No More Noodles on the Wall: The Jenn Trepeck Story

By Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant

(small.news) — Jenn Trepeck is the kind of business owner who refuses to be boxed in by one role. As a health coach, podcaster, consultant, and author, Trepeck is driven by a clear goal: to transform wellness and empower others.

She is often called a “force of nature,” and her story illustrates why.

Trepeck graduated from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and spent more than a decade in the high-octane world of hedge funds. While most of her colleagues were focused on portfolios and risk models, she was quietly building something else entirely—a coaching practice run on the side that would eventually pull her away from finance and into a full-time mission to change the state of healthcare.

“Success is a choice. It’s how I spend every day, with whom I want to be, working on what I want to work on.”

The Leap

Leaving a steady career can be daunting. For Trepeck, after years of coaching alongside finance, she moved into full-time self-employment and launched her podcast, Salad with a Side of Fries.

“I wanted to pay it forward,” she explains. “To reach a larger audience and teach the nutrition education we are all supposed to know — but no one ever taught us.” The podcast, recognized among Ear Worthy’s Best Health Podcasts in both 2024 and 2025, became a vehicle for making complex nutrition science accessible and, crucially, entertaining. Trepeck has a rare gift: the ability to make broccoli feel urgent.

Today, her work extends beyond one-on-one and small group coaching. She implements revenue-generating wellness programs in doctors’ offices, salons, and spas — a model that allows her to expand her reach while helping other small businesses deliver meaningful value to their clients. As a Certified GoTrim Lifestyle Coach and Consultant with nutraMetrix Custom Health Solutions, she sits at an unusual intersection of health, business, and retail.

The Real Enemy: Perfectionism

Ask Trepeck about the hardest part of building her business, and she does not hesitate. “Perfectionism,” she says. “In my personal life and in my business.”

Growing up, Trepeck developed an identity tied to her appearance and found her sense of self-worth influenced by it. It took years to untangle those beliefs.

“Over time, I learned that who I am has nothing to do with a number on the scale or the size of my jeans,” she reflects. “My worth comes from my heart, my brain, and the way I show up in the world.” That hard-won lesson is now central to her coaching philosophy, and to the judgment-free zone she creates for clients who have spent years feeling like failures on the wellness treadmill.

“Everyone’s making it up as they go. No one has it all figured out. Entrepreneurs are always throwing noodles at the wall to see what sticks.”

Her advice to other small business owners wrestling with perfectionism is blunt and liberating: “Nothing is permanent unless we decide it is. If we deploy a strategy and it doesn’t go as planned, we can simply choose again.” She has learned — across almost 20 years as an entrepreneur — that the goal is not to know every step between here and the finish line. It is simple to know the next one.

Changing the Healthcare Conversation

Trepeck’s unwavering mission is to empower people to reclaim their health, changing the healthcare conversation so that individuals, not just systems, have control. Combining hedge-fund discipline with compassionate coaching, she pursues this bold goal through every project.

Her critique of the wellness industry is sharp: “So many smart and well-intentioned people are still getting it wrong because they’re chasing quick fixes instead of long-term solutions. The diet industry has conditioned us to believe that the latest cleanse, powder, hack, or pharmaceutical is the answer. In reality, most of those options create temporary results — or results in one area at the expense of others.”

She is equally pointed about the cultural obsession with thinness: “The number on the scale does not equate to health. There are zero diseases that exist only in bigger bodies.” It is a statement that, delivered with her characteristic mix of science and directness, tends to land with force on audiences who have spent years being told otherwise.

The Book, the Badge, and What’s Next

In October 2025, Trepeck released her debut book, Uncomplicating Wellness — a science-based yet practical guide designed to cut through the noise of the wellness industry and help readers finally trust their bodies again. The title alone feels like a manifesto.

Recognition has followed: she was named to Podcast Magazine’s 40 Under 40, nominated for the International Women’s Podcast Award for Visionary Leadership in 2022, and claimed Ear Worthy’s Best Health Podcast award in consecutive years. Women Who Podcast Magazine named her a Stellar Interview recipient in 2025.

But ask Trepeck how she defines success, and the answer has nothing to do with awards. “I personally define success as living with choice and dignity,” she says. “To choose how I spend my day, who I spend my time with, and what I work on — that is success. It’s worth noting that this definition has changed over the years. I used to think success was owning an airplane and having a fancy title. What I’ve truly come to learn is that success is freedom with time.”

What You Can Take From Her Story

Trepeck’s journey demonstrates how clarity of mission fuels resilience and innovation. She built her business alongside a demanding finance career before fully committing to it. By pivoting, launching, and iterating, she proved that a steadfast purpose can guide each new step.

Her listeners and clients, she says, would miss her most for three things: her ability to translate complex science into practical steps, her critical eye for wellness headlines that too easily capture attention, and the compassion that makes people feel genuinely seen. That combination — rigor, warmth, and a refusal to take the easy road — is as good a blueprint for a small business as any.

“Hearing from podcast listeners about the changes they’ve made, witnessing my clients’ transformations — those are the greatest rewards,” she says. “Every gimme has a gotcha. I’d rather help people find what actually works.”

It will, she assures anyone who will listen. It always works out.

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