Episode 149: Jaime Schmidt: She Built a Business With No Plan Then Started Strength Training at 46. Bet on Yourself Before You Have Proof
Jaime Schmidt on Betting on Yourself Before You Have Proof (and Starting Strength Training at 46)
Most women spend more time waiting to feel ready than they spend actually building. Waiting for the plan to make sense. Waiting for the timing to be right. Waiting for enough proof that something will work before they let themselves believe it will. Meanwhile, the thing they want stays exactly where it is.
Jaime Schmidt did not wait. In this episode, Tara sits down with the founder of Schmidt's Naturals to talk about building a company from mason jars on a Portland farmers market table into a brand sold to Unilever in over 30,000 retailers across 30 countries. And somewhere along the way, in her mid-forties, Jaime picked up something else entirely: a barbell.
This episode is about the throughline between the two. Building a business and building a body both ask the same question: are you willing to bet on yourself before there's any proof it's going to work?
The Origin Story: Mason Jars, a Farmers Market, and No Plan
Jaime started Schmidt's Naturals while pregnant. No investors, no market research deck, no ten-year roadmap. Just deodorant made in her kitchen, poured into mason jars, and sold at a local farmers market. She hand-delivered wholesale orders of six sticks at a time for thirty dollars. When a customer's shirt got stained by the product, Jaime asked them to mail it to her, washed it herself, and sent it back.
Tara and Jaime dig into how unglamorous the early days actually were, and why that scrappiness mattered. Jaime didn't have a plan so much as an unwavering belief that if anyone could figure it out, it would be her. Everything else got built from that belief, one problem at a time.
What "Say Yes Now, Figure Out How" Actually Costs
Jaime's early motto was to say yes first and work out the details later, and Tara pushes her on what that mindset cost her without limits on it. Bad hires, contracts she got locked into, a period where she tried to make every single customer happy and realized it was quietly costing her the business. It's a candid look at the mistakes that come from betting big without guardrails, and why "figure it out later" eventually needs some boundaries around it.
There's also a moment where Jaime talks about building the company while bootstrapped with a newborn at home. Balance, in that season, did not look pretty. It looked like constant tradeoffs and a recurring gut check: are you still happy? That question became her filter for whether the grind was worth it.
Knowing When to Sell (and Trusting Intuition Over Logic)
Seven years in, Jaime sold Schmidt's Naturals to Unilever. Tara asks how she knew it was time, and Jaime's answer isn't a spreadsheet-driven calculation. It's intuition, a feeling that kept showing up until she couldn't ignore it. This part of the conversation is a good reminder that big decisions don't always announce themselves with certainty. Sometimes the clearest signal is just a quiet, persistent feeling you keep circling back to.
After the sale, Jaime didn't stop building. She wrote Supermaker: Crafting Business on Your Own Terms and launched an investment fund called Color. Tara and Jaime talk about what identity looks like when it expands instead of ending, which feels especially relevant for anyone who's ever tied their whole sense of self to one job, one role, or one chapter.
Starting Strength Training at 46
Here's where the episode takes a turn that feels right at home on Broads. Jaime started strength training at 46, and two years of consistent lifting built something in her she didn't see coming. She and Tara talk openly about how it's never too late to start something, in the gym or anywhere else, as long as you're willing to show up consistently.
This is the part of the conversation that ties the whole episode together. The same willingness to bet on yourself before you have proof, the thing that got Jaime through a kitchen full of mason jars, is the same thing that gets anyone through their first months of unfamiliar, humbling strength training. You don't need to feel ready. You need to keep showing up until the evidence catches up to the belief.
Manifestation, Visualization, and "Delusional" Belief
Toward the end of the episode, Jaime and Tara get into manifestation and visualization, and the kind of delusional self-belief that, paradoxically, actually works. It's not about pretending obstacles don't exist. It's about deciding who you're becoming before you have any proof you'll get there, and acting like that version of you is already real.
The Takeaway
Whether you're thinking about starting a business, walking into a gym for the first time in years, or just trying to make a change you've been putting off, Jaime's story is a case study in what happens when you stop waiting for certainty. The plan doesn't have to make sense yet. The timing doesn't have to be perfect. You just have to be willing to start before you have proof it will work.
If you're looking for a simple place to start fueling the body you're building, Broads' free Macronutrient Guide is a solid first step. And if you're ready for more structured support, BroadsCOACH is built for exactly this kind of "I'm starting even though I'm not sure yet" moment.
What's one thing you've been waiting to feel "ready" for, that you could just start this week instead?
