Posts Tagged ‘Women in Business’
191 Kara Goldin Founder/CEO Hint Water is Undaunted
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In this episode, we do have a world changer. She’s both an entrepreneur, author, and podcaster. She’s the category queen of a new category of flavored healthy water. Her name is Kara Goldin and she’s the founder and CEO of a product you probably have tried and most likely love called Hint water.
Fortune named Kara one of the most powerful women entrepreneurs and Forbes says she’s one of the 40 Women To Watch Over 40. Today, she reveals how Hint Water could have just been another idea that never went anywhere if she had let her own doubts or the doubts of others be the end of the story.
Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters
Kara has recently launched a new book called Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters. It is currently number one on the Amazon charts. IN fact, Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer at Facebook says it’s a great read for entrepreneurs looking for proof that her dream can come true.
Even if you’re not an entrepreneur, you’re going to love this conversation with Kara and the story behind her book.
You Don’t Need To Know Everything
Christopher asks Kara about the statement, “you don’t need to know everything, you just have to know where to start. Kara expounds on her opinion on this statement. A lot of times, people give all sorts of excuses to not get a project starting. Most people say they lack education, or are not well-experienced enough or they spend too much time with their kids.
“Once you ultimately start moving it forward, that actually adds up to getting over challenges, making progress. Whatever it is, you just have to start somewhere in order to ultimately get it going in some direction. You may change direction as well, but at least if you start somewhere. That’s ultimately what helps you to achieve your dream success.” – Kara Goldin
Looking For The Perfect Job
Kara made a transition from the technology world — where she was an executive handling 200 people — into starting her own business. She was against incredible odds in creating a whole new beverage category and becoming the category queen.
She recounts in this episode what made her decide to do the transition and how while she was looking for the perfect job, she was also scouting to find the best diet and for the best doctors to diagnose her as she gained weight after birthing her kids.
“I saw this, ultimately, this void in the market that would lead me to launch my company Hint. A few steps before that was when I finally decided that the best thing for me to really understand why I wasn’t as healthy as I wanted to be, would be to actually look at ingredients and everything that I was eating and drinking.” – Kara Goldin
To know more about Kara, her journey to a healthy life, and why she is undaunted, download, and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Kara Goldin is a disruptor, builder, thought leader, and successful entrepreneur.
She is the Founder and CEO of Hint, Inc., best known for its award-winning Hint® water, the leading unsweetened flavored water.
She has been named one of InStyle’s Badass 50, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, Fortune’s Most Innovative Women in Food & Drink, and EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California.
The Huffington Post listed her as one of six disruptors in business, alongside Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.
Kara has successfully navigated the world of large companies and startups in many industries including media, tech, and consumer products.
In addition, she understands retail and direct to consumer well. She is an active speaker & writer and hosts the podcast Unstoppable with Kara Goldin where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs, and other disruptors across various industries.
Kara’s first book, Undaunted, published by Harper Leadership, will be released in October 2020.
She lives in the Bay Area.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!
104 Enterprise Tech Category Queen Jennifer Tejada
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Our guest for today is the CEO of the newly public, enterprise technology company PagerDuty, none other than Jennifer Tejada.
This episode is the second part of the two-part series on IPO. Jennifer shares with us today how it is like to go public. This is a celebration of entrepreneurship and you’ll have fun listening to this long-free-form conversation.
Legendary IPO
Jennifer had a legendary career in Silicon Valley. Various media outlets featured Jennifer due to the recent IPO of PagerDuty, a leading platform for real-time operations.
In a moment of victory, what Christopher calls as “a celebration of entrepreneurship,” Jennifer recounts to Christopher the joys and pains on transitioning from being private to becoming public.
“I enjoyed the process of being forced to refine our story and our value proposition for retail investors and laypeople. I think its really helpful for the business to go through that exercise.” – Jennifer Tejada
NYSE Feels
Jennifer shares that there was not much significant change in terms of their monthly operations. In fact, she perceives the preparation to go public as running two-jobs and she and her CFO vowed to make the most out of it.
“It’s very hard to describe the intrinsic rewards of looking down from the podium of NYSE at a group of people and just seeing this, sort of wonderment in their faces. They just can’t believe, little old us got here, and that is one of the most rewarding moments of my career.” Jennifer Tejada
Jennifer also professed her admiration with her employees who went through this significant milestone with her.
“I don’t think there’s enough of said or honor pay to the folks that bet their careers early on and take pay cuts and take on option risks, to see a company through multiple investment cycle and growth cycles and ups and downs.” – Jennifer Tejada
Extending Reach
Jennifer describes IPO as a big-day-coming-out-party-to-the-world. Further, she mentions that one of the reasons PagerDuty went public is to extend its reach, to tap an enormous market opportunity. She believes being under the radar does not serve that big mission.
“We serve the enterprise market and these enterprises are members of NYSE. They are traded in the NASDAQ. They expect the level of transparency around our performance and how our capitals are being spent and the long term viability of our businesses.” – Jennifer Tejada
Likewise, going public can help create brand awareness and credibility because the company has to go through a lot of processes that will serve public market investors.
“In my view, that rigor, and extra scrutiny is good for business. Hiding away in the private market just for the sake of staying away from that scrutiny is not a good thing because you can’t survive with poor habits for a long period of time.” – Jennifer Tejada
To hear more about the Enterprise Tech Category Queen Jennifer Tejada, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Jennifer Tejada is the CEO and Chairperson of PagerDuty (NYSE: PD), a leading platform for real-time operations.
She is a veteran software industry executive and business leader with over 25 years of experience, spanning mass consumer products to disruptive cloud and software solutions.
Jennifer has a successful track record in product innovation, optimizing operations and scaling public and private enterprise technology companies.
PagerDuty went through a strong IPO in April 2019 through her leadership.
Prior to her role at PagerDuty, Jennifer was the CEO of Keynote Systems where she led the company to strong profitable growth before its acquisition by Dynatrace in 2015.
Before Keynote, Jennifer was Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at the enterprise software company Mincom leading its global strategy up to its acquisition in late 2011 by ABB.
She has also held senior positions at Procter & Gamble and i2 Technologies (acquired by JDA Software).
Jennifer currently serves as a board member of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) and Puppet, Inc.
Jennifer holds a B.S. from the University of Michigan.
Links:
PagerDuty analysts shower stock with love even after doubling in a month
PagerDuty stock skyrockets nearly 60% on first trading day after IPO
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
097 Legendary Writer Dushka Zapata
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One of the most prolific and important writers in the world and our most regular guest Dushka Zapata, joins us today. We had a heartfelt conversation about mending broken-hearts, why grief is worst when you’re young, why discipline is better than inspiration and many more!
Writing Beautiful Answers at Quora
You may find Dushka lounging in Question and Answer site Quora, where her writings receive 140 million views. Her life-affirming, fun and powerful answers have garnered her quite a following, including Christopher himself.
During this conversation, she shared a wonderful passage where we can learn a thing or to about mending a broken heart. She shares a story about a big, crowded yoga class she attended. The intention was to heal the physical and non-physical aspects of the person — whether a sprain, a wound or even sorrow, anxiety and loneliness.
“At this point, I sneaked a peek. I opened my eyes and slowly panned the room. I would say that 97% of the people on the room had placed both their hands over the left side of their chest.” – Dushka Zapata
She left a powerful message to readers, reminding everyone to tread very carefully in this world because, in reality, almost everyone is desperately trying to mend a broken heart.
Grief is Worse When You’re Young
Dushka shares another question lifted from Quora about a young 16-year old who wanted to marry her girlfriend. She crafted a very creative and wholehearted response: she affirmed what the young lad was feeling and then informed him that this feeling is temporary.
“Feelings — real and deep — change. Feelings change and the fact that they do is what breaks me. The fact that it changes, saves me and it will save you too.” – Dushka Zapata
She concludes that the younger you are, the more confusing things are because you don’t know you can survive them.
Discipline Matters More Than Being Inspired
Dushka shares to Christopher about some days in her career, where she counts on being disciplined, rather than inspired., which she believes is the secret to anything.
“I don’t think there is such a thing as motivation. I think that you just do it because, you said you are gonna do it every day.” – Dushka Zapata
More on this Oddcast, Christopher, and Dushka discuss the importance of being an amateur. She also conversed about her new book, You Belong Everywhere and Other Things You’ll Have to See for Yourself.
To hear more about Legendary Writer Dushka Zapata, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Dushka Zapata is one of the most prolific and popular writers working today.
On question and answer site Quora her work has been viewed over 140 million times.
She’s the author of eight best-selling books.
Dushka has over 20 years experience as a senior communications executive in Silicon Valley.
When she’s not writing, she serves as a communications executive at tech juggernaut Zendesk.
Links:
New Book: You Belong Everywhere and Other Things You’ll Have to See for Yourself
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
012: Negotiation, Teams & Diversity w/ Stanford Prof. Margaret Neale
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Today, Prof. Margaret Neale joins us for a riveting conversation about research-based negotiation, teams, and diversity. She shares insights that haven’t been heard before, like why engaging in a negotiation as though going into battle is a bad idea.
“When I have this view of negotiation as a battle, then that mindset becomes the filter through which I evaluate all your behaviors.” – Prof. Margaret Neale
On Research-Based Negotiations
Too often, people have a lot of negotiation beliefs and insights that are not supported by empirical evidence. And often, these beliefs are repeated. This is the reason why Prof. Neale tries to help people think about negotiation in a broader sense.
Through her work and teaching, she also shares strategies and tactics that are research-focused and probably not mainstream.
Value Creation and Claiming
Take for example the infamous strategy of most people who engage in negotiation and talking about the price. In order to get what they want, they’re most likely not being truthful. They start way above their ideal price so they can argue their way down the middle, while the other party does the same thing from below.
“The challenge in negotiation is that you are trying in most situations to trade off value creation and value claiming.” – Prof. Margaret Neale
But value creation is a process that’s independent of value claiming. When we think of them simultaneously during a negotiation, we cause the other party to come up with more extreme counteroffers. We are then less likely to find an outcome to the negotiation.
Collateral Damage of Negotiation Battles
The concept of negotiation as a battle creates all sorts of collateral damage. And this is why Prof. Neale wants to move people away from it.
“I make my most malevolent interpretation of those behaviors because you’re the other, you’re the enemy.” – Prof. Margaret Neale
Not to mention that this mindset, when reciprocated, ultimately causes laser-focus on winning the fight. It then becomes a matter of who gets to beat whom, which is far from the true goal of the interaction.
To hear more do’s and don’ts of negotiation and insights on teams and diversity from Prof. Margaret Neale, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Dr. Margaret Neale is the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Graduate School of Business Stanford and Co-director of Executive Program for Women Leaders.
Margaret Neale’s research focuses primarily on negotiation and team performance. Her work has extended judgment and decision-making research from cognitive psychology to the field of negotiation.
Dr. Neale was the Graduate School of Business John G. McCoy-Banc One Corporation Professor of Organizations and Dispute Resolution from 2000-2012.
Trust Faculty Fellow in 2011-2012 and in 2000-2001. Dr. Neale received her BS in Pharmacy from Northeast Louisiana University, her MS from the Medical College of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University, and then her Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Texas.
Links:
Graduate School of Business Stanford
Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab
Articles:
- Professor Margaret Neale Named 2011 Davis Award Recipient
- Why Women Must Ask (The Right Way): Negotiation Advice From Stanford’s Margaret A. Neale
We hope you enjoyed Prof. Margaret Neale on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
005 Dushka Zapata and Heather Clancy – Niche Down: The Power of Being Different
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Why is Niche Down, a book meant to be shared with everyone, so personal to its authors? On this episode, Dushka Zapata and Heather Clancy join Christopher to talk niching down, why being different is a superpower, and so much more.
Starting Out Differently While Young
Christopher, half the dynamic duo behind Niche Down, had to deal with what makes him different quite early. He knew he was smart in certain areas and not so much in some. Reconciling his weaknesses and strengths proved very difficult.
“My life has been one giant dichotomy, one giant bipolar adventure.” – Christopher Lochhead
He was highly talented in music and drama but got 4 out a 100 in math. It wasn’t until he was enrolled to a fine arts school that he finally gained his footing. Around the same time, he began to realize, in waves over time, that being himself was the way out of everything.
Looking at Different Things
Then there is Heather, the kid who was brought up to be a well-rounded student. She was amazing at math, in fact taking advanced classes on pre-calculus and physics. While she was programmed in different ways, she knew that she wanted to pursue the creative field.
Heather could have gone in so many directions she was shoved into. Her parents encouraged her to look at different things. But she was never one to jump off a cliff on her own accord.
A Natural Intersection
Heather and Christopher have known each other for 25 years. In their many interviews, Heather realized that Christopher did a lot of the pushing.
Their friendship bloomed from Heather’s penchant for asking questions that helped Christopher change his thesis on a lot of things. Other times, she helped him form a messaging of things that he wasn’t ready for just yet. Coupled with her fascination with entrepreneurship, they eventually became a team.
“I was always so interested in helping those people tell their stories… What makes you different? What did you choose to do that? So when he (Christopher) thought about this book, it just sort of was a natural intersection, I think.” – Heather Clancy
To hear more about the conception of Niche Down and Duska’s microscopic examination of Heather and Christopher’s team-up, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Heather Clancy
Heather is a long-time celebrated journalist and co-author of Niche Down.
Dushka Zapata
Dushka is one of the famous writers in the Q&A platform, Quora.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed Dushka Zapata and Heather Clancy on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
