There are obstacles intrinsic to being an entrepreneur scaling your business amidst a global recession, and there are obstacles inherent to running a sustainable fashion business — in particular, you want your customers to buy less, to consume less, but that also means less revenues for you.

Now, let’s combine the obstacles from both of those circumstances and instead of one global recession, let’s make it two. There we have it: Stephanie Ostler’s entrepreneurial journey thus far. In this episode, you’ll learn more about how Stephanie, the founder of Devil May Wear, has not only resiliently survived but also thrived as a business owner during the 2008 recession AND current COVID-19 pandemic.

More about Stephanie:

Stephanie launched Devil May Wear, straight out of high school immediately attracting international attention and sales. By the time she was 30, she had 3 successful retail locations in Vancouver and Victoria, Canada. In 2013, she delivered a TEDx talk called “The Luxury to Buy Better” where she spoke about the value of buying fewer things you love more. Stephanie currently teaches a course at Simon Fraser University in business and design based on textile sustainability called "Make Change Studio".

More about Katy:

Katy is passionate human rights, animal welfare, and environmental activist, and the founder of Attire Media, an online platform that educates consumers about making ethical and sustainable fashion choices while promoting values of diversity and inclusion.  After working in the fashion industry as a marketing specialist, business consultant, and model, she recognized that there were still major gaps in the fashion industry relating to diversity, ethics, and sustainability. Taking initiative on the problems plaguing one of the world’s largest industries, Katy started Attire to alleviate the gaps and help consumers adopt conscious fashion practices. Katy is also currently studying Commerce at the UBC Sauder School of Business, and is passionate about using business tools to alleviate social and environmental issues.

Would you buy a t-shirt for $10? Would you still buy it if you knew that over 1,000 people were killed in the process? In 2013, Bangladesh's Rana Plaza collapse accentuated the dire working conditions of labourers (read: victims) of the fast fashion industry to the global community.

Knowing this human cost is enough to stop all of us from buying such goods, but the fast fashion industry’s persistent detrimental effects don’t stop here.

It is also notorious for its overwhelming disservice to the environment. One example: Because of excess clothing production and the brevity of its use, the equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

Having seen these staggering statistics (and more), Selina Ho has made it her mission to right the wrongs of the harmful fast fashion industry. Even today, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Selina continues to resiliently scale sustainable brands and educate consumers about slow fashion through the Recloseted podcast, e-book, and social media channels.

More about Selina:

Selina is the Founder & CEO of Recloseted, a consulting agency dedicated to collectively marching towards slow fashion with both businesses and consumers. Outside of sustainability, Selina also applies her business acumen in consumer health as a marketing manager at TELUS. When she's not working, you can find her on the mountains skiing and snowboarding, unwinding at a yoga class, or trying out new restaurants.

Selling is draining. Selling is egocentric. Selling is manipulative. Many people have these negative associations with selling, and yet, they feel that it’s nonetheless an integral component to being successful, whether it is advancing themselves in their career or growing their business. But what if you didn’t need to sell to achieve your version of success?

In this episode of Rise Regardless, Farnoosh Brock makes us privy to succeeding by eliminating the selling mindset. Instead? Adopt the serving mindset.

Having felt compelled to leave her successful engineering career at a top tech company to pursue her greater purpose of helping others raise their impact, influence and income, Farnoosh made the audacious move knowing that she would accept only half the income she and her husband once had. In doing so, Farnoosh pursed purpose over paycheck and embraced the serving mindset along the way.

More about Farnoosh:

Farnoosh went from electrical engineer and rising leader at a Fortune 100 company to business coach, trainer, and speaker at Google, Fidelity Investments and others. She has helped many individuals and businesses adopt the mindset of serving over selling to build deep trust, meaningful customer relationships as well as sustainable profits. In addition to her latest book, The Serving Mindset: Stop Selling and Grow Your Business, she is the author of the author of three health books as well as the  creator of Crack the Code to Get Promoted - a leadership & career advancement course for corporate professionals.

For many individuals coming from non-traditional and intersectional minority backgrounds, landing a corporate job at top companies, such as Google and JP Morgan, seems far out of reach. However, it doesn't have to be.

That’s why Jonathan Javier sheds light on how he’s leveraged rejection to redirect himself and his career trajectory. From persistently reaching out to recruiters to befriending his airplane seat neighbour, Jonathan shares what has been effective for him in achieving both personal and professional success. Ultimately, he’s turned himself from an underdog into a winner and continues to help others do the same through Wonsulting – his career consulting community.

More about Jonathan:

Since graduating from UC Riverside, Jonathan has worked at Snap, Google, and Cisco in Strategy & Operations. Outside of work, Jonathan has led over 39 Career Development workshops, runs his own career consulting firm, Wonsulting, and leads the ALPFA National Ambassador Program.

We’ve all heard of glass ceilings before, but do you know about bamboo ceilings? The term “bamboo ceiling”, like “glass ceiling”, addresses underrepresentation in leadership roles, but as opposed to highlighting women, it accentuates Asians in the Western workforce. Given stereotypes of being intelligent, hard working, and humble, Asians are often dubbed the “model minority”. Though really, “sticky floor” discriminatory employment practices are applicable to women, LGBTQ2+, and other minority groups alike — Asian people of colour included. 

And Jerry Lee is fully cognizant of this stark reality. 

As a young Asian professional climbing the American corporate ladder, Jerry shares his journey breaking the bamboo ceiling and beyond. From humble beginnings of independently funding his college degree, Jerry elaborates on how core Asian values, such as respect and hard work, have propelled him in quickly scaling the corporate ladder irrespective of the accompanying inevitable and paradoxical challenges he’s faced. And as accomplished as Jerry is, he attributes his ability to thrive and not only survive to more than just his merit, but to his communities of support as well. 

More about Jerry: 

Jerry is currently the youngest Strategy & Operations Manager at Google. He is from Torrance, California and graduated summa cum laude from Babson College. Outside of work, Jerry hosts workshops on financial literacy & professional developments and is starting his own Korean tapas food business. 

Follow Jerry on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jehakjerrylee 

"Thank you, again, for your interest in our company. We encourage you to apply for future openings for which you qualify." Rejection. Sound familiar? Of course. In this episode of Rise Regardless, we’re not concerned with rejection in itself. Instead, we’re focusing on how to learn, grown and remain resilient in the wake of it, so meet Tim Salau. Tim is a technical thought leader in the tech industry, a digital community builder, social media content creator, and so much more. Before that, however, Tim was a college student receiving rejection email after rejection email. In spite of reading hundreds of rejections, however, Tim nonetheless remained resolute. As he asserts, you only need one shot - one company - to have faith in you. For Tim, that one company was Google.  

More about Tim: Tim's life purpose is to strengthen the bonds people share through empathic and compassionate action. He is a community-obsessed and purpose-driven leader with expertise leading brand direction and championing innovation through community building, public speaking, and product leadership. Nigerian-born and Texas raised, Tim is a first-generation Texas Tech University and UT Austin alum with a B.A. in Psychology and MIS. He's the founder of Guide and Mentors & Mentees, a 6,000-member community platform, that enables students and professionals to thrive in the Future of Work. Leveraging his passion for tech and experience working with the Big 3: Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, all before the age of 24, he's devoted to making the tech industry a more inclusive space for people of color, women, and those pursuing tech with unconventional backgrounds. He's been recognized by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, SXSW, LinkedIn, Google, The Millennial Mogul and other media platforms for his work as a public figure, community leader, tech influencer, and a thought leader around the Future of Work. 

"There's little value in a college degree if you want to be an entrepreneur." We've all heard this before. This college-dropout entrepreneurship culture is becoming increasingly pervasive in modern-day society, especially across social media platforms, and the question is, is this really the case? Natalie Riso defends her college degree and shares how she balanced academia, entrepreneurship, journalism, content creation, and many other endeavours all at once as a student. As such, her significant growth is palpable proof of the indelible learning experiences that can accompany the traditional college path. 

More about Natalie: Natalie is a 3x LinkedIn Top Voice, Content Marketing Strategist, and Founder of Impact Mentality. Natalie graduated from USC in 2018 as the #1 most followed student on LinkedIn with currently over 410K followers and continues to create content on Gen Z, female entrepreneurship, social impact, and corporate culture. In addition to creating content on LinkedIn and running social strategy, she started Impact Mentality, an event series and online community at the intersection of social impact, entrepreneurship, and marketing. Natalie has also consulted for academics and professionals on personal branding, served as a pitching coach for tech startups, and has been featured in Adweek, Variety, and more.

You can have all that is romanticized to constitute happiness, from a prestigious college degree to a highly-coveted and lucrative career, but that doesn't necessarily ensure you achieve your version of happiness. If you feel or have felt this way, you're not alone; this is a common phenomenon in everyday society that overwhelms many. That's why Stephanie Harrison sheds light on the New Happy - the understanding that happiness is not purely derived from individual accomplishments, but instead, it also stems from helping others to collectively achieve success, however success is defined.

More about Stephanie: Stephanie leads The New Happy community, a movement devoted to creating happiness for all beings everywhere. She also leads a team at LinkedIn devoted to successfully launching products that connect talent with opportunity. An expert on well-being & work, she guides leaders through bringing positive psychology concepts to their organizations and supports individuals in their pursuit of fulfillment at work.

Rise Regardless is more than just a podcast show. We're a platform for sharing anecdotes of enduring both unique and commonplace hardships with grit. We're your bi-weekly source of alacrity and friendly reminder that in spite of any hurdles that buffet your path, you can and will emerge triumphant. And, we're a community of resilient individuals who support one another in our unwavering efforts to surmount our respective obstacles. If you're ready to triumph over adversity vicariously through and learn invaluable lessons from entrepreneurs, community builders, thought leaders and more, join us in rising regardless! About our host: Patrisse Chan is a modern-day storyteller, lifestyle and well-being architect, and vehement advocate for honing our humanistic approach to learning so that we can continue to build robust relationships with one another amidst rapid technological change. She is currently pursuing her Bachelor of International Economics and Master of Management Dual Degree at UBC and leverages her position as a student to build a community of next generation (z) leaders. 

Connect with & follow Patrisse on:

Special credits go to Eunice Wu for the cover art & Devin Mills (Shleepytime) for the theme music.