What happens when investing in an entrepreneur means investing in an entire community?

In this episode of Healed & Chilled, I sit down with Shannan Herbert, CEO of Washington Area Community Investment Fund (WACIF), to talk about entrepreneurship, leadership, access to capital, and what it really means to create opportunity.

With more than 25 years of experience across banking, community development finance, fintech, and nonprofit leadership, Shannan has dedicated her career to expanding economic opportunity and strengthening the systems that help entrepreneurs thrive. Before joining WACIF, she served as Executive Vice President of Inclusive Credit at Stratyfy and Chief Credit Officer at City First Bank, where she helped lead the deployment of more than $100 million in capital to under-invested communities.

But this conversation goes beyond titles and accomplishments.

Shannan is someone I genuinely consider a pillar of the community. Her willingness to share knowledge, make connections, and pour into others is a powerful reminder that leadership isn't just about what you accomplish. It's also about how you help other people move forward.

We talk about what happens when business, finance, innovation, and community impact intersect, why entrepreneurs need more than just money to succeed, and how investing in one business can create a ripple effect that reaches families, employees, and entire communities.

Because entrepreneurship doesn't happen in a vacuum.

If you're interested in entrepreneurship, leadership, community development, access to capital, or simply learning from someone committed to creating meaningful impact, this is a conversation you won't want to miss.

https://wacif.org/

https://www.instagram.com/ceoshannanherbert

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannan-herbert-5b6863/

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About the Host - Coach Yana

Coach Yana is an educator, coach, speaker, and creator of interactive learning experiences designed to help children, young adults, parents, and communities navigate real life with greater confidence, connection, and practical life skills.

Through The Laptop Life Coach, Coach Yana creates interactive workshops, speaking experiences, and school field trips that turn important life lessons into experiences people can actually participate in. Her work explores topics including entrepreneurship, communication, decision-making, parenting, confidence, leadership, life skills, and navigating major life transitions.

Her interactive experiences include The Entrepreneurial Mindset Experience, The Life Skills Decision Game, The Mom Shift, Roblox & Minecraft: Helping Parents Keep Kids Safe, The Foundation, and Freshman 15, with programming designed for students, young adults, parents, families, schools, colleges, and organizations.

Coach Yana also provides personalized coaching and mentorship for young people as they navigate important milestones and transitions.

She is the host of Healed and Chilled, a podcast centered around honest conversations, real experiences, and giving guests the space to tell their stories in their own words.

Whether she is leading a workshop, creating a school experience, coaching a young person, or sitting down with a podcast guest, Coach Yana's goal is to create spaces where people can learn, reflect, grow, and see themselves differently.

Explore Coach Yana's interactive experiences: The Laptop Life Coach | Interactive Experiences

In this episode, Coach Yana speaks with with Sandra, an experienced program manager and cohort builder who has spent more than five years creating experiences that foster community, leadership, and problem-solving among social entrepreneurs and leaders.

Sandra shares insights from her work supporting social entrepreneurs through leadership development, summits, coaching, and community-building. Together, they explore the importance of storytelling, entrepreneurship, and having the right conversations when resources are limited. Sandra also discusses how she helps leaders think through challenges, build capacity, and find creative, solution-oriented ways to move forward.

Drawing from her experience at SEED SPOT and The Global Good Fund, as well as her work with the Center for Civic Education, Sandra brings a thoughtful perspective on leadership, social impact, and what it really means to create spaces where people feel supported and empowered.

Tune in for a conversation about community, purpose, problem-solving, and the power of meaningful connection.

https://www.instagram.com/sandiestyles/ 

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-waithaka-36529596/

What does it really take to become visible—not just online, but in your life, your business, and your purpose?

In this empowering episode of Healed and Chilled, Coach Yana sits down with Christina Vidovich, professional ballroom dancer turned media producer, visibility strategist, and founder of Women Getting Visible, the global leader in visibility conferences for women.

Together, they explore why visibility begins long before you ever step onto a stage or hit "publish." Christina shares how confidence is built from the inside out, why so many talented women struggle to be seen, and how clarity, community, and courage can transform both your personal and professional life.

From masterminds and retreats to international speaking opportunities, Christina has helped countless women find their voice and confidently share their message with the world. This conversation is filled with practical wisdom, encouragement, and reminders that your story deserves to be heard.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, leader, creative, or someone who's been waiting for permission to shine, this episode will inspire you to stop hiding and start showing up with confidence.

⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinavidovich/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/womengettingvisible⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/christinavidovich/⁠⁠ 

Website ⁠https://womengettingvisible.com⁠

YouTube ⁠https://YouTube.com/@womengettingvisible⁠

Join WGV for 1 month free to start your visibility journey with Visibility Accountability Group: ⁠https://www.womengettingvisible.com/accountability/⁠

What would it look like if the communities that have been left out of traditional wealth building actually owned the institutions serving them? That is the question at the heart of everything John Holdsclaw IV does. As the president and CEO of Rochdale Capital and executive vice president and chief policy officer at the National Cooperative Bank, John has spent his career at the intersection of community development finance, cooperative principles, and economic justice, with a specific focus on under-resourced communities owned and led by women and minorities.

In this episode of Healed and Chilled, John takes us through his journey and the lessons he has learned working at the highest levels of community development finance. He shares what cooperative economics really means in practice, why community ownership is one of the most powerful and underutilized tools for building generational wealth, and what it has taken to do this work at a national scale while staying rooted in the communities that matter most.

This is a conversation about money, mission, and what it really looks like to build from the inside out.

https://www.rochdalecapital.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-holdsclaw-iv/

What does it look like when technology meets purpose on a global scale? Chris Light has spent 25 years answering that question. As a serial entrepreneur, technologist, and innovator, Chris has taken his work in blockchain, AI, and Web3 far beyond the boardroom, all the way to the White House, U.S. embassies, and communities across Africa where access to food and resources hangs in the balance.

As the co-founder of E-Livestock Global, a blockchain-powered solution featured by both MIT and the London School of Economics, and used as an orientation case study for incoming Supply Chain Master's students at the University of Maryland's Smith Business School, Chris has built something that is not just innovative but genuinely life-changing.

In this episode, Chris takes us through his journey, from the classroom to the global stage, sharing the lessons he has learned building technology that carries real human stakes. He gets candid about what it took to keep going, what he wishes he had known earlier, and what he wants the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators to understand about building with purpose in a world that is moving faster than most people realize.

This is a conversation full of wisdom, perspective, and the kind of insight you can only earn by actually doing the work.

Social Media

Chris Light (@clighteastport) • Instagram photos and videos 
Christopher Light | LinkedIn 
Facebook   

Website

 https://elivestockglobal.com

Madia Brown has built a career most people only dream about. As the CEO, founder, and chief storytelling strategist of Brandire, she has grown her agency from a passion project into a seven-figure business named to the Inc. 5000 list, recognized as Small Business of the Year by the DC Chamber of Commerce, and named alongside the Washington Business Journal's 40 Under 40. Her client roster reads like a who's who, spanning major hospital systems, global consulting firms, more than 20 DC government agencies, and global beverage brands.

In this episode, Madia joins Healed and Chilled to talk about what it actually takes to build a brand that creates fierce loyalty rather than passive recognition, why cultural resonance matters more than ever for organizations trying to reach diverse audiences, and how her years as a visual journalist shaped the way she sees brand storytelling today. She also shares what is next for her with HelloBrand, a branding co-pilot built to bring strategic brand development within reach for startups, nonprofits, and small teams who need it most.

As a fellow member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., I loved getting to sit across from Madia and talk soror to soror about what it means to build with purpose.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to build something that lasts and scales at the same time, this conversation is full of answers.

Links:
Website: https://brandireagency.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brandireagency/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandireagency

Growth without infrastructure is just organized chaos. Lewis C. Powell has spent his career helping business owners fix that. As a business advisor, operator, and board-level leader, Lewis works with growth-stage companies to align strategy, systems, and execution so their business can actually hold the weight of its own expansion.

In this episode of Healed and Chilled, we get into what operational discipline really looks like for entrepreneurs who are serious about scaling, why the gap between strategy and execution is where most businesses quietly stall, and what founders need to put in place before growth becomes a liability instead of an asset. Lewis brings decades of hands-on operating experience and board-level governance to this conversation, and he delivers every insight with the kind of directness and clarity that leaves you ready to take action.

If you are building something and you want it to still be standing five years from now, this episode is for you. Connect with Lewis at lewiscpowell.com or find him on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/lewiscpowell.

Twenty years is a long time to do anything. But when you have spent two decades helping leaders build workplaces rooted in trust, respect, and cultural fluency, you start to see patterns that most people miss. In this episode, I sit down with Greta Franklin Okomo, founder and CEO of Collaborative Change Consulting, LLC, to talk about what it actually takes to lead with authenticity and create spaces where people genuinely feel seen and valued.

Greta has spent her career working with higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations, advancing multicultural leadership and inclusion from the inside out. She is a coach, a facilitator, a keynote speaker, and someone who delivers hard truths with warmth and clarity. We talk about what cultural fluency really means in practice, why so many leaders struggle to build trust on their teams, and what it looks like when women stop shrinking and start leading from a place of full authenticity.

This one is for every leader who wants to do better and every woman who is ready to stop waiting for permission to take up space.

Learn More - https://www.collaborativechangeconsulting.com/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretafokomo/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/collaborativechangeconsulting?igsh=eDBmOG85OHNib3c2

In this episode I am reading the second edition of The Executive Mom Project, my biweekly LinkedIn newsletter written for high achieving mothers raising children who are capable of more than the world has seen from them yet.

This edition is called 3 Ways Gaming Can Help Build Confidence in Your Child and it is one I am really excited about because it challenges something a lot of parents believe about screen time.

We are talking about Connection, Courage, Creativity, and what it actually looks like when a child finds all three inside a game they already love. Plus one simple thing you can do today that will build your child's confidence without them even realizing it.

If you have ever told your child to put the controller down, this one is for you.

Subscribe to the newsletter here

What does it look like when a marketing strategist, a community builder, and a former cheerleader are all the same person? You get Kristen Noelle, and you get Venture to Bloom. In this episode, Kristen joins Healed and Chilled to talk about what she has learned helping business owners figure out what makes them magnetic and then actually building content around it.

We talk about why so many founders overthink their content and underestimate their story, what it feels like to be in a room where everyone is showing up for themselves and each other on the same day, and how Kristen's years of living across three countries and five cities gave her a way of seeing people that most marketers never develop. She is the kind of person who will hype you up and tell you the truth in the same breath, and this conversation is proof of that.

If you have been waiting for the right moment to let people actually see you and what you do, Kristen is here to tell you the moment is already here. Her next Content Day is July 18th in Lanham, MD. You get three edited reels and ten headshots ready to go to work for your business from day one. Grab your spot at venturetobloom.com and connect with Kristen anytime you want to talk marketing, traveling, or your thoughts on The Traitors (she's obsessed).

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-noelle/  

VTB IG: https://instagram.com/venturetobloom 

Personal IG: http://instagram.com/getkrissed

Grab our free guide, 5 Videos Every Business Owner Needs: https://videosguide.netlify.app/