Maturepreneurial Podcast: Interviews with Older Entrepreneurs | Online Business Tips | Learn From Those Who Have Succeeded

Jonathan Bates has spent the last 21 years mastering entrepreneurship and systematizing processes. He has served military heroes and continues to serve by bringing his expertise to the backbone of America; his hometown heroes, the small business owner. Jonathan is an expert at diffusing business bombs; bringing owners new levels of success and more importantly, profitability. Nothing is more satisfying than providing the tools, motivation, and accountability that afford business owners the opportunity for clarity, sleep, health, a happy family, all adding up to living a life of significance. Jonathan is married to his best friend and has four awesome kids. Three days after he was married, he deployed for 13 months. For the rest of his Navy career, he traveled for no less than 180 days per year and averaged over 280 days a year away from his family. Putting his work first afforded him a great military career and experience all over the world, but limited his family time. Sleepless nights, multiple surgeries, concern for his growing family, and arguments with his wife are why he empathizes with the overworked small business owner. Now that Jonathan is back in the states and able to spend time with his family, he has focused his efforts on helping small business owners grow both in business and, more importantly, with their families. As an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer (Bomb Squad) for the United States Navy, he worked his way through the ranks. First, he learned to utilize systems and execute processes as a junior enlisted sailor. He quickly rose through the ranks and mastered the identification of needs and creation of new ways to handle unique situations that demanded reliable outcomes. After 17 years of successful program development and deployments to remote and less-than-desirable locations, he was eventually commissioned as a Naval Limited Duty Officer. His technical expertise, leadership skills, and ability to get the job done right made him an excellent candidate for this leadership position. The Navy Bomb Squad is the entrepreneurial segment of the military. Jonathan was able to sell his systems and processes to anyone, in any situation, and deliver the desired outcome every time. The secret is the ability to provide choices. To complete any mission, decision makers need the critical ability to produce reliable results. Whether the mission is to disarm an Improvised Explosive Devise (IED), onboard a client for a law firm, bake a cake for a restaurant, recover a lost body underwater, or make the next sale for your company, the results need to be repeatable by anyone on the team. Jonathan teaches that when a business is systematized, the business owner has choices that include the following: Expand the current business – take advantage of created efficiencies to produce/sell more Franchise – sell the right to use your systems and processes Sell – when the owner is not the business, the repeatable results are valuable Buy bolt-on businesses – exponentially increase the value of a business with established systems to consolidate the businesses, take advantage of new efficiencies, and create a larger customer base, increasing profit immediately Pass the business to their family Who doesn’t like choices? Let’s systematize!

Matt Miller spent the first nine years of his career as an Air Force pilot before entering the private sector to work in both the medical device and advertising industries. Although he was a top performer in the corporate world, his long-term desire was to be his own boss.  A good friend one day mentioned the gumball machines he and his young daughters owned and that conversation began a 10-year business quest that has brought Matt's company, School Spirit Vending, to the cutting edge of both the vending and school fundraising industries. Today, School Spirit Vending’s franchising program provides a proven and profitable business system for busy professionals and their families looking to develop secondary income streams, while raising millions of dollars for education at the same time. In addition to running School Spirit Vending, Matt is devoted to sharing his expertise with others. Through many different venues, including podcasts and public speaking, Matt seeks to enable other entrepreneurs to chase their dreams as well.

Anna literally wrote the book on change. She is the author of Igniting Change: From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. Her life has been a series of fascinating leaps off the proverbial cliff. Anna grew up in the Midwest, left college and moved to California to work in the entertainment industry. Several years later, she left her job at The Walt Disney Company - where she coordinated a year-long, international promotion celebrating Mickey Mouse’s birthday - to go in search of meaning. What Anna thought would be a three-month adventure, turned into 11 years of living in-residence studying and eventually teaching consciousness. Anna has combined all or her experience to create a 90-day group coaching program called The Shift System that provides structure, guidance, shortcuts and support for transformational change.

Michele Williams began her entrepreneurial journey in sixth grade, hawking fireballs in the back of the school bus. Over the last 20 years that journey has included a bed and breakfast in Charleston, SC and a high-tech executive recruitment firm. Although wildly different, each of Michele's ventures and ‘big ideas’ has been unified by a single passion: to facilitate meaningful transformations through innovation, curiosity, connections, encouragement and mindset….. not to mention a truckload of grit and humor! Today, Michele continues as a strategic growth consultant to small-midsize organizations and professionals under her boutique, executive recruiting firm, Ellington Growth Partners; she co-launched a local networking community for female entrepreneurs; and she is the founder of the BVU Mastermind for women. Michele has guided hundreds of women, professionals and small organizations through meaningful transformations to become the best versions of themselves for those they employ, serve and love. You can reach Michele at Mojowilliams16@gmail.comor www.bvumastermind.com.

In her corporate career, Judi Schindler was a marketing executive. She is a founding member and past president of the Chicago Area Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. She is a member of the Leadership Team of Engaging Speakers and the Advisory Board of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. She’s listed in “Who’s Who in America,” “Who’s Who in American Women” and “Who’s Who in the Midwest.” Her book Husbands: An Owner’s Manualoffers witty, candid advice for women who want to stay married for the rest of their lives. Judi claims, "The secret to my marriage is that in all these years my husband and I have never had a single meaningful conversation." Judi is also an actor, who has been entertaining women's groups with her multi-media show on marriage for the past five years. She wrote her book in direct response to the many requests she's had over the years for a printed version of the program. "While the book is meant to be entertaining," says Schindler, "I hope readers also learn some useful strategies on how to stay married for life. Slammed doors aside, there's enormous gratification that comes with creating a family and growing old with the same person." The book is suitable for new brides, husband-seekers of any age and anyone who understands that a sense of humor is essential to a long-term marriage. Judi Schindler Fun Facts She became a skier at 50, an actor at 64 and an author at 75. She has one child, a son, who has produced six children of his own, which, she says, is "a pretty good return on investment." Her parents, both entrepreneurs, sold their businesses in the 60s, bought a Volkswagen camper and went on the road with no destination in mind. She used to create hand-sewn quilts. She majored in journalism because she wanted to be a police reporter, "like my two role models, Brenda Starr and Lois Lane." She can do a two-minute plank. She was in the same high school class as Ann-Margaret. She has been a member of Weight Watchers since 2001 and still goes to weekly meetings. She collects birdhouses. She survived a heart attack at 39, breast cancer, bladder cancer and two bouts of lung cancer. (Not fun, but worth noting.)

Nadine Artemis’s official biography begins when she first combined flasks of essential oils to recreate Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps for a school science fair. These early botanical-inclinations led her on petal-pathed adventures in creating organic beauty balms, reviving elixirs, healing oral care and perfumed poetry to quench the natural yearnings of many. Nadine opened North America’s first full concept Aromatherapy store, Osmosis, in 1994. Since that day she has received glowing reviews for her formulations in the Hollywood Reporter, Flare, the New York Times, Vogueand The National Post. Nadine has addressed gatherings at conferences, appeared on television and radio shows, and she is a frequent commentator on health and beauty topics for national media outlets. In addition to her innovative product work, Nadine is the author of two books: Renegade Beauty: Reveal and Revive Your Natural Radiance andHolistic Dental Care: The Complete Guide to Healthy Teeth and Gums. Her healing creations, along with her concept of “renegade beauty,”encourage effortlessness and inspire people to rethink conventional notions of beauty and wellness. Celebrity fans include Shailene Woodley, Carrie-Anne Moss and Mandy Moore. Aveda founder, Horst Rechelbacher, calls Nadine “a pure flower of creativity.” Alanis Morissette describes her as “a true sense-visionary."

On January 15, 2009, Dave Sanderson was the last passenger off the plane that crashed into the Hudson River, best known as “The Miracle on the Hudson”.  Dave was largely responsible for the well-being and safety of others that fateful day, risking his own life in frigid water to help other passengers off the plane. Dave emerged from the wreckage determined to encourage others to do the right thing. Dave's mission is to impact people’s lives by sharing and teaching the strategies he learned and implemented on how to grow from traumatic life experiences that everyone will face one day and that he calls “life’s personal plane crashes”.  Dave shares 12 resources as a faculty member with Dominique Wilkins, Don Barden, Brittany Tucker and Steve Nedvidek at the Leadership Mindset Series, the first and only servant leadership coaching program designed to help business leaders around the world to build a happier, more-productive business with a better bottom line. In addition to speaking and training, Dave conducts workshops; is a much sought-after podcast celebrity; is the author of the best-selling book, “Moments Matter”; hosts his own radio show on Contact Talk Radio and C-Suite Radio called “Moments Matter with Dave Sanderson”; and hosts a daily flash briefing on Amazon Alexa titled, “Dave Sanderson: DECLASSIFIED.” Dave, his wife Terri, and their four children reside in Charlotte, NC.

Mark LaMaster's mission is to offer encouragement and inspiration for men to become the fathers they’ve always dreamed of being. He believes that all dads have an incredible, God-given opportunity to make a lasting positive impact on their children, their families, and their earthly homes. A former nurse, Mark has authored two books: Friday Night Lights: For Fathers and Sons, published in December 2015, is a game plan for dads to help develop their sons into the men God intended them to be. Friday Night Lights: For Fathers and Daughters, published in May 2018, is a guide to producing ten episodes of your own personal TV series, covering topics from faith and friendships to social media and self-image. Mark wants to make sure each and every dad out there has access to positive, encouraging, and faith-filled resources about how to be the best parent they can be. He seeks to build a sense of community among like-minded fathers who want to learn from, strengthen, and support one another in a space free of judgment or criticism. Mark creates faith-filled fatherhood resources because the Bible has instructed us (dads) to help one another along on our earthly journey while we look with hope to our ultimate destination: heaven. Mark lives in Minnesota with his beautiful bride, Jen, and two amazing children, Hannah and Lincoln.

After a very successful, twenty-five plus year career in the manufacturing and service industries, Gregory Gray left the corporate world to pursue his purpose: to develop incredible leaders and dynamic corporate cultures as a leadership and business consultant. He has since rounded out his purpose with the true joy of helping others cast their vision for their life and business and then helping them create plans to fulfill that vision. Gregory is passionate about bringing his clients clarity and focus. Gregory's business is built around helping people find their purpose and joy in life and in their businesses. Whether they desire freedom of time and money or whether an exit strategy is the best option, he and his team can assist. They offer life and business coaching, along with courses, programs and workshops specifically designed to effect positive transformation so clients can realize their desired vision. Gregory is the author of the upcoming book, Business Owner Freedom, which will be released late August or early September. Gregory is the father of two daughters, ages 16 and 14, and has been married for 21 years to his best friend Kim. They live south of Nashville on a farm where they raise grass-fed beef, lamb and goats. The Grays love their lifestyle and are living their vision daily.

Scott Beebe is the founder of My Business On Purpose, a business coaching, training, and strategy group that helps small business owners and organizational leaders transition from working IN their businesses to working ON their businesses. Scott is also the host of the Business On Purpose podcast; a weekly podcast where Scott interviews small business owners who share insights into how they are living their business on purpose. Scott was born in Washington DC and lived in Charlotte NC, Houston TX, Portland OR, and Greenville SC before graduating from the University of South Carolina in 1997. After college, he moved to Texas with his new bride Ashley, where he attended and graduated Southwestern Theological Seminary, then worked as a legal drug-salesman for Pfizer selling Lipitor, Viagra, and other well-known products. Among his many roles, Scott has served as Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church of Euless TX; he founded and served as lead pastor for LifePointe Church in Burleson TX; and he was international administrator for HELP, Inc., where he worked with multi-cultural teams both in the U.S. and Nigeria to build a platform for sustainable partnership with Nigerians through a variety of sectors, including business, finance, and agriculture. Over the years, Scott's numerous roles have provided him with experience in direct and B2B sales, designing and implementing organizational strategy, training and development, marketing, fundraising, teaching and speaking. The diversity of his roles and locations have shaped his unique view of businesses, churches, and cultures around the world. From this unique perspective, Scott created the Four Steps To Business Freedom; a six-month, group coaching experience built exclusively for businesses under $25mm and under 25 employees. The program: Helps owners and organizational leaders develop and implement a vision, a mission, and a set of values; Helps them build systems and processes to liberate them from the chaos of working IN the business; Leads weekly, virtual mastermind groups to uncover and implement the things they cannot see. Scott loves to read and learn. He and his wife Ashley travel whenever possible and make enjoying time with their three children a priority. Scott and his family live in Bluffton, SC (near Hilton Head), where they spend most of their time on the water!

Sarah Shaw is a fashion entrepreneur, product designer and business coach. Her specialty is helping clients get products into the hands of celebrities to get more sales and media exposure. Sarah works 1:1 with clients to achieve their goals. She also offers a plethora of DIY programs that teach you pretty much everything she knows. With 20 years of experience and six companies under her belt, Sarah has amassed a treasure trove of secrets for launching product lines, putting products into stores and boutiques, and generating massive publicity in order to grow new companies quickly. Sarah’s products have been in over 1,200 stores and boutiques across the country, including Anthropologie, Nordstrom, Barney’s, Henri Bendel, Fred Segal, Neiman Marcus, Saks 5th Avenue and Bloomingdales. Sarah has appeared in the pages of almost every major fashion and lifestyle magazine, including InStyle, People, US Weekly, Lucky, ELLE, WWD, Marie Claire and the O-List. She’s been on TV shows like Access Hollywood, Extra and the E! network and she’s been interviewed for Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com and American Express’s OPEN Forum. In her spare time, Sarah hangs out with her 10 year-old twin girls… and hopes they’ll inspire her next great idea.

Sonia Lovett was born in August of 1952 in Cape Town South Africa. She is from British and Italian descent and soon after she was born, her family moved to Argentina. Her grandfather had several ranches and had moved from Britain to help run a family business. Sonia grew up in Buenos Aires, a very cosmopolitan, fashion-conscious city, under the influence of two very fashionable women: her mother and her grandmother. When Sonia and her sister were of age, they were sent to a school in Switzerland to finish their education. Sonia has lived in many countries in South America. Fluent in both Spanish and English, she thinks in both languages and had a heavy British accent until she came to live in the United States for an extended period of time. Sonia believes that living and visiting other countries fosters an open mind and greater receptivity to other cultures and ideas. Her love for fashion and travel were nurtured from an early age, when ideas regarding color and style made a notable impression. Her European sensibility, however, has always informed her choices and still do to this day. Of her fashion tastes, Sonia writes on her website, "I have noticed that at this time in my life I am embracing more color than I used to. A neutral pallet however is still the chicest thing around. I don’t wear many prints (I get bored easily) so I prefer to have solid colors and accent with accessories; you get so much more wear out of your clothes that way. I believe in family traditions and my sister and I have both saved family heirlooms which we wear to this day. I believe in great bags and shoes, tailoring and following trends in limited doses and only to the extent that they suit you." Today, Sonia and her husband make their home in Montana. They have a daughter who is a stylist living in LA and who Sonia says "inspires me to stay young and explore new possibilities."

David C. Baker is a business consultant who has written 5 books, advised 900+ firms, and keynoted conferences in 30+ countries. His work has been discussed in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, USA Today, BusinessWeek, and Inc. Magazine. David lives in Nashville, TN, but grew up in Guatemala, where his parents did medical and literacy work. His family lived with the K'anjobal, a tribe of Mayans in San Miguel Acatán, Huehuetanango. David helps entrepreneurial creatives make better business decisions about their positioning, their marketing, how they structure their roles in the firm, and how to benchmark their financial performance. His most recent book is called The Business of Expertise: How Entrepreneurial Experts Convert Insight to Impact + Wealth. He also produces a podcast with Blair Enns at 2bobs.com.

Rocky Romanella is founder and senior partner of 3SIXTY Management Services, a management consulting firm specializing in executive speaking and leadership development. Rocky has the rare ability to see a clear vision of the changing business landscape combined with the passion to develop strategies, tactics and metrics to drive desired results. In a corporate career that spanned almost 40 years, Rocky served as CEO for UniTek Global Services, a mid-cap telecommunications solutions company, and in several senior leadership roles at UPS, including President, Residential and Retail Operations. At UPS for 36 years, Rocky successfully launched one of the largest re-branding initiatives in franchising history: The UPS Store, which revolutionized the $9 billion retail shipping and business services market. In addition to leading the global strategy of all U.S. and international retail channels, Rocky played a critical role in the integration of more than 20 acquisitions that became UPS Supply Chain Solutions to improve the company's financial performance, capabilities and global network footprint. With responsibilities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Latin America and South America, Rocky also led UPS’s entry into the healthcare industry as part of their supply chain logistics strategy. Rocky serves on the board of Goodman Networks, a leading provider of end-to-end network infrastructure, field and professional services to the wireless telecommunications and satellite television industries. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Management from St. John’s University.

Sharon Sultan Cutler has been founding and running businesses for over 30 years. While parenting, Sharon started down a new career path when she launched a nanny agency, based in Long-Island, New York. (This also provided her with excellent nannies for her two active sons!) She was featured in a five-page Newsday article for traveling around the USA and hosting Nanny Job Fairs to personally meet qualified caregivers. Eventually, the agency expanded to include a Nurse's Registry and Home Health Care. Then, Sharon decided that people 50-plus needed reliable resources, products and services.  She began Mature Resources Network, similar to today's Angie's List and Home Adviser. Taking that to the next level, she created Long Island's first 50-Plus Expos, with over 100 exhibitors and thousands of guests. She was featured in many media articles including a May 14, 1995 Q & A feature in The New York Times titled Riding A Demographic Wave, Marketing to the Over 50's. Yes, she was one of the first in this field. At 70, Sharon created and co-authored Bandstand Diaries, a book about the early days of American Bandstand published in November, 2016. Striking a nostalgic chord for people 65-plus, the book enjoys a cult following of baby boomers and seniors who remember running home from school to watch Dick Clark's daily dance program in glorious black-and-white television! Currently, Sharon is writing Your NEW YOU After 65, a self-help and motivational book to be published in 2018. She styles herself "The Positive Aging Activist" as she enjoys her life's third chapter each and every day.

Steve Wilson is a 30-year veteran of the technology industry. He has held roles in digital strategy, web communications, product marketing, business development, and product-line management for international brands such as Walmart Inc., McDonald's Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, and Oracle Corporation. Steve and his wife Rebecca, co-founder of Your Bag Tag, first met when they worked together at Oracle. Steve and Rebecca started Your Bag Tag in 2006 after a friend came to Rebecca with an existing luggage tag and asked if she could develop a better one. From that first prototype, Steve believed the couple could market Rebecca's tags on the Internet. He developed a simple website and sales took off immediately. YourBagTag.com was born. Since their humble beginnings, the Wilsons have added an entire line of scuba and active water sports products. Dive product ideas came from Steve, who is a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor emeritus with over 2,000 dives behind him. Twelve hundred of those dives took place in the cold waters of Monterey Bay, California where he taught. The other 800+ dives occurred in many of the beautiful dive locations around the world. The Wilsons provide custom tag solutions for dive shops, resorts, private and commercial aviation companies, and a broad range of other industries.

As a fashion stylist by trade at Lobler & Delaney for more than a decade, Sara Delaney found that styling the ladies of New York was getting in the way of really experiencing the city. She decided it was time to learn new stuff, grab adventure by the horns, and after a series of fashion journalism classes, her fashion and lifestyle blog was born. Notes From a Stylist initially started as a place to share fashion finds, muse about style inspiration, and document Sara's exploits. But as family and everyday life marched on, dragging her past the dreaded 40-year mark (only to find that she didn't turn into a pumpkin and was still quite besotted with shoes and sequins!), the blog morphed into a resource for how to keep your fashion mojo on track. Newly refurbished, Sara's blog is positioned to channel her fashion styling nous into a community where women can find anything from how to work the seasonal trends, to new interior finds, right through to quick and easy recipes. Along the way, Sara has worked with world-class brands like The White Company, Designers Guild, Harrods, Barbour, Astley Clarke, and Liberty London, but she is always happy to collaborate with new brands that are the right fit for the blog. In addition to her blogging work, Sara also consults on social media projects, helping people set up and run their digital presence online. Currently, she is working with leading facialist Lisa Franklin and advising the social media campaign for The Wild At Heart Foundation's major charitable event in June. Sara was recently named in Fashion Monitor’s Top Influencers over 40 list and is quoted in The Times article: The Rise of the Midlife Instagrammers by Alex Gorton.

Suzanne Noble is a serial entrepreneur who started her first business - a series for England's Channel 4 television about astrology - at the age of 27. Stretching from Warner Bros to Universal via Sony and LazyTown Entertainment, Suzanne's PR career includes a collaboration with the White House, where she masterminded a partnership between LazyTown and Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move' campaign for children. On the technology front, Suzanne launched Frugl, a successful events discovery app for Londoners on a budget. Most recently, Suzanne co-founded the online magazine, The Advantages of Age, to challenge the media narrative around ageing. Suzanne has worked in PR for over 20 years, in entertainment, music and technology. She has amassed a fat address book of contacts, she has forged relationships with key influencers, and she has gained extensive experience in: Creating and developing strategic partnerships Leveraging PR to drive awareness and build businesses, and Managing multi-channel brand communication. One of her goals is to join a board of directors (whether corporate or non-profit) with which she can share her knowledge and experience. Suzanne has lived most of her life in the UK and, as a result, has developed a deep understanding of the UK market. This has contributed to the success of both her client's success and her own start-ups.

Doug Sandler is a nationally recognized speaker, trainer and podcaster who has over 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur, business owner, and leader. His book, Nice Guys Finish First, is a #1 ranked Amazon Best Seller. One leading social media marketing company ranks Doug among the top “100 of Social Media Thought Influencers to Follow.” Doug specializes in making connections, building relationships and strengthening bonds both inside and outside organizations.  His speaking and consulting business is geared towards improving relationships and winning business through his time-tested sales, service and relationship building system. Doug co-hosts a podcast with Strickland Bonner, The Nice Guys on Business.  The show has over 500 episodes and more than one million downloads. As a maturepreneur, Doug is using his extensive experience to help businesses and brands grow their audiences with TurnKey Podcasting.  The concept-to-launch podcast production service is 100% customer-centric and specializes in over-the-top exemplary service with a high touch emphasis in this high tech space.

Olga Szakal, Founder of The Ageless Generation™, is an innovative women’s leader committed to helping Gen X women overcome their mid-life crises and leap into the success they deserve. Based on personal experience, Olga has created a blueprint for turning a mid-life crisis into a period of self-discovery. She teaches women how to design their best life so they can reclaim their voice, build their legacy and make a difference in the world. Olga was born in Siberia, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English, history and social studies. With $400 in her pocket and a scholarship, she moved to the state of Washington in 1995, where she studied business and marketing. After 17 years working in pharmaceutical sales and real estate and then going through a  divorce, Olga needed to start a new business and a new life for herself and her four children. As the lucky winner at Valuetainment, Olga was blessed to experience the invaluable mentorship of none other than Patrick Bet-David. She soon found herself putting the divorce behind her and focusing on her children and growing her business. Olga knows from personal experience what midlife crisis is. She's lived it. She knows the effort it takes. And she's found a path to creating a life of appreciation, freedom, and fulfillment. Today, her mission is to share with others like her, the journey, the steps, the pitfalls and the exhilaration of succeeding. Every woman can do it!

Robyn Vogel, MA, LMHC is a psychotherapist, certified sex coach sex educator, and creator of Come Back To Love, Inc®. She helps couples and individuals find love again by teaching them how to master the skills of intimacy and the art of living a life filled with love, no matter what. In her practice, Robyn marries traditional psychological principles with spiritual tantric philosophy and practice. She teaches couples and individuals how to master the skills of intimacy and come back to love. Those that are struggling in relationship, feeling lost around love, and deeply craving purposeful and passionate connection gain much insight and healing in their work with Robyn. For 15 years Robyn has been teaching and practicing tantra as a foundational meditation practice that grounds her clients from within, removes obstacles to loving deeply and teaches all aspects of healthy sustainable relationship. Robyn facilitates a bi-monthly tantra workshop in the Boston area, leads weekend retreats and tantra vacations in tropical places. In 2015, she co-led a clinical course for therapists with Charlie Verge called Helping Couples Connect. Robyn has recently been recognized by the Boston Globe as an expert in her field. She is author of the upcoming book, The Power of Puja: An Intimate Journey to the Heart.

Cathi Nelson fell in love with photography as the photo editor of her high school yearbook. She soon found herself working two jobs to save enough money to buy her first professional camera. From the day of that first purchase, Cathi became the photo historian of her family and friends. Years later, after her adopted son was placed in her arms, Cathi developed a passion for creating life book photo albums that she used to tell his personal story and how he came to be part of their family. She soon found herself sharing this passion with others and ultimately she built a profitable business out of teaching others to create life book photo albums of their own. By 2007, Cathi noticed a change as consumers shifted to digital photography; she found herself helping people not only with their printed photos, but with their growing digital collections as well. Recognizing that this problem was only going to accelerate, she founded the Association of Personal Photo Organizers; a community dedicated to serving the needs of its members through training, support, and collaboration with industry partners. APPO has also played a key role in establishing a code of ethics that sets high standards for the rapidly growing life photo industry. In addition to being the CEO of APPO, Cathi is a sought-after speaker and author of Photo Organizing Made Easy. She remains firmly rooted in her vision to empower others to use visual storytelling as a means of preserving and sharing their personal life journeys.

Bridging the gap between science and spirituality, JJ Armstrong, founder of Transform2Alpha, has created a comprehensive life mastery blueprint with a military style edge. JJ’s career began in the British Army where she was one of the few women who graduated from the Army School of Physical Training to train soldiers. She spent more than eight years in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps training men for combat fitness and performance. Her interest in the mental side of training grew as she progressed in her career. Her self-reliance and the ability to think on her feet led her to spend time serving in Special Forces. Upon leaving the military, JJ started a fast-growing new trend: “personal training” in health clubs and gyms. The first person to offer this service in the UK, she was told by one of the biggest national health club chains, “It will never work!" But trusting your instincts pays off! JJ pursued her dream and built a business that quickly grew to a team of personal trainers 64-members strong. Her company trained thousands of clients and members; everyone from celebrities to housewives throughout a number of gyms and health clubs. Many top athletes and professionals benefited from JJ’s unique brand of training. JJ became interested in personal development from a young age through the Nightingale Conant catalogue of audio courses. She began studying hundreds of experts on everything from personal success to neuro-linguistic programming, hypnosis, mind control, sales, influence etc., adding to her library of tools. These studies led her to synthesize Pareto’s 80-20 principle, mind mapping, speed reading and advanced memory techniques into a unique brand of mental training. She discovered early on that she had the ability and the obsession to cut all “the fat away” and find the quickest, most efficient way to get the job done (INTJ style). One of JJ's private clients used her techniques to secure a license to practice as a physician (medical doctor) and the other used them to secure a license to fly planes (pilot). Always looking to evolve and have new experiences, JJ sold her business in her 30s to become an expat for the first time by studying in the U.S. It's an experience she has now had in three countries. While in the U.S., JJ proceeded to get the type of perma-tan she’d always dreamed about while studying for her master’s degree at the prestigious United States Sports Academy. She used principles of accelerated learning to earn her degree in half the regular time, with a 4.0 GPA. She will also tell other maturepreneurs out there that it is “never too late” to become a student or expat! After earning her degree, JJ took a position at the National Personal Training Institute in New York. She led a team of instructors that developed and certified personal trainers. JJ has also had extensive experience teaching new PTs how to train people of all ages to prevent injuries, including special populations with acute and chronic health considerations. JJ enjoyed her time teaching but felt that at her core she was an entrepreneur, not an employee. Once back in London, JJ formulated her metabolic functional training system into a brand. This brand grew to include a team of trainers in several locations in London – Mill Hill, Camden and Regent‘s Park. The London Women’s Bootcamp became a successful enterprise in a crowded market, due to its personalized service and utmost efficiency. This was a concept that she would later turn into Powerfrau Bootcamp, a German version of the program. After selling her boot camp training system in 2015, JJ decided to take a two-year break to reflect and spend time working on her ‘flagship’ training. During this time, she has been researching, traveling, and subsequently relocating to yet another city to prepare for the launch of her new project, Transform2Alpha. Like a cross between a personal development program and military special ops training, Transform2Alpha sends you on a mission to uncover and morph into the idealized version of yourself. The concept stems from JJ's vision of a self-actualized version of you that exists as a guide whom you can communicate with as you apply scientifically based methods to transform your body, mind and life. Transform2Alpha is the culmination of 30+ years of experience and insights and delivered in the most efficient way possible. Transform2Alpha also offers a “COMBAT AGING” version of the program specifically designed for those in midlife that seek strategies to protect against the accelerated aging effects of hormonal changes (namely, menopause or andropause for males). JJ currently lives with her partner and their 17-year-old African Gray parrot in Vienna, Austria where she trains clients worldwide via live events and online coaching. Like many maturepreneurs, JJ realizes that we don’t have forever to become our full potential selves. Her full potential self, “Alpha self“, is the one giving others the best and most efficient tools to command their lives!

Jarie Bolander is an engineer by training and an entrepreneur by nature. He has over 20 years of experience in bringing to market innovative technology solutions, such as Bluetooth, USB, RFID and Semiconductor DNA sequencing. He is currently the co-founder and COO of Lab Sensor Solutions, a digital health company that applies sensor technology to tracking the temperature and location of clinical samples in order to prevent spoilage. Jarie has formed or been part of six startups in various management roles. He holds an MBA in Technology Management from University of the Pacific and a BS in Electrical Engineering from San Jose State University. He is also inventor or co-inventor on over 10 patents and has published four books — The Entrepreneur Ethos, Frustration Free Technical Management, #ENDURANCE tweet — A Little Nudge to Keep You Going, and Business Basics for Entrepreneurs. You can read Jarie's thoughts on management and entrepreneurship via his blog, The Daily MBA or follow him on Twitter.

Barbara Findlay Schenck is a marketing strategist, small business success advocate and author of books and columns that help entrepreneurs and small business leaders plan, brand, market and, when they're ready, sell their businesses to new owners. A graduate of Oregon State University, Barbara began her career in Honolulu, where she was admissions director and writing instructor at Hawaii Loa College (now part of Hawaii Pacific University). She spent seven years as an account executive at Hawaii's largest public relations firm before joining the Peace Corps to manage a community develop program in Malaysia with her husband, Peter. Upon their return from Southeast Asia in 1980, Barbara and her husband moved to Oregon and launched a marketing agency that grew to one of the Northwest's Top 15 agencies, with a roster of nationally known brands, by the time they sold it in 1995. Since selling her agency, Barbara has produced the following business success aids: Author, Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies Co-Author, Business Plans Kit For Dummies Co-Author, Branding for Dummies Author, Selling Your Business for Dummies Author, the BizBuySell Guide to Selling Your Small Business Co-writer, Edgar Award-nominated memoir Portraits of Guilt Lesson developer, Microsoft Small Business Relationship program Marketing Specialist, BusinessBreakthrough.com presented by Visa and Microsoft Columnist and marketing anchor, BusinessOnMain.com presented by Sprint and Microsoft Contributor, American Express Open Forum and other business sites Presenter, 10-hour creativeLIVE Powerful Business Planning online course Today, Barbara is a nationally recognized marketing columnist and public speaker who thinks in headlines, talks in bulleted lists, and, according to BusinessWeek, addresses “real-world problems with real-world solutions.”

Dave Conley was working in a job he hated as a tech executive. He smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and was 330 pounds. He was miserable. One day he came home from his soul-sucking job to find his beautiful wife sick on the couch, struggling to breathe. Sixty hours after he checked her into the hospital, he turned off life support. Over the following two years, he crawled out of that deep depression, lost 150 pounds, ditched the cigarettes, quit the job he hated and embraced radical self-care. Now Dave helps people who were just like him. He helps people choose health and happiness over fat and misery. He helps people create their own radical self-care practice and change everything. He can help you reclaim your life.

Deborah Owens is a seasoned executive and change agent with 20+ years of Fortune 100 business experience. As a director of training and a sales leader, she developed and implemented strategies to close performance gaps, maximize performance and exceed business objectives. She has led the conception, design and implementation of franchise and enterprise-wide initiatives including leadership development, talent management, sales and marketing training, and employee development with international brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Honeywell. Throughout her career, Deborah has had a front-row seat to the unique experiences faced by people of color in the workplace. She founded her company The Corporate Alley Cat to ensure that every person of color is fully supported and equipped for both the opportunities and challenges they will encounter throughout their corporate journeys. Based upon a foundation of sharing experiences (good and bad), strategies, and lessons learned to accelerate career growth and success, Corporate Alley Cat's mission is to: Provide a safe place to share, learn and navigate those “sticky/taboo” corporate situations that leave people of color feeling isolated, frustrated, and powerless; Provide tools, strategies and experts to help professionals of color manage workplace challenges that, left unmanaged, can derail their careers; and Accelerate the success, shorten the learning curve and provide critical insider knowledge to professionals of color to help change the culture of corporations. Deborah's public speaking topics include: Get Scrappy, Be Ready: 5 Sticky Situations Every Person of Color Needs to Know How to Handle at Work Corporate Politics in Color: Hidden Lessons and Nuances You Won't Find in the Employee Handbook The Best of Both Worlds: How to "Rock the Boat" Without Ruining Your Career Herself a long time alley cat and adventurer, Deborah has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, trekked to Macchu Pichu, and completed a triathlon. She is a proud Bison who holds a B.A. in Economics from Howard University. Deborah resides in Washington, DC with her husband.

Don Hutcheson is a lifelong entrepreneur: an inventor, author, coach and now, podcaster. He hosts the podcast: “Discover Your Talent—Do What You Love,” three days a week in order to help his listeners find their true talents and use those talents to build careers of success, satisfaction and freedom. Over the past 40 years, Don has created six innovative companies in advertising, publishing, coaching, career planning and podcasting. Don co-founded his first business right after he graduated from college. With partner Fred Brown, he created Brown's Guides, a recreational guide book for Georgia and beyond that is still published today. Nine years later he co-founded his first advertising agency, Hutcheson & Anderson.  A few years after that, he co-founded his second: Hutcheson Shutze. After taking an assessment that measured his "natural abilities", as opposed to his interests, skills, IQ or personality, Don was inspired to create his own assessment, The Whole Person Technology™. This was the first-ever holistic approach to educational, career and life planning, which he ultimately transformed from paper and pencil to an online version. During this period, Don co-authored two popular books on career planning: The Lemming Conspiracy and Don’t Waste Your Talent. Don decided to leverage his 30 years experience as entrepreneur, inventor and writer to become a coach. A few years later, he founded and published the first online magazine to offer tools and insights into issues that impact every lawyer’s success and satisfaction and every firm’s profitability. When it was published, The Complete Lawyer was distributed by the bar associations in 36 states. Most recently, Don has created and launched a new podcast, Discover Your Talent~Do What You Love. The podcast series is designed for people of every age and background who are looking to build a life and career that uses the best of who they are and to enjoy a life of success, satisfaction and freedom. Don served a tour of duty in the US Army as a Russian linguist in the Army Security Agency: Voice & Intercept. After he was honorably discharged, Don returned to Emory University to complete his BA in Russian Language and Literature.

Vivien Hoexter is co-founder and principal of H2Growth Strategies LLC, a professional services firm that advises executive staff and board members to improve performance, build leadership, and increase revenues for sustainable growth and impact. Working with mission-driven clients, H2Growth leverages its expertise and talents to create a more enlightened world. Services include strategic and succession planning, board development, leadership and CSR training, executive coaching, fundraising and advocacy. Prior to co‐founding H2Growth Strategies LLC, Vivien spent four years as sole proprietor of Hoexter Executive Consulting, offering a broad range of services to foundations and nonprofit organizations, including strategic planning, fundraising, marketing, talent acquisition and project management. Vivien works with nonprofits and foundations to develop and refine their strategies, market themselves more effectively and raise more money. She also coaches high-level executives currently in leadership roles and/or transitioning to new ones. Some of Vivien's current and past clients include American Geriatrics Society, Community Mainstreaming Associates, EngenderHealth, Heritage Management Organization, Mental HealthAssociation of New York City, New York City Opera, New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute, Pardes Institute, The ZAC Foundation, Workmen's Circle and Young Judaea. Here are a few examples of Vivien’s work in the past several years: Coached the CEO of a Long Island health-related nonprofit to articulate her vision for the organization more clearly, improve her presentation skills and work more smoothly with her Board of Directors. Facilitated EngenderHealth, a leading global women’s health organization, to create a new vision and rallying cry focused on its family planning roots. Developed a three-year business plan for the Workmen’s Circle to transform from a Jewish fraternal benefits organization to a cultural, progressive learning movement. Until June 2011, Vivien was Vice President for Marketing and Development at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She served as Chief Executive Officer of Gilda’s Club Worldwide from early 2006 to late 2008. Vivien and her team created a vision and strategic plan for the organization as a leader in the field of emotional and social support for people with cancer, their families, and friends. By implementing this plan, the organization increased its income by 55% from 2005 to 2006 and by 40% from 2006 to 2007. Vivien was a Vice President at AFS‐USA, Inc., the leading high school student exchange organization, from 1998 to 2006. From 1993 to 1998, she was Director of Development at The Hunger Project. Vivien has also worked as a product manager at CPC International, Inc., a Fortune 100 multinational, and as an assistant buyer at Lord & Taylor. Vivien graduated magna cum laude with a BA in History from Yale University and has an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School. She lives in New York City with her husband and is an active volunteer with the Yale Alumni Nonprofit Alliance.

Nina Manolson helps women over 40 end their war with food and make peace with their bodies.  She is a Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach and a Psychology of Eating Teacher and Coach who has been helping women move into a caring, loving, enriching and nourishing relationship with their bodies for 27 years. She also holds a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology. Nina is the founder of NinaManolson.com and creator of the Body-Love Map; the guide that helps women move from body-hate and self-criticism into body-ease and body-love. Nina offers individual sessions and group programs. She is also the founder of Nourished Woman Nation, a community of women who are stepping into feeling truly good from the inside out.

Food and nutrition expert Maggie Green is the owner of The Green Apron Company. The Green Apron specializes culinary nutrition, food and nutrition writing, and recipe and cookbook development. Maggie is a registered and licensed dietitian. After a career in clinical dietetics and food service management; she launched her own business, The Green Apron Company. As a personal chef, Maggie cooked privately for over 100 clients in the greater Cincinnati area. In 2001, she successfully transitioned her work to the publishing industry. As a cookbook editor, Maggie edited the Joy of Cooking (2006) and BakeWise (2008). As a food and nutrition writer, Maggie's experience includes writing for Humana’s Active Outlook Program and their award-winning HAO Magazine, as well as a seven-year stint as a food writer for a local newspaper, Inside Your Town. As an author, Maggie wrote her first cookbook, The Kentucky Fresh Cookbook, in 2011. Published by University Press of Kentucky, Kentucky Fresh explores seasonal cooking and regional foods of Kentucky. In 2016, Maggie wrote her 2nd cookbook, Tasting Kentucky: Favorite Recipes from the Bluegrass State. Tasting Kentucky showcases 100 recipes from restaurants and inns all across the state of Kentucky. Maggie's third and fourth cookbooks, Essential Pantry and Essential Plant-Based Pantry will be published in 2018 and are sure to change the way home-cooks think and feel about cooking as they streamline their pantry and simplify their meals. As a professionally trained chef and registered dietitian, Maggie is a sought-after culinary nutrition expert, food and nutrition writer, recipe developer, and cookbook industry consultant. In 2012 Maggie launched Cookbook Camp. Cookbook Camp offers individual and group coaching programs for aspiring cookbook authors. She is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as well as the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Maggie lives in Ft. Wright, Kentucky with her husband, the best male cook she knows. They have three children and a shaggy dog, also named Maggie, who all enjoy sharing time in the kitchen and around the table.

Robert Thomas Bethel is the orchestrator of seventy-seven business turnarounds over the past fifty years. Early successes and troubles in his own professional career inspired his passion for taking over struggling businesses and guiding them towards the road of profitability. Bob has turned around companies in various industries—from restaurant chains to engineering firms—and has helped save over ten thousand jobs as a result of his strategic business counsel. A graduate of the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, Bob owns several companies across the southern United States and has operated businesses both nationwide and internationally. He is an Eagle Scout and, in addition to counseling, also spends time teaching three-day seminars across the country on best business practices. Bob currently resides in Orange Beach, Alabama with his wife, Reese.

Lorraine C. Ladish is a 21st century communicator and age disruptor who empowers women to achieve their dreams. She is the founder and CEO of Viva Fifty!, a bilingual community that celebrates being 50 and above. Lorraine is also a woman, mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend, writer, entrepreneur, and yogini. Lorraine was born in Spain to a family of writers. Her grandfather owned a printing press and on the weekends and after school, Lorraine and her sister would help him collate books. She can still remember the smell of the ink, the glue, the paper … Lorraine's father made a huge effort to ensure that all of his children could express themselves fluently in two languages. He wanted Lorraine to be a marine biologist, but because she grew up watching him write books, she chose to be a writer. Or maybe writing chose her. Lorraine wrote and published her first book - about an eating disorder she battled for years - before she turned 30. Her world was never the same after that. Today, she is the author of 18 books. Lorraine has worked as an editor and social media coordinator for a number of online publications. She is a content creator and regular contributor to NBCNews, Huffpost, AARP, Babycenter and Mom.me. She has contributed to People en Español, La Palma of The Palm Beach Post,  Purple Clover, Latina magazine and Redbook. Lorraine is active in two languages on social media platforms Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, where she has over 16,000 followers. She posts regularly and passionately about everything from family, to fashion, to current events, and more. Lorraine's next book - on embracing age - will be published by HarperCollins in 2017. Lorraine is very creative. She loves to draw. She has spent most of her life dancing (modern, jazz and Latin). She used to be a runner but then she rediscovered yoga. Now she spends a part of every day finding grace on and off the mat. Lorraine married in her mid-thirties. She had her first child at 37 and her second at 40. Being raised by her abuelita affected how she has mothered her own children: giving it her all, striving to be the best mother she can. She loves her daughters with all her heart. In 2004, Lorraine moved to Florida; incidentally, one day before a hurricane hit the Sunshine State. Four years later, during the Great Recession, Lorraine's world crumbled. She lost her marriage, her savings and her source of income. She found herself absolutely broke—emotionally and financially. But with two little girls to take care of, and with the help and inspiration from many friends along the way, Lorraine managed to reinvent her writing career by taking it online. A year later, Lorraine met the love of her life, who is also a writer. And guess what else? He’s multicultural, bilingual, and a parent: the father of a young boy, of similar age to her daughters. What more could she have wished for? Now Lorraine and her husband, Phillippe Diederich, live together as a blended family with their three children and the dog they rescued. Their children are teens and tweens, who get along just like real siblings. Together, they navigate the same challenges facing other multicultural families in the United States. Lorraine's dream is to one day live in a house by the beach. But she's not complaining. She can hop in the car and be soaking her toes in the ocean in less than ten minutes. All this while she pursues her love of inspiring women to live a full life and to chase their dreams!

Award-winning speechwriter and business storyteller Elaine Bennett says her favorite clients are smart enough to know good writing when they read it, but too busy to do it themselves. She’s worked with leading executives in a range of industries from financial and professional services to nonprofits and politics. Warren Buffett, impressed with how Elaine captured his voice when they worked together at Salomon Brothers, wrote: “You have a terrific ear and you turn straight thinking into straight writing.” Driven to improve the quality of business writing in the world (after all, she has to read it too), Elaine creates and leads webinars to help professionals discover and hone their own talents. She blogs about writing daily on her website, BennettInk.com, where you’ll find her concise mission statement: “Write. More.” Elaine may be #1 in the hearts of her clients, but she has resigned herself to being the #2 Elaine Bennett in Google's search results! Who gets the top spot? See for yourself.

Jane Pollak is one of the Northeast's foremost coaches of entrepreneurial women and a living example of how to turn a passion into a thriving business. A successful entrepreneur, public speaker, author and business coach, Jane launched her professional career in an unlikely field – egg decoration. After earning a Masters from Columbia Teachers College, Jane taught high school early on in her career. What began as a class project became a passion for pysanky – the Ukranian word for “eggs which have been written on.” Jane’s artistic talents and keen attention to the smallest detail were ideally suited for this precise, highly creative art form. Even so, there were times when the challenges of part-time entrepreneurship and motherhood– Jane was raising three children in suburban Connecticut – required real tenacity and perseverance. Jane’s story is an odyssey that led her from remote craft fairs and customer rejections to an invitation to the White House and appearances on NBC’s Today Show. National publications featured Jane’s artwork as early as 1985, when her patchwork quilt eggs were showcased in Country Living Magazine. Since then, her work has appeared in The New York Times and other prominent publications. As her youngest child headed off to school, Jane focused on further developing her business. A lifelong learner, she sought advice and wisdom in audio books by motivational and business gurus, such as Roger Dawson, Wayne Dyer and Brian Tracy. And something sparked. Jane found herself wanting to inspire and guide other creative professionals to achieve greater success. Her unique experience as an accomplished entrepreneur and training as a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach resulted in a powerful, effective new business direction. Since then, Jane has helped thousands of entrepreneurial women — at all stages of their careers – achieve uncommon success. The lessons Jane learned along the way led her to share her story and give advice to struggling entrepreneurs, traveling the country and beyond. Jane joined the National Speakers Association in 1997, and published her book, Soul Proprietor: 101 Lessons from a Lifestyle Entrepreneur in 2001. The Small Business Administration named Jane the 2002 Home-Based Business Advocate for the entire New England region. Jane continues to share inspirational, yet practical lessons with creative professionals. In addition to coaching, speaking nationally and blogging, she hosts Remarkable Women networking events and seasonal retreats. Ever-current with today’s business challenges, she recently re-released Soul Proprietor, complete with updated, timely lessons on pursuing your dreams during an economic downturn and leveraging new technology to authentically promote your business.

Aaron Walker is without question a veteran entrepreneur. He started his first business at 18 and sold it to a Fortune 500 company nine short years later, demonstrating his passion to succeed. Unwilling to rest on past success, however, Aaron has founded and sold eight successful companies over the past 37 years. A strong desire for personal development has kept Aaron in a weekly mastermind group with Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Ken Abraham and seven other notable Nashvillians for more than a decade. Aaron enjoys a 36-year marriage with his beautiful wife, Robin. Today Aaron spends the majority of his time helping men grow in success and significance as President and Founder of View from the Top, a premier life and business coaching resource. Aaron's book, View From The Top: Living a Life of Significance is guaranteed to motivate and inspire you to live a successful and significant life!

You probably judge yourself constantly every time you look in the mirror, right?  But here’s the good news: you are your own biggest critic. What Scarlett de Bease loves to do is help women feel absolutely amazing about how they look. When you can show up authentically and feel confident enough to really stand out, it’s a total game changer. Scarlett is an image consultant. She helps women elevate their personal brands by showing them how to dress in a way that is authentic to them and flatters their unique bodies. She specializes in working with women who are tired of stressing about dressing; who want to be sure to make that all important first impression a great one. Scarlett began her career in cosmetics. She quickly moved up the ranks to become an account executive with a company car. But after her boss and mentor, who was over 50, was fired and 23 year old Scarlett was promoted to replace her, she became disillusioned with the industry and chose to move on. She went to work in the garment industry for several years before she took time off to start a family. After her second child was born, she decided to get back into cosmetics as a freelancer. She started doing women’s make up for special occasions, such as weddings and bat mitzvahs. However, her whole perspective changed when a friend, who didn’t want to go alone, dragged Scarlett along to see an image consultant with her. The experience was transformational. The consultant was able to explain what clothing worked for Scarlett and why. It opened a whole new world to her.  Later, when a colleague asked Scarlett to run her image consulting business while she was out of the country, Scarlett eventually came to realize that she could run a business of her own. She was in her late 40s. In 2012, Westchester NY Magazine named Scarlett the “Red Hot Image Maker.” She is known as the Wardrobe Stylist who gives women the ability to look and feel confident. Scarlett is not a fashionista or trend fanatic. But she does get excited about turning boring outfits into “Oh hell yeah, look at me!” outfits, while making her clients feel great about themselves. Scarlett knows that when you have a personal style that suits you and makes you feel amazing about how you look, you’ll be confident in putting yourself forward to be noticed. It changes the game in your business and personal life.

Dr. Phillip Carson is a registered pharmacist who enjoys sharing the story of how alternative therapies changed his own health and promoting natural alternatives and integrative nutritional solutions to health problems. Passionate about teaching and encouraging people how to live more balanced, healthier and vibrant lives, Dr. Phil believes in equipping people with the knowledge to make the right choices for optimal health. Background When Dr. Carson graduated pharmacy school in 1985, he was already working in a job he loved for a national chain with a pharmacy in his hometown. One year later, he was promoted to store manager. Feeling unprepared for the responsibility, he experienced so much stress in his new role that he developed ulcers. He decided to leave that job to take a position with a mom-and-pop pharmacy, where he felt much more at home. He was there for over ten years. Journey to Natural Health During that time, Dr. Phil encountered many patients seeking answers when their needs were not met by traditional medicine. He came to realize that the medications he was paid to dispense often offered only temporary symptom relief and left people still suffering. Patients were asking him questions about natural alternatives. But while he was trained in the background and history of natural medicine, he knew nothing about its practical application. To help himself and his patients, he began attending seminars and meetings to learn as much as he could. The more he learned, the more excited and passionate he became about natural remedies. In fact, he was inspired to start his own business. Business Success and Failure In 1999, Dr. Phil opened his first store, Smithville pharmacy. It did so well that a few years later, in 2006, he opened a second store, designed to sell only natural products and natural medicine; the Carson Natural Health & Wellness Center. Both businesses were thriving when the financial crisis of 2008 struck. By the end of 2009, Dr. Phil had closed both of his stores and lost everything except his house. He also was half a million dollars in debt. This began a difficult time of deep personal struggle. Each night Dr. Phil would walk along a country road near his home, praying and meditating to find relief. One evening, an affirmation came to him: “I am happy, I am healthy, I am whole.” He repeated it over and over, even though he felt as far from happy, healthy and whole as he could be at that time. Gradually, his outlook improved. He was inspired with new ideas. And he took a job as a pharmacist. Turnaround In 2012, a friend came to Dr. Phil and told him he wanted to open his own store. He needed a pharmacist and he asked Dr. Phil to partner with him. Although Dr. Phil had no money to invest in the venture and felt wary of the risk, he and his wife decided to go for it. In lieu of investing cash, Dr. Phil contributed equipment and worked six months without compensation. The business took off and a year later Dr. Phil had to quit his other job to devote himself full time to the successful new business, of which he owned 25 percent. In 2016, he sold most of his shares for a return that was large enough to re-establish Carson Natural online, where it is thriving today. It also enabled Dr. Phil to partner with a local medical doctor to co-found the Life Transformation Medical Center, a provider of primary medical care, integrative medical care and wellness programs that opened its doors in March of 2017. New Success Today, in addition to owning two successful wellness practices, Dr. Phil is a speaker, coach, author, and podcaster. His mission is to help patients address their health problems with the best natural solutions possible. He works with people to get the most out of their lives by uncovering the root cause of their health issues. Patients come to him with problems and leave with renewed hope that they can be healthy again. He has not only consistently improved the quality of life for many of his patients, but he has also literally saved a few of them. Dr. Phil discovered that true health and happiness comes from finding balance in seven key areas, so he developed a simple plan anyone can use. In his new book, How to Live Until You Die, he makes it simpler than ever to unlock a healthier, happier, and more whole you, so today can mark a new beginning of total health.

Liz LaForte is Founder and President of LaForte Consulting, where she brings over 20 years of diverse human resources experience from specialized industries to her role. Liz began her career as a financial recruiter with a Manhattan-based headhunting firm and went on to become the human resources manager for the international advertising agency, Foote, Cone and Belding, in New York City. As the director of human resources for SecurityCoverage, a start-up IT security company, Liz managed all aspects of recruiting, training, benefits, wellness, employee development and employee relations for the company. After several years at SecurityCoverage, Liz became manager of HR with Genova Technologies, a federal contractor for CMS with offices in Cedar Rapids, IA and Baltimore, MD. At Genova, Liz was responsible for all employee development and training, HR compliance, policy development, policy implementation, onboarding and employee relations. In 2014, Liz was ready to strike out on her own. She founded LaForte Consulting, a full-service HR Partner that provides organizations the tools necessary to achieve success through building and maintaining dynamic cultures. Today, Liz specializes in executive coaching services, employee training and development, and interim/virtual HR support to clients. Her mission is to partner with organizations to drive employee satisfaction; improve retention and performance; and to help individuals develop their skills sets, meet goals, and experience success. A native of Connecticut, Liz received a BA from Gettysburg College, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She holds her Professional Human Resource Certification from the HR Certification Institute, as well as her SHRM-CP from the SHRM organization, and is certified as an Executive Coach from the Center for Executive Coaching.

Ruth Ullmann, founder of My Elder Care Journey, is a business consultant and coach who believes that no one should have to choose between the business they've created and the loved ones they care for. Successful consultant For more than 20 years, Ruth has helped companies, groups and individuals achieve their business objectives. After earning a B.S. in business and her MBA, Ruth lived on the West Coast where she worked as an internal consultant to large corporations, doing both domestic and international problem solving. When her parents began to need help, Ruth moved back home to the Midwest, where she spent the next 14 years as a caregiver. She gave up her consulting business but her subsequent experience led her to create a new business that she grew for over ten years; helping small businesses, entrepreneurs and consultants realign their businesses to thrive while caring for aging parents. Ruth naively believed that her education and experienced had prepared her for managing just about any difficult or complicated situation. Challenged care giver Ultimately, Ruth helped her parents successfully achieve their greatest wish: to grow old in the home they built and loved. What she never considered was what it would cost her to achieve this goal. Or that there would even be a cost. During the last seven years of her parents' lives, their health declined more rapidly and their need for assistance increased. Even with the help of a home care company, Ruth was not able to focus and to deliver high quality dependable results to her clients. Her parents' health was too unpredictable. Her clients couldn't put their businesses on hold and Ruth couldn't ask them to do that. She lost so many clients that her consulting business dried up. Fallout On top of this development, the stress, the lack of sleep and the duration of her circumstances seriously impacted Ruth's health. Her income and savings were significantly reduced. Among the many other challenges were making sound decisions with limited time to research options and process information; processing multiple changes in rapid succession; an overwhelming volume of information with little time to filter and vet its accuracy or relevance; juggling care giving, managing a business and managing two households; and understanding and navigating the many companies and government entities that support elder care. Later, Ruth learned that the negative impact on a family caregiver's health, finances and savings she experienced is all-too-common. She believed there had to be an easier way for the more than 10 million adult children of aging parents to navigate elder care without recreating the wheel and juggling or damaging businesses, careers, and families. Ruth's Solution She began doing research. She started by interviewing all the companies that support elder care to understand how that industry operates. She was overwhelmed by the generosity, candor and advice that she received. She made a leap of faith, narrowed the mountains of information that were available and, from that work, a process emerged that helped Ruth change the way families navigate elder care. Today, Ruth is dedicated to helping make her clients' elder care journeys easier, less overwhelming, and better informed. She provides people with unbiased, straightforward information to help them make better decisions. She feels honored to help individuals, small businesses, entrepreneurs and consultants adjust their businesses to thrive without them for a period of time while they care for aging loved ones. Ruth has been featured on Fox, CBS, NBC & ABC News.

Nutritionist with a Passion for Fashion Suzi Grant started her blog Alternative Ageing in late 2014, to write about and share all the things she loves and has experience of: health, nutrition, fashion, style, travel and lifestyle.  Targeting people over 50, Suzi believes in positive aging, not anti aging, and declares, "It's never too early to start!" Suzi has a penchant for vintage fashion, in particular, and frequently blogs about her many travels, including regular trips to Australia.  She is a talented photographer who takes all her own photos.  She is also an experienced model and has been the subject of many fashion shoots.  She has been featured by Instagram and by The New York Times. Serious Stuff For most of her working life, Suzi was a chain smoking, hard drinking reporter/presenter in television and radio. TVam, Sky News, and BBC Radio 4 are just three of the many companies she worked with.  But when her mother died of a heart attack at the age of 63, Suzi took stock of her own health and decided to train as a nutritionist. Apart from treating hundreds of patients over the last 15 years, Suzi has also written three books, including Alternative Ageing; completed an M.A. Degree in The Body: Eastern/Western Perspectives; and continues to write, broadcast and speak at conferences as an ageing expert. Not So Serious Stuff Suzi lives in Brighton by the sea, England with her fur baby, Jack, a naughty poodle/jack russell cross. She love music, festivals, dressing up, shopping, writing, good food, travel, and photography. She is convinced that her blog, her social media outreach, and all of her activities above will help to prevent her brain from deteriorating. Suzi used to have bright red/orange hair!  Because it’s become fashionable to be gray and over 60, she has gone back to her roots.  She no longer feel invisible, as she did at 50.

Susan Good, in her early 70’s, is the owner and primary writer for the award-winning HoneyGood.com website, a fashion, food and lifestyle blog she founded in October 2012. She is the wife of real estate auction pioneer, Sheldon F. Good, as well as a mother, daughter, grandmother and great grandmother to 25 "GRANDS" who call her "Honey."  And she is a girlfriend to many. When Susan's first grandchild was born in 1987, her daughter selected “Honey” as her grandmother name because it so aptly suited her personality and outlook on life.  Today, Susan Good is called Honey by her entire family and the Honey Good staff. Honey's website is written for vibrant, visible and savvy women over 50. In many ways, Honey's own life mirrors her readers' lives: a mixture of the bitter and the sweet as well as the joys and the sorrows. As she reminds her nearly 150,000 loyal followers in Chicago and around the world: “We have earned our PhDs in Life." While living in Honolulu with her first husband and their two daughters, she was suddenly widowed in her early 40's when her husband had a massive heart attack. She survived two bouts with cancer and the challenge of blending two large families. “I’ve traveled the world, made lasting friendships, endured my hardships and am grateful every day of my life. Through example, I have shown my family, and now my readers, how to make sweet lemonade out of lemons and to always see the glass half-full.” Describing herself and her mission, she said: “I am a woman with many titles who wears many hats and loves life to its fullest. I walk on the sunny side of the street. I love to 'shop till I drop' and I own my own style, thanks to my 96-year-old mother, my teacher and my friend. I have plenty to say to the billions of women worldwide, including Baby Boomers who are turning 65 at the rate of 10,000 a day!” HoneyGood.com is an anthology of thousands of personal stories with insights and advice. Their subjects run the gamut from friendships, grand-parenting, blended families, widowhood, remarriage, family suicide, dating after 50 and cancer survival to advice about why every woman should own that little black dress, buy that properly-fitted shoe and consider growing out her gray hair. In a weekly piece, Honey offers tips on how to survive every situation from losing one's car keys in the onion bin to packing for that fabulous trip. Topics reflect the trials and tribulations most women face during this challenging yet invigorating passage. A writer for Michigan Avenue magazine had this to say about Honey Good: “With a PhD in life thanks to her large and colorful immediate family, poignant personal history and sophisticated lifestyle, Honey Good has a lot to say about everything-- and does so with passion, verve, humor, acumen and wit. She is giving an age-old 'character' – i.e. the proverbial grandmother – a fresh, hip, new-age voice. Her posts are savvy and fun, yet also relevant and substantive. But above all else, her content is authentic at a time when authenticity is king.” Or queen? This hip, sophisticated matriarch of a blended family speaks to audiences worldwide. She writes for the Huff Post and regularly contributes to Sixty&Me.com, Medium.com and GRAND magazine. She soon will write lifestyle pieces for the new national Headlines Network powered by Aggrego, a Wrapports company that owns the Chicago Sun Times and is affiliated with nine major publishers around the nation. Profiled in Michigan Avenue and RM (Rancho Mirage, CA) magazines, Honey Good was recently interviewed by Prevention.com as well as such notable personalities in their own right as Ari Seth Cohen, the documentary producer, photographer and author of Advanced Style. “Amazing things can happen when you commit yourself,” she added. She, her husband and their beloved Wheaten Terrier, Orchid, split their time between homes on Chicago's Gold Coast and in Rancho Mirage, CA. They have traveled to 67 countries, including Iran, Syria and Antarctica, and with their pooch Orchid always by their side, they visit their children, grandchildren and great grandchild who live in seven different U.S. cities.

Jim Akers is a former Fortune 50 senior executive turned speaker, author and coach. He helps ambitious people focus their time, talent and resources on success that leads to maximizing their impact and influence on the people they love, the teams they lead and the causes that stir their hearts. Jim is a graduate of Washington State University. He holds an M.B.A. in organizational leadership from Pepperdine University and an Advanced Management Certificate from Stanford University. Jim has won sales and achievement awards with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Owens-Corning Fiberglas Company, Kirk Paper Company, xpedx and International Paper Company. At the age of 29, Jim was named V.P. of sales for a $500MM distribution company, the youngest group vice president in the 120 year history of International Paper Company. As group vice president at xpedx, Jim lead a $1BB distribution business with 21 locations in the Western U.S. and serving customers around the globe with packaging, custom packaging design, facility supplies, and printing papers. If you've ever touched an iPad or iPhone, you've touched work Jim’s team pioneered. Jim has authored three books: How to Win the Achievement Game; 14 Strategies for Breakthrough Performances; and most recently, Tape Breakers, Maximize Your Impact with People You Love, Teams You Lead and Causes that Stir Your Heart. Tape Breakers debuted as the #1 New Release on Amazon in March 2016 and was recognized as a 2016 Book of the Year along side the best selling new releases from Adam Grant, Ryan Holiday and Jake Knapp. Jim’s clients include The PGA of America, Old Castle, Shaw Industries, International Paper, Pearson Smith Reality, TD Realty Group along with a variety of non-profit and faith-based organizations. Jim met his wife Kristi at Washington State University. They celebrated their 12,776 day anniversary in June and have two adult sons Matthew and Andrew, who no longer require their credit card.

Joel Kessel is an advisor, content creator and speaker on the topics of strategic communications and working with the media.  He helps authors, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, side hustlers, and small businesses understand how to leverage publicity so they can step onto a bigger stage, amplify their message and further fuel their marketing communication and lead-generation efforts. Professional Background A native of Ohio, Joel started his career in Chicago where he worked with professionals such as Chris Ruys Communications, Durk Rion Public Relations, and Golin Harris.  He has worked with large and small organizations, such as National Runaway Safeline, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Weber Grills, and Master Lock.  Joel also managed the marketing communications efforts for the Northern Illinois chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Over time, Joel developed a specialization in PR strategy and media relations, which he has leveraged to garner attention for his clients through media outlets such as USA Today, New York Times, Associated Press, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and Columbus Business First, among others. Joel's Maturepreneurial Endeavors Today, Joel speaks, advises and writes about public relations and communications for the purpose of helping leaders of organizations that are doing meaningful work share their story in a meaningful way. His company, Kessel Communications, is a strategic communications agency that helps businesses strengthen their credibility, build positive reputations and increase brand awareness through better communications. His blog, JoelKessel.com, provide ideas, tips and advice on how businesses can get their stories in front of those who matter to them, with a focus on working with media reporters to gain consistent coverage and awareness about a product, service or organization.  The blog also reports how others are sharing their stories, how they’re being successful, how social media, advertising, and marketing all play together to increase influence and impact on the people a business serves. His podcast, Conversations on Communications provides listeners with thoughts and insight on how they can strategically and authentically communicate and deliver their message and story with clarity and confidence. Fun Facts About Joel Joel worked for five years in radio While living in Chicago, he was a lead singer in a two-man band He was a member of an improv group He's done commercial voice-over work He was a punter at Ohio State Joel is a member of The Ohio State University’s Varsity “O” Men’s Alumni Association and the Public Relations Society of America.  He is a founding member of the Ohio chapter of the Association for Strategic Planning.  He graduated from Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a concentration in public relations. Joel currently lives outside Columbus, Ohio with his wife, Cathy, and their two children.

Happy Birthday, Maturepreneurial! The photo above is me, looking back with joy and wonder (and a little bit of a squint) at the amazing, blazing first year of my podcast!  Woo hoo! I did it! I remember when I was first preparing to launch.  I spent months getting the website ready because I had a bit of a set back with my theme.  I joined online communities and groups.  I took online courses to educate myself about the job at hand and, hopefully, come out smart enough to avoid some of the pitfalls. I remember once reading that many podcasters don't make it past ten episodes.  Gulp! Was that going to happen to me? "No way!" I thought, "I'm in this for the long haul." "Besides, Christopher will be annoyed if I buy all this equipment and don't make it a success."  Haha! And many happy returns! Well, although I intended to succeed, I really didn't anticipate how much fun I would have.  Or, to be honest, how hard I would work at it!  But I have to say that it's worth it.  I'm proud of my guests and their episodes and I'm excited not only for another year of interviews and wonderful stories but also to create my second podcast. Hopefully, if I stay on track, in late 2017, I'll be launching Dishing with Delishes; a podcast of interviews with food bloggers at the top of their game.  Check out the website and stay tuned for details, which I'll post on this site and on my food blog, Dishes Delish. Thanks for your support!

Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., has been a leader in the fields of relationship transformation and body-mind therapies for more than 45 years. After earning his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Stanford University, Gay began teaching at the University of Colorado. For 21 years he served at the university, where he became a full professor in the counseling psychology department. Gay founded The Hendricks Institute with his wife, Dr. Kathlyn Hendricks. As part of his work for the institute, Gay hosts seminars worldwide and he has appeared on more than 500 radio and television shows, including Oprah, CNN, CNBC, and 48 HOURS. In addition to his speaking career, Gay is a prolific author. He has written more than 40 books, including self-help bestsellers such as Five Wishes, The Big Leap and Conscious Loving (co-authored with wife). His books are used as primary texts in universities around the world. Gay’s book, The Big Leap, was a New York Times bestseller for five years. Published right after the beginning of the “Great Recession,” the book has helped hundreds of thousands of people go beyond a culture of fear and safety to live out their true passions. The results are remarkable on every level; from amazing careers to passionate marriages to vibrant good health. Gay is also a successful novelist. He wrote a mystery series of five books featuring the emotional and spiritual challenges of ex-Tibetan-Buddhist-monk-turned-private-detective, Tenzing Norbu. In June of 2017, Gay launched a new mystery series featuring Victorian-era London detective, Sir Errol Hyde, a fictional contemporary of Sherlock Holmes. The second book in the series becomes available on September 19, 2017. In 2003, Gay co-founded The Spiritual Cinema Circle, which distributes inspirational movies and conscious entertainment to subscribers in 70+ countries. Gay is a shining example of the benefits of what he teaches. He’s prolifically creative, wildly successful as an entrepreneur, a renowned teacher, and a devoted husband. At age 70, he lives more life in a day than many an exuberant 20-year-old. He’s writing books, teaching courses, playing golf, launching companies and having a delicious time with his wife of more than 35 years, with whom he raised two children and accumulated a million frequent flyer miles!

Martin Pazzani is a global business decathlete, a serial entrepreneur, and a mountaineer. He is also a strategist, marketer, CEO, company founder, speaker, advertising guy, management consultant, and communications architect. His website tagline perhaps says it best: Always seeking another summit. Corporate achiever Martin has worked on both on the corporate side and on the ad agency side for large corporations and startups across multiple categories and on six continents. Before he began his career in business, he earned three college degrees in just over five years: a B.A. in Psychology, a B.S. in Marketing, and an M.B.A. He is a "classically trained" chief marketing officer (CMO) who cut his teeth in consumer goods and services businesses. Martin's career features some extraordinary highlights: He spent 13 years at Diageo (fka Heublein), where he rose from an entry-level position to the top marking job at 34 years old to grow global brands like Smirnoff Vodka, Jose Cuervo Tequila, Black Velvet Canadian Whisky, and many more. He was the first CMO of Bally and Crunch, where his successful turnaround of a very troubled operation produced record setting increases in revenue, new memberships, consumer awareness, and interest; the magnitude and speed of which led to a Harvard Business Review case study. He spent seven years heading Foote, Cone and Belding agency's global strategic consulting group, The Chess Team: marketing strategists for Kraft, SC Johnson, American Express, Citibank, US Postal Service, Samsung, Tropicana and many others across a 100-office network, with extensive work in Chicago, San Francisco, Hong Kong, London and South America. He served as CEO of bi-coastal Elias Arts (EA), the world's most awarded music agency, where he reunited, transformed and grew a fragmented company against the tide of a declining industry. By pioneering the new discipline of audio brand identity for major clients like American Express, Apple, Audi, Cisco, Citi, Coke, Gatorade, Infiniti, McDonald's, Nike, Yahoo, and by putting the company on a path toward full-service music holding company, EA was able to diversify into Latino music and music licensing and thrive in a very troubled category. Bold new horizons Today, Martin is a serial entrepreneur, immersed in three areas that each requires a balance of entrepreneurship, strategic vision, and a penchant for re-imagining the future. Craft Spirits: In 2009, Martin started a craft spirits company, United Craft Distillers, to provide advisory services, world class marketing, and sales expertise to hyper-growing, micro-distilled, small-batch spirits brands. This has evolved into Master Distillers Inc. which handles sales and marketing for T1 Tequila Uno (named 2016's Best Craft Tequila), Tears of Llorona tequila, Mezcal Sacrificio, Varan Mezcal Coffee Liqueur, and others. Fitness: In 2012, Martin joined forces with investors, fitness operators, and healthcare experts to develop the company that became Act!vate Brain & Body, where they are re-inventing fitness as upstream preventive healthcare for the baby boomer generation. (Act!vate will re-launch in 2017-18 with geographic expansion to follow later in the year.) Vaping: In 2014, Martin began to explore the fast growing vaping sector, which is proving to be a powerful anti-smoking enabler and a disruptor to the status quo. This led to the creation of Cloud 10 Brands and Silver City Vapors, a fast-growing venture to build a national retail and e-commerce vaping company. An oft-published writer and panelist on marketing, branding, competitive strategy, and music, Martin gave a TED University talk at the 2008 TED Conference in Monterrey, CA on The Power of Music. He has led seminars in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, London, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Venezuela, and at the Cannes Lions and Dubai Lynx advertising festivals. His articles have been in Advertising Age, Billboard, Brandweek, Marketing Daily, and SHOOT Magazine. Physical prowess Martin has always been drawn to overcome difficult challenges. He's climbed to the summits of major mountains on all seven continents. He has explored Antarctica, Easter Island, Ngorongoro Crater, the Equatorial Rain-forests, the deserts of United Arab Emirates, Mexican volcanoes. He is a former F2000 racing driver where he developed a keen appreciation for the value of precision, speed and high performance. He is the 146th human being to stand on the summit of the very remote Vinson Massif, the highest point in Antarctica. He has climbed both The Matterhorn and Mont Blanc five times each. Showing no sign of slowing down at 61, Martin is currently on a mission to climb all forty-eight 4000-foot peaks of New Hampshire as he trains to climb Mt. Everest in 2019. Recent medical testing reveals that Martin's lungs are 40% larger than a normal human being’s, which accounts for his being very good at walking uphill for long distances with a heavy pack on his back! After at least 100,000,000 uphill steps, he's been persuaded to turn his transformation from a corporate animal to a serial entrepreneur into a book, The Mountains Made Me An Entrepreneur, on target for publication in early 2018.

The Beginning Milana’s American dream started in October of 1992, when she stepped off the plane from Kiev, Ukraine to New York. Equipped with a music teaching degree and a 90-day crash course in English, she was ready for whatever she had to do to survive in this new world! Everything Milana had learned about America came from Soviet newspapers in the 1980s, so she spent her first few years in awe and wonder. But giving piano lessons at $6 an hour wasn’t going to feed her family, so she enrolled in college and graduated with a four-year degree as a computer programmer. Now, she thought, she had everything she needed to be successful in America. First Business With the Internet sweeping the world, thousands of online businesses started emerging and Milana became curious about e-book publishing. After writing and selling her first three e-books, she stumbled onto something that would completely transform her life. She discovered coaching. A fast-growing field, coaching heavily relied on having online presence, dynamic web sites, and marketing skills. Milana quit her job, became a work-at-home mom of two small children, and began studying marketing, with a focus on copywriting and direct marketing. She was absolutely fascinated by the idea of a single email generating thousands of dollars in sales. With the birth of online product launches and joint venture partnerships, Milana’s dream of creating a million-dollar business seemed more real than ever. First Million Over the next few years Milana published her first print book, “Coaching Millions”, hosted the world’s very first telesummit, created the Recurring Revenue Revolution live event, developed almost 30 various business courses, started and sold a software company, and co-founded JV Insider Circle. And she made her first million along the way. When she had imagined building a million-dollar business, she thought it would feel like a “million dollars!”  But when she finally surpassed seven figures, she didn’t even notice it. She says, “I was too busy working. It didn’t feel like anything special. No more special than making six figures. No more special than getting a $30K job offer right after college.” Most importantly, it didn’t make Milana feel any happier or more successful. She was always busy, often tired, and even began having panic attacks, which were absolutely scary and debilitating. Sabbatical So instead of celebrating hitting a 7-figure mark, Milana decided to sell her business and take a sabbatical. After 16 years of “playing big”, she began looking more closely at her life and asking questions she had never asked before: How much money do I really need to be happy? What am I willing and unwilling to do to achieve this goal? Who am I when I am not running a business? Where does happiness come from? She discovered that she had been operating a very successful business, but it was the wrong kind of business for her. She was in “misalignment.” She had allowed her business to dominate her life. Now she was ready for a different business and a different way of doing things. Milana also discovered that she was not alone. She surveyed and had private conversations with over 500 coaches, authors, and speakers. Many of them were going through a similar soul-searching experience. Making money was not enough. They felt drained and trapped by the complexity they’d created. They were re-evaluating their entire business models. They wanted more freedom, meaning, and joy. Search for Simplicity Simplicity Circle was born out of seeing how growing a business can cause stress, anxiety, and frustration and take away from happiness and peace. And from profitability. Milana feels her greatest gift is being able to turn what seems complex into simplicity. When she works with her clients, she transforms the complexity in their businesses into a simplicity-driven growth strategy quickly and efficiently. No more trying every marketing and selling strategy out there. No more adding more ‘stuff’ to an already overloaded list of things to implement. Milana guides her clients from feeling overwhelmed, drained, and frustrated to feeling confident, energized, and excited about their businesses again.

Jean Haynes helps ambitious professional women sync high performance (and profit) with their purpose and values so they can live and lead as the happiest, most confident and authentic version of themselves. Jean is a career and leadership speaker, trainer and coach who knows first-hand what it feels like to be driven to succeed, cope with the constant pressure of trying to "do it all" perfectly, and play small when it comes to taking risks. Jean is a recovering "good girl" who has learned the power of owning your abilities, speaking up for yourself and taking bold action. She is on a mission to help other high-achieving women overcome their self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviors so they can achieve their greatest success and life satisfaction. Jean holds an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University, a BA from the College of the Holy Cross and received her coach training from Dr. Martha Beck. Her deep professional background in marketing, fund development and leadership training spans corporate, entrepreneurial and non-profit sectors, allowing her to seamlessly connect with women across industries.

Cardiff D. Hall has a passion for life and helps individuals transform their self-being so they reach and sustain achievement. He is a coach, author, and public speaker. Prior to starting his own business, Cardiff spent 25 years as an executive in marketing and sales. His experience, coupled with his strong desire to live life with a purpose, inspired him to have a positive impact on the lives of adults and most recently of children through his Tide Turners Kids Entrepreneurs Program. His first book, entitled Tide Turners: The Practical Guide To Help You Feel In Control, Experience More Joy and Sustain Achievement In Life earned a # 1 new release on Amazon in January 2017. Cardiff radiates positivity and coaches individuals by helping them turn the tide in their life to achieve. He also provides weekly inspiration and practical advice in his Tide Turners newsletter.

Business Productivity Coach Teresa McCloy partners with her clients to stop being busy and do what matters. Teresa is a recovered workaholic who was addicted to all the latest apps, software, and best-selling books on productivity. She continually felt that if she could only find the right system, she’d be so much more productive. After years of this crazy cycle, she finally hit a wall and had to make a change. And her first step to being more productive was to stop worrying about getting everything done! Today, Teresa is passionate about helping business leaders and entrepreneurs to assess their habits and execute a Personalized Program for doing more of what matters to their success. Teresa is trained to use tools such as the Enneagram, Life Maps, and the 12 Week Year system to serve her clients through one-on-one coaching, webinars, and training to discover their unique talents, values and life mission. Teresa brings over 30 years of experience to coaching. She has been a solopreneur and a leader in both business and ministry giving her a wide range of experience leading teams, managing multiple projects and juggling systems at the same time. The coaching community is a great group and Teresa is a proud member of CCNI and the International Coaching Federation. Teresa is on track to complete her coaching certification with both PCCI and the ICF by the end of 2017. Currently, Teresa serves as an Ambassador for her local 2017 CEO Entrepreneur program for high school seniors. Teresa's Certification as a Spiritual Director and Enneagram MOS Trainer serves her well as she works with her clients both personally and professionally to help them reboot their lives and reignite their businesses. Teresa lives with her husband of 34 years on a 3rd generation family grain farm in Central Illinois. The couple has two adult children, one dog and one grand-dog. When she’s not working with clients, Teresa enjoys cooking, gardening, a great cup of coffee with a friend and traveling as much as possible!