Analiza: Welcome to the Women of Color Rise Podcast. I'm Analiza Quiroz Wolf, proud Asian American mom of two, and former CEO of a nonprofit and Captain in the US Air Force. I'm on a mission to support having more diverse leaders at the table. We'll be talking with successful CEOs and C suite women leaders of color and learning about their leadership journeys. If you're a woman or woman of color, who wants a seat at the table, you're in the right place. Now let's get into today's show.

I am so excited for this podcast because we are going to be talking with Stephanie Morimoto, She's the owner and CEO of Asutra, which is all about active self care. And what's cool about that is that it's not just about helping people with pain or sleep or rejuvenation, but it's actually helping people to take care of themselves on purpose so that they can get the most out of their life. So I'm so excited, Stephanie, to talk more about your mission. In addition, Stephanie, Asutra is a woman owned and women lead. So not only that, but 60% of the team are people of color and 100% of the staff would recommend it as a great place to work. So that's really amazing. I want to learn more about how you built this culture. In 2020, she won the Beacon Award Entrepreneur of the Year. And outside of work, she loves to garden and she grows everything from tomatoes to lilacs. And she did all of this after she graduated from Brown with a BA in Sociology. So with that, Stephanie, welcome.

Stephanie: Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here, too.

Analiza: So Stephanie, I want to go to your roots, because I find that when we look back at a long and illustrious life, did you have plans of being an entrepreneur? You know, being in this business of self care? How did that happen?

Stephanie: Not at all. Actually, I didn't think that one day I would be a business owner, I focused on the area of wellness and self care. But what I really wanted to do when I was little was be like my grandfather. He wasn't in healthcare. So I guess there was this desire to help other people, help other people take care of their health. He was an eye doctor or ophthalmologist to work his way up through college and medical school and really dedicated his life to serving his community. He ended up in a town called Joliet, Illinois about an hour outside of Chicago, which is where I grew up. And he helped people obviously, not just with their eye care, but he also created great jobs in Joliet when it was kind of hard to come by a good job. So he was really a pillar of the community. And I looked up to him a lot.

Analiza: What a great role model. When you think, Stephanie, back to your roots, how does your race, your gender, come into play in your decisions in life?

Stephanie: Yeah, absolutely. So my grandfather, who I just talked about, was Japanese American. He unfortunately, along with my grandmother, and their parents and other relatives were incarcerated in the camps as over 100,000. Other Japanese Americans were killed during World War Two by the US government. So he spent his middle school years in dusty camps in the middle of nowhere. And yet, somehow, he retained this really positive attitude throughout his life. He never expressed resentment over that. He in fact, joined the National Guard, to help pay his way through college and med school and to serve his country. And like I said, he really was dedicated to serving his community. So it's interesting because there is this real trauma of having been in the camps, and yet, sort of rising from that adversity and building something better, building a better life for himself and his family, and then his grandchildren and generations to come.

And then on my mom's side, she is ethnically Chinese, but grew up in Indonesia and her family had been in Indonesia for generations. She, her brother and her parents had to flee Indonesia in the 60s, when there was massive civil unrest, and a lot of ethnic Chinese people were being massacred due to a variety of factors. So she came here to this country in her teens, and she had to be really tough all of a sudden, she was thrown into these English speaking schools. She was in Los Angeles, California, I mean, it was a completely different environment than where she grew up. And her mom, my grandmother, on my maternal side was the entrepreneur and the family. She knew how to sew. And all of a sudden, she was in this foreign country and had to figure out how to take care of her family and put food on the table. So she started sewing in a dress shop, and she worked her way up to build her own pattern making business working for different fashion brands.

So it was interesting to have these two different examples of grandparents who had had these very traumatic experiences, figure it out a path forward and through, and were actually able to live with a lot of joy, with a lot of giving back to their family and their community. So I share those stories, not only to honor them, but also to say that those were very powerful role models for me to see how you could get through something extremely difficult and traumatic and build the kind of life that you wanted to, and that you could do it in a way that not only brought you and your family joy, and a better life and wellbeing, but also brought that to the, to the wider community. So I think for me that those examples are really what led me to do all the things that I did in my career. And really what led me to Asutra today because there are so many things that Asutra that echo those role models and my grandparents.

Analiza: The history, particularly Asian American history, I think is so important, Stephanie, because back, I don't know if you learn this back when you were a kid, but they're the journeys of our families and just Asian Americans in general to the country, I did not learn about until later in life, and for you to have seen your grandparents and hear the stories that were very challenging, and yet also inspiring, because you could now actually model yourself after these people who actually practiced the idea of love of self love of family community, and also applying that to a financial, financially rewarding career. So I love that so much, because that is a trend I see in your career, Stephanie, but I want to actually come back because from Brown, you then went on to do different things in corporate worlds, small business, and also education. But this idea that, you know, self care is crucial. Back in the day, though, Stephanie, when you and I were in education, it was not a cool thing to say, How did you arrive at this place where I'm going to declare it that this is important?'' In fact, my whole brand is about that.

Stephanie: Yeah. So I think for me, I obviously had these incredible role models in my grandparents. And that is a big part of who I am today and how I run a sutra. I also had role models of working extremely hard, right, working lots of hours, both my grandparents, my parents, I grew up with the idea that hard work and trying your best were the most important things, that productivity meant you were worthy. So there were also those things that I grew up with. And when I went into not a national nonprofit that focused on the education realm, it was a culture that, I would say reinforced those ideas that it was all about how hard you worked, how many hours you were there, the mission of helping kids is so critical that if you weren't giving it 120%, if you weren't working crazy hours over the weekend, the whole thing, then you weren't doing enough for the mission and for the kids that was very embedded in the culture. And it was tough for me, because that reinforced that aspect of my upbringing that if you weren't working hard if you weren't getting all A's, if you weren't, you know, doing your absolute best and working your absolute hardest, it wasn't good enough. And I got to a point where I burned out. I mean, I wasn't even 30. I was working 18 hour days, I was traveling across the country, I was on this crazy hamster wheel helping to grow an organization by leaps and bounds. But, you know, come the weekend, I would literally collapse on the sofa. Because I was so tired, I couldn't even bring myself to change and get in the bed. And I realized this is no way to live. I mean, if one, I have no joy in this, I mean, it's feels truly so slacking to, if I don't sleep, if I don't eat well, if I don't exercise, if I'm not taking care of my mind, my spirit, or my body, I'm not going to make it too far. So all of those things hit me at once.

And I had a dear dear friend who I would talk to about this. And he always said to me, everyone deserves to be happy. It took me a while to really hear him. But now that is my mantra and what I share with other people. And he really made me realize it didn't have to do this. This level of productivity, this level of working hard, I didn't need to do it to prove that I was worthy. And I didn't need to make other people do it to prove that they were worthy, right, because you learn these practices and you pass them along as a manager. And I decided to quit that job. I was really fortunate to be able to give myself a year off of work. And I promised myself that I was going to take that year to really reset and figure out who I wanted to be in the world and what my purpose was. And I feel extremely grateful that I had that time to do that. But ultimately, even though there were many other things that I did between then and now a sutra that was really I would say the turning point that led me to realize just being is enough. And there's more in this world for all of us if we're willing to welcome that joy and that being present in the moment

Analiza: That's such a profound shift before 30. We read these books, write poems, and watch speakers. And we're like, yes, of course, we're not our productivity, your systems person to say, you know, here's how you can get to that realization, how can we share this with others so that we could start to internalize it faster.

Stephanie: So philosophically,I think the most important thing to be on this journey and really have a journey that helps you improve the amount of joy that you have in life, the amount of fulfillment, the self awareness, it gets absolutely critical to be completely willing to examine yourself, to understand yourself and to notice how that changes over time. How do you become more self aware? For me some of the practices that I did, I went to therapy, she was the perfect fit for me at that time. She was really quick, she got me really fast, I could tell she understood what was going on. She would share hard truths with me when I needed to hear them, but she would also use an approach of inquiry, she would ask questions to help me examine myself, my behaviors, my practices, and to understand what was at the root of those people who call them triggers now, right? Or what are those childhood traumas? Or what are the maybe the patterns that you're stuck in, and she helped me realize that I grew up in such a way that I did equate productivity worth was worth, that I did feel like I had to take care of everybody else, even at the expense of myself to keep everyone else happy to keep the situation calm. And what she made me realize was that I had then gone into workplaces that mimicked certain aspects of my family life growing up, and then I played the same role at work that I often did in my family situation. And that was really profound for me, because it helped me realize for the next thing I do professionally, I can't put myself in an environment that plays upon perhaps my worst self destructive qualities read, I have to be in a culture and with people who are going to help me set better boundaries, who are not going to expect me to do everything for everyone else, even when it's killing me. And that was a really important realization.

The other really specific thing I did is I did the whole book, the artist's way. It's an old school kind of self help book. But it was really eye opening for me, because it helped me understand there were different ways to be creative. There were different ways to have art and beauty in my life. And that it wasn't that I had to be this amazing writer of novels, or painter, or sculptor or a poet, I could bring beauty into my life in different ways. I could spark creativity in different ways I could create, I could build a different life for myself. The one thing I remember taking away from the artist's way that I thought was also very helpful is this exercise of drawing a pie? And figuring out how big do you want each piece of the pie to be? That represents different aspects of your life? So how much is your family? How much are your friends? How much is your spiritual practice? How much is your work up until then I'd only really thought about work, and then my husband, like, and then maybe my extended family, but not really all these different pieces of the pie and what I wanted them to represent in my life.

Analiza: We hear about Carl Jung, the recreate this trauma, and then in hopes to resolve it. And yet it happens. And we're like, what, what are we doing? That's so crazy. I love that therapy is a normal thing, and that people are doing it and self care is becoming more normalized. And when I want to talk about this vision, did you have a vision for the company you want to build?

Stephanie: So in that year off, which was now you know, 12 years ago, I knew I had gotten to this place where I knew I wanted a much more balanced pie, right? I wanted more equal pieces between professional endeavors, you know, creative endeavors, and familial and friend endeavors. I wanted all of that to be a part of my life. I knew I wanted the pieces of the pie to be more integrated. Also up into that I had been so focused on professional and had really segmented, segmented, professional and personal. It didn't feel like I could bring my whole self to work or be myself fully at work. And that was hard and I didn't want to do that anymore. And then finally, I I had this idea at the time that I wanted to be an earth mama. So as you mentioned in the introduction, I love gardening. I don't have my own children. I love other people's children. But I also love caring for plants, caring for others in a healthy way. And so I have this idea of like, how can I use nature, which is so good for our calm and well being mentally, spiritually, physically, to take care of other people to help them bring joy into their lives. That was as far as I got, I honestly had no idea what that would really look like in practice. And then in the intervening 12 years, I ended up doing a whole bunch of other things professionally. It worked in education, again, we moved to different places in the country.

And then I got to a place where I said, Okay, I think I know what I want to do early on in my career. I helped women of color stop, start small businesses, and I loved the entrepreneurial spirit of that, I had the example of my grandparents who were very entrepreneurial. I also had a lot of experience in education reform, seeing all of these organizations dedicated to helping kids get into college or succeed in college, from neighborhoods where that was not the norm. And yet, what I also saw was a lot of parents being left behind, right, it's like, okay, there's all these resources going to help the kids but the kids have no role models, they don't have parents or aunts, or uncles or cousins who have gone to college, gotten better jobs and done something different with their life. All of those things made me realize, okay, I want to go back to doing something more entrepreneurial, I want my impact to be perhaps narrower, but deeper in a community that matters to me. And I think we need to do something to create good jobs for people because while there's all these things that are helping kids, there's not as much that really helps adults.

So a friend of mine had bought a small business from an owner ready to retire, who didn't have somebody in his family to hand it off to. And she created better systems, created a better marketing and sales approach and really built it into a successful business. And I thought I would love to do that. I'm not a startup person. But this is a way that I can be on that entrepreneurial journey. So I combined all of those things and bought and started to build a sutra.

Analiza: I love also that when you had this vision for a year, and this idea of having employment opportunities, a great community, a place that valued self care, it seemed like a sutra sort of fell in your lap. So can you talk about that story?

Stephanie: My husband is also an entrepreneur, we always say so much of being successful as a business owner as luck. But you also have to be prepared to be lucky, right? You have to have the Northstar vision, you have to have the plan, you have to have the right team so that when that luck comes your way, you actually have the capacity and capabilities to take advantage of the opportunity. So I started networking when I decided, okay, what I want to do is buy a small business and build it. I started networking to try to find somebody who was willing to sell their business. And I ended up having lunch with a small business transactions lawyer who said, you know, most of what I look at is manufacturing. But I just had this and wellness products company come across my desk, and it seems like it's right up your alley, because at that point, you know, I'd spent this 12 year journey learning how to sleep a lot more how to exercise, how to eat better, how to take care of myself in a much different and better way. And when I read the memo, I thought oh my gosh, this is not only right up my alley, I think I have these products in my house. There's this brand called Asutra, original product line or organic yoga mat cleaning sprays. I'm really into yoga, Pilates fitness. So I've been buying the spray on Amazon to clean my mats. I had noticed on Amazon they had other products like an amazing eucalyptus body scrub, a cooling pain cream, I had bought those and tried them when they were in my bathroom. And I thought okay, this weirdly feels like destiny. So I got in touch with the two brothers who started a sutra in their garage, of course, as so many great businesses are and they were already building their next business in a totally unrelated field. They were thrilled by the idea of selling the business to somebody who'd been a customer. And when I did the due diligence, it had so many strong points, but also an opportunity to grow. There wasn't a clear brand story and mission. And the business which had been started about a year and a half before I bought it was only on Amazon. So there was a real opportunity to partner with retail stores like CVS are a target to grow awareness and grow distribution to reach more people.

Analiza: I mean, Stephanie we’re talking Walmart, so let's just say you started an opportunity and yet gotten to Walmart. It's really exciting how you had this vision and then it fell slash you're ready in your lap to receive it. So let's talk about how you built this culture because I'd For you to describe how it is a community where there's a high percentage of people of color, but it's also about employment.

Stephanie: Yeah, I'll talk about a couple of things, you know, how do we hire and what's been important to us there, but also how to rebuild the culture on a foundation of core values. So from a mission standpoint, as I mentioned, creating good jobs for people who need them most in Chicago, my hometown, was an important part of why I wanted to buy and build a business in the Chicagoland area. The two brothers who founded Asutra, built it in Houston, Texas. So we knew we were going to have to start from scratch, we basically went down there and learned everything we could get about all the equipment and materials, they had shipped up to Chicago, unpacked it, but built a warehouse and a team from scratch in Chicago. And then there was a woman named Shamika. Me, I wanted to hand write so I could really trust the operations. But I also wanted to, as I mentioned, work with somebody and give somebody an opportunity who maybe hadn't had a lot of access to opportunities, but I knew I could step up and do the job. So I called a local nonprofit that does exactly that. They do job training and placement for people who may be, you know, had bad luck, or have been out of the permanent workforce for a while but want to get back in. And when I explained what I wanted, they said we have the perfect person for you. Her name is Shiva Smith, she used to run the whole lockbox operation at JPMorgan Chase. So she knows how to do high stakes work that you really need to trust somebody with, she knows how to run shifts, how to work with different types of people, but she had a fire and lost everything in her house. And that also caused a cascading set of events where she lost her job. And she was, you know, having to figure out how to rebuild her life in a totally different way. So we met in a coffee shop, and we ended up talking for two hours. And I just knew she was the right person. And she knew I was the right person. So I hired her. She trusted me, by the way, because at the time, I mean, there was literally nothing. She was excited about the vision. She loved the idea that she could run all the operations, so she came with me to Houston to learn the business of a sutra. And then she came back to Chicago and helped document all the processes, all the production formulations, and she built the team. I mean, she literally helped me put up shelves in the warehouse that was a critical hire for somebody who I felt really embodied everything that we were going to see in Asutra and could help me build the team and build the culture.

And since then, you know, the one of the first key things we did to drive the right culture was define our core values. Who are we? How do we treat each other? What do we believe in? So for example, our top core value is one team, one goal, we're all in this together, we've got each other's backs. And that's been really important. The last few years in particular, we hired for those core values, they are in our handbook, they're on a board on the wall in our warehouse. And when we interview people, we have them read the core values. And we actually ask them for examples of when they have exemplified those core values, and what those core values mean to them in real life. And the people who get it and can talk about it and seem excited about those core values. We know those are not our people. Those are really, I would say the foundational building blocks of how we've hired people who we believe are aligned with our culture and how we keep that culture alive. Well, last thing I'll say is as a woman of color, even before a sutra, I was always really focused on hiring UNbuilding very diverse candidate pools every time I had to hire. And that meant that if I had a diverse candidate pool, I would end up with a diverse team, right? And I've kept that practice all along. And that's how we ended up with 60% People of Color women own women led and you know, the people and the culture that we have to drop.

Analiza: And they're happy.

Stephanie: They're happy. They're happy, have you seen overreach, take self care very seriously. We not only want to deliver that for our customers and help them integrate it into their daily lives. We want our team to do that, too.

Analiza: Honestly, Stephanie, I listen to you. And it's so beautiful, because having worked in nonprofits with these missions of helping kids and making the world a better place. Sometimes I wondered about the culture, including my own culture that I was building and whether or not I was creating that for the people who worked for me. So I love that you're serving not just your customers, but your people and that it's a huge Northstar for bringing in more like minded people. So tell me Stephanie, because of your management style and learning to be a great manager.

Stephanie: Absolutely. I'm gonna go back to self awareness yet again, I think it's key in your own journey to build a life that has more joy, more of the things you love to do, more of the time that you want for the things that you love to do. It's also key for being a great leader, because you can't lead other people, unless you're able to very effectively lead yourself. Right, you have to know who you are, what your values are, what your strengths and weaknesses are, how you react to things, maybe in times of extreme stress versus when you're well rested and calm. And you have to be able to control those things and lead yourself in those things, I think you also have to be willing to be vulnerable in the right ways with your people and their days, or maybe you had a bad night's sleep or something went really wrong, you walk right into a team meeting, and that mood is with you. And it's okay. In my opinion, as long as you've built that trust with your team and that openness to say, You know what I'm having a really crappy day, this thing that I was really hoping would come through, didn't come through, or I just had to do XYZ. And it was extremely frustrating. And I just gotta get that off my chest before we go into our agenda. Right? Because then people know where you are. And if you've built that culture where your people trust you and each other, they're going to be supportive about it, maybe they're gonna say something to encourage you. Or if you're a little cranky during the meeting, right, they're gonna cut you some slack, because you've explained why you're in that mood. So I think that self awareness and self leadership is key.

I think also, you know, hiring the right, I mean, this sounds obvious, but hiring the right team is key, I've found that you can teach so many skills, what you cannot teach is passion for the mission, and fit with your core values and culture. Those are about who that person is, and who, how they're showing up. And you've got to be sure about those things before you bring those people onto the team. And if you've made a mistake, you know, because it's hard, it's hard to tell, especially if you're hiring if you're hiring somebody you've never worked with before, are they truly a fit? Are they truly passionate about this mission? Sometimes it doesn't work out and then making the tough decision for them to leave the team as quickly as you can, so that it doesn't poison the rest of the team and culture is critical.

And then finally, I think, I mean, there's so many things that I could talk about with good management, leadership, self awareness, self leadership, hiring the right people who are culture fits, and passionate about the mission, having real and honest conversations with the team. It doesn't have to be a therapy session every time you check in. But you know, have regular check-ins with your team members and have clear goals and expectations both ways. You know what you expect of your team, they know what to expect from you as their manager and leader, and then have regular conversations about that. How are we doing against our goals? How are we doing against our priorities? Do we need to change course in any way? And also, how are we doing in life, right? I'm not a parent, but most of my employees are, and especially with COVID, stuff just comes up, right? It's like, suddenly, we have a homeschool day. Or one of my employees, you know, he's the primary parent at home. And his wife is a doctor who works full time, they just sent their first kid off to college, it was rough for everybody. And he needed some time off to just deal with that and help his son. Great, because I know you're gonna get the work done that we need to get done by a certain date. And I don't need to micromanage when you're doing it. And I'm glad that you're being honest with me and telling me hey, you need to take this Friday afternoon to handle that with your family.

Analiza: When I listen to you, Stephanie, it sounds just so compassionate, that we're not just working beings, but we're human beings. Yes. How many roles are right? You don't have to just see me as your worker bee. But as a person who might be a partner, might be a mother, might be whatever, just a person who loves yoga, whatever the things are, that we're more than just a robot. So I love the human human aspect to that. So I want to get us to your celebrity. So go forth with this story. Stephanie.

Stephanie: So goes back to this idea that so much about being a successful entrepreneur is good luck, but also being prepared to be lucky. So I bought a sutra in 2018. And early on, I was doing everything until we had a team that we were able to build. I mean, I was looking through some of the customer service emails, I was running to the post office to ship people's orders from the website. I was, you know, sometimes I would pitch in and help assemble products, I mean, the whole shebang. And one day I get a customer service email forwarded today, just to our generic support at a suture.com email, and it's from this guy who works at img WMV, which is the world's biggest talent agency and says, Hey, I learned about your brand. You know, one of our, one of the athletes I work with uses your brand and loves it. And I'd really love to talk to you and learn more. So I looked him up, and I said, Okay, we have some connections via LinkedIn. I mean, I kind of know this guy. So it doesn't seem like a scam artist, take the call. I'm telling him all the stuff that we talked about in this podcast, right? Our core values, our mission of active self care, the fact that we're only known and led to the fact that we're creating good jobs for people who need the most in Chicago. And he says, this is super inspiring. I love everything you're doing. You know, I'm so glad we connected. And they said, Well, you know, that's great. But why exactly are you calling? I mean, how did you? How did you find out about a sutra? And he said, Well, I mentioned one of our athletes uses your products. And you may not believe this, but it's seen as Williams. And my jaw just dropped. I said, I'm sorry, what? You said, yeah, yeah, her trader found your pain relief cream on Amazon. And she has it in her gym bag all the time. And she had never heard of you. So she said, Hey, can you guys find out more about the brand? So long story short, after that first call, we had all these different conversations with her team. They said she'd like to meet with you in person. And I said, Okay, so I prepared this presentation for her about where we wanted to take the brand. What we wanted the mission to look like the retail distribution, the growth, the products that we had seen that a lot of our customers had. We have a wide range of products. But our customers were really gravitating towards our topical magnesium for pain relief, and a little bit for sleep at the time. And she sat down with us for over an hour right before the US Open. Listen to this presentation. She's an entrepreneur herself. So she had all these great questions about e-commerce and marketing and brand building. And then at the end of the conversation, she said, you know, at the time, she was really just running her own businesses and not getting involved with other brands. So she said, I don't really do a lot with brands besides my own. But I love what you stand for. I think this is really important work. I live this mission of active self care, I would love to join your team and help you grow the brand of the business. So in spring of 2019, she joined Asutra as a part owner and Chief Brand Officer. And she's been an incredible partner. She'll do interviews with the press, she'll post on social media, when we have a big retail launch or new product that we're bringing to market. She was on QVC with me earlier this year, selling our pain relief bombs that I mean, she really is just very goal oriented, very fun and funny and has been an awesome partner for us.

Analiza: That story is crazy.

Stephanie: I know. Well, the crazy thing is we truly were not we had no plans to have a celebrity partner at all. And we weren't even thinking about it. And the fact that she had discovered the product herself, really loved it. There was that authentic connection to our product first and then our mission. It just seemed too good to pass up. So we went for it.

Analiza: I love that story, especially since the US Open just happened. We're living self care, like she is a great role model as are you. If you want to show up as the best version of you, you have to take care of yourself. This is like the ultimate car, right? And you got to tune it and do all the things to change the oil and have all these, you know, important ways of maintaining it, so we can show up. So that is brilliant. And so with that, just because I want to ask the celebrity question, what was something that surprised you were surprised when you got to know Venus? You're like, that surprised me. I mean, obviously she's hard working and an amazing athlete, but what's something that surprised you about her?

Stephanie: I would say two things. She's really funny. She has a great sense of humor. She loves to joke around. I mean, when we do a photoshoot, she will just always be like, she's a total jokester. And then she also loves sleeping. Her family apparently calls her rip band and gold. She loves her sleep. We actually did a whole blog post about her sleep routine on our website on a sutra and you know, over the years, so since 2018, I would say really starting in during COVID and 2020. We saw the hunger people had for ways, routines, products, rituals to help them get a better night's sleep right because all their daily routines are completely disrupted. They were spending a lot more time in front of screens. They weren't going out as much, they weren't as active. So being able to offer her sleep packs, but So working with her to develop more products to help people with sleep was great.

Analiza: So good, alright with that Stephanie? Let us do a lightning round question.

Stephanie: Okay.

Analiza: Chocolate or vanilla?

Stephanie: Chocolate.

Analiza: Cooking or takeout?

Stephanie: Cooking.

Analiza: Climb a mountain or jump from a plane?

Stephanie: Climb a mountain for sure. I like to go up. I don't really like the idea of jumping down.

Analiza: Have you ever worn socks with sandals?

Stephanie: No.

Analiza: How would you rate your karaoke skills on a scale of one to ten, ten being Mariah Carey?

Stephanie: Negative 10.

Analiza: What's the recent book you read?

Stephanie: I'm currently reading a sci-fi series called The Expanse.

Analiza: What's your favorite way to practice self care?

Stephanie: I have so many. But if I had to name my top, it would be sleep.

Analiza: Sleep is so fun. What's a really good professional development you've done?

Stephanie: This is a tough one. Honestly, I think the best professional development I've done is more informal, learning from mentors, but also learning from people who work for me, my employees.

Analiza: What's your definition of boss mama?

Stephanie: Well, I think the word boss can have a lot of different connotations, some of which are good, and some of which are boss bad. I think for me, it's really about defining who you want to be in the world, what purpose you want to fulfill, and then doing it right, doing the work to have the space, the time and the creativity to do those things you want.

Analiza: And what advice would you give your younger self?

Stephanie: Ah, well, as we talked about earlier, when I was younger, I really did equate productivity with worth and I strive for perfection. That's what I learned growing up. And if I could go back and talk to my younger self, I would say, don't take it all so seriously. It's okay to just play to have fun. You're never going to be perfect, though. Don't bother. And really enjoy it. Enjoy all the moments.

Analiza: So Stephanie, where can we find you like LinkedIn or anywhere else like that?

Stephanie: Yeah, I am. And I am on Instagram, at Stephanie underscore Morimoto, and then my company is at a sutra dot life. I'm also on LinkedIn. So please connect with me in both places. And then actually, this is great timing. I just launched literally last week, a sub stack called asking for a friend, where I answer different questions that people have asked me all throughout my career, kind of like the questions we talked about today, and share advice, as well as blueprints for how to do things differently or better your life.

Analiza: Sounds fabulous. And then last question, do you have a final ask or recommendation or any parting thoughts to share?

Stephanie: Yeah, well, I would say of course, please try Asutra. We love for new customers to come and try our products, check out our blogs and let us know what you think. But really, more fundamentally, I would say, you know, for me, a big reason I'm doing this is I think it's so important for us to come together as individuals into a community. If we're going to make this world a better place. We got to do it collectively. But we can't do it if we don't have reservoirs of energy and strength to draw upon. And the only way that you build those reservoirs is if you take care of yourself well and take care of yourself on purpose. So take care of you so we can take care of each other and take care of this big beautiful world that we're a part of, and hopefully make it in an ever better place over time.

Analiza: With that, Stephanie, thank you so much for being here. I learned a ton super inspired. Really appreciate you.

Stephanie: Yeah, thank you for having me. This is great.