How To Find Joy in Ordinary Moments with Samatha Reynolds Entrepreneur and Founder of Bentlily

Welcome Brava listeners! In today's episode we celebrate the rhythm of life, the power of storytelling for yourself and a brand, and how to find joy in ordinary moments. To take us on this journey, I am honored to introduce you to Samantha Reynolds.

In today's conversation, you will hear firsthand how Samantha, an entrepreneur and poet, edited and took control of her own story to create a life she loved. Her writing and entrepreneurial spirt led her to launch the Echo Storytelling Agency. A writer at heart and by profession, she launched Bentlily where she challenges herself to write one poem each day in a quest to find more joy in the tedious rhythm of life as a mother and to observe the world around her.

I invite you to join and listen in to our conversation below to hear what Samantha has discovered along the way, her advice for work/ life balance, her inspiration, and more!

SHOW NOTES:

Inspired by her grandmother, Samantha Reynolds made storytelling her career. Now as CEO of Echo Storytelling Agency, Samantha helps others share their stories (5:30.)

Just like people she believes that no two brands have the same story. Stories create a more personalized experience that harvests trust and inspiration to make a more memorable experience for the consumer (8:00.)

Samantha finds that by writing each day that it takes the pressure off her to make any one piece award-winning. This practice keeps her creativity well-lubricated and she knows she always has another chance to improve the next day (12:15.)

A fun practice she recommends is to find a book or dictionary and to select a random word to start a story off. The word may not be in the finished copy but it helps get you inspired (13:15.)

Writers block? Have you heard of “writers ego”? Samantha finds “writers ego”, getting stuck by the feedback you receive from sharing your work with an audience, is even more challenging. She recommends trying not to get too hung up to write a certain way to appeal to that specific audience so that you don’t lose your original voice (14: 10.)

“It’s important to remember why you write and trust that the right people will come if you write from your heart.”

— Samantha Reynolds

During a rather boring event one day Samantha found herself drawn to a lily. Unlike the other lilies this one was bent.  In that moment, Samantha realized that when you slow down and really look you will start to notice the subtle details. Through that experience, Samantha’s pen name was born, “Bent Lilly” (17:50.)

Bentlily is her platform for daily poems about her common everyday life experiences (21:10.)

An early mentor encouraged Samantha that when it comes to work-life balance there is no single perfect matrix but rather to allow your own rhythm to take place (23:40.)

In 2021, Samantha is releasing a poetry manifesto of Bentlily that will be about finding deeper roots and living a happier life (29:15.)

Want to continue following Samantha? Find more of her poetry through Bentlily here.

Are you looking for easy ways to bring more mindfulness and joy into your life? Join Samantha’s #30DaysofNoticing challenge here!

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Thank you readers, to tuning into the Brava Podcast. If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes! 

What from our conversation inspired you today? What do you hope to hear next? Tweet or message us on Instagram @BravaPodcast to tell us what you want to hear, even if it’s your own story! 

Challenging the Status Quo with Jennifer Dickquist Owner of JD Law

Today on Brava I'm excited to introduce to you Jennifer Dickquist, the owner of JD Law, a boutique law firm in Pittsburgh, PA. Jennifer is an innovative, approachable, and edgy leader in her industry that is known for tradition and at times rigid lines. She is breaking stereotypes with what people expect the "typical" lawyer to be like.

Keep listening to hear more from Jennifer and her perspective on stereotypes of women in the workplace, how she seeks to challenge the firm structure status quo, and her advice for budding entrepreneurs and how they can get a handle on the potential challenges when starting a business.

SHOW NOTES:

As a leader building a firm, Jennifer is a catalyst that empowers the law industry to expand and diversify (15:15.)

Jennifer believes that by using a modernized billing approach for legal needs feels best for income based measures - payment plans and  flat fee retainers will provide people alternative methods (16:30.)

“Transparency is essential to build trust.”

— Jennifer Dickquist

One tip Jennifer wants to share to empower those wanting to start a business is that you can actually complete many tasks yourself by acquiring required documents online and just consult an attorney on the finer points. Doing so will save a significant amount of money on legal fees (23:00.)

Copyrights: Protects something of a creative pursuit. ie. art, novels, photographs, songs… (25:30.)

Patents:  Protects something with a science or technology background typically requires significant lab testing. ie. formulas or chemicals (25:55.)

Trademarks:  Protects something relating to a brand or business. ie. logos (26:50.)

“Remember you can do the hard things no matter what the outcome is you will come out on the other side. ”

— Jennifer Dickquist

Jennifer is excited to continue to expand her company and help as many people as she can and hopes that she can be a template for other firms in the future (28:45.)

Interested in continuing to follow Jennifer’s journey? Be sure to follow her on Instagram here.

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Thank you readers for tuning into the Brava Podcast. If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes! 

What from our conversation inspired you today? What do you hope to hear next? Tweet or message us on Instagram @BravaPodcast to tell us what you want to hear, even if it’s your own story! 

Storytelling, Social Strategy, and Allyship with Social Strategist and Consultant N'Yaisha J. Aziz

With each episode, the Brava Podcast® seeks to celebrate women and their accomplishments, normalize the success of women and advance women through a community of their contemporaries. I’m honored to introduce you to today’s guest: N’Yaisha Aziz.

N’Yaisha is a powerhouse in the social media marketing space delivering strategy and consulting work for a variety of brands and agencies such as MILK MakeUp, Laundry Service, Unilever, and more! Continue reading and tune in below to hear how she began her career in social media, her perspective on the changing industry landscape, and her influence and impact for allyship in the workplace as a member of the #HIREBLACK Initiative.

SHOW NOTES:

N’Yaisha Aziz is a member and the marketing mastermind behind #HIREBLACK, an initiative with a goal to help 10,000 Black womxn get trained, hired, or promoted. She always knew that her passion revolved around telling stories about the hard realities of lives lived (2:05.)

Storytelling in marketing is so vital to tell the narrative of products and brands. Like history, there are many perspectives to tell for one story (3:10.)

Throughout her career N’Yaisha found working with agencies a great way to start to experience a full spectrum of opportunities and that it provided diverse perspectives and projects. On the other hand, she found working for a specific (or one) brand provides more peace and allows you to dig deeper to focus on the in and outs of the specific brand (5:40.)

“I love this transition of prioritizing engagement in brand marketing to use social media to build deeper connections.”

— N'Yaisha J. Aziz

Volunteering excites N’Yaisha as she works to bring budding business’ visions to life (19:15.)

The #HIREBLACK Initiative started as an idea on Juneteenth to help black women with their resumes. Today it consists of a network of over 1000 people and counting (27:15.)

N’Yaisha heard a powerful quote from a collective she is a part of called Monday Night Mentorship and referenced it in our conversation, “When it comes to being an ally, the best way to thwart microaggressions is with microcompassion” (30:55.)

“The best lesson 2020 has taught me is to take the ebbs and flows by being open and vulnerable to opportunities.”

— N’Yaisha Aziz 

N’Yaisha is very excited as she is working on a new secret project that will be coming soon to Instagram (35:40.)

Bite & Chew. Slow down and focus what is in front of you before you take on more (37:00).

When you take a leap, a net will appear. Where there is risk, comes reward. The universe will reward people that bet on themselves (39:00.)

Want to continue to learn more about N’Yaisha? Follow her on Instagram and LinkedIn!

Interested in becoming a member, an ally, or a partner with the #HIREBLACK Initiative? Visit hireblacknow.com.

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Thank you readers for tuning into the Brava Podcast. If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes! 

What from our conversation inspired you today? What do you hope to hear next? Tweet or message us on Instagram @BravaPodcast to tell us what you want to hear, even if it’s your own story! 

Innovation and Clean Beauty with CEO and Co-Founder of Wander Beauty Divya Gugnani

Raise your hand if you have ever done your beauty routine on-the-go. Wait a minute, so I’m not the only one that has sat in a parking lot applying make-up? Ok, then I’ll admit it, that mysterious stain on the roof of my car? Mascara. How you ask? An over-packed schedule and a last minute dash for a touch-up gone wrong.

Meet Divya Gugnani, a serial entrepreneur who has taken the beauty industry by storm. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of Wander Beauty, a brand built for the modern woman that offers a line of multi-tasking beauty essentials so that you can take your routine on the go, mess-free, and stress-free.

Read on and tune in below to hear more from Divya as we discuss the power of clean beauty, how to differentiate your brand, her tips to growing a successful business by following your instincts, her beauty favorites, and much more.

SHOW NOTES:

Divya was inspired to launch Wander Beauty while on the NYC subway. She was applying make-up and realized many others were doing the same. She realized she was continuously finding herself doing her beauty routine on-the-go all the time (1:20.)

The need of an innovative solution emerged from a multitude of experiences and situations: from wanting a clean and safe beauty alternative to a product that fits a multitasker’s daily lifestyle (2:30.)

Wander Beauty focuses on real women in the context of their real lives (4:14.)

The driving force behind Wander Beauty’s fast five year success? Outworking the competitors. Divya speaks to the passion and intelligence of her team that has helped drive the incredible outcome and success of her brand (5:00.)

Wander Beauty is created by products that skin loves. (It’s free of parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrance, and mineral oil. Wander Beauty is also gluten free and cruelty free.) The “clean” beauty movement is very important and a current topic of conversation in today’s industry. What makes Wander Beauty stand out is that their mission was developed from a personal story, not a trend (7:15.)

“The average woman is ingesting 5lbs of damaging chemicals from her beauty products every single year. ”

— Divya Gugnani, CEO and Co-Founder of Wander Beauty

Divya’s go-to tips when shopping for clean beauty products? She steers clear from parabens, phthalates, and sulfates (10:00.)

Her must-have products that she uses daily include 1) Mist Connection Essence and Toner, 2) Baggage Claim Gold Eye Masks, 3) Dualist Matte and Illuminating Concealer, and 4) Mile High Club Volume and Length Mascara (12:12.)

Let’s talk morning ritual: to balance her days with her busy schedule, Divya meditates for a few moments each morning, drinks ginger water, has breakfast with her kids, empties her inbox, streams a 15-minute workout, then starts her day. This allows her to focus on what she calls “deep work” when she gets to the office where she focuses on key projects that uses her full brain power (14:00.)

One of the things that Divya has learned through the years is to trust your gut (17:05.)

“It’s great to take feedback. As an entrepreneur you should listen to everyone: your team, your retail partners, your customers, and read every comment on social; but, you need to react only to things that make sense to you when you see the wholistic picture.”

— Divya Gugnani, CEO and Co-Founder of Wander Beauty

Looking to enter the beauty space as an entrepreneur? Find an opportunity in a white space and innovate. Divya advises to “innovate, don’t imitate” (22:25.)

Follow Divya and Wander Beauty on Instagram to stay connected and continue following along!

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Thank you readers for tuning into the Brava Podcast. If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes! 

What from our conversation inspired you today? What do you hope to hear next? Tweet or message us on Instagram @BravaPodcast to tell us what you want to hear, even if it’s your own story! 

Transforming Communities with Female Founder Collective’s Director of Community + Brand Partnerships Elisabeth Leonard

“When women join together to enact change, ANYTHING can happen.”

Today I’m sitting down with the woman behind the Female Founder Collective. Meet Elisabeth Leonard. A dynamic woman that has partnered with fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff to lead a network of businesses led by women, that support women. Tune in for advice on how to start and transform your own community, learn what women inspire her along the way and much more!

SHOW NOTES:

Elisabeth is calling in from…Santiago, Chile! She works remotely by using email, Slack, Facetime, GoogleDrive and more to keep in touch with her team at Rebecca Minkoff (1:25.)

She worked with Rebecca for almost 6 years and started with the company as a temporary receptionist. It turned into her career! After her first 3 months in her temp position she was hired as Rebecca’s Executive Assistant. From there, she continued to work with the PR and Events team. Together they always had a shared passion of supporting female founders and women. For instance, be sure to check out their Superwomen Podcast as just one of the many examples of how the are creating change (3:30.)

Elisabeth focuses on community management and the growth of the Female Founder Collective and works alongside Rebecca as a mentor and friend (5:25.)

“Every female entrepreneur is fighting for the same thing. Recognition. Rather than fighting against each other we need to cheer each other on and support each other! ”

— Elisabeth Leonard

One of the greatest practices that the members focus on is collaboration. They do this by sharing resources, ideas, and experiences (9:15.)

Interested in joining the Female Founder Collective? You can apply here. Once you are part of the community, you can receive the FCC seal. Elisabeth adds that there are a lot of ways to support female founded organizations through sharing love on social media, mentoring, shopping and purchasing in their shops, and more (13:30.)

On being a receptionist, Elisabeth shares that you learn so many different things because you are the first and last face people see each day. She built relationships with so many people in the office from different departments. It gave her an advantage to understanding where she wanted to see her own career go. It was one of the most incredible experiences she was given (17:00.)

Elisabeth’s mom and Rebecca Minkoff are her role models as they always encourage her to always strive for happiness and never to stop asking questions (20:34.)

In the near future, the Female Founder Collective is hoping to continue pushing the FFC seal to change shopping behaviors. They also hope to continue growing the collective and encourage everyone to buy and support women-owned businesses (21:58.)

Ready to join the Female Founder Collective? Check it out here.

Excited to learn more and follow Elisabeth? Follow her story now.

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Thank you readers, to tuning into the Brava Podcast. If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes! 

What from our conversation inspired you today? What do you hope to hear next? Tweet or message us on Instagram @BravaPodcast to tell us what you want to hear, even if it’s your own story!