Podcast appearances and mentions of Christie Hefner

In this episode of Masters of MAX, host Tom Butta welcomes Christie Hefner, the esteemed former chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises. As the longest serving female CEO of a U.S. publicly traded company, Christie led Playboy's expansion from print to cable TV to online, mobile and ecommerce, massively growing revenue including global retail sales reaching nearly a billion dollars in her last year at the helm. Throughout the interview, Christie discusses the importance of embracing change and innovation, highlighting the need for businesses to adapt in a dynamic and unpredictable market. She emphasizes the value of a diverse leadership team, sharing examples of how varied perspectives can drive creativity and problem-solving. Christie also stresses the significance of maintaining a direct relationship with consumers in an ever-evolving marketplace, urging companies to prioritize consumer data ownership to create their own strategic advantage.—Guest BioChristie Hefner is a seasoned professional with more than thirty years' experience at executive levels in both public and private companies, as well as multiple company directorships. Presently, her portfolio includes advisory work for Newlight Technologies which patented a technology to convert methane into ocean biodegradable plastic and Public Good, an AI-driven digital platform that scalably engages consumers in a brand's purpose. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Offutt Companies, a multi-billion-dollar agricultural conglomerate.Previously, Christie served as Chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises for 20 years making her the longest serving female CEO of a U.S. publicly traded company. She was widely credited with developing and leading strategies that repositioned the company from its legacy domestic magazine business to a global multi-media and lifestyle company, massively growing revenue and its brand internationally.. She was on the Fortune 100 Most Powerful Women list for three years.—Guest Quote"There is so much research that shows companies outperform when they have diverse leadership. But it doesn't just happen. And if the only people that are working to identify talent are white men, then you're likely to play in that lane because people refer the people they know or they have an unconscious bias towards someone who seems more like them. If you're intentional about it, you'll build a diverse team, and then the question is about making sure all those voices are heard." – Christie Hefner—Time Stamps *(01:10) Christie's Legacy*(04:40) Leading massive change*(07:49) The power of diverse leadership*(13:19) Balancing innovation and discipline*(15:15) Playing to your strengths as a brand*(20:17) Maintaining your consumer relationships*(23:29) How Christie generated nearly $1B in global retail for Playboy in one year*(25:18) The need for more women executives*(27:56) What Christie is excited for next—LinksCheck out PlayboyConnect with Tom Butta on LinkedInCheck out the Airship Website

Across the nation, local news outlets have been folding at an alarming rate. In response, philanthropy has stepped up funding efforts to address this decline as America becomes increasingly polarized and trust in institutions plummets. Against this backdrop, Chicago has been experiencing a media resurgence, with dozens of community-driven and nonprofit outlets popping up over the past 20 years. However, many are still under-resourced and require alternative funding opportunities.  In the fall of 2023, a group of 10 funders launched Press Forward Chicago to strengthen and sustain local news organizations and ensure residents have access to multiple reliable news sources. This initiative, led by the MacArthur Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust, offers donors, funders, and civic leaders the opportunity to pool their dollars to invest in a robust local media landscape.  In this episode of Trust Talks, we will explore the current state of the media, how to reverse the decline in local news outlets, and the importance of philanthropy in supporting local media. This episode is hosted by  Lauren Woods, program manager with the Trust's Building Collective team, and features Silvia Rivera, director of local news at MacArthur Foundation; Mauricio Peña, editorial director of Borderless Magazine; Mackenzie Warren, director of the Medill Local News Accelerator; and Christie Hefner, businesswoman and Press Forward donor.Production by Juneteenth Productions. The podcast was recorded at the Sound Foundation. 

This week, our very special guest, Christie Hefner, former CEO of Playboy Enterprises, joins Susan  for an illuminating conversation on the current landscape of women CEOs. In this episode, Hefner and Estrich delve deep into the ongoing debate: are we witnessing a significant shift towards recognizing and promoting deserving women into CEO positions, or does a pervasive gender gap still hinder progress?Drawing from their extensive experiences and expertise, Hefner and Estrich analyze the factors influencing the rise of women in executive leadership roles. They explore the barriers women face in climbing the corporate ladder, the impact of cultural and societal norms on gender equality in the workplace, and the strategies women can employ to navigate and overcome systemic challenges.Through candid discussions and insightful anecdotes, Hefner and Estrich offer valuable perspectives on the complexities of gender dynamics in corporate America. Whether you're a seasoned executive, aspiring leader, or simply interested in the evolution of gender equality, this podcast provides essential insights into the ongoing journey towards breaking the glass ceiling and achieving true parity in the CEO suite.Tune in to gain valuable insights and inspiration for fostering a more inclusive and equitable future in corporate leadership.All this and more on No Holding Back with Susan Estrich.Sign up to receive updates by email when a new episode drops at: www.noholdingback.fm/Produced by 1985 Productions

Hear how to keep your seat at your own table that you build for yourself What I love about my guest today, Nori Jabba, is that when she hit a brick wall—in her case, a series of job rejections—she pivoted and wrote a book about the whole job-search process and dealing with mulltiple rejections, called Keeping Your Seat at the Table. Now she's writing a second book but actually she's not writing it, everybody else is writing it. It will be a compilation of other people's stories about their journeys and their seats at the table. Want to contribute? Contact Nori on her website keepingyourseat.com. Listen and learn how to build your own table. Watch and listen to our conversation here Nori's three things you need to build your own table 1. Forget about getting that seat or keeping that seat. It's really about keeping your own seat at your own table that you build for yourself. 2. You can't do it alone. You've got to lean on others. Think about who's at that table with you. Who's at your table? 3. Believe in yourself. It's really about believing in yourself and loving your voice, loving what you bring to the table and knowing that you add value How to connect with Nori You can find Nori on LinkedIn and her website, and you can send her an email at norijabba@gmail.com norijabba@gmail.com. To learn more about finding your purpose at work and in life, check these out: Podcast: Smita Joshi—We Are All Works In Progress! Think Of It Like Karma And Diamonds Podcast: Lisa McLeod—If You Want To Succeed, You Must Find Your Noble Purpose Podcast: Richard Sheridan—How To Lead With Joy And Purpose! Additional resources for you My two award-winning books: Rethink: Smashing The Myths of Women in Business and On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants Read the transcript of our podcast here Andi Simon: Hi, welcome to On the Brink with Andi Simon. I'm Andi Simon, I'm your host and your guide. And my job is to get you off the brink. What I like to do is bring you interesting people who are going to help you see, feel and think in new ways. Why is that important? Because your brain hates me, it doesn't really want to see new things. It's got a story stuck in there that only sees what conforms to it. So today we have to take you exploring, becoming an anthropologist, begin to step outside yourself and look in a new way. So today I have Nori Jabba. Nori is a wonderful woman who's coming with a new book to talk about. The name of the book is Keeping Your Seat at the Table. She'll show you a copy of it in a moment. But Nori came to me through Kathryn Hall, who's a wonderful publicist, and I just enjoy the guests she brings to my podcast because they're all interesting people, men and women who are doing things exactly like we like to, in different ways. Nori, thank you for joining me today. Nori Jabba: Thank you, Andi. It's a pleasure to be here. Andi Simon: Nori, I have a desire to hear about your story. You told me about it and I stopped reading bios because I think they're helpful, but not necessarily capture the essence of who you are. But today is your story. So tell the listener or the viewer, who is Nori, what's your journey been like, and how does it set up the tale that has gotten us to keeping your seat at the table? Please tell us your story. Nori Jabba: So thank you, Andi, and it's wonderful to be here today. So my story really began when I took six years off to have children, and I'd had a very successful career before that at a utility company as a senior real estate portfolio manager. And I took six years off and had three kids, and I was lucky enough to get a job after six years and went back to work. And then in 2012, that project went on hold. So I decided to become a consultant and consulting was great. It gave me flexibility that I needed. And then after several years of consulting successfully in real estate development, I wanted to go back to work. I wanted to be on a team. I wanted the benefits and the structure that comes with being employed. And I'd had almost 30 years of experience. I'd won awards. I had a wonderfully professional resume and no one would hire me, no one. And so I decided after so many rejections or non-responses that I was going to stop job hunting and start my own company. I'm from Silicon Valley and we start companies. That's what we do. So I thought, no one will hire me, I'll do my own thing and write a book about it. And so that was the birth of the book. And I have a liberal arts background. I love that you're an anthropologist. I took a couple of anthropology courses in college and went to Grinnell College in Iowa and majored in English. So writing comes naturally to me. And so I started writing the book. I joined an incubator program here in Silicon Valley to help me boost the company and hopefully get some seed funding for it. And during that process, we spent a whole lot of time focusing on purpose and drive and making sure we had what it takes to start a company because it is not an easy endeavor. And through that process, I realized I don't really want to start a company, nor do I need to start a company. I want to be a writer. So that's when I stopped with the company, tabled the concept, if you will, and wrote the book, and it was through the journey of writing the book that I actually did get the job that I was looking for. But I like to say that I got my seat back at the table as well, because what I learned through the process is that the table and your seat at the table is much, much more than just a job and success. Andi Simon:Now, when you got the job back, was it in the same career or a different career? Nori Jabba: It was a slight pivot, so it was within the umbrella of community development, but it was in affordable housing, strictly. My background is in real estate development for commercial and residential, but not property management, not affordable housing. Specifically, I had worked on multiple affordable housing projects, but this was just affordable housing. So yeah, it was a pivot. And during the pandemic. Andi Simon: Well, the reason I asked is that in some ways we need a context for your own exploration in your own journey, and I love the fact that it was in urban and community development. You spend time abroad doing this. You're a very successful woman who also found a wall and jumped over the wall. You know, we can talk about glass ceilings, but sometimes brick walls, and we don't quite know what you do to do what? But in many ways, it's them who are trying to build their talent and begin to do something intentional. But why am I not a great fit for that talent? So as you finally moved along, we'll talk about the book in a moment. You got that job and share with us a little bit about the journey to get it, because I have a hunch you stopped selling it the way you used to and you found other ways of getting inside. What was the trick? Nori Jabba: So I wasn't looking anymore. I had resigned myself to just continuing consulting, to give myself time to write the book and research the book. So the book was really the driver. And by not needing the job, by not being desperate is not the right word. I wasn't as hungry. I had that self confidence that I was content and happy with what I was doing and I didn't need the job in order to be fulfilled, and I think that confidence comes through. You know, I was standing taller. I was feeling good about myself. I knew that I was adding value as a consultant, and it was one of my clients that hired me full time. And how I presented myself with that confidence I think is so important. So in my journey, I reached out to one of the managers of a company that rejected me. I came in second. I came in second so many times I can't even tell you. And I asked her, would you have coffee with me? I'm writing a book and I'd love to talk to you about this. And I couldn't believe she said yes, but she said yes. And I drove 60 miles to have coffee with this woman. And, you know, things happen for a reason, because if I had had to drive 60 miles every day to go to a job, it would have done me in any way. So in retrospect, I'm really glad I didn't get that job, but had a wonderful discussion with this woman who had never been asked, Why is it so hard for middle-aged women to get hired? And she fortunately was a middle-aged woman because otherwise I wouldn't have wanted to listen to her had she been in her 20s. But, one of the things she told me was so important and it is that women, older women and older men, too, sometimes stop listening. And when you talk about being a good fit in a company, a good fit means you're going to listen, and what was coming across in my job interviews was that I had lots of value to add, but that I wasn't going to receive. I wasn't going to listen. Maybe it did and it wasn't lost on me. The irony of the moment was because when she told me that I didn't want to listen to her, I slumped back in my chair and thought, I'm doing exactly what she says women my age do. So I sat up straight and leaned in and decided, I'm going to hear what she has to say. I'm really going to listen. And from then on, I became a better listener. And the other thing she told me that was so valuable was that older workers, and men and women are dismissive of younger workers, and the workplace is filled with young people and they have so much value to add. But if you go in there, “I have 30 years of experience, you got to listen to me, that's a stupid idea,” or whatever we say. We can be dismissive of these young people and the value that they add. So I have three daughters. I have from the time they were in preschool, I tried to listen and learn from them every day, something new and taught them to teach and listen to others. And I really feel like this woman told me to listen to young people. My kids teach me new things every day. But what's ironic now and such a wonderful part of this story is that I now have a new job. It's a better fit for me than the one that I got while writing the book. And my boss is decades younger than me. She could in fact be my daughter and I'm not sure I would have been able to accept that had I not done this, the journey and listen to this woman and others in the process of writing the book. So I embrace young people. I value them. My boss is so smart and I learn from her every day and it's a give and take. She learns from me, and I learn from her. But those two things that woman taught me really changed me. And I think it's a big part of why I got my seat back at the table, is being able to listen at work and embrace other young adults. Andi Simon: The listening part is very interesting because as you know, we have a story in our mind that guides what we hear. And the problem that you're articulating is that you crafted this story about who you were and what the skills were you brought and why you would be a good fit in that company as part of their talent acquisition. The problem was, you couldn't hear what they were saying because it was out of sync with what you were thinking, but they also couldn't hear what you were saying because the story you were telling about your accomplishments didn't fit exactly with their expectations or desires for what they were looking for in somebody who would be a comfortable fit in that team in some way. And I emphasize that because it wasn't what you did. It was how the story came across. Am I right? Nori Jabba: That's exactly right. Andi Simon: And listening and hearing are separate because you can try and listen. There's a quote by some admiral that goes something like this: What you think you heard me say, was it what I meant? And it wasn't what I said. I mean, because we just take the pieces apart, so it fits. But your book is a very interesting effort to talk about what you've learned to share with others and in the process to help amplify the message so they don't have as big a struggle to get a table as well as a seat at the table and to really begin to see what you went through in order to be transformed into a different woman. And I don't think your journey is going to end because I think the message is, it will change again and it will change again. So your insights and your wisdom are very important. Tell us how the book came together and what are some of the key themes so that the listener understands why they should buy it and read it, but also what they can learn from it, because I think it's really powerful. Nori Jabba: And so the book really came together as part of the journey. You know, one of the big messages of the book is that we think of success as this line going up. We get a degree or a diploma and there's a straight arrow up to your seat at the table and then you retire and have a pension or whatever. And what the book taught me, what I learned in the journey in writing it, is that it's the journey that's important. It's not the seat at the table. And so it's all about creating your own table of support, and your seat is just one seat at the table. But you need to create your own table with people that you invite to support you. And the idea is that you have one for each chapter in the book, and there are eight chapters, so eight, at least eight seats at the table. You can have the biggest table on the planet and continue to invite people. And these people are your mentors, your coaches. They don't even need to know that they have a seat. They just need to be important to you, people that influence you to get there. But the themes in the book are a play on words. I'm an English major. I love words. I love writing poetry, and I love playing with words. So at the beginning of each chapter, I summarize each chapter in exactly 100 words. And this is a method that I learned from a friend of mine, Grant Faulkner, who runs NaNoWriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month, but he also publishes a book called The 100 Word Story. And so everybody who contributes to the book each year does exactly 100 word stories. So it's a really fun process of thinking and summarizing. So in addition to the 100 word summary at the beginning of each chapter, each chapter is a play on words with the table. So chapter one is flipping the table, and that's identifying your purpose and distinguishing between purpose and legacy and what the difference is and why they're both important. Chapter two is clearing the table, and that's getting rid of everything that's holding you back. Clearing the clutter. Real clutter. In my case, it's real clutter because I can't get started when I'm surrounded by clutter. I've got to clean the house before I start writing or accomplishing whatever it is I want to do. But also what's holding you back, not believing in yourself. And that is a really, really important takeaway is, you have to believe in yourself and have that self confidence. The next chapter is reinforcing the table, and that's about building strength in body, mind and spirit. And you can't have a seat at the table if the table is going to tip over or isn't strong enough. So it's about strength. And the next one is sitting at the head of the table, and that's about feeling empowered and feeling just really confident and how to get that back and looking at how you show up and getting rid of that anxiety about, Did I say the right thing? Did I do the right thing? And I look, do I look right? It's all about how you show up and just feeling really good about yourself. The next one is not getting pulled under the table. And what I realized was that a big reason that I lost my seat at the table was because I had all of these things weighing so heavily in my life. And in my case, it was my aging parents, my mom in particular, and I was a consultant and I had a big client and I wasn't there for my client. I couldn't do it because I had to downsize my mom and move her in her time of crisis and literally drop everything. And that can happen if you're an employee. It's even harder because how much time can you take off to deal with that? But it's about facing the future, facing those fears and in my case, my mom and dealing with her. It was a volcano ready to erupt. I knew I was going to have to face it at some time and I just thought, oh, I'll deal with it when I get there. So this chapter is about planning and preparing, and it's also about aging and looking at ourselves as we age and doing it, figuring out a plan on how we want to age and how to get there gracefully and strongly. And the next is not tabling yourself. And that's about being relevant and listening, as I pointed out, and embracing young people. But in British English, because I used to live in England, it's also about tabling yourself straight away. They say it in the opposite way, so I cover that in the book in case it makes it to the UK, which I hope it does and leveraging what you bring to the table is the next chapter, and that's about owning your experience. So, as an older woman, I am taught to take those dates off my resume. Don't you dare let somebody know you graduated in the 1980s or 90s. I call BS on that. I say, You own it. You put your chin up and stand tall and you own it. But you have to do it with balance and vulnerability and a give and take. So that's what that chapter is about. And then the last one is leaning on the table. And I credit Sheryl Sandberg with Lean In. I read her book and have a side story on that because I had a client the next day that was expecting a proposal. I read Sheryl's book the night before, and as an experiment I took my price that I was going to submit and I doubled it because Cheryl told me to. And guess what? I thought the worst that can happen is they say no or we negotiate down like, Why don't I do this all the time? They said yes, they didn't even negotiate. So it was a really valuable experience in valuing myself. And not undervaluing myself. But my chapter here is about leaning on as well as leaning in because we can't do it alone. So it's about creating strategic partnerships at your table. And so that's the book and the final word is, once you've done all that, you get up on the table and dance. Andi Simon: The metaphor is very important, though. We have to see something. Remember, I started out by saying, I want you to see, feel and think about it before you can actually do it.  And when you listen to it, Nori, put your book up there so we can see the cover. Perfect. It's actually building a table that you're sitting on with a bunch of folks who are going to be your teammates at this table. I think that all of us trying to move into business or non-profits or communities are all navigating the challenges of rocky roads, trying to find our path. And I emphasize that because some people who are leaving to have children are going to have a rocky time as well. And those who are coming back aren't quite sure how to re-enter. And the companies aren't necessarily helpful on either stage, either giving you time for having kids and raising them or for thinking about how to prepare for the reentry. So you're ready for that reentry. And there's no reason why they can't align with you instead of abandoning you. You know, this is a really interesting piece to this or to help train you. I mean, you went through the self-discovery, sounds like through trial and error as opposed to having a mentor to begin with. And even a mentor wouldn't necessarily be cool. Nori Jabba: It was really about self-care because I was feeling my esteem slip and that's a slippery slope that is not going to help you get a job if you're not feeling good about yourself. So all of the rejections and non-responses would just be debilitating. So the book was really self-care to stop and try to understand what's really going on here. And I felt like I had this duty to myself and other women to really understand, is ageism real? Is it me? And the answer is yes, ageism is real, but it's also me. We also have to stand back and take a look at ourselves and what we really bring to the table and how we're presenting ourselves and listening and learning and being vulnerable. I love Brené Brown and the vulnerability book and her whole message about vulnerability is strength and you can't grow without being vulnerable. Andi Simon: Being in a consulting business myself, I've been in business for 22 years, and it's a different experience because I was in corporate for 20 years and I was a professor for ten years. And they are all different experiences, truly different. You know, they're like foreign countries to each other. And yet I knew I was an anthropologist. I wasn't doing it, and people weren't quite sure what that meant or how to capitalize on it. So they imposed upon me what they needed. And my job was to manufacture the right answers and solutions to solve it and to thrive. I was EVP of a bank, SVP of another bank and an executive in healthcare systems. But I'm thinking about your stories because I remember at one point I had that epiphany that it really wasn't about what I needed or did or how I could help. It was what they needed and how they saw me and where they put you at that table and what role they wanted you to play, including being the only woman at that table, which is a whole story unto itself. The ageism thing, though, is extremely important because we're living longer, growing older, and we're beginning to work ourselves with senior living communities and try to begin to see elders as older adults, not as seniors, but with tremendous growth potential for them. Why not, and why not do so with some real important changes coming? When you were a consultant, though, apart from the fact that you weren't necessarily happy, it sounds like you were very successful. Nori Jabba: I loved consulting. I really did. I just wanted to have the benefits and be on a team truly, because when I was a consultant, I would have clients and I was on a team, but I really wasn't. I was kind of the outsider and I missed that. I missed it. So I really wanted to have that camaraderie and go back to just having that everyday interaction with people. You know how it works when you're at work, you go to somebody's office or cubicle and you have a side chat about something and they teach you something about Excel that you had no idea about. As a consultant, you don't get those opportunities for those little bits of information and learning and connection. And so it was really about connection. And I had over 40 clients in my time as a consultant, and I still have the business. It's just dormant at the moment. But I really did like it. I just wanted to go back to I wanted more. I want to do well. I was tired of billing at the end of the month and spending my weekends doing the administration for the business. Andi Simon: I love what you said. On the other hand, when I left corporate, I was thrilled to launch my business. And I remember my PR firm that I hired. I said, I need a PR firm. Who am I? And they said, Well, you're a corporate anthropologist that helps companies change. And I said, that's exactly correct. And I haven't deviated from that at all in 22 years. But it was interesting that in some ways I had had enough of all of the complexity of the teamwork. You know, when you're an executive, I had thousands of people and HR was my least favorite area because it was so complicated all the time. But this is so interesting, Nori, as you look forward, as you're looking at your book and looking forward, you have some interesting ideas about how to engage people in their process of literal transformation. You want to share it with them because I think it's a great way to take a book and make it come alive. What are your thoughts? Nori Jabba: Yeah. So it's really for all ages, even though the book is geared towards middle aged women because that's what I am, it's really for men too. And want to point out that men play such an important part of my journey. The book is dedicated to my dad. When you read the book and you see the partners at my table and who's there, a lot of them are men, so it's by no means just a book by women for women about women. It's for men as well. And about men as well. But it's really about those eight steps. You know, it's really about finding your purpose and figuring out what it is. And it doesn't need to be the overall purpose of your reason you're on the planet. It can just be your purpose right now. And as you know, you change in life and your purpose is going to change and that's okay too. So if you can't figure out your overarching purpose, I say pick a purpose that works for you right now. So it's those eight steps of stepping back, building your confidence, being strong, figuring out how to stay strong for the rest of your life, embracing young and old and being relevant. You know, don't be that person, that woman, that man that said, how many times have I been in a meeting where some older person has said, I'm too old for that. I'm too old to learn that, I need a young person to do it. You know, it's great that we embrace the young people to do it, but in my book, I really stress how important it is to learn those new skills and technologies or you're going to be left behind. And this is important for life skills, not just keeping your seat at the table at work or just to be relevant in your job. The world is changing so fast with AI and technology that if you don't keep up, you will be left behind. You know, my mom is in her late 80s now and she has a smartphone and so many seniors just can't figure out how to use them. But I'm proud of my mom because she not only has a smartphone, she uses WhatsApp because WhatsApp is the best way to keep in touch with my twin sister who lives in Europe. And texting doesn't work because you have to pay overseas costs and all of that. So we had to teach my mom how to use this app and she does it every day. So just keeping those skills up and not being afraid of learning the new technologies is so important and just staying relevant and empowering yourself and leaning on others and having those partnerships. So it's really quite simple as those eight steps. And it applies to everybody at any age. Andi Simon: I think this is wonderful, not a how-to book, but a “what I learned and want to share with you” book and I think the insights are relevant and timely. And regardless of what your age is, I do think that it is a journey and you need to be reflective about where I am, where I'm going? And also the fact that you got to keep growing. You need a growth mindset. You can't get fixed and you don't need an excuse. So it's very, very powerful. What I wanted to talk about a little bit is what can other people do? You had mentioned they can write their stories. They can begin to explore. I love it when people send me their stories for my book or my blogs. They want to share them. What are you thinking about? Nori Jabba: So I am writing a second book and actually I'm not writing it. Everybody else is writing it. I'm compiling a second book, which is other people's stories about their journeys and their seats at the table. So I invite your listeners to go to my website, which is keepingyourseat.com and submit your story, or just contact me. We can have coffee, you can have a Zoom call. I want to hear your story because so many people have been through this and it's so valuable to share our journeys. Andi Simon: Well, I love that because this is a collaboration now. And what you're going to find is that you are not alone. They are not either. And then the next book comes out as a joint effort of all of us to help each other celebrate our insights, our wisdoms, and where we're going and how it can be really help you propel yourself in difficult times because nobody was there to say to you, you don't have to be so structured, so frustrated. You know, you're not the first person, but this is how you might get around it. Nori Jabba: Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I heard when I interviewed one woman who ran this organization called Nova Works, she told me that the average woman of age 50 has to submit 500 resumes before they land a job. 500. And don't know if that's an actual corroborated number, but it was enough to scare me. I'd probably submitted 150 and was completely debilitated. And she just kind of patted me on the shoulder and said, Honey, you have a long way to go, and that's just not okay with me. So that is just not acceptable. So I thought, we've got to change this. And so the book is a movement to try to change that. And I do think that HR directors and HR teams really need to focus on ageism and what they can do to be more inclusive and set some policies because ageism is alive and well and yes, we can do something on our part, but we also need corporations to embrace aging as well, and make it a positive, not a negative. It's like, you know, having children is a negative. Why is it a negative? Don't we want to build a healthy, happy next generation? Andi Simon: We're just about ready to wrap this up. 1 or 2 things you want to make sure that the listeners remember and the viewers can recall. And, you know, what's your last thoughts to share? Nori Jabba: So three things you need to build your own table. Forget about getting that seat or keeping that seat. It's really about keeping your own seat at your own table that you build for yourself. Two: You can't do it alone. You've got to lean on others. And so think about who's at that table with you. Who's at your table? I even have a mug that says, Who's at your table? And then three: believe in yourself. It's really about believing in yourself and loving your voice, loving what you bring to the table and knowing that you add value. And share your story with me. Go to keepingyourseat.com, please. I want to hear from you. And my book is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble as well. Andi Simon: Nori, it has been a pleasure talking to you. I will share with our listeners and our viewers the book, and this is a very exciting time for new books. Our book is called Women Mean Business: Over 500 Insights from Extraordinary Leaders to Spark Your Success. I wrote it with Edie Fraser and Robyn Spizman, two extraordinary women. And I love sharing it because, like Nori, what I want to do is take these wisdoms and make them accessible to you to amplify the voices of these women, as well as to show you the path for you. So, Nori, as soon as it comes out in September, I'll make sure you have a copy. I can't wait. Nori Jabba: I can't wait to read it. Andi Simon: This is a beautiful book and I love Maria Carluccio's quote. She has seven children and runs a $1 billion company and does some fabulous things. Some of the quotes are wonderful. Christie Hefner's in there and Lilly Ledbetter. I love Susan Healy, being at the top doesn't mean having all the answers. It's learning how to get those answers. And in some ways, your story is a bunch of wonderful stories just like that. So our book comes out September 26th. Pre-orders are available now. But it is time for us to share our exploration book of writing. I love your idea of 100 words capturing the essence of it. It's a really terrific story. I know for all of you who came today to join us, thank you. Share our stories with your friends and begin to tell us about what more you'd like. I get great emails from across the globe who love the podcast. Remember, we're in the top 5% of podcasts globally, and that is no small feat because that's because everybody who's on it shares it and likes to listen. And I love to hear from you. So with that in mind, I am going to wish you a wonderful day. Nori, thank you so much for joining me. Nori Jabba: Thank you, Andi. Andi Simon: Goodbye now.

Hear why robust, targeted marketing is the wisest investment you can make Want to get energized about how to effectively market your business and present it to the world in the best possible light? Listen to my interview with Melea McRae, a “fractional chief marketing officer.” What's that, you ask? According to Melea, it's when companies like hers (Crux) “joins with an in-house team to execute on a strategy and provide additional bench strength for marketing departments.” As you'll hear, Melea is on the cutting edge of what it takes to stand out amidst the clutter today and persuade potential buyers to want to connect with you. Listen, learn and share! Watch and listen to our conversation here Some important points for you to consider from our conversation today Do you really feel the marketing people you're working with understand your business? It's all about how to differentiate your message so that you're standing out of that sea of sameness. There's so much competition in every industry today. It's easy to start a business, but really hard to grow it to that next level and scale it if you're not making a wise marketing investment. What happens when marketing and sales can align is magic: rowing in the same direction, singing the same song, sharing information back and forth. “You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.” Melea's company teaches the sales team how to make the horse drink. Leadership is the most important thing. CEOs must align their brand with the company's brand. Key takeaway: You better believe that younger purchasers and new potential buyers are going to research your company The people you want to reach are going to do their research. How? Online. They're going to look at your website. They're going to read your blogs. They'll look at what recent PR you've garnered. They want to know how you describe your services. Does that align with the perception they have of you? Is there consistency throughout your website? Then they're going to follow you on your social channels. Remember, they care as much about your culture, how you treat your employees, and your social responsibility as how profitable you are. How are you giving back to the communities that have helped you be successful? Therefore, you need to use social media to reflect your brand through your culture, your philanthropic efforts, how you care about DEI, and how you incorporate all of that into your brand. How to find Melea There are multiple ways you can connect with Melea: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and her website Crux. For more on why marketing is key to a sound business strategy, check these out: Podcast: Mark Schaefer—Are You Ready For The Marketing Rebellion? Podcast: Patrick Van Gorder—Ready For The Right Data-Driven Digital Marketing Strategy To Expand Your Business? Podcast: Dave Summers—How Can You Build Your Digital Brand Effectively? Additional resources for you My two award-winning books: Rethink: Smashing The Myths of Women in Business and On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants Read the transcript of our podcast here Andi Simon: Hi, welcome to On the Brink with Andi Simon. I'm Andi Simon, your host and your guide. And as you know, my job is to get you off the brink. And I love to do that by bringing you people who are going to help you see, feel, and think in new ways. People often ask me, why do I say that? We decide with the eyes and the heart, and then the head gets involved. And unless you realize that, then you really don't understand how we make decisions. And sometimes we overanalyze the data and we think we know we're making wise decisions. Melea is laughing and she's smiling at me. So I brought you a wonderful woman today who's going to help you understand the new age of marketing. It's a time of fast change, but the old issues about how do I tell my story and how do I create a brand and how do I get to the customers who need me, whether it's through inbound marketing or online search, or is it the website or is it social media? And how do I know that the dollars I'm spending are being used wisely by this collaboration I have with my agency? That's her story. Let me tell you who she is and why it's important to listen to her. Melea McRae is founder and CEO of Crux KC and co-founder and CEO of Crux-Accelerator. Now she's going to tell you where KC is as well. She's a marketing strategist, 25 years of B2B and B2C experience in leading client-facing marketing departments where she earned the reputation of an insightful brand strategist. She's formerly the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at the Greater KC Chamber. I'm assuming that's Kansas City. Yes, it's Kansas City, one of my favorite places to work, and she's led the organization's marketing and business development offices. In 2016, she made the entrepreneurial leap and launched her own marketing firm, Crux KC, a certified women-owned business providing in-house marketing for small to midsize clients, combining the leadership of a fractional CMO with a marketing department as a service model to provide simple, smart and affordable full funnel marketing solutions. She builds marketing, communications and business development strategies for clients and positions them for sustainable growth. She also, in 2019, co-founded its sister company, Crux Accelerator, with an emphasis on sales, coaching and leadership development paired with marketing to positively impact revenue growth. I don't think I have to tell you much more about why I've selected her to come on today, other than the times they are changing and it's time to think about very important subject marketing and sales. And Melea, thank you for coming today. I appreciate you being here. Melea McRae: Andi, thank you so much for having me. Lovely to be a part of this. Andi Simon: Would you tell the audience about your own journey? I can read the facts, but you know, this is about the feelings and I have a hunch you can give it a personality all of its own. Who are you and how'd you get here? Melea McRae: Great question. Great setup. So I made that entrepreneurial leap in 2016 with a belief that there had to be a better way to service small to mid-market companies. Since then, we have really evolved in terms of working with larger companies as well. I'm a firm believer that all the marketing roles apply, as long as you really understand the audience that you're trying to reach, right? So we do consider ourselves to be industry agnostic here at Crux. We work with all shapes and sizes, from startups to global companies. We are fractional. I would say a fractional chief marketing officer meets an in-house team to execute on that strategy and provide additional bench strength, if you will, for marketing departments that are pretty well staffed or if they have certain gaps in their abilities, knowledge gaps, we will come in and fill those holes. But in many cases, Andi, we are the marketing team outsourced, where these clients simply hand us the keys and we drive. I was doing my executive project during my executive MBA at Rockhurst University here in Kansas City and I really wanted to research the trends that were happening in the advertising, the traditional advertising industry. When I left the Greater KC Chamber as our chief marketing officer, I did a brief stint with a local, what I call traditional ad agency. And I've always been on the client side. So I saw red flag after red flag on how I would do it differently if it were my own, how I would lead with transparency, about transparency and billing. For example, transparency and communication. Wait, wait, how much would you say that was gonna cost? We actually like our clients, we cheer for our clients. Nothing brings me greater joy than when a client fills out their org chart and they write their client's CMO is the Crux fractional CMO that's working on their account. So we really have this mentality because I've been that client. Like I said, I think like the client, I don't think like the agency. I think what I've noticed is what happens with a lot of agencies, Andi, is great people, great creatives, right? And I know several of them that have built really amazing agencies and businesses, but they are creatives and they lead with creative. So part of  what we say at Crux is, there's no fluff. Our tagline is “Everything you need, nothing you don't.” We jump in, we understand that client's business. We understand their business goals. We build a marketing strategy to align with those goals, and then we hit the go button and we're off and running. And so there isn't that creative fluff with us. We just get to the point, that's the name: Crux. Andi Simon: A client can have a lot of hope. Hope is a lousy strategy. I've been there. Melea McRae: Hope is a lousy strategy. I have worked with so many CEOs. I belong to CEO peer groups through my background with the Chamber. I'm pretty highly networked in Kansas City with a lot of various civic organizations and CEO peer groups and things like that, and I find myself doling out a lot of free advice and I'm happy to do so because I'm very pro business, I'm really pro small business. I feel like we have to stick together. Small businesses make up 99% of all businesses in the US. I think it represents about 44% of the total economy. So they're the backbones of our communities. And I can't tell you the number of times I've had phone calls from friends that are business owners and they've made maybe not a wise marketing investment. They found themselves without a lot of money and with very little traction towards their business goals. So I do a lot of free education with those individuals. I simply tell them, If it sounds too good to be true, first of all, it probably is. Do you really feel like the people that you're working with understand your business? There's no such thing as a one hit wonder. We know that the key is consistency. Content is still king, as you and I know in terms of fueling your digital presence and storytelling. It's all about how do you differentiate your message so that you're standing out of that sea of sameness. And let's face it, there's so much competition in every industry. It's really easy to start a business, but it's really hard to grow it to that next level and to start to scale that business if you're not making a wise marketing investment. I actually launched Crux-Accelerate for that very reason. I was working with a lot of startups. I'm really embedded in the startup community here in Kansas City. And I would watch if they would be funded. They get that first round of angel investment funding and they were out of money by month six or seven because nobody was building the pipeline from a sales perspective. We were building the marketing machine behind the scenes. But if you've got nobody following up with those leads, and nobody that can really even tell that story of how their brand is differentiated, it's really hard to close up sales. So that was really the genesis of the sister company to Crux called Crux-Accelerate. Andi Simon: Well, you know, I'm laughing because many, many years ago I was an executive at a hospital and we did marketing. I had marketing under me among other things. And we did a big campaign for some new doctors only to discover, because we created a separate telephone number so we could measure the calls coming through, if there weren't any appointments being made. So I went to the office manager and she said, Well, we don't answer that phone because we don't have any time for a new company. And I said, Oh, the 450 calls came through so he's going to wonder what marketing has done. And actually you have to pick up the phone and answer it. Now, those were the days where the phones were still phones, and we could still measure what it was. But, you know, without measures, without data, you can't evaluate anything. And it is a big empty hole that you're putting money into for what now. I'll also be honest and transparent that we were HubSpot partners for many years; now we're Inbound Marketing folks. We understand that Google has changed the way people search and buy things. So we're content mavens, like you said. And while I love social media, I love my website, I love the content, and I love picking up new clients who find me, download my white papers, do my YouTube stuff, and come and say, I need you. So marketing, yes. Is it the world that we're in? Yes. But you also have skills and services that take a young company that needs to build its story and help you get there. Talk to us about a typical kind of client, either an early stage or a maturing one. Melea McRae: Yeah, I would say, typically we're working with entrepreneurs. So they're at some sort of a growth stage, an inflection point within that company's journey. And so, yes, sometimes it's a newer company that they're ready to push the gas in terms of a marketing investment to really start to fuel sales leads. Sometimes it's more of a legacy brand that has maybe been stagnant for a while. And again, they're ready to pour some gasoline on the fire and increase their marketing efforts as well. So really any age and stage of the client is the right fit for us, as long as they're open-minded to understanding what a smart marketing investment can do for them. So we bring that chief sales or chief marketing officer to the equation that's going to build a strategy based on what does the competitive landscape look like? How is their website currently performing for them? How is digital performing? Are they getting any PR hits? PR  is that kind of secret sticky factor sauce for us and clients. We do really well internally at just mining for what are those newsworthy stories that we can pitch on their behalf and that fuels social, that fuels the website. That's with content. If those are little golden nuggets when we can nail those, even case studies. Sharing those success stories through email marketing, you know. So yeah, things like that just really work to fuel business growth for clients. And that's our vision statement honestly: fueling business growth for clients and opportunities for our team. And we live that motto every day here at Crux. Andi Simon: Thank you. Tell me a little bit more about has the intersection or the adversarial relationship between marketing and sales changed? Melea McRae: Yeah. So it needs to change. I would say in many organizations, they're still on two different paths. The sales team tends to go rogue, and the marketing team tends to abide by the brand guidelines and all the rules that apply and try to reel them in. What happens when marketing and sales can align however, is magic. If you can get them rowing in the same direction, singing the same song, they're sharing information back and forth, the salesperson is saying, Hey, this is what we're hearing out in the field, and it's really this message point is really resonating with my audience. Then the marketing can fuel that internally with social campaigns or email campaigns or do a blog, a thought leadership piece on why this particular company does this thing really well. And again, just hit those points with an explanation point, quite frankly, and put it out there in terms of content. So if they can work hand in hand, it really is magical in terms of what can result. And so that was really the genesis of Crux-Accelerate. We come in with Chief Sales Officers that become sales coaches for internal sales teams. So they'll coach the teams up through a six month curriculum where it's a group training session followed by individual executive coaching with a chief sales officer. There's a lot that goes into this, but we infuse a lot of marketing tactics, understanding what marketing is really doing behind the scenes to help you generate those leads. We're explaining to them the difference between brand marketing and building that awareness with demand marketing and generating those leads and then show: are you appropriately following up with those leads. There's an old saying for marketers: we can lead the horse to water, but we can't make the horse drink. We're teaching the sales team how to make the horse drink. And we're infusing things like personal brand and the art of networking. I do a presentation for Rockhurst University and some other organizations called the Art of Networking: just teaching them that networking equals connections and it's building relationships and how you can help them so that you're paying it forward and they're going to return that favor and it's the long play. So there's a lot of that infused throughout this curriculum, but we're pretty excited about really where Crux-Accelerator is headed right now. Andi Simon: Well, you know, I had a client in Texas and he had great sales guys. Only problem was that the folks they sold to retired and the two who were replacing them were 35 year olds and they don't pick up the telephone, so the outbound sales call folks had nobody to sales call because nobody picked up the phone. So when we did our research, the new 35 year olds said, Don't they know that we don't answer phones? We're not going to buy over the phone, we search. Or we talk on our forums, or we go to our network, but our buying journey is a different one than the old guys who retired. So my client says, So what will I do with my great salespeople? I said, They should be lead follow ups. You need to get a website that isn't a brochure. But it's full of reasons why and that turns into interest in qualified leads who your sales guys can now follow up with. It's different, but the leads should be coming to you as opposed to you, because nobody is going to answer those telephones. That's not the way it's going to work anymore and until you come to terms with them, you don't realize the integration between the web and the social and the sales. Those four sales guys knew what they knew and the habits were great, but that's not the way it was going to buy and it was flooring to him. Really? How many people are coming to my website? Yes, but they're not staying. I can tell you how many are actually staying, where they're staying, what they're looking at. I can tell you a whole lot about your website and it's not functional. It was very unsettling. Like welcome to the whole new world, welcome to the digital age. We coach CEOs all the time on the days of cold calling are dead. You know, there are Sierras out there that are still holding their sales team accountable for KPIs that are, how many daily phone calls have you made? Well, you're right. No one. Do you pick up the phone? I don't pick up the phone anymore. I don't even know why I have a phone on my desk. I never answer it. Quite frankly, nobody buys that way anymore. They are in charge of their purchase pattern, and they are influenced. So by stories, I want you to talk more about stories, because the human being lives a story in their mind. It's an illusion of their reality, welcome to the world. And they only relate to things that match that story. And if you're out of sync with them, they don't even see it. So tell me about your branding and your brand storytelling, because I think it's an essential part of a marketing campaign that's often overlooked. Melea McRae: Oh, completely essential. In fact, when I launched Crux, we were really known as a content shop, and storytellers really followed by strategy. Over the years, over the last seven years, we've really established bench strength and all the other marketing tactics and expertise that we've needed, but we started out as storytellers, so huge advocate of storytelling working. And it goes back to content being king. So let's take thought leadership for example. People are going to follow you on your LinkedIn network or whatever channel, Instagram, whatever you prefer, based on the fact that they're relating to the content that you're sharing. So for Crux, for our voice, for example, I do a lot of blogging, a lot of thought leadership, and I always try to tie it back to some sort of an analogy or some sort of a story that's happened to me in my past, and then I relate it to a topic or a trend, and I have garnered a really nice following as a result. Well, we do this for all of our clients. I have CEOs that will say to me, You know, it's not leadership that's really important. Oh my gosh, it's the most important thing. Because again, it's establishing that CEO's brand or whichever leader in the company, it doesn't have to be the CEO, and it aligns their brand with the company's brand. This is who people do business with: people. This is who I'm doing business with, and this is what makes them an expert on this particular topic. And then when you're telling it in storytelling form, you know, 800 words, it's a fun quick read, and you can pull quotes out of that and use it in your social media posts, you can maybe tie a PR story that relates back to the thought leadership piece and you can pitch that to the media. Maybe it came out of a case study, a success story and something that went really well successful with your clients. Let's capture that. Let's grab their testimonials, let's push that out through a case study that might also spawn the idea for a thought leadership piece on that particular win. What made that a win? So there's so many ways that you can repurpose that content as well, but it truly is what differentiates a brand. It's what makes you stand out. It is what those younger purchasers are looking for now. They want that content and they're going to do their research. And how are they going to do their research? Online. They're going to look at your website. They want to read those blog articles on your website. They want to look at what recent PR have you garnered. How do you describe your services on the site? And does that kind of align with the perception that they had? Is there consistency throughout? And then they're going to follow you on your social channels. Really oftentimes anymore, Andi, they care as much about, new potential buyers of your products and services, care as much about your culture and how you treat your employees, your social responsibility. How are you giving back to the communities that have helped you be successful, in terms of what it is that you're offering in terms of a product or service. So social media is just another way to reflect your brand through your culture, through your philanthropic efforts, through how you care about DEI, how do you incorporate that into your brand? We do a lot of work with our clients now around what we call employer branding, because recruitment, we're all still searching for and finding the best talent. And it goes both ways. You're trained to reach those potential clients, but you're also trying to reach those potential candidates.  So this is how you can use thought leadership. This is how you can use your culture in terms of attracting both of those audiences. Andi Simon: I'm curious, I was interviewing someone today for a podcast who's an expert in LinkedIn. With the Twitter changes and Instagram's growth and Facebook's role, the common question I get is, Well, which ones do you do? Which ones do you look at? And I figured I might ask you, the marketing expert, which ones for which people to do what things, because they aren't identical by any means. Melea McRae: And they should not be identical. It depends on the audience. The audiences that you're trying to attract, where are they? So if it's a younger demographic, maybe it's TikTok, it's definitely Instagram. Twitter has kind of lost its appeal for a lot of B2B businesses, but I look at Twitter as headlines. So if you're just scanning headlines, that's a good way to use Twitter. Facebook is still really powerful, many demographics in terms of various audiences, and it always performs better than I think it's going to. That's really the power of using one's own network as well. Like, I'm in a lot of Facebook groups with women who mean business in Kansas City, the Casey Chambers and civic organizations that I'm in. So that's a great way to get certain messages out where my brand is tied back to the company brand. But my number one network for Crux is LinkedIn. We do a lot of business to business marketing. And so that's what I would recommend for anyone that's doing a lot of B2B marketing, but you have to really look at the other channels and how they can benefit you in terms of reaching the audiences that you're trying to reach. Andi Simon: And for LinkedIn, it has become a marketplace that I'm finding, excuse me, not particularly pleasant. If I have one more person who wants 15 minutes of my time to sell me one more thing that I'm not interested in. I'm trying to remain true to my brand and my story. That's what my client this morning, who was doing a podcast with us, said, If you turn it into a marketplace, go for it. But it is not a good marketplace. You're better off investing in content on your website and attracting people who are searching for you, as opposed to trying to push it out like a cold call. And that's what it feels like. And they don't know if I'd be interested or not, but I'm sure you would be. And here's 15 minutes of my time. Hit, click this link. No, no, no. And I say, LinkedIn, what have you become? Melea McRae: Yeah. That is unfortunate. I would agree with you. I'd probably get hit up by 15 of those a day, but the power is to the user. So I can go and just x on all of those and not accept them. It's making it harder and harder to lead through. And for an old school networker like myself, it kind of encourages me or re-encourages me to go to more of those networking events, having more of the face-to-face content. I was probably at six different networking events just last week, Andi, and got a stack of business cards. People still use business cards and still hand them out. I try to make networking events a game, and I try to give myself permission to leave after I get three business cards. That's something I teach my students as well. And then you follow up with that personal email. You kind of jot something down on the back of them, a memory point. Maybe they're traveling to Costa Rica next week or whatever it is, and you send them that little follow up or don't ever underestimate. I almost find that a bit joyful, you know, it's a real person with a business, a business card. It's like real, it's tangible. Andi Simon: Which reminds me to redo my business cards. I'm almost out. Melea McRae: Can help you with that, Andi! Andi Simon: I will get back in touch with you. I could use a fresh look. It's been three years since we were out enough to worry about them. And, now I gave them out at an event I was at all weekend and I realized they've getting awfully old-looking, time for a fresh look. But in any event, this is such fun as you look to the future. Somebody ranked our podcast among the top 10 futurist podcasts. So I'm a futurist now and I am a futurist. Well, the question is, what do you see coming next? Melea McRae: You know, I think that we've had a lot of people try to knock off this model of being that marketing department as a service, as you will. I think that the traditional ad agency model is dying. I think that they're having to rethink, again, how you partner with the client, how you really dive in deep and learn their business and use marketing to propel that growth for the client, customize those marketing strategies and those engagements. There is no such thing as a one size fits all. So I definitely see that changing. I think what protects Crux a little bit in that regard is, it's hard to bring a fractional chief marketing officer to the equation if you've never been a chief marketing officer. And I have, and I've homegrown this talent and a lot of agency owners have been creative. And so I think it's hard for them to make that switch. You can't just put on a CMO hat and say, I'm a CMO today. So I think that we are going to see more of that probably. Fractional CMOs is a very highly searched word on the internet. So that's a buzzword that's really taken off. I will be interesting to see what happens with AI, ChatGPT, and you know, how people are utilizing that for writing versus kind of more of the old school. Really understand your brand voice and write to your brand voice. I think, you know, AI can get people maybe 60% to 70% of the way there, but you still need that writer and editor that's going to polish it and put it in that brand voice. But I know that's definitely on the horizon. Podcasts are huge, what we're doing today. We're doing a lot of podcasts for our clients. We're doing them ourselves internally at Crux. And it's another way in live video, audio form, to tell those client success stories and let your client or your prospect or your key stakeholder get their message out, just like you're doing for me today. So that is definitely a hot trend that we're seeing with clients. And video, video, video, video. Use it. You have to use it on social, you have to use it on your website. Google loves video so it's just utilizing, kind of pulling all of those marketing levers in the way that it's really going to fuel growth and attract those audiences for the clients that we serve or for your own company. If you're a CEO listening to this, how are you making sure that you're working with a partner that's pulling all those levers in the right way for you? And that's definitely a trend, because clients are getting more sophisticated as well about marketing techniques, as they should, which is great. Andi Simon: One last question before we wrap up. The buyer's journey is taking, in some cases, longer and longer. They are spending more time evaluating and evaluating and are most uncomfortable from what I've seen in making a quicker judgment. That buyer's journey that we used to look at in terms of filling the funnel and how long it took to get down to an actual purchase. The discomfort people have come from. Many of them are buyers who are younger and the management system isn't clear. The risks are high, they're not quite sure. It's not IBM. You used to buy IBM because it was IBM, and there is no similarity in many things that you're purchasing. I have one client who keeps buying software that doesn't work particularly well and I laugh after a while because he buys on a less expensive side and the more innovative side, but not necessarily the more functional side. But he takes a long time to decide and then is sure. I don't know if you're familiar with the Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz's book, about the paradox of choice. So many choices we don't make, and then when we make them, we return them or we're unhappy with them or we should have bought something else. And I do think it's part of the culture of today, which makes buying and managing and measuring challenging. Is this similar to what you're finding? Melea McRae: It's interesting, we have a really good close rate with our prospective clients. It runs around 70%. Now, I will say in Q1 of this year, we saw people signing contracts less. Q2 though, it's been bubbling up again. I think back to your IBM analogy, it really speaks to the brand reputation that you have developed. And so, for us, PR, and awards and that recognition has gone a really long way in terms of elevating the Crux brand in and around Kansas City. And we have clients all over the country. But, when they're searching for us, because everybody's out there researching, and it can delay a decision or it could speed up a decision. So they're researching Crux and they're saying, Oh, Inc. Magazine, best workplaces, that's cool. Um, champions of business with the Kansas City Business Journal, based on things like how you treat your employees. I always encourage our clients to take a look at those awards in their area, and it's kind of like a great way to get some PR, through the award recognition as well. That really elevates that brand and builds that brand trust with your potential buyer. So if you're really placing an awareness on that in terms of your marketing solution, I do think that can go a long way to speeding up that buyer's decision. They trust you, they're going to buy from you. Andi Simon: Well, you know, in some ways it credentials you as being a third party that says you're great, and even if the product isn't great, you have a great place to work. So that must mean the product is good. I mean, there's sort of all kinds of interesting links to it. This is such fun. My last question for you, usually I say that people remember the end better than the beginning. So are there one or two or three things you'd like our listeners to remember so they can find Crux as their solution? What would it be? Melea McRae: I would say, remember the power of storytelling in terms of elevating and differentiating your brand in your marketplace. I would say content is king, so make sure that you are utilizing fresh content on your website, understanding those keywords that people are using to search you and you're incorporating that into your digital presence. You're incorporating that into your blog post. You're understanding the importance of thought leadership. And I would say when you do make that marketing investment, make sure that the organization, the agency or marketing firm, or we call ourselves a UN agency that you're partnering with, really takes that time to dive in and understand your business. They're not going to be able to build that customized marketing strategy for you if they don't. Andi Simon: This has been a lovely conversation about something near and dear to my heart, but I don't get to talk about it very often because nobody talks about marketing very often, I must tell you. But here's a wonderful woman in a wonderful agency. Might be in Kansas City, but it takes care of the world and it would help you see, feel, and think about yourself and your business in new ways. And so give them a call. Where can they reach you? Melea McRae: They can find me at cruxkc.com or findyourcrux.com. Andi Simon: Terrific. Terrific. And I bet we can find you on the internet, on social, on the web. It's going to be fun to see what happens. You're gonna push this out and I want to know what the data tells you about a podcast and what it can do for you. I've had too many podcasts. We have a lot of data. It's been fun. Let me say goodbye. Thank you for all of you who come. Remember, pre-order my new book. It comes out September 26th and the more pre-orders Amazon loves. So it's called Women Mean Business. And it's on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And it is going to be a great book. It looks gorgeous. There are 102 women in there who give you their wisdom. And some of those wisdoms are, we say, as we look at the book, turn a page and change your life. So you ask yourself, what could Lily Ledbetter tell you? Or what could Christie Hefner tell you? Or what could Carol Toll who runs UPS share with you? What can successful women help you do in ways that you might not without hearing them? And it's a beautiful book. So I thank all my folks who are in it, but I'm really happy to share it and a little pre-order would make me happy. So we'll see whether this podcast can generate some. In any event, goodbye. Have a great day and take care for all of you who have come. Thanks again. See you soon. Bye-Bye now.

Join host Demitri Downing and co-host Mitch Pfeifer as they delve into the fascinating world of corporate communications and marketing in the entertainment, media, and cannabis industries. They sit down with Stu Zakim, a distinguished President/CEO and industry veteran with extensive experience in brand repositioning, integrated marketing programs, crisis communications, and more.Stu Zakim has left an indelible mark on some of the most recognizable brands in film, magazines, and television. With an impressive track record in strategic media relations, he has advised and collaborated with media luminaries like Jann Wenner, Bonnie Fuller, Christie Hefner, David Pecker, and their iconic publications, including Rolling Stone, Playboy, Us Weekly, Shape, and Star magazine.Not limited to print media, Stu Zakim's expertise extends to the entertainment realm, where he has spearheaded successful PR campaigns for blockbuster films and acclaimed television shows during his tenure at Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Showtime Networks.Support our sponsors: Dr. George Stantchev Pure 5 Extraction https://pure5extraction.com/Jack Herer https://www.jackherer.com/Calyfx https://www.calyfx.com/MITA YOUTUBE / @mitausa MITA Website https://mita.us/ MITA LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/company/mita...MITA INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/mitausa/ Recorded at The Flower Expo: https://theflowerexpo.com

“One of the keys to success in business, and frankly any organization, is constant innovation, constant agile thinking, and diversity within the organization.” — Christie HefnerIn this episode of Owning Your Legacy,  Laurette has the honor to sit down with Christie Hefner, former Chairman & CEO of Playboy and daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Laurette and Christie cover a wide range of topics, including Christie's history with the company, from her unexpected and humble beginnings in the early 80s—she had no intention of running the company someday—to helping her father save the company from bankruptcy and officially taking on the role as president and then CEO. It was during her tenure that Christie saw the potential to take the company from a magazine business to a global multi-media and lifestyle company—and she successfully did it. Christie shares how this shift was surprisingly received by women worldwide, and one of her proudest accomplishments—building a team where 40 percent of the executives were women. In this episode of Owning Your Legacy: Christie Hefner's early beginnings at Playboy; turning Playboy around after a $50M loss; building the Playboy brand as we know it; the need for diversity within an organization; the importance of lifting up other women in business.If you enjoyed the episode please share it with others, and rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about me and how I am Owning My Legacy, you can find me on Instagram @LauretteRondenet and online at lauretterondenet.com.

Christie Hefner sits down with Honeysuckle founder, Ronit Pinto, to discuss Cannabis, healthcare, The Blues Brothers and the freedom of speech legacy of Playboy. Leaving no stone unturned, Hefner offers the depth of knowledge only a business icon can glean. Enjoy!

Hefner retreats into his fake, perfect life in the Playboy Mansion, hoping to escape problems in his business empire and the fallout from the murder of star Playmate Dorothy Stratten. He calls on his daughter, Christie Hefner, to turn things around.  A Somethin'  Else production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paxton Quigley Spotlight today on High Society with guest host Jorge Hermida only on Cannabis Radio. Prior to authoring books, Paxton worked as a Director in Community Relations for Playboy Enterprises, Inc., Los Angeles, for five years, and reported to Hugh M. Hefner and Christie Hefner. She was at Playboy in its heyday, the cable network had just started up, the magazine at the time had over 5 million readers. So we talk about how Paxton embraced this icon of the counterculture and an iconic figure in Hugh Hefner. Paxton worked with actor, Robert Wagner, as the promotional director for two years for the Jimmy Steward National Relay Marathon in San Monica, California, and was also the editor-in-chief of The Valley Magazine in Sherman Oaks, CA., You chair your family foundation, “Pathways to Success From School to Work”, at the University of Chicago. She's on the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Career Development, NYC. So we talk about the charitable efforts and how the doors to these opportunities were opened to her.

This week, AWM President Carey Cranston talks with former chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises Christie Hefner about the landmark publication and its relation to Ray Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451 in particular. This program took place May 25th, 2021 and was recorded live via Zoom. This is the second of three episodes in a row [...]

This week, AWM President Carey Cranston talks with former chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises Christie Hefner about the landmark publication and its relation to Ray Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451 in particular. This program took place May 25th, 2021 and was recorded live via Zoom. This is the second of three episodes in a row [...]

Just like many other successful entrepreneurs, Marla's ‘aha moments' started from not being satisfied with how things worked. She and her husband decided to improve the shopping experience for everyone and the first idea for Bluemercury was born: bring beauty products to the internet. This episode is all about seeing the opportunity at the given moment and then making the big leap because you believe in your idea. And although the journey isn't always a straight line to success, with enough flexibility, faith, and knowledge, you can do anything.  IN THIS EPISODE: [03:20] Marla never liked the shopping experience department stores had to offer at the time. So she decided to improve it. [05:25] How Bluemercury started as an internet company and what Jeff Bezos has to do with it? [10:59] Marla's parents always insisted on her getting a good education. [14:40] Even for Amazon, it wasn't always clear if they were going to make it.  [20:07] What was the tipping point for Marla's entrepreneurial success?  [25:32] How Marla managed to have kids and run a business at the same time? [30:32] How to choose the best people who will work with you? [34:39] Marla's mindset secrets for tough times like 2008. [39:03] What does work-life balance mean for Marla? KEY TAKEAWAYS: All new entrepreneurial ventures start with a problem. For Marla, this problem was a terrible shopping experience.  It takes one burning idea to create a successful entrepreneur. The road to success is always paved with previous failures.  It's not always just about the money. It's also about the terms you want to set for your new, better life. CONNECT WITH US: Find Marla on LinkedIn and at Bluemercury.com. Check out our website, Potential to Powerhouse, for more details and to learn about past, present, and future guests. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter, and join our Facebook Community for a deeper connection with the P2P community. Grab your free copy of our guide, 4 Daily Habits Essential to Becoming a POWERHOUSE Entrepreneur.  Share the love! If you know a female Powerhouse who could benefit from hearing the hard-earned lessons and success stories shared by women who have been there, share our content and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform. And don't forget to subscribe to our show and leave a rating and review!  Until next time… High Five! P.S. In need of some inspiration? Looking for insightful advice from fellow women entrepreneurs? Browse through past episodes of the Potential to Powerhouse Podcast featuring such high-profile, high-performing female leaders as Lauren Frances, Christie Hefner, Katherine Power, and Desirée Rogers. 

On this week's episode, luxury footwear brand creator, Angela Scott of The Office of Angela Scott, joins Tracy to discuss the relentless pursuit of her calling in life and why she is compelled to heed the call. Angela's story is one of true entrepreneurial grit. Starting from childhood, she was raised in the foster care system due to their mother's schizophrenia diagnosis. Angela used these challenging childhood experiences to her benefit, and capitalized on her ability to persevere, and forged ahead into an entrepreneurial vision by surrounding herself with mentors and allies who helped her stay the course and keep her business tracking.  Angela also shares how she funded her business and the importance of asking for help and being vulnerable in business. Finally, she reviews the key learnings she has discovered thus far in her journey and her love for creating shoes and empowering Women Who Mean Business.™ Stay tuned for this truly inspiring entrepreneurial powerhouse interview!   IN THIS EPISODE: [02:46] A look into Angela's childhood. [05:02] Growing up as part of the foster care system because of Angela's mother's schizophrenia. [09:48] Angela always had an entrepreneurial spirit as she worked hard from a young age. [16:45] Angela's journey into adulthood feeling that fashion was in her DNA. [22:06] How Angela pivoted from working at Neiman Marcus to opening The Office of Angela Scott. [31:06] Angela's juicy tip for entrepreneurs who are just starting out. [38:19] Where Angela envisions her business for the future. [40:31] The first famous person Angela noticed wearing her shoes. [43:11] How Angela is attempting to bring the traditional craftsmanship of her shoes to the current world and introducing it to women who have not had access to this quality of craftsmanship. [48:24] Is there anything Angela sees in hindsight that she'd go back to and coach herself differently in her journey?   KEY TAKEAWAYS: From a young age, Angela understood what the meaning of hard work meant, knowing that if she wanted to have experiences in life, she had to work for them.   Fashion was always a big part in Angela's life. Before she knew fashion was going to be her career, she knew she was going to work hard in order to be able to buy fashion pieces. Angela's first mentor helped give her insight on how hard she should work toward her goals while doing it with elegance and intention. Angela took her lowest paying job ever at Neiman Marcus, because she knew that's what she needed to do in order for her to understand the fashion industry. The Office of Angela Scott is no longer just a shoe brand. It's a business of curating, understanding and being a platform for other women. It's a collective of powerhouse women who wear her product, identify her story with their own personal brand, and empowers working women to own their stories.    CONNECT WITH US: Find Angela on Instagram and at  Theofficeofangelascott.com Check out our website, Potential to Powerhouse, for more details and to learn about past, present, and future guests. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter, and join our Facebook Community for a deeper connection with the P2P community. Grab your free copy of our guide, 4 Daily Habits Essential to Becoming a POWERHOUSE Entrepreneur.  Share the love! If you know a female Powerhouse who could benefit from hearing the hard-earned lessons and success stories shared by women who have been there, share our content and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform. And don't forget to subscribe to our show and leave a rating and review!  Until next time… High Five! P.S. In need of some inspiration? Looking for insightful advice from fellow women entrepreneurs? Browse through past episodes of the Potential to Powerhouse Podcast featuring such high-profile, high-performing female leaders as Lauren Frances, Christie Hefner, Katherine Power, and Desirée Rogers. 

Christie Hefner is no stranger to leadership. She graduated Summa cum laude from Brandeis University and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After free-lancing for the Boston Phoenix for a year, she joined Playboy Enterprises in Chicago where she became President in 1982 and Chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer in 1988. Christie is the longest serving female chief executive officer of a publicly traded company – serving in that capacity for 20 years. She now serves on several corporate and non-profit boards of directors and is always busy in charitable affairs as well as simply making a difference in the world. Christie has always been a living example of someone with all of the “critical skills,” and these days is particularly interested in continuous education.

Christie discusses her tenure at Playboy, her incredible career as a business titan and why she decided to enter the cannabis space.

From early aspirations for journalism and politics, to assuming the throne of the Playboy Empire, Christie Hefner has been through the hoops and has some incredible insights to share about the journey. EPISODE SUMMARY:3:08 - How her father's support engendered a career plan shift7:09 - Working with your father: taking on a major role in dad's business10:46 - The Playboy path to growth and her transition to CEO12:39 - That point when you realize you've made it15:45 - Call me “Your Highness” - how to handle shareholder meetings with a smile19:56 - On becoming a better speaker22:31 - On feeling the pressure to settle down26:58 - Juggling family life and business when you're the CEO30:31 - Secrets to stress relief in a high-stress job 35:24 - On the potential for future political work36:52 - The importance of negotiation and the skill of listening QUOTABLES:16:04 - “If you're fully prepared for something, whether it's a meeting or a presentation, or whatever, you have to have confidence that you ARE fully prepared and then allow yourself to be your authentic self.”29:09 - “It's still isolating when, at the end of the day, you are bearing the ultimate responsibility for, both making the decisions, and the results of those decisions.”29:23 - “I don't think everyone who has the intelligence, or even the ability, to be a CEO should necessarily assume that they would be happy being a CEO.”29:50 - “There are a lot of great ways to have both intellectual satisfaction and challenge and professional fulfillment without taking on that responsibility, too.”37:21 - “You don't really get in life what's fair - you get in life what you can negotiate for.” PARAPHRASE (edited quote):30:59 - “It is critically important that each of [you] make sure that enough time is spent on those things that actually create energy for you and make you feel restored.”34:17 - “One of the learnings that, I think, with time becomes richer (and that is), how important it is who you choose to spend your time with. When you choose where to work, it's as much about who you're working with, as anything else.” CONNECTIONS:Check out our website, Potential to Powerhouse, for more details and to learn about past, present, and future guests. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter, and join our Facebook Community for a deeper connection with the P2P tribe. Grab your free copy of our guide, 4 Daily Habits Essential to Becoming a POWERHOUSE Entrepreneur, and don't forget to subscribe to our show and leave a rating and review. Do you know any other female powerhouses that could benefit from listening? If so, please let them know to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever they like to listen to valuable audio content. Until next time… High Five!

Tracy is a founder, investor, executive chairman, and entrepreneur who is an authority on beauty and wellness, with a global track record of incubating and launching brands. She co-founded the HATCHBEAUTY brand incubator in 2009, leading development strategies and launches for brands like Naturewell by Jewel, Nuance by Selma Hayek, Bliss, FOUND, and more...On February 26th, Tracy is launching From Potential to Powerhouse podcast, which brings together experienced women entrepreneurs to share their success secrets and proven business tactics with up-and-coming powerhouse women. Guests include names like Christie Hefner, Sallie Krawcheck, Kay Koplovitz, Kimora Lee Simmons, and many more.

On the 57th episode of the #VoteHerIn series, a partnership project of Two Broads Talking Politics/Kelly Pollock and Rebecca Sive, author of *Vote Her In: Your Guide to Electing Our First Woman President*, you’ll hear an interview with Christie Hefner. Center for American Progress leader, and longtime women’s political activist, Christie Hefner, joins us for a special Inaugural #VoteHerIn podcast. American democracy is at a critical juncture; all of us need to be well-informed, on-deck, and mobilized to advocate for women’s and girls’ equality and opportunity. To help us sort-through how to proceed, Christie will discuss the current state of affairs in DC—and all across the nation—for women activists. We’ll consider the CAP Action women’s policy agenda; how the COVID-19 pandemic factors-in; and what the unfortunate unemployment numbers mean for women workers.

Since 1980, the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards have recognized those who go above and beyond to protect and enhance First Amendment rights. On today’s episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, we are joined by Christie Hefner, who founded and chairs the awards, to discuss the awards’ origins and this year’s awardees in the categories of law, book publishing, journalism, arts & entertainment, education, and lifetime achievement. From 1988 to 2008, Christie Hefner — daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner — was Chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises, making her the longest-serving female CEO of a U.S. public company. For three years, she appeared on Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women” list. Show notes: Attend: 2020 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards, Oct. 19 6 p.m. ET 2020 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment awardees MightyIra.com (Ira Glasser documentary) “Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America” (So to Speak podcast) Immigration Nation documentary www.sotospeakpodcast.com Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: sotospeak@thefire.org

The Girls Next Door, Season 1, Episodes 12 and 13 Princess wants to talk about something besides what a hellscape we live in. So let's follow Holly, Bridget, and Kendra on their promo trips to NYC and Chicago. We get into the View, Christie Hefner, and the sex talk. If you're not a member of the Bye Pumkin Patreon, you're missing out on bonus episodes. You can join for just $1 a month. Just click here and sign up.

Christie Hefner, Chairman of Hatchbeauty Brands and former Chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises was interviewed by Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chairman and CEO of the C-Suite Network and Primetime Television and Podcast Host, during the High Stakes Executive Leadership Forum. They discussed the most important question leaders need to ask themselves in this hyper-accelerated climate and what they can do to drive and thrive. Theresa Rose is a badass businesswoman and an energizing, inspiring force of nature who is passionate about helping others shine their brilliance. Theresa is a thought leader to the C-Suite, award-winning author of five books including Mindful Performance: How to Powerfully Impact Profitability, Productivity, and Purpose, energizing speaker and facilitator, content crystallization coach, practical mindfulness expert, hilarious standup comedian, and all-around great gal. She won Most Enthusiastic in 2nd grade and Most Valuable Cheerleader in Junior High, so you know she comes by her contagious energy honestly. Visit her at TheresaRose.com or @TheresaRosePresents for more mojo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all know the stakes remain high for businesses in the past few months, we have pivoted and adapted many times in order to remain relevant and continue innovating. As we get ready to reopen for business as we drive and thrive. Today we have a very special episode of all business with Jeffrey Hayzlett, from our C-Suite Network High Stakes Leadership Forum. The guest today is none other than Christie Hefner, Chairman of HatchBeauty Brands. Her famous last name may be known to many, but what you don't know is she pioneered many changes in the family business including being the one of the first to hire female executives in a male dominated industry and going digital when no one else was doing it. In fact, she holds the record of being the longest standing woman CEO of a publicly traded company. This conversation covered her history and what it will take for boards and companies of all sizes to become more diverse. Become a C-Suite Network Executive Member: https://c-suitenetwork.com/executive-membership Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Idea: is take the most popular and icon mens magazine and had the reins over to the founders 29 year old daughter. The Person is Christie Hefner, one of the most dynamic, interesting, intelligent and thoughtful people you’ll have the pleasure of listening to. She is a joy to be around and force to be reckoned with. The Opportunities were more than 20 years of expanding a brand that created literally thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of revenue; and continued to influence social culture across the all platforms. Brant Pinvidic interviews with Former Playboy Enterprises CEO – Christie Hefner

EP2 with Stu Zakim Bridge Strategic Communications President and CEO Stu Zakim, is a Corporate Communications & Marketing professional with senior level experience in the entertainment, media and cannabis sectors. He has a strong background and proven track record in brand repositioning, integrated marketing programs, product launches, strategic media relations, development and implementation of corporate communications programs and crisis communications. Bridge Strategic Communications has worked for some of the best known brands in film, magazines and television—providing counsel to a variety of iconic media leaders including Jann Wenner, Bonnie Fuller, Christie Hefner, David Pecker and their publications—Rolling Stone, Playboy, Us Weekly, Shapeand Star magazine among others. They have also worked on the PR campaigns of some of the most popular and successful films and television shows in recent history at Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures and Showtime Networks. (Link to Bridge Strategic Communications Website)

As chairman/CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. since 1988, Christie Hefner has overseen the global expansion of Playboy's legendary brand to a wide array of new platforms and markets, transforming a publishing-based business into a multi-pronged media and lifestyle company. Join Ms. Hefner as she speaks about her own success and how she has led the way for women in leadership globally for over two decades at Playboy and beyond.

Julie Smolyanksy is a tough woman to nail down. Not in terms of her schedule — although she is all over the place, having recently published her first book, The Kefir Cookbook, while running Lifeway Foods full-time as CEO and President. Instead, over the course of our conversation on the #WeGotGoals podcast, I found myself trying — and repeatedly failing — to put Smolyanksy neatly in a box that I could easily write 500 words on in a blog post. Smolyanksy is a CEO/President, sure. But she's also been the first female CEO of a publicly held firm (when she took over Lifeway Foods in 2002 after her father's unexpected death). She's a mother and a feminist activist, identities that drive her decisions as a businesswoman who wants to set a strong example for her daughters. She's an immigrant who came to the United States as an infant with her parents, who brought kefir with them as a taste of Eastern Europe and later turned it into a $12 million business (up to $120 million in 2017). She's sharp as a tack and incredibly organized and detail-oriented, but she's a believer in holistic health and says things like "the universe is going to give me what I need" without a hint of irony. Needless to say, my head was spinning as we sat down to talk, knowing there were so many dimensions to this woman. But interestingly, one of the things we talked about was the benefit of ignoring your brain and listening to your gut, something Smolyansky got a crash course in when she lost her phone in Mexico for a few days. "It was like sort of the universe doing a wake up call like 'Julie, stop, stop, slow down, stop, listen to yourself, listen to your body, you're spinning out of control,'" Smolyanksy revealed. Without her phone to distract her outwardly, Smolyanksy spent her days doing yoga, meditating, and journaling, only to find that hip pain she had dealt with since pregnancy had mysteriously disappeared after a particularly cathartic meditation. "I think that was this moment of following my intuition," mused Smolyanksy, noting how after that realization, she was able to look back in her life at times she had ignored her gut instincts only to regret it later. Today, Smolyanksy hones her intuition through regular SoulCycle classes, running, enjoying the occasional glass of red wine — and of course, incorporating kefir into her diet regularly. "What we're learning now about the microbiome, I am blown away by how important it is having that gut, which we call a second brain now, how important it is to have one that's running well. When it's healthy, it's like magic." Listen to Smolyanksy's episode of #WeGotGoals wherever you get your podcasts to learn more about taking over the family business during a tumultuous, grief-filled time, plus how she feels her identity as a feminist impacts her daughters and what it's like to be the only young, immigrant female CEO in a room full of old, white males. To get more of #WeGotGoals, make sure you subscribe and leave a rating or a review so others can hear these stories, too. Psst... don't stop listening when the interview portion is over. We saved a few minutes at the end of the podcast to devote to real-life goal-getters like you, and we'll hear from one inspiring goal-getter each week.     Start Transcript: _______ JAC: Welcome to #WeGotGoals, a podcast by aSweatLife.com on which we talk to high achievers about their goals. I'm Jeana Anderson Cohen and with me I have Maggie Umberger and Kristin Geil. KG: Good morning, Jeana. MU: Good morning, Jeana. JAC: Good morning and today Kristen, you talk to a real boss. KG: Yes. I talked to Julie Smolansky who is the president and CEO of Lifeway Kefir. JAC: And Julie was not the first president and CEO of Lifeway Kefir. She sort of stumbled into or was thrust into that role under some not so ideal circumstances, but really thrived there, right? KG: Yeah, exactly. So Lifeway Kefir is Julie's family business. It was started by her father. Her mom contributed a lot as well, and she and her brother actually both grew up working for her father and learning the ins and outs of running Lifeway Kefir. Then in 2002, her dad passed away very suddenly from a heart attack and at that time Lifeway Kefir was about a $12,000,000 business. Julie took over the next day as CEO and president and began running the company. It made her the youngest female to be the CEO of a publicly held company at that time. She was somewhere around 27, so very young, but since she's been in that role, she has grown Lifeway Kefir to $120,000,000 as of last year, 2017. So we talked a little bit about how tough it must have been to be thrown into the CEO role in such dark circumstances, but she actually had a really unique perspective on it. She thought that having to take over as CEO right away was her father's way of leaving her a project where she could direct her energies and help work through her grief without being totally consumed by it. MU: And we've gotten to speak to many different CEOs and entrepreneurs on this podcast and one thing that has come up as a theme that I found pretty interesting is how certain people have talked about the importance of their intuition and how they have really, really leaned on it and making decisions. And so it's obviously not something that they take lightly and Julie is one of those CEOs as well. Is that right? KG: Yeah, so a little bit of backstory. We obviously talked a lot about Lifeway Kefir and how kefir is so good for your gut health with all of the probiotics, so in the biological sense, Julie's always thinking about the gut, right, but we also talked a little bit about how she's learned to hone her intuition and listen to her other gut, so to speak, and how that served her in the business world and she told a story that you'll hear about losing her phone for a few days in Mexico and how she learned to just figure stuff out without technology and she offers some really good advice for anyone who's looking to disconnect a little bit and really hone in to their inner self and driving their own decision making without outside influences. KG: And I think that's another thing you'll hear come through this podcast a lot is I feel like there's really two sides to Julie. You know, on one hand she's a really sharp business woman. Always thinking about her next move. She just wrote a book that recently came out. So she's very savvy in that sense of the word, but she also speaks really beautifully about listening to the universe and learning how to hone her intuition and she's a little more woo-woo than what you might expect from a CEO, especially someone who is such a young CEO in a tough business world. So I think you'll get a lot out of this interview guys. JAC: And we can't wait to hear Kristin with Julie. It sounds like it was a really great interview. And stick around listener for the end of the episode where you'll hear from real life goal-getters and what they're achieving out there in the real world today. Here's the show. KG: Welcome to #WeGotGoals. My name is Kristen Geil and today I am here with Julie Smolansky, the president and CEO of Lifeway Kefir. Julie, how are you today? JS: I'm doing great. How are you? KG: I’m great. We're so excited to have you on today. Lifeway Kefir has been a friend of aSweatLife for awhile now and we've gotten used to trying your delicious kefir products at all of our SweatWorking events and we're especially excited to have you on today too because we're going to hear more about the book that you've recently published. So thank you for being here today. First of all, we'll start off with the question that we ask everybody who comes on this podcast and that is, what is a big goal that you've achieved in the past. Why was it important to you and what steps did you take to get there? JS: Well, one of my goals for quite a while has been to write a book and I finally did. I just published the Kefir Cookbook and it took me quite awhile to write and it was a challenging for a variety of reasons, but we did it. I'm super proud of it. I share a lot of great stories from my life, my family's life. I touch on a lot of various issues from being an immigrant and a refugee to a female entrepreneur to a mom. Um, so, you know, even though it's a cookbook, it's very personal and I, I think it was sort of like the appetizer to my first kind of entry into publishing and writing. But yeah, that I am right now just kind of sitting back and watching the book have its impact and being able to talk to my customers and various people as I kind of tour around the country and hear about how kefir has improved people's lives. It's been very, very touching to me. So I'm, I'm kind of just enjoying this moment right now. KG: And you mentioned just now that the Kefir Cookbook is more than just an actual cookbook. I've flipped through it a little bit and it seems like there's a lot of stories of your family woven in. How did your family influenced the conception and the actual writing of this book? JS: Yeah, so I mean, you know, my father passed away, which is how I ended up as the CEO of Lifeway. Uh, he passed away about 16 years ago now. And so he, for me, it was sort of writing some of the stories that were important to me to share that I wanted to sort of document and leave for next generations because those stories become diluted over time or lost. And so now these are kind of forever and you know, it seems a very natural platform to use food to tell these stories. It's, it's become natural for me to like share a picture and say something about it. And I actually think social media really helped me kind of find the inspiration and my voice in that. So when I, I feel like I got good at it through social media, then it became very natural to do it in a more formal published way, organized neatly, you know, strategically. And then with my mom, you know, a lot of recipes kind of were hers, you know, there's a handful that were hers that I had to call and ask her, you know, how to make things or I forgot how to do certain Russian recipes that, which is our, our background. We immigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1976. So, you know, kind of grew up with these old old worlds, Russian Ukrainian recipes, and then there were some stories that I'd forgotten that, you know, I didn't even know that she shared with me that were just kind of fun. And you know, and I think about how far we've actually come when I, I'm very humbled by these stories because, you know, my mom and dad both grew up in a country in communist Russia after the war there, experienced lots of challenges, adversities, political persecution, religious persecution, poverty, hunger, sickness. JS: Like when I think about just how far my mom went to the bathroom in an outhouse, you know, and, and when I think about the rooms and the situations I've been so blessed to be in, it's incredibly—I just get filled with gratitude. So to be able to kind of tell those stories. And then like I said, like they’re, I grew up with them, but now they're like neatly organized, indexed official. There's a Dewey Decimal system number two, it, um, it's just, I'm just so proud of it. And then, you know, I think it's a great way to bring attention to certain issues like immigration, like refugees, like why it's important to support diversity and how that impacts and, and you know, the fact that because America, because Chicago opened its arms to us, we were able to bring kefir, which is a staple in eastern Europe here to the United States and the impact of this product have kefir of probiotics, of gut health, of us leading that conversation for the last 30 years. That becomes incredibly rewarding. I think it's a great example. So I think when I think about the conversations that are being had on a kind of a bigger level, I think it's a great example. Hard to argue with it. KG: Lifeway Kefir is a family business. Can you tell us a little bit about how it was founded, what your first role within the company ism and how that has all grown and developed over the past. How many years has it even been? JS: So it's been 16 years. Yeah. My Dad passed away June ninth in 2002. So I'm coming up to his 16th anniversary and my 16 years of being the CEO. So he, he had a sudden heart attack at the age of 55 and died on a beautiful sunny morning in Chicago and the next day my brother and I essentially took over the company. He was 23, he had just graduated college. He had been with us for about six, six months. I had been with my dad for about five years and I had left—I had intended on becoming a psychologist and I was in grad school, but serendipity brought me to the company kind of on a more formal way and I had decided to leave grad school and I didn't come back for my second year and went full time with my dad and worked with him five years side by side, really learned all the elements of business, kind of a lot of his philosophy and whatnot and it was a great time for us because we. I really got a chance to sort of heal our relationship because I had grown up with both of my parents running businesses as immigrants to the new country, they really, you know, they didn't, I think when we talk about balance and whatnot, that's such a luxury because as immigrants you don't even have that conversation. JS: It's just a nonexistent topic because they're just head down working, getting their feet into the country and putting food on the table literally. And I as, as I kind of got to know my dad and some of his challenges I, a different level of respect sort of started to happen or just like an understanding of how much that both him and my mother had taken on. Not that they were perfect, but it's just, uh, a different level of understanding. So anyways, he passed away. I ended up taking over with my brother. I become the CEO. He's the CFO and we just grow it from about 12 million to about 130 today. We're, I feel like on the cusp of another kind of growth spurt right now. Of course, probiotics are having a moment as everyone knows. Gut health is having a moment. I don't think it's going away. JS: We're just learning about the microbiome and the bacteria that that is so critical for our health and wellbeing. You know, it's a 2000-year-old product that's just making its way here to the United States. It's 30 years is nothing actually considering its long 2,000 year history. What our relatives knew in the Caucus mountains in Europe, they said that 2000 years ago when they tried this product that they had a sense of wellbeing when they consumed it, they called it the champagne of dairy and a gift from the gods and they intuitively in their gut, you know, no pun intended, kind of realized and knew that they felt good when they consumed kefir. Well, fast forward to 1908, Élie Metchnikoff did the first science research around kefir and its influence on our health and our wellbeing and he won the Nobel Prize for it. So for now, the last hundred years we've had science and medical research backing up what and our ancestors knew intuitively that kefir is actually really good for you, very beneficial to the body. JS: And so in the last hundred years, we've just advanced on that research and science and it's now, it's like unbelievable what's happening, the incredible breakthroughs that are happening, even we knew that it was good for your digestive and your immunity, you know, your health from a physical perspective. But now we're learning that it's even beneficial for mental health. So we now know that gut health influences your stress, anxiety, depression, all of the mental health and, and like incredible research that's coming out around microbiome and mental health, but all health. And so, you know, we're, we're just really excited about kind of sharing that information. I mean, it survived by word of mouth, by storytelling, by oral history and storytelling, word of mouth. And now with social media, that of course elevates and explodes it and so we can really get the word out around the, you know, when you make certain food choices and certain lifestyle choices, you choose to heal yourself. JS: You choose to love yourself. You choose to love your family or community for a very like, you know, there's no risk. It's not like a pharmaceutical drug that has side effects. There's the only side effect is that you feel good, you know, that's the, that's the impact. So that becomes incredibly rewarding to try to get it into the hands into as many people get this information out and support communities that are trying to do this. Um, I think that's kind of if, if, if that's the purpose, my life purpose, then I think I've lived a good life. Yeah. KG: When you took over Lifeway Foods in 2002, you became the youngest female CEO of a publicly held firm. But unlike most CEOs who have time to grow into the role, you were thrust into it really unexpectedly. What was that like and what did that teach you about your leadership and goal setting style? JS: Yeah, I mean it was incredibly challenging. Of course, on one hand, you know, I was mourning the loss of my father, but it sort of, it gave me a place to focus and put that energy. It gave me an outlet. I almost think like he was sort of looking over me and like handed this project to me. Like here, instead of feeling sorry for yourself, go work on this. That's very much him. And I really was, I constantly thought about this mantra that failure was not an option, that my parents had gone through so much. My family had gone through so much blood, sweat and tears to get to this point that I wasn't gonna let it all just fall apart. And I mean, I had backlash. I had older men who tried to undercut, you know, my role and prevent this from happening. And it took a lot of courage for me to stand up to a, you know, a bunch of older white men and say no, and I'm gonna run it and I'm going to kick ass at it. JS: I mean, I kind of, I knew that I would. And then I think, you know what? I guess what I thought about was that my parents came with no money, no friends, no language. They didn't have a network. Here I was, graduated, uh, you know, schooled in the United States with a network for the most part, access to network already with, you know, a $12,000,000 business now. It's just like, don't fuck it up. I just, I think that was the biggest thing is that I just did not want it to fail and I knew that we were onto something. I mean I had known that we were really on the cost of some major growth, that the country was sort of ready and just starting to be prepared to make big food changes and food habits and all of that, which all came true and being first to market with so important, which we were and I had grown up in the business. JS: So I had sort of, these were normal conversations in terms of business. It became intuitive to me on how to run a business and I had always been a leader my whole life. I mean I watched my parents be leaders and pioneers and pave the path for other immigrants and lead in their community. And of course in their businesses. You know, my greatest role model was my mother and she had started a deli two years after settling in the seventies, opened the first Russian deli, didn't speak English, really, you know, learned English, watching General Hospital actually, and started doing international deals all over the world and she was so brave and courageous. So I had these great examples and great role models. I thought the least I could do is sort of rise up and show them what they had kind of built. And I learned, yeah, I learned what I was made of. JS: I learned that I could really go through the fire and come out of it OK and come out stronger that I can persevere, that I'm tenacious, that I am resilient. All of those things. I knew that I was. I mean I knew that I was in the past, but I, this was like the challenge. You know, it was interesting because I had just run my first marathon the year before my dad passed away and he challenged me. He was like, you know, it started because we sponsored a lot of marathons and races. So I sort of saw, I was always athletic, but I had seen these people, old, young, all different body shapes running this crazy distance and I remember seeing like an 80, 90 year old man running and I thought, my gosh, if he can run a marathon, I should be able to do this. JS: You know, I'd been a figure skater for 15 years. I played tennis, I rode horses, I was super athletic but I'd never been a runner and not that distance. But picked up some shoes, started running and my dad saw me cross the finish line and he didn't believe that I was going to do it. He's like 26 miles, that's crazy. You would never be able to do it. And once he gave me that challenge I had to prove him wrong of course. And, and I did. And I thought that was a great lesson also for me and that, you know, I learned that I can challenge myself, set goals, that I don't have to be the first. You don't have to win the thing. I can still do it and have a great experience. And seeing him see me cross the finish line was very important for me as well. So I'm happy that he got to see that. I think it's probably a metaphor that at that point he knew that I could probably do anything at that point I think is what he realized. And I don't know, maybe it was just his time and mine. KG: I love the way you talked about yourself so confidently just now. Like I am tenacious, I am this, I am that like you seem to really know yourself and have that inner confidence, but I'm guessing it wasn't always that way. Did you ever have imposter syndrome when you were starting out as such a young female CEO? And if so, like what kind of pep talks did you give to yourself to pump yourself up before going into a room of these white American men and what would you recommend for other young females maybe just starting off in business, who have those same feelings of not being quite as confident as you are now? JS: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I had to work at it. I was not always so confident of course. It was a couple things. I had a few series of success, you know, I had a few wins behind me, so when you get good and sort of master something and you can feel yourself master it, that builds your confidence. So I had done that repeatedly over and over, whether that was, you know, public speaking or writing something or launching a new product or selling a new product. All of those things help build my confidence in business and then I started to realize that every person, no matter who they were, had something to offer to being in the room, that we were all there to learn a lesson from each other and so then it, I feel like it got equalized in my head. Maybe the other person didn't know, but all it took was for me to feel confident. JS: That didn't matter really what the other person felt. I started to see that I would show up in rooms and people wanted to hear from me. People wanted to hear what I thought about things. Think about like social media was blowing up, here I was a woman on social media, dominating social media because women were, you know, at the time when social media was sort of happening, and this is about when I was took over Lifeway, we really carved a place. Our voice really became powerful in, in social media. We're creating content, we're selling merchandise, starting businesses, all these things. And so I realized I had this asset to offer that and a certain skillset that all was very like intuitive that sometimes I saw men struggle with and so I started to feel like, okay, we each have something to offer, like you have a great skill in this area. JS: I have a skill in this area. And I felt like there was kind of greater currency in leveraging both of those and that we're kind of all equal. And I, it was these kinds of small thoughts in my head. And then of course having children really exponentially grew my confidence because now I couldn't even live in fear anymore. It was just absolutely not an option. I had to really rise because, you know, I have two little girls that I want to create a better world for them and the only way to do that is completely to let go of all fear and to live out my true life purpose and show them and model that for them because I really want that for them more than I want anything else is for them to be able to really live fearlessly and fiercely with all the power that they can take and to, to ask for as much power that they can. JS: We have a lot of work to make up for here as genders and, and uh, and for power. And so I spent time with various coaches. I had a group of other executives who, you know, gave me accountability that helped me in certain areas where I was challenged. I leaned on friends of course, and I have a really good support around me of people who help me when I'm not necessarily feeling at my best. And then I feel like, again, I've, I've just tried to learn like I don't think anything's really a failure or a mistake if you've learned something from it and I always want to find those lessons and so then it becomes a nice little dance that you do with the universe to keep building on those skills, keep shedding more, you know, more of that fear and just letting it go and really kind of getting to the essence of who you are, what you want to be, what you want to project out into the world, what you want mirrored back to you. Those are all kind of important things. I think that as I kind of think about the next decade, two decades of my life that I want to think about. KG: You mentioned wanting to be a good role model for your young girls in terms of how you grow the business and in terms of how you live fearlessly. Did you have any other female CEO role models that you looked up to when you were starting out or that you've developed over the past 16 years? JS: Yeah. Actually one was actually Christie Hefner here in Chicago. She so, so when was in college and I came home and my dad was watching CNN with a special of her being featured and my dad turned to me and said, look what she's done. She took over her father's company. I want you to do that. I want you to be like her. And I feel like that was a really important statement that he gave me. JS: It kinda gave me a good push to know that I could do it, that he wanted that for me, gave me a lot of confidence and so I did actually look at her life sort of how she carved out her role as a CEO and then we've become friends. So I definitely lean on her just for friendship, but advice and whatnot, mentorship. Um, and I've sought out many kind of female business groups and communities. Like the Fortune most powerful women community is a great one; here in Chicago there's the Chicago Network and C200 as a national one for females and in business. But there's so many now. I mean it's really great. It is so important, I think, you know, if you can't see it, you can't be at. And it's still so rare. I mean, and I think we just dropped 25 percent on the Fortune 500 list of female CEOs and there's only like, well there were 21 last time I looked. JS: I haven't checked the news in the last couple of days that keeps seeing those headlines. I'm guessing we dropped. So that's nothing. You know, we're less than 20 percent in Congress and there's only been like five female governors. I mean we're really underrepresented. Behind the camera, we’re like less than six percent or something. I mean, don't quote the numbers. It's been a while since I looked at them, but we're, you know, our stories are not really told our, we're not really visible. There's no like, like here I'm on the board of the Women's History Museum. There no single standing museum actually that represents the history of women's accomplishments and we've been doing and building this country and the world from the beginning of time. But there's nothing to point to concretely. And so I really start. I started noticing that there is just a lack of women in power, a lack of women in media, lack of women, you know, running heads of companies, a lack of female titans, a lack of women in every single area. JS: I mean we’re there, but our stories aren't told, but, and we're not there at equal numbers either. And likewise, you know, where are the men raising the kids? I mean they're there obviously, but I think when we reach gender parity, where it’s like 50/50 and equal responsibilities in the household and in corporations and whatnot and throughout government and all of these areas that I think we will have a better, safer, healthier world, a more peaceful world, a more, I don't know, meaningful world. And I think the time has come. I think the last eight, nine months have proved that we are not going to take it sitting down and that we're gonna come together, that we're stronger together. That, you know, when our voice collectively it's fierce, it’s unstoppable. The, you know, when many women come together, when the most powerful women come together and share the truth about their lives, about their accomplishments, about their challenges, about all of it, that the world actually stops and listens and starts to make changes. JS: I think we're just at the very beginning of this reckoning. I think there's going to be so many conversations. So I think the next generation, I have personally acted in a way that I have wanted to evolve, not just for myself but for the next generation. I think I, you know, I've personally been an activist since I was 15. I am exhausted. I am personally exhausted for the last 30 some years and I think it's really great that the next generation has been activated and has been empowered with tools, with social media, with role models, with voices, with many of us pulling them up and saying, yeah, go talk, share, go. You know, go do all the really important things. Hold men accountable. I think that is when we start to change the world. And so if I could have just done that for my girls, if they speak loudly and demand for some of these changes, then that's a good thing. KG: When it comes to being empowered to find your voice and listen to your intuition, I feel like that's a lot easier said than done. And I know that's something that you sort of hinted at it at the beginning of this interview was how kefir can actually help you listen to your gut, not just because it's good for your gut health, but it might help you find your intuition and you know, dive into that mental benefit as well. So I'm curious to know what some of the strategies you've developed for actually listening to your gut are in honing your intuition as a woman throughout the years as a CEO. Yeah. I'm really just interested to hear about listening to your gut as it is. JS: Yeah. That actually listening to my gut has become a really fun way to live. More and more, I feel that there are no coincidences, that everything is sort of happening for a reason, that we're living these sort of alternative universe lives, multiple lives, whatever. I know it sounds so crazy, but whatever. I feel like, well, we're so distracted from these, our intuition. We run such busy lives. We're completely on social media or in our electronics, just in our electronics, actually. We, I personally have sort of lost sight of my own intuition and it took me a minute to stop and actually lose my phone for three days in Tulum. I shared this story in the book and it took me these three days where I lost my phone, had to get in touch with myself, had to rely on friends and community to get me from out of Mexico into New York with no money, no phone, no nothing, and for a couple of days just shut down and think. And I healed parts of my body and it was like sort of the universe doing a wake up call like Julie, stop, stop, slow down, stop, listen to yourself, listen to your body, you’re spinning out of control. JS: And I was, I was completely setting and I was processing a lot of things that were kind of going on in the last couple of years. And finally the world took my phone away and made me pause and a lot of things started to come to me. And I started taking notes and I started journaling and went inward. I meditated, I did yoga, you know, over these three days. And I had had this really bad hip pain for about six years and I kept blaming it on my pregnancy and I started realizing that it had nothing to do with my pregnancy but more to do with a whole lot of shame and all these other various issues. And I remember doing this meditation and just this moment of like release and this feeling just left me and it just walked away into the ocean because we were oceanside. And I started to like cry. JS: Like I was sobbing. And the next day I notice I'm walking around through the sand and my hip doesn't hurt. And I'm like, wait, this is so weird. If my hip doesn't hurt. And then it basically has kind of stayed that way and I think that was this moment of following my intuition where I didn't have time to go to this conference. I went to Tulum to do this, this thing. It was like not the best time for me to do it, but I just said, you know what? The universe just is gonna give me what I need. I don't know what I need, but you know, I'm just going to go and I'm just gonna let it happen. And it did and it, the universe gave me exactly what I needed and it's this thing, this is this, this moment of following my gut. And I started realizing that I'd actually done it all all the time. JS: I just didn't know I was doing it. And as I look back now, hindsight 20/20, I see all these moments where I followed my gut were something intuitively something called to me. And every time when I didn't listen, I made a mistake and I started realizing over and over again that the times that I've talked myself out of things that I have wanted to do, that I, my heart pulled me to. I lived in pain and suffering and when I started to get in touch with those feelings, both not living intuitively and living intuitively, it was night and day and the, I don't want to say luck because everything is hard work. And I—somebody just said this, I think it was Shonda Rimes just that, don't use the word luck. It cheapens all my hard work. And that's absolutely true. It's like I worked really hard to get to this point and now it's just continuing to ask myself these questions, giving myself time to think and feel. JS: Mostly, uh, I think I've mostly lived in my mind, in my head and letting my intuition lead me now is so much more intuitive, but it's, it's very natural. It's, and it's, I think a skill set that women have because we have an amazing intuition. We have this maternal female intuition that is very hard to touch and once you realize it, it's unstoppable and it's, I think a skill that will be leveraged and can be monetized. I think corporations want that because you can go to all the Harvard schools and Ivy League schools and you can run every spreadsheet in the world, but there are some things that you need to like know intuitively in your heart. That's a very magical, special gift and I think many of us have it, which is a lot of intuitives in the world. I think that's a skill that will continue to be important in our world. JS: But yeah, so you know, writing, taking time, processing, making positive food choices, you know, living sorta as clean of a life as I could. A couple glasses of wine never hurt anybody. Taking time to exercise and rest. Exercise, like I love running, I love spinning, or you know, I do SoulCycle. These are the times when I do get to focus on my heart and my emotions and my feelings and what I think sort of are, are things that I want to work on, accomplish challenge, learned from all of it. I think that's really what it's all about. That on I, once I started to realize that impact that food had and specifically key fair because it is just the easiest—when I learned about now what we're learning about the microbiome, I am blown away by how, how important having that second the gut, which we call a second brain now, how important when that's running well, when it's healthy, it's like magic the way that you move through the world. It's really, really special and I think it's a lifelong process. I don't think it's like, OK, I'm going to do this for a week. It's forever. It is for me at least that I think it's like healing myself is sort of healing my community. That again, I think about when I, we’re all just like mirrors for each other. So if I crave a healthy, safe world where you know there's love and there's abundance and there's safety and spirituality, then that's what I need to find in myself so that I can see that. So that became really important to me and yeah, I think there's just these basic elements we have to live for lifestyle, forever, and that's it. Leave the next generation with the same, you know, these lessons and tools. Like I feel like I definitely banged my head against the wall for a long time and it took me awhile to sort of learn this, but I've done it actually fairly early. JS: A lot of people do it much later in life. I was kind pushed into learning this probably a lot quicker than many people do. So I think if I can expedite that process for other people, like I just think, think about the evolution that can happen so much quicker. You know, when younger people are at this level already in their teens or in their 20s, what else can they do when they're not spending so much time healing? Because that it is exhausting. It is absolutely exhausting to get to this place, but it's a lot of work, but there's so many great rewards. I'm almost there, almost reached what I wanted to do. KG: Well, you’ve inspired me to go chuck my phone out a window the next chance I get, but in the meantime I feel like we could talk to you forever about your perspective as an immigrant, as a female CEO, as an activist, as a mom, but we have to wrap this up eventually, so we'll have to save some for the next part, the next part 2 of having Julie on the podcast, someday. We’ll close with the question that we ask everybody who comes on this, which is part two of our intro question: What's a big goal that you have for the future? Why is it important to you and what steps are you taking to get there today? JS: Oh boy, there’s, I mean, just one is too hard. I want to write another book. Eventually I want to write sort of my memoirs. There's still a handful of years I feel that I need to live and a few more chapters left to right before I really do that. Mostly right now I'm focused on of course growing my business, but that's, that's actually not that hard. I mean, it is, it's hard. Of course it's always hard, but you know that I feel like I could do with fairly smoothly. JS: I've mostly spent the last 16 plus, even 20 years if you add at the beginning of my career. I've spent the last 20 years focused on my career and then growing my family. I think right now I'm really focused on my heart and myself and healing myself, healing my community of course, um, was a sort of in a lot that's happened for me personally in the last couple of years. I'm just trying to process it. I want to enjoy the work that I've done and the energy that I've put out and sort of sit back and watch how, how that looks and see all of this effort and celebrate it. And I guess I want to just fall in love in the deepest, most sacred way. And that's probably with myself. That seems to be really important to me right now. I think it's time to really, really deeply, I guess fall in love with myself and the world. KG: I think that's a perfect sentiment to end on. Julie, thank you so much for being here today. Where can we find the Kefir Cookbook? JS: So the Kefir Cookbook is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Whole Foods has it on the shelf. Independent bookstores, you know, all the places that you buy your books. KG: Perfect. Well, I know we're looking forward to trying out the recipes and again, thank you so much for being here with us today on the #WeGotGoals podcast. JS: Thank you so much for having me. CK: Great. Hey goal getters. This is co-host and producer Cindy Kuzma here.We’re about to play another one of your goals. This one was also recorded live at the Hotel Moxy. We've got a few more coming up for you in the weeks ahead that we recorded live at the Michelob Ultra SweatWorkingWeek Fitness Festival a couple weeks ago as well. Stay tuned too because soon we are going to have a way for you to email or call us with your goals and you can be a part of this very podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And here is your goal. JB: My name is Jaime black. I am a podcaster based in Chicago. CK: Excellent. And Jaime, what is a big goal that you have accomplished and how did you get there or what is the goal you have for the future? JB: That's a good question. I was just, I was just told about 40 seconds ago that I'm doing this. So, um, you know, for me a big goal that I have ahead of me this year is a—well I guess I should say this, a big goal I had recently in the last year was setting up a podcasting class. I teach a podcasting class through a few different platforms like AirBN&B experiences and Dabble. And so getting that up and running was a goal in 2017 and now that that is running, you know, the way that it works is people physically come to my studio space in Pilsen and take the class in person. So my new goal for this year is to really get the, um, the online component of that class active. I have it on one platform. There's like three or four other platforms I'm trying to get it on. So just building the podcasting class that people can take it in person or online and you know, like we're here today because of all the podcast stuff, everything I do is just podcasts related. CK: So, but ah, getting that online presence. So that's like a multifaceted goal, right? Because first you have to figure out the technology and then you have to figure out the marketing. So what are some of the things that you're doing to, to bring that all together? JB: Yeah, there's a lot of steps to building an online class and I'm very new to it. I have it on one platform called teachable. And that was a learning experience because I do a lot of audio work, but I don't do a lot of video work. So taking a class that I teach, it's three hours long and building video content around that when again, I'm not a video producer first and foremost, that was a learning experience and now now that it happened on one platform, I've got to reformat in and kind of retool it so that it could live on a few different platforms. Each of which have their own format and model and you know, kind of activation level. So, you know, it's just plugging these things into different platforms. And uh, and then once it's even alive, then of course you have to actually, like you said, market it, get it out there. And that's just the beginning of getting it just posted on a platform. CK: So how do you plan to get the word out? JB: I think I want to tell me like, just promoted on youtube and I'm like, Oh man, it's going to be more video work, isn't it? But I think, yeah, I think that's what it's going to come down to as short video clips that are going, like help promote and talk about the class and you know, how it can help people learn how to podcast because we're here today because podcasting is really great. So this is a really good time to learn how to become a podcaster because there are resources like this booth here at the Moxy Chicago. Um, and it's just in general, it's, we're in this time now where people are really passionate about podcasts and a lot of people are really finding them. CK: It's true, it's true. So how do people find you and your classes? JB: Yeah, great question. So you can look at dynastypodcasts.com, it's plural. So dynastypodcasts.com with the s at the end of podcasts. I'm, we've got links to the class there and I'm always active on twitter. My twitter is Jamie black, jaimeblack. So I'm always posting my links. If you see me go six hours, without tweeting, like call my parents, something's really wrong, so yeah. CK: Awesome Jamie, well thank you for all of your help here today and thank you so much for sharing your goal. JB: Well thank you for letting me help with this podcast. CK: This podcast was produced by me, Cindy Kuzma, and it's another thing that's better with friends, so please share it with yours. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and if you have a chance to leave us a rating and a review while you're there, we would really appreciate it. Special thanks to J. Mano for our theme music; to our guest this week, Julie Smolansky; and to TechNexus for the recording studio.  

Christie Hefner is the longest serving female CEO of any public company ever. She also happens to be the daughter of the legendary Hugh Hefner, and of course, the company she ran for all those many years was Playboy Enterprises. You don’t have to be a regular reader or consumer of the Playboy brand to […] The post Insights from Christie Hefner: Blazing a trail as the longest serving female CEO of any public company, ever! (Episode #19) appeared first on She Said / She Said.

This week, Christie Hefner talked to us about her time at Playboy. And all the ‘WTF moments’ that come with being in charge of a company at 29 years old. Here are our tips on how to move up at work and how to hit snooze on imposter syndrome.

Christie Hefner is the daughter of, you guessed it, Hugh Hefner. She spent 20 years as chairman and CEO of Playboy. Making her the longest-serving female in that position. Ever. This week, she talks to us about taking Playboy digital, making management decisions, and getting over imposter syndrome – all while working alongside her dad.

Christie Hefner didn’t grow up wanting to run Playboy. But by the time she stepped down in 2008, she’d become the longest serving female Chair and CEO of a US public company.  Listen in to hear: how she ended up running this ground-breaking enterprise; her views on the real meaning of work/life balance; her tips for deciding when to say “yes” and when to say “no” and how she’s helped other women advance.   If you liked what you heard, please subscribe, rate, and review us on iTunes or Stitcher.   And, share your suggestions with us on Twitter @yrcareeryrterms, Facebook @yourcareeryourterms, or by emailing perry@yourcareeryourterms.com.   For more information, visit yourcareeryourterms.com.

Thanks to technology, we are more connected than ever—digitally. But at what cost? How have technologies, like online dating sites and apps like Tinder, changed attitudes and behaviors? How do we choose a partner and stay interested when we have an almost infinite world of choices at our fingertips? Will marriage become a thing of the past? Match.com’s Chief Scientific Advisor Helen Fisher joins Eric Klinenberg, co-author of Modern Romance, and Christie Hefner, former CEO of Playboy Enterprises for a conversation about technology’s toll on intimacy.

Jeffrey celebrates his 100th episode by taking a look back at some of his favorite moments and recapping the top lessons learned over the last two years. This is the show that will give you a PhD in what to do in business and what not to do. Featuring: Barbara Corcoran, Jon Taffer, Gail Simmons, Piers Morgan, Penn Jillette, Grant Cardone, Beth Comstock, John LeFevre, Christie Hefner and Gene Simmons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christie Hefner is a woman of many talents - and she knows how to put 'em to great use. In this episode of The Golden Mean, Christie talks about her 13-year journey to becoming CEO & Chairman of Playboy Enterprises and how the election of President Obama changed the course of her career. Christie also breaks down the status of the "Independent Maps" project geared toward reforming the rigged districting process in the state of Illinois.

Christie Hefner tells of taking control of her father Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire and taking it in new digital directions in her 20 year term as its pioneering female CEO. And though she tells All Business host Jeffrey Hayzlett it was the best job she ever had, she admits that Ruth Bader Ginsburg has her dream job. The two talk business innovation, digital disruption, the family business, the way boards work, women in the C-Suite, and why Chicago is her kind of town. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Alter and Christie Hefner are our guests this week. Show produced by Katherine Caperton. Original Air Date: June 8, 2013 on SiriusXM “POTUS” Channel 124. PoliOptics airs regularly on POTUS on Saturdays at 6 am, 12 noon and 6 pm. Follow us on Twitter @Polioptics

As chairman/CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. since 1988, Christie Hefner has overseen the global expansion of Playboy's legendary brand to a wide array of new platforms and markets, transforming a publishing-based business into a multi-pronged media and lifestyle company. Join Ms. Hefner as she speaks about her own success and how she has led the way for women in leadership globally for over two decades at Playboy and beyond.

Christie Hefner was the keynote speaker at the spring conference of the Committee of 200, an organization of top female entrepreneurs and executives. She discusses the need for more women to blaze the trail to the executive suite so the idea of who can be successful is changed for business people of both sexes.

Christie Hefner was the keynote speaker at the spring conference of the Committee of 200, an organization of top female entrepreneurs and executives. She discusses the need for more women to blaze the trail to the executive suite so the idea of who can be successful is changed for business people of both sexes.