It's All About Who You Know, with Lindsay Roselle & R.T. Custer

Now you're getting to the nitty gritty of like, okay, my $2 million company that has 10% profit margin, I want to make a $3 million company with 20% profit margin. That's a much larger ship that you've got to steer around the icebergs. And it takes a lot longer to turn those kind of things than, hey, I've got me and my one employee and we're doing 150,000 and it feels pretty good. But if we could just X, Y and Z, we'd get to 300,000 and it would be fricking bomb that can get done in six months, you know, and so that is such a unique thing in the world of masterminds. And I feel like I can speak with authority here because I've been in so many and I've run so many that there's very few structured as actionably as Fast Foundations is with that, with that level of sweet spot of like, we're going to take you from something that's already working but needs some fundamentals baked in to something that's like humming along and can really sustain you and is a really a real true business.

What is keeping you from growing your business to the next level? I'm Jess Burgio, one of the hosts here for Fast Foundations, the podcast. Between the three of us, my co host Jim RT and I have grown several businesses scaling beyond seven figures. And you know what? Not a single one of those businesses came with a blueprint. For years, we poured time and resources into our businesses from, from salons, tech companies and product based businesses, navigating success and failures on our own. For all of us though, it began to change in 2019 when we found a community of like minded entrepreneurs and industry leaders to mentor us. That community was Fast Foundations. Just like the mastermind, we're bringing on experts and having discussions to give you tips to not only improve the foundational skill sets you need, but to also fast track your growth. We'll dive into the core pillars of what will make your business succeed. Whether you have a brand new idea that you're looking to turn into a business or you're already a successful entrepreneur looking to scale, this community is here to take you to the next level. Let's dive in.

Welcome to the Fast Foundations podcast. This is RT Custer coming to you with a special in person interview. Mm. We'll explain why with Lindsey Roselle, a former Fast Foundations or I guess Fast Foundations alumni, Lindsey Roselle. And today we're talking about a lot of things we're going to talk about the, the first of all, the fact that you're the reason we're all here. You're the reason that Fast Foundations still exist. You're the reason that Fast Foundations was purchased by Carter and Custer Agency and the Harder's are now our advisors. And you are one of the reasons that I and we first got in the room of Fast Foundation's mastermind.

Yeah.

So welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. I love this.

Super fun. So the reason we're sitting next to each other in a home environment in your podcast studio.

My podcast studio, yeah.

Is because if you didn't know this, Lindsey Roselle is also my partner, baby mama, mother of our two beautiful kids, Wes and Sawyer. And we actually originally joined Fast Foundations together in, in 2019, which we were talking about at breakfast this morning. Feels like forever ago. That's at least a decade ago.

It's like bc, you know, before COVID So it's literally a different era.

It is. It was pre God, it was so many. Life was just so much simpler.

Well, yeah, that was the back in the day where you're like, what's your 2020 vision? And the whole reason that Fast Foundations was so appealing to us in mid-2019 when we joined was because we were coming up on 2020 and we, we, like many others had had this.

It was going to be my reception.

That like 2020 is going to be this big year for sure. And then, you know, obviously, I think.

Too many people called it. Too many people said, like, this is going to be my year, you know, and then they all just. Yeah, we all just got canceled. So.

Right.

Anyway, back to the point of the podcast.

Yes.

Let's document just for everyone, a little bit of this story. And you know, Jim and Jess and I talked about a little bit of the story about, you know, buying Fast Foundations from the Harders. And, and I'm going to interview the Harders and talk about that kind of stuff as well. But let's talk. Let's go back to like, why you and we. Because we, we joined Fast Foundations together as a couple.

Yep.

So why we joined? So I think it starts with me DMing Lewis Howes on Instagram.

Yep.

And I don't, I don't know if you remember that night, but I, I had been.

No, I remember.

Oh, I think I had to. I had to have like, I was just like overthinking it. I was just like, what do I see?

You definitely were over. I remember you overthinking it. And, and then you Were like, he's probably not even going to read this, so I'm just going to send it.

Yeah.

And then you sent it. And he like, immediately, like, think like.

Within a couple hours of whiskey. It was back when. When we were.

Well, I was pregnant, so I probably was not drinking.

Yeah. But yeah, I sent, I sent Lewis. How's a message?

It had to have been like early.

20, 19, maybe even 18. Yeah, like late 18. I don't even know.

So anyway, you send him the. You send him the dm and it's basically like, I'd love to build because. Because we were really into personal development and that was like the same. Around the same time you had connected with Dave Hollis and we were starting to. To get into this world of like, personal growth and entrepreneurship growth. And both Lewis Howes and Dave Hollister were at that time really well known in that space. And both seem to like, have a good sense of fashion too. So you're like, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to reach out. Maybe I could build them both a watch, make a personal connection. And then. So you sent that and. And Louis was like, hey, man, I love what you're doing. Like, meet in person.

Yeah. I think we, we, you know, he basically said like, how does it work? Because I was just like, if, if you. I'd love to make you watch, you know, hey, we take antique American pocket watches, turn them into wristwatches. I see you do a lot of photo shoots and stuff and just a huge fan of the show. I'd love to have a watch on your wrist.

Well, and you made the connection like, he's from Cleveland, right?

Yeah.

And that there's a watch. There was a watch company in Cleveland. So you.

He's from. I think he's from Columbus. And he, you know, it was just like there was a watch company in Ohio have. Did you know that? So we, we started talking about it and he's like, how's it work? Like, do I design a custom one? All stuff. And at some point we decided that, like, he invited us or me at least to.

He's like, if you're ever in la.

And I can just. I was just like, why don't I just show you a couple watches and maybe you pick one that I already have or I can make you a custom one. And then. Yeah, I mean, well, you had to.

Have sent him one because then I think you sent him one you already had because the connection to Chris harder was then that he went to a Lakers game with Chris Harder and showed Chris the watch. And Chris DM'd you cold and was like, hey, I heard about you through Lewis Howes. These are amazing. Tell me more. And I think that all was happening in early 2019 because it was. I was pregnant with Wesley and we decided to go to the Kajabi in 2019. Kajabi did like this amazing in person, three day, like personal development business growth conference in Orange county. And like every big name person whose programs are run on Kajabi was a speaker. It was awesome. And I'm sure 2020 like totally ruined their plans to do it ever again. But we like treated that like a baby moon. Like true enneagram threes that were like, let's go to a conference to learn stuff. Yeah, on our baby moon. But we, we were going to be in Orange County. That had to been like April of 2019. And so I think that's when you reached out to Lewis and you're like, hey man, I'm going to be in la. Could we come meet in person and talk about the watches? And you reached out to Chris harder and said, hey, I'm going to be in la. Could I bring some watches to show you in person?

Yeah, because that's what it was.

Yeah.

So Lewis had a watch and then he went to a Lakers game with Chris and Chris was like, dude, where'd you get that watch? We got connected and I was having that conversation with Chris of like, let's make Chris harder a watch. And then yeah, we were like, hey, we're already going to be there. And so, I mean it was. The Kajabi conference was really cool, but like we got to sit in Lewis studio.

Or the studio.

Yeah, the school greatness, where he films. School of greatness. Like I was sitting in a chair that Oprah sat in. Like, that was so cool.

Yeah.

And he's such a good dude. Like, he, like, he, he just. That was his house.

I think it was his house at the time. Yeah.

And he's just like, hey, come, you know, hugs us both. Like, you know, and we, we brought watches, we talked about other watches and, and just kind of connected about future stuff. And then we drove to Santa Monica and Chris was just like, hey, here's, here's a spot. This is walking distance from my house. I'll meet you. It was like the Waldorf or something. It was some really cool. Yeah, like, I mean like he's just like, he knows all the cool spots for coffee and drinks. So we had a, we had a drink outside of a hotel yeah.

And I mean, the intention was for it to be like a 45 minute, like, connect. And then we were there for like three hours and.

Right. He just gave us so much as I remember leaving that conversation with Chris thinking, you know, whatever he does, whatever.

He'S selling will buy it.

Well, and. And I think we had just listened to one of his episodes with Lori where they talked about, like, how much their time is worth or something. Like, we were in that mindset.

Yeah.

We're like, he just gave us like, tens of thousands of dollars worth of his time.

Right.

Holy crap. And he mentioned in that conversation fast foundations. Because I think the next round was.

Yeah. Because they were in the middle of the first round at that time, and then we were in the second round, which was. I think it started in August of 2019. Yeah. And that was a cool conversation. I remember thinking, like, here's this. At the time, like, all these people like Lewis Howes and Chris Harder felt like celebrities, you know, because we weren't as connected to the, like, celebripreneur world as we are now, where people like that are pretty accessible to us these days. But then it felt like a big deal to meet these people in person, especially Lewis Howes and then Chris Harder all in one day. And I remember sitting there and he, like, I thought he would just ask about the watches and then like, kind of take RT for granted or like, take advantage of him and get this free watch and then we never hear from him again, you know, And. And he did the complete opposite in very Chris Harder style and was like, tell me about your businesses. Like, how can I help you guys? What, what do you guys need right now? Like, he was really interested in what we were doing. And at the time, I was like, you know, nine. I was 34 weeks pregnant. So I was like, I'm about to have our second kid, you know, And. And the businesses I was most focused on at the time in 2019 no longer exist today. So I won't spend a whole lot of time on them once we get to that. But the point was I felt in that moment like he could have been like everybody else and that. That I perceive to be in this celebrity entrepreneur world where, like, they don't really ultimately care about the customer at that personal level. And he's the complete opposite. And poured into you, Gave you a bunch of ideas for free. Poured into me. Gave me a bunch of ideas for free. Didn't even really mention fast foundations other than, hey, like, I'm going to send you guys an email about it, like, you guys should check it out for the next round. And so I think at that time, we went to the Kajabi conference, got super inspired. You know, that Kajabi conference was, I think, a turning point. Like, that whole trip was a turning point in. In the direction we. We took our businesses for a lot of reasons, for sure. And then, you know, I had Wes in late May, and then I think enrollment was, like, July, and we were. We. We just had a second kid. My main source of income that I had at the time was a consulting contract that had ended at the same time I was having Wesley, like, literally the same month. And so I was kind of in the world of scarcity in that moment of I just had a baby. I just lost this consulting contract that was multiple five figures a month. I don't know that we should invest in a Mastermind. You know, like, this might not be the right time. And I remember having a conversation. Well, we got on the phone with Chris and kind of reconnected, and he told us all about the program. And as soon as we hung up, we're like, we have to find a way to make this happen for sure. We both could just feel that we needed to be in the room and that even though, at least for me personally, my feeling at that time was like, I don't have a clear enough idea of what I want to do in my businesses to justify doing this. And I think our tea in the moment was like, that's the whole point. You need to be in the room so that you get clarity. And, like, if nothing else, you'll. You'll meet a bunch of people who might be able to help you down the road, you know, And I was.

Like, okay, yeah, I think we. We justified it at first on strictly business stuff of just like, you know, I did the math, and I was just like, okay, there's gonna be a bunch of other entrepreneurs in the room. These people are gonna grow their businesses. They have connections. I'm launching. 2019 was the first time we launched the military edition. So that was the. The. My. My big. Was going to occur during the Mastermind. And so I was like, okay, worst case scenario, some of these people can help me sell watches. Maybe they'll buy some, you know, And I think I did the math. It's like, okay, I need to sell, like, four or five watches to. To justify this from my side. And you did this similar thing of like, all right, how we justify this. And then I remember leaving the first event and talking about It. And obviously we learn lots of, you know.

Yeah.

Lots of business stuff. But I remember at some point, I was going to ask you if you remember when this. This mindset shift happened, but at some point, our mindset shift to justify masterminds went from the business to literally, I would do. I would spend that much money this second to just buy some freaking friends.

Yeah.

Because we live in a small town and there's a lot of entrepreneurs here and there's a lot of small businesses here. Fort Collins is great, but there's not very many people thinking big. Like, thinking seven, eight, nine.

There's a lot of, like, local business owners here. There's not a lot of, like, think big vision. Like, bigger than the local business vision.

And I. I feel like that conversation happened after and obviously, like, somebody like Chris. And then like, we. We hadn't met Lori until that first. Till that first event, and she blew our fricking minds.

Yeah. I would say, you know, for me it was because that first. The first event we attended, one, I was like, three months postpartum. So that was the first time I'd been away from our. Our second child, Wesley, and it was in West Hollywood and. Right. That was the first event.

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah. Because the second. Yeah, that's when we met.

Everybody was. One of them was in Hollywood and one of them was in.

It was. The first one was in Hollywood because that's like, we met everybody there the first time. The second time, I remember, like, being more comfortable. They gave us assigned seating at the second one to mix it up because we had all been like, so ye. Next to the people we knew. The first one, okay, so the first one was at West Hollywood. And I remember that shift in mindset happening. I want to say, like, the plane ride home, we were like, okay, these are the people we've been looking for. Like, these are the people like us, where they're from, where they're all looking for. They all live in similar cities. Some of them were, like, from LA and stuff, but a lot of people were from all over the US And Canada and were in environments similar to us, where they were kind of like, for lack of a better metaphor, like big fish in a small pond in terms of they were ready for a new type of networking and a new type of expansion in terms of ideas and connections and education that they couldn't get in the local market and they couldn't. They couldn't get in just an online mastermind or like an online coaching program or online course. It was. It was the middle ground of those two things. Right. And so I think we came home from that first event feeling really energized about the people more than anything. And what's interesting to me today is like several of those people we met that first time. I mean you and Jim met there, like and now you're in business together. Lauren Salon is doing all my PR in the pot. She promotes my podcast. Like there's people that we met that first event that we're still working with in business and our friends still to, to this day and that are lots of people that we could collaborate with in the future. So yeah, that, that mindset shift I think happened right after that first event in August. And then, so what, what after that? Then it was basically a few months of courses and calls. Like the way the program was at that time was we had the in person event right when it kicked off and then you had monthly calls and like self paced courses you could do inside of the group. And then we had our second event.

In December and that was December of 2019.

2019. And I remember like the momentum really built through the fall. Like Chris and Lori did a really good, and Nick did a really good job of like really pushing that group. I think there was a lot of energy and a lot of momentum moving into 2020. I'm sure we weren't alone in that. You know, but that particular group, like we, a lot of people had a lot of big plans for 2020, myself included.

And we did all kinds of goal setting.

Yeah. And like challenges and, and you know, collaboration stuff. And you know, I, I don't, it's not worth going into the whole story of what happened to my businesses for my side of the story in terms of what, what I got out of fast foundations, fast foundations at the time was incredibly helpful in me solidifying a vision for what I wanted to build in 2020 and, and getting the validation and getting the research I needed and like outside opinions to help me validate that model. And now that model ended up not working because of what went down in 2020. So it's kind of a moot point because at the time my business was in person based. So all of that went away as soon as the government mandated that we couldn't be in person anymore. But all of that is to say it still really helped me to have that group of people who were, they didn't know me, you know, like they, they weren't already familiar with my business. Like a lot of people that were my current entrepreneurial network Were all people that were gonna like, yes, they were. Yes, people. They were gonna tell me the idea was good no matter what. I got like actual neutral feedback and challenging feedback from fast foundations that really helped me change what I was planning to do in my business and take it to a new level. What I didn't know at that time, which is now really important to me and is a whole, like the subject of my whole podcast, was I got a lot of validation in that room from other mothers who said, like, it's okay. A lot of the validation around, like you can still do both things. And I didn't really know that, that I needed it as much as I did at that time. But now looking back and having this conversation, I remember several of them coming up to me because I was pretty emotional about like, this is the first time I've been away from my 2 month old and you know, I'm. I really want to be here and I'm really excited to be here because I know this is the next step for my business. And I'm also dealing with these feelings of being away from my child. And like every mom in the room came up to me at the break and was like, oh my God, girl, like, we got you. How can we help? Like, this is such a normal thing. So that validation was, was super great to get in that room. And I. That's like my general sense of fast foundations as looking back is it's that level of person who's all in that same step in the journey. There's a lot of camaraderie at that point. Like nobody in the room was wildly more successful than anybody else and nobody in the room was like wildly a beginner more than anybod else. It was like we're all kind of in that. Been here in the grind for a couple years, had some success, have big dreams and goals, but really need to like put all the pieces in the right order and get some good momentum and motivation to like go to the next level. And that feeling of like, like minded people is the thing I still think about when I think of fast foundations. It's like, yeah, I don't really remember all the courses that were in the group. I didn't watch them all that closely. I was probably distracted with a kid. I don't really remember all the speakers, although I do want to touch on that in a minute. What I do remember is like the people were so like, we all had such commonalities in what we were dealing with in our life and businesses that you're like, no matter what you said as a comment or a question, you got a lot of people around you being like, yeah, I have that problem too. Like, let's figure it out. Like, do you want to eat lunch together and talk about this? And that was just not something I had ever experienced before.

And people that, you know, I think in that round, and I think we've been really lucky to build these great groups where people just leave the ego at the door because there were some people that, you know, were making a lot more money than other people. And in some ways that's really interesting, but they were the first to admit that, like, oh, I've never done that before. I've never learned this before. I've never had that conversation before. Like, let me. If I can learn that from, from you. Like, yeah, you're not maybe quite as successful financially, but like, you obviously are an expert at this thing. That's really cool. And I think to tying in the, the speakers and all that, like, that's where, you know, doing it as a, as a partnership, like the two of us being there, not only did we have great conversations with the people in the room, but we had conversations, the two of us in between the two events and for like a year afterwards about like, hey, remember that, you know that one thing that that speaker of Fast foundation said about this, you know, there was those, those speakers sparked new and different thoughts and conversations that like, we just wouldn't have had. And I think that's where, you know, now, now that I'm on the other side of it and I'm trying to find speakers, I'm, I, I almost take the pressure off of like, I don't have to blow these people's minds with this speaker. I just have to find a speaker that's talking about something that maybe people haven't thought of recently.

Right.

Or that can apply that topic to the thing that they do. And I think the hard earth did such a good job of, of curating those, those people for us at that time. For that group.

Yeah, I mean, what I was going to say about speakers was like, some of those people who spoke to our rounds at one of the events are still people that I either follow. And you know, now they're, they, they were even at the time for much further ahead of us than, than we are in terms of the business and revenue and stuff. And they are still ahead of us. And so I like to follow them because they're, that, they're that like, aspirational expander type person for sure. Some of them are like, I think of John Romanello, like he came in and taught copywriting and so good. And we, because the structure of it was like so easy to understand. And he's also a really interesting person to follow on social media. And that's all I'll say about that right now. Like his lifestyle and his candor about, about how he lives his life is incredibly interesting and generous in how much he shares about, about how his lifestyle works. And as an aside like that, to me it's just like I would have never found him organically and. But I, you know, learning from, about copywriting and just about politics and social, social interest. Things that he talks about and relationship. Things that he talks about have expanded. You and I's relationship. They've expanded how I look at the world and, and also how I write, you know. And all of that came from one 45 minute presentation to fast foundation. So it's, it's, it's those kind of moments too where it's like when he walked in, I was like, who's this guy? I've never heard of this person. He wasn't famous to me or like that influential. Cause I had never heard of him. But once I heard him talk and followed him on Instagram and implemented what he taught us in the talk and have now followed him for three years, I'm like, dude, like he doesn't know who I am, but like he's an important person in my mind in terms of both business and life. So there's things like that I remember and like the, the growth hacker guy that came in that had growth hacked the growth of Tick Tock and Tick Tock at that time was just picking up Maxim. Yeah, I was like, fall of 2019 is when TikTok was like going viral and he, he worked for the growth hacking company that did TikTok's like growth strategy where they, they went and they like DM'd Instagram influencers from TikTok. And it was like this whole fascinating thing, but you know, like, because we.

Heard people to come from Instagram over to TikTok.

Yeah. So he was like DMing people on Instagram saying, hey, if you come over to TikTok and do the same content, you'll, you know, XYZ. And that was like TikTok's growth strategy. But because we were in the room.

Should have got on TikTok in 2019.

We did. But I'm, I'm saying like, because we were in the room, we started TikTok accounts like we didn't put content on there, which we, we'd probably be massive TikTok influencers and this whole thing would be moot at this point if we had actually done it.

But which they told us to.

But they told to. Right. And like that's the point. They told us to. Right. So it's like here's another guy who walks in and you're like the growth hacker in this app, Tik Tok. What? But three years ahead, like, had we actually done what this guy said? He's like, I'm telling you, TikTok's going to be bigger than Instagram. It's going to monetize faster than Instagram. It's going to be more important for Gen Z than Instagram. You guys should get on TikTok even if you don't want a new platform. And here we all are in 2019 being like, Instagram's never going to go anywhere.

We're finally coming around. Yeah.

So like that's a very specific example. But those are the types of things where the person who walks into those type of masterminds, like you may not recognize their name but you never know what you're going to get from them. That expands you and your business for years to come. That, that you would have never found on your own. So that I think is another reason that the in person event and really being present while you're there is such a huge part of fast foundations and why there's nothing else like foundation fast foundations that I, that I know of.

You know, and that was, that was the other question I was going to ask you is like, because you've been in a bunch of, you've led masterminds, you've been in a bunch of other masterminds. Yeah. To you, you know, what separates fast foundations and what was like your, your favorite parts of FAST foundations that might be different than other masterminds that you've experienced.

I mean the in person aspect of it I think is the biggest differentiator. And you know, coming off of a couple years where that wasn't possible, I think it's even more important now than ever to be in the room, literally physically in the room. Not that virtual things aren't impactful and I have obviously done a lot of those too. But there's something about proximity and presence and being around people. It's like all the P words, you know, like until you put a face with the name and you sit in someone's energy, it's, it's hard to connect with Them on a voxer thread or a Facebook group or a text list, whatever it is. And, and then you sit with somebody for a couple days and you see their vulnerability and you, you, you learn about like you actually listen to what they do in their business instead of being like oh, that's the guy with the watch company. You're like oh man. Like he preserves American history and he's doing this military thing. Like once people actually met RT in that first round, everybody on, on the Veterans Day launch day that like the whole entire text thread was texting him that day being like, this is your day man. Like so excited for you. That would have never happened if it was just a Facebook group, you know. So I think getting in the room is the number one thing. A couple other things like, because I've been in a million masterminds at every level of investment and every type of container, I would say the length like that six month time frame is the sweet spot for. It's just long enough to, it's long enough that you, you have to be like committed. It's not, you can't just like bounce through it in, in eight weeks or 12 weeks.

Yeah.

So it's, it's long enough, you have to be committed and, and it's a serious enough investment that you need to take it seriously. But it's not so long like that you procrastinate taking action. I've been in 12 month containers where I didn't really do anything until the last couple of months and I was like oh shit, I gotta catch up. Like I gotta paid so much, I gotta like, I paid so much, I gotta get something out of this. And then I've been in like three month containers where it went so quickly that I was like well shit, I shit, I missed two weeks and now I'm way behind. You know, I don't even know who these people are and I don't know these people. And I also like that amount of time is this day and age and then that level of person who's trying to go from five or six figures to a lifestyle business that can really mean something for them. Whether that's seven figures or higher, six figures, whatever it may be. I'm careful not to say every single person in a fast foundations level thing wants to be a seven figure entrepreneur because for some people I'm at least trying to separate myself from that because that doesn't necessarily mean anything to me. It's like you have something that's making money that you know, could make more money and could be a little bit bigger and could free you up from not having to do the things you don't want to do anymore. And you need people to help you make it like get it to that next level. If that seven figures, great. If that's 300,000 a year, great. Like whatever it is, I think that's.

A really good differentiator because we, we talk about from, you know, from five or six to, to seven figures is like that's what a lot of people want. But you know, now that we've experienced those things, in some ways I'd rather have a $400,000 a year business with $300,000 a year in profit.

Right.

Than a you know, $1.5 million business with $100,000 in profit. Profit, you know, that's, that's way less work for honestly much, much better lifestyle. So.

And in that type, for all those people and in that revenue range, like six months can make a huge difference for you. Like you can go from having a company like a solopreneur or me and one other person type agent, like a graphic design company or a web development company or a marketing, you know, like what A lot of the people in the room are like those one or two person businesses. You can take something like that from a hundred, two hundred thousand a year where it feels pretty good, but like it's still kind of paycheck to paychecky Y. You can take a business like that to three or 400 or $500,000 in six months time or get it at least on, on their trajectory to that. And so I feel like that amount of time is a sweet spot for that revenue range of company. Whereas like when you get into some of the bigger rooms that you and I are in, you've got people with you know, multiple million dollar companies or truly 7 figure quote unquote businesses that now you're getting to the nitty gritty of like, okay, my $2 million company that has 10% profit margin, I want to make a $3 million company with 20% profit margin. That's a much larger ship that you've got to steer around the icebergs and it takes a lot longer to turn those kind of things than hey, I've got me and my one employee and we're doing 150,000 and it feels pretty good. But if we could just X, Y and Z, we'd get to 300,000 and it would be freaking bomb. That can get done in six months, you know. And so that is such a unique thing in the world of masterminds. And I feel like I can speak with authority here because I've been in so many and I've run so many that there's very few structured as actionably as fast Foundations is with that, with that level of sweet spot of like we're going to take you from something that's already working but needs some fundamentals baked in to something that's like humming along and can really sustain you and is a really a real true business. Whether that's seven figures or not. I mean $500,000 a year is still what, 60, $70,000 a month? Like that's, that's good money. You know, if you're making 50, 60 grand a month even prior to taxes and all your overhead like, and you have a couple employees, for the most part, you're doing pretty dang well at 500 grand a year, you know. So that's my soapbox of like the seven figure business is this thing that we all have in our head and that a lot of masterminds like to like promise you. But the $500,000 business, the $350,000 business is still a really fucking great business for a lot of us. And that's, that's the sweet spot.

And that's how, that's how Chris originally convinced me to join because I was above, you know, they, we say, and they said from the beginning, you know, the, the five hundred thousand dollar a year business is kind of the cut off. The cut off. If you have a bigger business that you should join a different mastermind. And I vortic was over almost 800, I think at that point. But I wasn't paying myself. You know, I had almost no profit from that. Right? The business had almost no profit and I wasn't paying myself a salary. And he was just like, well, we teach a lot of those fundamentals of. It's like, you know, you probably just need to do a couple little things and then you, whether you get to seven or not, you. What if you just had a more profitable high six figure business? And I was just like, well either way, you know, that's, that's great. But the thing that you sparked when you said that was I remember leaving. I don't know if it was leaving the first event. It was probably leaving the first event. I remember you and I had a conversation that was just like, wait a second. So she's making online courses about basket weaving and making $25,000 a month.

Yeah, right.

And I'm making this up like you know, there. There was. There was other people in that room doing things that we perceived as, like, not scalable, not massive. Like, just like, selling online courses, being online coaches, like, a lot of stuff that we had never really considered, and they were crushing it. And they had zero or one employees, and so their profit margin was almost 100% in theory. We're, like, doing math on the airplane of just, like, how much does this person make? Like, oh, my gosh.

Yeah. Because at the time, we were. We only had either brick and mortar or, like, in person. We had. We had very expensive businesses.

Yeah. Like, with so much overhead and stuff. And. And it was. It wasn't like jealousy. It was almost just like a opening your. Yeah, it's expansion. It's opening your eyes to what's possible. So, like, talk about that, because I think for me, that was huge.

It was. Yeah.

But now you've, you know, you've pivoted your businesses to do different things more. More into those things that we learned and got expanded into back then.

Yeah. I mean, I think the thing that came up for me while you're talking. Well, like, right at the end of what I was saying was also, I think in that room is where you figured out specific to Vortic. Like, you were stuck at that, like, couldn't quite get to a million and didn't really have any profit. And one of the things that you immediately put into action after that first event was the weekly email that you've now sent one email a week to your list since then. And I remember you saying at that first event, what am I going to talk to people about? Like, what am I. And Chris was. I think it was Nick's presentation, because his was all about email marketing. He's like, build a welcome journey. Tell people the story. And then you. That. That first night. I think it was either that first night or I don't remember where, but you sketched out, like, 18 different plot lines that are parts of the components of the Vortex story. And you're like, okay, this is. This is the welcome sequence that I'm going to send to every single new subscriber on the Vortex email list. And this is the storytelling.

We got to cut this part out, because this is where Nick and Chris, like, ask me for, like, a cut of all the millions that I've made from millions. This process. Yeah, you're totally right, because that. And it was because Nick talked about Facebook ads and email marketing. Basically, like, the simple.

Well, and it was like, the simple things of, like, do you Have a welcome journey. And you were like, no, I do not. And you actually had an email list at the time. Like, I heard all this too, but I wasn't running that same type of business. But in terms of expansive things that, like, really left a mark and we've implemented and have gotten us to where we are today. I mean, it truly is the fundamentals that we had probably heard a million times, like, you need. You need a welcome journey or email list. Like, I knew that intellectually, you knew that intellectually, but we had never prioritized getting it done. And then being in that room that day, you sketched out, you know, here's the first 10 emails of my. Of my welcome journey for Vortic. And here's what I'm going to. In a weekly email. My nurture sequence. I'm going to send out a weekly email that covers these things. And then you fucking did it. You, like, went home and did it and got it going within a couple of weeks. And I think that that's. That's the other magic of being in the room is that when you leave, you're like, I have to go do all these things right now. Like, this is you. You feel the. It's not pressure, but you feel like, so ability. Yeah. And you're just so turned on. Like, you're like, yeah, like, I want to go do this. I want to go do it for me, and I want to go do it for the people I just met.

Right.

And the way that they structured it, and I know it's the way you guys structured is like, when you come back to the second event, whatever you committed to as your one thing this time, we're going to ask you about it, the second event. And you better have done it, you know, or at least done a big effort towards it. And so there is true, like, group accountability in that sense. So I want to call that out because I remember that as you were speaking, but. But for me personally, I want to.

When I interview Nick, I'm going to bring that up and feel like, how do we. How do we. How do. How do Nick and I go on a mission to just like, get people to write a fricking email journey?

I need you to do mine because I'm. I'm still not taking that advice. And here, three years later, so.

Well, to me, the email journey for Vortic, it was the difference between six and seven figures. Yeah.

And it will always be the. I mean, that's. Has carried you through thick and thin over the last three years.

Just that email Journey. I could. I could factor at least a million dollars in sales to in the last three years, like 100%. And the open rates on those are freaking 60%. It's insane.

Write your welcome emails.

If you're writing welcome Journey welcome. If you don't know what that is, DM Us.

No, if you don't know what that is, get in the room and we will teach you.

Exactly. Yeah, that's it.

So I think it's that and then, you know, like, for me personally, so now I. I've joined several other masterminds since then, and I have moved in this direction of, you know, I got rid of all the brick and mortar businesses and I got rid of employees because that's not my zone of genius. And I don't really want to run a business where I've got, you know, to come into an office and manage employees. It's not what I want to do. And so coming out of 2020 and 2021, shedding off all of those other structures that I was in at that time, I've moved into community building around ambition and motherhood. And that's based on my experience and where I've landed. After years of being an entrepreneur and having all these other types of businesses and having young kids and, and truly like, living this meta experience of if I'm going to help other people build businesses, I've got to, which is what I love to do. I love to help women succeed and go get the success that their ambition has defined for them. If I'm going to do that, it's got to work around my schedule with our kids. And I was like, oh, I have this problem. I wonder if all the people that are my potential customers have this problem. Oh, turns out they do. Which is I really, really want to succeed. I'm so ambitious, and I feel this major pull towards ambition and I love my freaking kids and I want to be a really devoted mother. And how do I do those two things well, and how do I balance and hold space for this massive mental load? And so now my work is in that and I have a podcast called Motherload. And I think, you know, so for me today, sitting here, looking back on Fast Foundations, like, well, I met Lauren Salon Salon at Fast Foundations. She's doing my podcast PR and getting my podcast more recognized, and it's growing quickly. She's helping me get personally more exposure through media. And I, you know, I, I trust her implicitly because she's seen me through the whole journey to this, to where I'm at now and she knows me and I met her in Fast Foundations, you know, versus me trying to go find a publicist and a PR partner out of the blue. Like, I would not know how to do that. And so I feel like even here, years later, three years later, with a totally different focus in my business, I'm still leveraging the connections that I, that I made there. And you know, when I like, because I benefit from our partnership, I think one of the other big expansive things of having that Fast foundation experience for me as your partner is listening to you, you know, at the end of the year, last year, saying you weren't totally fulfilled with what you were doing and wishing that you could have something like Fast Foundations because you want to help people who've been through all the things you've been through. Like, we were. You were coming off of 2020, you almost lost Vortic and it got really crazy there and you figured out how to make it work. And like, you are the true, like American story of American entrepreneurial story of like, this business started on Kickstarter and I had to work a corporate job until it made enough money that I could quit my corporate job. And then it didn't really make enough money to do much more than like, pay me a little bit. And now it's this multimillion dollar company that can pay you a real salary and is on this massive trajectory. Like, that is the story, right? Like, that's the journey that the everyday entrepreneur that doesn't want to be some big celebrity entrepreneur, they just want to have the business that they know is in them and that they love and they want to know how to do it well and how to make it profitable and how to make it create the life that they want to have around it. Like, RT has lived that and knew at the, when we were having this conversation, I think it was while we were in Mexico in January on our, on our like twice yearly kids or parents only trip to Mexico, and he's like, you know, I want to start this mastermind, and I think I'd call it something like this. And at the same time, Chris and Lori were saying they were gonna not do Fast Foundations anymore because they had kind of grown out of it, you know, like, they're up into a different stratosphere of success now, which is awesome. And that was their goal and they've realized it. And I had this moment of like, the Fast Foundations experience was so life changing for both of us especially, you know, the further out we get from it. The more perspective we have on it. And I had this moment of realizing, like, that room needs to exist, and if Chris and Lori don't want to hold space for it anymore because of. Of their goals changing, why don't you buy it? And. Oh, no, we were in Vegas.

No, you. I think we talked about. We had a bunch of conversations in Mexico about, like, what I want to do in my life and, like, you know, how I could do more public speaking and how I could practice public speaking. I think I was like, maybe I could speak at someone's mastermind. We had those conversations, and then we went to Vegas with Jim and Val for a client trip. Yeah, like, Jim brought Val, I brought you.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We hung out with them. We had dinner with them, and it was on the airplane leaving Las Vegas. I think I was complaining about the first world problem of, like, I love. We were just having a conversation of, like, we love Las Vegas.

Right?

We love events because of the energy. And just when you. When you sit in Las Vegas and you think about how much money is being spent, it's crazy. Within a square mile of you right there. And we Googled at the time.

We did the math.

Yeah, it's billions, literally in, like, minutes, you know, and so we were leaving that, and we were like, okay, we know we're going back to small town, you know, life and whatever. And. And it was like we were. Because I was also having a conversation with myself and. And through therapy and stuff about, like, thinking bigger, not going faster.

Yep.

And I. I don't know exactly how it came up, but you were just like, why don't you just buy fast foundations? And I was like.

I was like, I bet they'd sell.

Whipped out my phone. We were like, taking off. I'm just like, jim, like, before I lose service, we should buy fast foundations, like rocket ship money sign emoji or something. And I remember getting the text back from him, like, yes. I don't know how, but yes.

And I just, like, it was this weird, energetic moment for me of trying to be the generator to your projector. For those of you that know human design, where it's like, be the mere back of what you're saying exists. It's right in front of you. Let me just hold up the mirror so you can see it's here. This isn't that. This feels like a big problem to solve, but you're making it harder than you need to. And I'm also just the kind of person who's like, why wouldn't Chris and Lori sell it to you like, you're geminarty. Like, they love you guys. They've seen you put the agency together successfully, and you two are extreme success stories from fast foundations. You both came into fast foundations with businesses that were kind of shaky. And you've left. You became you. You know, you went into the elite mastermind, you've grown, and, like, now you're both in the seven figures. Like, you are the success story. This is perfect. And I just. I don't know Chris and Lori as well as you guys do, but I just had this feeling that they didn't want to let it go like that, that it would. That they would feel remorse about it just disappearing after all the impact it had had. And so I was like, this is a win, win. Worst thing you can do is ask. The most embarrassing that can happen. Would Chris laugh at you? Which he would never do, but, like, what's the worst that could happen? Like, okay, cool. And. And like, from there it just. No. And then from there, it just happened.

He was like, oh.

From there it unfolded really naturally, you know, and. And. And for me, it's like, I don't want credit for it because it, Like, I own any agency in that process. It's like, I. I bring it up because. And I. I came to this last event in Denver a couple weeks ago, and I felt it when I walked in the room. It's like, this is cool to know that this wouldn't necessarily have existed if you didn't take the action from that, from that challenge I gave you of, like, why don't you go. It exists. Like, it already exists. We've been in it, and it was fucking cool, and it was amazing, and it changed our lives. Like, don't let it die. Go get it. You know, like, go save it and be bold and make the bold request of Chris. And I think that room, the 2019 Lindsay, is who came through in that moment to feel like I could encourage you to make a bold request because. And our whole journey to fast foundations, like meeting Lewis Howes and meeting, like, where we started this conversation today. Those are bold requests. Yeah, like, those are. That was really expansive to be able to go from, hey, like, we're two little local entrepreneurs from Fort Collins, Colorado, and I'm 34 weeks pregnant, and we're standing in Lewis House's penthouse apartment in Hollywood, where he records one of the top 100 podcasts in the world. And he's like, friends of ours, you know, like, what an. It was mind blowing to Me and then, you know, by the end of that year, we were finishing fast foundations heading into 2020 on a totally different trajectory, you know, and so like, that's how quickly stuff can change. And I think. And that all felt really bold to me. So if we just don't count all the shit show that was 2020 and 2021, then, you know, like, the effect of that is really now being realized in 2022, where you and I have really rapidly, you know, now we're, I think we're more comfortable in like taking action when we feel it because we feel so confident in our network and we feel so confident in the skill sets that we have a basis in that. Like anything we want to add into the business or any pivot we want to make or any like, connection we need, we have that person or that skill one degree of separation away. And that is a hundred percent a. That's a mastermind thing, but that's a fast foundations thing. Well, you could use my affiliate code if you'd like to sign up after that sales pitch.

First of all, thank you, thank you for welcome. I mean, giving us this idea, giving me permission, you know, to. And supporting me through all of this stuff. If anyone and people have asked, like, you know, what, what is my support structure look like now? You know, my support structure encourage me, encourages me to buy businesses when I'm feeling a little down. Like, fuck it, just buy the whole business. You know, that's basically what the conversation was.

It was. But I feel like that was like a very, like Chris and Lori harder gen. Like they spoke through me too. Like that's the conversation they have. So it felt like it feels very natural for that to be a. Yeah.

It'S just like I am. I, I imagine that Lori has done that to Chris, like, what, 100.

She has.

Like, why? You could just, just, just buy the thing. Just, just.

Yeah, just make the bolder. Like whether it's buying something or not, it's like, just be bold. Like, what's the worst that's going to happen?

We're just like, just like it started. It's like most people, if they want to get their physical product on a famous person or an influencer, they take zero action or they think it might just happen or whatever.

Like I, they tag him, you know.

Or they think like, oh, you know, because I, I remember we had this conversation. It's like, oh, Lewis, how like, he's famous. He's not going to answer his own Instagram dms. Like he's be like, who's his kid. And I mean that's. That's why we're so. Thank you. Also sitting here.

Yeah.

For all of that. But. But yeah, if anyone was wondering how I can do all these things, it's because of this beautiful lady right here. Yep. So thank you. Welcome for all of that and all of this and your time on the Fast Foundations podcast.

Yeah.

If somebody wants to connect with you and learn about the things that you're doing now.

Yeah.

How would you recommend that they do that?

Probably the best way is Instagram at Lindsay Roselle with an A. Lindsay with an A. Roselle. I showed. They'll tag me somewhere. And I host the podcast called Motherlode within with L O A D. So Motherload all one word podcast and it's focused on ambitious women who are also devoted mothers and the intersection of day to day challenge that that presents. Um, so you can always listen to the podcast. You get a pretty good idea there. But yeah, I love to connect on Instagram. I am an elder millennial. I don't really do TikTok. So you'll find me on the OG platforms where I will die before I change.

Instagram.

Instagram. Yep.

And the podcast. Subscribe to your podcast.

Yeah, the podcast is great too. I don't have anything to sell you right now, but if you come to Instagram, I will gladly help point you in a direction in best way I can. And I think the last thing I'd say, you know, is a lot of times these investments feel scary and there's a lot of obstacles right now and a lot of excuses always that you can make around like why, why the next round might be the one or you don't really need to grow the business or whatever it might be. And I think like, like this conversation today, the. What I've learned in business is the bold action. The thing that feels a little uncomfortable and is is the thing that three years later you're sitting in a whole different world literally going, hey, if we hadn't been in that room in 2019 and then 2020 had still happened, God knows where we would be like, yeah, there's so many ripple effects from Chris harder's influence in RT's life and being in fast foundations that helped us get through 2020 and 2021, that, you know, sitting, sitting here this far out is like dang, like that bold move to get to Lewis Howes to talk to Chris to get to. I mean we put the enrollment for both of us to be in it on a credit card like we had to. At the time, we maxed out two credit cards to get in the room. Yeah. You know, and so, like, I'm not advocating and I never would advocate maxing out credit cards to do anything, but I'm also very risk tolerant and so is he. So for us, it was a calculated risk to say we're gonna do this because we know it'll pay off. And I can't even think about where we'd be, financially or otherwise if we hadn't done it. So, you know, if you wanna talk like, sure, hit me up. Like, I will definitely encourage you to take bold action. And if you need a little, a little push or a little, you know, reassurance that it's worth it, hit me up on Instagram. Happy to DM with you about, about that choice. And yeah, I think otherwise, that's it.

That's it for the Fast Foundations Podcast alumni episode with Lindsey Roselle. Thank you so much for listening. Make sure you subscribe here on whichever podcast platform you're listening to or YouTube if you're watching us. And you get to see our little podcast studio here in the house. And we will see you next time on the Fast Foundation's podcast.

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