The Story Behind Her Success

My jaw dropped when I learned what was happening to the manufacturing industry. I didn’t realize that everything had been off-shored. So in 2015, I made the commitment to buy only products made in the USA. -Dianna Huff Born and raised in California, Dianna Huff had the kind of childhood that remains difficult to talk about to this day. She was fortunate to have an English teacher who told her she...

I’m sort of like the Oprah Winfrey of banking. I like to ask a thousand questions and figure out where everyone is going and how I can help. -Lisa Murray Lisa Murray knows banking. She’s been involved in the industry since she graduated from the University of Connecticut and has been climbing the ladder to the top ever since. As the President of Citizens Bank of Massachusetts, she represents the b...

Music is my first language.  It’s the way I learned to express and process my feelings . -Kala Farnham Kala Farnham is a gifted musician, singer, and songwriter who grew up in a house full of music. Her parents were a successful folk duo who encouraged musical exploration and weren’t at all surprised when Kala started playing the piano at three. As she grew up, Kala added guitar, banjo, dulcimer,...

As long as love infuses everything I do, I’m in the place I want to be. -Anita Silvey Armed with a firm belief that children’s books change lives, Anita Silvey has spent her entire career in children’s literature as an editor, a literary critic, and as an author. Raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Anita recalls being one of those kids whose idea of heaven involved a cozy chair and a pile of books from...

At the moment that it happened, when I could see into the eyes of that shark, and then it veered away, my first emotion was not fear. It was fascination and wonder. -Laura DeSisto I’m always on the lookout for stories that will inspire and motivate you, and the story of Laura DeSisto checks all the boxes! Raised around the water every summer on Martha’s Vineyard, Laura begged her parents to let he...

My books are like Nancy Drew for grownups . -PK Norton Meet PK (Paula) Norton, murder mystery author extraordinaire. She spent most of her career in the insurance business, first as an agent and then as an insurance investigator, sniffing out fraud and looking for clues. Paula and her late husband loved to travel and over dinner, would concoct unique ways to kill people. Jack died of Parkinsons&#8...

Pursue your dreams, even if someone says “you’re crazy”. Do it anyway! -Yolanda Cellucci We’re on location for this episode in the penthouse of Yolanda Cellucci: a fashion icon with a passion for Swarovski crystals, feathers, fur, sequins, and every shade of white. Known as the Goddess of Glitz, she is the author of the book Beyond the Glitz & Glamour which chronicles the story of a girl who g...

I’ve gone from creating something that millions of people around the world will want, to creating something that is individual to the woman who wears it . -Betsy Ferg Wood In the spotlight, Betsy Ferg Wood. She spent much of her career focused on brand identity and product design where job #1 was to communicate the essence of major brands to consumers worldwide. She was living large…from New York,...

Turning my pain into my passion. That’s what is most important to me . – Morgan Dzicek Morgan Dzicek is a beautiful young woman who is loaded with talent. A singer, songwriter, violinist and former New England Patriots Cheerleader, Morgan has had the experience of singing the National Anthem and cheering for the Patriots as they won their 5th Super Bowl. But life has not been all sunshine an...

I thank God that He has allowed me to be strong enough to endure this and to show my family and friends that I am a “she cancer warrior”. -Tona Hines October is breast cancer awareness month and sadly, the statistics have not improved. 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and this is a disease that affects the woman and her whole family. In this episode, we’re shinin...

I have MS. MS does not have me. I prefer to be Bridget the mother, the wife, the career driven woman . -Bridget Snell In this episode, we meet Bridget Snell, co-founder of Waiting Room Media and Chief Editor of the company’s flagship print magazine, Living Crue. Diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis in 2015, Bridget made a choice not to allow the disease to rule her life. When trad...

What means the most to me is building community, finding safe spaces for the lonely and the elderly. -Nikki Shults Nikki Shults grew up on a family compound in rural Connecticut. At the center of this compound, in the humble, makeshift home lived her grandmother whom she called “Meme”. This wise, matriarch of the family lived to be 95, surrounded by generations of the people she loved. It was on t...

If I can push my body to the limit physically, what can I do mentally in other parts of my life? -Kathleen Ralls, PhD We’re back with another season of stories about women doing great things with their lives. If you need a dose of get up and go, this episode is for you. Kathleen Ralls is a lifelong athlete who is also an award-winning educator, a high school sports coach and a Fullbright Scholar w...

I’ve innately had this willingness, a fearlessness to challenge the people in charge and to not be afraid of power. -Jenn Abelson Have you ever wondered what it might be like to be an investigative reporter? In the spotlight, Jenn Abelson, reporter for The Washington Post and co-host of the new series, Broken Doors. www.washingtonpost/brokendoors . Born and raised on Long Island, New York, Jenn we...

If they didn’t let me in the front door, I was going to climb up the cellar stairs . -Sandra Goroff Sandy Goroff has spent 40 years shouting about her clients from the rooftops. In this interview, we turn the tables to talk about her incredible career as a publicist and photographer and the result is a tutorial on how to do it right. Sandy specializes in authors and their books, art, lifestyles, d...

I don’t really believe in obstacles. If there’s a wall, you get on top of it and start dancing -Elin Schran Meet Elin Schran, Founder of Joy Skate Productions: joyskateproductions.com . She’s passionate about making ice skating accessible to all and spends her days bringing specially designed camps and clinics to rinks that accommodate skaters of every age and every ability, including adaptive/the...

When you have a child with a heart defect, you live with fear every day. And yet, you have to live your life and you have to lean into hope . -Diane Pickles Diane Pickles admits that a little voice inside her head thought something might be wrong with the unborn child she was carrying. The year was 1994 and she and her husband William had a healthy three year old son at home when an ultrasound rev...

I look at everyone on my team as a colleague. We’re all women, we’re all tough and we care . -Christine Buckley If you’ve ever had a really bad headache, the worst kind of headache that keeps you up at night and just won’t quit, keep listening because this episode just might save your life. All too often, severe headaches for women between the ages of 35-60 are all too often explained away as stre...

Work hard, play hard, enjoy every day and THINK BIG . -Candy Costas Get ready for a personal and career story that plays out like a roller coaster ride! In the spotlight, Candy Costas, RN. She’s the President & Co-Owner of Privatus, a private, upscale nursing company with 500 employees that spans five states and counting www.privatuscare.com. What we will learn in this story is that running a...

What makes us different is that we lead with kindness. We lead with relationships first, and the business comes organically and naturally . -Melissa Gilbo & Amy Pocsik In the spotlight, two moms who were invited by a colleague to meet for coffee. That meeting would change Melissa Gilbo and Amy Pocsik’s lives because as they spoke and compared notes about their business careers, they realized w...

Every day is a chance to make the world a more beautiful place . -Tanya Holton The Arnold Arboretum is a treasure to Boston. Established in 1872 it encompasses 281 acres of land owned by Harvard University in an area of Boston called Jamaica Plain. The Arnold Arboretum is filled with 15,500 individual plants and is a benchmark for similar institutions all across North America. In this interview, w...

Our children are borrowed. They are not ours. It is our duty, our role, our most important thing to empower them and raise them right . -Katie Wood The woman you are about to meet was a guest on The Story Behind Her Success in the summer of 2019. When we recorded her story, she was expecting her 4th child and that episode continues to be one of our most downloaded shows. The community of women who...

I have created for other women what I know I needed, which is a platform to be seen and to be heard and to be celebrated for being just who you are . -Kristie Dean We all know what it means to receive healing from medicine, but how do you mend a broken heart? How do you heal your soul? Enter Kristie Dean. The mother of three young girls and a gifted photographer, it wasn’t that long ago when she w...

Bad things can happen. Good things can happen. But how do you conduct yourself and I don’t mean putting on a facade. How do you take care of you? -Tara West Childhood trauma can linger for a lifetime. It can kill your self-confidence, leaving you to wonder if you are worth it. Or, it can ignite a fire, deep down inside and propel you to break free. Welcome to the life of Tara West www.tarawestfash...

It’s our duty as humans to help humans. Beyond anything, we as people owe it to these innocent lives to help them in their time of need. – Ilana Pavlotsky It’s been hard to watch the news lately. The war in Ukraine gets worse by the hour, with thousands dead, including innocent children. I’ve been looking for a woman to profile who knows first-hand what is happening on the ground in Ukraine,...