GUT with Christianne

Christianne
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Biweekly

Founders are built different. Or are they? GUT is the podcast that dispels the myths behind entrepreneurship for people sick of the highlight reel. Host Christianne goes forensic on the years everyone edits out: the breaking, the wandering, the ugly climb back. From going with your gut to the gut-wrenching moments, episodes feature world-class founders who have built multi-million dollar businesses from scratch. If you're quit-curious, burned out in finance, big law or consulting, or done being sold a hustle-culture lie, start here. New episodes weekly. @thegutpod on IG and TikTok.

  1. He Quit a Top Ad Agency to Bet on a Category That Didn't Exist | Rei Lalo, TRIHARD

    May 15

    He Quit a Top Ad Agency to Bet on a Category That Didn't Exist | Rei Lalo, TRIHARD

    If you've been telling yourself you'll start the thing "when you're ready," this episode is for you. Rei Lalo had a stable job at McCann — one of the biggest ad agencies in the world. He'd been promoted twice in three years. He had a clear ten-year trajectory, a real salary, and the kind of resume that opens doors for the rest of your career. He walked away from it. With no college degree, no credibility in the industry he wanted to enter, and some savings, he started building TRIHARD — a hair and skincare brand for athletes. Six years later, it's in over Dick's Sporting Goods stores across the country, used by Olympic swimmers, and has raised ~$5M. In this conversation, we get past the highlight reel. Rei tells us about the rounds that almost didn't close and what it really took to break free from corporate. The voice in his head that is against playing it safe — and the question he asks himself every time he's tempted to hold back. If you're in the comfortable job dreaming about the uncomfortable one, this is the conversation you didn't know you needed and the best use of your time. In this episode, you'll learn: How to know when it's time to quit a stable jobHow to fundraise without experience or a track recordHow to take action before you feel readyHow to build a brand in a category that doesn't exist yetHow to make the worst-case scenario work for you instead of against youHow to think about financial risk when you're starting from scratchHow to keep going when investors push backHow to build resilience from injury, setback, or rejectionHow to listen to your gut when everyone around you says to play it safeHow to live with a decision that scares youThree takeaways for the founder you might become: The "right time" doesn't exist and is a story your fear tells youYour worst case is almost never as bad as you thinkRegret compounds faster than money doesConnect:Rei Lalo: on LinkedInTRIHARD: trihard.com / @wetrihard Follow GUT for conversations with founders about the calls they made that no one else would have.

    1h 23m
  2. Clarke Pennington: From Wall Street to CPG Startup Founder

    May 4

    Clarke Pennington: From Wall Street to CPG Startup Founder

    Clarke Pennington spent a decade in finance: investment banking, Columbia MBA, a consumer hedge fund. Then he left to build Lasso, a better-for-you gelatin cup with protein and fiber that no one had been able to manufacture before. He gave himself 12 months. He did it in 11 — with six failed production runs, a co-manufacturer who wouldn't return his calls for four months, and stress so severe his hair started falling out. We talk about what it's like to leave a career everyone envies, what happens when the people who raised you to always perform your best become your investors, and the line between relentlessness and self-destruction. "As long as you don't kill yourself in the process." @eatlasso on Instagram and TikTok Claim Your Complimentary Career Clarity Session: https://www.wellthbykirsten.com/booking-calendar/complimentary-consultation?referral=book_button_widget

    22 min
  3. Anonymous Big Law Associate: Her High Pain Tolerance Almost Killed Her

    Apr 10

    Anonymous Big Law Associate: Her High Pain Tolerance Almost Killed Her

    She walked into her boss's office crying and came out smiling. For years, Sabrina was the Law Associate everyone thought was fine. Her firm literally put "high pain tolerance" in her performance review. She took it as a compliment. Her body was telling a different story. This is GUT's first anonymous episode. Sabrina is still close to the world she left behind, so her voice and identity have been disguised. What hasn't been disguised is what she went through: a childhood spent performing composure, a career in big law that rewarded her for never needing anything, and the moment she finally saw what everyone around her had been watching all along. This episode is for the change-curious folks out there. Topics: big law burnout, performing calm, identity and achievement, immigrant parent expectations, the cost of competence, anonymous interview

    35 min
  4. Vanessa Mitchell: The Performer Who Couldn't Quit

    Apr 5

    Vanessa Mitchell: The Performer Who Couldn't Quit

    Vanessa Mitchell has been a professional performer since she was a teenager: musical theater, national tours, cruise ships, aerial acts. From the outside, she was living the dream. On the inside, her perfectionism and anxiety were running the show. When her body started breaking down on a luxury cruise ship and a doctor told her she should consider leaving, it was the first time anyone had given her permission to quit. In this episode, Vanessa talks about what it's like to audition every single day and find out you didn't get the part at a friend's birthday party. She talks about crying every day during aerial training because she couldn't climb the rope. About having a panic attack because she was too scared to sing into a microphone. And about the moment she realized the thing she loved most was also the thing destroying her. Topics: performing arts career, musical theater, anxiety and perfectionism, quitting, cruise ship life, COVID impact on performers, audition culture, mental health, the swing role

    23 min
  5. Geri: Iced Out at Work, Viral on Tiktok

    Mar 26

    Geri: Iced Out at Work, Viral on Tiktok

    Geri spent six years in the legal field doing everything right, taking on extra work, building new skills, waiting for the moment she'd earned enough to ask. When she finally walked into that room and advocated for a promotion, it didn't go the way she expected. Instead of moving up, she got iced out. No one gave her work. No one talked to her. She sat at her desk in a quiet office with nothing to do. And one afternoon, she opened TikTok and started filming. That video went viral. Strangers she'd never met showed up with more support than her own friends and family. She failed a certification exam, left her job on a Monday, and got engaged on a Ferris wheel in Montreal five days later. She cried on that Ferris wheel, not just because she was happy, but because everything was happening at once and she wasn't allowed to grieve before the next thing arrived. This is a conversation about what happens when you finally use your voice and it costs you the thing you were building, about finding community in the last place you expected, and about learning to believe you're good enough after the place that was supposed to prove it told you that you weren't. Find Geri at @SincerelyGeri on TikTok.

    27 min
  6. Madie Wilson-Walker: One Spot Away From the Paralympics

    Mar 4

    Madie Wilson-Walker: One Spot Away From the Paralympics

    Madie Wilson-Walker became a double-leg amputee from meningitis at age three. By 18, she'd made the Canadian Paralympic track and field team, the youngest in her category, competing against athletes a decade older. Then she missed Rio by one spot on the list and found out through Instagram. This episode covers the summer she couldn't watch her own sport on TV, the teammates she still texted good luck while gutted inside, two injuries that nearly ended her career back to back, and what it took to fall back in love with the sport that had become a chore. Madie is one of the most honest athletes we've had on the show. She talks about what it's like to be yelled at weekly for parking in handicap spots, why she's spent her whole life proving she belongs, and the quiet moment she decided she was done being miserable at the thing she loved most.

    25 min
  7. Kirsten Breidenbruch: VP at BlackRock to Quitting With No Plan

    Feb 17

    Kirsten Breidenbruch: VP at BlackRock to Quitting With No Plan

    Kirsten Breidenbruch spent a decade at BlackRock. She made VP. She was making great money. From the outside, she had everything figured out. From the inside, she was waking up two hours early every day just to calm herself down enough to walk to work. Her feet felt like cinder blocks. Her body was rejecting the life she built. In this conversation, Kirsten takes us inside the war between the identity she spent years constructing and the person she was becoming underneath it, the panic attacks she masked, the mindfulness sessions she led at work while quietly falling apart, the spreadsheet she made to see if she could afford to quit (and then ignored for months), and the walk on the beach with her dad where she finally said it out loud. She talks about what it actually feels like to dismantle a life that looks perfect, why she wore a white Anthropologie dress to her quitting meeting, and the moment her boss called an hour after she resigned and said "I'm kinda jealous." This is for anyone who has everything they're supposed to want and still feels like something is fundamentally wrong.

    52 min
  8. George Foreman: How to Rebuild Your Name

    Feb 11

    George Foreman: How to Rebuild Your Name

    George Foreman built an identity the way entrepreneurs build empires, with brutal focus and no room for weakness. But the man he constructed to dominate was deeply sensitive underneath, and that fracture nearly destroyed him. This is what happened when the persona he'd engineered to survive his childhood became the cage that broke his championship, his marriages, and his relationship with his daughter. Then he spent 30 years rebuilding, not just as a fighter, but as a father, preacher, and businessman who understood something most ambitious people never do: the identity that got you here might be exactly what stops you from going further. For anyone building something big and wondering if the foundation is actually solid.

    26 min
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5
out of 5
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About

Founders are built different. Or are they? GUT is the podcast that dispels the myths behind entrepreneurship for people sick of the highlight reel. Host Christianne goes forensic on the years everyone edits out: the breaking, the wandering, the ugly climb back. From going with your gut to the gut-wrenching moments, episodes feature world-class founders who have built multi-million dollar businesses from scratch. If you're quit-curious, burned out in finance, big law or consulting, or done being sold a hustle-culture lie, start here. New episodes weekly. @thegutpod on IG and TikTok.

Information

  • Creator
    Christianne
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Christianne
  • Show Website
    GUT with Christianne