Badass Women in Business
Welcome to The Badass Women in Business Podcast, the definitive space for unfiltered, tactical insights into female entrepreneurship, enterprise scaling, and business monetization. Hosted by seasoned business owners, growth partners, and exit strategists Cristy O’Connor and Aggie Chydzinski, this podcast moves past passive advisory to bring you directly inside the high-stakes execution of building and successfully exiting companies on your own terms.As hands-on growth partners who actively engineer scale and value alongside founders, we deliberately strip away the superficiality of traditional corporate highlight reels. Instead, we dissect the raw, hard-earned operational strategies and profound psychological shifts required to unl...
When Growth Breaks the Model: Deanna Woodroffe on Choosing Better Care Over More Patients
Send us Fan Mail
What happens when growing your business makes it harder to deliver the work you built the company to do? Deanna Woodroffe explains why Vibrant Health of Colorado moved from an insurance based practice serving roughly 7,000 patients to a direct primary care model capped at 1,000, and how that difficult decision changed patient care, provider burnout, and her relationship with the business itself.
SHOW NOTES
Growth is usually treated as evidence that a business is working, but Deanna's experience raises a harder question: what if the economics driving growth...
Charge From Day One: Clara Ma on Bootstrapping a Profitable Community Business
Send us Fan Mail
Many founders try to build a large audience before asking anyone to pay, but Clara Ma built Ask a Chief of Staff around the opposite premise: prove the value first and let committed customers shape what comes next. She explains how charging from day one, staying bootstrapped, hiring for leverage, and protecting her time helped her build a profitable 500+ member community while keeping the business in service of her life rather than the other way around.
SHOW NOTES
Strategic Focus
At the center of this c...
The Risk of Doing Nothing: Stephanie Georges on Midlife Reinvention for Women Over 50
Send us Fan Mail
The most dangerous career risk for many experienced women is not the leap, but staying in roles and systems that keep minimizing their power. Stephanie Georges brings four decades of Wall Street and C suite transformation experience to a sharper conversation about dignity, agency, AI, and why midlife can become a serious entrepreneurial advantage when women stop waiting for permission and start building the conditions for their next chapter.
SHOW NOTES
Strategic Focus
This conversation asks what happens when highly capable women reach the edge...
Turning Fandom Into Revenue Without Losing the Brand with Veronica Hart
Send us Fan Mail
Growth in entertainment is no longer just about getting attention; it is about turning emotional connection into live experiences, licensing, merchandise, sports, and global partnerships without diluting what people loved in the first place. Veronica Hart, Chief Growth Officer of RWS Global, unpacks how leaders can build new revenue streams, protect brand integrity, and create momentum in complex markets while making sure women are not waiting for permission to claim their seat at the table.
SHOW NOTES
Strategic Focus
This conversation explores the discipline behind...
AI Transformation Is a People Problem: Megan Malli
Send us Fan Mail
Megan Malli, CEO of AnswerLab, reframes transformation as a deeply human discipline, where AI, customer insight, and leadership all fail when they are layered onto broken workflows or disconnected cultures. In this conversation, she shows why curiosity, trust, and human centered strategy are becoming the real executive advantage for companies that need to move faster without losing the people they depend on.
Show Notes
The Strategic Focus: This episode explores what it takes to lead through uncertainty when technology is accelerating, customer behavior is shifting...
How to Modernize a Legacy Business Without Losing Its Core: Anne Huntington Sharma
Send us Fan Mail
Anne Huntington Sharma explains how leaders can honor a company’s history while still making the difficult decisions required for its next chapter. Drawing from her path from “center number 17” to President and CEO of Huntington Learning Center, she explores succession, franchise growth, digital transformation, and the discipline of evolving only when change creates measurable value.
Show Notes
The Strategic Focus
This conversation examines what it takes to lead a second generation company with credibility, patience, and strategic clarity, especially when the business must p...
Reinvention Without Permission: Jane Bertch on Building La Cuisine Paris and Starting Again at Any Age
Send us Fan Mail
Jane Bertch left corporate banking, moved through London into Paris, and built La Cuisine Paris into the largest English language French cooking school in the city, despite having no culinary background and no perfect plan. In this conversation, she shares why clarity comes through action, how community turns an experience based business into something durable, and why women should stop waiting for permission to begin again.
Show Notes
Jane’s story is a masterclass in founder reinvention, not as a polished leap from certainty to su...
Scaling a Purpose-Driven Coffee Brand from Garage Roasting to National Retail with Jillian Salinas
Send us Fan Mail
Jillian Salinas, founder of Beach City Coffee, joins Badass Women in Business to share how a backyard roasting hobby became a national retail brand rooted in community, sustainability, and resilience. Her story offers a grounded look at what it takes to rebuild after disruption, enter major retail without a clear roadmap, and grow without abandoning the values that made people care in the first place.
Show Notes
The Strategic Focus:
This conversation explores the long game of building a values-led consumer brand, where staying...
Building a Franchise Brand Around Care, Systems, and Self Belief with Nuttha Goutier
Send us Fan Mail
Nuttha Goutier built Sabai Thai Spa from less than $1,000, a clear vision, and a deep belief that wellness should feel like belonging, not a transaction. In this conversation, she shares how Thai hospitality, community care, disciplined systems, and a staff first culture helped turn one spa into a growing franchise brand with ambitious expansion plans across Canada and beyond.
Show Notes
Nuttha’s story is a powerful reminder that the strongest brands are not built only through capital, polish, or speed, but through a clear point of vi...
Giving Patients Their Voice Back: Human-Centered AI with Dr. Maheen Adamson
Send us Fan Mail
When Dr. Maheen Musoof Adamson watched her father lose his ability to speak after a stroke, her life’s work became deeply personal. In this episode, she shares how that experience led her to build Soof Solutions, an AI-enabled communication platform helping stroke, ALS, and non-speaking patients express their needs through eye movement, while challenging what healthcare innovation can look like when science, empathy, and access lead the way.
Show Notes
This conversation is about building technology that serves real human need, not just market excitement. Dr. Ad...
Why Legal Strategy Is a Growth Strategy: Protecting Value Before It Costs You Millions with Hillary Hughes
Send us Fan Mail
Most entrepreneurs view legal support as something they need when problems arise, yet the most successful founders understand that legal strategy is one of the earliest and most important investments they can make in protecting enterprise value. In this conversation, Hillary Hughes shares how thoughtful contracts, intellectual property protection, governance structures, and investor readiness can help founders avoid costly mistakes, preserve negotiating power, and build businesses that are both investable and acquirable.
Show Notes
The Strategic Focus
This episode explores the often-overlooked connection between...
When Money Feels Unsafe: Tiffany Carter on Trauma, Sales, and Building Real Wealth
Send us Fan Mail
Tiffany Carter’s story challenges the polished mythology of entrepreneurship by exposing how trauma can quietly shape the way high achieving founders earn, sell, lead, and stay visible, even when they appear successful from the outside. In this deeply honest conversation, Tiffany reframes money mindset as more than a confidence issue; it is a nervous system, identity, safety, and self trust conversation that determines how much capacity a leader truly has for wealth, visibility, and growth.
Show Notes
Tiffany Carter joins the Badass Women in Business Podcast fo...
The Retail Breakthrough That Almost Didn’t Happen with Shan and Erika of Shades By Shan
Send us Fan Mail
Shan and Erika built Shades By Shan from a San Francisco garage into a nationally distributed cosmetics brand carried in more than 600 JCPenney Beauty stores, but the real lesson is not simply how they scaled, it is how they protected their mission while navigating the pressure of national retail. This conversation is a sharp, deeply human study in founder discipline, radical honesty, community-led growth, and the kind of purpose-driven strategy that turns a small team into a powerful market presence.
Show Notes
Shan and Erika’s story reveals wh...
Building the Business of Caregiving with AI, Trust, and Tenacity with Nicole àBeckett
Send us Fan Mail
Caregiving is one of the most universal experiences in life, yet it remains one of the most overlooked problems in healthcare, technology, and the workplace. In this episode, Nicole àBeckett shares how her own experience caring for both parents became the foundation for HeroGeneration, an AI powered platform designed to help families organize care, reduce overwhelm, and build real support before crisis takes over.
Show Notes
Nicole’s story reveals the hard but necessary leap from lived experience to scalable business, especially when the market is emotional, fragmented, and...
From Financial Shame to Strategic Control with Nancy Benet
Send us Fan Mail
After divorce left Nancy Benet with four children, no income, five failed businesses, and more than $650,000 in debt, she had to rebuild not only her finances, but her confidence, judgment, and sense of personal agency. In this conversation, Nancy shares how women can move from avoidance and overwhelm into financial clarity, sustainable business ownership, and a more grounded definition of success.
Show Notes
The Strategic Focus
This episode examines the discipline required to rebuild a life and business when the old plan has collapsed. D...
How Scarlett Leung Built a Beverage Brand Into 2,000 Stores and Learned When to Walk Away
Send us Fan Mail
Scarlett Leung, co-founder of Pretty Tasty, joins us for an honest conversation about what it really takes to build a modern consumer brand. From turning around retail businesses and launching companies from scratch to rebuilding after founder heartbreak, Scarlett opens up about the realities behind entrepreneurship, leadership, fundraising, and growth.
Scarlett never planned to become a founder, but after careers in luxury retail, finance, wellness, and consumer brands, she found herself building one of the fastest-growing beverage brands in the country. In this episode, she shares the real story behind scaling P...
From Refugee to Founder: Soon Hagerty on Building Businesses That Give Back Without Burning Out
Send us Fan Mail
What if success is not about balance, but about building a life with purpose, curiosity, and impact? In this episode, Soon Hagerty shares how fleeing Vietnam as a child shaped her entrepreneurial mindset, why “business for good” has to be built into the model from day one, and the biggest mistake women founders make when chasing growth. This conversation is packed with honest insights on leadership, resilience, growth mindset, and creating businesses that actually mean something.
Show Notes
Key Takeaways
Why the best businesses solve...Building What Tech Ignored: Rebecca Matchett on Connection, Neurodivergence, and the Business of Belonging
Send us Fan Mail
What happens when a seasoned entrepreneur steps away from building brands and decides to solve something far more human?
In this episode, Rebecca Matchett shares her journey from launching fashion brands like alice + olivia to co-founding Synchrony, an AI-assisted platform designed to help neurodivergent adults build real connection. What started as a gap she couldn’t ignore has turned into a mission-driven business tackling one of the most overlooked challenges in tech: social isolation.
Rebecca breaks down why traditional platforms have failed this community, what it actually means to bu...
Deborah Farone on Why Business Development Is the Skill Women Can’t Ignore
Send us Fan Mail
There’s a point in your career where being good at your work stops being enough.
You’re experienced. You deliver. You’re trusted. But growth slows, and the path to real influence or ownership becomes less clear.
Deborah Farone has spent her career inside that reality.
As former Chief Marketing Officer of Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Debevoise & Plimpton, and now CEO of Farone Advisors LLC, she has worked alongside some of the most successful professionals in the world. What she’s seen is consistent. The people who rise...
When One Woman Thrives, Communities Rise with Shannon Fernando
Send us Fan Mail
What if the solution to hunger isn’t more aid, but empowering women? Shannon Fernando, Founder and CEO of Alabaster International, is working on the frontlines of healthcare, food security, and female entrepreneurship across East Africa and South Asia. In this episode, she shares what she’s learned from nearly two decades in the field, why most approaches to impact fall short, and how women are the key to transforming entire communities. This is a real look at what it takes to create change that actually lasts.
Show Notes
...
From Loss to Lifeline: Cristina Bernardo on Building Avocado Health and Supporting Parents When It Matters Most
Send us Fan Mail
What happens when the system meant to support you leaves you with more questions than answers?
In this episode, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Cristina Bernardo, co-founder of Avocado Health, to share the deeply personal story behind the company and the mission driving it forward.
After losing her daughter Aviva following months of medical uncertainty, Cristina and her husband made a commitment no parent should ever have to navigate fear, confusion, or isolation alone. That promise became Avocado Health, a platform delivering real-time, evidence-based parenting support through simple...
Candace Dellacona: Why Women Are Burning Out in the Sandwich Generation and the Cost of Not Planning Ahead
Send us Fan Mail
There’s a phase of life no one prepares you for.
You’re raising kids, supporting aging parents, managing a career or a business, and somehow expected to hold it all together. Most women don’t even realize there’s a name for it. The Sandwich Generation.
In this episode, estate planning attorney Candace Dellacona breaks down what’s actually happening in this stage of life and why so many women feel overwhelmed, stretched thin, and unsupported.
We talk about the real cost of avoiding hard conversations, why famili...
Missy Wright: What Actually Makes a Franchise Work (And Why Most People Get It Wrong)
Send us Fan Mail
Missy Wright did not plan on a career in franchising, but once she got in, she saw the impact it can have on people’s lives and never left.
In this episode, Missy breaks down what really makes a franchise successful, what separates the people who thrive from the ones who struggle, and what most people misunderstand before they invest. We also talk about what it takes to scale a brand the right way and what happens when companies grow too fast.
This is not a surface level conversation. We...
Melissa Anderson on Trusting the Nonlinear Path, Taking Risks, and Staying Grounded
Send us Fan Mail
What if the safest path is not actually the safest one?
In this episode, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Melissa Anderson, President of Search.com, to talk about building a career by trusting instinct over convention. Melissa shares how she turned bold, uncertain choices into major opportunities, from moving to Ireland after college with no job, to scaling startups, leading innovation, and navigating acquisitions.
This conversation goes beyond business. Melissa opens up about decision making, risk, leadership, spirituality, and why staying grounded is critical for success. She shares...
From Survival Mode to CEO: How Natasha Golinsky Rebuilt Her Business, Beat Cancer, and Found a New Mission
Send us Fan Mail
What happens when life forces you to step away from the business you built?
In this episode of the Badass Women in Business Podcast, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Natasha Golinsky, founder of On Purpose Projects, a custom web and e-commerce development agency based in Vancouver, Canada.
Natasha has spent more than a decade building her agency without ever being a web developer herself. Along the way she learned the hard lessons most founders face: underpricing services, dealing with scope creep, people pleasing with clients, and figuring out...
The Founder Mindset Most Women Are Not Prepared For with Rethink Compliance CEO Kirsten Liston
Send us Fan Mail
What does it actually take to leave a secure job and build a company from scratch?
In this episode of the Badass Women in Business Podcast, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Kirsten Liston, Founder and CEO of Rethink Compliance, to talk about the reality of becoming an entrepreneur and the mindset required to build something new.
Kirsten shares how she went from a career in journalism to spending more than two decades in the compliance industry. After 15 years working inside the field, she saw a clear gap in...
Meredith Farley: From Corporate Leader to Founder and Owning Your Voice on LinkedIn
Send us Fan Mail
In this episode of the Badass Women in Business podcast, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Meredith Farley, founder of Medbury, an agency that helps executives and founders turn their real world experience into credible thought leadership on LinkedIn.
Meredith shares her journey from being a writing major during the 2009 financial crash to spending 13 years inside a fast growing content agency, eventually stepping into senior leadership. After being laid off just days after closing on her home, she made the decision to bet on herself and build Medbury.
The...
Rebecca Todd: Building a Purpose Driven Photography Business Through Relationships
Send us Fan Mail
In this episode of the Badass Women in Business podcast, Aggie sits down with Denver-based photographer and TruBlu Images founder Rebecca Todd. Rebecca shares her journey from studying photography at LSU to rebuilding her business after relocating from New Orleans to Denver.
They talk about carving out a niche working with mission-driven brands and nonprofits, why relationships matter more than marketing tactics, and how Rebecca has built a sustainable creative business while navigating imposter syndrome, seasonality, and growth. Rebecca also shares powerful behind-the-scenes stories from nonprofit work and offers practical advice...
Anna Perks: Building a Business by Taking Houses Apart, Not Burning Out, and Rethinking Waste
Send us Fan Mail
Anna Perks is the founder of Perks Deconstruction, a Denver based company proving that sustainability and profitability can coexist. What started with walking her dog past a bulldozed historic home turned into a seven year journey building a 20 plus person company that diverts massive amounts of construction material from landfills. In this episode, Anna shares how she built a business in an industry she did not come from, why entrepreneurship is often romanticized, and what it really takes to lead, delegate, and grow without burning out. This is a grounded, honest conversation about...
Maria Onesto Moran: Being Where Your Feet Are and Building a Values-Driven Business
Send us Fan Mail
Maria Onesto Moran, founder and CEO of Green Home Experts, joins the Badass Women in Business podcast to share the real story of building a sustainable, values-driven company through recession, pivots, leadership challenges, and motherhood.
Maria started Green Home Experts in 2007 as a green building supply showroom just before the housing market crashed. What followed was not failure, but evolution. Today, Green Home Experts is a WBE-certified energy efficiency logistics and fulfillment company serving utilities and program implementers across the Midwest.
In this episode, Maria talks about mindfulness as...
Molly McCartan: Why Working Moms Are Leaving and What It Says About Leadership
Send us Fan Mail
Molly McCartan, Founder and CEO of The Mom Pact, joins Aggie and Cristy for a direct conversation about why nearly half of working moms are leaving the workforce and why this is not a motivation or confidence issue.
This episode looks at leadership, incentives, and systems that were never built to support real life transitions. Maternity leave, flexibility, childcare, career gaps, and return to work are not fringe topics. They are core business and leadership decisions with long term consequences.
If companies care about talent, retention, and performance, this...
Dr. Laura James ND: Why Modern Healthcare Overwhelms Women and What Actually Helps
Send us Fan Mail
This episode is about health in the real world, not textbook medicine.
Aggie and Cristy sit down with Dr. Laura James ND, a naturopathic oncologist with more than twenty years of experience working with women inside an overwhelmed healthcare system. Together, they explore why modern healthcare leaves so many women confused, exhausted, and unsupported, especially while they are managing work, family, caregiving, and their own health.
Dr. Laura explains how rushed appointments, fragmented care, and authority driven medicine limit understanding and undermine trust. She shares why education, inquiry, and...
Hon. Leela Sharon Aheer: How a 15-Year-Old Targeted by Hate Became a National Leader
Send us Fan Mail
The Honourable Leela Sharon Aheer shares the story that shaped her life and leadership.
Growing up in Alberta as the daughter of an Indian immigrant father and a Canadian mother, Leela learned early what it meant to stand out, speak up, and build community. At just 15 years old, she was directly confronted by white supremacist hate. Instead of shrinking, that moment became the catalyst for using her voice and stepping into leadership.
In this episode, Leela walks through her unconventional path from music and teaching into politics, winning her...
Sarah Angello: The Startup Founder Rebuilding Trust in Philanthropy
Send us Fan Mail
Most people donate because they want to help. Few ever find out what actually happens to their money. Philanthropy has a trust problem. Nonprofits have a transparency problem. Donors want clarity but rarely get it. And donor-advised funds have become a quiet holding place for billions of untapped charitable capital.
After fifteen years working inside philanthropy, Sarah Angello could not ignore the friction anymore. She saw the outdated systems. She saw the lost potential. She saw how giving had become complicated when it should feel meaningful.
So...
Rachael Wonderlin: How She Built a Thriving Consulting Business, Broke Out of Her Niche, and Learned to Trust Her Gut
Send us Fan Mail
Rachael Wonderlin built a national dementia consulting firm from a Tumblr blog, three Johns Hopkins books, and a decade of hands-on work inside senior living communities. But the real story is what she learned along the way about boundaries, burnout, and trusting her intuition long before the data caught up.
In this conversation, Rachael shares the full arc of building Dementia By Day from a one-woman hustle into a recurring revenue business that now operates like fractional operations for senior living companies. She talks about the early years when she said...
Kristin Heideman: How I Built a Lifestyle Business, Walked Away From the Scale-at-All-Costs Trap, and Found Success on My Own Terms
Send us Fan Mail
Kristin Heideman spent more than twenty years working inside the insurance industry before she realized she was ready to build something of her own. When she was let go from a job she excelled in, she walked into Best Buy the next morning, bought a laptop, registered her business the day after, and stepped into a version of her career she had never imagined.
In this Diary of a CEO style conversation, Kristin breaks down the real story behind The Brinkman Group, why she never wanted to scale into a large...
Amanda DuBois: How She Built a Successful Law Firm After Being Told She Would Fail
Send us Fan Mail
Amanda DuBois was once told she was nothing more than a doctor’s wife who should stop dabbling at the law. Instead of shrinking, she built one of Washington’s longest standing women owned law firms, created a workplace that supports and mentors women, founded a nonprofit that has helped change more than twenty five state laws, and became an award winning author who writes about injustice in the legal system.
In this episode, Amanda talks with Aggie and Cristy about confidence, self doubt, trauma informed leadership, and how she turned reje...
How to Build a Brand That Blooms: Ashley King on Letting Go, Leveling Up, and Creating Brands That Convert
Send us Fan Mail
What happens when a fashion designer and magazine editor turns her creative eye toward helping women entrepreneurs grow their brands and themselves? Ashley King, founder and CEO of BLOOM Virtual.co, joins Aggie and Cristy to share how she built a thriving creative agency that helps women step into their next level of growth with confidence, clarity, and purpose.
From her early days in luxury fashion to launching BLOOM as a way to reclaim her independence and rediscover her voice, Ashley’s journey is one of transformation and trust. Sh...
Burn It Down and Build It Better: Sarah Noel Block on Confidence, Clients, and Control
Send us Fan Mail
In this Season 4 episode of Badass Women in Business, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Sarah Noel Block, founder of Tiny Marketing, to talk about what happens when you stop playing small and start building a business that actually fits your life.
Sarah shares how she went from being laid off in 2008 to creating a thriving solo business that helps consultants and small B2B teams grow without burnout. She breaks down the process of testing new offers, using Gateway Offers to bridge leads to long-term clients...
From the Fairway to the Field: Jenn Harris on Reinvention, Leadership, and Owning Every Pivot
Send us Fan Mail
Jenn Harris’s journey is a lesson in reinvention, resilience, and trusting yourself through change. Before becoming President and CEO of AirX Utility Surveyors, she built her career on curiosity and connection. She studied psychology, dreamed of becoming a golf pro, and went on to build golf-centered businesses that helped women gain confidence, build relationships, and find their voice in male-dominated spaces. When the pandemic halted her event-based ventures, Jenn pivoted into a completely new field and stepped into her most challenging role yet—turning around an established company in the utilities industry.
