#160 Science as a Platform for Reinvention (Ariel Garten)

Toronto native Ariel Garten was 23 when she had her first collection showcase at Fashion Week. The owner of a budding clothing label that was making newspapers around the city, she was bewildered when her father suggested she leave the industry. Garten went to school while producing her designs at the same time, eventually graduating with a degree in neuroscience Something in her was prompted to follow her father’s advice, and she found herself on the cusp of a radical reinvention. Having worked in neurological research and early brain computer interface systems, Garten decided to commercialize the technology - a process that involved raising millions of dollars from investors. The result was the award-winning Muse Headband collection, a brain-sensing headband that gives real-time feedback during sleep and meditation. At 5’2”, a petite female in a male-dominated industry, Garten was able to fund and create a product that has now been used in studies by Mayo Clinic and other major research institutions. “I was so scared,” she says, “that it wouldn’t be good enough…but at the same time, I had this deep confidence in myself and I had the ability to really silence my inner critic.” In this candid conversation with Covey Club founder Lesley Jane Seymour, Garten explains her choices and the passion that inspired her along the way.

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