Women Worldwide With Deirdre Breakenridge

Priya Nembhard and Joan Pelzer couldn’t have approached becoming entrepreneurs in more different ways. Priya has been a serial entrepreneur since 2003 when she and her husband created their first business. Joan, on the other hand, happened into the entrepreneurial life by chance and hasn’t lost the bug for a moment since.  It wasn’t until the two came together to create media magic, that they realized their true passion and purpose in this space. When they met and came together it was as if all of the pieces of a puzzle slid into place. They now create a radio and YouTube talk show called Follow Me Friday and have truly learned the beauty of creating a brand and following on their own terms. Listen in as Priya and Joan discuss the evolution of Follow Me Friday, why their partnership has bolstered their personal businesses, and why embracing various media has taken their show and their businesses to the next level.  They both admit that your branding is the foundation upon which your business should be built.

There are no words to express the impact that Gloria Feldt has had on the world of women in leadership and women in general. As the former CEO of Planned Parenthood and the founder of Take The Lead, Gloria has spent the better part of her life fighting for the rights of women across the country to decide what to do with their bodies and their lives. She is an inspiration in the fight for women’s rights and this conversation is one you won’t want to miss.  Gloria didn’t start off with a driving passion to fight for women’s equality in society and in business. She was once a young woman with a cause no greater than being an amazing wife and mother to her family, but after having her third child she wondered what else there was.  Gloria was lucky! She grew up with a father who encouraged her to pursue her dreams in a time when women weren’t supposed to have dreams beyond nurturing a family. Having heard that she could be and do anything during her entire adolescence gave her the confidence needed to pursue a new

I am so excited for you to meet Connie Zack. She is the co-owner and Chief Sales Officer of Sunlighten, a company founded after her brother began experiencing the after-effects of chronic fatigue syndrome because of toxic levels of heavy metals in his body. Connie shares how her brother’s healing journey led her and her husband to create Sunlighten, an infrared sauna creator and distributor.  Listen in as Connie reveals why family comes first and how her drive to impact the world in a big way pushed her to leave the security of her corporate job with Procter & Gamble and create a business that helps so many people ease the pain and stress of everyday life. Connie digs into how the journey from being a witness to the healing properties of infrared saunas to understanding how to grow and scale a fledgling business has changed her life.  From learning how to hire staff and keep them motivated to discerning how to get their product into the forefront of the public consciousness, Connie reveals why each step w

One of the leading experts on futuring, Dr. Connie Reimers-Hild is joining me to discuss how you can create the business vision of your dreams become a reality. The key is in creating your ideal vision and learning ways that you can bring it to life.  Dr. Connie has been helping businesses and business leaders to create personal and organizational innovation and transformation by developing their ideal visions. Her work recently has spun more towards helping women and women leaders understand their true ideal vision and how to achieve it. She has created a huge body of resources and loves to share her knowledge about how futuring impacts business. We discuss everything from what futuring is, to how it has impacted Dr. Connie’s life and work, and why the concept is supremely important for all businesses. Nobody wants to become the next Blockbuster or Kodak and Dr. Connie’s unique training in both futuring and coaching has given her a fresh perspective on how to help businesses find their best next path. We dis

Midwife, author, and activist, Patricia Harman has done it all. After living in rural communes during the 60s and 70s, Patricia, or Patsy as her friends call her, moved to the east and settled in Virginia. While living in Virginia she was asked many times to help birth the babies in her community. She soon realized she had a love for helping women and went to school to officially become a nurse-midwife.  She has since spent the past thirty years caring for women as they go through the process and transformation that is childbirth. In an effort to document and memorialize some of her patients’ journeys, she began writing her first memoir, The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife’s Memoir. After her second memoir, she realized that she wanted to tell a different kind of story and began writing fiction. My conversation with Patricia was an amazing look into midwifery and modern healthcare practices for women, along with the ins and outs of the publishing world. Patsy definitely has a way with words and she paints a vivi

This is a good one! Today we welcome Karen Walker to discuss how CEOs should view organization growth. Karen is an executive coach and consultant who advises CEOs and senior leaders on how to grow and thrive. She is the author of No Dumbing Down: A Guide for CEOs on Organization Growth, and has influenced and grown multiple businesses beyond the 6-figure mark. This is not an episode you want to miss. First, we discuss Karen’s start in engineering and tech. She was one of very few women in both spaces and she thrived in the environment. After helping Compaq grow from a few employees to over 100,000 employees, she realized that being a part of a high-performing team and meeting and exceeding goals was one of her major drivers. She has taken that drive and applied it to coaching CEOs and business leaders in how to duplicate her efforts at Compaq. Karen shares amazing insights into what it means to be successful, why you should think bigger about your business, and how CEOs and leaders should look at the success

Today on the show, we have Patrice Tanaka, CEO and Founder of Joyful Planet, a business purpose consulting firm in New York City. Joyful Planet is focused on helping individuals and organizations discover and actively live their purpose. She is also an author, a coach, a speaker, and a mentor. Patrice spreads joy wherever she is. She gives us the four steps to finding our purpose in business and our personal lives. She believes that the definition of purpose is how you leverage your talent, expertise, and passion in service to others and our planet. Patrice and I talk about why businesses need to have one business purpose that everyone can focus on, to help drive more business. We also discuss how purpose-driven companies significantly outperform profit-only driven firms, and how more businesses today are taking the time to articulate their purpose. She shares how dancing and competing in ballroom dancing gives her joy. Writing her book 'Becoming Ginger Rogers' lets her share that joy with others. Patrice sa

On the show today we have S.J. Kurtini, co-founder of Tinybeans an all-in-one app that provides a safe and loving space for parents to document their children's lives through photo sharing, journaling, milestone tracking and photo album printing.  S.J. shares her incredible story of how she went from being a stay-at-home mom to co-founding one of the top parenting apps. She is proof that if you follow your dreams and put your heart into it you can make your wildest dreams into reality. S.J. and I talk about Tinybeans and what it means to people who are far away from their families, how she stays connected with her own family even though she works long hours and the challenges entrepreneurs face on a daily basis.  She also shares great advice on how to build a truly amazing team, a team it’s fun to work with every day, how to network when you’re in a new city and don’t know anyone and so much. Show Notes: [04:09] Welcome to the show J.S Kurtini! [04:30] When she started working on Tinybeans she didn’t think

On the show today we have Chris Winfield, CEO of Super Connector Media. Chris, also known as The “Super Connector and Media Matchmaker” is the creator of Unfair Advantage Live, the premier publicity event that helps entrepreneurs and experts make connections that will get them in front of the influencers in their industry that make things happen. Chris has had other businesses over the years but he wasn’t passionate about them and he didn’t feel like he belonged. When his business imploded a few years ago he decided to change the way he did business.  He wanted to help people connect with people that could help them be successful. So, he started Unfair Advantage Live to bring together entrepreneurs and media people and see if they could help each other. They went from a one-day event to many-days events and he hasn’t looked back since. In this Women Worldwide episode, Chris and I chat about his story, how he became the “Super Connector,” why he created Unfair Advantage Live and what his advice is for entrepre

Through her own experiences with addiction and depression, Mal Duane has transformed her life and recreated herself into a highly successful business woman. She is a certified midlife coach and helps women through midlife transitions to heal, reclaim their lives and gain great success where they never thought possible. Also a best-selling author, Mal says all of her books, coaching and speaking is designed to inspire and elevate those souls who feel unloved and unworthy. Mal had no idea what life had in store for her but once she found her path and mission, she held on with both hands and made the decision to help others that were taking the same journey.  Everything that happens to us in life is a learning experience, finding our triggers through meditation and journaling is how you grow and become a better version of yourself. In this Women Worldwide episode I chat with Mal about her life, her success and her journey to self-awareness. She gives us the tools we need to become self aware. You won’t want to m

Leonard Kim an award winning marketer and author is on the show today chatting with us about showing the real you, making your life transparent so that your biggest failures can’t be used against you. He believes that if you control your brand in a proactive way you won’t have to be reactive down the road. Plus you might inspire others who are going through the same struggles you did. He went from being almost homeless, failing at every company he tried to build to the successful businessman he is today. He had to step back from his failures and see what choices he made that caused him so much heartache. That’s when he realized he had forgotten what he had been taught about putting others first, focus on serving first. He was so focused on himself and what he couldn’t do that he forgot about all the things he could do to help others. Listen in as Leonard takes us through the journey to success and the roadblocks and milestones he had on the way to transparency and being true to himself. Show Notes: [03:05] W

Sandra MacLeod, the CEO of Echo Research is on the show today to talk about how important our reputation is in business. She tells us how as women we can build our reputations by keeping an eye out and paying attention to what is being said about us. It is ok to be different but be strong and different, don’t let anyone keep you from doing what you think is right. Sandra believes that being an entrepreneur today is about believing in yourself and managing your expectations, there will be ups and downs so just hang in there. Also, surround yourself with like-minded people and create an inner circle that will support you and keep you strong. Sandra has accomplished many things in her career and she isn’t stopping now. When she looks back she remembers a friend of hers saying “Make a promise, keep a promise” and she has lived by that every day of her life. Show Notes: [02:27] Deirdre introduces today’s guest Sandra MacLeod. [03:59] How did Sandra go from communications to research? [08:35] In her opinion you n

Keeping in touch and building bonds with people takes communication, patience and dedication. In business and in your personal life consistency in communication is a must. My guest today has a network of 5,000 lawyers to communicate with. She says that there are many ways to communicate with people if you take the time and put in the effort.  Lindsay Griffiths is the International Lawyers Network Director of Global Relationship Management. She works closely with the Network’s Executive Director on oversight and management of day to day operations of the ILN.  In her role, she develops and facilitates relationships among INL member firm lawyers at 90+ law firms in 67 countries. She seeks opportunities for member firms to build business and relationships while ensuring member participation in Network events and initiatives. Today we talk about how relationships are needed at every level and what we do now can ensure that we have the best people around us later. We also chat about how her future promotion is aff

Have you ever had a story you wanted to tell but you had no idea how to get it out to the masses? Have you ever felt like you didn’t know where to start? My guest today did it on his own and took his book Eat Less and Move More to the best sellers list along with two more books that also had the same level of success.  The journey made him realize that it's not easy to write a book, get it edited, published and marketed with limited resources. He thought why not do something that would help others in the same situation and so Brody Consulting Group was born. Paul Brody is the founder and CEO of Brody Consulting Group. He works with his clients to write, publish and market their books with a proven system he designed. He is also the host of the Get Published podcast.  We chat about his journey in writing his books and taking them to the best sellers list on his own steam and how that experience catapulted him into the business he leads today. Show Notes: [03:32] A health crisis caused Paul to reevaluate his

Why do we sometimes find ourselves in relationships with partners that aren't right?  Everybody wants to find joy and love. Being trapped in a relationship that is hurtful or harmful isn't good for your health. The right partner can bring so much joy into your life, but how do you avoid those hurtful and harmful relationships? My guest today is an expert on this topic.  Iris Benrubi is a psychotherapist and marriage counsellor. She is also a dating and relationship expert who has spent the last 20 years coaching and counseling men, women, and couples on how to find true love. She is also the author of Lonely & Single to Loved & Adored. On today’s show, Iris shares her journey, her dating expertise, and tips from her book.  Show Notes: [03:16] This is Iris's fourth career. She was a psychotherapist and marriage counselor for many years. When her 18 year marriage ended in divorce, she had an identity crisis and had to do a lot of soul searching. [04:26] A couple years later, she entered the wild west

In business, does growth equate to bigger means better? What if you could scale your business and find more freedom and success with a company of one mindset? Today's guest has a lot to share on this topic. Paul Jarvis is a designer who likes writing. Paul has been working for himself since the 90s. He is the creator of the online courses Creative Class and Chimp Essentials.  He is also the author of Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business and the co-founder of Fathom Analytics.  His work has been featured in WIRED, Fast Company, and more. He has been noticed and mentioned by Ashton Kutcher and Arianna Huffington.  Some of his clients include Microsoft, Danielle LaPorte, Mercedes-Benz, Maria Forleo, and too many to mention. He is here with us today to share the mindset of a company of one. We talk about what it means to scale your business, be profitable, and find freedom. We’ll learn that sometimes in business, bigger isn't always better. Show Notes: [03:31] Paul wasn't plannin

Are you reaching your full potential? What does this even mean? How do you find your flow and feel more fulfilled? Sheila Murphy spent a really long time in Corporate America. She was a senior legal counsel at a Fortune 50 company. She trained teams, built leaders, and knew what clients were looking for in their lawyers and their law firms.  Today, she is a coach and career consultant specializing in working with lawyers and law firms to help them reach their full potential. Which means building a book of business, developing their networks, and their reputations. She is also the founder of Focus Foreword, LLC. Sheila shares her story and we talk about how it’s possible to find a career that you really love. Show Notes: [03:45] After years in the corporate world, Sheila felt like she wasn't being challenged anymore. [04:01] She started talking to her network and thinking about what she was good at and what she loved to do. [04:38] The core of her being was to help people develop and empower them to reach the

Most moms want to be great supportive moms, but how do you do that? My guest today, is an energy healer who believes that to give your kids the support they need, you need to come from a place of freedom. Laura Hackel uses crystal bowl healing sessions, ceramic vessels, and crystals to raise vibrations and assist with healing. We talk about what all of this actually means and how to be a better mom using “mom GPS,” as Laura calls it. She shares her story of how she found this calling and explains how energy healing, vibrations, and trauma all tie together. This is a fascinating look into looking at life in a different way to benefit yourself and those around you.  Show Notes: [04:07] Laura majored in computer science, but quickly learned she liked talking to people. She got a job at a startup where she could talk to people. She worked in staffing and ran different departments, but as the company grew she knew she wanted something else. [05:08] Her identity was tied in to who she was at work. She started taki

Jaime-Lee Fraser is a business growth expert who develops professional companies into market leading brands. She is also the co-founder of Kwired a branding and acquisition readiness firm. Jaime-Lee has coined the acronym CAUSE which stands for connection, authenticity, uniqueness, storytelling, and emotion to build brands that really stand out. Jaime-Lee stands out with her own unique story. She was vacationing in Bali in 2002 when she ended up being surrounded by flames after the building that she was in was bombed. She used this as motivation to thrive as opposed to living in fear. We talk about being your true self, building brands that get noticed, authentic storytelling, masterminds, personality types, and even using the Wim Hof method to sit in a bath of ice. Show Notes: [03:31] Jaime-Lee was in a bombing attack in Bali in 2002. She wasn't harmed physically. She was trapped in a burning building. It was remarkable how everyone wanted to help everyone else survive. [04:50] She came out the other side b

Did you know that it’s not only possible to achieve your lifelong dreams, but the process of doing so will increase your success and competency in other areas of your life too? This is exactly what happened to today’s guest Karen Brown. Karen was successful, but she always felt she was missing out on a calling or purpose. She also was always drawn to Ironman races. One day, it finally hit her that her calling was to compete in an Ironman race. She did this, and the challenge and discipline of preparing for the race improved her life in other areas. She was even able to take what she learned along the way and use it to focus on leadership coaching. This conversation with Karen is really inspirational. She shares knowledge based on science that we can all use to shift our mindset and use the power of our subconscious thoughts to create any habits we want. Karen is an expert in leadership and professional performance and the author of Unlimiting Your Beliefs: 7 Keys to Greater Success in Your Personal & Pro