エピソード

  • Betting the House on Ice Cream: How Toa Green Built Crank & Boom Ice Cream

    Betting the House on Ice Cream: How Toa Green Built Crank & Boom Ice Cream
    2026/05/06
    What if the best business you build is the one built around your life—not the other way around? In this live episode of Renegade Ventures Podcast, Ellie sits down with Toa Green, founder of Crank & Boom Ice Cream, to unpack her unconventional journey from her family’s restaurant to building one of Lexington’s most loved ice cream brands. What started with a $60 ice cream maker and a homemade coconut ice cream recipe inside a Thai restaurant grew into a thriving brand with multiple locations, nationwide shipping, and a fiercely loyal customer base. But this conversation is about more than ice cream. Toa shares the realities of entrepreneurship: taking calculated risks, surviving failed ideas, navigating seasonal cash flow, and learning that business doesn’t get easier—you just get better at doing hard things. Ellie and Toa dig into what it really means to scale without losing your soul, why defining your dream life matters before defining your growth plan, and how to build a business that supports the life you actually want. If you’re in a season of growth, uncertainty, or reinvention, this episode will challenge the way you think about success, failure, and what’s worth building.
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    1分未満
  • Biscuits, Branding & Bold Bets: Lauren Coulter’s Path to Franchising

    Biscuits, Branding & Bold Bets: Lauren Coulter’s Path to Franchising
    2026/04/22
    What does it actually take to go from running restaurants to building a franchise brand? In this episode of Renegade Ventures, Lauren Coulter shares the evolution of Biscuit Belly—from early-stage growth without a clear strategy to a more intentional, systems-driven approach to scaling. She breaks down the realities of franchising, including what changes as an operator, how to think about partners and unit economics, and why delivering a consistent guest experience is one of the hardest parts of growth. Lauren also talks about “climbing Cringe Mountain”—the uncomfortable but necessary process of growing as a leader while building in real time. A candid conversation for founders thinking about scaling, franchising, or building a brand that lasts.
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    1分未満
  • From Conflict to Clarity: Leading Through Divorce and Business Breakup

    From Conflict to Clarity: Leading Through Divorce and Business Breakup
    2026/04/01
    Ellie and Maggie welcome Mary Kay Shields, owner of Triple Crown Dentistry in Louisville, to discuss the often-unspoken reality of owning a business with a spouse and navigating divorce alongside a partnership split. Mary shares her path from starting her dental practice in 2012 to expanding into a larger, purchased 8,000-square-foot building in 2019, and how differing leadership styles created team division and conflict despite years of intensive counseling. After deciding the marriage and business partnership couldn’t continue, she describes employee turnover, the relief of resolved conflict, and rebuilding culture and leadership through executive groups like Vistage. Mary also recounts a major mistake made during a tax-related entity change when she unintentionally documented 50/50 ownership, complicating the divorce and buyout, and emphasizes leaning on experts—attorneys, accountants, and advisors—and following through on their guidance. 00:00 Podcast Catch Up 01:10 Meet Mary Shields 03:45 Mary’s Dental Journey 06:25 Building The Practice 09:21 Marriage And Leadership Rift 14:10 Decision To Separate 16:45 Rebuilding With Vistage 22:46 The 50 Percent Mistake 28:42 New Culture And Confidence 32:28 Advice For Business Divorce 35:33 Behind the Scenes Shoutouts 36:15 Why This Topic Matters 38:16 Meeting Through Vistage 38:59 Marys Dental Journey 41:47 Building the Practice Together 44:40 When Partnership Breaks Down 49:36 Divorce Decision and Team Fallout 53:39 Rebuilding Leadership and Culture 58:43 The 50 Percent Ownership Mistake 01:04:35 Confidence Returns and New Culture 01:08:43 Advice for Others Mid Divorce 01:10:21 Final Thanks and Wrap Up
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    32 分
  • From Collapse to Comeback: How Jodi Scott Took Green Goo Back

    From Collapse to Comeback: How Jodi Scott Took Green Goo Back
    2026/03/18
    Jodi Scott didn’t just build Green Goo—she fought to get it back. On this episode of Renegade Ventures, Ellie Puckett and Maggie Harlow sit down with the founder of Green Goo, a plant-based first aid company created alongside her herbalist mother and midwife sister to challenge conventional, chemical-heavy products. Jodi shares her unexpected path from pre-med and health psychology into entrepreneurship, scaling Green Goo from farmers markets to national retail at lightning speed. But rapid growth came with risk—when COVID hit, a business built on retail nearly collapsed overnight. What followed was a high-stakes pivot to direct-to-consumer, a partnership gone wrong, and an 18-month battle to buy her company back and rebuild it from the ground up. This is a story about resilience, reinvention, and why small businesses—when led with purpose—refuse to stay down. 00:00 Welcome and Setup 00:41 Origin Story Green Goo 01:54 First Entrepreneurial Leap 02:56 From Kitchen to Market 05:30 Rapid Retail Expansion 06:11 COVID Pivot to DTC 07:08 Choosing a Partner 09:09 Retail Playbook Lessons 12:40 Scaling and FDA Path 15:05 Deal Fallout Rock Bottom 18:11 18 Month Buyback Fight 22:41 Rebuilding With Joy 25:07 Closing and Where to Buy
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    26 分
  • Brave Transitions: Kristina Pohl’s Journey from Nurse to Entrepreneur

    Brave Transitions: Kristina Pohl’s Journey from Nurse to Entrepreneur
    2026/03/04
    What do you do when the system you trained in no longer aligns with how you want to serve people? In this episode of Renegade Ventures, we sit down with Kristina Pohl, founder of Eternity Wellness in Louisville. After years as a NICU nurse and nurse practitioner, Kristina saw the gaps in traditional healthcare — and decided to build something different. With $5,000, a single treatment room, and a newborn at home, she launched her own integrative wellness practice just months before the pandemic. What followed was a crash course in entrepreneurship: learning business from scratch, hiring intentionally, investing in financial literacy, and scaling without losing the mission. Today, Eternity Wellness offers IV therapy, aesthetics, hormone care, gender-affirming care, medical weight loss, movement classes, and more — all rooted in prevention and whole-person health. We cover: The moment getting laid off became her catalyst Moving from provider to CEO The hardest part of hiring and building culture Bridging gaps in menopause and affirming care What aspiring entrepreneurs really need to know before starting If you’ve ever felt called to build something better — this conversation is for you. Learn more at eternitywellnesscenter.com and tune in to hear how courage, clarity, and community built a thriving wellness practice from the ground up.
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    1分未満
  • The Splendid Journey of Pamela and Lauren Broadus: Crafting Unforgettable Events

    The Splendid Journey of Pamela and Lauren Broadus: Crafting Unforgettable Events
    2026/02/18
    In this episode of the Renegade Ventures podcast, the hosts discuss the shift from hands-on operator to leader and coach—highlighting the importance of clear “don’t do” goals. They’re joined by Lauren and Pamela of Splendid Events, a mother–daughter event planning team who share how they built their business over 16 years and successfully pivoted during COVID to virtual events through studio partnerships and digital event strategist certification. Pamela’s corporate background in healthcare insurance and project management shaped their operational systems, while Lauren brings strengths in tech, registration platforms, and event execution. Together, they divide responsibilities across strategy, client management, and on-site operations. They explore what it takes to run large-scale events—detailed systems, trusted vendors, adaptability, and calm problem-solving—along with the realities of family business, industry shifts like AI-assisted tools, and their move toward corporate and nonprofit clients. They also discuss certifications (WEBC/WBE), challenges including racial bias and vendor risk, and why they avoid bringing services in-house to stay flexible. Looking ahead to strong demand through 2026, they share plans to expand into speaking and education, including their upcoming anthology chapter in She Knows Best (January 2026). The episode closes with insights on how hiring an event planner can elevate both the experience and the bottom line.
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    43 分
  • From Academia to a $28M Exit — and Why Diane Prince Is Building Again (Differently)

    From Academia to a $28M Exit — and Why Diane Prince Is Building Again (Differently)
    2026/02/04
    What happens when you intentionally build a business to sell — and actually do it? In this episode of Renegade Ventures, Ellie sits down with serial entrepreneur Diane Prince, who went from failing out of a PhD program to building and selling a staffing agency for $28 million in just six years — and then doing it all over again. Diane walks us through how she and her co-founder engineered their exit from day one, scaled to $35M in revenue, survived payroll weeks north of $700K, navigated a failed acquisition post-9/11, and ultimately structured a deal that paid out the entire earnout — without staying in the business. Now, she’s building again — this time with offshore talent, a radically different vision, and a focus on leverage, lifestyle, and fun. If you’re an acquisition entrepreneur, operator, or founder thinking about scale, exit, or doing it smarter the second time around, this episode is packed with real-world insight.
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    1分未満
  • The Death of a Deal: An International Misadventure

    The Death of a Deal: An International Misadventure
    2026/01/21
    In this raw and unfiltered conversation, Maggie sits down with Ellie to unpack the deal that didn’t close-one she flew across the world for, fought for, and genuinely believed would reshape her business. The wound is fresh, the emotions are real, and nothing is sugar-coated. Together, they walk through the highs of early hope, the red flags they tried to ignore, and the moment everything unraveled. Ellie shares what it’s like to pour your heart, time, and money into an international acquisition that ultimately slips away-and how she’s navigating the disappointment, self-doubt, and unexpected clarity that followed. This isn’t a victory-lap episode. It’s a candid look at the deals that don’t make the highlight reel-and why the stories we wish we could hide often teach us the most. Whether you’re a founder, leader, or deal junkie, this is a conversation you won’t forget.
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    48 分