Founders Future

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Candy Motzek, founder of Step Into Success Now, shares her journey from a successful corporate career as an engineer and senior leader in corporate real estate management to becoming a transformational coach and entrepreneur. After years of managing large teams and high-pressure initiatives, Candy realized that while her corporate career had been rewarding, it no longer aligned with the life she wanted to build. With careful planning and a strategic transition, she gradually developed her coaching practice before fully stepping into entrepreneurship.

Today, Candy helps two main groups of clients: aspiring coaches transitioning out of corporate roles and high-performing professionals who struggle with imposter syndrome despite their outward success. Through personalized one-on-one coaching, she helps clients overcome self-doubt, clarify their direction, and build momentum toward meaningful professional and personal growth. Candy also shares how her podcast and educational masterclasses have become powerful tools for building trust, community, and sustainable client relationships.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Melina Khademi, founder of Melina Strength, shares how her personal fitness journey and life challenges inspired her to build an online coaching business dedicated to helping women develop real strength and long-term consistency in their fitness routines. After years of training, experimenting with different approaches, and navigating her own struggles with body image and discipline, Melina decided to turn a difficult period in her life into a meaningful mission: helping women build stronger bodies and healthier relationships with fitness.

Melina explains how her coaching approach focuses on discipline over motivation through what she calls her “Chaos-Proof Strength System.” Instead of relying on short bursts of motivation or quick fitness fixes, she teaches women how to create sustainable systems that work even during low-energy days. By sharing honest content, offering guidance through social media, and connecting with clients directly, Melina aims to cut through the noise of the fitness industry and help women build confidence, resilience, and lasting strength

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Lois Hughey, founder of Empowered Life Nutrition and Elevate Life Coaching, shares how a deeply personal experience with her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis led her to rethink traditional diet culture and build a business focused on sustainable health and longevity for women. After previously coaching within a large nutrition company that relied heavily on restrictive dieting and ultra-processed foods, Lois began researching how nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle habits truly impact long-term health, which inspired her to create a more holistic coaching approach.

Lois explains how her programs help women—particularly those over 45—shift their focus from short-term weight loss to long-term wellness. Through functional nutrition testing, strength training, and mindset-focused coaching, she helps clients improve internal health, reduce inflammation, and build stronger bodies. By combining science-backed nutrition strategies with supportive coaching relationships, Lois empowers women to create sustainable habits that support confidence, vitality, and lifelong wellbeing.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, Joel Honigford, founder of Honigford Performance Strategies, shares his journey from studying mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan to playing in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals, and eventually transitioning into performance coaching. Drawing from his experiences in elite athletics, Joel explains how the lessons he learned about resilience, accountability, and leadership inspired him to help others unlock higher levels of performance in their careers and personal lives.

Joel discusses how his company works with high-performing individuals who feel they’ve plateaued, as well as emerging leaders within organizations who are preparing to step into executive roles. Through mindset training, leadership development, and team-based coaching programs, he helps professionals strengthen their mental frameworks, build stronger leadership habits, and perform effectively under pressure. Joel also reflects on the challenges of building a business from scratch and the importance of authentic connection, clarity in messaging, and confidence when sharing the value of his work.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, Sarah Dumas, wealth mentor for high-level women, shares her journey from growing up in poverty to becoming a seasoned entrepreneur who has helped scale multiple companies across industries over the past two decades. Starting her first business in her late teens, Sarah built and scaled companies in areas such as direct sales, insurance, manufacturing, and professional services while balancing life as a wife and mother. Her early years of relentless hustle eventually led to a turning point where she redefined success—not just as financial growth, but also as the ability to remain present with family while building impactful businesses.

Sarah now focuses on mentoring high-achieving women entrepreneurs through her Sovereign Ascension Method, helping them scale successful companies without sacrificing personal fulfillment. Her work centers on simplifying business structures, strengthening leadership capacity, and empowering women to step fully into their roles as sovereign CEOs. By guiding clients to build strong teams, delegate effectively, and align their identity with the level of success they desire, Sarah helps ambitious women grow thriving businesses while maintaining balance in their personal lives.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Natalie Borovska, Eric Fischer, founder of Intrinsic Performance, Career & Life Coaching, shares the remarkable journey that shaped his coaching philosophy—from professional baseball player to film producer, entrepreneur, and performance coach. After pursuing a career in professional baseball and later working in filmmaking, Eric faced personal challenges including addiction that ultimately led him to reevaluate his life’s direction. Through recovery, academic study in psychology, and years of entrepreneurial experience, he transformed those challenges into a mission focused on helping others unlock their full potential.

Eric now works with professionals and entrepreneurs who feel stuck in midlife or disconnected from their deeper purpose. Through personalized coaching, he helps clients step back, gain perspective, and define meaningful long-term visions for both their careers and personal lives. Drawing from his experiences across sports, business, and personal transformation, Eric focuses on helping individuals reconnect with intrinsic motivation, align their identity with their goals, and build sustainable growth in both business and life.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, we’re joined by Amber Duncan, founder of Life After Debt. Amber shares her powerful journey from being a mortgage broker during the 2008 financial crisis to personally filing for bankruptcy—and how that rock-bottom moment became the catalyst for building a mission-driven business. Witnessing how consumers relied on home equity to survive mounting credit card debt, Amber identified a massive gap in financial education and advocacy that inspired her to create a better alternative to bankruptcy.

In the conversation, Amber breaks down how Life After Debt helps individuals regain control through education, negotiation, and personalized strategies—often reducing credit card balances by up to 50%. She explains what it feels like to work with clients at their most vulnerable moments, why clarity is the real product she delivers, and how authenticity and founder-led storytelling became the backbone of her growth. Amber also reflects on building a lean, nationwide advisor network, the importance of adaptability in a regulated industry, and her long-term vision of empowering more women and families with financial confidence, tools, and hope.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Zach Young, we’re joined by Cathi Coridan, founder of Grit & Grace Leadership. Cathi shares her remarkable journey spanning more than five decades of leadership across nonprofit organizations, behavioral health, child welfare, education, and real estate. A three-time founder and two-time author, she reflects on how years of saying “yes” to responsibility and service ultimately led to repeated burnout—prompting her to rethink what sustainable, healthy leadership truly looks like.

The conversation centers on Cathi’s Grit & Grace framework, a leadership philosophy that blends resilience, purpose, and disciplined execution with self-regulation, clarity, and compassion. She explains why grit alone eventually breaks leaders down, how grace restores balance and long-term effectiveness, and why leadership mindset, strategic messaging, and strong partnerships form the foundation of organizational success. Cathi also discusses her work helping founders and executives step out of day-to-day overload, lead themselves first, and build healthier businesses without sacrificing wellbeing—turning hard-earned lessons into a lasting leadership legacy.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Zach Young, we’re joined by Catherine Cooke, a UK-based divorce and co-parenting specialist and founder of Right Step Coaching. Catherine shares how her own divorce, combined with nearly 30 years in education as a teacher and headteacher, led her to support parents navigating separation while protecting their children’s emotional wellbeing. Drawing on both personal experience and professional insight, she explains why divorce can be a period of growth when handled thoughtfully—and how conflict, when mismanaged, can deeply affect children.

The conversation explores Catherine’s approach to co-parenting support, including her signature 12-week Co-Parenting Roadmap, which blends structured guidance with one-to-one coaching to help parents regulate emotions, set healthy boundaries, and manage high-conflict dynamics. She discusses the growing mental health challenges facing children, the impact of technology and modern pressures, and why emotional support alongside legal processes is critical. Catherine also shares her vision to make co-parenting coaching more widely recognized across the UK, working alongside schools and legal professionals to ensure better outcomes for families during and after divorce.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Zach Young, we’re joined by Christi Dickey, founder of Platinum Performance Coaching. Christi shares her powerful journey from a career in speech-language pathology and special education leadership into performance and empowerment coaching, shaped by deep personal healing, behavioral science, and a life-altering health wake-up call. Drawing on more than two decades of experience in applied behavior analysis, psychology, and communication, she explains how understanding human behavior—and separating identity from conditioned patterns—became the foundation of her work.

The conversation dives into Christi’s unique approach to transformation, blending evidence-based behavior science with consciousness and identity work to create sustainable change. She explains who she works with, why burnout often appears in high-performing professionals' mid-career, and how her coaching helps clients regulate their nervous systems, redefine success, and lead with authenticity. Christi also discusses her one-on-one coaching, the upcoming Platinum Collective group program, and her long-term vision of expanding impact through community learning, deeper self-awareness, and practical tools that help people perform at a high level without sacrificing purpose or wellbeing.