Owning Your Legacy

What does it take to build a thriving business, lead with integrity, and create spaces that truly reflect the people who live in them?
In this episode of Owning Your Legacy, Laurette Rondenet sits down with Lakesha Rose, Owner/Designer of L Rose Interior Design, a Chicago-based full-service design-build and interior design firm celebrating 10 years in business.
Lakesha shares her unconventional path into interior design, from sending out 40 resumes with no formal experience to building a respected firm known for thoughtful design, strong project management, and deeply personal client relationships.
With more than two decades in the industry, Lakesha explains why great design is about far more than color palettes and furniture. It is about listening, intuition, trust, and understanding how a client wants to feel in their home.
This conversation explores:
• Building confidence before you feel fully qualified
• Growing a business through relationships, trust, and reputation
• Why project management is essential to creative success
• Leading a team without ego
• Creating homes that tell a complete story
• Setting boundaries, minimums, and finding the right clients
• Balancing ambition, marriage, travel, and personal freedom
• The power of character in leadership and business
Lakesha also reflects on the legacy she hopes to leave behind: a life and business rooted in character, integrity, and doing the right thing even when no one is watching.
Whether you are an entrepreneur, creative professional, interior design lover, or leader building something meaningful, this episode is a reminder that success is not only about what you create—it is about how you serve people along the way.
Learn more about Lakesha Rose and L Rose Interior Design:
https://lroseinteriordesign.com/
If you enjoyed the episode please share it with others, and rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about me and how I am Owning My Legacy, you can find me on Instagram @LauretteRondenet and online at lauretterondenet.com.

What does it really take to build a food company from the ground up, raise capital, scale a team, and make difficult decisions when the market changes?

In this episode of Owning Your Legacy, Brittany Chibe shares the honest story behind her journey from corporate food sales to entrepreneurship, including the launch and sale of Paleo Scavenger and her work as co-founder of Aquacultured Foods.

Brittany discusses building a paleo snack brand from her home kitchen, growing into national distribution, learning the realities of co-manufacturing and retail margins, and why she chose not to bootstrap her next company.

She also shares how Aquacultured Foods was created around a mission to develop sustainable alternative seafood, the process of raising pre-seed and seed capital, navigating food-tech regulation, working with acclaimed chefs, and bringing a novel product to market.

But this is also a conversation about the harder side of entrepreneurship: fundraising in a difficult market, leading a team through uncertainty, managing runway, making layoffs, and deciding when it is time to wind down a company responsibly.

Brittany reflects on the lessons she is carrying into her next chapter, including the importance of customer connection, clear accountability, sustainable leadership, and separating your identity from the business you build.

Topics in this episode include:
• Food entrepreneurship and CPG startups
• Bootstrapping versus raising venture capital
• Paleo Scavenger and building a brand from a home kitchen
• Alternative seafood and food-tech innovation
• Startup fundraising, investors, and pitch strategy
• Leadership during uncertainty and company closure
• Building accountable teams and reducing operational burn
• Founder mental health, resilience, and life after a startup
If you enjoyed the episode please share it with others, and rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about me and how I am Owning My Legacy, you can find me on Instagram @LauretteRondenet and online at lauretterondenet.com.

What if AI is not here to replace creativity, but to expand it?

In this episode of Owning Your Legacy, Laurette is joined by Justin Shimek, CEO of Mattson, to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping food and beverage innovation.

Justin shares his journey from food science to leadership, the role of curiosity in building a career, and how Mattson helps companies imagine what is coming next in food. The conversation dives into AI as a creative thought partner, not an answer machine, and how tools like Mattson’s AI persona “Leo” are helping teams generate ideas, understand consumers, and rethink innovation workflows.

Together, they discuss the fears and opportunities surrounding AI, how companies can begin integrating it responsibly, and why the future of innovation still depends on real human intelligence, judgment, and creativity.

This episode is for leaders, innovators, food scientists, entrepreneurs, and anyone curious about how AI can help teams do their highest and best work.

Learn more about Justin Shimek and Mattson:
www.mattsonco.com
If you enjoyed the episode please share it with others, and rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about me and how I am Owning My Legacy, you can find me on Instagram @LauretteRondenet and online at lauretterondenet.com.

Season 12 of Owning Your Legacy brings together leaders, founders, creators, innovators, and storytellers who are building something meaningful through courage, curiosity, and intention.
This season explores what it takes to step into your next chapter, trust your instincts, build the right team, embrace change, and keep moving forward even when the path is uncertain.
From food, design, entrepreneurship, AI, sustainability, personal reinvention, and the power of community, these conversations remind us that legacy is not something we leave behind someday. It is something we build every day through the choices we make, the people we support, and the stories we choose to tell.
Featuring conversations with Steve Dolinsky, Lakeisha Rose, Justin Schimmick, Brittany Chibe, Denise Senter, and Gail Scott.
Watch Season 12 of Owning Your Legacy and join the conversation.

If you enjoyed the episode please share it with others, and rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about me and how I am Owning My Legacy, you can find me on Instagram @LauretteRondenet and online at lauretterondenet.com.

What does it really mean to leave a legacy?
In the final episode of Season 11 of Owning Your Legacy, guests reflect on one of the most meaningful questions of the series: What is the legacy you would like to leave behind?
Their answers reveal that legacy is not only about achievement, status, or recognition. It is about the people we inspire, the love we put into the world, the courage to be ourselves, and the way we help others grow into who they are meant to become.
This Season 11 finale brings together powerful reflections on family, mentorship, authenticity, purpose, resilience, and staying committed to what truly matters.
If you are thinking about the life you are building, the people you are shaping, or the impact you want to leave behind, this episode is a reminder that legacy is created through the choices we make every day.
If you enjoyed the episode please share it with others, and rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about me and how I am Owning My Legacy, you can find me on Instagram @LauretteRondenet and online at lauretterondenet.com.