F5 Collective Presents Women in Business

F5 Collective Presents Women in Business features stories of and insights from female founders, their allies, and other underserved/overlooked founder communities to inspire and encourage up-and-coming likeminded entrepreneurs. The content we create is meant to empower by sharing information gained through hands-on (and hard won) personal experience, to support by seeing "You are not alone," and to serve as a trusted "go-to" resource for all those overlooked business risk-takers just starting out, in the midst of, and seeking rejuvenation on their entrepreneurial journey.

F5 Collective Presents Women in Business is a business podcast hosted by Linda Morris, with 24 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Linda Morris hosts F5 Collective Presents Women in Business, a business show with 24 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #25

  She Bet Her House on One Airport Restaurant | Iva Chen, Jetsetera Ventures

  Aug 19, 202657 minS1

  Iva Chen budgeted $250,000 to build out her first Panda Express at SFO. The final bill was $750,000. To cover the gap she took an SBA 7(a) loan, put a lien on her house, and signed over her life insurance policy. "I'm like, I hope this works out, because if it doesn't, I could be homeless." Iva shares: ✨ Why the SBA 7(a) loan was harder than construction, permits, and everything else combined ✨ The $2 million-a-year sales floor most brands don't know exists before bidding on an airport ✨ What a Minimum Annual Guarantee really costs: $350,000 a year on a 724-square-foot space ✨ Why airport build-outs run about $2,500 a square foot with no collateral to borrow against ✨ The real reason that bottle of water costs $6 ✨ Bringing Filipino cuisine to SFO and opening in the middle of a pandemic shutdown ✨ Renaming "chicken porridge" to "chicken rice soup" and watching sales change ✨ Indra Nooyi's advice that stuck with her for 20 years: decide what "good" means, then let go or outsource the rest ✨ Asking her daughter what being a good mom actually meant to her ✨ Her 10 rules for running your own business, including the "black box" test for what work is worth ✨ Why she ranked 4th out of 250 cadets at Fort Knox with her nails painted ✨ Living with imposter syndrome in a family business: "My dad might have opened the door, but I had to walk through it" If you have ever been told to just follow your passion, this one adds the part nobody says out loud: know the number you have to hit before you take the swing. About Iva Chen: Iva Chen is the Founder and CEO of Jetsetera Ventures, an ACDBE/DBE/MBE/WBE certified firm specializing in airport restaurant and retail concession development, operations, management, and consulting. She is also Managing Partner at Lady Luck Gourmet, home to Mama Go's Filipino Cuisine at SFO. A licensed CPA who began her career at Deloitte & Touche and spent a decade in corporate finance at CBS Paramount, Nestle USA, and The Capital Group, Iva is a UC Santa Barbara graduate and a Riordan Fellow. She currently works with a portfolio of roughly ten brands looking to enter the airport space, and is writing her first book. Learn more at https://jetseteraventures.com/ The growth engine for women who mean business. http://www.f5collective.com 0:00 Cold Open: I Could Be Homeless 0:31 Welcome + Meet Iva Chen 1:19 CPA at Deloitte to Airport Concessions 5:11 Building Restaurants in China 6:35 Why Airports Are Nothing Like Street-Side 7:36 That's Why the Water Costs $6 8:09 Lady Luck Gourmet and the Goldilocks Bid 9:39 Grand Opening Set for March 2020 12:47 Chicken Porridge to Chicken Rice Soup 14:23 HMSHost, Starbucks and the Rise of Local Flavor 17:04 Rebranding to Jetsetera Ventures 19:06 How a Brand Gets Into an Airport 20:11 The $2 Million Rule 20:36 Minimum Annual Guarantee: $350,000 a Year 25:11 The Book: It Takes a Village, Where's Mine? 26:29 Indra Nooyi: Decide What Good Means, Then Let Go 27:59 Asking Her Daughter What a Good Mom Is 29:12 Building the Village 34:13 I Don't Like Being Comfortable 34:35 Fort Knox With My Nails Painted 38:12 Be Scrappy: The Black Box Test 41:10 Budgeted $250K, Came In at $750K 41:44 The SBA 7(a): A Lien on the House 44:45 Get Money Before You Need It 46:37 Imposter Syndrome in a Family Business 49:30 What She Looks For in a Brand 51:39 Advice When You Can't Afford Help Yet 53:43 You Have to Be a Village, Too 56:07 Give Yourself Grace

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  Episode #24

  Fitness Without Leaderboards: Why All Movement Counts | Caroline Turnbull, Mobius

  Aug 12, 202658 minS1

  Caroline Turnbull had a 99% recovery score, a half marathon under her belt, and a body that could barely get out of bed. The wearable said she was thriving. She'd been ignoring what her body was telling her for nine months. That gap — between the data and the human — is why she built Mobius, a social fitness app with no leaderboards, no pace splits, and no follower counts. Caroline shares: ✨ The question that pushed her out of construction: "If someone launched this company in two years, would I be pissed?" ✨ How obsessing over her wearable cost her the mind-body connection ✨ Peak metrics, severe anemia, and what her body was saying underneath ✨ Why immediacy gets results and then burns you out ✨ Taking metrics out of fitness and bringing community in ✨ Why comments on Mobius are private — and what that fixes ✨ Tearing ACLs, and the family case study that came out of it ✨ Knock knees, weak outer hips, and why women tear ACLs more often ✨ "All movement counts" — the dishwasher, the move-out, the walk to work ✨ Why "locking in" locks everything else out ✨ The resilience conversation nobody has: why you got knocked down ✨ What she'd do with $500,000 (and why it's all marketing) ✨ The financial reality of founding: you don't pay yourself ✨ Why she went looking for outside capital at almost 500 users ✨ Why investors need to see your delusion, not just your traction Whether you're building a company, rebuilding a routine, or quietly burning out inside a target you set for yourself, Caroline makes the case for consistency over intensity — in business and in your body. About Caroline Turnbull: Caroline is Co-Founder and CEO of Mobius, the social fitness app built around community instead of metrics. A former Division I field hockey player and a civil and environmental engineer by training, she is also a certified personal trainer, a yoga teacher with 200- and 300-hour trainings, and a software engineer. She built Mobius with Co-Founder and CTO Julia Suozzi, a software engineer and personal trainer who believes walks count too. Download Mobius and learn more at https://mobiusfit.app/ The growth engine for women who mean business. http://www.f5collective.com 0:00 Cold Open: Would I Be Pissed? 0:22 Meet Caroline Turnbull & Mobius 1:27 New Jersey, Field Hockey & D1 at Lafayette 2:06 The Gap Year That Became Yoga Teacher Training 4:25 From Construction to Software Engineering 6:39 Three Sisters, Six Surgeries, One Case Study 9:37 Knock Knees & Why Women Tear ACLs More 12:28 The Desk Moment That Started Mobius 14:13 Just Get Started. You'll Learn on the Way. 14:44 What Mobius Actually Is 15:34 Fitness Isn't Immediate. It's Consistency. 18:25 Obsessed With the Data: Life on the Wearable 19:22 99% Recovery Score and Severely Anemic 23:23 mobi pods: The Dishwasher Counts 25:00 Pushback From the Grind Crowd 27:45 Nobody Asks Why You Got Knocked Down 29:52 Morning Routine: No Phone, Bone Broth, Journal 32:10 Wall Pilates, GLP-1s & Fitness Trends 37:39 Why Locking In Locks Everything Out 40:32 Taking the Leap: Freedom and Choice 42:53 Founder Deep Dive: The $500,000 Question 44:48 The Reality Nobody Talks About: You Don't Pay Yourself 46:13 Raising Capital at Almost 500 Users 47:21 Founder Highs, Founder Lows & Legally Blonde 51:27 Business Minute: You Need a Level of Delusion 53:47 Rapid Five

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  Episode #23

  "Every Yes Is Time Taken Away" — Sarah Walsh on Burnout, Zines & Betraying Yourself

  Aug 5, 202658 minS1

  Sarah Walsh has been a working artist since 2001 — Hallmark Cards, over 20 picture books, a fully illustrated Matilda — and she still says the hardest part isn't the client work. It's protecting the work that's actually yours. "Not working on projects that mean the world to you, over time it's sort of a betrayal of yourself. Every yes is time taken away from what you should be doing." In this episode, Sarah shares: ✨ Why every "yes" to the wrong project is a betrayal of yourself ✨ "If you don't take a break, you're gonna break" ✨ The banana theory of over-researching your next move ✨ Why it's more risky to be safe than to leap ✨ Leaving a 13-year job at Hallmark after signing with agent Lilla Rogers ✨ How a horse meme and a bad night on the floor became a graphic novel ✨ Building your own external deadlines to finish personal work ✨ Why she skipped the pitch and just printed the zine herself ✨ Landing a literary agent from a self-published zine ✨ Zines, gatekeeping, and why a pen and a photocopy is enough ✨ Running Tigersheep Friends with her partner Colin ✨ Buying a Riso printer, naming her Aunt Ruby, and going all-in ✨ Wholesale, Patreon, and building a business that forces you to make ✨ Where the name Tigersheep Friends actually came from ✨ Why what you loved as a kid is the best part of you If you've ever taken on too much, waited for permission, or shelved the project you actually care about, this one's for you. About Sarah Walsh: Sarah Walsh is a maker of books and illustrated goods based in Kansas City. She has illustrated over 20 picture books and worked with Simon & Schuster, PBS, Penguin Random House, Chronicle, Blue Q, The Guardian and Crate & Barrel, including a fully illustrated edition of Roald Dahl's Matilda. She runs the small-batch illustration shop Tigersheep Friends with her partner and fellow illustrator Colin Walsh, and a monthly Riso print club and SLOMO drawing club through Patreon. See her work at https://www.sarahwalshmakesthings.com/ Shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/Tigersheepfriends The growth engine for women who mean business. http://www.f5collective.com 0:00 Cold Open: Every Yes Is Time Taken Away 1:11 Working Artist Since 2001 3:23 Thirteen Years at Hallmark Cards 4:26 Lilla Rogers and Quitting the Cushy Job 5:24 How Storytelling Became the Thread 9:04 Getting Into Books 9:58 Love the Bricks You're Building With 11:15 Cracking the Author-Illustrator Voice 12:01 Zines, No Rules, and No Gatekeeping 16:21 "I Don't Balance" — The Honest Answer 17:25 Burnout and the Rusted Old Jalopy 21:09 If You Don't Take a Break, You're Gonna Break 22:25 Leaving Corporate and Facing Clients 23:21 We're Trained Not to Trust Our Intuition 23:51 The Banana Theory of Over-Researching 25:41 It's More Risky to Be Safe 27:35 Burned Out and Lost in the Sauce 28:26 The Horse Meme That Became a Book 30:45 Skipping the Pitch: "I Just Want to Make It" 31:35 Building Your Own Deadlines — and Getting an Agent 34:44 What You Loved as a Kid Is the Best Part of You 37:44 Where "Tigersheep Friends" Came From 42:10 Running the Shop and the Risograph Leap 44:06 Meet Aunt Ruby, the Riso Printer 45:26 Faire, Wholesale, Patreon and the Mail Club 49:31 Business Minute: Five Things You Need to Know 52:25 Rapid Five 56:39 Wrap-Up

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  Episode #22

  It's Not the Money, It's Your Nervous System | Wani Iris Manly, F5 Collective

  Jul 29, 202649 minS1

  Wani Iris Manly, Esq. is an award-winning keynote speaker, internationally recognized change expert, and corporate trainer — and the founder of House of Inspirational Business in Paris. A corporate and IP attorney for over two decades and a serial entrepreneur, Wani famously moved to Paris in 2012 with no contacts, not one word of French, and less than $500 to her name — a leap that led to a TEDx stage, a bestselling book, and a global speaking career. In this episode she gets refreshingly honest about money, burnout, resilience, and why real change starts on the inside. Wani shares: ✨ Why it's not the money — it's your nervous system ✨ The truth nobody admits: business is hard at every stage ✨ Why "rest is productive and highly profitable" ✨ Selling everything to move to Paris with no plan and no French ✨ How to stop telling yourself change is "hard" and "scary" ✨ Why we don't resist change — we fear loss ✨ Registering your IP before you make a dime (and why "you're not too small") ✨ Protecting your brain first, then licensing your work to monetize it ✨ Bootstrapping three companies and building every one to sell ✨ Her 24-hour rule for handling money differently ✨ Why stillness is your competitive edge in the age of AI ✨ "Not working is not an option" — resilience with no trust fund to fall back on Whether you're a founder fighting burnout, a creative sitting on unprotected IP, or someone who feels stuck in survival mode, Wani's story is proof that the life you really want starts with changing how you see change. About Wani Iris Manly: Wani Iris Manly, Esq. is a keynote speaker, change expert, corporate trainer, IP attorney, and bestselling author of Get Out of Survival Mode and Live the Life You Really Want. Based between Houston and Paris, she helps individuals and organizations thrive through change. Learn more at https://wanimanly.com/ The growth engine for women who mean business. http://www.f5collective.com 0:00 It's Not the Money, It's Your Nervous System 0:27 Welcome & Meet Wani Iris Manly 1:11 Five Countries & West African Roots 2:00 "I Just Want to Be Happy" 2:43 Groomed for Law: A Childhood in Liberia 4:29 Why IP Law: The Coca-Cola Professor 7:08 "You're in Business Because of Your Brain" 8:14 Where Inspiration Meets Law 11:02 Leaving the "Shark" & Going Solo 12:23 The Spiritual Turning Point 14:12 Survival Mode & the New Year's Eve Ritual 15:45 Following the Signs to Paris 16:20 Writing Her First Book in 30 Days 18:33 From Lawyer to Speaker in Paris 21:51 Resilience: "Not Working Is Not an Option" 23:08 The Ralph Lauren "Download" 25:09 Six Years Later: An Offer to Buy the Business 27:53 Helping People Through the Fear of Change 32:19 Four More Books & a Paris Photo Project 34:43 Founder Deep Dive: The $500K Question 36:59 The Financial Reality Nobody Talks About 38:21 Bootstrapping & Building to Sell 41:22 Business Minute: Register Your IP Early 42:57 Slow Down to Go Faster 43:39 Rapid Five 47:15 Wrap-Up & Wani's Gift for Listeners

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  Episode #21

  I Don't Like the Word Can't": The Stylist Who Broke Hair's Rules | Wanata Parker

  Jul 22, 20261h 8mS1

  Wanata Parker has spent over 30 years in the beauty industry — and became the first stylist to bring Japanese Straightening (thermal reconditioning) to African American hair, at a time when everyone said it couldn't be done. From New York to Washington, D.C. to Beverly Hills, she built a nationally recognized reputation entirely on word of mouth, with clients who've stayed in her chair for 20+ years. Today she runs Hair by Wanata Studio inside Salon Republic in Beverly Hills — and in recent years has taken her gift on mission trips to Tanzania and South Africa, helping women and girls reconnect with their own beauty and worth. In this episode, Wanata shares: ✨ Why "I don't like the word can't" became the foundation of her career ✨ Pioneering Japanese Straightening on African American hair ✨ Being told she'd "never be anything in this business" — and outlasting it ✨ Her one-word prayer the year she went out on her own: "jump" ✨ Why she built a 30-year brand with zero advertising ✨ Vulnerability, trust, and "the vault" — why clients tell her everything ✨ Her superpower: customizing by intuition, not formula ✨ "My gift is to be given away" — an abundance approach to business ✨ Bringing beauty and confidence to women on mission trips in Africa ✨ Why she'll never retire — and how she refills her own tank Whether you're a solo founder, a service-based business owner, or a woman who's been told "no," Wanata's story is proof that knowing who you are — and doing one thing exceptionally well — is a brand that lasts. Learn more at https://www.hairbywanata.com/ The growth engine for women who mean business. http://www.f5collective.com 0:00 Retire? Never (Cold Open) 0:41 Meet Wanata Parker 1:41 From New York to Losing Her Job 3:36 "Do You Know Your Purpose?" Restaurant or Hair 4:34 The Phone Book That Kept Opening to One School 5:48 Starting Over as an Assistant in L.A. 8:36 "I Don't Like the Word Can't" 9:41 First to Bring Japanese Straightening to African American Hair 10:48 "You'll Never Be Anything in This Business" 11:53 Losing Her Mentor & Leaving a Toxic Salon 13:07 "I'm Not Chasing Fame or Money" 15:28 Why Vulnerability Builds Trust 20:13 Integrity & the Sacred Space of the Chair 22:55 "Getting to Know You Through Your Hair" 24:46 Becoming a Brand & the Leap to Her Own Space 31:34 Taking Her Gift to Africa 33:27 South Africa: Making Women Feel Heard 38:30 A Safe Space: "It Goes Into the Vault" 45:08 Her Superpower: Customizing by Intuition 47:06 "My Gift Is to Be Given Away" & Word of Mouth 49:47 "I Can Rest When I'm Dead" 55:25 The Golden Angel: A Sign She Was Home 57:27 Business Minute 59:30 Rapid Five 1:07:02 Closing

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