Author Archive for Char-leigh Bates

YourMind

YourMind helps to create a positive work environment where the agents genuinely want to work. The goal is to help companies understand that their employees are assets, rather than liabilities, helping managers invest in their people so they can become the best version of themselves, in and outside of work.

Margot Radicati di Brozolo realized early in her adult life that many people, including herself, experience the Sunday scares when it comes to going back to work on Monday. Personally, she experienced this dread of going to work the next day in the form of anxiety. She describes her experience as getting a knot in her stomach and her breath would quicken. After speaking to others about her experience, she realized she was not alone. She imagined creating a company like YourMind but the idea of leaving her very well paying, corporate job was unthinkable.

After two years of dreaming about this idea, Margot attended an entrepreneurial event to figure out how to actually start a business. She decided to give YourMind a shot, but continued working in her corporate job for another four months until she quit to give her all to YourMind.

YourMind provides Manager Mental Health training and Mental Health Ambassador training to help people in that particular company understand their significance in their workplace. They are empowered to create a positive environment and lead by example. YourMind comes from the position, understanding that their example and leadership can make a real difference in their companies, but more importantly in their employees lives in and outside of work.

The workshops that YourMind provides goes over a range of topics such as managing stress, increasing psychological resilience, journalling for  stress management, improving work-life balance, creating a healthy workplace, mindset of success and so much more. The goal of the work shop is to empower the attendees to look after their own well being that are easily implemented into their day-to-day lives.

 

http://YourMind.co

Me and the Bees

At just four years old, Mikaila Ulmer’s parents encouraged her to enter a children’s business competition. So, little Mikaila put her thinking cap on. She said, two significant things happened in that time period. She got stung by a bee twice and her grandmother sent their family her cookbook, which included the grandmothers lemonade recipe.

At first, Mikaila was scared of the bees, but then she became fascinated with them. She started researching them and realized that bees needed help. She thought, “What if I could help the bees by using my grandma’s lemonade recipe?”. Thus, Me and the Bee’s Lemonade was born.

At first, the venture was small and endearing, but now, at 14 years old, Mikaila is participating in large social entrepreneurship panels. She is also educating the public on how to better protect the honeybees. A percentage of her profits goes towards helping organizations fight to save the bees.

Me and the Bee’s Lemonade is now being sold at places like Whole Foods (an 11 million dollar deal) the world’s leader in natural and organic food. There are also a growing amount of restaurants serving her lemonade. Through connecting two very different ideas, Mikaila has been able to create a thriving business while striving to raise funds and awareness for the struggling bee population.

Zum: Safe Transportation for Children

Have you ever had to scramble to find an elementary student a safe and reliable ride from school, practice, or rehearsal? Do you ever stress about conflicting schedules? What do you do in these situations? Cancel obligations, like most people?

Rita Narayan, founder of Zum, saw a big need for safe, reliable transportation. Rita quit her thriving career to raise her four children, but she later asked the question: how can I advance my career while ensuring my kids have safe, reliable care. With that, Rita and her two brothers sought to create a platform to to solve this problem that many parents experience.

Now, Zum is the fastest growning ride and care company for children.

On their website, they outline their history, mission, and how the rides are ensured to be safe service for the children. Zum drivers and caretakers have screenings, vetting processes (fingerprinting, driving rests, sex offender records, address history and SSN validation), and a car inspections ensuring safety is always first.

After reading through many reviews on Zum, everything is very positive that I saw. Zum is on track to soon reach 1 Million rides.  They envision going nation wide in the future while being the #1 transportation and care service for children.

Shubham Banerjee – The Lego Printer

Shubham Banerjee is a 13 year old who has completely innovated the world for the blind. Before Banerjee brought his idea to market, there had not been an affordable printer for the blind. Braille printers ran for over $2,000, which is in the budget for most of the 1.3 million blind people in the United States.

Banerjee was searching for an idea for his science fair when he came across this fact. This gave him the idea to try to create a low cost braille printer.

He was trying to engineer this device, which took him seven attempts exactly, but he finally got a working prototype. He made a working device using some Legos and some electrical wiring. He got the device to print out six dots of Braille.

After getting this to work, Banerjee was obsessed with his new project. He stayed up for hours on end with his engineer dad right beside him.

 

Now, as a freshman in high school, Banerjee is the inventor of Braigo, a low cost Braille printer. It looks like any other printer, except it prints our raised bumps instead of flat letters. Benerjee was able to do something that so many companies were trying to do for so long. But sometimes all you need is a young, creative mind seeing the problem and solution in a different way.

Shelby Wildgust- Naked Networking

Shelby Wildgust is a Philly native who is full of infectious energy. She loves all things from Philly Sports (GO EAGLES!) to rock climbing, but Shelby is most interested in supporting, mentoring, and coaching young female business leaders into becoming the best and most authentic versions of themselves. While working very closely with Shelby this summer, my favorite thing about her was her go-getter attitude that inspired me not to give up on my dreams for my summer job as a Branch Manager for Vector Marketing and Cutco Cutlery.

Shelby has always loved taking ideas and bringing them to life. In high school, she even started her own jewelry business called Treasures for Tuition to raise money for college. When Shelby was 18 years old, she found Cutco/Vector Marketing. She says she “has no idea what [she] was getting [herself] into”. After being quite successful and experiencing a lot of growth, she ran two branch offices, which is a summer only office that a college student runs while he or she is on summer break. Shelby claims that working for Cutco and having two very successful summer offices, equipped her with many skills which includes how to be resourceful, how to handle rejection, how to build relationships, how to communicate effectively, how to ask for what she wants, how to be a professional, how to public speak, and the list goes on. After graduating college in 2016, Shelby went into Corporate America but realized that she wanted to go back to Vector in a different role. She coaches and leads young individuals running a branch office.

In 2016, Shelby gave a TED Talk called “The Masks We Hide Behind”, where she opened up about her struggles growing up and wanting to fit in which sparked an interest in the idea that women wear masks. She attended a few events that encouraged women to becoming the best versions of themselves and thought she wanted to create something like this, but she wanted to stand out from any average networking event. So, she took the idea of women hiding behind masks and tied it into the idea of networking. In January of 2019, Shelby made the decision to become more involved in the Philly community of young women and she started Naked Networking.

The idea: “Women only. No Make Up. No Judgement.”

And it is exactly that. Upon arrival, women go through a “makeup removal station” where they remove the “masks” they were wearing all day.

 

Since it’s debut, Naked Networking has hosted two events. In June, Shelby hosted her first Naked Networking event. Thirty were in attendance (SOLD OUT!), there were two panelists, and she had multiple sponsors. At the second event, she saw familiar faces, which proved that women were getting a lot out of the experience. There were also 70 (SOLD OUT AGAIN!) in attendance, two panelists, and, again, multiple sponsors. Shelby and Naked Networking has been featured in Philly Mag and CBS 3.

 

The future of Naked Networking is bright. The next event will be held on October 29th, 2019 with 75 women in attendance. Shelby is also planning a large scale event with 200 women as an all day event. She also is expanding to a new city, but she wouldn’t tell me where yet, as it will be announced at her October 29th event.

Shelby is just getting started as she aspired to help more and more women “remove the mask” and feel more confident in themselves and being “exactly who they are meant to be.” Naked Networking has empowered so many young women already and is making strides to create a lasting impact on so many lives in the near future.

http://www.nakednetworkingevents.com

Lauren Bush: FEEDing Millions

Lauren Bush, granddaughter of former President George W. Bush, was born in Denver, Colorado but was raised in Houston, Texas. She grew up in the spotlight, earning an internship with the NBC sitcom, Friends, and modeling. After graduating from Princeton University with a B.A. in anthropology and a certificate in photography, she signed with Elite Model Management. Although she loves modeling and fashion, her heart was pulling her in a different direction.

At the age of 26, Lauren Bush launched FEED Projects, which is a social enterprise. Emerging after Lauren traveled the world with World Food Programme, FEED believes what people choose to buy has the power to change the world. FEED offers everything from accessories to home goods, while working directly with artisans to provide sustainable lives for the partnership and families.

As of October of 2017, FEED Projects has donated over 100 million meals through their sales and fundraisers. Through her work with FEED, Lauren Bush was the first National Lady Godiva Honoree and in 2013, she accepted the Advocacy Award from the World of Children Awards. She was also named Fortune‘s 2009 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, the 2010 Accessories Council Humanitarian Award, 2011 Stevie Award for Best Non-Profit Executive, and named Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs.

Lauren Bush has impacted lives worldwide; she understood not only how to directly help feed hungry children worldwide, but how to create jobs for artisan individuals to provide an income for them and their families. She took two causes that she felt passionate about and figured out how to provide for both of them within one business.

Many young women looking to make a difference in this world can look to Lauren Bush. While incorporating her passion for fashion and feeding the hungry, she has helped to change the lives of many while being an inspiration for young, loving entrepreneurs everywhere.