Shannon Litton thought she’d spend her whole career working as an English teacher, but when she fell in love with marketing and kept moving forward with the opportunities presented to her, she eventually decided to start her own agency. Today, Shannon is president and CEO of 5by5, a marketing and digital agency which serves change makers and delivers messages with undeniable clarity, reach and results. 5by5 was named to the Inc 5000 list for 2018, 2019 and 2020, and it was named a Nashville Business Journal Best Place to Work in 2017 and 2018. 

Shannon has worked on technology, social media, branding and communications for hundreds of organizations including the Christian Leadership Alliance, Amazima, LifeWay, the United Methodist Church and more. She’s also a speaker on leadership, marketing, branding and business strategy.

In This Episode: Shannon describes the unexpected career journey that led her to create 5by5. She also shares practical examples of what it looks like to put people first, give back as a business leader, and manage your schedule as a busy working mom.

Episode Highlights:

• Taking the next best step (2:47)
• Managing your schedule as a working mom (11:28)
• Drawing inspiration from other women (22:22)
• The importance of off-boarding employees (27:04)
• Giving back as a business owner (32:26)

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our  go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more here.

Bailey Spaulding first fell in love with homebrewing while attending Vanderbilt Law School, and she decided to start working toward opening her own brewery after graduation. Along with co-founder Robyn Virball, who Bailey met while studying abroad in Scotland, she started Jackalope Brewing Company in 2011. Since then, the company has grown tremendously, opening a second taproom and brewery in Nashville, becoming the first Nashville craft brewery to can its own beer, and distributing to New York, Vermont and Arkansas. Jackalope is also committed to sustainability, with innovative practices like the CO2 recapture system they use to make their beer while minimizing waste. 

In This Episode: Bailey shares her story of deciding to pursue her passion and building a successful, woman-owned brewing company. She also opens up about the behind-the-scenes realities of running a business, from finding the right partner to becoming a working mom to pivoting during COVID-19.

Episode Highlights:

• Finding the right business partner (4:36)
• Embracing new opportunities during COVID-19 (8:54)
• Starting a family while running a business (22:08)
• How to deal with guilt as a working mom (25:35)
• The importance of strong peer mentors when starting a business (27:36)

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our  go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more here.

Activating the Four Types of Mentorship

When Her Story of Success CEO Leah Glover Hayes was looking for mentorship to help her grow in her career and eventually start a company, she quickly realized that not all mentorship is created equally. And while experts tend to agree that mentorship makes a major difference in determining someone’s career success and fulfillment, few people are sharing specifics about how to find the right mentor and build a mutually beneficial relationship. 

Leah believes that there are four types of mentorship: Passive mentorship, peer mentorship, traditional mentorship and mentoring others. No matter where you are in your career journey, you can benefit from implementing one or all of these in your life. In this four-part series, Leah will provide you with all the tools and resources you need to start seeking out mentorship for yourself. 

In This Episode: Leah shares some of the life-changing lessons she’s learned from mentors in her life, including Pat Shea, Marcie Allen Van Mol and Sherry Deutschmann. She also offers practical advice to anyone looking to find traditional mentors for their own lives and careers.

Episode Highlights:

• Why traditional mentorship matters (02:00)
• Inspiring business lessons with Sherry Deutschmann (04:12)
• Setting boundaries and optimizing your schedule with Marcie Allen Van Mol (10:23)
• Building a mutually beneficial mentoring relationship with Pat Shea (14:27)
• How to find a mentor (18:50)

Listen to the Full Interviews Featured in this Episode:

• Leading an Employee-Centric Company to Success with Sherry Deustchmann

• A Music Industry Visionary Redefines Success with Marcie Allen Van Mol

• Building a Tribe to Change the World with Pat Shea

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more here.

In this bonus episode hosted by past Her Story of Success guest Rita Mitchell and recorded before a live studio audience at a women and wealth conference in Nashville, Kathleen Burns Kingsbury talks about how she made the journey from clinical psychology to financial empowerment counseling, becoming a published author with nothing more than a copy of “Writing for Dummies”, and the overlap between self-esteem and financial success.

As a wealth psychology expert, Kathleen believes financial success isn’t just about how much money you have in the bank. Just as important are our thoughts and feelings about money that shape our financial decisions. An internationally published author and speaker, Kathleen has devoted her career to empowering women and the financial advisers who serve them by training them to examine their money talk mindset and feel more comfortable talking openly about money. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, PBS News Hour, Money Magazine, TODAY Money, Forbes, and CNBC.

Thank you to First Tennessee Bank for letting us interview Kathleen during your conference and share the conversation with our audience!

Rita Mitchell (IG: @ritapmitchell_oyp) summarizes her story with one word – determination. And her career proves it. A 35 year veteran of the financial services industry, Rita went from being told she didn’t have enough experience to be a waitress at Red Lobster to a top executive at First Tennessee Bank, breaking barriers at every step along the way. In that time, she passed the Series 7 broker exam with a 6 month old baby, started her own financial advisory company, and left all of her doubters in the dust.

In this special live episode, Rita talks about the struggles of being an African-American female in a traditionally male-dominated industry, the value of recognizing your potential, and how the succession of "nos" she faced motivated her to teach other women to say yes to opportunity.

After finishing college, Courtney Whitmore (IG:@pizzazzerie) took a safe, secure job as a career counselor, but she soon realized she wanted something entirely different — a creative pursuit where she could be her own boss. Looking back on that time in her life, she says, “I knew I wanted to work for myself but I didn’t know what that looked like.” Since hosting dinner parties was a favorite activity, she decided to launch a website in 2010 to focus on entertaining and party planning. Today that website, Pizzazzerie.com, is the centerpiece of Courtney’s expanding role as an entertaining expert, one whose food styling and tablescapes are in demand by companies from Target and HGTV to Lindt Chocolates. 

In this episode, Courtney tells us about starting a job in an industry that doesn’t exist yet, managing her brand’s social media presence, the ways in which her definition of success has changed over time and the importance of what she calls the Monday Morning Test — “If what you are doing doesn’t get you up and out of the bed on Monday morning, then you shouldn’t be doing it.

Corbette Doyle describes herself as a “serial expert,” one who consistently pursues new information and builds new skills. It was this career approach that brought her leadership roles at Aon, a Chicago-based consulting and risk management firm where she built a health care industry practice from the ground up and served as Chief Diversity Officer. Now a Senior Lecturer in Organizational Leadership at Vanderbilt University, Corbette says it’s vital that women lay the groundwork for career advancement ahead of time by building new competencies. “You can’t wait until you’re ready for a change to create the opportunity for career change,” she says. “We all have to be lifelong learners now.”

In this episode, Corbette also tells us about the importance of corporate culture, why women need to let go of their stereotypes about men and what it was like to start a new job when she was seven months pregnant.

Ruta Sepetys (twitter:@rutasepetys) is one of the most admired writers in contemporary children’s literature — with the bestsellers Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray among her riveting historical novels for young readers. But it was only after a 22-year career as a music business manager that she finally found the courage to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. The turning point was a trip to her father’s homeland in Lithuania, where she discovered a long hidden family secret. Though she had tried to write novels before, “It was only when I started harnessing my own story that people started to respond,” she tells us.

In this episode, Ruta retraces her unlikely journey to becoming an internationally bestselling author and offers her thoughts on working with challenging clients, the importance of mentoring, the power of stories and the enduring value of failure.

As a young single mother, Marcela Gómez (IG:@marcelagomez_1234) started a marketing firm in 2002 to focus on strategies for reaching the growing Latino community in the U.S. Launching her business was a turning point for Marcela, a native of Colombia who moved to North Carolina with her family as a teen. When she was laid off from her marketing job with a major Christian publishing house, she finally decided to take the reins of her own career. “I never wanted anyone else to have my destiny in their hands,” she says.

In this episode, Marcela also shares her ideas on building a support network when you move to a new city, making the decision to leave a job that diminishes you, the myths of work-life balance — and why she goes to bed each night with "total peace of mind."

Raised on a farm in South Carolina, Britnie Turner (IG:@britnieturner) was a beauty contestant (and Miss North Carolina) who showed her passion for helping the disadvantaged by doing mission work in Africa and Latin America. Today, at the age of 30, Britnie is the CEO of Aerial Development Group, a multimillion-dollar real estate business she started literally from the ground up to pursue her vision of helping others on a broader scale.

In this episode — recorded before a live audience in Nashville — Britnie tells us about living intentionally, thriving as a woman in a male-dominated industry and using the growth of her business to accomplish philanthropic goals. “Frustration is one of the best things you could ever have,” she says, “because it means you have the vision of a higher standard.”

The misery she felt working in corporate jobs proved to be a strong motivator for Laura Lea Goldberg (IG:@lauraleabalanced), who took a leap of faith when she left the traditional business world and began her journey to become a Certified Holistic Chef, a successful cookbook author and the voice behind the popular healthy eating website, LL Balanced.

In this episode, we talk to Laura Lea about how she found the courage to make the change, how she overcame the self-limiting beliefs that held her back and how her approach to healthy eating has changed her own life and the lives of her readers. “My life just opened up,” she says about the joys of pursuing her passion. “I went from black-and-white to color.”

Success can be defined in many ways. Our conversations with trailblazers, entrepreneurs, artists and business leaders explore how diverse women have paved their own way forward. Many have launched profitable companies; others have walked away from successful careers to pursue their dreams in other fields. As you listen to the stories of these determined and talented women, we hope they will inspire you to overcome the obstacles in your path and create your own unique version of success.

Fawn Weaver is a serial entrepreneur and bestselling author, and when she learned about the story of Uncle Nearest Green — the slave who taught Jack Daniel how to distill whiskey — she decided to create a company that would bring his legacy to life. Since she launched Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey in 2017, it has become the fastest growing independent American whiskey brand in U.S. history. Uncle Nearest Whiskey was named “World’s Best” by Whisky Magazine in 2019 and 2020, and it earned the Double Gold in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Along with Uncle Nearest, Fawn is also the founder and CEO of Grant Sidney, Inc.  — a privately held investment company — author of The Happy Wives Club and co-author of The Argument Free Marriage, and a popular Ted speaker. She’s also a dedicated philanthropist who created the Nearest Green Foundation, a non-profit that offers scholarships to every descendant of Nearest Green and supplied more than 300,000 masks to frontline workers and disadvantaged communities during COVID-19. In 2020, Fawn partnered with Jack Daniel’s to create the Nearest and Jack Advancement Initiative, a program working to elevate people of color within the American whiskey industry. Fawn has appeared on hundreds of popular shows including FOX Business, the TODAY Show and CBS This Morning, and she’s been featured in outlets like Fast Company, Inc. Magazine and The New York Times. She’s also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization.  

In This Episode:

Fawn shares the inspiring story of Nearest Green and Jack Daniel and discusses some of the important lessons it can teach us as we navigate the conversation around racism today. She also explains how she’s built a culture of confidence and radical candor as a CEO, and she shares some of the daily habits that have helped her find fulfillment and success. 

Episode Highlights:

• Bringing the story of Uncle Nearest Green to life
• The importance of radical candor in all areas of life
• Building a culture of confidence
• Fawn’s morning routine that sets her up for success
• Why Uncle Nearest’s story matters for America today

Resources Fawn Mentioned:

• The Happy Wives Club by Fawn Weaver 
• Fawn’s TedTalk on “The Argument Free Marriage"
• Radical Candor by Kim Scott
• The Miracle Morning and The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod
• Think Up app
• Write It Down Make it Happen by Henriette Anne Klauser
• The Power of the Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murray
• Uncle Nearest cocktail recipes

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more here.

Domonique Townsend spent years being undervalued by the companies she worked for, and when she decided to take the leap to start her own business, she knew she was ready to reach a higher potential. Domonique is the founder of We Optimize Work, a company that creates strategies and systems to help working moms and mom CEOs. As an operations coach and workflow expert with more than 10 years of engineering experience, Domonique is able to help moms manage their work and raise a family without compromising their sanity or goals. 

Along with her years of industrial engineering experience, Domonique has trained or coached more than 3,100 people, and she’s a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Domonique also serves on boards for Purpose Preparatory Academy, the WBENC Next Gen Initiative and WomenGetIT, and she’s a Senior Scholar Instructor for #BlackTechFutures.

In This Episode: Domonique shares her inspiring story of feeling undervalued at her job, getting laid off and turning her experience into a business that’s helping working moms optimize their lives and work. She also explains how she’s found mentors to support her throughout her journey and offers practical advice to other working moms. 

Episode Highlights:

• Supporting working moms through We Optimize Work (2:49) 
• Building a business as a working mom (7:46)
• Domonique’s story of turning a layoff into an opportunity for growth (11:24)
• The importance of clients who align with your own values (22:27)
• Finding mentors who remind you of your worth (25:45)
• Advice for working moms who are feeling overwhelmed (43:50)

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com

Since starting her business in college, Gabby Male has transformed her interest in fitness into a passion for helping women to ditch dieting and feel empowered in their bodies. She’s a content creator, certified personal trainer and entrepreneur who’s built a large social media following and multiple successful businesses. In addition to her social media, Gabby is the creator of SWITCHIITUP — a monthly exercise platform based on building confidence— co-founder of The Rose Retreats — a series of events that help women find self-love and empowerment — and founder of relic96 — an upcycled apparel shop.

Gabby is a firm believer in the idea that health involves so much more than just fitness and nutrition, and she’s using her platform to help women find greater mental, emotional, social, financial and sexual health. She joined Her Story of Success for our first live podcast of 2021 to share her inspiring story. 

In This Episode:

Gabby explains how she inadvertently started her fitness business in college and then made the courageous decision to shift her focus toward a more holistic form of wellness when her values started to change. She also shares some of her best advice for overcoming imposter syndrome, building community within your industry, and setting boundaries around what parts of your life you share on social media.

Episode Highlights:

• Gabby’s story of turning a college hobby into a business
• Working through imposter syndrome
• Learning to outsource
• Building community in your industry
• Getting vulnerable while also setting boundaries
• Creating a new business during quarantine

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com

When Her Story of Success CEO Leah Glover Hayes was looking for mentorship to help her grow in her career and eventually start a company, she quickly realized that not all mentorship is created equally. And while experts tend to agree that mentorship makes a major difference in determining someone’s career success and fulfillment, few people are sharing specifics about how to find the right mentor and build a mutually beneficial relationship. 

Leah believes that there are four types of mentorship: Passive mentorship, peer mentorship, traditional mentorship and mentoring others. No matter where you are in your career journey, you can benefit from implementing one or all of these in your life. In this new, four-part series, Leah will provide you with all the tools and resources you need to start seeking out mentorship for yourself. 

In This Episode:

Leah explains how passive mentorship can help you grow in your career, relationships and life. She also shares some of the resources that have been most beneficial as she’s built her business, and she explains how you can find the right passive mentors for your specific goals and passions. 

Episode Highlights:

• Why mentorship matters
• How passive mentorship can kickstart your mentorship journey
• The importance of finding the right resources
• Leah’s favorite passive mentorship tools

The Books Leah Mentioned:

• Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
• 100 Days of Believing Bigger by Marshawn Evans Daniels
• Overcoming Underearning by Barbara Stanny
• The Best Yes by Lysa TerKeurst
• It’s About Damn Time by Arlan Hamilton
• Chasing the Bright Side by Jess Ekstrom
• Thrive Through It by Brittany Cole

The Podcasts Leah Mentioned:

• The Oprah Winfrey Show
• How I Built This with Guy Raz
• The School of Greatness
• The EntreLeadership Podcast
• Biz Chick

Other Online Resources Leah Mentioned:

• Brene Brown’s TedTalk
• Brittany Cole’s TedxTalk
• Lily Hansen’s TedxTalk

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com.

Her Story of Success…

Sherri Kottmann believes that developing a strong sense of self is one of the most important things you can do for your career. She’s the Chief People Officer at Forrester, a research and consulting company that helps organizations grow through customer obsession, where she’s worked for the past ten years. Sherri initially started her career in sales, but upon being promoted to a sales leadership role, she realized her true passion was people. Sherri also served as the Director of HR at EF Educational Tours. 

In her work as Chief People Officer, Sherri’s role extends beyond traditional conceptions of HR to include leadership over the employee experience organization, talent strategy, leadership development, executive coaching, experience design and cultural transformation. She’s excelled at helping her employees all over the world feel safe and supported during the challenges of COVID-19, and she’ll share some strategies other leaders can use to care for their teams.

In This Episode:

Sherri explains how she’s learned to integrate her life’s purpose into the work she does as a chief people officer, and she offers advice to women who are looking to find their purpose or direction. She also offers an insight look at the strategies she’s developed while leading an international company through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Episode Highlights:

• Sherri’s story of discovering her passion for human resources
• How to identify your purpose
• The importance of “solving with, not for.”
• Cultivating community during COVID-19
• Letting go of a need for control

The Books Sherri Mentioned:

• How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi

• Daring Greatly by Brene Brown

• Good to Great by Jim Collins

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com

Her Story of Success… 

Stephanie Cartin has a gift for staying ahead of the curve and executing on great ideas. She’s the co-founder and co-CEO of Socialfly, a social-first digital and influencer agency that’s worked with major brands like Girl Scouts, Samsung and Univision. Through the process of growing Socialfly and wanting to inspire other women, Stephanie and her co-founder Courtney also launched Entreprenista Media, where they co-host the Entreprenista Podcast and co-authored Like Love Follow:  The Entreprenista’s Guide to Using Social Media to Grow Your Business. Stephanie has appeared in or been featured on media outlets including Bloomberg, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, Refinery29 and CheddarTV. She’s been recognized for her work with the SmartCEO Brava Award and a Stevie Award for Women Run Workplace of the Year. Additionally, Stephanie is the co-founder of Markid, a marketplace app where parents can sell gently used kids items. 

Along with all of her innovation and business success, Stephanie has also dedicated herself to raising awareness through sharing her own struggles with infertility and a complicated pregnancy. She’s an incredible example of a woman who’s achieved both success and personal fulfillment, all while continuing to innovate and change the way companies approach marketing.

In This Episode:

Stephanie shares her inspiring story of starting a company at a young age and offers advice for other women business owners based on the lessons she’s learned along the way. She also opens up about her health struggles and explains how going through a difficult pregnancy helped shape her into a better CEO.

Episode Highlights:

• Stephanie’s story of starting Socialfly and growing it into a successful company
• How to work on multiple brands or businesses at the same time
• The benefits of mentorship, coaching, and peer networks
• Stephanie’s story of struggling with infertility and finding answers through sharing her story
• Marketing advice for women business owners 

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com

Celebrating Success in 2020

Even though 2020 was an incredibly difficult year, it also provided a unique opportunity for changes in perspective. As we come to the end of 2020, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the ways Her Story of Success has grown and changed amidst the challenges of the past year. We’re grateful for the opportunity to play a role in helping you define and pursue your own version of success, and we’re excited to continue living into that mission in 2021!

In This Episode:

Her Story of Success CEO Leah Glover Hayes sits down with her Executive Producer Claire Bidigare-Curtis and Production Coordinator Bronte Lebo to take a look back at some of the ways Her Story of Success has changed throughout 2020. They also explain how they’re defining success for themselves and the company as they look ahead to the new year, and they share some amazing insights that were submitted by some of our listeners. 

Episode Highlights:

• A look back at how Her Story of Success has changed in 2020
• Listener Submissions: “Which podcast episodes were especially meaningful to you this year?”
• Empowering your team to succeed 
• Listener Submissions: “What lessons did you learn from listening to the podcast this year?”
• A look back at some of our favorite guests of 2020
• Listener Submissions: “How do you define success today?”
• Celebrating our successes and looking ahead to the future

You can catch up on all the episodes mentioned in this podcast by listening to this playlist. 

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com

Kim’s Story of Success...

Kim Jones wants to help women find the freedom and confidence to remake their careers on their own terms. She’s a career transformation coach and the founder and CEO of Kim Jones Alliance, which she built out of her own experience of changing careers after experiencing personal tragedy. Before starting her business, Kim held executive level positions for multiple Fortune 250 clients, which gave her the experience she needed to work as a consultant for corporate clients and a coach for high-performing women. Kim is also a speaker and facilitator about topics including women in IT, diversity, inclusion and belonging, and navigating career change.

Samantha’s Story of Success…

Samantha Lane believes that by building more productive habits and time management skills, women can achieve greater success while also experiencing balance in their personal lives. Samantha is the Founder of Origami Day, a company that offers speaking, training, and consulting services, along with a product line centered around the Origami Day planner. Samantha is also a time management coach and keynote speaker, and she built her business out of her experience of struggling with workaholism and needing to take time to recover from an intensive surgery. 

In This Episode: 

Kim shares her story of leaving behind a successful career in corporate America to chart her own path, which led her to her passion for helping other women navigate career transformations. She also explains how overcoming limiting beliefs can help you discover your new trajectory and build the confidence to pursue it. Then in the second part of the episode, Samantha shares some practical tips and resources you can use to chart out your goals and practice better time management. She’ll also explain how goal planning can help you take your goals from an abstract idea into actionable, day-to-day steps. 

Episode Highlights:

• Kim’s story of deciding to embrace the desire to take her career in another direction
• Overcoming limiting beliefs
• Creating a plan before you take the leap
• Samantha’s advice for setting SMART goals based on your vision for the next year
• How to practice goal planning
• Building a system based on your unique motivations and personality
• The importance of setting SMART goals

The Books Leah and Kim Mentioned:

• Thrive Through It by Brittany Cole

• Believe Bigger by Marshawn Evans Daniels

• It’s About Damn Time by Arlan Hamilton

• Overcoming Underearning by Barbara Stanny

• Untamed by Glennon Doyle

• Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo

• The Success Principles and The Success Principles Workbook by Jack Canfield

• Gabby Bernstein’s books

The Resources Leah and Samantha Mentioned:

• The Origami Day planner
• Origami Day digital downloads   
• Gretchen Rubin’s “The Four Tendancies Quiz”
• Individual consulting with Samantha Lane

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com

Leisse Wilcox believes the key to greater contentment is found through healing your relationship with yourself. She’s a coach who works with high-achieving, purpose-driven women, and she’s changing the global conversation around self-love and emotional health. Leisse is also a TedX speaker, podcast host, certified NLP practitioner, and author of To Call Myself Beloved: A Story of Hope, Healing and Coming Home. She’s been featured on season 2 of Amazon Prime’s The Social Movement and interviewed for media outlets including ABC, The Toronto Star, NPR and Thrive Global. 

Leisse’s deep understanding of the human experience comes not only from her education, but also from her ability to turn difficult experiences like divorce, narcissistic abuse and breast cancer into something beautiful. Because of her own experience of learning to love and accept herself, she’s uniquely equipped to help other women do the same. 

In This Episode: 

Leisse shares inspirational advice for how you can start healing your relationship with yourself and live in alignment with your deepest values. She also explains why working with a coach can help you find greater fulfillment as an entrepreneur, and she shares her story of growing her coaching business by investing in herself and her career. 

Episode Highlights:

• What to do when you realize you’re still feeling discontent in spite of your success
• How to scale with intention while staying aligned with your values
• Understanding your limiting beliefs 
• Leisse’s process of writing To Call Myself Beloved
• Expanding your business as a solopreneur
• The power of investing in yourself 

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com

When Laura Hutfless was struggling to find her purpose as an employee, she decided to create new purpose for herself by starting a company dedicated to giving back. Laura co-founded FlyteVu, a Nashville-based, full-service entertainment marketing agency that uses the power of pop culture to connect brands with customers. Since starting the company in 2015, Laura has helped grow FlyteVu’s client roster to include companies like American Red Cross, Barefoot Wine, Cracker Barrel, Drybar and Spotify. They also created the first ever Super Bowl Ad with an all-woman team for Bumble with Serena Williams. FlyteVu was named to the Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America list, and their campaigns have even won a GRAMMY and an Emmy. 

In spite of all of these accomplishments, Laura is most proud of the way FlyteVu has been able to help others. The company has donated more than $750,000 to a wide range of nonprofit organizations in the past five years. Laura is especially passionate about mental health, substance abuse disorder, addiction and trauma, and she serves on the board of The Onsite Foundation, where she helped develop a trauma-informed therapeutic program called “Triumph Over Tragedy,” which provides tools, support and community for survivors of mass shootings. 

In This Episode: Laura discusses some of the most important lessons she’s learned about leadership in the past five years of building her company, from managing different communication styles to dealing with self-doubt. She also shares about her passion for giving back to the community and investing in others, and she explains how a painful loss has inspired her to develop a new resource for mass shooting survivors. 

Episode Highlights:

• How to do more of what you love as an entrepreneur (2:27)
• Laura’s journey of deciding to hire a leadership coach (10:19)
• Finding new ways to innovate (12:58)
• The importance of maintaining a sense of purpose (15:30)
• Dealing with failure and self-doubt (24:55)
• Working with others who have different communication styles (33:53)
• Finding the gift after loss (46:11)

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our  go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more here.

Kate Kimmerle is on a mission to make high-quality, effective skin care accessible to everyone, regardless of race, age, skin issue or income. As the founder of Miss Spa and president of Revolution Beauty USA, Kate has fostered incredible innovation in the beauty industry, from being the first to bring sheet masks into the U.S. market in 2012 to focusing on clean beauty long before it was popular to do so. Most recently, Miss Spa expanded to offer an entire line of serums and other skincare products at the start of 2020, and they’re continuing to develop new innovations for the future. 

In addition to her success in the beauty industry, Kate is also passionate about helping other women grow their businesses without giving away all their equity. She’s built her company with an emphasis on mentorship and a dedication to empowering other women, including customers and employees alike. 

In This Episode:

Kate offers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the secrets to Miss Spa’s success, including Kate’s own entrepreneurial story, details of how Miss Spa products are made, and more. Kate also explains how building a strong team has empowered her to succeed as a leader and innovator, and she offers advice to other working moms who are struggling with feelings of guilt. 

Episode Highlights: 

• Kate’s story of turning her lifelong passion for beauty into a successful business 
• Building a strong team
• Secrets behind the affordability and effectiveness of Miss Spa’s products
• Overcoming mom guilt and seeing the long-term benefits for your kids
• Investing in other women business owners

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com

Jennifer VanOrman recognizes that the holidays can be a difficult time for many women when it comes to mental health and family relationships. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, Jennifer helps people find ways to appreciate the beautiful parts of life even in the midst of hardship. In her own life, Jennifer has dealt with many challenges, including abuse, the death of a spouse, and divorce, and she’s worked hard to build a beautiful life for herself in the midst of all of those things. 

In This Special Holiday Episode:

Jennifer shares some practical strategies you can use to better care for your own mental health this holiday season, along with practices that will help you treat yourself with kindness in daily life. She and Leah also discuss the importance of therapy and offer advice for anyone looking to find a therapist. 

Episode Highlights:

• Normalizing the struggles of the holiday season
• Advice for managing difficult family relationships
• Understanding the role trauma can play in our lives
• Why therapy matters
• The power of self-kindness

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com

Her Story of Success began out of CEO Leah Glover Hayes’ desire to grow in her own career and find mentors who could help her on her journey. Through the process of searching for direction and purpose, Leah realized that something powerful happens when you get to hear stories, lessons learned and celebrations from other women. She created Her Story of Success to multiply the amazing conversations she was having, so that women like her could access new mentorship and the women she interviewed could multiply their legacies. 

Soon after launching the podcast in 2018, Leah began receiving overwhelming feedback about the positive impact these interviews were having on the lives of her listeners. She knew her dreams had even bigger potential and decided to expand the brand and multiply the reach of Her Story of Success. It was then that she asked Melissa Aldridge to join the company, bringing over a decade of business strategy, finance, and operations experience to Leah’s vision and tenacity.

With this two-part Our Story of Success series, Leah will share the story of how Her Story of Success came to be, and she offers advice and inspiration to listeners who are building their own businesses or looking to find more fulfillment in their lives and work. 

In This Episode:

Leah explains how she built the team behind Her Story of Success and is continuing to grow the company to empower women around the world. She also offers advice to business owners about the importance of outsourcing, how to build loyalty with your team, and why clarity is one of the most important things you can provide.

Episode Highlights: 

• Moving on from a vendor that isn’t the perfect fit 
• Building a team that believes in your vision (with Claire Bidigare-Curtis and Bronte Lebo)
• How to help your employees succeed and grow
• The difference between outsourcing for specific skill sets and outsourcing for clarity
• Overcoming self-doubt and learning to celebrate your own success

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com.

Toni Purry wants to be the hype woman who reminds people to celebrate their wins. She’s an entrepreneur, visibility strategist and speaker who helps women build their confidence and find new ways to show up in the world. She’s also the author of My Hype Book, a motivational journal that guides readers to self-discovery through recognition and reflection. 

Toni has more than 20 years of public relations experience, and the agency she started, Purry Communications Group, represented major brands like Marriott, Disney, Habitat for Humanity, Alabama State University, and many more.  After 11 years of running that agency, Toni pivoted to helping individuals build confidence and elevate their personal brands. She has helped her clients land placements with  The Today Show, Food Network, USA Today, The LA Times, O Magazine and more. Toni has also been honored with awards including a PRSA Prism Award and multiple AVA Awards, and she earned a spot in the exclusive O Magazine and Chase Bank “Stay A Step Ahead” program. 

In This Episode:

Toni shares her inspiring story of building a successful PR career and offers insight into some of the lessons she’s learned along the way. She also explains how you can build confidence and elevate your brand in the process. 

Episode Highlights:

• Toni’s story of discovering a love for public relations
• The importance of asking for new opportunities
• Building a business during an economic crisis 
• The power of having a hype man
• Leaving the business you started and overcoming guilt 
• How to build confidence 
• Toni’s story of breaking down barriers as a Black woman and pageant contestant in the South

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com

Our Story of Success

Her Story of Success began out of CEO Leah Glover Hayes’ desire to grow in her own career and find mentors who could help her on her journey. Through the process of searching for direction and purpose, Leah realized that something powerful happens when you get to hear stories, lessons learned and celebrations from other women. She created Her Story of Success to multiply the amazing conversations she was having, so that women like her could access new mentorship and the women she interviewed could multiply their legacies. 

Soon after launching the podcast in 2018, Leah began receiving overwhelming feedback about the positive impact these interviews were having on the lives of her listeners. She knew her dreams had even bigger potential and decided to expand the brand and multiply the reach of Her Story of Success. It was then that she asked Melissa Aldridge to join the company, bringing over a decade of business strategy, finance, and operations experience to Leah’s vision and tenacity.

With this two-part Our Story of Success series, Leah will share the story of how Her Story of Success came to be, and she offers advice and inspiration to listeners who are building their own businesses or looking to find more fulfillment in their lives and work. 

In This Episode:

Leah describes the inspiration behind Her Story of Success and provides an in-depth look at the early days of turning the podcast into a business. Along the way, she shares some of the wisdom she has learned about finding the right business partner, hiring people when you don’t have a large budget and seeking out mentors to help you reach your goals.

Episode Highlights: 

• The inspiration behind Her Story of Success
• Finding a business partner with (Ellen Hoffman)
• Giving people opportunities to grow in their careers (with Isaac Jones)
• Moving into new seasons of life (with Ellen Hoffman)
• Knowing when to take on a business partner or investor
• Building a partnership agreement (with Melissa Aldridge)

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com.

Her Story of Success…

Becca Stevens believes that when women help each other heal, it can ripple out to change entire communities. She’s the founder and president of Thistle Farms, an organization that helps survivors of trafficking, addiction and prostitution. Thistle Farms began as a community of five women in 1997. Since then, it’s grown to include a residential program, three social enterprises that provide jobs and leadership opportunities for survivors, and a national network of like-minded organizations. Becca is also a speaker, priest, author, and founder of nine other justice enterprises around the world.

Becca is a survivor of abuse herself, so she recognized the need for a space where other survivors could heal and find freedom and peace. She also started Thistle Farms to help change the wider culture, which still supports the secrets of abuse and the commodifying of women. By providing a safe place to live, meaningful jobs and a lifelong support system, Thistle Farms is proving every day that “Love Heals.”

In This Episode: 

Becca shares her story of finding hope and healing after experiencing abuse, and she explains how she’s spreading that healing to other women through her work at Thistle Farms. She also offers encouragement to listeners who want to help change the culture around abuse and violence but don’t know where to begin. 

Episode Highlights:

• Why we should empower women to come off of the streets rather than criminalizing them for being there
• Being a host instead of a hero
• Partnering with your spouse to raise a family while building a business
• The importance of purchasing products that help other women
• How to get involved in helping women survivors

Products Leah and Becca Mentioned:

• Thistle Farms candles
• The Cafe at Thistle Farms
• Thistle Farms Immunity Oil
• Fair trade tea and coffee
• Love Welcomes Mats made by women refugees
• Love Heals by Becca Stevens

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more at piccolomarketing.com

Inspiring Conversations, Revisited

Her Story of Success recently went through a rebranding process to help us better reflect where our company is today while also preparing for Season Next. But even as we look ahead to where we want to go, it’s important to also remember where we came from. With Her Story of Success in Review, we’re revisiting some of our favorite conversations, giving you another chance to be inspired by the amazing women who helped mentor and shape Her Story of Success into the company we are today. 

In this episode, Maggie Tucker, Nicole Wegman and Jess Ekstrom share their inspiring stories of starting, growing and running successful companies in the fashion retail space. They also offer practical advice and encouragement for anyone who wants to start their own business. 

Their Stories of Success

Maggie Tucker is the owner and founder of the Nashville-based retail stores magpies baby and magpies girl. The magpies stores provide clothing, gifts and more for young girls and their families in a uniquely joyful and fun environment. Maggie has been featured in Southern Living, Cottage Living and Gift Shop Magazine, and she won HGTV’s award for top retail merchandising and design. Maggie is also passionate about serving the Nashville community, both by partnering with entrepreneurs and creatives and by giving back to organizations like Preston Taylor Ministries and the Dream Center. Listen to Maggie’s full episode here, and her episode about navigating COVID-19 as a small business owner here. 

Nicole Wegman is the founder and CEO of Ring Concierge, a jewelry company that’s making luxury accessible to the masses. Ring Concierge is run by women, for women, and it is disrupting the traditionally male-dominated jewelry industry with its all-female team and thriving e-commerce business. Nicole was inspired by her own experience of shopping for an engagement ring and realizing the industry lacked the perspective of millennial women. Ring Concierge has amassed a large social media following, where Nicole blurs the line between retailer and influencer to provide engaging, accessible content for her customers. Listen to Nicole’s full episode here.

Jess Ekstrom is the Founder and CEO of Headbands of Hope, a social enterprise that donates one headband to a child with cancer for every headband sold. Since its founding, Headbands of Hope has donated more than half a million headbands to children’s hospitals in 16 countries around the world. Jess is also a speaker, founder of Mic Drop Workshop, and author of Chasing the Bright Side. She’s been featured in major media outlets like Entrepreneur, Forbes, Good Morning America and The Today Show. Listen to Jess’ full episode here.

Episode Transcript

Her Story of Success…

Lori Allen has built an incredible career as an entrepreneur, TV personality, author and speaker, all because of her ability to say yes to new opportunities that align with her goals. She’s the owner of Bridals by Lori and star of TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta and Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids. Lori started her store just two weeks after graduating from college, and in the last 40 years she’s built a reputation as one of the world’s leading experts on bridal couture. After growing Bridals By Lori into a thriving business, Lori and her shop went on to star in 11 seasons of Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta and four seasons of Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids. Lori’s shows have aired in more than 120 countries, and brides from all over the world travel to Atlanta to shop at her store. 

Most recently, Lori became an author with her book Say Yes to What’s Next: How to Age with Elegance and Class while Never Losing Your Beauty and Sass. Her openness about her experience as a breast cancer survivor has made her a sought-after speaker, as well as a voice for outlets like CNN, ABC’s Good Morning America and The Wall Street Journal. Lori’s 2012 TLC special “Say Yes to the Cure: Lori’s Fight” won the Realscreen Award for Best Health & Well-Being Programming. 

In This Episode:

Lori shares her inspiring story of starting Bridals by Lori in her twenties and gradually growing it into the globally recognized business it is today. She also explains how Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta came to be, and she opens up about some of the struggles she’s faced, like battling breast cancer and raising kids while running a business. 

Episode Highlights:

• Lori’s inspiration for writing Say Yes to What’s Next and her message of encouragement for women over 50
• The importance of building a business gradually, especially when you start at a young age
• Lori’s battle with breast cancer and the power of finding a team who will rally around you when you need to step away from your business
• The challenges of growing a business while raising children and how to overcome mom guilt
• The story behind Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta
• Avoiding gray divorce and learning to prioritize your own health and happiness

Inspiring Conversations, Revisited

Her Story of Success recently went through a rebranding process to help us better reflect where our company is today while also preparing for Season Next. But even as we look ahead to where we want to go, it’s important to also remember where we came from. With Her Story of Success in Review, we’re revisiting some of our favorite conversations, giving you another chance to be inspired by the amazing women who helped mentor and shape Her Story of Success into the company we are today. 

In this episode, Joy Altimare, Morgan Canclini-Mitchell, Kristin Carver-Smith, Nekasha Pratt and Krista Ripma tell their stories of how they ended up in their current careers, and they offer practical advice about how to build a brand, communicate in times of crisis, and more.

Their Stories of Success

Joy Altimare is a successful brand strategist who has worked with companies like L’Oreal, Verizon, Colgate-PalmOlive and Conde Nast. She’s currently the Chief Engagement and Brand Officer at EHE Health. As the only woman and the only person of color on her company’s executive team, Joy knows how hard it can be to deal with discrimination in the workplace, but she hasn’t let that stop her from building a career on her own terms. Joy is a passionate advocate for mentorship, and she serves as Marketing Chair on the board for Women in Need, Inc. Listen to Joy’s full episode here.

With Two|PR, Morgan Canclini-Mitchell and Kristin Carver-Smith are working hard to amplify messages that matter. Morgan is the firm’s Principal and Founder, and she hired Kristin to help grow the business as the marketing principal. The pair have built an impressive roster that includes best-selling authors, professional athletes and Grammy award-winning artists, and they’ve earned bookings with CNN, Fox & Friends, Forbes, PBS and more. They’ve grown the business without ever needing to advertise, relying on their networks and word of mouth. Listen to Morgan and Kristin’s full episode here.

Nekasha Pratt is an award-winning marketer, speaker and thought leader who’s passionate about helping brands define their strategies to maximize impact. She works as the Director of Marketing for Tennessee Tourism and is the Chief Strategy and Brand Officer for her own firm, Bright Advisory Group. Nekasha has been honored with awards including 3 international Cannes Lions Awards, Nashville’s 2019 Women of Influence Award, a BizWomen Economic Develop Headliner, and more. She also serves her community on boards like Women Can Be Angels, and she’s an advisor for the Nashville Entrepreneur Center and a Business Mentor for Pathway Women’s Business Center.  Listen to Nekasha’s full episode here.

Krista Ripma is the President and Co-Founder of Authentic Audience, a digital marketing agency that helps brands tell their honest stories. She started Authentic Audience with her husband and has grown it into a thriving company that offers brand strategy, content creation, email marketing, social media and more, all with the goal of helping brands “sell the truth.” Krista has been featured in Forbes and Entrepreneur, hosts The Authentic Audience Podcast and recently developed an online course in Marketing Fundamentals to further share everything she has learned. Listen to Krista’s full episode here.

Their Stories of Success… 

Erika Matallana, Daniel Oppong and Alessandra Alegre joined Her Story of Success CEO Leah Glover Hayes for a live panel discussion about “Navigating the Career Journey and Building the Right Support System to Thrive.” This event was created in partnership with Conexion Next, a network for Nashville’s young professionals. 

Erika Matallana is the Director of Communications at Amedisys, a publicly traded healthcare company that provides home health, hospice and personal care. Before joining Amedisys, Erika spent almost 10 years working at HCA Healthcare, and she led the communications strategies for HCA’s Cultural Development and Inclusion group. Erika’s story of moving to the U.S. from  Bogotá, Colombia and working her way up the corporate ladder is so inspiring. She’s been honored for her communications work in both English and Spanish with awards including the Lovell Ethics Advocacy Award and the Literacy David Mejia Velilla Award. 

Daniel Oppong is an EX Strategy Specialist at Limeade and the founder of OhanaHealth. He first developed a passion for healthcare innovation while working at Jumpstart Foundry, a seed-stage healthcare innovation fund. With OhanaHealth, Daniel is helping health tech companies find the top talent around the country through an innovative college student and recent graduate placement program. OhanaHealth also just launched its first product, a new tech platform that connects students with job opportunities.

Alessandra Alegre is the Senior Manager of Special Services and Royalty Compliance at Tri Star Sports and Entertainment, where she works to help artists and entertainers connect all of their royalties. Alessandra moved to Tennessee from Lima, Peru for college 8 years ago, and she’s been an active member of the Nashville community ever since. Alessandra currently serves as the Chair of Professional Development for Conexion Next, and she’s also served with organizations like Musicares and the YWCA Junior Board. 

In This Episode:

Erika, Daniel and Alessandra open up about the challenges that come with being a person of color or an immigrant in the workplace, and they explain how they’ve overcome those challenges to build successful careers. They also offer advice for young professionals looking to build a stronger network or find a mentor.

Episode Highlights:

• Taking pride in yourself and your work
• The power of mentorship
• What it’s like to be a person of color in corporate America
• How to build your network
• The importance of self-care

Dr. Kimberly Clay started Play Like a Girl for a project in her PhD program, but when she saw volunteers coming together to carry on and grow its mission, she realized the organization could become something bigger. Play Like a Girl takes the transferable skills learned from playing sports and uses them to propel young women into STEM careers. To date, Dr. Kim and her team of volunteers have impacted more than 25,000 girls and young women around the world. 

Even outside of her role as CEO of a non-profit, Dr. Kim is dedicated to serving the Nashville community. She’s a member of boards for the YWCA Nashville, the Junior League of Nashville, Tennessee Girls Collaborative and Ellevate Network’s Nashville Chapter. Dr. Kim has been honored for her work with numerous awards, including the 40 under 40 from Xavier University, the Daily Point of Light Award, Toyota’s Everyday Hero Award, and more. 

In This Episode: Dr. Kim tells her inspiring story of starting and growing Play Like a Girl, including some of the biggest success stories she’s seen through her work. She also discusses the importance of partnering with men who want to support other women, and she explains how mentorship can help women of all ages become more confident and successful.

Episode Highlights:

• Dr. Kim’s story of starting Play Like a Girl (11:50)
• Play Like a Girl Success stories around helping girls build confidence (22:25)
• Engaging men in the work of empowering women (29:15)
• Using your success to uplift others (33:28)
• Lessons on failure, confidence and mentorship (37:50)

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more here.

Her Story of Success recently went through a rebranding process to help us better reflect where our company is today while also preparing for Season Next. But even as we look ahead to where we want to go, it’s important to also remember where we came from. With Her Story of Success in Review, we’re revisiting some of our favorite conversations, giving you another chance to be inspired by the amazing women who helped mentor and shape Her Story of Success into the company we are today. 

In this episode, Vicki Saunders, Hayley Dickson, Maria Aspen and Arlan Hamilton share their stories of working in finance, an industry predominantly led by white men. They explain how they’ve used their success to empower other women, and they share some of their best advice about raising money as a female founder, overcoming imposter syndrome and more. 

Their Stories of Success

Vicki Saunders believes that empowering women to practice radical generosity is the key to changing the world. She’s the founder of SheEO, a global initiative that supports, finances, and celebrates women who are working on the world’s to-do list. This unique model brings together 500 women activators in each cohort who contribute $1100 each to loan out to 5 women-led ventures. The organization is working to build a $1 billion perpetual fund by 2026. Before starting She-EO, Vicki built and ran companies in Europe, Toronto and Silicon Valley. She’s been honored as a UBS Global Visionary, Toronto Regional Board of Trade’s Business Leader of the Year,  and a World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow. 

Listen to Vicki’s full episode here.

Hayley Dickson is on a mission to help women, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals achieve greater financial success She carries this out in her role as a Financial Advisor at Northwestern Mutual, and she quickly set herself apart as one of the company’s top advisors. In her first year, Hayley was No. 1 in the Western Region among advisors with fewer than five years at the company, and in 2019, she was named one of the Los Angeles Business Journal’s Most Influential Wealth Managers. Hayley also worked tirelessly with the corporate office to launch a family planning policy that allows more flexibility and better benefits for moms. That policy is now used nationwide at Northwestern’s more than 250 offices. 

Listen to Hayley’s episode here.

Maria Aspan has spent years as a reporter and editor covering finance and gender, so she’s seen firsthand the need for greater diversity in finance. Today, she’s a senior writer at Fortune, writing about finance, the intersection of policy and business, and gender. She’s also the author of Startup Money Made Easy: The Inc. Guide to Every Financial Question About Starting, Running, and Growing Your Business, and she writes the weekly Lady Business newsletter. Before joining Fortune, Maria was an editor at large at Inc. Magazine, where she oversaw the annual Female Founders 100 List. Maria has won multiple Best in Business awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, and she was a finalist for a Jesse H. Neal award.

Listen to Maria’s full episode here, and her “HSS Live from NYC” episode here. 

Arlan Hamilton understands the importance of investing in underrepresented founders, because less than five years ago, she was one herself. Arlan is the founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, which she started while experiencing homelessness. Since then, Backstage Capital has raised more than $10 million and invested in more than 130 startup companies led by people of color, women and/or LGBT individuals. Arlan also co-founded Backstage Studio, which runs accelerator programs for underestimated founders. Arlan is the author of It’s About Damn Time and host of the “Your First Million” podcast. She’s been honored on lists like Forbes’ “40 Under 40” and Business Insider’s “Most Powerful LGBTQ+ People in Tech,” and she was the first non-celebrity Black woman to be featured on the cover of Fast Company.

Listen to Arlan’s full episode here.

Rana el Kaliouby, co-founder and CEO of Affectiva, believes technology has enormous potential to improve people’s lives, but she wants to make sure it doesn’t dehumanize us in the process. She’s a pioneer in the field of Emotion AI, and she’s working to create technology that can detect human emotion and cognitive states. Rana holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a Post Doctorate from MIT. Through her research and her work at Affectiva, she developed a product that helps people with autism learn to read other people’s emotions and facial expressions, and she’s working to find new ways to help people with mental illness as well. Rana has also given a TedTalk, hosted a PBS Nova series on artificial intelligence, and authored the book Girl Decoded: A Scientist’s Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology. 

Rana has become a highly respected figure in the tech world, due to both her groundbreaking research and her advocacy for greater diversity in the industry. She’s been listed on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 and Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech. She’s also been honored as World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization. 

In This Episode:

Rana shares her story of growing up in the Middle East and making the uncommon decision to move to England and pursue a career in technology. Along with sharing some amazing stories of ways her technology is improving people’s lives, she opens up about some of the struggles she’s faced on her journey, including divorce, imposter syndrome and raising money as a female founder.

Episode Highlights:

• Rana’s experience of growing up around technology in the Middle East and moving past cultural norms to pursue her career 
• The importance of overcoming imposter syndrome to realize you have something important to say
• What it’s like to raise money as a female founder
• How to cultivate diversity of background and perspective in a company
• Rana’s story of adapting her technology to help people with autism, and her larger vision for a world where technology can use empathy

Her Story of Success recently went through a rebranding process to help us better reflect where our company is today while also preparing for Season Next. But even as we look ahead to where we want to go, it’s important to also remember where we came from. With Her Story of Success in Review, we’re revisiting some of our favorite conversations, giving you another chance to be inspired by the amazing women who helped mentor and shape Her Story of Success into the company we are today. 

In this episode, Sherry Deutschmann, Pat Shea, Sharon Reynolds, Marcie Allen Van Mol and Laquita Stribling describe some of the key experiences that shaped them into the leaders they are today. Each shares important lessons she’s learned, like the power of mentorship, the importance of self-care, and why you should always look for ways to give back to your industry. 

Their Stories of Success

Sherry Stewart Deutschmann built LetterLogic out of her basement and grew it to $40 million before she sold the company in 2016. She did this by putting her employees first, paying them a living wage and creating an excellent company culture. Sherry has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes Magazine, Fast Company and more, and she was honored by President Barack Obama as a White House Champion of Change in 2016. Her newest venture, BrainTrust, is dedicated to helping women entrepreneurs grow their businesses to $1 million in annual revenue and beyond. Sherry is also the author of Lunch with Lucy.

Listen to Sherry’s full episode here.

Pat Shea believes her mission in life is to “help others help others,” and she knows firsthand the power of mobilizing a tribe to achieve a common goal. Pat served for 11 years as the CEO of YWCA Nashville and Middle Tennessee, where she turned the fight against domestic violence into a city-wide campaign. Today, Pat serves as CEO and president of Givful, a tech company that provides employers and their associates with the opportunity to support a culture of giving. She’s been honored for her years of important work with awards like the Nashville Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs, the 2017 Women of Influence/Trailblazers List, and Cable’s Promote Women Award.

Listen to Pat’s full episode here.

Sharon W. Reynolds runs four successful companies, and in each one, she’s driven by a passion to help others. She started with DevMar Products, a company that distributes eco-friendly janitorial products and later expanded that business to manufacture the products as well, with DevMar Manufacturing. Sharon also leads DevMar Global Healthcare Solutions, and she most recently started Bryla J Couture Clothiers, a fashion line that empowers women with fashion for a purpose. Sharon serves on boards including Second Harvest Food Bank, West End Home Foundation and WBENC South. She’s been honored with many awards for her work, like the WBENC 2019 Women Business Enterprise Star, the 100 Black Men and Women Presidents Organization Women of Color Achievement Award and Power Moves’ Best Entrepreneur of the Year.

Listen to Sharon’s full episode here.

Marcie Allen Van Mol has more than 25 years of experience in the music industry, and today she’s the President and Founder of MAC Presents, a music sponsorship and experiential agency that connects artists, brands and fans. Throughout her career, Marcie has worked with brands including Sony, Southwest and Verizon and artists like The Rolling Stones, Chance the Rapper and Billy Joel. Marcie teaches as an adjunct professor at NYU Steinhardt and is on boards for the Country Music Association and Berklee College of Music. She’s also a partner at Anzie Blue, a luxury CBD oil company and coffee shop that she started with her husband.

Listen to Marcie’s full episode here, and her bonus episode on starting a business during COVID-19 here. 

Laquita Stribling strives to be a leader who opens doors for others in every area of her life. She’s a senior vice president at Randstad USA, the number one staffing company in the world. Laquita started at Randstad as an entry level associate 23 years ago, and since then has worked her way up to one of the highest positions in the company. She also served as the Tennessee District Governor for Rotary International, becoming the first Black woman to serve in that position. Laquita is an active member of her community as well, serving on boards for Second Harvest Food Bank and the Nashville Sports Council. 

Listen to Laquita’s full episode here.

When Ashley Brooke James and Elizabeth Moore first became interested in wellness, they both struggled to feel like they belonged in a space that seemed dominated by thin, white women. Elizabeth was recovering from an eating disorder and felt triggered by the lack of representation for different body types. Meanwhile, Ashley was noticing that she was often the only Black woman in her yoga classes. The duo met during a yoga teacher training and decided to combine their interests in movement, cooking and health coaching to form an experiential wellness company, TRILUNA Wellness. TRILUNA is all about building healthier, more inclusive communities, and they partner with corporations to host events, retreats, training and more. 

In the past few years, Elizabeth and Ashley have also gained recognition as leaders in their local Nashville community. They frequently host events, speak at conferences and lead workshops on topics ranging from diversity and inclusion to meditation for stress management. Both women came from high-level corporate backgrounds, so they understand the challenges of employee wellness, and they work directly with their clients to build customized curricula that help groups and individuals improve their overall well-being.

In This Episode:

Elizabeth and Ashley explain why they left high-level corporate jobs to start a wellness company, and they offer an inside look into the work they’re doing to help companies and individuals improve their health. They also discuss the importance of having difficult conversations about race and explain how they’re bringing diversity and social justice to the wellness community. 

Episode Highlights:

• Ashley and Elizabeth’s journey of recognizing the need for more diversity in the wellness industry and leaving their corporate jobs to help create it
• The importance of practicing wellness in a community setting
• How COVID-19 has impacted people’s mental and emotional health 
• Why having a difficult conversation about race transformed Ashley and Elizabeth’s relationship
• Finding sources of inspiration during difficult times

Non-Profit Spotlight: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is working hard to end childhood cancer and other life-threatening pediatric diseases. In the past 50 years, the treatments they’ve developed have helped move the childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80%. They also make sure that families never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing or food.

Kathy Thomas never let lack of experience stop her from taking bold leaps to new career paths. After taking a fashion retail job to supplement her income, Kathy worked her way up through the industry to become a high-level operation and talent acquisition expert for Lucky Brand Jeans and Louis Vuitton. She then left that career path to start her own business as a completely self-taught photographer. Today, Kathy Thomas Photography is an internationally published brand, and Kathy has traveled all over the world to shoot weddings, corporate events and family portraits.  

As a small business owner and a mom, Kathy realized early on that working from home made it difficult to establish a healthy work-life balance. After moving to Nashville and struggling to find the right coworking space for her business, Kathy decided to build her own. With Collective615, Kathy created the first coworking space for women in the state of Tennessee. 

In her roles as a business owner and mentor, Kathy is often asked how she became so confident, but she believes her real motivator is actually fear. She joins Leah for a conversation about how she uses that fear as fuel that drives her to take calculated risks, and she shares some of the biggest lessons she’s learned throughout her unique career journey.

In This Episode:

Kathy explains how she’s learned to repeatedly take big leaps in her career, working in multiple industries to achieve her goals and do work she enjoys. She also describes her motivation behind creating Nashville’s first coworking space for women, and she explains how she’s empowering her daughter to believe she can reach her biggest dreams and goals. 

Episode Highlights:

• Why working from home is difficult for women, and Kathy’s experience that inspired her to start Collective615 
• Kathy’s story of working her way up in fashion retail to become an executive at Louis Vuitton
• Turning fear into a motivational force and taking calculated risks
• How Kathy built a global brand as a self-taught photographer
• Building an office space to help women thrive
• Kathy’s passion for showing her daughter that she can achieve her dreams

Non-Profit Spotlight: YWCA is one of the oldest and largest women’s organizations in the nation, serving over 2 million women, girls and their families. They’re on a mission to eliminate racism, stand up for social justice and empower women. 

Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Insperity, an HR company that makes a difference. Insperity combines first class service and robust technology so you can focus on your people.

Her Story of Success recently went through a rebranding process to help us better reflect where our company is today while also preparing for Season Next. But even as we look ahead to where we want to go, it’s important to also remember where we came from. With Her Story of Success in Review, we’re revisiting some of our favorite conversations, giving you another chance to be inspired by the amazing women who helped mentor and shape Her Story of Success into the company we are today. 

In this episode, Mignon Francois, Jessi Baker, Laura Lea Bryant* and Maneet Chauhan share their stories of carving out space for themselves in the historically male-dominated food and beverage industry. 

Their Stories of Success

Mignon Francois was living on her last $5 when a neighbor asked to order cupcakes from her home bakery. Mignon took that $5 and continued to multiply, eventually building The Cupcake Collection into a multi-million dollar business. Mignon’s bakery helped revitalize her Nashville neighborhood, and she’s been honored as a Woman of Legend and Merit by Tennessee State University and an Emerging Business Leader of the Year. The Cupcake Collection, which now includes locations in Nashville and New Orleans, also won Black Enterprise Magazine’s Family Business of the Year Award. 

Listen to Mignon’s full episode here.

While working full-time as an attorney, Jessi Baker started Ole Smoky as a side hustle with her husband and two friends, never imagining what it would one day become. Today, Ole Smoky is the most visited distillery in the world, and its moonshine is sold in all 50 states and 53 countries. Jessi now develops Ole Smoky food products, recently writing a cookbook that features cocktails and family recipes for true Southern food. She and her family have become serial entrepreneurs, opening four distilleries and businesses like Bootleggers Homemade Wine and Yee Haw Brewing.

Listen to Jessi’s full episode here.

Laura Lea Bryant fell in love with cooking when she was a recent college graduate, struggling to enjoy her life in New York City and looking for ways to heal her body and mind. That personal journey soon turned into a deep passion for food and wellness. Laura Lea attended the National Gourmet Institute to become a certified holistic chef, and has since built a career as a successful recipe developer, writer and voice behind the website LL Balanced. Laura Lea also just released her second cookbook, Simply Laura Lea. 

Listen to Laura Lea’s full episode here.

Even as a child growing up in India, Maneet Chauhan always knew she wanted to be a chef. With her parents’ encouragement, Maneet attended hospitality school in her home country, and then moved to the U.S. to attend the Culinary Institute of America. Today, Maneet is a world-renowned restaurateur, Food Network Star and writer. After working as a chef at top restaurants in New York and Chicago, Maneet and her husband co-founded Morph Hospitality Group, and she’s opened four restaurants and two breweries in Nashville. Maneet is also a regular judge on Food Network’s Chopped, and she’s the only Indian woman to ever compete on Iron Chef.

Listen to Maneet’s full episode here. 

*Correction: In the episode we referred to Laura Lea Bryant with the incorrect last name. We apologize for the error.

Career Thrivers Founder Brittany Cole believes every experience is an opportunity for continuous improvement, and she brings that attitude into all of her work as a speaker, coach and consultant. At Career Thrivers, Brittany partners with organizations to engage, develop and retain diverse talent through targeted leadership development. She’s also a TEDx speaker and host of the Career Thrivers Podcast. 

Before starting her company, Brittany spent 12 years working at Pfizer, where she started as an intern and grew to become a high level sales and marketing leader. In August of 2019, she left the security of that job to start her own venture, because she wanted to spend more time pursuing her passion of helping others grow and thrive. Brittany also brings that passion to her local community, serving as a mentor for Pathway Women’s Business Center, the marketing director for NSN Nashville and a coach for TEDxNashville. 

Brittany’s decision to take the leap into entrepreneurship was a difficult one, and she shares how experiencing grief and loss transformed her into a person who had a new perspective on her purpose in life. As a highly respected thought leader around diversity, inclusion and equity, Brittany also offers her perspective on some of the challenges women of color face in the workplace, and she gives advice to leaders who are looking to intentionally create more safe and inclusive environments. 

In This Episode:

Brittany shares some of the biggest lessons she’s learned about career and family while working in corporate America and starting her own company. She also discusses the importance of allyship in the workplace and provides practical advice for anyone looking to build greater inclusivity in their organization.

Episode Highlights:

• How Brittany decided to take the leap and start her own company
• Defining diversity, inclusion and equity
• The six components of allyship in the workplace and why it matters
• The importance of allowing yourself to grieve losses in career and family
• How Brittany’s husband has been her biggest champion
• What it means to redefine resilience and learn from loss

Resources Brittany Mentioned:

• The Awareness and Actions of Allies
• Career Thrivers Podcast and its vault of free resources
• Brittany’s TEDx Talk on Redefining Resilience

Non-Profit Spotlight: Girl, unKnown Inc. provides hygiene and education for disadvantaged girls around the United States. They also hold educational events to spread awareness about women’s issues and highlight some of the amazing things women are achieving all around the world. 

Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Insperity, an HR company that makes a difference. Insperity combines first class service and robust technology so you can focus on your people.

Here at Her Story of Success, we are on a mission to help women — business owners, leaders and professionals build their tribe and reach their next level of success — connecting them to one another, equipping them with resources and empowering them along their journey. 

We’re excited to announce the Her Story of Success brand relaunch, which speaks to not just where we are today, but where we are going. We want our company’s look and feel to match the authenticity, belonging and confidence inspired by women’s stories that we are so honored to share. A special thanks to Kindly By Kelsea for bringing our brand vision to life! 

In This Episode: 

In today’s episode, you can hear from our CEO and Podcast Host, Leah Glover Hayes, as she shares exciting information about what Season Next looks like for Her Story of Success and what being a part of our journey will mean for you. 

Lucinda Cross wears many hats in business, but all of them center around her passion for empowering women to reach new levels of success. She’s the Founder and President of Activate Worldwide, a small business consulting firm that caters specifically to women. She also sells vision board kits and is an acclaimed author, keynote speaker and educator. Lucinda has worked with brands like NIKE and TJ Maxx to host women and youth empowerment programs, and her work has been featured in ESSENCE, The New York Times, CNN, BET and more. Lucinda also created a nonprofit organization called Activate Your Life, which helps women re-enter their communities and become entrepreneurs after being involved in the Department of Justice System. 

Lucinda always felt passionate about business and marketing, but it took her years to realize that she needed to stop doing behind the scenes work for other, successful entrepreneurs and start activating her own power as a speaker, leader and marketer. She rebranded her entire company around the idea that she was her own “best kept secret” and has built her success around empowering other women to embrace their own talents and abilities.

In This Episode: 

Lucinda tells her inspiring story of learning to take credit for her work and stop limiting herself. She also opens up about some of the biggest struggles she faced and lessons she learned in the process, from practical concerns such as delegation to larger issues like making the money she deserves in a male-dominated field. 

Episode Highlights:

• Lucinda’s story of realizing she was a “best kept secret” and deciding to start her own company
• The power of mentorship and putting in sweat equity while starting your business
• Recognizing what you need to delegate and finding the right team to support your growth
• Empowering women to reach new levels of success in male-dominated industries
• Envisioning your wildest dreams and making them a reality 

Books and Resources Mentioned:

• Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

• The Big ASK by Lucinda Cross

• Free vision board template download
• Upwork: Hire freelance professionals 

Non-Profit Spotlight: Activate Your Life works to celebrate, support, educate and connect women, helping them to integrate with their communities and re-enter the workforce after hardship and difficult transitions. They help women to rebuild, restore and re-invent themselves, all while promoting entrepreneurship as a means of economic advancement.

Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Insperity, an HR company that makes a difference. Insperity combines first class service and robust technology so you can focus on your people.

Backstage Capital Founder and Managing Partner Arlan Hamilton understands the importance of investing in underrepresented founders, because less than five years ago, she was one herself. Arlan started the venture capital fund Backstage Capital in 2015 and built it from the ground up, all while experiencing homelessness. Since then, Backstage Capital has raised more than $10 million and invested in more than 130 startup companies led by high-potential founders who are people of color, women and/or LGBT. In 2018, Arlan co-founded Backstage Studio, which runs accelerator programs for underestimated founders in Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and London.

Arlan quickly became a star in the venture capital world, and in 2018, she became the first non-celebrity Black woman to be featured on the cover of Fast Company. She’s also been honored on lists like Forbes’ “40 Under 40” and Business Insider’s “Most Powerful LGBTQ+ People in Tech.” In May, Arlan released her book It’s About Damn Time, sharing some of the biggest lessons she’s learned throughout her career and teaching readers “how to turn being underestimated into your biggest advantage.” She also hosts the “Your First Million” podcast and speaks at events around the country. 

In This Episode:

Arlan talks about some of the biggest lessons she’s learned while growing her business, along with some of the affirmations that inspired her to keep going through the challenges she faced. She also shares the importance of becoming knowledgeable while still continuing to take action. 

Arlan and Leah are joined by guest co-host Brittany Cole. Brittany is a speaker, coach and consultant who founded Career Thrivers, a leadership development firm that partners with organizations to engage, develop and retain diverse talent through targeted leadership development. You can hear more from Brittany by listening to the Career Thrivers Podcast.

Episode Highlights:

• Why Arlan decided to write her book 
• Developing a commitment to learning, but also knowing when it’s time to take action
• Why imposter syndrome is an unhelpful concept 
• Two key affirmations that have helped Arlan build her business and her confidence
• Staying resilient in the face of difficult circumstances 

Non-Profit Spotlight: Thistle Farms provides healing and hope for women survivors of trafficking, prostitution and addiction. The organization’s residential program includes two years of free housing, along with education, healthcare and employment. Survivors work at Thistle Farms’ three social enterprises, which include a bath and body care brand, a café and a Global Shared Trade program.

Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Insperity, an HR company that makes a difference. Insperity combines first class service and robust technology so you can focus on your people.

When Lisa Powers Struble first started pursuing a career in fashion, she made up for her lack of industry connections with a willingness to work hard and take on any role. Eventually, she worked her way up to become a vice president at Abercrombie & Fitch and then UnderArmour. While taking a career break to care for her aging parents, Lisa discovered BANDED, a fashion accessory company that gives back by providing meals to children in need for every product sold. Lisa joined the company as executive vice president and then purchased it in 2018, becoming owner and CEO.

An industry expert with more than 25 years of experience, Lisa has been featured in Sourcing Journal, Nashville Fashion Week, Textile Excellence and more. To date, BANDED has donated more than 13 million meals to undernourished children, and they also partner with U.S. based companies that help vulnerable women learn to thrive. 

In This Episode: Lisa shares her inspiring story of building a fashion career from scratch and working her way up to vice president roles at two major companies. She also talks about the lessons she’s learned since becoming a business owner.

Episode Highlights:

• Lisa’s story of breaking into the fashion industry without many connections (5:00)
• Building a tribe as a young working mom (9:04)
• How to know when it’s time for a new season (15:30)
• Transitioning from corporate executive to small business owner (23:13)
• Pivoting during COVID-19 (39:32)
• Entrepreneurship lessons Lisa has learned in her time at BANDED (46:29)

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored in part by Piccolo Marketing, providing outsourced marketing professionals for business owners.  Piccolo Marketing is our go-to resource when it comes to comprehensive marketing strategies and execution. Learn more here.

Diana Sumpter helps women design and live out their dream lives, and she believes it all starts with a positive mindset. She’s an author, motivational speaker, and Independent National Sales Director at Mary Kay, and she speaks and teaches all around the world. Diana started her career in the Air Force, but she left to join Mary Kay in search of a better life where she could work from home, make more money, and be happy all at the same time. That bold decision transformed her life, as the mentors and experiences she gained helped her to grow into the confident, powerful leader she is today. 

Diana’s first book, Step Out of the Box: Your Dream Life is Waiting, teaches women to “erase and replace” the old labels that have defined them and kept them from living their dream lives. She also developed IGNITE, a program designed to train and motivate church volunteers to encourage, equip, and energize their teams. 

Diana’s incredible story of transformation is a great example of how investing in your own life can inspire and motivate countless other women. She joins Leah on Her Story of Success to talk about how she moved past old mindsets and habits into living her dream life, and she shares helpful advice for how you can learn to do the same.

In This Episode:

Diana describes the process of transforming from a person who was controlled by negative mindsets and labels into a leader who’s living her dream life and speaking into the lives of others. She shares wisdom from her book about investing in yourself, and she talks about some of the biggest lessons she’s learned in her marriage. 

Here are some of the highlights:

• Diana’s story of serving in the Air Force and then starting to work for Mary Kay 
• Why your thoughts make the biggest difference in helping you reach your goals 
• How to have a healthy marriage when you share different faiths 
• The importance of surrounding yourself with uplifting people
• How to erase and replace old labels so you can start to dream bigger
• Finding a dream that impacts and inspires others

The books Diana and Leah mentioned:

• Step Out of the Box: Your Dream Life is Waiting by Diana Sumpter

• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker

• The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

Sponsored by: This episode is sponsored by Insperity, an HR company that makes a difference. Insperity combines first class service and robust technology so you can focus on your people. 

Non-Profit Spotlight: Friendship Bridge helps women in Guatemala start their own businesses. They know it takes more than loans to help women get out of poverty, so they designed a unique microedit loan program that also includes education, training and health services to empower women holistically. 

Krista Ripma is the President and Co-Founder of Authentic Audience, a digital marketing agency that helps brands tell their honest stories. Krista fell in love with marketing through a unique combination of experiences — learning storytelling in Hollywood before ultimately leaving because of the toxic work environment and then learning how to market a business in the yoga and wellness industry. She then started Authentic Audience with her husband and has grown it into a thriving company that offers brand strategy, content creation, email marketing, social media and more, all with the goal of helping brands “sell the truth.” Krista has been featured in Forbes and Entrepreneur, hosts The Authentic Audience Podcast and recently developed an online course in Marketing Fundamentals to further share everything she has learned. 

Since Krista built much of her business as a solopreneur, she’s learned firsthand about the importance of setting boundaries around work — even when you love what you do — and finding ways to have a positive mindset and a full life outside of your career. She joins Leah on Her Story of Success to tell the inspiring story of how she got to where she is today, and they talk about some of the most important things people should think about when they want to start prioritizing marketing and brand storytelling for their businesses. 

In This Episode:

Krista shares how she’s helping companies to tell their honest stories and make money in the process with Authentic Audience, and she offers advice for leaders and business owners looking to be more intentional about building their brands. 

Here are some of the highlights:

• Starting out in Hollywood and deciding to leave
• Working with yoga brands and learning to do business with heart 
• Having a strong product, separating yourself from your brand and other tips for telling your business’ story
• Learning to embrace the slow burn over high growth and extreme stress

Non-Profit Spotlight: AWAKE Tennessee works to advance opportunities for women and kids with education and policy change. In the six years since they started, AWAKE has helped 8 bills into law, launched a state-wide campaign for child abuse prevention and created a curriculum for middle school kids to learn about healthy relationships and financial independence. 

Sponsored By: This episode is sponsored by Insperity, an HR company that makes a difference. Insperity combines first class service and robust technology so you can focus on your people. 

Dr. Sophia Yen is the co-founder and CEO of Pandia Health, the world’s only doctor led, women founded, and woman led birth control delivery company. With more than 20 years of experience in medicine, Dr. Sophia is board-certified in Adolescent Medicine, with a Doctorate of Medicine from UCSF Medical School and a Master’s of Public Health from UC Berkeley in Maternal Child Health. She started Pandia Health out of a desire to make women’s lives easier by reducing “pill anxiety,” the stress that comes with having to refill birth control every month. As a respected thought leader and educator, Dr. Sophia is also passionate about educating women about topics like #PeriodsOptional, sexually-transmitted infections, acne, and other adolescent health issues. She has spoken at SXSW, TedxSilicon Valley Women, TedxBerkley, and at universities around the U.S., along with teaching as a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford Medical School. 

Even though Dr. Sophia is incredibly qualified to run Pandia Health, she has often struggled to get the same level of funding as her male counterparts, and she’s had to navigate the difficult regulations around practicing medicine in different states. She joins Leah on Her Story of Success for an honest conversation about the struggles so many female founders face, especially when pitching female-focused products and services to male venture capitalists. Dr. Sophia also explains how you can partner with Pandia Health to help bring affordable, stress-free birth control to women across the U.S., especially those who may struggle to afford it on their own. 

In This Episode:

Dr. Sophia shares insight into the ways pill anxiety and periods can negatively affect women and describes how Pandia Health is actively working to solve those issues. She also opens up about her experience of being the only female founder and CEO of a birth control delivery company, and she and Leah discuss the importance of pushing through frustration that can arise when you have a big vision but change is happening slowly.

Here are some of the highlights:

• How Pandia Health is getting rid of pill anxiety for women 
• The health benefits of #PeriodsOptional and getting affordable birth control through Pandia Health
• The unique challenges of running a FemTech company and trying to get funding
• Pushing through the frustration of slow-moving change and continuing to stay passionate about your goals

Non-Profit Spotlight: In Her Shoes helps girls and women around the world live courageously. In addition to hosting an annual women’s summit, they also provide workshops and leadership training for high school girls. Everything In Her Shoes does is centered around one question: “What would you do if you were 1% more courageous?” With this mission in mind, they help girls to understand their passions, express themselves and pursue possibility in every area of their lives.

Sponsored By: This episode is sponsored by Insperity, an HR company that makes a difference. Insperity combines first class service and robust technology so you can focus on your people. 

Sherry Stewart Deutschmann built an incredibly successful career out of the belief that empathy could be the key to a more profitable business model. She put that idea into practice with LetterLogic, Inc., a company she built out of her basement and grew to $40 million before selling it in 2016. LetterLogic, which was named an Inc. 5000 company for ten consecutive years, was built on a unique model of putting employees first, starting with the dedication to paying employees a living wage and trickling into other areas like profit sharing and allowing people to bring their kids to work. Sherry has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes Magazine, Fast Company and more, and she was honored by President Barack Obama as a White House Champion of Change in 2016. Her newest venture, BrainTrust, is a company dedicated to helping women entrepreneurs grow their businesses to $1 million in annual revenue and beyond. Sherry is also the author of Lunch with Lucy, a book that teaches business owners to “maximize profits by investing in your people.”

Sherry joins Leah on Her Story of Success to share some of the practical steps she took to create an employee-first business model, including the Lunch with Lucy program that she talks about in her book. She also opens up about what it was like to sell her company and gets real about the mourning process that went with letting go of something she’d built from the ground up. Sherry’s passion for leading well and empowering others is such an inspiration, and her story of finding new ways to invest in other women — both through her own venture firm and through BrainTrust — is such a great example of how women can lift each other up while also achieving their own personal success.

In This Episode: 

Sherry tells her inspiring story of starting a company as a single mom with only a high school diploma and finding success through her intentional choice to put her employees first. She also breaks down the specifics of what that business model looked like, from paying people a living wage to becoming a more approachable CEO. As a newly published author and founder and CEO of BrainTrust, Sherry explains how she’s continuing to empower women business owners in every area of her career. 

Here are some of the highlights:

• Creating an employee-centric company, and what it means to pay people a living wage
• Becoming an approachable leader with “lunch with Lucy”
• Sherry’s experience of selling the company she built and looking for new ways to fill her time
• Empowering other women business owners with BrainTrust

Non-Profit Spotlight: The Pandia Health Birth Control Fund provides financial assistance for women who need help paying for their birth control, furthering Pandia’s mission of creating confidential, convenient and affordable access to birth control for all women.

Sponsored By: This episode is sponsored by Insperity, an HR company that makes a difference. Insperity combines first class service and robust technology so you can focus on your people. 

Erica McMannes is the founder and COO of Instant Teams, a company that builds and manages remote teams for companies across the U.S.. She and her co-founder, Liza Rodewald, started Instant Teams out of Erica’s own experience as an Army spouse who had to get creative about finding career opportunities that could accommodate her lifestyle. At Instant Teams, military spouses can create a free profile and be matched with remote work. Instant Teams recently closed a $1.5 million round of VC funding and has been able to continue expanding even in the midst of COVID-19 losses. Erica is also a speaker and thought leader around military spouse employment and serves on the advisory board for the Association of Military Spouse Entrepreneurs.

Though Instant Teams has lost a few clients during COVID-19, the company has also been able to bring on about 30 new employees, and they’re continuing to offer solutions for businesses that need remote work more than ever. Erica shares her optimism around the innovation that she believes will come out of COVID-19, and she explains how she’s learning to seek work-life harmony instead of balance, even in chaotic times.  

In This Episode:

Erica shares some of the biggest lessons she’s learned while building her company, from the importance of flexibility and remote work options to the power of networking. She also stresses the importance of staying true to yourself and your business, even when you’re a woman in a male-dominated space like venture capital. 

Here are some of the highlights:

• Building remote solutions for clients
• How COVID-19 is fostering innovation in the workplace
• Seeking harmony instead of work-life balance
• Lessons Erica has learned through the fundraising process

Sponsored By: This episode is sponsored by Insperity, an HR company that makes a difference. Insperity combines first class service and robust technology so you can focus on your people. 

Maggie Tucker is the owner and founder of the Nashville-based retail stores magpies baby and magpies girl. The magpies stores provide clothing, gifts and more for young girls and their families in a uniquely joyful and fun environment. Maggie has been featured in Southern Living, Cottage Living and Gift Shop Magazine, and she won HGTV’s award for top retail merchandising and design. Maggie is also passionate about serving the Nashville community, both by partnering with entrepreneurs and creatives and by giving back to organizations like Preston Taylor Ministries and the Dream Center.

When Maggie realized her store would have to close because of COVID-19, she and her team shifted the entire business online, providing curbside pickup and shipping orders to families across the country. She’s also had to stay flexible with her plans around ordering new products, marketing her business and still providing an incredible experience even when people can’t come into the physical store. In the process, she’s witnessed the power of people’s support for small businesses, and she offers words of encouragement to other women who find themselves struggling during these difficult times. 

In This Episode:

Maggie opens up about the difficulties she’s faced as a small business owner during COVID-19 and explains how she’s shifted her operations to stay in business. She also encourages women to support and empower each other and talks about the importance of learning to accept help from others when they offer it.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Transitioning to stay in business during COVID-19
• Staying true to the heart of magpies even when selling online
• The importance of supporting other women business owners 
• Learning to accept help from others

Businesses Leah and Maggie mentioned:

• Kathy Thomas Photography
• Collective615
• Preston Taylor Ministries
• Laura Issa Photography

Listen to Maggie’s First Her Story of Success Episode