The Badass Brand Builder with Emily Hester-DeMello

Chelsea Quint built a career out of a name a client gave her: the business whisperer. In this episode, she and Emily talk about quitting an ad agency job two weeks before her wedding with zero savings, why storytelling is the real foundation of sales, and the metaphor she uses to manage founder anxiety: stop hiding under the covers and actually look under the bed. They also get into the fawn response, the one survival mode founders talk about way less than fight, flight, or freeze, and why it's often the one running the show.

Where to Find Chelsea: Instagram, Website

Hang out with Chelsea at the Guest House virtual retreat, running October 12-15th! Grab your ticket here.

Chelsea Davis spent years in corporate graphic design before launching her own brand and business consultancy five years ago, built to bring design, strategy, messaging, and naming under one roof. In this episode, she and Emily get into running a business with ADHD, what a 67-page Human Design reading actually told her about how she works best, and why she stopped apologizing for needing fewer hours and started treating it as a strategy. They also cover her Guest House resource: a step-by-step process for naming a business or offer that won't get trademarked out from under you later.

Where to find Chelsea: Instagram, Website

Meet Chelsea at the Guest House virtual retreat, October 12-15th. Grab your ticket here.

Glen Tubon went from a busy London physical therapy floor to running Serenique, a virtual assistant business built on the belief that founders can't be everywhere at once. In this episode, they talk about the checklist system they're bringing to The Living Room, why your Instagram is only the shopfront and not the whole store, and what happens to your sleep once you finally hand off the backend.

Where to find Glen: Instagram

Find Glen in The Living Room inside The Guest House, October 12–15. Buy your ticket here.

Kristin Winstanley has spent over 20 years as a CPA, and she's convinced most business owners don't have a numbers problem. They have a numbers-avoidance problem. In this episode, she and Emily talk about the high school conversation that put her on the path to accounting, why community still beats AI when it comes to actually running your business, and the money hub dashboard she's bringing to The Study to turn your weekly financial check-in into a five-to-thirty-minute habit instead of a dreaded chore.

Where to find Kristin: Website, Instagram, Threads

Catch Kristin's round table in The Study inside The Guest House, October 12–15. Grab your Guest House ticket here.

Alyssa Moorhead calls herself a DM sales gal, and after 11 years building a done-for-you Instagram DM sales agency, she's earned it. In this episode, she and Emily talk about getting sober in Louisville after 12 years in New York, why so many women avoid outbound sales because they're afraid of coming across as too much, and the eight-ingredient content recipe she's bringing to the retreat to help you close sales in the DMs instead of just collecting them.

Where to find Alyssa: Instagram, Website

Join the free Sales on Repeat challenge, starting September 28th, for a free lead tracker and a look at combining DMs and email to close more sales.

Find Alyssa inside The Guest House, October 12–15. Grab your Guest House ticket here.

Alex Dimattia spent 17 years in hospitality before she ever opened a design program, then taught herself graphic design from scratch after an unplanned move to Florida. Four years later, she's building bold, playful brands for creative entrepreneurs who are done blending in. In this episode, she talks about the surgery that knocked her business out for weeks, the network of founders who billed her back to nearly $10K in a single week, and the tool she's bringing to The Vanity Room that treats your brand like a radio station.

Where to find alexandra: Instagram, Threads, Facebook, LinkedIn, Website

Find Alex in The Vanity Room inside The Guest House. October 12-15. Grab your ticket today.

Laura Haley calls herself a revenue strategist for travel creators, which mostly means she tells them the truth: a big following doesn't pay the bills, a business does. In this episode, she and Emily talk about the trip to France that made her cut her to-do list down to four or five things that actually make money, and Laura introduces the Outbox Template, the resource she's bringing to help founders resurrect their email marketing without starting from a blank page every month.

Where to find Laura: Instagram and Podcast

Find Laura inside The Guest House, October 12–15. Grab your ticket right now.

Sarah Cox spent almost 20 years in corporate HR before burnout pushed her into teaching Pilates, and from there into online marketing almost by accident. Now she helps coaches and service providers find the actual leak between the leads coming in and the clients signing on, instead of chasing whatever new tactic is trending. In this episode, she talks about the mentor who pulled her into marketing, why "shiny object syndrome" keeps founders stuck, and the diagnostic tool she's bringing to The Front Porch.

Where to find Sarah: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram

Find Sarah on The Front Porch inside The Guest House, October 12-15, 2026. Grab your ticket here.

Steph Rubio has spent 20 years watching businesses leak money in the spaces between sales, delivery, and operations, and she's convinced most of us are using the word "strategy" wrong. In this episode, she talks about the imposter syndrome that came with sitting across from Harvard grads, the mentor who helped her find her superpower, and the exercise she's bringing to The Attic that starts with your life, not your to-do list.

Where to find Steph: Instagram: virtual_stephrubio Podcast: Rooted and Relentless

Catch Steph live at her round table inside The Guest House, the virtual retreat for women business owners, on October 15 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific. Get your Guest House tickets here.

Rachael Perry built her Chicago agency from a single client to six figures in under a year, without chasing virality. In this episode, she makes the case for what she calls an "inbound life": pitching less, getting invited more, and using community and visibility to bring in speaking gigs, podcast guest spots, and brand partnerships. She and Emily also get into why AI-generated marketing keeps failing people, and what actually builds trust right now.

Where to find Rachael: Instagram and Website

Catch Rachael's Inbound Index session inside The Guest House, October 12–15. Click here to purchase your ticket.