Trailblazers

This week we chat with Stacey Stewart. Stacey is the President and CEO of March of Dimes and is currently serving as its fifth President. She heads the organization leading the fight for the health of all moms and babies and is responsible for all aspects of the organization's strategy, vision and operations.Stacey came to March of Dimes from United Way Worldwide, where she held several positions, most recently serving as U.S. President of United Way, the nation's largest nonprofit organization. There she provided strategic direction for more than 1,000 local United Ways. She was also responsible for United Way's national efforts in education, financial stability and health as well as guiding efforts to enhance the brand and grow revenue. She spearheaded the transformation of United Way from a pass-through fundraiser to a leading organization for local community impact. Prior to becoming the United Way U.S. President, she served as Executive Vice President, Community Impact Leadership and Learning. In this role, Stacey developed global partnerships to advance community impact in more than 40 countries.As a business veteran, Stacey has also held a number of senior roles, including Chief Diversity Officer and Senior Vice President for the Office of Community and Charitable Giving at Fannie Mae, as well as President and Chief Executive Officer for the Fannie Mae Foundation. Additionally, Stacey has an extensive background in finance and investment banking, having served as Vice President for Pryor, McClendon, Counts & Co., and as a senior associate for Merrill Lynch, specializing in financings for state and local governments.Follow us!Stacey Stewart: @marchofdimesceoMarch of Dimes: @marchofdimes (and website here)March for Babies: Website hereDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething (and on Fireside here)

This week we chat with Kelly Rutherford. Kelly Rutherford is a mother, actress, and entrepreneur. You may know her as Megan Lewis from soap opera Melrose Place or from Gossip Girl where she played the iconic role of Lily van der Woodsen. After decades in the entertainment industry, Kelly has more recently entered the world of entrepreneurship.Kelly is currently the co-founder of two business: Sovereign Collective and Whyzzer. Sovereign Collective is a global shopping website where go-to partner for businesses abroad to scale and be discovered. Their mission is to help brands abroad reach a greater audience, tell the stories behind the world's best creators, and make scaling easy, efficient, and meaningful.Kelly's other venture, Whyzzer, is building a creator-focused app centered on educating its users. Their mission is to create the education of tomorrow, building a globally available database of knowledge, experience and expertise. They are still in the early stages, but Kelly gives a sneak peek to our listeners in the episode.Follow us!Kelly Rutherford: @kellyrutherfordSovereign Collective: @shopsovereigncollective (and website here)Whyzzer: @whyzzer (and website here)Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething (and on Fireside here)

This week we chat with Taylor Frankel. Taylor Frankel is one of the savvy, female founders of NUDESTIX and NUDESKIN. Embodying the easy-going ideals of the millennial generation, Taylor was the natural inspiration to her mother, Jenny Frankel, who developed the brand. Growing up surrounded by beauty, Taylor believes beauty is a lifestyle. She was always drawn to the industry and created NUDESTIX for a minimalist,natural and no-fuss look and most recently, she launched NUDESKIN to provide a simple, multi-tasking vegan powered skincare regimen for a confident, nude-faced look. Taylor actively serves as the Chief Brand Officer and brand spokesperson for the brand. She oversees the overall brand vision and creative for both the NUDESTIX and NUDESKIN teams and continues to inspire through her efforts to advocate for Love Is Louder, a movement by The Jed Foundation in support of Mental Health Awareness, The Canopy Project and WWF in support of the environment and wildlife, and Beauty Be Change in support of spotlighting under-represented artists and content creators in the beauty industry.With a deep understanding and aptitude for social media, Taylor drives the brand and creates loyalists wherever she goes. Taylor was featured in Nylon’s 25 Gen Z’ers Changing the World, served as a contributor for PopSugar, featured on QVC and is an ongoing host for media and consumer facing masterclasses in support of Nudestix global retailers, from Sephora, Nordstrom and Selfridges.Follow us!Taylor Frankel: @taylorfrankelNUDESTIX: @nudestix (and website here)NUDESKIN: @nudestixskin (and website here)Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething (and on Fireside here)

This week we chat with Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton. Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton is a second generation Colombian-American who grew up watching her mother treat patients in her cosmetology spas in Queens and Manhattan not knowing one day she would reflect on that experience to launch a new self care movement.After recognizing the lack of affordable, aspirational spa services in NYC, Cyndi, along with her husband and a team of partners, opened Chillhouse with a goal to modernize the spa industry and become an authority in self-care. Cyndi mainly noticed a gap between the more antiquated, traditional spas and the on-the-go, modern millennial, fueling her Chillhouse empire and earning her the title: Queen of Chill.In creating Chillhouse, the team sought out to provide easy, attainably-priced, tried & true services to stressed out New Yorkers in a modern setting, ensuring Chillhouse was a place with something for everyone. Chillhouse has grown into a shining example of what a new-age spa can be, with the mission of easing you into the deepest form of self-care through trendy, updated services and a wellness cafe. Chillhouse's concept resonated widely, making it the go-to online & physical destination to FIND YOUR CHILL™. Along with its chic Soho flagship, Chillhouse creates self-care rituals for chill-seekers everywhere through their line of clean beauty and wellness products - including press-on nails, face & body oils, candles and more - aimed at maximizing your “me time.”Follow us!Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton: @cyndiramirez (and on Fireside here)Chillhouse: @chillhouse (and website here, The Chill Times here)Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething (and on Fireside here)

This week we chat with Erin Levine. Erin Levine is a California-based attorney specializing in Family Law since 2005. Erin was an undergraduate student at the University of California in Santa Barbara and attended law school at the University of San Francisco. After owning and managing the Levine Family Law Group in Oakland, CA for over a decade, Erin became disillusioned with the broken, inefficient and expensive system and set out to change it. In 2018, she founded the online platform Hello Divorce. Hello Divorce was created to help people navigate the divorce process on their terms, quickly and affordably with less stress. Its services are currently available in California, Utah, Colorado, and Texas with plans for immediate expansion into additional states in 2021. As Founder and CEO of Hello Divorce, Erin’s goal is to provide everyone who wants a divorce access to easy, affordable, and ethical legal assistance. Her passion and approach to family law has been guided by her own experience with the legal system. As a child, Erin was the victim of violence and as a teen, she was the plaintiff in a civil action and a witness in a criminal action. It was stressful, intimidating, and confusing and Erin was determined to not let anyone else feel that way. Her goal is to leave clients ready to embark on a fresh start and feeling empowered.Erin has been recognized by James I. Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in eLawyering, Women Founders Network, American Bar Association “Women in LegalTech”, and the Duke Law & Tech Accelerator’s Grand Prize Winner to name a few. And featured in publications such as; Vice, TechCrunch, Entertainment Tonight, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Women’s Health.Follow us!Erin Levine: @erinlevine (and on Fireside here)Hello Divorce: @hellodivorce (and website here)Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething (and on Fireside here)

This week we chat with Ali Kriegsman. Ali is the Co-founder and COO of Bulletin, a B2B wholesale marketplace backed by Y Combinator, Kleiner Perkins and other top venture funds. Her mission is to help founders and small business owners, and especially women, redefine the word "success." As a first-time founder, Ali felt like she couldn’t relate to the glamorous entrepreneurs on her Instagram feed who were peddling typical markers of success like glossy magazine covers, getting verified on social media, or hitting massive revenue milestones. In reality, she thought, building something from nothing is a confusing and emotional challenge you sign up for every single day, and it's a journey filled with more failures than wins. It's unglamorous, taxing, and endlessly stressful, and fuels the intense fear that if things don’t work out, you've failed miserably. Ali believes that if you're launching a business from scratch and sign up for that struggle, you're already ahead of so many others who would prefer to defer a dream, stay stuck, and wonder "what if?"A recipient of "Forbes 30 Under 30" and named one of Fast Company’s "Most Creative People in Business," Ali has helped thousands of brands expand their distribution and sell in both offline and online stores all around the US and. Canada. She is a salesperson, self-taught publicist, marketer, and growth strategist and has experience scaling both bootstrapped and venture-backed businesses. Her first book, How to Build a Goddamn Empire, is the no bullsh*t book on entrepreneurship you've always needed, and it is now available in both hardcover and audiobook formats. Using the questions she's most frequently asked as her guideposts, Ali writes about her experience launching and growing Bulletin directly from the trenches, and features words of triumph, failure and wisdom from 30 other women-owned businesses. The book has been featured and lauded by The Today Show, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine and more, and her publisher, ABRAMS, has doubled down on the project and expanded publication *globally* to the UK, Australia, Finland, Denmark, South Africa, Germany and other European countries. The book, which just came out in April, is already in its third print run in the US.Since the book's release and aspart of her digital book tour, Ali has partnered with Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine and The Female Quotient, Rebecca Minkoff and The Female Founder Collective, Yelp, Meetup, Shopify, TaskRabbit and more. Through her work, Ali has cultivated an extensive network of entrepreneurs including Ally Love, Sophia Amoruso, Jaime Schmidt, Jaclyn Johnson and others, and her digital book launch yielded over 15,000 attendees for her panels, workshops and fireside chats.Follow us!Ali Kriegsman: @alikriegs (and on Fireside here)Bulletin: @bulletin.co (and get involved here)How to Build a Goddamn Empire by Ali Kriegsman: buy hereWanting by Luke Burgis (mentioned in conversation): buy hereDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething (and on Fireside here)

This week we chat with Sabeena Ladha. Sabeena is the founder and CEO of the good-for-you cookie dough company, DEUX. DEUX is a food brand that is completely revolutionizing how we view traditionally sweet desserts because they’re making them HEALTHY for you with immune boosting and stress relieving ingredients like zinc, elderberry, maca, ashwagandha, and more. Made to be baked or eaten straight from the jar, their enhanced cookie dough is an absolute game changer! Because it’s vegan, gluten free, and full of healthy ingredients, you can eat as much as you want!! DEX has been featured in publications like Forbes, Who What Wear, POPSUGAR, CNBC, and more. You may have even seen her pitching DEUX to the sharks on Shark Tank last Friday! But of course, Sabeena had a long career in various business roles before embarking on her journey as a food entrepreneur.Follow us!Sabeena Ladha: @sabeenaladha (and on Fireside here)DEUX: @eatdeux (and website here)Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething (and on Fireside here)

This week we chat with GloZell Green. GloZell Green, 'the Queen of YouTube', is a classically trained performer and hugely popular Internet personality. She has performed at the World Famous Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, and other venues; appeared on Showtime at the Apollo, The Steve Harvey Talent Show, The Dr. Oz Show, 20/20, MTV, and Vstrong; has been featured in Ebony Magazine, Cosmopolitan, People, and on ABC News; and has interviewed President Obama at the White House. GloZell established her YouTube channel in 2008, with video interviews, comedy about her life and song parodies. By 2015, the channel had accumulated more than four million subscribers and more than 700 million total views. Her most popular videos include her cinnamon challenge video, which has accumulated more than 58 million views, and "The Cup Song" video, with more than 29 million views.Eager to entertain, dedicated to making people laugh, comedian and video superstar GloZell Green is game for any challenge, no matter how silly, gross, or absurd. Her crazy video stunts have propelled her into the ranks of legendary funny ladies such as Ellen DeGeneres, Whoopi Goldberg, Tina Fey, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, and Phyllis Diller—and made her an inspiring icon for a new generation. Follow us!GloZell Green: @glozell (and on Fireside here)Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething (and on Fireside here)

This week, we chat with Meg Jay, PhD. Dr. Meg Jay is a clinical psychologist and author who specializes in adult development. She has over 15 years of experience listening to, teaching, researching, writing and speaking about our twenties — the critical period of adult development. Meg argues that our twenties are the critical period of adult development — and that this group is a critical part of the economy and workforce that needs to be better understood. Her TED talk about “Why Your 20s Matter" was named by Forbes.com as one of five bright, inspiring ideas from the 2013 conference in Long Beach, California. Mashable.com chose it as one of 15 TED Talks That Will Change Your Life.Her most recent book, Supernormal: The Untold Story of Adversity and Resilience, is a revolutionary and illuminating examination of those who have overcome childhood adversity to become high-functioning adults. Dr. Jay’s book, The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now, weaves the latest science of the twentysomething years with compelling, behind-closed-doors stories from twentysomethings themselves. It details what psychologists, sociologists, neurologists, economists, and reproductive specialists know about the unique power of the twentysomething years. The Defining Decade was named a Best Book of 2012 by Slate.com and was nominated for a Books for a Better Life Award.Dr. Jay is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Virginia. She received a doctorate in clinical psychology, and in gender studies, from the University of California, Berkeley. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Psychology Today, and NPR.Follow us!Meg Jay: no Instagram (website here and on Fireside here)Meg Jay's Books: Supernormal (2017), Defining Decade (updated, 2021 version)Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething (and on Fireside here)

This week, we chat with Darleen Santore, known to many as Coach Dar. As a Board Certified Occupational Therapist, business executive, author and speaker, she is passionate about helping people break through barriers to achieve their goals. Recently named Senior Fellow of PathNorth – an organization of world leaders and CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, her powerful message continues to reach a global audience. As a mental skills and leadership coach, she blends a knowledge of science, psychology and achievement with her personal passion for life. The result? Individuals, corporate executives and professional athletes & teams aim higher and achieve more. Additionally, Coach Dar is a trailblazer for Phoenix women and was awarded the Most Inspiring Woman from WNBA. It is her unique style and approach during transformational seminars, high impact speaking engagements, and exclusive one-on-one sessions that has helped people say no to the status quo, to raise the bar in their lives, to break free so they can breakthrough, and to reignite their hearts to live a purposeful life.From her experience as a Board Certified Occupational Therapist, to a healthcare executive, to Chief Operating Officer of a record label, to Chief Performance Officer at a fast growing jewelry company, to a mentor to global leaders, CEOs and athletes, Darleen has a proven track record of leading people and inspiring positive changes that impact lives.Follow us!Coach Dar: @thecoachdar (website here and on Fireside here)Coach Dar's "Raise the Bar" Masterclass: website here (use code DEAR20 for 20% off)Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething (and on Fireside here)