The Founder Shift Podcast

Anisha Jennings moved from India to the US at 28 with her savings, a second master's degree in her sights, and no road map for what came next. After building a whole new life from scratch, she felt that familiar pull toward more, and launched Jennings Tech Corner in 2024 to help health, wellness, and coaching founders build strategic websites and get their tech stack in order. The fact that Anisha made her first hire four months into running her own business was more than decisiveness: it was unlearning the conditioning she’d grown up with, that hyper-independence is the key to success and perfection and resilience will get you where you want to go. Instead, Anisha made the bold move to not just welcome a new hire, but to build a whole community around her.Anisha's podcast, Your American Dream, has featured over 80 immigrant women and women of color entrepreneurs. What keeps coming up across all those stories is a particular kind of cost: staying in survival mode past the point where you really need it. Anisha is candid about what that looks like: burning through your superpower until it runs you empty, saying yes out of obligation until your body starts telling you something is wrong, and forgetting to stop and actually appreciate the moment when something you worked for finally happens. She talks about learning to give herself grace, to stop doing everything on the same day, and to listen to her body when a superpower she loves starts running her empty instead of moving her forward.Grab Anisha’s FREE Website Essentials Guide and 5-minute Homepage Copy Template here! https://jennings-tech-corner.kit.com/websiteessentials and be sure to check out her podcast, Your American Dream, at https://jenningstechcorner.com/podcast/

Lauren Najar was on her way to a career in banking and finance, when everything reset at once. After losing both her parents, she fought cancer, twice. All before turning twenty five. What came out of that season was so much deeper than ambition and success for its own sake. It was a search for fulfillment, and eventually, a business built on freedom and impact.The way Lauren scales her company today reflects all those life lessons she grew from, back then. She talks about releasing the outcome of a sale the way she talks about releasing control of her health journey years ago: you do the work, you show up fully, and then you let go of what you can't decide. Her average cold-to-client timeline is ninety days, sometimes more. But instead of rushing for immediate results, she calls it proof that trust and patience will grow a business that lasts, simply by planting and nurturing one seed at a time.We also get into what fulfillment actually means to her, why "more money equals more impact" isn't a contradiction, and how she's learned to build a team and a life that won't require her to control every outcome or sacrifice what really matters, to feel safe and successful.Lauren is running a 30-day Sales & Visibility Challenge to help you increase your leads and make more sales, so your business can be a source of freedom too! Join her at https://laurennajar.com and look for the banner at the top of the page!

Alessandra Pollina has run her PR agency for 13 years, long enough to remember a business landscape before Instagram even existed. In this episode we trace what's actually changed in that time (a lot) versus what never did (relationship building, real community, the personal touch), and why the industry spent years pretending those fundamentals didn't matter.Our conversation centers on the founder shift at the heart of scaling: Alessandra's decision to rebrand from a company named after herself to Quotable Media Co. so her team could feel genuine ownership, and the patchwork-of-contractors trap that catches so many growing businesses. We unpack why hiring for "what I need off my plate right now" creates problems down the line, and what it looks like to design a role that can grow with someone instead.Join us for a super real conversation about staying in business for the long haul, and what has to shift in how a founder thinks about ownership, hiring, and time in order to make that possible.You can book a free 20 minute visibility strategy call with Alessandra to map out your visibility plan for the year: https://quotablemediaco.com/connect

What does it actually look like to build a business that lasts? I talked to Leandra McLaurin, consultant and strategic coach, to dig into the inner shifts every founder faces as they grow. Growing a business past what you know forces you to face everything you thought you knew about yourself, about meaning and purpose, and about the practices that took you to this point. The best-laid plans will always change, and the leaders who thrive are the ones who can adapt without losing themselves in the process.Get into the brains of 2 consultants and coaches, to find out how to keep your center as you evolve beyond your wildest dreams, how to do an invisible needs assessment, and how to keep your business more human in a world obsessed with production.If you’re navigating a “what’s next?” season or feeling stuck at a crossroads and want personalized clarity, book a free 30-minute brainstorming session with Leandra. https://leandramclaurin.setmore.com/services/38b318f2-9166-4cf5-bd1e-0b41f101d88a  

Talk about a business turnaround. After leaving a career on Wall Street, Maryana Sky bought three businesses overseas and turned them around from struggling to profitable in three months, taking them from a 15% sales conversion rate to 85%. Now, she mentors beauty and esthetician business owners to do the same.But Maryana’s secret is so much more than just investment into these businesses. For her, it’s about building a whole business ecosystem: nurturing talent, overcoming mental blocks, creating new leadership practices, fine tuning your service stack, and getting REALLY good at business fundamentals. From there, the sky is the limit.She’s developed systems for people and operations that really work in the real world, and in this episode, we’re pulling back the curtain on what it really takes to create long-term, heart-led value in a competitive market.If you’re an esthetician who wants to grow, expand your client base, and increase your sales in a sustainable way, come for a free, no-obligation consultation.DM “CONSULTATION” on Instagram @maryanasky !

What does it take to build and scale 4 businesses that run without you? For one thing… space.Luisa Alberto, the founder of People First Finance, People First Foundations, and Kindredly, has done it. Her financial services agency runs without her in the day-to-day, and in this episode she’s sharing the strong (unsexy) foundations and skills she had to learn and master in order to scale with ease.Luisa’s specialty is helping solopreneurs build businesses that last, without the constant stress of DIY management. You can join her email series for solo service business owners who are done with DIY and ready for practical solutions that help them grow beyond a party of one.https://www.luisakalberto.com/about-email-series

Can we fix the world?I actually think we can. But it's going to take a long time.There's never been a more important time to question what we have been told is "the only way to do things" and to create little corners of positive progress in our worlds, with whatever tools we do have. At heart, this is really what The Founder Shift is all about.So we're kicking off Season 2 by making sense and structure out of changes that are big enough to feel a little impossible. Because business CAN be an incredible proving ground for positive transformation, if we are ready to create something different than what we think we know. My goal is to give you tools for exactly this.Join me (and our upcoming incredible guests) in a bigger and better Season 2, where we're going deep into purpose-driven scaling and achieving bigger missions than money (while also making money).

Erica's been in client service the majority of her career: from helping children and parents in hospital settings, to scaling a VA staffing business, to helping founders design holistic client experiences, she's always been focused on creating proactive, compassionate, and intentional service journeys. Not reacting to things as they come up.This is what we mean by "10x everything" not being enough of a strategy. Just getting 10x more clients in the door won't necessarily provide more profitability... in fact, it could be costing you. In Episode 5, we go DEEP into the difference between being reactive (fixing issues with customer service) vs. being proactive about your client journey - and what it looks like to find team members for your clients who can operate more strategically.In other words, if you’re scaling fast but losing clients just as quickly, you’re always putting out fires and trying to figure out why good clients don’t stick. This episode gives you an alternative.Take Erica’s Client Journey Quiz to find out if your delivery model is helping or hindering your client retention: https://forms.gle/KnHYu3WvK8pmJLVeA

Most entrepreneurs who aren’t already marketing experts pick social media as their number one thing to get off their plate as quickly as possible.But Kate Gilbert, the social media strategist for people who don’t like social media - sees it differently. In this episode, we’re exploring how to systematize social before you give it away - and how an audit from someone like Kate can help you maximize your ROI on social, whether you choose to keep it with you or to hire someone to manage it longterm.Kate takes us behind the scenes to talk about running a magazine, and how it led her to develop her proprietary content method that helps you stay focused and keep things easy to scale. You can use this system for your current business or use it to scale up a new offer or reach a new audience!Want to learn more about how to streamline your social media so you can spend more time growing your business? Watch Kate’s free Time Is Money video here: https://kategilbert.com/timeismoneyWant to be a part of my favorite women's entrepreneur community, the one where Kate and I met? Join an Entreprenista info sesh to see what it's all about!https://refer.entreprenista.com/JessInfoSesh

On Terry Ramsey's Pay Yourself Summit, we're answering all your early-growth-stage hire questions:What's the right time to make your first hire?How to build a scalable process your hire can learn and take overHow to use contractors properly and when to make a W-2 hire insteadGetting the best ROI on your talent investment: think high yield, not standard savingsAnd SO much more!We're also offering some bonus resources to help you implement:Terry's inviting you to join her Ptero Business Community on Skool for business mini courses and connection! Grab the Daybreak Ideas Hire Type Primer to learn more about how and when to bring on different categories of people. And if you're stuck on what in your workflow would be best to delegate, get your copy of my Delegation Magic Playbook. Hiring is always about more than just getting rid of tasks: it's about who you get to become once you master the art of letting go.

Change only derails you when you don’t know what’s coming. In this episode we dive into the rapid business changes you can expect when adding your first 10 employees (and beyond), and how to stay steady and in control of your success with a healthy team.Want to master the art of building a strategic team, right from Hire #1? Jump into my Team LTV Strategy Lab and let's build lifetime value into every role. Beta pricing won't last.https://www.daybreakideas.com/ltv

The old rules of startup growth are dead. They never really worked for us. It's not enough anymore just to "get rich" or to "perform success." We want true scale, strategic abundance, and to have an alternative to the status quo. One we can build ourselves.This is that alternative. In this inaugural episode, you'll learn what I have planned for you in the podcast, what inspired me to create it, and the 3 new rules of founder-leadership that you might not be expecting. Enjoy!