I Want Her Shoes Podcast

In this deeply personal episode of I Want Her Shoes, Sammy returns to the closet for an honest conversation with Anna about the grief we experience and the losses we don't always give ourselves permission to grieve.

Anna opens up about losing her grandmother, losing her beloved pets Bonnie and Ozzie only months apart, and grieving the end of her marriage while navigating divorce.

Together, Anna and Sammy explore the particularly complicated experience of grieving something that you can simultaneously know was right to lose. You can mourn a marriage without wanting the marriage back. You can miss pieces of a former life while still choosing the life ahead of you. And sometimes what you're grieving isn't only a person or relationship it's the future you once imagined.

They also talk about the strange everyday reality of loss: how life keeps moving even when you're grieving. Kids still need breakfast. Meetings still happen. Emails still arrive. You can laugh, work, go to dinner, experience something wonderful—and still be carrying sadness alongside it.

The conversation moves through losing animals and why pet grief can be so profound, motherhood and the pressure to keep functioning, the discomfort people sometimes have around another person's pain, and what actually helps when someone we love is grieving.

And ultimately, they arrive at a bigger question: Does grief ever really disappear or does life simply become bigger around it?

Key Moments

The many losses we experience that we don't always recognize as grief

Grieving someone or something that is still technically there

Mourning a marriage while knowing that ending it was the right decision

Anna on losing her grandmother and the things we still wish we could say

Losing Bonnie and Ozzie and why the death of a pet can leave such an enormous absence

How motherhood and responsibility coexist with grief

Why grief and growth can happen at the same time

What actually helps when someone you love is grieving

Perhaps healing isn't reaching a point where the loss no longer hurts.
Maybe it's learning how to carry what mattered without allowing the loss to become the only thing we carry. There can be grief and gratitude. Grief and relief. Grief and joy.

And even grief and the beginning of a beautiful new chapter. Moving forward doesn't necessarily mean leaving everything behind. Sometimes it means deciding what deserves to come with us. 

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Watch the episodes on YouTube to get a glimpse of this one-of-a-kind Miami closet—it’s definitely worth the view! https://www.youtube.com/@IWantHerShoesPodcast

Follow us for more updates:

IWHS Club Beta: https://iwanthershoes.com/community?utm_source=podcast 

IWHS Pod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iwanthershoespodcast/

Anna’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/iwanthershoes/ 

Sammy’s IG: https://instagram.com/sammidawgs

EPISODE CREDITS:
Writer and Host: Anna Anisin
Produced, edited, and mixed by the Formulatedby Team
Follow us on IG
Watch on Youtube

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Somewhere between the podcast conversations, dinners, brunches, WhatsApp messages, new friendships, introductions, and women showing up for one another, something unexpected happened. The audience started becoming a community.
In this special solo episode, Anna steps out from behind the interview questions to share what she’s been quietly building: I Want Her Shoes Club, a new digital and IRL home for ambitious, accomplished, curious women who want meaningful connection alongside all the beautiful things that make life fun.
Anna takes listeners inside the early version of the platform and shares the thinking behind it from member connections and curated events to trusted experts, recommendations, fashion, style, and eventually a much smarter relationship with our own closets. But the vision isn't to create another social network designed to keep women scrolling.
It's almost the opposite. Anna has spent years working in AI and building technology communities, and now she's applying that experience to something intentionally human: using technology to help the right women find one another and then get off their phones and into the same room.
Miami is only the beginning. The bigger vision includes city communities, intimate dinners and experiences, trusted recommendations, experts, fashion and wardrobe tools, and a network that can travel with its members wherever life takes them.
And because the Club is still being built, Anna isn't simply inviting women to join it.
She's inviting them to help shape what it becomes.
👠 Key Moments
How I Want Her Shoes evolved from a podcast into a real community
Why the shoes were never really about fashion they've always been about the journey
What Anna learned from bringing women together for intimate dinners and brunches
Why connection not networking is the product
The vision behind I Want Her Shoes Club
Why AI should facilitate human connection rather than replace it
What's coming around events, experts, style, recommendations, and our closets
Why Anna wants the earliest members to help build the community alongside her
Anna doesn't want to build another place where women perform how successful, polished, or fabulous their lives are.
She wants to build a place where women can actually know each other.
Where you can talk about the promotion and the divorce. The company you're building and the terrible date you went on. The investment you're considering and the shoes you're considering.
A place to share what we've learned, celebrate one another's wins, open doors for each other and occasionally tell another woman, “Girl, absolutely do not buy those.”
Because the shoes were never really about fashion. They've always been about the journey. And this is what's coming next.
Adding a chic twist to each episode, the 'I Want Her Shoes Podcast' is recorded in Anna’s stunning personal closet, strategically located near the vibrant Miami Design District. This unique setting not only provides a visually captivating backdrop but also embodies the spirit of fashion and innovation that the area is known for.
📺 Watch the episodes on YouTube to get a glimpse of this one-of-a-kind Miami closet, it’s definitely worth the view! https://www.youtube.com/@IWantHerShoesPodcast
Follow us for more updates:
IWHS Club Beta: https://iwanthershoes.com/community?utm_source=podcast
IWHS Pod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iwanthershoespodcast/
Anna’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/iwanthershoes/

EPISODE CREDITS:
Writer and Host: Anna Anisin
Produced, edited, and mixed by the Formulatedby Team
Follow us on IG
Watch on Youtube

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Anna and Alexis unpack why financial independence has to be part of the conversation about women’s empowerment, how self-limiting beliefs can quietly become career ceilings, and why confidence is often something we develop after taking the leap—not before it. They also talk about learning to ask for more, advocating for yourself in rooms where decisions are being made, and the difference between mentorship and having someone who will actually say your name when you’re not in the room.
The conversation also explores Alexis’s experience building Business of Her, the importance of women creating opportunities for other women, and why collaboration can be far more powerful than competition. And, of course, they get personal about ambition, evolving identity, personal style, and what it feels like to dress—and live—as the woman you’re still becoming.
Because power isn’t something we suddenly earn when we reach a certain title, salary, or age. It’s something we can start building now.
👠 Key Moments
Why Alexis believes women need to redefine their relationship with power
The lessons about money, negotiation, and self-advocacy women should learn much earlier
How to build confidence before you actually feel ready
Why financial agency is an essential part of women’s empowerment
Recognizing self-limiting beliefs before they become career ceilings
The difference between mentorship, sponsorship, and having someone advocate for you
Why collaboration between women can create more opportunity than competition
How style and identity evolve as we step into bigger versions of ourselves
What if women didn’t wait until their 30s, 40s, or 50s to learn how to negotiate, advocate for themselves, build wealth, and take up space?
🎧 Listen to the full episode of I Want Her Shoes Podcast for a conversation about money, confidence, ambition, community, and learning to stop waiting for permission.
Because sometimes the most important step toward becoming powerful is realizing you were allowed to begin before you felt ready.
📺 Watch the episodes on YouTube to get a glimpse of this one-of-a-kind Miami closet—it’s definitely worth the view! https://www.youtube.com/@IWantHerShoesPodcast
Follow us for more updates:
IWHS Pod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iwanthershoespodcast/
IWHS Pod Website: https://iwanthershoes.com/
Alexis’s LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-meruelo-499446113/
Alexis’s Book: https://alexismeruelo.com/book
Ladies, I’d love for you to join us inside I Want Her Shoes Club, our private, application-only community for stylish, ambitious women. Local dinners, vetted stylists, member offers and real conversations.Apply here 👠

EPISODE CREDITS:
Writer and Host: Anna Anisin
Produced, edited, and mixed by the Formulatedby Team
Follow us on IG
Watch on Youtube

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Laura has spent her career looking at entrepreneurship from almost every angle. Before launching Ascendo, she founded Endeavor Miami, the first U.S. affiliate of the global entrepreneurship organization, where the portfolio grew to 23 companies generating more than $250 million in revenue. Earlier in her career, Laura held leadership positions at Visa and developed deep experience across fintech, payments, M&A, and private equity. Today, she brings all of those perspectives together as an investor.
In this conversation, Anna and Laura explore what makes an exceptional founder, why overlooked markets can create extraordinary investment opportunities, where venture capital may be looking in the wrong places, and how AI is changing the investment landscape.
They also talk about Laura’s own evolution from corporate executive to ecosystem builder to venture capitalist and what years of working across countries, industries, and boardrooms have taught her about leadership, reinvention, and success.
Because sometimes the greatest opportunities aren't where everyone is already looking. They're where very few people have thought to look yet.
👠 Key Moments
What connects the many chapters of Laura’s career as an executive, founder, operator, investor, and board member
What Laura saw in Miami’s entrepreneurial ecosystem before the city became a major startup and technology hub
The qualities she looks for when deciding whether a founder is truly exceptional
What investors can learn about a founder that will never appear in a pitch deck
Why Laura sees inclusive innovation as an investment advantage, not simply a social objective
How overlooked founders, consumers, and markets can create asymmetric investment opportunities
Why investment capital still hasn't caught up with the enormous economic influence of women
How Laura evaluates AI companies in a market where almost every startup has an AI story
Where she believes AI opportunities may still be underestimated
What venture capital may be overfunding—and overlooking
Why Laura’s experience as an operator changes the way she works with founders
What working at Visa taught her about building companies that can truly scale
Lessons about leadership from working across the U.S., Mexico, Latin America, global corporations, startups, and venture capital
How to recognize when it's time to leave a successful chapter and reinvent yourself
This episode is ultimately about seeing possibility before it becomes obvious.
Great founders don't all look the same. Great ideas don't come from one demographic, one geography, or one network. And some of the most compelling investment opportunities may exist precisely because everyone else is looking somewhere else.
Laura’s own career is also a reminder that reinvention doesn't mean leaving your experience behind. Every chapter can become part of the toolkit you bring into the next one.
🎧 Listen now for a conversation about venture capital, AI, entrepreneurship, Miami, women and wealth, leadership, reinvention—and what it really takes to recognize an opportunity before the rest of the world does.
Adding a chic twist to each episode, the 'I Want Her Shoes Podcast' is recorded in Anna’s stunning personal closet, strategically located near the vibrant Miami Design District. This unique setting not only provides a visually captivating backdrop but also embodies the spirit of fashion and innovation that the area is known for.
📺 Watch the episodes on YouTube to get a glimpse of this one-of-a-kind Miami closet—it’s definitely worth the view! https://www.youtube.com/@IWantHerShoesPodcast
Follow us for more updates:
IWHS Pod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iwanthershoespodcast/
IWHS Pod Website: https://iwanthershoes.com/
Laura’s LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-i-mayd%C3%B3n-22018a/
Ascendo VC: https://ascendo.vc/

EPISODE CREDITS:
Writer and Host: Anna Anisin
Produced, edited, and mixed by the Formulatedby Team
Follow us on IG
Watch on Youtube

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Over nearly two decades, Joanna has helped build and scale some of the most recognizable brands across technology, health, wellness, travel, and consumer products. She’s served as CMO of Spring Health, Skyscanner, ClassPass, and Reforge, worked across nine startups, led teams of more than 280 people, and helped scale global businesses reaching more than 110 million people each month.
But after years of helping other founders build extraordinary companies, Joanna is entering a new chapter: building something of her own.
In this conversation, Anna and Joanna explore what separates great marketing from a brand that becomes part of culture, what decades of operating have taught Joanna about leadership, how AI is reshaping marketing, and why curiosity may be one of the most important qualities we can carry into the next chapter of our lives.
They also dive into Joanna’s newest venture, NEON PALM, and what it feels like to move from advising founders to becoming one herself.
Because the most interesting careers rarely follow a straight line. And as Joanna says, beautiful things are never built alone.
👠 Key Moments
What nine startups taught Joanna about building, scaling, and starting over
Why Joanna considers herself an operator first—and a marketer second
The difference between great marketing and building a brand that becomes part of culture
How to keep brands human while operating at massive scale
Why creating cultural conversations matters more than simply creating content
What companies are still getting wrong about growth marketing
How AI will transform marketing—and where human creativity will become even more valuable
Why more AI-generated content doesn’t necessarily mean more meaningful content
The story behind Joanna’s new venture, NEON PALM
What becoming a founder has taught her after years of advising other founders
This episode is a conversation about building, reinvention, and staying curious—even after you’ve already achieved extraordinary things.
Because success doesn’t mean arriving at one final destination. Sometimes the most exciting thing you can do is decide to build again.
🎧 Listen now for a conversation about brands, AI, leadership, style, entrepreneurship, and why the best things we create are rarely created alone.
Adding a chic twist to each episode, the 'I Want Her Shoes Podcast' is recorded in Anna’s stunning personal closet, strategically located near the vibrant Miami Design District. This unique setting not only provides a visually captivating backdrop but also embodies the spirit of fashion and innovation that the area is known for.
📺 Watch the episodes on YouTube to get a glimpse of this one-of-a-kind Miami closet—it’s definitely worth the view! https://www.youtube.com/@IWantHerShoesPodcast
Follow us for more updates:
IWHS Pod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iwanthershoespodcast/
IWHS Pod Website: https://iwanthershoes.com/
Joanna’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joannalord
Joanna’s LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannalord/
Neon Palm: https://neonpalm.co/

EPISODE CREDITS:
Writer and Host: Anna Anisin
Produced, edited, and mixed by the Formulatedby Team
Follow us on IG
Watch on Youtube

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.