Raising Debt-Free College Grads: Entrepreneur Shellee Howard on College Prep and Empowering Kids for Self-Discovery
Release Date: 11/18/2025
AI and Human Belonging: Multipreneur Teju Owoye on Growing Brands in Community
Wings of Inspired Business
Teju Owoye is a serial entrepreneur, author, and wellness innovator. She began her entrepreneurial journey by founding The Sulte Group, a growth marketing agency serving celebrity clients like Def Leppard and Ice Cube and top B2B SaaS companies alike. After facing her own health challenges, she launched Clean Rebellion, a clean beauty brand voted the Best Multi-Use Body Wash by Byrdie two years in a row. Today, she leads WellZest, a platform that connects individuals to holistic health providers and wellness experiences worldwide. Teju is also the author of The Audacity Journal, a guided...
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Digital Ethics: Entrepreneur Madeleine Lambert on How Originality AI Ensures Integrity in a World of AI-Generated Content
Wings of Inspired Business
Madeleine Lambert is a co-founder of Originality.ai, a platform that provides a toolset to help content marketers, writers and publishers navigate the world of generative AI so they can publish with integrity. The company, which launched one week before ChatGPT, also specializes in AI detection technology, with solutions that help defend copyright, detect plagiarism, and beyond. Madeleine was also the co-founder of the marketing company Content Refined which was sold in 2022. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 📝✨Transparency & Integrity Matter More Than Ever: With the boom in AI-generated content,...
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Value-Based Healthcare: Entrepreneur Shannon Decker on Innovating Access and Building A Healthier Future
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Dr. Shannon Decker is the Founder and CEO of VBC One, a consulting firm that partners with physician groups, health plans and vendors to optimize value-based care performance. With over 25 years of experience, including 17 in risk adjustment, quality and Medicare, she brings deep expertise in healthcare strategy, analytics, and operations. A published author and national speaker, Dr. Decker currently serves as a RISE fellow and on the faculty at Capella University. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 💪❤️Proactive, Value-Based Healthcare: Learn about the shift in healthcare from a reactive "sickness"...
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PR From AI to Blockchain: Entrepreneur Victoria Vaughan on How Tech Startups Can Build Influence and Secure Funding
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Victoria Vaughan, an award-winning business leader and communication strategist, is the founder of B612, a New York–based PR agency serving high-growth technology companies. B612 clients are featured in top tier outlets such as NYT, WSJ, TechCrunch, Wired and have raised over $100m in funding in 2025. With over a decade in tech communications, Victoria previously served as CEO of the top-tier Web3 media company Cointelegraph, directly managing media strategy and operations. She was named a Best Business Owner by NYX awards’25. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 🤖 💖 AI for PR: Learn how AI can...
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Revolutionizing Workplace Culture: Entrepreneur Lena McDearmid on the Power of Psychological Safety for High Performing Teams
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Lena McDearmid is the founder and CEO of Wryver, a consultancy that helps leaders create company cultures where people and performance thrive together. Previously Lena co-founded the fintech company Momnt, where she served as COO and Chief Culture Officer. With Wryver, she’s on a mission to create teams that trust each other and organizations that are future-ready in an AI world. With more than 20 years in leadership, consulting, and culture strategy, she focuses on strengthening the trust, rhythms, and structures that determine whether teams succeed or stall. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑...
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AI for Small Business: Elizabeth Gore on Empowering 1.6 Million Women Entrepreneurs
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Elizabeth Gore is the co-founder and president of Hello Alice, a technology company that provides access to capital, connections, and education to over 1.5 million entrepreneurs. In turn, Hello Alice’s business health engine for banks and enterprise business services helps corporations increase engagement and transactions with small businesses. Hello Alice remains steadfast in its mission to ensure that every small business owner has the resources to thrive and live their dream. Elizabeth is the host of the Yahoo Finance show “The Big Idea,” and is the small business columnist for Inc...
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Scattered Media to Searchable Legacy: Entrepreneur Kristin Thomas on Amplifying Women’s Successes
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Kristin Thomas is the Founder of Marble Collective, an AI-powered platform transforming how women’s leadership is preserved, amplified, and discovered to make remarkable women easier to find, follow, and book, ensuring their legacies endure. Backed by 300+ women leaders, including more than 70 founding investors, Marble centralizes each leader’s media, milestones, and body of work into a living digital portfolio, redefining visibility and legacy for women everywhere. Kristin’s two-decade career in real estate and her board roles at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and YFCA shape her mission...
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Engineer to Entrepreneur: Swati Vauthrin on Leaving Big Tech to Shape the Future of Parenting
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Swati Vauthrin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Recess, the parenting platform redefining how families connect, learn, and shop through community and circular commerce. A seasoned engineering leader turned mission-driven founder, Swati spent over 15 years as an engineer building and scaling products at Instagram, BuzzFeed, ESPN, and Disney—most notably leading global growth for Instagram Reels. Her inspiration for Recess came directly from her own motherhood journey. As a mom of three, Swati experienced firsthand how isolating, overwhelming, and expensive parenting can be so she’s building...
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Unapologetic Wealth for Women: Investor Marcia Dawood on Breaking Barriers to Unlock Capital for Female Founders
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Marcia Dawood is an early-stage investor and author of Do Good While Doing Well, TEDx speaker and host of The Angel Next Door podcast, with a new book debuting next month called Unapologetic Wealth. Marcia serves as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee. She is a venture partner with Mindshift Capital and the chair emeritus of the Angel Capital Association (ACA), a global professional society for angel investors. She is also an associate producer on the award-winning documentary Show Her the Money. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 💰...
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Communities for the Neurodivergent: Synchrony Co-founders Rebecca Matchett, Brittany Moser, and Jamie Pastrano on Leveraging AI for Social Connection
Wings of Inspired Business
Jamie Pastrano, Rebecca Matchett and Brittany Moser are the co-founders of Symphony, a platform pairing AI-powered social coaching with intentional interest-based matching, in a safe, simple, and supportive space for the neurodivergent. Jamie, inspired to build the new app by her son’s autism, joined with serial entrepreneur Rebecca, COO, with a track record of building successful fashion companies, including alice+olivia and TrioFit, and Brittany Moser, an autism specialist and digital learning expert. The Synchrony app launches this month. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 🌱 🧠 Build from Real...
info_outlineShellee Howard is the Founder and CEO of College Ready and CR Future Now, a Certified Independent College Strategist, and a best-selling author. A member of HECA and SOFA, she helps students gain admission to their best-fit colleges—often debt-free. As a mother of four, Shellee has firsthand experience with college success. Her son graduated debt-free from Harvard, earned his MD from UCSD, and is now an Orthopedic Surgery Resident at UCLA. Her daughter earned her BSN debt-free and became an RN in 2021. A sought-after speaker and consultant, Shellee has guided hundreds of students worldwide to top universities, ensuring they graduate debt-free and land jobs they love. Shellee also hosts the podcast, Parents: Is Your Teen College Ready?
🔑Key Takeaways🔑
🌱🤔 Start Early, Self-Discovery Comes First: Why college prep should start in middle school, with parents guiding their kids to reflect on their interests, strengths, and values. Learn how to help your kids figure out who they are before choosing what to study with a mix of community service, internships, and real-world conversations with professionals.
💸 🎯 A Strategic (Not Emotional) Path to College: Why it’s not about chasing school prestige or following the crowd. The best path involves empowering students to build standout resumes, match with colleges that value their unique qualities, and—most importantly—graduate without crushing student loans.
🎓💡 Scholarships (and How to Win Them): One of Shellee’s most compelling stats: her seniors earned over $10 million in scholarships last year alone. Her secret? Treat the process like building a business—from early planning, crafting applications, and strategically picking colleges that want to reward your child’s excellence.
👩💼 🛠️ For Young Entrepreneurs and Non-Traditional Paths: Not every student is destined for the Ivy League—or even a traditional four-year college. Learn how to explore all options, including trade schools and entrepreneurial ventures. There is no “one size fits all” path to success.
✨🤖 How AI Is Impacting College Decisions: How to best prepare your teen for an AI world, why teaching nimbleness, flexibility and resilience is key.
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More about Shellee at College Ready Plan