A couple of weeks ago, I announced that I’m relaunching my podcast—this time focusing on female entrepreneurs: how they lead, how they grow their teams, and how they build businesses that last. Because I truly believe that we women lead differently.
This week, I finally sat down with Merlijn Mazairac to record the first episode, and I left feeling absolutely energized. From the start of our conversation, the connection was there. She spoke with such openness about living abroad, building her consulting company, and leading her team through growth and change.
Here are three ideas from her leadership journey that inspired me most:
1️⃣ Colleagues sitting side by side for years without really knowing each other. Merlijn has seen it happen, and now uses intentional exercises to help people open up and truly connect.
2️⃣ Team fails are leadership lessons. She reminded me that struggles, mismatched hires, disconnection, and even tough exits all carry value. Talking about them openly makes us better leaders—and helps others avoid the same mistakes.
3️⃣ Salary conversations in times of inflation. She doesn’t shy away from the tough talks—the ones that test not just your budget, but your leadership itself.
For me, this first recording is about growing as a leader by listening to the honest stories of others. I’m deeply grateful to Merlijn for sharing her journey so openly—and excited for all the conversations ahead.
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Hire from Clarity, Not Overwhelm
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Most hiring problems aren’t talent problems.
They’re clarity problems.I see this all the time.
A founder says,
“We need a marketing manager.”What they actually mean is:
“I’m overwhelmed and I don’t want to think about marketing anymore.”That’s not a role.
That’s a feeling.When you hire from overwhelm instead of clarity, three things happen:
You bring someone in without a defined outcome.
You stay the bottleneck because decisions still live in your head.
You blame the hire when nothing changes.
Relief doesn’t come from adding people.
It comes from defining outcomes.Before you hire, ask yourself:
• What does success look like in 90 days?
• What decisions will this person own without me?
• What will no longer live in my brain?If you can’t answer those clearly, you’re not ready to hire.
You’re ready to design.The best hires don’t add activity.
They subtract pressure.And that’s when growth finally feels sustainable.
If you’re hiring right now, are you adding capacity… or just adding complexity?
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What Travel Taught Me About My Business
What Travel Taught Me About My Business
I learned more about my business while flying to Panama than I do on most workdays.
Not from dashboards.
Not from meetings.
But from stepping away and watching what happened next.
One of the quiet measures of a healthy business is what happens when the founder steps away.
Not the highlight reel.
Not the revenue numbers.
But whether the wheels keep turning without constant intervention.
I was in Panama recently, and stepping away made this impossible to ignore. Travel has a way of revealing the truth. When you unplug, gaps show up quickly. Decisions stall. Questions pile up. Or… everything keeps moving.
The difference is rarely talent.
It’s structure.
Strong teams don’t need to be micromanaged. They need clarity, trust, and systems that allow good decisions to happen without waiting for permission.
Building that kind of business takes intention.
You design for absence, not heroics.
Because freedom isn’t something you take once the business is “done.”
It’s something you build into the model from the start.
If your business can’t run without you, that’s not a leadership failure.
It’s simply a signal.
And signals are useful, if you’re willing to listen.
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Stop Hiring the Person You Like. Start Hiring for What You Need.
If you don’t know what you really need, you’ll hire the person you like most.
I’ve read hundreds of small business job descriptions, and 95% make the same mistake: they’re more of a wishlist than a job description.
A typical one looks like this:
We want someone who can:
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Manage the calendar
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Write the newsletters
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Run operations
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Handle support
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Think like a strategist
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Execute like a machine
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And work across four time zones
What’s the problem with that?
It mixes six completely different skill sets: administrative, creative, operational, technical, strategic, and customer-facing. That’s not a job. It’s a fantasy.
If someone like that existed, they’d already be running their own business, not applying to work for yours.
Here’s what to do instead:
1️⃣ Write down everything you wish this person would do.
2️⃣ Circle the three most critical things.
3️⃣ Build a role around those, not all seventeen.Once you’ve found that person and developed a good rhythm, go back to your list, see what’s still open, and hire the next person.
Hiring isn’t about finding magic. It’s about making trade-offs and slowly building a team that can cover all the tasks you want to delegate.
Focus beats fantasy. Every time.
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