The Savvy Session

Are you struggling to break through to an executive leadership role, and feel like you have hit a plateau at the manager or director level?

Join us on our latest podcast as we talk with Katy McFee, a leading coach & consultant who helps women break through to leadership roles and create the career and life they want.

Katy McFee is the Founder & Principal of Insights to Action.

The Insights to Action community is for:

●      Females who are looking to move up to an executive leadership role.
●      Those who want to become a strategic leader within your career.
●      Those who are looking to become successful & impactful executives.
●      Females looking for a supportive space to uplift each other & help achieve their goals.

Katy is passionate about empowering women and helping to close the gender gap in senior leadership. She’s the Founder and Principal at Insights to Action Coaching and Consulting, where she works with women to break through to executive leadership and become the successful and impactful executives they want to be.

Katy spent 18 years working in tech/biotech sales and leadership, where she’s done everything from building a commercial organization from scratch to scaling a hyper-growth sales org to achieve 9-digit revenue growth in 2 years.

Despite this success, she struggled for years to transition from Manager to Director to VP, and even considered quitting. After finally figuring out what it took to break through to the exec level, she went on to become a successful VP and EVP.

Seeing so many other women struggle with this transition, she launched Insights to Action, with the mission to help others make the successful transition into senior leadership and show up as the leaders they want to be, all without burning out.

You can connect with Katy here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katy-mcfee-3880b4a

Website: https://www.insightstoactioncc.com/ 

When most of us think about “marketing optimization” we think about “click-through” or other ROI measurements. But do we think about optimizing the people who help optimize the project?

Join us for our latest podcast as we talk with Stephanie Rapone, a marketing project expert and entrepreneur who specializes in the human side of marketing success.

A key word that came up in our discussion was ALIGNMENT:

·       Aligning the marketing goals to the organization’s overall strategic initiatives

·       Understanding your key outputs.

·       There is no silver bullet - sadly.

Stephanie Rapone is the founder and CEO of Rapone Solutions. In her consulting work, she helps marketing teams get more done and enhance performance through process optimization, project management, and team engagement. She has over 20 years of experience spanning marketing functions and in training and leadership development, supporting marketers and the c-suite at global, multi-billion dollar organizations. 

Throughout her career, she has received several professional certifications and top company recognition. To entertain her creative side, Stephanie loves doing recipe development and food photography for four popular food websites. After school and on the weekends, you can find her running her two boys around and spending time outside with her husband.  

You can connect with Stephanie here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-rapone/

Website: https://stephanierapone.com

How do you know when it’s the right time to sell your business?  

Join us on our latest podcast as we talk with Kristine Givens, an entrepreneur and philanthropist who grew her boutique accounting firm and sold it to a large multi-national bank.   

We asked her what some tips for those ready to sell are, and to give a preview, she said: 

• Network, network, network within your industry. You never know who you’ll meet. 
• Button-up your financials. 
• Keep your employees happy, engaged and well-trained. 

“Success is where preparation meets opportunity.” 

Kristine started her 30+ year career with Ernst & Whinney as a tax consultant who served both individual and business clients in a variety of industries. She later founded a boutique accounting firm providing tax and accounting consulting and compliance services to single family offices, ultra-affluent families, and privately held businesses. Kristine sold the boutique firm in 2009 to a global financial institution where she worked as Managing Director for five years overseeing the integrated delivery of wealth management services to ultra-affluent families and single-family offices.  

In more recent years, Kristine is using her entrepreneurial skills, financial expertise, and business experience in variety of ways including the development of a franchise concept, serving as a Co-CEO and CFO for a non-profit and strategic planning for scale up businesses. Kristine is also writing a children’s book.  

Kristine serves on the board of Metropolitan Family Services, a Chicago-based organization which provides variety of social programs and services designed to strengthen families and help them realize their full potential. Kristine recently relocated from Chicago to Bloomington, Indiana where she is meeting new friends and finding ways to make an impact in the community.  

You can connect with Kristine here: 

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

Are you a woman interested in starting or growing a career in cybersecurity? 

Join us on our latest podcast as we talk with Stacey Champagne, the Founder & CEO of Hacker in Heels. 

Whether you're just launching your cybersecurity career or have several years of experience. 

The Hacker in Heels community is for: 

• Those looking for a strategic & efficient approach to growing their cybersecurity skills.  
• Those seeking to get connected with inspiring people in cybersecurity.  
• Women who want a safe place to ask questions and get support as they grow their career.  
• Anyone ready to make the most of their career and life, alongside fellow ambitious, like-minded women. 

Stacey Champagne is the Founder & CEO of Hacker in Heels, a company on a mission to increase the number of women in cybersecurity and influence greater societal change. By transferring the skills she developed as a graphic designer to the increasingly important and lucrative field of cybersecurity, Stacey dramatically changed the trajectory of her life. Now she is helping others do the same through her community and programs that help women launch and grow six-figure careers in cybersecurity. 

Stacey is a subject matter expert in insider risk management, and holds multiple certifications including Security+, Certified Forensic Computer Examiner (CFCE), and Insider Threat Program Manager (ITPM). 

Prior to entering the cybersecurity field, Stacey worked for the US Government Intelligence Community as a Visual Information Specialist. Her designs supported multiple stakeholders, from military leaders and policymakers all the way up to the President of the United States.  

You can connect with Stacy here: 

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

Hacker in Heels website: https://www.hackerinheels.com/

Are you a woman in insurance looking to connect with fellow women in insurance?

Join us on our latest podcast as we talk with Kim Beach, Founder of InsureWomen. 

Kim is not only a trailblazer & leader; she is someone who is a connector & supporter of women in insurance.

We loved talking with Kim and learning more about the InsureWomen platform and how the platform is growing & connecting women all across the country.

The InsureWomen group helps to educate, empower and service the needs of all women by not just providing insurance, but assurance too.

Kim has worked in sales and marketing for over 30 years. The large majority of her career was spent in the television industry and, more recently, the insurance industry. She started Village Insurance in 2018 (from scratch) and currently supports more than 300 clients. Village Insurance is where her passion for empowering women in the insurance buying process all began. 

Kim launched InsureWomen on March 8, 2021 (International Women’s Day) to fill a need for female insurance buyers who did not feel comfortable with the insurance buying process. 

The mission of InsureWomen is to empower women in the insurance buying process to feel confident, educated, and treated with the respect and attention they deserve. 

On International Women’s Day 2022, Kim launched the InsureWomen Founding Member campaign nationally to create a network of female agents across the country who have a passion for serving these female buyers.

You can connect with Kim here:

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

InsureWomen’s website: https://www.insurewomen.com/

How do you respond to expectations?

Are you an Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, or Rebel?

Gretchen Rubin, author of The Four Tendencies and The Happiness Project, discovered that people fit into one of The Four Tendencies.  

The Four Tendencies explain why we act and why we don’t act.

• Upholders - respond readily to both outer expectations and inner expectations. They don’t need deadlines or supervision; they keep themselves on track. 
• Questioners - question all expectations, and will meet an expectation only if it’s justified, so that it becomes an inner expectation.  Questioners want to know why a task should be done this way—and whether it should be done at all.
• Obligers - respond readily to outer expectations but struggle to meet inner expectations. They need deadlines, late fees, supervision, and accountability partners. 
• Rebels - resist all expectations, outer and inner alike. They want to do a task their own way.

Are you curious which Tendency you might be? 

Link to Gretchen’s quiz is here:  https://quiz.gretchenrubin.com/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=4Ttakequizpage

Join us on our latest podcast as we talk about Gretchen’s book & find out which Tendency Kirsten & Paula are!

In this episode, we are joined by Tracy Coenen, CPA, CFF, MAFF, one of the top forensic accountants in the country.  She focuses on finding hidden money in a divorce and shares her top red flags 🚩 to look for if you suspect financial fraud in your divorce.

Tracy is known as a no-nonsense forensic accountant who delivers the “real deal” to her clients. Let’s face it: When your money is on the line, there is zero time to dance around an issue. Her passion lies in helping people find answers. Answers to questions like “Where did our money go?” 

After years of watching those who couldn’t justify the cost of a forensic accountant lose thousands of dollars in their divorces, Tracy knew she had to create a solution. That’s why she put her heart into creating the Divorce Money Guide.

Tracy created the Divorce Money Guide because she wanted everyone who is going through a divorce to have access to the insight and guidance needed to determine whether there is money missing. 

Her guide is an online handbook with 10 steps. Each step has an introductory video, written materials, a video guide to the materials, and worksheets. There is also a Red Flag Quiz, which assesses the likelihood of financial fraud in the user's marriage.

Tracy works as a forensic accountant through her firm, Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting. She has been doing fraud investigations for more than 25 years, and is a CPA (Certified Public Accountant), CFF (Certified in Financial Forensics), and MAFF (Master Analyst in Financial Forensics). Tracy testifies as an expert witness around the country.

You can connect with Tracy here:

LinkedIn: Tracy Coenen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracycoenen

The Divorce Money Guide: https://www.divorcemoneyguide.com/

Join us on our latest podcast to learn about Amy’s journey from Politics to Pastry.

I have been so fortunate to know Amy since high school, and have watched her professional journey as a successful environmental lawyer & lobbyist.

When she made the exciting announcement on Facebook, that she was leaving her political career and starting her own business, I have been curious how & why she made the leap from politics to pastry.

Listen to our latest episode to see who & what inspired Amy to leave her political career.  

It is a story & journey you don’t want to miss!

from politics to pastry was created by Amy DuVall, an environmental lawyer & lobbyist.  Amy had a dream of helping to enact major federal environmental legislation and was lucky enough to be given that chance.  When the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act passed in June 2016, she found herself in an unexpected place—immensely happy and proud but professionally lost and ready for the next chapter.  After more than a year of soul-searching, Amy decided to focus on her creative side and try to turn her hobby of cooking and baking into her profession.  In February 2018, she announced her departure from the lobbying world, and in March 2018 she began her journey to bake more.  She didn't have an ultimate destination in mind except to put smiles on people's faces one cookie, one scone, one treat at a time.

You can connect with Amy here:

Amy: LinkedIn
from politics to pastry: Website
from politics to pastry: Facebook
from politics to pastry: Instagram

We had the pleasure of sitting down virtually with Josh Evnin and Tracy Cupper of Fixer to discuss how they are changing the landscape of the handyperson work. Their mission is We Fix Things. We Build People. 

How do they do it? They believe that ALL people can do ALL things when trained properly, compensated fairly and supported throughout their career journey. 

Their team of skilled handypeople specializes in common household repairs. They’re committed to excellence - in who they train and hire, in their values and in their work. With quick online scheduling, they make it easy to get your "do it later" list done now. 

As a customer, I’ve enjoyed knowledgeable people helping get my list done and offering up advice on other items on the list for the next time. 

You can connect with Josh & Tracy here:

Josh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jevnin
Tracy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-cupper-6728325
Fixer: https://fixer.com/ 

Join us for an inspirational conversation with leading marketing consultant & brand strategist, Dani Kimble, as we discuss:

• Her solopreneurship journey.
• Navigating life in business as women and some of the advantages of owning your own business.
• What are the top marketing & branding strategies new entrepreneurs should focus on first?
• Should you market on Tik Tok?

Dani Kimble is a marketing consultant, brand strategist and copywriter.  She is the founder and CEO of Azelie Marketing, and is passionate about helping small and midsize businesses build profitable brand and marketing strategies. Dani formerly served as Chief Marketing Officer for an insurance firm, where she transformed the brand to focus on its people and its culture - supporting growth across the organization from talent attraction and retention, client retention, new business opportunities and referrals.

You can connect with Dani here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellekimble/
Azelie Marketing: https://danikimble.me/