Most women will tell you that accessories totally make or break an outfit. In Mandy Kellogg Rye’s case, a simple accessory ended up not only making an outfit, but laying the groundwork for her career. Specifically, it was a bracelet produced from a bead store class and the inclination to pick up a new hobby….
Leading Ladies
Amy Wingertsahn
Amy Wingertsahn won’t sugarcoat it: it can be really terrifying to launch your own business. And it’s especially true when you have a successful career in the corporate world. But Amy, a buyer for a lawn and garden distributer, had that entrepreneurial itch she realized couldn’t be ignored. So pairing that passion with a love…
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Leading Ladies
Mary Olushoga
With an entrepreneur father, launching her own business was a no brainer for Mary Olushoga. In fact, she considers it her calling. Mary is a small business advocate and founder of AWP Network, an online platform powering small business success for African entrepreneurs that provides business resources, educational tools and community support. This internationally recognized…
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Leading Ladies
Elizabeth Johnson
What started with a love of creating and a love of stationary evolved into a full-time job when Elizabeth Johnson left the corporate world after her first baby was born. Nearly five years later, Elizabeth now infuses her love of color, pattern and monogram into the designs of her luxury lifestyle brand, Pretty Smitten— from…
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Leading Ladies
Celeste Magdaleno
Celeste Magdaleno’s business started when she was just a little girl admiring her grandmother’s jewels—she just didn’t know it, yet. As a child, Celeste would take her grandmother’s necklaces apart and rearrange them, teaching herself to bead. When her grandmother, who worked at a belt factory, brought home different belts in extravagant textures and materials,…
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Leading Ladies
Catherine Cassidy
Her dream job secured, corporate fashion merchandiser Catherine Cassidy found herself looking up to two women she worked closely with: her creative director and her boss. But both were constantly working nights and weekends—even though they had kids—and Catherine just couldn’t see a future for herself where she surrendered so much of her personal time…
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Leading Ladies
Allyson Conklin
One of Allyson Conklin’s employees wrote us, describing her PR entrepreneur boss as: “ … an inspiration to every E! News-watching, glossy magazine-reading young professional who wonders how they can have a career they love and look forward to every day.” We’d have to agree. Allyson started her career started with an internship with Footwear…
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Leading Ladies
Aleshia Silva
A lot of us get frustrated by medical bills: the extra charges or confusing billing codes, struggling to get your insurance to pay and calling billing clerks to clear up mistakes only to sit on hold. But where others see frustration, Aleshia Silva saw an opportunity to do better. Aleshia started her career in the…
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Leading Ladies
Crystal Cooper
A late-night conversation between father and daughter cemented a deep desire within Crystal Cooper to build a career around her lifestyle, rather than the other way around. And for Crystal, that meant surfing. Beginning her competitive career as a teenager, Crystal found that as much as she loved being in the water, she was inspired…
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Leading Ladies
Ijeoma Okeagu
After graduation, all Ijeoma Okeagu dreamed of was the security of paid employment. But, it seemed the universe had greater plans for her. Fresh out of college with no dream job in sight, Ijeoma chose to develop the skills she had to create the type of job she wanted. Armed with a bachelor's degree in…