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A 20 year digital marketing veteran on spotting the gap nobody else is filling, building the nerve to step into it, and why the skills you take for granted are usually the ones that move your career.
A volunteer class teaching Excel and Word at a church is what got Kristi Daraban hired at NBCUniversal. Not the film degree. Not the festival work. The computer.
White space is not the thing everyone is already chasing. It is the room left on the page, and the real question is what you add that nobody else is adding.
She was told her poker face was horrible, so she filmed herself until it was not. Then she started applying to speak at conferences.
What you will learn
Quotes
It’s what do you add to that that makes it different so that it’s not a shiny object?
Kristi Daraban, Head of Social Media, The Aspen Group
That doesn’t mean I’m smarter than them. It doesn’t mean I’m more advanced. It just means I know different things.
Kristi Daraban, Head of Social Media, The Aspen Group
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to The Power Lounge
02:25 First generation, latchkey kid, and paving her own way
04:18 Teaching Excel and Word as a college volunteer
05:46 The NBCUniversal hire, and the two words that explained it
06:37 A grad school thesis turns into a budget and a promotion
11:07 What white space actually means
13:56 White space versus the shiny object
14:49 Fear, shyness, and reinventing herself in Los Angeles
16:10 Executive presence, the mirror, and imposter syndrome
17:58 The thread across NBCUniversal, Nestle, Disney and Nationwide
20:25 Disney Channels worldwide with a team of two and no agency
22:15 Nationwide goes viral, from a Jeopardy clue to SNL
26:15 Upskilling with two boys and a full scope of work
28:22 Helping a team find their own white space
30:48 The exercise for anyone who feels stuck or stalled
33:46 Where the next white space is, community and real people
37:29 The power round
About the show
The Power Lounge is a weekly conversation for women in digital, hosted by Amy Vaughan of Together Digital, a community of women who choose to share their knowledge, power and connections.
Connect
Kristi Daraban on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristidaraban/
Kristi Daraban online: https://www.kristidaraban.com/
Together Digital: https://www.togetherindigital.com
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Cassy Kohs, fractional marketing strategist, on why confidence comes from evidence and not from positive thinking.
Cassy Kohs spent most of her career steering clear of risk. She over-researched. She polled her friends, her peers and her family before she made a move. Then she had her son, became a single mom, and something shifted. The professional risks that had felt impossible started to feel survivable.
This is not a conversation about glorifying hardship. It is about what happens to your sense of what is possible after you do something genuinely hard, and how women in digital can build real evidence to bet on themselves.
Amy Vaughan, Chief Empowerment Officer and Owner of Together Digital, talks with Cassy about leaving a full-time job with one small freelance client on the books, the question she asks before any big decision, and how to practice risk in small weekly doses so the big ones feel possible.
WHAT YOU WILL TAKE AWAY
QUOTES
“What am I losing or damaging by staying here?”
Cassy Kohs, Fractional Marketing Strategist, Human First Creative LLC
“Sometimes you have to lose what’s holding you back to gain what’s meant for you.”
Amy Vaughan, Chief Empowerment Officer and Owner, Together Digital
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Welcome, and why this one is not a hardship story
03:20 How Cassy landed in fractional marketing work
06:05 Competitive analysis, and the gaps nobody is playing in
07:44 Audience personas, because everyone is nobody
08:54 Finding the people on your team who will go on camera
12:44 Her honest relationship with risk before the leap
15:13 What changed after her son was born
20:23 The question to ask before any big risk
21:07 The village, and learning how to ask for help
28:38 Confidence from evidence, not positive thinking
33:57 The biggest professional bet: leaving the full-time job
37:41 When a risk did not go the way she planned
40:47 Pushing clients toward braver social content
43:26 Intentional risk versus reckless risk
47:12 How to practice taking risks, starting small
51:15 The next big bet she is brewing
54:49 The Power Round
CONNECT
Cassy Kohs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassymkohs/
Together Digital: https://togetherindigital.com
Together Digital on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@togetherindigital3269
The Power Lounge is the weekly podcast from Together Digital, a community of women who work in digital and choose to share their knowledge, power and connections. New episodes every week. Keep asking, keep giving, keep growing.
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Carissa Richardson on starting your own marketing agency, paid advertising transparency, and building a business around the life you actually want.
Carissa Richardson spent more than twenty years inside traditional and digital media agencies. Then her school district moved to half-day kindergarten, she had two kids back to back, and no version of the job worked anymore. She left without a plan. What grew out of that is Kindred Strategy, a paid advertising agency built on two convictions: clients should understand exactly where their money goes, and great work should not cost you the parts of life that matter most.
In this special member edition of The Power Lounge, Amy Vaughan and Carissa get practical about what it actually takes for women in digital to build the thing they wish had existed. Charging what you are worth. Why transparency is strategy and not a nice to have. Growing only as fast as the life you want allows. And how community, not cold outreach, built an entire referral based business.
WHAT YOU WILL TAKE AWAY
FROM THE EPISODE
“I immediately made back my salary because I’m actually getting paid for every hour that I work and my efficiency is equaling more money now.” Carissa Richardson
“I really think my business would not be here if it wasn’t for community.” Carissa Richardson
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Welcome and why this is a special member edition
02:29 Two decades in agencies and the wall that ended it
05:21 Capable versus confident when you go out on your own
08:04 Why transparency felt urgent enough to build around
11:32 The hardest assumption to break: charging what you are worth
12:58 Efficiency pays more when you work for yourself
15:01 Transparency in practice: client ad accounts and real reporting
18:04 Growing only as much as the life you want allows
21:56 Guardrails, working hours, and the schedule send
25:38 Delegation, the competence trap, and what to hand off
30:38 Turning convictions into structure, and the business plan as safety net
38:12 How community built the business
42:44 What to know before you take the leap
45:34 Where agency models go next
47:34 Power round
CONNECT
Carissa Richardson, Kindred Strategy: https://www.kindred-strategy.com/
Carissa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carissarichardson/
Together Digital: https://togetherindigital.com
The Power Lounge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@togetherindigital3269
Support the show
Marketing channel integration, clean customer data, and the AI search work that actually moves revenue.
Most teams do not need more marketing activity. They need their channels to talk to each other. In this episode of The Power Lounge, Amy Vaughan sits down with Amanda Friedt, founder of FRDTLAB, to unpack what an integrated growth system really looks like when SEO, paid media, content, email, and social are all running at once.
Amanda has spent twenty years building the infrastructure underneath growth, and her answer to the complexity question surprises most marketing leaders. It is not as complicated as you think. What breaks is rarely the strategy. It is naming conventions, tag management, disconnected customer data, and the quiet assumption that AI can just handle it.
This one is for every woman in digital holding a fragmented tech stack together with willpower and a spreadsheet.
What you will learn
From the episode
Thinking they can just automate it. Can AI just do it and automate it? And they miss the fact that you need orchestration layers and control points that are overseen all the time. Amanda Friedt
At the right time that they need it. Not when you posted it, when they need it. Amanda Friedt
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to The Power Lounge
01:33 Overwhelm, back to school, and building agents for your own life
04:27 The biggest misconception about connected channels
06:11 Naming, tagging, and why systems cannot talk to each other
08:56 Governance layers for agentic workflows
11:13 Visibility and revenue up 67 percent in the first 30 days
12:38 The competence trap and load bearing people
16:13 Where disconnected systems create real gaps
19:10 Inheriting a fragmented tech stack, where to start
23:59 Getting siloed teams and budgets aligned
28:05 What clean customer data actually changes
32:31 Momentum over one viral post
34:07 Authenticity, divorce, and the relationships it built
40:02 The biggest mistake leaders make integrating tools
41:55 The unexpected gap she uncovers most often
44:01 One practical first step you can take today
47:38 Power round, the metric almost nobody tracks
49:28 Advice for marketing leaders facing budget cuts
54:59 Where to find Amanda
Connect
Amanda Friedt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandafriedt/
FRDTLAB: https://frdtlab.com/
Together Digital: https://www.togetherindigital.com/
The Power Lounge: https://www.togetherindigital.com/podcast/
Support the show
A VP of strategy and innovation on career pivots for women in digital, and why you are never starting from zero.
Shannon Lewandowski has moved from software developer to IT manager to digital agency leader to AI and product consulting, and she says none of it was starting over. She joins Amy Vaughan on The Power Lounge to talk career transitions for women in digital, how to tell ordinary restlessness apart from real curiosity, and where to start with AI when you are convinced you are already behind. This is also the first episode of a new Power Lounge series featuring the women of Together Digital.
Key takeaways
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and a new series featuring Together Digital members
01:32 Meet Shannon Lewandowski
02:26 Why a pivot is never starting from zero
05:04 How her relationship with change changed
08:22 Restlessness versus curiosity
13:23 Mentors, coaches, and the coaching program that reframed fulfillment
16:49 Why investing in yourself is worth it, and the time study
21:08 Where to start with AI when you feel behind
25:00 Service design applied to your own career
29:03 Ask, Give, Grow and the gift of asking for help
31:43 What actually holds women back
36:57 Values, energy, and where to start when you feel stuck
40:33 Where her curiosity is leading now
41:47 Power round
43:39 Live audience questions
50:28 Closing
Connect with Shannon Lewandowski
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shannonlewandowski
Ingage Partners: ingagepartners.com
Connect with Together Digital
Website: togetherindigital.com
Podcast: togetherindigital.com/podcast
Support the show
A leadership and visibility strategist on why women over-explain, and the four-part shift to executive presence and real authority in any room.
Dr. Rita Renee spent 30 years in executive healthcare leadership learning the difference between explaining yourself and owning the room. On this episode of The Power Lounge, she joins Amy Vaughan to unpack why so many high-performing women shrink their language before they even finish a sentence, and the specific words to use instead. This is a conversation about executive presence for women, precision in communication, and what it actually takes to lead with authority without losing your humanity.
Key takeaways
Explaining is convincing people you deserve to be in the room. Owning is knowing you already belong there.
Every extra qualifier, like just, maybe, or I think, quietly gives away your authority before you finish the sentence.
Precision has four parts: know your point before you start talking, lead with the headline, cut unnecessary qualifiers, and end clearly with what you recommend or need.
Confidence and kindness are not opposites. You can be warm and still be clear, and disagree without over-explaining why.
You do not have to be in every room. Be fully visible in the rooms that matter for the people you serve.
"Explaining is when you feel like I have to convince you that I deserve to be in the room. Owning is when I know I belong there."
Dr. Rita Renee
"Clarity is not about saying more. It's just making what matters impossible to miss."
Dr. Rita Renee
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and introducing Dr. Rita Renee
01:05 Explaining versus owning the room
03:06 A 30 year lesson from healthcare leadership
04:43 The pattern holding high performing women back
07:26 Moving from seeking validation to stating your position
09:34 A real example of repositioning as a decision maker
11:34 Four strategies for precise communication
14:03 Confidence, kindness, and the fear of being too much
15:19 Executive presence on Zoom versus in the room
16:46 The first shift for women early in their career
19:47 The future of leadership communication
23:08 Power round with Dr. Rita Renee
25:47 How to connect with Dr. Rita Renee
Connect with Dr. Rita Renee
Website: https://drritarenee.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drritarenee/
Connect with Together Digital
Website: https://togetherindigital.com
Podcast: https://togetherindigital.com/podcast
Support the show
Why your nervous system, not your willpower, decides how you lead
Your brain decides whether to trust someone in about three seconds, long before you have said a word. Dr. Zakia Ghafari says that same wiring is running the show every time you walk into a hard meeting, and most leaders have no idea they are fighting their own nervous system instead of leading. This episode breaks down the actual neuroscience of leadership behind that reaction, in plain, useful terms.
For women in leadership especially, that fight shows up as over preparing, over explaining, and quietly burning out while everything on paper looks fine. That is exactly the kind of pattern this women leadership podcast exists to name out loud. Zakia has spent twenty five years as a geriatric pharmacist watching this pattern play out in real time, and she built a framework to interrupt it before it becomes a full shutdown.
Dr. Zakia Ghafari is a pharmacist, speaker, and thought leader who helps individuals and organizations create sustainable change without burnout. Drawing on neuroscience and behavioral design, she developed the Wired to Lead framework, which reframes resistance as a clarity problem instead of a motivation problem. She joins Amy Vaughan for a conversation about emotional intelligence, self regulation, and why your humanity, not your hustle, is your greatest leadership asset.
Key Takeaways
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and introducing Dr. Zakia Ghafari
01:23 Why emotional intelligence beats artificial intelligence
06:09 What emotional intelligence actually is, and the biggest misconception
08:19 The gut brain connection and where intuition comes from
08:50 The lion in the room, how your brain confuses a meeting with real danger
10:59 Why your brain is wired for prediction, not change
13:14 The Wired to Lead framework and the WIRE method
23:09 How burnout shows up first as quiet emotional withdrawal
26:30 Toxic wellness culture and the shame of not keeping up
30:05 The kinds of wiring behind approval, connection, and worth
32:36 How to self regulate in two to three seconds
40:16 Why women feel they have to prove themselves ten times over
46:10 Building systems that make change inevitable
54:39 Power round, rapid fire questions with Dr. Zakia Ghafari
Connect with Dr. Zakia Ghafari
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zakiaghafari/
Instagram: @DrZakiyyahSpeaks
Support the show
The warning sign almost nobody catches is not exhaustion. It is guilt.
What if the thing burning you out is not your inbox, your clients, or your calendar? What if the call is coming from inside the house? This conversation went somewhere most burnout talks never go, and I am still thinking about it.
Burnout prevention is not a luxury topic for women in digital. It is survival. So many of us are high functioning, holding it together on camera and in meetings while our shoulders creep up to our ears. Marian knows that pattern from the inside, and she shares the practical strategies that helped her build what she calls a depression proof life.
Marian Mills is a mental wellness speaker, award winning voice artist, Army veteran, former social worker, and founder of Depression Proof Your Life. After burnout pushed her out of the career she loved, she built the Depression Proof Method, a practical approach to everyday mental resilience for professionals, women in leadership, and female entrepreneurs online.
Key Takeaways
Guilt about resting is one of the earliest and most overlooked signs of burnout among professional women in digital.
People do not burn out because they stop caring; they burn out because they care so deeply they forget to care for themselves.
Awareness is the foundation of burnout prevention, from tense shoulders to stress headaches to emotional numbness.
Asking for help is a muscle, and real strength is knowing when to reach out, not handling everything alone.
A simple pause between meetings, calls, and tasks can reset your nervous system before stress compounds.
Marian Mills said, 'People don't get burned out because they don't care. They actually burn out because they care so deeply and they end up forgetting to take care of themselves.'
Marian Mills said, 'I used to think that strength meant handling it all on my own. I learned that the real strength is actually knowing when to reach out.'
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and meet Marian Mills
01:50 From social work to voiceover to Depression Proof Your Life
05:06 The burnout patterns professional women share
08:14 Rest is part of getting stronger
08:35 The Depression Proof Method in practice
14:04 Military discipline, recovery, and vulnerability
15:16 Ask, Give, Grow and learning to ask for help
23:25 Your voice, your energy, and your mental wellness
26:58 Protecting your energy in emotionally demanding work
32:20 Auditions, interviews, and positive self talk
36:26 Early warning signs: numbness, guilt, irritability, resentment
41:14 The first thing to do when burnout is on the horizon
46:40 Protecting your mental health in the year ahead
50:25 Power Round
55:26 How to connect with Marian Mills
Connect with Marian Mills
Website: https://www.depression-prooflife.com
Voiceover: https://www.marianmillsvoice.com
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/depression-proof-your-life
Email: [email protected]
Support the show
What happens when a digital strategist stops fighting reality and starts leading from it.
There are conversations that feel like a strategy session and a therapy session at the same time. This one was both. Mary Brodie came into the Power Lounge and did something rare. She made acceptance sound like the most powerful leadership move you can make.
If you work in digital, lead a team, or run your own business, you know the pressure to chase the aspirational audience, the perfect product, the frictionless experience. Mary has spent over 20 years helping companies stop chasing and start seeing. And what she has found is that the women in digital who thrive are the ones who learn to work with what is, not just what they wish were true.
Mary Brodie is the Founder and Digital Experience Strategist at Gearmark, a consultancy she has built over two decades across apps, websites, content strategy, lead generation, and full digital experience design. She holds a BA and MA from Simmons College, a certificate from MIT, and an Executive Master's in Corporate Communications from IE University in Madrid. She is currently pursuing her doctorate at Case Western Reserve University, where her research explores how B2B buying teams build relationships with supplier salespeople.
Key Takeaways
Acceptance is not passive. It is the foundation of every smart business decision, from knowing your real customers to building a team that actually trusts each other.
Your digital experience reflects your internal experience. If your employees are disengaged, that bleeds into every customer touchpoint, every chatbot, every support call.
Women in digital and female entrepreneurs online often chase aspirational audiences instead of maximizing the ones they already have. The brands that win know exactly who their customer is and own it.
AI is a tool, not a replacement. Using it well means knowing what question you are actually trying to answer and what data you are feeding it.
The most underrated skill in women leadership and digital marketing for women is listening. Not the performative kind. The kind where you feel something shift in the room.
Mary Brodie said, "Accept yourself and make sure that you're happy with what you're doing and what your output is. Not your perfect foot. Your best foot."
Mary Brodie said, "Once you accept that we don't all share the same values, the world becomes a very different place. And it's not a scary place. It's just a different place. And a lot of the world becomes a lot clearer."
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to the Power Lounge.
01:51 Twenty years of entrepreneurship. What keeps Mary going.
04:26 Why Mary kept going back to school, MIT, Simmons, Madrid.
07:37 Being the only American in the room. What that taught her.
09:41 Customer experience and employee experience are the same problem.
13:10 How to know if your company actually has a digital experience.
16:33 AI and digital strategy. Tool or replacement.
21:00 What gets in the way of leaders communicating their vision clearly.
26:54 What a broken internal experience is costing your organization right now.
31:08 The Art of Acceptance. What it means as a leadership practice.
40:04 What Mary looks for before any strategy or deliverable.
41:19 One shift for every woman in the audience.
42:37 Power Round. Rapid fire with Mary Brodie.
Connect with Mary Brodie
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marybrodie
Website: gearmark.com
Support the show
Two sisters from rural Appalachia wrote the playbook they wish they had.
What does it actually take for a woman to lead herself forward when no one handed her a roadmap? That question sits at the heart of this conversation, and the answer is more honest, more practical, and more urgent than most career advice you have heard.
Self leadership is not a title you earn or a milestone you reach. It is a daily practice, and for women navigating careers that were not designed with them in mind, it may be the most important skill no one ever taught them. This episode of The Power Lounge is for every woman who has ever felt stuck, invisible, or like she was playing by rules she was never given.
Kelly Mooney is a three-time author, speaker, gender equity advocate, and founder of Equipt Women. She spent over two decades leading the nation's largest independent digital agency, became Chief Experience Officer of North America at IBM, and has served on three public company boards. Her sister and co-founder Katy Mooney is a certified leadership and performance coach whose clients include Walmart, Meta, and Lululemon. Together they are the co-authors of UP! The Playbook for Every Woman on the Rise, available June 2nd.
Key Takeaways
Self leadership has to come before everything else because when you change the way you think about yourself and what you want, every choice that follows becomes different.
Women often wait for permission to pursue something bigger, ask for more, or take up space. A big part of moving forward is writing yourself that permission slip.
Your career is a series of choices, and not choosing is also a choice. Recognizing that truth, even when the system is not working in your favor, is where your power starts coming back.
Visibility with senior leaders is not about politics. It is strategy. Research shows that for every sponsor advocating for you behind closed doors, your chances of promotion increase by 10 percent.
There is no one path and no one pace. Careers span 40 to 50 years, which means you cannot have your foot on the pedal all the time. The only shoulds that matter are the ones you decide for yourself.
Kelly Mooney said, "I want her to know that she has more power within her than she realizes to create the career and life she desires."
Host Amy Vaughn said, "Self leadership is not a title you earn. It is a practice that you choose."
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to The Power Lounge
01:12 Introducing Kelly and Katy Mooney
02:43 Growing up as two of ten kids in rural Appalachia
05:05 The arc of UP and why self leadership comes first
07:59 What coaching reveals about women who feel stuck or invisible
09:31 Owning your choices even when the system is broken
15:18 Finding your fit. The four dimensions framework
21:57 Self leadership in the middle of a big transition
24:47 Tuning into head, heart, and gut as centers of intelligence
33:23 Getting in the game and the unwritten rules of the workplace
39:14 No shoulds. Staying on your own mat and practicing non-comparison
47:08 Power round. The hardest rule to learn and what moving up means now
52:31 Audience Q and A. Keeping entrepreneurial momentum while working a 9 to 5
Connect with Kelly and Katy
Book: https://equiptwomen.com/up
Website: https://equiptwomen.com
Newsletter: https://equiptwomen.com/get-equipt
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/equiptwoman
Together Digital: https://togetherindigital.com
Support the show
From the publisher's feed
Digital is a demanding and competitive field. And women are still grossly underpaid & underrepresented. But we are not powerless; we have each other. Together Digital Power Lounge is your place…