Wings Of...Inspired Business

Deb Curtis is the Founder of Curtis Small Business Finance Solutions, specializing in SBA business acquisition lending and ownership transitions. Over a 30-year corporate tenure, Deb worked as a business lender for a finance company, big banks, regional banks, and community banks, and now she focuses on helping women finance their small businesses and acquire companies.

Dr. Diane Mueller is the founder of Femme Meets Fortune, teaching women entrepreneurs how to accelerate the growth of their companies by building enterprises they genuinely enjoy running rather than ones that "run" their lives. CEO and Founder of two other businesses, the medical practice My Lyme Doc and community My Libido Doc, Diane has more than 12 years of business experience and is also a highly sought-after speaker on Lyme disease and women's entrepreneurship who has delivered many keynote addresses to thousands of attendees at events across the world. She's the best-selling author of Use Your Mind to Heal Your Mold and Lyme: A Survivor's Guide, about how she overcame mold and Lyme illness, and It's Not In Your Mind: Solutions and Strategies for Lyme Disease, Mold Illness, and Chronic Infections.

Anna Konchar is an e-learning expert mentor who helps women monetize their skills, knowledge and passions with online courses and membership programs. Anna built her first side hustle e-course to $100,000 while still working a 9-5 job, and went on to earn $3mm in 3 years with her own courses working just 2 days a week. Today she shares her blueprint of how to build a million-dollar side hustle.

Jaclynn (Jax) Brennan is CEO and Co-Founder of Fyli, a Network as a Service (NaaS) business for early-stage female founders, offering education, accountability, peer-to-peer mentorship, leadership advancement and funding opportunities. A Creative Director for a variety of luxury fashion brands, Jaclynn has helped lead over 22 major corporations in executing branding strategies.

Palak Shah is the founder of Open Spaces Capital, a real estate firm she built as a stay-at-home-mom to $10 million in asset value. Palak had spent 17 years as a top paid mechanical engineer climbing the corporate ladder when she realized on maternity leave, she wanted more flexibility to focus on her children. When her request to work from home part time was rejected, she quit her high paying job and launched her profitable real estate company, and how she also teaches women how to ‘BRRRR', that is “Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat.”

So much of who we are and what we achieve as women pioneering in business comes down to the gifts – and the limiting beliefs – we got from our mothers. Melinda Wittstock remembers her own late mother, who passed away peacefully three weeks ago at age 95, and shares how our mothers influence the deep subconscious beliefs that drive our successes and failures in life and entrepreneurship.

Darleen Santore, better known as “Coach Dar,” is an author, Licensed and Board-Certified Occupational Therapist, sought-after motivational speaker, plus leadership and mental skills coach to professional athletes, CEOs, and business leaders around the world. Author of “The Art of Bouncing Back: Find Your Flow to Thrive at Work and in Life - Anytime You're off your Game”, Darleen is best known for her mental strength conditioning work with athletes in the NBA, MLB, PGA, and NHL she most recently worked as the mental conditioning and life coach for the Phoenix Suns.

Dr. Jessica Kriegel is the Chief Scientist of Workplace Culture at Culture Partners and an expert in workplace strategy, culture and driving results. Author of Unfairly Labeled: How Your Workplace Can Benefit From Ditching Generational Stereotypes, Jessica recently sold her company The Culture Equation to Culture Partners, where she works with Fortune 100 and other companies using data-driven insights to transform cultures to drive results.

Wendy Appel is a founding partner of Trilogy Effect, a leadership development and executive coaching consulting firm that helps startups and F-500 companies alike build high functioning teams by tapping into the wisdom, creativity, and vitality inherent in themselves, in their teams, and in their organizations. Author of InsideOut Enneagram: The Game Changing Guide for Leaders Wendy also hosts the podcast Being Human is Good for Business.

Jenna Spencer is the Founder and Visionary of AssistPro™, an executive assistant matching and delegation coaching service created to free up time and create growth for busy leaders. Since founding AssistPro in 2014, Jenna has worked with hundreds of clients, helping them find the Right-Fit Assistant™ and teaching them how to delegate and develop their assistants into leaders, as well. Under her direction and leadership, AssistPro has grown more than 50% each year since its founding – and has led to her creation and launch of an extension of the company devoted to helping entrepreneurs and small business owners on the path to Delegation Mastery.

Laura Casselman is the CEO of JVZoo, co-founder of media agency Vidastreet, and author of Trust Your Increments. She has nearly two decades of experience in growing sales and revenue, improving customer service, and aggressively controlling expenses in competitive markets. Companies under her direction have landed on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America four times and increased revenue from $100M to over $2B. Laura is the recipient of Stevie Awards for both Executive and Woman of the Year, a CEO World Award for Female CEO of the Year, and a Pillar World Award for Employer's Diversity Achievement of the Year.

Kareen Walsh is a startup adviser, investor, serial entrepreneur, executive coach, author, and podcaster. She is the CEO and Founder of Revampologist, a 7-Figure Boutique consulting and coaching company and co-founded the Clevr Network. With 17+ years of entrepreneurial and executive experience leading and advising industry leaders, Kareen is hyper focused on leadership to help businesses scale. Her clients include trillion-dollar companies like BlackRock, Groupon, Broadridge as well as startups, and she helps leaders align what they love with what they do, and monetize it. She believes if you are not growing, your business won't grow, and uses her books Lead with Value and Be A Badass, along with her Podcast Your Badass Journey as ways to share the methods of personal and professional growth.

Sarah Smith is the founder of The Dyrt, the No. 1 app for camping information and booking, with 30 million annual camper visits, 50,000 campground listings, and 8 million user-generated reviews, photos, and tips for US campgrounds. The Dyrt has grown to the largest online source of camping information and the only major platform to offer commission-free bookings for campgrounds. Sarah was recognized on the 2022 Inc. Female Founders 100 list of the top women entrepreneurs.

Ungenita Prevost is on a mission to help 10,000,000 women build social capital and monetize their networks as the leader of a global feminine leadership network. A former Hollywood Body Double, Music Video Dancer turned Award Winning Feminine Leadership Expert, Ungenita created the fast-growing Networking in Stilettos. Author of the book by the same name, she also hosts the podcast Billion Dollar Rolodex.

Coco Brown is the Founder and CEO of Athena Alliance, an Executive-Education-As-A-Service platform helping women advance as founders, corporate executives, board members and investors. Athena's peer network, with its live and on-demand learning, networking, and coaching, has helped thousands of women, and brought more than 400 women to corporate boards. Former COO of Taos which sold to IBM, Coco has served on ten commercial and non-profit boards and advisory boards, and she's part of Nasdaq's Governance Insights Council, and is often called on to share guidance to the evolving focus and breadth of responsibility within the modern boardroom.

Ali Nichols is the Co-founder of Getaway, a vacation rental investing business she has now pivoted with a branding change to Hammock, helping people invest in rental properties just 5% down. Previously at Bungalow, Ali spearheaded raising and operating a $700M real estate fund focused on acquiring single family rentals. Today she shares her journey pivoting to find product-market fit.

Kat Dey and Phoebe Yu are the co-founders of Ettitude, a material science social impact company and direct-to-consumer sustainable lifestyle brand best known for its bedding, bath and sleepwear made from their proprietary CleanBamboo® fabric. Ettitude has raised $6.5m, earned tens of millions of dollars in revenue and been named twice among the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the US. Phoebe, the CEO, previously built two successful international trade and sourcing businesses, and Kat, was the co-founder and co-CEO of gourmet food subscription business Try the World.

Ashley Ford is an expert in small business accounting who has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs to transform the way they make and spend money in their business. Today she shares her tips and why financial clarity is the key to sustainable success.

Jennifer Stojkovic is a General Partner at Joyful Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on disrupting the $1.4 trillion meat and dairy industry with sustainable protein. She's also the founder of Vegan Women Summit (VWS), a platform of over 60,000 women professionals in the future of food, and author of the award-winning book, The Future of Food is Female. Prior to her career in food technology, Jennifer built her career in Silicon Valley under Ron Conway, Founder of SV Angel, and worked with the world's largest tech companies including Google, Meta, and Microsoft.

Sheri Riley is President of Exponential Living®, a personal, professional, and leadership development company. After spending 20 years creating marketing strategies for global superstars and companies like Usher, Warner Media, and Converse, Sheri now empowers professional athletes, coaches, entertainers, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs to grow personally and dominate professionally. She's also the bestselling author of Exponential Living® - Stop Spending 100% of Your Time on 10% of Who You Are.

Amy Anthony is one of the United States' most influential aromatherapists and the founder of a growing private practice NYC Aromatica, which offers one-on-one customized aromatherapy sessions, online class offerings, and corporate consulting. Also an aromatic gardener, herbalist, artisanal distiller, and certified master composters, Amy left her career in marketing research to pursue her love of plants. She also hosts the Essential Aromatica podcast.

Catherine Cassidy is the CEO and Founder of Boutique Box, a unique “style as a service” platform helping busy women find their perfect fashions in a time-saving way. Catherine has more than 20 years of experience in the Fashion Industry, and launched her first fashion business Ustyled in 2008. She's also a sought-after speaker on leadership and confidence.

Nicole Rodrigues is CEO & Founder of NRPR Group, an award-winning, full-service PR and creative marketing agency. Her experience designing strategies for marquee brands like Yahoo!, YouTube and Hulu has made her one of the industry's "Top 50 Game Changers" and earned her the title of “Beverly Hills Boss.” Today Nicole shares her top three strategies for standing out from the crowd and why every business needs a long-term PR strategy based on storytelling.

Tissa Richards has a mission to create a legion of leaders with an unshakable sense of self. A serial entrepreneur, a keynote speaker, leadership expert and corporate facilitator, Tissa works with F1000 and hyperscale organizations, guiding them to create blueprints for individual and organizational success, develop high-performance cultures, and to diversify C-suites and corporate boardrooms. As a repeat software founder and CEO, Tissa sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, fundraising and executive leadership. She has raised millions of dollars for her companies, won awards for innovation and products, and holds multiple patents for complex cybersecurity software. She works closely with founders and business owners to create strategies for fearless, authentic, and resilient success. Her book, No Permission Needed, recently hit #1 new release on Amazon.

Candace Nelson is a serial entrepreneur, a New York Times bestselling author, Wall Street Journal contributor and an expert in turning one's passion into a profitable business. Author of the WSJ bestselling book, Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe for Turning Your Passion into Profit, Candace revolutionized the baking industry when she left a career in corporate finance to launch Sprinkles, the world's first cupcake bakery and Cupcake ATM. She followed with Pizzana, a growing chain of Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded pizzerias leading the third wave of pizza in the U.S. She continues to expand her portfolio of investments with CN2 Ventures.

Rita Ernst is the founder Ignite Your Extraordinary, an organizational consulting practice emphasizing the convergence of happiness and productivity to create positive, committed, high-performing organizations. Author of Show Up Positive, Rita helps transform corporate cultures and startup emerging growth companies lay the groundwork for success.

Amanda Bucci is a conscious business consultant, energy and alignment coach, podcaster, and creator of the Entrepreneurial Archetype Quiz™. A 7-figure CEO by the age of 25, Amanda built on her certifications in Spiritual Psychology to build a vibrant coaching business helping entrepreneurs and creators understand who they are, connect to their authenticity, and build businesses that are in alignment with their energetic blueprints.  

Tracy Litt is a sought-after success mentor for visionary women leaders navigating huge paradigm shifts and elevating into the next level of impact, wealth, and holistic success. Tracy is Founder of The Litt Factor and creator of Mind Magic ®, a proven methodology that marries metacognition and spirituality, neuroscience, and quantum law to expand and elevate more quickly. She is also the bestselling author of Worthy Human and her work has been featured by Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast Company and Inc.com

Chelsey Roney is the COO and Co-Founder of Proxi, a custom and collaborative mapping technology for businesses, brands, and individuals. A former Boeing and Microsoft alum, Chelsey is a serial entrepreneur who previously bootstrapped and sold a SaaS business and a local services business. Today Chelsey shares how Proxi secured $1.2M in pre-seed finance and what's next for her company.  

Palak Shah is the founder of Open Spaces Capital, a real estate firm she built as a stay-at-home-mom to $10 million in asset value. Palak had spent 17 years as a top paid mechanical engineer climbing the corporate ladder when she realized on maternity leave, she wanted more flexibility to focus on her children. When her request to work from home part time was rejected, she quit her high paying job and launched her profitable real estate company, and how she also teaches women how to ‘BRRRR', that is “Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat.”

Wendy Appel is a founding partner of Trilogy Effect, a leadership development and executive coaching consulting firm that helps startups and F-500 companies alike build high functioning teams by tapping into the wisdom, creativity, and vitality inherent in themselves, in their teams, and in their organizations. Author of InsideOut Enneagram: The Game Changing Guide for Leaders Wendy also hosts the podcast Being Human is Good for Business.

Rebecca Whitman is an award-winning Success Mentor and the internationally bestselling author of Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs, Business, Life, Universe, and How to Make a Six Figure Income Working Part Time. International Association of Top Professionals' Life Coach of the Year, Rebecca shares how her 7 Pillars of Abundance enables entrepreneurial success and a full, happy life. She also hosts the Balanced, Beautiful, Abundant podcast.

Ego Iwegbu is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of The Good Mineral, a clean-beauty brand focused on sensitive acne-prone skin. She first went into business founding Nail Salon in 1999, and now also founded two other companies, the cosmetic line Miss London and the salon business Miss Salon London. Author of Open Your Own Salon the Right Way and Kick-Start Your Salon into Profit, Ego has also made it her mission to help other women build businesses, especially female founders who find themselves in difficult circumstances.

Anna Konchar is an e-learning expert mentor who helps women monetize their skills, knowledge and passions with online courses and membership programs. Anna built her first side hustle e-course to $100,000 while still working a 9-5 job, and went on to earn $3mm in 3 years with her own courses working just 2 days a week. Today she shares her blueprint of how to build a million-dollar side hustle.

Kareen Walsh is a startup adviser, investor, serial entrepreneur, executive coach, author, and podcaster. She is the CEO and Founder of Revampologist, a 7-Figure Boutique consulting and coaching company and co-founded the Clevr Network. With 17+ years of entrepreneurial and executive experience leading and advising industry leaders, Kareen is hyper focused on leadership to help businesses scale. Her clients include trillion-dollar companies like BlackRock, Groupon, Broadridge as well as startups, and she helps leaders align what they love with what they do, and monetize it. She believes if you are not growing, your business won't grow, and uses her books Lead with Value and Be A Badass, along with her Podcast Your Badass Journey as ways to share the methods of personal and professional growth. Listen to learn: Four strategic steps to take aligned action How to identify and monetize your unique ‘zone of genius' How to ask for what you want Why lack of trust is the biggest block to building scalable businesses Why quickness of recovery from failure is the best test of great leadership How to build great teams by simplifying your daily practices as a founder or CEO How to hire unstoppable leadership teams (Hint: Stop assuming, start listening) Why too many founders are unaware of their true ‘zone of genius' and how to find and align with it Why success is about quickness of recovery from failure Why your own self care is critical to your success And much more Keep the conversation going on Podopolo in the Wings of Inspired Business episode comments and invite your friends to connect around podcasts recommended personally for you.

Jessica Procini is on a mission to help high-achieving women heal the roots of their emotional eating. When Overeaters Anonymous and therapy weren't enough to help Jessica end her fight with food, she spent ten years in research before developing her signature healing framework, Escape From Emotional Eating®, which has helped women reclaim their power over food. Now that she's been 100% free from her compulsions with food for over 5 years, Jessica helps female entrepreneurs and executives do the same at EscapeFromEmotionalEating.com.

Patience Ball and Dr. Ruth Shaber, the authors of The XX Edge: Unlocking Higher Returns and Lower Risk, make a well-researched case that women entrepreneurs and C-suite executives deliver stronger long-term performance that drive higher financial returns and more positive societal outcomes. They both draw on real-world experience. Patience, who raised more than $16 billion for women entrepreneurs as Principal Investment Officer and Global Head of Banking on Women at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is now founder and CEO of the Women of the World Endowment, an investment nonprofit. Ruth, the co-founder and board chair of Rhia Ventures, a group of foundations and investors that collaborate to bring new types of capital and enterprise to the field of reproductive health, was featured in Forbes 2020 Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit—and Pushing for Change for her contributions to the field of impact investing.

Tissa Richards has a mission to create a legion of leaders with an unshakable sense of self. A serial entrepreneur, a keynote speaker, leadership expert and corporate facilitator, Tissa works with F1000 and hyperscale organizations, guiding them to create blueprints for individual and organizational success, develop high-performance cultures, and to diversify C-suites and corporate boardrooms. As a repeat software founder and CEO, Tissa sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, fundraising and executive leadership. She has raised millions of dollars for her companies, won awards for innovation and products, and holds multiple patents for complex cybersecurity software. She works closely with founders and business owners to create strategies for fearless, authentic, and resilient success. Her book, No Permission Needed, recently hit #1 new release on Amazon.

Jaclynn (Jax) Brennan is CEO and Co-Founder of Fyli, a Network as a Service (NaaS) business for early-stage female founders, offering education, accountability, peer-to-peer mentorship, leadership advancement and funding opportunities. A Creative Director for a variety of luxury fashion brands, Jaclynn has helped lead over 22 major corporations in executing branding strategies.

Coco Brown is the Founder and CEO of Athena Alliance, an Executive-Education-As-A-Service platform helping women advance as founders, corporate executives, board members and investors. Athena's peer network, with its live and on-demand learning, networking, and coaching, has helped thousands of women, and brought more than 400 women to corporate boards. Former COO of Taos which sold to IBM, Coco has served on ten commercial and non-profit boards and advisory boards, and she's part of Nasdaq's Governance Insights Council, and is often called on to share guidance to the evolving focus and breadth of responsibility within the modern boardroom.

Rachel Hicks is the Founder of U Whitening, a first-of-its-kind teeth whitening in person experience, and Professional Whitening Products, a one-stop-shop for teeth whitening supplies. With no prior business experience, Rachel shares how she bootstrapped to six-figures in annual revenue in a few short years.

Sara Roach-Lewis, the CEO of SRL Solutions and creator of the 7-Figure Confidence Program, is on a mission to help ambitious women build scalable businesses that support their busy lives. Through her first book, She Rules, What You Didn't Know is Holding You Back in Business Sara shares her strategies for exponential business growth, achieving laser- focus while moving through resistance, rebranding self-care as an important business practice, and how to turn your imposter syndrome into 7-figure confidence.

Denise Gosnell is a business strategist, attorney, #1 bestselling author, and investor. Author of the new book The Vacation Effect for Entrepreneurs: Grow Your Business Even Faster by Working Less and Having More Fun, Denise owns and operates three companies by working an average of three days per week and generates seven figures each year. Founder of The Vacation Effect and the Grow by Subtraction Accelerator, she is a trusted advisor to many of the world's top entrepreneurs and has spoken on stages in eight different countries.

Mary Southern is an entrepreneur, resume writer, wife, mother, and founder of Resume Assassin. She has been selected for a variety of awards, written numerous resume writing articles for organizations such as SHRM, and was recently chosen as a featured guest on the podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire with John Lee Dumas. She is also the top-rated resume service in Austin, TX. She has helped 1,000's of executive and professional job seekers land jobs at some of the world's leading companies, including Google, Amazon, Tesla, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, NASA, SpaceX, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, 3M, Dell, Pfizer, Goldman-Sachs, Johns Hopkins, and many more.

Melinda Wittstock, 5-time serial entrepreneur and the CEO and founder of the interactive AI-powered podcasting app Podopolo, asks ChatGPT's generative AI to share its top 10 business trends for 2023 plus advice for female founders on how to overcome gender-based challenges in business.

Candace Nelson is a serial entrepreneur, a New York Times bestselling author, Wall Street Journal contributor and an expert in turning one's passion into a profitable business. Author of the WSJ bestselling book, Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe for Turning Your Passion into Profit, Candace revolutionized the baking industry when she left a career in corporate finance to launch Sprinkles, the world's first cupcake bakery and Cupcake ATM. She followed with Pizzana, a growing chain of Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded pizzerias leading the third wave of pizza in the U.S. She continues to expand her portfolio of investments with CN2 Ventures.

Kim Woods is a business strategist and master astrologer, drawing on her25+ years as a C-suite executive and entrepreneur building several 7-figure businesses and her myriad intuitive certifications. Kim teaches business leaders to overcome the blocks to their success to achieve personal, professional, and financial triumph. Today we talk about how to “leverage the stars” to prosper in business, even in a recession.

Patience Ball and Dr. Ruth Shaber, the authors of The XX Edge: Unlocking Higher Returns and Lower Risk, make a well-researched case that women entrepreneurs and C-suite executives deliver stronger long-term performance that drive higher financial returns and more positive societal outcomes. They both draw on real-world experience. Patience, who raised more than $16 billion for women entrepreneurs as Principal Investment Officer and Global Head of Banking on Women at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is now founder and CEO of the Women of the World Endowment, an investment nonprofit. Ruth, the co-founder and board chair of Rhia Ventures, a group of foundations and investors that collaborate to bring new types of capital and enterprise to the field of reproductive health, was featured in Forbes 2020 Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit—and Pushing for Change for her contributions to the field of impact investing.

Ungenita Prevost is on a mission to help 10,000,000 women build social capital and monetize their networks as the leader of a global feminine leadership network. A former Hollywood Body Double, Music Video Dancer turned Award Winning Feminine Leadership Expert, Ungenita created the fast-growing Networking in Stilettos. Author of the book by the same name, she also hosts the podcast Billion Dollar Rolodex.

Sarah Greener is a serial entrepreneur and business coach who helps busy, stressed, and overworked business owners transform their businesses by reigniting their passion and refocusing their work “on” their businesses rather than “in” them. Author of The Off Switch, Sarah shares how to move from a To Do List an ‘I Don't List'.

Jaime McFaden is a selfcare specialist and the bestselling author of Waves of Self-Care, It Takes a Village who helps busy working and entrepreneurial moms create time for themselves and lead by example.