This month we have Erin Quick- CEO & Co-Founder of PairTree. She is the face of the adoption industry with her mission to disrupt the adoption system. *I would love for you to go way back and tell us, what was your big dream when you were growing up? What did you think you were going to be? * “I was convinced I was going to be an interior designer”, Erin replies. Erin says that she has always been left and right-brained. She loves the patterns, colors, and space, putting all of those elements together, and getting creative. She says when she got to college she learned that there were so ma ..read more

May is here and we have another very special guest, who is actually a dear friend of Melinda’s, Jan Goss Jan is the founder of Civility Consulting, which is a consulting agency that focuses on corporate soul development and serves leaders through speaking, training and executive coaching to help create a profitable company culture. She is also the author of “Sex and Money!”, which is about speaking to your partner the way you would speak to your most important client. Melinda starts off by asking Jan, “What was your big dream growing up, what did you think you would be when you were a little g ..read more

For this month’s episode, Melinda is bringing another incredible role model to the stage, Janet Phan. Janet is a TED speaker, author, and most importantly the founder of Thriving Elements- a non-profit for underserved girls in STEM. Growing up, Janet’s mother worked as a cashier in dollar stores and goodwills and she remembers dreaming of being a cashier just like her mom. As she grew up, she realized there were other options for her. Janet’s parents were refugees from Vietnam so it was very difficult for them to navigate Janet through the American education system. This affected how Janet vie ..read more

Happy International Women's Month! For this special episode, we chatted with Carolyn Childers. Carolyn went from leading the launch of Soap.com (Quidsi) and acting as its GM through its acquisition by Amazon, to becoming the founder and CEO of Chief, whose mission is to drive more women into positions of power and keep them there. Carolyn didn't always know that her passion was to help women in the workforce, she says that she was on a completely different path at the beginning of her career. Her family owned a business and growing up, she had a front-row seat to the challenges that come with ..read more

This month, our See It To Be It podcast guest is another inspiring female leader, Tonita Webb, who is the CEO of Verity Credit Union. She tells us about her journey to becoming CEO in a male-dominated industry and the struggles she faced along the way being a BIPOC woman. But how did she get to be CEO of a credit union? Well, Tonita grew up in a single-parent household and her mom was sick with Lupus, so her responsibilities were to take care of her mom and her siblings at the same time. She has always dreamt of living in a different place while she was growing up, due to the trauma she experi ..read more

Eleanor Beaton, an incredible role model from Canada that is on a mission to empower female entrepreneurs. When Eleanor was a little girl, she had big dreams to become either a supermodel or an investment banker. This is because she grew up in the age of the biggest supermodels and always looked up to these glamorous, empowered, feminine women such as Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford. As for why she wanted to be an investment banker, she had an Aunt who was a really successful investment banker in London that was such an inspiration to her. These were her role models growing up and looking up ..read more

In this month's episode, we talk with Shelly Dominquez Lieder who is the VP of Accounts at TEN35 ad agency. To start the episode, Melinda first asks Shelly what her big dream was growing up and Shelly says that it was to be an Avon lady. She thought it was the coolest thing to walk around, ring people's doorbells, and make women feel their best selves. Her family always likes to bring this dream of hers up and embarrass her about it because they always thought that she would go to school and do much bigger things than that, which she did. Shelly says now that she is in marketing and advertisin ..read more

On this episode of the See It To Be It podcast, we talk to Shayla Varnado, who is a fashion stylist turned entrepreneur and wine connoisseur. She is passionate about inspiring women to live the life of their dreams and is the founder of Black Girl’s Wine, which is an international organization for black women who share a passion and love for wine, while being committed to celebrating Black Girl Magic. Shayla’s background consists of her growing up wanting to be a fashion stylist. She says she has always had a passion for fashion and she even studied fashion in college at Old Dominion Universit ..read more

Sheri West is a former corporate executive who has transitioned into a phenomenal advocate for young women by founding her own nonprofit organization, Live Girl, which mission is to prepare the next generation of diverse, brave female leaders with skills, community and connections so that all girls can thrive and make a positive impace on the world. As for Sheri West's background, she grew up on a farm in Michigan and later on went to Michigan State University where she got her undergrad and Masters. She later on found her way into corporate America and worked with fortune 500 companies such a ..read more

This month on the See It To Be It podcast Melinda talks with Dr. Shirley Davis, who is the CEO of SDS Enterprises, a woman and minority-owned C-Corporation that provides strategic development solutions that enable organizational leaders to build high performing and inclusive cultures that thrive in a competitive and changing environment. When Dr. Davis was a child, she had a very vivid imagination. She had no fears or limitations, and dreamed of being either an allstar athlete, lawyer, fashion model or actress. She talks about how as children, we don't have any of those experiences that cause ..read more