Impact Innovators with Felicia Ford

A Q3 Reset for Founders, Leaders, and High-Capacity Professionals

There are moments when your rhythm gets interrupted—not by burnout, not by chaos, but by something deeper.

A dissonance. A disruption. And no one teaches you what to do when the pace you’ve mastered suddenly doesn’t fit the version of you that’s emerging.

You’ve always known how to lead through change. But this moment is about more than change. It’s about choosing ...

Content Warning: This episode includes stories of childhood trauma, war, and suicidal ideation. Please listen with care. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or visit 988lifeline.org. For international listeners, go to findahelpline.com.

One of the reasons this platform exists is to tell the unaddressed stories—those lived experiences that don’t make the press release or ...

You’re leading the charge, but still stepping in to cover what should’ve been handled.

You’ve built the system. Delegated the work. Set the expectations. But here you are again…

…checking behind, picking up the slack, and carrying responsibilities that weren’t yours to begin with.

This isn’t about failure or even about hiring. It’s about a pattern; one that smart, seasoned leaders fall into because your capacity keeps getting mista...

What if saying “I need help” is one of the clearest signs your business is evolving?

Not everyone gets to that moment. It usually means things are working—but growing. It means the weight of decisions is shifting. And it means your next move will ask something different from you.

In this episode, I walk through the four readiness shifts that make space for support to work—without creating confusion, delays, or extra pressure.

You’l...

You’ve delivered the program. You’ve hosted the event. You’ve handled the follow-up. Your work has been referred, recommended, and repeated because it works. But even with that level of traction, you’ve likely also seen interest that doesn’t convert. Referrals that pause. Conversations that don’t lead to clear decisions. And when you’re running a service-based business or nonprofit with a small team and a full plate, the space to a...

If you’ve been sitting on something, waiting for the right moment—this is it.

This episode is about power moves—the ones that shift how you work and protect how you move through the rest of the year. The kind of moves that free up your calendar, position your next campaign, and make space for what you’ve already said you’re building.

I’m not offering a checklist or a pep talk. I’m walking you through the structure I use with my own...

Why does it feel like you’ve built everything—your service, program, even a book—but it’s still waiting to move? How do you shift when your ideas are racing faster than your systems? What does it take to design growth that carries your work beyond you?

In this final episode of the Built to Move series, we close the loop on how design creates the architecture your work needs to be experienced, distributed, and sustained. You’ll disc...

What Happens When Loyalty Hires Replace Qualified Teams

How do you know when someone is truly moving with you—and not just watching you move? What if the reason your systems feel strained has nothing to do with your structure and everything to do with who’s standing inside of it? And in this season of building, scaling, and leading—who’s actually carrying this with you?

In this second installment of Built to Move, Felicia Ford shif...

You’ve already learned how to manage the work. But at this stage, it’s not about management—it’s about movement. Not more doing. Not more hours. Just rhythm. The kind that frees your time without compromising the weight of what you’ve built.

If you’re running a licensed program, managing a multi-channel campaign, or holding the leadership seat in a nonprofit, school, small business, or ministry—you already know what it means to lea...

The life they taught her to build almost took her with it.

For decades, Katina Barnes poured into families, mentored girls, launched programs, led ministries, and moved mountains with two-person teams. The world clapped. But no one asked what it cost.

In this National Black Girl Month™ feature, Katina joins Felicia Ford and co-host Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown to name what many Black women are only starting to admit: that being “strong” i...

You're praised for your strength — but at what cost? You're taught to push through — but when do you finally get to breathe? You're carrying the weight of generations — but no one stops to ask: where do you go to put it down?

In the second of our three-part series on Superwoman Syndrome, mindfulness coach and TEDx speaker Asia Whittedsteps forward to share the truths many Black women have been forced to navigate in silence.

Through...

Dr. Michelle Hite on Mothering While Black, Everyday Courage, and the Power of Telling the Truth

What happens when the world sees your child as a threat before it sees them as human? What does it cost to raise a child while defending your right to grieve, to question, to be seen?

This conversation centers the weight—and the wisdom—of mothering while Black. In this featured National Black Girl Month™ 2025 episode, we’re joined by Dr...

You’re praised for the baby. But not asked about your body. You’re celebrated for becoming a mother. But rarely supported as you grieve the version of you that no one else seemed to notice disappeared.

This episode is for every Black woman who gave birth and then wondered where she went.

In this featured National Black Girl Month™ 2025 conversation, Dr. Phoebe Ajayi—a physician, maternal health advocate, and author of After Birth: ...

Why are Black women still expected to carry everything without complaint?

They keep telling Black women to be strong, to push through, to hold it all together. But what they never address is the damage that message leaves behind—mentally, physically, emotionally. The burnout, the silence, the pressure to succeed at the expense of our well-being.

If you've ever felt like you're doing everything right and still paying too high a pric...

This month, we’re centering the full spectrum of Black Motherhood—and this episode makes it clear: some of the most transformative mothering doesn’t begin with biology. It begins with presence.

As part of our special April series for National Black Girl Month™, Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown and I are joined by Dr. Brooke Jones—licensed psychologist, founder of Fresh Start for the Mind, and adoptive mother—for a conversation that redefines ...

Hey, friend. Hello, Change Makers. In the words of Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown—Hey, Black girl.

We often say it takes a village, but let’s be clear—villages don’t build themselves. They’re shaped, sustained, and often revived by Black mothers who know what it means to care, connect, and carry more than their share.

Today’s guest, Jetaun Woodley, didn’t just recognize the gap—she built something from it. As a veteran communications strate...

Special National Black Girl Month™ Series | Co-hosted by Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown

You may not remember her reading parenting books, but she knew how to raise a household and keep a family intact. Big Mama didn’t need a manual—she had instincts, routines, and an unshakable sense of responsibility. She didn’t just take care of you; she taught you what it meant to show up, even when nobody showed up for her. She built structure out of ve...

Movements don’t start in meetings. They start with lived experiences—the kind we normalize, dismiss, or bury until someone dares to say it out loud.

In this foundational conversation, Felicia Ford and Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown return to the moment they knew this work—National Black Girl Month™—had to exist. Not just as a celebration, but as structure. As strategy. As response.

“Our tired didn’t start in 2022. Our tired had a history.”

What happens when performance, people, and purpose collide.

Today, we’re joined by Dee Ntšala, founder of Nova Conxulting, whose work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, wellness, DIEB principles, and leadership strategy. Dee equips high-performing executives, founders, and teams with the tools to lead.

Every time I’ve been asked to fix a performance issue, it was actuall...