Leslie Ellen Mathews on Why Every Turn That Felt Wrong Was Actually Exactly Right

Maren Londahl-Smidt on Money, ADHD, and Designing a Business Around Your Capacity

Maren Londahl-Smidt did the in-between. She built her private practice while she was still working her hospital job. First clients on two evenings, then a third day, then a fourth, waiting until she knew her practice could provide the revenue she needed before she let go of anything. She did not leave until the runway had cured. When people ask her when the right time was, she says there is never a perfect time and you will always be scared, but there is a better time, and there is a better way. Maren is a therapist, a cash flow strategist, a fellow Certified Profit for Keeps® Coach, and she was my very first PFK® practice client. She has ADHD, and instead of fighting it, she built a whole coaching business around it. Her guiding question is not how much can I push myself to do. It is what is my actual capacity, and how do I design the money and the work around that. In this conversation we get into the money anxiety that hit the moment she went full-time on her own, why she fired a nine-hundred-dollar-a-month accountant who would not even tell her what to set aside for taxes, how Profit for Keeps® finally connected her personal and business finances, and why designing around your real capacity is not lowering the bar. It is how you keep showing up for the people you serve. CHAPTERS 00:00 Meet Maren Londahl-Smidt, Therapist and Money Coach 02:15 From Horse Shows to a Grad School She Found Online 03:43 The ER, the Burnout, and the Income That Never Added Up 05:20 Why Private Practice, and the Insurance Trap She Left Behind 10:39 The Strategic, Staged Exit: No Weekends and No Leap 12:45 Never a Perfect Time, but a Better Time and a Better Way 13:52 The Money Anxiety That Hit the Moment She Went Solo 14:48 Firing the Expensive Accountant and Finding Profit for Keeps® 17:49 How a Coaching Business Was Born From an Offhand Question 23:50 Niches, Profit for Joy®, and Learning Her Real Capacity 28:12 Finding Her People: Therapists With ADHD 33:27 What's Coming Up LEARN MORE FROM MAREN Join the Predictable Pay Challenge [https://go.balanceandbeyondcoaching.com/ppc-registration]: 5 days, July 27-31, 12pm EDT, for therapists with ADHD or ADHD tendencies. Learn more about the ADHD Practice and Profit Cohort with Amber Dugger [https://profitforkeeps.com/therapists]: 6 months with built-in rest weeks, limited to 24 people, kicks off August 10. Follow Maren for More On Instagram [https://instagram.com/MoneyCoachMaren] Join her Facebook Group: Profit for Keeps for Therapists [https://www.facebook.com/groups/pfkprofitableclinician] ABOUT VICTORIA Victoria Steward is a Corporate Exit & Financial Empowerment Coach and Certified Profit for Keeps® Coach, helping senior corporate women stuck in the "one-more-year" loop, build the self-trust and financial clarity to leave corporate on their own terms, and their own timing. Curious? Book a Pivot Clarity Call. [https://victoria-steward.com/pivotclarity] FOLLOW On LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-steward-coaching/] On Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/victoria.steward.coach/] RESOURCES The Can I Pivot Yet? Exit Roadmap [https://roadmap.victoria-steward.com] The 5-Minute Grounding Reset [https://reset.victoria-steward.com]

Why More Money Won't Fix It: Jessica Kleine on Mindset, Money, and Magic

What if the thing standing between you and the life you actually want was never the number in your bank account? Jessica Kleine is a money coach for women, and she will be the first to tell you that the numbers have almost nothing to do with it. She has watched clients double their income and walk straight into problems twice the size. Six and a half years in, she is clear that the math was always the easy part... and that the real work lives underneath it. Her path here was anything but a straight line. She was the straight-A kid headed for law school, right up until the afternoon she reached for the LSAT sign-up sheet and heard a small voice ask, “What if I hate it?” That one question set the tone for everything after: paralegal, then stay-at-home mom for what was supposed to be six months and turned into twenty years, then direct sales, then homeschooling, then a money coaching practice that found her by accident. Her family motto, “we'll figure it out,” turns out to be a whole philosophy. We get into why more money doesn't fix the feeling, what your spending is actually trying to tell you, and why Jessica is convinced that most of the rules we follow were simply made up, which means we get to make our own. We talk about building a business on your own terms, choosing time freedom over chasing a million-dollar version of success, and the relief that arrives when you realize curiosity, not crisis, has been steering all along. Jessica is living proof that none of it was a wrong turn. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome to The Scenic Route 01:01 Meet Jessica Kleine: A Money Coach for Women 01:48 The LSAT Moment That Started It All: “What If I Hate It?” 03:03 From Paralegal to Stay-at-Home Mom: When the Plan Changed 04:00 How Money Coaching Found Her by Accident 07:52 Why More Money Won't Fix the Problem 09:36 The Logical Brain Meets the Magic of Money Mindset 18:27 The Hermit Who Built an Archery Community 21:27 Slow and Steady: A Business on Her Own Terms 22:46 Redefining Success: Time Freedom Over a Million Dollars 28:39 “Rules Are Made Up”: Why You Can Write Your Own 34:57 The 8 Money Archetypes: What Your Spending Is Telling You LEARN MORE FROM JESSICA Join Jessica for her July Workshop: “What Your Money Habits Are Trying to Tell You” Register Here [https://bit.ly/2026julyworkshop]. Website [https://www.jessicakleine.com] On LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicakleine02/] On YouTube [https://youtube.com/@jessicakleine02] On Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/jessicakleine02] ABOUT VICTORIA Victoria Steward is a Corporate Exit and Financial Empowerment Coach and Certified Profit for Keeps® Coach, helping senior corporate women stuck in the "one-more-year" loop. Curious? Book a Pivot Clarity Call [https://victoria-steward.com/pivotclarity] FOLLOW On LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-steward-coaching/] On Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/victoria.steward.coach/] RESOURCES The Can I Pivot Yet? Exit Roadmap [https://roadmap.victoria-steward.com] The 5-Minute Grounding Reset [https://reset.victoria-steward.com]

Air Force to FBI to a Dating Podcast: John Petrozelli on Prepping Before You Leap

John Petrozelli has built his whole life around one rule: before you make a big move, prep the ground, study the risks, then leap. He learned it as an Air Force intelligence officer, sharpened it across seventeen years and five different roles in the FBI, and carried it into a career in cybersecurity. So what happens when a man who plans everything tells you about the one time he leapt without a plan? That is the heart of this conversation. John walked away from the military fast, on anger and instinct, and spent the next year and a half treading water before he found his footing again. If you have ever wondered what it actually costs to jump before you are ready, his answer is worth sitting with. But this is not a heavy episode. It is also the story of how John got curious instead of bitter: how he used those same intelligence skills to rebuild his life after divorce, why he finally stopped forcing the search and met the right person when he was not looking, and how all of it turned into Done With Dating, his free, podcast-driven dating platform where listeners can actually apply to date the guests. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome to The Scenic Route 01:28 Dreaming of Becoming an Air Force Pilot 02:31 Switching From Engineering to Intelligence Work 04:27 What “Intelligence Preparation of the Battle Space” Means 07:08 Becoming an Air Force Intelligence Officer in 1998 08:07 What South Korea Taught Him About the Gray Area of Life 09:06 Combat Mission Planning for Special Operations 10:59 From the FBI to Director of Cybersecurity: Five Career Pivots 13:08 How Cyber Warfare Actually Works Today 17:25 Rebuilding His Dating Life After Divorce, and Hitting Burnout 21:23 Meeting the Right Person by Not Looking for Her 23:24 Building the Done With Dating Podcast: Three Pillars 26:50 How the Matchmaking Episodes Work 40:31 The One Time He Didn't Prep the Battle Space: Leaving the Military 44:11 From the Marathon Bombing Manhunt to a Desk Job Overnight   CONNECT WITH JOHN Website [https://www.donewithdating.co] Done with Dating Podcast: YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@DoneWithDating]/Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/done-with-dating/id1888353863]/Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/2AmpKxCWkc2RISsAdY4NYq] ABOUT VICTORIA Victoria Steward is a Corporate Exit and Financial Empowerment Coach and Certified Profit for Keeps® Coach, helping senior corporate women stuck in the "one-more-year" loop, build the self-trust and financial clarity to leave corporate on their own terms, their own timing, their own scenic route. Curious? Book a Pivot Clarity Call. [https://victoria-steward.com/pivotclarity] FOLLOW On LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-steward-coaching/] On Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/victoria.steward.coach/] RESOURCES The Can I Pivot Yet? Exit Roadmap [https://roadmap.victoria-steward.com] The 5-Minute Grounding Reset [https://reset.victoria-steward.com] Website [https://victoria-steward.com]

There’s No Magic Bullet: Rachel Smith on What Women Over 40 Actually Need to Thrive

It’s 2am. You’re three videos deep into someone promising the one protocol, the one supplement, the one secret that big pharma has supposedly been keeping from you. And here’s the part that stings: at 2pm you run a team, read the data, command the room. So why does the magic-bullet pitch land so hard at midnight? That question sits at the heart of this conversation with Rachel Smith, DNP, FNP-C, CNM, NBC-HWC, a nurse practitioner, former certified nurse midwife, and founder of Aspect Wellness, whose own path to longevity medicine took the scenic route. Rachel grew up swearing she would never work in healthcare; she wanted to write the great American novel. Then a chance meeting in a tornado shelter introduced her to nurse midwifery, she went back to school at 33 (“how bad can nursing school be?”), delivered over a thousand babies, and let her own perimenopause push her toward the work she does now: helping women build the strength and capacity to actually live the decades ahead. You’ll hear why she believes muscle is the single most important health lever for women over 40, why the number on the scale was never the real question, and why, after twenty years and a wall of letters after her name, her answer to “what’s the secret?” is the most unglamorous list imaginable: eat real food, lift heavy things, sleep, get sunshine, build relationships you trust. There is no magic plant growing in the Amazon. There never was. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome and What Longevity Medicine for Women Really Means 02:51 Why Your Health Is the Launching Pad for Everything Else 03:43 From Aspiring Novelist to Nursing: An Unexpected Start 06:06 The Tornado Shelter Meeting That Changed Everything 07:38 “How Bad Can Nursing School Be?” Going Back at 33 10:31 Delivering 1,000 Babies and the Burnout That Followed 13:03 When Perimenopause Surprised a Women’s Health Expert 15:23 The First Pivot: Building a Medical Weight Loss Program 19:40 Moving to Florida and Going Deeper Into Coaching 22:46 Why Weight Loss Alone Was the Wrong Focus 26:28 Longevity Medicine: How Long Do You Want to Live? 31:22 The Two Levers That Matter Most: Muscle and Stress 36:30 The Protein Myth and the 2am Magic Bullet Trap 44:47 Rachel’s Book and Where to Find Her FIND OUT HOW TO WORK WITH RACHEL Aspect Wellness [https://www.aspect-wellness.com] On Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/aspectwellness/] On LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-smith-dnp/] About Victoria Victoria Steward is a Financial Empowerment Coach and Certified Profit for Keeps® Coach helping senior women in corporate build the clarity and confidence to leave on their own terms. Curious? Book a Pivot Clarity Call [https://victoria-steward.com/pivotclarity]. FOLLOW On LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-steward-coaching/] On Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/victoria.steward.coach/] RESOURCES The 5-Minute Grounding Reset [https://reset.victoria-steward.com] The Can I Pivot Yet? Calculator [https://calculator.victoria-steward.com] Website [https://victoria-steward.com]

The Most You You’ve Ever Been: Sarah Curnoles on Life After Heartbreak

What if your most devastating breakup was actually the moment your real life began? Sarah Curnoles thought she’d found her person. Five years together, talking about marriage and kids and growing old. Then one day he said: “I love you. I just don’t see a life with you anymore.” And standing at that crossroads, Sarah made a choice she’d spend the next several years helping others make too: I’m not going down the road where I fall apart. I’m finding the other path. Today Sarah is a certified breakup coach, a digital nomad, and the host of Breakup Pep Talks. She helps people transform heartbreak into the best thing that ever happened to them, and she means that literally. Not as a silver-lining consolation prize, but as the actual destination. One of her recent clients wrapped up their work together and said: “Hope has come back.” That’s the whole mission, right there. We talk about the symphony of healing she threw herself into after her breakup, why she gives clients a five-minute crying appointment every day, the “can of Coke” reframe that helps people stop idolizing the person who hurt them, and why heartbreak doesn’t have a gender. We also get into the winding, very Scenic Route path that led her here: theater, then coaching, then back to theater to pay the bills, then the breakup that finally made everything click into place. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction: Sarah Curnoles, Breakup Coach 01:40 From Actor Dreams to Stage Manager: Sarah's Theater Career 03:37 How Sarah Found Life Coaching (While Working in Theater Offices) 05:32 The Five-Year Relationship and the Breakup That Changed Everything 08:14 Two Roads After Heartbreak: Choosing the Path You Don't Know 09:14 The Symphony of Healing: Therapy, Coaching, and Embodiment Work 12:14 The Five-Minute Crying Appointment (And Why It Works) 14:09 Why Movies Make You Cry When Your Own Feelings Feel Stuck 18:11 How Sarah Works: The GPS Method for Breakup Recovery 20:08 The Can of Coke Reframe: Seeing Your Ex Clearly 24:43 Working With All Genders: Why Heartbreak Has No Gender 29:52 Why Sarah Chose Meetup Over Social Media to Build Her Business 33:00 Do the Thing 20 Times: Consistency in the Platform That Fits You 37:40 What Sarah Wants You to Know: It’s Not About Getting Over Someone Resources From Sarah Free breakthrough call [https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=13002720&appointmentType=2184073] Meetup Community Group [https://www.meetup.com/breakup-and-divorce-support/] Learn More and Connect Website [https://sarahcurnoles.com/] Breakup Pep Talks Podcast [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIydCNJvFAwPVsJ7yPveQdcX9CWZRNEt4] Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sarahcurnoles/] About Victoria Victoria Steward helps senior corporate women stop saying ‘just one more year’ and finally understand what leaving would actually take. Curious and ready to talk it through? Book a Pivot Clarity Call. [https://victoria-steward.com/pivotclarity] Follow On LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-steward-coaching/] On Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/victoria.steward.coach/] Website [https://victoria-steward.com]