FoundHer Rising with Christine Hakkola

Christine Hakkola
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Your business didn’t fail. It outgrew the way it was built. FoundHer Rising is for women founders in wellness, coaching, and consulting who’ve built successful service-based businesses, and are now feeling the weight of growth that depends too much on them. You’ve done the right things. You’ve built demand, filled your calendar, and proven your expertise. But instead of ease, growth brought more pressure, complexity, and responsibility. This isn’t a podcast for beginners, hustle culture, or quick fixes. It’s a space for honest conversations about what scaling actually requires: leadership shifts, identity changes, and building a business that can grow without burning you out. Hosted by Christine Hakkola, this show helps experienced, heart-centered founders think differently about their businesses so decisions get clearer and growth becomes more intentional. If this stage feels familiar, you’re in the right place. Learn more at hakkolahorizons.com.

  1. 1d ago

    From Corporate Layoff to CEO After 34 Years with Adyna K. Pressley | FoundHer Rising S01 E30

    After 34 years in corporate, Adyna K. Pressley got laid off and felt relief. What followed was a pivot most founders dream about and quietly fear. She built AKP Innovations from a girls' trip conversation, landed a feature on Oprah, and ran straight into the one obstacle that almost no founder anticipates. Not marketing. Not sales. Help. This conversation gets honest about what it actually takes to stop being the bottleneck in your own business. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 👉🏻 Why your strongest professional instinct can become the ceiling on your business 👉🏻 The specific standard to hold when hiring your first real support 👉🏻 The growth edge most founders can't name out loud, and why naming it is half the work TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Welcome to FoundHer Rising 05:30 — The Nashville lunch that became a business 11:00 — Writing the book before building the business 17:30 — The one thing Adyna couldn't do alone 23:30 — Staying yourself as you get more visible 28:30 — The systems edge every founder hits CONNECT WITH ADYNA K. PRESSLEY Website: https://www.adynakpressley.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adyna.pressley Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ad_aka_lovey LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/adyna-k-pressley CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE HAKKOLA Website: hakkolahorizons.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-hakkola Free Guide: From 10K to 40K Months. If you've hit consistent revenue but working harder isn't creating more growth, this guide breaks down what actually has to change. https://go.hakkolahorizons.com/opt-in-10kto40k-months-guide If this episode hit, follow the show, leave a quick review, and share it with one founder who needs to hear it. #FoundHerRising #WomenFounders #BusinessCoach #ScalingABusiness #ServiceBusiness #WomenInBusiness #Entrepreneurship #LeadershipDevelopment #DelegationSkills #BusinessGrowth

    34 min

  2. Jun 2

    Hidden Calendar Rule Costing Founders Their Best Clients with Jess Britt | FoundHer Rising S01 E29

    Most service founders are stuck working harder without growing. The real problem isn't effort. It's the trade-offs they're not seeing. In this episode, Jess Britt shares how she built her consulting business by saying no to the wrong opportunities, building systems before she had clients, and treating sales like service. The outcome is a business designed to last, not just to survive. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 👉🏻 Every yes is a no to something else, and naming the trade-off is what makes the choice strategic 👉🏻 Sales feels different when you stop pitching and start asking how you can actually help 👉🏻 The systems you build before you have clients are the ones that survive when you do TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — The cost of not leaving 06:40 — When yes starts working against you 12:43 — Building a business in a changing world 17:48 — Designing a life around the business 22:43 —Why systems come before scale CONNECT WITH JESS BRITT Email: jess@jessbritt.com Newsletter (Set the Agenda): settheagenda.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-britt CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE HAKKOLA Website: hakkolahorizons.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-hakkola Free Guide: From 10K to 40K Months. If you've hit consistent revenue but working harder isn't creating more growth, this guide breaks down what actually has to change. https://go.hakkolahorizons.com/opt-in-10kto40k-months-guide If this episode shifted how you think about saying yes, share it with one founder who needs to hear it. Then come back and tell us in a review which insight landed hardest. #FoundHerRising #WomenFounders #ServiceBusiness #ConsultingBusiness #BusinessScaling #LeadershipDevelopment #HakkolaHorizons #SustainableBusiness #FemaleEntrepreneur #CoachingBusiness

    28 min

  3. May 26

    Why Your Business Needs Boundaries to Scale with Sara Coyle | FoundHer Rising S01 E28

    Sara Coyle built a steady one-on-one therapy practice, brought on contractors, and ran straight into a problem most service founders don't see coming. The wait list didn't transfer. The growth stalled. The marketing playbook that built the business stopped working. In this video, Sara shares what she's learning in real time about scaling Connected Roots Therapy from solo to team, why the strategies that built her practice aren't the strategies that grow it, and the moves that are actually moving the needle. If you're scaling a service business and your hires aren't filling up the way you expected, this conversation is the diagnosis you need. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 👉🏻 The trust you built as a solo provider doesn't auto-transfer to your team. Your marketing job fundamentally changes when you bring on contractors. 👉🏻 Social media is rarely the growth lever for service businesses under multi-six-figures. Networking, sponsorships, and showing up in person are what actually convert. 👉🏻 Hire before you feel ready. Most founders wait until they're drowning, and that's the moment growth stalls. Buying back your time is what creates the room to grow. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Sara's story and the 2019 turning point 05:50 — Why private practice gave her freedom and what she traded for it 12:17 — Building Connected Roots and the move from solo to group practice 19:30 — What actually works in service business marketing right now 26:30 — Hire before you're ready and stop being the bottleneck CONNECT WITH SARA COYLE Website: connectedroots.ca LinkedIn: Sara Coyle (no H) Instagram: @connected.roots.ottawa CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE HAKKOLA Website: hakkolahorizons.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-hakkola Free Guide: From 10K to 40K Months. If you've hit consistent revenue but working harder isn't creating more growth, this guide breaks down what actually has to change. https://go.hakkolahorizons.com/opt-in-10kto40k-months-guide #BusinessCoach #Entrepreneurship #HeartCenteredBusiness

    31 min

  4. May 19

    How to Get Clients After Your Warm Network Runs Out with Shenelle B. | FoundHer Rising S01 E27

    You're great at what you do. The work brought clients. The clients brought referrals. You built something real. Then growth slowed, the warm network thinned out, and the same fear started showing up under every decision: more clients means more hours, and there aren't more hours. This week, Shenelle B., founder of B.L.A.Z.E Careers, walks through how she scaled her HR consulting practice past that wall. The shifts she made aren't tactical tweaks. They're structural, and they're the ones most service founders skip. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 👉🏻 The first six figures in a service business almost always come from your warm network. Past that, you're earning trust from people who don't know you yet, and that's a different kind of sale. 👉🏻 "I don't have time" is rarely about hours. It's a priority problem dressed up as a scheduling problem. 👉🏻 The post-2020 DEI reckoning didn't kill the work. It separated leaders performing it from the ones actually doing it, and the ones actually doing it are still hiring. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — How burnout becomes the pivot point 05:30 — Separating performance from identity 11:00 — What's actually happening with DEI past the marketing reckoning 17:00 — How companies are quietly rebuilding the work 22:00 — The trust gap when prospects don't know your name 27:30 — Why "I don't have time" is a priority problem 32:30 — The AI consultant role nobody is filling yet CONNECT WITH SHENELLE B. LinkedIn: Shenelle B. Instagram: @_withshenelle CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE HAKKOLA Website: hakkolahorizons.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-hakkola Free Guide: From 10K to 40K Months. If you've hit consistent revenue but working harder isn't creating more growth, this guide breaks down what actually has to change. https://go.hakkolahorizons.com/opt-in-10kto40k-months-guide #FoundHerRising #WomenFounders #ServiceBusiness #ScalingBeyondOneToOne #WarmReferrals #HRConsulting #BusinessCoaching #FemaleFoundersPodcast #LeadershipDevelopment

    35 min

  5. May 12

    How to Price Your Services for Sustainable Growth with Jemima Blazdell | FoundHer Rising S01 E26

    You're booking sessions, helping clients, and still working evenings and weekends to make it sustainable. The problem isn't your skill. It's the pricing model and the marketing strategy you inherited from people who don't understand service work. In this video, therapist and coach Jemima Blazdell shares what 15 years of building a heart-centered practice has taught her about sustainability, the trap of undercharging, and why the clients who pay the most often get the most out of the work. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 👉🏻 Pricing is a value signal. When clients pay less, they often invest less in the transformation. 👉🏻 Real relationships are the marketing engine for service businesses. Referrals and speaking beat algorithm-chasing. 👉🏻 Big vision without a system to capture and prioritize ideas leads to a graveyard of unfinished projects. A quarterly parking-lot review keeps the focus tight. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Introduction 1:18 — How EFT changed Jemima's life and career 7:28 — The vision and reality gap when building a practice 12:30 — The $5 client lesson on pricing and value 18:09 — Why marketing is really relationship building 26:30 — Managing creative chaos with the parking-lot system 30:30 — What's next for Jemima Blazdell CONNECT WITH JEMIMA BLAZDELL Website: https://www.jemimablazdell.com/ Instagram: @Jemima_Blazdell YouTube: JemimaEFT CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE HAKKOLA Website: hakkolahorizons.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-hakkola Free Guide: From 10K to 40K Months. If you've hit consistent revenue but working harder isn't creating more growth, this guide breaks down what actually has to change. https://go.hakkolahorizons.com/opt-in-10kto40k-months-guide #FoundHerRising #WomenFounders #WellnessBusiness #CoachingBusiness #ServiceBusiness #HeartCenteredBusiness #BusinessCoach #SustainableGrowth

    32 min

  6. May 5

    How to Build a Boutique Coaching or Therapy Practice with Jordana Bergman | FoundHer Rising S01 E25

    Most heart-centered founders hit a wall around the full-roster mark. The business that felt aligned starts feeling like a ceiling. In this episode, Jordana Bergman, founder of Eden Wellness Psychotherapy and former Bay Street litigator, shares the exact shifts that took her from full solo practice to a scalable boutique group clinic without losing the integrity of the work or burning out in the process. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 👉🏻 Why "full from day one" is a credibility play, not a marketing one, and what actually builds that credibility before you ever hang the sign 👉🏻 The niching mindset that makes hiring the right clinicians obvious instead of agonizing 👉🏻 How risk-averse founders can use data to make bold moves and why spreadsheets reduce risk for every personality type TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Introduction 05:00 — The injury that forced the pivot 11:00 — Back to school with four kids under seven 18:00 — The 2025 decision to scale 24:00 — Hiring for lived experience 30:00 — From gut calls to data driven decisions 35:00 — The vision for a boutique group clinic CONNECT WITH JORDANA BERGMAN Website: https://www.edenwellness.ca/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edenwellnesspsychotherapy/ CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE HAKKOLA Website: hakkolahorizons.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-hakkola Free Guide: From 10K to 40K Months. If you've hit consistent revenue but working harder isn't creating more growth, this guide breaks down what actually has to change. https://go.hakkolahorizons.com/opt-in-10kto40k-months-guide #FoundHerRising #WomenFounders #PrivatePractice #BusinessGrowth #ServiceBusiness

    38 min

  7. Apr 28

    From Corporate Recruitment to Freedom with Susan Henriques | FoundHer Rising S01 E24

    Susan Henriques spent 17 years in the school board system before she made her first move toward private practice. Four years later, she runs a group psychology practice with three associates and two mornings a week just for herself. This isn't a story about taking a big leap. It's about building something that lasts by moving at exactly the right pace. In this episode of FoundHer Rising, Christine Hakkola sits down with the founder of New Horizons Child and Adolescent Psychology Services to talk about the real mechanics of going from solo practitioner to group practice, and the hard lessons about burnout, systems, trust, and knowing when enough growth is exactly enough. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 👉🏻 Why "change happens at the speed of safety" is a strategy, not an excuse, and how Susan used a four-year gradual transition to build an unshakeable private practice foundation 👉🏻 The key difference between hiring someone and actually delegating to them and why trust has to come before you let go, not after 👉🏻 How to identify your business's "set point" the size and structure where it is most profitable, most sustainable, and most aligned with why you built it CONNECT WITH SUSAN HENRIQUES: Website: www.newhorizonspsychology.ca Email: info@newhorizonspsych.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-henriques-30056317a/ CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE HAKKOLA Website: hakkolahorizons.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-hakkola Free Guide: From 10K to 40K Months: https://go.hakkolahorizons.com/opt-in-10kto40k-months-guide Are you a founder in wellness, coaching, or consulting? If today's episode resonated and you're ready to have an honest conversation about what scaling actually looks like in your business, apply to be a guest on FoundHer Rising. #FoundHerRising #WomenFounders #PrivatePractice #BusinessGrowth #ServiceBusiness

    33 min

  8. Apr 21

    You're Selling a Service, Not Yourself with Jodi Kapes & Valerie Lighthall | FoundHer Rising S01 E23

    Two LCSWs Left the Hospital. Then They Built What the Mental Health System Was Missing. Jodi Kapes and Valerie Lighthall spent years inside hospital behavioral health. After 14+ years in the system, they walked out and built Aligned Clinical LCSW Consulting, a practice delivering clinical debriefings, mental health support, and risk management consulting directly to organizations and communities. But this episode is not just their story. It's a masterclass for any woman in business who has ever struggled to charge her worth, market her services, or reconcile building a sustainable business with wanting to genuinely help people. Christine Hakkola makes one thing very clear: you are not selling yourself. You are selling a service. And the difference between those two things is costing many women service providers their businesses. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 👉🏼 Undercharging doesn't protect the people you serve — it limits how long you can serve them 👉🏼 The clearest marketing language you'll ever write is already in how you describe your impact out loud 👉🏼 B2B consulting models let service providers create exponentially larger community impact CONNECT WITH ALIGNED CLINICAL LCSW CONSULTING: Website: alignedclinical.com CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE HAKKOLA Website: hakkolahorizons.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-hakkola Instagram: @hakkolahorizons If you've hit consistent revenue but working harder isn't creating more growth, this guide breaks down what actually has to change. Free Guide: https://go.hakkolahorizons.com/opt-in-10kto40k-months-guide If this episode resonated with you, subscribe to FoundHer Rising, share it with a founder who needs to hear it, and leave a review. It helps more women find these conversations. #FoundHerRising #WomenEntrepreneurs #MentalHealthBusiness

    32 min
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About

Your business didn’t fail. It outgrew the way it was built. FoundHer Rising is for women founders in wellness, coaching, and consulting who’ve built successful service-based businesses, and are now feeling the weight of growth that depends too much on them. You’ve done the right things. You’ve built demand, filled your calendar, and proven your expertise. But instead of ease, growth brought more pressure, complexity, and responsibility. This isn’t a podcast for beginners, hustle culture, or quick fixes. It’s a space for honest conversations about what scaling actually requires: leadership shifts, identity changes, and building a business that can grow without burning you out. Hosted by Christine Hakkola, this show helps experienced, heart-centered founders think differently about their businesses so decisions get clearer and growth becomes more intentional. If this stage feels familiar, you’re in the right place. Learn more at hakkolahorizons.com.

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