Transcript of Debunking Myths About Social Media, AI, and Hustle Culture

Welcome back to the Boss Babe Podcast.

Okay, this episode is different, and this is you getting to listen in on the biggest pinch-me moment that maybe I've actually ever had, right?

So in June, I got to sit down at the Godmother's Bookstore in Montecito.

It is an iconic little bookstore where so many of the women I have looked up to for years have stood, like Oprah, in front of a live audience. I was sitting in the seat that Oprah has sat in, and Jamie Kern Lima, the founder of IT Cosmetics, interviewed me. Now, again, this was such a pinch-me moment. It was in the middle of so many crazy book events, and I flew up to Montecito for the day, and I got to go to Jamie's home, and she walked me around her home, which, firstly, that in itself was a pinch-me moment. She's very private, so I won't say too much about that. But getting to spend that time with her, I just constantly kept pinching myself, like, is this real life? Is this real life? And then we get to Godmother's, and I get the tour. So I initially walk in, and all of my books are sitting there on the table.

I get emotional thinking about this.

And above the table, there are these pictures of the most iconic women in history. women who have truly changed the world. And there was a little light above it.

And wow, I'm really getting emotional here. And so I walked in and I can still feel this moment.

And the woman hosting me at Godmothers, the whole bookstore was closed at this point. I walked in and she said, your book's there. Take a look at who is surrounding it because you are one of these women who is paving the way and lighting the way for other women too.

And I just stood there and I really took it in and burst into tears.

I have it on video because it was just one of those moments where, again, I'd been busy, I'd been in the thick of it, and I hadn't really stopped to think about the impact that work like this does. And we all do this. Every single one of you that are listening to this podcast, you are having such an impact.

In so many ways that you might not stop to think about.

And it was just such a visual representation of that. So that's how the day started. And then we went up to the green room and Jamie passed me the guest book and said, well, you're here, you need to sign this. And the first person to sign this was Oprah. And then I flicked through the pages of all the other authors who I look up to and just adore. And I'm so grateful that I got to even sign the same book as them.

I got to read through and read their messages, and then I got to sign it. And then we sat there and we had a tea and we talked.

And then I went downstairs and Jamie interviewed me. And it was one of the single most special nights of my life, really. It was such a pinch-me moment, and it felt so well deserved.

And that's a thing I don't often say, but I remember sitting there and Jamie was kind of pointing out just what I'd overcome to get here.

And it was just this moment of really patting myself on the back, like, Natalie, you did this.

You actually did this. You created this. And again, maybe you're listening to this realizing you never give yourself that pat on the back.

It's so hard for us often as women to admit that we're doing a good job and we really deserved something. It's easier to feel like an imposter.

So It was a really powerful moment for me, and I wanted to share this conversation for that reason.

And if you didn't already know, my book is out, The Freedom-Based Business Method. It's officially out, and it became an instant New York Times bestseller. And the only reason that that happened is you. Every single order, every reshare, every person who came out to support the launch, thank you. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart because you made the launch happen. You made the New York Times win happen.

And you also made me sitting at Godmother's with Jamie Kern Lima happen.

And I'm really, really grateful for that.

So this conversation is a bit more candid, a bit more real, because how can you not sit in a seat like that and just tell the truth? So here is a conversation, and I really hope you feel like you were in that room with us.

Hello.

Good evening.

I'm Riley Reid, head of storytelling here at Godmother's. And on behalf of our entire family, Welcome to our living room. This is going to be a remarkable chat. Are you excited?

Me too.

You better be. Our conversation partner this evening, who I am personally delighted to introduce, Jamie Kern Lima, is a 2-time New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur, and founder of IT Cosmetics, which she started in her living room and later sold to L'Oréal in a billion-dollar deal. Becoming the first female CEO of a brand in the company's 100-year history. She is the host of The Jamie Kern Lima Show, one of the top self-improvement podcasts in the country, and a guest shark on season 16 of Shark Tank. Jamie's work centers on building self-worth and resilience. She is a mother, an investor, a philanthropist who has supported leadership programs in over 100 prisons and shelters and donated more than $40 million to help women facing cancer. Our featured author this evening, Natalie Ellis, is a mom— see, yeah, you can say that again— is a mom, CEO, and serial entrepreneur. She's the founder of Boss Babe, the global education platform for women entrepreneurs with a community of over 4 million, a chart-topping podcast, and over 100,000 students. After navigating burnout and a near business collapse inside her own multi-eight-figure company, She wrote The Freedom-Based Business Method, her 5-part framework for building a profitable business with real freedom and revenue predictability minus the burnout.

Please join me in welcoming Jamie and Natalie to the stage.

Natalie Owen!

Thank you everyone for being here.

Hi.

So many friends.

Wow. So many people excited.

How are you feeling in Montecito?

This is like a dream come true. Thank you. This is amazing. It hasn't sunk in yet.

So it's amazing how Godmothers has just grown in notoriety in the past couple of years with the events and the founders and just the team that's here and So I knew you were familiar with Godmothers in the past few years, and then you flew out to be here today, and it was fun to be with you when you walked in the front door. And can you just share with everyone how you felt when you saw your book there, the light, you saw all these women up on the wall and your book right there?

I couldn't hold it together just walking in and seeing the women that have just paved the way for so many of us to dream and to see my own book there. was the most surreal moment ever. To even think about one woman reading this book and choosing to go after her dreams in a way that feels really good, just, I could cry over it. It was, it was one of the most surreal moments of my entire life. It was really special.

Yeah, and I think those of us that are local, it never gets old walking in the front door and seeing it. So I see a lot of entrepreneurs in the room. I see people who I have, um, celebrated from afar who've built billion-dollar businesses. I see friends in here that are starting companies, that are super busy with their families, but launching an idea on the side. I see icons in this room who, for whatever reason, can never stop working and are trying to figure out how to enjoy their life also, in addition, in addition to working. And a lot of people in here too, who I know are interested in learning more about even just what does AI look, look like in their life right now and social media? And how do you, how do you sort of incorporate that in ways that, that work? And so I'm really grateful to share your genius and to celebrate you and your book. And we have a lot of questions tonight that we're going to dive into and then we're going to open it up to Q&A. So Natalie loves, by the way, to talk about all things AI.

And she's known for so many things, but building an 8-figure business with millions and millions of followers, almost no team and almost no money from her living room. How do you do it? How do you burn out or not burn out? What does that look like? What does that look like now with AI? And also, how do you actually do something you love and not burn out? Like, can you do both? Can you do both? So just to kind of kick this off, can you guys raise your hand? if you've ever felt burnt out in your job, in your career, in your life, while also maybe feeling like you're still not doing enough. And okay, 98% of the room. Okay, so I just wanna open it up, Natalie, just off the top, we heard Riley share some of your incredible accomplishments, and can you just share a little bit with everyone in this room about, you know, what inspired you you to write The Freedom-Based Business Method and sort of how your view of success started in your journey and how it's evolved? Because I think we're all in that pursuit of fulfillment, um, while also not wanting to miss our calling and everything else.

So I've been starting businesses since I was 13. So I grew up in a very turbulent household. I moved out when I was 13, and I remember going to careers day and there was many people coming in and out that room. And I was telling myself a story, you know, there was nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, real jobs. And I just had this story, people like me don't accomplish things like them coming from where I came from. And there was, you know, the last careers day of, of the day, the last woman came in and I heard her high heels come in and she put the most beautiful handbag down. It was a Mulberry Bayswater brown. And I was like, okay, I'm listening. What is she doing? And she started telling her story and she said, you know, I was crying on the stairs into a glass of wine going through a really difficult divorce. And I was 13 at the time and where I come from, everything was behind closed doors. You didn't talk about things that were going on at home. So I immediately was really interested cuz I could see my mum in parts of her story.

And she explained that she ended up starting a business and it changed her entire life and created a lot of financial freedom for her. And for me, I told myself a story that my mum stayed in really difficult situations because she couldn't afford to leave. And hearing that there was a way way out. I just equated entrepreneurship to freedom and, and a different life for myself. So I've been an entrepreneur since I was 13. And when I got into it, I just wanted to, to have enough money to have the choice. It really was about financial freedom for me. And I just got on this magic carpet ride of entrepreneurship and building and built. And I didn't really ever stop to look around to assess what I'd built. I never had the feeling of, you know, I'm successful. full, or I've finally hit financial freedom. I always had this fear that it might go away any day, and it just kept me running and chasing. And when I had my first daughter, I went through a really traumatic delivery with her, which kind of brought me to my knees in a, in an identity crisis.

I started to question who I was, what I was doing. I felt like my body was stuck in fight or flight. I wasn't functioning the way that I always had. I was so used to, no matter what was going on in my life, I'd wake up and I could get it done. Like, that was my badge of honor. I could always get it done no matter what was going on. And I couldn't at that point in time. And it had me assess every area of my life. And it was like this out-of-body experience where I could see the situation I was in. It was like I could see everything and, and the dynamics I created and the places that I was just chasing, chasing, chasing more and never feeling like I had enough. And in that moment, I got to really see, you have a home, you have the freedom of choice, you have a healthy child, you have a great marriage. What more do you want? And it was that moment that changed a lot for me where I realized I actually did have enough. I, I was good enough. What I had built was good enough.

I had security. And from that moment, it changed the way I looked at my relationship to work and my relationship to my ambition. And for 4 years now, from that point, my relationship to all of that looks different. And that's what the book is about. It's about that, that building phase after when you actually realize this is good enough and building from a different place, a different level of ambition, a different type of ambition.

There's a moment in your book where you talk about how everything looked incredible on the outside, right? You had built Boss Babe, uh, an online platform with millions and millions and millions of followers and so many women and people, um, that were taking courses and part of your community that you had built. And you were getting invited to every event on the planet and you were, um, I mean, all of it, right? And everything. And then all of a sudden now you have the marriage and the kids and the, and it's like every single thing looked right. And you talked about it being one of the most difficult, like feeling the worst in that moment and also feeling burnt out.

Yeah.

Can you talk about what, how you navigated that feeling of like, okay, my whole life I've thought if I have all of this, that would be it. And then you get it and you're like, oh, this isn't it. And then, and then, and then going from that place to going, okay, how do I actually, you know, create freedom in my life, still do the things I want to do and not feel like I'm compromising or giving up or quitting or throwing in the towel or going to lower my own bar for my life?

I just felt like I wasn't present in any of it. I would be in the rooms. Or I'd be doing the launches, I'd be doing the things, and I wasn't present to any of it because I was always feeling like I'm onto the next thing. Um, you know, I can do better next time, or wow, they're doing that, I should raise the bar for what's possible for me. It just always felt like I was looking outside of myself. And when I really started to look at what I'd built, so much was built from what I thought I should be doing.

Mm-hmm.

I felt like, you know, I should have this size business. I should be going to these rooms. I should be taking this on because everyone else has it. Like, I just kept building from the place of should.

Mm-hmm.

And I don't think I'd really stopped to ask myself, what do I want? You know, what would I want if I wasn't, you know, in front of followers? What would I want if I wasn't introducing myself to a room? What would I want if I didn't really care what anyone thought of me? Because I felt like everyone was judging me based on my success, and that was just my own bias. But I started to ask myself, what would I want if nobody could see any of this?

Mm.

And then I started to build from a very different place. And it was not an overnight thing. This was a long, long process of unwinding, you know, feeling like if I walk away from everything, will I have any friends? Have I built friends based on my success? So much of that, I just had so much of my identity wrapped up in my ambition and success, or what I thought I should have. And it's interesting, because I went through a phase during this of, I don't want to run a business, I don't want to be an entrepreneur anymore, I just want to let it all go. And it was so deeply unfulfilling. I thought, I want to be a stay-at-home mom. This is just too much. I'm so exhausted. I can't see myself ever getting through postpartum depression. Like, I just couldn't see a way out. I'm going to stop it all. And it was really deeply unfulfilling to not have that purpose and drive. And it's been a really interesting journey being able to pair alignment and ambition together. And my ambition is a really big part of me. It brings me so much joy to build something to impact people.

And that has to be part of my life. But I want to do it in a way that doesn't sacrifice every other area of my life that I really deeply care about.

What you just said, I think, summarizes so many of the great takeaways in this book. So I know a lot of you are just getting your copy today. It just came out. what, 2 days ago? So congratulations on your launch week.

Thank you.

It's already a bestseller, already a bestseller on Amazon. No surprise, no surprise at all. But what you said about like your ambition and your alignment and bringing those together, 'cause I know for most of my life they were not, I didn't even know what it meant to be aligned. I was just driving, just like, you know, and it was never enough. And no matter what happened, it was always like, okay, that huge milestone happened, but I don't even think I felt it. I don't even think we celebrated. And it was like, I look back and, and there's, there's just so much I would do maybe a little differently. And, and I love so much that at such an early age in your life and career, you're really figuring this out. And this isn't a book that's like, oh, work-life balance. You talk about how you don't like that word in the book, but it's like, okay, how do you not miss out on everything that matters to you? And still do the things you really wanna pursue. And I think that's a delicate balance. I'm actually curious, um, for everyone in this room, because one of the things we were talking about is how do you know you're living your dream versus someone else's dream for you versus your parents' dream for you versus all that?

I'm curious in this room, um, raise your hand. And I, and I think this is something you could discover in your 90s. It doesn't matter what age you are, but raise your hand if you feel like you're super clear in your life right now about what you want in your career and in your life? Raise your hand if that's you. About 30% of the room. And raise your hand if you're sort of in that space of being open in the pursuit of that or in the becoming of that. 2/3 of the room. Okay, okay, that's good. So how do you know from your experience and just everything you've gone through, and Natalie coaches, by the way, Well, gosh, if you really do the math on how many people take your courses and take your things, it's countless, tens of thousands of people. But how do you know if, if you're on the right track in the, in your own calling and in the dream that's really the dream your creator has for you or the universe has for you, or you, the dream of who you're gonna be most fulfilled becoming versus society's dream or something else?

One, I would say, I think it changes in so many different seasons. I think that, that purpose, that desire to do something, that calling can change in so many different seasons. And I think it's really important not to resist that. But the second thing, I think we all know that feeling of when you wake up so excited, you cannot wait to jump out of bed to work on the thing or to do the thing. That is so, like, every entrepreneur knows that feeling. And it's, you could work on it, you know, 24/7 and you still have that excitement. It's by no means easy. But it's that. Life force energy that you get. I think there's a big difference between that and that dread. And it doesn't mean to say when you're doing something really aligned, you don't wake up and you think, I don't wanna do that part today, but there's always that big vision. I think you can still tap into that life force energy. And I think it's how entrepreneurs create things that, create things that people couldn't even imagine could be created because the amount of energy it takes, it just comes from somewhere else.

And I think that feeling is very palpable. Do you know what I mean? Did you have that?

I've had it at times. Yeah, I have it sitting with you right now, actually. Just like the— I love when other people are sharing their stories, and we can all come together. And, and I think that's good to use that feeling as like, okay, I'm on the right track. This is what I'm supposed to do. And if you're not having that feeling, you're not on the right track. Is that what you'd say?

I do, yes. And I think having absolute clarity is a myth.

Mm-hmm.

I think we have been sold this idea that every single one of us has a purpose. And I think our purpose changes as we go through life. In every season, in every decade, you've learned something new. The, the way you want to approach life, the impact you wanna have, it continues to change. And I think if we believe that we just have one sole passion or purpose, or we need to be so singular focused, we'll always feel like we're on the right track. I recently, um, me and my husband recently just put an offer in on a house, um, to move state. And I would say we were 70% sure on the house. And we both had said, this is amazing. We could really see ourselves bringing our kids up in the house. This is not quote unquote our absolute dream house, because for us, we hadn't spent a long time fantasizing about what that would look like or feel like. We just knew it would be all of us together in a certain location and we'd make it what it is. And I sometimes look at that with work and purpose when I'm trying to make a decision.

If I sit and wait to have 100% Yes, all in. This is me for the next 10 years. I think I'll be waiting a little bit too long. I like to get in the game, and I think it will leave clues and footsteps toward the thing. And maybe 30 years from now I'll say, oh, this is my absolute purpose. Or I could be doing something completely different, and I, and I hope I'm led in that direction and very open to hearing and receiving what that is.

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One of the things I've learned over the years is a lot of people, when they see somebody doing amazing things, they somehow think that they don't have what it takes. or that they're defective in some way, or they don't know the right people or have the right connections or come from the right family or X, Y, and Z. When people see you on the outside, right? It's easy, especially when they see everything online and everything on Instagram and everything out there. It's easy to think like, oh, did it, was it just handed to her? Did it just come easy? And it's interesting in my journey, I would say probably the biggest thing people write in about is they're like, you were a Denny's waitress and I waitressed at Coco's and now I start, and they get so You know what I mean? And it's like, it's that, like, it's that relatability. And the thing, one of the things of many that I love about your book is you really open up a bit about, about, you know, your childhood, about things that you come— can you share a little bit with everyone here? Because I think, I think it's a universal, as I see everyone's eyes, I think it's a universal thing where we all think like, do I have what it takes to do the thing that I would want to do if I had no fear?

Or, You know, could, could this thing that I dream about really happen for me? Or could I, could I really, you know, share all of who I am with the world? And will my friends still love me and my clients still love me? And we have all these thoughts, right? And so can you talk about, you know, the things maybe from your childhood that maybe people would be surprised to know, but that maybe have contributed to who you are today in a surprising way?

Yeah, I mean, I grew up with very little in the northeast of England. You know, there was weeks we didn't have food to put on the table. We would— we didn't grow up with a lot. And there was substance abuse in my home. It was a very violent home. It wasn't a safe place to land by any means. And I just always wanted different. There's no other way to describe it. But I grew up around that, just knowing and feeling like this wasn't my forever. And I always wanted different. I didn't grow up around entrepreneurs. entrepreneurs or seeing entrepreneurs, but I wanted different. And I really tried to make a point of finding examples of people that had built something, had done something different. And I didn't know what it would look like for me. The goal was really, how can I be in a situation where I'll always have choice over the way my home looks? I'll always have choice over the way, um, over the things I allow into my life and don't. And I think The fear never goes away. You know, the, the, the part of me that always wonders, you know, can I do it?

Am I, you know, I was telling Jamie, I was even having nightmares no one would turn up tonight. Like, there's still that part of me that's so curious and, uh, and, and wondering, can I do it? Will I be able to, to speak? Will I be in all of this? And I don't think that ever goes away. I really think it's a decision. And, you know, we were just talking about this upstairs, and I was asking you, when you put your mind to something, how do you How do you plan it out? Because you take such big swings and it really works out. But we all know behind the scenes what goes into that. And yes, it's a decision. And I think it's also a decision when we talk about work-life balance, you have to really decide what you want and to what level you want it. And you have to get so comfortable with that feeling within yourself that you're going to be put in really uncomfortable situations, that you're going to be in situations where Some people might not get what you're doing. Some people might not like what you're doing. Some people that you hoped would support you might not support what you're doing.

Do you want it enough? And I don't think there is a thing that separates anyone, anyone that I know that has built something incredible. I can't say there's one specific thing that they had that they were born with. I think it's just a resourcefulness.

Mm-hmm.

And I really think every single person has the ability to be resourceful. And that's what I see being the thing that helps you create amazing things.

So, you know, you talk a lot about— well, right now at this moment in time, there's a lot of sort of backlash toward hustle culture and burnout culture. And can you talk about your views on that? Because you've worked really, really hard. And but you're also, of course, giving, giving a whole plan in here, really, with granularity. I love one of the things you guys, that's another thing that's great about this book is there's a lot of tools in it. There's like tools, there's takeaways, there's actual, like, have you ever read a book or heard someone give a talk and you're like, that's great, but how? And you're like, huh? And then you leave. And like Natalie actually takes you through how, like there's like, I mean, it's, yeah. And a lot of extra resources in there, but can you talk about, Your views on, on hustle culture, burnout culture, uh, hard work. Have people then lost touch with hard work? Let's tell you all of it. Yeah.

Yeah.

There's a lot of backlash I feel right now on the hustle culture and the burnout memoir, the soft life, kind of soft ambition. It's, it goes viral cuz it sounds really good to our nervous systems, especially for those of us that have experienced burnout or that often do wonder if we should have less of an ambitious life. We see it and I think it can feel like that nervous system balm. But at the end of the day, I don't know anyone that has built something really incredible that hasn't worked really, really hard for it. I think there is a place for quote unquote hustle. And I think it's really important you just understand what season you're in. We all know what our priorities are. We all know what our top priorities are. And if you wanna build an incredible business, there are going to be many seasons where you don't have balance. There are gonna be many seasons where you let go of Some of the things that are actually really important to you. You know, right now I'm in book launch. And I generally like to think of myself as someone who works out a lot, sees my friends a lot.

Right now, I am a mum, and I'm launching a book because it is taking everything that I have. And I want to do a really good job. And I want to make myself proud. And making myself proud means I go all in on it. And between that and being a mum to my 2 girls, there is not a lot of me left. And I remember even coming into the book launch, having that conversation with my husband and saying, we're not going to be having the date nights and the things until this book is out. And I feel like we move into a new season. And that was really important for me firstly to communicate, but then be okay with within myself. Because I think if I have the acceptance of the season I'm in, I don't feel the guilt so much. But I think to, to think that you can either do it the soft way or the hustle way is very black or white thinking. And I think it's selling people a lie. I think the content we see around building something in a couple of hours a week, you might build something that feels good to you in a couple hours a week.

But at the end of the day, you're not going to build the thing that's your highest vision with this huge ambition in a couple hours a week. And I just think it is selling a lie to say that. We all know how important hard work is.

Mm-hmm.

We all know the seasons it takes when we're in that build phase. And when you've built something and you've reached a certain point and you can maybe take your foot off the gas and And find a little bit of balance again, great. And then I'm gonna guess there's another level you wanna go to. And so you're, you rearrange your priorities. And I think the way to do it without the consistent burnout is seasons. It's understanding what season you're in, being very present to that, letting go of the guilt of not being able to pour into all 10 buckets in life, but then coming back to that, coming back to what's really important to you and making sure that hustle isn't your entire life. If that's not aligned with your values, if you have other priorities. Making sure they actually do get a lock-in.

One thing too that I loved in your book, and you and I have talked on, Natalie and I have been friends for, for a few years, and we've talked at length about the topic of momentum and what happens if you pause for a few years. Can you, are you just done? Can you lose momentum or are you actually the generator of momentum? Are you the creator of momentum? Are you, are the momentum? And I think I'm excited for everyone to read that part. I know there's people in this room actually that have had different seasons in their life, and then they're like, okay, well, I'm, I think I'm ready to start again on this idea. I'm not sure though, and I don't wanna burn out this time. Uh, and then there's other people who's like, have I lost too much momentum because I've been in a different season for a long time? And I'm a firm believer that you're never too old, it's never too late. You're the generator of your own momentum. Uh, one of my best friends always says, uh, Uh, you know, you get that feeling, oh, I've gotta strike while the iron's hot.

I've gotta strike while the iron's hot. She has very strong faith in her life and she's like, the iron's always hot with God. Like if it's, you know what I mean? And it's like, yeah, that's true. And I love that you talk about that in the book. One thing, um, before we dive into social media, how do you build it? What if you got no money and you don't wanna hire a team? What do you do? How do you, uh, uh, uh, use AI now? What, what, how is that changing the game? We're gonna dive into that. But I wanna ask you about one thing you talk a lot about in here that I think a lot of people in this room will identify with. You talk about your journey going to Hoffman. You talk about a lot of things that you've been through, and you talk about in a business book the power of actually healing your nervous system. Can you share a little bit about that with everyone in the room?

Yeah, I feel really, really strongly that as entrepreneurs, our nervous system is one of our biggest assets. For a lot of entrepreneurs, what I have noticed is they have grown up in or feel very familiar in chaotic situations. And I think for a lot of entrepreneurs, it's a superpower because it makes you the, the person that is very resourceful, that can always take on more, that can be the person that shows up and comes through in a really stressful situation. So I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but I don't think we can let a dysfunctional, chaotic nervous system run the show. Or you will always face burnout. And I think it's a real superpower to understand how to move yourself into functional dysfunction and into a functional nervous system state, into a regulated nervous system state, and make sure that you're building from a place of both. I found healing my nervous system from a place of being very dysregulated many, many times has been one of the best things I've ever done for myself. I think it shows up in my relationships. It shows up in the way that I lead my team.

It shows up in the way that I put specific systems and processes in place. And it allows me— we have— we talk about a window of tolerance when you think about the nervous system, a window of tolerance where you can really feel like you're still regulated, but taking on a lot. And what is that window of tolerance that you have before you move into dysfunction, but before things feel a bit chaotic and your body starts to— shut down and go into fight or flight. And I think as entrepreneurs, learning how to widen that window of tolerance is really, really important because it allows you to really go for the things and to be in really high situations or low lows and still feel very regulated. And I don't think nervous system is something that you need to go and take a 2-week retreat to learn how to tap into and regulate. I think it's one of those things that if you do a little bit of, of a somatic experience, if you allow yourself to actually come into your body versus just operating from the neck The body can tell you a lot, and just tapping into it and bringing awareness to it, I think, is really powerful.

And for me, I know I didn't have any awareness of my nervous system. I didn't have any awareness of what was going on in my body. And when I was building my businesses, that showed up in every area of my life, and specifically my health. I remember being told by 3 gynecologists I would never get pregnant naturally. You know, I didn't have a cycle for 10 years. I was just in constant— constant stress mode. And healing my nervous system at the— is one of the, I would say, root cause things I did to completely change my health outcome. And I just don't think entrepreneurs talk about it enough. I think it's incredibly, incredibly important.

Can you talk about— and you, you share some of this in your book— um, can you talk about some of the modalities that you've brought into your life and some of the practices and some of the, um, tools that you've woven into your life to get to where you are now nervous system-wise?

Yeah, I mean, I feel like I threw the kitchen sink at it. I did every type of therapy that you can imagine. And I did the retreats and the things. But if I had to distill it down into one thing that I think has really moved the needle for me, it would be quiet time. I had no idea how little space I was actually giving myself to regulate. If I was going on a walk, I was always listening to a podcast. If I was going to the bathroom, I always had my phone. Right? I was in the endless scroll, and it's embarrassing to admit, but I was so scared to be alone with myself and my thoughts and my body. And that one shift has changed everything. I have an 8-month-old. She's always screaming and needing something from me. And that and the business and all of the things I notice right now in the season, I don't have time for the meditation every day. But if I can go into the gym and do a small workout where I have nothing going on and just my thoughts, or I can take a walk for 10 minutes and just be by myself.

That can be the biggest nervous system regulator, to just go out and notice your breath. And it's not fancy, and it's not a tool, and it's not the vagus nerve. It's just being by myself has made the world of difference. And I think everyone, entrepreneur or not, should allow themselves that time in a day, even if it's 5 minutes and you sit with a cup of tea. I'm British. That's how we do it. Just sit 5 minutes. with no podcast, no book, no phone, no scrolling, and just sit. And you'll be so surprised what your body can do. You'll be so surprised how much regulation is already sitting there and ready for you. But I just wasn't allowing it in. I felt like I had to habit stack 5 things going at once, you know, the red light, the this, that, and the other. And just stopping doing that has changed everything for me.

So I wanna switch, um, to social media, AI, all the things right now. We're in such a state of uncertainty. I think no matter what industry anyone's in, no matter if they're using AI or not, actually raise your hand if you're using any form of AI in your life right now.

Wow.

Yeah, that's 90% of the room. I know there's people in this room that have already outsourced their entire— I mean, all their email inboxes, everything they have. I mean, their whole everything, the way their businesses run, everything. And then there's other people that are sort of dipping their toe in it. A lot of people, regardless of people that were in industries that felt, you know, certain forever, like rock solid forever, and now everything's sort of being flipped on its head. So I want to dive into both because you have, you know, here's the thing I always say. There's a lot of people out there that like They're really good at talking about something, but they've never actually like done the thing they talk about, right? They're just really good at talking about it. And there's a lot of sort of those kind of experts online. Why I was excited to— one of many reasons I was excited to, to chat with you today is because you've actually done it. You've actually figured out how do you grow social media? How do you incorporate AI into all different things? How do you, you know, grew an 8-figure business, um, literally through social media and through, and through doing all of this.

And you have figured out from a digital marketing perspective and a technology perspective and AI, how do you actually build what you want to build, um, without wasting money on things that you don't need and, and a bloated team and bloated payroll and all that? And how do you do it lean and smart? So first question, I wanna start with social media for There's a lot of people in this room who are solopreneurs, um, uh, who wanna grow their social media or their podcast or their online business or their meal delivery business or whatever it might be that they're passionate about or gain awareness to their personal brand as a physician. Um, and they're trying to figure out, you know, how do I do this? Because I don't wanna go hire a big agency or a team. So just, just to start there, what are some of your tips for people on how do they build their social media right now?

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So the first thing I would say is anyone can build a big audience on social media, a community that actually know, like, and trust you. And that can be a phenomenal vehicle for building a business. So there's only 3 types of content that you ever need to be aware of. It's content that grows your audience, content that builds your brand, and content that converts. And so content that grows your audience, that's your follower count. Content that builds your brand. That's the community that's building know, like, and trust so that when you put an offer out there, people actually buy. And then there's content that converts, and it's getting people off of your social media platform onto a longer platform, onto your website. It's actually driving that traffic to a sale. So when it comes to actually growing on social media, it's actually so much simpler than anyone thinks. It's not about the format. It's not about what's trending. Every single person that is growing on social media has figured out one thing, and that is their growth content. So the way that you do this is first you try, you test. And if you are completely brand new to social media, I have a process called the 10 by 10.

I talk about it in the book. It is you go and find 10 people who have big audiences of your ideal follower, client, your ideal demographic base, and you find their 10 most viral pieces of content. Now I'm a spreadsheet girl. You can also have AI help you do this now. You can have AI help you create the spreadsheet. You go and put those 10 pieces for every person in that spreadsheet, and you go in and study because success leaves clues. And by the end of seeing those 100 pieces of content, you should have a pretty good idea of what your demographic really resonate with and what goes viral in that niche. And what I mean by viral is not when you see someone going on the morning news. What it means is when you scroll their feed and you see 1,000 likes, 1,000 likes, 10,000 likes. Something has really taken off for them and it's an outlier piece of content. That's the kind of content that you want to study. And you'll put all 100 pieces of content into this spreadsheet. I wouldn't have AI outsource this entire process because the purpose of this is to learn.

Now, I have not had, and I really mean this, a single person fully complete this challenge and not gone viral. I really, really haven't. And I have had Many, many, many people go through this challenge. You know, I have. And so what you'll do is you'll study the content and there's certain things you'll look for. Is it a sentiment that goes viral? Is it the format? Is it the way that they phrased it? And I'll tell you for Boss Babe what it is. There is one thing that we have done, um, that has had us completely go viral. And it is, we are able to sum up in one post something that someone feels but hasn't had the words to say themselves or hasn't wanted to say themselves, but they will share our content because it sums it up or it will say it for them. And that's been what we've done from the very beginning, and that's still our growth content. For most people, it is that— it is that thing where you sum something up and it's very shareable. But again, you look at those 100 pieces of content and you think about how can I repurpose this?

How can I reuse this? How can I make this reflective of my niche and my expertise and what I do? And you put it out there and you start to gather data. AI can be amazing for helping you gather data now. It doesn't need to be as manual as it used to be, but you wait till you find your outlier. And when you find your outlier, that's it. That's gold for you. And you do that as many times as you can, as often as you can. And the 2 things that you're focusing on with, with with a social media account is quality and quantity. The person that is going to create compounding content, content that brings in audience, the audience stays, the audience builds around you, and then in turn buys from you. It's high-quality content, the content that's the outlier content, and then a high quality of it. You know, coming back to the hard work and the advice people don't want to hear, I posted 4 times a day, 7 days a week, and I've not taken a day off. And that's It's always been the way that we've done it. I posted when I was hungover, when I hadn't slept, when I had nothing to say, when I didn't want to.

I posted and I stuck with it. And I think that's really key. But the first thing is find that kind of the, the one piece of outlier content that's gonna work for you and do as much of it as you can. And I promise you, whatever your goal is for whatever you wanna grow, that is an amazing, amazing way to do it. And it's almost, you know, impossible not to grow. And then you start to bring another piece of content, you bring in the content that builds you as a brand and it's your uniqueness and it's not maybe the thing that goes viral, but it's the thing that people connect to and the reason that they wanna be there, the reason they wanna stay. And when you cycle those 3 types of content, that's how you really build the audience. And anyone can do it. It's, it's honestly a formula anyone can replicate.

I love too that you share in the book, you know, we have this idea of things going viral as like, oh, millions of people saw it overnight. And you kind of define viral as no anyone outside of your current followers that sees Yeah. That's now gone viral, right? And so that's like such a great measurement because if you have, maybe you have 50 people following your restaurant right now, and if you do a post on, you know, a recipe or a secret or a technique, whatever it might be, and now all of a sudden 200 saw that, that's like, okay, that's huge. That's huge. And you just start doubling down on where you find that, that spot. And you, she gets very granular in this book, which I love because honestly, like I, in the past few decades of worked with so many different social media agencies, and there's so many people that really don't know, they're guessing. And you like get granular with exactly what to do, no matter where you're at with your journey, no matter if you're just posting, you know, your personal brand or you're, you know, helping a kid build their company or whatever it might be.

And the tools that you give, I think, are, are so specific. One thing that you share is because a lot of people go, okay, I'm launching this. And I need to be on every platform— TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, like everything, um, Substack, everywhere. And you talk about how critical it is to get one platform right first before you're everywhere. And I think that scares people because they're like, oh, well, I might miss out and all that. But can you share just your, your, your views on that? Because you're very strong on that.

Yes, I think one short-form platform is really important. And I think one long-form platform is really important. So a short-form platform is your social media account. It's where You have followers and your content has a bit of a shorter shelf life. And then a long-form platform is something like a podcast or an email list. It's where people actually come and join a community, a more of an owned audience. And so I think it's incredibly important to focus on one social media account because it's very, very difficult to have all of your attention fragmented on so many different channels and do it really well. I think there's this idea that repurposing is the way to be on all the platforms. I'm yet to find someone who simply makes one piece of content and repurposes it for every single, like every single platform and has done really, really well on a platform. From the beginning, I focused on Instagram and I had so many people telling me you're making such a mistake not getting on TikTok at this time, you're making such a mistake not doing fill in the blank. And And I have grown an outsized social media account because I focused, because I could see where I was getting momentum.

I got really good at that content format and I really doubled down. And when I felt like, and I talk a lot about this idea of playbooking in the book, when I felt like I had a formula that I could hand off to someone else and the growth wouldn't drop, the conversion wouldn't drop, the sentiment wouldn't drop. then I will turn my attention somewhere else. But if I have to let go of something that's working really well to turn my attention to building something else, that will have really detrimental effects on the business, and it's just not worth it. And I think if I'd started out trying to do everything, I don't think I would've built the size of community that I actually have. And, you know, Boss Babe's a household name now. We're in every single Walmart store across the country. We have moved off of Instagram, we've moved off of social media, but I didn't need to be on every single social media account to make happen. And I think it's just such a misconception that you'll miss out. I truly, truly believe if you compound and you focus, the, the results of that will be outsized.

And when Natalie's saying, you know, we think we just have to repurpose something on every platform, she means just take the one thing you posted and post it everywhere in that format, and that that doesn't typically work. And I think this takes a lot of pressure off people who feel like, how am I going to be on everything everywhere with what I'm doing? And you did $40 million in revenue through Instagram just by doing it really well and figuring that out. So I want to ask you how right now in your life and in your business do you use AI exactly?

I use it in every area of my life except the actual content creation that comes from me. And I tried it for that. It wasn't right for me. I felt like it diluted a lot of the performance of the content. So I use it everywhere. So the biggest thing that I did was I graduated from AI being a chatbot. I started to have it actually execute for me. So AI runs a lot of competitor analysis on content and feeds me back reports. AI fully analyzes, you know, our project management tools, all of our team meetings, Slack, to see what's being dropped, what's not being hit. It looks at all of our community and customer sentiment. We have outsourced 90% of our customer service to AI. We have built a lot of platforms that help us to track our highest LTV customers so we can take care of them. We can make sure that we know who they are, what they're buying, why they're buying it. In my personal life, I use it for a lot of life admin. It handles my emails too. I don't have it actually send emails on my behalf, but every morning goes in and it triages and it puts lots of drafts in my email inbox.

Um, you know, I have certain ones set up that just save me a lot of time. I don't know about you, but I am like a serial screenshotter. I screenshot so many different things on Instagram. Anyone else a serial screenshotter? So what I built with Claude was, um, this workflow that when I screenshot something, I immediately go put it into Claude in a certain skill, and it takes it, it understands the context of what it is, and it categorizes it into a spreadsheet for me. So So, you know, say I screenshot someone that just tagged their glam, I go put it in Claude. Claude immediately knows, oh, this is a screenshot where she's being recommended glam. Let me go put it into the correct spreadsheet and categorize their location. Or if I put a screenshot of a book into Claude, it immediately knows, oh, let's put this on her reading list. And so no longer, oh, well, my screenshot's just going to die in my screenshot folder, but they actually have a shelf life. So I try and use it for any kind of repeatable processes that I have. in my life or business. And what I'm trying to do is free myself up to do the thing that I really love, which is content.

I absolutely love content and I love to work with clients. And so I'm trying to make that my thing and systemize everything around that. Um, we're also using it to replace a lot of the softwares that we were using in the business that we felt like just were a little bit janky. Um, one thing inside this book is we actually put a QR code and a resource page, and we were previously just gonna have it go to a bunch of downloadable resources. And what we actually did was I used AI to build a really in-depth quiz where every single question in the quiz had logic. So it would learn something about you and save that. And so by the end of the quiz, it actually has you, it takes you into your very own, what we call Boss Babe Hub, where it knows everything about the way you're running your business, the stage of business that you are at. It recommends certain chapters and resources in the book. It has an AI bot you can chat back and forward to that knows everything about the book in depth that can coach you through some of the exercises.

And it basically has this reading list of all of the resources. And so we're using it to— in the past, you know, I would have just done a static landing page with the resources on. I really believe that the future of marketing is hyper-personalization because of AI. And so right now I'm constantly looking at, okay, my limitation previously with quiz software was I could only put logic on a couple of questions and it was very generic flow. Whereas now I can speak to my laptop. I use Whisperflow and Claude and Replit. That's 3 tools that I love. I can speak to my computer, tell it exactly what I'm envisioning, have it come up with a plan for me, and then build it. And we built that entire platform start to finish in 2 weeks, and we've stress tested it. It's really, really robust and it's very personal. And so I'm gonna see how I can roll that out in all areas of the business that clients touch.

I'm imagining you as a little girl, and I'm just, just marveling at you right now, um, in everything you've done, and also the person who you are in your heart, uh, how you are as a friend. Uh, but I wanna ask you one granular thing about what you just shared. So can you just talk for everyone in this room, the 3 tools you just mentioned?

Yes.

So, so which ones do you use? What do you, what do you use them for? And this is gonna be, This is going to be like a real person question. How did you start using AI and how did you figure out how to get to where you are with those tools? How did you figure it all out to where you're at now?

A great question. Okay, so the 3 tools that I use, these 3 tools, you might want to write them down if you want to get into this. The first is WhisperFlow, and what this is basically means that you can just speak to your computer versus having to type. And what's really cool about this is when you are working with AI, you can have conversations with AI a lot faster than you can type back and forth. I discovered this when I was very early postpartum with my second, and I'm lying in bed holding her. I have no free hands. And my husband was like, you know, you could download this thing called WhisperFlow and you can speak to your laptop. And that's where it completely changed my life. So WhisperFlow is great. You can use it with or without any AI tools. The second tool I use the most is Claude Code. So I use Claude Code for basically setting up any, any kind of system. I treat it as an employee, anything I would normally ask someone else to do or want to do myself. That's what I use it for. Now, the biggest thing that I find is people hear the word code and think they need to be techie.

The number one thing you can do to learn AI, I think, is open up Claude Code and pick one project, one project that you have— maybe it's been sitting on your shelf. So one thing for us in the company was we had all of this customer feedback and we'd done nothing with it. And I, you know, to ask my team to do it, it would've taken them months and they kept putting it off 'cause it was a monotonous, boring job. And so I said, okay, I'm really gonna learn how to use Claude Code, which means I'm really going to learn how to use this tool that can go and build things for me. And so what I did is I put Claude Code in what's called plan mode, and it's just a little button at the bottom called plan mode. And I spoke to it. I said, I have this project, it's categorizing testimonials. I have them in Google Drive, I have them on my website, I have them in all of these different places. How can we work together on building a website with every single testimonial I have categorized and present a plan back to me.

And I said, cool, let's go. And that, just one project like that, can show you and teach you all you need to know about what AI can do. Because you can hear about it and it sounds really techie. It sounds like you need to know what you're doing. When I tell you I'm the least— I was the least techie person. Was like finding a charger was challenging for me. So I was very intimidated going into this, but just doing one project like this took my confidence from, from 0 to 100 because I realized it's just like speaking to a really smart person and you don't have to be embarrassed about the way you phrase it because it just understands and it asks you questions back and it presents plans to you. And that just doing one project, it's ripping the bandaid off. And that muscle of building confidence in yourself with AI will be the thing that changes everything for you. It won't specific tool or anything. So that's Claude Code. And the third tool is Replit. I love Replit. Now, the way I would see Replit is as a web designer or developer, you know, it can build real, like it can build a landing page or a website in minutes.

It built our entire quiz flow. And so you can chat on the side with Replit and it's like chatting to a real person. So it feels like, but it's building in real time on this part of your screen. And so the way that I work with it is I go to Claude and I have it come up with a project plan of what I wanna build. So I went to Claude and said, I wanna build this, um, AI platform for my book, which, you know, if I was doing this a couple of years ago, that's hundreds of thousands of dollars and months, months of work and stress. 2 weeks, this platform. So I had it come up with a plan and I took that plan and I put it inside of Replit and I had a working prototype within an hour. And, you know, it took then a bit of work on the backend to just to, to fix it. I didn't have to do anything. I just kept saying, how do I make this functional for if I wanna have 100,000 people go through this? What do I need to think about? And it tells you what you need to know.

So those are the 3 tools. That's how I've learned how to use it. And what I don't recommend is spending your time watching YouTube videos, listening to podcasts, like listening to all of us talk about it. I think it's, it's a great way to have ideas for projects, but you will still see the barrier in your mind because we're used to hearing techie things like this and there being a learning curve, and there is one, but you'd be so surprised how much easier than you think. Like, the way that you can talk to Claude, you just say, I don't understand, say it again. Or my favorite line with Claude Code, it'll tell me to go do something and it sounds really complicated and I don't understand a thing that it's saying because I, I don't understand that, that tech thing. It'll say, now I need you to go in and connect this and do this and do this. My favorite line, this is the, the techie-est line, you should all remember 3 words. You do it. That's it. That's my, that's my secret weapon. It will tell me that I need to go and do this thing that sounds really techy and complicated, and I just say, you do it.

Guess what?

It does it. It does it. And so I keep saying, you do it, you do it, you do it. And every now and then I'll say, Natalie, I'm promising you this is the one thing I can't do.

And it—

Okay.

Then I'll go do it. But that happens very rarely. That's if you need to get a certain thing to paste into it, like you need to log into an account that it doesn't want to log into. Those are the magic 3 words when you're working with AI. So if any of you are interested, and I could talk about AI for hours and I won't, sorry, but if any of you really do want to get into it, my, my challenge to you is pick one repeatable process, one thing you do in your life on a daily or weekly basis, and think about doing this as a project in Claude Code. So you'll download Claude onto your computer to use code. And you'll just go tell it the, the thing you wanna do and just see what you create. I promise you, as someone that is not techie, I promise you on the other side of that, you will shock yourself at how capable and competent you are with it.

I tried, you do it, you do it in marriage. Doesn't work the same as that as AI, but that is genius. That is genius. Whatever it tells you to do, you do it.

You do it.

And it does it.

It's the magic 3 words.

That is amazing. Um, okay, I wanna open it up to Q&A. Uh, there's so much more I wanna talk to you guys. There is a whole chapter in this book called Resentment, and it is so powerful. It is so powerful. And it talks about even business partnerships and what happens if you let resentment fester and the power of resentment. And there's so much in this book, so much more about also social media and AI. Um, so I wanna ask you one more question, then we're gonna open it up for Q&A, and that's really, for the person who's here right now going, Natalie, I've tried everything. I've been posting online and I did this and I'm using AI and nothing's selling and no one's seeing my stuff. And what would you tell them right now? Like what to do, where to start, what to do?

I would say for the person that is trying all the things and you don't feel like you're getting momentum in any direction, strip it back, really strip it back to basics and first just look at what is my product? Do I have product-market fit? Is this a product that people are willing to pay for? And the easiest, simplest way to figure that out is get in front of your ideal clients. And so one way of doing it is maybe you get into a Facebook group where you know your ideal clients are hanging out, and you get on 10 phone calls with people, and you actually see if they're interested and would buy this thing. And on the call, maybe you tell them about it, maybe you offer them a little bit of value in that space. If it's wellness or beauty, And you see if they want to buy it, you get feedback, you start to get that signal of whether this thing is valuable and actually works for people. If that is true, and you do have product market fit, and you know you've got something that works, then we've pulled back, we start to think about what is the strategy we put in place.

Because when we talk about momentum, I really think when you look at people that create massive momentum, it's very strategic. They don't just, just start and throw everything out there and just run themselves in every single direction. It's normally quite strategic. Okay, I'm gonna go on to this one platform, and first my goal is going to be I'm going to build a community, or I'm gonna build an audience, or maybe I don't desire to build something organically, but I'm going to start using ads, and I'm going to learn everything I can about ads and how to get this product in front of the right person on a continuous basis. Because that, that's all business is.

It's—

it can be simple if you just— I'm going to get my product in front of people on a regular basis. And growing that is a way that we grow it. So we just strip it back and think through that. And so one product, just think about one product that really has product-market fit. You get onto one platform and you really do that until it works. You figure out what you need to do on that one platform to start seeing growth, and you direct them toward one funnel. And a funnel sounds fancy, but it's basically be your checkout page, or it's your email list where you then invite them to buy something, or it's a sales call, or it's a meeting. Um, it— that's, that's all a funnel is. It's how do we take people from, you know, this wider audience to actually being ready to make the purchase. And so you think about, okay, this one product that's got product-market fit on this one platform, and I'm really building a community and connecting with my ideal clients, and I take them into this one funnel And you get that working. You figure out what that looks like for your product.

And if you have no idea, go find 10 people that are doing it. Go and find 10 companies that are doing it and take a look at what they're doing and figure out which one of these things you want to do and really get that working. And when you unlock momentum in that, that's how you figure out what compounding looks like. And you get to drive it harder. You get to, to make it bigger. You get to think about whether you expand beyond that. But if we try and do all the things, I think that's just a recipe for feeling like we're not cut out for this. Like we haven't got something people wanna buy, that we'll never make it work, and we're exhausted. And so I really, really think simpler is better in the beginning when you're really trying to get something working. Simple is your superpower, and the longer you can keep it simple and really hone in your expertise on that one thing is where I think you'll unlock that compounding.

Thank you. And really quick, the 3 AI platforms that are your 3 faves, are you on the highest paid tier for all of them? The highest paid level?

Yes.

Yep.

Okay, great.

We're going to open it up to Q&A. We have lots of, lots of hands.

Great.

Natalie and Jamie, I know that you both have daughters, I believe, right? So my question connects to the next generation. And by the way, I should tell you, Natalie, I have a brand called Boss Beauty. But it's for younger girls. It's actually for kids and preteens. So they're the future boss babes.

Yes.

Right?

But here's my question.

So last fall I was brought in, I went into Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon's event, and I did this workshop that was so meaningful to me. It was for teen girls that were attending the event with their moms. And I did a talk about dreaming your most impossible dreams. And after that, all the girls wrote down their dreams in my book. But what I noticed, I went around and I was just having these conversations with these girls. I said, what's your dream? What are you hoping to do? And about 90% of them actually said that they wanted to build their own businesses someday and they wanted to be an entrepreneur, right? So when you're thinking, Natalie, about what you're teaching with your methods and what's in your book and just what you're teaching, to your community through Boss Babes, right? How do you think about that and how it applies to the next generation? I mean, Girl Scouts is actually, I don't know if you knew this, the largest entrepreneurship program for girls, and they're, they're looking for things like that, right? So I'm curious your perspective on that.

I love that question so much. And I think that for me, the best thing I can do is be an example of what it looks like to really love what you do, to not make your ambition wrong. and to chase your dreams. And I try to be that person that, you know, when I was younger, when I was a teenager looking at other women, I try and be that woman that really leads by that example. And I hope that's something my girls, you know, see. I don't try and push—

I'm not—

as they grow up, I'm not going to try and push them in a direction. But one thing I always try and reiterate is just how much I love what I do. And I think that's a really cool way to look at work. And I'm curious what you'd say, Jamie.

Yeah, no, I think that's perfect. I know there's a lot of hands, so I want to make sure we get to them for you. Yeah. Yeah.

Great.

Hi, I'm Kate. I'm also an entrepreneur and a mom. Thank you both so much for beautiful conversation and everything you do. I had a question about something you were talking about earlier with your purpose and kind of passions changing with the season of life, which I 100% agree with and have felt in all of those things. I'm curious how you reconcile that with focus in scaling a business, particularly when you get past that like 0 to 1 and you're in the scaling phase and sometimes it's not as, um, fun and glamorous as the early stages. So just curious how you think about balancing like passion, purpose, and focus, if that makes sense.

Yeah, that's a really good question. You know, one of my my membership that I've had, we've had for 11 years now. And there has been times where I've been really bored of doing the same thing day in, day out. What has really worked for me to not get distracted by the shiny things is to find the parts of my job that are really fun and creative for me, where I feel like I get that, that newness and that new sense of energy. And I try and line that up with ways that compound the brand. And so So I love creating brands. I love that. I love the visual element. I love the, all of it, the brand pillars, everything. And so instead of using that to create multiple different brands, I try and do mini launches where we come up with really fun campaigns and I throw my energy behind that, but it all drives toward the membership. So one example is we did a campaign last summer called Freedom High, where we created this full virtual high school called Freedom High. And we fully took our audience back to school, which is so funny because they were moms ready need to go back to into the school year with their kids.

And we made it '90s and nostalgic, and it was a fun way for me to flex my creativity without starting something completely brand new. And then we opened up the doors to our membership. And so that's how I try and look at it, because I notice if I just get distracted by every new idea and every shiny thing, I don't think I'm really giving myself the best shot at building the business, if that makes sense.

Hi, Natalie and Jamie. Thank you for sharing your stories. I'm Natasha. I wanted to ask a question about the generational healing that you did and how did you reconcile that old world? I can relate, uh, without going into details, but when you become successful and you move into another energy, but you still have family and friends that maybe couldn't change their circumstances? How did you reconcile, reconcile that with grace and make peace with the past, but maybe bring them now?

That's a great question. I don't know that I have the perfect answer for that. But my answer is that I stopped trying to change other people and just focused on myself. And my relationship with certain people became so much more enjoyable and joyful when I fully accepted them for who they are, and I didn't try to make them come on the journey I'm on. And I just could really accept that was where they are and trust if they do ever want to move into different spaces, that I'd be there to support them. But it wasn't— just because I wanted it for myself doesn't mean everybody does. And letting that be okay and just seeing them for who they are.

Hi, I'm Christy, client of Natalie's, and I can vouch for her process. My business grew like over 100,000 followers, I think, in a month on social media and hundreds of thousands in revenue. But as a therapist, I'm really curious if you have a decision-making, or either you have a decision-making process with AI, because I find myself getting really excited by these conversations and also like, okay, what feels like it's taking me out of, like you said, what the content is taking me out of my true like essence or my voice and what feels like, okay, this is a good use of it. So do you have a process of like noticing intuitively, you know, what feels aligned in that way? And then when you feel like, okay, maybe this is taking me out of my kind of zone of genius or my true like Passion and purpose?

I love this question because I really think one of the harder things right now for founders is you can do absolutely anything and everything, and it's very tempting to do everything and anything. So a couple of things. Number one, I have, um, a set of things I ask myself when I'm thinking about what I'm going to do with AI. Is this going to drive more revenue, drive better results, or save time? And if it's not going to do any of those 3 things, I think about why I would be doing it. And another question I found myself asking a lot Is, would I still do this if I wasn't using AI? Because a lot of times I was in the excitement of it and learning what AI can do. I was just doing everything, a system for this and a spreadsheet for this, and it wasn't really moving the needle. It was just very organized. Yet when I started asking myself, would I do this without AI, I started to focus on the things that actually would drive the business forward. And so what I'm trying to do is the things that I know really move the needle in the business.

and just making it more efficient or, or making it bigger because of AI.

I think we have time for one more, one more question.

Good, Riley?

Yeah, great.

Okay, we'll do 2 more. Last 2.

I know that was very kind of you, by the way, so we can share. Um, is this thing on?

Okay.

Yes.

Hi, I'm Kara. Um, I started my business when I was 21. I'm 33 now. And, um, my experience was very DIY. It was very fumbling through a lot of challenges, struggles, imposter syndrome. But I really envision my next step to write a book. Um, I have a lot of silly stories and moments I wanna share, but also guidance and wisdom that I think could help, as she kind of mentioned, the boss beauties. Um, what would you, what's the one piece of advice that you would give to someone who wants to write a book and what would that be? For the next step?

For me personally, if I was starting from scratch and I knew I wanted to write a book, I would focus on building a community. I think that's really important because at the end of the day, you really want your book to be read. You want it to have the impact that it has, and you know, you want to give it the best shot. And so building a community, I think, opens up that door. It's a great way to get feedback. It's a great way to see what's resonating. And it means when you launch it, you actually have a community that it was meant for. So that's what I would do. And it goes— I say that a lot. I think building a community today, especially in the age of AI, is your moat. A lot of brands are now really scrambling to own their distribution. So I think it's incredibly important. And if you do that, I think you really separate yourself. So that would be my advice.

Thank you, by the way, and thank you both for being here. This is a great learning opportunity for me. So for those entrepreneurs who have a specifically maybe more of like a physical product or, or just an area where they just, they really need to find investors, Do you touch on that in the book? Um, what's your advice in seeking investment in your—

Yeah, great question. I don't, that's not my area of expertise. I'm curious what you would answer for that one.

It depends what stage the business is in. I would have another job bringing in revenue to fund the business and not give away any equity when it's that early on. What, what so many people do is they give away way too much because it's not worth anything yet. And then all of a sudden someone's controlling your decisions, someone's all of that, and it just, it rarely ends well. So I would try to self-fund it as long as I could. If I were her and she wanted to bring in new blood, I wouldn't do it through investment if she can hold off. You could do it through an advisory board and maybe just give a tiny, tiny, tiny piece of the upside to bring in new people to kind of have fresh, fresh look at it. I would try to hold onto it as long as possible. Yeah, well, we, we brought in private equity 4 and a half years into IT Cosmetics. And, and by the time we sold our business, we were still the largest shareholders. And that made all the difference because if my gut told me one thing, I could trust it.

I didn't have to launch a product or change a formula or something like that because I didn't have the control. And I don't think that— I just think when it's, when it's the early stages, it's too soon. If you can avoid it at all costs, try to get new blood in there different ways. Um, without bringing in their money, just giving them a piece in the upside later is what I would do. And one more thing to add to the book, um, if building your own community is not something that you wanna do, I, I 100% agree with what Natalie said, by the way, own your distribution and you can ensure the success of your book. But you can also do that in other ways. I would say that the thing that people don't tell authors, there are, there are millions. I don't remember the number. It's over a million new books in the US every year. Most people never know they exist. So when you think about how many incredible stories and incredible just wisdom and, and inspiration and talent and poetry and words that just exists out there, no one knows it's there.

What I didn't realize until my first book is they said all of the marketing falls on the author, all of it. And the publisher, no matter how big, no matter how great, they'll have an in-house marketing department and they will help. Uh, but pretty much it all falls on you. So figuring out what does that marketing look like now, and maybe it's not your own community. It might be like, oh, you know what, I'm going to figure out how to get my book in these communities that exist, or I'm going to figure out— I mean, there's a lot of ways to do it also, but it's through your distribution. You almost have to own the marketing and the distribution. It's all going to fall on you, which feels daunting because a lot of people that write books are not marketers. Right. Yet it all exactly right. Yet it all falls on you. So knowing that ahead of time, um, I think is important.

Yeah.

Yeah. You guys, Natalie Ellis.

Yeah.

Amazing. Congratulations. Thank you for first ever book, already a bestseller. She's gonna stay and sign books for anyone who would like that and say hello to everyone. Um, so what a gift. She flew in here to be with you guys tonight, and thank you for doing that. Coming and visiting Summerlin and Montecito and all of us, and for your precious time. Congratulations on your book, and she is here to meet each one of you. So thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you all so much. Thank you, Jamie.