10 Inspiring Things We Learned At The POPSUGAR Playground Event

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Imagine a place where gigantic rainbow-colored slides, vegan coconut cheesecake, crystal necklaces, and inspiring talks with your favorite female entrepreneurs and businesswomen all came together.

Well, at the POPSUGAR Playground event, this dream became a reality! A few weekends ago, the Breakfast Criminals team ventured out to Pier 94 in Manhattan to experience POPSUGAR’s two-day festival featuring everything from food to fitness to fashion and beauty.

We spent the day checking out some of our favorite brands, like Vital Proteins, who was serving up a delicious iced matcha collagen latte and a cool lemon beauty collagen refresher, and discovering new brands, like ABLE. In between, we got to attend panel discussions featuring some amazing women! Throughout the weekend, there were discussions on how to create success, what it means to be happy, and how to be our best selves. Keep reading to find out our top takeaways from the day.

10 Motivational Things We Learned At The POPSUGAR Play/Ground Event | Breakfast Criminals

Here are 10 inspiring things we learned at the POPSUGAR Playground event:

1. Get clear on your passion

“You don’t find your passion. You MAKE your passion. But it’s ok if you don’t know what your passion is right now. Just get out there and try stuff. Take the pressure off yourself.” – Sarah Robb O’Hagan, CEO of Flywheel

2. You can be more than one thing

“I remember early on in my career someone told me that if you loved fashion and beauty, you couldn’t be serious in business. But that’s just not true… I’m glad that I ignored that and continued to live my truth.” – Ukonwa Ojo, Senior Vice President of CoverGirl

3. Embrace failure

Flywheel CEO Sarah Robb O’Hagan is really open about how she got fired twice. “In our world we have this crazy success culture,” says Sarah. “I decided I’m going to try to change it” Don’t be ashamed of your failures, they are part of your journey too!

4. Embrace your weakness

“Be honest about what your awesome at and what you’re not so awesome at. It’s amazing how much that fills you with confidence. Be transparent about the areas where you don’t have expertise.” – Sarah Robb O’Hagan, CEO of Flywheel

5. Obstacles can bring out the best in you

After getting fired, Sarah had only three months to figure out how to stay in the U.S. before she had to go back to home country, New Zealand. “When you come up against really tough circumstances like that, that’s when you really find out what’s inside you.”

6. Never stop learning.

Moon Juice founder Amanda Chantal Bacon says one of the ways she keeps up with the pressure to be innovative and creative is to always push herself to continue to learn.

7. Push yourself in spite of your fears

“You have to break yourself to make yourself. Once you get comfortable, you have to get uncomfortable again to keep pushing yourself. Face those fears that you have. Even if you are scared of something, just jump in and try it.” – Sarah Robb O’Hagan, CEO of Flywheel

8. Trust your team

The Coveteur co-founder Steph Mark emphasizes releasing control to your team: “Give your team members opportunities to really own their skillsets. Let everyone be responsible for their own work.”

9. Allow your definition of success to change and evolve

“Success for me, in the beginning, was that moment when I didn’t have to check my bank account to see if I could go out to dinner with friends. Now, success is more like when I can leave the office at 3pm to go see my kid’s performance because I know that I have an amazing team.” – Rebecca Minkoff, Designer

10. Live your truth

Hearing all of these amazing business women talk about how they built their passions into successful careers was a great reminder that doing what you love and being successful in business can go hand in hand.