Small Business Stories

Mae Karwowski is the Queen of Influencer Marketing. She was firing it up even before it became a "thing." Her company, Obvious.ly was voted AdWeek's fastest growing marketing agency in 2019. She shares her insights as a startup founder and as one of the women in tech with Loralyn Mears.

Hanan Kamal Eldhary, founder of Neighborhood Pal, is making the emotional experience of moving easier to manage. Her sound pin technology enables people to virtually visit new neighborhoods and to "drop in" on all the sights, sounds and reviews of what's going on the 'hood. She shares her insights as a startup founder and as one of the women in tech with Loralyn Mears.

Meet Sharmi Albrechtsen , founder of SmartGurlz & SmartBuddies who is making STEM fun for boys and girls. Good Housekeeping named their Code Camp the best available for children today and Sharmi turned down an offer on SharkTank! She talk with Loralyn Mears about alternative to VC funding.

Emily Leach has been a freelancer for over 25 years, organizing events like TEDtalks and building websites designed for optimal SEO. When she needed insights and support - she couldn't find any - so she founded the annual Freelancer Conference and Freelance Business Week to bring like-minded people together. She shares what she's learned along the way with Loralyn Mears.

Kristi Herold, founder of Toronto Sport & Social Club and JAM, connects people through play and builds communities in the gym, on the court and online. The pandemic forced her to pivot and make some tough calls, but she's focused on her vision of uniting 1 million people through play. She joined Loralyn Mears to share her story.

Mary D'Onofrio is every bit "Like a Boss." As the VP of high growth investments at arguably the oldest venture capital company in the world, Bessemer Venture Partners, she makes big bets for tens of millions of dollars, typically at the Series B and beyond stage. She sits on six Boards and makes critical decisions for SaaS companies with an emphasis on cloud technology. Here, she joins Loralyn Mea...

What a treat! Sally Williamson, coach, founder and podcast host of, "What's Your Story?" joined Loralyn Mears to speak candidly about communication trends, the level of self-awareness in leaders today and to offer some great tips for the next generation of women.

Sam Kamani, best-selling author of "30 Day Startup," serial entrepreneur and podcast host of "Want Money Got Money," joined Loralyn Mears to share his insights for tech founders on the development of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). He highlighted the importance of networking and creating content.

Dr. Jenine Beekhuyzen is a STEMinist that is changing the world - one girl at a time as the founder of Tech Girls Movement. She encourages girls to think about STEM + X where X is anything that you're passionate about. "Sometimes you have to change behaviors before you can change attitudes."

Kathy Campbell aka @MrsSoup as she's known all over social media, helps female founders let go of what they believe they have to keep doing. She gives them "permission" to be free and creative. She's the hostess of the podcast, Friends in Your Ears, which is very meta - she hosts a podcast asking guests about the podcasts that they listen to. Here, she joins Loralyn Mears as we wrap up Season 1 of...

Meet Jennifer Mercer, serial entrepreneur and female founder of Metazoa, a #1 tool for Salesforce.com. She shares lessons learned around fundraising, scaling too fast, equity dilution and leadership. "Entrepreneurialism has high highs and low lows."

Freelancers have been working from home for a long time. It's only been recently, in the wake of COVID, that the rest of the world left their offices for their kitchen tables and bedrooms as new places and spaces to do their work. The problem is that the long-term effects of isolation, poor ergonomics, eye-strain and so on aren't well known until they're too late to do anything about. Meet Daniel...

Meet the pioneer of TatTech - Laura Schaack. Hear her founder story on how she merged tattoo artistry and tech to build one of the scrappiest startups around. She spent years learning about tech, engineering, marketing and more. Now, she's poised for tremendous success.

Janine Kelbach, a registered nurse, spoke to Loralyn Mears about burn out at the bedside and how pivoting to a career in writing helped her - and the other nurses she's helped - find balance and happiness in her life.

Luz Gonzalez, founder of EQrefined, dishes on EQ and the differences between emotional intelligence vs awareness. She offers insights on how to use EQ to build inner strength.

Feeling like 2020 is starting to get to you? You're not alone. The CDC reports that 40% of adults today are experiencing issues with their mental health. Today, Loralyn Mears offers 3 tips on how to manage burnout towards finding some peace of mind.

Meet Angela Ferrante, she's the founder of Laudable who's making it easy for customers to generate high quality video. She offered a unique perspective on keeping up with reading but stepping away from the biz books genre to allow her to relax and think more creatively. Angela shared numerous other insights with Loralyn Mears.

Are you one of those people that is ALWAYS late for everything? Maybe you've tried that "set-your-clock-ahead" trick and it didn't work for you. Not to worry, we've got you covered. Here are three coaching tips on how to overcome your punctuality problem.

Jess Green, serial entrepreneur and founder of GoGrow, is making it easier for network marketing people to grow their revenues. No more spreadsheets and scrap paper notes! She's designed a platform that's simple to use and is designed to overcome the 47% failure rate in the industry. She shares her insights with host, Loralyn Mears.

Loralyn Mears, PhD offers coaching tips on a different theme each week. This week's theme is how to get back in front of the 8 ball, instead of being behind it all the time.

Promise Phelon is part of the 0.2% club in Silicon Valley, a growth warrior and serial entrepreneur who's raised over $100 million in capital. She's developed a conditioning program to help other underdogs find success as founders and fundraisers. Her State of the Underdog research report highlights that the gap is widening for underdogs to access capital despite the tremendous upside potential fo...

In our longest yet perhaps most important podcast to date, Loralyn Mears speaks with Sheila North, former Grand Chief of Cree Nation Tribe and the only woman to hold that honor. Sheila shares her perspectives on the need to make indigenous people self-sufficient through training and augmented diversity and inclusion efforts. Her documentary, "1200+" will be airing soon and shares the tragic story...

Loralyn Mears dives into this week's wine down and chill theme, frozen ground, with affordable wine, food, music and movie pairing suggestions including the Freixenet Ice Cuvee Especial. Learn about the Catalunya wine region of Spain and why these bubbles are so special.

Loralyn Mears talks about your life plan - we arbitrarily and loosely set goals for various milestones. However, when we don't hit those milestone goals, we become very critical of ourselves and often depressed because we've missed them. Here, I present tips on how to stop feeling like you're "behind" on your life plan.