Lean The F*ck Out | Fempreneurs | Women Entrepreneurs | Female Business Owners

This week we talk with Morgan Elizabeth Brown a Body Confidence Coach in Portland, Oregon. She shares with us the techniques she uses with her clients to help them stop hating their bodies and start treating themselves with love and respect. She does so with humor, love, and zero bullshit. Morgan pulls from her own experience to help people on their path to a better relationship with their body WITHOUT dieting and weight loss. Her experience with her own body acceptance journey has given Morgan the empathy and inspiration to help people on their path to a better relationship with their body without dieting or weight loss. She also shares with us how she builds her client space in such a niche and sensitive space.

This week we talk about what it takes to scale a business with health and wellness entrepreneur Jennifer Masley. Jennifer Masley is founder of Michigan-based Sip Organic Juice Bar and Jenergy Nutritional Food Bar and EiO & THE HIVE, an all organic restaurant in West Nashville. Jennifer shares with us how she started her first business the Jenergy Bar after the 2008 market crash left her then husband’s real estate development business at an overnight loss of $17 million. Her Jenergy bar led to starting Sip Organic Juice Bar which she scaled from her kitchen to a storefront to multiple locations and then began franchising.

This week we talk with Los Angeles musician, singer, songwriter and recording artist Kerry Hart about music as a business. Kerry is a musician turned entrepreneur then back to musician. She has always written songs, but three years ago she decided to pursue her music career full force and started hustling to make it happen. She shares her approach to treating her music like she has with her multiple startups. She also talks about how she stays centered enough to write and manage her family of three, while also working with her husband in their tech company. Stick around to the end of the episode to hear an exclusive and unreleased song of Kerry’s titled If Only. What an honor that she is sharing it with us!

We talk with entrepreneur and improv comedian Pam Victor about her F.U.C.K. I.T. philosophy to keep those “evil mind meany” voices at bay. You know, those voices in your head that say “You can’t do this. You’re not good enough. Why are you even trying?” Pam shares the techniques she teaches her students to get rid of those voices in their heads. She talks about how improv can help in business -- especially for entrepreneurs. She also tells us how she happened into improv comedy and eventually entrepreneurship. Pam is the founder of Happier Valley Comedy where she runs THROUGH LAUGHTER, a program using applied improv to activate professional and personal development, manages a full-curriculum improv comedy school and is also an author.

This week on the podcast, we talk with entrepreneurs Chanelle and Simone John, chief operating officer and chief creative officer respectively of Hive Soul Yoga. Hive Soul Yoga is a community-based business in Boston, MA that aims to make yoga accessible to people of all shades, sizes, ages, abilities, and identities. Specifically, the woman, who are advocates for people of color outside of yoga too, have built a space of healing and safety for people of color in their community. The two talk about the journey they’ve had in building the studio and finding ways to grow their classes, bootstrapping on their own and without going to business school. Their advice to other entrepreneurs is “Have confidence in your vision and keep going. You have what it takes.”

In this episode, female entrepreneur Toni Purry, veteran PR Maven and author of My Hype Book, talks about how after 10 years of running her award-winning PR agency, she found herself desperate for a new challenge, in a crisis of professional confidence, and in need of a hype woman of her own. Her arduous search for fulfillment led to a most unlikely source of inspiration and on a pivotal journey of inking a guided motivational journal that helps individuals to build unshakable self-confidence. Her book entitled My Hype Book is a resource for reflecting on, tracking and celebrating individual success.

This week on the podcast, female entrepreneur Molly Beane, founder and CEO of From Molly With Love, an all-natural skincare company for radical self-care, talks about the impetus behind her online business and how she runs it from the high level tasks to the day-to-day tools that keep her company moving. Molly explains her plans behind optimal lead generation and expanding her product business to include a course to support women in holistic self care, which she refers to as a radically feminist act.

This week on the podcast, Leslie Mac, co-founder and creative director of Safety Pin Box, a subscription box service for white allies, talks about the phenomenon of women tearing other women down and further what white women can do to support their black female peers in entrepreneurship and startup. Leslie gives some tips on how to do that and we talk about the history of mistreatment between women and how to take steps to move past this behavior. Leslie also talks about her unique experience of starting a business with a social justice focus. She’s definitely in a unique position, considering many women who have start social justice organizations go nonprofit, but what we find out in our conversation is that the being a business gives her a grander opportunity to support the values, beliefs, and missions of the organization and get more done for black women across the country.

This week on the podcast, Beverly Walthour shares some great techniques for facing fears and specific things you can do to get yourself unstuck. She also talks about the importance of mindset, affirmations and visualizations, goal setting (yay for SMART goals) and a daily routine that ties it all together.

Business partners Kristin Revere and Alyssa Veneklase of Gold Coast Doulas join us to talk about how they run their female-centered business. In addition to overcoming many of the same hurdles as many female business owners, Kristin and Alyssa have also faced an added layer of running a business in a field that hasn't always been taken seriously. They have worked hard to legitimize their business and support other women who are also building their own businesses.

This week we talked with Natasha Zena and Dawn Leaks, co-founders of Lioness, a magazine for entrepreneurial women.   Natasha and Dawn started Lioness magazine in 2011, because there was no mainstream media outlet focused solely on women launching startups across all industries. Lioness’ mission is to elevate, educate and support female entrepreneurs. And they truly embody that mission in all the work they do. Not only do they publish the magazine, but they work directly with women launching or running businesses to aid in their success. The two women share insights from their work with women business owners and how to conquer the biggest downfall for many women, our own fears and self-confidence to be successful. Dawn who is CEO of the Lioness Group, says just do it! We’ve heard this on the show before, so it must be true! Dawn adds that it’s imperative to get out there and make your dreams happen, don’t wait for an invitation. Natasha, founder and publisher of Lioness is the driving force behind the magazin

We talked with co-founder of RockStar Empires, Kristina Romero about her journey from actor to web developer to entrepreneur and now mompreneur. She shares the importance of being a good boss to yourself, setting boundaries and creating systems to balance life and work. Kristina also shares some of her secrets for how she she is able to keep her work stress and emotions out of the home, even though she’s there 24/7. Hint, it takes a bit of work, but is possible if you are intentional about it in the right ways.

This week we talked with Kalyn Johnson Chandler, founder of Effie’s Paper out of Brooklyn, NY. Kalyn shares her experiences going from being an environmental attorney to starting and running a successful online business. She offers great tips on how to start an online business and what she wished she knew before starting her own business.

Welcome to Episode 21 of Lean the Fuck Out. This week we had the opportunity to talk with entrepreneur Kristian Grant about how she embraced her entrepreneurial spirit from a young age and what she is doing now to encourage youth to build their own businesses. Kristian also talked about how many woman she coaches through business building and visioning come to her with fears that they will not be able to make their dreams happen. Kristian says that often “we bury what we love under what we think we have to do,” which leads many women entrepreneurs settling for unhappiness in their work. To push through that she says, you need to own your confidence and check in with yourself at least once a week or every day to affirm yourself that you are heading in the right direction. You deserve to be happy.

This week we had the opportunity to talk to entrepreneur and advocate Shannon Garrett about civic leadership and knocking through doors traditionally closed to women. Shannon shares her experiences from time spent advancing equity and inclusion in civic life throughout the United States, and working alongside thousands of candidates, elected officials, social activists and civic-minded organizations. Shannon runs her own consulting firm, SMG Strategies, is founding partner of Civicize.Me, and serves as a board member and trainer of VoteRunLead, a national tech nonprofit unleashing the power of women as leaders in democracy.

This week we talk with entrepreneur Brook Powers about the art of the side hustle and the internal drive to build businesses. Brook offers great advice to other women entrepreneurs on how to trust your instincts in business and be confident in your own abilities. This is a conversation we know we needed and we’re certain you’ll also find some wisdom from Brook. Brook is Chief Operations Officer of Griffin Properties, a residential real estate firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In just 5 years at Griffin, Brook has doubled the size of the team, added expansion partners, and grown sales volume from 27m to 60m. In this episode, Brook talks about how she has embraced leaning out and how she got her start as an entrepreneur with a myriad of side hustles or hobby jobs as she calls them, while working a full time job in the publishing industry in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her drive to build businesses always kept her going and she lept out of a job she’d known for over 20 years to be an entrepreneur full time.

In this episode, we talk about women entrepreneurs coworking with Amy Keys and Barbara Wescott, the co-founders of Women Wednesdays in Tallahassee, Florida. The two co-founded Women Wednesdays after connecting at a luncheon where they noticed that not many women were taking advantage of coworking and incubator spaces in their community. Women Wednesdays offers a warm welcome for women entrepreneurs into a coworking space and offers an opportunity to learn from one another and connect with other women entrepreneurs at various stages. In addition to co-founding Women Wednesdays, Amy Keys is owner of The Digital Capital Company and Barbara Wescott is the CEO and Founder of Swellcoin.

This week we talk with entrepreneur Giovannie Espiritu about how to market yourself. We talk about how we can gain the clarity and confidence needed to run our businesses successfully. Gio also offers the advice to “develop your inner ‘old white male’ to stop giving any fucks about what other’s think about your work. Gio is founder of the SF Actors Workshop, a school for kids and adults who are serious about working in film & television, and Academy Award Nominee for the Best Supporting Actress at MethodFest.

This week we talk with mompreneur Renee Deming about self care and coworking. We about methods for reaching out to those you look up to, keeping afloat during the feast, taking a break when your body is saying so, and creating healthy boundaries with clients. Renee is  principal and creative director at Studio Bold (http://studiobold.com/) and founder of Pastel (http://pastelplymouth.com/), a coworking space and social club aiming to do one thing... empower women.

In this episode, Gretchen is joined by women entrepreneur Resa Barillas. Resa is owner of Eye Heart Creative, https://eyeheartcreative.com, as well as a community organizer and activist. The two women talk about balancing business, family, and home; getting involved in community; developing process and structure to stay sane; and the crucial nature of relationships to business.