Is It The Right Time to Launch A New Business or Product? (Here’s How to KNOW!)

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I spent so long, so many years in so much pain from being so lonely. But I know that all of these things happened in order for me to help people through what happens in the beginning of becoming a new person and shifting into the identity of the person that you always came here to be. And we're back with another episode of He Said She Said.

Before we get started, you guys, you have to hit pause. If you're an entrepreneur making 25,000 to $500,000 per year and you want to get the most supportive mentorship ever, ever created on the Internet. That's what we have spent over a year putting together. It's called the Mentor Collective Mastermind. It's for businesses earning under $500,000 a year. We haven't offering for that group for four years and when we came back to service that group, we wanted to make sure it was the greatest thing that we had ever, ever, ever created and everything that we wished had existed when we were in that phase. That's why it's the most supportive business program literally ever created. Weekly calls, unlimited one on one coaching with industry expert coaches that we pay for on your behalf so you don't have to go out and pay extra. Coaches, Lori and I, working on your business by answering your questions directly about your business multiple times per month. I'm telling you, layer after layer after layer of support. Now here's the challenge. We can only put just so many people in there and have that kind of hands on support so you know it's going to sell out. So before we get started with this episode right now, I want you to hit pause and text us the word WAITLIST to 310-421-0416. Again, text us the word WAIT LIST to 310-421- 0416. Or you could just go to loriharder.com forward/waitlist and drop your email there. That's loriharder.com waitlist and drop your email right there. Now you're an entrepreneur, or you probably wouldn't be listening to a show like this. Lori and I are obviously entrepreneurs. We love entrepreneurs. It's our favorite thing, our favorite sport to talk about, I guess me, it might be football and the packers, but a close second is entrepreneurship. So what we wanted to talk about today was how do we decide when we actually start a business? How do we decide when we actually launch a new product? What goes into that decision? And why do we say yes to that particular thing as opposed to all the other shiny ideas that fall into our lap? Because if there is one challenge that we have, and you might actually be able to kind of relate to this, is that we have no shortage of great ideas. It's the execution that we don't have time for.

For me, when I think of starting something, every single thing that I've started, honestly, started with butterflies. Whether it was on a walk that I felt them or whether it was in a class that I was biking and just got, like, this huge vision of something that I knew I was supposed to be doing. And it's always started with a feeling and a need. It's like they. They've kind of gone hand in hand. It was either something that I'm like, why doesn't this exist? Like, I don't understand. I wish that I. It's typically that we are always wanting to serve the former version of ourself who was struggling. So for me, that's what I think about a lot, is what was the past version of myself, that if I would have had this thing, I would have thrived. Like, it would have gone so much faster, and maybe it would have saved me from that particular heartache or that particular time period where I feel like I wasted so much time and money on something. So much frustration, so much spinning my wheels, so much doubt. That's what I'm always trying to serve or fix.

That makes so much sense. So you wrote your book to solve, you know, female friendships, where you struggled so much growing up. For years, you had your online fitness membership, actually your gym, and then you're out because you struggled with your fitness, coming from your family's, you know, lack of fitness knowledge. When you grew up, you created the Bliss Project because you're like, there's nowhere where women are getting together to just kind of let their guard down.

And I want to point out, I spent so long, so many years in so much Pain from being so lonely. I know when you and I first got together, it was like I did not have any friends. I felt so misunderstood. Like I didn't understand why people didn't want to build their big dreams. I felt like such a black sheep. I felt so different from my family. I was, you know, super goal oriented and was just looking for people who wanted to do the same thing but actually support each other. And I also struggled when I first started to make friends with women who kind of not kind of actually stabbed me in the back and took a business idea and started to do the exact same business idea and then turn people against me, which I know was on my path and was intended to happen. And now I never get that anymore. But I know that all of these things happened in order for me to help people through what happens in the beginning of becoming a new person and shifting into the identity of the person that you always came here to be. There's a lot of transition, there's a lot of conflict, there's a lot of loneliness. And that's why I create everything I create now.

It's interesting. That's why I created Frello. Right. Obviously Fro's pivoting right now. But the reason why I put all my blood, sweat and tears in a couple years and you know, over $3 million into building the original platform for fellow is because I originally helped a random landscaper with a $680 loan and it changed his life and changed his business forever. Like it was the fork in the road turning moment for this guy. And I was like, wait a minute, how do I solve this at Mass? How do I get all the people like us to match up with all the people like him that just need that bridge in the moment, right? And that caused me to go all in. That was enough of a, of a compelling moment where I knew in my heart I had to solve this problem.

You know, I think of these moments as catching lightning in a bottle because a lot of people don't put the lightning in a bottle, meaning they get these lightning flashes of a big vision. You know, Chris, you could have very well gotten that flash for Frello in helping that guy. But you didn't do the things to pull it through what I call Death Valley, where, you know, you get the flash. Maybe you get the flash in California. But if you need to make it to New York, you're going to have to go through this journey where you don't see any vision of New York in front of you. And you literally have to take that idea, and you have to do certain things which we're going to talk about on this podcast. You have to have certain things in order to keep that lightning in a bottle and carry it through to where the idea exists and becomes reality on the other side.

Before we talk about more reasons, you know, how, you know, that you should start that business or that that is the right company for you, let's talk about what happens when you start it for the wrong reason. And I'll give you an example. When I took my partnership in the mortgage bank, that ended up having a very tumultuous relationship with my business partners. And it was one of the worst three years I've had professionally. And when I left there, you know, and sold my shares to my partners, it was worth pennies on a dollar for what I should have gotten. Like, everything about it was a horrible experience is because I decided that I would go into that business for a misaligned reason. I wasn't excited about it. I didn't want to solve a certain problem. I wasn't like, yeah, I want to, you know, get more mortgages out to the world. It was out of fear. It was out of the only opportunity I saw in front of me at a time when my confidence was shaken because, you know, I left banking during the recession and felt like everything was stripped from me. My identity, my confidence, my swagger, my everything. And I said yes to taking on a chunk of that company and putting everything I had into it out of the most misaligned reason of, well, maybe it could make me money. And so when you say yes to a business idea for the wrong reasons, it almost always will backfire on you and not work out. That's why you have to make sure you're saying yes to a business idea or a new product for the most exciting, keep you up at night in a good way, aligned reasons.

You know, I think a lot goes into that, too. There's, like this initial excitement that I think is really important. And there is everything that you talked about, Chris. But there's also the other side of all of that, where it gets hard and it can actually start to feel a little misaligned, and you can start to judge yourself and wonder if this is the right fit. And I think that's the part of the dream that you have to remember, is you always have to go back to the beginning and keep reminding yourself of the why. Why did you get started? What was this solving for you? And honestly, so much of the why evolves and changes as well, as you, you know, bring it further down the road. I'll use Glosi as an example. You know, I was solving a problem not only for my hydration sticks, that I was literally drinking every day and having way too much salt and sugar. And it wasn't helping my skin or my gut or my health issues, which is exactly what I wanted it to help. I wanted it to make me healthier. And a lot of them, we're doing the actual opposite. And so I created something that I wish existed. If you could only do one thing for yourself a day, let it be this. Because this is gonna solve so many different issues for you. Skin, gut, it's gonna make everything better. But what also ended up happening with Glossy is that now my why has evolved so much into I want to be the woman who goes first for a lot of different women in creating physical products. Because so many people out there feel like they've reached a ceiling on digital courses, on coaching, maybe on podcasting. They want something of their own, or they want more of a challenge, or they want something that maybe they absolutely love but has the potential to sell. They want to go through that whole process of starting something new and different, but they don't feel like they have the skill set or maybe the network or the understanding of it. And so for me now, Glossy has the deepest pull for me to want to make this successful so that I can reach back and help other women do the exact same thing. But I can't do that unless I learn how to do it through this company and make it a success.

You know, that's one of the reasons why we've always had our masterminds, is we love being able to reach back and pull people up the way that people pulled us up. And if I use the new Mentor collective mastermind as an example, I could actually go back to when people did that for me. Right? So a lot of our success has not become because we knew how to do things, because other people that already knew how to do things, they reached down even when they didn't have to and said, hey, man, do it this way or let me help you, or let me connect you, or here's a better idea. I'm talking Bill Glazer and Bobby, the founder of bhd, was helping me navigate fintech. Right now. My business partner, Matt, who already sold a multiple nine figure company, Brendan Burchard has done this for us. Lewis Howes did this for us many years, starting all the way back with his mastermind, when he reached out and said hey. One, you should be in this. Two, we need to, like, come to the apartment. We need to collaborate on your business. We need to, to figure some things out. You guys are chasing too many things. And he really got our business plan narrowed down, and that changed everything for us. Like, that was one of those huge turning points in the road. And that's why, at least for me, one of the reasons when I said yes to doing this new mentor collective mastermind was because I love that dopamine hit. I love that feeling when I get to do the same thing for other people, brainstorming on their business, saying, do this, don't do that, and knowing what it's going to save them in time. Money, energy, frustration. It's almost kind of selfish. Like, that is one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to start that product is I missed doing that. We used to do that with fast foundations. And for those of you that have not followed us, you know, over the years and years and years, Lori and I used to have a program for businesses that were between 0 and $500,000 a year in earnings that totally went viral. It was called Fast Foundations. It was incredible, and it did so well. We actually sold it. When she started Glossy back then, it was light pink. And when I was starting Frollo, we knew we needed a little bit more bandwidth during those first couple, really all in years, right? And so to clear that bandwidth, we sold fast Foundations. And when we sold it, damn, I missed it. Like, I really missed working with people at that stage of their business under $500,000, because it's so easy to move the needle so well for them.

And what's so cool is we sold it to people who were in fast Foundations because they got such transformation from it. They were like, this program literally cannot go away. We have to keep it alive. And I thought that was the most incredible thing because you and I were like, we don't want to get rid of it, but we have zero bandwidth for it. And now that we understand so much more about how to empower our teams to help us run programs and also got the right people into our teams, and now that we also understand how we can best run programs, I think you and I have done so much learning and there's just been so many advancements in ways to help people. This is why you and I are excited to do this again. And I know for me, one of the biggest reasons is because it is my purpose. This is my absolute purpose when I'm working in something, even though I am obsessed With Gloce, I also learn through teaching.

Yes.

So when I get to go on and teach groups of people, you know, every other week or get to be in these different groups, like in the Elite Entrepreneur Mastermind, I also get to learn so many things, not only, you know, from teaching it back, but also in the group. And just what's going on out in the world, like group think is so incredible in terms of entrepreneurship and learning what is out there. Working and getting to help facilitate these rooms is my biggest purpose in life. I will do this until the day I die because I could be having a really low energy day and I get to go in and teach and talk to everyone and see what all the wins are. And it's game changing for me. I know the other day we just did this in the Elite Entrepreneur Mastermind and I was like, I literally cannot wait. We were on a high to get to, to do this in our new program and listen to all the wins and what's working for everyone.

It's funny, this is how I knew it was a hell yes for us to start the mentor collective. Mastermind is. People ask me, they're like, hey, after you sell Frello for hundreds of millions of dollars or whatever it's going to be, will you still do Masterminds? And they ask you, hey, after you sell Glo for, you know, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, whatever it's going to be, will you still. It's a hell yes. Like, we don't do this because we have to do it. We do it because it is freaking fun. Like our favorite thing to do is even Lori and I are on a date together, just the two of us, is to talk about business. And some people might say like, well, that's not very good. Don't worry, we talk about other things too. But talking about business is like our favorite thing to do. Dreaming and brainstorming is our favorite thing to do. Strategy is our favorite thing to do. And it had been four years, four years since we had any kind of offering for the $500,000 in undercrowd, right? Four years since we did Fast Foundations. But it had been nine years since we started Fast Foundations. And here's why I point that out. Since the very first one we started about nine years ago. When I see where everybody is now. Oh my freaking God. Like a lot of the original students, mind blown. Gillian Murphy, Miriam, who has incredible publishing company now. Jim Carter, Christina Barthold, Heck, meet the Freeman's who have, you know, over a million followers now. And they're Totally viral everywhere. We're just on Ed Mylett's show. RT Custer and his wife Lindsay, you know, the founder of Vortic Watches and now Colorado Watch Company that's killing it. All of these people have gone on to make millions and millions and millions of dollars and impact tons of freaking lives. Like in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, or in Freeman's case, the millions of lives impacted. Now, listen, not because they started in a room, but I remember when they started these companies. I remember when they started these brands. I remember their original questions. Should I do this? Should I do that? What's the best way to handle this situation that's popped up? And to see where they are now is the most rewarding, effing, awesome thing on the entire planet. And listen, I'm no dummy. I know that there is a next crop of superstars coming up, and I don't want to miss that next crop. I don't want to not be a part of it. I don't want to not be friends with them because a lot of these people have now become friends and even business partners, even we've got teams with them. You name it.

I literally hired my CFO out of Fast Foundations because she was going off and branching off on her own after being with huge companies. And I'm like, I got to spend weeks with her and actually six months with her and watching what a talent she was. I'm like, I want her in my business and I still work with her.

Yeah, right. Like it. We'd be stupid to miss out on being a part of this next crop of superstars. The journey of everybody who's on their come up right now. You and I were looking back at pictures a little while ago, and we were looking at when we started Lewis's mastermind, and everybody was around us, like Jenna Kutcher, Jasmine Starr, Cole Hatter. This is where I first met Jay Shetty that year. Like, we all met through that mastermind, and everyone was just in the beginning of their comic.

My friends in Keena.

Oh, God, Station babes, all of it's insane who came out of that room, right? And now we're all friends. And now we all kind of came up together and we all have each other to rely on and to collaborate with. I do not want to miss out on that next crop of superstars that's coming up. Instead, I want to create the container and I want them to say, hey, Chris and Lori had a little tiny piece of helping us when we needed to get to that next Level.

You know, another big reason is because I have always believed in keeping your pipeline full. People are like, how did you guys grow network marketing? How did you always have a full roster of people training at your gym? How did you always have full boot camps? Like, I have always had something that we call it's kind of like top of funnel, but like a feeder to your next product. And, you know, when I think about creating the mentor collective Mastermind, what gets me really excited is thinking about this is really the pipeline and the school to get people graduated into the Elite Mastermind. Now, of course, we want people in the Elite Mastermind. That's so exciting for us. But what's so cool is when you get to the Elite Mastermind, it means you're making 500k or more.

Everyone in there's mostly seven, eight figures.

Seven and eight figures. And that means that you can feel pretty good about the trajectory of your business. So our goal is not.

You don't.

Do you have to go in it? Of course not. But our goal is to know that you have graduated up into something bigger, up into a new group of people who then can also catapult you. And so I really believe that this is like that baseline foundation that can really set the foundation of your business up for success before it's too late. And you already have a business that maybe you foundationally did a bunch of stuff wrong, that needs a lot of fixing, that maybe you don't have those people who support you. And now it's not that businesses cannot be saved. Of course they can. They absolutely can. But why not set it up, you know, in a good way from the start? And why not have the people who support you and why not cut out all of the other problems that we have already gone through for you? And so that's why I think, like, if you could just have mentors in the beginning of your business, it's going to be a game changer. We ultimately want to see your businesses succeed. We want to watch you soar. We want to watch you, you know, have all of your dreams come true. Like, honestly, that is my life purpose. That is my life purpose. And so to look back and see all of these pieces of the journey that we've gotten to be a part of, this is why I want to continue this. Chris and I have gotten really lucky. We've gotten really, really blessed with being successful in a lot of different businesses in network marketing and some of our, like, fluke real estate things that we've gotten into. And I will tell you that there is no purpose like getting to help people and watch them grow and watch them be successful. And I know that you can ask successful person this is that all of those things are so cool that we got to accomplish. They're like mind blowing. They're so important. I want you to accomplish all of those too. But my big goal is to also get you to a place where then you can help other people and understand this massive life fulfillment of getting to be a part of someone else's journey that you get to impact as well.

You know, sticking with one more theme with this podcast which is how to know if something is a hell yes or if you should skip it when it's a new business idea or a new product idea.

I'm so excited to share that this.

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Here's one of the key ones you said when it solves a problem that you struggled with. I think another one is when everybody keeps asking you for it over and over and over and over again. Like that's a sign. One or two people ask you, maybe not a sign, maybe a coincidence. Four or five, maybe 10, 15 people ask you, hey, you're really good at something. You should do this. Now it starts to become a sign. Hundreds of people ask you, it's definitely a sign, right? So you have to listen to the science and you have to listen to the market. When the market is saying, would you please create this thing? Would you please create a skin routine you can drink instead of me taking all these different supplements, Would you please create an easier way to pair people that have a quick financial need and those that would lend to them in a much faster way than going through banks and paperwork and all the bs. Like you have to listen when people are asking. And people have been asking for a replacement for fast foundations for a long time now. They've been asking for us to build the mentor collective mastermind for many reasons like this. Like you guys, the listeners, you've been asking, saying there's not a program that prioritizes connecting the other people in the program and building long term relationships with a ton of like, intention and actual know how to do it. For the under 500k crowd that you have literally messaged me saying, hey, do you know any good masterminds where they really prioritize connecting us? We actually collaborate together instead of just happening to be in a program together. And that's what we do best. You guys have messaged saying, hey, when you're starting out making your first 500k or you know, first 50k, first 100k, first 200k, you simply can't afford all the experts. Like, hey, I can't hire a social media person and a marketing company and an ads person and a podcast expert and a sales expert. And right? They're like, isn't there just one Place where I don't have to hire all these people on my own. So we built it. We pay the salaries of all these industry expert coaches under one roof and you get to ask them specifically about your business. Back forth, back forth, back forth, ping ponging back and forth until you get the answers you need without having to hire them and pay extra money. We've got that part covered for you. And here's one that just gets me access and availability to me, that's so hard to find out there. Here's why. When you find the people who've put together the programs for the 500k and underground, a lot of times it's people that mean well, but they haven't gotten far enough in their careers where they're busy enough. So yeah, there's access to them. Except they might be one step ahead of you, if even a step ahead of you. And that's a challenge sometimes when you need better perspective on what to do and what not to do. The alternative is all the people who have already gone where you intend to go and they're so busy with their other companies, it's so hard to get access and availability to them because they don't make themselves available for a number of reasons. But a lot of times it's just simply because they can't. You and I have built this with that as a priority. So everything from answering their questions live about their individual businesses, to holding random office hours where we could just pop into a room together and jam out on subjects and get to know each other. The access and availability to me, I think is one of the most important aspects of this program. But what really drives at home is the one on one access with all the coaches that we hired, the fact that you can send them your questions via loom. Hey, here's what I'm struggling with. Hey, here's why my podcast isn't growing. Hey, would you take a look at my social media and tell me what I'm doing wrong and get real feedback back from each coach that you ask questions of until you feel like you got the answers that you need. This program is the epitome of availability and access. And if we were ever going to do something again, that's what I insisted it feeling like is that when you get in there, it's not just a random, ooh, here's a monthly call or oh, here's a weekly call. I sure hope you get what you need. But instead on demand access when you need something in those moments.

Yeah, I'm excited for this Because I know that when I had joined previous programs, you know, thank God for those programs, honestly. And they didn't have even the technology when we were back then to do what we're doing now. And now what we're able to do is give you answers when you need them instead of, you know, how many times have you sat down at the table to do something to work on your funnel or to work on a carousel on social media, a selling carousel, and you're like, okay, I hear that these work, but I don't know how the hell to do them. Like, but not be able to get an answer for like a week or two weeks. And now you can go create your loom video, ask and get an answer fairly quickly in return.

Yep, absolutely. So listen, if you guys want to be a part of this mentor, collective, mastermind, if you have a business that means a lot to you, if you have a business idea, if you're in the first 50k, 100k, 200k, all the way up to 500k worth of earnings in your business, then you have to fight to get into this program. All the access and availability that you heard of. That's why there's going to be limited seats. So when I say fight to get into it right now, at the end of this episode, I would rush over to loriharder.com forward/waitlist and get your name on the waitlist. And if you want an even quicker way to get the enrollment link on April 29, double up by texting us the word WAIT LIST to 310-421-0416. Again, text the word WAITLIST to 310-421-0416. Or just go to loriharter.com waitlist and drop your email there. Those are going to be your only fighting chances when we drop this on April 29th. To get into this program, you know, we can only have just so many members in it with the amount of.

Coaches that we have.

Absolutely. We can only hire and train up just so many coaches ahead of time. Now, we'll grow the program eventually, but if you want to get into this initial round, you're going to have to fight to get in. So that being said, cannot wait to see we're launching April 29th. And remember, if you have a business idea or a product idea on your heart, you now know whether to pursue it or not based on the things that we went through in this episode.

Thanks for listening and we will see you next week.