Andrea Brimmer grew up on a farm outside Sacramento, went to college planning to become a lawyer, and left a stable job in wealth management to run a company she'd started while she was still a student. Today Rivida uses NASA-licensed filtration to pull ammonia out of agricultural wastewater and hand farmers back the two things they're running short of: clean water and nitrogen fertilizer.

In this episode she talks about walking into rooms full of farmers who take one look and count her out. "I love it when people doubt me and they don't see me coming, and then I just swoop in and I do the thing. Thank you for the secret power. You just gave me a way in."

Andrea shares:

✨ Why she stopped waiting for the right moment to quit her job

✨ "When you have faith, you can't have fear"

✨ The mentor who told her she wasn't a lawyer — she was a CEO

✨ What Rivida actually does with agricultural wastewater

✨ Being a young woman in rooms full of farmers

✨ How she turned being underestimated into a way in

✨ What farmers told her when she went out and asked

✨ Signing a commercialization deal with NASA

✨ Getting into the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator

✨ Growing up on a hay and cattle farm 30 minutes from Sacramento

✨ How faith and family in Mexico keep her steady

✨ Her Business Minute: relationships, brand, and the thank-you note

✨ Rapid Five: the hospital visit that ended her plan to be a doctor

If you've been waiting for the right moment to make your move, Andrea's answer is that it isn't coming. You go anyway.

About Andrea Brimmer: Andrea Brimmer is the Founder and CEO of Rivida, an agricultural technology company using NASA-licensed filtration to convert agricultural wastewater into clean water and nitrogen fertilizer on site. A California Lutheran University graduate who founded the school's Women in Business Club, she negotiated Rivida's NASA license as a senior and later left a career in finance to build the company full time. Rivida is a member of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator's Incubation Cohort 12. In August 2026, Andrea was one of 11 California women founders honored on the floor of the California State Senate by First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Senate President pro Tem Monique Limón, in partnership with F5 Collective.

🌱 Learn more at https://www.rivida.co/

The growth engine for women who mean business.

http://www.f5collective.com

0:00 I Love It When People Doubt Me

0:50 Welcome to F5 Collective Presents Women in Business

1:24 Honored on the California Senate Floor

2:04 Growing Up on a Hay and Cattle Farm

3:18 What Rivida Actually Does

3:41 "You Weren't a Lawyer, You Were a CEO"

4:24 The Confirmation That Changed Everything

4:59 Leaving Finance: "It Was Terrifying"

5:47 Trading the 401(k) to Write Her Own Story

6:21 Faith, Culture, and "You Can't Have Fear"

7:49 Learning to Speak Farmers' Language

8:56 "Coming From an Ag Family Opens Doors"

9:51 Being a Young Woman: The Secret Power

11:00 How She Decompresses

11:50 Signing With NASA and Getting Into LACI

12:38 Business Minute: Thank You Notes Go a Long Way

14:21 Rapid Five

17:11 Wrapping Up

Michelle Ruiz spent nine years at ExxonMobil before walking away from Big Oil to build a refinery for food waste. Born in Ecuador, she immigrated to Miami at seven and landed her first Exxon internship as an 18-year-old freshman by refusing to accept that freshmen don't get internships. Today she's CEO and Founder of Hyfé, pulling high-value natural ingredients out of the peels, pulps, and seeds that food processors currently pay to haul away. But the line that stops you isn't about chemistry: "I wasn't meant to follow a predetermined path. I was meant to carve a new path for myself."

Michelle shares:

✨ The shame she carried about being rebellious — and why it turned out to be the point

✨ How to beat imposter syndrome with math instead of affirmations

✨ Telling her board she wanted to scrap two years of work and pivot

✨ The freezing February in the Dakotas that changed the whole company

✨ Why the ingredients label on the back of your food is about to change

✨ What she learned about waste at an oil refinery outside Chicago

✨ Fixing the food system instead of blaming people's behavior

✨ Why therapy is the number one thing she recommends to founders

✨ What chronic stress cost her, and what she changed

✨ Getting emotional intelligence up to "executive skill" level

✨ Finding your founder community before you think you need one

✨ The question that matters more than what anyone expects of you

✨ Why a small team that follows no rules can outrun a big one

Whether you're mid-pivot, pitching a board, or quietly wondering whether the path you were handed was ever yours, Michelle's story is a case for building the one you actually want.

About Michelle Ruiz: Michelle Ruiz is the CEO and Founder of Hyfé, a plant refining company that turns agricultural and food-processing byproducts into high-performance natural ingredients for the food, beverage, personal care, and nutraceutical industries. A chemical engineer by training, she spent nine years at ExxonMobil — including as a chemical engineer at the Joliet Refinery outside Chicago — before founding Hyfé during the pandemic. She is one of the California women founders recognized on the floor of the State Senate and Assembly.

🌱 Learn more at https://hyfe.tech/

The growth engine for women who mean business.

http://www.f5collective.com

0:00 Intro & Welcome

1:16 From Ecuador to Miami: "So It Was All Worth It"

1:58 Freshmen Don't Get Internships. I Do.

2:40 Joliet Refinery: Where Waste Clicked

3:38 What Hyfé Actually Does

4:01 The Rockefeller Lesson: Waste Is Expensive

5:02 Billions to Find the Oil, Then We Bury It

5:51 Why Food? Following the Sugar

7:10 The Pivot: Wastewater to Solid Waste

7:53 Freezing in the Dakotas

8:09 "What About These Piles of Beet Pulp?"

9:19 Telling the Board to Scrap Two Years

10:38 The Leap, and Her #1 Advice for Founders

11:09 Where the Name Hyfé Came From

11:55 Fix the Food, Not the Person

12:27 The Shame of Being Rebellious

12:54 "I Was Meant to Carve a New Path"

13:50 Read the Back of the Package

15:23 What's Next: Scaling in the Central Valley

17:20 "We're Small, We're Agile, We Follow No Rules"

18:19 What Not Decompressing Cost Her

19:47 The Business Minute

20:27 Get Your EQ to Executive Skill

21:09 Rapid Five

21:44 Beating Imposter Syndrome

22:36 Candy, Dogs, and Goodbyes

Manette McDermott didn't set out to build a food company — she set out to stop her own pain. After eliminating refined sugar reversed her chronic back, hip, and joint pain, this PhD linguist turned the same curiosity she once aimed at how children learn language toward a new question: how do we learn to listen to the language of the gut? The answer became muun chi (pronounced "moon chi") — a Los Angeles maker of 100% organic, raw, plant-based functional foods built on upcycled ingredients and a closed-loop, zero-waste kitchen.

In this episode, Manette shares:

✨ Why she studies "the language of the gut" the way she once studied the brain

✨ "Listen to the whisper before it screams" — her case for prevention over sick-care

✨ Quitting sugar for one week and reversing years of pain

✨ Discovering that food waste is the #1 landfill — and turning juice pulp and peels into food

✨ How a closed-loop kitchen turns coconut kefir into cheeses, kvass, crackers, and kimchi

✨ Why she turned down Erewhon rather than add sugar to her products

✨ Eastern and Western medicine, the microbiome, and food as medicine

✨ Why America never developed its own fermented food — and why that matters

✨ Building a community business on word of mouth instead of marketing

✨ Her Biz Fit Minute: purpose, intention, and solving the right problem

✨ What she wishes she'd known: you don't have to be perfect

About Manette McDermott: Manette is the founder and creator of muun chi. A first-generation daughter of Chinese immigrants, she holds a BA from Williams College and a PhD in Linguistics from Brown University, and is a certified Health & Wellness Coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. Drawing on both Eastern and Western medicine, she crafts real, functional foods designed to nurture the gut — and the planet. muun chi is a proud member of the Upcycled Food Association.

🌱 Learn more at https://www.muunchi.com/

The growth engine for women who mean business.

http://www.f5collective.com

0:00 Cold Open: "I Had to Turn Them Down"

0:44 Welcome & Meet Manette

1:28 Immigrant Daughter to Linguistics PhD

4:45 From the Language of the Brain to the Gut

6:41 The No-Sugar Week That Changed Everything

8:40 Discovering Upcycling & Food Waste

11:49 The Closed-Loop Kitchen & Staying On Mission

13:00 Regenerative Farming & Why It's Called Muun Chi

15:14 Losing Her Mom & the First Coconut Kefir

18:03 Reusable Jars & Building Community

20:08 Balancing Eastern & Western Medicine

22:18 Why Healthy Food Gets a Bad Rap

25:01 Why Processed Food Makes You Overeat

30:09 "Factory? Pause. Farm? Go For It."

36:48 Erewhon Wanted Sugar — She Said No

40:38 Relationships Over Transactions

42:50 Off Their Meds: Food as Medicine

52:24 The Truth About Probiotics

59:18 A Tour of the Products

1:05:27 Distribution & Regulation Hurdles

1:09:24 Biz Fit Minute: Purpose & the Right Problem

1:16:01 Founder Deep Dive: The $500K Question

1:23:10 Rapid Five

1:29:44 Where to Find Muun Chi

Iva Chen budgeted $250,000 to build out her first Panda Express at SFO. The final bill was $750,000. To cover the gap she took an SBA 7(a) loan, put a lien on her house, and signed over her life insurance policy. "I'm like, I hope this works out, because if it doesn't, I could be homeless."

Iva shares:

✨ Why the SBA 7(a) loan was harder than construction, permits, and everything else combined

✨ The $2 million-a-year sales floor most brands don't know exists before bidding on an airport

✨ What a Minimum Annual Guarantee really costs: $350,000 a year on a 724-square-foot space

✨ Why airport build-outs run about $2,500 a square foot with no collateral to borrow against

✨ The real reason that bottle of water costs $6

✨ Bringing Filipino cuisine to SFO and opening in the middle of a pandemic shutdown

✨ Renaming "chicken porridge" to "chicken rice soup" and watching sales change

✨ Indra Nooyi's advice that stuck with her for 20 years: decide what "good" means, then let go or outsource the rest

✨ Asking her daughter what being a good mom actually meant to her

✨ Her 10 rules for running your own business, including the "black box" test for what work is worth

✨ Why she ranked 4th out of 250 cadets at Fort Knox with her nails painted

✨ Living with imposter syndrome in a family business: "My dad might have opened the door, but I had to walk through it"

If you have ever been told to just follow your passion, this one adds the part nobody says out loud: know the number you have to hit before you take the swing.

About Iva Chen: Iva Chen is the Founder and CEO of Jetsetera Ventures, an ACDBE/DBE/MBE/WBE certified firm specializing in airport restaurant and retail concession development, operations, management, and consulting. She is also Managing Partner at Lady Luck Gourmet, home to Mama Go's Filipino Cuisine at SFO. A licensed CPA who began her career at Deloitte & Touche and spent a decade in corporate finance at CBS Paramount, Nestle USA, and The Capital Group, Iva is a UC Santa Barbara graduate and a Riordan Fellow. She currently works with a portfolio of roughly ten brands looking to enter the airport space, and is writing her first book.

Learn more at https://jetseteraventures.com/

The growth engine for women who mean business.

http://www.f5collective.com

0:00 Cold Open: I Could Be Homeless

0:31 Welcome + Meet Iva Chen

1:19 CPA at Deloitte to Airport Concessions

5:11 Building Restaurants in China

6:35 Why Airports Are Nothing Like Street-Side

7:36 That's Why the Water Costs $6

8:09 Lady Luck Gourmet and the Goldilocks Bid

9:39 Grand Opening Set for March 2020

12:47 Chicken Porridge to Chicken Rice Soup

14:23 HMSHost, Starbucks and the Rise of Local Flavor

17:04 Rebranding to Jetsetera Ventures

19:06 How a Brand Gets Into an Airport

20:11 The $2 Million Rule

20:36 Minimum Annual Guarantee: $350,000 a Year

25:11 The Book: It Takes a Village, Where's Mine?

26:29 Indra Nooyi: Decide What Good Means, Then Let Go

27:59 Asking Her Daughter What a Good Mom Is

29:12 Building the Village

34:13 I Don't Like Being Comfortable

34:35 Fort Knox With My Nails Painted

38:12 Be Scrappy: The Black Box Test

41:10 Budgeted $250K, Came In at $750K

41:44 The SBA 7(a): A Lien on the House

44:45 Get Money Before You Need It

46:37 Imposter Syndrome in a Family Business

49:30 What She Looks For in a Brand

51:39 Advice When You Can't Afford Help Yet

53:43 You Have to Be a Village, Too

56:07 Give Yourself Grace

Caroline Turnbull had a 99% recovery score, a half marathon under her belt, and a body that could barely get out of bed. The wearable said she was thriving. She'd been ignoring what her body was telling her for nine months. That gap — between the data and the human — is why she built Mobius, a social fitness app with no leaderboards, no pace splits, and no follower counts.

Caroline shares:

✨ The question that pushed her out of construction: "If someone launched this company in two years, would I be pissed?"

✨ How obsessing over her wearable cost her the mind-body connection

✨ Peak metrics, severe anemia, and what her body was saying underneath

✨ Why immediacy gets results and then burns you out

✨ Taking metrics out of fitness and bringing community in

✨ Why comments on Mobius are private — and what that fixes

✨ Tearing ACLs, and the family case study that came out of it

✨ Knock knees, weak outer hips, and why women tear ACLs more often

✨ "All movement counts" — the dishwasher, the move-out, the walk to work

✨ Why "locking in" locks everything else out

✨ The resilience conversation nobody has: why you got knocked down

✨ What she'd do with $500,000 (and why it's all marketing)

✨ The financial reality of founding: you don't pay yourself

✨ Why she went looking for outside capital at almost 500 users

✨ Why investors need to see your delusion, not just your traction

Whether you're building a company, rebuilding a routine, or quietly burning out inside a target you set for yourself, Caroline makes the case for consistency over intensity — in business and in your body.

About Caroline Turnbull: Caroline is Co-Founder and CEO of Mobius, the social fitness app built around community instead of metrics. A former Division I field hockey player and a civil and environmental engineer by training, she is also a certified personal trainer, a yoga teacher with 200- and 300-hour trainings, and a software engineer. She built Mobius with Co-Founder and CTO Julia Suozzi, a software engineer and personal trainer who believes walks count too.

📲 Download Mobius and learn more at https://mobiusfit.app/

The growth engine for women who mean business.

http://www.f5collective.com

0:00 Cold Open: Would I Be Pissed?

0:22 Meet Caroline Turnbull & Mobius

1:27 New Jersey, Field Hockey & D1 at Lafayette

2:06 The Gap Year That Became Yoga Teacher Training

4:25 From Construction to Software Engineering

6:39 Three Sisters, Six Surgeries, One Case Study

9:37 Knock Knees & Why Women Tear ACLs More

12:28 The Desk Moment That Started Mobius

14:13 Just Get Started. You'll Learn on the Way.

14:44 What Mobius Actually Is

15:34 Fitness Isn't Immediate. It's Consistency.

18:25 Obsessed With the Data: Life on the Wearable

19:22 99% Recovery Score and Severely Anemic

23:23 mobi pods: The Dishwasher Counts

25:00 Pushback From the Grind Crowd

27:45 Nobody Asks Why You Got Knocked Down

29:52 Morning Routine: No Phone, Bone Broth, Journal

32:10 Wall Pilates, GLP-1s & Fitness Trends

37:39 Why Locking In Locks Everything Out

40:32 Taking the Leap: Freedom and Choice

42:53 Founder Deep Dive: The $500,000 Question

44:48 The Reality Nobody Talks About: You Don't Pay Yourself

46:13 Raising Capital at Almost 500 Users

47:21 Founder Highs, Founder Lows & Legally Blonde

51:27 Business Minute: You Need a Level of Delusion

53:47 Rapid Five

Sarah Walsh has been a working artist since 2001 — Hallmark Cards, over 20 picture books, a fully illustrated Matilda — and she still says the hardest part isn't the client work. It's protecting the work that's actually yours. "Not working on projects that mean the world to you, over time it's sort of a betrayal of yourself. Every yes is time taken away from what you should be doing."

In this episode, Sarah shares:

✨ Why every "yes" to the wrong project is a betrayal of yourself

✨ "If you don't take a break, you're gonna break"

✨ The banana theory of over-researching your next move

✨ Why it's more risky to be safe than to leap

✨ Leaving a 13-year job at Hallmark after signing with agent Lilla Rogers

✨ How a horse meme and a bad night on the floor became a graphic novel

✨ Building your own external deadlines to finish personal work

✨ Why she skipped the pitch and just printed the zine herself

✨ Landing a literary agent from a self-published zine

✨ Zines, gatekeeping, and why a pen and a photocopy is enough

✨ Running Tigersheep Friends with her partner Colin

✨ Buying a Riso printer, naming her Aunt Ruby, and going all-in

✨ Wholesale, Patreon, and building a business that forces you to make

✨ Where the name Tigersheep Friends actually came from

✨ Why what you loved as a kid is the best part of you

If you've ever taken on too much, waited for permission, or shelved the project you actually care about, this one's for you.

About Sarah Walsh: Sarah Walsh is a maker of books and illustrated goods based in Kansas City. She has illustrated over 20 picture books and worked with Simon & Schuster, PBS, Penguin Random House, Chronicle, Blue Q, The Guardian and Crate & Barrel, including a fully illustrated edition of Roald Dahl's Matilda. She runs the small-batch illustration shop Tigersheep Friends with her partner and fellow illustrator Colin Walsh, and a monthly Riso print club and SLOMO drawing club through Patreon.

🎨 See her work at https://www.sarahwalshmakesthings.com/

🐯 Shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/Tigersheepfriends

The growth engine for women who mean business.

http://www.f5collective.com

0:00 Cold Open: Every Yes Is Time Taken Away

1:11 Working Artist Since 2001

3:23 Thirteen Years at Hallmark Cards

4:26 Lilla Rogers and Quitting the Cushy Job

5:24 How Storytelling Became the Thread

9:04 Getting Into Books

9:58 Love the Bricks You're Building With

11:15 Cracking the Author-Illustrator Voice

12:01 Zines, No Rules, and No Gatekeeping

16:21 "I Don't Balance" — The Honest Answer

17:25 Burnout and the Rusted Old Jalopy

21:09 If You Don't Take a Break, You're Gonna Break

22:25 Leaving Corporate and Facing Clients

23:21 We're Trained Not to Trust Our Intuition

23:51 The Banana Theory of Over-Researching

25:41 It's More Risky to Be Safe

27:35 Burned Out and Lost in the Sauce

28:26 The Horse Meme That Became a Book

30:45 Skipping the Pitch: "I Just Want to Make It"

31:35 Building Your Own Deadlines — and Getting an Agent

34:44 What You Loved as a Kid Is the Best Part of You

37:44 Where "Tigersheep Friends" Came From

42:10 Running the Shop and the Risograph Leap

44:06 Meet Aunt Ruby, the Riso Printer

45:26 Faire, Wholesale, Patreon and the Mail Club

49:31 Business Minute: Five Things You Need to Know

52:25 Rapid Five

56:39 Wrap-Up

Wani Iris Manly, Esq. is an award-winning keynote speaker, internationally recognized change expert, and corporate trainer — and the founder of House of Inspirational Business in Paris. A corporate and IP attorney for over two decades and a serial entrepreneur, Wani famously moved to Paris in 2012 with no contacts, not one word of French, and less than $500 to her name — a leap that led to a TEDx stage, a bestselling book, and a global speaking career. In this episode she gets refreshingly honest about money, burnout, resilience, and why real change starts on the inside.

Wani shares:

✨ Why it's not the money — it's your nervous system

✨ The truth nobody admits: business is hard at every stage

✨ Why "rest is productive and highly profitable"

✨ Selling everything to move to Paris with no plan and no French

✨ How to stop telling yourself change is "hard" and "scary"

✨ Why we don't resist change — we fear loss

✨ Registering your IP before you make a dime (and why "you're not too small")

✨ Protecting your brain first, then licensing your work to monetize it

✨ Bootstrapping three companies and building every one to sell

✨ Her 24-hour rule for handling money differently

✨ Why stillness is your competitive edge in the age of AI

✨ "Not working is not an option" — resilience with no trust fund to fall back on

Whether you're a founder fighting burnout, a creative sitting on unprotected IP, or someone who feels stuck in survival mode, Wani's story is proof that the life you really want starts with changing how you see change.

About Wani Iris Manly: Wani Iris Manly, Esq. is a keynote speaker, change expert, corporate trainer, IP attorney, and bestselling author of Get Out of Survival Mode and Live the Life You Really Want. Based between Houston and Paris, she helps individuals and organizations thrive through change.

🌍 Learn more at https://wanimanly.com/

The growth engine for women who mean business.

http://www.f5collective.com

0:00 It's Not the Money, It's Your Nervous System

0:27 Welcome & Meet Wani Iris Manly

1:11 Five Countries & West African Roots

2:00 "I Just Want to Be Happy"

2:43 Groomed for Law: A Childhood in Liberia

4:29 Why IP Law: The Coca-Cola Professor

7:08 "You're in Business Because of Your Brain"

8:14 Where Inspiration Meets Law

11:02 Leaving the "Shark" & Going Solo

12:23 The Spiritual Turning Point

14:12 Survival Mode & the New Year's Eve Ritual

15:45 Following the Signs to Paris

16:20 Writing Her First Book in 30 Days

18:33 From Lawyer to Speaker in Paris

21:51 Resilience: "Not Working Is Not an Option"

23:08 The Ralph Lauren "Download"

25:09 Six Years Later: An Offer to Buy the Business

27:53 Helping People Through the Fear of Change

32:19 Four More Books & a Paris Photo Project

34:43 Founder Deep Dive: The $500K Question

36:59 The Financial Reality Nobody Talks About

38:21 Bootstrapping & Building to Sell

41:22 Business Minute: Register Your IP Early

42:57 Slow Down to Go Faster

43:39 Rapid Five

47:15 Wrap-Up & Wani's Gift for Listeners

Wanata Parker has spent over 30 years in the beauty industry — and became the first stylist to bring Japanese Straightening (thermal reconditioning) to African American hair, at a time when everyone said it couldn't be done. From New York to Washington, D.C. to Beverly Hills, she built a nationally recognized reputation entirely on word of mouth, with clients who've stayed in her chair for 20+ years. Today she runs Hair by Wanata Studio inside Salon Republic in Beverly Hills — and in recent years has taken her gift on mission trips to Tanzania and South Africa, helping women and girls reconnect with their own beauty and worth.

In this episode, Wanata shares:

✨ Why "I don't like the word can't" became the foundation of her career

✨ Pioneering Japanese Straightening on African American hair

✨ Being told she'd "never be anything in this business" — and outlasting it

✨ Her one-word prayer the year she went out on her own: "jump"

✨ Why she built a 30-year brand with zero advertising

✨ Vulnerability, trust, and "the vault" — why clients tell her everything

✨ Her superpower: customizing by intuition, not formula

✨ "My gift is to be given away" — an abundance approach to business

✨ Bringing beauty and confidence to women on mission trips in Africa

✨ Why she'll never retire — and how she refills her own tank

Whether you're a solo founder, a service-based business owner, or a woman who's been told "no," Wanata's story is proof that knowing who you are — and doing one thing exceptionally well — is a brand that lasts.

🔗 Learn more at https://www.hairbywanata.com/

The growth engine for women who mean business.

http://www.f5collective.com

0:00 Retire? Never (Cold Open)

0:41 Meet Wanata Parker

1:41 From New York to Losing Her Job

3:36 "Do You Know Your Purpose?" Restaurant or Hair

4:34 The Phone Book That Kept Opening to One School

5:48 Starting Over as an Assistant in L.A.

8:36 "I Don't Like the Word Can't"

9:41 First to Bring Japanese Straightening to African American Hair

10:48 "You'll Never Be Anything in This Business"

11:53 Losing Her Mentor & Leaving a Toxic Salon

13:07 "I'm Not Chasing Fame or Money"

15:28 Why Vulnerability Builds Trust

20:13 Integrity & the Sacred Space of the Chair

22:55 "Getting to Know You Through Your Hair"

24:46 Becoming a Brand & the Leap to Her Own Space

31:34 Taking Her Gift to Africa

33:27 South Africa: Making Women Feel Heard

38:30 A Safe Space: "It Goes Into the Vault"

45:08 Her Superpower: Customizing by Intuition

47:06 "My Gift Is to Be Given Away" & Word of Mouth

49:47 "I Can Rest When I'm Dead"

55:25 The Golden Angel: A Sign She Was Home

57:27 Business Minute

59:30 Rapid Five

1:07:02 Closing

What does it take to leave a stable corporate career and bet everything on your own creative business? Editor Heather Romanowski spent ten years in technical editing before burnout — and profound loss — pushed her to take the leap. Today she's the founder behind Book Realm Revisions, helping authors, publishers, and game creators turn rough drafts into stories they're proud of.

In this episode, Heather shares:

✨ Why losing two cousins to cancer became the catalyst to finally bet on herself

✨ "Adapt or die" — her honest, principled stance on AI in creative work

✨ Why she refuses to feed a single client's manuscript to generative AI

✨ The feast-and-famine cycle no one warns freelancers about

✨ Developmental vs. line vs. copy editing — explained simply

✨ How self-publishing is getting more stories told that need telling

✨ Leading with kindness as a business strategy

✨ Setting (and sometimes bending) boundaries as a solo founder

✨ Using AI ethically — and how to shrink its footprint

✨ Keeping your childlike wonder alive while you build

Whether you're an author, a freelancer, or any woman building something of her own, Heather's story is a grounded, honest look at what it actually takes to go all in.

About Heather Romanowski: Heather is an editor and the founder behind Book Realm Revisions, specializing in developmental, line, and copy editing for fiction, nonfiction, and gaming. A lifelong reader, gamer, and self-described second-generation nerd based in Michigan, she helps writers and worldbuilders craft compelling, polished stories.

📚 Learn more at https://www.bookrealmrevisions.com/

RELATED READING — More on the AI conversation in this episode:

Heather talks about finding the middle ground on AI and why choosing not to use it can be a valid, principled call. Two pieces from Right Touch Editing pick up exactly those threads:

📖 "AI Isn't All or Nothing—Let's Talk About It" by Erin Brenner — a practical look at how editors can move past both fear and blind trust:

https://www.righttouchediting.com/2026/04/23/ai-isnt-all-or-nothing-lets-talk-about-it/

📖 "AI Isn't for Everyone—And That's Okay" by Sean Brenner & Erin Brenner — why opting out isn't the career-ending choice it's sometimes made out to be:

https://www.righttouchediting.com/2026/05/14/ai-isnt-for-everyone-and-thats-okay/

The growth engine for women who mean business.

http://www.f5collective.com

3:19 The Book That Started It All

4:43 From Reading to Editing

9:04 The First Fiction Edit That Hooked Her

12:35 Building the Business & Why First Clients Matter

13:45 Copy, Line & Developmental Editing, Explained

17:53 Taking the Leap After Loss

28:34 Editing What You Love: Sci-Fi & Fantasy

32:44 World-Building 101

36:14 Standalone Books vs. Series

38:09 Collaborating With Authors

48:46 Editing Games, War Games & Cookbooks

53:06 The AI Conversation: Adapt or Die

55:41 Why She Won't Feed Client Work to AI

56:50 Using AI Ethically — and Its Real Cost

1:03:56 Publishing: Independent, Hybrid & Traditional

1:07:37 When Self-Published Authors Get Picked Up

1:09:28 On the Horizon: Elder Glade & Story Stream

Joanna Wiesinger spent years as a PhD inorganic chemist — until life forced a different question. After the loss of her first son and years at home with her three children, she came back to the workplace to find her resume no longer fit who she had become. "Chemistry no longer held my heart. People did."

Today she's the founder of Thrive With Strengths and a Gallup-Certified Clifton Strengths Coach who helps executive leaders build high-performing teams in 3–6 months. Her philosophy is built on one quietly radical idea: "At the heart of science is fixing the problem. At the heart of leading people is not fixing them."

In this episode, Joanna shares:

✨ The "audible exhale" moment when she discovered her strengths

✨ Why "be more empathetic" is useless feedback — and what actually works

✨ The three leadership myths she fell for (and so do most founders)

✨ The $7 Amazon timer that saved her business from perfectionism

✨ Driver vs. passenger: the difference between leaders and managers

✨ Why "well-rounded leader" is a myth that's costing you

✨ How to recognize people in a way that's actually a lever for results

✨ The five rules to thrive (not just survive) when scaling

✨ Why if your business only works when you show up, you don't have a business — you have a job

✨ Move faster than you feel ready: perfection is expensive

Whether you're leading a team, building a business, or staring at a resume that doesn't fit anymore, Joanna's story is a roadmap for what happens when you stop fixing yourself and start leading from what's already strong.

About Joanna Wiesinger: Joanna is the founder of Thrive With Strengths, a Gallup-Certified Clifton Strengths Coach, speaker, and leadership development expert. She holds a PhD in inorganic chemistry and has spent the last decade helping leaders and teams at companies like Thomson Reuters and Farmer Brothers build strengths-based cultures that reduce friction and improve results.

🌟 Learn more at https://www.thrivewithstrengths.com/

The growth engine for women who mean business.

http://www.f5collective.com

0:00 "At the Heart of Leading People Is Not Fixing Them"

0:12 Welcome + Meet Joanna Wiesinger

1:40 From Poland to the U.S. at 16: Chemistry as a Universal Language

3:24 From Chemist to Coach: What Sparked the Pivot

4:44 When Your Resume No Longer Fits: The Clifton Strengths Exhale

6:00 Getting Certified & Launching Thrive With Strengths

7:42 The Hardest Part of Entrepreneurship: Nowhere to Hide

8:50 Falling for the "Well-Rounded Leader" Myth

10:19 Science Fixes Problems; Leading People Doesn't

14:20 Why "Be More Empathetic" Is Useless Feedback

16:26 Going With the Grain: What Strengths-Based Leadership Really Is

17:58 Strengths as a Business Strategy (75% vs. 9% Engagement)

19:11 Her Process: Lead Yourself, Lead Others, Lead the Business

21:43 Leadership vs. Management

24:59 10 Years In — and Why She's No One-Woman Team

26:59 The Three Leadership Myths She Fell For

29:30 When Strengths Backfire: The Maximizer Trap

37:34 The Real Challenge: Resistance to Being Assessed

40:57 Making Your Leadership Style Explicit

44:05 What's Next for Thrive With Strengths

48:01 Recognition as a Lever for Results

52:22 The Overlooked Reality: Know Your Numbers

53:51 Taking the Leap With Almost No Capital

55:48 Fear of Failure & Why the Best Leaders Fail Fast

1:02:34 Playfulness, Twix Bars & Final Favorites