76 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 1
that they are not alone. That it’s hard to
raise a family and have a business, I think
it’s hard for men as well, as a woman, I
think I come from a place of knowing what
it’s like as woman, and so that has sort of
become my tribe, but I think being a parent
and an entrepreneur in any capacity is
tough. We on a daily basis face priorities
and what's important to us, and what we
are going to accomplish and why we are ac-
complishing it, and you know you say the
phrase for posterity a lot because we are
doing things for our children and for the
next generation, and so that is challenging
and it helps provide the support to help
women go out and create businesses that
are amazing, and help raise the next gener-
ation that is going to create businesses that
are amazing.
Neil: What do you enjoy most about what
you do?
Dana Malstaff: Well I am all about creating.
My family growing up, we called ourselves
the McGiver family because we just love to
build. You know, my dad builds and restores
vintage cars, my brother is a sculptor. You
know, my mom does illustrations and my
step-dad is a writer and so I come from a
family of creators, and so that is what I do
every single day is I figure out how can I
create beautiful but useful things in this
world that will help people run their busi-
ness and raise their family. And how can I
do that, that makes their lives easier. So,shorten that learning curve for them. Teach
them well, also while motivating them. And
so every day I wake up and I have some-
thing on my plate that allows me to create
and that really drives me and excites me.
Neil: What drives you to do what you do?
Dana Malstaff: I think this is different than
when I was in corporate America, I think
this is the difference between someone
paying you and you creating a business
where you are in charge of everything you
make. It’s that I have control over what my
future looks like, you know I have the ability
to say, this is what I want and I need to
make this much more or I need to work
with these kinds of people and I can make it
so, and I think that is a beautiful driver in
business is that I have that control, it’s also
super scary that I have that control. Be-
cause that also means that I have to 100%
own my failures. But then I can easily pick
myself up and go, I mean the two words
that I talk about that I never say anymore
after having started my own business, is I
never say politics and I never say red tape.
Because I can be as agile and flexible as I
want to be in my business, and I can pivot
and I can tweak as much as I need to in my
business. To get me to what I want, and
that is beautiful and I think the most im-
portant thing that I help my clients with
and I am really conscious about in my busi-
ness is I have to know what I want. And as
soon as I know what I want, then it’s a driv-