Big Brave Business

Meet Ana:
Ana Xavier is a multilingual award-winning podcast Marketer with 10+ years of experience producing podcasts in the US, UK, and Portugal. Her weekly show The Podcast Space, provides strategic yet practical ways for professionals to use their show as an effective tool for online marketing.

This week I welcomed my friend and colleague, Ana Xavier. From the time Ana and I first connected on Instagram, I have been struck by her refreshingly approachable and authentic energy - a stark contrast to the “gatekeepers” I’ve encountered in the podcasting world. Ana shares how she’s built a thriving business by staying true to her values of collaboration, impact, and empathy, rather than trying to emulate the “bro marketer” tactics that dominate our industry. One of the biggest takeaways for me is Ana’s emphasis on the power of in-person connection, which has motivated me to step out of my comfort zone and attend more events and conferences. Ana also reminded me of the deeper purpose behind these connections - tapping into the collective wisdom and support of our community to uplift and inspire one another.

Meet Candace:
From failing to scaling, broke to naming her price and selling businesses, and from chained to her storefront to traveling the world, Candace has experienced first-hand the extreme struggles and ultimate successes of pet entrepreneurship since 2004.
The one thing she wished she had but couldn’t find was a support system of industry peers who believed in community over competition, mentors who could guide her, and a resource for the best marketing ideas around. It didn’t exist, so she created it!

This week, I’m joined by my friend & long-term client, Candace D’Agnolo. She’s been an entrepreneur for over 25 years and has built and scaled brick-and-mortar businesses, retail business, service-based businesses, and digital businesses. When it comes to starting, scaling, and selling businesses, Candace is my go-to expert. So it’s no surprise that I was thrilled to bring her on the podcast to talk about her idea of what it means to be big and brave in business. And you know what might surprise you? Of ALL her experience that many of us are so far only dreaming of, her idea of big and brave is all about her personal development and team leadership. No matter how successful you are in business, it always comes back to that!

About Brooke Monaghan (she/her)

Business coach & founder of Fruition Growth Network. Brooke is a trusted advisor to founders and leaders who value impact, integrity, and relationships and are on a mission to set things straight in their industry. Her work focuses on the intersection of well-being and bottom line, guiding do-gooder lifestyle business owners to intentionally design profitable businesses around their values and their desired lifestyle. She is the founder of Fruition Growth Network, a collaborative platform providing accessible, quality support to self-employed folks and bringing people together to find power in community.

About Tristan Katz (he/they)

Digital strategist & equity-inclusion facilitator & consultant. Tristan is a writer, educator, digital strategist, and equity-inclusion facilitator. They specialize in content marketing strategies for justice-focused leaders and queer-trans Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging (DEIB) training and consulting. Tristan’s intention is to share this work with an anti-oppression and intersectional lens. He’s worked with organizations and clients such as Portland Public Schools, Accessible Yoga School, HubSpot, Stanford University’s YogaX program, and Williston Northampton School, among many others. Tristan was named one of Yoga Journal’s 2021 Game Changers and he is proud to have spent several years serving on the Board of Directors at Accessible Yoga before the non-profit dissolved in early 2024.

I was thrilled this week to welcome Brooke and Tristan of the Reimagining Online Business podcast. If you haven’t listened to their show, I can’t recommend it enough. Their wry humor and sarcasm right from the first few minutes had me hooked, and I knew by the end of episode 1 that I had to have them both on Big Brave Business.

One of the things that Brooke and Tristan are so passionate about is running businesses ethically - which is complicated to do as anti-capitalists in a capitalist world. The more you are aware of the heinous atrocities and human rights violations happening worldwide that are woven into everything we do and the way we engage with our economy, the harder it can be to see (and follow) the light. Is there such a thing as running and growing a business as an anticapitalist founder? We explore this topic and more in today’s episode.

WHAT?! This is so insane! I just stumbled upon the incredible news that Big Brave Business is officially ranked in the top 3% of all podcasts worldwide. Thank you, thank you, thank you for listening. Can’t wait to see where we go from here!

About Emily Aborn:
Emily Aborn is a Content Copywriter, Speaker, and Podcast Host of Content with Character and She Built This. Since 2014, she’s had experience running brick-and-mortar as well as online businesses. She’s worked with 100+ industries as a copywriter, helping her clients increase their visibility, and build relationship-based businesses. She brings her client’s personality to life with creative, connected copy and content. For fun, she loves reading, listening to podcasts, and hiking with her husband, Jason, and their dog, Clyde.

Lots to catch up on but this week, I’m thrilled to introduce you to my friend Emily Aborn. One of the first things she asked me the first time we met was something along the lines of, “What’s an ethical challenge to online business that’s particularly interesting to you right now?” and I knew we were going to get along. Today, we’re chatting about ethical content creation to create authentic and meaningful connection, especially amidst the conundrums that come with AI.

This episode has been a long time coming, because my friend and team member Katie Carson is finally joining me on the podcast. Katie and I met because she listened to the podcast, and then reached out to chat in general, which led to us working together to launch her podcast Ditch the Ick, and now she’s even joined the Podfox team as an account manager.

In this episode, we started with this general concept of “what does it mean to be big and brave in business,” which led to all kinds of topics including what’s fu**ed up in corporate life, the wage and leadership gender gap, bad blanket business advice like “just raise your prices,” and so much more.

About Hady Mendez:

Hady is a Latina speaker and ERG coach based in NYC that works with ERGs looking to take their efforts to the next level. She is the founder and CEO of Boldly Speaking LLC, a company that is transforming the professional experiences of women and people of color by empowering underrepresented employees with the skills to self-advocate, self-promote, and capitalize on leadership roles within Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and throughout organizations. With a diverse career spanning over 25 years, Hady has served as Head of Equality for a major tech firm, held multiple customer-facing roles in high tech and financial services, served as a leader and advisor across various Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), volunteered as an international champion for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, and served as Community School Director at an elementary school in the South Bronx. In her free time, Hady is an amateur street art photographer and an avid podcast listener.

When Hady Mendez came to me and said she wanted to talk about the experience of WOC at work, I was absolutely sure I wanted to have the conversation and also I wasn’t sure how best to go about it as a white woman myself. This was an interesting conversation where Hady was able to share her own experience as a woman of color and the ways she’s devoted her career to supporting other women of color at work, and I was able to lean in and learn as a white woman and a self-proclaimed ally about how I too can better support women of color in my own life and business.

About Dr. Catrina Mitchum

Dr. Catrina Mitchum, founder of Catrina Mitchum Learning Design, has 16 years experience designing and delivering online courses and training inside higher ed. She creates change through learning design support for overwhelmed founders that give a s**t about the success of their employees and clients. She provides that combination of a swift kick and a helping hand to simplify the process, eliminate the overwhelm, and focus on learner success through accessibility and transparency.

Alright besties, I’ll level with you. I used to have an online course, and I HATED IT. I share why in this episode, but also, I definitely think online courses are in my future business model because I want to make podcasting as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. But I have learned the hard way that online courses are not a get-rich-quick scheme and it’s not easy to make them effective. My guest today is an expert on developing curriculum and online coursework and supporting students, and she’s diving in with me all about the problems with the online course creation industry.

About Betsaida:

Betsaida LeBron is a teambuilding comedian and CEO of ImprovEQ. With her unique approach, she uses the art of improvisational comedy as a unique key to unlock untapped leadership potential and foster positive team dynamics. She runs the Leadership Playground, a unique play-led program that equips new managers with the necessary skills to maintain their authenticity, joy, and humanity in their leadership roles and work environments.

This week I am joined by guest Betsaida Lebron to talk about play and humor and how those are two majorly overlooked factors that can make us better leaders. We often think play is irrelevant for adults, and totally opposite of productivity or business, but the reality is that these concepts go hand-in-hand.

We can all agree that job searching sucks - and from the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding side, it’s really not much better. The standard practices for recruitment, hiring, and onboarding are totally archaic and suck. My guest today is my friend and client, Carly Patryluk. She’s a pet business owner who has revolutionized her recruitment and hiring methods. In this episode, we are chatting about what matters to us when hiring and onboarding our team members, what we look for in team members, what is broken when it comes recruitment standards in business.

Meet my guest this week, Carly! Carly Patryluk is the owner of House of Paws Pet Boutique in Regina, Saskatchewan, where she has a “bone”-afide talent for marketing her store and creating lasting relationships with not only her customers but over 60k followers on TikTok. Despite opening a very “different breed” of pet store just before the pandemic, Carly’s ability to think outside the “litter box” and unleash her creativity helped her business grow to a whopping $60k per month in sales in just two years. With a strong team in place, Carly now has the freedom to focus on her business rather than working in the business. Join Carly as she shares her insights on how to “fetch” success in the pet industry and learn how to be the top dog of your business.

Self-Abandonment runs deeper than saying no when you want to say yes or saying yes when you want to say no (although that counts!). Self-Abandonment is actually a symptom of conditioned beliefs about prioritizing others’ needs, emotions, or acceptance over your own. If you ever struggled to feel seen, safe, or soothed in childhood, this will show up in adulthood as self-abandonment.

For leaders in business, ALL of our wounds, trauma, and mindset issues get pushed to the forefront. That can often look like struggling to follow your intuition and getting caught up in everyone else’s advice - even if it’s bad advice, or over-committing and struggling to maintain boundaries with your business.

My guest today is Jessica Parr. Jessica is an online business mentor for visionary women desiring to lead rich lives in more ways than just their bank accounts. She is on a mission to help female entrepreneurs do the inner work required to transform their external reality & build revolutionary businesses that change lives.My guest today is Jessica Parr. Jessica is an online business mentor for visionary women desiring to lead rich lives in more ways than just their bank accounts. She is on a mission to help female entrepreneurs do the inner work required to transform their external reality & build revolutionary businesses that change lives.

What does it feel like to be significantly out-earned by your wife? What does it feel like to have your wife as a boss? What is it like to be the boss of your husband? How do you know when the time is right to bring your spouse into the biz? And so many more questions explored on this week’s episode of Big Brave Business with

You have heard me mention Eric so many times on the Big Brave Business podcast. He started working for my business, Podfox, two years ago and it’s been a fun and weird ride ever since. This is something my friend can relate to, because she brought her husband into her business too. In this week’s episode, the four of us sat down to talk about all the weird dynamics of what it’s like. Could you ever bring your spouse into your business to work for you?

I am so excited to welcome my first season 2 guest on the podcast: Harriet Formby. We are talking about all things fear and frustration related to money, our money stories, and best practices for overcoming the assumptions we've been carrying with us about money that we don't want to take with us any further.

About Harriet:

Harriet Formby is a Fractional CFO, ICAEW Chartered Accountant, Trauma of Money™ Certified Practitioner, and Business Mentor behind and . Based in the lush countryside in the United Kingdom, she is dedicated to empowering conscious business owners to transform their purpose-driven journey into a financial success story through Fractional CFO services, training, consultancy and mentorships that help us reimagine capitalism for a more compassionate world.

Listen at bigbravebusiness.com

Our first new episode since we finished season 1 is here!! We are sharing some BIG announcements about the new vision for Big Brave Business for season 2.

Find it on your favorite platform here: bigbravebusinesspodcast.com