Entreprenista

Acting on the vision of building a solution that’s about making women’s lives easier…

Women need to be treated as first-class citizens in health care and the primary decision makers. Thanks to the power of social media platforms like Instagram, women are really pushing each other forward and empowering one another to learn more and take action for their own health. Knowledge truly is power, Kindbody will be passionately leaning into their strong growth in a big way, and Kindbody has personal meaning to one of the Socialfly team .

Gina Bartasi, Founder/CEO of Kindbody (a full service women’s health and fertility platform, reinvented for the women of today), joins Socialfly founders Stephanie Cartin and Courtney Spritzer in the MouthMedia Network studios for a conversation about building her company and her journey to success, along with a surprise and a brainstorm.

In this episode:

From former patient to disruptor in the space, having passion for change

From building Fertility Authority 10 years ago, to recently launching Kindbody, what has changed in the healthcare space? The answer, not much…

Seeking transparency and truth with Kindbody; only 3 things matter in healthcare – patient outcome, patient experience, and cost

Shifting into services to positively affect change with the women’s health and fertility space

Gina’s first business in Atlanta; the Leader Publishing Group – knowing when to pivot and moving to NYC

Finding ways to listen to your audience and meet their needs and wants

Not fearing change and getting ahead of it

Finding ways to remove costs from the system, not adding costs to the system – bringing reproductive endocrinologists and OBGYNs on staff at Kindbody

The genesis of Kindbody; creating better health for women, all services under one roof

The broken healthcare system and the roadblocks in place by insurance companies like Aetna

IVF vs IUI

Finding ways to speak to women in their 20s to educate them about the issues they may face in their 30s

How to create parody in space, the disadvantages women face in the work force

Creating options for women, “I wish I knew then what I know today.”

The reality of costs for egg freezing, how can we make it affordable and available for everyone

When are you the most fertile and when can you expect to see declines?

Testing women with their new pop up mobile experience: 20% of women tested have diminishing ovarian reserve – they key is education, not fear, and empowering women with knowledge

80% of the time women prefer female doctors, and Kindbody’s efforts to accommodate that.

The launch of Kindbody; early business success is a product of a strong team

Seeing the success of mobile pop ups in other industries and bringing it to the women’s health space; bringing the van’s success to the west coast

Spreading the word on social media and women supporting women

How to build a strong brand, looking for adjacent brands to partner with and associate with

Removing the stigma associated with fertility and bringing it to the retail level.

Sharing a surprise with Gina

Dealing with criticism and stress in the spotlight; avoiding mistakes and learning from the past

How to be more patient, learning from people around you

Twins marrying twins

60 second brainstorming session with Gina

Understanding the needs of Kindbody as it continues to grow

What has surprised Gina most about the launch of Kindbody

Stephanie sharing her fertility journey on social media

What’s next for Kindbody?

The lessons learned from the raising capital

A special offer from Kindbody

Turning a childhood dream and resulting side hustle into a full-fledged career as a sought-after wedding dress designer with a large following and celebrities wearing her creations, and even a TV show, and how early adoption of Instagram gave her momentum…

Hayley Paige, Head Designer for Hayley Paige at JLM Couture, Blush by Hayley Paige, and Jim Hjelm by Hayley Paige bridal collections and for Hayley Paige Occasions bridesmaids collection, joins Socialfly founders Stephanie Cartin and Courtney Spritzer in the MouthMedia Network studios for a conversation about her journey to success, along with a surprise and a brainstorm.

In this episode:

How Hayley made a shift from focusing on gymnastics to using skills she learned at home and at school to bridge her work and her lifelong passion

The ways studying at Cornell’s Fiber Science department helped Hayley develop her skills and influenced her approach to design

How a friendship in college led to an early entrepreneurial venture, and how that experience shaped Hayley’s own ventures

How Hayley became an early adopter on Instagram and developed a strong following

The moment Hayley realized she could turn her side hustle into a full-fledged career

Hayley’s determination to work with JLM Couture and how she made it happen

The moment Hayley knew she had her own collection

How Hayley’s line have evolved over time and what’s in store for the future of the brand

The TV show “Weddings to Watch”

Plus, a One Minute Brainstorm for Hayley Paige’s next big product line

Delivering on a social media strategy and a thoughtful marketing plan as part of the DNA of launching a business from the beginning, finding people who roll with punches matters, the art of winning with a small team, the impact of making yourself valuable, and persevering in spite of tough personal challenges…

Samantha Wasser, Restaurateur and Founder of by CHLOE, & Co-Founder of DEZ and The Sosta, joins Socialfly founders Stephanie Cartin and Courtney Spritzer in the MouthMedia Network studios for a conversation about her journey to success, along with a surprise and a brainstorm.

In this episode:

Getting into the food world

Spending a lot of free time in restarants with friends, inspiring to go into the business

Building by CHLOE for 3+ years

Studied sociology/psychology in college 

The 2009 job market was tough, Samantha worked for a year wthout pay to get her foot in the door

Samantha on how she only wanted to work with her father in restaurants if she could create her own brands

How she has created an “Instagram dream”, everything so thought-out in appearance and function

How Samantha was excited for vegan restaurants because of her impending wedding then she decided to create a vegan restaurant that was approachable and felt like you really belong

Instagram feed vs. stories

Using stories to connect with customers and engage users

Cookies and pastries are so instagrammable

CBD-infused by CHLOE sweets

Sourcing CBD oil

A kind of traveling pop-up plus a dozen locations

Managing so many business priorities

Finding the right partners

You figure it out, all encompassing, you will find the tme when something is meaningful for you

How the business recently took on outside funding for first time

Growing the team, identifying the right employees, building culture with experiences, being a fun boss

A typical day for Samantha

How Samantha doesn’t want to be a boss that is unavailable or at a distance

The importance of an open office environment

Focusing on best skills with the immediate team

Mistakes that have been made

Kombucha

Samantha’s fertility journey while running business, putting yourself first when it matters so much

The emotional impact of miscarriages and how it created a lack of openness, how that changed with IVF

Pilates and yoga a part of game-changing routine

Maternity leave for an entreprenista?

A brainstorm for a new restaurant idea

What if your job was making people happy at the most special moments of their life? Can someone make a career change at 30, follow their passion to build a very successful business with dozens of employees, and win major accolades as a business leader —all without a business degree?

Dana Pollack, CEO and Founder of Dana’s Bakery (which revolutionizes the traditional French macaron with an authentic American twist), joins Socialfly founders Stephanie Cartin and Courtney Spritzer in the MouthMedia Network studios for a conversation about her journey to success, a surprise, and a brainstorm.

In this episode:

Dana’s former career at Muscle and Fitness magazine

Her light bulb moment – when she asked for a raise and was declined

Faced with screen of oily men working out—asking will she really do this the rest of my life

Photo industry in transition, switching digital wanted to do something different after 10 years=–what would she want to do

Realizing she loved baking and entertaining

Dana realized she should get formal training, and within a week enrolled in culinary education and quit job, and broke up with boyfriend

Everyone except for her mom thought she was crazy to do this at 30 years old

Never anticipating what it the bakery became

How she knew could always pick up work in editorial world, but never had to

Found a job as pastry cook while going to school to get experience as fast as possible

Never went to business school, learned largely online basics of starting a business

How her mom helped her, no investors or partners, bootstrapping

When she photographed macaroons like sexy perfume, people were drawn to them

Using American flavors instead of traditional macaroon flavors

Social media as marketing helped people find out about them all over the country, then Dana hand-delivered and was not making a lot of money because the cost of delivering

Collaboration with Drake for Valentines Day

Favorite flavor is the “Mallomac” – a Mallomar bar without gluten

Biggest mistake made in packaging — $60k of unusable branded inventory

Making a formal business plan vs. getting things done

A surprise for Dana and idea for a new flavor!

The challenge of hiring the best talent

Why she has no partner to date

Why it is best to hire people who are better than you are at skills

Being at 35 employees

Typing and email answering assignments with new employees

Expanding the operating and offerings

Why showing up is such a major thing

Marketing strategy

Partnership with Dylan’s Candy Bar

The Mookie – a macaroon inside a cookie

How an Instagram contest created a new product

The rainbow black and white cookie

Looking at ROI of every dollar spent

Organic social media posts have always worked, preferring marketing dollars for ad words and FB ads

Sharing her entire days on Instagram

Planning days, every day is different, the importance of the calendar in phone

How Dana doesn’t have a set schedule every day

Running personal and business Instagram accounts, and how running a business account like a personal account speaks to the brand

Dana’s most used apps

How helpful people are, and why being willing to ask for help is huge

Being able to recover by recognizing when something goes wrong in the business

A brainstorm for a new flavor idea for the holidays

And, a big accolade as a business leader without a business degree is a credit to her team

Tapping into the mindset of female millennials, building a viral social media and digital humor company that’s become a thriving creative brand (expanding with changing trends and with a huge Instagram following), and why doing it with best friends from middle school has succeeded…

Sami Fishbein, Co-Founder and COO of the digital brand Betches and co-author of “When’s Happy Hour”, joins Socialfly founders Stephanie Cartin and Courtney Spritzer in the MouthMedia Network studios for a conversation about her journey to success, a surprise, and a brainstorm.

In this episode:

Managing people that are same age or younger

Going into business with close friends from middle school after going to Cornell with them

How Sami uses what she learned in college in the business

That moment of co-founding Betches

Running a company when no one on the founding team went to business school—how they figured it all out, and how sharing and dividing responsibilities is difficult

Finding the right people to hire, how to evaluate people, and how attention to detail important in considering them

Launching the first company site BetchesLoveThisSite.com, and how the team just wanted to do for college aged people a like list of things they liked

The site was originally envisioned as a dark satire

The simple and unassuming start of writing the first five posts in the first night, then asking someone to put on a Facebook wall

Staying as an anonymous presence for a few weeks, then how it all went viral fast

How it wasn’t long until a TV producer contacted them, then they got an agent, were recommended to write a book

Taking three years to monetize, working out of WeWorks, no outside funding

First hires, staying small for a while, most hiring in the last year or so

That time they considered calling it quits, but stuck with it

When hit their stride and kept going

Working through disagreements with friends you run a company with, how you have to communicate, becoming better communicators

Why Betches is moving into podcasting, building podcasts across several verticals

What’s in the works for 2019

The book “Whens Happy Hour”, and writing it in three months

A politics bus

A TV show in development, like a female South Park

If Sami ever felt like she was burning out?

And — a 1 Minute Brainstorm on the next big book idea

The Entreprenista Podcast is a weekly show featuring the stories of successful female founders and what it’s really like to run a business. Hosted by Stephanie Cartin & Courtney Spritzer, co-founders of Socialfly, a leading social media marketing agency, each episode goes beyond what you see on Instagram and into the nitty-gritty of growing and scaling a company effectively from women who’ve done it. Follow the show at @entreprenistas on Instagram!