Freeman Means Business' Wonder Women in Business Podcast

Doug Ott is an executive coach, leadership trainer, facilitator and speaker. He leverages his more than three decades of business development and sales leadership experience to teach individuals and teams how to drive revenue growth. He provides leadership and business development consulting, one-on-one coaching, group coaching, practice group leadership skills development, strategic planning, workshops, and public speaking.

Monica Phillips is on a mission to create a world where everyone can go to work and be seen, heard, and valued with equity in pay and promotion. Monica is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach and a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation. She is president of Spark Plug Labs, is a motivational speaker, leadership coach, and strategic consultant. Her diverse background includes working as a mediator, a cross-cultural consultant, a journalist, a sales leader, and a marketing director. Her podcast – Powerful Conversations – features interviews with thought-leaders from across industries. She coaches high potential individuals and teams on leadership, business development, rainmaker habits, team culture, innovation and status quo, and heart-based leadership. She partners with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. She is currently in certification for yoga teacher training and likes to use tools of meditation and embodiment in her leadership coaching. She is a runner, yogi, mom, explorer and loves to find beauty and joy in daily life. Follow her on Twitter at @bodegabay1 or connect on LinkedIn or Facebook. A Bay Area native‚ she has also lived in France‚ Minnesota‚ New York‚ and Washington‚ DC.

Teresa D. Covello, Managing Partner of Wincott 87 Consulting is a Certified Public Accountant and financial expert. Supports public and pre-IPO companies with: CFO transition; staff assessment and augmentation; improving operating efficiency, systems, workflow, internal controls, and managing company-wide initiatives.

Robyn Frank, VP Diversity & General Counsel, is responsible for all legal matters at Centerforce. In addition, she is head of the Diversity division which includes speaker recruitment and on-site management of the Women in the Law Series. Before joining the company, Robyn spent 10 years as General Counsel at Great Eastern Energy, headquartered in Brooklyn, NY. There, she headed the legal and regulatory department, advising management on corporate structure, risk, resource allocation, new markets and business metrics. She received her B.A. in Social Sciences from the Ohio State University, her J.D. from the Washington College of Law at American University, and a Master's Degree in Energy Law from the University of Tulsa. She is a Member in Good Standing of the New York State Bar.

E. Keller "Kelly" Fitzsimmons is a serial tech entrepreneur, artist, and mother of two. She is the cofounder of Custom Reality Services, a virtual reality (VR) production company whose first two projects, Across the Line (2016) and Ashe ’68 (2019), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Keller is the recipient of the Silvertip PwC Entrepreneurship Award and Speech Technology’s Luminary Award. Her work has been published by Network Computing, InformationWeek, and Inc. An active angel investor, she serves on the technology committee for BELLE USA, a venture fund that invests in women-led startups. Originally trained as a classical archaeologist, Keller holds a master’s degree from Harvard University.

Michelle Tillis Lederman, one of Forbes Top 25 Networking Experts, is the author of four books including the internationally known, The 11 Laws of Likability, and the #1 new release The Connectors Advantage. Michelle is a connection creator and CEO of Executive Essentials, which provides customized communications and leadership programs for fortune 500, non-profit, university and government clients. A former finance executive and NYU Professor, Michelle is a regular in the media appearing on NBC, CBS, Fox, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, CNBC, and others. An accomplished speaker, trainer, author and coach, Michelle is known for helping people work better together and advance their individual impact.

Laraine McKinnon is founder of LMC17, a strategic consulting firm that blends behavioral science, big data and practical implementation ideas to address hard to solve problems. The firm currently focuses on HR initiatives that drive employee engagement: diversity & inclusion, key talent processes such as hiring, retention and promotion, talent development for under-served populations, and retirement readiness.

Laraine is also an Advisor and Talent & Culture Strategist for Emtrain, a CultureTech firm focused on creating healthy workplace cultures. Laraine guides progressive companies through initiatives for sexual harassment prevention, diversity, inclusion & belonging, and managing unconscious bias, and delivers data and insights on their unique workplace behavioral dynamics to help uncover blind spots and opportunities to create more respectful workplaces.

Prior to these roles, Laraine was a Managing Director at BlackRock where she worked with HR and Finance executives at Fortune 500 companies to optimize retirement readiness. Laraine specialized in using 401(k) plans to increase employee engagement, improve workforce management, and deliver better outcomes in retirement. She is the author of “Known: How to Create a Great 401(k)” and serves as an Advisor to Betterment for Business.

In a volunteer capacity, Laraine is President of The CLUB Silicon Valley, a diverse community of professionals helping women leaders accelerate their careers. She founded and runs the CLUB’s talent Incubator to help high-performing, high-potential women get around career roadblocks and become known for their expertise.

Laraine was named a Silicon Valley Business Times “Woman of Influence" in 2018 and holds a women's studies and political science degree from Wellesley College, and a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion for HR from Cornell University.

Listen to your life.

Those of you know know me, know I am deep in every definition of the word. Kierkegaard chose Christianity as his passionate commitment. His writings were simple and aphoristic to him but seductive and provocative to readers, like me. He rejected Hegel's notion that individuality is not important. He focused more on collectivism. I believe both are important. However, organized religion transfers what is highly personal into something purely institutional. Personally, I have a passionate commitment for finding the truth for which I live or die. 

In this vein, I have engaged in self-discovery and the practice of journaling for years now. Unfortunately, before I married Mike Futrell, I threw away all of my journals, thinking I should only focus on the future. As a more mature woman, I now know that our past hold great lessons and the future doesn't even exists -- what we have and can hold is only the present.

For years after our marriage I regretted throwing my journals away, However, I came across one journal that must have hidden itself away from certain doom. 

In my rediscovering this journal, I found it liberating and meaningful to re-read and ponder what transitions I have experienced since writing in it.

In this new decade, I am delighted to embrace new challenges, meet new people, go new places and do new things. I share with you here, a stream of consciousness and a bit of what was in this journal I rediscovered. You may not relate with any of what I wrote or recorded -- but you may. Some may think of it as silly ramblings, others, as deep introspections. I know it is the receiver who makes meaning of the message so enjoy -- or not.

Happy New Year. Namaste.

Susan

Vivian Santora is President & CEO at PowerPlay NYC, Inc. PowerPlay NYC advances the lives of girls through sports, helping them grow physically, emotionally and academically stronger. We build girls' confidence and resiliency by creating safe spaces where girls learn from one another and from strong female role models.

Heather Willems is the Co-Author of Draw Your Big Idea and visual strategist. She has made it her life work to help others gain Clarity Through Creativity™. As an artist, graphic facilitator, and mentor, Heather helps top executives operate more efficiently using visuals as a tool for unlocking solutions to their toughest challenges. Building on her experience as co-founder of ImageThink, she visualizes the most important ideas of some of the world’s most influential companies by creating long-lasting records of ideas in an engaging, memorable way.