PM School

Her company has been featured in Epicurious, Thrillist, Food & Wine Mag, Tech Crunch, Vogue and more! She’s doing collaborations with boundary-pushing, award winning NYC chefs from Chat and Ohm Suansilphong from Fish Cheeks, NYC, to Nicole Ponseca at Jeepney, NYC, and Jimmy Ly Madame at Madame Vo.

She is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, and she grew up in her family’s kitchen counter, watching her Mẹ cook Vietnamese dinners from scratch every night - bc like so many Asian moms, this was her love language to her children.

She’s a Harvard grad and in her past life she and her co-founding sister cut their teeth in startups and management consulting. But after sometime, she couldn’t refuse the call to return to her roots and finally build the company of her dreams.

Omsom is a vietnamese phrase meaning noisy, rambunctious, riotous, most often used by parents to scold unruly, raucous children in the back of the car.

But Omsom is also her and her sister’s fiery love letter to their people, their food, and their Phamily (both ancestors and chosen). No more diluted dishes, no more cultural compromise. Real deal Asian cuisine and communities are too damn delicious to deny.

Their slogan is “Pull up a stool and grab a bowl – welcome to our house.”

And ours is “Welcome to the table, pull up your seat.” So it felt like the absolute perfect fit to sit down with Vanessa Pham, CEO and Co-Founder of Omsom. Welcome to the table and the ManifestHer podcast, Vanessa!

She has been recognized for her diverse accomplishments by respected organizations such as SheSays Chicago and Global Girls Inc., which presented her with the Girl Power award in 2017.

She also earned a coveted spot on Mater Mea’s “18 Black Women We Think Are Phenomenal” list alongside such standouts as Emmy-winning filmmaker Lena Waithe.

Her work has been featured in outlets such as ZORA, SELF, Bustle, Shondaland and HelloGiggles, just to name a few.

In addition to being a freelance writer and blogger, she is also the director of communications for OneGoal, a national college access and success organization.

Prior to joining OneGoal, she was the director of external affairs for Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana. And before that the digital content editor for JET and EBONY magazines.

She is a proud black woman who is dedicated to sharing stories about other extraordinary black women through her writing - when she’s not busy writing, which, to be fair, isn’t often, she enjoys reading books and magazines, trying new brunch spots and dancing to Beyoncé. Please welcome our incredibly inspiring guest and Imposter Syndrome Expert, L’Oreal Thompson Payton.

Carly Watters is the senior vice president of PS Literary and a senior literary agent. She represents a host of top authors, including Christina McDonald, the USA Today Bestselling author of THE NIGHT OLIVIA FELL and Glendy Vanderah, the author of WHERE THE FOREST MEETS THE STARS, a Washington Post and Wall Street Journal Bestseller nearing half a million copies sold and translated into 21 languages across the globe. Carly has been an agent for close to a decade and she’s been promoted to not only senior VP and literary agent, but also director of literary branding. And those are just some of her professional accolades. She’s also a wife, mom of two young boys, and owner of a beautiful home in Ottawa, Canada.

She’s an Intuitive Healer and Energy Reader, Audition Coach, amazing wifey and recently took the jump during quarantine to go all in on entrepreneurship making a big bet on herself and her coaching business despite that meaning she had to leave her comfortable over 6 figures salary with >$10,000 in debt in the middle of a global pandemic. She radiates positivity, she’s incredibly kind and personable, but more than anything, she is determined and her determination is contagious. Welcome to our next guest Shannon Bills!

She somehow managed balancing being a mama, business woman and side-hustle entrepreneur for six years before deciding to take the plunge, bet on herself and go full time in her own business. She’s an expert at spreading love, happiness & pretty things and does so through her business where she creates one of kind statement pieces, party decor, and other fun and gorgeous stuff! Welcome to our next guest Meagan Maldonado.

Mary is the author of SIX New York Times and USA Today Bestselling suspense novels. Netflix recently acquired her latest novel and is turning it into a feature film with Mary as the executive producer! Her books have been recognized world-wide on The Skimm, Kirkus Reviews, US Weekly, Vulture, Deadline, LA Times, and many more. She's a midwestern mama, kickass wife, and all around kind human being. I can speak from experience, I met her at a book signing just before the pandemic hit and she is the most generous and kind soul.

From stuck, unfulfilled and lonely to strong, resilient, and kind our next guest is a Puerto Rican woman, Bronx native, a professional love documenter, rad couple admirer, and mama to both cat and dog. In this episode we’re going to talk about a lot - from how she went from married to a man at age 20, to both getting a divorce, coming out and starting all over with life at 25, to where she is now, truly owning her story, her creative profession and letting the word fuck flow a lot while she shoots photos of couples, well… that make you want to grab your partner and… you know. Please welcome, KayLa Ruiz!!!

She is an experienced broadcast journalist who was tired of talking heads and alarmist headlines, so she quit her TV news job to create something new. She’s passionate about helping people stay informed, save time and feel less overwhelmed and depressed by the news…. Along with well-known creators like Malcom Gladwell, she was one of the first people to partner with Podfund, which invests in emerging and extraordinary podcasters. She was named one of “50 Women Changing the World in Media & Entertainment”in 2018 and her daily news show is absolutely out of this world. If you follow me on the ‘gram you already know how much I love love love this woman and her content. The Newsworthy is ready every day by 5AM ET and every show is less than 10 mins. It's fast, fair, fun and on the go. Please welcome Erica Mandy!

Nikki Lynette is a Chicago native fusing mental health activism into her art forms. She is a performer, writer and visual artist whose individual style is equal parts hip hop, alternative and pop. Most recently her music has been featured on Netflix and Showtime. She’s an ambassador for the National Alliance on Mental Illness and her play about depression entitled GET OUT ALIVE, has made history as the first black female playwright to ever be produced by American Music Theatre Project, the first AMTP work to debut at Steppenwolf, and the first play in Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series to extend to a 5 show run due to popular demand. Tune into this episode for a deep dive on mental health and to learn how you can achieve anything by just focusing on baby steps.

Lindsey Schwartz is an entrepreneur, top podcast host, and best-selling author. As a sought after speaker, she travels around the world inspiring women to get out of their own way and to act on their biggest ideas, helping them create the careers they’ve always dreamed of. After seeing numerous women in her life stop short of pursuing their own entrepreneurial dreams because of fear and self-doubt, she saw the need for more honest conversations about the ups & downs of entrepreneurship, in order to show women that they don’t have to have it all together to get started. On this episode she gets real about her journey and the obstacles she faced on her way to where she is now. She talks about the process of finding clarity and taking action and shares actionable advice on how you can get clear and starting taking action too.