Fempower

Carmen Romero joins me on today’s episode to discuss how dance saved her life; in fact, it saved both of our lives and her daughter’s as well. Carmen, not only is my friend, but also my Flamenco teacher, and so much more. She continues to work as a brain rehabilitation therapist along her dance career. Her story is full of perseverance and passion in the face of tragedy with all the elements to fuel an authentic flamenco story and actually does inspire her performances. But Flamenco is more than that to her – it is her life philosophy. Carmen shares her life story with us and we discuss the importance of celebrating moments, the future of dance as our worlds become more automated with technology and how cross-training with dance has enhanced our professional skill sets in other disciplines; as well as the need to recognize how dance is undervalued in our society and what we need to do about it.  I hope you feel the power of this episode and are just as inspired by it as I was, in your journey.

Here’s a little more about Carmen:

Carmen Romero is known for her powerful performances.  The Toronto Star says, “she delivers flamenco with a raw immediacy that is far closer to the source than a lot of the theatrical Spanish dance passed off as authentic."

Compañía Carmen Romero is a flamenco dance and music collective based out of Toronto, Canada. Originally founded in 1986 by Carmen Romero as artistic director to Candela Flamenca. 

Carmen Romero is of Spanish heritage and was raised in Canada. It is remarkable that she has developed a collective of dancers and musicians that went on to perform with the collective, in Europe the United States and Asia.  The collective was then an ad hoc group of musicians and dancers who performed primarily at municipal and multicultural events. The collective produced three full-length theatrical flamenco productions: El Embrujo (The Bewitched) (1993), Flamenco Ayer y Hoy (Flamenco Yesterday and Today) (1997) and Carmen Complex (2003). El Embrujo. Flamenco de Ayer y Hoy premiered through Dance Works at the DuMaurier Theatre Centre, Toronto, then toured Canada the United States parts of Europe and Asia until 2002. The collective also created many smaller works such as Luna Llena (Full Moon) (1998), presented at fFIDA: this work competed in the 9th annual Certamen de Coreografía de Danza Española y Flamenco at the prestigious Teatro Albeniz in Madrid, Spain. During this event, Compañía Carmen Romero /CANADA was posted on their dressing room and since then the company was renamed Compañía Carmen Romero to reflect the milestone in the collective’s history as it was recognized as an international flamenco dance company representing Canada.

Dance International says, "The exclusive focus and depth of Romero’s commitment to the art of flamenco is not just understandable given her family heritage, but somehow fitting and more authentic.  She truly belongs to the history of flamenco in a way not easily achieved by non-Spanish dancers."

We Discuss:

• How Carmen overcame her early life suffering as an immigrant in Canada.
• Her artistic process.
• Art as Therapy.
• How creativity gives her an edge in her rehab practice.
• Her perseverance through multiple tragedies in her family.
• How she rebuilt her life after she lost everything.
• How her career as a brain rehabilitation therapist merged with her dance career to help heal her daughters traumatic brain injury.
• Flamenco as a Life Philosophy, the power of the arts and the understated value of dance.
• The complex technicality of Flamenco.
• What dance has given us in the merging of our professional disciplines with our careers in dance.
• The Brain-body connection.
• The importance of celebrating moments.
• Advice Carmen gives on healing your brain and recognizing the power of art in our lives.
• The future role of dance in a technologically automated world.
• And so much more!

 SHOW NOTES: www.fempower.ca

• Compania Carmen Romero: carmenromero.ca
• Instagram: companiacarmenromero
• Facebook: Compania Carmen Romero
• Andrea’s Dance Company: Enigma Dance Factory www.enigmadancefactory.com

On today’s episode, we have a genuine Superheroine! Sonya Ballantyne is an emerging filmmaker and writer from Misipawistik Cree Nation. Sonya won the 2014 Emerging Filmmaker Pitch Competition at Gimli Film Festival for Crash Site and the 2016 Short Film Pitch at ImagineNative Film Festival with Eagle Girl. She recently spoke at San Diego Comic Con about Indigenous Media Representation. She became interested in film because she wanted to see people like her mother as a starship captain on Star Trek or fighting aliens like Ripley. She wanted a Native hero that existed in the present or in the future, to show us that we made it. Her films put Indigenous girls and women in film genres where they are not traditionally included: horror, sci-fi, fantasy and superhero films. Sonya recently published her first children’s book, Kerri Berry Lynn, about a Cree girl from Misipawistik and her seven pet dogs. She is planning to publish her first graphic novel, a biography about Daphne Odjig, in 2020.

Sonya and I first met while we were preparing for our TEDx talk in Winnipeg and I found Sonya to be such an inspiration, a gentle warrior, with a killer sense of humour! I’m so excited that she’s on the show today and that she joins our Fempowered women. Her story is so important and this episode is full of profound wisdom and life experience. Grab a journal because you are going to want to capture those quotes and insights.

Enjoy this important and colourful episode and share the message – it’s too good to keep for just yourself 😉

Xox Andrea

In this episode we discuss:

• How we met through TEDx
• How superheroes helped her journey to being a filmmaker
• How she used her childhood challenges to save and change the world
• Her “Why”
• How she handled online harassment towards her recently
• How the “sisterhood” of women has helped her
• Sonya’s thoughts on self-image and overcoming societal pressures
• Sonya’s perspectives on love, life and learning about who she is and leaving a legacy
• How Sonya launched her initial film and gets her ideas off the ground
• How she got into filmmaking when her passion was in writing
• How she redefines “success”
• The impact her films are having back home and in her community
• How she got Mattel to make a Cree Barbie and became a brand ambassador
• How Sonya has reconnected to her traditional and cultural teachings
• Our ancestral stories and traditions
• What Sonya shared about life “on-reserve” vs. “off-reserve”
• What surprised Sonya the most when she first moved to the city
• The importance of community and the call from within
• Her breakthrough moment and her superpower
• How she uses her platform and fame for more good
• Why storytelling is important to Sonya
• What Sonya is currently reading and how much she reads and what she recommends
• Advice Sonya gives for women in filmmaking
• The ‘secret code’ of women
• The dreams Sonya is currently chasing
• Transitions as we move through generations in family
• Sonya’s favourite book,, movie and quotes
• Sonya’s single biggest lesson learned so far and her favourite singer!
• And so much more!

Today’s guest, Deborah Deal, CEO, Contractor and Environmentalist, is on the show. Debby has lived in the Bahamas for nearly four decades, it is her home, it is where she has established her businesses and it is where she serves her community and leaves her legacy for the betterment of the environment. I met Debby while speaking about Energy Security in the Bahamas and sharing my knowledge on microgrids and island energy. This past week has been heart wrenching for me, and to hear from Debby and share her story about the crisis is so important to know how we can help and discuss how we can move forward. Debby’s passion for community service is evident in the way she leads her life, speaks and acts with intention to contribute positively to our environmental crisis and how she brings attention to important topics, especially those surrounding the people of and the islands that she calls her home. We talk everything about the devastation currently in the Bahamas, and what moving forward could look like for the country, plus so much more. After all, as Debby says, The Bahamas is so much more than this disaster, more than just sun, sand and sea.

In this episode we discuss:

• Her recent experiences with hurricane Dorian
• What the reality is on the ground in The Bahamas after the hurricane
• How you can help The Bahamas
• What needs to change to rebuild better and protect the country
• Recommendations for best building practices from Deborah for The Bahamas
• Her life and entrepreneurial journey in The Bahamas
• Advice for women in non-traditional or male-dominated careers
• The importance of self-care and forming a supportive tribe
• The role of community and how everything is energetic and connected
• The dreams that Debby is chasing next!
• And so much more!

On today’s episode we talk about disrupting the funding and investment of women owned businesses with Investor and Serial Entrepreneur Shelley Kuipers! I met Shelley this summer at a fabulous conference on innovation and investment in Calgary called Inventures and her role on a women’s investment panel impressed me, so I wanted to bring her message, wisdom and knowledge to our Fempower community! Shelley Kuipers is building the world she wants to live in. As an activist in business, entrepreneurship and investment, she is hell bent on defeating the status quo one project at a time, and replacing it with options that are more equitable, feminist, corporately and ecologically sustainable; revolutionary options that drive greater value for both business and consumer. She co-founded IOVIA in 2015 after previously founding Chaordix, Stormworks and Adventure Capital. She is also co-founder of feminist investment collective, The51 and sustainable direct to consumer clothing brand Harris Kuipers, all in addition to championing the entrepreneurs she has chosen to invest in. Shelley loves to travel for business and adventure but also questions the sustainability of it all. When on a break Shelley finds herself revelling in nature with family and friends, and with the odd glass of cider at her home on Salt Spring Island, Canada. She divides her time between the west coast and Calgary, Canada and right this minute is probably dreaming up ways to realize the possibilities. Enjoy this episode, it’s magical! Xox Andrea In this episode we discuss:

• Her journey through her serial entrepreneurship experience and multiple companies to co-creating a women’s investment fund
• Her investing perspective
• “The 51” – a new fem-investment platform, www.the51.com
• Her latest participation commerce business
• Her advice on pitching to investors
• Her ethical clothing brand she is just launching end of this month
• Her vision moving forward in all her ventures
• Her unique superpower that is very grounding in our world
• And so much more!

  SHOW NOTES on website www.fempower.ca

Hello Everyone! I’m back with a solo episode and it’s based on my own reflections over the past month. Lots has happened and April has flown by compared to the slow pace of March. Lots of ideas and issues have come up this month and I took some intentional time to be quiet and reflect on many things. Now I’m back with a month worth of content that I can’t keep to myself! So today’s episode is a little different – I cover several topics that I’ve collected over the past month,  from workplace and life Biases, to the rise in hate-crimes and separation encountered in my local community and globally, and my thoughts on influencers and the responsibility and power that they have that is often misguided, abused or unrecognized and the trouble that can cause, and I wrap up on my take on the latest social media trends, such as the Celery Juice Craze that is driving up prices for celery, so much so that is it being reported as a celebrity factor in the price of this basic vegetable and I encourage you to pause and reflect on the sustainability of it all as well as how this is linked to our over consumption and serious recycling issues. Hope this gives you something to think about as well. Enjoy! Andrea In this episode I discuss:

• The 7 Biases encountered in the workplace and life: Unconscious, Performance, Attribution, Likeability, Maternal, Affinity, Double Discrimination & Intersectionality
• The rise in hate crimes and the illusion of separation
• "The Real Deal" vs. The façade in social media of influencers
• The abuse or neglect of power of social media influencers
• My take on the "celery juice craze"
• Sustainability vs. Trends and their inverse correlation
• Recycling and shifting the paradigm from "cradle to grave" to "cradle to cradle" and tackling our growing waste crisis.
• IG: @dr.andreakraj www.fempower.ca

On today’s episode we talk all things clean beauty, engineering, eco-entrepreneurship and more Clean Beauty Pioneer, the revolutionary Jenise Lee! A serial eco entrepreneur, Jenise is the founder & CEO of PurPicks - a site like TripAdvisor for organic skincare - which has the largest directory of nontoxic beauty products and largest database of product reviews. She is also the Founder of CertClean, North America's certification for safer skincare. You can find thousands of beauty and personal care products globally with the CertClean certification.

Jenise was honoured as one of Canada's top sustainability leader, named Canada's Top 100 health influencers alongside Wayne Gretzky and Sophie Trudeau, and nominated for the Governor General's Innovation Award. Jenise has a Chemical Engineering degree (University of Waterloo), and a MBA (Schulich School of Business). Prior to starting her MBA, Jenise worked as an environmental engineering consultant where she led projects related to environmental site assessments, environmental impact studies and feasibility studies on leading edge renewable energy from biomethanation plants to solar projects to waste-to-energy facilities. Enjoy! Andrea WE DISCUSS:

• Her story of how she arrived to where she is today through her engineering and business education path and her life events that lead her here
• What she was like as a child
• Our common threads as engineers, women, entrepreneurs and sustainability advocates
• Her favourite book, see the recommendation link below
• The 1400 harmful chemicals in common beauty products that she certifies AGAINST with her company CertClean
• What she recommends for starting off your clean-beauty journey
• Why she started PurPicks
• What she is up to next
• And so much more!

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY! This is a day to celebrate and not underestimate it's importance. Today's episode was a must. After almost a year of speaking about the power of the Divine Feminine how could I not put out a story for this important day?! In fact, the story is so important it talks about the both the Divine Fem and Masculine. This is an important episode recognizes that we are all composed of both these energies. I provide some treats at the end with a meditation and take home exercise for you on developing your fem and mas balance for creativity. And I make a couple announcements about some new ventures I'm onto... So tune in and enjoy - and celebrate the beauty of this day! Namaste, Andrea I DISCUSS:

• What feminine and masculine energies are
• How you can harness and develop it further
• The Old Age
• The New Age
• Finding balance
• Visualization example
• I give you a Meditation
• I give you aa take home exercise
• My new plant-based business
• My new coaching opportunities

Welcome to today's solo episode! I spent the last few months really working through the concepts of what excellence in leadership means and how it means to practice it daily and the challenges I would face as I strive to do so. Along the way, I learned many things, surprisingly that most are inadequately prepared to functionally operate at a level of excellent leadership and they don't even know it, because leadership takes work, and I mean a lot of internal work. Leadership differs fundamentally from management and it's important to know what that difference is so that we can strive to attain true leadership, beyond just management, especially if we care about our role and those we serve, be it at work, home or in the community. So sit back, tune in and relax as we discuss this important topic and how we can create the ecosystems we need to achieve excellence in leadership.  Namaste, Andrea IN THIS EPISODE I DISCUSS:

• what leadership is
• how leadership is different from management
• why this matters
• what is at the root of relationship breakdown
• how to create safe spaces to have hard conversations
• how to lead through challenges
• how poor leadership is not leadership
• what the key characteristics of excellence leadership are
• how emotions are key indicators to guide us in difficult situations
• how to identify what issue is yours and what is not yours and what this indicates
• how to bring these skills with us whether it be at work, home or in the community

Welcome to Season 2! Today’s episode is from our last Fempower Live event of 2018. I’m excited to finally bring you this fantastic episode about two fierce and strong woman entrepreneurs. One who immigrated to Canada not long ago, fleeing a life of many challenges and seeking the best for her daughter as a single mother, and the other who is homeschooling her two children while running the business. These two kind and generous souls met under serendipitous situations that enabled them to pursue their dreams together. Through grit and perseverance they are starting to feel the joys of their success. Gabrielle Zoppa and Harman Dhaliwal, together, are the co-owners of Spa Botanica, one of a few Ayurvedic spas in Winnipeg, MB. 

This episode is sponsored by GOLDEN OAK RECORD COMPANY – a multimedia and entertainment company focused on growing and supporting artists and businesses in North America. Through creation of opportunity, elevation of brand perception and education, Golden Oak invests in their partners whole heartedly no matter what level they are at. Golden Oak is also a female owned company.  Check them out: www.goldenoakrecordcompany.com or send them an email at [email protected] and you can find them on Instagram, facebook and youtube.

IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:

• What Ayurveda is and how their spa is unique
• How Harman and Gabrielle met and got to where they are today.
• How Joelle Foster (Episode 7) influenced and helped their journey.
• The highs and lows they have ensured and how they survived.
• How Harman had to work multiple jobs at the same time to survive and how this impacted her personal life and forced her to discover how to make her business more profitable.
• The challenges of a partnership in business and how they manage it
• How they use their intuition in operating their business
• + so much more!

Today’s guest and I share similar roots – we are both Aerospace Engineers who jumped careers into entrepreneurship and we both like to maintain a balance of our left and right brain through our spiritual studies. Ali Boone is a 9-to-5 dropout who left a high-paying career as an Aerospace Engineer to start her own business. She is the founder of Hipster Investments, a real estate investment company that flips real estate investing on its head. Not only does Hipster offer unique investment opportunities that open the door for anyone to invest in real estate, but Ali has structured Hipster in such a way that allows her full freedom to create the life of her dreams. Ali has Master’s degrees in both Aerospace Engineering and Spiritual Psychology. She has written over 170 articles for BiggerPockets—the world’s leading real estate investing website. She has been featured in Fox Business and The Motley Fool, has over 300k views on her Calculating Rental Property Numbers video on YouTube, has sold over 200 copies of her Turnkey Rental Properties 101 eBook, and was awarded Top 100 Real Estate Investing Blogs & Websites on the Web. If you ask Ali what her biggest accomplishment is though, she’ll tell you it’s that she successfully created a completely location-independent business that allows her to live wherever she wants, travel whenever she wants, work whenever she wants, and most importantly—be her own boss. Ali’s strengths are in organic business building, passive income, outsourcing, and lifestyle design. She also does business consulting where she specializes in looking at the puzzle pieces of struggling businesses and, using her engineering background and experience as a successful entrepreneur, helps fit those puzzle pieces back together in a way that best supports the client and their business. When Ali isn’t helping people buy real estate or coaching other entrepreneurs, she is usually flying airplanes around Santa Monica (and teaching other people to fly as well), hanging out in the SoCal outdoors whether it be the beach or the ski slopes, or volunteering in California prisons. She is also a failed reality makeover TV star. Amidst her busy schedule, her ultimate goal is to one-day challenge Tim Ferriss to a lifestyle design duel. It’s getting colder outside and that means Hygge Season! So cozy up into this episode and enjoy  - and remember, RSVP to [email protected] to reserve your spot to this week’s Fempower LIVE! Event happening on Sunday November 18, 2018 at 12:30pm at Spa Botanica. The details are under Events. Namaste, Andrea

In this episode we discuss:

• How Ali’s upbringing shaped her to follow a path into Aerospace Engineering
• Why Ali left her Aerospace career behind and started her own investment business
• How Ali found herself back in grad school, but this time in a topic that satisfied her right brain, while growing a business
• How Ali designed her lifestyle
• What a passive income is and how it is fundamental to lifestyle design
• What advice Ali would give her younger self and when
• Ali’s hidden talent
• The Goddess that I assign to Ali: Armetis