Women Who Swaay Podcast

Jennifer has a unique story – she was wrongly accused of a crime, convicted and served time at Rikers Island. Charges were dropped after she was released. By that time, she lost her life savings, employment and home. But Jennifer saw an opportunity to create a legacy. She launched Speak Up Women to help women find their voices to “speak up” – something she did not do during this tumultuous time of her life. Her work and its need is getting recognized all over the media and we are grateful she was able to share her story with us for this Thanksgiving special!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For Cindy Whitehead, looking through rose-colored glasses is a way of life. Known for her liberal use of the color pink across her businesses as well as her wardrobe, Whitehead is passionate about equalizing the playing field between genders when it comes to sexual health. It was precisely this issue which got Whitehead, a lifelong pharma-tech entrepreneur, thinking about the disparities in the sexual health industry, and how she could effectively address them with a pink-hued pill she launched via her parent company, Sprout Pharmaceuticals. Once she finally received FDA approval in August, 2015, Whitehead decided to sell her company to Valeant Pharmaceuticals for $1 billion, with the hope that her brand would be built into a women’s healthcare platform, which she says “didn’t end up happening.” According to various medical sources, Addyi has been disappointing in terms of sales, attributed in part to a lack of support from Valeant. Listen to find out about her billion-dollar acquisition, her new venture

Shannon is a financial planner who left a “traditional” financial services firm to start her own company, The Financial Gym, because she felt traditional financial services firms did not have the tools or resources to help people in their 20s and 30s who are starting out and trying to build assets while also managing debt. She realized that the key to long-term personal financial success is a commitment to financial fitness and making smart financial choices. Through her blog, Financially Blonde, her book, Train Your Way To Financial Fitness, her podcast, Martinis and Your Money and The Financial Gym, Shannon is committed to making financial fitness fun, easy and accessible for everyone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

auren Leader-Chivée is the Co-Founder and CEO of All In Together. She has dedicated her career to closing the most critical personal, professional and political gender gaps for women. In addition to her role at AIT, Lauren is an Executive Advisor to Deloitte working with a range of global companies on their most pressing diversity issues. Formerly the President of the global think tank Center for Talent Innovation and Founding Partner at Hewlett Chivée Partners LLC, she has tirelessly advocated for women’s leadership as a driver of economic growth and opportunity.  Recently chosen by Fortune as one of the 50 Most Influential Women on Twitter, Leader-Chivée writes extensively for the Huffington Post, Harvard Business Review and Inc and her thought leadership has been featured in a wide range of media including the BBC, Dow Jones, CNN, Washington Post, NY Times and the Wall Street Journal. She is the co-author of Center for Talent Innovation publications “Executive Presence,” “Sponsor Effect UK,” “The Battle f

Sara Moylan is America’s newest superwoman. In addition to being a mother of four daughters ranging from ages 4 to 13 years old, working a day job as a sales rep, and being a fitness junkie on the side, she has now managed to solve a problem of so many women. Finally, there is a custom fit and custom adjustable sports bra! Listen to find out how she is juggling many things at once, including a full-time sales job and a thriving company that has done really well on Shark Tank. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Latina media dynamo and women’s empowerment advocate Nely Galán, dubbed the “Tropical Tycoon” by The New York Times Magazine, is one of the entertainment industry’s savviest firebrand talents. An immigrant and self-made media mogul, Galán was the first Latina President of Entertainment for a U.S. television network (Telemundo). She is an Emmy Award-winning producer of over 600 episodes of television in Spanish and English, including the FOX hit reality series “The Swan”. After becoming self-made on her own terms, Galán has made it her mission to teach women—regardless of age or background—how they too can become entrepreneurs. Her forthcoming book, SELF MADE: Becoming Empowered, Self-Reliant, and Rich in Every Way, will be published by Spiegel & Grau/Random House in 2016. Inspired by the new revolution in women’s entrepreneurship led by multicultural women, Galán wrote the book as a manifesto to ignite the SELF MADE movement, uniting all women on a quest for an economic future they control. See omnystudio.c

She is an MIT-trained engineer, entrepreneur and adventurer whose passion is identifying undiscovered ideas and talent and helping them make impact. She's probably best known for curating and hosting the first ever TEDx and founding two innovation centers at MIT and USC that helped spin-out dozens of startups based on university research. She is currently host of The Art of Manufacturing podcast and Founder & Chief Instigator of MAKE IT IN LA, an initiative of LA Mayor Garcetti that connects and celebrates the largest community of makers and manufacturers in the U.S. She started her career as a manufacturing engineer on the Space Shuttle, then became a tech entrepreneur, playing key roles at startups such as Stylus innovation (acquired by Artisoft), Direct Hit Technologies (acquired by Ask Jeeves) and Jeeves Solutions (acquired by Kanisa). She has been an advisor to nearly two dozen companies and organizations, including the Obama administration and the World Economic Forum. She lives and plays in Los Angeles

Changing the World… One Perfect Sports Bra at a Time Sara Moylan is America’s newest superwoman. In addition to being a mother of four daughters ranging from ages 4 to 13, working a day job as a sales rep, and being a fitness junkie on the side, she has now managed to solve a problem of so many women. Finally, there is a custom fit and custom adjustable sports bra! After having her first daughter and noticing a significant difference in her chest size (a fact I’m sure at least some of the women reading this can relate to), Moylan found herself doubling up on 2-3 bras at a time. She was walking away from workouts because she was in so much pain; also dealing with becoming very depressed and self conscious. She was competing and modeling, but even with access to all of the the materials that come with the job, nothing was fitting correctly. That lead to one day cutting all of her bras apart and making a prototype that was doing a better job than wearing multiple bras at a time. Moylan wasn’t looking to start

 Kate works and plays in Boulder, CO after a Venture for America Fellowship in Detroit.​ She helps Detroit Labs get the word out about their industry-altering Apprenticeship program. On the side, she runs a non-profit called Women Rising that helps women in tech find mentors and peers.  She is also known as one of the subjects in the recently released film GENERATION STARTUP and in this episode she discusses her journey filming the documentary, her passion for help women in tech rise and feel empowered, and her most valuable lessons and advice working with entrepreneurs in Detroit. Find out more on Kate by reaching out to her on www.katecatlin.com and check out her venture Women Rising at www.womenrising.co See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

GENERATION STARTUP takes us to the front lines of entrepreneurship in America, capturing the struggles and triumphs of six recent college graduates who put everything on the line to build startups in Detroit. Shot over 17 months, it’s an honest, in-the-trenches look at what it takes to launch a startup. Directed by Academy Award winner Cynthia Wade and award-winning filmmaker Cheryl Miller Houser, the film celebrates risk-taking, urban revitalization, and diversity while delivering a vital call-to-action—with entrepreneurship at a record low, the country’s economic future is at stake.  Make sure you check out www.generationstartupthefilm.com for airing dates and tickets in your local theaters.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amy Peterson knew she wanted to work in baseball since she was young, so after she went to law school and business school she applied to work for free for any baseball team. She wound up interning for the Detroit Tigers, and she's been "paying it forward" in Detroit ever since (though now she's their lawyer, not their intern). All of this is super, but none of it is the direct reason she's being featured. The reason she's being featured is the creative outlet/hobby she turned into the social enterprise known as Rebel Nell. Initially, she was making jewelry that she sold to mom and pop stores, which made her just enough money to pay for her law books. The rest, is better told in the podcast and below: What is the product? Rebel Nell’s jewelry line starts by repurposing graffiti, an abundant local resource in Detroit.  They collect this graffiti after it has fallen off of walls.  Initially these scraps of graffiti look a little rough on the surface, just like many people’s first impression of Detroit. However,

Susie Moore serves as an advisor to anyone with potential, whether it be high growth startups or even you (she's a life and business coach). According to Moore, who has written for practicallyeverypublication you've ever heard of, there are two main ways to live your life. The first way is by default, or living passively. The second way - the way she lives and teaches her clients how to live - is living by design. I think it's so important to think, "What is it that I really, really want?" and then, "How can I get there?" So why is Moore a life coach if she can be whatever she wants? "I know that life coaching works." She's been in the same shoes as her clients time and time again, and she knows that her stories and experiences are proof that there's more to life than doing what's expected of you. "I still have fear. I'm afraid all the time. I just kind of realized that my desires are more important than my fears." She faces the same [negative] judgment as everyone else, especially when she does something

Have you ever had an idea that was so obscure - and brilliant - that the people with whom you’d dare to share it would either pretend they didn’t hear you or bluntly-yet-lovingly tell you it was ridiculous? For example, there’s this scene in the first episode of “Documentary Now!” in which Bill Hader’s character explains that she wears sweatpants on her head and wraps the pant legs around her neck for practicality - like a “built-in scarf.”  If you're wondering which product I'm drawing a comparison to, I'll tell you: it's Foxers. Sure, they seem like common sense now, but even the creator's husband wasn't immediately on board with the idea when he first heard it. The creator, April Spring, had a moment in 2006, when she was at a restaurant with her husband. Before we get to the aftermath, here's some information on Spring: Spring, who comes from a finance background, has an entrepreneurial spirit. The "always working" mentality doesn't seem to bother her. She worked with NASDAQ for over a decade, doing fina

Born in Iran and raised in Louisiana, Helya Mohammadian knew she wanted to be in fashion from the start. She studied fashion design at LSU and quickly realized that New York City was where she needed to be to pursue her dream. After working at Bergdorf Goodman and all these “crazy fashion houses,” she decided that traditional fashion was "too stuffy" and not for her. While taking a break from the industry, she had an idea for a product, that we now fondly know of as Slick Chicks and jumped back into the fashion industry - challenging tradition and the industry she grew up loving.  "I would love to see this be a product that really just changes the way women think about underwear as a whole." Her mission and passion, however, quickly evolved. Originally, Mohammadian was targeting the “athleisure” market and fulfilling more a want than a need. "I wasn't even thinking about the healthcare market when I launched this product." After receiving emails from handicapped, elderly, and otherwise-disabled women, she r

Nora Herting and Heather Willems met as undergraduates in an art history class, and eventually started ImageThink together. ImageThink is a firm that provides graphic facilitation services for pretty much anything and anyone. If you're thinking, "how can I trust some artist without my credentials to synthesize what I'm saying?" ImageThink's answer hits the nail on the head: "It's idea for idea, not word for word." LISTEN to learn more about how they manage their best friendship and business partnership, how they went from concept to partnership, and whose doodle is hanging in the office of Google's CEO. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week's episode we have combined two experts and moguls in their respective industries to share some exclusive insights as well as a sneak peak into their own personal stories on how they grew local successful businesses that allows them to live their passion!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From a very young age, Kirsten Potenza, the co-founder and CEO ofPOUND®was trying to find a job or make a job out of whatever she could. "From stealing sweet peas from the farm behind the house and selling them to my neighbors to having a shop in the backyard where I sold potpourri that I made." After college, where Potenza was a Division I athlete at UCLA, she found herself changing careers often, which concerned her mother. Looking back, Potenza understands her mother’s concerns, but she suggests that others embrace these "opportunities to dip our toes in the water and test out different things and learn more about ourselves through exploring different careers." It was around the time that she turned down the opportunity to run a company that she met Cristina Peerenboom. “The one thing we had in common was that we were obsessed with music. We were both drummers -  not in the sense of wanting to be in bands - there was something about drumming that appealed to the both of us. It probably had a lot to do wit

Nicole Abboud's story starts off like most of our successful millennials' stories: a "blissfully ignorant" ingenue pursuing her dreams in 2008. Abboud's dream - or, at least, one of them - was to be a lawyer. Until she realized that she was wrong.  As a lawyer, she started her own practice and differentiated herself by branding herself as a "fashion lawyer." After a few months, however, she shut down the practice. She realized that her heart was not fully in it.  "And I went through this whole self-discovery phase of just moping around and complaining to anyone who would listen - to my family [and] my friends about this thing that I was feeling." Abboud felt like she was the only one who was feeling it, but she soon found out that she wasn't alone in feeling unhappy. In March of 2015, she launched her podcast, the Gen Why Lawyer Podcast, in an "effort to reach out to other millennial lawyers across the U.S. to see if they felt the same way - if they were unhappy - and just what they were doing about it." L

Maddy Hasulak, the Chief Love Officer of Love Grown “gets to spread the love all day every day.” She may seem like another female founder, but she’ll be the first to emphasize that she’s a female co-founder of a company with a male co-founder - her husband, Alex. The pair started a business at one of the worst times to start a business - during the 2008 recession. Between the two of them, they were working five jobs while trying to build Love Grown. One of the jobs was at Wells Fargo, where the managers of City Market, a subsidiary of Kroger, would come in regularly. Alex approached one of them for advice on how to get on their shelves, and the manager requested a sample of the product, which was based on Maddy's mom's granola recipe. Two months later, Love Grown’s products were on an end cap of one of City Market’s aisles. "We sold so well the first month that within six months we went from one store to eighty King Scoopers and City Markets in Colorado, and quit our jobs to take the biggest risks of our live

HelenBui is an entrepreneur, media & advertising veteran and economic empowerment champion. Helen is currently the Founder & CEO at Stash-it, a company that is improving the relationship between young women and money. The Stash-it mobile app helps young women save money on a weekly basis and helps them develop new habits that increase their confidence with money. Stash-it has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch and is helping young women all over the US develop positive money habits. Prior to Stash-it,Helen was the Vice President and Head of Innovation at News Corp where she was in charge of establishing and managing the Innovation program that assessed, developed, incubated, tested and launched new digital products and businesses. Helen makes it a priority to give time to gender equality and economic empowerment. She works with organizations such as UN Women, Grameen Foundation, Children International, Highwater Women and numerous nonprofits in Vietnam. Helen is continuously meeting wit