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There are brilliant women everywhere with something important to say — and almost nobody outside their circle knows who they are. How to become a thought leader isn't a mystery once you know how the doors actually open.

In this episode, Aimee Rickabus talks with Jacquelyn Fletcher Johnson — author of 14 books, keynote speaker, executive coach, and founder of the Gateway Gathering & Pitch Fest — about getting your ideas out of your head and onto agents' desks, conference stages, and into the rooms where decisions get made.

Jacquelyn shares:
- How to find a literary agent, and how to land a book deal without one first
- What a query letter has to do in 30 seconds ("no AI" and "show me you know me")
- When you actually need a speaking agent, and what they want to see first
- The three lenses for deciding what's yours to share and what's someone else's story
- The lava bracelet trick she used to walk onto a stage of 2,000 people

Whether you're sitting on a book, a keynote, or an idea that won't leave you alone, this conversation will make "not ready yet" a lot harder to believe.

🎟️ The Gateway Gathering & Pitch Fest is October 6–8, 2026 (virtual). Get your ticket through Aimee's link and use promo code AIMEE: https://events.zoom.us/ev/Amr-bxdqj7Y_NssOg5hpaW3QiQh5V2kcsIVJEL5Zo-kl_IUJoiMZ~ApMB4a9_EFyg9oDBb1YQhSoh_hhXwRAchVZqQvgGfO1V4wsfaqDWyxWaUQ?promo=AIMEE

Affiliate link — The Manage Her® may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

🔗 CONNECT WITH JACQUELYN FLETCHER JOHNSON:
Website: https://jacquelynfletcherjohnson.com
The Gateway Project: https://www.gateway-project.com
Instagram: @jacquelynfletcherjohnson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelynfletcherjohnson/

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The Manage Her® Podcast — hosted by Aimee Rickabus. Honest conversations on leadership, financial empowerment, motherhood, wellness, and career reinvention for ambitious women.

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© 2026 The Manage Her®. All rights reserved.

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What if the somebody who should invent that is you? Missy Kelly didn't set out to build a company — she just refused to let skateboard grip tape scratch up her house. Nine prototypes later, that slippery phone became a patented material used by Walmart, SpaceX, and the U.S. Navy.

In this episode, Aimee Rickabus talks with Missy Kelly, Co-Founder and CEO of CatTongue Grips and founder of Born for Impact, about how to turn an idea into a product with zero experience, how a small women-owned business gets into big box retail and government contracting, and the inner work of running a company without letting it become your identity.

Missy shares:
• The Verizon-store moment and the 18 months it took to get the material right
• How a Paralympian, a trucker named Earl, and a chicken coop steered the product
• The one question she asks every corporate buyer — and the wrap-dress pitch that landed Walmart
• What a WBENC certification does (and doesn't) do, and how to play the long game
• Why perfectionism is an outer symptom of feeling unworthy — and how to separate who you are from what you built

Whether you're sitting on a "someone should make this" idea or you own a small business and assume the Fortune 500 won't buy from you, this conversation will make you ask Missy's favorite question: why wouldn't they?

🔗 CONNECT WITH MISSY KELLY:
Instagram: @melissackelly
Website: https://missykelly.com/
CatTongue Grips: https://www.cattonguegrips.com/
Women Gone Wild: Leadership Edition (preorder): https://missykelly.com/women-gone-wild/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/missy-kelly

———

The Manage Her® Podcast — hosted by Aimee Rickabus. Honest conversations on leadership, financial empowerment, motherhood, wellness, and career reinvention for ambitious women.

🎧 SUBSCRIBE & LISTEN:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-manage-her/id1809208475
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/03FuFRyzkaWhZkk5yxFePJ
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/91c217a5-4245-4b83-8d15-8edfdde06884/the-manage-her

📲 CONNECT WITH THE MANAGE HER®:
Website: https://www.themanageher.com
Instagram: @themanageher
TikTok: @themanageher
YouTube: @themanageher
LinkedIn: @themanageher

💗 If this episode resonated, follow the show, leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a woman who needs to hear it.

© 2026 The Manage Her®. All rights reserved.

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What does it take to build a business in a male-dominated industry when you never planned to start one? Que Alicea went from medical day spa owner to founder and CEO of an award-winning environmental consulting firm, without a big bank loan behind her.

In this Entrepreneur Spotlight episode, Aimee Rickabus talks with Que Alicea, founder and CEO of Q & A Consulting LLC in San Francisco, about the accidental path from skincare to industrial hygiene, and the relationships that turned a one-person contracting gig into a firm working on major construction and infrastructure projects around the Bay Area.

Que shares:
• How a disaster recovery job meant to fund her spa became an environmental firm
• What it's like when people talk to your male project manager before they talk to you
• The self-funded early days: rented equipment, lab fees, and net 30 turning into net 45
• Why women-owned business certification puts you on a shorter list, not a signed contract
• The best business advice she ever got: hire up

Whether you're a woman in a male-dominated field, building a business without a roadmap, or wondering if certification is worth it, this conversation is a reminder that the entrepreneur gets built along the way.

🔗 CONNECT WITH QUE ALICEA:
Instagram: @qaconsultingllc
Website: https://www.qaconsulting-llc.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/q-a-consuting-llc/

———

The Manage Her® Podcast — hosted by Aimee Rickabus. Honest conversations on leadership, financial empowerment, motherhood, wellness, and career reinvention for ambitious women.

🎧 SUBSCRIBE & LISTEN:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-manage-her/id1809208475
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/03FuFRyzkaWhZkk5yxFePJ
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/91c217a5-4245-4b83-8d15-8edfdde06884/the-manage-her

📲 CONNECT WITH THE MANAGE HER®:
Website: https://www.themanageher.com
Instagram: @themanageher
TikTok: @themanageher
YouTube: @themanageher
LinkedIn: @themanageher

💗 If this episode resonated, follow the show, leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a woman who needs to hear it.

© 2026 The Manage Her®. All rights reserved.

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"Mom, no one ever taught me how to read before." That's what Aimee's oldest son said after one day at Cathy Johnson's school — and it's the sentence behind this entire episode on how to help a child with dyslexia.

In this episode, Aimee Rickabus talks with Cathy Johnson, licensed Speech-Language Pathologist and founder of The Johnson Academy and the Speech, Language and Learning Center in San Juan Capistrano, about what actually works for kids who learn differently, when to start, and how a kindergarten diagnosis turned a mom into an expert, an advocate, and the founder of a school that's now in its 20th year.

Cathy shares:
• Why "they'll catch up" and "let's watch her" fail so many kids, and what to do instead
• The speech-delay warning sign that should trigger a reading screen at four or five
• The third-grade window — the research she cites on why timing matters so much
• What structured, multisensory instruction looks like (and why extra time on tests isn't intervention)
• Why more reading practice, flashcards, and timed tests can make things worse
• A one-minute-a-day phonemic awareness activity any parent can start
• How she financed a school with no public funding, and why she started the Ready to Read scholarship fund
• "There really isn't a too late" — the 70-year-old woman she taught to read

Whether you're a mom staring at a report card that doesn't match your kid, a teacher who suspects a student is being passed along, or a woman who keeps finding a problem nobody else will solve, this conversation will give you the language, the science, and the permission to stop waiting.

🔗 CONNECT WITH CATHY JOHNSON:
The Johnson Academy: https://www.thejohnsonacademy.com/
Speech, Language and Learning Center: https://www.speechlanguageandlearningcenter.net/
Instagram: @thejohnsonacademyoc · @the_sllc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathy-johnson-1554529a

———

The Manage Her® Podcast — hosted by Aimee Rickabus. Honest conversations on leadership, financial empowerment, motherhood, wellness, and career reinvention for ambitious women.

🎧 SUBSCRIBE & LISTEN:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-manage-her/id1809208475
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/03FuFRyzkaWhZkk5yxFePJ
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/91c217a5-4245-4b83-8d15-8edfdde06884/the-manage-her

📲 CONNECT WITH THE MANAGE HER®:
Website: https://www.themanageher.com
Instagram: @themanageher
TikTok: @themanageher
YouTube: @themanageher
LinkedIn: @themanageher

💗 If this episode resonated, follow the show, leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a woman who needs to hear it.

© 2026 The Manage Her®. All rights reserved.

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Everyone says AI will make women more productive. Nicole McCain asks a better question: productive at what? Before you automate your life, you have to see what you're actually managing.

In this episode, Aimee Rickabus talks with Nicole McCain, Chief AI Officer and Founder of Gentiv-AI Solutions and author of The AI-Powered One Hour Workday, about how to use AI to save time without turning it into one more thing to manage — from the workflow audit she runs with every client to the three-part framework she uses in her business and her kitchen.

Nicole shares:
• "Audit before you automate" — why AI on top of a messy workflow just multiplies the chaos
• The H.A.S. framework: what stays Human, what gets Automated, and what gets AI Support
• What a "one hour workday" really means (hint: it's not one hour of work)
• Her morning "chief of staff" brief, the 90/10 rule for content, and the app she's building for working moms
• The AI chat app on her daughter's school laptop — and what every parent needs to understand about AI safety, data, and privacy

Whether you're running a business, a household, or both, this conversation will help you decide what AI should take off your plate, what it should never touch, and what you'll do with the time you get back.

🔗 CONNECT WITH NICOLE MCCAIN:
Instagram: @nicolemccain_ai
Website: https://nicolemccain.com/
Gentiv-AI Solutions: https://gentivai.com/
The AI Incubator community: https://www.skool.com/aiincubator/about
Book: https://theaionehourworkday.com/

———

The Manage Her® Podcast — hosted by Aimee Rickabus. Honest conversations on leadership, financial empowerment, motherhood, wellness, and career reinvention for ambitious women.

🎧 SUBSCRIBE & LISTEN:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-manage-her/id1809208475
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/03FuFRyzkaWhZkk5yxFePJ
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/91c217a5-4245-4b83-8d15-8edfdde06884/the-manage-her

📲 CONNECT WITH THE MANAGE HER®:
Website: https://www.themanageher.com
Instagram: @themanageher
TikTok: @themanageher
YouTube: @themanageher
LinkedIn: @themanageher

💗 If this episode resonated, follow the show, leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a woman who needs to hear it.

© 2026 The Manage Her®. All rights reserved.

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Women spent generations fighting to close the wage gap. Now AI could undo it — or finally finish the job. LaVada English says the difference comes down to one thing: whether women show up to learn.

In this episode, Aimee Rickabus talks with LaVada English, Founder & CEO of Bright Places, Inc. and Co-Founder & Co-CEO of the National Association of Women in AI (NAWAI), about women and the AI wage gap, why the jobs most likely to be automated lean toward women, and how a non-technical woman actually gets proficient without going back to school.

LaVada shares:
- Why "ignorance is not a strategy" — and why resisters still need to learn the dangers
- The intern → associate → director → executive method for training your AI (never make it your CEO first)
- Which certifications actually move a résumé, and which ecosystems to focus on
- STAR and DRIVE — two prompting frameworks that turn AI into a thought partner, not a thought leader
- What you should never put into an AI tool, and what you should never outsource to it

Whether you're an executive, an entrepreneur, a teacher, or a mom heading back to work, this conversation will replace "I'm not technical" with a plan — and remind you that nobody is going to fight this fight for us.

🔗 CONNECT WITH LAVADA ENGLISH:
Instagram: @lavada_english
Website: https://brgtplaces.com/
National Association of Women in AI: https://www.thewomeninai.com/
Free Tuesday Touchpoints — sign up at thewomeninai.com

———

The Manage Her® Podcast — hosted by Aimee Rickabus. Honest conversations on leadership, financial empowerment, motherhood, wellness, and career reinvention for ambitious women.

🎧 SUBSCRIBE & LISTEN:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-manage-her/id1809208475
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/03FuFRyzkaWhZkk5yxFePJ
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/91c217a5-4245-4b83-8d15-8edfdde06884/the-manage-her

📲 CONNECT WITH THE MANAGE HER®:
Website: https://www.themanageher.com
Instagram: @themanageher
TikTok: @themanageher
YouTube: @themanageher
LinkedIn: @themanageher

💗 If this episode resonated, follow the show, leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a woman who needs to hear it.

© 2026 The Manage Her®. All rights reserved.

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Will AI replace your doctor? A physician-scientist gives the honest answer — including the one thing she says a machine will never be able to do.

In this episode, Aimee Rickabus welcomes back Dr. Mari Mitrani, physician-scientist, entrepreneur, and newly certified in AI in healthcare from Harvard Medical School, for Part II of their conversation.

AI is already reading scans, accelerating drug discovery, and reshaping fertility research. Dr. Mari walks through what it genuinely does better than a human, where a doctor still has to sign off, and why the systems being built right now will decide who gets included in the medicine of the future.

In this episode:
- Whether AI will replace your doctor, and the one thing it can never do
- How AI reads scans and images, and why a human still signs off
- Why women were left out of research, and how AI could finally close the gap
- What to do when a doctor dismisses what you're telling them
- Why the bias built into these systems today decides who gets included tomorrow
- Her challenge to women: we're all beginners with this, so get in now

Whether you're curious, skeptical, or already building with AI, this conversation will change how you think about the future of your healthcare.

Educational only, not medical advice. Screening, supplements, and any therapy discussed here are individual decisions to make with a qualified, licensed provider.

New here? Start with Part I: Perimenopause Symptoms No One Warned You About with Dr. Mari Mitrani.

🔗 CONNECT WITH DR. MARI MITRANI:
Instagram: @marimitrani
Website: https://dr-mari.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marimitrani

———

The Manage Her® Podcast — hosted by Aimee Rickabus. Honest conversations on leadership, financial empowerment, motherhood, wellness, and career reinvention for ambitious women.

🎧 SUBSCRIBE & LISTEN:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-manage-her/id1809208475
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/03FuFRyzkaWhZkk5yxFePJ
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/91c217a5-4245-4b83-8d15-8edfdde06884/the-manage-her

📲 CONNECT WITH THE MANAGE HER®:
Website: https://www.themanageher.com
Instagram: @themanageher
TikTok: @themanageher
YouTube: @themanageher
LinkedIn: @themanageher

💗 If this episode resonated, follow the show, leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a woman who needs to hear it.

© 2026 The Manage Her®. All rights reserved.

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If you're not paying for it, you are the product - and that rule applies to AI, not just social media. Stephanie Guttman is back on The Manage Her to talk about how to use AI safely with your money.

In this episode, Aimee Rickabus talks with Stephanie Guttman, Cofounder & CEO of Huntress Wealth, about AI safety, financial confidence, and the pivot that rebuilt her company. Stephanie first joined the show when Huntress Wealth was a membership and live-session model. She returns with an AI-powered personal finance platform built for women+ - because she tore up the original roadmap when the world changed underneath it.

Stephanie shares:
- The categories of information she will never put into an AI tool
- Why she diversifies AI tools the same way she diversifies money
- How to tell an evolution from a failure when your direction changes
- Why "fiduciary" is the word she calls the F-word of financial services
- Why money doesn't change you - it amplifies whatever you already are
- Why she'd never hand an AI tool her credit card or banking information
- Where she draws the line on what AI should never be allowed to touch

Whether you feel behind on AI, unsure who to trust with your financial information, or quietly wondering whether it's too late to reinvent, this conversation will give you a practical framework and permission to start where you are.

CONNECT WITH STEPHANIE GUTTMAN:
Website: https://www.huntresswealth.com
Instagram: @huntresswealth
Podcast: Talk Rich to Me
All links: https://linktr.ee/huntresswealth

———

The Manage Her® Podcast — hosted by Aimee Rickabus. Honest conversations on leadership, financial empowerment, motherhood, wellness, and career reinvention for ambitious women.

🎧 SUBSCRIBE & LISTEN:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-manage-her/id1809208475
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/03FuFRyzkaWhZkk5yxFePJ
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/91c217a5-4245-4b83-8d15-8edfdde06884/the-manage-her

📲 CONNECT WITH THE MANAGE HER®:
Website: https://www.themanageher.com
Instagram: @themanageher
TikTok: @themanageher
YouTube: @themanageher
LinkedIn: @themanageher

💗 If this episode resonated, follow the show, leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a woman who needs to hear it.

© 2026 The Manage Her®. All rights reserved.