BizGrowMojo Episode 2 – Kat Sterling

Transcript:

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Welcome to the Bisgrow Mojo podcast. The podcast where we get into real talk

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about business ownership, growth, marketing, learning lessons, and advice with real business owners. Here’s your

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host, Ryan Amen. Now, let’s get down to business.

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I’m pumped to get this rolling. Let’s go.

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Today we’re talking to Cat Sterling about her adaptogenic mushroom coffee product and company. Her and her husband

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are all in on this product and they’ve been growing a following of devoted customers. They’re finding some success running ads, networking, and their story

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is just really incredible. If you’ve ever thought about creating a product and building a business out of it, Cat has some advice you won’t want to miss.

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Uh oh. Hey there. Can you hear me? Yeah. Good morning. Good morning. How are you?

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Good. How you doing? Great. Well, hey, I really appreciate you taking the time to come on the podcast.

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I’m I’m very excited to get into it about your business and um hear about,

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you know, how you got going and and all the good things. So, why don’t we just get started by telling the audience a little bit about who you are and what it

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is your business does. Okay. So, I’m Cat Sterling. I’m the CEO and co-founder of Nuspira, which is a

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health and wellness company. We specialize in mushroom coffees, um a detox drink, and also a liquid vitamin.

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So, let me take you back to why this all started. Back in 2022, I had lost my

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amazing corporate job, right? This was my dream job. This is a job that I had waited for forever. I went to school for

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uh biology, came out, I wanted to be a physician. That didn’t work out. And so,

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I ended up having to pivot and I went into healthcare operations, which I thought was going to be my retirement

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job. You know, I thought that was going to be what I retired at. And so I ended up um landing my dream job at like 30.

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I’m making six figures. Like literally at 30 I’m making six figures. I thought I was like everything

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world, right? I thought I had it going on. You can tell me anything. That humility was not there because I thought I had just,

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you know, reached the pinnacle of, you know, every successful person’s dream. And so when that ended in 2022, I was

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kind of devastated. Um I’ll never forget today I walked into the office and they were like, “Mr. We got to let you go.” And I’m like, are you serious right now?

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So, I had to figure out how to tell my husband that this has just happened because when you have a six-f figureure

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job, what do you have? Those things a bit. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. So, you got kids, you got,

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you know, all kinds of responsibilities. You got a house payment, you got car payments. And so, during that time, we

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ended up having to let a lot of stuff go. We just had to say, “Screw it. We don’t need these things.” And you know the funny thing is through that process

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what I found is we mask things with things right

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and and stuff kind of ident we identify with stuff versus identifying with who we truly are. And so I had to learn how

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to identify as cat right I had to myself and let go of the things. And so once I did that we started thinking we started

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seeing these other companies pop up. I was suffering from a lot of health issues at that time when I lost my job because at the same time my husband uh

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had another business and his partners decided to separate. So basically we lost our we literally lost our income

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overnight like literally. Wow. Yeah. Within at least two weeks we had lost all of our income. And so we were like

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oh my gosh. So we started seeing these other companies pop up. I was going through a lot of health issues. I don’t

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like physicians. I don’t like medications. And so I wanted some natural alternative solutions to everything that I was experiencing. You

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know, anxiety and stress will wreak havoc on in so many ways, right? It’ll it’ll wreak havoc on your body. Yeah.

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Those corporate jobs, that’ll do it to you. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that too. That too. But when I didn’t have a job and no income, that

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really almost took me out. Like seriously, it almost killed me. And so, you know, I wanted natural solutions. We started seeing mushroom companies pop

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up. And, you know, I like the idea of the adaptogenic mushrooms. I heard so many great things. I said, I’m a

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researcher by trade, like by nature. I’m a researcher. And I started seeing all the things that they solve and I was

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like, I need that. I need that in my life. And so I tried the products on the market. I hated them. I actually hated

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them. I I couldn’t drink them. I I thought they were disgusting. Have a a taste. You can you can Yes. They have a different taste, right?

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So I said, Mark, you know, we need to create something for real coffee drinkers. If you’re going to say it’s mushroom coffee, I want it to taste like

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coffee. I don’t want to taste like dirt, you know? So we said, we got to try to create something for real coffee drinkers. Something that that’s

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palatable, but that’s good for you. And so that’s when we set out to create New Spir. New spirit means new breath or new

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wind. And so we felt like we were creating something new in the health and wellness space. And so that’s how New Spirit was born.

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So Wow, that’s that’s really cool. How how do you make it taste like coffee rather than mushrooms? Do you have

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coffee in it? Like what’s Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. We use premium coffee. It actually is coffee, but it’s got

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other benefits. Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s for the real coffee drinker. So if you like

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coffee, I think you’ll like our alternative. It’s less caffeine. It’s good for you. Has six adaptogenic

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mushrooms in it. So, I think you’re going to like it to the alternatives that are on the market. Yeah. Yeah. I’m definitely going to have

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to try it. You’ve already I love my coffee and that’s the biggest thing. It’s like I’ve tried some of the mushroom drinks and they’re good. I’ll

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blend them into smoothies and stuff, but I don’t replace my coffee with it because I coffee. That’s my morning

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ritual. Like that is how I start the day. I like drinking my coffee. I’m not giving it up unless like, you know, I’m

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gonna die for drinking it. I don’t see that happening anytime soon. So, yeah. Right.

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I like where you’re going with that. Well, thank you. Yes. Ours is half the caffeine also. So if you coffee, you

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don’t want all the caffeine. It’s half the caffeine of a normal cup of coffee and you’re going to get those mushrooms. So I think you’ll like it. I have to

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send you some samples. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I’d love to try it. Very cool. So you know what kind of

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inspired you? I mean obviously all these things are going on but you know what what was it that about this type of you

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know product that inspired you to do this? I mean this is a big jump to just get into a product trying to sell a

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product. I mean, you know, it’s one thing to start a service business that you know how to do. That’s fairly easy to start, but it’s a whole another ball

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game. I’ve I’ve kind of played around with some things. I know people that have done it and, you know, there’s a lot of hoops to jump through and just a

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lot to a lot to tackle and learn, you know, jumping into a product. So, you know, what what made you want to tackle

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that? So, my husband has always been in sales. He’s always sold products and so he knew

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the business and then we had some connections. You know, it’s so funny like when you start walking down a path, if it starts kind of opening up for you

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and things just kind of align the people, the the resources, it’s kind of it feels like it’s kind of

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meant to be. You know what I’m saying? Like it’s kind of like, okay, you’re on the right path if it’s kind of laying before you. And so I felt like that was

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where we were going to. And I feel like we were always supposed to meant to work together in this capacity, but we just

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couldn’t get it together. We’re two alphas, so we just cannot get it. We couldn’t get it together in the past. And so now when we were forced to go

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down this road, it had to be something that married both of our compliments. So I’m operations, he’s salesy. And so it

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just worked perfectly for us. And one thing I forgot to mention is, you know, we didn’t wait for anybody to give us anything. We sold our home to do this.

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We sold everything. Oh wow. Every Yeah. We got rid of everything to do it because we knew that we were on to something and we were on the right path.

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And then when we started getting samples of our products and giving it out to people, people are like, “Oh my god, I love this. Like this is really good.”

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And so we knew we had something special. And so now it’s a matter of getting it out to the masses. Yeah. Oh, that’s amazing. Yeah, that’s I

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love the confidence and just the the diving in head first, you know, that you know, nothing’s going to stop you. Just going after it 100%, you know, and just

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going that direction. I love that. That’s really cool to hear. Yeah. You know what? I’d rather be I’d rather be like 100 years old if I’m

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still alive. God forbid I’m still alive. I Yeah. You don’t want to look back and say, I I should have tried this. I

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should have tried that. and you know know that you probably could have done something more and you didn’t take the chance to do it and and bet on yourself

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you know. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. That’s awesome. Um so was there like an aha moment where you were like

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yeah this is really like working you know you were saying that the things were kind of laying out you know was there a particular moment in time that

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you were like okay yeah this is it. This is the thing that that we’ve got to do. Yeah the the whole process I won’t go

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into detail but the whole process how we sold our house it was crazy. That was crazy in itself. that kind of worked out

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and then the process of us finding a manufacturer and somebody to partner with us that kind of worked itself out.

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So, it’s like all these little things that kind of were like, “Oh my gosh, this is kind of unfolding.” You know, it was funny because even after I lost my

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job and we were trying to move down this path, I felt like it wasn’t working for a second. I tried to find another job and I couldn’t find another job and I’m

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very well educated. I have a master’s degree and I’m very well it was like doors just kept closing in that direction. And so, it was like things

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started opening up. We found a manufacturer, we found a partner. um the thing the the selling of our house went

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well and so that was like okay let’s just keep moving let’s just keep oh we also oh before we even we even got there

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um we started meeting people that were aligning us with the the sourcing of the ingredients so even the mushrooms

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somebody introduced us to the mushroom growers and somebody introduced us to the number one uh instant soluble coffee

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maker in the US and so all of these introductions kept taking place and it was like okay well let’s just go for it

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that’s awesome very Cool. Um, so how does how do you go about that anyway?

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You know, I’ve always wondered like how do you get to that point where you’re you’re you know, you finding the uh the

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manufacturers and the and the uh facilities like uh you know, what were the steps that kind of led you in that

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into the right direction there? you know, you just you just met people and it just kind of worked out or did you have to do a lot of research to find uh

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you know, the right facility to partner with that sort of thing or did you just you know, partner with you know, kind of

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uh you know, some of the earlier people that you that came across your path? Was that difficult? Yeah, it was I guess it depends on what

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which part of it was difficult. Some things were easier than others. I would I would definitely say that we knew who we wanted to partner with. My husband

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already had connections from it because like I said, he’s been in sales forever. So he knows a lot of people that own

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warehouses, manufacturers um in that circle. So that was a blessing in disguise as well because of his

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background. And so from there we would talk to somebody from the manufacturer that we knew and they would introduce us to somebody else of the the sourcing of

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the products. And so it was just a connect the dot continuous connect the dots continuously.

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Yeah. That’s awesome. So what were some of the early like breakthroughs when you kind of got it going and got the product

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out there and uh you know what were some of the things that started happening that you were like okay this is starting to starting to work this starting to

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move forward now? Um I think the people kept coming. It was just like more and more people kept coming more and more people kept finding

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our way to our products and we were like oh you’ve tried our products before. Oh wow. Wow. And they were like I love your

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products. I love what it does. I love it does this and it helps me with this. And I’m like oh okay well maybe we really

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really do have something here. And even Oh, this was the really aha moment. My mom hates everything. She hates

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everything and everybody. Every when I say everything and everybody, she hates everything and everybody. She told me

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one day she I let her try the coffee and she lives in another state. She lives in North Carolina. I live in Georgia. So, we went up there to visit them. I

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brought her some coffee samples. She tried it and she was like, “Oh, this is pretty good.” And so, as soon as we

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left, she called me. She said, “Can you send me some more of that coffee?”

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We know the hard ones. I know you’re on to something there. My husband and I were like, “Uh, yeah, I

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think we really do have something.” She said she likes it. Yeah, I think we have something here.

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That’s awesome. That’s very cool. Was there anything that helped you kind of scale from just getting going to like,

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you know, where you’re at now that really helped, you know, pick up the the level of the business?

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So, we’re still scaling. Um, I think one of the most important things that people really need to understand about owning

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your own business and especially a product business is that you really have to have enough capital to get past

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especially that first year because you just never know what you’re going to run into. And you know, you may think you

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have enough runway, you think you have plenty of runway and then you’re out of runway, you know, because sales don’t always go according to plan. They just

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don’t. Starting out, they don’t. And one thing I would tell people is if you’re thinking about starting a product, get a following

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beforehand. Like go on social media, start talking about your product or what or whatever it is, start getting a

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following beforehand. So when your product comes out, you already have a market for it. You know, it’s harder to do it on the back end. And I think

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that’s what we try to do is do it on the back end. We tried to market after we came out and it was like, no, you started marketing kind of before or you

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build a following before. So when you come out, that’s how you get those success stories. A lot of people like on Tik Tok shop, they’re like, “Oh, I made

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a million dollars in six months.” And I’m like, “But you already had a following prior to that.” Doesn’t happen

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for everybody. Hard to do when you don’t have a following to just automatically get a product out there and have it take off

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unless something goes absolutely. You can’t count on that, you know. Absolutely. It’s a misconception and I think a lot of people don’t tell the

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backstory of it because you may not have the great sales in the first year, you know, and you have to have enough runway

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to get you past that first year because if you don’t, you’re going to go out of business. That’s that’s the main thing is that runway and that working capital.

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You need that. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. There’s so many success stories that people leave all the backstory out of how they built up

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to that and it it looks like they got lucky, but it’s like all that work behind the luck was actually what fueled

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it. It wasn’t really luck. It was just a lot of hard work and then they just tell you about that. Absolutely. And I hate that when people

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don’t do because it’s a misconception and so people jump head first and they think this is what it is and it’s not. It’s not get that leg work in.

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Absolutely. Absolutely. To it. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Um, so up to

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this point, you know, what kind of marketing strategies have you seen that have worked well for your business?

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So, one of the thing, oh, this is another thing that we’ve learned, another lesson that we’ve learned. Um, some of the agencies out there, you

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know, you’ll have these agencies that’ll help you with like Tik Tok shop and, you know, influencer marketing. And so,

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we’ve had a couple of hard knocks with those. You know, it’s it’s finding the right people that can give you get you

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the right people or the right influencers. Like, if you’re going to do it influencer marketing, which is huge right now, you got to find either the

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right influencers or the right agencies that’s going to take you to the right influencers who’s going to get your

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product out there. Because you can have a ton of influencers, but they could have fake following.

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Yeah. Yeah. A lot of them have fake following or a lot of them, you know, they just post a video and it’s it’s crap and it gets no

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traction. So it there’s a there’s a science to all the influencer stuff. That’s one of the biggest things that we

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focus on is influencer marketing. We did have a network marketing component. You know, recently we had a network marketing component as well that that

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was pretty helpful for getting us out of the gate. You know, that’s free marketing for us to get us out of the gate. And then I would say also, you

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know, your your typical ads, running ads on Google and Meta is going to really take you to where you want to go because

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that’s I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the other mushroom coffee companies popping up in your feed if they’re over the place. Yeah.

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It’s non-stop. It’s non-stop and it’s in your face. Try that. Yeah. Yeah.

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So, what would you say is work the best for you up to this point? Is there any one channel that you would say has been

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like hands down the best? Probably the ads. The ads is going to be your friend. That’s going to be your your total friend. Have a good website,

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good Shopify website, and run those ads. Those ads are going to give probably give more bang for your buck than

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anything. Yeah. Yeah. Do you see yourself shifting to like another channel as you grow? I mean, I know a lot of people will start

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with ads because it’s quick, you know, and you you can get traction pretty quickly, but then they’ll kind of build on, you know, branding and they’ll build

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on, you know, maybe SEO depending on the business model and that sort of thing. Um, do you see yourself shifting into

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any other kind of model as as you’re growing? Absolutely. And we also, you know, we’re we’re only online right now, so we’re in

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all platforms online, but we also want to go into stores. I would like to be a retailer to in the retail stores, too.

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you know, Walmarts, the Targets. If we can get there, I would love to be there, too. That’s another Yeah.

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Yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s huge. If you can get that, it seems like there’s, you know, a lot of leg work to be done and a lot of be made from what my

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understanding, you know, I’ve seen I’ve seen Shark Tank a few times, you know, but yeah, very competitive.

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Great place to be, you know, if you can get into those. I could see that really just, you know, blowing your brand up

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massive. Absolutely. If you get retail space and people can physically walk into the store and they can see your products and they can grab it and go,

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amazing. But it’s competitive. is so competitive to get in there, but we’re still trying. Yeah, don’t give up on that. Have you

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worked with any smaller distributors to to, you know, get on some shelves of maybe smaller stores or chains or

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anything like that? We have. That hasn’t been successful yet. I think they really want to see

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like a like a like an explosion of your brand first. A lot of those places because they because you’re buying space

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in that store and so you can’t take up space. Deception. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So, they want to make

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sure your product’s going to work and people want it before they’re going to allow you into the store. So, I think we have we have a little bit of ways to go

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there. We’re still we’re still going to try, but we still have a little bit ways to go. Yeah, that’s awesome. That would be our next integration.

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That’ll be our next phase. And also, we want to do international. A lot of these companies, some of these mushroom coffees are not international yet. So,

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we’d like to be the first ones to take it international. Get into that space. Certainly. Yeah, that could be great. Yeah.

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Are there a lot of um companies that are, you know, working out of other countries, do you see or are they mostly

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based in the US, do you know, or some of them? I think and it’s very limited. I’ve seen some Canada, Mexico,

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but very limited. I know the bigger ones, they’re only in the US. And so that’s one of the markets we want to

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capitalize on is like, okay, you’re only in the US. Let’s try to get some Oh, yeah. outside of the US. And it’s very

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expensive. I’m not going to lie. It’s very expensive. It’s very pricey to, you know, ship stuff overseas and really

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have a model where it works. that we have the the infrastructure in place for that to work. So, yeah, that would be

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the next progression of our our our um our business. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Uh did you

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have any like mistakes early on as far as marketing goes that you were like, “Oh, this was a huge mistake, you know, other than some of the, you know, maybe

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the fake following and that sort of thing, fake influencers. God, there were so many of them. I’m

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trying to think of of I mean, there’s so many of them because you don’t know what you don’t know, you know, and this is this is a newer space for me. I’ve never

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been really in the in the product space. My husband has, but still you can know everything and not know anything. Right.

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So you it is you one of the things I would say you have to learn from your mistakes.

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Absolutely. Work, move on, pivot and be able to be flexible and shift quickly. You got to

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be able to pivot because wasting money on things that aren’t working is not going to be your friend. And like I

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said, you only have a if you’re putting in your own money or you’re putting in some investor capital and you only have a short window of time to make things

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happen, you have to make sure you have a strategy in place every step of the way. And so that’s huge. And so I think in

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the beginning, let me think when we did I think it’s having the wrong people in

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your sphere. So when we did the network marketing thing, right? So we were we still we still have a network marketing component, but we did that. It was

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I want to say this lovingly and respectfully. I don’t want to I don’t even know if I want to say this.

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I’ll go ahead and say it now. Now you you’ve piqu everybody’s curiosity. Now you have to

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the wrong people can tear your company inside out. Oh yeah. I would just leave that. The wrong

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people can tear up your tear up your company from the inside out. And you got to be very mindful of that. Very very

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mindful of that. Very. Absolutely. Yeah. And the pivoting thing, you know, that makes that really

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hits home. You know, there’s a lot of things you can do, but you got to know the time frame on things, too, because sometimes something might, you know, you need to

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expect three to six months or six to 12 and, you know, knowing when to jump and not jump too soon, but knowing when to

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when it’s like, okay, this should be working by now. It’s not let’s pivot. You know, that’s so important. Absolutely. And we’ve had to change

19:26

agencies like we’ve had agencies for different things and we’ve had to change agencies, too, because, you know, we found that they weren’t it wasn’t

19:32

working and and it was wasn’t a beneficial relationship. So, we’ve had to change agencies with our Tik Tok shop or with our Amazon shop. You know, we’ve

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we’ve had to switch. So, you just you have to be hands- on. You have to be very hands-on with your business. Yeah.

19:45

Yeah. I I that’s something that, you know, I always agree with that the more hands-on you are instead of just 100%

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shifting off to somebody and expecting great results, the more you can like know what’s going on and be involved and

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contribute to that conversation, especially with your agencies, the more beneficial it’s going to work for you because the the agency can do so much.

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They can do a lot, but if you’re feeding them, you know, things that they need from you and they get the the insights

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into the wise, they can be so much more effective. Yes. Yes. So, don’t don’t depend on everybody else to do your job. You have

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to like if you’re going to go full-time and do this, you have to be full-time and do this. And you have to be in this day in and day out. It is not for the

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faint of heart. Um, so many times I’ve wanted to quit.

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I mean, because it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s it’s a hard job. It’s it’s it’s in in most respects, I would say it’s harder than working a corporate

20:34

job because you don’t know if you’re going to get paid tomorrow. You don’t know if you’re going to get a check next week. You don’t you just you just don’t.

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It’s because if you don’t make the revenue to cover your expenses, you you don’t. And so, you’re kind of out here

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on your own. You’re on an island on your own. And most of your friends and family can’t understand you. Nobody else knows

20:50

what you’re talking about. They think you’re just get a job. That’s what they say. They think you’re

20:56

nuts. Just go get a job. Like, why don’t you just go get I’m like, no, this is my job. Like I you don’t understand. I live, breathe, sleep this. I’m in my

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sleep worrying about things. And so they don’t understand. And so you’re kind of in on an island of you.

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It was so much funner betting on yourself, isn’t it? It is. It I mean because the the flexibility, the freedom, the um the

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ability to be creative is what I love about it most because I get to use the brain that I didn’t get to use at my

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other job because it was controlled by somebody. I got I get to use this brain that was meant to do greater things. And

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so that’s exciting and there’s many challenges and the people that you meet I mean it’s just there’s so much but

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you’re always on you are always like we were at an event we do events like we’ll do vending events because we have to get

21:39

our brand out and so we were at an event on Saturday and events drain the life out of me I mean like I I am drained but

21:46

I do it because I have to you know this is what I do Saturdays my kids were out there I have my kids with me like I have

21:52

a 5-year-old and a 12-year-old they were out there working with me so you know you have we have to do this this what

21:57

we’ve lived, eat, sleep, sleep, and breathe. Always growing, but growing in ways that

22:03

there’s no red tape to stop you from ways that you know you need to grow, but it just isn’t somebody else’s idea that

22:09

that’s the way you need to do it, you know? Correct. That’s Yeah, that’s always a a bonus in

22:14

my mind that, you know, about self-employment is just you get to do what you want to do. And if you find something like I absolutely hate this,

22:20

you know, you can X that off the list and do something else. You can’t I’ll be there to tell you

22:26

like certain things I don’t like doing, I’ll get an admin, a virtual assistant to do it. Like I’m like, yeah, there you go. There you go.

22:35

Has have you found any tools that have really helped you like keep your business running smoothly, digital or or

22:40

otherwise? Let’s see. Tools. Um, of course, Google, your Google Analytics is going to be

22:46

very helpful. If you have a website, totally helpful. Um, QuickBooks. Um, we

22:52

have an in-house C CFO, but still I use QuickBooks to manage all of our expenses and stuff like that. That’s very expensive. Get you a really good CRM.

22:59

Get you a great CRM to manage your customer service. That’s going to be so much so much more beneficial to than

23:05

anything. Um, the things that’s going to help you send out emails, reminders, abandon carts, you know, all that stuff.

23:11

When you have systems in play, it makes your life so much easier because trying to do it all.

23:16

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you’re just you, right? you’re going to be running your business because you can’t hire 50 staff

23:21

members off the gate unless you got a big seed and somebody seated you heavily. You can’t afford to hire

23:27

people. So, it’s pretty much you. And so, get systems in place to make your life easier. And there’s so many of them to choose out there. It’s exhausting.

23:34

But find you the right one that’s going to work for your business because that’s going to be invaluable. It’s going to save you a lot of time, money, and headaches. Are

23:40

are there any automations or efficiencies that you found that have been particularly helpful?

23:46

Let me see. Um, we’ve implemented

23:51

there’s some implementation of some some well we have a backend a custom CRM right so we don’t have the normal CRM we

23:57

had ours custom built by the manufacturer that we work with and so there’s things that’ll auto go out like

24:03

letters and emails and you know customer like I said abandoned card things there’s things that autogenerate that

24:09

make my life so much easier so I don’t have to go in there and physically do that you know if it’s if it’s if it has

24:15

this equation in it, you know, it tells it to automatically send it out, you know. So, I love that. I love that.

24:22

So, custom built. Custom. Yeah. Ours is custom built. Yeah. It was more expensive. It works.

24:28

Another one of those unexpected expenses, right? Right. It is very expensive and very

24:34

expensive to maintain, but it it works. It it saved me a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s the thing.

24:40

Sometimes you can spend a lot of money on something but in the long run you actually end up saving a lot of money for absolutely time which you know time

24:46

is money in the long run anyway. self. Yeah, absolutely. Because what people don’t understand is every customer that comes

24:52

in to acquire another customer, it’s more money, right? So, you want to keep those customers and so customer service

24:58

is huge. So, you want to find systems like that that’s going to keep those customers engaged back in. Yeah. Keep them coming back to

25:04

your products. Things that are going to give them, you know, rewards to come back because if they don’t, you got to go out and find more customers. Yeah.

25:10

That’s hard. That’s not easy to do. That means keep what you have. Y Yeah. It’s cheaper to keep her. It’s

25:16

cheaper to keep them. Yeah, that’s a good way to put it. Uh,

25:23

how do you hire or how do you manage hiring, training, and delegation at this point in your business?

25:28

So, now we’re still small, so I don’t that we don’t have to do all that. We’re still so small, you know? We, like I said, we’ll get a BA every now and then

25:34

if we if we, you know, start reving up, but we’re still small. We’ve only been in business for a year. And so, it’s

25:39

just me and my husband, we do everything. Like I said, we’re we are everything. We’re marketing,

25:45

sales, customer service, you know, we’re a little bit of everything. But, you know, when I did hire in my pre, that

25:52

was one of the things I did. I hired people to work under me in my previous job. And so, you know, I have a good eye

25:57

for talent. You know, I hire people that are eager, um, ready to learn. You know, I don’t like hiring people that think

26:04

they know too much and, you know, they they don’t know anything and it’s like, okay, you’re coming in here and you’re you’re just messing stuff up. So, I need

26:10

you to listen. I need you to learn because this is at this point, this is my business. And so if I was to hire somebody, I would definitely hire

26:15

somebody that, you know, that is skilled, that is knowledgeable, but wants to learn the business, you know,

26:23

about the business. Yeah. I think that’s so important. Yeah. So, let’s talk a little bit about how just being a business owner has impacted

26:30

your life. Like, how has running and owning a business changed your life? Um,

26:36

I would say I’d have I’m I’m happier. Like I said, it is stressful. It is very stressful. I’m not going to lie to you.

26:42

was very stressful, but I think I’m happier because like I said earlier, I like to think that I’m doing this on my

26:47

own terms. And so, win or lose, I did something that I wanted to do and I and I made myself happy and I made other

26:53

people happy in the world. So, I mean, I I love it. Um, and I don’t think I would trade it for the world. I I I said I’d

26:59

never want to go back to corporate America and I don’t. You don’t. I don’t. I don’t. I don’t.

27:06

But, but it’s like I said, it’s stressful. Sometimes you do lose sleep over some things, you know, and there, you know, there are nights that I stress

27:13

over things, you know, so I have to really find ways of keeping myself sane

27:19

and grounded and taking time off because that’s another thing. You can work to your blue and the fact like you’ll work

27:25

like you there’s no vacation time anymore. This no feel like doing but also you know

27:31

what you think you can manage doing. Yes. And there’s no off switch. So you don’t have a 9 to5 remember. So, I get

27:37

up at 5:00 in the morning. I hit the gym the gym. I come back and I’m working and I might be working sometimes till 10

27:43

o’clock at night or 11 o’clock at night. I mean, I just there’s no off switch or you’re always answering calls and emails. There’s no off switch. And so,

27:50

you have to really make sure that you find time to uh take care of yourself because you’ll get burned out really

27:55

easily. Absolutely. Yep. Nobody to tell you it’s time to go home

28:02

or anything like that. And uh it’s just to your your own devices of you know when you should stop and when you should keep going and sometimes that line is

28:08

hard to draw. Absolutely. Absolutely. Leave tomorrow’s work for tomorrow. It’ll it’ll take care of itself. Like you really got to have a

28:14

work life balance when you do this because absolutely if not then if you die then who’s going to take over your business? Especially if it’s a new

28:21

business like mine like there’s nobody else. It’s just me and my husband. So you know we have to like really take

28:27

care of ourselves and and we have young children too. So, you know, we really have to be careful with it and and not

28:33

make and make sure we don’t sacrifice them. You know, I always say to people, this is what I always say to people. I’m like

28:40

reaching for success or trying to climb that success ladder, whatever it is that you success looks like to you, you are

28:47

going to h have to sacrifice certain things in that period where you’re building. So, um my kids understand

28:53

that, you know, I’m on a call right now, so I can’t go play with you. I can’t take you here or I can’t do that. So I

28:59

there’s times where I do have to sacrifice, you know, time with them to do this because I know I have to pour

29:04

into this, too. But I make sure I give equal time back to them. So if I’m not spending time with them right now, I’ll

29:09

get off the phone after this and I’ll cut some other things away and I’ll go spend time with them. So sometimes there is a period of sacrifice that you have

29:16

to give to that thing that you are building in order to get it. But it’s okay. It’s a season. It’s a season.

29:22

So think about the season afterwards. If you make it and you, you know, get successful, then that season is, you

29:28

know, it’s it’s completed and you are at the pinnacle and you can spend more time or you can spend more money. You can do this, but there’s always a season.

29:35

Yeah. Absolutely. And the thing, the way I look at it is when you’re doing this for corporate America, the season never

29:41

ends. It never You’re always going to be doing that. You’re never a season get

29:47

you to another spot where it’s going to change. Yeah. Yeah. Because it’s not your company, right? Yeah. It’s not you.

29:52

Yeah. You’re in their season. And it’s not your season, it’s their season. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

29:57

Do you feel like running uh this business um you know, up to this point, do you feel like you’ve achieved success

30:02

in this business or what does that look like for you? I don’t know. We got a long ways to go. Um I think success for me is $100

30:09

million in sales. I want to be global. I want to have multi-product lines. And

30:15

I also want to branch into other things like there’s other um other products, other ventures that we want to branch

30:21

into. So the success letter is a is a moving target. It’s a moving target. It’s always a moving target, right? And

30:27

so but for me, I think I think that $100 million mark would be

30:33

the the pinnacle of success for me in this in this business in this particular business. Yeah. Yeah.

30:40

That’s an awesome goal. That’s an awesome Yeah. Lofty. Great.

30:45

Yeah. I mean that’s that’s great because I mean you know at that point even if you get halfway there you know at some

30:51

point you’ll have to take a step back and say okay this is actually pretty successful. That’s pretty good. I’ll take halfway. I’ll take halfway halfway would get me

30:59

on the path to retirement. So halfway is Yeah. Yeah. There you go. And also think about it. If we got halfway there’s a there’s an option for

31:06

selling. You know what I’m you know, sell it. And it’s like a 3x I think it’s like a 2x to 3x multiplier when you sell

31:12

certain businesses if they’re at a certain um a certain range. And so I’m like I could still be at the $100

31:18

million mark just not in sales. Yeah. Yeah. I I got a guy for that. I should you should talk to

31:24

Yeah. He that’s what he does. He helps people plan for that exit and be thinking about it ahead of time, you

31:29

know. So yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot to think about, but yeah, it’s that’s definitely a huge bonus for, you know, being

31:35

self-employed is that can be an option. Whereas, you know, working for corporate America, it’s never an option. You might

31:40

get sold, but uh, you know, things are just going to change for you and not in a financial good way either, you know.

31:47

Nope. Nope. Nope. Not at all. So, yeah, you have no say in your your corporate. I’m not knocking anything. There’s some

31:53

Yeah, I mean, some people that’s the thing, but Yeah. Yeah. But I I just couldn’t do it anymore. The politics just kind of threw

31:59

me away. like I just I couldn’t do it anymore. You know, getting passed up for promotions. Um you know, undervalued,

32:05

underpaid what you’re worth. You know, even though I was making a good salary, I still worked my butt off for that salary. I I was working long hours and

32:12

so I just, you know, I just got burned out by that. And so I’m I’m happier doing this.

32:18

Yeah. Is there any situation that you would ever make you consider going back to employment at this point?

32:24

Yeah. if we went bankrupt. Now, that’ll do it to most people, I

32:30

think. But if this didn’t work out, I’m going back to court.

32:35

At that point, I wouldn’t have a choice. But I’m No, we’re not gonna No, I’m not going to say that because we’re not doing that.

32:41

Yeah. I’d avoid that at all costs. At all cost.

32:46

How is um you know, running a business and being a business owner giving you more freedom and opportunities up to

32:51

this point? Oh, man. Just being able to control your time. I mean, that’s an obvious one, but yeah, I mean, I I think we undervalue

32:59

the time freedom. Like, I can wake up, I can start when I want to, you know, although I start early, I still can do

33:06

that. Like, you know, I was on the clock all the time at work and, you know, I could run out and go grab a three-hour

33:11

lunch with a girlfriend if I want to. And I couldn’t really do that at work. I could, but I probably get trouble. You know what I’m saying? So,

33:17

you always feel like you got to answer to somebody and say, “Hey, is this okay? I gota get permission for this.” You know, in some way, shape, or form. Yes.

33:24

Yes. Yes. And I can work from anywhere in the world. Like I could, you know, we went to we had a we had a couple business meetings down in Dominican

33:30

Republic. What June? In June and so we went down there for a couple weeks. You know, we were down there with kids for a

33:36

couple weeks and so I can do what I have the flexibility to do what I want to do and that makes a difference. And also I

33:43

love the the fact that I can make my own decisions. Like it’s my company. I get

33:48

the final say. I can tell you yay or nay, you know? I I get to make those decisions which I would have never gotten to make working for somebody

33:55

else. And I love that. Like I said, this is all on my shoulders or me and my

34:00

husband’s shoulders. If this doesn’t work, it is what it is. It’s it’s our fault. But at the end of the day, we did

34:05

it on our terms. We did everything we said we’re going to do. We did everything we set out to do and we make some damn good products out of it. So

34:12

that’s awesome. I love that. That’s awesome. What one what’s one tip you think that every business owner needs to

34:18

hear that you’ve learned from this your journey up to this point? As I said, make sure you got enough

34:23

money. Make sure you got enough Yeah. plan.

34:29

Please plan before you even start. Plan. Make sure you have a solid business plan. Get somebody to vet it. Look over

34:36

it. Um double check it. Make sure your numbers are good. Think about things that you would never even think about,

34:41

especially if you’ve never run a business like this before. somebody that can come in and give you some some

34:47

beneficial uh pointers on how to do it. Also, networking. People underestimate

34:53

the value of networking. I can tell you story after story of how remember I was telling you stories about how things

34:58

started connecting in the beginning. We put ourselves out there and we started calling people and we started

35:04

moving in circles and going out there to different meetings and talking to people. You cannot be a silent promoter

35:11

of your business. I’m sorry. It doesn’t work like that. It just doesn’t work like that. If nobody knows you’re you’re you exist, then they’re not going to buy

35:17

your products. So, you have to be a product of your product. You have to be out there talking about your products. We do a lot of events. Maybe events will

35:23

work for you, maybe they won’t, but we do a lot of events. We’re out here, you know, talking to people, you know, we’re

35:29

out here on social media. We’re all over the place because you cannot market. You

35:34

cannot um just rely on one stream of marketing. You need to be out here talking about your products different because you never know who you’re going to meet. You just don’t know who you’re

35:40

going to meet. We were um like when we had to do capital fundings a couple times, you know, we were just out there

35:46

talking to people and they would mention to us, oh, you looking for investors or are you looking for this? And I’m like, yeah, absolutely. And it was just by

35:53

happen stance. And so a lot of times if you set your intention, you go out there and do the work, it comes. The things

35:59

come. It’s not easy. You can’t do it from sitting in the house. Yep. It’s not going to happen from the couch. Well, I mean, maybe if you’re

36:05

online doing some networking online, maybe. But you gota be the body to body, you know as well as I

36:10

do that body to body being out there in front of people and people getting to know you is way different than somebody

36:16

talking to you on social media. It’s way different. We’ve gotten so much uh what’s what’s the word I’m looking for? Positive I guess positive feedback or so

36:23

many more um so much further I guess you’d say so much further by being out there talking

36:29

to people and telling them our story and them getting to know who we are as people. We’ve gotten so much further, so

36:35

much further doing that than anything. So, you’ve got to be out here networking and you got to be out here, you know,

36:41

building your business plan and making sure it’s solid because if not, you’re I’m telling you, there’s going to be some things that are going to come up

36:47

and you’re going to be in trouble and your business is not going to not going to last. Yeah. Yep. 100%. Uh, is there any type

36:54

of networking that like any specific type of events or you know that you really like to go to or that you found

37:00

more helpful? We’ve joined every chambers in at least and and I’m telling you there’s a lot of

37:07

people in those your local chambers. There’s a lot of people in there and if they like you a lot of times they’ll

37:13

promote your businesses. Um I’ve joined women’s groups that have gotten me in front of different people. I mean I’ll

37:18

call them and you know they’ll be like yeah I got you. What do you need? You know I got this event or they’ll call me

37:24

for events and like hey there’s going to be a thousand people at this event. You want to do this event this? Yes sure absolutely. you know, anytime any any of

37:30

them call, we’re always on demand because, like I said, that’s how you get your business out there and they we’re

37:35

top of mind when they have events or they have people that, you know, have funding or they have people that want

37:42

our coffee, you know, that we’re always top of mind and so that’s why we stay in front of people in order to get those

37:47

opportunities. Oh, that’s awesome. So, a lot of local networking. Have you done digital networking, you know, with any sites

37:54

like Alignable or anything like that? Have you found that helpful? No, I haven’t. No, no, I haven’t done that. But we do like I like I do a lot

38:00

of social media. So, I mean I network through social media too. I do a lot of that. Um and then let’s see what else.

38:08

Some of our people that we had, remember I said we had a network marketing arm. Some of our people were out there. So,

38:13

we would fly out to different meetings and stuff. So, yeah, we did a lot of networking that way too. A lot of on-site events. That’s how we also did a

38:19

lot of networking. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that’s great. What would you do differently um if you

38:25

had to go back and start this process again? Few

38:30

things come to mind. I’ll take it. You know what? You know what? You asked that question. I as I think about it, I

38:37

don’t think I would have done anything differently because everything was a learning experience. Everything was a learning even the the

38:44

way that we funded everything, you know, everything was a learning experience and it all worked out for us. And so that’s

38:49

why I was like, I knew this was meant to be because everything was aligning for us. Um,

38:54

what would I do differently? I don’t think I would do anything differently. I don’t think I would do anything

39:00

differently. Well, like I said, well, well, let me go back earlier. Some of the people that you

39:06

align yourself with, just be careful about that. Partners, any kind of

39:11

partners, any kind of uh you know, whatever whatever those those caveats are, just watch who you align yourself

39:18

with because that can be critical, especially as you start to grow. And like I said earlier, if you align with

39:24

the wrong people, then that could kill your business. I’ve seen it over and over and over. My husband’s had it happen to him a couple times. Just don’t

39:30

do it. Just make sure you align yourself with the right people. That’s that’s one of the main things I wish we could do differently.

39:35

Yeah, that that makes sense. That’s fair. Uh is there any advice for listeners that might be looking to do

39:41

something similar um you know like you’re doing create a similar product or you know some kind of a product that you

39:47

would say hey like this is the best advice that I could give you from what I’ve learned up to this point.

39:53

Yeah, I would say go for it. Um make sure it’s something that is do your due diligence. Make sure it’s something that

40:00

is marketable. Um don’t sell something that nobody wants.

40:06

burn a lot of time and money doing that. I mean, you got a great idea and you

40:13

don’t, you know, your product is not really viable in the market or, you know, it’s saturated and so it’s hard to

40:18

get yours out there in front of people. So, I would say, you know, if you got an idea and it’s something that you think

40:23

you can run with, don’t wait for somebody to do it for you. Don’t wait don’t put it off 10 years from now like

40:30

I’ll get to that later. I would say if you have a regular job, start building your plan. Start saving your money. If

40:37

you want to get investors, start getting investors now. You know, if you want to do like we did, sell everything, you

40:44

know, bet on yourself, do it. I I would I would just say do what makes you happy

40:49

and what you feel is going to be successful for you. Because like I said, I don’t want to be 50 years old, 60

40:56

years old, 70 years old and say, “Oh man, I should have did that or I should have did that last year or I should have.” You know, I’ve done that too many

41:02

times in my life. And at this point, I’m 45. I’ll be 45 in October. And I don’t

41:08

want to live with any regrets of should, would have, could have. You know, if I felt like I was I was I I

41:14

was on the right path, I I moved forward. And I can say I did it. I did it on my own terms and I did what I love

41:20

to do. And so do what you love to do and you’ll find money in that area. If it’s something that you love and it’s

41:26

something that’s viable, do it. Go for it. That’s great advice. Do you have any uh

41:31

thoughts or or advice as far as like getting investors goes? You know, I know a lot of people that’s something that

41:36

they’re looking to do to get something going. It sounds like you’ve had some experience with that. Is there any any uh words of wisdom that you could

41:42

provide along those lines? Um if you if you have the resources or your if you have family that has the

41:47

resources, I would start there. Your friends and family. Um, that’s how Google started. Yeah. I mean, not

41:53

Google, it was um, it was Amazon. Amazon. I think Jeff Bezos went and asked all his friends and family and

41:58

they gave him the seed money to start his business. So, I would start with your friends and family because my my father actually funded us one time, you

42:05

know. So, you never know who you have in your family that’s going to just don’t screw them over.

42:12

Don’t, you know, a little more motivation to be successful, right? Exactly. But you never know in your friends and family circle that may

42:18

want to believe in you or you know may believe in you and want to invest in you. And then you know once you start

42:24

doing that you branch out. You branch out to things like crowdfunding. That’s a huge thing. We’re um we’re going to

42:29

start that here in the next couple months. The crowdfunding thing. But ours have all been like happen stance. People

42:36

we met and they liked our story and they were like oh you looking for an investor? It’s been just that’s awesome.

42:42

Divine. I mean it’s it was I I’m telling you it was divine. So that’s why I was like, “Oh my gosh, I know we’re in the right area.” Because that was just

42:48

divine timing and just Yeah. Divine that we met this person and they wanted to seat us. So yeah, but our next

42:55

step is crowdfunding for the big one. We want to do crowdfunding. Absolutely. Yeah, that could be great for you.

43:00

Yeah. No, that’s that’s awesome. Um, now you mentioned uh that you’ve got that you

43:06

were like messing around with kind of like network marketing aspect of this. Um, is there still an opportunity for

43:11

listeners that might want to get involved in your business? Um, I think we’re gonna sunset that one.

43:17

Okay. Okay, that’s great. How about as I mean, yeah. Say that again. How about as far as like uh potential

43:24

distributors go, somebody that’s looking to, you know, maybe be a distributor for your your product?

43:29

So, we’re going to do affiliate I think we’re going to switch over to an affiliate marketing marketing strategy instead. Um, network marketing is very

43:36

expensive. It’s very time consuming. It’s like hurting cats. You’ve done it before. It’s like hurting

43:42

cats. And so I think we’re going to flip over to an affiliate model. So yeah, you

43:47

could definitely do be an affiliate and you can get paid off of every sale that you get. Absolutely. Absolutely.

43:53

Cool. Well, uh, where could somebody go to learn more about your product, your business, yourself, and that affiliate

43:59

opportunity? Absolutely. Um, it’s www. nuspira.com.

44:06

And then I, um, we have our our products on every platform. Tik Tok shop. We’re on Instagram at NuspiraOfficial. We’re

44:13

on Facebook at NuspiraOfficial and we’re also on Walmart.com and Amazon.com. Yeah.

44:18

Awesome. Well, Kat, it’s been a pleasure getting to hear a little bit about your business. You got a great energy. It

44:24

sounds like you’ve got a great product. I’m looking forward to trying it very soon. Thank you. Send me your dress. Absolutely. I’ll send you some product.

44:30

I got to have my coffee. So, you know, I wouldn’t mind adding some mushrooms to it. Uh but I got to have my coffee. So,

44:36

yeah. Any final thoughts for the audience or you know promotions or anything else you’d like to mention?

44:42

No, just go with your gut. Like I said, just do it and I look forward to seeing everybody at the top and I know we can

44:47

get there. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Kad. I really appreciate your time. It’s been a pleasure again having you on and uh

44:53

yeah, best of luck with moving forward on this. I hope it goes to the hundred million dollar mark like you’re uh

44:59

It will. Yay. It will. Thank you. Thanks, Kat. Have a good one. Thank you.

45:06

You’ve been listening to the Bisgrow Mojo podcast with Ryan Amen. Make sure you like, follow, and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time on the Bisgrow Mojo Podcast.