337: Shaping a Sustainable Future: Vegan Women Summit Founder | Jennifer Stojkovic

00:00:00 Jennifer: You know, what are some of the surprising ways that animals are used? And they said, “Oh, here's a good one for you: there's beef in Canadian money.” Literally, beef tallow is in Canadian currency. So the depth of which animals are commercialized in the way that we live our lives, and the products that we use and consume and put on our bodies, and all those different things, and exchanges tender even—it's vast.

00:00:26 Maya: This is the Healthy Lifestyle Solutions Podcast and I'm your host, Maya Acosta. If you're willing to go with me, together we can discover how simple lifestyle choices can help improve our quality of life, and increase our longevity in a good way. Let's get started. Jennifer Stojkovic is a renowned food tech leader, founder of Vegan Women Summit, and author of the groundbreaking book, “The Future of Food is Female.” With her global media and events platform and the Vegan Women Summit, Jennifer empowers women to shape a kinder, more sustainable world. Through Vegan Women Summit, she has created impactful initiatives like the Vegan Women Summit Pathfinder pitch competition of women founders in the plant-based industry, and the Vegan Women Summit Connect job network series. Jennifer's extensive community spans over 40,000 women professionals across six continents, including influential founders, investors, executives, and industry advocates. Beyond VWS, she serves as an investor, advisor, and board member for prominent startups like Lighter and MeliBio.

00:01:44 Maya: Jennifer's strategic expertise has been sought after for projects ranging from Hollywood films to presidential fundraisers, and she recently advised on Richard Branson's film, “Eating Our Way to Extinction.” Prior to her work in food tech, Jennifer had a successful career working with Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway, alongside tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. Her insights and knowledge have been shared at prestigious conferences and educational institutions, and she contributes to Rolling Stone while serving as a board member or advisor to notable nonprofits such as Mercy for Animals and Better Food Foundation. Jennifer's latest book, “The Future of Food is Female,” showcases inspiring interviews with industry pioneers and has garnered praise from prominent founders and CEOs. Through her work, Jennifer aims to inspire future generations to reimagine our approach to food. Let's welcome Jennifer. So welcome, Jennifer.

00:02:47 Jennifer: Thanks so much for having me.

00:02:50 Maya: Well, you know what? Thank you for putting on this amazing summit. The third annual Vegan Women Summit just concluded in New York recently, a couple of weeks ago. So I wanna say congratulations for putting on another wonderful summit.

00:03:06 Jennifer: Thank you so much. It was our biggest one yet.

00:03:10 Maya: Well, I came back, I'm in Dallas. I came back and I told a lot of my vegan female friends, “Okay, we gotta start making plans because we're gonna go to LA and form a little group of women that really need to come around.” Other women, like the summit that you put together. We don't have a lot of time, but I'd love for my listeners to learn how you went from growing up in a small town in Canada, if I'm correct, in Canada [mm-hmm] to becoming an international influencer. So how did that happen?

00:03:44 Jennifer: Not a straight line, and probably not on purpose. I grew up actually, funnily enough in a farming town, just a couple hours outside of Toronto and spent most of my life in a small town of about 2000 people. Always knew that I was set for bigger and brighter horizons. And so when I was 17, I moved out, went to university on a international scholarship, and ended up studying business law, and decided that I was going to be a lawyer. And when I was in my third year in college working for an entrepreneurship professor, I started to have a new passion entirely. So, I ended up actually meeting a guy at a hackathon when I was still in college, who was in the US in Florida at the time.

00:04:38 Jennifer: Long story short, I eloped, moved down to America, just completely decided to throw everything in the wind and see kind of where I landed. So, I ended up here in the US. It's been 11 years now that I've been here in the US.  I was fortunate to build a really, really exciting career in the tech industry in Silicon Valley. Then, pivoted down to Los Angeles and have really just focused on the intersection of innovation and food—something that growing up around farms, I never thought in a million years I would focus my life on.

00:05:15 Maya: Exactly. I mean, and it's interesting because you've taken a lot of those skills and knowledge that you gained working in the tech industry, working with Google, Microsoft, Facebook. You had all of this exposure to now making your way towards influencing women, CEOs, investors, women that develop products and services, and really catering to their services as women. Now, there is a significant story before we get there about how you became vegan, and there's some compassion behind that. Please tell my listeners, I think it's very touching.

00:05:51 Jennifer: Yes, absolutely. So, I have the most atypical vegan journey you'll likely ever hear. It is a one-of-a-kind story.  So when I was first married, in the first year of marriage, my husband and I unfortunately suffered a senseless tragedy. So my husband's best friend and our best man was murdered. And when you go through a murder trial, particularly at such a young formative age as a newlywed, there's so many boxes I could tick of just how strange it was to go through an experience like that. And it really does throw everything that you thought about life up in the air and really makes you question what it means to be alive and what it means to go through suffering. And in our grief and in that process of coming to terms with what had happened, we decided to forgive the murderer, went to the prison, forgave him.

00:06:48 Jennifer: Still to this day, we are the only people in the trial that decided to forgive him. And we believe that the only way to get through such a senseless act of violence would be to find compassion. And we did. We traveled very, very deep down, and we did find that compassion. And after going through that experience, and the trial, and all of that, we really started to look at ourselves and thought, “Wow, we are capable of these completely incomprehensible things that we never thought we would be strong enough to do.” And if we really think we are these compassionate people, are we actually acting that out? Is that who we are? And so for us, it was just such an obvious choice. What do you do three times a day? What is that active compassion that you can be a part of? And, and better yet, how do you remove yourself from that suffering when you have been a person that has suffered that immense amount? So that is how we decide to become vegan.

00:07:45 Maya: Yeah, it's incredible that you made this connection: having compassion for another human being, which means that you probably saw that there was suffering behind whatever... for the reasons that he made these choices of taking someone else's life. There was something going on with that individual, and you saw that suffering and you saw compassion. And suddenly, you make that connection and see the reality of what is hidden from us, which is that animals suffer when they're raced and then murdered for our consumption. It's incredible that at such a young age, you could see that. And then you went on to work for Silicon Valley and had all this exposure with big names. And so now, I wanna know… because it became very meaningful. I was aware of the summit last year and couldn't make it this year. I was… I said, “Okay, tight schedule, but I'm gonna make my way to the summit in New York.” Tell us why the world needs a vegan women summit.

00:08:44 Jennifer: Well, I think that when we really get to the core of how we eat on this planet, it really is centered by women. Not only do women produce much of the food that we eat, but women buy most food products in the world. So 93% of all consumer food purchases are made by women. And if the majority of all food purchases are made by women, that means that if we want to transform the way that we eat, it must be a women-led movement. And so the more I learned about this, especially as I was writing my book, “The Future of Food is Female,” the more I became sure that the grocery carts of this world are going to be unlocked by mothers and daughters and sisters and cousins and best friends. Because the reality is that women influence almost every food purchase that's made here in the United States. And otherwise, there's a reason why you go to the store and you see very often times men FaceTiming, trying to pick out the items that they're shopping for. You see, even in the many male CEOs that I work with, they tell me that they're buying the brands that their mother taught them to. And there is just this undue influence of women when it comes to the way that we eat. And so naturally, Vegan Women Summit—that is the way that we are going to power that change.

00:10:08 Maya: Now, I have this mindset of how many of those are female-owned. And I wanna thank you for that, for this awareness that you're bringing into our lives—that we should consider what women have to offer. And there are many biases that you talk about, and challenges that women face in general. Maybe we can go with that first. Talk about some of the challenges: how difficult it is for women in general who are trying to get their businesses up and going. And then, also the challenges that other women have who might wanna support female-owned businesses, like investors. I know that at the networking event that you recently had for the Vegan Women Summit, there were some classes that were going on, and there's all this financial education that many of us don't have. So let's start with that about women and female-owned businesses.

00:11:03 Jennifer: Well, because you're really thinking about the underrepresented nature of women across the entire spectrum, right? I'm also an ambassador in this space. I'm a VC. For those that are listening, you're getting the scoop because in a few weeks time, we are debuting the exclusive announcement: I have raised a VC fund. And let me tell you, 95% of VCs are men, like 5%. It's one in 20 of us are on the other side of the table when it comes to who gets capital, right? So how does that affect the rest of the ecosystem? Well, quite profound. So then, you have, when it comes down to the actual investments itself, less than 3% of all VC capital. All venture capital in the world is going towards women founders. And so why is that? Well, there's what is known as unconscious bias, and then there, of course, there's conscious bias. And so when you think about bias, people think of overt discrimination. They think of “her little woman brain,” “we're never gonna invest in her.” But that's not the reality. That kind of discriminatory behavior is… sometimes, of course, there's bad actors, but that's not how most people are unfortunately kind of participating in the system of inequity. Most people have more of an unconscious bias when it comes to investments. And so, a big space that has been very untapped until very recently is like infant formula. Infant formula is a massive, massive category. They think that upwards of 5 to 10% of the global liquid dairy market, and finds its way to infant formula, it is a tremendous market size on top of the fact that the majority of all infant formula that's available is still pretty much dairy.

00:12:49 Jennifer: It's the same stuff that was created 50 plus years ago by Nestlé. And 75% of black Americans are lactose intolerant. Ninety percent of Asian Americans are lactose intolerant. We have an increasingly diverse world, particularly here in the United States, that is not reflective of dairy infant formula. And we know the vast majority of babies in the United States are raised on infant formula. And so every single box I just told you… tick every single box, awesome opportunity for investment. And yet until a few years ago, nobody was paying attention to it. I actually have women founders that I work with that were told verbatim by male investors that investing in infant formula is not a food investment. They did not consider infants to be a market size. So that's just to give you an idea of… they don’t… it's not that there is a particular behavior that says, “We're not gonna invest in women.” It's this lack of awareness of issues that would traditionally affect women. So mothers are the ones that are breastfeeding; mothers are the ones that are buying that formula. So mothers are gonna be more likely to understand that problem and how to solve it, and what the investment opportunity is. And that's just one tiny example of many, right? If we look in the broader perspective to women entering menopause, things like that, there are massive untapped entire markets because of the lack of women that are on the other side of the investing table.

00:14:22 Maya: Yeah, very good point. And that's interesting because we, as women… I feel like we're problem solvers. We're creative. We see a need for certain products to be developed, certain services to be made available for us. So we're constantly, since we are our… the main consumers of what we bring in our household, it's interesting that we… that other people would not necessarily listen to our ideas, especially the creative ideas. I recently… I'm sure a lot of people watch Shark Tank now. My husband started watching it, so binge-watching, so now I watch as well. And I saw this one woman that basically designed a bra for large-breasted women. I don't know the best way to say that, but it was very creative. I remember thinking, “Wow, a man could never develop this. But women who struggled with these issues, definitely could see a need.” When I went to the summit also, Jennifer, I found it interesting. I had this mindset that it was really primarily food industry that would be represented at your summit. And then, I come to see that there are vegan purses and cosmetics that are vegan that are also just cruelty-free, environmentally sustainable and good for the environment; treats that are vegan for our animals. All those things that are of interest to women that maybe other people are not thinking about was really fascinating. Like I said, I mainly was focused on the food industry portion of the summit, and then this whole new world opened up to me.

00:15:57 Jennifer: I'm so glad to hear that what people don't understand is the way that we use animals in society is so much more vast, like yesterday. And they said, “What are some of the surprising ways that animals are used?” They said, “Oh, here's a good one for you: there's beef in Canadian money.” Literally, beef tallow is in Canadian currency. So the depth of which animals are commercialized in the way that we live our lives, and the products that we use and consume and put on our bodies, and all of those different things and exchanges tender even—it's vast. And so for us at VWS, we know that true transformation will happen when we can have a way to move away from all the aspects of the usage of animals. And so it's not enough to simply have a non-beef burger because that cow also would be used for, say, gelatin and collagen. And so now, all of a sudden, we have beauty products that are saying, “Hey, we are a gelatin-free beauty product,” Right? And then we have a bag that says, “Hey, we're a leather-free bag.” And so we really have to have a comprehensive view when it comes to that reinvention and what it means, because it will have vast effects all over the world when you start to disrupt one of the key products in which animals are made. And if we are not able to identify all of those other products, those sidestream products, we are not gonna truly be able to remove animal usage in the system. So, fashion really is gonna have a big moment, I think coming soon, especially as the non-animal leathers are greatly, greatly improving. A good friend of mine just… I can't say who it is, but they inked a deal with Jaguar to potentially do some new lines of non-vegan leather in the cars.

00:17:55 Jennifer: And my car… I just bought the new electric Mustang—comes only in vegan leather. [awesome] You know, that's just a couple examples. And if we start to really crack it open, there's an entire world of innovation that we can have under our fingertips. We just need a little bit of creativity and just to dream a little bit bigger… just need that imagination to understand what a 360-degree experience is to live in an animal-free, cruelty-free world. And that is what VWS is, even if just for that day, you walk in and experience what a future world could be.

00:18:35 Maya: Exactly. And I feel that as you're bringing… as you're becoming this hub of vegan women, we're also raising this awareness, and hopefully demanding cruelty-free products, exactly like you're talking about your Mustang that's vegan. That's incredible. Who would've ever thought? Now, tell us more about the Vegan Women Summit. VWS, it's not just an in-person event. You initially… the first year that you held your in-person event, you had 250 people. This time you had about a thousand, your third year. But it's beyond the in-person summit. It's a platform, it's a hub, it's the way that you bring women together. Tell us a little bit more about that. I'm so excited.

00:19:17 Jennifer: Yeah. So we started with 250 women this year. We had just over 1100, so it grew quite quickly. Yeah, more than quadruple size in three years. And that is our flagship summit, the Vegan Women Summit. But our organization, VWS, goes much farther than that, especially throughout the year. And so, we do a pitch competition. We've been hosting a pitch competition for the last three years. it is a virtual pitch competition. We reach women founders all over the world, and they pitch us their ideas. Many of those women then went on to become the Vegan Women Summit participants. You may have seen Veronica with Neggst who spoke as well as demoed her shell-free, plant-based egg. She was the winner of Pathfinder last year. BWS Pathfinder is the name of our competition. Sundial Chicken, who has those healthy, clean label drumsticks…

00:20:07 Jennifer: Jessica was the winner the year before. So we're truly creating like an alumni to help launch these women's brands. And so the pitch competition that we do for anyone that's listening that has a startup idea, we will release the application in the summer and then we'll do the pitch competition in October. It’s completely virtual. So we're able to reach thousands of women around the world. I've had over 1300 women pitch from 31 countries and counting. So that is how we are helping build the innovative pipeline for founders. We also do job networking. We've connected over 2000 job seekers with companies like Beyond and Impossible and folks like that. And of course, we do lots of other programming throughout the year. We do the “State of Women in the Future of Food,” it's the only industry report about women founders, and lots of cool collaborations to help grow the community. Last year, I launched my book, “The Future of Buddhist Female,” and we had a global book tour. I think I did 20 or 30 cities all over the world—building the VWs vibes everywhere we went, just really showing a sense of community that women are powerful and women are the key to unlocking what I believe is the single most important thing when it comes to safeguarding our future and our children's future.

00:21:29 Maya: Absolutely. And I have a copy of your book. I purchased it ahead of time before going to the summit because I really wanted to understand it and see who was in it. And hearing the stories of the individuals that you're highlighting—like Miyoko is one of 'em who was also at this summit, this year's summit—hearing how they developed their products, their services, and the challenges that they may have faced. This is sort of like a collection of stories that can be really inspirational. I'm thinking just of my listeners, they're… most of my listeners are women, and I think of women who have all these ideas, but there's still… It's scary, Jennifer, to have to leave a nine to five or a job that you've had for many years to venture off and take a chance on a service or a product that you believe is well needed. But to hear these stories of women who are inspired to make the change, to take a leap of faith in many ways, to accomplish their goals and their missions… It's a beautiful book. And I was so busy in the media room at the summit that I didn't get a chance to meet you in person or even get my book autographed. But I'm so glad that we're here today talking, because I think this is the beginning of many things to come. And I did come back on fire and I really connected with my vegan female friends, and I said, “This is something that we need.” I think at least once a year, if not for those that are CEOs, entrepreneurs who could also use your hub to network and grow and learn about strategies… that, and then of course, women coming together to support one another is so beautiful.

00:23:10 Jennifer: Yeah, I'm so glad to hear that. I really, in many ways, created VWS for myself. I, as a woman executive, was very alone a lot. I was… especially in the tech industry, I was the only woman in most of the settings that I was in. And it's very important for us to have that sense of community. As I've done this over the last few years, I created this with the thesis in mind that women's empowerment could do important things. But it was a theory. And now that I have seen it, it's just indescribable—the kind of magic that comes from these, catalyzing connections that we create. I have, every day in my inbox, whether it's an email or a DM or in my LinkedIn or someone's tweeting at me… literally every day, I'm getting some sort of story of something that came from VWS of, “Hey, you said that thing a year and a half ago of… something I forgot I ever said. By the way, I started a company. Look what happened out of it.” And that is just like one of many stories. I've so many women, especially really, really powerful, accomplished executive women that reach out to me that say, “I am so sick of doing this nine to five, and I am working for something I don't care about; and I'm finally jumping because you've inspired me, or VWS has inspired me.” And that's how we're gonna change the planet.

00:24:44 Maya: You have said in the past that, while all your speakers at the actual in-person summit are women, you don't shy away from working with our allies—our male allies, if they wanna support us in business. I wonder… so I have two questions: one is the partnership that you had or the collaboration that you had with abillion, which was started by… I don't know if I say his name right, but… Vikas. I would say it wrong, but… Vikas Garg, who founded abillion, which is an amazing vegan app that introduces you to not only foods in your area… I mean, it's just… he's gonna be on the podcast to discuss that. Can we learn a little bit about your collaboration with him for the summit; and also, how do you advise startup companies or do you… how do you evaluate what a startup company needs and how to guide them in the right direction?

00:25:43 Jennifer: Okay, so two very different questions… I mean, first and foremost, I'll just answer the first one about our allies. VWS is a women forward, women-founded community, but we are absolutely empowered by male allies. And we have a lot of men that come to the summit. As I'm sure you saw, probably a quarter of our attendees almost are men. We are very, very big on a big 10 approach.  So more than half of our attendees that come are also not vegan, because we are trying to broaden the industry and the community so that everyone can be a part of this. We have predominantly, to be honest, been supported probably by male CEOs. I work closely with the CEO of Impossible, my friend Peter. I work closely with the CEO of Wicked Kitchen, my friend Pete; and the CEO of TiNDLE, my friend Andre; and Vikas from abillion. And interestingly enough, quite a lot of our supporters and our biggest ones at that are men.  And of course our big supporter this year, Mayor Eric Adams. So yes, I don't believe that there is any conversations in which we can have about building an equitable future, whether it is for women or animals or all of the above, without having everyone involved. And so we are excited to continue to expand our male audience, and we want everyone to feel like they can be a part of this. And there's a lot to learn. There's a lot to learn. We think that the women founders that we are supporting have some of the best talent in the space.

00:27:23 Maya: Mm-hmm. Yep, absolutely. And it was exciting. I missed the social event with Mayor Eric Adams, but I just thought what an amazing collaboration partnership that you had with him… that you can have that kind of influence. It's incredible. So now, I'm excited about what LA will look like next year. So, possibilities… incredible.

00:27:45 Jennifer: Yeah, LA's gonna be a lot of fun. We did LA last year. We're excited to go coast to coast to make sure we build out a huge network. And picture a lot of what you saw this year will probably be a little bit bigger, even potentially next year. Of course, we bring the LA, Cali sunshine, which will be lovely. We're very excited to really build a different culture around the way that we eat, the way that we live, the way that we work, what we decided to spend our time on. It's a post-pandemic world where you had a lot of introspective time to really think about who you are and what you do and the impact that you have on the planet. And for many people,  women in particular, but for many, they want to be a part of something bigger and better than themselves and it's not simply enough for a lot of people to kind of wake up and tick that box and get that paycheck.

00:28:46 Maya: Yep, absolutely. So what is something that we can do today to support women in business?

00:28:55 Jennifer: There is a lot that we can do to support women in business. I would say, first off, there is women-owned certifications that you can look for. Many of the plant-based brands are women-led. So certainly making sure that you're buying from women is huge. If you find a product that you enjoyed, especially at the summit, most of our products at the summit were women-founded. The best thing that you can do, I tell people this all the time, is post on social media. It is a free way to get so much more support for women, especially for brands that don't have a marketing budget. That user-generated content is key for them. And so they can make or break a brand. I've got friends that… a very, very high level influencer happens to peek and see a picture, and then gets a sample of the product. And all of a sudden, they have 10 million people that have seen that product.

00:29:51 Jennifer: So definitely, if you are not in the ability to invest, making sure that you're buying and sharing women-founded products, for sure… And of course, it's really important if you do have the ability to invest, to really think about women founders and the ways that you are supporting them. My fund, in particular my VC fund, has a dedicated commitment to women and underrepresented founders. We are an underrepresented fund ourselves, LGBT and women-led. And the more that we can have that representation across all sectors, the more we're gonna create equity. Like I said, it's really difficult to have an entire portfolio of women founders when all the investors don't reflect that. So we really, really need more women investing, to be honest.

00:30:43 Maya: Well, that's where the education comes in. That's what I was saying earlier that I feel, and I've heard you talk about this too… I mean, just in general, financial education is not something that we ever receive unless we venture off into educating our own selves. But then, taking it a step further to actually understand how to invest, and then how to just even crowdfund… I mean, there's just so much when it comes to learning financial literacy. That's one of the things that was going on at the networking event. And I didn't miss the… well, I missed the classes ‘cause I was busy networking. There was so much to take in at the summit. A question about the virtual portion of the summit: is that something that is still available for anyone who would like to purchase the virtual components?

00:31:36 Jennifer: Yes, of course. vws2023.com. We've got 10 hours of the entire summit that's been recorded so you can rewatch and experience it all.

00:31:45 Maya: Yeah, I know I'm gonna have to. I missed so much, and yet I was able to attend some of the summits. I mean, some of the panels... And I will tell you one that was really meaningful for me too, was the one that was, I think, titled something like “Not quite food is medicine, but is plant-based nutrition an answer to the healthcare crisis that we have?” and that was with some of the physicians. And then you had a testimonial of a breast cancer survivor, and I had the opportunity of interviewing them, and I thought that was awesome as well. I mean, you had so many great speakers this year, and I was watching them on LinkedIn as people were asking to be voted as a speaker for the summit this year. How many submissions did you have?

00:32:32 Jennifer: Oh, we had hundreds and hundreds of submissions, and I think we cracked 30,000 votes or something like that. It was crazy. And then our Top Chef, we had hundreds of submissions, and I think 20,000 votes as well. We really focused this year on making it community-driven. It was really important to us to branch out and include speakers that we didn't know. And we thought what better way to do it than have a community-driven round. And it was immensely successful. We're very excited about it. We actually took it… it was a South by Southwest,  who… you know, in Texas… They've famously been doing voting in speakers for many, many years now. And so that's where we got the idea from. ‘Cause I spoke at South by Southwest this year and we thought, “Hey, how cool would it be if we allow people to organize their panels and topics and send themselves in?” And so that's how we selected a bunch of the content. And then we also had the Top Chef competition where we had chefs that competed to win VWS Top Chef live at the summit. So we had… actually our chefs came from Canada, Mexico, and the US just by happenstance. That's how it worked out.

00:33:49 Maya: It was a wonderful event. I really just wanna thank you for putting it together and all these partnerships that you're developing. And the idea also of having people pitch themselves to kind of create their own panels was absolutely genius. I think that's… who would've thought that? You kind of see what people are demanding, what they wanna see, and they were all put together really nicely. I typically go to the health conferences, the whole food plant-based conferences, and there's usually the male speaker. As you know, a lot of the founders or the original physicians in this field are men. So it just was incredibly powerful to see women. But I really enjoyed panel discussions, so that was awesome. Wonderful. Is there anything else you'd like to share with my listeners as we're wrapping up, and also what's the best… I know that you have a couple of websites that you can share, yours and the VWs as well.

00:34:46 Jennifer: Yeah, absolutely. So again, for folks that missed out on the summit this year, you can go to veganwomensummit.com or vws2023.com and you can watch the entire experience. We did have two stages, so quite a lot, over 60 speakers. Quite a lot. And, we also, of course, will have our pitch competition coming up. So if anybody is interested in pitching their idea, you'll be able to join us this fall for that. Keep up to date with everything we're on. So, veganwomensummit.com/newsletter. We have lots of popups. We bring VWS all over. I'm doing the Hollywood Climate Summit. We're an official partner with that. So there is lots of different ways that you're gonna see us at other events throughout the year. We, of course, have our big flagship, but VWS never has a quiet moment. So I've got... Hollywood Climate Summit will be the next, and the BC if you're in Vancouver, I'm keynoting the BC Food and Beverage Conference. That'll be a big thing in June, which is now, this month. Wow. And then, later this month, Hollywood Climate Summit and many more things to come. Just got back from Cannes Film Festival. If you're in Venice, I'll probably be at the Venice Film Festival in August doing some more.

00:36:03 Maya: What were you doing at the film festivals?

00:36:05 Jennifer: So at the film festival, we were doing the only plant-based event of the entire festival. We're helping to build more momentum for a more plant-based sustainable film festival circuit. If you can believe it, there is not really any programming around climate and plant-based. So it was pretty crazy.

00:36:27 Maya: It's incredible how you're finding ways to sort of infiltrate… to go into these companies and create change. I've heard you say also… ‘cause I was wondering how do you get your foot in the door to speak at universities and you are raising this awareness with young people as well. I've heard you talk about that as well. You've spoken at Harvard and a lot of these Ivy League universities. How do you make that happen?

00:36:53 Jennifer: You know, all of what I have done has just been really me positioning myself and making myself an expert. And I have this conversation with young professionals a lot. And the best thing you can do is start networking as young as you are. It's the number one thing. “I wish I had saved more money when I was younger.” “Wish I had gotten into the gym quicker.” “Wish I had stopped eating McNuggets faster.” “Wish I had started networking earlier,” right?  and we all know hindsight’s 2020, right? So, it's really important to just build that network and maintain that network. I tell everybody, get on LinkedIn, start building that Rolodex now. I learned from my boss in Silicon Valley: the most powerful thing you can ever have is the golden Rolodex. And so that is something that I have really prided myself on. I am that person that can be talking to a Silicon Valley CEO, or a Hollywood celebrity within two seconds of shooting a text, because I work really, really hard to have a strong network. And I support my network, and I know how to manage my network. That's really important. And then of course, you know, I also tell young people this all the time: if you want to be important and be relevant, you're going to have to make yourself that. And that's really important. So everything that you ever do is your brand. Everything you do externally is the brand of Maya, of Jenny. And so think about that. Think about the way that you act, the way that you present yourself. That is all building the brand of yourself. And is that a brand that you would recommend people invest in? Is that a brand that you would hire? Is that a brand that you would wanna work with? Every single action in public is a brand.

00:38:44 Maya: Absolutely. Oh my God. We're gonna close it with that. So I wanna thank you for everything that you've done to support women and the vegan movement and also thank you for being on the show today. Thank you, Jennifer.

00:38:57 Jennifer: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

00:39:00 Maya: You've been listening to the Healthy Lifestyle Solutions Podcast with your host, Maya Acosta. If you've enjoyed this content, please share with one friend who can benefit. You can also leave us a five star review at ratethispodcast.com/hls. This helps us to spread our message. As always, thank you for being a listener.