53: Awakening Your Power: The Stories, the Summit, and the Sisterhood with Amy and Nancy Harrington (The Passionistas)

In this powerful conversation, I sit down with sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington — former Hollywood insiders turned founders of The Passionistas Project — to talk about awakening, empowerment, and the transformative power of women’s stories.

Amy and Nancy share how they walked away from high-profile careers in the entertainment industry to build a global sisterhood that amplifies voices too often left unheard. Together, we dive into their upcoming Passionistas Project Summit — happening August 26–28, 2025 — and the release of the Awakening Your Power anthology, a collection of raw, inspiring stories from women who have faced adversity, reclaimed their voices, and stepped into their full power.

We also have candid discussions about the struggles successful women rarely talk about — the pressure to “have it all together” while silently dealing with burnout, relationship pain, and isolation. You’ll hear why letting down the façade and sharing the truth not only frees you, but creates real connection.

I’m honored to be both a panelist at the summit and a contributing author to the book, sharing my own story alongside other remarkable women. We talk about what makes this project different, why vulnerability is such a game-changer for connection, and how this summit is more than just another motivational event — it’s a deep, inclusive, and transformative experience.

You’ll hear about the unique summit format, the behind-the-scenes process of crafting the anthology, and how you can get involved — whether you want to attend, read the book, or even tell your own story.

Tune in if you’ve ever been told you’re “too much,” if you’ve struggled in silence while projecting success, or if you’re ready to be part of a community that sees all of you — and celebrates it.

Learn more and register for the summit here: https://www.thepassionistasproject.com/summit2025

 Pre-order the Awakening Your Power anthology here: https://www.thepassionistasproject.com/awakeningyourpower

Book a free Relationship Clarity Call with Darla: https://calendly.com/highvaluewoman7/relationship-clarity-session

To find Amy and Nancy Harrington, the Passionistas:

https://www.thepassionistasproject.com/

Connect with Darla Ridilla:

Website: https://www.highvaluewoman.info

Send me an email: highvaluewoman7@gmail.com

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Transcript

Amy Harrington (00:00)
and I think that there's this like very difficult aspect of being a successful woman that people don't talk about which is You if you are considered a successful woman You have to present that way to the rest of the world like all the time you you have to you know everybody is looking at you like you have it figured out and so

Nancy Harrington (00:15)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Harrington (00:21)
99 % of the time we successful women feel like we have to be like, don't let them know that we're struggling financially or don't let them know that I was just in the other room crying my eyes out because I'm so stressed because they need to think that I'm in control and nobody's in control all the time and it's super stressful to have to keep that facade up and to pretend that

Nancy Harrington (00:33)
You

Amy Harrington (00:47)
Everything is 100 % okay. It's that's an impossible standard to live by and so I think by reading these stories like yes, all of the women in this book are successful They're all women that if you just saw their Instagram posts, you'd be like, my god, I cannot compare to that person But if you read their story and you go, my god She went through that and she still is running a successful business

like successful women struggle all the time, but they don't talk about it. And in this book, everybody's letting their guard down and explaining how you can be vulnerable and authentic and still succeed, but still need people and connection and to be heard.

Darla Ridilla (01:37)
Welcome to You Have the Power, the road to truth, freedom and real connection. I'm Darla Radilla, a certified somatic trauma informed relationship coach for high achieving women who've been told they're too much. If you've built success on the outside, if you're unseen, resentful, or like you're constantly editing yourself just to keep the peace, you are in the right place. I help powerful women stop shrinking in relationships that demand self abandonment, whether that's a partner, a parent, a boss or a best friend.

Because here's the truth, you are not too much, you're just accepting too little. Each week, you'll hear radical insights, nervous system-based tools, and unfiltered conversations that break the patterns keeping brilliant women stuck, and show you how to reclaim your power, your voice, and your relationships on your terms. Let's get started with today's topic.

Darla Ridilla (02:34)
Hello, ⁓ there we go. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another podcast. I'm super excited about this one because the two ladies I have with me today, I have personally known probably close to a year now. ⁓ We have been together a lot in a mastermind. We are currently in a project together where I'm participating in one of their summits and collaboration books. So I'm super excited to introduce you to my friends, Amy and Nancy. So let's get started with this introduction.

Nancy Harrington (02:46)
Huh.

Darla Ridilla (03:03)
Sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington founded the Passionistas Project out of a deep desire to empower women around the world. They are eager to share their knowledge about building community, creating safe spaces for women, the power of storytelling, and navigating professional transitions. Both co-founders walked away from high profile jobs in Hollywood to work together. Amy was the VP of post-production and visual effects for all feature films at Warner Brothers.

working on movies like the Harry Potter and the Matrix franchises. Nancy had a successful graphic design business and theater company before creating Oscar campaigns for Miramax. Their career as celebrity interviewers has included chats with Julia Lewis-Dreyfus, Rita Moreno, Lily Tomlin, Laverne Cox, Carol Burnett, my favorite, and more. Now through their global passionistas, Project Sisterhood.

podcast and Power of Sisters Passionistas Summit, they strive to inspire women to follow their passions and join forces and the fight for equality for all. Amy and Nancy, not only are you as a personal friend, close to my and dear to my heart, but the whole empowering women, because that's my target audience as well. ⁓ It's just been a joy working with you over these months. And I'm super excited to have you today.

Nancy Harrington (04:29)
we're thrilled to be here. Thanks for having us.

Amy Harrington (04:31)
and we feel the same way about you.

Darla Ridilla (04:31)
You're welcome.

Nancy Harrington (04:34)
it.

Darla Ridilla (04:35)
For sure.

We are going to dive right in because I feel like what probably hit the listeners was, wait a minute, Hollywood, tell us more because it is kind of cool. You don't meet many people like that that have been in that world. So if you want to just share a little bit about your career in Hollywood and how that pivoted you to creating the Passionistas project.

as that personal waking moment, that moment that just said, wow, this is the new chapter of our life. We want to empower women.

Nancy Harrington (05:04)
Yeah. You know what, Amy, I'm going to let you start and talk about your Hollywood career because it's so cool. And that's what people really want to hear about. ⁓

Amy Harrington (05:11)
Yeah.

Darla Ridilla (05:12)
hahahaha

Amy Harrington (05:14)
All right. So we actually grew up in Massachusetts. We grew up in a very creative family. Our parents met in art school. Our oldest sister is a Grammy nominated Emmy winning filmmaker. Our brother was in a rock and roll band for years. Our other sister is a fiber artist and was a dancer. So Nancy had her own graphic design company, as you said. So creativity was kind of expected in our family. I think if we had chosen

to get come more straightforward paths that would have been odd for our family to embrace. So I was the first to actually leave Boston. I'm the youngest of the five. And ⁓ I moved out to Hollywood because I wanted to write sitcoms. And I got to LA and my first job that I was offered was as a post-production assistant on a TV show called Matlock, the original Matlock. This Kathy Bates nonsense. I'm talking to you.

Darla Ridilla (06:08)
Mmm.

Nancy Harrington (06:09)
You

Darla Ridilla (06:11)
Right. Yes.

Amy Harrington (06:14)
And no, I actually liked the new Matlock. But so I got into post-production that led into visual effects, which was a secret passion of mine since I had seen Star Wars as a kid. But ultimately, I rose up the ranks really quickly and I got into this position of vice president of post-production and visual effects and oversaw about 250 movies, some just in development, some on the way to just delivering them.

⁓ But I was in this amazing career for 10 years or so where I I worked closely with the directors and producers of these big films and the visual effects teams and the editors and ⁓ you know the music supervisors to Get the movies made and to help them figure out how to make them because at the time visual digital You know the digital visual effects that we know now were just starting

⁓ It was a very new industry. And so they would come to me and say, here's a book. Can we make this? Should we option this book? Is this possible? And what might it cost? And so we did everything from budgeting to creatively figuring out how to help them do it. And then on the editing side, going into the screening process, taking it in front of audiences, making adjustments after getting feedback from real everyday people who had seen the films and

and making the films as appealing to an audience as possible. And it was fantastic. I got to fly around the world. I got to go to England and in Australia, Sydney, Australia a lot, because we were doing the Harry Potter's in Australia and England and a bunch of movies like The Matrix in Australia. And I was young and single and I could drop everything in a minute's notice and fly around the world. So. ⁓

It was a very, very cool job. And then things shifted politically and it wasn't as fun anymore. And it got very repetitive. It became like third Harry Potter movie. How are we going to make him fly? It was like, well, we're on the third one. We're going to do it the same way. So it wasn't as challenging creatively. And at the same time, Nancy, who had had this incredibly successful graphic design business and this wonderful theater company with her husband back in Boston,

I finally, I'd been beating her down for 10 years to move out to LA because I couldn't bear to be that far away from her. And they finally broke down and moved here. And she took a full-time job at this ⁓ advertising agency doing Academy Award campaigns for Miramax and having a boss for the first time in her career. and

Nancy Harrington (09:03)
Yeah.

Amy Harrington (09:04)
lasted with that for a couple of years, which I'm proud of. And then it was like, I can't work for somebody else anymore. I'm done. So I was ready to move on. She was ready to move on. And she convinced me that taking this leap wasn't as scary as it seemed. And we took the leap together and never looked back. It's been a wild, circuitous path since then that led to the Passionistas project.

Nancy Harrington (09:31)
Yeah, after we left, did all sorts of crazy, crazy jobs. anything anybody offered us, we were like, we don't know how to do that, but we'll figure it out and we'll do it. And we landed in the world of celebrity interviewing. So we were still Hollywood adjacent and we loved that because we were doing it together. we've got little girl, the two little girls that would watch Laverne and Shirley on TV every Tuesday night were sitting in...

Penny Marshall's house interviewing her and Cindy Williams, like, you know, mind blowing, you know? So that was really super fun. We just loved doing that. We did red carpets at the Emmys every year for 10 years. ⁓ we did interviews at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We produced a bunch of interviews with, when we did one with Mick Jagger, which like doesn't really get better than that. ⁓ But we always.

Darla Ridilla (10:02)
Wow.

Wow.

Nancy Harrington (10:27)
felt like something was missing, you know, and that we weren't doing something that was impactful enough. We wanted to give back more. So that's when we decided to launch our podcast and really focus on helping the women who weren't in the spotlights to get their stories told. So that's how the Passionistas Project was born.

Darla Ridilla (10:36)
Mm-hmm.

So it started with the podcast. was Yeah. Okay. Awesome.

Nancy Harrington (10:49)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Amy Harrington (10:52)
Yeah,

yeah, we woke up one night and thought we'd wanted to do a podcast for a while, but we didn't want to do a pop culture podcast. We just felt like there are so many of them and we didn't really have a good angle on one. And then woke up one night and we were like, women, we're supposed to be doing all of this to help women. We're supposed to, we've had all these bizarre skills that we've acquired over the years and we're supposed to use those, you know, especially these interviewing skills.

Darla Ridilla (11:14)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Harrington (11:19)
to give a platform, to create a platform for women who don't usually get to tell their stories, a platform. And we had done all these celebrity interviews, but we knew so many, we either knew personally or knew of so many women who were doing amazing work and who were not getting the attention they deserved. And we knew that we could create something where they were finally able to feel like there was a safe.

you know, place where they could do that and inspire other women along.

Darla Ridilla (11:55)
Is there any history to the name? I love the word passionista. There's just something powerful, different, fun about it.

Nancy Harrington (12:02)
You

know, around 2010, had a job. We actually had a full-time job. Somebody hired us together. And we were the content creators for a website that did retro pop culture content. And it was a really fun job. We did it for a couple of years. And it was all from 1960 to 1990. So we wrote about music and television and movies. It was right up our alley. It was really fun.

And then in 2010, they folded. And that's when we were like, okay, we need to stop painting everybody else's fences. Cause we had spent a decade doing stuff for other people and helping other people build their companies. And we're like, let's do this for ourselves this time. So that's when we started to really decide to go out on our own and start doing interviews and have a, we had a blog and a website. so we're like, all right, we need a name.

We went back and forth a bunch of times and then we knew we wanted it to be pop culture in some way, because that's what we were really covering back then. And we did the typical thesaurus search and whatever. And I was reading an article one day about marketing and there was an advertising agency that had coined the term passionistas. They used it just internally.

about people who are passionate about the project, the product that they were marketing. And I was like, passionistas, that's really cool. And I Googled it and like, no one was using it. The only occurrence of it on the internet at that point was this marketing company. I was like, yeah. And so I texted Amy, I'm like, what about pop culture passionistas?

Amy Harrington (13:44)
And the band, there was a band that, yeah.

Darla Ridilla (13:47)
⁓ okay.

Amy Harrington (13:52)
He sent me a

list. sent me a list that had like, Nancy's really good at this, like sends me a list that has like 20 different names on it and kind of buries it in the middle. You know, like, they're always throwaways. that's what I throw away. But there was it was right in the middle. And it was like, and we've been going back and forth forever about it. And there it was just popped up.

Nancy Harrington (14:01)
Hahaha!

Darla Ridilla (14:01)
Yeah. She can find.

Nancy Harrington (14:05)
Yeah.

Yeah, that

Darla Ridilla (14:13)
Yeah.

Nancy Harrington (14:15)
goes back to my graphic design days when I would present three options to a client and the one I liked was always in the middle. I didn't start with it, I didn't end with it, was in the middle. So anyway, I digress. So anyway, we named our company, in 2010 we named our company Pop Culture Passionistas and that's still our official company name, that's our LLC.

⁓ And then when we started to do the podcast, at that point, by then people were calling us the Passionistas. All of our clients called us the Passionistas. had articles written about us and they referred to us as that. And so we were like, well, naturally, if we're gonna do a podcast, has to be the Passionistas. And at that point, it really was just like a fun side project to do a podcast.

Darla Ridilla (14:47)
Mm-hmm.

Nancy Harrington (15:06)
for fun and help women. So we were like, oh, the Passionistas Project, that sounds good. Little did we know it would become a movement.

Amy Harrington (15:13)
Eight trademarks and 20,000 followers on social media later. Here we are.

Darla Ridilla (15:18)
Wow. Wow.

Nancy Harrington (15:22)
we pretty much own the word passionistas now. We have eight trademarks and if you Google the word passionistas, we show up. A few other things have it, but.

Amy Harrington (15:29)
But

Darla Ridilla (15:29)
You come up.

Amy Harrington (15:31)
what's cool about the word is when Nancy and I started, when we were the pop culture passionistas, people would always be like, you should have other people write content for your site. And we were like, no, we are the passionistas. The two of us are the passionistas. And now as we've built the passionistas project, we're all passionistas. And that just means so much to us that it's become this expansive thing. And now other people identify as passionistas along with us. So that's.

Nancy Harrington (15:40)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Harrington (15:58)
That's the beauty of the word it's really become. Along the way people have been like, it's just a word. It's like, no, it's not. It means something to all of us now.

Darla Ridilla (16:05)
Mm-mm.

Nancy Harrington (16:07)
Mm-hmm.

Darla Ridilla (16:08)
Yeah,

Nancy Harrington (16:09)
Yeah.

Darla Ridilla (16:11)
absolutely. so I can remember where I'm going to shift to the book. I was so excited months ago when I heard about this opportunity to be part of this collaboration anthology book with all these other powerful women and depict this moment in time. And it was even though I've had another collaboration book already published with somebody else, this was my very first.

chance to like find out how cathartic writing really is for me and to write a story and to be a part of something that is a collaborative. And so let's talk about awakening your power. So how did that project come to life?

Nancy Harrington (16:39)
Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you know, at the heart of the Passionistas project is sharing women's stories. ⁓ And so it was a natural progression for us to do a storyteller book. ⁓ It was our mutual business coach, Julie DeLuca Collins. It was actually her idea. And she, she really helped us ⁓ get the, get our head around the concept. And it was probably about a year ago, not like this month that we decided to do it. ⁓

And, we wanted to approach it differently than a lot of other ⁓ collaboration books where most of those you pay a fee, you write your chapter, you submit it, it gets printed, end of story. And, and we really wanted to make it more of a collaboration and, ⁓ and a lot less scary. So what we decided was to use our skills as interviewers and

interview all of the women that are in the book so that they really felt nurtured and felt safe and didn't start the process by daring at a blank piece of paper. The process started by us talking with you and deciding what the story was that you were going to tell and then interviewing you to really bring out the details of that story and really get to the heart of what that story

meant to you and also could mean to the people reading it. ⁓ So I feel like it was a really beautiful process for everyone involved. We've heard that feedback from all of the women. ⁓ then on top of writing the chapter in the book, we also recorded the video of them telling the story so that it will be in our summit, which is the end of August. So. ⁓

So it's a really nice process. And we got, we had weekly meetings and monthly meetings. And so everyone got to know each other and it was, it was really fun. It was much, it was much deeper than just here's my chapter, you know, buy the book on Amazon.

Darla Ridilla (18:56)
Yeah, absolutely. Being a participant, have to say that you took me back to several months ago. I'd kind of forgotten about that. It had been a while. And it really did help me. it really helped me because I know that I came, I think, with three different topics. And then we narrowed it down. then, oh, and then we just kind of expanded it. And for being a first-time writer, I think it was a beautiful process and a perfect place for me to be because it gave me the ability to take that skill that I just learned.

go with it, you know, and, I'm ready to do another one. And you know, this, yeah, absolutely. So kudos to you ladies. I think it I think it was done beautifully. Absolutely. And the trainings were great. I mean, it was awesome. You know, in this book, it is filled with these these real kind of really authentic, vulnerable stories of women overcoming many different things, you know, all walks of life, you know, what

Amy Harrington (19:29)
Yeah, that's good.

Darla Ridilla (19:54)
What really stood out to you the most when you're looking at all the different chapters? there any themes that just really surprised you?

Amy Harrington (20:03)
I mean, I think I was grateful, like to people like you and the other women in the book, that you were so vulnerable, that you were, that you trusted us enough to share the stories that you shared with us, because they're not easy stories to tell. And a lot of you said to us, I'm telling, even if it was just part of the story, I'm saying, I'm saying this out loud for the first time to another human being.

That's really just a beautiful gift that you gave to us and are giving to the people who are reading this book. ⁓ I think there are common themes of really facing the darkest moments in, you know, person can face and how you all, you know, some of you who had those dark moments of the soul, like how you overcame them and the strength and the power it took to make the choices you made.

Some of the stories are light and fun, but still equally inspiring. And we have stories that range from moments that happened to somebody when she was like a little kid to recent revelations. And I think that the common thing is just like how amazing and resilient.

Women are and all of you women all of us we're in the book to all of us women are that we can get through anything and especially when we turn to other people like I think everybody's stories There are other people in the stories that help That are there they're kind of angels Like are along the way communities or another individual or a professional who guided them

⁓ so you know, yeah, the passion is this project is all about storytelling, but it's also about community and connection and I think there's there are beautiful themes of all of those in that run through the book and ⁓ There's you know, it was fun to get the chapters along the way and things came in at different times ⁓ you know, we added a story as recently as like three weeks ago because a friend of ours wrote something we were like

Okay, that needs to be in the book. We're gonna open up the book, you need to be in the book. And so, but to now see it all together. It's so good. And it's so powerful. And we cannot wait for people to finally get to read it because it's like we've read anthology books. And there are lot of great anthology books out there. But there's something special about

Darla Ridilla (22:23)
Hahaha!

Amy Harrington (22:47)
the women in the passionistas community who are willing to be vulnerable in a way that we don't experience a lot in other places.

Darla Ridilla (22:55)
many of our listeners are successful women, like like you guys. And they really they really struggle with silence because you said some of these women are saying, Wow, this is the very first time I've ever said this publicly. You know, we have the burnout, we have the relationship stresses, we have ⁓ feelings of losing ourselves in whatever situation that is.

You know, do you hope that maybe this book will offer something, a takeaway for those women that fall in that category?

Nancy Harrington (23:29)
Absolutely, absolutely. know, it's funny, we can not to make huge plugs for Julie DeLuca Collins, but she does play a huge role in our lives. And she is a she's an author in the book. We actually had a had a session with her yesterday and we were talking about, you know, the next leg of marketing for the book. We've been we've been promoting it now for a month and we have another month to go. And we started we wanted to pivot a little bit and start talking more personally about

Darla Ridilla (23:30)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Nancy Harrington (23:59)
how the stories will affect other people. And we started going through a list of, have you ever been in a relationship that you needed to get out of? Have you ever ⁓ had a boss that you didn't know how to handle and needed to stand up to and didn't know how to do that? Have you ever had a fear that you couldn't get past and how do you get, we went through this whole list of things that.

every single person in the world can relate to. Like everyone has faced one of at least one of those things. So yeah, there's no way anyone can read this book or come to the summit and hear these stories and not relate and walk away with the feeling of I can get past X, Y, Z, whatever it is that's holding you back or stopping you or keeping you stuck. ⁓

There's definitely so many lessons to be learned and ⁓ it's really, really powerful, pun intended. ⁓

Darla Ridilla (25:04)
Hahaha!

Amy Harrington (25:04)
Seriously, and I also

think it's interesting you said successful women and I think that there's this like very difficult aspect of being a successful woman that people don't talk about which is You if you are considered a successful woman You have to present that way to the rest of the world like all the time you you have to you know everybody is looking at you like you have it figured out and so

Nancy Harrington (25:26)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Harrington (25:32)
99 % of the time we successful women feel like we have to be like, don't let them know that we're struggling financially or don't let them know that I was just in the other room crying my eyes out because I'm so stressed because they need to think that I'm in control and nobody's in control all the time and it's super stressful to have to keep that facade up and to pretend that

Nancy Harrington (25:44)
You

Amy Harrington (25:59)
Everything is 100 % okay. It's that's an impossible standard to live by and so I think by reading these stories like yes, all of the women in this book are successful They're all women that if you just saw their Instagram posts, you'd be like, my god, I cannot compare to that person But if you read their story and you go, my god She went through that and she still is running a successful business or she's still

you know, it maneuvers relationships with such grace, whatever the things are, it's like successful women struggle all the time, but they don't talk about it. And in this book, everybody's letting their guard down and explaining how you can be vulnerable and authentic and still succeed, but still need people and connection and to be heard.

Darla Ridilla (26:57)
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Darla Ridilla (28:12)
Yeah, you really took me back to my corporate days because I was in corporate for really long time and ran executive offices, mostly in C-level executives. what a lot of people don't know is that the executive assistants really do, besides making the decisions that is above our pay grade, we run those places because the guys are gone all the time. How many times did I run to my car and drive to the grocery store or go in a bathroom and cry on my lunch hour or my break because

Amy Harrington (28:16)
You

Darla Ridilla (28:41)
we can't show it, you know, and then you put your power suit back on and try to clean up your face and act all professional all over again.

Nancy Harrington (28:45)
here.

Yeah.

Amy Harrington (28:50)
Yep. And they're done now.

Darla Ridilla (28:53)
Yeah, yeah, yeah,

thank God I'm just do it anymore. You know, let's talk about let's talk about the summit because this is a big deal. It's coming up in August and what what is going to happen there? What are women going to love about it? And why should they go?

Amy Harrington (28:57)
Me too.

Nancy Harrington (28:57)
Ha

Well, it's taking the stories in the book and taking it to 11, as I will say, because I've just been talking about spinal tap coming out with my husband. ⁓ You know, it's the book on steroids. So what we're doing is it's three days. Each day we have a panel and it's made up of several of the women who have authored a chapter in the book. And so we will, they have recorded their stories. So first,

the panel starts out by watching the stories of those three to five women on the panel. And ⁓ once we've all watched their stories together, then we're gonna have a round table discussion about what we just watched. And this is the format that we use in our ⁓ summit every year. We've done one since 2020 and ⁓ up until now it hasn't involved the book, but it's always the same format of the storyteller and then the round table.

It's not your typical panel at a summit. It's just so much deeper because that vulnerability was just exposed to each other. You'll hear each other's stories and then we all get to sit around and talk about what we just heard and they're beautiful, beautiful conversations. And like we were just saying, that everyone will be able to walk away with many, many lessons from. ⁓ And then on top of those three panels, we also have

Every afternoon we have two workshops from women in the Passionistas community. And those range from a woman who talks about building a business with ADHD and the tools that you can use to make that an easier proposition ⁓ to a woman that talks about the difficulties of being in the AAPI community right now. ⁓ we have a woman talking about being in the queer community. So it's beautiful, beautiful workshops.

And then we have three evening events. So on the first evening, we are showing Jennifer Kaufman's film, There's Gotta Be More to Life. ⁓ Jennifer is a Boston Marathon bombing survivor, and she has made this beautiful film about her healing journey. ⁓ And it's absolutely gorgeous and empowering film that will inspire so many people. ⁓

The second night we're gonna do a virtual pajama party. We're opening up the lounge. Anybody from all of the speakers, all of the authors and all of the attendees can come. We're just gonna have a Zoom and hang out and talk and have fun. And then the closing night we are doing the Passionistas Persist Awards. And this is something we've been doing since 2020. In the past we've given them to Dr. Jane Goodall and Margaret Cho and...

many humanitarians and business women. This year we are giving two awards. We're giving the Trailblazer Award to Kara Reedy, who is a disability activist, and she has an organization that ⁓ helps to spotlight disabled women in journalism, or disabled people in journalism. ⁓ And we're giving the Icon Award to celebrity chef Susan Feniger. So for those of you who don't know her, she's

basically created the Food Network. mean, she and her partner had the first successful show on the Food Network called Two Hot Tamales. And she has since been on every Food Network competition show you can think of. She's a judge or a guest, and she has four or five, I've lost count, restaurants.

Amy Harrington (32:56)
and her partner Mary Sue are the first recipients of the Smithsonian's Julia Child Award. She's really like the Julia Child of our generation. And she is a huge activist for the LGBTQ community. She helped start, helped build a kitchen at the LGBTQ Center here in LA that now trains LGBTQ youth.

to become chefs and gives them a pathway for a career in their lives. And also, you're going to have to say the name of the other foundation now.

Nancy Harrington (33:28)
Glurderma

Research Foundation. Yeah.

Amy Harrington (33:31)
Yes, Sklora Dharma

Research Foundation. So that was Bob Saget, Bob Saget's sister, had this condition. he was a major board member and major advocate for this organization. And Susan has been on the board this whole time. And they raise millions of dollars every year for this organization. So yeah, so she's amazing. we have an incredible charitable

Darla Ridilla (33:36)
Mm-hmm. Okay.

Amy Harrington (33:58)
partner this year, which is She Angels Foundation. And She Angels Foundation gives grants to women-centric 501c3s. ⁓ So we're really trying to raise the profile of that organization and find all ways to give back to women who are out there doing good work and helping other women and supporting other women.

You know, we're all doing it. You're doing it too. We're just trying to lift women up, give them the support and tools they need to just have it. We just interviewed someone to have an easier go because it's hard. It's hard being a woman. No matter what kind of woman you are, it's challenging.

Darla Ridilla (34:37)
Right?

Nancy Harrington (34:40)
Yeah.

Darla Ridilla (34:43)
It truly is. you know what I love about, there's not only is there a lot to do, and it sounds really fun, so I'm really looking forward to being there, but you're supporting all walks of life. So no matter who you are and what your experience is, how you live your life, there's something powerful that you're going to take away. There's someone there that you are going to relate to. Yeah.

Nancy Harrington (35:03)
Yeah, yeah. And that's been our intention with the Sisterhood

and Passionista since from the beginning is to really be very inclusive and to share stories that you don't ordinarily hear. And so that you can really understand other people's experiences that you have not lived. ⁓ so I think it's part of those secret sauce of what makes the Passionista so special is that you really can come and

and experience a lot of different cultures and lifestyles and ⁓ learn a little bit.

Darla Ridilla (35:40)
you've built this powerful platform. You've got the summit. You've got the power, the power passionistas and this book. But to a woman who feels like she has this story to tell and she's now hearing this and saying, wow, I would love to share my story. I just don't know how I don't even know how to start. What would you tell her?

Amy Harrington (36:05)
I mean, I would say step one, there's a free membership to the Sisterhood. So join it and get start to get to know people and start to see what the community is like, because I know there are a lot of communities out there and they offer different things, which is great. Everybody finds their people. But the thing with the Passionistas Project is it's not just business networking, it's business networking, personal growth and social.

impact. So it's a place where you can collaborate with somebody on business ideas or you can get some self-help tools to ease your stress and you can also give back in some way, whether that's just supporting somebody else or if you have a mission or a cause that's really important to you, you can share that with everybody and get support. So I would say start by coming and

getting to know what we're all about and see if you like what we're doing. There are a number of ways from there that you can participate. You can post things in this community. We have a space called Share Anything, and you can really share big stories, little stories about what's going on in your life. We have women who promote their businesses. We also have women who are just like, I'm having a bad day.

And people chime in and say, how can I help? you're looking for a job? How can I help? ⁓ Then we also have a bunch of different ways that women can really amp up telling their story. There's ⁓ a Passionistas podcast network. So if you're a podcaster, ⁓ for a small fee, you can list your podcast in the network. It is all women-hosted podcasts. So you actually ⁓

find you, people can find you based on the fact that you're a woman hosted podcast. Cause if you search Apple podcasts, that's not going to come up that it's a woman hosted show. ⁓ and we personally like to listen to shows hosted by women, but we keep ending up listening to smart lists and David because they're easier to find. ⁓ so we really want to amp up the promotion of women hosted podcasts. have passion is does TV. So our power passion is does women like you have the opportunity to.

Darla Ridilla (38:15)
Right.

Nancy Harrington (38:16)
you

Amy Harrington (38:28)
do a self-produced TV show, whether that's a video version of their podcast or some other content. You can have your own TV show on Passionistas TV. If you need more help telling your story, we're going to be doing another anthology book. And we're going to be repeating this program where we work with each woman individually to help her carve out what that story is and help her actually craft it.

⁓ And we're starting to help. talked to two different women who want to now one was in the Anthology book and one is another friend of ours who want to tell their full story. They want to write a memoir and we're starting to work with them to craft their entire story because our experience as celebrity interviewers is You know doing these archival interviews that start at what was your name at birth?

and end with how do you want to be remembered. And we help build the arc of their story through this interview process. We're going to apply that to these women's memoirs and help them actually write their life stories as a book. So there's all kinds of ways that, you know, what I think.

Nancy Harrington (39:39)
I will add one more. Everyone who

comes to the summit this year will get our new 30-day journal. It's 30 days to... We haven't landed on the title yet, but basically 30 days to find your story. So it's essentially the very first part of the workshop that we do where we help women figure out what story they want to tell.

And it's a small journal with 30 prompts. So you do one every day. By the end of the day, you'll have figured out what that story is that you want to tell and feel empowered to tell it.

Amy Harrington (40:14)
And

that's for the VIP attendees who also get the replays of the summit so that they can watch again or watch at a different time women telling their stories and really see the kind of stories that are being shared and be inspired by those.

Darla Ridilla (40:35)
Yeah, I want to do a personal plug for the passionistas because I recently did a social media post about the six degrees of separation and a passion is played a huge part in that because I have met so many people like I met this person and led to this person because I met Julie first and then she introduced me to the mastermind and I met you and then during that I mean and it's crazy and it's been anywhere from meeting women that were in this book and hearing their story or you ⁓ know.

meeting one of the authors who while we were in the planning process and I had expressed a desire to move to Durango and she happened to live in Durango and now Beth and I, you know, I met her personally when I came out looking for housing and we've done some fun things together. So I actually knew one person when I moved and it was because of your group. But you know, there's

Nancy Harrington (41:23)
Okay.

Darla Ridilla (41:26)
There are some great trainings on there as well. There is that community for people who just need that online community. And it's great for the business owners because you can if you have that podcast. So I just personally wanted to say that I have met so many people vicariously through your group that led to other people. Yeah.

Nancy Harrington (41:48)
great.

Amy Harrington (41:48)
Awesome. That's the

greatest joy of all of it. You know, I mean It means so much to us when we see people connecting when we see people Posting on each other's Instagram comments and we're like, how did they know each other? they met through us Cool. We just met a woman today we had we reached out to a stranger to be on her podcast and we got on a call with her today and the first thing she said was

Nancy Harrington (42:04)
Okay.

Amy Harrington (42:15)
I know somebody that you've interviewed. know someone that's a passionista and she had been at a local networking event with Meryl Hayton, who's one of our passionistas and knew her. And it was like, the circle is huge. We are international. Like we have women in Australia and Europe and, you know, Canada and South America, but it's, it's also coming together and the connections are really.

Nancy Harrington (42:40)
You

Amy Harrington (42:43)
Really happening. So we're so glad that you've benefited from it. You're such a special member of the community to us and so to know that there's You've found real value in it means the world

Darla Ridilla (42:50)
Thank you.

⁓ If there was one piece of wisdom each of you would personally live by what would that be?

Nancy Harrington (43:07)
I think just to remember that you're not alone. I think so many of us right now feel isolated. And it was a feeling that started in COVID. And we've all gotten sort of back to our normal lives. But I think we all still feel isolated and alone. And I think especially the kinds of women that are drawn to the Pesceanista sisterhood, they're solopreneurs, they're artists, they're activists, they're people who don't have that CEO suite and corporate structure around them. ⁓

And it's hard, I think day to day it's hard to remember that you're not alone and that other people have lived the experiences that you are going through and they're there to help you through it. so just reach out, whether that's to a family member or a friend or a church or a community or an online sisterhood, whatever that is, just remember that you're not alone.

Amy Harrington (44:00)
Yeah, mine kind of plays off that, is ⁓ Nancy and I always used to be really shy about asking for help and like couldn't just work unable to do it. And ⁓ a few years ago, we realized like we can't do this by ourselves, like Nancy was just saying. And so we started to ask people for help. And what we realized when we started doing that was people actually like to help.

They feel honored that you're asking they The people we all know and then connect with we connect with them because they're similar to us We want to all help people so they want to help they don't want to impose their opinion or Try and force something on you, but when you ask them They're relieved like I can finally you know, give you my thoughts and so

Asking for help is scary, but just remember that you're actually giving someone a gift when you ask them for help they want to help you and And so don't be afraid If they don't want to help you they'll tell you and if they can't help you they'll tell you but most people want to Help you in any way they can so Take the leap and ask for help when you need it

Darla Ridilla (45:21)
I love that because as a person who's been extremely independent my whole life, both of you touched on points. First, I've had to learn that something I've had to learn is that I have to be able to receive. And that's a hard thing for me, especially in path that I'm a giver and let me help you, but to actually accept help from others or even it's even worse for me to ask. And then that feeling of isolation, I will say that I feel it intensely and

and much more since COVID as well. And this room here, this second bedroom, that's my office. I spend more time here than I do anywhere else. And I'm here by myself. I talk to myself all the time when I do my own solo episode. And in a way, I've almost over these past few months in this year gotten more comfortable talking to the camera by myself than people. But there is an isolation factor, which is why I try to get in.

Nancy Harrington (46:01)
you

Darla Ridilla (46:15)
either an online community and also in my local community, I always join a chamber because I want that in-person interaction too as well. I will put the details of the summit. Was it August 26th to 28th? Did I remember the dates right? Okay. Okay. And we will put links. So if anyone is interested in signing up, that will be in the show notes. But ⁓ is there anything I haven't asked you?

Nancy Harrington (46:23)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Amy Harrington (46:24)
Yeah, definitely.

Nancy Harrington (46:31)
It is. That's right.

Darla Ridilla (46:43)
that you want to share with everybody.

Nancy Harrington (46:47)
I just want to share again the details about the book because the book will go, the ebook version will go on sale the day of the summit. We probably will start taking pre-orders mid-month, mid-August. ⁓ So the ebook will go on sale and for the first three days of the summit the ebook's only going to be 99 cents. ⁓ And then price is going to go up, I think we have it set at 7.99.

Darla Ridilla (46:50)
Yes, please.

Nancy Harrington (47:13)
If you want that really practically free book, really, ⁓ that's the chance to do it. And then the following week, the paperback will drop. And then we're going to roll out the audio book version and the ⁓ hardcover version later in the fall. Hardcover is going to make great Christmas gifts for all those women in your life. So stay tuned to the Passionistas project for all those dates. But August 26 is the first one to keep in mind.

Darla Ridilla (47:33)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yes. Be there at B square, that old saying. ⁓ Yes. So if someone says, yes, absolutely, ⁓ not only do I want to go to this summit, how do I reach you? How do I work with Amy and Nancy and find out what these passionistas are all about? Where can they find you?

Nancy Harrington (47:46)
Yeah. ⁓

Amy Harrington (48:04)
They can find us at thepassionistas with a P, ⁓ project.com. And there you can find out about the Sisterhood membership. You can hear the podcast. You can read our blog. You can see all the things that we do and connect with us. All of our social media links are there. ⁓ you know, like I said, there's a free membership. Join the Sisterhood. We are in there.

all day, every day, replying to comments, connecting people. If you join, we try within the first couple of days, introduce yourself and we try and connect you with at least two or three other women that we think would be somebody you would find something in common with. go to this website and then come into the sisterhood and we'll chat with you there.

Darla Ridilla (49:00)
Yeah, and you guys, mean, I'm just so grateful to have this conversation with you because what I love about you is you're so authentic. you are what you say you are. This isn't just some slogan. I mean, you you know, with our own interactions that you've really demonstrated a passion for women, no matter who they are.

And so I really want to personally thank you for that, that we have had this amazing time to get to know each other. And this is not the end for us. mean, you know, not, not at all. In fact, that, that, that memoir thing, cause I've got two memoirs in my future in while they're not the priority right now, one has been started. ⁓ I love that process you talked about, and that might be the easier way than sitting at my computer late at night, you know, trying to figure it out.

Nancy Harrington (49:30)
Ha ha ha!

Amy Harrington (49:31)
not by any means.

Nancy Harrington (49:47)
Yeah.

Amy Harrington (49:51)
Keep you accountable to like okay We would love to help you with that and yeah it's been great knowing you and and Really, I feel like we have had some just some really open honest conversations that we are so grateful for and we look forward to many more to come and finding lots and lots of ways to collaborate we're so grateful you had us on and we

Nancy Harrington (49:53)
Yeah. Yep.

Darla Ridilla (49:53)
Yes, yes.

Nancy Harrington (49:56)
Yeah.

Amy Harrington (50:16)
But more than anything, we're grateful that you shared your story in the book and were so vulnerable and really ⁓ committed to telling a story that is difficult to share and that people don't share very often. And that really means the world to us.

Darla Ridilla (50:32)
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it was a great. So I'm going to tell my listeners, please come to the summit. Yes, even though I have a chapter in a book and yes, I'm shamelessly plugging my own product, their product. ⁓ It is going to be a great. I have not seen all the stories, so I'm super excited. I know of a few of them. But yes, please come to the summit. Get the book. I know you're going to love it. And yes, when that hard copy comes out, you've got your Christmas list is solved.

Nancy Harrington (50:43)
and

Yeah.

Darla Ridilla (51:02)
Reach out

to the passionistas because women do need community. We are isolated. this is a whether you're a business owner or not, this is a great community just for women in general. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you again for being here. And you're welcome. And to my listeners, you have the power.

Nancy Harrington (51:17)
Thank you.

Amy Harrington (51:21)
Thanks for having us.

Darla Ridilla (51:29)
listening to You Have the Power, the Road to Truth, Freedom, and Real Connection. If you're a high achieving woman who looks like she's got it all together, but behind closed doors, you feel dismissed, depleted, or stuck in cycles that no longer serve you, know this,

You're not too much, you're just done accepting too little. Every episode is your space to unpack the real reasons powerful women stay stuck and how to create relationships that feel safe, honest, and fully aligned without sacrificing your fire. If today's episode hit home, share it, subscribe, leave a review, or send it to another woman who's ready to stop performing and start leading. Wanna go deeper?

Check the show notes for links to connect with me or take the next step in your journey. I'd love to hear what resonated for you. Keep tuning in because you have the power to stop shrinking, speak your truth and rebuild your relationships from radical self-trust. And I'm right here walking this road with you.