SheSez with Linda Grasso

Love music and ever wonder what it would be like to be a professional DJ, handling the tunes at chic and sophisticated events all over  the world? Meet Nikki Pennie , one of the very few female professional DJs working in the male-dominated field. Specializing fashion and beauty parties, the flame-haired DJ shares with Linda how she broke through barriers to enter the field —from how she made the...

Kombucha  started out being a healthy, effervescent tea sold at natural and health foods stores—and it was expensive. That is, until Humm Kombucha came along. Humm Kombu-cha   is the brainchild of Jamie Danek  and her partner, Michelle Mitchell. Back in the 90s Jamie had never even heard of Kombucha. She was busy climbing the ladder as a top-tier tech executive. She spent 14 years cultivating her...

  You may have wondered at some time in your life: How can I make difference? How can I do something meaningful? If I'm not a born leader, can I still make a mark on the world? In her new book, Purposeful: Are You a Manager or a Movement Starter? , Jennifer Dulski  explains how you can turn your mission into a movement that creates change—whether you're at a Fortune 500 company or a local communit...

  Kimberly Inskeep may have been voted "Best Dressed" by her high school senior class—but she never could have guessed she'd end up spearheading a $250 million dollar fashion business. Kimberly is Co-Founder and President of cabi , a women's clothing line sold through pop-up events at private homes, presided over by nearly 35-hundred saleswomen, known as "stylists," across the country. Hear the st...

At 28-years-old, Alex Hanifin  is a rock star in the natural foods industry. Just two years ago she and her business partner pooled together $25,000-every cent they owned- to co-found Alpine Start Foods , a premium brand of instant coffee that has been something of an overnight success. The single serving instant coffee can already be found on the shelves of grocery stores including Whole Foods an...

  After a decade of working for large financial institutions, and living through 911 in New York, Victoria Tsai felt a yearning for simplicity and authenticity. She suffered from the acute skin condition, dermatitis , and nothing her dermatologist provided provided relief . While traveling in Japan she met a group of modern day geisha and was struck by the beauty of their skin. She quit her job an...

She may be only in her late thirties, but Elise Loehnen has made more bold pivots that most women make in a lifetime. She grew up in Montana, went to Yale University and then moved to New York City for a career in publishing with Lucky and Condé Nast Traveler . When publishing started to feel stagnant, Elise realized she needed to "get off the bench." She moved to LA and took a job with Shopzilla...

She may work behind-the-scenes, but as one of a very small group of female professional sports leaders, LA Sparks President and COO Christine Simmons lives in the spotlight. Learn how she overcomes challenges like how she felt after winning the national championship in 2016—"I felt like I had a target on my back"—and how she is committed to growing the audience for women's basketball—showing sport...

As co-founder of Coolhaus , 34-year-old Natasha Case () is behind one of the biggest ice cream company success stories of the past decade. In 2018, it is estimated that Coolhaus will rack up 13 million dollars in sales. With unique flavors like Buttered French Toast and Street Cart Churro Dough, the brand's ice cream sandwiches and pints are sold in 6000 grocery stores across the country—including...

It's been 15 years since the hit show Touched by an Angel shut down production, but Roma Downey still gets approached by fans who remember her as the character Monica, the angel. The Emmy-nominated actress opens up to Linda about how she dealt with "the quiet" when the show was over and how she patiently and slowly recreated her life: marrying the TV producer Mark Burnett and blending their two fa...

She co-founded a major retail disruptor–the flash-sale website Gilt in 2007. She then moved on to launch Glamsquad , which—with the tap of an app—sends hair and make-up professionals to your home. But Alexandra loves a challenge and, in early 2018, she made a major pivot—from being her own boss, to working at Allergan , the mega-successful pharmaceutical company which makes Botox, among other prod...

Snagging a coveted job at one of the "Big 8" accounting firms straight out of college, Laura Hertz was on the fast-track to financial success. But working in a windowless office sometimes 6 days a week made her feel "miserable"—and she couldn't shake a rewarding experience she'd had volunteering with AmeriCorps . Laura shares how she got the hutzpah to quit her job, go back to school to USC to get...

Angie Banicki shares how she walked away from career throwing celebrity-studded parties and events in Hollywood for corporate clients like Budweiser and Grey Goose to become a professional tarot card reader . How she discovered she had an intuitive talent, how she broke the news of her career switch to her "very Catholic" parents and how she developed her gift into a full-fledged business (command...

If you're after cutting-edge Southern California style, Fred Segal is where you go to get it. From clothing to accessories to home décor, if you pick it up at one of two Los Angeles locations, there's a guaranteed cool factor. At the top of the Fred Segal empire, you'll find CEO, Allison Samek . She came out of college armed with a Stanford MBA and quickly set out to build a career in retail. Alli...

Helen Gurley Brown probably would've loved Michele Promaulayko . Like the legendary founder of Cosmopolitan . As the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, the largest women's media brand in the world, Michele is powerful, smart and outspoken. She is also the editorial director of the Hearst Young Women's Group, which means she is also in charge of Women's Health and Seventeen . Michele is responsible f...

Kristi Funk is known around the world as the doctor who treated Angelina Jolie. The actress underwent a preventative mastectomy after discovering she carried the BCRA gene mutation and then wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times about her decision. After combing through an exhaustive amount research and more than 20 years as a breast cancer surgeon, Kristi has written a new book that outlines...

There is nothing happenstance about the career of KTLA meteorologist and news reporter Liberté Chan , who works on the top-rated morning newscast. Every since she graduated college, she wanted to be a broadcaster. Learn how she armed herself with four degrees and refused to take "no" for an answer. She worked her way through several small markets (bouncing back after a demoralizing demotion) until...

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk away from the daily grind and move to a beautiful, remote place where you could take a beat and get back in touch with what's really important? That's exactly what 38-year-old Amy Jo Martin did. For her 20s and early 30s, Amy lived in the fast lane. She worked for the Phoenix Suns and then founded a company aimed at helping corporations, celebri...

She may be soft spoken and petite but make no mistake: Sheila Morovati is force of nature. She's the rare kind of person who sees something wrong and sets out to right it. The first change Sheila set her sights on making concerned the tremendous amount of crayon waste created by restaurants. While her two kids were off at pre-school, she started calling restaurants and asking them to save their ge...

Linda Grasso switches roles for this episode as she moves from host to guest. Veteran journalist Janine Sharell steps into the host role to interview Linda about her journey from a scrappy news reporter/anchor to a well-known entertainment correspondent/host for E!. Linda shares how and why, at the pinnacle of her career, she walked away from it all to be a stay-at-home mom; how she grappled with...

Drybar founder Alli Webb shares the amazing story of how her passion for hair styling morphed into a beauty industry empire. Motivated by a desire to "get out to get out of the house" while her two kids were at school, Alli started an on-the-side gig, at-home blow-drying for friends. Before long she couldn't keep up with all the referrals and the idea for a salon that only offered affordable blowo...

In 2006, Michelle DiFebo Freeman was a stay-at-home mom of three. As the wife of a prominent real estate development executive in the Washington DC area, her life was pretty close to perfect. All that changed when her husband, Joshua, was killed in a helicopter crash. Several people suggested she sell her husband's large firm and that she "go home." Instead, the high school graduate rolled up her...

As a talent agent, Rebecca Williamson represented big stars like Naomi Watts and Simon Baker. But her career took a back burner when she fell in love with and married actor Dominic Purcell and had four children in just four years. For a decade Rebecca was immersed in motherhood. But once the kids were older, she realized she needed a new path. Learn how the Australian native got her mojo back by p...

As a digital marketing strategist, Cricket Wardein worked hard and moved up the ladder quickly. But giving birth to her daughter changed everything. Hear the story of how Cricket walked away from her job at one of the most prestigious PR firms in the world to found the Mighty Pilates chain. Today she spends a lot of time shuttling between pilates studios and keeping things running—but point of fac...

Deborah Keane, Founder and CEO of California Caviar , never would have dreamed back when she was a neo-natal nurse that she would become the first woman owner of a caviar company in the world and a pioneer in the business. Learn how she moved from nursing into high-end publishing and how she took experience and knowledge from both those careers to launch a cutting edge company that produces caviar...