Welcome to Soul and Witt. I'm Courtney. And I'm Bailey. We are the mother-daughter duo here to make you laugh, grow, and feel more connected to your favorite things.

Hi friends. it's Courtney, and I'm on my own today, at least for the introduction portion of today's episode.

I know, though, that I speak for Bailey when I say, we feel like this episode has been way overdue. We want to introduce you to a friend of ours in Salt Lake City. Her name's Tessa and I'm going to share a little more information about her and

then we will jump into our conversation. Tessa Arneson, the founder of the Maven District, a neighborhood of more than 70

businesses on 900 South and 200 East in Salt Lake City, encompasses 100% locally owned shops, food,

wellness, creative services, and startups that also happen to be 75% female founded.

She is an entrepreneur, a girl mom, an angel investor, and a real estate developer who builds

community-driven and attainable spaces for underserved founders.

She is a wellness and self-growth junkie who has been in the

healing world for a decade in her work at her fitness studio, Maven Strong. Traveling the world

inspires her design and expands her thoughts. Teaching and connecting with people feeds her soul

and parenting her two girls with a partner who is always trying to be better, lights her up.

She is a self-proclaimed empath who feels all the feels and is recovering from a traumatic brain injury that's taught her a lot.

She feels very fortunate to be working in her purpose, which is to help

women lead brave and intentional lives. Hi, Tessa. Will you tell us a little bit about yourself

and your Salt Lake City Empire? Oh, Bailey, love that question. Thank you, by the way, for having me.

I am Tessa Arneson, and I'm the founder of the Maven District.

And what the Maven District is a small neighborhood in Salt Lake City on 9th South and Second East that has about 70 businesses, all locally owned and 75% of those 70 businesses are female owned, which just

makes me completely floored every time I say it. So I would qualify myself as an entrepreneur.

I am a girl mom. I'm also an angel investor. And now I'm in real estate development. And I love building things that are community

driven. That's amazing. We, oh, sorry. No, I think it bleeds through with everything I do from

owning the fitness studio to building spaces that are attainable for entrepreneurs to go after

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