March 03, 2019

Season 2 Is Here (!!) + Giveaway

March 03, 2019/ Stephanie Campbell

Season 2 of the Brava Podcast is. HERE!! I am SO excited to share with you the tremendous women I've been interviewing over the past two months who have discussed everything from learning how to live a more creative life and investing in yourself to rooting your career in self-love. ⁣

Episode #11 featuring author and Illustrator, Ilana Griffo, is live NOW and you can listen on Apple, Spotify, Castbox, Sticher & more.
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One of the on-going themes in Season 2 that I have noticed is the fear of the jump, the hesitancy we tend to have when taking those next steps whether it's starting a new position or starting your company. Each of the women featured on the Brava Podcast has tackled this in some way or another that I hope can inspire you on your career journey. ⁣
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Again, BRAVA to these amazing women and for you listeners, you go girl.

GIVEAWAY TIME:

To celebrate the launch of Season 2, I’ve create a side-hustle “starter pack” of sorts! Check it out below and enter now for a chance to win!

1 Likes, 0 Comments - The Brava Podcast (@bravapodcast) on Instagram: "[GIVEAWAY TIME! 🎉📱] To celebrate the launch of the second season of the @BravaPodcast, I thought it..."

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Good luck!

February 28, 2019

Minding Your Own Business with Ilana Griffo

February 28, 2019/ Stephanie Campbell

Welcome back listeners! Today’s guest is Ilana Griffo. Today on Brava we’re discussing how you can take your creative passion and grow it into your full-time gig…and Ilana is an expert on this! She’s a freelance designer and illustrator. Plus, she’s a newly published author of the book, “Mind Your Business”! Want to start your own side-hustle? Tune in now below to mind your (own) business with Ilana Griffo.

SHOW NOTES:

Ilana always knew she wanted to be a graphic designer. She went to school for graphic design and started freelancing immediately while working full-time. She went off on her own four years ago and hasn’t looked back since (1:05).

Despite using school to hone in on her design craft, her favorite class in school was a career development class that focused on interview tips and tricks and how to conduct yourself in the professional world (2:25).

Ilana wrote her book to help other creatives (like you!) create the business foundation to launch their careers (3:30)!

Working from home can be tough with all the distractions around you. Illana created a dedicated office for herself. A day in the life for Ilana includes her one year old son, a to-do list and drawing (7:00).

She sources inspiration from every aspect of life and is very inspired by the seasons (8:22).

When reviewing your own business, Ilana recommends not diving directly into a branding voice until you find your voice as a brand (10:50).

It takes a lot of adventure and trial and error to develop and find your voice (12:00).

The hardest part of publishing her new book, “Mind Your Own Business”? The beginning and getting started! What helped? Her loyal and hard-working team (13:45).

“Ilana’s go-to mantras: “Do it with passion or not at all” and “ask for what you want.” ”

Hoping to start your own side-hustle, Ilana recommends just to…start! Never stop having fun with it (17:45).

Thank you readers, to tuning into the Brava Podcast. If you like the show please leave us a review on iTunes!

What from our conversation inspired you today? What do you hope to hear next? Tweet or message us on Instagram @BravaPodcast to tell us what you want to hear, even if it’s your own story!

December 23, 2018

Exploring Your "Aha" Moment with Lillian Rafson

December 23, 2018/ Stephanie Campbell

Hi, listeners and happy holidays! In the mood for a holiday vacation? Today’s episode will be all about exploring your dreams, adventure and discovering your “aha” moment. Let’s talk travel. Picture this. The start-up Pack Up & Go wants to plan your 3-day weekend. The catch? Your destination is a surprise. This innovative idea and business was conceived by Lillian Rafson. Lillian, CEO and Founder of Pack Up & Go, wants you to embrace the unknown and as an entrepreneur, she’s quite spontaneous herself! Listen below to learn more about Lillian’s start-up story, her go-to advice and her own “aha” moment.

SHOW NOTES:

Lillian quit her job to discover what she wanted to do. She traveled and back packed and ran into to two women who were on a surprise vacation. She realized that the “surprise vacation” market wasn’t as prominent in the U.S. (1:10).

She launched Pack Up + Go within the 6-8 weeks left in her trip in 2015, researching and interviewing the locals and tourists along the way. On January 1st, she launched her Squarespace account and let her friends and family know. At that point she planned only a handful of practice trips. A friend featured her launch within Business Insider and the rest…is history (3:00).

How you find capital or fund for your big idea? Lillian’s biggest costs at the beginning were the domain name and Squarespace account. The best part of Pack Up + Go is that it’s a cash flow positive organization, full owned by their team without venture capital assistance (5:50).

Lillian was always inspired to study what made her happy in school. She went to NYU for gender studies, marketing and French. She values her hands-on experience that internships provided her while in school (7:00).

She believes that traveling forces you out of your comfort zone and gives you the ability to explore new things. She loves that her travelers are willing to let that control go and explore new things and push their own boundaries (9:19).

One of Lillian’s favorite customer stories highlights a woman that was celebrating her 70th birthday that was traveling alone. She came home from her trip and sent 50-75 pictures from her trip and that she had the best time on her trip (11:10).

Curious as to which cities are the most popular to travel to this year? Nashville and Charleston are both booming. Lillian’s favorite cities to travel to? Savannah, New Orleans and Chicago (13:16).

Let’s talk travel must-haves. Lillian’s top 3 are: a rolling suitcase, a pair of comfortable and cute sneakers, and an external battery pack for your phone (14:30).

Lillian’s go-to message and source for inspiration, an Israeli term…”YALLA” (16:30).

“Yalla! Let’s go! If not now, then when? Let’s just do this.”

— Lillian Rafson, CEO and Founder of Pack Up & Go

Next steps for Pack Up + Go is to expand domestic city trips and to continue to support small business in the U.S. while creating multi-city trips for customers (18:35).

Thank you readers, to tuning into the Brava Podcast. If you like the show please leave us a review on iTunes!

What from our conversation inspired you today? What do you hope to hear next? Tweet or message us on Instagram @BravaPodcast to tell us what you want to hear, even if it’s your own story!

December 12, 2018

Ethical Leadership and Stopping the Spiral of Incivility with Audrey Murrell

December 12, 2018/ Stephanie Campbell

Today’s episode is focused on highlighting ethical leadership and putting a proactive end on the spiral of incivility. In the work place, whether we’re leaders, managers or part of any team structure, we can face this at any time.

I’d like to introduce and highlight the expert on this matter, Associate Dean at the University of the Pittsburgh Business School and Director of the Berg Center for Leadership and Ethics, Audrey Murrell. She is a woman of influence who conducts research, teaches, consults and helps organizations better utilize and engage their most important assets - their human and social capital.

SHOW NOTES:

Audrey shares that rudeness, bickering, work place behavior, demeaning personalities, taunting…all are examples of incivility. They are not the cost of doing business, they are costly to business. They may start off as something small or manageable, but they are creating a downward spiral for businesses (1:10).

When incivility is not corrected it has a whole host of consequences for the organization. It erodes culture and affects turnover (2:13).

There are many reasons that incivility is on the rise: we have a tendency to ignore incivility hoping that it will go away itself. Another reason why it may be on the rise is that leadership and higher-ups may be the instigators of bad behavior without ramification or are not providing proper discipline in their own workplace (4:13).

“Leaders must establish norms of zero tolerance for incivility.”

— Audrey Murrell

Audrey always starts off meetings in her unit acknowledging the positive behavior of her employees but also create a model for the norm in the workplace (7:25).

The best way to counter negative behavior is to reinforce positive behavior (8:45).

Audrey will look for people who can be partners with her in this practice. She and a colleague made a pact to model positive vs. negative behavior in their workplace. Overtime they continued to add people to their pact to change their negative workspace into a positive one (10:00).

Careers in reality are not steps, but much more like a labyrinth with adjusting to change and tackling obstacles. Audrey believes that education is transformational both to our thinking and our opportunities. She’s also very passionate about mentoring, specifically peer-to-peer mentoring (11:15).

“I really hate the word networking, it sounds very transactional. I talk about relationships because there is a mutual benefit.”

— Audrey Murrell

Effective leadership is not only about what you do and your skill-set, but it’s also about finding the right context and the environment that is right fit for you as a leader (16:00).

Want to lead and you don’t think you are getting that support from your organization? Look outside your organization to develop your leadership skills, negotiation, organization…at volunteer opportunities, church, community events, etc. It may not be at your job, but it is definitely in your community (19:00).

Ethical leadership is so powerful because you can’t be an effective leader without being ethical and being ethical and particularly shaping the ethical climate and culture in an organization requires leadership (21:30).

Want to star putting Audrey’s insight into action? She recommends seeking ethical role models in your organization that you can talk to and learn from. She also advises to seek training for leadership and ethics within your organization. Lastly, she suggests to connect within your community and push yourself outside your comfort zone. Do something different because that’s where you need your growth (23:20).

“Leaders push themselves even if it’s outside their comfort zone.”

— Audrey Murrell

Audrey works to stop and acknowledge the amazing things their students are doing and to celebrate with them and for them. It’s what keeps her going! (28:18).

If you would like to learn more on leadership and ethics or incivility, please go to audreymurell.com for more information.

Thank you readers, to tuning into the Brava Podcast. If you like the show please leave us a review on iTunes!

What from our conversation inspired you today? What do you hope to hear next? Tweet or message us on Instagram @BravaPodcast to tell us what you want to hear, even if it’s your own story!

December 05, 2018

Innovation, Technology, & Start-Ups with Erica Amatori

December 05, 2018/ Stephanie Campbell

For today’s discussion, we’re going to take a step into the start-up space. Whether you have your eyes set on an entrepreneurial venture in retail, finance or technology I hope that our conversation will ignite a spark within your own career path.

Let me introduce to you a powerful serial entrepreneur. Today’s guest is Erica Amatori. She’s the Director of Marketing at Burrow and Co-Founder of TheBit at the impressive age of just 23. Tune in below!

SHOW NOTES:

Erica is the VP of Marketing at Burrow, an e-commerce start-up that is changing up the furniture space. Their value lies in that their furniture is extremely comfortable and adaptable. She’s also the co-founder of thebitdaily.com a source from crypto-education and a crypto-community (1:26).

On knowing when to invest her time or money on a start-up, Erica first needs to believe in not just idea, but also the team (2:50).

“To know whether a start-up is right for me I act like my own venture capitalist firm.”

Start-ups are a roller coaster. The highs are high, the lows are low. When you don’t think there is a market for your service or product, you have to be real with yourself and move on (5:12).

“It’s not a failure, it’s a learning.”

— Erica Amatori

Book recommendation by Erica: The Dip by Seth Godin ß Click here to check it out.

With an idea, is it better to be authentic or original? Erica says neither. She thinks you truly need is product market fit. A demand and audience for the product (7:15).

To Erica, “innovation” means to find opportunity gaps and fill them. Finding a broken process and fixing it (9:00).

Innovative ideas come from innovative people. Character traits such as curiosity allow you to question the current processes and finding new solves. Practice this by always asking questions (10:20).

“Behind every successful person there are a lot of unsuccessful years.”

— Erica Amatori

Want to get start in your start-up now? Erica advises to go out there and start doing market research and find if your product or service is valuable (13:20).

Loved this episode? Share your voice and leave a review on iTunes now!