From a Housewife to a Lady Boss with Tanya Sam

Ben Higgins and Jesse Draper sit down with Tanya Sam from The Real Housewives of Atlanta to talk about her expertise with investing in tech, and what it’s like working with her husband on business ventures. Tanya and Ben bond over their similar experiences in business and being on reality TV. And our “Lady Boss of the Week” is Kelly Ryan from Anchor Meditation. She was able to build a successful business from her life’s passion, and she’s got some insight on how the best ventures are the ones you are personally connect with.  Plus, Jesse lets you in on some investing trends for 2019 that you NEED to be watching.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Lady Bosses and then an I Heart radio podcast. I'm
gonna get jacked up every time I listen to that.
We got Jesse Draper in studio. I'm in studio. We're
here with you. We're bringing you lady bosses every episode,
all episodes. Jesse, what is the lady boss to you?
I think a lady boss is, you know, a woman

(00:23):
who is empowered in their job. And it doesn't mean
they're necessarily leading a company, but they could be the
boss of the company, but they could also just embody.
That's sort of like boss now and whatever they do.
Because I think it's about feeling good about your profession
and being passionate about it and just owning what you do.
Is it is it offensive at all for us to

(00:45):
call him lady bosses? Like I don't. I don't want
anybody call me a man boss. Well, do you feel
offended that it's a lady boss not a boss? I mean,
I'm not offended. I wonder if they are. I wonder
if the whole concept, the whole time out of our
show is offensive. Maybe we should ask our first guest,
Tanya saying from the Real Housewives of Atlanta, Tanya is

(01:07):
a fierce fierce boss, and then I'll ask you if
I can call her lady Boss. I'll see if I
get the permission before we bring Tanya on. Jesse, what
have you been up to? I have been crazy? I mean,
I feel like that's just a loaded question. Happy New Year,
by the way, UM, I think it's been. I'm really
happy eighteen is over. I think that i've been. UM.

(01:29):
You know, we're prepping for fund to at Hallegen Adventures,
so it's been just thousands of meetings with UM investors
and entrepreneurs. We had a pitch day the other day,
so I saw about twelve companies. UM. It's always interesting
when we call in a bunch of startups because UM
there's usually some sort of trend, and this week it
was collagen startups. We saw a dog collagen company, we

(01:54):
saw a m I learned more about collagen than I
even knew was possible at Cparently, you have to eat it,
but women typically like put it all over their faces.
So if you buy skin cream with collagen in it,
it's totally BS. Is what I learned. You have to
eat it, but collagen comes from animals and low end
collagen is like hoofs and stuff. I mean I could

(02:16):
write a whole report now. Um. And then dogs this
dog company was really fascinating. Um. They create collagen that
you put in your dog's water and your dogs food
and it helps your older dogs like be more bouncy
or feel better. I mean, I just it's like, had
you talk to the dogs like, I don't know, I
don't know how you learn, but um, if they really

(02:38):
like it or whatever, but it's apparently taking off. And um,
and then we saw some collagen drinks that would be
you know, we may start seeing around honestly, probably in
whole foods and things like that. You're supposed to have
two of this drink a day and um, your skin
will be more glowing. And it was fascinating. So what

(02:58):
makes you invest into one of these companies? And I
mean this is some weird stuff. First off, let's be clear.
Am I taking the dog collagen? Like you can? Like
they test Okay, this is the weirdest thing to me.
They test on humans, but they give it to theog.
You should that's the new that's a new trend. Have
you not heard? Yeah? No, I know that, but I
just feel like it's actually four dogs I get it.

(03:20):
It's animal, you know, we need to support the animals
and everything. And I guess people can talk and we
don't speak dog yet. Yeah right, but yeah, but what
makes you then so all this stuff? Right now? We're
consuming collagen? This is a new trend. We've obviously heard
about it in in you know, beauty and health care.
What makes you then go, this is the brand I want.
I believe in this product without ever trying it. Oh,

(03:43):
I try it for how long? They do some diligence.
I mean it sounded like you had to really commit
to this like collagen drink for a couple of weeks
to really see results. But you know, we try it,
We ask around, we do a lot of research on it.
We do research on you know, collagen in general. We

(04:04):
would talk to scientists, we would talk to um lawyers
to see how patentable anything in that space. Would be like,
how do you own the collagen market? How do how
do you win in collagen? And is a collagen drink healthy?
Like to have to refrigerate it? I mean, we just
ask a million questions, and for me, it's really about

(04:24):
being unique. And that was the first collagen beverage I
had ever seen, and so that was interesting. She had
two flavors. It was like Macha and um peach iced tea. Uh,
and it was interesting. And she's like working out of
this incubator that they make, Um, what's that drink? Soilent?

(04:46):
Have you guys heard of soilent? It started in Silicon Valley.
It was like the engineers who never wanted to leave
their computer and they would just it was like a
meal replacement. UM. So there's this incubator and she works
out of there, so they get beverages there, and it
was interesting. I really liked her. I think it's about
the team at that stage. Yeah, it seems like how
much does the leader play into like the kind of

(05:08):
the leader, the team itself play in a year and
then ability to invest in, to commit to the brand.
It's a real um. The leader is everything, the CEO,
the co founder is everything, the team because you know,
these people, these teams that I'm meeting with have two
three people. Sometimes they have you know, one soul CEO

(05:32):
and you're betting on them and it's going to be
a ten year marathon partnership. It's like it's really intense
as an investor founder relationship you get to know each other,
you know, probably as well as you know your spouse
often and um, you go through really hard times and
really amazing times and you just have to know that

(05:53):
you'll be able to work through them. And UM, I
mean you're really it's like it's like marriage, you know,
the your investor staying in them. Before we bring on
our guests today, which are Tanya Sam and Kelly Ryan,
I want to ask you, Jesse, for anybody out there listening,
going all right, I want to own my own business.
I want to start pursuing the kind of my own career.
What are the new trends that you're wanting to invest into.

(06:15):
What does the next five years look like for Holigen
and kind of what you're putting your finances into that
you will think that you think now will be successful
long term. So I don't want to give away all
my secrets because I feel like I see trends before everybody.
But I'll give you a couple like general trends that
I'm excited about beauty. It's a huge opportunity that I

(06:35):
think people don't even realize what's about to come in beauty. Um,
and then I'm looking pretty deep in government tech. So
that's everything from like police report apps, cyber security to
companies that um where the government is a customer uh,
and companies that make the government more efficient. Um. And

(06:57):
then uh, we're also doing a lot of things in
the few sure of work, which is like childcare and
we work type locations and um. Just what does work
look like in the future because it's changing so much, um,
And so really the trends I look for and the
things I look to invest in, I want to make

(07:17):
sure they're going to be huge in ten years. I
want to think way ahead, like work is changing dramatically.
People don't work out of offices anymore. What does that
look like? How do you stay connected with everybody? And
what are all the types of businesses that go into that?
And then to me personally, childcare I just want to
steam roll. I just it's so broken, you know, growing

(07:39):
up and as I pursued in my own kind of
career and investing in an entrepreneurship, I know that children
are you know, kind of the hot market if you
can invest into childcare and too, uh you know, children's
toys or educational programs there there really is a lot
of growth there. But I also just got in reading
an article that the vagina is a million dollar market.

(08:01):
What does that mean to you, Jesse, And are you
investing into the vagina? Ben This is my favorite industry
I have. I have multiple vagina companies in my portfolio.
One is called flex Uh. It is a menstrual UH
disc and she actually has created like it's an alternate

(08:25):
tampon device. UH. It's huge. It's really great. UM. You
can leave it in for twenty four hours, you can
have sex with it in, you can reuse it. It's
really like a game changing tampon device. And then we
have a company called l Condoms that is um the

(08:45):
first condom marketed towards women, because you think of Trojan,
you think of all of these condom companies in the
market towards men. Both of these products you can actually
find in UM, target and everywhere right now. So I'm
very excited about them. But I can't even tell you
how many weird vagina devices are sent to my house

(09:07):
on a regular basis. Like recently we got a whole
kit like this, like pH balanced vagina kit that was
I can't even remember the name of the company, but
it was like they had soap and like a spray,
And I was like, am I supposed to be doing
this with my vagina? Like this is crazy? This is
I mean, it's like cleanliness on another level. But it's

(09:27):
an enormous industry. And then you get into like vibrators
and you get into I mean, it's it's huge. And
also we've barely scratched the surface. Um, it's feminine hygiene.
It's called femtech or you know, it's really um. It's
one of my favorite industries. The volva is gonna be
the next that's actually that's the right term. Jesse. Did

(09:51):
you know that? I know, Please teach me. It was
a sex head miner and I always had to talk
about the volva because that's the whole thing. And this
is the first I've heard this. You were a sex
ed miner. I was. I got interested in the human body. Um,
but like it wasn't like an anatomy minor. It was
like a sex ed minor. Sex ed minor. I thought
I might want to be a sex ed teacher, Like

(10:13):
I thought I would want to help kids eliminate the
taboo around sex. And so when I think start thinking
about investing into products that you know, obviously relate closely
with our you know, human anatomy. I get excited about
as well, because I think the future is bright. One thing, Jesse,
that I want to talk to you about, if you're
investing into the vagina, when is somebody going to come up?

(10:36):
Because this is the scary part to me, I think
most and and if I'm completely wrong, please email us
on this show or or Jesse, please tell me here.
I think the next stage, and somebody's gonna blow this up,
is when a pharmaceutical company can come up with a healthy, safe,
uh birth control because I've seen birth control affects so

(10:57):
many of my friends and so many of my friends
wives and terrible ways that I have been researching recently
a ton And that's kind of how I came across
the vagina article was how when is somebody come to
come up with a safe and healthy birth control? I think,
you know, I've seen a lot of direct to consumer
birth controls and a lot of different types, so I
think it's being worked on. So you can rest easy, Ben,

(11:18):
it is happening. Um, but I'm curious what the audience thinks, like,
send us your vagina ideas, I mean, billion dollar business
I think I want to hear your ideas. So Lady
Bosses at I Heart radio dot com email us your
vagina ideas. I can't wait till the next episode. We're

(11:38):
sitting here and you start talking about the trends that
you've been invested or working on for that week, and
you're like, it's just been three weeks of straight vagina.
I mean, Ben, seriously, the reason we invested in Flex
was because I saw six tampon companies in one month,
and I was like, this is this is crazy, this
is an enormous opportunity. But there's too many tampon companies. Recently,

(12:02):
I was on Yahoo Finance and I told them that
there's a monopoly on tampons in Slovenia, and it went everywhere.
Apparently that was just like this very hot topic after
I brought it up, and everyone's like, oh my god,
there's like this monopoly on tampons in Slovenia. But like,
there is there's a lot of opportunity here, and I'm
seeing a new tampon company at least weekly right now. Unbelievable.

(12:25):
That is in sight that we need and that we'll
get on Lady Boss's heck Jesse. With that, we're gonna
bring on our first guest, Tanya Sam from the Real
Housewives of Atlanta is in studio. Tanya, I have to
start this, uh with apologizing. The intro of this was
literally talking about the billion dollar vagina industry, in the
big industry. It's a really big, a very very interesting

(12:46):
topic to actually I fully believe in. Tanya Sam from
The Real Housewives, You're the newest housewive. Yes, yes, and
the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Congratulations, thank you, and plause.
It's excellent at a great way to start the day. Well, listen,
don't apologize because vaginas are very important. So I actually

(13:07):
totally sad that I missed the j J conversation. We
can continue it. It's okay. I mean I heard you're
in technology, by the way, so am I am a
technology I know, and so we like to invest in
the vagina. I do a lot of work that's specifically
focused on helping vaginas build big businesses. Oh yeah, okay,
I don't like that, but that's how you boil it down.

(13:31):
I want more vaginas to build big businesses that are
super successful. So yeah, tell you that's what I wanted
to start this with we we are called lady Bosses
and then as a podcast, right, we're built around the
idea that you know, we want to promote these these
women that are in leadership and whatever you know, industry
they're working in. Is it offensive at all to you

(13:53):
for me to call you a lady boss? No, not
at all. Not embrace it. I mean if you called
me a vaginant. But we can leave the vagina talk
in the background. Now, if you call me a vagina,
I v probably offensive me and me and yes you
can do that. But for them, I love being a
lady boss. I love, love, love being a lady boss. Like,
I'm not offended by that. Um. I think you know,

(14:15):
once you bring it down into the nuances of like
am I a boss because I'm a lady in a
man's world, then maybe we could go back and forth
on that. But I am a lady boss and I
love it, and I work in like a very technology
predominantly male industry, and I kind of embrace it. I
mean I walk in, I'll have some channel on these
high heels, I have makeup on, my hair is done,

(14:38):
and it's a huge advantage. You stand out it's such
an advantage. It's such an advantage, and I mean, I
I love it. So we have we haven't got to
dig in as much as I like to on this topic.
And Antonia, I think you're the perfect person for it.
You you work in a kind of a male centric industry, yeah, correct,
which which is what just for anybody out there listening.

(14:58):
So I live in Atlanta, George, uh and um, I've
been working in technology for about eight years. I'll give
you a little bit of backgrounds so that I can
lead into like kind of what I do. And I
got into that. I was actually in healthcare, so I
was a registered nurse. You know, I wiped but billed
blood gave chemo very very different, also high stakes, high energy.

(15:19):
And I got into technology, um because of my fiance.
So he's a serial entrepreneur. He'd been building cybersecurity companies.
He was founding another company it's called pin Drop Security
UM and literally pretty much our third date, he was like, Hey,
can you come meet this guy with me? And they
sat and founded the company like on napkins, talking about algorithms, AI,

(15:41):
machine learning, and I was like, that's kind of cool.
This is kind of a boring date, but you're still cute. Um. Really,
how I got into it so early stage startup, you know,
it's kind of all hands on deck, and they were like,
can you help me do this? Can you help me
do this? And I was like, no, I don't know
how to do any of this, and he's like, you know,
very and I think this is interesting for you know,
a lady boss audience. Like my mentor was a man,

(16:02):
and he kind of pushed me to be like, just
do it, you'll figure it out. Just do what you're
figured out, which is very outside of how I generally think.
I'm like, let me get a PhD in this first,
and you know, be perfect at it before I'll dive in.
And you know, that company now has um raised a
lot of money from some big bcs andres and Horoitz
excel Um. They have three fifty people and they you know,

(16:25):
fight fraud in like nine out of the top ten
banks across the country. But I kind of got into
it just sitting there learning, helping and just pretending like
I knew what the heck was going on. It's kind
of like fake it till you make it. I think
in any lady boss situation, maybe in boss situations as
well with men man boss, but they're more apt to

(16:47):
put up their hand and be like I could do this,
like why not right? And I've be I've morphed into
that person, I think because of influences like that. So
fast forward now, UM, you know I've built up. I
built a beverage company myself as well, which was crazy
and filled with tears and angst and worried, like being

(17:07):
a CEO is super hard and lonely. UM sold part
of that company, and uh, we bought a building in
the center of Atlanta, Georgia, right by Georgia Tech. It
was an old office depot was going out of business
because who buys pens and paper at office depot? Because
Amazon basically killed that industry. Um, we thought, well, this
is a great building to build businesses, and so we

(17:29):
bought that and we started tech Square Labs, which is
a technology innovation and entrepreneurship center, and our goal was
to help early stage founders, like the ones that are
like two people in a laptop like I think I
have an idea, Um, what should we do? And it
was conveniently right by Georgia Tech. So a lot of
our founders are technical founders who were sitting there going like, hum,

(17:50):
I'm really savvy at building code, but how do I
build this company? So we created an ecosystem where people
can come and like meet build, build companies, go to
meet ups, meet co founders, um. And we've been doing
that for about four and a half years. And part
of what I get to do is make really fun

(18:10):
programs like Built by Women, which was an accelerator pre
accelerator program for female founders of color. You know. So
they're kind of, to be quite honest with you, the
last people in line to get, you know, access to
capital um that we've seen building uber successful companies. It's true.
There's all these statistics that only seventeen African American women

(18:33):
have raised over a million dollars in VC funding. Um,
we have to actually in our portfolio. So I'm very
that's so proud of that. Yeah, okay, and then um,
we have one out of Atlanta good Er Gooder good Er.
She's amazing and she's like just doing good. She's great.
I love that. Actually, you know, Tanya, I think you

(18:55):
touched on something that I want to pull back for
a second before we continue. You mentioned the idea of
kind of fake it till you make it. And we
have a lot of people listening right now that are
just getting started in the start up phase and they're confused. Actually,
it's funny. I was as as you were talking. Sorry,
I was on my phone. I pulled up a text
from yesterday. I had a meeting UM with a with
a young lady who was interested in doing her own

(19:16):
thing about six months ago, and I told her that
I now own my own business, and I told her
my process, and I said, hey, it's really hard because
most of the time I didn't know what I was doing.
And so you have a passion and you have a
purpose and you have the path to pursuing, but you
don't know how to take the first step sometimes. So
for you, for Anna be out there listening, what advice
would you have, UM who to taking the first step?

(19:41):
I think just honestly, throw yourself off the cliff. You're
probably gonna fall flat on your face, break your nose,
lose a couple of teeth, but I mean, that's power
for the course, and you just have to get up
and do it again, like you're probably gonna make some
That's that sounds like horrible, horrible, just really sad advice,
but it's kind of the truth. You just got to
try it because you're gonna make a mistake and you're

(20:03):
gonna learn from it. Those ones where you like mash
your teeth out, you really learn the most because you
won't do it again and you take all that information
and you put it back into whatever company you're building.
You just kind of have to do it, and I
think the biggest thing is having people that really push
you to do it, learn from your mistakes and keep going. UM.
I also think you know, for a lot of people

(20:23):
who are trying to start companies, UM, the fear of
it decreases if you surround yourself with other people who
are trying to do the same thing. Because oftentimes you
have an idea. It might be you know something that
you're super passionate about, something that you've spent you know,
your you know, career working on, and you want to
start it into a business of your own. But if

(20:44):
you get around other people who were talking entrepreneurship, talking
about their failures, Like I tell people, go to meet ups,
like it's really sounds very basic, but like put yourself
around other people and you just learned so much well
and you can't do anything alone. You Yeah, and it's
great to have you know. I love how you've created
this ecosystem. You know, I always say there needs to

(21:05):
be a great university near tech ecosystem because it it
breeds great talent and just creates great companies. Um. So
you guys have done such great work there. Um. But yeah,
I think you need to surround yourself with great people.
And then also I love what you're saying about meetups
because also that's a female thing, that women are sort
of afraid to network. I have this rule that every

(21:27):
event I go to, I have to meet at least
three new people. And you know, sometimes you go to
these events and you're like, I don't want to meet anyone.
I just want to leave. I don't know anyone here.
And my whole team knows that, Okay, guys, like we
all have to meet three new people, Like that's the deal,
And we all go, we meet three new people, and
by the time you've done that, you're deep in a
conversation with your fifth person. And you know, I think

(21:50):
even in terms of how people are, you know, sometimes
you have an idea and you can't do it your
on your own, so you need either people are like,
how do I meet a co founder? How do I
meet a mentor? How do I any of this? And
you just have to put yourself out there and just
have those conversations. And I think the first part to
building a business is you have to sell yourself and
your idea to other people first, you know, before you
can go out there and be like, hey, I'm raising money.

(22:11):
And it's all these little pieces that contribute to how
the long term success of your business will actually be.
It's completely agree. It's interesting time you to hear from
you because as I read as we were preparing for this,
your your portfolio, personal purtfolio is long and massive, and
it has gone with you know, has a ton of

(22:32):
success build into it. And and our next guest on
the podcast today it's gonna be talking to us about meditation,
and so before we dive into you know, the real
housewives and all the businesses that you're building and how
you built them to be successful. A concern for me
personally is that the more success that seems to happen
in my life, the less time I have for anything else.

(22:56):
What do you do personally to kind of pull yourself
away and do feel after years and years of success,
that you found a balance. Um, I have no balance.
I convinced myself that I like it, which I think
is the trap. Right. I also, um, I'm not sure
if this is unique or not, but I work, live,
travel with my partner. Right, So my fiance and I

(23:18):
spend probably like twenty three out of twenty four hours together. Um.
That I mean our pillow talk is work. We fall
asleep going, oh my gosh, you remember that deal today
that was really cool, and then it's like literally it's
like it's all consuming. Um, but it kind of works
for us. Um. We also don't have kids to to

(23:39):
just to really distract us, so it's really all the time.
But we have a lot of fun together. It's genuinely fun. Um.
That is so sad when it's say it like that,
but I truly mean it. Yeah, well no, but time out.
But what you're saying, I'm not sure. But yeah, I
mean like you're obviously feel a little guilty talking about this,

(24:01):
and this isn't something we should just brush over and
say it's fine. Because most entrepreneurs, most bosses out there
feeling right now, this sense of business and overwhelming you know,
sensation of lack of time, and if you're then saying, hey,
this sounds bad talking about it. Is it bad or
do you actually enjoy it? I do enjoy it, but
I will say, you know, I wouldn't recommend I. I

(24:23):
think I'm fortunate because because we get to work together
and we're a genuine support system for each other, it works.
I think entrepreneurship tends to be very lonely. So I've
seen the opposite where you know, you're out there by yourself,
and like I've met couples where you know, you go
to dinner and you're talking business and the other partners like,
oh my god, I didn't know you do that all

(24:44):
day and you're like okay. So it can be really lonely.
I don't know. I don't know if that's the perfect
way to say and do it. And I do do
other things that are like for me, Like I love
to work out. I love my Palatine bike, Like there's
other things that I you know, that are my escape.
I love to read, need like all sorts of things.
So there's other things that I do and don't always work.

(25:04):
I love to shop. I love the Pelotons, great love
my Belotum Oh it's so great. Are you competitive? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you can get real competitive on um. But I will
say one thing, going back to your point bend. You
know that expression like that I feel like sums up this,
but it's it's I'm killing it. It's killing me. I'm
killing it. It's killing it's killing me. Like that cycle

(25:27):
of going back and forth and swinging that pendulum of
like how do you feel about this? How do you
feel about this? Like you're catching me on a day
today where I'm like whoo, you know, but then tomorrow,
like you know, the crap hits the fan, You're like, oh,
this is a tough life, you know. So it's just
it just depends I guess on on your your lens
at the moment. Well, your vulnerability there is is really

(25:49):
helpful either way. If you if you came in you're like, hey,
I hate this, this is so much, this is overwhelming,
I'm working all the time. I don't know how to
get out of it. That's great. Or if you're saying
I really enjoy this and this is a good experience
for me and my partner and I have a connection
based on our businesses, that's great too. But I think
the listeners out there just want that vulnerability from somebody
has been wildly successful, like yourself, which leads me to this.

(26:10):
You have been wildly successful and you still choose to
become a housewife. How did this work? Okay? Um, good questions.
So it's funny. So it came around like I knew
some of the girls from Atlanta. It's a small town,
you know, you kind of meet people, and um one
of the ladies was like, you know, you should film
with us, You should film with us, And I was
like no, you know, and it's funny. I went home

(26:33):
to Paul and he was like, why not, and I
was like, um uh. And so I really thought about it.
I mean, this show has got an incredible viewership, and
especially in Atlanta, like it's predominant, like the market that
I mean, it's so Atlanta. But anyways, long story short,
why I really wanted to do this was kind of
because I could. And I feel like, as a female

(26:54):
in technology doing what I do, there's not a lot
of that that's portrayed on TV at all, for black women,
for young girls, for women who are trying to get
into tech, and especially on this show, like a lot
of the women have been there. They're in entertainment and
different things, and I just felt like this could be
really important. You know, like I think back to the

(27:15):
TV shows that I used to watch when I was
young and pretty and my dad. My dad was a doctor,
but Bill Cosby was the doctor show that everybody looked
up to for African Americans. They're like, yeah, that's the level, right,
And I was like, okay, well, like you know, we're
talking about people who are like, we're woke now and
we're trying to change things. I mean, you look at

(27:37):
Congress and there's all these women in Congress, But like,
what's our escapism TV show that you can watch where
people are doing really amazing things that people can actually
look at and go, oh wait, I can go into technology.
And so it sounds like this grand sweeping future idea
that's really a reality TV show. But I was like,

(27:58):
I can do that. Like I'm not employed at you know,
public company where they'll be like, oh no, honey, you're fired. Yeah,
I mean yeah, I was kind of willing to take
that bullet. I don't think that's a bullet. I think
that's fantastic. Wait, I don't. I don't want to glaze
it over this because I'm so happy as a woman
in technology that you're doing that, that you've chosen to

(28:20):
put yourself out there and it does. It has incredible viewership.
It's a business opportunity to yeah, yeah, like it is
a business opportunity. And you know, it's hard for with
what I do because people keep asking me, well, what
are you going to sell on the show? What are
you going to sell on the show? And I'm like, oh,
you know, I don't really it's not even as important
to me to like talk some wares. It's really what

(28:41):
kills me and like literally makes me cry. It's like
I get so many women who message me who were like,
I'm a woman who wants to transition into technology, seeing
you as a breath of fresh air. I didn't know
I could do that. I'm a nurse, I'm burnt out.
Do you think I could pursue this dream? And I
just screenshot them and I have this folder on my phone.
It just means so much to me because I'm like,

(29:03):
oh my gosh, okay, people actually want to see this
and like they need to see it. Yeah, And but
see that's where I fall in Tanya. I know, Jesse
has a thousand questions about your businesses and what's made
him successful. But I want to touch on before we
get into that, the personal story here, because for me,
we can relate coming from a background reality television. Yeah, yeah,

(29:24):
that's right for you guys, and and I can. I
guess as my career has progressed and I started my
own companies now and I've started to invest and it's
now I have three companies under my name, I still
wake up some days with a fear of not being
taken legitimately. Um I actually, you know, I was just

(29:46):
recognized in the state of Colorado as the as a
young business professional that's getting an award. And my very
first thought was, well, they're doing that because of my
social media. They want the promotion. I have a hard
time even personally taking myself legitimate. I have a hard
time sitting in a meetings or um speaking at different
conferences and feeling legitimate because of my reality television background.

(30:09):
And so it's interesting for me to hear your because
that's where I come from, and that's why, in a
large way my businesses have been successful is because of
the platform that was built from that show. It's interesting
for me that your transition went from success in business
to then picking up reality television and using that. What
do you hope this does long term? And then do

(30:30):
you ever are you ever concerned that your career will
be tarnished because of the show. It's interesting because I
think right off the bat, our roles are reversed. So
you know, you started in reality television and you're carrying
this forward. I'm kind of here now going and I
have no clue what what I've got myself into. Like,

(30:51):
you know, we've finished taping. We filmed for about five months,
you know, we're halfway through the season airing, and already
like I'm like, wow, people, I mean people recognize me now.
I've been on you know, a handful of episodes, and
I'm like, this is really cool, okay, And it surprises
me really, Like I checked into my hotel here and
they're like, oh my gosh, you're on the Housewives, And

(31:13):
I'm like, huh. So I think I'm not really prepared
for perhaps like the effects of reality television show, and
I think in general I have imposter syndrome. Anyways, like
all the time, you know, I just did a talk
at CS on artificial intelligence and gender bias, and I

(31:34):
kept thinking, like I mean, all up until the talk.
I was like, They're like, when are these people going
to be like what are you doing up there and
start like throwing you know, exit me, like you don't
know what you're talking about. So I think, regardless, a
joke is that never happens. But everyone has those feelings
and we I want to backtrack because you just brought
up impostor syndrome, which Ben, I love that you just

(31:56):
shared that you even feel this way. But imposter syndrome
is like, it's a real thing. You know. Cheryl Samberg
Uh who is the CEO of Facebook, and she writes
all about. She has a great book called len In,
but she writes all about she has two books. Actually
you should read Plan B as well. If you're going
to read, we can talk about but she um she

(32:20):
started her whole conversation with women about this feeling as
a fraud. And she always talks about this teacher she
had at barnard Um who gave a whole speech on
feeling as though you're a fraud in your professional life
and everyone feels that way. And Ben, to hear you
say that is so amazing because I think women always

(32:42):
think it's just them, but men feel like a fraud
to know everyone has that little kid inside of them
who feels like, you know, they're gonna like feel as
though they're on stage naked, you know. And so I
think it's so important that everyone knows that and we
just give each other a break, well, and you have
to give yourself a break, right because I think it's

(33:03):
completely internalized, you know. And I do worry, oh, or
people not going to take me seriously because now I'm
on reality television and I kind of feel like, who
are those freaking people? Get lost? Who cares? Because it's
kind of you know, it's like even even if you're
building a company, or you know you're investing, or you're
taking money from people, you're you it's like you learn,

(33:24):
I mean, money is money, and if you're raising money,
you obviously just want to get as much as you
can because it's hard, right, But you know, at some
point you're like I don't want that person's money, or
I don't want that person's like negative energy, being like
you're not good enough. So I don't know, I do
feel like I'm at a point where I think it's

(33:44):
more meaningful me, more meaningful to me, maybe the potential
I have to really help other people like build their
dreams and think they can do it. Then the people
who are like, oh, I can't take you seriously now.
Granted I'm on a show that got a lot of
female drama. I haven't, as they say, snatched anyone's wig

(34:05):
yet or done anything. I haven't thrown a cocktail on someone.
And if that were to happen like then yeah, people
would be like, there's that girl. Um, I don't know,
but I hopefully I can back it up with my
other stuff and albeit at some sort of safe haven
place for myself and others. It's it's impressive Tanya to

(34:28):
hear this, and it's really encouraging for somebody like me
to that. You know, you, I look up to you
and Jesse both. I'm sitting here and I just wrote
my notes like you both. I sit there, I'm seeing
both of you at the same time, and I'm saying like,
these women are are people to admire based on your
intelligence and you're I would say even past intelligence. Um,
and Jesse, I'll let you take it away from here.
So the one thing that you both have touched on

(34:50):
that has encouraged me from this conversation so far is
that you're great and determination to just say do it,
and your your vulnerability to say we might not know now,
we might feel like we're incapable, we might feel like
we we aren't good enough, but we're going to pursue
it because we're passionate about it. And I'm taking that
away and I wrote that down on my on my
notepad here, because once this podcast is done and I

(35:12):
start working again, that's gonna be my my mantra for
the day is just even though I don't feel capable,
and when I don't feel capable, still do it and
pursue it because people like you, two of the most
successful people that I've ever met, I feel the same way,
and that's encouraging for me. So thank you, Jesse. I'll
let you take it away for a second. So I
first of all, I've just been speechless this whole time

(35:33):
because you blew me away. You know, we we thought
um and Amy's our producer, is gonna get mad at
me because I'm not supposed to like be too nice
to everybody. I'm supposed to be the summon um, but
I am. I thought we were interviewing a real Housewife
of Atlanta and like, you've just stepped up the entire franchise. Um,
I think this is amazing what you're doing, and I

(35:54):
want to hear you know, as a woman in technology,
you're clearly doing so much for women by being a
role model on the show and showing people that you
can get into technology, which I completely relate to because
I grew up in Silicon Valley and I thought I
couldn't go into technology, and I'm a fourth generation investor
and I thought I couldn't go into it still because

(36:16):
they're all men, and so it took me a while
to kind of like come back around. Um, you said
that you have male mentors, but you see how important
it is to mentor women. Do you mentor women? What
does that look like? What is sort of like a
menteam mentor relationship? And like what do you do to
kind of like, um, encourage the next generation of women?

(36:39):
It's you know what it's mentoring is really hard, I
will say, because and then it's at one point it
just becomes really easy because you just have to make
time and a lot of time. It's you know, so
when we had tech Square, labs. You know, it was
a coworking space. It was open space, like you could
have memberships, We had student memberships, We had a whole
different variety of it. So it's kind of just being

(36:59):
around owned and I mean oftentimes it's just like you know,
someone's like, hey, do you want to take a walk
for a coffee? Can you talk about this? And just
like little things like this, just pushing people, especially with women. UM.
I think a lot of how my mentoring helps is
like through our programs UM and I work with a
lot of early stage entrepreneurs. So it's everything from like hey,

(37:19):
let's talk about different ways to access capital because sometimes
you just don't know it and it's there's like oh,
go read a book or you know, listen to a podcast.
But the one on one really helps when you can
focus on how you can help someone build their business, UM,
go past hurdles. I would say. The other thing that
I spend a lot of time doing is even just
pitch practice. Like pitch practice goes a long way totally.

(37:41):
We just had a pitch day the other day and
we brought in twelve cold pitches and um, we say
you have five minutes and we'll do like ten fifteen
minutes of Q and A. And if you can't get
your pitch out in five minutes, it's kind of ridiculous.
And a lot of them come in and they're like
five minutes is way too short. We need more time
to pitch. Like it's like I'm already asleep. Yeah, totally,

(38:03):
I'm dead. That's actually very very I'll tell you. We
do this program it's called the Atlanta Startup Battle, and
we do with every quarter we give away a hundred
thousand dollar investment. So we packed heech Square Labs this year.
We just did the last one in what is it November,
and we had over five fifty or early stage companies
apply from all over like people were flying in now.

(38:23):
And so once we narrow down those five fifty, we
do um an intense mentoring day. It's like twelve hours
with the twenty three companies and just the variety that
you see of the ability to pitch talk about their
business like talk about you know, the technology behind it.
I mean, it's that I think is one of my
favorite days because it is literally putting everybody through the

(38:45):
ringer and we get so much feedback on what it
takes because sometimes you just need the all in boiling
pot for people to like, and especially being around other entrepreneurs,
so they're sitting in the same room going oh they
got ripped or oh that was really good. I need
to put at I mean that goes a long long way. Yeah,
it's an education about business and I'm curious what you think.

(39:06):
But one of the coolest things to me about working
with early stage businesses is you see these greater world
trends and I'd be curious what you know. We've been
talking about a lot of trends today, Like what do
you think the greater world trends that you see right now?
Based on these technology companies and those five and fifty
that came what are they? Um? I saw I mean

(39:29):
everything from blockchain, Like everything's on the blockchain. And I'm like, okay,
Like there's avocados on the blockchain right now, Like everything's
on the blockchain. Um, it means they're for anybody out
there listening, I just want to take a second, Um,
what is the blockchain? People like near you know your
last smart than I am. Okay, So it's probably like

(39:51):
if you look at it this way, it's like cryptocurrency
is the best example of blockchain, it's using like a
ledger system that traces transactions. So the best example is
like money, we're using a there created a cryptocurrency that
it's almost like a lock and key ledger. I signed
one side, you sign the other, and it's now a
perfect record and it's skipped. It's not a very good

(40:13):
I find it's way more secure than banking today. So
an example I would give is my brother. His business
was hacked and they stole a bunch of money and
he could actually um, he could actually trace the bank
account number to a bank in Chicago and couldn't get
the money back because privacy laws proticts this guy. That

(40:35):
wouldn't happen in the blockchain because it's so secure and
it's a special code and it's just kind of like
it's like a Venmo for everything. And but the key
to it is it's a very secure venmo, because I'm
now I'm questioning how secure venmo is because it's not
on the block. It's not that secure actually, But even
what makes it even more like the technology behind it

(40:58):
is it's it's kind it's open to everyone to see,
so it's not regulated by one body as well that
everyone just goes, oh okay, the federal government says yes,
and you send out this money. But it's a good
example of how we're able to track records. But it's
one of those things that I think the future will
be really interesting for a lot of different things. I
think AI is going to be huge because that kind

(41:19):
of informs you know, AI is basically helping UM computers
to think like humans. So you train a computer, you
give it lots of data, and it understands that how
that data works, and you're training it to think like
a human and make decisions. And that's going to inform
everything from like the smart home to when you look
in the mirror and say, good morning, mirror, can you

(41:40):
please make my coffee? Because it knows your voice. So
I think AI is going to be huge, like we're
moving into a jets in like future for everything, Like yes,
I think that will be major. Um what else am
I liking right now? Something else I think about with
blockchain is I'm just excited for no more. In ten years,

(42:00):
we will no longer have to exchange currencies like you
can just like wire people money in China, et cetera,
and you will know who you wired it. Too, it
will be secure. Um, and who knows, maybe we will
have one currency. I mean, I don't know. It's crazy
out there. It is crazy, yeah, it's and it's moving fast.
You know. The interesting thing here is telling you and

(42:22):
I want to hear uh. I want to switch gears
for just a second. And Jesse, I want to hear
your thoughts on this as well. I said in a
meeting two days ago with somebody who is investing into education,
because there's a huge issue right now, as we move
so fast in the technology space, that education can't keep
up with their books right the traditional way that we're learning,

(42:44):
or even the articles out there, and that the teachers
curriculums aren't being built around the as fast as what
the progression of technology is happening. So if we're talking
blockchain here, or if we're talking global currency, that's all
great and in a lot of ways that just makes
our world a lot more efficient, but we're not teaching
it because we can't keep up with it. So for you, Tanya,

(43:07):
for you, Jesse, how do you stay educated? How would
you advise the mom and the dads that they're listening
to podcast to keep their kids up to date on
what's happening, or let's even go this far. Let's say
guys like my dad who's still working very hard, who's
sixty years old, who finds himself taking double the amount
of time to do the work that somebody my age

(43:27):
is doing because he never got to learn it. He's
trying to keep up, but he can't. What's your advice? Oh,
I mean, you just hit on so many different things there,
because we're talking about a population that's you know, like
an older generation that's being you know, phased out by
everything from robots to younger people. Um. And then you

(43:48):
talked about education and how you know, technology is surpassing
our ability to really give a good education to kids.
Like if if you don't have the proper tools and
computers in every school across us the country rule this,
they're just not going to learn and they are just
you know, out of luck. In terms of I mean,
there's so much there where where do we want to
dig in on that? Because I I I mean, I

(44:11):
mean I can tell you that my kid, you know,
thinks that photos my kids I have two kids, and
one is my three year old, thinks that photos are
iPhones and tries to zoom in and out, you know,
and like that's just how how crazy they're picking things up,
Like that's just wrong. I mean I do think uh

(44:34):
so as far as like education technology goes, I think
that it it's really important because there's a certain part
of us and you know, my dad's from Gona, West Africa,
so I do spend some time going back and forth there.
He he lives there. So I've seen some of the
schools there and it's amazing how we've seen the difference
of having one computer. Maybe they have spotty internet, maybe

(44:56):
they have it, but just the ability for people in
developing country reads to learn based on having the internet
is incredible. The problem is having that everywhere and the
access to it. You know, people are speaking English across
the world in greater rates because we have cell phones
and YouTube. Like I was just in Asia and I
met so many people who were like, oh, I taught

(45:17):
myself English from YouTube. So it's it's like it's awesome, No,
I was, we need to get those tools. So it's like,
I think it's a beautiful thing, but it's also very limiting.
And even in the US, like um I did this
program with the Metro Atlanta Chamber where we went to
rural Georgia and they didn't have the Internet like the

(45:39):
Mississippi Delta. I mean, I was just down there. The
Mississippi Delta doesn't have the Internet. And these schools can't
keep up with with even It's crazy, Tanya. There there's
schools that can't keep up with schools that are twenty
miles from them. They're they're fifty years behind. It's a
huge issue one that you know what, I think this

(45:59):
is a whole new frontier. I think it's the wild West.
And I think as we continue to become efficient in
our trading and our currency and and all the things
that we're talking about, education is the brand new frontier
that we will see drastic changes in the next fifty years.
And uh, Tanya, we've got to get you out of here.
I know you have a very busy schedule. Um. I
want to end this by just saying a few fun

(46:19):
facts that we worked really hard on finding. You've been
to Bernie Man, you love to travel, and you've got
a passion for fashion. Tanya. We've got a passion for you. Hey, Tanya,
before we let you go, is there anything that you
want to tell our listeners about guys, I just want
to tell you and direct your attention to something that's
really close to my heart. Kate's Club dot org. It's
an organization that I'm on the board for. I lost
my mom when I was twelve, and this is an

(46:41):
organ a grief organization for kids between the ages of
five and eighteen who have lost a parents, siblings, or
loved one. We are having a fundraiser this month, so
please go to the website. We have a summer camp
where we sent six hundred kids to camp, and we
have a weekly clubhouse with free programming and it changes
kids lives. So grief has touched you as a child,

(47:01):
you know. Reach out to us at Kate's Club dot org. Tanya,
You're the best. Thank you so much. You really are.
You really are. Hey, make sure to check out Tanya
on the Real Housewives of Atlanta Sundays at eight pm
Eastern on Bravo. Tanya, thanks for joining us in the
Leady Boss's podcast. You truly are who loves tea. But hey,
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Tea for your discount. You deserve to treat yourself. We've

(48:07):
got Kelly Ryan on the line. Kelly is the founder
and CEO of a company called Anchor Meditation. Kelly, thanks
for joining us on the podcast. Thank you for having
me just to dive in here. Where did this come from?
How did Inchor Meditation start? Um? I went away from
my fortyes birthday to uh Spaw and I took a

(48:31):
mindful parenting class and the teacher said, if you're wishing
the past for any different or better than it was,
you're living in the past. And if you're experiencing any
anxiety or worry. Those don't exist in the present moment.
They're about the future. And it just really hit me
that I was living a lot of my life and

(48:52):
the past and the future. So UM, I got curious
about meditation, and UM started a daily practice on my
own in the morning, and I just UM immediately began
to feel more connected to myself and sleep better and
experienced um improvements to my health and my overall UM

(49:13):
sense of well being. And so that was kind of
what planted the seat of sharing it with others. It's
it's really interesting, Kelly. I was doing a couple of
some research before we got on. You know, in this
two th eighteen alone, uh, a couple of books were
on the New York best seller's list all about meditation,
to minutes of meditation or the practice of meditation. So

(49:36):
you're kind of entering into this thing that has existed
for thousands upon thousands of years, but today it seems
more relevant than ever. Yeah, it really is. I mean,
if you think, you know, our minds have forty eight
thousand thoughts today, UM, and and if you couple that
with the kind of way that we're inundated with information

(49:59):
and taking b oology UM with you know, text messages
and full in boxes of emails and voicemails and kind
of everywhere you go there's something hanging at you. I think, UM,
it's kind of a key to UM maintaining sense of
peace in two thousand nineteen. You know, Uh, my co

(50:21):
host in the podcast, Jesse, I know, has a ton
of questions about your business. But before you get into it,
one of the things that I recognized that could be
uh a struggle for a company that's built on meditation
is the whole Midwest. The Midwest is the heart of
the United States. I was born in the Midwest. You know,

(50:42):
I do have I do come from a background of faith.
I do believe strongly um in what I believe. But
I know, growing up in Indiana, meditation was kind of
shunned and pushed away, especially in the Christian community, because
it didn't feel like a practice that the church should
be participating in. Have you seen that? Is that a
struggle that what are your thoughts on that has the

(51:03):
church itself started to accept these practice because I know
I have in my own life. Yeah, thanks, that's that's
actually a great question. And it's actually something I struggled
with from the beginning too, because I realized, oh my gosh,
this is helping me so much. Yet I was raised
in a Christian family and I wasn't sure, you know,
how that would be judged. But medicuson actually is a

(51:24):
part of almost every religion um spanning you know, hundreds
of thousands of years. And I like to think of
it as meditation is listening for God and praying as
talking to God. It's amazing. Yeah, you know that's a
great point. And for anybody out there listening, this has
been something I remember as a child, you know, we
started to do I think it was like Christian yoga

(51:46):
and the church. I was like, that's the goofiest thing
I've ever heard. Like, why are we branding it Christian yoga?
Let's just call it yoga. Uh. And in meditation itself,
I've started to do this every morning, uh through through
a couple of different avenues. Kelly, I will tell you
that I myself from a firm believer in meditation. But Jesse,
I want to know, from your perspective as an investor,

(52:07):
how do you believe you could grow a business built
on this practice? Well, I have so many questions about
what you're doing. First of all, I love it. I
love it so much, and you know, doing research on you, Kelly,
I read something on your website that said, sometimes you
get so busy trying to be everyone's anchor that you
don't even realize you're drowning. And I can't even tell you, like,

(52:28):
as a CEO, I have, you know, forty investors and
forty seven companies, and I regularly am held account like
I feel like I am regularly talking to a hundred people.
And I feel like that all the time. And honestly, meditation,
just as a CEO, really does help and it's something
I forget to do. Um. And so I love that

(52:48):
you're bringing that into a place that makes it okay
for everybody and reminds everybody um to meditate and like
take that time for themselves. Um. It's just I don't know.
Sometimes I don't know how to find that time, and
I have to force myself to find that time. So
I like the idea of like going somewhere and giving
yourself that time and making Yeah, and I really think

(53:11):
it somehow me have theitation creates more time in the
day because the time when you are, you know, UM,
trying to get stuff done. You just are so much
more focused and have so much more clarity as a
result of doing something as simple as taking five minutes
at the start of the day to kind of clear
your mind totally. Well, so tell us how your business works.

(53:32):
So you have UM one location in San Francisco, right, Yeah, yeah,
we have one location in San Francisco. So I started
out just offering about five class of a week out
of someone else's another reta out space during their non
business hours and UM that was in February of last year,
and then UM things kind of grew to the point

(53:55):
that UM I was getting a lot of phone calls
inquiries for people wanting to have private parties and UM
corporate off sites and things like that that I couldn't
accommodate in the space because we only had it during
their non business hours. So in October we opened a
location in cow Hollow and San Francisco. Oh great, I

(54:15):
love that area. Yeah, and it's just a drop in
meditation studio. We have memberships, UM we have monthly memberships
that are available or you know, class packs of ten.
So as a business, as like an investor in businesses.
I hear okay, in my head, I'm like, okay, subscription.
So memberships are great. It's like regular money, recurring revenue.

(54:38):
So that's just just thought I'd throw that out there everybody. Um,
but that's great, and so tell us a little about
your classes and how that works. So we have a
variety of classes from all different types of lineages. UM.
We have some that are sailed bath we have UM,
some that are shamonic journeys. We have some that are

(54:59):
geared to beginners. We have breath work, UM. We have
some that are one pub dress r asks, which is
to relieve stress. We have crystal guided meditations, all sorts
of chakra clearing and things like that. UM. Throughout the
weekend we're open. We have classes in the morning, midday,
and evening. So how much does it cost. It's twenty

(55:20):
five dollars for a single class, a hundred and ninety
dollars for ten classes, or a hundred and twenty five
dollars for a monthly membership. That's have you ever? I mean, Kelly,
For me, when I meditate, I have a certain chair,
I sit in a certain kind of practice I go to.

(55:40):
Does it get weird to kind of meditate with a
bunch of people around you. No, it really elevates the experience.
So at home, I'm the same, you know, I have
my cushion and my altar and my spot that I set.
But when you're meditating with other people, UM. First of all,
it's just a great opportunity to learn more for the
teacher and to try different types of meditation to see

(56:04):
what resonates with you. UM. But also you know, it's
the energy of the other people and that everyone's kind
of coming together to UM, you know, take care of
themselves and reconnect with themselves, and it has it's full
of good vibes. So I think it's great to be
in a group. So what's the dream? A million locations

(56:26):
all around the world. This was the dream. So I'm
just kind of catching up to myself. Actually, I cannot
believe how um quickly this came about, UM, but there's
just been a lot of demand for it, and UM
I have been approached by UM various people who are
offering to invest to help me expand, and so that's

(56:48):
something UM I'm considering right now. UM. I think there's
a huge opportunity. I know, Gary vaynercheck that someday there
will be a Starbucks of meditation UM. And and you
A lot of people think that ten years from now
there will be as many meditation studios as there are
yoga studios. So are you gonna do it? Are you gonna?

(57:09):
Is Gary Vannish checked the one who's who's going to
invest No Caribbean. I don't know. I'm not interest with him,
but he can give me a call. Yeah. So I
do think there's a huge opportunity UM. I think there's
a huge retail opportunity UM as meditation becomes for mainstream UM.

(57:33):
And I also think there's a huge opportunity for expampsion.
And I'm excited about, you know, the possibility of sharing
this sectae with so many people because it's honestly life changing.
We have so many people that come every day and
are just total, die hard, devoted UM community members, and
I see how much people need it in their lives,

(57:54):
and so I'm really excited. UM. I'd be curious too,
Sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you. I'd be curious
to hear you know, who is your typical customer? UM?
What do they like? Yeah, it's about women, UM, and
twenty percent men, and I would say the typical customer

(58:15):
is um in there, you know, like twenty to fifty
years old. UM. But that being said, we have had
a lot of interests in kids programs and we've also
had you know, a lot of people UM older, you
know older that it really resonates with with a wide
variety of um, you know, cultural and religious backgrounds. So

(58:39):
it's it's really appealing to a lot of people. We
did a survey and of the survey respondents so that
they're suffering from stress and anxiety. So that says a lot.
There's a there's a set up there right now. Kelly
says that of the people living in United States today

(58:59):
and a sense of isolation and loneliness or anxiety, and
so obviously there's a huge need for what you're doing. Jesse,
I want to ask you, we started this podcast out
by talking about what you believe the future and investing
was going to be. And you thought beauty and healthcare
was meditation a part of that? I definitely think mindfulness, uh,
and meditation is an enormous market right now. I've seen

(59:22):
quite a few mindfulness apps and um the meditation studios
I do see you know, coming up and you know, Kelly,
I'd be curious to hear how you would compete with
a yoga studio, like will you launch yoga classes as well?
Because how do you differentiate yourself? Um? Because I feel

(59:42):
like you're you're going for that customer. So it's pretty
smart to almost like interchange them. But are you trying
to be just simply meditation so people know, you know,
sometimes it's good to just go deep and just that's
your exact customer. There are tons of options, great options
for yoga in San Francisco, and so I really have

(01:00:03):
no interest in competing at all with any yoga studios.
And as a matter of fact, there's several yoga studios
in the neighborhood where we're located, and we're doing some
great partnerships where people can take a yoga class and
then come to meditate. Um. So I really see yoga
studios as an opportunity for collaboration rather than competition. I

(01:00:24):
can tell how Zen you are just talking to you,
I'm like, who are definitely getting your regular meditation and
I love it? Uh yeah, but if I lose my temp,
forever medicate this morning. So as an investor, you know,
I invest in UM companies. I'm a little afraid of
retailer into business. That's that I'm a tech investor, but

(01:00:49):
I typically look more seriously once you have three shops,
So once you have three locations, because then you've proved
it out. So where are you in process? UM? If
I do move forward with the person to the person
I'm speaking with most seriously about investing, I'll be opening

(01:01:12):
two to three more locations in San Francis, so over
the next eighteen months that would be the plan. So
I would love to talk to you after that works well, great,
send me your deck. That's how it begins. UM, that's great.
What UM, and what you know? What do you think
would be the advantage of investing in a company like yours?

(01:01:33):
Right now? I just think that, Um, it's a hu
amongous opportunity. I mean, if you think about it, Lulu
Lemon didn't exist before there was yoga and now it's
you know, everywhere across the country, and there will be
retail opportunities as well as UM storefront opportunities as well

(01:01:59):
as app I mean, it's just kind of endless opportunities
because there's not a lot of players in the space.
So UM I have a lot of ideas well. Anybody
out there listening, I know that we all need to
take a break a breather, especially as a lady boss.
You know, it's kind of ironic that you're a lady

(01:02:19):
boss yourself, but you're also helping other lady bosses meditate,
male and female probably coming into your studio resting and
relaxing if they want to find you, Kelly, anybody out
there listening, where can they find you? And and then
also what would be the biggest benefit to take a
little breather and meditating with Inchor meditation? All right, so

(01:02:41):
you can find us at www Dot Anchor meditation dot
com on Instagram at Anchor Meditation. And the biggest benefit
is coming home to yourself. Wow, Okay, jeez, leave us
with that name. Hey, Kelly, I can't wait to come
on to myself here right after the podcast, I'm gonna

(01:03:02):
sit down and then do a little meditation myself. Kelly
thinks for coming on the Lady Boss's podcast. Thank you
for having me and enjoy you know, Jesse, I didn't
get the dig into it as much as I'd like to,
but it is true. Uh. In nineteen eighty Harvard did
a study of people in the United States that they
felt a level of anxiety, or isolation or loneliness, and

(01:03:25):
they kind of the weakness of the study is they
kind of grouped all three together. Right, Um, any type
of kind of emotional distress was how they studied it. Today,
that same study was done in two thousand, seventeen. Forty
of people now, uh claim the same thing, which tells
me either we're becoming more authentic and vulnerable and genuine

(01:03:46):
or we haven't taken the time that we need to
to kind of come back home to ourselves. Totally. I
completely agree with that. I mean, I think it's you.
You talked to her about it a little bit. But
we're getting busier and busier and busier. And you know
if social media, like I don't I don't even check

(01:04:06):
my LinkedIn messages. You know, there's a thousand ways to
communicate all the time. You feel like you could always
be busy, but in a way, you're being very isolated.
And um, I think there's this magical thing about meditation
and you do need to be reminded to take that
moment for yourself and just kind of stare off into
space and resenter and it's something that personally UM as

(01:04:31):
a mom and running a business, like I just have
lost track of recently, I actually have. I had a
crazy meeting yesterday. I UM, I thought I was meeting
with someone. A private wealth manager had introduced me to
this woman who wanted to talk to me about my fund.
And she came and she sat down and she said,

(01:04:54):
I don't typically do this, but I have some messages
to give you from your paternal grandmother. Did she give
view that necklace? And I was like, yes, she did.
That's really weird. So there's like first five seconds of
our meeting and I'm already sort of tearing up, and
then she's she basically said, you know, you have a

(01:05:14):
lot going on. You need to start taking some time
for yourself. You need to meditate more, and then talked
me through how to meditate. And it's so strange that
today we interviewed a meditation oriented company because I feel
like there is some magic to meditation. It's like connecting
to something. I'm not incredibly religious, but I do believe

(01:05:36):
in something out there, and it's just a It's it's
reconnecting with yourself but also connecting with something out there,
reminding you to be good and take time and decompress.
And you know, we're not robots, were human, and so

(01:05:57):
I think it's just I don't know. It's so so
important for all the moms, lady bosses, et cetera out
there to take that time for yourself. And I was
recently reminded of this in this insane meeting I had yesterday.
I mean, I could dig in, but let's let's get
on with the show. You know, Jesse. The interesting thing

(01:06:17):
talking about meditation, as these businesses have literally been built
on the idea that you need to do less. Like
do less is what these businesses are built on. And
Kelly brought it up. So as I look and listen
to Kelly, and as I look at her website here,
and I think we we talk a lot about the verticals.
You know, we say the word vertical a lout on
this podcast. There's a bunch of verticals when it comes

(01:06:39):
to this idea of doing less. She brought up lu Limen.
Lu Limon literally exists because of yoga. So because of
a practice, a clothing and apparel brand that was built
around that practice was built. And so as we think
about companies like Anchor, her just getting started. It's a
small business. Kelly story is great, um, and she's pursuing
a passion and a dream. But she says, Okay, the

(01:07:01):
meditation practice is great. I need to continue to do it.
That's how I'm going to build the foundation of my business.
But I also want to find some new revenue streams.
I can think about apparel, I can think about hydration,
I can think about the matting and the flooring. I
can think about all these different things that kind of
wrap around this idea of doing less that could build
a really big and successful business, all based on one

(01:07:23):
practice and one passion, and that's meditation. I completely agree.
It's a huge business. And these apps I'm seeing you know, well,
I'm sure you have heard of headspace, and there's many
more that help you sleep, that help you, you know,
focus on different things, whether it's anxiety or confidence. And

(01:07:43):
I highly recommend all of those. Um, I think that
they're really I just heard about one called here. UM
it's here meditation, and it's great and it kind of
focuses you or helps you focus on different elements like
confidence or courage, and um it actually has a little
activity on the app two that calms you and you

(01:08:04):
like move these little squares, but it is it's a
big business. And also the thing that scares me for
the future is kids are stressed out. You know, children
are stressed out, and so I think to build that
into um our normal everyday behavior as a business and
just as something really good for you is so incredibly important.

(01:08:26):
I know. Um Goldie Hawn Uh, the incredible actress, runs
something called mind Up where she tries to get meditation
and mindfulness into schools. Uh. And I think people are
focusing on this because they're seeing these kids have anxiety
at the ages of like four and five. That's insane.
Kids should not be stressed out. They should be running

(01:08:48):
around and like getting dirty and having a blast. You know,
they should feel free. But we live in such a
stressed out world. This woman who sort of like read
my I don't know or or something yes today uh,
in what I thought was a business meeting, also told
me that the world is very stressed out right now.
So I she told me that it's everyone. There's a

(01:09:08):
lot going on and so we all need to calm
down and take a moment for ourselves. And so it's
a good lesson. I I do agree with that finally here, um,
we're seeing a switch. Before we move on our next guest,
we're seeing a switch in this world where something that
we for so long, I'd say from the last five years.

(01:09:29):
I hear it all the time. Your phones are bad,
the apps are bad, social media is bad. It's destroying
our our world. We're seeing a switch, and I think
it's it's a massive industry to start pursuing, especially if
you're out there listening you have an idea to start
using these things like your apps and your phones for good,
like the headspaces of the world, like the here apps,

(01:09:49):
these apps that are saying okay, it's it's ironic in
a lot of ways. Right, Hey, take your phone, the
thing that distracts you and makes you the most busy,
and use it to pull yourself act into a place
of simplicity and kind of just meditation or hereness. I
think and I believe this when we talk about earlier,

(01:10:10):
you know, kind of the new things invest into are
the new ideas that will come up. Jesse. I feel
like the subscriptions based on these apps that are doing
good for the world is kind of a new industry
in a new sector that we should start looking into
and pursuing and if you're trying to design a company,
I think this is one that is a big business
and will be very, very profitable. Jesse, thank you so

(01:10:33):
much for your wisdom and your insight. You continue to
educate me as I pursue my own course of business
and and pursuing everything there is to know in the
world on entrepreneurship. Jesse, we appreciate you well. I appreciate
you right back at I'm your resident Lady Boss Jesse
Draper and I'm just Ben. Follow Lady Bosses and Ben

(01:10:55):
on I Heart Radio or wherever you listen to podcast
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