As the founder and owner of Beauty Ethics, Hafer is working to disrupt the beauty industry by creating safe and sustainable products. Hafer will also be a speaker at our 2019 WINnovation event, featuring women in business. We asked her a few quick questions in advance of her talk. 

 

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

On an ideal morning (after I feed the cats and have coffee) I take time to write in my journal, go over things I’d like to do that day, check in with how I’m feeling and what I’m worried about. As I write, stream-of-consciousness style, I make little boxes if I think of things I need to do so I can check them off later. So, my ’to do” list is part of my journal, and I accept that I can’t get everything done necessarily. But eventually it all does get done, even if it’s months later. I often flip through my journal just to get a sense of my progress, including whether I’ve overcome certain worries or obstacles. It’s like a morning meditation, but I’ll do it any time during the day and often before bed, too—whenever I need to get things out of my head and onto paper.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

The best advice I was ever given was from my mom, in high school, when she told me to stop over-tweezing my brows. But I ignored it, and now every day I have to fill in brow gaps from the 90s! The next best advice I was ever given was in grad school in my Community Psychology class. We were told the most important thing when approaching a problem was prioritizing the opinions of those would be affected by our decisions. Basically, to not just assume our ideas were great and force them on people. For some reason that hadn’t occurred to me before! When I was younger, I was so confident I knew what was best for everyone all the time. Now I tend to crowdsource decisions, great and small. That’s how we built our product line, using surveys and conversations with clients, and I think that’s why it’s working.

What’s your go-to spot for a business lunch?

Hummingbird! It’s a 2-minute walk down the road from our shop, and I love it any time of day for a meeting. Coffee, lunch, cocktails, inside or on their patio, you can have a conversation and usually see someone you know. It’s a special place and I feel so lucky it’s convenient to us! I’ve been known to go multiple times a day

 

You can hear more from Hafer at our annual WINnovation summit September 20. Buy tickets here.