There are stories happening all around you. In the coffee shop, in the board room, in the carpool line. Women who built something, survived something, started something, lost something and kept going anyway. Most of those stories never make it past a quick handshake and a business card exchange.

That changes now.

HerStory is a limited podcast series from Chamber Fayetteville and Be Freaking Awesome, hosted by Sami Kinnison and Angela Belford. Each episode features a different woman from the Fayetteville community, sharing the real version of her story. Not the polished version. The actual one, with the pivots and the hard seasons and the moments she almost didn't make it to the room she was born to be in. We're doing this as a lead-up to Chamber Fayetteville's Women of All Generations event on June 16, 2026 at Fayetteville Town Center, and every episode is an invitation to show up for that day. In this first episode, Sami and Angela introduce the show, share why women's stories matter more than ever, and give you a peek behind the curtain at what's coming. In this episode, we get into:

• Why Fayetteville's women deserve their own spotlight (and what makes this community different)
• The real reason we wanted to tell her story instead of just showing up at an event
• Why this podcast is for everyone, not just women
• What surprised Sami after already sitting down with several guests
• How shared stories create shortcuts to real connection in a room full of strangers

Angela talks about what it was like to be a young woman buying a software company in the early 2000s, operating at the intersection of two very male-dominated industries, and what that experience taught her about who gets heard and who doesn't. Sami reflects on growing up in Fayetteville, trying to leave (the part where she found out 'anywhere but here' doesn't have a college application is a little too relatable), and what Leadership Fayetteville taught her about a city she thought she already knew everything about.

What you'll walk away from this episode with is simple: a reason to hit subscribe and a reason to show up on June 16. These aren't just stories. They're the conversations that make a room feel less like networking and more like belonging. And we can't wait to show you what that looks like.

Grab your tickets and find out everything about the Women of All Generations event at fayettevillear.com/woag. New episodes drop regularly between now and June, and you don't want to miss a single one.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Women of All Generations event: fayettevillear.com/woag
• Chamber Fayetteville: fayettevillear.com
• Be Freaking Awesome podcast: bfreakingawesome.com
• Leadership Fayetteville (Chamber program)

Mentioned in this episode:

Women of All Generations | June 16, 2026

The Women of All Generations event is almost here. Join us June 16, 2026 from 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center for an afternoon of real conversation, connection, and celebration. Tickets and sponsorships are available now. You belong in that room. Grab your spot at fayettevillear.com/woag.

She moved to Fayetteville in 2020 for school, got COVID, mono, and tonsillitis three times, and genuinely did not think she was going to stay. Fast forward a few years: she's the publisher of Fayetteville City Lifestyle Magazine, a published author, and one of the people most responsible for making sure this city's stories actually get told. Sydney Sullivan did not plan any of this. And that's exactly what makes her story worth hearing.

In this episode of HerStory, Sami sits down with Sydney to talk about what it looks like to build a career around something you've loved since childhood, how to walk into rooms where you feel like you have no business being there, and why Fayetteville keeps doing this thing where people show up planning to leave and end up obsessed. Sydney also shares a goal she hasn't said out loud yet, and it's one that anyone in a season of figuring it out needs to hear. In this episode, we get into:

• What it actually felt like to go from tech sales to publisher in her mid-20s, and why following what you loved as a kid is still the best career advice
• How to walk into a room where you don't belong and stay anyway
• The 'secret sauce' of Fayetteville according to someone whose entire job is to pay attention to this city
• What she hopes Fayetteville never loses as it grows
• A secret goal involving women's stories that she's never said out loud before

Sydney talks about the mindset shift that got her through imposter syndrome: "somebody put me here, so it wasn't on accident." She shares what her dad's steady belief in her built inside her, the advice she'd give her younger self about leaning into natural giftings instead of chasing stability, and the question she most wants to ask the panelists at the Women of All Generations event on June 16.

What you'll take from this conversation is a little more permission to be exactly where you are, even when it doesn't look like what you planned. Sydney is 24, running a magazine, and still figuring things out in real time. That's not a disclaimer. That's the point.

The Women of All Generations event is June 16, 2026, 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center. Grab your tickets and find out everything at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Fayetteville City Lifestyle Magazine: fayettevillecitylifestyle.com
• The College Girl's Guide to Fayetteville by Sydney Sullivan
• The Soul of Shame by Curt Thompson
• Andrew Huberman's Huberman Lab Podcast: hubermanlab.com
• George's on Dickson Street, Fayetteville AR
• Dodo Coffee, Fayetteville AR
• Baba Boudan's, Fayetteville AR
• Women of All Generations event: fayettevillear.com/woag

Connect with Sydney:

• Instagram (personal): @sydney.i.sullivan
• Instagram (magazine): @fayettevillecitylifestyle
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sydney-sullivan-17699320a

Mentioned in this episode:

Women of All Generations | June 16, 2026

The Women of All Generations event is almost here. Join us June 16, 2026 from 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center for an afternoon of real conversation, connection, and celebration. Tickets and sponsorships are available now. You belong in that room. Grab your spot at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Sixteen years into running her own firm, Brittany Phillips still gives young designers the same piece of advice: go find someone you admire and go learn. Not because she's repeating what worked. Because she lived it, and it's still the truest thing she knows.

Brittany is the founder of Brittany Phillips Design, a brand design firm in Fayetteville built intentionally small. She came up through regional ad agencies, global work with Saatchi and Saatchi X, and years at DOCSA under mentor Tim Walker before going out on her own. In this episode, she sits down with Angela to talk about what it actually looks like to build a career, a business, and a family in the same city you stayed in by choice. And the design principle she uses with clients that turns out to be the best life advice she has: when you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing. In this episode, we get into:

• Why the most boring early-career work often becomes your most valuable skill
• What she'd tell every young woman just starting out in Fayetteville
• The word Angela heard in Brittany's life description that neither of them had connected to design before
• How she handles the frustration of not being heard in a male-dominated industry, and what she did with it
• The secret goal involving art she hasn't told anyone about yet

Brittany talks about the detail work that felt tedious and almost devastating early in her career, the years of prepping files, checking crop marks, learning what can go wrong at press. And how that exact work is now the thing that makes her irreplaceable to clients. She also opens up about navigating creative disagreement with a client who doesn't choose what you'd choose, and why the advice "take it for what it is, it doesn't define you" is a whole lot easier to say than to live.

There's a moment in this conversation where Angela connects Brittany's approach to life to the principles of design itself: restraint, breathing room, margin. The things you don't put in matter as much as the things you do. Brittany hadn't quite framed it that way. Neither will you, until you hear it.

The Women of All Generations event is June 16, 2026, 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center. Brittany will be there as the moderator of the panel discussion. Grab your tickets at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Brittany Phillips Design: brittanyphillipsdesign.com
• Blackwood Martin (regional ad agency, Fayetteville)
• Saatchi and Saatchi X
• DOCSA, Fayetteville (mentor: Tim Walker)
• City of Fayetteville Trash and Recycling
• Chamber Fayetteville
• Women of All Generations event: fayettevillear.com/woag

Connect with Brittany:

• Website: brittanyphillipsdesign.com
• Instagram: @bpdfayar
• Facebook: facebook.com/brittanyphillipsdesign
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brittany-phillips-ba49818

Mentioned in this episode:

Women of All Generations | June 16, 2026

The Women of All Generations event is almost here. Join us June 16, 2026 from 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center for an afternoon of real conversation, connection, and celebration. Tickets and sponsorships are available now. You belong in that room. Grab your spot at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Julie Magnuson didn't plan to end up in Northwest Arkansas. She just kept saying yes to the next right thing. Buying from promotional product vendors. Working for one. Moving to a new market for a colleague who needed help. And then one day, someone asked what it would take for her to stay, and she looked around and thought: this is a good place to raise a family.

Forty years later, she and her daughter Cassidy are running Creative Promos together. And the goal Cassidy just said out loud for the first time? To take over the business one day and keep serving the customers Julie has spent decades building relationships with.

This episode of HerStory is a little different. It's two women, two generations, one business, and a genuinely honest conversation about what it takes to make all of that work. Sami sits down with Julie and Cassidy Magnuson of Creative Promos to talk about the winding paths that brought them both to NWA, what it's actually like to work with your mom, and why service is still the thing that makes or breaks a business. In this episode, we get into:

• How Julie went from buying promotional products to selling them, and eventually owning her own company
• How Cassidy went from healthcare recruiting and medical sales to joining the family business
• What it's actually like to work with your mom (the real answer, not the polished one)
• How they divide the work so it doesn't swallow their relationship
• Why burnout is real, vacations are not optional, and messy balance is still balance

They talk about the challenge of being a working mom before remote work existed, when your boss's wife stayed home and he genuinely didn't understand why yours couldn't. They talk about what makes NWA a community worth staying in, and why the answer keeps coming back to the same thing: the people here actually care about each other.

And then they each say something out loud that they haven't said before. Julie's is about retirement. Cassidy's is about stepping into something big. You'll want to hear both.

The Women of All Generations event is June 16, 2026, 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center. Grab your tickets at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Connect with Creative Promos:

• Website: creative-promos.com
• Phone: (479) 871-1945

Mentioned in this episode:

Women of All Generations | June 16, 2026

The Women of All Generations event is almost here. Join us June 16, 2026 from 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center for an afternoon of real conversation, connection, and celebration. Tickets and sponsorships are available now. You belong in that room. Grab your spot at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Beth Pittman's dad gave her advice early in her career that she's spent the last two decades respectfully disagreeing with. He told her to keep her head down, work hard, and the company would take care of her. What actually happened was that a client she used to support in a legal capacity looked up one day and said, I think you'd make a really good recruiter. She didn't even know what that meant. She looked into it, interviewed, got the job, and found the thing she was built for.

Now, after 20-plus years in recruiting and as the co-founder of Skills Lab Training, she spends her days helping other people find that same thing. And along the way, she noticed a pattern: women keep hitting a ceiling not because they aren't qualified, but because nobody taught them how to ask for what they've already earned.

In this episode of HerStory, Sami sits down with Beth Pittman of Skills Lab Training to talk about the winding road from paralegal to recruiter to entrepreneur, what she sees from the inside of the hiring process that most candidates never know, and why investing in yourself is the most underused career tool most women have. She also shares a goal nobody saw coming. In this episode, we get into:

• How a client's offhand comment changed the entire trajectory of Beth's career
• What 20 years of recruiting has taught her about the gap between what women are worth and what they ask for
• The coaching moment that helped one woman walk into her boss's office and ask for a promotion, a raise, and more responsibility in one conversation
• Why starting a business is hard in ways nobody talks about, and what Beth did about it
• The secret goal that nobody in her life knew about until this conversation

Beth talks about the difference between heads-down work and career growth, why your network is gold even when you can't see it yet, and how Skills Lab's free Business Owners Roundtable came directly from her own startup growing pains. She also makes a case for investing in yourself the same way you'd invest in a tutor for your kid's math test, or a piano teacher, or three years of travel soccer. The skills that get you promoted don't happen by accident.

She also says something about the glass ceiling that is worth hearing. As a recruiter who sees exactly what companies pay men and women for the same roles, she is not speaking in theory.

The Women of All Generations event is June 16, 2026, 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center. Beth is a past attendee and she loved it. Grab your tickets at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Skills Lab Training: skillslabtraining.com
• Skills Lab Business Owners Roundtable (free, held every other month)
• Kristi Martin, co-founder of Skills Lab Training
• Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas (Skills Lab coaching partnership)
• Women of All Generations event: fayettevillear.com/woag

Connect with Beth:

• Website: skillslabtraining.com
• Email: beth@skillslabtraining.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pittmanbeth
• Instagram: @skillslabtraining
• Facebook: facebook.com/skillslabtraining

Mentioned in this episode:

Women of All Generations | June 16, 2026

The Women of All Generations event is almost here. Join us June 16, 2026 from 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center for an afternoon of real conversation, connection, and celebration. Tickets and sponsorships are available now. You belong in that room. Grab your spot at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Takama Statton-Brooks spent 22 years in higher education. She loved it. She was good at it. She had a career that by almost any measure was working.

And then her father passed away, and she remembered a promise she had made to herself that she hadn't kept.

She had told herself she wanted to get her social work license again. She had never done it. There was no reason not to, except that she was content. And contentment, it turns out, is sometimes the thing standing between you and the work you were actually built for.

Now she is the executive director of Magdalene Serenity House in Fayetteville, a nonprofit that helps women with histories of incarceration, addiction, and trauma rebuild their lives. And the thing she didn't know when she took the job? She was returning to the very first population she had ever worked with. As a graduate student, she worked in a prison in Kansas. She had come full circle without planning to.

In this episode of HerStory, Angela sits down with Takama to talk about the long road that led her here, what it's like to run a nonprofit that serves a population most people overlook, and what she'd tell anyone early in their career who thinks they know exactly where they're headed. In this episode, we get into:

• How 22 years in higher education turned out to be the perfect preparation for running a nonprofit serving justice-involved women
• The promise she made to herself after her father died, and what it took to finally keep it
• What Magdalene Serenity House actually does for the women it serves, and why dental restoration is one of the most critical pieces
• Why 'show up and pay attention' is the career advice she gives everyone, at every level
• What she learned about NWA that living and working here for 20 years had never taught her

Takama talks about morning circles, the daily meditation practice that starts every day at Magdalene, and why she finds herself going to work feeling like she's just been to church. She talks about volunteering on nonprofit boards, the bubble of campus life, and what it means to finally become a connected citizen of the community you've been living in for two decades.

She also shares a goal she's been sitting on quietly. It's one that makes complete sense for someone who spent her career developing people and has a gift for getting a room's attention.

If you want to support Magdalene Serenity House or learn more about their work, visit lovehealsnwa.org.

The Women of All Generations event is June 16, 2026, 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center. Grab your tickets at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Magdalene Serenity House: lovehealsnwa.org
• Thistle Farms, Nashville TN (model organization): thistlefarms.org
• Joy Morris, Director of Development, Magdalene Serenity House
• Leadership Fayetteville (Chamber Fayetteville program)
• University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (22 years in residence life)
• Women of All Generations event: fayettevillear.com/woag

Connect with Takama and Magdalene Serenity House:

• Website: lovehealsnwa.org
• Email: takama@lovehealsnwa.org
• Facebook: facebook.com/magdaleneserenityhouse
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/takama-statton-brooks

Mentioned in this episode:

Women of All Generations | June 16, 2026

The Women of All Generations event is almost here. Join us June 16, 2026 from 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center for an afternoon of real conversation, connection, and celebration. Tickets and sponsorships are available now. You belong in that room. Grab your spot at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Natalie Abram grew up in Fayetteville, cheered at the University of Arkansas, planned weddings, worked events at Crystal Bridges and The Momentary, and is now the events and marketing manager at Lewis Automotive Group. She is 24 years old. She did not finish college. And she is one of the most clear-eyed people in this series about what it takes to get where she is.

She doesn't see a glass ceiling. She doesn't talk about people blocking her path. She says: the only person standing between me and what's coming next is me. And she says it like she's said it to herself a hundred times, because she has.

In this episode, Sami sits down with Natalie to talk about growing up in Fayetteville, taking her own unconventional path through some of NWA's most exciting organizations, and what she thinks about building a career before you're thirty. In this episode, we get into:

• How her mom helped her identify her strengths as a kid with ADHD and why that foundation still guides her today
• What it's actually like to work in rooms where most people are older than you and have more traditional credentials
• Why experience outpaces a diploma in her field, and what she'd tell anyone who's questioning whether college is the right path
• Her completely contagious take on the glass ceiling: she doesn't see limitations because she refuses to
• What 34-year-old Natalie is going to be grateful that 24-year-old Natalie is doing right now

Natalie talks about confidence as a practice, not a personality trait. She talks about booking a last-minute flight to a Morgan Wallen concert in Florida and about the specific feeling of driving into Fayetteville on I-49 and seeing Old Main come over the hill. She is fully herself in this conversation, and that's exactly what makes it worth listening to.

If you know someone who is early in their career, feels out of place in a room, or is wondering whether the path they're on is the right one, this episode is for them.

The Women of All Generations event is June 16, 2026, 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center. Grab your tickets at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Lewis Automotive Group: lewissuperstore.com
• Women of All Generations event: fayettevillear.com/woag

Connect with Natalie:

• Lewis Automotive Group: lewissuperstore.com
• Lewis Automotive Instagram: @lewisautomotivegroup
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/natalie-abram

Mentioned in this episode:

Women of All Generations | June 16, 2026

The Women of All Generations event is almost here. Join us June 16, 2026 from 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center for an afternoon of real conversation, connection, and celebration. Tickets and sponsorships are available now. You belong in that room. Grab your spot at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Tanya Mimms graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1993, looked around at Northwest Arkansas, and decided she wasn't leaving. Back then, most people had to. There weren't a lot of jobs. The first people willing to take a chance on her were a car dealership. She got a job. She stayed in finance. And she never looked back.

Now she's the Fayetteville Community President at First National Bank of NWA, a role created specifically for her, overseeing lending, retail, marketing, business development, HR, and as she puts it, sometimes cleaning and buying toilet paper. Because that's what leadership actually looks like.

In this episode, Sami sits down with Tanya to talk about 30-plus years of building a career and a life in one community, what she learned in the seasons that felt impossible, and the question she asks herself when everything gets overwhelming. In this episode, we get into:

• How she ended up in finance completely by accident and why she never left
• The advice she gives herself and others when the enormity of something feels impossible: what's the next right thing?
• What she learned early in her career about women supporting women, and how she sees that changing
• Why she says yes to uncomfortable things, including this podcast
• Her take on the glass ceiling, and why she'd rather talk about solutions than problems

Tanya talks about the early days when there were women around her who had fought hard to get where they were and didn't feel generous about sharing what they knew. She talks about how different it feels now, and about the men who stepped up to mentor her when other women didn't. She's honest about all of it without being bitter about any of it.

She also makes a case that is worth writing down: if your employer isn't investing in your growth, invest in yourself. The library is free. There are successful women in NWA who will give you their time if you ask. The resources exist. The question is whether you're willing to use your off time to grow.

The Women of All Generations event is June 16, 2026, 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center. Grab your tickets at fayettevillear.com/woag.

Mentioned in this episode:

• First National Bank of NWA: fnbnwa.com
• Fayetteville Public Library (free resources for career development)
• Arkansas Fair Housing Commission (Tanya serves as commissioner)
• Women of All Generations event: fayettevillear.com/woag

Connect with Tanya:

• First National Bank of NWA: fnbnwa.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tanya-mims-a0338a34

Mentioned in this episode:

Women of All Generations | June 16, 2026

The Women of All Generations event is almost here. Join us June 16, 2026 from 3 to 6 PM at the Fayetteville Town Center for an afternoon of real conversation, connection, and celebration. Tickets and sponsorships are available now. You belong in that room. Grab your spot at fayettevillear.com/woag.