16: Leaving the corporate world behind with online entrepreneur & fitness expert Lindsey Bomgren

And I knew it was going to take time. I just didn't know how much time. But I think in this, over this online space, this Amazon world, we all just think, like, people just like blow up on TikTok or they blow up on Instagram and like, that can happen. But man, is that so rare. Like, this was a slow build. It was consistently showing up, consistently posting, consistently building my email list. Man, we have been grinding for nine years.

This is the Made to Advance podcast. I'm your host, Brian Aulik. We're here to inspire and equip you for your best future. Well, I am so excited about the conversation we have today. Lindsey Baumgren is on and she is the founder of Nourish, Move Love. And they are a health and fitness website that makes incredible workout videos especially for women. In fact, they serve more than 1 million women a year with the videos and other kind of content that they create. And so I'm super excited for the conversation. Lindsay and I met in Florida and the moment I heard just a snapshot of her story, I'm like, I need to hear more. So, Lindsay, welcome to Made to Advance.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

I have been watching your videos steadfastly. Now, I'm going to confess right now it's a little embarrassing and it is. I've got a routine. I do, I lift weights, I do some other stuff, I ride a bike, I treadmill, all that. And I've. But I feel like I'm getting healthier just watching your team. I mean, I feel like something's happening inside me. So I've. But I've, I've. I've shared your videos with a number of people because I feel like they are just so good. And you know what's cool is your spirit is so good about as you're shooting, you can just feel you coming out through the video. So I love it.

Oh, well, thank you. I mean, yeah, that's the goal is they're free for a reason. We want as many people to just have access to free, free, accessible fitness content as possible.

Well, I would love to hear just the whole kind of journey of how you got into this. Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're located, maybe your family and then, and then we'll kind of get into the journey with your interest in fitness and whatnot.

Yeah. So I am located in Minneapolis, Minnesota area and I live with my husband and our three kids. We got some youngins. We just got a seven year Old. A four year old and a one year old. Yeah. So we're busy. Fortunately, I started my business before I had children. I don't know if I would have undertook it with kids already in the queue. I started my business nourishment love in 2015. That's when my husband. I got married. I got on his health insurance and I was like, I'm out leaving the corporate world.

Yeah.

And that's when I started my business basically and took it to the online space. And then. So it's been almost nine years this year, which is just wild to think about, but so much has happened in nine years.

Were you always really passionate for fitness? I know you were a college athlete, but was being a college athlete and being competitive in that way is much different than generally like equipping people for more of a healthy lifestyle? So was this always something that was really a big deal to you?

Yeah, I mean, I loved health and fitness my whole life. Like you said, I played sports, went on to play in college, and then kind of graduated from that and went to a desk job. And it was like the first time my life fitness was no longer a priority and it kind of fell to the back burner and I didn't love it. I didn't love sitting at a desk for eight. Um, so I got into marathon running and then I got stress fractures. Then I got into strength training, and then I got into fitness competitions. And that's when I really was like, I love fitness. Went back on my own to just like get my personal training certifications for my own knowledge. And then I found the group fitness studio. I started taking classes at the gym and was like, I want to be one of those teachers. And I was doing. And then I kind of advanced into sales. I loved sales. I did medical sales. I love the idea of how hard I work equates to what I earn because I had a desk job and I always felt like I was a hard worker. And sitting at a desk job with people who were potentially not working as hard as me and making the same amount of money as me was hard for me. And so I know I'm a hard worker. I knew I always wanted to kind of do my own thing. I just didn't know what that looked like. And then I found the group fitness studio and I loved being on that stage. I loved teaching classes, and it was just my passion came out. But you can only make so much money and you can only teach so many classes a week, and it's just not a sustainable career. So I was doing it on the side of teaching or of sales, but I knew that in some way, shape or form I wanted to eventually make that my career. And so taking it to the online, online space was how I did that.

I love that you, you started seeing that passion coming out early on. That's such a big deal. And I always just tell, tell people, pay attention to your passion, pay attention to what you, you naturally want to think about, dream about, give your time to when you're thinking about what you want to do and that's really what you were doing. And I mean, even if you didn't necessarily know exactly where it was all going to take you, you were taking steps in the direction of your passion all the way through from certification on. I remember when I was once watching somebody preach and this happened a couple times in particular, I just had this sense of what they're doing right now, I feel like is what I was made for. And I feel like when I hear you talking about watching other people lead, you were having a similar revelation of that. What they're doing right now, that's, that's where I want to be. So that's, that's so cool. When. So you launched in 2015, was there a specific time when you really knew? Okay, I mean, when, how, how did the, did, did the nourish move love idea come up? Was that way earlier or was it a work in progress as you were thinking about training? I mean, how, how did it all originate?

Yeah, so I was in sales, medical device sales, and I had a lot of contacts with employee health because I was doing trainings on how to use these overhead ceiling lifts I was selling and equipment I was selling to nurses. And so originally I was going to do corporate fitness and I was like, I into these hospitals and do classes with all these nurses with staff. And that was kind of my original envision. And originally it was like moxie strength and nutrition when I was initially starting. But then I just, I saw all these food bloggers in the online space and I don't know. Have you ever heard of or read the book Blue Ocean Strategy?

I've heard it talked about so many times that I feel like I've read it, but I unfortunately cannot claim to have read it.

Okay. So I read that book just part of my sales. I've always been like a kind of a self help book junkie. Love that stuff. And so I read that book and it just was like talking about how you look at different industries and you can take that and apply it and I was like, how are all these food bloggers making money just sharing free recipes and how do I do that to fitness? And no one else is doing that in fitness. And still to this day, really no one else is doing that in fitness. And that's what we decided to do. So I set out basically to create a blog for fitness and do workout videos. Not the smartest business idea because food bloggers just took a picture. At the time, video wasn't as popular. They were taking a picture, sharing a recipe. Everybody eats, not everybody works out. I have to film a video, not take a picture. And it took a lot longer for me to monetize. So was it the smartest? I don't know. Did it work out? It did.

Well, when you say, okay, so I remember when we were talking live in Florida at that conference you mentioned, hey, the people who make workout videos were doing similar things, you know, ish when it comes to videos. But just now you said not a lot of people are doing. So help me understand what you meant by that when you said not a lot of people are doing specifically what as compared to other people who make videos for working out.

Yeah. So in the fitness space kind of you are either a YouTuber, right? Which is where we also lie, where you're giving away just free workouts on YouTube and that's your main platform. So we did that. That's our secondary platform. Or you have an app and you're selling memberships to your app or you know you have some type of like ebook you're selling or something of that nature. But typically it's an app or a YouTuber or you're like personal trainer slash in the online space. And so we basically took like a more of an editorial approach. We set up a blog. So we're very search engine based, so SEO, search engine optimizations. We're looking for what you're typing into Google. So best strength training exercises, best at home workouts, pregnancy workouts for women, postpartum workout plan, things that women are typing into Google search. So we are competing with like basically my competition is like the Women's Health, the Shape magazine, Men's Health, Men's Fitness, bodybuilding dot com. That's who I'm competing against because we're all search driven based. So while I'm filming what you might think is a 30 minute full body workout, and that's what we'll title it maybe on YouTube for the blog. It's seven best strength training exercises for women at home. Very specifically optimized for that keyword and that's how people find us. So we are making the majority of our revenue. It's all free content. Our revenue is coming from getting eyeballs to my site because we have ads that run on our site.

Oh, gotcha. That makes tons of sense and I appreciate you just educating me like that. So. So okay, so you're. I'm getting back to kind of the origin story side of things. You're thinking about the whole idea. When do you get clarification on in your own mind and heart? This is the model that I want to launch with. This is the idea.

Yeah. Well when I launched in 2015 I had spent like my life saving so I'm kind of like had you as mentioned like I was taking steps but I wasn't just like didn't just. I did jump into it but I would basically did sales. So I decided to live off my base salary, save all my commission. I had it set aside. I knew I'm going to start the company. When I started the company in 2015, we set out, we were like I was just sharing willy nilly workouts but I actually filmed a DVD series if that's going to date me. Filmed a workout DVD is to sell. Because at the time people were still buying P90X the workout DVDs. I wanted to be the next Tony Horton. And so I was selling these workout DVDs and I was like, well that's not going to get me too far. But at least I had a product or I had something to give people while I was building up this free content on the side. And then fortunately the DVDs kind of like led me to meet people because I actually ended up selling that whole program that I filmed on DVD to someone else, an online publisher who was had an app at the time. She took all my DVDs then I started filming workouts for her. I mean I was doing anything, you name it. I was freelancing, I was shopping for people, meal planning for people. I was freelance writing for Women's Health magazine. And I was now I'm like competing against myself in these articles that I wrote as a freelancer. And then I was a perfect size medium for Target. So I was a fit model for Target. I modeled cat bracelets at 3am on Shop HQ and Evine Live like online shopping networks. I did everything to make it work.

But basically why were you doing all that? I mean was it, was it like so because I want to hit a certain income threshold or was it more like I'm just trying to get in myself in every possible space that will help help the business flourish or why? Why so many different things?

Yeah, I am money motivated so I felt like I needed to have an income coming in. I told my husband I'm quitting my job and then all of a sudden I'm not making any money. And I had this really awesome medical sales job and then I went to nothing. And so. And it takes money to grow a business. And I knew that I didn't just want to like I wanted to hire a videographer. I wanted to get the better equipment, I wanted to do the things. So I wanted to have revenue coming in at the same time. So that was kind of like my way to get revenue coming in while I was building this on the side. So it was that. And honestly, part of it is a God thing. I'm like a yes person, but by doing these. I met the person who bought my workout DVDs and bought my programs by being her fit model on Shop each. Cute. Like I'm just a networker by nature. I love getting my name out there. I love connecting and that led me to meet so many awesome people that eventually helped grow my business. So I'm glad I did it.

Yeah, right.

I was tired in the moment.

Yeah. Well, it reminds me of that axiom, you can't steer a parked car or it's hard to steer a parked car. At least here you're not going to go anywhere. And it feels like like you as a car man, you are moving. So then as far as new opportun and places to go, I mean there's just connections happening and good, you know, good things lead to good things. So that's really, that's really cool. So like you launch in 2015. When did you first start seeing. I mean one of the things you, when we spoke earlier, you just talked about the journey of perseverance. It was to see the site and videos, get the traction that you were hoping for. So tell me about that journey from launching to. Okay, we're actually seeing some really good traction and you're, you're super encouraged. And did you have down days or was it like. No, this is kind of going the way I expected.

Yeah, definitely not. I thought I was going to replace my six figure sales income in a year. That did not happen in any way, shape or form. My husband will still claim to this day that he is my biggest investor because he supported us for so long while I was trying to build this business. And I knew it was going to take time. I just didn't know how much time, but I think in this, over this online space, this Amazon world, we all just think like people just like blow up on TikTok or they blow up on Instagram. And like that can happen. But man, is that so rare? Like, this was a slow build. It was consistently showing up, consistently posting, consistently building my email list. Man, we have been grinding for nine years and now we're just at a place of like, still every year you set your goals bigger and bigger. But I would say it was year three is when I learned SEO. And that's was like light switch. Like we need to be creating content people are actually searching for, not just creating content. I think people like and then SEO, we invested in that. So my kind of business model or my strategy since I've started the business has basically been if there's something I don't know that is going to help benefit my business, I will try to outsource it to an expert for three to six months, learn how they do it, and then take it back in house. So we did that with SEO and then we did that with Pinterest because that's where the majority of our traffic was coming from at the time. And then we started building our SEO. Then Google traffic got higher and then we were. And then Covid hit and God bless. It was the best thing that ever happened to my business. I know that's not the case for so many businesses or churches, so I'm sorry, but like for the app, the search for at home workouts skyrocketed. My business doubled.

Wow.

And then it just kept doubling from there. And that's when we really dove into YouTube. I kick myself that we didn't do YouTube sooner. That's when we started YouTube and learned it. And that's a whole different ball game, a whole different basket of eggs from SEO and thumbnails and the gamut. And so we just continued. So we went to outsource YouTube and then fortunately got into the YouTube partnership program and I got an account executive at YouTube. Like, the business just kept getting wheels and wheels and wheels. And since then it keeps growing, which is amazing. But you just, you learn as you grow, you can only tackle one true thing at a time.

Yeah, well, and you, I remember you saying the, the time that came when you truly were able to hire your first team member. When was that? That it wasn't just you on paid staff. I'm sure you involved other people and you had some contractors, but when it was like this person is a paid employee of Our organization. When did that happen?

Yeah. So Rachel's been with me. She's my. She's on set with me. She does the modification. She's been with me for like seven years now.

Okay.

And so I actually, when I had my first baby, realized I thought I was gonna be like, the mom who was like the mom blogger. I have a baby on my hip and I'm running a business. And that was not for me. I was like going crazy. It's hard to have kids and try and run a business. And that's when I realized I needed help. So I brought on Rachel and as like an intern. And she's just grown with me ever since. It's been amazing. But at that time, I was teaching 15 classes a week and doing the modeling gig to pay Rachel. Like I was doing other jobs to pay her.

Yeah, that's crazy. But it's such a great. I mean, for budding entrepreneurs out there, it is really good to hear this journey, because this is not. Oh, I just had such a great time making these videos and I got to step into, even if it was slower than expected. I mean, you are out there grinding to make this happen. And even to be working these other jobs so you can pay her is a crazy thing. How many team members do you have now?

And now I have a team of three full time employees. So Rachel's still with me. We've added two more since. And then we have a videographer who's almost on staff. He's with us so much, but he's not full time with us. And then a couple contractors.

Okay, gotcha. And. And did I see this? Is. This is just a clarification thing. Did I see you did a video with like a dude was in the crew recently? Or am I. Am I remembering that or not well, correctly?

Yeah. So I've occasionally brought my husband. And during COVID my husband made appearances all the time because we, like, weren't meeting and I couldn't film in the studio. It was like lockdown. Right. So me and my husband were filming workouts during COVID And then now we have brand partners that we work with and occasionally they want to bring people on set. So we partner with the beef Council. Like, beef, it's what's for dinner. And occasionally they bring on a beef farmer and he's in the video with us.

Oh, that's really fun. I thought that was maybe some new thing that you were like. Because do you have a way of being able to tell what percentage of of your viewers are women versus men for sure.

Yeah. We are like 80% viewership women, but a lot of it is women viewing, obviously, and that's the demographic we're getting. But their husbands are starting to join them. So we do have a lot of women whose husbands. My husband does the workouts with me too. They're very athletic based like these workouts, the workouts we film. What makes us different or differentiates us from. I think workouts for women is they're hard, they're very strength focused, it's very heavyweights. It's. We're not encouraging women to lift 5 or 10 pound dumbbells. Like we're lifting 20 pounds and upwards and they're very athletic based workouts. So we have a lot of former athletes like myself that choose to work out with us.

I see a picture, I saw a picture on your website of you flexing and I'm like, I do not want to mess with her. She is. I mean, that is a heck of an arm. Oh my gosh. Let me ask you this. When it comes to just running the company, where it's at right now, what do you feel like you love most? What brings you the most joy about being in the leadership role you are?

It's still writing and filming the workouts. I love writing workouts and making them different and creative and how can I put a stage spin on a push up that everyone's done a million times but make it engaging for people to come back and want to keep doing it Right. And so I still love writing and filming. I love being in front of the camera. I don't know. It's something I just really enjoy doing.

Yeah.

And I just think it's so cool that I get to like speak life into women at whatever season of life they're in, in a home, typically by themselves, isolated, at home with like kids. They might not talk to another adult all day. And in some way I get to encourage them, motivate them, speak life into them. And that happens from Minnesota to Oman, like all over the world. It's insane.

Wow. Well, how, how is. I mean, surely as the, as the company has grown and influence and you've got staff and all this, the percentage of your time that. I guess this would be a good thing for you to answer. I was going to suggest a scenario. I'm not sure it's accurate, but like you're having to do more where you're working on the business, I'm guessing, than maybe you used to or not. Maybe you're actually more freed up to do what you love most because I think sometimes people get into a certain area of work because they're like, oh, I love making the videos. And then running the company all of a sudden is like, wow, there's a lot of this and it takes over and maybe it's not quite as fun. How do you, how do those two kind of time things. Has it gotten, you know, do you have more business stuff you have to do than you used to and how do you manage that relative to passion levels when your favorite favorite thing is making the videos themselves?

For sure. More growth, more. I'm pulled in way more directions, especially in this online space. So actually just recently this week I had like a regroup with my husband because I'm kind of falling apart with my just I'm like, I can't do this anymore. I can't do all the things. I either need to. Literally had the conversation of hiring like an executive or personal assistant or him having to step up and start making like dinner one night a week or things of that nature because I just can't hang anymore. Mostly because living in this online space is so volatile and things are so rapidly changing. So talk about a business that's pivoting. You talk about right? In the last month I've changed all of our email opt ins and our lead magnets on our website to now we're collecting third party data and because cookies are going away in 20 and that's how we monetize our business because you get targeted ads based off of visiting our site. Well, that data is going away so we need to build our own data. AI is a thing. Chat GPT. We're building out our own chatbot to talk back to them. To say like, hey, here's a good workout. And then there's many chats. I don't know if you've been on Instagram like comment link and we'll chat you this or comment like we have all these robots now set up to automatically get people on our email list to go through a quiz to find out which workout plan is for you. I just hired an agency to help us build that out. We just launched merchandise. I'm wearing a sweatshirt.

Yeah, it looks great. I saw it when you launched it. Now you guys did such a great job with the promo. But yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, we just dropped merchandise. So like I've managing all these things and I literally just told my team, I'm like, we have a meeting literally after this podcast to offload what I need help with because I'm drowning We just filmed on Tuesday. We started filming our new summer program. And I'm like, I was up till midnight writing these workouts the night before. Like, I do not like that. I love to have, like, tons of prep time. And so, no, the workout writing is falling by the wayside, and that can't happen. That's the bread and butter of my business. People want a good workout out.

Right?

So I, yeah, it's, it's so hard to manage. Yeah, I'm nine years deep and still struggling. Well.

And like, like you're saying, I mean, I, I, it's funny, I was talking to somebody in a different way, way, way different area. And he was making the comment he, you know, very successful, all that. But he said, yeah, our business just doesn't change a lot. I mean, it just kind of. I've been doing the same thing I've been doing for 20 years. The company's grown, they're very profitable, all that. But there's just not a lot of evolution in his area. And you are, like, on the opposite end of the spectrum, where it's just constantly, what's the next? And, and you've got. It's kind of like an adapt or die mentality. So you're starting to answer a question I was going to ask on the flip side of what you most enjoy, which is just helping us understand. And I really want to help aspiring leaders and company owners just have a grasp on at least what some of the challenges look like. You've gotten it one, which is both, on the one hand, adapting to new things, and secondly, just the overall issue of balance and what it takes to be a leader who's not running a million miles an hour with you ready to pull your hair out and whatnot. Talk to us about some of the other challenges you've had to overcome as a business leader.

Yeah, I mean, growth is always scary. I think anytime you add to your team as a small company, you're, like, scared. I'm like, this is a salary I gotta pay. This is someone's livelihood, and how are we gonna make this up? And I've never regretted hiring someone. They've always paid for themselves. Like, it's always worked out, but there's just so much fear and anxiety around that. I think anytime you bring on a staff member has been really challenging for me. I feel so much pressure to work hard, make more money, make more money, support them, create a growth opportunity for them. Like, I want them to grow with the company. So I put a lot of pressure on myself. I Think to make my team feel like they have an environment where they can grow and evolve. I want to be a good leader. I think we all do. So I put a lot of pressure on myself in that area. And just the constant. Yeah. In this space, it's so hard to not burn out because the Google algorithm, the YouTube algorithm, it all wants more. It wants more, it wants new, it wants more, it wants new, it wants more, it wants new. And that's. It's exhausting. And if you aren't doing this, you know, I recently met with another business owner and she was Christian and we were talking, she's like, if you aren't doing this from a place of rest, knowing that God gave you this as your ministry, like, this is your calling and you're not spending time with him and asking him and like, truly doing this from a place of rest, you will burn out. And you will, any entrepreneur will. Like, it's just the grind. You will. And so like really trying to just continually approach, like, as a place of rest, like, God gave me this. At the end of the day, I'm not curing cancer. If the workout doesn't go live, if we mess up, if some, you know, deadlines are missed, like, you know, the hard part too in pursuing this is like, so you talked about the whole reason behind this podcast is to inspire people, right? You want to inspire people with their stories, their God given talents. I'm asking myself every day, how am I going to use the gifts God gave me to the best of my ability? I don't know why, but he made me good at teaching group fitness. I'm starting to see why, but he's blessed me with this platform. Like, I get to do this beautiful thing and how do I live up to that potential, but then at the same time not let the strangers. I broke my pinky. Sorry. You can see us.

Oh, yeah.

I'm trying to give you the thing. Talking with my hands. How not to let the strangers on the Internet become more important than the five people in my home.

Wow.

Like, I'm spending every vehicle ride trying to answer all these DMs because I want to get back to people and I want to live up to their potential and I want to give them the best customer service experience. But then I'm forgetting my family, who I'm supposed to love and serve most. And so it's like this constant battle, I think as a mom is how do I live up to my God given talents and how do I not let the people on the Internet Become more important than my family.

Well, that's such a good word. And even though you are in a unique space insofar as you have to kind of manage the online thing constantly, the reality is a lot of people are going to resonate when they hear you say that with. They're thinking about their customers, they're thinking about all kinds of different opportunities they have and having to now, because it just bears saying, and you're saying it implicitly, if we are failing at home, we are failing no matter how much our business is succeeding. And I'm so grateful and glad that you have that level of clarity, because then it means you have conversations like you're having right now. How do I structure my life in such a way that it is a little bit more sustainable while we're growing? Do you have. I know you mentioned the conversation with another. Another person who. It sounds like maybe a YouTuber, but do you have people in your life where you can. Is. Is there a model out there of the person who does something similar to you? And you go, they live a great life. I mean, is it possible to do? Or is it just like, this is, you know, signing up for insanity?

You know, I think it's just a constant ebb and flow of like, it's so crazy. The YouTube space is so saturated. But honestly, the more I get into it and I get it put into these YouTube pods, it's really amazing. I'm learning from people, so many. It's not a very Christian saturated space just to be really blatant. It's not. And so I think that there's just a grounding that sets you apart, that you just, like, you have these morals, you have these values, you know, you're never going to sell out for the thing. You're never gonna just put the slummy YouTube thumbnail up because your values are better than that. And so it's just a true grounding. But it's a constant battle of, like, watching people. But I do think it's really helped. I'm part of this, like, women's business circle. And we meet every month. It's all women entrepreneurs in my space just having other people who are doing what you're doing, who truly know it. They're all moms, like, to come and we can all break down and we can share, like, our weakest points. We can share our highest points. Like, it's just really hard being a working mom. I think in this day and age, it's just expected that you're like the world's greatest mom raising chickens and serving your kids organic eggs. And then on the other hand, like, you know, making a great salary and providing for your kids so they can go to this private school. And, like, there's just, like, so much pressure in that. And so I think it's just continually redefining what success actually looks like for you. And I know for me, what's really hard is I have these ideas of what success looks like, but then it gets skewed by the numbers and the success and, like, the seeing the metrics and this constantly coming back to that priority list of, like, no, I said working part time in the summer is what means for success for me. Not hitting this revenue threshold. And it's hard to. To step away and truly stick to your values.

Right. Especially when you know that old phrase, you measure what matters. And. And I think that so much of what you do professionally is so measurable, and your investment in your kids is just. You can't necessarily put that on a graph and you don't get, like, data on it each week and whatnot. So it's. I don't know, it's hard sometimes when you're comparing a very tangible, measurable thing against a not, even though, you know, the thing that's not as measurable is crucially important. Talk a little bit. You kind of hit this a little bit already, just implied about your values, but maybe share a little bit about your faith journey and how that has specifically influenced the business over the course of time. I mean, there's the values kind of conversation you just had, but I'm guessing faith has made its way into your story on a variety of occasions and different in different ways.

Yeah. For the longest time, I struggled with God as to why he made me good at teaching group fitness. Like, what am I supposed to do with this? This isn't a ministry. I'm not serving anybody with it. Like, what good is this? So I grew up Catholic, went to a Catholic school until sixth grade, transferred to the public school, had a very typical college experience, I would say, where I kind of walked away from my faith and then came back to it. And in. In our marriage, my husband, I knew it was important for us and so really started pursuing what that looked like. I came from a Catholic background, he came from Lutheran. And we had, like, his family who was like, going to ag and I was like, whoa, rock concert. Like, oh, my goodness, this is so auto.

Assemblies of God. If anybody doesn't know, AG is Assemblies of God. So that's what she's Referring to there. Yeah. Very different from any Catholic background.

Yeah. And so I was, like, trying to figure out, like, we were trying to navigate and figure out what's. We found a local church. That's awesome. We're still there. We're still very involved. We're growing it, and it's just been really cool. But when I started this business, I felt like God truly placed this on my heart for a reason. Like, he made me good at teaching group fitness. And for some reason, I just kept feeling this call to, like, step out and do it. And I felt like it was totally a God thing. So I included him in my business from the beginning and decided that I was going to call my company Nourish Move Love. Nourish your soul with God's word, your body with real food. Move your body and create movement in your life. Love yourself and love others. And that was going to be the foundation of how I was going to build my company. We're going to call it Nourishment Love. I didn't want to name it Lindsey Baumgren. I didn't want this to be about me. I wanted this to be about something else. And so that's why I decided to name my company and kind of set my values on. And we've just kind of stuck with that. In the beginning, I was sharing devotionals. Actually, I've stopped sharing them on the site because it became a thing where I, like, I felt like my Bible study time or my time with God really became about, like, oh, I could turn this into a blog post I can do this with. And I was like, this is just so much pressure, and it's not good for my own faith journey. So I share snippets when I feel inspired on my Instagram, and I share devotionals and I share what I'm reading. And I just naturally integrated, I think, into the way I talk and speak in the workout videos. And I just. I've always wanted it to be an undertone. I want to whisper the name of Jesus into homes around the world. I don't want to shout it, just want to whisper it. I want you to hear me say Hallelujah. That sets done afterwards. And eventually, like you said, I want my personality to be infectious. I want people to know where my joy comes from, and that comes from the Lord. And so that's like, my underlying tone of this all. And I've just kind of tied faith into it. But being a business owner and watching your business grow, it's really hard to test yourself against the Bible and against your faith. Because, like, something that's recently really stuck with me is as I continue to ask myself, what success looks like. My pastor recently did a sermon, and he said, you know, like, what owns you names you. You know, the rich man. We never got his name in the Bible. It was the rich man who wouldn't abandon his riches to follow Jesus. And he was called the rich man because what owned him named him. He was the rich man versus other people in the Bible. We got their names. We got the direct names. They were followers of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Like, we got their name, and they gave up what owned them to follow Jesus. And that just stuck with me. Like, at the end of the day, what names me? Like, what. What is it that names me like? I want people to know that. Yeah. I'm Lindsey Baumgren. I'm a great fitness instructor. I'm a great mom. But at the end of the day, I'm a child of God, and I am here to hopefully fulfill this gift he's given me of teaching group fitness and share that with the world in some way and make it a ministry to build his kingdom.

Boy, that's so good. And you're already giving me material for a message I'm going into. Right after Easter, we're doing a series called Surviving Success. And I wanted to do this series because I think, and rightly, like, in the church, we talk a lot about coming alongside folks when they're in places of pain or hardship or struggle or addiction. And of course, Jesus has a heart for all of us when we're in those really tough times. But I realized, man, I don't talk about what does it mean to walk with Jesus when you're winning and when things are up into the right. And it's great because that brings on a different level of pressure, temptation, et cetera. Just things you have to deal with that you didn't before. And even as you're speaking, I mean, just talking about your identity and not getting owned by these things that are good gifts from God, but also have, you know, some shadow side if you don't keep. Keep them in a healthy place. So I love that. And you're going to be quoted here in Post Easter in. In West Michigan, so I love it. Do you. Do you find that, Lindsay, when you're going through. When you're going through challenging times with the business, how has. How has God met you in the challenge? I mean, I get things are very flourishing, but that you're still, you know, you have to deal with what comes with even a flourishing business. How has God met you in those. In those tough times?

Yeah, so we met at Project 42 this past year, but my husband and I went to Project 42 the year before that. I'm not sure if you were there, Brian.

I wasn't.

Okay. So we went to. That was our first time ever going, was two years ago. And so we went. The business is doing great. I'm about to go into filming my New Year's program. I was actually testing it with some of the Women at Project 42. Like things were going good. But I was also in a tough season. I had a six month old. He was my third baby. I got two. You know, like, I'm trying to balance being the mom and being the whatever got the baby on my hip all the time and grow a business and be a great mom. Like, I've always struggled with that. And every day I question, am I doing the right thing? Spending my kids at daycare? Am I doing the right thing? Like, should I be spending more time with them? That's the whole reason I built this business. It's just a constant struggle. But anyways, my husband and I, as my business was doing was growing. We decided to give the largest charitable contribution we've ever given to Project 42. We felt really awesome about it and it was a little bit of sacrificial. And I came home from that event and I was like, we're going into New Year's. We're going to crush. We're going to crush. I'm going to make that money back in an instant. And then I tore my meniscus filming that program. And as someone who works out for a living, having knee surgery and being put in a knee brace isn't really exactly great for your business. So, like, here I am. We've just committed to giving this large financial contribution to an awesome organization that we are pumped about. I thought I would make that money back by creating this New Year's program. I tore my meniscus on the seventh video. I ended up popping some Advil and finishing the last two because I was like, we need a series. Like, we're gonna push this out. But then I have a torn knee going into the new year when working out is like the biggest trend. And here I am sitting in a knee brace filming seated workouts. I was like, why, God? I have a six month old baby, I got three kids. I'm in a knee brace. Like, I gotta get my kids to school. I gotta, I gotta be A mom. But also, like, I have to run a business here that requires me to work out. Like, like just tough moments. Talk about, like, I hit a low point, really bad, probably a month or two after that surgery and was just like at arms with God, like, how am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to support my family? You always come out stronger, right? Like, these always draw you closer to God. And it was just basically him saying, like, you wanted too much control. Your pride was getting way too high. You thought you were in control. You were going to crush this goal. Like, let me show you how to grow your business and partner with me on that. And like, it was just like God just was calling me to slow down. He was calling me to be with my family. That's when I decided to step back and go part time in the summer and be with my kids more. And we showed up to Project 42 this year and we doubled what we gave last year.

Wow.

And God is just so faithful throughout that all.

Wow. That's so incredible. How so? When, when the, when you were getting the setback from the video and you got injured and whatnot and. And did you end up, even on that first commitment, that was a big step of faith. Did you end up seeing God provide for that commitment as quickly as you expected or was it more over time or how did that work out?

It was definitely over time. But it was just like he was just telling me like I was. I just loved. That's my biggest pitfalls. I'm an enneagram3. I'm an achiever. I drive on my own success, pride, like all that stuff. And he was just telling me, like, you're not in the driver's seat. Like, I'm in control and you need to take everything that you have. You hold it so tight and you just gotta give it all to me. Like, give this platform to me. Give this knee to me. I will make it happen. I will grow you through this. Turns out there's really great search volume for knee friendly workouts.

That's fantastic. He really does work. All things for the good of those who love him are called according to his purpose. Like Romans 8 says, that's fantastic. I love. You know, when you're talking about your faith, it's really cool because it's like on the one hand you're saying, hey, my faith shapes my values. The things I'm going to say yes and no to the way I'm going to comport myself when I'm with people and all this. So there's that there's the very origin and the DNA of the company. As far as why you named it, what you did, what it stands for, your faith integrates with that. Your faith shows up when you're hitting adversity and you're inviting God into that adversity. Your faith shows up when you, in some ways, you might even say deal with some of the temptations that can come with success. So it's just a really great holistic picture of. I think sometimes when people in the marketplace think of what does my faith mean to my job, it's, well, I need to have integrity. And of course that's a big deal. But what I love about what you're saying is it's such a holistic example of where your faith in Jesus definitely includes integrity, but it's far broader. It's how you literally view the entire project that is your business. And I don't know if this is a good place to read it, but I had this quote that I grabbed from your website and it is literally my favorite thing I read on your website. I'm sure there are many things, things that are wonderful, but this is, I think it reflects your values and so I'm gonna read it now. I love this. Here's the excerpt. I don't film workout videos to give you six pack abs or a nice butt. I film workout videos because I know fitness makes me a better wife, mother, friend and human. And I want to share that with you. So beautiful. Anything you want to comment on that in particular?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's really cool the amount of women we get who reach out and just are like, you know, I switch from this platform to yours or whatever it is because of your modest dress. You're, you know, not swearing in your workouts, just keeping it clean. Like, I feel comfortable working out in front of you in front of my husband. I don't want him looking at this other female body that's like dressed in a bikini working out as well as my like 12 year old son or my 3 year old daughter. Like, and I think that's just something that has kind of set us apart in this sweaty selfie. Six packy, very. Like, you're doing this for summer arms. You're doing this for your butt. You're doing, you know, like, like our whole motto and like is to educate women. Like, no, you're doing this so you can pick your kid up out of the crib. You're doing this so that you can run and sprint against your son at A football game or you're doing this because you need to have, you know, strong hips in order to bear children. Like, we're just like, it's so much more and it's really brought into like a functional space of like, God gave you this beautiful body and he gave you two awes. Like, if you're able body, you got two working legs, you got, you know, two working arms. Like Proverbs 31, she dresses herself in strength and makes her arms strong. Verse 17. Like, you know, that's just like what we're called to do is be strong women so that we can better serve our household and our community. Like the Proverbs 31. Wife.

That's so, so good. Do you find? I mean, for me, when I first started working out, which is a long time ago now, and I'm just in. I love working out. It's part of six out of seven days out of a week for me. But when I first started working out, I felt like spiritually, I mean, I just felt more tuned in. I felt more self disciplined. I felt closer to God. Sometimes when I'm on the treadmill, honestly, those are some of the times I've had the most kind of spiritually transformative moments I've had. I'll preach while I'm on the treadmill. I'll practice my sermons and then I'll dictate insights because it's just weird. Like the working out thing somehow is unlocking something in me. Does that sound crazy to you? Or do you experience anything like that? Or do other people.

No, I think 100. I think we. I think people run. Like, I love running for mental clarity and like love running. Like I just moving your body, breathing, feeling your heart. Like there's something about that paired with like mental clarity. Going on a walk a lot. That's why people do prayer walks, right? Like, you can just like feel like you're in God's nature and talk to him. But like, for me, yeah, for sure. Like working out, I think just. I think it creates discipline, right? Like, in order, we have to build spiritual disciplines, you have to build physical disciplines, emotional disciplines. Like, it just creates, creates rhythm, it creates discipline. It teaches you that, like, hard work translates into all areas of your life. Spiritual discipline is hard work. And also, like, so I think just having discipline, I think mental toughness carries into physical toughness. Like doing things that physically challenge you, carries over into mental strength, over into physical strength. I just think it allows you to realize that there's. It's so humbling, honestly, I love strength training because it humbles me every single day. I am humbled by the fact that. That my body has limitations. I need sleep and I need God.

That's good. Let me ask. This is a little bit circling back to something you said earlier with. With. I just love the idea that your faith comes out as sort of this undercurrent or as a whisper, I think is the word you use. Like throughout all of the. All the programming you're doing, do you end up ever having conversations with people? And I, you know, I. I could see where maybe not so much, but where it. It happens to go someplace spiritually because of just how you present yourself or not. Not as much.

Yeah. You know, a lot of the conversations end up being in the online space. I love when I get it, obviously chat in person with people, but I think a lot of it is the online space. And for me it's sharing something as simple as usually it's like a devotional that I'm reading or something. Or a lot of times it's relating to moms who are just in the thick of it. And it's like a devotional that talks about, like, being in the mundane or. And sharing that. And like, moms are just copy that. And they're like, how do I. Like, I want joy in this mundane season of motherhood or whatever it is. And so it's just sharing like a morning clip from my devotional and then having people reach out, be like, what devotional is that? And a lot of it is, is just thinking back to, like, where did I start? Like, I remember hanging out with people and they, they just listened to Christian music. And when I wasn't that far, I was like, they're weird, man. And now I'm the weird one. So, like, thinking back to, like, what it was, like, what are the first devotionals I read? I've had people reach out. It's so amazing. People reach out. They're like, they're desperate to know or they don't know. And it's like, like, if I was to pick up the Bible for the first time, what book of the Bible should I read? And like, when I get asked that question, I'm like, that is like the coolest thing ever. Someone just asked us they're going to read the Bible for the first time. And just like stories like that, like, if an opportunity just continue to whisper and to continue to plant seeds and let God water it and grow it and do whatever he does with it.

Beautiful. I love it. Well, I want to Nerd out a little bit here. I know that not everybody listening is going to be into how do you make videos and how does all this work? But I just, I don't know. I think it's fascinating to hear somebody's journey on when, when we see, we see this like really cool, polished, well lit, everything's great video. When I, when I see them come up on instant stuff. But tell me, just like walk me through the journey of. It's okay, we're shooting a video. You already alluded to it. You know, you're, you've designed the workout. Frankly, I'm shocked when you said you could even finish it the night before. And then like, like you've got a team up there that has to know the movement. So that's a whole nother thing. But when it actually comes to the mechanics of making any given workout, just walk us through, what do you do, what's involved.

Yeah. So because we have a videographer now at this point, when I started, I definitely didn't. It was me shooting on an iPhone. Which goes to show you, you can do anything because our most popular video on YouTube with like over 2 million views is shot on my iPhone when I was like six months postpartum. It's a doctor Diastasis recti, like teaching women how to bring their abs back together after having babies. So that's our most popular video shot on my iPhone. No microphone, like horrible quality. But it's a need. It fulfilled a need, right?

Yeah.

So now we've progressed and I have a videographer and in order to make it financially feasible, we have to film in bulk. So everything we do is in bulk. So we have shoot days. This last Tuesday we had a shoot day. But before we even show up to that shoot day, we're very type A. I'm very type A. There's like a 42 page document that goes with every shoot. And it sounds crazy probably, but literally it's mapped out from exactly what the workout we're going to shoot is, what the SEO for it is, what search words we're going for. So whether it's like we just filmed one and you know, we're going for chest and tricep exercises or whatever that is. The keywords we're searching for on YouTube, the keywords we're going for on Google, what the thumbnail is going to look like. We pull inspiration pictures, we know exactly what the thumbnail is going to look like, what colors we're going to wear to match that thumbnail, the YouTube comments we're going to screenshot and overlay or reference throughout it. The. Any call outs for my videographer are in there. Exactly what we're going to say. The intro video, what push, what clips, what workout clips we're pushing to at the end of the video. Like, it is all dialed in and mapped out in this document. And then we shoot typically four to five workouts a day. We just bulk film. We shoot all the photos. We're shooting photos for Instagram, we're shooting photos for Pinterest, we're shooting a reel for Instagram, we're shooting a reel for YouTube shorts. Like, it's just all dialed in and we just crank and then we have content for a couple weeks based off that.

Wow, that's a big day. And how. How much. What percent of. What percent of the. The, like the. The 42 page doc is your work versus other people on the team that are building that out. Because that's. That just is amazing and overwhelming sounding at the same time.

Yeah. So I build out kind of like what the workouts are, and then I hand it off to everyone on the roll. So Megan on my team does all the SEO. So I hand her, and I'm like, okay, here's my ideas. Find keywords for this that people are searching for. So she does the SEO, pulls that. Then I hand it off to Caroline on my team. I'm like, great. Find YouTube thumb or YouTube comments. We can overlay on this because we like to engage our audience. We're like, you know, Kathleen said this is her favorite workout because she loves the format and she uses 20 pound dumb. So we overlay like a YouTube comment in it. And then I hand it off to Rachel on my team, who's our graphic and creatives. I'm like, all right, pull inspiration images for all of these thumbnails that we're gonna shoot. So everyone touches it.

Okay, gotcha. And then when you actually shoot, then. So the videographer comes in. I mean, you've cleared the furniture out before. He probably gets there, I'm guessing. Is that you and your husband get. Getting after the furniture? Is that.

My team. My team comes over, we move all the furniture.

Okay. They help out. And then. And then he sets up lights, he sets up his cameras. And I mean, is it at that point, Is it pretty plug and play as far as. Okay, we're just. Now we're just like running the play as far as the actual recording goes.

Yeah. So he sets up like two cameras and then he does one handheld. And I finally just invested and got a big screen. So my workouts are all displayed up there. I used to like hand write them out on tag board and then we pick out all the outfits we're gonna wear and then yeah, we basically like film shoot photos, shoot photos. Film shoot photos, film shoot photos like and just keep cranking through until we're, we're done with all the videos.

Are your kids in school right now? I, I looking at the, I forget what ages they are, so. All right. Because I'm wondering how do you get that done at home? And relative to kids, there's got to be somewhere.

Yeah. So my seven year old's in first grade and then my four year old and one year old do go to daycare full time. And then in the summer I go part time. So they go part time. But we usually, for example, my four year old was home on the last shoot day, upstairs in my bedroom playing because she had strep throat. Like someone's always here. I feel like three kids, but we make it work.

Well, that is impressive to me because I'm lucky if one of our teenagers is around. While I'm trying to do a zoom call at home, my mind starts going into other places. Talk to me. If somebody was like just starting out building, it's hard not to say they're in your exact stream, but they go, oh, I want to do something online or I want, I don't know, I don't know where to start. They've got a passion. What would you say to that person who's just on the front end of considering it?

If you are building an online business, you start building an email list because Instagram can kick you off tomorrow. YouTube could go away tomorrow. You don't own any of those subscribers or followers, but your email list you own. And that is our bread and butter. They're our most loyal followers, they're our most loyal purchasers, they're our most like. They are my bread and butter. And that was something I learned early on and I implemented and I'm so glad I did. And our email list just continues to grow. And so I know no matter what happens in my business in this volatile online space, Cookies goes away. If we get kicked off YouTube, whatever happens, I own this list of people. I've built them, I can sell to them.

Makes sense. And then another question I was gonna ask just with regard to the future, and you're kind of alluding even to this, with what social media does or does not look like in the future, or YouTube does or does not look like when you just dream about where the future of your business goes. I know earlier you were saying, hey, because so much changes in the marketplace at large, in some ways you have to adapt and embrace the changes that are, in a sense, coming from the outside in. But do you have anything that you're like, man, these are just the things I get excited about that when I dream, dream terms of the business, one of which is that you, you know, that probably you're building it up so it goes beyond you, I'm sure. But what do you think about and dream about when you think about the future?

Yeah, it's so hard because like you said, things are so rapidly changing. But we'd love to continue to grow our YouTube presence. It's just YouTube is really fun for us. It's just fun because, like, a blog post requires so much work. Every blog post has SEO pictures, pins, FAQs. Like, it's just, they're so in depth. How to do each exercise of a YouTube video. It's like we put the YouTube video up, we do a little SEO research, we write a description, a thumbnail, and boom. Like, it's just like a lighter lift for us and fun. And I like filming workouts. That's the funnest part. So YouTube is somewhere we're really investing. This year we launched Merch for the first time. I never thought that would be part of my business. So it's hard. Like things are just constantly changing and shifting, but, you know, kind of like pipe dreams are always just continuing to grow in our mind. Like, we'd love to do a tour and do like, I love connecting with people. I like the in person part. Love to do a tour and do live workout classes in person with some people. Again, I like the idea of that. Also love the idea of, you know, just being able to expand and grow and potentially, I don't know, the. The options are. The hard part about the online space is that there's so many options. Options are endless. Every year we try to add like one revenue stream. But I'd also really love to. I mean, when I started this business, the whole reason I started it was to write a devotional book. I love writing. That's why I got into like blogging and writing online. And I was, you know, chief editor of the yearbook and that's what I was. Kind of like a sports person, but also a nerd in the writing space. And so I'd love to write a devotional at one point in my life, just on motherhood business. I don't know what it is yet, but I'd love to write a devotional.

Oh, you'd be so great at that. And now having drawn on so much experience, I mean, you would really be able to speak to people's hearts. Having really been in the trenches with everything you've done, I think that would be fantastic. I'll tell you what, when you really said, I'm going to order 10 copies right off the bat and give them out to everybody, I know that they'll be last. Like, oh my gosh, Lindsay's got a devotional. So. But you've got to figure out how to do it all in a sustainable way. I guess that's the trick. So. Hey, anything else Lindsay, you'd like to share before we wrap up today?

No, I mean, thanks so much for having me. This is so fun to chat with you. It's just so fun to, yeah. Get to share. I mean I love this stuff. It's funny because everyone just thinks like, oh, we film a workout video and you're an influencer kind of. And I'm like, no, we're like a creator. This is a full blown business. We work really hard, we're super strategic. So it's so fun to share that and chat like the behind the scenes of it with people because, you know, I think the influencer space can get a bad rap and I like to set that apart.

Yeah, well, that's the thing I feel like is such a, as I've said along here and I think it's really come out in your comments what you are doing. It really like you feel your character, you feel your maturity, you feel your mission and how you communicate. And so even though like I'm maybe not right at the bullseye of your target market, I feel always encouraged when I see you doing what you're doing. And I love it. And like I said, I've shared it with other people now because there's still as many people as follow you. There are still lots that have not yet heard and that's why you're growing like you are. You've got how many like followers or subscribers on YouTube?

We're almost a half a million on YouTube.

Wow, that's amazing. And what about then like insta and stuff like that?

I think we're at like 379 as of this morning. 379,000 and stuff. It's always, you know, it's funny because it's like the followers has, it's never like YouTube. We want to grow just because it's fun and stuff, but, like, the followers, it's always been more so. Like, I just think the coolest part is, like, how engaged of a community we have. Our problem because, like, if you're in the search world like I am, is you want people finding you because they're typing something into Google. Well, so many people. We have so much direct traffic, which is really great, but people are literally typing in nourishment. So everyone's returning. So we have so much returning audience. I just love how loyal our audience is. And it's just been fun to, like, just truly cultivate, like, a community of people who want to work out together at home. And so that's just been cool.

It's cool. Well, Lindsay, thanks for being on Made to Advance today and keep up the great work. I can't wait to see how you guys continue to build and add layers and add new opportunities and way to go. I really do just count it as such a gift to me that we met at that conference and that we can could continue the conversation today. I know what you shared is going to inspire a whole lot of folks. They're going to get a little bit of behind the scenes, like, hey, she's doing her thing. The videos look great, the business is growing and all that. And it comes because there's a lot of grit, a lot of perseverance, a lot of work. But you're doing it out of a place of joy and passion. And that's what I know gets you up in the morning and says, all right, Even if it means I got to figure out how to rebalance in some new ways, I want to keep doing what I'm doing because I. You love it. You know that God's using you. So thanks so much for being on Made to Advance and hopefully we can talk soon.

Thank you.

Wow, what a great conversation with Lindsay. I didn't know what to do with myself, honestly, during that conversation. Right now, I feel like I need to both lift weights and work on search engine optimization at the same time. She's incredible. She's killing it. And I hope you check out her video, because they are. They're really, really good, great, helpful tools. Pass them along to your friends. But if this conversation has been encouraging to you, then please rate and review us. That helps us get the word out about our podcast. This has been a production of En Gedi Church. We have more incredible conversations on the way. And so until our next episode, please know you were made to adv.