Giveaway Alert: Win AMAZING Prizes from Our Re:Make Partners!

In our Take 5 series, sponsored by Verizon, we ask women in business about unexpected challenges, their inspirations, recent wins, and how the free Verizon Small Business Digital Ready Program has helped propel their business forward. Here, we meet Therise Edwards, founder/CEO of Teshley Solutions, an education consultancy firm that helps students and families navigate the complexities of the education system K through 12.

What is an unexpected business challenge that you faced and how did you overcome it?

I wouldn't call myself a FAFSA (Free Application for Student Aid) expert, but I ended up having to know a lot more about it than I ever anticipated. FAFSA is what administers Pell Grants, which is what a lot of colleges base their financial aid on. I knew about the application changes, and some were excellent, but they made a series of critical errors and a lot of parents were scrambling. It was not my intent to have this as my area of focus; it just became a necessity.

What's a recent small win for your business?

Recent small wins are my collaborations. I formed partnerships with one organization that focuses on students with special needs. I hosted a webinar with the executive director of that organization. I formed a partnership with members from an insurance company on planning and paying for college. That was my first corporate sponsorship. And I've got a series of events coming out because others actually reached out to me. One of them I met through another networking platform, but I got to that platform from one of the sessions that I did with Verizon Small Business Digital Ready Program.

How did you start to collaborate with external partners?

Just changing my strategies and my approach, and just being more secure and more emphatic in making connections. It ends up being this continual cycle.

Is there a woman in business that you admire or that you look up to?

I have two. Leontyne Anglin, who runs a nonprofit called Beyond Expectations. She works with a small pool of students, but she just gives them enormous exposure and opportunity. She's brilliant with collaborating with individuals and businesses and really bringing the students what they need. And then the other on a bigger scale is Cate Luzio, founder and CEO of Luminary, who taught her Business Plan Bootcamp through the Verizon Small Business Digital Ready Program. She is just a dynamo. She is just so supportive of women entrepreneurs. She's awesome.

How did the Verizon Small Business Digital Ready Program help propel your business forward?

All of the collaborations and partnerships with the exception of one all came from joining the Verizon Small Business Digital Ready Program. I’ve taken all of the free classes and the one on projections and pricing, something every entrepreneur struggles with, was very helpful. There have been so many of them. Sometimes you're completely ignorant in a category so you take the class and it's like, okay, that's good to have. But then sometimes you sign up for it and it's like, oh, yeah, I did know 90 percent of that, but this other 10 percent is going to be very, very helpful.

Learn more about the free Verizon Small Business Digital Ready Program and Teshley Solutions.

Illustration by Daniela Jordan-Villaveces

In our Take 5 series, sponsored by Verizon, we ask women in business about unexpected challenges, their inspirations, recent wins, and how the free Verizon Small Business Digital Ready Program has helped propel their business forward. Here, we meet Rita Suzanne, a marketing strategist for health and wellness businesses who learned to network, connect with other entrepreneurs, and build her business online and IRL.

What's an unexpected business challenge that you've had to face and how did you overcome it?

The hardest thing for me was my sister passed away and I ended up taking custody of my nieces. I ended up being a single mom of four kids. This is the thing that transitioned my whole entire life. I stopped doing web design and started my podcast Mom Owned and Operated. I wanted to reconnect with other moms and figure out how they were able to run their businesses and raise a family and take care of themselves because I wasn't able to do all three at the same time. Through that journey, I realized that I really needed to connect with other people and how important it was for my business. It helped me to create that community that I was yearning for that I didn't realize that I needed.

What's a recent small win for your business?

For me, the win was just pivoting back to something that I actually wanted to do. Also, I’ve started to say no to things that I no longer want to do.

Who is a woman in business that you look up to and why?

I have always admired and looked up to Amy Porterfield [author of Two Weeks Notice]. I listened to her all the time when I was starting out. I think that she's amazing and I love her stuff. She just seems like a very genuine person.

Is there a resource that has made an impact on you as an entrepreneur?

I listen to a lot of audio books. One of my favorites that has been huge for me is You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero. I was told when I first started my business, by a friend who was a business coach, that I have a mindset problem. Ten years ago, I had no idea even what “mindset” was. Sincero’s book helped me to see what she meant by “mindset” and helped me adjust that mindset and fix some of the things that I didn't realize were broken.

How has the Verizon Small Business Digital Ready Program helped propel your business forward?

There are a lot of things that I have loved about it. There are local networking and training opportunities, and that has been great, and the online training is very valuable. It's a great resource. I find that marketing needs a three-tiered approach, meaning you need to network it locally, socially, and then also have a very comprehensive online approach to your marketing. One of the Verizon Small Business trainings that I took was all about taking advantage of your local resources. I found that to be extremely valuable because often people think they need to just focus on social media. I don't think that people focus enough on their local community.

Learn more about the free Verizon Small Business Digital Ready Program and Rita Suzanne.

Illustration by Daniela Jordan-Villaveces

Nicole Kidman is, as the kids say, mothering. She's giving fans plenty of movies and TV shows to pick from while we wait for the next seasons of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers — A Family Affair, Expats, The Perfect Couple (and the AMC intro, of course). Her newest movie Babygirl comes from A24, and the steamy drama is mixing work and pleasure. Pour yourself a glass of wine for this one, folks.

Scroll down to learn more about Babygirl — and to watch the HOT new trailer!

What is the plot of Babygirl?

A24

Babygirl Plot

In Babygirl, Nicole Kidman plays Romy, a powerful CEO struggling to hold her perfect persona together. Her marriage to Jacob has never provided with much pleasure, despite the fact he's caring and artistic. But when Romy meets a young intern named Samuel, and feels immediately drawn to him, the two begin a torrid affair.

And filming scenes with Harry Dickinson got so intense, Kidman said she literally had to take breaks. “There were times when we were shooting where I was like, ‘I don’t want to orgasm any more,'” she told the Sun. “Don’t come near me. I hate doing this. I don’t care if I am never touched again in my life!”

But the fact the movie was made by women empowered Kidman — and gave her a sense of freedom. "Doing this subject matter in the hands of the woman that wrote the script, that's directing it and is a really great actress herself — we became one in a weird way, which I'd never had with a director before," Kidman says in a statement. "When you're working with a woman on this subject matter, you can share everything with each other.”

"I really decided in the beginning, I want to make a sexual film, just as sexual as all these films that I've always admired so much," adds writer-director-producer Halina Reijn, "but now I'm going to do it completely through female eyes. What does that mean and what does that look like?”

When is the Babygirl release date?

A24

Babygirl Release Date

Babygirl made its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, but you can watch the movie in theaters December 25, 2024.

Who's in the Babygirl cast?

A24

Babygirl Cast

The cast of Babygirl includes Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde, and Antonio Banderas.

What has Nicole Kidman said about making Babygirl?

Amy Sussman/Getty Images

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Nicole Kidman revealed Babygirl is the most "exposing" film she's done because she's “made some films that are pretty exposing, but not like this.”

“It left me raggedm" Kidman says. "At some point I was like, I don’t want to be touched. I don’t want to do this anymore, but at the same time I was compelled to do it...This is something you do and hide in your home videos. It is not a thing that normally is going to be seen by the world.”

“I felt very exposed as an actor, as a woman, as a human being,” she continues. “I had to go in and go out like, I need to put my protection back on. What have I just done? Where did I go? What did I do?”

What does babygirl energy mean?

A24

"Babygirl" is a term of endearment that's usually applied to a man (you've probably heard it describe Pedro Pascal or Paul Mescal). When someone is giving babygirl energy, they're kind, cute, and disarming. And considering Babygirl plays with power dynamics, we could be guessing who the "babygirl" in question is up until the very end.

Are you looking forward to seeing Nicole Kidman onscreen again? We might have to wait until December to see Babygirl, but there are plenty of incredible Fall Movies coming our way.

This post has been updated.