PM School

Our next guest, Lauren Schulte Wang, is the CEO & Founder of Flex…

Lauren founded Flex because she wanted to help people with periods thrive, which means menstrual products are just the beginning.

She and her growing team believe in a world where “vagina” isn't a bad word, where trans men and non-binary bleeders are part of the conversation, and where nobody is turned away from essential period care due to their financial situation.

Lauren emancipated herself from her family at 15, paid her way through college by working full time in high-tech, was inspired by a friend to finally go after her big idea of starting a better for you period care company.

In this episode we talk about her journey scraping together $50K over multiple years and jobs to ultimately bootstrap the first days of Flex, going through Y Combinator - Silicon Valley’s iconic (mainly) tech incubator, and thoughtfully raising over $7M to help the world have better periods. I’m personally obsessed with both Lauren and my Flex products and know you will be too.

Listen to this episode if:

1) You’ve wondered about the process of applying to an accelerator program as a launching pad for your big idea.

2) You’ve wondered how raising capital and building a growing, profitable business go hand-in-hand

3) You’re interested in the behind the scenes thoughts of an entrepreneur who’s raised multiple rounds of capital with different leverage in each round, but never lost sight of the fact that he purpose is to serve - her customers and her team.

Grab your wine, grab your biz bestie & tune in!

I can’t wait to hear what you think.

See you in class,

Stef

What would you do if you had unlimited time, money and network? These questions and others are what led our next guest to creating & raising money for the business of her dreams. Our next guest, Lori Harder, is the founder and CEO of Lite Pink, a new lite rosé wine spritz and non-alcoholic rosé.

Lori founded Lite Pink because she wanted to create a platform to celebrate women, help them truly create meaningful connections, and give them something that makes them feel better without sacrificing their business, health, or friendship goals.

She is the best-selling author of A Tribe Called Bliss, the founder of The Bliss Project event, runs a Forbes Top 11 business podcast with 30 million downloads, and co-hosts the new podcast Girlfriends & Business, launched alongside Alli Webb (founder of Drybar) and Brittany Driscoll (founder of Squeeze).

Her career started in the fitness industry as a 3X fitness world champion, 11X fitness cover model, and gym owner. Listen to this episode if:

You want proof that regardless of your background, education or current income level you can achieve every single one of your biggest dreams today + beyond.

You want to collapse a lifetime of time and experience into one hour and borrow Lori’s exact formula for success.

You’re interested in raising money for your business and want to go behind the scenes with Lori on her journey to raising $2M from all women investors.

Grab your wine, grab your biz bestie & tune in!

I can’t wait to hear what you think.

See you in class,

Stef

What if everyone in your life told you: “Don’t do it.” but you knew you had to do it anyway? What would happen?

Well, what if it turned out better than you can possibly imagine?

Our next guest, Jessica Wenger McPhaul, found herself at 18 enrolled in a state school which wasn’t going to get her where she wanted to go. She decided it was time to drop out, head to LA and get involved in the business she was most interested in - fashion design & film.

As a costume designer, she worked on some of the coolest sets you can possibly imagine and even has an Emmy nomination for her work on one of the biggest shows of the last decade.

Now, she’s behind her own luxury lingerie line crafted for every woman on earth, with nudes that match every single skin tone - helping women feel acknowledged, included and comfortable in her designs.

Listen to this episode if:

You have people in your life telling you “no” & you are looking for the permission slip you need to go after your big dream anyway

You’re feeling like now is the time to dust off a dream you’ve had on your heart for a while

You’re a mom who needs to know that you can be a mom of two with a third baby on the way and still be taking massive action

Welcome to 2022! If you are looking for the edge you need to show up irresistibly magnetic in 2022, hit the play button now. This is for you.

In this episode, Stef shares the four questions you need to ask yourself every day in ‘22 so that you achieve your biggest goals this year. You won’t want to miss this juicy goodness. Get your notes doc / journal ready.

Tune into this episode to hear three limiting beliefs you need to leave behind in 2022 & what I am doing to leave them behind as well.

Stef / PM School Podcast is taking a break for the holidays & making some big career moves. Tune in to learn more about these changes and what to expect in the new year.

Lisa Boettcher is the creator and founder of Prim & Clove. She knew that she wanted to make beautiful, high-quality, functional bags for ambitious, adventurous moms—the exact thing that she wanted so badly but could not find anywhere as she went from being a mom of one, to two, to three, and now four. Prim & Clove is all about creating ethically made, stylish products and building a community of like-minded moms with programs to support mothers - empowering women in every aspect of their practices from hiring to sourcing, creating, serving and more.

Have you ever wondered what it would take to launch your own clothing line? No experience in fashion or design? No problem... Stef sits down with Halfdays Co-founder Ariana Ferwerda to take you behind the scenes from inception to launch to scale-mode with Halfdays, a for-women, by-women ski & outdoor gear brand.

Ariana Ferwerda is the co-founder and CEO of Halfdays, a ski wear brand for the modern woman. She and her two co-founders were frustrated with the state of the current outdoor apparel industry, specifically due to the male-dominance that existed. They set out to create a brand that was built by women for women, creating gear that is much more approachable, inclusive, and fun than the rest of the industry.

Ariana runs the operational and business development side of Halfdays, including growth and fundraising. Prior to starting Halfdays, she spent her early career working in market intelligence and retail consulting. She graduated with her undergrad and graduate degree from the Eli Broad College of Business @ Michigan State University, focused on Market Research and Analytics. She was born and raised in Michigan, and currently lives and works in Denver, CO.

Dee Charlemagne is the co-founder of AVEC, a line of premium, better for you mixers made in Brooklyn. Named after the French word for with, AVEC is changing what you mix “with” your spirit. Launched in 2020, AVEC is rethinking their category, creating all natural, real mixers that are low in sugar and calories and pairing it with a brand that speaks to the diverse and progressive spirit of today. As an NYC native, Dee was formerly an advertising executive with a blend of experiences spanning traditional marketing, digital, media, branded content and publishing. Dee holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and bachelors from Harvard University.

These two sisters have made it their life’s mission to support women and create safe, uplifting, and simply FUN environments to connect in. After years of growth in supporting women by hosting podcasts, workshops, and events, they decided to take their mission to the next level.

Dionna & Dany Gray have built a team of progressive women who were already pushing the barrier of experiences in Chicago, with whom they shared their mission.

Wanting to connect women in Chicago and beyond, they have begun to develop WOMANISH as a movement that breaks single-definition stereotypes of being a woman and celebrates various womxn’s perspectives through the interactive art of experiences.

WOMANISH is a movement that explores expressions of identity & perspectives through visual & physical exhibitions & experiences produced by womxn.

Get your tickets for Chicago & Miami locations now: https://wearewomanish.com/

In 2010 Madison and her brother Matt set out to change the men’s skincare industry by creating a luxury line of products that was priced above what was traditionally being done in men’s skincare. This led to the discovery that even on the highest end of men’s care, women were spending on average twice as much and in many cases far more than men on products that didn’t tout better ingredients or efficacy, but in many cases were the same quality, just at a higher price point.

Madison Ruggieri is the co-founder of Onekind, a beauty brand dedicated to fighting the pink tax (aka that arbitrary amount of money added to products just because they’re made for women) and doing so in a way that provides amazing skincare products to consumers that are clean, work as well as top of the line luxury skincare and are built by and for the customer from day one.

She and her brother Matt are now the masterminds behind not one, not two but four skincare brands upending the traditional skincare market & making their own rules.

I’m personally obsessed with OneKind and exclusively use their Dream Cream & Midnight Magic PM Serum, aka the PM Power Couple, plus I am head over heels for their Mega Multitasker All-day Moisturizer.

It’s an honor to be able to sit down with Madison Ruggieri.