How She Does It

There’s been a major shift in the fashion industry over the past few years, with a noticeable shift away from Fast Fashion. H&M, once a stock market darling, is now well below 50% of its all-time high. This, in no small part, comes from the concern over the waste emanating from the fast fashion pieces that now fill our landfills.Jensen Neff and Ellie Chen found out just how much fabric goes to waste in the fashion industry (14 million pounds of fabric daily, to be exact) and created their sustainably sourced clothing brand Oddli as their senior capstone project at Stanford. Fast forward to today, they’ve grown into a multi-million dollar profitable brand. Listen in to hear how they used social media to build a following from the start, and their best advice for other young female founders.Takeaways:  The fashion industry is shifting away from fast fashion and embracing second-hand retail due to concerns over waste. Oddli was founded by Jensen Neff and Ellie Chen, who met at Stanford University and shared a passion for creating ethically sourced clothing that promotes community connection. Oddli sources excess fabric, known as deadstock, from warehouses in downtown LA to reduce fabric waste in the fashion industry. The founders of Oddli believe in staying true to their vision and have chosen a non-traditional approach to fundraising and scaling their business.  Balancing ethical production and affordability is a challenge in the fashion industry, but transparency and education can help consumers understand higher price points. Social media platforms like TikTok can be powerful tools for brand growth and reaching a wide audience. Chapters:00:00 Introduction and Shift Away from Fast Fashion01:21 Introduction to Oddli 10:23 Sourcing Raw Materials and Accessing Excess Fabric15:50 Ignoring Conventional Wisdom in Fundraising23:38 Navigating the Industry as Female Founders31:22 Ambitions for the FutureJoin us! Snag all the latest episodes, savvy budgeting tips, investing advice and even giveaways via the HerMoney Newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the past 10 to 20 years, the sharing economy has taken over: In many ways, renting and returning is now our way of life. Think about it: We stay in strangers’ homes via Airbnb and VRBO, we borrow books on Kindle, Zipcars are viable alternatives to owning a car, and we rent a different dress for every wedding or event so we never have to be Instagrammed wearing the same thing twice. But what about renting things for the smallest members of your family? Fran Maier, CEO and founder of BabyQuip, has made that possible. With BabyQuip, traveling families can rent high-quality everything from cribs and toys to car seats for when they’re on the go. Listen in to hear Maier’s advice as a serial entrepreneur, her biggest regret when selling Match.com, and her hope for the future of female-founded companies.Chapters00:00 Entrepreneurial Roots03:29 Early Career and Match.com15:44 Time After Match.com22:12 Pitching BabyQuip on Shark Tank23:45 Navigating the Challenges of the Pandemic26:02 Competition and Market Strategy29:46 The Gender Gap in Financing31:24 Lightning Round33:13 Where to Find BabyQuipMore money news when you need it! Get the latest and greatest updates on all things investing, budgeting, and making money. Subscribe to the HerMoney newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Music is ever-present in our lives, from our morning exercise routines until bed. And we all have a "life soundtrack" of songs that transport us to a moment or an era — one note and you're right back there. Music is also a multi-billion dollar business. But who runs this business? Despite so many of the biggest performers being women, the industry itself has long suffered from a lack of women and diversity — not only on the talent side but also on the executive side. One of the most powerful longstanding players in this business is Jody Gerson, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group. She’s the first woman ever to hold the position at a major music publisher, and since joining UMPG in 2015, she’s transformed the company, which has now surpassed $2 billion dollars in revenue.Listen to how she got her start in the music industry, how she can tell the difference between a mediocre song and a hit, and why she is working to make the industry more inclusive for women. Join us! Snag all the latest episodes, savvy budgeting tips, investing advice, and even giveaways via the HerMoney Newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let’s just admit it: Being a working mom in America is absolutely exhausting. Today, millions of women in our country are struggling to pay for their children’s care while they maintain their spot in the workforce. At the same time, American women are also fighting against the so-called “Motherhood Penalty,” which means that mothers earn just 58 cents for every dollar paid to fathers. Allison Robinson found herself — like many women! — questioning whether or not it was even possible to have both a family and a career. So, she decided to do something about it. She left her job at Procter & Gamble to start “The Mom Project,” which is now the leading digital marketplace for moms offering hiring, education, and retention solutions. Listen in to learn more about her mission to connect moms with jobs that work with their schedules, and how women can stay engaged in the workforce while taking career breaks. Join the HerMoney community! For the latest episode drops and financial news-you-can-use, subscribe to our newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does she do it? This week, we decided to ask our indomitable host, Karen Finerman, and co-host of InvestingFixx, HerMoney’s investing club for women, how she makes it all happen. Between her role as CEO of Metropolitan Capital Advisors, being a panelist on CNBC’s Fast Money, serving as a Wharton board member, and being a mom to two sets of twins, she does it ALL. We knew it was time to share her incredible story. Listen in to learn why Karen decided she wanted to become a risk arbitrageur at age 15, how she worked full time while raising her kids, and her best advice for getting invested — and staying invested — as a woman.Join the HerMoney community! For the latest episode drops and financial news-you-can-use, subscribe to our newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are countless situations in which risky behavior can be detrimental to your life. But there’s one area though, where risk can be a very good thing — sometimes life-changingly incredible. That’s with entrepreneurship and your career. In fact, not taking risks is arguably one of the riskiest things you can do in your career, and perhaps no one knows this better than Pinky Cole, owner of Slutty Vegan, and author of “I Hope You Fail: Ten Hater Statements Holding You Back From Getting Everything You Want.” Pinky Cole knows exactly what it means to take risks in her career, fail, and get back up again. When her first restaurant burned down, she didn’t let it break her. Instead, she took it as a sign that she wasn’t fully aligned with her purpose, and chose to completely reset. Fast forward to today, and she’s the owner of the multimillion-dollar vegan empire Slutty Vegan. Our favorite bit of Pinky Cole brilliance from this conversation? “The sky is not the limit, there’s so much more beyond it.” We couldn’t agree more. Join us! Snag all the latest episodes, savvy budgeting tips, investing advice, and even giveaways via the HerMoney Newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While a whopping 25% of 40-year-old Americans have never been married, an all-time high according to Pew, engagements and weddings are still a huge business. Couples spent an average of $5,800 on an engagement ring in 2022. And with all of the different companies out there vying for your engagement ring dollars, how does a business target couples at the exact right moment when they’re ready to buy a ring? Gina Drosos has that moment down to a science. She’s ​​the CEO of Signet Jewelers, the world’s largest diamond retailer. When she took over as CEO six years ago, she made a pivot into data-driven business decisions that studied couples’ 45 “trackable milestones” that lead them to get engaged — and it transformed the company. Listen in to hear her philosophy as a “spider web leader” and what she’s doing to lift up other women as she climbs. More money news when you need it! Get the latest and greatest updates on all things investing, budgeting and making money. Subscribe to the HerMoney newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Long gone are the days when going to therapy was something we hid from our friends, family, and even our spouses because of the fear that “they might think something is wrong with us.” These days, we share our learnings from therapy proudly and wear good mental health like a badge of honor. And at HerMoney, we love to see women talking about things that used to be taboo (like mental health and money!) because it makes it easier for all of us to learn from one another. Yet even though we’ve made progress with what’s “off limits,” there’s still a stigma surrounding couples therapy. Many believe it’s only reserved for couples who are dealing with serious relationship issues like infidelity, abuse, dishonesty, or other toxic behaviors. But  Kati Morton, YouTube creator, and licensed marriage and family therapist, is using her platform to help couples understand that seeking out therapy shouldn’t feel so weighty. In fact, it can be an asset to any relationship. Listen in for more insight into the benefits of therapy ahead of Valentine’s Day, along with the patterns Kati notices that make her optimistic that a couple can get through any conflict.Join the HerMoney community! For the latest episode drops and financial news-you-can-use, subscribe to our newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s crazy to think that it’s only in recent history that women have been able to open a bank account, let alone own a bank. As recently as 1970, women could be turned away by lenders if they didn’t have a male co-signer. There are 4,236 FDIC-insured banks in the United States, and according to Bankrate, there are only 13 women-owned banks – Lead Bank being one of them. In her role as Chief Development Officer at Square, Jackie Reses saw how important access to capital was to small businesses. So, when she left that job, she decided to open a bank. Listen in to hear about Jackie’s career from private equity to building a successful startup and then buying a bank — and why she says being a business owner brings her so much joy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What comes to mind when you think of a poker game? Is it a basement or a casino? Is it filled with smoke? Is it mostly men? If those are the assumptions you made, you’re not far off because of the one hundred million people who play poker, fewer than 10% of them are women. Learning the game of poker isn’t just for fun though, it can teach women key skills in life — making bets on themselves, taking risks at work, and practicing their best poker face in a negotiation. Erin Lydon is the President of Poker Power, a women-led community that uses the game of poker to build confidence, challenge the status quo, learn strategy, and assess risk. Listen in to hear about her career from private banking to poker whiz, the difference between a fish and a shark (in poker, not the aquarium), and how women can use the skills learned in poker to navigate everything from a divorce to a raise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices