Episodes

When I heard that the fastest growing segment of the homeless population are young moms with one or two children, I said: women would be up in arms to know about this. -Suzanne Picher Meet a woman who is doing what she can to make a real difference in the lives of homeless women and children in Boston. Suzanne Picher is the Chief Development Officer at a non-profit called Heading Home, Inc. www.headinghomeinc.org. This small but mighty organization meets each client at the door with compassion ...

I’m very much a leap before you look kind of a gal. I encourage others to do the same as well because you are never going to know unless you try. -Kim Miles Being brave, venturing outside your comfort zone is the only way we learn new things. It’s also how we experience what we are capable of. This is how we grow, and Kim Miles is proof of that because she’s literally a one woman show. Kim has been taking chances and accomplishing great things for decades, despite the ups and downs of life, inc...

Jewelry is a symbol-an expression of our love for each other. Throughout my career as a jeweler, I have been blessed to witness this love every single day. -Donna DePrisco Known as “Donna Diamonds” and “Boston’s Jeweler to the Stars” Donna DePrisco was born into the sparkling world of diamonds and gems. Her parents, Frank and Marie DePrisco opened the doors to their first showroom in Boston just after World War II and expanded to locations in Wellesley and Osterville as their reputation for tre...

Success to me is my significance. How many people can I positively impact? -Jean Kanokogi When you are the daughter of a trailblazer, the bar is set pretty high. For Jean Kanokogi, PhD, accomplishing great things while doing good in the world has been her mission. Jean is the daughter of Rusty Kanokogi, the Mother of Women’s Judo whose life is chronicled is a memoir written by mother and daughter called Get Up & Fight. In this inspiring interview, Jean tells her mother’s incredible story from s...

Freedom means the ability to be who you are, to say what you want to say, and to live the life you want to live without anybody telling you: you can’t, you can’t you can’t. – Edra Toth Imagine what it must be like to live under the control of an oppressive Communist government. Now imagine that you are only 4 years old and your parents decide it’s time to escape, knowing that if you are caught, you may be killed. You travel by night and hide by day with very little to eat until you reach the sa...

Our main goal, in everything we do, is to bring hope to a hopeless world. -Lily Isaacs We’re on the road this week, just outside of Nashville, Tennessee for an interview with Lily Isaacs, co-founder & matriarch of The Isaacs, a multi-award-winning family group whose music is described as Southern Gospel, Country, and Americana. Born in Germany after World War II, Lily is the child of holocaust survivors. Her parents were Polish Jews and in this interview, she describes in detail how they were f...

Success is when you help somebody on a path to a better tomorrow. – Catherine Pisacane There is no shortage of women doing great things with their lives and Catherine Pisacane is proof of that. For her, success is not measured by fame or fortune, but rather, by the impact she makes on her community. After hearing a news story about 4 brothers who had been removed from their home by the police after it was discovered that they were being starved by their parents, Catherine noticed that each chil...

This is all about heart, it’s about passion, it’s about giving back. -Beth Veneto “Ginger Betty” Beth Veneto calls her bakery Ginger Betty’s www.gingerbettys.com and the cookies she bakes are filled with love. One of 8 children raised in Quincy, Massachusetts, Beth’s cookie story began when she was about 10 years old, while baking gingerbread under the watchful eye of her big sister, Karen. For Beth, baking gingerbread cookies became a passion, not just at Christmas time, but all year long. In ...

If I won the lottery, I would still come back and do this. To me, that’s success. – Dallas Reed, MD. Dr. Dallas Reed loves what she’s doing with her life and it shows. In this interview, she reveals that a tragic loss early in her life shaped her decision to focus on women’s reproductive health and perinatal genetics. Raised in Plano, Texas in a bi-racial home, Dallas was always at the top of her class. She attended Dillard University as an undergrad and won a prestigious scholarship that enabl...

Success is the opportunity to elevate what other people are doing. -Catharine Smith This week’s story is about a woman who has been leading others since she was in her 20’s. From her humble roots in the midwest to traveling to Argentina, Brazil and Uraguay on a Fulbright scholarship, Catharine Smith has always been focused on social action. The time she spent in these countries shaped her views about how economic cooperation can lead to better outcomes for all, especially women and families. Th...

Success means doing something every day with purpose, that you love. The money is good, but that is such a small piece of it. If you love what you do, and you do it with purpose and you give it everything you have, that’s success. -Nancy Parshley In this inspiring interview, we meet another woman who was nominated by a friend to be featured on the show. Nancy Parshley is the co-founder of Infinite Media. She and her husband have been running the very successful marketing and advertising company...

I hope to be successful in music and that doesn’t necessarily mean becoming famous. I just want to be able to be happy in what I’m doing, to make a living and to touch other people’s souls. -Lainey Dionne Talent is all around us, but only the very few achieve stardom. Meet singer/songwriter Lainey Dionne of Rhode Island. She’s a proud Berklee College grad with an interesting story about how she graduated from one of the most prestigious music schools in the world…in record time. To meet her is...

The world is not soft and you will fail. You need to have the internal resources to pick yourself up and move on. -Betsey Sethares The email from Betsey’s daughter, Lily said: “I’ve been feeling immensely grateful for the wonderful women who impact my life, especially during the pandemic and one of those people is my mom, Betsey Sethares.” With an endorsement like that, I knew that Betsey would be an inspiration to anyone listening to The Story Behind Her Success. The Executive Director of the ...

This is truly a matter of life or death. -”Molly” Anonymous Army Wife No matter what your politics are, there is a gigantic humanitarian crisis going on right now in Afghanistan. When the last plane left Kabul on August 31, 2021, thousands of people including Americans and Afghan interpreters and their families were left behind. Many news outlets are ignoring this story, but the truth is that acts of violence are being perpetrated by the Taliban as you are reading these show notes. Enter, “Moll...

I hate the word “no”. I hate the words “you can’t do it” and I hate “its been done before.” -Hildy Grossman When she was just a little girl growing up in Cincinnati, Hildy Grossman knew that singing on a stage would be part of her life. Her father was the owner of a famous night club called The Beverly Hills Country Club and among the many A-list performers who appeared there, Lena Horne was her favorite. Years later, the jazz singer with an impressive repertoire would become one of the foundi...

There’s a new Candy O in town. She’s a little less driven about what’s ahead and lot more grateful for what is right in front of her. – Candy O’Terry By the time I release this podcast, it will be 49 days since I seriously injured my lower back. Some people call it “blowing out your back”, and that’s actually a pretty good way to describe it. I have a herniated disc at L4 and L5 and S1 where all the nerve roots are covered with the material that ruptured from the disc. When that happens, the p...

Every once in a while, we have to get thrown down on the floor to see the world from a new perspective. That’s where we come to understand what really matters. That’s where we press the re-set button and learn some of life’s greatest lessons. -Candy O’Terry I’m recording this episode in bed, flat on my back with a ruptured disc. After a 5 day stay in the hospital, I’m still in a lot of pain, but I didn’t want to miss this time with you. I’ve been thinking long and hard about the life lessons I’...

In the spotlight, a dynamic healthcare leader who is a champion for women’s health. Emily Tamilio is a registered nurse who is a member of the Beth Israel Lahey Health Women’s Leadership Council and Emerson Hospital Auxiliary. She has worked in leadership roles in health systems, start-ups and as a consultant, and is proud of her work for the the 131 year old Deaconess Abundant Life Committee’s leadership team. And there is so much more to this story. Raised outside of Boston in a strong Armenia...

A wise person once told me: show up, speak your truth and don’t be attached to the outcome. -Caroline C. Werner Make no mistake about it, Caroline C. Werner is a superstar in the field of HR. She’s the Senior Vice President, Global Talent for Korn Ferry with over 8,000 employees in 50 countries. In this role, she responsible for talent acquisition, operations, learning and development, administration, human relations business strategies and more. How can there possibly be enough hours in the da...

Success to me is being in alignment with what is important to you and following through on that in your actions and in your behavior, in your words. -Chris Vasiliadis Meet Chris Vasiliadis, founder of Priority Wellness www.prioritywellness.com and author of the book Ignition: A Professional Woman’s Guide to Energized, Burnout-Proof Living. She has reinvented herself many times. In fact, she’s worked in high-tech with roles in systems engineering, computer security, cryptography, software projec...

Look around and find people who you want to be like or who you want to learn from. Make sure they see who you are, and what you can do. -Karla MacDonald With so much attention on the rollout of the vaccine, delivered to the world in record time, I wanted to find a woman in a leadership role in the pharmaceutical world who could give us a bird’s eye view on the industry. Enter Karla MacDonald, Vice President, Communications & Patient Advocacy at Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals. With 20 years of experie...

Every child is unique and every child has a skill. It is up to us parents to guide them and be attentive to those skills. -Dr. Tamika Jacques Meet Dr. Tamika Jacques, mother of three and workforce specialist with a doctorate in Educational Leadership Science. She’s the author of two groundbreaking books: A Brown Girls Guide to Employment & Networking, and her latest: A Brown Parents Guide to Preparing Our Children for Employment in the 21st Century. Using the many challenges she faced over the ...

There are paths of life that aren’t easy and the music industry is certainly a difficult one. If you don’t love it, don’t do it. But if you love it, you have to do it. -Krisanthi Pappas Massachusetts native Krisanthi Pappas has been using her gifts and talents as a singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, recording artist, and live performer since she was about eight years old! A classically trained pianist, she would sing for the traffic stopped outside her house at the red light, singing songs...

In my practice, we really peel it back. We get pretty naked with it and we architect a life where you can have greater impact, service to others, and beautiful relationships. – Hilary Porta Hilary Porta is a success coach, a life architect, a business alchemist and a mindset ninja who lives her life on all cylinders. Whether you listen to this episode on your smartphone, your laptop or on your favorite radio station, today’s guest brings the power of positivity to everything she does and you ar...