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Badass Women in Business
Welcome to The Badass Women in Business Podcast, where real women share the unfiltered stories behind their success.
Hosted by Cristy O’Connor and Aggie Chydzinski, this podcast brings you inside the minds of founders, CEOs, and changemakers who have built, rebuilt, and redefined what leadership looks like.
Each week, you will hear how these women turned obstacles into opportunity, silence into strategy, and ambition into impact. These are not highlight reels. They are hard-earned lessons from women who built empires, challenged norms, and did it all on their own terms.
If you are building something, leading something, or dreaming of more, this show will light the fire that keeps you moving.
Subscribe now and join the movement of women rewriting the rules of business, one badass story at a time.
New episodes drop every Tuesday.
Episodes
146 episodes
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...
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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...
Anna Perks: Building a Business by Taking Houses Apart, Not Burning Out, and Rethinking Waste
Anna Perks is the founder of Perks Deconstruction, a Denver based company proving that sustainability and profitability can coexist. What started with walking her dog past a bulldozed historic home turned into a seven year journey building a 20...
Maria Onesto Moran: Being Where Your Feet Are and Building a Values-Driven Business
Maria Onesto Moran, founder and CEO of Green Home Experts, joins the Badass Women in Business podcast to share the real story of building a sustainable, values-driven company through recession, pivots, leadership challenges, and motherhood....
Molly McCartan: Why Working Moms Are Leaving and What It Says About Leadership
Molly McCartan, Founder and CEO of The Mom Pact, joins Aggie and Cristy for a direct conversation about why nearly half of working moms are leaving the workforce and why this is not a motivation or confidence issue.This episode looks at ...
Dr. Laura James ND: Why Modern Healthcare Overwhelms Women and What Actually Helps
This episode is about health in the real world, not textbook medicine.Aggie and Cristy sit down with Dr. Laura James ND, a naturopathic oncologist with more than twenty years of experience working with women inside an overwhelmed healthc...
Hon. Leela Sharon Aheer: How a 15-Year-Old Targeted by Hate Became a National Leader
The Honourable Leela Sharon Aheer shares the story that shaped her life and leadership.Growing up in Alberta as the daughter of an Indian immigrant father and a Canadian mother, Leela learned early what it meant to stand out, speak up, a...
Sarah Angello: The Startup Founder Rebuilding Trust in Philanthropy
Most people donate because they want to help. Few ever find out what actually happens to their money. Philanthropy has a trust problem. Nonprofits have a transparency problem. Donors want clarity but rarely get it. And donor-advised funds have ...
Rachael Wonderlin: How She Built a Thriving Consulting Business, Broke Out of Her Niche, and Learned to Trust Her Gut
Rachael Wonderlin built a national dementia consulting firm from a Tumblr blog, three Johns Hopkins books, and a decade of hands-on work inside senior living communities. But the real story is what she learned along the way about boundaries, bu...
Kristin Heideman: How I Built a Lifestyle Business, Walked Away From the Scale-at-All-Costs Trap, and Found Success on My Own Terms
Kristin Heideman spent more than twenty years working inside the insurance industry before she realized she was ready to build something of her own. When she was let go from a job she excelled in, she walked into Best Buy the next morning, boug...
Amanda DuBois: How She Built a Successful Law Firm After Being Told She Would Fail
Amanda DuBois was once told she was nothing more than a doctor’s wife who should stop dabbling at the law. Instead of shrinking, she built one of Washington’s longest standing women owned law firms, created a workplace that supports and mentors...
How to Build a Brand That Blooms: Ashley King on Letting Go, Leveling Up, and Creating Brands That Convert
What happens when a fashion designer and magazine editor turns her creative eye toward helping women entrepreneurs grow their brands and themselves? Ashley King, founder and CEO of BLOOM Virtual.co, joins Aggie and Cristy to share how sh...
Burn It Down and Build It Better: Sarah Noel Block on Confidence, Clients, and Control
In this Season 4 episode of Badass Women in Business, Aggie and Cristy sit down with Sarah Noel Block, founder of Tiny Marketing, to talk about what happens when you stop playing small and start building a business that a...
From the Fairway to the Field: Jenn Harris on Reinvention, Leadership, and Owning Every Pivot
Jenn Harris’s journey is a lesson in reinvention, resilience, and trusting yourself through change. Before becoming President and CEO of AirX Utility Surveyors, she built her career on curiosity and connection. She studied psychology, dreamed o...
From Pathology to Purpose: Angela Zeng on Building Karviva and Bringing Ancient Wisdom to Modern Wellness
Angela Zeng, PhD, MBA, is the founder and CEO of Karviva, an award-winning wellness beverage company that blends Traditional Chinese Medicine with modern nutritional science. A pathologist by training, Angela immigrated from China to the U.S., ...