Hi, it's Puno. I think I've mentioned this before, but if you're just tuning in for the

first time, aside from hosting Girl Boss Radio, I'm also the founder of a small lifestyle

business called I Love Creatives. My mom always says, I love creatives. Because she does, too.

One thing we do at I Love Creatives is we teach people how to make Squarespace websites.

And the reason why my business can exist, why there's a demand for specifically

Squarespace designers, is because the number of small businesses have grown. A ton.

Last year, women alone started 1,800 net new businesses every day.

But only about 25% of women business owners sought business financing like loans or venture

capital or angel investing. And that was not me. I was the 75% of women who were bootstrappers,

meaning I paid for my business with my own cash money. That's right, by freelancing,

while also growing my business. And that's not easy, because you just don't know how long

it can take for your business to bring in enough revenue in order for you to quit your job,

or in my case quit freelancing. All small business founders are essentially living in the state

of uncertainty at all times. Wait, why are we putting ourselves through this? Well, I can't

be for everyone, but a business was a way for me to express how I wanted to live in the world.

I know, she's deep. But it's true. I wanted this fun goofy company that doesn't take

things seriously, and I can just be myself. And today, our guest, Vanessa Costa, she's doing

the same thing. She's making a world that she wants to live in. Vanessa is the founder of

WASI, an ethical, fair, and equal wage clothing company that taps into her believing culture.

I actually just bought the Estoy happy hat, because, well, I love hats. But also, Estoy happy,

yeah, true story. Vanessa got furloughed from her job right when the pandemic started.

Of course, you got a wall of, she wallowed for like a day. Then Vanessa got on TikTok,

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