Bea Arthur built two startups, landed on Shark Tank, and became the first Black female founder accepted into Y Combinator. Then she hit a wall and decided to finally choose herself. So she traded the hustle for a slower life in Mexico City, where she's writing her forthcoming book, “The White Man Within” that reframes every setback along the way as data, not damage.

⁠Bea Arthur, LMHC⁠ is a Columbia University-trained psychotherapist, award-winning entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, and true pioneer in the field of mental health. Bea has been named an Entrepreneur to Bet On by Newsweek Magazine and one of the 100 Most Inspirational New Yorkers by Bumble.

Bea shared her career as a social worker, where she served addicts in recovery, survivors of domestic violence, and students in the New York City public school system. 

She’s always been passionate about lifting people up and decided to scale this gift in the tech world. In 2011, her career took off at the intersection of psychology and technology, when her first startup Pretty Padded Room competed on ABC’s Shark Tank, which put “online therapy” on the map! In 2014, she became the first African-American female founder accepted by Y Combinator accelerator program.

8 years ago, she launched her second startup called The Difference, which was the very first Alexa Skill for easy access therapy.

Now, she’s a first-time author. Her book “The White Man Within”, where she tells her story,  how she created her own path to success, and how you can too! Bea, welcome to the show.

Connect with Bea Arthur

LinkedIn → ⁠http://www.beaarthurtherapy.com⁠ 

Instagram → ⁠https://www.instagram.com/bbarthur/⁠ 

Book Instagram → ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thewhitemanwithin/⁠ 

Book Website → ⁠https://www.thewhitemanwithin.com/⁠ 

Connect with Naomi Haile:

Website → https://www.naomihaile.com/

Newsletter → https://powerofwhy.kit.com/57ca5180df 

Purchase the Purpose Canvas to bring alive your dreams tomorrow: ⁠https://naomiahaile.gumroad.com/l/purposecanvas⁠ 

LOOKING FOR A SPECIFIC GEM?

00:00 Welcome and introduction to Bea Arthur

06:52 Origin story: Ghanaian immigrant family raised in Houston

07:19 Kicked out of school for "talking back"

09:15 How Bea went from real estate to becoming a therapist

14:48 What made her write the book “The White Man Within” now

14:56 Conforming inside the tech world's unequal rules

18:30 Founder vs. CEO?

21:10 Analyze vs. act

23:18 Bea investing online therapy with Pretty Padded Room

33:09 "Strong Seed, Wrong Soil" and the cost of the wrong environment

35:30 Her actual morning practice

37:36 Why Mexico City lowered her stress and sped up the her book writing process

42:33 "Data, not damage" and her father's story about racism in 1980s Texas

44:39 "This is a station, not the destination"

47:09 Performing less and allowing the messy middle

51:17 Reframing "everything happens for a reason"

53:53 The matriarchy reframe (love instead of suffering)

55:59 Doing more of what makes you happy

55:38 Where to find Bea and her book online

Bea Arthur built two startups, landed on Shark Tank, and became the first Black female founder accepted into Y Combinator. Then she hit a wall and decided to finally choose herself. So she traded the hustle for a slower life in Mexico City, where she's writing her forthcoming book, “The White Man Within” that reframes every setback along the way as data, not damage.

⁠Bea Arthur, LMHC⁠ is a Columbia University-trained psychotherapist, award-winning entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, and true pioneer in the field of mental health. Bea has been named an Entrepreneur to Bet On by Newsweek Magazine and one of the 100 Most Inspirational New Yorkers by Bumble.

Bea shared her career as a social worker, where she served addicts in recovery, survivors of domestic violence, and students in the New York City public school system. 

She’s always been passionate about lifting people up and decided to scale this gift in the tech world. In 2011, her career took off at the intersection of psychology and technology, when her first startup Pretty Padded Room competed on ABC’s Shark Tank, which put “online therapy” on the map! In 2014, she became the first African-American female founder accepted by Y Combinator accelerator program.

8 years ago, she launched her second startup called The Difference, which was the very first Alexa Skill for easy access therapy.

Now, she’s a first-time author. Her book “The White Man Within”, where she tells her story,  how she created her own path to success, and how you can too! Bea, welcome to the show.

Connect with Bea Arthur

LinkedIn → ⁠http://www.beaarthurtherapy.com⁠ 

Instagram → ⁠https://www.instagram.com/bbarthur/⁠ 

Book Instagram → ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thewhitemanwithin/⁠ 

Book Website → ⁠https://www.thewhitemanwithin.com/⁠ 

Connect with Naomi Haile:

Website → https://www.naomihaile.com/

Newsletter → https://powerofwhy.kit.com/57ca5180df 

Purchase the Purpose Canvas to bring alive your dreams tomorrow: ⁠https://naomiahaile.gumroad.com/l/purposecanvas⁠ 

LOOKING FOR A SPECIFIC GEM?

00:00 Welcome and introduction to Bea Arthur

06:52 Origin story: Ghanaian immigrant family raised in Houston

07:19 Kicked out of school for "talking back"

09:15 How Bea went from real estate to becoming a therapist

14:48 What made her write the book “The White Man Within” now

14:56 Conforming inside the tech world's unequal rules

18:30 Founder vs. CEO?

21:10 Analyze vs. act

23:18 Bea investing online therapy with Pretty Padded Room

33:09 "Strong Seed, Wrong Soil" and the cost of the wrong environment

35:30 Her actual morning practice

37:36 Why Mexico City lowered her stress and sped up the her book writing process

42:33 "Data, not damage" and her father's story about racism in 1980s Texas

44:39 "This is a station, not the destination"

47:09 Performing less and allowing the messy middle

51:17 Reframing "everything happens for a reason"

53:53 The matriarchy reframe (love instead of suffering)

55:59 Doing more of what makes you happy

55:38 Where to find Bea and her book online

Bea Arthur built two startups, landed on Shark Tank, and became the first Black female founder accepted into Y Combinator. Then she hit a wall and decided to finally choose herself. So she traded the hustle for a slower life in Mexico City, where she's writing her forthcoming book, “The White Man Within” that reframes every setback along the way as data, not damage.

Bea Arthur, LMHC is a Columbia University-trained psychotherapist, award-winning entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, and true pioneer in the field of mental health. Bea has been named an Entrepreneur to Bet On by Newsweek Magazine and one of the 100 Most Inspirational New Yorkers by Bumble.

Bea shared her career as a social worker, where she served addicts in recovery, survivors of domestic violence, and students in the New York City public school system. 

She’s always been passionate about lifting people up and decided to scale this gift in the tech world. In 2011, her career took off at the intersection of psychology and technology, when her first startup Pretty Padded Room competed on ABC’s Shark Tank, which put “online therapy” on the map! In 2014, she became the first African-American female founder accepted by Y Combinator accelerator program.

8 years ago, she launched her second startup called The Difference, which was the very first Alexa Skill for easy access therapy.

Now, she’s a first-time author. Her book “The White Man Within”, where she tells her story,  how she created her own path to success, and how you can too! Bea, welcome to the show.

Connect with Bea Arthur

LinkedIn → http://www.beaarthurtherapy.com 

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bbarthur/ 

Book Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/thewhitemanwithin/ 

Book Website → https://www.thewhitemanwithin.com/ 

Connect with Naomi Haile:

Website → https://www.naomihaile.com/

Newsletter → https://powerofwhy.kit.com/57ca5180df 

Purchase the Purpose Canvas to bring alive your dreams tomorrow: https://naomiahaile.gumroad.com/l/purposecanvas 

LOOKING FOR A SPECIFIC GEM?

00:00 Welcome and introduction to Bea Arthur

06:52 Origin story: Ghanaian immigrant family raised in Houston

07:19 Kicked out of school for "talking back"

09:15 How Bea went from real estate to becoming a therapist

14:48 What made her write the book “The White Man Within” now

14:56 Conforming inside the tech world's unequal rules

18:30 Founder vs. CEO?

21:10 Analyze vs. act

23:18 Bea investing online therapy with Pretty Padded Room

33:09 "Strong Seed, Wrong Soil" and the cost of the wrong environment

35:30 Her actual morning practice

37:36 Why Mexico City lowered her stress and sped up the her book writing process

42:33 "Data, not damage" and her father's story about racism in 1980s Texas

44:39 "This is a station, not the destination"

47:09 Performing less and allowing the messy middle

51:17 Reframing "everything happens for a reason"

53:53 The matriarchy reframe (love instead of suffering)

55:59 Doing more of what makes you happy

55:38 Where to find Bea and her book online

According to Upwork, 76.4 million Americans are part of the freelance workforce, which grew from 57 million in 2019. And by 2027? This number is expected to rise to over 50% of the U.S. workforce.

Angela Frank is a fractional CMO, growth marketing advisor, and founder of The Growth Directive, a marketing consultancy that helps founders build clear, sustainable marketing strategies that support long-term growth. With a track record of generating over $60 million in revenue for startups and scaling brands, Angela brings a rare combination of in-house operator experience and scrappy entrepreneurial instinct to companies she works with.

Angela's path to consulting was anything but linear. She grew up in a small town in northern Minnesota and the first in her family to pursue a four-year college degree.

She started her first Etsy shop as a sophomore in college, ran a thriving e-commerce business during the pandemic, then pivoted into corporate marketing roles before eventually negotiating her way into a fractional arrangement with her employer.

As you will learn, she proposed they use the money saved to invest in another marketing channel. And for her, she used that freed up time to build her consulting practice. She officially went full-time in her business in 2022.

Angela is the award-winning author of Your Marketing Ecosystem: How Brands Can Market Less and Sell More, which teaches founders and consultants how to build connected marketing systems that drive results without complexity. She also hosts The Growth Pod, a podcast where she shares practical insights on marketing strategy, consulting, and business building.

Her current focus is helping experienced operators and marketers turn their expertise into structured, profitable consulting practices.

Connect with Angela

• LinkedIn: Angela Frank
• Website: The Growth Directive
• Book: Your Marketing Ecosystem: How Brands Can Market Less and Sell More
• Instagram: @angelafrankofficial
• Threads: @angelafrankofficial

Connect with Naomi

• Website: www.naomihaile.com
• LinkedIn: Naomi Haile
• Instagram: @naomiahaile
• YouTube: Naomi Haile
  

Marie Lewis is the founder and CEO of Royal Assistants, an operations-focused executive support company built to help founders lead with clarity and structure. Her journey into business began with service. She was raised in a faith-centered household, she spent years in administrative leadership across church and corporate environments before becoming the person people relied on to bring order to organizations and systems.

Marie started working independently in 2015, taking her first paid role setting up systems for her church, and has spent the decade since building Royal Assistants from a solo virtual assistance practice into a full operations and systems design company with a team behind her. She has hired and released more than 100 people from her business over the years as she refined who she works with and how she delivers what she calls "the royal experience" — a client journey built on intentionality, transparency, and excellence.

Born in Jamaica, Marie's family relocated to New York, where she watched her parents build their own businesses, her father moving from carpentry into full-time ministry and then construction, and her mother building a career as a seamstress before becoming an executive house cleaner. Marie now lives in Atlanta with her husband and their daughter, where she runs Royal Assistants and shares tutorials and systems, including her SuiteDash system, with her audience on YouTube.

She describes her guiding philosophy as one of radical transparency: she does not believe in gatekeeping knowledge, and treats every client relationship as an opportunity to build trust through consistency and care.

Connect with Marie

• Website: Royal Executive Assistants

• LinkedIn: Royal Executive Assistants LLC

• YouTube: @TheRoyalAssistant

• Instagram: @royalassistants

Connect with Naomi

• Website: www.naomihaile.com

• LinkedIn: Naomi Haile

• Instagram: @naomiahaile
• YouTube: @naomiahaile

Soji James is a New York based strength and kettlebell coach, meditation teacher, breathwork facilitator and the founder of the Metta Club. The Metta Club is a mindfulness-based community built around making that inner work feel practical and human.

His practice is built on a conviction most of the fitness industry ignores: that the body and the inner life are not separate projects, and that the people most in need of stillness are usually the ones moving too fast to notice.

Soji grew up in the Bronx, raised by a mother who told him consistently that the pen was always his to hold - that he had the power to write his own story. He found strength training in college at SUNY New Paltz, where he studied biology and played basketball.

During one of the most challenging seasons of his life, meditation and breathwork became the survival tools that helped him through it. After losing his father unexpectedly to a heart attack at 52, and discovering he had no framework to process the grief. That experience reshaped his understanding of what his clients actually need, and what he had needed long before he knew to ask for it

All of his experiences are the foundation of everything he teaches. Soji believes most of us were taught how to go hard, but not how to be still. And his whole philosophy is that you don't have to choose. You can be driven and grounded. You can chase big goals and still know how to pause.

He launched his coaching practice 13 years ago. Today, he works with clients across the country, ranging from executives, surgeons, founders, and parents, and he also leads breathwork and meditation sessions inside companies and organizations.

Connect with Soji

• The Metta Club: www.sojijames.com
• Website: www.sojijames.com
• Instagram: @soji.james1

Connect with Naomi

• Website: www.naomihaile.com
• LinkedIn: Naomi Haile
• Instagram: @naomiahaile
• Twitter: @naomiathaile
• YouTube: Naomi Haile
  

"When you're picking up heavy weights in life and you make the decision to face that weight, there is a confidence that you build." - Almeta Brown

Almeta Brown is a strength coach, therapist in training, and wellness practitioner. Her work lives at the intersection of trauma-informed care, nervous system regulation, and sustainable strength building.

Her approach begins with a question that reorients the entire conversation around health and performance. Not how much the body can endure — but what it means to feel safe, strong, and supported in your own body.

Through trauma-informed strength training, Almeta helps her clients build physical muscle alongside something less often named: resilience, self-trust, and capacity. Everything she teaches comes from her own experience, including competing in bodybuilding shows, which grounds her practice in something beyond theory. Her framework is rooted in the values of intentionality, rest, love, service, community, and health as a lifelong practice — inviting people to slow down, reconnect with themselves, and build systems that work with their bodies and lives rather than against them.

A central thread in her work is redefining what health looks like, particularly within Black communities, and restoring rest to its rightful place as a tool for regulation and sustenance — not a reward earned after exhaustion. She believes the way we care for our bodies mirrors the way we care for our lives and our communities.

As a therapist in training, Almeta brings a treatment-plan mindset to every client relationship. Through an integrated wellness framework that blends strength training, coaching, and mental health–informed support, she works with clients to build personalized plans grounded in both physical and psychological needs — helping them develop capacity not just in their bodies, but in every area of their lives.

Connect with Almeta

• LinkedIn: Almeta Brown
• Website: www.mindandbodymoves.com
• Instagram: @MindAndBodyMoves

Connect with Naomi

• Website: www.naomihaile.com
• LinkedIn: Naomi Haile
• Instagram: @naomiahaile
• YouTube: Naomi Haile

“Being able to discover entrepreneurship was revolutionary for finding my path.” - Katonhetsheriio Ashley Clark

Ashley Clark is a Mohawk entrepreneur, founder of Bougie Birch, and an indigenous relations advisor whose work sits at the intersection of business, culture, and systems change. With an academic background in international relations, Ashley brings a systems-aware lens to entrepreneurship, leadership, and community development.

Through Bougie Birch, Ashley creates immersive cultural experiences and workshops grounded in indigenous knowledge and relational ways of being. Her work emphasizes clarity over urgency, long-term thinking, and the intentional creation of culturally safe third spaces where innovation, learning, and relationship building can thrive.

Ashley mentors early indigenous startup entrepreneurs through the Indigenous Prosperity Foundation, and is currently in a deliberate foundation-building season toward a brick-and-mortar third space for Bougie Birch in Ottawa, on unceded Algonquin territory. Her leadership reflects a commitment to regenerative systems and building futures where economic growth and community well-being exist in relationship, not in tension.

Connect with Ashley

• LinkedIn: Ashley Clark
• Website: www.bougiebirch.ca 
• Instagram: @BougieBirch
• Facebook: @BougieBirch

Connect with Naomi

• Website: www.naomihaile.com
• LinkedIn: Naomi Haile
• Instagram: @naomiahaile
• Twitter: @naomiathaile
• YouTube: Naomi Haile

This episode is brought to you in collaboration with ⁠⁠⁠Invest Ottawa⁠⁠⁠, Ottawa’s lead economic development agency for knowledge-based industries. We teamed up to produce this special podcast series to celebrate women leading in Ottawa during International Women’s Month.

In support of its Women Founders and Owners strategy, Invest Ottawa offers programs and services that enable and accelerate the growth and success of women entrepreneurs from every walk of life. Visit ⁠⁠⁠www.investottawa.ca/women⁠⁠⁠ to learn more!

"Be a good comms person, but be a better business person. That is the key to unlocking the strategic value as a comms person. When you can create an environment where people want to know what you think on a topic that's not necessarily related to comms, you have built a relationship of trust and respect." - Amy MacLeod

Amy MacLeod is a senior communications executive with 25 years of experience shaping complex business, financial, and technical developments into strategic communications programs. She believes that good communication comes from connecting people with information that conveys passion and purpose — and that truth, simply told, is the best path to leadership, influence, and corporate credibility.

Amy was named Vice President of Corporate Communications at MDA Space in 2021. Prior to that, she served as VP of Corporate Affairs and External Communications at Seaspan Shipyards and VP of Corporate Communications at Mitel, where in 2018 she was appointed as Mitel's first Corporate Diversity Officer, charged with driving cultural change across the company globally.

Earlier in her career, Amy held progressively senior communications roles at General Dynamics Canada, Alcatel-Lucent, and Newbridge Networks Corporation. She began her career as a political staffer on Parliament Hill, an experience that grounded her in the fundamentals of writing, storytelling, and high-stakes real-time communications.

Amy grew up in a small mining town in Northern Ontario and studied politics at the University of Waterloo. She has been deeply rooted in the Ottawa business and startup ecosystem for nearly four decades, and remains actively engaged as a mentor and advocate for women in leadership.

Connect with Amy

• LinkedIn: Amy MacLeod
• Website: MDA Space
• LinkedIn: MDA Space

Connect with Naomi

• Website: www.naomihaile.com
• LinkedIn: Naomi Haile
• Instagram: @naomiahaile
• Twitter: @naomiathaile
• YouTube: Naomi Haile

This episode is brought to you in collaboration with ⁠⁠Invest Ottawa⁠⁠, Ottawa’s lead economic development agency for knowledge-based industries. We teamed up to produce this special podcast series to celebrate women leading in Ottawa during International Women’s Month.

In support of its Women Founders and Owners strategy, Invest Ottawa offers programs and services that enable and accelerate the growth and success of women entrepreneurs from every walk of life. Visit ⁠⁠www.investottawa.ca/women⁠⁠ to learn more!

“When you're hiring your number two, your number three, your number four — make sure you're complementing your skills as a founder with somebody who does have an operational mindset.” - Megan Paterson

Megan Paterson is the Chief Operating Officer of Kinaxis, a publicly traded SaaS company that manages some of the world’s largest supply chains. She has spent nearly 18 years at the organization, watching it grow from roughly $20M in revenue to over half a billion, and from a privately held company to a publicly traded one.

Megan’s career began in recruiting at a consulting firm, and she steadily rose through the HR function, holding roles as HR Advisor, Director of Human Resources, VP, and Chief Human Resources Officer, before stepping into the COO role. The transition was unconventional, and by her own account, she spent five months saying no before eventually accepting. Her path has given her a rare vantage point on both the people side and the operational side of scaling a technology company.

Her areas of expertise include international expansion, mergers and acquisitions, building and scaling teams, and operational systems. Megan is also an angel investor, working with startups and engaging with entrepreneurial communities, including Invest Ottawa.

Connect with Megan

• LinkedIn: Megan Paterson
• LinkedIn: Kinaxis
• Kinaxis Website: Kinaxis

Connect with Naomi

• Website: www.naomihaile.com
• LinkedIn: Naomi Haile
• Instagram: @naomiahaile
• Twitter: @naomiathaile
• YouTube: Naomi Haile
  

This episode is brought to you in collaboration with ⁠Invest Ottawa⁠, Ottawa’s lead economic development agency for knowledge-based industries. We teamed up to produce this special podcast series to celebrate women leading in Ottawa during International Women’s Month.

In support of its Women Founders and Owners strategy, Invest Ottawa offers programs and services that enable and accelerate the growth and success of women entrepreneurs from every walk of life. Visit ⁠www.investottawa.ca/women⁠ to learn more!