Have you ever walked into a room and felt it before you even said a word?

The shift in the air. The eyes that adjust. The silence that is not quite silence. And in that split second — before anyone speaks, before anyone moves — you have to make a decision that nobody prepared you for: do I make myself smaller so this room stays comfortable, or do I stand fully in who I am and dare the room to expand around me?

Most women have been in that room. And most women have, at some point, chosen to shrink. Not because they were weak. But because nobody ever told them they had another option.

In this episode of You Are You Unapologetically, Dr. Kim R. Grimes sits down with Barb Smith — founder of Journey Steel, a $5.8 million company with 25 employees, and Journeys Soaring Impact, a nonprofit creating pathways for inner-city young people — for one of the most honest, courageous, and necessary conversations this show has ever had. Together, they go to the places most people never say out loud — what it costs to keep showing up in rooms that were not built for you, what it feels like when the room finally has to make space, and what becomes possible when you refuse to leave any part of yourself at the door.

About the Guest

Barb Smith is the founder and CEO of Journey Steel, a $5.8 million manufacturing company employing 25 people, and Journeys Soaring Impact, a nonprofit dedicated to creating real, sustainable pathways for inner-city young people. Barb has spent her career walking into rooms that were not built for her — and transforming every single one of them by refusing to be anything other than fully herself.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

In this conversation, Barb and Dr. Kim explore:

• The room nobody prepares you for — what it actually feels like to walk into a space where nobody looks like you, and the split-second decision every woman in that position has to make
• The pressure to shrink — how the expectation to make yourself smaller becomes automatic over time, and the quiet, powerful moment Barb decided she was done
• Tolerated vs. truly belonging — the critical difference between being allowed in a room and genuinely belonging there, and why knowing the difference changes everything
• What staying fully herself made possible — the doors that opened, the relationships that formed, and the business that was built because Barb refused to code-switch her way through life
• Building beyond herself — how Barb turned her own experience of navigating hostile rooms into a mission to create better pathways for the young people coming behind her

Key Takeaways

✅ You do not owe any room a smaller version of yourself just because the full version makes people uncomfortable

✅ The pressure to shrink is real — but it is a habit, not a requirement

✅ There is a difference between being tolerated in a room and truly belonging there — learn to know the difference

✅ The rooms that were hardest to walk into often become the rooms that shape your most significant contributions

✅ When you walk in fully, you do not just make space for yourself — you make space for every woman who comes in after you

Have you ever walked into a room and realized it was never built with you in mind?

This episode is about what happens when a woman stops waiting for an invitation and builds an entirely different room — a bigger one, a global one, one where women from every background, every culture, and every corner of the world are not just allowed in but seen, funded, supported, and heard. Host sits down with Maica Gil, founder of the San Francisco International Women Entrepreneurs Forum, the Woman Impact Summit — the fastest growing conference for women in business from underrepresented communities — and Heroikka, a global platform connecting women-led projects with funding and resources worldwide, for a raw and expansive conversation about visibility, access, and the audacity it takes to build what the world said did not need to exist.

This is not a conversation about fitting into spaces that were never designed for you. It is about building spaces so powerful the world has no choice but to take notice.

In this episode, you will discover: → The defining moment that made Maica stop waiting and start building → Why the funding gap for women is not just a money problem — it is a visibility problem → What to do today if you feel invisible in your industry or your calling → What it personally cost Maica to stay unapologetically herself across cultures, governments, and continents → Why the permission you have been waiting for was never coming from the outside

The table exists. There is room for you. And you were never created to wait outside.

🔗 Connect with Maica Gil: 📧 maica@heroikka.com

✅ If this episode moved you, share it with a woman who needs to be reminded that she does not have to wait for a seat — she can build the whole table.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week — because showing up fully and authentically starts here.

You Are You, Unapologetically. Build the room. Set the table. Make sure every woman who comes after you finds it a little easier than you did.

#BuildTheTable #YouAreYouUnapologetically #DrKimRGrimes #WomenEntrepreneurs #GlobalLeadership #WomenInBusiness #MaicaGil #WomanImpactSummit #Heroikka #PersonalGrowthPodcast

She Built a $5 Million Empire While Nobody Around Her Believed It Was Possible

What do you do when you can see something so clearly — feel it so deeply in your bones — and yet every room you walk into goes completely silent?

This episode is about the experience most visionaries never talk about out loud — the loneliness of carrying something bigger than your current environment, the self-doubt that creeps in when the silence gets loud, and the rare, stubborn courage it takes to keep building anyway. Host sits down with Dr. Ana Everett, founder of SolutionsAe — a multi-vertical enterprise spanning three countries and generating over $5 million in revenue — for a raw, honest conversation about what it truly costs to build something the world cannot see yet, and what happens when it finally becomes undeniable.

This is not a conversation about waiting for the right people to believe in you. It's about building faithfully until the vision speaks for itself.

In this episode, you'll discover: → Why most visionaries quit — and it has nothing to do with failure → How to protect your internal fuel when external validation is nowhere to be found → What building in obscurity teaches you that success alone never could

If you are carrying a vision that feels too big, too unclear, or too unsupported right now — this episode was made for you.

🔗 Connect with Dr. Ana Everett: 🌐 SolutionsAe | GoodForUs

✅ If this episode reached you, share it with someone who needs to be reminded that the vision they are carrying is worth every quiet, unseen, unsupported step it took to get here.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week — because showing up fully and authentically starts here.

You Are You, Unapologetically. Keep building. Keep carrying it. Trust what you were given.

#BuildingWithPurpose #YouAreYouUnapologetically #DrKimRGrimes #VisionaryMindset #WomenEntrepreneurs #PurposeDriven #BuildInFaith #PersonalGrowthPodcast #PodcastForWomen #UnapologeticallyYou