Fuel for Female Founders® by Andrea L. Johnston

Andrea L. Johnston
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There are extraordinary women building companies every day, founders, operators, executives and investors whose actual stories rarely match the public version of a woman leader.Fuel for Female Founders® by Andrea L. Johnston are real conversations, thirty minutes and in person, about what it took to build, and the tradeoffs, risks and burnout behind the win.Candid, insightful and inspiring, this podcast fuels the next generation of female founders and proves that women's leadership is structural and durable, not a moment worth celebrating one founder at a time.

  1. 4d ago ·  Video

    You Can’t Build Alone: Rituals, Talent & Growth with Allyse Cirillo | Ep 17

    What does it cost to build the company you want while you are still rebuilding yourself? In this episode of Fuel for Female Founders, Andrea sits down with Allyse Cirillo, Founder and CEO of SAINT Jō, the clean beauty brand she launched after fifteen years developing product for fashion and intimates brands. Allyse spent most of her career treating what she calls a woman’s outer layer, bras and shapewear, and in one stretch took a shapewear company from 25 million to 400 million in three years. It was not her company. When COVID had her building someone else’s business from her couch, she started asking what she was actually serving. Allyse and Andrea trace what she did next, and the sequence matters for anyone still holding a paycheck. She stayed in the job another year and a half, learned the beauty category from a naturopathic doctor, chemists and trade shows, and only left when a manufacturer offered to produce for her and take payment once she started selling. She built SAINT Jō from the ground up while losing 80 pounds. The product decisions came out of that: numbered bottles so nobody has to guess the order, three minutes morning and night, a routine a woman will actually keep. This conversation goes well beyond skincare. Allyse is direct about the part she did not arrive knowing, which is marketing, and about hiring a fractional CMO who was better at it than she was. She hires for soft skills because the customer can feel whether the team is aligned. She talks about knowing your funding options six months before you need them, about walking up to strangers at a major industry event and making connections instead of leaving with nothing but a hotel lobby story, and about why corporate is not a lesser path. Her closing ask is small and doable: meet one new person every month, and if you have a question, raise your hand and ask it. This episode is for the woman who is building something while still holding a job, who is tired of sitting on the sidelines and is ready to act on her own product idea without waiting for permission from a title. In this episode, you’ll hear: Why she left a brand she scaled from $25 million to $400 millionHow she learned an entire new category before quitting her jobWhat a manufacturer’s offer to get paid later unlocked for her launchWhy she built the company and lost 80 pounds in the same eighteen monthsHow rituals beat perfection, and what to do on the day you skip themWhy numbering the bottles removed decision fatigue and became her top feedbackWhy she hired a fractional CMO who was better than her at the jobHow hiring for soft skills protects the culture a customer can feelWhat one year looked like: 5,000 units sold, four returns, a 37% repurchase rateWhy knowing your funding options six months early beats raising in a scrambleHow to work a big industry event with intention instead of standing on the periphery of the roomWhy corporate is a real path, not a consolation prize Timestamps (0:00) Intro (1:16) Fifteen years developing product in corporate (2:32) The COVID moment she stopped serving everyone (5:28) Building the brand while still employed (6:18) The manufacturer who offered to back her (10:04) Why rituals beat being perfect (15:57) Hiring people smarter than you (17:38) Hiring for soft skills and culture (21:00) Why community changed her first year (25:11) Deciding to spend on the big rooms (28:32) Networking with intention, and the ROI (31:28) Know your funding options six months out (35:16) Corporate is not a lesser path Episode Resources SAINT Jō: https://shopsaintjo.com/SAINT Jō on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shop.saintjo/Allyse Cirillo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allyse-cirillo Fuel for Female Founders: https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/Andrea L. Johnston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrealjohnstonFuel for Female Founders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fuel-for-female-foundersWomen I Want You to Know, the former LinkedIn feature series: https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/linkedin/ Produced by UNFLTR

    You Can’t Build Alone: Rituals, Talent & Growth with Allyse Cirillo | Ep 17

  2. Sep 22 ·  Video

    Growing, Pausing and Always Having Agency with Laura Meyer | Ep 16

    What if the flat year in your business is not a failure but a chapter you were always going to have? In this episode of Fuel for Female Founders, Andrea interviews Laura Meyer, founder and CEO of tech-enabled Amazon and TikTok agency Envision Horizons. Laura started her career at Amazon Media Group via LinkedIn cold messaging before leaving corporate sales when her commission plan was cut right after a major deal. Today, she leads a ten-year-old agency with a proprietary platform, a predominantly female leadership team, and her husband as a business partner. Laura candidly discusses navigating business growth alongside motherhood, including two flat revenue years following the births of her daughters. Now in "chapter three," her agency achieved 53% growth last year and projects another 50% this year. She advises founders to allow 18 months for postpartum recovery and to cultivate a strong peer support network. The conversation covers home division of labor, balanced advisory teams, and AI's operational impact; such as cutting dev backlogs from months to weeks and speeding up reporting. Laura emphasizes adaptability and proactive problem-solving. This episode is for the woman who is scaling a business and raising small children at the same time, who is tired of sitting on the sidelines during a slow year and is ready to act on the chapter she is in now. In This Episode, Listeners Will Hear Why a flat year after a baby is a chapter and not a verdictHow Laura got into Amazon by messaging strangers on LinkedInWhat happened the day after she closed the biggest deal of the yearWhy she gives herself 18 months before expecting full speed againHow a spreadsheet fixed the division of labor at home and at workWhat Envision Horizons does across Amazon, TikTok Shop and WalmartWhy peer advisors, male and female, make entrepreneurship less lonelyHow AI turned a four-month product backlog into a two-week buildWhy the hourly agency model was already dead before AIWhat the Jevons paradox predicts about demand for creativeWhy the smartest people in business have the best questionsHow she teaches her daughters to be comfortable being uncomfortable Timestamps (0:00) Intro (0:51) Meet Laura Meyer and Envision Horizons  (2:07) Hitting a wall postpartum in 2020  (2:58) The roles and responsibilities spreadsheet  (5:04) From Amazon Media Group to entrepreneurship  (6:45) Getting the interview by messaging strangers  (7:36) Quitting after the commission plan changed  (8:52) Building brick by brick, not overnight  (9:43) Why peer advisors make founding less lonely  (12:41) What Envision Horizons actually does  (16:04) Running an agency in the age of AI  (19:02) Chapter three and 53% growth  (21:09) The Jevons paradox and agency value  (22:25) The best questions beat the best answers  (26:13) Motherhood, daughters and role modeling  (28:20) Community, giving first, Cinnabons for neighbors  (32:09) The hard switch from work to bedtime  (33:26) Closing on agency and resilience Resources and Connections Connect with Laura Meyer on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauracatherinemeyerEnvision Horizons: https://www.envisionhorizons.com/Envision Horizons on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/envision-horizons Connect with Andrea L . Johnston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrealjohnstonFuel for Female Founders: https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.comFuel for Female Founders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fuel-for-female-founders Produced by UNFLTR

    Growing, Pausing and Always Having Agency with Laura Meyer | Ep 16

  3. Sep 15 ·  Video

    Success Is Not a Highlight Reel with Andrea L. Johnston | Ep 15

    Andrea L. Johnston scaled a company past 150 million in revenue, exited to private equity twice, and then burned out in the way a vacation does not fix. Season 2 of Fuel for Female Founders opens with her own record and with the reason she started the show: almost none of the women she worked beside had a story that matched the public version of a woman leader. This season she recorded in person, one on one, 30 minutes at a time, with women running Nasdaq listed companies, women writing the next check after an exit, and women changing systems from inside institutions. Her case is that women's leadership is structural and durable, not a one-off success story. In This Episode, Listeners Will Hear What burning out cost after two exitsWhat the girl boss snapshot leaves outWhy the operators who never founded belong in the conversationWhy the show is no longer Women I Want You to Know Timestamps (0:00) Intro (0:25) Scaled to 150M, then burnout (1:51) DuPont Merck to a 10 figure sale (2:52) What the snapshot skips (3:30) Beyond the podcast (3:54) Why the name changed (5:07) Upcoming Guests on Season 2 Episode Resources Fuel for Female Founders: https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/ Andrea Johnston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrealjohnston Fuel for Female Founders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fuel-for-female-founders Women I Want You to Know, the former LinkedIn feature series: https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/linkedin/ Produced by UNFLTR

    Success Is Not a Highlight Reel with Andrea L. Johnston | Ep 15

  4. Season 2 Trailer ·  Video

    Coming Soon... Fuel for Female Founders Season 2

    Back for Season 2 with a new name, and this one is built for the woman who has already scaled past her own ceiling. The season treats women's leadership as something durable and structural, not a moment to celebrate one founder at a time, and it puts the whole arc on the record: scaling, exiting, and what comes after the win. Expect founders, operators and investors talking plainly about the parts that usually stay private, studied at scale rather than told one success story at a time.

    Coming Soon... Fuel for Female Founders Season 2

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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
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There are extraordinary women building companies every day, founders, operators, executives and investors whose actual stories rarely match the public version of a woman leader.Fuel for Female Founders® by Andrea L. Johnston are real conversations, thirty minutes and in person, about what it took to build, and the tradeoffs, risks and burnout behind the win.Candid, insightful and inspiring, this podcast fuels the next generation of female founders and proves that women's leadership is structural and durable, not a moment worth celebrating one founder at a time.

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