Entrepreneurship 101

Entrepreneurship 101 features Rachel Minion, an entrepreneur and marketing innovator whose journey demonstrates how uncertainty, resilience, and preparation can transform an unexpected career disruption into an entirely new chapter.

In this episode, Rachel shares her experience working in the entertainment and marketing industry, including her time connected with Ticketmaster and Live Nation, before the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the business landscape. Despite early optimism that live entertainment would quickly recover, the industry came to a sudden halt, and Rachel found herself among the many employees affected by furloughs.

But Rachel had something working in her favor: a side hustle she had quietly built years earlier.

What had once been a secondary business suddenly became her primary opportunity. With no guarantee that entrepreneurship would work, Rachel began reconnecting with clients, rebuilding relationships, and putting her full energy into growing the business she had once considered shutting down.

Rachel speaks candidly about the uncertainty and self-doubt that accompanied the transition. Rather than waiting for certainty, she learned to trust herself, rely on her experience, and use her determination to move forward when there was no obvious alternative.

Today, Rachel continues her entrepreneurial journey through Rockstar Moon, her work with Rockstar AI, and her nonprofit organization Beyond Basic Needs.

Join Entrepreneurship 101 for a powerful conversation about turning a side hustle into a full-time business, navigating unexpected career disruption, overcoming self-doubt, embracing innovation, and discovering what can happen when circumstances force an entrepreneur to finally bet on themselves. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

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Ron Cooper

Personality insights and principled leadership for organizational growth.

Ron Cooper is the Founder of The Cooper Culture business dedicated to helping organizations increase their personnel productivity and efficiency through personality strengths and principled leadership. The Cooper Culture assesses organizational strengths employing DISC human behavior attributes then customizes training to help organizations achieve or maintain high performance. Ron is a human behavior consultant certified through Personality Insights, Inc. and PeopleKeys. He is partnered with Dr. John C. Maxwell and certified through the John C. Maxwell Company as a leadership trainer, mentor, personal performance coach, and keynote speaker. Ron helps organizations increase their worker retention and gain new employees by establishing a reputation that people like working in the organization. Ron inspires organizational leaders to meaningfully engage their workforce which eliminates cynical, passive, and toxic work cultures.

Ron is leveraging over 30 years active duty Air Force fighter pilot and command experience, and industry executive experience to help people and organizations achieve the full potential. Ron has led organizations of 200+ people and is currently mentoring and coaching others to help them achieve their full potential. He has published numerous leadership and organizational articles for trade magazines. He is a co-author of the best-selling book, “DISCover Your Team’s Potential.”

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Teaira Abston

Brand Strategist Helping Experts Become Authorities Through Strategy, Design & Systems

Teaira Abston is a Brand Strategist, Speaker, and Founder of Dreamcatcher Creative Studio. She helps service-based businesses, such as health & wellness professionals, turn their brand into a strategic asset that attracts premium clients and supports scalable growth. Through her work, she equips founders with the clarity and frameworks needed to move from being just another option to becoming a trusted authority.

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Gordon Firemark

The Podcast Lawyer™

Gordon Firemark has practiced media, entertainment and business law in solo practice since 1992. In podcasting circles, he is known as The Podcast Lawyer™, and is producer and host of the Entertainment Law Update podcast (since 2009), and author of the Podcast, Blog & New Media Producer’’s Legal Survival Guide. His undergraduate degree in radio, television and film and experience in live theatre production informs his thinking about all things legal. In addition to a busy law practice, He teaches Entertainment Law at Columbia College Hollywood, Intellectual Property and Media Law at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, and Contract law at Pepperdine Law School.

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Micah Logan

Operations Consultant | Author of The Brown Box | I find the one constraint capping owner-led companies

Micah Logan is an operations consultant, Forbes contributor, and author of The Brown Box. After building and exiting a multi-location fitness brand, he now installs the TURNAROUND Method in owner-led companies that look successful from the outside and stall on the inside. His point is simple: the business usually isn’t broken; one thing is, and until you name that bottleneck, more hustle just makes the leak worse. Today he is here to show you how to find it and fix the operating system around it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

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Benas Leonavicius

I Built a $150k Solo SEO Business. Then I Founded an Agency That Serves the World's Class Experts.

Benas is the founder of Avium, a personal brand agency that builds online visibility infrastructure for keynote speakers, book authors, and founders. His clients include Hall of Fame speakers, Harvard psychologists, and Columbia professors. He started from pocket money SEO work, scaled solo to $120k+ a year, and built the agency without sacrificing the margins that made the solo model worth it.

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Lara Bezerra

Global CEO, Conscious Leadership Pioneer, and the World's First Chief Purpose Officer

Lara Bezerra is a global business executive, leadership thinker, author, and founder of Work Coherence®, whose work sits at the intersection of leadership, organizational culture, neuroscience, and human potential.

Born in Brazil and shaped by life and leadership experiences across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, Lara's understanding of work as a calling rather than simply a profession began early in life. Raised by two physicians whose careers were grounded in service, responsibility, and purpose, she developed a deep appreciation for the impact meaningful work can have on both individuals and society. Her Japanese mother also nurtured her lifelong fascination with the relationship between science, philosophy, and human development—an influence that would later become central to her leadership philosophy.

Over a thirty-year executive career, Lara led multinational organizations including Bayer and Roche across seven countries. She became the first female Executive President for Bayer Latin America before later serving as CEO of Roche India, where she was recognized as the world's first Chief Purpose Officer. In that role, she helped formalize the integration of purpose, culture, and performance at the highest levels of organizational leadership.

Throughout her career, Lara observed a growing disconnect inside many organizations: increasing pressure for results alongside rising burnout, disengagement, and cultural fragmentation. These experiences led her to develop the concept of Coherent Leadership®—a framework that explores how leadership behavior, organizational culture, emotional awareness, and purpose must align to create sustainable performance and human flourishing.

Today, Lara advises CEOs, boards, and organizational leaders on building coherent lives, organizations, and systems capable of thriving in an increasingly complex world. Through her work, writing, and speaking, she challenges conventional assumptions about leadership by integrating executive experience with insights from neuroscience, consciousness studies, and systems thinking.

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Kelly Schuknecht

Empowering Thought Leaders to Elevate Their Brand and Share Their Voice.

I’ve spent over 20 years in marketing helping entrepreneurs and professionals move from being the "best-kept secret" to the trusted authority in their field.

I am the author of Unlocking Your Authority X-Factor, where I share my 3-Pillar Framework for personal branding: Visibility, Credibility, and Consistency. I wrote this book for the professionals—especially women—who have spent years building expertise but still feel like the spotlight was meant for someone else.

Today, I run Two Mile High Marketing, where I specialize in thought leadership development. I also host two podcasts: Beyond the Bestseller, where I feature female authors of nonfiction books and empower them to share their stories, and The Authority X-Factor, where I interview thought leaders in a variety of industries.

I love sharing actionable insights on how to bridge the gap between being an expert and being a recognized leader. Whether we are discussing how to overcome imposter syndrome, building a sustainable content engine, or the nuances of remote work, my goal is always to provide strategies your listeners can implement right away.

If your audience includes professionals, entrepreneurs, or anyone looking to elevate their voice and influence, I’d be thrilled to join you and share how they can finally claim their own Authority X-Factor. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

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Lauren Harris

Most Marketing Problems Aren't Marketing Problems. I Helping Founders Fix the Strategy Underneath. - MS, Strategic Marketing - 150+ Strategies Across 12+ Industries

I'm Lauren Harris, a marketing strategist and co-founder of Reliable PR & Marketing. I help founders stop chasing tactics and start running real strategy.

My core take: most marketing problems aren't marketing problems. They're strategy problems wearing a marketing costume. "Our posts aren't converting" usually means we never decided who we were posting to. "Our ads aren't working" usually means we never decided what we were actually selling.

I've spent seven years and 150+ brand strategies proving this out across 12+ industries. My clients have grown revenue over 200% in 90 days, generated tens of millions of organic impressions, and grown website traffic nearly 700% through disciplined strategy alone. No virality, no paid blitz. Just real positioning and patience.

What makes me a good podcast guest: I have strong opinions and I back them with real numbers and specific stories. I can talk about strategy vs. tactics, why most rebrands fail, what founders get wrong about content, why "differentiate" is the most misused word in marketing, and how to know if your marketing is actually working.

I hold an MS in Strategic Marketing from Northeastern University. If your audience is made up of founders, marketing leads, or operators who feel like their marketing isn't compounding, I'll give them a real, useful conversation. No fluff. No generic "post more on LinkedIn" energy. Just sharp, specific takes they can act on.

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Victoria Pelletier

C-Suite Executive | Speaker | Author | Passionate Diversity & Inclusion Leader | Personal Brand & Networking Expert | Board Director

Victoria is a 20+ year Corporate Executive, Board Director, #1 selling author and Professional Public Speaker. Nicknamed the “Turn Around Queen” and the “CEO Whisperer” by former colleagues and employers, Victoria inspires and empowers her team and clients to change mindsets and drive growth in business, leadership and culture.

As someone who does not subscribe to the status quo, she is always ready for new challenges becoming one of the youngest Chief Operating Officers at the age of 24, president by 35 and a CEO at age 41.

Victoria was recognized as one of the 100 Global Outstanding LGBTQ Executive Role Models by Involve (sponsored by YouTube), a 2023 Women of Influence by South Florida Business Journal, a semi-finalist in the 2023 50/50 Women on Boards Women to Watch, 2022 Top 30 Most Influential Business Leaders in Tech by CIOLook, 2022 Most Influential Entrepreneur of the Year by World Magazine, 2021’s Top 50 Business Leader in Technology by Insight Magazine and a Mentor of the Year by Women in Communications & Technology in 2020. HSBC bank awarded her the Diversity & Inclusion in Innovation award in 2019 and she was IBM’s #1 Global Social Seller ranked by LinkedIn in 2019 and 2020.

As a prolific motivational and inspirational speaker, Victoria has delivered keynotes discussing the significance of Whole Human Leadership - being an empathetic and authentic leader, as well as the importance of personal branding and its impact on professional growth; the power of DEI on corporate cultures and building a life of resilience. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

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