The Within Podcast

The People Co
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Weekly

Two sisters. Two completely different paths. One shared mission. The conversations you’ve been waiting for someone to start. We’re here to help women feel empowered to live their best life, with more intention, less shame, and a whole lot more fun. Through honest, unfiltered conversations with each other, trusted experts, and real practitioners,  covering wellness, mindset, relationships, motherhood, entrepreneurship, and everything in between - we cut through the noise and start the conversations that actually matter. Real talk for women building a life that finally feels like theirs.

  1. Sep 17

    #56 Protect What You’re Building: The Legal Basics Every Business Leader Should Know

    Protect What You’re Building: The Legal Basics Every Business Owner Should KnowProtect What You’re Building: The Legal Basics Every Business Owner Should Know Starting a business is exciting. Forming the right entity, reviewing contracts and planning what happens if a partnership falls apart? Less exciting—but potentially much more important. In this episode, Nicky and Allie are joined by Nicky’s husband, Matt Wallace, a partner at Belin McCormick and a corporate attorney who works with businesses at every stage of growth. Matt breaks down the legal fundamentals entrepreneurs should understand—from forming an LLC and signing contracts in the company’s name to protecting yourself when adding a business partner. They also discuss AI-generated contracts, commercial leases, noncompetes, equity and personal liability. This isn’t about letting legal fears keep you from building. It’s about understanding the risks and making informed decisions before something becomes an expensive emergency. IN THIS EPISODE • The legal steps to take when starting a business • Why Matt generally recommends an LLC • How signing personally can create personal liability • What an operating agreement should address • Why business partnerships can become complicated • The risks of casually giving away equity • Where AI-generated contracts can go wrong • What to know before signing a commercial lease • Whether noncompetes are enforceable • Why sustainable businesses are rarely overnight successes ABOUT MATT WALLACE Matt Wallace is a partner at Belin McCormick and a member of the firm’s Corporate and Commercial Practice Group. He helps businesses with formation and governance, mergers and acquisitions and complex commercial contracts. Matt has represented organizations ranging from startups and family-owned companies to large national businesses. Learn more: https://www.belinmccormick.com/attorneys/matthew-j-wallace Nothing shared in this episode constitutes legal advice. Every situation is different. Consult an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction regarding your circumstances. ABOUT WITHIN Within is hosted by sisters Nicky Wallace and Allie Sartain. Through honest conversations with each other, experts and practitioners, they explore what it means to feel empowered to live your best life. Every episode is anchored in the human experience, the science behind it and permission to be imperfect. CONNECT WITH NICKY Nicky Wallace is the founder of The People Co., an HR and leadership company, and creator of The Potential Within Summit. She brings together leadership, personal growth and whole-person wellness to help others build successful, sustainable lives. Instagram: @nwallace15 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwallace515 The People Co.: thepeople-co.com The Potential Within: thepeople-co.com/potentialwithin CONNECT WITH ALLIE Allie Sartain is an Integrative Trichologist and women’s health advocate. Blending scalp science, nervous system regulation and conscious living, she teaches that beauty reflects internal balance—and that hair is often just the beginning. Instagram: @allie.maneoasis If this episode resonated, subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

  2. Sep 4

    #54: “Okay, Just Hear Me Out”: Life Married to an Entrepreneur

    “Okay, Just Hear Me Out”: Life Married to an Entrepreneur What happens when one spouse is full of big ideas and the other is already calculating the cash flow? In this episode, Nicky and Allie are joined by Nicky’s husband, Matt Wallace, for an honest, and light hearted, conversation about marriage, ambition and making two very different personalities work. Nicky is the entrepreneur who thinks big, moves fast and regularly starts conversations with, “Okay, just hear me out.” Matt is the attorney, planner and self-described cash-flow guy who wants to understand the steps, timeline and impact on the family nest egg. Together, they share how their relationship has evolved through business ownership, demanding careers, raising children, and even divorce. They talk about the difference between supporting a dream and committing to every idea, how they divide responsibilities during busy seasons and why learning to communicate changed everything. This isn’t a conversation about achieving perfect balance. It’s about creating a partnership where both people can pursue big goals without allowing work, money or resentment to quietly take over. IN THIS EPISODE • What Matt thinks when Nicky says, “I have an idea” • How their opposite approaches to risk and money create balance • Supporting your spouse without enabling every idea • Why support doesn’t always mean saying yes • Communicating whether an idea is serious or still being explored • Navigating two demanding careers while raising children • Their weekly calendar conversations and division of responsibilities • What Matt doesn’t receive enough credit for behind the scenes • How divorce and remarriage changed their communication • Why shared values matter more than identical personalities ABOUT MATT WALLACE Matt Wallace is Nicky’s husband, the father of their growing family and a partner at Belin McCormick. As a corporate attorney, he helps organizations with business formation, governance, contracts and mergers and acquisitions. Learn more: https://www.belinmccormick.com/attorneys/matthew-j-wallace ABOUT WITHIN Within is hosted by sisters Nicky Wallace and Allie Sartain. Through honest conversations with each other, experts and practitioners, they explore what it means to feel empowered to live your best life. Every episode is anchored in the human experience, the science behind it and permission to be imperfect. CONNECT WITH NICKY Nicky Wallace is the founder of The People Co., an HR and leadership company, and creator of The Potential Within Summit. She brings together leadership, personal growth and whole-person wellness to help others build successful, sustainable lives. Instagram: @nwallace15 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwallace515 The People Co.: thepeople-co.com The Potential Within: thepeople-co.com/potentialwithin CONNECT WITH ALLIE Allie Sartain is an Integrative Trichologist and women’s health advocate. Blending scalp science, nervous system regulation and conscious living, she teaches that beauty reflects internal balance—and that hair is often just the beginning. Instagram: @allie.maneoasis If this episode resonated, subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

  3. Sep 1

    HR Series: Why Hiring Doesn’t Automatically Create Capacity

    Hiring more people should create more capacity—right? Not necessarily. Nicky learned this while growing her staffing and recruiting company. After rapidly hiring five or six employees, she expected more time, support and room to grow. Instead, she became the founder, trainer, process manual, systems expert and help desk for a larger team. She also discovered—after making the hire—that the salesperson expected to lead prospecting didn’t know how to prospect. You genuinely cannot make this stuff up. But the employee wasn’t the biggest problem. The company was hiring faster than it was building the clarity, systems, training and authority its new employees needed to succeed. In this episode of the Within HR Series, Nicky explains the “10-employee problem”: the stage when proximity stops working as a management system and the informal way you’ve always operated begins to break. There is nothing magical about employee number 10. Some companies feel this shift at six employees; others reach it at 15 or 20. What matters is the friction—repeated questions, unclear ownership, inconsistent decisions and issues that keep landing back on the founder’s desk. Hiring creates capacity only when knowledge, responsibility and authority are intentionally transferred. In This EpisodeThe hiring mistake Nicky made after a decade in recruitingWhy hiring initially created more work—not more capacityWhat the “10-employee problem” actually meansWhen proximity stops working as a management systemSigns your informal operating model has stopped scalingWhy growth magnifies what already exists in the businessHow unclear roles create overlap and founder bottlenecksWhy onboarding cannot live inside one person’s headWhat to define before making another hireWhen you need another person versus a better processThe five areas where growing companies should look for frictionJoin the ConversationWhen did your business stop feeling small? What changed first—and what suddenly started landing back on your desk? Send Nicky your experience, HR questions or ideas for future episodes. Your question may help shape an upcoming episode or resource inside The People Co.’s Growth Hub. Subscribe to the Within Podcast and follow the HR Series every Tuesday for practical conversations about building the people side of a growing company. Connect with Nicky Wallace, SHRM-CPNicky Wallace is the founder of The People Co. and a SHRM-Certified Professional who has worked in recruiting, HR and people strategy since 2012. She helps leaders build the practical people infrastructure growing companies need, including role clarity, leadership development, compensation strategy, performance management, onboarding and employee experience. Have an HR question, episode idea or people situation making you wonder, “What are we supposed to do here?” Nicky would love to hear from you. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwallace515 Instagram: @nwallace15 Email: nicky@thepeople-co.com A Quick NoteStories shared in this series are based on real professional experiences, but identifying details may be changed or generalized to protect confidentiality. This content is for general educational purposes and should not be considered legal advice.

  4. Aug 25

    HR Series: Why Smart Founders & Leaders Still Struggle With People

    Introducing the Within HR Series for Founders + Leaders You can build a successful company, attract customers and keep growing—without ever being taught how to build the people side of the business. Nicky first recognized the size of this gap while sitting in a business education program surrounded by accomplished entrepreneurs. These founders had real companies, growing teams and plenty of work to deliver. They also shared many of the same frustrations: employees weren’t performing, managers weren’t taking ownership and nobody quite knew what to do when a people situation became complicated. But as Nicky began asking questions, something became clear: many of these businesses were frustrated with employees for failing to operate inside systems that had never actually been built. In this introductory episode of the Within HR Series, Nicky explains why people problems are often infrastructure problems—and why growing companies need more than generic HR information. They need practical guidance that reflects their actual headcount, managers, systems, locations and stage of growth. Every Tuesday through the end of 2026, this series will bring founders and leaders real stories, practical HR guidance and the occasional situation you genuinely cannot make up. Because you shouldn’t need an HR degree to build a company where people can succeed. In This EpisodeThe room of entrepreneurs that revealed a major small-business HR gapWhy successful founders often struggle with the people side of growthHow informal communication works—until the company outgrows itWhy hiring through personal relationships makes clarity even more importantThe difference between a performance problem and a missing-system problemWhy hiring only creates capacity when employees have clarityHow people strategy connects directly to business strategyWhy an eight-person company and an 80-person company need different HR prioritiesNicky’s simple approach: diagnose, prioritize and buildWhat founders and leaders can expect from the Within HR SeriesThe Question to ConsiderAre your employees actually underperforming—or are they trying to operate inside a system your company never clearly built? Connect With UsFollow the Within Podcast for conversations about leadership, wellbeing, personal growth and building businesses—and lives—that work. Connect with Nicky Wallace, SHRM-CP Nicky Wallace is the founder of The People Co. and a SHRM-Certified Professional with experience in recruiting, HR and people strategy since 2012. She has supported organizations ranging from growing small businesses to companies with more than 1,000 employees, helping leaders connect their people strategy to their broader business goals. Her work focuses on building the practical people infrastructure growing companies need—including role clarity, leadership development, compensation strategy, performance management, onboarding and employee experience. Have an HR question, an episode idea or a people situation making you wonder, “What are we supposed to do here?” Nicky would love to hear from you. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwallace515 Instagram: @nwallace15 Email: nicky@thepeople-co.com

  5. Aug 20

    #53: What the Hell Happened to Summer? Motherhood, Boundaries & Getting Back on Track

    We entered summer with bucket lists, ambitious plans and visions of magical family time. Then August arrived—and apparently, all structure and sanity left the building. In this episode, Nicky and Allie have an honest conversation about the beautiful, exhausting chaos of summer with kids. They unpack the guilt that can come with needing a break, the challenge of working while children are home and why being grateful for a season doesn’t mean you can’t also feel completely overwhelmed by it. Nicky shares how intentionally planning childcare and saying no to two contracts allowed her to protect the summer she wanted with her family. Allie reflects on what happened when her routines and personal boundaries slowly disappeared—and why staying disconnected from yourself is where the real trouble begins. They also talk about learning how to rest without guilt, creating structure that supports more freedom, letting kids be bored and recognizing when it’s officially time to declare: “Mom’s off duty.” In this episode: Why summer can feel wonderful and wildly overwhelming at the same timeThe invisible mental load of having kids homeWorking from home versus trying to work while actively parentingWhy flexibility still requires boundaries and intentional planningLetting go of the pressure to constantly entertain your childrenHow small resets can help when you don’t have hours to yourselfSaying no—even when you technically could make it workUsing structure to create more room for rest, creativity and joyReconnecting with yourself and your goals for the rest of the year The bottom line: getting off track isn’t the problem. Staying disconnected from yourself is. You don’t need to throw away the rest of the year—you may just need to pause, recalibrate and decide what you want to carry forward. And if necessary, tell everyone you’re off duty and go hide in the closet for ten minutes. We support you. About WithinReal talk for women building a life that finally feels like theirs. Within is hosted by two sisters—Nicky Wallace and Allie Sartain—exploring what it actually means to feel empowered to live your best life. Through honest, unfiltered conversations with each other, trusted experts and real practitioners, we start the conversations you’ve been waiting for someone to begin. Every episode is anchored in three things: the human experience + the science behind it + permission to be imperfect. Connect With UsNicky on Instagram: @nwallace15Nicky on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwallace515Allie on Instagram: @alli.maneoasisThe People Co.: thepeople-co.comThe Potential Within: thepeople-co.com/potentialwithin Loved this episode? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts—it helps more women find the show. And share this episode with a friend who’s been waiting for conversations like this.

  6. Jul 30

    #52: You Can’t Biohack the Basics: Why You’re Optimizing but Still Don’t Feel Better

    We have more wellness information, products, supplements, trackers, peptides, and “life-changing” protocols available than ever before—so why do so many of us still feel exhausted, stressed, and disconnected from our bodies? Following their conversation about becoming an unconscious consumer, Nicky and Allie explore another side of the wellness industry: our tendency to chase advanced optimization while overlooking the basic things our bodies need to function well. They share their own experiences with burnout, health challenges, anxiety, motherhood, entrepreneurship, and trying to “do everything right” while their bodies were quietly asking for something different. Together, they break wellness back down to five foundational areas: sunlight and nature, movement, breath, sleep, and nutrition. This episode isn’t about adding another complicated routine to your life. It’s about slowing down, becoming more aware of what your body is telling you, and making small, sustainable changes before buying the next thing promising to fix you. In this episode, we discuss:Why more optimization doesn’t always lead to feeling betterHow targeted wellness marketing keeps us searching for the next solutionThe difference between supporting your body and overriding its signalsWhy wellness is an ongoing journey—not a finish lineThe five foundational areas your body needs before any advanced “biohack”How morning sunlight can support your natural daily rhythmWhy movement doesn’t have to mean an intense workoutUsing breathwork to regulate stress before a meeting, presentation, or difficult conversationWhy protecting your sleep is one of the most powerful boundaries you can createHow nighttime scrolling keeps your mind and body overstimulatedThe connection between food, energy, mood, and overall wellbeingWhy small, consistent changes are more effective than trying to overhaul your entire life overnightKey takeawaysBefore you buy another supplement, tracker, peptide, or wellness product, pause and ask: Have I given my body the foundational things it needs today? Wellness doesn’t have to be expensive, complicated, or picture-perfect. Start with one small change, pay attention to how you feel, and build from there.

  7. Jul 23

    #51: The Success Trap

    What if you've achieved everything you thought you wanted... and you're still unhappy? For years, we chased the promotions, bigger paychecks, beautiful homes, impressive titles, and the version of success we were taught to want. From the outside, everything looked perfect. On the inside? We felt exhausted, disconnected, and completely out of alignment. In this vulnerable conversation, we're sharing the moments that forced us to ask some uncomfortable questions: Whose definition of success am I living?What happens when the life you've built no longer feels like yours?How do you find your way back to yourself? We talk about burnout, divorce, entrepreneurship, identity, rebuilding, and the surprising peace that comes from letting go of everyone else's expectations. If you've ever wondered whether there's "more" to life than checking the next box, this episode is for you.

  8. Jul 16

    #50 The Entrepreneurship Lessons We Learned the Hard Way

    Whether you're thinking about starting a business or you're already in the middle of building one, this episode is the conversation we wish someone had with us years ago. This week, Nicky and Allie sit down to share the biggest lessons they've learned throughout their entrepreneurial journeys—from trusting your intuition and making difficult decisions to finding the right people, staying aligned with your values, and learning that success rarely happens overnight. These aren't strategies from a textbook. They're lessons learned through wins, mistakes, pivots, burnout, growth, and a whole lot of trial and error. If you've ever questioned whether you're on the right path, felt behind, or wondered if building a business is supposed to feel this hard...this episode is for you. In This EpisodeWhy trusting your intuition may be your greatest business advantageThe importance of building a business that's aligned with your values, not just profitableWhy doing everything yourself eventually becomes your biggest bottleneckHow the people in your circle influence your growthWhy comparison steals momentum (and what to focus on instead)The reality of entrepreneurship that no one talks aboutBuilding something that lasts instead of chasing quick wins

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About

Two sisters. Two completely different paths. One shared mission. The conversations you’ve been waiting for someone to start. We’re here to help women feel empowered to live their best life, with more intention, less shame, and a whole lot more fun. Through honest, unfiltered conversations with each other, trusted experts, and real practitioners,  covering wellness, mindset, relationships, motherhood, entrepreneurship, and everything in between - we cut through the noise and start the conversations that actually matter. Real talk for women building a life that finally feels like theirs.

Information

  • Creator
    The People Co
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    57
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The People Co
  • Show Website
    The Within Podcast