The TrailblazeHers

Barb Betts built a seven-figure real estate career without a single cold call, then took the same principle to stages across the country. She's a keynote speaker, CEO, and author of The Relationship Advantage.

Barb's argument cuts against the usual explanation for why nobody trusts anything anymore, whether that’s companies, leaders, salespeople or simply what shows up in your feed. She traces the real cause a layer deeper, to a breakdown in the relationship itself and unpacks what that means for the imposter syndrome she still feels walking onto stages today, the Capitol floor she once wanted to run from and the definition of authenticity that's landed hardest with the women in her audience.

Success doesn't cure loneliness, Barb suggests a habit rather than a mindset shift.

Key Timestamps

[00:00] Trust, relationships, and imposter syndrome

[02:14] Meet Barb: from teacher dreams to teen mom at 17

[06:52] "We're in a relationship recession"

[09:14] Pregnant at 17 — the decision to keep going

[16:43] Imposter syndrome, redefined

[19:50] The Capitol floor she almost didn't walk onto

[21:00] Ten years later: chairing the state's largest committee

[26:46] Why The Relationship Advantage had to be written

[31:03] Be the one to reach out first — the 5x5 Method

[34:11] Closing thoughts

Memorable Quotes

"We're in a relationship recession. If we had better relationships, we would have better trust, because relationships are actually the foundation of trust on every level." — Barb Betts

"Imposter syndrome simply is a sign that you're growing. You're stepping into a room you've never been in... but you wouldn't be in that room if you didn't belong there." — Barb Betts

Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/

Connect with Barb Betts Website: https://barbbetts.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbbetts/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbbetts

Connect with us:

Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers

Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com

Dr. Brittany McGeehan trained as a pediatric neuropsychologist before deciding kids were the harder audience. Now she works exclusively with high-achieving women, guiding them through nervous system regulation, identity work and the patterns they've mistaken for personality.

Brittany starts with the body and what to actually do when you're wired, flatlined, or holding rage you haven't named. From there, she walks through her framework for staying out of other people's emotional weather in hard conversations and gets to her most unpopular opinion: that the empathy you call your strength might be something else entirely and what it's actually costing you to keep holding everyone together.

Key Timestamps

[00:00] Meet Dr. Brittany McGeehan

[01:54] From pediatric neuropsychology to retreats

[04:17] Why successful women are hitting a wall right now

[06:11] The myth of fierce independence

[06:53] Why retreats, not just one-to-one

[10:45] How to regulate your nervous system, tool by tool

[13:51] The You, Me, We framework for hard conversations

[17:53] Empathy as a trauma response

[20:05] Where identity actually gets built

[23:08] Raising kids without passing down the same patterns

[25:33] Decoding your pressure points

[30:31] The real cost of not doing the work

Memorable Quotes

"Leading with that empathy is usually a trauma response." — Dr. Brittany McGeehan

"I wish more women were talking about the genuine cost of not doing the work." — Dr. Brittany McGeehan

Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/

Connect with Dr. Brittany McGeehan

Website: https://drbrittanymcgeehancoaching.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drbrittanymcgeehanphd/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-brittany-m-a81ab0145/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drbrittanymcgeehan

Connect with us:

Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers

Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com

Kaitlyn Carlson built more than 300 financial plans at UBS and advised a private wealth team looking after over $600 million. Not one of her clients was a self-made woman.

The industry that trained her also harassed her, twice, until she started to wonder whether success in private wealth might cost her her safety. So she left, and built the firm she couldn't find.

Kaitlyn is now founder and CEO of Theory Planning Partners, a boutique wealth creation firm for top female entrepreneurs, and she joins Disha and Brittany to talk about the gap between making money and feeling safe with it.

She shares the reframe that pulled her back from quitting, the decision to build a clientele that didn't really exist yet, and the flat-retainer model she had to defend state by state. She's also honest about the productivity addiction she's still unlearning, the village that makes her work sustainable, and why she's certain that wealth and spirituality belong in the same sentence.

Key Timestamps:

• [00:00] The cost of feeling safe
• [02:31] Meet Kaitlyn Carlson
• [03:00] Hockey, finance, and a psychology major
• [05:09] Harassment in wealth management
• [05:58] Two things the industry got wrong
• [08:50] The passion that kept her going
• [10:05] The question that changed everything
• [13:58] Sacrificing safety for success
• [14:35] "If I can't find them, let me create them"
• [16:41] How someone gets paid
• [24:12] Defending the retainer model
• [18:17] Asking for help and the village
• [27:01] When you want to quit and move to the beach
• [32:06] Wealth, abundance, and the airplane
• [38:11] The dog walk and the email that can wait

Memorable Quotes:

"I'm going to have to sacrifice my safety if I want to be successful in private wealth." — Kaitlyn Carlson

"I worked with 300 clients and not one of them was a self-made woman." — Kaitlyn Carlson

Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/

Connect with Kaitlyn Carlson Website: https://theoryplanning.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theoryplanningpartners/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlyncarlson1/

Connect with us: Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers

Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com

Johanna Voss is a fractional COO and operations strategist with 15+ years of building businesses from the inside out. She works with female founders who've already made something great and are ready to stop running it like a one-woman show. She helps them turn big visions into the systems, teams and operations that let a business run without the founder approving every last thing. Her own start was an accident: a nutrition coach in Barcelona who realised at around 40 that the work she never talked about was out-earning everything else.

This is about the truth at the centre of every successful small business and how if you’re the founder holding it all together it’s why your business can't get bigger. Johanna walks through the real work of moving from founder to CEO (which happens, as she puts it, in the space between your two ears), the difference between being busy and actually building and the hourly-rate maths that exposes how much "I'll just do it myself" is really costing you. Along the way, we also discuss why your systems live trapped in your own head, how to hand them off and a client story that turned a honeymoon-week implosion into the best thing that ever happened to her business.

It's a clear-eyed look at the part of scaling no one really wants to talk about: that growth asks you to let go of the version of yourself that got you here.

Key Timestamps

[01:49] What a fractional COO actually does

[03:04] Breadcrumbs from the universe

[10:49] Cut out the noise and get quiet

[15:59] Execution as a leadership function

[17:25] Working in the business vs on it

[21:21] The bridge between founder and team

[34:33] The honeymoon implosion that became a blessing

[44:20] Put yourself first

Memorable Quotes

"You built a business, it works, and it works because you're the glue holding all of it together. And you're also the reason that it can't get any bigger." — Johanna Voss

Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/

Connect with Johanna Voss

Website: https://www.johannavoss.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johannavoss/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannavoss/

Substack: https://johannavoss.substack.com/

Connect with us:

Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers

Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com

Melanie Spring spent 25 years as a brand strategist and speaker trainer, helping people show up as themselves on stage and in business. Now she's in what she calls The Reclamation. She’s consciously uncoupling, dissolving her business, going nomadic, and stepping into a new identity as a Medicine Muse and author. She finally decided to build a life around what she wants.

This conversation goes to the heart of the authenticity gap, looking at the distance between who we believe we are on the inside and how we're actually perceived by the people closest to us. Melanie's five-word exercise has stopped people in their tracks at conferences for years, and the reframe she offers on people-pleasing and that it's a form of manipulation is one of those ideas you cannot unhear.

Melanie is willing to be mid-process in public. There’s no tidy narrative, no finished reinvention. Hers is an honest account of what it looks like to burn down a 25-year career on purpose and trust what comes next.

Key Timestamps

[00:00] Opening clip — authenticity and the filters we wear

[01:13] Introducing Melanie Spring and The Reclamation

[02:31] From brand strategist to speaker trainer

[04:03] When your insides don't match your outsides

[08:04] The five-word exercise — and what it reveals

[14:43] People pleasing as manipulation

[15:38] How to start the unwind: small steps, real shifts

[23:01] Resistance vs. doing hard things — knowing the difference

[26:29] Coach vs. guide — and why the distinction matters

[30:22] The Reclamation: bankruptcy, divorce, and going nomadic

Memorable Quotes

"The incongruence started making me realise how many of us believe that we are being authentic when our insides don't match our outsides and vice versa." — Melanie Spring

"Most people, their soul isn't in their body. They're just walking around with a body." — Melanie Spring

Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/

Connect with Melanie Spring

Website: https://melaniespring.com Newsletter: https://melaniespring.com/subscribe Instagram: https://instagram.com/melaniespring LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/melaniespringspeaks

Connect with us:

Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers

Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com

Most founders think they've completed the values piece. They ran the exercises, they stared at words and picked out the ones that spoke to them and put them on the wall. Brittany and Disha would argue that that's where the real work should begin. In this episode, the two podcast hosts and co-founders of The TrailblazeHers get into what it takes to build a values-led business, starting with this: do you know yours?

They move through hiring, leadership under pressure and the honest sign that your emotional reactions at work are sending you. Brittany draws a direct line between a founder's inner clarity and the quality of every person they bring onto their team. She also makes the case that calm, empathetic leadership isn't weakness, it's the most effective tool you have.

Short, sharp, and useful for any founder who's hit a friction point they can't quite explain.

Key Timestamps:

• [01:07] Why resting on your laurels is detrimental to business
• [01:34] Values have to be lived, not just listed
• [01:50] What personality tests are actually for
• [02:42] Business maturity and values clarity
• [02:54] How triggering moments reveal your real values
• [03:21] What's missing from most team values exercises
• [04:01] Values alignment and the co-founder test
• [05:16] Hiring on values first, skill set second
• [05:28] Keeping perspective when things go wrong
• [06:30] We're all children trapped in adults' bodies
• [08:25] Why a top strategist recommends Radical Candor

Memorable Quotes:

"If you don't know your values, you're not as experienced in business as you think you are. And that's a hard reflection to have." — Brittany Anderson

"It's not about what other people get to learn about you, but it's what you know about how you, what's congruent with you and how you portray yourself and project yourself and lead a business all at the same time." — Disha Solanki

Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/

Connect with us:

Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers

Produced by Evolved Podcasting:https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com

Lauren Chiren left a high-flying financial services career convinced she had early-onset dementia, her diagnosis was premature menopause at 37. This experience became the foundation for a global movement.

Now CEO of Women of a Certain Stage and menopause strategist to Amazon, Nike and Mercedes F1, Lauren has trained practitioners in 36 countries and advised over 400 of the world's top employers. She knows the numbers: replacing a senior leader lost to an unsupported menopause transition costs between 112 and 220% of their salary and that’s before you account for the experience that walks out with them.

Today's conversation is about understanding what's happening in women's bodies, why so many are misdiagnosed and why perimenopause is the phase every woman needs to understand first.

Key Timestamps:

[00:00] Lauren's story: leaving a career fearing dementia [03:11] From corporate financial services to global menopause strategist [07:13] The diagnosis that changed everything [09:39] Why so many women don't recognise perimenopause [10:59] The real cost to business of ignoring menopause [12:29] What good workplace menopause support looks like [14:29] Handling the "it's personal, not a business issue" objection [14:56] What Lauren wishes she'd known before 40 [16:46] Understanding perimenopause: what it actually is [18:45] Symptoms beyond hot flushes [20:36] Navigating information overload: where to go for trusted guidance [23:27] The vision: certifying 20,000 practitioners worldwide

Memorable Quotes:

"I had left my job in financial services leading global transformation projects and programmes, thinking I had early onset dementia." — Lauren Chiren

"Some days we're fine. Some days we're not fine. Some days we're not, not, not fine. It can literally be all over the place." — Lauren Chiren

Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/

Connect with Lauren Chiren: Website: https://www.womenofacertainstage.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themenopausecoach/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenchiren/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@womenofacertainstage

Connect with us: Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers

Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com

Jackie Kuiper is a lawyer, yogi and self-described introvert who co-founded The Founders Office after spending years watching founders make the same avoidable mistake: building something valuable, then discovering too late that it couldn't sell without them.

In this conversation, we explore why 80% of businesses never transfer, what it really means when a founder is the business and how de-risking your structure rather than growing your revenue, can be the thing that doubles your exit multiple. Jackie also walks through a case that will make you think twice: a contract clause that would have purchased a creator's knowledge and know-how outright, effectively ending his ability to build a future career.

Today’s conversation is a legal strategy conversation as well as a human one.

Key Timestamps

[00:00] Why catching founders early is the whole model [01:47] Introducing Jackie Kuiper [02:42] Yoga at 15 in small-town Minnesota [03:44] Law school, 2008 and the Great Recession [05:00] Being an introvert who chose law [07:25] Why founders only call their lawyer when it's already wrong [10:07] The founder's isolation paradox [13:08] Masks, authenticity, and showing up consistently [16:02] What coachability actually looks like [17:10] The YouTube creator and the IP clause to watch [22:03] $14 trillion and the 80% who won't sell [24:00] De-risking and how it changes your exit multiple [31:12] Jackie off-duty: cats, gardening, and Bali

Memorable Quotes

"We help founders solve what we call the founder's isolation paradox, which is the state of being where a founder may be very, very successful, but no one else knows." — Jackie Kuiper

"What we've learned is that 80% of businesses don't actually sell. Founders and entrepreneurs don't have a plan. They don't know their exit options." — Jackie Kuiper

Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/

Connect with Jackie Kuiper Website: https://foundersoffice.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-kuiper-jd-mba-03948716/

Connect with us:

Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers

Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com

Tina Forsyth coined the term "Online Business Manager" with a friend in 2003 because no existing title fit what she did. Six years later, she built a certification programme around it and one week before this recording, she officially exited that business. It comes 17 years after the first cohort and with minimal fuss and the honest belief that her community probably won’t even notice she’s gone. But that is the highest possible compliment to what she built.

In this week’s episode, Tina gets into the identity crisis that sits at the root of most scaling problems: the deep attachment founders have to being needed and what it costs to stay stuck there. She talks through the moment her own clients started going to her team instead of her, why leveraged programmes still leave you as the product and what it actually takes to extract your IP from your head and turn it into something that can run (and outlast) you.

This is a rare conversation with someone who has been on both sides of the exit and whose clarity about freedom, identity, and what hard-and-worth-it really means comes from having lived all three.

Key Timestamps

[01:53] What stops founders from scaling

[04:41] Tina's exit that happened one week ago

[05:07] When clients stopped coming to Tina

[14:58] Certification as the final layer of freedom

[19:27] The "work three hours a week" myth

[22:21] Hard and worth it

[24:34] Look at what they're selling

[31:07] Know your stage

[40:04] Getting your IP out of your head

[44:05] "They probably won't even notice"

Memorable Quotes

"Things are supposed to be hard. They need to be hard and worth it. Hard and not worth it is not a good thing, but hard and worth it, that's the ultimate path."

— Tina Forsyth

Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/

Connect with Tina Forsyth

Website: https://www.tinaforsyth.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tinaforsyth

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinaforsyth

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinaforsyth8

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tinaforsyth

Connect with us:

Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers

Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com

Christine Kloser is the founder of Seshat Press, a publishing company she has led for over 22 years and an intuitive facilitator for female leaders. The story she tells in this conversation is one she has rarely shared publicly: the 19 years she spent running her business while living with debilitating chronic pain that no conventional or alternative treatment could touch.

Christine traces the origins of that pain, not just physically, but emotionally, back to the day she left the first community where she'd ever truly felt she belonged. She talks openly about what chronic desperation does to a founder's decision-making, how she ultimately found an answer after $150,000 of failed treatments and a $20 book. She also speaks about the inner work that healing required, and what she now does every single morning to make sure she stays at full capacity.

This is a conversation about chronic pain and what becomes possible when a woman finally stops overriding herself.

Key Timestamps

[00:00] Introduction

[02:30] Where Christine is today and how she got there

[05:15] The start of 19 years of chronic pain

[09:00] Running a business on 20% capacity

[13:30] The community she left behind in LA

[18:45] Dr. John Sarno, Healing Back Pain, and TMS

[23:15] The morning she decided to stop

[27:30] How her team kept the business running

[32:00] Friendly vs. friend - boundaries with your team

[37:30] What healing actually looked and felt like

[42:00] The three-hour morning routine

[44:45] How her husband and daughter experienced the change

[48:30] What she'd say to a woman considering medical leave

Memorable Quotes

"Tension myositis syndrome specifically is when the body loves you so much that it will protect you from feeling the emotional pain of suppressed rage and anger, and instead it will give you physical pain." — Christine Kloser

"Gaining yourself, having yourself back, being at full capacity again, being able to align yourself with your mission and your work and your purpose and your joy — it's worth anything that you're scared you might lose." — Christine Kloser

Take the Archetype + Growth-Readiness Super Quiz to discover your Business Growth Archetype in eight minutes or less and walk away with a radar view of your company, an immediate action plan, and the insight to grow smarter and faster: https://disha-wuqmsieb.scoreapp.com/

Connect with Christine Kloser

Website: seshatpress.com

LinkedIn: Christine Kloser (link to: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinekloser/)

Free Resource: www.christinekloser.com/publish

Connect with us:

Website: https://thetrailblazehers.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-trailblazehers

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrailblazeHers

Produced by Evolved Podcasting: https://www.evolvedpodcasting.com