The Living Lab: Recent Episodes
Paige Harris
Welcome to The Living Lab podcast, where we dive into simple health, beauty and mental mindset habits that will help get you closer to living the life you’ve been dreaming of. In each episode, we’ll be chatting with fellow eCommerce brand founders, health experts and more to get their best advice on becoming the ultimate version of you.
Life is easy if you know what you are doing and if everything goes your way, but this is not usually the case. When life begins to feel hectic and out of control, it is time to take a look at how you spend your time and see if you can make some changes.
In order to gain a balance between the various aspects of your life, it is important to begin by taking an honest inventory of yourself, your activities and your responsibilities.
These are topics we’re diving into today with my guest Emma Marceline Roy. Emma is a Lifestyle Coach for the Corporate Millennial who also just recently launched her program Compass — A four-month 1:1 coaching program designed to guide and support you through the changes of life.
In this episode, we chat about:
- What are boundaries?
- Why do we need them
- Why it’s so hard to stick to them
- How to approach a lack of direction
- Why time blocking isn't the best method
- Our thoughts on “That girl” TikTok content
Quick links:
- Don’t forget to checkout Emma on Instagram and her coaching website
- Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE and follow @livinglab.co so you don’t miss out on any new episodes coming up.
And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review! Thanks!
Get to know MilkMilkSugar founder Dani Aldwinckle, who creates one-of-a-kind digital art files, perfectly tailored for the Cricket machine. Learn how she built her digital file Etsy business and became one of the top Etsy sellers in the WORLD.
You don't want to miss:
- How to launch a business on Etsy
- Pros and cons of selling on Etsy
- How to build and grow a thriving community on social media
- How to deal with copycats
- Why you need a niche
- and more!
Quick links:
- Visit MilkMilkSugar on Etsy
- Find Dani on Instagram
Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE and follow @lacliving.co so you don’t miss out on any new episodes coming up.
And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review! Thanks!
Picture this: you've worked hard, you're a valuable and talented employee, and your company is going through a tough time. Usually nothing to do with you at all.
The last thing you need is to be laid off. But that's exactly what happened to me in early 2019 when I was let go from my job as a Marketing Manager at the first tech startup I worked for.
In this episode, I share my advice for how to deal with getting laid off from your job as well as my own personal story.
You don't want to miss:
- Tips for those affected by the tech layoffs in 2022
- "I got laid off from my job, now what do I do?"
- Advice for those laid off from Shopify and other unicorn companies
- Should you make a public announcement when you get laid off?
- My story getting laid off from my marketing job
Tips on building your portfolio website:
- Use notion.com & potion.so or super.so to build a super easy 1-page personal website
- Check mine out as an example here: https://paigeharris.co/
Welcome to the Living Lab pod! Thanks for tuning in.
Meet Dr. Aliya Visram, an acupuncturist, chiropractor and co-founder of Bloom Balance & Wellbe family Wellness, Toronto's most comprehensive family wellness clinic.
An acupuncturist of over 14 years, Aliya specializes in women's health, pre and post-natal care as well as family wellness.
In this interview, we chatted about her journey to launching Wellbe Family Wellness (during a pandemic, might I add) and how to build an eCommerce wellness brand, Bloom Balance, a holistic wellness business that sells curated collections of products that help people achieve mindfulness through ritualistic practices.
You don't want to miss:
- Building a lifestyle and wellness brand during a pandemic
- Why practicing self-care at home is so important
- How to pitch to Dragon's Den Canada and what that was like
- Why organic UGC is better than bought
And more amazing topics!
Quick links:
- Check out Wellbe Family Wellness clinic online and on Instagram
- Visit bloombalance.co and on Instagram
This week I had the pleasure of chatting with Katie Steckly, a content creator with over 160 thousand subscribers on YouTube and the Founder of a social media marketing agency called Creatorly Media.
Katie helps other social media creators, as well as business owners, grow their accounts by sharing the latest and greatest advice on content marketing.
You don't want to miss:
- Overcoming mental blockers when it comes to content creation
- Content copycatting and how to avoid it
- Why having a niche is so essential for growth in 2022
- Best advice for solopreneurs looking to manage their accounts
And more!
Quick links:
- Find Katie Steckly on YouTube and Instagram
- Check out Creatorly Media online and on Instagram
- And last but not least, Katie has some amazing resources and services for creators and founders
Make sure to follow along at @livinglab.co
WTF is a hot girl summer?The official definition comes from its creator, rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who defined Hot Girl Summer as, “just basically about women — and people — just being unapologetically them, just having a [good] time, hyping up your friends, doing you, not giving a damn about what nobody got to say about it”.
Here are some ideas that I’m doing to make the most out of the next two months and not waste a damn minute. My goal for this summer was to be stress-free, healthy, and boost my overall happiness and wellbeing.
Don't forget to follow the instagram @livinglab.co! And stay tuned for the newsletter coming next week.
Introducing Allison Asis of Cadette Jewelry. Allison founded her everyday luxury jewelry brand Cadette back in 2014. We had an organic and genuine conversation about how she is using authentic storytelling to build a unique brand with a loyal customer base.
We chat all about her jewellery-making process from start to finish, and how she conveys her products on her website, telling a story with every brand interaction.
You don’t want to miss:
- Building an authentic brand true to you
- Giving back to the community
- Talking to your customers (literally)
- Sustainable growth
- Why email is the best marketing channel
Quick links:
- Don’t forget to checkout the Cadette website and on Instagram
Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE and follow https://www.instagram.com/livinglab.co so you don’t miss out on any new episodes coming up. Learn about business, balance and wellbeing from a Canadian entrepreneur for Canadian women!
And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review! Thanks!
Often one of the hardest parts about starting a business is just that, getting started. I remember when I started my first business in 2013 and the amount of fear I had during certain starting points was insane.
There are a ton of thoughts that run through your mind like:
- What if I fail?
- What if people judge me?
- What if I’m “found out”
But these are all just excuses. You can overcome these fears by getting into action and actually doing what needs to be done to start your business!
In this episode of The Living Lab podcast, hosted by Paige Harris, we will chat all about the lies we tell ourselves that end up self-sabotaging our goals, and success and prevent us from getting started.
Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to follow us on Instagram @livinglab.co
Get to know Slipp founder, Victoria Lyons, who almost 2 years ago, made the bold decision to start a condom business. The idea came from her own personal struggles with finding the right birth control option.
FACT: Over 80% of women do not carry condoms with them. This is why Victoria and Slipp is smashing the stigma around carrying condoms to reclaim our right to safer sex and pleasure. In this episode we chat about:
- Launching a sexual wellness brand in 2022
- Why safe sex is self-care
- Why we need better birth control options as women
- Disrupting a male-dominated product category
- Building a bootstrapped DTC brand from scratch on Shopify
- Using TikTok as a marketing channel in 2022 (UGC)
- Getting started in wholesale using Faire
Quick links:
- Don’t forget to check out the Slipp website and on Instagram and TikTok
- Taking Charge of Your Fertility Book
Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE and follow @livinglab.co so you don’t miss out on any new episodes coming up.
And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review! Thanks!
Welcome back to The Living Lab with Paige Harris. In this episode, we dive into helpful ways to get out of a rut. It's June, which means it's the middle of the year. You've made some progress on your goals, but you're probably not where you want to be.
Mid-year is a perfect time to evaluate where you are, what you want and how to get there. It's also a great time to remind yourself that the only thing that matters is what you focus on.
A mid-year reset is a quick review of everything you've accomplished so far this year, as well as an assessment of what you have left to do. It will help keep your mind focused on your goals, rather than on distractions that can lead you off course.
You don’t want to miss:
- How to reflect, revisit and revamp your yearly goals
- How to find your "Why" or your North Star
- How to set goals (and actually achieve them)
- Get my FREE template to walk you through your mid-year reset.
Resources:
- FREE Goals & Life Check-in Notion Template
- Make sure to click "Duplicate" in the top right corner of this template to use it for yourself!
Make sure to SUBSCRIBE, and follow us on Instagram at @livinglab.co so you don’t miss out on our episodes each week!
We’d also love it if you could take a few minutes to rate and review. Thanks!
As two people who have spent the past few years building a business from scratch, we know the challenges of trying to grow and scale a boostrapped business whether you’re in eCommerce, Shopify store, a freelancer or another category. So here are 5 things you need to stop doing as a solopreneur so that you can just chill out already. You don’t want to miss:
- 5 things you need to stop doing as a solopreneur or entrepreneur
- Why other small businesses are not your competition
- How to start saying no
- Why you need to pick one social media channel
- Automation and scaling back
PLUS, our biggest advice for selling to your audience using social media - without them unfollowing you!
Links and resources:
- Follow us on Instagram: @livinglab.co
- Brands and apps we mentioned in this episode: Rose Inc, Aftership Returns Center
Make sure you hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss out on any of our episodes.
And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review! Thanks!
Welcome back to The Living Lab with Paige Harris and Alex Bennett. In this episode, we dive into helpful ways to get out of a rut. If you're feeling unmotivated, not like your usual self, or lacking positivity and routine then this is the episode for you!
We’re super excited to start having conversations around finding balance in our busy lifestyles, healthy and authentic living, trying to grow our small business on top of life, and positive habits we try to practice each day to get us closer to our dream life.
You don’t want to miss:
- 9 ways to get out of a rut
- How to set goals (and actually achieve them)
- Why perfect isn't the end goal
- Practical tips on remaining consistent
Make sure to SUBSCRIBE, and follow us on Instagram at @livinglab.co so you don’t miss out on our episodes each week! We’d also love it if you could take a few minutes to rate and review. Thanks!
Welcome back to The Living Lab podcast, a Canadian podcast hosted by two women in their early 30s trying to navigate balance, business and more! Hosted by Paige Harris and Alex Bennett.
Today is your chance to get to know Paige a little better.
We'll be interviewing Paige about how she got started in eCommerce and tech, what motivates her and what it was like to start her own business. We're also asking her to answer some questions that we think you might have too!
We also have a fun rapid-fire question series at the end that you don't want to miss.
We hope you'll tune in next Monday on Spotify or Apple! Don't forget to follow us @livinglab.co
Get to know Mintier founders, Rhaelyn Gillespie and Jessica Sheppard, who created a first of its kind product solving a universal problem, bad breath. Former Clearbanc (now called Clearco) employees, they both quit their jobs to build a clean and sustainable consumer packaged goods (CPG) company in the oral care category. They developed a 100% natural alternative that is the world’s first oil-based breath mint which they sell via their eCommerce website and wholesale to hundreds of retailers across North America.
In this episode we chat about:
- Launching a clean CPG brand on Kickstarter
- Staying true to your brand values
- Building a bootstrapped DTC & wholesale brand from scratch on Shopify
- Using TikTok as a marketing channel in 2022 (UGC)
- Selling into retail stores across North America
Quick links:
- Don’t forget to check out the Mintier website and on Instagram and TikTok
- Use the code LIVINGLAB15 for 15% off your first order!
- Read more about Mintier here.
Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE and follow @livinglab.co so you don’t miss out on any new episodes coming up.
And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review! Thanks!
Welcome back to The Living Lab podcast, a Canadian podcast hosted by two women in their early 30s trying to navigate balance, business and more! Hosted by Paige Harris and Alex Bennett.
Today is your chance to get to know Alex a little better.
We'll be interviewing Alex about how she got started in the real estate industry, what motivates her and what it was like to start her own business. We're also asking her to answer some questions that we think you might have too!
We also have a fun rapid-fire question series at the end that you don't want to miss.
We hope you'll tune in next Monday on Spotify or Apple! Don't forget to follow us @lacliving
In this episode, we're chatting with Emily Payne, Sr. Talent Development Partner at Bridgit and former Sales Talent Lead at Shopify. If you’re looking to better align your career with your personal values than you’re in the right place.
Hear Emily’s career journey and how she grew her career at Shopify Plus for over 7 years in the sales enablement space, transitioning to motherhood, going on maternity leave and coming back, what it’s like to work in the high-performing tech space and more!
You don't want to miss:
- How to discover your personal values
- When it might be time to leave your job for something new
- Dealing with burnout as a high performer
- Balancing motherhood and career growth
- And more!
Quick links:
- Follow Emily on Instagram and LinkedIn
Thanks for listening! Follow the pod on Instagram @livinglab.co and make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on any of our episodes on balance, business and healthy living.
In this episode, we're chatting with Lauren Kurtz, Founder of Après Actif a minimalist lifestyle apparel brand inspired by ski and snowboard culture. We dive into how Lauren built her brand from the ground up, and how she expanded into 50 retail stores across Canada and the US.
You don't want to miss:
- Building a personal brand and community before launching your business
- Expanding into wholesale
- Balancing working two jobs while bootstrapping your brand
- Why comparison kills creativity
Quick links:
- Shop Après Actif online and find them on Instagram
- Follow Lauren on Instagram
Thanks for listening! Follow the pod on Instagram @livinglab.co and make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on any of our episodes on balance, business and healthy living.
If you’re in the process of building or scaling an ecommerce brand than this is the episode for you!
In this episode we’re getting personal about something we’ve been struggling with a lot lately which is having patience when it comes to building your business or brand.
Scrolling social media it can often seem like brands are going viral overnight and blowing up overnight. Yet in reality, building a brand takes time, years in fact which is why it’s so important to practice patience when building your business from scratch.
Learn to enjoy the process, instead of racing to the finish line.
You don’t want to miss:
- How long did it take to build LAC swim?
- Tips on letting go control
- How to build a sustainable brand that lasts
- How positive thinking, leads to positive results
- Follow us on Instagram @livinglab.co!
Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on any of our episodes on balance, business and healthy living.
And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating or review! Thanks for listening!
Welcome to The Living Lab podcast episode 007. Today we're chatting all about imposter syndrome, and why it might be blocking you from reaching your goals. If you're a high performer, you'll relate to this episode because we chat about all the reasons you might be suffering from self-doubt, impostorism and feeling like you're not measuring up. Don't miss out on:
- Common categories of impostorism
- Where we may have picked up the imposter syndrome mentality
- How to handle imposter syndrome
Don't forget to like and subscribe and tune in every Monday for new episodes. Follow @livinglab.co for pod updates and more!
Join Paige Harris and Alex Bennett, co-founders of LAC swim, as they talk about how to have a Spring Glow Up from the inside out in 2022.
Listen along as they chat beauty tips and the importance of “look good feel good mentality”, how to hone in on some of your insecurities to glow from the inside out, and how to push yourself out of your comfort zone and get back into socializing with friends and family to have you feeling your best self as we enter a new season.
You don’t want to miss:
- What Paige & Alex are living for this week
- Why we think having external beauty goals is just as important as internal and mental goals
- What Alex & Paige do to reach their ultimate spring glow up
- Other hot topics like botox, body neutrality, gratitude, not sweating the small stuff and more!
Quick links:
- Follow us on Instagram @lacliving
- Check out our friend Lauren's brand Après Actif
Make sure you hit FOLLOW or SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on our weekly episodes.
Thanks for listening!
Get to know Daniela Di Paolo, co-owner of ArteStile, a Canadian beauty brand that creates innovative and premium beauty tools made in Italy. In this episode, we dive into when the right time to quit your job and go full-time is, tips for hiring your first employee and building a bootstrapped brand from scratch on Shopify. You don’t want to miss:
- Tips for hiring your first employee for your eCommerce brand
- Selling direct-to-consumer, wholesale and private label
- The daily struggles of running a bootstrapped brand
- Advice for young founders looking to build a business
Links:
- Don’t forget to check out the ArteStile Beauty website and find them on Instagram @artestilebeauty
- Use the code LIVINGLAB20 for 20% off your first order!
- Check out https://joinform.co/
Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE and follow @lacliving so you don’t miss out on any new episodes coming up.
And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review!
Thanks for tuning in!
Talking all things balance and business with Haley Bowler-Cook of Uplift Lifestyle. Haley’s background as an entrepreneur turned life coach educates us on the art of a balanced lifestyle through what she has coined Successful Execution and Strategic Spaciousness, devotion to your life, your goals, and our time on earth as a whole. This episode is amazingly insightful, we think you’re going to love it!
You don’t want to miss:
- Haley’s new containers being offered to further our entrepreneurial development and becoming the person we want to be
- Being the main character in your life
- More helpful tips on how we can all reach success, make more money and life authentically
Links and resources:
- Follow Haley on Instagram @uplift_lifestyle
- Check out the Uplift Lifestyle website
- Don’t forget to check out her podcast Uplift Lifestyle.
Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on any of our episodes, released every Monday!
In this episode, we dive into how to start your day with intention. We talk about morning routines, overcoming negative thoughts, setting yourself up for success and more. Having an intentional morning will help you stay on track with your goals and help you make the most out of each day without feeling guilty or stressed. You don't want to miss:
- Our morning routines, and how to create yours
- How to stay positive throughout the day when fears and negative thoughts creep up
- 6 tips on how to start your day with intention, you can start tomorrow
Make sure to SUBSCRIBE or follow @lacliving, so you don't miss out on our episodes every Monday! We'd also love it if you could take a few minutes to rate and review.
Thanks for listening!
WTF is balance and why can’t we find it? Living a balanced lifestyle is not easy, it takes work, self-discipline, and understanding what you value most in life.
In this episode we dive into what balance means to us as eCommerce brand founders, what has not worked for us in the past, and 5 tips on moving towards a more balanced lifestyle for young business owners in their 20s and 30s.
You don’t want to miss:
- What balance means to us, and what even is it
- What happens when you’re not living balanced (spoiler alert you burnout)
- Juggling a full-time job and a side hustle at the same time
- 5 tips on living a more balanced lifestyle
Make sure to follow us wherever you listen and follow us on Instagram at @lacliving so you don’t miss out on our episodes each week! We’d also love it if you could take a few minutes to rate and review. Thanks!
Welcome to the first episode of The Living Lab podcast with Paige Harris and Alex Bennett. We’re super excited to start having conversations around finding balance in our busy lifestyles, healthy and authentic living, trying to grow our small business on top of life, and positive habits we try to practice each day to get us closer to our dream life. You don’t want to miss:
- Get to know brand founders Alex and Paige and how we met
- The LAC swim story, how we got started and where we’re going
- Running a small Shopify eCommerce business during a pandemic
- How we stayed positive
Make sure to SUBSCRIBE, and follow us on Instagram at @livinglab.co so you don’t miss out on our episodes each week! We’d also love it if you could take a few minutes to rate and review. Thanks!
Welcome to The Living Lab podcast, where we dive into the best business, balance and wellbeing tips that will help get you closer to living the life you’ve been dreaming of.
Each Monday, you’ll join 30-something hosts Paige Harris where we’ll be chatting with fellow founders, health experts and more to get their best advice on becoming the ultimate version of you.
I've had lots of ups, downs on our small eCommerce business journey, and we’re excited to follow along, learn and grow with us!
Make sure to SUBSCRIBE, and follow our Instagram @livinglab.co so you don’t miss out on our episodes each week!