MY BFF: Black Female Founders Podcast

Interior designer Rasheeda Gray started her career in marketing. She spent fifteen years in corporate America, and when a friend suggested she stage her home to sell it during the real estate down time she discovered a new passion. Rasheeda started Gray Space Design in 2016 and has completed 60 projects, both residential and small boutiques. Her seven step process has led to features on Good Day Philadelphia, Raymour & Flannigan Design Magazine and HGTV's Flea Market Flip. 

Melissa Harville - Lebron is the founder and CEO of W.M. Stone Enterprises, Inc. A multifarious entertainment conglomeration that is the home to Coutrá Music Group, a boutique music label. This would be Melissa's initial exposure to NASCAR and also what would capture her attention and direct her awareness to the lack of diversity in the motorsport.  Melissa Harville-Lebron is the first African American woman, to soley own a Camping World Truck Series and a developmental racing team in NASCAR's Whelen All-American Series, Division I. The multicultural racing team is the first ever to consist of two brothers from two different ethnicities and minority classes, hailing from the North East and under the age of 25. The team consist of 6 drivers of various professional licensed levels. On February 16, 2018, E2NE partnered with Copp Motorsports for “The Next Era Energy 250” at Daytona. Scott Stenzel finished an impressive 15th. Recently recognized as an “Ebony Power 100 Honoree of 2018” & a Black Enterprise “Top Story of 2018”.

Entrepreneur, producer, strategist…LaToya Stirrup gets things done. With over seventeen years of experience in advertising and marketing, LaToya is able to bring a wealth of knowledge to any business challenge. She’s the co-host of Tech, Beats & Bytes, and co-founder of KAZMALEJE, a company she started with her two sisters to create hair tools and accessories for the textured hair care market.  LaToya shared her founder story during our Founders to Funders kickoff mixer.

Ashley “Peach” Brown creator of Sledge Scarves. Determined to find a way that she could wear a scarf style and have it not slip off her head while sleeping, Peach created Sledge Scarves.  Listen to her story of how she’s worked hard to build her business full-time in less than two years!

Monique Curry-Mims has over 15 years of business and leadership experience in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. She is a social impact professional skilled in strategic planning, collective impact, community relations, fundraising, and capacity building. Through her consulting and philanthropic work, she provides innovative strategies that help organizations meet their mission and goals. As Founder and CEO of Empact Data Solutions, her leadership provides a wealth of analysis and strategy insight for the organization and its clients - ensuring our team and solutions are effective and impactful.

This month our focus is Resilience!  Our guest for our six month anniversary is Ashlee Ammons founder of Mixtros.  Mixtroz is a SaaS company providing CaaS "Community-as-a-Service" driving attendees from phone to face-to-face in real time while capturing custom data. Users download the app, complete a virtual name tag and survey customized by organizer. Named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s inaugural list of “100 Powerful Women” in 2019; Kerry Schrader and Ashlee Ammons are a dynamic Mother/Daughter duo in the new wave of entrepreneurs creating services to make work and play simpler and more satisfying. Without formal tech backgrounds, they’ve blazed trails in the male-dominated tech startup space with their company Mixtroz, which increases engagement and collects data at gatherings. Following remarkable progress in 2017, Team Mixtroz kicked off 2018 by joining Alabama’s prestigious Velocity Accelerator and starring on an episode of A+E ‘s series “Rooster & Butch.” In May 2018, the duo was selected to pitch to AOL Co-Founder Steve Case during the Rise of the Rest tour stop in Birmingham, AL and secured a $100,000 investment from Cases’ Revolution Fund. The team went on to close a $1M round of funding, making them the 37th  and 38th black females to ever close a $1M+ round of funding.

This month's episode of IMPACT: A Mom Your Business Podcast is Adaptation: Making Moves that Matter as we discuss what it really means to pivot and make a difference in the midst of obstacles. Our guest is Wil Thoms, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer of REC Philly. This Germantown-born, Philadelphia native has quite the reputation in the region's startup community. In just four short years he has grown his organization to almost 20 employees and raised over $3M dollars to scale from a warehouse in North Philly to a state-of-the-art facility in Center City Philadelphia. Will has been a champion for the creative community during the COVID 19 pandemic ensuring artists and creators have access to the resources, strategies and opportunities necessary to emerge from this pandemic like a phoenix.

Interview with Jacqueline M. Jenkins, Acting Executive Director Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). Jackie and I discuss everything business in fashion the impact of the tariffs and China, the Supply Chain and how to build a global fashion brand.

Live Interview with Author | TV Personality | Entrepreneur Tionna Smalls. Tionna keeps it real and raw about business building, the power of networking and relationships.

Day Party Episode II w/Online Business Strategist Shalena Diva. Shalena shares her story of turning obstacles into opportunities. 

Interview with mompreneur, author and health equity advocate Jenne Johns. Jenne has been advocating for health equity for years. But it was during the birth of her son when she faced maternal mortality head on and while advocating for herself wrote and published the only children’s book written for the parents of preemies while they are in the NICU. This bedside companion seeks to motivate, encourage and inspire preemie babies and families until they go home.  

Interview with speaker, author and empowerment coach DaVita Garfield who shares her story of how overcoming obstacles during her life have become the driving force behind her God-given assignment to support other women by encouraging them to become amazing on purpose.

Recorded Live at The Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this episode features Yolanda Keels-Walker, author and serial entrepreneur. Yolanda created Business Babes to build up and help other women that may have encountered business hardships. Today, Business Babes boasts over 60,000 members.

The episode is an interview with communications strategist, author and advocate Afea Tucker. Afea discusses her book Life's A Pitch and gives advice on pitching with patience and media relations from a trusted public relations consultant who has earned much success booking clients on major networks such as NBC, Fox, CBS, Radio One, and more!

Learn how elected officials drive policy that impact communities. And why it's important for small businesses and entrepreneurs to have relationships with elected officials on every level of government.