Your Best Friends in Business

John Weiss started working in ad agencies at 19 and sold his first company, a user experience studio in Portland, before he turned 30. He was so burned out that he swore he would never own a business again. Then, at 34, he started Human Design, a Boulder agency built to “move the human race,” with clients like Nike, VF Corp, and the Center for AI Safety.

In this episode, John opens up about engineering his first exit, why he took on a seven-year lease and a big build-out right before COVID, and what the pandemic taught him about the difference between optics and real work. He also shares what he teaches at CU Boulder about AI, why he thinks “the magic’s in the edit,” and the one thing he’d do differently as a founder. Plus: his mantra for coming home and showing up.

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Your Best Friends in Business is produced by West + Main Homes in partnership with Pod People

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In 2020, Doug and Amy Yetman bought four neglected acres in Lakewood, Colorado with a rundown house, a broken septic system, and a whole lot of potential. But that leap came after 15 years building the Horseshoe Market, one of Denver’s most beloved maker markets, from a parking lot on Tennyson Street to 200+ vendors and a two-day Broncos Stadium event. Then COVID hit. And it was time for something new.

In this episode, Doug and Amy open up about what it really took to build and sell the Horseshoe Market, why Amy had to work with a coach just to emotionally let it go, how they found the perfect buyer on a business listing site, and what it’s like to start over again and again.

In this episode

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Doug and Any Yetman

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Your Best Friends in Business is produced by West + Main Homes in partnership with Pod People

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Erin Bradley hit six figures as a mortgage lender. Then she burned out completely. What she built on the other side — a coaching business, a bestselling book, a podcast, and a life in the mountains of Winter Park — became the proof of concept for everything she now teaches real estate professionals across the country.

In this episode, Erin opens up about what burnout actually looked like from the inside, why she believes joy is a legitimate business strategy, how she built Pursuing Freedom into a platform serving thousands of realtors and lenders without sacrificing the life she moved to Colorado to live, and why “doing less” might be the most radical thing a founder can do.

In this episode

Show Notes: 

Erin Bradley

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Your Best Friends in Business is produced by West + Main Homes in partnership with Pod People

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Kady Zinke started with $500, a Kickstarter, and a problem she noticed dancing on an NBA floor: women in sports deserved better fashion. What followed was anything but a straight line: an engineer who stole her funds, a group of exiled Mormon seamstresses sewing NFL uniforms in the Colorado mountains, seven trips to Shanghai, a patent, a burnout so severe she flew to South America, and eventually a Denver Broncos licensing deal that became the fastest women’s sell-out in franchise history.

In this episode, Kady opens up about building a category that didn’t exist, why she rebranded from Furious Viola to KadyLuxe, what she found on the other side of burnout, and how “high-vibration clothing” is the next chapter of a brand she has refused to let be ordinary.

In this episode

Show Notes: 

Kady Zinke

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Shop KadyLuxe: kadyluxe.com

Your Best Friends in Business is produced by West + Main Homes in partnership with Pod People

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No guest this week … just two best friends, nine months of business partnership, and a producer-designed game show built to test it all. To close out Season 1, Madie and Stacie turn the mic on themselves, going head-to-head in the Newlywed Game, Would You Rather, and a Guess That Guest trivia round pulled from quotes across the season.

Along the way, they land on the real stuff: honesty over niceness in a partnership, why they'd always choose a loyal employee over a big client, growing "twice as sustainable" instead of twice as fast, and the zero-door, zero-budget, no-Plan-B mentality that built West + Main Homes from the ground up. Plus, the loser has to work a hostess shift at their new restaurant—and the winner gets to name the first flavor of "Big Cookie."

It's a lighthearted, unfiltered look at what actually makes a business partnership work, and a proper send-off to a season full of incredible founders.

In this episode:

(00:00) Show Intro: Trivia Showdown

(02:54) Round 1: Newlywed Game

(11:33) Round 2: Would You Rather

(14:25) Clients vs Unicorn Employees

(24:25) Round 3: Guess the Guest 

(27:20) Winner Announced: Big Cookie Reveal

Show Notes:

Your Best Friends in Business is produced by West + Main Homes in partnership with Pod People

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Eric Sachs spent 13 years as a Fort Collins police detective before trading his badge for a real estate license — and eventually building two companies he'd go on to sell. First came Infinity Group Realty, which he and his best friend grew to 40+ agents before an acquisition in 2010. Then came the real story: Breakthrough Broker, a free tool for real estate agents funded not by users but by industry partners, bootstrapped with Eric's police pension and grown to over 650,000 agent profiles before its own acquisition.

In this episode, Eric opens up about turning down VC money, going through three failed acquisition talks before the one that stuck, why hiring the right acquisition attorney was the best money he ever spent, and how being "not desperate" to sell ended up being exactly what got the deal done. Plus: what 13 years in law enforcement taught him about trust, sales, and keeping perspective when the stakes in business just aren't life or death.

In this episode

(00:00) Show Intro

(00:54) Group Chat Catch Up

(02:50) Meet Eric: The First Exit

(06:31) Building Breakthrough Broker

(22:34) Founder to Founder: Cop Lessons

(29:55) Mantra of the Week: My Daughter Hears This Often

Show Notes: 

Your Best Friends in Business is produced by West + Main Homes in partnership with Pod People

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By 35, Mike Michalowicz had built and sold two multimillion-dollar companies. He became an angel investor with his winnings—and lost everything. Out of that collapse came Profit First, one of the most widely used small business money systems in the world, followed by a string of bestsellers (The Pumpkin Plan, Clockwork, Fix This Next, Get Different). His newest book, The Money Habit, takes that same thinking and points it at personal finances instead of business ones.

Stacie Staub and Madie Linder talk with Mike about "entrepreneurial poverty," the behavioral trick that fixed his own money habits, why every business has one weak link worth finding, and the mindset shift behind teaching what you most need to learn.

In this episode

(00:00) Show Intro

(00:54) Group Chat Catch Up

(02:51) Meet Mike: Explains Profit First

(18:47) Bank Level Profit First

(25:30) Founder to Founder: Money Truths And Weak Links

(34:37) Mantra of the Week: Favorite Oscar Wilde Quote

Show Notes: 

Your Best Friends in Business is produced by West + Main Homes in partnership with Pod People

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Don't miss an episode! Subscribe NOW @Your Best Friends in Business

Marguerite Martin has sold homes in Tacoma since 2005, but in 2015 she started a side project (a blog and podcast called Move to Tacoma) just to give people an honest, neighborhood-level look at a city most outsiders didn't know much about. That side project turned her into a local celebrity (and, at times, the accidental face of Tacoma's gentrification debate), and it changed how she thought about her own job. Instead of trying to do every deal herself, she became a matchmaker — connecting buyers and sellers with the right agent for their goals.

Stacie Staub and Madie Linder talk with Marguerite about identifying (and saying no to) your ideal client, why AI search is the new SEO, and the mindset shift behind building a business that supports your life instead of running it.

In this episode

(00:00) Show Intro

(00:53) Group Chat Catch Up

(03:16) Meet Marguerite: She Reinvents Real Estate

(15:46) Founder to Founder: Referral Fit and Niches

(25:30) AI Search and Values

(28:48) Mantra of the Week: Document Your Story

Show Notes: 

Your Best Friends in Business is produced by West + Main Homes in partnership with Pod People

Stay Connected: 

Don't miss an episode! Subscribe NOW @Your Best Friends in Business

Jen Jasinski trained under Wolfgang Puck, opened Rioja in Denver's Larimer Square in 2004, and spent the next 20 years building a five-concept restaurant group with business partner Beth Gruitch. This led to them earning a James Beard Award and a Top Chef Masters title along the way. 

Then, right as Rioja established itself as a staple the same year it turned 20, she and Beth did something founders rarely do: they stepped back.

Stacie Staub and Madie Linder sit down with Jen to talk about building a 26-year business partnership, the real economics of running a restaurant right now, and why she never wanted a luxurious expansion plan when having to walk away from two of her own restaurants.

In this episode

(00:00) Show Intro

(00:52) Coffee Shop to Restaurant Chaos

(02:59) Meet Jen Jasinski and Rioja Origins

(12:13) Partnership Lanes and Smart Growth

(19:05) Euclid Hall Memories

(20:42) Founder Lessons and Denver Economics

(27:09) Scaling Back and Staying Curious

(32:32) Mantra of the week

Show Notes: 

Your Best Friends in Business is produced by West + Main Homes in partnership with Pod People

Stay Connected: 

Don't miss an episode! Subscribe NOW @Your Best Friends in Business

Sarah Ortega grew up behind the counter at her mother's Albuquerque jewelry boutique, watching her mom sell out of a literal shoebox at swim meets. She opened her own small shop on Tennyson Street in Denver in 2006 with $800 and no inventory budget, and has since built Sarah O. Jewelry into two showrooms, a global online community, and a brand built on the idea that everyone deserves to feel seen.

Stacie Staub and Madie Linder sit down with Sarah to talk about the hard decision to close her first store to focus on what she really loved, watching Tennyson Street change around her, and the moment one of her pieces landed on the red carpet at the Oscars.

In this episode

(00:00) Show Intro

(00:52) Group Chat Catch Up

(02:57) Meet Sarah of Sarah O Jewelry 

(25:16) Founder to Founder: Lab-Grown Diamonds 

(38:10) The Sarah O Announcement 

(41:31) Mantra of the Week

Show Notes: 

Your Best Friends in Business is produced by West + Main Homes in partnership with Pod People

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