I was at a consumer show and I met Dr. David Katz. I asked him if he would talk to me about some ideas I had for Oprah Magazine, where he was a contributor at the time. He agreed and we scheduled a time to talk. During the call he told me he was writing a column on pesticides and whether or not organic produce was worth it. I asked him if he would include me and my website in his column as an expert and resource for more information. David was very gracious and told me he would include me but it didn’t make sense to include my website since it was a .ca—and not a .com and I didn’t have a website that reached the US market. I thought about what he said and told him I’d have something for him by the time the article would be published in. Three months later Naturally Savvy was up and running (we spoke in November and Naturally Savvy was up and running by February). Unfortunately David said our website didn’t make it past the editors, but without that call with David, I would have never launched Naturally Savvy so I am grateful to him.
When my kids were younger I was able to control more of what they ate. However, two of them are teenagers now so they can make their own choices. At home I can somewhat monitor what they eat, but not so much when they eat out. They don’t eat as healthy as I’d like them to, but I am hoping I laid a solid foundation for them and when they are ready, they’ll adopt healthier eating habits. Right now they’re experimenting (and rebelling) and that’s OK.
I believe as an entrepreneur there is no such thing as “balance.” We are always hustling. I love my work and it fulfills me in a major way. And truthfully, I’m always working in some way or another. If I’m not in my office, I’m listening to podcasts, or taking a course. I have a thirst for knowledge and I’m happiest when I’m learning new things and then trying them.
Randy and I have always self-funded all of our businesses ourselves. If we didn’t have the money, we didn’t do it until we made it ourselves. When we started our first company, we each put $2,500 into a bank account and used the money to create a presentation document that we then used to sell sponsorships to companies.
This is one of my favorite questions because it has evolved over the years. When I started my first company in 2000, I measured success by how much money I was making and how much I’d sell my company for one day. Today, I measure it by how happy and fulfilled I am. Important questions I ask myself when it comes to measuring success are: How am I touching people’s lives? Am I making a difference? What legacy will leave? What impact am I having on people’s lives? How can I be of service?
Hands down my husband, Rich. I couldn’t be doing when I’m doing without his support. When I told him 20 years ago that I wanted to leave my six figure job to start my own company, he told me to go for it. We just got married and bought a house so the timing wasn’t great, but he didn’t hesitate for a second because he believed in me. He wanted me to be happy and that was more important to him than money. It was hard in the beginning (for many years), but we managed to pull through it.
Be patient. I’m a total Capricorn and extremely driven, so when I was younger I would want everything fast, despite whether I was ready or not. Today I am the opposite. I believe everything happens when it is supposed to so I no longer rush anything. Of course there are things I want to do and I am disappointed when they don’t happen, but I now understand that if it’s meant to be it will be, and if it’s not, it won’t.
We did many things right. I’d say the number one thing I’m very proud of is that we always took responsibility for our actions and didn’t allow our egos to get in the way. When we were wrong, we apologized and then took action to fix it. Period. We didn’t make up excuses or blame anyone. We made it right and moved on.
Have a solid strategy. I had a vision of where I wanted the company to go, but we didn’t have a solid strategy of how to get there.
The first year we were in business we bought booth space at an industry trade show to showcase our book. We were total newbies, in our 20’s, and didn’t know anybody in the industry. I was SO excited to be there. I was passionate about what I was doing and excited to finally be doing what I loved. At the show we met an industry veteran who approached us to work with him so we set up a call after the show so we could brainstorm. On that call he told me he really liked me, but I was too “passionate” and that could be off-putting some people and I should “tone down” my excitement. I remember taking in what he said thinking I didn’t know how to tone anything down because it came from a place of authenticity. I wasn’t putting on a show for anyone. It was who I was. The lesson I learned is that people will always judge and give their opinions so it’s up to us to decide whether or not we want to confirm to meet their expectations or continue on the path we were meant to walk on, and listen to ourselves.
I was miserable in my job and I came home every night in tears. Not only was I unhappy with what I was doing, but I but also I didn’t love my boss’ way of managing me. I knew I had to find another option but I didn’t want to work for anyone else anymore. I wanted to work for myself. I knew since I was little that I wanted to run my own company, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
One day I was driving in my car and I prayed for a business idea. And an idea came to me. I went home that night and I told my husband and he told me to go for it. We were newly married (2 months in) and we just bought our first house…so the timing wasn’t great…but he believed in me and wanted me to be happy. I asked Randy is she would go into business with me, and the rest is history.
I remember having lemonade stands in front of my house as a kid. One of my most vivid memories was when I was 18 or 19. I was at my friend’s house who recently moved out on his own and I showed up at his apartment with a booklet of coupons I made him for free house cleaning, dinner making, and 2-for-1 hugs. I never really lived that one down, but funny enough years later I ended up working at a couponing company (News America), which inspired me to start my first company—The Healthy Shopper Coupon book.
This is easy because it’s the same answer for both. I’m a visionary so I can see trends before they happen or before others buy in to the idea. I’m a proud early adopter. J
The problem was (but isn’t so much anymore with the internet) that people weren’t always ready for me or my ideas. One story I often tell is how at 23 I was working for a company and I had a good relationship with one of the VPs so I asked him if I could share a business idea with him. He sat me down in his big office and I told him I wanted to create a cover for cars that you could place on the windshield and windows to they wouldn’t get icy (I hated having to clean the ice off). He told me he didn’t think it was a good idea because we would need a special material that wouldn’t stick to the windows or car. Unfortunately I let him talk me out of it. A few years later the exact concept I shared with Chuck that day (that was his name), was sold everywhere.
Another example would be when I created a proposal for a large grocery store in Toronto, and I wanted to work for them to help launch an organic Private Label brand. Organic was just coming on to the scene (this was in 1998) so I decided to cold call the buyer for their organic/health division and schedule a meeting. I managed to secure meeting (after many attempted calls), and presented the idea. The buyer told me it was a brilliant idea, but I was way ahead of my time…about five years ahead. Three years later, they launched their Private Label brand, which is still thriving today.
Hands down the secrets to our success are: Communication, respect, loyalty, trust, compassion, and forgiveness. When Randy and I argue, we say what we need to say, and we move on. We never hold grudges. We’ve had many disagreements over the years, and a select few where we hung up on one another, but five minutes later we were back on the phone discussing business. We never allowed disagreements to come between us or fester. A business partnership is like a marriage—you need to have open communication and mutual respect in order for it to succeed.
We always have each other‘s backs—no matter what! Nobody can come between us or break our bond. People have tried but they didn’t succeed. Our partnership has gotten stronger over the years, and our dedication to one another has been strengthened by adversity we have faced together as business partners.
I didn’t really think about it much until 2010, when Randy and I met Michael Eisner (the former CEO of Disney) at a Harper Collins event in NYC. We had the opportunity to talk to him for a while as he just published his book, “Working Together, Why Great Partnerships Succeed.” His books talks about why certain professional business relationships succeed and he featured the likes of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, and Bill and Melinda Gates. I asked him out of the 10 partnerships he featured, how many were two women. He said “one.” I asked him why and he said it was because two women partners are rare so they were hard to find. I told him that Randy and I wrote the book on female partnerships and that he should include us in his next edition. He laughed. I wasn’t joking.
In 2008, my friend Scott Lazerson and I organized a PSA in L.A. to support “Stop Hunger Now.” Scott invited celebrities and I brought on the sponsors. We spent the day with Jeremy Piven, Lance Bass, Tamera Mowry, Michael Maloney, Laura Harring, Jesse Metcalf, Marla Maples, and others, creating videos to help raise awareness for this incredible organization.
Also in 2008, I flew to Denver to do a TV segment with Randy. When we stepped into the elevator to meet the producer on the second floor, two men joined us. One of the men told me he loved natural and organic products. At first I didn’t understand why he said, and he sense my confusion, so he pointed to the bag I was carrying that had my logo and tagline at the time: “Naturally Savvy—Natural and Organic Living.” It turned out than man was Alan Arkin. Alan and I became friends, and to this day we stay in touch.
In 2011, I was in New York City with Randy promoting our newly published book by Simon & Schuster NYC, “Unjunk Your Junk Food,” when I received an email from someone claiming to be Maria Shriver’s assistant. When I first got the email, I thought it was spam so I deleted it. I looked at Randy, and for a split second I wondered if it was true. So I answered her back and it ended up being real! Maria found us online, and she wanted to feature us on her website. That was one of the coolest moments in my career. We fostered a great relationship with Maria’s team that lasted for many years, and she wrote me a beautiful hand-written note about our book. I cherish it to this day.
In no special order I would say:
- Integrity
- Accountability
- Gratitude
- Perseverance
- Open-Minded/Openness
- Loyalty
- Kindness
- Sincerity
- Self-Responsibility
- Happiness
Absolutely! That’s when we learn the most. We need to fail or fall in order to understand what success looks like.
Absolutely. I’m the type of person who enjoys doing things as a team. There are some people who thrive as solopreneurs, and others who thrive as partnerpreneurs (I made that word up!). I’m the latter. I enjoy working with someone else, talking to them, brainstorming, bouncing things off them, and then implementing our ideas together. There’s this great book called “Rocket Fuel” and my friend Justin told me about it. It describes what makes for a successful partnership in business.
No.
For the most part I’ve been blessed with amazing partners and partnerships/collaborators. However, there have been a few that haven’t been good, and that’s OK. I learned what I didn’t want in a partner or collaborator, and now I’m much more cautious who I choose to do business with.
I wish that women would lift each other up more often and support one another. I built my business on partnerships and collaborations so I know how effective that can be.
When we first started Naturally Savvy, we still had The Healthy Shopper (THS), so Randy ran THS, and I ran Naturally Savvy. We divided and conquered.
I was editing and publishing all the articles by myself. Lisa Tsakos, my good friend and fellow Nutritionist, helped me write all of the articles. We didn’t have a budget to pay writers, so I reached out to friends and colleagues to help. I had some amazing people step up and submit articles on a regular basis, which helped me to grow Naturally Savvy to what it is today.
I knew that we were tiny, so we had to team up with larger organizations and websites that could benefit from our high quality content. I reached out to Tribune Media (Chicago Tribune, LA Times, etc.), Treehugger, Elephant Journal, Planet Green (it’s no longer around), Wellnes.com, and other websites to see if they would be interested in having us write for them. And they were so it helped to catapult us to a level I could have never achieved on my own.
Dr. Mercola is another one of my proudest collaborations. I reached out to him on Twitter because I was a huge fan of his and wanted to write for his website. I developed a special relationship with his team and in 2015 we collaborated on a big project. To this day we still have our bi-monthly calls to touch base to see how we can help each other.
My motto for Naturally Savvy has always been: “We are small but mighty.” And I mean it. Just because we are tiny compared to some of the bigger websites or companies, our unique experiences and understanding of the natural health space makes us extremely valuable.
“Collaboration inspires conversation, exploration, creation, and cooperation, and minimizes separation.”
Go Giver: https://amzn.to/2HFxfFN
Go Giver Leader: https://amzn.to/2W9d4Jv
Rocket Fuel: https://amzn.to/2WvSi5S
Lewis Timberlake, Born to Win https://amzn.to/2Wv2trv
“Working Together, Why Great Partnerships Succeed.” https://amzn.to/2WtSpiC