Fearless and Flawed: Women In Charge

What if the fix you find for yourself turns out to be the business? Meredith Cook cleaned the baseboards before she left for the hospital. The birth plan was tidy, the yoga was done, and then everything went a different way. A C-section, a hospital ward that didn't feel like the right place to be, and a long stretch of feeling alone. A pediatrician told her that women find a fix for their child or...

You can love the stage and still worry that someone will realise you don't belong there. Aleksandra Plazinic knows that feeling, and she's written a book about it. This week, Serena Reynolds and Sara Ferrer welcome Dr. Aleksandra Plazinic, communications coach, lecturer and author of From Fear to Fearless Female Speaker . She set out to write about public speaking and recognised her own imposter s...

Sasha McDowell did not set out to become an entrepreneur. After her employer refused her request for part-time or hybrid work, she left the nonprofit management career she had trained for, started something on the side and assumed she would eventually return. Instead, that experiment became Epicycle Group, a leadership development firm helping senior leaders and teams navigate complex people chall...

Most women negotiate as though they’re asking for a favor. But as behavioral economist and Decision Alpha founder Etinosa Agbonlahor explains, asking to be paid is not begging, it’s a conversation about the measurable value of work already delivered. In this episode of Fearless & Flawed , Etinosa joins Serena Reynolds and Sara Ferrer to unpack the psychology behind pricing, negotiation, and fi...

What if the most powerful thing you could do as a leader wasn't hiding your worst chapter, but saying it out loud, on the record, without flinching? This week we sit down with Dr. Liz DuBois Erskine, executive coach, writer, PhD in conflict analysis and resolution, and the woman behind the networking group Ladies Who Lunch. Before the coaching, she was on the inside at Disney and iHeartRadio, and...

Andrea Engstrom built $2 million in sales from Facebook without a single paid ad, by charging confidently for the work that comes easiest to her. Before that, she spent years being excellent at someone else's business. Valued. Recognised. And completely unfulfilled. In this episode, Andrea breaks down the difference between your zone of excellence and your zone of genius, why the work that feels m...

We celebrate exhausted mothers and judge the ones who ask for help, here's why that's dangerous. Kristin Smith, founder of Well-Supported Family, was told at 19 that she'd never amount to anything. Her family was wrong. After becoming a single mother with zero support, she taught herself infant sleep techniques out of pure survival while working as a nanny, bringing her newborn to work just three...

She tried hand cream at a red light and built an empire. Karen Minsky, President of Dionis Goat Milk Skincare, shares how she scaled a 40-year-old woman-founded brand from a tiny team to 150+ employees across nearly 6,000 retailers, including Ulta and Macy's, by refusing to take no for an answer. In this episode, Karen reveals: The legendary origin story of how the founder walked into Cracker Barr...

What if the best way to scale your movement is to reject the platform that promises the most reach? Kate Assaraf built Dip, a plastic-free haircare brand that's redirected $5M to independent retailers, all while refusing Amazon, influencers, and paid ads. With 20 years of beauty industry experience and a contract manufacturer bankruptcy that nearly destroyed her, Kate made the "crazy" decision to...

What if the dream you spent your entire life chasing was allowed to expire? What if the thing you thought defined you turned out to be exactly what was holding you back? Georgia Thomas is a qualified British solicitor who traded corporate law for a social media production agency she built with her husband in Cardiff, Wales. As co-founder and Director of e!studios, she turned founders into category...

If you could channel your future self right into this very moment, what wisdom would she sprinkle over your life? Fearless and Flawed is the podcast daring to ditch perfection and dig into the real, raw stories of female founders who've flipped the script and found their way. Join your hosts, Serena and Sara, as they invite you on a journey into the heart and hustle of women carving out new truths...

What if you stopped trying to fix yourself, and started leading as you are? Andrea Wanerstrand has coached hundreds of leaders from T-Mobile to Meta, guiding them through some of the boldest mindset shifts of their careers: from control to connection, performance to presence, and burnout to bold cultural influence. But her story didn’t start in power suits and corner offices. It started with a bug...

What if your big breakthrough isn’t about being perfect— but being human? On this episode of Fearless and Flawed, Sara and Serena sit down with Rhea Lana Riner, the accidental entrepreneur who turned a living room sale into a 120-location franchise empire across 26 states. With no business background and a couple of baby-stained onesies to her name, she bootstrapped Rhea Lana’s Children’s Consignm...

What if your body breaking down isn’t just “a woman of that age” thing—but a clue you’ve been ignoring too long? In this raw and revelatory conversation, we sit down with Dyna Vink—integrative health practitioner, founder of Holistic Nutrition Lifestyle, and functional medicine whisperer for women in perimenopause. But she's more than a practitioner. She’s a former corporate exec who walked throug...

What if rejecting the top job was your power move? Vicky Brown never planned to be an entrepreneur—and definitely never wanted to be “the CEO.” But when a former boss nudged her into consulting (read: tricked her lovingly), she found herself building Idomeneo Enterprises, an HR firm that’s now almost 25 years strong. Oh—and did we mention she’s a former opera singer? In this conversation, Vicky op...

Most lawyers keep the personal out of the professional. But for Alreen Haeggquist, sharing her own story was the most powerful thing she could do—not just for herself, but for the clients she fights for every single day. As a successful employment attorney representing survivors of sexual harassment, assault, and gender discrimination, Alreen spent years advocating for justice from within the cour...

Wendy Meadows had one of those split-screen moments—where her two lives couldn't have been more different. At 6 a.m., she was pouring belief into women as a health coach. By 10 a.m., she was cross-examining a woman on the witness stand, picking apart her credit card purchases. It was soul-splitting—and it was the spark that made Wendy say, “This isn’t who I’m meant to be.” A high-achieving family...

Meet Megan Schwan : CEO of Sidekick Accounting, Profit First pro, and the woman who makes money feel less like a panic attack and more like a plan. After years of juggling motherhood, survival-mode decisions, and the pressure to “figure it out alone,” she built a system that helps founders take back control of their finances without shame or overwhelm. This episode is a grounded, honest look at wh...

What if success isn’t about striving—but surrendering? Meet Barbara Burgess: former COO, future CEO-to-be, and soul-stirred founder of Corluma. After 20 years of high-level corporate leadership, her turning point showed up in the most unlikely place—a calendar entry and a coffee shop. This episode is a bold reckoning with the moment she said a full-body NO to the life she’d built and walked into t...

What if the thing you fear is actually the key to your freedom? In this episode of Fearless and Flawed, we sit down with Anisa Crespo, a powerhouse entrepreneur, executive producer, and co-founder of the Million Dollar Mom Society. But don’t let the glossy titles fool you—Anisa’s story is anything but polished. Think: fierce spiritual awakening meets spreadsheet mastery, all served with a side of...

Janice’s story begins in New York, where she became a mom at 19 and quickly learned to survive in a world that wasn’t built to make room for her. With no college degree and plenty of “no’s” along the way, she carved out a career through bold moves, relentless learning, and a refusal to quit. That path took her from ice cream trucks and temp jobs to VP-level leadership, expat life in Europe, and no...

In this Fearless and Flawed Season 2 opener, we sit down with Cristina Penin —a multidimensional healer and DEIB consultant based in Madrid—to break down the real meaning of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB). Cristina shares her personal journey as a queer Latina growing up in Queens, the quick wins companies can implement right now, and the deeper cultural shifts that truly retai...

What if the bravest thing you ever do… is stop pretending you're fine? Meet Iona Holloway : bestselling author of Ghosts , magnetic keynote speaker , ex-Google high-achiever turned imperfection activist—and today’s guest on Fearless and Flawed . She’s not here to sugar-coat the struggle or sell you a “just be confident” script. Iona cracked herself open to stop shrinking. Now? She teaches others h...

Ever fallen in love with something so deeply that you rearranged your entire life around it? Today’s episode asks that very question—and offers a wildly refreshing answer, in a tiny porcelain cup. Meet Sarika Sake: former United Nations gender advisor turned certified sake professional. She’s not your typical sommelier—she’s a soulful rebel on a mission to revive a 2,000-year-old sacred beverage a...

What if chasing the dream means choosing a different one altogether? Annie Woodbury thought she’d be cutting movie trailers in L.A.—but instead, she’s editing wedding films in Florida and loving every second of it. In this episode, we meet a woman who redefined success on her own terms, built a thriving freelance career straight out of college, and discovered that contentment isn’t complacency—it’...