How Can Immigrant Women Power Up Their Leadership? This topic is very personal. Being an immigrant woman to Canada, building everything from scratch, the challenges, barriers, cultural change, finding a job, the desire to improve your conditions, becoming an entrepreneur, etc... All of these require some leadership capacity, resilience, and determination. I'm honored to introduce you to our STANDOUT guest - Svetlana Ratnikova - servant leader, successful entrepreneur, and Founder/CEO of IWB Immigrant Women in Business.
In this episode, you will learn:
The strategies to start your business with less money or no money at all
How to prepare yourself emotionally as an immigrant before starting your business
The Importance of social skills to navigate through your journey
Plus much more...
Learn more about our STANDOUT guest Svetlana Ratnikova: she is the Founder/CEO of IWB Immigrant Women in Business. Her passion is a positive change, big ideas, and business growth combined with proven expertise to build and retain top-performing teams that bring exceptional value to organizations. Her drive is to make the world more compassionate, innovative, and sustainable. Always focus my effort to help people and look for an opportunity to grow personally and professionally. Directly involved in developing supply channels and implementing highly targeted marketing campaigns for specialty items to global markets. She truly believes that inspiring motivation is what gets the best from people, and fosters a collaborative atmosphere that lets people stretch their limits.

Do you know how to engage in meaningful interactions with others?
Leadership is influence. Where we grow our influence, we grow our leadership. And, to do so, it requires social intelligence.
Our STANDOUT guest - Naira Velumyan - has made her mission to help leaders achieve mental, physical, and material well-being through effective communication, intelligent leadership, and competitive advantage. In this episode, she shares her personal story and how - as an introvert - she developed her leadership skills. During our conversation, she is going to share how aspiring and existing leaders can develop and leverage their social skills.
In this episode, you will learn:
The difference between introvert leaders and extrovert leaders
How to develop your leadership skills as an introvert
How to develop and leverage social skills
Plus much more...
Learn more about our STANDOUT guest Naira Velumyan: Naira has trained hundreds of people and addressed hundreds of family and corporate cases. As an inherent introvert, she knows how it feels to be alone, underestimated, and not accepted and HOW TO TURN IT AROUND. At 23 due to her widowhood and need to take care of her two little children, she had to establish herself in business — she opened multiple successful businesses. Along the way, she began to study and graduated from law school. She then turned to psychology, successfully completing a graduate program and earning a Ph.D. degree. How was it possible? Thanks to effective communication, networking, and relationship building, something that I help my clients to develop for their better personal and professional life.

If 2021 wasn’t your year, perhaps 2022 will be. Let’s begin our look back at what made 2021 such a special year. A year that was filled with opportunities, optimism, breakthroughs, power-packed partnerships, success and also lows, setbacks, and weird moments. If 2021 was great, perhaps 2022 will be better. Join our STANDOUT guests - Rollis, Robert, Andrea - as we are going to share our lessons learned in 2021 and how we're planning to make 2022 better.
In this episode, you will learn:
The importance of gratitude
How to cherish the present is so important
Some tips and advice to make 2022 the best year yet
Plus much more…
Learn more about our STANDOUT guests: Rollis Fontenot III is a national speaker, live stream host, author, Forbes Business Council Member, and founder of HR Maximizer Inc, the only subscription-based talent acquisition service of its kind in the US that helps healthcare organizations attract qualified applicants on the hardest-to-fill jobs primarily using a proprietary combination of video creation, technology, and a collaborative team approach. He has appeared in Forbes Magazine, ASHHRA’s Pulse, Locum’s Life, and other publications. His firm has produced dozens of live shows and hundreds of videos with over 3 million views that have led to thousands of qualified applicants including clinical and provider roles.
Robert Berry: He helps auditors communicate better through questions.
"Most of us spend time providing answers to the wrong questions."
But asking questions is a critical key to success. He spent the bulk of his career as an auditor where his primary job was to ask questions and evaluate processes. He has helped companies save millions by simply asking critical questions. After a while, He realized that this superpower was not only good for auditing, but for business professionals and personal endeavors.
Andrea Yacub Macek: As a career coach for women, my secret sauce is showing you how to gain clarity so that you can put yourself in front of the RIGHT opportunities.
WHY DOES CLARITY MATTER? If you don’t know what’s missing, you won’t be able to find it. Instead, you'll stay stuck:
-Tailoring your resume again
-Scanning job boards, hoping the right job will find you
-Knowing there’s more but not knowing how to find it.
-Wondering what's wrong and how to fix it
-Feeling lost, confused, overwhelmed, and out of control.

So you’ve started to show up online... You’re excited, a little bit nervous and you can’t wait to start sharing your gift with others. But then you see all your competitors in your industry going live, sharing videos on their LinkedIn. ‘How do they look so comfortable?’ The thought of going live and being totally unedited or sharing pictures of yourself and your ‘flaws’ makes your skin crawl. ‘What if someone judges and ridicules me in the comments?’ These are just your fears keeping you in the known, the safety net. Join us with our STANDOUT guest Veronica Safoa as we talk about how to overcome your fear of being seen and get comfortable expressing yourself.
In this episode, you will learn:
How to express yourself authentically
How to free yourself from the fear of judgment
How to own your voice through your stories
Plus much more...
Learn more about our STANDOUT guest Veronica Safoa: she is a former teacher with 85,000,000 hours of teaching experience in course creation, program development schemes, and inspiring her students to become better versions of themselves. She is also a deep dive mindset coach and was voted top 50 most impactful leaders on LinkedIn. In her V-IMPACT Course Creation Academy, she takes you through an empowering step-by-step process to accelerate your online coaching/consulting business to the next level of impact and income by unearthing the profitable you and packaging your GOLD DUST into a premium, transformational online course that sets you apart from the rest and sells to impact.

If you're a leader, you already own a leadership brand, whether you have thought about it or not. Is it the brand that you want? And will it enable you to deliver the most value for your career and organization? Join our STANDOUT guest Paniz Gorji and me as we discuss how to build a strong leadership brand.
In this episode, you will learn:
The importance of leadership brand
The power of storytelling
The mistakes to avoid while building your leadership brand
Plus much more...
Learn more about our STANDOUT guest Paniz Gorji: Over the past decade, I have had the privilege of working for some of the largest corporations in North America. I have been helping organizations transform their businesses through automation and the adoption of technology.
Throughout my career, I received many recognitions for the impact I have had, including numerous customer appreciation letters, high-achiever awards, and President Clubs. During my education and career in engineering and technology, I quickly noticed the lack of female representation in STEM. As an immigrant woman, I felt the absence of role models and a robust support system for Women in STEM, so I made it my mission to become an avid advocate for this underrepresented group. Currently, I help women, in the early stages of their careers, expand their network and strengthen their skills to reach their full potential.

The combination of a successful career, a loving family, and a strong social network may seem like the recipe for a perfect life. However, even those who can check each of those boxes might feel like something is missing—and that “something” is their purpose in life. “Finding your purpose” is more than just a cliché or a dream that will never be fulfilled. It’s actually a tool for a better, happier, healthier life that too few people attempt to use. Join our STANDOUT guest Bobby Umar and me as we talk about finding your purpose for life and career success.
In this episode, you will learn:
How to discover your purpose
How to make a deep connection online
The importance of stories
Plus much more...
Learn more about our STANDOUT guest Bobby Umar: I've been a leadership development consultant, speaker & coach for over 25 years. My expertise is PEOPLE—their motivations, passions & frustrations. His area of expertise includes: showing leaders how to leverage LinkedIn & develop their personal brands, showing companies how to build Thought Leadership with compelling content & powerful stories, and for individuals, how to build meaningful relationships, mindset & confidence in speaking.

Being an ambitious woman can be tough simply because we're challenging the status quo. Women that are vocal online, especially on topics that have been traditionally relegated to ‘male expertise’ are subjected to a vicious form of trolling. It's true on every social media platform - including Linkedin. I'm thrilled to kick-start season II of STANDOUT FROM THE CROWD with such an important topic. Our STANDOUT guest - Melanie Borden has been very successful at building her personal brand on Linkedin. While I've personally been inspired by her content, I have also seen her dealing with trolls on the platform.
In this episode, you will learn:
The different types of trolls
How to respond to trolls on social media
How to get rid of people's opinion
Plus much more...
Learn more about our STANDOUT guest Melanie Borden: You might be saying to yourself, what does Melanie do exactly?
I have worked in marketing within various atmospheres and roles from public tech companies to private start-ups, and retail, and now have established my own marketing consultancy, Melanie Borden, LLC. As a natural outgrowth of my work as a marketing executive, I recognized the opportunities available to use online marketing strategies to build corporate and personal brands. I have successfully built my own brand and helped many others to do so as well. I have been published or interviewed by Good Morning America, Daily Mail, CXO Outlook, The Epoch Times, Working Mother Media, Hip New Jersey, New York City Biz List, HeyOrca!, CBT News, and more. My expertise includes the full gamut of marketing oversight and implementation, such as budgeting, strategic use of vendors, enhancing digital footprints via social media, reputation management, online monetization, and building and managing advertising processes.

Have you ever heard the phrase “(S)He had so much potential, it’s a shame (s)he wasted it.” In our culture, not living up to your full potential is frowned upon, but why? And how love and kindness can help us succeed in life? Join us with our STANDOUT guest Suzy Patz, Founder/CEO of Love Out App as we discuss how she dropped her career in the trading and investing space to build a business focused on globally impacting people's ability to recognize their worth. How beautiful and powerful is that?
In this episode, you will learn:
The power of love and kindness
How to use your challenges as an opportunity
How kindness can change a culture
Plus much more...
Learn more about our STANDOUT guest Suzy Patz: After a brain injury a few years ago, I didn't come out the same person. I know what life is about and I'm on a mission to create that. I'm partnering with other people who are on the same mission to impact this world.
I believe that all success is achieved in the minds and hearts of people around you. Every day I hope to inspire those around me and help them reach their highest potential and live their best life possible.