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227: Motherhood & the Ambitious Woman: Holding Both Without Losing Yourself

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

Release Date: 11/12/2025

249: The Leadership Gap We’re Not Talking About (And How to Fix It) with Melissa Reade of Leader Valley show art 249: The Leadership Gap We’re Not Talking About (And How to Fix It) with Melissa Reade of Leader Valley

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

There’s a leadership gap in our communities...and it’s not what you think. It’s not about titles. It’s not about experience. And it’s definitely not about a lack of talent. In this episode of The Found Podcast, I sit down with Melissa Reade, Executive Director of Leader Valley, to talk about the real gap we’re seeing in schools, businesses, and communities—and how we can start to fix it. From working with over 12,000 students to equipping current leaders in the workforce, Leader Valley is rethinking how leadership is developed at every stage of life. This conversation is about...

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248: The Secret Sauce of Small Town Success: Leadership, Community, and Showing Up with Liesl Seabert show art 248: The Secret Sauce of Small Town Success: Leadership, Community, and Showing Up with Liesl Seabert

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

What actually makes a small town thrive? Hint: it’s not population size, location, or luck. It’s leadership. In this episode of The Found Podcast, Molly sits down with Liesel Seabert of the University of Northern Iowa Institute for Decision Making to talk about the real, often overlooked work behind strong communities and why leadership development might be the most important investment we’re not talking about enough. From moving to Iowa without knowing a single person to becoming one of the most connected leaders in the state, Liesel shares how showing up, building relationships, and...

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247: Why Wellness Isn’t Another To-Do List with Dominique Farrar show art 247: Why Wellness Isn’t Another To-Do List with Dominique Farrar

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

What if wellness wasn’t another thing to optimize… but something you actually got to experience? In this episode, Molly sits down with Dominique Farrar, founder of Well in France — a Paris-based community and experience brand helping women slow down, connect, and redefine what it means to live well. Dom shares her journey from fast-paced tech life in Silicon Valley to building a wellness business in France — and how her version of success shifted along the way. Together, they explore the tension so many women feel: trying to “do wellness right” while already carrying too much —...

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246: THIS was Killing My Leadership...and It's Not What You Think show art 246: THIS was Killing My Leadership...and It's Not What You Think

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

What if the biggest shift in your leadership didn’t come from doing more… but from understanding yourself better? In this solo episode, Molly shares a behind-the-scenes look at a pivotal leadership moment inside her work with The Restoration Project. One that revealed how overperformance, urgency, and independence can quietly create disconnection on a team. Through a personal story about building the Difficult Conversations course, Molly unpacks the leadership patterns she didn’t realize she was carrying and how reconnecting with herself changed everything. This episode walks you through...

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245: The Art of Unraveling with Erin McGuire-Henson show art 245: The Art of Unraveling with Erin McGuire-Henson

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

This week on The Found Podcast, Molly reconnects with returning guest Erin McGuire-Henson, a nervous system healer, coach for soul-aligned entrepreneurs, and newly published author of The Art of Unraveling. In this deeply honest conversation, Erin shares the long and winding journey behind writing her book, a 15-year process shaped by personal healing, nervous system work, and the courage to finally be seen. Together, Molly and Erin explore how trauma responses like perfectionism, people-pleasing, and fear of visibility can quietly shape our lives and businesses. Erin opens up about growing up...

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244: Go First: Courage, Community,  and Starting Over with Erin Moore show art 244: Go First: Courage, Community, and Starting Over with Erin Moore

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

This week on The Found Podcast, I’m joined by brand photographer, mother of four, and longtime friend Erin Moore for a deeply honest conversation about courage, community, and what it really takes to rebuild your life and business again and again. 👉 Real talk: The audio quality in this conversation isn’t perfect. But Erin’s courage, perspective, and heart made this episode one we couldn’t keep on the shelf. I hope you’ll stay with us through the tech hiccups — her story matters. Erin shares her experience of moving across states multiple times, relaunching her photography...

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243: Your Story Is Your Superpower with Danielle Letayf show art 243: Your Story Is Your Superpower with Danielle Letayf

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

This week on The Found Podcast, I’m joined by Danielle Letayf — founder of Badassery, personal brand strategist, podcast guesting expert, and the perfect woman to help us kick off our Women’s History Month interview series. Danielle helps thoughtful executives, authors, and experts turn their stories into something unforgettable. But in this conversation, we go far deeper than personal branding and podcast pitches. We talk about what it really looks like to build a business as a woman, how comparison can keep us stuck, why your path does not have to look like anyone else’s, and how...

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242: Hot Takes vs. High Character: A Women’s History Month Reflection show art 242: Hot Takes vs. High Character: A Women’s History Month Reflection

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

It’s officially Women’s History Month, and this year, instead of starting with statistics, I’m starting with a question: In 2026, are we elevating hot takes…or high character? When I was in seventh grade, I wrote a research paper on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. I was fascinated by the way she carried herself through public scrutiny, personal grief, and cultural change. Today, we live in a very different media landscape. Algorithms reward outrage. Virality rewards speed. Money rewards attention. Integrity? Not so much. In this episode, I explore: What changed between the era of shared...

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241: The Ecosystem of Opportunity:  How Community Colleges Build Stronger People, Businesses, and Communities with Amy Lasack of NICC show art 241: The Ecosystem of Opportunity: How Community Colleges Build Stronger People, Businesses, and Communities with Amy Lasack of NICC

The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

What if education wasn’t a one-time phase of life, but an evolving journey designed to meet people exactly where they are? In this episode of The Found Podcast, Molly sits down with Amy Lasack, Vice President of Business and Community Solutions at Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC), to explore how workforce development, education, and community collaboration intersect to create real opportunity. Amy shares how nearly 25 years in Iowa’s community college system shaped her belief that workforce is an ecosystem, not a straight line. Together, Molly and Amy discuss how education must...

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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...

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This week on The Found Podcast, we’re continuing our November series on family — and we’re going right into the tender middle: motherhood.

Because motherhood changes everything.


Your time. Your nervous system. Your calendar. Your priorities. Your sense of self.


And if you’re an ambitious woman on top of that? It changes the way you define success, too.

In this solo episode, I talk honestly about what it looks like to be a mom who loves her kids deeply and a woman who has dreams, goals, clients, and callings. We’ll name the myths, talk about the invisible labor, and tell the truth about “balance” (spoiler: it’s more recalibration than perfection).

You’ll hear:

  • why you don’t have to choose between being a “good mom” and a “good business woman”

  • the emotional load and backward-planned days no one sees

  • how ambition can actually make us better mothers

  • questions I ask myself when I’m doing too much: What am I trying to prove? To whom? Does it even matter?

  • a different way to measure motherhood — not by output, but by alignment

This one’s for the mom with toddlers on the floor, the mom of teens in 47 activities, the mom navigating IVF, the mom with grown kids… and the woman who still wants something for herself.