Betsy Hamm has been through something most leaders never have to face: what happens to your identity when you walk away from the title?
As the CEO of Duck Donuts, Betsy scaled a beloved brand from 20 locations to nearly 200 globally over nearly a decade. She built systems and culture at scale. She supported franchisees who had bet their life savings on her brand. By every traditional measure, she'd made it. Then, in January 2025, she stepped away.
In this honest, vulnerable conversation with host Jodie O'Brien, Betsy reveals what that transition really looked like—the weight of leadership responsibility, the identity crisis of losing a prestigious role, and the exhilarating, terrifying business of building something entirely new. She doesn't offer inspirational clichés. She offers the messy truth of reinvention.
This episode tackles the questions most successful women won't answer out loud: What do you do when the role that defined you is no longer yours? How do you build visibility and brand when you don't have a corporate machine behind you? Why do accomplished women still feel isolated? What does real support look like when you're building alone?
Betsy shares:
- How she became the CEO of an international franchise despite never planning to be
- The responsibility of holding franchisees' life savings and futures in your decisions
- Why the confidence gap between women and men is costing us opportunities
- What she learned about her own visibility after scaling a brand but not building herself
- The rollercoaster of leaving a prestigious role at peak success
- Building community for women leaders through Loud and Lifted
- Why personal branding matters more than you think
- The messy reality of transitioning from corporate CEO to solopreneur
- How to ask for help and lean on your circle when everything feels uncertain
- What being an influential woman actually means to her
What makes this episode different: Betsy isn't selling you on the joy of entrepreneurship or the glory of "having it all." She's telling you the truth: it's messy. Leaving a prestigious role is disorienting. Building alone is isolating. But it's also exhilarating. And the women who support you matter more than anything.
This is for anyone questioning whether they're more than their title, wondering if they can succeed on their own, or ready to get loud about what women actually need to hear.
