Support is Sexy

Fitness expert and celebrity trainer Holly Del Rosso learned a lesson in resilience very early in her childhood, when her mom left their family when Holly was 12 years old, and she and her brother went to live with her Italian great aunt, who showed her what it was to "take the reigns" and work hard.   Since then, Holly has tapped into that resilience again and again as she fought to build a busin...

April McKoy Robinson's success story as principal and founder of the award-winning UA Gateway School of Technology high school in New York City is an unlikely one. As an immigrant from Jamaica, April's time in school once she came to America heavily influenced her. While she flourished due to attentive and brutally honest teachers in elementary school, she struggled at Bronx Science -- her high-ac...

I almost didn't make it. It's an annual trip my girls – my best friends from my college days at Hampton University – and I take to Martha's Vineyard each August for the past 3 years. But this summer, I was going to skip it.   Why? Because I didn't have the space for it. Or so I thought.   I convinced myself just a week out from the trip that I needed to sit this year out and stay cramped up in my...

At 40, as a mom and a longtime executive in digital publishing, Djenaba Johnson-Jones became very interested in fitness, going especially hard with lifting weights and "working out with the guys." This new passion led her to get her fitness certification and sparked the idea for a fitness concierge business; but when she wanted to look into preparing food for her clients, she discovered something:...

Moshay Laren's start in radio was no fantasy. In fact, before her first time on the mic, she had to run to the bathroom she was so sick with nervousness. But what she didn't do was back down from the challenge--and she never has. After her 18 years in the business came to an abrupt end, Moshay is now passionate about building her real estate empire along and educating people of color about opportu...

A trip to Cuba changed everything for former film marketing executive Dee Poku. While on holiday during a busy, chaotic time for her industry, Dee realized it was time for her to make a transition and strike out on her own, even though she didn't know exactly what that would look like.  Eventually, after being invited to an exclusive event with a room full of powerful women who came together to ne...

A power(ful) walk on the beach with masterful motivator Tony Robbins and 100 other people in the Bahamas could change anyone's perspective. But for fitness expert and Intensati founder Patricia Moreno, it changed everything . At the time -- as a longtime fitness instructor, who new the pains of yo-yo dieting and struggles with weight -- Patricia wanted to create a workout that really transformed p...

Let's face it, ladies, there's something about that time of the month that makes us crazy, crampy, irritable, sleepy, creative, horny, hungry… and that barely scratches the surface. For most of us, the emotions and discomfort are something we just deal with, even if it causes us great pain and totally throws a wrench in our days. Such was the case for years for Stasha Washburn, aka The Period Coac...

When Nicole Aguirre graduated from college in 2008, she was a young woman with a plan and a high-level position lined up with the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. But the economy had other plans, and after a hiring freeze, Nicole -- always a creative -- had to get creative. The longtime photographer got busy creating her own project, a DC-based fashion magazine called Worn, and was on her...

For private chef, author and TV personality Bren Herrera, everything happens in the kitchen, and it always has. Since Bren was a child growing up in her Cuban family in Washington, D.C., the kitchen was always the epicenter for family, friends and gatherings--where she remembers all were physically and spiritually nourished. Today, Bren brings this same spirit to her own culinary creations as she...

Have you ever started a business -- one that you absolutely love, but that has yet to make any money and that you can't quite figure out? Have you ever thought, maybe I'm not on the right track, or maybe I am, who's to say?!   In this conversation with Teju Owoye, CEO of Sulte Group and host of Teju. TV, she tells about the importance of continuing to experiment until you get it right, whether tha...

Stylist and image maker Rachel Johnson has been featured in the New York Times , ESPN and countless other publications for the impeccable way she creates new looks for her gentleman clients. She has been credited with "making over" the NBA and bringing a new style awareness to a number of top athletes. Her work has helped land longtime clients LeBron James on the covers of Vogue and GQ , Victor Cr...

What's your story?   We all have one – a story of where we began, how we got to this point, what we've encountered along the journey so far. Now, consider this: How might the story that you've been telling yourself -- whether true or not -- be holding you back? More than that, how is it stressing you out?   This is what career and personal development strategist Victoria Geller helps her clients n...

Mitzi Miller has been focused on choosing happy since she was a little girl. If whatever it was didn't seem like it would make her happy, she walked away. But as an adult, with a high powered editor-in-chief position at a magazine she long admired, she was unhappy, felt stuck and was making herself seriously ill. As an 18-year liver transplant survivor, Mitzi's body was beginning to succumb to the...

You've seen her on The View , Today show, E! and more, she was the first woman of color to be beauty director of Seventeen magazine, has graced the pages of many others and has been a host on the red carpet at the Grammy's, the Oscars and more. Her clients include P&G, Cover Girl and Walmart, and she is a style ambassador for brands like InStyle . But what's grand about Tai Beauchamp is how ground...

In 2015, Fila Antwine's job was making her sick -- literally. She was stressed every Sunday night and was often brought to tears just thinking about going to work on Monday. Doctors diagnosed her with IBS, likely caused by the stress. Eventually, she had enough, so she quit, and that's when her real work began.   Today, Fila owns a relationship and life coaching business where she empowers and ins...

Shoe designer Jessica Perdomo is not only an example of resilience and determination ("I can't tell you how many stores I got kicked out of," she says), she is also an example of someone who is not afraid to take inspired action . Or maybe, at times, she is afraid, but she does it anyway, and this makes her courageous as hell!   Jessica is the founder of the incredibly gorgeous footwear line, J.J....

For Michelle Burford , a New York Times bestselling ghostwriter and collaborator, the journey from growing up in a tight-knit family in Phoenix, Arizona, to a small magazine publishing company in Colorado Springs, to walking the halls of Essence , to sipping cocktails with Oprah was all a result of something her mother taught her: Be excellent, and never cut corners.   In this epic (and I mean epi...

Connie DaSilva is all about making women feel good inside and out. In 2012, after frustrations with not being able to find the perfect plant-based skincare products and an impromptu brainstorming session with her closest friends, Connie launched her natural skincare line, Whole Clarity (which, by the way, has the best natural deodorant and a coconut pulling oil that I swear by). Now, the homemade...

Jennifer Love is the CEO of One More Woman -- a fast-track, high-performance, educational and advisory community helping women entrepreneurs take the stress out of the money equation so they can effectively raise, make, manage and give money. As a serial entrepreneur with 17 years of experience, Jennifer has consulted with and helped companies raise more than $100 million, including one client tha...

By age 25, Tanya Alvarez's first business, Blink Ads, generated more than $1 million in revenue within the first year, and she was already thinking about launching her next ventures. She went on to successfully launch two other companies – Spokesmoms and La Cosmopolatina -- but even with that success, the Miami native, who had already worked at four startups by then, said that comparison mode made...

Cheryl Gentry and her event management company, Glow Media -- which has been in business for 18 years strong -- has planned conferences, events and summits around the world with some of the most prestigious clients. But during a recent event, as her team scrambled to work around glitch-y apps they were using to get things organized, Cheryl had an epiphany: there needed to be one tool that allowed...

Sian Morson is a tech superstar, and yet one of the most grounded people you'll ever meet. Sian is founder of the tech company Kollective mobile, which develops apps and web sites for brands. She speaks and lectures at major technology conferences, such as SXSW, she has been featured in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Ebony and on NPR, and she has been named one of the top women in tech to follow on...

Say "yes." Spiritual teacher Barbara Biziou has taught me, and thousands of her students around the world (Donna Karan and Gabby Bernstein among them), many things over the years, but one of the most powerful for me is embracing the possibility of "yes." Barbara says we, as creative women looking for experiences, say it far too little.  Barbara is a student of global culture and rituals who uses "...

Karen Taylor Bass is a small business coach who has nearly three decades of experience in strategic public relations, branding and marketing. She has helped gain national press for celebrity clients like Jill Scott and D'Angelo at the starts of their careers and for her personal clients. Karen also has been featured as a PR expert on Dr. Oz , CNN and BET, and in Entrepreneur , Essence and NY Daily...