Dr. Erica Yalavarthi is double board certified in family medicine and obesity medicine, menopause certified, and focused on longevity. After more than two decades inside a medical system that gave her ten minutes per patient, she walked away and built something different: Awaken Face and Body Wellness, a physician-led concierge practice and med spa in St. Louis where clients get 90-minute first appointments, same-day access, and a doctor who actually texts them back. She joins Cynthia to talk about why the traditional model is failing patients, what longevity medicine really means, and why being proactive about your health is the most important investment you will ever make.

This episode covers a lot of ground and earns every minute. You will hear Dr. Yalavarthi break down perimenopause symptoms most women don't know are symptoms, why the scale keeps going up even when you're doing everything right, how GLP-1 medications work and when they're appropriate, and why your labs can be completely normal while your body is telling you something is very wrong. She also shares the health crisis that derailed her own life for two years, what it taught her about the patients she now serves, and what she would tell every woman who has ever been told she's fine when she knows she isn't.

This week Cynthia sits down with Farica Chang, managing partner of Anderson Technologies and founder of Anderson Archival, two St. Louis businesses built around helping people protect what matters most. Farica opens up about the unplanned turns that shaped her path, from a temporary contract job to running a growing company, and the deeply personal story that pulled her toward legacy preservation. It's a conversation about structure and heart in equal measure, about building something lasting while still holding onto what got you there.

This episode is for anyone who feels like their career took a turn they never planned for and wonders if that's actually a good sign. Farica shares how she built the systems and culture that let a small business scale without losing what made it special, and how a personal loss reshaped her sense of purpose. Listeners will walk away with a renewed appreciation for the stories worth capturing now, before it's too late.

Joining Cynthia this episode is Jennifer Belmont Jennings, an estate planning attorney at MGD Law in St. Louis and a former wealth advisor who has spent her career bridging the legal and financial sides of people's lives. Their conversation moves through the winding, sometimes discouraging path that shaped Jennifer's career, the mindset shifts that carried her through hard seasons, and the quiet confidence she's built along the way. It's honest, funny, and full of hard won perspective on what it really takes to find your footing.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt behind, stuck, or unsure whether their path is supposed to look different than it does. Jennifer offers a grounded, encouraging look at what it means to show up fully, protect the people you love, and stop waiting for permission to take up space. Listeners will walk away with a renewed sense of clarity about their own next steps, whatever that looks like.

This week Cynthia is joined by Aoifinn Devitt, a senior member of Moneta's Global Wealth team and a longtime voice in international finance. Aoifinn shares her journey across continents, industries, and life stages, from bold early adventures to major career pivots. It's a conversation full of honesty, humor, and hard won wisdom.

This episode is for any woman who has ever wondered if she's capable of more than she's been told. Aoifinn offers a fresh perspective on risk, leadership, and staying true to yourself through every season of life. Listeners will walk away with the confidence to trust their own path forward.

Holly Breuer is the founder of Prosper CPAs, a St. Louis accounting firm she launched in 2022. It started with a simple question: could you build a firm that provided elite-level service to business owners while also being a genuinely great place to work? Holly spent twenty years in public accounting, including time at large international firms, before deciding the industry didn't have to work the way it did. She joins Cynthia to talk about how Prosper was built differently from day one, why she named it after the people around her instead of herself, and what it takes to grow fast without losing what made you worth joining in the first place.

This episode is for anyone building a business, leading a team, or trying to figure out how to do things differently than the place that shaped them. You will hear how Holly thinks about culture, flexibility, and keeping the right people on the bus. You will hear how she pushed through one of the hardest seasons a person can face to build a career and a firm that reflects everything she wished existed when she was starting out. And you will hear what it sounds like when someone decides that nobody has to fail so that she can succeed.

Taryn Pulliam, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Gadellnet Consulting Services, leads a team that helps organizations align technology with their business goals, from cybersecurity and cloud to AI consulting. But this conversation reaches far beyond IT. Taryn shares the unlikely path that took her from cosmetology school to becoming a powerhouse sales leader in a male dominated industry. She and Cynthia dig into what it really takes to set ambitious goals and do the work to reach them, including the personal sacrifices along the way.

This episode is for any woman with a goal bigger than her current circumstances and the nagging question of whether she has what it takes to reach it. Taryn doesn't hand out tidy answers. She hands you her actual story, the unlikely turns, the moments she had to choose between comfort and growth, and she lets you draw the line to your own life. You'll come away understanding what really separates the people who get there from the people who only talk about it, and why the price is steeper and more worth it than you think. By the end, the goal you've been circling might start to feel less like a someday and more like a decision.

Sara Marler is the founder and managing partner of Marler Law Partners, a family law firm in St. Louis built around a concept that is still rare in the legal profession: trauma-informed practice. By combining rigorous legal representation with healing-centered care from a licensed therapist, Sara and her team have created a firm where clients are seen as whole people navigating one of the hardest seasons of their lives, not just cases to be won or settled. The goal is to turn the temperature down, protect the family unit wherever possible, and leave every client better than they found them.

This episode is for anyone navigating a difficult family situation, working in a high-stress profession, or leading a team through hard things. You will hear how to actually help your kids on transition days after a split, why "I just have to get to 18" is the wrong finish line, and what it means to leave someone better than you found them. Sara also walks through collaborative divorce, how her office is designed down to the scent and the chair sizes to create psychological safety, and what she is teaching law firms and universities about a better way to practice. This is a masterclass in combining emotional intelligence with professional excellence.

Cynthia sits down with Tracy Collins, a St. Louis-based architect and founder of formwork architecture. Early in her career she did something most people would never attempt: she sent her resume to the firm of the architect she admired most in the world, and they said yes. What she built in the years that followed, and what she chose to walk away from, says everything about what real growth actually requires. This is a conversation about ambition, courage, and the surprising thing that sometimes has to happen after you get exactly what you wanted.

This episode is for anyone who has ever stayed somewhere too long because it felt safe, or talked themselves out of a leap because the odds seemed impossible. Tracy speaks openly about hitting a ceiling at her dream job and what she did next. Listeners will come away with a fresh way of thinking about risk, iteration, failure, and what it actually means to build something that lasts, whether that's a building or a career.

In this episode of the She Lift Project Podcast, Cynthia Kirkpatrick sits down with Lauren Colbert, Principal Strategic Facilitator at Filament, a one-of-a-kind analog thinking space located in the Cortex Innovation District in St. Louis. Lauren helps smart people think better together, working with organizations ranging from local nonprofits to Fortune 50 companies to unlock honest conversation, eliminate political noise, and produce real momentum inside rooms where teams have been stuck for years. This episode explores how Lauren built her career, what Filament actually does, and why the way most teams meet is quietly costing them everything.

This episode is for leaders, team builders, and women who have ever felt like the culture around them was slowly suffocating who they really are. Listeners will learn why the best leaders stop trying to have all the answers, how to replace performance with genuine thinking, and what it looks like when a room full of skeptics becomes a room full of believers. After listening, you will walk away with a completely different way of thinking about meetings, leadership, failure, and what it means to show up fully as yourself.

In Episode 74 of the She Lift Project Podcast, Cynthia Kirkpatrick sits down with Paya Sample, CEO of Peak Leaders Collective and executive coach to leaders across industries and education. Paya works with executives, administrators, and managers to build trust-based cultures, develop rising leaders, and lead with authenticity and purpose. Together, Cynthia and Paya explore what it actually means to lead with heart. Paya explains it all, from the neuroscience of emotional pain in the workplace to the personal story of walking away from a principal role she loved without a next step lined up.

This episode is for any woman who has ever been in a culture that drained her, led a team and wondered if she was doing it right, or stayed somewhere too long because leaving felt like quitting. You'll learn Paya's three-part framework for building trust through relationship, belonging, and vulnerability. You'll also learn practical tools for shifting culture, giving feedback differently, and rediscovering your own zone of genius. After listening, you will be equipped to take immediate action as a leader or team member to start building the kind of workplace where people actually want to show up.