This is a special bonus episode from our friends at the Amazon & JAR Audio podcast "This Is Small Business." This is Small Business explores the journey to success for small business owners by diving deep into the pivotal moments they have faced and conquered along the way. Brought to you by Amazon, this show is delivered through the unique perspective of a curious millennial trying to figure out what it takes to be a successful small business owner today. Episodes feature small business owners and industry experts from all walks of life who offer trends analysis, life lessons, and a different point of view. This is Small Business invites you to dig deep and find the tools you need to start, build, and grow your small business. If there's one thing we’ve learned over the many episodes of this show, it’s that owning and operating your own business is hard. You have to overcome challenges you didn’t even know existed. Thinking of becoming an entrepreneur or you’re wondering if you should stick it out? We have Dr. Laura Morgan Roberts, scholar, speaker and consultant, who studies the science of maximizing human potential, to guide us through. “I do think for every market need, for every human desire, there is an entrepreneur who is inspired and equipped to meet that need and to help for people to connect with that desire” And Pamela Wirth, of Hello Health, will share what she’s learned on her path to entrepreneurship. Learn from an expert and those who have been there! In this episode you’ll hear: (03:49) Why connecting with others is one of the most important traits of an entrepreneur (05:23) What qualities you need to be an entrepreneur  (08:17) If you can't go all in on your business because you need the financial security of a 9 to 5, how else can you start your business journey? (10:24) How do you start a business if you have too much on your plate? (12:56) An entrepreneur is also a leader, so what qualities do you need to be a great leader? (15:38) What are some hurdles that entrepreneurs might have to overcome when they're thinking about starting a business? (18:45) What are some of the qualities you need to help you get through the tough times?

Back in 2006, Kiersten Hathcock was just trying to figure things out. She had left her job at A and E Television Networks a few years before and was bouncing around from town to town with her husband and their two kids. As she was, Kiersten did the very last thing that anyone expected: she founded a children’s furniture company called Mod Mom Furniture. Then in 2024, after the brand received international recognition and acclaim from Shark Tank, Elle Décor, Better Homes and Gardens, and more,  she made another unexpected move: she simply walked away. Today, Kiersten is the Chief Marketing Officer at Moonshot. It’s a non-profit helping to spur economic development in rural Arizona. But to get there, Kiersten walked on some pretty uneven ground. She navigated a tumultuous appearance on Shark Tank, childhood trauma…even hearing the voices of dead children. This week, I sat down with Kiersten to hear how she went from working in the television industry to building children’s furniture by hand in her garage. Why did she make such a drastic jump to an industry she had no experience with? How did she differentiate her products in such a saturated market? And how did she learn to trust her intuition, even when she had no indicators of success to latch onto?

Growing up in the South Side of Chicago, Amanda Moncada-Perkins wanted power. Her family had few resources to make do with, so she became an attorney when she grew up to unlock a better future. And today, Amanda’s the Founding Attorney of her own firm, Stoutegy Law. But stepping into her power as a lawyer wasn’t without some major caveats. Amanda was pulling brutal 70 to 80-hour weeks while she was working at major firms. She recalls crying every day at work, stretching herself to the absolute limit to outperform her colleagues. She was even put on suicide watch during a particularly dark period. This week, Amanda talks about how she navigated countless obstacles in the daunting world of law to found her own successful firm. How did she cope with the immense pressure and strain as a high-profile attorney? Why did she find stepping away from work to be so difficult? And how did she eventually learn to put her mind at ease without compromising the quality of her work?

When Janice Person was first talking about farm-to-table in the 90's, people thought she was crazy. Even with a journalism and communications background, she found it tough to share the perspectives of a minority group that we don’t think about very often: the farmers who grow it. When Janice started out, she was doing PR for the agrochemical juggernaut Monsanto. At Monsanto, she was given tools and resources to amplify the voices of farmers, a goal she’s still pursuing today through her podcast Grounded by the Farm and her company Grounded Communications. To hear Janice talk about farming is to learn what it means to speak with passion and conviction about your business. In this episode, Janice about her time working in the agriculture industry. What has she learned about communicating key issues about farming to people who know nothing about it? Why is she so passionate about agricultural advocacy? And what can we learn from Janice when it comes to talking about our own businesses?

Kaylin Marcotte’s early career wasn’t particularly fun. But when she was training as a management consultant at IBM in 2013, she met two promising, young female founders who wanted to start a media company...called theSkimm. So, she left to become their first employee. Kaylin’s days were pretty demanding, and she often played with jigsaw puzzles at home to unwind. But she didn’t always love the stock imagery she was putting together. So, in 2019, she founded JIGGY. It’s a direct-to-consumer company creating jigsaw puzzles that…actually look pretty cool. And its very existence is a reminder of how important it is to have fun throughout the entrepreneurial journey. Kaylin talks about how she went from getting hired as theSkimm’s first employee to becoming the Founder & CEO of JIGGY. How did she transition from working at a media company to manufacturing a physical product? What was it like to create a business out of her hobby? And how do we make fun a core part of the entrepreneurial experience?

Lisa Lloyd will be the first to tell you that she’s not a genius...though she certainly seems like one. She invented her first product at 23, a hair styling tool called The French Twister, which eventually grossed $20 million. And over the years, she went on to license seven other products; getting featured on Shark Tank, Good Morning America, USA Today, The Big Idea, and more before starting the Lisa Lloyd Marketing Group. She’s also the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at the Invention Accelerator, a program that helps busy innovators to get their ideas off the ground. But not all of those inventions turned out; in fact, Lisa had still been paying off the debt from one of her products until…pretty recently. And before she started inventing, there were no early signs of entrepreneurial greatness. She actually didn’t think she was smart enough to become an entrepreneur, period. In this episode, Lisa shares what she's learned over 30 years as an inventor and high-profile business owner. What were her most costly mistakes, and what did they teach her? What’s the key to persisting through prolonged periods of uncertainty without becoming cynical? And what are the two types of discipline that you need to keep moving forward as an entrepreneur?

When Polina Ruvinsky stepped into a leadership role at Disney, she was told to not ask for permission. In 2018, she formed a women and tech employee group at the company. What started as a kind of experiment turned into a tight-knit community, allowing women at the company to come together, brainstorm, and offer support. The ripple effect of Polina’s community can still be felt: the group is now designated as a Business Employee Resource Group, or BERG, one of 100 BERGs across Disney today. In 2022, she founded To The SHE Power to offer mentorship, coaching and career services to women in transition. And now, she’s working to launch Hype Her, a platform to revolutionize how women gain visibility and support each other, while uplifting each other and having fun while doing it.  Polina talks about how she gave herself permission to create new opportunities for women leaders, how she learned to trust her gut, and how she dealt with what she calls “egregious leadership decisions” during her corporate career.

Content Warning: This episode deals with sensitive topics like suicide, PTSD, divorce, and poor mental health. On the surface, Tereson Dupuy has led a pretty good life. She successfully ran her business FuzziBunz Diapers for almost two decades and kickstarted the modern cloth diapering movement. All in all, she sold $32 million dollars worth of product. But beneath the surface, it’s a different story. Tereson’s dealt with trauma ever since she was little: trauma which bled into her entrepreneurial life. She’s battled abandonment and lost her son to suicide during the pandemic. But Tereson's traumas have actually unlocked her ability to lead with love, both for herself and those around her. The death of her son Eden in particular spurred her upcoming memoir titled The Return of Eden, which details how he has guided Tereson along her healing journey…from beyond the veil.

In her previous life as a corporate recruiter, Maisha Cannon put on what she describes as a kind of “mask.” She wasn’t fully herself. Often, she’d fade into the background to try and get ahead as a black woman in corporate America. But for Maisha, getting into entrepreneurship meant putting aside those incidents where she experienced bias. It meant stepping into herself and building the confidence she needed to start The Collab Lab, which helps Talent Acquisition professionals and Recruiters to grow their skills and careers. In this episode, Maisha talks about how to bring your full self to work. How did she respond to experiencing racial bias in the workplace? How did she develop the confidence to start The Collab Lab, especially as an introvert? And what’s the biggest trend affecting job recruitment right now?

At first glance, you probably couldn’t tell that Mallory Greene is in the funeral industry. She’s not an older, stuffy man in a dark suit…she’s a young woman who got her start as a member of Wealthsimple’s founding team. Today, she’s the CEO and Co-Founder of Eirene, a funeral service provider that’s disrupting the industry with their affordable prices and tech-driven approach. Much like Mallory herself, Eirene isn’t your typical funeral company. They’re incredibly transparent with the families they serve, educating them while prioritizing their comfort to guide them through a simplified arrangements process. On this episode, Mallory answers questions like: how does she navigate being an outsider in the funeral industry? How do her views on mortality allow her to create strong bonds with customers? And how has she scaled her business in a highly regulated, traditional industry?

Alina Kravchenko has always loved inventing. Alina defines her entrepreneurial success based on one simple factor: how much creativity she’s able to express as a founder. But being raised by a single mom in Ukraine and eventually becoming a single mom herself meant there was no shortage of people who looked down on them both. When she drained her 401K and secured a patent for SwipenSnap, her one-hand applicator for baby ointment, people laughed at her. Until the product landed Alina a spot on Shark Tank and propelled her to launch TonerBum, an ergonomic weight designed specifically for glute workouts. In this conversation, Alina answers questions like: why does she feel so driven to constantly create? How did she persist during times of immense stress as a single mom? And how can we determine our own versions of success as entrepreneurs?

Bisila Bokoko says that our purpose is not defined by what we do...but by who we are. Growing up in Valencia, Spain with mixed Spanish-African heritage came with a heavy dose of discomfort. But these experiences drove her to learn more about her heritage…to become what she calls “culturally intelligent.” Cultural intelligence has been the key to Bisila’s success as a founder. By becoming culturally intelligent, she’s learned how relationship building can scale businesses like Mango and Zara through her company Bisila Bokoko Embassy International (BBES). She’s landed monumental jobs like Executive Director of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and the Director of Valencia’s foreign exchange in New York. She’s been featured in Vogue, Forbes, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair. And today, she’s Chair of the Executive Board of the United Nation’s EMPRETEC Women in Business Awards. She even has her own Spanish wine brand. In this episode, we answer questions like: how do you become culturally intelligent? What’s the overlap between building relationships and building big businesses? And how can I discover my unique value proposition as a person, and communicate that value to others?

In 2015, Heather Odendaal founded the WNORTH conference. The aim of WNORTH is simple: create more pathways for women to become business leaders through networking and collaboration. For the first 8 years, Heather worked as a solopreneur. Today, she's built a small but mighty team and together, they have grown WNORTH to seven chapter cities and launched a membership program with 1300 leaders from companies like Google, Lululemon, Aritzia, and Cisco. The conference has also won a half-dozen awards and been held at swanky venues like the Four Seasons. In this episode, Heather talks about how to effectively motivate your team, build time off into your packed schedule, and adapt to unforeseen challenges through constant reflection and course correction.

Content Warning: This episode contains strong language. Urbander CEO Samí Haiman-Marrero describes herself as an armadillo. She’s got thick skin, she’s scrappy, and she can smell insincerity from a mile away. Samí spent almost her entire life in Puerto Rico, but you can tell right away that she has roots in the Bronx. When she came back to New York to work in media and publishing, she soon found herself grappling with some harsh realities, dealing with cultural and social environments that were completely different from the ones she grew up with. To kick off 2024, Samí shares her best advice on self-advocacy, why communication is the most useful skill for any entrepreneur, and how her business thrived during two major economic downturns.

And So, She Left returns January 24. New episodes every Wednesday.

Entrepreneurs love to set lofty, ambitious goals…after all, it’s in our nature. But what separates those of us who reach our goals from those who don’t are the skills we obtain and use to get there. Leah Carr’s approach to entrepreneurship is a highly grounded one. She’s the CEO of a learning and development company called TILR (that’s T.I.L.R.). They help HR teams and people leaders to hone in on the proficiencies their employees need. Her work philosophy is simple: she chases opportunities, no matter where they crop up, over hyper-defined goals. Leah shares her best learning and development advice. If you’re looking to future-proof your career or your company through a skills-first approach, then this episode is essential listening.

Every once in a while, we hear a story that floors us. Christelle Biiga’s story is one of them. Today, she gets clients in front of the right podcast audiences to grow their businesses. Her company is called Exposure Maven. As a young girl in Cameroon, she bought into the American Dream. She knew no one in the states. Had no family or friends stateside. And could barely speak English at the time. But she still bought a one-way ticket to LAX. What Christelle couldn’t know was that the next few years would stretch her resilience, patience, and spirit to their absolute limits. She would find herself coping with stress, trauma, and self-doubt. And she would discover just how much she was capable of as an entrepreneur.

If you asked your clients to describe you, what would they say? Today, customers want to know who you are. We’re living in the age of personal branding. Christina Minshull spent 15+ years in brand and social marketing for companies like SportCheck, WestJet, and LinkedIn. Today, Christina helps CEOs, Founders and brands unleash their LinkedIn potential through her company “The Brand Audit.” Across LinkedIn and TikTok she’s amassed a 25K following and earned LinkedIn’s Top Voice for Social Media and Brand Strategy in 2023. All without spending a dime on advertising. You’re about to hear Christina’s best advice on personal branding and being a thought leader on LinkedIn. She tells us why it's important, how to form deep connections with your target audience, and she shares countless bits of practical advice that will keep you and your personal brand humming along.

No one warns you about the loss of structure when you leave the corporate womb. Suddenly, it’s all up to you. You’re the boss. You make the decisions. And you need to pin down the principles that create structure in your work life…or face the consequences. Michelle Peters is the CEO of Supplino, a thriving supply chain marketplace. When she left corporate, she fell victim to hustle culture, overwork, and burnout. Facing each of these challenges in time, she eventually disassembled her embedded corporate mentality and found a winning structure that worked for her…not the other way around. You’re about to hear Michelle’s journey to make sense of structure as an entrepreneur, her best advice for businessowners who hold on to the corporate mentality, and learning to love the inherent uncertainty of her work.

Constriction and guidance are the two sides to the feedback coin. But sometimes, we have to squint to tell which is which. Can you? As a clinical psychologist, Cindy Wahler faced constant doubt. She was told that she’d never make it. But today, she uses her understanding of psychology to consult for organizations like Ralph Lauren, Exxon Mobile, and Toyota on effective leadership development. She also bakes cookies. Cindy started Bite Me Cookies back in 2021. Once again, she was swarmed by naysayers. But a few years later, Bite Me Cookies has become something of a Torontonian phenomenon, with over 20 varieties of cookies on offer and expansions into other deserts like pies and hot chocolate. You’re about to hear Cindy’s best advice on receiving feedback as a leader. She breaks down different kinds of feedback, how they can either help or hinder you, and plenty of practical tips on how to pivot based on the feedback you receive.