Freed Stories: Turning Five and Six Figure Businesses into Seven and Eight Figure Legacies This podcast shines a light on everyday entrepreneurs and business owners who are scaling their ventures to new heights. Each episode features a member of our community sharing their Freed Story - a journey of challenges, breakthroughs, and invaluable insights. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, these real stories of grit, determination, and creativity will educate and inspire you. Join us as we explore the diverse paths founders, entrepreneurs, and small business owners take to achieve their unique personal and professional freedom. Freed Stories is your companion on the entrepreneurial journey, proving that while the road may be challenging, you don’t have to travel it alone. Tune in for practical wisdom, innovative strategies, and the motivation to turn your business dreams into reality
Episodes
Tuesday May 18, 2021
Tuesday May 18, 2021
Tune in as I chat with Natalie Maniscalco and Irene Zervoudis of Wonder Girls, one of the winners of the Freed Fellowship grant! Wonder Girls was founded in 2020 and is an after-school program for female high school students. The mission statement of the program is to build confidence, leadership skills, a sense of community, and essential business skills to succeed in the career path that these girls choose. They, in addition, do some community service, teaming up with local non-profit organizations, giving the girls the tangible experience of doing non-profit work. Natalie and Irene enthuse over the life skills that the girls of Wonder Girls are learning such as building a network and gaining confidence in themselves, and it's nothing short of inspiring!
Natalie and Irene discuss their jobs outside of Wonder Girls as well as their experience leading up to Wonder Girls, and they talk about how and why Wonder Girls was established. They also talk about what, as young girls, they wanted to be when they grew up and how that impacted what they do now. Irene was very much into fashion and worked her first retail job when she was only fourteen years old, which made her realize that she loved helping people. Natalie, on the other hand, knew that she wanted to wear a power suit after being inspired by a math teacher that she had who always wore one. She knew that she loved leading and took on leadership roles such as teaching, coaching, and camp counseling which she feels has come full circle now with Wonder Girls.
They also offer some helpful advice to anyone who might want to walk a similar path as theirs, with Natalie emphasizing how important it is to find the balance between thinking your plans through but also just diving in head first and not overthinking. As Wonder Women, Irene and Natalie also share what they consider their superpowers to be, with Irene revealing hers to be her ability to bring peace amongst chaos and Natalie sharing that hers is her ability to build relationships and make people feel comfortable enough to open up to her.
It was such a blast having Natalie and Irene on the podcast! As always, I hope that you will continue to tune in to the Freed Stories podcast as guests share their stories of entrepreneurship – their successes, their failures, their goals, their hopes, and so on. Be sure to hit that subscribe button so that you never miss an episode!
Time Stamps
[0:58] – We are introduced to the guests of this episode, Natalie Maniscalco and Irene Zervoudis of Wonder Girls.
[1:28] – We learn what Wonder Girls is and what its primary objective is.
[2:00] – Natalie shares how she is a publicist and marketer, specializing in bilingual PR and marketing.
[2:19] – Irene reveals that she is a marketing professional in the mortgage and real estate industry.
[2:43] – Irene discusses how and why Wonder Girls was launched.
[4:20] – Natalie explains how Wonder Girls has helped her and Irene as professional women themselves.
[6:18] – Irene shares what she wanted to do when she was younger and how that affected what she does today.
[7:51] – Natalie likewise enthuses over what she wanted to do when she was younger.
[9:48] – We learn how Natalie and Irene met and began working together.
[11:42] – We uncover what the biggest challenge of Wonder Girls has been and how Irene and Natalie have overcome that challenge.
[13:00] – Natalie shares some advice with anyone – especially women – who want to go down a similar path.
[14:14] – Natalie discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic was a hurdle but also served as a benefit for them because it gave them extra planning time before putting Wonder Girls into action.
[16:01] – We learn that Irene and Natalie consulted a lot of nonprofit specialists to help them get started and ensure that they were on the right path.
[18:29] – Natalie projects toward the future, hoping that they can take Wonder Girls national within the next five years.
[19:37] – Irene hopes that her daughters keep the vision of Wonder Girls alive.
[22:29] – Natalie enthusiastically posits that the girls of Wonder Girls are being introduced to networking and are learning how to interact with people.
[24:05] – Irene and Natalie reveal why it's important for programs like Wonder Girls to be helping high school girls at the age where the girls are.
[26:45] – Irene reveals what she considers her superpowers to be – peacefulness and connectivity.
[28:35] – Natalie also shares what her superpower is – her ability to make people feel comfortable.
[31:39] – We learn where we can find Wonder Girls online.
Links and Resources
Apply for our Freed Fellowship Monthly Grant
Free Training to Help You Grow Your Business
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