Today, we are spending time with Kathleen Donohoe. My mom.

This is a very special Mother’s Day episode – our first on the Hype Women Podcast.

And so, there was no other person I was going to spend today with other than my mom.

Her career is exceptional. It is steeped in gender equity, justice, system change, mission-driven work and community-based connection.

She spent 24 years in the Coast Guard, before her second career of 18 years at the University of Michigan.

As a single mother, she raised my sister and I while moving us every 2-4 years to different cities and states across the country.

It was a lot. Yes, there were hard times. Of course there were good times. But what I’m enjoying most about this phase of our relationship is the ability to look at whole lot of our lives and our choices with breadth, depth and deep empathy.

Motherhood has been the most rewarding and challenging experience of my life. And talking to my mom now about her experience raising me is both eye opening and mind blowing.

Thinking of our mothers as women…humans with their own hopes and dreams and wishes and frustrations and baggage is the most relatable thing I can encourage us to do today.

The reason I do the work I do to fight the fights I have in me to fight is because my mom showed me how to do it.

And while the way in which we approach this work has looked different and been done in very different places, it all matters.

And it got me thinking: if you work inside of a system that isn’t built by – or for – you, and you want to change it, how do you play by rules that are meant to keep you from winning?

Said another way: when do you EVER have the right to break chain of command?

Listen to find out.

Women we love to hype in this episode:

Kathleen Donohoe: LinkedIn, Instagram

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Donate here.

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The Hype Women Podcast is produced by Erin Gallagher and Melanie Scroggins.

Original score by Alex Yewon.

**Please listen, subscribe, and rate our show wherever you listen to podcasts the most.**

Connect with us:

• Check out Hype Women HERE
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• Follow Erin Gallagher on LinkedIn HERE
• Follow Erin Gallagher on Instagram HERE
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Today, we are spending time with Susan McPherson.

You know the game “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon?” Well, today, we’re playing Five degrees of Susan McPherson.

Trust me, you can do it.

Susan is the consummate connector. She. Knows. Everyone.

But more than that, Susan CONNECTS with everyone.

She wrote a book on it.

Susan is intentional in how she connects with people and also in how she supports. She is an active participant in the growth of female founders and women-owned businesses. Through her human, social AND financial capital, she angel invests in dozens of women to help them realize their dreams.

We talked about her entre into entrepreneurship at the age of 48, the ways to build and grow a business and HOW to work differently than so many of us have been taught to lead working in spaces that were filled with people who didn’t look like us.

And we talked about the phrase: “Be careful about doing business with your friends.” – a message I truly feel is said to women so much more often than it’s said to men.

And it got me thinking, how DO we have a personal relationship with someone AND then, decide to do business with them?

Listen to find out.

Women we love to hype in this episode:

Susan McPherson: LinkedIn, Instagram, Website; McPherson Strategies: Website

Fund the Fairway! Join our evergreen seed fund to bring The Fairway to new markets around the world.

Donate here.

---

The Hype Women Podcast is produced by Erin Gallagher and Melanie Scroggins.

Original score by Alex Yewon.

**Please listen, subscribe, and rate our show wherever you listen to podcasts the most.**

Connect with us:

• Check out Hype Women HERE
• Buy Hype Women Swag in the Ella Shop HERE
• Follow Hype Women on Instagram HERE
• Follow Erin Gallagher on LinkedIn HERE
• Follow Erin Gallagher on Instagram HERE
• Join The Fairway HERE

Share your stories using #HypeWomen

Today, we are spending time with Ambika Pai.

Ambika and I recorded this episode almost a year ago. And while so much of what we discuss still rings true — and I know will for YOU too — Ambika’s career has continued to expand and evolve to meet her where she’s transforming.

Today, she is the head of brand at TIAA.

We travel through decades and a multitude of milestones over the course of our conversation. But the word that stuck with me each of the four times I’ve listed to this is “floating.”

Floating means many things.

And while the word is so often viewed as a negative: not settled in a definite place; fluctuating or variable,” – in layman's terms LOST – it also has a positive connotation: buoyant or suspended

This version of the definition usually refers to literally floating in water or air.

But WE are talking about the metaphorical: the existing outside of your body, above yourself. Sometimes unsettling. Sometimes exhilarating.

Being grounded and tethered to the earth is important. But it can also be limiting and hold us back from the expansive, most unbridled versions of ourselves.

That kind of floating can take you to places that only exist in your wildest dreams.

And it got me thinking: For those of us who are always transforming, evolving and growing, are we ever NOT floating?

Women we love to hype in this episode:

Ambika Pai: LinkedIn, Instagram: Corner Office Breakdowns: Spotify, Instagram
Kim Chappell: LinkedIn, Instagram; Bobbie: Website, Instagram
Vitale Buford Hardin: LinkedIn, Instagram; Vitale & Co: Website

Fund the Fairway! Join our evergreen seed fund to bring The Fairway to new markets around the world.

Donate here.

---

The Hype Women Podcast is produced by Erin Gallagher and Melanie Scroggins.

Original score by Alex Yewon.

**Please listen, subscribe, and rate our show wherever you listen to podcasts the most.**

Connect with us:

• Check out Hype Women HERE
• Buy Hype Women Swag in the Ella Shop HERE
• Follow Hype Women on Instagram HERE
• Follow Erin Gallagher on LinkedIn HERE
• Follow Erin Gallagher on Instagram HERE
• Join The Fairway HERE

Share your stories using #HypeWomen