High Five Success Stories

I am beyond excited and honored to share my podcast with my friend Ariel Okin, founder of Ariel Okin Interiors. Ariel’s New York-based, full-service interior design firm specializes in luxury residential, commercial and hospitality projects across the country.

She is based in West Chester, NY where she resides with her husband and 2 beautiful daughters. Ariel has had an incredible amount of success since launching her firm in 2016 and she handles it with the utmost humility - to the point where she probably wouldn’t tell you that she has been featured in renowned publications such as Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, House Beautiful, Domino, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine, among others.

In 2022, she was recognized as one of House Beautiful Next Wave Designers, an exclusive list of the top interior design talent in the country. She has also worked on some pretty cool projects such as Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP NYC headquarters. Her firm has also grown and evolved over the years – she has launched multiple capsule collections, including wallpaper lines with Chasing Paper and The Mural Source, accessories with One Kings Lane, and most recently, a lighting line with Mitzi.

In 2020 she launched Fenimore Lane – an editorial and e-commerce site which is a collection of interior design inspiration, interviews and a shop focused on all things home and lifestyle. And as part of Fenimore Lane, In 2023 she launched her 1 st podcast called Talk Shop with Ariel – which you should definitely check out – I have listened to every single interview and I LOVE it – I not only learn more about interior design industry but also leave every conversation feeling inspired!

And finally, Ariel is in the process of writing her first book – she just signed a book deal with Rizzoli. Ariel is beyond inspiring and I am so excited for you to hear her story! please enjoy!

Links:

Fenimore Lane: https://www.fenimorelane.com/

Ariel’s Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/arielokin/?hl=en

I am super excited to share my conversation with my first mother-daughter duo Megan & Bailey Gorelick of Megan Gorelick Interiors! MGI is a full-service interior design firm with projects spanning the East Coast from studio apartments in NY to estate homes in Florida. They are often recognized for their coastal projects, especially in Avalon and Stone Harbor, NJ.

I have been following them on Instagram for a few years now and it is beyond impressive what they have built! My conversation with this dynamic mother-daughter duo is nothing short of fun (lots of laughs!), entertaining and informative!

Together, they do a fabulous job telling us how MGI has grown and evolved since Megan initially launched the business in 2008. We talk about the ups, the downs, and everything in between.

I left our conversation feeling inspired by their work ethic, success, and positivity toward life and I know you will too!

Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/megangorelickinteriors/?hl=en

I am so excited to share my conversation with Maggie Gavigan, the founder of the jewelry brand Mignonne Gavigan.

My favorite part about Maggie is her kindness and humility – two traits which I believe have made Maggie so successful. Over the past 9 years, her jewelry has been showcased in 250 stores and she has been featured in several different well-known publications including Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, Oprah Magazine, Forbes, Elle & The Knot to name a few.

But just like every entrepreneurial story, it took an incredible amount of grit and perseverance to get to where Maggie is today. In our conversation, we start at the very beginning – Maggie tells us about her childhood growing up in North Carolina with her parents and 3 brothers and how she early on was introduced to her creative side. Maggie then went onto UNC-Chapel Hill, Parsons in Paris and finished up at Parsons in NYC.

For her first 10 years out of school, Maggie worked at several fashion companies including Rachel Roy and Loeffler Randall to name a few. In 2007, by happenstance, she was experimenting with a beaded couture vintage gown and an embellished piece of fabric fell to the floor. She picked it up and fastened it around her neck as a cool scarf. On her walk home from work, she was stopped by several people inquiring her about the scarf.  Slowly but surely she experienced a demand for her scarf necklaces.

While working fulltime at her day job, she started to make and sell scarf necklaces on the side. Finally, in 2014, she decided to launch her own jewelry brand Mignonne Gavigan (MG). Over the past 9 years, Maggie has worked tremendously hard to make MG what it is today.

We talk about the setbacks, milestones and everything in-between. Please enjoy!

I am excited my podcast with my sister Patrice Hayden Meagher - the founder and CEO of MilkMate! We touch on the ups, the downs and everything in between!

We start at the very beginning by having Patrice tell us about her upbringings in the Philadelphia suburbs and the influence our parents had on shaping her into the person she is today. Patrice then takes us on her career journey prior to MilkMate which included 3 years in the non-profit industry followed by almost 15 years in the commercial real estate industry. During these years, she also met and married her now-husband Mike, moved to New York City followed by the suburbs of New York, and had 4 children.

But most importantly, we touch on how Patrice juggled being a full-time working mom one at of the top leasing teams in Manhattan at CBRE. One of the major pain points she experienced was how to manage breast pumping in the workplace when returning to work after maternity leave. It was the single most inefficient thing she did as a working mom and she knew there had to be a way to make it easier. This inspired Patrice to invent the MilkMate - an all-in-one breast pumping solution providing working moms with everything they need to successfully pump at work. Since launch, they have had a couple major milestones including closing on a $5M series seed round in January and receiving FDA approval in March, which allows them to officially sell the MilkMate! To learn more about the MilkMate product, be sure to visit their website www.milkmate.com or follow them on social media: Instagram: @milkmateinc LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/themilkmate/

I also wanted to give a shout-out to our sponsor who is another female entrepreneur and working mom, Maureen Sullivan (Patrice’s sister-in-law!). Mo, as her friends and family call her, is taking the residential real estate business by storm. Named the “Rising Star of 2023” for the Connecticut region, she is proving to have an incredible ability of finding deals for her clients in one of the most competitive markets in history. Part of a global network, Mo can help you with your real estate needs no matter where you live. Follow her @mosullivanrealty on Instagram or visit her website at [email protected]

I am so super excited to share my most recent podcast with Lindsey Johnson, co-founder and CEO of one of my most favorite brands - Weezie Towels. Lindsey tells us the story of how she and her co-founder Liz built Weezie Towels into one of the fastest growing luxury towel brands and has won the support and like from people like Gwentyth Paltrow and Reese Witherspoon.

But just like any start up story, it took an incredible amount of hard work, grit and perseverance to get to where they are today. In our conversation, we start at the very beginning where Lindsey tells us about her career in the financial industry in NYC where she was on track to end up in venture capital. However, while at Columbia Business School, her best friend Liz approached her about starting a towel company. Lindsey was skeptical at first but after a year and half of customer research and product development, Lindsey agreed with Liz that there was a hole in the market.

They officially launched Weezie Towels in 2018 and were off to the races. Fast forward almost 5 years, they have hit several major milestones such as opening their first brick and mortar in Atlanta, growing their team to 60 people and expanding into other products such as bath robes, baby towels, and beach towels. I can’t wait for you all to learn more about their inspiring story. And before we dive into the interview, Lindsey was kind enough to provide the listeners with a 15% discount off weezie towel purchases – you can use the code HighFive15

I am super excited to share my podcast with life-long friend Caroline Fenkel! Fun fact – Caroline was my 5th guest on the podcast over 5 years ago and it was one of the most downloaded episodes! Caroline (34) became sober 15 years ago and since then has made a tremendous impact in the recovery industry. Simultaneously, she also earned her master’s degree from Bryn Mawr College and later earned her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Over the course of her career, Caroline has worked at several national credible companies, such as Newport Academy, where they offered l lifesaving treatment for adolescents. However there was one issue that slowly began to frustrate her: 93% of the adolescent population do not have access to high acuity care – it was impossible to reach everyone that needed help when running brick and mortar facilities. There are major limitations such as insurance, transportation, limited beds, and financial barriers. As a solution, Caroline co-founded Charlie Health with Carter Barnhart and Justin Weiss over two years ago. Today they are the largest provider of virtual IOP (intensive outpatient) programs for teens, young adults, and families navigating mental health challenges. They are immediately accessible to any adolescent in need of help, given that they are virtual and accept both commercial insurance and Medicaid so that finances aren’t a barrier. In addition, what separates Charlie Health from your traditional brick and mortar facilities is that rather than group patients together based on their physical location, Charlie Health customizes comprehensive treatment plans by carefully matching patients in groups of peers with similar backgrounds, preferences, and needs. It has been incredible to watch the company expand and disrupt the mental health industry.

Link to Charlie Health website: https://www.charliehealth.com/

After a little hiatus, my podcast is back! I am super excited to share my conversation with Brad Ingelsby – an American screenwriter and film producer from right outside of  Philadelphia! Many people may be familiar with his recent success with HBO hit show Mare of Easttown which was nominated for 16 Emmys.

Johnno tells us about both his setbacks and awesome comebacks, such as his role on Disney’s hit show Raven’s Home, getting called out to two Saturday Night Live auditions, and upcoming Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes this fall!

Tony Maginnis: CEO of Global Packaging, where they design and manufacture health and personal hygiene products, household products, food (fresh, frozen, snacks, baked goods), paper goods, pet food and more.

Gwenn founded Mother Compost in 2018 with the goal of making composting simple and easy for her fellow Philadelphia Mainline residents. For those of you not familiar with what composting is, it is the next evolution of recycling.