Episode 200: Behind the Scenes of Nourish Move Love with Founder Lindsey Bomgren | Short-Term Hustle vs. Long-Term Growth: How to Win at Both

A decade of continually posting on Instagram when I didn't want to. A decade of continuously putting out content when I had a fractured foot when I was pregnant, when I was six weeks postpartum. Like, it's not all like this is great. Entrepreneurship is awesome. Sometimes it stinks, but it's consistency, it's consistently showing up. And that's why most people don't make it, is cause they just quit at some point.

Hey, I'm Molly.

I'm so glad you're here. Welcome to the Dream It do it podcast. I'm a wife, mom of three, a certified high performance coach, and the founder.

Of Dream It Do It Wellness.

After leaving my corporate finance job, I discovered the joy of building a life and business that truly light me up. And now I help others like you do the same. Together, we'll use intentional habits, smart time management and productivity, and meaningful work to help you excel at your career and experience the life you desire.

Let's dream big, take action and create a life you love.

Let's dive into the show. Hey, a quick note before we dive in today. Specifically for my busy working moms, I have a quick heads up about a workout challenge that I think you are absolutely going to love. This is my style of workout. It's probably yours too, and you do not want to sleep on this one. So it's called Overload 30 and it's a brand new, totally free summer workout.

Challenge from Nourish, Move Love.

I have been doing Nourish Move Love workouts pretty much all year. They're fast, they're fun, they sort of make me feel like a powerhouse, like an athlete from home. They make my body feel really good and strong and I've been really pushed in my fitness this year because of them and I just love that feeling. So this one specifically I I'm extra excited about. It's called Overload 30 and it's 30 minutes a day, five days a week. It's two weeks. It's strength focused and then there's a super effective and spicy HIIT burnout at the end, which I like love. When you tell me there's a workout with strength and HIIT mixed in, I'm like, yes, that is my soulmate kind of workout. And it probably is for you too. So if you want a realistic way to just stay fit this summer and feel good, maybe shake up the routine, just head to the show notes and you can grab the link to do it from there. But I am so excited about this one. I will absolutely be doing it to the full two weeks and then I'll probably be repeating it. So I would love to have you join me again.

You can do it for free from the comfort of your home. It's strength.

And then there's a hit finisher, 30 minutes a day. So realistic and so doable and challenging.

Right.

Because we got to push ourselves in this department too. So can't wait. Would love to have you join me again. Check out the show notes where you can access it from there.

All right, well, welcome back to the Dream It do it podcast. I'm so happy to be here with someone that I know you're all going to love hearing from. We have Lindsey Baumgren, founder of Nourish Move Love. And I know we have a lot of Nourish Move Love listeners and people who are very familiar with Lindsay, but I think you're going to love this episode because we're going to dive into a little more of what Lindsay has built and how she operates as a business owner, as a mom of three young kids, which is like totally the demographic of who listens to the show as well. So, Lindsay, why don't you just give a brief introduction of yourself? You don't have to tell your whole story, but give a brief introduction of yourself and then we'll dive into summer and everything that you've been working on.

Yeah, awesome. Okay, so I'm Lindsay and I have three littles, as Molly mentioned. I have a eight year old, a five year old and a three year old and I actually started my business before I had babies. So I started in 2015. So this will be year 10. This is a decade. I've been doing this for a decade, which is wild and still hard to believe that I have an 8 year old and I've been doing this for a decade. But yeah, we're an online publishing company basically. So yes, we film workouts, but we're very focused on our website. I now have a team of four lovely full time employees to help support me. And so I'm really grateful for my growing team, but it did not start that way. And so whenever people like look at where we are today, we started at zero. Just me and my iPhone filming workouts and writing vlog content. And very grateful for where we've come in the last 10 years. But yeah, that's the quick story.

I love it. And so I didn't mention, but we had Lindsay on the podcast like back when it started, like she was one of the first guests. And I even think, well, I think about my Business and how it's changed since then. But also Nourish Move Love has evolved and grown big time. Like, that was, I think pre Covid, or maybe it was like during COVID But anyway, like, things have changed for both of us a lot and grown and evolved. So let's. Let's break down your business model a little bit, Lindsay, just so listeners kind of know how it even works, because I think this is intriguing. So Nourish Move Love provides all free content, right? So anyone can go do a workout right now for free. Like, accessible, quick. Like, how do you have a team of four and, you know, provide a living for your family and like, provide free content?

Yeah. The biggest question I get all the time is I don't get it. Like, everything is you make money. And I think it's. It's a great question. And so I basically set out, I read the book called Blue Ocean Strategy. So prior to this, I did medical. Medical device sales. I loved sales. I love that. How hard I work equated to how much money I made, like, that's just kind of in my DNA. I knew I always wanted to do my own thing. And. And so I read the book Blue Ocean Strategy and it basically said, look at other industries outside of yours and of what they're doing and can you apply what they're doing to your industry that no one else is doing? And so I wanted to set out to film workout videos. Everybody who was filming workout videos was either an app. Well, at the time, it was almost like selling DVD programs, which is where I started a decade ago. But an app or a streaming service or a membership service, or just providing free content just on YouTube or selling e books. Even at the time, you know, like the Kayla, it's times the sweat in the. You're looking at the train it up, the tone it up girl, all these girls, I was looking at them and I was like, okay, these are older, but everything was paid. But yet these food bloggers were giving away free recipes. And I saw that they were all making money and I was like, how are they making money sharing free recipes? I don't get it. So I dove into the food blogger model and was basically like, I'm going to apply that to fitness. Which, I'll be totally transparent, not the smartest business decision at the time because food bloggers were literally just taking a picture and posting it. I had to film a workout video, which costs money and is a lot more intensive than just like taking a photo. Also, everybody eats and not everybody works out. So I basically was cutting my search volume, which you need search volume in half and also a lot, a lot longer on ramp. But I saw how the food bloggers are monetizing. I got to know some of them. I got involved in the food blogger community and really saw their on ramp and saw how long it took them to monetize. And I knowing what I knowing that and knowing that trajectory, I knew that if I just gutted it out for three to four years, not paying myself and grinding, that I could turn this into a very successful, profitable business. And so that was basically my plan. And I didn't pay myself, but I did a ton of freelancing. So I set out filming workout videos just like food bloggers, sharing them online for free. Very heavily focused on SEO, so search engine optimization. So my number one goal is to get you to my website because there are ads that are displayed on my website and the more traffic I drive to my site, the more ads that are served. I make a certain amount per eyeballs to my site based off of ads that are served. So whether you click on the ad or not, just by getting served the ad, I make money. And so ads on my website is my number one revenue stream. Number two is YouTube, which we actually didn't even start doing until Covid, which actually I kick myself for. If I would have started anything sooner, it would have been YouTube, especially because that's where people search for workout content. And so number two is the ads that are served to you during a workout video. And then we did launch a YouTube membership community, which is another tier of YouTube. And for $5 and 99 cents you can join our community. So that's our only paid offering at the moment outside of merch, which we also launch. We do limited drops of merch, but so to break this down, this is going to get really wordy, but I heard when I started my business, the average millionaire has seven revenue streams, so, so I set out to create seven revenue streams. Website ad revenue, YouTube ad revenue, YouTube memberships, brand partnerships, affiliate income. So if we share products we like and you click the link, I make a percentage of that merch. So we started selling our own merch and then this past year we did in person retreats. So those are my seven revenue streams. And now we're really just refining and continuing to dig into the ones that produce the most gold.

Awesome. I love it. I think that's just helpful for like all the business minded women to know. Oh, okay. That's how it works. And, and so if they are Nourish, move, love, workout people. Lindsay, I asked you this question pretty recently. I was like, do you want me going to your website or share. Should I share your website link or should I be sharing the YouTube link? And you were like, no, website. Like, do you want us always to go through your website? I know this is like a minor question, but does that help? Does it matter if we're like regular.

Workout people so the ad spend is higher on the website, so we make more money off the website. But I totally, as a user, I use YouTube and I do my own workouts. Right. Like I use it. So using either YouTube or our website is going to serve us. But if that's why you'll notice whenever we send out an email newsletter or whenever we send share something in Instagram stories, we're sending people to our website and then they usually redirect to YouTube to like watch the full video. Totally okay with that. But the more eyeballs we get to the site. So yes, it is. Website is like our primary. But I'm okay with you consuming our content.

However you, as long as you're consuming, you're happy. Yeah, no, that's, it's helpful. And I think it's a like a genius business model. And I think it's, I mean, I don't really see that many people in the fitness space who have even done that now. At least not that I'm consuming like.

So our competition is like Women's Health, Shape magazine, Men's Health. Like I'm competing against major online publishing companies. Typically that's who we're competing against for showing up on the first page of Google. And then of course there's the YouTubers, which is a whole nother. But the YouTubers are usually just YouTubers, which I still think, like, why do you not have a website where you're driving people to. So a lot of them are just YouTubers and they're just monetizing off YouTube, which I love YouTube. It's our fastest growing revenue stream at the moment. But man, is that on ramp really long to monetize on YouTube. And the burnout rate on YouTube is very, very high because it's so much content being produced in long form video. It's really. If that's your only form of monetizing, it's a, it's an egregious game, I would say.

Yeah, for sure. Well, and now you're just way more diversified with your website. Okay, so we're going to go into more about like Lindsay, as she calls it, gut Gut it, gut it out. What she said for three to four years. We're going to go into that more, but I want to talk about what's top of mind for a lot of the listeners. And it's like we're going into summer. I want to like enjoy it with my kids and I really care about my career or my business and I don't want to like lose momentum or lose income. Right. If you're a business owner. So let's talk about maybe how you've done it in previous summers and what you're looking at. Literally. She said her kids get out of school this week. Your summer isn't starting until like mid June, you shared, and that's when this episode will drop. But tell us how you're planning things, how you've gone about this, like what your intentions are for the summer. Yeah.

And so it's obviously changed over the seasons. And I think most people, whether you're, if you're pursuing entrepreneurship, you're usually pursuing it because you want more time, freedom, you want time, wealth. But you usually find out that the opposite happens. And I'll be totally transparent. I started before I had kids. I'm really grateful for that because I grinded really hard my first two years of business before having kids. And then kids came into play and I thought that somehow I was going to be the mom who just like figured it out and I would still do it over nap time and it would be so easy. And then I went crazy and realized that to pursue the business that I wanted, I needed to have my kids in full time care. And that was just my, my goals. And I think that a lot of women reach out and they say like, I want, I want to start a side hobby or I want this. And I'm like, if you treat this like a hobby, it will pay like a hobby. If you treat it like a business, it will pay like a business. And I knew I wanted to build a business and so I was really intentional about trying to spend time with my kids. And I started with like three days a daycare, having grandma's and grandpa's help and, and figuring stuff out, but then eventually decided I did need to go full time in order to pursue where I wanted to be and to build this team. But my end goal was always to spend more time with my kids. I did not do that well in my first years of growing a business and having kids. I just, I didn't. And it's something I look back and I. Part of me regrets it. Part of Me thinks I won't be where I was if I didn't do it. I don't know. It's this mom guilt I think will always have. But I always had a desire to get to a place where I had more time with my kids. That was the number one goal for starting my business in the first place. And so now I feel like I'm there. Like I've, I'm. I've hit the revenue thresholds. I. I have a team in place to support me, which was the biggest thing was getting people in place to support me so the business could keep moving. While I potentially took time off. I really have yet, if I'm totally transparent, I've yet to take a vacation where I haven't brought my laptop and I'm 10 years in. And I know that's not my goal, but it's just the space that I'm in. That said, I have really tried to set myself up. So this last summer was the first time I went part time. I went part time and I did it okay. And then I learned and now this summer I'm going to do it really, really awesome. But basically my goal is to be part time with my kids. So they'll be in care Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And then I'm going to be home with them Thursday, Fridays going into a long weekend. Last year I did it different. Last year I did Wednesdays and Fridays. Cause I felt like I still needed it felt like too big of a leap. This year I want to like fully extend the weekend. Now that doesn't mean I'm totally checked out Thursday, Friday for me it does mean that Thursdays I will still check in and still do some work. Maybe it's a nap time or like I have ideas in mind planned where it's like I'm getting up early or there's just an hour time block where I give the kids an activity and I say mom's gotta work for this hour. Just so I feel like I can be fully present with them in those moments versus having my phone and texting things. So yeah, that's my plan is Thursdays and Fridays. But it has been a long learning curve to get here. And I started giving my team Fridays off. Was it four years ago. Now my team has four or five. When I hired my five years, I think five years we've had Fridays off I year round or just take them.

Off like all year round. Lindsay Fridays off just in the summer.

So just in the summer. We are Fridays off in the summer. So starting June through Labor Day, we are Fridays off. The team is Fridays off. And then my goal was to add one more day to that to be home with my kids. And that was really hard for me, honestly, to, to bring to my team because I've always led by example. Always the hardest. Like, I just, I work hard and I felt like that was letting my team down, being like, I'm taking an extra day off. It was twofold. When I told my team, they were all honestly relieved. They were like, finally they felt more freedom to take more time off for themselves because they never saw me taking time off. They felt guilty taking time off. So it like gave my team, like a sense of freedom. And then also, like, when I calculated the numbers for myself, I don't take pto. Really. And so really I was taking like eight additional days off. Yeah, that's it. And so it's like I was taking a very normal amount of PTO.

Well, yeah, if you worked like 10 years plus at a corporation, you. You'd be getting way more PTO than that.

Yeah. So it was a little bit of. It's hard for me to take time off, but that's the goal is to have.

How do you set yourself up? I mean, obviously you've probably like, I know you're really good at like long range planning and things, but how did you set yourself up to do what you normally do in five days? Now you're gonna, you know, do most of it in three days. Like, did you offload? Did you just eliminate some things?

Yeah. So twofold. Again, we are just eliminating some things. Some things are going away a little bit less social media. We're looking at our major revenue streams. What is bringing in the income needs to stay at a very high level. Right. So our blog posts will still be putting out consistently two to three blog posts a week, and we'll still be publishing around two workouts a week on YouTube. So we're bulk filming a ton right now. It's a very heavy filming season to front load, so we can have a slower pace during the summer, but we're still sitting on a ton of content to share. So we've been filming like Mad Men in May and April. They have been really tough push months for us, but in lieu of the fact that we get summer Fridays off and for me, Thursdays and Fridays off. And so it's worth the push now in my. To have a slower season. And I've usually been someone who just operates at this pace all the time and realize that that is not efficient or effective. And that's when you hit burnout and that's when you lose your ability to like share the gifts and talents that you have. And so I'm trying to actually be like, okay, push April, May. So that June, July and August can literally go like this. And so we're not doing very, very limited brand commitments, basically telling all brands. Nope, it's off limits. Besides our brand partners that we have year long commitments with, we're telling everybody else no for June, July and August. But the good thing is, is what that's allowed me to do is already seal brand partnerships for September and October. So when I come back to that heavier push season again in September, October, my revenue stream is already loaded. So it's a beautiful thing. You're just shifting things, shifting, shifting the revenue to Q1 and Q3 and Q4 and then knowing that this, or, sorry, Q1 and Q2 and knowing Q3 is just going to be lighter. Like we're going to have our, we have to produce an ad revenue, we have to produce in YouTube. But our brand, our brand revenue is going to be lower and our affiliate income will probably be lower because we're not going to be sharing as much. But yeah, there's things that, there's things that we're giving and things that we're taking. And so the goals that we're getting more time. And I will have my team do a time audit too in summer. It's like I always said, I don't know if you felt this way, Molly, but coming back from maternity leave, which you never get a maternity leave really, if you're an entrepreneur. But coming back from maternity leave, I think in corporate culture too allows you to say like, oh, wow, I actually didn't need to be doing this or like, this is what I can give, this is what I can delegate. This is where my time and energy should be going. And so I think it's the same thing going into summer and doing this. It allows you to come back and say like, oh, wait, so we're outsourcing Pinterest for the summer. We're trying a new agency. We're going to outsource Pinterest. And that lightens one of my employees loads. Like, we're just trying some new things, maybe outsourcing a couple more things, maybe giving a couple things up.

Yeah, it teaches you how to discern like what's actually needed and what's like, why am I even, you know, what do I need to post to social five times a week? Or you know, it helps you understand what's really driving it and what's not. And I don't know, Lindsay, I'm sure you've looked at the data on this, but there's a seasonality component to what you do. What I do and I'm serving, my ideal client is this high achieving mom. She's like doing what we're doing in the summer. Right. And she's trying to be with her kids more. She's probably not consuming social that much in the summer. So I think there's like a lot, a lot to be said about like why push the boulder up the hill if it's just a slower season anyway?

Yeah. And for me I'm eliminating a lot of my like external things that I do to fill my own cup. Whether that's Bible, like Bible study. I'm not doing a Bible study over the summer. Like I'm taking a pause on that. I'm not doing any speaking engagements that I normally do. I'm taking a pause on that over summer. Like I'm eliminating any of those other commitments that I otherwise would do if I had capacity while my kids were in full time care and they're just gone. And that last year I really let slide my Wednesday schedule. So I was good about keeping my Fridays free. But then Wednesdays I just started booking meetings. Sure, I could jump on that. I could do that one meeting while my kids are in nap or.

It's such a slippery slope. Yeah.

Every time it came I was so resentful of it. And so. You know what I mean? And so this year I'm really like, I've already sent multiple emails that just said Thursdays and Fridays are dedicated to. My kids will not be attending this.

Good for you. Good for you. Maintaining core habits. You mentioned there's three top habits that you're going to keep a priority in the summer. What are they and why?

Yeah, and I think for. It's easier for me to be a morning person in the summer because it's just like it's light out, the birds are tripping, let's get up and tackle the day. And so and my kids, I can let them sleep in like on school days they have to be up at 7 so they can sleep, sleep in and we can have the slower morning routine which allows me to have a nice solid morning routine. And for me I am a strong believer that like discipline is the greatest form of self care. And so for me it is getting up early and it's reading my Bible, doing my workout or some type of movement for myself and then like being totally present with my kids when the day comes and when I start breakfast and get in with them. But then it's just, it's those little like micro habits I think that still transpire, which I'm so excited for. Like I can now instead of doing meal prep on Sundays because we're going to be at the cabin swimming or whatever on a Thursday morning, we can set ourselves up and bake a couple things and do a couple things. And so it's just like a shift of habits. But my consistent stuff is still going to be my morning routine.

Yeah, like your anchors are still there. Yep. I love it. Okay, let's go back into like this business journey and this like long term growth. You said, you know, what do you, if you could do it again, would you do it differently? Like the grind? I think this is really intriguing for a lot of people who are now like us, probably 10 plus years into their business or they're in corporate and they're like, I want, you know, maybe want to do something different. But they're like, how. Because time, time because becomes I think almost a more important resource when your kids are in like these school age years because you just see it like slipping. At least that's how it is for me. So what do you think? Would you do it different? What would be your guidance to someone who's maybe starting or in a transition phase?

I mean, I think if you're starting your business, you just have to know that you have to grind. But you don't. You get a grind on your terms. Right. And so I think I would have grinded a little bit differently in the sense of being much more. I'm off from 4 o' clock until 8 o' clock and then if I have to log back in and do my stuff, which I did work a lot of nights, but like that four to eight is sacred time. And too many times I let my four o' clock slip into five, slip into six, slip into like while I'm making dinner. I'm still. And so setting really good transitions is something I've now learned and I would wish I would have done sooner is like whether I need to go for a 10 minute walk to transition from like work mom to yeah, stay at home, you know, to making dinner mom. Because my brain is just constantly. I think it's like one of the gifts of entrepreneurs but also one of the deficits is your mind is always like every while I'm cooking dinner I'm thinking, oh, this could be shared on social media, this could be a real. This like your mind just never shuts off. And so I definitely would have set better boundaries and transitions and had more of the, the seasons. Like looking at your full year and being like we're, I'm going to push in Q1 and maybe even into Q2, but then Minnesota summers are amazing. So I'm going to like strategically plan to not have any launches then and like slow down then and then come back in Q4, you know, and obviously seasonality depends on what industry you're in. For us, Q1 is huge. Like people have fitness habits and believe it or not, like ad revenue starts to climb and then summers it does drop. But because ad revenue drops, we have to combat that by getting more views, which is why we launch our summer program. But then Q4AD spend is up, but no one's thinking about working out because they're having all the holiday stuff. So it's like this, this play of game of trying to balance your revenue stream.

Well and you have to, I think you have to grind it out for a few seasons to understand what the trends are. Right. Like you don't know if you're just getting into it.

And I don't know about you, Molly, but like I thought once my kids were sleeping through the night it was going to get so much easier. And then I thought once I hit X revenue in my business, it was going to get so much easier and once I had X employees it was gonna get easier. And then once my kids were in school and none of it's never gotten easier because that's just, I'm a, I'm an enneagram3, I'm an achiever. I'm success. Like it's never gotten easier. Cause the bar just keeps getting higher. And so at some point in the journey you have to define what success truly looks like. And for me, one of the greatest things that I have done is put myself into groups of female entrepreneurs. I have a business women's group that's full of other people that do what I do. And, and then I have a wpo, a women's president's organization that's full of women who are much far. I'm the youngest person in that group. These women are CEOs, they're high level entrepreneurs. Their companies are much bigger than mine. And I show up to those meetings and hear the same thing from these 40, 50, 60, 70 year old women that like, I'm still so stressed, I'm still overwhelmed, I still don't have time and so it's never gonna get easier. Like, it's. It's just not if you're that. That person. And so you have to decide which is really where I'm at. I'm looking at these women in this WPO room, and the theme is all the same. And if I ask these older mentors, which has been so great to have, the number one thing they all say is, spend more time with your kids right now, because as soon as they hit high school, whatever, they're, you're not there. Like right now I have an eight year old and I probably have him for two more years. And that's why I am so stinking dedicated to hanging out with him as hard as I can this summer.

Yes.

Yes.

It's like speaking to my soul with kids, like a similar age. And yeah, I think a lot of us, when we're starting off, we, or maybe even still, we just like, look at the financial scorecard and we're like, once I hit six figures, once I hit multi six figures, once I hit seven figures, it's going to be better and it's going to be easier. And I feel like it also just presents more like different complex issues then. And you have a team that you're thinking about providing for and everything. So. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like you never arrive.

No.

Yeah.

No. And I. I don't know, I, like, I've gotten back into journaling in the mornings because it just helps me write down my prayers and I can look and I look and it's like this reoccurring prayer that keeps popping up. And it's like, I'm so stressed. I'm so overwhelmed. I feel like a bad boss. I feel like I'm not giving my employees enough. I feel like a distracted mom. I'm not giving my mom, like, kids. Like, there's this constant tug of war and it's just. It never gets easier. It's just at some point you have to draw the line in the sand. And really, like you said, for me, it's redefining success. So success is no longer a financial number. Fortunately, in my business, I've been able to hit those. Like, I've been able to hit the revenues I set out to hit, but my goals keep going up. But it's just like, okay, now it's time to redefine it. Because, like, I set out to do this for time freedom, and I don't have that.

Yeah, well, and sometimes I think that finances, like, come easier when you're less stressed. I don't know, it's like there's this like, ease thing of like, you know, force is not always the best answer. So anyway, how about mentorship? Lindsay, I like, you've been a great mentor to me and others and I just want to hear your take on this because you are super busy and doing all the things like you're talking about. But whenever I've asked you a question, you like, have such a great response and I have loved that. And I'm like, I want to pass that along to others too. When people ask me for mentorship, what's your take on that? Like, why do you prioritize it? Why, why do you take the time to do that?

Yeah, I think if I were to start like the, the second largest passion in my heart now outside of NML is like, I, yes, I started because I love fitness, but I'm truly an online entrepreneur and I have learned so much in this last decade and I have such a passion for sharing what I've learned because I've grinded and I've YouTube videos and I've done so much. And so if I can share anything that's going to help leapfrog anybody's business, like, I'm an open book. I want as many women to have what I have as possible, which is the ability to provide an awesome job for other women, which is the ability to start to structure your own schedule where you can be part time and still provide for your family and the ability to like, do what you truly love. Like, I get to film workout videos and that's amazing. And if someone else can get to shoot recipes or do whatever, like, I believe there's so much space in this world for everybody to do what they want to do. And I know not everyone's cut out to be the entrepreneur. So whether it's corporate or whatever, but I just love. And I've had other women who have paved the path for me, other women who showed me their financials. So I knew other women who took me under their belt. I, Chris Frytag, like, I learned from her. I started working for her and learned how to do it and then just eventually branched off into my own thing. And she was so supportive and was like, yes, pretty, pursue it, do it. And so I'm just so grateful for everybody who shared their information with me. And so if I can help share with anybody, I'm like a total open book.

I love it. I love it. And there is something like fulfilling too. And especially when someone comes to you and then you see them like Acting on it. You know, you see it like, you're like, oh, I had a hand in that. I think that's a cool feeling.

Yeah, absolutely.

I want to shift gears and talk about. Been talking a lot about friendship on the show, and it's, like, getting, like, stirring a lot for people. And, like, you know, you've gone through seasons of entrepreneurship and grinding and gutting it out, and you, like, we throw young kids in the mix of, like, not sleeping and like, you, you know, you. You kind of don't have time to do all the things. Have you felt, like, lonely on the journey at all? And I know you've had your, like, your BWC and you've had, like, entrepreneurship groups, but did you feel like friendship took a backseat? Because I have very much felt like this in the last. Just the last couple years. I'm like, oh, it's kind of just me, and I don't like that.

Yeah, I think I definitely had seasons where I can look back and I still. I have to be. I'm very focused. And so when I'm, like, focused on growing my business and I'm in the zone, I'm focused. And so I have to be super intentional about stopping and looking at the needs of those around me. And it's something that, like, I love. I very much get a joyful heart from bringing a new mom, like a new meal. A meal or something. But I have to be so intentional about that because it's not. It's not in my DNA, like, to. To see others. It's not because I'm so. I can be so laser focused on my goals and my family. And so to, like, step outside and see others is something I have to be super intentional about. And so it's something I've tried to be really intentional about. But I also. I've always felt supported in the business sense because I put myself in groups with other entrepreneurs and because Stacy from the Real Food Dietitians and I quit our jobs at the same time, and without her, I would not be here. Like, we locked arms and we're talking, like, 1am phone calls, crying and quitting. I went in so many job interviews and had job offers, and Stacy was like, don't take it. You. You've worked too hard. Say no and keep going. Like, so many times we talked to each other off the ledge, and so I had one other person to, like, really link arms with, and we both started at zero together, and we both grow in side by side, and it's been so great. And we've been able to support each other. Yeah, you can find that like that's been life saving for me to grow my business. And then yeah, I got involved with other women in business who are going through what I was going through. Cause my friends had no idea, like no idea. And some of them were even like, what is she doing? Like, you know, and so. But I've, I've, I have an amazing support system of friends. And fortunately there's like four. Four women. Well, there's three, three other women from my volleyball community. So I played college volleyball with them and two of them are also business owners and one of them is pretty high up in, in a, a, a big Fortune 500 company. And so we meet for dinner once a month and we all have kids so we can chat. Like I feel like that has been so life giving for me to have like friends who also know my personal life and my business life and they. Businesses are totally different.

Yeah. Yes.

We have businesses, we have employees, we know the grind and like just to have dinner once a month and just support each other and we're constantly texting each other. I've been so fortunate to really surround myself with like minded women and that has been game changing for me.

That's good. Well, and that I don't know if it's just you've been fortunate but you've also been intentional. It sounds like.

Yes, like I very intentionally have sought out communities of like minded women because I think also like sometimes it can feel super isolating and lonely, but also someone to like encourage you and be like you are worth this much money. Like if someone is asking you to do this event, you should, you know, because a lot of times you're just like, oh, I'll just do it or I'll back down or. And people to lift you up and tell you like, I think you should be charging more. Like, you know, especially women, we're just, we can be really easy to let things like that slide.

Yeah, I think that's interesting and like the friendship evolution in seasons I think is interesting too. On like how you're saying you have these people you meet for dinner with. It's nice when people know your life and really who you are and this isn't just your team. Right. You need these people to discern things with. And I think it's like life and business crossed. We're all one person.

And eventually my husband gets sick of hearing my ideas and yeah, I don't.

Think Steve wants to hear mine anymore. Well, he does, but it's like they can't be all we talk about all the time. Okay, this is a personal question that I have that I think our listeners might be interested in too. Sometimes I struggle as I'm like reinventing and building something pretty much new with like short term revenue needs versus, like long term. Set myself up for the future, build really good systems that work without me. I'm kind of like just battling that right now. Did you battle that? And like, how do you decide, like what to spend time on now?

I love this question because now I can look back actually in hindsight because in the time I was like, this is stupid. I'm taking all these like odd jobs to just pay for stuff and none of it's going towards what I actually want to do. But it all was. I was very fortunate that I. While I was trying to. I was making no money in the first four years of my business, while I was trying to just create an income to either, my husband said, our kids can't go to daycare if we can't. If you can't pay for it, like with your business. And so while I was trying to like pay for daycare and pay for groceries without paying myself but just cover costs, I was freelancing a ton. I actually now compete against myself for articles. I freelance to Women's Health magazine. Now I'm trying to rank for that same article. So I was freelance writing for Women's Health magazine. I was freelance writing for Anytime Fitness. I was. And then I got involved with the food blogging community and I was writing a ton of workouts for them. So they'd create a meal plan and I would write the workout plan. They would publish it, say it was written by them or by a fitness trainer, no credit. Or sometimes they would backlink to me. And so I was in the background doing all this little like grinding of creating personal training plans for friends and family jobs. Yeah, odd jobs. I was meal prepping for people. I was the perfect size medium for Target. So I was like the fit model. But all these things somehow benefited me in some way. I was showing up modeling on sets and I was like, this set is costing a ton. I bet Fabletics would love for me to model for them for half the price. So then I started reaching out to Fabletics like, I'm on production. I don't need hair and makeup. I don't need a production team. It's just me and a camera guy and I'll make it happen. And so like, that's how I ended up building a lot of my business was by doing these odd jobs in still my bubble. But I was, I was just trying to freelance and make money and those freelance gigs ended up helping me build my business. So if you can find freelance gigs that are in your community of people where you can contribute to someone else. And a lot of it I was doing pro bono, like I was doing the, the meal plan or the workout plans pro bono. Like I wasn't even getting paid by these food bloggers, but I was getting a backlink and they had a higher domain authority website and I needed that backlink to my site to start getting credibility.

I think what I'm hearing you say is like, if it's in your realm and if it like, I don't know, works towards the future, right, Or a.

Goal that you have, maybe it's a speaking gig and maybe you're doing it for free because you want to be on stages and you want to speak at places. You just have to start getting your name out there. So unfortunately I know everyone's like, say no, protect your time. But while you're building a business and starting, you have to say yes to a lot. And I said yes to a lot of things. Maybe some stuff I should have said no to. But by saying yes, it opened so many doors. I was modeling on site and Chris Freitag happened to be like the co host for the thing I was modeling for. And that's how I approached her and eventually sold my workout DVDs to her and eventually started working for her. And like it's just this loophole event where doing these odd jobs allowed me to meet people who eventually ended up leapfrogging me on my journey?

Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. I think that's helpful. What, what would you say to the high achieving woman who is building something of her own, who maybe like doubts the speed, right. And questions like, is this going to be worth it? Can I actually do this? How long is it going to take? You know, all these like doubt questions that I think come in your first.

Five years plus, can you find someone who has done what you want to do and can they share anything with you? Can they be your mentor? Can you get into their financials and see their QuickBooks? Is there a way for you to. Because by knowing I knew at year four I would start making ad revenue. I just had to gut it out for four years producing content consistently until I had that domain authority with Google. I knew because I saw other women do it. And that was like my sticking point. Like, can I Just get to year four. Can I get to year four? And then I got to year four and it started working. And so can you find someone who has done or is doing what you want to do? And can you ask them, can you replicate what they're doing? Can you model from them? Can you get financial advice to see how, when, when is the upturn so you have something to look forward to? And if, when you hit year four and the upturn isn't there, like, then, yeah, maybe something's wrong or you know what I mean? Find someone who's done what you did and then start putting yourself in rooms with people like that or started simulating with people who are trying to do what you're like the podcast community, you're going to podcast conferences, like getting in rooms. Like, I know the online space is so powerful and you can DM people, but when I got in rooms with people is when I really started making connections, when I really started making community and started having like real relationships that leapfrogged my business.

Well, I think when you get in rooms, it's like, it's a much different seriousness level than you just DMing someone or emailing them even. Right. It's like, I think that's how some of my best business connections have been formed too, is just real life.

And I paid people, like, I paid people to mentor me and that always 10x like me trying, you know what I mean? Like, if you're gonna say, like, oh, I'm running this, I'm launching this new thing, I'm gonna run five Instagram ads, I would say no. Find someone who did what you're going to do or what you want to do is. And pay them. Don't run Instagram ads. Pay them to brain share with you, to knowledge share with you, to look at your business plan, to look at the email newsletters, to like pay someone who did what you're doing and it's going to 10x. You trying to run any type of like, launch on your own.

Smart. Yeah. It's like a mentor can increase your speed. Like 10x. I think so too. Yep. Lindsay, this was awesome. Is there anything else you want to share with the listeners? I want to learn about your new program that, that I'm gonna be rocking when this pro with this episode launches. But anything else you wanna share on the business front that is just on your heart?

I mean, I think I'm just like so passionate about women in business and I. It's just like it is, it's consistency, like there's no, like you said, like, everyone wants to fast track it. Everyone looks at me as like, oh, yeah. And I'm like, decade, guys. A decade of continually posting on Instagram when I didn't want to. A decade of continuously putting out content when I had a fractured foot, when I was pregnant, when I was six weeks postpartum. Like, it's not all like, this is great. Entrepreneurship is awesome. Sometimes it stinks. But it's consistency. Consistency. That's all it is. It's consistently showing up. And that's why most people don't make it, is because they just quit at some point.

Totally. And probably in those first three, four years where it's the hardest because you're not getting, you're not seeing feedback. Right?

Yeah.

And that's a good parallel, like consistency. In business, I always think like, when I'm consistent in my fitness and I can transfer that to business, they do go hand in hand. Yeah. Keystone habits. So we've got overload 30 coming. I'm pumped about you shared a little bit about it on the Nourish Move, Love Retreat and now I'm, you know, it's here, it's June, so two week, it's totally free. Tell us about why, like, what was your thought process for this one? Like, what was your vision behind it? Why did it come to be.

Yeah, so it's a progressive overload program, which most people like. Progressive overload is kind of a trendy term. It really just means creating external stress on your body or an additional intensity or way to challenge yourself to create muscle changes or muscle adaptations. Right. So it's a very strength focused program and I love it because it still has like the athlete inside me. So this is just, this is how I train. Like if I could ideally train and this is how I've seen the best results. So I would probably love to do a full body workout five days a week because I just love a good full body workout. But I have seen the best results from split training. So leg days and arm days, push days and pull days. And I've just seen my body totally transform with, I would say probably a fraction of the effort from like a full body day. And so I'm just a huge fan of teaching women how to split train because most women love full body days and most women love picking up their 15 or 10 pound weights. And I'm just like, let's change it up, let's lift heavy, let's do three sets. We know science, it's all science backed. Science tells us three sets is the maximum for muscle building. Like that's how you build muscle and doing, you know, your classic movements, your push pull exercises, your squats, your deadlifts, your back rows and your chest presses. But in NML fashion, I have some three dimensional moves in there to keep you training in all planes. And there's a buy in move, so a one minute buy in move and an all out two minute hit finisher. And then your middle is all heavy strength training. And this is just how I have personally seen the best results and seen my body change. And I'm just so pumped to share because we pour so much love into these programs and it's like truly a labor of love. But when they're ready, they're here. And so that's why I won't be starting my summer until mid June. So we're getting through this launch. It's a summer workout program. The first week of June, we're dropping an ab challenge. The second week of June, the new summer program launches. And so it's all free. You can do it free. And it can take you three to four weeks to get through it.

I love, I love that training style that you're talking about. I actually love when we like repeat moves, you know, and like when we redo it because then you get to like set three and you're just dead. You're dead. And I'm like, I like that. And I like the hit at the end too because I like heart rate and everything. Yep. Okay, that's awesome. In two weeks, 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

Yep. Okay.

And talk to the person just for a minute who's like, oh, I like to go outside. I like to run. I like to like, we can mix, we can mix that in totally.

For me, I'm like, if it takes you four weeks to get through it because you're doing two to three workouts a week, I think that's great. I think the best form of exercise is one you're going to do. So if you love to run, run. But I will say a runner who doesn't strength train is an injured runner. So I just think like, I'm a huge proponent of strength training and if you can incorporate it into your routine, whether you do two workouts a week or three workouts a week. And if you love Pilates, do Pilates. If you love swimming, do swimming. I love being outside. In the summer, I'm going to go for some runs. I love just having active days with my kids, going to the park, doing park workouts. But I do think that these strength workouts are just a great way to.

And I think I always personally feel like I need some structure in the summer because, like, I can do everything that you're saying, and I will. But I'm like, I like to have something to follow that's new and challenging. So I just think it's coming at the perfect time.

Yeah. If you're looking for a solid summer plan and you're like, I want to feel strong before the Fourth of July.

Yes.

Perfect.

Lindsay, where can everyone find you? We know that they should hit the website, but where can they follow you? Learn more about everything you've got going?

Yeah. Nourishmovelove.com is the best way to find us otherwise on social or YouTube. It's nourishmove, love.

Yeah.

Love to have you follow along. You can always jump on our email list. That's like, the best way to stay in the know if you're going to get a new workout or when new programs are dropping, our email list is the best place to be. And that's just nourishmovelove.com subscribe.

Cool. We'll put that all in the show notes. But, Lindsay, thanks for hanging out today. It was awesome. And have a great summer. Yes.

Summer.

Let's do it. All right, we'll talk to you soon.

Sounds good.

Could I ask a quick favor?

It would mean so much to me if you took two minutes, literally two minutes to rate and review this podcast. Ratings and reviews are how the podcast grows.

And it's listeners like you who are.

Here every week listening and benefiting, who can really help me grow the show. It would mean a ton to me. And as a token of my appreciation for any written review that you share, I will send you a $5 Starbucks gift card.

Why?

Because we all need more Starbucks in our life. A little coffee for you to enjoy on me. So all you have to do is review the podcast. So just go down and click review rate or review the podcast, write a written review, screenshot it, and before you click submit, just screenshot it, email it to me, mollyasplan.com and from there, I.

Will send over your $5 Starbucks gift card.

And your next coffee or latte or mocha will be on me. Thank you so much. I appreciate it more than you know.

Talk soon.