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In this inspiring episode of the She Lift Project podcast, host Cynthia Kirkpatrick sits down with Ali Hogan, founder of Rung for Women, a transformative St. Louis nonprofit. Ali created a holistic program that bridges the critical gap between crisis intervention and sustainable independence by providing women with career training, mental health support, financial coaching, physical wellness resources, and community—all under one roof. The conversation explores how Rung for Women empowers over 500 women through cohort-based programs in advanced manufacturing and IT, helping them move from survival mode to thriving careers earning $60K-$70K+ annually while building confidence, skills, and lasting sisterhood.
This episode is for anyone passionate about women’s empowerment, nonprofit leaders seeking collaborative models, employers looking to diversify their workforce, and individuals wanting to understand how comprehensive support systems create lasting change. Listeners will learn about the power of addressing the “whole woman” rather than just job placement, the importance of community and coaching in transformation, and how Rung for Women’s partnerships with healthcare providers, therapists, and employers create a unique ecosystem of support. After listening, you’ll understand how to get involved with Rung for Women as a volunteer, donor, employer partner, or applicant, and you’ll be inspired to think differently about what it takes to create generational change in your own community.
00:00 – Welcome & Introduction to Ali Hogan
01:23 – What is Rung for Women?
03:22 – The Gap Between Crisis and Sustainable Independence
05:23 – Why St. Louis Needs Rung for Women
08:08 – Bringing Nonprofits Together Under One Roof
10:13 – The Cohort Model: Building Community Through Career Training
12:03 – Confidence Building and Career Stories
16:08 – How Women Find Rung for Women
18:17 – The Application Process and Program Timeline
19:48 – Professional Power Skills: Building Confidence and Workplace Behavior
22:45 – Skills Everyone Needs But Aren’t Always Taught
25:36 – Progress Not Perfection: Changing Mindsets Takes Time
27:38 – Transformation Stories: From Couch Surfing to Antarctica
33:24 – Long-Term Support: We’ve Got Your Back
34:55 – Forklift Training and Skill Building Certifications
36:11 – Helping Women Discover What They Actually Want
39:13 – Being the Change: Representation in Tech and Manufacturing
40:47 – Real Talk: Creating Safe Spaces for Women’s Conversations
42:32 – Whole Person Wellness: Physical Health, Mental Health, and Career Success
45:35 – Women’s Health and Breaking Down Taboos
48:16 – Ali’s Background: Growing Up in a Family of Women Leaders
52:29 – Finding Her Purpose After “Failure to Launch”
54:45 – Lessons Learned: Moving Too Fast and Learning to Collaborate
56:59 – The People Pleaser’s Journey to Saying No
58:42 – Being the Baby: How Birth Order Shaped Her Leadership
1:01:09 – Coaching and Therapy: The Secret Sauce for Success
1:03:11 – How to Get Involved: Volunteer, Donate, Apply
1:05:36 – Volunteers Make the Magic Happen
1:08:02 – The Surprising Grit of Rung Members
1:11:02 – What’s Next: Growing Deeper or Wider?
1:13:53 – Final Thoughts: Hope, Progress, and Possibility
Content Notice
This podcast and all She Lift Project content represents the opinions of Cynthia Kirkpatrick and her guests. The content here is for informational purposes only, and should not be taken as professional advice – financial, legal, medical, or otherwise.
Views and opinions expressed in the podcast and across all She Lift Project media channels are our own and do not represent that of our places of work. While we make every effort to ensure that the information we are sharing is accurate, we welcome any comments, suggestions, or correction of errors.
“Everybody has a light inside of them, and you have a choice. You can either use lighter fluid or an extinguisher. Same thing goes with everything. Same with people’s talents. You can either light it up or you can extinguish it.”
“If you follow this methodology, if you follow the pattern, the outcome is inevitable. You cannot mess it up because it’s just calculated moves that are in writing.”
One of the things I love to do if the opportunity presents itself as coach people, because I feel like that is the most, wow, fun, enriching thing that you can do for people. Because what happens is I believe that people behave for reasons, and you got to figure out what’s the root cause. So if someone reacts in a certain way, whether it’s anger, emotion, or whatever, there’s a reason why they’re reacting that way. And so I don’t think that people really want to react that way. They want to be their best self.
“I didn’t go into business from a business school background, and so I discounted a lot of my intuition and what I thought was right and what I should be doing and took other people’s advice sort of over my own thinking and eventually I always would wind up back to sort of what felt right to me was very different from the advice that I had been given in the business community.”
“The experience of going through the legal process is supposed to be about seeking justice. More often than not, people go through it and they’re just as scared and almost re-traumatized as they were when the injustice happened.”
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