#61. What I Learned in 2024

Carlee Cliff is 23, Greek-American, and building Kompsi — a sustainable accessories brand rooted in community, girlhood, and the kind of soul she felt was missing from the brands she loved. In this conversation, Carlee shares how a mental breakdown on a beach in Cinque Terre sparked the idea, how navigating years of anxiety taught her to choose herself anyway, and what it really looks like to bet on yourself before you have any proof that you should.This is a story about being right at the beginning — figuring out finances, building a team remotely, turning down paid opportunities to protect your values, and finding the courage to go for something before you have all the answers. Carlee's story is a reminder that audacity doesn't require certainty. Sometimes it just requires showing up for the thing that keeps you up at night.https://www.instagram.com/carleecliff/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/kompsi_/

In this episode, I sit down with Mikayla, founder of The Aesthetic Edit, who shares her unexpected journey from corporate marketing to entrepreneurship. After facing multiple layoffs and career pivots, Mikayla discovered her calling wasn't in climbing the traditional ladder - it was in building something entirely her own.She reveals how she combined her marketing expertise with an unconventional skill: color analysis. Discover what color analysis actually entails and how it can transform you into a more efficient, sustainable shopper - whether you're a business owner or not. Learn how Mikayla helps female founders align their personal and business brands through her signature Founder's Blueprint process, and why she believes trust is the new currency in business.Mikayla gets candid about the financial realities of starting solo, what it's really like transitioning from a nine-to-five to a nine-to-nine (or beyond), and the surprising community she found in entrepreneurship.https://theaesthetic-edit.com/

Randa is a San Diego mortgage lender who offers a crash course in navigating the city's unique real estate market - from both buyer and industry perspectives. After years in traditional employment roles that left her craving more freedom and flexibility, she transitioned into mortgage lending in 2022. Randa has built a thriving referral-based business by partnering with real estate agents and focusing on relationship building over cold-calling. She's known for going above and beyond with exceptional service and genuine partnership with both agents and homebuyers. She also founded the Women in Business Book Club, creating community for female entrepreneurs. This conversation demystifies mortgage lending, explains what makes San Diego real estate so expensive, offers practical advice for first-time buyers considering home ownership as an investment, and shares personal development practices that helped Randa shift from employee mindset to entrepreneurial success.https://www.instagram.com/lendwithranda/?hl=en

#65. Natalie Suppa is a yoga teacher and business owner who transformed years of financial struggle into a successful, fulfilling yoga business. After culinary school didn't pan out, she found yoga through therapy during one of the darkest periods of her life. What started as a coping mechanism became her calling.She spent years grinding—teaching at 10+ studios simultaneously for $20-60 per class, living paycheck to paycheck in expensive San Diego. When her biggest teaching position fell apart, Natalie hit a crossroads: give herself three months to make her own business work or consider giving up yoga entirely. What happened next looked like luck—opportunities with luxury hotels, rehab centers, corporate clients, and bachelorette parties falling into her lap. But it wasn't luck at all. It was years of showing up, building relationships, and earning a reputation for reliability.Today, Natalie works less than ever while making more money than ever, teaching the classes she loves and paying her yoga teachers better than studios do. She's proof that you can turn what you love into sustainable income - but she doesn't sugarcoat how hard the journey is.https://www.nataliesuppayoga.com/

Kate is the owner of Studio Casually, operating multiple photo and event studio spaces in San Diego. Now 29, she started the business over three years ago after building an unconventional career path - graduating high school at 17 with an associate's degree, working various jobs while teaching herself marketing and photography, and eventually transitioning to full-time freelance work before opening her studios. In this conversation, Kate shares guidance on entrepreneurship, including how to take calculated risks, the importance of the people you surround yourself with, and why she avoids studying competitors to maintain her creative vision. She shares insight into the realities of self-funding a business, including the personal sacrifices and why she intentionally built her business to operate independently of her personal brand. Kate also discusses knowing when to quit versus when to push through, moving past the fear of judgement, and finding fulfillment in being part of her clients' stories and business beginnings. https://www.studiocasually.com/contact

Eric Cheng is the founder and host of the existential zillenial podcast “Wait, Say More”, recently rebranded from its previous title of “No, So True”. With “Wait, Say More", he aims to tackle the real challenges of navigating your late twenties now in a funny and earnest way. After starting his career in comedy writing and performance, Eric transformed his own quarter life crisis and mental health journey into a platform that has already reached over 13 million impressions across media channels in the first 9 months. Through his work as a teacher, dance coach, and 988 suicide and crisis lifeline counselor, Eric brings a unique perspective to conversations about everything from unemployment and dating to managing anxiety and ADHD. His podcast creates space for underrepresented voices while offering honest discussions about the topics we don't talk about enough during what many consider the hardest time of life. In this episode, we chat all about the reality of building in public, what’s involved in podcast production, why Eric does what he does and what he’s learned from podcasting, and so much more.https://www.instagram.com/nosotruepod/

I worked at a bakery in La Jolla, San Diego this fall when I had no money and no job and many expenses after moving across the country!!This bakery, Girard Gourmet, welcomed me with open arms and I learned a lot through working there.The owners, Diana and Francois, let me interview them about their experience running this place for nearly 40 decades.Through another story that defies expectations, I share about/how:Past experiences shaped how they run the businessImportance of good customer serviceWhat a strong community looks likeDifficulties of running a brick and mortar cafeWhat it means to be a good employeeAnd so much more. Tune in to have your heart feel warm and fuzzy.

#61. What I Learned in 2024What I worked onSolopreneurship vs being employedLesson in self awareness: taking accountability for my actionsImportance of ripping out an old life to make room for a new. How isolation was helpful but painful… because of my perceptionComparison running rampant, wreaking havocResources that helped me - people and practices (journaling)What’s important to me nowMoving across the countryRecruiting while everyone is spouting doomsday vibes about AIHow perspective shifts were everything throughout all of thisWhat I’m looking to call in in this chapterWhy the podcast is lit

#60. This will be part 2 of my interview with Dr. Sara Howell, a fourth year med student at Howard University and the founder and designer behind Pax Marila, a brand designed to be both a safe place for women of diverse backgrounds and a hub of knowledge, pride and cultural awareness. In part 1, we discussed Sara’s background leading up to med school and starting Pax Marila, including her motivation to become a doctor and fashion founder. In this episode, we get to hear all about the details of what it’s been like building Pax Marila for the last couple years, how the brand has evolved since she started it, how Sara collaborates with women of different cultures around the world to bring a new collection to life, how it’s been juggling the business and medical school, her guidance for aspiring designers and so much more.https://www.instagram.com/paxmarila/https://www.paxmarila.com/

#59. Sara Howell is the founder and designer behind Pax Marila, a brand designed to be both a safe place for women of diverse backgrounds and a hub of knowledge, pride and cultural awareness. Besides growing Pax Marila for the past several years, Sara has also been busy earning her medical degree from Howard University, finishing up her final year this year and looking forward to a residency in anesthesia.This is Part 1 of my interview with Sara, where we hear about the background behind her journey and decision to attend medical school while growing a fashion brand. She shares advice for aspiring medical students, anecdotes about her fashion internships in and around NYC, why she enjoys embracing having space in her life for left brain and right brain work, and so much more. Tune in to have your limiting beliefs about “not having enough time” for anything in particular blown to smithereens.(I know I sound like I'm underwater, working on it xoxo)https://www.instagram.com/paxmarila/https://www.paxmarila.com/