Ariel Okin is the founder of her eponymous firm, Ariel Okin Interiors, a full service interior design firm based in New York City that specializes in luxury residential and unique commercial properties. Ariel’s portfolio ranges from traditional to contemporary, with a focus on elegant, livable spaces. Texture, pattern, clean lines, and a mix of bespoke and antique items are hallmarks of her aesthetic, and she believes every home should reflect its owner’s personality. Ariel has been featured and profiled in Elle Decor, Domino, House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine, among others, and has designed notable spaces for celebrities like Lena Dunham, Audrey Gelman and Sara Foster as well as for brands like Goop and Maisonette. On today’s episode we talk about how the pandemic has affected her interior design business and how she and the team have pivoted to digital packages, we get into her path to discovering her love interior design, what small tweaks we can make to our homes to make them even cozier during quarantine, we talk about the importance of building your portfolio even if that means doing jobs for less pay or no pay, and why learning what you don’t like to do is just as or more important than learning what you do like to do.

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Today’s episode is with Amy Sturgis, fashion consultant and founder of ready to wear brand, Cinta the Label. Amy is a true fashion expert in every sense of the word. She not only consults for some of the most cult-followed fashion brands, she has also taken her expertise and started her own line, Cinta the Label that was inspired by her summers in Spain with her grandfather. She has a global perspective on the fashion scene with a background working in Dubai, London, New York and LA. She has worked in house on PR and Business Development with notable brands such as Pop and Suki, All Things Mochi and current clients include House of Sunny, Paper London, Yolke London, ROOP and beyond. In 2019 Amy launched her own label, Cinta The Label which focuses on creating mindful prints and pairing them with trend driven silhouettes, while simultaneously continuing to grow her consulting business.

I really wanted to have Amy on the podcast because she truly has her finger on the pulse when it comes to telling a fashion brand story in ways that resonate, and uses her expertise to not only lift up her clients’ but also to tell her personal brand story. She also just gives such amazing and genuine vibes and you can tell she takes so much pride in everything she does and puts out there which i absolutely love. On today’s episode we get into Amy’s unconventional career path and why she decided to not finish university and realized that she learned better on the job, we talk about how she has pivoted to a heavy digital strategy amid the pandemic and how fashion brands could use this time to really connect to their consumer and we talk about mindful fashion and how meditation has completely changed her life and perspective in business.

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Today’s episode is with model and wellness advocate, Rachel Serrano also known as @racheloveee on Instagram. Rachel is a signed fashion model with agencies all over the US + Europe and has worked with incredible top tier brands and designers. She has been modeling for the last 13 years, and has grown a cult like following on IG where she covers all things beauty, health and wellness with the goal of guiding women to be their absolute best selves.
On today’s episode we talk about the reality about being a model and the unpredictability that comes with it, how she manages to stay healthy when her lifestyle is to be "on-call" 24/7, how she copes with the fact that her body and appearance is her job, how to stay organized and focus on controlling what is in our control, and given the global circumstances we do get into how the coronavirus has affected her financially and how she is approaching it day by day.

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This episode is with returning guest, Liz Tran. As a refresher, Liz is the founder of RESET which up until now has been a physical space in New York that bridges the connection between personal and professional growth where she combines the best of modern, executive career coaching with ancient practices like sound meditation, breath-work, and astrology. Before starting Reset, Liz was a venture capitalist and worked with brands that we all know and love like Instagram, Glossier and Warby parker.

Liz has had to completely pivot her business due to the coronavirus pandemic and has done so with such grace and trust in the universe. She has a physical space in New York -specifically in Nolita which is one of the most expensive areas in the city- that she had to close and her main form of revenue was doing off-site in-person executive training sessions which were also put to a complete halt. Not only has she remained calm and patient throughout all of this, she has adapted quickly and has reframed her mindset in a way that is expanding reset in ways she never thought possible and is optimistic about what this will mean for us all.

On today's episode we are getting specific on how the world is coping with grief, making sure we are giving ourselves time to process, we get into Maslow's hierarchy of needs and how there is an opportunity for all of us to ensure our foundation is solid, how smart brands are reacting in this time of crisis and showing compassion and empathy, how to use this time to think about what your priorities are and if the life you were leading before this pandemic aligns with those priorities and for those listening who have lost jobs or are currently in uncertain or unstable industries, we get into best practices of how to best approach your internal search first.

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Ashli Stockton is the founder and CEO of Sunday Forever, a lifestyle brand based in New York. Ashli describes Sunday Forever as your good vibes one-stop shop where she offers a curated selection of things to evoke that Sunday morning relaxation feeling from kimono style robes to candles, sage and lighter sets, crystals and bracelets - it is literally everything I’ve ever dreamed of. The idea for Sunday Forever came to Ashli while she was working at Victoria’s Secret for over a decade where she felt a chronic feeling of the Sunday scaries - for those of you who don’t know the Sunday scaries is, it’s when you get major anxiety on Sunday nights for the week ahead but she explains that she was feeling this every single day and had anxiety about even just getting to the office. One day, Ashli decided to take the leap of faith and invested her savings of $25k to create Sunday Forever and has never taken a dollar from outside investments since. Since the launch Ashli and Sunday Forever have been featured in Forbes, Domino, Popsugar, Well + Good, Refinery29, Allure and so many others.

On today’s episode we talk about the confusing feeling of having a “dream job” but still feeling entirely unhappy and unfulfilled, feeling fearful of leaving a stable paycheck and fancy title but also knowing that all the money in the world won’t fill the gap of a job that’s not filling your soul, saying what you want out loud as the first step in making it happen, doing SOMETHING to better yourself to feel less stuck and discover what excites you and consistently feeding your mind and soul.

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Karin is a Senior Contributor for Forbes where she regularly features female founders that deeply inspire her. Her criteria is that anyone she features must have impact and integrity. She has also been published in Teen Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, Create & Cultivate and Coveteur. Karin is fueled by female empowerment and self-expression, and her regular Forbes column has earned the reputation as a platform for interviews of game-changing female founders and impactful career advice with women that range from the likes of Kim Kardashian West to Hilary Kerr to Cleo Wade and so many other incredibly inspiring women. As the mother of two young girls, her goal is to show her daughters that anything is possible and that women are multifaceted. On today's episode, we touch on her career journey and how she landed her first editorial job, how to break into the editorial space, a step by step guide on how to pitch a story, and most importantly.. the power of voice.

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Sara Panton is the co-founder and CEO of Vitruvi, a premium essential oils company that she started with her brother I am entirely obsessed with. Sara’s interest in scent deepened when she learned about its effect on the limbic system, which is our brain’s emotional centre, in a neurology course while she was studying to get a degree in Global Health with plans to become a doctor. This discovery, layered with her love of culture and natural medicine, sparked a deeper passion for the science of scent, and its potential to help in her busy days. She saw this as an opportunity to make a larger impact than seeing patients 1 on 1 and chose to spread her knowledge of the benefits of scent association by way of Vitruvi where she is delivering essential oils to the masses.

On today's episode we talk about the power of scent association and how the brain loves familiarity and patterns, how essential oils can help get your mind in the right space for whatever task is at hand, the importance of checking in with your ego and really asking yourself why you are doing certain things, making sure that whatever story you're telling yourself is still serving you and the power of daily rituals.

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Aliza’s career exploded while she was the SVP of global communications at Donna Karan International where she created and built the voice of the award-winning social personality DKNY PR GIRL which was kept anonymous for years before revealing she was the sassy voice behind the tweets. She organically built a multi-platform community of over 1.5mm followers for DKNY, and was one of - if not the first - marketers to humanize a brand and give it an honest and trusted voice. Thanks to the attention the twitter account received, she landed a book deal and authored  the best-selling book, LEAVE YOUR MARK that has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, and Russian and is ranked #5 in Book Authority's "Best Career Development Books of All Time." Let me just say that I read Leave Your Mark right out of college and it was the first-ever career advice book I had ever read and she was one of my very first career role models so you can imagine that this is a very crazy full circle moment for me to be interviewing her on Active Ingredient. Like I honestly can’t believe it. Anyway, Leave Your Mark continues to live on and is now the title of her recently launched podcast, Leave Your Mark the podcast where she brews fresh career advice weekly with some of her most successful and dynamic friends. Aliza has received many accolades but to name a few she has been featured on the cover of The New York Times Style section in the article “Who Will Be America’s Next Top Mentor?” She is a TEDx speaker, a five-time Fashion 2.0 award winner, and been named one of Time's "Six Women Who Rule the Fashion World” and New York DAily News’ list of “Top 50 Most Powerful Women in New York,” 
On this episode we talk about her incredible career journey from editorial to public relations to authoring a book, consulting and launching a podcast, we talk about how public relations has drastically changed with the rise of social media and the decline of print, how podcasts are the new media real estate to pay attention to, we talk about the power and importance of humanizing a brand and of course we get into the power of connection and creating meaningful relationships.

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Dana Pollack is the CEO & Founder of Dana's Bakery, the first gluten free & kosher D2C online bakery specializing in creative macaron flavors (like Everything Bagel and Chocolate-Covered Strawberry) and viral desserts (like Rainbow Black & White Cookies and Mookies™). After a 10 year career in editorial photography, Dana had a literal "AHA" moment while working for a top-tier publication and decided that is not what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She put pen to paper and wrote down what her favorite hobbies were and baking was one of them. She then decided to enroll in culinary school and built Dana's Bakery, one of the first direct to consumer online baked goods companies. On today's episode we talk about Dana's photography career, what steps she took to make her bakery dream come true, why she decided to go direct to consumer, how social media has played a huge role for her and what it was about baking that she knew would have longevity.

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Cyndi is the founder and CEO of Chillhouse, which is a destination for modern self-care. Chillhouse was born when Cyndi and her husband, Adam, were looking to get massages one day and there were two options - to either get a ridiculously expensive massage and break the bank or get a massage at a questionable establishment where the ambiance was less than exciting - and they realized there was a huge gap in the market and a demand for what would soon become Chillhouse. Chillhouse, which currently has two locations in NY, offers new-age spa offerings like facials, massages, nail and pedicure services alongside a wellness cafe.

On today’s episode we talk about what Cyndi was like as a kid, how she dropped out of college, we get into her background in hospitality and her first businesses and side jobs, what it’s like to go into business with your husband or partner and how they establish boundaries, how she leveraged her first blog to network and connect with people who have now been integral to the success of Chillhouse, and what her hope is with the next phase of Chillhouse.

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