Adrienne just got back from New York Tech Week, where she spoke to a room of female founders about something most of them had never thought about before. She's not done talking about it.

In this solo episode, Adrienne breaks down the four categories of exits, why 24 different versions of an exit exist, and why most female founders are only picturing one of them.

She makes the case that building without an exit plan is not ambition. It's a liability in the making.

What she covers:

• What Adrienne spoke about at New York Tech Week and why the conversation is one we are not having nearly early enough
• The four exit categories: scale, sell, step away, and secession planning, and what falls under each one
• Why an exit does not have to mean a sale, and why thinking it does is keeping founders stuck
• How long each exit path actually takes to prepare for, from 18 months to a decade
• The insurance plan framework: if you step out tomorrow, does everything disappear with you?
• The dentist and the dog food website, and what happens when a seven-figure business is worth nothing to the person left behind
• Why the operational work is the same no matter which exit you choose
• The free Out of Office training and what Adrienne is covering live

Free training: level11leaders.com/OOO

⏱️ Time Chapters
00:01 Solo episode and New York City recap
04:42 What exit actually means, and the 24 versions most founders don't know about
09:23 How long each path takes and why you need to start now
13:59 The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago
16:16 The dentist, the dog food website, and the wife who couldn't inherit any of it
18:39 Why we are not having this conversation enough and what Adrienne wants to do about it

Most leaders believe they have built an open, safe, equitable team. The team usually disagrees. The gap between those two things is where this whole conversation lives.

Trudi Lebron has spent 20 years as an equity practitioner, starting in education and youth development before making a deliberate move in 2017 to bring this work into the coaching and online business world.

Adrienne worked with her in back in 2020, and they have been crossing paths ever since. This time they sit down to talk about what equity actually means inside a company, and why so much of it comes down to power and how you use it.

What they cover:

• Why "we're not creating oxygen" became a guiding principle, and how it changes the energy a whole team runs on

• Why equity is so much bigger than race, and how it shows up in onboarding, work hours, and the structure people actually need to succeed

• The real reason most leaders stay quiet: not kindness, just fear of getting it wrong

• Why letting things slide is an abdication of responsibility, not good-boss behavior

• The difference between wanting to lead and wanting to be in charge

• Why power is neutral, and what owning it actually unlocks instead of avoiding it

• The restraint problem: what you steal from your team every time you jump in

• How middle managers become the dam, and what happens to the whole team when it breaks

• The psychological safety test: if no one pushes back, assume they do not feel safe

Trudi Lebron, MS, is a highly skilled executive coach and facilitator with over 20 years of experience helping public and private institutions, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and founders build equitable businesses, workplaces, and learning environments. She is the founder of The Institute for Equity-Centered Coaching, the author of The Antiracist Business Book (Row House Publishing, 2022), and a PhD candidate in Social Psychology.

Find Trudi at trudilebron.com, on her weekly email Working Hypothesis, and on her podcast, where Adrienne appears in the episode "I Had To Shed This Skin."

Time Chapters

00:00 How Adrienne and Trudi met

02:00 Why Trudi chose equity work

03:50 Equity is bigger than race

04:50 Equity meets capitalism

07:40 Never becoming the boss you hated

09:20 We're not creating oxygen

11:05 You can't teach people how to be free

12:45 Onboarding for how someone actually works

15:05 Equity serves the business too

17:25 Doing nothing for fear of getting it wrong

20:30 The expectation you never actually set

22:45 The power dynamic you don't want to admit

24:50 Power is neutral

27:00 Authority is given, not taken

29:00 Restraint as a leadership skill

30:40 Why you really jump in

32:40 Middle managers as the dam

40:05 Speaking up needs safety

41:50 How to know it's not safe

43:25 Where to find Trudi

44:50 The AI conversation they saved for next time

Women own 40% of all businesses in the United States and represent just over 1% of business exits.

Adrienne has thoughts about that, and she's not holding back.

In this solo episode, Adrienne makes the case that if your business can't run without you, it's not actually a business. It's a job with lipstick.

She walks through why female founders in particular get stuck in owner dependency, what it costs them, and what it actually looks like to start building a real exit.

What she covers:

• The difference between a business that's an asset and one that's a liability hiding in plain sight
• Why women represent 40% of business owners but just 1% of exits, and what that gap is actually telling us
• The identity trap: why stepping back feels like a betrayal, and why that feeling is keeping you stuck
• At least six different definitions of "exit" that have nothing to do with selling your business
• How removing owner dependency can two to three times the value of your business
• The dog food website story: a retired dentist, millions of monthly views, and a wife who couldn't inherit any of it
• Small business owners take an average of five days off per year, and 67% check in with work every day they're supposedly on vacation
• The 90-day test: if you had to step away from your business tomorrow, would it survive?
• The free Out of Office training and what Adrienne is covering there
  

Free training: level11leaders.com/OOO

⏱️ Time Chapters
00:00 Solo episode and kindergarten graduation chaos
04:10 Is your business an asset or a job with lipstick
08:30 The dog food website story
13:00 Women own 40% of businesses but represent 1% of exits
17:30 Why women exit unplanned and for less money
22:00 The identity trap and why stepping away feels like betrayal
27:30 Six versions of what an exit could actually look like
33:00 Owner dependency is costing you two to three times your valuation
37:00 The 90-day test
40:00 Out of Office free training and close