How She Built a Haircare Brand with Zero Investors & Big Life Interruptions | Lynn Power

Have you ever felt like no matter how hard you plan, something always seems to get in the way? Like you're doing everything you can to build your business, but life keeps interrupting and it feels like you're falling behind while everyone else just keeps moving forward. If that's you right now, I want you to know you're not alone. Honestly, as I was reviewing this episode after recording it, I had a moment where I thought things aren't where I hope they would be right now in my business either. But conversations like this one remind me, and I hope remind you, that building a business isn't about things going perfectly or happening fast. It's about staying rooted, learning as you go, and building in a way that honors your reality, your life, the life you want now, and the life you wanna grow into. Today I'm talking with Lynn Power, a longtime advertising ex— ex— Today I'm talking with Lynn Power, a longtime advertising executive turned entrepreneur. She launched Masame, a clean premium haircare brand in 2020 without any outside investors. And in 2021, she was diagnosed with a rare aggressive stage 3 cancer. Lynn is a cancer survivor, clean beauty advocate, and someone deeply passionate about helping other entrepreneurs thrive no matter what life throws at them. In this conversation, you'll hear how to keep building your business when life keeps interrupting your plans, how slow, intentional growth might actually be the secret weapon to your success, and how to redefine success on your terms, even when things look like nothing you imagined. If you're feeling like things aren't happening fast enough, or you're just tired of life constantly shifting your plans, this episode will give you hope and practical wisdom to keep going. All right, stay tuned. Welcome to Business with Chronic Illness, the globally ranked podcast for women living with chronic illness who want to start and grow a business online. I'm your host, Nikita Williams, and I went from living a normal life to all of a sudden being in constant pain with no answers to being diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses and trying to make a livable income. I faced the challenge of adapting traditional business advice to fit my unique circumstances with chronic illness, feeling frustrated and more burned out than I already was while managing my chronic illness, to becoming an award-winning coach with a flexible, sustainable online coaching business. I found the surprisingly simple steps to starting and growing a profitable business without compromising my health or my peace. Since then, I've helped dozens of women just like you learn how to do the same. If you're ready to create a thriving business that aligns with your lifestyle and well-being, you're in the right place. Together, we're shifting the narrative of what's possible for women with chronic illness and how we make a living. This is Business with Chronic Illness. Really excited to be chatting with Lynn today. We're going to be talking about building a business in the mix. Like, your, your journey is like literally in the mix of every thing not going right. Like, when I was like reading your story and just researching, I was like, oh my goodness, every twist and turn you've had things not go the way you probably were planning them to go. And yet you still have businesses, you still have community. So let's first start with what does community and business look like today before we kind of go backwards?

Oh my gosh, and you're so right that, you know, things don't always turn out the way you intend them to. But thank God I didn't know those things going into it because I wouldn't have done the things I've done. But yeah, community is an interesting topic because it's definitely evolved. You know, I used to think of community when I was in the advertising world as like my peers and my clients and my friends. And then I became an entrepreneur and then it became kind of lonely. Because it's not easy being an entrepreneur. And now I have a new community of founders because I ended up founding the— it's now called the Power Beauty Collab after my bout with cancer. And that has been amazing because we have about 50, more than 50 founders that are part of it, all clean beauty. And of course, we do a lot of co-marketing and retail activation, that kind of stuff. But more importantly, we're a support system because when you talk about all the things that I've dealt with, most most of these founders, same thing. So we've got a bunch of founders that started their businesses because they had an issue. They had cancer, they had eczema, they had something, or they've either had it themselves or they've had someone in their life. So they're very tuned into sort of dealing with all that, or they've had, like, a natural disaster. So the hurricanes. We— so you're in Florida. We had two founders in Florida that got completely wiped out. One, her first— the first hurricane, which one was first, Milton or— no, Helene. I don't remember. Helene, I think. Helene actually wiped out her inventory and Milton wiped out her house.

Oh, wow.

And then another founder has a business in Miami and her headquarters is in Asheville, North Carolina. Her warehouse completely wiped out, gone.

And that one's probably even more surprising, right? That surprised the whole world. Like, wait, what?

Yeah. Yes. So my point is, okay, there's the health stuff. That's one kind of thing you deal with. But then there's this other stuff, and then there's stuff like COVID that you can't control. And so now, as a Type A personality, this has been hard for me. Because I like to be in control, but I've had to learn to just control the things I can and let everything else just happen because it's mentally challenging otherwise.

I mean, it really, it really is. And yet, like, from— you, you started a shampoo, like, a hair product, clean product line. You've done— I was thinking when we initially talked, you shared with me something about honeybees, and I was looking into some of that, and I'm like, that's completely different part of the world. Then you were also like, then in the mix of that, you also at this point, you know, Conscious Beauty, which when you said it to me when we were initially chatting, I was like, I feel like I've seen this because I'm in that. Like before we moved back to Florida, I was in Atlanta and I've always seen those little pop-up spaces. And I was like, I wonder if that's what she's talking about, like a little pop-up of these places. And I think it's one in McDonough. I think I happened to be by and I was like, This must be what she's talking about, which I think it is, right? Like, you have a collective and you guys pop up, is that right?

Well, what we used to do is have our own store, and I used to just rent out a temporary space for like 3 months. And we did 3 months in San Francisco, that's where we started. Then we did Boston for 3 months. Then we came to Southern California because I moved out here, and we did Rancho Cucamonga for 3 months. And then I end up doing Palm Springs for 8 months because now I live here and I couldn't my mall partner that I was working with doesn't have any real estate here. And real estate on the main strip of Palm Springs is very tough to get. So when I found a spot, they wanted me to do it for the season, which is 8 months. And I was like, fine. And then after that, I'm like, this is crazy because I can't scale it. Like, I wasn't able to— there's only one of me and no one else wants to work in the store, right? I'm the one who's doing everything. So now what we do is we create pop-ins, which are shelves of curated clean beauty products in other people's stores. So the one that you're talking about in Atlanta, and I will give her a shout out because she's amazing, is Love and Co. And yes. Yeah. And she has two locations. She has one in McDonough, which is the one in McDonough, I think is her sort of flagship. And then she's in Painted Tree in Beaufort, which is— so she's got the two locations and her name's Melody and she is She's very inspiring. She's incredibly knowledgeable. She is a hustler. She's got all her family involved in the business. I mean, I do too, but that's pragmatism. But she is just really has her stuff together. Like, a lot of founders I meet, to be honest, don't— they think that they can just make great products and stick them out there and people will buy them, and then they have the the shock of like, oh, buying my products. It's like, yeah, no, that doesn't work that way. Yeah.

How has it been for you in the space? Because I know you come from advertising. I feel like a lot of creatives, a lot of people are starting their business from a space of a need, a necessity, a passion, right? Not all of us have some of the, I would say, old life experience that can support us in, in, in the marketing. I think they're great marketers in the space, and there are like a handful of companies that are just starting that are great at marketing and have a great product. But there are sometimes just really great marketers out there who have horrible products, right? So I think as you have grown and have, you know, stepped into this space of being your own business owner, How have some of the lessons from your previous life or first career helped you or served you in serving now this community of women that you're curating?

So definitely it's helped me incredibly well because I worked on a lot of beauty brands, but doesn't matter. I mean, any category that you work on, you know, you're learning skills of how to position the brand, how to talk about the brand, how to market the brand, what channels are effective. Now, the Challenge I've had is I worked on a lot of huge companies. You know, I was working on American Express and Estée Lauder and L'Oréal and Hershey's and companies that have a lot of money. And I have zero money. So yeah, we're not doing TV ads. We're not doing a lot of the stuff that the agencies are hired for, but the skillset is essentially the same. And one of the things that I often coach founders about is You really do need to step back before you just go hog wild and just like start doing everything. You gotta think about your brand and your values and take a little time to sort of articulate them because it helps everything. It helps form your partnerships. It helped me, you know, figure out what brands should be part of the collective.

Yeah.

Right? Like I wanted brands that were inclusive. I wanted brands that, that were indie, small business, give back to the community, care about sustainability, like, so that we can, and, and really do it and walk the walk and not just talk to the talk. So that's important. So that is often a misstep, but my advertising background really gave me that discipline to do that upfront. Now, having said that, um, I definitely think because I was more of a business person in the, in the ad world, not a creative, there are times when I kick myself because the creative isn't what, where I would want it to, you know, I put stuff out there and sometimes my kids will give me crap about it too. They'll be like, that Instagram post was terrible. Why would you do that? I'm like, oh yeah, that was, you know, you're right. It wasn't very good. So sometimes like my own bar is not high enough. But it's difficult, right? Because especially if you don't have help and you don't have resources and you know, then you're doing it all yourself. Sometimes you're willing to just kind of like, it's fine, I'll just put it out there.

It's so interesting. I guess I don't ever think about that from that angle of being, being in the market, like having that marketing space but not necessarily having the creative. Because I always think of a marketing person as being a creative person, like literally, like until you just said that, I was just like, Wait, what? My brain had a little, little moment there because I think if you're in advertising or you're doing any type of advertising, I think you have to have a slightly, at least a little bit of a creative thinking process. But I think it's different in how you do the thing, right? Like it's just different in the mechanisms. Kind of like I am not a writer. I like to podcast. I like to have conversation. That is not my angle of using the tool of storytelling, even though it could be applied there. But it's not. If I were to write a book, thank goodness for editors, right? Like, so I can see to your point of having that frustration a bit in your own experience. I wonder, has your kids and your community helped you hone more of those creative skills from that angle?

Yeah. And it is interesting because you're right, people assume that you work in advertising, you are creative and you are to an extent, which is why I loved it. I love using creativity as a business tool, but it's the combination of those, the intersection of those things, you know? Yeah. Where if you're a creative person, you're not really thinking so much about the business. You're just thinking about the brief that you were given and solving that. But I do like the problem-solving aspect of marketing a lot. And I think that's what sort of made me want to do it for so long. But to your question about like, yes, my kids have definitely helped me hone it. And for a couple of reasons, first of all, they're brutal. Like, the feedback is brutal. But I appreciate that they're not afraid to tell me this stuff, and it's what they think, and they're a different generation, so it's valid whether I agree or not. And then my daughter is also a really good artist and designer. So now what I've tried to do— sometimes it's successful, sometimes not so much— is to have her actually, like, Okay, take this and make it better kind of thing.

Yeah.

Yeah. You know, like, yeah. And that's worked pretty well because she's given me some sort of quick fixes on things. And then also like my own skills doing it myself have gotten better. Like I look at the stuff I can do now in Canva versus like 4 years ago, 5 years ago, and it has definitely improved significantly because I'm in Canva 10 times a day. Yeah.

Me too.

Yeah. It's just— but you start to figure out all the little tips and tricks, and now I can work pretty fast and I can get a lot of stuff done. And of course, the templates are very helpful. Absolutely.

Shortcut it. Absolutely.

I think the problem, though, is with so many people doing it, you, me, and everyone else, every other small business owner I know, everything, in my opinion, you start to see— yeah, you start to see like somebody else using that template for a post, or you start to see some of the same graphics, or, you know, it does start to feel a little homogeneous. But that's where— out of the box a little more, I guess. Yeah.

And I, I think it's something interesting. I, I talk to a lot of folks who feel like they have to be good at everything, like they feel like they— and it's very much like I'm a little bit Type A. I think I'm less of it after the pandemic. And I have clients who come to me and they want to be excellent at every single aspect of their business. And I'm always just, that's like an impossibility. Like that's, and I don't mean that to say that you, you start, like you can't be good at a lot of it, but you can't be great at all of it, right? And that's okay. The point we're talking about too is the fact of having community allows you to kind of in some ways source some of this out of resource, some of this out of your lane so that you can focus on the things that you're really good at. And one of the things that I know is that you're really good at, Lynn, is being able to find these little niche things while in crazy land because I think it was back in 2020 2020, you launched your new business, and then I think a few months later you were diagnosed with this rare form of breast cancer. And those two businesses are still existing today?

Yes. So I will— they are. But this is the thing. When I got diagnosed, it was a year after Mossami launched and a few months after Ilda Nature launched, and I had to reprioritize my business. Life. My, you know, Masumi was further along and I decided to focus my attention there and I kind of parked my little beeswax candle business on the side and I love the business, but again, only so many hours in the day. So I, yeah, this is where you have to make those tough calls and I decided that that business hadn't gotten quite as much traction cuz it had launched 6 months after, and the inventory doesn't go bad. I mean, it's ceramic vessels. I'm actually sitting here with some of them in front of me that need to get filled.

Beautiful.

Ceramic vessels, beeswax, like it's stuff that you can wait. And so I kind of decided I'm going to deprioritize that business. So I turned everything off except for my Shopify store and my Klaviyo. Those are the only two things I keep, but every other tool and app I cut because it's just too much money. And that business, you know, out of the blue, I'll get orders just randomly, and I kind of bring it along when I'm doing these pop-ups that we were talking about. So like, I've got some candles in Love and Co in Atlanta, you know, but like, it's more of an afterthought, sadly, because I do love the business. But I really wanted to focus on the Conscious Beauty Collective because we were called at the launch and now I had to change the name because Ulta didn't like us calling, calling ourselves Conscious Beauty. But okay. Yeah, it's, it's all, it's all good. But I decided to really focus on that because the brand partnerships that I did during COVID were so good for the business and for the ROI and for me personally. Again, it was that community. I really loved working with other founders. That I decided, okay, deprioritize ILDA Nature, keep Masami chugging along, and then try to get some more traction from the Power Beauty collab. And that's worked really well because we now have 14 pop-ups across the US. And of course I did those because of my haircare brand. I, you know, I'm not looking to become a retailer, trust me, but I was doing it because it's so hard to get exposure when you're teeny tiny and, you know, when you partner with other brands and yeah, The collective reach, you know, we have 50 brands. It's like a million on Insta if you can add together and starts to be meaningful.

Yeah, I call it intentional leveraging. Like it is, it's such a, it's kind of like podcasting. Like if we think about it, it's like I could start a podcast and it'd just be me and the sea of, I don't know at what number we are at 400, like 40 million podcasts and just be like, yeah, I'm over here in this corner by myself. Or I could bring all these stories and we collectively share one another and it's, oh, okay, this is, this is a little bit like, this is bigger than just me, right? And, and I think that's the power of what you're creating with that. And I'm curious to see in your journey.

When I started my podcast, I was in recovery from a surgery related to my chronic illness, trying to connect with other businesses and searching for a way to keep growing my business without sacrificing my healing or wellbeing. Podcasting became my most aligned marketing tool. It let me show up consistently without showing up constantly. That's why I created the Start Your Podcast Planner, a digital guide to help you launch a purpose-driven podcast that feels like you. Whether you're starting from scratch or finally ready to get your voice and your story out there, or looking for a sustainable way to grow your business through marketing that converts, this planner gives you everything I wish I had. It's that step-by-step strategies that won't overwhelm you. Confidence in building prompts that help you fall in love with your voice and share it with the world. And tools and templates you can use again and again without overworrying or being concerned about the tech. Most importantly, it helps you turn your story into sales or income that actually feels aligned. If you're ready to grow your audience, attract clients, and share your message in a way that works with your capacity, this is where you start. Tap the link in the show notes to grab your Start Your Podcast Planner or visit thrivewithnikitawilliams.com/podcastplanner. /podcast-planner. You've waited long enough. Let's get your voice and your story out in the world and build a profitable, sustainable marketing system through podcasting.

Journey with dealing with and recovering and also probably still dealing with cancer and the treatments and things like that. What part of yourself do you feel like you've met that, that you hadn't met before when you're thinking about creating this? Like, would you have created something like this before, or do you think your diagnosis put this in a different frame of mind for yourself?

That's a really good question. I probably would have done it because I realized how good those partnerships were, but when you're going through the type of treatment I was, I had like 6-hour chemo sessions and there's Wi-Fi in the hospitals. And so you're sitting there left in your own thoughts, which for me is not a place that I enjoy. And so I would reflect on my priorities, what I'm going to try to do, you know, short term, long term. And that's when I kind of realized that I really do need to double down on the, on the brands and the partnerships. I may have come to that conclusion anyway. I don't know. But yeah, I will say the part of myself that I have had to kind of just accept is give myself more grace and not feel like I have to do everything, because it was obvious when I'm going through treatment, I can't do everything. I mean, we had we had signed on for a major trade show, Cosmoprof, and I couldn't go. I was bald. I was a bald haircare founder for 9 months. So my co-founder went, which was a little challenging.

But how so?

Whoa. Yeah, not always a good forward-facing person. He gets hangry. And so he, he has the best of intentions. Like, he's a lovely person. But yeah, sometimes left to his own devices, it can be not great.

Okay.

So, yeah. So that was challenging because I had to kind of be like, okay, well, I guess I can't do any of that stuff. So then I was like, well, I'm going to focus on stuff I can control. And it gave me just a bigger— I mean, that's liberating in and of itself because you realize, well, there are things you still can do.

Beautiful.

Even if you can't do the things that you were planning on doing. Mm-hmm. So I focused on content creation and DTC and our website and our customers and the things that I could still do. And that was really good. And so I, it definitely, I think, gave me a broader perspective of the business. And also the, the realization that. You know, you can kind of chart your own path and it doesn't have to look like everyone else's. And I know that's not, that's somewhat obvious, but it's hard when you launch a business cuz there are a lot of expectations that you hear.

Yes.

You know, like you, you listen to VCs who are like, you know, if you don't get to be a million within a year or two, or $5 million within X, you know, you're not, you're not a fast enough growing business. And it's like, well, we're not there. And I'm doing this for 5 years. But if you listen to that, it would be debilitating because it's unrealistic. And I think when you're— especially when you're in like a super crowded category like beauty, you just have to go at your own pace. Because also, this is my other lesson. There are brands that are part of our collective and some that I just know that really wanted to launch in Sephora, Ulta, Target. That was like their dream. They launched there. But guess what? They're out of business. That launch was not— sometimes people don't understand. That's not the, that's not the goal. That's part of the journey. And you're not careful about all these different things you're doing and the partnerships, any one of them can sink you at any time.

You know, that is such a powerful Ooh, that is actually like a really deep statement. Like, I'm like, I think it's a really deep statement on twofolds. Like, on— you said a couple of things. First thing, in your journey with navigating the treatments with cancer and living and giving yourself that permission to be okay with it looking differently than how you thought it was going to look, right? Like, I've— it's interesting, I've had a couple women on the show who have shared their journey with of cancer. And part of the reason why I do this show is to show that there is success in however you decide to define it, right? Some clients, some, some folks, some of my clients actually, and then some of my guests have been like, I couldn't do anything other than just be, exist, right? I had a business, I was starting a business, and literally I had to sit it down and I couldn't just keep going in that. There are some others who are like, yes, like you who are like, I just had to give myself permission to reset and look at what I can do versus judging myself what I can't— for what I can't do. Right. And that's kind of like business. Like, I don't think people realize how much that is. Like with business, we look at these big businesses and we're like, oh, I want to be in this place. I want to do this, I want to do that. And we don't really realize that sometimes those things that those people want or did isn't actually in alignment with what we want ultimately or what will actually help us, right? And so what you're sharing here is like, yeah, you might want to be in Target, but do you want to like still have a business after that? That's what I just heard.

That's exactly right. Yeah, because not the people don't realize. Again, it's like, I get that it's— I was going to say naive, but that's maybe a little unfair. It's just there's a lot to know, right? And to learn. And people don't always realize when you get into one of those big retailers, they expect you to spend marketing dollars to promote the brand. They charge you all kinds of fees, plotting fees, chargebacks, et cetera, et cetera. You know, and if your products don't sell through, they kick you out and then you have to pay to ship everything back. So you're, you know, and the inventory upfront is super expensive to, to get the kind of inventory they want. So it's a, it's a very high-risk gamble in my opinion. And you better be convinced that you're going to be able to sell through, you know, the kind of numbers that, that they're looking for. And there are plenty of brands that do it successfully. I don't know what they don't tell you. And this is where it's a little hard. Again, the narrative out there can be deceiving. Some of these brands launched with VC backing or with a rich uncle or with, you know what I mean? And so they've got a couple million dollars to invest and do all that stuff, but most of us don't. I mean, I'm self-funded. We don't have investors. We have two nickels to rub together. And so, you know, for the normal person that's launching a business, those narratives are dangerous.

Yeah, it's kind of like— at the time, and I don't usually talking about like current events in podcasts because somebody could be listening to this in 2030 and like have not a clue what I'm talking about. But currently there is— there's a lot of things going on in the world where there are these perceptions that this is how it is, but then you learn that these people are doing other things that they didn't tell you about, right? Like, yeah, and I think That's, that's in general, we have experienced that. I think at any time of any time that you listen to the show, you will have something like that happening in the world. But my curiosity for you from working with founders, from being in this space as a founder and as a business owner and as a mom and as a chronic illness warrior and all of these things, how are you finding your not prove it game? Like, how are you finding your, like, I'm doing me and that's okay, and I'm not, like, comparing— like, I'm not adding— like, I'm not looking at somebody else to tell me that I'm okay with doing business the way that I need to do business. How did— how are you finding that? Have you found that thing, and when did you find it?

That's a good question, but for me, it was really reflecting on not just my business and keeping that alive, but myself, how I want to spend my time personally. And I really love my business. And my husband and my kids know, like, I would have a hard time just fully retired. That would be very difficult. I would find something else to do. But what I have done, and I highly recommend this to everyone, is I have figured out a way to make my work work for my life, not life work for my work. That makes sense.

I say it like this, so I say the same thing as like, your life— your work should work for your life. Yes, like that's it. Like, we should— we have been trained or conditioned to believe that we need to sacrifice our very being to work. And it's like crazy. Crazy.

But what it means for me is very practical because people go, yeah, that sounds good. But then, but the reality is most people are tied to a job, a job, a location, a geography, whatever. If you start to challenge those assumptions and if you are an entrepreneur, let's face it. Yes, I have inventory and I have events. And I have things that I'm doing, but I am in control of my own schedule and I can be wherever I want to be. So one of my big life hacks is home exchange.

Hmm.

It sounds weird, but I started doing it when we lived in New York City. Honestly, I started doing it because I was looking for someone to come and stay and watch my dogs when we traveled. We had 2 dogs at the time, and the dogs hated going to the border.

Yeah.

And I just felt like, ugh, they'd be so much better if they could just be at home. So we started— I somehow stumbled on Home Exchange, which is legal because there's no money exchanged. And Airbnb, I'm not sure if it's legal in New York City or not, but it wasn't at the time. And so my building also, you know, New York can be very finicky about the co-op rules and the condo rules and this and that.. And this kind of managed to be a loophole to skirt all that because there's no money exchange. So you're not doing anything that the city doesn't like. And then the building can't complain because I've got dog walkers, dog watchers. And so there'd be like a family of 4 from Germany coming to my apartment for a week watching the dogs. But what happened was we racked up so many points because it's a point-based system, right? The— it's not like that Jude Law, Kate Winslet movie where they're staying.

Cameron Diaz.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not literally like that.

It's like a legit thing. Like, you can go to a website and, like, do this process, right?

Yes. And you can do that. You can swap homes at this exact same time. But most people's schedules don't accommodate that. And frankly, sometimes people want to stay in my house, and I would never want to go where they live, or vice versa. Right. So they do it on points. And the beauty of that is we had racked up so many points that over the last— after my diagnosis, I said to my husband, I want to start using up those points. So we've been doing these crazy trips. So last summer we went to Bordeaux for 3 weeks, and then we went to Paris for the Olympics, and we were there for a couple of weeks. And then we just were in Bali and Japan, staying in these gorgeous homes, by the way, like absolutely incredible homes. And it's not out of reach because people look at me and they're like, yeah, well, you know, you've got to— no, it's not. This is something that anyone can do. It is not about having money or not. It's do you have a place that you can host that somebody would want to stay? Because if you do, guess what? You get to go somewhere else. And so that has become now like a key part of our planning is like, we plan out all these interesting places that we want to go, and we get a home and we do that, and we're traveling a ton, and it's been, it's been fantastic. And that way, again, it's my work comes along because I can work from anywhere. Sometimes the time changes, time, you know, zone thing is a challenge, but like you figure it out. I'd rather be sitting in the French countryside sipping my Bordeaux and having this conversation than— Yeah. So that is big. And I would have gotten there, but cancer accelerates a lot of this. And that is the reality, is because I'm like, wait a minute, I don't want to spend time in a place I don't want to be in. I don't want to spend time doing things I don't want to do or with people I don't want I'll spend time with. The reality is, like, my cancer has a very high likelihood of coming back, like, 85% chance of coming back. So, I mean, I still have my port. Wow. And so when you know that, you kind of think, well, I don't want to say, oh, we'll do that in 2 years, or we'll do that in 5 years, or we'll do that when, you know, the kids are older. No. Because you may not.

It sounds like clarity on it, like, a different level, right? I think a lot of our lives are stuck in the spaces of trying to figure out, should I, should I not?

What?

I don't know. I guess I'll wait and see, right? And I think what you're sharing is like, when you know what's most— like when you have something like this happen, when you're diagnosed with the cancer that has an 85% chance of coming back, clarity is super clear of like, okay, I'm defining what my life is going to be. And it could still not come back, but still I know how I want to live my life is what I'm hearing you say.

Yeah. And also, if it comes back, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a death sentence. Obviously, I've been through a year of dealing with it once. It's not fun. Right. And then, of course, since I've had the maximum radiation my body can handle, there's certain things that you can't have again. So they're off the table. You can't take some of the same chemo or the same radiation necessarily. And I've already had surgery. And so it makes it a bit more challenging the second go around.

But how are you finding resilience? We talk about resilience a lot when we talk about chronic illness. We talk about cancer. We talk about before we have a chronic something, before we have a disease, before we have something. If you had a business, you think about resilience in a very specific way. But once you're living with something, how did you— how would you have defined resilience before having this diagnosis or even having a business versus how has that definition evolved through your treatment and becoming an entrepreneur and a community leader, thought leader? How's that— how has that changed for you? For you?

Honestly, for me, resilience is just being here at the basic level. It's like keeping going. And that's not a small feat when you think of how many small businesses go out of business and how many, sadly, how many beauty founders have shuttered. So I do look at it that way. Just continuing to do it. And I like to be productive. So for me, resilience is also like feeling like I'm moving it forward. It doesn't mean that I'm gonna hit that crazy sales goal, but if, if I'm growing, even if it's $1, you know, year over year, to me, that's, that's moving in the right direction. And it, it takes a little discipline to get yourself wired to think that way because we're so— we talked about earlier, but we're so used to being conditioned to expect these hockey sticks and these other types of success metrics that are really not attainable for 99% of businesses.

Yeah.

And it's— and it feels like a constant fight to have these type of stories be the focus of like, hey, success looks like this too. You know, it looks completely different. I think, I think when we logically think about it, we know that these people didn't just wake up yesterday and it's like, I have all the success, I did all these things. We know that they had challenges. We know all of that. But the way it is presented to us in marketing and in the bro world of marketing and how things— it does appear as if how we're doing it the slow, steady, persistent work is not enough for the success that we want. And I hear you saying this multiple times during this is like your success is going to look different and give yourself permission. And also sounds like you have found joy and contentment in that being your reality.

Yeah, no, I— it's so much— it's so much easier to reconcile that in so many ways than to hold yourself up to these other expectations, which is very unsatisfying because you're constantly feeling like you're failing. And so, yeah, I know I'm in a much better headspace now, I think, than when I launched my business and we were planning on all these things and then none— they didn't happen. So I mean, we launched 3 weeks before COVID in New York City, you know, like, you know, and again, you just— but so was everyone else, you know what I mean? So we're— I kind of look at that and go, okay, well, we're, we're dealing with it, but so is the rest of the world. So boo-hoo, you know, don't feel sorry for yourself. It's like, yeah, figure out what to do and move on. And but, you know, yeah, it was definitely harder for some businesses than others, no question. Absolutely. And then of course there were the businesses that actually did well during COVID and then after COVID, not so much, right?

I mean, there, I mean, we're seeing a lot of different things. People survive COVID, but they didn't survive post-COVID, like just a few months afterwards, or even now they survive COVID and they're not surviving now. Like there isn't a, I probably always use this wrong, but there isn't a magic bullet that says your business will stay be stay successful forever because you said so.

Like, exactly.

Like, there, there are ebbs and flows, and I think it's something we have to remember. I'm curious though, Lynn, to shift this, like, to someone who's, who's in business right now. And I say this with so much, like, compassion and understanding because I literally have clients who are like, I'm starting this business, and they're literally diagnosed with breast cancer at age 27. Like the things that happen, you're just like, you can't like imagine, but they still want a business. They still want to grow. They still want, they still want a life that has a business that they're showing up. What is something that you would tell them that you thought was true when you were diagnosed that now you know is not necessarily the truth?

That's an interesting question. I guess, you know, I think it, it kind of goes back to how you define yourself. So I guess I thought that, you know, being sort of a business owner was sort of a key part of who I was. And I still think it is to some degree, but I'm a much, I have a much more balanced outlook. So like if I didn't have the business, it wouldn't be the end of the world. You know, I'd find something else to do. For sure, but it wouldn't be like defining for me in that sense. I mean, I do think if I could give anyone advice who's sort of dealing with this, who maybe has a journey similar to mine, you know, you launch a business and then you have a, something happen that you didn't see coming. The community is, I think, gonna get you through it. So that is— I go back to that because it's such a key part, because sometimes the support you need is very pragmatic and functional. It's like, I need someone to— who's your insurance provider? Who's your— I need referral to a trademark lawyer. But other times it's emotional. It's like, I am exhausted. I don't know if I can do this anymore. I am feeling completely burned out. And that's a challenge too, is when you're an entrepreneur, the burnout is always around the corner because you're doing so much yourself. And you kind of have to see the signs of when you're starting to feel that way and then kind of again give yourself the grace to go, okay, is the business gonna shut down if I take a few days to just deal, probably going to be fine.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So true. Yeah, totally. And I also believe too, like, it's just so important to have community and, and ingratiate, like, allow them to be community, allow them to give the support, allow them to be those things. Sometimes we have it, but we're like, no, no, no. It's kind of like having a virtual assistant and you don't give them work to do. It's like, wait a minute. You're paying them, but in a different way, as a human, as a community, they want to be there for you. They want to support you. And if you are not allowing them that space, you stop some of that and you do create that burnout that's around the corner. So I love that advice.

Burnout is real. So that is the one, you know, you do have to kind of keep, keep your eye on that because especially if you're dealing with, you know, before I had cancer, I had Hashimoto's. I still have Hashimoto's, but I would be tired before I was diagnosed. I didn't realize what was going on. And unfortunately, thyroid issues have become super common. Autoimmune issues, thyroid issues, all this stuff. The amount of founders that I meet that have similar issues. Yeah, like, me too.

It's crazy.

Not always cancer to that extreme, although there are a lot of those too. And so I think that's the other thing I realize is the prevalence of this is so much more than you realize, than you know, because people don't always talk about it. So you might see somebody out there killing it thinking, oh my God, they've got it all, not realizing that they're, they're dealing with something. Or, yeah, or you might see somebody who disappears for a while and think like, oh, you know, I don't know what happened with them, but maybe they're dealing with something that you don't even realize. And so I think even just giving people the space to talk about some of this is just very helpful. And so that's— I mean, what you're doing, I mean, it's, it's amazing because you're normalizing it and I think sadly these kinds of issues, chronic illnesses, autoimmune diseases, cancer, endocrine problems are becoming the norm. And my daughter was just— her doctor just told her, because she's been tired, like, you need to get your thyroid checked out. Because now, if especially if it's in your family, it's getting diagnosed earlier and earlier and earlier. And she's 21. Yeah. Holy smokes. And I think it's because of what's in our environment. It's, again, clean beauty. And one of the reasons I'm such a champion for clean beauty, because we're putting a lot of toxins on our body every day. Absolutely realize it. And it's getting absorbed into our systems. And it's crazy. I mean, I was just talking. We had an event over in LA over the weekend, and there was a woman that came, and she's from Sweden, and we were talking about clean beauty because she was like, yeah, I come to the US and I start breaking out. I have, like, allergic reactions to things. And she didn't realize, oh, yeah, the US doesn't regulate any of the beauty products the way they do in Europe. So, yeah, Europe, you know, they don't have the toxins that we have here.

Yeah. I mean, I have friends who are like, Nikita, when you go to Europe, you can eat all the bread you want. It's not a problem. The gluten is not an issue. I'm like, yes, I know. I've heard. Thank you. But yeah. I definitely think, to your point, that the—

it is—

it surprised me actually when I learned there wasn't a lot of people talking about how are you being quote unquote successful and you have Hashimoto's, endometriosis, cancer. Like, it was like a blip, like a whisper in the storyline. I'm like, wait a minute, as a woman living with multiple of these things, how you doing it? Or like, what's important? What is the thing that has helped you? Can we talk about that? And I think there's shame. There's also this feeling of, I don't want people to know my business. I know that's more of like my culture, like, don't want nobody in your business. But also, I feel like by talking about these stories and sharing it, we show what everybody is actually going through. And these metrics of success that we're comparing ourselves to are completely unrealistic when we're not giving ourselves grace and giving ourselves permission to do it the way that works for us.

Oh, 100%. Yeah, no, you're right. And I had a little bit of that, like, how do I tell people about my cancer? Do I not? And I ended up doing something a little maybe more extreme because I was writing for Entrepreneur magazine at the time, and I just wrote an article about it and I posted it on LinkedIn. Because I got tired of people asking, are you okay? And, and then people have a lot of curiosity. That's the other thing people want to know. Well, what kind of cancer is it? And I'm like, well, it's this really rare kind called metaplastic cancer. And they're like, oh, well, what is that like? And then how did you get diagnosed and what happened? Like, they have a lot of questions. And so I basically wrote an article kind of answering all the questions. Because it just was easier for me mentally to just do it once and put it out there instead of constantly having to deal with people's— and they're just trying to help. I get that people are just trying to be supportive, but it was exhausting for me. Yeah, but not everybody feels comfortable doing that. So, yeah, you come up with your own game plan of who do you tell? How do you tell? Do you tell people you want space? Do you tell people you want help? What does help look like? What are you comfortable with? Because, you know, people always say like, oh, I want to help. And, and I'm not somebody who really takes help. So it's sort of like, it's even more uncomfortable.

That question is really uncomfortable, right?

I don't really know what to tell people. It's like, there's really nothing I really need, you know? But then I started saying, well, if you want to help, you know, Follow my business on social media, write a review, like, do things. I'm not asking people to buy the products because that's a little obnoxious, but, like, there's stuff you can do to help to keep my business going while I'm dealing with this.

Yeah.

And don't be afraid to put that out there. I guess that's what, you know, people always feel funny about, like, asking for that.

Yeah.

Men do it all the time.

All the time. And on stuff that they've never even It doesn't even make sense.

Yeah, exactly right. So I, I just think like, don't be shy, you know, post on wherever you're comfortable and tell people what you need or what you're— what you could get help with. And you'd be surprised how many people will jump in and raise their hand and be willing to support.

I love that. Where can we find you? Like, where should people go and support you? And what, what's coming up that's fun and exciting for you?

For me personally, you can find me on any sort of social channel at Lynn Powered or LinkedIn. I'm very active. For the business, Love Masumi is our website and Love Masumi Hair is our social channel everywhere. And I'm bopping around. I travel a lot, as I said. So my next trip that we've got planned is in a couple of weeks, we're headed to Italy and we're going to be there for 6 weeks. Oh, that's amazing. And then, yeah. And then from there, we're headed to Dominica. Which is where we have our beeswax candle business, and we're going to spend a couple of weeks there. And yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

That's amazing. So exciting. You'll have to tell me more about candle wax in the future. I've been really looking into like beeswax. I want some local so I can make my own. Yeah, but here in Florida, the beeswax just disappears so quickly because everyone wants local honey. And the beeswax is gone. Like, I don't know what they're doing with the beeswax, but I'm like, I want it, bring it, send it to me.

You could do your own hives. Have you thought of that?

No, no, that won't be me.

I attempted that. It didn't work out so well.

That won't be me. But I love that everyone can connect with you. Everybody know it'll be in the show notes. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your story and your perspective on everything. I think it's going to serve so many people of owning how they want to be successful. What is that going to look like? So thank you.

Oh, thank you for having me. I really enjoyed the conversation.

That's a wrap for this episode of Business with Chronic Illness. If you would like to start and grow an online coaching business with me, head to the show notes to click a link to book a sales call and learn how to make money with chronic illness. You can also check out our website at www.craftedtothrive.com for this episode's show notes and join our email list to get exclusive content where I coach you on how to chronically grow a profitable business while living with chronic illness. Until next time, remember, yes, you are crafted to thrive.

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