SheVentures

Do you want to be a bad bitch with a power pitch? That's what Precious L. Williams is selling — helping women (and only women!) have the confidence to pitch and build their businesses.

Williams pivots include: from attorney to founder and CEO of Curvy Girlz Lingerie to a killer pitch master and professional speaker with 13 pitch competition wins under her belt — including an enviable appearance on Shark Tank.

Despite her battles with alcoholism, mental disorders, and homelessness, Williams embraces her past trauma to fuel her current success. Listen as she gets real about stigmatization and self-confidence, and as she provides, well, killer tips for public speaking, all on this episode of SheVentures.

Laura Rebell Gross's parents instilled female empowerment in her from a young age. Now she is shaping the lives of countless underserved, low-income young women as the Managing Director of Girls' Education at Student Leadership Network, overseeing five all-girls public schools (The Young Women's Leadership Schools) in NYC and 15 affiliate schools nationally.

Listen as she talks about female-focused events, Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama, and what she has learned from her students.

Tara Langdale-Schmidt is no stranger to pain. When sex became impossible for her and her then-fiancé, and doctors were flummoxed, Langdale-Schmidt knew she had to take matters into her own hands.

Find out how she created, tested and brought her sexual therapy product to market on this episode of SheVentures.

Imagine representing not one, but two consecutive Grammy-nominated (including one Grammy winner) clients before you even hit 30? For Lydia Liebman, that became a reality this year when she saw herself at the Grammys for the second year in a row. Born to two successful musicians, Liebman was immersed in the jazz scene from the get-go. She took jazz vocal lessons at age 10, but quickly realized that a life working her magic behind the scenes was more up her alley.

Liebman began her PR career by helping friends and musicians in college, and she's never looked back. She is dedicated to amplifying female jazz musicians in a male-dominated industry. Find out how she makes it all happen on this episode of SheVentures.

Growing up in Durham, North Carolina, D'Shawn Russell was no stranger to racial tensions and prejudices. Her great-grandmother and grandmother were huge influences on her life, and she still applies their values to her business today. After a 22-year stint as a math teacher, Russell realized it wasn't the path she was meant to embrace. So she did what many of us wish we could do: She turned her hobby into her full-time job.

Russell founded Southern Elegance Candle Company — where candles throwback to a simpler time and are made using locally sourced products — and hasn't looked back since. Each candle represents a place that has meaning to her in the South. Find out how she dealt with racism and sexism on a regular basis as she grew her company from the ground up. You'll get it all on this episode of SheVentures.

It's Financial Literacy Month, and national student loan debt has reached a menacing $1.6 trillion. Yep. Trillion. Talitha Oliveri, businesswoman turned high school teacher, is seeking to combat the debt culture that is so prevalent in the U.S. today. How? By providing stellar financial literacy education at her school in Hopedale, Massachusetts.

With 20 years of experience under her belt, Oliveri has seen it all, and realizes that sharing her personal experience with finance growing up is one of the best ways to get students to learn.

Since recording, Oliveri was named 2019 Massachusetts Business Teacher of the Year. She will work with the Worcester County District Attorney's office to bring a financial literacy program to the entire county!

Oliveri believes that if we teach personal finance from an early age, we will improve lives and outcomes as well as the economy.

Let's face it. With a $1.6 trillion national student loan debt issue, it's no wonder parents want to know how to save for their kids' education. Enter Ksenia Yudina, who has created an app called U-Nest, which simplifies the college savings process.

Originally from Russia, Yudina is a certified financial planner with an MBA from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and a mom of three. Her mission is to raise financial literacy by making saving for college as easy as downloading an app.

Yudina's vision is to demystify 529 college savings plans and ensure no one ever feels intimidated about setting one up. U-Nest is a free download from Apple's App Store. The small $2.95 management fee is being waived for three months for anyone who enrolls by May 29, 2019.

Tired of the lack of female role models in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) field, Sarita Menon, Ph.D. in cancer biology, decided to take matters into her own hands. With a multitude of amazing women in the sciences, Menon is featuring them on a platform where science doesn't normally shine — glossy magazines.

Smore, a bimonthly glossy for girls aged 7-12, features promising female scientists on the cover and throughout.

Her inspiration? After arriving in the U.S. from India to complete her higher education, Menon was shocked that more women weren't encouraged to go into STEM and realized that more emphasis was needed earlier on in their lives, by showing them female role models today.

You'll get it all on this episode of SheVentures.

Finance often has a way of controlling our lives, whether we want it to or not. But what if you were already two steps behind before the financial race began?

Cait Howerton, financial coach and CFP candidate, turned her "mess" into her "message," and is speaking openly about the pitfalls that the LGBTQ+ community faces in the financial sphere.

Howerton, who talks in detail of her difficulties coming out to her family, is channeling her experiences into knowledge and leadership for the LGBTQ+ community and the financial community alike.

On this episode of SheVentures, we get real.

After losing her husband to cancer around the same time she herself was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, you might think a woman left to raise three teenagers on her own would crumble. But Sally Kalksma took her anger out on, well, stairs. She channeled her emotions into stair-climbing competitions, racing up some of the world's most notable buildings like the Empire State and the Eiffel Tower.

She is also writing a book called Life Gets in the Way about her trials and her ability to see humor in anything, including her own circumstances. Listen to Kalksma's infectious energy as she takes you through how to cope with loss, cancer, and 600 floors' worth of stairs on this episode of SheVentures.