I sit down with two women behind Truss, a cannabis beverages company. Meet Mel Smith, who leads innovation, and Lori Hatcher-Hillier, who leads marketing. Truss is one of the few companies that focuses only on beverages, and parents 5 different brands that are catered for very different customers and moments. In this episode, we talk about gender diversity within cannabis, commitment to product over profit, and what advice they wish they could have given their younger selves at the start of their career.

Irie Selkirk is a pioneer in the psychedelic and cannabis industries, focused on educating companies, individuals and doctors alike. Most recently, Irie co-founded Rise Wellness, the world’s first low-dose psilocybin retreat and Sansero Life Sciences, company focused on cultivation, research and potential applications for psilocybin and other compounds. I met Irie through MAPS Canada, the Multi Disciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, where she founded the Toronto chapter. In this episode, we discuss growing up in Jamaica and the impact that had on her perspective of plant medicine, her experience in the cannabis industry at companies like Tokyo Smoke, her move towards psychedelics. We also get into the foundational issues of legalization as she focuses on making the benefits of these natural medicines more readily available.

Elaisha Jade is a Meditation Instructor and Founder of Your Mindful. I met her a few years ago at a gathering to Soho House members and remember being captivated by her positive energy – she was a ray of sunshine, which you’ll hear through her voice. I followed her journey through social after our first meeting as she accredited herself as a meditation instructor, finding her sessions to be soothing, grounding and frankly just so fucking necessary during the wake of COVID. We sat down to chat about how she’s navigated learnings in mental health through meditation, the racialized nature of accessing mental health care, and understanding your “why?”.

Aila Morin, MERIT. A minimalist beauty brand that launched about a year ago and has grown to be one of the most coveted brands in the space. In fact, they just closed a $20M series A raise. And the growth is nothing new to Aila, who was one of the first hires at Mejuri, a Toronto based jewelry brand that has seen insane growth in the past few years. We sat down to talk about what it’s like to advance so quickly in your career and the power of self-teaching, along with how she’s learned that life is about more than just work, and in setting more boundaries, she’s been able to show up more at work.

If you’ve just finished listening to part 1, welcome! Skip over this intro. Stacie Brockman is the founder of PLZ&THX, a brand incubator and venture capital fund. She previously co-founded METIER Creative, an advertising and creative agency, and before that was an early member of The Coveteur, a media company that looks into the closets and routines of today’s culturally relevant movers and shakers. Stacie and I chatted for hours and I distilled our conversation into two episodes. In part 1, Stacie talks about experiencing burnout and the pressures of being a leader. In part 2, Stacie shares her experience with KAP, short for Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. It’s a therapy that uses psychedelics to tap into past traumas and support the process of healing. If you know me, you’ll hear me preach the power of psychedelic therapy – when done in an adequate, controlled environment of course. Set and setting are absolutely key, which is something we get into. I’ll leave it there and let Stacie tell you the rest.

Stacie Brockman is the founder of PLZ&THX, a brand incubator and venture capital fund. She previously co-founded METIER Creative, an advertising and creative agency, and before that was an early member of The Coveteur, a media company that looks into the closets and routines of today’s culturally relevant movers and shakers. We chat about the reality behind the toxic face of Girlboss, what it means to be a leader, burnout, prioritizing self-care and MSN messenger nostalgia. Stacie and I talked for hours and I distilled our conversation in two episodes – this was one of the most eye-opening episodes I’ve recorded to-date. Check out part 2 to hear us discuss her experience with KAP, Ketamine Assisted Therapy and the power of psychedelics.

Jackie Kankam who is the Director of Sustainability and Social Impact at DECIEM, also known as the abnormal beauty company. Sustainability is by far one of the most relevant but also, sadly, misconstrued topics today. So you can see why I was curious to know what a Director of Sustainability for a beauty company actually does. Jackie answers exactly this question and how she got into sustainability work to begin with. We also talk about best practices when managing a team and aspects of culture at DECIEM which have allowed for her to feel supported in taking risks, and ultimately making an impact.

To be a founder is to have one of the most popular job titles nowadays. Am I alone in thinking it has lost significance? It feels like everyone and their mom can claim that title. And yet it comes with serious weight. The person who coined a business, had a vision – it’s not uncommon to imagine founders who are stuck in their own vision and believe they are essential to a successful execution. This is the topic of today’s episode. I sit down with Susanna Kislenko to discuss “Founder syndrome”. As a researcher specialized in the area, Susanna discusses her work analyzing the role of leaders and founders, in both the profit and non-profit sectors, from a social psychology perspective. As both a PhD candidate and a yoga teacher of 15 years, Susanna also discusses toxicity in the workplace, how to identify or deal with founder syndrome and the importance of self-care.

A couple words from me, the host, to you on what to expect in this new season.  Hi, it’s been a minute. Truth is I’ve been sitting on this season for a minute and always put this pressure on myself to release episodes ASAP. This time, I took a page out of the 2020 book and slowed the fuck down. As I’m sure a lot of us did, this year was full of events and I made the decision to take a break mid-production to make time for personal stuff that was going on in my life, hence why this season is so late to drop. Did anyone notice it was late? Probably not, but in an age where we’re all constantly trying to impress one another, I think it’s important to touch on the not so perfect parts of working on the projects we’re proud of. I started this podcast as a passion project years ago because I had so many interesting, insightful conversations with women in Toronto, I felt there wasn’t a space that amplified their work and learnings. Over time, the themes evolved as I did -- the first two seasons were all about how to do the thing, how to get to your dream job. This season is more about how career is part of a larger growth aspiration of constantly bettering ourselves, taking care of ourselves. Mental health is covered in virtually ever episode, as is self-acceptance, balancing hard work with time off. This season speaks true to the themes that many of us went through during the pandemic, but will continue to be relevant for years to come. As always, I hope you can find one episode that speaks to you, that you can take something from — a learning, an inspiration, a piece of advice. Because we can all learn from one another’s experiences as we navigate this strange thing called life.

Hosted by Francesca Morfini, Femme Studios is a series of conversations with female entrepreneurs, artists and leaders who have carved their own path and are now putting a dent in and beyond our city, Toronto. Listen, learn and laugh with us as we take a look at what motived them to get started, and the tools they picked up along the way — getting them to where they are today.

Back in December of 2019, I had the pleasure of hosting a panel for Girl’s Girl, an organization that aims to bring together female-owned businesses through markets, events, and of course, panels. On the panel were Emilie Nolan, who is a dear friend of mine and owner of a fine jewelry brand then called Gemmie, now called Oremme; Valeria Lipovetsky, the CEO of VALERIA INC, the team behind the content she shares on Instagram and YouTube; and Amber Joliat, owner of MISFITSTUDIO, a studio known for the MISFIT Method, a style of movement that Amber created. The theme of the night was to get to the down and dirty about owning your own business — a path which is often glamourized. This was a live recording, so the audio is the BEST, but if you missed it, you can still hear words from these inspiring women. Find Valeria on IG @valerialipovetsky, Amber at @theamberj and @misfitstudio, and Emilie at @emilievnolan @oremmefinejewelry.

If I were to name a beauty maven in Toronto, or even Canada, it would be Susanne Langmuir. She started as an Avon rep and later became a beauty entrepreneur, founding a fragrance company called Susanne Lang, then BITE, a lipstick company and one of the first clean color cosmetics brands, and recently launched her newest venture in skincare, called an-Hydra. As she walks me through her story, her passion for formulation is evidently at the foundation of her entire career. We chatted about how our approach to beauty has developed since her time at Avon, and also get into the challenges she faced when starting her third entrepreneurial venture, creating a skincare product that is sustainably made and entirely free of water, an-Hydra. Listen until the end to hear the advice she would give to anyone looking to enter the beauty industry. Find aN-Hydra on IG @anhydraskincare.

Kayla is a freelance photographer, who’s work has been featured in Vogue Japan, Toronto Life, ELLE, The Kit, The Star, and many more. Despite keeping her discipline broad, in that she photographs interiors, food, people, and lots more, Kayla has created a very distinctive look. Of all places, her career really kicked off when she was working at The Drake, where she crossed paths with other creatives who ended up being clients and colleagues. I met Kayla a few months back when she took photos of me. I’m generally very awkward when it comes to being photographed, but Kayla instantly made me feel at ease. You’ll notice her calm and genuine energy through the interview. We talked about the misconceptions about being a photographer, what it takes to work freelance and the nitty gritty questions that she wished she was asking when she started creating her own quotes and managing her own clients. You can checked out her work on IG @kaylaroccaphoto.

Meredith Gillies is the Senior Marketing Manager at Bumble Canada, meaning she overlooks virtually every promotional aspect of the brand from events, push notifications, partnerships, etc. This was a very special episode for me because Meredith and I used to work together — she was my manager and mentored me from day 1. This entire project is about sharing insights and learnings from people that I think are killing it, and Mere is a very real example of that. Meredith started her career in journalism, then moved onto PR before heading to Bumble to lead Marketing. We chat about all things PR, including misconceptions about the industry, how she approached “fitting into” the industry when she started off, and advice she would give to those interested in pursuing a similar career path in PR or Marketing.

Jess Chen is a tattoo artist based in Toronto who is well-known for her very unique style. She does creates full body tattoos that are better described as body art pieces. She also focuses on very meticulously shaded small, cute color tattoos. We sat down to talk about what it’s like to pursue a career in a road less traveled — how she to be come a tattoo artist and the things she wished she could change about the industry. Find her on IG @__jesschen__ while listening to the episode to get a glimpse into her world.

Mimi Lan is the Co-founder of Superette, a group of cannabis retail stores, with a store in Ottawa and 3 in Toronto. Every Superette location is modeled after a bodega — it’s meant to recreate an experience as easy and casual as picking up your morning coffee. Along with her co-founder, Drummond Munro, Mimi created a very cool brand which also gives back. For every cannabis package that is returned to the store for recycling, Superette donates a food item to the Food Bank. Before starting her own cannabis company, Mimi spent quite a bit of time in the world of finance and investment banking. We talk about what experience taught her and how she applied it to create a successful business strategy in cannabis today. If you’re looking to get into cannabis in any way shape or form, this episode is a must. Find Mimi on IG at @mimi_lam and Superette @superette.

I sat down with Berkley Poole in November of 2019, when she was the Vice President and Creative Director at Tokyo Smoke, one of Canada’s most well-known cannabis brands. Since then, Berkeley has moved on to be the Creative Director at Whitman Emorson, a design studio in Toronto. Berkeley is no stranger to creative work. Before Tokyo Smoke, she worked on brand books for brands like Calvin Klein and Tom Ford, was on the creative team at Barney’s, and even started her own magazine called ADULT. She touches on what being a creative entails and what her process looks like, especially when it comes to visually recreating what the cannabis experience feels like. This is an episode for anyone who is interested in diving into a creative career path — gain some tips and insight into one of the creative leaders in Toronto and Canada. Find Berkeley on IG @boygirl and Tokyo Smoke at @tokyosmoke.

Hyla and Adrien are the founders of 437, a swimwear company that is designed to flatter your curves. Despite being founded in a city with a cold climate, it was grown tremendously, being worn by the likes of Kylie Jenner and Whitney Simmons. These are only a few of the examples of the massive community, with over 100,000 followers on Instagram alone. We get into what it was like to start the brand from scratch when they were still in school and the challenges they face today when it comes to being young women in their 20s, owning a company that can be seen as frivolous, along with the good and bad decisions they made along the way. This is great for anyone that’s looking to start their own ecommerce brand and wants to get a sense of what it’s like to build it from the ground up. Follow them on IG @437 @hylanayeri @adrienbettio.

A woman of many talents, Dani Roche is a multi-platform creative. She’s the founder of creative agency Kastor + Pollux, a social media content creator, co-founder of School by KP, teacher at Sheraton College and Partner at Level10 Hair Studio. She has worked with a myriad of brands to-date, including Google, Bumble, MEC and Wealthsimple, to name a few. We sat down to talk about what it means to be a creative in an always changing industry and change the type of work you do. We also talk about the spectrum of success and what being an entrepreneur can encompass. And for any freelancers, stick with us until the end when we get into how to go about pricing and MAKING MONEY!! Find Dani on IG @daniesque @kastorandpollux @schoolbykp.

Allegra Shaw and Shirin Soltani are the co-founders of Uncle Studios, Canadian brand that creates ethically-made, sustainable, elevated clothing. We had a chat about the ‘why’ behind starting a sustainable clothing company, the struggles of starting your own business, what it’s like to work with your best friend, and things you should look out for ahead of time … including some tips on managing your time and finances. Find Uncle Studios on IG @unclexstudios