We came up with a few tips that we think are easy to implement but will make all the difference in your daily grind.

No matter how many times you’ve interviewed, when you finally land “the one,” you’ll want to pull out all the stops.

Here are 4 ways to keep your mind healthy in the midst of the career grind.

Let’s root out jealously, envy, pride in our own lives in a way that allows us to celebrate other people's accomplishments.

Employers are seeking workers who have edge and a desire to get ahead of others. Does having a considerate outlook now equate to a

Round two with Create + Cultivate! They’re back sharing some great advice with us on how to put your best (business) self out there. They’ve asked a few of (our favorite) pros to figure out what really goes into making a brand impactful, long-lasting and genuine. We’re sharing their thoughts with you, below.

Written by Arianna Schioldager:

We’re ever curious about what makes a brand successful — and if there are certain tenets that will always remain important, especially in the face of shifting technology. So we asked three of our previous Create & Cultivate DTLA panelists to share.

Nervous about networking? Completely understandable. Yet, thankfully Create + Cultivate is back sharing a few quick tips that even a master networker can brush up on. Read these before your next event and be sure to hit it out of the park.

Written by Arianna Schioldager:

While networking can always seem intimidating, it’s something all of our attendees have mastered on site and have been able to take advantage of for their own professional development, and you should too. If you’re looking for ways to brush up your networking skills, we’ve got you covered with the tips below to make sure you don’t lose out on any opportunities next month.

You may remember us teaming up with Create + Cultivate last year for their LA conference. Since they are such stellar providers of marketplace wisdom, we’re excited to continue that relationship and begin sharing noteworthy content from their blog with you here! Get ready for loads of practical advice for flexing those Achiever muscles.

Written by Celeste Mitchell:

If you think of the pages on your blog or business website like the squares of a Monopoly board, your “About” page would be Boardwalk. So valuable is this piece of virtual real estate, people come barreling through your front door like it’s a never-ending open house whether you invited them in or not. They’re intrigued! They’re curious!

So, what have you planted on your “About” page?

“The world is full of people who can talk your ear off about all the reasons they can’t possibly begin what they’re longing to begin. Let’s not be those people. Let’s start where we are.” -Shauna Niequist

I bet you clicked on this article for a few reasons. Perhaps you need that extra push to make the move from dreamer to doer. Maybe you simply desire opportunities for professional growth. Or, it could be that you feel compelled to learn about entrepreneurial success to reassure yourself that there’s hope for you and your small business. This article is step one for you.

With three degrees under her belt from Pomona College, Harvard and Stanford, calling Jane Chen an achiever is an understatement. Her incredible drive and work ethic, combined with her heart for social change and innovation resulted in her creation of the Embrace Infant Warmer.

After seeing a need for a more affordable and accessible way to save the lives of millions of premature babies without the use of an incubator, Jane sprung into action with her team of classmates from Stanford. Together under Jane’s leadership, they’ve built Embrace Innovations and Little Lotus to continue their mission to save these babies and families.

Clearly, we’re wine fans around these parts. There’s just something about a time-honored tradition, being reliant on the rain, the sun and the earth, and condensing years of hard work into one simple glass — all to better eat with, no less — that we can seriously respect.

What else do we respect?  When there’s a woman behind it all.

If you are an entrepreneur, you likely spend your time feeling like a cocktail of inspired + deflated, generative + stuck, or focused + scattered. Sound about right? You may be familiar with the reality that being busy is different than being productive, yes? You want to work smarter, not harder.

So, whether you work for yourself at home in your sweatpants, or are part of a high-profile startup hustle (or both!), here is a great way to maximize your productivity and clarity …

German poet Goethe said beginnings were burning invitations, and not to tarry. He urged, “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

And like that, a million fridge magnets were born.

Don’t get me wrong, I love beginnings. I love how every April there are little yellow blossoms sewn on the forsythias outside my front window. I love how a New Year’s snow stretches out like a clean canvas and come September, I admit: I channel Tom Hanks in You’ve Got Mail and want to buy a bouquet of freshly-sharpened pencils.

But as romantic as starts are, I’ve learned firsthand, the hard way, that there’s also magic in a well-timed quit.

Close your eyes and think of a famous CEO.

You probably thought of Mark Zuckerburg from Facebook or maybe even Jeff Bezos from Amazon. Both men. And, it’s not that they aren’t great innovators and leaders, but it does raise the question: Why didn’t a woman come to mind first? The answer is that Zuckerberg and Bezos had an idea, and ran fearlessly and confidently with it until they saw success, and that women typically struggle with self-confidence and fear.

At least, I know I have, especially when it comes to the workplace.

Many of us dream of making a big change one day. Whether we envision a career change, a relocation, or changing how we’ll spend our personal time, we imagine happier and more fulfilling futures for ourselves. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to feel connected to these imagined realities. We allow them to feel far off in the distance, safely tucked away under “someday.”

Too often, we de-prioritize our long-term goals and tell ourselves that we will make a change or learn a skill “when the time is right.” The actual tangible steps that need to be taken in order to create our desired fate take the back burner, and we allow ourselves to give into the comfort of staying put. Most often, telling ourselves that  it’s just not the right time yet  is how we grant ourselves permission to avoid taking risks. By allowing ourselves to believe that there will be a time when everything is  perfectly aligned for us to make that life change, we ignore our intuition and neglect our happier, future selves.

We find so much inspiration through learning about women who are leaving their mark on the world in a profoundly impactful way. From entrepreneurs and non-profit founders to artists and writers and musicians, women are paving the way in so many different fields as they pursue their passions and develop creative ways to make the world a better place.

Read on to learn about some of the women who are inspiring us lately, and leave us a note in the comments section to let us know whose life path has encouraged you.

You can categorize failure any way you’d like: A malfunction of daily life, the flop of a once brilliant idea, the breakdown of a concept you believed in, but it’s all the same. This  didn’t work. Depending on how badly it didn’t work, you could still be cringing ten years from now.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Many of us spend so much time focusing on the catastrophe itself, we’re unable to step back and see these little fiascos for what they are: Tiny moments where we manufacture our lives. It’s like our life is an assembly line made up of experiences instead of machine parts. You can’t think of your disasters as failures because they are the very essence of maturity. They usher us in to the era of good decision making and wisdom.

Books have the power to make you laugh, cry or even scream (Gone Girl, we’re looking at you!). Sometimes, you might even come across one that completely rocks your world and inspires you to make a positive change in your life. Whether you’re in need of motivation to work on a creative project or embark on a health journey, these 10 books will inspire you to make 2016 a year full of growth, success and happiness:

Inspired by a dedicated young woman who put herself through school despite the great tragedies she had faced in her youth, Devon Ogden founded Safi Life to help other girls in Rwanda to do the same.

This non-profit organization works with donors to present scholarships to help women cover the costs of attending college. Furthermore, scholarship recipients also participate in mentorship and fellowship programs in their own communities so that they can give back and inspire others to follow in their footsteps. We were fortunate enough to talk to Safi Life’s Outreach Coordinator, Jessica Davis, about the life-changing impact that Safi Life is making.

Embrace.  The dictionary describes this seven-letter word as, “an act of accepting or supporting something willingly or enthusiastically.” Throughout every professional’s career, there are numerous stages that are positively embraced with open arms and a megawatt smile: The job offer, promotion, raise, title change, etc.

But in the years spliced between each of these hard-earned achievements is the sweat, tears, sleepless nights, frustrations and moments of hopelessness that can entice us to ignore the present and fantasize about what could be.

It’s a question that most of us bump up against for decades, no matter what it is we are in the middle of doing: Is this what I’m called to do?  We wonder, in the middle of our working and coaching and mothering and writing and dancing and dating and marrying and studying:

Should I be doing something else? Why am I still not sure what I’m made for?

Happy, happy New Year! We love everything about the start of a fresh new year (minus the fact that the holidays are over, of course), and we are definitely fans of crafting a set of resolutions that will inspire us as we head into 2016.

Instead of settling for the same old resolutions that we hear year after year (live a more healthy lifestyle, save money, pursue happiness), we challenge you to come up with innovative resolutions that are specific and creative, allowing you to continually find inspiration long after January is over. Here are some ideas we came up with, so let us know what you think of them. And share your ideas in the comments section, too. We’d love to be inspired by your resolutions!

On average an adult, full-time professional spends 2,000 hours each year working*. That’s roughly eight hours a day, 40 hours a week and 166 hours per month. During the in and out of office (whatever the “office” may be) time spent sending emails, answering calls and meeting pressing deadlines, every employee gives a piece of themselves to their job.

In the many hours, days, weeks and months dedicated to seeing a project come to fruition, assuming a title or career as one’s identity can become second nature. Whether or not one has pride in their LinkedIn headline, company or career trajectory, the more time spent (or not spent) in a position, the easier it becomes to allow it to define them.

There are few among us who haven’t done a thing or two in college we now regret: that sexy-but-not-in-a-classy-way Halloween costume, failing to realize that paying attention in statistics class will actually prove useful later in life, or eating Mexican food after 2am far too many times.

But should we regret listening to the advice our college career counselors gave us? There is little doubt our intentions were good when we trekked to the distant corner of student services — the same one we dutifully ignored for the first 3.5 years of university — to plan for our future. But it’s possible that the things we were told we must do if we wanted to find jobs and stake out successful careers have been hurting us in our job searches ever since.

Here we go — flinging open the closet door to pick out the outfit. I mean, the outfit. The outfit that gives insight to a potential employer, insight to knowing who you are.

Are you meticulous? How about creative? Innovative? Passionate? Perfect for this position? The list of possible impressions goes on and on, and so do your thoughts of all the ways your favorite shirt can be interpreted, and misinterpreted, and interpreted again.

These thoughts are justified, as Mike Bell from Tilson, a human resource solutions company, stresses “the way the person being interviewed presents him or herself is vital to making a great first impression … You only get one chance to make a first impression.”

There is much to be said about the power and value of girlfriends, and I have the best ones on the planet, but even your best friend might not understand the struggles of owning a business.

When I opened Milk Jar Cookies almost three years ago, I felt the need to seek out other female entrepreneurs and become part of the community, not only locally, but in the broader sense. I wanted to find women like myself; little did I know I would be building my “squad.”

For many of us, networking is one of the great necessary evils of the world – or at least of our professional lives. Necessary because in many industries, as you may have heard, “it’s not what you know, but who you know,” and evil because the idea of networking can insight somewhat of a panic for those of us who identify as introverts.

But being an introvert doesn’t mean you have to settle for a career that’s less than you deserve.

DailyWorth, one of our favorite sources of information for everything career-and-money-wise, is back! This time they’re sharing a few simple ways to save hundreds. Especially during one of the busiest and expensive times of the year, who couldn’t use a little extra pocket change? 

A few weeks ago, I saved our family $792 a year with a single, 10-minute phone call. A few months earlier, another quick call saved us $833 a year. Many times, saving money requires time and energy — sometimes for very little payoff. I prefer the lazier way: quick hits that don’t take long but that reap big benefits.

Here are some small ways to save big.