close
May 11, 2021

Navigating Resiliency: Lydia Henshaw

Lydia Henshaw is passionate about building self-confidence and resiliency in girls. Pre-teen and teen years are a time for girls to discover who they are. These years are full of possibilities but also come with challenges often faced for the very first time that can falsely define a girls' limitations. This is why Lydia founded Moxie Girl - an accessible, action-oriented online platform combined with the personal connection of real, relatable near-peer mentors and peer community - to build girls’ self-confidence, so they feel free to go for it.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;25;14

Narrator

At a crossroads of uncertainty and opportunity. How do you navigate forward? This podcast focuses on making smart choices in a rapidly changing world. We investigate the challenges of being at a crossroads and finding opportunities that arise out of disruption. Listen in on future forward conversations with the brightest luminaries, movers and shakers. Let's navigate forward together and create what's next.

 

00;00;25;16 - 00;00;45;27

Lisa Thee

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Navigating for podcast. My name is Lisa Thee I'll be your host today. One of my favorite activities in life is collecting experts, people that are luminaries, movers and shakers that help us all see the art of the possible. And I'd like to introduce you today to Dr. Lydia Henshaw. Lydia is the founder and CEO of Moxie Girl.

 

00;00;46;00 - 00;01;04;09

Lisa Thee

Moxie Girl is a nationwide platform that improves the mental health of teen girls and young women in the palm of their hands. And I can't think of a better time when we're all socially distancing and trying to combat mental health challenges and our young to talk to somebody who's an expert in the space to help us navigate through this.

 

00;01;04;11 - 00;01;23;05

Lisa Thee

Interesting time we're all living through. So welcome to the podcast, Lydia. Thanks, Lisa. Thank you for having me. We're thrilled you're here. Hey, Lydia, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood and how you think that might shape some of the work that you're doing now?

 

00;01;23;07 - 00;01;45;07

Lydia Henshaw

Sure. So my target audience, I was I was taught the value of hard work. So I think I definitely see what I'm doing now because as an entrepreneur, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of grit and hustle that comes into, you know, dreaming and then putting the work into kind of building that dream and making it making it become a reality.

 

00;01;45;07 - 00;02;21;03

Lydia Henshaw

So I think just, you know, the example of an experience and watching watching sort of the way that they navigated life, that they just the value of education. So my parents were educators. I came from a long line of educators. And I don't know if you figured I could go into education and be a professor. And there's just a tremendous amount of value of, you know, I think teaching people and creating opportunities for people to learn, which is a big part of what we're trying to do at MacDougal as we and we work with girls on setting goals and recovering from mental health illnesses.

 

00;02;21;05 - 00;02;48;02

Lisa Thee

Yeah, I think it's also really interesting to note that as an entrepreneur, you're not coming from Silicon Valley, you're from the Midwest. Those are my origin roots as well. And I think it's really cool to see the emerging scene outside of California certainly doesn't have the absolute last stop on innovation. Innovation happens everywhere, right?  

 

00;02;48;02 - 00;03;07;07

Lydia Henshaw

Absolutely. And I mean, I definitely learn a lot from Silicon Valley. But I think I think it's been great to build a startup in the Midwest because it's challenged a lot of the beliefs that I had about the fact that innovation could only happen on the coast. And it's really, you know, can you get great people with creative ideas and support them to build an ecosystem and give them access to capital?

 

00;03;07;09 - 00;03;34;16

Lisa Thee

And that can happen anywhere? Yes. And with that in mind, do you mind sharing a little bit about your career journey leading up to entrepreneurship? I think we are similar in that we both had careers and regular industry for large companies. Before taking that step into being a female founder, do you mind sharing with us what your career journey was and what inspired you to step into this world of leading?

 

00;03;34;18 - 00;04;07;03

Lydia Henshaw

Oh, sure. I'd like to talk about career journeys. Yeah, I think I think we are similar in that both of us have had a corporate background before entrepreneurship, and I think for me that really helped shape a lot of my understanding about just teamwork and communication and process. And it's funny because I think that I like to say that actually becoming an entrepreneur is one of the best things that happened to me from a from a business standpoint, because I learned so much in business school about business and about marketing.

 

00;04;07;03 - 00;04;31;17

Lydia Henshaw

And I think, you know, doing that sort of thing at a corporate level, you get you get great exposure to existing businesses in industries that are or businesses that are strong industries that are growing. But what you miss is what it takes to get that thing off the ground. And I think when you're accountable for payroll, I was never accountable for payroll.

 

00;04;31;17 - 00;04;58;25

Lydia Henshaw

And in my corporate role, you know, I was given a list of marketing things to do, or I'd build marketing plans to help grow our agencies, for example, in commercial real estate. But, you know, I, I was so disconnected from what it actually took to run a business and run a small business, grow that and scale it. And so I think on the one hand, corporate gave me sort of a lack of fear about going in, and it's really helped with sales.

 

00;04;58;25 - 00;05;22;11

Lydia Henshaw

So being very comfortable talking with executives about, you know, selling technology or different things like that. But what what I didn't get exposure to until I became an entrepreneur was what it takes to actually come up with an idea, get it off the ground, get the capital to get it going, and then find the market so that you can go sell it and then find more of a market so you can scale it.

 

00;05;22;13 - 00;05;44;24

Lydia Henshaw

So I think, you know, entrepreneurship has taught me a lot about the inner workings of that, where corporate gave the overhead perspective a bird's eye view. Yeah, I can very much relate that. My corporate career, I feel like prepared me from a confidence point of view to talk about my ideas. But boy, running your own business is like a street MBA, right?

 

00;05;44;26 - 00;06;08;12

Lydia Henshaw

In any given day, it's like today we're learning about H.R. because there's no one to handle that for you. And tomorrow we're learning about our QuickBooks because you have to run the financials of the business and you're accountable. And the next day it's you know, how are we preparing for our board meeting and making sure we're on track for meeting all the rules and regulations of that.

 

00;06;08;14 - 00;06;36;28

Lydia Henshaw

Just a wide range of things that are invisible to you as an employee that become very apparent as an employer, right? Absolutely. Yeah. And it's made me a lot more empathetic to executives, to firms. I mean, to the ones who care and are trying to drive change. I think it's made me a lot more empathetic into, you know, what it takes to really drive culture change and drive innovation, which I know that word has a lot of different definitions for different people.

 

00;06;36;28 - 00;07;06;01

Lydia Henshaw

But basically, how do you how do you build a culture where it's okay to continue to challenge the status quo and bring new ideas in? I think it's it is probably easier to start out. But even at a startup, if you fall in love with the initial one or two ideas, but if you find that the market is not there for them, even then, maybe with a team of ten people, you have to get really good at pivoting and continuing to seek insight around where you should be going.

 

00;07;06;03 - 00;07;43;09

Lisa Thee

Yeah, I think we've all learned the hard way. If you build it, they will come. Is not an effective strategy. That's a lie. So with that, we've lived through some unprecedented times with the pandemic. How have you seen that impacting entrepreneurship and what opportunities have you seen emerge as a result of that?  

 

00;07;43;09 - 00;08;09;27

Lydia Henshaw

Yeah, I mean, I think entrepreneurship as a whole, I think is actually probably benefiting from the pandemic in some ways because I think, you know, one, I think people are getting the opportunity to to explore new careers. I mean, if you think about people who have maybe been laid off from their careers or are finding that the work environment that they're going to go back to is not ideal, I think one of the things the pandemic has done is sort of unlock opportunity that, you know, may have may have been a long time coming for some people because, you know, you know, you know, if you think you've had time for years, sometimes entrepreneurs have an idea that's been brewing for years.

 

00;08;09;27 - 00;08;33;06

Lydia Henshaw

But it takes a lot of courage and it takes a lot of sometimes capital to get out and and get it going. And so I think one of the benefits is the pandemic has probably afforded a number of individuals to say, well, you know, things are changing anyway. Why don't I set out and try this new path? And I also think that, you know, several industries have really been exploding.

 

00;08;33;06 - 00;09;05;21

Lydia Henshaw

And I think we know this a lot with virtual telehealth, with, you know, remote office solutions. A number of different startups have had an opportunity to emerge. And I think I saw statistic that the business Administration, Small Business Administration, so something like a 300% increase in new business applications since the beginning of the pandemic. So I think just the economics are showing that people are starting more businesses as a result of needs that they're seeing that are now emerging in in industries.

 

00;09;05;21 - 00;09;39;27

Lydia Henshaw

And that's a beautiful opportunity for, you know, revegetation, if you will, of the soil of all the businesses across the US and across the globe. Yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to seeing a new batch of entrepreneurs coming into the market, maybe people that had really stable careers and the illusion of control and security. Yeah, some of us have had our foundations rocked a little bit on that and it's creating space for people to take that big risk that maybe they wouldn't have taken had that not been the situation they're living through, Right.

 

00;09;39;29 - 00;10;03;12

Lydia Henshaw

Yes. Well, and the other thing, too, I think, is I think there's increased levels of empathy and vulnerability. And I think the fact that when we get on video calls and you in in in 2 minutes, you might or let's say 10 minutes of a video call with someone maybe you've never met or with a teen call, you see in kid, you're seeing parents or seeing Catherine across the screen.

 

00;10;03;15 - 00;10;25;06

Lydia Henshaw

And I think you know that that's so refreshing. You're seeing people without makeup, people without jewelry. It's like, I think we're getting to this layer of society where it's like, it's okay to have not had your second cup of coffee and put your face on the street. It's okay that your kid runs in screaming because you can't find the cradle, as you know, because you have to sit in a room while you had your call.

 

00;10;25;08 - 00;10;52;17

Lydia Henshaw

And so I think for entrepreneurs that is a huge opportunity because the only way that you can build strong companies is if you know how to ask for help. And if you're okay admitting that, you know, you don't know everything or you don't know what to do all the time. And so I think maybe as a culture holistically, we're more okay with asking for help now and we're more okay being vulnerable because of what the how the pandemic has rocked us all.

 

00;10;52;19 - 00;11;22;22

Lisa Thee

Yeah, I can definitely admit that it is not uncommon for my coworkers to hear, Are you on fire? Are you bleeding? And if the answer is I continue to tell my children, stay out of it. Stay out of my office for right now. Please just find your nine. It's amazing emergency. Especially when of your parental controls kicking in on your technology device, saying that you can't use it anymore. I love it. Yeah. So how have you seen the impact of capital flowing into startups affected by the new way? We're all working remotely?

 

00;11;22;25 - 00;11;50;15

Lydia Henshaw

Um, that's a good question. So we actually raised a round of funding in the midst of the pandemic. So I would say for us, the pandemic actually helped our story because we are a virtual telehealth platform for teen girls and young women.

 

00;11;50;17 - 00;12;15;16

Lydia Henshaw

And so I think we just got a lot of head nods around our mission and the timing of it with help. I won't say it's what closed the deal because we still had this. So obviously the market in our traction and projections and customers, etc.. But I think I think it helped open doors to conversations that may not have been open before.

 

00;12;15;18 - 00;12;33;21

Lydia Henshaw

And so I think, you know, for for health care startups, there's definitely been strong funding to support that type of innovation. Um, I don't know. You know, I think another thing that I've been wondering about is just networking. You know, what is what is networking look like today and what will it look like in the next few years?

 

00;12;33;21 - 00;12;58;25

Lydia Henshaw

Because I think that actually not having casual networking opportunities may have an impact on founders going forward because I think a big part of big part of the way to sort of build trust is if you can show up and establish credibility and establish a relationship with investors before you need the money so that you can start to connect the dots on your company and who you are and your mission and all of those things.

 

00;12;58;25 - 00;13;24;20

Lydia Henshaw

And so I don't know if if the pandemic is going to have effect or if it has affected intros like introductions and people are zoomed out and are people going to are people is willing to take casual coffees when the coffee is not actually a coffee? I mean, I think about all the relationship building we did before we closed our round and it was a lot of in-person is a lot of traveling.

 

00;13;24;20 - 00;13;44;09

Lydia Henshaw

It was a lot of in-person conversations. So I don't know, maybe it'll have an effect on the funnel of connections. So what I think I'm hearing is you had the benefit of the time to establish those relationships and build trust over time before the world lockdown so that you were top of mind when they were looking to make those investments.

 

00;13;44;12 - 00;14;09;05

Lydia Henshaw

I wonder about on the other side in terms of does it benefit women founders in this session? We're all living through right now in that I think the requirements for travel will go down. I think the requirements for in-person networking, it kind of levels the playing field, right, in terms of people that may have other obligations beyond running their company and don't have the flexibility to be working 20 hour days.

 

00;14;09;05 - 00;14;40;13

Lisa Thee

I wonder if it's going to create new opportunities that VCs are open to talking to people in less time in intensive ways. What are your thoughts on that? That's a great point. Yeah, that's a really great perspective. And I agree because I do think that, like you said, people's willingness to talk to founders in less intensive and less time intensive settings, that probably does equal to the accessibility of certain investors because, you know, for investors, for them, it's all about deal flow. So how can you get connected with quality candidates who might be strong investments?

 

00;14;40;13 - 00;15;03;24

Lydia Henshaw

And so they are probably seeking nontraditional ways to find founders now. So I think that's a great perspective. Yeah, for some, I appreciate your thoughts on this and I don't think there is a one answer. I think it's going to be a balance, right? In some ways it'll benefit in some ways at all reduce. And I'm just hopeful that we come to a new balance point where people can continue to drive the innovation that we all see happening and driving our economy forward.

 

00;15;03;27 - 00;15;27;06

Lisa Thee

Yes. So for somebody that doesn't know much about telehealth and maybe doesn't understand what's happening in the world of tweens and teens today, can you give us an overview of what you're seeing?

 

00;15;27;09 - 00;16;03;08

Lydia Henshaw

Sure. Sure. So a couple of things. I mean, one thing that we're seeing is that there's a greater willingness to try telehealth solutions. And in fact, a number of states are pushing legislation to expand telehealth reimbursements because they're seeing stronger adherence or there's early resources so that they're stronger adherence, meaning people are more likely to stick with regimens or check back in for appointments because you don't have the travel time or the or the investment to connect with doctors to get support.

 

00;16;03;12 - 00;16;29;23

Lydia Henshaw

So I think, you know, definitely seeing expansion for funding across different states, stronger adherence to greater willingness to try and a number of practitioners that we've talked to actually say that you are having and are not having as hard of a time as other generations might be because they're used to connecting in the they're used to connecting in a virtual manner with with friends.

 

00;16;29;23 - 00;17;05;18

Lydia Henshaw

And so with doctors, it's not as different. So those are the benefits. But we are seeing that, you know, they're vulnerable populations that are disproportionately affected by things like COVID and by things like stay at home orders. A number of of the clients that we work with, work with populations that are funded through Medicaid. And so a number of those youth are, you know, they benefit by going to school and they benefit by having access to lots of support networks in their life.

 

00;17;05;20 - 00;17;47;15

Lydia Henshaw

And so by having things like stay at home orders and, you know, isolation, they're sometimes they're disproportionately affected. And maybe they also are in an area where, you know, maybe there's lower bandwidth or there's lower access to network connections, which can hinder their ability to really take advantage of things like telehealth as consistently. So I think pros and cons, but definitely seeing more accessibility across the board, that's really good to hear because I think it's always been the challenge of how do we take some of these technical logical innovations and make sure they're not just available to the people that can most afford to pay for them, right?

 

00;17;47;17 - 00;18;24;19

Lydia Henshaw

Yes. Yes. And you'll see that in a lot of the state budgets, they're not only expanding telehealth, but it's almost like the complimentary bills that are coming through are for expansion of broadband access. And so those two things go hand in hand, and also things like reciprocity for licensing, because I think what certain states are realizing is that not only making care accessible across the state, but maybe reciprocity of other licenses across other states or other types of support that, you know, constituents can get from different areas which have been beneficial.

 

00;18;24;21 - 00;18;49;16

Lydia Henshaw

Yeah, it's really interesting to see this all play out because it's a topic, especially accessibility for broadband into places that are traditionally difficult to reach has been a problem that we've been thinking about as a consultancy for multiple years, collaborating with our clients. And so it's really interesting to see how sometimes you can have the right idea and you can make good progress, but it's a it's a timing issue.

 

00;18;49;16 - 00;19;17;00

Lisa Thee

So just the same way you were talking about putting in that work for helping fundraise that you had those relationships we've been putting about five years into this thought cycle. So it's exciting to see that it's timing has come. The impetus to act is here, and it's the invisible is now becoming much more visible to decision makers about how do we make sure that we make digital equality a reality?

 

00;19;17;02 - 00;19;41;11

Lydia Henshaw

Yes. Yes. Good. I think sometimes, you know, for better or for worse, I think sometimes a conversation is a lot easier to have when you're talking about a cure versus when you're talking about prevention. And so I think and so the conversation about a cure is a lot more, you know, here and now. And you can quantify the cost of how we fix what's going wrong.

 

00;19;41;13 - 00;19;58;17

Lydia Henshaw

The conversation about prevention feels like, oh, let's take our vitamins. And if we do that, we hope everything will be fine. But I think I mean, you know, we should be having a conversation about both. We should be looking at what investments can we make today that can help prevent some of the things we're seeing now happen in the future.

 

00;19;58;17 - 00;20;27;18

Lisa Thee

But also, okay, now we're here, we have this problem, let's fix it. And what is it going to cost to do that and what does it take? Yeah. So for anybody that wants to learn a little bit more about the solutions in that space, you can visit the Telco Infrastructure Project website. It's a it's a broad organization that's been thinking about these problems and convening telco companies and entrepreneurs and governments for finding better low cost solutions to expand access.

 

00;20;27;18 - 00;20;49;22

Lisa Thee

And there's some cool information that's been posted there and announced at Mobile World Congress in 2020 that you can, you know, so that's awesome. Yeah, You run a company called Moxie Girl. Do you mind talking a little bit about Moxie Girl and what, where you guys are focused and what you're seeing out there in the market?  

 

00;20;49;22 - 00;21;18;11

Lydia Henshaw

Oh, sure. I love talking about like the girls, your mission. The mission and our mission. So we are on a mission to grow 10 million mentally strong, confident girls in the next ten years. And we are doing that by driving the girls confidence in the public. Her hand. So you might ask, how do we do that? We have a hip compliant mobile app and that mobile application connects teen girls and young women with peers who understand.

 

00;21;18;14 - 00;21;45;07

Lydia Henshaw

And so really we're in the business of mental health recovery and behavioral health for teen girls and young women. And we do this through peer support. And so you may be wondering what is your support? And peer support is a method of care that is really growing in popularity across the U.S. And it's it's a service is covered under Medicaid in about 39 states, I want to say right now.

 

00;21;45;09 - 00;22;23;28

Lydia Henshaw

And so in what peer support is, is it the form of a recovery support? So think about, you know, things like substance use disorder or post-traumatic stress or trauma and a number of things that started actually with adult care. So typically with substance use disorder, peer support is a really strong method of recovery where you have someone who has been through the trauma or been through the different co-occurring diagnosis and they are on the side of recovery and that person is reaching their arm through the chasm to the person who is in the process of recovering or working through some of these disorders.

 

00;22;24;06 - 00;22;45;17

Lydia Henshaw

And their role is to just walk beside and help that person get and still hope, instill insight into how different parts of recovery can come to be. Help them set goals, serve as a mentor, and really just be a presence in their life as they go through the journey. And so we have a debt to that model for girls and young women.

 

00;22;45;19 - 00;23;10;01

Lydia Henshaw

And so we have a platform that young girls and teen girls and young women can go in and find a peer supporter that looks at them, that's been through their experiences. These are all of females that master age, females who have all been there, who have recovered from their own illnesses or their own backgrounds that number of teen girls and young women are going through today and they provide peer support.

 

00;23;10;01 - 00;23;35;08

Lydia Henshaw

And we do that in partnership with behavioral health providers. So we work with care teams, we work with hospital systems to provide our network of peer supporters to patients. And they walk through recovery, they build relationships, they set goals, and they they work towards recovery.  

 

00;23;35;08 - 00;24;05;20

Lisa Thee

For you, mental health, what accomplishments are you most proud of on your journey with Moxie Girl so far? I mean, when you start with a dream like this, it's really ambitious from a social impact point of view. What what are the most important things that you've seen come to fruition based on committing your every waking hour to running this company?  

 

00;24;05;20 - 00;24;30;08

Lydia Henshaw

That's a good question. So, you know, we're we're proud of a lot of things. I think one of the things that I'm most proud of is is the peer supporters that we've recruited that gets me out of bed every morning. And I look at the resumes that we get for the peer supporters that we hire to provide this peer support to girls, You read their stories and you read just the hope that an opportunity like Moxie Girl gives them to change their story because, you know, for some for some of our peer supporters, it's the first time that they have an opportunity to see their situation as something that can be used for good.

 

00;24;30;10 - 00;24;53;06

Lydia Henshaw

When you look at using your story as a way to help bring someone else towards healing. So I think I did feel to even talk about right now, but we're in the beginning giving hope, you know. And so I think when I look at Justin that we're good, strong women, very courageous and passionate about giving back to girls and building a stronger tomorrow for them.

 

00;24;53;08 - 00;25;18;29

Lydia Henshaw

And I'd say that's the most the most important thing in my friend most proud of today. Yeah, it's amazing that you have a platform and a voice and a way to connect and give back. I have a lot of faith in this next generation of women coming up. This younger generation just seems to put their focus on how did they lift themselves via their community versus a selfishness.

 

00;25;19;00 - 00;25;43;17

Lydia Henshaw

Yeah, and they give back. How do they absolutely how do they continue to be authentic in a way that I I'm not sure I've seen coming up in the generation I grew up in. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think there's a lot more authenticity and vulnerability, you know, that that's there. And I think at the end of the day, that's what you need to help drive some of this change.

 

00;25;43;17 - 00;26;16;20

Lydia Henshaw

Because I tell people a lot, you know, it's you can't look at one population group and say they're okay or point another group and say they're not okay, because at the end of the day, I mean, we've all got something we're working on. And, you know, you hear these stories about girls who have, you know, some of the girls who have maybe taken their lives, their girls who have made decisions that one would question or girls that have been through things that, you know, we can't we don't understand why those sorts of things happen.

 

00;26;16;22 - 00;26;38;12

Lydia Henshaw

And and you don't always know by looking at the outside of a person how they're doing on the inside. And so I think by being authentic, we can create a space where it's okay to not be okay. And I think that is the place we have to start from. Because when it's okay to not be okay, then you can start to share your story and ask for help.

 

00;26;38;14 - 00;27;05;27

Lydia Henshaw

But if you don't have an environment where you can ask those questions, then how do we make sure that even, you know, how can you get the help you need if we can't have that conversation? And it's so important to have that online safety lens right? Because when people are being vulnerable and being brave and sharing their story, if they're doing that in a open community where they can't really trust that they know the people they're engaging with, it can get off the rails, right?

 

00;27;06;00 - 00;27;28;12

Lydia Henshaw

Yes, that's so true. So that's why does get off the market face that you've vetted the people they're engaging with. It's not just user generated content that's out there that anybody can access, have access to vulnerable populations. Exactly. And vetted and trained, I would say, too, because I think there's an element of there's absolutely no element of training that goes into the peer support model.

 

00;27;28;12 - 00;27;50;08

Lydia Henshaw

And so, you know, there's that element too, of like it's not just, hey, I'm talking to a good person, but it's also I'm talking to someone who understands how this can serve as a method of recovery for what I'm going through and and is working under the supervision of clinical supervisors so that, you know, there's access to care about is not misleading in any way.

 

00;27;50;11 - 00;28;16;02

Lisa Thee

Yeah. One of the emerging trends that I saw in running my company minor guard, was this trend of increased amounts of suicidal ideation and suicides in young girls. Can you talk a little bit about some of those trends that have been growing since 2015 and what you think we all should be paying more attention to?  

 

00;28;16;02 - 00;28;52;10

Lydia Henshaw

Yeah, I mean, I think you're right. The data shows that those ideations are growing and and the data is also showing that through COVID, girls are disproportionately affected. And also the numbers are, I guess, the growth rate, if that's how we label it, is much higher for girls through COVID than it is for boys. And so, you know, it's definitely growing. It's just it's scary, you know, And and I think the approach we try to take is just how do you how do you keep the conversation open and how do we make how do we create an environment where it's okay to not be okay?

 

00;28;52;13 - 00;29;15;22

Lydia Henshaw

Because I think ultimately that's that's what we need. We need we need girls to understand that one, what you see on social media is not real life. Two, you know, because a number of pediatrician that I talk to, they'll say, you know, they see youth coming in. Now, youth have this perspective during COVID that they are isolated, but everyone else is not.

 

00;29;15;22 - 00;29;36;24

Lydia Henshaw

And so, for example, people like Snapchat or Instagram and you see maybe one or two friends that are together, they might be projecting that, oh, all of my friends are getting together and I'm the only one isolated or I'm in this, you know, on my own and everyone else is doing fine. So I think part of the conversation is just normalizing the feelings.

 

00;29;36;24 - 00;29;59;25

Lydia Henshaw

You know, like a lot of people feel this way. Adults are feeling weary and isolated. And I can play to that feeling to know. I know. So I think it's just it's keeping the conversation open, you know, and not trying to put on the errors in any way about, you know, like muscle up. We're going to get through this.

 

00;29;59;25 - 00;30;30;11

Lydia Henshaw

It's like, this is hard. This really is terrible. It's sad. I'm lonely and keeping the conversation open. And also, you know, we talk about, you know, studying different types of girls, like maybe maybe you're mourning the loss of something. Maybe it's you know, you can't play sports in the same way. But what's another thing you can channel your energy towards that might give you the dopamine effect or might still give you the feeling of togetherness, even if it's not the one thing that you had your eyes set on for the next six months.

 

00;30;30;13 - 00;30;55;11

Lisa Thee

Yeah, I must admit. And to be fully vulnerable on this platform, I'm a COVID long hauler. I've been dealing with health issues for nine months, and if you follow the media, you wouldn't know that I don't post about it. My post about my my good days and and don't talk very openly about my bad days outside of my close circle of friends and family.

 

00;30;55;11 - 00;31;22;05

Lisa Thee

And so I think what you are doing is giving that antidote to the depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation that can come with isolation when you have to only show the positive right and you don't feel comfortable showing as much of the community as to that trusted community, right? Yes. Yes, exactly. So I think it's pretty self evident what your way is for the company. But can you talk a little bit about why you're passionate about this personally?

 

00;31;22;05 - 00;31;45;17

Lydia Henshaw

Oh, man. You know, I just I think I mentioned a little bit beginning about just education and seeing people grow. I am I love seeing people become their full selves. And so I think that Moxie Girl is just an incredible opportunity to do that at scale.

 

00;31;45;19 - 00;32;15;08

Lydia Henshaw

I believe in the value of coaching. I believe in I'm a I don't know what the word is. I'm an outcome of or I'm a benefactor of coaching and mentorship and peer support. You know, throughout my career, I've always had coaches throughout my when I was at Procter Gamble, I was working, I was head of innovation for several of the product teams, and I was going through my own confident story because I had just come off of selling my first startup.

 

00;32;15;16 - 00;32;41;00

Lydia Henshaw

I just had a baby. I had a really strong career from a technology standpoint, but then I stepped into the corporate culture and it really knocked me on my feet and it took a lot out of me and it took a lot mentally and emotionally and physically out of me. So I hired help and I got I worked with a peer supporter, I worked with a coach and a number of different folks to help me rebuild my confidence.

 

00;32;41;03 - 00;33;01;00

Lydia Henshaw

So I absolutely have experienced the value of it. And at the same time, I'm a mother of a daughter who's four years old and I think about, you know, when we when we take the name her, we take Audrey, we had a different name, Susan. And then I was looking at the definition, the name Audrey, and it means strength.

 

00;33;01;03 - 00;33;16;01

Lydia Henshaw

And I thought, you know what? I can I remember middle school, and I know that Audrey is going to come home one day in middle school and tears in her eyes because someone will have been mean or something will happen. And I want to be able to look her in the eye and say, Baby, you are Trayvon and you are strong.

 

00;33;16;01 - 00;33;50;00

Lydia Henshaw

Your name means strength and you can do this and so I think just this desire as a mother and a desire as as a human being who who, you know, whose mission in life is to help people become their best selves. And that's a big part of my life. And I love technology. So if we can do that at scale by building a really, really cool product, that changes lives and it's motivating, you know, and inspiring feeling inspired listening to it, I'm sure listeners are as well.

 

00;33;50;03 - 00;34;14;21

Lisa Thee

You know, working in this space of mental health and telehealth sometimes can be a bit on the draining side of things. What do you do to recharge your batteries when you're not full time focusing on motherhood and leading and all the other things? Where do you go to recharge?  

 

00;34;14;21 - 00;34;33;10

Lydia Henshaw

Question Lots of well, so here's a perfect example. Right now I'm in Key West and just for the weekend recharging. And I think I think taking the perspective of this balance, you know, I think my first startup when I mean I was working as an engineer, you work long, long hours. A lot of people were on there. But, you know, it is always on your mom, always thinking about it. So I think this time around I really wanted to take a more balanced approach.

 

00;34;33;12 - 00;34;54;19

Lydia Henshaw

So, you know, prioritizing physical fitness, so trying to work out, you know, much more frequently, not drinking while I work. And I don't know if I can really talk about on this podcast, but, you know, just a choice I made when I started Moxie Girl, I wrote a commitment to myself. And one of the things was, I will not drink when I'm when I'm working.

 

00;34;54;19 - 00;35;28;20

Lydia Henshaw

And I don't mean on the work, but I mean at night, you know, Oh, I need to put this proposal together. Let me just open a bottle of wine and have a glass of wine while I work on it. I made the commitment of, like, creativity doesn't come from from that as a source. Creativity comes from wellness. And so trying to lessen dependance on things that could that can creep up in moments of stress, that can actually mask our upbringing, our full selves, and all the pain and the anxiety trying to get sleep, you know, spending on the weekends.

 

00;35;28;27 - 00;35;53;29

Lydia Henshaw

I do. I've been pretty consistent in trying to take a stand on Sunday, Advocates turning off the phone, no technology doing something completely different one day a week. You know, just to remind myself, at the end of the day, like the people who are getting through this are your family and your close friends. And and if you're so distracted by the future of the company that you can't be present with them, then that's a wasted and not wasted.

 

00;35;53;29 - 00;36;15;00

Lydia Henshaw

That's a really difficult journey to look back on. You know, it's a sacrifice. But it's interesting that you say that because there is one year that I took off of drinking in my adulthood and it was the year it was my year of entrepreneurship and my my gut said, this is going to need every ounce of me and I have to be on my A-game at all times, right?

 

00;36;15;02 - 00;36;35;12

Lydia Henshaw

Yes. Yes. You know, food or any of my creativity or energy, even if I have to sit in a little bit more discomfort. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think it'd be too easy to become too crass, like I got I got to create that up, you know, I got to take this step or I got to do that. It's a crutch.

 

00;36;35;14 - 00;36;53;29

Lisa Thee

And I don't think you look it deep inside into what you could create or become, or you don't feel it in the way that maybe you could. Yeah. So, Lydia, I think we all learned so much today from you. I really appreciate you stepping away from your time to recharge in Key West to talk with us and inspire everyone else. Where can people find you and keep tabs on what you're working on?

 

00;36;54;06 - 00;37;27;20

Lydia Henshaw

Great question so people can find us and figure that phrase. So that is x, y, z, i, r, l dot CEO and any questions or anything about kind of what we're doing and folks can email me directly at Lydia at my studio that code and we're also on LinkedIn, we're on social media under Moxie Gold on Instagram and Facebook, and you can follow our journey and we love you know, we love to answer questions.

 

00;37;27;20 - 00;37;45;13

Lydia Henshaw

We love for people to share the stories. So if this is inspired, anyone who's listening and if you have a daughter that you think could benefit the next girl, you know, she can go to the website or download the app on the App Store. And if you if someone the thing and they think, you know, I'm really going to be a peer supporter for my faith and we're hiring. So you're actively looking for more peer supporters. And that information is on our website to enter our blog. So that is where people can find us. Thank you for bringing your unique light to the world.

 

00;37;45;13 - 00;38;11;07

Lisa Thee

Lydia I am so grateful as a mother, as a woman, as a female founder, to see you doing so well. You're bringing a lot of benefit to our society and helping to stitch back together the social fabric.

 

00;38;11;07 - 00;38;29;23

Lisa Thee

Thank you so much. Thank you, Lisa. Thanks for the opportunity. Take care. Hey, everyone. Thanks for listening to the Navigating Forward podcast. We'd love to hear from you. At a crossroads of uncertainty and opportunity, how do you navigate forward? We'll see you next time.

More from Podcasts

Launch Consulting Logo
Locations