Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™

Andrea L. Johnston
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There are extraordinary women shaping our world every day - founders, executives, advocates and community builders who are defining success on their own terms. Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ are real conversations about what it took to get here and the tradeoffs, risks and revelations behind their success. Candid, insightful and inspiring, this podcast celebrates the women leading with purpose, building with grit and proving that impact is possible, and we are capable of more than we know.

  1. Jul 14

    Comparison is the Thief of Joy: Jennifer Pate on Choosing Yourself

    What if the only thing standing between you and your next chapter is the belief that the ship has already sailed? In this episode of Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ Podcast, Andrea sits down with Jennifer Pate, a producer, author and former casting director whose career has been one reinvention after another. Jennifer danced professionally in her late teens, moved into casting and built her own company, stepped back to raise her kids, then co-created the Webby-winning web series Jen and Barb Mom Life and co-wrote the book The Mothers of Reinvention. Today she produces film and television, including The Runarounds on Amazon Prime and the feature Driver's Ed. Jennifer and Andrea trace a path that refuses to run in a straight line. Every chapter handed her something the next one needed, and she is candid that not all of it worked. The through line is reinvention, the willingness to shed an old version of yourself when it stops serving you and to ask "why not me" instead of "why me." The conversation lands well beyond career advice. Jennifer talks about the invisible labor women carry at home, the Gloria Steinem quote that reframed how she sees stay-at-home mothers and why comparison is the thief of joy. She and Andrea make the case that the work done inside the home is real, valuable work, that women in their 50s and beyond get to define this chapter on their own terms and that a circle of women you can be honest with is closer to oxygen than luxury. This episode is for the woman who thinks the ship has sailed, who stepped back from her career and wonders if there is a way back in and who is ready to stop measuring her chapter against everyone else's. In this episode, you'll hear: Why "why not me" beats "why me" in every reinventionHow Jennifer turned a mommy and me class friendship into a Webby-winning seriesWhat The Mothers of Reinvention teaches about shedding old versions of yourselfWhy staying home with her kids was never a step backwardHow the skills from one career quietly fund the nextWhy comparison is the thief of joy and what to do insteadWhat Gloria Steinem told Jennifer about stay-at-home mothersWhy the invisible labor of the home is real and valuable workHow women in their 50s and beyond can define this chapter themselvesWhy you belong at any table you are invited toWhat a circle of trusted women does for your longevity Timestamps (0:00) Introduction (0:46) Do I really belong on this show (2:39) Pausing a casting career for motherhood (6:43) Building Jen and Barb Mom Life (7:51) Writing The Mothers of Reinvention (9:05) The invisible labor women carry home (12:14) Becoming a film and television producer (18:10) Comparison is the thief of joy (22:54) Women deserve the choice to decide (25:06) Why women need circles of girlfriends (28:28) Closing gratitude and call to action Episode Resources Jen and Barb Mom Life: http://jenandbarb.com Jennifer Pate, USC School of Dramatic Arts Board of Councilors: https://dramaticarts.usc.edu/about/board-of-councilors/jennifer-pate/ The Mothers of Reinvention (book) https://www.amazon.com/Mothers-Reinvention-Reclaim-Identity-Potential/dp/1593156839 Produced by ⁠UNFLTR

    Comparison is the Thief of Joy: Jennifer Pate on Choosing Yourself

  2. Jun 30

    Message, Medium & Messenger: Mary Corcoran on Reaching People

    What does it take to walk away from a successful corporate career and build a multi-million dollar movement in seven months with no map? In this episode of Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ Podcast, Andrea sits down with Mary Corcoran, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Save America Movement, the cross-partisan organization she launched with Steve Schmidt to slow the rise of authoritarianism and renew American democracy. Mary calls herself a recovering corporate executive. She spent a career in communications and marketing, the kind most people spend decades building, and then left it behind after watching a gap open up that no one was filling. What she traded was comfort. What she gained was a first-time founder's education, learned in real time and at full speed. Mary and Andrea unpack the strategy underneath the movement, and it maps directly onto building any business. Mary breaks an overwhelming mission into its parts and reaches her audience through three things: the message, the medium and the messenger. She makes the case that trusted local voices outperform polished national campaigns every time, that a nurse, a member of the clergy or a veteran in someone's own community will move people in a way that linear television never will. For any founder deciding where to put limited dollars, the lesson is to build around who your audience already believes, not around your budget. This conversation goes well beyond politics. Mary talks about leaning on a career and a life's worth of network to build something high stakes and high risk, why she had to shed the fear of being publicly wrong, and how she keeps an organization agile without letting it tip into chaos. She is candid about the all-encompassing reality of founder life and the discipline it takes for a woman to carve out time for her family inside it. Her closing ask is one any time-poor founder can act on: if you have five minutes and a phone, you have enough. This episode is for the woman who is building something no one has built before,who is tired of sitting on the sidelines and is ready to act on a big mission without a roadmap. In this episode, you'll hear: Why leaving a successful career costs comfort, and why that discomfort is also the benefitHow Mary built a multi-million dollar nonprofit in seven months by leaning on her networkWhat the message, the medium, and the messenger reveal about reaching any audienceWhy trusted local messengers outperform polished national campaigns every timeHow breaking an impossible goal into parts keeps a team from burning outWhy being willing to be wrong and pivot is the hallmark of a successful founderHow Operation Liberty in Los Angeles became a pilot before scaling to other citiesWhat it means to stay agile without becoming completely chaoticThe three actions any founder can take in under thirty minutesWhy every dollar counts, whether you give five or five hundred Episode Resources Save America MovementSave America Movement on YouTubeSave America Movement on SubstackConnect with Mary Corcoran on LinkedIn  Timestamps (0:00) Welcome and intro to Mary Corcoran  (1:17) Leaving a corporate career behind  (3:05) Defining the Save America Movement mission  (6:17) Setting big goals without burning out  (7:52) Message, medium, and messenger explained  (11:29) Engaging communities beyond the screen  (12:44) Leaning on your network as a founder  (16:58) Inside the Operation Liberty program  (21:24) Being willing to be publicly wrong  (27:45) Three actions in under thirty minutes  (31:03) The women running for office now

    Message, Medium & Messenger: Mary Corcoran on Reaching People

  3. Jun 16

    Cultivate Real Power Instead of Chasing Outrage

    What happens to the women who keep showing up to fight for democracy when the rooms making the laws have stopped pretending to play by the rules? In this episode of Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ Podcast, Andrea sits down with Aftyn Behn, Tennessee State Representative for District 51, organizer, and former candidate for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District. Aftyn came up through grassroots advocacy, starting as one of the first organizers at the Tennessee Justice Center, then leading rural progressive work at National Indivisible and Rural Organizing. She ran for the State House in 2023 after the Tennessee Three protests and has since become one of the country's most distinctive voices on what it actually takes to build women's political power inside a state the Wilson Center has described as an electoral autocracy. Aftyn and Andrea trace the through-line of her work: the most punishing policies for women are being written in the states with the fewest women at the table, and the legislation drafted in Tennessee is being engineered to climb the Sixth Circuit and land at the Supreme Court. They talk about why the South is the frontline for the rest of the country, why local organizing beats national outrage, and why the playbook Aftyn is running is borrowed directly from the civil rights movement she studies in Eyes on the Prize. This conversation goes well beyond Tennessee. Aftyn shares what it costs to run for higher office as a woman right now, why old-school misogyny has come back into the open, and how she has trained herself to stop reacting and start building. Her guidance for women feeling overstimulated by the news cycle is the same guidance she gives candidates: pick a lane, find your cadre, move at the speed of trust. Her closing call to action is a charge every founder and operator should hear: get off the sidelines, get your hands dirty, and build the bench for the women who come next. This episode is for the woman who feels the urgency in her bones, who is tired of reacting to every headline, and who is ready to plant her work somewhere it can actually grow. In this episode, you'll hear: Why the states with the fewest women in government have the most dangerous policy for womenHow Aftyn went from the UN refugee agency in Geneva to one of Tennessee's most-watched legislative seatsWhy she dressed as Marie Antoinette to troll a sitting House Finance chair, and what organizing lesson came out of itHow Tennessee is being used as a testing ground for federal rollbacks of women's rightsWhy the Sixth Circuit pipeline matters for every woman, in every stateWhat the civil rights movement teaches us about using Southern legislation to move a national narrativeWhy localization is the strongest antidote to authoritarianismHow to choose a lane when the news cycle is engineered to keep women paralyzedWhy the road to higher office is brutal for women right now, and why she is going to keep walking itWhat Gen Z women are getting right that the rest of us need to learn fromWhy your greatest legacy as a leader is the people you build the ladder for Episode Resources The Behn Factor on SubstackRep. Aftyn Behn, Tennessee House District 51Connect with Aftyn Behn on LinkedInTennessee Justice CenterHer Bold MoveEnd Times Fascism, Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor in The GuardianEmergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree BrownEyes on the Prize documentary series, PBS Timestamps (0:00) Introduction (1:30) From organizing to the Tennessee statehouse (3:13) Trolling power as Marie Antoinette (5:58) Why she ran for Congress (7:45) Her agenda and Pot for Potholes (11:19) Reproductive rights inside an electoral autocracy (13:55) Repealing nineteen laws with one ban (16:15) As goes the South, so goes the nation (19:36) Advice for women facing burnout (22:34) Find your people and choose a lane (24:05) The belief she had to release (25:02) Surviving threats and growing thick skin (28:55) Building the bench down ballot (31:16) Substack and how to support

    Cultivate Real Power Instead of Chasing Outrage

  4. Jun 2

    How a Political Strategist Funds the Women Nobody Else Will

    What happens to the policies that shape women's lives when the rooms making them are 73% men? In this episode of Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ Podcast, Andrea sits down with Jordan Zaslow, Founder and Executive Director of Her Bold Move, the fastest-growing support organization for women running for office across the country. Jordan started this work in 2020 with a volunteer coalition that produced more than 75 pro bono campaign ads for women candidates in red states. What she heard from those women became the foundation for a different kind of organization. One built around the front-end gap in the candidate pipeline. One that supports women in the races no one else is paying attention to. Jordan and Andrea trace the through line that Her Bold Move's research has confirmed: the states with the fewest women in government have the most dangerous policies for women. They talk about why a single woman in a room of men cannot move the needle the way a critical mass of women can, why local offices produce change faster than Congress and why building infrastructure for the women already running matters more than chasing the highest-profile races. This conversation goes well beyond politics. Jordan shares how she runs a fast-growing organization while raising young kids, why she has stopped trying to manage the chaos and started leaning into it and why the algorithm feeding women fear is one of the opposition's most effective tools. Her closing call to action is one every female founder and executive should hear: notice when women are missing from a room. Ask why. Then do something about it. This episode is for the woman who wants more than one seat at the table, who feels paralyzed by the news cycle and who is ready to channel that energy into something the algorithm cannot take from her. In this episode, you'll hear: Why the states with the fewest women in government have the most dangerous policies for womenHow Her Bold Move was built from hundreds of hours of postmortems with women who ran for officeWhy the front end of the candidate pipeline is the most underfunded part of the systemHow one woman in a room full of men cannot move the needle the way a critical mass of women canWhy local officals produce tangible change faster than anything happening in WashingtonHow a network of past candidates becomes infrastructure for the women running nextWhy image-based digital abuse is a blind spot for male legislators and why women see it firstHow 60 women Democrats in West Virginia are reshaping a state legislature that is 11% women todayWhat lived experience teaches us about which policies actually get prioritizedWhy doom scrolling is the opposition's most effective tool against womenWhy asking "why aren't there more women here?" is leadership, not complaint Episode Resources Her Bold MoveVolunteer or apply for the FellowshipHer Bold Move on InstagramConnect with Jordan Zaslow on LinkedInJordan Zaslow’s WIWYTK LinkedIn Feature Timestamps (0:00) Welcome and intro to Jordan Zaslow (0:12) Opening remarks and the mission's urgency (1:52) Defining the Her Bold Move mission (3:12) From pandemic ads to political advocacy (6:54) Candidate networks and digital community infrastructure (8:26) Empowering the next generation through fellowships (10:13) Why building the local candidate bench matters (12:14) Research on critical mass in governance (15:31) Addressing digital abuse and legislative blind spots (17:44) Women leading policy on their own bodies (18:47) Trailblazing at the Harvard WECode conference (22:10) Reshaping West Virginia with sixty women leaders (23:50) Tennessee political shifts and the Aftyn Behn story (25:31) Navigating motherhood by leaning into the chaos (26:40) Actionable ways to fund local female candidates (28:40) Questioning the absence of women in leadership (29:22) Combating doom scrolling to protect mental health (30:41) Final thoughts and host call to action

    How a Political Strategist Funds the Women Nobody Else Will

  5. May 19

    Closing the Maternal Health Gap: Underfunded, Understudied and Expecting More

    There is a moment in every career when the challenge stops being someone else's problem to solve. For Aimee Corso, Senior Vice President of Growth at Mirvie, that moment happened at the intersection of the most underfunded corner of medicine and one of the most consequential windows of a woman's life: pregnancy.  In this episode of Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ Podcast, Andrea and Aimee unpack why pregnancy is not just a joyous event but a powerful diagnostic window into a woman's future health, how RNA-powered diagnostics can predict complications like preeclampsia before symptoms appear and what it looks like to bet your career on changing a system where 80% of maternal deaths are still preventable. Aimee has spent 20+ years taking what science proves and making sure it actually reaches people. She built that skill in the lab. Sharpened it at agencies and across two of Amazon’s largest healthcare initiatives. Tested it as a Chief Marketing Officer. And then made the boldest call of her career: walking away from one of the most resourced platforms in healthcare to join a pre-commercial startup in pregnancy health. Not because it was the safe decision. Because she saw where the science is going and who is finally funding it. In this episode, listeners will hear: Personalized pregnancy care starts with data – and data gives you agency. Pregnancy is not just a joyous event: it’s a diagnostic window. The more you know about your own body, the more control you have over your outcomes, during pregnancy and beyond, before a crisis happens.The US maternal health crisis is preventable. 80% of maternal deaths don't have to happen. Awareness and advocacy are the starting line.Advocate loudly. Women of color are disproportionately not heard when they report symptoms. Every woman needs to know her biology and push back on a system that defaults to generic risk guidelines.Translation is as important as the science itself. Healthcare needs more than researchers. It needs communicators, marketers and operators to truly have an impact. Don't count yourself out because you're not a clinician.Career passion is not cliché — it's purposeful. When layoffs happen, companies pivot and startups lose funding, passion is the mechanism that keeps you moving. Build your career around it on purpose.Block time for self-care.  Don’t rely on your good intentions. Put restoration in your calendar or it doesn't happen. Resources & Connections Connect with Aimee Corso on LinkedInRead Aimee’s WIWYTK Editorial Feature on LinkedInMirvie — focused on RNA-based prediction of pregnancy complicationsConnect with Andrea Johnston on LinkedInhttps://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com Enjoyed This Episode? Leave a review. Share it with a woman in your life who needs to hear this, especially one who is pregnant, planning to be, or has a daughter who may be someday. And join the conversation on LinkedIn and Instagram.

    Closing the Maternal Health Gap: Underfunded, Understudied and Expecting More

  6. May 5

    How Lynnea Olivarez Built a Global Network, Used AI to Scale and Refused to Apologize for Any of It

    Trust in science is not a given anymore. It is earned, protected and communicated. In this episode of Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ Podcast, Andrea sits down with Lynnea Olivarez, founder of Ticket to Biotech, the premier global network for communications professionals across the life sciences. With 15 years of experience spanning big pharma, small biotech, government and global agencies, Lynnea left a high-performing corporate path to build the community she needed when it simply did not exist. In two years, she has grown it to over 1,500 members worldwide, bootstrapped, with a team of three. This conversation is for the woman who has looked around at her industry and realized what she needs simply does not exist and then built it. Lynnea didn't set out to become a founder, she set out to solve a problem she was living with herself. What started as a side project became a full-time business because the gap in her own career turned out to be a gap the entire industry was feeling. This episode is about what happens when you stop waiting for someone else to fix it and start trusting yourself enough to go first.  In this episode, listeners will hear: What the hardest hike of her life taught her about self-trust and why that lesson became the foundation for everything she built nextHow AI has functioned as a core team member at Ticket to Biotech Why Lynnea advises women in communications to "take up space" and not let biases break you downWhy bootstrapped female founders need to stop apologizing for charging for their work and start commanding what they are worth without explanationHow the community Lynnea built to serve others ended up being the thing that changed her own life in ways she didn't see comingLynnea Olivarez is clear-eyed, generous and completely unafraid to name the things that usually go unspoken. This is a conversation about building something from nothing, trusting yourself when certainty is unavailable and refusing to shrink in a field that has spent too long treating communications as an afterthought. Links and Resources: https://www.tickettobiotech.com/ https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynneaolivarez/ Read Lynnea's WIWYTK feature on LinkedIn

    How Lynnea Olivarez Built a Global Network, Used AI to Scale and Refused to Apologize for Any of It

  7. Apr 21

    Stop Building Alone: How the Entreprenista Founders Turned a Friendship Into One Exit and a Global Founder Community

    What does it take to exit one company, start another from scratch and build it into a global community of over 3,600 women founders, all with the same business partner? For this week’s guests, the answer is equal parts strategy, friendship and an unshakeable belief that women founders are better together. In this episode of Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ Podcast, Andrea sits down with Stephanie Cartin and Courtney Spritzer, co-founders of Entreprenista, a global membership community and media platform reaching millions of women entrepreneurs every month. Before Entreprenista, they co-founded SocialFly and grew it from a side hustle into a thriving social media agency before exiting in 2024 and investing in growing the Entreprenista brand. In the episode, Stephanie expressed that building a business is hard. Building it alone is harder. And as a member of Entreprenita, you do not have to build alone.   Stephanie and Courtney built this community specifically because they knew what was possible with the right people around them. What they share here is not theory. It is 15 years of partnership, one exit and a second company built with more intention, more clarity and a team designed to carry the vision forward. In this episode, you’ll hear: Why trust, communication and vision alignment are the three non-negotiables of a high-performing business partnershipHow Stephanie and Courtney naturally divided into sales-and-relationships versus finance-and-operations—and why that clarity accelerated everythingWhy the 2020 pivot was not a crisis response but a strategic move they had already been planningHow Courtney is approaching the Entreprenista build differentlyWhy Stephanie still believes visibility is the single most underrated growth lever for women foundersHow Stephanie and Courtney stay aligned even when they disagreeLinks and Resources: https://www.entreprenista.com/https://www.entreprenista.com/info-sessionhttps://www.entreprenista.com/podcast-entreprenistahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/stephjillcartin/https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneyspritzer/Read Stephanie’s WIWYTK feature on LinkedIn Read Courtney’s WIWYTK feature on LinkedInhttps://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/

    Stop Building Alone: How the Entreprenista Founders Turned a Friendship Into One Exit and a Global Founder Community

  8. Apr 7

    The Do, Delegate and Drop Framework That Changed How This CMO Lives and Leads

    How do you build a meaningful career, lead at a high level and still host the playdate for your kids? In this episode of Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ Podcast, Andrea sits down with Kathryn Cook, Chief Marketing Officer at Alloy, an identity and fraud prevention platform that helps financial institutions onboard customers safely and prevent fraud. Over the course of a 15-year career spanning biotech, life sciences and fintech, Kathryn built a reputation for turning complex ideas into clear, compelling stories. In this conversation, she shares not only how she shaped her career path, but also how she approaches leadership, motherhood and ambition with intention. Andrea and Kathryn explore the practical decisions required to sustain high performance over time. Kathryn shares how she protects her energy, sets priorities and how she built support systems for work and home. In this episode, you'll discover: Why Kathryn chose “consistency” as her word of the year.How the Do-Delegate-Drop framework helps her protect time and focus.Why saying yes before you feel ready can accelerate career growth.How Kathryn transitioned from biotech to fintech by leaning into storytelling.Why internship and agency experience provide critical career foundations.How she views outsourcing at home as a strategic leadership decision.What AI can accelerate and where human judgment still matters.Why intentional community with other working women supports success.This episode is for the woman navigating leadership, family responsibilities, career progression and the ongoing pressure to perform at a high level without losing herself in the process. Links and Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathrynwcook https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/ https://www.alloy.com Read Kathryn’s WIWYTK feature on LinkedIn

    The Do, Delegate and Drop Framework That Changed How This CMO Lives and Leads
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There are extraordinary women shaping our world every day - founders, executives, advocates and community builders who are defining success on their own terms. Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ are real conversations about what it took to get here and the tradeoffs, risks and revelations behind their success. Candid, insightful and inspiring, this podcast celebrates the women leading with purpose, building with grit and proving that impact is possible, and we are capable of more than we know.

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