Lorin and Kyle Van Zandt - The Founders of Missio Hair

Today (June 24, 2019), I'm in Wilmington, North Carolina, at the headquarters of Missio Hair with two of my favorite people on the planet, Lorin and Kyle Van Zandt - the founders of Missio Hair.

C: Lorin and Kyle, thank you for being on the podcast today!

L: We are excited, and we just love having you back with us for a little bit.

C: Missio gave me my first break a couple of years ago. I worked with them, and it was the best thing ever. I'm so excited to have you guys on the podcast. I think it's just going to be so great.

K: You are a Missio OG. You were with us at the beginning.

L: The the real story is Catherine reached out to us and said, "Do you have an internship? I'm looking for an internship." We were so new at that point and literally just doing all the things that need to be done. There was no formalized internship or anything and I sat down with her and I said, "Listen, we are building a startup. We've got so much going on. We have no formal program, but if you're willing to dive in and do some tasks, we would love to have you. She said, “Yes, absolutely.” And did such great work for us: graphic design, and all kinds of different things, so we are so excited to be back with her again.

[02:29]

C: So to start things off, can you guys please share a little bit about your story and what sparked your idea for Missio?

L: We are hair product company, with a purpose. We help to fight human trafficking with everything that we're doing, just believing that a brand can carry forward a purpose and a message, and we particularly are passionate about restoring worth and fighting human trafficking. We have so many experiences that led us to this place, but primarily my time as a hair stylist. I was a teacher first and then ended up becoming a professional hair stylist because I loved it so much, and it was all about the connection and opportunity that I had to spend time with women. We were working with a non-profit out in the Southern California area, where we were serving the community, and I had the opportunity to take this simple gift of doing a haircut, or a manicure or a pedicure, these cosmetic services and provide them for women who were in need. I worked with homeless shelters, drug rehab centers, all kinds of women that were in transition and eventually started working with victims of human trafficking. Once I started to get to know them, to hear their stories, to become friends with them, to be a part of their recovery process, I realized how powerful something as simple as a haircut could be in that setting. So, people would come in even in their first 72 hours off of the streets, and I had the opportunity to give them a haircut or a very simple, cosmetic service that was not about making them look a different way, it was more so about just helping to remind them of their worth and for someone else to enter into one of the darkest moments in their life, and either wash their feet, or cut their hair and help them to just begin on that path of restoration. The opportunities that I had in those spaces were just really incredible. It just lit a fire within us. I was coming home telling Kyle about all of these opportunities to serve and then also the stories that these women carried because how they had become victims of human tracking were so interesting and also concerning to me that I would come home and tell him. And we would say, "Gosh, what can we do about this?"

K: And, simultaneous to all of this, I was working with some other community members, including law enforcement officials, and politicians, and people who worked in churches and other organizations, and really learning a lot about human trafficking. That's something that I had always seen. You learn a little bit about it here and there. My family grew up helping kids in orphanages in Romania. And you really learn quickly that, gosh, when they're 16, what happens to them. You start to really get the impression of what happens to them. But, there was no real title of what that was growing up. As I got older and I encountered more people, they started to teach me a little bit more about human trafficking. I still always thought it was an international issue, something that didn't really exist in the United States, but living out there in Long Beach, you start to be exposed to more of the domestic side of this issue, the root causes of it, and the prevention, rescue, and recovery elements that are involved. So I'm working on this angle of the bigger picture, strategic approach to how you address these issues from many different angles while Lorin is directly working with some of these victims and survivors. And yeah, we would come home, and we were like, "Man, what can we do about this?" The vision came pretty soon after that.

L: Then, a mentor of ours met with us and seeing all that was going on and seeing our passion for this encouraged us to think and dream about, "well, instead of being your own non-profit... What if you actually had some sort of product that you can sell that would support initiatives that you're passionate about?". At the time there were really one or two of these initiatives that we support now that were very clear to us. But, that idea really stuck. We let that marinate. We thought about it. We prayed about it. That was just a part of something that stuck with us for a while, and then, we ended up having the opportunity a couple of years later to step into launching what is now Missio with the idea that an actual hair product could support initiatives that help women and restore worth.

K: Our world and our background is in non-profits, that's what we know. So originally, when all of this was really coming to surface our idea was, "Hey, let's create a non-profit to really use beauty to help these women." That really stuck with us for a little bit. We thought, Okay, we go. We can create an organization and raise the money. But, during those conversations, we understood that, gosh, there is such a finite amount of money out there. There are so many great organizations vying for those dollars. We want to support these organizations and maybe add to these organizations, not compete with them for these dollars to exist. One my friends, who is an international businessman, had mentioned to me his idea, or it's been around forever, but what he was doing with his business of, he calls it, the double bottom line approach or some people will call it a triple bottom line, but he likes the double bottom line because you really create a product; or you sell something; or there's a big return on the investment, and that's the one measure of success. But, the equal, and second measure of success is how is our work, how is our entity, directly impacting others for good? That really stuck with me, and that stuck with us as we were dreaming about this. So, the idea of a product, and a great product at that, one that can really stand on its own could actually sustainably support our initiatives. That was really intriguing to us.

L: Yeah, and then along that journey too, I was doing hair, and I realized how powerful education within the beauty industry could be. There was a woman, that I was really concerned about in a salon, and I had the opportunity to interact with her as a hair stylist. She saw the salon as a safe space, and I noticed things like bruises on her body. I had the opportunity to then engage with her in a very safe space in a very just relational way, and just asking some questions and getting to know her a little bit more. I became concerned, and I realized that I needed to learn what to look for in order to help identify someone even in my own salon and that there was a power that the beauty industry could play if we could educate community members; if we could educate the beauty industry and professionals what signs to look for; how to ask questions; how to keep themselves safe in situations; and then what to do. We could put forward an educational component that could really seek to change communities. So, that part of our initiatives came into view as well. We educate within the beauty industry; we serve women who are at risk and in recovery; and we give to non-profit partners that are fighting human trafficking worldwide. That's the initiative side of Missio and each product supports all of these initiatives.

C: There's something so special about this company because they aren't just donating money to help people, which that is a huge portion of the fight, but they are also educating salons and stylists on how to identify potential victims and then how to safely aid in their rescue; and then, they also have this element of volunteering these stylist's time to go into these safe locations to really empower and encourage these women after they are coming out of just nightmares of situations. That's what drew me to Missio and how they are just approaching it from this really cool all-angle approach.

K: A lot of that does go back to just this convergence of experiences that Lorin and I have had over the years and even just a bigger understanding of... Yeah, the multi-prong approach that it takes to fight an issue like human trafficking. It's so different all over the world. It comes in many different forms, but at the end of the day the root issue is really a marred or a flawed sense of identity or a stolen sense of worth and purpose. That is such an important element of it that we had to learn through many years of experience. And then also the whole idea of the prevention, rescue, and recovery. Ultimately, at the end of the day, the best way to fight human trafficking is to prevent it. So, if we can find communities of people around the United States to be able to do that through education, through community vigilance, then wow, we can actually make a dent.

[12:05]

C: A little bit about the impact you're making, how are you guys leveraging technology to make an impact? This is a big question that I'm trying to keep as a common theme throughout this podcast. So, I think it would be really interesting to get your perspective on that.

L: One thing that comes to mind is that we weren't able to just use a website that could only support sales because we needed more of a website and a platform to tell a story, to blog about our purpose, to actually use to educate. So, I think that was one of the things that we encountered early on, is the need for even our web presence to be more than a sales platform, but a place that we could use in different ways. Then we leverage technology with our education, we will offer a free 30-minute training within salons and at salon trade shows and cosmetology schools but we also wanted to make it available online. So, now it is housed on our website, missiohair.com/education, if anyone's interested in seeing what that's like, but it's a 30 minute training video that trains hair stylists, and really anyone that wants to view, on those warning signs and what action they would actually take to help a victim. We are using that in our marketing strategy a little bit as well, to allow that free education to be out there. Using technology and the power of the internet is really incredible to think about that it could reach just about anyone by just housing it in one little place.

K: I think we couldn't do what we're doing right now if it wasn't for technology and just how easy it is to create a video to get it out there and to make it available for people. At the end of the day, Lorin is the figurehead of these efforts. She's done it. She's a stylist who just loves beauty, but even more than beauty and the styling part of it, she loves people. She loves their heart, and this is who she's been for many, many years before Missio was even a dream of ours. So, to be able to use and leverage technology to multiply Lorin and her encouragement and her message. And of course, the education, it's really what it takes. Everybody needs an Obi-Wan Kenobi.

C: I can totally vouch for that! Lorin is the most encouraging person I've ever met in my entire life. I'll come to you and be like "Lorin, I don't know what I'm doing with my life!!" and she'll be like "Catherine, It's going to be Okay."

[15:01]

C: Talking more about the impact that you guys are making, how are you guys measuring it? It's a big thing now for social impact companies is be able to put some type of quantitative measure behind the impact that you guys are making.

L: We actually can't count exactly how many people have sat through the education, which is kind of exciting. We aren't able to know or put a nice round number on how many people we've educated. But, utilizing technology, utilizing this at trade shows, passing out our flyers or field guides, and then also equipping the people that come into this Missio tribe and allowing them to take it on and then pass it one step forward we really have no idea with a nice round number, of something like our education, or our service, things like that. But, with the stories that we hear, there's such a ripple effect that's already out there and been created from just having this as a piece of our initiatives and what it is that we're doing. There are stories that come back to us which mean the world. There was a hair stylist who ended up saying that the educational training that she was able to view actually saved her life because it put her one step ahead of a compromising situation outside of her apartment complex. I mean, that in itself was enough of a reason for us to have done this entire thing. Impact to us also looks like the fact that people will reach out to us through Missio when they're concerned about someone in their salon setting and we have the opportunity to get on the phone with them and talk to them through what it is that they might need to do. In terms of service, there have been hundreds of women in our city and beyond, who have been served through a haircut, manicure, and pedicure. It's not just women who have been at risk or in recovery of human trafficking, but this also inspires people to just serve people in their communities, even if it's a juvenile detention center or homeless shelter and things like that. People are inspired by what it is that we're doing. We love the ripple effect of the impact when we see stories posted on their Instagram account when they've just been inspired by us. So, it's interesting because a lot of times you can't necessarily see exactly. We'll never know the full fruit of that, but when we hear these stories and we see the impact that we're able to create, it's so meaningful.

K: And of course, we are able to really directly measure the gift part of it. We take just a portion of all our profits every quarter, and we get to give it to our non-profit partners. That's always fun to celebrate and to really meet tangible needs. What we love about our partners right now is that we're able to hear more specifically what they need and help meet those needs, even if we can't. We're a young company, we don't have all the money in the world, yet, but let's say they need furniture, or let's say we can actually be the figure heads of pulling the local salon community together to meet a need, well, we get to do that as well. We get to help and assist with that as well, in addition to the gift. One of the cool things is we've been so inspired over the years from Give Back companies. TOMS for instance is buy one pair of shoes and give a pair of shoes. That's a really cool tangible metric, and I love what they've done. We have other friends who started companies like that. Of course, giving is a huge element of ours, but we feel like we have almost a unique opportunity in our industry to be more of like a Take Action company, to be able to mobilize people to use their gifts to help others in need. That's been a really neat thing too. So again, that's why Lorin talks so much about the narrative part of it. If we can measure the stories ,or even capture a few stories from what we're doing, then you also almost measure the intangibles as well as the tangibles. So, sometimes we do need to celebrate the intangibles.

[19:34]

C: You guys are a relatively new company, but what have been some of the greatest challenges you've had pushing your company forward, and how did you overcome them?

K: Well, I think the hard thing is you have a vision for many years. When we decided that we really wanted to pursue this, this business, we came to a screeching halt because you really recognize the reality and what's going to have to go into it at first. So, we really just had to put it in the parking lot for a few years. The cool thing is we believe that God speaks with quiet persistence, and it kept on coming back. But, we realized the challenge it was going to be for us to start it. It was something that we couldn't necessarily bootstrap. If we were going to do it, we wanted to create really good products, and that requires capital up front. I think that the timing of everything, and how even when we did have the opportunity to launch, it still took a lot of time. Even now, our brand is still maturing. We still have new products we want to launch and our marketing strategy. These things are still coming. But, gosh, it's a grind. It's a grind, and I think any entrepreneur out there understands that it's a grind. It's the patience and persistence that are absolutely key to it. So, from a big picture, that's the hardest part. It's just waking up every day and going around every new corner is a new challenge and just kind of facing it head on being brave.

You really have to be courageous to start anything. Yeah, and just, picking yourself up and encouraging one another, and brushing off the dust when you fall on your face and keep on going.

L: Yeah, it's a very vulnerable place because you're launching something into the world and whether it's a business or a concept, or a product, or if it was a restaurant, it exists because you decided it was going to exist, and that's it. There's no other reason. That's the threshold, and it can be the scariest thing. It's hilarious because that's how it all happens. But, when you say we're starting a hair product company, we launched a hair product. It exists because we decided and we said it, now exists. So, you're subject to so much judgment or curiosity. It's a very vulnerable place to put something out there in the world, but it's also really exciting because there's only a small percentage of people that are brave enough, courageous enough, and fearless enough to say, "You know what, this is enough of a great idea or something I'm called to do, that I'm going to go for it and then to see what happens because of that. People fall in line. People get excited. People want to follow. People are interested. They want to know more. We launched with four products. That's a tiny, little line, but at the same time, you have to start somewhere. Then we were able to gradually grow and add, but just to speak that into existence, launch it into the world, have a website, the supporting the initiatives, and just going for it right at the beginning was quite the adventure.

K: And ready or not, you just gotta jump. You gotta go for it. Recognize that when you do, nothing is going to be perfect. And that's hard. We're both somewhat perfectionists. We like to always put our best but forward. But, sometimes to do this, you have to learn in the deep end. You're not going to fully have everything figured out, but you just have to go anyway.

[23:26]

C: You have two young children. You are entrepreneurs. You are spouses. How do you guys manage everything? What are your biggest tips for managing the craziness of life with the craziness of the business and staying sane in all of it?

K: Oh, we are not sane.

L: Yeah, we're not.

[Everyone laughs]

L: I think it's just a learning process. You figure out really quickly what does work and what doesn't work. You have to re-group and come back to that place of just loving each other well through communication. Us figuring out, Okay, how are we going to do this whether it is something with business, or something with home. But, ultimately, it's really awesome to be able to be team players because nobody else is going to enter in to the degree that you need someone to, you know, stay up late to pull something off or go get the kid in the middle of the day or things like that. So, I think it's hard, honestly. But we have learned so much in grown so much because of that, and have every right to be that much more proud of what is that we've created. Because it's kind of like, essentially, we had a third child, so we have to take care of that too. So, we have a 7-year-old, a 3-year-old, and now a two-year-old business. If you imagine any family with those children as well, it's kind of a lot. A business takes a certain amount of care and time and attention and energy and late nights and all the things. So, we just have to figure out how to best do it together. We try to plan ahead. We seek to do a weekly plan with each other on Sundays where we just look at the whole week across the board and consider everything from meals, what we're going to do each evening, to who's picking up what child, what extra activities we might have, what we want to do fun as a family how we want to prioritize our marriage, when we would see to do a date night, and then what else needs to be done for a business. So, I think that's been a really helpful tool when we began instituting that because we're a little bit more on the same page. And, poor Kyle. He has been a trooper because I am fine with flying by the seat of my pants a lot of times and just doing whatever and going with the flow. And, I think you've [Kyle] done a really good job with hanging on and been willing to accept the by-product of a bit of a week without plans sometimes.

K: Anything like this requires sacrifice. I think Lorin and I both have had our fair share of being pushed out of our comfort zones from strange hours that you're working to just balancing - one moment I might be on the phone with some big marketing firm while cooking mac and cheese. That's really part of it. Or, sometimes maybe I'm at home in the middle of the day watching the girls but working really late the night. That can be uncomfortable sometimes. I love being out in front of people too. It's really fun for me. I love being with people a lot. But, for this season of our business, I had to be really behind the scenes. And gosh, a lot of the muscle, but that's awesome. I've learned that and I get so much joy from doing all I can in empower Lorin as the leader of this and seeing her really thrive and come to life. But, I can't say that that's always been easy, it's definitely a shift in my mindset, and what I wake up and thinking about every day. I'm a big picture of visionary guy, but I've really had to dive into the details of this business a lot over the last two years. And so, yeah, from the work dynamic to the family dynamic. But, then, I think the biggest thing for both of us, that we've had to learn is went to shut it off. There's always business to talk about all the time. It could be the middle of the night or early mornings mornings. We're constantly having to learn when to say "Hey let's kind of leave that there or let's revisit that later. Let's really just kind of focus on our family on ourselves right now." We're two years in and I think we're barely scratching the surface of learning that, but I think we're on the right path, we're slowly but surely moving toward that and working on those dynamics.

L: Yeah, and we have to respect each other's time because we're with each other at work. We're with each other at home. It's easy to just let something that comes across your work desk be a point of conversation before somebody's had their coffee or late at night when it's just kind of chill out time. So, we've had to start almost just checking in to see like, "Okay hey, is this a good time to talk about this or would you rather save it for tomorrow's meeting?" and fight for a little bit more professionalism and boundaries within our life, professionally and personally so that we can live into all of those roles. But, it's tricky, I'm proud of us for learning through it. I don't think it's for the faint of heart.

[28:47]

C: Talking a little bit more about Missio's brand, you guys have a really strong brand, and you started from the get-go. You were like we're going out the gate looking awesome. So, can you talk a little bit more about that on how you guys developed your brand? And, how you prioritized certain things, because I think it is super important early on to make sure your message is clear and how you're presenting it is clear.

L: I began the process, we found a designer that we were really excited about working with after some exploratory calls. Then, I ended up beginning with her by telling stories and talking to her about this entire vision for probably three hours, and then, she began to put some words, some photo ideas, some vision to how to actually portray that through images, through colors through fonts. That was the coolest process ever. Then, what happened is we were sent a mood board and able to, for the very first time ever, through fonts and images recognize whether or not that was our brand and that was what Missio wanted to evoke. We went back and forth a couple of times, saying we're close here or definitely this picture, but not this. Or, what about switching out this color or this font? Which is such a creative process. It's probably one of my favorite things that we've been able to do because I had no idea what all went into this. But, through that process and through the fire of refining and targeting like really what is our brand, what is not our brand, we were able to come into the fullness of this brand that evokes hope, light, the stories, beauty, and is very human through a color palette, a set of fonts, and imagery. So, by the end of that process, we were given the playbook for what that looks like and when what fonts are used. Then, all of that played into the design for our packaging and our bottles or any of our collateral print material. We use it now in-house in order to make sure everything just really feels streamline for the professional element, but then, also for just the feeling that we want Missio to always evoke whenever someone encounters anything from our website to the bottles. So, I think that is a huge part of what you want to get right or as close to right as as possible up front because a rebrand is a big deal and that takes a lot of time, energy, and probably money later on. So, if you have the luxury of spending it up front, take the time and the resources to really put into making sure the brand is on it.

K: Yeah, I think you mentioned a lot about stories and hope. Missio really is an extension of just us. It really is in so many ways. Just the whole idea of being on mission together, which Missio is the Latin word for mission, but rather than more like the militant meaning, it has more of that redemptive meaning, which is an extension of who we are and who we hope to be, not only in the beauty industry, but beyond. So, you're going to see that it's who we are as a couple and as a company. We're a movement of people. Yes, there's the flowy hair, and the beauty, but there's also the grittiness of the cities. We want to capture more the authentic inner beauty. We want to capture the authentic life that we're all living and the journey that we're all on. You also see elements of the sea and the ocean. We live at the beach. We love the ocean. It reminds us of hope and life and healing. But, we also recognize the reality, the grittiness of humanity and the city; and so, we really wanted to capture both dynamics in our brand. I think we've been able to. It's still maturing. It's a dynamic, evolving thing, and we're really just happy to be on that journey and continue to see it unfold and people really embrace the multiple elements of our brand.

[33:46]

C: Moving on to how do you guys manage stress and fear? They are the two big things that often stop people from pursuing entrepreneurship, or once they pursue it, they realize it's too much, and they stop.

K: Well, I think you have to learn from people who've gone before you. I love hearing stories. I love listening to podcasts, and I think there's a perception of how business is and reality. I like listening to the reality, I'm encouraged when people say, "Oh this took me 15 years to get off the ground rather than sometimes you listen to a lot of the Silicon Valley stories of "Man, we start off with a seed round of a 100 million! And we haven't even made money yet, but we're now worth 500 million!" I think that that's kind of a perception of what all business is like, but the reality is most people just jump in and you just gotta take it one day at a time and one step at a time.

So you learn from a lot of people who've gone before you. For us, our faith is big.

I just kind of trust that, wow, God knows more than we do in this whole scenario and our job is just to trust and keep on going. So that's been a big element of from the courage thing, but honestly it's been very scary. It's been very hard. There are many sleepless nights. There are many knots in the stomach there. They are many moments when we wonder should just give up and be done with this or go find more of a comfortable way. I think we've just learned that it requires perseverance, and patience. With each other, we can really just cling onto one another, and to say, "Hey, let's keep on going. Let's fight through this. It might be slow now, but just around the corner, we never know. So, just kind of hold on to the hope and really just to the vision.

L: I think I have encouraged you with this, Catherine, now that I'm about to say it. But, it's important to know where we find our worth. What defines us? The truth of the matter is Missio has been a success, and it's been a beautiful thing. It's inspired people, and it's done something really amazing in the world already. If it was all done next week, is that truly a reflection on who I am as a person, or who he [Kyle] is as a person?

No! It was an amazing adventure that we were able to go on. So, I think having the No Fear mentality that actually our identity, our value is not made or broken by the quote unquote success of our business, what place we get to financially, or in light of others or the world, it's just really not. It allows you to just tackle it pretty boldly and say, "Well, you know what, I'm still great no matter what happens here. It's pretty awesome that we're putting it all out there and willing to go for it, but at the end of the day, this does not define me, who I am, or my value. It's a beautiful thing that we're stewarding forward for the season, and we'll see what happens. But, it might be we're on this plane for ten more years. Great. There might be another story. Great. There will always be something that in a way we're called to contribute value to the world, regardless of if it's on this boat or another one.

[37:22]

C: Yeah, that's definitely something that you encouraged me with and right in the time that I needed it too. We're almost done. Kyle, I know you have to go get, Regan [Their youngest daughter]. What is your biggest piece of advice for a young entrepreneur?

K: I think I already alluded to it a couple of times. There is no such thing as overnight success. I really love when people say, "You're going to be an overnight success after 10 years" because I think that really puts it into perspective. I really think that there's always so much more work - so many more things that go on beneath the surface before you actually see the fruits. So, I would say just really understand that. Understand that, gosh, it's a marathon. That leads to my second bit of advice which is if you are going to jump into something like this, if you're a risk-taker, a creator, it's just going to take a lot of patience and a lot of persistence. I think I've heard that from so many different types of business people and entrepreneurs over the years, regardless of whether they're dealing with investments on the global level, or a coffee shop on the corner, you gotta be patient, you just gotta keep on going. And of course, yeah, there might be times when it's time to shut it down or cut losses, and I completely understand that, but you know if you have another step to take, if you really can continue to see that vision, you just gotta keep on going towards it even when everything else is telling you, "no." So, the patience and persistence are absolutely key.

L: Yeah, and with that, the mindset of being willing to play the long game. It's important for whatever you're taking on, or you're diving into because of the level of commitment and patience and persistence it takes. It needs to be the thing that you're not just excited about doing for the next six months or the next year. It needs to be the thing that you're like, "You know what, I know that in three years or five years or 10 years, I would still be so excited and so passionate about every element of this." If you're not, it's probably good to kind of go back to the drawing board and reconsider like, Alright, what is my true level of commitment? Because it may put it back into the hobby category, or it may move things around in your life a little bit. But, we both knew when we said yes to this that it was something that was valuable enough and we felt committed enough to see ourselves still doing it and growing it in a couple of years.

[40:02]

C: And then, book recommendations, what do you recommend that we read?

K: So I think right now we're still being really inspired because it's just the niche of Missio really the "who" of our audience. I love the book. Tribes by Seth Goden That's been a really cool one. Go check it out. I've also said this a couple of times. I love stories. I love hearing from people who've been there and done that. So, actually, on my favorite recent ones that I've read has been out for a while. It's Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. He's the founder of Nike. It's neat to hear how many years it really took for him to go out there and create arguably the most famous shoe brand, or really any brand in general, of all time. Just the story, the ins and outs, the persistence, the, gosh, how many times he was on the brink of failure, and he just kept on going. So, those are my two right now.

L: I'm looking at my Audible. Because the reality of my life is that I don't read books. I listened to them with how busy we are. But, one that I would say that was really pivotal for me is called High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. There is just so much goodness in there. I feel like anybody could marinate on that for a long time. Another one that I have is The E-myth by Michael Gerber. He talks about just the different levels of basically you are like a manager, or a visionary, or an operational-details type person, but it's very tricky to be all three, and every business needs all three. I'm probably butchering it. Go read the book if you really want the value in it. However, the quick synopsis is it's a very good resource for just understanding the needs of the role that you have to carry top to bottom, details to big picture in a business, and then how to actually grow something really well when it comes to roles when it comes to hiring, so I've really enjoyed that. I really love Rachel Hollis, and she's just become like a fun kind of life and business coach in my mind. I love her podcast and just listen to Girl Stop Apologizing Another that's been really inspirational for me in terms of this bravery and courage, Jessica Honeggar just wrote a book and released it called Imperfect Courage. It basically talks about the way she did a lot of what she did (which was Noonday Collection with employing artisans in underdeveloped countries in order to create all sorts of accessories, jewelry, etc.). She built this huge business basically going scared - having this courage that was imperfect, being willing to embrace the things that, yeah, you might be afraid of, and that might not be perfect the first time, and just go for it. So, reading her story was one that spoke a lot to me and encouraged me in a lot of different senses as well.

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