The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth

CHS Class of 2005. I had a plan, and if I'm being honest, it wasn't really mine. It was THE plan we were all given at that time. Get the degree, get the good job (the one with the benefits), stay until retirement, and maybe get a sheet cake in the break room on your last day. By 2014 I was teaching high school English in a Calvin Klein sheath dress and heels, pregnant, checking every single box that blueprint handed me. And something in me was still whispering...there's got to be a better way. This one is for the box-checkers. We get into the three things that keep good builders stuck (sunk costs, other people's opinions, and the very real weight of our commitments), what "better" actually means when you build in a small town, and the chain reaction that kicks off the minute you get clear on future you. I even read my own "Wealthy Molly" list out loud. Consider this the on-ramp to The Found Framework, which starts next Wednesday. What You'll Hear The math so many of us absorbed growing up: college degree plus full-time job equals peace and stability The grass is always greener...and what to do when the patch you're standing on is a little brown Why running away from something isn't the same as building toward something The three things that keep Founders stuck: the sunk cost fallacy, OPO (other people's opinions), and the weight of real commitments Why OPO plays a bigger role when everybody knows everybody What "a better way" means, and why it isn't "faster," "more convenient," or "more efficient" The chain reaction: future you, habits, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, actions, results (and around again) Molly's Wealthy Molly list from a coaching session with Katrina Klooster, and what giggling at your own dreams gives away The "Oprah of the Midwest" (yes, I said it out loud) A first look at the five questions of The Found Framework and Found, the new 12-week advisory program Your 10-minute homework before next week Resources and Links Katrina Klooster's conversation on The Found Podcast from May 2026 The Found Framework series begins Wednesday, October 21 Free Resource: Small Town Founders Workbook Your 2027 business and marketing strategy, worked out on paper. Grab the free Small Town Founders Workbook: mollyknuth.myflodesk.com/smalltownfoundersworkbook Go Deeper with Found The show introduces the five questions. Found is where you work through them for your business or organization, with me in your corner for 12 weeks. Learn more at mollyknuth.com or email [email protected] and we'll talk. Listen and Subscribe Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5YACTbRulN4NooX32NgzgV Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-found-podcast-with-molly-knuth/id1530616432 Share This Episode Know someone who checked every box and still hears that little whisper? Send this one their way. Then tell me what future you does on a Tuesday. I want to hear it. mollyknuth.com · @mollyknuth · [email protected]

Picture me on a Saturday night at the end of August: a wig with flips I can only describe as aggressive, a fake mustache I've sweat off more times than I can count, and a hanky in my back pocket assigned to one job. Upper Lip Patrol. I looked like a NASCAR driver who lost a bet. That's scavenger hunt night in Cascade. Every year I write the riddles, laminate everything in sight, glue tiny race car drivers to popsicle sticks, and send my family and friends all over town in teams. It makes me zero dollars. And this year, right in the middle of it, I realized it had taught me more about running a business than a lot of the webinars I've sat through. If you've been quietly running on empty (maybe without even clocking it yet), this episode is my case for play. We talk about writing without AI, looking ridiculous on purpose, why I keep refusing to sell this thing, and the branding, storytelling, and word of mouth lessons I didn't go looking for. I came out the other side remembering something I didn't know I'd forgotten. WHAT YOU'LL HEAR Why I wrote every clue by hand on a legal pad this year, and what writing without AI gave back to me The freedom of looking absurd in public when you usually spend a lot of energy on how you're perceived Why I keep saying no when people ask me to turn the hunt into a kit they can buy How play and silliness make the heavy parts of business more sustainable What a little Jeff Gordon on a popsicle stick taught me about consistent branding Why stories (not the details) are what bring people back year after year Bonus: word of mouth is still the most powerful marketing channel there is, especially in a small town The question to sit with: what's your scavenger hunt? RESOURCES AND LINKS Back catalog episode: Just Have F*cking Fun Recent episode: Using AI Without Losing Your Voice FREE RESOURCE Grab the free Small Town Founders Workbook, your 2027 business and marketing strategy built for rural and small-town Founders: https://mollyknuth.myflodesk.com/smalltownfoundersworkbook LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5YACTbRulN4NooX32NgzgV?si=eeab33fd432844ee Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-found-podcast-with-molly-knuth/id1530616432 SHARE THIS EPISODE If this one hit you somewhere in the feels, send it to the friend who needs a little permission to play. Then tell me your scavenger hunt. Tag me or send me a message... I'd love to hear it. mollyknuth.com · @mollyknuth · [email protected]

We stopped recording...and then kept talking. (As one does.) In this bonus clip from my conversation with Kristina Heinzen and Gina Martin, co-founders of Moms Connect Dubuque, we get into a question every nonprofit leader, funder, and community builder runs into sooner or later: how do you measure impact when the work is relational and generational? Counting is easy for most of us. A thousand meals served, fifty-five packs of diapers handed out. But Moms Connect is building relationships with moms as they work to break patterns that kept them alive for years, and that kind of change doesn't show up in two months or by the end of a grant cycle. They do have some early numbers, though. Kristina shares what they've tracked informally so far: 17 moms who closed their child welfare cases and haven't had them reopened, compared with roughly 85 Dubuque cases reopened within a year of closing. And not one active Moms Connect mom has experienced termination of parental rights. What you'll hear: Why relational, long-term impact is so hard to fit into traditional metrics The early numbers Moms Connect is seeing on case closures and family preservation Why survival patterns take a lifetime (and a generation) to change What funders, grant makers, and the rest of us could learn about measuring success differently If you haven't heard the full conversation yet, start with their full interview How Two Foster Moms Built a Nonprofit to Keep Families Together: The Moms Connect Dubuque Story. Connect with Moms Connect Dubuque: Website: momsconnectdbq.org Facebook: Moms Connect Dubuque Ask them about volunteering for or donating to the Dignified Christmas Market this December Listen and subscribe: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5YACTbRulN4NooX32NgzgV Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-found-podcast-with-molly-knuth/id1530616432 If you work at a nonprofit or a foundation, or you sit on a grant committee, send this one their way. It might change how they read the next impact report. Now...go find something.

I'll pull back the curtain a little: I walked into this interview with my questions prepped, sent, and tidy. Then Kristina Heinzen and Gina Martin answered the very first one and the whole conversation went somewhere else entirely. (The good kind of somewhere else.) Kristina and Gina met in foster parent licensing classes in 2019. They went in believing they'd be the ones rescuing kids from hard situations. What they found instead were moms who loved their kids fiercely and had nobody. No support system. No steady people. So they did something that really shouldn't be revolutionary...they sat down with moms who had lived it and asked what would have made a difference. The answer was relationships. That conversation (and some tacos) became Moms Connect Dubuque, now a 501(c)(3) walking alongside moms as they navigate systems, access resources, and build the skills to care for themselves and their families. Fair warning: we go deep quick in this one. There are tears. There's talk of trauma, addiction, and the foster care system. Listen all the way through, because as Gina and Kristina will tell you, hearing someone's story is where empathy starts. What You'll Hear How fostering unraveled everything Kristina and Gina thought they knew about parents in the system The "I'm too late" moment that became Gina's catalyst for change Why Kristina came to see the mom of the boys in her care as those very same children, ten years earlier The May 2023 conversation with two moms that shaped everything Moms Connect does Why proving you deserve help, one transaction at a time, keeps moms stuck (and what a warm handoff looks like instead) Inside a Moms Connect gathering: childcare, a shared meal, a donated party bus, and a new curriculum on survival responses The employment program launching this fall: a cleaning business paired with an education track through NICC and Iowa Works How "let's meet with some moms, let's have tacos" turned into a nonprofit with a board, partners, and two co-executive directors What Kristina and Gina have found about themselves: how much they don't know, and the power of receiving Resources and Links Mentioned Dignified Christmas Market Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) Iowa Works Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque (and catch Ep. 258 with Josie Manternach of CFGD) Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Connect with Kristina and Gina Website: momsconnectdbq.org Facebook: Moms Connect Dubuque Listen and Subscribe Follow the show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5YACTbRulN4NooX32NgzgV Follow the show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-found-podcast-with-molly-knuth/id1530616432 If this conversation cracked something open for you, send it to one person who would get it. And if you're anywhere near Dubuque, the Dignified Christmas Market could use your hands (and your gift drive) this December.

You probably couldn't tell me what your county auditor actually does. I couldn't either, until I sat down with Whitney Hein. Whitney is the Jones County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections, and by the end of this conversation I had a whole new appreciation for how much of our daily life runs through that office: elections, property taxes, payroll, budgets, the courthouse itself. It's a job most of us vote on without fully understanding, and that's exactly why I wanted her on. We get into what drew her to the role, what six years in has taught her about resilience, and the behind the scenes work that keeps Jones County elections free, fair, and trustworthy. If you've ever wondered what actually happens to your ballot after you drop it off, this one's for you. Meet Whitney Whitney Hein is the Jones County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections, first elected in 2020 and now in her second term. She's a wife to her husband Ben, a mom to their daughter Laney, and lives in rural Jones County, where her family farms. Before stepping into county government, Whitney worked in ag business and animal science. What You'll Hear Everything the auditor's office actually handles, from elections to payroll to property taxes Why Whitney left a career she loved for a job she had little experience in The behind the scenes security measures that keep Jones County elections accurate, down to numbered seals and hand counted test ballots Why local elections deserve just as much attention as national ones How to plan ahead for early voting, absentee ballots, and Election Day itself What six years in the role taught Whitney about her own resilience Resources & Links Jones County Elections: https://www.jonescountyiowaelections.gov or on Facebook Ballot tracking tool: available here through the Iowa Secretary of State's website Connect with Whitney For the fastest response, call the Jones County Auditor's office directly. Full contact info is listed at jonescountyiowaelections.gov. Listen & Subscribe Spotify Apple Podcasts If this one opened your eyes even a little, share it with someone who votes in Jones County (or wherever they call home). The more we understand these local roles, the more we trust the people doing them.