037: Creating A Business You Love with Sage Lavine

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. From bullied teenager to teacher to a multiple seven figure entrepreneur, Sage Levine is number one best selling author of Women Rocking Business and she's the CEO of Women Rocking Business Training Company. Reaching over 100,000 conscious women entrepreneurs around the globe, Sage teaches women entrepreneurs to fill their practice and create sustainable wealth through creating a business they love, working 12 days a month or less. She shared the stage with Neil Donald Walsh, Jack Canfield, Jeanette Atwood, Marcia Wider, and many more. Sage believes in purposeful entrepreneurship as a way to create world change. Women Rocking Business has raised over half a million dollars for women around the globe, women in the rainforest and in Indonesia, supporting them to build businesses that serve their communities and protect our ecosystems. Sage inspires her students to love themselves and each other so much that we can't help but all succeed together. Join in today and learn exactly how Sage Levine leveled up and created Everything from Nothing. Yay. I've got Sage Levine here today.

I'm so excited to have you here.

On Leveling Up, Creating Everything from Nothing.

She's a newer friend of mine, newer friend of mine, rockstar success story.

But when I was talking to her and she was sharing with me her.

Story, where she came from, who she.

Was and now who she stepped into and become, I thought, I've got to have you on the show. So thank you so much for being here, Sage.

Natalie, I love meeting you. You're such a. It's so fun to like meet a rock star at a party like that and just be able to just be like, oh my gosh. There's other women on the planet that like, started from nothing or started from like negative nothing and bounced back. And yeah. What an amazing thing you've put together with this podcast.

I love it. Thank you. So, Sage, people see you, they see your events, they see your online presence, they see how amazing you are. But what they don't know is that that's not who you were before. That's not where you started from. Can you take us back to who you were before all of this?

Yes. So I was a Schoolteacher from Iowa. I used to make $28,000 a year. My mom didn't want me selling girl scout cookies because she was terrified I was gonna offend the neighbors. Like that's how anti salesy my family was. So the fact that I get on stage in front of hundreds of people, we do million dollar events. You know, they're watching me lead all these women. I've built a million dollar training company. Like, they just think I'm a crazy person. Really sweet. And you know, before, I mean, it's before that I was a really unpopular teenager. Like, the truth is, is that I was one of those kids that got kicked out of the club repeatedly. My parents got divorced when I was 11. You know, lots of anxiety and fighting at home. And my home life started to affect my school life. Right. I basically took the pain that was breaking down in my home and I brought that into my social circle at high school and even in middle school. And the girls started to kind of reject me because I wasn't like all put together as much as they were. And I remember one Friday night, they told me there was this party happening. I must have been like 13 or 14. My mom drove me to where the party was supposed to be happening. And this kid answered the door. I remember the look on his face. He was like, what are you doing at my house? And I felt like this ton of bricks dropped into my belly. Like, oh my God, my friends lied to me. Like, it became so clear that a prank. And I remember getting back in my mom's car and I was like choking back tears and I was like, just take me home. Just take me home. I remember she's like, what's wrong? And she took me home. I walked into my bedroom and my phone was ringing. Like the landline, you know? Yeah, the black phone that looked like a little race car, you know, I picked it up and they were laughing into the phone line. Like, I can still remember to this day, like, the heaviness and the trail and the despair. And I remember even in the, like, darkness of that moment, feeling like I didn't have a family that loved me. I didn't have friends that loved me. Like, in the despair of that moment, I remember feeling like there's gotta be a way in, in this life to create something that's different from this, where everybody belongs, where people can come and just be a part of something. And it's so interesting. Brene Brown says belonging is the biggest driver of human behavior. And I think that's what a lot of our businesses are starting to be about, like, creating conscious communities where everybody's getting healthy together, everybody's losing weight together, everybody's building businesses together. And one of the things that we do really well now at Women Rocking Business is we create this sisterhood so that women are really building their businesses alongside each other. And it's what my clients have started to come to me for. Like, not just my clients, but my colleagues. Like, I have colleagues that have, you know, built businesses that are five, 10 times bigger than mine. And they're actually coming to me to find out how I'm creating community in my room, in live events, because it's just become something that we do really well, we're known for. And so I just want to, like, really reiterate, like, whatever you've been through in your life, right? Like, whether it's mean girls or. I'm sure many of you have been through things that are, like, way more painful than what I've been through. That thing that you've been through can become like a PhD program for the message of your pastors.

So tell me how. I want to take you back a little bit today. I know that's a painful spot, and I got the goosebumps and everything listening to share, but how do you. How did you make a decision to shift out of that? Because that's a heavy thing for a child, a teenager, to go through.

It took years. And I would imagine you formed a.

Lot of stories based on that that weren't factual. But so how did you even shift yourself out of it? Like, I get that you had a bigger vision now because of it, but how.

What did you have to do to get yourself out of that? Well, it took years, right? It took years of me, like, walking through the hallway of my high school, like, knowing that these kids didn't like me and were talking behind my back and, like, starting to find who were my friends, who could I start over with, who could I actually have a relationship with? I signed up for a leadership training even as a young woman, as a teenager, I was like, well, I want to go learn leadership because I want to be somebody that doesn't get beaten down by this stupid stuff that we all get beaten down by. I remember going to my first yoga class in college where the woman at the front of the room was saying, how you take care of your body is how you take care of your life. And we're now a group of people that have prioritized our bodies. I remember, like, oh, my God. This is the first Time somebody's told me a part of a group. And then I remember going to a workshop in college where for the first time ever, I really got that we can heal some of those painful things from our childhood and from our life in live events. Because that stuff, that painful stuff that we've been through that got put into place in relationship, like in three dimensional relationship with other humans. It can be tricky to heal it, like hiding behind the computer. And so it's one of the reasons I think we go to live events and workshops and one of the reasons why I'm passionate about teaching people to lead live events and workshops is because I believe it's one of the. It's like in some ways it's the most potent healing modality on the planet to get people in a room, like moving through their mindset blocks, their physical blocks, and getting them the strategies and the tools to go where they want to go, but also, you know, the mindset to shift into who they want to be.

Yeah, totally agree. And I, and I what is interesting is that I think a lot of people, they, when they're coming from that spot of that the little girl feeling that you had before of being bullied or not fitting in, they have all these stories and what happens. A lot of times they'll become introverted, right? So they think they don't want to connect. But it's that connection and being at those live events that helps bust you out of it, really.

100%. 100%. And wherever you think you are on that spectrum, the introverted, extroverted, ambiverted. I'm definitely an ambivert. I need my inward time. We were talking about this. I need my extroverted time. Wherever you are on that spectrum, there is a way to step into your own leadership, to get healthier, to step into launching a business. If that's what you're doing, there is a way to do it in a way that takes care of yourself. I'm the one who puts my hoodie on at every single break when I lead a live event. I'm backstage on the breaks with my hoodie on. Just getting back to that inward time. The ocean tide rises and falls. The universe expands, expands and contracts. Like we have to learn to give ourselves both of those things so that we can stay fueled up to keep getting out there. Right?

So, okay, so now how did that little girl, or the teenager girl that's not fitting in and is getting bullied and is making up stories about herself, how did she go to now becoming a teacher because then you were a teacher. And then even from there to this grand vision, because that's a big step.

I feel like we have all these parts inside of us. I mean, I still have my little girl. You know, like, she started crying on camera earlier today when I was, like, telling my story. You know, just the rawness and the vulnerability of that moment is still with me. It's still a part of me. In my experience, we have to embrace those parts of ourselves. We have to actually give them love rather than, like, continuing to ostracize them. Right. Like, one of the things that I think can make everything worse is when we judge ourselves, you know, and then we'll judge ourselves for judging ourselves. It's like everything that you teach Natalie, it's like we have got to be more gentle on ourselves. Sure. Being a human is not, like, the easiest experience in the whole world. We need each other. We need our own commitment to ourselves. If we're stepping into leadership or any kind of a transformation that requires shifting your health or shifting your money, anything that requires change, we're not going to do it perfectly. That's why a lot of people never do it. So I think the secret sauce is be more gentle with yourself than you think you need to be. Pay attention to how you're talking to yourself. I mean, I remember catching myself beating up on myself and being like, wait a second. Like, I have to be my own best advocate here, you know?

And so many women do it that self beat up, like, I hate myself. I'm fat, I'm ugly, I'm stupid, like, all the time. And it's like, you wouldn't say, that's your best friend, but you said that to yourself.

Oh, God. Right? We speak more meanly to ourselves than we would ever speak to anybody else in our lives. Our pets, our kids, anybody.

So true.

Yeah.

So, okay, how does teacher come up into the equation? How did you become a teacher? Let's start with that. Then I'm going to know. Then I have the big question, like, how does it go from teacher to what you do now?

Right. I think that I started to actually understand what lit me up. Right.

Okay.

I remember applying for art school, and I decided I should be a graphic designer because I love design. Like, I remember applying for this super elite design school in college. 400 applicants, only 35 people get in. I worked my butt off for a year and a half getting my portfolio already. And out of the 35 people that they take, I was one of them. I got into graphic design school. I Signed, you know, they sent me my printout of classes. I went to like 3 days of all my classes. And I dropped out of graphic design school because all my classes were like Photoshop, Photoshop, AutoCAD, Illustrator, like sitting in front of the computer for like eight hours a day. And I was like, oh my God, I'm actually like an interactive. I need to be in front of people, I need to be igniting people's learning. Like that's what I'm built to do. I had been a wilderness guide in college. It was when I was happiest. I think we all have to look back over the course of our lives and really be honest with ourselves. Yeah, when was I happiest? When was I doing something that felt natural, that I totally, I would do it whether I got paid or not. But here's the thing. We need to get you paid, right, so that you can afford to keep doing it. And so I dropped out of graphic design school. I put together my own unique, you know, graduate degree. And it included me getting in front of people. It included experiential opportunities for me to like facilitate experiences for people. And it's something that I've always loved doing. And so I think we've got to play to our strengths, you know?

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you become a teacher and then why does that not become enough? And how did you go? I'm like dying. I'm like chomping at the bit. Like, how does she go from that to the teacher?

Oh, I love young people. I mean, I remember my first teaching job was 37 seventh graders. Can you imagine? Like I have, oh my God, I.

Have one sixth grader living in my.

Home, my daughter, that's 500 women entrepreneurs. And I'm fine. Give me 37 seventh graders. And I'm like, oh my God. If you can teach middle school, you can train any group of amazing.

Yeah, you think about that really has got to be a lesson in leadership. Really. Like how do you enroll all these seventh graders to be present?

And you basically learn to frickin engage a group of people. You learn to keep them engaged when you have a bunch of teenagers like that loved teaching school. What I didn't like was no Child Left Behind. So my dream sure was I had come from being a wilderness guide, like taking kids out on backpacking trips. And when I found myself in the four classrooms, my goal was get them out of the four walls of the classroom. The four walls is what I mean. Get them out into nature, get them learning about tree biology and Ecology. And we contracted out with a nature conservancy and went and did water testing at the river. And that was my goal, was to get kids hands on learning and nature. And over the months that I was a teacher, each quarter it got harder and harder with no Child Left behind, with the meetings, with standardized tests. It was like, all of a sudden, I couldn't really do the thing that I most wanted to do, which was just inspire young people. All of a sudden, I was, like, teaching these silly facts. That didn't mean my passion wasn't there. And so over the months and over a couple of years, I started looking at, like, what could I do where I get to actually teach something that, like, is a natural exc. Extension of me? It's something I freaking care about. I'm an environmentalist. So one of the first things I did was I started partnering with nonprofits and humanitarian projects, you know, that would help me actually, you know, support my events. And I partnered with a woman named Lynn Twist of the Pachamama Alliance. She supports women in the rainforest to protect jungle homes from oil companies. So, you know, when I left teaching, I just started really focusing on what's my passion. I minimized my expenses, and I started partnering with as many people as I could to lead events for women. And over the years of leading women's events, I found that my favorite women to work with were all starting businesses like, they had a project, they wanted to do something. But I'll tell you what, there's one more interesting thing that is in this sequence of events. When I left teaching, of course, I didn't have a ton of money saved because I had just been on a school teacher salary. So I decided to take two years to launch my business. And it takes that much time. I think, Natalie, you'll agree with me, like, it doesn't happen overnight. So I minimized expenses by moving into my grandfather's rv.

Wow, that's commitment.

That was commitment. And I'm here to tell you, like, whatever it takes, we get creative. Grandpa's RV for two years, and I substitute taught on the side.

See, when people say they've done everything, you have not done everything, you have not moved in with Grandpa's rv.

Some of you have done crazier, Some of you have moved in with mom.

No, because what happens stages. So many people were like, I have a business idea and I'm going to be rich quick. So they're like, they're. They're acting as if, like, right away, and they're trying to act that part. And they're just. Then they really can't create because they're so focused on. They have to make money. They have to make money. They have to make money because now they're living this large life. So I love that you did that.

It's all about being willing to seriously do whatever it takes. I mean, I think many of us started our business from our bedrooms, from, you know, taking loans out, from, you know, whatever it took.

Totally, I love that. So I'm glad you said that because I think people have this fantasy that that's not the case. And that absolutely is the case. So you decide this.

So.

Okay, so how did you. Did you have stories coming up in your mind? Like, I'm not good enough to teach this. Like, I don't have success yet. How am I going to teach? Like, what was coming up for you.

And how did you counter that? Everything. The whole frickin thing is so uncomfortable. Like, I get so sick and tired of like these shiny happy faces out there being like, oh, I just put a plan into place and then it all is like rainbows and butterflies. Like that. I called bullshit on that. Yeah, Like, I've been nervous and afraid almost every step of the way. Like the whole thing is uncomfortable. Like being a leader in this world and being entrepreneur, but like by its own nature scary and uncomfortable. And so, you know, I think the game is learning to take care of yourself in that, figuring out who's got your back. Because you've got to have somebody who has your back and your sides and your front. I mean, we get scared at both ends of the spectrum. You know, we get scared that we're gonna fall on our face. But I think we also get scared that we're gonna like, end up on Oprah and like, who's gonna be my friend when I'm like that shiny and, you know, like such a hotshot. Right. Like, we have fears at both ends of the spectrum if we get really successful. And I mean, I remember being so afraid that I was going to be taking on so much responsibility that I wouldn't be able to endure it. Right. And I actually went down to the rainforest with this very question in mind. Like, I, like I told you, like, I started out my business serving women. We would do these events that were fundraisers, but I also would offer my entrepreneurial training programs. And I have to say, like, being a business owner is difficult. It's challenging enough, especially if you're selling something that is like a direct reflection of your heart. Like you're not peddling a factory full of widgets. You're taking the thing that's, like, near and dear to your heart and putting it out there for people to buy. So, quick story. I go down to Ecuador literally wanting to escape technology responsibility. I had just signed up, like, my first 100 clients for a program. I had gotten them settled, and I was so burned out, my big question was, can I actually keep going? This is hard. I went down to Ecuador because one of those fundraising events that I told you about had actually generated $100,000 for women in the rainforest, and we had helped launch a bunch of women entrepreneurs. And I go down there with a question in my mind of do I really want to be a part of this bigger, better, faster, stronger thing, or do I want to just keep, like, my 12 or 15 clients, you know, small practice over here and just have a simple life? That was really the question in my heart, and it was really beautiful because we flew in small planes 500 miles past where all the roads end. We went into indigenous territory in the middle of the Amazon jungle. And some of the women, you know, I had raised money for this women's project down there. They recognized that I was one of the donors on the trip. They asked me if I would bring back a story to the women I work with. And the story's being translated from Achuar, that's their language, Achuar, into Spanish and Spanish into English. And the story is that in the Achuar culture, there's masculine roles and feminine roles. And the masculine role is to hunt and to be a warrior and to bring home trees for shelter and fish for protein. The women's role is to make babies and to make chicha, which is the main carbohydrate drink that they drink. He said, but what I want you to know is that the women also have one more role, and that is that it's the women's job to say, stop. When the men bring home enough trees, it's the women's job to say, that'll build the shelter. Don't cut down any more trees. When the men bring home fish, it's the women's job to say, don't kill any more fish. That amount of fish will feed the village, you know. And they said, when the Achawar people, when these indigenous people in the rainforest see pictures of the west, they only have one question. Why haven't the women stood up and just said, enough? Like, enough. There's enough skyscrapers, there's enough roads. There's enough going on she said, but here's what I want you to remember. It's the feminine's role to create. Wow. Natural creators. And I remember my whole body breaking out in like goosebumps upon goosebumps upon goosebumps because it was like, I got my answer. I'm built to create. I have to create. It's what I do. But we inherently know as women what is sustainable creation for ourselves, for our families, for our healing, for our bodies. We were built to create. To stop that flow of creation is to literally stop the flow.

I'm with you. And I feel that so many people have it in them that they want to create and they have that thing. How did you get out? You mentioned when you began that story, you mentioned that you had sold your first hundred clients when you were hitting there. And like, how did you even get the first hundred clients? And like, did you have self worth conversations there on like, what you can charge and what was that and how.

Quick or how long did it take to do that? All of it.

All of it.

I would say, let's see, you know, I went from having four clients to having eight clients, to having six clients, to having 12 clients, having eight clients. Because then a few of them fire you. That's the thing that nobody talks about. It's not linear growth, it's kind of spaghetti. You've got to be willing to just slowly build. It took me about a year and a half, two years to get to the place where I could really afford to live. It was in that second year that I did my first official launch. I had been coaching, I had been speaking in my community, I highly believe, looking for clients in your neighborhood, speaking in your backyard, speaking at the local library, speaking locally, three dimensionally. You can actually create so much more intimacy in a room full of people than you can on the Internet like this. I mean, Natalie, you've been at this for years. Your podcast is amazing. But for somebody who's never started before, getting out there and speaking can make it go so much faster. That's what I did and that's how I supported myself. To also then post my very first interview series online. I interviewed a bunch of experts the same way that you did do with your podcast. I interviewed Marcia, my friend Marcia Weider. Marcy Scheimoff gave me an interview. Janet Atwood gave me an interview. I met a bunch of these women at a luncheon. And with that interview series, I launched my first thousand dollar purposeful business program.

Sort of like a summit model. Is that sort of what summit model.

Is totally a summit model. It's called Women on Purpose Summit.

Years ago, like 2012, before everyone was doing them. Like when you were.

Before everybody was doing them, I was one of the first ones and. Or one of the first business ones for women.

Okay.

And right off the back of that summit, I launched a summit.

So what I want people to hear with this is that was what you built there and took your time investing in was you did that for free. Like you building a summit and doing that and speaking at the libraries, that was not you getting paid. So you stepped in and you offered service and you created value and that's what made you an authority. Yes, that's what I'm hearing.

When people come to me and say, how do I get more clients, how do I get more? How do I get more money? My answer is always, are you willing to give more?

Yeah. Oh yeah.

Thing. Work harder. You don't have to work 16 hours a day. I mean, believe me, I've had a few 16 hour days. Sure, you've got to pull 16 hour days. But I'm a big believer in working part time if that's what you want to do. But it's about giving more. It's about giving some of your best stuff. I like to call it like, you know, creating success first. Like give your clients stuff that like they can actually go use to create their first success. They're gonna be in love with you forever.

Yes.

It's that much more likely that they're gonna invest in your programs. Like all this stuff out there where it's like give the what but not the how. I call bullshit on that too. Like just give good stuff. You just have to be careful not to give so much stuff that people are like, I have. I need to take a whole year to implement this. Yes. I'll call you back in a year. Don't give them that much. That's ok. You know, but give them stuff they can actually use to get started. Like totally. Yeah.

So did you know when you were starting this? When you left teaching and you were gonna. Did you have a vision for what you wanted to build eventually or did you. Were you like, I'm just gonna start small and go there? What was your thought process there?

It was a very rough vision. You know, I told you that I signed up for a leadership program when I was a teenager. One of the visions I got literally as a teenager was a bunch of women standing in a circle on the beach holding hands, living their dreams together. You know, I had no idea how that Was gonna come to fruition. Oh, what is this, a kumbaya moment? Women standing in a circle on the beach. And now, you know, when women come to my events, we do circles as part of the event. And, you know, we teach business strategy and we help you plan out your whole, you know, next year of your business. And we teach you the launch plans that we use to become a seven figure company. But one of the things that we do is we have an intentional. We call it a wealth ceremony. And we literally go on the beach and hold hands in this big circle, and the women love it. We take pictures. And I've literally stood in circle with about, like, up to 550 women. Love that. All my participants. And that was like, literally just me getting a vision, not knowing even what it meant, but just year by year, month by month, just like continuing to kind of say yes to the impulses inside of me. So, I mean, I'm just here to remind you that, like, the impulses that you have, those desires that you have, like, they're there for a reason.

Totally.

Yeah.

So, okay, so talk to us about now. Like, what, how this has evolved a lot. And I want to share what you do now. And then I have a lot of questions about your day and how you manage your mindset and how you stay in that flow.

Yes. So we train women entrepreneurs to scale, launch and scale their businesses. We train anywhere from beginners to women who have businesses that just want to scale. And we teach women through the lens of. I'm sorry, we teach business through the lens of women's values.

Okay.

Women are starting businesses one and a half times faster than men. Right now. We're still making 79 cents on the dollar compared to men. So I believe in entrepreneurship is a way to close the pay gap and to really teach business in a way that's in alignment with women's values. So we support business from a place of collaboration rather than competition, from a place of empowerment rather than power over, and from a place of really being generous rather than a sense of scarcity or urgency. We talk about opening a relationship rather than closing a sale. And, you know, what we found is in teaching the strategies along with the sisterhood, women can kind of bypass a lot of the resistance that they have to being salesy, being pushy, using some of these hard marketing tactics now just in terms of, like, the day to day. So I'm somebody who just doesn't want to work all the time. And I acknowledge the workhorses of the world. Like, I freaking respect people that just love to work. I can work a good solid 12 days a month. Like I can give it my all. But I've just noticed over time from trial and error that if I work a lot more than that, then my efficiency just goes so far down. I've created this schedule for myself where I work the first three weeks of the month. Monday through Thursday, I take Fridays off and then I take the last week of the month off.

Amazing.

Everybody in my community, it's like become a part of our culture. Like Sage is on flex week. And I've trained my team to take flex weekends where they'll take turns taking off like a Friday Monday or a Thursday Friday so that we all get a little bit of downtime in our month. And what I've noticed is that when I know when I'm actually full out working and when I'm not, I can go full out knowing that I don't have to go full out indefinitely. Yeah, Women have to know that no matter what it is for you, even if you just start taking off Fridays at noon and by noon you're done and you have the rest of the afternoon and you have the two days of the weekend, even if it's just starting to plan one day a week where you don't plan anything, you don't take any appointments, you don't even plan stuff with your friends, even if it's Monday. Like, anything that you can do to like start to protect some of your time is going to really help your nervous system, your adrenals just like really acclimatize to the life of an entrepreneur because it's not a slow paced gig, you know, so to really be willing to find that dance. And believe me, it's not always perfect. I mean, there's months that I end up chewing into my free time because I just, I took on a new project. But one of the things I've noticed is if we can have days every month where we don't take any appointments, you know, there's just like nothing. Like maybe we have some things to do for our business, but there's nothing.

On the calendar, no calls, there's no interviews, there's no meetings. Yeah.

Yes. And then you got, you know, you gotta have days where you work on your business versus just always being in your business. You've gotta have days where you can step back and look at the big picture and plan and look at where you're going. So, you know, I learned the hard way. I've gotten bit in the butt several times. Like I Ended up totally sick on stage a couple years ago for my biggest event ever. Oh, wow. I was so sick I ended up in this horrible coughing fit. It was like guttural. It was like primal.

And you were presenting like this at your event.

I was going into the offer and I literally started like, like.

Oh, wow, that's authentic.

I caught my breath and I was like, that was Czechoslovakian 4. I see the God in you. Everybody was just cracking up. And then we had like a really heart to heart conversation around body breakdown and how afraid we are and what when it comes. I was honest about how much support I had to add to that event. I mean, I had people on my team training some of the pieces of the event and it was, it ended up being our first million dollar revenue event. Wow. And it was. I know that that happened to me on that event to teach me that. No, I'm actually not holding it alone. I think I am, but I'm not, you know, and since then I've been letting a bunch of my team members train different parts of the event because they did such a good job. And my participants loved hearing from somebody other than me. So, you know, it's just like learning to dance with all of the waves of the journey now, isn't it?

It must amaze you that you're doing those types of launches, those numbers compared to where you were from. Like thinking back to being that teenager that was in that rough spot, or even the school teacher that was on such a budget or living in your grandfather's trailer. Does it amaze you that you did that?

I feel so honored and grateful and then I have days that I forget and it just all feels like a lot of work. I mean, we're all human. But I feel like the big thing that I've had to learn is to be humble in all of it. Because at any point the whole thing could shift, you know. So like my absolute commitment is to be grateful every day, to, you know, be able to give and serve the women who follow me every day. And to not just my business, but to appreciate the life that surrounds my business. Because I think we, when, when your business starts to take off, I think we can start to like hack away at it in our brains all the time and like forget that there's all of these other pieces of life.

Totally. Yeah, totally. So do you. So a couple of questions I have. So do you still. It sounds like you very much come from a place of being humble and I think that's why you're so relatable. On why women are attracted to you because you lived that and you worked through it and you, you had such a, you have such an abundant mindset too. I feel like that people can sense that with you. How do you. I'm curious about things like, because you're like, for instance, your pricing changed obviously as you grew and got bolder, got bigger. How did, how did you manage talking yourself into creating a higher self worth for your business and yourself?

You know, I think I started to really see the vision of what I was supposed to create. You know, I mean, I could see that thousands of women were coming and that I had something to serve more than just a few dozen women. And I started to really get real with the support I was going to need in order. You know, I think at the end of the day, Natalie, I think you'd agree, like it all comes down to vision. You know, some of us are here to serve a smaller amount of people in a really deep way, which is equally as awesome, you know, and some of us are meant to build more of a movement and like for me, and I started to realize, gosh, I mean, in order to actually serve thousands of thousands of paying clients, like I'm going to need a frickin team. Like I need to give these women like a state of the art experience. Like I want these women to be in a program that I would be so impressed by. I want them to be able to feel served. Like when they have a question, they get an answer within 24 hours. You know, when they need something unique, we take care of them. When they're investing at the level they invest at, yes. You know, it's all about really asking yourself, would you buy the thing you're creating? You know, and would you be like, oh, this was the best purchase I made. I'm so glad. You know, it's like, how do we create at that level? And so I think for me, when I started to really be honest and aligned with my vision, I just knew this is where the rates need to be. And our programs are still, I believe, some of the most affordable training programs out there for entrepreneurs. But it's like this is where the rates need to be in order to take amazing care of my clients. I mean, the thing is, is that the only time we ever get into negotiating a price in our mind is when quality isn't a part of the conversation. Like if you're just deciding between two towels and they look the same and one's $7 and one's $14, we're gonna grab the $7 towel, but as soon as you pick up the towel and you're like, oh my God, this one's so much more plush. It's so much more soft. Maybe it's worth twice as much to buy the nicer towel. And so I think, like, when we're setting our rates and we're thinking about what to charge, I think it's a question of how much quality do I want to bring to this service that I'm providing. Because when people pay, they pay attention. And when people pay, you know, they're going to actually consume your content with that much more rigor and integrity. So, you know, I'm here to just really invite every single one of you to, to charge what you're worth, you know, what you put into the program. Charge what you know needs to be charged so that people have an epic experience.

I love that. Okay, I have some questions about your day. Like, do you, because you know, you just, you just shared about your flex time and how you take time off. Do you have rigor as far as how you schedule your day? Like, what do you have a specific morning routine? How do you start it? And I want to know also that.

And who's in your circle?

Like, what kind of people do you surround yourself with?

You're so sweet. Okay, so my answer to how I structure my day is always like, business takes rigor and I have to be in my masculine energy a lot to run my company. And so I don't want to be in my masculine energy all day long. So what I tend to do is I tend to put kind of like rails up on my day. Like usually I'm sitting at my computer by 9:30 in the morning ready to rock my day and put in a super solid day so that I can have my freedom schedule, so I can have Fridays off so I can have the last week of the month off. So if I know I'm at the computer by 9:30, I often tend to get up at 6 or 6:30 because I want that two hours of unstructured time in the morning. I need it. I need to be able to be like, I feel like working out. I feel like going to yoga, I feel like meditating. I feel like literally just hanging out in my bathrobe and making a smoothie and staring out the window. I give myself a lot of permission when I'm in hustle mode, when I'm in a launch or when I have a lot of projects on the calendar. When I'm not working, I just Give myself a lot of permission. I mean I remember when I first started my business, I signed up for the rowing team. I was doing these like ocean swims, I was building my business and you know what happened? My back went out. Oh my down for the count for three weeks. And when I tuned into my body, my body's like, look like I'm just not built like a frickin steam engine. And not all of us are. And some people love to go out and do those really hard things and then go build their business and that's great. But for me I just found that in order to sustain what I was doing in business, I needed to have some really yummy, more organic. Now that being said, there's a time and a place. Like one of the things I did my second year of business is I started doing, I did a couple of triathlons and my goal was just to finish but I literally signed up for a couple of Olympic length triathlons because I wanted to work on my mindset because there's so much you ask, how did I get from being a school teacher to being a seven figure entrepreneur? I mean there's so much mindset that goes in, it's a mindset game. It's being able to watch yourself when you like, you know, exit stage left and start beating up on yourself and you're reeling and you're spinning out of control like I can't do this, who am I? What am I? You have to be able to catch yourself. You've got to be able to have enough of yourself on board to say whoa, sagey poo, you're doing just fine. Look at the, you know, you just got a new client this week or you know, like you're not sick or look, you're living in a beautiful little place in San Diego. It's like you just moved to Sandy. And all the things that I can say to love myself up, to acknowledge what I'm a lot of that's come from training, from training my mindset from doing things like triathlons. And that being said, I'm just a big believer in having enough unstructured time in your day when you do have these set hours of hustling and going for it.

So it sounds like you're really not afraid to push your limits. You protect yourself health wise and time wise, but you also push your limits. It's like signing up for the Olympic training whatever you just said triathlon stuff, 100%. Both are really the pushing, the pushing and you're a risk Taker, I hear risk taking as well. Like you take chances.

Thank you. Thank you. I think we have to, you know, we've got to be willing to get outside our comfort zone and just be willing to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Okay, so talk about the kind of people you surround yourself in the rigor with that like do you take people out of your life? I mean not like seriously out of your life, but you know what I.

Mean, do you get them out?

Do you surround yourself with a certain type of people? Like who would you say? Have to give me names specifically, but like what types of people do you surround yourself and do you let in?

Well, it's true. Everything that everybody says about how we become the average of the five people we spend the most time with, it's true. And so if you want to uplevel yourself. And when I knew I needed to up level myself, I needed. I started intentionally developing new relationships. And the cool thing for me is like my best friends are friends that started out in business with me and we've grown together and like we would literally see each other growing and be like, keep going, keep going, keep going. And like now like we started out as six figure entrepreneurs and now we're multiple seven figure, you know, and like I would just say to as, as you're going through life and deciding where you're gonna spend your time, because the only thing we all have the same amount of is frickin time. It is precious. And yes, like the more successful you want to become, the more you want to really make a difference in this world. Like we've got to be really discerning with our time.

Totally.

Yeah, 100%.

So would you say that you, like if somebody is in your life and they're not leveling up, like they're not living that life of like, I want to create more, I want to give more, I want to be more. Do you, is that somebody you don't necessarily want in your life? Like is that how you would choose or are you somebody that will level them up? Like, tell me how that happens. Like if you look at like most of your friends.

Yeah, I mean I really believe that a rising tide lifts all, but so yeah, a rising tide lifts all boats. You know, write it down. It's one of my favorite quotes I remember since I started my business, I've actually been a part of three different women's groups where like we literally became like a circle of women and we committed to meeting this many times per month. So out of those three women's groups it's really interesting. Like, the majority of the women in those women's groups with me have all ended up doing my program at some point. And it's a big compliment to me that women came into my groups and saw what I was up to and then ended up hiring me and doing one of my training programs. And, you know, I'm humbled by that. But I would say that my commitment is always like, let's get you going. What do you need? How can I help? And I would say that's one of the biggest things about people like you, Natalie, that I met. You know, Natalie and I met at a party and like, you were serving me from, like, five minutes into the conversation. You had your phone out, you were connecting me with coaches or people that could help me. And I felt like, you know, I wanted to do the same for you. And I really want to say that it's something I've noticed about highly successful, just incredible people is we're just coming from generosity. How can I help? How can I serve?

Yeah, that's a pattern I see too, with people. And I notice when people don't come from that place, like just a taker or I'll talk. It's like, I'm very aware of that now.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And so, yeah, I mean, you know, friendships have fallen away, but it's never because I'm like, you're done. It's just like, oh, sometimes it just kind of naturally shifts because I'm just putting my focus on something other than what they are putting their focus on. And it's like, it's not even any judgment. Like, you know, in this time in my life, I'm playing full out in this one area. You know, I may have a time three or four years from now that I want to go live on an organic farm for two years and just like, I'll go with you.

That sounds amazing.

Like, so, I mean, I just. I don't have any judgment of people. And this has been a really important learning curve for me, me to like, not judge. Like, like, there's times in our lives where we want to go for it, and then there's times in our life where really good to just, like, hide out or be in babyland for a year. And so. But what I found is that when I am going for it, it's really important for me to have enough time with other go getters. And that doesn't mean that, like, my friends who have decided to be in babyland for two years never see me, you know, I'll definitely. I get to go like, love on them. And we compare notes and it's like, oh, this is how it is in my world. This is how it is in my world. This is why it's awesome. This is why it's hard, you know, because like, no matter what you. No matter what path you choose, there's going to be like, benefits and there's going to be some drawbacks. You know, we're go getters. We may be giving up a little bit more of our free time, but on the other hand, we may be earning ourselves some freedom, you know, in another category. It's like, I'm willing to do what many people aren't willing to do today so that I can do some really cool shit tomorrow that a lot of people can't do. Right. I love that. Yeah. Don't take it for granted. You know, I think.

Perfect way to say that. Yeah. Okay, here's a question I ask everybody. And then I'm going to get into all the, like, where I can find you and all that, because I know people are dying to know that, but I want to know, and I ask everybody this. If somebody's listening right now and they are in their personal rock bottom, so maybe they're living in their grandfather's trailer and. Or they have a lot of debt. Maybe they've just lost their business that they were building for many years or whatever that is for their own personal rock bottom. Their stuff is falling apart right now and they are ready to level up and create everything from nothing. What are three things you would tell them to do right now so they can start shifting that?

Number one, love yourself. You have got to be your own best advocate. Nobody's going to advocate for you until you're willing to say, you know what? I'm human. I get to be human. I get to royally screw up. I get to make a mega mistake, and I can bounce back from that. The great thing about being at the bottom is the only way to go is up. And you know what, what doesn't kill you. Makes a great story to tell on stage. Yes, it does.

That's so true.

So true.

Or a podcast. Either way.

Number two, get really clear on what is the thing you want the most. Right. Because we can have anything that we want to in this life, but we can't have everything and we cannot have it all at the same time. So it's like, what aspect of your life do you want to work on next? Do you want to work on your business? Do you want to work on your relationship and be willing to get really clear on what's the priority. Mean that you can't work on the other thing. But at the end of the day, what's the first thing you need to turn around in your life? Is it the first thing that you're doing in the day? Because you know, we can get so derailed by getting up in the morning and hopping on email and an hour and a half long later we're perusing Facebook and we just wasted, you know, however many hours. And we've got to get you so clear on what is the priority. What are the income producing activities, what are the relationship building activities, and starting out your day with that energy, because that energy is going to carry you forward. It's going to be like a magnet for everything that you're looking for. And then the third piece of advice I'd give you is ask, ask, ask, ask. Three little letters. Ask, ask, ask. Because especially as women, we suck, a lot of us suck at asking. And you just, you can't get there on your own. Ask for what?

Ask for help. Ask for help.

Ask for help. Ask people. Ask. Ask people who have accomplished what you want to accomplish. Ask them how they did it. Do everything that Natalie's doing on this interview. And I could be asking Natalie all the same questions, by the way. She's amazing. But it's like ask to take people out for lunch and ask how they got to be where they are, be willing to be a beginner again. And I think this is hard for women maybe that have also had some success and then it blew up in their face. It didn't go well and now they're having to be a beginner again. A lot of us don't want to have to be a beginner again. And you've got to be willing to, you've got to be coachable. The people who create the most success the fastest are highly coachable. You know, I see. Isn't that a fascinating stage?

Because I think so many people come at it with their ego, like, I have to know everything. But you're saying the exact opposite, which is, I agree with you. It's so powerful. Be that curiosity person, be the one with the questions, have that open mind. You don't have to know everything. When you know everything, it comes off as ego and arrogance. Right?

And then no one wants to help you.

100% that comes at me like that.

Me too, 100%. And my clients, I study them. I mean, I have clients every year that come into the program. It's like, boom, they just had a $250,000 lunch. You want to know who those clients were? They're the clients that are sitting in the front row. They're blowing up my Facebook page. You know, if they have access to me, they're blowing up my phone. They're just like, ask. They're asking all the time. They're just like, I need help. I want to know. I'm hungry, I'm willing. I'm open. I'm coachable. I know that I don't know everything amazing. I'm not going to have my plan. Here's the thing. Oftentimes we want to innovate when we're first starting out. That's crazy. We have to actually learn the rules before we break them. And I'm not saying don't be yourself, but be yourself. Be your authentic self within the realm of what you really have studied is successful. You've gotten the support. You know, it's a proven plan. You can be yourself within that plan. But I always say innovate or imitate before you innovate.

So incredible.

Imitate before you animate. Yeah.

Okay, Sage, tell us everything, like your events, where they find you, where they want more, I want more. How do we get more?

Please come. I'd love to have you. One of the places that we hang out every single day is on Facebook in the Women Rocking Business Sisterhood page.

So can anyone go there? It's a great question.

Just type in Women Rocking Business Sisterhood. And once you get in there, there's gonna be a bunch of video trainings in there about how I. How I went from having four women in my living room to how I went to leading seven figure events. How you can do the same thing. There's a bunch of resources in there for starting your business, for speaking for leading events as a way to find your client. Women Rocking Business Sisterhood. That's the Facebook group. And then womenrockingbusiness.com everything's laid out on our website. And I would just say for any of you watching who want to start a business or who already have and it's not quite where you want it to be, you've been through a set of things in your life that only you have been through. There are people waiting for you because of that. There's people who can only hear the message, the gift, the thing that you're bringing through your personality because you've been through things that nobody else has gone through. So just be willing to get out of any story. Of competition you have in your own mind and be really willing to embrace the truth, which is that there's people out there that are actually waiting for you. They're not waiting for someone like you. They're actually waiting for you.

Wow. That's powerful. Awesome. And then where so would you say for social media? Are you most active on Facebook? Are you on all platforms? Okay, most active Facebook. Find me there.

You can follow me on Instagram, you can follow me on Twitter. But a lot of the contests and the training videos and the gamification, it's all happening in our women rocking business Facebook page.

And we'll put everything in the show notes too, so everyone can find that. And they can find out about your events there too, correct?

Yeah. We have over 20,000 women from all over the world. They're all, you know, they're asking each other every day about workshop titles, where to host, you know, about their face, they're asking people about their digital marketing. They're getting great responses. It's a very active group of women just totally believing in this sisterhood. Incredible. Go so much further when we go together.

I'm finding that page next.

Thank you Sage so much.

Thank you. Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejofit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.