Meet The Founder
Peggy Paul is the founder and visionary behind SheTaxi. The journey behind SheTaxi evolved over many years, starting in 2004 when Peggy was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Like many people upon receiving life-altering information, a self-assessment and exploration period began.
Peggy began dedicating more time to developing herself personally and professionally. A common theme of “do what you love” and “live authentically” emerged, as well as seeking a balance of life and work.
Peggy launched SheTaxi in September 2010. She stepped away from the business in 2012 and is back and moving women forward. Peggy is currently shifting the business to focus on small-working cohorts centered around young professional development, nonprofit leadership, women in business and wellbeing and emotional fitness.
In addition to SheTaxi, Peggy hustles as the Executive Director for the Neuro Hospitality House in Rochester, MN – a small nonprofit dedicated to providing affordable lodging for neurological patients and their caregivers while seeking care at the Mayo Clinic. She loves her work and is eager to share her experience and “lessons learned” with other women, nonprofit and businesses.
Peggy Paul is the Founder of SheTaxi. Peggy is an entrepreneur, influencer, change-agent and experienced business and non-profit leader.
In 2004, Peggy was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. This became a wake-up call for her to focus on the connections between the mind, body and soul. As Peggy worked to regain her health and vitality, she felt a deep desire to share what she knows, and to connect women to individuals who can add value to their lives. She began to envision an online resource that could help guide women to find wisdom as well as information, in a forum that is also open, real, kind and fun.
In 2010, Peggy officially launched the SheTaxi website with a team of 20 bloggers, a weekly podcast and over 3000 subscribers to SheTaxi. The site focused on areas that women wanted to learn more about; self-care, well-being, relationships and work.
In 2019, Peggy self-published the Road to Wellbeing workbook, a common-sense approach to self-care and evolved the business plan for SheTaxi to focus on individuals, teams and communities thriving. She works with groups of women who meet regularly and are investing in themselves to improve their mental, emotional and physical well-being.
Peggy also works with entrepreneurs as a speaker and mentor. She uses her own experience of building a business and nonprofit to help aspiring entrepreneurs develop their business plans and grow their organizations. Peggy provides hands-on support and advisement to her clients.
Peggy’s career includes working at GMAC-RFC where she created a global community relations program. This award-winning program helped to establish “giving back to the community” as a core value within the company. She managed a seven million-dollar charitable giving budget and raised an additional $2 million dollars for the communities where employees lived and worked. She established a global initiative with Habitat for Humanity, and created signature programs for their employee-giving campaign, community volunteerism and engagement.
Peggy worked at Olson, an advertising agency in Minneapolis, to co-create a ground-breaking program, the BrandLab, that introduced marketing/advertising skills to inner-city youth through hands-on experience. She built relationships with Minneapolis and St. Paul Public Schools, the advertising industry, community organizations, at-risk students and their families. This program is a non-profit business that is still in existence today and alumni of the BrandLab are in thriving professional marketing careers, and are role models for high school and college students.
Peggy has spent the last decade working in leadership roles at two national non-profit organizations where she has made a significant impact on the communities she served and her teams.
While working for the American Heart Association (AHA), she partnered with the business community supporting and promoting heart and brain health for their employees. In partnership with Q Health Solutions, she launched the pilot barbershop program in the Twin Cities, focusing on African American men and heart/brain health education. As the Senior Director of Community Health for the state of Minnesota, she increased AHA’s involvement with addressing health disparities, outreach to communities of color and implemented AHA’s healthy living guidelines to over 500k people working in health systems, large and mid-size employers and school districts.
Peggy also worked for the American Cancer Society where she managed a high-performing team who supported fundraising and outreach efforts in Southern MN. She successfully grew income, established the first ever Southern MN Board and expanded and increased volunteer engagement throughout the region. She considers herself a life-long learner and enjoys being close to medical information, particularly around preventative care and healthy living.
In addition to SheTaxi, Peggy hustles as the Executive Director for the Neuro Hospitality House – an affordable lodging option for patients and caregivers visiting the Mayo Clinic for neurological conditions. She is also working on her InnerMBA certification from New York University and is the business editor for Rochester Women’s Magazine.
Peggy has been featured in the Twin Cities Business Journal, a presenter for Charities at Work, SCORE, Rochester Area Foundation and Best Prep. She was profiled in two books, Single. Women. Entrepreneurs and Single. Women. Entrepreneurs…Five Years Later.
Peggy has been described as an authentic leader with a firecracker personality. She is a speaker, entrepreneur, blogger, and consultant eager to share her knowledge, experience and expertise with others. Peggy currently resides in Rochester, MN.
Meet Kristi
Kristi is a collaborator and ambassador for SheTaxi. She and Peggy met when they were both working in Rochester, MN. When their first lunch meeting lasted over three hours they knew this was a friendship and collaboration that would do great things!
Kristi is a skilled facilitator with experience in visioning and goal setting with organizations and communities, donor-centric fund development, and community and volunteer engagement. Her training and technical expertise ranges from creating an effective fundraising campaign to leading a highly productive board. She has worked with hundreds of nonprofit and community boards to help them accomplish their goals. Prior to launching her company, Fair Winds Consulting, she was the Community Philanthropy Manager for a regional foundation serving 14 counties in central Minnesota.
Before joining the nonprofit sector, Kristi served almost 12 years in the US Navy as a cryptologist and career counselor. This experience was invaluable in her leadership development, understanding of organizational structure and the importance of culture on morale and team effectiveness.
Kristi holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with a concentration in accounting, is a Journeyman Career Counselor and a graduate of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy’s “The Fund Raising School.” She helped co-found the Women’s Leadership Fund in central Minnesota, created the “A Legacy of Generosity” podcast for planned giving and fundraising professionals, and continues to serve as a volunteer on various boards.
