WOW Woman of Worth:
Women in Business in a Changing World (Vol. 9)
by Christine Awram
About the Book
CHANGE
Our world is constantly in flux, and one of the biggest secrets for success is learning how to welcome change rather than resist it.
The authors of this book understand the challenges we all face when change comes knocking on the door, with its insistence on interrupting the status quo, but they’ve also experienced the powerful creativity and growth that comes from leaning into it. Their courageous stories demonstrate so many ways to overcome obstacles and opposition, and by seeing them succeed despite incredible odds you will be inspired to become unstoppable in your own right.
“The way the world is changing it’s not just about ‘what can I do’ – it’s about what ‘we’ can do together to be bigger, better, stronger. The women of today are ready to share their voices in new and inventive ways. I invite you to share your voice the way the authors are sharing theirs in this extraordinary book.”
Shelly Lynn Hughes – Publisher, Fresh Magazine
With an accelerated timetable of transformation now before us, it has never been more imperative to embrace your opportunities to evolve, succeed and thrive. It’s a new day, and change has never felt so good!
Co-Authors
Shelly Lynn Hughes – Forward Author
Shelly Lynn Hughes is the founder of Fresh Magazine, a partner in Skin Spin Cosmetics, Project Her Inc, and YOYOMAMA.CA, and the creator of the Amazon bestselling book, Pursuit:365.
In addition to her work as a publisher and business owner, she has developed an exclusive skincare label for a major pharmacy and consulted for various magazines and health and beauty brands. Shelly was also awarded the prestigious WOW Woman Of Worth “Mom Entrepreneur of the Year” Award in 2013.
She loves to get her hands on an idea, make it a reality, and share it with the world – all while radiating the good vibes of a best girlfriend.
Allyson Roberts
Allyson Roberts knows what it takes to make it in this world. As a young woman who found herself homeless, pregnant, and forced to live in her car, she turned to the writing of Napoleon Hill for comfort and guidance. Little did she know then what a huge impact his philosophies would have on her life.
Allyson knows the importance of being the boss of our brain while also tapping into our soul power, which is our connection to the Divine. In the past twenty years, she has coached thousands of women all over the world, helping them step into their innate power through a process she calls personalized science. She runs a successful coaching program, Unapologetic Power, which is a six-month commitment with hands-on attention and assistance. She believes that spending time face-to-face with clients is important for their growth and success, and she offers several classes per week to ensure that her clients are progressing.
Allyson has appeared in hundreds of publications, on podcasts, and on both live and virtual stages nationally and internationally. Her expertise along with her client’s phenomenal metamorphoses around prosperity, professional transformations, and personal development won her recognition by Feedspot in their “Top 100 Coaches in the World.”
Email: allyson@allysonroberts.com
Amy Andersen
Amy Andersen is a writer, sought-after speaker, and leadership facilitator as well as the owner/founder of the Just Peachy Sugaring Salon. What began as an opportunity to design the business that would work for her family catapulted her drive and passion for being able to help others do the same. In addition to still seeing clients two days a week, Amy now focuses on growing both her businesses and has surrounded herself with a team who all believe in collaboration over competition.
During the shutdowns in 2020, Amy expanded her business by creating the Just Peachy Training Academy, which guides women through the process of creating their own sugaring salon. She has also begun working as a business start-up coach, helping women across Canada who are looking to start over in their careers or find a way to work from home while caring for their small children. With her step-by-step plan and proven template for success, she can help anyone pivot their mindset and be successful in business.
Amy lives in Chilliwack, BC with her two teenage boys and her Aussiedoodle, Aurora. In her free time she enjoys propagating house plants, reading mystery novels, and planning road trips.
Anita Voth
Anita is the mother of three wonderful young adult children and has been a business owner for over thirty years. From starting a business in adventure travel in Toronto, Ontario to currently owning her own business as a financial advisor and small business administrator in Vancouver, BC, she would sum herself up as a “humanitarian with a sense of adventure.”
Over the past thirteen years, Anita has had the privilege of teaching many teens, women, and parents; co-hosting a radio series on family and finance; being the annual financial “expert” for Shape Your World Society’s Total Makeover Challenge; and teaching personal development seminars. In the last decade, she has sat on several non-profit boards including Shape Your World Society (SYWS) and has volunteered with SYWS for the past eight years. Anita is a certified NLP Master Practitioner and has spent the last fifteen years focusing on her own personal development through a variety of courses and programs.
With a clear but simple mission of helping and inspiring others, Anita is a proud personal development speaker that is known for making a memorable impact. By providing the right tools and knowledge, she helps people unleash their potential, paving the way towards both personal and professional success.
Email: anitakvoth@gmail.com
Brenda Smith
Brenda has been a lifelong cat lover. As a child, she regularly collected cats from the neighbourhood and brought them home, only for her mother to put them back outside at night so they could return to their owners.
Brenda has had many careers over the years, but the only thing that ever held her attention was cats. After years of trying to escape her depression by changing jobs and locations, she decided to stop running and really listen to what she wanted to do. She started a cattery at the farm she was living on in 1996 followed by Club Cat Hotel in 1997, guided by the facility rating programs from the Cat Fanciers Association and the International Cat Association.
Club Cat has been a true lifesaver for Brenda and has brought many new friends into her life. It was featured twice on a program called Pet Friends, on the news with Dave Gerry of City TV, and in the book Cats I Have Known and Loved by renowned Canadian author Pierre Berton. It is partnered with her Diplocat service, through which cats can be transferred to and from the boarding facility in a limousine.
Brittany Hardy
Brittany Hardy is the owner of Empty Desk Solutions, a boutique social media content marketing agency in Port Coquitlam, B.C. Brittany helps moms free themselves of the never-ending social media marketing tasks in their businesses by providing expert crafted social media content packages. Brittany believes in balancing home life and work and continues to find new and exciting ways to collaborate with, support, and employ other female entrepreneurs so that they too can be at home with their own children.
Running a business has been a life-long goal of Brittany’s, and she is proud that 2021 marks her eighth year in business. During this time, she has served over 150 clients across North America. As social media marketing evolves, so does Brittany and her all-female team at Empty Desk Solutions.
Brittany has been a finalist for the Woman Of Worth awards, the Tri-Cities Business Excellence awards, and has been featured in dozens of publications in recent years. In her free time, you can find Brittany entertaining her four children, soaking up the sunshine in her garden, or driving her husband completely crazy with her ambitious dreams.
Denise Mai
Denise Mai – a TEDx speaker, investor, and entrepreneur – is now on a mission to inspire others and leave a positive impact in their lives. From being raised in a poor immigrant family to self-made millionaire, she has turned her struggles into her greatest strengths. In her TEDx talk “How to build resilience as your superpower,” she reveals that your circumstances do not dictate your future.
Denise holds a BBA in Communications from Simon Fraser University. She has worked with two Fortune 500 companies, Accenture and Johnson & Johnson, before becoming an award-winning top 1% realtor in Vancouver. She has been in real estate since 2010 and shares her knowledge with her clients to help them achieve their real estate goals and dreams. Today she owns multiple investment properties, and her passion for personal growth is leading her to create her own coaching company.
One of the values that Denise prides herself on is giving back to the community. One example of her community commitment is her participation in the Canadian Blood Services as a regular blood donator. In addition, Denise is the top donator to Children’s Miracle Network in her office and has made significant donations to the Union Gospel Mission.
Heather Dodd
Heather Dodd has successfully built, managed, and sold many businesses over the past twenty-five years and is considered an expert in the field of start-ups, business consulting, and sales. Her motivation to create Refresh Evolution came from her passion to empower women who are looking to become financially independent and to make positive visual changes on a very personal level. Since 2014, Refresh Evolution has grown into a full-service medical aesthetic clinic offering injectables, laser hair removal, and skin rejuvenation. They currently have two clinical locations, one in Pitt Meadows and one in Port Moody, and will be expanding with a third clinic in the fall.
Franchising Refresh Evolution was the ultimate goal for Heather as it offered a way to expand her work by managing growth and sales through a franchise model. She also believes that “a rising tide lifts all boats” and saw this as another opportunity to encourage and facilitate success among women in business. Refresh Evolution Franchise Corporation, whose head office is located in Maple Ridge, offers a unique franchise opportunity in the rapidly growing medical aesthetics industry. For those who want to know more, please visit the franchise website below.
Jennifer Morgan
Jennifer Morgan currently resides in New Westminster, BC, and is serving in her nineteenth year with the Royal Canadian Navy. She has lived and worked on both Naval coasts, has instructed at the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in Saint Jean Sur Richelieu, QC, and has recently been commissioned from the ranks. She will begin her training as a Naval Warfare Officer in the fall, with hopes to eventually command a Canadian Warship. She is a strong advocate against bullying, violence against women, racism, and discrimination. She is a supporter of the LGBTQ2+ and BIPOC Community, Black Lives Matter, and reconciliation, and is very welcoming towards newly landed immigrants and/or refugees.
As someone who is unafraid of asking questions or getting the wrong answer, Jennifer is invested in and speaks out for women’s rights and gender equality. She is the current Vice-President of Soroptimist International of Surrey/Delta and is excited to be working with such strong, like-minded women with the goal of improving the lives of young girls and women, both at home and around the world. After attending the Commission on the Status of Women in 2018 as a delegate with Soroptimist International, her interests have greatly evolved to include foreign affairs and human rights, especially for those who live without.
Karen Kobel
Karen Kobel is a performer, dance/yoga/Pilates instructor, and founder of Kahlena Movement Studio. With a BFA in Dance Performance from East Carolina University, she has been dancing for the past thirty-eight years and teaching for the past twenty-five. She has had the opportunity to perform with Mia Michaels, Jay Norman, Lynn Simonson, Princess Cruises, and many local dance collectives in Vancouver. She is a Simonson Certified dance instructor as well as CI Training Certified instructor, STOTT Pilates, Costa Yoga, group fitness instructor, and personal trainer.
Karen has been teaching Pilates for seventeen years and Dance for the last 26 years. Combining Simonson Dance Technique with Pilates and CI training, Karen has created a unique class format that not only allows the body to flow from movement to movement, but also allows the mind to connect to the present moment, leaving her clients feeling rejuvenated, renewed, and restored.
After returning from Kenya and Uganda in November 2013, where she taught women with HIV Pilates/dance/strength training and listened to their life stories, she realized her life purpose to inspire others – especially women – to find their own voice just as she did after the past few years of focusing on finding hers. Karen shares her experiences with others in the hopes that it will help them believe that anything and everything is possible!
Email: info@kahlena.com
Phone: 778-317-6058
Kellie Wesley
Kellie Wesley is an interior designer, artist, and writer who currently lives in beautiful Penticton, BC. She has a passion for anything creative, whether it be arranging flowers, entertaining friends and family, setting a beautiful table, painting, or decorating. She is also a nurturer who maintains a positive outlook no matter what life throws her way, and she recently became a Reiki Level 2 practitioner.
In addition to fundraising for cancer research, ALS, mental health, and animal rescue organizations, Kellie is active in fundraising for the Kidney Foundation and donated her kidney to her friend’s husband in 2013. She also received the Courage Award from the South Okanagan Women in Need Society that same year.
Hiking the beautiful trails in the Okanagan with her golden retriever, Kate, is a favourite past time for Kellie. She also enjoys skiing, snowshoeing, biking, yoga, dancing, listening to music, and reading. In addition, she was one of the Honky Tonk Angels for SoCountry Radio, with Dennis Walker as a co-host.
Kellie has two sons, Matthew and Sean, and three bonus sons, Aaron, Trevor and Travis as well as five grandchildren.
Email: kelliewesley@gmail.com
Lily Zhao
Lily Zhao is an investor, TEDx speaker, and certified life coach. She became an investor at the age of twenty, which created the financial freedom she needed to work on her life calling. Prior to pursuing her passion in helping women find self-love and emotional freedom, she studied health sciences at Simon Fraser University to understand health and wellness at a holistic level. Her experiences of trauma and the challenges she faced in her life gave her the drive to help women heal, love, and accept themselves unconditionally.
Today, Lily is a femininity embodiment coach with a passion for helping women tap into their feminine core and discover their true superpower. She is also currently working on creating a podcast to interview other unicorns in this world who are living their dream lives, allowing them to share and pass down knowledge and wisdom that will empower women for generations to come.
Email: lily@coffeewithunicorns.com
Lisa Chan
Lisa is the founder of TrufElle, a company on a mission to enlighten cannabis curious women to be liberated in their sexuality. She met her husband while still in high school, and after twenty-eight years she became well aware that she had to find ways to keep the passion alive in her marriage. Her drive and curiosity led her to experiment with cannabis, herbs, and chocolates as aphrodisiacs. The confection, in combination with Lisa’s guided explorations, opens hearts and minds to uninhibited spontaneity.
Lisa’s newfound awakened journey at age forty led her to re-discover her sensual desires. Through the creation of TrufElle, she is able to share the education and tools she has found to re-ignite that feeling of intensity and intimacy for people who are in love.
Lisa holds an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from the Sauder School of Business at UBC. As a serial entrepreneur, she owns established businesses in the field of real estate development and property management. She is passionate about inspiring young girls and women to own their worth and live their best life NOW!
Email: desiretrufelle@gmail.com
Marlies White
Marlies White was inspired to start her business, SomaLife, in response to the loss of a close relative. Working with her late husband, Dr. Philip White M.D., the pair created a series of products directed at promoting better health for others. SomaLife is an Okanagan-based health, wellness, sports nutrition, and age management company that develops, manufactures, and markets its proprietary line of one-of-a-kind products locally, nationally, and internationally.
Now with over two decades of experience under her belt, Marlies leads her company to grow with the vision of changing more lives with natural health and wellness products. She is active in her community, especially with the local food bank. The company’s SomaPet supplement was specifically created because of her love of animals. Marlies lives by her personal motto of “you do what needs to be done, whatever it takes, helping as many people as possible along the journey.” Knowing how important her company is, she looks forward to fulfilling her husband’s legacy, and hers, in the coming years.
Recently, Marlies has achieved her dream of becoming an author. In addition to her contributions to the WOW books, she also released her bestselling memoir, Because He Could, in February 2020.
Michelle Berezan
Michelle Berezan is a teacher. She is a teacher of kindness and compassion to her four beautiful children. She is a teacher to people suffering from addictions as a certified addictions counsellor. She is a teacher to people experiencing perinatal/postpartum depression, disordered eating, stress, and anxiety as a registered clinical counsellor. She is a teacher to the masses as a best-selling author and creator of the Peace Power Passion course, in which she helps individuals break through their mental blocks and discover a more joyous way of living. She also uses her experience as a mother of high-spirited children and multiples to pass on firsthand knowledge of how to overcome stressful parenting situations and build a strong family unit. All of this makes her the ultimate student in her life.
Michelle has spoken at residential dependency treatment centres about her own journey of overcoming addiction as well as on improving one’s own life condition through personal accountability and giving back. Along with other charitable endeavours, Michelle makes it a priority to be of service both locally and abroad through her foundation SWAG (Service Work Around the Globe). She continues to speak out about improving your life after experiencing addiction, depression, and motherhood in her latest book, which you can expect to see on shelves shortly
Moira Cohn
Moira Cohn is the founder and CEO of Become a High Value Woman and lead developer of Transformative Language of Connection™. Knowing first-hand the power of cultivating self-confidence, she is deeply passionate about performing high-value mindset work and makeovers for female entrepreneurs ready to become the best versions of themselves. She brings her experience as a successful multi-business owner and image consultant as well as her counselling skills to divinely guide women from overwhelm to launching their sacred business.
After coming across so many women striving to break out into new versions of themselves but unsure of where to begin, Moira created a brand-new, proprietary communication method known as The Transformative Language of Connection™. T.L.C.™ is a simple process that helps women shift from confusion to confidence, strengthening their emotional intelligence and allowing them to better communicate their thoughts, feelings, and desires.
When she is not running her business, Moira enjoys the silly side of life, finding joy and laughter in almost anything. You can often find her watching animated Disney movies with the new love of her life or starting exciting adventures with new friends.
Email:
Olivia Repnicki
Olivia is a passionate, intuitive, self-renewed, intriguing woman who, through her long journey of self-discovery, found a unique talent that can help others in their own path. Her spiritual gift and her passion for crystals inspired her to learn about Reiki and begin creating crystal bracelets imbued with healing powers. Soon she expanded to offering Reiki sessions out of her home, first in her guest room and then in a custom-built Reiki haven.
Today, Olivia is both a certified Reiki Master and a medium. She is an intuitive healer with a passion for guiding you through your life journey so that you can reach your full potential. In her sessions, she uses Reiki universal energy as well as her gift of mediumship and her strong intuition as an empath to help her clients become stronger and healthier.
Ruth Purves Smith
A Prairie girl from Calgary, Ruth Purves Smith grew up travelling the dusty highways between two cultures: her urban life in the city and the artisan’s dream of a circa 1800s rural woollen mill. From these beginnings, Ruth found her voice to become an accomplished songwriter and performer. Her music spans the spectrum from country through to Celtic-infused folk rock. Both of her albums (Out in the Storm and Faster than the Speed of Dark) have garnered international attention and enthusiastic reviews.
Having toured much of North America and the UK, Ruth has settled back in Alberta’s farm belt to compose music, complete a new album, write a children’s book, develop her fibre arts, and build community around creating art and sharing knowledge of sustainable lifestyles. This is her first published prose.
Shelina Mawani
Shelina Mawani is a resilient and successful businesswoman. Affectionally known as the “Samosa Queen,” Shelina is the visionary behind Nana’s Kitchen, a multi-million-dollar company producing gourmet handmade samosas in Surrey, British Columbia.
Success did not always come easy for Shelina. Born in the small town of Mwanza, Tanzania, she grew up without a formal education or long-term goals for the future. She moved to Canada in 1983 and faced a series of setbacks, including a failed restaurant business. Undeterred, Shelina kept her entrepreneurial spirit alive. Through a combination of embracing struggles, celebrating successes, and collaborating with others, Shelina had the strength and enthusiasm to succeed. Following in her parents’ footsteps, she dedicates her time to helping others and is now able to employ and mentor more than fifty new immigrants to Canada.
Shelina has earned many awards and recognition over the years, including being listed as one of the top 11 women-owned businesses in BC by Business in Vancouver and winning the business resilience award for the 41-plus category by the Surrey Board of Trade. She attributes her success to the lessons she learned along her journey along with the amazing support of her family.
Email: smawani@yournanaskitchen.com
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher has spent nearly a decade in corporate finance and technology, learning and refining what works, what doesn’t, what’s needed most, and why. A full-time business coach, blogger, MBA student, wife, and mother of three, Tiffany-Ann believes that technology and people working together can accomplish nearly anything and create a values-based, people-first culture.
Career stops include financial controller focusing on key data metrics and building processes; director of operations guiding revenue growth and team performance; VP of corporate development, leading acquisitions, mergers, and systems development; and VP of finance and technology, unleashing growth in systems, integration, automation, and optimization.
Beyond such admirable business experience, Tiffany-Ann is most proud of her three amazing kids, Sophie, Parker, and Kane, and the life of adventure she shares with her husband Jarred. Their journey is ongoingly chronicled in her hugely popular blog “The Mom Who Wants it All.”
To inquire about coaching, consulting, or to learn of upcoming events, Tiffany-Ann can be contacted at the information below. You can also visit her website to complete your Significant Six evaluation.
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