Women and Work

Building a successful business, achieving financial freedom, and checking every box on the path to success should have felt like the finish line.

For Heather Simco, it wasn't.

After growing up in a difficult home, Heather pursued stability through teaching before helping build a thriving martial arts business with her husband. But behind the success was a battle with addiction, unresolved trauma, and the realization that external ach...

Trying to “do it all” can sometimes mean saying no to the opportunity you worked your whole career for.

Jen Anderson spent nearly two decades building a successful career in fitness leadership while raising her family. After turning down a promotion when her children were young, she expected the opportunity would still be there when the timing was right. But when she was finally ready, the company chose someone else.

Inst...

Facing death as a child changes the way you see fear, uncertainty, and opportunity.

After surviving two heart attacks by age 10 and being told she had less than six months to live, Hanna Bauer learned from her mother and grandmother how to keep moving forward even when the future felt terrifyingly uncertain.

That experience shaped the way she approached leadership, motherhood, business, and major life transitions — from navigat...

After becoming a mom, Amy Jackson realized that the career path she once said “yes” to so easily suddenly came with impossible tradeoffs.

From painful work trips and mom guilt to constantly changing childcare plans, Amy shares how motherhood reshaped the way she approached ambition, leadership, and success. Instead of walking away from her career, she built a fully remote, family-friendly PR agency that allows women to t...

You build a successful career, work with top executives, and then… take a pause.

For DeeDee Fisher, that pause wasn’t a setback—it was part of the story.

Now a consultant to C-suite leaders through her company Discover Response, DeeDee has spent over 30 years helping executives communicate more effectively. From developing curriculum for Fortune-level clients to leading in the nutraceutical industry and serving as ...

Trying to do it all—and still feeling like it’s not enough—can quietly lead to burnout.

After years of climbing the corporate ladder, Sophia Mikelionis hit a breaking point. The constant pressure to overperform at work while being fully present at home left her exhausted, disconnected, and questioning everything.

Instead of pushing through, she made a bold decision: step away, reset, and rebuild her life on her own ...

Doing everything “right” in your career but still feeling like something’s missing, you start questioning if this path is really yours.

That’s exactly where Carmelina Piedra found herself—after 25 years climbing the corporate ladder, leading teams, and building a stable career. But when the pandemic hit, balancing work, homeschooling, and raising three kids as an only parent pushed her to a breaking poi...

Trying to build a career while raising kids shouldn’t mean choosing one over the other—but so many women feel like they have to.

Trying to do both motherhood and career, you start to feel the pressure to give up one dream for the other.

When that happened to Beth Mazza and Victoria Sivrais, they took two very different paths—one feeling alone in male-dominated rooms, the other refusing to believe she couldn’t ...

You can be building a company, raising capital—and still be underestimated.

That’s what happened to Abbey Donnell, Founder & CEO of Work&, as she navigated fundraising while becoming a mother—sometimes literally in labor while closing deals.

She quickly realized that women are often asked to prove themselves with results, while men are trusted on potential. Instead of backing down, she learned to reframe the...

Feeling like you've earned your seat at the table, yet still not taken seriously, can make you question your worth and your path.

When that happened to Rebecca Blacker, she faced rooms full of decision-makers who spoke past her, doubted her, and refused to see her leadership—despite everything she had proven.

That realization pushed her to stop chasing validation and instead build something of her own—leaving behind a suc...

Realizing you're juggling too many things-and none are getting the focus they deserve—can feel overwhelming, especially as a founder.

For Mabel Oza, that moment came after building multiple products, launching ideas, and constantly staying in “creator mode”—only to realize that doing everything might be the very thing holding her back.

Instead of continuing down the same path, she began questioning her approac...

Feeling like you’re supposed to follow one path in your career can make every unexpected turn feel like a mistake.

That’s something Jill Salzman, discovered through her own unconventional journey. After starting multiple businesses, raising kids, and navigating countless “but…” moments in life and work, she realized those detours were actually the most important parts of the story.

That realization insp...

That’s something Anna DeShawn, Founder of E3 Radio and The Qube, learned as she built a media platform focused on telling stories from the LGBTQ community—especially Black and Brown voices often overlooked by mainstream media.

Along the way, she faced industry barriers, changing political climates, and the realities of entrepreneurship. Instead of forcing a path that didn’t feel right, she embraced what she calls &...

Even when you’re accomplished, credentialed, and overqualified, you can still find yourself overlooked, overworked, and questioning your worth.

That’s something Dr. Mazella Fuller, Former Clinical Associate at Duke University, experienced firsthand throughout her 30-year career — watching others with less experience get promoted, seeing ideas appropriated, and navigating the layered challenges of race and gender.

In...

Despite doing everything right in her corporate tech career — earning her MBA, managing major IT projects, and outperforming expectations — Krystal Tristan still found herself pumping in office bathrooms, working from her hospital bed, and questioning whether she truly belonged in the room.

After years in consulting and Fortune 500 environments, Krystal noticed something: women were quietly pushing through impossible sta...

If you’re successful on paper but secretly feel overlooked, drained, or stuck in the wrong role, you might not be in your wheelhouse.

That’s what happened to Kim Costa, Author of Live In Your Wheelhouse and Realtor with Sotheby’s International Realty. After decades running a multi-million-dollar construction business behind the scenes, Kim realized she was “fine” at what she did — but she wasn&rsq...

When you’re told that choosing marriage, motherhood, or flexibility means giving up your potential, it can quietly shape the way you show up for years.

That’s exactly what happened to Wendy Guth and Krystal Eicher, co-founders of Serendipitous Rebel. As military spouses, mothers, and ambitious women, they were pushed to shrink themselves, delay dreams, and carry expectations no one places on men.

Instead of accepting that...

When you’ve done everything “right” — the education, the pedigree, the experience — yet women still raise a fraction of the capital, it forces a hard question: why?

That happened to Jarah Euston, but she didn’t accept the numbers at face value. Even at Wharton — now majority female — women founders raise just a small share of venture funding.

So Jarah took action. She helped build a pow...

When you’re juggling a demanding career, leadership responsibilities, and motherhood, you expect the job to be the hardest part. For Laura Benarosch, it wasn’t.

After years of building high-level careers and leading teams, Laura realized the greatest stress in her life as a working mom wasn’t her workload—it was finding consistent, reliable childcare. From waitlists and caregiver turnover to returning to work...