Joe Rotondo (founder of SmearCase) left a corporate job to create frozen cottage cheese (Froco). Stay with me, Joe moves with intention and has a huge amount of wisdom to share for career shifters or early-stage founders. Joe has shifted from exercise science to sustainable denim to bagels to corporate and now to disrupting the ice cream aisle.

This one's about betting on yourself, knowing when to quit versus persevere, and building a business around your life instead of the other way round.

Key quotes

📚 Books mentioned

• Atomic Habits — James Clear
• Awaken the Giant Within — Tony Robbins
• Extreme Ownership — Jocko Willink
• Alex Hormozi (referenced for the "confidence = receipts" idea)

If you're saying to yourself, "I'll do it when the timing is better " then dive in.

Megan Black and Eliana Field-Marsham are childhood friends turned co-founders of Sonni, a next-generation mineral sunscreen brand they launched 11 months ago. Before that: Estée Lauder, McKinsey, Little Spoon, and two MBAs between them.

We get into:

1. what it actually feels like to leave a job you love;
2. how a solo founder became a co-founding partnership;
3. the consideration of the female biological clock and career paths; and
4. why "not now" quietly becomes "not ever" if you let it.

Listen in to the reality of building something from the ground up — in real time.

Find Sonni at https://sonniskin.com/ and @sonniskin on Instagram.

Debs Brocklesby was a performance analyst for the New Zealand Olympic Cycling team — a specialised, high-achieving role she'd built her identity around. She's now the founder of Stoked NZ, a multi-million dollar towlie company that started from her garage.

In this episode, we get into:

1. What it feels like to be stuck in a job that looks great on paper
2. How Debs let go of who she was professionally and started over
3. Limiting beliefs — and why they don't disappear when things start working
4. Rebuilding after your original career dreams are dashed
5. How to press forward in the face of adversity
6. How she built Stoked NZ from her spare room with no money, no business background, and no plan B
7. What it means to build something genuinely purposeful — not just profitable

Debs resource recs:

Start With Why — Simon Sinek (book)
Chapter One — Daniel Flynn, founder of Thank You Social Enterprise (book — the one that's horizontal instead of vertical)
A vision board — and the practice of writing a letter to yourself as if your goals have already happened (a practice she learned from her psychology mentor)

If you're stuck on a career ladder you've climbed and can't quite see how to get off it, give this a listen.

This is the most-requested topic I've had on the show!

Most people think building wealth means starting a business from scratch or climbing a ladder for thirty years. There's a third path that often flies under the radar.

My guest Brandon Lipman has bought 12+ businesses across various fields and now coaches others to do the same, even if they've never run a business before. He started out in finance at a bank, realised at 25 his future there was capped, left, and along the way discovered he was already doing what investment bankers get paid millions for: acquiring businesses.

In this conversation, we get into:

• What ETA (Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition) actually is, and why it's more accessible than you think
• Why buying a business is often smarter than starting one
• The #1 mistake first-time buyers make
• How long it actually takes to find and buy the right business
• How to finance a deal when you don't have the cash yourself — and how to find an investor who'll back you
• What to do in your first months as a new owner (and what not to do)
• How to build the self-belief muscle you need before you buy

Whether you're thinking about your first move, don't know how to fund it, or just want to learn how smart people build wealth differently — Brandon's here to meet you where you are.

🔗 Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Brandon's free online course on how to buy a business — Link here
• Follow Brandon for bite-sized tips on IG - Instagram
• Ep 22 of Good Shift with Adam Stewart (Compound Wealth) — Adam introduced me to Brandon and his episode on compounding wealth is the perfect companion listen to this one.

If this episode made you think differently about your next move, share it with one person who needs to hear it. And if you're not subscribed yet — hit follow so you don't miss what's coming.

Find me on Instagram @goodshiftpodcast and let me know who you want to hear from next.

Nikki Creasy spent nine years working her way from intern to account director at a PR agency. Then Covid, a restructure and a personal itch she couldn't ignore led her to launch Peachy Lip Co.

In this episode: how Nikki transitioned from employee to contractor to freelancer to founder, what it actually cost to get a cosmetics brand off the ground, the marketing tactics that grew her community to 30K+ on Instagram, navigating cash flow as a first-time founder, gift-with-purchase and product swap strategies, cutting underperforming product lines to survive, and why founder-led content is non-negotiable for e-commerce brands.

Mentioned in this episode: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight | Find a founder you admire and listen to every podcast they've been on — that was Nikki's playbook.

Find Peachy Lip Co: @peachylipco_ on Instagram | peachy-lipco.com

If you've been sitting on a big life change but can't quite pull the trigger, this one's for you.

Maddie Ireland is an empowerment coach, entrepreneur and reformed self-doubter who spent over a decade building her dream life in LA before making the terrifying leap back to Australia at 35 — no plan, no partner, no idea where she'd even live.

In this episode we dig into:

• How to move somewhere new and actually build community from scratch
• The concept of "expanders" and why the people around you are everything
• What it really looks like to start over in your mid-thirties
• How to reframe your situation when everyone else looks more "settled"
• The mindset shift that creates the most change (and how to use it daily)
• Building a coaching business from zero
• Dating with intention when you know what you want

Books mentioned:

• Atomic Habits — James Clear
• The Big Leap — Gay Hendricks

Find Maddie at https://www.maddieireland.com/ or on Instagram @madeleine_lucy

Your playbook to becoming a side-hustle founder — and building real momentum without having to quit your day job.

Amelia Jory is a high performer in corporate (having held roles as a Senior Brand Manager at NZ’s most successful companies) and the founder of Dulesé — a NZ personal care brand disrupting the category with all-natural, high-performing products and refillable, eco-friendly packaging.

We cover:

• How to know if building alongside corporate is the right path for you
• The early signals that something “more” is calling you
• The trade-offs of side-hustle growth (and what it really costs)
• How Amelia finds time, sets boundaries, and avoids burnout
• The systems that keep Dulesé moving forward week to week
• Money, risk, and what traction looked like early on
• What it would take for Amelia to go all-in — and how she thinks about that decision

If you are feeling stuck on "corporate autopilot" or worried that AI is coming for your paycheck, this episode is your survival guide for the new digital economy.

In this episode, we dive into:

• The "Shedding" Process: How to detach your self-worth from your job title and rebuild from a blank slate.
• The Reality of AI Today: Why Meghana changed her mind and now admits that AI is taking jobs—and exactly what you need to do to be on the right side of that shift.
• Pivoting Without Code: How AI is democratizing tech by allowing us to communicate with machines in natural language, making this the best time in history for "non-technical" people to enter the industry.
• Personal Branding as a Shield: Why doubling down on your humanity and authentic communication is the only way to remain "un-automatable."
• Building a Personal Platform: The tactical differences between growing on LinkedIn vs. Instagram and why "good things happen to those who post."
• The "Ikigai" Framework: Marrying your internal moral compass (Dharma) with your external strengths to find a career that actually feels fulfilling.

Whether you're looking to launch a freelance advisory business or just want to future-proof your current role, Meghana's tactical advice will help you move with confidence.