Girls Just Wanna Podcast

Veronica Basdeo hasn't always been a professional cookier, but she's always loved baking as a hobby! After spending a decade in the lab working for a biopharma company, she decided to make a career change. Today, we know her as The Cookie Lady's Daughter, the business that aims to inspire connection through cookie decorating! She teaches local cookie decorating classes, offers take-home cookie dec...

The Burncoat Center for Arts & Wellness is a community destination for sustainable living, arts & wellness education, and local/handmade shopping. Opened in early 2020, co-founders Kim Mowers (a sewist) and Barbara Alteri (a psychotherapist) joined forces to create a neighborhood center dedicated to nurturing the balance between creativity and wellness. Learn more about their mission and e...

Dahci-Snow Croci is a color analyst and franchise owner of House of Colour's West Side Worcester location. Color analysis is a tool that can be used to embrace your style with ease and confidence. Using color science, Dahci is able to determine her clients' color season to tell them what colors of clothes, makeup, accessories, and even hair look best on them! Listen in to learn how Dahci became a...

Tori Judd and Sarah Jacobs are the proud co-owners of Pink Sunday Salon & Suites in Clinton, Massachusetts. Coming up on one year in operation, Pink Sunday is a full-service beauty salon serving as a one-stop shop for hair, nails, lashes, and esthetics. Listen to learn more about how Tori and Sarah met, their individual experiences with hair and cosmetology, their future goals for Pink Sunday,...

Margie Breault is an energy medicine practitioner, medium, foundational mentor, author, speaker, and owner of Prism of Brilliance. Through her business, Margie guides people who are on a journey of profound self-discovery and personal transformation. She offers immersive retreats, coaching, energy healing (in a variety of modalities), and guided coursework. In this episode, we unpack Margie's self...

Zafera Kambouris' career started 17 years ago with an apprenticeship. For the last 7-plus years, she's been tattooing out of her own studio, North Moon Tattoo in Millbury, where she's grown to now employ a handful of other artists. Zef describes her style as more ornamental, floral, and tribal-looking dark-black tattoos. She aims for North Moon to be a place where art blends with mindfulness. Hear...

Rosanty Garcia is bringing all sorts of delightful drinks directly to you thanks to her brand-new mobile bar! With the help of her husband, she converted an old trailer into a mobile bar that travels right to the site of your special event in Massachusetts! In addition to the mobile bar, Sabores also offers bar services, cocktail and mocktail table set-ups, and mixology classes! We sit down with R...

Alaina Yonkers is the type of person who would organize a closet just for fun. And then she realized this fun hobby of hers is something people would more than willingly pay for. In fact, professional home organizing and decluttering services proved to be so in demand that she was able to make a career of it! Her business, Dynamic Order, has become Central Massachusetts' premier professional organ...

Karen Spencer is the Executive Director of Girls on the Run - Worcester County, a chapter she started one decade ago in 2014! Girls on the Run is a continent-wide nonprofit organization that seeks to empower young girls through teamwork, friendship, and running. Their fun, evidence-based programs inspire participants to recognize their inner strength, increase their level of physical activity, ima...

This week, we meet Leigh Soucy, owner of The Thicket in Worcester! Coming up on its one-year business-versary, The Thicket is a vintage and secondhand clothing store for fat folx located on Brussels Street in Worcester (upstairs from Acoustic Java). Leigh is on a mission to change the narrative around fat bodies, self-love, and body acceptance. With her store, she wants to help others find clothes...

Some people eat to live, but Tina Vo lives to eat! Tina started reviewing local restaurants and eateries in 2017 under the Instagram name "Live to Eat Food," and ever since, she's become a well-known foodie in the Central Mass area and beyond! While being a foodie is a dedicated hobby and passion of hers, Tina is also a primary care nurse practitioner and recently started a side busi...

This week we finally get to chat with the highly-recommended-to-us Ashling Rowen! So many previous Girls Just Wanna guests have named Ashling as a fellow woman business owner they love, so we just had to meet her for ourselves! Ashling owns Infinity Events, a full-service event planning company specializing in bespoke affairs for corporations and nonprofits. She's been an event planner for ove...

From cute trinket dishes and jewelry holders to beautiful bowls and fun home decor, leana Arias makes ceramics by hand and sells them under the business Pottery by Ile. In this episode, she explains how what started as a fun activity to do with her daughter turned into a passion and eventually into a side hustle! Ileana sells her unique, one-of-a-kind pieces at pop-ups and craft markets, as well a...

Our friend Julia Sachs is on the show this week to talk about her dramatic career change from selling diamonds to now selling dumpsters! She shares how she wound up at E.L. Harvey, a local, comprehensive waste management company, and what her day-to-day looks like as a Construction Recycling Manager. We also chat about how her "Diamonds to Dumpsters" Instagram page came to be. E.L. Harve...

This week, we sit down with Julie Bowditch, Executive Director of CASA Project Worcester County—a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for the best interest of children in foster care in our region. Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) are assigned to amplify the children’s voices, advocate for their best interests, and support them on their path toward a safe and permanent home. We...

Kat Cataldo, general manager and part owner of ILoveKickboxing's West Boylston location, joins Dominique and Catrina to share her long history with the company, what makes their fitness classes and studio atmosphere different from other gyms, and her favorite things about being a kickboxing instructor. ILoveKickboxing offers full-body HIIT workouts in a group setting. Their instructor-led clas...

The Center for Women & Enterprise is an organization that lifts up women who lift up the world. And as the program manager for CWE of Central Mass, our friend Samantha Carr plays a significant role in executing the uplifting opportunities for women entrepreneurs in our area. As part of the CWE team, Sam helps all kinds of women launch and grow their businesses by connecting them with the resou...

Kate Lally is a multi-passionate person, as evidenced by her roles as a therapist, life coach, spiritual guide, and photographer. In this episode, we talk about her career start as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) at a nonprofit, her individual experience as a therapy client, the breakdown that led her to a breakthrough, and what made her establish a life coaching business. Through her co...

As the Director of Business Administration for City Wide Facility Solutions of Boston, Cara Angeloni wears many hats. She talks with Dominique and Catrina about her role with the company and the recent Lead Like Her she organized to benefit one of City Wide's charitable partners, BeLikeBrit. Cara is also the incoming Vice President of the Young Professional Women's Association (YPWA) of Wo...

Caution: this episode may cause extreme cravings! We're talking with Neelu Mohaghegh, owner of Fuel America on Grove Street and the newly-opened Grove Village Market right next door. Fuel America - Grove Street Instagram: Fuel Grove Street (@fuelgrovestreet) • Instagram photos and videos Grove Village Market Instagram: GVM (@grovevillagemarket) • Instagram photos and videos Neelu's Website...

Kaylyn Blair, owner of A-OK Resumes joins us this week! Although she got started writing resumes and related job application materials like cover letters and LinkedIn bios, she soon realized that while that may help get her clients the job, it doesn't mean it's the *right* job for them. She expanded her services to become a career coach and help job seekers find career opportunities that a...

Allow us to introduce you to the amazing lady who introduced us: Bree DiBella! Bree owns Studio DiBella, a Worcester-based full-service creative agency specializing in the collaborative exploration and development of stunning digital and traditional marketing materials. Recently celebrating five years in business, we talk to Bree about her passion for design and creative work, some of her favorite...

Welcome to the show, Emily Acorace of Acorace Creative! A long-time friend of Catrina, Emily worked her way through the corporate world for about a decade in graphic design and marketing. Now, she uses all that experience to run a creative business of her own with her husband, Anthony. Acorace Creative offers comprehensive videography and photography services, focusing on creating strategy-based c...

Hiya! Catrina and Dominique are solo again for this episode. Simply too much has happened since our last recording date, so we needed a whole episode to fill you all in. For starters, we'll tell you why we're in a new studio location. That's where the tea spill comes in. We, of course, have to discuss the new Taylor Swift album, The Tortured Poets Department, plus how Dominique saw the...

This week, we welcome our close friend Stefanie Silva of Silva Social Events! Stef has been in the event planning industry for more than a decade now, coordinating everything from 1,000-person corporate conferences to 50-person baby showers. But her favorite events of all? Weddings. With such a strong passion for planning memorable events, Stef started her own business during the pandemic. She lov...