Career Memos withSarina Sarina Virk Torrendell

Welcome to another episode of Career Memos! I am thrilled to welcome Allison Messner, the Co-Founder and CEO of Yardzen, an online landscape design platform. Allison’s career journey has taken her from PR to a budding tech startup, where she witnessed their growth from 10 to 200 employees.
In partnership with her husband Adam, Allison’s mission at Yardzen is to make landscape design beautiful and affordable for the everyday homeowner. She shares the wild way she came up with the idea, and what it was like to build her startup from the ground up. Hint: it was a lot of bootstrapping at first! Her advice and wisdom about raising capital and working with VCs is absolute gold, and there are so many takeaways in this conversation. Enjoy!
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Learn more about Sarina here: https://withsarina.com/about
Yardzen
Careers at Yardzen
TechCrunch Disrupt
OpenDNS
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Chandra Caridi is the VP of Human Resources at Oatly, the delicious, go-to oat milk brand. Chandra shares about her career journey, how to build a strong workplace culture, and how she ended up at a fast-growing, trending company like Oatly by embracing failure and curiosity and welcoming the unknown.
Today, Oatly has over 165 employees and is widely known for having an incredible workplace culture. I’m thrilled to bring this conversation to you.
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Learn more about Sarina here: https://withsarina.com/about
Oatly
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Claire Knebl is the VP of Brand at Ritual, a fan favorite company supporting women's health. Kicking off her multifaceted career as an Online Editorial Assistant at Teen Vogue and even working for Glossier in the early days, Claire’s career journey is so fascinating and she offers all of her insights of what it’s like to work for a fast-growing startup, plus many gems of career advice you won’t want to miss.
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Learn more about Sarina here: https://withsarina.com/about
Claire would love to offer Career Memos listeners 20% off your first month of Ritual using the code CAREER20.
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If you’ve ever heard of the Enneagram and the Myers Briggs personality assessments, or just love learning and discovering new things about yourself, this episode is for you. Molly Owen’s career path went from a self-proclaimed aimless circle to becoming CEO and founder of one of the most scientifically-sound personality test companies, Truity. 
With a passion for people, psychology, and problem-solving, Molly’s mission is to make personality tests that are reliable, affordable, and accurate. In this episode, you’ll learn how these fascinating assessments can offer you unique insights for your career path.
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Learn more about Sarina here: https://withsarina.com/about
Truity
Career Personality Profiler
TypeFinder Assessment
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Sarina’s Free Networking & Job Search Tracker
The Holland Code Test Is a Key Tool for New Job Seekers (and is free to take through June 2021 at this link)
My Guest Post on Truity’s Blog: How To Overcome Your Blind Spots by Enneagram Type

Today I’m sitting down with Amanda Rosenberg, the Brand Director for Allergan Aesthetics, a leading pharmaceutical company that creates cutting-edge products in the area of medical aesthetics, such as Botox and cool sculpting. Amanda’s career has had elements of glamour that skyrocketed her from London to New York working at many different companies all grounded in beauty and fashion, and it’s also been dotted with multiple leaps, jumps, pivots, and risks, too.
Amanda has truly done it all, from PR, to communications, marketing, and brand and in this conversation you’ll learn how she navigated burnout, what the work culture is really like in New York, and how relationships and having many advocates in her corner helped build her career.
Did you enjoy today’s episode? Leave us a rating and review!
Learn more about Sarina here: https://withsarina.com/about
Allergan Aesthetics
Amanda’s LinkedIn Profile
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Sarina’s Free Networking & Job Search Tracker

Seven years ago, Cherie Hoeger saw a real need for better reusable period care products – and after starting Saalt in 2018, it became clear how big that need really was. 
In their second year, Saalt products were stocked in all Target stores nationwide. By their third, Saalt had reached eight figures in revenue! Their company has since donated more than 100,000 products to help women and girls worldwide and has funded 600,000 days of school for girls.
What’s noteworthy about Cherie’s story is that her background wasn’t in business. It was in writing. But she did have five daughters, and the news from relatives in Venezuela – that political instability was causing a pad and tampon shortage – kept her up at night. Wasn’t there a reusable product that could prevent girls in developing countries from missing school?
In this episode, Cherie takes us behind the scenes of starting this very successful company with her husband. For them, conducting the research and pinpointing their mission has been crucial, offering them fuel while navigating the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and helping them effectively create something that consumers wanted.
 
IN THIS EPISODE:
Cherie’s background as an English major, writer, and editor, and the conversation with her husband’s aunt in Venezuela that kept her up at night and provoked her to start Saalt The beginnings of the company, starting with the creation of a 3D CAD model of their first period cup, and how they differentiated themselves in a saturated market Their first years of business, which included a product recall and a buyer from Target who changed everything, helping them reach 8 figures in year three Becoming a B Corp-certified business: how to get certified, the impact it can have socially and environmentally, and the importance of mission for Gen Z/Millennial consumers Using market research to literally create a company that consumers wanted and the importance of surrounding yourself with other entrepreneurs  
LINKS/RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Learn more about Saalt and the story of how the company came to be. 
Sarina is a career coach and consultant who works with startup leaders and entrepreneurs. Connect with her on her website, on Instagram, via email, and check out more episodes of the Career Memos podcast.