Soaring Stories

Lauren Hodgen is a passionate food enthusiast and the creative mind behind Citrus Diaries Studio. Since 2018, she has shared her journey of wellness through food, and she now works with food brands on their packaging design, website design, and recipe development. Lauren’s love for wholesome, nourishing ingredients is at the heart of her work, which is designed to inspire others to embrace a healt...

Sara Noel is a Website Copywriter + Marketing Mentor for business owners who want to craft compelling narratives and build better connections with their ideal clients and customers. Through copywriting, marketing strategy, and mentorship, she helps creative brands, founder-first businesses, and freelancers create, tell, and sustain their success stories—and have a whole lot of fun while doing it....

Jesslyn Rollins is the CEO of BIOLYTE, the IV in a bottle. She started selling BIOLYTE from the back of her Toyota Highlander to high school football teams, but over the course of eight years has transformed a product into a brand now featured in 15,000 retail locations, including QuikTrip and Circle K. Jesslyn embodies an infectious energy, igniting a spark in others to pursue their goals with co...

Maxine Cunningham is a startup founder and creative visionary obsessed with helping people share their knowledge. She quit her job as an economist after seeing Airbnb launch and realizing the power of the knowledge economy. ✨ We talk about: What is the knowledge economy? What Maxine learned from her parents, who were both entrepreneurs Maxine’s mindset around risk Why Maxine decided to pursue eco...

Kelsi and Cassandra are the co-founders of Kelsi’s Kitchen, a raw chocolate brand sold in Whole Foods, Sprouts, Wegmans, and more! Since 2019, Kelsi’s Kitchen has created raw truffle bites – and when I tried one (the raspberry flavor is AMAZING), I knew I wanted to chat with them to hear how they did it and how Kelsi and Cassandra are now expanding the business. ✨ We talk about: Kelsi and Cassand...

Today's episode is super special... I've been working with Ranya on the SIBZ social media accounts for a few months now and I finally get to ask her about her life before starting a snack company, and how SIBZ came to be! We also get into what celebrity fashion styling is and the similarities between that and starting a business. ✨ We talk about: How SIBZ launched nationwide in Sprouts Why Ranya...

Livi is a twentysomething podcaster, business owner, and mentor on a mission to empower the next generation. From leaving her college and full-ride scholarship to pursue her marketing company to moving to San Diego despite having never even visited, Livi has so much to share about the life of an entrepreneur. ✨ We talk about: What career path Livi was pursuing while in college Why Livi moved to S...

From idea to appearing on Shark Tank to now having sold more than 600,000 units, Shirah Benarde is the founder and CEO of Nightcap and a Forbes 30 under 30 alum. Her products are sold in Forever 21 and the brand has worked with over 150 universities to get Nightcap in the hands of students. Shirah is incredibly inspirational to young business owners and I’m so excited to have her on Soaring Storie...

Lacey Madison is a 4x business owner and marketing consultant on a tenacious mission to build a billion-dollar portfolio by creating, shaping & funding the next generation of female-founded unicorns industry agnostically. In everything she does, Lacey aims to put more money, knowledge, tools and networks into the hands of women to help them join the elite 1%. Today, we talk about how she’s gro...

Maya is an incredible entrepreneur who’s founded not one, but two brands. Today, she joins me to talk about all things building businesses, recovering from failure, and building awareness for a new company. She’s also part of the Forbes 30 under 30 class of 2019 and has been in the CPG space for over 10 years. ✨ We talk about: Maya’s transition from her first company (Koia) to her second (Happypo...

Jen Hartmann is the founder of NEAT, a boutique PR agency located in Louisville, Kentucky. With over 9 years of industry experience, she's worked for a variety of agencies managing influencer collaborations, content strategy, email marketing campaigns, and events for both startups and Fortune 500 brands. Today, I chatted with Jen about what it’s like to be the CEO of an agency with 10+ women o...

After working in marketing for huge brands like Pantone and discovering the pleasure and beauty of dates in her travels to Dubai, Kathryn Shah started Spring & Mulberry with her co-founder Sarah in 2022. Since then, Spring & Mulberry has been featured in numerous press outlets, developed 8 flavors of the chocolate bar and is sold in over 500 retail stores! ✨ We talk about: Creating the ri...

From her career cheat codes to explaining “cringe mountain” to millions of people, Courtney Johnson is a social media consultant and content creator. Today, she’s on the podcast to share how she did it – and the challenges that come with posting your ideas online for anyone to see. ✨ We talk about: Starting at advertising agencies to creating content now What jobs haven’t been invented yet? How t...

Over the past 3 years, Ellē has created a brand with her hand-drawn designs, accessories and gifts that’s reached a community of over 60k on Instagram and even a celebrity! At 20 years old, she’s a full-time small business owner with plans to expand into her own store someday. ✨ We talk about: How Ellē learned digital art Going from gap year to full-time with her business at 20 years old Gettin...

Sandie, "The Gen Z Strategist," is a Liberian-born American Brand Strategist who started out in corporate banking and found her passion in brand strategy. She excels in crafting authentic narratives that resonate in today's digital landscape, helping her clients establish themselves as thought leaders and influencers in their fields. ✨ We talk about: Sandie’s pivot from corporate ba...

Jessica Hawks is a modern online coach empowering and supporting new entrepreneurs in becoming virtual assistants. Before becoming a VA, she was a chiropractic assistant looking for a change in careers. She’s a VidCon speaker and has been featured on Business Insider, Yahoo! News, TikTok, In The Know and VIP Global Magazine. ✨ We talk about: How Jessica discovered the world of being a virtual ass...

Stephanie Long has an extensive background in marketing and communications and has led countless campaigns for both small and large businesses. After spending over a decade working in marketing for tech startups, Stephanie founded her SEO company, Mrs. SEO. Today, Stephanie shares how she got into this business and why getting laid off was the best thing that happened for her career. We talk about...

Leah and I are doing a podcast swap today! We talk about high school life in my episode on her show, Decision Day. Leah Leverich is a class of 2022 high school graduate exploring every path to success after graduation. Instead of following the traditional path, she decided to go right into the workforce doing video editing and production for entrepreneurs! We talk about: What did Leah envision for...

Maureen knew she wanted to start a business + knew she had a passion for creating content. After starting a handmade business selling on Etsy, at 20 years old, she’s built a business helping other small business owners with their own content creation. Today we get into the story behind Maureen’s success and what went into where she is today! We talk about: Maureen’s viral video with over 11M views...

From selling out of the bags she hand-sewed to working with lawyers for her potty training product, Maile McManis is an incredible young entrepreneur. She’s currently a junior in high school and shares her story with us today! We talk about: “Going for it” with your business ideas How Maile got the idea for her potty training tool Working with lawyers – the difference between a trademark and a cop...

Gel is a video editor and consultant, and her work is the opposite of following a quick trend – she sees video marketing as a sort of art, and puts a lot of strategy into the 25 second clips that are posted for her clients. We talk about: Why Gel started her video editing + consulting business Where she learnt how to edit videos in her style Content creation as a form of art How she edits video fo...

From the idea for a good-for-your-teeth candy to having her products sold in 20,000(!!) stores now as a college student, Alina is the CEO of Zolli Candy. She’s an incredible inspiration as well as a huge supporter of teen entrepreneurs! We talk about: Alina’s transition to college while running Zolli Candy How we’ve let go of perfectionism in business Pitching to Whole Foods + other wholesale acco...

Sadie is someone I’ve admired for years – she’s the host of teen mental health podcast She Persisted and is the co-founder of Waveform Social – the marketing agency for podcast hosts. Today we talk about how she grew into the role of an agency founder and working with clients on content promoting their shows. We talk about: Sadie’s own story with mental health treatment and recovery How she decide...

At 17 years old, Ke'Nyzjah is a certified food handler and makes all sorts of gorgeous cakes for people in her local community! Starting in 2020, she taught herself how to bake cakes and now wakes up at 2am (WOW) to create custom desserts for birthdays and other celebrations. We talk about: How Ke'Nyzjah taught herself how to bake Working in the business vs on the business How she found he...

With over 750k fans and followers, Jade Darmawangsa is a video creator, social media agency founder, and surfer. She’s had an unconventional career, and today Jade shares what she’s learned in the process. We talk about: Knowing that she wanted to drop out of school How Jade told her parents she wanted to be a full-time creator Managing freelancers or employees as a business owner Learning to let...