0:03

This is the EOWonder podcast. Johns

0:09

Hopkins or St. Luke's or all

0:11

these different hospitals are at the

0:13

same level of credibility and interest

0:15

as our celebrities were 15 years

0:17

ago. We have

0:19

hundreds of the most prominent hospital

0:21

names and we're the only ethnic

0:24

brand of products sold in these

0:26

channels and cross-cultural multi-ethnic customers have

0:28

been using these products and giving

0:30

us testimonials and now we have

0:33

the credibility of all these incredible

0:35

hospital systems who have selected us

0:37

out of every single product and

0:39

have converted their entire hospital over

0:42

to the Be Soreen Clean brand.

0:45

Hello

0:49

everyone. Welcome to the EOWonder podcast.

0:51

I'm Kalika Yap. I'm a

0:53

lifelong serial entrepreneur, a mom and inventor

0:55

and a member leader of the Entrepreneurs

0:58

Organization. I'm obsessed with entrepreneurs

1:00

and fascinated by the life we entrepreneurs lead

1:02

and I can't get enough of all the

1:04

stories, the terror of doing it all on

1:06

your own and the sheer wonder when it

1:08

comes together. That's what the EOWonder

1:10

podcast is all about. In each

1:13

episode, I'll be bringing you these

1:15

stories in conversations with trailblazers and

1:17

leaders who amaze and inspire. Welcome

1:25

to the EOWonder podcast. Today I'm so

1:27

thrilled to have Tracy Holland with us.

1:30

Tracy is a founder, investor and

1:32

executive chairman who has made a

1:35

significant impact in the beauty and

1:37

wellness industry. Her global experience includes

1:39

launching talent-led CPG brands, driving innovation

1:42

and amplifying authentic voices, especially those

1:44

of women entrepreneurs. In 2009,

1:47

Tracy co-founded Hatch Beauty, growing into a

1:49

global leader with over 120 employees and

1:52

20 retail partnerships. She's

1:55

been instrumental in the success of many,

1:57

many brands like Nature by Jewel, Nuance

1:59

by Salma Hayek and many more,

2:01

achieving an impressive $750 million in wholesale

2:04

revenue. In

2:07

2020, Tracey founded Goodwill Brands LLC,

2:09

focusing on accelerating the growth of

2:12

consumer brands through talent and acquisitions.

2:14

She's received numerous accolades and awards, including

2:17

EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 and

2:20

the 2019 Fashion and Beauty Award for

2:23

Beauty Service Provider of the Year. She

2:26

has a master's degree from Columbia University,

2:28

and Tracey is a sought after expert

2:30

in her field. Welcome to the EYA Wonder

2:32

podcast, Tracey. I'm so excited to be with

2:34

you. Helika, thank you so

2:36

much for having me. You're a powerhouse yourself,

2:39

so it's fun. This is a great way

2:41

to spend your Friday. Well,

2:44

let's talk business, women

2:46

empowerment, and being badass bitches. I'm

2:51

all in, let's do it. So

2:54

how did you get your start? You have such

2:56

an impressive resume and a lot of people who

2:58

are listening, they're in

3:00

EO or YPO, and they're

3:02

thinking, how did you get where you

3:05

got? Yeah, you know,

3:07

it's fun. If you're an entrepreneur,

3:10

Helika, I really believe that it's

3:12

in your soul. Your calling is to

3:14

create and build. And I

3:16

don't know if you remember, as an

3:19

entrepreneur yourself, being a little girl,

3:22

starting in first, second, third

3:24

grade, creating businesses out of

3:26

things that this idea

3:28

of building something that you

3:30

could actually create, take out,

3:33

make into manifest, bring

3:35

it into an environment that people would pay for,

3:37

and then transact, and

3:39

have the money to go back

3:41

and buy and build more. I

3:44

just, from a really young age, I

3:48

was told that you could be

3:50

a flight attendant, a teacher, a

3:53

ballerina, but there were a

3:55

number of different... Right?

4:00

Like the things that, and

4:03

I thought, oh gosh, that's all sounds so

4:05

horrible. What a boring life that would be. I

4:09

don't like blood. I can't stand to go to the

4:11

doctor. You know, I don't

4:13

love flying. My dad flew for business all

4:15

the time. I hated ballet. I

4:17

was too big of a kid to look good in

4:19

a ballet setting.

4:23

So I just think all of those

4:25

things led me to this idea that

4:27

I loved

4:30

this connection with

4:32

people providing something that

4:35

they felt they needed

4:37

and their willingness to take their money out

4:39

and pay for it was

4:41

super inspired. And

4:43

so my thoughts around that were always, how

4:46

am I going to lean into a category

4:49

or a product that I know that I

4:51

love where I can bring

4:53

something to surprise and delight the world and

4:56

beauty and consumer

4:59

beauty, wellness, ingestible health.

5:02

All of that from day one really

5:05

resonated for me. And I

5:07

just felt like it naturally resonated for a

5:09

lot of women and men. And

5:12

so when you think of the size of prize, how

5:14

big of a universe do you have to build

5:16

something and sell it? It was like the sky's

5:18

the limit. Everyone

5:21

needs to get, take a shower. Everyone needs

5:23

to get clean. Everyone needs to feel beautiful. Everyone

5:26

wants to have even a

5:28

mini. If you can't afford a big

5:30

extravagant vacation, you can afford a lip

5:33

gloss. Right?

5:35

And my premise was right. It

5:38

was highly lucrative and also a lot of

5:40

fun. But along the way, I

5:42

would say it first comes

5:44

from a place of unabashed

5:46

passion for

5:49

building something that truly resonates

5:51

and creates excitement. And then

5:53

there's this really

5:56

easy flow of transaction. And

5:59

that's really... That was the genesis. So

6:03

take us back to 2009. What

6:05

was it like starting

6:07

Hatch Beauty? Yeah, hatching

6:10

Hatch Beauty. You know,

6:13

there had been three years prior to Hatch

6:15

Beauty where I

6:17

acted as a representative.

6:19

I had a company called Bravo

6:21

Port Retail Management Group, and

6:24

I would take intellectual property

6:26

or interesting brands, and

6:28

they would pay me a combination of a

6:31

retainer, a percentage of sales, and equity to

6:33

go out and find distribution for them and

6:36

create new opportunity. And

6:38

as a result of knowing how

6:40

retailers thought, and retailers

6:42

at that time, their biggest arch

6:44

enemy was each other. So CVS

6:47

having an issue with Walgreens

6:49

and wanting differentiation, Walmart

6:51

wanting a differentiation from Target, Costco

6:53

from Sam's Club. So

6:55

every one of my retail partners that I would

6:57

meet with were always eager to

7:00

find something exclusive and unique to them.

7:03

And as I built that relationship

7:05

base, I would find brands

7:07

that had intellectual property that was really

7:09

unique. And then I

7:11

would do quasi-exclusive distribution

7:13

deals, especially foreign brands

7:16

that didn't have distribution in the U.S. And

7:18

I would do that, as I said, for

7:20

a retainer, percentage of sales, and equity. What

7:23

I inevitably found at Bravo Port

7:25

was that in the

7:27

beginning, all of these companies were really eager to

7:29

say yes to that comp model and

7:32

said, yeah, absolutely, we'll give you equity, we'll give you

7:34

a retainer, we'll give you a percentage of

7:36

sales, we'll pay your T&E. At

7:39

year one, going zero to a

7:42

million dollars, they're grateful and they love you. And

7:44

by year four, when you're going 10 to

7:46

30 million, all

7:49

of a sudden they're like, how do we get rid of this check? See

7:53

ya. I know, but you're a chief

7:55

revenue officer at that point, you know?

7:57

That's right. start

8:00

to say to people hiring

8:02

me, you will want

8:04

to fire me. When

8:07

you start to write checks to me

8:09

that are the size of what your

8:11

entire payroll comp could look

8:13

like for a sales and marketing team,

8:16

you're going to say, I wish I hadn't done

8:18

it this way. I wish I had started and

8:20

just absorbed the cost of a heavy P&L while

8:23

you were building your sales plan. But

8:26

I want you to know that there is

8:28

no exit plan here. Because

8:31

if you fire me, I'm going to

8:33

retain a percentage of ongoing revenue for

8:35

at least 20 years, add

8:37

a percentage that I feel comfortable with because

8:39

there will be a day. And every single

8:42

one with a good faith heart said,

8:44

never would we fire you. We love you. You're

8:46

wonderful. You're incredible. And I said, no,

8:48

no, no, there will be a day. And

8:50

that was what I found over and

8:52

over. And that, Coleco, was really the

8:54

catalyst for me to start Hatch Beauty

8:56

Brands with my co-founder

8:58

at that time because what I knew I

9:01

had to do is

9:03

put myself between the intellectual

9:06

property concept or the opportunity

9:08

for creation of newness and

9:11

the retailer. I had to

9:13

hold that vendor record number in

9:16

order to maintain my

9:18

position on the long term for

9:20

income. And as you know, and I

9:23

know now being an entrepreneur, the

9:25

building side of something is

9:28

so intense and so all consuming

9:33

and exacting that

9:35

the residual make money while you sleep

9:37

business part of it is in your

9:39

5 to 10, right? 0

9:42

to 5. You're

9:46

white knuckling it all the way.

9:48

And you're really leveraging your revenue and

9:51

your retailer relationships in order to

9:54

create revenue opportunities. And

9:56

the more you leverage those relationships,

9:58

the higher the revenue. higher value

10:01

you extract from

10:03

that one deal, then it's harder to

10:05

do the next deal and the next

10:07

deal because you've put

10:09

your eggs into the first deal basket, right?

10:12

Right. So did you actually close

10:14

down Bravo Port or did you

10:16

just keep it going or

10:19

did you shut it down? No, I

10:21

kept it and it was the parent

10:23

company shareholder of Hatch Beauty.

10:26

Phenomenal. Yeah, it

10:28

was the end. My business partner had a

10:30

creative and branding agency at the time. And

10:33

so when we formed Hatch Beauty, both

10:36

of our LLCs were the shareholder partners

10:38

of that, that new that's

10:40

a match made in heaven, right? Creativity

10:42

and you have sales. Correct.

10:45

It is. It was. And,

10:48

you know, I think one thing I would say

10:50

is at the time

10:52

of forming a business and the thing I

10:54

would say to anyone listening, many

10:58

times when two businesses have unique vertical

11:00

opportunity and then you put them into

11:02

a new co, it just

11:04

makes so much sense, right? Two plus two equals 10. And

11:08

not only do you get the shared services

11:10

relationship of your team members, but then you

11:12

get the mindshare of what

11:14

makes a much bigger hole from what

11:16

was an independent part. But

11:19

the thing that I would say to be

11:22

aware of is one

11:24

culture, right? Because you have two

11:26

companies that have very different perspectives

11:29

and they actually, in our case,

11:32

you know, when you're in a sales

11:34

relationship and operations and manufacturing and

11:36

supply chain, every

11:38

single organization who's making something

11:41

has a tension between

11:43

sales and ops. A hundred

11:45

percent of a hundred percent. Right.

11:48

So sales wants to sell everything and wants

11:50

it to ship yesterday. Ops is saying it's

11:53

a long road and let me build this

11:55

for you. Right. And over time. So

11:58

there's this inherent tension there. Add

12:01

to that the inherent tension of what

12:03

creative wants, which is sometimes not achievable

12:05

from an ops or sales side. In

12:09

our case, we were really fortunate to

12:13

be scrappy enough to

12:16

say, yes, we'll try these various things, but

12:18

we didn't have a playbook to follow at

12:21

the time. There

12:23

was a lot of learning about how

12:25

to build and scale, but as you

12:27

said in the beginning of this introduction,

12:29

we had unprecedented

12:32

hockey stick like growth because

12:35

we had the trust of

12:38

the retailer and the

12:40

retailer relationships that had already been

12:43

formed and had been shipping and

12:45

successfully been building from the years

12:47

prior where I was doing that

12:49

type of work. We

12:51

had that inherent trust in relationships. We

12:55

also had incredible creative talent. And

12:58

so even if it wasn't necessarily achievable on

13:00

the operational side at the end of the

13:02

day on the execution, because

13:04

we brought the retailer into the

13:06

co-creation process with us, they

13:09

were far more forgiving when things

13:11

couldn't go according to plan. And

13:16

that was just luck, by the way. Luck.

13:19

Yes. Luck plus hard work,

13:21

right? They always say that. Every time. Every

13:24

time. Yeah. When

13:26

you were starting Bravo, were you in

13:29

sales already? What got you

13:32

into retail distribution? Yeah,

13:34

I did. In my grad school years,

13:36

I had a business partner who actually

13:38

started off as a friend. She was

13:40

far older than I was at the

13:42

time. She worked for the Department of

13:45

Justice and she had

13:47

conceived or invented the formulation and

13:49

technique of creating scented nail polish,

13:52

which meant something

13:55

completely extraordinary at the time. Nail

13:58

polish, which, as everyone knows, is a very, very important part of the process. Everyone probably

14:00

knows doesn't smell fantastic and is

14:02

a little off-putting. She

14:05

had reinvented the base

14:07

formula for which nail polish

14:10

could be maintained dry, quickly

14:12

chip resistant, and she

14:14

added food grave flavors and fragrances

14:16

in. And she

14:19

created this, this like unique

14:21

little invention. And

14:23

I thought, this is incredible. The

14:26

world needs this. And so while

14:28

going to grad school, I started

14:30

reaching out to retailers and

14:33

saying, I'd like to show you our products

14:35

and show you what it is we do.

14:38

And as a result of those phone calls

14:40

and those conversations and that outreach and all

14:43

of that work, we were

14:45

able to create a brand and

14:47

traction with some mid-tier to mass

14:49

market players and private label business

14:52

opportunities. And I

14:54

think what I realized is being seven years old

14:56

or being 27 years old, there was at

15:02

that time this very exciting,

15:05

electrifying experience of like walking

15:08

into JCPenney, sitting with the buying

15:10

team, painting everyone's fingernails, letting it

15:12

dry, let everyone talk about

15:14

like, oh, I have Rose and I have chocolate and

15:16

I have peony and

15:19

everyone having these like surprise

15:21

and delight. And then them saying, how much

15:24

can we get and how fast and how

15:27

can we build this with you? This

15:29

is so cool. And then, you

15:31

know, to be in grad school and

15:33

receive multi hundred thousand dollar POs, in

15:36

which now I have to figure out how

15:38

to factor or finance those POs, not knowing

15:41

what a factor was at the time, how

15:43

to finance like, I have this valuable piece

15:45

of paper that means nothing until I ship

15:47

it. So

15:50

now what, you know, how do you part and

15:52

piece this together? And

15:54

I think many entrepreneurs, I

15:57

always say to entrepreneurs. Especially

16:00

those people who like building companies

16:02

from the back front, meaning, oh,

16:05

I have to put all my team in place

16:07

and I have to have all my sales materials

16:09

perfect and I have to have all my finished

16:11

packaging. I have to have inventory in

16:13

my warehouse before I feel comfortable going

16:16

out and selling and finding out

16:18

if I have a buyer. And I

16:20

would just, I would encourage those

16:22

people listening who haven't done this yet

16:24

to flip it on its head and

16:26

to make what looked like product ready,

16:29

deck ready, you know, warehouse

16:32

full or inventory full, ready to

16:34

ship. Go, go worry

16:37

about that after you have a flood

16:39

of purchase orders so that you can

16:41

ensure that you have a place to

16:43

go as you're leaning into all of your vision for

16:47

what it is you want to create. It

16:50

may not resonate the way you think it should. And

16:53

what I learned was sent a nail polish is

16:56

we flew through hundreds of bottles a

17:00

day. If I had an assisted salesperson on

17:03

the selling floor, putting it

17:05

on people's nails. Cause as they walk by,

17:07

do you want to try this? What's your

17:09

favorite flavor? Chocolate. Here's this. They

17:11

walk around the store, they come back. They're like, we're going to

17:13

buy 12 because I'm going to

17:15

buy this for everyone. I know I've never seen anything

17:18

like this. Like we couldn't keep it in stock, right?

17:21

But if we didn't have an assisted sale relationship

17:24

with the consumer, we could put that display

17:26

on the selling floor and it

17:28

would be the biggest dust ball on the floor.

17:32

Right? So starting to

17:34

think about how you

17:36

translate, not just the sale to the customer,

17:39

which at that time was my retailer, but

17:41

the sale to the end user is the

17:43

next step in how do you drive awareness and

17:46

excitement around your idea. And I always say to

17:48

entrepreneurs, don't

17:50

put your money in building all the backend and

17:52

all the infrastructure and all the inventory and how

17:55

are you going to, and I love VC. money.

18:00

I think it's great. I've never operated a

18:02

business with venture money, but venture

18:04

is all based on this premise of building

18:07

and then building up momentum and

18:09

selling. And I think it's incredible.

18:12

I've just always done it the inverse. I've

18:14

always run a profitable

18:16

P&L from day one. I've

18:18

looked at COGS and where

18:20

do you have opportunity to expand

18:23

marketing? How do you leverage

18:25

marketing and awareness? And then what

18:27

do you do to drive retail business from

18:30

demand plan side before going back and

18:32

building the infrastructure to support it? And

18:34

it doesn't mean it's right or wrong.

18:36

I'm just saying this has been

18:38

the approach I've taken. Well,

18:40

if you're on that tight rope of

18:43

cash and revenue, cashflow, you become really

18:45

creative and you can also become really

18:47

insightful. You knew that there needed to

18:49

be an education piece for

18:52

them to want to buy your product.

18:54

If you are flush with cash, it's

18:56

almost just like, oh, marketing will take

18:58

care of that. When marketing is not

19:00

even close enough to the sales cycle.

19:04

Right. Yeah. And

19:07

the friction on the selling floor, right?

19:09

When they're walking by and saying,

19:11

oh, do you want to pick

19:13

a flavor of nail polish?

19:16

But that learning, those two

19:19

and a half years that I built that business

19:21

with her and went to grad school and used

19:23

my student loans to kind of fund the business

19:25

because we didn't have any working capital was

19:28

probably the best hardcore

19:31

MBA of any experience I

19:34

could have ever hoped for.

19:36

You had two MBAs. Yeah. Because

19:38

the whole time I was like,

19:40

this is wild how you

19:43

have a really hot

19:45

product and lots of

19:47

excitement and you think you've gotten

19:49

it to the finish line. And once you get it

19:51

to the selling floor, you're like, yeah, you walk in,

19:53

you see your product on the floor. You're like, this

19:55

is so cool. But I

19:57

was just talking to an entrepreneur earlier this week.

20:00

And she said, Tracy, I brought in, you know,

20:02

$15, $20 million worth of cool t-shirts and different

20:08

design shirts into Marmaxx and TJ

20:10

Maxx. And she said it

20:12

was so cool to be there on the selling

20:14

floor and see my product. And I was standing

20:16

to the side. She was, I waited

20:18

for four hours and I saw two sales.

20:22

And all of a sudden I thought to myself,

20:24

uh-oh, this may be an issue.

20:29

All over the country, just like we

20:31

know, people in different markets shop differently.

20:34

Just because she was in that market wasn't

20:36

resonating for a series of reasons, but thankfully

20:39

across the country it like blew out

20:41

and was super successful. But

20:43

these are the kinds of things we got to go all

20:45

the way to the finish line, right? With

20:47

everything we do, which is

20:49

why I'm such a big proponent for those in the

20:51

food and bev space to start a

20:54

farmer's market. Yep. You got

20:56

to know your customer. There's

20:58

nothing bigger and better to test

21:01

market something you're conceding than to

21:03

go to your local farmer's market and sell

21:06

the hell out of that stuff and see

21:08

how people react before

21:10

building an inventory strategy. And

21:12

the dealing... Right?

21:15

Yes. Yes. When

21:17

I had my, you know, Persec, that's what we did, you

21:19

know, but, and then you realize that when people are actually

21:21

buying it, you're like, oh, there's something here or people are

21:24

stealing your prototypes. They're like, okay, there's something here. But

21:26

like you said, when you build your whole infrastructure

21:29

and you have $15 million in inventory,

21:31

you, that's really nerve wracking when

21:34

you're testing it. Yeah. And I

21:36

see it all the time, especially with these

21:38

celebrity brands. I get the

21:40

phone call that's like this XYZ

21:42

celebrity partnered with this creative and

21:44

branding agency, and then they got

21:46

a co-packer and now they have,

21:48

you know, $35 million of inventory.

21:50

Can you come in and take a look and

21:52

see what you can do to help us? And

21:56

I'm looking at it and I'm like, you guys, who? approve

22:00

this. How did this

22:02

happen? Right? Yeah. It's

22:05

sort of, whenever I talk

22:07

to women entrepreneurs as

22:09

well too, it's like they theoretically know

22:11

how to ride a bike, but they've

22:13

never ridden a bike. Like go ahead,

22:16

get on the tricycle, start

22:18

with your training wheels, and then jump. Like

22:20

they're already trying to go to the to

22:23

the France when they haven't even ridden a

22:25

tricycle. I know. Yeah. And

22:27

tricycle is a farmer's market. Yeah,

22:30

it is. But your purse hook is like

22:32

the kind of thing I, first

22:34

of all, I have six of them. I didn't even

22:37

know you were the inventor until I met you a

22:39

couple of years ago. But I

22:41

think your, your invention with that

22:43

purse hook

22:46

is the kind of thing that

22:48

I've always had massive success with.

22:51

Right? Where it's so different

22:53

and unique and it's, it's narrow

22:55

and deep. You

22:57

know, yes, you can create hundreds of skews

22:59

in different designs, but you can start with

23:01

three. Right. And then you can understand like,

23:04

how much will people pay for this? Do they

23:06

see the value? Do they get it? Does it

23:08

work? Will they do testimonials? Are they going to

23:10

post on it? You know, like

23:12

all of that makes so much,

23:16

makes so much impact. Yeah.

23:19

And then you get really fun with the

23:21

creative. Like the one thing about the purse

23:23

hook is what I realized, because we were

23:25

actually, you know, putting the designs

23:27

permanently on them. And what I realized, we

23:29

really had to take a look at it

23:31

like a blank t-shirt where once

23:34

we sold it, then we put the pattern on it. And

23:36

I'm always just like, why didn't I think about it before?

23:39

But it's because once you have inventory stacking up

23:41

with this one design, you think that it's going

23:43

to sell to like bridesmaids or whatever, but it

23:45

doesn't, you're like, I got to come up with

23:47

something. So smart. Yeah.

23:49

See, and that's how we pivot.

23:52

You know, it's funny because I'm now

23:54

in a business, I have multiple businesses now,

23:57

but one of my companies is a medical

23:59

supply business. business with my

24:01

business partner. It's called Be

24:03

Serene Clean. And

24:05

we'd create ethnic hair care, skin

24:08

care, and baby for all

24:10

of medical channel, but really

24:12

hydrating, really rich in benefits

24:14

and ingredients. We've taken

24:17

what we believe hospital patients

24:20

deserve, which is retail

24:22

quality product instead of what I

24:24

would call airline or amenity quality

24:26

product with just

24:29

a couple of ingredients that aren't even good

24:31

for you and really get those

24:33

with textured hair or ethnic hair

24:35

that need really special

24:38

thick hydrating, delicious ingredients that are

24:40

really going to help them feel

24:42

like themself when they're in one

24:44

of the most vulnerable places in

24:47

life. We have

24:49

built over the last year

24:51

and a half this incredible list of

24:54

the who's who of hospitals who

24:57

are buying now we're doing bonnets,

24:59

sleeping bonnets, we're doing wet

25:02

brushes, we're doing, you

25:04

know, curl activating and hair

25:06

moisturizing, leave in hair spray

25:08

or hair conditioning. And

25:11

we've been doing this for the hospital systems.

25:14

Now for about six months, we won the contracts

25:16

a year and a half ago. But

25:18

because systems are very slow to

25:20

convert and procurement, I've

25:23

learned a new channel and new

25:25

relationships. And it's been really an

25:27

incredible journey. But

25:30

funny enough, I had

25:32

this aha recently in the last week,

25:34

I was just talking to my business partner right

25:36

before I got on this podcast

25:38

with you because I said to her, guys,

25:41

I just unlocked this. Do

25:43

you realize that our hospitals

25:46

like Johns Hopkins

25:48

or St. Luke's or all these

25:50

different hospitals are at the same

25:52

level of credibility and interest as

25:54

our celebrities were 15 years

25:56

ago, we have, you

25:58

know, hundreds the most

26:01

prominent hospital names, Cedars

26:03

and UCLA and all these incredible

26:06

places who are we've been approved

26:08

by and we're the only

26:10

ethnic brand of product

26:13

sold in these channels.

26:15

And cross-cultural multi-ethnic

26:18

customers have been using these products and

26:21

giving us testimonials. And I said to

26:23

her, this is the

26:25

inverse of the old days of

26:27

celebrity and now we have the

26:29

credibility of all these incredible hospital

26:31

systems who have selected us out of

26:33

every single product that they could potentially

26:35

and have converted their entire hospital

26:38

over to the Be Soreen Clean

26:41

brand. Why not

26:43

turn that into a retail and direct

26:45

to consumer opportunity and start to market

26:48

to consumers who can't buy it

26:50

because they used it at the hospital and then

26:52

they go home and there's nowhere else to purchase.

26:55

Amazing. Where

26:57

do you get these insights? Right.

27:00

It just pops into your mind. Right.

27:03

Because think about it. You

27:05

as a customer at a hospital, which you

27:07

have no choice, you're given a kit for

27:10

your hair and let's

27:12

say you use that and for the first time

27:14

you're using this product and you're like, this kit

27:17

has been amazing. Like my hair feels so great.

27:19

How do I get more of this? Where

27:22

do you go? So you don't go downstairs

27:24

to your hospital retail

27:27

store and shop there ever again. As soon

27:29

as you get discharged, you're gone and you'll

27:31

hopefully never return. Right.

27:35

But then it's like, how do

27:37

you touch all these non-hospital customers who have

27:39

never been to the hospital, don't know that

27:41

you exist, but would love this kit. And

27:44

wouldn't the credibility of these

27:46

hospitals mean something to them

27:48

in purchasing the product? I

27:51

don't know, Coleca. I'm on this exploratory

27:53

thing with you as we speak. Like

27:55

this was my unlock. did

28:00

exactly that when he first started. I'm sure

28:02

you know the story. He would give gifts

28:05

to all the women who gave birth, Pampers

28:10

or whatever. And then they were just like,

28:12

oh, I guess

28:14

I gotta buy the things that I got

28:16

as a gift. Like I wanna support this

28:19

brand. So it's similar. Interesting.

28:21

I had no idea. So would he walk

28:23

into the hospital and he would hand these

28:25

out? He would hand them out. And

28:28

then when the women took their

28:30

babies home and it had Pampers or whatever,

28:32

Johnson and Johnson, I don't think they use

28:34

those baby powders anymore.

28:36

But that was what was

28:39

popular. They would then go

28:41

to CVS and replenish what they were, cause

28:43

they probably thought like the credibility,

28:45

like you were just saying, I

28:47

got it at the hospital. It must be

28:49

good. So wild. So wild,

28:52

right? Yeah. Yeah.

28:54

So I didn't know that. My

28:58

gut is how do we as entrepreneurs

29:03

without throwing money at things, I always

29:05

like to test them, right? How do we

29:08

find a new customer or how do we

29:10

resonate with what we're working on in a

29:13

way that we can

29:15

take the leverage. We all have so

29:17

much leverage, right? When you start to

29:19

think about the relationships that we've

29:21

built with our customers. In

29:24

this case, my customers are my hospital procurement

29:27

groups, but I've

29:29

created so much trust there.

29:33

And now the feedback from the

29:35

hospital patients has been so over

29:37

the top that the procurement groups

29:39

are like, yes, we

29:41

made the right choice. We brought in a new brand and

29:44

we switched out the old one

29:46

that had the parabens and

29:49

all of the old ingredients that are

29:51

really drying and not good for you

29:54

with this new brand. And we love it.

29:57

Now they're feeling good that they made the right

29:59

selection. And so how

30:01

do we take that little baby business,

30:04

which is growing month over

30:06

month pretty substantially? But

30:08

how do we take that and then create

30:10

that into another opportunity

30:13

to leverage with the new customer

30:15

channel? That's, I think

30:17

should be our always every question that we

30:19

ask. Well, I think hospitals are

30:21

also changing. I mean, look what happened with figs. I

30:24

know that. Right. So what am I

30:26

my friends? I think it was one of

30:29

our old employees that started

30:31

it. And she sold

30:33

for like over 100 million. Right. Like billion. A billion.

30:36

Like a bill. Yeah.

30:39

So so the culture and

30:41

hospitals are changing and you're noticing that

30:43

as well, too. Yeah. You're

30:46

on the cusp. Yeah. Yeah. And it's one of

30:48

the first times that I've

30:51

seen a completely untapped

30:53

channel for the business that I've been in

30:55

for a long time. And the business that I've

30:57

been in for 20 years, which is creating

30:59

brands for retailers and for consumers in the

31:01

retail space. It's

31:04

the first time that's unlocked for me. Where

31:07

do you have a captive audience who

31:09

other than on an airplane, which

31:11

they've become really good at airplanes

31:13

have become really good at getting

31:16

hot, cool brands to be on

31:18

airplanes in first class. Right.

31:22

And so you're opening up your amenity kit and no longer

31:24

you getting this crappy. You

31:27

know, stuff that you don't even use. Right. But

31:30

you're seeing your name brand La La or whatever it

31:32

may be. Oh, I love this.

31:36

How fun. I'm going to go use the hand cream and the lip gloss and

31:38

the moisturizer and the face

31:40

mist. They've. Figured

31:43

it out. Oh, right. They figured it out on airplanes. Yeah.

31:47

And when you think about what happens when

31:49

you think about the hospital market,

31:51

it's like, wow, it's pretty good.

31:55

And you're there first. Yeah.

31:57

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like,

32:00

who wouldn't want to be free? Right.

32:02

Isn't that true? It's calming.

32:05

Yeah. Yeah. Especially

32:07

in the hospital when you're nervous. Yeah.

32:10

So, I feel really, I feel super

32:12

blessed that this business since 2020,

32:14

because I had a non-compete

32:17

with my private equity buyout

32:21

structure, I had a non-compete. So, this

32:23

was one channel that I

32:25

was able to carve out to be able

32:27

to do business with without having issue

32:29

with some of the other stuff that I

32:31

was doing. So,

32:33

I felt super lucky that they said yes, and

32:36

look what we've done. I

32:38

love your creativity. Yeah.

32:41

Well, that's how we all are, right? We're

32:44

all creatively problem solving

32:47

to an outcome that works for

32:49

everyone. That's the goal. I

32:51

also heard, you know, one of my friends

32:53

as an employment lawyer said that non-competes are

32:55

no longer valid in California, and that I

32:57

have to send emails to everyone who was

32:59

my former employee saying that non-competes are no

33:01

longer valid. Have you heard that too? I

33:04

haven't done that. Yeah. And I

33:06

haven't heard that, but I have heard that in New York and

33:08

California, they're not valid. Yeah. But

33:11

I don't... Here's the difference, I

33:13

think, for founders is if you

33:15

take... If you

33:18

sell equity and take compensation

33:20

for that equity, then that's

33:22

no longer considered a non-compete as

33:24

an employee would be. It's

33:27

considered a transaction for a security,

33:30

right? So you do

33:32

have to hold those

33:34

agreements pretty rigidly. Yes.

33:37

And Anne, you found your way in the middle

33:39

of the job. Yeah. Good

33:41

job. I know. I

33:43

know. It worked out. Yeah.

33:47

So, what are there... Like I really

33:49

love, you know, that you know

33:51

Katie. Yes. And

33:54

I know that because you know Katie, she's

33:56

also another incredible entrepreneur. I think she's just

33:58

building all these beautiful... beautiful domes

34:00

and she's doing retreats, that

34:04

you're really focused on wellness and also

34:06

just living your best life. What

34:09

are your daily habits? Because I really

34:11

believe that people who are successful have

34:13

these disciplines, have these habits. What

34:15

do you do day in and day out to be

34:17

successful? Yeah, I

34:20

think mindset's huge, right? I think growth

34:22

mindset, people say, I don't know what

34:24

that word means, growth mindset. I

34:27

didn't invent it, it's Carol Dweck, Dr. Carol

34:29

Dweck. If you're

34:31

curious to learn more, there's actually some

34:33

tests that you can take to figure

34:35

out whether you're stuck

34:38

in a fixed mindset or in a growth

34:40

mindset. But I think being

34:42

in a growth mindset is actually the unlock

34:44

to all of the wealth creation in my

34:46

life. What I mean by that is

34:48

a fixed mindset

34:51

says, you're served

34:53

a set of circumstances and you have to

34:55

deal with it and then you attribute it

34:57

to a certain set of feelings. Those

35:00

feelings could be, I feel trapped,

35:03

I feel angry, I feel resentful,

35:05

I feel like, I

35:09

feel like I don't have space to ask questions, whatever

35:12

those feelings are. You attribute

35:14

that to a fixed place where you

35:16

can't pivot. Whereas when I'm really

35:19

forcing myself to be in

35:21

a growth mindset, what that means is these

35:24

set of circumstances are definitely true for me

35:26

in this moment or they've

35:28

been created as a result of,

35:31

or there are things that I don't

35:34

love that I'd like to change. Any time

35:36

we feel contrast, we

35:39

have an opportunity for change

35:41

in transition and vision and

35:44

next level transformation, in

35:46

my opinion. The question

35:48

becomes, how do I

35:50

take this set of circumstances and how could

35:52

I look at this in a way that

35:54

could be an opportunity, not a hindrance? And

35:57

how do I lean into it to do something

35:59

with it? that I want to create instead of.

36:02

So it's like a leaping off point,

36:05

right? Rather than a, and I can

36:08

give you a for example. So a for

36:11

example is we

36:13

have this hospital orders coming in and

36:16

because hospitals are not really excellent

36:19

at forecasting and procurement in multiple

36:22

ways, because how many patients, how fast

36:24

they turn rooms, all of these things.

36:27

And also they're not supposed to

36:29

be really thinking as

36:31

their product, they think of it

36:33

as a cost, not as a for-profit revenue

36:35

stream, right? Which could be an opportunity. So

36:38

when I start to look at what are

36:41

my forecasts, like at retail, I can go

36:43

to my contract manufacturer and say, hey,

36:45

I'd love you to underwrite my business because

36:47

I need 10,000

36:49

units over the next eight weeks and I

36:51

need your support. And most contract manufacturers

36:54

can get their arms around it. Whereas

36:56

with hospital systems and procurement,

36:59

it's definitely a different sort of model, right?

37:02

So going in and saying to

37:04

myself, how do I

37:06

build a scalable business that I have

37:08

most amount margin possible? Do I

37:10

run 5,000 units, 50,000 units or 5 million units? Truly,

37:15

it's kind of like some

37:18

circumstances are in the situation we're

37:20

in now where every week we're

37:22

getting new systems that are signing

37:24

on. It's highly impossible to

37:26

know. And yet packaging has

37:28

12-week lead times and you have a

37:30

lot of impacts. So

37:33

someone with a fixed mindset could look at that and

37:35

go, I'm in trouble or I don't know how to

37:38

do this or

37:41

I don't have enough financing or I can't get

37:43

it financed. Or I'll stop sales, right? Yeah, or

37:45

I can't get POs to be financed because I

37:47

get one a week and I don't know when

37:50

the next one's gonna hit and I feel like

37:52

walkable. So I

37:54

step back and say, okay, what are

37:56

my leverage points? My leverage

37:58

points are we have... Great

38:00

contacts, great relationships. We're

38:02

a we bank business. We have all these

38:05

certifications. All of

38:07

these procurement people have to set aside a

38:09

certain amount of purchases from companies just like

38:11

ours. We meet all the criteria, which means

38:13

sky's the limit. But

38:15

I know I'm not a contract manufacturer, and at

38:18

the end of the day, I don't have the

38:20

bandwidth to be able to manage parts and pieces.

38:23

How do we make our contract

38:25

manufacturer a shareholder in

38:27

this business where now we're all growing in the

38:29

same direction? So instead of him coming to me

38:31

and saying, hey, listen, it's net

38:34

30. I need a check, dude. Pay

38:36

up. And

38:38

I'm sitting there in this weird cash cycle.

38:41

I can say to him, every

38:44

conversation we have with a hospital system, you can

38:46

be part of or assign someone from your team.

38:49

I want you to have the inside scoop of

38:51

what we're building and what kind of relationship opportunity

38:53

could exist here. As

38:55

I see it, I feel like this in

38:58

the next two years is a minimum of

39:00

$60 million business, if not 100 plus million.

39:04

And we're averaging 40% dead

39:06

net margin. There's really nothing

39:08

just grew up here. You don't have marketing dollars. You

39:10

don't have returns. You

39:12

don't have... So why not

39:14

share on the upside? Because as I

39:17

see it, you

39:19

do something that you need more lifetime

39:22

on your filling machines and

39:24

you need more streamlined

39:27

revenue that's repeated.

39:30

I need margin so I can make money

39:32

because I'm the person putting these things together.

39:35

And the hospital systems need great

39:38

product. And

39:40

my business partner, Michelle and I, in

39:43

this business, I've really had to think

39:45

about how do we build and scale

39:47

this to be the $100 million business? Because

39:50

I think, frankly, you'd rather own a percentage

39:52

of something rather than 100% of

39:54

nothing, right? And

39:57

they also see your background like you've done it before.

40:00

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

40:04

Totally. You're not going to fart them, right? No.

40:06

Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

40:08

Okay. So growth

40:11

mindset is important, but what about,

40:13

well, I mean, which I think is huge. What

40:16

about wellness? Like, I

40:18

think growth mindset is 90% of it. And

40:21

from there, everything

40:23

lifestyle comes through for me. So

40:26

I have a practice

40:28

every morning of meditation, of journaling and

40:30

writing. To me, reading

40:32

something is life changing. It's different

40:34

than hearing it. So I

40:36

like to, I have some things I read each day.

40:39

I write down what I feel that is

40:41

my intention. I've worked with an intention coach

40:44

for maybe three years. Her name is Kim

40:46

Stanwood Terranova. She has

40:48

a book called the technology and science of

40:50

intention setting. I've never met someone

40:52

who can bring in more clarity

40:55

to an intention setting process than she.

40:59

And from there, moving your body

41:01

and getting things integrated

41:04

as it feels like it's yours

41:06

rather than outside of you, you inherently

41:08

bring it in. We

41:11

have this incredible thought leader at

41:13

inner fifth and

41:15

her name is Lavinia Reco. And

41:18

she created, she built and sold

41:20

Equinox, conceived of built and sold,

41:22

still is on the board. And

41:25

now she has a new integrative workout

41:27

experience called MoveJoy. And

41:31

she literally has created this like body

41:34

integration of positivity and affirmations

41:36

and feeling yourself in your

41:39

future body every morning.

41:41

And she creates this and she holds them

41:43

online. She now has hundreds of people doing

41:45

it with her. And

41:48

those types of things actually make a

41:50

difference. You know,

41:52

when I think as entrepreneurs, when we

41:54

run too hard at White Knuckle and

41:57

we come from a cortisol place every day.

42:00

and haven't taken a minute to

42:02

slow our breathing down and understand where we

42:04

sit. We are

42:06

operating off of a different

42:09

set of response time and

42:11

thought process that's not serving

42:13

us. Right? So

42:16

reactionary fight or flight is

42:19

proven. I mean, even when you see

42:21

police officers who have misfired or taken

42:24

someone's life as a result of

42:26

not taking the seconds they needed

42:28

to recalibrate, I think

42:30

that is attributable to all

42:32

of us just in our,

42:35

in what we do in

42:37

our type of practical

42:39

career choice, being

42:42

a police officer, an entrepreneur, it doesn't

42:44

feel that much different except that they're

42:46

like protecting us, obviously. Their

42:50

lives are in danger physically

42:52

every day and potentially in

42:54

every situation. But

42:57

I feel like that police officer

42:59

emotionally every day. I

43:04

feel like

43:07

keeping the cashflow coming so I can keep their mortgages

43:09

paid so that I can keep my kids in private

43:11

school so that

43:14

I can't, there's

43:16

just that feeling of cortisol. And

43:18

so the calibration and awareness

43:21

that we have of how we're

43:23

treating our body through all of

43:25

that is really, really key. And

43:28

I don't know about you, do you experience that? Do you

43:31

wake up in the

43:33

cold sweat, panicked any longer

43:35

or are you past that point? Well,

43:38

I think definitely having a mindfulness practice, I'm

43:40

also training to be a mindfulness teacher as

43:42

well too. I think that

43:44

integrating these habits to the point where

43:46

you're actually training someone else, it really,

43:48

you start embodying it. So

43:50

rather than the mindfulness being just on

43:53

the cushion for 20 minutes in the

43:55

morning and afternoon, you start integrating throughout.

43:57

It really changes the quality of your

43:59

life. action and how

44:01

you're showing up being

44:04

rather than doing. Because a lot

44:06

of times like you just said, when

44:09

you're highly stressed, how you're being

44:11

reverberates everywhere. Totally. But

44:14

if you're calm, like you said,

44:16

you can take that beat.

44:19

Let's say you have a 10-year goal

44:21

to have a close-knit family, then

44:23

you'll know that you shouting at

44:25

your teenage daughter for whatever is

44:28

not going to really work. So you

44:30

really keep your intention, like

44:32

you were talking about the intention of a

44:35

close-knit family in your

44:37

horizon rather than in

44:39

the back burner. Yeah. Totally.

44:42

I completely agree. Completely.

44:45

Yeah. And I think, don't you

44:47

think, and I have just scratched

44:49

the surface of this, Kleeger. I'm

44:51

reading this fantastic book by Dr.

44:53

Clint Rogers, which is

44:55

all these ancient remedies that

44:58

they've used in medicine.

45:01

And I mean, all of these case studies

45:03

of people who have come out of comas

45:05

and reversed tumors. And I mean,

45:08

he writes this book and it's this book I

45:10

can't keep, I can't put it

45:13

down because what he

45:15

keeps saying is, I'm the

45:17

Western skeptic. I don't even understand how

45:19

this is possible, but I learned this

45:21

from this ancient

45:24

yogi, Dr. Nohm,

45:27

who passed but has 5,000 years

45:30

of this lineage. And

45:32

he said, I'm watching it practiced all over

45:34

the world. And I'm following him as the

45:37

cameraman, recorder, documenting

45:40

his work and modalities. And

45:43

I'm watching things that I physically cannot

45:45

understand. And then I'm capturing it on

45:47

tape and on video. And

45:51

I've videoed it, so I

45:53

see it, it happened. And

45:55

so I'm reading all these ancient remedies and

45:58

I don't know if we understand. truly

46:00

the power of herbs and

46:03

plants and actually pressure points

46:06

and acupuncture, all those things, this

46:08

isn't a like to have. These

46:11

are more validated

46:14

in many ways than this new

46:18

science that just came out with this new

46:20

prescription or take this COVID

46:22

vaccine because everybody's doing it and it's

46:25

really important that you get vaccinated. We're

46:28

all hoping that it works or that it

46:31

doesn't harm us, but really reading

46:34

some of these,

46:36

this book has blown my mind, but I have really

46:39

recognized the importance and potency

46:41

of plants and herbs and

46:43

power of some of

46:45

these techniques like breath work. And

46:48

nature is so wise. So

46:51

wise. The

46:53

wise. And why didn't I know that? And

46:56

52 years of age, I'm like, oh my

46:58

gosh, I have so much making up to do. Yeah.

47:02

Yeah. And just being allowed,

47:04

having the humility to say like, you

47:06

know what? I don't know everything, even

47:08

though I built like almost a billion

47:10

dollar company, right? Like coming in with

47:12

that beginner's mind, that growing mindset, right?

47:15

Being open to new ideas because

47:17

we absolutely didn't grow up like

47:20

that. No. Talking

47:22

about herbs, talking to herbs. Right?

47:25

Yeah. Right? And

47:28

knowing what kind of an impact it

47:30

can make on all aspects and

47:32

then you get your blood work done. And

47:37

the person that does my blood

47:39

work at UCLA hospital, he's like,

47:41

this is wild. You're

47:44

a 42 year old woman in

47:46

all these indicators. I don't get

47:48

it. I say, I

47:50

don't get it. I'm just following the

47:52

book. I'm following these practices. I go

47:54

see Dr. Mao, who's a YPO, or

47:57

who's an incredible, has Yosan,

47:59

Yosan. university. I see

48:02

him regularly. It's just, it

48:04

makes a difference. Yeah, it does. Because

48:06

then you can, once you take care of your

48:08

body, you can have a better business. Right?

48:12

And better ideas and better dreams that

48:14

then you wake up and say, this

48:16

makes sense. I

48:18

mean, the fact that I took a

48:20

look at this hospital business that I never

48:22

even thought of, and then thought, oh,

48:25

I wonder if we applied the same

48:27

principles of what we did at retail

48:30

with celebrity credentials and took

48:32

hospitals and use those credentials to drive

48:34

a retail business, if

48:37

that would resonate. I still don't know. We have

48:39

to do a part two. And I'll tell you

48:42

in a year from now how our retail

48:44

and distribution is on direct to consumer for

48:47

this hospital only brand, because I don't

48:50

know, but I'm going to try it. Yeah.

48:52

And that's growth mindset, right? If it was fixed, you're

48:54

like, that would never work. Right.

48:58

Right. It's going

49:00

to work. You, you, anything you touch Tracy

49:02

is going to work. Tell us a little

49:04

bit about inner fifth. Yeah, no, I'd love

49:06

to. It's, it's inner fifth

49:08

is the hub and spoke

49:11

across the four pillars of health, wealth,

49:13

relationship and purpose. And

49:15

it is a growth mindset, membership

49:19

and intensive spring and

49:22

fall. The membership is

49:24

based on these monthly meetings. What we have

49:26

is called taste of inner fifth, which is

49:28

our all in real life experiences,

49:31

but it's for female entrepreneurs

49:34

that are seven, eight and

49:36

nine figure female entrepreneurs. The

49:39

reason we don't take startups is because I don't

49:41

want any woman to give me membership

49:43

fees for startup when they could be allocating

49:46

it to chief or somewhere

49:48

where they could get many more resources

49:52

of what they need to

49:54

resources for HR legal. But inner

49:56

fifth is based

49:58

on this premise that. that

50:01

as women entrepreneurs, we

50:03

have over indexed in wealth creation really

50:06

well. And we're generally

50:08

atrophied in some of the other

50:10

pillars like purpose and relationship and

50:12

health. And so one

50:15

thing is based on this fixed mindset

50:17

or growth mindset. And

50:19

we actually do qualify

50:22

people to join, they have to

50:24

take a growth mindset assessment, and

50:27

to be able to qualify to be

50:29

an entrepreneur to join. And

50:32

that's because we want like-minded people in

50:34

the room with one another. And

50:37

then we have these incredible male allies

50:39

who are not allowed to

50:42

join because we only accept women in

50:44

our membership, but the allies

50:46

are allowed to participate as our

50:48

allies, which are kind of circling

50:50

this group in support

50:53

of by lifting up this

50:55

group, leveraging their talent, their resources,

50:57

and their time to support us

50:59

in accelerating our growth.

51:02

But the reality is, is entrepreneurs, 100% of the

51:05

people listening, if you're an entrepreneur, you have

51:07

one of three problems, and that's either people,

51:09

time, or money. And

51:11

those three problems are flagging every

51:14

entrepreneur. So our

51:16

goal at Interfifth is to

51:18

support every woman entrepreneur in

51:20

easefully finding solutions around people,

51:22

time, and money while layering

51:25

in a lot of

51:28

practice and science-backed curriculum that helps

51:30

them recalibrate the other three pillars

51:32

that are usually atrophied because

51:35

they have spent so much time

51:37

white-knuckling and stressing on

51:40

wealth creation. And the fact is,

51:42

is I've seen it over and over

51:44

again, guys. I promise

51:46

you, there is actually no amount of money

51:48

that is going to keep you from feeling

51:50

worried about whether or not you've created enough

51:52

wealth. And I've

51:55

experienced it myself. I have not had a

51:57

situation in which I thought because

51:59

the bigger your life, the bigger your

52:01

income, the bigger your support system

52:04

for all of your resources go, that

52:07

just the more it requires.

52:09

Okay. So this

52:12

is an ongoing battle as

52:14

an entrepreneur to recalibrate

52:17

from wealth creation into the other four pillars or

52:19

the other three pillars. And in our fifth

52:21

sits as the bridge, which

52:23

is you. And

52:25

it's been incredible, Kalika. It's been such

52:27

a gift to be

52:29

able to watch, learn and

52:32

experience the connections that I

52:34

have amongst these members who

52:36

have joined. And it's all LA focused,

52:38

but we have members from all over the world fly

52:40

in. And

52:42

the allies to become an ally,

52:44

it's highly discerning. There are probably

52:46

50 to 60 applications for

52:50

one slot to be an ally. We

52:52

have 32 of them right now. And

52:55

it's a rigorous contract of fulfilling

52:57

requirements in order to become an

52:59

ally of this group. But

53:01

our allies are really cool. And

53:04

it's been such a

53:07

blessing to experience.

53:09

And it's really one of my

53:11

biggest passions. We

53:14

have to get more people in LA to

53:16

join or around the world. Yes.

53:19

It's like the price of an Equinox

53:21

membership. So it's not an

53:23

unreasonable number. It's not about, it's

53:26

really about the quality of the group. As

53:29

you know, it makes such a

53:31

difference. And knowing that you're in

53:33

support with transparency and vulnerability amongst

53:36

a group of peers who really want to see

53:38

you win and succeed. Pretty cool. And I

53:41

think that's also the key. And like

53:43

you said, when you're at a certain

53:45

level, there is this wanting

53:48

to help. Because I think in the

53:50

first stage, you're just like, I just

53:52

need to help myself. Oxygen mask. Oxygen

53:54

mask. Right. And then later

53:58

on when you're like, okay, I'm breathing. Okay. Like, that's

54:00

lift and support. You do such

54:03

a phenomenal job. How do people sign up for

54:05

Interfist? They can check

54:07

out the website. It just, it talks

54:09

about all of our IRL events

54:12

and then what the themes are

54:14

for each of our meetings. Last

54:17

night we had one, which is what are

54:19

the three surefire

54:22

ways to send your deal off track

54:24

and kill the deal that you're doing?

54:27

And it's taught by a top M&A

54:30

attorney who's one

54:32

of the most practical, thoughtful,

54:34

strategic women I've

54:36

met in my life. Her name's

54:38

Sarah Chamblass from Thinwick and she

54:41

just laid it out. And

54:43

it's nothing can be recorded. So we

54:46

have a no recording policy so that

54:48

people can be super transparent and

54:51

ask questions and tell their truth as

54:54

they recommend things to our members.

54:56

And I think it just blew

54:58

the minds of a lot

55:00

of the women in the room. And it was like, this is

55:02

why I do this. This is

55:04

it, so. Really impactful.

55:06

Thank you so much for joining

55:09

us for the podcast. Do you have

55:11

any other pieces

55:14

of advice for the women entrepreneurs

55:17

listening today? Yeah, the

55:19

sure thing that will kill your

55:21

business is quitting. There

55:23

are a hundred reasons every day to quit. And

55:28

one thing I will tell you, and

55:30

I've advised a lot of entrepreneurs is

55:34

that doesn't mean that the

55:37

idea that you have in the business you're building is

55:39

the right one. It could

55:41

mean that you need to pivot and

55:44

shift into something that's more

55:46

lucrative or a bigger picture,

55:49

bigger opportunity. But

55:52

if you walk away, it's surely gonna

55:54

die. So what

55:56

I would say is even if you

55:58

have to get a day job. and moonlight

56:00

in how you figure out how to pivot

56:02

that business to make it work. Ultimately,

56:07

your number one reason for starting a

56:09

company and building something is for freedom.

56:12

That is 100% the inherent

56:15

driving force of every entrepreneur.

56:18

And so if you really

56:20

want freedom, sometimes you have to fix

56:22

the airplane and build it and fly

56:24

it at the same time. Right?

56:30

So my biggest piece

56:32

of advice is keep

56:35

wake up every day and keep going. Every

56:38

single day. I mean, aren't you glad that

56:40

you did that? Because now if you need

56:43

to go attend your daughters, your kids, you

56:45

can do it. You know, you just don't

56:48

have to call them sick. Right.

56:51

No, boss. And by

56:53

the way, I

56:55

just spoke to someone this week who's been

56:57

with the business for 28 years and was

57:00

laid off with like two weeks of severance

57:02

and said, we're so sorry,

57:04

but we're having financial

57:06

issues and we're going to have to let you

57:08

go. And it's like, how

57:11

do you explain 28

57:13

years of building something and having

57:15

that no equity value and nothing

57:17

to fall back on? So I

57:20

think it's a really important thing to do

57:22

is to figure out how to leverage

57:25

what you know, create residual

57:28

income and work for ways

57:30

to pivot so that you can have freedom. That's

57:33

the way to go. That's the

57:35

key. That's the key, babe. I've been

57:37

doing this one thing with some of

57:40

our podcast guests. So there's

57:42

this really cute game called Let's

57:44

Get Closer. And I have

57:46

pulled out a whole bunch of cards and you have

57:49

to like pick one and then you have to like,

57:51

I'll ask

57:53

the question. Which one? That

57:56

one. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Is

58:00

there anything you are addicted to? Probably

58:05

work. Okay. I'm

58:07

trying. I'm a bash

58:09

enthusiasm is also addiction. I

58:14

do. And I feel like, I

58:17

don't know if I call it addiction, because I think there's such

58:19

a negative word to that. It

58:22

literally is like my

58:24

fuel, my fun, my

58:27

shower as I'm showering. I'm thinking about

58:29

I could do this, I could do

58:31

that. It's a never

58:33

ending. But

58:35

if my children were sitting here with me, Coleca, they

58:38

would say, mom's addicted to work. Okay.

58:41

All right. One more.

58:43

What is your favorite book and why? Oh,

58:46

my favorite book. That's easy. This

58:49

thing called you by Ernest Holmes. I've

58:52

not read that. I

58:55

carried around. I've carried around with this for three and a

58:57

half years. I would show it to you, but it's downstairs.

59:00

It's in my. I'm going to get

59:02

it. Thank you for that. Yes. Such

59:04

a gift. He is such a gift. Why do you

59:06

like that book? Every

59:09

page has a reminder of

59:11

the reason why we came to the planet.

59:15

It's so life changing. If I were with you in

59:17

person, I'd give you a copy. I keep five to

59:20

10 of them with me at any time and I

59:22

give them to people as I feel like it would

59:24

resonate. Well, now everyone's going to go

59:26

buy the book now, including me. It's

59:28

so good. It's so great. It's

59:31

a gift. Thank you so

59:33

much for joining us for the podcast. I'm

59:36

in such gratitude and awe of you. You're

59:39

such an extraordinary entrepreneur. And

59:41

the best part is like, you just want everyone to

59:43

join you. Yeah. Lift

59:45

everyone up. Right. Yeah. There's

59:48

no reason not to. It's so much fun to share

59:51

it with everyone. Let's go. Yeah.

59:54

I'm so generous with all your advice and I

59:56

look forward to seeing your success with the hospital.

59:58

Maybe we can get another podcast. next year, this

1:00:00

time next year. And that

1:00:02

would happen, right? Yes, we

1:00:04

put that into the manifest that's done. Okay,

1:00:08

thank you so much, Tracy. All right, take

1:00:10

care. The

1:00:20

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