Lead Like a Woman

Sarahbeth Yeli Marshall is the Founder and Chief Chocolate Officer of Yelibelly Chocolates. She started her career as a registered dietician with a Master's Degree in Nutrition and Food Science, and worked for 15 years in the food service industry before falling into the dark side of chocolate.  Yeli has been studying and performing the art of Middle Eastern belly dancing since 1999, and on one of her travels to Italy, she discovered flavor-infused chocolates. She brought back that inspiration and started making her own chocolates in 2007 and since then, she has worked at perfecting various flavors to entice her family and friends.  Yeli started selling her chocolates around the Metroplex and at a dance studio where she taught belly dancing. After searching for a name that truly told the story about her chocolates, a friend suggested melding her name and her passion for dance, thus Yelibelly Chocolates was born. Yeli still performs from time to time around the Dallas area, and she also teaches nutrition and healthy cooking classes. In this episode… Sarahbeth Yeli Marshall fell in love with flavor-infused chocolates while on a trip in Italy so much that she was inspired to start making her own when she got back home. When she no longer found happiness in her career as a dietician, her husband encouraged her to start a chocolate-making  business and since then, there’s been no turning back for Yeli. The journey of entrepreneurship has been enlightening for Yeli and things she learned in the process is something that she hopes to share with other women.  Join Andrea Heuston on this episode of Lead Like a Woman Show where she interviews Sarahbeth Yeli Marshall about chocolate and about chocolates and belly dancing. Yeli talks about how she came to start a business enterprise around chocolate, the challenges she faced growing her business, and the lessons she learned that she hopes other women can learn from. Stay tuned.

Andrea Heuston is the CEO and Creative Principal of Artitudes Design, an award-winning creative agency. She has over 20 years of experience in the design industry and has won several awards such as the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 under 40, the Annual Enterprising Women of the Year Awards for Enterprising Women Magazine, Cambridge Who’s Who, and the Key4Women Achieve Award.  Andrea holds a degree in Communications and Design from the University of Washington. She is a speaker, author, and a volunteer who helps plan, purchase, prepare, and serve meals for the members of The Matt Talbot Center. Andrea is also the host of the Lead Like a Woman Show where she features top women leaders in order to share their inspirational stories on life and leadership. In this episode… For the last couple of months, the world has seen a lot of sudden and unexpected changes in people’s lives as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This crazy and uncertain time has cost people their employment, their health, and have essentially forced them to pivot from their usual routines so abruptly. One of the most common pivots done by many companies who remain operational is shifting their workforce from working in the office to working from home. However, not everyone is conversant with working virtually, and taking part in online meetings has proved to be a challenge for many. In addition, balancing work and family time for women has proven to be another challenge. In this episode, Andrea Heuston shares a recording of a webinar she did with a group of 200 women from different industries. In this webinar, they share the best tips for working from home, preparing and effectively taking part in online meetings, and the importance of empathy, patience, and communication when working remotely from your team. They also discuss solutions to the challenges they're facing and how they're staying connected to their work colleagues and family during the quarantine. Stay tuned.

Jasmine Donovan is the President and CFO of Dick's Drive-In Restaurants. Being the granddaughter of one of the founders, she has worked in the business several times since she was 16 years old and started working full time on the executive team in 2013. Jasmine stepped into the role of President when her father, Jim Spady, retired in March of 2019.  Jasmine is on the board of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Mary's Place, and The Forum Foundation. She was recently recognized by the Puget Sound Business Journal as a Woman of Influence for 2019. She graduated from Hillsdale College with a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Chemistry in 2006.  Jasmine joined the Navy after college and was assigned as an instructor at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Charleston, South Carolina. During her service, she was the Public Affairs Officer, earned her Master Training Specialist certification and was the Division Director of the physics teaching division. While in Charleston, she also earned her Master's degree in Business with an emphasis in Finance at Charleston Southern University. She currently resides in North Seattle with her husband and two sons. In this episode… Being in the military is a great experience and there's a lot to learn from being in service. Things such as discipline, leadership, and being of service to others are learned while in the military, and it’s a great place to start practicing persistence and how to manage through a crisis. Jasmine Donovan knows this first hand because her time at the Navy was one filled with enriching experiences that prepared her for when she eventually took the helm of their family business, Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants. Being part of the business for a long time and developing the need to serve others has led her to make decisions that has not only allowed their company to help others in times of crisis, but also to maneuver beyond the challenges posed by being in one. Join Andrea Heuston in this week’s episode of Lead Like a Woman as she talks to Jasmine Donovan, about what it’s like to be the first female President of one of Seattle's top restaurants. She also talks about the philosophies her grandfather had for the business and how it made their business stand out from competition, how she applies the things she learned while in the Navy to their company, and her future plans for Dick's Drive-In Restaurants. Stay tuned. 

Connie Wyatt is the Founder, President, and Principal Consultant of S.A.I.D. Strategy Group. She has been leading the rapidly growing woman and minority-owned professional services firm since its inception in 2014. As a management consulting firm, S.A.I.D prides itself on being the best of the best at creative critical problem solving to deliver on what they commit to with their clients for their organizational strategic initiatives, hardware service platform deployments, and software application development projects. Their motto is ‘When you work with us, it's SAID and done’.  Connie is a certified project manager, business analyst, and a thought leader in the industry, including being a contributing author to the book The Keys to Our Success: Lessons Learned from 25 of Our Best Project Managers, Second Edition. She has a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Illinois, a Certificate in Project Management Strategy from the University of Chicago, Certificate in Customer Relationship Management from DePaul University, and a Certificate in Entrepreneurship from Harold Washington College. She is also a graduate of 10 KSP.  In her free time, Connie is an avid listener of music, creating playlists and exploring new genres. She also loves bicycling with an ultimate goal of riding a century, which is a 100-mile ride. In this episode… You are the master of your own destiny. If you are in a position where you feel that your business or relationships are not working out the way you want them to, then it's high time you made some changes in the way you approach these things. Instead of looking at everybody else, make a decision to change yourself because things will change when you change. Oftentimes people tend to have a victim mentality when things don’t turn out the way they want them to. But according to Connie Wyatt, it’s very crucial for people to evolve as things around them change and to take the time to learn from others along the way. This week's episode of the Lead Like a Woman Show is dedicated to Christine Wyatt, the late mother of this episode’s guest, Connie Wyatt. Connie talks to Andrea Heuston about the need for change, why she started her consultancy company, the importance of continued growth and learning, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has personally affected her and her family. Stay tuned.

Lisa MacLean is the Founding Partner and CEO of Moxie Media, one of the first women-owned political consulting firms in the US. A courageous determiner and tenacious collaborative, Lisa turned first-hand experience with gender inequity into an established national political consulting firm that expands the impacts of women in leadership, and helps create a more inclusive government and nation. For more than 20 years, Lisa and Moxie Media have made a difference in electing candidates, winning a national initiative, advancing policies, and building movements across the country.  Lisa holds a Degree in American Culture and Women's Studies from Vassar College. She is smart, savvy and driven. In this episode… While working for the Democratic party in Washington, DC soon after college, Lisa experienced first-hand the frustrations women in politics go through. These experiences were powerful and disturbing for her at the age of 22 and it made an impact in her life. She soon left and decided to go into the field, this time in California, to work for a woman who was running for congress that year. Lisa learned a lot after the exciting work experience she had in California and ended up starting one of the first woman-founded political consulting firms in America. She focused on helping women and other marginalized groups get a stronger political voice in the country. In this episode of Lead Like a Woman Show, Lisa MacLean joins Andrea Heuston to talk about her work in gender equity and politics. She explains why she started working in the political field, the various challenges she has faced working in this primarily male dominated field, what she's most passionate about, and her best piece of advice to fellow female entrepreneurs. Stay tuned.

Andrea Heuston is the CEO and Creative Principal of Artitudes Design, an award-winning creative agency. She has over 20 years experience in the design industry and has won several awards including Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 under 40, the Annual Enterprising Women of the Year Awards for Enterprising Women Magazine, Cambridge Who’s Who, Key4Women Achieve Award, and more. Andrea holds a degree in Communications and Design from the University of Washington. Apart from being an entrepreneur, Andrea is a speaker, author, and a volunteer who helps plan, purchase, prepare, and serve meals for the members of The Matt Talbot Center. Andrea is also the host of the Lead Like a Woman Show In this episode… Twelve years ago, Andrea decided to have a lap band surgery because she was unhappy with her body weight and wanted to get to her ideal body weight. What she didn't know was that the positive results she experienced post surgery would be short-lived and that it would instead turn into a series of events that would require her to be placed under a medically-induced coma. It was an experience that opened up her eyes to the importance of family and friends in a patient’s recovery process, and it also made her realize a few things about herself that she believes other people should be aware of as well. In this episode of the Lead Like a Woman Show, Andrea gets interviewed by Dr. Jeremy Weisz of Rise25 in her own show about how her experiences as a coma patient impacted not just her life but the lives of the people she was closest to. Tune in as she talks about why she decided to get surgery, being diagnosed with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), being in a coma for 19 days, and the lessons learned from her experience.

Catherine Crosslin is the owner and CEO of Instar Performance, an internationally recognized personal and organizational development company. Catherine is an internationally respected leadership and organizational cultural consultant, executive coach, master facilitator and keynote speaker. Her engaging and interactive facilitation and coaching techniques help clients challenge and overcome deeply held beliefs and habits that inhibit growth, achievement and success.  Prior to founding Instar Performance, Catherine dedicated 15 years to Gordon Graham & Co. Inc, where she led and developed for businesses in prison. In this episode… As more women take on leadership positions in companies and in different industries, the expectation to match men in order to achieve success can become overbearing. This is particularly true for male-dominated industries where the demand for women to behave just like men can be overwhelming . But according to Catherine Crosslin, that shouldn’t be the case. Women can be more effective at work and they can achieve more if they stay true to who they are. By embracing their own uniqueness and working with who they intrinsically are, they will be able to accomplish more things. If things don’t go as planned, the best option is to fail forward and to continue pushing on. By treating their failures as learning experiences and mistakes as stepping stones for pivotal beginnings, women can open more doors of opportunities for themselves. Join Andrea Heuston in this episode of Lead Like a Woman Show as she interviews Catherine Crosslin of Instar Performance about women in leadership and organizational culture. Join the conversation as Catherine talks about her experience and lessons learned while working in male-dominated fields, how women can be better leaders, what it means to fail forward, and the benefits of having an abundance mentality. Stay tuned.

Jean Thompson is the Owner and CEO of Seattle Chocolate Company, makers of the Seattle chocolate and jcoco fine chocolate brands. She has been running Seattle Chocolate for almost 18 years and has grown it from the ruins it was in after the Nisqually Earthquake in 2001 to the successful company that it is today.  A native New Englander, Jean graduated from Bates College before embarking on a career in high tech. Prior to taking over the mantle in Seattle Chocolate Company, she was actively raising her two children in Bellevue, Washington and devoting her free time to nonprofit work. She had previously worked at Microsoft as a Corporate Communications Manager. In this episode… With no experience in the chocolate industry, Jean Thompson found herself taking leadership of a small chocolate company in Seattle. She was the majority shareholder with a 95% stake after the Nisqually Earthquake of 2001, and it was her love for chocolate, her determination, and her willingness to learn and adapt which drove her desire to turn the company fortunes around.  18 years later, Jean has learned a lot from running the chocolate company and she has evolved her company to have a social branding that impacts and touches many lives. Andrea Heuston’s featured guest in this episode of the Lead Like a Woman Show is Jean Thompson, the woman behind Seattle Chocolate. Tune in as they talk about Jean's transition from the tech industry to the chocolate industry, her shift from being a stay-at-home mum to becoming the owner of a chocolate company, the struggles and challenges women face in creating and leading companies, and why her decisiveness is her undeniable business superpower.

Manon Buettner is the CEO of Nuvalo, a company known for helping their customers with their IT modernization journey. She is an accomplished CEO, a mother, a former gymnast, and the co-founder of Cloud Girls, a not for profit community of female technology advocates and leaders.  Manon is an expert voice on cloud enablement and IT business management, and she is also an infrastructure architect, data center and cloud analyst, strategist, and speaker with over 20 years of experience in the industry. She is a tireless advocate for women in technology and a leader amongst leaders. She is also a good friend. In this episode... In today's rapidly changing world, people and companies are moving to a more application-centric economy. Businesses are migrating from hardware to a more subscription-based service which means more people are becoming more inclined to connect through cloud storage. Manon Buettner saw this opportunity as an opening for women to engage in a predominantly male-led industry. In today's episode of Lead Like a Woman Show, Manon Buettner, an expert in IT modernization, gets interviewed by Andrea Heuston about what IT modernization truly means and how she is able to provide cutting edge digital services in a male-dominated field. Tune in as she discusses her entrepreneurial journey, the reason behind Cloud Girls, and find out why she holds on to the best advice she has ever received: be fearless.

Dr. Kristin Kahle, aka Dr. K, is the CEO and Founder of NavigateHCR, a full-service Affordable Care Act (ACA) and compliance technology company. In 2014 and 2015, she was awarded the “Most Influential Woman in Benefits” by Employee Benefit Advisor. More recently, Dr. K was nominated for the San Diego Business Journal Top Tech Award 2019, for the technology developed by NHCR.  Highlighting her experience as a serial entrepreneur, speaker, coach, and mentor, Dr. K has published 'NOtivation: Use the Power of NO to Make Your First Million Dollars', a transparent and honest guide to how she used the power of no to make her first and second and third million.  Dr. K holds a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) from Argosy University, an MBA from the University of Phoenix, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Pine Manor College. In this episode… At the tender of 5, Dr. Kristin Kahle was a strong willed little girl who wanted to save her brother’s life by donating her bone marrow. Jason had been diagnosed with leukemia and tests showed that Kristin was the perfect match.  However, her family was not too keen on her being a donor, but she persisted despite repeatedly being told “No”, and her persistence paid off. This experience led her to become more determined and her strong will enabled her to be a great basketball player in college and eventually, she went on to become a successful entrepreneur. She set up and sold 3 successful businesses and now, she coaches and mentors other women business owners on how to create their own success story. In this episode of the Lead Like a Woman Show, Andrea Heuston gets to interview Dr. Kristin Kahle about the power of ‘NO. Listen in as they discuss Dr. Kahle’s reasons for writing a book, how being able to say “NO” can motivate you to succeed, how she has thrived in a male-dominated field, and why Dr. Kahle believes it is important for women to put a stopper on negative thoughts. Stay tuned.