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Badass Women in Business
Welcome to The Badass Women in Business Podcast, the definitive space for unfiltered, tactical insights into female entrepreneurship, enterprise scaling, and business monetization.
Hosted by seasoned business owners, growth partners, and exit strategists Cristy O’Connor and Aggie Chydzinski, this podcast moves past passive advisory to bring you directly inside the high-stakes execution of building and successfully exiting companies on your own terms.
As hands-on growth partners who actively engineer scale and value alongside founders, we deliberately strip away the superficiality of traditional corporate highlight reels. Instead, we dissect the raw, hard-earned operational strategies and profound psychological shifts required to unlock true enterprise value.
Each week, our conversations turn systemic business obstacles into high-velocity execution plans, offering sophisticated, real-world frameworks for ambitious women who are leading teams, optimizing cash flow, and engineering highly scalable, exit-ready companies.
Whether you are in the trenches of bootstrapping an innovative startup, navigating complex partnership dynamics, or designing the ultimate monetization strategy for your life's work, this podcast provides the active strategy needed to drive valuation and claim full autonomy over your future.
Subscribe now to join a premier movement of women rewriting the rules of modern commerce, one definitive story at a time. New episodes deliver partner-level value every Tuesday.
Episodes
159 episodes
Turning Fandom Into Revenue Without Losing the Brand with Veronica Hart
Growth in entertainment is no longer just about getting attention; it is about turning emotional connection into live experiences, licensing, merchandise, sports, and global partnerships without diluting what people loved in the first place. Ve...
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AI Transformation Is a People Problem: Megan Malli
Megan Malli, CEO of AnswerLab, reframes transformation as a deeply human discipline, where AI, customer insight, and leadership all fail when they are layered onto broken workflows or disconnected cultures. In this conversation, she shows why c...
How to Modernize a Legacy Business Without Losing Its Core: Anne Huntington Sharma
Anne Huntington Sharma explains how leaders can honor a company’s history while still making the difficult decisions required for its next chapter. Drawing from her path from “center number 17” to President and CEO of Huntington Learning Center...
Reinvention Without Permission: Jane Bertch on Building La Cuisine Paris and Starting Again at Any Age
Jane Bertch left corporate banking, moved through London into Paris, and built La Cuisine Paris into the largest English language French cooking school in the city, despite having no culinary ...
Scaling a Purpose-Driven Coffee Brand from Garage Roasting to National Retail with Jillian Salinas
Jillian Salinas, founder of Beach City Coffee, joins Badass Women in Business to share how a backyard roasting hobby became a national retail brand rooted in community, sustainability, and res...
Building a Franchise Brand Around Care, Systems, and Self Belief with Nuttha Goutier
Nuttha Goutier built Sabai Thai Spa from less than $1,000, a clear vision, and a deep belief that wellness should feel like belonging, not a transaction. In this conversation, she shares how Thai hospitality, community care, disciplined systems...
Giving Patients Their Voice Back: Human-Centered AI with Dr. Maheen Adamson
When Dr. Maheen Musoof Adamson watched her father lose his ability to speak after a stroke, her life’s work became deeply personal. In this episode, she shares how that experience led her to build Soof Solutions, an AI-enabled communication pla...
Why Legal Strategy Is a Growth Strategy: Protecting Value Before It Costs You Millions with Hillary Hughes
Most entrepreneurs view legal support as something they need when problems arise, yet the most successful founders understand that legal strategy is one of the earliest and most important investments they can make in protecting enterprise value...
When Money Feels Unsafe: Tiffany Carter on Trauma, Sales, and Building Real Wealth
Tiffany Carter’s story challenges the polished mythology of entrepreneurship by exposing how trauma can quietly shape the way high achieving founders earn, sell, lead, and stay visible, even when they appear successful from the outside. In this...
The Retail Breakthrough That Almost Didn’t Happen with Shan and Erika of Shades By Shan
Shan and Erika built Shades By Shan from a San Francisco garage into a nationally distributed cosmetics brand carried in more than 600 JCPenney Beauty stores, but the real lesson is not simply how they scaled, it is how they protected their mis...
Building the Business of Caregiving with AI, Trust, and Tenacity with Nicole àBeckett
Caregiving is one of the most universal experiences in life, yet it remains one of the most overlooked problems in healthcare, technology, and the workplace. In this episode, Nicole àBeckett shares how her own experience caring for both parents...
From Financial Shame to Strategic Control with Nancy Benet
After divorce left Nancy Benet with four children, no income, five failed businesses, and more than $650,000 in debt, she had to rebuild not only her finances, but her confidence, judgment, and sense of personal agency. In this conversation, Na...
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How Scarlett Leung Built a Beverage Brand Into 2,000 Stores and Learned When to Walk Away
Scarlett Leung, co-founder of Pretty Tasty, joins us for an honest conversation about what it really takes to build a modern consumer brand. From turning around retail businesses and launching companies from scratch to rebuilding after founder ...
From Refugee to Founder: Soon Hagerty on Building Businesses That Give Back Without Burning Out
What if success is not about balance, but about building a life with purpose, curiosity, and impact? In this episode, Soon Hagerty shares how fleeing Vietnam as a child shaped her entrepreneurial mindset, why “business for good” has to be built...
Building What Tech Ignored: Rebecca Matchett on Connection, Neurodivergence, and the Business of Belonging
What happens when a seasoned entrepreneur steps away from building brands and decides to solve something far more human?In this episode, Rebecca Matchett shares her journey from launching fashion brands like alice + olivia to co-founding...
Deborah Farone on Why Business Development Is the Skill Women Can’t Ignore
There’s a point in your career where being good at your work stops being enough.You’re experienced. You deliver. You’re trusted. But growth slows, and the path to real influence or ownership becomes less clear.Deborah Farone has s...
When One Woman Thrives, Communities Rise with Shannon Fernando
What if the solution to hunger isn’t more aid, but empowering women? Shannon Fernando, Founder and CEO of Alabaster International, is working on the frontlines of healthcare, food security, ...
From Loss to Lifeline: Cristina Bernardo on Building Avocado Health and Supporting Parents When It Matters Most
What happens when the system meant to support you leaves you with more questions than answers?In this episode, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Cristina Bernardo, co-founder of Avocado Health, to share the deeply personal story behind the ...
Candace Dellacona: Why Women Are Burning Out in the Sandwich Generation and the Cost of Not Planning Ahead
There’s a phase of life no one prepares you for.You’re raising kids, supporting aging parents, managing a career or a business, and somehow expected to hold it all together. Most women don’t even realize there’s a name for it. The Sandwi...
Missy Wright: What Actually Makes a Franchise Work (And Why Most People Get It Wrong)
Missy Wright did not plan on a career in franchising, but once she got in, she saw the impact it can have on people’s lives and never left.In this episode, Missy breaks down what really makes a franchise successful, what separates the pe...
Melissa Anderson on Trusting the Nonlinear Path, Taking Risks, and Staying Grounded
What if the safest path is not actually the safest one?In this episode, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Melissa Anderson, President of Search.com, to talk about building a career by trusting instinct over...
From Survival Mode to CEO: How Natasha Golinsky Rebuilt Her Business, Beat Cancer, and Found a New Mission
What happens when life forces you to step away from the business you built?In this episode of the Badass Women in Business Podcast, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Natasha Golinsky, founder of On Purpose Projects, a custom web and e-comme...
The Founder Mindset Most Women Are Not Prepared For with Rethink Compliance CEO Kirsten Liston
What does it actually take to leave a secure job and build a company from scratch?In this episode of the Badass Women in Business Podcast, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Kirsten Liston, Founder and CEO of Rethink Compliance, to ...
Meredith Farley: From Corporate Leader to Founder and Owning Your Voice on LinkedIn
In this episode of the Badass Women in Business podcast, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Meredith Farley, founder of Medbury, an agency that helps executives and founders turn their real world experience into credible thought leadership on Linke...
Rebecca Todd: Building a Purpose Driven Photography Business Through Relationships
In this episode of the Badass Women in Business podcast, Aggie sits down with Denver-based photographer and TruBlu Images founder Rebecca Todd. Rebecca shares her journey from studying photography at LSU to rebuilding her business after relocat...