379. Wait... Did We Really 2x Our Revenue + 6x Profit in ONE Year?! HOW???
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This year we have 2x'd our revenue but we have 6x'd our profit.

God, it's edgy to go, what if we made the easier choice, you know? And what if we made less money because it feels better to us and it's still super profitable. And it's so powerful to remind us so much that we want, we already have, but we overlook in the striving for more. It's so easy to measure the gain. It's so hard to measure the loss until it's too late. Start a business in what you're talented in. Full freaking stop. Yes.

Yes, not what you're passionate about because that's not going to be the longevity winner. My brain was immediately like, okay, Lindsay, like this is the big leagues. Like we need like a 6, 12, 18 month plan in case because I didn't know how bad it was. Welcome back to the Boss Babe podcast. You have me, Natalie Ellis, and we are joined by Lindsay. Welcome. Hello. I'm excited. Love to talk. I feel like we have so many life updates we can cover. Oh my goodness. I know.

I've been in it recently. You have been. Yeah, I, man, it has been a couple weeks and I feel like I'm in it with you because I'm so like, are you okay? It's been, it's definitely been a lot. For those of you that don't know, I'll just go through some like full on life updates. It's just been, I felt like I was feeling great and

And we went to California, I was keynoting and my grandparents for the first time got to watch me keynote which was incredible. And it was a really busy week leading up to that. We had funnel reviews with Freedom Fast Track and then I was creating my keynote which I absolutely loved. It's the replays in the society. It was all around the nervous system and how to increase your window of tolerance.

to be able to bring in more wealth, more freedom, all the things that you're looking for that you might be subconsciously sabotaging yourself with. It's 90 minutes. I'm going to say it's one of my favorite keynotes that I've ever, ever done. But any of you that are in the society, it's in there. You can access it right away. We put all of my keynotes actually inside the society as a bonus for you all. So it's one of my favorites.

delivered that and then we had a great weekend we went to Disneyland and then my grandma had a really bad accident we are very very lucky that she's still with us it was really not great but with that she really broke her hip pelvis leg the whole thing and had emergency surgery and I

I am very, very glad that I have a flexible business, cleared my entire calendar and was able to just be really present with her. We extended our trip in California. And then it was just like, you know, and it's one thing after the other. So I really wanted to get back for the CEO Mama retreat. I know the women would have understood had I not made it, but I knew for myself, like I really, really wanted to be there. I love it so much.

And so we got to the airport, we were delayed four hours, which already was not great. We have a toddler and my grandma was still recovering from surgery just a few days prior. We get back really late and then the next morning get woken up early because one of my grandparents opens the back door. The sheriff turns up at the house because it sets the whole alarm off.

Then we go into retreat for a couple days, which actually was really soul-filling. It was just like, you know, you don't get a chance to... I'm a suitcase unpacker. I like to have my things unpacked. I like to... Stephen had left one of my bags at the airport because he was doing bags. I was on people duty, like we were dividing and conquering. So he's driving to the airport at midnight on Wednesday because I'm like, I don't have any clothes. I don't have any makeup. Like, I have a retreat that I have to be up for in a few hours. So it was just a lot. And what I realized coming off of that...

Like, the chaos week was that I just felt really depleted. And I also have noticed since I stopped breastfeeding, stopped breastfeeding two months ago, my two periods that I've had since then have been really intense. And I think it's just my hormones leveling out. But I've just felt really, really depleted. So this last couple of weeks, I've just had to be super intentional. One about letting myself be depleted. Like, sometimes I think it can be really easy to play the martyr. And I found myself doing that. Like, it's okay. Like...

Like, you know, I'm so glad everyone's okay. But it's also really important to acknowledge, hey, this is actually a lot. And when you completely go out of the office and clear your calendar for a whole week, things catch up with you, you know? There's like, people want certain things and there's more questions coming. There's just like a lot to deal with and catch up with. So it's just been one of those times where I'm just really giving myself grace and compassion to be in it and be depleted and taking time to actually...

you know, look after myself, make sure that I can get my energy back. Cause I really don't love bypassing and just saying like, you know, everything's fine. I can take care of everyone and everything. Like I think that does a disservice more in the long run. So I'm just trying to be really graceful, but I wouldn't say it's like an overnight. I get a good night's sleep and I'm back to normal. Like it's just been a bit a lot. Yeah. Well, no. And I mean, I remember you texted me as it was happening and my brain immediately, it was like,

Not in a negative way. My brain was immediately like okay Lindsay like this is the big leagues like we need like a 6 12 18 month plan in case because I didn't know how bad it was, you know, and I didn't know if you guys could leave California or when you'd be back and and Knowing how close you are to her to your grandmother. I was like, okay I want I want to make it so that Natalie has like every choice in this situation so that she feels like if she doesn't can't come back and

for weeks or months, like needs to live in California, we got it, you know? And I, it was interesting for me on, and then I also was, you as like a friend and someone I care about, I was like, oh my God, it's happening late at night. And there's so much uncertainty and like, you know, just all the nervous system and emotions of seeing someone who you love, who's in a vulnerable state of life already, you know, who's older and

And I think this mortality conversation comes up, you know, where there's like, that's heavy just to sit in the hospital with someone who is your parent or your grandparent. And I think, you know, we don't love to talk about grief or what comes after, you know, all of this midlife stuff that of the stage of life we're in. It's like,

Um, but it's a sobering reminder that like, yeah, you might have to step out of your business because someone that you love, um, needs you and it could be for months, you know? And so I went through this whole exercise. I stayed up till like two in the morning until you told me it was okay that, you know, everything was okay. And, um,

And I was texting with Karen from our team, you know, and I was like, I want to approach this in the calmest way possible. And I want all chaos to go through me so that she doesn't feel any chaos. And so just even the proxy of when someone else is having something happen in their life and you can help support their nervous system, even over a distance or in ways that they wouldn't necessarily know or feel immediately.

Um, it was just such a reminder of me for it for me of that. Um, and that I get to do that, you know, and I was like, this is, I know how to handle this, like this, I have the nervous system resilience to handle this so that she can be present and not worry. And then, yeah, the retreat, I mean, I love these retreats and that was the biggest thing I was like, I want to make it okay that she's may not be here, but also like, this is such a magical room and, and I knew you needed it, you know? So when it all worked out for you to get home and, um,

And I was already in Austin. So I was like, I got it. But also like for you to be here is going to be so amazing. And I, the women were so excited to see you. And, and I think, um, you know, we're going to have a bigger conversation about it, but

I think sometimes processing those type of things doesn't happen right away, right? It's like you've got to be the strong one. You've got to get it all taken care of and everybody's okay. And then you jump right back into life because everybody's okay. So you're just like, let's just get right back into life. And it may come up months later or, you know, you may feel it as this kind of like dull burnout feeling. And I think, you know, you and I are in very candid conversations about like, how are we managing for that too? Because sometimes

This felt like this felt like kind of the proverbial like slap in the face from the universe of something that we've already been talking about, which is this burnout conversation and what you know what is enough and how do we you know if that was the last time you had seen your grandmother would you feel like you had had enough time with her. Yeah.

And I think those are, those are like the real important meaty conversations that I think have to factor into how we run our businesses and how we, how we set that like set point of revenue that we want or money that we want to come in where we're

you know, we've talked about this, but that quote just, I cannot shake the quote from that podcast we listened to where he said, it's so easy to measure the gain and it is so hard to measure the loss until it's too late until you have something happen where you're like, Oh, I lost something. And I didn't realize how much I was losing until it was too late. And that has just really stuck with me through the whole last couple of weeks of all of this unfolding. Um, and it's such an alive conversation for you and I, and just personally, and then also in the business on, um,

Yeah, it's really easy for us to measure the gain like we can always go make more money like really freaking good at that What are we losing? What is it costing us when we're when we're making money? Anytime we're making money. It's coming at a cost in some way, right? And so how are we measuring that and then and then of course like the fun conversations of like actually like let's talk nitty-gritty P&L like how do we actually make money because I think that

There's the like existential question of it and then there's like how do, what does a real P&L look like to make money? And I think so sometimes people are so focused on top line they're not realizing they could make a lot less money if they manage their P&L better. And that was something that came up at CEO Mama this week that I was like, ooh,

this like reinvigorates my operational brain to go take another look at our p l because like where could we save cost and and have to make less money you know um and we we don't often talk a lot about that

Yeah. Oh my God. Okay. I've made a note. We get to come back and have a full conversation about that. There's so many takeaways I have from that retreat too, that I want to debrief on. I love those retreats so much. They feel like a retreat for me too. Like I absolutely love it. So how have the last few weeks been for you too? Cause I know you've just also had so much going on. Yeah. Like, is there something going on? I mean, yeah, I just, I feel like my, my, my other business that, you know, I'm not day to day in, but, um,

I have an operator in that business and it's encountered a bunch of just systems issues, you know, and it just felt like since the eclipse, it's like I felt this heavy energy and not it didn't feel negative. It just felt like there was like a lot in motion, a lot of clearing and a lot of like opportunity. But you would have to really make some hard choices. And and I feel like that's all of that is unfolding right in front of me where it's like.

you know, what do I want to keep doing? And like, um, how much of my energy do I want to put into the things that are already on my plate versus taking things off my plate or adding things on? And I'm just in this big conversation in my life right now of like, I said it this week at retreat where, um,

I've spent so much time over the last few years focused on motherhood and focused on work, you know, and like really trying to harmonize those two things. And that's where Motherload came from. And that's where you and I connected and everybody knows the story. And I feel like what's been neglected over the last two years, a few years is like, what's just for Lindsay, you know, like outside of motherhood, outside of work, what does just Lindsay get, you know? And

I have been so negligent on my own wellbeing. And I like, I'm almost embarrassed to admit that because I teach all this stuff, but it is so hard for me to be consistent in a practice when I'm pulled in so many directions and I'm a generator. And, you know, I've learned a lot about this of like, do one thing well and like stick to the things that really light you up. You, I have so much energy. I feel like I can do a lot of things, but then I do too many things and I don't take care of myself. And I, and that is where I've gotten to where it's like,

I feel like I have too much on my plate. And even though I don't, it's not all work stuff. It's like, it's energetic stuff. And then the thing that inevitably falls off is my alone time or my personal nervous system or inner world practices, or even just like time with friends is something I've been exploring lately where I'm like, I hang out with my family, like my, like our team, my partner, my two kids and my work friends.

And that's it. Like, I don't really see my friends consistently. I don't have, um, I don't like go to workout classes or I don't go to the yoga studio or anything like that. Like I used to do so consistently and I'm realizing like my brain really needs that context switch to go completely out of work or completely out of motherhood to feel like I'm doing something for myself. And so that's, um,

it's my summer accountability program with myself is just to figure out like, what does it look like to really focus on that layer? That's just Lindsay. Um, and, and of course still do really well in work and, and Latin motherhood. Um, but there's a lot of open loops for me there. Cause I, I, I haven't like attended to just Lindsay since before I had kids. And I am in this little bit of like a reawakening of who I am and what's important to me. And, um,

what my boundaries are and like all my beliefs about myself and all this stuff. And, um, and I'm finding, I'm coming across things in my identity where I'm like, Oh, interesting. You know, like I, I haven't seen this version of myself or this is a new thing, um, in a long time. So, so yeah, it's, I, I feel like it's good timing for summer. Cause I just need longer days. I need

time in the mornings when the sun is up, but the kids aren't awake yet to just be with myself. Like I need to go outside and be in the sun. Like I, I don't know. I don't have the answers, but that's, it feels heavy. Like it just feels like there's a lot of clearing. Um, and in the clearing, I get to choose what I add back in really, really carefully. Um, and you know, to work, like I talked with you about this. It's like, this is the first time in my life where I'm

I've, I like, I love this job. Like I love working with you and with Boss Babe and everything we do together. And in comparison, like I'm usually such a squirrel. I'm like, eh, the one thing I'm doing is like, okay, but I have seven other ideas and I'm going to go try them all because I haven't found the thing. And this is the first time in my life where I feel like I've found the thing and now everything else kind of pales in comparison. And I'm like, I just want to be done. Um,

And so I'm having to kind of manage the other side of being such a serial entrepreneur where I'm like, actually, now I kind of want to like not do any of these things anymore and just focus here inside of Boss Babe. And that's not easy to do. So like hear this warning listener, like once you start multiple things, I know having multiple things can sound glamorous or it gives you a plan B or all these things like,

The problem is, and we talked about this last week, it's like the problem is then you aren't the lion anymore. Like now you're the cow that just like is working all the time. And when the big things come along or when you have the opportunity to go deeper into one thing that's calling to you, now you've got all this other stuff you have to unload in order to have the capacity. And that's where I feel like I'm at is like I need to unload a lot of stuff right now to have the capacity to do what I really want to do. And that unloading phase feels...

Yeah, I get that. It's really hard because all of that stuff can be really exciting and then you add all the complexity and it's really challenging. Like I remember...

even way back when like when I first met Stephen like I didn't feel like I knew what my purpose was and by the way I still think that's bullshit but I didn't really know what my purpose was and like I would look at Stephen and he had a niche his niche was gaming and he like fully was just like I'm all in I do one thing I do it really really well in this one space and I

And I remember constantly comparing myself to him being like, I wish I had one thing. I wish I knew what my purpose and my passion was. Like, I remember that conversation so big. I wish I knew what my passion was. His is gaming, mine's so wide. It's entrepreneurship generally. And I think all of that's such bullshit. And it's really, you know, for him, he picked it and he had a chance to be pulled in so many different directions and didn't want to.

And that was so interesting because I battled with that. I'm a battled strong word, but with that for a long time, looking at him feeling like he's got all, he's got, he's so dialed. He's so focused. It must be so much easier. And what I didn't realize for me was it was a choice, but that was so challenging. And I think a lot of people still feel like that. Like I need to find my thing. I need to find my passion. And like, like you're saying, it changes a lot and it's going to continuously evolve. But then when you find the thing that you really like,

making the choice do I want to go all in with this does it feel like it would be fulfilling is powerful yeah it reminds me Scott Galloway says this a lot and I've been listening to him on a few podcasts recently but he said we've been told this myth about passion and he's like I mean these are his words not mine but he says like rich people will tell you to follow your passion

Smart people tell you to follow your talent because talent is really where you will find passion and because talent can turn into mastery and mastery is usually what's required to feel passionate about something because I think there's also this Misnomer around passion that like you can really love to do something but you don't want to monetize it, you know and and I

And I think that's something I've definitely fallen into the trap of in my past too, of like, oh, I love to do like fucking yoga studio. God haunts me to this day. Um, and it's like, I loved yoga and I learned to teach yoga and I went to yoga every day for many, many years. I did yoga since I was like 13 years old. I found it at the, I went to a class at the gym and I just like stumbled upon it and was hooked. And, um,

before it was trendy. And then like, oh, good on you, Lindsay, like turn it into a business and then grow to hate it and never have walked into a yoga studio literally since mine closed because I attached work and struggle to my passion, right? And so I do think there's something to be said around this idea of like identifying that the passion is a little bit of a misnomer and can be a myth that we believe around. You have to find your passion in order to

to build a business or to love your work it's like or identify something you're talented at which i would argue you are immensely talented at everything we do in our business find something you're talented at develop mastery in it so practice it which is what that means and i'm big big big on practice

till you develop mastery in it and then leverage your mastery to be really fucking good at it. And then that in mastery is where you find community. It's where you find opportunity. It's where you find the next edge. Most people don't ever get to mastery. They, they piddle around and trying to find their passion and they do multiple things kind of, kind of well mediocre and they never get that sensation of mastery. They don't practice for long enough before they give up on something.

And so you get left in this inevitable, like unending cycle of, oh, it's just not my passion. I haven't found my passion. And I totally identify with that. And like, I feel like I was in that loop most of my 20s and into my mid 30s. And so talent is one of these things. It's like, okay, start a business around your talent or leverage what you are naturally talented at. Yes. I want to highlight, exclamation, underline talent.

that start a business in what you're talented in full freaking stop yes yes not what you're passionate about because that's not going to be the longevity winner no and i know i hear that quote too and i feel like it's so freaking true

it's very easy to say to someone follow your passion it sounds sexy it sounds like oh I want to follow my passion that sounds like something I should do but in reality that's not going to get you what you want probably what are you good at what are people willing to pay you for where can you add value like a lot of times when people are thinking about what kind of businesses they should start it's a lot about like what am I interested in whereas the question I think you should be asking is where can I really add value

where can I add value in people in a way that people are willing to pay me well for so I love that and that kind of leads on to this conversation so in the retreat I think it's so interesting because there's always the same themes which I was just telling Stephen that we were up till God way after midnight debriefing on Friday night after the retreat like I was just telling him in bed like just all the things I'm excited about and how much I love it and one thing I was saying to him

We would do it with run out. What did we say? Eighth CEO Mama retreat now? I think this was our seventh or eighth. Yeah. Seventh or eighth. And what's been really interesting, especially because we've now had three cohorts through CEO Mama, feels like we're really understanding people on that deep level. And I think that's easy because we are them. Like we're the same. Yeah.

But it having those same themes recurring in every cohort and every retreat has been really, really interesting. And one of them that came up in this retreat has also came up on other calls with other groups too. So it tells me like, this is a theme that people are talking about, but it was all around how

The question was asked and what I felt like this was was a profitability question. The question was kind of asked from a revenue perspective. I thought, yeah, revenue and operations. I felt like it was a profitability question. And I thought when you mentioned that, actually, it would be really good to go in and talk about it because we've already shared on the podcast this year.

we've doubled our like if we're looking quarter on quarter we have 2x our revenue but we have 6x our profit I really want people to hear that because revenue is important but if you are running a lifestyle business and what I mean by that is you're not raising you know VC you're not trying to exit this thing you're running a lifestyle business you're running a business that fuels the lifestyle you want to live the number that you should focus on is profitability and one thing that

I shared the retreat that seemed to really land with people was I used to think in terms of revenue numbers and it was only when I bought the business and decided to do things differently I completely changed my approach like instead of going top down which was like revenue numbers and then down I started going bottoms up and it was profit profit numbers and then up and the way that I started thinking about this was how much take home do I personally want to take home every single year

And then based on that, based on past profit margins or profit margins that we know to be standard in the industry, how much money do I need to make? What does the revenue number need to be? And then that number in the middle tells me how much money I have to invest in talent, in softwares, in ads, all of that stuff.

but changing the way that I do that calculation has been an absolute game changer because I know in the past I would be working so much more to bring in more revenue, more revenue. I mean, in one year we forexed revenue and that was huge, huge. And I wasn't taking home any more money and I was working, I mean, at least four times as much, probably more.

And now that I, once I stopped, I didn't think about this at the time, to be quite honest with you, it was a bit of a magic carpet ride. Like there wasn't time to stop and think. It was all so exciting and it was happening so fast. But stopping to think about it when I stepped away from the business, it was, wait, why did I make that decision? How did I not see at the time this was not what I wanted?

Whereas now I feel like we're really intentional about setting those numbers first and moving from there. So that's been absolutely huge. And really, one thing we also shared at the retreat, which I think we should just be honest about and share here, is we set revenue numbers based on that for this year.

We are way ahead where we want to be. And there was a conversation that we had, which was like, we can keep pushing at this level and we are going to far, far exceed our revenue numbers. Do we want to do that? Or actually, do we want to pump the brakes?

clean up the back end of the company, just make things even simpler and you're calling it Summer of Excellence and you know go down to four days a week and chill a little bit and then come back in the fall when we've got another launch and do we want to do that? Do we want to make more money or do we want to step back and chill? And we decided we all want to step back and chill and we're going to bring that out across the whole company and we'll still hit the revenue goal that we projected

And I think that's really important because that's what enough is to us was that revenue number. And that's what felt really, really good. And just because you can make more doesn't mean you should. And it comes back to that quote you said, what was the one about measuring the gain? Oh, yeah. So it's so easy to measure the gain. It's so hard to measure the loss until it's too late.

Right. So that's it. Like we could measure the gain, right? We could measure the gain we would be making in money, but what's the loss? What's the knock-on effect of would team go into burnout? What, like, what are the, all the things that might happen? And we were like, actually for our peace of mind and our time, like, no, we don't want to do that. Yeah. I think it's such an important nuanced conversation too. Cause at that enough set point,

is not what most people talk about, right? And this is a huge conversation for you and I. And before I say that, the thing you said around the take-home pay and like really understanding take-home pay, like let's put a pen in that and come back when we talk about P&L and profitability because so many people miscalculate that because they're not calculating taxes and like net, net, net money to them. It's really important if you're going to have this conversation about what is enough, you really understand that

how the money comes to you directly as the owner of the business and then you have to reverse engineer to the revenue the business has to generate. And like even some of the seven figure CEO mamas, you know, like they haven't ever done that math in their business. And so it's not just this is a conversation for everyone at every level of business is to really know your business that intimately. But the thing around, you know, the conversations we've been having and what I think we want to be so transparent about is

Even the way we started this year, going into the beginning into Q1, the goal that we had on our financials, like you and I, we manage our financials. We're in there all the time, was millions of dollars higher than it currently is.

very transparently, right? Like we cut things out of our year already and it's only Q2 because we got to a point where we were like, we absolutely could do these things. But when we look at how the year is unfolding, we look at what's going on in our personal lives and everybody's goals, we don't want to do these things anymore. And not only do we not want to do them, we don't need to do them in order to be able to cover payroll,

you know, good bonuses, good take home for you, like, and money left in the business to invest in new things that we want to do. Plus all of our operating costs fully covered. You know, we run a really lean business, but...

You know, and so it was kind of a sobering, not sobering, but like even what's the word I'm looking for, for me coming in. And I think for you, because it was like a whole new business for you, where we sat and we were like, why would we aim for this higher, much higher number when we could aim a lot lower and still have profit left over in the business after paying everyone a super great salary and like having an easier time of it, you know? And I think...

God, it's edgy to go, what if we made the easier choice, you know, and what if we made less money because it feels better to us, but, and it's still super profitable. And I think that comes from doing those calculations we're talking about and going, okay, what, like, what do we absolutely want to cover so that everyone on our team feels great and we pay for everything we want and we have money left over as a buffer and we can pay our taxes and all the things. Okay. That's the amount that we have to make.

Now, what do we, in leftover money to pay out all that stuff, what do we have to do in revenue to get there? And when we did that, Matthew and I were like, oh, yeah.

that's way less than we thought it was. Right. And so I just like, I love these conversations because I think sometimes people just assume that if you have a business that can generate a ton of money, you should make your business generate a ton of money. And we definitely have a business that can generate. I mean, it still does. Yeah. Like, but like way more than we're currently planning. If we wanted to go all out for everybody on our team, all out for the whole year, we could do a much higher revenue number, but like,

why? And I think this is the philosophical conversation that I don't even have the answer to, but I'm so, I feel edgy. Like I'm so conditioned to like, we're leaving money on the table and I feel that scarcity come up occasionally. But it's just not, it's not the model we want to set and it's not the environment we want our team to work in. And so we're really disciplined about asking those hard questions. Yeah. And it's,

For me, you know, I like, I really believe in women making shit tons of money and being really abundant. And I don't think, like, we definitely haven't sacrificed that. We're still making very high millions in the business and doing it differently because we also have set up the systems. And I know for some people listening,

They might be thinking, well, that's great for you to be saying you're choosing to make less. Like I can't even choose to make the bare minimum. And I think that's also, I would still say go at it with the same perspective. What is it that you want to make? If you come, like, even if you're starting this as like a baby entrepreneur and you're like, I can barely pay my bills right now. I'm really struggling. I would still recommend the same thing. I would still recommend what is the take home that you want to make?

and where can you add value and what would it look like to make that and what often happens is people do this math and they they figure this out but then sabotage subconsciously and i talk a lot about this in the keynote if any of you want to go much to replay but people sabotage subconsciously maybe because their window of tolerance and that is is way lower than where they're brushing up against um

Or, you know, they let, and I still think shiny object syndrome, I still think that's a subconscious sabotage. I don't think it's actually the shiny object you're being distracted by. I think that's your nervous system trying to keep you safe. But it's a whole different conversation. But a lot of people will get to that number and either then start investing in loads of stuff so that their take-home reduces again and they're back on that hamster wheel of not earning much or enough.

Or they forget that they're actually earning what they said they wanted to. And they're still pushing and exhausting themselves for more and more without being really intentional about it. And I think that's really important. It's like, I'm not saying don't be ambitious. I think you should be unapologetically ambitious in all the ways. But do it intentionally. Know what it is that you want and go after that. And know what it is that you don't want. And just have awareness around that. I think that is really, really important. Yeah.

Intentionally ambitious. I love that. The shiny object thing I think is so interesting. Like thinking of shiny object syndrome as self-sabotage is a mirror for me, right? Like how many times in my life have I, like I said in the beginning, like opened up another thing or chased something or like said yes to something that

It was in fact a shiny object and it was the way of kind of sabotaging to an extent or or keeping me at my set point. And I think that's like the mindset thing that we're getting at is so many of us have this like set point that we've, you know, developed or we've taken on as adults where it's like.

I think I'm worth this much money, you know, existentially. I don't think I'm worth a seven figure amount of money. I think I'm worth a hundred thousand or I'm worth a certain amount. And it's not like anybody ever told you that or that that's what you would say out loud, but there's some, you know, inner world set point that you have acclimated to. And anytime you get close to exceeding it, something in the universe comes in and goes, you're exceeding your set point. You know, it's the window of tolerance question. And, and I think it is,

the shiny object is so interesting to think about it as not like, oh, I'm multi-talented or I have multi-passions. It's like, or I just don't have the tolerance to stick with one thing. And I think that's an edgy conversation for a lot of us. And yeah, it comes up in CEO Mama and we've had so many conversations where you have a person who's making $1 million in their business and they're taking home a 10% profit margin and it's 100K that they take home. And then you have people making 5 million in their business

at a 12% profit margin or a 10% profit margin and they're taking home 400,000 in their business. And it's like, okay, so similar in those businesses, like your $1 million business in theory could scale up

Or we've seen people making a million dollars taking home 80% of the profit. Right. But sometimes it's the opposite where you meet the person who at 400K or at 4 million is only making 400K net profit. And the person making a million is making 800K net profit. And you're like, okay, do you know how much harder it is to build a $4 million business than a $1 million business? And then to take home double like

The math, man. And so there's just, there's so many arguments out there for doing this math, the real math of this and for doing the inner work of going, why am I adding complexity? Why am I going to shiny objects? What's going on with my inner set point that once I hit my, my set, my number that I need that I can,

I either continue to strive to go past it or I sabotage myself back down. Yeah, there's a huge conversation to be had around the striving to go past it or sabotaging to go back down. And I think the striving to go past it is great if you're intentional and you know why you're doing it. And it's not just to fill this void or, you know, you think you have to, you think you'll be happier if you think you're able to step back away from your business sooner. There's lots of things around that.

Or that's sabotaging to go back down. But it's so interesting because we've seen people that have million dollar business. They've scaled it to a million dollars and are taking majority of that money home. And are making way, way, way more money than a lot of people we know that have high seven figure or eight figure businesses. And I always find that really interesting because if you're building a business that you want to exit or...

you know, you're doing it for a certain valuation, then that latter case may make sense. It may make sense to scale your business up to a certain point and take home less because you want that for some reason. But for a lot of entrepreneurs who get into business, they do it for a sense of freedom. They do it for a sense of fulfillment. And

they hit that and it would they might look back and say why didn't i just stick at that mark where you know i had one employee i had no complexity i'd built my sales engine and things were going well why couldn't i have stuck there because instead of having an abundant life and business in both time and finances as well as peace of mind now i'm on this hamster wheel where i can't even keep up with my expenses

And there's just a lot to be said about that. And for me, you know, I wanted to strive past that $1 million mark. I wanted to strive past that $5 million mark. And that's okay. Sometimes I was doing it for the right reasons. Sometimes I wasn't.

Now I know. Now I feel like I am doing it for the right reasons. And I still, I love to push. I love to strive. I am ambitious, but I always want to weigh up the cost. And I want to do it in a way that's intentional, not just because I feel like I should be chasing these arbitrary goals because it's going to get me some form of respect or it's going to get me invited into certain rooms or whatever it is, whatever the reason has been many. I want to be intentional about it. And I think that part's just really important. Yeah. It's interesting as you're talking because I'm like,

thinking of all the times I've, I've thought about like a certain amount of money, you know, and, and what that money means to me. And I, I don't really remember feeling like that amount of money would, it's like dissociated from how my life is day to day. You know, it's like, yeah, if I, I guess if I won Powerball and I had $300 million, like I would take a massive, you know, massive 180 degree step in life maybe, you know, but like,

growing your business incrementally or hitting an arbitrary number, it's like, do we ever take the time to go

what is the real amount of money that leaves me with and what would I be doing differently in my life if I had that much money versus what's coming in today. And I think that's, I like operating on that level of understanding and like relationship with money, you know, where you're like, I am calling in or I'm working to build a business that makes this much money because I need to, with this much profit margin, because after taxes and expenses and everything, I'm going to take this much home and having this much at home

means I pay for X, Y, and Z and I live the life I want to be living. And it's not, I guess maybe it's private jets and that can for some people, but I think for most of us, it's like, I would like to just cover my bills and maybe help my family and have my kids have what they need and drive a car that I like, you know, it's like, it's not this insane amount of money. Um, and I, and I know that I listening to you talk, I'm like, man, there's been days where I'm like, I need, I need to have

you know, 200K a month. I need to be having, I need to be building like these big, big businesses to be bringing in. So I have hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. And I'm like, I don't, I don't know what I would spend that on. You know, my lifestyle doesn't cost that much. And so, and I don't really, I don't really envision a lifestyle for myself that does cost that much. And so it's like, okay,

Not that I would say no to that money universe. I'll take it. I'll invest it. But like, you know what I'm saying is, is I think we get, we go down these paths of like, oh, I need to have so much money to live my dream lifestyle when really like we're not that far away from living our dream lifestyles for, for the most part. Um, I just think it's such a important conversation to have with yourself to go like, what do I really, what do I really want? What do I really need? Like how much really is enough?

And just for me, like not what anybody else thinks of me, not what anybody else wants for me, like just for me, what's enough. And I think that, I mean, I think that's an important thing for all of us to do regularly. And I, I do it. And mine has changed over the years dramatically to a point now where I'm like, I have enough for the most part, you know, like, and, and so I don't feel like,

I don't relate to those big arbitrary numbers the way I used to. Yeah, it's interesting. We, this came up with a retreat and I just want to read the story of the Mexican fishermen again, because I always think it's a really important one. So I'll read the story.

an american investment banker was at the pier of this small coastal mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna the american complimented the mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them

the fisherman replied only a little while the american then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish the fisherman said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs and then the american asked but what do you do with the rest of your time

the fisherman said i sleep late fish a little play with my children take siestas with my wife maria stroll into the village each evening where i sip wine and play guitar with my friends i have a full and busy life the american scoffed i'm a harvard m b a and i could help you you should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats and eventually you'd have a fleet of fishing boats

Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You'd then need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then probably LA, eventually New York City, where you could run your own expanding enterprise.

The fisherman asked, but how long will all this take? And the American said, probably 15, 20 years. And he said, but what then? The American laughed and said, that's the best part. When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You'd make millions. And the fisherman said, millions? Then what? The American said,

well then you'd retire you could move to a small coastal fishing village where you'd sleep late fish a little play with your kids take siestas with your wife stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play guitar with your friends

And it's so powerful to remind us so much that we want, we already have, but we overlook in the striving for more. I do want to share a little perspective on this because I don't believe things are as black and white as the story makes them seem. Because I will say, super candidly, you know, when my grandma had that accident...

being in the hospital knowing she's not from here and we didn't know what kind of travel insurance she had and I didn't have a single worry in my mind about paying an astronomically large health bill

and that to me was the biggest luxury i wouldn't have had to go into debt it wouldn't have changed me financially and that for me was this big aha that yes enough is enough and abundance is great so how do we

do both how do we continue to live our lives and enjoy our lives that we currently have without constantly striving for more but still putting ourselves in positions that allow us to save and allow us to be financially strong because I think there's a lot to be said for both it's a big reason that I'm a big proponent of building sales engines and things in your business that you can have that predictability because I don't think that doing what you love every single day but having an empty bank account and having that kind of financial stress is

contributes to peace of mind what I think contributes to peace of mind is both it's you know doing what you love it's having the time to spend it you know in good health with the people that you love or how you want to spend it and having financial stability and security so for me it's very nuanced and I think it's an important conversation to have that we can do both

Yeah. I wrote down as you were talking, the like enough is enough and I want wild abundance, you know, like I want, I want to be able to cover a medical bill. I want to be able to do these additional things that feel like I'm living my life. And, and if I was posed with this question of like,

you know, if it were the end of my life or the end of someone I care about's life, have we, have I had enough with them? And, and so I think that, yeah, it's, it's edgy and it's that like, it is a nuanced conversation. And I think if you follow this path that we're talking about, like,

Identify what you're good at, your talent, not necessarily passion, because we don't want a muddy passion with business. Like monetizing your hobbies. It's like the number one takeaway I've had from every therapist I've ever had in my whole life. It's like, Lindsay, don't monetize your hobbies. It doesn't end well.

So, but like you're very talented, go make money with your talent. So talent down the path of practice to mastery, getting really, really good at something to the point where someone will pay you for what you have mastered, that leads to abundance. And then with that abundance, I think the unsexy part of that, that you and I are hinting around is like, you also have to be like really good at understanding how to manage money in a business because we also see that happen too, where someone goes from,

you know, a small amount of revenue to a much, a very big leap. And all of a sudden they have people coming out of the woodwork in their business or external to their business with costs, you know, like here's increased costs because now we're making more money. These things should cost more. And, and we are, you and I push back on that a lot with people we mentor in our programs around just cause you're making a lot more money in your business doesn't mean your costs should go up. And, and

If and we will challenge you on especially on like a freedom based business that's a lifestyle business like we've described. If you take a big leap up in revenue,

I will challenge you that your P&L should not change very much. Like your cost should not change a whole lot other than potentially if you put paid ads on something or you had a cost to acquire customer. Or like a heavy delivery. A heavy delivery, yeah. But like, you know, I think we fall into this trap of like it should be more expensive to operate a higher revenue business and that's just not always true. And so I think...

there's the inner work of like identifying talent, putting practice into it, understanding mastery, selling your mastery and, and tapping into abundance. And then once you have abundance of any level, now comes the hard part of understanding and being in relationship with money and managing money well. And that I think is something that we don't talk a whole lot about, but like you and I do exceptionally well. And we love a good money management. Yeah. I mean, I freaking love it. Cause I'm like, I don't know, like,

Every month we look at everything and like what could we, not that we're just relentlessly cutting costs because that's not abundant thinking either, but we ask hard questions and it's like do we need this? Is this the right place to be allocating? Do we need this level of budget for this? And I think that goes back to what you said at the beginning of like we 2x revenue in Q1 from the previous years, but we 6x profit because we

because you can make twice as amount of revenue, but you can spend a lot less. That's how you get a higher profit margin. So anyway, those are my two contributions. Like go down the talent mastery path from an inner world standpoint. Like you're going to be a lot more satisfied if that's your path into business. And then once you get into business and you make money,

Learn about money learn how to manage money and be really honest with yourself about money I have made that mistake for years before I joined boss babe is like make more money spend more money Make more money spend more money and then you're still on the hamster wheel forever. Yeah, I

Oh, I love that. I think we can end that here. I think this is inspired that I want to have more financial conversations on the podcast. So if you're listening and you feel interested in that, let us know. And ideally, if you could leave us a review and let us know that, it would mean the world because reviews really, really help us in, I don't know, all the ranking stuff, which would be really nice because we're trying our best to invest more in the podcast. So a review would be lovely.

Yes. Tag us, share it, tag us, especially if you have questions or ideas for money conversations. We love this stuff and we really live this day to day. This is how we manage the business. And so we're, we're in it real time. Yeah. Just as you guys are.

It's not always sexy. Like right now we're both feeling it. It's been a really intense month and you know, business and life isn't always perfect. And I certainly don't ever want us to feel like we have to put on that facade to make people feel like we're good at what we do. Like that's bullshit. Not everything's perfect all the time. And if it is, there's a problem there. So yeah, that's just how we're doing right now. Yes. Okay. We'll see you guys next week. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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