The TrailblazeHers

You Built It. Can It Sell Without You?

Jackie Kuiper is a lawyer, yogi and self-described introvert who co-founded The Founders Office after spending years watching founders make the same avoidable mistake: building something valuable, then discovering too late that it couldn't sell without them. In this conversation, we explore why 80% of businesses never transfer, what it really means when a founder is the business and how de-risking your structure rather than growing your revenue, can be the thing that doubles your exit multiple. Jackie also walks through a case that will make you think twice: a contract clause that would have purchased a creator's knowledge and know-how outright, effectively ending his ability to build a future career. Today’s conversation is a legal strategy conversation as well as a human one. Key Timestamps [00:00] Why catching founders early is the whole model [01:47] Introducing Jackie Kuiper [02:42] Yoga at 15 in small-town Minnesota [03:44] Law school, 2008 and the Great Recession [05:00] Being an introvert who chose law [07:25] Why founders only call their lawyer when it's already wrong [10:07] The founder's isolation paradox [13:08] Masks, authenticity, and showing up consistently [16:02] What coachability actually looks like [17:10] The YouTube creator and the IP clause to watch [22:03] $14 trillion and the 80% who won't sell [24:00] De-risking and how it changes your exit multiple [31:12] Jackie off-duty: cats, gardening, and Bali Memorable Quotes "We help founders solve what we call the founder's isolation paradox, which is the state of being where a founder may be very, very successful, but no one else knows." — Jackie Kuiper "What we've learned is that 80% of businesses don't actually sell. Founders and entrepreneurs don't have a plan. They don't know their exit options." — Jackie Kuiper Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/ [https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/] Connect with Jackie Kuiper Website: https://foundersoffice.com [https://foundersoffice.com] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-kuiper-jd-mba-03948716/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-kuiper-jd-mba-03948716/] Connect with us: Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ [https://thetrailblazehers.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ [https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers [https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers] Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com [https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com]

Who Are You When the Business Doesn't Need You?

Tina Forsyth coined the term "Online Business Manager" with a friend in 2003 because no existing title fit what she did. Six years later, she built a certification programme around it and one week before this recording, she officially exited that business. It comes 17 years after the first cohort and with minimal fuss and the honest belief that her community probably won’t even notice she’s gone. But that is the highest possible compliment to what she built. In this week’s episode, Tina gets into the identity crisis that sits at the root of most scaling problems: the deep attachment founders have to being needed and what it costs to stay stuck there. She talks through the moment her own clients started going to her team instead of her, why leveraged programmes still leave you as the product and what it actually takes to extract your IP from your head and turn it into something that can run (and outlast) you. This is a rare conversation with someone who has been on both sides of the exit and whose clarity about freedom, identity, and what hard-and-worth-it really means comes from having lived all three. Key Timestamps [01:53] What stops founders from scaling [04:41] Tina's exit that happened one week ago [05:07] When clients stopped coming to Tina [14:58] Certification as the final layer of freedom [19:27] The "work three hours a week" myth [22:21] Hard and worth it [24:34] Look at what they're selling [31:07] Know your stage [40:04] Getting your IP out of your head [44:05] "They probably won't even notice" Memorable Quotes "Things are supposed to be hard. They need to be hard and worth it. Hard and not worth it is not a good thing, but hard and worth it, that's the ultimate path." — Tina Forsyth Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/ [https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/] Connect with Tina Forsyth Website: https://www.tinaforsyth.com [https://www.tinaforsyth.com] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tinaforsyth [https://www.youtube.com/@tinaforsyth] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinaforsyth [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinaforsyth] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinaforsyth8 [https://www.instagram.com/tinaforsyth8] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tinaforsyth [https://www.facebook.com/tinaforsyth] Connect with us: Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ [https://thetrailblazehers.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ [https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers [https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers] Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com [https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com]

High-Functioning Isn't the Same as Well — Running a Business While Breaking Down

Christine Kloser is the founder of Seshat Press, a publishing company she has led for over 22 years and an intuitive facilitator for female leaders. The story she tells in this conversation is one she has rarely shared publicly: the 19 years she spent running her business while living with debilitating chronic pain that no conventional or alternative treatment could touch. Christine traces the origins of that pain, not just physically, but emotionally, back to the day she left the first community where she'd ever truly felt she belonged. She talks openly about what chronic desperation does to a founder's decision-making, how she ultimately found an answer after $150,000 of failed treatments and a $20 book. She also speaks about the inner work that healing required, and what she now does every single morning to make sure she stays at full capacity. This is a conversation about chronic pain and what becomes possible when a woman finally stops overriding herself. Key Timestamps [00:00] Introduction [02:30] Where Christine is today and how she got there [05:15] The start of 19 years of chronic pain [09:00] Running a business on 20% capacity [13:30] The community she left behind in LA [18:45] Dr. John Sarno, Healing Back Pain, and TMS [23:15] The morning she decided to stop [27:30] How her team kept the business running [32:00] Friendly vs. friend - boundaries with your team [37:30] What healing actually looked and felt like [42:00] The three-hour morning routine [44:45] How her husband and daughter experienced the change [48:30] What she'd say to a woman considering medical leave Memorable Quotes "Tension myositis syndrome specifically is when the body loves you so much that it will protect you from feeling the emotional pain of suppressed rage and anger, and instead it will give you physical pain." — Christine Kloser "Gaining yourself, having yourself back, being at full capacity again, being able to align yourself with your mission and your work and your purpose and your joy — it's worth anything that you're scared you might lose." — Christine Kloser Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/ [https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/] Connect with Christine Kloser Website: seshatpress.com [http://seshatpress.com] LinkedIn: Christine Kloser (link to: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinekloser/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinekloser/]) Free Resource: www.christinekloser.com/publish [http://www.christinekloser.com/publish] Connect with us: Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ [https://thetrailblazehers.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ [https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers [https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers] Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com [https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com]

The Nervous System Doesn't Lie: Burnout, Breathwork, and What We're Not Taught

Melissa Sue Methven is a registered dental hygienist, breathwork facilitator, author, and speaker. After 17 years in the dental profession and after losing her husband, a dentist, to suicide in 2022, she channelled her understanding of nervous system science into a mission to change how healthcare providers approach their own wellbeing. This conversation covers the cost of high-pressure clinical work, what chronic fight-or-flight does to the body over time, and why dentistry sits at the top of healthcare suicide statistics. Melissa explains mirror neurons, the physiology of burnout, and how ten minutes of breathwork the day after her husband died became the foundation of everything she now teaches. She also walks through Calm Chair Systems, the practical tool she built for dental practices that want to change how their teams begin, move through, and close a working day. What Melissa offers is a framework forged from the hardest kind of experience. It’s for anyone running on empty and convincing themselves that's just what success feels like. Key Timestamps: [00:00] The two sides of the dental chair [02:09] Introducing Melissa Sue Methven [03:11] Building a dental practice from the inside [05:31] Losing Scott to suicide [06:04] Dentists breaking their silence [07:31] Why dentistry leads healthcare suicide rates [09:49] Pain medication and the slow spiral [16:18] Mirror neurons and the dentist's nervous system [22:31] Parasympathetic vs. fight-or-flight explained [26:44] First breathwork experience: the day after [29:51] Deciding to speak out from the beginning [32:02] Identity, shame, and the cost of staying silent [35:46] How Calm Chair Systems works [44:03] One thing she'd change in how dentists are trained Memorable Quotes: "Your nervous system is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. It's learning." — Melissa Sue Methven "It starts by seeing our own truths, and being honest with ourselves. And it's gonna be okay. You're not alone. And people are going to support you. And that's the legacy." — Melissa Sue Methven Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/ [https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/] Connect with Melissa Sue Methven Website: melissamethin.com [http://melissamethin.com] Podcast: notalonepodcast.life [http://notalonepodcast.life] Instagram: @melissa_gratitude LinkedIn: Melissa Sue Methven YouTube: @melissa_gratitude Connect with us: Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ [https://thetrailblazehers.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ [https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers [https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers] Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com [https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com]

Stop Waiting for Permission: Ambition, Identity and Getting Heard

Rebecca Harding has spent 25 years in rooms where most people are still waiting to be invited in. She left a prestigious corporate career at 30 (against everyone's advice) built Salt Whistle from the ground up and went on to advise organisations including Deloitte, PwC, BP, and Shell on how to communicate and win. She did all of it by learning, slowly and not always easily, to stop waiting for permission. She's candid about what that looked like from the inside: the corporate culture of the early 90s that taught women their silence was their best asset, the years of running a business while raising young children and quietly losing herself in the process, and the internal voice that keeps even the most capable women measuring themselves by the gaps rather than the ground they've covered. She also gets sharp on marketing such as why most businesses are invisible not because they aren't trying, but because they've confused activity with direction. This is a conversation about what it actually takes to back yourself before anyone has given you permission to. Key Timestamps: [00:00] Failure, communication, and speaking up [02:02] Leaving corporate at 30 when everyone said don't [07:03] What she knows now at 50 that she wished she'd known at 30 [11:15] Do you actually feel successful? [14:32] The 90% problem — why capable women still undersell themselves [17:26] Identity, worth, and what you tie yourself to [20:11] Running a business with young children — what actually helps [26:41] Being assaulted at a corporate dinner — and the woman she became [30:20] How Salt Whistle helps businesses stand out in a noisy market [36:08] The most important lesson from helping businesses grow [41:10] What do you want people to say when you're not in the room? Memorable Quotes: "I was given praise for not complaining about a sexual assault at a dinner in front of other people." — Rebecca Harding "I think women are terrible at not looking at what you've done, but just looking at all the gaps in what you think you should have done." — Rebecca Harding Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/ [https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/] Connect with Rebecca Harding Website: https://www.saltwhistle.com [https://www.saltwhistle.com] Connect with us: Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ [https://thetrailblazehers.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ [https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers [https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers] Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com [https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com]