Lia Valencia Key is the founder of Valencia Key, a jewelry line with beautiful, unique pieces that feature inspirational messages designed to empower women. Raised in an impoverished Philadelphia neighborhood, Lia lived in a homeless shelter with her mother, sister, and brother. Even in the darkest of times, her mom told her, "your predicament does not determine your destiny." She encouraged Lia to never leave the house without wearing her sparkling earrings because they would serve as reminders...
May 31, 2021•47 min•Season 1Ep. 52
Eva Yazhari is the seasoned investor, entrepreneur, author, and CEO of Beyond Capital, an early-stage impact investment fund that is dedicated to improving lives and helping create access to basic goods and services. Eva started her career going up the ranks in Wall Street and working alongside top hedge fund managers in NY. Although she was thriving in her position and enjoyed investing, Eva felt like she wasn’t making a big impact in her life and was yearning to find meaning & purpose. Thi...
May 24, 2021•51 min•Season 1Ep. 51
Jamila Souffrant is the founder and CEO of the popular financial blog and podcast, Journey to Launch, where she shares her journey to reach financial independence while helping others do the same. Is this really what you want to do for the rest of your life? This was the question that Jamila asked herself a few years ago on a four-hour commute from Brooklyn to New Jersey for work while she was pregnant with her first child. This sparked an “Aha!" moment for her that led her down the path of lear...
May 17, 2021•44 min•Season 1Ep. 50
Loren Ridinger is the Co-Founder of internet retailing giants, Shop.Com and Market America. Although Loren is now recognized as an internet mogul who has changed the face of the beauty and e-commerce industries over the past two decades, her life started with very humble beginnings. She moved to Greensboro, NC at a young age, worked in retail when she was sixteen, and at eighteen, Loren and her husband, JR, took a chance on their dream to make it easy for people to shop online at a time when mos...
May 10, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 49
Divya Gugnani is the CEO and Co-Founder of Wander Beauty, a clean, cruelty-free beauty brand that creates multitasking, beauty essentials Divya began her career in the world of finance and has extensive experience in investment banking, private equity, and venture capital. She calls herself an “accidental entrepreneur” and eventually left finance to pursue her newfound passion as an entrepreneur. After co-founding multiple businesses with two successful exits, and having two children, Divya foun...
May 03, 2021•45 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Catherine McCord is the co-founder/CEO of One Potato, an organic family-friendly meal delivery service, and founder of Weelicious, a website dedicated to helping parents expose their children to wholesome, delicious homemade food. Throughout the 90s, Catherine was considered one of the world’s top supermodels, posing for the cover of Vogue, walking the runway for Donna Karen and Calvin Klein, and appearing in movies that included Matt Damon, The Rock, and Jennifer Anniston. But then, 9/11 happen...
Apr 26, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 47
Dr. Iman Abuzeid is the CEO and co-founder of Incredible Health, a digital platform that helps streamline the hiring process for nurses and recruiting hospitals. Iman was heavily influenced to take risks from a young age, as she saw both of her grandfathers make an impact through their businesses in Sudan. However, entrepreneurship seemed to skip a generation and, when her father became an ENT surgeon, she and her brothers followed in his footsteps. Halfway through med school, Iman realized that...
Apr 19, 2021•47 min•Season 1Ep. 46
Dr. Joan Rosenberg is an expert psychologist, best-selling author, and founder of Emotional Mastery & Emotional Mastery Training. After three decades, tens of thousands of hours of clinical practice, and ten years of neuroscience research, Dr. Rosenberg is recognized for her thought leadership and approach that radically changes people’s lives. In our conversation together, we unpack how our inability to move through and handle unpleasant feelings, such as sadness, shame, helplessness, anger...
Apr 12, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 45
Sallie Krawcheck, is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ellevest, a digital-first investment platform working to help close the gender wealth gap by “redefining investing for women.” Sallie’s professional mission is to help women reach their financial and professional goals… or as she says to get more money in the hands of women. She’s definitely on her way as Ellevest recently announced they have $1Bn under management. Before launching Ellevest in 2016, Sallie was one of the highest-ranked women ever to...
Apr 05, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 44
Michelle Cordeiro Grant is the founder & CEO of LIVELY, a community and brand that inspires women to live passionately and purposefully through experiences and products like bras, bralettes, undies, and so much more. Michelle grew up with immigrant parents, thinking she wanted to become a doctor or a lawyer, but her true passion lay in working with products and building brands. At the end of a long and extremely successful career at brands like Victoria’s Secret, Michelle came to the realiza...
Mar 29, 2021•48 min•Season 1Ep. 43
Sadie Lincoln is the co-founder and CEO of barre3, a fitness company focused on teaching people to be balanced in body and empowered from within. Sadie was climbing up the ranks, working alongside the founder of 24-hour fitness for over a decade, and realized she was in a crisis when she got pregnant with her first daughter. Despite being financially successful, happily married, and living in the dream house she always wanted, both Sadie and her husband felt broken & empty inside and were lo...
Mar 22, 2021•52 min•Season 1Ep. 42
In today’s mini-episode, we’re talking about the realities of managing both motherhood and your career. The fundamental question that many women uniquely ask themselves is: Can I still be successful and pursue my desires of being a mother & building a family? The short answer is yes, but there is so much to dig into on this. I’ve specifically picked two incredible entrepreneurs to expand on the topic of why balance is BS especially when it comes to women, motherhood, and their careers. Today...
Mar 15, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Laureen Asseo is the Founder and CEO of Fresh n' Lean, the largest organic prepared meal delivery service in the US. She was only 18 years old in 2010 when she founded the company out of her one-bedroom apartment, all while attending the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. She had always dreamed of being an entrepreneur, and actually had goals for establishing her own sustainable fashion brand, but her journey took a turn when her father faced serious health problems after years of ...
Mar 08, 2021•52 min•Season 1Ep. 40
In today’s mini-episode, we’re talking about imposter syndrome - something we all deal with, including many of the successful, self-made women I’ve interviewed on the podcast. I’m excited to share some advice from three of our most popular interviews to help you overcome imposter syndrome and stop feeling like a fraud. * Lee Mayer’s full episode: https://www.behindherempire.com/episode/lee-mayer * Suzy Batiz’s full episode: https://www.behindherempire.com/episode/suzy-batiz * Keren Eldad’s full ...
Mar 01, 2021•16 min•Season 1Ep. 39
Jordan Salcito is an award-winning sommelier and founder of RAMONA, a delicious organic wine spritzer made with high-quality standards. Jordan began her career in New York as a hostess before becoming a prep cook, sommelier, manager, and eventually, the Wine & Beverage Director at David Chang’s Momofuku restaurants. She is also a 5-time James Beard Award semi-finalist and was named “Most Creative in the World” by World of Fine Wine magazine. The idea for RAMONA came to life when Jordan becam...
Feb 22, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Keren Eldad is an acclaimed motivational speaker, leadership psychology expert, and founder of With Enthusiasm, where she provides world-class personal and professional coaching. Before becoming an internationally-recognized coach, Keren had an illustrious business career. After spending years in the world of publishing, she then founded her own marketing company, Digiluxe. Despite all of this, Keren never felt fulfilled and aligned with her purpose. It wasn’t until she hit rock bottom after a d...
Feb 15, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Minnie Ingersoll is an investor, co-founder, and former COO of Shift, an online marketplace for used cars. After 12 years at Google, working as a product manager and later principal with Google.org, she co-founded Shift in 2013 while she was on maternity leave. Minnie shares that she never thought she’d be a founder and in the used car industry, but the opportunity to build a business from scratch was exciting to her. Minnie took Shift from an idea to over $100 million dollars in revenue and has...
Feb 08, 2021•55 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Holly Thaggard is the founder of Supergoop!, the first and only skincare brand that is 100% dedicated to UV protection. In 2005, Holly’s life and career path completely changed when a good friend of hers was diagnosed with skin cancer. It was at this point, she realized that people weren’t taking sunscreen seriously. Holly realized that it was important for someone to make sunscreen “cool” in order to stop the epidemic of skin cancer. Leaving her career as an elementary school teacher, Holly dec...
Feb 01, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Prerna Gupta is a serial entrepreneur and investor. After being at the helm of many successful startups, Prerna is now the CEO and Founder of Hooked, a company that is redefining fiction for the Snapchat generation. Hooked has over 100 million viewers across social media, a short form video streaming app called Hooked TV, and has received funding from Ashton Kutcher, Mariah Carey, LeBron James, and Jamie Foxx to name a few. As the child of Indian immigrants growing up in a conservative town in O...
Jan 25, 2021•48 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Shilpa Shah is the Co-Founder of Cuyana, a fashion brand that marries luxury-level branding with premium quality apparel and accessories, offering "fewer, better things" to women at accessible price points. Shilpa spent the first part of her career designing web and mobile interfaces for Fortune 500 companies. Although she was passionate about design, it wasn't until she was pregnant with her first son that she felt empowered to do more in her life. Unsure what the right next step was, Shilpa de...
Jan 18, 2021•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 33
Liz Elting is a self-made businesswoman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She co-founded and was the co-CEO of TransPerfect, the world’s largest provider of language and business solutions valued at over a billion dollars. As someone with a passion for languages and business, Liz wasn’t always sure about the path she was going to take. When she decided to follow her interests and study languages, Liz was stimulated but knew that it didn’t make practical sense for her career. After her first job...
Jan 11, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Seema Bansal is the co-founder of Venus ET Fleur, the company behind Eternity Roses, which are real roses that stay fresh for a full year, an invention that has permanently transformed the billion-dollar floral industry. Seema never set out to start a company in the floral business. In 2015, Seema was in a long-distance relationship with her now husband and business partner, Sunny. He sent her flowers on Valentine's Day and they looked horrible despite the large price tag he paid. This sparked t...
Jan 04, 2021•53 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Sharon Rechter is the co-founder of First Media, a multi-platform, content publisher that is dedicated to the do-it-all millennial woman. First Media's clever, lifehack style videos bring in over 1.7 billion monthly views on social media and their BabyFirst TV cable network reaches over 60 million US homes. Their social media brands, So Yummy, Blusher, and Blossom, have an average of 50mm views for every video post on social. Sharon truly embodies the mission of her business as an inspiring woma...
Dec 28, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Shalini Vadhera is a beauty entrepreneur, celebrity make-up artist, bestselling author, and founder of a multi-million dollar global cosmetics company that started from her garage. Shalini’s journey was far from easy. Although her business scaled to over $20 million in revenue and found instant success in large retailers like Sephora and QVC, Shalini lacked mentorship and faced a whole host of challenges growing her business. She is passionate about sharing her story to help women entrepreneurs ...
Dec 21, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Sarah LaFleur is the Founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur, a fashion company creating practical, inspired wardrobes for the modern, professional woman. From an early age, Sarah was exposed to high-end fashion through her mother who worked in the industry. When Sarah graduated from college and started shopping on her own for work clothing, she realized the experience and clothes were lacking despite spending so much money on them. After starting her career at Bain as a consultant, Sarah moved to privat...
Dec 14, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Gail Becker is the founder and CEO of CAULIPOWER, a company revolutionizing our favorite comfort foods by making them better and better for you. As a mother of two sons with Celiac disease, Gail was always desperate for nutritious gluten free options. She found hundreds of thousands of recipes for cauliflower pizza to make for her kids - and they loved it. However, it took forever to make and as a working single mom, she wanted an easier and faster option which was nowhere to be found. Although ...
Dec 07, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Sarah Flint is the executive chairman, creative director, and founder of Sarah Flint, a luxury shoe brand aimed at on-the-move women who need comfort just as much as fashion and style. In 2013, Sarah was on a mission to create luxury shoes made from the finest materials that not only looked good but also felt amazing. Early on in her business, she was a full-time nanny and was looking to get her brand off the ground in the evenings and on the weekends. She devoted a lot of time to product creati...
Nov 30, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Ellen Bennett is the founder & CEO of Hedley & Bennett, an LA-based culinary workwear and lifestyle brand that has transformed the way professional (and home) chefs dress forever. By making her dream into a reality, she has created the largest gourmet apron factory in the world. Being raised by a single mother who made her feel safe to try new things and get comfortable with failure, Ellen had confidence instilled in her from a very early age. So much so that when she graduated high scho...
Nov 23, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Lizanne Falsetto is the founder of thinkThin, health and wellness visionary, business media commentator, and adviser to the next-generation of entrepreneurs. In 2000, after a decade of world travel and a successful career modeling internationally, Lizanne launched thinkThin from her own need of wanting to create a better-for-you, high protein nutrition bar for active women on the go. Starting small and humble, the company quickly scaled nationally and globally, establishing itself as one of the ...
Nov 16, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Nisha Dua is a General Partner at BBG Ventures, which she co-founded with Susan Lyne in 2014. BBG Ventures is an NYC-based seed fund investing in consumer tech start-ups with a focus on women and underrepresented founders. Nisha believes the greatest untapped opportunity for venture capital lies in backing women who are using technology to address common life-challenges and transform daily habits. Women are the dominant users of the fastest-growing mobile and social platforms, and they make or i...
Nov 09, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 23
