What does the Navy teach you about leadership that no business book ever will?

On this week of the Joy Club Podcast, Emily McCarthy sits down with Steve Curran, founder of Khaki Consulting and a 23-year Navy veteran, over iced coffee. Steve and Emily - who’s worked with Khaki Consulting for nearly three years - dig into what actually happens when the person who built a business by doing everything suddenly has to lead a team instead. They cover the real meaning behind “putting on your khakis,” why trust is given rather than earned, how to know if you’re the bottleneck in your own company, and why unexpressed expectations are premeditated frustrations.

Steve also shares the Giant Worldwide leadership toolkit and the Five Voices framework his team uses to help leaders and companies build a shared language around culture, and tells the story of a cardboard ceremonial paddle that taught him what it really means to let a team surprise you. It’s a candid, practical conversation for any founder who’s ever wondered how to delegate without feeling like they’re lowering the bar.

Timestamps: 0:00 - Welcome: Steve’s path from the Navy to Khaki Consulting 7:00 - What “putting on your khakis” really means 13:00 - How to know if you’re the bottleneck 39:00 - The cardboard paddle: letting your team surprise you 45:00 - The three lists every founder should make

Mentioned in this episode:

• Khaki Consulting
• Giant Worldwide leadership toolkit
• Five Voices assessment & Five Voices AI
• Don’t Give Up the Ship (book)
• Steve’s TEDx Talk
• In Good Company (upcoming Joy Club event series)

Join us: Subscribe to The Joy Club Podcast so you don’t miss an episode. Like this one? Let us know what stayed with you. Leave a review – it helps other women find us.

Links: Emily McCarthy Joy Club Podcast on Instagram Khaki Consulting

Tags:

1. Steve Curran
2. Khaki Consulting
3. Emily McCarthy
4. Joy Club Podcast
5. leadership tips
6. delegation
7. founder story
8. business culture
9. Five Voices assessment
10. small business leadership

What if the most annoying part of registering for your wedding turned into a multi-million dollar brand?

In this episode of The Joy Club Podcast, Emily McCarthy sits down with Liz Eichholz, co-founder and creative director of Weezie, over a round of spicy margaritas. Liz takes us back to the department store towel wall that started it all: standing there newly engaged, barcode gun in hand, unable to get a straight answer about why one towel cost $70 and another cost $50. That frustration turned into a conversation with her college friend Lindsay on a walk in New York, and eventually into a year of research, survey after survey, and a brand built from the ground up around one simple product everyone uses and almost no one loves.

Liz shares the real story behind the name Weezie (hint: it has nothing to do with Lil Wayne), the eight-months-pregnant moment Lindsey closed the deal with their now-manufacturer at a textile show in Germany, and the obsessive, detail-by-detail process of reinventing something as ordinary as a bath towel, down to removing the one element nearly every towel brand includes without asking why. She and Emily also get into what it's really like running a company with your best friend for eight years, how becoming a mother of three has shaped the brand's culture and product line, and what she's most proud of looking back on a business that almost everyone told her was a bad idea.

This is a conversation about trusting a hunch, obsessing over the details no one else notices, and building something that becomes instantly recognizable in people's homes.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 - Welcome & meet Liz Eichholz of Weezie
• 3:30 - The frustrating towel registry experience that started it all
• 8:00 - How "Georgie" became Weezie
• 12:00 - Giving birth while Lindsey closed the deal with their manufacturer in Germany
• 37:00 - What Liz is most proud of, eight years in

Mentioned in this episode:

• Weezie
• Weezie x Lee Jofa collection
• Weezie flagship store, Buckhead, Atlanta

Join us: Subscribe to The Joy Club Podcast so you don't miss an episode. Like this one? Let us know what stayed with you. Leave a review - it helps other women find us.

Links: Emily McCarthy | Designer Fashion & Lifestyle Brand Joy Club Podcast on Instagram

1. Liz Eichholz
2. Weezie towels
3. Emily McCarthy
4. Joy Club Podcast
5. home goods brand
6. women in business
7. direct to consumer brand
8. Atlanta business
9. Savannah Georgia
10. founder story

What do you do when you can dress your daughter with ease, but dressing your son feels like a scavenger hunt?

In this episode of The Joy Club Podcast, Emily McCarthy sits down with Meghan Stanton, founder of Henry Duvall, on St. Simons Island. Meghan shares her winding path to this moment, growing up in Bermuda, boarding school in New Hampshire, law school, a career as a corporate lawyer, and eventually landing on St. Simons with her husband and three kids. She talks about how each place she's lived shaped her eye for color, classic Americana style, and the Southern habit of dressing little kids like little kids.

Meghan opens up about the real origin of Henry Duvall: the frustrating hunt for boys' clothing that led her to start a brand in the middle of COVID, the imposter syndrome that kept her from telling even her closest friends, and the market research experiment that accidentally built a community of over a thousand moms before she ever launched. She and Emily also talk about learning manufacturing from scratch, why she's stayed true to her aesthetic even when feedback pulls her elsewhere, and the natural, unplanned way the brand expanded from boys into girls and women's pieces.

This is a conversation about starting something from an honest need, trusting your instincts, and building a brand your family actually lives in, mud stains and all.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 - Welcome & meet Meghan Stanton of Henry Duvall
• 1:30 - Growing up in Bermuda, and the places that shaped her style
• 8:00 - The hole in the market that sparked Henry Duvall
• 15:00 - Turning imposter syndrome into a 1,000-person community
• 33:00 - What Meghan would tell herself on day one

Mentioned in this episode:

• Henry Duvall
• Henry Duvall's Audrey skirt

Join us: Subscribe to The Joy Club Podcast so you don't miss an episode. Like this one? Let us know what stayed with you. Leave a review – it helps other women find us.

Links: Emily McCarthy | Designer Fashion & Lifestyle Brand Joy Club Podcast on Instagram

1. Meghan Stanton
2. Henry Duvall
3. Emily McCarthy
4. Joy Club Podcast
5. boys clothing brand
6. children's fashion brand
7. women in business
8. St Simons Island
9. mompreneur
10. founder story