Women Worldwide With Deirdre Breakenridge

*We apologize for any issues with sound quality. Due to the ever-changing state of the world because of Covid-19, many of our guests are taking interviews and recording shows outside of their homes which interferes with recording.* In this unprecedented time of isolation, we should be so thankful that we have the technology to remain connected. Here to discuss her new venture as well as what it means to be technologically connected is JJ Ramberg. JJ is no stranger to media and her new company is an amazing way to connect and learn all at the same time. JJ is an entrepreneur, TV host, speaker, and best-selling author, and she is no stranger to the perils and beauty of media. Earlier this year she and her brother launched Goodpods, an app that allows you to follow your podcast loving friends and see what they’re listening to.  Her insights on the ways that we can connect in this crazy world and how to navigate entrepreneurship in this new landscape are impressively poignant. Her words of advice and encouragemen

We all need a little bit of magic sometimes. Ale B has built a career by helping women of all ages see and feel who they are meant to be. She is a self-proclaimed light-worker helping others to reveal the magic of confidence, joy, and love in others.  From an early age, Ale knew she was meant for more. With the help and encouragement of her mother, she found her true calling and has been beautifying the world ever since. An actor, director, teacher, set designer, wardrobe stylist, makeup artist, producer, and choreographer, Ale wears many different hats.  She reveals how her experiences have helped her to encourage and inspire others and how her business is changing in light of the current state of the world. We are in unprecedented times, but this does not give us the right to give up. Listen as Ale shares how you can reveal your light and magic, why we need each other now more than ever, and why we need to take the time now to do some introspection. Pay attention to your thoughts and actions and work to ref

Your mindset is the key to finding your passion and your purpose. Hazel Ortega grew up in one of the worst areas of Los Angeles and didn’t realize that her upbringing was keeping her from living out her dreams. In many ways, her past kept her from dreaming at all.  Fast-forward several years to a time when she was working as a legal secretary. She sustained an on the job injury that threatened her entire livelihood and took the opportunity to complete her education. Later on, she went back to school and finished high school. She then completed her associates, her bachelors, and went on to complete her Ph.D. As her education expanded her confidence grew and grew, but she was still stuck in a place devoid of dreams.  Hazel confronted her issues with the past and began manifesting the dreams she’d suppressed her entire life. The rest as they say, was history. Listen in as Hazel shares how she shifted her mindset to focus on her dreams and why that has resulted in life-changing opportunities.  Hazel’s story is so

What’s the saying? When you love what you do, you never work a day in your life? Laleh Hancock has spent her life helping others find joy in their work and life. She is a leadership and entrepreneurial coach who has spent the last 30 years inspiring others.  Laleh’s early life was rife with change. Her family abruptly moved from Iran to avoid being caught up in a war. This was one of the first times she evaluated how to approach the world. Rather than spending her time hiding away from the world, afraid to get involved, she jumped in and lived her new life. She credits her ability to handle and thrive in change for some of her entrepreneurial success. If you can flip your mindset and turn problems into promises, then success will come. It all starts with having a mind for leadership and positivity.  Listen as Laleh shares her thoughts on being featured in multiple books on leadership, why her work is so important to her, and how examining your mindset is the first step to happiness. She has so many wonderful

It’s been a while since I’ve done a solo show, but it’s time to dig deep into the FEEL First Model. This topic is heavy-hitting and so important to the future of your organization and hiring practices. You see, Millennials are coming up through the rank and they need different things from the generations before them to make them feel happy and valued.  You’ve heard me talk about FEEL First Model several times because we’ve spent a lot of time and energy to create a truly meaningful tool for reflecting on your beliefs and actions. We track and measure your ability to face your fears, communicate with empathy, use ethics and good judgment and discover your love for your mission. We polled and chatted with several millennials to get a better feel of what they need and want in the workplace. The typical corporate processes no longer hold up when it comes to the new workforce. For instance, the corporate system of keeping quiet and holding onto secrets no longer works. Your employees have spent years in school nav

Have you been walking your path but feeling like it’s not as good as or “right” like someone else’s? Believe it or not, your path and purpose are yours alone. Your success is dependent upon the things that make you happy. Here to chat about leaving the Jones’s behind in favor of finding your success is Laura Gassner Otting. Laura is a lawyer and serial entrepreneur who has made a career out of figuring out what makes her happy and then going for it. She is the Chief Catalyzing Officer of her business and helps others to start taking action and find their path.  There is no right or wrong way to be successful. As you grow and change your values mature and strengthen, your view of success oftentimes morphs as well. Laura says you should lean into those moments and realize that you are right where you are meant to be.  Too often we shame ourselves for not focusing on one path, but as women, there are so many different entry points and doorways in our lives. From young adulthood, through college, marriage, childr

These days most people have no intention to stay with a company for more than a couple of years. In fact, if you go into any business class across the nation, you’ll hear the students being encouraged not to stay with a company for more than a few years. Crystal Martinez, however, has climbed the ladder at one company from high school to now. Listen as she shares why she’s stayed, how they’ve built a family, and the challenges she has faced by taking on more responsibility. When Crystal started at Fieldwork Anywhere she was in high school and had no clue she’d still be there, all these years later. She met her husband and best friend while working there and has managed to climb the proverbial corporate ladder all the way to becoming the President of Fieldwork Webwork. All of this has been made possible by the family-style culture that has been built over the years. Climbing the corporate ladder has not been without its challenges though. As she’s gained responsibility, she’s had to adjust her relationships wi

Wherever you're communicating, leadership in communication means bringing all thoughts and ideas into a seamless framework; it's the ideal give and take. Valerie Simon is a communications and marketing role model for Atlantic Health System. Listen in as she shares her strategy for building teams and strong communication across a national network with more than 17,000 people. Valerie knew at a young age that she wanted to be an attorney. Every decision she made as a young person took her steps closer to that goal. She worked multiple jobs, completed unpaid internships, and worked to move the needle toward becoming an attorney. When she didn’t get into law school she realized that she just wanted to be a voice for people who weren’t being heard. She took all of the experience she’d gained while working to become an attorney and dove into communications. Listen in as she chats about her story and shares what it has taken to be a C-suite executive as well as a wife and mother. Learn why you have to balance sacrif

Do you tweet? I know that for many of us, Twitter seems to be that platform plagued with controversy and turmoil, but did you know that it can be the backbone of the social media in your business? Samantha Kelly, the Tweeting Goddess, shares her tips and tricks for using Twitter correctly, but also why it is one of the best platforms for building relationships. Samantha started her entrepreneurial journey at a very tumultuous time in her life. She’d recently lost her father, gone through a divorce, and her daughter was becoming a woman. It was as she was trying to find some information for her daughter that she realized there was a huge gap in the women’s health market.  She created her first business by building a box of goodies designed for young girls to coach them through those first few milestones of puberty. Samantha quickly learned that successful businesses have strong social media strategies and began studying all about it. This was when she first discovered Twitter.  Samantha realized she’d found he

In a data-driven world, it can sometimes feel like building real relationships with others is impossible. Tricia O’Malley shares why that belief is less true now than it has ever been. Tricia is the Director of Client Relations and Marketing for Northwestern Mutual and has spent her career building REAL relationships with her clients, co-workers, and friends. Tricia’s background in creating strong donor relations for hospitals has helped her create a world-class client experience. Listen in as she shares her best advice for nurturing relationships in all areas of your life. You won’t want to miss her comments on how touch can help solidify budding new connections.  Despite the ever-growing reach of social media and the online experience, when professionals take the time to set down the phone and make eye contact, their clients and customers feel heard and understood. Tricia builds on this idea by sharing stories about her team and how she connects and builds deeper relationships with different personality typ

What happens when you combine the left and right side functions of your brain? For Nora Gardner, she merged finance and fashion to create functional, beautiful professional wear for the intrepid career woman. Listen in to hear how she did it, why she did it, and the challenges she faced while building an exclusive collection of women’s workwear.  We would be remiss not to share that Nora always had a love of the arts. She coupled her love of design and training in business and finance to fill a need that has gone ignored for too long. After 6 years in the finance industry, Nora realized that while men had custom-designed workwear that stood the test of a busy business person, women did not have the same.  She shares the impetus for starting her first collection and why inventory is one of the biggest challenges. One of her most pressing concerns, aside from creating beautiful designs, is sustainability in the fashion industry. Too many big businesses create excess inventory that eventually ends up in our land

What does it mean to find clarity in your life and your business? Steve Woodruff, the King of Clarity, joins me to discuss just that. You won’t want to miss his valuable pieces of information on why you should find clarity and how. Steve has spent the last 30 years helping businesses, small and large, to get on the same page with their message both internally and externally. There are five questions that many companies don’t take the time to ask themselves about what they do, who they do it for, how they do it, and why.  One of his biggest dreams is that all companies start asking and answering these questions at the C-suite level, or the top of their organization. Once your leadership is clear on the company message, it can be filtered down to every employee. When everyone is on the same page, your clients and customers will always feel that the message they receive is consistent.  If you have no idea where to start, think first about what it is you want to do. You cannot find clarity with your message if yo

Effective communication is the key to removing gender bias and promoting equity in business. Susan Freeman has made it her life’s work to help women in business find effective ways to communicate with the world while educating men on the right way to communicate with women in business. She has a passion for helping women succeed and has founded and co-founded several programs to help empower women and girls in finding their success. She recently coordinated and sponsored the Empowered Women 2019 event which was her biggest event to date. Susan has made it her mission to help women and plans to continue the Empowered Women events for the next two years. (They’ve already been scheduled!)  Listen in to learn her biggest tips for promoting parity in the workplace and how leaders can better show and use empathy with their employees. She shares a poignant example of some people’s willful misunderstanding of the gender equality movement that you won’t want to miss. Her response to a blatantly abrasive question is ma

In the course of our 250 episodes (can you believe it?) on Women Worldwide, you’ve heard from successful and impactful women in business, politics, entertainment, and many other challenging industries. Now it’s time to chat with a high-powered woman from the law enforcement and intelligence field. This is a field that historically and today has been male dominated for a variety of reasons, but Lauren Anderson decided that there was no reason she couldn’t make it in intelligence as well. Lauren grew up in a home where she was always told that she could do or be whatever she wanted. The sky was the limit for her dreams and ambitions and, looking back, she realizes that those dreams always pointed in the general direction of intelligence. She didn’t immediately start down that path however, she first decided that becoming a doctor was her calling. After spending several miserable years studying medicine, she switched paths.  After and during her amazing career with the FBI, Lauren has moved her focus to helping

It’s the holiday season. Are you stressed yet? So many people walk around living in and with unnecessary stress. Dr. Jane Tornatore, a therapist and speaker in Seattle, WA, helps people convert outdated patterns and stress into more freedom, joy, and authenticity. She shares how people process stress, when many of our mindset issues form, and how we can overcome them and maintain a less stressful lifestyle. With her studies in mental health and neuroplasticity Dr. Jane has found effective ways to help others turn their bad habits into effective solutions and change the course of their lives. She says that the majority of our major mindset hurdles form when we are less than six years old, as we move into an aware consciousness. Habits however, can be broken. Learn how as we chat. Awareness, practice, and choice are the keys to changing your less than ideal habits. Our brains are naturally designed to look for problems that need to be fixed. Learn how you can overcome grim situations and how Dr. Jane’s new book

Do you struggle with creating deep meaningful conversations that lead to lasting connections? In this world of instant feedback and world-wide connectivity, having real conversations has become harder than ever. Dr. Karen Jacobson works with organizations to strengthen their communication practices and learn how to create lasting impressions through power conversations. Karen is the President of Aligned Leadership Academy and a former Israeli military commander. She has run her own Chiropractic practice and is a champion ballroom dancer. She has many and varied experiences that have helped her to connect with others in a sincere way.  She is now a high-performance strategist, speaker, and author who helps others realize the power of connected conversations. Her book Power Conversations, develops her ground-breaking communications framework called the High-Performance Triad. Karen helps leaders find their personality and leadership style and how they can best adapt conversations to create effective communicati

Politics has historically been a man’s world, but in recent years women have come to the forefront of many influential political roles. Joni Wickham is a shining example of a strong woman in a political leadership role. She grew up reading newspapers and watching the nightly news as a child while spending time with her grandparents and originally planned to report on political events herself. Fast-forward several years and Joni found herself in a position without power while a decision was being made to cut a social service that directly impacted her and her family. It was then that she decided to change her focus and have a seat at the decision-making table. She has since built a career in politics that culminated in her being named Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Kansas City, MO.  Listen as Joni shares triumphs and failures she experienced in her political career and the skills and traits that have benefited her the most in her career. Ever resilient and hard-working, Joni has created a women’s empowerment i

We all have to eat! Deepti Sharma has a new take on how to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to have their food voice heard. In 2011, Deepti founded FoodtoEat, a community-minded catering concierge service that connects immigrant, women and minority-owned food vendors to growth opportunities. She saw an area of need and has worked tirelessly to provide an equitable solution. Deepti shares the impetus for creating FoodtoEat as well as the process she followed to move from helping food trucks reach more audiences to facilitating relationships between restaurants and corporate catering needs. Her work has helped New Americans build stronger business skills and fostered a more diverse work culture. Her background is in political science and she is an advocate for policies that benefit small business owners and immigrant entrepreneurship. She also focuses on gender equity in the small business space. After taking stock of the number of companies founded and owned by men, she began to take a greater inter

Being bold and taking full ownership of our capabilities is not a natural talent for most women. More often than not we get stuck thinking that we couldn’t possibly succeed if we don’t have the right education, upbringing, social views, etc. Here to debunk those beliefs is Kate Isler. She is an author, international marketing executive, co-founder and CEO of Be Bold Now, Inc., and she did it all without a college degree. Kate has had a fabulously dynamic career in which she has traveled the globe while working as an executive at Microsoft. She helped open subsidiary offices in Africa, Eastern Europe, India, and the Middle East, Latin America, and China. When she finally returned to the US she lead the international marketing and campaign teams for Microsoft Windows. It wasn’t until she left Microsoft, after achieving so many career milestones, that she finally stopped and obtained her degree. Kate is supremely passionate about supporting women in reaching their career and life goals, which is what drove her t

Taking the leap and changing your career or launching your own business is a seriously scary prospect. Sara Bliss knows all about changing roles, pivoting her focus, and building a brand and a business. She has done everything from ghostwriting books to building brands through words. Her most recent book, Take the Leap, is the result of 10 years of labor, love, and a drive to never quit. There is no better person to discuss what it takes to move out of a job you hate to creating a business you love than Sara. Before writing Take the Leap she interviewed over 60 entrepreneurs who made the transition from employee to CEO in various stages of their careers. The insights she gleaned from hearing their stories and taking the time to compile them into this wonderful tome are as inspirational as they are informative.  Listen in as Sara discusses the ups and downs, ins and outs of ghostwriting and writing for major publications. She also shares how taking on the voice of her customer has helped her to dial into what