Wings of Inspired Business

Nicole Rodrigues is the CEO and Founder of NRPR Group, the Beverly Bills public relations and marketing machine serving game changing companies from entertainment to tech around the world. NRPR focuses on building relationships that build long-lasting ties between clients, the media and their audiences. From startups to Fortune 500 companies within consumer tech, FinTech, HealthTech, enterprise, mobile, digital entertainment, lifestyle, sports, and consumer products, NRPR prides itself on a high-touch, results-focused approach to boost their clients' bottom line. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 🔥 📝 PR as an Insurance Policy: In an age of AI deepfakes and viral scandals, its vital to be proactive and start creating and curating a steady flow of positive, authentic leadership content across your platforms, so you have a strong track record to counteract any attacks or fakes that threaten to damage your brand. ✨🤖AI is Productivity Hack Not a Job Replacer: Learn how AI can boost team productivity and eliminate "busywork"—think streamlined brainstorming and better workflow—for marketing and other tasks, while leaving room for the irreplaceable human touch in building authentic relationships and strategy. Hint: Use AI as your "intern," not your strategy. 🎭 👩‍🔬 The Authenticity Dilemma: Authenticity does not require "radically transparency". Be yourself, but avoid venting political or divisive opinions as a CEO. Protect your brand—choose when, where, and how you show your values. 🚀 🤝 The Power of Thoughtful Human Connection: From handwritten thank-you notes to in-person meetups—what's old is new (and so effective) again. Taking the time to engage personally and meaningfully has never mattered more in a digital world that can feel disconnected. 🛠️💪Quick Takeaways & Action Steps: Start building positive, authentic content about you and your business now—think of it as your online "armor" Leverage AI as your creative assistant, not your boss Thoughtful, selective in-person connections are more powerful than ever CEOs and founders: keep your personal and business brands strategic, aligned, and intentionally public 🎙️Subscribe to Wings and get the full Show Notes at https://bit.ly/Wings958 More about Nicole at NRPR Group https://www.nrprgroup.com/

Maria Castellucci Moore is the founder of the boutique winery and real estate business, Castellucci Napa Valley. She's also a multi-award-winning author of the children's book series Traveling Mindfulness, including Vivian in Paris and Sophia in Rome, and winner of the Gold Mom's Choice Award. First-generation American and mother to four children, Maria is also a board member of the San Francisco Opera Guild and Napa Valley's Ambassador to Charitable nonprofit organization, Roots of Peace— an organization that demines war torn lands and plants fruit orchards and vineyards worldwide. Maria also received the 2023 Most Intriguing Award for Napa Valley. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 🍷🌱 Navigating Challenges: Pressures facing the wine industry, from shifting consumer tastes and competition from seltzers and European wines to reduced Napa tourism and a changing luxury market, how both hospitality and agriculture are feeling the economic squeeze, and creative strategies for weathering economic storms. ✨💡 Purpose Beyond Profit: Why diversifying your interests beyond building your business to also focus on positive social impact builds your resilience, joy and happiness. Maria shares her involvement with organizations like Roots of Peace and the San Francisco Opera Guild. 🤎 🤝 Immigration & Community: the critical role of hardworking migrant workers in agriculture, and the impact of the Trump Administration's anti-immigrant roundups on the California wine business. ✈️ 📚 Traveling Mindfulness – A Creative Journey for Kids: Maria's shares her inspiration for the children's book series, which blends the joy of travel with mindfulness, inviting kids to use their senses to find their unique happiness in Paris, Rome, London, and beyond. 🔥🛠️Advice for Entrepreneurs: Stay hungry, stay curious, stay creative. In uncertain times, its vital to grow, pivot, and diversify. Maria reminds us: "If you're not growing, you're going backwards." 🎙️Subscribe to Wings and get the full Show Notes at https://bit.ly/Wings957 More about Maria at Maria Castellucci Moore Author

Shellee Howard is the Founder and CEO of College Ready and CR Future Now, a Certified Independent College Strategist, and a best-selling author. A member of HECA and SOFA, she helps students gain admission to their best-fit colleges—often debt-free. As a mother of four, Shellee has firsthand experience with college success. Her son graduated debt-free from Harvard, earned his MD from UCSD, and is now an Orthopedic Surgery Resident at UCLA. Her daughter earned her BSN debt-free and became an RN in 2021. A sought-after speaker and consultant, Shellee has guided hundreds of students worldwide to top universities, ensuring they graduate debt-free and land jobs they love. Shellee also hosts the podcast, Parents: Is Your Teen College Ready? 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 🌱🤔 Start Early, Self-Discovery Comes First: Why college prep should start in middle school, with parents guiding their kids to reflect on their interests, strengths, and values. Learn how to help your kids figure out who they are before choosing what to study with a mix of community service, internships, and real-world conversations with professionals. 💸 🎯 A Strategic (Not Emotional) Path to College: Why it's not about chasing school prestige or following the crowd. The best path involves empowering students to build standout resumes, match with colleges that value their unique qualities, and—most importantly—graduate without crushing student loans. 🎓💡 Scholarships (and How to Win Them): One of Shellee's most compelling stats: her seniors earned over $10 million in scholarships last year alone. Her secret? Treat the process like building a business—from early planning, crafting applications, and strategically picking colleges that want to reward your child's excellence. 👩‍💼 🛠️ For Young Entrepreneurs and Non-Traditional Paths: Not every student is destined for the Ivy League—or even a traditional four-year college. Learn how to explore all options, including trade schools and entrepreneurial ventures. There is no "one size fits all" path to success. ✨🤖 How AI Is Impacting College Decisions: How to best prepare your teen for an AI world, why teaching nimbleness, flexibility and resilience is key. 🎙️Subscribe to Wings and get the full Show Notes at https://bit.ly/Wings956 More about Shellee at College Ready Plan https://collegereadyplan.com/

Jennifer Tsay is the CEO and Co-Founder of the professional photography platform Shoott, which uniquely offers free photoshoots where clients only pay for the photos they love. Shoott operates in over 60 U.S. cities, supporting more than 750 freelance photographers with supplemental income, and maintain a 4.9 rating on Google across 2400 reviews and counting. With a diverse background in investment banking, strategic finance, project management, documentary film producing, and acting, Jennifer combines her passion for process with her love of art and storytelling to manage growth, strategy, and operations for Shoott. You may know Jennifer from her acting gigs on The Other Two, High Fidelity, The Village, The Blacklist, and Bored to Death as well as spots for Citi, AT&T Wifi, Samsung, Geico, and Manhattan Mini Storage. Jennifer is a Forbes #Next1000 entrepreneur and one of Brit + Co's 30 AAPI Founders We Love to Support, and recently appeared on Entrepreneur.com's Elevator Pitch Season 11. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 🚀 📷 Disruptive Business Models Drive Growth: Learn how free photoshoots that let customers pay for the shots they love benefit consumers and creatives alike, allowing photographers to earn a steady income, find clients, and conserve their time. 🤟💰Solving the Artist Gig Dilemma: How photographic artists and gig workers can escape the feast-or-famine cycle with a platform that aggregates demand and creates accessible sessions in centralized, scenic locations, for steady income that supplements the work of talented photographers. 🦄 🎯 The 14-Day Rule: How to master lean, efficient marketing that gets results by testing quickly, abandoning things that don't work after 14 days, avoiding the impulse to get "stuck on theory" and trust your own data over fads. Plus, why chasing marketing trends isn't always best. 🎭📈 Acting to Investment Banking: How Jennifer's diverse experiences shape how she's building Shoott, blending creativity with data-driven problem solving. 🌍💡Scaling from NYC to 60 Cities (and Counting!): Learn how to navigate a double-sided marketplace, turn challenges into growth opportunities, hire remotely, and expand into new markets. 🎙️Subscribe to Wings and get the full Show Notes at https://bit.ly/Wings955 More about Jennifer at Shoott.com

Wendy Bronfein is the Co-Founder, Chief Brand Officer and Director of Public Policy at Curio Wellness, Maryland's leading medical cannabis company, where she focuses on driving the company's legislative agenda across multiple states and building the Curio brand. Wendy made the leap into the medical marijuana space after a long career in television. She was Creative Director of On-Air Promotions at LIVE! With Kelly & Michael and was a Managing Producer at BBC Worldwide Americas from 2006-2010. She has also served in various freelance production roles in New York and Los Angeles working on shows such as The Andy Milonakis Show, Wanda Does it, and The Sharon Osbourne Show. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 🛠️📝 Navigating Regulatory Roadblocks: How to scale a business in a challenging industry like cannabis, where U.S. federal Schedule 1 drug status means excessive taxation and restrictions on banking, research, and marketing. This, when research shows safer communities, more state tax revenue, reduced opioid use, and lower teen consumption where cannabis is legal. 🤟❤️ Branding in a Constrained Industry: What to do when traditional marketing and advertising channels are closed off, and how to make creative, high-touch approaches, community engagement, and "ground game" outreach earn customer trust and build awareness. 🌈 🤎 Empowering the Next Generation of Diverse Entrepreneurs: Learn how Curio Wellness is taking bold steps to offer franchise opportunities specifically designed to help women, minorities, and disabled veterans break into the cannabis business—helping others navigate regulatory and financial barriers by supporting their capital needs and providing operational guidance. 🎙️Subscribe to Wings and get the full Show Notes at https://bit.ly/Wings954 More about Wendy at Curio Wellness

Chelsea Ryckis is the award-winning founder and president of Ethos Benefits, a firm dedicated to advancing fiduciary-driven health insurance strategies for employers nationwide to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse from employer healthcare plans while increasing savings for both employers and their employees. After suffering a traumatic brain injury as a Division 1 college athlete, Canadian-born Chelsea experienced the US healthcare system firsthand, inspiring her pioneering entrepreneurship in healthcare. Chelsea was awarded the industry's most prestigious award, Advisor of the Year, by Benefits Pro in 2024. She has also been named the Most Innovative Healthcare Consultant in the United States for 2024. Chelsea is the co-host of the Ethos Effect Podcast with her husband Donovan and producer of the documentary "It's Not Personal, It's Just Healthcare." 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 💰 📈 Misaligned Incentives Are Driving Up Costs: Traditional brokers work on commission, meaning they earn more when your company pays more. Always ask your vendors, brokers, and consultants, "How are you paid? What incentives shape your advice?" 💡🛑 Transparency Is Possible—But Not From the Big Players: Most major carriers bundle all aspects of the health plan in a "closed box," preventing employers from seeing claim-level data or understanding actual costs. By unbundling and using fee-based advisors, employers can regain control and thoroughly understand where their dollars are going. 🚀 🤝 Employers Have More Power Than They Think: 60-65% of Americans get insurance through work, yet most companies don't realize they can drive change. Simple steps like questioning your broker's incentives and exploring open-box plan options can lead to substantial savings and better employee care. ✨🛠️Smaller groups can save, too: Even with as few as 10 employees, innovative options exist—Chelsea shared a client success who saved $110,000 with just 22 workers. 🎙️Subscribe to Wings and get the full Show Notes at https://bit.ly/Wings953 More about Chelsea at Ethos Benefits https://ethosbenefits.com/

Kate Assaraf is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Dip Sustainable Hair Care, building a 7-figure beauty brand without Amazon, big-box retailers, or influencer gimmicks. Kate is also a Forbes columnist, and a mom of two who proves that entrepreneurship and motherhood can coexist without burnout—by prioritizing presence, purpose, and smart business choices. Kate has been featured in Allure, Cosmopolitan, Modern Salon, and The Unwash, was named NJ's Mompreneur of the Year (2024), and was honored as a "Woman of Courage" by Insigniam Quarterly. She's passionate about helping other moms in business build profitable brands without sacrificing their families, values, or sanity. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 🔥✨Dare to Be Different: When everyone zigged, Kate zagged, rethinking the beauty playbook. She said no to Amazon, no to advertising, and no to paid influencer marketing, and instead let truly delighted customers become the voice of her growing 7-figure brand. 💡 🚀 Product Over Hype: Tired of the "plastic-free at all costs, performance be damned" narrative and marketing tactics that overwhelmed consumers, Kate obsessed over making a product so good it always "overdelivered," turning skeptics into passionate advocates—her return rate is just 0.006%! 🌱 💰 Sustainable Growth, Real Impact: Learn how slow, meaningful and sustainable growth can mean bigger profits, and how to make sustainability profitable: Kate hires locally, gives back to causes, and fosters a business culture that truly respects employees and customers. 👩‍🔬❤️ Mompreneur Mindset: How to balance motherhood with mission-driven entrepreneurship without burning out. 🎙️Subscribe to Wings and get the full Show Notes at https://bit.ly/Wings952 More about Kate at Dip Already www.dipalready.com

Lauren Morgan is the founder of Wild Wisdom, an energy master, and a trauma recovery and business coach on a mission to empower women overcome imposter syndrome, limiting beliefs and self-sabotage so they can turn their pain into purpose, transform their wounds into wisdom, and create heart-centered businesses. She brings her personal expertise with healing practices like Ayurveda, hypnosis, meditation, shamanism, energy work, and core belief work to help entrepreneurs grow abundant, purpose-driven businesses. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 ✨🔹 Your Business Has Its Own Consciousness: Think of your business as its own entity—almost like a child with unique needs, energy, and purpose beyond your own. When you recognize and honor that, you unlock new ways to co-create success. 🌙 💡 Tune In and Listen: Why the magic often happens when you slow down, get grounded, and create quiet space. By intentionally listening (whether through intuition, journaling, or mindfulness), you receive guidance on what your business truly wants to become—and how you can help it thrive. 🚀 📈 Alignment Leads to Growth: When you and your business are in sync, clients, opportunities, and abundance flow naturally. Lauren's real-world examples prove that when you embrace this energetic partnership, everything from your messaging to your customer base can shift in amazing ways. 🎙️Subscribe to Wings and get the full Show Notes at https://bit.ly/wings-951 More about Lauren at Wild Wisdom Coach www.wildwisdomcoach.com

Dr. Sherry Peel Jackson is a retired IRS agent, CPA, and Certified Fraud Examiner who's helped over 100,000 professionals legally reduce taxes and build lasting wealth. With over 35 years of experience, she's the creator of the KPG System—a proven method to Keep, Protect, and Grow your income without risky investments. She's also the author of How To Escape The Rat Race and a passionate speaker empowering people to take control of their finances and create generational wealth. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 💰 📈 What the IRS Doesn't Want You to Know: Learn the inside secrets of how to reduce your tax burden—from write-offs you never knew existed to paying your children, plus the story of "Chesty Love" and how she succeeded writing off a breast augmentation. Plus, how to audit-proof your business from the get-go. 💪 🚀 From Whistleblower to Wealth Coach: How to turn pain into purpose, and what inspired Sherry to walk away from the IRS and create a mission-driven business dedicated to helping others escape financial traps. 👩‍🔬 🌱 How Women Entrepreneurs Can Build Legacy Wealth Without Overworking or Overspending: Why women need a new financial playbook—and how they can grow wealth without burnout, reclaiming work-life balance. Learn Sherry's KPG System to Keep, Protect, and Grow income and wealth. 🔥✨ Escaping the Rat Race: The 3 most important moves you can make this year to start building financial freedom and generational wealth, even if you're drowning in taxes, debt or limited income. 💼 🤝 Lawsuit Protection and Legal Risk: The U.S. business environment is litigious, so learn how to structure your business to protect personal assets, how to use family limited partnerships and trusts as protective tools, plus examples of complex corporate structures by wealthy individuals. Also, the inside skinny on how to protect yourself from challenging employment laws. ⚡📚 Your Business Structure Matters: The way you set up your business can make or break your risk exposure. Sherry shares that corporations often provide better protection for your personal assets than LLCs, especially in a litigious environment like the U.S. 🌍💡 Prepare for Uncertainty—Diversify & Protect: The importance of 'structuring your business—and personal finances—to weather economic and political storms, plus why now is the time to invest in hard assets (real estate, gold, silver, even global property) and always having a 'Plan B' in case of major market shifts. 🎙️Subscribe to Wings and get the full Show Notes at https://bit.ly/wings-950 More about Sherry at Sherry Peel Jackson https://sherrypeeljackson.com/

Jenny Young is the Founder and CEO of Brooklyn Robot Foundry, the vibrant and inclusive brand dedicated to prioritizing diversity and empowerment for children of all backgrounds and communities through STEAM education. Jenny is a trained mechanical engineer turned entrepreneur to bring a more diverse, inclusive and creative approach to STEAM education. Founded in 2011 and with four locations open currently, the brand focuses putting the "art" in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and sharing the fun of STEAM education with children everywhere, inspiring them to continue a life full of exploration, problem-solving, and imagination.