Behind Her Empire

Dr. Joan Rosenberg is an expert psychologist, best-selling author, and founder of Emotional Mastery & Emotional Mastery Training. After three decades, tens of thousands of hours of clinical practice, and ten years of neuroscience research, Dr. Rosenberg is recognized for her thought leadership and approach that radically changes people’s lives.  In our conversation together, we unpack how...

Sallie Krawcheck, is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ellevest, a digital-first investment platform working to help close the gender wealth gap by “redefining investing for women.” Sallie’s professional mission is to help women reach their financial and professional goals… or as she says to get more money in the hands of women. She’s definitely on her way as Ellevest recently announced they have $1Bn und...

Michelle Cordeiro Grant is the founder & CEO of LIVELY, a community and brand that inspires women to live passionately and purposefully through experiences and products like bras, bralettes, undies, and so much more.  Michelle grew up with immigrant parents, thinking she wanted to become a doctor or a lawyer, but her true passion lay in working with products and building brands. At the en...

Sadie Lincoln is the co-founder and CEO of barre3, a fitness company focused on teaching people to be balanced in body and empowered from within. Sadie was climbing up the ranks, working alongside the founder of 24-hour fitness for over a decade, and realized she was in a crisis when she got pregnant with her first daughter. Despite being financially successful, happily married, and living in the...

In today’s mini-episode, we’re talking about the realities of managing both motherhood and your career. The fundamental question that many women uniquely ask themselves is: Can I still be successful and pursue my desires of being a mother & building a family? The short answer is yes, but there is so much to dig into on this. I’ve specifically picked two incredible entrepreneurs to expand on th...

Laureen Asseo is the Founder and CEO of Fresh n' Lean, the largest organic prepared meal delivery service in the US.  She was only 18 years old in 2010 when she founded the company out of her one-bedroom apartment, all while attending the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. She had always dreamed of being an entrepreneur, and actually had goals for establishing her own sustainabl...

In today’s mini-episode, we’re talking about imposter syndrome - something we all deal with, including many of the successful, self-made women I’ve interviewed on the podcast. I’m excited to share some advice from three of our most popular interviews to help you overcome imposter syndrome and stop feeling like a fraud.  * Lee Mayer’s full episode: https://www.behindherempire.com/episode/lee-m...

Jordan Salcito is an award-winning sommelier and founder of RAMONA, a delicious organic wine spritzer made with high-quality standards. Jordan began her career in New York as a hostess before becoming a prep cook, sommelier, manager, and eventually, the Wine & Beverage Director at David Chang’s Momofuku restaurants. She is also a 5-time James Beard Award semi-finalist and was named “Most...

Keren Eldad is an acclaimed motivational speaker, leadership psychology expert, and founder of With Enthusiasm, where she provides world-class personal and professional coaching.  Before becoming an internationally-recognized coach, Keren had an illustrious business career. After spending years in the world of publishing, she then founded her own marketing company, Digiluxe. Despite all of th...

Minnie Ingersoll is an investor, co-founder, and former COO of Shift, an online marketplace for used cars. After 12 years at Google, working as a product manager and later principal with Google.org, she co-founded Shift in 2013 while she was on maternity leave. Minnie shares that she never thought she’d be a founder and in the used car industry, but the opportunity to build a business from scratch...

Holly Thaggard is the founder of Supergoop!, the first and only skincare brand that is 100% dedicated to UV protection. In 2005, Holly’s life and career path completely changed when a good friend of hers was diagnosed with skin cancer. It was at this point, she realized that people weren’t taking sunscreen seriously. Holly realized that it was important for someone to make sunscreen “cool” in orde...

Prerna Gupta is a serial entrepreneur and investor. After being at the helm of many successful startups, Prerna is now the CEO and Founder of Hooked, a company that is redefining fiction for the Snapchat generation. Hooked has over 100 million viewers across social media, a short form video streaming app called Hooked TV, and has received funding from Ashton Kutcher, Mariah Carey, LeBron James, an...

Shilpa Shah is the Co-Founder of Cuyana, a fashion brand that marries luxury-level branding with premium quality apparel and accessories, offering "fewer, better things" to women at accessible price points.  Shilpa spent the first part of her career designing web and mobile interfaces for Fortune 500 companies. Although she was passionate about design, it wasn't until she was pregnant with he...

Liz Elting is a self-made businesswoman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She co-founded and was the co-CEO of TransPerfect, the world’s largest provider of language and business solutions valued at over a billion dollars. As someone with a passion for languages and business, Liz wasn’t always sure about the path she was going to take. When she decided to follow her interests and study languages,...

Seema Bansal is the co-founder of Venus ET Fleur, the company behind Eternity Roses, which are real roses that stay fresh for a full year, an invention that has permanently transformed the billion-dollar floral industry.  Seema never set out to start a company in the floral business. In 2015, Seema was in a long-distance relationship with her now husband and business partner, Sunny. He sent h...

Sharon Rechter is the co-founder of First Media, a multi-platform, content publisher that is dedicated to the do-it-all millennial woman.  First Media's clever, lifehack style videos bring in over 1.7 billion monthly views on social media and their BabyFirst TV cable network reaches over 60 million US homes. Their social media brands, So Yummy, Blusher, and Blossom, have an average of 50mm vi...

Shalini Vadhera is a beauty entrepreneur, celebrity make-up artist, bestselling author, and founder of a multi-million dollar global cosmetics company that started from her garage. Shalini’s journey was far from easy. Although her business scaled to over $20 million in revenue and found instant success in large retailers like Sephora and QVC, Shalini lacked mentorship and faced a whole host of cha...

Sarah LaFleur is the Founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur, a fashion company creating practical, inspired wardrobes for the modern, professional woman. From an early age, Sarah was exposed to high-end fashion through her mother who worked in the industry. When Sarah graduated from college and started shopping on her own for work clothing, she realized the experience and clothes were lacking despite spen...

Gail Becker is the founder and CEO of CAULIPOWER, a company revolutionizing our favorite comfort foods by making them better and better for you.  As a mother of two sons with Celiac disease, Gail was always desperate for nutritious gluten free options. She found hundreds of thousands of recipes for cauliflower pizza to make for her kids - and they loved it. However, it took forever to make an...

Sarah Flint is the executive chairman, creative director, and founder of Sarah Flint, a luxury shoe brand aimed at on-the-move women who need comfort just as much as fashion and style.   In 2013, Sarah was on a mission to create luxury shoes made from the finest materials that not only looked good but also felt amazing. Early on in her business, she was a full-time nanny and was looking...

Ellen Bennett is the founder & CEO of Hedley & Bennett, an LA-based culinary workwear and lifestyle brand that has transformed the way professional (and home) chefs dress forever. By making her dream into a reality, she has created the largest gourmet apron factory in the world. Being raised by a single mother who made her feel safe to try new things and get comfortable with failure, Ellen...

Lizanne Falsetto is the founder of thinkThin, health and wellness visionary, business media commentator, and adviser to the next-generation of entrepreneurs. In 2000, after a decade of world travel and a successful career modeling internationally, Lizanne launched thinkThin from her own need of wanting to create a better-for-you, high protein nutrition bar for active women on the go. Starting smal...

Nisha Dua is a General Partner at BBG Ventures, which she co-founded with Susan Lyne in 2014. BBG Ventures is an NYC-based seed fund investing in consumer tech start-ups with a focus on women and underrepresented founders.  Nisha believes the greatest untapped opportunity for venture capital lies in backing women who are using technology to address common life-challenges and transform daily h...

Misha Nonoo is a New York-based womenswear designer who is known for her sustainable, sleek, and timeliness ready-to-wear pieces.  From the time Misha was a young girl, she was fascinated with fashion and empowering women as she witnessed the dichotomy of women’s roles growing up in Bahrain as well as London. Her upbringing gave her an appreciation for different cultures and an understan...

Karissa Bodnar is the Founder and CEO of Thrive Causemetics, a high-performance vegan, cruelty-free direct-to-consumer cosmetics brand. Karissa grew up on a farm in Washington state and always loved creating makeup since she was a young girl. After working as a make-up artist to pay her way through college, she landed a job at Clarisonic and then was working in L'Oréal’s luxury division. Kari...