149: Jaime Schmidt: She Built a Business With No Plan Then Started Strength Training at 46. Bet on Yourself Before You Have Proof.
Broads: The Bold & Badass Fitness Podcast for WomenShow Notes
Most women spend more time waiting to feel ready than they spend actually building. Waiting until the plan makes sense. Waiting until the timing is right. Waiting until there is enough proof that it is going to work before they will let themselves believe it will. And in the meantime, the thing they want—the body, the business, the version of themselves they can almost see—stays exactly where it is.
Jaime Schmidt did not wait. She started Schmidt's Naturals while pregnant, bootstrapped, making deodorant in mason jars and selling it at a Portland farmers market. She hand-delivered six-stick wholesale orders across town for thirty dollars. When the product stained a customer's shirt, she asked them to mail it to her, washed it, and sent it back. Seven years later, she sold to Unilever—30,000 retailers, 30 countries. She had no ten-year plan. She had an unwavering belief that if anyone could figure it out, it was her, and she built everything from there.
Jaime Schmidt is the founder of Schmidt's Naturals, one of the most recognized natural personal care brands in the world. She is the author of Supermaker: Crafting Business on Your Own Terms, an investor through her fund Color, and a strength training convert who started lifting at 46 and has been watching her body change in ways she did not expect and cannot stop talking about.
What's Discussed:
(0:00) The only question worth asking before you build anything: are you willing to bet on yourself before you have proof it will work?
(2:31) What it actually means to erase the identity you have built—and why it is the only way to step into who you want to become
(6:13) The origin story: pregnant, bootstrapped, making deodorant in a kitchen in mason jars and selling it at a farmers market
(9:49) Why the sales skills you think you do not have show up the second you believe in what you are selling
(14:28) What happens when you try to make every customer happy—and the moment Jaime realized it was costing her the business
(16:19) The biggest early mistakes: bad hires, locked-in contracts, and what her motto "say yes now, figure out how" actually costs when there are no limits on it
(17:26) Building while bootstrapped with a newborn—what balance actually looked like when it was not pretty
(19:49) The only question worth asking when the grind gets heavy: are you still happy?
(23:34) How she knew it was time to sell to Unilever—and what intuition actually feels like when it keeps showing up
(28:51) What came after: writing Supermaker, launching Color, and what identity looks like when it expands instead of ending
(39:15) Starting strength training at 46—and what two years of consistent lifting built that she did not see coming
(46:00) Why it is never too late—in the gym or anywhere else—if you are willing to show up
(51:13) Manifestation, visualization, and the delusional belief that actually works
Want a simple place to start fueling for the body you are building? Grab Broads' FREE Macronutrient Guide: The Balanced Plate Blueprint at broads.app/macronutrient-guide.
Learn more about Broads:
https://www.instagram.com/broads.podcast/
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Check out more from Tara LaFerrara:
https://www.taralaferrara.com/
https://www.instagram.com/taralaferrara/
YouTube: @TaraLaferrara
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Check out more from Jaime Schmidt:
Instagram: @jaimeschmidt
Supermaker: Crafting Business on Your Own Terms https://supermaker.com/book
Learn more about Jamie at https://www.jaimeschmidt.info/
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