Pulling on to the NBC lot at Universal ignited all the feelings of excitement I had when I first moved to LA. I thought this city was full of magic and lately that magic has been dulled for me. Be it the fires, politics, the mass exodus of friends, plus a million other little things that have added up. To me it feels like a heavy cloud is overhead even on the sunniest of days. Who knew that all I needed was to pull on to the lot and witness so many creative people still working to make this city special.
Arriving at the gate felt like a homecoming. For nearly a decade I lived in Laurel Canyon and would pass the studio often. Sometimes as a guest at shows my friends were working on and eventually as a cast member of Southern Charm. I would come to NBC to do press, film extra segments or meet with the Bravo executives. This time I was back for work but with a different company and in a brand new state of the art building. The location could not have been better for Changemakers, a summit of woman who are making a difference everyday as leaders in their chosen fields.
This morning I felt inspired to open the swag bag with y’all and share all the wonderful products and a little bit about the woman who created them. Everyone knows Paris Hilton, she is arguably the most famous woman in the world. But what people don’t know is that behind the “That’s Hot” facade she is a fierce business woman who recently opened up about childhood trauma from school. She is now actively working to change the laws in a rather lawless industry protecting other kids from places like the one that hurt her. Paris launched 11.11 media and I am so excited to see all the good that comes from her using her voice and giving others a platform to share as well. Since we are on the topic of media I would also like to mention Bela Bajaria who is at the helm of Netflix. 9 years ago she took a leap of faith and went to a streaming platform after she was fired from NBC. She was telling us this story from the NBC theater and we all felt that humbling moment for her. I loved what she said about AI and how an algorithm won’t be able to predict the next hit because intuition is innately human and comes from a gut feeling not graphs and numbers compiled for financial gain.
So many of my friends and colleagues fear AI thinking they will be replaced, another friend Allan Loeb contributed to a great article for in Vanity Fair from over a year ago. The article was basically saying the same thing as Bela, if you are creative and clever a robot will never replace you. I loved hearing that sentiment being reiterated by almost everyone woman who spoke, our hearts and our minds are our superpowers.
Some other highlight speakers for me were Kate Gallego, Mayor of Phoenix. She spoke on developing a city using a strong work force and education as the cornerstone of growth. In all of America only 26.8% of Mayors are female. A pretty crazy stat when think of a mayoral duties needing the exact skill set woman were given naturally - organization, planning, getting people to come together for a great good, etc, etc. By bringing a multi-Billion dollar manufacturing deal to Phoenix she positioned the city as the 5th largest growing metropolis in America. Reiterating growth and development and the use of AI was Diane Hoskins of Gensler, a huge international Architectural firm. When I was at Architecture School CAD was just starting and we went from drafting with pencils to computers and now we will be able to draft with just words. Plug in other terms like city building codes and aesthetics preferences and what used to take drafters weeks can now be done in moments. I am excited about this technology for my design clients. Back to the drawing board can be done in real time with clients sitting next to you. DOnt like the driveway coming in from the west lets cue it come from the east and see what that looks like. AI isn’t all bad we just need to learn how to get it to work for us. (A few trusted mentors have suggested I write using AI but every time I try it sounds robotic and not like me so maybe in the future and having more of my writing to refer to I can use AI to help me turn out content faster…We all know I more snail mail but willing to learn)
I also loved Jenny Just and her story from Wall Street to starting PEAK6, a proprietary equity options trading firm using technology to advance. She also beat the boys at their own game and become one of the first self made female Billionaires, I can’t even imagine how difficult the Wall Street trading floor was when she started. She told a funny/not funny story about her first day on the trading floor and there was no bathroom from woman as she was one of the first. She is now on a mission to teach young girls and woman the power of poker as it helps develop the skill set needed for negotiations. I’ll be joining hope to see y’all there too.
Here is the full link of speakers if you want to dig deeper.
I am enjoying my new role with Love electrolyte water. Getting to connect with so many amazing people and working with my dear friend and founder Leslie has been a dream. Y’all will always have a front row seat to our events and collabs. We are working on getting more distribution and will be honored to get into the big stores like Target, Costco, Walmart, but was also want the cool little bodegas and that is just who we met this week with The Good Mart. If you are in NYC please stop by and give them some love, located in Soho at 189 Lafayette St. (between Broome & Grand). A wide array of goodies where you won’t have to read every label because you know it’s all the good stuff. The mini mart set up at the event introduced me to a Swedish gourmet gummie called Jom. I am snacking on their juicy peach right now and they are divine. SO many amazing products in the goodie bag as I try them all I will report back. Here is a full list of all the female founded products if you want to check them out for yourself. Please feel free to ask questions or leave your own comments on products you love from the list.
As always thanks so much for spending your time with me I love connecting so please say hello in the comments.
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