Episode 189: How to Own Your Dreams Without Selling Your Soul with Lisa Robbin Young

This episode is brought to you by my friends at Pitney Bowes. I know you know that name. And no matter what you send or how often Pitney Bowes has your sending solution, you can print postage from your office and take advantage of a special discount, such as saving $0.03 per letter versus the price of a stamp. Plans start as low as 5 bucks per month. Visit pb.com profit first to learn more and sign up for a free trial. And that's a PB like, you know, peanut butter. Pb.com profit first terms apply C site for details. I'm in Mexico, and I bit into a taco. And I'll tell you, a Mexican taco is the best. Like, what they do here is nothing like an authentic one. They're delicious. First bite, a wedge of carne right in my tooth. I'm in very polite company. They were just. They had just sat me down, and these people had gathered to speak about profit first. So I couldn't, like, oh, excuse me, I have to use the restroom. All of a sudden, like, I was not. I couldn't move, and I had something wedged in there. And, you know, it's not painful.

It's just comfortable.

Yeah, it's like, oh, my. And I can just feel my teeth reforming around it.

Exactly. What do you do, just cover your mouth? It's like, the worst thing. Like, I try to, like, talk with my mouth closed.

You actually put your hand up over your mouth.

Yeah, but that's like this. Well, yeah, but if you're. It's almost like you have a mouth full of food. So you're like, excuse me. Using your.

Yeah, but for an hour, like, I had one taco bite.

Well, that's when you try to, like, pick it.

I was stuck. I wanted to pick. I wanted to.

Oh, man. Situations you get yourself in, and there's like.

And these are, like, Mexican dignitaries, like, people had flown into. I met in Monterey from Mexico City, some other areas, and they had flown in to watch this presentation. And this was the. After dinner, the board of this group was there and, like, oh, you know, Paco Camera's last name. But Paco had flown in from Mexico City, so. And so from Merida, Mexico, which is a huge. And they're like, we need to know about profit first. We'd like to just ask you questions for the next hour. And is that okay? I said, yes. And he said, while we talk, we'll serve some food. And everyone looks at me, and they're like, first watching, like, what's he gonna eat? So I'm like, the taco. I take a bite, and then I get the wedge.

Yeah. And.

And now I'm like, yeah. And I can't, like, oh, I have to go to the bathroom because I already had devoted myself to an hour conversation. Everyone's looking at me. I tried to do the block, but then you're talking like this. Like, you know, it's all muffled and weird.

Yeah. But, you know, it kind of brings attention to it. So you can be like, I'm sorry, there's something in my tooth. You know, I mean, they're human. I mean, it doesn't matter if they're dictators or not.

Yeah, that's a good point. They are human. I didn't think about that. Thanks for that tip.

You're welcome.

What are you doing? You Mexicans, Are you human?

I meant the dignitary part of it.

Oh, the dignitary part. Yeah. I was like, what the hell are you talking about? The dignitaries, they were human. But I. It was really weird and like. Okay, so if I did do that, which I didn't, I just. What I did was I tried to. I tried to roll my lip down.

How do you talk like a red guy?

I did. And I tried some Spanish words, too, to throw them in. So I'm like, oh, benvenidos. Yeah, benvenidos is welcome. So benvenidos. But I'm like, benvenidos. That's trying to cover it. And then I'm like, what am I doing? And if I said I like, what are you doing? Right. Because it would have been so much.

Worse to just say, I have something.

The place went silent.

I wonder why I need you there.

My. My vocabulary coach. Like, next time I should have someone, I don't know, maybe stand in front of me or fake a heart attack.

Yeah.

Do you remember. You like to watch that one with Kevin's.

Yeah.

What's his name? Kevin James. Kevin James. Yeah. Kevin James, King of Queens. Have you ever seen this?

Yes, of course.

Best future to get out of a sticky situation. He fakes a heart attack. That. You haven't seen that one.

I've seen that one.

Are you. Did you see the one when he had the massive arm? They painted a picture. No, they painted a picture of his wife, and him and his wife had a massive arm. Do you remember that one? That's my favorite episode.

So rather than being an adult and just addressing the problem, he finds ridiculous ways to get out of it, which is now your modus operandi. Oh, on that note, you're listening to the Profit first podcast.

This is the episode you've been waiting for, my friends. It's episode 1 89.

Yeah.

I nailed it.

I nailed it.

Welcome everybody, to the Profit first podcast. I'm your co host, Christina Boldup.

And I'm Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit first.

Who?

The author of Profit First.

Oh.

Get out. Okay, stop. You. Danny. I'm the author of Profit First. Okay. I have a brand new book coming out called Clockwork. By this time it should be available for pre order. It is. I'm very proud of Profit First. Clockwork is the most important book I've ever written. Well, I take it back me. Private first is because most people have financial problems. Clockwork is about business efficiency. I think it's why I use the word most important is that most businesses never get to the next level they want to be at because they don't know how to run the business efficiently. And I think this is the biggest travesty. There's so many great business. You have an extraordinary business out there and maybe you're satisfied with where it is, but the impact your business is having. Like you did a demonstration. It was unbelievable that night. Right? We still talk about our home like it was a jewelry experience we've ever had before. I think of you every. I have it on my bag. Yeah, I think of you every time. I'm like, it was. It's the experience.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You could have a bigger impact if you so desire, but most people want to have a bigger impact and then never pursue it. And Clockwork is about how to bring it to a whole new level. So I'm very proud that book's coming out. Oh, by the way, I'm joined the studio by Kelsey. You know who I was pointed to.

Hey, guys, that's Kelsey.

That's Kelsey.

Kelsey.

And now it's back to you.

Without even saying, oh, thank you. You can find us on tunein radio, Google play, stitcher, itunes radio, you know where we are and of course profit podcast dot com. What else is going on? Do we have an icebreaker?

We do.

Oh, yeah. Do you have it?

Yeah.

Oh, do you have one? Yeah. Okay, ready? What is one favorite thing you do by yourself? Keep it clean, Mike.

First, the big thing. It's guitar. Yeah, it's guitar. And I'll actually sing. And you know, I'm not, you know, necessarily versed at it, but I like to play guitar. I. Here's what I like to do. I like to play. I like 80s rock. Hair, man. Hair. Bands, they're three chords and lots of guitar sol. So I have a thing called a looper. Keeping it clean. And I will play out the chords on my electric on the looper. And then you hit a button and it plays back all the chords. And then you can play the second guitar and I'll start soloing over it. And I'm a hor. Horrible soloist. But good enough that it's fun.

Yeah.

You know, good enough where it's fun. Bad enough that you really don't want to do it from other people.

Yeah, that's perfect.

What's the favorite thing you do by yourself?

I think by myself is hiking. I love hiking by myself because I just feel like, you know, I can take my time and just sort of explore and. And I don't know. For me it's such like a magical experience, especially when the seasons change. Yeah.

I got a question about you, for you about that. I am thinking about going on a solo overnight camp in two or three days.

It's the best.

You've done it.

Yeah.

So my wife's like, yo, you can get killed and murdered. I'm like, really?

Yeah. Try being a woman.

Yeah, right, Right. Exact. I should put a sign up. Not a woman in here. So. So you've done it.

Yeah.

Is that awesome?

Yeah.

Where have you done it?

Virginia.

Yes.

I only stayed over one time.

I'd love to get your tip on that. But you went out into the woods by yourself somewhere. I wanna do it. What was your favorite solo activity? And keep it clean.

Solo?

Yeah.

No, by myself. I actually. I got into this habit of actually warming up in my car, like on my way to audition sometimes. And it kind of. It relaxed me so much that now when I need like a break, I'll go for a drive and I'll just sing like whether it's along to the radio or whatever in my head. And it like resets my brain and puts me in a completely different mood and then I can go back home and I'm good.

Yeah.

We never had you sing at profitcon. I wanted you to sing so badly.

Yeah.

Okay.

I really do. I mean, your voice is beautiful.

Thank you.

And it just never comes to fruition.

Hopefully ProfitCon will be out on an actual stage this upcoming year. So maybe it's the perfect.

How's that going?

Good. Well, offline.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's usually when things are not good.

No, it's fine. No, seriously, it's all good.

So.

We're so exciting. She doesn't want to reveal It Right.

Profitcon is amazing event. So a couple more things I do want to tell us. Tell you, our dear listener about our shout out line. So in about two weeks or three weeks from now, we should start playing those, right? Is that what we're queued up for? As far as we know. Okay, so we have a shout out line. You've heard the story a million times. You listen to our past episodes. We didn't realize we're getting all these calls and we're getting frustrated if no one's calling. Well, we had an internal issue and here's the deal. Give your internal intern. No. Yeah, I thought that was funny. Call 844-876-7221. And by the way, tell us if you want to be our next intern because clearly this one fired. Clearly this one didn't work.

And he doesn't listen to the podcast. Oh, that's good.

I was just gonna say, oh, man.

Yeah. Could you imagine? Ben's listening to this and he goes, oh, and he calls up and he asks for the job back.

No, he didn't even know I was on it.

So he doesn't know you're on our own podcast.

He's kind of oblivious to what goes on around here.

Here's the thing about Ben. I literally love him. Like, I love him. I personally love him. I told him that. I'm like, I love you. And well, he's dating my daughter. He's been dating my daughter for four or five years. He's, look, he was looking for a part time job and I said, ben, whatever you want. Just come here. You're a wonderful guy. And then he's in search of the job and we think he actually may have something with this financial company. That's where he's really meant to be.

Right.

So we give him the internship and we say, listen, his first interview, dude, it's just going to be, you know, cleaning toilets, do stuff. Like, you just got to do the work. He's like, yeah, of course.

Yeah.

And he's so charismatic, right? You're like, this guy's amazing. He's oblivious to certain things.

Yeah, yeah. He's a good guy. And that's, it's just, that's it. He has very little awareness of, I think, the impact he has on other people.

It doesn't affect the way it affects others, which I find fascinating. Yeah, he doesn't get like nervous. Like he, like, he'll just.

He's amazing.

Okay. Yeah.

And you know, if we were serious about having him work here, we'd actually have to find a job where he is well suited. He could excel in a sales capacity. He could excel in so many areas. We just don't have that job.

Right, right.

So it's just kind of funny to pick on him and. And he's good hearted about too. Like I pick on him.

Oh, yeah, he's great.

So we're looking for an intern desperately though. So here's what we can do. Dial 844-876-7221. Give us your shout out about your profitability. Shout it out, yell it out loud. We want to know that you're permanently profitable. And then, you know, plug your business. We'll play it on the air. One last thing is, I know we did get some community feedback. Did you want to share this, Christina?

I would love to, but it's cut off.

I can only read the first.

Oh, hold on. Hold please. Let's do number two. So this shout out goes to Justin. He goes. Dude. I spent the last two years reading every personal and business development book I could get my hands on. I've listened to every single podcast on the Internet and this is by far the best one yet. Thank you, man. I'm eager to finish the book and apply the concepts I've learned.

Justin, we love you.

Justin.

There used to be a radio. His last radio host, his last name was Love. Justin Love. Justin Love. Yeah, this is radio.

Changed my last name to Love.

It wouldn't work. Kelsey Love. Now it sounds like a porn star.

Oh, Justin Love works.

Justin Love. Well, I'm saying Justin Love works. He's just in love. Kelsey Loves. Like a porn star.

I gotcha. So about our corporate partner.

Yeah. Who are they? Who are they? Nextiva Fundbox and Receipt Bank.

Thank you.

We'll tell you more about those folks in a little bit. Now we gotta get to the show at hand.

Yes.

Her name's Lisa Robin Young, you know.

And, oh, I love her.

We had her. What episode was she on?

Oh, she's on the beginning.

I don't know.

Seven.

Episode seven.

Lucky number seven.

Lucky seven. We've had, I think like four guests. We've had repeat.

Yeah.

This is our fifth or this is our fourth. And we are honestly, we're very selective about it because our listeners give us feedback like who they love and who they want to learn more from. And they said Lisa Robin Young is the one. And specifically today we're going to be talking about how to own that dream you've always had without selling your soul.

I love that.

Yeah, because, oh, my God. So many businesses do that. They, I have this vision, but they compromise themselves. We don't have to do it. A little bit about Lisa Robin Young. Well, you can listen to episode seven or you can listen right now. She's the founder of Arkansas Entertainment Media, which helps creative entrepreneurs make good money doing what they love and enjoy in the process. She is an award winning speaker, writing writer and musician. And musician. Lisa penned the international best selling book called the Secret Watch and her latest album is the Fine Line. Tell me, Christina, something you would be shocked to know about Lisa Robin Young.

That I would be shocked to know. She's a fusion creative.

Yeah. I don't even know what that means.

Yeah, I'm shocked too.

What is that, Lisa? What is a fusion creative?

Well, fusion creative is actually a person who resides right in the middle of the creative entrepreneur spectrum. So you have very linears on one end. And then just coming closer to the middle is where you'll find Mike, because he is a linear cusp. Then you'll find me. That's a fusion. Then you'll go to the chaotic cusp and then you will hit that, the chaotix, all the way on the other end.

Wow. Yeah. So we want to diagnose everyone. Well, first let me make it legit. Welcome to our show.

Welcome.

We like to interview you first and then welcome you. It's the Mexican way, Kelsey.

It's just human, Mike. Okay.

We're all humans. So, Lisa, let's first get right into this. Why do so many people. Why do so many people have this big vision and then end up coming to loathe what they wanted to do?

Well, what really ends up happening is they're not doing what they wanted to do. And ultimately, especially as a creative entrepreneur, most of us start doing the thing that we love because we love doing it, not necessarily because we want to turn it into a business. And then we're like, well, hey, I can make money with this. Oh, hey, this might actually, like, be something. And so we start to work the business angle of it. And a lot of the creatives that I work with don't end up actually having a business, and we have to get them there. But if they do have a business, they're so mired down in the worky, grunt work parts of the business that they're not doing the stuff that they wanted to do in the first place or they're not doing enough of it. And then the business gets away from them and they find themselves spending more and more time not focused on their zone of Genius. And it just starts to fall apart for them. That's one piece. The other piece is they get caught in what I call the shoulds. They're shoulding on themselves. People are like this. This is what you should be doing. This is how you should be running the business. Instead of honoring what's true for them and staying in that core of. This is what I really want. This is what really matters to me. Because when you stay focused on that, my experience, and I've been doing this for a very long time, my experience has been that when you stay focused on what really matters to you, you don't lose momentum, you don't get fatigued. Not in the same way you would if you're doing the drudge stuff all the time. So that's really what ends up happening for people.

I gotcha. But isn't the drudge stuff necessary? I mean, I want to start a business. Say it's playing guitar, which again, I'm might as well manus with that. But say that's, that's the thing I could do all the time, which I can't but say I could. Running the business part, I mean, that's necessary. I got to attract maybe clients. I. I have to do different elements to make that successful. That is a drudgery. It is necessary. I can't just keep playing guitar and then hope I'll get money.

No, you're absolutely right. The work has to be done. But here's the thing, and this is the thing that I always have to tell my clients. When you're starting, you're wearing all the hats, but your goal is to get rid of as many of those hats as possible, as fast as possible. As long as it's healthy for the business. You don't want to just start delegating willy nilly all over the place. But when you've gotten yourself to a point where you're sustaining yourself, the first thing you need to let go of is the thing that won't fall through the cracks. If you know, if the world, the world won't fall apart if it falls through the cracks. And you pass that off. Typically bookkeeping or some of the marketing functions or some of the things that are bluntly out of your zone of genius but still need to be done. They don't necessarily have to be done by you.

Gotcha. Now you. One of the facts we didn't share about you yet, you have three full length albums out there that you've produced. Yeah. I presume you were involved in more than just the Performance itself, the production and so forth, to get those out there, to make them into viable products.

Yes.

Is that true? Okay.

Yeah.

So, okay, so how did you. With that example, how did you determine, I want to keep doing X, I want to get rid of Y? And when did you have to make the decision saying, okay, no longer do I need to do this drudgery, I can get off my plate? I mean, how do you know when the right time is?

Okay, so, first of all, as a fusion creative, this is a really big challenge for me because fusion creatives are good at a lot of things. We can do a lot of stuff, and we typically can do it faster and better than just about everybody else. No offense, y' all. The problem is that we can't let go of things. So this question that you're asking me is, like, dead on exactly one of the issues. My first two albums, I played every instrument, almost every instrument. I sang on every track. I recorded everything. I did the graphic design for the covers. I did all of the mark. Like, I did all the things, But I was also broke and poor, and so, like, I had to do those things. Right. But this third album that we released, I'm like, oh, no, Lisa, no. I have a friend who's an amazing piano player. You are now my piano player, and you are playing all the tracks. And he did an amazing job. And so I'm like, all I have to do is show up and sing. This is fantastic. And so I did. And I did some of the COVID design work, but I shipped it all off to another company. And I said, you're doing the manufacturing, you're doing the printing. You're doing all of that. And I can't tell you, I actually sold more copies of this album than the last two combined.

The quality was interesting.

My life was better. I'm like, I got to do this all the time. And it's a process for us as creatives. It's like, we have to be willing to let go of some of those things, and. And we don't always know what can we let go of. When's a good time to let go. But sometimes you just have to experiment and go, okay, lesson learned. But typically, for almost every client I've had, when I walk, when they walk in my door, it's like, no, you're doing too much. There are some things you need to let go of and let go of now.

But also sounds like a roll the die. I mean, the first two albums, you did all yourself. No cost associated with that or very Little. Now you hire all these external parties. You got paid after the fact. How did you know it was the right time that you could actually afford to do that?

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Lisa does not get paid in arrears. That is not how I work.

Lisa, I love when you go third person on me. I love it.

Lisa gets up front now. Exactly, Exactly.

But no one can sell an album up front like.

Oh, I did. I did. I actually. Actually, one of the. One of the running stories I like to tell my clients is how I sold my album for about 40 bucks a song.

What?

Yeah.

This song is really good.

Yes.

All right, so how do you sell an album for $40 a song?

So my. My Fine Line has, I think, 15 tracks on it. And, you know, typically on itunes, you're lucky if you can get a $1 29 a track. And so what I wanted to do was pre sell copies of the album so that I knew what kind of money I had to play with going into the project. And so I sought sponsors for the album. I didn't do, you know, Kickstarter or any of that because I'm like, they're going to take my money, and my audience isn't huge anyways, so I'm just going to reach out to my people and go, hey, look, if you're interested, I have these different levels of sponsorship, and if you sponsor me at the $500 level, you'll get a copy of the album, I will sign it, I will send it to you along with a copy of my book, and I will record 12 extra tracks for you.

Okay.

And so 15 and 12 is what? 27. 27 songs. 500 bucks. That's about 40 bucks a song if I did my math right.

I got you. So you went to an established community. I'm looking at your album. I'm looking at right now. It's on cd, baby. It's on itunes. It's all over the place. Wow. It is.

It's everywhere.

So you pre sold it. Oh, my God. This is an amazing album. I'm just looking through. I want to listen to Little clowns right now. But you make this album. How do you pre sell an album? I mean, they don't know what they're getting. I know these are fans, but could anyone do that?

Anybody can do that. And here's the thing. When you're developing an audience, when you're developing a following, the key, the real key. And again, I'm working with creative entrepreneurs who are all over the spectrum. So from thought Leaders like you, Mike, to healers and therapists and all kinds of people in the middle, right? You have an audience that resonates with who you are and the ability to connect with them intimately, personally. One on one, or the feeling of one on one, like they know you and you know them. That's the thing that drives community. And so all I did, and this is something anybody can do, is you just go to that community and you say, here's what I'm working on. Here's what I want to do. And for this album in particular, I've been working on a project to record 300 songs since about 2013. So people have been watching the YouTube videos of our rehearsals and our practices, and I'm like, hey, this song might end up on the album. Tell me what you think. And we get feedback. And so then we made a decision about, these are the songs that are going to go on the album. Some of them we had done in rehearsal. So there were videos out there that people could kind of get a flavor for. Some of them we didn't like Little Clowns. That's a Robert Downey Jr. Tune that probably hardly anybody knows. And I'm like, I really want to do this song. And so we're going to put this one on the album, too. And so they have a flavor because they know me and they know I've been working on it and I've been sharing the process with them that, hey, these are the songs that are going to be on the album. And then I'll do these extra bonus songs if you're interested, or you can just buy the tracks. It's fine, too. You can wait. We're in no hurry. But whatever money I get up front is what I'm going to use to make the album even better than the last two combined.

Well, you can tell I'm a hair band fan. I can see a Van Halen song. Why can't we love Bad Medicine? Which is Bon Jovi, of course. Dream on. Aerosmith, everyone. Aerosmith. Yeah. So we want to make more money. We don't want to lose our soul. I see. Clearly this is your passion. But this doesn't apply to long haul trucking, for example. I mean, like, there are certain businesses that you can be in that you have to do the grind. Does this technique you're sharing apply just to the creatives of the world, to be honest, or does it apply to everybody?

Well, I work primarily with creatives, so my answer is, obviously, every entrepreneur is a creative. Not every creative is an entrepreneur. And so if you're working a day job, this probably doesn't necessarily apply to you, but if you're a long haul trucker and you want to be a long haul Trucker, you're like BJ McKay with your best friend Bear, and you're like going down the road, like, if that's what you want to do.

I don't know one long haul trucker who'd be flattered by that.

Hey, bj, I loved that show. I loved that show, Greg. But I mean, if that's really what you want to do, then it is your dream, it is your passion. And one of the things I tell people is that, you know, there's this problem I call dream scale shame. And I grew up inner city Flint, Michigan, in the ghetto welfare, want to be a rock star. And my whole family's like, that's nice, sweetie, but you need a fallback plan. And so you live with that story of you're dreaming too big for yourself and why can't you just be happy with what you have? And then there's the other side of that coin where you've got a dream to just stay the size you are and maybe be the best mom in the world or whatever. And it's not a quote unquote big dream. And people are like, no, you need to dream bigger and go over the moon and all that. And it's like, you know what? If it's your dream, it's big, period. It doesn't matter how it compares to anybody else's. So if being a long haul trucker is your dream, then you can do that in a way that doesn't force you to sell your soul and feel like you're on the hamster wheel of hustle all the time. But you have to get clear on what really matters to you. And what I find is a lot of times people don't want to own what's true for them, and so they stay stuck in doing that thing that they've been doing, whether or not it's really what they're passionate about.

Is the dream the vocation, or is the dream a sense of purpose or something else altogether?

I think it can be both, honestly, because for me, I was very clear very early on in my corporate work career that that shit sucked and I didn't want to do it. And it wasn't a function of the work that I was doing. It was a function of the environment that I was in and the way the systems and processes of those large corporations were not serving the people that were serving the corporation. And I just. I couldn't get around that. So I peeled myself away and started building my own business, being an entrepreneur, doing my own thing. And over the course of these last 20 years.

Nice move.

What I've recognized is I've done a lot of different things. I mean, if you're going through the new book, you'll see there's like. There's like two pages of. These are all the things that I've done in my career. And it was never about being a secretary or a graphic designer or any of those things. It was about the overarching thread, which was, how do each of these different things help me do what? And the thread that I came up with was, I am helping other people show up in the world and make their world a better place by being more themselves. So regardless of what I have done in my life, writing books, singing songs, being on stages, working in an office, whatever, it's always been about how is the work that I'm doing helping that other person be a better person so that they can show up in their best capacity in the world. And finding that thread was a challenge.

So what if. What can we say to those business owners listening right now saying, I started the business, I'm now surviving the business. I need this business. I'm making some degree of profit or at least some degree of sustainability, but I've sold my soul. I hate it, but I can't afford to change it.

Well, first I'd say, you can't afford not to. And here's the thing that most people think about, and this is a construct that I really have to unlearn with my clients. And it's this all or nothing mentality. I have to do it this way. I've always done it this way. If I don't do it this way, it'll all fall apart. It's all or nothing. And I try to teach my clients to hold. If you hold both your hands out in front of you, the idea of also. And yes, this is what's going on. And I'm not happy with it. And I'm also open to the idea that things can change. And instead of trying to do a massive overhaul, let's look at an aspect that we can make a difference in. Let's take a different approach. I have a client right now who is working a day job and trying to transition out and do more of what she loves. And so what she's recognizing in her job is that she's got all these frustrating sticking points. That are just driving her nuts. And she had this awareness the other day of one of the reasons why they're driving her nuts is because she's expecting them to be different than they are, because she wants something different for herself. And she said, as soon as I opened my eye to that, I realized it can still be what it is, and I don't have to be frustrated by it because it is what it is, and I can still do something different in my own stuff and be okay with that. And so the also. And nothing changed at work for her, but she changed, and that made all the difference.

So you wrote this book. It's the international bestseller. It's the Secret Watch. In there, you talk about growth plans, and I think you actually point out that there's three different types of growth plans to get where you want to be without sacrificing your soul. What are those growth plans?

Okay, so the growth plans are actually in the new book, Creative freedom. The Secret Watch is an awesome book too.

Brian. Please edit that one out.

That's what you want.

So he won't. He won't edit that out. That. That. That faux pas of mine will be there forever. So, okay, it's in your new book.

So the new book's called creative freedom, how to own your dreams without selling your soul. It's a guide to personal and financial success as a creative entrepreneur. And I talk about these three different kinds of growth plans, which are based on where you're at in the development of your business, because so many people think, oh, I just need to find this thing and sell it and just sell the hell out of it until I make a ton of money and lots of profit and get on down the road. And that doesn't exactly jibe with how business gets done. And so in the early years of growing the business, and that doesn't mean the early years of doing the thing you love, because a lot of times you don't have a business yet, but in the early stages of growing the actual business, you have to get clear on the offer and the market, and that takes some experimentation. So that first growth plan is about early struggle and getting out of early struggle as fast as possible. That's a transition plan, because you're either transitioning from a day job or a different focus in your business or a new audience. You're transitioning from something to something else. And so in the transition plan, you're experimenting with offers and markets until you find the right fit, or once you find that right fit, your goal is to get out of early struggle as fast as possible. And early struggle is a reference to the predictable success life cycle that Les McCune talks about in his book. He was a client of mine. And we have talked about this process of getting out of early struggle and moving into fun. Fun is where things are fun, man. It's like the money's good, you got customers, they're loving you. And this is where you need a momentum plan. Momentum. Think like a rocket. You got one thing going in one direction and you're riding it all the way to the moon. Right. You don't want to water down 45 different opportunities and options and variables and all of these things that will just cloud you getting your product to market as fast as possible. And I don't care if that product is a new book, I don't care if that product is a podcast. I don't care if that product is long haul trucking. Getting your load from one side of the world to the other doesn't matter one thing. And move relentlessly on that. And then once you've hit stability, you know, once you've hit outer orbit or whatever, then you're going to go into maintenance. That's your third growth plan. And a lot of people hear the word maintenance and they go, oh, well, maintenance isn't growth. Oh, but I beg to differ, my friend, because this is where we need to tweak and stay on top of the. What is the market doing? What is our audience responding to or not responding to anymore? Because the market will mature. It happens in every industry. And if you don't think it's happening, you're fooling yourself. And a lot of creatives just don't see this because that's not how they look at the work that they're doing. And so when I can get them to see, okay, well, you're still in early struggle. We need to figure out what's the offer that's going to resonate with your right audience, and then we can go forward. And then once we're going forward and things get fun and people are making money, they're like, this is great. Yup. And now you have a decision to make. Do you stay here where it's fun, or do you push forward through Whitewater? Because you'll have growing pains if you scale up and then scale up to something that's bigger. National, global, international, what have you. And so those are the three growth plans that are really tailored to where are you at, at what stage in your business?

So I met two heroes in. I was In Vegas? Not Vegas. Scottsdale, Arizona, at the next con. This is last month, I think, Kelsey. Two months ago, I was out there. I met Brett Michaels, the former lead singer of Poison, and I met Les McGowan, who I haven't met before. I've seen him on the stage.

He's awesome.

I ran into him at the gym. I was going to the gym to work out, and I'm like, who's that guy who's ripped? Do you know he's lost £50, Lisa? Did you know that?

I haven't seen him in a while, so, no.

He's lost £50. He's sitting there. He's, like, squatting like a thousand, by the way. He's, like, in his. I think he's in his 60s or something.

Was he squadoling?

He's squadoling like, 60 pounds. He's throwing weights around. I walk in, he's like, oh, sissy. Weakling. Do you ever see those ads in the back of a comic book where they. It's that big, buff guy. He's kicking sand on the skinny guy. Les McGowan was kicking proverbial sand in my face.

Nice.

My hero. All right, so you were sharing offline, too, which is in your new book, which is creative freedom. About. We were talking about smart goals, and I'm like, yeah, smart goal specific, measurable. You're like, no, no, no, no, no, Mike, you need to have a dumb goal. Yeah. I'm like, not me. Okay. I get another sharpest tool. Maybe I need a dumb goal. But you're like, no, the whole world needs a dumb goal. What's a dumb goal?

Dumb goals are actually a mnemonic that I set up because as creatives, a lot of times we have a goal that we want to achieve, and people go, well, that' And I'm going, yep, you bet. It's doable.

I like it.

It's doable. It's understandable, it's meaningful, and it's believable to me. And it doesn't have to matter to you, and you may not get it, and that's totally cool, but it's mine, and I'm going for it. And when I shifted this kind of thinking around goal setting, it changed the way and the type of goals that my clients were setting for themselves, and they were achieving them more rapidly and more efficient because of it. So it's got to be doable. Meaning, can it be done? Has anybody else ever done it? Is there a remote seed in your mind that this thing can be done? That One's usually pretty easy to check off the box. Understandable. Do you actually understand what you're trying to accomplish here? Well, yeah. When I step on the scale and it reads £100, then I know I've hit that goal. Okay, fine, we can check the box there. But the last two pieces, these are the more internal pieces that are important to consider. Is it meaningful to you? Saying I want to lose £100 is a big goal, but breaking that down into, you know, smart, measurable, actionable. Oh, I'm going to lose five pounds. Maybe that isn't meaningful to me. Five pounds in the next month, maybe it needs to be 10, maybe it needs to be 20 for it to have some teeth. Right. And really keep me lit, keep me on fire. And then believable. When I'm talking about setting income goals, we talk about your enoughness number. And sometimes your enoughness number is huge compared to what where you're at, and it just doesn't feel believable. Okay, well, if it doesn't feel believable, you're going to be hard pressed to go after that number. So let's create an interim number that's going to feel believable for you and let's drive towards that. So doable, understandable, meaningful and believable.

So let's talk about this getting started. I want to build a business. I want creative freedom. I want to build a business without selling my soul. I have a dream. What is the first step I take to get on this path of not selling my soul, achieving what I want?

The very first step is to get clear on what really matters to you. And this is where I really flip goal setting for your life and your business on its head. Most people look at what are all those externals, like the money, the car, the house, the boat, the whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But why does any of that matter in the first place? You know? And Mike, something you said many moons ago really got me when you were talking about what your real net worth is. And the whole process with your daughter and that whole story just really got to my core. And I'm like, this is what really matters. And when we shift our focus and work as clients, as entrepreneurs, as creatives, as people in the world, from that center of this is what really matters to me, everything else starts to fall into place. And I know it sounds Pollyanna, I know it does, but. But I've seen it time and again when you get clear and you go, okay, so for me, my family has this level of importance and priority for me. And I want to live my life and build my business in such a way that I can show up for my family when it really counts and when it's really important to me, then everything, all your family commitments go in your calendar first, and then you build your business around that. And when your health goals are important to you, you put those in your calendar and you build your business around that instead of trying to spackle your life in around the cracks of your business and hoping you're going to catch everything. And what I find is when you get clear on what really matters to you, who you really are. I mean, I love Simon Sinek, but start with why does not work for creative entrepreneurs. You have to start with who. Who you are and what really matters to you drives everything, everything else you do. And the reason start with why works is because most corporate entities and large organizations, they already have an identity. But for creative entrepreneurs, we often struggle with who we are because we've been living in somebody else's box, all our dreams have been put on a shelf and we don't know who we are anymore. So when you take the time to go, okay, this is who I am. This is what really matters to me. These are the things that I'm driving toward personally. And this is how my business can support making that stuff happen. It turns the whole thing on its ear and more people get more done effectively and efficiently and they're happier. And who doesn't want that?

Yeah, I think everyone wants. I love it. I love it. Lisa, the time has actually flew by. We got. I know, I know. I'm like, holy crud, we gotta roll. You got two amazing books out there. I accidentally gave credit to the Secret Watch for one of my questions. That's an established book you have out there, but you have creative freedom. It's a brand new book. Where can people pick it up?

The easiest place to go is to go to creativefreedombook.com and that'll link you out to all of the various and sundry places to buy the book.

Awesome. So everyone pick up a copy and where can they learn more about you specifically?

That's really easy. Just go to lisarobinyoung.com Robin's got two Bs, so if you type it wrong, you won't get there.

I love it. Lisa, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thanks, guys.

Thanks, Lisa.

All right, so you know, well, here's what we're gonna do. Here's the deal.

Yeah, what's the deal?

First, we're gonna What?

I gotta punch you? Okay.

You wanna punch me? Kelsey wants to punch me. Punch me, Kelsey. Oh, so weak. Kelsey, you messed that up. Here, why don't you try Christina? Much better. Much better, Christina. So thanks for the punch. We're gonna talk about what we learned today. Do we have any listener mail? Did I get cut off also?

Yes, we do.

Oh, okay. So we have listener mail.

Yeah.

And I want to talk about real net worth in a minute. But first I want to thank our corporate partners. Thank you. Thank you corporate partners for supporting the show. Nextiva voice over IP phone system. A CRM called Next os. An amazing company where you get high value communication tools at economic costs. Ideal for a small company. Of course we have receipt bank. The ability to scan in your receipts. Any actually any documents is a scanner system but ties into quickbooks and other things. It's an efficiency tool. It's a compliance tool. And you're a tool if you don't have it.

Yeah.

Where's the sound effect now?

Oh, there it is, Kelsey. Okay, and then settle back down. And then the last company is last but certainly not least. Is fun to box. Yeah, it's fun box. I scrambling to look it up. I got. Could you schedule a call with me and Joanna, please? Yes, I keep forgetting I need to follow up with her.

I reached out to her yesterday too. So if she gets back to me.

Okay, we'll get her. We'll get her. Just we'll throw her around like toss around like an old old hot potato. But Fundbox is anything but a hot potato. You know those invoices that aren't getting paid of yours? Fundbox will actually release the funds to you immediately. So you have the cash in hand. Then when you collect the money from your clients, you can return it to Fundbox. Buster. Service fee, very economical way for short term cash flow needs. You can usually get your cash within 24 hours. So I want to know what you all learned today. Yeah.

Could you please do it?

Please? How you all do it? You go first.

So what'd you learn today?

That's not bad. So what did you learn today? You added a did. What? Do you like my did?

You have an extra syllable here.

You judge us. Who's a better who?

I'm not saying I'm not.

No, you're the judger.

We can harmonize.

There you go.

I almost caught on that. Let's try it again. You ready? Okay, I'm ready. I'm just ice hitting a C. Okay, we're gonna harmonize this. So what you learned Today. One more time. So what you learned today?

Thank you, guys. I'm crying. That was beautiful.

It was beautiful, right?

Yeah.

Thank you.

You. We are like, who. Who's the guy who's passed away recently? Cassidy.

Oh, yeah. David Cassidy.

David.

He didn't die.

Who was it? There was a. Is a brother sister duet.

He's from the Parish family.

Oh, no. There was a brother sister duet. There was. I'll come to me later. We sound like them. I was going get to it.

Was the Carpenters like the man?

No, no, no. It was a. I don't think so. She does like those commercials now for. I think it's for weight loss commercials. The sister does it.

Oh, the Oz.

Yeah. Osmonds.

Either one of them died. Did they?

Someone died. Oh, maybe the Osmonds didn't die.

We were getting way.

All I say is I think we really hit it and that we haven't practiced before.

Yeah, you nailed it.

Really nailed it.

You nailed it.

So what you learned?

Think about what it would sound like. We did practice.

Even worse.

We should do another musical episode.

Oh, my God.

So now we've lost every listener we've ever had. Can we get to the business at freaking hand here?

Yes.

What did you learn today? Okay, I'll go first. I learned Kelsey and I have a beautiful harmonic. Beautiful harmonic. And also I learned you can't afford not to change. You know, I said, what if I can't afford to change? And she shot me down said, you cannot afford not to change. The cost of not changing is massive. That was the big takeaway for me.

Yeah. Yeah.

Would you learn today?

Okay. My biggest takeaway was start with who. Because I think that is absolutely true. I think knowing who you are and what is fundamental to what you want from your life is critical to your success.

Yeah. That was juicy.

Yeah.

So why don't you sing it off to her?

So what'd you learn today?

Thank you. You know, I was actually gonna say that too. It ties in a lot with mindset of what we were talking about with Kelly. So. Yeah. Clarity. Who? And then the why. But interesting when she was talking about the key to developing. Key to developing.

Thank you.

A following is to be able to. Oh, my God.

It's okay.

The ability to connect with people one on one. And it. That kind of clicked in my head because I am such a perfectionist that I don't like to show people my process because I want it to be done when I go.

Yeah.

To say, oh, hey, here's my work. I'm so Proud of it. I have a hard time opening up during the process, but that. That ability to show them the steps that you're taking is such more of a deeper connection. Am I making sense?

I have.

No, it makes sense.

It sounds amazing.

Yeah. No, because it's showing that vulnerability.

Right.

People can relate to.

That's right.

You know, and I think that as a creative, that was fundamentally, for me, the thing that I had to let go is perfectionism. Like, you can't do an art and expect it to be perfect because no matter what, it's subjective. Like, somebody else can do it totally differently. Yeah. And so it just has to feel good to me.

Right. And there's. There's more interest in what you're doing when you show them your struggle.

Right.

Which. Yeah.

Click.

And also when she said every entrepreneur is a creative, but not every creative.

Is an entrepreneur, that was pretty profound too. Yeah, that was pretty profound.

Okay, profound.

Tell me if we have some listener mail. You've got mail. Pattern baldness.

This comes out from Daniel. He said for investing.

Oh, he's got male pattern baldness for sure.

I can't. For investing in the business, like a Mastermind Books Audible, just like I did with Profit First Audible, New training courses for the business. What does that come out of?

What account?

Where does the investment come out of?

I gotta read this question again, because that was a tough one to understand. So it says, we're reading this verbatim. Daniel says, for investing in the business, like Mastermind Business Books Audible, just like I did for newspaper, basically.

Professional development.

What does that come. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Okay. See, we take a segment of an email sometimes, and it's tough to understand. So where does your professional development come out of, Daniel? It comes out of your operating expense account. So the rule of thumb is you have what we call the five foundational accounts. Income is a serving tray. You have profit, which is a celebratory account. Owner's pay or owner's compensation, which is the pay for the. What I define as the most important employee of the business, the guy or gal that owns the business. Then the taxes, the tax liabilities, and the last accounts, operating expenses. That's what your business needs to run off of. So you put it in there. Now you can go beyond the foundational 5. Those are just foundational. So you can set up a sixth account. If you spend a substantial amount of time in professional development, you could set up one that says professional development or PD for short. But you may think it's police department and say, oh, my God, I got sued.

Yeah, too confusing.

Too confusing. So put Prof. Development. But anything is a professor. Yeah, so put professional development.

Spell it out for yourself. Obviously you won't understand your own abbreviations.

Right, that confuses you. You got other issues too.

Yeah.

So we have for profit first professionals. I think we have about 12 accounts, three different income accounts. So we have our main income account. We have one for licenses. Sometimes people license prep first and that's a different form of income. And then we have different accounts for expenses. One is Profitcon itself. Profitcon is a significant. What do we spend, like $60,000?

I think it was around 70.

$70,000. I want $70,000.

Worth it though.

Yeah, it was worth it. That's a lot of money. It is worth it, but it's a lot of money. Yeah, you heard $70,000, you started Twinkle toeing her over there.

What's that all about?

I missed some of that. Honey, I need something up here.

Hey, sweetheart, let me slip up your pant leg. That was horrible.

Matt Lauer, no shame.

Who's there?

So the only person who responded that way ever.

So there you go. You can set up a special account for it. Okay. That's your answer. Stick that in your corn cob pipe and smoke it.

You love that phrase.

I do love that. I do love it. Laugh at.

Oh yeah. So on that note, comment what you're thinking, thinking about what you doing. How you like this episode? Go to itunes, any podcast, you're listening to Google Play, Tune in radio, of course, Profit first podcast dot com. Podcast podcast dot com.

Yeah. Please rate us, please share. We know we get off the tracks a little bit, but hopefully you enjoyed going for that rodeo with us. And you know one more thing we do is we drive profit in businesses. We're actually, that's right, super serious about this. And your business is primed, primed to be more profitable. Why? Because every business is Profit first, the book that will help you get there. I hope you've read it and started that. If you want additional assistance, we have professionals, kind of like trainers at a gym now. You know the exercise. The question is, are you doing it if you're not well? And hopefully in the last few weeks you learned that mindset is massive. That's what we talked about again today. You have to be in the right mindset and you, you need someone that knows how to get you in the right mindset. That is what a Profit First Professional does. So it's real simple. Go to Profit First Professionals. That's step one, step two, Click on the find button. Right. Step three, Fill out the form. Step four. Because she did an eyebrow raise with the step four. Step four, we will line time up to talk with you or just directly link you with a prop first professional based upon how you answer the questions. Answer them as detailed as you can so we can get someone who's best suited to help you. You then have a conversation one on one with them. You confirm they're a great fit or perhaps they're not. If they're not, you come right back to us. We'll introduce you to someone else. But we have a pretty much like a 95% success ratio in our introductions when we make an introduction. Those are usually the best people.

Yeah.

So get a profit first. Professional drive profit in your business. It's that simple. Go to propfurstprofessionals.com right now.

Right now.

All right, now. Anything else you guys want to talk about, we're out of here. See you. Pitney Bowes is the industry leader in mailing and shipping solutions. No matter what you send or how often, Pitney Bowes has the solution that precisely fits your needs. Weigh, print, mail and save. You and your business will save time and money when you print postage. And you won't need to wait in line at the post office anymore. You know what I'm talking about. You also won't need to worry about putting the correct amount of postage on the letter or package you're sending. Happened on January 21st. USPS mailing and shipping costs went up again. But you'll save $0.03 per letter with a Pitney Bowes solution. These discounts are not available at the post office. Beat the increase. Don't stand for it, my friends. Whether you're sending a letter or a package, you'll be paying less and saving money if you're using a Pitney Bowes sending solution. Plans start at just five bucks a month. For our listeners. Bitney Bowes is also offering a free trial so you're sure to find the solution that's right for you and your business. Now here's the deal. You gotta take one simple action. Go to their website. But go to the website with profit first in it. It's pb.com profitfirst and there you'll learn more and you can try out the system for free. Now don't forget terms apply and you gotta see the site for details. But go right now to pb.com profit first and we thank them for sponsoring the podcast.