What happens when the life you worked so hard to build no longer feels like the life you’re meant to live? In this episode of the Catch her Spark Podcast with Jen Maldonado, Jen sits down with Dr. Amanda Lewis, dentist, longtime entrepreneur, and founder of LUI, to talk about what it really looks like to start over. By the time Amanda approached 40, she had built what looked like a successful life. She owned two dental practices, had grown a team of about 20 people, was raising two children, and had spent nearly two decades building her career. But behind that success, Amanda knew something needed to change. She went through a divorce, navigated the uncertainty of the pandemic, sold the dental practices she had spent years building, moved from a small town in Illinois to Dallas, and eventually made another huge decision: stepping away from dentistry full-time to bet on an entirely different business. That business became LUI, a smile-care brand inspired by Amanda’s 20 years of experience looking beyond teeth and seeing how deeply a person’s smile connects to confidence, beauty, and overall wellness. The road was anything but simple. Amanda shares the setbacks behind building LUI, including an early product that could not scale, manufacturing challenges, stolen product molds, the sudden death of her mother, and the difficult decision to leave the career that had given her stability and success. She also shares how her parents helped shape the entrepreneur she became. Her father inspired her drive to own and build businesses, while the loss of her mother gave Amanda a new sense of urgency and confidence to pursue what came next. Jen and Amanda also explore why resilience has played such a big role in her life. Amanda compares it to distance running: when you fall miles from home, you still have to get back up and keep going. The conversation then goes beyond entrepreneurship and into Amanda’s vision for changing the way people think about their smiles. She explains why she believes smile care belongs alongside beauty and wellness, and shares how her own dental and health journey changed the way she thinks about breathing, sleep, confidence, and oral care. This episode is for the woman who has built a life she thought she wanted but is beginning to wonder whether there is something more waiting for her. Sometimes starting over doesn’t mean everything you built was wasted. It means you get to take everything you learned with you into what comes next. About Dr. Amanda Lewis Dr. Amanda Lewis is a dentist, entrepreneur, and founder of LUI. After nearly two decades in dentistry and building successful dental practices, Amanda shifted her focus toward creating smile-care products designed to fit into everyday beauty and wellness routines. Her goal is to help people think differently about their smiles—not simply as something to care for at the dentist, but as an important part of confidence and overall wellness. Be a Guest Are you a successful business owner, entrepreneur, or professional with insights to share? Apply to be a guest at https://catchherspark.com/guest and share your expertise with a wide audience eager to learn about you...
