Welcome to another edition of The Female Founder Show with Bridget Fitzpatrick, Co-Founder of ASBN and the CBT Automotive Network. This show is dedicated to assisting women in developing their businesses and realizing their full potential. Every episode will feature motivational tales and guidance from female business owners to assist you in establishing and growing your enterprise. So, on today’s episode, we’re joined by Katonya Breaux, the founder of Unsun Cosmetics and mother to singer, songwriter, and rapper Frank Ocean, to elaborate on her entrepreneurial journey and how she brings inclusion into the cosmetic industry. 

Breaux founded Unsun in 2016 after 20 years in construction and a visit to the dermatologist who diagnosed her with sun damage. Unaware of what her next chapter was, she inevitably became obsessed with sunscreen, but the initial sunscreens she experimented with left her skin irritated. She then went to her hairdresser to find a chemist that they could create a sunscreen tailored to her skin. Breaux’s intention wasn’t to create a brand, but further investigation revealed she wasn’t the only one who suffered under the sun’s harsh treatment. 

Takeaways:

1. The most prominent challenge Breaux faced throughout her journey is that women-owned businesses, especially those of the minority, tend to lack the necessary access to funds that other entrepreneurs receive. 

2. Running into challenges as an entrepreneur is inevitable. Still, if you build relationships with people who have connections, you can alleviate spending thousands of dollars on unnecessary help from third-party firms. 

3. Breaux thinks it’s crucial to practice self-care because it’s easy to feel overwhelmed as an entrepreneur. “When we can balance ourselves internally, everything else falls into place,” she expresses. 

4. To those who wish to start their own business: “Initially, don’t quit your job.” It will be simpler to balance things out if you continue to have revenue flowing in. Especially if you’re constructing a business around what you’re already doing and what you’re passionate about, it will make having access to funds more accessible. 

5. Growing your business can be aided by connecting with your mind, body, and soul. In other words, to ensure the success of your business, you must operate in a collected and attentive manner.

6. Unsun welcomes the increased usage of sunscreen. For example, their social media campaign #Itsnotsummerscreen in the winter aims to expand beyond the seasonal use of UV protection. Since the sun is always with us, conditions like hyperpigmentation, skin cancer, skin damage, and premature aging are just waiting to happen for anyone.

"I believe women need to band together because self-care and manifesting are more important than competing with one another."

Welcome to The Female Founder Show! Our guest today is the incredible Barbara Majeski, creator of the More Life Collective, well-known television personality, a formidable force in the realm of lifestyle advice, and keynote speaker. With appearances on Fox and Friends, Good Day New York, New York Live, and ASBN, there’s no doubt that Majeski is a force to be reckoned with. Together, we’ll explore what drives her through difficult moments and the crucial role of maintaining optimism in a world where these qualities can completely transform our experiences. 

Majeski is adjusting to her second act of life after receiving a late-stage cancer diagnosis in 2015 and going through chemotherapy in 2016, all while managing a “dumpster fire” divorce. She says, “We may not be able to control certain events in our lives, but we can control how we respond to them.” She further voices that balancing a fulfilling lifestyle is “elusive.” Since we can’t always be all things to everyone, it’s essential to recognize that the pendulum will continue to swing, no matter the lifestyle choice. However, the moniker curator of the “Good Life” to Majeski refers to being true to you and standing in your authentic self. Authenticity boils down to purpose, style, and adventure; it’s about being yourself and not fitting into the preconceived notions that society has taught us to believe. 

Moreover, to obtain more media exposure, Majeski outlines three factors entrepreneurs need to take into account:

1. You have to know what the audience wants and be persistent. If you write a book and want to go on television, you have to figure out why your audience would be interested in it or why the producers would be interested.
2. Be tenacious so you can capitalize on and expand upon your social media presence.
3. Thirdly, before appearing on television, you need to receive media training.

While in her 20s, Majeski wished she knew what she knew now. Therefore, she addresses her younger self and other twentysomethings in the business world to be grateful for what they have. “What you appreciate, appreciates,” she asserts. Consequently, she advises others to practice gratitude and be grateful for what they have while they have it. Yes, comparing ourselves to others on social media can be easy, but it’s important to remember that they often only post their highlight reels. Although, if you can practice gratitude, you can manifest a higher frequency that can translate into abundance. 

"I believe women need to band together because self-care and manifesting are more important than competing with one another."

On this episode of The Female Founder, host Bridget Fitzpatrick sits down with Nicole Leinbach. Leinbach is the founder of both RetailMinded, a new, education and support platform for business owners in the retail industry, and The Independent Retailer Conference, an event offering entrepreneurs expert advice in the day-to-day challenges of running a successful store. In addition to being a successful businesswoman and inspirational leader, she is also a mother, an author and a professor in retail and marketing. Here are some key highlights from the interview.

Leinbach is an expert in retail technology, a rapidly evolving field which has become essential for business owners to pay attention to. Small stores are increasingly threatened not only by larger chains, but also by digital retail platforms, like Amazon, which do offer some convenient advantages but often at the cost of the companies who choose to work with them. “Technology is really a huge driver of commerce,” she explains. Pairing tools to make the consumer experience easier or more enjoyable with solutions which make business operations more efficient can help level the playing field for entrepreneurs.

For those looking to take their first steps towards starting a business, Leinbach encourages them to pursue their dreams, but recommends that they do extensive research before taking any other step. By analyzing the players in their market, entrepreneurs can develop business roadmaps which help them to carve out their own niche and achieve success. Unfortunately, those who fail to study their industry before launching their company will have a much more difficult time. “As much as we want to put forth our best effort, sometimes we are also not recognizing the challenges of the marketplace,” she explains. “Look for the competition of who might be your competition, and understand them so that you can both compete [and] learn from them.”

As a mother, Leinbach firmly believes that children should receive real-word experience in leadership and creativity. Recently, she published a book with her daughter called “Shadow Siblings.” The two worked on the piece together after Leinbach noticed the special role her daughter played in supporting her younger brother through alopecia, a non-life threatening condition which causes the body to shed all of its hair. “Together we wrote this book…and she has since spoken at schools, and camps…and student organizations,” Leinbach explains. “It’s just been such a great experience to both work on the book and talk about marketing, and business, and margin and markup…”

"I believe women need to band together because self-care and manifesting are more important than competing with one another."

Welcome to another episode of The Female Founder with Bridget Fitzpatrick, Co-founder of ASBN and the CBT Automotive Network. The Female Founder is a show dedicated to assisting women in growing their businesses and reaching their full potential. Each episode features inspirational stories alongside advice from female entrepreneurs to assist you in developing and expanding your business. 

Today’s guest is a renowned inspiration to women and anyone, for that matter, interested in building a powerful brand. She is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, author, former fashion model, and more. Her company, which sells everything from fashion lines to financial technology, was deemed “The most valuable female-owned licensing firm in American history in 2022” by Women’s Wear Daily. We’re beyond thrilled to announce today’s guest, Kathy Ireland.

Key Takeaways:

1. From the very beginning of her entrepreneurial journey, Ireland understood that building a brand around her name and stature alone wouldn’t be sustainable in the long run. Therefore, she created her brand around trust. 

2. Ireland says, “As a model, I knew I belonged on the other side of the lens. And I used my failed business endeavors as education.” In addition, she used her shyness and introversion as strengths to expand her business naturally behind the scenes and to fit her growth framework. 

3. She observed, “Comfort is irrelevant,” after realizing that progress truly occurs outside of one’s comfort zone. Failure paved the way for maturity. Furthermore, Ireland exhorts female business owners to “please don’t let other people define or destroy you.”

4. Despite acquisition bids for Kathy Ireland Worldwide, she can maintain control thanks to her private business—not because she is a “control freak,” but because she is a passionate and considerate colleague. Ireland is adamant that every aspect of her business, from marketing to manufacturing, contributes to its success. Ireland also values the contributions made by her staff, which is another reason she currently opposes selling her business. 

5. Ireland recommends female entrepreneurs to focus on their customers rather than themselves because “it makes it more fun.” She continues to say that they should assess the boundaries of their current beliefs and consider how they can uphold their ideals while expanding and safeguarding their brand. 

"I believe women need to band together because self-care and manifesting are more important than competing with one another."

Welcome to another episode of The Female Founder Show with Bridget Fitzpatrick, Co-founder of ASBN and CBT Automotive Network. The Female Founder is a show about helping women grow their businesses and reach their full potential. Joining us on today’s episode is a remarkable gust whose journey from content creator to author and successful entrepreneur has inspired countless individuals. Lauren Speed Hamilton is the creative force behind her own brand and is a passionate advocate for women in business.

Lauren Speed Hamilton is a Detroit-born content creator and the CEO of The Speed Brand, an Atlanta-based creative agency that helps artists through digital marketing, art direction, community development, and various kinds of social media.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Speed Brand was created based on frustration. As a fresh graduate, finding a job in the media field was difficult, so Speed Hamiltion started her own company, allowing her to pave her way to success. 

2. According to Speed Hamilton, “Social media is like having children or siblings. Each of them is unique and admirable in their own special way.”

3. Instagram can be looked at as a personal magazine for photographs and personal storyboarding. TikTok is great for search engines and younger audiences. “I look at TikTok as the behind-the-scenes fun way to sell.” YouTube is great for your own network. 

4. Later this quarter, Speed Hamilton will launch a non-profit, inspired by both of her grandmothers, spreading love and kindness even to those who weren’t “family.” By continuing their legacy throughout the community, Speed Hamilton wants to aid women’s and children’s mental health, financial literacy, art, and creative endeavors.

5. Burnout can be challenging to avoid, so Speed Hamilton says rest and recovery are crucial. She notes, “Even if you have to take five to ten minutes throughout your day, use it to journal, walk around, or even practice meditation. 

6. Speed Hamilton encourages entrepreneurs to “Do what you love, do what you’re passionate about, and the people with negative things to say- remember it’s more about them and has nothing to do with you.”

7. If you want to get into content creation, Speed Hamilton advises entrepreneurs to just start. “Don’t get discouraged: Be yourself, be truthful, authentic, you already have the tools at your disposal, so just start.” 

"I believe women need to band together because self-care and manifesting are more important than competing with one another."

Welcome to another episode of The Female Founder Show with Bridget Fitzpatrick, Co-Founder of ASBN and the CBT Automotive Network. This show is all about helping women grow their businesses and reach their full potential. Each episode will highlight inspiring stories and advice from female entrepreneurs to help you build and grow your business. This show is designed to inspire and motivate other female founders to be the best entrepreneurs they can be.

Today’s guest is a proven disruptor in an often overlooked field: piercing. Louisa Schneider is the founder and CEO of Rowan, a company taking the industry by storm by making piercing fun, safe and celebratory.

Schneider was inspired to start Rowan by her daughter, Fiona. When she initially began to search for places to get her daughter pierced, she was frustrated to discover that her options were extremely limited. The businesses which offered piercings, such as tattoo parlors, were often geared towards adults, and none of the companies she checked offered the level of expertise and healthcare that she wanted for her daughter. Schneider did not want her daughter to have the same bad experience she had getting her first piercing at the age of 12, so she began to research the field and develop a business plan.

When Rowan started, it began as a concierge-style business operating primarily out of Schneider’s attic. Clients were quickly smitten by the company’s emphasis on proper care and providing a quality experience. “What we discovered is that people really wanted a nurse or a medical professional to do the piercing,” she explains. Since no other companies were able to provide the same level of service in this already niche industry, Rowan soon began to expand.

Today, the piercing company operates 30 retail locations, with a new storefront opening at the Tribute Tower on Michigan Avenue later this year. Rowan serves a diverse, multigenerational customer base, including grandmothers, mothers and daughters. However, the road to success presented many challenges for Schneider, both as a business owner and a woman.

“What I love about women is that we really love to help each other, but it is hard for us often time to find the courage to go and do this…” she explains. The most challenging obstacle proved to be finding investors. “The general consensus, initially, was that it wasn’t a big enough area to build a business in…” The constant rejection from prospective financiers became frustrating for Schneider since she knew Rowan was profitable, sustainable and providing a meaningful, unmet service. “I was pretty mad, actually, at the fact that there was nowhere to take my daughter…I have two older sons, and I felt like, if this were something the boys were gonna do, I think there would already be a better option for them.” Thankfully, her efforts finally paid off. “Ultimately, our largest investor was a woman,” she adds.

Although Rowan successfully secured the funds it needed to grow, this story reflects an unfortunate reality for many American entrepreneurs: female business owners often have a much more difficult time accessing capital than men. To make the process easier, Schneider urges women to be patient and open to learning new things. “As soon as I could get over the ego [aspect] of they didn’t want to invest right away, then it was wow: what are they telling me? How can I change the way I’m approaching this to make it more interesting or to answer any of their concerns?” The fact is that many investors do want to fund good ideas and work with female founders. Plenty are even willing to support niche or “risky” businesses. The primary challenges are finding them, which takes perseverance, and making the right pitch, which takes an understanding of what venture capitalists look for.

Once their business is up and running, Schneider recommends finding the organization’s North Star: a core element that can offer guidance in difficult times. “We had a very large partnership with Target,” she remarks. “Ultimately, the partnership, at the size that we were and at the size that Target is, proved to be challenging, and we were not in a place to really support that business…” Eventually, Rowan was forced to make the difficult decision to exit the arrangement. However, the core of the business was a mother’s determination to provide an enjoyable and safe piercing experience for her daughter. By focusing on this, Schneider explains, she was able to navigate this complicated transition with a positive mindset and soon discovered that better opportunities were just on the horizon. “What we realized is that building a service out of someone else’s store is harder than running your own,” she continues. “Our employees were happier, and our customers appreciated our brand in a way they couldn’t when we were in [Target].” In many ways, the separation helped Rowan improve its branding and become the nationally recognized business it is today.

As a mother, Schneider understands the difficulty of juggling a family and business. She urges other working moms to forgive themselves for any mistakes and remember that perfection is not a requirement for success. The reward, she adds, is worth the effort. “My daughter and her friends have drafted out this dog-walking business plan, and she and her friends have taken a lot of inspiration from the work that I’ve done,” she explains. “I do think that what I’m doing is giving her and her friends the belief that they can do whatever they want, and that’s awesome.”

"I believe women need to band together because self-care and manifesting are more important than competing with one another."

Welcome to another episode of The Female Founder with Bridget Fitzpatrick, Co-founder of ASBN and the CBT Automotive Network. The Female Founder is a show all about helping women grow their businesses and reach their full potential. Each episode will highlight inspiring stories, offer real-world tips, and advice to help you grow professionally and personally.

Today’s guest is Liza Rodewald, Co-founder and CEO of Instant Teams. Instant Teams is a technology platform that enables companies to create and manage remote customer success teams powered by a workforce of military spouses. She’s a four-time entrepreneur and a software engineer with over 16 years of experience.

Transcription: 

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Liza, thank you so much for joining us today.

Liza Rodewald:
Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yes. Can you talk to us about what was your motivation for starting your company?

Liza Rodewald:
Sure. So, I call myself kind of an accidental entrepreneur. I started my first software company when my son was actually 16 months old and I was doing a lot of traveling for work and I wanted to kind of have a little bit more flexible lifestyle and time on my hands, and so, I went to my first company I worked for and pitched becoming a consultant for them and started my entrepreneurial journey there. And then, that really took off and really started to get my creative juices going on creating companies and being in that entrepreneurial space.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
And, now with so many people working remotely, talk to us about the impact the pandemic has had on Instant Teams.

Liza Rodewald:
Sure. So, the pandemic, while a terrible thing for us all to have to go through, has really accelerated the timeline and companies adapting remote work, which is really great for especially women in the workforce, in this kind of environment and having to juggle multiple things, families, schools, daycares being out, those types of things. And so, seeing the industry adapt so fast… I would say it sped up that timeline by at least 10 years.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.

Liza Rodewald:
And, especially in government and health care. Some of the slower moving industries really had to adapt overnight, creating a lot of opportunities.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
That’s… That’s great. Now, can you describe your leadership style? Is it different from men that you’ve worked for or with in the past?

Liza Rodewald:
Yeah. My leadership style is very, I think, visionary and hands off. So, I like… I love the creation part, so what I love about being an entrepreneur, finding problems, solving problems, really being creative but empowering people to also have that kind of same leadership style within my team so that they can really take ownership of things. Ownership is one of my main core values. I think growing up in tech… So, I’ve always been in tech since I graduated college, so I’ve always been predominantly around men in the workforce… That my leadership style… I don’t know if it necessarily adapted from that, but has always just been a part of what I’ve done in the different businesses that I’ve created, that I really like to empower. Empower the people that work for me, empower them to join the vision and be really creative. That’s what really gets me excited.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
I think that’s great. Now, for those women out there thinking about starting a business, what advice do you have for them?

Liza Rodewald:
Well, first of all, it’s very hard, so I always like to be very transparent about creating a company, starting a business is a lot of work. Right? So, it’s going to be more work than a typical nine to five. It takes more grit to dig in and lots of highs, lots of lows. But, it’s very, very rewarding and very exciting. So, if you have kind of that personality who wants to go out and get something, you have big goals, I strongly encourage it. But, I also strongly dislike some of the narrative that’s online these days about how easy it is to start a business or how quick it is. It is a journey. It is difficult. But, it is worth it when you get in it and do it and I just like to encourage people. Go for it. If that’s what you really want, go for it. Just know that it’s a roller coaster that you’ll be on during the creation and even the lifeline. It doesn’t get necessarily easier. The problems just get different.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Exactly. Yes. It’s a lot of hard work.

Liza Rodewald:
Yes.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
So, on your most challenging days, how do you stay positive and motivated?

Liza Rodewald:
So, I like to start all of my days… The first thing that I do is exercise and I think it’s really important as a female entrepreneur, as an entrepreneur in general, to take care of yourself because if you’re run down, you cannot stay—. Your body will literally break down on you and I had kind of that sort of experience about eight months ago, where I was a little burned out. I wasn’t eating really well, wasn’t sleeping really well. And, I knew, okay, to be my best optimal self, I’ve got to create better habits and better routines.

Liza Rodewald:
And so, doing that, making sure you’re taking care of yourself, making sure you’re getting exercise in. It’s very easy to sit at this desk for 12, 13, 14 hours and not get up.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.

Liza Rodewald:
But, really making those things a priority helps keep you motivated, help keeps your mind clear, helps keep you inspired. Just moving keeps your mind inspired. I usually think of my best ideas and my best thoughts when I’m exercising and doing things like that versus sitting here at the desk.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. Now, knowing what you know now, is there anything that you would have done differently when starting your business?

Liza Rodewald:
So, we’re a venture capital backed company, so we raised money, which only 2.2% of venture capital goes to female founders.

Liza Rodewald:
So, it is a different road that a lot of female entrepreneurs don’t go on and there’s a lot of things I learned early on that I would love to take back now and go redo. So, what I’m doing instead of that is helping other female founders in the same stage, about to raise money. Okay, here are some things to look out for and here is some things that I didn’t really understand at the time, but now having walked through several rounds of funding, it becomes very apparent. Right? So, just pouring those kind of lessons back.

Liza Rodewald:
Definitely nothing I would completely redo, but just some little lessons I’ve learned along the way that if you’ve never done that before is hard to really understand until you walk through it. You see the numbers all translate and then you’re like, “Oh. Okay. That is how that works. Next time, I’ll know not to do these three things.” And so, really just helping some other female founders watch out for those types of things.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yes, and learning from those mistakes. That’s… That’s great advice.

Liza Rodewald:
Yeah.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Can you recall a time when you might have been treated unfairly because you’re a woman?

Liza Rodewald:
These are always interesting questions to me because I did grow up in tech, right?

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Uh-huh.

Liza Rodewald:
And so, I’ve always been, I guess, a little confident and self-assertive in situations because you just kind of have to be when you’re in those kinds of rooms. But, I do remember specifically when I was working as a software engineer, I had… Was talking to another male colleague that I actually got the job for at the place we were working for and found out he was making like $15,000 more so that I was. And so, I just went straight into my manager’s office and I said, “Hey. I should be getting paid X. He’s getting paid X.” And, I got a raise. Right?

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Good.

Liza Rodewald:
So, I think also being aware that those things happen is important for women and to not be afraid to ask for or to confront it if you do see it is really important. So, there’s a few little episodes that I can kind of mark along my journey, but just having the confidence to address it, I think is really important.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
That… That’s very important. I think in my early days of being entrepreneur, I was a little bit more passive, but over the years, I’ve learned you really do have to speak your mind, say what you’re thinking.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
And, if you want to get what you want, that’s the only way. So, great. Great advice there.

Liza Rodewald:
Right. Yeah. For sure.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Now, in your opinion, what are the qualities of a good entrepreneur?

Liza Rodewald:
I think one of the main qualities I usually talk about is mental stability. If you are going to go on the entrepreneur path, make sure that your life feels pretty stable in any aspect that you can actually make it stable in.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.

Liza Rodewald:
Because, it is so much of a roller coaster. You can literally have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows within a 30 second to 30 minute interval. Right? These things happen very quickly.

Liza Rodewald:
So, having just that grounding force in your life is really important going into that stage. So, that’s one of… That mindset of just steadiness as things fluctuate is a really important skill set to… At home, to make sure that you have before you kind of start that entrepreneurial journey.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Absolutely. Now, so, what’s next for Instant Teams?

Liza Rodewald:
So, I am really happy to announce that Instant Teams just closed our round of Series A funding.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Congratulations.

Liza Rodewald:
We just raised $13 million from Tiger Global in investment capital. And, we are growing really quickly, so we are hiring a lot of roles at the company, expanding that and continuing to scale. Our goal is to be the number one employer of military spouses and we are definitely on track for that, so a lot of expansion going on in Instant Teams right now.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Awesome. You’re doing great work, so keep it up and congratulations on your success. Thank you so much for joining and we look forward to having you back for a recap later on.

Liza Rodewald:
Sounds great. Thank you so much for having me.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Thank you.

Welcome to another episode of The Female Founder with Bridget Fitzpatrick, Co-founder of ASBN and the CBT Automotive Network. The Female Founder is a show all about helping women grow their businesses and reach their full potential. Each episode will highlight inspiring stories and advice from female entrepreneurs to help you build and grow your business. This show is designed to inspire and motivate other female founders to be the best entrepreneurs they can be.

Today’s guest is Jenette Goldstein, former award-winning actress and founder of Jenette Bras, a bra-fitting boutique specializing in sizes D through K.

Transcription: 

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Jenette, thank you so much for joining us today.

Jenette Goldstein:
Thank you for having me.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yes. Now I’ve never interviewed an award-winning actress before, so can you tell us some of the movies that you’ve been in the past?

Jenette Goldstein:
So I was in, my very first film was Aliens, James Cameron’s Alien. I played Private Vasquez. I was in Terminator Two and Titanic. Bunch of films.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Big ones.

Jenette Goldstein:
In the eighties. I was very big in the eighties.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
That’s great. Now, how did you go from being an actress to getting into the bra-fitting boutique business?

Jenette Goldstein:
Oh, isn’t that a usual jump? I don’t know. Doesn’t everybody? It was very crazy. It just happened to be when I got into my mid forties, an actress, a character actress, the jobs get a little thinner unless you become a superstar. And I was writing and directing but I was also very uncomfortable in my bras as many, many women are. I discovered these wonderful bras in Europe, especially for women who have a small ribcage and a large bust. Not plus size, really plus plus. And I just started complaining and thought, why doesn’t somebody do this in Los Angeles? And my husband said, why don’t we do it? Was as simple as that.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
That is pretty simple. Now I’m sure when you first started, you did come across some challenges. Did you find that to be the case that you had to overcome right away?

Jenette Goldstein:
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean I didn’t know anything about business. Well, I say I didn’t know anything about business, what I did know though, was the most important thing I feel, is there’s a need. You have a need that nobody is filling and you provide that. And what I wanted was not only the product, a quality product that worked, that last, that was beautiful, I wanted service. I wanted connection. And I wanted honesty when I was dealing with the person I was walking into a store.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, absolutely. Now during the pandemic, some businesses did really well and other businesses suffered greatly. How has Jenette Bras fared during this time? And did you have to pivot like some others?

Jenette Goldstein:
Well, it’s interesting. So we, to be quite honest, we suffered greatly. We did not sell online, we still don’t. We sell our lounge wear online, small, medium, and large, but no, we are a service business. Bras need to be bought while you try them on. So it was a challenge. It was a what, if you could never walk into the store and speak to a human being. So we … I don’t know if I’d call it pivoting. It was basically trying not to drown. We started doing fittings via the computer because we fit by eye, not with a measuring tape. So we were able to … We had a huge loyal clientele and we did fit, but we did our best. Our customers bought gift certificates. We reopened when we could and we kept working and we kept paying off our debts until finally we were able to do it again. And we’re back better than ever now.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
That’s fantastic. Now, since we can’t buy your bras online, can you tell us where your stores are located?

Jenette Goldstein:
Oh yeah, sure. We’re in Atlanta, in Decatur, in Downtown Decatur which is amazing. The incredible thing is that the Atlanta store is the second most popular store now of all of our stores.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Fantastic.

Jenette Goldstein:
And we’re opening one in Buckhead in the spring. And then we also have our original, we have four stores in Los Angeles.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
How exciting, very exciting. Congratulations on all your success.

Jenette Goldstein:
Thank you.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
What advice would you give to those women that are thinking about starting a new business?

Jenette Goldstein:
I would say that you do not have to know everything to get started. I knew nothing about money and finance. I still know very little. That is not my strong suit. However, now I hire someone. But what you do have to know is what you’re passionate about. Something you want to right, a wrong that needs to be righted. Something that you cannot find that you would go anywhere and do anything to get. And you ask questions. You don’t think you have to know, you say, “Sorry, I’m confused. Can you explain that to me in a different way?” And I just think a certain kind of a mixture, a humility, that you don’t have to know everything. You learn like everyone else.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. That’s great advice. Now you have a staff. So can you talk to us about your leadership style?

Jenette Goldstein:
My leadership style. I think I am naturally sort of an autocratic sort of person to be quite honest. I was brought up if you want something done, you got to do it yourself. I was brought up by a single parent. I was a single parent for many years. And you know, as an artist, you do. You do it yourself. You can’t wait on people. However, as you grow, you absolutely have to pivot to a more democratic style. And I am definitely learning that if you want to grow and not be exhausted, you need to ask for help. You need to coach people. You need to delegate. You need to step back. So I’ve definitely become much more democratic.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yes. And it’s hard to do. I know, but very necessary as you say so.

Jenette Goldstein:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Now, is there anything that you’ve brought to your business today that you learned in your acting career?

Jenette Goldstein:
Oh, absolutely. I mean, every day. Actors are incredibly sensitive people. We improvise, we listen, we react. And I think that’s the key to when you’re dealing with people, when you’re dealing with women, with intimate articles of clothing, you change and you don’t keep talking and tell people what they want. You take in and you respond. So I think my acting training has been a very good business foundation.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Now your company focuses on a specialized customer experience. Talk to us about the importance of great customer service.

Jenette Goldstein:
Well, I think customer service is the key to, I don’t know, to everything. I mean, I personally am not … I don’t call myself a business person in a way. I feel like this business is sort of an art project. We laugh, my husband’s an artist, I’m an actress and we create this thing we call retail theater. And you walk into an environment, and women, especially when they shop or they go get their hair, you’re looking for connection. I mean, yes, you want to not waste your money and you want value for it. And you want the object to be good, but really it’s to talk to another human being. And that to me, that’s why we decided not to go online because really where it is, is one woman speaking to another woman about her divorce, about her marriage. Every time you go in to get a bra, mostly it’s an event. You’ve gotten married. You’ve gotten divorced. Your friends have taken you out to cheer you up. So you are as a bra fitter … I mean, customer service is everything.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Yeah. That human connection. I like what you’re saying there, for sure. Especially during these times.

Jenette Goldstein:
Yes. Yeah. Yes. And that’s exactly. So during these times I was like, well, I’d always thought what if. What if you could never walk in and see another human being? And then all of a sudden it was like, well, here we go. And I was sure that if we came back, if we survived, I would never have to explain again why what I’m doing is important.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
So running a business sometimes has its challenges as we both know, and they can really get you down. So how do you keep yourself motivated and positive during these challenging times?

Jenette Goldstein:
That’s a very good question. Yeah. Well, I went for long walks and that’s one of the reasons why I love Atlanta, why I stayed in Atlanta during the heart of the pandemic and didn’t go back to Los Angeles, is just being able to walk out and see the trees and just walk. That’s my way. I’m trying to read books more again, just to calm myself down. Because my phone is binging, you know, you’re like being pinged and slack and there’s all this tech, but to me, this is trying to keep myself as healthy as possible.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
That’s good. You have to take care of yourself if you can take care of a business, right?

Jenette Goldstein:
Yeah, you really do. Yeah.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
So, you started in California. And what brought you to Atlanta?

Jenette Goldstein:
Well, my family’s from Atlanta. My mother’s family are all from Virginia Highlands, way back, the turn of the century. So I would spend my summers and my vacations back and forth at my grandparents and my cousins between Atlanta and Los Angeles. And just recently, it also has to do with the film industry. So many of my friends were making films and working in Atlanta. So it just seemed perfect.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Very natural progression for sure. If we were having this conversation five years from now, what does the future look like for Jenette Bras?

Jenette Goldstein:
Yeah. Well, we are going to … Like I said, we’re opening our sixth store in Buckhead and we’re looking for other cities to go to. I love other cities. I love cities. I’m a city girl, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York. So that’s what it is. It’s sort of to slowly organically build the company from people first. I mean, we just hired our staff for Buckhead and they’re wonderful, but that’s the key, is building the people. So that’s in the five years, I don’t know, expect us somewhere more in the Southeast or … I’m not really sure.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Awesome. Well, we can’t wait to see what’s next for Jenette Bras. I’m sure the success will continue. Congratulations on your success. And thank you so much for joining us today.

Jenette Goldstein:
Thank you.

Welcome to another episode of The Female Founder with Bridget Fitzpatrick, Co-founder of ASBN and the CBT Automotive Network. The Female Founder is a show all about helping women grow their businesses and reach their full potential. Each episode will highlight inspiring stories and advice from female entrepreneurs to help you build and grow your business. This show is designed to inspire and motivate other female founders to be the best entrepreneurs they can be.

Today’s guest is an amazing female entrepreneur who works every day helping others find the clarity and confidence that they need to step into their full purpose and do those big things they were meant to do. She’s a certified master coach, international speaker, Forbes-rated top 11 inspiring female entrepreneurs, book author, former Marine and so much more. We’re pleased to welcome Rachel Luna.

Transcription:

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Rachel, thank you so much for joining us today.

Rachel Luna:
Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be here today.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yes. We’ve got a lot to talk about, so I’m going to jump right in here if that’s okay. From being a triple-negative breast cancer survivor to losing your parents at a young age, you’ve overcome so much in your life, and to see you crushing it like you are today is so inspiring. Because you’ve been through so much dealing with just one of these things could have knocked you down for good. What has kept you going when so many may have given up?

Rachel Luna:
My faith, honestly. People ask me this question all the time and they’ll say like, “Oh, well, you’re Girl Confident on social media. Was it your confidence?” And no, the confidence is a byproduct of my faith and this innate knowing and belief that there must be a reason. And that’s really difficult, especially when you don’t find a reason or when the reasons don’t make sense. If I can give you a personal example, as you mentioned, I am a triple negative breast cancer survivor. And I met a woman on my journey who, man, she had faith like I’ve never seen. And she had this deep belief that she was going to be healed and everything was going to be great, and she died. And when she died I could not understand. I was devastated. And I remember sitting in my car crying, and I’m a God girl, so I’m crying to God and saying, “But why?”

And I just felt this wave wash over me. I said, “I don’t understand.” And then it just came to me, I understand that I will never understand why this happened. And that gave me peace of there are going to be things in life that we cannot explain. People will say it’s God’s will. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe will that we’re here to suffer. I think that our choices and other people’s choices that we have no control over impact our life. And the only thing that helps you move forward is will you have faith to believe that you’re not done? God’s not done with you yet. And so for me, every time there was a challenge, even I remember one time, I don’t know if you mentioned this, but I am a recovering alcoholic and I’ve been sober for decades. You could put all the alcohol in front of me today and I want nothing to do with it.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Oh, congratulations.

Rachel Luna:
Thank you. But on one day there I was hungover, scooping up my own vomit, throwing it into a toilet bowl. Was a very rock bottom moment. And I had this innate knowing like, no, no, no, no. I am supposed to be more than this. I’m supposed to be doing more than this. So can I just have faith for the day? And that is what has gotten me through all of it.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
That is so inspiring. I like that you said it’s okay to maybe not understand why something’s happening. As women and a lot of people so much overthink and just try to figure it out when it might be better just to move on. For those women watching that might be dealing with something holding them back, what advice would you have for them?

Rachel Luna:
Okay. So first of all, I would actually challenge anyone listening to not stay into the belief that there’s something holding you back, because really there’s nothing. You’re not limited by your location, by your circumstance or situation. That is a story that we tell ourselves. And I know that there’s going to be someone listening and getting really angry at me because I said it’s a story you’re telling yourself. And they will argue with me back and say, “No, it’s not a story. The truth is, I am stuck in this city that I don’t want to live in. I’m stuck in this job, because if I quit” … And those are valid reasons. And I also, I want to remind you, you’re not stuck. Everything we have is a choice. Any place that we are in is a choice. And so you can actually choose a different reality, it just means that … No, it doesn’t mean anything other than what you make it mean.

But there is a possibility that you will have to get uncomfortable. And one of the reasons why so many people feel that they are stuck is because they don’t want to venture out into the discomfort. They’ve gotten so comfortable in a very uncomfortable situation, that what happens, I don’t know if you know this about me either, but I’m a certified master coach with a concentration in neuroscience. So let me tell you what’s happening in the brain. As soon as we attempt to do anything outside of what we’ve normally done, the brain is thinking, uh oh, we’re going to die. We’re doing something different. We don’t know what’s going to happen on the other side of this action, even if the behavior is good for you. This is why people struggle to get to the gym on Mondays. This is why people sabotage. As soon as things are going well, all of a sudden there’s a setback. And it’s like, why do these things always happen?

It’s because your brain sent out a five-fire alarm to say, whoa, if we continue on this path, we might die. Or, oh my gosh, this is painful. When people are putting themselves out there to take risk and they experience rejection, the brain center that registers rejection is the same receptor that registers physical pain. So when we get rejected, our brain is like, ah, we’re being attacked. We’re being beaten down. And so it’s really important to recognize that you are not stuck, there are just some choices that you get to make and some of those choices might cause you to be very uncomfortable. Are you willing to be uncomfortable? Are you willing to go through that pain in order to get to the pleasure that you’re waiting for on the other side?

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
And you have to be willing to do those things to be an entrepreneur, whether you’re a man or a woman, right?

Rachel Luna:
Absolutely. I think if you want to be an entrepreneur, you need to have a high tolerance for risk. You have to have a high tolerance for offense. You have to have a high tolerance for rejection and failure. And you should be okay. And I actually now get excited like, oh, we failed. Great. We’ve got feedback. Let’s figure it out.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Great way to look at it. And along those lines, a lot of women in business struggle with confidence in finding the courage to speak up for themselves or ask for something that they want for fear of offending someone. Now what would you say to those women?

Rachel Luna:
You’re my favorite. I love you the most because I understand. In fact, I was traveling last week to Arizona to speak at a conference. And as I was making my way home, as we’ve already covered, I’m a triple negative breast cancer survivor, so I’m in that category of immunocompromised. So I get to the front counter, and the woman, bless her heart, is sneezing, and then she does one of these things and she’s like digging in her nose. And she says, “Can I see your ID?” So I try really diplomatic and I hold up my ID, and she’s like, “I need to touch it.” And I had this moment of, I don’t want you to touch my ID with your boogies.And so I said to her, “I would love to hand it to you. Would you mind using some of the hand sanitizer first?” And she goes, “I wash my hands all the time.” I said, “I completely understand. I believe you. I’m immunocompromised. It’s just my process. I’m happy to hand it to you once you use the hand sanitizer.” And she said, “Oh, I understand.”

And she used the hand sanitizer and it was fine. But I was honestly nervous for a moment that she would be offended, that she would get pissed off at me, that it would turn into this very big thing in a public environment. So the reason I used that story as an example is because this is a great, I call it offending in the wild. This is a great moment of offending in the wild. And what I encourage people who feel that they are not taking action for fear of offending other people is to ask themselves these questions. If I do not speak up, am I betraying myself? If I don’t speak up, am I compromising my beliefs, my values, my goals and my dreams?

Because if the answer is yes, then you have to speak up. You have to be willing to offend. And most people are not afraid of offending, they’re afraid of what’s going to happen on the other side of offense. They’re afraid of judgment, rejection, and or defamation. So judgment, what are they going to think of me? Rejection, are they going to cut me off from the community? Defamation, who are they going to tell and what are they going to say about me? And all of this signals to the brain, we are going to be cut off from the community. And remember, we still have that primitive reptile brain that kind of runs a lot of the show. And that primitive part of our brain reminds us back in the caveman days, if you got cut off from your community, you were also cut off from the food source. And if you were cut off from the food source, you died. The brain is just always trying to keep you alive. And if you can remind yourself offending someone most often does not result in someone dying, and you are going to be okay.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
I’m going to take that advice myself. I love it. Now this brings me to your book, Permission to Offend. I’d love to talk about this. It’s available for pre-order. So what are some of the takeaways that you want your readers to take away from the book?

Rachel Luna:
Oh my gosh. Okay. This is a loaded question, because-

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
I know, there’s so much.

Rachel Luna:
Yeah, there is so much. And I will say I wrote the book, but it’s also something that I still practice. So that example of me being in the airport, I really was nervous to offend her, but I understood that to not offend her would put my health at risk. And so I had to be willing to risk my reputation. I had to be willing to risk being cut off, being hashtag canceled. And you have to recognize that very rare does someone get permanently canceled. It’s almost never happened. Even the people that get canceled, they sit out, they cool off for a couple of years and then everyone forgives them because they have—

So there are a couple of things that I love talking about. One of them is the offense capacity quotients. And I actually have a quiz that you can take to see where your offense capacity falls. Here’s my theory. If you have a high tolerance for being offended by other people, you are more likely to walk in your truth. You’re not as concerned about offending other people, because you know that deep down you’re not intentionally offending them, you’re just walking in your truth. And how people metabolize or perceive your truth is not really your primary concern. It should not be your primary concern. Now, I also talk about damage control in the book. So what happens if you are out here living your truth, and then, ugh, mother, brother, sister, cousin, uncle, best friend, neighbor, stranger is offended? These strategies to overcome that. And listen, my mom that raised me, no one has taught me more about damage control and offending than that woman, because I have offended her year after year with my way of being. But we are still thick as thieves.

There’s also something that I teach in here called the empathetic offender framework. So I break down the four offender identities that you have had to wear at some point in your life in order to survive and to be accepted by the community. So they are the pleaser, the critic, the wounded and the empathetic. Now, I know we don’t have time to get into everyone, but let’s talk about my favorite, and that is the wounded offender. The wounded offender is constantly operating in high faith, means they are bold. They will go out there and say all the things, but they are walking in low truth, low personal truth. So they have been marginalized. They have been people that have experienced big-time trauma, big-time offense, big-time hurt. And because of that, they have this armor. So you don’t ever get to know the real them. You never get to really hear their truth. You only get to see the part of them that they are letting you see so that they can survive the moment. I know we are in Atlanta. Have you ever watched the Real Housewives of Atlanta?

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Oh yeah. I watch them all.

Rachel Luna:
I watch them all too. Kenya Moore is the classic wounded offender.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Oh, yeah. I can see that.

Rachel Luna:
Because you see her, you’ll see moments where she is very compassionate, very empathetic, super, super nurturing. But the minute someone says one thing that she disagrees with, she is quick onto the fence, she pulls an attack, she cuts you off at the knees and she has no room or capacity for what anyone else is saying.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
I have a sister just like that. Yeah… Yeah, we’ll get her the book.

Rachel Luna:
Because I talk about how to navigate through each of those identities. And the one that we really want to lean into and become is the empathetic offender. Now the nice thing about the offender framework, the offender identity framework, is that every day we are vacillating through the quadrants. The goal is not to never be the critic, the pleaser, or the wounded. The goal is to recognize when you are operating in that identity so that you can use the tools that I give you, to move out of that and be more empathetic. And the reason we want to be empathetic offenders is so that we have greater community connection and the manifestation of our desires, the things that we really want, not the things that other people have told us we should want.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Yeah. And as we’re working on these things, they don’t happen overnight. So it’s a practice. It’s a really every day working on becoming the person that you want to be. And I think you probably talk about that in the book too.

Rachel Luna:
I do talk about that. And it’s not so much as becoming the person you want to be, it’s recognizing who you always were deep down before your caregivers, your teachers, your clergy people told you what you should think and how you should believe. And so this is really more about a returning to home, a returning to the part of you that you’ve lost along the way through your roles and responsibilities.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
I like that. Yeah. You really help people understand why they are who they are.

Rachel Luna:
Yes. Yes.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Now you are offering advice to entrepreneurs every day. If you could choose one piece of advice to tell your younger self when you were just starting out, what would you say?

Rachel Luna:
Oh, God. A couple of things. The first thing I would say is take more imperfect action. It doesn’t really matter. The fonts do not matter. The graphics are not as important as you think they are. Really what matters most is to figure out who you want to help and add value to those people every single day. Because if you add value to other people’s lives, you become irreplaceable. You become indispensable.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
That is great advice. I love that. So now I have a morning routine that starts early in the morning with coffee, some quiet time to myself and working out. I know you journal every morning and recommend it to the people that you work with. Can you talk to us about the importance of this, as well as the importance of a morning routine?

Rachel Luna:
Yeah. Okay. Well, I have a lovely morning routine also. And I actually teach the full framework of journaling in permission to offend, well, because it’s such an important part of the equation. So I teach journaling in three simple steps, write, shift, script. So the first thing that you’re going to do is you’re going to write whatever is on your mind. The reason is because your unconscious subconscious mind houses all of your random thoughts and ideas, and your thoughts and ideas are like little children. If you do not give them attention, they will continue. It’s like the little kid that’s like, “Mommy, mom, mommy, mommy.” And then you’re like, “What?” And it’s like, “I love you. Can I have a cookie?” “Yes.” And then it runs away and it gets the cookie.

So your thoughts and ideas need to know that they’ve been acknowledged. Once you acknowledge them, they, shh, silence. They go away temporarily. Not often do they go away permanently. But what’s happening is that your unconscious mind is actually running the show. We think our conscious mind is in charge, because consciously we know, I’m going to do this, I should do that. But no, your unconscious mind is what’s really controlling your conscious mind’s behavior. And so we want to give these unconscious thoughts an opportunity to cross the conscious-unconscious barrier and come into awareness so you can process them. The second part, once you’ve written down all your thoughts and you feel kind of complete with that, you are going to shift into a state of gratitude and expectation. So this—like you saying, “I’m so excited. Now that I’ve cleared out my mind, I am ready to take the day by storm. I am ready to be who I was always meant to be. I am ready to have my business go to the next level.”

Whatever. Whatever you’re looking forward forward to, whatever you’re grateful for, this is the time and the space to write it, because when you are engaged in gratitude and expectation, it raises your frequency. When you have a high vibration, high energy, high excitement, you’re more likely to take efficient action, not just action, efficient, inspired action. And then the third step is to script. And in this phase, you are going to script your desired outcome as if it’s already happened. So if I’m talking to an entrepreneur and she says, “I want to have a six figure launch.” So now you’re going to say something like, “we did it. I had a six figure launch. Every day I showed up. I was doing my posts on social media. I was writing my emails. I invited affiliate partners. And we did the thing. And we welcomed X amount of people. And now there’s X amount of dollars in my bank account.”

The reason I tell people to script and write it as if it’s already happened is because now your reticular activating system is going to look around and see, well, did we take that action? No, we didn’t take the action. The ego doesn’t want to be a liar. It doesn’t want you to be a liar. So now you’ll start to get these ideas and prompts. Here’s the other reason why I tell my clients to be very descriptive. Try to get into as much detail as possible. What were you wearing? What did it smell like? How did you feel? Really activate those feelings, because when the client then comes back to me and says, “I don’t know where to begin.” I say, “Go look at your script. What did you say you did?” And it’s right there. All the things that you know should do, all the things that your unconscious subconscious mind actually wants you to do. It’s like you’ve written out your own roadmap for success.

And when it’s your own roadmap, you’re more likely to follow it than when you listen to a coach, or a guru, or a mentor tell you this is the framework. Why? Because the ego wants to be the one that discovers the things. This is why people will hire coaches and say, “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do everything.” And they don’t do it because it doesn’t come from within.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Totally.

Rachel Luna:
So that’s the cliff notes.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
I love that. Now, and so you’re manifesting in a way. When you’re doing that, I can imagine along the way you’re feeling good too, when you’re writing these things down that you’re manifesting that you want to see happen. And you talked about what you were going to be wearing, the smells you were smelling. Just writing those things down and feeling it would make me feel in a better mood and feel more productive or motivated to get going.

Rachel Luna:
Yeah. And actually though, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this, for some people, writing that down, it’s going to feel very scary. In fact, it’s going to be so scary that they’re not going to be able to finish the script. They’ll maybe get one or two sentences. When that happens, I always say get curious, because your curiosity is going to lead to your clarity. So you go back to the first step, which is to write whatever’s coming up. So you might ask yourself a question. Why can’t I write this down? What am I afraid of? What am I making this mean? So I teach it write, shift, script, three steps as if it were linear. But it really is a cyclical process and you can vacillate through the steps at any time.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Okay, great. Thanks for clarifying that. Now, with all the exciting things that you have going on and so much to do, so what do you do when you find yourself feeling overwhelmed?

Rachel Luna:
I cry.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
And that’s okay.

Rachel Luna:
I cry. Yeah. Actually, so one of my morning routine things is I do coffee at almost every morning for detoxification purposes. It has a lot of good anti-cancer fighting properties. But when I was in the hospital healing from cancer, I remember that one of my doctors came in. I was crying uncontrollably. I couldn’t understand why. And he said to my husband, “Just let her cry. The more she cries, the more she’s going to detox. Once she gets it all out of her system, she’s going to feel better.” And so when I am overwhelmed, I know, oh, I need to cry. I need to detox. I need to move my body.

I have to change my state, because sitting in overwhelm does not make overwhelm go away. The only way overwhelm goes away is if you take a different action. So I cry. I journal. I go for a walk. And I ask for help. If you’re going to be an entrepreneur, and a successful entrepreneur, at some point you have to stop being the worker bee and you have to start being the CEO. And a CEO knows when to delegate and when to say, my hand is in too many pots. I’m doing too many things. You all need to come in and take this over.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Yeah. And that kind of brings me into my next question. I read something that you wrote, and it resonated because I think women have a tendency to try to be everything and do everything. And you said, “Once we stop trying to be everything to everyone, we get closer to our calling and our peace.” Can you talk to us about the importance of this?

Rachel Luna:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it’s so unrealistic. Let’s take that word. I just think it’s silly to expect that any one person could be everything to everyone, to do it all. And it really creates this expectation, this damaging expectation for other little girls. So I think that where we are right now, in particular women, men, you might be experiencing this as well, so I’m not going to take anything away from you, but for women, we have such a great opportunity right now to be the example. And we don’t realize that whether we choose to be the example or not, we are. I think it’s really important that we identify what roles and responsibilities do I desire to take on? What roles and responsibilities, I don’t want to take them on, but because I’ve made decisions in the past, they are mine now? I’m talking to the moms out there.

I’m a mom. Listen, this commute that I have in the mornings and the afternoons to take two kids to two different schools on opposite side of town, I don’t want that responsibility, but I made a choice to have these children. And so that’s part of the deal. But once you identify what you want to be responsible for, what role you want to take on and which ones, whether you want them or not, they’re yours, then everything else should be delegated or only taken on if you truly desire to overextend yourself. And sometimes we do. If my mom called me right now and was like, “Listen, I know you’re busy, but I need you to come to New York and help me.” It would overextend me, but I’m going to do that because I want to be there for her.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Right. Yeah. That’s important, for sure. Well, such great advice. Rachel, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. I know your story and advice will help inspire so many. So thank you so much.

Rachel Luna:
Thank you so much for having me. This was amazing.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:
Now, for those of you who want to hear more from Rachel, be sure to check out her podcast, Permission to Offend, wherever you listen. And be sure to pre-order her book as I did. I can’t wait to read it.

Welcome to another episode of The Female Founder with Bridget Fitzpatrick, Co-founder of ASBN and the CBT Automotive Network. The Female Founder is a show dedicated to helping women grow their businesses and reach their full potential. This show is designed to inspire and motivate other female founders to be the best entrepreneurs they can be. Each episode highlights inspiring stories and advice from female entrepreneurs to help you build and grow your business.

Today’s guests are entrepreneurs Lisa-Jae Eggert and Kammy Wolf of women-owned small business: 3 Moms Organics. These women are dedicated to protecting family and pets when spending time outdoors. 

Getting Started

Eggert emphasizes how important working outside means to her. She went to school for landscaping design, and she’s a naturalist who worked for the Bronx Zoo, where she was involved in habitat research. Through her experiences, Eggert was educated on the dangers of ticks and tick bites. Over the years of her outdoor work, she was exposed to the severity of ticks when she went through Lyme disease, which creates brain fog and difficulties with neurological locomotor skills like brushing teeth and turning off sinks. 

Afraid to go outside and use products containing harsh chemicals, Eggert wanted to find a natural way to protect herself and her kids against ticks better. So, she went to her kitchen, brought her friend in, did the research, and found the best possible solution. That’s when 3 Mom Organic was born.

Challenges

Like any small business startup, the beginning stages are always the toughest. In the company’s first year, they were flagged by the EPA for taking its natural repellent straight to the market. Under the EPA guidelines, anything that mediates as a repellent for insects is considered a pesticide. Therefore, it must be registered with the EPA or follow all EPA guidelines in every state. Wolf expresses, “Each state has various requirements like efficacy data and safety data sheets.”

Advice

Eggert encourages anyone interested in becoming an entrepreneur, “You just need to take what you’re passionate about and what’s in your heart and just keep going.” She was discussing with Wolf how she never thought she was going to fail, she just knew this was her personal experience that brought a great amount of passion to her that when she was faced with hesitation and obstacles, she just kept moving forward. 

"I believe women need to band together because self-care and manifesting are more important than competing with one another."