600. The Importance of Investing in Women

You have 45% of your fund committed already in like a 10 days since you opened this fund. You have to understand that that is lightning fast because other people take three to six months to fill their seed round.

Welcome to the earn your happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of The Bliss Project, 3 Time Fitness World champion, fitness expert and cover model, turned self love junkie, lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week I'll bring you a guest or a thought that will help you bust through your fears, connect to your soul and get focused and clear so you can elevate your life, business and relationships. We don't wait until we're ready for someone to tell us we're good enough. We take what we want and we anoint ourselves, get ready to earn own and unapologetically rock your happiness every single day. Are you with me?

Here we go.

Hey everybody.

We are back for another episode of he said, she said. And we are doing the RV Chronicles.

Yes, we are still in our RV right now. We're what? Going into our fourth week. You're drinking a High Noon.

I'm drinking a High noon. It is 6:30 here. You're drinking a Modelo. I wish my High noon was light pink. We've run out. We're getting more.

We're getting more soon, you guys. Light pink is so amazing. I'm not saying that because it's Lori's drink. It's amazing.

Going to talk about something interesting, but first I think we should talk about our day because I think I made all of your dreams come true today.

You actually did. I mean, not all my dreams, but. So I got to go on a two hour train ride through the Black Hills here through the mountains in 1880 from the year 1880 steam locomotive. And it was the coolest in fall with fall colors. It doesn't get any better than that. You guys. I'm obsessed with trains ever since I was a kid.

I love sounds.

Right now.

I know. We need an editing scene.

Train whistle.

Okay, done. Careful what you asked for. And then we got to go visit Mount Rushmore. Then we got to kick off our fast foundations call, which was super awesome. Does that group have good energy or what?

Yes. And then we went for a hike. Keep talking. Bananas is chewing a bone.

Yeah. Now bananas is like chewing a bone and freaking out over there. So as you guys listen, you're gonna hear RV noises. You're gonna hear banana noises. That would be our dog. In case you guys are wondering what the heck a banana noise is. You might even hear Lori drinking High Noon. Noises. You're getting the real raw Chris and Lori right now.

It's pretty much, here's the deal, you guys, you have to just do full surrender, because there is no such thing as a perfect anything on the road. And I think that's the perfect segue. I didn't even plan that.

There's no such thing as a perfect anything on the road except the perfect.

Segue into what we were going to talk about.

Okay, so I actually did have a subject that, you know, I told you we just got back from a hike, and I told Laurie, you know what I want to talk about today? I want to talk about this insane drive you have to teach women how to invest in companies and to support women investors more. And here's really where it came from. I had said to you, and you said, hey, I'm not even sure that's a good way to put it, but I don't know how else to say it. So you're raising capital for light pink, and you're killing it. You're crushing it. And what I had said was, I love that you are raising money with all women investors, because we'd be able to just go tap on my guy friends who are used to investing in companies.

What they do, they have money for.

The waveform already, like in their familiar zone and have this thing funded in two seconds.

They've sold companies before.

Yep. And we had this big realization, like, that's not what this is about. This is about actually creating the space for women to have a chance to invest, creating the space for women to learn about investing in companies, to learn what is an accredited investor, all of these different things. And you just started going off in this awesome way about all the reasons that women need to start participating in each other's businesses more from this standpoint.

Well, I got to have this realization because you and I have now invested in quite a few companies, and I would never be investing if I didn't watch you invest. I would never understand what it was if I didn't have partner who invested. And also, I wouldn't even be interested if you didn't kind of bring me along with it. And, you know, have these people who kind of also are educating me through the process of investing because I want to know about it. You know, to be honest, I think that I just hit this place of wanting to understand, am I going to be like, coaching and selling courses and all of these different things my entire life? And I wanted to start looking at the way that other people were making money and I realized that a lot of people were building businesses and investing, and that's how they were making money that they could do big things on, whether that was this big vision for your life or giving back in a big way. So that really started to get me interested in this topic that was so not familiar to any women that were really in my circle. Don't get me wrong, there were a few, but they definitely hung around each other because they wanted to be talking about these things as well. And a lot of women weren't talking about them. So with that said, I had this moment when we were going, you know, starting to fund the company or starting our plan on what will this look like? Who would we want involved? Who do we want to reach out to? And yes, could it be a much easier road if we went to a lot of our guy friends? 100%, it absolutely could be. It wouldn't be half the phone calls, it wouldn't be half the conversations. But that is the part that I am most excited about, is bringing this topic to women and giving them the opportunity to not only invest in something that could have a big payout or none, because investing in a person and a startup company is very high risk. So not only giving them a potential huge opportunity, but also a crazy masterclass in education on investing. Not just about, oh, I want to be an investor. What does it look like if you want to start your own company? And I started to ask myself this question and wanted to prove this point of, can we fund each other's dreams, meaning women? Can we actually stay in our circles of influence if we all get educated to start funding our dreams and not waiting for permission or waiting for someone to validate us who's invested before or who knows more than us? So we just listen to them and we're scared. Like, what if we really got so empowered that we're the ones making the decisions, launching the companies and truly in charge of our futures, not waiting for anybody else, but believing in each other's dreams so much, but that we can't help but create these epic new companies that support women, support the world, support whatever you want. It's not just about supporting women. It's about can we start teaching this demographic, you know, of people who aren't privy to this conversation, and prove that we can do whatever we want together?

You know, it's such a great way to build wealth, and it's kind of a boom or bust, to be very honest with you. But when it goes boom, it's a great way to build wealth that so many women are missing out on because they're either not aware that investing in startups is a thing. They don't understand how it works.

I had no idea.

There's fear or unfamiliarity around it. There's. There's seriously a lot of reasons that are kind of keeping them, let's say, outside of the fence. And this is your big mission is, damn it, time to let women in on the secret that this is one of the biggest ways that people build wealth. I'm gonna leave some names out for obvious reasons, but you have one woman friend who sold her company for a couple hundred million dollars who is now being a great guide to you. But she built that company by gathering around investors and building the company, and all the investors obviously won when she sold that company. You have another friend, another woman friend who sold a portion of her company for how much? 240 or something like that. 240 million? Something big like that. So you've got all these examples of these women that have created massive wealth by either investing in other people's companies or getting investors to grow their company. Then everybody wins upon the exit. By the way, when you hear us say exit, that means when the company sells or when it has an ipo, meaning it goes public, those are the only two times that you get your money out when you invest in a company.

Well, there is another way.

Dividends.

Yes.

Yep.

Yep. So there. There's a lot of different things, you know, that you can do in different ways that you can structure your company for sure. And some people don't want to sell their company right away. So that's another thing that you have to think about when investing. And I know that we had a conversation about what to look for when investing, and that's a. That's a separate conversation, but, man, there is multiple layers that I just cannot wait to crack open because I'm going to be doing. Like, I don't think I've shared this yet, but I'm totally starting a podcast that's really talking about business and networking and how. Sorry. Our dog is just like the la. He's the loudest he's ever been in the history of.

If you guys are getting background noises, this is what it's like making it happen in the rv. He's drinking water right now about two feet away. He's playing with his damn bone on the tile floor.

It's like, let me make a big announcement. And Bananas is like, rock you Rom. I don't give a rock. So, yes, Bananas has Waffles voice. I think. I think we just got so used to it. Anyway, with that said, I cannot wait. Like, I am so passionate about this topic as these. All of these women investors show up, which, by the way, this is getting so exciting, where we're getting pretty. We're not close. We're about halfway there in the next couple weeks, which is really exciting.

Guys, this is lightning speed. Can I give Lori some props for a minute? When most people open a seed round, they'll take an entire quarter or two quarters sometimes to fill it. So a seed round is the very first money that you bring into a company when you're starting it out with investors. And it's very typical for it to take three to six months to fill your seed round. You're what, 10 days in?

Yeah, but I don't know. You know that if I'm waiting for the right investors to show up, if I'm waiting for somebody who's super passionate or, you know, we've talked a lot about strategic investors, and that can be anyone from someone who's crazy passionate to somebody who has, you know, who's going to shout it from the rooftops or who has some wisdom to share or who's been in a CPG company before, who has an epic podcast or. I mean, it can literally be anything. It's just strategically aligned with the vision. Who will help move the needle. That's what I'm saying.

Bringing something to the table other than just their money.

Correct. Absolutely.

To move the company forward.

So, you know, for the right investors, if it's like, I'm coming towards the end and they haven't all showed up yet, I don't mind waiting because we already have the money to get started.

Yep. Yep.

So we shall see. I would love to do it quickly, but I'm also not in a race because I want the right people.

You completely hijacked my compliment. I was actually halfway through a compliment telling you. I'm so proud of you.

Oh, go on.

Because at record Speed, you have 45% of your fund committed already in like a 10 days since you opened this fund. You have to understand that that is lightning fast because other people take three to six months to fill their seed round. So, Lori, in front of the whole world. Jesus, let me give you the compliment. You guys, please, somebody interject here. I'm just trying to finish the sentence.

Okay, I'm zoom interjecting.

All right, never mind. Take the compliment. Take it. It's half package. There you go.

I like it. I don't really? Even love gifts aren't my love language.

I can tell.

Hey, words of affirmation are. That was so great.

You took those words and you took it.

You know what's so funny? I was like listening while trying to educate. So instead of taking the complimen compliment, I was trying to educate.

You were thinking about something, what you were going to say while I was talking, weren't you? No. No, I wasn't. Okay.

I wasn't at all. I was saying what I wanted to say while you were talking.

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Anyway, so I think. I think this is the end of RV Chronicles for. Wait, are we. Are we recording one next week in the rv?

Oh, yeah, for sure. We have two more of these. They'll be recorded.

Oh, damn. We're in here for a long time.

Oh, yeah. I like it. You guys, this is my heaven. Traveling around the country, I would.

My edge.

I would never go home if Lori didn't want to. I'm not even kidding.

Lori wants to go home. Not right now, just eventually. Like, I want a good podcast recording. Like I want, you know, all of those things.

I get it. I get it. All right, well, you guys, thanks for listening to our rambling about female investors in companies, the importance of it, why it's so important to Lori. Hopefully you learned either that it's a thing and you didn't know that before, or you learned a little bit about becoming a female investor. And it's just one more great way to create wealth that most people aren't letting you in on.

Okay, guys, until next time, earn your happy and make more money.

When good people make good money, they do great things.

I'm sorry, I'm. I'm a High Noonan.

All right, guys, thanks for listening.

Bye, everyone.

Thank you guys so much for spending this time with me on the earn your happy podcast. I am so glad that you stopped by. If you could take one second to share this episode with someone you think would love it, that would be absolutely amazing and we would be forever grateful. Also, please leave us a review if you feel so moved by going to itunes and leaving us an honest thought, an honest comment. Tell us what you think, tell us what you want to hear more of. It would really help us out on our journey to helping thousands and thousands of people. Until then, don't forget to earn your happy. Thanks again guys.

Bye bye.