The Within Podcast

Protect What You’re Building: The Legal Basics Every Business Owner Should Know

Starting a business is exciting. Forming the right entity, reviewing contracts and planning what happens if a partnership falls apart? Less exciting—but potentially much more important.

In this episode, Nicky and Allie are joined by Nicky’s husband, Matt Wallace, a partner at Belin McCormick and a corporate attorney who works with businesses at every stage of growth.

Matt breaks down the legal fundamentals entrepreneurs should understand—from forming an LLC and signing contracts in the company’s name to protecting yourself when adding a business partner. They also discuss AI-generated contracts, commercial leases, noncompetes, equity and personal liability.

This isn’t about letting legal fears keep you from building. It’s about understanding the risks and making informed decisions before something becomes an expensive emergency.

IN THIS EPISODE

• The legal steps to take when starting a business
• Why Matt generally recommends an LLC
• How signing personally can create personal liability
• What an operating agreement should address
• Why business partnerships can become complicated
• The risks of casually giving away equity
• Where AI-generated contracts can go wrong
• What to know before signing a commercial lease
• Whether noncompetes are enforceable
• Why sustainable businesses are rarely overnight successes

ABOUT MATT WALLACE

Matt Wallace is a partner at Belin McCormick and a member of the firm’s Corporate and Commercial Practice Group. He helps businesses with formation and governance, mergers and acquisitions and complex commercial contracts. Matt has represented organizations ranging from startups and family-owned companies to large national businesses.

Learn more:
https://www.belinmccormick.com/attorneys/matthew-j-wallace

Nothing shared in this episode constitutes legal advice. Every situation is different. Consult an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction regarding your circumstances.

ABOUT WITHIN

Within is hosted by sisters Nicky Wallace and Allie Sartain. Through honest conversations with each other, experts and practitioners, they explore what it means to feel empowered to live your best life.

Every episode is anchored in the human experience, the science behind it and permission to be imperfect.

CONNECT WITH NICKY

Nicky Wallace is the founder of The People Co., an HR and leadership company, and creator of The Potential Within Summit. She brings together leadership, personal growth and whole-person wellness to help others build successful, sustainable lives.

Instagram: @nwallace15
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwallace515
The People Co.: thepeople-co.com
The Potential Within: thepeople-co.com/potentialwithin

CONNECT WITH ALLIE

Allie Sartain is an Integrative Trichologist and women’s health advocate. Blending scalp science, nervous system regulation and conscious living, she teaches that beauty reflects internal balance—and that hair is often just the beginning.

Instagram: @allie.maneoasis

If this episode resonated, subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

“Okay, Just Hear Me Out”: Life Married to an Entrepreneur

What happens when one spouse is full of big ideas and the other is already calculating the cash flow?

In this episode, Nicky and Allie are joined by Nicky’s husband, Matt Wallace, for an honest, and light hearted, conversation about marriage, ambition and making two very different personalities work.

Nicky is the entrepreneur who thinks big, moves fast and regularly starts conversations with, “Okay, just hear me out.” Matt is the attorney, planner and self-described cash-flow guy who wants to understand the steps, timeline and impact on the family nest egg.

Together, they share how their relationship has evolved through business ownership, demanding careers, raising children, and even divorce. They talk about the difference between supporting a dream and committing to every idea, how they divide responsibilities during busy seasons and why learning to communicate changed everything.

This isn’t a conversation about achieving perfect balance. It’s about creating a partnership where both people can pursue big goals without allowing work, money or resentment to quietly take over.

IN THIS EPISODE

• What Matt thinks when Nicky says, “I have an idea”
• How their opposite approaches to risk and money create balance
• Supporting your spouse without enabling every idea
• Why support doesn’t always mean saying yes
• Communicating whether an idea is serious or still being explored
• Navigating two demanding careers while raising children
• Their weekly calendar conversations and division of responsibilities
• What Matt doesn’t receive enough credit for behind the scenes
• How divorce and remarriage changed their communication
• Why shared values matter more than identical personalities

ABOUT MATT WALLACE

Matt Wallace is Nicky’s husband, the father of their growing family and a partner at Belin McCormick. As a corporate attorney, he helps organizations with business formation, governance, contracts and mergers and acquisitions.

Learn more:
https://www.belinmccormick.com/attorneys/matthew-j-wallace

ABOUT WITHIN

Within is hosted by sisters Nicky Wallace and Allie Sartain. Through honest conversations with each other, experts and practitioners, they explore what it means to feel empowered to live your best life.

Every episode is anchored in the human experience, the science behind it and permission to be imperfect.

CONNECT WITH NICKY

Nicky Wallace is the founder of The People Co., an HR and leadership company, and creator of The Potential Within Summit. She brings together leadership, personal growth and whole-person wellness to help others build successful, sustainable lives.

Instagram: @nwallace15
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwallace515
The People Co.: thepeople-co.com
The Potential Within: thepeople-co.com/potentialwithin

CONNECT WITH ALLIE

Allie Sartain is an Integrative Trichologist and women’s health advocate. Blending scalp science, nervous system regulation and conscious living, she teaches that beauty reflects internal balance—and that hair is often just the beginning.

Instagram: @allie.maneoasis

If this episode resonated, subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

“Okay, Just Hear Me Out”: Life Married to an Entrepreneur

What happens when one spouse is full of big ideas and the other is already calculating the cash flow?

In this episode, Nicky and Allie are joined by Nicky’s husband, Matt Wallace, for an honest, and light hearted, conversation about marriage, ambition and making two very different personalities work.

Nicky is the entrepreneur who thinks big, moves fast and regularly starts conversations with, “Okay, just hear me out.” Matt is the attorney, planner and self-described cash-flow guy who wants to understand the steps, timeline and impact on the family nest egg.

Together, they share how their relationship has evolved through business ownership, demanding careers, raising children, and even divorce. They talk about the difference between supporting a dream and committing to every idea, how they divide responsibilities during busy seasons and why learning to communicate changed everything.

This isn’t a conversation about achieving perfect balance. It’s about creating a partnership where both people can pursue big goals without allowing work, money or resentment to quietly take over.

IN THIS EPISODE

• What Matt thinks when Nicky says, “I have an idea”
• How their opposite approaches to risk and money create balance
• Supporting your spouse without enabling every idea
• Why support doesn’t always mean saying yes
• Communicating whether an idea is serious or still being explored
• Navigating two demanding careers while raising children
• Their weekly calendar conversations and division of responsibilities
• What Matt doesn’t receive enough credit for behind the scenes
• How divorce and remarriage changed their communication
• Why shared values matter more than identical personalities

ABOUT MATT WALLACE

Matt Wallace is Nicky’s husband, the father of their growing family and a partner at Belin McCormick. As a corporate attorney, he helps organizations with business formation, governance, contracts and mergers and acquisitions.

Learn more:
https://www.belinmccormick.com/attorneys/matthew-j-wallace

ABOUT WITHIN

Within is hosted by sisters Nicky Wallace and Allie Sartain. Through honest conversations with each other, experts and practitioners, they explore what it means to feel empowered to live your best life.

Every episode is anchored in the human experience, the science behind it and permission to be imperfect.

CONNECT WITH NICKY

Nicky Wallace is the founder of The People Co., an HR and leadership company, and creator of The Potential Within Summit. She brings together leadership, personal growth and whole-person wellness to help others build successful, sustainable lives.

Instagram: @nwallace15
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwallace515
The People Co.: thepeople-co.com
The Potential Within: thepeople-co.com/potentialwithin

CONNECT WITH ALLIE

Allie Sartain is an Integrative Trichologist and women’s health advocate. Blending scalp science, nervous system regulation and conscious living, she teaches that beauty reflects internal balance—and that hair is often just the beginning.

Instagram: @allie.maneoasis

If this episode resonated, subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Hiring more people should create more capacity—right?

Not necessarily.

Nicky learned this while growing her staffing and recruiting company. After rapidly hiring five or six employees, she expected more time, support and room to grow. Instead, she became the founder, trainer, process manual, systems expert and help desk for a larger team.

She also discovered—after making the hire—that the salesperson expected to lead prospecting didn’t know how to prospect.

You genuinely cannot make this stuff up.

But the employee wasn’t the biggest problem. The company was hiring faster than it was building the clarity, systems, training and authority its new employees needed to succeed.

In this episode of the Within HR Series, Nicky explains the “10-employee problem”: the stage when proximity stops working as a management system and the informal way you’ve always operated begins to break.

There is nothing magical about employee number 10. Some companies feel this shift at six employees; others reach it at 15 or 20. What matters is the friction—repeated questions, unclear ownership, inconsistent decisions and issues that keep landing back on the founder’s desk.

Hiring creates capacity only when knowledge, responsibility and authority are intentionally transferred.

• The hiring mistake Nicky made after a decade in recruiting
• Why hiring initially created more work—not more capacity
• What the “10-employee problem” actually means
• When proximity stops working as a management system
• Signs your informal operating model has stopped scaling
• Why growth magnifies what already exists in the business
• How unclear roles create overlap and founder bottlenecks
• Why onboarding cannot live inside one person’s head
• What to define before making another hire
• When you need another person versus a better process
• The five areas where growing companies should look for friction

When did your business stop feeling small? What changed first—and what suddenly started landing back on your desk?

Send Nicky your experience, HR questions or ideas for future episodes. Your question may help shape an upcoming episode or resource inside The People Co.’s Growth Hub.

Subscribe to the Within Podcast and follow the HR Series every Tuesday for practical conversations about building the people side of a growing company.

Nicky Wallace is the founder of The People Co. and a SHRM-Certified Professional who has worked in recruiting, HR and people strategy since 2012. She helps leaders build the practical people infrastructure growing companies need, including role clarity, leadership development, compensation strategy, performance management, onboarding and employee experience.

Have an HR question, episode idea or people situation making you wonder, “What are we supposed to do here?” Nicky would love to hear from you.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwallace515
Instagram: @nwallace15
Email: [email protected]

Stories shared in this series are based on real professional experiences, but identifying details may be changed or generalized to protect confidentiality. This content is for general educational purposes and should not be considered legal advice.

Introducing the Within HR Series for Founders + Leaders

You can build a successful company, attract customers and keep growing—without ever being taught how to build the people side of the business.

Nicky first recognized the size of this gap while sitting in a business education program surrounded by accomplished entrepreneurs. These founders had real companies, growing teams and plenty of work to deliver. They also shared many of the same frustrations: employees weren’t performing, managers weren’t taking ownership and nobody quite knew what to do when a people situation became complicated.

But as Nicky began asking questions, something became clear: many of these businesses were frustrated with employees for failing to operate inside systems that had never actually been built.

In this introductory episode of the Within HR Series, Nicky explains why people problems are often infrastructure problems—and why growing companies need more than generic HR information. They need practical guidance that reflects their actual headcount, managers, systems, locations and stage of growth.

Every Tuesday through the end of 2026, this series will bring founders and leaders real stories, practical HR guidance and the occasional situation you genuinely cannot make up.

Because you shouldn’t need an HR degree to build a company where people can succeed.

• The room of entrepreneurs that revealed a major small-business HR gap
• Why successful founders often struggle with the people side of growth
• How informal communication works—until the company outgrows it
• Why hiring through personal relationships makes clarity even more important
• The difference between a performance problem and a missing-system problem
• Why hiring only creates capacity when employees have clarity
• How people strategy connects directly to business strategy
• Why an eight-person company and an 80-person company need different HR priorities
• Nicky’s simple approach: diagnose, prioritize and build
• What founders and leaders can expect from the Within HR Series

Are your employees actually underperforming—or are they trying to operate inside a system your company never clearly built?

Follow the Within Podcast for conversations about leadership, wellbeing, personal growth and building businesses—and lives—that work.

Connect with Nicky Wallace, SHRM-CP

Nicky Wallace is the founder of The People Co. and a SHRM-Certified Professional with experience in recruiting, HR and people strategy since 2012. She has supported organizations ranging from growing small businesses to companies with more than 1,000 employees, helping leaders connect their people strategy to their broader business goals.

Her work focuses on building the practical people infrastructure growing companies need—including role clarity, leadership development, compensation strategy, performance management, onboarding and employee experience.

Have an HR question, an episode idea or a people situation making you wonder, “What are we supposed to do here?” Nicky would love to hear from you.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwallace515
Instagram: @nwallace15
Email: [email protected]

We entered summer with bucket lists, ambitious plans and visions of magical family time.

Then August arrived—and apparently, all structure and sanity left the building.

In this episode, Nicky and Allie have an honest conversation about the beautiful, exhausting chaos of summer with kids. They unpack the guilt that can come with needing a break, the challenge of working while children are home and why being grateful for a season doesn’t mean you can’t also feel completely overwhelmed by it.

Nicky shares how intentionally planning childcare and saying no to two contracts allowed her to protect the summer she wanted with her family. Allie reflects on what happened when her routines and personal boundaries slowly disappeared—and why staying disconnected from yourself is where the real trouble begins.

They also talk about learning how to rest without guilt, creating structure that supports more freedom, letting kids be bored and recognizing when it’s officially time to declare: “Mom’s off duty.”

In this episode:

• Why summer can feel wonderful and wildly overwhelming at the same time
• The invisible mental load of having kids home
• Working from home versus trying to work while actively parenting
• Why flexibility still requires boundaries and intentional planning
• Letting go of the pressure to constantly entertain your children
• How small resets can help when you don’t have hours to yourself
• Saying no—even when you technically could make it work
• Using structure to create more room for rest, creativity and joy
• Reconnecting with yourself and your goals for the rest of the year

The bottom line: getting off track isn’t the problem. Staying disconnected from yourself is. You don’t need to throw away the rest of the year—you may just need to pause, recalibrate and decide what you want to carry forward.

And if necessary, tell everyone you’re off duty and go hide in the closet for ten minutes. We support you.

Real talk for women building a life that finally feels like theirs.

Within is hosted by two sisters—Nicky Wallace and Allie Sartain—exploring what it actually means to feel empowered to live your best life. Through honest, unfiltered conversations with each other, trusted experts and real practitioners, we start the conversations you’ve been waiting for someone to begin.

Every episode is anchored in three things: the human experience + the science behind it + permission to be imperfect.

• Nicky on Instagram: @nwallace15
• Nicky on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwallace515
• Allie on Instagram: @alli.maneoasis
• The People Co.: thepeople-co.com
• The Potential Within: thepeople-co.com/potentialwithin

Loved this episode? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts—it helps more women find the show. And share this episode with a friend who’s been waiting for conversations like this.

We have more wellness information, products, supplements, trackers, peptides, and “life-changing” protocols available than ever before—so why do so many of us still feel exhausted, stressed, and disconnected from our bodies?

Following their conversation about becoming an unconscious consumer, Nicky and Allie explore another side of the wellness industry: our tendency to chase advanced optimization while overlooking the basic things our bodies need to function well.

They share their own experiences with burnout, health challenges, anxiety, motherhood, entrepreneurship, and trying to “do everything right” while their bodies were quietly asking for something different. Together, they break wellness back down to five foundational areas: sunlight and nature, movement, breath, sleep, and nutrition.

This episode isn’t about adding another complicated routine to your life. It’s about slowing down, becoming more aware of what your body is telling you, and making small, sustainable changes before buying the next thing promising to fix you.

• Why more optimization doesn’t always lead to feeling better
• How targeted wellness marketing keeps us searching for the next solution
• The difference between supporting your body and overriding its signals
• Why wellness is an ongoing journey—not a finish line
• The five foundational areas your body needs before any advanced “biohack”
• How morning sunlight can support your natural daily rhythm
• Why movement doesn’t have to mean an intense workout
• Using breathwork to regulate stress before a meeting, presentation, or difficult conversation
• Why protecting your sleep is one of the most powerful boundaries you can create
• How nighttime scrolling keeps your mind and body overstimulated
• The connection between food, energy, mood, and overall wellbeing
• Why small, consistent changes are more effective than trying to overhaul your entire life overnight

Before you buy another supplement, tracker, peptide, or wellness product, pause and ask: Have I given my body the foundational things it needs today?

Wellness doesn’t have to be expensive, complicated, or picture-perfect. Start with one small change, pay attention to how you feel, and build from there.

What if you've achieved everything you thought you wanted... and you're still unhappy?

For years, we chased the promotions, bigger paychecks, beautiful homes, impressive titles, and the version of success we were taught to want. From the outside, everything looked perfect.

On the inside? We felt exhausted, disconnected, and completely out of alignment.

In this vulnerable conversation, we're sharing the moments that forced us to ask some uncomfortable questions:

• Whose definition of success am I living?
• What happens when the life you've built no longer feels like yours?
• How do you find your way back to yourself?

We talk about burnout, divorce, entrepreneurship, identity, rebuilding, and the surprising peace that comes from letting go of everyone else's expectations.

If you've ever wondered whether there's "more" to life than checking the next box, this episode is for you.

Whether you're thinking about starting a business or you're already in the middle of building one, this episode is the conversation we wish someone had with us years ago.

This week, Nicky and Allie sit down to share the biggest lessons they've learned throughout their entrepreneurial journeys—from trusting your intuition and making difficult decisions to finding the right people, staying aligned with your values, and learning that success rarely happens overnight.

These aren't strategies from a textbook. They're lessons learned through wins, mistakes, pivots, burnout, growth, and a whole lot of trial and error.

If you've ever questioned whether you're on the right path, felt behind, or wondered if building a business is supposed to feel this hard...this episode is for you.

• Why trusting your intuition may be your greatest business advantage
• The importance of building a business that's aligned with your values, not just profitable
• Why doing everything yourself eventually becomes your biggest bottleneck
• How the people in your circle influence your growth
• Why comparison steals momentum (and what to focus on instead)
• The reality of entrepreneurship that no one talks about
• Building something that lasts instead of chasing quick wins

In a world where we have endless information, products, opinions, and trends available at our fingertips… have we stopped asking ourselves what we actually need?

In this episode of The Within Podcast, Nicky Wallace and Allie Sartain dive into the idea of becoming an “unconscious consumer”, not just with what we buy, but with what we allow into our bodies, minds, schedules, and lives.

From beauty and wellness trends to social media influence, supplements, routines, and even the people around us, we explore how easy it is to start following what everyone else says is “right” instead of reconnecting with our own intuition.

We talk about:

• Why more information doesn’t always lead to better decisions
• The difference between chasing trends and understanding your unique biology
• How epigenetics, functional testing, and data-driven wellness can help you personalize your health journey
• Why your genetics are only part of your story — and how your environment, stress, and lifestyle impact your wellbeing
• The hidden cost of constantly consuming content, products, and other people’s opinions
• How silence, reflection, and simple daily check-ins can help you reconnect with yourself

This conversation isn’t about perfection. It’s not about throwing away every product, deleting social media, or completely changing your life overnight.

It’s an invitation to pause and ask:

Is this actually serving me?

Am I choosing this… or was I just influenced?

Because the more connected you become with yourself, the easier it becomes to build a life, health routine, and environment that actually supports who you are.

Your body is always giving you information. The question is, are you listening?

Connect With Us

Follow along as we continue conversations around leadership, wellbeing, personal growth, and discovering the potential within.

Connect with Nicky
Founder of The People Co. and creator of The Potential Within Summit, Nicky is passionate about helping people and organizations thrive. With a background in HR, leadership, and organizational strategy, she's spent years helping leaders build healthier workplaces—but her own health journey revealed that success means very little without wellbeing. Today, Nicky brings together conversations around leadership, personal growth, and whole-person wellness to help others create lives that are successful and sustainable.

Nicky - Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/nwallace515/

Nicky - Instagram: @Freedomtoleadwell

Connect with Allie
Allie is an Integrative Trichologist and women's health advocate who believes our bodies are always communicating with us—we just need to learn how to listen. Through hair and scalp analysis, functional wellness, and years of working one-on-one with women, she helps uncover the deeper story behind symptoms like hair loss, stress, hormonal imbalances, and fatigue. Her passion is helping women understand their bodies so they can feel empowered to make informed decisions about their health.

Instagram: @Allie.maneoasis

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