Hiring Hacks to 10x Your Growth + Break Past $3 Million with Natalie Dawson

There's a breakpoint that happens around $3 million of annual revenue where the business owner has just kind of jerry rigged all of these team members and all of these processes and can't quite get past it because they don't change the level of expectations they have for themselves as a leader and therefore can't lead other people across their marketing, sales, finance ops functions to raise to the next.

Hey everyone.

Welcome back to the Earn your happy podcast. Today I have Natalie Dawson on the podcast. She's an entrepreneur, a two time number one Amazon bestselling author. She's been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, and CNBC. Natalie Co founded Cardone Ventures in 2019 with no cost of capital and no outside investment.

That's pretty crazy.

Cardone Ventures has generated over 500 million in revenue within its first five years of business. And in this episode is such a unique and powerful perspective. Because before Natalie co founded Cardone Ventures, before becoming the woman who now runs a 400 person team, she already had everything she wanted. The great marriage wealth most people dream about. And she didn't have to choose the challenges that come with building a massive business. But she did it anyway. Natalie is a builder and entrepreneur at the core. And if you're listening to this podcast, I know you're a builder too. So regardless of where you're at on your journey, I know you're going to hear stories that you relate to and gain tips for business relationships and personal growth. As someone who is in pursuit of building your dreams. If you've ever felt stuck or wondered how to build a team that actually moves the needle, if you want to know how to create a compelling mission that helps keep you in the game when you want to quit, or if you want to know the secret to creating a business that gives you true.

Freedom, this episode is for you.

So let's get started.

Natalie, welcome to the Earn your happy podcast. I'm so excited to have you on the show.

This is such a dream. I've listened to your podcast for years and years and I'm so thrilled to be on.

Well, this is a mutual dream, so I'm so excited to have you on the show. I know that you and I have gotten to cross paths, but way too briefly. I just saw you at Nobu and we, you know, we were kind of in passing and said hello and then we got sat right next to each other. I was celebrating my brother's birthday. I think you guys, your husband was just off the plane from somewhere that he flew all night. I was like, they Were trying to have a romantic date. They get sat next to. Our birthday party was a thing.

It was great. It was great. You guys were laughing a lot more than we were. I was like, dude, you gotta pick it up. Let's drink some caffeine.

Let's stay awake through dinner. Oh, my God. Chris and I have had so many times like that where there's something about one of us when we haven't seen each other. Like, we're like, let's just go to dinner. Let's drop in. Let's try to, you know, reconnect. But that other person who was traveling is typically so tired, they're just a zombie. But it's still.

It's at least company, you know, it's definitely company. But you guys were laughing and having a ball and I love that. We appreciated your energy because it came over the table. Great.

The nice thing is, like, I literally was like, okay, what? You know, because it's our family too. We talk about literally everything. And I'm like, what are they gonna hear? Oh, well, they're pretty cool. They're just fine.

We didn't hear a word. All we heard was laughing. So no family secrets were shared. And even if they were, they'd be safe. But they weren't shared. We didn't hear a word.

There definitely were some, so that's great.

Dang it, I missed some tea.

I know, I know. Well, that's why we have to go to. We have to go actually eat at.

The same table sometimes. There we go. Okay.

You have just been everywhere. You have been all over. You are a part of a company. You're a co founder of Cardone Ventures, which is a whole lot of people all of the time. I feel like between working with a ton of people, between the events, between the trainings that you do, all of the things with leadership that you do. I feel like I see you all of the time in front of large audiences of people, mostly men, a lot of men. It's starting to become a lot more women. But I know, you know, even, let's just say a couple of years ago or a few years ago, like a very male dominated space that you're in all of the time. And you're a very feminine, beautiful, amazing, powerful woman. I kind of want to go back to the place right before you started in what you're doing now, if you could explain what you're doing. And I just want to talk to kind of where you were at emotionally there. But why don't you first start by telling us what it is that you do?

Yes. So I, as you mentioned, the co founder of a company called Cardone Ventures. So my husband, who I've now been with for over a decade, sold his business. He's very successful. He is one of the most brilliant business minds. And in 2016, we've been together for a few years and he had sold his business for 77 times earnings. And it was the most incredible experience for me, being very young, watching this person achieve every goal that they had ever had. And a month later, not feeling satisfied from that and having doubt creep in and, you know, I had to overcome a lot of challenges that I told myself with my story of like, I just happened to fall in love with this guy who was twice my age. But at the time I was top of my class in high school. I had a academic scholarship to school or to college, went to London School of Economics. I thought I was just going to be like this take no prisoners woman who never gets married and like screw men. And that really was my identity until I actually fell in love with somebody who was twice my age. And I think it's because I judged myself for so long. And then he had this really successful event happen that just changed his financial condition very quickly. And when I watched this happen, the reason we were in love to begin with was we were building and we were in business together. And so that thing went away because the business wasn't what it was. When you sell your business, you know, it's not the same early morning meetings and strict schedule. That's just things change. And so for about a year and a half, he and I went through this like tornado of does he want to do this again and start from scratch and do I have what it takes? I'm 25 years old. No one's going to think that I'm smart anyway because I'm dating and now married to somebody who's so much older and has this business experience. So I kind of went through this, like, why should I try? Because I've already discredited myself with this choice. And I finally like got off my own, you know, sad soapbox and decided that we were going to look at all of these different social media influencers because I thought that we could give business guidance, consulting management services to small business owners to fulfill what Brandon's vision has always been. That's my husband, Brandon, which his previous business sold in the audiology and the dental spaces. So it was impacting small business owners in very specific industries. But what you find when you go from an audiologist to a dentist is there's a lot of common practices between communication and leadership and structure and marketing and operations, that even though the business is different, the core elements of businesses doesn't change. And so he wanted to go down the private equity route. I was like, wait, let's look at social media influencers and see if we could partner with them. Neither one of us had any sort of social following. And I put together A list of 25 social media influencers who were big at the time. This was in 2018. And I put together this list and just started checking people off, saying, no, this doesn't fit, or this person's values are not aligned with ours. And I pulled up a Grant Cardone video and saw him with his money gun, with his hat turned sideways and this big jet. I was like, cross off the list. Absolutely not. No way. This is not the guy. But then, luckily, you know, the YouTube gods retargeted me with Elena's content. And I watched this video of Elena talking about being a strong woman while being married and what support really does look like and how backwards most people have this idea of marriage. And, like, I remember bawling watching this video. And so I saw Grant through a new lens, and I told my husband, hey, why don't we move forward with. Instead of this private equity route, like, let's do the social media route. And he was, you know, crotchety about it. He's like, I don't know. I don't think this is a good idea. This. I'm a traditional businessman. But, you know, we decided to move forward with going to a growth conference, which is a big event that Grant hosts every single year. And that particular event had 35,000 people in the room. And we were really looking to see are these people who are online who we social media stock actually real? Like, is. Are the kids real? Is the marriage real? Is this movement real? Are there real business owners, or are there people who just think this 10x thing is cool, who are in the audience? And we walked into that room, and it felt like for the very first time, we were at home. There were just, like, all of our people who were not satisfied with what they had created, wanted to do more, were looking for the fast track, understanding marketing and sales. And we were just blown away by that event. And so we went to Grant afterwards and said, we'd like to be your business partners. You do sales and marketing and real estate, and we do all the other pieces of scaling businesses. And your audience is the perfect fit for what Our expertise is. And we started this business in 2019, a handful of months after Growth Conference. And it's been almost six and a half years now. And it's just been a roller coaster ever since.

Wow. Okay. So at that point, who were you? How were you feeling? Like, personally, where were you? Meaning, like, where were you? Personal development wise, how did you view.

Yourself at that time? I viewed myself as somebody who might have what it takes, but didn't actually have what it took at the time. And I made a lot of excuses for where I was at in life, and I didn't view myself as somebody who was really willing to go all in. I wasn't the early riser, the late, you know, emailer. I was just kind of. I was like, tempted by this cozy, comfortable life because the guy I was dating was wealthy. But I was really smart and I had always worked hard, but I had this, you know, year and a half period where like, well, maybe I should just phone it in and maybe I'm going to retire and I'm just going to be a trophy wife. Like, that was literally what I thought for. Which is so insane because I'm very naturally smart and I actually work very hard. But at the time, like, I had gotten myself to a place where I was so concerned about what other people were going to think about me and that I would put all this work in, they would judge me anyway. So it was kind of the mindset of why try and why go through all of this hardship just to on the other side, feel the way that I feel right now?

Okay, so for anybody listening who's like, oh, God, that must be nice. What I want you to understand is that, Natalie, you may have had to push harder than some people who are in a tough situation, because the decision that you had to make between super cush life, which no one was telling.

You you needed to do this, nobody.

Was telling you that you needed to work as hard as I know that you work now in what you do now and who you are now to become the leader that you've become. None of that was easy. That was a choice that you had to make despite having the choice that you're just fine not doing it. I will, I will tell everybody listening that sometimes the hardest choice for me once, now that I've, you know, had the businesses and made the money and have residual income, the hardest choice for me sometimes is getting up and working again and creating again and, like, finding that drive and finding that, like, inner fire. Because I do think that there's A lot of grit and a lot of fire that you get when you are in a tough spot. So how did you find. Find, like, that tenacity and that, like, grit and fire to become the person that you are now? Because you probably had a lot of opportunities that felt insanely scary and that you weren't ready for yet.

Oh, my gosh. Like all of the above. And yes, it's. It's this interesting paradox where when you actually are in proximity to having whatever you think you want, right. People want to win the lottery. Like, oh, that would be so great to win the lottery. Okay, you win the lottery now what, like, what is your life about? What do you do every day that makes you proud of yourself? What is the impact that you've been able to create? I used to have this list of all of these things that I just, like, I wanted in life. And I've always liked looking at other people and saying, oh, my gosh, it's so cool that she's doing that or that this person has that. But for me, back then, I hadn't created a life where I would have earned those things, but I still wanted them. And as much as it sounded nice and really was a real option for me to just have the things but not put the work in, I felt so empty. In those moments of meeting other successful people and having them ask me, oh, what do you do? I was like, well, I'm valuable and I'm smart, but you wouldn't know that because I don't have. I don't have the receipts. I haven't done the work. I haven't really become who I need to become to demonstrate the competency that I know I'm. I'm capable of having and the potential that I see in myself. And so it really was those moments where I would be meeting people for the very first time. And Brandon has this incredible story, and I'm so inspired by my husband and I believe, like, I'm his biggest cheerleader, but I would always feel terrible about myself and have so much anxiety when I knew the conversation was going to get passed over to me. And I'm going to say, what about myself? Oh, I'm a really good girlfriend. And I, like, there was nothing to. There's nothing to say. And so that grit really came from kind of hyping up in many moments those times when people would ask me that question. I didn't have anything to say. And just, like, feeling that pain over and over again. You got to find different ways to motivate yourself. To do hard things. And I am very motivated by, like, pain in that way. I'm like, oh, that sucked when she asked me that and she had this thing and she was successful and like, I. It sucked that I didn't have anything to say. So this is me putting in the work to create the thing so I can actually say, oh, this is what I do. And it's not from some, like, cop out place where, you know, I could just like slap a title onto something. No. Like, I really built this. And if you asked me my experiences about these things, they're real experiences so that I could, you know, show up and be the person that I believed I could be and thought I could be, but really wasn't acting like.

I love this conversation so much because I don't get to have too many people on who started with all the things they wanted. Like, it's so incredibly rare to have somebody go, can I please just tell you that at 25 or whatever age you were at a really young age, like, I literally had everything like you and you were in love, like kind of that peak. And I get that for some people, there are some people in the world that that is like enough. And I love that for them so much. But clearly you have something intrinsically that I believe the people who listen to my podcast have that. You know, you're a creator and you know, you're a builder and you know, you're here to shift and impact. And I don't believe that you can be happy without earning that, you know, like that respect and that just deep self confidence in yourself that you can do those things and you can create and you can build.

So.

So who do you think, you know, before we dive in even deeper? If you wouldn't have gone for the things, who do you think you would be right now in your marriage? Do you think that that would have impacted your relationships and your marriage? Do you think you might have sabotaged things if you.

I would have absolutely sabotaged things and I would have had Brandon not focused on what he's focused on now. I mean, I get to inspire my husband today to go and do more because if I don't have to work, like, he definitely doesn't have to work, but he does. And he's going to show up this morning and he's going to take calls and he's going to do all of these things because we've now so fortified on what our mission is and why we do work hard. And we've had to confront those difficult conversations like what is this all about? And is it really about money? Like, how many. How many belts can you buy? How many shoes can you buy? What. How many cars can you buy? Like, it really. When you get to a level of having the financial success that you want, it changes things. But it is an important differentiator for me. He and I, like, his money is not my money. And it was very real to me in conversations early on that, like, I wanted to make my own money. I never wanted to be dependent financially on somebody. He is the most generous person on the face of this planet. But, like, I've always had that urge to not feel like I was dependent upon somebody and be able to create the things that I want to create and buy the things that I want to buy. And so today, you know, the. The purpose and the passion really comes from a place of. We've had to confront very difficult conversations and ask the difficult questions so that we're very aligned on what our mission is. But, you know, it wasn't always like that. And we would fight over stupid things. We would get in arguments just because I think we were bored. And I find that, you know, a lot of people just. They're too bored, so they make up shit in their lives to have some drama and to create some little game. And the game then becomes being right against your husband. Instead of like, hey, let's go conquer this big milestone and this big target that we're all pushing against. And there's an external enemy. Like, you're not my enemy. And I learned so much of that from being around Elena where, you know, she's just like, she's so target focused with grants, and they're so mission focused that the little things that you do to each other don't become these big things. They. They're very small things, and you handle them as quickly as possible because you have to get back to your purpose and why you do what you do. And if you don't know what that is, I think it's easy to chase money or it's easy to chase boredom and make the game really small.

I love that. I can't tell you how many times now that Chris and I are, you know, chasing the. This our own missions and then also mission together. One of the fastest ways that we end an argument is to just look at each other and go, like, this is so stupid. We don't have time for this. Like, that's literally. We'll both just be like, this is so dumb. We literally have no bandwidth and no time. So, like, let's drop this because it's wasting our energy. And that'll be it. Like, we'll be like, oh, yeah, that was really stupid because it's so small compared to what we're doing. So for everybody listening, I. I feel like they're, like, salivating. Like, how do I figure out, like, what are these conversations that you're having that you figure out what your mission is solo? And then how did you figure out your mission together?

We really started from a place of saying, in 10 years from now, what does life look like? And that sounds cliche, but when you're actually able to say, okay, today I'm 32 years old, and in 10 years from now I am going to be 42 years old, what does that life actually look like? And who are the people I'm spending time with? And how much time did I spend with my family? And what products have I produced that I'm proud of? And when you have those conversations, you know, the moments in life that you love are not the moments where you bought some shiny thing. The moments in life that you really aspire to are the things that would require an immense amount of work and an immense amount of dedication because you're proud of this thing that you've accomplished and this thing that you've created. And I believe that we're here on this planet to create things and not just to consume and constantly be effect of what other people are putting out there. Like, what. What does Lori want her corner of the world to look like? And how can she impact all of the people that she has the potential and the capability to impact? And so those conversations started with, who are the people that we're spending time with? And when you really think big. This sounds outrageous, but I have on my vision board, it's updated now because, like, it's a little different today, but seven years ago, I wrote down that I wanted to go on a trip with Beyonce and Jay Z as, like a friend.

Like, we're just friends. And we go on. I love, I love that you had that so way to go.

It was very real to me. I'm like, well, it wasn't real to me, but, like, who would I have to become then to be interesting enough for Beyonce and Jay Z to hang out with me? Like, I was not interesting. I didn't have anything going on. And so really mocking up what 10 years out looks like and then working back to what does today look like and how am I actually making progress? ChatGPT is amazing for this because I didn't have ChatGPT seven years ago when I was really crafting this version of myself. But today, ChatGPT, you could ask it to quiz you on core areas of knowledge that you want to get. Like, let's say you want to build a business and you've never built a business before. You could say, hey, quiz me on what I would need to know in order to start my own business and in order to create this next version of myself so that then I can know what I don't know. And then build me a syllabus that I'm going to use to you study two hours a day, every day for the next 30 days, and then reassess me then and it will populate all of this for you. Instead of going to some college or university that gives you some standard syllabus, it can actually be customized based off of where you see yourself. Okay, what are the skills gaps? Test me on the things I don't know that I don't know. Because if you knew the things you didn't know, you'd just go and get that information. But I find it especially working with business owners most of the time that they get in trouble. They, they don't know the things that they don't know. So ChatGPT can be incredible in helping you get those skills rapidly if you're really looking for them.

Oh my God. I like all of the memes right now that are like ChatGPT being people's best friends. I'm like, no, it's, it is a real thing because it's truly, it has answers to everything. Now. I still think we need the human side so we understand the journey and practically how it works in the world. But it's like, it is life changing. It can truly coach you on business. It's insane. It's.

Have you customized your ChatGPT?

Yes. Like trained it and tell me your version.

I just found this out.

Okay. And this is like a little, a.

Little hack that I'm sharing with everybody that is interested. So on ChatGPT, you can click your picture on the right hand of the screen and it drops down and you can say like, customize my chatbots. So it asks you currently three prompts. It says, what is your name or what do you want to be referred to? What are your preferences and then anything else you'd like us to know. And so I've customized this thing where it gives me girly analogies for everything I ask it. So if I ask it a question about like private equity, it's like private equity is that. And it defines the words and does all the things that I like because I tell it to, I tell it to put it in bullet points. But then it also is like imagine walking into a mall and private equity is like going into a store and being able to invest in the hottest, most cool upcoming brands that nobody else has access to because you're just in the know with your mall friends. And that allows me to learn new things in a way that I understand them. So whatever you're into, I'm into girly things like give me the nail polish, give me the, the mall analogies. And I learned faster.

Say, okay guys, this, I mean, if you took anything else away, that's. That is the tip. Actually probably podcast over. Exactly. I love this. Just chatting about the growth between you and your husband as well and how that's really impacted your life. Because I do think Chris and I were talking on our walk this morning and there's so much about how your partner is like the most important decision that you'll make, because I believe that's going to determine so much around what you do in your life. For somebody who doesn't have a partner right now, what would you tell them? Like, how can they create an environment for themselves to become the woman they want to be?

I couldn't agree with you more that your partner is the most important decision that you will make in your entire life. And if you haven't attracted your partner yet, you have to ask, who is the ideal person and how am I attracting that type of person with every single action, with every interaction, with the places I'm spending my time in? And oftentimes I think for women it's challenging because those, those things that you're working on, the self work and the self care. If you're hanging out on a Friday night with an eye mask on, reading a book or listening to this podcast, it's not likely that you're going to find your husband through doing that particular activity. But what you'll hear in doing that activity and what you will learn is you need to find groups of people who are also connected to the content that you are listening to and the interests that you have. So how do you take that work and actually pivot it into an in person experience where you're able to meet people who aren't just talking about self development, but who are really invested in their own self development. And nine times out of 10 people who are invested in self development actually show up to self development related courses, events, wellness events, Gyms. And, you know, I think online dating is great too, but if I was single right now, I would just work so hard on myself in those quiet times, but then show up to events and say yes to every potential event that is in alignment with those habits and those goals that you have so that you can be the type of person that when the other your partner is there, like, they think of you and they actually understand that you are the person that, you know is doing the same things they are.

I love that. Okay, so you, you get in, in front of a lot of rooms. You are speaking in a lot of rooms where it's very male dominated. There is a lot of energy, there's a lot of masculine energy, there's a lot of power, there's a lot of incredible people, there's a lot of big people, there's a lot of new people. There's all the things that when you are a newer speaker, because I know, like, this wasn't in your back pocket. You weren't like, oh, my God, I do this all the time. When you started doing what you do and I see you online in front of rooms all of the time, and I want to know when you first started, you know, speaking and stepping in front of people, were you already confident? Did you already feel good? Like, where were you at mentally before some of your first, you know, speaking engagements?

It cracks me up that this question is being asked because, Lori, I used to watch you when I was terrified of speaking. Like, I wish one day to be able to have the confidence and poise. I watched you at Angie Lee's event, it must have been seven years ago, and you just like, had this fabulous outfit on and the music was playing and these girls were fricking hyped and you hyped them up and you, like, dance. And I literally thought if I had to go up there and do this right now, I couldn't. Like, my body would not allow me to do this. I would be petrified. And so, yes, I have had all of the speaking noise and the fears and it's been challenging for me because my bar is the men I'm around. So me being not good at it, being fearful about it, but also speaking in front of or after people who are amazing and have much more experience really held me in a holding pattern for it was four years. I had a horrible speaking experience very early on in my career. It was, it was so bad to the point where I literally could not talk to a group of people larger than three. I went from this Confident girl.

You have to tell us. I mean I, you have to tell us. Cause we, we need to know. This is normal.

It's so normal. I dropped out of college. I went full time on my job and two months into being full time dropping out of college, my parents cut me off financially. I was supposed to make this presentation, this leadership presentation for a new program we were rolling out. I was speaking at 8 o' clock in the morning and I had from 8 to 9 to give this full presentation.

That's long.

It was, it was a long presentation. Weirdly enough, I wasn't nervous about it beforehand. Like I felt prepared. I had made some changes the night before and didn't sleep very much. So okay, maybe I was nervous, but at the time, you know, I was 20 years old. So it's like, okay, like I got this, like I can use the card that I'm like young. And I went to go up there in front of this long U shaped room in a double tree in Portland, Oregon by the airport. We'll never forget. And everybody got their coffee, they sat down at their tables. I was the youngest person by at least 10 years on this team. Nobody wanted me to be working on this project. It wasn't like I was well received by the team. I just dropped out of college to work on this project and to, to launch it. And so I walk up there and seven minutes into my presentation, I turned around to look at the slides and then turned back to the audience. And in that moment I became nervous to where I spoke so quickly that I gave the rest of my presentation in three minutes. So it is 8, 10 in the morning. Everybody is still like blowing their coffee because it's too hot. And I end this hour long presentation at 8, 10 by saying, well, you guys can go to the bathroom now.

They just freaking gone to the bathroom, Lori. They didn't have to go to the bathroom. This is the best.

It was the worst.

It's the worst. And it's the best because it gives so much permission, Natalie. It just, it's like so helpful for people to hear because like, even if it goes that way, look at what a freaking powerhouse you are. Even if you excuse people to the bathroom five minutes after you start.