Meg Schmitz Franchise Consultant

09/08/2026

Can I ask you something?

What exactly are you waiting for?

And don't give me the practical answer. 😉

I'm talking about the thing you've been thinking about for a year...maybe three.

The change you keep revisiting and then putting neatly back on the shelf because nothing is bad enough yet.

Going back through Season 7 of Free Agent, I noticed something.

The layoff wasn't always the reason someone changed direction.

Neither was the pandemic.
Or the industry changing.

Those things were often just the trigger.

The desire had been there for years.

The crisis simply gave them something they hadn't been willing to give themselves:

Permission.

Oof.

Because how many of us wait for life to make a decision uncomfortable enough that we finally feel justified making the change we already wanted?

Maybe the better question isn't:

What needs to happen before I make a move?

Maybe it's:

How long have I already known?

THIS is why I'm digging back through all eight seasons of Free Agent.

There is so much hindsight sitting in these conversations that could help someone standing before their own leap.

So I'm pulling the best of it into Before the Leap—a weekly insight drop with better questions, hard-earned lessons and things you may not be able to see from where you're standing.

Want in?

Message me BEFORE THE LEAP. ✨

09/04/2026

09/03/2026

I stumbled across a gold mine. And I almost missed it.😱

For eight seasons, more than 200 people have sat down with me and told me what it was really like to make a life-changing decision without knowing exactly where they would land.

I thought I was collecting stories.

Turns out, they were leaving clues.

The fear before the decision.
The money questions.
The people they worried about disappointing.
The identities they had to loosen their grip on.
What kept them stuck.
What finally gave them enough clarity—and courage—to move.

When you put more than 200 journeys next to each other, patterns start to emerge.

And that’s when it hit me:

Their hindsight could become someone else’s foresight.

That's when the idea hit me.💥

What if I created a private weekly note where I unpack one of these discoveries and send it directly to those who could use the clarity?

Imagine having access to the patterns left behind by hundreds of people who have already stood where you might be standing now...

Not a blueprint telling you what decision to make, but a light.

A tool that helps you recognize where you are, ask better questions, separate fear from legitimate risk, without judgement, without harrasing you to buy.

But here's the thing.

The last thing I want to do is create more work that goes nowhere. So if you're interested in receiving the weekly note, comment BEFORE THE LEAP and I'll send you the link to get on the waiting list.

More than 200 people have already walked into the unknown and lived to tell me what they learned.

The question is whether their hindsight could help light your way forward.

09/01/2026

What if you could borrow someone else’s hindsight BEFORE making your decision?

After eight seasons of Free Agent, I’ve collected a lot of it.

Hundreds of conversations with people who made big decisions without knowing exactly where they would land.

Looking back, there are patterns.

Questions they wish they'd asked.

Things they worried about that didn't matter.

And things they didn't worry about that mattered quite a bit.

I'm digging back through all eight seasons and pulling those lessons forward for Before the Leap—a weekly insight drop for people standing at the edge of their own what's next?

The goal?

✨ See possibilities—and warning signs—you may be too close to see.

✨ Make life-changing decisions with more clarity and fewer expensive regrets.

✨ Move forward with confidence, even when you can't see exactly where you'll land.

Think of it as borrowed hindsight for the road ahead.

Want in?

Message me BEFORE THE LEAP. I’m building the first-subscriber list now.

08/27/2026

There comes a point when the woman you’re becoming has to overrule the woman you’ve been.😵

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

There are habits I picked up during COVID that have lingered. Nothing catastrophic. Mostly distractions. Things that made sense for one season but don’t belong in the next one.

And getting rid of them requires something more than discipline.

It requires me to let the executive take charge.👩‍⚖️

The part of me capable of looking at where I’m going and asking:

Does this habit, relationship, responsibility or version of me belong here today and in the future?

That question gets particularly complicated for women.

We’re often the glue.

We hold the household together.
We steady the team at work.
We care for aging parents.
We contribute to our communities.
We’re the listening ear, the problem solver, the person who remembers what everybody else forgot.

Then we decide we want something different for our own lives.

And suddenly, flourishing requires subtraction.🧮

Sometimes it’s a habit.

Sometimes it’s a friendship or relationship that can’t come with us in the same way.

Sometimes it’s simply an old version of ourselves whose job is finished.

That can feel selfish when you’ve built an identity around being useful to everyone else.

And then menopause enters the room.

For many women, it can feel like the nervous system finally saying, “We cannot keep carrying all of this the way we used to.”

Maybe that’s part of why this season can be so disruptive.

Yes, our bodies are changing. But perhaps we're also being confronted with something we’ve postponed for years:

What has to change if I actually intend to flourish in the next chapter of my life?

Sometimes it's putting something down—and trusting the people around us to pick up what was theirs all along.

If you're in the same or a similar season, let this be confirmation to move forward.

Make the decision.

Let the executive take charge.

And let other people carry their own luggage.

You've got somewhere to go. 🚀

08/25/2026

Some people watch TV. I watch Siamese cats. 😂

These two provide more than enough entertainment running up and down the hallway—and there are no subscription fees.

I’ve had Siamese cats before, so clearly I have a type. They’re smart, curious, vocal, and always paying attention to what’s happening around them.

And maybe that’s part of what I love about having pets.

They brighten the ordinary parts of the day. They make you laugh when you weren’t expecting to. And somehow, they always seem to know when something—or someone—is a little off.

Part entertainment. Part companionship. Part canary in the coal mine.

Mostly, though, they just make life a little more fun. ❤️🐾

If you have a silly pet pic, feel free to post them here!!!

08/20/2026

Sometimes the person someone warned you about isn't the person you need to be wary of.

I learned that one the long way.

For years, my brother did his darndest to convince his daughter and my sister-in-law, who live in Germany, that my mother and I were Bad People.

Mean. Difficult. Not to be trusted.

And, if I'm being fair, distrust traveled in both directions.

I didn't reach out either.

My relationship with my brother had left me hardened in some places, and I didn't know what had been said, what they believed, or whether I could trust them.

So there we were.

Related by blood. Separated by an ocean. And forming opinions about one another largely through someone else's experience.

Then, a few years ago, my brother came to the U.S. and brought my niece with him.

SURPRISE!!!

We liked each other. 😂

Actually, it was much more than that.

My niece wanted to know me. She confided in me. We had amazing conversations and formed an immediate bond.

When she returned to Germany, she told her mother about our time together.

That opened another door.

Today, after international visits, fun days and nights together, and plenty of FaceTime when an ocean gets in the way, the three of us have built something I once wasn't sure was possible.

We have our own relationship.

And that may be the biggest lesson for me.

People sometimes speak about others through the lens of their own hurt, anger, disappointment, or need to be right.

If we're not careful, we inherit their version of someone before we've ever had the chance to know that person ourselves.

I almost allowed that to happen.

I'm glad I didn't.

My brother and I still don't have a relationship. And I'm at peace with that.

But I no longer allow that broken relationship to dictate the relationships I'm willing to build with other people.

You can't choose your family.

But you can choose whether someone else gets to choose your relationships with them.

I learned how easily someone else’s hurt can shape who I trust and how I see people before I’ve had the chance to know them for myself.

If this resonates, these two Free Agent conversations are worth revisiting:

🎧 Episode 8.21: The Money Conversation Most Families Never Have — with Jeannie Dougherty

🎧 Episode 8.5: Culture Is Your Risk Strategy — with Erin Longmoon