire me. She has also helped call attention to efforts to repeal the tampon tax and voting, and she’s the host of @onesteppodcast.
Nicolette Mason
Brand Strategist, Creative Consultant, and Contributing Fashion Writer
Nicolette Mason has always amplified marginalized voices and been a true ally and advocate for the diversity and inclusivity movement as it relates to size diversity, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, racial diversity, and more. In addition to her work as writer, she is also a creative consultant and brand strategist working with brands like Target, Dove, and Barbie on diversity and inclusion initiatives. After nearly a decade of working in the fashion industry, she launched Premme, a body-positive plus-size fashion destination, with her friend and business partner Gabi Gregg in July 2017 which has since shut down but as they’re Instagram states, “the premmories will last a lifetime.”
Follow Nicolette on Instagram.
Angelica Ross
Actor, Writer, Producer, and Founder of TransTech Social Miss Ross Inc
Angelica Ross made her debut as Candy Ferocity on Pose, but she’s been a leading figure in the movement for trans and racial equality. When you consider the statistics—72% of trans homicide victims between 2010 and 2016 were black trans women and femmes—it’s easy to see why Ross wants to ensure that these women aren’t reduced to a statistic. “In a situation where black trans women are being killed, who am I to think that I'm so special, that I would make it out alive?” she told ELLE. “It's usually the dark-skinned, black, trans women that are being murdered, and out of that group, that would be me. That would be Candy.”
As the founder of TransTech Social Enterprises, Ross is working to empower trans and gender-nonconforming people through on-the-job training in leadership and workplace skills. As a powerful speaker, she tours nationally to share her mission with business leaders, educators, and the President of the United States.
Megan Rapinoe
Co-Captain of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team
Ever since she co-captained the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team to win their fourth World Cup title, the outspoken Megan Rapinoe has emerged as a new kind of activist athlete who’s unapologetic approach has inspired millions of fans around the world. In addition to gender equality, Rapinoe has spoken out on social injustice (she took a knee to protest racial inequality and spoke openly against mass incarceration), and along with her team, took the U.S. Soccer Federation to court over pay equity. Now, that’s someone who uses their social influence for good.
Mikaela Straus, King Princess
Singer, Songwriter, Instrumentalist, and Producer
Twenty-one-year-old singer, songwriter, and producer, Mikaela Straus aka King Princess is bringing a young queer perspective to pop. Her song 1950 has clearly struck a chord with fans with 124 million plays on Spotify. As Rolling Stone describes King Princess as “a young woman supremely confident of both her sexual identity and singing ability” and the self-assuredness isn’t an act. “I want to get to a place where the story is less about me and my face and more about what the fuck’s going on in this world. How I can be an active voice for gay people but also the music industry,” she tells Rolling Stone. “This is the art we need right now. This is what we need right now. We’re in a renaissance, and we need people to rebel, come forth, and bring messages into art.”
Follow King Princess on Instagram.
Jonathan Van Ness
Hairdresser, Host, Getting Curious, and Star of Netflix’s Queer Eye
We all know Jonathan Van Ness (JVN) as the grooming expert on the hit Netflix series, Queer Eye but it’s his positive outlook and ability to help people see the beauty in themselves that made us all fall in love with him. And that bright outlook and larger than life personality still shine when the camera’s turned off. In real life, JVN is even more wonderful but beyond that, it’s his acceptance of people for who they are and a yearning to know more about the world and his place in it that has amassed millions of fans from around the world. Now he shares those stories on his Getting Curious podcast including his own in the best-selling memoir, Over the Top which details his HIV-positive status and history of addiction.
"In the last three years, there has been a steady rise in hate crimes every single year and we have an administration that is targeting asylum seekers, immigrants, LGBTQ people, HIV-positive people, women, and families,” he told Allure. “I think your approach to beauty can be political protest all the time… I think that knowledge is power and knowing the importance of the decisions you make with the money that you spend is literally a political protest. Everything, really, can be when you think about it."
Laverne Cox
Actress, Documentary Film Producer, and Prominent Equal Rights Advocate
We all know and love Laverne Cox as Sophia Burset in the critically acclaimed Netflix original series, Orange is The New Black, but what you might not know is how groundbreaking her casting was, not just for the show but for trans women in Hollywood as the first trans woman of color to have a leading role on a mainstream scripted television show. Since then, Laverne has continued her work and advocacy with her empowering message of “moving beyond gender expectations to live more authentically.” And she continues her string of “firsts” from being featured on the cover of TIME Magazine to an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series to a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
Arlan Hamilton
Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Captial, Author of It’s About Damn Time, and Host of Your First Million
Here are some startling stats: Only 12% of venture capital funds are invested in companies with at least one female founder, according to All Raise. Additionally, of the $425 billion raised in VC funding since 2009, a mere 0.32% went to Latinx female founders and .0006% to startups led by Black women. Arlan Hamilton, the founder and managing partner of the venture capital firm Backstage Capital, is on a mission to tip these statistics in the right direction. Since launching in 2015, Backstage Capital has invested over $7M in 130 companies led by underrepresented founders, according to the company’s website. It’s no wonder we included her on our 2018 Create & Cultivate 100 list.
Leanne Pittford
Founder of Lesbians Who Tech & Allies, Include.io, and Tech Jobs Tour
In 2012, Leanne Pittsford organized a series of happy hour networking events for lesbians in technology. Fast-forward to 2020 and what started as a small gathering of just 30 people has grown into Lesbians Who Tech & Allies, a veritable tech community of 40,000 members with chapters in 40 cities. Since then, the 2019 Create & Cultivate 100 honoree has founded two more companies to help underrepresented people in tech land their dream jobs: Include.io, a mentoring and recruiting platform, and Tech Jobs Tour, a series of networking events across the country to bridge the gap between tech companies and prospective job candidates.
Lena Waithe
Producer, Writer, and Actor
In an industry where diversity and inclusion are seriously lacking, Lena Waithe is paving a way for Black and queer women on and off-screen. She started her career as a production assistant for Ava DuVernay's I Will Follow, went on to be a writer for Fox's Bones, and was a producer on Justin Simien's 2014 film Dear White People. She’s gone on to found her own production company, Hillman Grad Productions, and produce films such as The Forty-Year Old Version and Queen & Slim as well as television shows The Chi and Boomerang. And notably, in 2017, she became the first Black woman to win an Emmy for best writing for a comedy series for her work on the Netflix series Master of None, which returns May 23 and will follow Lena Waithe’s character Denise and her partner Alicia, who is played by Naomi Ackie.
We will be continually updating this list of powerful LGBTQIA+ leaders to continue supporting and amplifying the voices of the LGBTQIA+ community. Please share your suggestions with us in the comments below!
This story was originally published on June 10, 2020, and has since been updated.
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Ask a Confidence Coach—11 Tips to Take Your Career to the Next Level
The “fake it ‘till you make it” mantra works… until it doesn’t.
Photo: Create & Cultivate
Show of hands: Who has heard the phrase “confidence is key” before? Are you with me on this? From elementary school murals to iPhone screensavers, this common phrase is plastered everywhere, and for good reason. I truly believe that confidence is key for many areas of your life, but if you’re like me, I only think about confidence in personal settings. My personality, looks, and sense of humor are all things that I easily see as areas needing confidence. But the one area I’ve always struggled feeling confident in? My career. And that’s where Heather Monahan comes in.
Monahan is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and founder of Boss in Heels. Having successfully climbed the corporate ladder for nearly 20 years, Monahan’s book “Confidence Creator” illustrates the tough lessons she’s learned throughout her career that have helped her develop the self-assurance necessary for getting what she wanted in life. Below, Monahan shares 11 ways you can take your career to the next level by feeding your own. Here’s what she recommends.
Figure Out Where Your Passions and Talents Lie
When you are spending your time in your superpower you feel so confident. What I mean by that is if your talent is highlighted when you are interacting with others, but you are currently in a job where you only interact with spreadsheets on your computer, you need to change roles. Figuring out where your passions and talents are is critical to becoming your most confident self at work. This is the single most important thing you can do. When we speak about what we know and love, we are more confident. Identify your superpower and spend your time there.
Bring Your Confidence to Work (Even If You Have to Fake It Sometimes)
Confidence everywhere is important. Here is an example: I was hired by an association to give my keynote speech. On the conference call the week before the event, the new president was laying out expectations for me. This is what he said: “Heather, this is my first year as president and there is so much pressure on me to create a stellar event. If your speech is amazing then I am golden, if you blow it I fail. You cannot blow it.” I laughed in my head. I could hear how he was lacking confidence in his new role. Thankfully, I am very confident in my speaking abilities, and here is what I said: “Have no fear. I will nail this and you will look like a superstar. You can take that to the bank.”
He started laughing and thanked me for being so confident, it put him at ease. However, if I had said to him, “I am so sorry you are feeling this pressure. It sounds really hard. I can promise I will try my best,” (while a fair response) it would not have been the confident response my client needed in his moment of fear. Bringing confidence to work is the difference between existing and excelling. People want to work with people that are confident because it makes them feel comfortable.
Confront Your Misconceptions and Limiting Beliefs
This is the million-dollar question. Statistics show that women feel less confident than men beginning at age eight. What this says to me is the way we are raised—the self-limiting beliefs that are imposed on us through culture, society, media, and the “lanes” that are created for women—all impact our confidence. We are told to be a certain weight, look pretty, be kind and gentle, be smart but not too smart, and on and on. What I have learned over the last two decades is pretty much everything I was taught as a child needs to be re-examined now.
I was raised as the “social” one and my sister was the “smart” one. I walked through life carrying these labels with me and allowing myself to be limited as a result. Confronting these misconceptions and moving into my fear allowed me to create confidence in myself; however, it was pretty scary. Realizing that we create our own reality and we allow for or choose not to accept others’ opinions or limitations is incredibly empowering. For years, I had played small at work because I saw that it allowed others to feel more comfortable. When I would rise up or step into my power I would see others feel uncomfortable.
Deciding to own my power has allowed me to take off in business and in my life. It starts with you and me deciding to live our lives by our own rules. Confidence is a choice.
Make Goals and Stretch Yourself Every Day
There are so many things. Leverage LinkedIn. Everyone has a personal brand. Make the conscious decision to hold the pen when orchestrating your personal brand. If you don’t do this others will be writing the outline for your brand and deciding your story. LinkedIn is a fantastic place to showcase your highlight reel at work. This is where you want to list your accomplishments, accolades, and reviews. We live in a word-of-mouth society and the best words are the ones others share about us.
The next time someone says, “Great job!” convert that feedback in the moment and ask that person to write a review of your work on your LinkedIn wall. Get in the habit of doing this and watch the credibility and traction you create. Have a goal. Whether it is to make 10 sales calls today or to reach out to three new potential mentors, you need to have a big picture goal and vision of your future and you need to have micro-goals that you will accomplish each day. Surround yourself with people that are ahead of you, as they will help to stretch you beyond what you see as your current potential.
“Make the conscious decision to hold the pen when orchestrating your personal brand.”
Be Prepared to Step Into the Uncomfortable Sometimes
If you lack confidence, you will not pitch yourself for the job that doesn’t exist or for the promotion right in front of you. The first time I pitched myself for a vision I had, which was not an existing job, others said to me that it wouldn’t work and others had the same idea, but the company wouldn’t want to implement it. In that moment, if I lacked confidence, I would have accepted that answer and backed away. Thankfully, I was confident in my abilities at work and I called the president of the company, met with him face-to-face, and closed him on my idea.
That idea more than doubled the company’s revenues during my tenure at the company. If you want to move up, you need to create confidence so you can step into the uncomfortable and move beyond what has always been. When you create confidence, you also allow yourself to innovate and see things others might not be able to see. Confidence allows for creativity and authenticity which are key in getting ahead at work.
“Faking it ‘till you make it will help you to get through difficult times, but it is never the long term answer.”
Confidence Is Earned
Confidence is such an interesting thing. I believe we are all born with the same baseline. However, we are immediately impacted by our surroundings and the individuals we are interacting with. There are so many people that I meet who have amazing parents, wealth, and health and create confidence immediately from their surroundings. What is interesting is those same people as adults when faced with losing their parents crumble. When your confidence comes from an external place it can’t be sustained.
I know this first hand. I had associated my confidence with my job title and my paycheck. The day I got fired, my confidence came crumbling down. The important thing to know is regardless of if you have confidence today or don’t, you can create it in any moment. The act of reading this article is creating confidence as you are accessing knowledge to better yourself. Confidence is not something that some are born with and some are not. Confidence is something that anyone can create and that can falter at different times in your life or different areas of your life.
Some may be confident in their personal life but not at work and some may be really confident in their workout but not when dating. Confidence is different at different times in your life and different situations, but through practice and discipline, you can become masterful in creating it and realizing your true potential.
The “Fake It ‘Till You Make It” Mantra Works… Until It Doesn’t
This mantra served me well in corporate America. Back in the day, I lacked confidence at work for many reasons. One of the big issues is because I had been told by many to dress a certain way, look a certain way, and change how I really am. The more you move away from the authentic you, the more you chip away at your confidence.
Over time, my confidence was dropping. When that happened, I began to allow others to treat me poorly at work. When I allowed for that, my confidence started spiraling. I still had a very high position in the company and would have to address employees and audiences often. In those moments, I would fake my confidence. I would take the stage or the mic and “pretend” I was ultra-confident. This worked and so many people believed it. The real fail is I didn’t believe it. Faking it till you make it will help you to get through difficult times, but it is never the long-term answer.
Practice Gratitude and Visualization
Using affirmations daily works. As does:
Writing notes on the bottom of your shoe, which is a great reminder to pick you up when your confidence dips.
Wearing your power color to work will allow you to feel your best.
Putting yourself first and investing in you will build your confidence.
Deciding to no longer apologize and instead thank others will help you to feel stronger.
Taking others off of the proverbial pedestal will allow you to feel on level ground with others which creates confidence.
Scents like lavender or anything that resonates with you can help when you are lacking confidence.
Creating a confidence playlist and theme song will help you to ignite confidence before a big meeting. -Writing down three things you are grateful for each day will shift your mindset.
Practicing visualizing the life, promotion, meeting you want to happen will start things in motion and ready you for your dreams to manifest.”
Clothing Can Be a Powerful Tool
For years, I would wear a navy blue pantsuit because I had listened to the prescriptive direction others had imposed on me. These days, I rock ripped jeans and bodysuits and I feel powerful. Being true to your style and what you feel great in will always help you to be more confident. Trying to follow what others tell you will work is a recipe for failure. You have the answers for you. You know what you like to wear and what you don’t like to wear. Show up as you and shine your light ripped jeans and all.
Ditch the Fear and Do It Anyway
For years, I sat paralyzed by my fear. I would go to work in a toxic environment and cry at home at night because I felt stuck at the job that paid my bills. I was so fearful I would make excuses as to why I had to stay. I never thought, “Why don’t I leap and see what happens?” I now see fear as a green light that means GO! Not only go, but go faster. If I had leapt years ago, I would be so much further now. Done will always be better than perfect and failure only occurs if you quit. I am not a quitter.
I have had countless failures since I was fired and re-invented myself as an entrepreneur but each failure leads me to a new place, a better place as long as I just keep going. Like anything, you can build your strength and conquer new levels of fear. Start small and take baby steps. Talk to a new person in line at Starbucks today. Then tomorrow use that experience to allow you to share your new idea at work with your boss. Keep amassing these small wins by confronting your fear, and before you know it, you will have momentum that will propel you to smash through fear. What’s the worst that can happen?
This story was originally published on July 15, 2019, and has since been published.
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Your Complete Checklist to Writing a Résumé From Scratch
Your next career move starts here.
Photo: ColorJoy Stock by Christina Jones Photography
Writing a résumé is hard, and it’s often something that’s not taught in school, so consider this your crash course in how to write a résumé that will land you the job.
Now, first things first. Before you start listing your qualifications, it’s important to know what you want to gain from your résumé. What are you going to use it for? Will you be applying to higher education programs, internships, or jobs? If you’re already in the workforce, do you want to stay on the same career path or do you want to transition into something different?
Your résumé will differ greatly depending on your answers to these questions, so it’s crucial to go through this exercise before getting started. Next, you’ll want to gather your information. So let’s get started.
Contact Information
When you’re figuring out what information to include on a résumé, start with the basics. You should always create a header with your contact information. Make sure you include the following:
Phone number
Email address
Location (Just include your city and state; no need to write down your exact address.)
Website if applicable (Note this is NOT your LinkedIn profile. If you’re using LinkedIn correctly, you will be easily searchable, so there’s no need to include the direct link on your résumé.)
Headlining Statement
A headlining statement is a crucial part of a résumé. It takes the place of what once was an “objective” but is much more effective. Think of a headlining statement as a snapshot of your career. It’s a quick two to three sentence maximum statement about who you are, what you do, and what value you bring as a candidate.
Skills Matrix
Putting your skills toward the top of the document immediately increases the effectiveness of your résumé. Recruiters look at a résumé for approximately six seconds. That means you have mere moments to show that you are qualified and demonstrate what you bring to the table. When you put your skills matrix towards the top, this shows the reader exactly what you have to offer and highlights that you are qualified for the position right off the bat.
The faster you can grab someone’s attention and persuade them you’re the right candidate for the position, the more likely you’ll be to get past the initial influx of applicants.
Employment Information
Depending on what stage you’re at in your career, you might not have traditional employment information. If you do have traditional work experience, gather your dates of employment, (month and year) job description, projects you worked on, and any additional information you can include like how many people you managed.
If you are in school or are just starting out in your career, you’ll want to include volunteer work and/or internship information. If you need to add even more relevant industry experience, include information about relevant school projects you worked on. This will help highlight your ability to work on a given project under constraints and will help highlight your relevant industry knowledge.
If you are listing class projects on your résumé, use the school name in place of the company name, and include something along the lines of “[Class Title] Project Manager,” “Student Project Manager,” or “[Class Title] Student” in place of a job title.
Specific Metrics and Achievements for Each Role
The key to a great résumé is highlighting exactly what you’ve achieved and what you can bring to a new role. This is not the place to include a general job description that can be used for anyone with that job title. Include specific information about what you did, how many people you worked with or managed, projects you worked on, and project results to ensure that your résumé immediately reflects your achievements and what you can bring to the table.
Anyone can say that they’re great at their job, but very few people can actually show it. When you’re noting your achievements, think about how you can quantify what you’ve done.
Education Information
Unless it is your highest level of education or you are in your first year of college, do not include information about your high school diploma. Similarly, there is no need to include GPA unless you’re currently in school and have a very high GPA (3.8 or above).
When it comes to listing education, start with the highest level of education at the top and list backward from there. For example:
PhD information
Master’s information
Bachelor’s information
High School information
Unless you are currently in school or are in a profession where your degree is a key factor, (i.e. medicine, law, etc.) your education should be listed at the bottom of your résumé. If you are in school or in one of the professions where your education is very important, your education will go towards the top under your skills list.
Certifications and Specialized Training
Including certifications and specialized training on your résumé make a huge difference in how impactful your document is. Even if you don’t have specific certifications but you’ve had internal training, taken an online course, or even just an online tutorial, include that on your résumé.
About the Author: Michele Lando is a certified professional résumé writer, personal branding expert, and founder of Write Styles. She has a passion for helping others present the best version of themselves both on paper and in person and works to polish individuals' application package and personal style. Aiming to help create a perfect personal branding package, Write Styles provides resources to enhance your résumé, professional appearance, and boost your confidence. Michele strives to help others gain the confidence to put their best foot forward in a personal and professional light.
This story was originally published on January 6, 2020, and has since been updated.
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How to Host a Socially Distant Dinner Party for the Holidays That Won't Break the Bank
Tips for making the most of virtual gathering.
The holidays are here and that means more fun, more food, and more time with family and friends. But it can also be panic-inducing with all of the gift-buying and party-planning that needs to be done—and all of this is on top of your end-of-year work schedule. Not to mention the current COVID climate, which calls for planning a whole new kind of virtual, socially distant gathering.
But as you know, the Create & Cultivate team has hosted a few dinner parties (and virtual events!) in our time so we’re very familiar with the preparation required to put on a successful evening. We know that sitting down to plan a party can sometimes feel scarier than putting together a business plan! So, we’re here to help with a few tips, short cuts, and ideas to keep it simple and exceed your guest’s expectations at the same time, whether you’re getting together via Zoom or safely gathering outdoors.
Due to COVID, we recommend following the CDC’s guidelines, as well as any state, local, territorial, or tribal health and safety laws, when planning any holiday celebration this season.
Photo: Daria Shevtsova from Pexels
Gather the Guest List
A great dinner party (especially a great virtual dinner party!) is all about the mix—of guests, that is! You want to make sure that there is a variety of diverse thinkers, movers, and shakers from the introverted to the outspoken, the flamboyant, and the shy. This keeps the conversation interesting and ensures your guests feel entertained throughout the night and want to stay the three courses, plus dessert! And don’t just invite people you know. Pull people from all aspects of your life, of different talents, and all ages. Perhaps your childhood friend would really get along with your new office colleague, so sit them next to each other and watch them hit it off.
Timeline: 3 weeks out.
Create an Invitation
It’s often overlooked but you don’t want to miss this essential party planning ingredient. The design of your invitation will set the tone for the evening and is an opportunity to build intrigue and excitement for your dinner party. It is also a great way to keep yourself accountable. Once the invitation is sent, there’s no backing out. You can go old school and send printed invitations or you can use a digital invite such as Paperless Post which also conveniently tracks all of your RSVPs and responses too. Include all the important information such as time, location, occasion, dress code, Zoom link, etc. and any other details—don’t be afraid to have fun with it.
Timeline: 2 weeks out.
Design the Tablescape
This is the fun part. There are so many directions you could take but before you decide, start collecting inspiration for the tablescape from the napkins to the vases. We highly recommend setting a festive table even if you’re hosting a virtual dinner party to get into the spirit of the event! We love to use Pinterest or create a saved folder on Instagram. One of our favorites is Athena Calderone’s EyeSwoon for ideas and recipes. The goal is to transform your space into something that makes your guest’s jaws drop, even if it’s just serving as a Zoom backdrop. And it doesn’t need to cost you an entire paycheck either. Think fresh flowers (or garden clippings!), candles, napkins, vases, and a pretty tablecloth. (Pro tip: purchase linen from the local fabric store for the tablecloth and the napkins, wash them, and leave the ends unsewn so they have frayed edges. Choose to iron them or leave them crinkled for a cool, unkempt look).
Timeline: 2 weeks out.
Curate a Delicious Menu
A dinner party is all about the food so don’t forget to plan a delicious spread with enticing appetizers and tasty treats that keep everyone happy all night long. You don’t have to be a top chef either. Why not order it pre-made and ready to go? Whether you’re having an intimate gathering with the people in your household or preparing a virtual holiday feast for the whole extended family, our go-to specialty grocer is The Fresh Market. They have everything you need to elevate entertaining for a memorable and delicious holiday including tons of fully prepared offerings so you can spend less time in the kitchen and more time connecting with loved ones. You can even arrange to send meals to friends and family from a distance if you’re gathering around the table virtually, or each household attending your Zoom dinner party can order the meal of their choosing!
Timeline: 1 week out.
Put on a Killer Playlist
If you want to good vibes all night long then compile a killer playlist on Spotify with a mix of old and new to keep the tempo upbeat and exciting. Be sure to plan a playlist that features several hours worth of music too and keep the cadence of the evening’s events in mind. Start the night off with lively tunes as you welcome people, then songs during dinner should be calming and mellow as people are eating and conversing, then pump it up again as guests move from the dinner party to the dance floor.
Timeline: A few days out.
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This story was originally published on November 1, 2019, and has since been updated.
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We Answer All Your Money Questions Like “Where Should I Put My Dollars Now?”
Financial refresh this way.
We know first hand when women set their mind to something, they can truly achieve anything. That also applies to confidence around money. When you have the right money mindset and you experience the role it plays in living your best life, you’ll become a formidable force.
So it’s time to ditch all fear, obligation, and guilt that block your healthy views on money to achieve the life you’ve always wanted.
Financial educator, Catherine Alford helped us get to that place with her Morning Money Talk presented by Ally at the recent Future of Work digital conference. She shared tips for getting your finances organized at home and supercharging your savings (because we’d all like a little extra financial padding right about now!). She started her business from scratch with a $10 domain name and grew it to six figures so she knows a thing or two about managing money.
She explained that it’s hard to focus on your job, your side business, or your incredible start up idea if you don’t have your personal finances in order. Additionally, she says the more you save in your personal life, the more freedom you have to pursue your professional goals. Read on to learn about Alford’s three-step savings strategy.
Whenever I'm having those moments where I really don't feel like saving, I think of my three main reasons to save to remind myself why it’s important. Here they are:
Reason #1: Personal Freedom
Personal freedom is a massive deal to me. It's why I became an entrepreneur. I like doing what I want, when I want. I like choosing who I work with and what I spend my time on. I like having a job and still being able to pick up my kids from school. When you save your money and you're smart about how you manage it, the more personal freedom you have. Personal freedom with your finances allows you to walk away from jobs and situations that don't serve you and allows you to have fun too.
Reason #2: Leaving a Legacy
How cool would it be if your great-grandkids said, “Because of Grandma Cat or Grandma Sarah or Grandma Melody, all of us went to college debt-free?” What if, because of the lessons you taught and the discipline you established in your family, it changes the way your family behaves, perceives money, and donates?”
Reason #3: Extreme Generosity
Having savings also allows you to be generous with a friend who really needs help at a certain moment. I love the idea of extreme generosity, and I like practicing with micro generous moments. Remember, the more money you make, the more you can give away and make the world a better place.
How Much to Save and Where to Stash It
I like to have a three-step strategy when it comes to saving.
Get one month ahead.
Establish a solid emergency fund.
Set up sinking funds.
Get into the mindset of believing you're a warrior when it comes to savings and you are going to slash through these goals, however long it takes. If you want personal freedom, to leave a legacy, and to be extremely generous, these steps can help you get there.
Get One Month Ahead
There's a concept called mental load that's been gaining popularity over the past couple of years. It's this idea that women have to do thousands of invisible tasks, things people don't see, things we naturally take on ourselves like emailing our kids teachers or getting a birthday gift for our mother in law. No one assigns us these tasks. It's just that culturally women have taken up all of these tasks, and it is a heavy load on many days.
I don't want money to be one of those things for you, but money takes a lot of time to manage unless you get one month ahead. For me, getting one month ahead is stress-free budgeting, and here's why. When you're one month ahead, you start the month with all the money you need for the month.
The goal is to use your paychecks from this month to pay your bills next month. And if you're thinking, “That would be nice, but that's not possible,” you have to go back to your mindset. Remember, you are a savings warrior and you absolutely can accomplish that.
For some people, they can get one month ahead today by transferring money from their savings accounts and getting started on the first of next month. For other people, it might take a few months to get there, and that’s okay. What’s important is that you start.
Establish a Solid Emergency Fund
For ten years, I've been telling just about everybody to have a three to six-month emergency fund. And this year has completely changed my view on that because now, I am a fan of having six-plus months of an emergency fund.
If you have high-interest debt, like credit card debt, start with a one-month emergency fund. Then, pay off your high-interest debt as quickly as possible and go back and build your savings to six-plus months after that.
If you have low-interest debt, like a car loan or student loans, build your savings up to six-plus months now before aggressively paying those down.
I like to keep my emergency fund separate from my regular checking accounts and my investment accounts. I keep this money liquid. That means I can access it and have it today if I need it.
Set Up Sinking Funds
Sinking funds are little baby savings accounts for all of the big events and unexpected events that might happen in your life. Three examples are car repairs, holiday savings, and vacations.
One of the first sinking funds I ever created for myself was when I started my business, and I really wanted to get a MacBook Pro. I was in my 20s at the time, and it was the most money I'd ever saved. I would save a little bit at a time in an online savings account until I reached my goal.
That was my first experience, and I was hooked because it feels so good to go into a store with cash that you've already saved. There's no guilt, there's no stress, and there's no regret.
It’s the same thing with vacations. Have you ever taken a vacation that’s completely paid for up front? If so, you're not worried about getting home and looking at your credit card statement. If you save for vacations ahead of time and you have all that extra padding, you're actually able to relax. You can also use sinking funds for things like your kid's birthday party or holiday shopping.
To make this easy, Ally Bank’s Online Savings Account offers buckets. So, instead of having five or six savings accounts for various sinking funds, now you can consolidate them into one savings account with buckets inside of it named for your savings goals. This helps you to stay organized and in control of your money.
Bonus Tip: Automate Everything
I know a lot of people aren't fans of automation but for me, automating is everything. I automate my savings and paying my bills because it saves me a lot of brain space. It’s the easiest way to build up a savings account without thinking about it, and that is what I credit the most to being able to build up my emergency fund to what I have today.
If you've never tried automating or it makes you nervous, just try it for a month or so and see how you feel about it. Start by scheduling a small amount of money to automatically transfer to your savings account after you get paid. I know people worry about too much money being withdrawn from their accounts. However, after many years of automating, I have only had a problem two or three times, and it was quickly fixed with a phone call.
I hope with this three-step strategy, you can get started on your path towards financial freedom. Not only will having an emergency fund and sinking funds provide a great financial cushion but having them will also give you incredible peace of mind.
To learn more about Ally, visit ally.com
Ally Bank, Member FDIC
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"Treat Every Dollar Like It's Your Last": How My Hispanic Heritage Helped Me Bootstrap and Self-Fund My Business
In this op-ed, Stephanie Montes shares how her upbringing influenced her approach to saving, and starting a company.
Written by Stephanie Montes, Founder and CEO, Nue
When it comes to my finances, I've always been a perpetual saver. Since my first job (as a sales associate at the mall), I started putting money aside. I didn't have a specific goal in mind for my savings, but when it came time to start my brand, I knew just where to turn for funding.
I have this little trick I use to keep myself in line: I keep only what I need and am willing to spend in my checking account and squirrel away everything else in my savings. Of course, when emergencies arise, I transfer funds as needed, but for the most part, that savings account remains as untouched as possible. The illusion of a small dollar amount in my checking account makes me think twice about spending—it actually tricks me into thinking I have less money than I really do.
While I credit my growing savings to this tried-and-true method, I believe I ultimately owe my money-saving ways to my mom. She made a comfortable salary at a job she's held since before I was born but never lived beyond her means. While she and my dad put my two siblings and me through private school until senior year, we lived a fairly frugal lifestyle. We rarely ate out, especially if there was food to be made at home, and we never wore name-brand clothing.
I don't know if it's generally something all first- and second-generation immigrant families experience, but many of my Hispanic friends grew up the same way too. They ate dinners according to a schedule, usually repeat meals that could feed the entire family affordably. (And everyone knew you ate what mom made, whether you liked it or not.) They wore hand-me-downs from older siblings and cousins, none of which were expensive, and those were then passed down to younger relatives.
My mom even drove a beater car when I was in middle school and only upgraded when she absolutely had to—again, not because she couldn't afford it, but because she strongly believed her money was better in the bank. When I asked her why she chose to live so modestly, she told me she believes it came from her own upbringing. With nine siblings (the average size of Hispanic families from her generation) and a widowed mother, she and her brothers and sisters all began working young. At 16, she was finally able to buy her own school clothes and save her money to buy a car one day, but more importantly, she learned the value at an early age. It clearly stuck, not just with her, but with me too.
I'm a 30-year-old woman, and I still hear my mom's voice in the back of my mind asking, "do you really need that?" when considering a big purchase. And while sometimes I want to splurge on an expensive bag without feeling guilty, I'm glad I've inherited this desire to save.
When it came time to fund my brand Nue, I had a healthy amount sitting in my savings account. I wrote Nue Inc. a $10,000 check to get it off the ground debt-free and without outside investment to dilute my stock. The teller practically had to pry it out of my hands, because like with any investment, this was a major gamble, but I slept a lot better at night knowing that I wasn't up against interest rates or, worse, risking the hard-earned money of a friend or family member. When it was all said and done, though, it felt so damn good to say that I was able to do it on my own!
The money went quickly. I spent my initial investment on filings (like trademarks and corporation registrations), product, packaging, web design, graphic work, and Nue's first photoshoot. All along the way, I treated it with the same caution as I do in my personal accounts. I splurged where it was important and penny-pinched when necessary. For example, Nue's packaging is a bit more expensive because it boasts a soft texture on the outside that feels silky to the touch. This was important because it helps give the product a luxury feel, exactly the vibe I wanted to convey from the very beginning. On the other hand, I knew I couldn't afford to launch with additional shades and product offerings. Since manufacturers have such high minimum order requirements, I had no choice but to scale back my original plan to launch with five skin tones and settle for three instead. The truth is, this is the smarter route anyway. As the demand grows, so will the shade and product offerings.
“When it was all said and done though, it felt so damn good to say that I was able to do it on my own! ”
As Nue has gained traction in the last nine months, profits are again, cautiously reinvested into the company. While I initially couldn't afford PR, growing sales have provided a bit of a budget to hire the help of an agency in Q3. I've also made multiple reorders of products to keep our shelves stocked, all at the company's expense and not my own.
I've heard from fellow founders that product-based businesses are a money suck and constantly required further investment. So far, my philosophy of treating every dollar like it's your last is proving to be successful. Think twice about where you spend it, be frugal, know your budget, and don't live beyond your means.
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I Paid Off $30K in Credit Card Debt in 6 Months — Here’s How You Can Too
Step 1: Understand financial concepts.
Written by Kiok Kang, Founder, Glowing PR
What is your relationship with money? Do you love to save and budget for the future, or are you all about enjoying that hard-earned money and prepared to go into debt for it? Either way, we need to get better at talking about it if we ever want to be better at managing it, and eventually having more of it. Especially when you consider that globally, women control upwards of $20 trillion in annual consumer spending. But sadly, when it comes to managing money and planning for their financial future, women aren’t as independent as you’d expect. A recent study found that more millennial women cede control to their husbands than women of older generations. Well, our new series, The Money Files is set to change all that by helping women become masters of their own finances so they can manage their money and their future.
Photo: Sarah Shen
Before launching my own company, Glowing PR, I was a corporate employee at a well-known beauty conglomerate. I often felt frustrated by the bureaucracy of a corporate environment, as well as the self-serving motives of other employees (instead of goals that would benefit the company as a whole). Eventually, I decided to take all of my experiences and launch Glowing PR Agency at the end of 2017, and I can honestly say, I haven’t looked back since. I identified a crucial need from brands—a concierge PR agency that genuinely understood their goals and created organic opportunities, secured tangible and relevant coverage, and aligned themselves with the best influencers for their target audiences.
Our first client, KNC Beauty was just at the beginning of an amazing start. Since then, we’ve focused heavily on indie beauty brands, which heralds back to my own roots in the beauty industry 10 years ago. While the business was thriving, there were costs that were rapidly accruing. For example, I secured an office space in Koreatown that was beautifully designed by Maison Trouvaille but I didn’t forecast a budget properly—launching a business, paying for attorney’s fees, renovating and designing a new office space, and all of the miscellaneous daily business expenses that were keeping the lights on.
I started my business without enough knowledge of credit card interest rates, cash-flow management, and being able to look at the company’s finances from a bird’s eye view. Before I knew it, I had over $30,000 in debt. This amount was only for the business and didn’t include my personal debt, like my student loans. I immediately felt the weight of this mental and financial burden, like I was drowning with no relief in sight. But I wasn’t alone. The average American now has about $51,900 in personal debt, including mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, auto loans, credit card debt, student loan debt, and other debt, like personal loans. The US comes in at #6 of the top 10 countries with the most debt (Debt-to-GDP ratio: 127%).
“Before I knew it, I had over $30,000 in debt... I immediately felt the weight of this mental and financial burden, like I was drowning with no relief in sight. But I wasn’t alone.”
Photo: Sarah Shen
Serendipitously, I spoke on a panel at a women's networking event and met Anna Choung, our wonderful financial advisor and now our accountant. She touched on the launch of her FSMamas (aka Financially Savvy Mamas), a community that empowers women to become more financially independent by educating them on financial management. Afterwards, I decided to dive into my finances and tackle them head-on. It was an extremely humbling experience, to say the least., However, Anna was able to provide comprehensive advice on both business and personal financial decisions that were also tax-efficient.
The first step of my financial journey was to educate myself on basic concepts—reviewing my financial history to assess the situation, understanding the holistic picture of my debt, as well as strategizing on a clear payment plan to move forward. Quite frankly (I kick myself because it seems so obvious), the simplest takeaway from all of this was to not accumulate debt, especially high-interest credit card debt, in the first place. I learned that there’s a wise way of allocating money in your bank account without earning extra interest.
With that in mind, I started to pay off my debt with the highest interest rate first. It’s as simple as coming to grips with the financial issues at hand and resolving it as quickly as possible. And don’t be afraid to ask for help—it was eye-opening to sit down with my financial advisor to discuss a debt payment strategy.
I wish I knew then what I know now—hindsight really is 20/20. Hopefully my story can help someone else, too. So, here are my tips to pay debt off as quickly as possible and grow a healthy business:
1. Understand Financial Concepts
Get to know some basic financial terms, such as the rate of return and Rule of 72 which uses a simple formula to calculate the number of years it will take for your money or debt to double, given a certain rate of return—it can actually work for or against you. In my case, it worked against me. For example, if my credit card debt was $10,000 with an interest rate of 30% and I made no payments towards the debt, it would then double to $20,0000 in 2.4 years (72/30 =2.4 years).
Not paying off the debt with the highest interest on the credit card was hurting me because it was generating additional interest (rapidly) on top of my original debt. Tallying up the total interest costs and doing the math frightened me into taking action. Ultimately, wouldn’t you rather save those additional charges to grow your business rather than to grow another financial institution’s wealth?
2. Use Financial Apps and Tools
We’re living in the age of technology and there’s an abundance of incredible apps out there that can assist with debt repayments, budgeting, saving, and investing. Most of these tools are either free or only charge a minimal fee. Loan calculators, such as UnBury.Me or Debt Tracker Pro, can assist you in building and implementing the most suitable debt reduction strategy. Budgeting tools, such as Mint, show all of your bank account activity in a concise way.
They’ll break everything down in easy-to-read pie charts and graphs to show you where your revenue is coming from and how you’re spending your money. You can then set budgets and financial goals to help you pay off your debt and never, never, never let yourself pay late fees on debt. I recommend setting up automatic minimum payments for your credit cards to avoid any pesky, unnecessary late fees. Don’t be afraid to do some research and find the most suitable fintech tools to use for your business and your personal finances.
“Take a hard look at your business financials and make sure that they’re accurate. Numbers are the basic language of business, and it’s telling you a story.”
Photo: Sarah Shen
3. Manage Your Cash Flow and Get a Great Accountant
Take a hard look at your business financials and make sure that they’re accurate. Numbers are the basic language of business, and it’s telling you a story. What is your business’s story? Is your business carrying too much debt? Are your clients not paying you in a timely manner? Do you have too many expenses? Is your revenue falling flat? After analyzing your numbers, re-strategize your business plan and reallocate your resources. Tracking your numbers closely and accurately, as well as performing budgeting and forecasting for your business, will lead you to efficient business growth.
Not only will you be able to identify problems and eliminate them from the start, but you’ll be able to manage your business’s liquidity and maintain your bank balances more smoothly. After all, liquidity is what will keep your business afloat. And if you’re not proficient with bookkeeping and generating accurate business financials, outsource it to a trusted accountant/CPA. I was fortunate enough to have a financial advisor that also has a background in accounting and taxes. Not only is she helping me with debt management, but she’s also my go-to person for my business finances, tax planning, and compliance needs.
4. Tax Planning and Compliance
Understanding your business’s tax needs and being compliant with various tax deadlines (including payroll taxes) will help you avoid unnecessary penalties and will get more money back into your own pocket. This can then enable you to pay off your debt quicker and invest more into your own business. Why pay more than your fair share of taxes?
“No matter what, pay yourself a salary—your time is worthwhile.”
Photo: Sarah Shen
5. Invest in Yourself
As a business owner, not only should you build the proper foundation for your business, but also for your own finances. No matter what, pay yourself a salary—your time is worthwhile. There are statistics that say that many people expect a business to fail, with 50% of businesses actually failing within 3-5 years. You won’t get that investment back if you don’t pay yourself from the start. Get into the habit of investing in your own future and retirement plans as your business grows.
It’s wise to consider and plan for this before having a family, as well. Increase your own wealth with some concrete business projections (i.e., how many clients are necessary? How much revenue is needed?) to reach your goals. Later on, your salary can also be set aside towards a retirement fund to concretely save and invest in your own future. There’s a common misconception that small businesses won’t offer solid retirement options in comparison to big corporations’ 401(k) plans, but there are actually several retirement fund options for small businesses and yourself. If you do more research, you’ll find that there are a lot of plans that are suitable for your business and any unique situations.
6. Education and Quarterly Maintenance
Get familiar with financial terms and set a clear budget for a road map of your business. Identify and invest in the areas that will allow your business to expand.
Although the journey to becoming debt-free can be different from person-to-person, the most important thing is to take an honest assessment of your situation and face it head-on. Debt is a dirty word that has such an emotional pull. I’ve learned firsthand that debt seems to snowball and you feel completely out of control. The best way to avoid being in as much debt as possible is to understand basic financial concepts, manage cash flow, and avoid costs like buying lunch and shopping for the latest handbag.
Up Next: 10 Money Questions to Ask Yourself (So You Can Afford the Life You Want).
This post was originally published on August 26, 2019, and has since been updated.
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Want to Grow Your Brand on Social Media? This Is Critical
Beat the algorithm.
Written by Sarah Boland, Founder and CEO, Life Lapse
When you consider that 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video you know it’s time to jump on the new media trend. But for many of us, video content can seem intimidating without professional help. As TikTok continues to gain popularity and Instagram launched Reels, we’re seeing a shift in perceptions of video content.
Gone are the days of polished looking, scripted videos. Instead, we’re seeing platforms provide all the tools for you to create authentic, short videos natively in-app without paying an expert. Instagram is also known to favor video when it comes to their algorithm—a video post on Instagram will see 39% higher engagement compared to a photo post—so that’s all the more reason to start creating video content.
If you’re stumped on how to get started, I did the leg work for you. Read on for some video content ideas that will help to build your brand on social media.
Behind-the-scenes
Take your customers behind-the-scenes of building your business to turn them into your very own cheerleaders. While you might think that no one will care about the not-so-glamorous parts of growing your business, this actually gives you the opportunity to showcase more of your values and personality which resonates with today’s consumers. There’s no doubt that COVID-19 has shifted consumer behavior. In fact, a report found that customers are prioritizing trusted relationships over price when it comes to shopping with brands and “paying closer attention to the social activism, outreach and investments of companies during the pandemic.”
Show them the progress in building your brand, get to know the team that makes up your business or how you create the products or services you are selling. The more you show, the more invested they will be in your journey as a brand. Our behind-the-scenes content on Instagram at Life Lapse are some of our most engaged posts and it is incredibly rewarding that our users are also our cheerleaders. When we make announcements about new product updates or reach new milestones as a business they cheer us on.
Your videos don’t have to be staged or highly produced videos. Shooting on the fly in-app on Instagram for stories or reels or capturing a video with your phone will resonate with your audience—it’s more authentic. A great example is Marissa from @StilClassics. TikTok is also a platform where a number of businesses are blowing up because they are sharing the behind-the-scenes of their business like @ErinnDubs and @xxl.scrunchie.
Types of behind the scenes video you can post:
Show the process of how your products are made
Give an office tour
Introduce team members
Provide sneak peeks of what you’re working on or new products in the pipeline
Show your team packing orders
2. User generated videos (UGC)
Customers are 2.4 times more likely to view user-generated content as authentic compared to content created by brands. Having customers do an unboxing video, give a review, or show it in action is an incredible way to build trust for future customers. So how do you integrate user-generated video into your social strategy? Ask for it. Ask for it on social media, in your email marketing, and if you're a CPG brand, ask for the review in a nicely designed postcard that goes in your mailer.
UGC strategies:
When customers tag your brand in Instastories… restory, restory, restory! The more your followers are seeing you share user content, the more it encourages others to do the same
Get influencers to do a product review on YouTube which will help your search engine optimization because Google owns YouTube and will favor this content
Repurpose videos to different platforms and always be sure to give credit to the original creator. For example, a customer tags you in a video of them trying on your product. You can share this video to your Pinterest and link it to that product on your website while giving credit to your customer
Embed user generated videos to the product pages or throughout your website with customers permission
3. Product videos
Product videos are a great way to show the details behind your product and tell your product story but there are a couple of things to keep in mind when creating your product videos for social media:
1. Does the platform have a sound-on (ex. TikTok) or sound-off (ex. Instagram) environment?
2. You only have 1.7 seconds to capture your audience on social media as they’re scrolling
Our favorite type of video to showcase product is stop motion because the narrative is visual so you can tell your story without relying on sound and the content is short, loopable, and looks like magic to capture your audience within those 1.7 seconds. Plus, they’re easy to learn and create from your phone using this app.
Stop motion is also perfect for creating Facebook or Instagram ads and posting even posting on Pinterest. Yes, I said Pinterest! It is not just for finding recipes and planning your next home décor project. It has become a visual search engine and is a very underrated platform for driving traffic. In the past 30 days at Life Lapse, we had over 3 million impressions and 1.7 million views without any paid spend and our secret is posting stop motion video pins. Video views on the platform have increased more than 3 times in 2020 over the same period in 2019 while Pinners are also 2.6 times more likely to make a purchase after viewing brand video content on the platform too.
4. Educational content
Increase the lifetime value of your customer by keeping them engaged with educational and informative videos. I know you’re thinking, *BORING*, but hear me out. Educational content does not have to be boring. Glossier does this well by showing educational pieces on how to apply different types of beauty products in a fresh, approachable and informative way.
Our business has seen the impact of educational content first hand and the content has helped us grow our business year over year. Showing your customers how to use your product in different ways will leave them feeling confident and happy with their purchase decision. It will keep them coming back for more. Video tutorials are the most engaged pieces of content we have when we post to Instagram and it goes beyond the number of likes on our posts. We’re seeing people share these videos with their followers and bookmarking them to come back to later.
Educational videos perform well on social media but you can also repurpose the content for other uses including:
Email campaigns after your customer has purchased your product or service
On your website (product pages, FAQ’s, landing pages, etc)
5. Video direct messages
I’ve made so many valuable connections with customers, collaborators and even formed friendships through this method. It’s not the most conventional way to do business which is why it stands out among the crowd of DMs. I predict we’ll see more and more of this because of the impact of COVID-19. It’s another way to almost achieve that face-to-face interaction and as the world accelerates to a more digital life with remote everything, surprising and delighting customers and collaborators through video is another way you can inject a human aspect into your brand. An example of using video as a customer service tool is Mejuri and their digital styling appointments through video.
6. Thought Leadership Videos
I don’t know about you, but I personally love learning from people who have succeeded. Everybody has a wealth of knowledge and sharing your learnings from growing your brand can help build your brand story. Now you don’t need to start a YouTube channel, become a business coach, or share all your insider secrets, but keeping your business community up to date with short videos where you share learnings and achievements will keep you on the radar of potential investors, potential hires, mentors, and mentees. Think collaboration over competition! A great place to post this content is on LinkedIn and when you upload videos natively to their platform, it will get you 3 times the engagement compared to a text or link post.
Personally, I share the good, the bad, and the ugly with my entrepreneur journey at Life Lapse. We are living in a world where people are, for the most part, posting only their highlight reels. Even though I know it’s just the highlight reel, it can feel pretty disheartening when you only see other #bosses getting awards, expanding their teams, and living the high life. So I share my failures and I share them often in hopes of helping another entrepreneur prevent the same mistake I made. My vulnerability in sharing my failure on Dragons’ Den when I was humiliated on national television while pitching my business. This has gotten me many opportunities and has become a part of my success story.
7. Video Meetings
Your people make your brand and while this category might not necessarily be for posting on social media, how engaged your employees are will help build your brand on social media especially when it comes to what they’re sharing on their own platforms. I have been managing a remote team of workers for the past three years, so you can say that I was prepared for the shift to working from home. It’ll be hard to replace the in-office atmosphere with hallway and kitchen banter but video meetings will be your next best option for keeping your employees engaged and happy. You’ll know when they aren’t when you start seeing the trickle effect into your product, service, or brand growth as a whole.
About the Author
Sarah Boland is the Founder and CEO of Life Lapse, the easiest stop motion app empowering small business owners, creators and influencers to create eye catching videos for social marketing using their phone. As a former professional videographer and marketer, Sarah helped brands create and integrate video into their social media strategies. She knows firsthand how expensive video marketing can be and set out to help small brands create eye-catching videos using their phone by creating Life Lapse in 2017. Now, Life Lapse has over 1 million users from around the world.
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Are You Exhausted, Tired, and Unfocused WFH? Same!—Here's What Helped Us
Relief is here.
Speaking up and being open about your health, especially as women, isn’t always easy, or encouraged. Not unlike many other female health concerns, there is a stigma attached to them—PMS, urinary health, libido, water retention, and bloating, to name a few—which in turn has prevented many of us (myself included) from talking about it or seeking help. But the negative side effect of that is any real progress on creating products to help prevent and minimize them has also been stalled.
As a women-led, women-run company, Create & Cultivate stand by our motto of collaboration over competition and encourage a culture of sharing, being honest about our feelings, and offering an outstretched hand or sympathetic ear when it’s needed most. That’s why we’re partnering with our friends at OLLY to end the stigma around female wellness. It’s time to open up the conversation around these traditionally taboo topics so we can collectively combat discomfort, stress, fatigue, and irritability to restore balance.
Their new Future Is Female line of vitamins and supplements was designed specifically to support common female health concerns from mood and libido to digestion, hormones, and urinary health. Because let’s be real, when you’re busy taking care of everyone else and building a successful career or business at the same time, your health often gets bumped to the bottom of the to-do list. But OLLY has made self-care simple by putting everything we need to feel our best into one pill—genius!
So, the C&C team put them to the test for two weeks and logged their results. A few of us were suffering from bloating and water retention while others wanted to improve their mood and libido which has been impacted by the tumultuous year we’ve all had. Read on to hear what they tried, how it helped, and their verdict.
THE PRODUCT: OLLY Beat the Bloat
THE GOAL(S): Bloat relief.
FIRST IMPRESSION: I was very excited to get my hands on this product. I haven't had issues with bloat in the past, but now that I'm working from home and just steps from my kitchen I've been drinking tons of water, which is great for my skin and overall health, but bad for bloat. (Hello, water retention!)
VERDICT: For me, this product ticked all the boxes. It's free of artificial flavors and colors; something I look for in any supplement I take. It's a simple dosage; just one capsule per day. And it really works. After two weeks of taking it consistently, I experienced less water retention and a flatter-feeling stomach, which was a boost to my self-confidence after putting in six weeks of work on Kirsty Godso's Burn Program on the Nike Training Club app. Although I'm happy with simply feeling stronger in my own body, I'll admit that I was eager to see the results of all those early morning sweat sessions, and now I feel like I can.
OLLY Beat the Bloat
$17.99
THE PRODUCT: OLLY Miss Mellow
THE GOAL(S): Even mood and stress response during your natural hormone cycles
FIRST IMPRESSION: I have been taking OLLY Sleep gummies before bed most nights for about a year now and I love them, so I was really excited to try out this new product! Plus, I’m always inclined to try anything that promotes an even mood and balanced stress response throughout the entire month, (especially as we are living in very stressful times right now.)
I love that the supplement’s active ingredients are natural botanicals like chaste-berry fruit extract, rather than a bunch of chemicals! This makes me feel good about adding them to my daily regimen as knowing what you put into your body is so important. The capsule itself is a little large for my personal vitamin taking preferences, (I should note it is a standard size, I am just bad at taking capsules like these sometimes), but I feel like most people trying it out would find it easy to swallow. Overall, heading into the first day of taking the supplements I was excited.
VERDICT: I think we can all agree that in the best of times, being a woman can be stressful, and that goes 10 fold right now with everything going on in the world. So the Miss Mellow OLLY dietary supplement seemed like the perfect thing to add to my daily regimen, (especially as I was coming up on the week of my period as we began this trial.)
As I rolled into week one testing the product I was hard at work designing and launching multiple Create & Cultivate Digital Conferences. The heat was on, I was on my period, I was stressed but I already noticed my usual stress spiral was more manageable. I felt like I could more calmly deal with each new hurdle throughout the week. Don’t get me wrong, I was still feeling the pressure but it was definitely minimized.
During the times where I would usually feel so overwhelmed or stressed that I would freeze—and lose valuable work time trying to get back on track—during the product trial, I felt like I could move beyond my stress brain faster and stay on task. This is key in my role as the associate creative director here at C&C. Throughout the rest of the trial, I continued to feel the effects.
Overall, I am pleased with this product and think I will continue to use it. I would recommend it to anyone looking to even out their mood and response to stress throughout the month.
OLLY Miss Mellow
$17.99
THE PRODUCT: OLLY Lovin’ Libido
THE GOAL(S): Boost desire and intimacy.
FIRST IMPRESSION: I’ve used several OLLY products before this one and have always loved the results so I trusted the science behind their new Future Is Female line. My husband and I have been married for 13 years and while we have never had an issue with intimacy, I just turned 40 this year and definitely felt like I could use some support to enhance my libido and help support a healthy drive and sensation. I am also aware that I could be entering perimenopause right now and the fluctuating hormones can decrease libido so I was excited to try this product and see if it helped bolster things in the bedroom (*wink emoji).
VERDICT: I loved that the ingredients are traditional botanicals used for centuries in particular the clinically-studied root extract, Ashwagandha which has been shown to support arousal, stimulation, and satisfaction in addition to natural lubrication. I have taken Ashwagandha in the past as a warm drink at night before bed and have found it to be very beneficial for stress reduction and hormonal fluctuations.
Managing stress is key for a healthy libido. I know when I’m stressed that my desire levels are significantly reduced, so taking this supplement to tackle it specifically allows me to relax and get in the mood. I can honestly say that I did see a boost in desire and arousal into the second week of taking them. I look forward to seeing how Lovin’ Libido can help me over time (and I know my husband is too!).
OLLY Lovin’ Libido
$19.99
THE PRODUCT: OLLY Beat the Bloat
THE GOAL(S): Reduce bloating
FIRST IMPRESSION: I'm not big on taking pills, but I found these so easy to swallow and wasn't scared off by the ingredient list.
VERDICT: I struggle with bloating and upset stomachs pretty frequently, so was very eager to give the Beat the Bloat pills a try. I'm looking forward to giving the product a full month's trial run, but so far they're getting the job done. I'll take one after a big meal (or one that I know will upset my stomach), and I'm effectively bloat-free. Love OLLY and am excited to try more of their products!
OLLY Beat the Bloat
$17.99
THE PRODUCT: OLLY Miss Mellow
THE GOAL(S): Mood / Hormone stabilizing
FIRST IMPRESSION: I do miss the OLLY gummies however, I found these easy to add to my regular vitamin routine in the morning! No bad taste and easy to swallow.
VERDICT: After having a baby 14 months ago, my cycle and moods can still be an unpredictable wave of highs and lows. The pandemic definitely hasn’t helped, so I was excited to see if these worked for me! I did find that after taking these every day for two weeks I was less irritable when small inconveniences occurred and felt less overwhelmed in general. I feel less anxious throughout my daily activities, whether that’s playing with my daughter or leading Zoom meetings!
OLLY Miss Mellow
$17.99
THE PRODUCT: OLLY Lovin' Libido
THE GOAL(S): Increased sexual drive and sensation
FIRST IMPRESSION: I like the ingredients used for the vitamins, they are not overly complicated and easy to find additional information to support. The vitamins also have a cool look and feel with a metallic coloring and have no added taste. I am a big fan of all of OLLY's products and these are no different—very easy to take on a regular basis with a glass of water, I just set a reminder in my phone to remember!
VERDICT: As I have only been taking the product for two weeks, I am only starting to see mild effects. My goal is to continue to take the product for another two weeks to see an impactful difference. To be completely honest, I wasn't necessarily in need of an increased libido but I was 100% open to trying the product for enhanced results! From my first experience, I would definitely encourage anyone interested in increasing their sexual experience or activity to give them a try! Don't knock it (pun-intended) 'til you try it I always say.
OLLY Lovin’ Libido
$19.99
THE PRODUCT: OLLY Beat the Bloat
THE GOAL(S): Reduce belly bloat caused by digestion woes, gas, and water retention.
FIRST IMPRESSION: Easy to take it, no aftertaste or burps. Never had something with dandelion before so that was cool.
VERDICT: It makes me feel great and it has helped me get rid of the bloating feeling I normally get after eating anything that is not lettuce.
OLLY Beat the Bloat
$17.99
To learn more about OLLY’s powerful new collection of women’s self-care solutions, visit OLLY.com.
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Investing in Yourself to Create a New Normal With Dr. Evan Rieder, Jenny Mollen, and Tayshia Adams
How to re-emerge from this moment and re-imagine our routines.
COVID-19 has changed the world as we know it, but despite the abrupt shift, we’re all making moves to re-emerge from this moment even stronger than before.
This collective pause has forced us to hit the reset button and reimagine our lives as we begin to contemplate how we are going to move forward in creating a “new normal.”
In a world of unknowns, one thing we do know for sure is that having conversations is key to navigating and creating our new version of normalcy, and how we move through the world from here.
So, we invited Board-Certified Dermatologist, Dr. Evan Rieder; Writer, Comedienne, and New York Times Best-Selling Author, Jenny Mollen; and Contestant from “The Bachelor,” Tayshia Adams to speak on the topic of “Investing in Yourself to Create a New Normal,” powered by Allergan Aesthetics™, an AbbVie Company at our recent Beauty Summit.
Read on to hear their advice on how we can all re-emerge from this moment and reimagine our routines in this “new normal.”
On life in quarantine…
“Now, more than ever we are connecting with ourselves and each other to ask the difficult questions. What is surprising is sometimes those difficult questions really are as simple as, ‘How are you, and what have you been up to?’ and truly meaning it.” — Dr. Evan Rieder
“I personally find that setting time aside to do something for myself is important, but so many women I know feel guilty taking time for themselves.” — Jenny Mollen
On being forced to sit still…
“As a busy professional, who happens to also be a wife and mother, there are a lot of demands on my time. Pressing pause is totally worth it, even if that means being okay with Jason picking out the kids’ clothes!” — Jenny Mollen
On re-emerging from quarantine in a post-COVID world…
“I think it is all about balance. This experience has taught us all that we need to be careful but at the same time, we need to get back to our normal routines. I started off pretty easy with going to the places I felt most comfortable, so visiting friends and family. As I felt more secure and got into the groove of masking up, I ran to get my hair and nails done, and to see my dermatologist for BOTOX® Cosmetic (onabotulinumtoxinA)! My doctor also happens to be a friend, so it was fantastic to be able to see her again. I am ready to talk about re-emerging, but these pesky moderate to severe forehead lines can stay in quarantine!¹” — Jenny Mollen
On getting back to your normal routine…
“I’ve been receiving treatment for years and it has been a part of my ongoing routine. I still look like me, just with fewer lines¹. Which is important to me both personally and professionally.” — Jenny Mollen
“I agree with you regarding BOTOX® Cosmetic. Since treatments were on hold for the last four months, I have had countless patients booking appointments within the last few weeks.¹ BOTOX® Cosmetic has been a staple in my toolbox for years and has shaped the way I consult my patients on temporarily improving the appearance of moderate to severe crow's feet, forehead lines and frown lines.¹” — Dr. Evan Rieder
On seeking aesthetic treatment right now…
“Some of you may feel personally ready for treatment but are wondering—is this the right time for aesthetic treatments? Am I vain for wanting an aesthetic treatment right now? I don’t think so! And during this time, when we are all masked on our lower faces, it’s all eyes on the forehead. So with increased scrutiny on the muscles of the forehead people tend to focus more on our lines – often misinterpreting social interactions and sometimes perceiving others as angry or worried because of overactivity of the muscles of the upper face and uncertainty whether a smile or frown lurks below the mask.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is that BOTOX® Cosmetic is the only product of its kind FDA-approved to temporarily improve the appearance of moderate to severe forehead lines, crow’s feet lines, and glabellar lines in adults. Physicians have relied on it for more than 18 years to deliver precise, predictable results. ¹ ²” — Dr. Evan Rieder
On making time for “me time”…
“I agree with what Jenny said! You must take your ME time! Life is too precious, and we can’t burnout. For me, I love playing with makeup and creating different looks. It is fun to try something new, and I recently went to my doctor to learn about JUVÉDERM® VOLBELLA™ XC, an injectable filler, to add subtle volume to my lips!³ It is something I considered for a while and after learning more and talking to my provider, I decided to go for it. With optimal treatment, it lasts up to a year, so I am still happy with my results today! It has been one less thing I have to worry about during this time.³” — Tayshia Adams
On the most requested aesthetic treatments…
“Lips are a really popular request in my office—even at this time. We have to remember that while we are wearing masks in public, we take them off in private. Lips are an intimate area that we often get treated for ourselves. I use JUVÉDERM® VOLBELLA™ XC or JUVÉDERM® Ultra XC to help create a subtle pout while still offering natural-looking results.³ ⁴ I prefer to tailor the treatment based on the individual’s desired outcomes and The Collection has a variety of dermal fillers that are specially designed to add volume to specific areas of the face.” — Dr. Evan Rider
On getting back to you…
“It can feel like the days all blurred together in quarantine, so I really leaned on my routines for structure and clarity. Quarantine has forced all of us to re-evaluate what’s important in life. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that with my excitement of re-emerging from quarantine comes an element of trepidation, too. And I’m certainly not alone in that feeling.” — Jenny Mollen
“It’s also about taking those simple steps of safety precautions. Yes, it might be tedious and an extra 10-15 minutes but it is so necessary right now as things are shutting down. Those little steps are so imperative at this time. This will be our new normal for quite some time. “ — Dr. Evan Rieder
“It’s really an altruistic thing to wear your mask and doing your hand hygiene precautions. We were hit really hard in NY, and you need to do everything you can to take control of your life in these uncertain times.” — Jenny Mollen
On the importance of safety…
“In my personal opinion, it is safe. Do your research and ask your provider important questions. For example, we have multiple layers of screening from phone questions on appointment confirmation, to two temperature stations in our clinical building, to limiting typically full waiting areas, to room sanitization, to maximum use of PPE. These precautions have allowed us to restart our aesthetics program with confidence. With that, we can allow you to safely and confidently continue making investments in yourselves as you walk through an aesthetic journey.” — Dr. Evan Rieder
“It’s really nice to hear you talk about what to expect. I am new to aesthetic treatments and it is helpful and comforting to hear all the information.” – Tayshia Adams
On my daily mantra for success…
“Here is not an option, you just have to move forward. Let go. Don’t hold things in. Keep your friends close and your dermatologists closer. Quarantine or no quarantine, that’s how you have to live!” — Jenny Mollen
“My daily mantra is about gratitude every morning and staying positive. There is always a bright side to everything and always something to be grateful for. As long as you’ve got that, you can really change your mood.” — Tayshia Adams
“Being thankful for what I have—my health, having a job right now—and recognizing the silver linings.” — Dr. Evan Rieder
On hitting the reset button ...
“When I’m not sleeping well I know that indicates something is off. I need to stop and take a day to rest because I'm probably going, going, going. It's okay to sit on the couch sometimes and reevaluate everything.” — Tayshia Adams
“I hit the reset button when I get wrapped up in the chaos of the moment, it’s important to turn inward, focus on what you can control, don't deal with what you can’t control, be kind to others, be altruistic, wearing a mask, and caring about others.” — Dr. Evan Rieder
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION & APPROVED USES
BOTOX® Cosmetic may cause serious side effects that can be life-threatening. Get medical help right away if you have any of these problems any time (hours to weeks) after injection of BOTOX® Cosmetic:
· Problems swallowing, speaking, or breathing, due to weakening of associated muscles, can be severe and result in loss of life. You are at the highest risk if these problems are pre-existing before injection. Swallowing problems may last for several months.
· Spread of toxin effects. The effect of botulinum toxin may affect areas away from the injection site and cause serious symptoms including: loss of strength and all-over muscle weakness, double vision, blurred vision, and drooping eyelids, hoarseness or change or loss of voice, trouble saying words clearly, loss of bladder control, trouble breathing, and trouble swallowing.
BOTOX® Cosmetic dosing units are not the same as, or comparable to, any other botulinum toxin product.
There has not been a confirmed serious case of spread of toxin effect when BOTOX® Cosmetic has been used at the recommended dose to treat frown lines, crow’s feet lines, and/or forehead lines.
BOTOX® Cosmetic may cause loss of strength or general muscle weakness, vision problems, or dizziness within hours to weeks of taking BOTOX® Cosmetic. If this happens, do not drive a car, operate machinery, or do other dangerous activities.
Serious and/or immediate allergic reactions have been reported. They include: itching, rash, red itchy welts, wheezing, asthma symptoms, or dizziness or feeling faint. Get medical help right away if you are wheezing or have asthma symptoms, or if you become dizzy or faint.
Do not receive BOTOX® Cosmetic if you: are allergic to any of the ingredients in BOTOX® Cosmetic (see Medication Guide for ingredients); had an allergic reaction to any other botulinum toxin product such as Myobloc® (rimabotulinumtoxinB), Dysport® (abobotulinumtoxinA), or Xeomin® (incobotulinumtoxinA); have a skin infection at the planned injection site.
Tell your doctor about all your muscle or nerve conditions, such as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, myasthenia gravis, or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, as you may be at increased risk of serious side effects including difficulty swallowing and difficulty breathing from typical doses of BOTOX® Cosmetic.
Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, including: plans to have surgery; had surgery on your face; have trouble raising your eyebrows; drooping eyelids; any other abnormal facial change; are pregnant or plan to become pregnant (it is not known if BOTOX® Cosmetic can harm your unborn baby); are breastfeeding or plan to (it is not known if BOTOX® Cosmetic passes into breast milk).
Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Using BOTOX® Cosmetic with certain other medicines may cause serious side effects. Do not start any new medicines until you have told your doctor that you have received BOTOX® Cosmetic in the past.
Tell your doctor if you have received any other botulinum toxin product in the last 4 months; have received injections of botulinum toxin such as Myobloc®, Dysport®, or Xeomin® in the past (tell your doctor exactly which product you received); have recently received an antibiotic by injection; take muscle relaxants; take an allergy or cold medicine; take a sleep medicine; take aspirin-like products or blood thinners.
Other side effects of BOTOX® Cosmetic include: dry mouth; discomfort or pain at the injection site; tiredness; headache; neck pain; and eye problems: double vision, blurred vision, decreased eyesight, drooping eyelids, and eyebrows, swelling of your eyelids and dry eyes.
APPROVED USES
BOTOX® Cosmetic is a prescription medicine that is injected into muscles and used to temporarily improve the look of moderate to severe forehead lines, crow’s feet lines, and frown lines between the eyebrows in adults.
For more information refer to the Medication Guide or talk with your doctor.
To report a side effect, please call Allergan at 1-800-678-1605.
Please see BOTOX® Cosmetic full Product Information including Boxed Warning and Medication Guide
Product Information
Medication Guide
JUVÉDERM® Injectable Gel Fillers Important Information
APPROVED USES
JUVÉDERM® VOLUMA™ XC injectable gel is for deep injection in the cheek area to correct age-related volume loss in adults over 21.
JUVÉDERM® XC and JUVÉDERM VOLLURE™ XC injectable gels are for injection into the facial tissue for the correction of moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds, such as nasolabial folds. JUVÉDERM® VOLLURE™ XC injectable gel is for adults over 21.
JUVÉDERM® Ultra XC is for injection into the lips and perioral area for lip augmentation in adults over 21.
JUVÉDERM® VOLBELLA™ XC injectable gel is for injection into the lips for lip augmentation and for correction of perioral lines in adults over 21.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION
Are there any reasons why I should not receive any JUVÉDERM® injectable gel formulation?
Do not use these products if you have a history of multiple severe allergies or severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis), or if you are allergic to lidocaine or the Gram-positive bacterial proteins used in these products.
What precautions should my doctor advise me about?
· Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. The safety of these products for use during pregnancy or while breastfeeding has not been studied
· The safety of JUVÉDERM® VOLUMA™ XC in patients under 35 years or over 65 years, the safety of JUVÉDERM® XC and JUVÉDERM® Ultra XC injectable gels in patients under 18 years, and the safety of JUVÉDERM® VOLLURE™ XC and JUVÉDERM® VOLBELLA™ XC in patients under 22 years has not been studied
· The safety and effectiveness of JUVÉDERM® VOLUMA™ XC in areas other than the cheek area, JUVÉDERM® XC and JUVÉDERM® VOLLURE™ XC for areas other than facial wrinkles and folds, and JUVÉDERM® Ultra XC and JUVÉDERM® VOLBELLA™ XC in areas other than the lips and perioral area have not been established in clinical studies
· Tell your doctor if you have a history of excessive scarring (eg, hypertrophic scarring and keloid formations) or pigmentation disorders, as use of these products may result in additional scars or changes in pigmentation
· Tell your doctor if you are planning other laser treatments or a chemical peel, as there is a possible risk of inflammation at the treatment site if these procedures are performed after treatment
· Patients who experience skin injury near the site of injection with these products may be at a higher risk for side effects
· Tell your doctor if you are on immunosuppressive therapy used to decrease the body’s immune response, as use of these products may result in an increased risk of infection
· Tell your doctor if you are using medications that can prolong bleeding, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or other blood thinners, as this may result in increased bruising or bleeding at the injection site
· Minimize strenuous exercise, exposure to extensive sun or heat, and alcoholic beverages within the first 24 hours following treatment
What are possible side effects?
The most commonly reported side effects with JUVÉDERM® injectable gels included injection-site redness, swelling, pain, tenderness, firmness, lumps/bumps, bruising, discoloration, and itching. For JUVÉDERM® VOLBELLA™ XC, dryness was also reported. For JUVÉDERM® VOLUMA® XC, most side effects were moderate and lasted 2 to 4 weeks. For JUVÉDERM® XC, JUVÉDERM® VOLLURE™ XC, and JUVÉDERM® Ultra XC injectable gels, most side effects were mild or moderate and lasted 14 days or less. For JUVÉDERM® VOLBELLA™ XC, most side effects were mild or moderate and lasted 30 days or less.
One of the risks with using these products is unintentional injection into a blood vessel, and, while rare, the complications can be serious and may be permanent. These complications, which have been reported for facial injections, can include vision abnormalities, blindness, stroke, temporary scabs, or permanent scarring.
As with all skin injection procedures, there is a risk of infection.
To report a side effect with any JUVÉDERM® product, please call Allergan at 1-800-433-8871. Please visit Juvederm.com or talk to your doctor for more information.
Available by prescription only.
References:
1. BOTOX® Cosmetic Prescribing Information, 2019.
2. Data on File, Allergan; BOTOX® Cosmetic Annual Neurotoxin Market Share, 2018.
3. JUVÉDERM® VOLBELLA™ XC Patient Labeling, 2019.
4. JUVÉDERM® ULTRA XC Patient Labeling, 2019.
BOTOX® is a trademark of Allergan, Inc., an AbbVie company.
JUVÉDERM®, VOLUMA™, VOLBELLA™, and VOLLURE™ are trademarks of Allergan Holdings France SAS, an AbbVie company, or its affiliates.
© 2020 AbbVie. All rights reserved.
MBD139530 08/20
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The New Way to Shop: Footwear Designer, Sarah Flint on the Power of Peers and Customer-Based Selling During Challenging Times
And build a community based on trust.
Written by Sarah Flint, executive chairman, founder, and creative director of Sarah Flint
I started my namesake brand in 2013, having dreamed my whole life of designing footwear. I studied for seven years at Parsons, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Ars Sutoria in Milan. After graduating, I pursued investors, drove across the country to host trunk shows, and built relationships with customers until I finally achieved my big break: in 2015, Sarah Flint officially launched at Barney’s.
This was the dream—this, I thought, was it. But when you run a small business, the idea of “it” is constantly changing.
In 2017, I made the leap of faith to pull my shoes out of the major department stores. I took my business direct-to-consumer because it was how I could stay most true to my vision, creating a warm and welcoming customer experience while avoiding the traditional retail mark-up.
I had built my name on creating luxurious shoes that actually felt comfortable to wear. I added features like arch support and extra padding to pumps so that they looked like killer heels without actually killing your feet. This was easy to see and feel when you tried on the shoes in stores. But without having that physical presence, comfort became harder to genuinely convey, and ad copy alone wasn’t quite cutting it.
The Sarah Flint Brand Ambassador program was born out of my belief that people had to feel how comfortable my shoes were to truly believe it. In October 2019, I began inviting Sarah Flint's brand fans to join a new peer-to-peer network we were building, where they could speak about Sarah Flint shoes online or off, and share a discount for first-time purchasers. They would earn complimentary shoes based on customer conversions and have access to various program perks.
I knew that product recommendations were extremely powerful, especially when they came from someone you knew and trusted. My hope was that the brand ambassadors would feel personal, reliable, and relatable—like you were getting great advice from your most stylish friends.
I originally launched the program to get more of my shoes out into the world, but what I didn’t expect was the incredible community—and invaluable lessons—that would spring up around it.
A Community Based on Trust
Customer reviews, loyalty, and word-of-mouth have to be earned. It was important to me to get my shoes in front of real people and have them attest to their quality—the business couldn’t rely on just me saying it. Our brand ambassadors can share their honest opinions and styling tips to the people in their worlds, which makes our shoes feel like an exciting discovery. This is how we love for customers to come to Sarah Flint—from someone trusted, kind, and passionate about our footwear.
A Personal Alignment With the Brand
The program also makes it easier for ambassadors to connect with our values. Through our shoes, and through conversations with our team, they can see how we live out our ideals like 360-degree kindness, uncompromising quality, and empowering women. We invite our ambassadors to exclusive events (now hosted online due to COVID-19), give them early access to our launches, and provide classes on topics ranging from social media tools to meditation. Some have even formed friendships outside of the program, and nothing makes me happier than seeing how they support each other.
More than ever, I believe women want to shop with brands that align with them personally, and so it’s important to keep the lines of communication open with your customers.
A Network for Feedback
In keeping with open communication, the brand ambassador program has also become an incredible resource for feedback. I routinely reach out to ambassadors for design questions, opinions, and fit testing, and their insights are always well-considered. I recently hosted a Zoom call with the ambassadors on materializing my Spring/Summer 2021 collection, and they gave me fresh ideas that I may not have considered otherwise. In aiming to design shoes for real women and their busy lives, it’s vital for me to understand the needs of women from around the country and at different life stages. Especially during these changing times, it’s a privilege to have a smart, caring, and stylish network.
About the Author
Sarah Flint is the executive chairman, founder, and creative director of Sarah Flint. She launched her eponymous footwear collection in 2013 at the age of 25. The company was born out of Sarah's frustration that women had to choose between feeling good in their shoes and looking great in them. Sarah marries artisanal quality and original design with functional elements, improving fit and comfort. Manufacturing in the world’s best factories outside of Milan, Italy, Sarah Flint sells its shoes direct-to-consumer, offering customers the best possible price-to-value ratio in the market.
Prior to launching her collection, Sarah dedicated over seven years to the research and study of shoe design and manufacturing. Studying at Parsons, and the Fashion Institute of Technology, Sarah graduated with a degree in Accessories Design. After FIT, Sarah moved to Milan to obtain a graduate degree at Ars Sutoria, where she learned pattern making and mastered the technical aspects of shoe production.
Sarah has gained significant recognition in the industry. In 2016, she was appointed to the CFDA, the association of America’s most prominent designers, after having been sponsored by Michael Kors and Zac Posen. Her press coverage includes Forbes “30 Under 30” and a 2016 feature in WWD, “Ten of Tomorrow,” which showcased the best new talent in the fashion industry, as well as regular coverage in Vogue, People, InStyle, Town & Country and NY Times. The brand has gained a loyal following of powerful women and influential celebrities, including Cindy Crawford, Amal Clooney, Megan Markle, Lady Gaga, Gayle King, Karlie Kloss, and many more.
Visit sarahflint.com to learn more and follow Sarah on Instagram at @sarahflint_nyc.
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