Written by Kelsey Krahn

The global pandemic has shaken society as we know it. Our economy currently rests in a state of unpredictability, uncertainty, and unease, making it tough for many employers, employees, and non-essential businesses to generate income and stay afloat. 

However, numerous working ladies in Denver have used innovation to turn adversity into impact. Several have taken this opportunity to get creative and expand their network by reaching out to new customers and clients. While others have pivoted their business to make an impact on the community. 

The following eight ladies have creatively swiveled their business to help out others during the coronavirus pandemic: 

Adriana Giorgetti: Content Creator and Social Media Strategist

Adriana Giorgetti, the founder and CEO of Posting Bee, is an experienced social media consultant and content creator who has ditched charging fees and is giving out her expertise for free. She has been working with businesses to help them brainstorm, bounce ideas around, and aims to do whatever she can to keep companies from closing doors. 

On the side, the innovative strategist and creator is sewing masks for whoever needs them. 

Erika E. Righter: Agitator, Advocate, Mom

Erika E. Righter, founder of Hope Tank, has fearlessly developed an idea that has helped small businesses during COVID-19. The agitator, advocate, and mom developed Hope Tank in 2012, a local Denver retail store that sells gifts that give back. Ever since day one, Erika has taken a percentage of Hope Tank’s sales and delegated it to a nonprofit chosen by the creator of the product. And she has continued her streak of goodwill by starting a unique fundraiser!

The fundraiser aims to raise money for now-closed small businesses that may be subject to robbery and vandalism during COVID-19. Several storefronts have been covered with plywood to hinder damage and break-ins, but some can’t afford to do so. Erika’s fundraiser will bring in money for businesses that need extra help, but it gets better. 

Poets and artists will get the chance to write and draw visuals of hope on the boards, and she will pay them to do so.

Sydney Jackson-Clockston: Business Strategist, Responsible Travel and Retreat Coordinator

Sydney Jackson-Clockston, founder of Sydney Starr Travel, a company that helps clients plan ethical and sustainable travel, has experienced a significant dive in business due to COVID-19. 

When Sydney started her business, she knew something like this could happen based on history: September 11th, Bird Flu, Recession of 2008, etc. But the outside-of-the-box thinker had no idea that the hospitality and tourism industry would get hit this hard.

With all that being said, she had to become strategic and savvy to ride this wave out, which is where the Business Strategist within her shines through. With COVID-19 showing limited signs of slowing, she decided to jump right into marketing virtual travel opportunities. She is now offering four weeks of free virtual travel to inspire and educate folks. This offering has been great for all ages as it gives clients something to do, is free, it inspires people to want to see the virtual destinations in real life, and it keeps her name and business relevant. 

She notes that “Business will pick up again and I want to be the first name people think about when they are ready to travel again. This is just one example of how I have personally been strategic during COVID-19.”

Abby Gardner: Owner of Abby Cooks Wild

Abby Gardner, busy mom, wife, and owner of Abby Cooks Wild, alleviates the stress of mulling over dinner choices (and the thought of cooking, in general) by offering full-service, in-home meal prep to those who are time-strapped but want to consume healthy home-cooked meals. She takes orders from clients and shops for ingredients and portions the meals for them. Unfortunately, frequent grocery shopping and face-to-face interaction is no longer an option due to the pandemic. Therefore, Abby has had to pivot her business model. 

She now spends a lot of time using her Facebook page to share kitchen tips and tricks with viewers—Abby rarely used her business Facebook page before COVID-19. 

Since March 21, the helpful chef has gone live on Abby Cooks Wild every evening at 5 pm from her home kitchen, where she shares what she’s concocting for dinner each night. Abby aims to show her viewers that cooking doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. She wants those tuning in to feel empowered! 

In addition to sharing recipes, Abby has been engaging with her viewers by providing tips on ingredient substitutions, discussing kitchen hacks, and detailing unique ways to use the food already in the fridge or pantry.

Danielle Smith: Photographer and Personal Development Coach 

Danielle Smith, founder of Lotus & Lily Photography, has had to change her work drastically due to social distancing measures. The lifestyle, portrait, and wedding photographer needs to be around people for her business to thrive, but she can’t do so anymore. 

However, Danielle has decided to push another aspect of herself that she has been hesitant about, which is to work as a personal development coach. She aims to encourage positivity during these tough times. Her story portrays that COVID-19, even though horrible, may inspire a fire within to try something you’ve always wanted to try. 

Jennifer Peters and Amber Hunter and: Owner, Head Baker at Just Be Kitchen

Jennifer Peters, owner of Just be Kitchen, a fast-casual restaurant that has a mission to serve mindful meals, and Amber Hunter, Head Baker, have pivoted their business to benefit members of their community. 

Just Be Kitchen has concocted the first medically approved immunity boxes: Just BE Immune Meal Kits. These boxes will help keep their business relevant while also benefiting the community. 

The Just BE Immune Meal Kits include a nutritious, fulfilling box of meals and supplies, specifically made with proven nutrients that elevate immunity and combat illness. Each box contains five large entrees with specific ingredients that build the body’s defense against illness, soup, house-made bone broth, and golden turmeric powder to fight inflammation. The boxes are available for individual purchase, but they are setting a target for 500 boxes to be donated to front line workers in healthcare, law enforcement, and grocery stores. 

Diane Wall: Psychotherapist for Domestic Abuse Clients

Diane Wall, psychotherapist, has had quite the shift in her work. She has had to learn to live with so much uncertainty over the last few weeks. Diane used to help women by not only seeing them in her office but at their place of business or a phone session. The psychotherapist unveils that COVID-19 has stopped her from seeing clients, but she still manages to find moments where they can exchange a few words. 

She says that “now there is no break from an abusive partner.” Diane continues, “I feel as though I am holding my breath and waiting for that very thing I’ve tried so hard to help them avoid.”

Diane’s work exemplifies how COVID-19 is forcing some people to live in painful, uncomfortable, and abusive situations. 

COVID-19 has shifted everyone’s lives and the economy. Some jobs have stopped completely—around 17 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits in the last month—while other entrepreneurs have been forced to get creative and tap into another skill or try out another endeavour. Everyone is fighting to stay relevant, and these ladies deserve recognition for their hard work and dedication to empowering and bettering the local community of Denver. 

Well Fit Human founder Wendy Yates is a beam of light in the wellness travel community.

Contributed by Lisa Blake, Writer, Editor, and Content Creator 
 
Colorado entrepreneur Wendy Yates is a woman on fire. Not even COVID-19 can shut that down. The luxury lifestyle designer has spent the past year carving out a trailblazing niche, bringing together destination travel, fitness and philanthropy with her groundbreaking retreat series, Well Fit Human.
 
Spurred from her successful national luxury lifestyle design firm Abigail-Elise Design Studio, Well Fit Human takes wellness destination travel to the next level, amping it up with intense cardio workouts (think booty-shaking hip-hop sweat sessions), coach-driven strength training, soul-nourishing yoga and mindfulness talks and impactful volunteer efforts.
 
Yates had planned to travel with her team of coaches and humanitarian volunteers to Hopkins, Belize in May and Vis Island in Croatia this October. In the wake of COVID-19 and subsequent travel and retreat shutdowns—and, who are we kidding, all around life shutdown—she is pivoting and inspiring others to stay mentally and physically well.
 
Her organization has shifted to growing community through connection and promoting personal growth and positive impact. Yates’ virtual community dinners, dubbed Cocktails and Conversations, are bringing people together over Jeffersonian-inspired BYO feasts. Friends and strangers gather over Zoom screens to share their travel and wellness stories and books and quotes that lift them up and to listen to encouraging speakers share their success stories.

Contributed by Deborah Radman, Chairman, Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, CoGreatWomen.org

​The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame is dedicated to recognizing and preserving the history of accomplishments by extraordinary women with strong ties to Colorado. Since 1985, 162 diverse women have been inducted.

These inductees represent our 2020 class, and the next group of contemporary and historic women to be recognized for their exemplary contributions to their fields and for opening new frontiers for women in society. 

These women will be recognized in a formal ceremony on March 18, 2020. 


Katherine Archuleta Growing up in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, Katherine Archuleta has had an extraordinary and influential career, including a position in the Obama administration as head of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, that has changed the landscape for what is possible for women and, specifically, Latina women.
 
Lupe Briseño As the organizer of the Kitayama Carnation Strike, Lupe Briseño demonstrated the strength and power of Latina leadership in Colorado’s Labor Movement and helped set the stage for the Colorado Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and ‘70s. 

Rosalind “Bee” Harris Rosalind “Bee” Harris has dedicated her career to elevating communities of color by providing a platform for their voices and their stories with the founding of the Denver Urban Spectrum newspaper in 1987 and the Urban Spectrum Youth Foundation in 2000. 

Velveta Howell Velveta Howell has made many contributions as a life-long champion for social justice and advocacy. She was the eighth African American female graduate of the University of Colorado Law School and the first woman of color appointed as Colorado’s Deputy District Attorney. 

Marianne Neifert, MD, MTS Colorado’s earliest physician breastfeeding champion, Marianne Egeland Neifert, MD, MTS, has devoted more than 40 years to improving maternal-child health. She helped re-establish breastfeeding as a community norm and advanced the nascent discipline of breastfeeding medicine. 

Gale Norton Gale Norton was the first woman Colorado Attorney General (1991-99) and the first woman to be appointed as Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior (2001-06) under President George W. Bush. On behalf of Colorado and 45 other states as Colorado Attorney General, Norton helped negotiate the most extensive legal settlement in history: a $206 billion national tobacco settlement. 

Mary Lou Anderson A passionate advocate for cultural arts and arts education, Mary Lou Anderson was an influential leader across Colorado and the nation through her development of programs that engage millions of students, educators, and business leaders in the cultural arts. Anderson founded the National Parent Teacher Association Reflections Program and the Arts Business Education Consortium. 

Dr. Alida Cornelia Avery A graduate of the New England Female Medical College of Boston in 1862, Dr. Alida Cornelia Avery was a professor of Human Physiology and Hygiene, and a Resident Physician at Vassar College from 1866-1874. In 1874 she moved to Denver, Colorado, and is credited as Colorado’s first woman to practice medicine while also serving as the Superintendent of Hygiene. 

Elizabeth Piper Ensley Elizabeth Piper Ensley was an African American educator, political activist, and suffragist. Her leadership was instrumental in Colorado’s victorious campaign for full voting rights in 1893. Ensley dedicated her career to organizing for women’s rights, especially for African American women. 
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Carolina Gonzalez Carolina Acuña Díaz González was a Colorado Renaissance Pioneer, renowned for her welcoming home, her active support for the arts and culture, and her uniquely authentic restaurant, Casa Mayan, a “Mutalista” or refuge for 40 years for immigrants in Colorado. González provided accommodations and a safe haven during the Depression for countless youths “riding the rails” to Colorado. 

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Submitted by Amy Collette; Written by Amy Collette

Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness. It’s the spark that lights a fire of joy in your soul. The stories and practices in this book help you connect to the positive power of gratitude every day: 
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• Love and appreciate what you have and who you are
• Build a foundation of happiness 
• Celebrate your victories large and small 
• Relieve the worry and stress that’s keeping you stuck 
• Find the peace of mind that you crave 
• Connect to gratitude even in tough times 
• Activate success and abundance 
• Claim a renewed sense of personal power 

May you embrace the positive power of gratitude!

Get it at: https://amzn.to/2r9USR1

Submitted by Celeste Ferro; Founded by Celeste Ferro
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Mala necklaces are beautiful pieces of jewelry, but did you know that they are tools to help you in your meditation practice? Each mala I make is unique and comes with an intention tied into each knot. Every step of the process, from creation to the tassel, it is done while chanting a Sanskrit mantra specific for that Mala. Your necklace will come with instructions as to how to use it during your meditation practice through Japan mantra meditation.

“Celeste is an extremely gifted massage therapist. Her healing touch and intuitive sense allows for the deepest parts of my physical body to experience healing while in her care. Her knowledge and wisdom as a conduit for the Reiki Ki energy is an extra added bonus, as is, the medicinal oils she uses. I highly recommend her to all my friends and clients.”-esteemed client.

Get it at: www.wholeheartedlywellbeing.com​

How would you describe your job/business to a 5th grader?

I help people get reliable transportation so they can do their daily necessities such as getting to work, getting to the grocery store, getting to the gym, picking up their children from school, getting to family activities, going on family vacations, and help them not worry about breaking down on the side of the road when having to do these daily tasks. I also help women get promoted into positions of power within the car business or the automotive space.

How did you get started in the business?

I was going to college and working the Gap when a woman named Carmara Hughes came into my store. She originally visited for coats and blouses, but I ended up selling her three pairs of denim after she stated I wouldn’t find her size. Afterwards, she invited me to work with her. I took her up on the offer and was trained by a team of women who were selling 20+ cars a month. The rest is history.

What makes you successful?

I am at any given time probably the hardest working person in the room. I'm currently working 12 to 14 hour days at my dealership, and wouldn't have it any other way. Nothing is given to you, and you have to get your butt out there and earn it. You've got to work. My success is a direct reflection of the work that I put into it, and I want to give more than I take. Becoming the first black female car dealer in the state of Colorado and one of five in the nation was an honour, as well as a disappointment. Here we are in 2019, and there's still a first black woman category in something as major as the car industry which is something that I don't take lightly. It's another reason that drives my purpose and my passion because I can't fail.

In what way do you help advance the careers of other women in your field/industry?
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​It’s my duty, my passion, and my purpose to grow the female workforce within the automotive space. Right now it's only 20% at every capacity. The car business is not just my job, it is my life, and hopefully you'll be seeing plenty more from me when it comes to women in the automotive industry and building a female workforce. The automotive space has so much growth and earning potential, that it's really a place where women need to look when they feel they’re underutilized. They can always come to the car business and make a decent living for themselves and their family.  ​

How would you describe your job/business to a 5th grader?

Some people can’t eat or drink gluten because it makes them sick, and Holidaily makes beer that doesn’t have gluten so all adults can drink it without getting sick.

How did you get started in the business?

Holidaily was a combination of my education, work life, and personal life. I utilized my MBA in Entrepreneurial Studies to help understand multiple aspects of the business, worked for Miller Coors for around ten years, and had beer industry experience that helped guide me as well. Lastly, after receiving a second cancer diagnosis, I was given a treatment plan that included a gluten-free diet. I decided to combine my experience, dietary restrictions, and love for beer to start a 100% certified, dedicated gluten-free brewery.

What makes you successful?

Knowing my strengths and weaknesses. I focus on utilizing my strengths and surrounding myself with amazing people who fill in where my weaknesses are.

In what way do you help advance the careers of other women in your field/industry?

​3% of breweries are owned by women, however, we are a growing force in the industry, especially in Colorado. I support women in the industry not only as (hopefully) a role model but through my involvement in groups, speaking at events, and mentorship, while encouraging all women to go for it! We have two separate female customers who have started their own food trucks since Holidaily opened. Women empowering and inspiring other women is contagious.  

How would you describe your job/business to a 5th grader?

​I'm an internal medicine doctor who specializes in what happens to people's bodies as a result of eating disorders. Eating disorders carry the highest risk of death of any mental illness, and people who don't take in enough nutrition, or purge what they eat, or binge eat, can have a lot go wrong with their medical health.

How did you get started in the business?

Having had a family member recover from an eating disorder, I've experienced the fear and also borne witness to the triumph of a full recovery. When I got to Denver in 2007, I joined the Hospitalist staff at Denver Health. A year into my employment, I had the opportunity to join a service within Denver Health that was the highest level of multidisciplinary internal medicine care in the country for adults whose anorexia nervosa had become so critical that they could not receive care anywhere else.

What makes you successful?

Without a doubt, my privilege lies at the core of the opportunities I've had, and I think about that on a daily basis to remind myself of certain structural inequities that benefitted me, so that I am able to use this to pay it forward and do good for others. Also vital were and are my parents' support through my education, my own good health, the fortune of having fallen in love with my husband when we were in college and having his constant encouragement these past 23 years, having two wonderful daughters who inspire me and remind me to be a good role model, and having dear friends and remarkable colleagues within the clinic.

In what way do you help advance the careers of other women in your field/industry?

​I set and personally hold strong boundaries between work and life, and I model these and ask my work mates to do the same. For women especially, who often juggle so many diverse obligations and roles outside of our professional lives, this is vital to preventing burnout and feeling whole. I have mentored young women since my training days, and in my lectures and writing I try to both model and recommend a realization of each person's unique needs, strengths, and challenges. The field I'm in allows me to rail against diet culture, narrowly-defined traits that denote beauty, health, and acceptance, and the deeply harmful and unscientific beliefs so common today about food (and its restriction). My hope is that in the 1:1 work I do with patients and their loved ones, in the workspace I get to create and nurture, and in my public speaking or writing, I'm able to inspire and help women in lots of ways, by means of expressing my gratitude for all that I've received.  

by Krystal Covington, MBA

At Women of Denver, we regularly hear from startups and established tech firms looking for ways to increase their pipeline of women. They know the value of the diversity of thought that comes with having greater gender parity and are willing to do the work to seek out more women to jump in to write code, lead development teams, and bring new ideas for product development.

Denver is a massive talent pipeline for these companies, which is why so many great firms are choosing to move their headquarters to the Denver area, or launch here from the start.

As the local tech scene explodes, educational institutions such as WeWork’s Flatiron School have come along to continue growing the pool of trained coders, data scientists, UX designers, and software engineers.

Flatiron opened this spring and has made a home in WeWork’s LoHi offices, until their state of the art campus at the Hub opens this summer. The company is providing free sessions to showcase their learning environment and specialized trainers.

The next free training session will take place on Saturday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and provides exposure to the basics of front end development, including HTML, CSS and JavaScript. During the day, attendees will build a website from scratch with support from Flatiron’s instructors.

As part of their Women Take Tech Initiative, they’ve partnered with Women of Denver to help drive more women to attend the course and explore a potential career path in coding. The school has enacted a plan of improving gender parity in the tech world by providing over $1 million in scholarships to women, hosting events for women in tech, and striving for gender parity in their own classrooms. Sponsoring Women of Denver is just one of the many actions they’re taking to be leaders in this mission.

Learn more about Flatiron School’s Women Take Tech Initiative on their website.
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