What They Know and We Don’t

We asked insiders and experts from various industries to tell us something they think outsiders are unaware of and we’ve shared a few of those responses below.

Gabrielle Merite | Information Designer & Data Illustrator

Most people overlook the incertitude of data. Data is collected by people and interpreted by people. By extension, it is not only biased, it is also meant to evolve in time, along with our society. It takes considerable time and care to create the data I use as the base of my design work. But data isn’t a stone-cold truth, it’s the closest thing we have from it, at an exact moment in time. Read more>>

Jerry Rodriguez | Portrait & Lifestyle Photographer

One thing about photography that others might not know is the amount of time it takes to edit photos. One photo session can be shot in 2 hours. I can take over 200 shots; however, editing one image might take me an hour. I will take about an hour to edit a photo and end up re-editing it because I have changed my mind. There is a lot of thought that goes into editing one image. Read more>>

Samantha Payne | CoFounder & CEO – The Pink Elephants Support Network

That a charity is not a simple setup, donations aren’t guaranteed, grants have to be applied for with an incredible amount of diligence and effort, they aren’t guaranteed and are difficult to secure. The impact part has almost been the easiest part for us, what has been difficult is building a reliable revenue stream that can support our growing social impact. This took a considerable amount of innovation and leadership acumen, people often look at charities and think ‘that’s nice’ which is incredibly condescending. We don’t need business experts to teach us how to run a charity perhaps we can teach business leaders how to be more purpose-driven and impactful to communities rather than solely profit-driven. What we need more of is a respectful cross-sector collaboration that increases social impact. Read more>>

Puja Seth | Founder/CEO Drifted, Co

Interestingly, 90% or more of the outdoor brands are started and run by men. Men are fantastic, but when it comes to designing options for women’s gear and clothing, there are very few women who are actually involved in the top-level process. When designing for women’s apparel, there’s an industry term called “shrink it an pink it” and that’s how they design women’s outdoor gear. Design for men, then make it smaller and change the color. Read more>>

Tasia Hernandez | Owner of Moody Babe Lashes

The beauty industry is a multi billion dollar business. There’s plenty of room for anybody trying to get it. It’s up to you on how far you’ll go but you’ll never know if you don’t go for. Read more>>

Ali D. | Stand Up Comedian

To become a comedian takes determination, patience, faith, confidence and a lot of hard work behind the stage. Some people have wrong perception of understanding about being a stand up comedian. They think its fun, yes it is but there is a lot of hard work to be done to become one. It takes a lot of time and years to develop your “killer” set material, your act, your voice, your comic style and character as well as practice by performing in small city or town comedy clubs and doing open mics. It is one of the hardest job to do which takes time, a lot of time. Read more>>

Diana & Lola Covarrubias | Founders & Owners of Covar Beauty

Something people might be surprised to learn about the beauty industry is that although majority of the consumers identify as women most cosmetic brands are owned by men. They might also be unaware that the beauty industry is one big monopoly, meaning one big company owns multiple cosmetic brands and therefore the money is always going to the same type of people. Even when beauty brands are named after women most of the time they are being used as a marketing technique and are only the “face” of the brand while the majority stakeholders are men. We only ever see this not be true when it comes to small independently owned brands and that is why we think if we really want to see diversity in the business world we need to support and give chances to more small businesses. Read more>>