Calling all curly, Afro'd and natural-haired people! You have got to check in!I am soo excited y'all! I have an incredible conversation with Cally Raduenzel, curly hair innovator and founder of Cally's Curls and Company in Chicago releasing tomorrow.Some of you may know, through my brand channel Birk Creative, and also my personal story that I released last year with Fast Company Magazine, where I describe my journey from straight processed hair to natural hair here https://www.fastcompany.com/90864887/im-a-black-business-owner-and-this-is-how-my-hair-shaped-my-professional-brand, I'm still coming to terms with my natural hair journey.One of the reasons I was able to make this journey to loving my hair, was in part because of the natural haircare training that I got at Cally's Curls, in Chicago.I love this conversation, and I love Cally. If you have curly hair, and you are in Chicago, or close enough to drive there, this may be the curly hair salon for you. It's an entire vibe!

Summary

In this episode of The Honest Field Guide Podcast, host JinJa Birkenbeuel discusses her personal journey with natural hair and the challenges faced by Black women in conforming to societal beauty standards. She shares her experience of transitioning from straight to natural hair and the struggles she encountered along the way. JinJa also introduces her guest, Cally Redunzel, the founder of Cally's Curls, a salon that specializes in curly hair. Cally shares her own journey with curly hair and the societal pressures she faced to conform to straight hair standards. The conversation highlights the importance of embracing natural hair and the need for more education and support for curly hair care. Cally shares her journey of opening a salon and becoming an expert in curly hair. She emphasizes the importance of self-love and embracing natural curls. Cally's mission is to empower her clients to feel confident and knowledgeable about their hair.

Takeaways

• The journey to embracing natural hair can be challenging and filled with societal pressures
• Curly hair care is often overlooked and requires specialized knowledge and products
• Representation of diverse hair types in media is important for promoting self-acceptance
• Education and support for curly hair care are essential for empowering individuals to embrace their natural hair Embrace your natural curls and practice self-love.
• Education and knowledge sharing are essential in the salon industry.

Chapters

00:00

Welcoming Cally to the Show!

10:29

Growing Up with Curly Hair and the Influence of Family

17:31

The Revelation and Acceptance of Curly Hair

20:21

The Pressure to Conform to Straight Hair Standards

22:36

The Impact of Media and Representation

24:08

The Stories of Curly Hair

26:18

Transitioning from Journalism to Hair

29:58

The Intersection of Music, Art, and Hair

32:01

The Journey to Opening a Salon

36:46

The Importance of Education and Knowledge Sharing

39:14

The Challenges of Embracing Natural Hair

43:17

Choosing the Right Products for Curly Hair

53:01

Feedback from Clients and the Power of Reviews

55:38

The Vibe and Culture of Cally's Curls

57:27

Playlist and Go-To Fashion

58:16

Lipstick or Lip Gloss

All content ©Birkdesign Inc. This podcast represents the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative and its employees.

Please subscribe and the donate to our show. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/support. Text The Honest Field Guide at ‪(312) 445-0903‬.

Send us a voice message and we will record it on an upcoming episode: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/message. The podcast is recorded and produced by Birk Creative. Visit http://www.birkcreative.com.

Subscribe to our occasional newsletter jinja.myflodesk.com/thecreativereset

In this episode, I share my experiences at the Sundance Film Festival and highlights an entrepreneur artist, writer, and poet named Chanel Murray. I continue to reconnect with people that I met at the festival and my conversations with Poet Chanel Murray are among the best ones. In this Creative Reset, I read from Chanel Murray's book of poetry, 'All Black Errythang,' which resonates with my own natural hair journey.

Attending the Sundance Film Festival provided opportunities for networking and connecting with individuals in the film industry. You should be planning now to attend the festival in 2025.

For my regular fans and recurring listeners, you may remember my personal journey with my natural hair and the impact it has had on my self-esteem and identity. Chanel's wonderful poem "My Hair Taught Me To Love Me" speaks to my experience.

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All content ©Birkdesign Inc. This podcast represents the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative and its employees.

Please subscribe and the donate to our show. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/support. Text The Honest Field Guide at ‪(312) 445-0903‬.

Send us a voice message and we will record it on an upcoming episode: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/message. The podcast is recorded and produced by benefit corporation Birk Creative: A benefit corporation designing strategies and visual identities to help brands adapt with intelligence to the market. Visit http://www.birkcreative.com.

Subscribe to our occasional newsletter jinja.myflodesk.com/thecreativereset.

Welcome to The Honest Field Guide Season 3 kick-off.

For the first time, I have a podcast episode that requires a disclaimer: "Listener Discretion" advised. My guest Mary Nisi (Toast & Jam DJs) and I are 100% funny, and at times, are using strong language. Some topics in this episode may make some listeners cringe. But this IS the HONEST Field Guide Podcast.

This episode is a Part II of the conversation that Mary and I had from last year. That conversation took place after Brandon Johnson was elected as Mayor of Chicago. Chicago is having huge problems right now, especially because they are negatively impacting small business owners like Mary and I.

The city of Chicago STILL feels really awkward to me. It has not gotten better in the last 10 months since Mayor Johnson was elected. Fingers crossed he gets some honest and authentic help, fast.

I'm going to keep creating these little mini conversations specifically with Mary Nisi because Mary is someone I trust to tell it like she sees it. She is not afraid, and I love that about her.

Mary and I are going to keep this conversation going. Plus, we're heading into a political season, local and nationally. We're not going to focus on geopolitics, we aren't qualified for that. We're going to really keep this conversation local, because politics IS local!

Brand Chicago ain't selling too well right now. And it doesn't seem as if there is an end in sight to be honest.

I wish I would help, but the powers that be haven't called me for assistance in a long while. I'm always here to help Chicago, but I won't work for free.

All content ©Birkdesign Inc. This podcast represents the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative and its employees.

Please subscribe and the donate to our show. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/support. Text The Honest Field Guide at ‪(312) 445-0903‬.

Send us a voice message and we will record it on an upcoming episode: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/message. The podcast is recorded and produced by benefit corporation Birk Creative: A benefit corporation designing strategies and visual identities to help brands adapt with intelligence to the market. Visit http://www.birkcreative.com.

Subscribe to The Birk Creative Reset newsletter https://view.flodesk.com/pages/60662f4dc9533f4419aaa4ba

Film Director and Writer Alex Lora and I sit down to discuss his latest film "The Masterpiece" which just hours earlier, won the Sundance Grand Jury Award. Alex was in shock and also battling a bad cold during our conversation. But nothing dampens his creative spirit and how fortunate I was to have stumbled across Alex to have this conversation! Enjoy! To find Alex Lora's other work, visit the following channels: http://www.alexlora.com IG: @alexloracercos X: @alexloracercos Facebook: @alexloracercos Reel 1: https://vimeo.com/alexlora/reel1 Reel 2: https://vimeo.com/46511611 Trailers: Unicorns https://vimeo.com/831659390 We Are Living Things https://vimeo.com/alexlora/trailerwalt The Fourth Kingdom https://vimeo.com/360916693 Thy Father's Chair https://vimeo.com/144912742 Our editing company: www.handfulfilms.com My imdb: www.imdb.me/alexlora The Honest Field Guide podcast, created by Birk Creative and hosted by our Chief Executive Officer JinJa Birkenbeuel, is for entrepreneurs and business owners to help you navigate the complexities of starting, running, sustaining, growing and then scaling a business. Conversations about business include some of the world’s most successful behind-the-scenes entrepreneurs. Follow our show on http://www.instagram.com/honestfieldguide or at http://www.twitter.com/thehonestfield. Please subscribe and the donate to our show. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/support. Text The Honest Field Guide at ‪(312) 445-0903‬. Send us a voice message and we will record it on an upcoming episode: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/message. The podcast is recorded and produced by benefit corporation Birk Creative: A benefit corporation designing strategies and visual identities to help brands adapt with intelligence to the market. Visit http://www.birkcreative.com. Subscribe to our occasional newsletter https://view.flodesk.com/pages/60662f4dc9533f4419aaa4ba. Music found on this episode is available on YouTube Music here https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCe7Qjt9aTYQ4gHmn1AyTYIA?feature=share or on Apple here https://music.apple.com/us/artist/utah-carol/137984081 and provided courtesy Utah Carol (ASCAP). All content ©Birkdesign Inc. This podcast represents the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative and its employees. #dyor Subscribe to the full podcast on Apple iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-field-guide/id1406059045?mt=2. Credits Themesong "Sam's Ranch" provided courtesy Utah Carol. All content and creative @2018 Birk Creative. The Honest Field Guide is created and written by JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative. The Honest Field Guide podcast is recorded in the Midwest at Stomping Ground Studios and produced by Birk Creative, a creative brand strategy, media, technology and professional training company. Birk Creative has been advising global tech and retail giants, authors, celebrities and small business for over twenty years to find gaps, see beyond blindspots in order to help bring their brands to life and connect with the right customers. The opinions expressed on The Honest Field Guide are opinions only and only represent the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel.

Hi welcome back to my show. A quick update: I will be at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival representing Full Spectrum Features as a newly appointed Director to their board, to participate in the premier of their first film "Desire Lines." I am also reporting in on the festival for WVON 1690 AM Chicago to discover the latest independent films created by Black filmmakers, actors, producers and directors. Follow my LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram and more to keep up to date on my journey to Sundance.

All content ©Birkdesign Inc. This podcast represents the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative and its employees.

Please subscribe and the donate to our show. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/support. Text The Honest Field Guide at ‪(312) 445-0903‬.

Send us a voice message and we will record it on an upcoming episode: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/message. The podcast is recorded and produced by benefit corporation Birk Creative: A benefit corporation designing strategies and visual identities to help brands adapt with intelligence to the market. Visit http://www.birkcreative.com.

Subscribe to our occasional newsletter https://view.flodesk.com/pages/60662f4dc9533f4419aaa4ba.

Burn-out is real. A year-end inspirational and hopeful reading "Practical advice on burnout—what works and what sucks—from someone who’s dealt with it" by JinJa Birkenbeuel. Happy new year everyone! *At the end I meant to say "See you in 2024!" Not 2022. 🤣🤣🤣

All content ©Birkdesign Inc. This podcast represents the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative and its employees.

Please subscribe and the donate to our show. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/support. Text The Honest Field Guide at ‪(312) 445-0903‬.

Send us a voice message and we will record it on an upcoming episode: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/message. The podcast is recorded and produced by benefit corporation Birk Creative: A benefit corporation designing strategies and visual identities to help brands adapt with intelligence to the market. Visit http://www.birkcreative.com.

Subscribe to our occasional newsletter https://view.flodesk.com/pages/60662f4dc9533f4419aaa4ba.

Michelle Covey is here on my show today. She is the Vice President of Innovation at GS1US, where she overseas delivery of programs and services designed to support efficient and accurate GS1 standards implementation for companies of all sizes.

When you are a manufacturer or a retailer, you need an authentic way to identify your products if you want to sell them in stores or major online marketplaces. I'm here today to talk to Michelle a little bit about that.

Here are some GS1 Resources for you to learn more about the GS1 Standards:

• GEPIR (look up GTINs) - https://www.gs1us.org/tools/gs1-company-database-gepir
• Homepage: www.gs1us.org
• Small Business Hub: https://www.gs1us.org/small-business
• AI Whitepaper: https://www.gs1us.org/articles/generative-ai-in-the-supply-chain

Where can an entrepreneur find specific and easy step-by-step instructions on how to join GS 1?

https://www.gs1us.org/upcs-barcodes-prefixes/how-to-get-a-upc-barcode From GS1 standpoint, what is the primary benefit to opening my own GS1 account (as a small business owner) versus just buying one as needed, from an e-commerce entity (Amazon, Shopify, etc.), as I go?

GS1 identifiers (like GTINs) are globally-accepted identification numbers, and are different from the internal numbering systems that Shopify or Amazon use (Amazon’s is called an ASIN, for example, and can be confused with GTIN). Each are important to indexing a product and making sure it is able to be discovered on each platform. It benefits a small business owner to open a GS1 account because they can ensure they meet a variety of retailer requirements and sell globally.Why GS1 US?

GS1 identifiers (like GTINs) are globally-accepted identification numbers, and are different from the internal numbering systems that Shopify or Amazon use (Amazon’s is called an ASIN, for example, and can be confused with GTIN). Each are important to indexing a product and making sure it is able to be discovered on each platform. It benefits a small business owner to open a GS1 account because they can ensure they meet a variety of retailer requirements and sell globally.Why can't I just bypass barcodes and just use these new AI tools that give me an artistic and generative QR code?

Even though GS1 Standards are 100% voluntary to use, GS1 barcodes are recognized by the largest retailers in the world – so if you want to sell and be recognized in commerce in a legit fashion, you should use barcodes from GS1 US. Plus, those AI ones won’t be recognized when they’re scanned at POS/won’t be recognized in the global supply chain.Where can I reach the GS1 small business liaison to help me started?

Start at our website gs1us.org, call us at 937.435.3870 or email us at info@gs1us.org.What are some fresh and innovative ways to use GS1 as a small business?

If you want to sell and be looked at as a secure and safe operation, you should to leverage GS1 Standards. The standards are the backbone of commerce and responsible for tracking and tracing goods throughout the supply chain.

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Music found on this episode is available on Apple here https://music.apple.com/us/artist/utah-carol/137984081 and provided courtesy Utah Carol (ASCAP). All content ©Birkdesign Inc. This podcast represents the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative and its employees. Mastering by Kris Zarnoch.

Please subscribe and the donate to our show. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/support. Text The Honest Field Guide at ‪(312) 445-0903‬.

Subscribe to our occasional newsletter https://view.flodesk.com/pages/60662f4dc9533f4419aaa4ba.

The city of Chicago right now is feeling really, really awkward to me. 

I don't know what's happening here or, what we need to do. But I want to talk about this awkwardness, so I decided to incorporate these little local politics conversations on my show with my fellow outspoken entrepreneur Mary Nisi, owner of Toast and Jams DJs.

Chicago: What the fuck is happening here? UGH. Everything right now seems so out of range from "normal" if that is even such a thing in Chicago, and seemingly so out of control.

So, because we have all these amazing digital tools now for leaders and entrepreneurs, I'm going to create little mini conversations specifically with Mary Nisi because Mary is someone I trust. She is also someone like me who tells things how she sees it, and she's honest, hence my show The Honest Field Guide. Mary speaks her truth and asks smart and sometimes really dumb questions just like me and I love that about her!

Mary and I are going to keep this conversation going. Plus, we're heading into a political season, local and nationally. We're not going to focus on geopolitics, we aren't qualified for that. We're going to really keep this conversation local, because politics IS local!

Brand Chicago is under attack. It's not only under attack from outside people that don't know anything about Chicago, but it's we're under attack from people that DO know about Chicago and it's almost like, is there something intentional happening here with the messaging? When did this negative message about Chicago start? Who started it? What's going on? I'm going to find the f out. Right now.

All content ©Birkdesign Inc. This podcast represents the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative and its employees.

Please subscribe and the donate to our show. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/support. Text The Honest Field Guide at ‪(312) 445-0903‬.

Send us a voice message and we will record it on an upcoming episode: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/message. The podcast is recorded and produced by benefit corporation Birk Creative: A benefit corporation designing strategies and visual identities to help brands adapt with intelligence to the market. Visit http://www.birkcreative.com.

Subscribe to our occasional newsletter https://view.flodesk.com/pages/60662f4dc9533f4419aaa4ba.

How to be who you are. An inspirational and hopeful reading from "1000+ Little Things Happy Successful People Do Differently" by Marc & Angel Chernoff

All content ©Birkdesign Inc. This podcast represents the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative and its employees.

Please subscribe and the donate to our show. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/support. Text The Honest Field Guide at ‪(312) 445-0903‬.

Send us a voice message and we will record it on an upcoming episode: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/message. The podcast is recorded and produced by benefit corporation Birk Creative: A benefit corporation designing strategies and visual identities to help brands adapt with intelligence to the market. Visit http://www.birkcreative.com.

Subscribe to our occasional newsletter https://view.flodesk.com/pages/60662f4dc9533f4419aaa4ba.

Doreen Lorenzo is a successful leader of global creative firms; as the former president of frog design and Quirky she has advised companies on design and innovation issues for decades. In 2016 she started the Center for Integrated Design at the University of Texas at Austin. The success of that program led her in 2017 to be appointed Assistant Dean of the new School of Design and Creative Technologies . It has since become the fastest growing school in the College of Fine Arts. She is a co-founder of mobile video insights firm Vidlet, as well as a board member and advisor to several other companies. Seven years ago she became a columnist for Fast Company Co.Design writing a monthly column called Designing Women. Doreen was honored that Texas Monthly profiled her as one of 15 Innovators Reshaping Texas.

Music found on this episode is available on Apple here https://music.apple.com/us/artist/utah-carol/137984081 and provided courtesy Utah Carol (ASCAP). All content ©Birkdesign Inc. This podcast represents the personal views of JinJa Birkenbeuel, CEO of Birk Creative and its employees. Mastering by Kris Zarnoch.

Please subscribe and the donate to our show. We would love your dollars to keep going! We can take a donation to support our podcast here and we will shout you our when you do it on an upcoming podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/support. Text The Honest Field Guide at ‪(312) 445-0903‬.

Send us a voice message and we will record it on an upcoming episode: https://anchor.fm/the-honest-field-guide/message. The podcast is recorded and produced by benefit corporation Birk Creative: A benefit corporation designing strategies and visual identities to help brands adapt with intelligence to the market. Visit http://www.birkcreative.com.

Subscribe to our occasional newsletter https://view.flodesk.com/pages/60662f4dc9533f4419aaa4ba.