Meet Halie and McKenzie Lewis

We had the good fortune of connecting with Halie and McKenzie Lewis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Halie and McKenzie Lewis, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
We wanted to create a platform that allowed us to share our beliefs, opinions, and experiences with others. We are both strong believers in feminism and gender equality and so we discuss a variety of different topics through a feminist lens on our show. Halie originally started the podcast independently while she was living in a small conservative town where she felt like her beliefs weren’t valued. She then asked McKenzie to join as her co-host and the brand took off from there. We began working to create a safe space and community that started conversations about feminism, why it’s important, and how it applies to everyone. Some of our main topics include female empowerment, relationships, current events, bodily autonomy, self-love, and our personal experiences as women. We have enjoyed building our community of listeners and love connecting with them.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Each podcast episode that we release has an overall focus on female empowerment and modern feminism, two things that we both strongly believe in. A large part of our brand is dismantling the belief held by many people that feminism is extreme and only “crazy” and “ungrateful” women identify as feminists. However, the core beliefs of modern feminism are inclusivity and equality for all.

Some of our episodes involve more research, such as our episodes about the black maternal health crisis in the United States and gender-affirming care. Others speak more to our personal experiences such as our episodes about our religious upbringing and tips for those going through a break-up. We also bring on guests to provide additional insight and open up new and unique conversations for our listeners.

We are very excited about our wellness course called “It Girl Summer” that we recently launched. This self-paced six-week course focuses on creating a routine and setting goals based on four different pillars of wellness. We are passionate about self-improvement and feeling our best. We wanted to create and share a tool that will help other women increase their confidence, learn more about wellness, and achieve their personal wellness goals. The course is available on our website along with cute merch designed based on this year’s “It Girl Summer” theme!

We both began our professional careers in healthcare. McKenzie first began working as a Human Resource Generalist at a home care agency and then became certified as a Certified Nurse Aide where she saw home health and hospice patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Halie first began working as a certified EMT where she also assisted and treated patients throughout the height of the pandemic. Both of our positions allowed us to interface with many different people who all had different backgrounds and beliefs. Currently, McKenzie is working as an administrative professional and starting a nursing program in the fall, while Halie is working as a Social Media Strategist for a publicly-traded company. Each of our positions have helped us in immense ways when it comes to our brand. Since we manage all of our social media platforms, editing and positing episodes, scheduling guest interviews, and all other tasks that come with hosting a podcast, the skills and insights that we have gained throughout our professional careers to date have been a huge benefit.

We have had challenges throughout our professional careers. Halie’s beliefs about feminism were reinforced when she experience first-hand discrimination while working as an EMT. She learned that she was making significantly less than the her male counterparts in her same position, She was the only female in this position. Additionally, the men she worked with were condescending and never acknowledged the blatant sexism that she faced, but did increase her pay to match her male co-workers only after she confronted them. McKenzie has faced challenges of balancing a full-time student course load and a full-time job throughout her undergrad program, working to prevent burnout from a caregiver position during a global crisis, and establishing herself as a professional even when people are condescending.

Even though these challenges have been difficult to work through, they have only helped us and made us stronger. We have both taken a lot of time to work on ourselves personally and professionally. This is a life-long journey, but part of our brand is sharing our experiences and helping other women to know that they are not alone during challenging times.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We had the opportunity to live together in the city and had the best time! We recommend visiting RiNo, specifically Larimer street. There are so many great places to eat, such as Los Chingones and Denver Central Market. We also love Federales! It’s a great place to hang out with friends. RiNo also has a ton of free events, like pop-up shops and jazz festivals, throughout the year! During the spring and summer, going to a Rockies game is a must. Viewhouse is a fun place right across the street from Coors Field that shows the games as well. We really like a bar in the central business district called The Front Porch. They have Name Night where if your name is on their list for that night you get free drinks. Front Porch also has flip night where the bartender flips a coin and if you guess correctly your drink is free. Denver has some great museums and we recommend visiting the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s a smaller museum but allows for more time to spend in each section. You can’t visit Denver and not do an outdoor activity! We love spending time at Red Rocks and walking on the hiking paths or sitting on the steps and admiring the beauty of the amphitheater. Estes Park is about an hour and a half from Denver, but is one of our favorite mountain towns. It’s a great day trip and we love walking along the river, visiting the local shops, and spending time in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Thank you to our listeners who tune in each week and connect with us! A big thank you to all of our guests who have sparked a variety of conversations and contributed new perspectives! Thank you endlessly to our family and friends who encourage us to keep going, engage with our content, and support us through every new venture!

Website: https://www.realtalkaboutfeminismpod.com/

Instagram: @realtalkaboutfeminismpod

Linkedin: Real Talk About Feminism Podcast

Facebook: Real Talk About Feminism Podcast

Youtube: Real Talk About Feminism Podcast (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm8epe_wdE90aeCvFPAz1eA)

Other: TikTok: @realtalkaboutfeminismpod