On The Map

Your host, Lee Caraher, talks with Jen Marples. Jena is the champion for midlife women; she's a life and business coach, activist dedicated to women’s empowerment, podcaster, and motivational speaker. After 25 years in public relations and marketing, Jen realized her passion for helping you, the midlife woman, achieve success in life and business.

To learn more about Jen's work, visit https://www.jenmarples.com/

If you'd like to be a guest on On The Map, click HERE

Your host, Lee Caraher, talks with Kelly Berry of Learn Start Grow. Kelly is passionate about helping small business owners find ways to start or grow their businesses with entrepreneurial advice and guidance.

To learn more about Kelly's work, visit https://learnstartgrow.com/

If you'd like to be a guest on On The Map, click HERE

Your host, Lee Caraher, talks with Dan Stevens of BlissBomb. BlissBomb set out to make a better donut, to re-imagine what a donut could be. But to them, BlissBomb is about so much more than donuts. It's about celebrating the people that bring joy to the day and enrich lives.

To learn more about Dan's work, visit https://www.bliss-bomb.com/

If you'd like to be a guest on On The Map, click HERE

Your host, Lee Caraher, talks with Dave Karraker of Raptor Communications. Dave Karraker has nearly 30 years of marketing and communications experience focused on consumer packaged goods, consumer technology, e-commerce, and retail.

To learn more about Dave's work, visit https://raptorcommunications.com/

If you'd like to be a guest on On The Map, click HERE

Being Of Service Grows A Great Business

In this episode of On The Map podcast, your host Lee Caraher talks to Karen Catlin.

Karen built software products for 25 years as an executive before she realized there was a sharp decline in the number of women who worked in tech. Reinvigorated, she changed paths with a purpose and now is a leadership coach, highly acclaimed author and speaker, and the author of three books, all on the topic of inclusivity in the workplace. 

Karen explains that when she had this realization, she wasn’t originally paying attention to this at first. She says after going to a conference that highlighted this issue for her, she began to create and offer resources for the women who worked with her. This led to more initiatives and efforts on her part to improve workplace diversity and inclusivity. Karen shares that she felt passionate and excited about this work, which was her catalyst to leave her job in software development and dedicate herself full time to this work. 

She began her leadership coaching practice not long after this and she faced her fair share of challenges. Karen shares that taking the first steps were the hardest, and she needed a couple of friendly nudges from her support system to really put herself out there. 

Karen started coaching women in the tech space, but realized very quickly that despite amazing efforts, her clients weren’t getting ahead. This is when Karen deduced that some of these major companies aren’t as ‘merit-based’ operationally as you might believe. This impacted Karen immseley, and she made it her mission to help companies become more inclusive. 

Twitter As Growth Engine

She went on to start her own anonymous Twitter handle and she began tweeting, sometimes with a hint of snark, simple ways to improve corporate inclusivity. Her Twitter handle remained anonymous for years, but before long, she’d gained notoriety. No one knew who she was, yet she was soon getting speaking requests in her DMs. She began speaking as a result, but at least once per engagement, she’d be asked if she had a book to share.

Writing the Book

She went on to write her first book, Better Allies, which is now in its second edition. Karen says that many allies just don’t know where to start when it comes to making positive, inclusive change in the workplace. She says to start with simple things you can incorporate incrementally into your day to day.  

Email Spreads the Word

Karen also shares that she started an email newsletter. While the newsletter started very small with only a handful of subscribers, as of now, it has surpassed her Twitter reach. She began using a format that would offer weekly tips to being an inclusive ally in the workplace. As a result, her newsletter grew exponentially and is now an amazing source of subscribers, community, and authority for Karen. This is one of the ways Karen put herself ‘on the map’ as a solopreneur.

Want to learn more? Check out Karen Catlin’s website at https://karencatlin.com/.  

Check out all of Karen’s books at https://karencatlin.com/writings/#Book2. 

Check out Karen Catlin on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kecatlin/.  

Don’t forget to subscribe to On The Map Podcast and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!

If you know someone who Lee should interview who can share how they got their company On The Map, please send them our way! Visit our podcast guest application page here. 

Connect with Lee on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram 

Twitter

Facebook

Sharing Her Experience To Help Women Get Ahead In Business

In this episode of On The Map podcast, your host Lee Caraher speaks to Andie Kramer. 

Andie is a highly regulated and financial industry leader who has become well known for her work in cryptocurrency, financial growth strategies, enterprise risk management, and much more. Andie shares that she has a background in tax law with a specialty in financial products and derivatives taxation. When Lee met Andie, Andie was working on her first book. This book wasn’t about tax law, though. 

Book Breakthrough

Andie’s first book, Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work, was inspired by her experience working in the financial and law industries as a woman. Writing about this topic was a culmination and evolution of the work Andie had already been doing to support other women in her space. 

Andie shares that she approached her husband, Al, and asked for his input as she wrote her book. The insight that they both could offer, from different perspectives, is where they could provide real holistic value. Andie shares that when they started sharing their book, they began by asking those they wrote about to share their book with others. She advises that you need to be prepared to ask for this type of support, especially as a woman in a male dominated space; it’s okay to ask your friends and network for help. 

Becoming A Recognized Expert in Cryptocurrency

Andie is not only well known in tax law and an accomplished author, but now she’s become a respected expert in cryptocurrency. She explains that during the pandemic, she found herself needing to add value to her law firm with the loss of her workload and clients. She ended up writing 15 short memos on the tax treatment of crypto transactions to provide that value. These memos were circulated among the media by her firm’s marketing team, which then led the National Law Journal to name Andie as their 2020 Go-To Thought Leader on Cryptocurrency later that year, among other awards. This notoriety and accumulation of knowledge allowed her to become a sought after authority on the subject in the law space.

Meeting A Market Need

Lee and Andie explored how she filled a need in her space organically – she didn’t even mean to become a crypto tax expert. She explains that originally, those 15 memos were actually an entire document, but she knew that her firm (and those who would go on to read her content) would gather more value and retain the information better if she broke it into parts. From there, the consistency with her content built her authority organically and it snowballed into the work she advises on today. This is one of many ways that Andie got herself ‘on the map’. 

Want to learn more? Check out Andie & Al’s website at https://andieandal.com/. 

Check out all of Andie & Al’s books at https://andieandal.com/books/. 

Check out Andie Kramer on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andiekramer/. 

Don’t forget to subscribe to On The Map Podcast and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!

If you know someone who Lee should interview who can share how they got their company On The Map, please send them our way! Visit our podcast guest application page here. 

Connect with Lee on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram 

Twitter

Facebook

Your inaugural host, Josh Elledge of UpMyInfluence introduces Lee Caraher of Double Forte. As a fiercely independent PR and communications agency, the Double Forte team is constantly exploring and evolving to meet and exceed their clients' needs. Since they arrived on the scene more than 18 years ago, one item that has not changed is the importance of the clients’ MESSAGE. Today, even more emphasis is placed on delivering that message on time, to the right people, in the right format, and on the right platform.

To learn more about Lee's work, visit https://double-forte.com/

If you'd like to be a guest on On The Map, click HERE