On this incredibly special episode, Chanel Reynolds shares with Joleen her deeply emotional story of how she took one of the hardest tragedies one can face and turned it into a triumph that goes on to help others. After the sudden passing of her husband, Chanel founded "Get Your Shit Together" to help others face critical end-of-life matters to be prepared for the unexpected. Chanel's personal experience turned into her life's passion, and her book "What Matters Most" highlights the importance of always having a plan. Her resilience, incredible strength, and fierceness make Chanel not only a badass woman, but also a badass entrepreneur. Her very important message is a must-listen to all.

"All communities are made better by arts and music." Kate Becker, the Creative Economy Strategist at Office of King County Executive Dow Constantine, has dedicated her career to developing a thriving creative economy. Passionate about the arts from an early age, Kate has had an inspirational rise from all-ages club promoter to founder of the Vera Project to our region's key driver of economic policy for the creative arts. One of our most powerful leaders, Kate is traveling the country to evangelize the concept of a creative economy and to also learn from other cities. She shares some of the biggest challenges that artists and small businesses who support the arts community face in growing cities and how regional government can make a positive difference in supporting the arts.

Can you imagine attending a meeting and actually accomplishing something?! Human-Centered Strategy is just one of the tools Intentional Futures provides for its clients. The company co-founded by Michael Dix, solves hard problems that matter and help launch big ideas. He sits down with Joleen to tell his story from his experience establishing an Internet venture in China, running a new practice at Siegel & Gale and solving product and marketing challenges at Microsoft, and how that led him to cultivate (not build) this fantastic company.

From Moscow to Kentucky to Seattle and back again, Zeptolab CEO Misha Lyalin loves to build things. From his beginnings as a programming contractor at Microsoft to the CEO of one of the most successful gaming companies in the world, Misha's a true visionary. From Zeptolab's offices in Barcelona, Misha shares the strategy behind Cut the Rope, King of Thieves and CATS Crash Arena Turbo Stars and how these brands have exploded into pop culture and changed the face of casual gaming.

In New York City, in reaction to increasing spectacle and extravagance of Broadway shows, Jane Jones dreamed of returning theater to a place of authentic listening. Once back in Seattle, Myra Platt joined Jane to create Book-It Repertory Theater, the first theater group to adapt literature into theater. Joleen chats with the creators of the "Book-It" style about the fascinating journey of a group of artists who have created, funded and launched a successful theater company that has been delighting audiences for over 32 years. Jane and Myra also discuss how the trials and tribulations of non-profit arts organization mirror any start-up company, and how important it is for our communities to support the arts.

90% of women have an idea but only 10% do something about it, and only 4% of patent applications are filed by women. As the adage goes, necessity is the mother of all invention. But, how does a great idea go from that to market, to a success. Hilary Meyerson and Mina Yoo teamed up together to build the roadmap to demystify the process of taking inventions to market and beyond. Their book "Be an InventHer: An Everywoman's Guide to Creating the Next Big Thing" combines straightforward advice, encouragement and success stories of other female inventors with the underlying message to give it a shot. Joleen had the opportunity to interview them live at the Seattle Interactive Conference to learn how this dynamic duo plans to help new inventors get to market. You can get your copy on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Be-InventHer-Everywomans-Guide-Creating/dp/1632172755 or through your favorite book seller.

Kerry came out of the womb interested in the persuasion arts and started on her career path early. From music to branding to politics to helming a revolution against the establishment, Kerry's inability to accept the status quo has led her to forge a remarkable career. Now the CMO of one of the hottest co-working space companies, The Riveter, Kerry is changing the world one day at a time and sat down with Joleen to tell us how it all happened.

Dave Young wasn't content wearing a suit as a Wall Street analyst or finance manager at a major telecom company. Instead, he donned a motorcycle jacket and cracked the proverbial code to develop ground-breaking patents in cloud storage with his lifelong friends and business partners. A numbers guy, Dave is an avid fund and investment manager and the CEO of a start-up. Joleen sits down with Dave to learn how he pivoted a photo-centric partnership with one of the biggest brand-names in the industry into DeskLess Workers, a company that provides communication and productivity technology – and was just awarded an Innovation Award by the United States Air Force.

Concise and lean is the name of the game. Ian Freed, former RealNeworks mafia member and current CEO and Co-Founder of Bamboo Learning, has been at the forefront of some of our most compelling and transformative consumer products of the past couple of decades. While at Amazon, he headed the business teams responsible for both the Kindle and Echo devices. Ian shares with Joleen why he made the leap into entrepreneurship and how Bamboo Learning is poised to be the next game-changing consumer product in the world of voice-powered education. Find out more about Bamboo Learning at: https://bamboolearning.com/

Jennessa West's rise to power producer in Seattle started with her passion for film. Beginning with Seattle production jobs for DreamWorks, Warner Brothers and Walt Disney, Jennessa moved to Hollywood to work on episodic television for Warner Brothers, CBS and FX. When she returned to Seattle, Jennessa obtained a degree in Non-Profit Arts Management and ran development for two prominent theater companies in Seattle. Joleen learns the compelling story of how this bad-ass producer has used her combined production and fundraising experience to become one of the most sought-after producers in the Pacific Northwest.