The Business Magazine for Women by Monica Antohi

BUSINESS:

INNOVATION CAN BE RE-LEARNED

FINANCE:

MONEY DOES GROW ON TREES

AGE OF FIRE ELAINE LARSEN, CURRENT WORLD CHAMPION JET DRAGSTER TALKS STEM.

#FEMALEFOUNDERS

TAKE THE STAGE

TECH

#WOMENINBUSINESS

ACTION DEFINES YOU

ERICA BAKER OF SLACK ON DIVERSITY AND EQUALITY IN TECH

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Issue No. 1

The Business Magazine for Women

Issue No. 1 Winter 2016 USD $15

TheBusinesMagazineforWomen.com Issue No. 1

Winter 2016

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TheBusinessMagazineforWomen.com

EDITORIAL

If you are like me, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll understand what I mean by I just couldn't read yet another article about women and what women should do in the business world, written by a man. I couldn't accept the fact that we, women, are keywords, to be used after forward slashes (/) on websites that are tooted to be the main business sites and publications around. There is only so much you can take as a woman, and not want to do something about it. I am tired of not seeing women on the covers of business and tech magazines. I am tired of having this forced narrative being fed to us every time we go to the bookstore and see the row upon row of business magazines featuring men dressed in bespoke suits, and row upon row of lifestyle magazines featuring very young women, seminaked supermodels mostly. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe that the world is made up of only business men and supermodels, and I don't want to see that in my media anymore. Actually, this paradigm shift is long overdue.

This magazine is for women and for men. Women need to hear the other women's voices. Men need to see that there is a distinct voice that has not been heard yet. Women do business differently. And every time I talk with a woman thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s either started her own business or is working through taking over a senior position in the corporate world, the difference is clear. We run businesses differently than men. And that works! The Business Magazine for Women will focus on how women do business, how we start and run companies, how we care for our constituents, how we protect our communities, how we fight for our country. The Business Magazine for Women is the voice of experts. Every story, every interview, every article is about an expert in her field. The articles are written by women. The articles are edited by women. It is a Business Magazine for Women, by women. We hope you enjoy it and join us on our journey to bring you the stories of inspiring women in business and tech, STEM and sports, culture and politics.

Women are successful in whatever they chose to pursue, and that shouldn't be something we have to explain, but it is. And when we, women, make the money, take charge and run our lives how we want, we still have to explain to some women and men in our society that being successful is not a male only prerogative.

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It is time for The Business Magazine for Women. It is long overdue. We, women, are half the world population, yet our voices tend to be muted and distorted by the male run media, and by headlines like: "The love trick that makes him want you more", or, "You versus Cellulite", or "Are you a money nag?". I thought we had enough.

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With love and respect, Monica Antohi Founder and CEO The Business Magazine for Women 3

CONTENTS #WomeninTech

#WomeninSTEM

#WomeninBusiness

Erica Baker on Diversity p.6

World Champion Jet Dragster

Innovation can be re-learned p. 66

#FemaleFounders p.11

9-5 STYLE OR WORK FROM HOME P.74-75

#WomeninFinance

SO YOU FAILED. NOW WHAT?

talks STEM and comic books p.24 CREDIT WARRIOR ON P.46

VINA AND WEIRD BAR TALKS P.63 PERSPECTIVES & TEXTURES IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP P.76

MONEY DOES GROW ON TREES P. 50

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TAKE ACTION NOW SWISS MILLENNIALS. ARE THEY THAT MUCH DIFFERENT?

WOMEN IN TECH

“I DON’T WANT

ALLIES. I WANT

ACCOMPLICES” - DURETTI HIRPA

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DIVERSITY AND QBASIC WITH ERICA BAKER OF SLACK

#WOMENINTECH equality vs. equity, but the biggest topic was the business impact that equality and diversity have on the business world. As the conversation got on the way, the room got cold. Ice cold. People turned quiet and were watching the interview

To hear about diversity and equality in tech is one thing. The word is gotten overused of late. To deal with those issues every day, is a whole other thing. Ms. Erica Baker is the Senior Engineer at Slack Technologies and advocate for diversity and inclusion in tech, so when she speaks on these issues, we better pay attention. I met Ms. Baker at the Wired Business Conference in NYC. To say that she’s an impressive woman in person is an understatement. She took the stage and had a very franc interview with Davey Alba, staff writer with WIRED. You can see that interview here. What you cannot see is how the room reacted. What you cannot see is how the truth of the reality of the condition of women in tech reverberated throughout the room, a room filled with over 1000 people, almost 50% women. The interview was a bit uncomfortable. Which, like Erica says, it’s actually a good thing. The infamous google salary spreadsheet got brought up,

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happen, and the entire audience became very uncomfortable. And you would have, too. The reality of women in tech is chilling. Women in tech make up around 25% of the workforce, according to NCWIT. The somber numbers come when you talk about diversity in tech, especially talking about the number of black women in tech. Facebook has a deplorable number of minority employees, their black and hispanic employees, at 2% and 4% respectively. Slack is fighting the good fight, but it’s more because of the efforts of Erica Baker that they’re making a dent and growing their employee diversity.

“GET COMFORTABLE BEING UNCOMFORTABLE” - ERICA BAKER

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#WOMENINTECH In a room full of execs from the top tech companies in Silicon Valley and across the

lot of companies haven't demonstrated that they would be a good place for a black woman to

country, I’m surprised some didn’t walk out when faced with the reality of those numbers. Ms. Baker

work. A thing that I did recently is a personal thing, it sounds a little braggy, but there’s a

wasn’t there to simply talk on diversity and inclusion. She brought actual suggestions on how

Facebook group for women of color in tech in the Bay Area and there are about twenty-five

to combat this “white men only” paradigm. Tools like increasing empathy! No, really! Not a joke or

hundred of us in that group. I said to the people in this group: you email me or email this address

soft skills tool. But an actual business tool. She talked about putting yourself in the shoes of the

with the job you want! Go look at their jobs page. Find which one you want to do. Put your name in

one black person, hispanic person, or asian person in the room in a room full of white men.

the subject line with the jobs you want in the body and then you attach your resume and I will

Actually think about that scenario, and then start an actual conversation about increasing diversity

refer you. And I have been referring women of color ever since. I phrase it to that group in a way

in tech.

that's like, “I am here, I got in”, right?, and I'm not going to shut the door behind me! I’m going to

The on-stage interview was uncomfortable. The points made, moving. At the end of that

hold the door open and let you all in too. So if you approach women of color in that way, and

interview, I ran out of the conference room, and waited for Ms. Baker to finish, so that I can

you say that we want you here, they will be more likely to come to you. Tech companies haven't

actually have a chance to speak with her. And she was even better in person. Her presence fills the

been doing a very great job of proving to women of color that they feel wanted and they're valued,

room, any room she walks in. She is impressive, and you recognize power and self-assurance in

and so you have to. They have to show up. They can't just do their same standard recruiting

her, without any traces of conceit. Here’s what we talked about.

practices, like: “Oh we're just gonna stand back and let them come to us”. […] You have to go to them.

The Business Magazine for Women (TBMfW:) We are speaking to Erica Baker. Erica: Hi... TBMfW: You are Senior Engineer with Slack, and you’re fighting for diversity & inclusion within the company and the tech world in general. You’re trying to bring a lot more women, a lot more black women into tech. How are you actually doing that? And how tough is it? Can you breathe

“I DON’T WANT ALLIES. I WANT ACCOMPLICES” - DURETTI HIRPA TBMfW: Alright ,so it's obviously easier to bring

from the responsibility that you're under?

somebody in, once you’re in, once you’re on the inside.

Erica: So, it's not really that hard! People say it’s

Erica: So much easier.

so hard. It's not that hard. The problem is that a

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#WOMENINTECH

TBMfW: When you're not inside, when you don't

Erica: No. Maybe if it's all guys, you don't want to

have an insider, when you don't even have a woman on the inside, in a company where there

go work there because they don't know how to hire a woman. But if you really do, then find

are just men, how do you breach that, how do you get there, how do you get them to see the

people in your network and I don't just mean your friends and family. LinkedIn has this thing

other side of tech?

where it shows you a friend of a friend and anybody I look at on LinkedIn, I'm only two steps

Erica: Alright, that one is tricky because tech is so network driven that you have to find some way to get in their network and I'm not sure what that is. I don't want to advocate any sort of bad behaviors. TBMfW: [laugh] No.

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away. So taking LinkedIn out of the equation and doing that with your own network, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re probably only two steps away from someone who is in that company. If you really really really want to go work there, even though it's just dudes, figure out those two steps. [laugh]

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#WOMENINTECH TBMfW: Great points. I think a lot of companies

point I was: Maybe, maybe not a lawyer! “Maybe I

that are men-only would benefit from having a woman in their midst.

want to do computer stuff”. Yeah, I was pretty good at debating especially with my mom, she

Erica: Oh, yeah. Totally. Yeah, but it’s so hard to be the first one, right? It is so hard to be that first

did not like that. TBMfW: How do we get more black women in

woman in the environment and they are all like “oh, we can't make our jokes in front of her”, and

tech? Can we reach to high school level? Can we go to younger than that? How do we engage that

“oh, we have to go be different in front of her” or, worst yet they act like complete assholes, so it's

audience?

really hard to be that one woman. You have to have a lot of strength, you’ve got to have your armor way up. But just to be that first one. If you’re not build for that, then don't do it. TBMfW: How did you get into tech? Erica: I will tell you my origin story. I was a little kid, 7 years old, playing with my mom's computer and she did combat plans for the Air Force, so she would sit me in front of her computer while she was doing her work so I would click around in QBasic. Later on, as I was getting older, I got more interested in computers, I was playing Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego, and all those little games on the Apple IIe. And then when I was 10, my school in Alaska sent me to this [computer camp] thing. I don't know how they chose me. I think my mom might have told them that I was into computers or something. So I went to this thing that was in the city, teaching kids how to use HyperCard. I don't want to call it the predecessor to the web but it kinda was, because it did the whole hyperlinking thing but instead of online, you would build things that are hyperlinked to a document. So they sent me to that and that got me hooked, and I was like, WOW! Up until that point I was literally: “I’m

Erica: I feel like there are a lot of black women in tech. They are just not in the Valley [Silicon Valley]. If you go look at the companies like the Coca Cola and Home Depot or the big ones that are in the South, and places where lots of black people live… When I was in Atlanta, when I was at Home Depot’s headquarters, my boss was a black woman and it's the only time in my entire career that I have had a black woman boss in the tech world. If you go to the places where they [black women] are, you will find them! But tech companies are so excessively white, [they can only think]: “We are going to go build in Portland”! Yes, so you’re just going to go build in the least diverse place that you are going to find. You’re going to go put your company, your new office in the least diverse place that you could possibly find! So I don’t think that there aren't black women in tech! I just don't think that they are in the [Silicon] Valley because the Valley has 'issues' that they need to address. TBMfW: They’re working on it, they're working on it. [laugh] Erica: Hopefully! That crowd in there was very cold. I got lots of stank faces, so I was like 'Okay I'm sorry' - 'Not really sorry’. [laugh]

going to be lawyer”.

TBMfW: [laugh] So the last question was, girls 12

TBMfW: Really?

years old, 10 years old... How do we get them interested in all things tech?

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#WOMENINTECH Erica: Oh, how do we get them interested... TBMfW: How do we get them interested in all

Final thoughts: This was a fun interview, and I actually got a hug at the end. Yes, Erica Baker

things tech?

asked if she could give me a hug. You should have seen my smile. I love her, and I am pushing

Erica: I think they are interested, like gaming!

her message as far as I can, and so should you.

They are curious. I feel like one of the problems is that people like to stereotype really really early. I

This being said, I want to be Erica Baker’s

have been doing my best. I have three nieces from my sister and I have been doing my best to shove science and tech stuff in their faces since they were little. The oldest ones are twin girls, Riley, is not into it. She's very: ”I'm gonna go play with flowers and I like to bake”. There is nothing wrong with that. But Brooklyn, her sister, picked it up and Brooklyn's like "I'm going to do math, I'm

accomplice. Some women in business need accomplices. Most women in tech need accomplices. I aim to be every woman’s accomplice. I want to help and make a difference in every woman’s life. Reach out to me and to the magazine and we will actually do something together to push forward equality, diversity and inclusion.

going to do science, I'm going to learn these things”. I feel like if nobody had put that in front of her, she would not have known about it. So I feel like it's important for parents to show up and just present it as an option at the outset. GameDeveloper Barbie just came out (June). Kimberly Bryant founder of Black Girls Code is one of the advisers on that, which is awesome. So giving that as an option, like, you can be a game developer in a barbie doll form. That’s gonna be huge. They didn't think about that before.

Interview: Monica Antohi Pictures: TBMfW and Erica Baker Issue No. 1

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#WOMEN INTECH

#FEMALEFOUNDERS

This issue we’re featuring 3 female founders in tech. As they’re just trying to hit the big leagues with their startups, we figured that it would benefit us all to know more about what they’re doing and support their mission.

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FEVI YU DOGMA.ME

1. Who is Fevi Yu and What is Dogma.me? I’m Fevi, Founder and Chief Pet Sitter of Dogma. I was previously a Small Business Owner and we developed Search Engine Friendly Websites for the Caribbean Market. I’ve created a previous Startup that wasn’t successful and then another one which I was able to pivot and exit. I love technology, it’s given me direction and purpose — if that makes any sense without sounding dramatic.

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#FEMALEFOUNDERS Dogma is free neighborhood pet sitting. Essentially, “I’ll pet sit for you if you pet sit for me.”

The goal is to find someone within walking distance or a short drive from your house, someone who lives in your neighborhood that you can exchange pet sitting services with. You don’t pay each other, you pay it forward.

three dogs of his own. He said he would pet sit for our dogs if we pet sat for his dogs. It was winwin and you could genuinely tell this guy loved animals and would never hurt our furry-babies. It was a deal! And because I was already making websites and saving so much money, I thought, hey… let’s build it!

3. What does it mean to be a female founder? 2. How did the idea for the startup come about? My whole life I have had pets / volunteered for numerous pet rescues / shelters. I always brought home homeless cats and dogs. My Mom said ever since I started walking to school, I would always bring home a homeless cat. A friend from high-school recently told me that when I visited him, I brought him a cat that I had picked up going to his house! So my two passions in life are tech and pets. But I never thought of combining them because I was pretty happy with my professional life. It wasn’t until I was in a long distance relationship. That relationship was expensive because I had to travel a lot but at the end of year when I looked through my books it wasn’t the cost of tickets or hotel rooms that was surprising, it was the cost of pet care! And in my mind I was thinking, if I was having pet sitting cost issues and I make a middle-class income, what are other people doing for pet care when they are earning less? When my partner and I moved in together, we were looking for a pet sitter and we interviewed four prospective pet sitters. Four. We liked one of them but then she asked if she could bring her boyfriend while house sitting for us. It was like pulling teeth. Since we were new in the neighborhood, our neighbor came over and we asked him for pet sitting recommendations. Our neighbor lived less than a mile away and he had

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I kinda hit the jackpot with my family. My parents let me do anything, everything I wanted to do. Never said, “No, you are a girl, you can’t do that” — so I’ve been blessed with the ability to think that I can do anything. Whether you are a girl or boy if you think you can do anything, you can.

4. How are you improving the lives of women? Most of our super active members are women :-) I think women have the magical ability to create love and caring within communities and I believe Dogma is improving the lives of women by connecting like-minded individuals who want to pay-it-forward and build life-long friendships.

5. How do we get more women interested in tech? I think representation is transformative. There is technology in almost every aspect of our daily lives now and if we see more women in more technology-related positions then it will come, organically. A lot of women are nurses and teachers and that’s because less than a decade ago, that’s where women were largely represented and now those industries are mostly women.

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#FEMALEFOUNDERS How do we fast track this? Support women founders by financially investing in their ideas, ie. Invest in Dogma! Ehem.

6. What’s next for Dogma.me? I’ve been in tech for over 10 years now but this is the first year that I’m really delving into the pet industry and I have to say, even if the market is saturated with so many things (ie. food, pet care, health care, toys, pet insurance, etc) — the lack of quality in almost every aspect is startling. And if the quality is there, it’s unaffordable. We want to change that. Most pet owners want to give their pets quality food but don’t know how to read a dog food labels. Most pet owners want a good vet but they can’t really tell if their vet is good or not.

So Dogma is a community that provides quality pet services and pet health information. We are also going to do this in a way that enables our users to understand the importance of diets / exercise and such. I’m also super excited about another product that we are launching that works perfectly with our business model but that’s top secret for now!

7. When can we expect to be able to use the service, and Where? You can use it now, wherever you are in the US. It’s browser / web based and we are working on our native apps for launch early next year.

For more information, check out Fevi and her startup: Facebook: FB/Dogma.me Twitter: @dogmawebsite Website: Dogma.me Issue No. 1

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#FEMALEFOUNDERS

KESHA GARNER QReviewApp.com

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1. Who is Kesha Garner and What is QReview? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a strategic Project Manager with a background in non-profits and start-ups. I earned my Master of Arts degree in English at Clemson University where I focused on poststructural and feminist readings of British and Irish absurdist dramas. After earning my degree, I moved to DC to intern at LGBTQ non-profits. After receiving my Project Management certificate at Georgetown University, I started working at a DC based startup.Â

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KESHA GARNER QReviewApp.com

In short, QReview is the intersectional business rating network for mapping and creating inclusive spaces for the LGBTQ+ community. While we focus primarily on LGBTQ+ folks and issues facing our community, we recognize that discrimination doesn’t happen in a vacuum — that’s why our app allows users to rate and review based on multiple aspects of their identities.

2. How did the idea for the startup come about? My best friend Kevin Hawkins and I are always coming up with fun business ideas and when I pitched the idea of an LGBTQ business rating system, we were both shocked to discover that it didn’t exist—that’s when we knew that we had to create QReview. After many conversations, we realized that it was important to make our app Issue No. 1

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one that doesn’t just focus on discriminations based on LGBTQ+ status. We want to make sure that consumers' dollars are going toward businesses that respect all aspects of their lives.

3. What does it mean to be a female founder? For me, being a female founder is all about representation. Not only are women underrepresented in tech, but women have historically been underrepresented in LGBTQ+ spaces as well. I am excited to be a part of a movement that recognizes that women are powerful and capable and necessary in these spaces. I think it’s also important to mention that, while I am a female founder, I’m also non-binary, so I hope that I can bring attention to those folks who are in this field as well.

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#FEMALEFOUNDERS 4. How are you improving the lives of women? QReview can directly impact the lives of women by driving the marketplace toward businesses that respect ALL of us. QReview pushes users to recognize discrimination in any form- for example, a bar may be LGB friendly, but their “All Lives Matter” sign makes it unsafe for women of color, or there’s no wheelchair access, or trans women aren’t allowed to use the restroom of their choice. Furthermore, while QReview can improve businesses locally, we also want to create a network of users globally and I believe that there is power behind knowing that other women are facing the same struggles you’re facing.

interested in is one of the first steps toward empowering them to be interested in tech. Representation is another important factor— championing powerful role models and providing mentorship and leadership programs are great examples.

6. What’s next for QReview? The next step for QReview is to raise enough money through investments and crowdfunding to build our app. We’re dedicating most of our energy right now to finding investors and crowdfunding so that we can begin app development.

5. How do we get more women interested in tech?

7. When can we expect to be able to download and use the app?

I think the best way to get more women interested in tech is to start young. Breaking down stereotypes about what little girls are

Once we raise the money, we expect the QReview app to be ready for launch within a few months —we’re aiming for a goal of early 2017.

For more information, check out Kesha and her startup: Instagram: @QReviewApp Facebook: FB/QReviewApp Twitter: @QReviewApp Website: www.QReviewApp.com Issue No. 1

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MARNELLI MARTIN LUXE30.COM

1. Who is Marnelli Martin? I've spent the last 15 years as a highly successful jewelry executive -- which has been a fabulous path for me, as I've been passionate about beauty and fine design since I was a little girl. My experiences in the industry have helped me hone both a keen eye for quality, and a business acumen that extends to every corner of the industry; from product development and marketing, to merchandising, manufacturing, international trade, and everywhere in between. Over the years, I've consulted with top industry manufacturers and suppliers, and have worked alongside retail giants from Bloomingdale's to Walmart and many large retailers in between. Issue No. 1

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#FEMALEFOUNDERS As a product developer and advisor for major suppliers and retailers, I've had the opportunity to lace the necks, ears, and arms of American women with jewelry they love. When a woman is wearing a bracelet, pair of earrings, and necklace she adores, her eyes light up, and her voice becomes bolder both literally and figuratively. She is both empowered and elegant; representing herself to the world through her style without even needing to open her mouth. Now, I am bringing my world-class experience in jewelry/ accessories and luxury living to women all over the planet through my wonderful startup baby, Luxe30. The goal? To help busy, hardworking, extraordinary women enjoy the little lavish delights they deserve, every month. 2. What is Luxe30? Luxe30 is a monthly subscription service for women of all walks of life! This fast-growing E-commerce company offers 3 pieces of jewelry and 1 surprise luxurious gift every 30 days (with unlimited compliments). All products are sent to our LuxeLovers TO OWN for only $39/ a month. It truly is an incredible value! I started this company with two heartfelt motivations: to both help the women of the world feel as gorgeous, inspired, and pampered as they deserve, and to disrupt the "traditional" subscription jewelry boxes (which rent jewelry to consumers with the expectation they'll send the piece back, or overpay for a low quality item.) Luxe30 delivers you every exquisite piece for keeps, along with a top secret surprise, and a loving missive to meditate on, and feed your soul. 3. How did the idea for the startup come about? As an entrepreneur, I’ve always dreamed of offering exquisite products that both enhance the physical beauty of a woman, and inspire her heart. But I didn’t just want to offer any other jewelry product or rental service. There are plenty of those Issue No. 1

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#FEMALEFOUNDERS out there! Instead, I wanted to blend stunning pieces with matters of the soul, and help women around the world look and feel beautiful inside and out - whether they’re wearing jewelry or not.

My dream is for women to aspire to be more grateful for their lives, do more of what they love, and take exquisite care of themselves first. Because when hardworking women give themselves the gift of quality experiences, they give themselves space and freedom to say a resounding “Yes!” to taking their pleasures seriously.

Life is short. Before we know it, age and circumstance can limit the real, fulfilling, yummy lives we were born to have! So there's no more perfect time like now to let a little more luxury in. 4. What does it mean to be a female founder? For me, 2 major things came to mind about being a female founder (based on my experience): 1.) Far more hurdles and challenges 2.) Feminine Leverage As far as hurdles and challenges go, these are largely because of the conflicting expectations on all sides (partly thanks to society, and partly because of pressure I put on myself). Balancing the roles of a CEO and mother is a constant dance between how your company is performing (your subscriber count, revenue numbers, etc.)

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Part of my job also involves travel. A woman with young kids traveling for business is one of the most difficult and expensive things for me. Always has been. Meanwhile, most businessmen can just book the flight and take off! Childcare and the full household management isn't necessarily on the shoulders of a male CEO. And then, there's funding. I once attempted to approach a potential investor while I was pregnant in the middle of building my business, and I was told to talk to him again after the pregnancy when I'm all settled in and back to work. Why? Because he "just couldn't see it happening". Still, it didn't deter me. I brought my daughter into the world, and got right back to work with her on my lap. And I loved every part of it. I bootstrapped all the way instead (which was an extremely tough direction to go) but I'm so glad I did!

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Now, to feminine leverage: What this means to me is most female founders are very gifted with intuitive leadership because we access our core more frequently, and pay a bit more attention as to how the flow of the business is aligning with how we feel and how we want things to feel in honor of our creation. I built this business from the ground up using a lot of my intuitive abilities with lots of logic and practicality of course (from hiring, buying, branding & visuals, deals, etc). And it's a very crucial skill to tap into when you're running a business. In my experience female leaders are the ones who don't waste a moment. They get things done... excellently... right now. 5. How are you improving the lives of women? Jewelry industry alone is enormous for a reason. A power-suit or a power-dress is powerless without jewelry. Millions of women know this. It's so amazing how little earrings or a statement necklace or ring or stackable bracelets can charge-up your superpowers.

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#FEMALEFOUNDERS As soon as a woman put on the right jewelry, she's the crowned queen, and can take the world! It can instantly change a mood. Luxe30 improves women's lives by offering affordable luxuries delivered to their doorsteps. With my access to the world's best manufacturers and suppliers, we only deliver quality, amazing value and a really awesome, luxurious experience in every box. And they OWN it all! You can never find or buy this jewelry and bonus surprises at this price point anywhere else. Aside from our gorgeous products, it's our mission to inspire women to celebrate themselves now. At Luxe30, there's no waiting for the job or promotion, money or the man to honor a desire. We encourage everyone to live luxuriously now, while working for their other dreams. We teach women to redefine luxury and take exquisite care of themselves. Because when we grant ourselves permission to indulge in simple pleasures and self-care we empower ourselves; as professionals, partners, friends, and mothers. We’re happier, bolder, and more deeply grounded in joy. 6. How do we get more women interested in tech? Tech is our amazing "present" and also our incredible "future"! We simply cannot NOT engage with technology. It's an integral part of our daily lives which hugely impacts our relationships, personal & professional growth, our families, commerce, global economy and our entire culture. I think that first & foremost, we need to let go of the notion that tech is solely a boys’ club. This is one of the major barriers we faced (initially). While it's currently predominantly men, there are so many brilliant women who are already

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stepping up and leading and influencing the industry in ways that I am so proud of as female founder. It's so inspiring to see women-leaders rocking tech and e-commerce space. Secondly, the world of technology still seems to come with many invisible walls. We usually equate it with computer engineering, math & coding, software development, complex programming, etc., and while I know brilliant women in these fields, society has also raised us with the belief that these are more "masculine" career paths. For me, as a woman and a creative, the thought of entering the world of tech gave me pause. Was I supposed to be there? But thankfully, I corrected myself quickly. At this stage, it's more of an applied science for me. I think of "tech" as a vessel of life, art, love, creativity and pleasure. I absolutely don't believe that you need to have a tech background or a masters tech degree to be part of the industry. There are so many geniuses in the tech field ready to work with you -- to design and code your site, to streamline your systems, and more, so you can focus on what you do best. Tech isn't a barrier. For me, it's a platform; a very powerful one that I must use for my business and reach as many women in the market who will benefit from what I have to offer. So, there's nothing to fear! Almost every product / service offering in the world is linked to tech now so we have got to get our sexy-sass on it. And for Luxe30 in particular, I plan on hiring as many women as possible in the near future. I believe that it's one of the best things that I can do right now to help others be more comfortable in developing a career in this space. I'd love to help expose my team to both service & great livelihood through technology.

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#FEMALEFOUNDERS 7. What’s next for Luxe30? Amazing, astronomical growth, exciting collaborations, international market, and more luxurious experiences for our subscribers. Oh, and fun! Lots of fabulous fun. :) Also, my team & I are so honored to be selected by the THE NEXT WEB as one of only 60 startups in a key position to breakthrough. We are attending the TNW-Momentum Scale Conference in NYC and I look forward to connecting with many brilliant professionals, investors & influencers in tech and ecommerce world. For more information, check out Marnelli and her startup: Instagram: @Luxe30 Facebook: FB/Luxe30 Twitter: @LuxeThirty Website: www.luxe30.com

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8. When can we expect to be able to sign up for the Luxe30 box? Be pampered like a queen now by visiting our home at www.luxe30.com

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WOMEN IN STEM

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The time of sitting in the back of the room is over. Everybody has to be accountable for their actions.â&#x20AC;? -Elaine Larsen TheBusinessMagazineforWomen.com Issue No. 1

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AGE OF FIRE NO DRAGONS. JUST WOMEN RIDING FIRE SPEWING JETS.

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ELAINE LARSEN WORLD CHAMPION JET DRAGSTER TALKS JET ENGINES, TEAMWORK & STEM

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I came to the Larsen Motorsports on a regular Friday afternoon, to talk to the 2 time National Jet Dragster Racing Champion, Elaine Larsen, and check out her shop. Well, it’s not a shop. It’s a showroom, with an engine lab, a body lab, massive jet engines around, a few jet racing cars and a few trailers, a bunch of awards all around, a dog and quite a few college kids working on different labs.

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#WOMENINSTEM This is not what I expected when going to a racing team’s garage. I’ve been a Formula 1 fan for a long time, used to watch the Paris - Dakar rally too, been to a few Nascar races, and who hasn’t watched an episode, or two, of Top Gear? Not a gear head, but I like racing. I’ve seen garages, up close and personal, but that’s not what I found at Larsen Motorsports. It was more of a research facility than a racing car garage. Yes, you get the racing necessities like the enveloping jet fuel smell, the spare tires, the stacks upon stacks of car parts, the paint cans, sponsors banners. You get the idea. But it’s Friday, and today they’re testing one of the new drivers, as she (yes, you read that right) is set to start up the jet car, and take it through the prerace paces. As I found out, it’s a mandatory step in the How to Be a Jet Car Driver course.

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We go outside to the parking lot/test area, and there’s this massive jet car waiting on the tarmac. Big… impressive… The team is there, and the support team is mostly men, but you’ll get over that quickly. As I keep conversing with Elaine, here comes the driver, Kat, or as you’ll know her, K2, all dressed up in the fire suppression suit, aka, racing suit, with the helmet under her arm. But if you didn’t know that she was the driver, you would never have put her in that seat. I say this, and I hear my own biases. Sorry. Trying to forget I just thought that, I get introduced to K2, Kate the 2nd, the 20 year old race car driver in training. K2 was 18 when she first met Elaine. She kept calling and following up, she kept coming to the lab, and now she’s learning to be a #jetgirl. She’s going to Florida Tech studying multi-platform journalism with a focus on STEM education, and she’s working on her jet racing license.

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#WOMENINSTEM all smiles as they got a tour of the shop from Kat2. The fraternity boys were looking around at all the boy toys. Correction! Girl Toys! The reason for the “girl toys” comment is that the Larsen Racing Team is made up of 7 drivers, 6 of which are women! Yes! That’s not a misprint! That’s not a joke. The 2 time World Jet Dragster Champion, Elaine Larsen presides over a team of girls. [smile] And boys, but the drivers are mostly girls. And I mean girls. Barely out of high school. But that’s not what you see on the track. That’s not what you see in the garage. That’s not what you think of when you come in. What you see is a level of professionalism that is near military perfection. The cars are built by Florida Tech students! The drivers are young, barely out of high school, and mostly girls! The level of research and development that these college kids can do is unrivaled. Hands on experience in race car design is what they get. Making dreams come true is what Elaine Larsen does.

Kat2 is in the jet car, and as she’s going through the paces, we start getting a bigger audience. There’s a big group of people that just pulled in from the road, and you can’t blame them. The car is jetting fire out its back and it’s a sight that not that many people have ever seen. Going through the test, she follows Elaine’s signals like the pro that she is, and the test is a success! K2 gets out of the car & she does so on cheers and applause by a bigger audience than she was expecting. That girl was on cloud nine for the rest of that day. It’s a very lively atmosphere at Larsen’s. Kat2’s test, with fans coming to visit, the team celebrating with some donuts in the parking lot, a Florida Tech fraternity came and visited the garage. They were Issue No. 1

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Elaine Larsen: That’s exactly what I want people to think about when they think about Larsen Motorsport. We work with young kids, and we enable them to live their dream. TBMfW: How did you end up working with Florida Tech? I’ve been racing cars for 20+ years, driving a jet for 15 years now. We were in it to win it. I wanted to win the prizes, I wanted to win the money, I wanted to be the best. Six years ago when I wrecked, I decided that being in it to win it had its ups and its downs. We were talking about Formula 1. You have to calculate the risks. I was calculating the risk, and the money that I was getting to win, did not pay out. That wasn’t the end goal. As much as everybody’s there cheering you on in the

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stands when you’re hurt in the hospital, who’s there for you now? Who’s there to pay your bills now? Who’s there to help you walk and talk, and feed you and all that stuff? Nobody. And when you’re up to your eyeballs in hospital bills, who’s going to help you? So we had to change our philosophy, and do a little bit more with research and development. We wanted to do a lot more with education for high performance vehicles. We knew that there was a need out there. So when Florida Tech said, Hey! We’re interested. Can you come see what we do on our campuses? We knew that we were a match. What the Space Coast does, is exactly what Larsen Motorsports does. All of our cars are set to the same aerospace standards that an airplane would be, so we build our cars exactly like you would build an airplane. People don’t think about that when they think motorsports. “Oh, it’s not as high tech!” I’m gonna tell you, that our cars are just as Issue No. 1

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high tech as any airplane is! We literally take an engine off an airplane and make it stay on the ground. So we reverse engineer. Instead of making it fly, we’re making it stay [on the ground], and stay stable. It’s fun and it’s interesting, and it’s a way for the kids to get great hands-on skills that they would never be able to get if they were to work for another company, because you have to prove yourself. Well, we’re a race team. Right now, we’re working on our 6th generation car, but we’re modeling out 7th generation car that won’t be built for another year. We’re always looking forward. I’m not looking at next year. I’m looking at my 10 year plan. When I get older and I don’t want to do this anymore, I’m looking beyond that as well, to who’s going to take over the reins of Larsen Motorsports. I’m 49, I’m not going to do this forever. I still probably have another good 10 years left in me, but I’m looking at what it is going to look like when I’m not in the driver seat, and just coming in and collecting the paycheck. I mean, I say that, but I love the game. I like to get

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#WOMENINSTEM Is it cool to be the one people are clapping for? Absolutely! I’m not ready to give that up yet. But it’s even better when you’ve helped be a part of making that happen.

TBMfW: How are you managing that, having a mostly girl team?

KAT REDNER, A.K.A, KAT, K2

up for the game. TBMfW: You’ve been racing for 20 years. You have to love it. I do. I love the game. I love pulling to the gates. I love looking at the atmosphere, I love watching the trucks and trailers pull in and watching the audience go up, and watching the car get unloaded. That to me, gives me chills because there’s still something about it. I get just as much of a thrill as watching Kat [K2] take the accolades today, as I do for me. I can sit back and I can watch her come in. That girl is going to be walking on air for the next 2 weeks. That’s cool! Issue No. 1

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We make it a very good environment for women to come feel like they can come in and ask: “hey, I’d like to be a driver”. I get girls come up to me all the time saying: “I wanna drive a jet car”. I look at them and say: Why? “‘Cause I wanna go fast!”. Ok! You’re going to the end of the line! [that’s race car jargon meaning, hell no!] Because that’s not at all why you want to do it! You wanna drive a jet car because you want to make a difference. You want to drive a jet car because you want to show what girls are capable of doing, or what people are capable of doing. You want to make a difference in the world. You want to help people get rid of their fears. I’ve had so many people email me and say: What would Elaine do in this situation? Elaine is not afraid to get back in the car after she’d wrecked. Yesterday I ran a 5K. I’ve haven’t ran 3 miles consecutively in 4 years. I ran it! Was it the best time? No! I ran it in 34 minutes, and I’m dang proud of that. [laugh] That’s not bad! I did not fall. I did not get lost. I did it. I mean it sounds silly, but common things like that are scary for me. I do such extreme things, that when I see people do [normal] things that most take for granted, I’m like gosh, I wish I could do that! And I did it. I didn’t questions it. I didn’t care what I looked like. I went out there, probably ran like a spaz, but I didn’t care. But getting girls to come in is huge. I can get the girls to come in, but finding the right girls. That girl that has the spark, that girl that wants to give and not take.

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#WOMENINSTEM Now I’m a little tougher when it comes to recruiting. There’s a little bit of a harder recruiting process. It’s not as easy as it used to be. I’ve taken a few knocks, and now I can smell it. I like shoulders back, head up, but don’t kick your head too far up. You know what I mean?

TBMfW: Where do you meet these girls? The girls that want to be drivers? At the racetrack. Or on social media, or when I’ve been on TV, and things like that, and they say, Your story is really cool! Toyota North America featured me in their company conference about Stepping Up To The Plate. How cool is that? They emailed me and said: Urgent Need! The person in charge of the whole conference said: I saw this girl on Jay Leno, and that is the best of stepping up to the plate that I’ve ever seen. And he said, I’m going to feature her! and they said: But we’ve wanted to do baseball! He said: Watch! And he

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showed them the video, and they all said: nobody stepped up to the plate bigger than you! I’m like, OK [smile]! But, I’m just me. And there is nothing extraordinary [about me]. Seriously! I can put you in that car, and you can do that too. Once people realize that there is no superpower that lets you do that, it’s about having the guts to get in the car. That’s the hard part. You know? Having the guts to put the fire suit on. A lot of people think that they can do it. But the minute that I say, suit up and sit in that car, people go [shaking their heads], no. Mhm mhm, no! And it’s just asking them to go sit in the car!

TBMfW: It’s about courage, especially when you’re about to get into a car that’s got a jet engine strapped to it.

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#WOMENINSTEM This is going to be my story about Kat2. I gave Kat probably a 10% chance of succeeding. She has blown me away. She has proven me wrong every step of the way. This girl, for some reason, pulls from a source that I did not see in her. She said, very meekly: “I wanna drive a jet car”. I’m like “Ok.” So I let that cook for a second. And she goes: “But I really want to drive a jet car”, so I said, “Ok, let’s do this. “ But when it came time to flip that switch [getting in the car, and turning the jet engine on], SHE DID IT! Her hand was shaking, absolutely. And if it wasn’t shaking, I might have been thinking: Do you fully understand what you’re doing? TBMfW: What’s the process of getting the girls/ potential drivers from when they meet you, to today, when they can get into the jet car, fire suit on, and turn on the jet car? How long is this process? It depends on each girl, on each person. For some people it can go very quickly. For Kat, it took her about 6 months to get in the car to do this. First, I had to make sure that she’s in it for the right thing, which she is. And now I know. Kat will start getting her license by the end o f this year (2016), and will be a fully licensed driver by the first of next year. Now she started the car. Now, how it’s going to be when she starts seeing

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speed? Is she going to be able to understand where she’s at on the track? That’s another thing. You can’t gauge that until you put them in the car, and put them on the track. On the track, there’s markers. There’s the 60 foot, 330, 660, 1000 foot, and then the full .25 mile, and there are boxes that give us increments. So [once we get to the track] what I do is tell them to start the car, do the smoke and fire, stage the car, and I want you to shut it off at that marker. So they have to know where they’re at and shut it off at that point. Not one foot before, not one foot after. I want it exactly there. I have to make sure that they know exactly where they’re at. Because once they start going fast, it gets 10 times harder. So when they’re going slower, because they won’t light the afterburner, they’ll go slow, her first pass will only be around 120 miles per hour, which is not fast at all. I know it sounds fast, but it’s not fast. Then it gets real fast, real quick. One of my guy drivers got lost on the track a couple of times. He got lost. He thought he was at the 330 mark. Instead he was at the 1,000 foot! It wouldn’t have been hardly any distance for him to get off that track. I looked to him, and I said: “Do that one more time, and you’ll never get into one of my race cars again. I’m saving your life. You will kill yourself in this race car”.

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#WOMENINSTEM You gotta know where you’re at. Always. How many times do you get in your car, and find yourself somewhere else. Wait a minute, how did I get here?

TBMfW: Being present is important, especially at those speeds. You guys are fast. Race cars are fast, but this jet car is spectacularly fast. Seeing it blazing down the track is was so incredibly exhilarating, so loud, so quick, and all the senses were engaged. Sidenote: I went to a race day to watch Elaine and the team race and qualify for the nationals, before the interview, and she took me down to the starting lane. She gave me a set of noise canceling race headphones and plopped me at the starting line, before the lights, on the tarmac. The jet car Issue No. 1

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pulled up, did the smoke and fire drill, and got aligned to the starting marker. Lights went from red to green, and the jet car punched through! It was like getting hit by a wall at 60 miles per hour. It was so loud! It was SO LOUD! Imagine having an airplane engine NEXT TO YOU, with no protection

but a pair of headphones. The feeling was intense. It was loud, it was windy, it was vibrationally intense. I felt my insides vibrate. My shirt lifted from the intense air displacement. I was told to hold on to my hat, so that was still there, but barely. I thought that my not race regulation clothes will get literally torn off by the air displacement. Intense. The video I took doesn’t do it justice. Anyway, going back to the interview.

Elaine: And when they light the afterburners, and you’re there, [laugh]… I swear that there’s something! A lot of cars go down the track and

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#WOMENINSTEM people are like, cool, high five. But when a jet car goes down the track people laugh, people smile. There’s something about it that just makes people happy. Either that, or you get the other reaction. My friend waits for me at the finish line and she just hates what I do. My friends and family are so ready for me to retire. They just want to know that come event weekend, I’m going to be safe. Every weekend they’re on stand by. Is Elaine racing? Where’s Elaine at? do I have to think about it? And Chris [Elaine’s husband] always sends a

group text out to everyone: “Elaine is safe”. But my one friend, she cries every time I go down the track. “I just don’t want you to do this anymore.” I realize that it takes its toll. My son, it takes a huge toll on him. He’s ready for me to get out of the car. TBMfW: It’s dangerous. We’ve all seen the wrecks. Nobody wants to think about what could happen. But you have to think of it, every time you get into a car. That’s the biggest rub! You really have to be prepped for that. You know that that could happen. I don’t know if Kat can know what is ahead of her, and fully understand. I’ve had people literally die right in front of me in a wreck. Friends. Friends have died. We have lost friends. My kid was playing with this guy’s kid 5 minutes before, and then his daddy died. And it’s heartbreaking. And you start thinking I don’t want to get into the car. It’s hard. We do it because it’s not what we are, it’s who we are! A race car driver is not what I am is who I am. It really is. I didn’t know that. I don’t know if I hadn’t had met my husband that I would ever had known that. Man, wouldn’t I have missed out on something amazing! Think about it. How many chances people miss if they don’t take that little bit of a risk? I’m not a risk taker. I have never a had ticket. I have never been in jail. I’ve been pulled over a couple of times, but I’ve managed to talk my way out of them, but I’m not a risk taker!

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#WOMENINSTEM TBMfW: How can you say that, when you’re a jet car driver? I calculate that risk. I calculate what I’m going to do, I know what’s going to happen, and every time that I get in that car, I think, ok, if I wreck, this is what I’m going to do. I think of all the scenarios. I walk the track, I look at the shutdown area. I take away all of the questionables that I possibly can, because there’s so many that you can’t possibly prepare for. So I’m trying to get at all the ones that I can prepare for, and get rid of them. This way, I’ll know what I’m going to do, so there’s not even a thought.…. TBMfW: How do they get from just starting out, to where Kat is today, all decked out in a fire suit, turning on the jet car, and bringing on that crowd? Do you have a simulator?

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At this point, the simulators just can’t account for that risk of death. The human factors are just not there in a simulator. The good news is that a simulator could prepare them, analytically, for the race. I see simulation in our future, very rapidly, like in 2017. We’re getting to the point where we’re training too many people. But for now, first I have to walk them through it. First they come to the track, and they have to be my shadow. They have to see what it means to be Elaine Larsen for a day. Yeah, it’s not all the shits and giggles as you think it is. It’s not nearly as glamorous as what you think it is. And then there are days when it’s 10 times more glamorous, and I get sent amazing things, and I get to meet huge celebrities and that kind of stuff, but that’s one day out of 365, and that’s one hour out of 24.

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#WOMENINSTEM TBMfW: How long is the actual race? 5 seconds. TBMfW: So you put all this effort and energy into those 5 seconds. That’s a tiny payout, time wise, but the emotion that comes with it… is so big! I think that it almost gets diluted with Nascar, Indy and Formula 1, because you couldn’t hold that sustained adrenaline. The fans can’t, and the driver can’t the entire time. Whereas ours [type of racing], is such a HIT, and then it’s gone. And I think that’s the emotion that gets diluted with a long race, because by the end of the race, you would be spent if you could hold that level of adrenaline though the entire race. I mean you could get it at the very end if it’s going to be a close race or something. Racing now has become such spec cars that it’s not as entertaining to me. What I like about jet cars is that it’s the true untouched racing. They don’t regulate us nearly as strictly as they do the other cars, and we’re able to do so much more design-wise then any other cars are. We’re not out there for

competition to the other teams, and there’s not this huge group that goes and travels. We’re not this big segment [of racing]. They have to regulate them [Nascar, Indy, F1] because if there were as many of us as there are of them, that would be out of control. I see that if we get bigger, then that could bring a lot more regulations, and we’re ready for it. I don’t want it, because I love that the kids can come up with something so totally out of the box that nobody’s ever thought about before. [The “kids” are the Florida Tech college students that are working and doing research at Larsen Motorsports]. TBMfW: Formula 1 is very regulated. They keep bringing in new rules and regulation with every race season, but they do have new technologies coming in. If that’s the future in jet racing, what are the implications? It’s going to drive the cost up. And that’s the part that I don’t like about it, that it’s cost driven. The reason why Formula 1 is the most expensive market is because of the technology. What these cars do and how technologically advanced they

#WOMENINSTEM are, is insane. My brain can’t wrap around that. Hit a switch and adjust the wings, they can adjust this, they can adjust that! Their steering wheel, I would’t know what to do with all those buttons. I just hit and go. It scares me because jet racing is fairly economical. I know, you’ll laugh, but it only costs me about $1,700 to make a pass down the track. And that’s everything, for the insurance, power to the shop to get the jet car ready, the trailer that brings the jet car to the track, tires, jet engine, to the jet fuel, and that’s not bad. Now, the physical cost, if nothing goes wrong, is 25 gallons of jet fuel. And it’s all for 5 seconds. [laugh] We can fire a car for couple of hundred dollars. Kat’s test today didn’t use the whole 25 gallons. I think that was about $100 worth of jet fuel. We

fired it up yesterday 6 times. That’s $600. That’s the cost of doing business. Sponsorships for us run from $150,000 to $200,000 a year for an entire sponsorship. It’s a great value, and we can do this because our engines are reused, over and over and over. The expense of what we have is so much cheeper. I worry about technology getting ahead of us and us having to spend all that money to go catch up. What we do for the year is a fraction of what they [Nascar, Indy, Formula 1] do for just one race. We can run that, AND eat steak. [laugh] Sure, we’re not flying in a corporate jet, but I don’t know if that’s the team that I aspire to be. I like grassroots, I like driving, I like the people that you meet at truck stops. I know it’s weird. I like to go

#WOMENINSTEM see what’s going on, what kind of cowboy boots I can pick up. I like it. I like FLyingJ coffee better than I like Starbucks, because it’s what I know. You’d be surprised. Truckers are becoming a lot more healthy now. There’s fresh fruit now. So sometimes I go in to pay for the fuel, and there’s fresh fruit right there, and I’m like, oh, that looks good, and there’s somebody that says, Let me buy that for you! And I say: Thank you! [laugh] I learned how to flirt to get fruit. There. I said it. [laugh] People on the road, people in general, are just nice. They just want to know who you are and what you do, and especially at truck stops, and rest stops and hotels. You know, it’s different from their life. I never want to be that person that when they say: “What do you have in there?” I say: “Ah, nothin’!” Instead I say: “I have a jet dragster in there. Do you want to see it?” I don’t want be that other person.

TBMfW: So, let’s talk about sponsorships. Is Florida Tech a sponsor? We do a partnership with them, and that’s different than my sponsors, from Matrix and Valspar and sponsors like that. Most of my sponsors aren’t sponsors like you would normally see. I want a partnership! With Florida Tech, we work with them on their research, so it’s a give and take. They may give us some of there research opportunities and access to some of the things that they have at the University and their knowledge and faculty, and things like that, and then we may give them student enrollment. It’s a give and take. Valspar, Matrix, right now we have the composite lab that’s on that. US Chemical, they’re giving us the fiberglass we need. We get to call them

#WOMENINSTEM and get their people come in and help the students understand about composites. So it’s a true partnership. Trust me, I’d love for someone to come in and just write me a check, and say: Here! But I found that when people don’t have an affiliation with what you do, that money is quickly come and gone. It’s easy for me to be a line item that gets crossed of. I don’t want to be a line item. I want to be Elaine Larsen! I want them to know who I am, and I want them to be invested in our company and I want to invest in their company. I invest in their company as much as they invest in mine. Like Miller. We flew up to Appleton, WI and we understood how each machine was made. We understood the processes of each machine, and I

want to be a great ambassador for them. I don’t just want to say: Buy Miller, ‘cause it’s good, and make a commercial. I want them to say: You should see the employees that work there, they take this personal. When they put a machine together, it’s personal for them. They’re just a company that believes in good values and it’s families who’ve been there. From great grand father, to his great grand son working at the same company, and they believe in those values. And that’s why you should buy Miller, because they’re a better company. TBMfW: Ok, I’ll admit. I don’t know anything about Miller. What do they do? They’re Miller Welders. So they do mid tape plasma cutters, they do generators, all made in America, and I love it. I love that they invest in their employees, and they invest in their employees’ families, and I like the company.

TBMfW: If that’s not advertising for them, I don’t know what is. Yeah, I might not be able to tell you how to weld, but I can tell you about the company. If they value their employees this much, how much do you think they value putting that welding machine together? A lot more. As opposed to buying from a company that has “interchangeable people”, do you want to buy from someone like that? No.

#WOMENINSTEM I can share that story. I’m not the technical side of racing. I’m very much the business side, but when I’m siting here talking about value and what you get, and I’ve been to Matrix, and I’ve watch these people make the paint, not watched it dry [laugh], but I’ve watched it being made! It’s neat! You see this airbrush artist, all tatted up, and he made a gorgeous picture. And it’s like that guy [Thomas Kinkade] on PBS that says “look at the happy clouds”. [laugh] I mean, you don’t know how it’s going to end, but you just sit there watching. He is gifted. And you’d have never thought that. You’d have seen him on a motorcycle, with a bandana on, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and you’d never think that he would ever have done something as beautiful as this delicate flower that he just painted, this little rose. So, it’s a partnership, not sponsorship! What we’re really trying to do is get our name out there. We’re great in our industry, we do a real good job with companies within our industry, but I see so much we could with companies outside of our industry. Like, with a makeup line. What they do is great, but you want to see what makeup looks like inside of a [race] helmet, or you want to see what helmet hair looks like after a race? Bed head? I give you helmet head! Ok? [laugh] For real people. And I loved where Dove was going with it, when they were showing real women, and not just models. We’re real women. I have dimples on the backs on my legs, and I have this and I have that, and I might have food in my teeth half the time, but I’m Elaine, and I own it! [laugh]

TBMfW: What is your involvement with STEM? STEM wasn’t around when I was little. We didn’t say the word STEM, and it’s overused. I feel like what we need to know is what is the career that we like. So exposing people to different careers, and finding out how people got there. For me, Issue No. 1

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that’s all business. To be a race car driver you have to be athletic, energetic, and have a sound mind, and be business savvy. But if you want to design race cars, if you like looking at the body shapes that they have on these new race cars, and you’re fascinated with why they did this and why they did that, like the new wing on the front of the Indy car, the one that shatters into a million pieces, if that fascinates you, then what does that mean? It means that you’re good in math, and you’re into aerodynamics, and this and that, and that’s what I’m trying to push. All this happens to fall into that STEM bucket. But I change it up a little bit with: Science, Technology, Engineering, ARTS and Mathematics. Engineers are really

“You just need to own your flaws, as much as you own the good parts of you.” artists, because they build and design amazing things. Whether it’s civil engineering, space engineering, mechanical engineer, I think that anything they build can be a piece of art if you look at it the right way. And I think that you should take pride in that like it is art. We built Speedy the Scarecrow. I like taking things out of the garbage can, and making something new and fresh out of it. He’s built from scraps. It’s recycled. Chris and I were very poor when we got married. We both made $3.35/hour, each. My parents had money. His mom had money. That didn’t mean that we had money. Neither of them ever gave us a penny. Ever. There were times when we didn’t have heat for the house, food for the refrigerator. We did have our car, and the money to be able to get it fixed. We sucked it up. We did it. I’m glad that they didn’t give it to us. At the time, I wasn’t happy about it, but it made us better, so now we learned how to dumpster dive and get what we need and live on that. I can live on nothing if I had to. I have all this. But this can

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#WOMENINSTEM TBMfW: How do we get more girls into STEM? By making this look accessible. Make it look attainable. Anybody can do what I do. I am not special. I am not the best race car driver out there. And if this is something that you truly want, you can do this, too. That is the secret. Make it seem accessible to them. I remember as a little girl thinking about an astronaut. I never dreamed that I could become an astronaut! I didn’t think that! Making it seem accessible to them [girls]. Taking the curtain down and letting them see everything. Making them see that sometimes I’m good, sometimes I’m bad, letting them see your failures, just as much as they see your successes, so that they know that you are not perfect. Being honest with the girls, and giving them things to be proud of, and things that they can take ownership in. I can’t even tell you how many hundreds of students we have affected. go away tomorrow, and I’d be fine. I would find something else. If this were taken away because of something catastrophic, I’d build something else up.

TBMfW: To me that’s a definition of success. It doesn’t matter what you have and for how long you have it. If something massive like that happens, and you lose it all, if you can get up, that’s success. When are we considered successful? When we have one team, two teams, three teams, four teams? When does it stop? Success today was looking out at Kat and seeing those guys go “Woohoo” when she got out of the car. You can’t take that away. We did that. So, can I build that again? Abso-freaking-lutely, I can build that again! None of this counts, my house, my cars, my engines. I built it once, I’ll build it again. Issue No. 1

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TBMfW: How do they come to you? As an instance, we were at the Florida Tech homecoming last year, and I had a parent approach me and say: My daughter, Emily, is a freshman at FIT, and she’s going to be a mechanical engineer. Tell me about the jet drag team. I want to see if this is something that she could be into.” So I ask: “What is she into?” “She really likes writing, she likes comic books” and I said: “Oh my gosh, I have a comic book!” So we’ve been keeping in touch, and when my comic book started to take off again, Emily reached out to me, and now she’s the author of my new comic book. TBMfW: When is that coming out? I don’t know. I don’t want to set deadlines on that. 2017 at some point. We’re making the bios right

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#WOMENINSTEM TBMfW: You mentioned that every one of the girls in the comic will be in a STEM related field. Within each comic, there’s going to be a lesson plan, that the teachers can take back to the students. Now we’re working on this, and you know, it’s going to be set in space. Take the jet car. A jet engine needs air. The more air it gets, the faster is going to go. So there’s going to be issues, with some of these areas where there might not be enough air to sufficiently run the engine. So how are we going to run around this obstacle? There’s going to be an engineering obstacle in very comic. Maybe there’s not going to be fuel, maybe we’re going to have to come up with a new type of biofuel, plant based on plants in that area. Every comic is going to have a lesson plan. It won’t be weird, like the kids won’t want to read it. But at the end, they’d have realized that they’ve figured it out. Now, here’s the math behind how they did it. TBMfW: You’re not going to have the math in the comic book, are you? No! That would be boring. It’s going to be after the comic. But if you want to know more about Blaze, and how they got the engine to work, here’s the math behind it. That’s why I have a mechanical engineer writing my comic. TBMfW: Blaze is the name of the main character? Her name is Hailey Sparks, a.k.a., Blaze. She’s so fierce. She’s a young version of who I wish I was when I was that age. now. We’re making what the girls are going to look like, what they act like, and yes, it’s a girl comic. It is. But we’re defining what people are going to read and think. It’s about people, real people, and it’s about what we do. Each one of the comics, is bits and pieces of the kids that are in working here, which is hilarious.

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TBMfW: What’s next for you guys? We’re partnering up with some different venues. We’re partnering up with NHRA, and they’ll bring high school students to the track and we’ll be able to have a broader impact on these kids, because we’ll be reaching to 12,000 kids just at

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#WOMENINSTEM the races, and these 12,000 kids are in STEM related curriculum. We’re going to need to amp our game up. That’s ok. We’re up for the challenge. We’re working on our new designs, that will be a big one. The new designs cars, cars that the Florida Tech kids have had a direct impact on making. Right now they’re doing the spinners for the parachute cans, and they’re building them. We’ve run the 5th generation car for a few years now, and we haven’t made any major modifications, but we’re going to take it, and we’re going to run real analyses on these cars. So it’s not going to be, We think that it ran faster. We’re going to have some of the kids run the tests, and that’s going to be part of their thesis projects. Again, that’s the partnership with Florida Tech. What is that going to mean for us? Possibly

faster cars. But it’s going to mean that we have data to push us forward to design cars for the 7th generation and 8th generation. We’re in partnership with Florida Tech, but this is a Larsen Motorsports initiative. We’re using the braintrust of the kids, which is an awesome part. Chris and I are the oldest people here at the shop. The next person up is 24, and that’s Brian, a graduate of FIT with an aerospace engineering degree, and he’s getting his MBA right now. Everybody else is under 24. They’re the ones driving the train. Chris and I are just funding it. They’re the ones in the driver’s seat. The main goal is that they’re really working on building this funny car. They’re excited. They’ve spoken, and we’ve listened. We have team meetings all the time, and we ask: What would you like to be our next challenge? And they say this, and this, and this. And we do what they say.

#WOMENINSTEM I fly out to L.A. in November, and so Chris and I are going to take a few days and hangout. Life’s been pretty fast for us the last few years, and it’s nice that we’re taking a few moments to just smell the roses. We went to watch the sunrise the other day. We just take moments out for us, because we realize that if we don’t, before you know it, those moments are gone. Once a week we’re trying to take a moment just to enjoy why we’re working so hard to achieve.

And that, ladies, is how you are the World Champion Dragsters, and run your own business, and influence thousands of college kids into coming into and pursuing careers in STEM.

For more information about Elaine Larsen and the Larsen Motorsports team: Elaine Larsen www.elainelarsen.com Twitter: TW.com/LMSJets Facebook: FB.com/LarsenMotorsports Instagram: IG.com/LMSJets

Text: TBMfW Pictures: TBMfW and Larsen Motorsports

WOMEN IN FINANCE

“If I’m doing what I love, I’m approaching it in a way that makes me feel full.”

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THREE THINGS ABOUT CREDIT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW AND NO ONE TALKS ABOUT Issue No. 1

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In my work in credit repair, there are three things about credit and credit scores that come up the most that cause people the most grief and confusion.

1. Number of Credit Scores: You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have one credit score. You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even have three. You have around 40 of them and I have seen them vary over 100 points between scores. Most people think you only have one score from each of the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and Trans Union). You actually have 30 scores based on the FICO model, and three scores based on the Vantage 3.0 model, plus an insurance credit score that is used for determining your insurance rates.

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#WOMENINFINANCE

None of them are your real credit score and none of them are wrong, but the only one that matters is the one your lender uses. The more dings you might have on your credit score, the more the odds are that your score varies across all models. If you’ve got no dings and perfect pay history, than you have less to worry about.     The credit scores that you get for free from Credit Karma, Wallet Hub and your credit cards all come from the Vantage 3.0 model, but I’ve never heard of a lender actually using that score, despite Vantage’s claims they have 50% adoption. For example, mortgage lenders use Experian FICO 2 scoring model, the Trans Union FICO 4 and the Equifax FICO 5, also sometimes referred to as the tri-merge. You also have six scores for auto lending and any number that can be used for credit cards. The most commonly used score is the FICO 8. Should you care? Yes and no. If you want the least costly options to monitor your credit health, pull all three of your credit reports for free at www.annualcreditreport.com and then watch your score on Credit Karma for

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free. Credit Karma will only give your Vantage scores for TransUnion and Equifax, but it will give you a general picture. If your credit is less than perfect or you’ve had any kind of financial trauma in the past (divorce, bankruptcy, exes that might have messed with you or a common name) and you would like to make a big purchase like home or auto or you’re looking for a business loan, it’s a good idea to go to www.myfico.com and spend the $60 pull their 3B report. That way you can see all thirty of the scores. I know people whose common FICO 8 score wasn’t high enough for a mortgage, but their actual mortgage scores were high enough. Pulling your scores saves you a hard pull on your credit from a lender, and it gives you the time you might need to address any errors, negotiate any unresolved items, or go through credit repair. The internet is rife with stories of people looking at their score on Credit Karma and thinking it was 700, which is good credit, and then going to a car dealership and finding out it’s only 600 and being turned away. Time is on your side when addressing credit issues, and knowledge is everything.

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#WOMENINFINANCE If you’re trying to improve your score, going through credit repair, or just like to keep a pulse on things, www.creditchecktotal.com is an Experian company that will give you your FICO 8 scores. Their service is $1 for a 7 day trial, and then it’s $30 a month. You can’t cancel online, but when you call to cancel they will offer you $15 a month. This seems to be the best option out there for actual credit scores used by underwriters.

difference, just in one cycle. That’s the difference between a 3% rate on a car loan and a 15% rate. It’s the difference between getting the dream house and not qualifying for the mortgage. So yes, pay on time, but also watch your reported balances. You can always call your card and ask what day the balances get reported.

2. Having a good credit score is about cultivating positive pay history and usage.

Seems counter intuitive right? But the truth is, the lower your score, the more dings you have that can be contested and removed. The worst thing for your score is to have unpaid judgements, collections and charged off cards or loans that all report a balance. The good news is that most of these accounts will settle for 30-40 cents on the dollar, and once they are settled you can often get them removed. When someone works with us for credit repair, we contest every negative remark on your report, because the burden of proof is on the creditor doing the reporting. If they can’t or are unwilling to prove that something actually happened, then the credit bureau has to remove it.

You actually have to use credit to have a good score. Not having any credit that reports to the bureaus will put you in the 500 to low 600s, and that’s the same as many people who have defaulted on credit cards or gone through bankruptcy.     You obviously don’t want to be drowning in credit card debt, but usage of a credit card that shows you’re responsible and reliable will give you the best score. You want 10-30% balance of your total credit reporting over time. The balance that reports is your statement balance. It’s generally calculated by the balance three days after your payment is due. It’s essentially what’s left after you pay, so even if you’re paying in full every month, if you use it all month and make multiple payments, you still want the amount reporting to be low. Under 10% is best, especially leading up to a big purchase, but no balance at all can hurt you as well.

3. The worse your credit is, the better it can get.

We recently had a client who had been a realtor and when the market crashed in 2009, she didn’t get a paycheck for a year. She wound up giving a BMW X5 back to the bank, and she had a $5300 bill that was haunting her. We negotiated a $1580 settlement, and the account now shows paid as agreed. All the negative language has been removed. She’s gone from an average 523 to 680 in six months. Another six months of on time payments and low credit card usage and she will be over 720.

The difference between a maxed balance and 10% usage reported can be a 100 point

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#WOMENINFINANCE On a similar note, we had someone with 26 judgements and collection accounts from a business gone bad when an office manager ran off with her money in the middle of the night (literally). We were able to clear about eight of those accounts without her paying and the rest we negotiated payoffs and got all but two deleted. She also saw a 150 point jump on her FICO 8 scores, and she’s dreaming about buying a house, something she had written off as impossible.

Credit is complex, but it doesn’t have to be terrifying. You can only start where you are, so don’t beat yourself up if you’ve had some issues. Everything is negotiable and recoverable. First step, get educated. Second, forgive yourself for anything that’s gone haywire. And third, use your knowledge to create better financial health for yourself.

Text: Cassie Price Pictures: TBMfW and Cassie Price

Cassie Price is the founder and fire-starter at Wealth Generation Collective, a credit repair, debt negotiation, business credit and tax help company. She and her business partner Erik have been repairing credit and getting people out of sticky situations for a combined 20 years. You can find out more at WealthGenerationCollective.com Issue No. 1

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MONEY DOES GROW ON TREES

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#WOMENINFINANCE Financial literacy, empowerment and wealth building are all big topics for any girl and woman to master. In the following interview, we’ll be talking about the financial education of girls, and specifically of girls and women of color, and why there’s such a difference between what we are all being taught. I came across Chloe Mckenzie quite randomly, and I was so excited to see what she’s doing, and how she’s doing it. Yes, she’s a #FemaleFounder. Yes, she’s a #WomaninFinance. She is also young, highly educated, and highly interested in bettering the financial future of little girls and women. Check out the interview below to see how she’s doing it all.

TBMfW: Who is Chloe McKenzie? I’m Chloe McKenzie. I grew up in Maryland, which is an unique space and I think it helps me figure out why I ended up going into finance. The demographic that I grew around, it was black people that actually had the wealth and most of the power in the community. Then, I went to Amherst College where I studied Law and German, and after I graduated college, I become a Securitized Products Trader. Most people know securitized product traders, because these people blew up our economy in 2008, trading mortgages. So that was a very interesting experience trading mortgages post crisis. After that, I pursued an education fellowship where I worked in an inner city charter school in NYC. Kinda throughout the process, I had seeds planted in my mind on how I can start bridging, or marrying the financial and the education world. That how I came up with the idea for Black Fem Inc., and things have blossomed since. I’ve taken the things that I’ve learned from the financial world and the education world, and put them together. Issue No. 1

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#WOMENINFINANCE TBMfW: How did Black Fem Inc come about? And what is it? We’re a 501-c3 non profit, that has a mission to provide permanent access and opportunity to women and girls of color to build and sustain wealth. When I was at JPMorgan as a trader, I also became a financial counselor for a few homeless families, and that was very profound to me. I went to an all girls Catholic high school, and that was the greatest thing that ever happen to me. I really got to understand why doing service was so important to me. Doing service is something that I did in college, and wanted to do once I entered the work force. Recognizing that for some people, being a financial counselor at JPMorgan was a way to get promoted, to be honest with you. So I watched theses other people [the homeless people] interact with some wealthy people [financial counselors] that would come in with their tailored suits, and really not be able to make financial planning and principles accessible to theses people, not even on a social level. I think that that’s where I started to think of the idea that, Wow, I feel like I could do this better. I could make accessibility to wealth building and financial planning something that people want, not feel afraid of, but build confidence through empowerment.

credit card receivables, and I said to myself, It’s very weird to me that JPMorgan can make millions of dollars off of someone’s inability to pay, say a $700 mortgage, in the middle of Nowheresville, Iowa. And I said to myself, I wonder if this person actually knew what we were doing with their loan agreements and the securities interest that they have in this property. So from there, when I started to develop curriculum, because I started generating curriculum for teaching, I then said to myself, you’re ready! So, on a whim, I decided to

In poor communities of color, accessibility to curriculum is actually one of the biggest obstacles that teachers face. Understanding that we have to make curriculum accessible not just for the kid, but for the family at home too. So I found it really profound to be able to work on how I can refine myself. Yes, I can teach all these great things, but am I making them accessible enough so that it resonates with the person that I’m teaching? Really understanding who you are as a vehicle when teaching, or consulting with somebody. BlackFem Inc, came about when I kinda just had an inkling to myself. You know what? You’re ready! [laugh] I was trading student loans, I was trading mortgages, trading Issue No. 1

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#WOMENINFINANCE look at what incorporating would look like, I talked with some colleagues of mine, and it kinda just happened in a way. But I do think that, like I said, there were seeds planted the last few years that allowed me to feel empowered enough to start saying, you know what, our communities need this, and they need this right now! TBMfW: It seams like you’ve been primed for this your entire life. Can you please delve a little deeper into why you have chosen to focus on teaching financial terms and knowledge? And can we touch upon the lack of education for girls in finances?

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When I started Black Fem Inc., the way that I like to operate my business is coming up with a bunch of different hypothesis about what the community needs. I will let my workshops and my interactions with families in these communities be the definitive conclusions that I need to know if it’s working or not. So I wanted to know cold hard statistics about what wealth outlooks were like in communities of color. And I think we can all just guess what it was. Of course, white men at the top. In terms of median wealth, surprisingly enough, black men fall next. When you’re dealing with the intersectionality between race and gender, gender is going to win often times.

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#WOMENINFINANCE So then, white women, and then women of color. Of course the US Government didn’t do any statistics on the Asian demographic at all, but I’m sure we can kinda think of where they would fall. So, I know we’re going to target women and girls of color, because we all know that at the end of the day, they’re at the bottom of the totem pole of every aspect of our society, socially, economically, politically, we’re always at the bottom. The truth in that is that we’re under educated, even though we’re going to college more often, but that actually means that we’re having more student loans, so that burden and enslavement that you have with debt, is holding us back from actually being able to enter into this financial system, which frankly, was not built for us.

Knowing that, we started to develop curriculum that wasn’t just about money management. The issues that I have with other financial literacy firms or organizations, don’t get me wrong, they’re great, but their focus is on getting rich. For me is about rich versus wealth distinction. Being wealthy is where we get our freedom. Being wealthy is where we have opportunities, and we can provide opportunities and privilege to generations that come after us. And that’s something that women of color systematically don’t have access to, not Issue No. 1

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even build it. Our point is we want them to build it. We want them to sustain it. And that’s where our curriculum comes in. Being rich can go away if you lose your job, if some of your assets go away. Wealth is how long can you sustaining your lifestyle without having to go work. And that’s what we want to provide to these women and girls of color, because that’s true freedom, that’s opportunity. Again, we are different, not only because we focused on being wealthy instead of being rich, but also because we focus on making sure that our curriculum is accessible. A good example of that is we worked with a cheerleading squad here in Harlem, for a lot of lower income girls, and we taught them how to trade stocks through cheerleading! So instead of going in with this financial jargon that they wouldn’t understand, we used their terms. Your IPO, you’re just going to do a cheer, but you’re not allowed to use your arms, your legs. It’s about how eloquently you can say this cheer, and then we let somebody invest in you. Maybe they will think about how cute you are, “I know that that girl is a tumbler”, so they’ll invest in you. So that’s your IPO. At that point, they’ll use that money that they got from their IPO to make their product better. So really one of the big market movers for stock prices, is your profit. Really, we gotta make them have a profit. Then they got to buy leg motions, and music, and pompoms, and listen to market sentiment about what is going to be something that people want in the market. Ok, so maybe they’ll invest more money in getting the top level pompoms. After that, they [the girls] had another performance, which was analogous to how the stock would perform in the market, and they saw the lessons there. I see the risk here, but I’m going to do all of this, not knowing if this is going to make me build me a profit, and then calculating their profit and loss from there. So this really resonated with them. These girls love to cheer. So why not teach them some financial literacy through cheering?

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#WOMENINFINANCE TBMfW: You’re going to teach them financial literacy based on concepts that they already know and understand. Exactly. What I say to my girls is that, finance is personal. If you know who you are, then you actually know who you are as an investor. And that actually brings a lot of comfort and confidence to

Follow your own money. You are intuitively smart enough to be a great investor. And again is about creating a curriculum and the opportunity to start creating wealth. TBMfW: Financial literacy, if it’s taught how you just taught the cheerleaders can become accessible. But you’ve done an even better job at creating curriculum and teaching the even younger girls. We have a program called Money Does Grow on Trees, which is our pre-k to 2nd grade program. I was asked by a non profit in D.C. called ArtworksNow, to do a financial literacy workshop. So I asked about who are the people that we’ll serve, and they replied with one caveat: the audience will be as young as 4 years old. We hadn’t generated curriculum at that point that could target a 4 year old. The big thing about our curriculum is not only that it’s accessible, but I refuse to write curriculum that is dumbed down! So, I’m going to allow my 4 year olds to work with $100,000. I’m going to allow my 6 year olds to work with rent that is $2,000, and keep on using the same financial terms.

these girls and their moms as well, because if you understand that, ok I’ll always go to buy the newest iPhone, but maybe instead of spending that $600 on the new phone, I can take that $600 and invest in Apple itself. I know all my friends are going to get the Apple iPhone, so it’s likely that [Apple’s] profits are going to go up. If their profits are going to go up, then their stock prices are going to go up. So that’s how I think about it. Issue No. 1

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So, what do you learn in kindergarten and pre-k? Not to over simplify, but you learn about gardening. So let’s take this analogy of how an apple would grow on a tree and equate that to how money grows in your savings account through compound interest. So we ended up creating a workshop where kids would get to pluck real dollar bills out of trees, so long as they plant their seed, which is their initial deposit. Their initial investment is where they dig into the tree, and put a real $10 bill, and each tree represented a different bank, and every bank has a different interest formula. The kids would pluck $1, and if they chose to reinvest that, they would bury it back into the tree, and then next year, they got to pluck $2, and then $4. Understanding that it multiplies, without knowing what multiplication really is.

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#WOMENINFINANCE We needed to ground this into something real, so my co-teacher Sarah Vistocco and I, wrote a children’s book called Money Does Grow on Trees. The book follows this brilliant protagonist, Kira, who really wants all of these material things, which her mom can’t afford. And her mom tells her: what if we can explore some of these financial tools that will allow your money to grow without you having to do anything? That’s where our very youngest programs have come from. It’s been incredibly successful because we have this engaging curriculum, but then we also make it look like what they would learn in kindergarten.

child that money doesn’t grow on trees and it’s hard to get by, it’s not really the best financial advise you can give to a kid. Tell them that hard work is important, that’s how you’re going to get anywhere, but don’t tell them that it’s impossible. Don’t destroy all the good seeds in there. Exactly! You can empower them to think about how these things work. And by starting with compound interest at such a young level, by the way, compound interest is also one of the most compelling reasons why people invest in the market, so by starting them with the concept that their money could grow while they sleep. That’s what a lot of financial planners say. You want to develop something so that money will grow while you’re asleep. So thinking about that idea can carry us through all of our programs. When we teach some of our older kids how to start investing, they’re already aware that compound interest is one of those super compelling mathematical and financial tools that gets them the money that they need and from there, helps them build and sustain the wealth.

TBMfW: I cannot wait to see this book. So we talked about pre-k to 2nd grade. What is the next step up?

TBMfW: What I really like about the program is that you’ve taken a saying that is wrong on so many levels “money does not grow on trees” and you’re reattaching that the proper way! For that alone, brava! Yes, there’s a really good lesson in that saying: work hard! Absolutely. But to tell a Issue No. 1

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The next step is our Time is Money program. That is for 3rd through 8th graders. This is where things really get fun. We started off this summer with piloting this program where we had a number of 3rd-8th graders come in, and they’re learning for 3 hours a day for 5 days a week. In reality, it’s just 15 hours to bring all these new financial concepts to them. But it ranges between understanding the difference between a credit card and a debit card, what’s on your credit report, to how do you look at a financial aid package and start at planning for your education right now. So if I’m 10 years old, I have 8 years before I may need to pay the expected family contribution. So how can I start

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#WOMENINFINANCE saving? Is that a viable option for me? What the girls actually found out is: If I save $20 a month from here until when I’m 18, I would be able to cover a couple of thousand dollars worth of an expected family contribution, if I don’t get all the loans, grants and scholarships that I need.

in this case was 580, that is bellow average, and then they would tell me if I’d got the full loan amount, they would set my interest rate and tell me why. One girl even went as far as giving me variable interest rate because I was one of her least trustworthy borrowers. [laugh].

So that was again, another empowering moment. Yes, college is expensive, but if you plan correctly, you can get there.

Again, it was absolutely incredible to watch these girls! The empowerment! Those were some of those moments when you saw in their eyes: “look at how much power I have, because of all this knowledge I can bring to the table.“

We ended up finishing with a performance assessment, which is our way to quantify if they’re actually getting financially literate. The girls loved this because they got to be the bankers. So I came in as this disheveled woman who needed a $10,000 loan. They looked at my credit report, they looked at my assets. They looked at the delinquencies, they looked at my FICO score, which

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It was fun. And we don’t need 5 month long programs. If you teach it the right way and it’s accessible enough, these girls were in the program for 15 hours and were able to walk out of there speaking more eloquently than some bankers that you can go to some branch to.

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#WOMENINFINANCE TBMfW: And also the fact that they’re that age, and that you can have that kind of an impact at that age, is phenomenal! 15 hours, with a performance assessment at the end that helps them solidify what they’ve learned, is again, phenomenal. Is this the final stage? Or do you have a platform for high school or college kids?

somehow our system has failed so many people for so long that these women had no idea that they actually had a credit report. Imagine what that makes them feel like! Ok, so, how do I get out of this hole so I can build credit, and then be able to leverage having good credit and what that means in terms of building wealth.

Absolutely not. We’re building and sustaining. We have high school programs which we integrate ourselves with the college readiness programs at different educational institutions. We have something called meetups which is a huge hit among the high school girls, because they love to kind of, meet up. Pick up to seven of your best friends, we order you food, we sit down with you and we just talk finance. It’s very casual, outside of the classroom setting, so girls feel like they’re kicking it with their friends, but they’re still getting the education that they need to feel like they can be wealthy.

We require that parents come to our programs as well, because that deals with the intergenerational piece, to make sure that, again, wealth is attainable for everybody that comes to us.

From there, we have college programs, which continue to make our curriculum more and more sophisticated, but then really prepare them for the somewhat daunting task for some,of, ok my loans are about to hit, my deferment period is about to be over. How can I build wealth but simultaneously be in an incredible amount of debt, what do i do with that? Thinking about insurance options, and again, kicking it up a notch, thinking about retirement planning, and other financial planning needs, starting investment accounts, where to allocate some things from my 401K. We require that parents come to all of our programs so we even call those adult programs because we noticed the underwhelming resources that we have for the adults in these communities. I noticed that it’s even worse that I anticipated. So I had a number of parents that they didn’t even know that they had a credit score until their daughter went through our program and they read some of our curriculum. It’s bitter sweet to hear that. It is shocking to me that Issue No. 1

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TBMfW: What I like about what you do the most is that you’re so heavy on education. Without it, we’re never going to balance the scales out. What are you most proud of? Which program do you like the most? I think, for me, what I’m most proud of, is when I see the kids that we teach, or the people that we serve, are those AHA moments! You can see when somebody feels confident. By the end of our program, they’re like: “Yeah! I actually feel that I can do this!”. That makes me feel that what we have here is magical. Again, it’s incredibly unfortunate that we haven’t gotten there sooner. However, knowing that we’re doing this now, and we’re doing this right, makes me feel like something magical is happening, and I’m so excited for the future. But I would say that, our impact numbers, is what I’m most proud of. Despite the fact that we have girls coming from failing schools, we have to accommodate that and make sure our program is even more accessible. I’m incredibly proud that our curriculum is even accessible to student who have special needs. We’re not going to turn anybody away. And for me, to know that we have a 98% successful financial literacy rate, is honestly, huge! The 1 or 2 % that don’t make it there,

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#WOMENINFINANCE they’re put into a bucket called financial competence. They know what’s going on, but they’ve maybe made couple of mistakes. What we do then, is provide them with one on one sessions to make sure that we can get them there. I’m very proud of that, and the team that’s helped me put together this curriculum.

TBMfW: How many girls have been through your program so far? This summer alone we helped 250 girls, and because we require a parent or guardian present, those numbers would double. So it’s almost 500 people that we helped from a June to August timeline. Our impact is really important to us, and the fact that we can help such large number of people in such a short period of time is not only a testament that these communities want this, but also need this.

TBMfW: What are the demographics of the people that you’re helping? 98% of the families we help fall below Low Income socio economic status according to the Federal standard. 60% of the families that we have helped, fall below the poverty line. Again, knowing that we are serving a demographic that absolutely needs this, is really important to us.

TBMfW: Why are you doing this? Why is this so important to you? I don’t want to say that I was destined to do this, even though I feel that way, but I feel like a big part of Black Fem is just who I am. And serving is something that I know I’ve always wanted to do. So what drives me is knowing that I get to go to work, it’s funny that this is work even, and know that I am making an impact. One of my mentors Issue No. 1

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said something incredibly profound to me. What he said was:

If I’m doing what I love, I’m approaching it in a way that makes me feel full. And that was so profound to me! And that’s what drives me. Knowing that I’m full, I feel so full of joy, I feel so full of support even from the families that are thanking me for coming up with an idea like this. But I mutually am thankful for them for knowing that they can trust in us as kind of a financial institution because that’s hard for people and communities of color. 4 weeks prior to the Wall Street Journal article, one of our moms came to us and we found out that she was part of the Well Fargo scandal. So it’s a big deal that our curriculum allowed her to kind of figure that out, because we have a section on banking fees and how to budget for those, and she found that out. This drives me, and I get to feel full every day.

TBMfW: How do we bring more women in finance, and business? Education is really important. But the one thing that I want people to understand is that you don’t have to be this finance major to feel like you’re

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#WOMENINFINANCE able to break into the business world. If you have enough confidence and know that there’s a problem, you’ve done enough research to say, you know what, there is a need for this, I’m just going to go for it. I think that knowing that we need resources and institutions to empower us is actually the bigger problem other than education. Education is really important, but having the forthright to understand that we need to empower people to get into these businesses [is also important]. At JPMorgan, I got to help with the recruiting process while I was an analyst, and to be honest with you, I put women’s resumes at the top. I think that getting people to break in requires that other people believe that they need to break in. So I interviewed those people first, because I felt as though, if you already are a minority statistic, then you should have more support to get in where you want to get in. Understanding, too, that missions need to be a big foundation of how we act. The mission being we need to break more women into these businesses, because we do! We’re [women] incredibly smart people, we’re half the planet. We need people to understand that when we bring women into a place [of business] that they aren’t there, things are going to get better. They’re never going to fall apart. That’s our job. We run shit! [laugh]

TBMfW: We, women, change the corporate culture. We improve it. Companies that have women in leadership are better viewed by their consumers and customers. The corporate mission and philosophy changes to a more inclusionary philosophy. It’s more team based, it’s more teamwork, it’s more “we’re all in it together” mentality. What’s coming up for Black Fem inc? What’s next? Issue No. 1

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Our Money Does Grow on Trees eBook is coming out in November, and the hard copy will be out beginning 2017. It’ll be a great book to give to kids, nephews, nieces, grandchildren. Equally, we’re looking to scale. November 1st, we’re expanding out to California. That would make us a part of the scene in Massachusetts, New York, D.C., Maryland, and now California. Our big hope is that by the end of next year we would have served 5,000 new girls. In addition to those that we have 100% retention of our current graduates, so when we ask families to come back for a new program, 100% have come back. So we’re hoping to help 5,000 new girls and women.

TBMfW: Awesome. How about funding? You guys are a non-profit. What I decide real early, is that I was going to run this like a for-profit. We actually get a lot of our funding from private donors. We call those angel investments, except we don’t have to pay them back, which is fantastic. Is getting your rich colleagues, friends, people that you know, to buy into your mission, and then institutions that we partner with, they pay for our programs. The funds that we raise from those partnerships, will fund the in-house programs. For example, we have an Intro to Investing workshop for 3rd to 8th graders, and some of our partnerships where we’ve had institutions like Amherst College or Smith College who’ve wanted us to bring our program to their campuses, so the money that we raise there will be going to fund our other programs. And then, we kind of adopted Bernie Sanders’ fundraising platform, where we also ask that friends and other family members and even those families that have come through our program, to donate $20 a month. What we’ve done is ask them to be recurring donors. So in a way, we’re teaching them financial literacy again, because as you donate $20 a month over a 12 month period, you can then get a huge tax write off at the end of the year. This money will actually pay for one girl’s

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#WOMENINFINANCE 529 College Savings Plan. Each girl that graduates from our Time is Money program, receives one of these 529 College Savings Accounts. So having a recurring donor, they pay for this account, every time they make a donation each month.

TBMfW: Is there something that I haven’t asked that we need to know about? Where our name came from. When I started this organization, I wanted it to sound very hedgefundy! Ok, so there’s Black Rock, and Black Stone, so Black Fem, boom! [laugh] So that’s kind of the joke part. Black Fem obviously comes from black feminists.

Black feminist tradition tells us that if you liberate those at the very bottom, then you’ve actually liberated everybody else.

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#WOMENINFINANCE So that’s why we say we target women and girls of color because, clearly, the numbers don’t lie, but also just the experiences don’t lie, but women of color are situated at the bottom, like I said, of every single thing that exists in our society. So if we liberate these people, then we’ve liberated everybody. So that’s black feminist tradition, and I wanted to make sure that people were aware what that meant! Sometimes I get questions like: why don’t you have programs for black boys? A lot of our programs are actually open to everybody. We don’t turn people away, but our in-house programs are for the bottom of the bottom. So I actually got to teach people who ask those questions about the black feminist tradition, and it almost changes their mindset. Wow, we actually should be doing this because if we liberated them, we liberate everybody.

TBMfW: Wow. That’s pretty powerful. So who’s your inspiration for all of this? I have really gotten inspired by Ella Baker. She’s the unsung hero of the civil rights movement. And she did so deliberately. It bothers me that a lot of people don’t know who she is. Ella Baker helped make *snick a thing during the civil rights movement. Yes, Rosa Parks was fantastic, to think that we have an unsung hero who is a black woman is DOPE! Shirley Chisholm, love Shirley Chisholm. Everybody that is for Hillary Clinton, should be thanking Shirley Chisholm for being the first woman to run for president, but let alone the first black women to run for president, and all the things that she had to face. I really just want to pay homage to those women of color, who have been such beacon of hope for people like me to think: Wow, she was a badass in the 60s. I have no excuses to be a badass now.

*snick: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "snick")

For more information, check out Chloe and her startup: Instagram: @blackfeminc Facebook: FB/BlackFemInc Twitter: @Black_Fem Website: www.BlackFem.org

For a full interview and in-depth answers, please stay tuned for the podcast release in the next few weeks at TBMfW.com/Podcast Issue No. 1

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TELL ME YOUR GIRL DREAMS Wait. Don’t go. This is not a fluff piece or a lifestyle piece. Actually, it could be a lifestyle piece in the sense that it might improve your lifestyle if you read and implement the ideas in it. I travel a lot for business, and most of the time, I don’t know anybody in any of the places I go to, before the conference or the event. I’m not the only one. I don’t want to go to a bar all by myself most of the time because I keep getting talked to by people I’d rather not talk to. Ladies, you know what I mean. But I still want to relax with a drink, and I still want to be around people for a bit. What do I do?

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#WOMENHAVINGFUN Honestly, I had no idea how to make this stop! If I had to go to a restaurant by myself, or a bar, was forced to deal with the pick up lines, the unrequested drinks, and the worst part, the unrequested attention. Somehow, a woman sitting alone at a bar still says to some people that she wants attention, instead of just wanting a drink. Until a few weeks ago that is! A few weeks ago I discovered VINA! It’s an app. It’s got Tinder-like functionality, the swiping left and right, but it’s for women, and not in a romantic dating way, but in a platonic, professional let’s meet for coffee kind of way. Not a one-night stand, but a one night out, with a new friend! The way it works: you create your profile: are you more of a wine or more of a coffee drinker? Morning or evening? What are your interests? Just like a dating profile! Because yes, we want to know the people we’re about to meet, or if we’re into the same things or not. Once you’ve created your profile, you’ll select your location and see

who’s around that you’d like to go grab coffee or wine with. While in a new city, you can set up your new area, and go for a coffee or a glass of wine with a new friend there. Start swiping! Making new friends is tough after college. This is a great way to make new connections and meet new people, without the romantic dating aspect. We can be ourselves. Talk business, or tech, or comic books, or cooking, or boys, or whatever we want to talk about, and expand our understanding of the world and our view of people. That being said, download the app, and go make some of your dreams come true.

VINA is founded by women, it is ran by women, and we support their efforts.

Text: TBMfW Pictures: TBMfW and VINA Issue No. 1

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WOMEN IN BUSINESS “I think that women are bad asses and we can do whatever the hell we want and we can do it our way! We can still be feminine! We can do whatever we want! We don't have to fit society’s model! I just feel like it's really important for women to, in the process of discovering their own voice and their own desires and their own dreams, to not compromise on any of those things and to just be themselves and to be ok and secure in the fact that they are being themselves and that they are doing it on their own terms.” - Vanessa Prestage

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CAN INNOVATION BE RELEARNED?

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#WOMENINBUSINESS

Innovation

is such a over-talked and over-written about subject that

it’s tough to find anything original anymore. Alas, we did. In business, like in life, you either change and innovate, or you die. The push for innovation is felt at every level of the organization. There are seminars, there are books, there are youtube videos (most likely) that “teach innovation”, but they really don’t. They teach you how to develop specific product. They don’t actually teach you how to open your mind to the entirety of the creative process. No, we’re not going to tell you how to develop a product. The interview below is with Susana Vidal of Shift Innova, and it is going to shine a light on innovation, in a new, surprising way.

TBMfW: Who is Susana Vidal? and What is Shift Innova? I came back to the US about 16 years ago to do

passion which is having my own company and

my MBA and through work I ended up living in

innovate in a much more structured way. I'm a

Australia and then Singapore, then UK and now back to the US, now in New York. I've also gone through entrepreneur adventures and working in corporate world, especially with CISCO with whom I've worked for about 8 years. Three years ago, I actually decided to go back to my Issue No. 1

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working with entrepreneurs and also inside and outside of corporations trying to help them to very visual type of person, I think a lot of people also think more in that way than linearly, so I think that the tools that I use with my clients help them put some structure on the craziness that is the innovation process.

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#WOMENINBUSINESS TBMfW: That’s how Shift Innova came about?

knowledge that was already in there. A lot of it

I have a span of a few years in the corporate

actually is listening to our customers and

world with CISCO, and that was great and there

potential customers and creating something of

are a lot of amazing people there, but I think at

value for them. Innovation at the end of the day

some point I wanted to be more hands-on on a

is creating a product that gives some value to a

project that I can see from start to finish. I think

customer, in a different way.

that's why I shifted to doing consulting first, with startups mostly and then also with growing

TBMfW: Innovation is good for everybody in

companies and corporations. To be honest, I

every field. That’s one of the biggest drives in

think the first idea was to become more of a

business. Without innovation you stagnate and

management consultant but I think as I learned

you die. The more we can teach innovation, the

more about traditional management consulting

better off we will all be. So, how do you teach

I thought maybe there's a better way to help

innovation? Can you give us a few pointers on

companies with their marketing strategy. I mean

developing an innovation culture?

there is the Lean Methodologies, there are

Yes, I think I heard somebody say, it's

things like the Business Model Canvas Tool which is a visually attractive way of creating new products and services. I think the way of how Shift Innova came about was, well [I asked myself] is there a better way to work on a strategy, on a business strategy and marketing strategy? That's really what Shift Innova became. TBMfW: That’s how you’re helping clients? By making innovation something that they can learn? Yes, in some way demystifying innovation, yes, not thinking that innovation is something that only a few geniuses can do. It's actually something that we all can do. In Creative Confidence it says that

creativity is

smart

to create something but it's easier to copy or something like that, [laugh]. In some way, I'm already using tools that have been developed quite a few years ago, some tools like 'Design Thinking’. I don't know if you heard about Design Thinking before. TBMfW: Design Thinking? No. Please tell us about it. Yes, so Design Thinking is a sort of method, and also a mindset that was developed by I think a commission of IDEO, the design firm, and/or Stanford. So they developed different methodologies and mindsets that try to help

something we are born with

you think like a designer. To think like a

but I think at some point, sadly pretty early in

you start with a concept! You start by creating

our lives, we begin to label ourselves as non-

something, then you show this [concept] to

creative. And that's not true. We all can be

other people who can give you some input.

designer, you don’t start with a finished product,

creative and I think in some way a part of what I do is to demystifying the innovation process and using certain tools to bring in maybe some Issue No. 1

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#WOMENINBUSINESS Well, maybe this idea should be more this way,

by discovering what works and what doesn’t, and

or that way. Then you go back to the drawing

by interactions with the clients.

board and scratch the original deign, and you

Yes, exactly. What I bring in after that is, I help you

create something better based on that feedback.

to figure out what your business model is going

And again, you go through the design and

to be for your new product. You need to define

feedback, and again, and again. So it's a part of

your value propositions. What channels and how

the design thinking mindset of trying,

is your customer acquisition going to work. What

experimenting, learning. You can think of the

are the partnerships that you'll need. We will

way the architects design buildings. At first, it’s a

build all of that in a visual framework that I use in

very rough drawing, and then you test the idea,

the work with my clients. That is the part that

get feedback, and the next drawing is better. So

helps structure innovation in a better way, in a

it's about learning by failing, it's about

more efficient way. Design Thinking and

empathizing with your potential client, it's about

principles are first but of course there's a fuller

serving before judging. Design thinking is also a

structure that I use with my clients, founders, and

method but it's a lot of, as i was mentioning, a

people who are very creative, and for whom

mindset of how you do things. The reason why I

these tools are very useful.

mention it is because you asked me how do you teach innovational creativity. I think a lot if it starts with a very questioning mind and an observant

TBMfW: There’s other ways that people are

mind. I think, maybe the way you teach it, in some

teaching innovation, but your system seems like

way, is by trying new things and not thinking of

something that actually works. And obviously is

failing. Unless you haven’t learned from it, then

working for your clients and for everybody that’s

you really have failed. By trying new things and

familiar with Design Thinking. It’s working

learning from it and trying again, then you can

because it lets you fail without ruining your

create some more value for your customers.

plans. So you fail on specific things, but as a whole, you keep going because you’re learning from it. That, together with your input and how

TBMfW: So it’s more like learning from failing. So

you’re guiding your clients seems remarkable.

basically you’re teaching that it’s ok to fail at something because it teaches you a lesson about

Thank you. Some of the tools that I use are

why you failed, and what failed about what you

Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition

failed. So there’s actually a good lesson in failing.

Canvas from Strategyzer, a company out of

That’s one thing. Second thing. Start with the

Switzerland. This book called Business Model

concept, not with the goal. If you start with the

Generation, it became a best seller, and I

goal, you know exactly where you’re going, and

recommend it to everybody.

there’s no innovation. If you start with the concept, you can fail to the left, but got to the right and your concept is going to grow by itself

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#WOMENINBUSINESS TBMfW: How do we let our children be

ways of figuring things out, and as I said without

innovators? As you mentioned, we lose

us having to direct every single step. It's a lot of

innovation, lose creativity, as we grow, we think

letting go and letting them do it.

we’re not innovative anymore, so we stop being innovative. How do we let children stay with

TBMfW: Art. Art is very helpful in self

innovation, let them explore more of that? Is

expression. But we lose the capacity to sit in

that something that we can teach in school, or

front of a blanc canvas and start drawing.

is that something that parents could do at

Pressure comes in, and we want it to be better

home?

than the previous painting. As an adult, you lose a little bit of creativity. Do you have any

I think it's both. Well, I have a three-year-old so

suggestions for that? Regaining some of the

I'm actually very interested in this part. My

creativity that artists and musicians and writers

daughter actually has been going to a

lose?

Montessori pre-k. I think the Montessori method is great. This method was developed by this

I think, maybe it sounds cliché, but really, I'm

Italian educator and for her it was a lot about

learning so much from my daughter. Let me go

respecting the child, and also the teachers

back to children, then we can talk about the

being more of a guide than somebody who

adults. One thing that they say that is important

directed their learning. Montessori is a lot about

is also how you praise children. You don't say

self-guided learning. I think the reason why my

“Oh, you’re so smart!” or something like that.

daughter has been going to a Montessori

You say “Well, that's a good effort!”! “You’re

school is because I believe that, that's a very

putting in a real effort” I think, maybe that's the

good way for you to retaining the creativity by

thing that we, as adults, deal with too. Maybe

giving the children that freedom and that self-

we were praised too much [when we were kids],

determination. I think maybe the way that you

or praised in the wrong way!

help your kids at home or at school to stay

I think sometimes we put too much pressure on

innovative or be innovative is being able to let

ourselves from the get go in whatever we are

them experiment with different things. We all

going to create or write or the next blog that

want our children to be safe and not to get hurt.

we're going to write or the next painting that we

But within the boundaries that are good for

are going to do, the next music we are going to

their age let them experiment and try different

compose to be perfect, that we block our own

things. Guide them but not direct them.

creativity. So maybe the advice for adults would

Montessori said is that the way children learn is

be, just start doing something, anything! And I

you put something in front of the child that is

mean just try the first one! That may not be

going to be challenging, not so challenging that

perfect, but at least it gets you started and it

they will give up, but challenging enough that

gets you into it. If you’re thinking of starting a

will force them to go a little bit further, you

blog, maybe you already have a few good

know? So I think that helps kids continue to

ideas.

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#WOMENINBUSINESS Then, you can cross some options off, and come

TBMfW: Founders. You’re a founder. What

up with others and then you can try again. I guess

struggles have you had to overcome since

you can do the same for art or music or anything

starting the company?

else. And now that everything is digital, there is

I think you start with an idea in your head of what

no reason why you can’t just try a different

you want to do and what are the services that

version.

your clients want from you. I use the same tools for my own business because they also help me change, iterate and try again. I think the struggle

TBMfW: So learn to fail, and observe children

was that I had an idea of what it is that I wanted to

play.

do and offer, but that begun to change as soon as I started talking with potential clients.

Yes for sure. Because that's a natural way to learn.

Sometimes I feel that I was also very lucky

That's another thing that Maria Montessori said

because I had clients right away. But sometimes

that that's a natural way to learn. We learn by

you don't learn when you have [immediate]

failing and maybe that's the thing! We should let

successes because you think that “oh, this will

our kids fail a bit more and restrain ourselves

work!” Then you realize again, that that could

from helping them right away as they are trying

have been a one off. Maybe the only way to have

to screw a lid on a bottle. We shouldn't just rush

a scalable business is in a very different way or a

to them right away. We should let them try 10

different segment then you originally thought.

different ways until maybe they’re really getting

So I think the struggle has been more from the

frustrated. Then maybe you can help. But before

learning and the changing a bit of focus and

that, you shouldn’t.

really getting to an offering and a service that could be easily explained, and that could be of value to clients. And as a consultant you could

TBMfW: Or maybe they’ve found the 11th way of

also package it in the right way and be

screwing the lid on the bottle. It happens.

something that clients would pay for and that will

What is it that you’re most proud of since you’ve

deliver a good value to them. So for me it's

started Shift Innova?

about, again, trying and failing and trying again…

Just recently, a client of mine, a very successful founder who has grown his company from 2

TBMfW: Did you have any specific obstacles as a

people to 20 people in 6 years, said to me: “this

female founder?

is the first time that I can really see what is it that my business offers, and what is the value that I'm

It was about the same time when my daughter

giving to my clients, and then how I can improve

was born and when I quit my corporate job and

it”. I think those things are great for me to hear

started my own business. I used to go to the

because it’s from people that I respect a lot.

playground a lot and I would tell some of the moms at the playground about what I was doing. And a lot of them would be like ‘omg,

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#WOMENINBUSINESS that's so cool. I want to do something like that”. I can tell you, one of the first iterations of my business was more of a network of women consultants. I saw so much potential in a lot of these other moms at the playground that were ex-consultants, ex-corporate managers etc.. There is so much potential. So much experience! I thought that maybe we could create a network of women consultants or experts on demand. As I researched that, I noticed that there were a few already on demand consultants, so maybe that wasn’t the answer! I know there is something called Power To Fly in New York that is a female network of women consultants or something like that.

I try to use my weakness as ammunition, not a weakness. As a woman, I have very good results helping female entrepreneurs. I think some female founders also feel very good with a female consultant. So maybe that in some way you could say it has been an advantage! I do also move around in the tech world and that is very male dominated. I think what we [women] have to be even better for people to pay attention to us. I just try to have a product that is of value and hopefully communicate it in a good way. On the other hand, I’ve always been very involved in diversity of course, and I just continue to do that. I guess I do as much as I can. There are some biases that you cannot, unfortunately, do much about. I lost some potential opportunities because of that but I don't think I need to cry about it. I do as much as I can on my work and the networks I belong to, to change that.

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#WOMENINBUSINESS TBMfW: You bought up diversity and equality.

little things and I don't necessarily want to fight

How do we encourage more women to come

every day!”

into the business and tech world? The number of women in tech is super low.

Maybe it's about us just staying in these

Yes, yes and even lower in the last few years

business networks. I think that what you are

than in the 80's and 90’s. It does start with us,

doing, Monica, with the magazine, is another

moms and aunts, encouraging younger children

way of encouraging women into staying in the

ever since they’re little. What I also saw

business and tech world. Listening to all the

somewhere is talk about the leak. There's a few

other women, reading about the other women

of us that have already been in the tech world

that are doing great work. I was just listing to

but have left. I was going to be one of them.

one of your previous podcasts about this

When I left CISCO, first I had an idea that had

woman coach and I thought that, maybe [your

nothing to do with the technology and I was

magazine] is a lot about staying for the ones

kinda brought back into technology by my first

who are already in, and encouraging the

then client which was a woman founder for a

younger generations to come in. Maybe that's

social CRM service. Many of us that already

the way to stay or rejoin.

have been in the tech world [realize] that we have to be fighting so much, [and] at some point you’re like “You know what? Life is a lot of

Text: TBMfW and Susana Vidal Pictures: Shift Innova

For more information about Susana and Shift Innova, you can reach out to her here: Website: ShiftInnova.com LinkedIn: LI/SusanaVidal Twitter: @SusanaVidal Issue No. 1

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9 TO 5

make it work for you

4 1

7 3

5 6

What we need at work is a bit of luxury and bit of comfort. From building a wardrobe with business staples to your car finally showing the world the wings that you hide under your outfit. Here’s a list of a few indulgences for us all: 1. The Etsuko Dress form MMLaFleur.com: $195. 2. Tesla Model X: $123,000.

3. The Lvcea watch, Bvlgari, $35,000.

4. Grand Cabaret Statement Drop Earrings from Chloe + Isabel: $52. 5. The new 256GB 12.9’ iPad Pro, $1,129. 6. Bodum 15-Oz. Travel Press Coffee Maker , $29. 7. L’Occitane Divine Extract Serum: $116.00

WORK FROM HOME

Work from home in style & go forth and conquer the world. 1. Soft Lace Dress, Zara $49.90. 2. Women’s Lolla™ boot, Sorel, $190. 3. Pittsburgh Crank Sit-Stand desk, Pottery Barn, $899. 4. Stella Eau de Perfume, Tocca, $68. 5. Apple Watch Hermès, Apple, $1,499. 6. Girl and Dragon Malbec, $13. MH40 Headphones, $399.

7. Master & Dynamic

PERSPECTIVE SHIFT

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#WOMENINBUSINESS

SHOWCASE: VANESSA PRESTAGE

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A few months ago, we did an interview with Vanessa Prestage, a photographer turned business woman extraordinaire. Below you’ll find a short version of the interview, as well as Vanessa’s work. We’re not going to spoil the excitement of the interview for you. Before you leave to listen to the podcast, take a read and take a look at the amazing work of this artist.

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#WOMENINBUSINESS TBMfW: Let's start with the biggest question

I did. The best kind of souvenir, a lifelong

of the show. Who's Vanessa Prestage?

souvenir hopefully. I take pictures, my husband

I am a lady from Atlanta, Georgia, originally just South of Atlanta, a small town called Griffin. I have lived in Atlanta for several years but I've moved around quite a bit. I traveled the world a lot, for several years at a time and then I came back here in 2007. I took a little hiatus and moved out west for a while and then returned to

and I actually are. I have my fine art side of my photography but my husband and I work together on projects sharing events and weddings and things like that and then we both have side project outside of photography as well which we work on. I stay very busy. That's me in a nutshell.

Atlanta with my husband who I met up West, back in September.

TBMfW: How did you end up doing

TBMfW: You picked up a souvenir on the way, Vanessa.

photography? I worked in the cruise industry for several years and was traveling to all these amazing places. Right when photography started to make that leap into digital, I went out and got a little point and shoot camera just to really be able to document my travels more than anything. But then once I actually started taking pictures I realized how much I enjoyed it and it just kind of snowballed into a desire to learn more and do more and make it more of a career, rather than a hobby. That's really how it just started and it's been a progression since then. As digital photography has kind of made photography accessible to everyone, now everyone's a photographer so it becomes increasingly more difficult to find your niche, to find your voice as an artist, to even really determine whether or not it is something that you even want to

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pursue full time. It is a challenge with so many people out there taking pictures. And more than that I think it's really important to kind of hone in on the area of photography that you're good at and to stick with that. A lot of people want to do a little bit of everything, you know whatever pays the bill's and that's great but sometimes the work suffers as a result and it could be difficult being pulled in multiple directions. So for me, it's been kind of making a decision to pursue this area and this area only even though I can make money doing this, in this area so it's always kind of a challenge what you're willing to compromise on and what you're willing to do. TBMfW: The South leaves a stamp on everybody. How did that affect you? What part of the Southern culture influenced you the most? 2008. The financial crash had just happened and I have just been accepted to a photography school in Paris. Because of the circumstances with how it would have been a personal loan vs a student loan I wasn't able to secure funding to go to school. So I had to really kind of decide if I want to pursue photography, it was gonna have to be on my own, and what is the best way of doing that. I really hit the books! You can learn anything on the Internet. I just started to pour over any information that I could get my hands on and then just went out shooting. To kinda tie and end to your question, my hometown I always had a lot of negative emotions attached to my hometown. Issue No. 1

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#WOMENINBUSINESS I found myself going down there a lot and being

series, all these pictures were taken in these

incredibly drawn to these old abandoned textile

abandoned mills in Griffin, GA and it just became

mills that they dot my hometown. It's a town with

a very special place for me it was a totally

a very industrial history. I was able to gain access

different way of experiencing where I was from.

to a lot of these old buildings. I started to look at the history of my hometown and the hometown itself in a different way because of these

TBMfW: Yes. That entire series to me, it really

incredible structures that were there. This also

smells of dead leaves and rain and woods. And I

kind of opened the door to the history that I

was wondering how you got from that to the

really had no knowledge of up until that point. So

series that I am most in love with, the “Signs of

it just kind of shifted things for me and it gave

Live” series? There's such huge transitions and

value to a place that I had always had a negative

such huge perspective changes from one series

association with. And for me emotionally it

to the other. What is perspective to you and how

shifted because I had a new found sense of pride

do you see the world? How do you go from

from where I came from. So that for me, as an

seeing one place as that and one place as

artist, shaped the way I was doing things. I mean

completely alien?

my first series that I showed, the “Resilience"

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#WOMENINBUSINESS

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#WOMENINBUSINESS It is all about feeling for me. Whether we're aware

Probably a little bit of both. When I was shooting

of it or not, we are influenced by our

at the Griffin Mills, there are 2 mills in particular

surroundings. You drew the comparison between

that I had access to. When I say access: in one

the two series that “Resilience” series and the

case it was literally just trespassing on this piece

“Signs of Life” series. So you're going from the

of property and gaining entrance to a structure

dank, musty, abandoned, kind of creepy

that has been falling apart for many many years.

environment that has its own feel, to someplace

And in other situation it’s this giant mill on about

that is completely inhospitable to human life, it is

30 acres of land and there's a central person who

barren it is incredibly gorgeous but in a very stark

is kind of like the keeper of the mill. It turns out

and hostile way. Each one of those places just

that I went to high school with his son and so I

invoked a certain feeling for me and fortunately I

was trying to get him to let me inside to take

had my camera with

pictures. He has his

me and I was able to

own incredible back

take the pictures. With

story! Actually I

photography it's not

would love to do a

just about taking the

series or make a

pictures it's the editing

book about this guy

of those pictures. With

and this mill one day.

“signs of life” as an

So it's this massive

example, because

mill that shut down in

Death Valley is where

the late 90s when all

those pictures were

of the industrial work

taken, is such an other-

started going

worldly place I really

oversees and all

felt like I have been

these men lost their

dropped onto another

jobs. The keeper,

planet and so...

whose name is Ronny, he was born

TBMfW: That's what it

in the parking lot, he started working at the mill when he was 16, his

feels like! ...and exactly what I was trying to convey in those

father had worked there his whole life, and then

pictures.

when the mill shut down he was basically kept on

TBMfW: How do you think that the feelings you had in your hometown, the gloominess

ever since. Now the mill, they either use if for

as the superintendent and he has been there

and dampness, do you think that had more to do with the location or had something to do with your feeling about the location as well? Issue No. 1

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storage when they run out of space, they have movies that go down there and film sometimes, but it's basically just this huge massive amazing decrepit building that I go into and it's like I'm going into another dimension. I'm alone. It's creepy. It's dark. It's dank. You hear noises you

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#WOMENINBUSINESS was in the process of moving, I had a finite amount of time that I could spend there. So just 3 days but I would love to go back.

TBMfW: In one of your recent interviews, you were talking about how you want to be Thomas Kinkade, the Thomas Kinkade of modern art specifically. You don't want to necessarily paint like him but you wanted to be influential like him & as well known as he is. If you can you elaborate on that a little bit. [laugh] I feel it's necessary to reference this statement with, I actually do not care for his work at all, but what I meant by that was that I do have no idea if a mass murderer is gonna jump out at you. And I just kind of just lose myself in that space and I will go in there for hours and then I'll come back out and it's like I'm stepping back into this dimension. That's kind of where I allow myself to just do my thing when I find an environment where I can lose myself. I feel like that's where my work is at its strongest. And in a different way, the Death Valley series was that, because I was in a completely alien environment and able to just kind of do my thing. It's all about the environment and the feeling.

admire what he was able to accomplish from a business perspective. He essentially flooded the market with his work and now it is completely recognizable to a broad spectrum of people and so for me it's not to say that this will happen, but it would be great if my work was ever to become as recognizable as that. Obviously that would be my ideal goal if I was ever to become that successful. Everybody wants to be that successful, right? On some level! I want my work to be not just in people's homes, but hotels and restaurants and hospitals and every place so that's really what I meant. Not

TBMfW: How long were you in Death Valley for? When I moved out West I took a two-week road trip and drove out there and so I was only there

advocating that people should go out and fill their homes with Kinkade artwork but I do admire what he was able to accomplish as an artist in a business sense.

for three days two nights. Honestly I could have stayed there for 3 weeks. It's just that, it's a huge place and I only scratched the surface. Because I Issue No. 1

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#WOMENINBUSINESS TBMfW: If you can't bring your art in front of

do. Especially girls! We totally doubt ourselves.

people, you are going to starve. It doesn't matter how passionate you are about

Guys have less of a hard time with this than we

something, if you don't know how to translate it into a business, well, it's not really going to help you much. It will help you emotionally. It's going to help your soul. But to be Thomas Kinkade or aspire to be Thomas Kinkade in today's age, it's a way of survival it's a way to enjoying your work. And why not inspire the next generation? He inspired you in this way.

do, even though they do experience it but not to the same extent that we do. It's not a constant wheel spinning in their heads. For girls it's a lot harder to stick with something and we give up easier because of the doubts, that internal monologue that's destroying us. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m trying to show that sticking with something, whatever that is, sticking with it just washes away some of that doubt. But apparently not that much, as you are still dealing with it.

Well it's hard. It almost seems like it's counter intuitive, or an oxymoron to lump artists with a business person. For artists it is really hard to selfpromote. I hate, I hate self-promotion! I always get great ideas for other people but then trying to turn that lens onto my own business and think about a different way to spread my work to the masses? It is hard because it's a very personal thing. A lot of times issues of self-doubt and insecurities and all those old demons that I think everybody struggles with, they start to nibble at you when it comes to putting yourself out there. It's difficult thing.

TBMfW: You're doing it well. Well I'm trying. Thank you. TBMfW: You mentioned self-doubt and how it always creeps in. But when you look at the work that you do day to day, you cannot doubt yourself anymore because you own that work! You are that work! The reason for self doubt can disappear as you dedicate yourself to your craft. Whatever craft it is, the doubt can kind of go away. Not all of them! They will never go away because we are human beings and that's what we

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#WOMENINBUSINESS It is always there, it's kind of a journey and I feel like I go through phases where I feel frustrated because maybe things aren't happening as quickly as I would like or in the way that I initially envisioned them. But then time goes by and I'll get inspired by something else, you find encouragement somewhere else that gives you that push to keep going and to keep doing it, and ultimately for me I had to make the decision: Why am I doing this? Is it because I want to be successful under the definition that society has made for me? Or do I want to keep doing this because it was something that I enjoy doing? And that is what has happened. Now, along the way it has required that I have other jobs because there isn't such a thing as a starving artist and if you do rely fully on your work, in the beginning, it is going to be really hard. There has always been that balancing act that I have had to do until I got into a place where I'm getting more income from my artwork. But it's not something that happens overnight. I think that initially because it's not something that happens overnight for most people, a lot of people to give up and they do feel hopeless and they do feel that their work isn't good enough just because it doesn't immediately catch on. If you look at a lot of the great artists or great photographers throughout history there is a whole hell of a lot of them that did not get discovered until they were dead. I know it sucks to say but, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s true. It doesn't always happen right away and it doesn't always catch on at first and a lot of times people are ahead of their time and people don't get it initially. Really, I think that the main thing is to determine why you do what you do! And if you are willing to do it just for the love of doing it and not just for the love of money.

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#WOMENINBUSINESS scarves and now kimono robes and things like that and I'm really really excited about the way that they look because, again, the work is textural and colorful and it feels like it really lends itself well to clothing. I know my work isn't going to appeal to everyone because not everybody wants very bright colorful crazy abstract things on their walls, but I know the ladies like to branch out and make bold fashion choices in a lot of cases. Whereas a woman might not want to put a bright purple, pink and blues or greens on their walls, they might put it on their butt. [laugh] That is kind of my new jam these days. I'm working on

TBMfW: If you're doing it for the love of it, it comes through and you can see it in your art, it's there. It's obvious. What is your new series about, do you have something in the works? I have not been working on a new series per say. Series work for me is not something I can force. It has to just kind of come. Generally, it's about one every year, maybe even less than that. I’ll get inspired and work on a particular series but what I have been working on is producing my work in a different way using already existing images and a lot of these images are things from years ago, but just showcasing them in a different way. I'm getting a lot of inspiration from that. It's basically a new way of producing my work.

[laugh] So my work is very textural. A lot of it is abstract. A lot of it is very colorful. Throughout the years I've had people tell me that “your work would be really great on fabric” and I just said “ok”. I just started to cut and mock some different products up, using my own imagery and so I started creating mockups of leggings and silk

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TBMfW: It looks like you are using a lot of the stuff from the “Resilience” series. Yes, lots of those. For the leggings I use a lot of the Death Valley stuff. And then for the robes a lot of my older floral & botanical prints have been working really well for the mockups for the robes and for the scarves actually. Well, I ordered myself a pair from the printers so I'll try those on for size. I have ordered several swatches of fabric so that I can see what the different materials are and how they work with the different color schemes and then I hope to be rolling out with them in the next month or two.

TBMfW: It sounds really good and we’re very excited to see all of those products. When

TBMfW: What are you working on Vanessa?

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rolling out a line of apparel so, stay tuned.

can we be expecting the leggings? When is the proposed date? I should be expecting my leggings to get here any day now and as long as I put them on and I'm happy with the way that they look and I am happy with the way that they are made, I am going to go ahead and roll out immediately. As far as the scarfs and the robes go, once I am able to determine what fabrics are going to work best for

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each product, [Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll release those as well]. The

production of the leggings as long as I'm happy

leggings will be rolling out this month [August]

with them, I'm gonna go live in the next couple of

but again barring any major malfunction with the

weeks.

TBMfW: Vanessa, any closing thoughts? I would say let's talk more about women in business and what that means because I think more and more women are stepping into the business world which has historically always been a man's world. I think a lot of women are stepping into that role and they're doing it really well but I think that unfortunately in a lot of cases, because they are stepping into a man's world, a lot of women tend to do things the man's way

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#WOMENINBUSINESS and lose a part of their feminine aspect or their feminine essence, I should say in the process. You see a lot of women who you know they're doing their thing and they are on the grind, and they spend their 20s in their 30s really pursuing their business, and then they wake up one day and they feel like something is missing. I really do truly believe that a part of that comes from trying to fit into somebody else's model, or way of doing things. I think that women are bad asses and we can do whatever the hell we want and we can do it our way! We can still be feminine! We can do whatever we want! We don't have to fit society’s model! I just feel like it's really important for women to, in the process of discovering their own voice and their own desires and their own dreams, to not compromise on any of those things and to just be themselves and to be ok and secure in the fact that they are being themselves and that they are doing it on their own terms. Yes, there you go. That's your answer. [laugh]

TBMfW: That’s how you end a good interview, like a pro! With a quotable. We are not men. We think differently. We approach a business issue differently. We approach issues in life differently. We don't have to fit into this pre-given model. It's perfectly all right to be exactly who you are and it’s perfectly alright to run our businesses how we see fit.

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#WOMENINBUSINESS For all our readers: Vanessa was graceful enough to provide us with a 10% discount when we purchase an item from her shop at Esty.com/Shop/VanessaPrestage Use code: TBMFW

For more information about Vanessa Prestage: Website: VanessaPrestage.com Shop: Etsy.com/shop/VanessaPrestage Facebook: FB/VanessaPrestagePhoto Instagram: @SouthDoneRose Stay tuned for the podcast: TheBusinessMagazineforWomen.com/Podcast

Text: TBMfW and Vanessa Prestage Pictures: Vanessa Prestage Issue No. 1

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ACTION DEFINES YOU HOW TO TAKE ACTIONS THAT WILL REDEFINE YOUR FUTURE

What would you give to turn “someday” into “today”, to have a thriving business or career that exceeds all expectations? There is SO much power in taking action. Why then, are so many people leaving their passion untouched, their ideas and dreams forever trapped in imagination? Is it fear of failure, fear of not being enough, fear of the unknown, or something else?

How many times have you heard, or said, “Someday?” “Someday I will….” “When I have enough _______, someday…” Fill in the blank with “time,” “money,” “energy,” or any other myriad of excuses. Issue No. 1

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#WOMENINBUSINESS As many have come to realize, someday very rarely appears on its own. Many sacrifice happiness and health for money or status while continuing on the hamster wheel of life. Eventually, the realization hits that no amount of fame or fortune is worth health and happiness. Ask any successful person in their 80’s or 90’s who is full of life, joy, and love what they did to have such a full life.

Now, imagine yourself as 80 or 90 years old and being completely fulfilled. What would that look and feel like?

WHY WAIT?! What would it take for you to turn “someday” into “today” by creating the business or career of your dreams now?

It takes action—your action. It takes a small step in the direction of your dream. A step is not a thought, a wish, or a hope. A step is a deliberate action that brings you closer to what you want.

Actions define you. Action propels you forward. Small steps produce huge rewards. Your actions will build momentum. Your goals will begin to come to fruition faster and faster. Keeping that momentum going will become easier and easier. You may be amazed how things begin to fall into place after taking those first few deliberate actions.

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LIVING PROOF One of my clients had huge goals but felt stuck. Years of wishing and dreaming for so many things that seemed out of reach left him wondering if there was any point in going after what he really wanted. He made a commitment and through coaching began seeing his life differently. He began planning actions and taking them. Within just a few months he was years ahead of where he thought he would be. With confidence he took ownership and knew his big goals and dreams were his to master. Here is a statement about his coaching experience that rings so true with “Actions Define You”:

“One of the most important lessons… was realizing that in order to move forward you must plan your actions and take one step at a time. With the support and planning I learned, I was able to see my goals as a sequence of small steps that once completed would move me closer and closer to my destination. The feeling of empowerment grew exponentially in every session and I am certain that without this training it would’ve taken me many years to arrive where I am today.”

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#WOMENINBUSINESS THE ESSENTIALS You may be wondering “How do I begin?” Commit to revealing the person you truly are deep down and be that in your thoughts, words, and actions. Thoughts: You are the only one privileged enough to listen to your thoughts. Be your own friend! Clear your mind and learn to write the best possible script for your life, professionally and personally. Words: You share your thoughts and desires with the world through your words—be authentic, joyful, and share the best you. Actions: You show yourself and the world who you are with your actions. Actions speak much louder than words. Take proactive action. Do this every day.

Lacing together your thoughts, words, AND actions is a hugely worthwhile achievement. This is an enormous stepping stone for massive change. The vital element here is action. Once your thoughts and words align with your dreams, implement your actions and witness your amazing future emerge.

TAKE ACTION Here are six steps that will inspire you to take the actions that will redefine your future:

1. Create a compelling picture of your future. This vision will pull you forward.

2. Identify something specific that you want and identify a small step you can take right now to move in the direction of achieving it.

3. Take the first step and commit to continuous forward momentum—small steps each day.

4. Plan. Make a plan—daily, weekly, and monthly. Begin with a daily plan: each day, list small steps that lead you toward your big goals. This may be a simple list, reminders on your phone, or a fancy app.

**I have tried myriad of tactics of the years and finally landed upon something that just works (for me)! Creating a bullet journal has propelled my planning and productivity to the next level. It is simple, completely customizable and is so much more than I can explain here. I promise to write a future article that includes all of the details, because this piece of my puzzle has drastically improved my efficiency and it could do the same for you.** 5. Stay focused. Have fun, keep on track, take your steps, and keep your eye on the prize. Say NO to distractions. Prioritize and make the best use of your resources.

6. Continue! Identify. Take ACTION! Create momentum. Repeat.

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#WOMENINBUSINESS The actions you commit to now will define your future. Your life is priceless and time cannot be turned back. What if, today, you committed to defining your future on your own terms? Imagine how different your life and the lives of all those around you would be if you removed â&#x20AC;&#x153;somedayâ&#x20AC;? from your thoughts and words and committed to taking action today.

Your action defines you.

Define yourself and be the inspiration you were born to be.

Text: Kristy Halvorsen Pictures: TBMfW and Kristy Halvorsen

Kristy Halvorsen is a coach, writer, speaker and founder of YouRevolution Coaching. For more information, you can find Kristy here: Website: YouRevolution.com Facebook: FB/KristyHalvorsen LinkedIn: LI/KristyHalvorsen

For the podcast we recorded with Kristy, check out our podcasts page here: TheBusinessMagazineforWomen.com/Podcast Issue No. 1

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SO YOU FAILED.

WHAT NOW? Most of us spend our entire lives trying to avoid failure. Sometimes it's keeping up on style blogs so you're not wearing skinny jeans when giant JNCO raver pants are back (please God no). Sometimes it’s not speaking up with a new idea in that important meeting because you're afraid you won't sound as eloquent as everyone else. Whatever your reasoning, most of us are so worried about being wrong, or more importantly Issue No. 1

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of the embarrassment that would come along from being wrong, that we are constantly holding ourselves back. Believe me, I'm no different. I also have the nightmare of having to do a presentation in class and discovering I am in my underwear. However, despite my best attempts to be cool, casual and in control, I still fail a lot. It’s the nature of the business I do. Being an entrepreneur and writer

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#WOMENINBUSINESS means that I’m not always going to succeed. So, I’ve had to learn to make failing an accepted part of my life, and you can too.     By using these four strategies, you can turn fear into growth and take the sting out failure:

1: Breathe bro This might seem obvious, but breathing is the best way to hold off “the Blurtening ™”. AKA the urge to explain yourself and your actions, or do absolutely anything to distract people from the fact that you have failed. “The Blurtening ™” has been the cause of many awkward and internetshareable faux pas. In fact, it usually makes things much worse than the mistake that the Blurtener ™ was trying to fix.

2: This will be funny, I will learn from this, or I will never speak of this again You are constantly changing. Things that seemed a big deal when you were a kid seem silly now. You no longer think there are monsters under your bed or that you will marry Justin Timberlake. P.S. You don't think that because I will marry Justin Timberlake #NoDisrespectToJessicaBiel. If you've changed your feelings on all of those things, then you will certainly at some point feel differently about what is happening right now. Okay, it might not be soon. I still haven’t gotten over JT.

However, at some point, this will all be a distant memory. Heck, it may be a cherished anecdote a biographer uses to show your vulnerable and “Don't be embarrassed by your failures, human side in the Instead of biography about how learn from them and start again.” blurting, take a you and Jeff Goldblum Richard Branson deep breath. fought off the robots Collect your and saved humanity.   thoughts, think of Or it might just be one of sandwiches you would one day enjoy eating, or those times that you don't really talk about. whatever it is that will give you a second to think Whatever it is, it is a moment in time and it will before you speak. Speaking before you think is pass. Now go back to number 1 and have a great in an improv class, but since you didn't ask couple more nice deep breaths.  anyone for a fruit or an emotion, you should probably just take a moment. 3: Make a plan 1a: Double down on the listening and breathing  Okay, so what you were doing didn't work out, Sometimes our failure doesn't just affect us. and that's fine. But now it's time to figure out a Sometimes we say something we don't realize is better solution . This requires you to be hurtful or offensive, and our choices negatively completely honest, which I realize is often as affect someone else. It is very easy to react scary as failing. However, it is just as important. defensively and begin to attack others. Don't be that guy. Nobody likes that guy. If you've been What made this failure happen? Were you too called out for hurting someone else or making a casual in your work? Did you not do enough mistake that has damaged others it is essential to research before you committed to a decision? listen. Listen, listen, listen, then breathe and listen Did you trust the wrong person? Did you try to some more. This is not the time for excuses or for skip steps? Be 100% honest with yourself. Even if talking over someone with “solutions”. Instead, it hurts. Especially if it hurts. Because growth actively listen and apologize for what you’ve often hurts. done wrong. Issue No. 1

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#WOMENINBUSINESS

Once you've gone through the problems, mistakes or weird coincidences that got you to this spot, start to think of other options. Even ones that might seem a bit silly. The strangest ideas can lead to the most interesting results.

4: Use it as growth cross-training Several years ago I wrote and co-starred in a play that toured festivals across the country. It was supposed to be fun and exciting. It ended up feeling like a living nightmare. Every day I would wake up knowing I was going to fail then I would fail all day and go to bed knowing the next day I would fail some more. This went on for six weeks.

Part of your plan should be to let go of the failure. Everyone fails, even Justin Timberlake...maybe (call me JT). If you can't stop obsessing over your failure you aren't going to be able to move on with a solution. 3b: Sometimes walking away is that solution and that's okay.   Not everything in your life is going to be a resounding success. Sometimes you love something or want something and you're just never going to be good at it. That's okay. Sometimes, it's okay to just walk away from something that's not working or not working anymore. Maybe whatever it is, it brings you much more pain and embarrassment than pleasure. If you don't see any change on the horizon it's ok to wave goodbye and move on. Maybe this is a wake-up call that you're supposed to be doing something different.

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It also went on as most of my peers triumphed in hilarious, dramatic, brilliantly written, wonderful pieces of theater. It was awful.    There was one moment near the end of the tour, right in the middle of a show that changed everything for me. We were performing to one of our larger audiences (about eight people). I had what can only be described as an out-ofbody experience. Part of me performed the lines and actions to the silence I have come to expect (did I mention it was a comedy show?) Another part of me suddenly began floating about 5 feet above my body. A thought echoed through my mind: “I have failed bigger than I have ever feared I could. I have faced my worst nightmares. If I can get all the way through this run and not die, I will really have accomplished something.”

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#WOMENINBUSINESS I am not a cool ghost writing this article. I made it. This was the beginning of a new confidence in my own skills. I had gone against my gut again and again with the writing and performing of this play. That had resulted in failing in a show I hated. I promised that I would never again do a show I didn’t love. Even if I wasn’t sure other people would like it, I was going to. This has also lead to a groundswell in my confidence and abilities. Facing my fears in this one aspect of my life couldn’t help but bleed over to all aspects of my life.

perhaps, fortunately, it's inevitable. It inspires big changes in people's lives, makes them more confident when they get through a difficult time and often shows them opportunities they were not aware of.

Failure is scary and we usually try to avoid it at all costs but unfortunately it's inevitable. Actually,

I Believe in You. You've got this.

While embracing failure might sound like a Hallmark card cliché, it can lead to huge and fantastic growth in your life. It sure did for me. If you don't hide from it through defensiveness or lack of taking chances, I know it can transform your life too.

Text: Erin Rodgers Pictures: TBMfW

Erin is a writer, storyteller, and self proclaimed nerd, and we love her. You can reach Erin at Website: ErinRodgers.net Email: er@thebusinessmagazineforwomen.com Twitter: @mediumknight

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CAREER DEVELOPMENT FOR MILLENNIALS IN SWITZERLAND WE NEED A SHIFT IN MINDSET Issue No. 1

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#WOMENINBUSINESS So far, employer retention and talent development have been among of the top

Talent development re-defined

priorities of every HR department, no matter the industry or company size. But, with Generation Y

It seems increasingly difficult for companies to

(i.e. people born between 1980 and 2000) on the rise, it seems a shift in how enterprises should develop their talent is needed. According to a PwC study, millennials will comprise half of the global workforce by 2020. So it is paramount that companies face this transformation, as this generation is widely different from its predecessors. Especially harder to retain. More

give their employees the opportunities to develop through international assignments. But what else can they do to train their employees and increase the likelihood of retention? The focus needs to shift towards providing adequate development possibilities locally. But taking into account that millennials are hard to retain in general, it might be time that HR departments

focused on their work-life-balance.

think outside the box, or outside their company for that matter and extend the classic HR process.

Here in Switzerland in particular, two more factors are striking and foster the need for a shift in the

A few options come to mind: How about

HR mindset: graduates do not look for international opportunities anymore. A study by Universum Global revealed, that the majority of Swiss college graduates and young professionals are less or not interested in working abroad or even having an international career. This tendency increases with each year of working experience that they accumulate. After four to nine years in the workforce, a striking 94% exclude that they will ever leave their native country. Secondly, millennials are continuously and actively searching for new opportunities. Around a quarter of respondents was currently in the process of applying for a position with a different

planning a talentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career longterm, even outside the scope of their current position, company etc? Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s say, you have a great talent in your ranks, a great employee, but currently have no opportunity to develop this person further. What do you do? Instead of just letting go of a potential future leader, you could - together with the employee - decide to look for outside opportunities, with the possibility to re-join the company later. For example, actively look for outplacement options within a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s alumni network. This could work extremely well for big professional service companies like consultancies, big4 or financial institutions.

company, 15% said they had changed jobs in the last 12 months and 10% were interested in a different position within their current enterprise.

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#WOMENINBUSINESS This obviously also includes a lot of coaching and

to come back to you, if need be, even if they first

mentoring activities, which could be extended

join a different company. This way you

during parental leave. Mothers especially face

accommodate for the millennialsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; need for work-

difficulties re-entering the workforce after a

life-balance, security and development.

certain absence from the market. By actively accompanying them through this phase as well, you increase the chances for talented employees

Text: Isabel Steinhoff Pictures: TBMfW and Isabel Steinhoff

Isabel Steinhoff is a 26 year old project manager at a data science startup in Switzerland. She has broad experience in the media industry and as a journalist. Isabel holds a MBA with a focus on Strategy and Governance. For more information: Twitter: TW/IsabelSteinhoff Linkedin: LI/IsabelSteinhoff

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