Colleen Budde holds two mechanical engineering degrees, spent nearly a decade navigating the automotive and defense industries, and walked away from a combined household income of $300,000 — not because of a crisis, not because of a disaster, but because the system she was operating inside of was never going to bend.

She and her husband purchased an Office Evolution franchise in January 2020, survived a pandemic with a newborn, found a building that would take a chance on them, and built something real. Today Colleen runs her coworking space alongside Budde Consulting Group, where she works with small business owners navigating the messy, honest, unglamorous middle of building something on their own terms. She also writes and builds community through her Mompreneur Facebook page and Substack — creating space for people at every stage of the journey to find each other and realize they're not doing it alone.

This is a conversation about discomfort as information, time as wealth, and what it actually looks like to build a life the system never offered you.

Connect with Colleen: 

🌐 buddeconsultinggroup.com 

📸 Instagram: @colleen_the_ 

💼 LinkedIn: Colleen Budde

In this episode, we explore:

• How growing up with a father who got fired repeatedly — and kept moving — shaped Colleen's relationship with change and risk
• Why changing jobs early in her career wasn't instability, it was strategy — and what the numbers proved
• What it's actually like to be a woman in mechanical engineering, and what the defense industry added to that
• The moment Colleen stopped waiting for the system to change and started building an exit
• Why she and her husband bought a franchise in January 2020 — and how they survived what came next
• The childcare situation that crystallized everything — and the meeting that pushed her over the edge
• What "rage quitting" actually looked like, and how her husband's response said everything
• The difference between the golden handcuffs keeping most people stuck and the financial clarity that made leaving possible
• Why discomfort isn't a personal flaw — it's information
• What entrepreneurship is actually harder than she expected — and what she didn't anticipate getting back
• The medical emergency that reminded her exactly why she built this life
• What wealth actually looks like when time is the currency

Resources & Links:

• Connect with Colleen, explore her consulting work, and find her community at buddeconsultinggroup.com
• Follow Colleen on Instagram → @colleen_the_
• Connect on LinkedIn → Colleen Budde
• Ready to step off autopilot? Visit thinkoutsidethelines.com to access free worksheets designed to help you cut through the noise, ask the right questions, and finally hear yourself clearly
• Explore 1:1 coaching and other resources at thinkoutsidethelines.com
• Follow along on all platforms → @thinkoutsidethelines

Enjoyed the episode? Please share it with someone who might need to hear it, and subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next.