Women and Moms in Entrepreneurship, with Lindsay Pinchuk

When I started this company, a big thing was that I put my face on it and I said, we don't take and we didn't take money from any brands that me and my team wouldn't have used ourselves.

Lindsey, how you doing?

I'm good. How are you?

Good. Thank you for being on.

Thanks so much for having me. It's great to meet you.

Yeah, my pleasure. Excited. So, Lindsay, can you tell us who calls you and what do they call you for these days?

I will tell you. A lot of people call me. My kids call me the most. But outside of my kids, outside of my kids who call me mom 90 million times a day, the people who call me are generally small business owners and other female founders. And they are often calling me because they are time stretched and they are burnt out and they are busy and they do not know how to market their business. And that is what I help them with. In addition, people also often call me small business owners and female founders call me because I'm a connector, and I've always been a connector. And oftentimes, if they need someone for something, they know that I know who to connect them to.

Oh, fantastic. I am excited to talk to you today, and I would like to dig into your journey a little bit. Would you mind sharing where you grew up?

Yeah. So I grew up outside of Detroit, Michigan, in an amazing suburb called West Bloomfield. And even though I've been gone for longer than I lived there, Detroit is still my home. It will always be my home. And I went to the University of Michigan, and I moved to Chicago right after I graduated from U of M. I see you're smiling. Did you go to Ohio State or something?

Oh, no, no. Even better. I went to Appalachian State, so.

Okay. Oh, yes, we play you guys in football occasionally.

We did. I don't remember exactly when. Oh, wait, no. September 1, 2007. 34 to 32, block the field goal on the last play of the game. But regardless, that's ancient history.

So you played football?

I did. I did. We were at Appalachian State. But I'm a big Michigan fan.

I'm digressing. I'm sorry, what's.

No, that's fine. I'm a big Michigan fan. I got a friend there that does all their nil work now, so I really have a lot of respect for the program. They're doing well this year, too.

Yes, they are. Cold blue.

Yeah.

So after college, I moved to Chicago, and I was supposed to start a job at Leo Burnett on September 10, 2001. So the day before the Twin towers fell. And a few weeks prior to that, all of our jobs were rescinded because of the economy. The economy was in the toilet at the time. And when 911 happened, there were no jobs and everything was just kind of done. Everyone was at a standstill. And so I ended up taking a bit of a pause. I studied for the gre. I had received a signing bonus from Leo Burnett, which that's so not a thing anymore. I'm totally dating myself because no company gives a signing bonus like that now. Out of college and I went to Montreal, I hung out. And when it was time for me to come and start my career, I was like, I got to find something else. And I ended up landing a job in advertising sales at Sports Illustrated. And I started an amazing 10 year career in advertising and marketing, selling programs to Fortune 100 companies to get their businesses out into the world through the many amazing properties that I worked on. And when I got pregnant, I ended up, we were living here. We have no family here, we're transplants. And none of my friends were pregnant. And we all have seventh graders. I was just first and I was really looking for community and just people to hang out with and be pregnant with. I wasn't going to happy hour anymore. I wasn't going to the bars. And I started hosting events for expectant parents. We had some workouts, we had some shopping events. And what really came out of this was the need for community. And you have to remember, this was 2010. This was before social media was even a thing. I mean, Facebook was around, but there were no Facebook business pages even. It was just like your personal page. And so I started hosting events and word of mouth traveled fast. And these events went from 50 people to 75 people to 100 people. And given my background in advertising and marketing, I started reaching out to brands. Brands love pregnant women. They really love pregnant women. And they have a very short window of opportunity with them. And before I knew it, I had a lot of brands who were paying me to be in our gift bags and sponsor our events. And one thing kind of led to another. I ended up not going back to my corporate job after I had my first daughter. And I took on this company that I was building, Bump Club and Beyond full time. And I built it from the ground up. And, you know, I started with a $500 investment and I built it to reach 3 million people per month. We were generating seven figures in revenue for the last six years that I owned it. We were working with brands like Target, and Nordstrom on really big activations where I would create a program for those entities and then bring my community to the program. And essentially I ended up selling my company in 2019 to a large agency holding company outside of Orange county who wanted my brand for my relationship with Target. They were trying to work with Target in the baby space and I was preventing them from doing so. And so they ended up buying me and I ended up working there for a couple of years. It really was awful, and I have no problem saying that, but it was really awful going back to corporate America. It was. There were a lot of things about my deal that didn't pan out the way that they should have. And about two and a half years in, I realized it wasn't mine anymore. I asked myself, why am I working to make someone else money? I had a lot of brands calling me, asking me to do large and small scale marketing projects for them at a much higher rate than I was being paid by this corporation. And so I left and I left and I started taking on clients and I really made it a goal to help other women, business owners, female founders, especially those who are over 40, and really kind of starting something new for that second chapter. My goal is to help them to succeed and to work with them on building their brand, growing their brand through these organic marketing practices that I implemented with my first company and now my second. And also I started a podcast. So my podcast is called Dear Found Her. And that is, it's. It's a part of my community, it's a part of my new company. It really is the backbone of everything that I do. It's my number one marketing vehicle for my services and my classes and some upcoming projects that I have going on. And that's what I do. So that's my story. I mean, that was a really long story. I'm not that old, but that was.

A really long story. Well, it was. It's exciting. So I'm interested why, other than the obvious, why do brands want to connect with people that are pregnant?

So when you are pregnant, you have like, you're really outwardly pregnant, like six months, right? And so that first three months when you're pregnant, you're kind of doing a lot of research, you're looking around, but no one knows you're pregnant. The Internet might know, but no one else really knows you're pregnant. So you have this six month window when people know you're pregnant. And there are so many choices to be made, there are so many different strollers and car seats. And products and foods. And there's just so many things that come along with pregnancy. And everyone wants what's best for themselves because that's what's best for their baby, obviously. And there's a lot of choices. And so when I started this company, a big thing was that I put my face on it and I said, you know, we don't take. And we didn't take money from any brands that me and my team wouldn't have used ourselves. It was a very trusting environment. Usually I would use a product and then they would want to work with us. It wasn't like they were paying me to use the product. And then, you know, it was, it was very different than what goes on now with influencers. But expectant moms have a huge, huge, huge. They control a lot of spending and they make a lot of decisions. And when you get in with them with like a diaper or a wipe or a cream, early on, usually they're using it for that whole first baby when they have a second baby, maybe a third baby. So it's really important to reach them when they're newly pregnant.

Yeah, it's almost like a brand new customer or even a customer and a half. Right. Because you've got the mom customer and then at some point you've got a baby or two and they're a new customer for all new types of products and services. So basically you would give them an avenue to catch these people early, to create a relationship with these people and then hopefully to be able to make a buying behavior with them.

Yes. And they did.

So Bump club and beyond, what were the channels that you used to for your membership and to build your community?

Yeah, so when I first started it was events. We did events. And honestly I will say that even today, and I can get into this in a minute, events are so, so, so important for connection and building that in person trust. But we were an events based company first. Like I said, there was no social media. So we would, I would write things on our blog, we would send out emails. And then as social media started becoming a thing, we started working social media into our marketing. Mixed Facebook first, then Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest. I left kind of before the big TikTok boom. So I never really had to deal with that with Bump Club. But social media obviously was a very big part. And then partnerships were huge and publicity. As I grew with the brand, I became a trusted source and an expert in the parenting space. And I would be called on all the time by news outlets, you know, Websites, to comment, to come on tv, to share product knowledge and my favorite products and whatnot. So publicity played a really big role as well. And it's funny because when I left Bump Club and I started doing this for other clients, I looked back at what it was that I, that I did. Like, why was this successful? I took a pause and I said, what did I do that made this so successful and able to reach so many people and generate so much revenue? And it was the fact that I was able to, to use all of these avenues together. And I always tell my clients like, you can't just rely on social media. There's so much more that goes into this and there's so much more outside of social media that goes into building up your social media. So at that point I coined what I call sweep and that's like my method that I use with clients. And sweep stands for social media, your website, emails, events, partnerships and publicity. And essentially all of those things need to be working together in your organic marketing play in order to be successful. And when they are working together, it makes it a lot easier to get out there to get more awareness. And you can use one piece of content and take that piece of content and its message and sweep it through all of those platforms and all of those strategies and that's what makes things work.

Fascinating. So you sold the business in 2019?

I did.

What was that decision process like for you?

So I, in 2017, I had a part time finance guy that I, and I had said to him, I really want to sell, either sell this business or raise money before I turn 40. And I turned 40 in 2019. So. And I just, you know, part of it was this was a life stage business for me. My kids were growing up, I was the face of a brand that was pitching things to brand new moms. And I wasn't a new mom anymore. And people were relying on me to give them advice and information on things that happened in my life like five to seven years ago. And it just, it felt kind of weird and I didn't feel like I could be enough. And I built this brand off of like my own experiences and authenticity. And I didn't feel like it was that authentic for me to be telling someone what stroller to buy when I was no longer pushing a stroller. It just felt weird. And I had said if I sell the business, I would like to work for the new company. I could do the strategy for the business till the cows come home. I mean, and I loved what we had. I loved what we built and what ended up happening.

Now you understand that that's never gonna happen when you sell your business.

No, that's never gonna happen. I know that now. I know that. I knew it wouldn't work out exactly, but it was not great.

I had an investment. I sold a company also in 2019, by the way. And I was watching what was happening, and I called my investment banker and I said, do you think I should get in touch with somebody there and let them know my view on what's going on? And he said, no, stay out of it. Because sometimes there's a strategy behind the madness, but most often it's just madness. But either way, stay out of it.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, that's. I mean, that's essentially why I left. But. So what ended up happening was. Fast forward to 2018. I had a new financial. A fractional CMO that was working with me who I loved. She helped me broker the business. Like, she helped me prepare everything for the deal. And while I was working with her, I had three entities reach out to me on LinkedIn. And I had. We had discussed, like, we're gonna get a deck together. We're gonna start taking this out. I really want to move forward with this. And three people came to me. The first one was not a fit. I never would have entertained it. The second one was the one that I actually ended up going with. And part of why I did go with them was because they wanted me. My brand, my people. They wanted everything. And then the third one was a company called Some Spider, and they bought a brand called Scary Mommy, which was another big brand in the parenting space. And they ended up wanting an aqua hire. So they wanted to hire me, dissolve my brand, and they wanted me to do for them what I did for Bump Club. And I said, absolutely not. Like, I. I call.

I call that a staff position.

Yes. I mean, yes. I mean, it was. I said, no, thank you. Like, we're done here. I was actually supposed to go out to New York to meet with them, and when they wouldn't sign my nondisclosure. My nondisclosure, I said, forget it, because I'm not going to give you the secret sauce to my company if you're not going to. That's right, sign my non. Disclosure. So I ended up. I ended up pursuing the. The second entity that pursued me. And they, like I said, really wanted me because of my relationship with Target. And they're a company that. They're called Advantage Marketing Solutions. They own a lot of different like brands and agencies. And one of their agencies, Brand Connections, was the acquirer of Bump Club. And you know, it was not, it was not an easy process, but it wasn't as hard as a lot of people think it is. I mean, they really wanted this to happen and, and so they pushed it along and it really was only like a seven month process. But for me, I knew I wanted to move forward with something like this. I was so sick of bootstrapping the business. I was so sick of having to worry about making payroll. I didn't wanna work like that anymore. And I just really. They promised me rocket fuel to make Bump Club a household name and that's what I really wanted. And I just felt like I had to take the chance now, even though it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, I do not regret selling this business. You have to think of the timeframe that I sold it in. I sold it in 2019 and in 2020 when Covid hit, all of my competitors went out of business. I ended up turning Bump Club. I was still there and I ended up turning it into an online events company. And within literally three days of COVID we were hosting events online. We were the very first company to do so in the parenting space. And so, you know, I do not regret making that sale because I would have gone out of business and gotten nothing for my company. And you know, things happen for a reason. Hindsight's 20 20. This was an amazing experience. It, you know, it allowed me to learn so much and to be where I am now because of what I went through.

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Yes, it was the experience and the knowledge. So what ended up happening was we kind of had an early heads up that like, something was coming with COVID because we were in the process of executing this very large activation with Target. So when I owned Bump Club, our Target activation was like a low six figure activation. And when, when we had were acquired after the first year, we ended up securing them for this huge program. It was a large seven figure program and it was supposed to take place on March 21, 2020, in 300 stores nationwide. And the whole point of this program was to get people into the stores and sampling products and to take home all these samples and to inter to interact with a bunch of the brands that we were going to have on site. Now, obviously with COVID that couldn't have happened. But at the end of February, we got a heads up from Target that was like, there's something coming. We're being told about this. We're canceling all events ahead of time. And what ended up happening was we ended up hosting a webinar on March 8. It was the very last time a person at Bump Club got on an airplane. We came together, we did it in a hotel ballroom, and we ended up having thousands of people tune in to this webinar. And it was before, before COVID even took place. And then what ended up happening was all of these brands that were participating, we ended up hosting Facebook lives with them all throughout the months of March, April and May. And we would get on with their representatives. We would talk about the category, we talk about the product, we'd give advice, we'd do a lot of giveaways. And we ended up all these gift bags that were supposed to be given out at the 300 stores, we ended up shipping them. We shipped like 10,000 gift bags out from our fulfillment center. It ended up being a wild success. I mean, we had millions of people watching us on Facebook. This was again, like, we started it before, like, before everything really got crazy. And we ended up from there hosting music classes for parents and kids and workout classes for parents and kids. And just all of our events that we did in person, all of our talks and our seminars, we turned into webinars. And we ended up creating a really robust online community filled with the same information you would have gotten in person from one of our events. And we did it online and we ended up being able to make money from the brands who wanted to get in front of these people. And we were reaching millions of people. I mean, it was, it was really, really wild. I mean, millions of people were tuning in to watch these, these live events on Facebook.

What that is, that is a great pivot. Congratulations on that strategy and that execution. How did it change coming out of COVID.

So Target ended up buying into the program all of 2020. So we did, we like did it in three different waves. And then in 2021, they contracted with us again. They were not going to go in store. Um, you know, we had part of the country not really doing anything, and part of the country was kind of living their life like normal, but because it was expectant parents, they were a very high risk group. And we stayed online. So in 2021, we were online as well. I left in the fall of 2021, and when I left, they were talking about going back to in person events at the beginning of 2022, and they ended up never going back to in person events. They ended up closing Bump Club and. But that happened in the beginning of 2023. So they never went back to in person events. They maintained online events and they worked with Target through the end of 2022. But I do think that like, you know, there was this pivot and people did still want to learn, learn and meet people online. And they were connecting and they were connecting with information and that was really what pregnant people needed. And really and truly, it wasn't until the beginning of this year, end of last year, end of 2022, beginning of 2023, that pregnant people really started going out of the house again. They pregnant people generally, I mean, this, you're reaching people, you know, across the country, but generally speaking, were probably the last people to really resume normal life. A lot of people that I knew that were pregnant were being very careful. They were wearing masks. A lot of them still do. And, you know, they're protecting themselves and their baby. We know a lot more now than we did in 2020. So it's a much different situation.

Well, we were hosting events. I was hosting an event actually in Turks and Caicos, and it came up as a Zika area, where it was at Zika, right? It was the, the disease that was borne by mosquitoes. And anybody that was even thinking about being pregnant would not travel to those areas.

So it's funny you say that. We had this huge activation with Nordstrom during Zika and one of our programs at Bump Club or one of our Nordstrom events at Bump Club was in Miami. And Miami was also a Zika hotspot. And the OB GYN association was telling pregnant people in the Zika hotspots to stay home. And I had an argument with Nordstrom. I said, we can't have this event. It's gonna flop. It's such a waste of money. Let's not do this, this. And they were like, that's crazy. People are still leaving the house. I said, like, no, really, like, if. If this is what the Medical association is saying, we're not going to look like idiots by showing up and hosting an event for pregnant women. But we made a lot of changes during that time as well.

Heard much about that lately. Is it still a thing or is.

I don't know if it's still a thing. I don't think it's still a thing. I'm not in that world anymore. So, like, I don't really pay much attention to it.

How do you feel that? Bump Club is no longer a brand.

So it makes me really sad, to be honest. But I will say, you know, in the beginning of 2021, it was January of 2021 that I decided I was going to leave. And I told my manager at the time that I wanted an exit, and she didn't believe me. She actually, like, ignored me for months. She wouldn't get on the phone with me. It was. It was really crazy. And by the time I finally said to her, I said, okay, my Last day is July 23rd. So either you work something out with me or I'm taking the keys to the kingdom. Because a lot of stuff was still in my head. I mean, I actually was at the time the only one who knew the Instagram password. So, you know, I mean, like, it was just, like, a lot of ridiculousness. And so during that process and there was a lot of legal back and forth and a lot of discussion, it was really taxing. It was like I had lost, like, ten pounds. I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping. I just wanted a fair exit. I wanted to be able to leave and not disappoint my team and not disappoint my community that relied on me. And I didn't want to just disappear. I think they would have loved for me to have just, like, disappeared and that's it. But, like, you can't do that when you're the face of a company. It's weird. And it would look really bad on them. And also it would have looked bad on them with Target and Nordstrom and all of their clients. So during that time was really the stressful time for me. And that was like, kind of when, like, I was just so upset with the whole thing. And then afterwards, when I left was a little bit, when I call it my sitting shiva period, right? Like, I really was, like, having to deal with the fact that I had left and what am I gonna do and all that stuff now. When they finally got rid of the brand in the beginning of 2023, it happened kind of oddly, too, in a matter of two days. Two of my really close work colleagues had said to me, well, they first. They laid off everyone in the beginning of 2023. And we helped my last colleague get a job at an amazing company within the space. And she and another colleague of mine reached out to me within, like, 24 hours of each other and said, do you know that the Bump Club stuff is gone? And it was really like, one of them went online to, like, grab a picture or grab a logo or something from the website, and that's how we found out that it was gone. And, you know, it was sad. It's like an end of an era. And I think that. I just think it was so mishandled because to them, it was nothing. You know, you have these big corporate behemoths. They could give a shit about anyone, anything. But, like, this was my livelihood. It was a brand that I built. And I made a post about this and I said, it doesn't matter that it's not there. Like, the millions of memories that we made with so many people and the friendships and the relationships and the connections, like, Bump Club will always be a part of this generation of parents, and I'm so proud of it. The one thing that is so annoying is that there's no footprint of it anywhere. Like, I mean, you can. You can Google it, and there's press releases and news articles and TV shows, but there's no website, there's no social media. And it's kind of a waste. Like, I can't believe that anyone would get rid of, like, an Instagram account that had 75, 85,000 people, or a Facebook account that had 200,000 people. Like, that's such a waste to just get rid of. And that's kind of just what made me sad, is that they didn't sell it off. They didn't do something with it, and it just was gone one day.

Looking back on the entire experience, would you have played your hand any differently?

You know, I think the one thing that I would do I would have done was I would have shopped around the business a little more and maybe look to see if there were other people who were interested. Now, had I done that, I might have missed my window of opportunity and I might have never been able to sell the business before COVID So I don't know. It's really hard to say, right? Like, the timing was right. The world we were living in was crazy and upside down. That would have been the one thing. And I think the other thing that I would have done differently is I really felt like they rushed me. They really rushed me. And the woman who sold Scary Mommy, actually, Jill Smokler, I had her on my podcast. And the one thing that she said to me in terms of advice, and I always give this to people who are selling their business, is that if someone wants you, the ball's in your court and you need to take your time. And I felt really rushed by it, and I felt like there was a sense of urgency and I would. I wish I would have slowed down a little bit. I. I think I could have gotten a couple of different things in my favor had I done that. And I don't know. But again, hindsight's 20 20. I do not regret it, though.

Yeah, there's a. A great book called how to Sell youl Business for an Unreasonable Price or something like that. And there's four. You know, run a competitive process, have a competitive advantage, hire a qualified investment banker, and then keep your mouth shut as a founder. Like, those are the four things that I remember from that. But that being said, there's been some wonderful deals and some great partnerships built by picking the right strategic partners. So. And regardless if you run a process, that doesn't mean that you would have picked any differently or you would have, you know, you'd have had a better. Any better outcome than you already did. Well, what a great testimony to building a great brand and winning with it and then also to kind of stick in the landing and getting paid. And now you've been able to use that in not only the experience, but probably your resources to have some optionality and choices in your life to be able to build what you're doing now. So, Lindsay, share a little bit with us about your business today, if you don't mind.

Of course. So, Lindsay Pinchuk, Marketing and Consulting is my business, and brands big and small hire me to come in and really overhaul their whole organic marketing strategy. I don't do paid marketing. I don't do SEO. I don't do that. I do Organic marketing. So all of those things that I talked about in the beginning, social media, website emails, events, partnerships and publicity, and it's all surrounding the brand's community. So I come in and I work with them and their team on how to implement an effective strategy for growth. And I've worked with some really incredible clients, dozens of clients. And then from that, I also have had a lot of smaller founders or newer founders or solopreneurs who have wanted to work with me. So I have started a one on one mentoring program as well. That is not consulting. It's me coming in and meeting with people a couple times a month, telling them what to do and going over their homework that I give them. And so that's essentially what I do. And then I podcast as well and I share the stories of female founders of our time, like really amazing founders. I've had Bobby Brown on, I've had Dr. Becky Kennedy on, I've had Ariel K, I had Joanna Griffiths from Nick's. She sold her business for $320 million. Just really amazing women who have empowered my community. And as we move into 2024, I'm really, my goal is to harness that community a little bit more. I've started hosting in person events in Chicago for women in business. They've been wildly successful. We've only had two, and we've outgrown the spaces already. And as we move into next year, I'm going to be launching a new program, which I told you ahead of time, I'm still deciding on what the name is, but it's coming soon, so I need to decide.

But do you know any marketing people that could help you pick a name?

Funny you should ask me that though, because I have all these names and one of my very best friends is also a solopreneur. She's a writer and we brainstorm all the time together. Which is so important when you have your own business to have that village of people around you. Right. And so I called Samantha today and I was like, can we please talk about this? And so she and I are. She's helping. You know, sometimes you just need that, you know, that other voice that others, you know, you need that other opinion, especially when it's something about you. It's, I think, the hardest to market your own stuff and to come up with your own, your own creative juices. Right, Right. So. But I'm really excited what I'm about to launch. It's an online group mentorship where you have access to all of my resources, my ebooks, My checklists courses and we're doing three monthly strategy calls, group strategy calls together and really just it's an extension of your marketing team or it could be your marketing team. For those people who are solopreneurs. I'm just finding that a lot of women business owners who are solopreneurs or only have one or two team members do not have time to market. They don't know how to market. A lot of them are really insecure with social media. And so I'm really working to make marketing simple. That's my whole tagline is like, let's make marketing simple and make it easy. It doesn't have to be complicated. You don't need a million followers, you don't need a million dollar budget. There are things that you can do to set up your processes to really build and grow your business effectively simply.

So you are consulting and advising and very similar path. When I sold my business in 2019, I got involved with a lot of different things, but in a, you know, basically walking into the door and saying, hey, look, I'm going to invest, I will consult, I will advise and I will leave. And you know, I had to get comfortable with myself. I had a great coach and a mentor and basically said you need to, you need to value your, your knowledge and you need to get paid for what you know and you need to value your intellectual property. And so it sounds like we're kind of on a similar path. And then about two and a half years in and about two and a half years ago. By the way, my non Compete is up January 1st.

So is mine.

Hey, we have been, we, Lindsay, we have been living parallel lives, parallel lives. And we're both. Well, you're from Detroit, I'm from Chicago. So it would be weird if I now lived in Detroit and you now lived in Chicago, but that's not the way it is. So do you think in the future that you might operate a business again other than you are operating a consultancy in an advisory business? Do you think that you would say, you know what, you get a client, they've got this great idea, you love their energy, you can bring something to the table, they've got something that you can leverage and that you can help them make great. Do you think that is possible or are you going to stay where you are with your career?

You know, I think that anything is possible. And someone asked me this the other day and I said for the right opportunity, if I was really passionate about it, I would absolutely entertain, you know, going to work somewhere full time if it was the right thing. But there would be caveats, right? Like, if I'm going to work for someone or go help another business, I still want to have my podcast. I still want to be able to, you know, to. To take on projects if I have time, if they don't impede on what I'm doing. So, you know, I think anything is possible. And I would never want to say, no, I'm never going to work for anyone else or, you know, take run another business. You know, I hope that I continue to run my own business. And that's really the goal with Dear Found her and all of these events I'm starting to host. Truly, it's starting to look a little bit like Bump Club for female founders, but, you know, and so I don't know what's going to happen there. I've had some sponsors who have been interested in sponsoring our events and sponsoring my podcast, and that's really how I built Bump Club. I'm really trying to leave doors open. And, you know, this is like, this is the part of my life where I feel like I should be doing what I love and I should be happy every day. I was so unhappy at the end of the time at Bump Club, and my kids felt it, I felt it. It was a strain on everyone, and I just want to be happy and I want to be able to show up for my kids. Everything I do is for my girls, and I want them to be proud of me and I want to be present for them. So to answer your question, I think anything's possible. But for right now, in this moment, I am really happy taking on projects and consulting and watching other businesses succeed.

Because of my guidance, podcasting is accelerating, and you have a great one. Can you share a little bit about your experience in starting that podcast and maybe what you've learned along the way?

Yeah, absolutely. My podcast was not. I knew it would be a marketing vehicle for me, but I never, ever expected it to do for me what it has. So basically what I did was in 2021, in the fall, I put out a trailer and I started interviewing people. I really started interviewing people in my network, and I had a vast network of female founders that I knew from my past life, and they were all happy to interview with me. And In January of 2022, after talking about the podcast and I really hyped it up a lot, and people were excited about it, I dropped four episodes on the first day, and my intention was that I was going to do one a week and what ended up happening was when I dropped these four episodes and all four of the guests shared. They were all big guests. One of them was me. Like, I had someone interview me. But the other three had huge followings, and within minutes, I was getting pitches in my inbox for amazing women to come on the show. I also had 20 episodes in the can that I needed to push out. And so I started dropping two a week. And, you know, I really. I've learned so much from my guests. I did not do a solo episode until probably, I don't know, six or six or eight months in. But what I have found is that it's very similar to Bump Club. Showing up as myself, sharing my experiences, just like you have in this conversation with me has really let people into my knowledge and my experience and my life. And people trust me and they know that what they see is what they get. And they show up every week for me. My guests have hired me. I've had many of my guests hire me. I've had many guests refer me to other female founders. A lot of these women have so many people in their network as well. And then I've had listeners who have hired me for mentorship and who have taken my classes. And it really happened very naturally, I think, similar to Bump Club. It wasn't forced. It was like I built the community and I built my trust and authority, and now I'm starting to put products out and people are naturally buying them because they trust me and they know that I am who I am when I show up. The podcast journey does not have to be a difficult one. I think a lot of people overcomplicate it, and all you need is a mic and a computer and someone to help you, and there are plenty of people out there who you can hire that will not break the bank. And it's a really great medium to get into people's ears and. And to really target your community and who it is that you want to reach and talk to them. And, I don't know, I wanted to be a journalist before I was anything. And so this is really allowing me to fulfill that passion, but it's also coming back to help me with my business. So it's really been an amazing journey.

What an advantage for you to have this community marketing mind because you naturally, I would think, create the content that is going to be tailored and navigated towards the community that you're looking for. Although I will say, as we've. We've only been doing the podcast for six months and we've Been turning kind of Blue Ocean strategy on it and now we have numbers to look at and say and try to discern, you know, who's listening, why they're listening, how long people are listening. We're making tweaks about the intro and you know, trying to make sure that we're using best of class standards and practices like that. And then we're trying to figure out like where we go from here with it. So we're really in a heavy, heavy learning phase of it. But we're shocked like to your point at the level of guests that we've been able to have on the show has been really crazy. And also, you know, from, I mean we didn't get the response that you got with dropping your four episodes. I mean, I think we had like eight downloads, you know, the first couple episodes. I mean it really was, wasn't a lot and then, and you know, we had some great. We're probably going to re release some of those. I mean we had Kara golden, the founder of Hint Water and yeah, she was amazing.

She's an amazing guest.

Amazing. And we had Stacy Madison, Stacy's pita chips on that. And you know, they were so early in the process they probably didn't get the play. So I think we're probably gonna, you know, recut.

Did they share?

What's that?

Did they share?

Yeah, yeah, they did and you know, and the networks helped with it. But now like it's, I mean we, we have across multiple platforms, we've got a lot going on. I mean we're in top and we vacillate between like top 36 and 40 on Apple Podcasts. That's awesome for entrepreneurship. And we were doing much better on YouTube and we're figuring it out on TikTok. So. But it is a, it is a, you know, when you really get down, like any business, you get down to the fine tuning of it. You go from, you know, considering eight or ten variables down to, you know, now there's a hundred little things that matter. Whether it be the thumbnail or, you know, the intro. How long does it take? You know, we just had a little kind of 3 second intro made to try to create a connection between, you know, oh, this is a On the Homefront podcast coming at you. They see that, they see it, they hear a little noise and something and then, you know, they're going to give us, they'll give us 10 seconds to see if we can get their attention or whatever. So it's fascinating and you know, it's been A really interesting journey. And I will agree with you that it's a very, very powerful medium. Now yours I'm not. I've listened to a couple of the episodes, but I don't know how similar they all are. But, you know, we're a franchise business and we're, you know, so there's a whole franchise ecosystem. But we've only had by count of our 40 episodes, only four have been franchising related people to it. Because our position was we wanted to build a broader audience, so we're trying to be more mainstream, you know, so comedians are booked in, scientists, DNA specialists, founders with great founder stories, people like you with a great founder story, and now, you know, another business. So I think that, you know, we're still learning who we are as a podcast, but, you know, wherever it ends up, you know, it's been worth doing and we're having a good time with it. So your business today in terms of working with people in this capacity, is this work that you self perform. Do you have other people that are experts in things that they do and you can use them for different parts of it and refer them into your clients for things that they need? How do you deliver services to your clients?

So when a client hires me, they hire me. I am the person who's going to create the strategy. I am the person who's going to start executing the strategy. But there might be people I need to call in for copywriting or for graphic design or, you know, a lot of times, a lot of times actually people will hire me and they'll say, I have an assistant running my social media. And then when I get in to work with them, we realize that the assistant really is not the person who should be running social media or the intern should not be running the social media. That's a huge no, no. And so I have a lot of freelance social media managers that I. Is your. Does your intern.

I just looked at my social media person with a.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

But she is amazing.

If you have a good one. Okay, let me rephrase that. If you have a good one, that is great. But what I have found is that there are a lot of companies who like, will hire a summer intern or a seasonal intern to do their social media. And that's not going to be the person to do your social media at this point of the game. That was how it was run 10 years ago. And so I have a lot of different freelance social media managers that I can bring in fractional so people don't have to Make a full hire. So I do have people that I look to that I bring in, depending on what the project is.

Sure.

It really depends what the project is. I have a web designer I like to work with. I have a lot of clients who end up needing their websites redone. So there's a lot of different pieces to this, and when I need to, I will bring someone in, but I am the one who manages the whole thing. I put my stamp of approval on everything. I create the strategy, and oftentimes, especially if I'm working in social media with them, I will actually create like, 20 to 30 different posts for my clients so that we use those as teachings and as examples of how I'm going to teach their team how to implement my strategy through my own process.

Awesome. Of all your female founder guests on the podcast, is there anybody that comes to mind that has been particularly inspiring for you?

They are all very inspiring to me.

Okay, I saw that politically correct answer coming out. But if you had to pick. But if I had to pick one.

No, I will. I will give you one. I have. This is actually a really crazy story. I love to ride my peloton, and I'm. I will share this with her after because now we're friends, so I love my peloton. And throughout my whole time of when I was trying to decide if I was going to leave Bump Club, it was Covid. And I would ride with Jen Sherman, and my best friend would say to me, like, you and this Jen Sherman are like the same person. It is crazy. Like, you guys are going to be friends one day. I just know it.

I saw that. And I knew, by the way, I saw that you had. Had. Had her on.

I've had her three times. I mean, she. I've hit her on three times, but she. She. I don't even know how I got. I got to her through one of her. She has a PR person who helps her with things, and I happen to know her, and I saw that in her profile. This girl's email was in the profile. And I emailed the girl and I said, hey, it's been a while since we worked together at Bump Club, but here's what I got going on. Would Jen want to be on my podcast? And within minutes, she said, yeah. She said, sure. And so Jen and I get on the podcast and we have this great episode. And at the end, she says to me, I'd love for you to come ride with me. And, you know, a lot of people throw out empty promises and empty invitations. This was not an empty invitation. Jen followed up on the invitation, and I ended up going to the studio in New York, and I rode with her, and we met in person, and we have become very good friends. I talk to Jen a couple times a week. She's referred me to clients, which is amazing. And I'm gonna see her next week when I'm in New York. But she's so inspiring to me because when I was going through this whole process, like, she was the one who was yelling at me, JFDI on the bike. I didn't even know her at the time, and she's still yelling JFDI at me today. And I just. I'm really thankful to our friendship and that this podcast brought us together. Like, it's really wild. What can happen.

How big of stars are some of these people on Peloton? I know that my wife rides. She loves some of the people that she just really connects with these people. I mean, so this person has her own publicist and her own PR company.

She does. She does not have a publicist. She has someone who helps her with partnerships.

Okay.

So. And that's the person that I know. But a lot. But a lot of her colleagues do have publicists or representation.

Okay. And then they endorse products on social media because they have. What's. What would be an example of a. Of a large following for somebody like this?

I mean, you look at, like, someone like Ali Love or Tundi. I mean, I think. I don't know what their followings are, but, like, they, like. Ali Love, for example, is a peloton instructor who is now on the Today show regularly. She is a regular correspondent. She's a regular correspondent in the third hour on the Today Show. And that's. I mean, that's, I think, a really big deal.

So we talking millions of followers or hundreds of thousands?

I think so I'd have to look. Some of them, I think, have millions. Like, I think Cody has over a million. I. You know, it's funny because I'm not, like, super, super ingrained in the peloton community. I love my peloton, and Jen and I have become friends. But, like, yeah, I'm not like, there are people who are, like, live and die for Peloton, and that is not really. That's not really me. I actually don't love to work out. It's a struggle for me.

Yeah, it's. It's. I mean, to me, it's just amazing, you know, and we just had our. Our first conference for Homefront Brands it was called homecoming with 260 people there. It's, it was an amazing experience. Probably it was the best vibe of any conference that I've ever experienced. I'm very excited about it. And one of the things we talked about is building an audience and all of the different ways that we're going to build an audience for this brand. I mean, we rolled out a partnership with Carson Scholars, Ben Carson, Candy Carson's charity, where we're going to be building reading rooms in schools across the country, Operation Homefront, helping transitioning veterans and you know, all the PR around, things like that. And then, you know, but like, I mean, we had 260 people in the room. That should be at least 500 social media posts from the event. We do a lot of interviews and articles. We're doing podcasting, encouraging our franchisees to get, get on podcasts in their local towns and communities. It's amazing, like the groundwork that people can do to build an audience now without spending dollars just investing time and doing the right things and making the right clicks. And then when somebody does build an audience, like a peloton instructor or even the girl that said catch me outside on Dr. Phil, who now I think has made millions of dollars on that, it's, you know, once you have the audience, it can be monetized in so many different ways directly. But even more so if you have a product or a service that is not, you know, I'm not, I'm a, I'm not a social media influence where you're going to pay me to post something, but you get an, you get a following and you get an audience, but then you have another business that you're directing people's attention to. It's just, it's fascinating and it's really interesting how almost anyone can take a.

Stab at it 100%. And one of the things that I want to say about that is there's one word that I would have you change if, if, if I had you change a word. And it's the word audience. Because I don't look at my audience as an audience. I look at them as a community. And that's actually what I teach. And a community is different than an audience. An audience consumes. Like when you're in an audience at a movie you're watching, you're not interacting. You know, when you're in an audience at a play you're watching, you're not interacting. But when you are marketing to a community, it's a two way street. And once you have a community surrounding your brand. You can start asking them to do things for you. So all those things that you were just mentioning, you can start asking them to share your podcast episodes. You can ask them for their opinions on things, you can ask them for testimonials, you can ask them for their email address in exchange for a discount or a deal. So that is like, really the backbone of everything I teach is it's really in the messaging and how you look at the people who follow you as a community. And you don't just get on and post things, but you really engage with them and you converse with them and you leave them voice notes and you really get to know them and they. Then they start to trust you and then you have this community surrounding your brand. So it's interesting. I was brought in by a franchise last October, this amazing franchise called the Tutu school. They have 90 locations. They're kids ballet studios. And they brought me into their summit and I taught a workshop on how to do that. And then I. And then I continued it online with about 15 of them. Afterwards, I created a special workshop just for them and I taught them how to market their business. But it's, you know, it really is like looking at the people who follow you as a community.

The difference between audience and community is subtle but significant. And when I gladly put in my contact information, email, whatever it is, it's somebody that I'm excited to do it because I've gotten something from them, they've given something free. It's made a difference in my life, and I gladly give them my information and have them send me stuff where other times, if I, if it's. If I'm just. If I'm not connected in that way, I won't put my information in at all. I'm just not interested in doing it. So that's important. That's very insightful. Thank you for sharing that.

Of course.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, what is next for you? Is there anything more specific that you'd like to share about your upcoming group mentorship program that you're going to be rolling out online?

Yeah, so it's rolling out the week of Thanksgiving, so that's which it's like all built. I just am trying to, like I said, figure out the name for it. Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think that anyone who needs help with marketing any small. It's really, really for small business owners who have lean teams and no time, they will have this group to look at as an extension of their team. And essentially you can keep it open all day. Long. You can ask questions of each other, of me, and really have a lot of access to great resources to make marketing simple. And that's really just what I want. I mean, I want people to understand exactly what you just said, that there are, yes, so many different ways that you can put the boots on the ground, but it's really just building the process and following the process and having the right tools in place and following them and having a little support along the way. And that's what my group mentorship is going to be giving to the members.

And it's a member monthly membership model.

It's a monthly membership model. You could also pay annually. And I'm going to be allowing a few lifetime members in the beginning that will also get one on one mentorship with me throughout the first year.

Okay, what time does that drop? Because I'm gonna make sure we get.

That it drops on November 20th.

Do I have to stay up all night? Like 12:01am no, but thank you.

That's a really nice compliment. I appreciate it.

I'd love to be in it. And we have different levels of membership, or is it a one membership gets it all?

You know, as of right now, we're doing. I'm gonna do a founding membership. It's gonna be the lowest price I'm ever gonna offer, and after the first week, it's gonna go up. So I did a survey last week, and it was really, you know, I love to survey. I love asking people questions and using that information. And I've been surveying since my very first event at Bump Club. And what I found in this last survey is I had 90% of the respondents say, I need help now, and which is like, very, like, oh, my God. And they all basically said, I would pay a month monthly fee to be in a mentorship with you to do this. I mean, it was like over 70% said yes. So, you know, I definitely think there's a market for it. And for right now, I'm just gonna keep it easy. Like, you know, I. I'm not like, I. I'm a big. I'm a big believer in putting it out there into the world. And it might not be perfect at first, so we're gonna keep it simple. One membership. And maybe later I'll add some levels and add some bells and whistles and we'll see. But the founding members are always going to get everything because they're going to be the ones that take the chance on me first.

Well, Alex or Mozzie build the community, then make the offer?

Yeah, absolutely.

Lindsay, if you had one sentence to make an impact in someone's life, what might that be?

Just be yourself. Just be yourself.

Just be yourself.

Yeah. And, you know, and I, I don't know if you're going to want to share this or not, but I had a real, I've had a really eye opening experience over the last month. I, I've never been one to not be myself. I've never been one to not stand up for what I believe in. But over the last month on social media, I really have stood up for myself. I am a Jewish American woman and, you know, a lot of people said to me, like, how many followers have you lost? And I have lost five or 600. But okay, like, to me, I don't care. I've gained over 2,500. And it just really goes to show that when you show up as yourself, the right people gravitate towards you. And also within those 2,500 new followers, I have had more requests for my services than ever before. And when you are yourself and you show up as yourself and you don't hold back, the right people gravitate towards you and the right people want to work with you and the right people are surrounding you. And so no matter what it is that you believe in or whatever it is that you're doing, there's just, you just have to be yourself. Period. End of story. No apologies.

Be unapologetically. You love it. Thank you so much, Lindsay. I've really enjoyed this. Thank you so much for being on the home front with us today and for investing your time with us.

Thank you so much for having me and for investing your time with me.

Absolutely. Take care.