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Women in Business at Hofstra

Hair and makeup by BeautyLynk

On Friday I spoke at Hofstra University in NY with an incredible group of strong and successful entrepreneurs on finance, business and working for ourselves. I was starting to get really sick Friday morning and lost my voice by the end of the talk which has never happened to be before but I powered through and got everything done before losing my voice entirely!

On the panel were 4 other women who worked corporate jobs before deciding to launch their own brands. It was moderated by the head of the business school and included 5 questions for each of us to discuss. When asked what my favorite part of being an entrepreneur was, I jumped to saying that having a flexible schedule was at the top. Then I thought about the question and realized that I could care less about having a flexible schedule. Sure, sitting in my bed typing this right now because I still feel sick is nice and all but when you run your own company you don’t get to take many days off. Vacations and holidays are filled with work even if you’re desperate for some time off.

My answer to that question is the feeling of success. After working on something for weeks and getting turned down, or expecting a response from someone that you’re thinking will tell you no and tells you yes is an indescribable feeling. There’s many more perks to running your own company but when I think about what excites me the most, it’s that exact feeling.

In the audience a student asked how to battle guilt when taking time off comes into play. I told the student that what has helped me (as someone who has battled guilt during holidays or vacations) is to take 1 hour of time away to work. If you’re like me, there’s nothing that can take the feeling of guilt away and it’s a shitty feeling. To combat it just work, but work a little bit less. That suggestion goes into how important staying on a schedule is and why I do my best even when traveling to maintain certain parts of that schedule. That may be working out or meditating.

Meeting everyone on Friday was so lovely and I look forward to meeting more of you at my talk at Stanford in January!

THE BE FEARLESS SUMMIT IS COMING TO Berkeley!

After a successful first summit at Drexel University March 15th and relentless pitching for 6 months following, I’m thrilled to announce the next Be Fearless Summit will be April 1, 2020 at UC Berkeley in California! I look forward to seeing you all there! For more information on the summit, please head to befearlesssummit.org. See you in April!

P.S. SPEAKER SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN!

The Classic Plaid

Wearing Bishop & Young

I know I don’t talk about fashion nearly as often as I did when I launched this as a fashion blog back in 2011, but there are certain times when I feel like I just have to showcase a piece of clothing that made me feel extra confident. Yesterday I appeared on Good Day LA (on 3 hours of sleep!) to discuss professional workwear for women my age, which isn’t what you’d expect to hear from someone who is 22. One of my friends who modeled in the segment wore this same jumpsuit and rocked it. I felt confidence radiating from her by standing next to her because I knew she felt confident and stylish in a jumpsuit because I did when I wore this outfit.

You’re probably thinking, why does someone at 22 need to be thinking about the importance of a blazer or a solid jumpsuit? The reason is, you’re never too young to begin thinking about your future. When I look through outfits I used to wear, I cringe and life simultaneously because I remember how empowered I felt when I wore certain pieces of clothing as a kid. Now that I’m running a company that is based on me as the brand, I know the importance of always showcasing people what you want them to view you as.

Since I’m traveling, presenting at colleges or taking meetings with brands, pitching a show…it’s important for me to have pieces in my closet I can throw on and head out the door in. You don’t realize how much people judge you based on what you’re wearing until you notice that you’re taken less seriously if you show up to a meeting in yoga pants vs. dress pants. Being young is not an excuse to not showcase your most badass and fearless side!

There is an expectation (partially due to social media) that you’re either wealthy and successful at my age OR you’re failing out of college and lacking purpose, with no space in between for those of us who are just figuring it out. 90% of people at my age are just figuring it out- I might be successful, but I’m figuring so much out right now too. We’re on this journey together! If you wear clothing that doesn’t define you it just enhances you, you’ll realize that you have the potential to get your dream job at any moment you want. Go into H&M, pick up a cheap blazer and a pair of dress pants with some black heels and wear this outfit for a few days. Heck, sleep in it. I promise you’ll feel more confident overnight.

Episode 94// Arielle Patrick, SVP of Edelman

This episode was inspired by Freshbooks, my go-to invoicing platform. During this episode Arielle and I talk about the importance of pursing your passion, not what society is constantly throwing at you. She’s an entrepreneur, but she also takes home a pay check from the company she works at. You don’t need to run your own company to be happy or success.

As a business owner, staying organized is crucial especially when you travel a lot. Even if you don’t run your own business, you have to take care of your personal finances in and out of the office. I know many of you are back in school and juggling tons of different assignments in your college classes, so you may want to check out EssentialPIM. I use this platform to track all of my daily tasks and my passwords. I feel like I’m constantly changing my password on my iPhone, so this app helps keep everything organized for people in business like Arielle and myself.

I sat down with one of business’s youngest SVP’s Arielle Patrick to discuss PR and expectation management in the digital age. Arielle and I met when I was living in NY and interning at Guest of a Guest, and our careers have since blossomed! Let’s talk about purpose, getting uncomfortable to be comfortable and landing your dream job.

Listen to more with Arielle below on my weekly podcast, This is Life Unfiltered.

Episode 95// Colleen Broomall, YSBNow Co-Founder

Colleen Broomall is the Co-Founder of YSBnow, a celebrity-driven digital platform that empowers and inspires young women with one resounding theme: You’re So Beautiful Now. Not when they reach a certain number of Instagram followers, not when they get their braces off – but right now. From there, Colleen moved to the top spot, Editor-in-Chief, at Popstar, where she witnessed firsthand how social media and digitally-altered images were damaging girls’ self-esteem.

Listen to more with Colleen below on This is Life Unfiltered, my weekly podcast.

Speaking at Menlo University on Branding!

Glam by Sakura Salon.

I’ve presented at Menlo University in Atherton, California once before. The last talk I presented here on branding was awesome. Sometimes when I go and present at a college I never know if the students will be interested or ask any questions, but the last time I presented at Menlo the students were engaged and excited to learn! I hate considering myself a lecturer because that sounds so professional so I just say I present fun and engaging talks about being your own boss! Even if you don’t plan to be a CEO one day, you are always in control of your destiny.

I rented a car on Turo and drove from Oakland to Atherton yesterday but first I stopped in Piedmont to get my hair and makeup done at a salon with Julia, who is seriously the coolest and nicest glam person ever. I love all of the people who do my hair and makeup, but she’s awesome. I drove 30 minutes the wrong way and then ended up getting to Menlo right when the talk was supposed to start (don’t trust Waze people) which ended up working out perfectly. I presented for one hour before opening the room up to a Q&A.

I was asked was how I became an entrepreneur without any connections or family experience in business (I had neither!!) Well, I started writing when I was 12. Not good writing, not grammatically correct, but I loved writing. Then I loved emailing people everyday to annoy them until they either said yes or no to my idea. Somewhere along the line I became successful. But it’s not different than someone else liking running or eating or drawing. Just because I’m an entrepreneur and you may not be doesn’t mean you don’t have the drive inside of you that I have, it just means you haven’t found what drives you yet. The key to success is to never be comfortable. If you’re working at a job you absolutely adore, don’t avoid looking at other job opportunities out there. You can go on LinkedIn and see what’s being offered or what the market is looking like in your industry just so you stay a little uncomfortable. After all, you never know what’s going to happen. You might wake up one day and realize you’re destined for something else and this is how you will be ready for it. Thanks to all of the students who attended and inspired me just as much as I hope I inspired all of you!

The Unique Drive of An Entrepreneur

I wrote an article for Thrive Global this week and received an overwhelming amount of messages and emails from you. So hi, if you just found me through Thrive. And to everyone else who continues to follow my journey, double hi! The below was not easy for me to write as it’s the first time I’ve addressed being bipolar online and in public.

When they asked me to write an article on mental health, especially on mental health awareness day, I said yes instantly. I’ve spoken about mental health since I battled my eating disorder and it’s not a topic I ever want to shy away from discussing. I felt extra eager to write a post like the one Thrive requested this week because I lately have been suffering quite bad with my own mental health stuff. It might be because I can’t get one school to approve the next summit (it’s becoming the most rejection I’ve faced to date) or because I am doing too much that I feel like I’m about to burn out…but because of that, my anxiety and depression are increasingly harder to battle. Being an entrepreneur is mentally and physically taxing. For someone my age, it’s really fucking hard. I am bipolar and I’ve never found myself suffering as deeply as I am with it lately. The moments of weakness in comparison to the moments of feeling ethereal make maintaining a balance truly difficult.

The reason I’m successful is because when I feel worthy of myself (note: I never find myself needing other people’s approval, it’s all the pressure I put on myself to succeed) which is a decent amount of the time, I can do it all. I can travel every second, type 1 million emails in 20 minutes, eat right, workout at 5 AM, etc., and the moments of weakness when I’m rejected, when I compare myself to someone else, when I feel like nothing is going on, I feel not worthy. That’s why I do everything I can to balance myself out and stay on a schedule even when I’m traveling so I don’t face the lows as bad as I might if I was just going out every night and eating bad or not staying active in some capacity. I won’t go out to dinner or to a party if I feel like I’m going to wake up the next day depressed because I went out. It’s not worth the pain to me anymore.

Burnout is a topic I’ve discussed on This is Life Unfiltered and it’s real. If you have that passion and drive so deep inside of you, you’re never going to give up until you get to where you want to be. You might eventually end up burnt out and you will need to take some time to yourself to decompress. I feel the best when I’m talking to young people at colleges or high schools, or interviewing people for my podcast. I love my job, but it’s taxing in every area of my life. I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else even on the moments where I wonder if working this hard and relentlessly will ever pay off. I can’t answer that question and neither can you.

This week I was doing 100 things an hour and spending a lot of time on airplanes, and when it comes to taking a second to sit back and breathe that’s when I feel extra depressed and anxious. Today I was supposed to speak with my therapist but she canceled our appointment, then I got rejected by another college, and then I booked a WeWork conference room in San Francisco and I sat and cried for 40 minutes thinking about everything I’ve done wrong and why I can’t get anyone to say yes. Then I forced myself to call one of my best friends Daniella and she talked me through everything, sent me $13 on Venmo to go to Blue Bottle and get coffee and I felt better. That’s a badass best friend. Find someone like her who will always be there for you and vice versa. I felt a whole lot better after we talked. The power of talking is strong. You should never hold anything in, even if you’re too scared to talk about how you feel, go write about it. Go run it off. Go feel the pain and get through it.

As Daniella told me today, it’s going to be okay. Now I believe it a little bit more.

A few podcast episodes you should listen to:

#WCW: Meet Jacqueline Means, A Young Adult With A Mission

About Women Crush Wednesday: I love having the chance to interview different people on both of my shows, from up and coming entrepreneurs to kids across the world doing amazing things for the world. I frequently come across people that I’d love to interview but don’t necessarily have the time to interview, or we can’t match up our schedules, so I wanted to start a new weekly profile on Life Unfiltered to bring attention to even more people in the world making an impact.

Jacqueline Means means business. Originally from Delaware, Jacqueline’s mission is to inspire kids across the country to get involved with tech. In Delaware, more than 60% of kids drop out of school in her city. That’s a crazy high percentage, and she’s on a mission to bring that statistic down!

Not only does she maintain a 4.0 GPA (much better than my 1.9 GPA in high school) she teaches science in a fun and engaging way. Jacqueline hosts empowering STEM events on a regular basis for young women. She reminds me of a young Karlie Kloss!

Let Jacqueline be a reminder that you don’t have to have 3 million Instagram followers to make a difference in the world. What you need is drive and passion to make the world a better place, and everything else comes after that.

Thanks for your fabulous work, Jacqueline! Keep making a change in your community.

The Inner Lives of Teens

“Does your teen struggle with depression or anxiety? Are you worried that they secretly might be? Alexa Curtis, social media influencer and host of Life Unfiltered with Alexa, gives us her insight on warning signs to keep an eye out for, along with her perspective on the mindset of today’s teenagers.”

I sat down with Your Teen Media founders Sue + Steph to address some concerns I am quite often asked from parents. How do you deal with your teen online, and how do you deal with a teen who may be posting reckless content without understanding the repercussions?

Tune in to the full episode below and keep an eye out for Sue + Steph on This is Life Unfiltered next week!

I DYED MY HAIR PINK!

Okay okay, not fully pink. But PINK! I am the kind of person that will see something and instantly become captivated by it. Randomly I saw a picture of Rosie H-W (the supermodel) with pink hair on Pinterest, and when I was in NY last week I texted my publicist who works with a stylist (Julien Farel )a picture and she was like we have to get you in to Julien. On Monday instead of going to the gym, I took the subway to the Upper East Side where I spent the afternoon dying my hair with Julien and the entire team at his stunning salon. The initial picture I saw was a full head of pink hair but I decided I didn’t want to bleach my hair and deal with that hassle, so we went a little more carefree with pink streaks throughout my hair.

Every time I make a random last minute decision like getting a tattoo or dying my hair a color, all of my friends text me asking what’s going on with me. Every single time my reply is can I not be fearless and do something spontaneous!? You guys, GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE! It’s so easy. You just think of something you want to do and you do it. You don’t spend enough time letting yourself get freaked out that you decide to not do it- you just go and do it. That doesn’t mean I suggest getting spontaneous tattoos (2/3 of mine were spontaneous but had meaning) but if you want to change your hair color, wear two different shoes or paint your nails pink and purple, no one is holding you back.

Live your life fearlessly.