SAYge Real Stories
by Linda Nedell
We are not alone. There is another woman who has been there, has walked the same path. Through the Real Stories podcast, you can hear the inspiring stories of real women who faced real life issues and gained real wisdom and you can connect with them for a chat! We are all the same and we can connect deeply through these shared human experiences.
Episodes
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Female Founder Series: Emily Greenberg turns post partum struggles into a rapidly growing support platform for moms.
Emily Greenberg, co-founder of Joy Parenting Club, turned one of the hardest chapters of her life into a business serving 50,000 families. After a traumatic birth and postpartum challenges, she saw how isolating parenthood can be without real-time support. That experience became the spark for…
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Female Founder Series: Kat Weaver Fails, Learns, Shares, Repeat
Kat Weaver prefaces her founder story by informing us that she's made every mistake you can make. Those failures paved a path to scaling a wrist‑wallet startup from her college dorm all the way to acquisition—and winning 22 of 23 pitch competitions to fund her second venture, Power to Pitch. Kat...
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Female Founder Series: Lizzie Brown Builds an App on the Road Less Traveled
Despite all of the playbooks, every founder journey is unique like a snowflake. Sometimes you are cruising along and hit a sign: Road Work Ahead. It’s not a caution — it’s a truth. Things shift. You reroute. And sometimes, what looks like a delay is actually the work that makes everything…
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Female Founder Series: There's More to the Story - Beth Rudden on Building Better AI with Wisdom
After two decades at IBM leading global AI strategy, Beth Rudden made a bold shift—founding Bast.ai to build context-aware, human-centered AI for healthcare. In this episode, she shares what it took to leave a high-profile role, unlearn old systems, and trust her instincts as a founder. Beth…
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Female Founder Series: Melissa Bernstein on What Can Lie Behind the Curtain of Success
Melissa Bernstein is the cofounder of Melissa & Doug, the billion-dollar toy company she built from her parents’ garage. But behind the bright products was a hidden darkness. Melissa spent decades battling existential despair—until she finally came out as her true self. She then built her newest...
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Female Founder Series: Beyond the Breaking Point: Lenore Kantor’s Path to Growth Warrior
After 20 years in corporate marketing and a pivotal role taking a fintech company public, Lenore Kantor hit a wall. What followed was not just a leap into entrepreneurship, but a full reorientation of how she works, who she serves, and how she lives. Now the founder of Growth Warrior, a SAYge...
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Scaling Success: Lessons from Tech Founder Zhenni Wu
Zhenni Wu, co-founder and go-to-market leader at Puppygraph, brings the wisdom of navigating her fourth startup to the conversation. With a background at Apple, Baidu, and multiple early-stage ventures, Zhenni shares her expertise on building the right team, leveraging strategic hiring, and...
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Female Founder Series: Elmira Bayrasli on a Mission to get Women into the Conversation
What if success isn’t about immediate wins, but about learning to trust the process—especially when the results aren’t visible yet? We sit down with Elmira Bayrasli, co-founder of Interruptrr - a platform and newsletter providing a stage for women to be heard. After years in foreign policy, that...
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Female Founder Series: Eliza Blank's Journey from Unscalable to Unstoppable
Eliza Blank is the founder and CEO of The Sill, the company that turned houseplants into a modern lifestyle essential and built a multi-million dollar, category-defining brand. But bringing her vision to life wasn’t straightforward. In this episode, Eliza shares the unfiltered reality of starting...
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Female Founder Series: Luann Daniel on Founding an Impactful Non-Profit and the Art of Asking
LuAnn Daniel is the founder and executive director of Women Rock, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to supporting women facing breast cancer. After three decades of experience in diagnostic imaging, she witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of late-stage diagnoses, especially among women who…
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Female Founder Series: HR Tech Founders Danika Khong & Elizabeth Wu on Fixing Hiring Gaps with Seismic
Danika Khong and Elizabeth Wu are the co-founders of Seismic, an HR tech platform transforming skills-based hiring for STEM professionals. Frustrated by the disconnect between academia and industry, they built a solution to empower job seekers to find better career paths and companies to have a...
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Female Founder Series: Juliette Blake on Pivoting to Empower the Next Generation of Girls
Juliette Blake is the founder of Moxies, a gamified social platform designed to help girls build digital literacy and confidence in a safe online environment. A two-time founder and mom of three, Juliette launched her first business, Miss O and Friends, in high school and grew it into a globally...
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Female Founder Series: Founder Tara Gilvar on Navigating Change and Inspiring Growth
Tara Gilvar, founder of Believe, Inspire, Grow (B.I.G), turned a single email into a global women’s network with chapters spanning the East Coast and Europe . After leaving her 25-year corporate career to focus on family, Tara redefined her purpose and built an organization that helps women...
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Female Founder Series: Crafting a Business That Grows with Heart with Luxury Baby Brand Owner Karen Helburn
Karen Helburn is founder and owner of Just Hatched, a luxury baby boutique specializing in retail and corporate baby gifting, based in Guilford, Connecticut. Karen has grown her business from modest beginnings at her kitchen table to a thriving operation with a global shipping program. Karen...
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Female Founder Series: FoodTech Founder Erica Tuggle on Growing with Intention and Balance
Erica Tuggle is the founder and CEO of Livin (formerly CooKonnect), a platform that bridges busy professionals with personal chefs, creating healthier home-cooked meals. Erica’s journey to entrepreneurship was sparked by her own challenges as a working mom and her drive to create solutions for...
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Female Founder Series: Tackling Everest with Tech Founder Mia Umanos
Mia Umana is the founder of Clickvoyant, an AI-powered analytics firm revolutionizing how mid-sized e-commerce businesses access and use marketing data. A first-time founder with over 15 years in marketing analytics, Mia has scaled her company to $40K in monthly recurring revenue while redefining...
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Female Founder Series: Defying Limits with founder Karen Humphries Sallick
Karen Humphries Sallick is the CEO and co-founder of Contacts411, a platform that provides high quality, privacy compliant contact updating and enhancement for small businesses. After 35 years leading top brands like Burberry and Saks, Karen transitioned from corporate leadership to...
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Female Founder Series: Building Support with Community Founder Inbal Claudio
Inbal Claudio is a serial entrepreneur and creator of Like-Minded Collective, championing female entrepreneurs through community and collaboration. Drawing from her own journey, she highlights the power of hiring the right support and seeking help when needed. By focusing on authentic…
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The Power of Vulnerability: Rebekah Bastian’s Journey
In this episode, Rebekah Bastian opens up about the pivotal moments that shaped her path from VP at Zillow to founder of OwnTrail. She shares how embracing her own vulnerability and taking the leap into the unknown helped her build not just a company, but a personal movement centered on...
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Building Wisdom: Two Founders Are Redefining Aging in Place
We sat down with co-founders Cathy Minter and Dawn Newsome of Wisdom, a groundbreaking company focused on empowering older adults to age with dignity and independence. Cathy and Dawn share their journey of leaving high-powered corporate careers to pursue a mission-driven startup born from their…
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Ed Tech Founder Margo Jordan on Leadership and Building Opportunities
Margo Jordan, founder and CEO of venture backed ed-tech platform Enrichly, shares her inspiring journey from finance to entrepreneurship, driven by her mission to improve self-esteem in children and adolescents. Margo discusses the transition from a brick-and-mortar self-esteem learning center to…
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Humanity in Healthcare: Linda Acevedo on Founding Futura Egg Donation
Join us for an inspiring conversation with Linda Acevedo, founder of Futura Egg Donation, as she shares her mission and help forge deeply personal connections between egg donors and intended parents. Linda reflects on the highs and lows of being a solo founder, the challenges of balancing work…
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Demetra Mallios Navigates the Rollercoaster of Creating a Gamified Health Education Company
Demetra Mallios, the CEO and founder of Puberry, shares her journey of creating an interactive and gamified EdTech puberty platform. Inspired by the lack of comprehensive health education and the stigma surrounding puberty, Demetra aims to provide a holistic solution for youth, parents, and...
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Impact Founder Joy Hoover on Empowering Women and Building Movements
In this SAYge Real Founder epidsode, we dive deep into the inspiring journey of Joy Hoover, a powerhouse entrepreneur who has transformed her personal experiences into a mission to revolutionize the personal safety industry. Joy's journey began with witnessing firsthand the widespread issue of...
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Melissa Bowley's Journey Scaling her Women's Health Tech Platform
Melissa Bowley, CEO and founder of Flourish Care, shares her journey of setting out to revolutionize maternal healthcare. Inspired by her own experience as a mother, Melissa recognized the gaps in the healthcare system and the lack of support for mothers. She discovered the benefits of doula care...
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From Building Startups to Backing Them: Shruti Shah's Insightful Journey
In this episode of SAYge Real Founder Stories, Shruti Shah shares her journey from being a founder of MoveLoot to becoming a partner at Symphonic Capital. She discusses the challenges and wins she faced as a female entrepreneur, including the experience of Y Combinator, the impact it had on her...
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The Alchemy of Grief: Creating Ripples of Beauty and Hope
In this deeply moving episode, we explore the life of Stacy Allwein, a real estate leader from Frederick, Maryland, who has faced unimaginable tragedies with extraordinary resilience. Stacy's story begins with the sudden loss of her younger brother in a car accident, a pivotal moment that shaped...
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Leading from Scars: A woman's mission to help end violence and trafficking.
In this episode of SAYge Real Stories, we dive deep into the inspiring journey of Joy Hoover, a powerhouse entrepreneur who has transformed her personal experiences into a mission to revolutionize the personal safety industry. Joy's journey began with witnessing firsthand the widespread issue of...
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Redefining Life Without Children: Creating a New Optimism with Jessica Braff
Jessica Braff is a careered marketing and brand strategy consultant who faced the adversity of not having the children she always wanted. She is now channeling her own grief into a new purpose driven path, helping other women find peace and acceptance in a life without the children they always...
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Overcoming the Self-fulfilling Prophecy of Self-Doubt with Gina Fico
Sometimes our biggest hurdle is the voice of self-doubt in our head. In this episode of SAYge Real Stories, Gina Fico, a lifelong resident of New Jersey and owner of Bayrock Digital Marketing, shares her journey of overcoming self-doubt and fear of failure. Gina opens up about her struggles with...
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A Journey to Somatic Empowerment and Ancestral Wisdom: Embracing our Inner Witch
Welcome to a special episode of SAYge Real Stories. This week, we're diving into the transformative journey of Lindsay Dickes, a trained trauma psychotherapist and clinical social worker turned somatic empowerment coach and self-identified nervous system “witch”. Lindsay works to guide kind,...
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Choosing Fearless: Two SAYges share their incredible journeys of overcoming
"Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure." Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist. The message is timeless. There can be many obstacles women face when trying to follow their dreams. In this recorded SAYge Real Stories event, we hear from Vi and Georgiana, two women who had...
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Love, Loss and Lessons: Profound Wisdom from a Cancer Victim’s Wife
Delve into the poignant and inspiring story told by Jackie Nicoll, a remarkable woman who has faced the unfathomable challenge of being a caregiver for her late husband, Jamie, as he battled metastatic prostate cancer. Jackie, a 55-year-old mother of two grown children, had her life take an...
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Aging Gracefully
Special thanks to three incredible SAYges Debra Banks, Rose Maloney and Sandy Dressler who shared how the choices they made led them to a life of fulfillment and knowing that "Aging Gracefully" has little to do with vanity and more to do with pausing to listen (and breathe!), following our hearts...
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Special Needs, Special Strength: A journey to a new normal as a divorced mother of two special children
Motherhood is often described as a challenging endeavor, yet the complexities are further heightened for mothers of children with special needs. Imagine the daunting task of raising not just one, but two special needs children - and as a single parent. In this episode, Karinna Hogan graciously...
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Mothering Special Needs Children: How Two Moms Found Support and Laughter with Karen Phillips and Midsieka Costelli
Being a mother is undeniably challenging, and caring for special needs children takes it to a whole new level. In this special episode of Real Stories: SAYges in our Backyard, we meet Karen Philips and Midsieka Costelli, two Connecticut moms who have formed a strong bond and found invaluable...
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Despair Behind the Curtains: A Story of Self-Acceptance with Melissa Bernstein
Our guest Melissa Bernstein shows us that even the most successful individuals have struggles we often don’t see behind the glowing spotlight. These real, sometimes stigmatizing issues, trials and tribulations are what characterize us. They are also what connect us on a human level, showing us…
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"Picture Perfect": Dr. Rikki's Wake Up Call and Path to Finding a Deeply Fulfilled Life
In this episode we speak with Dr. Rikki, a remarkable woman who dared to take a leap of faith and completely transform her life after a breast cancer scare. Despite having a seemingly perfect life as a doctor, mother, and wife, Rikki realized that she was utterly unfulfilled. Driven by a deep...
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Cracking Human Connection: The Superpowers Within our Uniquely Diverse Qualities with Jennifer K. Hill
Welcome to a special episode of our podcast, where we had the pleasure of hosting Jennifer K. Hill, a brilliant evolutionary leader, speaker, podcast host, author, and entrepreneur. Jennifer's journey towards personal growth and transformation is truly inspiring. After exiting her first company…
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Dancing with Cancer: Transforming Through Adversity with Kathy Mcafee
In this SAYge Real Stories episode I sat down with Kathy Mcafee, an accomplished author, renowned speaker, entrepreneur, business leader and coach. Perhaps her greatest defining success however is being an ovarian cancer survivor. This powerful Real Stories conversation takes us through her...
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Rooted: A Journey of Mental Illness, Anorexia, Miscarriage and the Healing Power of Self-Love
Melissa Spratt's story is equals parts tumultuous and incredible, right on par with real life. Melissa starts by sharing her journey through mental illness, low self-esteem and anorexia as a girl and young adult. Her story then winds through periods of solid ground and happy days upheaved by new...
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Divorced, not Devoiced (Part 2) with Audre Rickard
In this 2 part-recorded live audience SAYge Real Stories we heard from two incredible women who have come through the other side of divorce and are now helping other women be empowered and less stigmatized as they navigate their way through it. In this Part 2 episode, Audre Rickard shares her...
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Divorced, not Devoiced (Part 1) with Rachel Lauren
In this SAYge Real Stories Podcast 2 part series, we hear from two incredible women who have come through the other side of divorce and are now helping other women be empowered and less stigmatized as they navigate their way through it. In this part 1 episode, Rachel Lauren shares her bold choice...
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Choices Become Us with Kayla Lafi & Lisa Valdes Romero
When Kayla Lafi's mental health hit rock bottom, she made a mindful choice to “give life a try”. She obtained a new lease on life and realized a beautiful freedom. She has now built a community as a mental health advocate, sharing the wisdom she learned through her struggles and tools she…
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Turning Pain into Power with Mauri Konnell
Mauri Konnell's journey starts as a 13-year old girl, hospitalized for an eating disorder but who had the foresight to know she wanted to one day get through her battles so that she could help other girls thrive. Though the ensuing years brought more trials and tribulations including...
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Resilience and Reinventing Yourself with Melinda Bristol & Mary Gervais
Have you ever come to a point in your life where you needed a complete life makeover, an overhaul? These two SAYge women have been there. Melinda George Bristol and Mary Gervais tell their unique journeys which share an incredible display of resilience and moving forward despite adversity. Take a...
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Adoption Story: Finding Birth Parents and Yourself with Judith Barron
In this SAYge Real Stories podcast episode, Judith Barron bravely shares her intricate emotional journey of searching for and finding her biological parents. Listen to her story unfold as powerful learnings and a new self discovery reveals itself. Sometimes you look for answers and find you had...
About this show
We are not alone. There is another woman who has been there, has walked the same path. Through the Real Stories podcast, you can hear the inspiring stories of real women who faced real life issues and gained real wisdom and you can connect with them for a chat! We are all the same and we can connect deeply through these shared human experiences.
Hosted by
Linda Nedell
Categories