She's WILD

Today's guest on She's Wild, is Alissa Sieben, a third generation Tampa native, Alissa has always had a passion for real estate and entrepreneurship.  With an experienced grandfather who shared his interests with her, she committed herself to learning the business through a legal lens. After earning her JD and working in land use straight out of law school, Alissa felt the need to make a change and gear her career more toward collaboration, teamwork, and creativity.  She joined a local affordable housing firm and was subsequently approached by the 2nd Wave Development founders about joining the team in its infancy.

Alissa has worn every hat in the development world and now, as 2nd Wave’s SVP, she devotes her time to overseeing the teams responsible for design, development, construction, and leasing of the company’s luxury multi-family development projects throughout the southeastern U.S.  Helping grow the 2nd Wave team over the last five years has been one of the greatest challenges and honors of Alissa’s life and she cherishes the ability to work collaboratively with such a talented team daily.

In today's episode, we discuss Alissa's journey into development, her love of working on all aspects of building multifamily projects, and how she's grown into a leadership role at 2nd Wave. This show will leave you inspired to pursue your dreams.  

Memorable Moments: 

8:45 We specifically curate every portion of a project based on what the community wants and needs. And based on the individual history of that community. We have gone through this process and refine everything in house based on what we see. We do a lot of market research, based on what the residents want. 

22:43 Someone once told me, I think it was like in jest, that they thought I think that, if I flapped my arms hard enough that I could fly. And I think, it's one of the things I'm most proud of. I think that every woman should truly believe and everybody in general should really believe in themselves. I highly encourage everyone to really try to internalize that viewpoint because it can only create success.

24:38 Don't get discouraged by failure or somebody telling you you can't. Some of the people that I've seen rise the fastest and be the most competent in construction have been women. Because having that different viewpoint in the room is so pivotal, and it makes such a difference. There just are things that women provide to this industry that are different and are incredible. And I would add, always be persistent. If there's something that you want, do not stop trying to go for it.

Connect with Nancy:

Instagram:https://instagram.com/nancysurak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/

Website: www.nancysurak.com

Connect with Alissa:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alissasieben/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/2nd-wave-development/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alissasieben/

https://www.instagram.com/2ndwavedevelopment/

Website: https://www.2ndwavedevelopment.com/

She’s Wild Sound Production by: Luke Surak, Surak Productions:  [email protected]

Welcome back to the second season of She’s Wild, the Podcast for Women in Land & Development. Today's guest is Beth Azor, ‘The Canvassing Queen®’. Beth is the founder and CEO of Azor Advisory Services (AAS), a leading commercial real estate advisory and investment firm based in Weston, Florida. Beth currently owns and manages five shopping centers in Florida valued at over $80 million. She travels the U.S. consulting with, brokering deals for and training associates in the commercial real estate industry. 

She also wrote two books detailing her experience in the real estate world and her secret sauce for success. Don’t Say No for the Prospect was published in 2019 followed up by The Retail Leasing Playbook in 2020. Beth also founded the Women’s Real Estate Investment Summit and co-founded the South Florida Independent Retailer Awards®, both held annually. 

A graduate of FSU, she  is a former Foundation Trustee and is past Chairwoman of the Board, and Founder of the FSU Real Estate Foundation. Beth is a past President of the Board of Directors of HOPE Outreach Center in Davie, Florida and co-founder of 100+ Women Who Care in South Florida. 

In this episode, we discuss Beth’s career, how she became known as the ‘The Canvassing Queen®’, why she decided to begin making her own investments in commercial real estate, and how she’s working to help other women also invest. 

Register for Women’s Real Estate Investment Summit 2023 (use Code SHESWILD25 for 25% discount by Feb 1, 2023)

https://www.azoracademy.com/women-s-real-estate-investment-summit-2023

Memorable Moments: 

3:23 I found out two years ago that only 3% of investors in commercial real estate are women. And so I have a goal to get that to 10% by 2030. 

23:10 There's a Harvard study that that says that 90% of the salespeople will call once 70, we'll call twice 50 will call three times 30 will call for, like, by the fifth or sixth time it's 2%. And the buyers buy after the sixth or seventh touch.

25:26 100% leased screams to me the rents too low. If it's in a good market. 

45:31 I put women on stage that are investors, because what I've learned in my surveys is that women are afraid. They think investing is too complicated. And they don't know other women that are doing it. So there's a saying, if you see it, you can be it. So I've had women on stage that bought their first shopping center, their first self storage, their fourth hotel, and their 10,000th apartment unit.

49:44 I think work ethic is the number one thing because it's the only thing we can control. We can't control that we're female. We can't control the economy. We can't control bosses that are awful. We can't control interest rates but we can control is our work work ethic and, and by far, that is the number one thing that's contributed to any success I've had. I was there on Saturdays, I was there late at night.

Connect with Nancy:

Instagram:https://instagram.com/nancysurak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/

Website: www.nancysurak.com

Connect with Beth:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethazor/

Instagram: @bethazor

She’s Wild Sound Production by: Luke Surak, Surak Productions:  [email protected]

Welcome to the second season of She’s Wild, the Podcast for Women in Land & Development. Today's guest is Michelle DiFebo Freeman, the owner and CEO of the Carl M. Freeman Companies, a Real Estate company established in 1947, that specializes in land acquisition, land planning, development and redevelopment, and the management of award-winning, amenity-rich residential communities, neighborhood shopping centers and commercial properties. 

Michelle is president and chairman of the Carl M. Freeman Foundation and the founding Chair of the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation, which honors her late husband Joshua Freeman by providing arts and arts education to create opportunities to elevate the human spirit.  Among the numerous awards for business and philanthropic leadership, Michelle received the 2014 Irene and Abe Pollin Humanitarian Award on behalf of the Carl M. Freeman Foundation, Coastal Style Magazine’s Business Woman of the Year for 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Michelle is also a minority partner in Monumental Sports and Entertainment which owns Capital One Arena, the Washington Capitals, Wizards, Mystics and Valor Football. She is one of 13 female NBA team owners and In 2013 Elle Magazine named her as one of the 10 Most Influential Women in Washington, D.C. 

In this episode, Michelle and I discuss her career journey, what it was like after her husband unexpectedly passed away in a tragic accident, how she rebuilt her company after the 2009 recession, and why she loves working in development, philanthropy, and sports. For Michelle it’s all about the human connection and by the end of this show you'll understand why. 

Memorable Moments: 

14:28. Believe it or not, loneliness became a huge thing for me coming out of losing my own husband, and going through the downturn, and coming out of COVID. How do people that live in our communities meet one another drove everything we did. Soft programming and creating opportunities for people to be together in Bayside became a huge thing for us as a company.

31:35. I think when it comes to women being in business, you need other women who push you forward who tell you, you can. Who encourage you, but you also need men who make space at the table for you.

37:44. I am a die-hard person who believes in capitalism, who believes in entrepreneurialism, who believes that this is the greatest country in the world, because we can build business here. I am a go-getter. I do go after a business opportunity. I can make the places where I live, I can be dedicated to making them better, AND still be a good businessperson. And those things can coexist at the same time.

Connect with Nancy: 

Instagram:https://instagram.com/nancysurak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/

Connect with Michelle:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-difebo-freeman/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michfreeman1/

Watch Michelle’s TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEYvn4YiXWk

https://www.freemancompanies.com/

https://www.livebayside.com/

https://monumentalsports.com/

Michelle’s Podcast Recommendation: 

The Daily https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736

Michelle’s Favorite Book: Who Moved My Cheese Book via Amazon: https://a.co/d/83UoCdo

She’s Wild Sound Production by Luke Surak, Surak Productions:  [email protected]

Welcome back to the She’s Wild Podcast. Today's guest is Jessica Abramson, Senior Development Manager at Stiles Corporation. Jessica is an owner representative on retail real estate development projects. She focuses on project planning and coordination, due diligence, obtaining government approvals, budgeting, and scheduling. She’s worked with numerous clients including Publix, The Fresh Market, Trader Joe’s, Ross, Five Below, Planet Fitness, Rooms to Go, Chase Bank, SunTrust Bank, Chipotle, and Starbucks. 

Jessica is active in the Urban Land Institute’s Southeast Florida Region serving on the Florida Retail Project Council, is a graduate of Leadership Broward Class XXXIV, and is active on the Advisory Board for the NSU MSRED program and Alumni Association. 

In this episode, Jessica and I discuss her career and why she loves working in development. She offers insight on 5 skills she thinks are critical for success as a commercial real estate developer. She also offers a ton of advice if you are new to the business. 

Memorable Moments: 

19:11  Skills to be successful in development include technical skills such as analyzing financials. But it's also negotiating and influencing others. If you're working with a team and you need to influence them to work on your project to get things done. You might work with an architect who has 10 projects, you need to know how to make that person feel like yours is the most important. And then the other skill is to strategically think about problem solving. You're either trying to prevent a problem or you're trying to solve a problem. 

19:52. Thinking outside of the box and understanding what to do to make everybody satisfied or to get this done or to get past this hurdle and then getting your team on board to come up with a solution or to agree with what you think the solution might be. Our job is just to, to keep the project moving. And we might have, a large team and that might also include government officials who don't always have the same priorities that you have. 

30:56  If you are a young person getting into the business, milk the student card, as much as you can, even if just say, hey, I'm new to the business call people you want to talk to almost anybody will talk to you for a little while, or have a phone conversation or talk to you at a networking event. Because once you get you know, many years into the business, it's a lot harder to to use that card. 

31:18  Young professionals should attend every networking event possible. Introduce yourself, make connections. And then as you're doing that, learn about different career paths. Talk to as many people as you can as possible early on in your career.

Connect with Nancy:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/

Website: www.nancysurak.com

Connect with Jessica:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-abramson-68003a19/

Twitter: @Jejoly619

Jessica's Book Recommendation:

Risk Game by Francis J. Greenburger via Amazon: https://a.co/d/7zXDxKU

The Liar$ Ball by by Vicky Ward via Amazon: https://a.co/d/dOiCZTp

Jessica's Podcast Recommendation: The Fort Podcast with Chris Powers http://thefortpod.com/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fort-with-chris-powers/id1410549811

Nancy's Twitter Recommendation: StripMallGuy @realEstateTrent

She’s Wild Sound Production by:

Luke Surak, Surak Productions:  [email protected]

Welcome back to the She’s Wild Podcast. Today's episode is an interview with Cait Donovan,  Host of Fried, The Burnout Podcast. Cait is also the author of The Bouncebackability Factor where you can learn how to end burnout, gain resilience, and change the world. Her book and podcast is for everyone who has ever felt FRIED with a special focus on the female entrepreneur. In a world where women are told that they can have it all and be it all, the high achievers are looking down from the top of the mountain and wondering why it doesn’t feel as good as they thought it might.

In this episode, Cait and I talk about burnout and get into an honest conversation about what burnout really is and how to get back to a healthier place. 

Memorable Moments: 

3:34 And I had everything that I could have ever dreamed of wanting. Because I did not grow up in a place where where I had the example of large amounts of money, large amounts of financial success. You know, everything was always a struggle. So I got to this place where I was like, oh my god, I can check off all these boxes that I never thought I'd be able to check off. Why am I so miserable? Why is my body breaking down? Why am I so tired? Why am I so resentful toward my patients? Every time I got a phone call. I was like what do people want from me? Like I couldn't even and it sounds I say these things with like full knowledge of how awful it sounds for a healthcare practitioner to feel resentful toward their patients. I understand what it sounds like. I'm telling you that it's embarrassing, but also the truth. I didn't realize what I was going through was burnout until like six or seven years later.

11:50 But our brains are designed or designed to find the thing that we find pleasurable, get it as much as we can, and then become complacent and want something more. That is literally how our brains are designed. And originally, that helped us travel further. It helped us intermingle genes with further, right, like tribes. And because we were spread out because we were searching for something more because we were pushing our boundaries. 

15:52 And the more we start respecting other people's calendars, the more our calendars will start to be respected. But at the end of the day, no one respects your calendar, if you don't.

21:07 The emotional side to me is, if anything changes in your day, last minute, you absolutely lose your mind. So if one thing gets added to your to do list, or one person asks you one additional question, or you get one email that you weren't expecting to get, it throws everything off completely, you have no emotional space for flexibility and responding and reacting because you are so close to the edge, that no matter what, it'll just throw you right off.

22:54 On top of that, I see massive amounts of resentment. When you're burnt out. Everything feels unfair. I'm doing all these things for all these people. And I'm not getting the gratitude, I'm not getting the praise, I'm not getting the speaking slot, I'm not getting the I'm all these things, and I'm not getting what I deserve in return.

23:37 And then there's a host of physical symptoms, headaches, anxiety, gut issues, inability to sleep, low libido, foggy brain, neurological symptoms, there's a whole host of symptoms that could that you know, the kind that you go to your doctor and your doctor does your bloodwork and he's like, everything's fine. And you're like, it's not it's not I'm not fine. I'm not fine over here.

30:07 So if you are afraid that you're burnt out, you are burnt out.

Connect with Cait Donovan:

Instagram: Cait_Donovan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitdonovanspeaks/

https://friedtheburnoutpodcast.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/friedtheburnoutpodcast

https://caitdonovan.com

Speaking Inquiry: https://www.caitdonovan.com/speaking

Resentful Journal: https://www.caitdonovan.com/resentment-journal

Where to Start If You Think You Might Be Burnt Out & Want to Recover: https://www.caitdonovan.com/blog/what-episodes-of-fried-do-i-listen-to-first-for-burnout-recovery

Cait’s Book Recommendation: The Body Keeps the Score via Amazon: https://a.co/d/iPUUxfu

Connect with Nancy:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/

Website: www.nancysurak.com

She’s Wild Sound Production by:

Luke Surak, Surak Productions: [email protected]

Welcome back to the She’s Wild Podcast. Today's episode is a rebroadcast of my interview on The She Believed She Could Podcast with Allison Walsh. In this episode, Allison and I talk about the pivotal moment when I decided to invest in working on my personal brand and what I've learned in the process. 

Memorable Moments: 

10:00  Women who really want to have like high income potential as a broker, there's no there's no cap. It's, it's hard if I want to work as many deals as I can get teed up, but there are very few of us. So we have to really rally each other.

18:02  But with COVID You know, bringing it back to COVID. I think professional worlds and personal worlds completely collided. We were having zoom calls and continue in some cases to have zoom calls in each other's kitchen, in our backyards, our lives of blended. And so now more than ever before, I think people have now a personal brand because we're all looking into each other's personal lives.

22:03. Because ultimately, we all have a personal brand. And if we're not cultivating that message, and we're not cultivating those images, we're leaving it up to our audience to do it for us. Our clients, our employees are our employers, whatever, we're allowing them to say, here's who you are, instead of us saying, here's who I am.

Connect with Allison:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonkreigerwalsh/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonwalsh/
Website: https://www.allisonwalshconsulting.com/
She Believed She Could Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/she-believed-she-could-podcast/id1505347834
She Believed She Could Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/shebelievedshecouldcommunity

Connect with Nancy:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/

Website: www.nancysurak.com

A closer look and my Brand Launch: https://www.allisonwalshconsulting.com/post/i-love-it-when-women-go-for-it

She’s Wild Sound Production by:

Luke Surak, Surak Productions: [email protected]

Welcome back to the She’s Wild Podcast! Today's episode is a rebroadcast of my interview on Dream Job with Danielle Cobo. In this show, Danielle and I talk all about what it’s like for me as a woman in a male-dominated industry, why it is critical to invest in yourself, how to know when it’s time to pivot in your career, knowing what and what not to share on social media, and much more. 

Memorable Moments: 

4:05   When I decided to switch to commercial brokerage, commercial real estate brokerage, I was going from a salaried position to straight commission. And I sat down and I did a financial plan on my own as part of my business plan. 

7:52   In my field, education has always been a predominant thing where I'll invest. You know, I have a master's degree from the University of Florida. Once I got into the land brokerage business, I invested in getting specific professional designations to help me qualify, for my customer that I know what the heck I'm talking about.

11:35    For me, it was about recognizing that when I'm not in the room, people have an impression of me. When I'm not in the room, they may say things that I can't control. But if I can be proactive and get ahead of what is it that they will say, when I'm not there, then that's a personal brand.

24:33    If there are awards in your local community or region or state, or industry that you have the ability to either self-apply for, or someone else a boss can make the application on your behalf. I would definitely say to do that. Because you never really know. And this may sound silly, you never know who you're going up against. We're all busy. We're all going 100 miles an hour. And sometimes you might only be up against two or three other people and that award could be so substantial.

Connect with Elite Career Coach, Danielle Cobo:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dream-job-with-danielle-cobo-podcast/id1569196916

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellecobo/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TheDanielleCobo

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedaniellecobo/

Books and Workbooks:

FREE Career Accelerator Digital Workbook: https://www.daniellecobo.com/career-acceleration

FREE Crush Your Quota Digital Workbook: https://www.daniellecobo.com/sales-performance
Promo Code for $30 off: dreamjob

Connect with Nancy:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/

Website: www.nancysurak.com

She’s Wild Sound Production by:

Luke Surak, Surak Productions: [email protected]

Welcome back to the She’s Wild Podcast hosted by Nancy Surak! Today's episode is about the 5 biggest red flags that I see in vacant land contracts. I hope that the tips shared throughout today’s episode provide insight on how you can improve the process on both the buyer and seller’s side of deals. 

Memorable Moments: 

3:07- Contract formatting, spelling, and grammar make a huge difference for sellers that are reviewing contracts for the brokers that are reviewing contracts and for the legal staff that's doing as well.

3:19- When you submit an offer, whether it's in contract or a letter of intent, and you include an absurdly low deposit, that you as the buyer are willing to put forward for earnest money or to deposit money. It's a red flag

5:45- The third red flag, no closing date, and no dates at all associated with performance mechanisms in the contract, is a red flag.

6:26- Using terms like I will close, when I have all permits, I will close when I have all entitlements, I will close when I have all government approvals is problematic. And it's a red flag.

9:12- In Florida, the words Time is of the Essence means that the closing date or the dates in the contract specifically or the days that are noted, have meaning - they actually matter from a legal perspective.

10:51- If a buyer is producing a contract, and they have a section that says, we have the right to assign this contract to whoever we want, at any point in the deal, and we don't need any permission to do that. It's a red flag.

Connect with Nancy:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/

Website: www.nancysurak.com

She’s Wild Sound production by:

Luke Surak, Surak Productions: [email protected]

Welcome back to the She’s Wild the Podcast for Women In Land & Development. Today’s guest is Tanya Targett Camacho. Often referred to as the "Media Darling" -- Tanyai s a former investigative news journalist turned video, speaking, and business development strategist. Always walking her talk, Tanya used the power of speaking and publicity to go from single mother living on welfare in Queensland, Australia, to international speaker on stages worldwide. She created 6-figure revenues in her first 6 months, and then multiple 6-figures in revenues within her first three years. Now based in Southern California with her husband and two girls, Tanya has since shared the stage with $1 Billion Dollar Man and New York Times #1 Best Selling Author Jeff Walker, making the Top 10 in his global online launch marketing competition. Tanya’s students span 12 countries and have generated over $7.4 million in free publicity appearing in the New York Times, Forbes, Huffington Post, and on CNN, BBC World News, and FOX — to name a few

In today's episode, Tanya dives deep into the topic of financial literacy. She shares a wealth of tips and insights that are sure to equip you with the knowledge and foresight you need to meet your financial goals. During the episode, she provides information on where most people struggle and miss the mark when it comes to their finances. She also offers her own unique perspective of money which helps to put many issues in sharper focus.

Memorable Moments: 

4:47- The first thing that I do when I'm helping women and I'm helping families is firstly making it a safe place because there's nothing there's so much shame around money, and there's so much shame around the educated women not being set up for financial literacy.

5:17- The first step in financial freedom is to forgive yourself, right? It's not your fault. This financial literacy is not something that we learn in school, there's only half a dozen schools in the country that actually have a financial literacy subject as a requirement to graduate.

6:20- We all need to know that it's okay to be where we are. It's okay to start where we are. And it's not our fault.

9:50- We really do want to track everything so we can see where our money is going. And we can also see what subscriptions might need to be cancelled. How can we free up some money to start saving? Have we been over charged for something good, we get a fee and we can move our money somewhere else.

11:29- So the rule of 72 is if you take the number 72, and you divide it, but whatever rate of interest you're getting, right? The answer will tell you how long your money will take to double.

12:08- It's not that people kind of get out of debt is that they don't have the right debt reduction strategy in place. And so we have a look at all these different vehicles, what income do you have coming in? What investments do you have? What credit cards do you have? What interest rate are you paying? Because often by consolidating, or simply switching providers, or having a different pay down strategy, you can actually free up some money to invest in you and your Wealth Blueprint

14:02- In our bank, we should have at least a 90 day emergency fund, that's cash just for covering expenses, should something happen to us. So that means our utilities paid, our car insurances paid, at least 90 days, three months to cover those expenses.

15:14- If your employer is matching your contribution to your 401 K, you want to put in exactly what you need to to get matched, right? That's free money all day every day.

26:20- What I've seen working in the financial services and just services industry with money and investments, is the impact is very quick, and you can make a difference.

27:28- When it comes to money if I was to say to you, what are you worth an hour? What's your first response? Not what do you get paid? What are you worth an hour, because if you want to be in charge, and $50 or $500 an hour, but in your mind, you think you're only worth $47 $97 an hour, your bank balance is gonna reflect your beliefs.

27:54- So they say when it comes to to creating wealth, it's 80% mindset and 20% skill set. So we want to start with that end in mind, and we want to get very clear about what our goals are and build the skills at the same time that we change to help change that mindset.

31:43- The big tip for wherever you are on your financial journey right now, guys, is you've got to, if investing 20% scares the heck out of you, and you can't do it on a totally get you've got to start somewhere, please shell out that 90 Day emergency fund

34:22- Congrats for listening to the voice that's telling you to pivot because it takes guts because it is scary, takes guts listen to that voice.

Connect with Nancy:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/

Website: www.nancysurak.com

Connect with Tanya:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyatargettcamacho/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanyatargettcamacho/

Link to her booking page --> https://www.tanyatargettcamacho.com/book

Tanya’s Book Recommendations: 

1. The Financial Pocket Knife
   1. The Financial Pocketknife - Beating the Dream Killers!
2. The Power of Zero
   1. https://www.amazon.com/Power-Zero-Revised-Updated/dp/B07G8J4BNV/ref=sr_1_4?gclid=Cj0KCQiA4OybBhCzARIsAIcfn9kmNp7ZeHx3v2vthISHDDgpfjL71268Xu9ZbCVaq-_qY3Par9lRjXIaAoq7EALw_wcB&hvadid=241624207879&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1015237&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=14283324150853080643&hvtargid=kwd-142513603933&hydadcr=22562_10354929&keywords=the+power+of+zero+book&qid=1669082618&sr=8-4
3. The Power of the Dow

Welcome back to the She’s Wild the Podcast for Women In Land & Development. Today’s guest is Emily Soloby, CEO of Juno Jones - The Stylish Safety Boot Company. Emily has been on a mission to help women from the beginning of her career. While earning her BA in Women's Studies, she worked as a domestic violence victim advocate. During law school she served as Legal Intern at the National Organization for Women in DC, which solidified her passion for advocacy work. Following law school, Emily worked as a trial attorney with Legal Aid, helping women and children in family law and domestic violence cases. She went on to receive her Master's Degree in Broadcasting.  As a lifelong boot lover, Emily not only bought a lot of boots, but spent time hand-making and learning the craft of shoe-making in Cuernavaca, Mexico and the Brooklyn Shoe Space in New York. In 2009, she and her husband Ryan took over AAA School of Trucking, a truck and heavy equipment safety training firm, which she has helped grow into a national business. It was during her years there that she noticed the footwear problem—there wasn’t any! Determined to create safety boots that she’d actually want to wear, Emily assembled a powerhouse team of designers, consultants, and industry experts to bring Juno Jones to life.

In today's episode, we discuss the Juno Jones - The Stylish Safety Boot Company and its origin. The progress Emily and her team have made throughout the years to take the company nationwide all through organic web traffic is remarkable. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, this episode will inspire you to take the next step in making your dreams a reality!

Memorable Moments: 

4:20- There were so many things I noticed that were lacking for women in the trucking industry, but being a fashion lover and especially being a shoe lover. So one thing that was really bugging me was that there were just no options for footwear, especially safety footwear.

8:46- I came from a middle-class household. I worked part-time jobs. It's not like I had endless money for boots. So I would save up for them. And then it would be a big deal. I'd go buy the pair of boots that I wanted.

10:24- We don't advertise. It's really all organic. At this point, we post about what we're doing on social. We have a Facebook group called hazard girls, we first have the Hazard Girls Podcast, and we spread the word through the communities online.

13:03- Obviously nothing would be possible without us having a good team behind me. So that's how I do it. I have a lot of people who are working behind the scenes to make things happen.

14:00- I think it's easy to get caught in decision paralysis and to kind of get caught up in, you know, working on aspects of the idea that aren't going to move you forward.

18:12- Every woman who is in a male-populated industry has a big story to tell. So we want to hear it.

25:30- Our mission is to empower women in these industries. It's really the main mission that we have.

Connect with Nancy:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/

Website: www.nancysurak.com

Connect with Emily:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilysoloby/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junojonesshoes/

https://www.instagram.com/emilysoloby/

https://www.instagram.com/hazardgirlspodcast/

Website: https://junojonesshoes.com/

Podcast: https://jacketmediaco.com/podcasts/hazard-girls/

Emily’s Podcast Recommendation: 

1. The Empowering Podcast by Charlie Matthews
   1. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/empowering-women-podcast-s2-charli-k-matthews-empowering/id1457290025?i=1000477914238