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Her Big Leap with Sarah Janzen

Sarah Janzen 3 Episodes Oct 12, 2026

Her Big Leap is a podcast for high-achieving women, leaders, and executives who are considering leaving the corporate track to build their own businesses. Host Sarah Janzen interviews female founders who made that leap, focusing on the honest, behind-the-scenes stories of doubt, early mistakes, and the mindset shifts that truly mattered. Between guest conversations, Sarah shares her own experience and coaching insights as a Master Coach helping senior corporate women navigate similar transitions. The show aims to prove that the leap is possible by sharing real stories from women who have already done it.

Episodes

Career Change at 50? How a Voluntary Severance Package Funded Starting a Consulting Business That Out-Earned Her Salary with Jen Thompson [Ep 16] Oct 12, 2026 2318 Have you ever built something so good inside your company that everyone came to you for it, and wondered why you couldn't build it for yourself?In this episode, I'm joined by Jen Thompson, a former project management leader who created her company's M&A Center of Excellence and now runs her own M&A integration consulting business. After she was passed over for promotion, Jen stopped waitin

Career Pivot for Women in Corporate: From the Go-To Problem Solver to Starting Your Own Business [Ep 15] Oct 8, 2026 636 Has your history of career hopping convinced you that you're not qualified to start a business?Women from operations, marketing, sales, and HR tell me, "I'm a Jill of all trades," and can't see how a nonlinear career path turns into a business. For you, it might look like a career change that never felt right, and now you’re waiting for more career clarity to avoid being disappointed again. Meanwh

Leaving Corporate America: From a Marketing Job to Selling Marshmallows and Matching Her Corporate Salary in Year One with Alexx Shuman [Ep 14] Oct 5, 2026 3750 Is your next promotion one you'd be excited to take?In this episode, I'm joined by Alexandra Shuman, a former corporate marketer who built Vermont Marshmallow Company without ever planning to. Her non linear career path used to feel like a string of detours, until it gave her everything she needed to figure out how to start a food business at home. For you, it might start with feeling flat about a

Entrepreneurial Mindset: How To Use Your Transferable Skills to Leave a Toxic Work Environment and Build Two Seven-Figure Businesses with Kristin Binford [Ep 12] Sep 28, 2026 2712 What if the skills you stopped trusting in a toxic work environment are the ones clients would pay you for?In this episode, I'm joined by Kristin Binford, who spent over 10 years in corporate marketing, before leaving corporate America to run Haue Valley Weddings, her wedding venue business near St. Louis, full time.Kristin was one of the women I learned from when I started my business. We talk ab

Scared Leaving Corporate America Means Less Income? How She Doubled Her Corporate Salary in Year One with Jackie Keller [Ep 10] Sep 21, 2026 3044 Have you ever given so much to your job that there was nothing left for you or your family at the end of the day?In this episode, I'm joined by Jackie Keller, who spent 13 years at the sports and entertainment agency Wasserman and rose to VP before leaving corporate America to start Élan Arc Hospitality Group.Jackie and I talk about the eight-to-eight workdays that led to corporate burnout while s

Leaving Corporate America: How to Build Your Exit with a Side Hustle While Working Full Time (Without Burning Out Along the Way) [Ep 9] Sep 17, 2026 944 Is your side hustle a strategy, or is it a security blanket? If you're like the women I work with, you're good at your job and still want something of your own. So today, I cover the four situations where a side hustle while working full time makes more sense than quitting, and the one reason for waiting that usually turns out to be a confidence gap.In this episode, you'll learn:How to know when

Career Change at 40: Starting a Business While Working Full Time as a School Psychologist with Natalie Borrell [Ep 8] Sep 14, 2026 2335 Have you ever looked at your pay and known exactly what it'll be five years from now?In this episode, I'm joined by Natalie Borrell, a former public high school psychologist who spent 17 years in schools and now works as an academic life coach with a team of 15 coaches behind her.Natalie and I talk about the piece of mail that showed up one summer and told her what she'd be earning for the rest of

"Nobody Makes Money Doing That": The Belief That Kills Businesses Before They Start [Ep 7] Sep 10, 2026 653 Someone told you, or you told yourself, that your idea isn't a real business. That your industry doesn't pay. That people don't make money doing what you love. And that belief is probably doing more damage than any skill gap ever could.In this episode, Sarah Janzen breaks down three key takeaways from her conversation with Jemma Chapman, the architect turned artist who built Toonie Stamps in six m

The $150 Vending Machine That Replaced Her Architecture Salary | A conversation with Jemma Chapman [Ep 6] Sep 7, 2026 2770 Jemma Chapman didn't plan to start a business. She moved to Toronto from the UK with two suitcases, spent months sending out hundreds of job applications in architecture and hearing almost nothing back, and eventually bought a $150 vending machine just to have something to do.That machine, stocked with $2 miniature prints of Toronto landmarks, snacks, and everyday moments, is now part of a movemen

Why Women Burn Out in the Business They Built to Escape Burnout [Ep 5] Sep 3, 2026 590 You didn't leave corporate burnout to rebuild it somewhere you own. But that's exactly what most women do.In this solo episode, Sarah Janzen draws on 10 years of coaching women through the corporate-to-entrepreneur transition to name the pattern nobody talks about: the high-achieving woman who builds a financially successful business and burns out inside it two or three years in; just like she did

Lynda Williams Started a PR Agency With 18 Months of PR Experience. It Ran for Over a Decade [Ep 4] Aug 31, 2026 2804 Lynda Williams has made two leaps, and she is the first to tell you the difference between jumping without a plan and jumping with one.She spent 15 years in luxury hospitality, moving to Singapore in her late twenties and working her way up to head of marketing and head of PR for hotel groups that sent her around the world. Then she spotted a gap. Nobody in the Asian market was servicing brands th

The $75,000 Raise That Almost Kept Her in a Job She Hated [Ep 3] Aug 27, 2026 638 You've had the signs. Maybe more than one. And you're still there.In this solo episode, Sarah Janzen unpacks the three moments that finally pushed Melissa Lanz out of a multiple-six-figure VP role — and why none of them, on their own, were enough. Her husband told her he didn't like her anymore. A boss who'd worked with her for two years didn't know she had kids. A business trip crossed a line she

Melissa Lanz Quit Her VP Job With $2,500 and No Plan. Then Built an 8 Figure Subscription [Ep 2] Business Aug 24, 2026 3767 Melissa Lanz walked into her owner's office, told him she was done, and gave herself $2,500 and six months to figure out what came next. No business plan. No safety net. Just a commitment to her husband that if she was leaving, she wasn't going back.That decision came after three moments hit in quick succession — a boss who didn't know she had kids after two years of working together, a husband wh

Success Leaves Clues. Most Women Are Following the Wrong Ones [Ep 1] Aug 24, 2026 786 Most women in corporate aren't stuck because they lack talent, ambition, or a plan. They're stuck because they followed every rule they were given (good grades, right degree, climb the ladder) and ended up in a life that looks successful on paper but feels hollow underneath.Sarah Janzen knows this firsthand. She spent three years knowing she needed to leave corporate before she finally did, not b

Stuck with Golden Handcuffs? Here's How to Know When to Quit Your Job Based on What Staying Costs Your Health and Integrity [Ep 11] Sep 24, 2026 564 Have you ever loved your work and your team but stopped believing in the company you do it for?That was me in my pharma, and my corporate burnout was only half of why I left. The other half was about my values at work no longer matching the company I worked for.For you, it might start with feeling unhappy at work, turn into asking yourself "Should I quit my job?" and end with wondering whether lea

How Can You Invest in Yourself As a Woman? What a Role Model for Women with Two Seven-Figure Businesses Taught This Working Mom That Corporate Never Did [Ep 13] Oct 1, 2026 676 How does a woman running a business and raising kids actually fit it all into her calendar? When I left corporate, I wasn't married and didn't have kids. By the time I had a toddler, a newborn, and a business to build, I was a working mom looking for women role models who were already living the life I wanted. I found Kristin Binford, who'd already done it, and asked her everything, including how

What's Actually Possible For Women After Corporate: Welcome to Her Big Leap Aug 24, 2026 289 Sarah Janzen spent over a decade in corporate. She climbed the ranks from her early twenties, collected the promotions, moved cities for the career — and watched her relationships, her health, and her happiness quietly fall apart.She knew she needed to get out. What she didn't know was what was possible on the other side. All of her friends were in corporate. The only business owners she knew ran

Her Big Leap with Sarah Janzen

Episodes

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