Your Best Friends in Business Podcast
Welcome to Your Best Friends in Business - the show where two multi-business owners who run four very different businesses talk shop with other owners about what actually works (and what doesn’t) when real money and real people are involved.
Listen, Watch and Follow Along!
The Real Side of Building a Business You Actually
Want to Keep
TRAILER
Join best friends and co-founders Stacie Staub and Madie Linder as they pull back the curtain on building multiple businesses, bringing you inside honest conversations with founders who are doing the same. Each episode blends real-time business updates, candid interviews, and refreshingly unfiltered debates about what actually works (and what definitely doesn't). Part strategy, part survival guide, and entirely the kind of conversation most business owners desperately need. Come for the tactics, stay for the honesty and leave with practical takeaways, fresh perspectives, and the reminder that there’s no perfect way to build a business so just build it!
CURRENT EPISODES
Getting to Know You with Madie and Stacie
EPISODE 10
To wrap Season 1, Madie and Stacie skip the interview format and put their own partnership on trial — three producer-built games, one winner, and a loser stuck working a hostess shift at their new restaurant. First up: the Newlywed Game, where they guess everything from each other's stress-eating order to their most-used excuse for showing up late. Then it's Would You Rather, where they debate honesty vs. niceness in a business partner, growing fast vs. growing sustainable, and losing your biggest client vs. your best employee. They close it out with Guess That Guest, a trivia round built from the best quotes of Season 1. Along the way, they open up about what's actually held their partnership together for years: no Plan B, an abundance mindset over scarcity, and the belief that nobody cares about your business as much as you do.
From Cop Car to Building (and Selling) Breakthrough Broker with Eric Sachs
EPISODE 9
What happens when a cop trades his badge for a real estate license and ends up building not one, but two companies he sells for real money? Eric Sachs spent 13 years with the Fort Collins Police Department before going all-in on real estate. He co-founded Infinity Group Realty, grew it to 40+ agents, and sold it in 2010. Then he and his business partner bootstrapped Breakthrough Broker, a completely free platform for real estate agents, funded by industry partners instead of users, using Eric's police pension and zero backup plan. It grew to over 650,000 agent profiles before it, too, was acquired.
Teaching Money to Generations with Mike Michalowicz
EPISODE 8
By 35, Mike Michalowicz had built and sold two multimillion-dollar companies. He became an angel investor with his winnings—and lost everything. Out of that collapse came Profit First, one of the most widely used small business money systems in the world, followed by a string of bestsellers (The Pumpkin Plan, Clockwork, Fix This Next, Get Different). His newest book, The Money Habit, takes that same thinking and points it at personal finances instead of business ones. Stacie Staub and Madie Linder talk with Mike about "entrepreneurial poverty," the behavioral trick that fixed his own money habits, why every business has one weak link worth finding, and the mindset shift behind teaching what you most need to learn.
The Accidental Celebrity Who Reinvented Real Estate with Marguerite Martin
EPISODE 7
Marguerite Martin has sold homes in Tacoma since 2005, but in 2015 she started a side project (a blog and podcast called Move to Tacoma) just to give people an honest, neighborhood-level look at a city most outsiders didn't know much about. That side project turned her into a local celebrity (and, at times, the accidental face of Tacoma's gentrification debate), and it changed how she thought about her own job. Instead of trying to do every deal herself, she became a matchmaker — connecting buyers and sellers with the right agent for their goals. Stacie Staub and Madie Linder talk with Marguerite about identifying (and saying no to) your ideal client, why AI search is the new SEO, and the mindset shift behind building a business that supports your life instead of running it.
Building It, Growing It, and Letting It Go with Jen Jasinski
EPISODE 6
Jen Jasinski trained under Wolfgang Puck, then opened Rioja in Denver's Larimer Square in 2004. Twenty years, five restaurants, and a James Beard Award later, she and business partner Beth Gruitch did something most growth-minded founders don't: they closed a restaurant, handed off two more, and refocused on where it all began. Stacie Staub and Madie Linder talk with Jen about building a business with one partner for 26 years, the real cost of opening a restaurant today, and why she believes you can't grow a business by chasing your own ego.
Everybody Deserves Something Beautiful with Sarah Ortega
EPISODE 5
She started with $800 in rent money and her mom's leftover inventory. Sarah Ortega grew up behind the counter at her mother's jewelry store and went on to build Sarah O. Jewelry into a Denver institution: two showrooms, a red carpet moment at the Oscars, and a brand philosophy built around making everyone who walks in feel seen. Stacie Staub and Madie Linder talk with Sarah about letting go of her first store to chase what she really loved, watching her childhood neighborhood change around her, and how she’s recently been able to get back to her passions.
3,000 Women and The One Question That Started It All with Mercy Tucker
EPISODE 4
She grew up on a farm in Idaho and ended up sitting with women in the Dominican Republic, asking what they actually needed. Mercy Tucker co-founded Project I See You in 2009, and the organization has since supported thousands of women through economic development abroad and the Shared Power Initiative at home, helping women become first-time homeowners in Denver. Stacie Staub and Madie Linder talk with Mercy about building across borders, why her grants come with almost no red tape, and what it means to truly share power instead of just writing a check.
Say Yes First Then Figure Out the Rest with Rachael King
EPISODE 3
She shut down a working PR firm to bet on a format most brands hadn't figured out yet. Rachael King founded Pod People in 2017, and it's now behind award-winning podcasts for Netflix, Vogue, Marvel, and CNN. Stacie Staub and Madie Linder talk to Rachael about building solo before finding her co-founder Anne, why word of mouth still beats every algorithm, and how she decides which clients Pod People will and won't work with. If you've ever wondered whether a hobby could become the whole business, this one's for you.
Earning Authority in the Age of AI with Molly McKinley
EPISODE 2
She's launched a craft kit business, pitched on Oprah, built and rebuilt a marketing consultancy, and made every partnership mistake there is to make. Now Molly McKinley is using Claude as her editor, teaching the next generation of women entrepreneurs at Meredith College, and reviving a tea house dream she once put on ice. Stacie Staub and Madie Linder dig into what it actually takes to build authority instead of gaming an algorithm, why bad business partnerships cost more than money, and what it means to bring humanity into a world that runs on AI.
REDTAIL CREATIVE
MEREDITH COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP & IMPACT CENTER
From Bark to Business
with Meg Meyer
EPISODE 1
You're not supposed to say yes before you have a plan. Meg Meyer did it anyway and it changed everything. The Bear & the Rat went from farmers market pop-ups to Whole Foods, Petco, and Publix, and Meg is here to tell you what nobody posts about. We're talking Shark Tank PTSD, frozen distribution nightmares, and what it really costs to build something with the person you sleep next to. Stacie Staub and Madie Linder bring in founders who've actually been through it and don’t want to only discuss the highlight reels. If you've ever bet on yourself before you were ready, this one's for you!
THE BEAR & THE RAT