As we all prepare for the new year, there’s probably a laundry list of things you’re thinking about. New routines, habits, goals, and more prompt us to consider tangible ways to effect change. But trying to figure out where to start and what to prioritize can be tough. 

With so many people giving out advice all the preparation can feel daunting, and you might just give up before you start. This year we’ve spoken with a ton of founders, executives, CEOs, all of whom have been in your shoes, maybe not feeling the most confident about their next step. 

We’ve compiled a list of some of the best advice to help you with your fresh start. So here’s a list of seven things you should be thinking about going into 2026. 

Don’t wait, start today

Going into a new year is all about feeling good about what can come. Dana Hork, Founder and CEO of Beers With Friends told Her Agenda that we all have something special that only we can offer, so start today! 

“Go for it. Don’t wait for permission. The world is waiting for you to articulate your vision. It’s like the subway rule—if you see something, say something. If you see a better way of doing things, lean into that. Start small if you need to, iterate as you go, but trust your instincts.” 

Find your tribe

Having a good support system makes all the difference in all facets of life. By having a solid sounding board, it can keep you celebrated through the good times and carried through the bad. 

When Her Agenda chatted with Sally Kim, President and Publisher; Little, Brown and Company, she gave this advice to fellow writers trying to break through the industry. It’s solid advice we can all use. 

“Find the people who can support you and lift you up and also give you the tough love you need to make your work better,” she shared.

Be prepared to put in the work

Being an ambitious woman comes with a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Many women are starting their own businesses with the new year, which requires even more work. Julie Cartwright, President of Pvolve, was asked by Her Agenda about going into entrepreneurship, and she said that tenacity is key. 

“You need to be able to network, you need to be able to get out into your community…So don’t be afraid of the hard work. Don’t do it if you don’t want to work hard, to be honest. It’s incredibly rewarding, but it certainly takes you really putting yourself out there.” 

Stay true to who you are and what you want

Sometimes it can be easy to push aside your individuality to conform to what other people think is best. But your individuality makes you special, so hold onto that. Her Agenda spoke with Nina Magon, Luxury Interior Designer and CEO, about the advice she has for up-and-coming designers that can apply to everyone wanting to be true to themselves in 2026. 

“You just have to do whatever style you love, and people will catch on eventually. Don’t change your style for someone else. You have to love what you do, because if you don’t, you’re in big trouble.”

Be kind to yourself

Sometimes it can be so easy to be nice to everyone but ourselves. We let negative self-talk, self-doubt, and a lack of confidence take over, and sometimes it stops us from greatness. Binta Niambi Brown, Sports and Entertainment Lawyer and Founder, chatted with Her Agenda about navigating life after loss and what it looks like to give herself compassion. 

“There are going to be moments in our lives where we have to give ourselves grace, and we have to give ourselves time to grieve, and to rebuild, and to reheal, but in healing, and grieving, we have to also have a sense of hope, and a sense of what’s possible.” 

Make time for you

Many women find themselves taking care of others: kids, partners, aging relatives, etc. When you add work on top of that, sometimes making sure that we’re taken care of isn’t a priority. Karonda Cook, Head of Global Marketing at KISS Colors & Care, gave us this gem about hair care when she spoke with Her Agenda about how to make sure you put yourself at the top of the to-do list. 

“If you have to take that time, make it a moment of self-care and give yourself a deep treatment mask to replenish your hair, give that hair an extra dose of love, an extra boost of moisture.” 

Have an open mind

You never know where this new year will take you, so be open to whatever comes your way. You never know where an unexpected opportunity may take you. Mina Haque, Attorney and CEO of Tony Roma’s, spoke with Her Agenda about this key piece of advice she’s held on to through her career. 

“Keep an open mind, especially when you’re trying to consider a career path. Don’t think of a job as your goal. Think of skill sets. Don’t pay attention to the dream job. It’s the skill set that’s [prepared] your mind [for] the career that you will have.”

This article 7 New Year Strategies From Top Women Leaders was originally published on HerAgenda.com

Justine Palefsky grew up in a San Francisco studio apartment where the garage always housed someone different—friends, extended family, anyone who needed a place to stay in an expensive city. Her parents taught her that opening her home was a gift and that generosity came full circle.

Decades later, after studying cognitive neuroscience at Brown, solving puzzles at Bain & Company, and building high-trust customer experiences at Opendoor, Justine found herself organizing informal home swaps through email threads and Google Sheets. She wanted to spend weeks in Barcelona without paying San Francisco rent plus hotel costs, and her friends wanted the same thing.

Then came the cabin. Justine locked herself away for a week with her future co-founder, Tasneem Amina, whiteboarding business ideas and discussing their relationships with their mothers. That unconventional co-founder courtship led to Kindred, a home-swapping platform where 84% of dissatisfied hotel-goers can find something different: a movement built on reciprocity, not transactions. The business is built on members who host because it “feels good to give somebody a gift.”

Justine now sits down with Her Agenda to discuss her role in Kindred, how it came to life with her co-founder, Tasneem, and what’s in store as they both continue to listen to their customers’ needs and navigate the ever-evolving business world of travel and technology. 

Her Agenda: Before founding Kindred, can you share a bit about your personal background and experiences that shaped your approach to travel and community?

Justine Palefsky: My career journey, taking a step back, partially starts with my life journey pre-career. I was raised in San Francisco.

I had two really progressive, big-hearted parents. We had a studio apartment in the garage, and there was always someone different living there. My parents raised me with a value system centered on the idea that it’s a huge gift to be able to offer our extended community a stay in a city as wonderful—but as expensive—as San Francisco.

In return, we had friends all over the country who hosted us in their guest rooms or on their couches when we traveled. This value system of opening your home, giving to your community, and trusting that the good energy you put out will come back around became an important part of my foundation.

I went to Brown [Universtiy] for college and studied cognitive neuroscience, which sometimes surprises people. I’ve always been both left-brained and right-brained. I’m an artist—I love to draw and paint—but I also love science and analysis.

Through my professional journey, I realized I didn’t have to choose. I could solve problems more effectively by combining an artist’s creativity with a scientist’s analytical approach. That made me more multidimensional.

After graduating, I joined Bain & Company, the consulting firm. I learned a ton there—it felt like solving puzzles for a living, which was fun—but I wanted to build something I believed in and was proud to add to the world. Living in San Francisco, surrounded by innovation and entrepreneurship, I caught the bug and joined the early stages of a property technology company called Opendoor.

That’s where I met Tas, my co-founder. We didn’t work on the same team, but knew each other socially. At Opendoor, I helped build several high-trust, online-offline customer experiences, including a home trade-in product. Looking back, it’s funny—I’ve been working with swaps and trade-ins for a long time.

I stayed at Opendoor for about four years, then left to join a friend from Bain, Nikki, who was starting a construction technology company. Two intense, male-dominated industries, construction and tech, were colliding, and here was Nikki, six or seven months pregnant, saying, ‘Come with me, Justine. We’re going to transform this industry, and I need you by my side.’ I couldn’t say no.

I joined Homebound as part of the early team, helped launch the company, and supported it through Series B stages. That experience was pivotal for me—it helped me see that co-founding something myself was possible. Seeing Nikki, whose communication style and strengths were similar to mine, excel as a CEO helped me close that confidence gap. I’d always wanted to start a company, but I didn’t feel ready. Working with Nikki and seeing company growth at both Opendoor and Homebound made me realize I could do it. The only thing stopping me was taking the leap.

Her Agenda: So what made you take the leap? 

Justine Palefsky: In early 2021, during the pandemic, I started thinking about the kinds of products I wanted to bring to the world and the problems I wanted to solve.

One challenge I’d been wrestling with for a few years was wanting to travel more. I love living in San Francisco. My family is here, but I also wanted to spend a few weeks in Barcelona or live in New York City for a month. It was just too expensive to pay rent in San Francisco while also booking more than a few days in a hotel or vacation rental.

I framed the problem: how can we make it possible to live a more travel-rich lifestyle, feeling like we have homes all over the world—in a way that’s affordable, accessible, and deeply human? That’s what we love about travel in the first place: embedding into a place and feeling like a local instead of a visitor.

I took that problem statement to the CEO of Opendoor, Eric Wu, and the CEO of Homebound, Nikki, and said, ‘I think I want to start a company. I don’t know exactly what it will look like, but I want to solve this problem.’

Eric said, ‘You’ve got to do it, and you’ve got to get with Tas. If you two worked together, you’d be unstoppable.’ I reconnected with Tas, and we had an amazing few months of co-founder dating. We locked ourselves in a cabin in the woods for a week, whiteboarded business ideas, talked about our families, our values, and even things like whether either of us had a criminal record. We got to know each other deeply and intentionally.

Coming out of that, we decided to be business partners and build something together. We left our full-time jobs and started working on what became Kindred in April 2021.

Her Agenda: How has Kindred evolved since its founding, and how are you building a new travel category focused on affordability and accessibility?

Justine Palefsky: We felt the world needed a third model in travel—a new option beyond hotels and vacation rentals, [which are] the primary choices today.

Hotels and vacation rentals simply aren’t affordable for most people. Rates are still extremely high, and flight costs have increased dramatically. It’s all very expensive, but people still want to travel. They continue to book hotels or vacation rentals, yet we found that many were disappointed with the experience.

At Kindred, we conducted studies that confirmed this. 84% of U.S. travelers who book hotels or short-term rentals reported dissatisfaction or pain points. Common complaints included places being too small, too expensive, having too many check-out tasks, or not being well-equipped. There’s this huge industry of people who want to travel but are unhappy with their options.

We wanted to create a new model for travel, one that’s more affordable, more human, and more empowering to locals rather than extractive.

The response to Kindred has been incredible. We’ve seen a real movement forming around home swapping as a third category in travel, gaining momentum because it makes aspirational travel accessible. It allows people to fit more adventures and memories into their precious time. It’s a way to travel rooted in generosity, reciprocity, and human connection rather than pure transaction, and so many people are craving that.

What I love about Kindred is that it goes beyond the transaction. Platforms like Airbnb have become transactional—they feel like just another kind of hotel. This doesn’t feel that way at all.

Members create rich household profiles in the app, sharing their interests and even introduction videos. Most connect over video chat before confirming a stay—they want to get to know each other as people. I’ve heard so many amazing stories of friendships that have formed through Kindred.

There’s something powerful about not exchanging cash. Money changes the dynamic—it turns a social contract into a financial one. When someone pays, the relationship shifts from peers to service provider and customer, and entitlement creeps in: “I’m paying $600 a night, I don’t have to take my shoes off,” or “I’ll play music as loud as I want.”

One of the beautiful things about the Kindred experience is that without a cash exchange between host and guest, it stays a pure, peer-to-peer relationship. It’s more affordable, yes, but it also protects the relationship and keeps the focus on community and connection instead of transaction or entitlement. 

Her Agenda: What has been the most surprising insight or lesson you’ve learned about travelers needs since launching Kindred?

Justine Palefsky: One of the most exciting things to see is how many more people travel when they can stretch their dollar further. It really shows that the travel industry is being artificially suppressed by high costs. When those costs are relieved, people live their lives differently.

If you can take ten trips for the price of one, what would you do? Where would you go? We see people taking trips they never would have taken, or turning what would have been a two-day business trip into a three-week stay.

People are trying out living in new cities they’ve always been curious about—and sometimes they end up moving there full-time. We recently talked with a couple who did a long home swap in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, fell in love with it, and decided to move there. There’s an immense desire to live across different cities, but we don’t fully see it reflected in the current travel market because it’s still so prohibitively expensive.

Another interesting lesson we’ve learned is that travel is the easy part—it’s easy to get someone excited about going on a great trip. Hosting is the harder part. We’ve learned a lot about what it takes to create the comfort and trust required to let someone into your real home.

Over 90% of Kindred homes are people’s primary residences—it’s where their belongings are, where they normally live. Hosting for the first time is a big leap of faith. We realized that beyond having comprehensive member protection programs—liability coverage and all the standard things, you also need to build a real human connection. Members need to feel known, and they need to know the person they’re hosting. That connection is what creates comfort for first-time hosts.

Authentic connection isn’t just valuable because it makes the experience more meaningful—it’s essential from a business perspective. It’s what brings inventory to market and helps people feel safe opening their homes.

Another surprising insight is that many members host more than they travel. You might expect people to host only when they have a specific trip planned, but a lot of members tell us they simply enjoy giving the gift of travel. Once they host for the first time, they realize how good it feels not to let their home sit empty, and to make someone else’s experience possible.

We call it the ‘generosity high.’ There’s something powerful about coming home to a handwritten note from your guest saying, ‘Thank you for making this experience possible for me and my family. We had a wonderful time in your home—hope we can host you someday.’

That feels good. Many people host because it aligns with their values—living generously, rather than from a purely transactional mindset of ‘I need to host in order to earn a trip.’

Her Agenda: How has a business like yours been able to scale? Can you share any tips? 

Justine Palefsky: It’s hard. There’s always a ladder to scaling, and it can feel like everything is breaking at once. You have to prioritize and not get too worried about the breaking because it’s part of the process. The first step for us was finding an idea that really resonated. The second was finding a team that could give us the headspace to figure out how to scale. We hired an initial team and leaned on existing technology.

There’s so much you can do now with no-code tools—and even more with AI. We stitched things together using no-code because we didn’t have an engineering team at first. We had a Zapier bot connected to an Airtable backend, used Instagram to show listings, and automated emails to make it look like a more complete product. We essentially faked it until we made it and then, step by step, replaced those scrappy systems with scalable tools.

Hiring was really hard. That’s something most entrepreneurs experience, especially early on, when you don’t yet have credibility. You’re a young company competing with many others, saying, ‘We’re going to be the next big thing—trust me.’ And it’s even harder for women.

It can be more difficult to get people to bet on your potential and to join you early. One thing Tas and I learned through our careers in tech and other male-dominated industries is that women are often evaluated on results rather than potential. That makes it harder to get started.

The silver lining is that it teaches you early to show up with results. When you’re underestimated, you have to figure out how to drive impact in spite of it, so you have something undeniable to point to. We knew we needed to reach metrics that couldn’t be ignored to attract the team or investment we needed.

It’s harder, but it makes you tougher. And ultimately, it makes you a better entrepreneur and leader. It’s definitely tough being a woman in these industries, but I think the challenges make you sharper, more resilient, and more intentional about how you lead.

Her Agenda: How do you hope Kindred’s success will inspire the next generation of female founders in travel and tech?

Justine Palefsky: I really believe we have so many problems to solve in this world, and it’s a sad state if we’re only tapping into half of the world’s entrepreneurial brilliance. We need women to want to start companies and to feel empowered to do so, to tackle the challenges ahead of us as a human race.

For me, as I mentioned earlier, it was incredibly impactful to see a female CEO excelling in a male-dominated industry, wearing a long pink skirt, walking through a construction site, and absolutely crushing it. Seeing her gave me the confidence to take that leap myself.

I think one of the most important things we can do for others is to continue to exist and persist visibly and to build companies that mean something. That visibility matters. When women who are earlier in their entrepreneurial journey see someone a few steps ahead of them, they can think, ‘Maybe this is possible for me too.’

I truly believe that everyone has different superpowers, but there are certain strengths that are more commonly represented among women and female founders. Those superpowers can make us better leaders and help us solve problems that might be harder to address with a different perspective.

A great example is Kindred. The concept of home swapping has existed for a long time, but it struggled because it didn’t feel safe. And who is more attuned to questions of physical and emotional safety than women? The empathy that comes from understanding what it takes to make an experience approachable, easy, and safe gave us a unique advantage in designing this solution.

There are countless examples like that—instances where women bring a perspective or strength that’s absolutely essential to solving complex problems in the world. My hope is that women who are considering starting a company can recognize the value of those strengths.

What you may have been told is a liability [things like] your empathy, intuition, or communication style might actually be your edge. Those qualities are not weaknesses. They can be a tremendous advantage if we learn to see them that way.

[Editor’s note: This feature has been edited for length and clarity.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Justine Palefsky was originally published on HerAgenda.com

Garima Shah is an accomplished fintech executive with over 18 years of experience driving revenue growth and reshaping the payments industry. As President and Co-Founder of Biller Genie, a cloud-based platform that automates billing and invoicing processes, she scaled the company by expanding its subscriber base and fostering a high-performing company culture. 

Before Biller Genie, she played a pivotal role in major acquisitions, including guiding Direct Connect through a management recapitalization and sale to Priority Payment Systems. She has also held leadership roles at Century Payments and eMerchantPay.

Garima is recognized in the financial technology sector with honors including NYC Fintech Women’s CEO of the Year, ETA’s 40 Under 40, Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, and Forbes’ Next 1000 list of entrepreneurs redefining the American Dream. She is also the founder of Brown Girls on a Mission, an initiative created to support women of color in business and technology, reflecting her broader influence on efforts to build a more inclusive fintech landscape.

She is a sought-after speaker who shares insights on fintech, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Garima holds a BS from Boston University and an MBA from Rollins College. A lifelong dancer, she balances her fast-paced career with performances at Orlando Magic halftime shows. In her conversation with Her Agenda, she aims to inspire others and highlight her dedication to innovation, diversity, and gender equity.

Her Agenda: Explain Biller Genie, to people who don’t know much about invoices and fintech.

Garima Shah: I’m going to explain this in different ways. Fintech just means financial technology. [Thinking] about Uber, would you have gotten into someone random’s car at the airport 15 years ago? You wouldn’t have. [It’s] technology that makes that route work, [and how] they pay the drivers is fintech. Understanding that fintech is the movement of money across every ecosystem is important. It sounds like this buzzword, but it’s pretty simple. Most companies, or a lot of the new technology companies that are out there, are actually in that fintech space. In terms of what Biller Genie is, we are a super fancy way to say accounts receivable automation. We help small businesses get paid faster. If you think about your average landscaper [or] your pool company, [they] receive all these bills all the time. It takes an average of 47 days for the average U.S. business to get paid. On the Biller Genie platform, we drop that down to eight. Of course, we’re a genie, so we’re magical. But it’s really because we do all of the other things. We handle the follow-ups, we handle the customization. 

There are three things that we do well that every business needs to do, whether you’re using Biller Genie or not. You’ve got to send out your invoices on time. You’ve got to ensure that you’re sending to the right person with the right information, and you’ve got to make it easy for customers to pay. That’s what we do at Biller Genie. We take any bills that you have, we send them out for you, we add your logo, we add your branding, we ensure that the data is accurate and built to the platforms, and we give the Amazon-like experience. I shop on Amazon, not because it’s cheaper, it’s better, but because it’s so much easier. We give that experience to a small business’s customers to make it easy for their customers to pay, which is why people pay faster. 

Her Agenda: What inspired you to go into this field?

Garima Shah: It was by accident. When I started, fintech didn’t exist. I was in sales in a company that I opened, and a Fintech company approached me, a payments company, asked me to run their sales, or outsource their sales to me. I fell in love with the idea of this ever-changing industry, where we were truly the ones behind the scenes, moving the money. I think that’s always been very exciting to me, and that’s why I’ve been in the field for about 20 years. With Biller Genie specifically, we didn’t ever go out to create a software company. Our goal was never, oh, we’re going to go build the next unicorn, we’re going to do this. [There was]  a need in the market. Businesses are going out of business every day because of a cash flow. If we can help resolve this because of our payments knowledge and where we came from, let’s go ahead and create that for small businesses. 

Her Agenda: So what are the struggles for women and minority women in STEM?

Garima Shah: It’s gotten a lot better. But when I first started in Fintech, I was the only woman, the only minority, and the youngest in every boardroom that I entered. For a long time, I thought that was hard. I didn’t love that I would hear ‘to only wear black’ and ‘don’t wear open-toed shoes.’ I’m a loud, sparkly pink personality, and I found that difficult. I think that for women, or any kind of [marginalized group], learning to own the space is what makes it so exciting, because you are probably the only one there or you may be one of the only ones. I was listening to ‘That’s Total Mom Sense,’ she had a podcast on ‘the only’ and there’s a book written about it as well. I love and use that [idea] of you’re going to meet 500 people who look a certain way… then you’re going to meet me. You’re going to remember me. I’m going to make sure that you remember me. Especially, in STEM careers in the STEM industry [asserting] that [idea] of: I do this. I’m great at it. Using that authenticity to drive you and being the only, generally makes you more memorable, generally makes you better. There is a higher bar, unfortunately, that you have to probably hit. But I think that it’s creating some evolution in our industry, and I think it’s great. 

Her Agenda: Can you tell me more about Brown Girls on a Mission?

Garima Shah: Brown Girls on a Mission is a charity I started last year. It’s a 501c3. It’s about how minority women can make an impact. How can we come together and make an impact on the world? It’s not about writing checks. The reason I started Brown Girls on a Mission is that I was on the board of a few different charities, and they’re fantastic organizations, but it always came down to the gala and selling raffle tickets, and getting silent auction items. You felt a little disconnected from the actual work that was being done. As you go to all of these different events, people are so excited about being there, dressed all fancy, and half of them don’t even know what the cause is that they’re there to support. I wanted to know if you take a group of women, and you say: ‘We’re going to do the work, we’re going to do the hard things. We’re going to go volunteer. How much does that change, and how much does that move the needle?’ That’s really the mission of Brown Girls on a Mission: to not just write a check. It is a giving circle where 100% of whatever we take in as a membership goes directly to charities. We supported over seven local charities in the past year. We’ve given over $80,000 in donations. We have served over 1,600 hours of volunteer time. That to me is probably the most exciting metric [because] we’re just giving our time, and we’re getting in there and solving problems because you can’t keep throwing money at things. You have to have smart people in a room trying to help solve problems. I don’t think that that’s happening enough, and that’s the goal. 

Her Agenda: What is the next milestone you’re trying to reach with Biller Genie and your company?

Garima Shah: We’ve crossed that elite group of less than two or three percent of startup companies that make it past five years and become profitable. That’s exciting. We doubled or tripled our revenue every single year. That will continue. We’re probably going to cross over 100 employees by next year. We’re about 75, 78 now, so it’ll probably cross over 100 employees. We’ve got some huge partnerships, a lot of AI initiatives that we’re launching in the next year. Our ultimate goal is we are going to be a unicorn that disrupts the industry within the next five years.

Her Agenda: Is there any raw advice that you have for girls out there?

Garima Shah: Be you. I always tell people to do a spot analysis, and I make my kids do this too. Do a spot analysis for yourself to understand what your zone of genius is and what your strengths are. What are you really good at? Then own that space. Know that you’re good at it, and focus on becoming the best at those things, focus on honing in and optimizing that zone of genius so that you can be the only in the room [and] be authentically you at all times.

[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Garima Shah was originally published on HerAgenda.com

As 2024 draws to a close, we can reflect on the highs and lows across our personal and professional lives. Whether you use the new calendar year to inspire big changes or continue amplifying the progress you achieved this year. We look towards HerAgenda’s Power Women as a source of inspiration coming into a prosperous 2025. 

Here are 12 motivational quotes from women at the top of their industry, along with what has helped them achieve success.

“Do not be distracted by what other people are doing or have done in the past.” 

”Things that worked back then are not working right now, so don’t let other people distract you and tell you what you should be doing and what you need to be doing. Literally, put your blinders on! Be aware of the climate but put your blinders on. You have to be confident in who you are as a person and you have to be innovative to stand out in the crowd. Don’t worry about what other people are doing. Just focus and pray and do your thing.”

– Robyn Atwater, Founder of CURLDAZE Haircare

“Women need to be aware of owning their voice.”

“It is recognizing that you have the experience, knowledge, confidence, and right to sit at the table you are at. If you are not at the table that you want to be at, you have a right to change courses and navigate getting there. As women, we sometimes become a wallflower as we are unsure if we should voice our opinions or ask for better. Women should find their voice and use it confidently because we have a lot to say and there is a lot to be said.”

– Monika Pierce, DEI Executive

“Predefine your goals.”

“Professionally, let them evolve, of course, but try to keep a sense of and be really clear on what you want to get out of a job, and what you want to get out of your personal time. I love goal setting. It’s such a powerful force for you to guide decisions [and] to help you allocate your time. That certainly comes as part of the job process, too, because you want to know what you go in for, and it may change, but then it helps you decide when it’s time to move on.”

– Noorian Khan, Senior Advisor to the President, The Ford Foundation

“Your self-worth cannot be contingent upon someone else’s judgment.”

”If it is, you will always be at the mercy of their judgment. You can do all the things, you can get all the degrees, you can make all the money, you can gain access to all of these circles but if you’re relying on those people, and those institutions and those factors to give you self worth, that can be taken away from you at any time.”

– Natasha S. Alford, VP of Digital Content for theGrio, Anchor for theGrio TV, CNN Political Analyst

“You have to really look at what it is you want out of your life and where you think you could make an impact.”

”One of the things I always wanted to do was drive value and add impact. If you have the courage to do it, you could be really happy and live the life that you want to live. But you have to be honest about your skill set and what you want to do moving forward. And then you have to put in the work, too.”

– Nadine Karp McHugh, Founder & CEO of Evolve Up

“Give Yourself Grace.”

”There’s no way that anyone can make every perfect decision, and certainly not everyone is going to be happy.”

– Christine Simmons, COO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

“You’re in the room because of who you are.”

“You don’t have to imitate anyone. Once you’re in the room, you have to embrace it and take hold of it. Always be prepared. The biggest moments in my career happened because I was ready when they came. Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready.”

– Connie Orlando, Executive Vice President of Specials, Music Programming & Music Strategy at BET Networks

“Be as transparent and as honest with your audience as possible.”

”If you are, you don’t have to doctor all these different pieces of content. If you are being honest and who you are on a daily basis, and maybe sharing pieces of that along the way, then it’s ‘as this journey unfolds,’ I get to be authentically myself and attract this audience along the way because I am just being me.”

– Deja Riley, Dancer, Trainer, & Lululemon Global Ambassador

“There’s nothing wrong with not being at the top.”

”We’re needed everywhere. Sometimes you’re called to be that person that supports the person at the top. Think about what your call is. It’s weird, I always thought of myself as supporting that person at the top, but I would always end up at the top. At the end of the day, if you choose to accept this mission or something like that, it is worth it.”

– Kelley Cornish, President and CEO of The T.D. Jakes Foundation

“Success does not come from working constantly.”

“I actually believe in the opposite. I really value work-life balance and prioritizing rest when it’s time. We live in a culture of glorifying hustle and ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead,’ quotes, but burnout is real. As a creative person, I think rest and replenishing yourself is extremely important. We are empaths so situations can affect and drain us easily. Sometimes, we are called to create on-demand and the creativity of coming up with ideas, pitches, and concepts needs to come from somewhere. If you’re never taking time to breathe, restore, live life, watch a film, go to a museum, listen to live music, get inspired, and refill your creative tank, where would you be pulling your inspiration from? Success comes from consistency, learning, and stretching yourself to take on new challenges.”

– Kara Barnett, Creative Director, Netflix Strong Black Lead

“Friendship is a very untapped source of joy.”

“As busy working professionals, we put friendship on the back burner. I tell people to put one day a week on their calendar, and pick a block of time: Thursday night dinners, Saturday morning bunches, that’s friendship time that is blocked out. Then, fill it in every week. Just fill it in. Because the reality is that if we’re not strategic about refilling our tank and being intentional about joy, it’s actually going to drain us and when we’re drained, it makes it much easier for a lot of those negative thoughts, that ‘not enoughness’ to creep in”

– Isa Watson, Tech Entrepreneur And Author

“You’ll never figure it all out.”

”I really believe that if you are so clear on what you want your path to look like, you might not have the connections yet, you might not have the financial status yet, but it will come.”

– Nikki Cameron, Director of Development at Bunim Murray Productions

This article 12 Motivational Quotes And Inspiration To Start 2025 was originally published on HerAgenda.com

Jay-Ann Lopez founded Black Girl Gamers (BGG), a community-powered business providing a safe space for Black women and non-binary individuals. Community-driven, BGG advocates for diversity and inclusion in gaming and amplifies Black women’s voices. The organization works with brands to promote equality for Black women through talent brokerage, career development, consulting, events, and content creation.

As a result of her contributions to leadership in the game industry and advocacy for Black women gamers, Jay-Ann received an Honorary Professorship at Norwich University of the Arts. She was featured in British Vogue as one of the top players changing the gaming and entertainment industry. The Institute of Digital Fashion named Jay-Ann one of the top 100 innovators of the year, and she also serves as a member and judge of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

The sought-after speaker has addressed diversity issues in gaming, entertainment, fashion, beauty, human resources, and marketing at prominent events such as E3, PAX East, Cannes Lion, EGX Rezzed, and Lesbians Who Tech & Allies Summit. In addition, Jay-Ann curates content and consults for brands such as Warner Bros., SEGA, Microsoft, Playstation, Maybelline, and YouTube. Publications like Black Enterprise, Revolt TV, BuzzFeed, Cosmopolitan, Afropunk, I-D, and Vogue have featured her work. In addition, she co-produces Gamer Girls Night In, a first-of-its-kind celebration of gaming, fashion, and beauty for women and non-binary individuals.

Her Agenda: Tell me about what Black Girl Gamers is and how it came to be.
Jay-Ann Lopez: Black Girl Gamers is a community-powered organization that specifically highlights and hopes to increase the equity of Black women in the gaming industry. It started in 2015 as a Facebook group. It came about because I was super ostracized from any other Black women who gamed around me. Most of my friends that gamed were men; some were white men, and some were exclusionary. The industry itself was very isolating and ostracizing when you’re a Black woman. So, I met some people online because I started my gaming channel, and they were Black women. I said, ‘Yo, I’m starting this Black girl gamers group. Do you want to join?’ So, they became some of the first community moderators of the group. It grew before COVID and during and is just the vocality of myself and the brand.

Her Agenda: As a community member, I have stayed in BGG because it is more inclusive than other Black-centric groups, especially in gaming.
Jay-Ann Lopez: We call out the industry for some of the issues we’re noticing when hiring Black women, Black representation in games, specifically Black women in games, and discrimination in the industry in general. Over time, we’ve grown and attracted partners, clients, and sponsors to create events to broker talent. So it can be for creating content to curate educational programs to heighten Black women’s equity in the industry and provide a kind of a pumping pipeline for Black women. So that’s what Black Girl Gamers is. We’re popular on different social media platforms. We have a community of around 10,000 people on Facebook, which is great, and we’re LGBTQIA+. We’re really trying to hone and create an intersectional Black woman and Black non-binary space that keeps gamers essentially safe. 

Her Agenda: What are some things you’re happy with regarding the [Black Girl Gamers] community?
Jay-Ann Lopez: We are currently changing up the Discord and some of the community experiences to make them better serve. One of the things I like is that people are quite forthcoming with their feedback so that we can act on it. We don’t know what we don’t know. So, we love to improve how we interact with the community year on year. One of my favorite things is watching, going, and reading through people’s introductions. Just seeing who’s who, where they come from, how they identify their experience, and seeing that this group has pulled so many different walks of life together.

When we hold our workshops, we see people attend and be invested in them. They don’t have to pay for it, and they feel they’ve got something that they can go to for their own good. It’s not like there’s a catch. We want to give you this to provide you with the skills and tools to change this industry. And they are connecting with friends. Some people have started becoming lifelong friends because of Black Girl Gamers. I like seeing those kinds of things from members.

Her Agenda: Can you explain a few types of workshops and how you can offer them for free?
Jay-Ann Lopez: They’re free because we choose them to be; we don’t charge our members. We only charge for workshop content if someone hasn’t signed up for the free workshop and misses it.

But in terms of the types of workshops we offer, we’ve just finished a workshop with Adobe Express. They provided all the attendees with a three-month subscription to Adobe Express to create their branding for their own content creations. We’ve had voice-acting, journalism, and music creation for games workshops. Our upcoming classes for the next eight weeks are in partnership with Anything World. They will teach how to create a game from scratch in Unreal. We like to touch on all the different areas of the gaming industry because we don’t want people to think that if they don’t get into coding or art, they can’t work in this industry.

We’ve also done workshops with Unity and the Meta mentorship program with people working in the augmented reality field. We want to offer and be that pipeline for Black women into the gaming industry, regardless of what kind of entry point they choose. We choose to make them free. That’s a conscious choice. 

Her Agenda: How do you pitch BGG in the industry to where you could make a difference?
Jay-Ann Lopez: It’s not easy; there’s no special formula. It’s just pitching ourselves; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The industry still provides a lot of lip service regarding what they want to do with diversity. We work with partners whose ethos is the same as ours and who want to see long-term change in the gaming industry. We also work with companies that want to enter the gaming industry and don’t want to do so in a way that furthers the status quo. But there’s still a lot of pushback and drawbacks now regarding diversity in the gaming industry. The surface-level advocacy that came about after George Floyd’s death is seemingly being pulled back. What we do is not something where we say, ‘Yes, this is how we did it, and it’s complete. We’ve figured it out.’ No, the industry’s still in that space where we must navigate.

[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Jay-Ann Lopez was originally published on HerAgenda.com

From a young age, Isa Watson had an uncanny ability to make something out of nothing. The daughter of an engineer who would buy her computer parts at age 7 instead of buying her a new computer, she got her first job at 14 years old as an organic chemistry researcher at UNC Chapel Hill. While she found the world of research interesting, she quickly realized she wanted to be closer to the impact of her work, so she switched gears and studied economics at MIT. Isa says she “accidentally” ended up on Wall Street working for JP Morgan Chase, where she led large strategic initiatives across multiple businesses in New York and Hong Kong, creating upwards of $5 billion in enterprise value for the initiatives that she led.

As someone who had received awards and accolades for her work for most of her life, Isa received a lot of validation from social media, where her achievements could be seen by anyone who followed her. The concept of creating a “personal brand” was really taking off on social media and Isa felt the pressure to keep up. 

Every year, Isa’s parents led a bus trip for students to visit Hampton University, and while she was working at JP Morgan Chase the bus ran off the road and her father did not survive. It was this tragedy, and the loneliness and grief that followed, that inspired Isa to take a step back and consider whether she’d been neglecting to create meaningful personal connections in her life outside of social media. 

Isa’s book, Life Beyond Likes: Logging Off Your Screen and Into Your Life, explores what it’s like to live an authentic life both online and in the real world. Her app, Squad,  is an audio-based social app that helps users deepen their relationship with their existing circle of close friends with a news feed of voice message updates that expire after 24 hours. 

We sat down with Isa to discuss the impact of social media on mental health, and steps to protect yourself from burnout. 

Her Agenda: What was your relationship with social media like before your father passed?

Isa Watson: I woke up one day and I remember looking at my Instagram and scrolling through it and I was like, ‘Wow, I do not recognize myself. I do not like that girl. That is not me.’

 Then I became a tech entrepreneur and [I posted my work online and got validation for that as well.]  But the reality is that when I would post about going on a  fishing trip or a ski trip for the weekend, those posts didn’t receive as much engagement. It’s like social media says we’re only going to validate a fraction of the person you are. So I found that I would minimize other components of my life and double down on what people were validating on social media. 

The second thing is something I’ve talked about in my book, ‘Life Beyond Likes’ is the validation that we get from likes. I found that I was kind of feeding that as opposed to actually just genuinely living my life. When I thought about it, it made me realize I’m doing it for things that are external to me, and that is not the person I want to be in this world. I think that my relationship with social media at that point was one that was very shallow and one that just wasn’t reflective of who I wanted it to be in the world.

Her Agenda: Once your father passed, you went through a sort of reckoning with your relationship with social media.  Walk us through your journey of figuring out how to change that. 

Isa Watson: It was a lot of stop-and-go until I could really just get to figure out what I wanted. Perhaps one of the most influential conversations I had was with my best friend from college who is a dentist in Houston and we talk every day. She said to me, ‘you know, if someone were to look at your social media, they would just assume that your life is perfect and that you have no issues.’ I was like, ‘Girl I have all the issues, what do you mean?’ And she said, ‘No, that’s what you cut out.’ If my best friend and the people closest to me thought my social media was full of sh*t, that’s when I knew I really needed to re-evaluate myself. 

During the pandemic, I actually deleted my Instagram account for two years as a way to step back. I realized I wasn’t happy on social media. The whole notion of following somebody else’s life who I don’t know so closely wasn’t making me happy. I realized I was just consuming people’s perfect highlight reels, which wasn’t making me feel good about myself. Squad happened in the middle of this. It’s been kind of a parallel growth journey that’s had lots of twists and turns and stops and starts. But I think that’s the beauty of the journey. 

Her Agenda: What was the process of launching Squad like?

Isa Watson: The first kind of iteration of Squad was always all about communities, always all about connections. The idea was initially, ‘Hey, you’re sad, you’re lonely. It’s Friday night in New York City and you’re scrolling your phone, as opposed to going out and connecting with friends.’ It was designed as an app that makes it easy for you to do things together with people in your city. More than 10,000 people in New York had that version of Squad, then Covid hit and we switched to doing virtual events with video and virtual events with just audio.

We could see the signup list for the different events, which ranged from a pottery-making session in New York all the way to a discussion on Game of Thrones, and the unique insight that we found was that our users were choosing events, by and large, with people they had already been to events with. They were more interested in deepening the relationships that they had, as opposed to going to a new event where they didn’t know anyone. 

I thought that was quite interesting because social media leads us to believe that we have a thousand friends. The human capacity for meaningful relationships is 150, but with really good friends, it’s about 10. 

With that data, we restructured Squad to be a small world, so you can have up to 12 people in your Squad. We don’t lead by saying we’re audio only, and we’ll continue to experiment and add other mediums like video, but audio is the easiest to engage people with and it’s very intimate. You can hear someone’s voice cracking when you’re talking to them. So that was the transition during Covid. 

Her Agenda: What were some of the biggest surprises or takeaways from creating Squad?

Isa Watson: Some of the surprises included just how much, in just half a generation or less, people’s habits could change dramatically. I grew up on dial-up internet like we had to ask if anyone was on the phone before we went on the internet. It was a whole different construct. One of the things that I thought was really interesting was the notion of a personal brand. When I was growing up people like Angelina Jolie or Bill Clinton had brands because they were celebrities and highly well-known, but the democratization of it kind of made many pockets of that.

So, one habit that we found was really big and powerful, was anytime someone joins a social app, the first thing that they do is get as many friends and political connections as possible because it shows the world that they’re important. What we realized was that the people who were just kind of ‘join join join join, join’ or ‘add add, add’ were actually the least active. But the people who were the most active were the people who kept it small and intimate. 

So when we changed the construct of Squad to allow only up to 12 people, it forced a hard decision immediately: Who do I want to bring in here? Our most active users on Squad have anywhere between four and seven people in their squad – they don’t even hit 12.  I think that is actually pretty insightful. People are realizing broadcasting to thousands of people is not where the connection and joy are coming from. 

Her Agenda: What challenges did you face as you were working to get support and funding for Squad from Silicon Valley?

Isa Watson: At a very high level, Silicon Valley is a super insular place, so you literally have to be ushered in by the right person. I would go into meetings and explain that I had built $5 billion worth of products, I went to MIT, etc, and they would be like, ‘Well you didn’t graduate from Harvard or Stanford’ or ‘You weren’t one of the first 10 employees at Google.’

It took about 400 meetings before I really got the right conversation in Silicon Valley and that was obviously exhausting, especially when I’m looking at my white male counterparts who went to some okay schools and who could get funding after five conversations. 

When I talked about Squad, they couldn’t wrap their heads around the fact that I was building a social tool to positively impact the lives of as many millions of people as possible. As a Black person, we always hear you have to work twice as hard for half as much. But anytime I got to an accelerator or anytime I got funding at a certain stage, I was further ahead than my peers by far, but I still wasn’t getting great terms. So there’s absolutely a lot of systemic weirdness in Silicon Valley.

Her Agenda: What advice would you give to someone who is interested in entrepreneurship?

Isa Watson: First, I would say to cultivate the village around you. I think that people over-index for trying to meet the super successful Silicon Valley dudes and trying to penetrate that, but the reality is that the village around any successful entrepreneur is actually quite broad. So my closest mentors today are some of the most senior women on Wall Street. They sometimes don’t even know what I’m talking about, but they’re smart and they’ve been through things in life so I can have real conversations with them. I think part of my getting depleted so much, and so fast, was the fact that I didn’t know how to refuel myself. I didn’t refuel my tank and I didn’t know how to cultivate some of those relationships.

The second thing is, pretty frankly, entrepreneurship takes a lot of networking, getting to know people, and people getting to know you. At this point in my journey, my reputation precedes me, but I didn’t have parents who were on the boards at Stanford and didn’t vacation in Aspen with  Bill Gates and his staff, so I had to create those connections one by one. I think it’s really important to find those tech ecosystems in whatever city you’re in and insert yourself into that. 

There was a Deloitte study this year that revealed 77% of Americans and 84% of millennials have experienced burnout in their current job. So we live in a society where running on empty is the norm, but entrepreneurs have to do that. In tech, people ask about your runway, and what they’re asking is what is your cash in the bank? But the runway that kills a company before any other is the founder runway. That is the runway that kills the companies. I’ve seen it over and over again. So if you protect your founder’s runway and understand how to refuel your tank, you have more runway to go to increase your chances of building a wildly successful company.

Her Agenda: In thinking about burnout, how can we avoid letting social media negatively affect our lives?

Isa Watson: There are a few things we can do. One is a word I love that I used to feel bad saying: boundaries. I tell people an hour into your day and an hour before you go to bed, no social media because those are our most vulnerable parts of the day. 

The second thing is the concept of refilling your tank. We have kind of morphed into this like survivalism where we are moving on “E” in perpetuity, which is not sustainable. Friendship is a very untapped source of joy, and as busy working professionals, we put friendship on the back burner. I tell people to put one day a week on their calendar, and pick a block of time: Thursday night dinners, Saturday morning bunches, that’s friendship time that is blocked out. Then, fill it in every week. Just fill it in. Because the reality is that if we’re not strategic about refilling our tank and being intentional about joy, it’s actually going to drain us and when we’re drained, it makes it much easier for a lot of those negative thoughts,  that ‘not enoughness’ to creep in. 

The last thing I’ll mention, from a tactical perspective, is to turn off the ‘like’ notifications. The ‘like’ notification is like a dopamine hit. It’s almost like a blood sugar spike. It goes up and it comes down. If we don’t get enough likes, and it’s not coming in with enough velocity, we think that person isn’t performing well. That’s dangerous. 

The ‘like’ is the most destructive invention of the modern-day internet because we tie it so much to our validation of ourselves. I actually turned off the ‘like’ notifications for all social media, and then I turned off all notifications for all social media and I’m so much happier. I just post whatever I want and I don’t care because I made a decision that whatever I post it’s because I wanted to post it. And I’m going to detach my self-worth from how many people like it and honestly not everything I post people are going to like and I’m okay with that because I’m okay with myself first because I want to validate myself first. That’s a journey people have to go on and a detachment people have to make. You cannot tie validation to likes. 

[Editor’s note: This feature has been edited for length and clarity.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Isa Watson was originally published on HerAgenda.com

Companies are restrategizing which is leading to mass layoffs across the tech industry. One often forgotten sector impacted heavily by the recent job cuts are the DEI teams responsible for pushing company diversity initiatives forward and advocating for underrepresented groups.

Research shows that DEI jobs are declining at a faster rate than non-DEI roles and this rate continues to increase with the start of the tech layoffs last year, according to research from Revelio Labs. But carrying the torch for keeping conversations around DEI at the forefront despite the current state of the field is DEI practitioner and public speaker Hady Mendez.

Hady has served as a thought leader for equality best practices; led Latinx and Women employee resource groups and volunteered in Bolivia mentoring young women. Her most recent position was at Slack a Salesforce Company, leading their Office of Equality focused on advancing belonging opportunities to create inclusive environments for underrepresented groups. Although she is no longer with them, today Hady shares her DEI expertise with her digital community and founded her speaking and facilitating business Boldly Speaking.

Hady proves DEI work is never done and the approaches we take to DEI do not have to be linear.

Her Agenda: The future of work is flexible, inclusive, and connected. What do you think most companies get wrong when it comes to inclusion and belonging?

Hady Mendez: Companies have a checklist of goals that they’re trying to achieve. I have often seen that when companies achieve those specific goals they believe the work is done. However, DEI work is never done.

I believe equality and inclusion is a journey, and there are always going to be more opportunities to include more people. There are still many underrepresented groups that are not getting the jobs that they deserve, or the promotions that they’re entitled to.

Her Agenda: How did you leverage your role as the former Director of Equality at Slack to change the narrative on workplace equality?

Hady Mendez: I focused on two areas. One around the employee resource groups (ERGs). I was responsible for bringing the ERGs together from two different companies. We called it harmonization. Throughout the process, my team also had to think through what harmonization looked like when combining two different naming conventions. We had ERGs at Slack and Equality Groups (EGs) at Salesforce. To keep workplace equality in mind we had to decide: What are we going to keep? How are we going to combine two different approaches? What are the best practices for bringing together two separate organizations that looked at quality from two different lenses?

The goal was for me to uncover where some of the unmet needs were. I mainly leveraged my role to shepherd the Slack employees toward the work that’s already being done through the Office of Equality at Salesforce. That was first and foremost, my priority.

Her Agenda: Currently we’re experiencing a very volatile job market. As an expert coach, what tips do you have for women of color who are currently in the midst of pivoting into a DEIB, or social impact-driven role?

Hady Mendez: This is very difficult work; Make sure you know what you’re stepping into. This work is not easy and can be draining at times. Be sure that you are well-equipped when walking into DEI work with your eyes wide open. There will be disappointments and difficult days. That is a major piece of advice I would give to women that are considering this area of work.

Give yourself credit not only for your lived experience but for other work that you may be doing that you can count as experience leading into DEI. A lot of people who come into this field of work, similar to me, probably never did the equality and inclusion piece before. I didn’t officially get paid to do DEI work until I took the role at Slack leading equality initiatives. However, I held leadership positions in employee resource groups, ran a reverse mentoring program at a former company, and did tons of diversity recruiting over the years. I in fact had a ton of DEIB experience, I just never got paid for it. When you are building your resume, make sure you are leveraging lived experiences that may be beneficial in the DEI role you are applying to. This is great if you do not have direct DEI expertise.

Lastly, work with a good resume writer or career coach that can tap into your past experiences as a woman of color but also through your projects. It is not the job of the interviewer or the recruiter to connect the dots, it’s your job to connect the dots, and it’s your job to tell that story.

Her Agenda: At the start of the pandemic we saw an increased budget for DEI work as a result of police brutality within marginalized communities. Given the volatility in the market, we are seeing those very same departments impacted by major cuts in budgets and job opportunities. How can employees continue to keep DEI top of mind in the midst of a financial downturn?

Hady Mendez: I still feel like a lot of that equality work is even more important now. You know, I think there’s an inclination for people to be like, I’m going to go start my own business, or ‘I’m going to switch industries and go where there’s more stability, right now, tech is not a good place to be.’ That might very well be the case. At the same time all of the work that was underway around advancing underrepresented talent and creating more opportunities for underrepresented talent to be hired and perform in key positions, is still important. The goals haven’t gone away, there are still DEI goals.

Her Agenda: In what ways are you leaning on the same community that you have dedicated your career to empowering and providing opportunities to as you navigate your own personal journey job searching? Anything you have learned in particular so far?

Hady Mendez: I do have a solid community of business associates, people that I either have worked with in the past, met online, or have interacted with by way of a professional organization. People have been quite generous, everything from reviewing my resume early on and providing me some guidance around restructuring my resume all the way to, almost on a daily basis, sending me jobs.

I have been amplifying my voice online sharing my current journey and leveraging opportunities. I had the opportunity to even be featured by Talent Acquisition Specialist, Jalonni Weaver at Slalom. During Women’s History Month Jalonni launched a LinkedIn campaign called “Women’s Jobseeker Highlight” featuring members of her social community weekly who in light of the recent layoffs are looking for their next opportunity.

Her Agenda: Anything you have learned in particular so far in your job search that can help other C-Suite level executives looking for their next job opportunity?

Hady Mendez:

1. Consider transitioning to a different industry.

2. Being open and saying yes, to whatever comes your way is very important.

3. Finding a balance from an emotional perspective. I get disappointed when I get rejection notices, however, I am hopeful and excited about finding the right company and the right role for me when that time comes.

4. Talking to my community about roles that interest me and not limiting myself to speaking to only certain types of people about job opportunities has made my universe exponentially bigger.

Her Agenda: In a recent Forbes article, statistics showed that women comprise 28.8% of the US tech force, but only 2% of those roles are filled by Latina women. As a Latina leader with over 30 years of work experience. How are you bringing awareness to this statistic?

Hady Mendez: It is a bit alarming. When I hear that my first thought is ‘Wow,’ it’s shocking. I partner with organizations working towards dismantling the system that allows this to happen. Volunteering with organizations like Latinas in Tech reminds me that there are many of us out here. They are talented and accomplish so much to change this narrative. I serve as a mentor. This mentorship program is an example of how I help to guide the next generation of leaders in the corporate world. Finding ways to connect with organizations that are already trying to dismantle what’s in place, while spotlighting the work of Latina women in the tech space is a must.

Latinas in Tech ran a fun campaign in partnership with Korbel called Luminarias spotlighting 30 women from a variety of different industries. I happened to be one of those women, and let me tell you, it was awe-inspiring to reflect and see myself featured.

I partner with organizations working towards dismantling the system that allows this to happen.

Hady Mendez

Her Agenda: What is something that you live by that inspires you to continue doing the work that is DEI?

Hady Mendez: I will not say I have one thing, in particular, I live by as I have many. The one that I read most recently that spoke to me, said ‘keep shining.’ It was so simple yet so beautiful at the same time. Oftentimes we miss the opportunity to shine our light. This reminder motivates me because sometimes, workdays can be challenging, hard, and a little bit draining. I have a lot that I want to do and accomplish. There are a lot of people that are counting on me to do the work. So it’s not just for me I need to keep shining for my community to make their lives easier and to ensure people are getting the opportunities they deserve. That’s the Latin X community, but it’s definitely the women of color community and underrepresented groups in general.

[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Hady Mendez was originally published on HerAgenda.com

The name Kara Barnett should be synonymous with WiFi. We know WiFi exists, we know it’s important, and we know that it is integral to the digital world, but its obscure nature contributes to its innovative precision. That is how we would describe Kara’s presence in the industry and quite frankly that’s how Kara likes it. Understanding that her genius-level intellectual property is on the verge of altering Black content as we know it, Kara has no intention of being “on” for your entertainment. Rather, Kara remains an unapologetic yet private figure who leads the creative direction of one of the biggest platforms in the world – Netflix’s Strong Black Lead.

Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Kara eventually immigrated to the United States where she attended Delaware State University, an HBCU that contributed to her unassailable Black pride. Not too long after graduating, Kara took an unsuspecting leap that changed the trajectory of her career. Within a week’s time, she relocated to Los Angeles accepting the role of Assistant Cast Coordinator, on Season 8 ‘America’s Next Top Model.’ Now with a resume that holds over 15 years of experience in the media landscape, Kara uses her sharp, cultural insight as a north star to create meaningful content.

Her Agenda had the honor of catching up with Kara about her multi-step creative process, the importance of her 30s, and rejecting the notion of grind culture.

Her Agenda: You are originally from Trinidad and grew up on a more relaxed island. Being in L.A, where many are willing to conform, how do you retain your values and sense of culture in this environment?

Kara Barnett: I wouldn’t say that everyone in L.A. is willing to conform. It’s actually the opposite when I think about the people I associate myself with and work with. I surround myself with people of integrity and character. As for how I retain my values and sense of culture being far from home, it’s not too deep beyond having a strong sense of self that I carry throughout all of my work. My sense of self and values are not rooted in any particular environment that I’m in. I show up as a person of integrity and respect. In L.A., I’m much closer to my family, some who live in Northern California, and local friends who share similar cultural nuances.

Her Agenda: I watch your Instagram stories every day and notice that you are constantly on the go. Sometimes you even work 15+ hour days. Do you think that constantly working is necessary to be successful in entertainment?

Kara Barnett: Life is pretty hectic at times for sure, but no, success does not come from working constantly. I actually believe in the opposite. I really value work-life balance and prioritizing rest when it’s time. We live in a culture of glorifying hustle and ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead,’ quotes, but burnout is real. As a creative person, I think rest and replenishing yourself is extremely important. We are empaths so situations can affect and drain us easily. Sometimes, we are called to create on-demand and the creativity of coming up with ideas, pitches, and concepts needs to come from somewhere. If you’re never taking time to breathe, restore, live life, watch a film, go to a museum, listen to live music, get inspired, and refill your creative tank, where would you be pulling your inspiration from? Success comes from consistency, learning, and stretching yourself to take on new challenges.

Her Agenda: Your resume is impressive! You have worked everywhere from Netflix, BET, America’s Next Top Model, and the list goes on. Is there a special memory from any era in your career that you felt completely changed the trajectory of it?

Kara Barnett: When I look back, there have been many moments that changed the trajectory of my career and I didn’t know it. One is moving to L.A. to work on America’s Next Top Model in a week’s notice.

And, to give a more current example, 2020 was a crucial year for all of us for obvious reasons. In the early fall of 2020, I was preparing to give my TEDx talk. I was finishing a documentary project called High Risk with some creative friends of mine about the racial bias in the birthing experience. I was also producing a breast cancer awareness campaign for BET, which is where I worked at the time. And, then, Netflix reached out to me for a meeting. It all happened within about 4 weeks, like the same month that I was balancing all of these projects. I just remember being extremely busy, every day, from September to December. It was pretty much a grind every day, but surprisingly I wasn’t feeling overwhelmed. After the year that 2020 was for all of us, I was just in a state of constant gratitude for my blessings. And, as a creative, I was creating content that mattered to me. Everything that I was working on resonated deeply with me and I felt very purposeful and driven in that space. Exclusively creating content that resonated deeply with others and creating conversations that matter allowed me to use my creativity as my north star.

Her Agenda: You are currently a Creative Director at Netflix’s Strong Black Lead, and I just watched the new project you worked on, Get You A Me. What does life look like during each stage of the creative process; from conceptualizing an idea, being on set for it, then putting it out into the world?

Kara Barnett: It’s basically being able to balance two views at once; seeing things at a macro and micro level. It’s the concept and the details. Once I got the idea into a concept deck, I had meetings to find the production team that I wanted to work with. Once the team is chosen, we meet to discuss, dissect, share, and look at it from all angles to ensure that we are crafting something that can be relatable.

Then, for weeks, there are a lot of touchpoint meetings to make sure we are aligned creatively, logistically, etc. On set, I’m there as the creative director to see the vision come to life but also in the interest of the brand to ensure that we stay aligned with tone and messaging. At that point, we’ve had so many meetings on the look, tone, voice, and color palette and I trust my team.

While I’m on set, I make sure that the vision goes from the deck to life, but you also want to stay flexible. In most cases, pivots make the content even better. Once it’s in the can, we develop our post-process and timeline, and I always make time to watch every cut. I do my best to look from different angles and make sure I know how it will be received from different sides. I also collaborate with a lot of cross-functional department partners and ask for their feedback on episodes.

As a creative, I definitely trust my instinct, but a big part of being a leader is knowing that you don’t know everything. You have to open yourself up to critique and other perspectives. From the episode to the smallest social clips decision, I oversee social strategy and work with the social team to have a robust and impactful delivery that people will enjoy.

Her Agenda: I watched your TEDx talk, “Why We Talk Ourselves Out of the Room” and learned so much from it. But, I found it interesting that you have accomplished so much yet still experience feelings of self-doubt. Why is that?

Kara Barnett: I can admit that I still experience moments of thinking, ‘Am I ready to be the lead on this project?’ Acknowledge that these moments happen and know that these thoughts can spring up, but knowing how to combat them is key. Not saying that you have to welcome these thoughts in, but recognize them.

The reason why I still have these moments is because I know that I never shy away from the discomfort of a challenge. I love and am empowered by taking big swings and thinking outside the box in my day to day. I am a creative person who will always have an idea that I want to try. You tell me that we have the ability to do something, I’m going to go for it. My drive will always keep me laser-focused on the goal and I’m climbing higher towards it, but every so often, my eyes will look down and I’ll think ‘How did I get this high? What am I doing?’ It can happen when outside voices get loud or when you’re distracted, but the key is to remember that you are only getting scared because you are doing something new. Always remember that you wouldn’t be this high up if you didn’t know how to climb.

Her Agenda: I recently listened to you on Mentors on the Mic, and heard you say that you are introverted and very private. Being in the entertainment industry, and even being a creative, people say that if you want to go far, you need to always be “on.” What’s your perspective on that?

Kara Barnett: I personally choose to be private and can only speak for myself. My job particularly does not revolve around me having a public persona and I can be creative without being known. I choose not to be ‘on’ all the time. I choose to keep certain parts of my life private. I’m always ‘on’ in the sense that my mind is constantly coming up with ideas. Sometimes, I’ll scroll through Instagram and come up with an idea and write it on my notes app. Ideas pop up at any mom

Her Agenda: Though times are changing, there is still a stigma around career-oriented women in their 30s. Can you speak about how your thirties changed you?

Kara Barnett: I won’t speak to expectations and stigmas because everyone is different. My 30s gave me the gift of reinvention. A lot of people don’t know that I worked in traditional TV for a long time as a producer on unscripted docuseries and was able to rise the ranks pretty well. It wasn’t until 2017, that I decided to make the shift and pursue a new career in the digital/social space. It was very humbling to go from leading an entire team to being the new kid who didn’t know the basics. I took a step back title-wise, had to ask for help, and got so many things wrong. I never gave up, worked hard and eventually got those things right. My thirties really taught me the power and gift of reinvention and not limiting yourself based on past successes. There’s always more to learn!

[EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN EDITED FOR LENGTH AND CLARITY.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Kara Barnett was originally published on HerAgenda.com

Deja Riley is a motivational force. As the daughter of famed music producer Teddy Riley, Deja has spent a lifetime being surrounded by music. Now, she is forging her own success by combining the things she loves most – dance and fitness. During Deja’s career in dance, she has performed for the biggest names in entertainment such as Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Trey Songz, and Beyoncé. Although her decade-long career appeared to be a dream job, Deja made the brave choice to walk away. 

By transitioning out of the dance world, Deja was able to finally focus on what made her happy – empowering others. Deja is a sought-after partner representing brands such as Lululemon, MIRROR, and more. She hosts her own YouTube channel where viewers can follow her newly developed workout method, DANCE OUT OF THE BOX – a workout that combines shadowboxing and dance in a music-driven cardio workout, making you smile while you sweat (it truly does). Her journey to inspire has without a doubt, only just begun. 

Her Agenda: How old were you when you first started dancing? 

Deja Riley: My parents will tell you that I started dancing the moment that I could walk. I’m from a musical family, my dad is a music producer and we were always playing music around the house. Wherever he was, there was always music playing and I was always moving. Even before I could walk I was finding the rhythm of the music. My parents put me in dance lessons at the age of three, and I started training in pretty much anything you could think of: ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical, hip hop. I started to add on more styles as I grew in the art form. Then at the age of 19, I moved out to L.A. and started my professional career.

I had almost a decade-long career in the dance industry. Dancing for artists like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, J.Lo, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, the list goes on. I had the pleasure of assisting and getting my start in the industry with an amazing choreographer by the name of  Laurieann Gibson. I studied under her and she basically taught me everything that I needed to know about the industry before diving headfirst into it. She also gave me my first opportunity to dance on stage with a celebrity artist, which was Lady Gaga on Dancing With the Stars. That performance sent me soaring into an incredible career where I got to work with so many amazing dancers, choreographers, artists and really got to fulfill my dreams.

Her Agenda: What made you want to transition from the dance/entertainment industry to the fitness industry? 

Deja Riley: I remember the exact moment where I decided I wasn’t pursuing a career in dance anymore. I was at the Super Bowl and about to dance with one of the biggest artists in the world, Beyoncé. I was extremely excited to be there and grateful to be there, but I couldn’t ignore what I was feeling internally. I was feeling so small, so insignificant. In my mind, I had the feeling like I wasn’t enough, and I wasn’t worthy of being there. I actually noticed this way later through lots and lots of therapy sessions. Later, I realized that a lot of that came from this pattern and the cyclical pattern of rejection.

I was told so many times that I’m replaceable, I’m not enough or I need to change my hair, my clothes, the way I’m moving. I didn’t have the capacity to celebrate myself. I knew something was just wrong with that. So then, I decided that that was going to be my last major performance and I was going to transition out of the dance industry. 

Her Agenda: Tell me more about “Dance Out of the Box.” What were the motivations to create this workout? 

Deja Riley: When I created “Dance Out of the Box,” it came from me wanting to do something that blended all of the things that I love. Boxing had become my newest passion, dancing was still a passion of mine, and I wanted to find a way to really move again. I blended the two together and they just made the perfect marriage. Boxing is so similar to dance in the way that you feel like it’s choreography or dancing around the ring.

I found the correlation between the two [dance and boxing], which inspired me to create Dance Out of the Box. Working in the dance world left me wanting more and I didn’t feel completely fulfilled. So when I created this, I knew there had to be a way to make it all work together. People always ask me how I was able to pick up boxing so quickly. I always thought that boxing felt like choreography. After a decade in dance, it was much easier for me to pick it up. I wanted to make it accessible. I wanted to show people boxing, and dancing doesn’t have to be intimidating. I wanted people to feel accomplished, inspired, and motivated. Then it all clicked for me. Taking boxing and taking dance and making it something that was digestible for the average person birthed Dance Out of the Box. 

Her Agenda: What were some of the steps you took to form global partnerships with Lululemon and MIRROR? 

Deja Riley: Honestly, it was all about working on myself. I know that it may sound redundant, but self-care is important. It’s something that we keep hearing right now, especially in today’s world and the state that it’s in. But self-care is the key to everything that you want in life. Everything from attracting what you want in life, to representing your best self anywhere that you are. I think when I started really going deeper and really listening to my body and my inner voice and finding inner peace, that’s what led me to a path of success. I tell people all the time that everything happens when it’s meant to be, and everything happens for a reason. 

I had worked with Lululemon a few times before in a much lighter capacity, so I already knew that I absolutely loved the brand. I love the clothes, the initiatives that they were taking in the community, and connecting with people. 

Lululemon approached me about becoming an ambassador at the end of 2020 and a trainer for the Mirror. The process was seamless because I knew what I wanted from the relationship and I was able to communicate that mainly because I had done the self-work. I knew what I brought to the table and I wasn’t willing to settle. That set the tone for our relationship and what I contribute to it. For me, that is the most beautiful part of it; I was working on myself, and then I attracted that. This is my advice to anyone who is reading this article, focus on you, and really pour into you. Everything else will gently fall into place.

Her Agenda: What did you do personally to practice self-care?

Deja Riley: It takes a lot of trial and error. I have done everything from sound healing, meditation, to acupuncture and massage, to nature walks. I think that you just have to find what resonates with you and what fills you up. I noticed that for me, I did very well when I set the tone in my morning. So I created this thing called the Deja Daily. It’s a list of things that I do as soon as I wake up before I pour into anybody else. 

I start off with meditation. When I open my eyes, I don’t grab my phone and go into social media and start receiving all these different energies. First, I go into meditation. The next thing that I do is I read and have quiet time with myself, and I usually do a little bit of journaling in the morning. I tend to listen to really soft mood music, sometimes jazz or R&B, and set the feeling for my day. 

As you know, I’ve told you already that I’m a mover. So as soon as I’m hearing that music, I kind of trickle out of my reading and journaling, and I move. Then, I fuel my body. I eat something or make a smoothie, and I’m set for the day. I can roll into my routine. I can do all of this in under 30 minutes to an hour, but I make it a priority to get these things done before I go out into the world and I deliver my energy or pour it into others. It’s so essential that I take that time to pour into me.

Her Agenda: What advice do you have for entrepreneurs and companies that are building brand ambassador or affiliate programs?

Deja Riley: I always say be as transparent and as honest with your audience as possible. If you are, you don’t have to doctor all these different pieces of content. If you are being honest and who you are on a daily basis, and maybe sharing pieces of that along the way, then it’s ‘as this journey unfolds,’ I get to be authentically myself and attract this audience along the way because I am just being me. 

Before I am an ambassador for anything, I have to try it first. That is how I am authentic with my community and honest with them. Then I also do my research: Who is this company owned by? What do they truly stand for? What is their mission? How do they reach out to the community or connect with the community? What are they doing to better society? I also asked myself, do I align with the brand’s values? I never try to sell or promote something that I don’t believe in, and my audience knows that. That’s why they trust me.

Her Agenda: What are your goals as an IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Action) representative? 

Deja Riley: I absolutely love being on the ambassador advisory board as an IDEA representative. I think it is one of the most innovative initiatives that Lululemon has put forward. I definitely want to encourage change, that’s a given. But I’ve also discovered how much I enjoy learning, and how much I have to say through my own lived experience. I have a lot to teach. 

I’m also really blessed that the other IDEA members and [advisory board] members are so diverse and they also have so much to teach. 

Her Agenda: What is your favorite part about being in the fitness industry?

Deja Riley: Honestly, I love that I get to sweat for a living. I think it’s incredible to be able to say, ‘that’s my career, that is what I get to do on a daily basis.’ But also, the amount of lives I get to change is unreal, and it’s not always in the physical sense. Some of the lessons I teach in a workout class [include] perseverance and self-love have been some of the cornerstones to my audience. They’re making changes in the way that they look at themselves, their career path, and how they show up for themselves in every aspect of their life. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. The ability to inspire and motivate is a gift. I have a dream job because it doesn’t ever feel like work and that is awesome.

Her Agenda: What is your vision for the fitness industry as it relates to diversity and inclusion?

Deja Riley: In today’s time, the fitness industry truly needs to be flipped on its head. I think we can all agree that the way it operates right now isn’t working, or the way that it has operated in the past, isn’t working. The main focus is on race, but my vision is that everyone will have access and feel welcomed into the fitness and wellness space, regardless of race, income, and ability. It will not be seen as a luxury but as a right. 

I always tell people fitness and wellness is not a “one size fits all” format. It looks different everywhere you go, and with everyone that you meet. I’m looking forward to seeing a world in which we don’t judge one another or how we interpret our wellness journey. It is very important for each and every one of us to feel safe stepping into a health and wellness space. I am looking forward to being one of the pioneers that pushes that narrative forward.

Her Agenda: What’s your motto?

Deja Riley: Tattooed on my right hand is, “decide, commit, succeed.” It has been the words I live by.

[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Deja Riley was originally published on HerAgenda.com

Don’t believe what they say—you can start over and win again. You can reimagine your eternal footprint and choose to rebuild. It’s allowed, and most times, it works out. Just ask Necole Kane. The media maven launched the uber-successful Necole Bitchie brand at age 28, in the early days of celebrity blogging, and went on to dominate the space by way of unconventional marketing. She built a brand of integrity—an uncommon find—leading to exclusive interviews, name drops in television scripts, and Necole Bitchie becoming a household name. 

In 2014, after announcing that she would be dismantling the brand that she’d built for seven years, some wondered what her next steps would look like and how she’d get there. Most, though, questioned why someone would walk away from a career that, by all intents and purposes, is thriving. For Necole, success came with a burden that, over time, diminished her love for media. She chose to separate from and rebuild a platform that aligned with her values and allowed her existing audience to grow together. Five years later, xoNecole has grown to be a sounding board for sisterhood and vulnerability, bringing together hundreds of thousands of women daily. The lifestyle brand was acquired by Will Packer Media in 2018, with plans to expand into television, film, and in-person events, turning xoNecole into a diverse digital-media platform.

Necole spoke to Her Agenda about her journey from pop culture blogging to xoNecole, walking away from success, and more.

[Editor’s note: This interview was originally published 9/28/2020.]

Her Agenda: I remember in 2013, after the passing of Lee Thompson Young, you wrote a post on Necole Bitchie (NB) explaining that you were going to scale back from covering stories surrounding death and overall sadness because of the toll it was taking on your mental health. Fast forward 7 years later, you have a successful platform centered around sharing positive stories and celebrating sisterhood.

Necole Kane: A lot of people don’t know, but I started Necole Bitchie the year that I turned 28. I like to call myself a late bloomer in terms of success because people were looking at where I was in life when I gained popularity and thought I was in my early twenties. They would compare where they were in life—or where they weren’t—to me and feel like they weren’t doing enough when I slept on couches for most of my twenties. By the time the site started popping, I was almost 30.

I slept on couches for most of my twenties. By the time the site started popping, I was almost 30.

You start transitioning into a new person between the ages of around 28 to 32. There’s something called Saturn return, where your whole world shifts, and the things that you thought that you wanted out of life, changes. You’re becoming more self-aware as a person, and I think that’s what happened to me. I thought I loved reporting on celebrity news and blogging, but when I crossed over into my thirties, I started wanting to chase purpose and intention. I started thinking more about my legacy, self-care, and my mental health. That’s when I knew I was going to have to shift my brand to become the person I always wanted to be. I don’t particularly remember that post, [but] that was me being more self-aware and realizing what I needed, and the changes I needed to implement to live a positive and joy-filled life.

I had such chronic deep-seated depression for many years of running that site. I wasn’t aware that it had a lot to do with the negativity I was in taking every day. When you add the Black men that were being killed, we felt like we had a responsibility to give you guys all the facts. We’re reading the news at a deeper level than the average person because you have to dig for the facts. It wasn’t until I went to a therapist was told that I had secondhand PTSD that I was like, “okay, I have to find a new career path because I can’t do this anymore.” My biggest thing is to measure what something will cost me. If it costs me my peace, it’s too expensive.

Her Agenda: There’s a Toni Morrison interview where she says that Chloe Wofford is who she is, and Toni Morrison is the writer who does interviews and documentaries. You’ve mentioned the disconnect you felt from NB and Necole Kane—having to ‘suit up’ to attend events and other things. Are you able to just Be Necole Kane these days?

Necole Kane: I feel like I’m just able to be. I now run a brand that’s reflective of who I am as a person. Before when people would ask me what I did for a living, I would pause and be embarrassed to tell them that I was a gossip blogger. I felt like I was going to be judged or they would look at me as a bad person. I felt like, if you’re so embarrassed about what you do, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. If you’re not proud of what you spend your life doing, you shouldn’t be doing it.

Her Agenda: When you allow yourself to Be, things that are aligned with your purpose will come. I think of that in terms of Tabitha Brown, who has gained popularity simply because of who she is, and is getting so many opportunities to her front door as a result. 

Necole Kane: I saw her telling her story on Instagram Live. When she was trying to be an actress, she tried to change her hair and hide her accent. They said that she would never get jobs with her heavy southern accent, and now she’s able to wear her hair the way she wants, and her southern charm is a part of her appeal.

I started thinking more about my legacy, self-care, and my mental health. That’s when I knew I was going to have to shift my brand to become the person I always wanted to be.

Her Agenda: You’ve now founded two successful new media spaces. One when blogging was fairly new, and the second after it had gained popularity and established itself as a respected media. How were those experiences different?

Necole Kane: The experience was different for me personally because when I look at some of the marketing tactics and things that I did to grow Necole Bitchie, the person I am today would never. Even though I started late, I was very naïve. Sometimes you have to be naïve to chase your dream because when you’re naïve, you don’t think of all the ways you can fail or what people will say. I had one alter ego shoot that played off of rumors between Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Rihanna; there was me dressed up as Amber Rose and Nicki Minaj. I would never do that today. Anytime I had an idea, I would go for it. Every dollar I made, I invested back in the brand. I had no idea about sponsorships or advertising, so I paid for every award show that I, or my team, covered.

Building xoNecole was difficult because my biggest competitor was my old self. We were going to do relationship, wellness, and self-care, and people told me it wouldn’t work because I was a gossip blogger trying to be empowering. To constantly be compared to the old you was stifling to me. I went from living with depression in my Necole Bitchie days to living with anxiety for xoNecole from wondering what people would say. I was so much more aware of the noise on the internet and what people were saying about my transition because the way I chose to exit made such a big splash.

I failed a million times when I was trying to launch Necole Bitchie, but nobody cared. Trying to launch something else when you have already dominated a lane is difficult. Once you have that success, you feel guilty for not wanting to continue. Who am I to walk away from this when I came from nothing? I didn’t realize the magnitude of it then, but I do now. Taking the risk of going broke and back to sleeping on couches was probably one of the most monumental things I probably have done, and will ever do, in my lifetime.

Her Agenda: What do you miss about the early days of blog culture in comparison to now?

Necole Kane: I miss celebrities giving exclusives to bloggers or news outlets, or doing cover stories for magazines. I couldn’t wait until the new magazines dropped to read a cover story with Rihanna or Beyoncé. Now, celebs don’t need the media to get their word out or to craft their story. They have social media with direct access to fans, so quality exclusives have gone down.

Her Agenda: When I think of xoNecole, and even NB, I think of sisterhood. How important was sisterhood and representation in your upbringing and road to entrepreneurship?

Necole Kane: The xoNecole member community has about 1500 women. The sisterhood within that community is just phenomenal. Someone recently had surgery, and I text her to see how the surgery went.

I launched the member community because I had all of these followers across social media, but I didn’t know anything about them. I’m in this community atmosphere and sisterhood now where, when I see someone’s name I know that she lives in Florida or California because we’re connecting on a deeper level than what’s possible on social media. Right now, where I am in my life, sisterhood is super important, but I didn’t know the concept of sisterhood outside of my real family until I created a site like xoNecole.

Her Agenda: What xoNecole does really well, especially in this climate, is balancing web and social media. Lots of blogs are only able to occupy one space…the value of the content doesn’t translate well from one to the other.

Necole Kane: When I go to a website and they’ve hooked me with a title, the post better be good. I remember when I left Necole Bitchie, I took a detox from the internet for a while, but when I got back into it, I would have to go to so many different websites to find the information. That’s why Necole Bitchie became so popular. We didn’t half-ass stories for our readers. It may have come out later than everyone else, but we were going to find out everything you needed to know.

With xoNecole, I felt like if we were going to have a website, it should be informative and add value. We approach stories by asking what we would like readers to take away from them and how we can inspire them.

Her Agenda: Let’s swerve to your team’s involvement in day-to-day operations and the overall success of your business.

Necole Kane: My managing editor and social media manager were with me when I had nothing. They were with me when I ran out of money to put resources into my site. Writers bailed because I couldn’t pay them, and they stuck it out with me. Our managing editor was our sex writer. I found her from a personal blog post and now, she’s the managing editor for xoNecole with no experience. We have a very young and inexperienced team but they’re so passionate about the brand, audience, and work in general. That’s why we’ve been able to be successful.

Her Agenda: How do you deal with being stagnant? Getting through the wilderness and coming out on the other side.

Necole Kane: I’ve had a passion for media for a long time, but I could see it fading as years went by. I look back on my grandparents and think of them staying in one career their entire lives. I couldn’t imagine that because I become a new person every second. Give yourself permission to fall in and out of love with what you thought was your passion. I believe that people are going to know me for four or five brands by the time I’m 60 because I’m always evolving. Even in my next venture, and my next one, I’m giving myself permission to fail. You have to find your voice and stride.

[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Photographer credits: Tailiah Breon, Derek Blanks, J Patrick Photography, Soraya Joseph. Graphics: Miguel Puello.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Necole Kane was originally published on HerAgenda.com

If you took a look into Taylor Lorenz’ DMs, you might find a good mix of crazy internet trends, pitches from PR folks, and the occasional wacko. For Lorenz, the internet is her playground. No matter what she is writing or researching, everything is shaped by internet culture, a topic she covers for The New York Times. Before her role as a Times reporter, Lorenz was (and is) known for being an online creator and avid social media user in addition to reporting roles at The Atlantic and The Daily Beast. 

The self-described workaholic is more comfortable online than off, both personally and professionally. Lorenz spoke with Her Agenda via phone and offered advice for up-and-coming journalists, shared her hobbies, and the story behind her personal motto.  

Her Agenda: From your point of view, how would you define internet culture?

Taylor Lorenz: Itʼs one of those things that different writers would describe differently. The way I describe [internet culture] is how technology is impacting our lives. It’s how our social life and culture are shaped by technology or tech platforms. That’s how I think of it broadly. 

Her Agenda: Is social media synonymous with internet culture? Are the terms interchangeable? 

Taylor Lorenz: Yes. Iʼm really obsessed with all forms of communication and technology. I donʼt cover specific companies. I cover the way the internet and different platforms affect the way we communicate and connect. For instance, I normally don’t cover Zoom but I started covering it more last year. I’m platform agnostic in my reporting. Itʼs really about finding the ways technology is facilitating communication at scale and how that affects our lives. Because most communication technologies are social media, I write a lot about social media.

Her Agenda: What advice do you have for those interested in journalism in this age (versus pre-Internet)? 

Taylor Lorenz: I came of age in the late 2000s, so we had the internet but everything was so much smaller. Now, everything is saturated. Now, it’s hard to break into the industry. Start writing as much as you can or produce a podcast. The barrier for creating content is very low, which is really good. I had Tumblr because no one would accept my pitches. Now, I would say young journalists can start a newsletter, podcast, streaming; that will help you develop sources in a specific subject area. It will help you get on the radar of editors so that they know you for specific leads. The other thing is don’t be afraid to take a job in marketing or in a newsroom that’s not a writing job. I was a temp for most of my years after college, working retail, administrative, receptionist, [those jobs] that didn’t set me back. Thereʼs a lot of people like that [in the industry]. I feel like a lot of young people feel pressure. I know it’s a competitive market but you donʼt have to get into journalism right away. You can take your time and build up your clips and do other jobs.

Her Agenda: Since you have a large following, what’s it like to have a large internet following? How do you keep yourself safe?

Taylor Lorenz: Iʼve always had an internet following. The reason I got into journalism was from my following I developed on Tumblr. I was on Instagram early, developing a following there. I’ve always been on platforms putting content out and experimenting. I’ve always had a following [prior to working at the Times] but thereʼs so much animosity toward the media, itʼs been hard to deal with. The past year and a half has been insane. Itʼs a little bit weird because Iʼve had notoriety online with my Snapchat show, etc. Iʼve been writing about this scene and working in this area for over 10 years. For the majority of my career, I wasnʼt working for a brand name outlet. Because I wasnʼt working for a brand name outlet, people didnʼt care. Now that I work for a brand-name outlet, people can be so cruel. Thatʼs been the most challenging. 

Itʼs not my followers, they are great. I love people that follow me. I follow them back on so many platforms because I really like meeting people and connecting with people. I like to feel as if I have a community online that cares about the stuff I care about. The attention that comes with a brand-name publication is whatʼs bad. I’ve worked for pretty random places or done my own creative internet projects. Since I work for a brand name publication that gets taken away from me a little bit but I’m so grateful. I never had the goal to work at the Times [but] I’m really honored and I love working at the Times. 

Her Agenda: If you had 24 hours that did not have anything to do with the internet, what would you do?

Taylor Lorenz : My main hobby, per se, is that I love watching horror movies. I definitely watch three to four horror movies a week. I’ve seen every American horror movie ever made. It’s always a challenge for friends and family to find a new movie. I love horror; If I didn’t work in media, I would want to work in the horror movie genre. That’s my main hobby and birdwatching. 

Her Agenda: Are there any books or other material that you like to enjoy?

Taylor Lorenz: I listen to a lot of podcasts. I like finding random podcasts. Obviously, I listen to The New York Times, The Daily, every morning. Whatever comes up on my recommended list, especially the pop culture ones. 

What’s the story behind your personal motto?

Taylor Lorenz: My grade school teacher had a poster in her classroom that read, ‘If you can believe it, you can achieve it.’ It’s the corniest thing ever but I internalized that so much when I was younger. I was very artistic and did a lot of music. I always thought I was going to be an artist or interior designer growing up. I really liked that motto because every time I feel like I can’t do something I think about it. I always found it aspirational. I think about that poster a lot. I struggled in school a lot. I have learning disabilities. Being in that class, I felt very empowered.

[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Taylor Lorenz was originally published on HerAgenda.com

In her current role of Head of Global Commerce at Verizon Media Group, Andrea Wasserman is working with her team to build a new set of commerce businesses for Verizon. Whether that’s launching media and commerce verticals to help Generation Z and Millennials shop, or finding ways to integrate video into these platforms, Andrea is constantly generating fresh ideas of driving the business forward all the while keeping the consumer informed and engaged.

No stranger to the retail industry, Andrea got her start working at the mall as a teen and has gone on to serve various positions in retail management including Director, Vice President, and Senior Vice President of various businesses including Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, and Nine West Group among others. Her successful leadership and project management ability has led to the development of mobile apps, retail pop-up experiences, online media platforms, and a bevy of other innovative ideas that have allowed retailers to scale their business and their consumer reach.

As a former contributor to Forbes’ retail vertical, Andrea often shared her business gems and insight to the masses. Andrea spoke with us about her agenda in her current role and her vision in this ever-evolving landscape in the retail industry. 

Her Agenda: What is your outlook on the current retail climate given the impact of COVID-19 and also the impact of cultural values shifting across the country and globe?

Andrea Wasserman: I think what we saw in 2020, and continue to see in 2021, is that there are more opportunities than ever for commerce growth online. People are shopping in new ways. Companies are providing new experiences, and the offers and value propositions are just getting better and better. As we move through 2021, I see exciting brick and mortar retail making a strong comeback, as consumers are excited to get back to those experiences and connect with brands in ways that will feel new again.

Her Agenda: In your career you’ve had success in ownership of P&L’s. Any insight on how businesses can better manage their P&L statement?

Andrea Wasserman: I think not looking at the business in silos. It’s important to think about it as one business. That can mean thinking differently about where corporate breakdowns lie. It can mean rethinking whether ecommerce and store P&L should really be separate. I say that both of those things are important. I think that when managing a P&L, it’s important to get a view of it that is digestible for a broad team of people to understand. Everybody has a different aptitude for looking at numbers, and people who are interested primarily in their one slice of the business but want to start learning about the business overall should be able to get a snapshot of the P&L in a way that that feels accessible to them so that they feel attached to the results as well. 

Her Agenda: What are some exciting goals or projects you have coming up in your role at the moment?

Andrea Wasserman: Recently our In The Know platform launched a couple of exciting new businesses. In The Know is a Top 25 U.S lifestyle property, with 20 million visits per month. It’s a large and growing platform, it just won a best digital video platform award from Digiday. We also recently launched new verticals attached to In The Know that focus on parenting for Gen Z and millennials, and then also on cooking. [The verticals] look terrific so I’m really excited about that. We also started a shoppable video mini-series, and these are videos that our editors are doing. Again, they might be about parenting, they might be about cooking, and maybe about fashion. A cool feature is that right alongside the video, you can actually shop the products right away that are featured.

Her Agenda: So many exciting projects launching and in the works. How do you generate fresh ideas and maintain creativity in your role?

Andrea Wasserman: In terms of new ideas, I think that they can come from anywhere. I always ask people I meet with around the organization, not just ones who directly report to me what do you think that we need here? What do you think that we’re missing? What ideas haven’t you shared? Or what have you shared, but hasn’t taken off that I should know about? So that is certainly a big source of inspiration and a way to keep ideas flowing. We just internally did a little contest for people to come up with new ideas around some specific domain names. And I’m constantly reading everything out there listening to as much as I can. In a non-COVID world, I definitely spent a lot of time in every new retail store that opens seeing how things are evolving.

Her Agenda: In your position, what traits do you look for when hiring or promoting? 

Andrea Wasserman: What I really look for, both in internal candidates for promotions and also increasingly as I’m interviewing externally, is an ownership mentality. People who don’t wait to be told or asked to step up and problem solve or take accountability for something, but those who are just doing it. And so I’m constantly coaching my team on demonstrating that for any business that they’re touching. A common type of interview question that I’ve been asking is “tell me about a time when something wasn’t going as planned or results weren’t great, and what levers you pulled personally to try to turn around the situation.” That usually gives some insight there as to what type of problem solver they are, because we should always be focusing on what we can control and influence and also what we can’t. 

Her Agenda: What are some mistakes or misconceptions you think people have about the hiring process in business positions?

Andrea Wasserman: I think it’s not so much about what people shouldn’t be focusing on. It’s more about making sure to look around corners to step back and think about the context to look long-term. Present any near-term opportunities you’re talking about, with recognition for what the long-term views are.

Her Agenda: Do you have any recommendations on resources folks can use to sharpen their leadership skills? 

Andrea Wasserman: My favorite recent book on leadership is Radical Candor by Kim Scott, which is all about the need to challenge directly but care personally, and to do it in real-time. I find that those are really important when working with others. Another book I love for leadership is Build an A Team by Whitney Johnson. It’s about how to think of the team as a portfolio where everybody has different strengths and opportunities and maybe at different points in their journeys. And also how to think about hiring for potential and not just for the experience.

Her Agenda: What is one of the most memorable learning experiences you’ve had in your career thus far?

Andrea Wasserman: In 2019, in my retail experience team at Verizon, we launched a totally new store concept called Verizon Express. The premise of this store is that it’s a smaller footprint that can fit into urban areas and one that it is highly leveraging digital tools so that consumers can come in and take care of what they need as quickly and seamlessly as possible. This was a huge point of team pride. We designed the store, the creative consumer experiences within the staff training, we built new technology for it, and found the real estate. But I think that along the way, we all learned a lot about areas of the business and complexities that we didn’t necessarily know about before, down to the coding regulations for outside retail signage on certain blocks in certain cities. So I think that the lesson there is going into any project, before putting out timelines and making commitments really think about all the things that you might not know.

[Editors note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Andrea Wasserman was originally published on HerAgenda.com

After nearly ten years at the Webby Awards, Claire Graves understands the value in recognizing others for what they have done, not who we want them to be. As an extraordinary industry leader, Graves has a warmth that can be felt even via webcam. Even though our Zoom meeting granted greetings from her precious toddler and moments of technical difficulties, Claire remained calm with a friendly smile.  

Within the internet’s ever-changing landscape, it can be overwhelming to keep track of the web’s best and brightest. While having high expectations is a path to maintaining excellence, Graves along with the rest of the world recognizes that she is not always in control. As the executive director of The Webby Awards, Graves understands that being present is the greatest solution to any challenge.

We recently had the chance to speak with Claire about the digital uprising, her favorite Webby Awards moment, and the importance of awards.

Her Agenda: I read that you began your career in the London advertising industry, but you are actually from Adelaide, South Australia. Though many people look at the United States as the entertainment capital, how does the creative industry differ in other countries? 

Claire Graves: I think change is one of the best things about the creative industry. Creativity changes in each culture that you are in. What is funny and resonates in one place, like the United Kingdom, may not be humorous nor resonate in the United States. Oftentimes creativity is very cultural and that is because of the audiences who are paying attention. An audience has a huge impact on the types of creative work that is out there. For example, the United States has one of the biggest creative audiences and budgets in the world. The budget impacts what you can do and create because you are able to spend more with a bigger audience. However, when you have a limited budget, you have the hunger to make things work which can inspire creativity and make things more interesting.

Her Agenda: When you first started out at The Webby Awards, the internet was a completely different entity. From witnessing the digital uprising, is there anything that has shocked you regarding human interaction with the web?

Claire Graves: When I started out at the Webby Awards, we honored websites, videos, mobile, and advertising. We did not even honor social media because brands were not using them nor trying to connect to their audience through them. I was in my third year at the Webby’s when we added social media categories, which is a big area that has changed internet culture. We have also added podcasts, games, software, and other technical content development categories. And, though this has not shocked me, the internet has grown into a more complicated place. There is more hate and a rise of misinformation, which is upsetting and disappointing. 

When you look at our winners, you can see the power of the internet, how it connects people and can be used for good. A lot of work is being done for movements that I am very passionate about, including climate change and #BlackLivesMatter. When you look towards the life-changing work being done, you can see the brilliance and power of the internet come to life.  

Her Agenda: For the past year, the world has been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. What have you noticed about the intersection of current events and digital media creation?

Claire Graves: One of the things that we noticed during the beginning of the pandemic is that the entertainment industry rushed to the internet. Platforms and creatives needed a way to connect with their audiences and share content. An interesting result of the pandemic is that when people do not have anywhere to go physically, they go online. Outside of the entertainment industry, there has been an outburst of educational content to keep people informed. For example, there is a website called OnwardUS, which is a resource for unemployed individuals. It offers resources, training programs, and opportunities to millions of people who lost their job during this pandemic. 

Her Agenda: We are in the midst of an accolade revolution, in which creators and their fans question award shows. From your perspective, how can award shows be beneficial for creative enterprises?

Claire Graves: It is important for people to keep in mind that creativity is extremely subjective. The ways in which agencies and creatives benchmark their work, in terms of how good it is, is limited. So, awards help with benchmarking and helping one see where they sit on the creative scale. They are also motivating for teams. When you submit your work for award consideration, you are implying that your work is award-worthy. Awards are also great for gaining awareness and getting new business opportunities. If you want more followers on Instagram or want brand awareness, winning an award is a great way to do that. About 80% of 2020 Webby Award winners claimed that their achievement led to new business engagements.

Her Agenda: In a world where the digital space is starting to look the same, where do you find the inspiration to produce innovative ideas?

Claire Graves: The first place that we always look at is our winner’s gallery. Last year, we launched a new gallery which makes it easy to look at past winners and their content. And, I also look on Instagram.

Her Agenda: From the countless years that you have worked at The Webby Awards, do you have a favorite memory that sticks out? And, what do you look forward to at the annual show?

Claire Graves: We are very lucky that the work we do plays out on a stage. We work really hard all year to get people to participate in the Webby Awards, we focus on the most important things happening on the internet, and we determine what we want to celebrate alongside our winners. Then, we have one day, specifically two hours, where we watch 1,000 people react to what we created. It is an incredible feeling and we believe what we do is valuable in the industry.

My favorite moment among many was the 17th annual Webby Awards in 2013, we honored the inventor of the Gif, Steve Wilhite. It was an incredible moment where David Karp, the creator of Tumblr, presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was also the day Tumblr announced that they sold their company for $1 billion dollars, which was monumental. And, when Karp presented Wilhite his award, everyone jumped to their feet as he stood to accept it. As he was accepting it, his wife who I sat next to, leaned over to me and said, ‘It’s about time.’ That was an incredible moment for me. 

Her Agenda: In ten years, how do you think the internet will look? And, how do you think we will use it?

Claire Graves: I think it will be faster which will allow us to use it in a seamless way regardless of location. I am hopeful that everyone will have access to it. One of the biggest lessons we have learned during this pandemic is that the internet is as important as heat and hot water. We need to work really hard to ensure that everyone, especially children, has access to it at home.

Her Agenda: During this pandemic, what is one thing that you have learned about yourself?

Claire Graves: I am a mom and have been working from home since March of 2020. It has been more work to do, organize, and keep everything on track. I have learned how to forgive myself, give up some control, and understand that doing so is okay. I have very high expectations of myself, but now I go with the flow. 

[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Claire Graves was originally published on HerAgenda.com

Anyone who follows the esteemed tech anthropologist, Alex Wolf knows that she is oftentimes ahead of the curve, predicting trends in the market well before her peers. Featured across major publications including Forbes, Fast Company, Adweek, Inc., and many others, Alex’s work has captivated audiences for years. 

At the age of 21, Wolf dropped out of college to build what would become the fastest-growing digital network of female millennial entrepreneurs online with a following totaling up into the millions. She eventually sold her brand and has been advising the world’s best investors, marketers and designers on how to market, brand and design creative consumer-facing products ever since. 

With a knack for ideas that provoke and challenge us all to explore the relationship between humans and technology, creatives and major brands alike look to Alex for ways to connect with their audiences in a meaningful way and provide real value to customers. In 2018, she authored her best-selling book, Resonate: For Anyone Who Wants To Build An Audience, which explores how understanding human nature and technology creates a following.

Her Agenda sat down with Wolf to discuss her story, what it means to pioneer human-friendly technology, how to resonate with an audience, and the recent launch of Creative Business School, aimed at supporting creatives marketing themselves in a way that feels comfortable for them.

Her Agenda: Can you tell us about your background, story and how you become passionate about technology?

Alex Wolf: I grew up with a dad in technology. My dad actually went to law school, but in the 90’s you could make way more money in IT than you ever could as a lawyer. Because the skill was valuable at that time my dad was always good with and passionate about computers. As a result, I grew up with a lot of technology in my house including hardware and new software.  I also grew up as an only child. What I like to say is that the computer was my sibling. As far as my source of entertainment and education, that early exposure created an inclination towards and passion for technology.

Her Agenda: How would you describe your career path up until now? 

Alex Wolf: I would say it’s been a lot of improvisation. I got into social media before it was an industry. It is like Jay-Z getting into hip hop before it was a real industry. You understand some people are making something out of this, but you didn’t really know what type of market you are going to land on because it is forming as you are getting involved with it. So because of that, I feel I stumbled into where I am now. I am very happy about it and there wasn’t a blueprint. I didn’t have a clear vision of where all this was going to land. I remember reading an article about a young girl, who set up a Myspace layout page, made millions of dollars from Google ads as a teenager, and bought her parents a house.

Many individuals get so caught up in trying to grow their following that they forget why they started in the first place.

Stories like hers really inspired me, made me understand the power of the internet and see it as a business asset. I pressed a lot of buttons and figured everything out. I taught myself how to make a website. I taught myself how to use social media for a brand. I made it here through a lot of trial and error and not being afraid. I was afraid to fail, but I still tried anyway.

What I like to say is that the computer was my sibling. As far as my source of entertainment and education, that early exposure created an inclination towards and passion for technology.

Her Agenda: At 21 you dropped out of college to build what would become the fastest-growing digital network of female millennial entrepreneurs online. What gave you the courage to do so and what would you say to other young women interested in launching their own company?

Alex Wolf: I knew that I wanted to use the internet to make money. I had a hard time in school, period. I love learning, but I had a hard time with the institution of school and I was also paying for school. I kept asking myself if attending school was what I wanted to do. I took a huge risk by dropping out because both of my parents are educated and all of my friends were going to school. I was in an environment where that was the expectation. I would tell women who are trying to start businesses today that you must understand what your market is. I don’t like to lose people with business jargon. When I say market I mean the group of people you want to sell to. Do they exist and do they want your product? 42% of startups fail simply because there is no market need or desire. If you’re getting into business, you should have a long-term plan. This is so important. I find that because of social media people will jump into business for the optics but it’s those crucial questions that are the real keys to success. 

Her Agenda: TEDx crowned you as a “Tech-Philosopher.” How does your work align with and/or differ from past and current philosophers in the industry?

Alex Wolf: My philosophy is cut from the same school of thought as the designer, Buckminster Fuller, and philosopher, Alan Watts.  They were actually good friends. Their school of thought was focused on cybernetics, which is basically the intersection of the human body and technology and understanding technology as an extension of humans’ anatomical limits. A lot of our technology is built under this conception that we are separate from our environment, then we create technology that creates a lot of disharmony between us and our universe. Buckminster Fuller, Alan Watts, and the philosophers from that school of thought see the universe as one organism and technology as an expression of it. The idea is that either you create with the universe as if you are one with it or you create as if you are separate.

Even in today’s time, what is currently happening with this pandemic has proven how much we are one as a universe. Buckminster Fuller was the inventor of the geodesic dome and provided innovative architecture for city design. This is where we get our understanding of human-friendly design. 

Her Agenda: COVID-19 has rapidly changed how we interact with technology. 

Alex Wolf: It’s ironic because a few weeks ago when Kobe passed, the message was life is short, right? Now, this is happening and a lot of people are realizing their life can be short. The virus deepened this ephemerality of life and existence. As scary as this is, one of the consequences is definitely a heightened awareness, an increased appreciation and a different association with who you are as a being in relation to your environment. We are so much more sensitive about how things get passed on. Our culture gets a bad rap as being isolated and anti-social [but] this is showing us we actually do hang out in public spaces. So much of our economy and our society is built around large groups of people coming together for a purpose. Right now people are being tested and reevaluating what they want to do and what it looks like to make life meaningful.

Her Agenda: Apple, Google, and other tech giants have in-house philosophers. There has been increased criticism around the fact that these philosophers are not permitted to speak publicly about their work given their impact on people’s everyday lives. You regularly speak publicly about your work, what has been your experience advising tech companies?

Alex Wolf: I’m a consumer-facing anthropologist. Today’s media climate isn’t friendly to old school, academic books. That is part of the reason why I became innovative about what medium I chose to communicate on. In house tech philosophers serve the purpose of assisting the company with positioning itself. Everyday consumers are just as immersed with all the technology philosophers are producing so we deserve to have opinions and insights on how this technology is impacting us on an economic and social level. What I found in working with tech companies is that most individuals who work at the tech companies or in these particular divisions are very keen and aware of what’s going on. The gap I see and hope to solve for is how do we get these individual concerns to reflect throughout the company as an entity? That is where things get lost. A lot of tech companies are public, humongous companies and so there’s a long roadmap from having a dialogue about design and ethics to the public-facing messaging shared with consumers. 

I knew that I wanted to use the internet to make money.

Her Agenda: Many would say you are oftentimes ahead of the curve, exploring and sharing trends in tech months or years before the larger industry does. What would you say is the reason for this? Is there a habit or trait you have cultivated that allows you to continue to pioneer thought leadership?

Alex Wolf: I don’t have a method per se. What ends up happening is I pay attention to things that might go under the radar for other people. I’m able to draw out a pattern from what I’m noticing. From there, I make predictions. That is honestly the best way I can answer, I don’t have a go-to method.

Her Agenda: What have been the biggest changes in how humans interact with technology over the past decade?

Alex Wolf: The biggest change is the removal of presence out of our lives and our conversations. I pay a lot of attention to telecommunication, which looks at how we communicate. Effective conversations need two parties to be present in order for the messages to be comprehended successfully. Presence is spiritual and a huge factor in every element of life. It is the relationship between time and space. 

 Art is the bloodline of culture. It is what adds meaning to our lives. It is the way we share our stories. It is the way that humanity has continually been able to thrive and not just survive. The book aims to inspire creatives to build businesses in a way that is sustainable and fulfilling.

A lot of our technology, especially social media technology is incentivized to be designed in a way that requires passive attention. This is okay for certain tech companies if that is their business model, but it has huge societal consequences. The result is you have a nation or even a globe of people who are finding it difficult to be present with each other or are intimidated by presence. We have taken a huge hit because we have forgotten how to have conversations with presence. The removal of presence in our telecommunications has caused a huge generational gap between us and our elders. I think it will continue to create a generational gap between us and the people who are younger than us. These gaps result in risks that are bigger than what they might appear at first. They cause risks in our politics. They cause risks in our economy. Presence is critical.

Her Agenda: In your book, Resonate, you encourage creatives to explore the role of understanding human nature and creativity to successfully connect with an audience. What is your hope for those who read your book?

Alex Wolf: I see creatives fall under the trap of vanity metrics. You have someone who is super talented at something and has the intention of going on social media to express this beautiful talent that the world would love and appreciate. But if they get too caught up in vanity metrics, and when I say that, I mean followers or any type of engagement. The biggest takeaway I hear from those who read my book is gratitude for reminding them they are artists and love to do what they do. Many individuals get so caught up in trying to grow their following that they forget why they started in the first place.

So much of our economy and our society is built around large groups of people coming together for a purpose. Right now people are being tested and reevaluating what they want to do and what it looks like to make life meaningful.

We cannot afford to lose the quality of our art in the name of these algorithms. Art is the bloodline of culture. It is what adds meaning to our lives. It is the way we share our stories. It is the way that humanity has continually been able to thrive and not just survive. The book aims to inspire creatives to build businesses in a way that is sustainable and fulfilling.

Her Agenda: You very recently launched Creative Business School, a comprehensive program that shows you how to create a thriving creative business without sacrificing passion or personal life. What was the inspiration for creating a tool like this and what can those who participate get out of it?

Alex Wolf: The mission for Creative Business School is to show creatives, even those with small audiences, they can create a healthy income for themselves by shifting their mindset from being solely an influencer into being more of a business person. My goal is to support creatives who have even a little bit of clout in successfully merchandising their brand with their own IP or signature product that they can sell over and over again. Every entertainer we look up to successfully made it because they merchandised a brand that fit them like a glove. Creative Business School is about helping creators feel more comfortable with business and find that scalable product that excites them like Jay-Z’s ACE of Spades and Rihanna’s Fenty line.

Effective conversations need two parties to be present in order for the messages to be comprehended successfully. Presence is spiritual and a huge factor in every element of life. It is the relationship between time and space.

Her Agenda: What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

Alex Wolf: Don’t want things that don’t want you back.

A lot of our technology, especially social media technology is incentivized to be designed in a way that requires passive attention. This is okay for certain tech companies if that is their business model, but it has huge societal consequences.

Her Agenda: What is a book you are reading right now?

Alex Wolf: Four Ways To The Center by Alan Watts.

Want more insight from Alex? Join us on April 7th for a special webinar led by her!

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Alex Wolf was originally published on HerAgenda.com

Looking at the majority of the advertisements we see, the content we consume, and the products we buy, it’s pretty obvious that we’re still way behind with incorporating inclusivity when considering how the world looks today. 

In many industries, especially the tech industry, we’re still experiencing a lack of diversity and inclusion in products and services – and it’s probably because these same industries are still at the majority, very male-dominated and white.

Thankfully, we have leaders and game-changers like Annie Jean-Baptiste working tirelessly to change that narrative.

Supporting and implementing diversity and inclusion measures has always been at the core of Annie’s heart. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and studying International Relations & Political Science, she took a path down a road that she never imagined. Although now Annie is the Head of Product Inclusion, Research, and Activation at Google, she never dreamt of working there. However, after the encouragement of her brother, she joined their team and is now working to make sure we all see ourselves in products.

Before working in the product inclusion space, she worked with the diversity talent management and career development team at Google.  

Outside of Google, the University of Pennsylvania grad is an unapologetic advocate for underserved communities and in educating everyone on how to build inclusively in business. 

Recently, Her Agenda caught up with Annie and learned more about her journey at Google in building inclusive products, and we also snagged some tips for business owners on how you can incorporate inclusive measures in your own business operations.

Her Agenda: How did your career journey with Google start?

Annie Jean-Baptiste: So I started working at Google nine years ago, and actually I applied because my younger brother had done an internship there and he encouraged me to apply. I studied International Relations and Political Science at school so I didn’t think I was going to work in tech and I didn’t know that there were jobs that were available that I could be good at, but my brother definitely encouraged me. Also, after speaking with different Googlers and the recruiter, I decided I wanted to apply. I ended up starting in our global business organization and I was in that organization for four years. I think without my brother having a good experience at Google and having met people who did all different types of things, I wouldn’t have applied. I think I definitely had the misconception that there’s only one type of person that works in tech or in one type of job, and that’s definitely not true. There needs to be a diversity of backgrounds and experiences to really make better products and services.

I definitely had the misconception that there’s only one type of person that works in tech or in one type of job, and that’s definitely not true.

Her Agenda: At what point did you transition to the department that you’re in now?

Annie Jean-Baptiste: I’ve been doing product inclusion for two years now. It started as what we call 20% projects which essentially is you can spend 20% of your time doing something that’s not your core role but maybe it’s a passion project. The thought behind that is that it may lead to something that should be your full-time role right which it did. And so I was a diversity business partner before that, which means I was helping some of our tech product areas create their holistic diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy. Through that, a few of us started to see that there was a potential to expand on how we talked about diversity inclusion, and to not just focus on cultural representation, but to also talk about our products and help shift the narrative in tech around diversity and inclusion on only being the right thing to do right. It definitely is the right thing to do but it also should be core to the business because we’re serving all people.

Her Agenda: What are some of the initiatives that Google is looking forward to in regards to creating inclusive products and experiences for their users?

Annie Jean-Baptiste: Two years is not that long and we’re definitely on a journey, but we’re learning a lot. It’s really fun to not only learn from other Googlers but also from other partners externally. I think what we’re excited about is to continue to expand the work, the tools, and resources that we have so that all Googlers can have a stake in building for everyone and with everyone. 

We work on things like our sensors for a lot of products. We have to make sure that skin tones are rendered accurately. We work on the Google Assistant to make sure that it’s not saying anything offensive, but that it is also proactively recognizing the beautiful things that make us all unique. I think across Google people are starting to think about what does building with an inclusive lens means and how you can bring underrepresented voices to the table during those key movements in the product development.

Her Agenda: Why is having a role in product inclusion so important to you? At Google, there are several other departments that you could’ve joined to implement inclusive measures. 

Annie Jean-Baptiste: When I look back on my career, I didn’t know that I would be doing this when I first started working. But this role uses both my business background and my diverse background together. I think being a Black woman, a first-generation, left-handed person, there are a lot of things that make me unique and I totally understand when you feel like something isn’t made for you and how painful that can be. Because of this, I’m super passionate about ensuring that voices that may be historically underrepresented in tech, and frankly in any industry, feels like they are thought of in the product development process. I really feel like this was my destiny to work in this space. It’s something that I’m super excited about, always learning about, and I feel a personal, deep commitment to making sure that everyone feels seen in their products.

Her Agenda: What does that strategy or that planning process look like for someone in your role in building inclusive products?

Annie Jean-Baptiste: We like to look at the entire product design process, and not just one piece of the process. Ideally, we would look holistically from the idea to all the way when a product launches. So what we do is kind of isolate those really major moments in the product, and then figure out what resources and infrastructures need to be created around those. 

An example of that would be the user testing phase. We do a lot of what we call “dogfooding” at Google, which we call eating your own dog food. It’s kind of odd, but you have to make sure when you’re doing user testing, you have people from different backgrounds and experiences testing. My perception of a product will be different from someone else’s because we all grew up differently; we may have different languages, grew up somewhere else, have different experiences, etc. So what we’ve done is identify multiple dimensions of diversity and then the intersection of those dimensions, and then at those critical phases in the process, we’ll figure out who else we can bring to the table. 

Once we have the feedback, we figure out how we can build that out into the product design. Over the past year, we’ve also been doing some research to kind of crystalize and drill down on everything. We’re figuring out what are the practices that we’ve been doing over the past few years that actually lead to more inclusive products, and we’re excited to share that over the next year externally.

Her Agenda: How do you measure the effectiveness of the products that you’re building, and how do you know that you’re really building inclusive products?

Annie Jean-Baptiste: We definitely love to measure things, and we’ve outlined some key metrics that we feel matter and are really important from a general phase, and individually for the product. One of the big things that we’ve done is to make sure that we’re working with teams to figure out how this is measured as it relates to the things that they’re already measuring. 

I also think that this work should be separate and should be embedded into how everyday people do their day in and day out work. So with the measurement practices, other departments are already using, it’s also about embedding product inclusion into those things.

Her Agenda: If you’re on a team that’s not including inclusion measures in their business, how do you hold them accountable and have those types of conversations when it can be hard and uncomfortable to do so?

Annie Jean-Baptiste: Start with the data. There’s already a lot of public data around underrepresented groups. So look at the data and when you approach them and start with it as an opportunity. Share your data and frame it as this really big opportunity to unlock.

Her Agenda: What is a motto or quote that keeps you motivated while doing the important work you do?

Annie Jean-Baptiste: One of them, and I’m paraphrasing obviously, but it’s a quote by Joe Gertstandt and it says if you don’t proactively and intentionally include, you’ll unintentionally exclude. 

I think that quote is really the core of what we’re talking about. This quote powers a lot of how we think about the work we do because it really is about being intentional, and about being proactive. 

When I need motivation, I look to that, and I look to people who are tirelessly working towards building a better future, especially for people whose voices may not be as represented and that keeps me going.

[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda Agenda: Annie Jean-Baptiste was originally published on HerAgenda.com

Ambition is defined as having “a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.”

Unfortunately, within the entrepreneurship sector, due to systemic barriers and biases beyond their control, founders of color are often unable to have their desires turn into achievements. Lack of access to funding, along with the lack of a network are some of the biggest obstacles. With this in mind, Tanya Sam says she’s launching The Ambition Fund to change this narrative.

Tanya, who you may recognize for her role on the popular Bravo TV show The Real Housewives of Atlanta, will make the fund’s first investment through the Business Battle Pitch Competition at the A3C Festival & Conference in Atlanta. One business owner will win a $25K investment in their product or service. This is the start.

“We are leveling the playing field by intentionally going out beyond the traditional circles to provide underrepresented entrepreneurs a chance at capital, mentorship, and resources for their business,” said Tanya about the October 10th event.

“The face of entrepreneurship is ever-evolving and I want to empower and ensure that all minority groups, inclusive of people of color, women, and the LGBTQ communities have the same level of access and opportunities to thrive.”

$100M dollars in revenue. Through her work as the Director of Partnerships at Atlanta based, TechSquare Labs, this is the collective ROI on a decision to mentor 60+ companies and help to invest in 50 companies led by women or and/or a person of color.

Tanya Sam spoke with Her Agenda about The Ambition Fund and their upcoming pitch competition, the importance of investing in our community, what it takes to start a successful business, and more.

Overcome that fear. Overcome the idea of failure and just do it.

Her Agenda: You’ve mentored over 60 women or minority-led companies in your roles at Tech Labs and Ascend Atlanta. What made you focus on these specific groups? 

Tanya Sam: I was really fortunate when I was starting to build companies. I had people that really cheered me on and were able to invest in helping me to build my dreams. Oftentimes in the community of women, minorities, or underrepresented founders, we don’t have that network of friends and family that can say, “here’s some extra money that I have laying around, please go and build your dream or build a company so you can build wealth for your family and can employ other people.” You’ll look at people who have historical wealth or generational wealth and they’re able to go to their friends and family and say, ‘listen, I want to start this business, can you write the first check into my dream?’ Part of it is recognizing that people have helped me along the way and were supportive of what I wanted to do, and I’m now in a position where I can help other women and minorities build scalable and successful businesses.

You might have a consumer product and need an inventory, but banks won’t give the $25,000 or $50,000 to grow the company. That’s the gap I’m trying to bridge for others.

Her Agenda: Why do you think it’s important to assist in jumpstarting those companies?

Tanya Sam: My dad came from Ghana on a scholarship and became a doctor. He’s 80 years old, so that was decades and decades ago. I look at how hard he’s worked to support other Africans as they came to Canada, and helping them to build their businesses. I feel like it’s part of my family history. He always taught us to help others succeed and build their businesses. Historically in this country when you look at the people who were on the Forbes list and have the greatest amounts of wealth, a lot of that was generational, because they had generational land, lumber, or steel that helped them become the Rockefellers of this country. It’s changing now, and it’s up to us to look back and put a hand down for other future minorities and people of color, and women especially.

Her Agenda: You’re launching The Ambition Fund to invest in women and minority entrepreneurs. Where did the concept for this fund come from? What are you hoping to achieve through this new venture?

Tanya Sam: As I transitioned into having a role on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, I had so many women and people of color reach out to me and the narrative was all the same. They were saying, ‘hey, I’m not necessarily in tech, but I’ve got this great business and I want to scale it. Can you help me?’

In order to scale and take their business to the next level, they need some sort of investment or infusion [of capital]. You look at things like a beard oil company, how do you create that and make it the next Babel? You might have a consumer product and need an inventory, but banks won’t give the $25,000 or $50,000 to grow the company. That’s the gap I’m trying to bridge for others. I’m fortunate that I can start writing these checks for people and help them visualize and understand what it will take to take them to the next level. So it’s not just writing a check, it’s connecting them with a mentor and network to help. It’s a long term plan, but all roads lead to success.

Her Agenda: As someone who works with lots of startups, what are some mistakes they often make?

Tanya Sam: The biggest part of starting any company is understanding your market. If we go back to an early-stage startup, the first thing they do is present their concept and ask for help to build it. The idea of raising venture capital is very prominent and everyone talks about it, forgetting that venture capitalists want their money back. 

One of the myths is that venture capital or getting an investor will help you build your product. We want to see that you have tested this out the idea. Instead of fundraising, build the product and get the users, because if you can come to investors and prove that there’s a market willing to pay for your product, that is so much more meaningful than simply saying you have an idea. A big misconception about the startup world is that people are just looking for someone to invest blindly. They really want to see that you’ve taken this product, you’ve built an MVP, and now it proves the point that you’re ready to really invest in it.

This is where it gets interesting for our community, because people will have an idea, but how do they build the MVP if they don’t have the money? That’s why I think The Ambition Fund is a great bridge because that $25,000 that you can offer someone can go a long way in helping them get to that level. They can put that towards building their MVP or completing some piece of that puzzle that will help them build their company.

Her Agenda: The Ambition Fund is hosting a Business Battle Pitch competition in Atlanta next month. What do interested parties need to know ahead of October 10th? What are you hoping to see?

Tanya Sam: At TechSquare Labs, we’ve been running a very similar competition called the Atlanta Startup Battle where we’ve given away $100,000 investments over nine times at a pitch competition. We’ll have a team that will review all of the applications and we’ll pick five that will pitch on stage at the A3C, which is a music, technology, and film conference based in Atlanta, Georgia. You are pitching for $25,000. So you’ve got to be prepared to answer very rigorous questions by judges to defend your product, defend your business model, explain how they’re going to make money, and how they’re going to get a return. What we’re doing differently this year is we’re expanding it into a broader business competition outside of high growth technology companies in order to include the huge group of people who have reached out to me about growing their businesses.

Her Agenda: You were an Oncology Nurse Practitioner before jumping in and taking the tech world by storm. A testimony for people who are hesitant about making a huge career jump. What inspired that transition and how did you go about making the switch?

Tanya Sam: It’s funny because coming from nursing and coming from a very academic family of doctors and nurses, I thrive on rules. I grew up thinking that I had to go to school and be perfectly prepared and ready to go into any profession. That notion is as far from startups and technology as you can get because, in entrepreneurship, there are no rules. You just do what you have to do, blaze a trail, and keep going no matter what. I tell people who are looking to make a career switch, you just have to do it. It sounds so cliche because every business book you read is saying to put your fears aside and just do it, but it is literally the truth. If you have a business idea or something that you’re passionate about, just start building it. At one point you’re a one-woman army, but you have to believe. And, eventually,  you’ll get other people to believe, too.

Whether you’re building a broader business or building a high growth scalable technology company, I think that technology will eat into every part of any industry that we’ll see. From how we shop to how we eat, get dressed in the morning,  make clothes, etc. Especially for women and minority entrepreneurs, we have to realize that there is a place for us in that future and grab it by the horns because we’re remiss if we let it pass aside. Whether or not you’re technical or can code, I feel like there’s a place in that sphere for all of us. Sometimes it’s in marketing or operations, but you have to engross yourself in the industry. Go to meet-ups, go to pitch competitions and shake a couple of hands. That’s how you really get into the ecosystem. It’s hard, and it takes guts.

Her Agenda: In addition to your many business ventures, you’re also a cast member on Bravo’s Real Housewives of Atlanta. What have you learned about navigating sisterhood from your time on the show?

Tanya Sam: It has taught me to be much more assertive, interestingly enough. I have two sisters, a brother, and a big extended family, so I definitely feel like I understand the ebbs and flows of relationships when you’re in close proximity to other people. Being on this show, you have such strong alpha women. You really have to be sensitive to what other people are going through at different times, but at the same time stand up for yourself. That’s been major for me because I’m very much a people pleaser, so I want everybody to get along at all times. I hate confrontation. At the same time, I’ve learned that if you feel strongly about something, you need to assert your opinion. You have to stand up and do it, and be very clear. 

Sharing your story and being able to talk with other people about it is what takes you to the next level.

Her Agenda: The show is made up of very different personalities, life experiences, etc. What would you say is a good way to balance maintaining who you are within a dominant group?

Tanya Sam: I recognize the ways that it has helped me in being more convicted in who I am and understanding that you are who you are. Also, be proud of who you are and standing up for what you believe in. It has given me a stronger sense of pride in who I am because we have such different characters on the show. I will say, the show has helped me tremendously in business. Prior to being on the show, I might have hesitated on calling someone out on a comment that was completely inappropriate, and I do it now. I’m not worried about ruffling anyone’s feathers.

I’m not worried about ruffling anyone’s feathers.

Her Agenda: What advice do you have for Her Agenda readers looking to start their own businesses but are intimidated about taking that first step? Book selections for entrepreneurs?

Tanya Sam: Overcoming that initial fear is huge. Oftentimes, people won’t talk about their ideas until they’re sure about it. I always tell women to talk to people about their ideas; tell them what you’re working on. Doing so gives you a certain amount of accountability to follow through, and also, it might create the bridge of partnership with someone else who is passionate about that same product or idea. Overcome that fear. Overcome the idea of failure and just do it. There’s a really great book that I’m reading called, You Are A Badass. It asks you, what’s holding you back? What are five things you can do to take you to the next level? Sharing your story and being able to talk with other people about it is what takes you to the next level. Collaborate with others—similar to those historical mastermind groups of women—to help each other and breakdown what barriers are keeping you from going to the next level.

This article A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Tanya Sam was originally published on HerAgenda.com