03 - Life as a Fun-loving Disco Ball Inside of a Kaleidoscope

Interesting Lives of Normal People

Stephanie LaFlora is a disco ball inside of a kaleidoscope.

On one hand, she’s a mom and a wife, she’s got a house in the burbs and a 9-5pm. She’s admittedly scattered, prone to quitting when things get painful and encounters impostor syndrome. She’s even got a 401k.

On the other hand, Stephanie is black female in tech who has sang with Hillsong at the Staples Center, and been on the TV show Chicago Fire, and started the following ventures:

• SwimXL—a plus-size women swimsuit line
• CrownHunt—a tool to connect textured hair dressers
• The Pep Talk Hotline—the place to go when you need a pick up

A disco ball inside of a kaleidoscope.

What you notice about Steph LaFlora at first—and this is clear in the conversations we were lucky to have with her—is that she clearly lives her life with some charming but intense I-can’t-sit-still wigglyness.

Amidst this chaos, she lives her everyday life with the wisdom of a sage philosopher. She lives her life by some simple mantras for the here-and-now (“There are no trophies in the end, so life better be fun”); at the same time she carries a generational perspective about what it means to be Black in America.

In this conversation, you’ll hear Steph take on tech for not being as woke as it thinks it is, fragile white people for getting so offended all of the time, and everyone who takes life too seriously. Buckle up!

You can find the transcript for this episode here. Find transcripts for all episodes here.

Question of the Day

When have you created magic in your life? What's a story where you took a risk and created something magical that brought joy to you and others?

Share your story in the comments below

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Links from the Episode

StephanieLaflora.com

Crownhunt.io

SwimXL.com

The Pep Talk Hotline with Stephanie LaFlora

Queen & Slim movie

Cheryl Strayed podcast interview on Design Matters with Debbie

Music by Hygge - "Quarantrap". Please follow her on SoundCloud

Highlights and Timestamps

[3:45] A surprising phone call to come work on Chicago Fire

[14:45] Being a Black female at a tech startup

[24:02] Keeping the magic amidst the trials and tribulations of life, work, and motherhood

[29:30] Building a swimsuit line that celebrates women’s bodies no matter their shape

[33:27] Going for fun in life

[39:42] Creating a web series when web series were the future and the vulnerability of bringing others into your creative project

[48:48] Building a business to support textured hair stylists and Black business owners

[59:58] Each person needs to take responsibility for their own education on the topic of race and how do we have conversations with our BIPOC friends

[1:04:45] Stephanie's pep talk for Jake in his pursuit of his passion project