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222: Never Wait to Be Invited: Lessons on Friendship for Ambitious Women with Nina Badzin

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

Release Date: 10/08/2025

240: More Than a Title: Reintroducing Myself (and Why Your Path Doesn’t Have to Be Linear) show art 240: More Than a Title: Reintroducing Myself (and Why Your Path Doesn’t Have to Be Linear)

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

If you’ve been here for years or you’re only a handful of episodes in... this one is for you. After recently stepping back into the guest seat on another podcast, I realized it had been a while since I reintroduced herself here on The Found Podcast. So today, I'm doing just that. But not with a résumé. Not with a tidy bio. With the real story. In this episode, I walk through the winding, nonlinear path from waitress to teacher, stay-at-home mom to accidental entrepreneur, agency owner to Managing Director of The Restoration Project. I share the inflection points, the burnout, the public...

info_outline 239: The Power of 239: The Power of "The Pause" with Molly Schreiber

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

Some people build businesses. Some people follow a calling. And sometimes… those two things become the very same path. This week on The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth, I sit down with fellow Iowan and “Molly Squared” guest Molly Schreiber, founder of and the nonprofit . What started as a young teacher’s love of education became something much deeper after unimaginable loss. After losing her first husband in a car accident at age 30 while raising three children under three, Molly found herself returning to one unexpected anchor: yoga. That quiet hour at the YMCA became the lifeline...

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The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

This one is a little raw. A little unpolished. And very real. After batch-recording months of episodes and stepping into a new season of leadership, I sat down at the mic for the first time this year and realized something: The most helpful thing I could share right now isn’t a strategy or framework. It’s the truth. Because even 10 years into business… even 200+ podcast episodes later… even as Managing Director of The Restoration Project… I’m still relearning lessons I swore I already knew. In this solo episode, I’m walking you through five things I’m honestly a little...

info_outline 237: The Capacity of Human Potential with Nancy Lynk show art 237: The Capacity of Human Potential with Nancy Lynk

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

In this final episode of The Found Podcast’s Ages & Stages Series, I sit down with Nancy Lynk — Senior Vice President of Commercial Banking at US Bank, community leader, mentor, and lifelong learner — for a conversation that spans generations of leadership, resilience, and self-discovery. From growing up on a Century Farm in rural Iowa to navigating the 1980s farm crisis as a young ag lender to leading complex commercial banking portfolios to now guiding others through career and life transitions, Nancy’s story is a masterclass in listening deeply, honoring your values, and...

info_outline 236: Get Uncomfy: Reinvention, Risk, and Building What You Wish Existed with Liz Garcia show art 236: Get Uncomfy: Reinvention, Risk, and Building What You Wish Existed with Liz Garcia

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

Liz Garcia is the kind of woman who makes you want to sit up straighter, open a new notes app, and finally do the thing you’ve been talking yourself out of.  In this second guest interview of the Ages & Stages series, I sit down with Liz — owner of Storage Theory, founder of GW Spice Co., mom of two, serial entrepreneur, and host of The Liz Garcia Show — to talk about what it really looks like to pivot from corporate life into entrepreneurship… and keep going even when it’s scary. Liz shares the “before and after” moment that propelled her family into business...

info_outline 235: Just Go For It: Building a Multi-Passionate Life with Carley Kintzle show art 235: Just Go For It: Building a Multi-Passionate Life with Carley Kintzle

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

In the very first guest interview of the Ages & Stages series, Molly sits down in person with Carley Kintzle a senior at Iowa State University studying agricultural communications and public relations, a cattle exhibitor, the founder of Wild Orchid Co., and a photographer who picked up a camera… and ran with it. Carley’s story is a reminder that you don’t have to pick just one lane. From starting a jewelry business in high school (despite never having made leather earrings before) to landing a dream role with Corteva while still in college, Carley shares what it looks like to...

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The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

As we step into a brand new year, this episode opens the Ages & Stages series with a personal reflection from me, Molly. In this solo episode, I looks back across my own life — from childhood curiosity and creativity, to achievement-driven adolescence, to motherhood, entrepreneurship, burnout, and a more grounded, intentional season of leadership. Rather than rushing toward what’s next, this episode invites listeners to slow down, reflect on what each age and stage has already taught them, and consider how those lessons shape who you are becoming. This conversation sets the tone for...

info_outline 233: One From the Heart: 4 Women Leading Community Change show art 233: One From the Heart: 4 Women Leading Community Change

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

This episode is a little different — and honestly, it might be one of the most important ones I’ve ever shared. Instead of one long-form interview, you’re getting four mini-interviews with women who are quietly (and powerfully) making their communities better — through nonprofit work, community organizing, and the kind of “someone has to do something… so I will” leadership that changes everything. These women were listener-nominated, and every story proves the same thing: You don’t need a massive following or a fancy title to make a difference. You just need the willingness to...

info_outline 232: Nourish the Body, Feed the Soul: A Conversation with Whitney Sanger of Project Rooted show art 232: Nourish the Body, Feed the Soul: A Conversation with Whitney Sanger of Project Rooted

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

Whitney Sanger isn’t just a nonprofit founder — she’s a mother of seven, a Dubuque native, a communications and storytelling pro, and the kind of woman who sees a gap and refuses to accept “that’s just how it is” as an answer. In this conversation, Whitney shares the very personal journey that shaped her relationship with food, and how that journey eventually turned into — a nonprofit built on the belief that nutrition isn’t only about what’s on the plate… it’s also about connection, dignity, community, and hope. We talk about the moment that sparked her curiosity (a...

info_outline 231: The Quiet Work of Changing Lives: How One Small-Town Teacher Serves New Families in Big Ways with Sarah Palmer show art 231: The Quiet Work of Changing Lives: How One Small-Town Teacher Serves New Families in Big Ways with Sarah Palmer

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

This week’s episode of The Found Podcast isn’t about a flashy brand or a viral business story. It’s about a woman you’ll probably never see on a billboard, but whose work is changing lives quietly, consistently, and deeply in rural Eastern Iowa. In this episode, Molly sits down with Sarah Palmer, an English Language Learning (ELL) teacher in the Western Dubuque Community School District. For the past 18 years, Sarah has been teaching language, yes—but also welcoming refugee and immigrant families, connecting them to food, furniture, transportation, and community support, and modeling...

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Friendship as an adult can be complicated — especially when you’re an ambitious woman balancing work, motherhood, and a full life. That’s why this week’s guest, Nina Badzin, has spent over a decade studying, writing about, and talking about what makes friendships work (and why they sometimes don’t).

Nina is the host of the Dear Nina podcast, a Top 1% charted show that’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, TIME, NPR, and The Washington Post. She’s made it her mission to help women rethink how we approach adult friendships with grace, intention, and a healthy dose of realism.

In this conversation, Molly and Nina unpack what it really takes to maintain friendship as ambitious women, from how to handle rejection to why it’s always your turn to reach out.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

  • Why rejection is a natural (and essential) part of life and friendship

  • The importance of “freshman energy” and physically showing up in new communities

  • How to overcome fear of initiation  and why it’s always your turn to make the first move

  • Why ambitious women often struggle to prioritize friendship and how to change that

  • Actionable ways to cultivate connection right where you are

Key Quotes:

“If we as adults could learn to have a softer reaction to rejection, we would try more things and friendships wouldn’t feel so high-stakes.” – Nina Badzin

“The people with the happiest social lives accept that it is always their turn. If you make plans, you have plans.” – Nina Badzin

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