Living The Red Life - Founder of Girlz Who Sell on Teaching DEI Through Children’s Books

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Heidi Solomon Orlick, a visionary leader and advocate for DEI, and the founder of Girlz Who Sell, to explore her expansive career journey and her transformative pivot from corporate life to entrepreneurship. With a distinct focus on diversity and inclusion, Heidi shares insights into her mission-driven project, Girlz Who Sell, and her recent venture into children's literature, emphasizing DEI concepts crucial for young minds. The discussion underscores the importance of aligning with one's inner calling and creating a legacy that resonates with personal values.Heidi's story unfolds with her initial career aspirations in journalism, the unexpected transition into a successful sales career, and her eventual departure from corporate America. She delves into the empowering experiences that shaped her approach to business and life, providing inspirational guidance to those contemplating a similar path. Through reflective anecdotes and practical advice, Heidi encourages listeners to honor their authenticity and illustrates how entrepreneurship can serve as a platform for impactful change and fulfillment.Key Takeaways:Heidi's transition from corporate to entrepreneurship highlights the potential for reinvention and finding one's true calling at any age.Embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion is not only a legacy but a responsibility, profoundly expressed through Heidi's children's book series.The power of community and mentorship is essential, as showcased by Heidi's efforts with Girlz Who Sell and her engagement with youth entrepreneurship programs.The importance of listening to one's inner voice and being true to oneself as key tenets for personal and professional success.Entrepreneurship requires careful planning and intentionality, with practical steps like building a "personal board of directors" and starting a side hustle before a full corporate exit.Notable Quotes:"I think it's not only my legacy and my calling to publish children's books around diversity, equity, and inclusion, but it's my responsibility.""Maybe I was the angel that came into his life exactly at the right moment.""I like to call it rewirement, because I viewed it as the opportunity to reinvent myself.""Never compromise your authenticity and still use your voice for good in the world.""Find your superpower… and anything is possible if you have a plan and you're intentional about it."Connect with Heidi Solomon Orlick:WebsiteInstagram LinkedinConnect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

You know, in today's world, with so many diversity equity and inclusion programs getting rolled back and history being rewritten, I think it's not only my legacy and my, you know, calling to publish children's books around diversity, equity, and inclusion, but it's my responsibility. So what's a good inspirational quote? Or anything that you may want to add for folks that are listening? Yeah, I think. My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the Red Life, ditch the Blue Pill, take the Red Pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Red Life edition.

Joining me today is Heidi Solomon Orlik. She's a woman in power because she champions diversity. She is also the founder of Girls Who Sell, Girls with a Z, is that girl? With a Z. And she's creating opportunities for underrepresented women and who want to thrive in professional sales. Welcome to the Red Life. Thank you for having me. You are glowing.

Something tells me you just finished filming your episode for Women in Power. I did, and it was amazing. I really had fun. I was a little nervous coming in. You know what? We were BFFs by the time it was done. So it was all good. She shared my life story.

So, you know, she knows secrets about me that most people don't. There it is. I like that trailer hook. Give us a bit of a preview. What is some of these secrets that folks will learn about you? I walk them through my origin story and some of the pivotal moments throughout my childhood that influenced, you know, some of the decisions that I made along the way of how I want to, show up in the world and what's important to me from a legacy perspective. So we walk through,

you know, ever, you know, starting at five days old. That was pretty early. Wow. Is that one of your first memories? Well, not memories, but it was my first pivotal moment when I was adopted at five days old. And so that definitely changed the entire course of my life. And then walked us all the way through to Well, I'm 66 years old. That's a great number, by the way. That was a long journey. Oh, man, it would have been great if this were. Being in between.

Oh, man. This would have been great of a Friday of the 13th and you're 6 to 6. Oh, man, good old. Wouldn't that be awesome? Where do you want to begin? I've got my show notes that you come from sales. Do we want us talk about your life lessons, your sales journey? How do you want to begin the sales script, ma'am?

Yeah. So I actually did not start my career in sales. Great. Like so many other women, because sales is so male-dominated, I fell into sales. But before that, I wanted to be a journalist and a reporter. I spent 10 years in advertising and marketing until I crashed and burned at 30. Advertising and marketing print, I'm sure. Like actual ads, TV?

Yeah, ads, TVs. I wasn't in them. I worked for an ad agency. Correct, correct. And that's due with the good old days. But that's what we're talking about, the good old days of three martini lunches. And, you know, I was doing a lot of travel at the time and living in L.A. Really deep into the L.A. scene.

And after three engagements and, you know, really crap. Three engagement. I love it. But then I met my lovely husband. We've been married to for 32 years. Right on. But, you know, burned out and had no idea, exited the ad agency business with no plan B, had no idea what I was going to do. And bumped into a friend of mine that I had met in college.

And he was like, I was like, do you still have that telemarketing company? He was like, yeah, I do. He said, what's going on in your life? And I said, well, you know, 30 unmarried, my, you know, have no job. Life is great. I want to get into telemarketing. Everything good. And, you know, and he was like, well, why don't you be in my office tomorrow morning?

I'd love to hire you as my VP of sales. Right on. And I had no idea what I was doing. But nobody did at that time. We were all making it up. And that was the beginning of a 35-year career. This person that gave this job opportunity, male, female? individual? It was a male. And when he offered me the job, it was a $14 million company. Now it's a

multi-billion dollar company. Cool. And so I'm leading here. Do you think this individual is an angel? Was it a divine person that was at the right place at the right time for you to essentially make the choice that you did? Maybe I was the right person at the right time. There you go. I love it. What a twist. Maybe I was the angel that came into his life. Exactly. There you go. No, I mean, listen, we had known each other for years, but I hadn't seen him. And the reason I say that is because I joke with him, even today, that he gave me a career in telemarketing or what we call business process outsourcing, and I set him up with his wife. So I actually think he got the better end of the deal, but it has been a lucrative 35-year career for me until I was aged out.

in my mid-60s. But yeah, you know, I think sometimes just the universe works in strange and wonderful ways. And the fact that he was there at some random restaurant exactly at that right moment is just meant to be. Right on. What's your day-to-day like today? Are you rolling out of bed and, you know, on Zoom calls, are you taking phone calls? What's your day-to-day hustle today? Well, you know, now I'm no longer in corporate, right?

So I pivoted out of my executive leadership role in sales a couple of years ago at 63. Wow. I didn't choose to pivot out. I was pushed out nicely, you know. But I've since leaned into full-time entrepreneurship. So I'm running my company, Girls Who Sell. I love it. I published a couple of books.

But my real passion and life's mission right now, outside of Girls Who Sell is publishing a series of children's books. So I have two that are published and another one on the way. And I'll have six out by the end of next year. Amazing. What's the overall theme to these children's books? I'm glad you asked. I'm glad I asked as well.

You know, so, you know, in today's world, you know, know, with so many diversity equity and inclusion programs getting brought back and history being rewritten, I think it's not only my legacy and my, you know, calling to publish children's books around diversity, equity, and inclusion, but it's my responsibility to facilitate these kinds of conversations in the classroom at home. And so the first book that I published is called I Have a Voice, a Book of Listening, and it's geared towards children ages four to nine and teaches them how to identify, listen to, and honor their inner voice and encourages them to use their voice for good in the world.

So created a character, Victoria, who's the primary character, and she goes off on wonderful adventures with Victor the Voice Monster, who's always with her. But it also talks about how sometimes we don't listen to that inner voice. And even though we know how to listen, and that's when we can get into trouble. And I'm convinced that this book is not just for kids because I've had so many parents that have come up and said,

Oh my gosh, I wish I had this book when I was younger. Same. Yeah. My next book is called Just a Dot, I think not, a book of connection. And I created a character called Dotty. And her life's mission is to connect the world. Wow. And it's all about the power of community and how important it is to build bridges

and to facilitate, conversations across diverse diverse communities. And so the book definitely pushes the boundaries a little bit because if you're going to do a book on diversity, then everybody has to be represented. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they are.

Awesome. So, yeah. And then my third book is called More Than Pretty, a book of inner beauty. And it's really teaching young girls that while, you know, there's so much pressure. especially for young girls to be pretty and look beautiful. And what it teaches them is at the end of the day,

what it's really about is who you are inside. Wow. And you should follow your heart. I'm sorry to interrupt, but for folks that are listening that are retired or under 60s, this is a whole new life now. This is your, you're not stopping. You're not slowing down. You're publishing books.

You're getting these divine downloads and you're helping the next generation and the generation after that. What do you tell folks that are sitting on? on their butts going, oh, I'm 60, I'm retired. Yeah, I'm going to watch TV and eat bonbons. You know, I looked at turning 60, not as retirement. I honestly, this is, my husband would say, oh, yeah, this is her version of retirement. I like to call it rewirement because I viewed it as reinvent, as the opportunity to

reinvent myself. And I never considered traditional retirement. I think exiting out of corporate has given me an opportunity to truly follow my life's mission and to build a legacy that I wouldn't have had an opportunity to do had I stayed in the corporate world. And I just feel like the time is now. I have a sense of urgency. I mean, Liz, this is why I'm here. What appealed to me about this is that the show and what you guys are doing is all about legacy.

And to me, that's what giving back at this time in my life is what it's all about. So, yeah. For folks that are listening and or watching that are in the corporate funk and they're hearing that little voice, well, one day I'll get out of here. How do they know when it's enough? When do they should know it's time to exit corporate? Well, when you have those Sunday stories and you're just not happy or the company that you're working for doesn't align with your values and your mission, you feel like you're living someone else's script and that you're not honoring your authentic self. I think that's the time.

If you can, listen, you know, it takes a lot to exit out of corporate. There's some benefits like a paycheck, 401KAs, you know. insurance. Like, not everybody is blessed or fortunate enough to be able to take that financial risk or just risk. I was, you know, I feel like I was very fortunate that I was able to make that move. The one thing I will say is that I didn't just jump out of corporate, right? Like, I was, I was very, you know, prescriptive. way that I went about it in that I started a side hustle, which was Girls Who Sell, actually, in parallel to my corporate career. So I was able to maintain my salary and my benefits. And since I

funded my own business, which a lot of people have to do, I was able to, you know, kind of reinvest some of the money that it might, like my sales commissions and things, into launching my business. So by the time, you know, I really moved into full-time entrepreneurship, I had set myself up pretty well. But it's not easy. Oh, of course not. I was going to say it's a lot of emotion there. I'm so happy that you methodically transitioned out as opposed to just impulsively saying, I quit and just basing out all emotion. I'm not happy in a mouth. And then when you cool off, you're like, oh, hell did I just do? No, I can't even pull up my emails. I can't even pull off with my contact.

Right. And then, you know, if you're, you know, ageism, unfortunately, is alive and well. And so if you're of a certain age and even a woman of a certain age, it's hard to find a job in today's job market, right? You know, it's hard. And so, yeah, I think you have to create a personal board of directors. And I think you need to really take a look at your finances and decide. what you can and cannot do. And you'll know when the time is right, right,

to make that move. And you know what? Some people may work in corporate their entire life and not enjoy it into entrepreneurship and enjoy it and that's fine. If you're into the bliss, good for that? Yeah. It works and you're happy.

When I was in corporate, I was like, yeah, man, enjoy that cubicle. Nice, great. It's nice and perfect for it. But that person does have a family, bills. There's generation. wealth there that that that that dad is in it for life yeah you know and it's it's okay you know there this is no judgment zone right like it's it's you know um but

you'll know you know when it's for you and whether whether it's staying in corporate or um or you know moving into entrepreneurship the the thing that i will say is never compromise your authenticity and still use your voice for good in the world. So if you stay in corporate, I would encourage people to still get involved in nonprofit or to do things that, you know, that allow them to leave the world a better place than how they found it. That or you go out with a bang and your corporate job happens to be PlayStation and you happen to be their influencer and you just impulsively quit. And you just, and you quit wealthy and you leave that for the next generation. Yeah, that's part of my journey. But I would say that's a problem.

probably a pretty small demographic. The tiny. Some of the guy wearing striped socks. Yeah. Although today, you know, when you ask kids what they want to be, I just did a, I was a judge. I work with a nonprofit called Nifty, the National Federation for teaching entrepreneurship. And I was a judge for their entrepreneurship, young entrepreneurs competition. These were middle school students.

And they were brilliant. I mean, they are creating businesses and products and services that are changing the world. I was completely, completely blown away. That's awesome. But, you know, those are the kinds of things that you can get evolved in mentoring the next generation. But when you ask a lot of these kids, you know, well, what do you want to do when you grow up? It's not like, well, I want to be, I don't know, a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, president. in, I want to be an influencer, right?

I want to be a TikTok, you know, YouTube influencer. It's like, oh, okay, I guess that's a thing. Yeah, but back in the day, they were called Aero Fling and, like, celebrities and Hollywood stars. Now, everyone's a Hollywood star without the Hollywood, and that's what's brilliant about it. You know what I mean?

I think it's awesome. And, you know, I think that having that kind of access to actually just be your authentic self like that, I think is phenomenal. I mean, I wish I had that kind of opportunity. My life would probably be completely different had I had that opportunity at a younger age. Well, it's funny you say that.

I'm pretty sure your younger self is operating at this reality somewhere in some other dimension. The fact that you said it now, it's actually happening. I love that. Have you ever read the book of Bridget Cross Forever? No, I have not. Oh, but it's all about that. Oh, right on. And I do, I do, we, I am a huge believer that there are parallel universes that are working. So, and happening at the same time. So, you know, in some other universe, I'm a stay-at-home mom. And in some other universe, I'm a TikTok influencer. Yeah.

And in some other universe, there's no such thing as time. Just gravity. Yeah. Gravity. And you know what? I'm super happy of what I'm doing in this universe and hope to leave the world a better place for the next generation. So that's what it's all about. Well, I'm so happy that I was part of your force field and I played a role in your main

character in your protagonist's journey. Yeah. My last question, how are you arming your clients? These girls that are selling, what are you telling them to put on their armor? What's a good inspirational quote? Or anything that you may want to add for folks that are listening. Yeah. I think find your superpower is. is it, you know, when, and that anything is possible. I know that sounds cliche, right? Like, oh, well, you can do anything you put your mind to, but I truly believe that you can do anything that you put your mind to

if you have a plan in place and you're intentional about it and it's something that you're passionate about. So, I mean, what I tell, you know, our students as we mentor them is, you know, is, you know, You know, one, we're trying to position sales as a career choice for them so they can achieve economic independence. But the big thing is when they're like, sales seems cool, you know, I think I could probably do that. But I'm not sure I have the personality for it, right? And I tell them, like, you know, what does that mean to you? I'm like, well, you're going to be extroverted and, you know, the center of attention.

and I'm like, no, you know, introverted, analytic. You know, those are your superpowers. And you just need to discover who you are and then learn how to use those innate traits to be successful in your life. And if you just honor that and follow it, then you can do whatever you put your mind to. I always encourage folks to, you know, take a sales class and know the, the guff or get on stage and be vulnerable and learn how to perform a monologue or a pamp them. And just be like, the world is always in play. Like you are in a vessel.

Have fun. Yeah, have fun. And sales is a life skill. I say it all the time. Absolutely. If you don't, you know, you can come up with a business idea. Even if you're in corporate, you need to know how to sell. Right.

Whether it's a product or service, whether you're trying to sell a budget, whether you're trying to convince your three-year-old to, you know, go to bed at their bedtime hour to do their homework. Right on. It is sales, right? And so I think It's always negotiating. It's always negotiating. And so, and, you know, I think always negotiating and the thing that I always tell are girls and it's part of my children's books as well is, you know, ABC for me is like always be curious and really commit to being a lifelong learner. Right on. When I

was let go of my job at 63. I spun out. I had no idea what it meant to be a full-time entrepreneur. I certainly hadn't, you know, written a children's book. I hadn't written my my business book. I hadn't done any of that. So I had to learn. And one door closes you, you blow up a window and make a hole. That is a window. That is a true statement. That is a true statement. But I think, you know, it's never too late and you're never too old to follow your dreams. And so, yeah, I just always be learning. So 66 in the exterior, what's, what's how old are you in the heart? I would say, I feel like I'm in my 40s. Yeah. I would say I feel like I'm in my 40s because, I mean,

not coming, I'm healthy, which is, which is good. But in my 30s, I was still figuring it out, right? Like I told you, I crashed and burned it, 30, you know, and shipped it careers. At 40, I felt like I had some wisdom that I could bring into my career and my life. And so, yeah, so. Right on. I don't know. I just, I think that age is just a number and that you define what it is for you. So, yeah.

Very cool. How can folks quickly find you the moment they stop listening to us, podcast. What's the quickest way people can learn more about you? Quickest way is to go on LinkedIn and they can just put in Heidi Solomon-Ollick and I'll pop right up. I'm really accessible through LinkedIn. And if they prefer, you know, Facebook or Instagram, you just can look up Heidi Solomon Orlik and you'll find me. Right on. Oh gosh, Heidi. Thank you for time and energy. I hope you had an amazing day. It's been quite the journey.

Yeah, that concludes another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Red Life Edition. That's Heidi. I'm Ray. Good night.