The Business-y Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Rae Benjamin didn’t plan on ever becoming a writer for two of the hottest shows on Netflix. She actually majored in Political Science in college. Rae took a chance one day by answering an Instagram post that would lead her down a road to sitting in the same rooms with some of the most creative writers Netflix has to offer and some of the most powerful people in Hollywood currently...

Send us Fan Mail Andrew Cotto is currently the Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Appetito magazine. He has contributed regularly over the past 15 years to major media outlets, such as The New York Times, La Cucina Italiana, Men’s Journal, Parade, Rolling Stone, Condé Nast Traveler, Maxim and more. He has also penned seven traditionally published novels, one of which he is in the process of adaptin...

Send us Fan Mail Maxi Witrak is making waves in the world of comedy with her past of being a competitive equestrian. She has worked with names such as Arsenio Hall, Jay Leno, Whitney Cummings, Craig Robinson, Michael Rapaport, Kumail Nanjiani, and hot new comedians such as Iliza and Matt Friend. But she can also drop names like Sandler and you’ve seen her in a Jacob Elordi, Daisy Edgard Jones, and...

Send us Fan Mail Amanda Poston was adopted as a baby from Seoul, South Korea. Growing up in a large American family, Amanda was only exposed to horses only a handful of times when she took lessons during her summer breaks. She graduated with a BS in computer science and a minor in computer engineering and math from University of Minnesota, Duluth and got a very secure job with Target. After 5 year...

Send us Fan Mail Rachel McLaughlin started her career as a thoroughbred racing analyst and host at a racetrack in rural Indiana, where opportunities were limited in a sport dominated by men. After 15 years, Rachel knows “getting” to do what she does every day has opened to door to so many women, not only in horse racing, but the expansion of all mainstream women in sports. She is now a regular fac...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Erin Nance dreamed of being an orthopedic surgeon. Upon entering the field, she began to not only see but also experience some of the shortfalls the field was creating between patients and the care they so desperately needed. Dr. Nance has also personally experienced those downfalls and has penned a memoir called “Little Miss Diagnosed.” She aims to take the business of health...

Send us Fan Mail 11-year-old Dusky Lynn Hall has been making headlines recently after being the youngest female professional athlete to cross the million-dollar mark and doing so in the sport of barrel racing.  She has been nicknamed the “pint-sized prodigy” of barrel racing; raising the bar of recent rule changes, expansions, and lucrative purses to incentivize athletes to pursue their sports. Wi...

Send us Fan Mail Sabre Cook knew as a child that racing cars was what she wanted to do with her life. A very supportive family pushed her along from racing motorcycles, to go karts, to where she is now racing on the fast tracks of Porsche Carrera Cup North America on the fastest tracks of Formula 1. Now in her *almost* third year, Sabre is learning the business of auto racing along with the drivin...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Hamid Shirvani is back to speak about the tumultuous start to President Trump’s first 100 days in office of his second term. We cover everything from questions about what is going on with our education system, funding, and the Federal Student Loan repayment schedule starting May 5, immigration and deportation (from the mind of an immigrant himself who came from Tehran, Iran an...

Send us Fan Mail Shay Hoelscher has worked for some of the biggest power hitter names in beauty. When Shay had the opportunity to delve into beauty with a line of her own, she jumped in the driver seat. She now helms Privé Products, and with her passion for motorsports she is sponsoring female driver Sabre Cook in Porsche Carrera Cup North America. Shay knows that the best story a brand can tell i...

Send us Fan Mail Shea Fisher took a love for music at a young age as the child of rodeo champion parent in Australia, the country very commonly nicknamed “Oz”. But her yellow brick road wasn’t a very smooth path when her label she was signed to closed, throwing a crushing blow to her dream. At a crossroads, Shea picked up and made lemonade out of lemons, and looking back she wouldn’t have it any o...

Send us Fan Mail Emma Coffman of Double E Ranch Advocacy is a full-fledged face of the operations behind where exactly your food comes from, with an education from Texas A&M University and experience of being in the field working with the people in the industry. She tells the truth of what was going on in so many southern regions when the politicians in Washington DC were telling you the Ameri...

Send us Fan Mail Cheryl Chase made a career out of her voice. Angelica Pickles took her to cartoon fame, awards ceremonies, working face-to face with Hollywood’s elite stars like Susan Sarandon and even voicing a national campaign for reading for the Barbara Bush Foundation. Cheryl credits her growth from extreme shyness to taking on new projects where she is in front of the camera now, a YouTube...

Send us Fan Mail Characters on pages and screens come to life and strike chords with audiences partially because of what they look like. Johnetta Boone is a creative genius behind those looks. With credits from films like The Notebook, Cadillac Records, Hustle, Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls, and shows like Greenleaf, and most recently the booming Yellowstone franchise, Johnetta takes us behind t...

Send us Fan Mail The creators of the comedy film Extremely Unique Dynamic, Ivan Leung and Harrison Xu, stop by to talk about all things real behind-the-scenes of making a fully self-funded independent film. Taking on some serious subjects with comedy, Harrison and Ivan are bringing audiences together for laughs and a better understanding of each other.   https://www.extremelyuniquedynamic.com/ htt...

Send us Fan Mail There is no escaping the phenomenon of the Real Housewives. Sutton Stracke, Real Housewife of Beverly Hills, has her sights set on bigger things besides the wives; she is focused on Sutton Brand. She recently held a bash in New York City with a western theme to celebrate Rachel Kibbe and Sarah Barnes, two women changing the methods and practices of the fashion industry legally. Th...

Send us Fan Mail He calls his work “Once Upon a Time”,  but the characters John Emmet Tracy puts a visual face to are often the antagonist, not the prince in shining armor, and he is more than happy to play those characters.  Starting out on a small stage, he’ll jokingly tell you he and his sister forced their family to watch their performances, but John’s most humble disposition is quite the diff...

Send us Fan Mail Singer and songwriter Giada Valenti knew music was her passion from a very young age singing in the choir at her Italian church. With training and focus, Giada made that dream come true. She has traveled all over Europe and the United States writing songs and performing with some of the brightest talents in the business, such as Andrea Bocelli, Vince Gill and Trace Adkins. But Gia...

Send us Fan Mail Susan Springsteen is a woman with a wealth of business knowledge from years of experience in predominantly male dominated fields. Her path led her from finance to technology, and her Christian beliefs led her to a life of serving. She is combining the two in the suburban Philadelphia city of Coatesville, Pennsylvania where she is helping develop a technology and innovation ecosyst...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Hamid Shirvani, former president of California State University -Stanislaus and chancellor emeritus of North Dakota University system, joins The Business-y Podcast to talk about the current events surrounding the middle eastern conflict pertaining to Iran, and how the United States election of Donald Trump will change the landscape of current events. Iran has been a factor bet...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Jess Venner started a career in marketing when she pivoted her career choice to study the magic of our ancestors after reading a book of the infamous women in history. Her choice led her to the city of Pompeii, Italy where she studies the culture of a city frozen in time, and just how the people of the city lived until a volcanic eruption covered the city. During a time of Rom...

Send us Fan Mail Carson Blevins took her love for horses and photography to a new level when she caught the three-wide running of Mystik Dan, Forever Young and Sierra Leone at the 150th Kentucky Derby, and ended up on The Pat McAfee Show with her epic photo. Her love for the thoroughbreds and their abilities started at age 14, when she saved up to buy a retired racehorse and retrain it for a new v...

Send us Fan Mail Thirteen years ago Arianna Vastino took a chance on a dream. She took her passion for fashion and equestrian sport and made it into a full brand. LeFashNY was the product of time, tears and learning. Today, the brand has grown to a full line of apparel, accessories, home goods and what Arianna calls a “full lifestyle brand”. The LeFash style is bougie, but so is the sport of kings...

Send us Fan Mail Jessica Paquette landed a job many females in thoroughbred racing are not very well known for: race caller. She gets very honest about her beginnings in the industry that is very well-known for nepotism, but is making a priority to tell women that they have a place -and now a voice- in the industry. It has not come without much criticism, much to Jessica's stubborn and spitef...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Hamid Shirvani joins The Business-y Podcast to talk about the history of Iran and how a multi-thousand year regime has stayed in power through geopolitical ups and downs. While names and religions have changed, humans have inhabited the lands and have been fighting for power the entire time. Dr. Shirvani breaks down political alliances of the past and gives us insight how Iran...