TraiBLAZER: Debbie Sassen on the Go-Get-'Em Mindset

On Being a Professional Problem Solver | Lizzy Livne

She built the company she wished existed: real humans, real problems. Not a task app. Not a chatbot. A partner. Lizzy's parents used to ask her: "did you try?" instead of "what'd you get?", the kind of message that builds a kid who finishes a degree in two and a half years against everyone telling her not to risk it. At twelve, she saw an Israeli soldier and decided she was going to be one. She fought her way into combat command course as an Jewish American: Hebrew not great, shoes not the right size, mental block on the three-meter rope. She passed at the last possible second. Twice she's been active duty in war. After October 7, she fought her way back in as a reservist. Now she runs Quiet Lux, a personal life management service where real humans handle everything quietly piling up in the background, from school forms to sold-out Chanel bags to MRIs that didn't reach your doctor. This episode goes deep on the conversation every founder needs to have with their spouse before they start, the framework for knowing when to quit, and how most people aren't thinking about you as much as you think they are. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Connect with Lizzy: 🌐 Quietlux: https://www.thequietlux.com/ 📸 Instagram: @⁠thequietlux⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/thequietlux/] 💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lizzy-livne-93792b45?skipRedirect=true Connect with Faye: 🌐 https://thetrailblazerpod.com/ 📸 @thetrailblazerpod

Discipline Builds Plan A. Adaptability Writes Plan B. | Hadas Frank

What does it look like to make a plan, follow it perfectly, and then have to write a better one in a new country at 19? Hadas Frank, AI strategic consultant and educator, joins Faye for one of the most clear-eyed founder conversations on the show. Hadas was diagnosed in third grade with learning challenges, told to lower her expectations, and pushed by her mother into grinding 90s, an accelerated university program in tenth grade, and a meticulous plan for an Israeli government career. Then at 19 she married an American, moved to New York, and used her work-permit waiting period to teach herself the markets, tech, and finally generative AI, building Next Gen AI from scratch. This episode goes deep on what it really means to throw out a decade-old plan, prompt engineering vs prompt design, when to use ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini, why she sees her Orthodox Jewish identity as leverage at non-Jewish business conferences, and the advice she gives every woman whose original plan no longer fits her life. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one.Connect with Hadas: 🌐 Website: https://nextgenaiadvisors.com/ [https://nextgenaiadvisors.com/] 📸 Instagram: @hadas_frank 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hadas-frank-ai1/ Connect with Faye: 🌐 https://thetrailblazerpod.com/ [https://thetrailblazerpod.com/] 📸 @thetrailblazerpod 📩 https://trailblazerpod.substack.com/

On Learning to Take Up Space | Melissa Weisz

What does it look like to use the tools of acting to live a fuller life? Melissa Weisz, actor, writer, producer, and facilitator, joins Faye for a personal and powerful conversation around identity and taking up space. Melissa opens up about stumbling into acting through a Yiddish-language Romeo and Juliet, discovering on her first scene that her messy emotions finally had a place to go, and how she now teaches women to use acting techniques as life tools, to feel their own feelings, take up space in a room, and stop performing the polite version of themselves. This episode goes deep on the difference between feeling and acting on a feeling, why anger was the hardest emotion to access, the most important real estate in a person's life (the moment between trigger and response), and what it means as a Jewish woman to refuse to perform a smaller version of yourself. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Connect with Melissa: * Website: www.melissamalkyweisz.com [https://www.melissamalkyweisz.com] * Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/melissaweisz/ Connect with Faye: * Website: https://thetrailblazerpod.com/ [https://thetrailblazerpod.com/] * IG: @thetrailblazerpod * Substack: https://trailblazerpod.substack.com/

She Grew Up Jewish in the USSR. Here's What She Sees Happening in America | Izabella Tabarovsky

She grew up Jewish in Siberia, where being Jewish was encoded in your passport but impossible to practice. Then in 2017, she saw something on American TV that looked exactly like Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda. That moment changed everything. This week, scholar and author Izabella Tabarovsky joins Faye to talk about Soviet Jewish identity, anti-Zionism on American campuses, and what the refuseniks can teach Jewish students today. Connect with Izabella: * Book: https://www.amazon.com/Be-Refusenik-Jewish-Students-Survival/dp/B0G2GKWKCJ [https://www.amazon.com/Be-Refusenik-Jewish-Students-Survival/dp/B0G2GKWKCJ] * Instagram: @IzaTabaro https://www.instagram.com/izatabaro?igsh=dWNobXo1NXIzZGZs&utm_source=qr [https://www.instagram.com/izatabaro?igsh=dWNobXo1NXIzZGZs&utm_source=qr] * X: @IzaTabaro https://x.com/izatabaro?s=21 [https://x.com/izatabaro?s=21]

She Didn't Have a Roadmap. Just an Obsession With Learning | Esty Scheiner

What happens when a girl with no tech background, no resources, and no roadmap decides to teach herself to code, and ends up at Google, Y Combinator, and building her own AI compliance company? Esty Scheiner, founder and CEO of Shiboleth, joins me for one of the most honest and inspiring founder conversations on the show. Esty opens up about teaching herself to code in high school with almost no resources, landing a spot at Google's prestigious Security Summer Institute, doing coding exercises in a notebook during seminary with no internet access, dropping out of NYU at 19 to manage a 6-person R&D team. This episode goes deep on imposter syndrome, what it really means to be a founder, the emotional toll of pivoting an idea you built from scratch, how to say "I don't know yet" without losing credibility, and why your starting point has nothing to do with your ceiling.