A Career of Next Adventures and the Power of a Beginner’s Mind with Ellen Robinson

How many times can one person reinvent a career? For Ellen Robinson, the answer is more than most, and each change taught her something about letting go well. 

In this episode, Elizabeth Ledoux sits down with Ellen Robinson, the newest transition guide at The Transition Strategists. Ellen began her career as a brand manager at Frito-Lay, where one of the Tostitos seasonings she developed later made its way onto Doritos. She moved to Denver, rejoined the PepsiCo family at the local bottler, and worked her way into general management of a 24/7 operation with hundreds of employees. From there she became president of Ascent Sports, running the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche and earning a Stanley Cup ring along the way. That opportunity came about after she negotiated the Pepsi Center naming rights deal. 

Ellen then tried entrepreneurship with EventConnex, a technology startup built to help large-scale event planners collaborate across distances. When the dot-com bubble burst, she made the call to close the company in a way that was honest with her team and her backer. Burnout followed, and so did a season of rest and exploration that led her to train as an executive coach. She earned her Integral Coach certification from New Ventures West and founded Robinson Coaching Group in 2012, where she coaches senior professionals and emerging leaders across industries. 

That history gives Ellen an unusual vantage point on transition. She has been inside a family business as an in-law, watched her son become its fourth generation, and served for years as a trustee at Metropolitan State University of Denver through several presidential successions. Her community board service also includes the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and Mile High United Way. She has served The Denver Foundation as well and currently sits on the board of First Western Financial. 

Key takeaways from the conversation: 

• Transitioners grow too. Elizabeth shares that audiences most often name successor readiness as their greatest fear, yet the owner faces a significant growth curve in letting go and discovering what comes next. 

• Bring a beginner’s mind. Ellen encourages owners to welcome some beginner energy into their next chapter, even after decades at the top. 

• Honor what you built before you turn the page. Reflecting on your accomplishments and the challenges you overcame gives you a foundation to stand on as you move forward. 

• Look two or three years out. Ellen’s transitions worked because she lifted her eyes past this week’s deadlines and made each move on purpose. 

• Start early and parallel path. Making space for hobbies, family, and interests while you’re still working keeps your options open, and late starts bring more pressure and fewer choices on everything from people to taxes and structure. 

Whether you’re an owner beginning to picture your next adventure or a successor preparing to step up, Ellen’s story is a reminder that possibility doesn’t end at any stage of life. 

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome and introducing Ellen Robinson
01:27 – Early loss, Penn and Wharton, and brand management at Frito-Lay
02:40 – Denver, a family business from the outside, and the Pepsi bottler
04:51 – Running the Nuggets and Avalanche and serving on the MSU Denver board
06:55 – From a P&L to a term sheet, burnout, and becoming a coach
09:28 – How Ellen’s background fits transition work
10:09 – A foot in both worlds with successors and leaders
10:56 – The transitioner’s growth curve
12:38 – Beginner’s mind and honoring what you’ve built
14:15 – Celebrating wins, transferability, and the courage to reflect
16:34 – How Ellen knew it was time for each transition
18:15 – Realistic optimism and being willing to work the transition
20:27 – Living your best life and the uncomfortable in-between
22:38 – Starting early and parallel pathing
24:10 – Why late starts limit your options
25:43 – Business owners, generosity, and community
26:38 – Ellen’s one thing: possibility
27:12 – Wrap-up

Connect with Ellen Robinson: Robinson Coaching Group

Connect with Elizabeth Ledoux and the Transition Strategists:
Website: https://transitionstrategists.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetransitionstrategists
Elizabeth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethledoux/
Transition Strategists on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/transitionstrategists/
Transition Strategists on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@transitionstrategists

Subscribe to “The Business Transition Roadmap with Elizabeth Ledoux” on your favorite podcast player:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3MxSYA2
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3IhMMux

Our Sister Show: Your Next Gen Friend
Hosted by Andrea Carpenter, Your Next Gen Friend is for the next generation stepping into leadership in family and private businesses. If you’re a successor figuring out your path, this show is for you.

Website: https://yournextgenfriend.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yournextgenfriend/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@yournextgenfriend
Andrea on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreakcarpenter/
Spotify: https://yournextgenfriend.com/open-spotify
Apple Podcasts: https://yournextgenfriend.com/apple-podcast

Get Elizabeth Ledoux and Laura Chiesman’s latest book, “It’s A Journey: The MUST-HAVE Roadmap to Successful Succession Planning”: https://amzn.to/3oq2LQv

A Career of Next Adventures and the Power of a Beginner’s Mind with Ellen Robinson Transcript

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Hi everyone and welcome back to the Business Transition Roadmap. I’m Elizabeth Ledoux, and I am so pleased today to be joined by Ellen Robinson. I’ll give you a few highlights about her. Her background and experience is impressive. She has been in leadership roles in Fortune 500 companies as a brand manager at Friedoly, general manager at PepsiCola.

President of Ascent Sports. Those have given her such a great foundation in the work that she’s doing today. And she is a guide with the transition strategist, which I’m again thrilled to have her as a part of our company. She in 2012 went and left those roles to start Robinson Coaching Group. And her focus there was an executive coaching practice where she could help.

People grow and develop themselves. And then she’s also she’s served on many, many, many boards, which all of these things in her background makes her really literally an ideal person as a transition guide. And so, Ellen, that’ll be all I’ll talk about to introduce you right now. let’s turn it over to you and maybe tell us a little bit more about yourself.

Ellen Robinson:
Yeah, sure.

Thanks Elizabeth. I’m so pleased and honored, you know, to be here. And I think when I was introduced to transition strategists, something that connected to me was this word transition because I feel like I’ve been in it many, many times through my career. I’ve always heard of it spoken of chapters and I really like next adventure, which is what the term I’ve learned to learn about from transition strategists. yeah, feel really blessed and fortunate. grew up in the East.

New England and had some difficulty early on in terms of both my parents passed away when I was young. But they were big supporters of mine, gave me the big lift in my education. Got to go to Penn and the Wharton School, majored in marketing and finance, had a decision about which route to go and the opportunity to be a brand manager at Friedolai because of just the nature of that company and what brand management

like there was what I selected. And if anybody still likes if one of the seasonings that I did for Tostitos is now on Doritos now. It’s escaping me, but when I see it I always love to I always remember the

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Huh?

Ellen Robinson:
journey that it took to get that done. And made a big transition from corporate there to follow my life into to Denver, which is where I’ve been for 35 years. Both my children were born here and I’ve grown up here.

And we we got into a family business here, so I was on the outside. It was the family, but I wasn’t active in it other than really understanding my at the time husband’s involvement with the company, the relationship between the two sides of the families that were involved, the next generation. He was the third gen, which I had really encouraged for him to participate in with his family, and then now my son fast forward is the fourth generation in that company.

But when I got to Denver, there was lots of transitions once again. I actually re-upped with Pep the PepsiCola companies or PepsiCo companies and had develop mentors and people that knew me real well at Frito and were curious about whether I’d be interested in working at the Pepsi bottler here. So I went from a headquarters to a big operation, 24 sevens, you know, hundreds of employees, blue collar to white collar. And eventually

made transitions out of deciding to be in marketing again to I really wanted to be in operations and general management and became the general manager of the pep of the operation in in Denver, which was a huge opportunity for me, amazing learning experience of managing a PL and people more importantly in in in Denver. And transitioned again when that kind of career pipeline

The next step for me career wise would have been to leave Denver. And my family didn’t want to do that, so I had to make another decision career-wise of what to do. I got the opportunity to run the Nuggets and the Avalanche, who had been customers of mine at Pepsi. In fact, I still have the the hard hat that says Pepsi Center because I did the naming rights deal for the Pepsi Center, which was really, really exciting, and then to sit up.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
yeah.

Ellen Robinson:
Side and fill up that building with fans and all of that. Lots of stories about the difficulties and travaise of all of that. But it certainly well, again, talking about transition, I had young children at that time, and to be at almost 80 games a year, be working late nights, get in again in the morning, it was big haul. But what I enjoyed about it, another thing about me is I really loved to be a part of the community.

And that gave me the opportunity to not only not move, have a family business in Denver, but also get involved with the a lot of the what you referenced, the boards that I’ve been on and had the opportunity to give back and serve on. One in particular that I love is Metro State University of Denver, and I was appointed by the governor at the time to be a trustee. And it was just is still one of the joys of my life and what they do.

there with first generation college goers and really developing giving back into our own local economy. so I I I continue to be involved there. I’ve seen many transitions there through presidents, successors, huge projects, fundraising, all of what goes into any operation and that one in particular.

then I did get into the fast you know, skip over from corporate where everybody else it’s giving you your budget. You just need to make sure that you spend it and get a return to I became an entrepreneur the first time before I went into my own practice and tried a SaaS startup. It was related to developing workflow at the time called a Think Client, now it’s even in the cloud. And so that

Large scale event planners could work more efficiently with a a distant team because large-scale events are planned all over the world. And I think at the time we were probably re trying to create Dropbox or Drive when those didn’t exist yet,

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Hmm.

Ellen Robinson:
just so we have central storage for documents and different ways to message people. So I went from a PL to a term sheet and learned how to value a company.

I learned how to add value to a company, I learned how to and work through bringing people on board without much money to spare, all of those sorts of things. I learned how to roll up a company because after the dot com bubble burst in the early 2000s, we were pre-revenue and

Those weren’t being funded at the time and we were really taking on some pretty big technical challenges that took in a little bit more money than I think the my backers were interested in. So that was a big transition. I rolled up shop. And I thought I was kind of done and I was done in some part because I experienced a much of what one would call burnout today. And was ready, I thought, as a next adventure, but I didn’t really know what that was, and it would have been helpful to have some.

support in that. I did take time off, I explored, I did things, and I ended up coming back to do what I love, which is the people first philosophy that you have, and I learned to be an executive coach. And I have great respect for the field. I didn’t just take my corporate background or board background and decide to be an advisor or tell people I could mentor them. I really wanted to learn how to be a coach and bring human development, growth

And a lot of the other capacities of leadership, because I still really found myself gravitating back to business and leadership. And I’ve been a coach developing myself in that way, in that next adventure for many, many years. And and then I found the transition strategist. So here we are. And was introduced through a mutual friend who knew the work that I do and my passion for people. Knew you, Elizabeth.

work that you do and your passion for people and as they say in Yiddish there was a shudd a match

and and here we are and I’m at the beginning of adding my work with transition strategists to my practice and I’ve already found how I can lean into my coaching skills and experiences quite frankly along with the wonderful form frameworks and tools that you’ve developed.

I think quite elegantly at transition strategies.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Well thanks. Yeah, and I think I hope all of you can see

just how all of that background knowledge and experience can come to be of high value when a family or a business is transitioning the assets from one generation to the other. Because Ellen, just in your conversation right there in some of those comments, I just see so many threads of bringing people together, right? Bringing people together and helping them to see

what the value is in some of the work that you were you know, that you’ve done for so long.

Ellen Robinson:
thanks. And I you know, I initially thought I’d gravitate maybe primarily, I don’t know what word how to qualify this, but with successors, ’cause I do a lot of that work coaching wise, whether you’re in a business, in a career, we wanna this gen you know, we wanna work on this person’s career development, etcetera. But I also work with the leaders too, the CEOs and the leaders of organizations. And I actually gravitate there as well equally, which I see as working

business owners and leaders in private companies and and very excited and energized by a whole different set of circumstances and challenges at both so now I feel like the seesaw has balanced and I have definitely a foot in both worlds.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Yeah, and it’s interesting too because in transition there is a lot of behavior shift that happens and we do you know, we’re a people first, people oriented company, so not

always helping people to start with the how and how much, but moving them more towards starting with a collective why and getting that together. And when you go through behavior changes, if you’re gonna go through a a business transition

Both the transitioner and the successor are learning, growing, shifting in their behavior, their thinking. But many people, and our number one, when we do our talks, right? Our number one, we put up a survey and it says, you know, what’s your greatest fear about transition? And

Nine times out of ten, the audience will say that it’s the successor being ready. And I in I would challenge that. The successor does have a high growth curve, but the transitioner also has a significant growth curve in letting go, leaving, having a next adventure, understanding what they want. And yeah, the successor, in a way, theirs may be more linear, but it still is, you know, both on both sides.

It’s gigantic.

Ellen Robinson:
Ab absolutely. To have been at the top, have achieved so much, have also just the habit and energy of what you do day to day and to put all that into a next adventure is a huge transition.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Huge transition. Yeah. Yeah. So so as you look as you look through doing some of this transition work, what are some of the things that you hope to be able to help people do as they walk through their transitions?

Ellen Robinson:
Yeah.

Well, one thing that always comes to that first comes to mind is about the beginner’s mind. Just realize that there’s actually growth and learning and excitement, even though you haven’t been a beginner in a super long time, to invite some beginner energy into what’s next.

I do think and I know that your whole platform or the transition strategist platforms based on this reflection is so important to really honor yourself for what you have accomplished.

recognize all the challenges that you’ve overcome and and really maybe introspect into those in some way. And and then

Whew, face the, you know, turn the page and

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Mm-hmm.

Ellen Robinson:
whether it’s blank or not, start filling it in. And that can also be a really exciting, fulfilling, meaningful, and good use of your time. So I think that’s kind of the overall perspective that I would bring to it.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Yeah, and two things that you said that I love. one is celebrating the wins, right? ‘Cause sometimes the wins look like small losses, but if you look at even even that you have a business that’s transferable.

even to have that. It it

Ellen Robinson:
Yeah.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
just as a foundation. And if you’re unsure, going back to the reflection part, you know, reflecting on what do you have and do you have anything that is transferable? And if you gave yourself enough time, a longer runway, say five years or so, maybe ten, could you design, could you build it, could you

you know, help it to grow into something that even if it’s small, it could be transitioned to somebody who would like to take it forward and carry the legacy. So I like that. And then just little you know, that last idea of of transitioning. It takes courage. It takes a lot of courage to

You know, think about leaving and think about if you’re thinking in decade thinking and you’re fifty, fifty to sixty, yeah, sixty to seventy, maybe a little bit harder, but it takes a lot of courage to reflect and look on that in an open mind, open heart.

Ellen Robinson:
Yes, open heart beginner mind. Yes. Yeah.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Beginner mind, there you go.

Ellen Robinson:
I would agree. It’s I mean we are you know, chronology is what it is, but what you bring into it based on you know, what we just said, honoring your what you’ve d how you develop developed yourself and what you’ve created is something to sit on, you know, on top of for as opposed to think about

that you’re totally separate from it forever. And it’s always part of that impressive background. there’s lots of ways to feel similarly in terms of on top of your game and engaged, but learning to do that outside of the company I think is what it’s gonna take.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Yeah. So you’ve been through quite a few transitions in your world in your lifetime. And what kinds of things helped you to know that it was time to start to think about your transition. Like what was going on and what were you noticing?

Ellen Robinson:
that that’s a great question because I’ve been very thought I was very thoughtful about those and in retrospect or in reflection I also think about that. Sometimes in the early go it was a bit well, it always had a personal side, always. Didn’t want to go international, although I you know I love to travel, it was nothing about that, but I wanted to stay in Denver and be part of the community, so I looked to redo my career from PepsiCouse I saw. I mean I just have

I think some of it is timeline is so get out of what’s due today, this week, even this year, and kind of see two or three years down the road, if not further. And I’ve been for some reason able to do that and see how aligned that is with knowing what my interests and goals were, which was to stay in Colorado and get involved. So that led me actually to purposely figure out how I was gonna leave Pepsi.

Make that transition. That didn’t happen to me. I I made that transition. And then

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Mm-hmm.

Ellen Robinson:
into my startup, then you’re dealing with just business situations. The we weren’t far enough along, startup is is what it is. Again, it was not this wasn’t that laissez-faire about it, it was a big deal at the time, but in terms

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Hm. Yeah.

Ellen Robinson:
of transition, I realized after three years that

It wasn’t going to really thrive or survive. And so making making that decision to transition with the employees. I had five employees. My backer was gonna lose money. so just realizing let’s do that in a non-protracted way. Be real, be realistic. Realistic optimism

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Yeah.

Ellen Robinson:
is a really important trait, I think, of a leader. And so that led to that.

the burnout was just really a physical manifestation and really being tuned in to how I was feeling at that stage in my life and what that felt like and honor that. And then the restorative, taking on practices and being conscious and specific about I need a next adventure. I might not know what it is, but I need to spend some time investigating, renewing, rebuilding.

you know, the the body that felt the burnout. And then when coaching it didn’t show up, of course, it came about through investigation and exploring. And then as I went and discovered that, it worked. If it hadn’t, it might be something else. There’s other things that I should say that I looked at between when I stopped and when I started again that didn’t work out, that weren’t of interest. So being willing to work the transition. And the same with coming to

transition strategists. I’ve now I’m not a beginner at coaching by any means any longer. So knowing what to look for in a different platform and that allowed me to while I’m a beginner to the tools and whatnot, but to really understand their quality and their purples their helpfulness with people has helped and makes sense to me. Once again, I’ve told you this Elizabeth I looked at other platforms and different topics to join and have done none other than this one.

And so

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Yeah.

Ellen Robinson:
it makes sense to look at things with what you know.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Well thank you. Yeah, and I’m very, very grateful that you chose us, right? This is wonderful, wonderful.

Yeah, you know, because we’re at the Transition Strategist we’re all about helping people live their best lives. And that’s been a I did a Pathfinder program, we now own it and I designed part of it, but I did it gosh probably close to thirty years ago and created what is my personal life mission at the time.

And that over all of those years I didn’t think it would go as well, but it’s a great program and

I ended up with my personal life mission and it’s been the same. So it’s kind of a great guiding light. But to be able to help people live their best lives is very important to me. And you know, transitioners moving into something that they’re going to enjoy. And also again, there’s a lot of courage in it. that we’re, you know, brave enough, strong enough to

have an ending and to go through a neutral potential time when you are

experimenting and exploring

and trying to decide what’s next for you. That’s it can be super uncomfortable, but it’s a part of the journey because if you don’t do that, you never figure out what might be next for you and likely you’ll stay in the company. And the other thing is you never move out of the way enough to let somebody else figure out how to do it. So in essence, instead of leaving a legacy because you stuck around

And stuck it out, right? And thought you were doing the right thing. Sometimes that backfires because you end up as an owner closer to the end of your runway, thinking, wow, I don’t even know what I want to do, and I don’t have anybody who could do what I do because I haven’t given myself enough time. So it’s really interesting to be able to think that way.

Ellen Robinson:
Yeah, I think you know the your idea of live your best lives. I mean that’s what I’m in it for in my coaching. I don’t know that I’ve said it in that way, but it clearly aligns. And I know you are eager to and and speak about engaging clients at earlier stages. It doesn’t have to be six months before the whole you know, it’s over. Because I think it’s important for a transitioner to realize that in order to live their best lives, they need to give themselves

time and it’s a

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Yeah.

Ellen Robinson:
great way to start parallel pathing a bit as you get in position to whatever it’s going to be. Hobby, for me it’s it will be it is golf and fortunate that my body performs and that golf takes a good amount of time. What a transition from never having enough time for it to actually wanting to do it because it takes up my time. And so whatever it is, music

Interest, study, time with family, on and on and on to start

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Yeah.

Ellen Robinson:
focusing, moving your attention to that while you’re still working is really a blessing. I’m very grateful to have had that opportunity, and I would hope that transitioners would you know feel that.

sense of possibility by starting sooner in the process than more towards the end of the more towards the tr actual transaction.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Yeah.

Yeah, lots of times when they start too close to the time that they’re ready to leave, their options are much, much, much more limited. it’s just like there’s more pressure to get things done quicker and it can be challenging not only with people, but also even taxes and structure and a lot

Ellen Robinson:
Yeah.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
of different things. I would agree with you on that one that

There’s a lot of goodness, a lot of giving back. when I go to talk to some different audiences that are business owners or advisors. Really, I think you can have a win-win-win. You can have a win for the transitioner slash family. You can have a win for the successor as well. And the business can win also, but in order to get that,

There has to be great communication and you know, bringing people in at the right time. And if you don’t know when the right time is, you’ll miss it. You can miss it. Yeah.

Ellen Robinson:
Yeah, you’ll miss it. That’s the issue. Yeah, these are these windows.

And to put to look through those windows with your methodology, with what you do at Transition Strategists, is really a gift. And it’s not something, of course, that transitioner does every day, over and over and over, but you have for twenty, thirty years. and so it’s a real

Strong program.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
Thank you. Thank you for that. Yeah, I get inspired. I get inspired by people

Yeah, looking through the looking glass and going, Hmm, I wonder what my l next adventure looks like. I wonder how I can help others grow and develop. I wonder how I can make sure that all our customers and vendors and people are well cared for and and even the community, I think my audience has heard me say this before. Business owners are generous people in general. you know, they do give back to the community whether it’s through money or time.

or rotary or whatever. they’re active typically and it’s beautiful to see. So I just like the community continuing. I think that’s so great.

Ellen Robinson:
Sure. Yeah.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
So Ellen, our time I always think it goes so quickly, and I love to ask at the end of our session if you had one thing that you would leave with the audience today, just one nugget of knowledge, what would you leave with them?

Ellen Robinson:
Possibility.

possibility at every turn, every point in our lives, starting from when we were teeny tiny, and it doesn’t end and grab it.

Elizabeth Ledoux:
I love that. Grab it. On that note, Ellen, thank you so much for being a part of today and a a guest here. I know that everybody got a lot of great value out of it and I’m looking forward to lots of years of working together. So thanks for being a part of our world.

Ellen Robinson:
Me too. Thank

you for having me. Take care.

SCHEDULE A COMPLIMENTARY CONSULTATION

The Business Transition Roadmap with Elizabeth Ledoux

How do communities thrive? When businesses experience healthy growth and transition. Join CEO of The Transition Strategists, Elizabeth Ledoux as she and her guests identify what makes a successful business transition roadmap. If you know you want to transition or exit your business “one day”, today is the right day to start planning. This show will give you the roadmap.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, you can check out other episodes here: Podcasts – The Transition Strategists