Heartbeat For Hire with Lyndsay Dowd

Siri Lindley is a triathlon coach and former athlete. She’s a cancer survivor. She’s a life coach, and she has her own horse rescue. On today’s episode, she shares her story of coming out as gay in college and her father rejecting her, empowered her to live fearlessly and authentically. Soon after, she became involved in the triathlon community. When she did her first triathlon, she didn’t even know how to swim, but she committed to training and working hard.

Catherine Solazzo, Chief Marketing Officer at Syntax, is a seasoned executive with more than 18 years of experience in the IT industry at companies like IBM Corp and TD SYNNEX (previously Tech Data). Prior to joining Syntax, she served as the SVP of Marketing at TD SYNNEX where she built the first integrated marketing organization with an industry-leading organizational design, a digital-first approach and led the marketing organization through a transformative merger.

Throughout her tenure, she has built expertise across the disciplines of performance and product marketing, branding, digital business, ecosystem development, and communications. She has held roles both domestically and internationally, having spent 3 years on assignment in Japan.

Catherine has a proven track record of organizational transformation. She is hyper-focused on delivering growth through high-yielding marketing programs, building delightful brands, end-to-end customer experiences, and high-performing teams. She believes that a growth mindset and servant leadership style motivates her teams and accelerates lasting outcomes. The greatest passion in her daily work is leading people and building cultures that last.

In today’s episode, Catherine and Lyndsay talk about work/life balance and how to give yourself some grace in your day-to-day.

For the past 20 years, Kim Daly has been helping people realize their dreams of business ownership through franchising. While helping thousands of other people to live their dreams of business ownership, she has been living her own. Today, she is recognized as one of America’s top franchise consultants. She is an international best-selling co-author of Franchising Freedom and the founder and host of KimDaly.tv. Before becoming a franchise consultant, she was an entrepreneur and highly sought-after consultant in the health and fitness industry working with brands such as Denise Austin, Dr.Denis Waitley, Gold’s Gym, and eDiets.com.  She is the creator of “The Daly Plan” – a millionaire mindset coaching program that enabled her to build the largest franchise consulting business in the history of franchise consulting in 2012.  She aspires to be the most influential and motivational voice in the franchise industry. Kim is a mom of two teenage boys. She is passionate about fitness and nutrition. She loves to work out and ski, and she lives on the beach in southern New Hampshire.

Kim shares her tips for getting the outcome you want rather than focusing on the business. She talks about how she brings joy into her work which has ignited her passion for her business. Learn more about Kim on her channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUJB6d4Efu5-DUFXraRdAIA

Cicely Simpson is seasoned public operative, having served as Legislative Director for two Congressmen, and veteran of the C-suite, formerly as Vice President of Government Affairs at Dunkin’ Brands, Inc., formerly as Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for the restaurant industry, and now as Founder & CEO of Summit Public Affairs. Her experience at all levels of government and expertise in the boardroom allows her to speak with authority on the public and private sectors as well as their countless intersections. She joins Lyndsay on the podcast today to talk about the importance of having a coach and how women can make their voices heard more at work. 

Learn more about Cicely here: https://cicelysimpson.com/

Esther Parks has been in the automotive business for 25 years.  She got her start as a salesperson and worked her way up to highly successful General Manager.  Her husband, Stephen got the most debilitating form of MS which forced them to reevaluate their work and Esther chose to step back from being a GM to care for her husband. Despite the horrible diagnosis, this provided the opportunity for Esther to create Your Auto Buyer which became- Stressless Car.  Esther works with dealerships all over New England and helps customers buy cars at no cost to them for using her service.  She has over 5,000 customers today.  Esther is also the Co-Founder of The Sales Tune Up. She joins Lyndsay on the podcast to talk about her journey of becoming a business owner and doing what she loves. 

Learn more about her company Stressless Car: https://stresslesscar.com/about-us/

Cristina Mendonsa is an EMMY/Murrow award-winning multimedia journalist, producer, spokesperson, speaker, and educator. She hosts the podcast “A Fresh Agenda” and is the founder of Mendosa Media. Cristina joins Lyndsay to talk about leadership, mistakes bosses make with their employees, and work-life balance. 

Learn more about Cristina and find her podcast here: http://www.cristinamendonsa.com/

Vince Walden is the CEO of Kona AI and is passionate about forensic data analytics and building leading, AI-driven compliance technology & anti-fraud/anti-corruption monitoring solutions.  Vince won the Certified Fraud Examiner of the Year in 2022.  He is a former Partner of Ernst and Young and an Adjunct Professor at Fordham Law School.  Vince is a regular columnist in Fraud Magazine writing on innovation in anti-fraud.  He is an author, podcast host and a former President of the ACFE Education and Research Foundation.

Heather Moyse was going to grad school when she was approached to join the Canadian Olympic Bobsled team. She had never competed before but took the challenge. She made the team and competed in the Olympics. She discovered that she is pushed by challenge. She joins Lyndsay today to discuss how finding challenge can motivate you to achieve more than you ever thought possible.

Learn more about Heather on her site: https://www.heathermoyse.com/

John Harrison is a Chief Strategy Officer, Mentor, Coach, Board Member,  Advisory Board Member and a Continuous Learner. He creatively solves business and human challenges with technology. John Harrison’s passion has been to focus on the customer and to develop talent which then delivers superior business results. He is highly effective at leading international groups and those crossing organizational boundaries, using a combination of leadership, strategy, and business acumen to guide teams to deliver exceptional results. He is passionate about developing talent through coaching and mentoring. John is a graduate of Texas A&M and has received his Executive Education from Harvard Business School and Wharton.

He joins Lyndsay to discuss working as an effective leader who listens and best practices when firing employees to maintain compassion.

Richie Contartesi joins Lyndsay on the podcast today. He is a former Ole Miss football player. His system Next Play™, is a step-by-step playbook to hold sales reps and leaders accountable to their potential every week without micro-managing. He talks about how his parent divorce when he was young led him to be depressed. He had a football coach who asked him “what are you focusing when the ball’s in the air”. This changed his mindset and brought him into the present moment, allowing him to focus on the problem at hand. 

Learn more about Richie here: https://richiecontartesi.com/