The Keri Croft Show

Send us Fan Mail Kevin King is the CEO of Donatos, but the first thing you should probably know about him is that he really loves his wife. Leslie has challenged him, sharpened him, expanded his taste in music, and spent more than three decades helping him become the person and leader he is today. So naturally, Keri calls her in the middle of the interview. What follows is a very human conversatio...

Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Meleka Jolliff, one of the seven incredible women who helped bring our very first IRL experience to life. Meleka was not only a generous sponsor, but she and her team played such a huge role in making the entire space feel beautiful, thoughtful, and intentional. So before anything else, a massive thank you to this woman. As the founder of MMJ Events and Aiden &...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I sit down with Kelsey Lensman for a conversation about faith, fear, identity, trauma, and what happens when life forces you to stop white-knuckling the wheel. Kelsey shares the moments that cracked her open and rebuilt her from the inside out: walking away from an eight-year relationship, questioning the version of faith she grew up with, surviving a violent high...

Send us Fan Mail After we wrapped my conversation with Joe DeLoss, we kept talking. What started as a conversation about marriage turned into something much bigger: masculinity, ego, service, leadership, and why so many men seem to be struggling to find their footing right now. Joe shares his perspective on the version of masculinity that's being celebrated online, why he thinks it's mis...

Send us Fan Mail Joe DeLoss is best known as the founder of Hot Chicken Takeover, one of Columbus’s most recognizable restaurant stories. But this conversation is not really about chicken. Joe talks with Keri about the rise of Hot Chicken Takeover, the ego that came with it, the people impacted by his leadership, and the personal reckoning that followed. He is honest about marriage, fatherhood, ma...

Send us Fan Mail Elizabeth Blount McCormick doesn't think women should play small. As CEO of Uniglobe Travel Designers, she helped navigate one of the most challenging periods in modern business history when COVID brought the travel industry to a standstill. Today, she's leading a nationally recognized company, setting audacious growth goals, and challenging conventional thinking about l...

Send us Fan Mail Most people talk about ideas. Very few actually write the check and start. Nick Braun went from building a pet insurance comparison company to scaling a water filtration business doing millions in revenue. But this conversation is really about risk, timing, relationships, and why entrepreneurship in the Midwest looks different than Silicon Valley. We talk about building businesses...

Send us Fan Mail Sixty seconds of total silence doesn’t sound that long… until you’re standing on a Persian rug making eye contact with some of the most famous investors in America. This week, Megan Pando joins me to talk about what Shark Tank actually feels like from the inside — the nerves, the pressure, the mindset shifts, and what happened after the cameras stopped rolling. But this episode go...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, my friend, hello... This week, Libby Welch joins me for a conversation that starts with wedding songs, curly hair, and dance moms… and somehow lands in grief, postpartum anxiety, mental health, identity, and building a business that actually gives a damn about people. Libby opens up about losing her dad after years of overwork and an undiagnosed mental health condition, and...

Send us Fan Mail The internet loves to scream “women supporting women”… right up until a woman makes a choice they wouldn’t make themselves. This episode starts with the backlash around Lisa Oxenham’s British Vogue essay about becoming a mom at 49—and spirals into a much bigger conversation about judgment, fertility, grief, motherhood, ambition, and why women can be brutal to each other when somet...

Send us Fan Mail They create some of the most recognizable homes in Columbus, Ohio. But behind the aesthetic is pressure, conflict, obsession, and nonstop work. This conversation with Stacy and Tracy from Paul + Jo Studios gets into what it actually takes to build a design business as a married couple while raising kids, renovating homes, running projects, and trying not to lose yourselves in the...

Send us Fan Mail By 8 a.m., some of us feel like we’ve already lived a full day. We’re up early trying to work out, get kids fed, get everyone out the door—and still show up like we’ve got it together. Meanwhile our nervous system is already buzzing from constant needs, noise, and decisions. In this episode, I’m naming it:  the overstimulation, the mental load, and the exhaustion that hits before...

Send us Fan Mail It's back and bigger than ever... that's right we're talking about Little Legends Lemonade Stand Fundraiser 2026.  What started as a simple lemonade stand now has a goal of 500 stands nationwide. Keri sits down with the team behind Little Legends Lemonade to talk about how this actually came together, why kids need real-world experiences early, and how something sma...

Send us Fan Mail Most people think they’re doing Pilates. They’re not. Sara Ortlip built one of the most respected Pilates studios in Columbus by doing it differently and actually doing it right. We get into what Pilates really is vs. what’s being sold, why “the burn” is misleading, and how breath work changes everything, from performance to trauma response. She also opens up about building her bu...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you actually do the thing that scares you? In this solocast, I’m recapping the very first In Her Badass Era IRL event—and honestly, I’m still processing it. What started as an idea in my head turned into a room full of powerful, honest, wildly inspiring humans who showed up ready to connect, share, and step into their own version of badassery. This episode is par...

Send us Fan Mail I pushed myself into a new level with this one. For the first time ever, The Keri Croft Show went live with an IRL experience called “In Her Badass Era.” I sat down with a room full of female entrepreneurs who are actually building something and we got honest about what it really takes. Not the highlight reel. The chaos, the self-doubt, the pressure, the moments you think you’re g...

Send us Fan Mail Jessica didn’t set out to build a nonprofit. She was living her life. Raising kids, building her career, doing all the normal things and then everything shifted. A diagnosis. A timeline no one was ready for. And a version of life she never planned to navigate. And somewhere in that, she built something. Brave Men started because of her husband, Demetrius, but what it’s become is b...

Send us Fan Mail Your comfort zone isn’t harmless. It looks like safety. It feels like routine. It even disguises itself as “being responsible.” But underneath that? It can quietly drain your energy, cap your identity, and delay the future you keep saying you want. In this episode, I’m breaking down the real cost of comfort through the Mental Athleticism lens—and why the goal isn’t to live in cons...

Send us Fan Mail Rick Harrison is the Executive Director of North Market, but that’s not really the story. The story is how he got there. Fashion career in LA. Job ends. Starts a food truck having no idea what he’s doing. And somehow that path leads him back to Columbus running one of the most important spaces in the city. We talk about what it actually looks like to start over, what people don’t...

Send us Fan Mail That late-night “who’s at the door?” instinct? Yeah—you should be using that on your calendar, your phone, and the people who think everything is urgent. This episode is Part four of Mental Athleticism—and we’re going straight into Environmental Design: aka Protect Your Yard. We’re talking: Why your attention is getting hijacked (and how to take it back) How your phone, feeds, and...

Send us Fan Mail What starts with $40… and turns into a cult brand? In this episode of The Keri Croft Show , I sit down with Liz Haislip, founder of Pebby Forevee. A brand that didn’t come from a playbook, investors, or experience, but from pure obsession, grit, and an unwavering belief that she was meant for more. But this conversation goes way deeper than business. We talk about:  • The reality...

Send us Fan Mail Part 3 of the Mental Athleticism series is here—and we’re going inside your head. Because you can meal prep, hydrate, and hit your workouts… but if your thoughts are absolute garbage, none of it sticks. This episode is all about self-command—learning how to filter the noise, challenge the bullshit, and stop letting every passing thought run the show. We break it down simply: Thoug...

Send us Fan Mail Most people are chasing the sexy business idea. The flashy brand. The viral moment. The overnight success. But what if the real money is being made somewhere else entirely? In this episode of The Keri Croft Show, I sit down with my friends Drew and TJ. Two entrepreneurs building serious wealth in industries most people overlook. From porta potties and waste management to roofing,...

Send us Fan Mail Part one of the Mental Athleticism series was all about anchoring to a big, audacious vision for your life. But vision only becomes powerful when you’re willing to execute on it relentlessly. Because big lives aren’t built in big moments. They’re built in small daily decisions. In Part Two of What is Mental Athleticism, we break down what it actually means to train your mind like...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve spent any time around the Columbus food scene, you probably heard of BJ Lieberman. He’s the chef behind Chapman’s, Metsi's, Ginger Rabbit, and one of the most thoughtful people I’ve met when it comes to food, creativity, and building restaurants that people genuinely love. In this episode, BJ and I talk about his path into the restaurant world, what it’s really like...