Episode 27 - I Am Not Just A Fitness Influencer: Interview with Lindsey Bomgren

I feel like I get to be in these people's living rooms. It's like, it's the coolest thing ever. Like, I was at a baseball game and this little five year old walks up to me and she goes, my mommy works out. You're on my tv. Where's Rachel? It's just like the coolest thing ever that I get to enter all these homes across the nation and have the opportunity to interact with women and just hopefully uplift them and give them some encouragement for the day.

Welcome to personal finance Kat, where I share my personal take on personal finance. All right, Lindsay, welcome to the show. How are you?

I'm great. Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Yeah. So I'm a huge fan. So I've been following nourish move love for a while now. I don't know, maybe a couple years. And, you know, just this morning I did a workout from you from this week's newsletter, the Saturday, the pyramid.

I clearly just finished my workout, so it's all good. You sneak it in when you can, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Can you just start with sharing how you started as a fitness influencer? What was kind of the triggering point for you?

Yeah, I mean, I never set out to be a quote unquote fitness influencer, I guess, necessarily. I. I've always loved health and fitness. I played sports through high school, into college. I played college volleyball, graduated college, got the typical desk job and just didn't love it. Didn't love sitting at a desk all day. Didn't love feeling like I've always been very motivated, hard working, and I was sitting at the person next to me and we'd always make the same amount of money no matter what. And I always felt like I kind of always wanted to do my own thing. And then I really found my passion for what I wanted to do in teaching group fitness. So after college, you know, you had the desk job. I started running marathons, Got really bad stress fractures, transitioned to strength training. Did some fitness competitions to teach myself. I got certified, so I just started getting these certifications so I could teach myself how to do these fitness competitions. Fell in love with strength training. Really loved it. Love the feeling of, like, building muscle and feeling strong. So I got into personal training thinking, you know, I'll do that on the side of my sales job. I had a sales job at the time selling medical equipment, and so I thought that would be fun. Turns out I didn't love personal training because I didn't have control over people's results because I would see them once or twice a week and they kind of like go home. And I was doing it outside of work hours and it just got to be a lot. But then I really found my jam kind of in the group fitness studio. I started teaching classes in group fitness and I show up, the music is pumping, everybody's there, they're just pumped to be there. Everyone puts their phone away. You got like one hour devoted to just everybody having a good time in this room. And I was like, this is where it's at. I just love this energy, I love this environment. But so I really. So I started teaching a ton of group fitness classes on the side outside of my sales job. And. And you can physically only teach so many classes and everyone knows you don't go into teaching group fitness classes for the money. So I was like, how do I turn this into a sustainable career where I can actually make money and not kill myself teaching 15 classes a week on top of a 9 to 5? And so I kind of decided I wanted to go into this online space and I knew I wanted to be online. I didn't know what that looked like. So I decided to live off my base salary and start setting aside my commission for about two years. And so I did this for two years. Then I got married and I got on my husband's health insurance insurance and I was like, so I'm going to quit my job and start a business. He was like, what? But yeah, and then I, you know, I set out to kind of film workout DVDs as every fitness person either has like an app or at the time it was DVDs. Still. I can't believe that dates me set out to film these workout DVDs and sell these programs. I was setting up a website, didn't really know exactly what I was going to do, but I kept seeing all these food bloggers and, and I was like, how are they just making money sharing free recipes? And so I really dug into that food blogger model and I was like, I could do this for fitness. Smartest business choice. No, definitely not. I thought that, you know, along the way I would replace my like six figure sales income in a year. Definitely not the case because I was filming workouts, which everybody eats, not everybody works out. And at the time it was just like they were taking photos. People could take photos on their iPhone. I was trying to film workouts. It's a lot more intensive. I had no idea what I was doing. So I definitely bootstrapped. It took me a Long time to figure out this online space, but I've been doing it now for eight years. And it's funny because I think you can look at my business and most people think, oh, you know, she films, she shows up, she films workout videos. She's a fitness influencer, quote unquote. And it's just really so much more than that. We run a small, a small business. It truly is a business. We are very focused on search engine optimization. People find our workouts by typing into Google. Like that's not just like a coincidence. We very intentionally, you know, choose our keyword. It's very, very strategic and very business focused. So it is super fun. I get to do what I love and I get to apply this, both this business side that I love and as well as the fitness side that I love.

Thanks for sharing all that detail. I didn't realize that that was the journey because I know that you have a website, but how I found you is through YouTube because I just probably search for postpartum workouts or something. And then I realize you have a website as well. But I guess you actually started with the website. But I do want to kind of ask you more about the search engine optimization because I feel like I hear a lot about it. I still don't really quite get it. So can you talk about that a little bit more? Did you hire someone or did you just figure it out on your own? So what's that journey like?

Yeah, I wish I would have figured it out sooner. For the first like three years of my business, it was really just like putting, getting content on the site and just putting out content. We were just sharing content. I was sharing workouts. I like strength training and just sharing. And I didn't realize, had I done this more strategically now, before we ever even film a workout video, we are looking at what people are searching. We know exactly what thumbnail we're going to shoot. We know it, we have it so much more mapped out. But when I started, I didn't know this. So about three years into my business, I started really learning about search engine optimization. So basically, well, most people might now find this on YouTube. YouTube was really an afterthought for us and we really started focused on the website. So the website is my number one source of revenue and my revenue stream. So we monetize. Our number one stream of income right now is getting eyeballs to our website. So when I started I had like zero. Now we get over 700,000, 800,000 views a month to the site and the More views we get, the more money we can make because we have ads that are displayed on our site. And so it's all free content, and we're monetizing off the ads on our website is our number one source of revenue. Two is brand partnerships. Three is YouTube. It's kind of the buckets it falls into. But as far as search engine optimization goes, really, it was going back to some of our content that would just, like, magically happened to. I created this post, 7 Best Strength Training Exercises for Women. I just titled it that because that's what I thought it was. And that post just all of a sudden started showing up on the first page of Google, and it just started getting all this traffic for us. And I was like, I need to replicate this and keep doing this. So that was kind of one of my first initial goldmine posts that I realized if I started titling things what people were searching for, then my content, which I thought was really good, would actually get seen. And so I kind of married those two together. So initially, I did hire. I tried to figure it out myself, listen to all the podcasts, did all the things. And then when financially I was in a place, we did bring it out. So kind of my business model is whenever we want to explore something new, whether it be SEO, Pinterest, YouTube, anything that drives traffic to us, I outsource it for about three to six months to another company. We kind of learn how they do it, and then we decide if we're capable, we take it back in house. And so the typical business model. So we outsource SEO for about three to six months, and then we took it back in house, and now we completely run SEO on our own using a tool called Semrush. It's a, you know, a tool we pay for, and then it helps us identify what our posts are ranking for, what we could rank for.

Cool. But then how did you find your company that you are comfortable outsourcing that kind of, you know, consulting service to? Because there are so many out there, I would imagine. And how do you pick the right one?

Yeah. And so initially I took a course called Hashtag Jeff. He specializes in teaching content creators how to. How to optimize their site with SEO. So I took his online course. It was like 25 bucks a month did that. Got the groundwork and the base knowledge for it, started implementing some things. And then I was like, okay, I need someone to do an SEO site audit of my site to really give me specifics about how we can improve. And so I had some friends in the business, asked them who they were using, found a local company called Uproar SEO here in Minneapolis. We ended up using them to do our initial site audit and then we've done a couple site audits with them since. And then I've since kind of explored other options too.

All right, so maybe just moving on to the next question. Like I mentioned, I found you because I was looking for postpartum workouts. And then I know you're a mom of three now. I think back when I found you, you probably had just had the second one. And so how do you balance all this? You have three little children and you're running this business and it seems that you do a lot of things on your own. Right? How do you balance everything?

Yeah, isn't that the question of the hour? I'm still, still trying to figure out this like massive balancing act. I'm really grateful start my business prior to having kids. So I started my business in 2015. I had my first child in 2017, so I had about two years of legs underneath me. But the really cool thing is is that my audience and my content has grown with me. So when I first started it was strength workouts, 20 minute strength workouts, a little bit more high impact, high intensity. I got pregnant and actually that first pregnancy I wanted to educate myself just like anyone else. I didn't have my pre and postnatal certification, so I really didn't film a prenatal content during my first pregnancy. And I was still under this idea that we get served through kind of like social media and life and just media that as a fitness influencer, I had to have six pack abs and couldn't be pregnant to film workout videos and all these things. And so we kind of. I didn't really film a ton of content pregnant and I focused a little bit more on I was doing recipes at the time since we've just moved to mostly fitness. But you know, I maybe filmed a couple workouts, but I was still trying to do these like hiit workouts pregnant, pregnant. And I really didn't film. But during that time I got my prenatal yoga teaching and I got my pre and postnatal certifications and learned a lot, wanted to experience pregnancy for myself as a mom for the first time and then also postpartum. So didn't really film any pregnancy or postpartum content through my first pregnancy and then got back at it and was like, we're back to filming good, high, intense workouts. Kind of what we're known for. But people had started to kind of, oh, she has a kid now. It makes her more relatable to me, who also has a kid. My second pregnancy, I was like, okay, I, I learned a lot. I had diastasis recti after my first. I didn't even know what that. That was like a thing. Now that's our number one workout video we have on YouTube that drives the most traffic to our site. And so my second pregnancy, I felt a lot more comfortable. I got myself educated. I felt comfortable filming and sharing content. And I was now in a place where I felt like I related to moms. And so I felt comfortable and confident sharing pregnancy workouts. And also during my first pregnancy, I realized on YouTube I would search for pregnancy workouts and it was all like, lift your leg, breathe. Don't let your heart rate get high. And I was like, what about the folks in the back here who've been training and are like, I've been working out my whole life and now I'm told, I'm like, it was so confusing. And so I got myself really educated, felt really comfortable, and I was like, I'm going to bring workouts to women who have been active pre pregnancy that can still strength train and be active throughout their entire pregnancy and challenge themselves. Like, you know, and so I was really pumped to bring challenging workouts. And that's really the audience that I've attracted. And now it's kind of the lifecycle we found. So our, some of our most popular content is prenatal, our pregnancy workouts, and postpartum. So really it's that same mom what's going to group fitness classes, going to the gym, gets pregnant for the first time, types into Google pregnancy workouts. They find us, they're like, finally, a workout that challenges me while I'm pregnant. I like this girl. I'm going to do her workouts throughout pregnancy. And then, you know, you have your baby and you're like, I'm going to go back to the gym. Wait, I can't. I have this child that like, needs me all the time. So you start transitioning into home workouts. And that's where we really captivate moms. And they end up working out with us for the life cycle into, you know, into beyond, into their 40s and whatnot. But then, yeah, speaking to that. So I got really educated on diastasis recti abdominal separation and started filming free content because there's just none out there for women about it. And that's our top performing content shot on my iPhone, on YouTube, over 2 million views. Like, horrible quality, but there's a purpose.

Yeah, no, that's awesome. I think you answered my next question, which is, what do you think sets apart your content? And it's funny, but do you know this influencer called Doodad?

Yes.

They featured your video in one of their videos. Did you?

Yes. I. I didn't personally see, but people reached out to me and they were like, dude, dad featured you. And I was like, that's so cool. Like, in the background of his, like, videos for his wife working out.

Yeah, he's pretending to be his wife and he's doing yours. Yes, but not really. All right, that's awesome. When did you start your YouTube channel?

So I started my business in 2015, and then we were initially just using YouTube as, like, a hosting site. Like, I was just uploading the videos there, not doing thumbnails, not doing descriptions, like, just doing it all wrong, but just uploading them so that I could embed them into my website at the time. And then we covet kind of hit, and everyone was doing workouts on YouTube at home. And so that's when we really got the requests from our audience actually telling us, like, hey, I do your workouts on YouTube, but it's really hard to navigate your channel. I can't find the workouts easily. And so when Covid hit, we really decided to optimize our YouTube channel. And so we started building it out for our users to have a good user experience. They could find the workouts, you could search them, you knew what, you know, what workout it was based on, what I was wearing, what it was titled, all this stuff. So we started building out our YouTube channel. So actually, I was able to start monetizing YouTube in 2019. I had enough views to start monetizing YouTube in 2019. I, like, just turned it on and made $600, I think, for the year. But then Covid really, fortunately, was great for my business. We really catapulted 2020. We grew. 2021 was significant growth for us on YouTube. And, yeah, and then I was actually thinking about hiring out. Like, I said, I was going to hire a YouTube strategist, but then YouTube actually reached out to us and gave us an account manager directly from their team to help us grow their channel because we have great pro, postpartum and prenatal content, and they wanted that to be elevated. So we've now since been working with a YouTube partner, and we've just learned so much about YouTube and the capabilities there. And you know, in the past five months, we've actually doubled our revenue on YouTube.

Wow, that's great. If you have the chance to kind of do it again, would you start with YouTube? Because I feel like a lot of people would kind of go that route rather.

Yes. So I'm very glad I have the blog in place. It's been, it's been very foundational for us and most people in fitness. It's kind of what sets us apart as a business model is most fitness people are either they're YouTubers or they have an app or they're selling, you know, they're selling some, some type of program. All our content is free. So we fall into this like YouTube model of free content. But we can't keep up with YouTubers because on YouTube it's just like, put out a video. Here it is, we're blog first. So we're not only it's SEO, it's pins, it's email newsletters. You know, the video, the writing, the. It's so much more intensive. So we're putting out two new videos a week right now, which doesn't necessarily keep up with like, YouTubers who could be putting out four to five videos a week. So we. But we do monetize a little bit differently. But the coolest part about growing an online business is that, you know, the average millionaire has seven revenue streams. And so I'm really trying to adopt that model where we have very, very diverse revenue streams. So I'm glad we did set it up the way we did. It took us longer to monetize. If I could look back, yes, YouTube grows faster. YouTube is our fastest growing platform right now because we're investing in it. And so I definitely would have done YouTube differently had I known.

Yeah, that's good to know. So then I think you mentioned that a little bit. But can you walk us through how you would generally make certain content? I guess, like you said, maybe it starts with the blog and then, you know, the video. Like, how do you usually kind of plan your content?

Yeah, it's a lot more strategic than anyone would ever think or know. But we basically have different content. We shoot for different audiences too. So right now we'll be like, we're going to shoot this for Google. Let's see, what did we just. What's something we recently just shot for Google? 5 best chest exercises for women. We're shooting that for Google. The five best chest exercises we're trying to rank for chest exercises for women on that first page of Google. So we're shooting that content specifically for Google, our audience will like it. It's still an awesome 20 minute chest workout. We're shooting that specifically for Google. Whereas like a 20 minute full body hits. We might be shooting more for YouTube and our audience or like an all standing workout or a no burpee workout or a no plank workout. Like those things that kind of sell well on YouTube are different than what we're filming for. So we do film every time we show up to film, we're batch filming about four to five workouts. And so about half will be for Google, half will be kind of for our audience in YouTube. But it's very strategic. When we show up to shoot, we have like a 30 page document. It has the workouts, it has what it's already optimized for for SEO, the thumbnails where the pictures we're going to shoot for Pinterest and for the YouTube thumbnail. And it's just, it's very detailed. So it's very strategic now versus just showing up and filming whatever I want. Sometimes we still do that. Like I like to still film whatever I want to. But we, but we're now trying to optimize it either for SEO or for YouTube too.

I know that you recently started maybe a membership too with the YouTube channel or maybe just whoever follows you. So how did you go about doing that? And you know, I know that you definitely have a community now because a lot of people really have very nice comments on your channel, as I could see. But like, how is that kind of coming along?

Yeah, yeah, it was something I've always, I've always like, you know, we, every day I get emails. Would you, would you like to start an app? Would you like to, you know, pursue this? And I've always wanted to make my content free and accessible to women, especially, especially the prenatal and postnatal content. I just feel like there's not enough good pre and postnatal content out there for, for women. So I've always wanted to make it free and accessible to everybody. But we of course always have people asking, will you start a, will you start a Facebook accountability group? Can you give us more? Can I pay? Even husbands reach out to me. My wife wants to personal train with you. Can she pay you? And so there's always been this, ask for something more. But before I ever did a paid offer, I really wanted to give people like this to build this relationship in this community before I ever did any paid offer. And so now I feel like we're at a Place where we've really built this community. We have an awesome community. People are constantly asking us for more. And so in order to do that, we started YouTube memberships. And so it's a small fee. It's 5.99amonth. But for 5.99amonth, you get another live workout with us. And then, you know, we bring in like, this month we brought in a dietitian to do a nutrition Q and A. Just stuff that's a little bit outside of the screen scope. I don't do nutrition. I focus on fitness. So I'll bring in experts in other areas. And we have a community group and a community tab. It's kind of like that, you know, Facebook group people have been asking for where you can, like, encourage each other, post what you're doing, and we can cheer each other on and be like, you know, Karen got 10 push ups on her toes today. Way to go, Karen. And just have more sense of community that people have been asking for. So it's been really successful for us and it's been awesome. And it's allowed us to double our YouTube revenue as well, which is really cool to see. So it's really fun. But I definitely think I'm glad it felt like a very easy and natural sell for us because we'd offer people free content for so long. We already had these relationships established. People have done our free programs and seen results, so they felt willing and wanting to support us. So it felt like a really natural add on to our. To our offerings.

Yeah. So it just kind of reminds me, how many people do you have on your team because you're doing so much right between the newsletter, the blog, the YouTube channel. I know, Instagram. Instagram, you're pretty active. And then you mentioned some other things too, like how many people are kind of working for you.

Yeah. And that's why I kind of always when people, you know, they're like, oh, you're like a fitness influencer. And I'm like, I'm not just some yuppie who walks around and like, you know, my fitness clothes, drinking my green smoothie, taking, like, selfies. Like, this is a very strategic business. And I, from day one, I treated this like a business. You know, I. I always wanted it to be a business. Um, and so, yeah, so I started with just me. And then actually Rachel's been with me for almost six, maybe almost seven years now. She started as just like part time. I was paying her as I could, you know, freelance. She kind of had a bunch of other jobs and then slowly has grown into it. So now Rachel's actually films the workout videos with me as a low impact option. Yeah, so people have loved it and loved having options. So she's in the videos with me and then Rachel manages a lot of our creative and then Megan's been with me for two years now. We added on Megan to help shoot. She's a content writer, does a lot of our behind the scenes search engine SEO stuff, republishing and email newsletters, Google web stories. And then at the start of this year we knew we wanted to launch YouTube memberships, but I knew that would require a whole nother arm and a lot more engagement. And it's our first paid offer so we need a lot more customer service. So we brought on Caroline, my third hire at the beginning of this year and she's really helping manage social media, that YouTube community. Social media is just like a full time job in itself.

So.

So yeah, so now I have a team of three amazing full time employees and it's really cool to be able to employ them and to also, you know, get to have this like awesome team.

That's great. That's great. So what do you think are some of the key skills and traits that set you apart to be successful?

You know, I think I'm just. Yeah, that's a good question. I've always been an extremely hard worker, probably to a deficit, somewhat of a workaholic. And so that balancing act is something I'm still really trying to figure out. And I'm always the woman who will get up, have my laptop open, then I have like breakfast with my kids, get them off to school, work all day, play with my kids at night and then I'm opening my last night I was my laptop again until too long. Not prioritizing my own health and my own sleep and things like that. So I definitely have always been a hard worker probably to a deficit. So I'm still trying to figure that out. So. But working hard. But the thing that is different about now, it's my business is I'm working hard for me and so it just feels different. But I finally feel like I'm in a place where I can start to peel back those layers and start to prioritize my life a little bit more to be focused on my kids. So actually this summer for the first time ever, I'm going to spend two days at home a week with my children. And I'm so excited because I feel like I've worked so hard, hard to get to this place to have this flexibility. You know, every entrepreneur goes into it because they want to work for themselves. They want the flexibility. But I quit my, you know, nine to five to work harder than I've ever worked in my life. I never gave myself that flexibility was always working. And so really excited to feel like I'm at a place where I have a team in place now that can help too, and start to be a little bit more present and available to my children. So I'm really, really pumped about that. But I would say just that continual hard work and then just kind of sticking to my guns. Because we have had people, you know, tons of YouTubers or fitness YouTubers, they don't talk during the workouts. And it's very just like, you know, music plays or a timer goes and it beeps. And we've had people reach out and be like, you talk too much, or clearly, I do like to talk. They're like, you talk too much, or, you know, your personality is a little too bubbly or energetic for me. And I've never just. I've never let that get to me. And I'm just like, well, this is who I am and this is where I'm going to show up in this space. I feel like as a trainer, it's my duty to walk you through the exercise, to teach you about the muscles you're working versus just showing you how to do a squat and not saying anything. So, yeah, always just focus on that. And then focused on fitness education for women versus I just have a really hard time titling workouts, like, you know, get a bubble butt or lose 10 pounds in 10 days or any of that stuff. Like, I've always just really focused on, like, helping women build strength and realize the importance of strength training and picking up heavier weights to build the tone that we want to see. It's all, you know, so really educating women in this space.

That's great.

Yeah.

I have a couple of things to share with you, if that's okay.

Yeah, I'd love to hear it.

I do the workout in the morning usually. Right. But sometimes my kids get up early, so they will actually see me working out with your videos. My daughter will be like, wow, your friend is very strong. Like, you can't do what she's doing. I'm like, I know. You know, so, yeah, I was always amazed how you can, like, talk through the. The workouts and, you know, demo and then basically take no break and then do the next one.

Right.

And then I thought you were talking fast in your Training videos now. I. I'm actually talking to you normally. Yeah. So it's amazing. I think I really, really like your content, and I think you're doing great work there. All right, so then what is some advice you want to give to people who want to be like you, either in the fitness industry or just a YouTuber?

Yeah, definitely. I would say surround yourself with a peer group. That's been so important for me. I have a women's business circle I'm a part of. We meet with every month. I'm constantly learning in this space what's working for other people. You know, it could feel really isolating when you're an entrepreneur on your own, trying to figure out this online space and navigate it. So finding a community has been so, so beneficial for me. Of other women entrepreneurs in this space. We share what's working, what's not working. That's been so, so important for me to never just stop learning and then just trying to kind of keep your blinders on.

Right.

Like, there's so many shiny objects that we can always be chasing, and there's all these new projects that pop up or present themselves. But we've really just decided to stay in our lane. Like, we do fitness, and we do fitness really well, and so we kind of cut away recipes to really just. We do fitness, and this is what we do really well. This is what I'm an expert in. So I think the more you grow, the more you realize where your expertise lies. So you figure it out, and that's what's the best part is, like, as you start, you don't have this big audience. You have a smaller audience, and they get the raw or you. And you build and you grow, and slowly you get better. And that's just how it works. Like, we all look at someone's endpoint and we think, like, I want to be there. You know, I thought, man, if I could it do, if I could be making this much in ad revenue or if I could have a hundred thousand followers on this platform, that would be so great because I was watching all these other people do it, and I'm like, here I am on my janky little iPhone, no microphone, just filming. But it's just about continuing. And consistency compounds. The burnout is so real as an entrepreneur. But if you just keep showing up, I'm so glad I kept showing up. I wanted to quit so many times, but I kept showing up. And I'm so glad I did, because now I feel like I have this successful business and I've Worked really hard to build it, and it feels really good because you earned it.

Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Definitely. Keep up the good work. Yeah.

Oh, thank you.

What are your future goals? What's the future for? Nourishment, love or Lindsey Baumgren?

Right. I feel like I could never put a handle on this because the online space is so crazy. Like, last week I was leading a conference, we had a speaker come in and he's like, all right, so we're going to start building out AI chatbots to put on your site to integrate so that when, you know, GPT chat, someone types this in, your chatbot chats back. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. Like, we just went from, like mastering SEO and now we have to build out a chatbot. Like, it's just the space is so crazy and changing so rapidly, which makes it a little bit more volatile and scary. But yeah, it's just, it's constantly adapting to the new thing. And so we're exploring building an AI chatbot to put into our site so that if someone types in, you know, chat, GPT, 30 minute hit workout, my chatbot, chat them back, crazy stuff like that. We've been getting asked forever, ever to make merchandise, so to make shirts and things like that. So we're, we're starting to explore. We're always exploring. But honestly, from my, my, like, true standpoint right now I'm just, I feel like I finally am so pumped to have a team in place and for me to just take a step back from working all the time, which is really hard for me to enjoy this business I've built, to continue to build it, but in a more sustainable pace that allows me to be more present with my children and to take advantage of some of this flexibility that I've worked so hard for. So I'm always still looking at what's the next best thing, but really I'm excited to find some stability in the rhythms we've created and continue to grow our platforms at a steady pace.

Cool.

Cool.

Actually, that reminds me. So you have three full time employees, but you must have contractors too, right? Because I sometimes see people filming at a certain angle. And then. Who does your editing too?

Yeah. So we have a videographer that comes and films our content. So we still shoot some content on my good old iPhone and we've like figured out audio really well, but for the majority of our larger shoots or our videos that you'll see on YouTube now, it is filmed by my videographer. So we have a contract videographer we still occasionally I have an accounting team and a payroll team. I contract stuff out too. So there's a lot of moving parts. I have a nerd press, a team that helps with the back end of our website and all the IT craziness. And so it's funny because it's like as your business grows, it just gets more complex. Right. And like, growth equals complexity, but complexity kills growth. So it's just like trying to keep it simple, but also you're just growing. And so there's always that complexity piece. So I feel like my job has really changed from being in the day to day of like, writing blog posts to now, like, trying to pull back and take this, like, strategic, you know, view that it sometimes even feels over my head. I'm like, I don't know what's the next best step? Like, you know, so it's. It can be a little intimidating as the business has continued to grow. And so I've debated even bringing in. We might be exploring bringing in like a business strategist or like a fractional CEO or CFO or, you know, because it just starts to get a little bit crazy when you grow.

Yeah. Because you did mention a little bit that products. Right. Because I feel like I haven't seen that much. Maybe I missed it. But merchandise, I don't know.

We've never done it. We've never done it. Yeah, no, we've never done it. So it's something we're in the R D process of. There's a lot of things that, you know, we kind of like, we go down kind of a type a crazy person, really like to do my research and development before we ever just like, full force jump into something. So we are in the process of a couple things we're researching to decide if it's right for us, whether it's merchandise or, you know, exploring more in the AI space. I just recently launched a content creators conference I did with a couple other creators. I love the business side of this and I love teaching other women how to do this because I'm so grateful I did it and was able to build a business out of it. So I'd love to teach others about that. So there's that arm. Yeah. You know, the creative entrepreneur. It's really hard, but I try to keep the main thing. The main thing. We're still going to just film workout videos because that's what I love to do, and that's what is the bulk of our business.

Yeah. All right, so my last question for you is, do you have a book recommendation that's either for business or mindset or something that helps you along the way.

Yeah, I just got into this year. My goals have been the last, just total transparency. The last year was really taxing on me. I've always been, I've always been one to think that I can just muscle through anything. And this past year I had a baby and my husband is traveling right now. He plays professional beach volleyball on the side of his full time job. So he travels a lot. So between having a baby, solo, parenting a lot, running a business that's growing, we moved houses. I tore my meniscus, had knee surgery. Like just a lot of life happening in the past year and I just always was like, I can muscle through. You know, it's like I can just keep muscle through. We'll just film more workouts, we'll film more content, we'll get more done. Then I tear my meniscus and I'm like, well film, you know, figure it out. Like, I've just always been one to think I can muscle through anything. And so this last year was, was really taxing on my just overall physical and mental health. And so I'm starting to realize I am not limitless and to respect my boundaries and to I'm a human being and not a human doing. As an entrepreneur, a lot of us are just wired to work and so really trying to respect those boundaries. So I've been diving into. I've read the Hell with Hustle and or To Hell with Hustle by what is it? Is that one Jeff Benke? And then if I'm looking at my bookshelf back here up in my room right now, I'm reading the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by Is it Mike Comer? And they're great books and they out. They did a podcast together. It's like an 11 episode podcast series if you're a podcaster, which if you're listening to this, you probably are. And it's really great. It's like end, Hustle, Fight, Hurry. Really great podcast to listen to. So really trying to focus on just implementing Sabbath, being more respective, respectful of boundaries and putting my family first.

Yeah, this has been great. Thank you so much for getting on the show. I'm so grateful. When I reached out to you, I really didn't expect to hear back, but when you replied, I was so happy. I was like, you know, so enthusiastic about the interview.

I love it. No, it's always fun. It's always fun to connect with other women who are actually like, have done the workouts and you kind of know what we do. And yeah, just it's really fun because it's like, I feel like I get to be in these people's living rooms. It's like, it's the coolest thing ever. Like, I was at a baseball game. Yeah. A couple days ago, and this little five year old walks up to me and she goes, where's Rachel? And I was like, what? And she goes, my mommy works out. You're on my tv. Where's Rachel? Like, just assuming me and Rachel, she's like, you're on my tv. And I'm just like, this little five year old comes up and it's just like the coolest thing ever that, like, you know, I get to enter all these homes across the nation and have the opportunity to interact with women and just hopefully uplift them and give them some encouragement for the day.

So, yeah, absolutely. It definitely, you know, has been the highlight of my day. Usually after a workout, I feel so much better, so. Right.

And that's what, that's what I just love about it. It's like just all women who want to just do something to make themselves a little bit better and feel better, and that's what's really cool about it.

All right, awesome. Thank you so much again, Lindsay.

Thank. You.