Kristien Carbone's idea for Brilliantly Warm came from a deeply personal experience of having a preventative mastectomy. After the surgery, Kristen was surprised that she was always cold due to the implants. When Kristen realized she wasn’t alone, and 75% of women face the coldness issue, she looked for a solution. Hand warmers didn’t solve the problem, and there was nothing on the market that came close. As a true entrepreneur, Kristen became determined to solve the problem. Kristen shares how she found the courage and community that allowed her to build the product for Brilliantly Warm, a small heating device that could be placed into a bra. We discuss how Kristen found investors to grow her business, the challenges along the way and how Kristen is building Brilliantly step by step. The market size for Brilliantly Warm has expanded since Kristen realized it could be used by breastfeeding moms and for menstrual cramps or simply to stay warm. 

We discuss how Kristen's art history background and work experience helped her as a start-up founder and how Kristen’s upbringing gave her the risk tolerance to boldly pursue her business idea despite the risks. Kristen has just enough crazy in her to follow her dream. Kristen has an art history background without technical experience and is a busy divorced mom with two teenage children. This conversation may inspire you to go after the business dream that is on your mind. If you see Brilliantly Warm at your local Target one day, we hope you will remember this conversation with a smile.

Learn about Brilliantly Warm

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If you have ever struggled with negotiations, this episode with Mori Taheripour a globally recognized negotiation expert is for you. Mori is an award-winning faculty member at the Wharton School and the author of Bring Yourself: How to Harness the Power of Connection to Negotiate Fearlessly. 

In our conversation, Mori shares the decisions and career choices that led to her path and we discuss ways to improve your negotiation skills. 

Topics Discussed:

-Everything is negotiable

-Negotiation is a skill you can learn. The more you practice, the better you get

-Knowing your worth is critical in improving your negotiation skills

-Belief in abundance and comfort with risk will help you become a better negotiator

Mori’s clients includes Fortune 100 companies, major sports leagues, and government agencies including Goldman Sachs Foundation, Google, the National Basketball Players Association, Wells Fargo, and the White House Fellows Program.  

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Diane Kahn is a teacher and co-founder of Humans of San Quentin, an organization seeking to break down the walls and stereotypes of prison life and to humanize the lives behind bars.  Diane was teaching inside San Quentin to help prisoners receive their high school diplomas when the idea for Humans of San Quentin was born. In our conversation, Diane shares the story of starting the organization and why she is so passionate about sharing the stories of people in prison.  When you visit the Humans of San Quentin site,  you will find moving stories, art and poetry from prisoners around across the US and other countries. Listen to our conversation to hear how the people Diane has met in San Quentin and around the world have transformed her, and they ways they can transform you.

Visit the Humans of San Quentin Website

Connect with Diane

Follow Diane Instagram @humansofsanquentin, on Facebook: Humans of San Quentin page, on Reddit @humansofsanquentin, on TikTok @humansofsanquentin, on LinkedIn @DianeKahn

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Janelle Kellman, Esq. is the Mayor of Sausalito, CA. In our conversation, we discuss Janelle’s path from private practice as an environmental attorney in San Francisco to launching a successful e-commerce company and launching the Center for Sea Rise Solutions in 2021 to support the localization of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Janelle’s passion for teamwork was ignited and nurtured by a lifetime of sports including playing two Division I sports at Yale. Janelle says, “Sports taught me hard work, collaboration and team work”. 

Janelle grew up in a small coal mining town in Pennsylvania. When Janelle’s mom developed asthma, Janelle became passionate about the environment and about working to find the balance between how we live in the natural environment. Janelle credits her father’s volunteering and involvement with community organizations as an early inspiration. The Jewish philosophy of Tikkum Olam (Repair of the world) has also guided Janelle’s motivation for environmental work and public service.

Listen in to hear why Janelle recommends people have a yes mindset, why removing expectations is the key to happiness and why the Japanese concept of ikigai is the recipe for success.

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Reach out to us at: contact@meanforit.com to say hello or recommend somone for a future episode.

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If you enjoy this episode, please, please, pretty please  share it with a friend.

We will do a dozen cartwheels (wherever we are)  if you leave us a review on iTunes.

Until next time,

Polina and Amber

Are you curious about the process of writing a speech for the President of the United States? During 2019 - 2017, Sarah Hurwitz was a White House speechwriter starting out as a senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama and then serving as head speechwriter for First Lady Michelle Obama. In our conversation, Sarah shares what it was like to write speeches for the Obamas and the career path that led her to speechwriting. We also discuss how a decision to take a beginner's class on Judaism led Sarah down a transformational journey. Sarah grew up culturally Jewish and didn’t fully understand or connect to her religion until the fateful Intro to Judaism class changed everything. In Sarah’s book, Here All Along, Sarah shares what inspired her to continue learning about Jewish wisdom ranging from holidays, rituals, and prayer to Jewish conceptions of God, death, and social justice. If you are a cultural Jew or just interested in learning about Judaism, we think you will love the wisdom in Sarah’s book. We also discuss Sara’s latest part time job as a hospital chaplain and the meaning it has brought to her life.

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If you want to learn more about how venture capital investing can change your life and the world, this episode is for you. Trish Costello is the founder and CEO of Portfolia, the leading venture investing platform designed for women. Prior to Portfolia, Trish was a pioneer in creating programs to educate and prepare people for venture capital investing in the Kaufman Fellows Program. She led the Kaufman Fellows program for 10 years as the CEO of Venture Education. Trish was also Founding President of CVE Capital Corp, the holding company of a $1.7 billion Fund of Funds.

In our conversation, Trish shares the arc of her career and the milestones and decisions that led her to starting Portfolia. We discuss Trish’s motivations, how she invests and the reasons why Trish believes Portfolia will change investing. We guarantee you will be blown away by how much Trish has done throughout her career and her goals to make the world a better place. Trish’s goal is is over 100,000 women (and their colleagues and friends) investing in Portfolia Funds in five years, and we have no doubt, she will make this vision a reality.

Learn about Porfolia here

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Laura Garnett came to performance strategy after a career crisis with a job that left her sick and depressed. Instead of staying on a path that Laura didn't care about and where she could not perform at a high level, Laura had the confidence to make a change. Laura used her curiosity, work ethic and unique set of talents to study what makes people happiest at work, eventually writing books on this topic and becoming a performance strategist consultant. Today, "Laura guides CEOs, Executives, Entrepreneurs, and teams to new heights of success by shining a light on their unique purpose, values, and abilities, transforming the way they work." Laura also writes extensively and has been published in Fast Company, Time, and The Muse, with recurring columns in Inc. and Forbes. 

From news reporting to Capitol Hill in various roles, then making a very intentional switch to working in San Diego where Holly Smithson ran CleanTECH San Diego and today as CEO of Athena, Holly has thrived in every role. As Holly shares in this podcast, everything that Holly has done and her success in each role comes from her intention, her desire to mobilize people toward a cause, and her intention to make a meaningful impact. 

After realizing Capitol Hill was not right for her, Holly made an intentional decison to move to San Diego. In San Diego, Holly found the business culture with metrics, accountability and cooperation a place where she felt she belonged and could fulfill her vision. While Holly didn’t have any connections in San Diego she had the vision and knew what she had to offer.  Holly’s skills and experience combined with her unstoppable confidence and work ethic came together in a way that led to Holly’s amazing success in her roles. As Holly says, “anytime I put my mind to it I will manifest the hell out of it.” 

Holly wants others to know that it doesn't make sense to stay too long in roles that make you unhappy. In the podcast, we discuss why Holly is so committed to Athena and why she is so inspired by the women she works with. Recently, Holly’s breast cancer diagnosis and treatment made her aware of how she could help other women going though cancer. Holly’s newest intention is empowering women to demand the medical care they deserve and to be fierce advocates for themselves. We have no doubt that when Holly decides something, you can’t go wrong jumping on her team or investing in her vision.

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Lindsay Tjepkema was a professional in the B2B marketing space for more than 15 years when she realized there was an opportunity to change how companies tracked and measured the impact of their podcast audio and video content so she jumped on the ideas and co- founded Casted.

Casted has an impressive list of customers, including Salesforce, PayPal, HubSpot, Drift, Gong and ZoomInfo. Casted’s platform is also “the system of record” for Salesforce’s 25+ podcasting shows!

In our conversation, Lindsay shares how she got the idea for Casted, the research she did to plan for the first MVP, her founder story and why she is so enthusiastic about growing Casted’s future. If you are interested in B2B marketing and the future of podcasting, we think you will enjoy this conversation with its CEO . Casted claims it has the ability to analyze content data and turn it into intelligence for sales and marketing. Casted’s platform allows a “fully searchable content archive” with transcription services and tagging.

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We would love to hear from you!

When Christine Marsh was younger she wanted to change the world. If you consider high school teachers who change the lives of their students through their passion, enthusiasm and dedication to their work as people who have changed the world, Christine succeeded. Christine has taught high school English in Arizona for 30 years, and was named  Arizona's Teacher of the Year in 2016. After a repeated number of colleagues and friends encouraged Christine to run for state senate, about 7 different times, Christine decided to go for it. Since teaching is Christine's first love, Christine is passionate about reducing class sizes and increasing teacher salaries. While serving in the state senate, Christine faced one of the most difficult tragedies any parent can face, Christine's beloved son died two years ago after purchasing a percocet pill that was laced with fentanyl. Despite her overwhelming grief, Christine has committed to speaking about the dangers of fentanyl whenever possible, and put forth a bill that legalized fentanyl test strips and removed the product from the state’s definition of prohibited drug paraphernalia. Christine is committed to raising awareness on the dangers of counterfeit drugs. As if she didn't have enough to handle in the last few years, Christine also recently finished treatment for colon cancer, and encourages others to ask their doctors about when to get screened. In our candid conversation, Christine shares how she has endured losing her son, and some of her hopes and goals for the future. We discuss how getting through the next minute, the next hour, and the day was a coping strategy for unimaginable grief.  If you want to be blown away by a woman who is unstoppable, and changing the world through her courage and commitment to serving Arizona's citizens, we think you will enjoy this conversation with Christine Marsh.