WorkParty

Sustainability hasn’t exactly been at the forefront of the $532 billion beauty industry. In fact, when it comes to packaging, ingredient sourcing, and distribution, it’s actually responsible for a great deal of waste, and it’s taken a heavy toll on the environment. But thanks to a handful of pioneering indie brands, the tides are changing. And Each & Every is one of them. In addition to using...

Kym Gold has been a self-starter from the get-go. With a deep-rooted passion for fashion and unwavering determination to succeed, the fashion industry vet was running her first business selling clothing on the Venice Beach boardwalk and around college campuses in her late teens. In her early 20s, Kym and her then-husband set their sights on a whitespace in the male-dominated denim industry: fashio...

It’s safe to say there is a lot of buzz around CBD and it’s easy to see why. Leading cannabis researchers project that the collective market for CBD sales in the U.S. will surpass $20 billion by 2024. Who wouldn’t want a slice of that pie? When Coco Meers launched her CBD company, Equilibria, in the spring of 2018 the space was already flooded with thousands of brands. But instead of being discour...

Multi-hyphenate. The term is used so frequently today that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was an old concept, but for our parent’s generation, having multiple careers wasn’t the norm. Now we’re turning our side hustles into full-time jobs, switching lanes, and pivoting towards our ever-changing passions all at the same time. Not all of us have a singular focus or that “one true calling.” And to...

Presented by Mastercard   Launching a business is so much more than just having a great idea. Passion is important, of course, but if you want to scale your business for growth—and be profitable!—you need to get the fundamentals in place. Because even if your product is selling well, you’ll soon have another problem: delivering that product to all your new customers and on time. Are your business...

Presented by Mastercard   Fact: Businesses with Women of Color and Black female CEOs get less than 1% of all VC funding every year. And when you consider that $85 Billion of VC funding was raised in 2017, the glaring inequality becomes very clear. However, Arian Simone is breaking the VC ceiling, stacking the odds back in her favor, and putting the dollars into the businesses who need it most with...

Presented by Mastercard   Aishwarya Iyer was working in Silicon Valley when a bout of stomach issues led her to research olive oil companies. What she learned was alarming--nearly 70% of olive oil consumed by Americans is rotten or rancid. Instead of ditching it from her diet, she decided to disrupt the market and start her own line of olive oil instead. Say hello to Brightland, an artisanal, smal...

Presented by Mastercard   Fact: Women are severely underrepresented in the music industry. When the University of Southern California released their Inclusion in the Recording Studio report last year, they found that the ratio of male to female producers across 400 popular songs is 47:1. And this isn’t because women don’t have an interest in music. The female to male student ratio in music academi...

Presented by Mastercard   The stats don’t lie. Companies perform better when they have female leaders in addition to males. And yet, just 5% of all venture funding supports women CEOs. This isn’t just about equality--it's about the economy, too. If we want to see higher stock returns, higher overall profit, and a higher return on equity, we have to hire women, and put them in leadership roles...

Presented by Mastercard   While most people find change uncomfortable, this is where entrepreneurs, innovators, and all-around game-changers thrive—successful disruption is always the ultimate goal. They recognize a sleepy category and figure out a way to wake it up. Enter Mab & Stoke—made-to-order, customized herbal super tabs that are putting wellness back into our hands, literally. Mab &amp...

Presented by Mastercard   Diversity matters, and more importantly, it's crucial. New research makes it crystal clear that companies with a more diverse workforce perform better financially. In fact, companies in the top 25% for gender and ethnic diversity at the executive level are more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the bottom 25%. In short, having more diverse...

So, you worked hard to climb the career ladder and land your dream job, but now that you’re there, your expectation doesn’t match reality. Or perhaps you got there and just changed your mind. Either way, it’s time to make a change, to shift your focus, and lead with curiosity. But where do you even begin? In this episode, Jaclyn talks to someone who felt the fear of change but took the leap anyway...

Presented by Mastercard   Despite reports that black audiences consume media far more than other demographic groups do, no one has capitalized on those stats or amplified black millennial voices like Morgan Debaun. With $9 million in funding, Blavity is one of the largest media startups and lifestyle brands for black millennials, and she’s only just getting started. The self-professed “entrepreneu...

Presented by Mastercard   After experiencing tech burnout in corporate management, Sonja Rasula needed a change. Frustrated by the lack of gifts and hand-made goods available in retail, she came up with the idea for a curated pop-up event that brought together local artisans to sell their designs and products. Not only would it help solve consumer woes for sourcing original gifts, but it would als...

Taking risks is scary but if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, it's necessary. Entrepreneurship is fundamentally linked to risk-taking, after all. Of course, there should be some level of research and data to inform the risk first, but oftentimes, there’s nothing like diving in head first and figuring it out along the way. In this episode of WorkParty, we’re talking all about the conc...

Presented by Mastercard   It’s safe to say that every business has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis, but there is one category that’s really felt the impact: Small Business. As the lifeblood of our economy, it’s imperative that we all do our best to help wherever and however we can. We’re committed to helping women create and cultivate the career of their dreams, which is why we’re proud to pa...

The health and wellness industry is a $4.2 trillion market. And guess what? Women are leading the way. In fact, no other trillion-dollar industry is as heavily dominated by female entrepreneurs as health and wellness. Enter Chillhouse founder and CEO, Cyndi Ramirez. In just three years, she’s opened two brick-and-mortar locations, built a digital media empire, and expanded into retail and e-commer...

Did you know that 90% of the wine made in the U.S. is produced in California, but only 10% of the state’s wineries are led by female winemakers? Jill Russell didn't let those discouraging stats stop her from pursuing her winemaker dreams. Today, she has a seat at the table at the women-owned, women-led Cambria Estate Winery—one of the few wineries that are tipping the male-dominated industry...

Hot tip: Diversifying your income gives you financial security. If one revenue stream ends, there are others bringing money in to compensate. It's safe to say that today's podcast guest has plenty of experience on the topic. Gaby Dalkin is a multi-hyphenate with a handful of titles and business ventures. She's a trained chef, recipe developer, entrepreneur, food/lifestyle writer, au...

When Lauren “Lo” Bosworth, of "Laguna Beach" and "The Hills" reality-TV fame, noticed that the wellness industry wasn't led by or for women, she took matters into her own hands and launched Love Wellness in 2016. Her bold move to switch lanes and tap into the $4.2 trillion wellness industry paid off—big time! She successfully grew Love Wellness' revenue by 3000%. In t...

With so much uncertainty right now, there is one thing that hasn’t changed: as an entrepreneur, betting on yourself is an investment that will have priceless returns. In this week's episode, Jaclyn sits down with powerhouse entrepreneur Gail Becker, Founder & CEO of CAULIPOWER, at Create & Cultivate's LA 2020 conference to talk money, hiring, scaling, and the courage to believe i...

The spark for a new business idea can come at any moment, and for Sheena Yaitanes that lightbulb moment came while studying chemistry and biology at UC Irvine. Frustrated by the lack of clean beauty products that not only looked good, but felt good on the skin, Sheena launched Kosas Cosmetics out of her Los Angeles home. Today, Kosas is a cult-favorite with celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Mandy...

Here at Create & Cultivate HQ, we’ve been spending a lot of time discussing how we can best show up for, and support, our community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Community is at our core, and connecting with others is what we love to do. While the world has changed, our mission certainly has not. We’re committed to helping women create and cultivate the career of their dreams, which is why we...

When we think of efficiency and productivity, technology immediately springs to mind, but can it heighten our creativity, too? We’re seeing the emergence of new tech that's bringing the human and the digital together and fueling our ability to think creatively in the process. To shed more light on how tech can impact our inclination to innovate, we sat down with Jennifer Downes, executive dir...

This week we're live from the first-ever Polka Dot Summit, hosted by Create & Cultivate and Minnie Mouse. Thanks to social media, you can go from idea to launch within hours. But the big question is, how do you build a dedicated community to support that idea? Enter Katie Sturino. The PR-girl-turned-social-media-superstar (who’s garnered a community of over half-a-million people!) launche...