Founders Future

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we sit down with Zachary Dolenar, founder of Leaping Lemur Media, to explore his journey from working across traditional marketing agencies to building a business that challenges the “cookie-cutter” approach. After nearly 15 years in the industry, Zachary realized that most agencies were offering the same services without meaningful differentiation, which pushed him to create a more personalized, audience-first strategy focused on real impact rather than generic tactics.

He dives into his philosophy of authentic, community-driven marketing—prioritizing where the audience truly is instead of blindly following trends like S...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we sit down with Nikki Woods, founder of The Reinvention Method, to explore her journey from a 25-year career in radio and media to building a business focused on helping high-achieving women rediscover themselves while growing their influence. Nikki shares how her experience in broadcasting exposed her to the power of platforms and visibility, ultimately inspiring her to help others create their own space where they don’t have to “ask for a seat at the table.”

She dives into the connection between personal identity and business succes...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we sit down with Sir Woods, founder of SWC, to explore his journey from studying computer science during university to launching a creative agency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sir shares how witnessing small businesses struggle with marketing and visibility during that time inspired him to develop his skills and build a company focused on helping mission-driven founders tell their stories and connect with their audiences more effectively.

He dives into SWC’s partnership-driven approach, working closely with clients in sectors like healthcare and live events to develop ta...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we sit down with Sabrina Avellán, founder of Sabrina Avellán, to explore her journey from starting as a virtual assistant to becoming a coach helping high-achieving women transform how they operate. Sabrina shares how early success in systems and operations led her to support founders behind the scenes, but a series of life-altering experiences—including personal loss, health challenges, and burnout—pushed her to reevaluate not just her business, but her entire approach to life and performance.

She dives into her philosophy of shifting from time m...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Coach Dan Gordon, founder of Dan Gordon Enterprise, shares his powerful journey from losing his marketing business and hitting a personal low point to rebuilding his life and identity through coaching and personal development. After realizing that his previous career felt misaligned despite his success, Dan made the decision to start over—leading him to rediscover his true calling in helping others transform their lives through mindset, identity, and belief work.

He dives into his coaching philosophy, which centers on identifying and reshaping limiting beliefs as the fo...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Niamh Cassidy, IBCLC, founder of Your BirthBiz, shares how her journey from working in social care to becoming a lactation consultant led her into entrepreneurship. While building her own practice alongside raising her children, Niamh discovered a gap—many talented birth professionals struggled to grow sustainable businesses despite their passion and expertise. This realization inspired her to create Your BirthBiz, where she now helps others in the birth and postpartum space turn their skills into thriving, aligned businesses.

She dives into her relational coaching approach, emphasizing the im...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Karolina Rzadkowolska, founder of Euphoric AF, shares her journey from working in a university setting with limiting beliefs about entrepreneurship to building a thriving business rooted in personal transformation. After reevaluating her relationship with alcohol through a simple “Dry January,” Karolina experienced a powerful identity shift that unlocked confidence, clarity, and creativity—ultimately leading her to pursue entrepreneurship and help others do the same.

She dives into how going alcohol-free became the catalyst for deeper self-belief, enabling her to write a book, launch programs, and empower women to ste...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Jaime Filer, founder of Filer Fitness, shares how her lifelong passion for movement led her to build a purpose-driven fitness business focused on transformation beyond the physical. With a background in kinesiology and over two decades in the fitness space, Jaime explains how she turned her calling into a specialized coaching program designed primarily for high-achieving women in the LGBTQ community who have deprioritized their health due to demanding careers and responsibilities.

She dives into her unique approach centered on nervous system regulation, emphasizing that sustainable fitness...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Colin Christensen, founder of Founders Academy under Startup Science, shares his lifelong journey as an entrepreneur—starting his first business at just 10 years old and going on to build and mentor across more than 15 ventures. Through working with over 2,500 founders globally, Colin identified recurring patterns behind why startups fail, which led him to develop a structured approach to help early-stage entrepreneurs avoid common mistakes and build stronger foundations from day one.

He dives into how Founders Academy was born from global initiatives, including supporting entrepreneurs in developing co...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we sit down with Gurpreet Mann, founder of GKM Coaching, to explore her journey from over 20 years in HR to building a high-impact career and executive coaching business. What began as an organic side hustle—helping professionals with resumes, interviews, and LinkedIn—quickly evolved into a full-scale business after a pivotal moment in her life. Following the loss of her father, Gurpreet re-evaluated her purpose and committed to making a meaningful impact, leading her to help professionals not just land jobs, but transform thei...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Mark Phinick, founder of Let’s Make It Rain, shares how his decades of experience in enterprise software sales and leadership led him to build a revenue acceleration firm focused on helping founders and sales teams close stalled deals. After working with major organizations like IBM and HCL, Mark recognized a consistent gap—companies had strong interest and pipeline, but struggled with conversion, leaving deals stuck in limbo.

He dives into his approach to deal coaching, emphasizing clarity, strategic communication, and empowering internal champions to sell solutions with...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Vanya Koonce shares how her background in psychology and personal development led her to create Be Yourself (BU Leadership and Team Development Coaching). After years of working with individuals and organizations, she built a coaching practice rooted in helping people gain clarity, confidence, and a deeper understanding of themselves—both personally and professionally.

Vanya explains how her focus has shifted toward supporting high-performing young professionals and leaders who face increasing pressure and responsibility early in their careers. By combining one-on-one coaching, group work, and new AI...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Ross Stockdale shares how his career evolved from early SEO experimentation into leading marketing strategy and building multiple businesses. After gaining experience across startups, agencies, and private equity—where he helped scale operations to millions in revenue—Ross transitioned into entrepreneurship to create a more flexible, leveraged lifestyle.

Through Thunderstock Marketing, he works as a fractional CMO helping businesses bring structure and strategy to their growth, while Swim Solutions focuses on making enterprise-level AI tools accessible to small and mid-sized businesses. By narrowing down specific nich...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Chelsea Rosner, founder of Be Your Own Black Sheep, shares her journey from a career in occupational therapy to building a life and business centered on authenticity and personal freedom. After facing burnout, workplace challenges, and a pivotal life moment that forced her to reevaluate her priorities, Chelsea made the bold decision to leave her traditional path and create a business that aligned with her values, family life, and individuality.

She dives into her approach to helping ambitious entrepreneurs uncover their unique identity and natural strengths, emphasizing...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Morgan Phelps, founder of Sage Creatives, shares her unconventional journey into entrepreneurship and marketing. Starting with a background in digital forensics, Morgan faced early career challenges, including difficulty breaking into the industry and setbacks during COVID-19. These experiences ultimately led her to pivot into marketing, where she discovered a passion for data, strategy, and the psychology behind growth, eventually building her own agency and stepping into a fractional CMO role.

She dives into how she helps 7- and 8-figure founders move beyond chaotic, reactive marketing into structured...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Brenda Johnston shares how her background in corporate marketing led her to a deeper calling in leadership coaching and personal transformation. Despite achieving external success, Brenda found herself feeling unfulfilled—an experience that pushed her to explore the impact of subconscious beliefs and identity alignment. This pivotal realization became the foundation of her work today, where she helps individuals reconnect with their true selves and redefine success on their own terms.

Brenda dives into her approach to supporting high-performing women who feel stuck, exhausted, or disconnected despite ou...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Mark Matthews—psychologist and high-performance coach—shares the deeply personal journey that shaped his path into coaching and human development. After losing his mother at a young age, Mark became driven to understand growth, purpose, and leadership, ultimately pursuing a PhD in psychology and dedicating his life to helping others unlock their full potential through meaningful transformation.

Mark dives into his relationship-driven approach to coaching, moving beyond one-size-fits-all frameworks to support individuals—especially founders—in navigating growth, identity, and leadership. He also shares his philosophy on creating world-cl...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we sit down with Deborah Cobb, founder of Root & Bloom Holistics, to explore her journey from hands-on bodywork to building a digital business centered around nervous system regulation. Starting her career as a massage therapist, Deborah developed a deep understanding of how the body responds to stress and the importance of helping people feel safe and regulated. After a career pause due to injury and the impact of COVID, she pivoted into online coaching—transforming her expertise into scalable programs focused on long-term he...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Nyoka Samuels, founder of Nyoka Nicole Samuels Coaching and Consulting, shares her journey from over 20 years in healthcare—spanning bedside nursing to nurse education—into building a consulting business focused on transforming leadership and organizational culture. Through her experience, she recognized that healthcare doesn’t suffer from a lack of knowledge, but rather a gap in culture, where burnout, turnover, and lack of psychological safety continue to impact both staff and patient outcomes.

She dives into her mission to empower healthcare organizations by developing nurse educators as strate...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Falyn Berkowitz, founder of FALYN MIKALA CO., shares her unconventional journey from studying pre-med to traveling the world on superyachts and eventually building a coaching business rooted in mindset, energetics, and personal transformation. Through her experiences facilitating wellness retreats, Falyn noticed a recurring pattern—people would experience breakthroughs but struggle to sustain them—leading her to explore deeper, long-term transformation methods that integrate mindset, energy, and subconscious work.

She dives into how she now helps ambitious women break free from limiting beliefs, reconnect with themselves, and step into...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Justin Reich shares how his background in athletics and strength coaching led him into the world of metabolic health and performance optimization. After years of working with clients and studying data-driven fitness, Justin experienced a major life shift following a severe head injury—one that deepened his understanding of recovery, resilience, and the body’s capacity to heal.

Through New Level Peptides, Justin now helps founders, executives, and high-performing individuals identify and address the root causes of their health challenges. By combining metabolic assessments, personalized prot...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Rachna Adyanthaya shares how her journey through high-pressure careers in law and investment banking ultimately led her to launch Create My Change. After years of experience and personal transformation, she stepped into coaching with a mission to help others navigate clarity, identity, and purpose—especially during major life transitions.

Rachna explains her unique approach to coaching, focusing on clearing mental space, identifying behavioral patterns, and building sustainable systems for growth. Rather than offering rigid frameworks, she tailors her process to each individual—guiding clients through deep...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Victoria Di Cicco shares how her passion for fitness evolved into building WellFit Coaching—a holistic health and strength coaching business designed for women. After gaining experience in personal training and working in a leading integrative healthcare clinic, she developed a deeper understanding of how different aspects of health work together to create lasting transformation.

Victoria explains her personalized approach to coaching, where she blends strength training with nutrition and lifestyle coaching to help women achieve long-term results. Rather than focusing solely on workouts, she em...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, Dana Earhart shares how her background in corporate consulting and leadership development led her to build a business centered on helping founders grow with intention. After realizing that traditional career success didn’t fully align with the life she wanted, Dana made the transition into entrepreneurship—creating a consulting practice that blends business strategy with personal growth.

Through Dana Earhart Consulting, she works with service-based business owners across multiple industries, helping them scale from six to seven and even eight figures. Her approach focuses on stre...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we’re joined by Sarah Janzen, founder of Her Big Leap, who shares her journey from climbing the corporate ladder in sales and marketing to building a business that empowers women to leave corporate and create their own path. After years of success on paper—high-level roles, international travel, and financial stability—Sarah found herself burned out, unfulfilled, and questioning whether the traditional definition of success was truly worth it.

Sarah dives into how she now helps women, particularly those over 40, transition out of corporate by combining strate...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we’re joined by Rachael Gingery, founder of Meant for More Coaching, a transformational coaching practice helping individuals move from feeling stuck or undervalued into clarity, confidence, and purpose-driven careers. Rachael shares her unconventional journey—from working in Child Protective Services and experiencing burnout, to starting over in tech recruiting, and ultimately launching her own coaching business after being laid off. Her story is one of resilience, reinvention, and trusting the process, even through life-altering challenges.

Rachael dives into how she helps clients land...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we’re joined by Youssef Mekawy, founder of Ummah Career Lab, a career coaching and professional development platform dedicated to helping Muslim professionals and students build value-aligned careers. Youssef shares his journey from studying translation and human resources to working in higher education across the U.S., where he combined his passion for career development, coaching, and community leadership to create a platform that bridges identity, faith, and professional growth.

Youssef dives into his mission of helping individuals—particularly Muslim youth and immigrant comm...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we’re joined by Zaheer Merali, executive coach, strategic advisor, and author, who shares his journey from strategy consulting, banking, and venture spaces into deeply transformative coaching work. After experiencing personal burnout and hitting a breaking point despite professional success, Zaheer discovered that the real challenge for founders and leaders isn’t external strategy—but their internal operating system, shaping how they think, react, and lead.

Zaheer dives into how emotional patterns like fear and pressure often create hidden bottlenecks in decision-making, and how his work f...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Natalie Borovska, we’re joined by Jennifer Donohue, M.A., LCMHC, a cognitive behavioral and reality-based therapist with over 20 years of experience. Jennifer shares her direct, accountability-driven approach to treating anxiety and ADHD, emphasizing action over over-identification with diagnosis. Through what she calls The Donohue Approach, she helps clients separate themselves from their symptoms, shifting language from “I have anxiety” to “I experience symptoms of anxiety” — a subtle but powerful mindset shift that fosters empowerment and progress.

Jennifer also opens up about building a private practice in...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, we’re joined by Mohammad Ali Khan, founder and CEO of Unimind Studios, a digital marketing agency focused on helping small businesses grow through organic strategies. Mohammad shares how his journey began in the auto parts industry in Pakistan and evolved into digital marketing after recognizing the massive shift to online business during the pandemic. By leveraging his own e-commerce experience, he developed a deep understanding of how to generate leads and scale businesses across both local and international markets.

He dives into hi...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we’re joined by Angie Bee, founder of Her Way Society, a transformational coaching movement centered on identity, self-leadership, and purpose-led entrepreneurship. Angie shares her deeply personal journey—from early childhood trauma and a career in social work to burnout, business misalignment, and ultimately rebuilding her work around intuition, self-trust, and decision-making without permission.

The conversation explores Angie’s philosophy that sustainable businesses are built from identity first, not strategy alone. She breaks down how unlearning societal conditioning, releasing people-pleasing roles, and ta...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Zach Young, we’re joined by Madonna Williams, yoga trainer, author of Zen Soul Your Life, and founder of Zen Soul Academy on Australia’s Gold Coast. Madonna shares her powerful journey from health and physical education teacher, performer, and talent agent to fully stepping into her calling as a yoga educator and spiritual guide. After a life-altering horse accident in 1993 and the profound personal losses that followed, she immersed herself in meditation, breathwork, and yoga philosophy—experiences that reshaped her path and ignited a lifelo...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, we’re joined by Richard Harris, Founder of Harris Consulting Group and creator of the NEAT Selling framework. Richard shares how an unexpected career turn—getting laid off—led him into consulting, ultimately building a successful business rooted in decades of sales experience. From working his first sales job at The Gap to advising top companies like Salesforce and Zoom, Richard walks us through how he carved his own path in the world of B2B sales.

He dives into the realities of building a consul...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, we’re joined by Gabriella Cacciatore, a trauma-informed coach, author of Unbroken, and corporate wellness facilitator. Gabriella shares her deeply personal journey—from working as a personal trainer to navigating repressed trauma that reshaped her life and purpose. Through her own healing process, she developed a unique, body-based approach that now helps others process trauma, reconnect with themselves, and live more authentically.

She dives into how she built her business around authenticity, referrals, and energetic alignment rather than traditional marketing tactics. Gabriella also shares her expa...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we sit down with Kimberly Joy, founder of The FEW (Fellowship of Extraordinary Women), a faith-driven community empowering women to step into leadership, confidence, and purpose. Kimberly shares how her journey into entrepreneurship wasn’t about solving a problem—but fulfilling a calling. After struggling with fear of rejection and repeatedly quitting past ventures, she found the courage to build a purpose-led community that has now grown into a thriving network of women across the U.S.

Today, Kimberly supports mission-driven women through mentorship, certifications, publ...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we sit down with Tanya Hagre, a remote business mentor and seven-figure strategist in the e-commerce space, to explore her journey from a decade-long career in healthcare and public health to building a flexible, purpose-driven business. After realizing that the traditional corporate path didn’t align with the life she envisioned, Tanya began building on the side—despite early failures, including losing everything in a brick-and-mortar franchise. Through persistence and reinvention, she eventually found her niche in e-commerce and mentoring, creating a business model centered on s...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, we’re joined by Leo O’Brien, founder of AdScriptly, a platform focused on helping marketers and agencies improve ad performance through better data and automation. Leo shares his journey from working in digital marketing roles across multiple industries to building his own solution that addresses a critical gap in advertising—tracking real business outcomes beyond surface-level metrics.

Leo dives into how AdScriptly empowers agencies to optimize campaigns based on revenue-driven data, while also exploring the transition from consulting to a scalable SaaS model. He discus...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we sit down with Paulina Siegel and Andrea Taylor, founders of Unravel & Rise, to explore their journey from licensed therapists to building a transformational coaching program designed to help high-performing professionals overcome burnout. After working closely with executives, founders, and leaders in their private practices, they began to notice a recurring pattern—high achievers who looked successful on the outside but were mentally, emotionally, and physically depleted. This realization led them to create a 90-day program focused on nervous system regulation an...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we sit down with Brandon King, founder of Churlish Media, to explore his journey from creating simple content for a local gym to building a full-service storytelling and lead generation agency. What started as a casual experiment quickly turned into a thriving business as Brandon discovered the power of combining cinematic storytelling with strategic marketing. Without initially planning to become an entrepreneur, he followed opportunities, refined his craft, and built a company rooted in hands-on collaboration and real client results.

Brandon...

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we sit down with Dana Kushnir, Digital Coach & Story Alchemist, and founder of Mantra Digital House, to explore her journey from a background in music into becoming a storytelling-driven marketing strategist. Dana shares how her natural shift from creative production into content and marketing led her to discover her true calling—helping brands communicate their message with clarity and purpose. With entrepreneurship running in her family, she embraced building her own business while balancing motherhood, ultimately reshaping her priorities and approach to...