ideamix podcast

Kate McLeod and Nichola Gray are co-founders of Kate McLeod body stones, an all natural skin care line dedicated to bringing everyday luxury to the ritual of self care. McLeod used her background as a pastry chef to create a cream stone that uses ingredients found in the kitchen, not in a lab. With an increased consumer interest in sustainability and transparency in ingredients, they're delivering...

Deepti Sharma is the CEO and founder of FoodtoEat, a community-minded catering concierge service that helps immigrant, women and minority-owned businesses access new opportunities and grow. With less than 2% of venture capital going to women-founded startups, and even less to women of color, Sharma's personal mission is to uplift and represent those who need it most. As an advocate, writer, and pu...

Jill Kargman is a writer and actress, starring as herself in the Bravo series Odd Mom Out based on her novel, Momzillas. Working in the entertainment industry comes with career instability and jumping around different jobs and opportunities. From fetching coffee to creating and starring in her own series, Jill has done it all. Listen as she discusses the importance of being versatile, creating goo...

Meet Jeff Wald, founder of WorkMarket, software that helps businesses manage their freelancers. With the rising popularity of the gig economy, WorkMarket has become an important tool for businesses and a huge success, but not without challenges along the way. Listen as Wald describes his journey of overcoming past failure and how the lessons he learned led to success later on. Wald also shares his...

Rebekah Hall always had a burning desire to create something of her own. In 2014, she made this dream a reality by launching Botanic Lab, one of the leading brands in the exciting CBD space. Hall describes the importance of reaching out of your comfort zone and doing something new. Entrepreneurs face countless challenges when trying to start something new but Hall proves that with enough tenacity...

From working in a shoe shop when she was 14 to launching her own designer brand, Tabitha Simmons has always loved shoes. Listen as she describes the process of building her own business and creating a vision that is uniquely her. It can be a challenge to balance differentiation and staying on trend, but Tabitha continues to push her own creativity and stand out as a designer. She discusses valuabl...

After Hashem Montasser built his successful career in finance, he still felt something was missing. From his desire to build something of his own and embrace his creative side, Montasser Hashem conceived the idea for The Lighthouse. Inspired by The Bloomsbury Group, a congregation of authors and intellectuals in the early 20th century, The Lighthouse is a cultural restaurant, concept store and mee...

Visualization is becoming more and more popular as a method to making dreams a reality. Claire Aristides, a hypnotherapist and entrepreneur, is passionate about sharing these techniques with the world. Entrepreneurs in particular are bombarded with decisions, risks, questions, and unforeseen challenges. Navigating these stressors can be intimidating, but Claire believes that hypnosis can help busi...

Juggling the responsibilities of entrepreneurship and parenthood is no easy feat. Benis Reffkin has learned this the hard way as a business owner and mother. Experienced in the challenges of entrepeneurship, Reffkin founded Benis Reffkin Coaching where she offers executive and life coaching to help people balance these conflicting responsibilities. Listen as she discusses the unique experiences of...

Just like being an entrepreneur, being an artist is not a job, it's a lifestyle. As an independent artist who started her own business, Charlotte Posner knows this well. Posner's work, which combines art, fashion, and popular culture, has now grown an international following. Listen to her story as she climbs her way up from art school graduate to owning her own business and collaborating with lux...

You'll become smitten with Lisa Ridd when you hear her story of launching her custom film editing company, Smitten Films. Smitten Films takes the videos and photos their clients have already captured and edits them into custom family films. Like all new projects, the process of starting her own business was wrought with wrong turns, hard decisions, and unforeseen complications. Listen to Lisa shar...

Let us tell you the legend of Robert Redd, a media and clothing brand started by Robert Matheson. Originally founded in 2002, Robert closed the company in 2013 and has just relaunched it as a direct to consumer subscription service. The brand is aimed around "storyselling" the tale of the adventurous Robert Redd through an assortment of high quality products. Every year around 50 million new busin...

HRH Nourah Al Faisal is the founder of Nuun Jewels, a Saudi fine jewelry brand based in France. As a young designer and entrepreneur, Nourah apprenticed in France to learn the skills she needed to launch her brand and now she’s setting out to change that. Nourah launched her new venture Adhlal, to stimulate and develop local industry in Saudi Arabia by creating an ecosystem for designers, business...

The vast majority of entrepreneurial firms are 1 person businesses. A former Fortune journalist, Elaine Pofeldt has built her career writing about them including in her book, The Million-Dollar One-Person Business which has turned into a bible for aspiring entrepreneurs. Elaine shares her observations in this episode - essential lessons for everyone curious about entrepreneurship or engaged in the...

Do you ever get to hear an honest story about a business breakup? We turned the tables: Heather Hansen interviews co-founders Ana Kertesz & Sam Jayanti on Ideamix Radio on the end of their partnership. The new Ideamix will continue to be led by Sam Jayanti while Ana Kertesz launches a different venture. They continue to be friends and collaborators as they realize their different visions for their...

In his mid-30s, Ray Zinn was given a tough piece of advice by his boss - he wasn't cut out for a big company so he should go figure out what else he could do. Ray left with no idea what came next. He went on to become an inventor, entrepreneur, investor, angel, bestselling author, philanthropist and the longest serving CEO of a publicly traded company in Silicon Valley. His insights are golden and...

Gems often lie in the rubble of large corporations. Mariah Chase became the CEO to lead the turnaround of Eloquii, a fashion brand for plus size women The Limited had shut down. Eloquii had a readymade niche - the plus size woman who lacked fashionable clothes because fashion is a mode of self expression for every single one of us. Mariah's insights on turning around a brand by written off as dead...

Blair Breitenstein (@blairz) is a New York based artist who partners with and is inspired by the fashion and beauty industry. Through social media, an Etsy shop and her own website, Blair has built a portfolio which includes some of the most prestigious names in fashion like YSL beauty (@yslbeauty), Caroline Herrrera (@carolinaherrera), Glamour Spain and Marc Jacobs (@marcjacobs). Subscribe to The...

Some of the most pivotal moments in life are about someone else seeing potential in us when we don’t see it in ourselves. Ubah Hassan (@ubah) immigrated to Canada from Africa when she was 7 and came to New York after being scouted to be a model at 18. Ubah’s a model, activist and entrepreneur living up to the values she learned from her Somalian family and walking her own unique path. Listen to he...

Who can predict the future? Faith Popcorn's Brain Reserve predicts the future for Fortune 500 companies to help them work backwards from the megatrends to drive their business strategy and priorities. Faith realized her intuition could be a business and didn't listen to the naysayers who told her she wouldn't make enough money. Boy, has she proved them wrong. Subscribe to The IdeaMix Radio and sta...

After 20 years as a top trial lawyer advocating for others, Heather Hansen (@imheatherhansen) decided she wanted to teach people how to advocate for themselves. She began exploring a move to a different City and a professional life in the media with TV and radio appearances. Her experimentation has led her to a portfolio career as a writer, public speaker, consultant and podcast host. We love her...

You leave a job knowing it isn't the right thing for you. How do you figure out what's next in your career? Finding a business partner to collaborate with makes it easier. "We would be the ones in the corner of every lunch and party discussing business ideas." - Camilla Gazal & Flavia Naslausky. After long careers in finance, Camilla and Flavia were ready for a new challenge. They quit their jobs...