She Built Success

She Built Success

By ClaudiaBusinessEntrepreneurshipEducationSelf-Improvement
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She Built Success episodes

  • 31: Your Version of Entrepreneurship Doesn't Have to Look Like Everyone Else's

    For a while, I questioned whether I was really an entrepreneur.

    I owned a company. I had a multiple six-figure contract. But my business didn't look like the entrepreneurship I kept seeing online.
    I wasn't running funnels with thousands of leads coming through. I wasn't building the kind of business everyone seemed to be talking about on social media. My work still had structure and hours, and sometimes it felt a whole lot like being an employee.
    Eventually I had to stop comparing what I was building to what entrepreneurship looked like for somebody else.
    And then a couple of teenage entrepreneurs showed up at my front door.
    In this episode, I'm talking about authenticity, entrepreneurship and why there's no single version of what building a business is supposed to look like. I share the story of two young men who knocked on my door offering to wash my windows and proceeded to give me a miniature masterclass in communication, customer experience, branding and simply taking action.
    They had a process. They communicated when weather changed their schedule. They came back to finish the job. They even showed up in embroidered company shirts.
    And watching them reminded me of something important.
    You can spend a lot of time trying to look like an entrepreneur.
    Or you can get out there and do the work.
    In this episode:
    Why entrepreneurship isn't for everyone
    Questioning whether I was a "real" entrepreneur
    Comparing your business to what you see online
    Bringing your full self into the work
    The teenage entrepreneurs who knocked on my door
    What they taught me about communication and customer experience
    Taking action before you have everything figured out
    Making room for the highs and lows of entrepreneurship
    Showing up authentically in business, work and life
    And this isn't only about entrepreneurship. Whether you're building a company, working inside one, raising a family or figuring out what's next, constantly filtering yourself to fit someone else's expectation gets heavy. That's ultimately where this conversation lands.
    Chapters:
    00:00 You don't have to look like everyone else
    01:00 Entrepreneurship isn't for everyone
    02:00 When I questioned whether I was really an entrepreneur
    04:00 Tuning out what entrepreneurship looked like online
    05:00 The teenage entrepreneurs who knocked on my door
    07:00 A customer experience I wasn't expecting
    09:00 Communication when things don't go according to plan
    11:00 They came back to finish the job
    12:00 Then they showed up branded
    13:00 What they reminded me about taking action
    14:00 Preparing for the highs and lows of entrepreneurship
    17:00 What does authenticity look like for you?
    Join the conversation: Where in your life are you giving yourself more permission to show up as yourself instead of who you think you're supposed to be?
    Subscribe to She Built Success for more conversations beyond the highlight reel.
    She Built Success goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the stories behind what we build. Through conversations about business, leadership and personal growth, we talk about the decisions, challenges and experiences that shape success along the way.

    21 min
  • 30: The $3.5 Million Business Mistake That Changed Our Systems

    We had a potential $3.5 million opportunity in front of us. The team had spent weeks preparing the proposal.

    Then, during my final review, I found one requirement we'd missed.
    And we couldn't submit.
    In this episode, I'm taking you inside one of the most expensive lessons I've experienced as a business owner. A required subcontracting provision had been overlooked earlier in our proposal process and by the time I caught it, we no longer had enough time to meet the requirement.
    I was frustrated. There were team consequences. But I also had to look at my own role as the leader.
    That mistake led us to tighten our proposal workflow, clarify responsibilities, build additional checkpoints into our systems and rethink how we capture lessons learned.
    Because sometimes the lesson isn't simply, "someone made a mistake."
    It's: What does the business need to change so this particular mistake is harder to make again?
    In this episode:
    The $3.5M opportunity we couldn't submit
    The requirement our team missed
    Making a difficult team decision
    My responsibility as the business owner
    Why CEOs still need visibility into the work
    Building stronger checkpoints into a workflow
    How we changed our lessons-learned process
    Turning an expensive mistake into a stronger operating system
    The mistake hurt. But the systems that came from it made the company stronger, and we hadn't experienced that same breakdown again at the time this episode was recorded.
    Chapters:
    00:00 The multimillion-dollar mistake
    01:00 The $3.5M opportunity
    02:00 How our proposal process worked
    04:00 Reviewing the proposal before submission
    06:00 The requirement we missed
    08:00 What changed after the mistake
    09:00 Making a difficult team decision
    11:00 Why I still need visibility as the CEO
    12:00 Building lessons learned into the process
    14:00 Relationships and the long-term play
    15:00 The systems we put in place afterward
    16:00 What has a mistake taught you?
    Join the conversation: What's a mistake you've made in business or life that caused you to change the way you operate?
    Subscribe to She Built Success for more conversations beyond the highlight reel.
    She Built Success goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the stories behind what we build. Through conversations about business, leadership and personal growth, we talk about the decisions, challenges and experiences that shape success along the way.

    18 min
  • 29: How I Actually Got Started in Government Contracting

    I didn't start in government contracting by finding a solicitation online and suddenly winning a huge contract.

    My path started years earlier as a W-2 consultant working with government clients. I learned how larger consulting companies operated, eventually started my own company and later transitioned work I had been performing as an employee into subcontracting through my business.
    In this episode, I walk through that journey and some of the things I had to learn once I was operating on the business side, including payment terms, subcontracting, prime contractors and why having corporate experience didn't mean I automatically understood how the contracting side worked.
    I also share examples of how existing services can translate into government work. The bigger point is that government contracting isn't simply about finding an opportunity and submitting a bid. Relationships, positioning, patience and understanding how your business can solve a real need matter.
    Government contracting is a long-term play.
    In this episode:
    How I was introduced to government contracting
    Moving from W-2 consultant to business owner
    My first experience as a subcontractor
    Payment terms and lessons I didn't expect
    Prime vs. subcontracting opportunities
    Translating commercial services into government work
    A product contract I pursued simply to test what was possible
    Why relationships matter in GovCon
    By the end of the episode, I challenge you to look at what your business already does and consider how those capabilities might translate into another market.
    Chapters:
    00:00 The truth about getting into government contracting
    00:50 How I first entered the government contracting world
    02:00 Closing one company and eventually starting again
    04:00 Returning to government work before going out on my own
    05:00 How I became a subcontractor
    06:00 The payment terms I didn't know to expect
    08:00 Prime contractors vs. subcontractors
    10:00 What I learned about agreements and contract structure
    12:00 Translating your existing services into government work
    15:00 How financial and consulting services can translate
    18:00 My unexpected product contract experiment
    21:00 Why GovCon is a long-term play
    Join the conversation: What service or capability does your business already have that you've never considered offering in a different market?
    Subscribe to She Built Success for more conversations beyond the highlight reel.
    She Built Success goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the stories behind what we build. Through conversations about business, leadership and personal growth, we talk about the decisions, challenges and experiences that shape success along the way.
    Note: This episode reflects my experience and the government contracting environment at the time it was recorded. Contracting rules, thresholds, programs and requirements can change. Verify current requirements through official government sources before acting.

    24 min
  • 28: Protect Your Business Before It's too late | Yasmine Salem Hamdan

    You found the perfect business name. The Instagram handle is available. The domain is available. But does that mean you're legally in the clear?

    In this episode, I sit down with intellectual property attorney Yasmine Salem Hamdan to talk about the legal side of building a business that entrepreneurs sometimes put off until there's a problem.
    Yasmine breaks down trademarks vs. copyrights, what the TM and registered trademark symbols actually mean and why researching a name should happen before you invest heavily in building a brand around it. We also talk about contracts, making legal protection more accessible for entrepreneurs and why it's not necessarily too late to address the legal pieces you may have overlooked.
    And because business doesn't happen in a vacuum, our conversation also moves into motherhood, capacity and what it looked like for Yasmine to enter a new season of her business as her son started school.
    In this conversation:
    Trademarks vs. copyrights
    What TM and ® actually mean
    Why an available domain or social handle isn't enough
    Trademark clearance before investing in a brand
    Contracts and foundational legal protection
    Making legal information easier for entrepreneurs to understand
    Motherhood, capacity and changing seasons in business
    Chapters:
    00:00 Why protecting your business can't wait
    01:00 Meet Yasmine Salem Hamdan
    02:00 How Yasmine found intellectual property law
    05:00 Why entrepreneurs put off the legal side of business
    07:00 Trademarks, copyrights and protecting what you create
    10:00 The mistake entrepreneurs make when choosing a brand name
    13:00 How a forced rebrand can happen
    15:00 Motherhood and a changing season of business
    17:00 Creating educational content with more capacity
    19:00 Making legal information accessible to entrepreneurs
    Join the conversation: Have you ever thought about the legal protection behind the brand you're building, or is it something you've been putting off?
    Subscribe to She Built Success for more conversations beyond the highlight reel.
    She Built Success goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the stories behind what we build. Through conversations about business, leadership and personal growth, we talk about the decisions, challenges and experiences that shape success along the way.
    Note: This conversation is for general educational purposes only and is not legal advice. Intellectual property laws and requirements can change. Consult a qualified attorney about your specific circumstances.

    31 min
  • 27: What It Actually Means to Make a Bold Move

    I call you a Bold Moves Bestie all the time.

    But what exactly is a bold move?
    For me, it isn't about making the biggest decision in the room or taking unnecessary risks.
    Bold moves are a way of life.
    They're how you show up. How you make decisions. How you speak up. How you respond to fear. How you allow yourself to take up space instead of shrinking back.
    And sometimes, a bold move looks surprisingly ordinary.
    In this episode, I'm unpacking what "bold moves" means to me through business, motherhood and everyday life.
    I share stories about watching both of my daughters make decisions for themselves.
    One chose to take an AP Government exam and earned a five. What mattered to me wasn't simply the score. It was that she chose the challenge for herself and got to experience what happened when she stepped into it.
    My younger daughter made a different kind of bold move. She researched a new cheer gym, decided she wanted to switch and eventually moved from being a flyer into a role she wanted as a side base. Again, my job wasn't to make the decision for her. It was to give her room to make it.
    And then there's business.
    Because bold decisions are much harder to make when everything behind the scenes is chaos and confusion.
    I talk about why your systems, communication, financial information, team management and backend operations matter. Not because having systems is the goal, but because having them gives you the ability to move when it's time to move.
    Being bold doesn't mean never being afraid.
    It means fear doesn't automatically get to make the decision.
    In this episode:
    00:00 Why decisiveness matters
    01:00 What "bold moves" actually means to me
    02:00 Bold doesn't always mean revenue
    03:00 Borrowing confidence when you need it
    04:00 Making decisions even when you're not 100% certain
    05:00 What bold moves look like in motherhood
    07:00 Letting my daughter take on her own challenge
    09:00 Giving my kids room to make their own decisions
    12:00 What bold moves look like in business
    12:30 How chaos and confusion slow down decision-making
    13:00 Building a backend that allows you to move faster
    14:00 Your next bold move
    Join the conversation: What's one bold move you've been thinking about that you know it's time to start making?
    Subscribe to She Built Success for more conversations beyond the highlight reel.
    She Built Success goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the stories behind what we build. Through conversations about business, leadership and personal growth, we talk about the decisions, challenges and experiences that shape success along the way.

    17 min
  • 26: How to Create a Vision That Actually Fits Your Life

    You can have a big vision for your life and still have no idea how to turn it into something you can actually act on.

    In this episode, I'm breaking down how I think about vision planning and the eight areas I use to make a big vision more tangible.
    Because I'm naturally someone who wants things to move quickly.
    And one thing I've had to learn is that everything in the vision doesn't have to happen immediately.
    Some things carry over.
    Some things get paused.
    Some things change completely.
    And that's okay.
    Instead of starting with what someone else says your three-year, five-year or ten-year vision should look like, I walk through a framework you can use to think about what your life actually looks like.
    The eight areas I use are physical, spiritual, professional, desires, mental, relationships, financial and personal.
    Throughout the episode, I share what those categories have looked like in my own life, from creating realistic physical goals and being more intentional about my devotional time to growing my businesses, cultivating deeper friendships, thinking about finances as a tool for quality of life and pursuing personal goals like aviation.
    I also talk about something that doesn't get said enough in conversations about vision:
    It's okay to come back to something.
    There was a period when I intentionally paused one area of my business so I could focus on another. Later, I was able to revisit it. The fact that something isn't happening right now doesn't automatically mean it no longer belongs in the larger vision.
    Your vision can evolve with you.
    In this episode:
    00:00 Why having a vision isn't enough
    01:00 Turning the vision into something actionable
    02:00 The eight areas I use to organize my vision
    03:00 Why everything doesn't have to happen immediately
    04:00 Physical goals and making them realistic
    05:30 Creating a spiritual practice that doesn't feel like a checkbox
    07:00 Setting professional goals that actually stretch you
    08:00 Choosing a vision timeline that works for you
    09:00 When pausing something is part of the plan
    11:00 Making room for desires that don't fit neatly anywhere else
    12:00 Mental health, rest and giving yourself space
    13:00 Being intentional about your relationships
    14:00 Thinking about money and quality of life
    15:00 Personal goals that are just for you
    16:00 Letting your vision evolve
    Join the conversation: Which area of your life feels clearest right now, and which one needs a little more vision?
    Subscribe to She Built Success for more conversations beyond the highlight reel.
    She Built Success goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the stories behind what we build. Through conversations about business, leadership and personal growth, we talk about the decisions, challenges and experiences that shape success along the way.

    19 min
  • Season 2 Extended Preview: Business Success with Expert Insights from CFOs, IP Attorneys & More

    Welcome back Bold Move Besties to She Built Success, where we’re leveling up and breaking through limits. I’m Claudia—entrepreneur, student pilot, business coach for small businesses in government contracting and passionate advocate for women defining their own success.


    This season, we’re diving deep into strategies and stories that will push you to redefine what success looks like—on your terms.


    I’m sharing more of my personal journey this season, from family life to the reality of taking off the cape as a woman who juggles it all. Plus, I’ll be joined by powerhouse guests—a video coach, IP attorney, CFO, wealth manager and acquisition strategist—who’ve built their legacies, navigated business challenges and are ready to share how they did it.


    Whether you're an entrepreneur looking to scale, a small business aiming to break into government contracting or someone turning dreams into action, this season is packed with raw, unfiltered conversations and actionable strategies.


    If you're ready for bold moves, real talk and insights that get results, hit subscribe. She Built Success is back—and we’re not holding anything back.

    2 min
  • Season 2 Sneak Peek: Master Business Strategy, Wealth and Growth

    In Season 2 of She Built Success, we’re diving deeper into actionable strategies, government contracting for small business and real talk that fuel long-term success. 


    Expect conversations with top industry experts—a video coach, IP attorney, CFO, wealth manager, and acquisition strategist—covering everything from scaling your business, protecting your intellectual property, managing finances and building generational wealth. 


    Whether you're an entrepreneur or small business owner, this season is packed with insights to help you redefine success and take your business to the next level. 


    Don’t miss out—subscribe now!

    1 min
  • 25: Season Finale: Best of She Built Success

    In this "Best of" season finale episode of She Built Success, Claudia puts a spotlight on the top five most impactful episodes that have inspired our community. These episodes highlight moments where Claudia and her guests challenged the status quo, embraced authenticity, and redefined success on their terms.


    Whether you’re a CEO, a busy mom, or someone navigating multiple roles, these standout moments will empower you to embrace your full potential and chart your unique path to success. Tune in as we revisit these game-changing conversations and reignite the drive to push beyond limits.


    KEY POINTS:

    - 1: Life According To Plan, Until It’s Not: My Untold Story

    - 2: Why She Built Success

    - 5: Deeper Into Claudia - My Gifts vs Good At

    - 3: Personal Brand Strategy For Working Professionals with Stephen A. Hart

    - 12: Building A Legacy Through A Luxury Travel Brand Part I with Lola Banjo


    RESOURCES

    [BLACK GIRLS FLY INC.] Ready to soar? Join us at Black Girls Fly as we reignite your passion for aviation and support you on your journey back to the skies. Follow us on Instagram at @BlackGirlsFlyInc and let's catch you in the sky!

    [EXCLUSIVE] Ready to ditch the fluff and take action? Visit SheBuiltSuccess.com for exclusive downloads, resources, and bonuses to fuel your journey towards real success in both business and life. Let's grow and build together!

    [VIP STRATEGY DAY] Ready to shift to scale? Visit SheBuiltSuccess.com and sign up for VIP strategy days to unlock your business potential and build a firm foundation for success.

    [GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING] Ready to conquer government contracting without the overwhelm? Visit SheBuiltSuccess.com to explore our done-for-you service and let's make your success happen together.


    Unlock your own successful story. Follow Claudia for more!

    Claudia 

    LinkedIn | @claudia

    IG | @boldlyclaudia

    

    She Built Success is produced by EPYC Media Network

    20 min
  • 24: How I Decide What Gets My Attention in Each Season

    “How do you do it all?”


    I get asked that question a lot.


    CEO. Mom. Partner. Nonprofit founder. Student pilot. And whatever other comma happens to come after my name in a particular season.


    But the truth is, I don't do it all at the same time.


    I prioritize.


    In this episode, I’m walking you through one of the frameworks I was using to decide what actually needed my attention during a 12-week cycle.


    I created a nine-box grid covering eight areas:

    Physical.

    Mental.

    Spiritual.

    Professional.

    Relationships.

    Financial.

    Personal.

    Desires.


    The ninth box is where I track dates and progress.


    But here's the part I had to learn.


    When I first started doing this, I tried to fill every category.


    Because apparently my interpretation of prioritization was still: Let's make everything a priority.


    That didn't work.


    Eventually I realized that some categories may get more of me during one 12-week cycle while something else gets less. A priority may even stay with me for multiple cycles.


    That's the give and take.


    At the time of this recording, for example, I had put flying on pause because my daughters' sports schedules needed more of my time. Becoming a private pilot still mattered to me. It simply wasn't getting the same attention in that season.


    I also share how I use monthly reviews to look at what I intended to do, what actually happened and what needs to change.


    Sometimes the answer isn't complicated.


    Sometimes I didn't do something because I simply didn't feel like doing it.


    And I think there's value in being able to admit that too.


    A system shouldn't exist to make you feel bad about everything you didn't accomplish. It should give you enough visibility to decide what comes next.


    In this episode:

    00:00 Intro

    00:28 How I answer “How do you do it all?”

    02:16 The nine-box prioritization grid I use

    02:36 The eight areas I consider in each season

    04:13 Why I stopped trying to prioritize everything at once

    05:22 The category I added for my desires

    06:21 How I review and track my progress

    07:33 When something important has to go on pause

    08:25 Adjusting when the plan doesn't actually happen

    10:19 Choosing your priorities and getting started


    If everything can't be the priority right now, what actually deserves more of your attention in this season?


    Subscribe to She Built Success for more conversations beyond the highlight reel.


    She Built Success explores the stories behind what we build through conversations about business, leadership and personal growth.

    12 min

About She Built Success

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She Built Success is a podcast & video platform for entrepreneurs who are building in real time , not just celebrating wins, but navigating the work behind them.