IAM375- Web Pioneer Behind a Global Women’s Health Company

Aliza Sherman is a web pioneer who founded the first woman-owned Internet company, Cybergrrl, Inc., and the first organization for women to learn about the Internet in the 90s, Webgrrls International. She is the author of 12 books including Cannabis and CBD for Health and Wellness: An Essential Guide for Using Nature’s Medicine to Relieve Stress, Anxiety, Chronic Pain, Inflammation, and More, The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit and Social Media Engagement for Dummies.

Her work has been featured in USA Today, Newsweek, Time, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, and she has presented at the BlogHer Annual Conference, SXSW Interactive and SXSW Cannabusiness Tracks, Women Grow Leadership Summit, and The Women's Economic Forum.

• CEO Hack: Front-loading my work in the wee hours of the morning
• CEO Nugget: Find your true identity and live your truth
• CEO Defined: Visionary and steering the ship to that vision

Website: http://www.ellementa.com/

Twitter: @alizasherman; @ellementawoman
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alizasherman 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alizasherman
Book link: https://ellementa.com/cannabisbook/

Full Interview

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the IAMCEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I've Aliza Sherman of Ellementa. Aliza, it is awesome to have you on the show.

Aliza Sherman 0:39

Great to be here. Hello from Alaska.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

Nice to see you. I hope everything is warm over there. What I wanted to do is just read a little bit more about Aliza so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

Aliza Sherman is a web pioneer who founded the first woman-owned Internet company, Cybergrrl, Inc., and the first organization for women to learn about the Internet in the 90s, Webgrrls International. She is the author of 12 books including Cannabis and CBD for Health and Wellness: An Essential Guide for Using Nature’s Medicine to Relieve Stress, Anxiety, Chronic Pain, Inflammation, and More, The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit and Social Media Engagement for Dummies.

Her work has been featured in USA Today, Newsweek, Time, CNN, CNBC, and MSNBC, and she has presented at the BlogHer Annual Conference, SXSW Interactive and SXSW Cannabusiness Tracks, Women Grow Leadership Summit, and The Women's Economic Forum.

Aliza, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Aliza Sherman 1:38

I am ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:40

Awesome. You're rocking and rolling. So I wanted to kick everything off to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to start your business?

Aliza Sherman 1:48

Well, my current business Ellementa, which is a global women's health company, is probably my sixth, seventh, or eighth company that I've started and run by. The CEO story for Ellementa is, I was researching for my digital marketing company and looking for a new market, and I saw that the cannabis industry looked quite interesting. This is about four years ago. I wanted to explore it as a way of finding new clients for digital marketing but very quickly learned that everything I had learned about cannabis was wrong, and realized that it could help me as medicine. I learned that it worked very well.

I'm a big proponent of quality CBD products. Now, for my own health, it made me realize that there was no forum out there for women to learn about cannabis and CBD for health and wellness. That was why I started Ellementa. It was the idea I came up with, I ended up in the role of CEO, I asked a friend of mine, to join me, Melissa Pierce out of Chicago, she's the CEO, and then we asked Ashley Kingsley in Denver to join us. So she's in charge of outreach for sponsors and for the women we serve.

Gresham Harkless 3:15

Nice, that's definitely awesome to hear how things progressed from just looking for clients, and then all of a sudden, you realize that there's nothing here that actually exists, especially if you're so ahead of the curve. There's a newer type of industry, or I guess the industry is growing, maybe I should say. So you're ahead of the curve from that standpoint. Then all of a sudden, you start your your business from there.

Aliza Sherman 3:37

Yeah, I think something that I've always done is that I actually do get paid by certain clients to do future trends. I'm always looking to see what's coming down the pike and what does that mean for the way that we mark it the way that we communicate, the way that we take care of ourselves, the way that we use technolog. These are all areas of interest for me.

So all the businesses that I've founded, have been at the beginning or the forefront of new industries. And then the industry takes off and I start to look for what's the next thing, that's just been my way of doing things because I love to be interested in something. I like to learn something new all the time, and just expand what I do. So being CEO is really pushing the envelope for me, I'm normally president or spokesperson. So being CEO is a bigger heavy lift. It's been quite an interesting ride.

Gresham Harkless 4:37

Yeah, absolutely. It definitely sounds like you have to be thinking as you spoke to be able to see what's coming what's going on where the trends are going to be able to make those correct decisions for yourself and also for your clients. And so I wanted to drill a little bit deeper and hear a little bit more about Ellementa if you tell us a little bit more about what we can find there.

Aliza Sherman 4:57

So Ellementa has two sides to the business. We have our consumer-facing side where we're educating women specifically, women hold not just purse strings to the purchases of health care products, but they're also deciding what comes into the household, what goes into the medicine chest, and what to give their loved ones, their kids or their partners or even their aging parents. So women are a key door opener for any brand that wants to get their product into the home.

So we focus on educating women about cannabis and CBD. Because there's so much misinformation out there. There's also very little good information about how it fits into a healthy lifestyle or women's health. So and even the role of women as moms as parents, how do you handle what's going on with the legalisation of cannabis in many different states? So that's our consumer side. And we have these events that go on in cities, right now over 60 cities across North America.

Gresham Harkless 6:00

Awesome.

Aliza Sherman 6:01

We're looking to expand it to the UK and Australia, and hopefully, New Zealand because I love New Zealand so that's one aspect, that whole education and events and we also do this online, we do webinars and online events like film screenings. So these are, again, ways of educating the consumer.

Now we also have the brand side. That's where we work with companies who want to reach women who appreciate the power of women as consumers but don't know how to do it the right way. Or they're limited because cannabis companies can't really advertise. So how can they directly reach the consumer? So that is the B2B side of our company is working directly with brands.

Gresham Harkless 6:45

Nice. I definitely appreciate that holistic approach, not just from what are you teaching, but also having the b2c but also having the b2b aspect where you're essentially the person, that connector, the connecting company, for the women, but also for the brands as well.

Aliza Sherman 7:01

Well, we call it the bridge, where the bridge, or the bridge between the consumer and we educate her so she's primed and ready to buy the right products. And then we are serving that brand, how do you reach that woman in the right way? And also making sure these brands are paying attention to things like testing, and getting your test results out there, because this is plant medicine, this is not the same thing as just buying a pill off the shelf. There's a lot of variability in plant medicine. Anyone who knows alternative medicine, herbal remedies, Chinese herbs, and aromatherapy, you're more familiar with that process. But most people are just used to pulling something off of the drugstore shelf or getting a prescription.

And then that's it. Yeah, that's what you use, and is going to do a certain thing. So plant medicine is a lot more individual. And that's the thing that we want to communicate. So we want to make sure that when we recommend a product, that company is paying close attention to the things that are important to women, everything from what am I putting into my body and into the bodies of my loved ones? But also, what is this company? Do they have good ethics and morals? Are they giving back to their community? Do they support women? So that's also very important to know about the female consumer.

Gresham Harkless 8:18

Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely great to hear because you're so not into the female consumer, that you are able to communicate with these brands and make sure that they understand the things that are at the forefront are the most important and the priorities from the consumer because you're able to be that bridge or be able to make sure who comes across or who doesn't come across that bridge, because you have that idea of what's at the forefront.

Aliza Sherman 8:39

Yeah, well, we call ourselves experts in women and cannabis. We have been doing this for a couple of years now We survey our women, and we have a whole lot of data about the women whom we serve, what they like what they don't like, we call it the perceptions of cannabis, the purchasing habits, and the preferences. Those three P's, if you will, are the window that we look through, as we're gazing at what women want and what they need. And then when you discover what they want, and they need and you serve them, everyone else benefits. As I said, the kids benefit, the spouse benefits, and the aging parents benefit the circle of friends, if your friend has cancer, who is usually the one that's going over to offer the support? So knowing how cannabis or CBD can help in these various aspects of our lives and our health, I think is really important. And that's what we do.

Gresham Harkless 9:40

Nice. Well that's definitely great to hear and that you guys haven't been able to build that and then you'll have in so many different cities across the world. So I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce and you might have already touched on this but this could be for you or your organization but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Aliza Sherman 9:58

For me, I think a secret sauce is operating entirely from a place of integrity. I believe in total honesty, I make a lot of mistakes, and I know I do. Maybe I don't always admit to all of them or my husband. But I really want to learn from my mistakes, and I want to learn from others.

So I'm very open, I'm very transparent, I will tell you the way it is. Sometimes people think that's a little bit too blunt. But ultimately, when you operate with complete honesty, then you don't have a lot of backpedaling to do, you're not hiding anything, people realize that they can trust you sooner and earlier. It takes less time to trust somebody who's really open and honest. I believe, that's my secret sauce.

Gresham Harkless 10:45

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. And I feel like you're being consistent because a person knows exactly who you are, that goes a long way, because they know you're gonna be blind, you're gonna be honest. And definitely, if they understand it, then they know that's what's always going to consistently happen. So I appreciate that and appreciate what you're doing. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Aliza Sherman 11:12

Well, I do wake up quite early. And it's not always a deliberate thing. It happens, it's when you get older, you just kind of sleep less and wake up early, but I use it to my advantage, I really find that in those morning hours, I have so much more clarity, no distractions at all, because everyone else is asleep. And I am much more productive. So I can front load a lot of my work in those wee early hours. And then by the time everyone starts waking up, and the emails start flowing, the phone calls start happening. I've taken care of a lot of the work.

Gresham Harkless 11:49

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And if you're able to take advantage of that, then, you're able to create more time and create more meaningful time as well as inefficient time, whether that be in the business or in relationships, as you mentioned, because that's a lot of times what it all comes down to.

Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. This is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you could hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self,

Aliza Sherman 12:13

I would tell my younger self that business seems like it's everything. But if you don't have everything else around you, in good shape, business is not going to be the cure-all. And so I think this touches a little bit on what I was saying to the previous question. At the end of the day, nobody said on their deathbed, I wish I'd spent way more time at work. I think many of us aren't even in touch with that yet, we feel invincible, we feel like we're gonna live forever.

When you go past 50, which is where I'm at now, you begin to slow down and realize, hold on a second. I did a lot of crazy things, particularly around work back in my 20s and 30s. It's not sustainable. And then as people around you, your loved ones pass away. You're like, wait a minute, wait a minute, what's really important? So I love work. I love my company and I love business in general, my whole identity has been around what I would tell my younger self.

Find your true identity, your truth, your personal truth, and live that business will be really great. If you do that. Relationships will be good, family life will be good. Taking care of yourself will be really a priority if you live your truth. So that's that's my nugget. That's my takeaway from my younger self.

Gresham Harkless 13:40

That's absolutely perfect. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote and quote CEOs on this show.

So Aliza, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Aliza Sherman 13:51

Being a CEO, to me means steering the ship, and having a vision about what is out there. But being able to steer flexibly to be able to find the best path for this ship, that you're steering the ship is business and not considering your company, your baby. It's not a business, is a vehicle. It's an entity that is separate from yourself.

So you want to steer that ship, you absolutely want to have empathy. You can't be nonemotional, but there is a path for this entity, and you're bringing a lot of people along with you. So having that vision and having a clear view of what's out there and then steering that ship with flexibility is really what being a CEO is all about.

Gresham Harkless 14:50

Nice. I definitely appreciate that definition. I definitely see like being on a lighthouse or something like that and looking out and making sure you're going the right way to make sure there aren't any rocks or anything like that.

So, Aliza, I appreciate your time and appreciate all the awesome things you're doing. I wanted to pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they can get a hold of you.

Aliza Sherman 15:15

Well, I think that the key thing to remember is we're all kind of in this together. Either if you're in the cannabis industry, we do have this feeling we're all in this together, because there are a lot of things going against us right now. We're all trying to do good work and bring good things to people, good medicine to people. But even as somebody running a business, we're all in this together.

This is hard, running a startup especially s very hard. You can find me at alizasherman.com. And then I'm at Elisa Sherman, pretty much all the social media platforms out there. I like Twitter, so I tend to be on Twitter the most. I'm a little bit on Instagram. But my company Ellementa is pretty much everywhere.

Gresham Harkless 16:08

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes as well. But I appreciate your time, appreciate all the things that you're doing and all the awesome gems that you dropped for us today. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Aliza Sherman 16:20

Thank you, you do the same.

Outro 16:21

Thank you for listening to the IAMCEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co IAMCEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co.

This has been the IAMCEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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