Nicole Harvey didn’t wait for the perfect moment to start. While working full-time in tech and traveling nonstop, she built EmpowHer — a global community where women connect through honest conversations about money, health, leadership, and purpose.

In this episode, we talk about what it really takes to build something meaningful while balancing a career, why she’s chosen to stay self-funded, and how she’s redefining success on her own terms.

If you’ve ever wondered how to grow your dream without giving up your stability — or how to keep showing up for yourself when life is full — this episode is for you.

Kara Brothers, former President of Starface, joins Be Anomalous for an unfiltered conversation about leadership, identity, and the power of finding your place when you don’t quite fit the mold.

Before leading one of the most creative, culture-defining beauty brands of our time, Kara spent years at Google, where self-doubt, misalignment, and corporate politics left her questioning her abilities and her worth. She opens up about what it felt like almost to lose her confidence — and how that experience became the foundation for her next chapter.

Kara shares how she rebuilt herself from the inside out — learning to trust her intuition, create her own lane, and lead with empathy, not ego. She talks about the realities of motherhood and ambition, the pressure to be everything to everyone, and how she finally learned to slow down without losing her edge.

We dive into:

• How self-doubt can be the doorway to self-awareness

• Rebuilding confidence after failure and misalignment

• What modern leadership looks like when you lead with honesty

• Balancing motherhood, ambition, and identity

• Why slowing down can actually move you forward

• The freedom that comes with redefining success on your own terms

Kara’s story is a masterclass in resilience and reinvention, a reminder that sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is keep showing up, even when you’re not sure where it’s all leading.

Because, as Kara says, “Life is one big experiment.”

If you’re chasing an ambition, trying to figure out what makes you happy, or just learning to trust yourself again — this episode will remind you that your difference isn’t your weakness.

It’s your direction.

What does it take to build a venture-backed platform that helps creators and founders launch beauty brands—without losing your values (or your mind)?

In this replay, Blanka co-founder & CEO Kaylee Lieffers gets real about growing up “between worlds,” why entrepreneurship can be incubated, and how she went from consulting decks to zero-to-one product, team, and traction.

We dive into the messy middle—co-founder dynamics (including building with her husband), raising an oversubscribed seed in tough markets, why Blanka chose no MOQs to truly “arm the rebels,” and the leadership shift from player to coach. If you’re building anything in public, this one hits.

What we get into

• The “against-the-grain” upbringing that made entrepreneurship feel inevitable

• Can entrepreneurship be taught—or just incubated?

• From corporate frameworks to startup chaos: translating structured thinking into speed

• Blanka’s origin story: killing a sunscreen idea to chase the bigger problem

• How to choose the right co-founders (green flags, red flags, and testing ground)

• Bootstrapping first, fundraising later: timing your capital so dollars have a job

• Product truths: ship a smaller MVP, build process earlier, fix signals fast

• Why no minimums matter for real access—and how Blanka made it viable

• Beauty’s next era: archaic back-end, tech-forward future, and niche, narrative-led brands

• Leading at scale: letting go, prioritizing what actually moves the needle