She Lost It All — Business, Marriage & City — Then Found Herself: Kelly Schexnaildre on Bankruptcy, Grief & Starting Over

What does it actually look like to lose everything — and rebuild from the truth of who you are? Kelly Schexnaildre built Murph's Condiments from a backyard garden in Denver into a company distributing to over 700 restaurants across the West. Then COVID hit. 85% of her revenue disappeared overnight, input costs tripled, and years of attempted pivots couldn't stop the inevitable. She closed the business, filed for bankruptcy, went through a divorce, and left her city of eleven years — all within the same year. In this raw and deeply honest conversation, Kelly and Bri unpack what it truly means to fail, grieve, and rebuild — not from hustle, but from identity. In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why the grief after business closure cannot be skipped — and what honoring it actually looks like
• The identity crisis that hits when your business is your identity — and how to find yourself on the other side
• The real story behind bankruptcy: what it is, why the stigma is disproportionate, and why filing was Kelly's best decision
• How to know when it's definitively time to close — and why uncertainty usually means it isn't
• The concept of "unique ability" and why asking who am I? before what can I sell? changes everything
• Why the rags-to-riches narrative is a faulty model — and what a more honest story of success actually looks like

Be sure to subscribe to get every episode of Big Goal Energy delivered straight to your device, and please leave a rating and review. If you have any questions you'd like covered on a future episode, you can email us [e-mail].