All right, everybody, welcome to this next episode of clover and Stephanie. I should have asked you this before we started, but I don't want to mispronounce your last name, so please pronounce it for me. It is bone Okay, that's what I was gonna say. So welcome Stephanie bone to the show. Oh my gosh you guys, when you look at what Stephanie has accomplished, the list goes on and on. So super honored. That is Stephanie great, even taking time to speak with us today when I started this podcast to celebrate women in leadership, those like you popped into my mind, so I'm just over the moon. You've taken the time out. So welcome, welcome. Welcome to the show. Really cute. I'm happy to be here. So women in leadership and I was sold, yay. It was so funny, because before we started recording, Stephanie and I were kind of chit chatting. And you know, when you meet someone and you're like, oh, yeah, then this happened in my life, and they were like, Yeah, me too. And then it's like, oh, and then I did this, or I loved here, yeah, me too. That's how Stephanie and I have been. So it's so great. So but Stephanie, let's kick it off with you, kind of just telling us a little bit about your journey, like, how, you know, how did you start out, and, you know, how did you get to where you are today? And you can include some, I always think that, like, our personal stories intertwine, not just, you know, I did this professionally, but you know how that kind of impacted you as well. Would be great, sure that's a big question, and I will try not to bore you with the answer, like it all started, but I, I grew up in in New York, and my parents were married happily, and I have a brother who's just a few years older than me, and my I would say the the most unique or remarkable part of my childhood is that at that time, my family was was unusual in that my mother was a corporate executive and my father was in law enforcement and successful in his own right. But most of the people that I grew up around had moms who had left the workforce, or, you know, were were in education, and, you know, we're home most afternoons when their kids got home and very present. And you know their their day to day. You know, decision making in lives. And I had a very brilliant, ambitious mom who broke ceilings everywhere she went. When I was just maybe three or four years old, she decided she was a teacher. She wanted to go back and leave education and go into corporate America, which, again, was very rare. And so she just opened up the penny saver and looked at who, which types of companies were hiring, which types of jobs were available. And she kept seeing positions for accounting. And so she decided, then and there she was good at math, she was going to pursue that as a career. And so I just watched her over the course of a couple of years, get her her, you know, go back to school, get her master's in accounting, and take the CPA exam, which, as I hear, is very difficult and unlikely, at least at the time, to pass in one take. And she did with two little kids in tow. And just watch her Just Blaze her own path with no role models. And she became mine. I every it's funny. I didn't realize it at the time, but when I was a little girl, I, instead of collecting, you know, Barbies and Polly Pockets, I collected bank deposit slips. And I had boxes and boxes of calculators and bank deposit slips in my room, and I would play bank and store and business, and all I ever dreamed of was having a corner office to do what I didn't know I was a little girl, and to wear Blazers with big shoulder pads, because that's what my mom did, and just wanted to be here. So, you know, that's kind of like what I think planted the seed for me as I was going through middle and high school and college and then ultimately grad school. I just, I probably had that in my head subconsciously the whole time, I just want to be like her. She, she passed away 10 years ago, and I it was like, you know, losing my best friend. She was everything to me, and also my professional role model. And so, yeah, she's just, she has been my beacon. And the reason that I decided to go back to school and get my MBA back in 2001 was so that I could have a masters just like her, except at the time. She said, that's amazing. I'm so proud of you, but I also want my MBA, because she had her master's and CPA in accounting. So she and I went back to business school together, which was pretty amazing. That's incredible. She was in New York, and I had flown out, I had moved out to LA and I went to Anderson at UCLA, and it's a two year program where we went through it at the same time. And she helped me with my finance and accounting homework. I helped her with her marketing homework, which was my chosen profession. And we had an absolute blast, kind of having even though it was, you know, we weren't in the same city doing it together. So after I got to LA I decided to sow seeds here, and I had been really interested in moving into the entertainment industry. Prior to that, I was working at American Express, which I loved, but I was I wanted to work in movie business, and so I decided to stay in Los Angeles, and I got recruited to work at Warner Brothers, where I stayed for 13 years, I bounced around to different roles and and had amazing leadership opportunities. But pretty cool reflecting on the fact that I stayed anywhere for 13 years, that's pretty rare these days. It is. It's almost unheard of, awesome, cool. And then you what, what happened after, after there. So you stay there for 13 years, and then where did you head next? Yeah, so I stayed at Warner for 13 years, and I got my start in the home video division, which is where a lot of MBAs tend to go if they're interested in entertainment, because it's at the time it kind of functioned like CPG, where they really valued having an MBA and paid accordingly and gave you responsibility. And I did that for several years, but I found myself itching to do something more on the value creation side and product creation side. And so there was a new division that launched at the studio right around the time that iTunes came into the came onto the scene and PlayStation and Xbox and all these different digital distribution channels, and Amazon, it was called unbox at the time. And so studios were trying to figure out how they distribute content through digital channels. And so I raised my hand to join this fledgling group of the studio, and that was the kind of the first moment I got my taste for entrepreneurialism, but I was still nested in this giant studio, so it was pretty comfy. And then different opportunities presented themselves. And while I was at Warner I created a new business unit to publish mobile applications, and then Warner Brothers bought a company called Flixster, which I'm not sure is still functioning, but Flixster owned Rotten Tomatoes, and Rotten Tomatoes had was 15 years old at the time, but, you know, kind of a very well known brand and kind of signal of movie quality in the industry, but it was very underappreciated. And so whereas Warner Brothers was focusing on the excitement of owning the database that Flixster offered, I was really excited. I had my eyes on, what more could we do with the Rotten Tomatoes IP? And so i i made a pitch to the the head of the division, and I said, Could I run Rotten Tomatoes? And he said, Have you ever run digital publishing before? Have you, you know, run a company before? And I said, Nope, but this is exactly what I want to do it. And so, you know, he gave me a shot, which was amazing. And that was my second sort of test of, like, Could I be an entrepreneur? Could I, you know, do something and operate in like absolute ambiguity, ambiguity. And I loved it. And then in 20, in 2015, or 16, we Warner Brothers sold rotten tomatoes to Comcast, and it was absorbed. And a lot of the team decided not not to go, and I was at this crossroads of, you know, what do I want to do next? I grew this brand, and we hit all of our growth milestones. I was so proud of myself, and I had an opportunity to stay within the studio and find another leadership role, but I actually decided I wanted to make a bigger change, and I took a role at Netflix, which was, you know, still, it was growing. It was, it was really exciting to be there, but it wasn't the Netflix it is today. So it felt like a little bit of a risk, but it was, it was incredibly exciting and a totally different approach to entertainment, you know, just, you know, being in this kind of high growth, tech forward environment. And I'll stop there. I can answer other questions, but that's that was my kind of path in the entertainment space. Yeah, no, I love it. And the trend that I'm hearing is that you raised your hand, you know, like you saw. You identified these opportunities. And even though, you know, you were like, there may not be 100% qualified on paper, you know, I want to do this, you know. And so tell us a little bit about that. Like, where did that come from? Where you're like, Listen, I want to do this. I'm gonna raise my hand, I gotta go for it. And how do you identify those opportunities? And once you do identify them, how do you go after them? Sure, there's a lot of people listening who are like, okay, that's amazing. Like, if I see an opportunity, you know, how do I go after it? And how do I get it if I'm not, you know, if I don't have all the check boxes checked, as far as somebody who would typically take that on that role, you know, the first the first time that really showed my like, proved to myself that I could do something so risky and unproven and really put myself out there. Was when I was at Warner Brothers. It was around 2008 I believe, and the app store had just launched, and noone really knew what to make of it. Like, what were we making games like video games, or was this a promotional channel, and I was working on Sex and the City at the time the movie. And I thought it would be fun, just as a promotional gimmick, to create an experience that replicates the movie scene when Carrie is moving in with Mr. Big and she had to decide what in her closet to take or leave. And so it created, using iOS, an experience that allows you to take pictures of things in your closet, or if you're shopping, and send them to your friends, and then they could sort of thumbs up, thumbs down, tape or toss. It seems so not interesting now that I say it, but back at the time it was, it was pretty wild that you could do that with your phone. And we had hundreds of 1000s of downloads, and it was free, but it was a absolute, like it was a marketing gimmick that I was just, you know, wanting to try. And at that moment, I thought to myself, Man, like, if 100,000 people download this thing that just takes pictures and sends texts to your friends, is there anything that we could monetize. You know, if fans are really excited about IP, we sat on Harry Potter and Batman and Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and Sex and the City and so many other amazing franchises. What more could we do? And so I just kind of, I kept ruminating about this being an actual business, but I was in my head and, you know, and then I would show up at work and feel like there's like, suppress those thoughts, like, who are you? How would you ever do anything like this? But they wouldn't go away. And so it almost to me, felt like this. The litmus test was like, Are you obsessed with this idea, and are you even though you don't know how to get it all done today, if you could break it up into little, tiny nano chunks, could you do those nano chunks and scaffold until you actually built a business? And so then, and just, I kind of made a little mini, mini, mini business plan in my brain of like, well, who, who would I need to do that? I probably need a couple of developers, maybe other people at the company could kind of moonlight with me, so we would have our day jobs and then work on this on the side, so it wasn't a real risk or investment for the studio make a couple of these games or apps and then show people put them up and see if they're successful. And then with those dates, little few data points make a case to formalize this into a business. And so it was just those, like, nano things, of like, find other people who are interested and excited about this. Think about the IP that we could use get, like, you know, the the necessary approvals along the way. But more or less, it's about building, building the, you know, the support system. And that's, that's how I did it. And we ultimately built an entire line of business. Then we generated millions of dollars and published dozens of apps, and they became the global kind of headquarters for the whole studio for publishing apps through, you know, through to the App Store. It was really, really exciting to me. I felt like I was, it was a microcosm that I was running my own business within corner. Brothers, yeah, wow, that's like the dream. And so I think one important thing to point out there is that you got buy in, right? So you kind of created a bunch of champions around you for these initiatives, which is, which is huge. Instead of just kind of going on your own, you were spearheading it, but you had this, you built this support. And also you built this kind of like ecosystem. Them, of people who are also growing, you know, their experience and their careers through these, you know, these exciting initiatives, which is, which is really incredible. I want to fast forward just a couple of years, I guess so when, when we're talking about, you know, women taking on these, these leadership roles, you then got involved with Chief and or a CMO over there. I definitely respect that organization so much, and I would love to hear about your time there, because that and talk about the mission of Chief first, before I obliterate it, the mission is actually quite simple. It's to help Executive Women maximize their leadership impact. And I had joined as a member when I was working as a CMO at a tech startup. They had approached me on LinkedIn, as they did you know, many other executive women, and when I first read about it, I got so excited, because my mom had passed away at that point, and I felt like she was this little birdie on my shoulder saying, You need to apply to join this thing this, this is exactly what I would have done. She used to be the president of a non profit version of chief in New York, and so I used to go to events with her, and I was, you know, this kind of honorary member of her organization when I was in high school and college, and so I just it felt like it was, I needed to do it, and I was so excited when they accepted me as a member. And it was a really great opportunity to network with other women. And this when I joined, it was during covid, and so most of their events were virtual, and it was big, but it hadn't achieved, I think, the scale that it did a few years later. And so it was very intimate, you know, and I would join sessions around topics that were top of mind for me, and it always felt like a very safe space to ask questions of other leaders. They offer a program called core, which is you get a group of peers that kind of act as your personal board of directors, and you meet with them on a monthly basis. And so whereas you can network with any other members, you have this group that you're assigned to, that you bond with, and you know you can rely on and ask questions too. And it's, it's, it's really special. I was a member for a few years, and then they recruited me for their cmo role, which was exciting, because it's really fun, especially for a marketer, to join a company when you are the target audience. I knew the product I was at the target so it was, I was able to hit the ground running. Yeah, tell us more about the experience there, because, like you said, you were the target demo, right? And you know, it's, it's doing such, such great, great work, you know, for women in leadership, so is that, is that organization constructed with many women in leadership? Like, did you kind of feel like they talk the talk as and walk the walk as well? I do, I do the, not surprisingly, most of the team members are women, but it's not entirely women, and I think that that's important, but it is. I mean, there's, you know, it was formed by two women, founded by two women, who they themselves, experienced the need for this kind of personal board of directors. They Lindsay Kaplan often talked about, you know this phrase, of like, who's mentoring the mentors? So you're, you're often called upon to give advice to others coming up the ladder. But what happens when you yourself need advice? Who can you look to? And so that's really what Chief was chiefly about. And something that I really admired when I first became a member was this idea, this kind of battle cry to change the face of leadership, and that that speaks to people in different ways. For me, it was about making sure that the board room, whether that's, you know, internal meetings or meetings with boards, but the boardroom as a figure of speech, was comprised of different perspectives and people with different lived experience, and that, of course, means gender, right? But it also, to me, means people with, you know, across racial lines, but also people different lived experience. You know, I show up in boardrooms with so many hats, and one of them is, you know, I'm a parent to two kids. One of them is profoundly disabled and like that that that informs how I see the world, and I think about accessibility and and inclusion and diversity. And so the way chief went about kind of building its network, was really intentional about including people from all walks of life and all cultures. And, you know, admittedly, there were missteps, but that's that was not from lack of the right intention. There's just, you know, when you're building a business and you're trying to scale an idea that clearly has strong product market fit, you're you're not always going to make every decision perfectly, but the their intentions were, all are great, and it came from a place of necessity for both of the founders, which I really admired, and I think a lot of other people do as well. Yeah, you mentioned your daughter and kind of the importance of inclusion and accessibility. Can we talk a little bit more you and I talked a little bit about this before we started recording, but can we talk a little bit more about that and how that's kind of driven you to found truly here and tell us about that as well. Please. Yeah, yeah. You know, I was, I was put on this path very unexpectedly. I My younger daughter has a genetic disorder that is not an inherited disorder. It was the tech the medical term is sporadic, which just means it was random, nothing I could have prepared for. It's called Rett syndrome. And Rett syndrome is unique in that it predominantly affects girls. It's, it's a there's a gene on your X chromosome that has a mutation. It's, it's caused by one gene, and boys typically can't survive it. And so we often talk about as a as a disease that that impacts girls and women, and her symptoms appeared when she was a toddler. So even when she was born, we thought everything was fine. So we were thoroughly unprepared when we learned that she she had this disorder, because she was showing some symptoms, and when I got the news, I got it in the wrong way. I was sent an email over July 4 break. They weren't supposed to send me the genetic report, and they did. And so there was no one to call for days. And so I just took to Google, and I, you know, I broke, I think, had I been given the news the way I was supposed to, by a medical professional, a genetic counselor, and explaining what this could be, what this might not be, I probably wouldn't have had such a traumatic experience. But my husband and I were destroyed by what we were finding on line about what Rett syndrome is and needs my our daughter would lose her ability to speak, to walk, to use her hands. She would have intractable seizures. She would have digestive issues, insomnia, anxiety, hepatonia. The list was endless, and I couldn't I couldn't even process what I was learning. And so it was a really hard time for me, also, because my mom had passed away only a few months prior, and she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer an hour after Sadie was born. So there was, it was, yeah, yeah. I felt like I was being punked. It was, it was a hard it was a hard year and a half, and I was working. This was a, of course, at the time, I had just joined Netflix, which is a pretty intense culture, and I felt like I had just left Warner Brothers. After 13 years, I had endless coins in the bank. People knew my work ethic, my my, you know, my value. And then I joined this new company and had to start from scratch, and, you know, building trust and rapport and creating a name for myself and showing people what value I bring. And all the while, my life was crumbling. And so, yeah, I I wound up I worked for a woman at Netflix who I knew personally before I joined, and she knew everything that was going on. I don't know if this is answering your question, but it's an, I think it's an interesting story that she she told me that one of the reasons that she hired me was my the way that I handled the diagnosis and the way that I was approaching the solution for me, when I was told Sadie had Rett syndrome, and it's the worst case scenario, there was a but and that but was that it was. Was believed to be curable because that mutation was correctable. And so if, if we could get in there and correct the mistake, in theory, the whole disease could be reversed, and all the symptoms would go away, and she would resume living a normal life. And so when I heard that, I went right back into my the same mode I was talking before, when I launched the business at Warner Brothers publishing apps, or when I pitched Rotten Tomatoes, I just sort of went into these kind of, like nano chunks of like, okay, what's my role here? If this is a possibility, this is our only option to pursue. I have to help cure this. And so I launched into this, you know, I got really active in the Rett syndrome research trust, and I joined the board, and I helped raise money, and I co host the world's largest fundraiser for Rett syndrome, and we've raised, I think, $15 million at this point. It's, it was, that was just the only way I could think to kind of honor her, and, you know, tell her I was doing everything I could but also survive. So, you know, I kept working at the time. And I did realize that I think that the Netflix culture was not maybe ideal for me in my current state. And so that is why I eventually went to go to a small, early stage startup where I could build and start fresh, and it was a smaller organization, and it didn't have the same kind of like corporate expectations and bureaucracy, but as I was kind of processing that, I was also beginning to assume a new identity in the mother of a disabled child, and that word disability was something I had a really hard time with. At first, the language is scary and it seems permanent and it and I didn't even know what it meant to be part of the disability community, and at the time, I was in denial, probably, and I didn't even want to make any friends in the disability community. I just wanted to almost have this life where we were, you know, helping her with her symptoms, and then pretending everything was normal and okay, but it wasn't. And I needed to, you know, get her on another path of getting the right treatment and putting her in a different Early Intervention Center and getting her caregivers. And you know that that experience shown, it shined a very bright light for me, on all the iniquities in like navigating this system, all the things, it was so hard. But because I had the business experience that I did, I was able to make that list of all the things I had to do and go one by one, and, you know, negotiate when I had to negotiate, and go to the mat to fight for the things she needed. And, you know, Unturned every stone when there were blockers in our way and at the end of it, you know, I think she has everything that she needs and all things considered as living a great life. But I hate the fact that anyone with like with fewer resources and fewer I think business skills than me goes through life with kids like, you know, who have really profound disabilities, or even, you know, any challenge, and they don't know how to access the services and supports that are available to them. It's just so hard to navigate. And so the thing that came up for me was caregiving, because I looked at like, Why is her life so great. And why am I a really happy, productive, thriving person? And the answer, again and again and again, is that we have great caregivers in our lives. Who are? You know, my daughter doesn't have very many friends of her own because she can't speak. And so these the caregivers that are in her life are her best pals, and they take her places, and they shop with her, and they go to the beach with her, and they love hanging out with her, and she's stimulated by them, and she feels loved and accepted. And for me, I could never have my job or do all of the philanthropy work that I do if I didn't have a great lineup of care for her, so that I had the freedom to do what most parents can do, because their kids get older and become independent. Mine's just not independent. And so care for me and it also, I think my husband and I, you know, back before we had great care, would bicker about the things that you would imagine, like, who's helping, who's changing her diaper, who's calling the doctor, or who's taking her to this appointment, who's emptying the dishwasher, and once we had care in the home to help offload, like some of the things that we knew she needed, our marriage came back, and we were happy again and could focus on the things that matter. Honored, and we could also focus on our older daughter who needed us. And so I decided to build a business to make accessing caregivers easier for families whose kids and adult kids have challenges. It could be behavioral challenges, medical challenges, the spectrum is so vast, but once you have access to care, it really can. It can not only sort of fix a problem, it could make your life wonderful. And that's that's really my mission, is to get every person the care they need so that they can live the life that they that they want. And you know, a big question for a lot of people may be, what about affordability? This is a paid option, but there's so many families who have kids and loved ones who have disabilities or chronic illnesses that are entitled to respite care funds they don't know about and they don't use. So part of this is also directing them to those resources, because I've done it the hard way and making sure that they know that they can use those resources to make this extremely affordable. Yeah, God, it's it's so important. Like you and I were talking briefly. You know about this, and so many of my brothers and sisters have so many different challenges, and I saw my mom go through this like she had to advocate constantly to the point of exhaustion, right? And like, research and like, figure out, like, how to get these kids the support that they needed, our family, the support that we needed, you know, and you're right, the resources just aren't there. So what you're doing is such a beautiful a beautiful thing. And when I think back to what you were speaking about earlier in your career, when you would identify a need and figure it out, you know, and get you know supporters, and it's just like, gosh, when you look back to that, it was almost like beautifully setting you up for this moment, you know, and this environment that you were thrown into, that you could do this and and you've also expanded it because, tell us, I was reading a little bit how you also mentor early stage founders. And then there was one particular founder who you helped, really. And, yeah, so can you tell us a little bit about, yeah, I am a mentor, a friend. I am now being mentored by her because she's a twice, a two time founder, and I think I might be the president of her fan club. Her name is Keeley cat wells, it's funny. I found her through a series of Google searches when I was CMO of a company called bid mob. We did like you know, to support our de and I initiatives. We did some internal and with some of our clients, webinars, just to talk through different life experiences and open our eyes to, you know, different different paths and communities. And I was looking for someone to speak, someone with some authority to speak on the disability experience, and every single Google search I did led to this person, Kelly, cat, well, like, Who is this person? I mean, on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on Google, every search pointed to her. And so I reached out, I did a little stalking on LinkedIn, and I said, I just, I need to know you. I'm doing this thing. I'd love you to be my, my, my, my guest, but I also just need to know you, because everything I read about her was so special. She herself has a disability. She founded a company called C talent, which represented disabled athletes and artists and actors and musicians for roles in, you know, on TV and film, broadcast and, you know, kind of set up a shop, like a little version of a UCA or, you know, or CIA, but specifically Representing disabled talent. It was such a brilliant idea, and it was a huge success. And she wound up selling the business to a company called whaler, and so we had a friendship for you know, several months leading up to the sale, and I wound up helping. You're just advising her on on the sale itself. I happen to know the folks over at whaler, and I thought it was, it was a great partnership. And so she decided to launch into her second, her second startup, which is called Making space, which is also in support of the disability community. And this is a learning and development platform that helps people who have aspirations to work in creative professions and corporate America to help get them the training and also access to jobs that are available. And so she is that kind of learning and development platform. And also I'm probably doing a terrible job saying job board, but like that. That, that access point, so you know what jobs are available. And she's working with companies to specifically look to hire for disability, which is not for disability, but hire people who who happen to have disabilities, just to make sure that, again, we're increasing the diversity of our workforce. So she's, she's, I mean, I mean every like, she's won every award, she's been featured on every, you know, in every interesting article about disability, she's been to the White House multiple times. She hangs out with Gloria Steinem. I don't know. I can't say enough great things about her. She's a wonderful, wonderful person who, I think is, is a shining example of like anything is possible. She hasn't even cracked 30 years old yet. She's just wow. She's incredible. And I feed off of stories like that to remind myself that I can do this. And then I, like so many founders, I'm sure, and so many women, imposter syndrome creeps up all the time, and the way that I combat it is, is going back and reading stories like, Healy's like, she had no business training for this, you know, she she's not even American, she's British. And so she came to America and built these businesses. And the barriers in her way are, you know, probably seemed insurmountable, but she did it. And then, you know, if she could do it, so could I, and there's a million scary things that are involved in starting a business, but I did exactly with truly care, with what I did when I was, you know, in all these other stories I shared was I found other people who believe deeply in what, in the in the problem To be solved. And the My vision for a solution which is incredibly validating, and also so many people, not surprisingly, I would say, almost every person I tell about truly care. Amazingly, just like you come back to me and say, Oh, I have a disability story, I have a child, I have a cousin, I have a niece, I have a brother, sister, and yeah, care has always been a challenge, and so I can see how this is necessary. And so there's just, there's so many people that are cheering me on and offering to help that now I feel like I have to do this, because people are counting on me, right? We have so many families that have signed up on our wait list. They have care jobs to fill, and now my role is to build the pipeline of amazing caregivers to match with these jobs. That's incredible. And what I can't help but think that your leadership style, obviously, servant leader, pops into my head, and so it's like what you've also had so many role I mean, you know, from like Netflix to what you're doing now, you know, what is that? What does serve, being a servant leader, mean to you? And what does that look like in practice, whether or not it's a high stakes environment or, you know, or what it is like. What are your thoughts around that? I think servant leadership absolutely describes me so well done. I think it's about making sure that the people who you are working with and who can help you have everything they need to succeed. It's not about saying yes to every single thing that they suggest or ask for. It's about making sure that they have the resources they need, the support they need, the the validation if they need it to do their best work and reach their potential. That's that for me, how I've always operated, and then get out of the way, you know, I think earlier on in my career, some of the, you know, I've received feedback from teams that have worked for me, and the thing that I've had to work on was I don't always know the right answer, and I oftentimes, if I'm passionate about something, Oftentimes in a design capacity, I'll just inject my opinion, but you don't realize, if you're coming from a position of power, most people just feel like they have to take your opinion as the answer. And so I've learned over the years to just step back and empower other people, like give them what they need, and empower them to make the decisions and stand by those choices, and if they work amazing, if they don't, everyone's learned a lesson, and we can move on and be better next time. When I think about all the different hats you've worn and wear, you know, senior executive found or Founder Mentor, you're also a board member, of course, and so when you're choosing which you know board seats to fill, or you know what organizations you kind of want to partner with, what values come to mind, like what you know, how do you choose? You know whether you're going to serve on a board or not? Yeah. Yeah, so I think maybe it was like five or so years ago, like a lot of women who have achieved some professional success, I felt, to myself, now seems like a good time to join a board. Well, it's definitely not that easy. And I, you know, I signed up for some organizations and nonprofits that help women understand what is entailed and serving on a board, and, you know, listen to countless panel discussions with women on board. And I was like, This is great. This is great, and it is. But I think at the end of the day, if your motive is just, you know, the resume, or to have some equity, or to just have the kind of role where you can give some advice and then you don't have to execute. It's probably unlikely that you're going to find a board opportunity that that wants you and also that fits. So I stopped. I moved away from that motion to like the right thing is going to present itself at the right time. And I, you know, I was a member of of Keely advisory board, and still am for her companies, and that just gives me utter pride and joy to help her build this business that you know, can really change the world for the one in four people who live with a disability and help level the playing field. It means something to me, and so my primary litmus test is like, is it time well spent, and is the advice I'm going to give and the effort I'm going to make going to materialize into something that makes the world a better place? You place. The other boards that I sat on are nonprofit boards where there are always expectations for being a donor when you sit on a nonprofit board. And so for me, I have funneled nearly all of my nonprofit support to the Rett syndrome research trust, because I'm trying to cure Rett syndrome for my daughter. And so I sat on the a few other boards and actually recused myself because I felt like I can't give you guys my all anymore, and I want to make sure that I'm making the best use of my time and and making sure that it's as effective as possible. And so right now, the only nonprofit board that I serve on is Rett syndrome research trust, because I want to give them everything I have no that makes that makes sense and good for you for making that decision, right, instead of just to keep putting one foot in front of the other, just because that's the easier thing to do, and actually identifying what's what works best for for your time and how best to use it, your work is deeply personal. It's it's not light hearted. It's a it carries a certain weight. I would imagine what, do you do to set the tone for your day? Like, what do you do? You know, you're going through highs and lows, you know? Is there anything that you kind of do to help navigate that, um, you mean for my own health or mental health? Yeah, I have gotten so much better about prioritizing my physical and mental health in the last few years as I stared down the barrel of perimenopause. So, you know, exercising more and getting higher quality sleep. My husband is very into this stuff as well, so we're good, like accountability partners for each other, but I love hiking. I love taking long walks and doing yoga and yeah, just making sure that I'm checking in with myself and not getting sucked into the day to day. And then the day goes by and I haven't done anything for myself. I really, I took a peloton class recently, and the instructor was like, you're where you're supposed to be. You're present. Everything else can wait. Which, it's such a like throwaway thing to say, but it really, it's stuck in my brain, everything else can wait. And that's, that's my kind of motivating line that I tell myself when the you know, evening is creeping in and I haven't done any haven't done any exercise, or any, you know, even mental health, walk, everything else can wait. Yeah, no, that's huge. Sometimes when I'm going to sleep, I'm like, all you have to do right now is sleep. That's all you have to worry about. One job, one job right now. That's the sleep. Shut the mind off, please. Um, oh my gosh, I could talk to you forever. So is there a book or podcast or a resource that you know, you recommend? Maybe, maybe it's made a lasting impact. Maybe you're like, Oh, I really, you know, got a lot from that. It doesn't have to be deep. It could be just entertainment value that you want to. In you know that is so hard for me because I consume so much podcasts and I listen and read to books. For me, I love my I will just give you a category or genre I love listening to memoirs. It's my favorite genre, and i i voraciously consume them because they motivate me and they remind me to live a full life. Yeah, I am always amazed and inspired by the the stories shared and memoirs and the, you know, the trials and tribulations and like, how someone survived something, or, you know, just set out to do something really scary, and then it just, I think to myself, like they could do it, I could do it. And just as a reminder to live a full life and and have amazing experiences and live with gratitude. So I would just say, Yeah, long winded answer memoirs. I as a founder, yeah, as a founder. I love the show the pitch. It's kind of like Shark Tank for early stage founders, and you can hear them pitch their businesses to a room full of VCs. And I get a lot of value out of that, because I can just sort of hear how they're telling their story and the questions and the pushback and the validation that they get. Yeah, no, I love that too. And it's my mom always says, like, everyone has a story, you know? And so that's, that's my favorite thing as well. Where, where can people find you? Online if they want to learn more about what you're doing or connect. LinkedIn is the my social network of choice, Steph bone is you can search for me that way. I have, I would say, truly care. Also has a LinkedIn presence, but we're pretty active on Instagram. And the handle is at truly care official. And the website is www dot, truly dot care. And, yeah, that's those are probably the best channels for me. Okay, perfect. We'll include those in the in the show notes. And okay, so I have one last fun question that I ask every single guest, because my husband and I are music heads, but if you could listen to one music artist the rest of your life, who would it be? It's such a good question and hard one to answer, but I think if I'm honest, it might be Alanis morissa. I fell in love with her the 90s. I have never left the fan club. I'm such a fan. And my dad is a musician, music and art in my family as well, and he and I went to her concert in in the 90s, and it was just such a fun experience. That's really cool. Yeah, and she kind of made a resurgence, I feel like, recently, yeah, and she has a show jacket. No, not jacket. Little girl to called, oh my gosh, Meg, is called jacket. Little girl. She has a Broadway show that she produced that I saw that's, that's exactly, yeah, I was listening to a podcast about it was really incredible. Yeah, yeah, that was great. What's your answer? Beastie Boys love it. I've met Adam Yost before. No, I was, I was fan girling so hard, I had breakfast with him, and we did a deal. We, yeah, this girl from Queens, amazing. Yes, exactly. This girl from Queens is like having a heart attack, right? Yeah, we did it. He used to have a production company called oscilloscope. Yes, that he, he, he started with a guy named David Frankel, and we, when I was at Warner Brothers, we were going to distribute all the films that they produced. And so he wanted to have an in person meeting to, you know, get to know us a bit. And so my colleague and I flew out to New York, and we met him for brunch, and I remember him being very into herbal teas. He had a whole setup of all these different herbal teas. He's a health nut. And I was like shaking under the table because I bc boys might be my second answer. I mean, I they're great, yeah. And the next week, there was a an announcement about the deal, and the journalists had interviewed him, and he said, they said, you know, what do you think about working with Warner Brothers? And he said, Well, I met a couple of cool cats and decided this would be a good, you know, a good plan, so let's do it. And I got that article, and I said. To my friends. I'm like, I'm one of the cats. I'm a cool cat. You guys. Oh, my God, that's incredible. Wow. Well, I feel cooler just knowing you're a cool cat. I know my mom, whenever I like Beastie Boys comes up, she's like, still Aaron, and I'm like, still, mom, beasty boy. Okay, Stephanie, literally, I could talk to you all all day, but I promised I would only take, I promised you less than an hour of your time. And, like, apparently I lied so but we are thank you for being on the show and taking the time. I've thoroughly enjoyed our discussion. I really, really appreciate it. Likewise. Thank you for having me. You.