My Great Pivot

After twenty years of working in corporate customer success, Emily DeSousa was feeling overworked, burnt out, and desperate for a change. Then, she randomly came across a "for sale" listing for a run-down laundromat in her neighborhood. Reviews for the place were horrible; half the machines were broken, and it had become a hangout for hard drug users and the unhoused. But Emily saw potential: an u...

Andia Winslow is an award-winning voice artist, actor, and storyteller who’s appeared in campaigns for the world’s biggest brands, in series like the TV adaptation of A League of Their Own, bestselling video games like Call of Duty , documentary series like PBS’s Wild Hope …and so much more.  Her professional journey offers a masterclass in pivoting: a Yale grad, she’s been a golf pro, live-in car...

Gayle Jones shares how a 25-year career in sports television — producing for NBA on TNT, multiple Olympic Games, the NFL, and more — gave her an insider’s view into how professional athletes fuel their performance. When her teen daughter’s soccer performance began suffering from injuries and slow recovery, Gayle recognized that nutrition was the issue, inspiring her to create FuelBoxx , a pre-game...

Sabina Gendler, CEO and co-founder of Friendly , traces the idea for her startup to a job relocation. The marketing exec was eager to make new friends locally – especially during her maternity leave – but found no easy way of doing so. Her solution? Friendly, an app that connects women who share common values, are in the same stage of life, and live within a two-mile radius. Sabina realized that j...

For Stephanie, a Peabody Award-winning media executive, producer, and writer, the inspiration behind her startup was deeply personal. When she was told that her son — who has profound autism — would never independently manage certain daily tasks like showering, she set out to prove the experts wrong. She spent the pandemic lockdown creating adaptive tools, and today, he’s conquered the shower ritu...

Nicole Lipkin, an organizational and clinical psychologist, shares her journey as the founder of Hey Kiddo, a parenting partner app for caregivers of children from birth through age twelve. She traces the app's inspiration back to her late parents, South Bronx school teachers who made their home a psychologically safe space for every kid in the neighborhood. Nicole discusses why she walked away fr...

Breanna Hoepner shares how she left a 24-year career in unscripted television to launch her own custom cake business, Once Upon a Cake Studio . She details how an assumption nearly kept her from pursuing this dream, and how a friend’s challenge and simple Google search revealed that it was far more accessible than she’d ever imagined. The conversation covers how her television production backgroun...

Carrie DeMartini shares her journey from copywriter to end-of-life doula and owner of the Wishing Well Center, a business focused on end-of-life planning and grief support. She discusses the multifaceted nature of her role, the importance of certification, and the challenges of carving out a unique business in a field with limited existing pathways. In sharing the challenges of monetizing a callin...

In this episode of the My Great Pivot podcast, Erica Tuggle shares her journey from corporate marketing director to founder of Livin, a platform that connects busy families and professionals to affordable home chefs in their area. The discussion highlights the evolution of Erica's idea and the challenges she's faced in the early stages of the business. We cover a range of topics, including evolvin...

In this episode of the My Great Pivot podcast, Lindsay Scherr Burgess shares her journey scaling an Etsy side hustle into a successful business, Green Wallscapes, which creates stunning preserved moss walls for clients. Since launching in 2018, Lindsay and the Green Wallscapes team have created over 1,000 moss walls, generating millions in revenue out of their West Palm Beach studio. The conversat...

Kacie Darden shares her inspiring pivot from middle school science teacher to owner of her own thriving travel agency, Blue Pineapple Travel. Less than two years after setting a cycling world record, Kacie landed in the ICU, nearly dead from complications during the birth of her twins. Resulting health issues forced her to leave the teaching job she loved, so she decided it was time for a professi...

In this episode, Naama Nicotra, the co-founder of NakedPak, shares her inspiring journey developing edible food packaging NakedPak, which aims to reduce plastic waste. Naama discusses the journey from the initial concept, inspired during her studies in Helsinki, to creating a tangible product with significant industry interest. She highlights the importance of finding the right co-founder, bootstr...

In this episode of 'My Great Pivot,' we speak with Alice Park, an inspiring entrepreneur who left a secure engineering job to launch Park Studios, a thriving photography business in Atlanta, Georgia. Alice shares some of the struggles that come with launching and owning a business, and how she drew inspiration from her parents' entrepreneurial spirit. She discusses the continuous need for innovati...

A sneak preview of the first season of the My Great Pivot podcast, where we interview female founders at all stages of the entrepreneurial journey. Catch a glimpse of some of the founders we speak to this season, including: - a teacher who followed her bliss after a life-threatening childbirth... and launched a business that's taken her around the world -a founder who parlayed an Etsy side-hustle...