Sue Frech

From Doorstep to Dreams: Building the Next Generation of Fearless Women

Where were you in your life when you decided to take the leap into your current career?

For years, I chased what I thought was the finish line: selling my company. The exit would be my victory lap, the moment I could finally exhale and say, “I made it.” But somewhere along the way—not through aging, but through genuine growth—I discovered I’d been thinking about success all wrong.

Those pivotal moments we chase aren’t destinations at all. They’re launchpads. Sahil Bloom captures this beautifully in The Five Types of Wealth, exploring how we trade time for achievement as we climb toward what we think is “the top.” I had always operated under the brutal math of entrepreneurship: work until burnout, sacrifice everything to reach the summit, then rest. For me, that summit was an acquisition.

The wake-up call came when I actually reached it. Company sold, check deposited, champagne uncorked—and then the question no one prepares you for: Now what?

That’s when I realized I hadn’t climbed to an ending; I had climbed to a new beginning. The skills, scars, and hard-won wisdom from building and exiting weren’t meant to collect dust. They were meant to become the foundation for what comes next.

The answer crystallized around a simple mission: helping other women scale their businesses without repeating my mistakes. Last year, I formalized this calling by becoming an EOS Implementer. The Entrepreneurial Operating System had transformed my own company back in 2015—my implementer didn’t just give me tools, they gave me clarity. Now it’s my turn to pay that transformation forward.

The irony isn’t lost on me: the thing I thought would end my entrepreneurial journey actually launched the most meaningful chapter of it.

How do you find strength during moments of doubt, burnout, or adversity?

Every entrepreneurial leader needs three foundational elements: a business coach or mentor, a peer group, and an operating system. I’ve built my leadership framework around EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) while drawing strength from my mentor and several peer networks, including the Women Presidents Organization, Vistage, and three women’s networking groups.

The entrepreneurial journey inevitably presents hurdles, moments of self-doubt—what I call “head trash”—and genuine adversity. Anyone claiming it’s all smooth sailing isn’t being honest. During my years running an event marketing company, I used to tell clients that every event would encounter unexpected challenges. What distinguished exceptional service providers wasn’t the absence of problems, but how skillfully they navigated them. The same principle applies to entrepreneurial leadership.

The highs and lows are simply part of the journey, and I’ve learned to embrace this reality rather than resist it. My approach to recovering from setbacks has evolved significantly over the years. Previously, I would cycle through all stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance—sometimes taking weeks or even months to process a single setback. Today, I’ve streamlined this process, working deliberately to move quickly toward acceptance and action.

Acceptance, for me, means immediately shifting into problem-solving mode. I’ve discovered that some of my greatest opportunities have emerged from what initially appeared to be adversity. However, when I find myself stuck or unable to see past my own perspective, I turn to my inner circle—my peers and mentor—who provide a trusted space for vulnerability and genuine support.

This network has been instrumental to my success. Having people who understand the unique challenges of leadership, who can offer both perspective and practical guidance, isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. I’m grateful for this support system every day, knowing that none of us succeeds alone.

How do you define success on your own terms?

The question “How do you define success?” has surfaced repeatedly this week, and I’m struck by how deeply personal each answer is. We all crave success, yet its meaning shifts like sand beneath our feet.

My definition has undergone a complete metamorphosis. Early in my career, success wore the costume of external validation—titles, promotions, salary bumps, expanding responsibility. It demanded sacrifice: endless hours, missed birthdays, choosing ambition over presence. I wore my exhaustion like a badge of honor.

Today, success looks radically different. Warren Buffett captured it perfectly: “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

Now, success means wielding the power to be selective—saying yes only to opportunities that energize rather than drain me. It’s the freedom to choose alignment over achievement, presence over productivity. True success isn’t about accumulating more; it’s about having the clarity and courage to pursue less of what matters most.

What values guide the way you lead, create, or do business?

These core values serve as my compass for choosing partners, colleagues, and friends:

• G2 (Go and Grow): Even 1% better every day creates a meaningful impact

• Be Kind: Leave the world better than you found it

• Passion Over Profit: Do what you love

• Have Faith: Trust that everything happens for a reason

• Stay Grateful: Acknowledge fortune without taking it for granted

Early in my career, I chose partners and opportunities based on potential rather than people. Now I prioritize the individuals I’ll work alongside. The challenge is that true character often emerges only after you’re already committed. When values misalignment surfaces, I make swift decisions to either realign the situation or exit—refusing to compromise what I believe in.

Personal core values aren’t just guidelines; they’re my north star in both business and life.

How do you hope your work and story will inspire the next generation of women and girls?

Abandoned on a Vietnamese doorstep with no identity, I spent years feeling disconnected—until my daughter’s birth gave me the blood relative I’d always craved and a deeper purpose.

That moment of holding our miracle baby after multiple miscarriages ignited something fierce: the determination to ensure she and every young woman know they can shatter any ceiling, ignore any script, and turn their wildest dreams into reality.

Through mentoring at my alma mater, local high schools, and the Tory Burch Foundation, I’ve watched young women transform when someone believes in their untapped potential. But I’ve learned something crucial from my Women Presidents Organization peers—vulnerability and asking for help are superpowers that accelerate success.

My vision: to create that same transformative space for young women (ages 13–20), where they learn early that being vulnerable isn’t weakness—it’s the fastest path to extraordinary.

Today’s young women have unprecedented opportunities, but many still don’t know how to claim them. I’m building the bridge between their potential and their power.

What’s one ritual or habit that keeps you focused and feeling like yourself?

Every night, I capture my entire day in just two lines. It sounds impossibly simple—almost absurd—but this constraint is exactly what makes it powerful. My five-year journal gives me only a few sentences per day, but here’s the magic: it stores five years on a single page.

Picture this: You’re writing about today’s small victory or quiet struggle, and right there beneath your pen are the ghost traces of who you were exactly one, two, three years ago on this same date. Same hopes, different challenges. Same date, completely different person.

The real revelation hits when you complete that first cycle. Suddenly you’re not just writing—you’re time traveling. You’re watching your own evolution in real time, seeing patterns you never noticed, celebrating growth you’d forgotten, and realizing that those days that felt insignificant were actually the building blocks of who you’ve become.

It’s not just journaling. It’s archaeological evidence of your own transformation, condensed into the most honest, unfiltered two-line snapshots of your life. And somehow, those constraints—that tiny space—force you to distill each day down to what actually mattered.

Two lines. Five minutes. Five years of perspective. It’s the most profound practice disguised as the simplest one.

Sue Frech is an EOS Implementer® and Kolbe® Certified Consultant who helps women scale their businesses with clarity and confidence. After selling her own company, she shifted her focus to guiding others through growth without burnout. She also connects with peers through organizations like the Women Presidents Organization and Vistage, and mentors young women at the Tory Burch Foundation with a mission to inspire women to define success on their own terms.

Reprints of Boss Babes Magazine with Sue Frech on the cover are available for purchase.