All
featured
Lifestyle
Technology
Women in STEM
Careers
Science
Business
Finance
Arts and Design
Entertainment
Government
Sports
woman-owned
Disability
Uncategorized
Advocacy
music
LGBTQ
Health
Activists
Inclusion
Education
Stories
In Memoriam
Authors
#stopasianhate
Mentoring
Events

Joanna Gaines: Achieving a Work-Life Balance

BusinessCareers

By Mackenna Cummings

Joanna Gaines is proof that finding the balance between nurturing a healthy, loving family and maintaining a powerful career is not only possible, but well worth it.

Somehow, she makes it all look easy, even though we know it’s not. She refers to herself this way: “Wife. Mom. Renovator. Designer. Shop owner. Homebody.” Most of us know her from her five-year run on the HGTV show Fixer Upper, which wrapped up filming in 2018. The show was an instant hit, and she and her husband, Chip, became household names and virtual friends to millions of Americans who enthusiastically tuned in every week—and who continue to catch daily reruns of the hit show.

These days, fans are also watching her spin-off series, Fixer Upper: Behind the Design. Now in its second season, the series features Joanna giving the stories behind her work bringing details and designs together for her season 5 Fixer Upper clients. She unveils surprises we didn’t see in the original episodes and gives us a peek at never-before-seen renovations. It seems we just can’t get enough of Joanna Gaines.

Big Business

She’s the author of At Home: A Blog by Joanna Gaines, as well as editor-in-chief of and regular contributor to The Magnolia Journal, her magazine that debuted in fall 2016. She’s also written numerous books on cooking, design and more, the latest of which is We Are Gardeners, a children’s book she coauthored with her children. Last fall, she completed her third collaboration on the charming children’s clothing line, Matilda Jane Clothing with Joanna Gaines. And she lives on a fully operating Texas farm, raising five young children with her husband.

Chip mugs for the camera on the sidewalk outside the ground-floor studio of the TODAY show during Joanna’s November 2018 interview.

Together, Joanna and Chip own the construction and design company Magnolia Homes, the basis for their hit show; a restaurant, Magnolia Table; a children’s furniture store, Magnolia Kids; Magnolia Realty, which serves various cities across Texas; their magazine, The Magnolia Journal; and the Magnolia Market, located in the renovated Magnolia Silos in Waco (and online at magnolia.com). They also created the popular Hearth and Hand line of home and lifestyle goods, which can be found in Target stores across the country.

The Road Back to TV?

But in one of the most significant entries in Joanna’s planner has to be her recently announced plan to return to television. In November, Joanna and Chip broke the news on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that they are working on a deal to get back on the small screen, and their spokesman John Marsicano confirmed the news to PEOPLE. “We’re excited to share that we are currently in the early stages of talking with Discovery about a lifestyle-focused media network for Magnolia,” Marsicano reported. “The details surrounding this opportunity remain a work in progress, but together, our hope is to build a different kind of platform for unique, inspiring and family-friendly content.” The two aren’t drifting too far from their original television home—Discovery Inc., also owns HGTV, so the new venture would part of the same family of networks.

Living Beyond Dreams

Why are people so hungry for more of Joanna Gaines? Because she’s the real deal—her humility and

Al Roker and the Gaines' — Chip Gaines, Al Roker and Joanna Gaines in April 2018

gratitude toward all she’s built comes through to her viewers and readers, and audiences connect to her in a way that makes them consider her a friend, not just a celebrity. She puts her heart and soul into everything she does, and it shows. Fans feel her love for her clients, her family, and every one of her business ventures. She’s comforting, calm, in control—and she is proof to other women that they can be, also.

“This entire business idea was born completely out of a dream I didn’t know could ever come to life,” Joanna said on magnolia.com. “It’s truly only because a fiercely faithful, brave, and bold husband pushed me to pursue my dream that it ever came to be.” It’s clear that Joanna and Chip are a team that shares every project, every challenge, and every victory.

Finding the Balance

But really—how does the mom of five manage to do it all? Joanna has, over the years, revealed tips that have helped her triumph as a mother and businesswoman. Some of those tips were assembled by the Money & Career department of the lifestyle website CheatSheet®:

Don’t make being a mother and an entrepreneur separate roles. She finds ways to incorporate her children into her work, taking their suggestions on paint colors and even having them travel with her and her husband on work trips.

Be all in. To find success in both work and family, she says, you have to give everything you have to both. When she’s at work, she is all in, and when she’s home with her family, she’s all in there, too.

The Gardeners Book — Joanna Gaines’ newest book, We Are The Gardeners

Family is first. While her projects get 100 percent of her effort while she’s working on them, she’s adamant that family will always come before business. “The balance thing is hard because at first, that’s what I was trying to do, and I was kind of going crazy because at the end of the day, it’s hard to really balance anything,” she said.

Balance tasks to prevent life becoming all work and no play. Joanna believes her family’s outdoor hobbies bring a great balance to their busy work days. She gardens and raises livestock, and her children are an integral part of these hobbies, allowing the whole family to unwind and bond together.

Know that while being away from your kids is difficult, you’re teaching them by working hard. She’s satisfied with the example she’s setting for her children, teaching them the value of hard work and what it takes to succeed. “I explain that I have to work, just like they have to go to school,” she says.

Know your strengths and delegate duties to others on your team. It’s wise to rely on your support system for help in areas that aren’t your specialty. It relieves stress, even with something as small as accepting that Chip is best at swaddling and rocking their kids to sleep.

When one door closes another one opens. While the Magnolia Market was in fact Joann’s original dream, she was forced, early on, to close her beloved shop so the couple could refocus their goals on their realty company, Magnolia Homes. The success of Magnolia Homes and other enterprises led to the reopening of Magnolia Market on a much larger scale. In the same way, their decision to end their successful show Fixer Upper was reaffirmed when they discovered they were expecting baby number five, and that decision has now allowed them to consider even bigger ventures. Scaling back, changing course, or redefining a dream—it’s all part of the journey for Joanna.

Living With Purpose

Her journey began in Wichita, Kansas, where she was born before moving to Texas with her Korean mother and her Lebanese/German father. As a child, she was bullied for looking different from her classmates, which led first to confusion and then to insecurity. She earned a degree in communications from Baylor University’s Baylor Communication in New York but still wrestled with the doubts and fears that filled her childhood. Approaching her college graduation, she says she “had a revelation” to embrace her strong Christian faith and let it guide her to help other women who may have struggled as she did. “While I was in New York, I really felt like God was telling me that I would be able to help women who weren’t confident, who were looking for guidance, or who were lonely,” she told the magazine Darling. She just knew that her own pain would give her the tools to help those women who were hurting, because “I had felt that pain myself.”

From a place of wanting to help others, Joanna Gaines found success beyond her wildest imagination—proof you can choose to do it all and do it all well. Inspiring people to pursue their own dreams is still an important part of her life’s purpose. “The key to everything Chip and I have learned in our life together so far seems to be pretty simple: Go and find what it is that inspires you, go and find what it is that you love, and go do that until it hurts.”

Look for Professional WOMAN’s Magazine’s spring digital issue, featuring Joanna & Chip Gaines, live on March 15th!

Meet Afro-Latina Scientist Dr. Jessica Esquivel

CareersLifestyleScienceWomen in STEM

By Erica Nahmad, Be Latina

It’s undeniable that representation matters and the idea of what a scientist could or should look like is changing, largely thanks to pioneers like Afro-Latina scientist Dr. Jessica Esquivel, who is breaking barriers for women in STEM one step at a time.

Dr. Esquivel isn’t just extraordinary because of what she is capable of as an Afro-Latina astrophysicist — she’s also extraordinary in her vulnerability and relatability. She’s on a mission to break barriers in science and to show the humanity behind scientists.

Dr. Esquivel makes science accessible to everyone, no matter what you look like or where you come from. As one of the only Afro-Latina scientists in her field, and one of the only women who looked like her to pursue a Ph.D. in physics, Dr. Esquivel knows a thing or two about the importance of representation, especially in STEM fields and science labs.

Women make up only 28% of the science, technology, engineering, and math workforce in the U.S. Those disparities are even more severe when you start to look at minority populations.

“When you start looking at the intersections of race and gender and then even sexuality, those numbers drop significantly,” Esquivel told CBS Chicago. “There are only about 100 to 150 black women with their Ph.D. in physics in the country!”

Fighting against the isolation of uniqueness
Dr. Jessica Esquivel recalls being a nontraditional student and being “the only” when she entered graduate school for physics — the only woman in her class, the only Black, the only Mexican, the only lesbian — and all of that made her feel very isolated.

“On top of such rigorous material, the isolation and otherness that happens due to being the only or one of few is an added burden marginalized people, especially those with multiple marginalized identities, have to deal with,” Dr. Esquivel told BeLatina in an email interview. On top of feeling like an outsider, isolation was also consuming. “Being away from family at a predominately white institution, where the number of microaggressions was constant, really affected my mental health and, in turn, my coursework and research, so it was important to surround myself with mentors who supported me and believed in my ability to be a scientist.”

While she anticipated that the physics curriculum would be incredibly challenging, she was definitely not prepared for how hard the rest of the experience would be and how it would impact her as a student and a scientist.

The challenges she faced professionally and personally made her realize early on just how crucial representation is in academia and all fields, but especially in STEM. “It was really impactful for me to learn that there were other Black women who had made it out of the grad school metaphorical trenches. It’s absolutely important to create inclusive spaces where marginalized people, including Black, Latina, and genderqueer people, can thrive,” she said.

“The secrets of our universe don’t discriminate, these secrets can and should be unraveled by all those who wish to embark on that journey, and my aim is to clear as many barriers and leave these physics spaces better than I entered them.”

When inclusion and equal opportunities are the ultimate goal
Dr. Jessica Esquivel isn’t just dedicating her time and energy to studying complex scientific concepts — think quantum entanglement, space-time fabric, the building blocks of the universe… some seriously abstract physics concepts straight out of a sci-fi movie, as she explains. On top of her research, she put in so much extra work to show people, especially younger generations of women of color, that the physics and STEM world is not some old white man’s club where this prestigious knowledge is only available to them. Dr. Esquivel is an expert in her field; she knows things that no one else currently knows and has the ability and the power to transfer that knowledge to others and pass it down to others. There is a place for everyone, including people who look like her, in the STEM world, and she’s on a mission to inspire others while working to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in the STEM space.

“Many of us who are underrepresented in STEM have taken on the responsibility of spearheading institutional change toward more just, equitable, and inclusive working environments as a form of survival,” she explains. “I’m putting in more work on top of the research I do because I recognize that I do better research if I feel supported and if I feel like I can bring my whole self to my job. My hope is that one day Black and brown women and gender-queer folks interested in science can pursue just that and not have to fight for their right to be a scientist or defend that they are worthy of doing science.”

Click here to read the full article on Be Latina.

Beverly Malbranche of Caribbrew Honors Her Homeland of Haiti Through Her Coffee Brand

BusinessLifestyle

Beverly Malbranche wearing a yellow shirt and smiling at the camera

By Nashia Baker, Martha Stewart

Both personally and professionally, Beverly Malbranche has always wanted to make an impact in the world and honor her homeland along the way. To meld the two, she decided to open Caribbrew, her Black-owned and woman-founded Haitian coffee brand. “Once I realized that we used to be a major coffee producer, I felt challenged to revive this lost history and create opportunities through it,” she recalls, noting that she launched the business, based in Passaic, New Jersey, in November 2018.

“I decided to create my own business in order to have more impact and to use my creativity and determination to offer a positive image of Haiti,” she says. “I also wanted to share our gastronomy with the world in some form or shape.” Ahead, Malbranche shares how she took her desire for personal fulfillment and meaningful opportunity and channeled them into her work—and ultimately developed a thriving coffee business that is also a tribute to Haiti.

Increasing Brand Awareness

Malbranche opened her business with $1,000 and built it from the ground up. She turned to Facebook and Instagram to get her company up and running. Through these platforms, she discovered other small businesses and began to learn from them—and started networking offline to build her business, as well. She attended local pop-up shops to continue getting Caribbrew’s name out there, and gained business champions and her first customers as a result.

Producing the Coffee

Caribbrew offers an array of products, but is best known for shade-grown, chemical-free, premium coffee. Malbranche prioritized process when she first started production: Haitian farmers handpick the Arabica beans, which are then roasted in small batches. For those who can’t go without their morning cup of joe, you can shop options like the Caribbrew Dark Roast Premium Haitian Coffee ($15.50, caribbrew.com); it is characterized by its dark, aromatic, heavy-bodied flavor profile. Or, try Caribbrew Medium Roast Kcups ($22, caribbrew.com), made specifically with beans from Thiotte, a mountainous town in the south of Haiti (this roast has hints of chocolate).

“Haitian beans tend to be nutty and mellow in acidity,” Malbranche explains. “[The medium and dark roasts] are both smooth, and while you can taste the nuttiness more in our medium roast, the dark roast has notes of dark caramel and a bit of chocolate.”

Her company’s offerings go beyond coffee, too. Skin care enthusiasts can snag the Coconut Latte Body Butter ($25, caribbrew.com), a Haitian coffee-infused, full body treatment that can reduce stretch marks and cellulite; the Mango Mandarin Haitian Coffee Scrub ($15, caribbrew.com) which exfoliates and decreases facial inflammation, thanks to green coffee properties; and other beauty products, teas, and chocolates from the line.

Brewing with Inspiration

Malbranche’s mission is simple: “I want to create more transparency on the coffee supply chain and create a space for coffee originating from the Caribbean—starting with Haiti,” she says. “I also want to support the ongoing efforts to see more Black- and women-owned businesses in the industry.” As for her customers? She wants them to enjoy exploring her brand and “savor each cup—and also connect with the folks who grow the beans.”

While the entrepreneur has her sights on new goals (the team just launched Caribbrew nationwide via Sprouts Farmers Market and aims to get the brand in more retail locations soon), she has one crucial piece of advice for fellow business owners who are striving for something more. “Give yourself grace and take it one step a time,” she explains. “It’s good to create a roadmap for the vision that you have. That will help you eliminate some activities that do not align with your goals, so you can focus on what matters.”

Click here to read the full article on Martha Stewart.

US Black business ownership sees rise thanks to women, study finds

BusinessCareers

By Gloria Oladipo, The Guardian

Black business ownership is surging in the US despite the coronavirus pandemic, research shows, with a rise in businesses owned by Black women.

At the start of the pandemic, Black-owned businesses suffered. Between February and April 2020, Black business ownership dropped by more than 40%, the largest drop of any racial or ethnic group, according to a report from the House committee on small business.

When government aid became available, Black business owners received fewer small business grants than white business owners, with paycheck protection program funds only reaching 29% of Black applicants versus 60% of white ones.

But according to research from University of California Santa Cruz economist Robert W Fairlie, Black business ownership is now up by almost 30% on pre-pandemic levels.

The Biden administration has said a record number of people are starting their own businesses. Women of color are the fastest-growing group of female entrepreneurs.

“At a time when folks are rethinking their lives and choices, it is not surprising that more Black women are electing to become CEOs of their own companies rather than waiting for their intelligence and skills to be recognized at their current firms,” Melissa Bradley, founder of 1863 Ventures, an agency for Black and brown entrepreneurs, told Business Insider.

Pandemic layoffs could be another factor in the rise of Black business ownership. Job insecurity caused by Covid-related restrictions prompted many people to explore alternative options, including starting businesses.

Diamonte Walker, deputy executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, told the Pittsburg Post-Gazette: “Being beholden to corporations and institutions just doesn’t feel like a safe bet in times of uncertainty, whereas the risk of starting a business now starts to feel a lot less than the risk of sitting on a job not knowing when your number is coming up.”

Experts say the emergence of female Black business owners could be explained by Black women wanting more control over their work life.

Millions left their jobs during the pandemic due to inadequate pay, lack of childcare options and debates about remote work, all compounded by systematically low pay and workplace discrimination.

“If you start your own business, some of those obstacles may not be as acute as if you were relying on employment from someone else,” the Wells Fargo chief economist, Jay H Bryson, told Insider.

“There may be avenues that certainly benefit anybody, but proportionally they’d be more beneficial to the Black community than other parts of the population.”

Click here to read the full article on The Guardian.

3 Strategies Female Founders of Color Can Use to Secure Funding

BusinessCareers

two females looking at a laptop screen together

By Xintian Tina Wang, Inc.com

Black and Latina women founders received only 0.43 percent of the $166 billion in VC funding dished out to startups in 2020. That’s according to ProjectDiane, a biennial report on the state of Black women and Latina founders by the organization DigitalUndivided.

Two women who are beating the odds are Kelly Ifill, the founder and CEO of Guava, a neo-bank and community platform designed to serve Black entrepreneurs and small-business owners, and Evelyn Rusli, an angel investor and the co-founder and president of baby food brand Yumi. The two sat down with All the Hats editor Teneshia Carr to talk about the best strategies for overcoming the hurdles to getting funding as a female founder of color. Here are three that stand out.

1. Be prepared to hear ‘no’ and keep pitching.
Rusli says she receives probably hundreds of rejections when pitching to investors, but encourages founders to stay positive nevertheless. “I think you have to pitch a lot of investors in the beginning, where not everyone is going to say yes. In fact, you’re going to get many nos,” says Rusli. “For every no out there, there is a yes. If you believe so strongly in your vision and that’s why you took the leap, then you just have to continue to knock on those doors and try to find the angles.”

Ifill agrees and suggests that pitching is a numbers game — by pitching more, you’ll come to understand what resonates with investors best. “Some investors will give you feedback, so you can scrap from your pitch what’s not working and what you need to double click on,” she says.

2. Find a compelling story.
Practice telling your pitch story to get it right and tight. Investors are humans, and they respond to stories that have humane aspects.

“We don’t pay attention to the storytelling aspect of the pitches enough,” says Ifill. “Try to tell stories of the lived experience of people that you’re trying to change or an industry problem that you’re trying to solve. I find that’s [led to] the most successful moments that I have had with investors.”

3. Leverage your network to find the right investor
LinkedIn can be your go-to platform to get to know people in your industry. Rusli urges being unafraid to cold call people you don’t know. “People reach out less than you think they do in general. If an investor finds your subject line interesting, they might just respond.”

Click here to read the full article on Inc.com.

How 3 Black Women Entrepreneurs Achieved Industry Firsts

BusinessCareers

Black women entrepreneur Tiffany Mason, founder of Harlem Pilates.

By Rebecca Deczynski, INC.com

Someone always has to go first–but occupying that role isn’t necessarily easy.

While Black women are the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the United States, they remain underrepresented in many industries. And especially when it comes to securing capital, a lack of previous representation in an industry can be a barrier.

“During the time I was building my business, I was generating tons of money, but I just couldn’t get funded,” says Robin Wilson, founder of home textile brand Clean Design Home (originally called Robin Wilson Home). “I remember going to a seed capital group and showing how successful my business was, and a woman said, ‘I don’t know any brands like yours–I’m not trying to be racist or anything.’ I said, ‘I can’t really unzip myself and become something I’m not.’ So I was out.” After years of bootstrapping, Wilson became the first Black American female founder of a global, licensed hypoallergenic textile brand, and now has several successful companies under her holding company, A Blue Egg Corporation.

Wilson is just one example of the Black women entrepreneurs succeeding in spite of systemic barriers. Inc. spoke with her and two others to find out their best takeaways for strategizing, connecting with investors who get you, and achieving “firsts” in their respective industries.

Make the connections you can
By day, Rada Griffin is a senior software engineer for NASA, working on a project that will send the first woman to the moon in 2024. But in her off hours, she’s the owner of Anissa Wakefield Wines and Alabama’s first certified Black female winemaker. In 2006, the Huntsville, Alabama-based entrepreneur started a catering business on the side and quickly developed an interest in wine. “Back then, you really had to know someone in the winemaking business to get some insight about it,” she says. After years of self-study, she launched her business in 2017, releasing her first vintage of wine the following year. She became a certified winemaker in 2021, after she completed an online program through Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration.

Of the more than 8,000 wineries in the United States, about one-10th of 1 percent are Black-owned, Phil Long, president of the Association of African American Vintners, told Bloomberg in 2020. Finding people who are open-minded to diversity and inclusion, Griffin says, has been key to her success. She connected with a few other Black women winemakers working in Napa, where she produces her wine. “I’ve come across some really, really great people who have kind of taken me under their wing,” she says. “If you don’t reach out to people, if you don’t go talk to people and understand what it is that you’re doing or what you need to do better, you’ll keep making the same mistakes.” Griffin says that the support she’s gained from her network has made all the difference–she turns to her fellow winemakers for advice and inspiration.

Turn “no” into a learning opportunity
Tiffany Mason, founder of Harlem Pilates–the first Pilates studio in Harlem–recently won a $30,000 grant from Squarespace to put toward her business. But fundraising previously wasn’t easy. For that reason, she bootstrapped her business, running lessons from her apartment for about two years before she started looking for a brick-and-mortar space in 2019. After approaching a few banks, she got approved for a small personal loan, which allowed her to take the next step in opening her business.

“I got a lot of noes,” she says. “Eventually, you understand that noes are feedback to help you get better. It’s important to take those responses and learn how to refine your messaging.” On her part, Mason says that early noes taught her to become more confident in her pitch, being “loud and proud” about owning the only Pilates studio in her neighborhood. While trying to secure her initial bank loan, Mason says that she took a more passive approach, and didn’t really emphasize how significant her business was for her neighborhood; when she applied for Squarespace’s grant, she went in the opposite direction–to great success.

Understand the power of branding
Wilson started her career in the corporate world at the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. When the company went public in 1999, she gained the financial opportunity to pursue her real passion–so, she went to NYU to get her master’s in real estate finance and launched her business, Robin Wilson Home. Over the years, she’s faced ups and downs, and particularly had a hard time garnering VC interest. “As a woman and a person of color, there’s real fiscal inequality,” she says.

But in the summer of 2020, she saw sales of her 2015 book Clean Design tick up, amid increased calls to support Black-owned businesses. Around that time, she had a conversation with an old business school professor, who advised her to change the name of her business to help expand her appeal.

Click here to read the full article on Inc. Com.

SkyPoint FCU Closes $7 Million Investment from the U.S. Treasury’s Emergency Capital Investment Program

BusinessFinance

SkyPoint Federal Credit Union (SkyPoint), a premier, member-owned financial institution, has recently closed on a $7 million investment as part of the U.S. Treasury’s new Emergency Capital Investment Program (ECIP). This investment increased SkyPoint’s net worth which will allow for growth and expansion of their lending portfolio.

The ECIP initiative is designed to provide access to capital for communities, businesses, and individuals traditionally excluded from the financial system, particularly those that have struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic. SkyPoint will use the funds to provide financial products for small and minority-owned businesses and consumers in low-income and underserved communities. The credit union already has a long history with members in this demographic.

“We’re very proud to be selected for this program that looks to address some of the long-standing inequities in our financial system,” said Jim Norris, CEO of SkyPoint. “SkyPoint has always been focused on helping underserved communities, and this investment will give us a solid foundation to expand our services and help more people.”

SkyPoint is evaluating ways to broaden its portfolio of lending programs to communities most impacted by the COVID pandemic. The credit union is also planning to add business accounts and lending programs this year that will complement its financial service offerings for consumers.

“We know with higher prices for almost everything, families can be worried about making big investments like a car or a home. And entrepreneurs may be nervous about starting or expanding their businesses,” explained Norris. “As part of the ECIP, we’re well-positioned to give families and companies access to the capital they need, especially groups that historically were not able to easily receive funding.”

Over the long term, the funds will also help SkyPoint grow and continue its role of helping foster financial opportunities and inclusion in low-income and traditionally underserved communities.

About SkyPoint Federal Credit Union (SkyPoint)

SkyPoint is one of the premier financial institutions serving Montgomery County, MD; Frederick County, MD; Arlington County, VA; Alexandria and Falls Church, VA; and the District of Columbia. SkyPoint is a Community Development Financial Institution and a designated Juntos Avanzamos credit union. To learn more, visit www.skypointfcu.com

Meet The Latina Founders Of A Specialty Coffee Company Dedicated To Celebrating Latin American Heritage

BusinessLifestyle

Casa Dos Chicas Café Founders Ana Ocansey-Jimenez and Oneida Franco

By Girl Talk HQ

For all of us coffee drinkers, we’re used to getting up in the morning, reaching for our favorite mug, and pouring ourselves a cup of joe without giving a second thought to where our grinds originated from. We need the caffeine to kickstart our day, and then we’re on our way!

But what if we told you there was a brand of coffee that takes great care to share with its customers where the coffee is sourced from and how it is made, making it part of their brand identity? That brand is Casa Dos Chicas Café, founded by accountants and mothers Ana Ocansey-Jimenez and Oneida Franco.

These two finance experts turned coffee connoisseurs have added “Entrepreneur” to their list of powerful titles as the founders of Casa Dos Chicas Café, a brand of The Whole Kitchen, which was also founded by the Latina duo.

Casa Dos Chicas Café offers organic, single-origin, specialty coffees sourced mainly from small, family-owned farms or multi-family cooperatives across Latin America and the Caribbean including the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia, and Peru. Through Casa Dos Chicas Café, they are dedicated to celebrating Latin American heritage while promoting equitable, sustainable practices along the entire coffee supply chain.

We loved the sound of this company (and it made us immediately want to drink a good cup of coffee!) so we had the chance to speak with both Oneida and Ana about the origins of the business, how they are working to lift other Latinas in the business world, and why representation is important to them.

How did you two first meet and decide to go on this entrepreneurship journey together?

We met in New York City while working together in corporate accounting. We hit it off and quickly became friends! Soon enough we began a tradition of drinking Cuban cafecito in the breakroom during the afternoons which continued for the next 4.5 years.

We decided to embark on this entrepreneurship journey when we saw how we could impact people’s lives while fulfilling our own. Ana put our first financial model together and we said “Let’s do this!”

Can you tell us where the idea for Casa Dos Chicas Café came from, and where your love of coffee originated?

The idea of Casa Dos Chicas Café was nurtured through the building of our friendship, sharing our cultures through foods, and drinking cafecito during our time at work. We even purchased an electric greca/moka pot to make the afternoon brews, which we still have and will soon be framed.

We went our separate ways as we continued to develop our careers but stayed in touch. We would continue to see each other often for lunch and would of course enjoy our coffee and dream of the future. The love of coffee came from our families tradition, we have countless stories that our Dominican and Mexican parents shared with us and we now share with each other.

Ana had been taking different coffee courses and learning as much about specialty coffee as possible. Through that we made great connections with people throughout the supply chain. We saw the inequalities throughout it and decided we wanted to influence and do our part. This along with showing people how the third wave of coffee is changing the coffee scene, we saw a gap where we could educate on what specialty coffee is, why it is special, and how they too can have it and enjoy it.

This new venture is part of The Whole Kitchen brand. Why is expansion important to your business, and why should all entrepreneurs keep expansion in mind as they climb the ladder of success?

The Whole Kitchen is the mother company and it was a concept that Oneida had been developing since her daughter was 2. We loved it!

Change is good and growth is natural. It is not easy, but it is important to always strive to grow and expand because if not the business will begin to fizzle and can die. Growth does not necessarily mean just the revenue line, it comes in various places, from impact, knowledge, the service getting better towards the customer, using technology better. There is always room to grow.

We were only able to host one The Whole Kitchen event because COVID hit. We had to hold and that is when our focus shifted in launching Casa Dos Chicas Café as a brand of TWK. Expansion is important, but knowing when to pivot if something is not quite going as planned with what you are doing is vital. Planning ahead and having a vision is imperative. What are some of the cultural traditions you are both bringing to CDCC and excited to share with customers?

We have many things brewing (pun intended)! One of them is bringing back traditional Latin American ways to prepare coffee – of course you will see Mexico and Dominican Republic first. We partnered with Colamo Café, an artist from DR that makes the most beautiful traditional cafeteras. We will have our collaboration for sale soon on our site.
Through our work and offerings, we are highlighting at-home coffee preparation methods and the attentive cultural traditions that our mothers, tias (aunts), and grandmothers taught us when it comes to serving our guests. We are bringing back the moment of simply pausing during the afternoon while having a cup of coffee. The western culture often leaves us tired after a long day with no opportunity to simply sit down and have a conversation along with a cup of coffee.

Click here to read the full article on Girl Talk HQ.

Latina-Owned Candle Business Captures the Scents of Childhood

BusinessCareersLifestyle

By Génesis Miranda Miramontes, NBC Los Angeles

Who can forget the smell of a Saturday spent cleaning, as the sound of music blasted in the background: the smell that filled the air and made you get up knowing you would have to grab a broom and help out?

Or perhaps you recall the smell of hot chocolate and pan dulce as you sat around the table hearing your comadre’s latest chisme.

What if you can relive those memories by lighting a candle in your room? While you fold that pile of laundry you’ve been putting off.

Marcella Gomez, a mother, nurse and cancer survivor from Downey is the founder of Oh Comadre Candles, a Latina-owned business that quite literally captures those memories in a candle.

“Oh Comadre Candles celebrate life through a Latina’s eye. The candles are intended to evoke emotion, comfort, memory, or even a laugh,” Gomez said.

Gomez started her business online in 2014 as a form of therapy, and time away from the nursing job she had at the time. It was a way for her to disconnect from the stress of a work day and help distract her, she explains.

In October of 2020, Gomez was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has since received treatment and has been in remission.

She says she would like her story to be an example of the importance of taking care of your health and seeing your doctor.

“Take care of yourself like we take care of others,” Gomez said. “If your best friend told you they found a lump, you would drop everything and help your good friend seek medical attention. Why not do the same for yourself?”

Since starting her business, Gomez has gained over 76,000 followers on Instagram and has recently opened her first storefront in Downey a couple of months ago.

“I have nothing but gratitude for anyone taking the time to walk through our door. It’s an awesome feeling that any small business can relate,” Gomez said. “I couldn’t believe the amount of support the shop recieved. I still can’t believe it. Someone please pinch me.”

Gomez says it was a long process to find the right formula for her candles. Then in 2016 she received her first online order.

“I could not believe someone purchased it from me. I thought it was a joke because the order came on my birthday. Fortunately, it was the first of many orders to come,” Gomez said.

Most Latinos can relate to the scents of Fabuloso, Vaporub, Pan Dulce, Abuelita Hot Chocolate, Horchata, and even Jabon Zote.

These are the scents of childhood and the day to day that bring happiness and can now be enjoyed in your sala.

Click here to read the full article on NBC Los Angeles.

Rihanna is now worth $1.4 billion–making her America’s youngest self made billionaire woman

BusinessEntertainmentwoman-owned

Rihanna on the cover of Professional Woman's Magazine. Rihanna attends a Fenty event in February 2020 in an orange turtle neck. she is now america's youngest female self made billionaire.

By Megan Sauer, CNBC

The youngest self-made billionaire woman in the U.S. didn’t grow up in a Manhattan high rise or the Hollywood Hills. Instead, Rihanna amassed her fortune from her own music and entrepreneurial ventures.

Recently, the 34-year-old singer and Fenty Beauty CEO graced Forbes’ annual list of America’s richest self-made women for the third year in a row. She ranked 21st overall, and is the list’s only billionaire under age 40. Some of Rihanna’s $1.4 billion net worth is from her successful music career. Most of it is from her three retail companies: Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin and Savage X Fenty.

In March, Bloomberg reported Savage X Fenty lingerie was working with advisors on an IPO that could potentially be valued at $3 billion. Rihanna owns 30% of that company. She also owns half of Fenty Beauty, which generated $550 million in revenue in 2020. The other half of the company is owned by French luxury fashion conglomerate LVMH.

The numbers are impressive, but Rihanna has said that her focus isn’t on valuations and accolades. In 2019, she told The New York Times’ T Magazine that because she never planned on making a fortune, reaching financial milestones was “not going to stop me from working.”

The nine-time Grammy Award winner also said she wants to give that money away to causes that matter, anyway. “My money is not for me; it’s always the thought that I can help someone else,” she said. “The world can really make you believe that the wrong things are priority, and it makes you really miss the core of life, what it means to be alive.”

In 2012, Rihanna started a philanthropy fund, the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF). It aims to “support and fund groundbreaking education and climate resilience initiatives,” according to its website.

One of its first initiatives, which launched a year after the foundation began, raised $60 million for women and children affected by HIV/AIDS through sales from the singer’s lipstick line with MAC Cosmetics. And in January, CLF paired up with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s #SmartSmall initiative to donate a combined $15 million to 18 different climate justice groups.

That money is meant for organizations “focused on and led by women, youth, Black, Indigenous, people of color and LGBTQIA+ communities” in the U.S. and Caribbean, according to CLF’s website.

“At the [CLF], much of the work is rooted in the understanding that climate disasters, which are growing in frequency and intensity, do not impact all communities equally, with communities of color and island nations facing the brunt of climate change,” Rihanna said in a January statement.

Click here to read the full article on CNBC.

Soccer Star Carson Pickett First USWNT Player With Limb Difference

CareersDisabilitySports

Pro soccer player Carson Pickett on the field in her uniform

By TMZ

Pro soccer player Carson Pickett made history on Tuesday … becoming the first player with a limb difference to hit the pitch for the United States women’s national team.

Pickett — who was born without a left hand and forearm — started for the USWNT in its 2-0 victory over Colombia … as the Red, White and Blue extended their home win streak to 69 games.

The 28-year-old defender — who plays for the NWSL’s North Carolina Courage — competed in the entire contest against Colombia.

Pickett’s coach, Vlatko Andonovski, spoke about her spot on the team … saying, “Carson did very well in training for us in last week and with the management of minutes for Emily Fox that we had, we felt like Carson would be a good replacement.”

“I’m happy that she was able to perform well for 90 minutes,” he added.

Pickett has been very open and transparent about her limb difference … acknowledging it publicly, but also embracing the reality of her situation.

In April — Limb Loss and Limb Difference Awareness month — Pickett spoke about it in an Instagram post, “While I know that I am confident and comfortable with showing my arm, I know there are so many people in the world who aren’t.”

She continued … “The feeling of being different and the anxiety of not fitting in is something that I have been through. Wearing sweatshirts in the dead heat of summer to hide my arm. This month is really really special, important, and should be celebrated.”

“I hope to encourage anyone who struggles with their limb difference to not be ashamed of who they are. I want to be an advocate for others like me, and for the longest time I didn’t use my platform well enough.”

Click here to read the full article on TMZ.