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Christina Stembel, Founder/CEO, Farmgirl Flowers – A $30 Million Business Started with $49,000 in Savings

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Christina Stembel on She's Got Moxie with Joy ChudacoffYou do not want to miss this interview.

Originally from Indiana, Christina Stembel found herself in Silicon Valley where it seemed everyone was an entrepreneur. It was while investigating why flowers are so expensive for her employer at the time, Christina started to see potential big bucks in the flower industry. No college degree but she did have 49K in savings and that’s how Farmgirl Flowers was planted firmly in the ground.

Christina shares all of her tips and transparent insights on how she grew Farmgirl Flowers from nothing to an estimated projected 30M this year. She talks about her grassroots marketing that has grown the company, why and how to get started without investor money, and much more.

 

You can Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts. And be sure to leave me a Rating and Review!

I wanted to take an industry and be either the first innovator or the first one doing it a completely different way.” – Christina Stembel

Show Notes:

  • CURIOSITY does not kill the cat; This is how Christina started out
  • The SURPRISING thing that happened when she was down to her last $411
  • Smart, Simple, Effective Tips for Grass Roots MARKETING – Truly Brilliant
  • The Two Most ESSENTIAL Skills You Must Develop if You Want to Grow and Scale
  • Bank and credit card tips for FUNDING your business
  • Why women should STOP waiting for investor money in most cases
  • How she reacted when someone told her to STUNT her Growth and “wait for the industry to catch up to her”

I wanted to test the market. I did not want to give up a decade of my life for something that was never going to work.” – Christina Stembel

Connect with Christina Stembel:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Farmgirl Flowers

I pivot all the time. We listen to our customers.” – Christina Stembel

Kelly Love – How a Summer “Detox” With Her BFF From College Led to The Start of Branch Basics

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When Kelly Love’s college roommate, Allison Evans, started having health problems, which led to lots of medications with little or no relief, Kelly was concerned.

After graduation, Kelly and Allison decided to spend the summer with Allison’s “Aunt Marilee” doing a “detox.” Their eyes were opened wide when they began to learn about the harmful chemicals that people are exposed to everyday. It was during this summer experience, the three of them decided to start Branch Basics – a non-toxic cleaning product company to create a healthy home.

On today’s show, Kelly gets very vulnerable and transparent about her entrepreneurial journey thus far. She talks about what it was like to partner with her college roommate, how the company survived their biggest challenge (they even had to close for a bit), her advice on managing cash flow + more. 

You can Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts. And be sure to leave me a Rating and Review!

It is totally ok to figure it out as you go.” – Kelly Love

Show Notes:

  • Their philosophy on the easiest way to take that FIRST step to living a healthy life
  • Their initial product was an enormous success….until it wasn’t
  • How they handled the embarrassment of having to close their doors and what they did next that has created BLOCKBUSTER success today (MOST people would have given up)
  • How Branch Basics is riding the “minimalist” movement
  • Tips for finding the right manufacturer for your product
  • The BEST decision they’ve ever made after re-launching the company
  • How to handle CASH Flow decisions; simple, smart advice
  • The words of wisdom she wished someone would have shared with her early on – PURE GOLD

It needed to work as well or better than the conventional product or else people weren’t going to stick to it.” – Kelly Love

Connect with Kelly Love:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Branch Basics

Just getting started and knowing that you’re going to improve over time is key.” – Kelly Love

Carly Stein – How a Chance Encounter With a European Pharmacist Turned Into The #1 Cold & Flu Product on Amazon

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Carly Stein on She's Got Moxie with Joy Chudacoff

My guest Carly Stein was studying abroad when a bout of chronic tonsillitis sent her to a pharmacy in search of a cure. What she learned was kind of a miracle.

Carly is the CEO and founder of BeeKeeper’s Naturals, a company committed to “reinventing the medicine cabinet” through the healing power of bees. Her product for colds & flu is currently #1 on Amazon and she’s been recognized as a game-changing entrepreneur on the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

On today’s show, Carly talks about how to build a loyal customer base and a robust social media following, why bees have medicinal properties, how she has overcome her biggest challenges, how she has built an amazing team of loyal and passionate people and much more.

 

You can Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts. And be sure to leave me a Rating and Review!

The amazing thing is that everything is so accessible. Every single one of us can figure it out.” – Carly Stein

Show Notes:

  • The FIRST step she took to give the business traction
  • Her SIMPLE, SIMPLE strategies to build a loyal following and awareness – “I didn’t know anything!”
  • Refreshing, easy to follow grass roots strategies
  • How to use SOCIAL MEDIA to help build your business – she should know. Her Instagram boasts over 100K followers!
  • Why bees have medicinal properties
  • She didn’t allow an inquiry from LinkedIn to throw her; instead she figured it out
  • The MINDSET to adopt when building a new business
  • How Carly overcame the biggest challenge in her business
  • Cash flow tips on how to handle the fluctuation in sales when you are marketing a product
  • Advice she doesn’t agree with in the start-up arena
  • The surprising new app to help with workflow
  • Tips for building a great A+ TEAM

What you’re doing at every single step every single day is building muscle memory. The muscle memory that you’re building is how to respond to challenges with resilience.” – Carly Stein

Connect with Carly Stein:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | BeeKeeper’s Naturals

I know that failure is not the end of a line for me. It is just a red flag that is showing me to go a different way.” – Carly Stein

Kate Torgersen – From a 4-Day Business Trip Disaster to Becoming The Founder & Creator of Milk Stork

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Kate Torgersen on She's Got Moxie with Joy Chudacoff

When she was detained by TSA after a business trip and asked to drain the ice around her carry-on breast milk bag before she could enter the plane, Kate Torgersen knew she had to do something. Kate knew she wasn’t the only working mom dealing with this. She’d heard horror stories about moms in broom closets at the office pumping milk and she saw the need.

The day after that disastrous event, Kate Torgersen decided to create Milk Stork, the FIRST and ONLY breast milk travel solution for working moms. She called her dad with the business idea to provide a service to help mothers easily ship their breast milk home, and with that, the idea was born.

Kate’s mom-led innovation and entrepreneurship have been chronicled in publications such as the Harvard Business Review, New York Magazine, Lifehacker, Fortune and Travel + Leisure.

You can Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts. And be sure to leave me a Rating and Review!

My north star for the whole thing was that it had to be a two minute experience for moms in the hotel room and it had to be a two-minute experience placing an order.” – Kate Torgersen

Show Notes:

  • Kate knew she needed a “2-minute experience” for her idea to work
  • How she took her “DISRUPTIVE” idea and broke it down into manageable pieces in the beginning
  • The moment she knew she was on to something….it was right after she “flipped the switch”
  • Milk Stork was a side hustle for three years….she kept her day job at Cliff Bar for a long time (true inspiration for women who have a business idea but they aren’t quite ready to leave their day job)
  • The surprise phone call Kate received while in her mini-van that changed EVERYTHING
  • How Milk Stork tapped into an ENTERPRISE market
  • The KEY to gaining TRACTION
  • What it means to be a “painkiller not a vitamin” – BRILLIANT
  • Her Cash Flow Metaphor – GENIUS
  • What Kate does to recover from entrepreneurial fatigue
  • WHY she went about hiring differently than most other companies
  • The BIG Difference in having a career and owning a business
  • The advice she wished someone would have shared with her early on

If you don’t have good operations in place, traction can become a problem.” – Kate Torgersen

Connect with Kate Torgersen:

Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Milk Stork

Once we launched and got that first order, I knew that was never going to be quitting. There was no quitting because once you get traction you can’t quit. It is kind of like being a parent. Once you give birth, there is not really an ‘out’.” – Kate Torgersen

Gail Becker – On Track to $100 Million in Just Two Years….Selling Cauliflower

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Gail Becker on She's Got Moxie with Joy ChudacoffShe had no food or nutrition experience. What she did have was two sons with Celiac disease. This is another Epic Encore interview with Gail Becker, the genius, Founder and CEO of Caulipower, a company that offers tasty, affordable and nutritious alternatives to highly-processed foods.

CAULIPOWER is on track to reach $100 million this year and her pizzas are in 22,000 retail stores… on their 2nd BIRTHDAY!!! They’ve had explosive growth in the last 575 days (since she was FIRST on the show) and Gail gets real, raw and transparent about her journey so far. She’s both funny and serious about her path and her attitude is infectious.

 

You can Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts. And be sure to leave me a Rating and Review!

When you become an entrepreneur, you are betting on yourself – hook, line and sinker.” – Gail Becker

Show Notes:

  • The people she listens to most when deciding on new product lines
  • Her BEST Advice on how to handle fast & furious business growth
  • Her perspective on how to build an A+ Team
  • The Challenges that go along with being a Disrupter in your industry
  • Gail admits she has DAILY Struggles as an entrepreneur and how she copes
  • What really drives her (it’s not about Money for her)
  • Why a personal mission is important in business
  • How she went from a high-paying successful career one day to making nothing the next

You have to have people that are as passionate about the business as you are.” – Gail Becker

Connect with Gail Becker:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | CAULIPOWER

Always know what you don’t know and hire against that.” – Gail Becker

Joanna McFarland – How HopSkipDrive Literally “Hopped and Skipped” Into a *New* Market That Has Resulted Into Explosive Growth Over the Last 500 Days

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Joanna McFarland on She's Got Moxie with Joy Chudacoff

I’m excited to have Joanna McFarland back with us for an Encore interview! I interviewed Joanna back in October of 2017 and since that time, HopSkipDrive has literally “hopped and skipped” over their sales goals and catapulted themselves into a brand new market opportunity!

Joanna is the CEO and co-founder of HopSkipDrive, which is a safe and dependable ride share company for kids. After brainstorming with some frustrated parents at a child’s birthday party, they came up with a better way to provide transportation for their kids and HopSkipDrive was born.

On today’s show, Joanna talks about how HopSkipDrive KEPT their core message while uncovering a brand-new market that was craving what they had to offer.

 

You can Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts. And be sure to leave me a Rating and Review!

Embrace it. Buy the ticket and take the ride and know that there are going to be moments when it is really hard. And know that you’re going to need to over-communicate and make sure that expectations are understood and that expectations are being met.” – Joanna McFarland

Show Notes:

  • The NEW MARKET that HopSkipDrive uncovered which led them to explosive growth (this is PURE Gold)
  • The person who has had a massive influence on her life and kept her going after 100 NO’s when she first started out
  • Why SAFETY is their #1 Core Value and the 15 point system they use to ensure safety on every ride
  • The mantra that keeps Joanna going (wise words from her hubby)
  • The secret to effective communication with your team during the scale-up phase
  • And much, much more…

Everything that we had put into solving this problem for consumers made the platform very easily extensible to schools as well.” – Joanna McFarland

Connect with Joanna McFarland:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | HopSkipDrive

It is really important to focus. There are so many opportunities that you can pursue and so it is really important to think about what are your best opportunities and make sure that you’re really focusing on those.” – Joanna McFarland

Amy Nelson – CEO/Founder, The Riveter, Coworking Spaces Built By Women for Everyone

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Amy Nelson on She's Got Moxie with Joy Chudacoff

Amy Nelson up and left her corporate job (while pregnant with her THIRD daughter) for the entrepreneurial life and came up with the idea for The Riveter, a rapidly growing co-working space company with design and membership focused on women, but open to everyone.

Amy launched The Riveter in 2017 and the brand is experiencing rapid fire growth with locations popping up almost every day in metropolitan cities across the US. The Riveter’s growth has outpaced even WeWork’s first years and The Riveter recently closed a $15 million Series A Funding Round led by Alpha Edison.

You’ll absolutely love Amy’s energy and enthusiasm as she dives into how she transitioned from a successful career in law (including work with President Obama’s National Finance Committee and President Carter’s, The Carter Center) to launching The Riveter, how being a mom has made her a BETTER entrepreneur, her best productivity tips and more.

You can Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts. And be sure to leave me a Rating and Review!

What I tend to do is really lean into the fact that I am a mother, rather than lean out of it.” – Amy Nelson

Show Notes:

  • Why she left a cozy corporate job while pregnant with her third daughter to launch The Riveter
  • How becoming a Mom changed her viewpoint on women & career opportunities
  • The FIRST Step she took to get started after she came up with the idea for The Riveter
  • The Event that PUSHED her to take the FINAL Leap
  • Why coworking spaces are becoming wildly popular
  • The SMARTEST MOVE Amy made when starting The Riveter (it’s not what you think I promise you)
  • WHY Collaboration is the ‘secret sauce’ to her early success
  • Her BIGGEST Challenge ( this is pure Gold)
  • What she did when someone advised her to HIDE HER PREGNANCY while fundraising
  • Why ASKING For Help is a muscle more women need to flex
  • How she manages her day while being CEO of a fast-paced growth company and raising soon-to-be four daughters
  • Her Go-To Apps to stay sane
  • What she did instead of giving up when it all seemed like too much
  • The advice she hears about being in startup mode that she DOES NOT agree with
  • And much much more

I think the more we have women building companies to make women’s lives better, the better our lives will be. And that is super exciting!” – Amy Nelson

Connect with Amy Nelson:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | The Riveter | LinkedIn

The hardest thing is to just keep going at every turn when it gets hard, when it feels impossible, when people tell you that you can’t. And so much of it is just continuing to walk forward.” – Amy Nelson

‘She’s Got Moxie’ Podcast – Here’s The BEST of 2018…

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I hope your holidays have been filled with magical moments. At this time of year, I find myself gravitating to content with the headline “the BEST of.” Whether it’s recipes, restaurants, wine or business, I enjoy consuming the BEST of everything.

That’s why I wanted to share The BEST of my ‘She’s Got Moxie’ podcast for 2018. Below you’ll find The TOP 10 Most Listened to Podcasts this year. Go here and listen now.

The holidays are the perfect time to catch up on all the wisdom and brilliance my guests share on the show. This will give you a chance to make some notes and add their genius tips to your business planning for 2019. I’m a bit of a podcast junkie so I find time to listen when I’m cooking, baking, wrapping gifts or walking my dog.

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Edith Dorsen – Founder of the Women’s Venture Capital Fund – Getting Funding Into The Hands of More Women Entrepreneurs

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Edith Dorsen on She's Got Moxie with Joy Chudacoff

FACT: 95% of venture capital is granted to companies where senior leadership does not include any women.

My guest today, Edith Dorsen, along with her partner, got mad and then they got busy taking action to change this statistic.

On today’s show, Edith talks about how she started this business, tips for the best pitch, the most challenging moment in her career so far, and more. 

You can Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts. And be sure to leave me a Rating and Review!

The singular most important thing to execute on a good idea is having a core team around you because no successful company is built on the back of a single individual.” – Edith Dorsen

Show Notes:

  • How many “pitches” VC’s hear before choosing ONE
  • HOW to make your entrepreneurial idea more “Venture Worth”
  • The MOST important ingredient for a successful pitch (HINT: it’s not the Big Idea)
  • The UPS & DOWNS of dealing with partnerships and GREAT advice for those seeking partners
  • The most CHALLENGING MOMENT in her career thus far
  • Typical advice that a lot of startups are given that she doesn’t agree with
  • What type of entrepreneurs work with the Women’s Venture Capital Fund
  • Her BEST Book Recommendation
  • And much, much more

When you build companies that include a diverse senior leadership, you’re building stronger companies that perform better.” – Edith Dorsen

Connect with Edith Dorsen:

LinkedIn | WomensVCFund II

The decisions need to be weighed properly and probably made more slowly before you make a commitment that takes a long time to unwind if it’s not the right one.” – Edith Dorsen

Koel Thomae – How Cold-Calling a Dairy Farmer Turned Into a $170 Million Yoghurt Company

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Koel Thomae on She's Got Moxie with Joy Chudacoff

On a trip home to Australia, Koel Thomae discovered a homemade yoghurt in a beach town corner shop, and she knew this was an entrepreneurial moment.

Inspired to bring the best-tasting yoghurt to the United States, Koel couldn’t stop thinking about the velvet tasting yoghurt that would one day become Noosa Yoghurt.

After cold-calling a fourth-generation dairy farmer in Colorado, Koel partnered with ‘Farmer’ Graves and brought Noosa Yoghurt to life.

What started in small farmers markets and local Whole Foods stores has led Noosa to be sold in 25,000 stores nationwide.

You can Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts. And be sure to leave me a Rating and Review!

It is certainly ok to evolve things, but don’t ever get too far away from that core fundamental reason why you started the brand.” – Koel Thomae

Show Notes:

  • How a visit to Noosa, Australia led Koel to go on an entrepreneurial adventure
  • How her obsession with this yoghurt led her to a three-hour lunch that ultimately got her a “loose license” for the yoghurt
  • What it was like to QUIT her day JOB and jump right into her entrepreneurial idea
  • Why Koel took her life savings and put them into her business
  • WHY you should never over-think an idea
  • HOW she diverted Whole Foods attention when they initially didn’t like her packaging
  • Why she decided to pull out of a market that Noosa wasn’t ready for
  • A Deep Conversation on Cash Flow – pure gold
  • How Koel stayed PRODUCTIVE while building a business and raising a newborn
  • The ONE question Koel asks herself to stay on track every day
  • And much much more

I would say that if finance is not your strong suit, then get some really smart people who do know that and learn it really quickly.” – Koel Thomae

Connect with Koel Thomae:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn| noosa

Very simple productivity – tasks lists and really understanding what is the priority from what will most impact your business.” – Koel Thomae

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