Episodes

Kayla Rodriguez Graff got a 'no' from the patent office, 'no' from the FDA, and another 'no' from Medicare, and now her biotech company SweetBio® is FDA-cleared, patented in almost 20 countries, reimbursed, and in clinics across the country with $12 million in financing. CEO Kayla co-founded the company with her brother, turning manuka honey and collagen into a dissolvable sheet that helps the body repair. Kayla shares how she and her team white boarded "Operation Phoenix" to figure out reimburs...

Sustainable high performance, says Sarah Deane, comes down to capability times culture times capacity to execute. Most leaders have the first two. The third is the one nobody measures: do you actually have the cognitive and energetic resources to access the thinking you're being paid for? A former AI engineer who led the worldwide employee workplace experience program at HP for 320,000 people and now teaches at Stanford Continuing Studies, Sarah spent the better part of a decade following the da...

Health insurance now eats around 30 percent of the average American family's after-tax income, about $35,000 a year for a family of four, and what you get for it is a $5,000 to $10,000 deductible and the right to file a claim someone else may deny. Jennifer Burnham-Grubbs calls it the biggest gaslighting project in recent history, and she would know: she has spent 21 years inside life and health insurance, ranks among the top 175 independent insurance producers in the United States (fewer than 3...

Women make most of the purchasing decisions, and on the receiving end of the largest wealth transfer in history, some $40 trillion in the next decade. We’re writing more philanthropy checks, but less so when it comes to investing, especially in women-led startups. Chantell Preston is done being polite about it. A serial healthcare entrepreneur with multiple exits, including Mentis Neuro Health, she is the founder and CEO of the family office Preston Partners, co-owner of the San Francisco Signal...

Laila Marshall is the Founder & CEO of Beebizy, a B2B event management SaaS built for the lean teams running events that drive real business revenue. A previously exited founder in on-demand healthcare technology, Laila brings a rare combination of practitioner depth and product vision — having personally produced 500+ events before building the software she always wished existed. Based in Los Angeles, Laila is currently in active enterprise conversations with brands like Marriott, Hilton, and E...

Naseem Sayani is a venture capitalist and the CEO and founder of GCWC and GCWC Capital. She also hosts The Capital Flex podcast, highlighting the stories of female founders raising money for their startups. Previously a GP at Emmeline Ventures, Naseem is on a mission to educate women about venture investing, and catalyze an ecosystem where women are writing checks to support their entrepreneurial sisters. We talk about how 100,000 women, each with a $50,000 check, could revolutionize venture wit...

Episode 1000. Almost a decade ago I started Wings of Inspired Business to change the power dynamic for female founders, who to this day receive less than 2% of venture capital while delivering 2.5 times the returns. So, for the thousandth episode I gathered seven women who have lived it: Rajia Abdelaziz (invisaWear), Lindsey Mignano (Mignano Law Group), Clare Baukham (The Billionaire Woman), Ungenita Prevost (Ungenita Beauty), Trixy Castro (TRX Capital) and Deborah Sass (SpaceVrse), bookended by...

Drea Lynn is an attorney, former corporate COO, and author of Smart Quit who helps entrepreneurs escape burnout, scale with confidence, and take control of their business and life with The Smart Shift System®. She also helps professionals make the leap into entrepreneurship with a four-phase framework. After years leading teams inside high-growth organizations, she walked away from the corner office - and the six-figure salary - to build her own consulting business. The exit didn't go to plan: s...

Laura Henson is the Founder and CEO of HVM Communications, a boutique strategic communications agency focused on brand storytelling, media relations, and thought leadership for founders, women leaders, and mission-driven organizations. For 20 years, Laura has built a reputation as a trusted voice at the intersection of capital, visibility, and women's leadership. Laura is also an active investor across venture capital, private equity, and early-stage companies, with a portfolio that reflects her...

Karen Ahrens is the CEO and co-founder of Wait4me, a Los Angeles-based platform reimagining how people can reclaim time. It’s the first “time broker” allowing people to buy and sell time, connecting clients with trusted, local personal assistants while also offering a concierge-style service tier. Karen’s journey has been anything but linear — from working in industrial parts departments in Wisconsin to leading global digital transformation and CRM initiatives for Fortune 100 brands as a Preside...

Vivienne Wagner is the Founder and CEO of Houndstooth Media Group, a boutique digital marketing agency helping mid-sized businesses turn their websites into revenue-driving assets through strategic SEO and AI-driven optimization. Known for making complex marketing concepts clear and actionable, Vivienne advises business leaders on how to position their companies to be found by both human audiences and emerging AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. Her approach increases organic visib...

Deborah Sass is the CEO & Founder of SpaceVrse, a global space ecosystem connecting industry leaders, innovators, creators, and next-generation talent across more than 150+ countries. Her work focuses on shaping how space is communicated, commercialized, and culturally understood — beyond borders, sectors, and silos. Over the past 25+ years, she’s worked across media, entertainment, and technology, partnering with some of the world’s most influential organizations — from Mirror Group Newspapers ...

Robin Swan is a plant alchemist and the founder of Swan Apothecary, with over 30 years of experience in holistic health and cannabinoid medicine. Rooted in her Indigenous heritage, she blends ancestral herbal wisdom with modern cannabis science to create small-batch, full-spectrum formulations. Robin is known for integrating physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental healing into her approach to plant medicine. A passionate advocate for ethical business and patient-centered care, she champions s...

Adi Klevit is the leader and visionary of Business Success Consulting Group. Her 30 years of knowledge and experience as a trained Industrial Engineer, management consultant, and business executive give her a unique understanding of the challenges businesses face. Adi utilizes her practical know-how and wisdom to successfully help organizations and companies of any size dramatically improve their efficiency and performance. By leveraging her ability to understand business processes as well as pe...

Ashley Stahl is the founder of Wise Whisper, a boutique speaking agency that's helped hundreds of clients craft their signature speeches and get placed as speakers on hundreds of BIG stages around the world, including the TEDx stage. Ashley is also the international bestselling author of YOU TURN: Get Unstuck, Discover Your Direction, Design Your Dream Career, host of the You Turn Podcast (ranked on Apple in the top 100 mental health shows in the US) and a keynote speaker with a top 100 most vie...

Jane Veron is co-founder and CEO of The Acceleration Project (TAP), a nonprofit that empowers small business owners and accelerates their growth through bespoke advisory services, generating a ripple effect that unlocks pathways to wealth creation and economic mobility. Jane has held strategy and marketing positions at Bain & Company and American Express. She is a dedicated public servant, having previously served on the Scarsdale Village Board and as Mayor of Scarsdale, New York. She was appoin...

Revekka Palaiologou, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, is the CEO and founder of Dion, a next-generation social platform where people initiate connections by sending each other real drinks, coffees, and experiences that can be redeemed in the real world. By turning one of the oldest social gestures, buying someone a drink, into a digital interaction, Dion converts social intent into real-world transactions, creating a new way for people and brands to connect through real-world spending. The platform...

Anna Redmond is the Founder and CEO of Braav, where she deploys experienced Chief Security Officers into organizations that need to get serious about safety and risks. Her path into security was unconventional; she started in venture capital and studied at Harvard before shifting into the security world after recognizing how unprepared most companies are for real-world threats. She is now focused on modernizing challenge coins for military and first responders by building the first platform that...

Serin Silva is an intuitive strategic advisor and executive coach who helps powerhouse women move from stuck to strategic growth. After two decades leading transformation as a VP at Fortune 500 companies, including taking Williams-Sonoma to half a billion in sales and launching Hearst Corporation’s first digital division, Serin now guides CEOs and executives to make clear, confident, and energetically aligned decisions in the moments that matter most. Her work blends sharp business strategy with...

Krystal Popov is a serial entrepreneur, the founder of Futurepreneur, and a passionate advocate for empowering kids and teens to become entrepreneurs. A mother of three, she believes young people have immense potential to start businesses but often lack the guidance to do so. After climbing the corporate ladder in engineering, Krystal left the traditional workforce to build four businesses. Today, she runs a seven-figure coworking and flex retail space in Tucson, AZ, and has launched Futureprene...

Chelsea Clark is the founder and CEO of Momfluence, a leading influencer marketing agency specializing in Mom creator-led campaigns for family, lifestyle, and consumer brands. With a deep understanding of the modern mom consumer, Chelsea helps brands build trust, relevance, and measurable growth through authentic partnerships with top mom creators across North America. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 👩‍👧‍👦👩‍🍼 Purposed-Designed Business: How to balance motherhood and entrepreneurship, why boundaries are everyt...

Jenn Donahue PhD is an entrepreneur, civil engineer, author, and retired US Navy Captain whose company JL Donahue Engineering works on large scale, high profile geotechnical projects for clients ranging from PG&E and Duke Energy to the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). Over her military career, Jenn has built a bridge across the Euphrates River in the midst of the Iraq war, commanded an 800-personnel Battalion in Afghanistan, and constructed combat outposts in the mid...

Aimee Rickabus is an entrepreneur, author, and podcast host dedicated to redefining women’s leadership. Author of The Manage Her and host of the podcast by the same name, Aimee highlights how the invisible labor women perform every day translates into systems thinking, problem solving, and leadership skills that transform business and community. Aimee is also CEO of Tomahawk Information Solutions, a woman- and minority-owned technology company and value-added reseller of hardware, software and s...

Tricia Brouk is a three-time entrepreneur and strategic advisor who helps high-performing professionals transform into industry thought leaders through the power of authentic storytelling. With her experience as a seasoned and award-winning director, producer, and mentor to countless speakers, Tricia has put thousands of speakers onto big stages around the globe. Tricia founded The Big Talk Academy where she certifies speakers in the art of public speaking. She was the executive producer of Spea...