The Billionaire Brain® Podcast

Hosted by Dawn McGruer

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Oct 2026

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The Billionaire Brain® Podcast by Dawn McGruer, a top 2.5% globally ranked podcast with 25K+ downloads per episode across 32+ countries — your neurological upgrade for how the 1% think, lead and build wealth. The podcast exploring how exceptional founders think, build wealth and create extraordinary lives — through neuroscience, founder psychology and conversations with the people who've done it. Dawn is the Forbes Books author of The Billionaire Brain® (coming 2027), a 5× founder, keynote speaker and business growth strategist specialising in founder and wealth psychology, business scaling and licensing. Each episode goes beyond traditional business strategy to explore the psychology, behaviours and decisions behind extraordinary growth. Expect conversations around: • Founder psychology and wealth psychology • Scaling businesses beyond the founder • Building £100K months and beyond • Leveraging expertise, IP and intellectual property • Licensing and recurring revenue • Leadership and decision-making • Neuroscience, identity and high performance • Wealth, health, happiness and freedom Alongside Dawn's insights, you'll hear candid conversations with successful founders, entrepreneurs, investors and experts about what really happens behind the numbers. The Billionaire Brain® — Think better. Feel richer. Live happier. Discover more at TheBillionaireBrain.com & DawnMcGruer.com This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podkite - https://podkite.com/privacy

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November 5, 202624 min

From Building Maintenance to Building Real Wealth: The Faith-Built Success Story of Giovanni Solano

Ep 202: From Building Maintenance to Building Real Wealth: The Faith-Built Success Story of Giovanni Solano What if real wealth isn’t about chasing money, but building something that creates freedom, purpose and impact? In this episode of Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast , Dawn McGruer is joined by Giovanni Solano , serial entrepreneur and founder of Geoism , to explore how faith, entrepreneurship, wealth and leadership can come together to create lasting success without sacrificing peace. Giovanni has spent more than 35 years building and scaling businesses across multiple industries, but one life-changing event completely transformed the way he saw success. After his wife survived a devastating three-storey fall, Giovanni says their lives changed completely. What had once been a life focused on business, money and achievement became a mission centred around faith, helping others and creating opportunities for people to build wealth of their own. Dawn and Giovanni explore why owning a business doesn’t automatically make you wealthy, the difference between creating a job for yourself and building true financial freedom, and why Giovanni believes success becomes more meaningful when it helps other people succeed too. In this episode, you’ll discover: • How Giovanni’s wife’s accident completely changed his perspective on life and business • Why he moved from calling himself “self-made” to “God-made” • Why owning a business doesn’t automatically create wealth • The difference between active income and building something that can generate income without you • Why Giovanni believes entrepreneurs should focus on helping others succeed • How faith transformed his approach to leadership and decision-making • Why being a leader is very different from being a boss • The lessons he has learned from spending time with successful entrepreneurs • How authenticity helped his Geoism YouTube channel grow rapidly • Why financial education and entrepreneurship should be taught earlier • How Giovanni wants to help create the next generation of entrepreneurs • Why lifelong learning remains important no matter how successful you become Giovanni explains that one of the biggest misconceptions entrepreneurs have is believing that simply owning a business means they are building wealth. For many founders, the business can become another hamster wheel. A bigger one, perhaps, but one that still depends entirely on their time and energy. For Giovanni, real wealth comes when you begin building systems, income streams and opportunities that can continue generating value without requiring you to be involved every minute of the day. A major theme throughout Giovanni’s journey is the shift from success being about himself to success being about other people. His philosophy is simple: Help other people succeed, and their success becomes part of your success. That thinking now sits behind his work creating what he calls “micro entrepreneurs”, helping people learn about business, finances and wealth creation rather than simply giving them a job. Giovanni also shares how his faith shaped his approach to leadership. Rather than being a boss who simply tells people what to do, he believes a leader should demonstrate the behaviour, values and actions they want others to follow. He also talks about the lessons he has learned from successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, including the importance of humility, service and never believing you have finished learning. The conversation also goes behind the scenes of one of Giovanni’s most entrepreneurial moments. During the COVID pandemic, a client asked whether his maintenance company offered electrostatic spraying. Giovanni said yes. There was just one problem. He didn’t know what electrostatic spraying was. After quickly researching the opportunity, sourcing equipment during a global shortage and finding a way to meet demand, Giovanni says the business generated around $150,000 in two weeks . It is a perfect example of the entrepreneurial mindset Dawn describes in the episode: Say yes, then find the solution. Today, Giovanni’s mission goes far beyond building companies. Through Geoism and his business ventures, he wants to help more people understand money, entrepreneurship, faith and purpose, with an ambitious goal of helping create 1,000 millionaires by 2027 . Ultimately, this episode is about redefining what success really means. Not simply how much money you can make, but what you can build, who you can help and the legacy you leave behind. Connect with Giovanni Solano Website: https://geoism.com/ Visit Geoism.com to connect with Giovanni and find his social channels, business projects and latest content. 🎧 Subscribe to Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast for conversations around founder psychology, neuroscience, wealth, identity and the thinking behind extraordinary success. CHECK OUT THE PODCAST & APPLY TO BECOME A GUEST https://dawnmcgruer.com/podcast FOLLOW DAWN MCGRUER Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawnmcgruer/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmcgruer/ Think better. Feel richer. Live happier. #TheBillionaireBrain #GiovanniSolano #FaithBuiltSuccess This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podkite - https://podkite.com/privacy

October 29, 202631 min

How to Build Wealth and Feel Secure With Money with Roxy Zalucky

Ep 201: How to Build Wealth and Feel Secure With Money with Roxy Zalucky What if building wealth isn’t just about earning more money, but learning how to feel safe enough to actually use it? In this episode of Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast , Dawn McGruer is joined by Roxy Zalucky , founder of Zalucky Financial , who spent 15 years working across Wall Street and Bay Street before building a financial advisory business focused on helping women understand, manage and grow their wealth. Roxy’s fascination with money started early. Growing up without much financial education at home, she became determined to understand how money worked and eventually built a career inside some of the world’s biggest financial institutions. Early in that career, one brutally honest conversation with her boss changed everything. After asking for a pay rise, she was told she was replaceable. Rather than accepting that, Roxy went back to university, learned computer science and built a rare combination of financial, regulatory and technical expertise that ultimately helped her become the second female trader in the history of her hedge fund. But it was seeing how successful women were still being treated when asking for financial advice that pushed her into entrepreneurship. Dawn and Roxy explore why financial success does not automatically create financial confidence, how money trauma can continue influencing even high earners, and why women need to build both a financial strategy and a healthier relationship with wealth. In this episode, you’ll discover: • How Roxy went from an entry-level Wall Street salary to becoming a hedge fund trader • Why one comment from her boss completely changed the direction of her career • What led her to leave institutional finance and start Zalucky Financial • Why even highly successful women can still feel uncomfortable or unsafe around money • How financial trauma can quietly influence the decisions you make with wealth • Why some high earners keep huge amounts of cash sitting in current accounts • The hidden cost of doing nothing with your money • Why opportunity cost matters just as much as investment returns • How automation can make wealth building easier and less emotional • Why your personal financial team should grow as your business success grows • How to start investing when you have never done it before • Why starting with a small amount can help build confidence • The importance of diversification across property, investments, retirement funds and business equity • Why financial freedom comes from earning, keeping and enjoying wealth • How legacy can become a powerful motivation for building generational wealth Roxy explains that one of the biggest surprises in her work has been discovering just how common financial trauma really is. People may appear successful on the outside, but underneath the numbers can sit fear, guilt, scarcity and old beliefs that continue to shape every financial decision. And that is why, for Roxy, the first step is rarely the spreadsheet. It is creating enough safety for someone to talk honestly about their financial story. Because even the best strategy in the world is useless if every part of you is resisting it. One behaviour Roxy sees regularly among successful women is holding large amounts of cash simply because it feels safer when they can see it. She shares the example of a client with $350,000 sitting in a checking account because she was worried she might eventually need a new roof. Once the actual cost of that potential emergency was established, it became easier to separate genuine financial security from fear-driven behaviour. The conversation also explores the hidden cost of leaving money untouched. Beyond inflation, Roxy encourages people to consider opportunity cost . What could that money potentially be doing elsewhere? The goal is not to shame anyone into investing. It is to understand the full picture so you can make an informed and intentional decision about what feels right for you. Dawn and Roxy also talk about making wealth building more enjoyable. Whether it is automated investing, starting with $20 or $50, creating rituals around money or simply learning through curiosity, investing does not have to feel intimidating. Roxy’s advice is simple. Start somewhere. You were not born knowing how to drive a car or ride a bike, so why should you expect yourself to automatically understand investing? Start small, learn as you go and build the muscle. Roxy also highlights the importance of diversification. Rather than relying entirely on one asset class, one country or one strategy, she encourages people to think about a broader wealth picture that can include property, business equity, retirement savings, cash and diversified market investments. Ultimately, this conversation is about much more than numbers. It is about creating freedom, building confidence and changing the financial story that gets passed to the next generation. For Roxy, that legacy has become one of her greatest motivations. Because building wealth is not only about what it changes for you. It is also about what becomes possible for the people who come after you. Connect with Roxy Zalucky Instagram: @ZaluckyFinancial Visit Zalucky Financial online to join Roxy’s free Monday newsletter, where she shares three key market updates to help make financial news easier to understand. 🎧 Subscribe to Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast for conversations around founder psychology, neuroscience, wealth, identity and the thinking behind extraordinary success. CHECK OUT THE PODCAST & APPLY TO BECOME A GUEST https://dawnmcgruer.com/podcast FOLLOW DAWN MCGRUER Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawnmcgruer/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmcgruer/ Think better. Feel richer. Live happier. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podkite - https://podkite.com/privacy

October 21, 202626 min

The CFO Behind Multi-7-Figure Growth: Why Founders Must Learn to Think Like Finance CEOs

Ep 200: The CFO Behind Multi-7-Figure Growth: Why Founders Must Learn to Think Like Finance CEOs What if growing your revenue is actually making your business poorer? In this episode of Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast , Dawn McGruer is joined by Pam Jordan , founder and CEO of Pivot Business Group , a multi-seven-figure financial strategy firm helping entrepreneurs understand their numbers, improve profitability and scale with greater financial clarity. Pam’s journey into finance began after the multi-million-dollar company she worked for went bankrupt. The business was growing, had 99 employees and appeared successful from the outside, but the numbers told a very different story. That experience led Pam to become a fractional CFO and ultimately build Pivot Business Group, where her team now supports growing businesses across bookkeeping, tax strategy, tax filing and financial strategy. Dawn and Pam explore one of the biggest mistakes founders make when scaling. Focusing on revenue while ignoring profit. Pam explains why more sales can actually make a business run out of money faster, how underpricing can quietly destroy profitability and why founders need to understand the true cost of delivering their products or services before chasing further growth. They also discuss the financial numbers every CEO should understand, why your bank balance does not tell you how healthy your business really is, and when it becomes time to bring a fractional CFO into your leadership team. In this episode, you’ll discover: • Why increasing sales can actually make an unprofitable business lose money faster • The importance of understanding your true cost of delivery before setting your prices • Why gross profit margin is one of the biggest warning signs to watch during growth • How rapidly increasing overheads can turn exciting growth into dangerous growth • Why a £10 million business can be less financially successful than a £2 million business • The key financial numbers every founder should know without asking their accountant • Why looking at your bank balance alone can give you a completely false sense of security • How forecasting helps founders stop managing their business through the rear-view mirror • When a growing company should consider hiring a fractional CFO • Why founders approaching the £1 million revenue mark need a different level of financial strategy • The three financial roles Pam believes growing founders need around them • How childhood experiences and money trauma can create a ceiling on business growth • Why the team that gets you to one stage of your business may not be the team that takes you to the next Pam shares the distinction between traditional accounting and CFO-level financial thinking. While bookkeeping and accounting often focus on what has already happened, a CFO looks forward. That means understanding forecasts, budgets, cash requirements, profitability, potential investment, lines of credit and the financial decisions required to take the business from where it is today to where the founder wants it to go. Pam believes that around the $1 million revenue mark , this forward-looking financial strategy becomes increasingly important. At that level, founders are no longer simply managing money coming in and going out. They are making bigger decisions about people, infrastructure, investment, tax, funding and the future value of the company. The conversation also goes deeper into the psychology behind money. Pam explains how beliefs formed in childhood around scarcity, financial instability or the idea that wanting money is somehow wrong can continue to influence founders decades later. Without recognising those beliefs, ambitious entrepreneurs can unintentionally create their own financial ceiling. Pam also shares one of the hardest lessons from scaling her own business. The people who get you here may not be the people who get you there. After remaining stuck at a particular revenue level, Pam made significant changes to her team. The result was a business that doubled year over year. Her lesson is not that the original team members were wrong or unsuccessful. They may have been exactly the right people for one season of the business, but scaling sometimes requires founders to recognise when the next stage needs different skills, leadership and experience. Ultimately, the conversation comes back to a simple financial principle that also forms the basis of Pam’s upcoming book: It’s not what you make. It’s what you keep that matters. Because impressive revenue means very little if the business is not creating profit, cash and ultimately wealth for the person who built it. Connect with Pam Jordan Website: https://pamjordan.com/ You can also find Pam on social media by searching Pam Jordan CFO . 🎧 Subscribe to Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast for conversations around founder psychology, neuroscience, wealth, identity and the thinking behind extraordinary success. CHECK OUT THE PODCAST & APPLY TO BECOME A GUEST https://dawnmcgruer.com/podcast FOLLOW DAWN MCGRUER Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawnmcgruer/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmcgruer/ Think better. Feel richer. Live happier. #TheBillionaireBrain #PamJordan #BusinessProfit Connect with Dawn: Instagram @dawnmcgruer @dawnofanewerapodcast Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dawnamcgruer LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/businessconsort/ Web www.dawnmcgruer.com This podcast is in association with @HerPowerCommunity - The #1 Female Founders Global Community where connections flourish & growth is intentional https://www.patreon.com/c/herpowercommunity This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podkite - https://podkite.com/privacy

October 14, 202645 min

The Power of Women Who Choose to Hype Each Other with Erin Gallagher

Ep 199: The Power of Women Who Choose to Hype Each Other with Erin Gallagher What changes when women stop seeing each other as competition and start recognising the power of building together? In this episode of Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast , Dawn McGruer is joined by Erin Gallagher , founder of HYPE WOMEN , author, speaker, strategist and community builder whose work centres around culture, communication, collective action and the systems that shape how women see themselves and each other. Erin has spent more than 20 years building communities, campaigns and movements. Today, through HYPE WOMEN, she is focused on helping women move away from individual competition and towards collective power. Dawn and Erin explore why another woman’s success can sometimes feel threatening, why so many high-achieving women are still operating from the identity of the “good girl”, and what happens when ambition quietly turns into performance rather than something that actually feels aligned. Erin explains how women can unconsciously outsource their worth to other people, why jealousy can sometimes reveal what we truly want, and how changing our behaviour towards other women can start to change the way we think. They also explore a much broader definition of wealth. One that goes beyond revenue and financial capital to include human, social, political and spiritual capital, and the relationships and communities that help people genuinely thrive. In this episode, you’ll discover: • Why women can be conditioned to see other women’s success as competition • How the “good girl” identity can cause even highly successful women to give their power away • Why constantly seeking approval can weaken your ability to trust yourself • The difference between jealousy, envy and inspiration • How another woman’s success can reveal something you secretly want for yourself • Why supporting other women has to go further than superficial encouragement • How HYPE WOMEN approaches the transfer of human, social, financial, political and spiritual capital • Why traditional measures of success can leave women disconnected from what they actually want • What happens when ambition becomes performance or self-abandonment • Why women have the right to renegotiate the roles and identities they have outgrown • How burning bridges can sometimes be an act of self-trust rather than failure • Why presence cannot be optimised • How stepping away from constant performance can help you reconnect with who you really are Erin shares how many women have spent years performing identities such as ambitious founder, selfless mother, dutiful wife, loyal friend or tireless worker, only to reach a point where those identities no longer fit. Rather than believing everything has to be destroyed or abandoned, Erin introduces the idea of renegotiating the contract . The person who agreed to a particular role five, ten or twenty years ago may not be the same person today. Reclaiming your agency starts with asking what you actually consent to now, what needs to change, and where your boundaries need to be redrawn. She also challenges one of the lessons many women have been taught throughout their lives. Never burn bridges. Sometimes holding onto a relationship, opportunity or connection simply because you might need it one day means ignoring your own experience and continuing to carry situations that are no longer healthy. Learning to trust your own knowing can change everything. And perhaps one of the simplest lessons from the conversation is this: Presence cannot be optimised. When every area of life becomes something to improve, measure or maximise, we stop actually experiencing it. Erin encourages us to stop overriding our intuition and constantly searching for the next opportunity, conversation or achievement, and start paying attention to what is happening right in front of us. Because movements don’t begin when people simply hear a message. They begin when people can see themselves inside it. Connect with Erin Gallagher Website: https://hypewomen.com/ Discover Erin’s book Hype Women , her latest writing and more about the HYPE WOMEN movement at HypeWomen.com. 🎧 Subscribe to Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast for conversations around founder psychology, neuroscience, wealth, identity and the thinking behind extraordinary success. CHECK OUT THE PODCAST & APPLY TO BECOME A GUEST https://dawnmcgruer.com/podcast FOLLOW DAWN MCGRUER Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawnmcgruer/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmcgruer/ Think better. Feel richer. Live happier. Connect with Dawn: Instagram @dawnmcgruer @dawnofanewerapodcast Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dawnamcgruer LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/businessconsort/ Web www.dawnmcgruer.com This podcast is in association with @HerPowerCommunity - The #1 Female Founders Global Community where connections flourish & growth is intentional https://www.patreon.com/c/herpowercommunity This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podkite - https://podkite.com/privacy

October 7, 202627 min

Ep 198: The Billionaire Cab Driver: 50 Years of Wealth Wisdom, Real Estate and Financial Freedom with Jody Tallal

Ep 198: The Billionaire Cab Driver: 50 Years of Wealth Wisdom, Real Estate and Financial Freedom with Jody Tallal What if financial freedom isn’t about making more money, but knowing when you have enough? In this episode of Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast , Dawn McGruer is joined by Jody Tallal , financial adviser, educator and author of Billionaire Cab Driver , with more than five decades of experience helping people build, manage and protect their wealth. Jody shares an extraordinary journey. Having built a fortune he valued at $38 million and retired at 35, he lost everything following the Texas banking collapse and property downturn. After rebuilding his wealth and retiring a second time, he approached success very differently. Dawn and Jody explore the psychology of wealth, why high earnings don’t automatically create financial security , and how the constant pursuit of more can take you further away from the life you actually want. Jody explains why rising income often leads to rising spending, how professional success can create misplaced confidence around investing, and why knowing your personal financial summit matters just as much as knowing how to climb. In this episode, you’ll discover: • Why being successful in your career doesn’t automatically make you good with money • How lifestyle inflation can stop high earners from building lasting wealth • Why Jody moved away from product commissions to a fee-only financial advice model • What he learned by studying his clients’ investment successes and mistakes • How losing his fortune changed his approach to wealth, risk and happiness • Why even experienced investors cannot anticipate every market shock • How to think about your personal financial summit and what “enough” means to you • Why the need to keep achieving can be rooted in fear and identity • How Jody’s approach to mindset and goal-setting shaped his journey • Why he now defines wealth through peace of mind, family and freedom Jody also shares the conversation with a therapist that challenged everything he believed about himself. Asked to explain who he was, he kept listing his achievements. Realising he couldn’t separate his identity from his accomplishments became a turning point. That experience helped him shift his focus towards being a husband, dad and grandfather, and building a life he no longer felt compelled to prove to anyone. His book, Billionaire Cab Driver, brings those financial and personal lessons together through a fictional story about a man who discovers that wealth gives him the freedom to do what he loves. His message is simple: understand what you’re building wealth for. Because if you never define your own summit, you may never know when to stop climbing. Connect with Jody Tallal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodytallal Website: https://billionairecabdriverlife.com/ 🎧 Subscribe to Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast for conversations around founder psychology, neuroscience, wealth, identity and the thinking behind extraordinary success. CHECK OUT THE PODCAST & APPLY TO BECOME A GUEST https://dawnmcgruer.com/podcast FOLLOW DAWN MCGRUER Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawnmcgruer/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmcgruer/ Think better. Feel richer. Live happier. Connect with Dawn: Instagram @dawnmcgruer @dawnofanewerapodcast Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dawnamcgruer LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/businessconsort/ Web www.dawnmcgruer.com This podcast is in association with @HerPowerCommunity - The #1 Female Founders Global Community where connections flourish & growth is intentional https://www.patreon.com/c/herpowercommunity This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podkite - https://podkite.com/privacy

September 30, 202629 min

197 - Why Your Nervous System Blocks Wealth & Success with Tiffany Cohen

Ep 197: Why Your Nervous System Blocks Wealth & Success with Tiffany Cohen What if the thing stopping you from reaching your next level of wealth isn’t your strategy — but your nervous system? In this episode of Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast , Dawn McGruer is joined by Tiffany Cohen — The Billion Dollar Healer , founder of Spirit and Soul Studio and author of the forthcoming book The Best Life Code . Tiffany works with high-level founders to uncover the subconscious beliefs, emotional patterns and nervous-system responses that can quietly create a ceiling on success. And in this conversation, Dawn and Tiffany explore a fascinating question: Can you consciously want more money, visibility and success while another part of you is unconsciously trying to keep you exactly where you are? Tiffany explains why the nervous system is designed to prioritise familiarity and safety — even when what feels familiar is frustration, limitation or staying stuck. That means reaching a new revenue level, becoming more visible, changing your body, building extraordinary wealth or stepping into a completely different identity can trigger resistance precisely because it is new . Dawn and Tiffany also explore what happens after you achieve the thing you thought would finally make you feel successful. Why can founders reach incredible financial milestones and still feel disconnected, unfulfilled or unable to fully hold what they have created? The conversation goes deep into wealth identity, worthiness, success ceilings, subconscious conditioning and the “messy middle” between your old life and the person you are becoming. In this episode, you’ll discover: Why your nervous system can resist the exact success you consciously want How subconscious beliefs can create invisible ceilings in business and wealth Why Tiffany believes your personal story is inseparable from the business you build What happens when unfamiliar levels of money, visibility or success stop feeling safe Why founders can self-sabotage just as they approach their next level How to make the unfamiliar begin to feel familiar to your nervous system Why achieving more doesn’t automatically mean you’ll feel happier or more fulfilled The role worthiness can play in your ability to hold success Tiffany’s concept of the “messy middle” between your old identity and your new life Why Dawn describes our familiar limitations as a “beautiful prison” Why strategy alone may not solve a subconscious success barrier Where manifestation ends and action begins Why Tiffany believes manifestation without aligned action is simply wishful thinking How faith in yourself can shape the way you experience spirituality and manifestation Why success has to be defined personally rather than by what looks impressive online How Tiffany left an 18-year corporate career and eventually created Spirit and Soul Studio The evolution of Tiffany’s work into The Billion Dollar Healer Her formula for creating your best life through healing, manifestation and intentional living Tiffany also shares her own experience of spending almost two decades climbing the corporate ladder, earning multiple six figures and appearing successful on paper — while privately knowing the life she was living wasn’t the life she wanted. Eventually, one moment forced her to ask: “How the hell did I get here?” That became the beginning of an entirely different path — from corporate America into entrepreneurship, healing, Spirit and Soul Studio and ultimately her work helping ambitious founders understand what may be happening underneath the surface of their success. Dawn and Tiffany also challenge one of the biggest misconceptions around manifestation. You cannot simply create the vision, meditate on it and wait. As Tiffany explains, manifestation and action are intertwined . The vision may start internally, but bringing it into the world requires action — taken from belief rather than scarcity, panic or desperation. And perhaps one of the biggest questions in the episode is this: What is your billion dollars? It may be financial. Or it may represent the scale of your vision, the impact you want to create, the life you want to experience or simply allowing yourself to think far bigger than you have before. Tiffany’s Gift for Listeners Tiffany is offering listeners a free subconscious recoding experience designed to help you begin identifying the patterns operating underneath the surface. Follow Tiffany on Instagram at @imtiffanycohen and DM her the word: DAWN Connect with Tiffany Cohen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imtiffanycohen/ Website: https://thebilliondollarhealer.com/ Look out for Tiffany’s forthcoming book The Best Life Code , exploring her approach to healing, manifestation and intentional living. 🎧 Subscribe to Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast for conversations around founder psychology, neuroscience, wealth, identity and the thinking behind extraordinary success. CHECK OUT THE PODCAST & APPLY TO BECOME A GUEST https://dawnmcgruer.com/podcast FOLLOW DAWN MCGRUER Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawnmcgruer/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmcgruer/ Think better. Feel richer. Live happier. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podkite - https://podkite.com/privacy

September 2, 202629 min

Ep 196 - Why Successful Women Make Money but Don’t Build Wealth with Michelle Taylor

Ep 196: Why Successful Women Make Money but Don’t Build Wealth with Michelle Taylor Building a successful business and building personal wealth are not the same thing. In this episode of Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast , Dawn McGruer is joined by Michelle Taylor , founder of Women in Wealth , host of Talk Wealthy to Me , and a licensed wealth manager specialising in working with business owners. Michelle’s own journey into wealth management was anything but conventional. After changing career direction, moving to Italy and experiencing failed business ventures, she eventually discovered that those experiences had uniquely equipped her to help women understand money, investing and wealth creation. Dawn and Michelle explore one of the biggest financial challenges facing successful founders: how to turn business success into personal wealth . Michelle explains why your company should never be your entire retirement or wealth-building strategy, why founders need to start building assets outside their businesses from the beginning, and how to think differently about cash once your company becomes profitable. They also dive into the psychology behind money. Michelle shares how our personal money stories can shape the level of wealth we allow ourselves to create, while Dawn discusses wealth identity, founder conditioning and why increasing your income does not automatically change your financial behaviour. In this episode, you’ll discover: Why making more money doesn’t automatically mean you’re building wealth When founders should start investing outside their business Why Michelle believes you need an “and” mindset rather than an “or” mindset with business and personal wealth How to decide when to take money out of your business and deploy it elsewhere Why successful founders need to understand their operating cash “floor” How money stories and wealth identity can quietly limit financial growth Why passive income can completely change the way you think about financial freedom The growing interest in private credit, private equity and alternative investments Why women may be holding significantly more cash than they actually need The three wealth rules Michelle believes every female founder should consider Why wealthy people learn to treat money as a tool rather than an emotional decision How compounding can transform both your finances and your behaviour Why talking openly about money may be one of the simplest ways to improve your financial education Michelle also shares the uncomfortable moment that changed her relationship with money forever: returning from Italy at 26 and discovering she didn’t have enough money available to buy a $4 magazine. That experience became one of the catalysts behind the work she does today helping women create their own wealth journeys and build generational wealth. Her final message is simple: talk about money . Ask questions. Talk to your friends. Find out what other people are learning, investing in and doing with their money. You don’t know what you don’t know — and one conversation could change the financial trajectory of more than one woman. Connect with Michelle Taylor Instagram: @itsShellTaylor Women in Wealth: @women_in_wealth Podcast: Talk Wealthy to Me Website: womeninwealth.co 🎧 Subscribe to Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast for conversations around founder psychology, neuroscience, wealth, identity and the thinking behind extraordinary success. CHECK OUT THE PODCAST & APPLY TO BECOME A GUEST https://dawnmcgruer.com/podcast FOLLOW DAWN MCGRUER Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawnmcgruer/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmcgruer/ Think better. Feel richer. Live happier. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podkite - https://podkite.com/privacy

August 26, 202637 min

Ep 195 - How Molly Stovold Built a £611K Business in 7 Months Using LinkedIn

How Molly Stovold Built a £611K Business in 7 Months Using LinkedIn What if your personal brand could become your most powerful client acquisition channel — without paid ads, cold outreach or constantly launching? In this episode of Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast , Dawn sits down with Molly Stovold , founder of Setting Pretty , to unpack how she built a £611K business in just seven months , driven by inbound marketing and LinkedIn. Molly’s journey hasn’t been straightforward. After building her first LinkedIn account to almost 10,000 followers, she was hacked and lost everything. Instead of walking away, she started again — rebuilding her audience from zero to more than 80,000 followers and proving that a powerful personal brand can be rebuilt. When motherhood changed the way Molly wanted to work, she spotted a new opportunity. Her existing students were getting results from LinkedIn but struggling with the sheer amount of time required to manage it. That demand became the foundation for her agency, which quickly scaled through inbound leads rather than advertising or outbound sales. In this episode, we talk about: How Molly built a £611K agency in seven months Why LinkedIn is the vessel, not the strategy How a strong personal brand creates inbound demand The difference between content that gets attention and content that gets clients Why founders get stuck creating only TOF, MOF or BOF content Molly’s recommended content mix when building your first 10K relevant followers How to create bottom-of-funnel content through case studies, pain points and storytelling Why LinkedIn creators should increasingly optimise for saves AND sends The rise of contrarian, reframe and “educational maxing” content Why your stories may be far more commercially valuable than another infographic The danger of allowing AI to remove your personality from your content Why Molly starts with the founder’s story first and trends second How she is removing herself as the bottleneck as her agency approaches £1M ARR Building a business around motherhood, freedom, travel and the life you actually want Working with your partner without allowing work to consume your relationship Molly’s LinkedIn Content Funnel One of Molly’s biggest lessons for founders is that successful content needs to perform different jobs. Top of Funnel: Attract the right new followers. Middle of Funnel: Build familiarity, credibility and trust. Bottom of Funnel: Convert that trust into clients. For founders with fewer than 10,000 genuinely relevant followers, Molly suggests weighting content towards discovery. If you're publishing seven times a week, she recommends roughly four top-of-funnel posts , with the remaining content divided between middle and bottom of funnel. The mistake? Creating content entirely for reach — or entirely for sales. A huge following means very little if the people following you are never going to buy. The LinkedIn Strategy Molly Thinks More Founders Need Tell more stories. Instead of trying to manufacture a lesson, viral hook or perfectly polished AI-generated post, Molly recommends going back through the funny, difficult, embarrassing and unexpected moments in your life and business — and simply telling the story. Those stories make you sound human again. And being unmistakably human is becoming one of the strongest ways to differentiate a personal brand. From Hustle to Lifestyle Molly also shares what the success of the business has made possible. After beginning her career charging £100 an hour , she now describes consistently generating six figures a month while living in Portugal, raising her daughter, travelling with her family and building a business designed around luxury, adventure and comfort . But her advice to founders is important: busyness doesn't magically disappear as the company grows. You have to deliberately create the practices that reconnect you with yourself. For Molly, that's her sauna, journaling without screens and working out every day. Molly’s One Piece of LinkedIn Advice “If you can't do it properly, hire help.” Because content carries a huge cognitive load — and as the founder, your job isn't necessarily to personally execute every part of your personal brand. It's to protect the ideas, stories and perspective that make that brand yours. And finally… Molly reveals one of the best embarrassing-founder stories we've had on the podcast yet: accidentally uploading a Loom recording to her course that continued for an entire hour while she emailed her dad, did her hair and shared all the gossip from her life with her grandma. About ten students saw it before she managed to take it down. A very good reminder: Always check where your Loom recording actually ended. Listen now to discover how Molly turned LinkedIn, storytelling and personal brand into a rapidly scaling agency — and why the future of founder-led marketing may have far less to do with creating more content and much more to do with becoming impossible to copy. Connect with Molly Stovold Find Lauren by searching Molly Stovold on LinkedIn Support the Podcast Enjoyed this conversation? Subscribe to Dawn of a New Era , share the episode with an ambitious founder and leave a rating or review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Your support helps more women discover the conversations, strategies and stories that can change the way they build their businesses and their lives. CHECK OUT THE PODCAST & APPLY TO BECOME A GUEST https://dawnmcgruer.com/podcast FOLLOW Dawn McGruer Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dawnmcgruer/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmcgruer This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podkite - https://podkite.com/privacy

August 12, 202647 min

Ep 194 - Lauren Tickner Shares Why a Million Followers Can Still Make You Less Than $10K a Month

Lauren Tickner: Why a Million Followers Can Still Make You Less Than $10K a Month A huge audience doesn’t automatically build a valuable business. In this episode of Dawn of a New Era: The Billionaire Brain Podcast , Dawn McGruer sits down with entrepreneur Lauren Tickner for a refreshingly candid conversation about personal branding, social media, AI, scaling and what success really looks like once you've already made the money. Lauren has built three seven-figure businesses and became a millionaire at 23 — but some of her biggest lessons have come from questioning the very strategies that helped her get there. She reveals why she now sees the traditional personal brand as potential “golden handcuffs” , including the story of a former client with more than one million followers who was making less than $10K a month . Lauren also shares what happened when she lost access to her 128,000-follower Instagram account and 50,000-follower Facebook profile for months — and why her business carried on regardless. Her philosophy? Stop thinking about social media and start thinking about business media . Dawn and Lauren explore why follower count is a poor measure of commercial success, how micro-niche authority can outperform mass influence, and why every piece of content needs a clear connection to what your business actually sells. They also get into Lauren's dramatic shift from 47 employees to just four , how AI has helped her build a leaner and more profitable company, and why scaling doesn't necessarily mean more people, more clients or more complexity. Lauren openly shares the less glamorous side of entrepreneurship too — burnout, refunding more than $400K in clients she no longer wanted to work with, a Black Friday campaign that generated virtually nothing, and one hiring decision she estimates cost the business millions in opportunity. In this episode, you'll discover: Why one million followers can still translate into less than $10K a month Why Lauren believes a personal brand can become “golden handcuffs” The difference between building a following and building micro-niche authority Why Lauren treats social media as business media and a traffic source How her business survived losing access to 128K Instagram followers and 50K Facebook followers Why your content strategy has to begin with what you actually sell How to use sales-call transcripts and AI to uncover the exact language your customers use Why Lauren calls this process “brainwave inception” How she went from 47 employees to four while increasing profitability Where human intelligence still matters when implementing AI Why revenue can be vanity while profit creates freedom How founder burnout changed the way Lauren thinks about growth Why she refunded more than $400K rather than keep the wrong clients The Black Friday failure that convinced her to stop chasing the beginner market The hiring mistake that ultimately cost her millions How Lauren is using AI agents to research prospects and create personalised one-to-one outreach Why the question founders should be asking is no longer “How can I do this?” but “What would I need to tell AI to get it to do this perfectly?” Key moments 00:49 — Going from 47 employees to four with AI 02:13 — Why Lauren now defines success as freedom 06:25 — More revenue, less profit: the hidden cost of a big team 11:49 — Human intelligence + artificial intelligence 16:01 — Why personal brands can become “golden handcuffs” 17:48 — The million-follower business making less than $10K a month 20:52 — Losing 128K Instagram followers without hurting the business 21:11 — “Business media, not social media” 23:56 — Finding the before-and-after your customer actually wants 25:41 — Using AI and customer language for “brainwave inception” 30:48 — The Black Friday campaign that made virtually no sales 33:18 — The hiring decision that cost millions in opportunity 45:10 — Lauren's AI-powered personalised prospecting system 46:55 — The AI question every founder should start asking If you're building a personal brand, growing an audience or scaling a founder-led company, this episode will challenge you to look beyond followers, headcount and revenue — and ask a much more important question: Are you building attention, or are you building an asset? Connect with Lauren Tickner Find Lauren by searching Lauren Tickner on YouTube , Instagram , LinkedIn and Facebook . Support the Podcast Enjoyed this conversation? Subscribe to Dawn of a New Era , share the episode with an ambitious founder and leave a rating or review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Your support helps more women discover the conversations, strategies and stories that can change the way they build their businesses and their lives. CHECK OUT THE PODCAST & APPLY TO BECOME A GUEST https://dawnmcgruer.com/podcast FOLLOW Dawn McGruer Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dawnmcgruer/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmcgruer This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podkite - https://podkite.com/privacy

July 29, 202637 min

Episode 193: Becoming Iconic with Jen Leigh: The Founder Building a Media Brand for Ambitious Women

Becoming Iconic: The Founder Building a Media Brand for Ambitious Women What happens when the platform you built your entire business on disappears overnight? For Jen Leigh, losing her social media account felt catastrophic. As a single mother, the sole income earner for four children and the founder of Becoming Iconic, she initially feared everything she had created was about to collapse. Instead, that moment became the catalyst for her biggest reinvention yet: launching Iconic Magazine , a media platform she describes as Vogue meets Forbes for ambitious women. In this episode of Dawn of a New Era , Dawn speaks with Jen about building brands that last, creating visibility that delivers genuine commercial results and becoming the woman capable of holding the success you desire. Jen shares how her definition of success has evolved from chasing financial milestones to focusing on the person she is becoming through entrepreneurship. As she explains, when you grow into the right identity, the money begins to follow. They also explore why founders should never build their entire audience on a platform they do not own, how email and podcasting became Jen’s “business insurance” and why visibility without the right infrastructure can become little more than an addictive vanity metric. This is a powerful and honest conversation about peaceful confidence, personal branding, motherhood, resilience and what it truly means to become iconic. In This Episode, You’ll Discover How Jen went from wanting to earn $2,000 a month as a stay-at-home mother to helping generate more than $100 million in client sales Why who you become while building your business may be more valuable than the financial outcome The three lessons Jen learned after losing her entire social media presence Why email lists, podcasts and owned communities act as business insurance How losing her audience led Jen to launch Iconic Magazine Why visibility does not automatically create clients, sales or authority The infrastructure your business needs before a major media opportunity or viral moment What Jen looks for when deciding whether a woman or brand is truly iconic The difference between attention-seeking, hiding and “peaceful confidence” Why becoming a solopreneur should only be a temporary stage of business How to create multiple intentional entry points into your brand The pattern Jen sees in women who build lasting influence Why so many founders quit just before their work begins to pay off How Jen combines motherhood and entrepreneurship without pursuing impossible balance Why she prefers to think in terms of exchanges rather than sacrifices How presence and harmony have helped her hold a business and raise four children Why saying yes and stepping into the arena have transformed Jen’s year Key Takeaways Build a brand that can survive a platform disappearing Jen had placed the majority of her attention on Facebook and Instagram. When her account disappeared, she realised how vulnerable the business had become. Her email list, podcast and community allowed her to continue communicating, but she also discovered that audiences do not automatically follow a founder from one platform to another. People choose where and how they want to engage with you. A resilient brand therefore needs several carefully selected channels, not one platform holding the entire audience. Visibility only works when the business is ready Many founders believe more press, followers or podcast appearances will solve their growth problems. Jen argues that visibility without a funnel, infrastructure, positioning and clear customer journey may create attention but very little commercial impact. Before seeking more eyes on your brand, ask: Where will those people go? How will you welcome them? What is the next step? Can your business hold the opportunity if it arrives? Build the ecosystem before the viral moment, not after it. Iconic women embody peaceful confidence For Jen, being iconic is not about being the loudest woman in the room. It is also not about making yourself smaller or always taking the seat at the back. Peaceful confidence is the ability to enter a room without needing to dominate it or disappear within it. It is knowing you are equal to everyone there: no better than anyone else, but certainly no less deserving of space. Lasting influence begins with contribution The women who create enduring influence are rarely motivated solely by what they can gain. They are driven by what they have learned, lived or mastered and feel compelled to share it with others. Instead of asking, “How much can I get?”, they ask, “How much can I give?” That deeper sense of purpose is what allows them to continue when growth takes longer than expected. Stop searching for perfect balance Jen challenges the idea that women must distribute their time equally across their children, business, relationships and personal needs. Different people and priorities require different amounts of attention on different days. Rather than chasing balance and constantly feeling as though she is failing, Jen asks whether her day felt harmonious. Did she care for herself, follow through on her commitments and remain present with the people who mattered? Harmony allows for changing ratios without unnecessary guilt. Episode Highlights 00:00 – Introducing Jen Leigh and Becoming Iconic 00:47 – How Jen’s definition of success has changed 01:28 – Her original goal of earning $2,000 a month 02:45 – Why who you become is the greatest entrepreneurial reward 04:29 – Losing her social media and fearing the business was over 05:48 – The moment Jen decided to embody the Becoming Iconic brand 06:42 – Why founders need more than one communication channel 08:17 – The power of women, community and unexpected support 08:42 – Appearing on more than 100 podcasts and launching Iconic Magazine 11:25 – What makes a woman or brand genuinely iconic 12:14 – Why visibility can become an empty vanity metric 14:01 – The meaning of peaceful confidence 16:45 – What turns a beautiful personal brand into commercial authority 17:50 – Building the systems, team and infrastructure before success arrives 20:40 – Preparing a business to capitalise on a viral moment 21:46 – The defining trait of women who create lasting influence 23:22 – Why founders often quit before payday and impact 25:00 – Building a business while raising four children 25:19 – Replacing sacrifice with conscious exchanges 26:15 – How practising presence helps remove guilt 26:58 – Why balance is a lie and harmony is a better goal 30:16 – What becoming iconic means for Jen in 2026 31:01 – Saying yes, doing the work and jumping into the arena 33:07 – Jen’s most embarrassing business moments 35:13 – Where to find Jen and read Iconic Magazine Memorable Moments “Who you become on this journey is the greatest reward of all.” “A personal brand is personal. When you are leading something as a brand, you have to rise to the occasion.” “If one channel drops, the others hold the space.” “Visibility without preparation can simply become a vanity metric.” “Peaceful confidence is knowing that you are not better than or less than anyone else.” “It is not about how much I can get. It is about how much I can give.” “So many people quit before payday and quit before impact.” “Balance is a lie, because searching for balance will always leave us feeling imbalanced.” About Jen Leigh Jen Leigh is the founder of Becoming Iconic, a hybrid mentorship and creative agency dedicated to helping women build meaningful brands, businesses and legacies. After more than 20 years in business and helping her clients generate over $100 million in sales, Jen launched Iconic Magazine following the unexpected loss of her social media platform. Today, the magazine provides ambitious women with a platform to be seen, heard and felt while helping them turn visibility into genuine authority, community and commercial growth. Connect With Jen Explore Becoming Iconic and the creative agency at becomingiconic.co Follow Becoming Iconic and Iconic Magazine on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/becomingiconic/ Digital editions of Iconic Magazine are available complimentary through the Becoming Iconic website, with physical copies also available for readers who love the experience of slowing down, turning the pages and being inspired by powerful women and their stories. Support the Podcast Enjoyed this conversation? Subscribe to Dawn of a New Era , share the episode with an ambitious founder and leave a rating or review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Your support helps more women discover the conversations, strategies and stories that can change the way they build their businesses and their lives. CHECK OUT THE PODCAST & APPLY TO BECOME