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Kia Brooks, Erum Khan, Alex Serio, Sky Dylan-Robbins, Kristina Budelis, Lisbeth Kaufman
Women Owning It Gathering at IFP Media Center

(released 8/1/2018)


The Made in NY Media Center by IFP in DUMBO Brooklyn hosted a gathering of Women Owning It.  This event was the second in a quarterly series of women who are founders and co-founders of businesses in NY. The Media Center's Kia Brooks moderated the panel of 5 professionals:

Erum Azeez Khan - SoundMind
Alexandra Serio - Nameless Network
Sky Dylan-Robbins - Video Consortium
Kristina Budelis - Kitsplit
Lisbeth Kaufman - Kitsplit

The women are all part of Generation Y and in a short amount of time have achieved success with strong mission statements, vision for their company, and the values of the business identified.

Topics of conversation included what inspired owners to create the business model they chose. Erum Azeez Khan of SoundMind said her parents were the spark. Observing her parents adapting to a fast changing technology landscape prompted her to create a product that helped an aging population access technology. Kristina Budelis had the idea of creating Kitsplit following the frustrating work days having invested travel time to Manhattan to rental houses to obtain equipment for a shoot in addition to putting in the work hours of shooting the production.  Using technology and streamlining the outdated rental house business model for equipment, the goal is to provide an efficient process in renting your production needs to a growing number of content creators.

Helpful advice that the women shared included:

Lisbeth Kaufman of Splitkit said, "Work on what you are good at, not forced into a role because of gender."

Alexandra Serio of Nameless Network gives this early advice, "Listen to your Market and follow it."

Sky Dylan-Robbins spoke on having your personal and business values in alignment. She reflected on a time in her business when a decision of accepting funding was at a crossroads. "You may have to turn down money for your values."

The panel discussed the acts of helping each other, fostering, mentoring, investing, sharing knowledge with other women as a way of empowerment.

Focus on your work, product and mission is priority. For example, picking a specific time to answer emails and do that for an hour solid then switching to the next task. Calendaring in Saturday creative time, self care or dates with personal relationships to keep balance in your life.

The Made In NY Media Center by IFP will hold the next Women Owning It panel on October 30th. Follow the Media Center for updates and when to register to attend this free and open to the public event.



 

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