Girl, Why Not You?

Her grandparents walked out of the hospital the day she was born, disappointed she wasn't a boy. Her dad had a dream that this girl would change the world… and he was right.Joy Tang won a gold medal at the Math Olympiad, went to MIT on a full scholarship, and spent seven years as a high-frequency trader in Chicago building AI that made millions in milliseconds. Then she walked away, because she was using some of the smartest technology in the world to make rich people richer.Today Joy is the founder and CEO of Markable, an AI platform that helps creators turn their content and communities into a real business. Creators on Markable have driven over a billion dollars in sales, and 95% of them are women, many of them moms who are now their family's breadwinner.In this episode of Girl, Why Not You? we talk about:- The moment you realize your dream job isn't your dream- Why being good at something isn't the same as it being your purpose- How her dad trained her math brain (and pushed her onto kids' TV to beat her shyness)- Why influence is a real business and not just a side hustle- How AI is changing the way we create content and shop online- Why creators are the new storefronts of the internet- Why human trust still wins, even in the age of AI- Women creators going from $3K a month in affiliate income to six figures a monthIf people trust you, that trust is worth something. You don't need millions of followers or anybody's permission to build something you own. Girl, why not you?Connect with Joy Tang and Markable:Website: markable.aiMarkable is hiring! Find open roles on Markable's LinkedIn.If this episode lit something up in you, share it with the woman in your life who is sitting on a gift and hasn't bet on herself yet. And please leave a rating and review, it's how more women find the show!Disclaimer: Income and sales figures shared in this episode are the guest's own experience and company results, not a guarantee of earnings.

Kym Renner had her first baby at 19, her second on her college graduation day, and a plan to go into law enforcement that went right out the window. More than 24 years later, she's an executive in the largest child welfare system in the country AND the President and CEO of the RennerVation Foundation, which she co-founded with her brother Jeremy Renner to serve foster and at-risk youth in Nevada.They always said they'd start a foundation someday, after retirement. Then on New Year's Day 2023, her family almost lost Jeremy, and someday was over. The foundation launched that same year.In this episode of Girl, Why Not You? with Jennie Blackwood, Kym gets so real about:Becoming a young mom and still graduating with honors in three and a half yearsWhy siblings getting separated in foster care is what keeps her in this workWhat 18 year olds aging out of foster care are up against, and how the Pave Your Way program gives them housing, mentors and real life supportThe myth that a celebrity foundation pays for itself (it doesn't, and she volunteered two years with no salary to build it)Why businesses win when they partner with a charity that shares their valuesDoing more without quitting your day jobIf you've been sitting on a someday, this one is for you.How to help or connect with Kym:Donate, mentor or volunteer: rennervationfoundation.orgInstagram: @officialrennervationfoundationFacebook: facebook.com/rennervationfoundationEmail: mailto:[email protected]: Kym RennerIf this episode moved something in you, please send it to someone who's been sitting on their someday, and leave a rating and review so more people can hear stories like Kym's.Girl, why not you?

On May 10, 2020 (Mother's Day), Amber Lee's heart stopped while she was driving with her husband and daughter in the car. No pulse. Her car went across four lanes of traffic and into a brick home. When she woke up in the hospital with every rib broken, she didn't ask for time to heal. She asked for her computer.Three weeks later, she and her longtime colleague Sandra Myers launched Select Date Society, a luxury matchmaking firm for high-net-worth clients. She had spent 20+ years making millions for someone else. Now it's her firm, with fees that start at $150,000 and a $1 million Founders' Club that takes one client at a time.On this episode of Girl, Why Not You? with Jennie Blackwood, we get into what's really keeping you on the shelf. It isn't timing. It's permission, and nobody is coming to give it to you.In this episode:Why "the biggest killer of entrepreneurship is a healthy paycheck"The hospital-bed phone call that finally made the business realLaunching with broken ribs, pain meds and one shared Google Doc checklistHow she went from charging $10K to a $150K minimum by proving results firstInside the $1 million Founders' Club, and why most of her clients are high-achieving womenWhy boardroom skills backfire in your love lifeWhy she caps the firm at 30 clients on purposeHer message to the woman who's 40 or 50 and still "has time"If this one moves you, send it to the woman in your life who's been sitting on her dream. Maybe it's you. Girl, why not you?Connect with Amber Lee and Select Date Society:selectdatesociety.com (use the inquiry page if you'd like to be considered as a client or a match)Connect with Jennie Blackwood: Instagram @girlwhynotyou_ Disclaimer: Guest experiences and results are their own and aren't typical or guaranteed. This episode shares a personal health story and isn't medical advice.

Perfectionism isn't high standards. It's fear wearing a better outfit — and it's costing you money.Kelli France went from food stamps to seven figures on social media, built a team of 25,000 people, and then watched the income disappear almost overnight when the company changed its comp plan. In this episode she tells Jennie what she learned on the way up, what she learned on the way down, and why the women who win aren't the confident ones — they're the ones who move before they feel ready.In this conversation:Why perfectionism is fear, not high standards — and how to spot it in yourselfThe $16 checkout that started everythingGoing all in, and building a 25,000-person teamLosing her income stream overnight — and what she did nextFight, flight, freeze, fawn: how your body hijacks your business decisionsThe four perfectionist archetypes — which one is running youHow to date discomfort instead of avoiding itThe client who got on TikTok Live terrified — and what happenedInside Kelli's Breaking Up With Perfect program and her POWER habits frameworkWhy confidence comes after the action, never beforeIf you've been waiting to feel ready — to launch the thing, post the video, raise your prices — this is the episode that gets you moving.Connect with Kelli France:Instagram: @kellifranceWebsite + links: http://www.kellifrance.com/linktree Podcast: Finally FearlessProgram: Breaking Up With PerfectBook: One Goal for 100 DaysGirl, Why Not You? is hosted by Jennie Blackwood.

Starting over at 50, career change, clean beauty, and building a business through cancer treatment — Girl, Why Not You? host Jennie Blackwood talks with Lynn Power, founder of clean haircare brand MASAMI and the last CEO of J. Walter Thompson New York.Lynn started as a receptionist in 1989 because she could type. She worked her way up through Ogilvy, BBDO and Grey to run the flagship office of the oldest advertising agency in the world, on brands like Listerine, American Express, Clinique, Hershey’s, L’Oreal and Rolex. In 2018 she left all of it. She launched MASAMI — premium clean haircare built around mekabu, a Japanese ocean botanical — at New York Fashion Week in February 2020, one month before the world shut down. A year later she was diagnosed with aggressive stage 3 breast cancer. In the middle of six-hour chemo sessions she started something new: the Power Beauty Collab, now a collective of 65+ indie clean beauty brands.WHAT YOU’LL LEARNWhy “if you don’t like change, do not become an entrepreneur” is the most honest business advice you’ll hear this yearHow to make a career change in your 40s or 50s without starting from zero — your experience is the assetHow collaboration beat a marketing budget: giveaways, gift exchanges, live streams and pop-ups that cost almost nothingThe conversations to have BEFORE you go into business with a partner — roles, accountability, and who does whatWhat “clean beauty” actually means, and why clean products can outperform the drugstore versionHow to build when the timing is objectively terribleCHAPTERS00:00 Cold open02:59 Meet Lynn Power — receptionist to CEO of J. Walter Thompson NY06:23 1989, a typing class, and the job she got on the spot10:28 “If you don’t like change, do not become an entrepreneur”14:25 Why she walked away from the top job18:04 A stage 3 diagnosis, chemo, and buying the apartment in Italy anyway23:48 Starting the Power Beauty Collab from a hospital chair25:51 The power of community when you’re building alone31:22 Business partnerships: define the roles early35:21 Clean beauty is not a marketing gimmick40:36 Where to find Lynn41:51 Girl, why not you?CONNECT WITH LYNNMASAMI: lovemasami.com — @lovemasamihair on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and TikTokPower Beauty Collab: powerbeautycollab.comLynn on LinkedIn (she answers her DMs there)CONNECT WITH JENNIEInstagram: @girlwhynotyou_Girl, Why Not You? — new episodes weekly. Follow the show and leave a review, it’s genuinely how other women find us.

How to start a spray tan business with no loan, no investor, and a full-time job — Stacy Fike built Glow Girl Spray Tanning Boutique in Houston on a $500 start while teaching sixth grade as a single mom. One year after opening her first storefront, a client asked her to do the math, and she found she'd earned eight times what her teaching salary had paid her.On this episode of Girl, Why Not You? with Jennie Blackwood, Stacy walks through every stage: Spa Nordstrom, mobile, a converted room in her own house, a rented closet inside someone else's salon, and finally her own storefront with a team — more than 60,000 spray tans and 400-plus five-star reviews later. It's a masterclass in turning a beauty side hustle into a systemized business you own instead of one that owns you, and in the mindset shift from technician to CEO.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNHow to start a spray tanning business on a small budget and calculate your break-even before you spend a dollarHow to build a side hustle around a full-time job, a mortgage, and a kid's scheduleWhen to quit the day job — what Stacy had in place before she left teachingThe moment a service turns into a brand, and the client question that triggered itThe 15-minute service system that changed how she manages capacity and incomeHiring and delegating when you're type A and convinced nobody can do it like you canChoosing salon and spa software that handles booking, marketing, payments, and analyticsWhy spray tanning is an unregulated industry, and the sanitation, safety, and compliance standards that actually matterInside GlowPro, her spray tan certification and business development programCHAPTERS0:00 Cold open0:31 Welcome — the two women this episode is for1:41 Booked is not free: busy is not a business model2:37 Meet Stacy Fike — $500, a mortgage, and a sixth-grade classroom5:11 The woman in the classroom, and the tanning supply catalog she ordered as a kid7:52 Convincing Nordstrom to let her try spray tanning in the early 2000s9:04 Why mobile didn't work — and converting a room in her own home11:22 700 women through her house, then renting a closet in a hair salon12:57 The scary leap: quitting teaching and opening a storefront15:28 "I'm not building a spray tan business, I'm building a brand"16:28 "Have you done the math?" — the client question that changed everything18:58 Who was in her corner, and why customer feedback built the business21:20 Systems: the 15-minute spray tan and what it does to your capacity23:58 Hiring the right people and getting okay with asking for help25:09 Invest in the software — booking, payments, marketing, analytics26:55 GlowPro: bringing spray tan education into cosmetology programs27:37 The unregulated side of the sunless industry, and why standards matter32:46 Where to find Stacy and how to work with her33:51 Jennie's close: stop being the girl doing the workCONNECT WITH STACEY FIKEWebsite: glogirltanning.comGloPro spray tan certification + business training: glopro.glogirltanning.comInstagram — boutique: @glogirlspraytanInstagram — training program: @glopro2024LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stacey-fikeFacebook: facebook.com/glogirlspraytanGloGirl Spray Tanning Boutique — Houston, TXCONNECT WITH JENNIEWebsite: jennieblackwood.comInstagram: @socialgraze.charcuteriePodcast: Girl, Why Not You? — new episodes weekly

Sometimes life hands you something unfair, there's no lesson in it, and no amount of positive thinking makes it make sense. In this solo episode of Girl, Why Not You?, Jennie Blackwood talks about how to stop overthinking something you can't control — and the 5 things that are actually yours.If you're a woman in the middle of something hard — lying awake at 2am replaying it, having full conversations in the shower with someone who isn't there — this one is for you. Jennie shares the mindset shift that let her stop arm wrestling the weather, plus the one sentence that changed her life: let it be theirs, and let it be mine.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN- Why being a fixer turns on you the moment you hit something you can't fix- The hard truth nobody puts on a graphic: trying hard does not entitle you to an outcome- How to stop caring what people think about you (and why you get input, not a vote)- The 24-hour rule for never sending an angry text, email, or DM again- The 5 things you actually control: your response, your hands, your circle, your presence, your character- How to stay present with your family while you're going through something hard- The one sentence to say out loud when something isn't yours to carryCHAPTERS00:00 Intro00:30 Why I sat on this episode for weeks00:59 Sometimes it's just bullshit — and there's no lesson in it01:38 It's what you do in the days after02:33 The fixer problem: when you hit something you can't fix03:16 2am replays and shower arguments03:50 Trying hard does not entitle you to an outcome04:38 The fast list of what you don't control05:54 The sentence that changed my life: let it be theirs07:28 #1 Your response - nothing goes out warm (the 24-hour rule)08:45 #2 Your hands - why making something breaks the loop09:50 #3 Your circle - tell two people, not fourteen10:30 #4 Your presence - those dinners don't come back11:36 #5 Your character - "I stayed me"13:16 It's a practice, not a one-time decision13:34 Say it out loud: "That is not mine to carry"14:28 You can be in the middle of something hard and still be building15:20 Most things don't resolve - they get smaller as your life gets bigger16:24 You've got this, girlSend this to the woman in your life who's white-knuckling something right now. She won't tell you she needs it. Send it anyway.Girl, why not you?Hosted by Jennie Blackwood - mom of four, founder of Social Graze, and creator of Cart to Cashflow.Instagram: @socialgraze.charcuterieWebsite: jennieblackwood.com

What do you do when someone tells you you're behind?Nesha Pai walked into her annual performance review at a Charlotte CPA firm ready to ask for a raise — and her boss told her she was "nowhere near her peers" because she'd taken time off to raise her son. She quit on the spot, with no plan and no backup income, at 40, as a single mom. One client followed her. Fifteen years later, Pai CPA is the first fully remote accounting firm in North Carolina, serving 80+ clients with a team of stay-at-home moms.In this episode, Jennie and Nesha talk about the "mom gap" and why the time you spent raising your kids is not a hole in your resume, how to advocate for yourself in a room full of men, the biggest money mistakes women business owners make, why she fired her largest client to protect her core values, what to do this week if you're scared to open your books, her book Overcoming Ordinary Obstacles, and what it looks like to reinvent yourself again at 55.In this episode:- The performance review that changed everything- "Little Nesha stood up and said I quit"- Starting a firm at the kitchen table with one client- Building the first fully remote CPA firm in North Carolina- The hustle: every networking event in her city for six months- Perfectionism vs. actually investing in yourself- Firing her biggest client over her core values- How to stop being afraid of your own numbers- Writing a book to heal, and the reader she never expected- Keynote speaking and the "Don't Settle" speech- Why there is no age limit on reinventionConnect with Nesha Pai:Instagram: @neshapaiWebsite: neshapai.comLinkedIn: Nesha PaiBook: Overcoming Ordinary ObstaclesIf this episode hit you, share it with the woman you were thinking about the whole time you listened, and leave a review — it's how these stories find the women who need them most.Girl, why not you?

I took my three-and-a-half-year-old to see Moana expecting popcorn, candy, and a cute little mom-son afternoon. Instead I sat in a dark theater and ugly-cried through about 70% of it. Apparently, I was not ok... Ha!Because what I saw on that screen wasn't an island adventure. It was the entire journey of being a female entrepreneur, laid out scene by scene — and nobody warned me it was coming.In this episode I break down why Moana is secretly the most entrepreneurial movie Disney has ever made:The ocean calling her — that whisper you hear folding laundry at 2am that says there's more. Mine showed up while I was standing in my kitchen, eight months pregnant, after the rug got pulled out from under my family."No one goes beyond the reef" — why the people who love you most will hand you their fear disguised as protection, and why their reef is not your boundary.Grandma Tala — every woman building something needs one person dancing on the shoreline saying go. If you don't have one, I'll be her.The storms and the crashes — my first year was me getting rocked by every wave. Wrong pricing. Flopped marketing. Events that went sideways. She stays on the boat. That's the whole game."Just choose someone else" — the scene that broke me, because I've sat on my couch and said those exact words."Do you know who you are?" — the single question that separates the women who build empires from the women who almost did.Walking toward the fire — how many of us have turned our pain into walls and become our own version of Te Kā.I started with a toddler at home, a baby on the way, and served my first event three days before giving birth. It was messy. It was scared. It happened anyway.So here's your Moana challenge: listen to the whisper. Sail past the reef. Stay on the boat. Pick the heart back up. Walk toward the fire — because the most beautiful version of your life is on the other side of it.Girl, why not you?WEBSITE: www.girlwhynotyou.com

What do you do when your child is diagnosed with a condition so rare that only nine other kids in the world have it — and there's no playbook?Today's guest, Kasey Walsh, lived that reality. After her daughter Robbie was diagnosed with a rare form of hereditary spastic paraplegia at just two years old, Kasey refused to sit on the sidelines. She bought Neuroscience for Dummies, taught herself genetics, co-founded a nonprofit, and connected with researchers at Boston Children's Hospital — all while raising two kids.Now she's the Founder & CEO of Winsights, a groundbreaking patient-powered platform using AI to turn real family experiences into research-grade evidence for rare disease communities.In this episode, we talk about:-The moment that took her breath away — and how she found the strength to keep going-Why families often have to connect the dots that the medical system misses-How she found her voice in rooms full of experts-What she's building with Winsights and why it matters for every rare disease family-Her advice for anyone facing something unexpected: don't say "why me" — say "plot twist"Timestamps:00:00 — Intro00:30 — Meet Kasey Walsh02:16 — The diagnosis that changed everything04:43 — Navigating the early days as a special needs mom05:32 — Starting a nonprofit & finding other families09:16 — Buying Neuroscience for Dummies — the moment she took control12:16 — What is Winsights? Turning anecdotes into evidence14:59 — Finding her voice in rooms full of experts16:28 — Advice for anyone afraid to advocate for themselves19:36 — "Don't say why me — say plot twist"20:09 — Where to connect with Kasey & learn about WinsightsConnect with Kasey:Winsights: https://winsights.life Website: https://kaseywalsh.comConnect with Jennie:Podcast IG: @girlwhynotyou_Website: https://girlwhynotyou.com Email: mailto:[email protected]#raredisease #patientadvocacy #momentrepreneur #healthtech #winsights #kaseywalsh #hereditaryspasticparaplegia #caregiver #AIinhealthcare #rarediseaseresearch #womeninbusiness #girlwhynotyou #jennieblackwood #podcast #femalefounder