She Breaks The Mold - The Podcast

Tina Alexis Allen's book is not about women in the workplace. It's about her life, growing up with an authoritarian, staunchly Catholic father who one day acknowledges he knows about her relationship with a woman and shares his own background with her as a gay man, leading a double life. The story is full of intrigue, secrets, Tina's road to recovery from sexual abuse, and so much more. So no - it's not a business book or even meant as guidance for women dealing with work-related issues. But it is about the power of standing up for ourselves. And telling our true stories, and using our voices to own our ambitions. It's about how much we accept when we don't know better and how we hide ourselves, our abilities and what we have to offer in the process. And so, it's extremely relevant for working women. We talk about all of this and more in this episode! Follow on Instagram: www.instagram.com/beambitiousforher Follow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/beambitious4her  

Jenn T. Grace, in her own words, is “a get shit done kind of gal” and she excels at recognizing an opportunity that’s right for her, and going after it. Jenn even named her company, Publish Your Purpose Press, accordingly. She’s purpose-driven, purpose-centred and has a lot to teach those of us looking for how to master this discipline. She has a fabulous blog post on her site called The Power of Commitment, if you want to know more about what makes Jenn awesome.   Jokingly referring to herself early on as “The Professional Lesbian”, this line wound up being both a personal and professional stake in the ground when she realized she had insights for small businesses and corporations that no one else was really talking about: how to teach companies to market to gay people, and how gay people should market themselves. Jenn built a consulting business on this topic and hasn’t looked back. After consulting in this space for a while, Jenn realized she was passionate about business owners who had a mission to tell a

Have you ever wondered how many opportunities you've missed out on because your network is too small? I'm willing to bet most of us have. But have you ever considered the diversity of your network and how it's impacting your work, your business or your opportunities? Amy C. Waninger is the founder of Lead at Any Level, LLC, and the author of the new book "Network Beyond Bias - Making Diversity a Competitive Advantage for Your Career". In this episode, she helps us see the risk associated with a network that's too homogeneous, how we can start to connect with those outside our current networks, and why it's so important we do so. My personal review of her book: "With her new book Network Beyond Bias, Amy C. Waninger offers a new perspective on expanding our networks that’s useful and practical for the most junior employee right up the ladder to the executive suite. Her advice and examples are real and actionable, and will make you wonder how you didn’t recognize your network blind spots before. Even those of u

When I started this podcast, I imagined all my guests would be women. But David Smith breaks the mold in a unique way - as a much needed expert male voice in the gender equality conversation. I couldn't wait to meet him and hear about his work helping men learn to be better allies and more effective mentors for women at work. David and his co-author, Brad Johnson, wrote Athena Rising - How and Why Men Should Mentor Women when they realized many of the gender equality policies and programs being implemented by the US military weren't working as well as expected and they began to research why. What they found was that the issues plaguing women at work across society (bias, stereotypes, discrimination) were affecting the ranks in the military as well. Their idea is that teaching men how to be effective allies and mentors to women at work will help everyone become better leaders and build stronger organizations. David is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the National Security Affairs Department at the Unite

Mary Chaney is Vice President of the International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals (ICMCP), founder of her own law practice at The Law Offices of Mary N. Chaney - The CyberSecurity Law Firm of Texas and a former special agent with the FBI, working in the cyber crimes unit in Los Angeles. She has also had a successful corporate career in information security for companies like Discovery, Comcast, Johnson & Johnson and GE Capital. The combination of all this experience and her varied interests has led to where she is now, running her law firm and using every skill she learned throughout her career. This episode is a fabulous opportunity to learn from a woman who spent the majority of her career in the male dominated fields of information systems and security and law enforcement. And as an African American woman, she has often been the "only" in rooms and in meetings in several ways.  In addition to working in her law firm and at ICMCP helping to improve both diversity and inclusion (hear

Dana Bookman, Founder and CEO of the Canadian Women's Baseball Association (including Toronto Girls Baseball, Manitoba Girls Baseball and Nova Scotia Girls Baseball), and co-founder of Girl Expo Canada. This is an amazing story of a mom who couldn't find a girls-only league for her baseball loving daughter and didn't let that stop her. With zero baseball experience, she has created a blossoming league of over 600 players in three provinces that in two short years has caught the eye of the Toronto Blue Jays and landed Dana on the Canadian Baseball Network’s 2018 list of most influential people in Canadian Baseball - a list with very few women on it, that includes names like Joey Votto, Russell Martin, Justin Morneau and Alex Anthopoulos. Dana is passionate about teaching girls (and their parents!) the benefits of participating in sports, and especially team sports. In short, Dana's approach is "Toronto Girls Baseball teaches girls how to play to win and learn how to lose. I look at this not just as sports and

Bola Onada Sokunbi is a Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI), a money expert for women and founder of Clever Girl Finance and  “Clever Girls Know – a podcast for women on all things money”. Bola decided early in her career that she wanted to help other women be accountable for their financial independence, get out of debt, save for the future and learn how to build wealth. She watched too many of her mother's friends face financial ruin following divorces or losing their husbands and became determined to make sure her generation of women is more independent. Her mom was a great example of this for Bola while she was growing up in Nigeria and she wants to pay those lessons forward now. She tells the story in this episode, but briefly, when her father had to retire early due to health concerns and a job loss, her mother decided to spend her personal savings to send Bola to college in Europe and the United States. She was able to save after years of spending only on what she could afford, and saving w

My guests are ambitious for themselves and, quite literally, every other woman in the world, and spend their days actively working to empower women in all walks of life. I was fortunate to host TWO guests for this episode - the CEO of G(irls)20, Heather Barnabe, and Vandinika Shukla, a 2014 delegate to the G(irls)20 Summit from India who now works at UN Women's Heardquarters in New York City, and was recently named Vice-Chair of the G(irls)20 Global Steering Committee. This is an impressive duo - you're going to want to settle in for this entire episode and be inspired by the wonderful work they're doing to raise the impact of young women's voices globally. G(irls)20 was launched in 2009 at the Clinton Global Initiative and founded by Farah Mohamed (current CEO of the Malala Fund), with the goal of placing young women at the centre of decision-making processes. Through their Global Summit and Girls on Boards programs, they make strategic investments in young women through education and training, building netw

What do you do when you’ve always loved your job – the job you planned to have for life – but suddenly it doesn’t seem to fit you anymore? Today’s guest had just this experience after 13 years as a successful corporate litigator in New York City. Amy Impellizzeri loved the law and will never stop calling herself a lawyer (a title she earned through years of hard work and study), but the day to day work of being a corporate lawyer soon began to encroach on her family life in an unacceptable way. And she knew something had to change. What came next were jobs working with entrepreneurs and advocating for women while at a virtual magazine called Hybrid Her. But on the side, Amy was working on the beginnings of what is now her full time career – being a published author. Since leaving the law, Amy has published a non-fiction book called Lawyer Interrupted about how to leave the practice of law for a new career path. And she is currently working on her fourth novel – with Lemongrass Hope, Secrets of Worry Dolls and

Maggie DiStasi spent years in the world of corporate finance and financial technology, with her last role as Vice President, Technology for a brokerage department of a major Canadian bank. Several years ago, after a medical crisis and a desire for change inspired her, she took a huge leap and become a career transition and leadership coach. And now, she brilliantly helps others navigate their own transitions – those ready for the next step in the careers, wanting to start new businesses, or simply try something new. She also recently joined the faculty of the Business Coaching Advantage Certificate Program in Toronto. As the name of her business (Process Based Living) suggests, Maggie focuses on her clients’ individual process to create positive change in their working lives. She explains this further in our interview and for those of you who worry about your ability to set concrete goals and achieve them, Maggie has a perspective on this problem you’ll find reassuring! What you’ll learn from Maggie: How “gl

Pam Damoff was elected to represent the riding of Oakville-North Burlington (just outside Toronto, for my non-Canadian listeners) in the House of Commons in Canada's 2015 federal election. Prior to the election, Pam served as an Oakville Town Councillor from 2010-2015. During her time on council, she served on the Oakville Public Library Board, the budget committee and the Oakville Tourism Partnership. And all of this came after a 25-year career in corporate real estate. Pam was named Vice Chair of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women in December 2015. She is also a member of  the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. I met Pam about a year ago when I attended one of her Young Women in Leadership events - a program she offers to match girls in her riding with local female mentors from various industries. Her goal is to help girls see career opportunities they might never have considered and the program is having great success. I've continued to follow her ever since, even though

Today we’re talking about Karen Karbo's latest book which just launched yesterday (Feburary 27) called In Praise of Difficult Women – Life Lessons from 29 Heroines Who Dared To Break The Rules. The book is a series of essays about Karen’s list of women, highlighting the aspects of these women that makes them "difficult" in the way they react to societal expectations, how they cultivated unexpected careers, and generally showed up in the world ready to be themselves, regardless of who else approved. As you’ll hear Karen say, these are her women – and they represent a cross-section of races, careers, marital status, sexual orientation and even eras in which they lived. As Karen tells us, you might choose a different 29 women for your list, but the focus she places on what makes them “difficult” and their bravery in expressing the full range of their humanity, as Cheryl Strayed puts it in the book’s foreword, is the real key. There’s a lot to learn from each of these women’s lives, even if you wouldn’t choose to

Michele Viner believes in the power of words to change minds, lift up, inspire, and in short, be day or even life-changing. She started A Little Wordy after quitting her job to be at home, supporting her daughter who had recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It’s an inspiring story of how sometimes, the trials of motherhood can also instigate really good ideas that are helpful beyond the scope of our own families. Yes, we need more women in science and tech – but we also need more women bringing their hearts and souls to ideas like this that can have huge societal impact. What you’ll learn from Michele: Why she felt like taking a job outside her family business was “stepping outside her comfort zone” but also why she thinks everyone can benefit from both corporate and entrepreneurial work experience Why she believes words have the power to encourage, lift up, and change someone’s day That knowing “why” you’re launching your business will take you farther than just focusing on what you sell How givin

Marie Wiese is the President of Marketing CoPilot (a digital marketing agency), the award winning author of a book for digital marketers called "You Can't Be Everywhere", and host of The Common Sense Marketer podcast. She also has an extensive background in sales and marketing leadership in the financial services and financial technology sectors. In this interview, we tackle many of the key issues facing women at work today, paying particular attention to the technology sector. There's no denying we still have a long way to go to change the working environment, pay equity issues and harassment issues that surround this particular industry, seemingly more than others. Marie is a passionate advocate for finding ways to encourage more women in tech as the stats, particularly in Canada, are shocking and reflect a decline in women pursuing computer science careers. Couple that with exponential growth in artificial intelligence innovation, and it isn't hard to see the problems that arise from having a non-diverse p

Ann Garvin is a three-time published fiction author, university professor and entrepreneur who offers great advice for women and girls about the importance of breaking some rules, doing what we love and supporting other women. Listen for her insightful perspective on making mistakes, how confidence can be learned and improved through experience, and what she's doing to fix gender-based inequality of opportunities in the publishing industry. Ann keeps it real about succeeding in a world that tells overworked women to pursue "balance" and perfection over passion and an ambitious, fulfilling journey.