
WorkParty
Meet your new Work Wives. WorkParty, the beloved business podcast with over 3 million downloads to date and guests like Sara Blakely, Tyra Banks, Jen Atkin and more is back and brand new. Jaclyn Johnson joined by CEO of Create & Cultivate, Marina Middleton are letting you listen in as they navigate the world of entrepreneurship, motherhood, divorce, female friendships and how they make it all work – mostly. A little work, a little party, pour yourself a glass of champagne and pull up, cause we are about to get down to business.
Latest episodes

Oct 14, 2020 • 29min
S7. E. 4 The Triple Bottom Line: How Lindsay McCormick Created a Brand That Values Profit, People, and the Planet Equally
Have you ever heard of the triple bottom line? For some of you, this might be a new concept, but for Bite Toothpaste Bits founder and CEO, Lindsay McCormick, it’s been part of her business plan from day one. Businesses that have adopted the TBL framework evaluate their performance based on meeting three main criteria—social, environmental, and financial—to create greater business value. In short, they value profit, people, and the planet equally. Unfortunately it hasn’t always been the standard and a lot of businesses have valued profit over everything else and it’s impacting all of us, but especially the planet. So, how do we ensure this business model is the status quo moving forward so we can all have financially successful businesses while helping others and reducing our footprint in the process? In this episode of WorkParty, we sit down with Lindsay to dive into the TBL framework of her sustainable oral care line and learn more about her mission to eliminate the one billion plastic toothpaste tubes that end up in our landfills and ocean every single year. Join the party on social @workparty and stay in-the-know at workparty.com. Guest Lindsay McCormick @heylindsaymc @bite Produced By Dear Media

Oct 7, 2020 • 37min
S7 E. 3 Sense and Sustainability: How to Create a Conscious Beauty Brand From Start to Finish With Each & Every
Sustainability hasn’t exactly been at the forefront of the $532 billion beauty industry. In fact, when it comes to packaging, ingredient sourcing, and distribution, it’s actually responsible for a great deal of waste, and it’s taken a heavy toll on the environment. But thanks to a handful of pioneering indie brands, the tides are changing. And Each & Every is one of them. In addition to using sustainable, clean ingredients—and being cruelty free—reducing product waste has also been central to their brand mission. Over the past year, they have been working on more sustainable options and have developed a multi-step plan towards a more environmentally-friendly product. Their first step in tackling this complex but very important issue is to launch their worry-free recycling program. In this episode of WorkParty, Jaclyn sits down with the Each & Every co-founder, Lauren Lovelady to dive into their eco-friendly mission and the challenges of creating a conscious beauty brand with a sustainable state of mind from start to finish. Join the party on social @workparty and stay in-the-know at workparty.com. Guest Lauren Lovelady @laurenlovelady @eachandeverycompany Visit hellorory.com/PARTY to get Nightly Defense for just $5! Use code WORKPARTY at usualwines.com for $8 off your first order, and try the first glass FREE! Produced by Dear Media

Sep 30, 2020 • 36min
S7 E. 2 How Fashion Vet Kym Gold Co-Founded, Scaled, and Sold True Religion for $800+ Million
Kym Gold has been a self-starter from the get-go. With a deep-rooted passion for fashion and unwavering determination to succeed, the fashion industry vet was running her first business selling clothing on the Venice Beach boardwalk and around college campuses in her late teens. In her early 20s, Kym and her then-husband set their sights on a whitespace in the male-dominated denim industry: fashion denim. Enter True Religion Jeans, a luxury, locally-made denim line. The brand became an acclaimed leader in the premium denim market and, according to Kym, set the stage for the “Denim Fridays” office movement. The brand achieved mass popularity (keep in mind, this was the pre-social media and e-commerce era of fashion) and went on to sell the company for over $800 million in 2013. Now, she’s shifted gears to home decor with a line of high-quality ceramics that she fires in the kiln in her Malibu home. In this episode of WorkParty, we sit down with the entrepreneurial powerhouse to learn how she found her place in a male-dominated industry, built a multi-million dollar denim empire, and pivoted to a new career. Join the party on social @workparty and stay in-the-know at workparty.com. Guest Kym Gold @kym.gold Visit www.usualwines.com and use promo code WORKPARTY for $8 off your first order and try your first glass on us. Produced by Dear Media

Sep 23, 2020 • 46min
S7 E. 1 From Seed to Sale: How Equilibria Found Whitespace in the Competitive $20 Billion CBD Market
It’s safe to say there is a lot of buzz around CBD and it’s easy to see why. Leading cannabis researchers project that the collective market for CBD sales in the U.S. will surpass $20 billion by 2024. Who wouldn’t want a slice of that pie? When Coco Meers launched her CBD company, Equilibria, in the spring of 2018 the space was already flooded with thousands of brands. But instead of being discouraged by the competition, Coco and her co-founder, Marcy Capron Vermillion were driven by it. The duo also didn’t view the current brands as competitors. Most of them were not seed-to-sale or medical-grade and it was clear the market was ripe for transparency and results-driven formulas. They quickly got to work on filling the whitespace. But Equilibria is so much more than just a premium, farm-fresh, full-spectrum CBD product line. The co-founders went one step further by offering personalized medical-grade CBD routines and dedicated one-on-one dosage support with a specialist—they’re the only CBD brand to offer that service. As a “for women, by women” company, they understand that female bodies are different—from cyclical changes to the very real challenges of menopause, childbirth, and everything in-between—and women deserve a CBD brand that can deliver all of the above. In this episode of WorkParty, Jaclyn sits down with Coco to dive Equilibria's seed to sale concept, why we should all believe the hype around CBD, and how they’ve built trust in an unregulated industry. Join the party on social @workparty and stay in-the-know at workparty.com. www.hellorory.com/PARTY to get Nightly Defense for just $5! www.usualwines.com with code WORKPARTY for $8 off your first order, and try the first glass FREE! Produced by Dear Media

Aug 12, 2020 • 40min
S6 E. 13 The Art of the Multi-Hyphenate With Tia Mowry-Hardrict
Multi-hyphenate. The term is used so frequently today that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was an old concept, but for our parent’s generation, having multiple careers wasn’t the norm. Now we’re turning our side hustles into full-time jobs, switching lanes, and pivoting towards our ever-changing passions all at the same time. Not all of us have a singular focus or that “one true calling.” And to be honest, that mindset can be incredibly restrictive. Expertise in one domain will help fuel excellence in another, and it's possible to be good at more than one thing in your life, or to be good at multiple things simultaneously. Just look at Tia Mowry-Hardrict. She could have made a comfortable living just being an actor, but instead, she stepped outside of her “lane” to be an author, a producer, a YouTuber, a mother, and now an entrepreneur with her new company, Anser Supplements. For this episode, Jaclyn sits down with Tia to find out how she followed her curiosity to pursue multiple career paths, why she launched a supplements line, and the many lessons learned along the way. Join the party on social @workparty and stay in-the-know at workparty.com. Produced by Dear Media

Aug 5, 2020 • 32min
S6 E. 12 How to Scale Your Passion Into a Thriving Business With Payal Kadakia of ClassPass
Presented by Mastercard Launching a business is so much more than just having a great idea. Passion is important, of course, but if you want to scale your business for growth—and be profitable!—you need to get the fundamentals in place. Because even if your product is selling well, you’ll soon have another problem: delivering that product to all your new customers and on time. Are your business systems, infrastructure, and team able to accommodate that growth? If you’re not, then orders will start falling through the cracks which very quickly leads to unhappy customers who won’t be back for more. So, how do you scale your passion into a thriving business? To find out, we tapped someone who has done just that with wild success—Payal Kadakia, Founder and Executive Chairman of billion-dollar business, ClassPass. As we find out in this chat, scaling requires planning, funding, systems, staff, processes, technology, and partners. And yes, there will be missteps along the way but as long as you set the foundation to enable and support that growth you’ll be successful. Guest Payal Kadakia @payal @classpass Produced by Dear Media

Jul 29, 2020 • 35min
S6 E. 11 Mind the Gap: How Arian Simone is Closing the Funding Gap For Women of Color
Presented by Mastercard Fact: Businesses with Women of Color and Black female CEOs get less than 1% of all VC funding every year. And when you consider that $85 Billion of VC funding was raised in 2017, the glaring inequality becomes very clear. However, Arian Simone is breaking the VC ceiling, stacking the odds back in her favor, and putting the dollars into the businesses who need it most with the Fearless Fund, a $5 million fund that invests exclusively in early-stage businesses run by women of color. The serial entrepreneur knows a thing or two about hard work, too. After being laid off from her job after graduating college, Arian went from living in her apartment to out of her car for almost a year. She eventually went on to build a successful PR and marketing firm from the ground up where she promoted Blockbuster films such as 007: Quantum Solace and worked with major companies from Sony Pictures, to Walt Disney Pictures. In this week's episode, Jaclyn chats with the fearless entrepreneur on how she built multiple companies from scratch, how she’s tackling inequality in the VC world, and how Women of Color can get access to capital. Join the party on social @workparty and stay in-the-know at workparty.com. Guest Arian Simone, @ariansimone @fearless.fund Produced by Dear Media

Jul 22, 2020 • 36min
S6 E. 10 How Aishwarya Iyer Disrupted a Sleepy Market and Built a Successful Biz
Presented by Mastercard Aishwarya Iyer was working in Silicon Valley when a bout of stomach issues led her to research olive oil companies. What she learned was alarming--nearly 70% of olive oil consumed by Americans is rotten or rancid. Instead of ditching it from her diet, she decided to disrupt the market and start her own line of olive oil instead. Say hello to Brightland, an artisanal, small-batch extra virgin olive oil label produced in California on a single-estate farm. But the secret to her success isn’t just in the sauce (or the oil, in this case), it’s also in the packaging. Her approach strays away from the typical olive oil branding and replaces it with elevated designs and powder-coated bottles that stand out amongst the competition on the shelves. In this episode of WorkParty, we sit down with Aishwarya to learn about her Instagram-worthy bottle design, why she decided to bootstrap her business, and what it takes to disrupt an industry you have no prior experience in. Tune in to learn how you can master the art of the pivot and build a successful business that challenges the status quo. Join the party on social @workparty and stay in-the-know at workparty.com. Guest Aishwarya Iyer, @helloaishwarya @wearebrightland Produced by Dear Media

Jul 15, 2020 • 40min
S6 E. 9 Breaking the Mold: How to Defy the Odds and Be a Pioneering Voice in Your Field
Presented by Mastercard Fact: Women are severely underrepresented in the music industry. When the University of Southern California released their Inclusion in the Recording Studio report last year, they found that the ratio of male to female producers across 400 popular songs is 47:1. And this isn’t because women don’t have an interest in music. The female to male student ratio in music academics is almost 50:50. The high representation of female enrolled students simply doesn’t translate to the music industry workforce, particularly in leadership roles. But one woman is changing the status quo and bringing much-needed change to the outdated, male-dominated sector. Emily Lazar is the engineer behind the sound of music’s biggest names including Björk, Beck, The Killers, David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Sia, and Madonna, just to name a few! We're thrilled to sit down with the award-winning sound engineer to learn more about her story, how she went from “the other side of the glass” as a singer, songwriter, and performer into the studio to become one of the industry’s most prominent master engineers. Join the party on social @workparty and stay in-the-know at workparty.com. Guest Emily Lazar, @emilylazarlodge @lodgemastering Produced by Dear Media

Jul 8, 2020 • 35min
S6 E. 8 Moving the Needle: Why Investing in Women Is Investing in Everyone
Presented by Mastercard The stats don’t lie. Companies perform better when they have female leaders in addition to males. And yet, just 5% of all venture funding supports women CEOs. This isn’t just about equality--it's about the economy, too. If we want to see higher stock returns, higher overall profit, and a higher return on equity, we have to hire women, and put them in leadership roles. Unfortunately, when you see how wide the gap is between where females are today and where we want to be, the path to equality can seem daunting. Thankfully, with people like Victoria Pettibone leading the charge, we are moving the needle towards an equal future. She strongly believes we can achieve this vision if we invest financially in female leadership now. In this episode, we sit down with Victoria to discuss how she’s doing just that as the managing director at Astia and why investing in women is investing in everyone, along with some solid advice for female founders on how to build a booming, crisis-proof business. Join the party on social @workparty and stay in-the-know at workparty.com. Guest Victoria Pettibone, @vpettibone @astiaglobal Produced by Dear Media