In this episode, we hear from Christine M. Roberts, a respected business leader, success coach, and the founder & CEO of Create Your Best Life.  She is also the author of the empowering book, Inspirational Mind Food, Positive Thoughts and Actionable Ideas.

Christine shares her insights, strategies, and practical tips on how to maintain a positive mindset and navigate the challenges of an ever-growing negative world. We’re bombarded with negative news, social media negativity, and divisiveness.  Therefore, we aim to provide a dose of inspiration, motivation, and actionable advice to help listeners cultivate a positive outlook and all the physical, mental, and emotional health benefits that come with overcoming negativity in our lives.

Women-owned businesses are a big driver of the U.S. economy. Women own over 13 million businesses, employ close to 12 million employees, and boast $1.9 trillion in annual revenues, according to a Forbes magazine article published in March 2023. The future is bright for female-founded start-ups, but the challenges are great. 

Listen in to Monica Delores Hooks, the Executive Director of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI) of Atlanta and past WIL speaker as she gives us the insights women need to launch and sustain a successful new business.

Under Monica Delores Hook’s leadership, WEI has created more than 1000 jobs for Atlanta and helped garner $7.3 million in capital investment for women-led startups. She built her career at Sony Music Entertainment with roles in Product Management, International Marketing, and Business Affairs and has over 20 years of expertise in startup business development, content marketing, and brand management. Monica is also a graduate of Atlanta’s WEI inaugural class and winner of the 2017 Microsoft Innovation Bots and Cognitive Services Award.

In this preview episode, Anne goes Beyond Theory to explore the role courage plays in entrepreneurship. Anne also introduces Monica Delores Hooks, the Executive Director of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI) of Atlanta.

Under Monica Hook’s leadership, WEI has created more than 1000 jobs for Atlanta and helped garner $ 7.3 million in capital investment for women-led startups. She built her career at Sony Music Entertainment with roles in Product Management, International Marketing, and Business Affairs and has over 20 years of expertise in startup business development, content marketing, and brand management. Monica is also a graduate of Atlanta’s WEI inaugural class and winner of the 2017 Microsoft Innovation Bots and Cognitive Services Award.  Check back soon for the full episode with Monica Delores Hooks' courageous story!

Whether you are just beginning your leadership journey or facing a new leadership opportunity, what could it mean if you were to pursue work and life at the intersection of impact and leadership? Join us as we find out what this means and how to guide a career toward this junction. So much has been said about being led by purpose and finding meaning in work, and in this episode we explore the "how" with someone who has positioned her entire career at the convergence of creating meaningful impact and focused leadership enabling herself, teams, and organizations to succeed.

Cindy Cheatham is an Executive Coach and Sr. Consultant with the Turknett Leadership Group, and her coaching and consulting are informed by her experiences as VP of Consulting at the GeorgiaCenter for Nonprofits, through management consulting with Bain & Company where her work included strategic consulting for dozens of organizations, and as a Venture Catalyst and Director of Business Development at the Advanced Technology Development Center, a nationally recognized technology incubator affiliated with Georgia Tech. 

Now more than ever people are taking off in creative careers that thrive off of being radically unique and authentic. But what does it even mean to be authentic? And how can we achieve that while not losing desirability from your audience, or even worst, yourself? As we navigate the changing landscape of the hybrid workplace, generationally we can see that priorities shift when it comes to self-image and branding and are now extending to how you look on a Zoom call, and not just in the office. Join us as we learn how to make the best impressions, whether it be on a video call or in real life. Level up your brand and learn these industry hacks proven to build confidence and strengthen your brand image.

Pat Lore is a storyteller. She has been writing and producing stories for her entire career. She received her start in TV News, then transitioned to syndicated tech shows, opening her own video production company in 1996, and never looked back!

In addition to being a writer and producer, she is also a professional speaker, author, host, and moderator. For more on Pat you can go to her website at: PatLore.com

For the very first episode of LeadHER Lounge, Anne and Karine decided to come out splashing with Nikki Lanier from Harper-Slade, a racial equity advisory firm based out of Louisville, Kentucky-- who can travel anywhere to you. They dive deep into how to confront the increasing tensions brought by the clash of culture and economic landscape shifting while having a lack of action behind addressing race in a transformative way. They talk about the uncomfortable aspects of the job, predictions for our professional workplace for the future, and what its like coaching high-level executives and teams on anti-racist practices and principles.

Nikki Lanier is in the belief challenging business. Her team says beliefs are not just ideas that you possess but ideas that possess you. Shared negative beliefs about people of color, as demonstrated by societal systems, presumptions, structures and behaviors, must be transformed, for the collective good. By aggressively cultivating racial equity, both corporately and civically, they are recasting an entirely new vision for equality and its role in shaping the economic foundation of our future. For more on Nikki and the work that Harper-Slade is actualizing visit: HarperSlade.com

We will be posting the first Monday of every month, with more heavy-hitting guests who go against the grain to carve their own path.