288: Interview with Our Latest Interns

Hi there. You’re listening to the Leading Lady podcast. I’m your host, AliceAnne Loftus, and I’m a certified professional coach specializing in leadership and work-life balance. I work with clients to shift their limiting beliefs, insecurities, and self-doubt. This podcast will be filled with tools and strategies to help high-achieving women like you feel connected, empowered, and in the lead of your life, both personally and professionally. Let’s transform your life starting now. Lead yourself, the rest will follow.

AliceAnne: Hi there, leading ladies, and welcome to today’s episode. I’m your host, AliceAnne Loftus, and today I am joined by three very special guests, as we have our second round of interns wrapping up their session with us. They’re here with me today to give you a little behind the scenes of how things have been going with Leading Lady and what their experience has been as interns.

So I’m gonna give them an opportunity to introduce themselves, and we’re gonna start with Katherine.

Katherine: Hello, everyone, I’m so excited to be here. My name is Katherine Avalos. I am a graduating senior at Towson University. I am majoring in business administration with a concentration in marketing. So excited.

AliceAnne: Yeah. We’ve loved having you, so thanks for being here with us.

Katherine: Thanks for letting me be here.

Madison: Hi, I’m Madison, thank you for having me. I’m a current student at Anne Arundel Community College, and I’m majoring in human services, soon to be transferring to a different university to continue my studies in social work.

AliceAnne: Love that. Thanks for being here today, Madison.

Molly: Hello, everyone, I’m Molly Case. I’m currently not in school due to not knowing the career path I want to be on, but I am a manager at a coffee shop that I’ve been working at for seven years.

AliceAnne: Love it. And don’t shrink back when you say you don’t know what you’re doing, because I’m almost 45 years old. Well, gosh, I’m aging myself. I’ve just turned 44. I’ve gone through many evolutions of myself, right? Would you ladies agree? You don’t have to have it all figured out. So the fact that you’re here, you’re checking out your options, more power to you.

So, ladies, we are gonna be talking about your… How long have you been with Leading Lady now? How long was the internship?

Katherine: Four months.

AliceAnne: Four months, yeah. Wow, that flew by, right?

Katherine: It really has.

AliceAnne: I cannot believe it. This is our last day of all of us together. Well, no, I think we have one more meeting. Do we have one more Collective meeting? Okay, getting ahead of myself.

A Look Back at the Internship

But what I’d really like to do is give our listeners some behind the scenes. If you’re new to listening to us, we implemented an internship program in the summer of 2025. It was our very first go at it, and we had so much fun. We loved our ladies that were with us over the summer. If you wanna go back and listen to their episode, we had Mikayla, Grace, and Scarlett with us. And we just loved the program so much that we decided to do it again, and that’s when we brought on Katherine and Madison and Molly, and they have just been a delight to work with.

You guys did some pretty big projects with us this go-around. And so I’m gonna start with you, Katherine. What has been your favorite part of being an intern with Leading Lady?

Katherine: Oh my goodness, I can’t name just one. There’s been a few. I’ve really enjoyed the book launch party, the planning that went into that. It was stressful in the right ways. But it was overall just a fun event. We really got to plan everything from the ground up. And I also really enjoyed We Lead. The We Lead conference was amazing and so fun.

AliceAnne: Yeah, we got to be in Baltimore. That was also our first time having it at a venue outside of the Collective, so that was really cool.

And so the book launch party that she’s talking about, the interns put together a party to celebrate the finale of We Lead, the book series. It was a three-volume series, and they put together this amazing party. We had 30 attendees here. They had it catered. We had a signature cocktail and mocktail, and we just all came together to celebrate those books and honor the authors that were in it. You guys really knocked it out of the park, so thank you.

Katherine: Thank you.

AliceAnne: Madison, how about you?

Madison: I think my favorite part was being able to broaden the horizon of women entrepreneurs. I didn’t realize that there were as many as there are, especially within the Collective, and I think it was beautiful being able to see high-achieving women and being able to meet them firsthand. And also being able to work on my communication skills with them.

I think just diving deeper into that part of myself. I tend to stay back a little bit. So being able to really work on my communication and communicate with the ambassadors every day helped a lot, and I really looked forward to doing that.

AliceAnne: Yes. You had exposure to so many different businesses. I’m gonna put you on the spot. Was there a business where you were like, “Wow, I didn’t even know that was a thing,” or that you got to see or experience?

Madison: I think personally my favorite business is… I’m trying to remember the exact name. I think the mental health one, Maria Winters. Not off the top of my head, I can’t think. Oh, wait, I remember. There’s this one, she’s a part of the Collective meetings, and she has a clothing brand, but it’s pictures on the clothing. I think that’s really cool. I’ve never seen any clothing like that, or a clothing brand, period, similar to her, so I think that was really cool.

AliceAnne: Oh, yeah, love that plug to Sheri. She’ll love that. Sheri Dougherty. So what she does is she takes her photography from her travels and takes those images and makes clothing. So we’ll definitely drop a link and a shout-out to them in the show notes, but she will love that. Thanks, Madison. How about you, Molly?

Molly: One of my favorite things that I did was probably working with Elizabeth on some projects. I got to research different sponsors for the Wellness Rebranded podcast that she’s on. And then doing, obviously, the book launch, like Katherine said, was super fun, and We Lead.

AliceAnne: Yeah. Well, getting to work with Wellness Rebranded, their podcast is so much fun. And Elizabeth is heavy on the research side, so I love that you got to participate and kind of see the behind the scenes of how to find sponsors for podcasts and how to connect Wellness Rebranded to the community. That’s super cool. And I think Elizabeth is a great person to work with in that because, like I said, she is so research-heavy, so she’s kind of pulling you into maybe a world that you didn’t even realize was out there.

Molly: Yeah, for sure.

The Hardest Parts: Communication and Time Management

AliceAnne: Okay, so what was something that was really hard as an intern?

Katherine: I think we’ve talked about this before, but all of us have different schedules, and so we all had to be very on top of communicating with each other, even outside of work. Especially with the book launch party, I think that was probably where we had to text each other every day, like, “Hey, don’t forget to reach out to Sandy French,” when she contributed the alfajores. And so that was probably one of the difficult tasks.

AliceAnne: Yeah, 100%. And I will die on this hill that organizations cannot thrive if they don’t have a strong communication structure, if you cannot communicate with your team. Especially when you’re overlapping, I think there were maybe two or three days where the three of you got to come together, total, out of the four months.

So if you didn’t have a structure of communication, things can fall through the cracks, there’s misunderstandings, balls are dropped, things like that. And so that’s real life. That’s real-world, hands-on experience. All of you have had other jobs before, and I would venture to guess that if there was any sort of breakdown, it all came from lack of communication.

Madison: Yeah. I agree with all that 100%. I guess one of the hardships that I personally experienced was trying to balance the work that we were doing with the ambassadors while also having to work Collective meetings, since our schedules were limited. I was only here three days. If I had a Collective meeting, sometimes there were weeks where there were little lunch and learns, and then a Collective meeting on the next day.

AliceAnne: Yeah, this place is a busy place.

Madison: Yeah. So it was definitely hard to be able to work the ambassadors’ work into the Collective meeting schedules. Because when you work the Collective meeting, you’re here for four hours, but all those four hours are taken up, so that’s a whole day out of your work week. So I guess trying to be able to break it up so that it can still get done by the deadlines, I think that was really difficult. Working on time management skills obviously would help that. But I think it was a little bit overwhelming at times, for sure.

AliceAnne: Yeah, absolutely. You know, when the Collective has multiple events happening and you’re required to work those events and network, a lot of times it wasn’t like you were doing specific tasks. You just had to be present and available to all of the entrepreneurs as they were coming in and talking to you and asking questions and needing things about the space.

Setting up, taking it down, cleaning up, all the things. I’m exhausted after those days. And then, like you said, you have other tasks too that have deadlines. That’s entrepreneurship. They’re juggling a lot of things, right? How about you?

Molly: I’m honestly just gonna add a little bit more onto what they were saying. I definitely feel like the time management a little bit, because there were certain weeks that we did have a Collective meeting and then couldn’t do anything else that whole day.

And then some things got slipped in the cracks with grocery shopping, ‘cause we don’t necessarily go grocery shopping by ourselves if it’s a big order. So if there’s two days where I’m by myself, it gets kinda looked over.

What Happens at a Collective Meeting

AliceAnne: Yeah. Okay, for our listeners that might not know what a Collective meeting is or why you would need to go grocery shopping… And I know that, Katherine, you didn’t get to work a lot of the Collective meetings, but you came to our La Cadena meetings, which is our Spanish-speaking collective, and the three of you are working our final Collective meeting of the year. What’s your take? What’s your perspective of what happens at a Collective meeting? We can start with you, Madison.

Madison: I remember my first day when I worked a Collective meeting, and I looked at AliceAnne, and I was like, “Wow, this is just a really big community hug.”

It just feels like a very welcoming space, everyone sharing their own experiences. And I think it’s really just about having other women that have gone through similar things that you can really rely on and look to for some support, because you guys are all interconnected in a type of way. So that’s how I kinda looked at the Collective meetings, more so just community building and time to really just appreciate who you have as your support system.

AliceAnne: Yeah, I love that, and I love that perspective. Thanks.

Molly: I was gonna say, it’s definitely a lot of networking and stuff like that, since there’s guests that can come to Collective meetings sometimes. So even for the women that are in that specific collective group, they’re networking and learning about each other’s businesses. So it’s definitely a nice little community.

AliceAnne: Yeah, it’s busy. It’s a busy day. High energy, for sure. And how about you, Katherine, with La Cadena?

Katherine: La Cadena is so fun. I love seeing Latina women business owners come together and build this friendship, I would say. This big community of helping each other. For example, if I was a business owner and I met someone who’s also a business owner, but I’m not really good at marketing or at these other tactical skills that I’m gonna need in the future, but this person might be very good in these areas, I think it’s good that we connect in this way, so that I can go up to them and ask them these questions, and then they can do the same thing for me.

AliceAnne: Yeah, absolutely. The Collective is the community that I needed as a business owner. I wanted a space where I could go and say, “Hey, this is hard. How did you do this?” Or, “What resources do you have?” Or, “Can you tell me how you got to that next level in your business?” Or just to come in and be like, “I’m having a really hard day. I wanna burn it all down and start a knitting club at home or something.”

It’s just a place for women entrepreneurs to come together and just feel seen, and know that they have a group of women that have their backs, that are gonna amplify their business and support them. So I’m glad that that translated well for you all.

AD

This episode is sponsored by Jen Howat, your go-to expert for online courses and memberships. Jen helps busy business owners grow and scale without the overwhelm by helping them take what they already teach and convert it to a digital platform. From creating and positioning your content to mapping out a launch plan and attracting people to your offer with the right lead magnet, Jen will help you expand your reach, increase your impact, and create margin for the things that matter most. Visit Jen at jenhowat.com. That’s J-E-N-H-O-W-A-T, and book a discovery call to see if an online program is right for you.

Why the Collective Is Stocked With Intention

AliceAnne: So why do you have to buy groceries?

Molly: Just to keep the Collective stocked with things when people are in and out doing meetings or having different events here. We always keep everything stocked so people…

AliceAnne: I know that was a highlight for you guys, too. You loved all the snacks here.

Katherine: Yes, we did.

AliceAnne: How do you think our choice of how we stock the physical space of the Collective impacts our members and the people that are coming in and out, the guests of all the different events that are here?

Katherine: Well, it’s a very clean space, and everything is stocked. So if I had a meeting here, I need water, I need ice, I need something last minute, you have it already. We all have it. So I think it’s a very open space.

AliceAnne: Yeah. I hope so. That was my goal. I can’t tell you how many times I was hosting an event somewhere else, and the event was about to start, and I’d be like, “Oh my gosh, I forgot the ice,” and now I have warm beverages to serve. And it seems like such a silly thing, right, when you’re putting on those events? But everything in this space is so purposeful.

Madison: I think it was, in a sense, very attentive almost, because there’s some people that prefer peppermint tea, or some people prefer maybe chai tea, and you’d have both options. I think it’s just very meaningful, because you’re really paying attention to what your members and what your community prefers. It’s like, in a sense, when I go somewhere, I’m like, “Oh, you guys have little Kinder Buenos. This is making me feel so seen.”

It makes you feel appreciated, makes you feel heard, and it’s like, “Oh, we have this because you like it.” It’s like you’re meant to be here. You’re meant to be in this space, and it makes you feel a little bit more at home, too. At ease, like when you have your favorite little snacks, your favorite little drinks. I think it brings your anxiety down almost, too.

AliceAnne: Yeah. Was that overwhelming for you to come in and see, the first time that you had to restock the fridge, that we have six different types of creamers? You’re probably like, “What is her deal with all the different things that are here?”

Madison: 100%. At first, when we went grocery shopping, I seen there was almond milk, and then it was almond and then coconut. I’m like, “Well, there’s a coconut and almond. Is this good enough?” And we were stressing out in the grocery store. But it all makes sense now.

AliceAnne: Yeah. I cannot even imagine what it’s like to have to shop for this place if you don’t understand. I mean, how many members do we have at this point now? Probably like 80 members, and you’re thinking about, what do 80 women need in a coworking space, right? And what do their guests need? How about you, Molly?

Molly: I was gonna say, it definitely just adds a comfort and a welcoming feeling. Even for us specifically coming into work, I don’t feel like I have to stop and grab something on my way to work if I’m a little hungry. I know I’m not gonna starve. I know there’s gonna be a drink. And even the stuff we keep in the bathroom, I feel like all I have to do is get ready for work, go, and if I need something, it’s there.

AliceAnne: Yeah. My son, actually… I know he doesn’t listen to this podcast. Let’s hope he doesn’t listen to this podcast. But I know that when he’s out in the wild and he needs something, he will come to the Collective. He will get what he needs if I’m here. If he’s out with his girlfriend and she needs something, he’s like, “I know the place to go. My mom has everything in that Collective,” from hair ties to hair clips, feminine products, mouthwash, whatever you could possibly need.

Because how many times have we been working in our day… Think about this, and I know you’re new to the workforce, but how many times have you been at work and you’re like, “Gosh, I could really use X, Y, Z”? Or, “I forgot this, and now I have to go the whole day without that.” Right? So silly, but like you said, Madison, it’s meant to just kind of take the anxiety down.

And I’m a little bit of a stickler. I’m sure that there were some times… I don’t know if it was the last group or this group, somebody bought the wrong toilet paper.

Katherine: That was us.

AliceAnne: You probably thought I was crazy. And I fully admit to my quirks, but I’m really happy that you can see kind of the intentionality behind it and how I want every woman to feel in this.

Katherine: Yeah, and I have never worked in a place where there’s snacks all day long. Free snacks all day long. So it’s very fun working here.

What It’s Like Working With AliceAnne

AliceAnne: Well, I love to eat, and while I’m having a snack, I’m thinking about what my next snack will be, so you’re welcome. Okay, now I’m really gonna put you on the spot. What’s been the hardest part about working with me?

Katherine: I think you like certain things a certain way, and I have to evolve around that. Me and Madison, our first time grocery shopping, we were very stressed out. We were like, “Oh my goodness, what if AliceAnne doesn’t like this? What if AliceAnne preferred this brand instead of this brand?” You’re very strict on what we do. But in a good way. It’s not in a bad, negative way.

AliceAnne: Yeah. It’s all about excellence for me. As a woman entrepreneur, I really relate, obviously, to my members. And so when they come into this space, I want them to know that I did the research to get them the most excellent products. And I know, okay, some products, it’s subjective, if you like one coffee brand versus another coffee brand.

But I really do think about the experience that people have in here. I mean, people still laugh about the type of toilet paper we have. The scalloped edges. They’re like, “What is going on, AliceAnne?” But tell me it doesn’t make you smile just a little bit. It’s good toilet paper. Madison?

Madison: I think that as well. I think at first… It definitely got easier with time, but I think just because you guys have already made a system within your community at the Collective, having to jump in to these unspoken rules you guys have. It’s like you guys have some telepathic way you go on.

AliceAnne: Oh, Aubrey and I have worked together 21 years. We have a language between us just with our eyeballs.

Madison: Yeah, and I think having to get used to that, ‘cause not only was this a new internship for me, but I also had never met you guys. So I didn’t know anything about you guys prior, or your working habits, or how you want things. And it also was harder because most of the time, you guys are pretty busy. So having to make guesstimates in some areas, I think it was just very hard, because everyone had their own stuff going on. And since we didn’t have that unspoken language quite yet, I guess having to get used to that and get thrown in that.

AliceAnne: Yeah. I think you navigated it really, really well, if I may say that. I think that you stepped in beautifully, and you asked great questions. Each of you demonstrated an inclination, and inclination is not something that you can teach. That is something that you either have or you don’t, and I would say that the three of you really stepped into that well and were able to read the room and figure out and problem solve and support us in those ways.

‘Cause I can’t even imagine that. I think the first thing I say to people when I’m interviewing them is, “I’m very difficult.” I am very difficult. Because I have a vision in my head, but I don’t always communicate that well. But I love when people ask questions, because I don’t know the gaps that maybe I missed in explaining something.

Molly: I was just gonna say, some of the times you were just super busy, which is fair. But there were certain times…

AliceAnne: I kind of have a lot going on.

Molly: And obviously we have Jaden and Aubrey always available to help us with things, but especially with the book launch, we wanted a final say on certain things. Just busy schedules.

AliceAnne: Yes. I trusted you. I think anyone that’s worked with me for any amount of time knows that quiet is good. If I’m talking a lot to you, then I probably don’t like something.

Molly: Uh-oh.

AliceAnne: But I’m not a micromanager at all. I trust. Once I’ve assigned something to someone, I trust that you can do it, or you’re gonna come to me with questions if you need support. And that’s something that I know I could communicate better.

And I will say I’ve learned a lot from working with all of you. You three have very different personalities and very different strengths, and it was a lot of fun getting to know you all through that as well.

Biggest Takeaways From the Leading Lady Ecosystem

So let’s close out with: what’s your biggest takeaway of the Leading Lady ecosystem?

Katherine: Well, overall, I’ve just discovered that there is a community for women who have businesses, and that it does exist. I never knew that this was… It never crossed my mind. So I think it’s amazing that you exist and that you are willing to help others and help them navigate throughout their businesses.

AliceAnne: Yeah. Love that. Thank you, Katherine.

Katherine: You’re welcome.

Madison: I think my biggest takeaway was learning that healthy work environments do exist. I’ve had a lot of, I guess, roadblocks along the way with my different jobs over the years, and it has never been a good experience. Honestly, I’ve always been in a toxic work environment.

AliceAnne: Oh, that’s so sad.

Madison: In different ways. Not necessarily management-wise, but just a bunch of different ways. And I think it was a breath of fresh air knowing that there are people that truly do care about you and are understanding as well. Everyone here is very understanding, so I think just being able to see that healthy work environments do still exist.

AliceAnne: Yeah. Love that. Thank you. I’m glad you had a positive experience.

Molly: My biggest takeaway was honestly confidence-building in many ways. A big one for me is not being able to make decisions, and I feel like here we had to make a decent amount of decisions by ourselves.

AliceAnne: I was just pushing you out. Pushing you out of the nest. You gotta fly.

Molly: Yeah, that, and just being confident with networking and just being out in the work world and workforce.

Is Entrepreneurship in Their Future?

AliceAnne: Yeah. I love it. Now that you’ve seen behind the scenes of an entrepreneur, and you’ve seen my many meltdowns behind the scenes, do you think entrepreneurship is for you?

Katherine: I think so. I would love to own my own business one day. Not sure what, but I just like the flexibility. I can work from home on a Monday if I want to. I can be in France if I want to and working. And just my business background, I think that’s the road. That’s my end goal.

AliceAnne: Yeah. I love it. I can’t wait to see that happen for you.

Katherine: And maybe I’ll be a Collective member.

AliceAnne: Love it. Madison?

Madison: I wish I could, but honestly, personally, I do not think I can handle the stress levels.

AliceAnne: Did we make it look hard?

Madison: No. You made it look really easy, but I know that you are just a very strong woman. And I’m not saying I’m not necessarily strong, but I think that I would just get super, super overwhelmed. I think I would love to be my own boss, but I think I work better with guidance. Like Molly said, I definitely do struggle with decision-making, and I think I would just have a lot on my plate. But obviously, I know that’s what you guys have support systems for.

AliceAnne: Totally. You can see I can’t do this by myself.

Madison: Yeah. I think if I was definitely passionate about something to an extent where I felt like people need this in their lives, maybe I could. But I’d have to think really long and hard, because I would love the flexibility. But I just think I would have to find my little niche.

AliceAnne: Love that.

Molly: I definitely would love to. I don’t know what I would want to do with my business, but I do think it would be a fun thing.

AliceAnne: Yeah. You showed so many strengths here, Molly. You really did. I mean, ladies, our flowers (Molly does all the flowers here) are stunning. You did a great job with that. And just knowing what needed to be done. You could definitely see your skills of how you’ve managed a coffee shop and how it translated here.

Katherine: Oh my goodness, yeah. We should open a flower coffee shop.

Molly: Ooh. That’s such a good idea.

AliceAnne: We should do it. All right, stay tuned, listeners. We’re going into business. Well, ladies, thanks for joining me today on this episode. I hope that this wasn’t as painful or scary as you thought it would be. You did a great job. Do you have any last words for our listeners today?

Katherine: Thank you for listening.

Madison: Yeah, agreed. Thank you so much for having me. This is an experience I probably will never have again, so I’m just grateful I got the opportunity. It was a great time.

AliceAnne: Okay, listeners, thank you so much. Thank you again to our amazing interns. We can’t wait to see what’s next for them, and we wish them all the best.

Until next time, take the lead.

Thanks for tuning in for another episode of the Leading Lady podcast. You can find all of the links and information mentioned in this episode at www.leadinglady-coaching.com. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to follow the show so you don’t miss any future episodes. And while you’re there, it would mean the world to me if you would take a few seconds and leave me an honest review. This will allow me to be able to help other high-achieving women find inspiration, connection, and develop strategies to live and lead with purpose and intention. See you here next week.