#131: Grieving While Building: When Life Falls Apart but the Work Doesn't Stop (Nicole Staple)

Meet Nicole Staple, co-founder of Brideside — once a fast-growing bridal startup with retail locations across the country and millions in venture funding.

In 2019, as her company scaled, Nicole’s husband was re-diagnosed with terminal cancer.
She found herself signing a $7M term sheet in the same window she learned it was the endgame.
Months later, she buried her husband, faced a global pandemic that crushed her industry, and had to shut the company down.

But what came next wasn’t another “comeback” story.
It was a rebirth that was built with boundaries, holding grief, and the courage to redefine success.

💡 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to Keep Building When Life Falls Apart: What Nicole held onto when control shattered.

• How to Set Boundaries in Grief: The rituals and routines that protected her capacity.

• How to Ask for Help (Without Feeling Weak): The community that kept her afloat.

• How to Rebuild Work on Your Terms: From 60-hour weeks to sustainable creative flow.

• How to Redefine Success: Why she stopped measuring growth by speed — and started measuring it by spaciousness.

This episode is a reminder that entrepreneurship isn’t just about scaling. It's about staying human while you do it.

🚀 Ready to put it into action? Get this week’s Growth Playbook — frameworks, templates, and tools to help you build through life’s hardest seasons. 👉 Subscribe: https://substack.com/@shegetsshitdone

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