I Choose …To Thrive with Karissa Bodnar

Beauty founder and force of nature Karissa Bodnar, founder and CEO of Thrive Causemetics, joins Jennie for a conversation about building something beautiful, from the inside out.

Karissa opens up about the unexpected path that led her to start THRIVE Causemetics. Along the way, she shares stories of love, loss, creativity and courage; including one about an egg and a very special ring.

Together, Jennie and Karissa talk about confidence, community and what it means to choose yourself, especially on the hardest days.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Girl. Hi, everyone,
welcome to I Choose Me. This podcast is all about
the choices we make and where they lead us. My
gorgeous guest today is a trailblazer who founded a brand
that is vegan, clean and able to be used by

(00:23):
people who are immune compromised, which is so cool. Her
beauty brand has an incredible message behind it and I
can't wait to talk with her. Please welcome the founder
of Thrive Cosmetics, Carissa Bodner to the podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Jenny, thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm thrilled that you're here.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm so excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
You are beautiful. For anybody that can't see you right now,
she's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
You're so kind.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
This is so fun. I want to go back though.
We were just chatting before a minute ago about our humble beginnings. Yes,
we both grew up in the woods. We did out
in the country. You grew up in rural Washington.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yes I did, and Stanwood, Washington.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Shout out to Stanley.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I always shout out my hometown. I grew up in
a small town of Stanwood, Washington, which is about five
thousand people.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
It sounds very similar to I don't even know how
many mine had.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
I didn't know until somebody in the press told me that.
I thought it was kind.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Of wait, do they have, Like, was that fast food
restaurants in your town or no?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
No? So when I was when I was really young,
they didn't. And when we I was just talking about
this the other day, when we got a McDonald's, it
was like a national holiday had happened. What about you?

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Same thing. We had a dairy Queen when I lived there.
Dairy Queen's the best.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Ow My god, you know what we should be doing
is eating doing this interview while we're eating dairy queen
ice cream cake, because I think that's the best ice
cream cake plan.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
I'd give up my no dairy for you.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yes, yes, But we're small town's sister is how fun?
And my mom is named Jenny. Your dad's name is John. Yeah,
so awesome. My dad's middle name is John. So we're
basically sisters.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Growing up in a small town like that. How did
you figure out what you wanted for your life?

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Oh, my goodness. I think for me, I wanted to
work in the beauty industry because I loved that it
was this vehicle for helping me who. I think we
all can relate to having different insecurities when we're growing up,
like we go through the acne pace. I mean, hopefully
people don't, but I think most of us do. And
you know, I had you know, I had teeth that

(02:35):
were all over the place, and so I was trying
to draw attention to my eyes instead of my lips
at a certain point. And I remember reading that. Do
you remember the Bobby Brown book that had it was
like an actual book that you could read with makeup
artistry tips. It came out in the nineties.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
I don't think I ever saw I saw the hairstyle ones.
Oh yes, those are different, though, what the what was
this one?

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I mean it was it was an instructional book. This
was before you two, and we didn't have internet at
the time, and so it was really this opportunity for
me to learn. I would read books like the Cosmetic
Ingredient Dictionary to learn how to make the makeup, and
then I would read the artistry books to learn how
to do makeup. And so I loved it. Wasn't like
I had this clear path of, Oh, I'm going to

(03:19):
be an entrepreneur or I'm going to start a beauty company.
In fact, that was not on my Bengo card, as
the cool kids say. Now, it was really about wanting
to work in this industry and I wanted to make
the makeup. And I didn't even know what product development was,
which is kind of an industry term, or cosmetic chemistry, Like,
I had no idea that that's what it was. I

(03:41):
just knew I wanted to make makeup and I wanted
to put it on people. And when I fried my
hair from a Loreal Faria box because I wanted that
Jenny Garth blonde and I was I'm blessed with beautiful
brunette hair that box died transtir So. But you know,
I just yeah, it's I think it comes from that

(04:01):
personal passion of like it's so creative and artistic, and
I would say I am a really creative person. But
it's also this opportunity to help other people feel confident. Yeah,
And I've always loved like I started as a makeup
artist when I was eighteen at Sephora.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Oh like, okay, so you're the one of the gals
in there that they offer to do your makeup. Yes,
they help you find things.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yes, I was.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
I was.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
We were called cast members at the time, okay, and yeah,
I was a cast member. And when we were working
on the sales floor, we were on stage. And I
loved the Sephora training was so cool. I worked there
for five years, four years while I was in college
and then one year after college while I was a
product developer as well. So it was such a great experience.
But as far as growing up in a small town, like,

(04:46):
my goal was to win, you know, like the high
school things like you know, most popular or whatever. My
goal was to win most likely to stay in Stanwood.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Oh my god, did you get that title?

Speaker 2 (04:59):
No? I didn't win it.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
No, did you win? Did they give you any I got?

Speaker 2 (05:04):
I'm gonna be honest. These are the two I got.
I got best Hair okay, I can see it. And
I got most Gullible Okay, which, like I still have
mixed feelings about. Oh my god, did you win any
of those awards? No, I didn't go to high school.
Oh yes, I mean I did for a minute, but yes,
and life happened. Yes, you were a global star.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
I went to the High School of Life.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah. When did you win? I mean, I know nine two,
But I don't know what age you were. How old
were you?

Speaker 1 (05:33):
I was sixteen going on seventeen.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
And you were like the biggest star on the planet
when you were sixteen years.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Old when I was seventeen eighteen. Thanks God, nuts.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, what do we need to have a prom for? You?
Have you had prom?

Speaker 1 (05:47):
I did go when I was a freshman in high school.
I went to my senior boyfriend prom. I've done it.
And now I have three grown daughters who have all
had their proms. Okay, which so grateful. That's over. But
what did your parents do? Like, did you have entrepreneurialship
in your genes?

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Oh? I think I had it in the soil that
I was raised on. I in Stanwood, everybody was an
entrepreneur in some way. My dad grew up in Your
dad was a teacher, so is mine. Do you know,
Woul Do you remember what grade he taught?

Speaker 1 (06:22):
My dad taught adult education. He taught adults that hadn't
gone through the school process to learn to read.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
My dad did that too. That is yeah, that is
so cool. He still does that. He's now retired from
his full time job, but.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
He still does that. That is crazy.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, he so. My dad started as an elementary school. Actually,
let me get this right. I think he was a
special education teacher, and then he was an elementary school teacher,
and he did all kinds of different jobs within education.
But I'm really inspired by my dad and teachers in
general because I getting to watch how much they how
much they really sacrificed to really show up for students

(07:02):
and really change lives at such a meaningful level. Yeah,
it's a big reason why we added our education pillar.
We have so many different causes we support, and education
is one of them. Is really important, and a big
part of it, I think is my you know, growing
up with a teacher in my household, and at the
time I didn't really appreciate all of Like did you
get those workbooks on the summer from your dad? Like

(07:23):
my dad would like we would have like work like
I had summer school, but it wasn't official. It was
like the bot our summer school.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
No no. I When he left the school, he became
a farmer, so I got to bail hay in the summers.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yes, yes, I think though, like what a gift to
grow up the way that we did. I so when
I say the soil that I was raised on. I think,
you know, my parents always fostered an entrepreneurial spirit within me,
even though they weren't entrepreneurs. But growing up in Stanwood,
to the point of not having a large restaurant chain

(07:57):
in the in the town, every time we were shopping,
we were voting with our dollars to support our friends
and family in the area. Right. So, I don't come
from a family of entrepreneurs, but I think stan would
be in my hometown really left an imprint on me
that entrepreneurship or business ownership could be this vehicle for

(08:17):
really living your purpose and having fun and making a
living while you're doing it. So most of the people
I grew up with are entrepreneurs. In my small town,
most people don't leave Stanwood, so they own a construction
company or they own a beauty salon. And I didn't
know what I was going to do, but I feel
really lucky that I grew up around so many entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, definitely, I love that it was in the soil.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, it was. It was, and I spent a lot
of time in the dirt. I grew up on a
dirt road, so my parents would be looking for me
and I'd be like in the woods or like, yeah,
I was doing all kinds of crazy stuff.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Okay, our childhood sounds so similar. Were you alone when
you were out there in the dirt?

Speaker 2 (08:54):
I was too. Yeah. I have a sister, but I
like to joke that she was more of an indoor cat.
So she likes to play with dolls. She liked to
play with dolls and things like that, and I was
more of a you know, we didn't have cable, we
didn't have internet, and it was what.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Year are we talking here? Like what year did you
come up in? In this in what's called what's the Stanward?

Speaker 2 (09:15):
So we're talking about the nineties. We're talking about like
peak nine oh two one oer era, which was on Fox, right, yes, yeah, okay,
we didn't have cable. No, nobody had Fox. Yeah, yeah,
we didn't have cable. But I definitely know of nine
two one oer and have seen it. And I love
the whole I choose me and how this is woven
into really who you are as a person. I think

(09:36):
it's so cool. And but yeah we're talking I was
born just like Taylor Swift in nineteen eighty nine. Okay,
I felt really seen when that album came out, I bet,
and I'm a swifty Swifty I mean too, I mean
did you see her eras tour? I mean epic?

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah, it is so good.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
I still watch it, like the the Disney Plus version
of it. It's so good.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
I feel like once was enough for me. Okay, I'm
not that much of a Swifty fan. I love listening
to her music, though, like girls have grown up on
it so inherently. I know every song, yeah, because I've
heard them a million times. Yes, I am a fan
for sure.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, She's great.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Okay, So it sounds like you got into makeup pretty
early on Yeah, like what age did you say? What
age did you start wearing makeup?

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Okay, when I was allowed to or when I started,
because I think that's a really you know something about me,
much to the chagrin of my parents, who had the
painstaking task of raising me, is that if you tell
me I can't do something, I'm going to want to
do it more So. I probably started playing around with
my mom's lipstick when I was about five, and I

(10:44):
think I was officially allowed to wear makeup when I
was about thirteen, but I was definitely sneaking it on
the bus on the way to school, even in elementary
school and middle school.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
So yeah, was were people like, oh my god, she's
wearing makeup.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yes, yeah, for sure. I even got teased at certain points.
I remember one time I did this pretty intense purple
look where I had a really purple eye, like a
very intense purple eye, because I had read in one
of these makeup books that it would help enhance the
green in my eyes, okay, And I remember getting teased
at school for this like very intense purple smoky eye.

(11:20):
And then I went home and cried to my dad
about it, and he's like, well, you know, just it
is a bit.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Much, you know, did you like reel it in a
little bit after that or no, you just kept doing purple?

Speaker 2 (11:32):
No, I just kept playing around with it. I think
makeup is meant to be fun. And every time, you know,
we we donate our makeup, and every time we do that,
we love to host what's called giving events, and so
we bring people all around the world into these different
whether it's at a domestic violence home, or we host

(11:52):
them at our office, or we go to a cancer
center at a hospital, and we always start every giving
event by saying, we are to give you tips and
tools and tricks to really feel empowered when you're using
your makeup. But there are no rules, like the only
rules to have fun. And so I think that you
know whatever you feel like in that moment. Like I
love this beautiful red that you have on right now

(12:14):
on your lips. It's so pretty.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
It's Thrive.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
It is I wonder if that's the empower mat and Laura,
is it empower Matt.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
I might have worn my Thrive lip for you.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Oh my gosh, you're so sweet. I'm so flattered.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
Wow, the big crayon one I think you're.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Wearing the one that I named after my friend Laura.
And I'm going to tell you why this is a
chismeic connection. Lara is friends with Laura Geller, who you
and I both love. Laura Geller right right, And she's
actually how I met Laura Geller as an entrepreneur. I
met her when I was a makeup artist at SEFORA
and I was selling Laura Geller products. This is so weird. Yeah,
that's really cool. You're wearing Laura.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
That's full So I can tell from like five minutes
ago when we were talking.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, Laura Geller.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yes, that's crazy. Yeah, I really love your lipsticks.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Oh, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
I'm curious what is your take on as a as
a beauty brand founder. We're seeing more and more these
young young girls sharing stuff on TikTok talking about you know,
their beauty brand. What's it called when you get a
big hall?

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Oh the hall.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, they're showing like their twelve step makeup routine, their
skincare routine, they're anti aging routine.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
What is your take on that about like, you know,
young girls using products that are developed specifically for older women. Yeah,
Like why do you think the young girls are doing
this now?

Speaker 2 (13:40):
I think it's so layered. Yeah, you know why they're
doing it, And I think the why and the intention
is where it becomes really important. Like when I don't
know how old you are, when you started playing around.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
With makeup about the same as you yet five.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
I mean I think it's it should be fun. At
that point, we're playing dress up, right, it's not necessary
to change something about ourselves. And I think whether you're
five years old or eighty five years old, that message
rings true. So I think when I think about these
younger girls with playing with makeup. I'm like, yeah, let's
have fun with it. And the skill of these young

(14:16):
kids is amazing, and so I'm really inspired by seeing
the way that they express their creativity that way. I
think when you see them using some of these pretty
aggressive ingredients like retinol or glycolic acid and lactic acid, which,
by the way, I believe in those ingredients and I
think they're super effective. But when they're not educated on hey,

(14:40):
that's retinol or glycolic those are amazing things to use
specifically on your acne, you know that you may be
going excaring. Yeah, Like I think, you know, if a
thirteen year old is using those ingredients. Sometimes I see
them putting them like all over their face and their body,
and I'm like, well, maybe we don't necessarily need to
go that far, but I think it goes down to

(15:00):
the intent. Goes back to the intention, and then education
on how to use it safely.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, I mean, I see it all because my youngest
is eighteen. Yeah, and she really grew up in the
whole making videos of herself putting on makeup or doing
things or doing the holes and she you know, she's
already said things to me like I want to get botox,
I want to get a lip flip. Oh, and I'm

(15:27):
just like, what Yeah, No, you're perfect the way you are.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
And what a gift that you say that to her.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
I wish she would listen to me.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
I'll tell her. Okay, oh gosh, have you guys ever
done beauty videos together? No?

Speaker 1 (15:42):
We should do that that way, these would be adorable together,
all the Generator or all the girls, all the girls. Yeah,
they're twenty eight, twenty two, and eighteen.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Oh my gosh, Okay, I'm taking notes. We need to
do this, Okay. Yeah, I think, you know, what a
gift that you're reinforcing that she's beautiful the way that
she is. And I think so much about you know,
how you're reinforcing that within her, and also that she's
you know, much bigger than her beauty, like she her
brains will take her so much further. Like, that's an

(16:16):
amazing gift for her to have you.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I take it for granted. You know, my mom
was always very encouraging, you know, and always telling me
my reminding me of my worth, you know, and making
sure I knew and I do that just inherently with
my girls.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
I guess just part of all of our conversations, and
I think that's made them really strong and resilient and confident,
you know, in themselves. Yeah, and I really take that
for granted sometimes thinking some young girls just aren't getting that.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's true. We see it a lot
in the work that we do, and that's why I'm
so grateful for there's there's people like you who are
raising generations of strong, empowered, confident women. And there's also
so many nonprofits that are also helping to show up.
And there's this one organization called Self Esteem Rising that

(17:14):
teaches classes for five year olds up to one hundred
year olds about building confidence, and we work with them.
They're one of our giving partners. And I remember when
I went through the first self esteem training with them,
and I was just crying in the corner because this
is the most beautiful thing to because really the message
transcends whether we have an amazing mother like you or not.

(17:37):
These organizations are also helping to mother all of us
to feel like we're so much more than what we
physically look like.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
It so necessary, it's so necessary, and that's definitely one
of the things I love about you. And Thrive Cosmetics.
I'll come back to that. But when I talk to
female founders, I always am interested in the journey. I'm
always interested in the why and the how. Yeah, so
what is your why?

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Oh, that's such a great question. My why has grown
so much from when I first started. So the business
plan I wrote on my iPhone, which was just a
few bullet points, was really the why, which was to
create game changing products that would really help people feel confident,
whether they were receiving them as a customer or they
were receiving them as a donation. So for me and

(18:26):
for those of those listeners who don't know about our mission,
which I would assume most don't, but are you know
or that I've they've even that they've even heard of
Thrive Cosmetics before I Thrive Cosmetics. Really, our mission is
about giving back with every single purchase. So every single
time somebody purchases, we donate, We donate products, and we

(18:48):
also donate funds depending on what the nonprofit needs or
what what our community is asking us to do. So
I'll give you an example of kind of the standard
way that we give. We So you know, Jenny purchases
on Thrivecosmetics dot com and then we record that purchase
and then we go with our community and say okay.
At the end of every month, we have a total

(19:10):
of what we can give based on all of the
purchases and our community, whether it's our customers or people
who are just friends of the brand that we love dearly,
other giving partners, and our employees. We all vote on
what nonprofits we're going to give to.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
And that's so cool.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
It's the coolest thing ever. Impact Committee. You should totally
come to. It's so amazing. We get everybody together and
these giving partners they submit videos as part of the application,
and they're so creative and inventive, and really the prompt
is like, how are you going to make these products
really purposeful with your nonprofit? And so we've been able
to give to over six hundred nonprofits since I started

(19:51):
the business, and I think it's important to underscore how
small we were for so many years, but really how
our community helped fuel that over the last day decade.
And we wouldn't have been able to give to all
of these nonprofits without people helping us. People nominating these
nonprofits also of course supporting us through their purchases. But

(20:13):
I remember I shipped products out of my apartment for
three years and we had one charity that we supported,
and we supported one cause which was cancer. Now it's
domestic abuse. We support foster youth. We have a whole
education pillar where we have a scholarship. We're super excited
to announce that we're going to be donating because of

(20:34):
our community during the wildfires, we were able to raise
five hundred thousand dollars. Nice to be able to donate
to those who were impacted by the wildfires that just
happened here in our backyard in Los Angeles. And one
hundred thousand dollars of that is going to be or
has been allocated to provide ten scholarships of ten thousand

(20:54):
dollars to high school students that were impacted by the wildfires.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
So wonderful.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
I mean, it's incredible what our community has fueled. Like
I think our goal was one hundred thousand dollars, which
is amazing, Right, that's a remarkable donation. The way that
the community showed up in the US as well as
Canada allowed us to raise five hundred thousand dollars in
one day. And we're a small company. It's not like

(21:21):
we're you know, like you know, I started this out
of an apartment. So I think that's where I really
want to underscore how important our community has been to
be able to donate at that scale. It's we've now
donated over one hundred and fifty million dollars in both
funds and products since I started. And that is millions
of people showing up saying I'm going to vote with

(21:43):
my dollars and I want to give back. It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
One hundred and fifty million, you guys, that's that's a
big number. You should be so proud. I know I
can tell that you are. This sounds like your why.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
That's my why? Yeah, I think, yeah, Sorry, I didn't
even answer your question super directly. I went on a
whole tangent, but I got it. I tend to do that.
What I will say, though, is, you know, I have
the great privilege of working with over seventy people every
single day to build this company. Our team is everything
to me and I wouldn't be able to even be
here with you without a team. And so I think

(22:15):
that's another important piece of my why to really underscore,
because I'm motivated every single day to be the best
version of myself as a leader and as a person
because of the people that I get to work with
on our team, and that's a I didn't have that
as a part of my why when I first started,
because I couldn't afford employees. Yeh. And I was twenty
four years old, so I didn't really know how to

(22:37):
manage people or I didn't have a ton of experience
doing that, And so I think that's another piece of
my why is. You know, I've done this for over
ten years and it always inspires me to work with
our team as well.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
You said your first I'm going to ask you about
your how in a minute, but I wanted to make
sure I covered this too. You said your first charitable
fundraising was for camp Sir. Yeah, is there a specific reason?

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah? Yeah, I have this ring that I wear. I
cry every time I talk about my friend Christy. I yeah,
I started this business after losing my friend Christy to
cancer and I was twenty three, she was twenty four.
And I was so inspired by the way that she

(23:23):
really dedicated her life to helping other people, Like while
I was I'm going to be a product developer and
I'm going to you know, I want to work in
a laboratory and make makeup and skincare. She was like, CHRISA,
I'm going to go to Tanzania and I'm going to
help empower young girls and teach them English. And she
again coming back to education being such an important pillar

(23:45):
for us as a company. That's what she was doing.
She was teaching over in Tanzania. And so for me,
Christy is like the reason why I wear this ring
in honor of her, and why I love to put
sunflower seed oil in and all of our products, almost
all of our products, is because that was really her symbol.
She loved sunflowers, and after she passed away, we created

(24:08):
this sunflower sticker that I keep with me in my
wallet that we would put on like the Eiffel Tower,
or when we would go on a hike, we would
like take a picture because she loved to travel. And
so for me, it was, you know, losing her was
that moment where I think a lot of people go
through this when a tragedy happens, we kind of reevaluate

(24:28):
our lives and what we're doing. And Christie's death taught
me how finite life is and also that we should
be waking up every day feeling like we're living our purpose.
And I absolutely loved making makeup and putting makeup on people,

(24:48):
and I loved skincare and all of that. It was
so fun. And then there was this element of like, God,
I want to be like donating. I want to be
donating this makeup and teaching people how to use this
make up up. And so I never would have started
a beauty brand, like I really really wouldn't have. I
was very happy in a secure job situation. Entrepreneurship is

(25:09):
not a secure job situation, and it's not easy. And
I think that, you know, it's really Christie's passing that
propelled me.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
To that's so heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time
that your brand is built around this loss.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, and friendship and the power of that. Yeah, I
swear to God I know Christie better than when she
was here ten years ago.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
Okay, I talk about this sometimes. Oh, tell me when
you lose someone, Yeah, your relationship expands with them?

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yes, yes, Okay, tell me your stories about this, because
that's so cool.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Well, my my my thing is like life is busy.
We're all busy, We're all doing all of our things,
and friendships are there, but you know, we touch upon
those bases here and there when we have time and
when specifically my friend Luke died, I and my dad

(26:09):
of course, but I as a friend, I felt when
he passed, like after I was, you know, well into
my grieving process, I felt him with me all the time,
whereas before it was just here and there when we
would talk or when we would see each other. But
now there's this like this feeling in me around me

(26:29):
wherever I go, exactly, Harriet. Yeah, And there's just something
so indescribable, indescribable about that feeling.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
That I have chills because that's exactly how I feel. Yeah,
especially in the tough times. Yeah, Like I I totally agree,
And I'm so sorry that you lost your friend. Luke's
thank you. Yeah, I'm so sorry. It's it's such a
unavoidable tragedy of life. And I agree with you completely.

(27:06):
I feel I feel Christie around me all the time.
I see her in the eyes of the people that
we're serving, and I feel her even here with us now,
and I just it's it's almost like this guiding compass.
It's interesting, this is like the most la story. I
don't even I don't really know. So again, not from LA.

(27:27):
Grew up in a really small town, conservative Christian household. Okay,
so the horoscopes were not a big part of my upbringing.
And so then all of a sudden, when we moved
the business to LA in twenty eighteen, people started talking
to me about my signs all the time, and I like,
I knew I was a cancer because I was born
in July, but like, I didn't know the whole scope

(27:48):
of this. But the reason why I'm saying this is
an LA story is that we have an annual party
with our team and we the team, I was like,
where's the photographer. I remember going to our this amazing
people leader, Grace, and then one of our team members, Michelle,
and I was like, why didn't we have a photographer?
They're like, we ran out of budget and I was like, guys,

(28:13):
we had hired a tarot card reader instead. But she
was amazing. She was amazing.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Is that your first experience with that?

Speaker 2 (28:22):
So yeah, I actually didn't get to sit with her,
but she because the line was so long with our
team and the team loved it. But I'm like, I
want photos because I love printing photos of our team
and then like framing them for them. But I the
Tarot card reader pulled me aside and she said, I
don't know your story, but I want to let you
know that this company is blessed by divine energy and

(28:44):
divine power. And I'm like, I just start crying because
I was like, Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Ah, that's so incredible. How did you get out of
your apartment into the marketplace?

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Well, you unlock the door and I'm just.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Kidding, somebody let me out.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yes. So when I started the business back in twenty
thirteen twenty fourteen, e commerce businesses weren't really a thing
at the time, and so I really I literally went
like door to door trying to get different retailers to
carry the products. And I don't know what it was,
but they didn't really believe in the vision of what

(29:28):
I was trying to create at the time. And I
only had one product, which were our false slashes that
were it was paired with our lash adhesive or lash glue.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
That was your first product.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
It was the first product. Yeah, and it's it was
a really important product because I saw this firsthand working
as a makeup artist with people who were going through
cancer or my friend Christy that when you lose your lashes,
which many people do when they go through chemotherapy, they
aren't able to use traditional slashes.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Right because there's no lash to stick them on exactly.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, and so that was so what I created were
these really incredible lashes. I created them in my kitchen,
like handmade them with little fibers, and I will never
let the team throw out the original fibers. We're about
to move our office and I'm like, do not throw
away the lash fibers. Yeah. I would use like eggs,
like I would use an egg as my surface area

(30:25):
because I was trying to mimic what it would be
like to have an eyelid without lashes. But what I
found in the process was that they were really durable
and long lasting, like people could wear them twenty or
thirty times, and they were like everybody loved them. And
so that was what I was pitching the retailers on
and unfortunately, well it was actually fortunate for me in

(30:47):
the long run and for the business. I had to
build a direct to consumer business and I didn't know
how to do that.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
So because you never went to school for business, you never.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
I kind of did wasn't the best student. I'm going
to be honest. I went to community college, which I
think is great. And so I went to Bellevue Community College,
and yes I took chemistry classes, Yes I took business classes.
But I was the kid that wanted to go to
itt Tech so that I could work during the day,
like I was getting d's in like classes like nutrition

(31:21):
that only required participation because I wasn't showing up to class.
Because I got an opportunity Nordstrum. I had an internship
at the time, and they were like, would you like
to work this photo shoot tomorrow at eight am? And
I was like, heck, yeah, I want to work that.
And I definitely had a class at that time. And
so I struggled in school, but not because the teachers

(31:43):
weren't awesome. I just wanted to be working and I
had so many cool internship opportunities. But I did graduate
from University of Washington, not with a business degree, even
though I was in the business school. I dropped the
business school so I could graduate early and then go
work at Clarsona. That was what I So I did graduate,

(32:03):
but barely. Like that was a long winded way of
me saying I wasn't a good student. Don't be like me.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
So you basically just on a wing and a prayer,
like you figured this out as you went, Oh.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, yeah, I only knew the chemistry side and the
artistry side, Like I only knew how to make the
products and then how to make people feel amazing when
they were using them. And so I've made a lot
of mistakes. I joke that I have a PhD and
what not to do. I've paid a lot in different
fees of you know, fines, legal fees, all kinds of

(32:38):
things because of all the mistakes that I've made. And
I think every time, you know, I think it can
be really lonely and depressing at times when you're making
so many mistakes, as I did. But I had to
just flip it and be like, I'm just this is
just adding to my degree and my PhD of what
not to do, and I won't do it that way again.
So I really like to think of it as failing forward.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yes exactly. I was just thinking that.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah, because otherwise it's like what are we going to do?
You know, We're all going to make mistakes, whether you
have a business degree from Harvard or like me, you
went to community college. I think entrepreneurship is the school
of hard knocks, Like you can't teach some of the
things that you're going to go through. And I kind
of think that's the magic of it, though, because if

(33:24):
I would have known how hard it was, I probably
wouldn't have done it. And I'm so glad I did,
and I'm so glad I didn't give up. I think
like that was so to answer your question about getting
out of the apartment, it was the power of our community.
I will never, you know, not be grateful for every

(33:45):
single customer, because there was a point in time where
I was looking at every single order coming through on
my phone and then personally shipping it myself out of
the apartment. And you know, friends and family were helpful.
My boyfriend built the website and you know, did an
amazing job, and you know, has really helped fuel the
growth of the company. And I just think, you know,

(34:06):
my parents helped with order fulfillment, Like I wouldn't be
here without an amazing community of customers and people who've
just said, hey, I believe in you, And you know,
that's that's why I'm here, is how I got out
of the apartment.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
What Yeah, you said before. I think failure is just
a part of growing. Yeah, we don't fail, We're not
learning totally.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Yeah, I mean, and think about your career and what
you've been able to build, and how many different things
that you've you know, failed forward through. I can only
imagine what it's like to be learning those lessons at sixteen,
seventeen years old.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
I know I'm thinking the same thing about you, because
you're considerably younger than me, and you have found this
magical space that you feel so supported in and you
feel such a purpose. You know, finding that purpose at
a young ages is a gift.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah, how did you know that acting was your purpose?
I mean, I know it's bigger now than.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
I never knew acting was my purpose.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
I just assumed.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah know, I stumbled into it and I found myself
just in the deep water, so I started swimming. Yeah,
and along the way, I did grow to develop a
great love for what I did, and I really enjoyed that.
The acting, which is a very small part of what

(35:30):
you do every day as an actor. There's just a
small amount of time when you're doing that scene, when
you're on camera, when you're on your mark you're on
the set, but there's so much waiting, there's so much
you know, chatting, chatting all on the set, all those
things I wasn't a fan of. But yeah, once I started, also,

(35:50):
like you said, meeting the community, hearing how important the
show was to people, or the impact that my storylines
that Kelly went through had on somebody else, That's when
I started to go like, yeah, I'm doing this for
a reason. Yeah, you talked before about the brand giving
back to so many different charities, and I just love
this part of what you're doing. And I know that

(36:12):
you do too. I can tell it's the best. Yeah.
I saw some footage of you taking your products down
to skid Row.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yes, well, surely, and Beauty to the streets. Yeah, to
the streets.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yes, you should come sometime. It's really such a transformational experience.
I mean, or I mean, there's so many things we
could do together. I know you're really big on women's empowerment,
so there's so many different giving partners that we could
we could work together with. And yeah, sorry, I totally
cut you off because I got so excited about my
friend Shirley.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Sorry, surely shout out to Shirley. Yes, yeah, but no,
it's just that is such an important element I think
to give you that purpose, you know, that drive to
help others. And I saw the transformation on these women,
these unhoused women are down on their luck. Yeah, and
they you know, nobody's looking at them like seeing them.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
And I think when you are standing right in front
of them, close to them, and you're applying makeup to
them and you're encouraging them through words and through touch, Wow,
that's so powerful.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
It's it's so powerful, and I think it's also powerful
for us as people, Like anytime I'm bringing somebody on
a giving trip, because these are you know, we're talking
about skid roads. It's not a safe place, right we
you know, we're going to some really intense areas of
the world when we're serving people, not always you know, sometimes,

(37:41):
but they're they're heavy situations. And what I always tell
people is I'm like, this is going to change your life. Like, yes,
you're going to change lives, but you're really going to
be changed from this. Like I didn't know how much
internal healing I needed until I started working with some
of these giving partners, like the Foster Community and these
kids that I get to work with through you know,

(38:04):
the work that we do. They have healed me in
ways that I can't even fully put into words. But
you know, I think also to people who are going
through cancer, like the being able to work with those
those people, seeing that, you know, the incredible, really scary
challenges that we go through don't define who we are,

(38:28):
and being able to witness somebody else inspiring us in
that way. Like I think about my friend Nali, who
is one of our namesakes or Infinity water Proof yeliner namesakes.
But my friend Nlly, she was my age and she
reminded me so much of my friend Christy. And we
met when we were both twenty four and she was
going through breast cancer the first time, and she was

(38:52):
like the most inspirational, motivational speaker, Like if she she
probably well spiritually she is sitting here with us, but
she would be like she could just light up a room,
whether it was five people or five thousand people, And
until her last breath, she was inspiring people, whether she
would she would go speak at conferences that weren't even
about cancer. It was just about really living your life

(39:15):
to the fullest. And I think being able to witness
people like that has helped me recognize that the things
that I am struggling with don't necessarily define me or
the mistakes that I've made. You know, I think we
all go through different health challenges, which I have had
in my life too, and I think it gives us
certain appreciation for life. But also like, let's not put

(39:36):
ourselves in boxes. You know the world will already try
to do that, so let's like keep our boxes as
open as possible.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Absolutely, you said that working with the foster kids helped
heal you. What are some of the things that you
noticed healing?

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Oh my gosh, I think you know, I was labeled
pretty early on as being like a tough kid and
a kid that was Now I embraced being called tough
because I think that's awesome, you know. I see it
as a as a you know, a badge of honor.
But very early on in my life I was told that,
you know, I talk too much, that I'm argumentative, that

(40:18):
I need to kind of color within the lines, if
you will, And I just wasn't a kid that was
meant to do that. I was meant to be running around,
you know, on a dirt road on a farm, and
I had a lot of energy, and I was really creative,
and I appreciate that my parents really fostered that within me.
And I think I also was challenging for them to
raise and they they would say that if they were

(40:40):
sitting here, but I think I know they loved me,
but I think there was a lot of pressure to
fit within a certain box. And so when I see
these kids who have also been labeled as a problem,
I love them. I'm like immediately attracted to them. I
think I'm perpetually meant to have a complicated, complicated and

(41:01):
I'm saying, in air quotes, thirteen year old in my life,
specifically a girl I want like a thirteen year old
girl always in my life that's like angsty and like,
you know, like and I don't even want to say
like mad at the world, because I was always told
that that's what I was, and it was really I
was hurting. I was sad, I was going through different
challenges like we all do in life, and what I

(41:23):
really just needed was a hug. And so being able to,
you know, see a kid that is, you know, without
revealing too much about their personal stories, like we see
these you know kids that are really really struggling, and
sometimes the foster system doesn't know what to do with them.

(41:43):
And I think when you're able to just hold their
hand throughout you know, they might be swearing at you
or throwing things at you, and you just hold their
hand and say like, you're so like I love you
so much, and you're so awesome, and you're so smart,
and finding those things that we can celebrate within them
while still keeping boundaries and saying like, please don't talk

(42:05):
to me that way that hurts my feelings, but also
reminding them how loved they are. I find that to
be such a healing experience because I think that's what
we all need in life, and it's a being a parent,
which I'm not, has to be one of the most
challenging jobs that a person will ever have. You're a
mom of.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Three, yes, ma'am, it is.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Is it the hardest job in the.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
World, hands down, hands down, And so.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
I have so much grace for parents, and my parents
and most of my friends are moms, and so I
just I love that I get to show up and
love those kids with all my heart and hopefully help
them feel seen and valued.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
And it sounds like you're born to be a person
that gives love unconditionally.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
Oh I'm going to cry. That's so sweet, Thank you,
I think so? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yeah? Do you want to have children someday?

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Know? I am lucky. I went the first thing I
spent money on when my business people are like, what
did you spend money on when your business took off?
Because I was really poor for a long time. I
was like, really really struggling, not knowing how I was
going to pay my rent for many years. And so
when the business finally took off, the first thing I
spent money on was freezing my eggs. Congratulation And so

(43:26):
you have babies somewhere, yes, yes, So I would love
to be a mother someday. I would love to be
a mother of a little girl. I think that'd be
so fun. I want to name her l because I
think the Elwoods character such a like she left such
an indelible mark on so many young women, myself included.
And you grew up in that era where it was
kind of like the clueless era where it was like

(43:47):
the girls. Did your character did you have to like
play ditzy at times? Or were you always just a
smart badass?

Speaker 3 (43:53):
No?

Speaker 1 (43:54):
She had to learn a lot of hard lessons.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Yeah. Yeah, And I think that the ell Woods character
was so incredible for me, in particular because I got
to see Alicia Silverstone go from Clueless, which but I
wasn't allowed to watch that movie. I like, I like
snuck it. I snuck Spice Girls. This is the funny thing.
I was allowed to listen to Madonna The Immaculate Collection.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
Okay, that doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
It's because my mom liked it until I started listening
to Like a Virgin. Didn't know what that was about,
but really liked that.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
Song, the lyrics, lack of virgin touch for there.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
But I so I was not allowed to listen to
Spice Girls or watch Clueless, but I was allowed to
listen to Madonna. So again an empowering person. But yeah,
we uh. I think the gift of growing up when
I did in the in the late eighties and nineties
was being able to witness characters like Elwood's And so

(44:53):
I would love to name a little girl l and
just like watch her be a badass. We'll probably watch
her be a pain in the.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Ass like me. That keeps it fun.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yes, totally, yeah, Like I mean, you have three different girls, right,
is it? Three girls?

Speaker 1 (45:10):
Three girls?

Speaker 2 (45:10):
My gosh, what's that like?

Speaker 1 (45:13):
It's amazing. Yeah, it's just it's all I'm in awe
all the time of what came out of me, and
that I've kept them alive this long. Yeah, and that
they love me. Yeah, they'll love me for the rest
of my life.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
You know.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
That's that's a feeling that's very comforting to me because
I too, am a small town girl and I love love.
But yeah, it's it's cool, but it's not for everyone. Yeah,
And I have so much respect for women that choose
not to have children.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
I mean, that's what this whole podcast is about, is
choosing what you need in your life, and so being
able to define that is just part of the process.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah. I love that you said that, and I love
that you love your girls so much, And gosh, how
fun to have a mom like you. And I love
my mom so much, and I think that's it's such
a special relationship daughters and mothers. And I love boys too,
like I think it was. I love being auntie to
all of my friend's kids and things like that too,

(46:14):
So I love playing with little boys.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
But you're a girly girl.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
I am a girly earliet. Yeah yeah, And I just think, like,
what an amazing time to be a woman, Like, oh yeah,
I am so lucky to have started when I was
twenty four in that time where it was it was
encouraged to be an entrepreneur if you were a woman.
And I think we are really really lucky. And I
can't even imagine what these future generations like your daughters

(46:39):
are going to do. I can't wait to work for
them someday. It's gonna be awesome.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Because they'll hire us when we're older. That won't be
a thing anymore.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Yeah, totally, Yes, we are Like the whole age thing
is just a number at this point, Like it really is.
I mean, we are beautiful at every single age.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
This is true.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Work with the coolest nonprofit called the Glama Project. Glama,
the Glama Project, it's the coolest. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
I love Grandma's and be I love glam So.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
We need to hang out with the Glamas. If you
any day need if you ever need a boost of confidence,
you hang out with the Glamas. We go into nursing
homes with the Glama Project and we do full glam
on them, we take headshots.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Oh my god, they must love it.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
And they're teaching us tips and tricks like that's I mean,
I think that's like the fun is.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
It's so reciprocal.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Oh my gosh. Yeah. I was really lucky. I was
a you know, I had two really powerful grandmothers, like
very very strong women. One of my grandmothers immigrated here
from when when she was young, in from Germany and
she was a total badass. My Grandma Ruth, and then
my Grandma Jackie was amazing woman who went from you know,

(47:55):
not graduating from college and you know, being an alcoholic
and having a son who was a drug addict, and
just a lot of really immense challenges to in her
fifties talk about like making a lasting impact. In her fifties,
she decided to go to college and become a drug
and alcohol counselor and she did that until she died.

(48:19):
And she died in her sixties from lung cancer. And
I just think, like, what an amazing example for me
to grow up around. You know, That's why I don't
do drugs like I could have. Like when I'm on
skid row, I'm like, oh yeah, I very easily could
have wound up here, you know. And I think that
having a grandmother like her to basically do the DARE program.

(48:40):
Every time I would go over to her class, she
had like those remember the posters that were like a
R e yes, and she would like fry the egg
and be like this is your brain on crack. And
I'm like, okay, I'm not going to do crack. Grandma like,
but you know, her dying wish was that I would
never do drugs or smoke. And I swear to God,
you know, we're talking about Christy and Luke and everybody
being spiritually around us. My Grandma Jackie is like sitting

(49:03):
right here and she would throw a lightning bolt down
from heaven if I did drugs. So I'm scared. I'm
too scared to do drugs.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
Good.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
I'm fine with other people doing it, but I'm scared
because Grandma Jackie will still.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Come for me. He'll strike you down.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Yes. But the Glama Project, Yes, it's such an amazing nonprofit.
And I think what I would say about the Glama
Project is like again it being a mutually beneficial relationship
of we're helping them feel confident, they're also being Grandma's
to us that you know, many people lose their grandparents
very young and never know them, and so we have
these like bonus grandmas all around us.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
It's very cool, so cool. Yeah, I want to tell
everybody about how your makeup is designed with immune compromise people.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
Yeah, mind, yeah, Oh my gosh. It's so important to us.
From the very beginning, I remember, because we wanted to
give our products to cancer patients. I was calling on
cologists and I was calling different cancer hospitals specific and
they were saying, we don't want women who are going
through cancer to wear makeup. And I said, respectfully.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
That's bullshit, yeah, and not your choice.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
Yeah yeah, And I said, you know, this is like
we need to give women an option, Like, yeah, they
should have an option. And so we worked really hard
to develop formulas and we still do that are that
are clean, which means that clean is kind of a
buzz term in the industry, but clean is really about

(50:31):
the thousands of thousands of ingredients we will never use,
and we have a list that we're always building upon
as we learn more from oncologists or from different scientists.
We have incredible chemists on our team who are always
looking at how we can become more clean and really
create products that are safe for people who are immune compromised.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
So so good. Yeah, I mean, even if you gave
me that list that you work off of of no,
don't use these products or these ingredients, I would till
feel overwhelmed and then therefore not do anything about it
in my own like cupboards, you know what I mean.
So it's so good to know that when you buy
certain brands, you know you're buying clean and it's it

(51:14):
just it changes everything about your decision making because wouldn't
we all rather use clean ingredients on our skin, in
our mouths and our dummies. You know, these things are
so important in this day and age, especially with the
amount of chemicals that are being used, and just like
you know, people are like, yeah, I know, but this's
my favorite lotion or whatever. So it's so good to

(51:36):
have options for people that are looking for that.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Yeah, And there are so many great brands that are
doing clean beauty in amazing ways that I find incredibly
inspiring and for us, like, it's just so amazing that
we have access to so many great doctors through our
cause you know, like those people, you know, I think
about my friend doctor Elizabeth Coleman, who's a world renowned
oncologist who is saving lives, preventing disease, helping cure disease.

(52:05):
She's an amazing person. And being able to talk to
her and workshop different ingredients and you know, also work with.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
Different amazing that you work with her.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Oh do you know her or do you know of her?

Speaker 1 (52:17):
She's a foundation.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
Oh my, doctor Elizabeth Coleman is incredible. Yeah, she's at NYU.
Now she's you should. She wrote this book called All
in Her Head, which is all about the female anatomy
and really teaching women and empowering women to know their anatomy. Like,
I don't know about you, but until I froze my eggs,
I didn't know where my ovaries were. I was just

(52:38):
talking about this with my friend the other day.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
They didn't. They don't really, I mean cover that, and
if they do cover that in school, nobody's listening.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
I yeah, I mean all respect to the Standward school system.
My dad worked in it, but I don't remember them
teaching me totally, Like we're so embarrassed. Yeah, totally. I know. Everybody.
You're like ten years old and you're sitting next to
the boy you have a crush on and they're like,
let's talk about sex. It's like, oh my.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Gosh, yeah, I'm so glad you learned where your ovaries are. Though.
Who inspires you?

Speaker 2 (53:15):
You inspire me? Oh, I think you are so incredible
what you've built here and how you've used Oh gosh, oh,
I mean, it's just you are such an inspiration to
so many women. And when I told people I was
going on your show, they were like, oh my gosh,
Jenny Garth is amazing. What you've done with your career
and how you've really used it to impact people is amazing.

(53:38):
You inspire me.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
I'm glad. Yeah, yeah, I mean it, And I love
knowing you now better too, Like it's one thing to
read about a person, but to feel your spirit and
how warm you are, it's how I want to live
my life. And when I think about other people who
inspire me, I think so much about the people that
we get to serve and oftentimes we name products after them.

(54:04):
So I think about Raquel, who is herself is a
breast cancer survivor and she went on to go work
at self esteem rising and help empower so many women.
If that was the nonprofit. I was talking about five
years old to one hundred years old and teaching these
self esteem classes, and then she went on to go
create her own nonprofit, and so like, that's an example

(54:27):
of a woman who has experienced something that's really scary
and that we hope never happens to people that we
you know, anybody in the world, but inevitably, unfortunately, cancer
is way too close to too many of us. And
so I'm inspired by people like that who take their
pain and they put it into purpose. And so Raquel
is always at the top of the list. I think

(54:47):
of my friend Nolly. I think of our amazing employees
as well, you know, just watching them overcome their challenges
and still coming up with really creative solutions like building
a business and being a part of a business is
never easy, and so I think being a part of
a team is really inspirational to say, Okay, well we're

(55:09):
in this together. We have three values that our company,
and one of them is one team, one score, and
it's that idea of togetherness and that we really are
here to serve the collective and that it's not about
me as an individual or you as an individual. It's
really about coming together and supporting one another because we're
supporting something that collectively is bigger than all of us,
which is our cause. So I'm inspired by a lot

(55:31):
of people.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
Yeah, I could go on for hours.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
I mean no, that's just good to keep your eyes
open because the inspiring people are everywhere you look.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
Yeah, it's true, very true.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Okay, CHRISA. Bodner, I have a question for you. Yeah,
what was your last I choose me moment?

Speaker 2 (55:49):
I love this question because for me, I have to
choose myself every day, and I think that it's like
choosing to to wake up and walk on the treadmill
instead of you know, sitting and doom scrolling for an
hour and then feeling depressed. You know, I think I

(56:11):
used to believe that there was this moment where we
would arrive, meaning that we don't feel depressing thoughts, that
we don't feel anxious. And I feel like choosing myself
is a daily practice that I come back to and
that sometimes I go on a three week streak where
I'm feeling awesome and I overcome a challenge, and then

(56:34):
there are times where I'm really struggling. You know, every
single day and every hour of every single day and
saying I don't want to do this, you know, but
I think being able to come back to the basics
of like, okay, mood follows action. So I'm going to
go for a walk. I'm going to go for a
five minute walk without my phone, even though I don't
want to. All I want to do is be addicted

(56:55):
to my phone and sit here and be pissed off
about my life. But I'm actually gonna get up and
I'm going to go for a walk, and inevitably I
feel better after five minutes.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
So those little choices, yeah, yeah, And once you start
thinking and asking yourself, how do I choose myself, you'll
start to notice all the little things that you do
and then you'll be like, hey, I just had and
I choose me moment.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
I feel good about that.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
I love that I choose me movement that you have created,
and it's such a great reminder to be like, how
are you choosing yourself today? This is every day we
have to we have to. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
I really enjoyed our talk and I've enjoyed getting to
know you. Oh, thank you, Joe, And I just have
all the hopes for massive success and happiness in your life.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
Oh, thank you so much, Jenny. This was so fun.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
Thank you