TrailBlazers Impact

Monica Smiley is the editor and publisher of Enterprising Women magazine- a print and digital magazine that reaches more than a million readers in the United States and around the globe. In this episode, Monica shares her entrepreneurial journey of building a successful women’s magazine from zero to success. She talks about the Enterprise Women Award event over the years and how they transitioned...

Mei Xu tells us how to take advantage of challenging times and turn them into opportunities to either build or grow your business. Also learn why you should not be afraid of debt and should instead smartly leverage it to scale your business. And find out what's she's doing now to support women - she calls it Yes, You May. And now can SHOP with women-owned businesses and black women-owned businesse...

Kitty Chaney-Reed, is the recipient of the most powerful and influential woman award and the Woman of the Year award. Kitty gives us the blueprint for becoming a successful executive in a very large company and maintaining that role to progress upwards. Find out how what responsibilities are really involved in a high-level executive position and how to manage multiple priorities. Her attitude abou...

Trailblazing is ageless. Meet Julia Toronczak, a young businesswoman who has a twin brother with Downs Syndrome. During her freshman year, she was appalled at how many students would ask her what Down syndrome was. It made her realize that there was not enough advocacy being done in the disability space. Without holding any resentment, she knew that something else needed to be done. And so she cre...

The founders of Virtual Kare, Jay Berger and Sumedha Kukreja, provide rehabilitation, prevention and wellness programs for all ages but in an entirely different way. Their programs focus on a variety of areas including pain management, caregiver training, cardiac rehabilitation, stroke recovery, pulmonary rehabilitation, and a variety of other areas, all focused on getting care from the comfort of...

Many of us were floundering in March 2019 when we had to work from home.  COVID was raging outside our door - we had to stay in to work unless we were classified as an essential worker. Clare Price wrote and uploaded a free e-book on her website called Making Remote Work that layed out tips, tools, advice, and a plan on how to make remote work. It was and is one of the best books available! And it...

Denise Patterson McKenney is a success story in how to negotiate a win/win which is really how to WIN! Have you ever wanted to win an argument so bad you could practically taste it? Have you ever laid awake at night thinking of what you should have said? Have you ever “won” and regretted it? Have you ever had to discuss a negative performance with an employee and wished you knew how to even begin...

Would you like to break the glass ceiling? Are people moving up the corporate ladder but you feel like you are stuck in place? Would you like to retire at age 36?  If you did, what would you do with the rest of your life?  Meet Paula Ward who shares her journey from a childhood in the segregated south, to college-marriage-family-career in the Los Angeles metro area; and a return to the Atlanta met...

How are you planning to re-fire after your retirement? Perhaps, find a new second career that you’re passionate about and will help you continue building your legacy and impacting others? Karen Kendra is a former nurse who decided to join a writing class to rediscover herself after retirement. She wanted to write about her experiences in life which landed her in memoir writing. She now facilitates...

Kristin Keen lived for 5 years in Kolkata India where she co-founded Sari Bari, a thriving business that gives survivors of human trafficking a way out of exploitation through employment. Upon her return to Jacksonville, Kristin started forming relationships with women on the street where she found that the problem of human trafficking was flourishing in her own city in 2012. She then founded Reth...

Did you know that the energy you bring into a room is the energy you receive? It is therefore important to build positive energy for you and your team members to engage them and make them understand their roles. Karen Jenkins leads KRJ Consulting clients to experience growth through her guiding concept of synergy leadership. With synergy leadership, Jenkins develops confident leaders who engage, e...

What are you passionate about? Are you willing to sacrifice and even be hurt while fulfilling your purpose? Being ready to use whatever platform you’re given and every opportunity available to bring that passion to life? Well, Belinda Kendall is. Belinda Kendall, the owner and founder of Promise Media Group, LLC, has spent several years working in media. She had her own talk show on WGIV and Hot77...

We are often too afraid of what the future holds when what we thought we wanted doesn’t happen, right? The disappointment and the inability to pick ourselves up and find another passion that might fulfill us in the same way as our original one palpable. Allison Shapira had always dreamed of being an opera singer from a young age, and when her dream was crushed by a teacher in college who believed...

Exercising loyalty and community love comes easy for Leslie Andrews because it was instilled at an early age. She learned to be courageous and resilient in facing life’s adversities, including being widowed at a young age, and viewing the world. Leslie Andrews is described as a Master Relationship Strategist and Community Connector.  She has a documented track record as a corporate executive, a fu...

Marcia Blum is an amazing person. She is a retired social worker and mental health therapist. Listen as she describes pioneering open adoption, finding your birth parents, hospice care, and grief programs. Listen to her gift to listeners as she gives us 4 end-of-life reflections to help a dying person. She tells about her efforts to end sex trafficking and help survivors. Another passion is elderl...

Visualize yourself standing on the stage, wondering who will be crowned, and then . . . they call your name. Neelam Chahlia tells us what it is like to win Mrs. Washington America and then to go on to the nationals. She created history by being the first Indian-American woman to win the state title and the first woman of Indian origin to be at the nationals, Mrs. America.  Her role represented hop...

What's happening to children reaching an age to leave a foster home? What do we do with kids when there is not a good place to go?  Ruth White is the Executive Director of the National Center for Housing and Child Welfare. Children need better homes where they’re protected either with their families or with people who will genuinely take care of them. Young adults coming out of foster also require...

In Episode 4 of TrailBlazers Impact, Shaune Arnold describes her emotional escape from an abusive household into the foster care system when she divorced her parents at age 14. From parental abandonment to foster care with sheer determination and grit, Attorney Shaune Arnold shares her journey. In Part 2, this episode, Shaune Arnold describes her extraterrestial encounters which resulted in her ta...

Teaera Strum is the COO of Strum Contracting in Baltimore city, she was selected as the Baltimore Business Journal 40 under 40 in 2019. She was recognized for her business and civic accruement contributed to Baltimore, Maryland. At the age of 36, Teaera has accomplished much including substantially growing Strum Contacting with the knowledge she acquired from the many professional development prog...

Meet Cassandra Williams, the CEO and president of WET PR (Write, Edit, Tell it), a public relations firm in Beverly Hills, California. It has a unique approach to enhancing the image of people in the realm of the entertainment industry.  Cassandra was an opening act for Joan Rivers and talks about her experience of being fired. That experience framed her decision to open her business, WET PR, with...

The future is uncertain and unpredictable, just like nobody would have predicted COVID-19. But a successful B2B marketing expert like Christine Crandell knows all too well what will fail in the business world and what will excel, especially in what she refers to as “The New Normal.” With more than 25 years of marketing and leadership experience, Christine Crandell, President at New Business Strate...

Ep. 101 - Shannon Polson: True Grit Shannon Polson is a true Trailblazer, exemplifying courage, tenacity, and perseverance! She is a native of Alaska and at age nineteen she became the youngest woman ever to climb Denali, the highest mountain in North America. She then went on to summit Mt. Rainier and Mt. Kilimanjaro. She raced long-course triathlons and took journeys to Alaska's Arctic After gra...

Tony Markey is one person that fully understands the advantages and disadvantages of taking the grand leap! He has taken many of them throughout his adult life and has never had second thoughts about it. Imagine applying for a science graduate job as an 18-year-old who just completed high school? Or maybe leaving a teaching job in the middle of a school year for a temporary singing job that will p...

When was the last time you volunteered in your community? Before COVID-19, Never? Did you know that by volunteering, you gain more experience and opportunities than you actually give? Rita O. Venable, community change-agent and women’s advocate with a 40-year history of activism is a champion for racial and gender equality both at home and abroad. She has been recognized for her volunteerism at ho...

Jillian Ryan’s passion translates into action! She’s built a great business . . . but WHY? Because the proceeds help support teaching sustainable skills to abused women! Jillian stands up for what she believes in – corporate social responsibility. In her podcast, the Good Office Podcast, she gives companies the blueprint on how to use a business as a force for good. On her podcast website, she pro...