TrailBlazers Impact
326 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsEmpowered women and men share their secrets to success in extraordinary stories. Stories that touch your heart and soul and make you realize it is possible to prevail even in the face of gender bias and/or racial discrimination to blaze your own trail when there is no clear path ahead. Super entrepreneurial "how-to's" to help you launch your own business!
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Episodes
Ep. 23: Emily Alcantar: Balancing Executive Job with Family Needs
August 07, 2019 19:00 - 28 minutes - 26.6 MBEmily grew up in Texas in a latina family. At the age of 5 she still wasn’t able to speak fluent English even thou she was born in America. She started out in the STEM field as an Engineering. But later decided she wanted to do something else. She develop her passion for journalism from spending time with her father as he would watch the news. She went on to become an executive of a large company and provides clues to juggling job and family. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SH...
Ep. 22-Rae Meadows: Tips from an Award-Winning Author
August 04, 2019 19:00 - 37 minutes - 38.8 MBAfter feeling unfilled in several jobs, a friend asked Rae what she would really like to do and she answered, out of the blue, “Be a writer.” That statement turned out to be utterly life changing. She talks about how she crafts her women character-driven books and how she utilizes her life experiences as a fiction writer. She also gives important advice to young women. Rae Meadows is the author of 4 novels and recipient of the 2019 Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, the 2018 Hackney Literary Awar...
Ep. 21-Susan Fielder: Make A Difference! Everyday
July 28, 2019 19:00 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MBGrowing up in a privileged family, her world fell apart when her Father's businesses went bankrupt. She was19 at the time. Her life changed forever. She was raised in the fast food business in Kansas City. Her family owned two restaurant chains: Allens and Smaks. They did 32 million hamburgers in 15 years. When she was in college, her father told her she could not continue as they had lost everything and sadly had to live off of the trust money of all of the kids. She dug deep and rose above...
BONUS: Susan Fielder: Losing a Loved One to Pancreatic Cancer
July 28, 2019 19:00 - 17 minutes - 16.9 MBSusan takes you through the journey, from the discovery of her husband's pancreatic cancer diagnosis to his death. As a phoenix rising from the ashes, an artistic inspiration came to her, creating art for leggings, pictures, phone covers, and a variety of other mediums. Her proceeds go toward research for pancreatic cancer. Go to www.trailblazersimpact.com to purchase and to What's Happening tab to see her art. Also listen to her personal podcast. If you liked what you heard, please hit th...
Ep. 20 - Cath McBreen Part 1: Overcoming Dyslexia to Become an IVF Nurse
July 21, 2019 19:00 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBWorking around the challenges of dyslexia and avoid the rampant instances of sexual harassment so often encountered by working women then and now, Cath McBreen, R.N. (retired), achieved her dream of becoming a Reproductive Nurse, helping couples achieve their dream of becoming parents. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring stories: www.TrailBlazersImpact.com Subscribe to o...
BONUS Episode - George Dapra Part 1: Love in the Old Country
July 21, 2019 19:00 - 31 minutes - 29.2 MBTake a wild ride with former Witness Security Inspector George Dapra for a rare, insider’s look into the Witness Security Program. In this compelling human event story, Dapra takes us on a fascinating life journey, beginning with his childhood growing up in a large Italian-American family with immigrant parents who met in the “old country” of Sicily, Italy. From the military, college, and employment at the world-famous Hotel Plaza, Dapra shares vignettes of all life’s emotions. SHOP for his ...
Bonus Episode - George Dapra Part 2: The War Against Organized Crime
July 21, 2019 19:00 - 45 minutes - 41.7 MBIn the continuing bonus episode of Season 1, George Dapra provides a riveting account of the US Marshall Services’ Witness Security Division during the tumultuous final decades of the 20th Century in New York City—at the height of the government’s war against organized crime. Dapra also describes other protective details including the much-publicized Elian Gonzalez case and al Qaeda. Non-Disclosure is the first sneak peek authorized by the United States Department of Justice into the secret ...
Ep. 20 BONUS - Cath McBreen Part 2: Are You a Good Match for a “Gestational Carrier”?
July 21, 2019 19:00 - 31 minutes - 28.9 MBIn the continuation of Episode 20, Cath McBreen shares her first-hand knowledge of the emotional and physical challenges associated with In Vitro Fertilization. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring stories: www.TrailBlazersImpact.com Subscribe to our email list to get all our latest podcasts directly to your inbox: http://bit.ly/2ZBeoW9 Did this episode get you thinking? ...
Ep. 19 - Frances O Johnson: Against the Odds:. Business, Divorce and Death
July 14, 2019 19:00 - 41 minutes - 37.9 MBWith 30 years of franchise ownership Frances now looks in her rearview mirror to reflect on how much she didn't know when she took on the purchase of a franchise business with its deep trove of do's & dont's. She credits her father, who owned and operated a half dozen businesses having achieved only an 8th grade education in the Mississippi of the 1930s, but determined to provide his family the best quality of life he could along with access to higher education. Later in life, her dad, and ...
Ep. 18 - Desiree Doubrox: Don’t Let Anyone Dim Your Light
July 07, 2019 19:00 - 40 minutes - 36.9 MBDefining and executing “My” business development model has been key to Desiree’s journey as an serial entrepreneur following in the footsteps of an entrepreneurial mother at the age of 12, and sharing how to know when you have reached the burnout phase and need to take the time to reassess and regroup. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring stories: www.TrailBlazersImpact.com S...
Ep. 17 - Cathy Gibson: My Contribution to the Fight for Marriage Equality
June 30, 2019 19:00 - 42 minutes - 39.9 MBCathy Gibson left east Texas at age 18 to enter a Virginia girls college in the early 1960s as an “outspoken bigot” and graduated a Big 10 University four years later with a degree in Urban Education committed to increasing the literacy rates of inner city youth, and subsequently becoming a champion for adult literacy as the Executive Director of the Marion County (Indianapolis) Central Library, credited with launching what would become a statewide literacy program titled, Read Indiana! Hear...
Ep. 16 - Lyn Burton: Live with Integrity and Joy
June 23, 2019 19:00 - 45 minutes - 41.6 MBLyn Burton shares her journey from professionally accomplished to spiritually fulfilled. With 25+ years of working to address the housing needs of families with low and moderate incomes, Lyn takes Her leap of faith to become a Unitarian Universalist Chaplain working with women who have struggled with drugs and need help defining that pathway “back to finding themselves”. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visi...
Ep.15 - Teresa Harris: “What?!? Women Can Do That?”
June 16, 2019 19:00 - 40 minutes - 37.5 MBFrom a childhood of segregation, low-expectations of girls and women and the battle to define her sexuality, Teresa Ann Harris, shares her journey from military service, to homelessness, addiction and recovery with college graduation at age 40+ followed by a stellar civil service career with responsibility for negotiating multi-million dollar contracts with the nation’s largest providers of IT services. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode w...
Ep. 14. Monica Sussman: You Can’t Do It All!
June 09, 2019 19:00 - 44 minutes - 41.4 MBMonica recounts the struggle for acceptance as a female attorney,,,and, then as a pregnant female attorney during an era that never fathomed this could really happen in “our” place of work. Fast-forwarding, she recalls the later struggle to work-while-fighting-breast-cancer; two things her male counterparts could never relate to! The upside was a pregnancy that required her law firm to adopt a maternity policy benefitting she and other women; and the much later saving grace of cell phones fo...
Ep. 13. Carolyn May: “This is the Time the Torch is Passed to a New Generation” – President John F. Kennedy
June 02, 2019 19:00 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBA young, animated, Carolyn May, worked on Capitol Hill during that period of American history subsequently dubbed “the Camelot years”: that period etched in America’s memory as the magical era of the “Kennedy years”, and in the public’s memory as an era that will never be repeated. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring stories: www.TrailBlazersImpact.com Subscribe to our email...
Ep. 9. Fay H. Williams: My Contributions to 65+ Years of Social Change
May 31, 2019 19:57 - 52 minutes - 48.7 MBWe All Stand on the Shoulders of Fay H. Williams (and her “comrades-in-arms”)! Attorney Williams paved the way for women to enter political office as the chair, National League of Women Voters Women’s Education Fund, traveling the country, starting in the late 1960s, to organize political campaigns, teach women how to friend-raise, comply with federal campaign finance laws and raise money from people they thought didn’t have any! If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button...
Ep. 12. Denise Muha: Always Tell the Truth on the Hill: Capitol Hill, that is.
May 27, 2019 17:57 - 35 minutes - 33.1 MBBe it Capitol Hill, the state capital or the chamber of your local city council, Denise provides sage advice on the importance of speaking-truth-to-power: to demand a moral response to a problem, rather than an expedient, easy or selfish response. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring stories: www.TrailBlazersImpact.com Subscribe to our email list to get all our latest pod...
Ep. 11. Carolyn Hayden: I Realized My Work Could Have a Social Impact
May 27, 2019 01:44 - 35 minutes - 32.7 MBCarolyn Hayden shares her entrepreneurial history as a regional contractor for American Express before Visa was VISA; on becoming one of the nation’s first black female owned and managed Ford dealerships; and launching an international management consulting firm promoting affordable homeownership at home and the development of village water wells as a source of clean water working abroad. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your networ...
Ep. 10. Beverly Kuykendall: Win Over Hearts and Minds
May 27, 2019 01:40 - 41 minutes - 38.6 MBBeverly shares her journey to marry-up humanitarian interests with business motivation. She provides a “how to” on government contracting and surviving in business and life. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring stories: www.TrailBlazersImpact.com Subscribe to our email list to get all our latest podcasts directly to your inbox: http://bit.ly/2ZBeoW9 Did this episode get you...
Ep. 8. Mindy Bortness: As Your Spend Your Days Is As You Spend Your Life
May 27, 2019 01:33 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBMindy Bortness powered through her own fears when fighting breast cancer to come out on the otherside as an advocate for others facing-down serious illnesses and sharing her vision on how to own your life “post-recovery” with renewed vigor to achieve her dream of business ownership. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring stories: www.TrailBlazersImpact.com Subscribe to our ema...
Ep. 7. Singleton B McAllister: I Found a Way to MAKE the Law!
May 27, 2019 01:30 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBAs a child of the segregated south, and daughter of the first black state’s attorney in Maryland, Singleton shares the varied influences of parents, mentors and elected officials on her career trajectory and commitment to domestic and global social change. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring stories: www.TrailBlazersImpact.com Subscribe to our email list to get all our lates...
Ep. 5. Iris Ann Cooper: Haters Serve an Important Lesson for Achievers
May 27, 2019 01:18 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBBeing the “first and only” created childhood isolation and periods of self-doubt, but in the end, worked to underscore the old adage: “what don’t kill you only makes you strong”. Iris went on to achieve multiple successes as a serial entrepreneur and gaining national recognition as the founder of Glory Foodsn with an array of shelf-ready and frozen ethnic food products found on the shelves of Walmart, Kroger, Winn Dixie and countless other regional grocery chains. If you liked what you hea...
Ep. 4. Shaune Arnold: I Divorced my Parents at age 14
May 26, 2019 23:40 - 57 minutes - 53.1 MBShaune describes her emotional escape from an abusive household into the foster care system. From parental abandonment to foster care with sheer determination and grit, Attorney Shaune Arnold shares her journey from the darkest valley to the sun-filled mountain top where she emerged prepared to help navigate the legal labyrinth on behalf of other abandoned or battered children, and earning a multitude of other academic and professional certifications. If you liked what you heard, please hi...
Ep. 3. Dee Dee Strum: The Whole World is a Stage and Everyone Plays a Part
May 26, 2019 23:36 - 34 minutes - 32 MBDee shares the benefits of life as a military dependent during the times when her counterparts were disadvantaged by segregated housing, segregated schools and denied opportunity for equal access to public amenities such as libraries and swimming pools. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring stories: www.TrailBlazersImpact.com Subscribe to our email list to get all our latest p...
Episode 2. Nan McKay: I Will Survive and Hold My Head High!
May 26, 2019 22:17 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MBCo-host and TBI founder, Nan McKay, shares her-story: where it all started in a little town in Illinois when her father was killed in a car accident and the town blamed Nan's family for the death of an 11 year old boy. This life-defining event forged her determination to hold her head high and power through adversity throughout her life. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring...
Ep. 1. Intro: Is the Past the Present?
May 26, 2019 17:19 - 18 minutes - 17.2 MBHow far have women come to close the gender gap? The introduction provides facts about how much progress women really have made. Were the “olden days” really that good? Is history relevant today? If not, why do we sometimes feel like we are going backwards? And why tell the stories? So young women can learn through listening to the stories that you sometimes have to fight through the bad times to get to the best moments of your life. We want them to realize that, even in the face of gender, ...