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The Honourable Leela Sharon Aheer shares the story that shaped her life and leadership.

Growing up in Alberta as the daughter of an Indian immigrant father and a Canadian mother, Leela learned early what it meant to stand out, speak up, and build community. At just 15 years old, she was directly confronted by white supremacist hate. Instead of shrinking, that moment became the catalyst for using her voice and stepping into leadership.

In this episode, Leela walks through her unconventional path from music and teaching into politics, winning her first election by just 260 votes and later serving as Alberta’s Minister of Culture, Multiculturalism, and Status of Women. She shares grounded lessons on women’s leadership, servant leadership, and why real change is built through small, consistent actions rather than power or position.

This conversation is a reminder that you do not need permission to lead. You just need to activate yourself.

Episode Notes
In this episode, we cover:

• Leela’s early life and how identity and community shaped her leadership
• Being targeted by hate at 15 and choosing to speak up instead of stay silent
• Why she left political science for music and later returned to politics
• Winning her first election by 260 votes and navigating imposter syndrome
• Why women’s rights must be protected in legislation
• How to build bridges with people you strongly disagree with
• Why momentum matters more than burnout
• Her vision for global collaboration, trade, and women’s leadership
• The simple lesson she believes every woman needs to hear

Guest Information
The Honourable Leela Sharon Aheer, ECA

Email: eventswithleela@outlook.com
Twitter: @LeelaAheer
Instagram: leelasharonaheer
LinkedIn: Hon. Leela (Sharon) Aheer

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Most people donate because they want to help. Few ever find out what actually happens to their money. Philanthropy has a trust problem. Nonprofits have a transparency problem. Donors want clarity but rarely get it. And donor-advised funds have become a quiet holding place for billions of untapped charitable capital.

After fifteen years working inside philanthropy, Sarah Angello could not ignore the friction anymore. She saw the outdated systems. She saw the lost potential. She saw how giving had become complicated when it should feel meaningful.

So she left a stable career, stepped into tech, and cofounded Daffodil, a fintech platform designed to rebuild trust in the nonprofit sector by making charitable giving transparent, simple, and accessible.

In this conversation, Sarah explains the gap no one was addressing, how donor-advised funds actually work, why impact reporting is broken, and how she is solving a systemic problem with zero-burden, real-time data. She opens up about raising capital as a woman, choosing cofounders, navigating risk, and the lesson that shaped her leadership: almost everything is fixable.

If you have ever given to a nonprofit, wondered where your money went, or thought about starting something meaningful, this episode will change the way you see philanthropy and the business behind it.

Chapters this episode explores:

• The moment Sarah realized philanthropy needed a complete reset
• Why donor-advised funds hold more than 250 billion dollars that rarely reaches nonprofits
• What the GoFundMe controversy revealed about trust in the sector
• How Daffodil built a system to deliver real-time impact reporting with zero burden on nonprofits
• Why transparency is the next frontier in charitable giving
• What she learned moving from nonprofit bureaucracy to tech speed
• How she chose her cofounders and why their history matters
• The reality of raising money as a woman in a male-dominated funding environment
• Why she believes fear of being copied is fear of weak execution
• The early mistake that taught her that almost everything is fixable

Key lessons:

• Transparency is not optional; it is the foundation of impact
• Good ideas are everywhere; execution is the differentiator
• Donors do not stop giving because they lack generosity but because they lack visibility
• Founders should build in public, not hide in fear
• Careers are long, and mistakes rarely ruin them

Contact

Website: www.getdaffodil.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/getdaffodil/
Email: sarah@getdaffodil.com

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If you loved this episode, drop us a review, share it with a badass woman in your life, and subscribe to Badass Women in Business wherever you get your podcasts.

Stay badass. Stay bold. Build it your way.

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• Facebook: Empowered Women Leaders
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• Website: Badasswomeninbusinesspodcast.com
• Athena: athenaac.com

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Rachael Wonderlin built a national dementia consulting firm from a Tumblr blog, three Johns Hopkins books, and a decade of hands-on work inside senior living communities. But the real story is what she learned along the way about boundaries, burnout, and trusting her intuition long before the data caught up.

In this conversation, Rachael shares the full arc of building Dementia By Day from a one-woman hustle into a recurring revenue business that now operates like fractional operations for senior living companies. She talks about the early years when she said yes to everything, the moment she realized she needed a different model, and the systems she created to stop chasing one-off gigs.

She also opens up about being pigeonholed as “just” a dementia expert, the tone deaf advice she received while pitching her fourth book, and the unregulated coaching industry that inspired her business memoir, I Can’t Hustle Any Harder Than This.

If you’re building a business, struggling with boundaries, or fighting your way out of a niche that people keep trying to trap you in, this episode gives you the clarity you need to move forward with confidence.

In this episode, Rachael shares:

• How she turned a blog into a national consulting firm
• The moment she learned to stop saying yes to everything
• How she built recurring revenue and stopped chasing the next gig
• The difference between coaching and consulting, and why clarity matters
• Why the coaching industry can harm entrepreneurs who are just getting started
• The story of the agent who told her to write a “funny dementia book”
• How she is repositioning herself as a business leader, not only a dementia expert
• The evolution of dementia care and why public awareness has changed
• Why she refuses to use AI to create content
• How her viral web comics reached hundreds of thousands of people
• What hiring mistakes taught her about leadership and trust
• The one lesson she wants every business owner to learn: if your gut says no, believe it

Key quote:

“If your gut reaction is ‘oh hell no,’ that is the answer. Stop arguing with yourself. Say no and move on.”

CONTACT INFORMATION

Rachael Wonderlin
Founder and CEO, Dementia By Day
Website: dementiabyday.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rachaelwonderlin
Instagram: @dementiabyday and @cant_hustleanyharder
Substack: Can’t Hustle Any Harder

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Subscribe and Review
If you loved this episode, drop us a review, share it with a badass woman in your life, and subscribe to Badass Women in Business wherever you get your podcasts.

Stay badass. Stay bold. Build it your way.

Keep up with more content from Aggie and Cristy here:

• Facebook: Empowered Women Leaders
• Instagram: @badass_women_in_business
• LinkedIn: ProveHer - Badass Women in Business
• Website: Badasswomeninbusinesspodcast.com
• Athena: athenaac.com