Katie Krimitsos started walking the line that most women walk. On one side, cultural and societal norms, family and even biology. On the other, exploration, self actualization and going deep into a passion. All genders walk the line in their own ways, and all genders suffer cultural expectations. The numbers show, though, that when it comes to families and the ‘invisible work’ of life admin, it’s women who are more likely to exit beast mode for diapers and laundry. Krimitsos has been driven and powerful since the beginning. Her family environment was female empowered and she was largely shielded from the injustices women faced. Thus it’s no surprise that her early women’s studies, and what they revealed about the world, made her angry. As a self-named ‘angry feminist’ she grabbed a hammer and set her sites on the glass ceiling. She started several businesses geared towards elevating people, some specifically for women, some for everyone. Each achieved success. They also took her on an evolutionary path for her own perspectives about being a woman in society. She realized that while we can see the faults in our societal framework, we still need to live in it. And that there was no one-size-fits-all solution for how to do that successfully. Thus, she surmised, the only way to walk the line without falling off is to draw your own line – one that takes no additional balance to navigate because it’s already perfectly balanced, for you. The Women’s Meditation Network helps women draw their line. Katie’s experience and passion, her wise cadence, her earnest caring are all infused in her meditations. She started releasing them on Tuesdays a couple years ago and women started listening….and listening…and listening some more. The WMN just passed 40 million downloads and the monthly download rate is accelerating. Please enjoy episode 83 of St Pete X – a full hour of Katie Krimitsos wonderfully walking her line.
Monica Eaton-Cardone has a rage to master. As a child she helped her father run his businesses until she was old enough to begin her own. Upon leaving high school she began the iterative process of creating her own business masterpiece with a DNA level drive to solve problems, work hard and grow her acumen. In this conversation Monica shares lessons learned on the path to mastery with threads on scaling, gender and her current business, Chargebacks911.
Charles B Dew had an experience not everyone gets to have - he had the reality built during his upbringing challenged in an accessible way. While most have their belief systems challenged at some point in their life, those challenges often inspire defense and hardening of the system. There needs to be several variables that align to resolve the equation of change. The information must come in an observable, non-confrontational way. The receiver must be of the right temperament and even in the right mood. The receiver must be in that small window of moral adventure that occurs sparingly throughout our lives, but most often in our late teens or early twenties. Those stars aligned for Dew and it revealed to him how deeply racist his St. Petersburg upbringing made him. Over the course of his life and career, Dew has studied the intricacies of the southern upbringing and the fear so deeply infused in it. He has unmade himself as a racist and documented that journey for us in his books, l...
Irwin Novack has done what very few CEOs manage to do - last. That speaks to the qualities that drove Kane's Founder Maurice Rothman to pursue a young Novack years after spending only a couple days together. Rothman convinced Novak to move his family down from North Carolina to St. Petersburg, and took him under his wing. Once working for Kane's, Novack's role expanded steadily until he eventually took the top spot as C.E.O. But we start our conversation earlier than that...when student Irwin Novack received the call we all dread.
It's the 1940s in Oklahoma. With his dad away for months on a welding job, 14 year old Frank Morsani is running a full bailing crew on his family's 400 acre farm. With no plumbing, electricity or even a tractor, the eldest son simply did what it took to get the job done. Though such a scene is unlikely in this century, it catalyzed a work ethic for the ages. In this episode we linger in the first half of Frank's life to better understand the experiences that built the man that has given so much to our community.
Master journalist Margie Manning sits down for a special episode of SPx. After 3 years transforming the St Pete Catalyst from a startup with a dream, into a respected news outlet, Margie retired to take on a top leadership role with her church. In her many years covering Tampa Bay, she has told the stories that shaped the narrative of our lives, and we are a better community because of her voice. In this episode we hear her story and celebrate her successful career.
Politics can be...political. And universities have their own unique kind of politics that can make government politics seem 101. It takes a deft touch to navigate either world successfully. Few have mastered both. Helen Levine is one of those few. Her recipe isn't complicated. Know who your client is. Be devoutly pragmatic. And listen. She leveraged these ingredients for decades to win the respect of those in power and a seat the table where the future was forged.
Dave Seminara usually writes about tennis or travel. When he does, he does so for the likes of The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Association of Tennis Professionals, British Broadcasting Corporation and more. And there are tennis and travel books too - two of which were released earlier this year: Mad Travelers and Footsteps of Federer. In this episode Dave and I dig into the nuances of.....wait for it....tennis and travel. We contrast Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, as well as their fans. We attempt to decipher the enigma of William Baekeland, the faux billionaire that intrigued, and sometimes ripped off, the elite travel community. We also consider why we travel at all. With hopes that you care about either tennis or travel, enjoy the conversation.
Because he worked closely with the legendary I.M. Pei, and was Chief of Design on Pei's Grand Louvre Project in Paris, Yann Weymouth in the upper echelon of American architects. He was also Pei's associate on the East Wing of Washington's National Gallery of Art. There are many other famous creations in his portfolio. But Weymouth lives in St. Petersburg, and we're fortunate to see his brilliant, creative work all around us - from the Hazel Hough Wing in the Museum of Fine Arts to the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art, and - perhaps most notable of all - the world-renowned Salvador Dali Museum.
Shilen Patel lives at the entrepreneurial crossroads of passion, talent and capital. It's a nice place for an entrepreneur to hang out and he gets to enjoy it on 'both sides of the transaction'. His startup HealthAxis is already successful and on the road to even bigger wins. His role with the Patel family office means he's seeing and investing in, well, pretty much anything he wants to. In densely packed episode, Shilen shares his insight on the health care industry and the path he sees to transforming it through HealthAxis. We also hear what he looks for before consider investing in a startup and his thoughts on the Tampa Bay brand.