Conversation with Natalie Bacon | Ep #99

Hey, I'm Chris Plackey, host of the Lead you'd Team podcast. Running a million dollar business is not easy. And whether you're just getting started with building your team or you've been at this for a while, I'm going to bring you honest, specific and clear practices you can use right now, today to improve how well you lead your team. Let's go ahead and get.

Foreign.

Welcome.

Welcome to this episode of the podcast. So what we thought would be kind of fun is to have an interview today for you with Natalie Bacon, who is a life coach. She is amazing and lovely and has a beautiful business and program called Grow you where she helps high performing and high achieving women. You know, moms and women who are really needing to invest in themselves and do the work of really exploring who they want to be and what they want to create in the world in a way that feels authentic to them, focusing on self care and confidence, relationships, goal setting, family dynamics, you name it. All of that is in the work that Natalie does. And she's just, I just. The word I keep wanting to say is lovely. She has a wonderful spirit about her and we had this really interesting intersection which we talk about in the podcast. But Natalie is a client also just is wrapped up participating in the How To CEO program. So we spent some time in this interview talking about her and her business and her evolution and growth as a CEO. She's just coming up on that million dollar mark. So she, many of you, I imagine, can identify with those struggles of scaling and adding people and needing a lot of people to help you, not necessarily people, but responsibilities and need more help. And yet, you know, you're still sort of growing and don't have all the revenue and all those pieces. So she shares some great insight about being in the How To CEO program. What she took away, what she learned. And as we're talking about this here, the first part of January, we're going to be opening up registration for the how to CEO starting on January 20th. This is the time now to, if you've been planning on it and thinking about it, this will be your opportunity to join me and work with me. So I hope that the conversation that Natalie and I have helps you with that decision and helps you move forward to figure out if this is what you want to invest in here at the beginning of the year, both for you and your team and your business. So let's turn it over to the conversation I have with Natalie. Let's get started right now.

Hey Natalie, thank you so much for.

Being here on the podcast today, I am honored. Thank you so much for having me.

Oh, I'm thrilled to have you here. So we, our paths have intersected a few times right through life coach school, and I think I have this vague memory of seeing you at a. An event or something from afar. I don't know, I feel like I've seen you in person in as much as I've seen you on Instagram.

That's probably true.

And now here on Zoom Calls. And then we have an interesting story as we were just talking about in the pre show discussion that your marketing firm reached out to me to come on my podcast. And we said, yeah, well, we usually only interview people who are clients. And I said to Michelle, yeah, but I know who she is. I think it'd be an interesting conversation because she's built this really gorgeous business. And then all along you had just registered for the how to CEO program.

Yes. Yes. At the exact same time. I just think it was so serendipitous.

Yeah. It was destiny for us to all be here and talk about all the things. So why don't you first just start off and tell us who you are and what you do and who you help and all the things.

Yes. So my name is Natalie Bacon. I help women and moms over@natalie bacon.com. i'm a life coach. So my bread and butter of my business is a coaching program called Grow youw. It's a membership site. I have a backend program that's a little bit more geared towards business, but generally I'm just helping the women who want to take those personal development podcasts kind of and actually apply it.

Right.

So there's coursework and coaching and all that good stuff. And as I've built that over the last couple of years. And I originally was kind of a money blogger, so I really transitioned my site. Yeah, you didn't know that I did it.

That'll be fun to talk about. We're going to get into that. Okay, go ahead.

Yes. So, yeah, I should say I used to be a lawyer and I had a bunch of student loan debt. And then I started a personal finance blog, which kind of got me familiar with, you know, having an online business in a very small scale, like the extra few thousand a month to pay for those law school loans. And then I got introduced to life coaching and became a life coach and built the business that way. And I would say that most of my journey I haven't felt stuck in a. In a way where I didn't have the next step in front of me or wanting to figure it out until.

Building a team. And I. Because it felt. Just from my experience over the last few months, it felt like it came out of nowhere. And I didn't anticipate wanting or needing the skills to manage and lead in the way that you do with the team. And that's when I really started binging on all of your content and podcasts. And at the time, my business is just under a million. About 500k. To me, that feels like just under a million.

Yeah, of course it is. Yes.

Right. And that is when I really decided I need help more than just your podcast. And it was such perfect timing. You had just come out with how to CEO, and I didn't even get through the entire webinar with you. And I bought. Like, I'm in.

That's what I need. Yeah. I think it's really great that you were able to be honest with yourself about that. I think I work with a lot of clients who sort of have a tantrum about having to deal with a team or manage a team or figure that out, and so they delay getting help. They don't want to have to deal with it. Yeah. They don't want it to be complicated or hard. And so good for you for kind of diving in. And I didn't know you were a money blogger. So you went to law school.

Yes.

Were you going to do any particular kind of law?

Were you? Yeah, So I was a lawyer. I worked at a law firm. I. Yep. I did corporate law.

Okay.

And I didn't even mind the work. It's just a certain lifestyle when you work at a really big law firm that, you know is different than I wanted to really live. But I. I had a really great job by lawyer standards. I didn't hate it. It's just working nonstop and kind of feeling like it doesn't really end ever so well.

It's all about really. Right. Like getting on the partnership track. And, I mean, that's where the illustriousness and the money is. Right.

Yep. Absolutely.

Yeah.

And I thought, well, let's learn some things about money. And so then I did.

Yeah. And then you blogged about that.

Yes, and then I became a cfp. I left that part out in the short story.

Oh, okay. Yes. Fair enough. So you were helping people with their money.

Yes.

And then that's when you realize all of the problems people have in their brains.

Yes. And I realized. Right. Well. And I realized how you create money is not the same as managing. And so I decided you can create money doing anything, any way you want to provide value to the world. It doesn't have to be money management. You could do it in a number of ways. So I decided to do the life coaching route because that just resonated so much more with me and how I wanted to serve the world. And then I realized that you can't just do it all on your own.

Well, you can, but you only make so much.

And if you try to fight that, you sacrifice your own energy. Because I actually enjoyed a little bit of the hustle in the beginning because it was like my baby and my side hustle. And then you have it as your own business. And you're like, okay, the money's really nice, but I'm still working so much. I want to get this team in place. Like, that's the next step.

So here we sit. Yes. Yes. So here you are. Okay. So I still want to dig in a little bit, though, because, you know, I sort of have this framework I always use in my mind that female entrepreneurs have to develop their relationship with their time, their money, their team, their business and themselves.

Yes, I remember.

Yeah. So your relationship with your money. We were on a coaching call yesterday, and you said, I don't have any problem with money. And I always love when people say that because so many other people have problem with their money. So what do you think? As a woman who's now a CEO of her business, running a successful business, scaling a successful business, what is it that you believe about money? Like you've already said, right, you just create money. But let's just dig into that for a minute. Like, what do you really believe about money? And how do you help other women with that?

I'm curious, so I'll start by answering that about how I have a relationship with my money. It's a really gentle relationship. I take such care of my money, and I appreciate my money, and I never talk bad about my money. I'm very protective of it. It's very funny to tell other people.

It's like you're talking about a baby or a puppy.

That's how I feel. I'm like, I check in on my money. I'm like, oh, good, you're all there. You're doing great. I just have the utmost respect for it. And I have to say, I was not just naturally like this at all. So I do want to say to the person who's not there yet with those money beliefs that if you just keep at it, it will click. But you kind of have to earn that breakthrough, I think. But for me now, and it's not like I have tens of millions of dollars in the bank yet. Right. It's not because of the amount in there. I just choose to hold it in the highest regard and think that it's mine to take care of. But I don't hold too tightly. Like, I like the flow of money. I like to create it, and I like to let it go. Those are the thoughts that serve me. I always think that money is easy to create.

Whenever I reach the next level of money, whatever that is. Right. When I hit 500k or, you know, when I have hundreds of thousands in the bank, like, that's new. Right.

I allow space to increase that capacity because there's a little bit of nerves. Like, I can have this much money. Like, it's like.

Yeah. And for some of us, right. It's like, I should spend it.

Yes.

Right. Versus just the capacity to have. It's funny. Brooke Castillo, who we both know clearly is a good friend of mine, and she and I were having a conversation, and I started making really good money, and I wanted to do my kitchen, and she's like, can you just have the money? Like, why do you got to give your money a job? Right. I know, but I want a new kitchen.

I know. And then it's like allowing space to just want that without actually taking action and spending it right away.

Right.

You're like, you can have the kitchen, but let's just wait a second.

Yeah. And I think that there's a parallel with what we do with people, is we want someone really bad to help us. We're desperate. We're desperate. We're desperate. And then we rush to fill that void in ourselves. And that's when we usually make our worst hiring mistakes. Right. Was when we're in a hurry. So I love everything that you've said. I remember. I think Brooke taught me this. I don't really know, but her.

The thought that I have that I've believed for years is, my money finds me love.

That.

Yeah. Right. And so that way, that also helped me recover from fears about asking people for money. It's like, I'm not asking you for your money. I'm asking you to give me mine.

Yes. One of the thoughts that I love is that money doesn't come from people. It comes through people.

Yeah. That's lovely. Yeah. And when we really focus on that, I think a lot of people cling to it, and they have a hard time with that thought process. But I love that, and then the other one came from Christine Caine, who I studied years ago. That money needs a map.

Interesting.

So you have to give your money arteries to flow. Right. When you don't have good arteries, you don't have money either.

So I will probably learn more about that from Emily Sandberg, who I hired after listening to her in the how to CEO program. Fabulous.

She is. She's one of our guest experts. She's going to be a guest expert again. I saw Amazing going to do the program.

She's so good. She's fantastic. She coached me on such a high level.

Yeah, yeah. She's brilliant. She's wonderful. And everybody needs an Emily. So she's been a huge part of my success. So I really. Oh, there's my puppy. I really love her. Okay, so money is your wheelhouse in terms of just naturally. But then you really also invest in helping women and moms sort of manage their thinking in their minds and be in their overall sort of brain health, wellness. Yeah.

Yes, absolutely. And what I found in the last probably six months with my growth is that my energy has been directed so much more towards the team in a way that I wasn't prepared for, because I'm used to having so much time and space for, like, the content and the vision and the marketing, and I feel really expansive when I think about those topics. I really love them, and I just. I wasn't prepared for what comes with the team. I think you said it once on a podcast episode that, like, we don't realize how much went into us learning our craft. So it's like training someone new on the team without knowing what you've taught me was not working.

Yeah, exactly. It's what's. So. It's so ingrained in you. Right. So. So let's talk about that. How many people do you have on your team right now?

So I have four, plus me, and they're contractors, but they're working. They're doing it. And I will say, yeah. Gosh. One of the biggest shifts that I've had just from doing your program was when I first started, because I've had a few of them for a little while. I really felt like the owner entrepreneur, where I was just delegating work to whoever was free.

Oh, whoever could do it, whoever's available.

Yeah, Right. And no one had roles. No one had responsibilities other than get it done.

Well, there's an advantage to that. Sounds like they were all. They're all generalists. They can all do everything.

Yeah. You know, there is. If someone needs Coverage. There's someone else there. There's a loom video.

Right. But the downside of that, and you kind of said it in the program, was I'm the one then who will always be responsible for everything.

Yeah. For directing it and managing it and oversight. Yeah.

Yes. And I felt that. And I have to say, it's so fun to go through programs. If any of you listening, like a good program to consume. Right. We all love that. But there was a point about halfway through the program where I said, I have got to do the work, do the program. Right. And more than just getting coach, which is fun too, but like actually implement it. And I scheduled a full week, probably a full 40 hours of just redoing everything he did.

Job descriptions.

Yes, Job descriptions. With. Everyone has their own responsibility, Doc. And it was a lot of work. It was so worth it. I feel like a weight has lifted. Not because task items are done, but because now I feel like I see the business differently in a way that it's just a bunch of roles put together.

Yeah.

You can make up the roles or move them around. And I was like, even I'm just a role, like having that light bulb moment that my business isn't actually a part of me. And being a little bit more detached was so freeing. It's hard to.

It's so powerful. Well, it's. You know, it's like we talked about on the call yesterday. Right. We were talking to. I think it was Nancy. Right. She was like, how do you. Even when you're so overwhelmed and you have so much going on, how do you even have time to hire someone and then train them? It's just easier for me to do it myself. I was talking about how we go from me to we to she or he. Right. Whoever the person is that's going to do the work. But that we part, which is what you're constructing. Right. You were me when you first started in the program. Now you're transitioning into we, which is when part of that we is not just the team, it's the business. The business gets a seat at the table now, whereas before you were the only representative of the business. Right?

Yes. And I love it because it puts less. I know personally some of the people who work for me, which has been a learning experience as well. It's so fun. But to make sure I don't have extra head drama in there. This has helped so much because it's less about making sure they're happy or even worse, like making sure they like me or attempting to make sure they're happy with me, it's like, no, this is just what the business needs.

Exactly.

And that is so freeing in a way that's really hard to say without going through it well.

And I would imagine it's better for them too, Right. Because it's not as. I mean, you get to keep the personal connections with people. That doesn't change. It just makes everything clearer. Everybody knows how to win and success is clearly defined. And the whole leadership operating system that we teach, right around your vision and your values and your expectations and your team culture, building that business brain so that when things don't go the way that you want, you have built it already. So you're not relying on your own judgment and your emotional stability in the moment. Right. Like, oh, no, let me remember, I wrote out their responsibility deck, so that's somewhere for me to reference.

So good, so helpful. I can't even tell you how full it is because it just creates that separation that wasn't there before. And they love it.

Yeah.

It also helped them realize, you know, we don't have processes for these things because then they got so good at it. Right. If they've been there, you know, and I want them to take time off and other people, like, life events happen. Right. So you want to have it. Have these roles in place where this person's in the role right now, and I hope that she stays forever. Right. But maybe not. And that's okay. Okay, too. It's just like you create this system. Operating system, right. And it works.

I'm like, I told.

I love that it's so simple. It really does work.

Right.

When you do it, it's good. And I want to emphasize too, because I've gotten a couple emails from people who started in the same time you did. And, you know, it's the sheepish kind of like.

I kind of disappeared. I got overwhelmed. I had this happen in my life. All the COVID right? We've had the COVID And there's the shame or humiliation or embarrassment of like, I'm not keeping up or I'm not doing it right. And what I believe about all of this, you know, the blueprint we teach you guys and walk you through, doesn't change. It doesn't matter if it takes you 12 weeks or 6 months or 12 months or whatever.

That shame and that humiliation, that worry that I didn't do it right is not serving you to step in. And so just to your point, if you can carve two days out of your schedule and just Plow through it and get a lot of things done. That's good news because that's once you've built those responsibility decks in your words or the org chart or the job descriptions or the vision or the values it's built.

Yes, 100%. And I have to say, I didn't do the entire program. Like there's a lot in there. So I just feel really solid with this new foundation. Right, right. Meetings every Monday now, which is so fun. But I'm like, oh, imagine that.

All right.

I know. Like, can I do this? It's so weird, right?

Yeah, it's very, very grown up to the.

But. But it's like, okay, I don't do one to ones yet. We have this thing in Slack where we do open floors. So the next thing I want to start is one to ones. And so I have this framework that you created. And knowing that whatever I want to schedule in at whatever time, I can do ongoing.

Yeah. And as your business grows more of those, sometimes I think when you have four contractors, it may not feel as important as once you have 15 people. And then it's like, okay, wait a minute, I don't know what anybody's doing. I need one on ones regularly. So the frameworks and those fundamentals are there regardless of the size of your business. Because what I love about what I'm listening to in the way that you're talking about it is the way you're thinking about your role, which your role is ultimately the way you think about yourself as the CEO of this business is what's going to drive the team success, which of course will drive all the scalability of your business. I'm curious. We're just finished, right? I mean we have two more weeks of office hours, but technically it's been 12 weeks. What do you think about what you know now? How has this been able to. Outside of the tactics that you've implemented, how has this changed the dynamic of your business?

This work.

When I joined it was at a. It was a high point of stress and overwhelm around the team. I had two people leave and I like right when I had signed up, just coincidentally perfect. Right in the same weekend, like right when I had signed up. So I, you know, and I was taking it so personally. So outside of the tactics, I really felt like I'm not cut out for this or this is too much like, I don't know how. There was kind of that it wasn't self pity, but it was like stuckness a little bit. Right. And now it's so funny. There's, like, this different energy around it where I'm more confident in my role, but it's not dependent on the team's outcomes. It's not dependent on the people I have. So I feel like I understand how the business is supposed to operate on the back end. And there's still that fluidity. Right. I think it's really fun to have, like, a talent development plan and play around. Right. So fun. But I just. I feel like. I get it. I feel like I have stepped into being a leader and feeling confident as a leader, that I just didn't know where to find that confidence from prior to.

That's so good. I love that. No, it is really insightful, too, because that is. You know, I was talking with another client just before this, and she has got somebody on her team that we've been working together for over a year. And this person just. It just keeps always. It just always comes back to this person. And so I had her go through her business, and I'm like, tell me about the processes you have in place for this part of your business, for this. And she went through all of them, and she got to the last one. And I said, so tell me about that. And she's like, oh, I didn't even think about that. That works like clockwork. I said, right, so what we know is that person that's there, that role. You need the role, but the person in the role is the bottleneck for both of those other two parts of your business. And so we know what the role is. We know responsibilities are of that role, but the body in the role is lovely, but not delivering. Right. And so I don't ever, you know, I'm not, like, incredibly clinical about this in terms of how I deal with real human beings, but I do think you have to have that kind of perspective if you're looking at your business as a. As a dynamic organism that needs all its pieces and parts to succeed. And I'm glad those two people quit, because I know what would have happened is you would have needed a lot of coaching because you would have done too much changing to probably make. It wouldn't have worked. Like that's. It's actually good when people leave on their own sometimes.

Yeah. And what I love about having the roles down on paper because I remember thinking, well, I kind of know the roles. It's different when you just think you know the roles in your head versus actually having job descriptions and responsibility docs. And it's such a different certainty about the roles and the org chart right now, I feel so confident in them that that's the standard. And then it's almost like this is what the business needs. And it just takes that sense of making it so personal, which is like the natural tendency, I think, in the. This journey, especially in a service business.

Right. When it really has been so about you and as a coach, I mean, that's. Those are some of the harder ones to transition because it is you, the business initially, but then we build systems for it and then you're not doing it all the time.

Yes. It's so fun.

What would you tell? Like, I talked to someone even today who said, listen, I just don't. I'm never going to get good at this. I'm never going to be good at managing and managing and leading a team, and I don't want to do it.

I would say you don't have to do it full time forever, but you need to learn it, do it for a little while, and then you can bring in help to help you do it.

That's exactly what I told her.

Really? Okay.

That's exactly what I told her. I'm like, listen, this is not a forever deal. But you have to know because I've coached people who did hire people to come in and manage their company for them. That didn't work out so well because they didn't understand anything that person was doing.

Yeah, yeah.

So what you've done is really great because you've invested in yourself and now you know, no matter what you can. The. The example I gave. Right. Is you can always go back and change the tire.

Right.

You don't need to always. You can hire people to change the tire, but you know that if you were stuck with stranded on a highway somewhere, you could take care of it.

Absolutely. And there are still things that I do sometimes, but now it's that, you know, in the future I don't want to be doing, but it's different because now I see, oh, oh, this is my director of marketing hat that I have on now. Like, I don't feel the tension because I'm not thinking in the moment, oh, I shouldn't be doing this. Oh, someone else should be doing it. I'm like, no, I'm just stepping into director of marketing.

I have a role, this role, and this is the role I'm in.

Right.

It's good.

I love it. It works.

That's so fun. So what are. What kind of plans do you have for your business going forward? What are you doing? What's up?

I just started Facebook ads yesterday for the first time.

Exciting. Yeah.

So I'm going to really, I mean, I have a person and I'm working with her. So that's my big focus for the next year. And scaling to a million. Right. I'm getting that, you know, the full time employees and stepping out even more.

You don't even need full time employees. You don't need employees at a million.

Love to hear that.

Just a team.

Yes. Yes.

That's the one thing I have learned, you know, in my own journey is you have to be clear about the kind of business you want. So if you want a big business with employees and benefits and all of the pieces and parts, then build that. Totally built that. Some of us don't want that. I'm speaking personally also. Like I've been, I have managed 250 people. Like I'm good. I don't want that. And so I'm intentionally building my business the way that I want it to be. But your growth, right. So then when you think about where you want to go, have you thought about your talent plan? Because you said you mentioned it. So what kind of bodies and roles you'll need in your business going forward?

Yeah, my biggest tire I'm hoping a year from now is like a full time coo. That COO who I really think I have someone who helps with ops, but not to the level that I think I could have someone in that role for. That's 100% next.

Yeah, that's that. Especially for an online business. That's that obme role, whatever you call them, director of ops that oversees all the pieces and parts. So that's great. So much good stuff. Okay, so you've had quite a winding road. I'll ask you one other question, right? You've gone from lawyer to CFP to life coach to now running a life coaching business as a CEO. Right. Most of the women who listen are women. I just said that out loud. Most of the people who listen to this podcast are women. And so we're going into a new year. This is going to come out, I think the week of the 4th of January. So what should we all be thinking about as women? Leading, making new choices, living our lives? What's your little bit of wisdom?

The first thing that comes to my mind is who do you want to be and what do you want to do? Because I think setting goals is really fun. We just got to be careful not to set them and tie our worth and being an experience to them, especially when we just had a year, like 2020. Right.

Right. So let's set the big goals, but let's attach to them loosely, and let's decide also who we want to be. Like, what kind of values do you want to have and show up?

Yeah, that's so great. I think about that a lot myself as well. It's less about what I achieve and more about who I've become along the way. And am I aligning more and more to that future self that I work very actively to intentionally align with and design and so forth. So I appreciate you saying that. I think 2020. I was talking to another client the other day, and I think a lot of us who are entrepreneurs, we spend a lot of time. Not a lot of time, but a lot of us worry, like, what if I never get another client? What if I run out of money? What if I can't pay my employees? What if I write all the things. We've been so worried. Everybody worries. I have some clients who've been in business 22 years. They say every now and then they're like, I don't know if I'm going to make payroll. It's just a thing. And I'm like, listen, if you survived this last year, we just went through the what if year, so how about we just agree this is magic, that you have a business and you get to do what you want. And sure, you have difficult employees and you have difficult decisions to make, but. But most of the time, it's pretty cool, right? And we got through the what if here, so let's just. Right. Let's leave it sit. Yeah.

Like, let it go and have fun. We made it. We could have some fun this year.

I'm all about fun and lightheartedness and joy and playing and. Yeah, all of it. You're getting married?

Yes.

Going on my 25th wedding anniversary.

So fun. Yeah.

So I have lots of marriage advice.

Perfect. We'll save that for the next episode.

We'll wait for you to ask for it before I give it.

Perfect.

Okay. Thanks for tuning in, and thank you so much, Natalie, for being here today. It's been lovely talking with you. So I appreciate it. So lovely.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

One more thing before you go. In a world of digital courses and online content, I like to work with my clients live. Because I know that when you have someone you can work with, ask questions of and meet with, you're so much more likely to get the success that you want. So head on over to howtoceolive.com to learn more about our very exciting, very exciting, exclusive program just for female entrepreneurs. We'll see you there.