PODCAST · business
Her Origin Story
by Toby Myles
Her Origin Story is a podcast about the messy, magical beginnings of bold women who turned their ideas into impact. Hosted by storytelling coach Toby Myles, each episode features a real, unfiltered conversation with a female founder, creator, or changemaker about what sparked their journey.These aren’t highlight-reel success stories, they’re intimate looks at the first steps, the turning points, and the hard-earned lessons that shaped each woman’s path. Whether you're building a business, thinking about starting something new, or simply love a story that goes beyond the surface, this show is here to remind you: every powerful brand starts with a powerful origin story.Unpolished. Unfiltered. Unforgettable.
Episodes
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From Go‑Karts to Growth: Toby Myles & Amy Hager on Leading With Curiosity
Check Out These Highlights: Amy shares how racing go‑karts as a child gave her early lessons in competition, sponsorship, and community; lessons that still guide her work today. She recalls launching a speaking tour of six elementary schools at age 10 to show kids they could do big things right...
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The Cost of Quiet: Toby Myles & Hady Méndez on Turning Setbacks Into Strength
Check Out These Highlights: Hady reflects on her mother’s saying, “Closed mouths don’t let flies in,” and how that lesson in silence shaped her early years and followed her into a 25‑year career in male‑dominated tech and finance. She shares how being the youngest of four sisters pushed her to...
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Curiosity and Capital: Toby Myles & Amanda Taylor on Financial Literacy for Women
Check Out These Highlights: Amanda reflects on the pivotal moment when her husband told her their marriage couldn’t sustain her distraction, and how that conversation forced her to confront the gap between who she was becoming and who she was expected to be. She explains how she accidentally fell...
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More Than Choreography: Toby Myles, Kristina Cross & Brie Peña on Building Careers in Dance
Check Out These Highlights: Kristina shares how babysitting for her neighbor (who happened to be a drill team director) set her on a path from gymnast to dancer, eventually leading her into business ownership and expanding Crowd Pleasers into a premier Texas company. Brie recalls growing up as an...
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Belonging Everywhere and Nowhere: Toby Myles & Urmi Hossain on Turning Dual Identity Into a Superpower
Check Out These Highlights: Urmi opens up about growing up in a strict, traditional South Asian household in Italy, where women were expected to follow rigid rules and boys were given more freedom. She reflects on how those early experiences shaped her drive to challenge inequality and advocate…
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Nonprofit Leadership Lessons From a Theater Kid: Toby Myles & Ramona Baker on Finding Her Voice
Check Out These Highlights: Ramona recalls the moment she discovered theater as a place where she could finally be loud and expressive, despite growing up in a quiet household. That spark led her from biology labs to playwriting, and eventually into nonprofit leadership. She reflects on her…
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Avoiding Burnout in Business: Toby Myles & Brandi Holder on Making Peace a Daily Practice
Check Out These Highlights: Brandi reflects on the seed that started her entrepreneurial path: her late husband’s encouragement to work for herself instead of climbing the corporate ladder. That shift revealed her natural curiosity and drive to question systems, even when it made her a “bad...
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From Furlough to Freedom: Toby Myles & Kristin Belden on Starting Over With Courage
Check Out These Highlights: Kristin reflects on her early years as an art major, moving to San Francisco, and the defining moment when she stepped into the corporate world at McKinsey & Company. That decision shifted her trajectory from art and galleries into business and leadership. She opens up...
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Grace Through Grief: Toby Myles & Deborah Newton on Resilience and Relationships
Check Out These Highlights: Deborah Newton opens up about losing her dad at age five, watching her mom’s resilience, and how those early lessons shaped her drive to succeed. She reflects on the devastating loss of her mom in 2024, the guilt she still carries, and the strength she draws from her...
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Strength in Simplicity: Toby Myles & Natalie Hurdley on Building Habits That Last
Check Out These Highlights: What do you do when the future you’ve planned since childhood suddenly disappears? Natalie Hurdley takes us back to her teenage years as a professional soccer player, when a devastating injury ended her career at just 15. With her dad’s tough but fair advice, “Plan A…
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Finding Your Voice: Toby Myles & Karen Laos on Speaking with Confidence
Check Out These Highlights: What happens when early lessons about speaking up collide with cultural conditioning that tells you to stay quiet? In this episode, Karen Laos takes us back to a flea market at age six, where her dad taught her the power of asking for what you want. She reflects on the...
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Building a Business That Fits Your Life: Toby Myles & Angela Greaser on Standing for the "And"
Check Out These Highlights: What if building a successful business wasn't about working harder, but about building one that actually supports the life you want? In this episode, Toby sits down with Angela Greaser, co-founder of Stand for the And, to explore the unexpected path that led her into...
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Writing the Next Chapter: Toby Myles & Ally Berthiaume on Following the Work That Lights You Up
Check Out These Highlights: What do you do when the path you've carefully planned no longer feels like the one you're meant to follow? In this episode, Ally Berthiaume shares how her lifelong love of writing kept calling her back, even as she explored careers in psychology, forensic work, and...
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Turning Rebellion into Purpose: Toby Myles & Cynthia Coufal on Helping Teens Find Their Way
Check Out These Highlights: What if the very struggles that once made you feel broken became the reason you could help others heal? In this episode, Cynthia Coufal shares her deeply personal origin story—from growing up as a rebellious teen in a strict religious environment to becoming an…
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Creativity Through Change: Toby Myles & Cindy Liebel on Reinvention, Resilience, and Following Your Own Path
Check Out These Highlights: What happens when the life you planned for yourself evolves into something completely different? In this episode, Cindy Liebel shares her origin story, from dreaming of becoming a fashion designer as a child, to serving in the military, climbing the corporate ladder…
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Midlife Pivot with Purpose: Toby Myles & Randi Kest on Resilience and Reinvention
Check Out These Highlights: Randi Kest’s story is about resilience, identity, and the courage to pivot midlife. After a layoff from her media career, she faced the challenge of redefining her path while navigating perimenopause, divorce, and self‑doubt. What began as uncertainty turned into a...
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From Farm Roots to Soul Work: Toby Myles & Amy Lokken on Creativity, Caregiving, and The Amy Factor
Check Out These Highlights: Amy Lokken’s story is one of reinvention, resilience, and soul‑led pivots. Growing up on a Wisconsin dairy farm taught her resourcefulness and creativity, lessons she carried into a career in retail design and eventually into launching Mood Modular, her award‑winning...
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Curiosity Over Transaction: Toby Myles & Teresa Thomas on Networking with Joy and Openness
Check Out These Highlights: Teresa Thomas has spent her life weaving connections that matter. From organizing arts celebrations in college to leading Women In Networking for over 20 years, her story is rooted in creating spaces where people feel valued and belong. In this episode, she shares how...
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Entrepreneur by Default: Toby Myles & Jen Baxter on Turning Setbacks into Successes
Check Out These Highlights: Jen Baxter’s story is one of unexpected pivots and resilience. After taking a leap of faith into book publishing, she faced sudden layoffs and the uncertainty of starting over. What began as a side project with Substack turned into a coaching business helping authors…
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The Ripple Effect of Purpose: Toby Myles & Juliet Cutler on Storytelling That Changes Lives
Check Out These Highlights: When Juliet Cutler traveled to Tanzania as a young volunteer, she thought she was simply offering her skills to help support girls’ education. What she didn’t expect was how deeply the experience would reshape her understanding of purpose, storytelling, and the impact...
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From Swag to Strategy: Toby Myles & Amanda Hofman on Building Modern, Meaningful Merch
Check Out These Highlights: Amanda Hofman didn’t set out to reinvent branded merchandise, but her frustration with outdated swag sparked a new path. In this episode, she shares how she went from running a women’s networking group in New York City to co‑founding a company that helps businesses...
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Unfiltered Visibility: Toby Myles & Melanie Borden on Building a Bold, Human Brand on LinkedIn
Check Out These Highlights: Melanie Borden didn’t grow her brand by playing it safe, and that’s exactly why people pay attention. In this episode, she shares how she carved out her space on LinkedIn by showing up with honesty, personality, and a willingness to be seen beyond the highlight reel.…
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The Skill You Didn’t Know Was Your Superpower: Toby Myles & Sara Torpey on Bridging Gaps and Building What’s Next
Check Out These Highlights: If you’ve ever felt like your career path has taken unexpected turns, this episode will feel like a deep exhale. Sara Torpey’s story is one of evolution, from classroom teacher to instructional coach, to working in the corporate world with a major digital education...
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Flipping the Mic: The One Where I'm in the Hot Seat
Check Out These Highlights: If you’ve ever struggled to talk about what you do, or felt like your message isn’t landing, this episode will shift the way you think about storytelling. Toby Myles shares how she built her work around helping entrepreneurs find the beauty in their lived experiences…
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Rewriting Your Next Chapter: Toby Myles & Chrissy Liu on Letting Go of Old Identities and Starting Again
Check Out These Highlights: Chrissy Liu’s path is anything but traditional, and that’s exactly what makes her story so powerful. From working as a lawyer to transitioning into healthcare administration, then building a career in jewelry design, and now stepping into authorship, Chrissy opens up...
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Purpose in the Pivot: Toby Myles & Laura Tadd on Trusting Your Intuition to Redesign Your Life
Check Out These Highlights: If you’ve ever felt like you’re checking all the “right” boxes, but still feel unfulfilled, this episode will resonate deeply. Laura Tadd shares how she moved from a structured corporate path into a more intuitive, purpose-driven life and business rooted in astrology…
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From Tech to Poetry: Toby Myles & Neelam Patel on Finding Home in the Messy Middle
Check Out These Highlights: Neelam describes the pivotal moment in 2003 when she stepped onto an open mic stage for the first time, terrified yet exhilarated, and discovered her creative home. She shares how blind faith led her to produce a one-woman show at the Capital Fringe Festival, despite...
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Trusting Yourself Again: Toby Myles & Kate Ferrian on Breaking Generational Patterns and Rebuilding Self-Trust
Check Out These Highlights: Kate Ferrian’s origin story begins with a powerful moment of clarity; standing in her closet, realizing she needed to leave an abusive relationship and start choosing herself. What followed wasn’t an instant transformation, but years of courageous inner work, healing,...
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Reinventing What’s Next: Toby Myles & Courtney Burton on Choosing Purpose Over Comfort
Check Out These Highlights: If you’ve ever wondered what comes next after a long, successful career, this conversation will resonate deeply. Courtney Burton spent decades building a dependable corporate career before two powerful coaching conversations challenged her to rethink where she truly...
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Scaling with Soul: Toby Myles & Tracy Matthews on Building a Profitable Jewelry Brand Without Burning Out
Check Out These Highlights: If you’ve ever felt torn between being the creative visionary and the CEO of your business, this episode will resonate deeply. Tracy Matthews opens up about her early days as a jewelry designer, the realities of building a product-based brand, and the hard lessons she...
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Crafting Your Hopeful Future: Toby Myles & Erika Andersen on True Transformation Made Easier
Check Out These Highlights: Erika Andersen’s origin story begins with a childhood shaped by feminist parents and suffragist grandmothers, instilling a belief in possibility and independence. After pursuing music and spending nearly a decade in an ashram, Erika discovered her calling in...
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From Newsroom to Clean Living: Sarah Clark on Healthier Homes and Everyday Choices
Check Out These Highlights: Many women build lives that look successful from the outside, only to realize something feels off on the inside. For Sarah, that realization came when her son’s sensitive skin reacted to “natural” products that weren’t as safe as they claimed. She shares how digging…
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Finding Your True Voice: Toby Myles & Brienne Hennessy on Empowerment Through Alignment
Check Out These Highlights: Brienne Hennessy’s origin story begins in the labs of linguistics and acoustics, where her fascination with voice first took root. From 14 years as a speech and voice pathologist to launching her own practice, she reveals how a pivotal leap in 2020 reshaped her career...
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Own Your Awesome™: Toby Myles & Miranda VonFricken on Building Bold Personal Brands with Faith and Authenticity
Check Out These Highlights: Miranda opens up about the pivotal season of her life, losing her brother and being laid off just two weeks later, which sparked her decision to never again let someone else’s business dictate her success. She shares how she accidentally built a personal brand on...
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Turning Clarity into Visibility with Toby Myles and Funke Jaiyeola
Check Out These Highlights: Funke opens up about her childhood in Nigeria, where watching bold women on TV planted the seed for her own voice and future path. She shares the pivotal leap from accounting to studying literature, culture, and digital media in Sweden, despite family objections and…
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Reclaiming Power from Within: Toby Myles & Elle Nagy on Releasing the High Achiever Archetype
Check Out These Highlights: Elle Nagy opens up about her breaking point: lying in a field, asking the universe for answers, and how that moment sparked her transformation. She explains why depression is often a suppression of the self and how embracing authenticity became her path forward....
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Building Community That Lasts: Toby Myles & Kelly Vrchota on Creating Memberships That Truly Make an Impact
Check Out These Highlights: Kelly Vrchota’s journey into membership strategy began long before she realized it—rooted in her years as a teacher, her deep belief in community, and the unexpected loss of her best friend and first client. Helping that friend build a membership for adoptive and…
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Finding Your Voice Beyond Burnout: Toby Myles & Krista Mollion on Choosing Courage Over Comfort
Check Out These Highlights: Krista Mollion’s journey takes her from an ambitious corporate climber to building an eight‑figure agency, only to realize she had lost herself in the process. The breaking point came with burnout and panic attacks that forced her to reevaluate everything. Twice she...
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From Wellness to Workflow: Toby Myles & Lisa Klein on Building Systems That Support the Life You Want
Check Out These Highlights: If you’ve ever felt like your business is running you instead of the other way around, this conversation will hit home. Lisa Klein started her journey after her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis inspired her to prioritize her own health; what began as a fitness…
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Life Whispers & Book Journeys: Toby Myles & Jessica Noel on Pivoting Toward Purpose
Check Out These Highlights: Jessica Noel’s story begins with her early love of books and the way her parents shaped her path as a lifelong reader and teacher. From there, she embarked on a winding journey that took her through technical writing and education before discovering copywriting and...
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Building Better Groups: Toby Myles & Kerry Dobson on Turning Knowledge into Transformation
Check Out These Highlights: When the pandemic forced a sudden career pivot, Kerry Dobson found herself at a crossroads: stay in corporate or finally build something of her own. That moment sparked the creation of her business helping coaches, authors, and leaders design group programs that truly...
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From Blog to Business: Toby Myles & Megan Porta on Taking the Leap and Building a Life You Love
Check Out These Highlights: When Megan Porta returned to work after maternity leave, she knew something had to change. What started as a tearful conversation with a friend—and the offhand comment, “Why don’t you just do it?”—became the spark that launched a food blog, a thriving business, and a...
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From Grief to Growth: Toby Myles & Kimberly Roy on Finding Your Voice Through Visibility
Check Out These Highlights: When Kimberly Roy lost her father while six months pregnant, her world changed completely. What began as a season of grief became a journey of healing, purpose, and empowerment. In this episode, Kim shares how her healing journey led her to launch her first podcast,...
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From Chemistry to Clarity: Toby Myles & Lindsey Laughlin on Building Human-Centered Brands
Check Out These Highlights: Lindsey Laughlin’s origin story didn’t begin in a marketing agency; it started in a high school chemistry class with a spark of curiosity and a desire to make things clearer for others. That same passion now drives her work at Gravity Group, where she helps brands...
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Stories That Shift Culture: Toby Myles & Simone Pero on Using Film for Social Change
Check Out These Highlights: Simone Pero’s path wasn’t a straight line; it was a series of purposeful pivots that connected her love for policy, media, and storytelling. From working on landmark legislation like the Family and Medical Leave Act to producing powerful documentaries and narrative...
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From Numbers to Impact: Toby Myles & Julia Healey on Turning Financial Skills into Meaningful Change
Check Out These Highlights: Julia Healey didn’t always believe she was “good at math,” but one teacher’s encouragement changed the trajectory of her life. From that spark, Julia pursued a career in finance, earned her MBA, and eventually became the CEO of United Charitable, a nonprofit that helps...
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Grief as a Sacred Teacher: Toby Myles & Lisa Michelle Zega on Becoming Real Through Loss and Love
Check Out These Highlights: Lisa Michelle Zega didn’t set out to become a grief guide, but life had other plans. In this episode, she shares the winding path that began with a painful divorce, the heartbreaking estrangement from her children, and the unexpected death of her fiancé. Through it…
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Lead Like a Human: Toby Myles & Ashley Cox on Reclaiming Your Voice and Redefining Leadership
Check Out These Highlights: Ashley Cox didn’t plan to become a leadership mentor. But after working under a toxic manager early in her corporate career, she found herself stripped of her responsibilities and determined to never lead that way. In this episode, Ashley shares how advocating for...
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The Art of Reinvention: Toby Myles & Dayna Del Val on Living a Life by Design, Not Default
Check Out These Highlights: Dayna Del Val’s path didn’t follow a script, and that’s exactly what makes it so powerful. In this episode, she shares how growing up in a small town, pursuing acting, and eventually running a regional arts organization laid the foundation for her greatest reinvention...
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Low and Slow: Toby Myles & Heather Campbell on Redefining Success After a Health Crisis
Check Out These Highlights: Heather Campbell didn’t start with a business plan—she started with a promise to her 10-year-old self: to never depend on anyone else for financial stability. That determination drove her through agency life, a corporate branding career, and eventually…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Her Origin Story is a podcast about the messy, magical beginnings of bold women who turned their ideas into impact. Hosted by storytelling coach Toby Myles, each episode features a real, unfiltered conversation with a female founder, creator, or changemaker about what sparked their journey.These aren’t highlight-reel success stories, they’re intimate looks at the first steps, the turning points, and the hard-earned lessons that shaped each woman’s path. Whether you're building a business, thinking about starting something new, or simply love a story that goes beyond the surface, this show is here to remind you: every powerful brand starts with a powerful origin story.Unpolished. Unfiltered. Unforgettable.
HOSTED BY
Toby Myles
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Her Origin Story have?
Her Origin Story currently has 77 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Her Origin Story about?
Her Origin Story is a podcast about the messy, magical beginnings of bold women who turned their ideas into impact. Hosted by storytelling coach Toby Myles, each episode features a real, unfiltered conversation with a female founder, creator, or changemaker about what sparked their journey.These...
How often does Her Origin Story release new episodes?
Her Origin Story has 77 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Her Origin Story?
You can listen to Her Origin Story on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Her Origin Story?
Her Origin Story is created and hosted by Toby Myles.
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