April 23, 2025

85: Building a Seven-Figure Hands Off Business with Trina Julian

85: Building a Seven-Figure Hands Off Business with Trina Julian
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Season 4

What do free lunch money, a horse, and a seven-figure landscaping company have in common? Trina Julian.

In this episode, Jess and Brandon dive into how Trina built Country Girl Gardens from a $10K side hustle into a seven-figure business—all with one goal in mind: freedom. From day one, she designed her company to run without her, documenting every process, system, and role. So when a horseback riding accident sidelined her, the business kept thriving—thanks to her standard operating procedures. 

Her exit wasn’t luck. It was strategy.

Now, Trina’s on a mission to help service-based entrepreneurs build businesses that run and sell without them. If you’re stuck in a business that feels more like a job, this episode is your wake-up call.

Listen in for real talk on building wealth, scaling smarter, and creating a business that doesn’t own you.

Visit prenups.com/sugardaddy to learn more about fair prenups that help couples plan for a healthy financial relationship.

Watch this episode in video form on YouTube

To apply to be a guest on the show

You can email us at: thesugardaddypodcast@gmail.com

Be sure to connect with us on socials @thesugardaddypodcast we are most active on Instagram

Learn more about Brandon and schedule a free 30-minute introductory call with him 

Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review.

Notes from the show:

Explore Trina’s Website and subscribe to her Newsletter 

Connect with Trina on Facebook 

Connect with Trina on Instagram 

Connect with Trina on LinkedIn 

Connect with Trina on X 

Chapters

00:32 - Podcast Sponsor Introduction

00:58 - Episode Topic Preview

02:04 - Meet Trina Julian

03:29 - First Money Memory: The $400 Horse

09:37 - Starting Country Girl Gardens

19:19 - Growing Revenue and Scaling

29:42 - Building SOPs and Systems

36:24 - Creating a Sellable Business

43:58 - Transitioning to Business Coach

53:43 - Final Thoughts and Resources

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.321 --> 00:00:02.548
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That's what Brandon and I did after eight years of marriage.

00:00:45.201 --> 00:00:58.140
Hey babe, what are we?

00:00:58.180 --> 00:00:58.720
talking about today.

00:00:58.720 --> 00:01:20.912
Today we are talking about how to scale your business into a seven-figure business through systems and automations, and I know in the world that we are kind of in in this finance space everybody's like be an entrepreneur, it's the most amazing thing ever, like only work for yourself and all of those things which sound great in theory.

00:01:20.912 --> 00:01:22.906
But we know it's a lot of hard work.

00:01:22.906 --> 00:01:27.221
And do you want to do it if you're not making any money?

00:01:27.221 --> 00:01:29.346
And I think the answer to that is no.

00:01:29.346 --> 00:01:37.370
But we have somebody here who knows how to scale a business into a seven-figure business and now helps other people do that.

00:01:37.370 --> 00:01:51.150
Because if you're going to do it, if you're going to take the time to invest in yourself and be an entrepreneur, we want you to do it right and we want you to have the tips and tricks and systems in place to actually make money so that you're not just burning yourself out, not working for the man.

00:01:51.459 --> 00:01:57.049
Well, it's also two different skill sets between being able to grow, have a successful business and then grow it successfully.

00:01:57.049 --> 00:01:58.792
There are two different skill sets.

00:01:58.893 --> 00:01:59.819
That's absolutely right.

00:01:59.819 --> 00:02:07.727
So today we have Trina Julian with us to help us understand how to do this the right way, because she has done it the right way.

00:02:07.727 --> 00:02:11.830
We're going to get into her story, but we want to learn from somebody who's done it.

00:02:11.830 --> 00:02:12.771
We have not done it.

00:02:12.771 --> 00:02:16.224
We are not there yet yet, but Trina has.

00:02:16.224 --> 00:02:19.086
So, trina, thank you for being on the Sugar Daddy podcast with us today.

00:02:19.848 --> 00:02:21.070
Thank you, I'm really excited.

00:02:21.070 --> 00:02:21.853
You guys are great.

00:02:22.420 --> 00:02:23.524
Oh, thank you so much.

00:02:23.524 --> 00:02:36.012
Well, let's get into your bio, because we met you at FinCon and you just had such an interesting story and we were like automatically just blown away and we were like we have to have you on the pod, people need to hear this.

00:02:36.012 --> 00:02:44.872
And so let's get into the bio so people know who we're talking about, or what we're going to learn from you, and who we're talking to, and then we'll get into your first money memory.

00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:50.618
Trina Julian is the founder of Country Girl Gardens, which she started in her backyard shed.

00:02:50.618 --> 00:03:09.467
In just seven years, she built a million-dollar landscaping powerhouse, understanding the frustrations of growing a business and experiencing the relentless demands of daily operations, she now helps business owners work to build a hands-off business that runs like a profit-making machine.

00:03:09.467 --> 00:03:10.508
I love all of that.

00:03:10.508 --> 00:03:19.471
She is here to provide the roadmap of owning a seven-figure business and help you put your money to work for you so that you can achieve financial independence.

00:03:19.471 --> 00:03:21.860
Yay, this is going to be a good conversation.

00:03:21.860 --> 00:03:23.163
Trina, thank you for being with us.

00:03:23.163 --> 00:03:24.427
Yes, of course.

00:03:24.427 --> 00:03:29.823
All right, it's a financial literacy podcast.

00:03:29.823 --> 00:03:33.174
We're going to talk about that seven-figure business that you built, but first tell us about your first money memory, please.

00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:45.651
Yeah, I mean, the thing that comes to mind with my first money memory is so I grew up in like Central California and I was always on free lunch.

00:03:45.651 --> 00:03:58.887
I had a single parent and you know she worked a lot to just make ends meet and so we were, you know, on the lower end of the income spectrum.

00:03:58.887 --> 00:04:00.069
So I always got free lunch.

00:04:00.069 --> 00:04:05.284
And you know, looking back I laugh because I'm like, ah, I wouldn't do anything like this today.

00:04:05.284 --> 00:04:11.640
But I don't know how she didn't know, but I didn't tell her or she didn't know that I was on free lunch.

00:04:11.640 --> 00:04:18.194
So she would give me two dollars every day to buy lunch and I got free lunch.

00:04:18.194 --> 00:04:20.663
So I pocketed two dollars every day.

00:04:20.663 --> 00:04:23.947
And this is probably like second, third grade.

00:04:25.490 --> 00:04:26.130
And um.

00:04:27.713 --> 00:04:29.096
I really wanted a horse.

00:04:29.096 --> 00:04:38.288
Like I was one of those little girls that just loved horses and I, you know, our neighbors always had horses and had family members that had horses.

00:04:38.288 --> 00:04:39.831
So I was like I really want a horse.

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So I was pocketing two $2 a day until I saved up $400.

00:04:43.966 --> 00:04:49.514
And then I looked in the classified ads for a $400 horse.

00:04:49.514 --> 00:04:51.084
Did you find one?

00:04:51.084 --> 00:04:52.785
I found one.

00:04:52.785 --> 00:04:55.689
And my mom's like I can't buy you a horse.

00:04:55.689 --> 00:04:58.209
And I'm like no, no, I have $400.

00:04:58.209 --> 00:05:00.786
I mean, I didn't add up how long it took to get there.

00:05:00.886 --> 00:05:03.353
But I know it's so weird, I have $400.

00:05:03.353 --> 00:05:05.471
She's like how on so weird I have $400?

00:05:05.471 --> 00:05:07.225
Oh, my god, you know she's like how on earth do you have $400?

00:05:07.225 --> 00:05:19.112
And it was because I had a one of those big water jugs in the back of the closet that I was putting my two dollars in every day and we bought the horse.

00:05:19.112 --> 00:05:20.413
I got my first horse.

00:05:20.413 --> 00:05:22.946
I paid for myself.

00:05:22.946 --> 00:05:25.632
Yeah, so that's my first money memory.

00:05:26.074 --> 00:05:33.228
Um, I think you, we, okay, we start every guest episode with that first money memory and we've heard some really crazy ones.

00:05:33.228 --> 00:05:39.372
That, I think, is my this you win for absolute favorite money memory.

00:05:39.432 --> 00:05:45.415
At this point, like to date, I have no idea, crazy stuff like that I have no idea how much horses cost.

00:05:45.615 --> 00:05:46.480
I have so many questions?

00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:46.880
What kind of?

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horse do you get for $400?

00:05:48.386 --> 00:05:49.449
Like, is this like back then?

00:05:49.449 --> 00:05:53.190
Was this like an average horse price or was this like you kind of got?

00:05:53.211 --> 00:06:01.346
I mean I'm sure it wasn't a Kentucky Derby winner, but like I mean it was definitely um year old pony of America.

00:06:01.406 --> 00:06:04.290
So pony of America is a common horse for kids.

00:06:04.290 --> 00:06:05.894
It's not full size.

00:06:05.894 --> 00:06:13.980
I think she was probably in between 11 and 13 hands, so she wasn't a full size horse and she was only two.

00:06:13.980 --> 00:06:16.107
So she had never been ridden before.

00:06:16.107 --> 00:06:20.639
So it was definitely like not the wisest decision.

00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:28.913
But I was so determined and my mom doesn't know anything about horses really but, like I said, I have, you know, neighbors, friends and family that had horses.

00:06:28.913 --> 00:06:33.189
So I did end up getting help with this horse and I was nine when I bought her.

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So I'm thinking it must have been like four years or something it took me to save it.

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But, um, I did get help with the horse.

00:06:39.319 --> 00:06:44.886
I had her until I was 11 or 12 and at that point had outgrown her.

00:06:44.886 --> 00:06:47.488
So it worked out.

00:06:47.488 --> 00:06:49.730
But no, it was a cheap horse.

00:06:50.812 --> 00:06:54.276
Well, but okay, I don't need to ask him to hear this episode, because we're not getting a horse.

00:06:56.279 --> 00:07:01.649
Our daughter would be like I can do this, Cause she she talks about saving her money for things that she wants and I need a horse not to be on that list.

00:07:01.649 --> 00:07:14.788
Um, I mean, I'm sure it costs a lot to maintain a horse and to feed a horse, and was there any conversation following of like, okay, we're going to let you buy this horse, but how are you going to help keep it alive?

00:07:15.771 --> 00:07:19.403
I mean I probably gave my mom or $2 back every day, I don't know.

00:07:19.403 --> 00:07:22.687
I actually don't need the lunch money anymore.

00:07:22.687 --> 00:07:24.310
Let's, let's put that toward the feed.

00:07:24.310 --> 00:07:24.810
No.

00:07:24.810 --> 00:07:28.555
I don't actually remember that part.

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I know that we had to board the horse and that usually includes feed.

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So, yeah, I didn't work those details out and my mom didn't share with me how we made that work.

00:07:39.697 --> 00:07:40.759
But she did.

00:07:40.961 --> 00:07:45.809
She's probably very impressed that you saved that long she's like wow, something like this has to be rewarded.

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Well, shout out, and I still have two horses.

00:07:49.165 --> 00:07:51.670
I still have, you know, I still have horses.

00:07:51.670 --> 00:08:08.209
I actually have, uh, half draft horses now and they pay for themselves, because my like hobby business that I do for fun is I give carriage rides in downtown Spokane at Riverfront Park, and so my horses now pay their own way.

00:08:08.209 --> 00:08:11.098
So that's fun, oh my gosh, Look at that.

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I mean we've come full circle.

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I love it.

00:08:14.144 --> 00:08:18.653
So the money memory 100% transferred into adulthood?

00:08:18.973 --> 00:08:19.661
Yeah, it did.

00:08:19.661 --> 00:08:21.365
That's amazing.

00:08:21.365 --> 00:08:22.971
Thank you for sharing that with us.

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That's amazing.

00:08:38.774 --> 00:08:40.254
Thank you for sharing that with us.

00:08:40.254 --> 00:08:41.275
You're just in a tough season.

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I created something just for you because I've had people reach out who are serious about changing their money story.

00:08:46.961 --> 00:08:50.892
But the full financial planning package just wasn't the right fit yet.

00:08:50.892 --> 00:08:56.052
So I built a new service through Oak City Financial that's focused completely on debt reduction.

00:08:56.052 --> 00:08:57.504
No fluff, no shame.

00:08:57.504 --> 00:09:09.850
You'll get a one-time planning session, a personalized payoff strategy, your own financial dashboard and monthly, if you want extra support while you climb out, it's $300 to get started in a hundred dollars a month.

00:09:09.850 --> 00:09:12.244
If you want that ongoing guidance, that's it.

00:09:12.244 --> 00:09:16.201
This is about helping you get unstuck, not making you feel like you failed.

00:09:16.201 --> 00:09:19.850
If this sounds like what you've been needing, go ahead and schedule a call with me.

00:09:19.850 --> 00:09:21.067
The link is in the show notes.

00:09:21.067 --> 00:09:22.056
Let's take the first step together.

00:09:22.056 --> 00:09:22.659
The link is in the show notes.

00:09:22.659 --> 00:09:26.106
Let's take the first step together.

00:09:27.410 --> 00:09:28.253
That's incredible.

00:09:28.253 --> 00:09:37.696
Okay, let's pivot into Country Girl Gardens.

00:09:37.696 --> 00:09:40.101
And where did that idea come from?

00:09:40.101 --> 00:09:50.375
And were you going into that with the idea of, okay, this is going to be a seven-figure business and then I'm going to sell it and teach others how to do this, or what was that journey like?

00:09:52.460 --> 00:09:55.808
Well, I graduated college in 2009.

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And, if anybody, I'm sure you guys remember because we're about the same age 2009, there weren't many jobs, especially where I live.

00:10:02.892 --> 00:10:07.504
2009, there weren't many jobs, especially where I live.

00:10:07.504 --> 00:10:12.792
We're like a very much a hospitality tourism town, and so there just wasn't a lot of options of jobs.

00:10:12.792 --> 00:10:17.225
So I went back to being a barista, which is what I did all through high school and college.

00:10:17.225 --> 00:10:20.860
And while I was a barista, I was just trying.

00:10:20.860 --> 00:10:22.203
I knew I wanted my own business.

00:10:22.203 --> 00:10:32.287
I didn't want to move to Seattle or Portland, which is what most of my um, the other students that I graduated with, had done, and I didn't want to do that.

00:10:32.287 --> 00:10:46.572
So I was just trying to devise up a plan of what business to start and I started researching, um, like self-sustainability, so like growing your own food.

00:10:46.572 --> 00:10:55.333
That was always an interest of mine and that was something I had been kind of reading up on since I was like 19 or so.

00:10:55.333 --> 00:10:56.942
So it was a good opportunity.

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I started a garden in pots when we didn't have, you know, any land or anything, and I just kind of started studying it and talking about it at the coffee stand.

00:11:08.224 --> 00:11:13.774
And it started because I wanted to grow food and flowers.

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And that's hard to do in, you know, North Idaho where half of the year is freezing and years freezing and there wasn't.

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It was just difficult.

00:11:30.004 --> 00:11:32.530
So I had to pivot a lot and decide what was going to actually have a demand.

00:11:32.530 --> 00:11:37.605
And planting flowers had a demand, not really growing and selling them, but planting them.

00:11:37.605 --> 00:11:51.086
So I had people at the coffee stand asked me to plant flowers for them and I had enough that I kind of started a side hustle of planting landscape plants for people and that's how it started.

00:11:52.461 --> 00:11:54.428
I just love origin stories like that.

00:11:54.428 --> 00:12:04.350
Something so simple of like I had this interest and so I talked about it as I was making people's coffee, and then they decided, hey, can you come do this for me and I will pay you.

00:12:04.350 --> 00:12:04.831
Exactly.

00:12:04.831 --> 00:12:09.030
I mean, it's so simple, but like it can be so powerful, it's amazing.

00:12:09.820 --> 00:12:16.086
Yeah, I think nowadays it was just seeing the opportunity, like seeing that people okay, people are asking.

00:12:16.086 --> 00:12:28.388
So I'm like there's a demand here and that's what I was looking for was something that had a demand, and If people are asking me to do something for them, I'm like then more people will also be interested in that.

00:12:28.388 --> 00:12:41.240
So I saw the opportunity and ran with it, and then I started talking about it more to everybody, about how I'm planting flowers and landscape plants for people, and it took off from there.

00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:50.446
I started as a side hustle in 2015.

00:12:50.446 --> 00:12:52.668
And I only did like $10,000.

00:12:52.668 --> 00:12:58.923
Like on my days off, days that I wasn't working at the coffee shop, I planted flowers.

00:12:59.323 --> 00:13:01.768
And, but only $10,000.

00:13:01.768 --> 00:13:08.230
I mean, that's a lot of money for a side hustle that you created on your own.

00:13:08.230 --> 00:13:10.697
You know kind of just talking about your passion.

00:13:11.317 --> 00:13:18.945
Yeah, and I was 29 at the time and for some reason, I had this idea that I'm like I want to be out of my job by 30.

00:13:18.945 --> 00:13:24.298
Like I don't know how I'm going to do it, like the numbers didn't really pan out in on paper.

00:13:24.298 --> 00:13:29.364
I was like I don't know how I'm going to make this work, but I want to quit the coffee stand at age 30.

00:13:29.364 --> 00:13:35.091
And so I started in May of 2015.

00:13:35.091 --> 00:13:37.138
Like I said, I did $10,000 that year.

00:13:37.138 --> 00:13:38.880
2016.

00:13:38.880 --> 00:13:48.166
Spring rolls around and all of a sudden I had gotten traction and I had so much work coming in people who wanted stuff done.

00:13:48.166 --> 00:13:50.042
My birthday is in March.

00:13:50.042 --> 00:13:57.863
I put my two weeks notice in on my birthday my 30th birthday and my last day was April 1st.

00:13:57.863 --> 00:14:05.380
So I managed to do that and I was full time ever since and just kind of went hard, so you set your goal and you hit your goal.

00:14:05.942 --> 00:14:07.527
Yeah, that's amazing.

00:14:07.527 --> 00:14:09.360
There's something pivotal about 30.

00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:10.703
I don't know how it's going to work out.

00:14:10.875 --> 00:14:14.285
I don't see how it's going to work, but it did oh my gosh.

00:14:14.455 --> 00:14:20.907
So were you doing all of the work yourself at that point, or were you having to actually hire people to get it all done?

00:14:20.907 --> 00:14:21.908
It was all you.

00:14:22.654 --> 00:14:23.836
At that point it was all me.

00:14:23.836 --> 00:14:35.071
At that point it was all me and I think I hired my first employees that first full-time year, probably four months in, four to six months in.

00:14:36.075 --> 00:14:36.195
Wow.

00:14:36.195 --> 00:14:46.534
So with hiring your first employees, would you say that you hired them proactively or you had a demand and you had to hire them after realizing that you couldn't do it yourself?

00:14:46.534 --> 00:14:49.499
Had a demand and you had to hire them after realizing that you couldn't do it yourself.

00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:54.846
I knew pretty much from the get-go of this, of the landscaping business, that I wanted to.

00:14:54.846 --> 00:15:04.913
I kept saying I either wanted to build my way out or buy my way out, and what that meant was build my way out means I hire a team that runs it without me.

00:15:04.913 --> 00:15:12.748
Buy my way out means I just make enough money and invest it that I can sell it and don't have to do anything with it, like it wasn't something that I was.

00:15:12.748 --> 00:15:16.562
I was passionate about plants and I love gardening.

00:15:16.562 --> 00:15:23.826
I have tons of house plants in my office and I did my own landscape Like I loved it, but it wasn't something I wanted to do.

00:15:23.886 --> 00:15:27.081
long term it's well, it's like very physical.

00:15:27.081 --> 00:15:29.066
It's a tough grueling work too.

00:15:29.066 --> 00:15:29.788
It just wasn't.

00:15:31.116 --> 00:15:42.147
And so, from the early days, I just I knew that that was the route I wanted to go, and I got off track on what the actual question was.

00:15:43.076 --> 00:15:57.447
I always know that for most people, like you know most you know entrepreneurs start out just by themselves and then they start to grow their business and now they're going to transfer from the person who actually does the work to being the person who also manages the people who do the work.

00:15:57.447 --> 00:16:06.428
And that's a hard transition for a lot of people and often people tend to hire people too late rather than being proactive in hiring people beforehand.

00:16:07.995 --> 00:16:31.000
Too late rather than being proactive and hiring people beforehand when, like you know, people in retrospect are like, yeah, you should definitely try to hire before you need rather than waiting until you need right that is a that is a very good point and that's something I tell people all the time is like hire right away, hire before you're ready, because hiring is a whole new skill and it's something you're going to get wrong at first and it's good to start learning it before.

00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:42.184
You absolutely need need people to come in and you know do things right, cause that's a whole nother learning curve of you know how to delegate and get people to do things how you like it done.

00:16:42.735 --> 00:16:55.250
Plus, it gives you a more of a runway to find who you really think would be good at the job, because if you're scrambling at the end because oh, I need somebody, I need somebody, more than likely you're probably going to not hire the right person because added desperation.

00:16:56.393 --> 00:17:02.197
Yeah, that is 100% true.

00:17:02.258 --> 00:17:11.503
Yes, when you went from sharing about plants at the coffee stand, did you have an LLC?

00:17:11.503 --> 00:17:15.326
Once people started asking, hey, can you come do this for me?

00:17:15.326 --> 00:17:16.827
I've got this big project.

00:17:16.827 --> 00:17:18.729
How did you figure out pricing?

00:17:18.729 --> 00:17:24.792
I mean, walk us through those early stages of really building a business from the ground up.

00:17:26.836 --> 00:17:28.961
Yes, it was confusing.

00:17:28.961 --> 00:17:38.843
I did have an LLC that I had started while I was in college, because in like 2007, 8, I wanted to do the whole real estate thing, so I had started an LLC for that.

00:17:38.843 --> 00:17:44.318
All I did was use that LLC that I'd had for a while and just change the name of it.

00:17:44.318 --> 00:17:46.884
So that was set up and ready to go.

00:17:46.884 --> 00:17:49.696
And then pricing was complicated.

00:17:49.696 --> 00:17:50.920
I didn't know, I wasn't.

00:17:50.920 --> 00:17:53.125
I was charging $25 an hour.

00:17:53.125 --> 00:18:02.167
When I started, I was just trying to get work and that was more than what I was making, so I just undercharged.

00:18:02.167 --> 00:18:11.170
And then as I got busier, I just kept increasing my prices and I let the demand kind of determine what I was charging.

00:18:11.170 --> 00:18:16.835
So as my schedule was full, I'd increase prices.

00:18:16.835 --> 00:18:28.605
And when I increased prices I would lose some customers that were paying the $25 an hour and I'd bring on the $35 an hour customers and I just kept that cycle up until I sold the business.

00:18:28.605 --> 00:18:30.919
So it was.

00:18:30.919 --> 00:18:31.863
It was trial and error.

00:18:33.715 --> 00:18:41.988
Everybody underpriced this other price themselves, Cause right now I'm in the process of changing my prices because I'm underpriced but it's okay.

00:18:43.215 --> 00:18:44.618
I keep telling him I'm like people.

00:18:44.618 --> 00:18:48.807
People are selling their toenails online and people are buying it.

00:18:50.355 --> 00:19:05.325
And as long as you're increasing your prices and you understand that you're going to lose clients, but you're going to replace them with higher paying ones who are going to be better clients for you, because usually I find that the higher paying clients are the better clients.

00:19:05.755 --> 00:19:08.837
Yeah, that's he says that all the time that is unfortunate.

00:19:08.959 --> 00:19:14.121
From my experience, the people who are the busiest and paying the most are the easiest to work with.

00:19:14.121 --> 00:19:20.584
It's the individuals who maybe quote unquote have a little bit more time on their hands and they're paying you the least that become the biggest headache.

00:19:21.164 --> 00:19:23.117
Yep Like our parents who pay him nothing.

00:19:23.940 --> 00:19:25.844
Yeah, we all have to start somewhere.

00:19:25.844 --> 00:19:30.122
So if you start out and you're just, you know, underpricing yourself, that's okay.

00:19:30.122 --> 00:19:34.102
Just raise your prices and keep doing it until you find cause you'll.

00:19:34.102 --> 00:19:37.814
You'll find a gauge of like okay, I'm, I'm charging too much.

00:19:37.814 --> 00:19:43.683
Now I'm not getting as much work as I need, so I better bring the prices back down, and you just have to.

00:19:43.683 --> 00:19:47.710
Always, my prices weren't't ever set like it was really demand driven.

00:19:49.336 --> 00:19:50.740
And my parents, meaning your mom.

00:19:50.740 --> 00:19:53.928
Let's specify.

00:19:54.516 --> 00:19:56.502
Let's move on from this part of the conversation.

00:19:56.502 --> 00:20:04.346
How long or can you walk us through the journey of $10,000 as a side hustle to?

00:20:04.346 --> 00:20:06.509
You're quitting your job on your birthday.

00:20:06.509 --> 00:20:12.344
What did the following year, the year after that, what was that revenue increase?

00:20:12.344 --> 00:20:14.147
And then, how did you get to?

00:20:14.147 --> 00:20:17.404
Oh, somebody's knocking on my door to buy this business from me.

00:20:19.955 --> 00:20:29.508
I was able to increase the revenue a hundred percent plus every year, year over year, for the first five years.

00:20:29.508 --> 00:20:30.588
That's amazing.

00:20:30.588 --> 00:20:33.779
So I went from and it was way more sometimes like that.

00:20:33.779 --> 00:20:39.519
First year was 10,000, but my first year full time, I think I did 174,000.

00:20:40.080 --> 00:20:40.922
That's amazing.

00:20:41.303 --> 00:20:44.348
And then the second year I think it was 247,000.

00:20:44.348 --> 00:20:47.744
And then the third year was like 380,000.

00:20:47.744 --> 00:20:58.375
So it was like major leaps and bounds but I was pushing like exceptionally hard because it wasn't a long-term game for me, it was.

00:20:58.375 --> 00:21:00.760
I knew I wanted to get in, build it, get out.

00:21:00.760 --> 00:21:21.603
If you're building it, you know, if you, let's say, somebody that's listening has like a window cleaning company or a house cleaning company or something like that, and if you are in it for the longterm, like you want to run that business for a long time, I don't recommend growing that fast because it's leaves you no time for anything else.

00:21:21.623 --> 00:21:22.945
Like I don't have children.

00:21:22.945 --> 00:21:28.855
My husband has kids, but they're in their twenties and at that time I think they were teenagers.

00:21:28.855 --> 00:21:36.347
So I didn't have the responsibilities of children and I mean there were.

00:21:36.347 --> 00:21:40.519
I just wasn't giving attention to family at that time.

00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:44.507
I was just working and it did take its toll.

00:21:44.507 --> 00:21:51.623
So I did it exceptionally fast, but that was because I knew that there was a finish line.

00:21:51.623 --> 00:21:57.570
So I don't recommend somebody do that if they are in it for the long term.

00:21:57.570 --> 00:21:59.299
That's a good call out.

00:21:59.299 --> 00:22:01.117
It's unnecessary torture.

00:22:02.520 --> 00:22:08.974
I appreciate that call out because I think sometimes those things get missed when other people are watching externally someone grow business.

00:22:08.974 --> 00:22:17.161
It's like, yeah, I think we often think that someone is in the same position as we are and have the quote unquote the same responsibilities, and that's not always the case.

00:22:17.161 --> 00:22:21.943
Like you said, you know, for example, we have two young kids, so that'd be very hard for us to do in comparison to you.

00:22:21.943 --> 00:22:24.579
You know you didn't have young kids, so I appreciate that call out.

00:22:25.323 --> 00:22:27.596
Yeah, have young kids.

00:22:27.596 --> 00:22:28.901
So I appreciate that call out yeah, and it's not worth it.

00:22:28.901 --> 00:22:44.748
I just shared something on my Instagram yesterday actually, that Nicole Curtis, the gal who does the rehab addict and like repairs old houses she had, I guess, mentioned that she didn't think that the that it was worth it to sacrifice her family time, um, to grow her business the way she did.

00:22:44.748 --> 00:22:58.303
And I think that's a super common regret of people looking back, especially when you're raising kids, that they they focus so much on growing their business in those early years of their kids lives and then they miss out on a lot.

00:22:58.303 --> 00:23:10.055
And it really isn't like I and that's kind of how that's my philosophy is like I feel like family should always come first, like over your business.

00:23:10.055 --> 00:23:25.382
Your business should support your lifestyle so that you can spend time with your family, cause really, when it comes down to it, that's the most important thing in life, I think, is being there, for you know people who love you and the people that you love.

00:23:26.483 --> 00:23:29.971
Yeah, and Time is the most you know valuable thing that you can't get it back.

00:23:29.971 --> 00:23:33.919
Regardless of how much money you make, how big you grow your business, you can't buy more time.

00:23:34.602 --> 00:23:39.723
Right and not to be morbid, but you never know when it's up either.

00:23:39.844 --> 00:23:40.727
So that is very true.

00:23:41.055 --> 00:23:48.429
You know that's always something that you got to live like a happy medium between YOLO and be responsible.

00:23:50.955 --> 00:23:51.596
That's so true.

00:23:51.596 --> 00:23:56.727
Let's talk about the investments that you had to make into your business.

00:23:56.727 --> 00:24:03.675
From I mean landscaping, I'm thinking truck and wheelbarrows and, you know, material supplies like all.

00:24:03.675 --> 00:24:05.280
Like, did you, were you renting a truck or did you own a truck?

00:24:05.280 --> 00:24:06.605
Like, did you, were you renting a truck?

00:24:06.605 --> 00:24:07.788
Where did you own a truck?

00:24:07.788 --> 00:24:16.047
How did you actually get everything that you needed to do these landscape projects?

00:24:16.047 --> 00:24:19.482
And then I'm also thinking of you know how were you scheduling people?

00:24:19.482 --> 00:24:20.990
How were you invoicing them?

00:24:20.990 --> 00:24:33.022
Can you walk us through the logistics of the business tools you know, literally and figuratively, that you needed in order to grow this business as quickly as you did?

00:24:34.468 --> 00:24:43.596
Yeah, when you know, when you talk about a bootstrapped business, I was like the definition of that because I did not have a truck but my husband did.

00:24:43.596 --> 00:24:46.951
So that was his contribution to my business was.

00:24:46.951 --> 00:24:50.599
I started borrowing his truck and he never got it back.

00:24:50.599 --> 00:24:53.183
I'm sure he's okay with it.

00:24:53.183 --> 00:25:04.766
Yeah, so I started with, you know, his truck and rakes that I had already had just from raking my leaves in my yard.

00:25:04.766 --> 00:25:11.560
So I started with like a rake, a shovel, a hand trowel and a truck and that was it.

00:25:11.560 --> 00:25:13.625
And as I started getting paid.

00:25:14.086 --> 00:25:26.061
So this is why starting as a side hustle is a good idea, because that $10,000 I made that first year as part-time, I took that and bought more equipment so that I could expand the services.

00:25:26.061 --> 00:25:31.769
I also felt comfortable hiring people because I had a little bit of a cushion there.

00:25:31.769 --> 00:25:36.086
So I didn't spend maybe any of that money at first.

00:25:36.086 --> 00:25:40.115
I just put it back into the business right away so that I could.

00:25:40.115 --> 00:25:48.999
I think I bought my second truck pretty Like six months into my first full-time year and I bought it at an auction for $1,000.

00:25:48.999 --> 00:25:53.808
Wow, I still had that $1,000 truck in my fleet when I sold the business.

00:25:54.470 --> 00:25:55.432
So it was a good purchase.

00:25:55.432 --> 00:25:58.788
Yes, most of the time you think of buying a car for $1,000.

00:25:58.807 --> 00:25:59.169
That's amazing.

00:25:59.169 --> 00:26:00.858
I'm like, yeah, it's probably not going to last that long.

00:26:01.799 --> 00:26:12.471
Well, it's funny, the other skills you pick up when you own a business, because I wasn't a landscaper anymore, I was really a buyer of assets.

00:26:12.471 --> 00:26:14.346
I had to find trucks.

00:26:14.346 --> 00:26:17.442
I had to find trucks, I had to find them at good deals.

00:26:17.442 --> 00:26:23.432
I bought at least a truck a year, um, sometimes two, and I would always buy them at auction.

00:26:23.432 --> 00:26:45.153
Another horseback riding story is I was um riding horses with a girlfriend and I had my phone and I had the auction up on my phone, so I was bidding on this truck as I'm horseback riding and I ended up winning the truck on this horseback ride.

00:26:45.173 --> 00:26:48.929
I'm like, yes, it was like a $2,400 truck at that point.

00:26:48.929 --> 00:27:03.242
But, um, yeah, so I was just always looking for trucks, Like I was always buying if a truck came up, whether I thought I always looking for trucks, Like I was always buying If a truck came up, whether I thought I needed it or not if the truck came up that fit the description of what I wanted, I would buy it.

00:27:03.262 --> 00:27:04.565
Nice, my first car was an auction.

00:27:04.565 --> 00:27:09.111
My dad went to an auction and I don't remember what he paid for it.

00:27:09.111 --> 00:27:12.174
But yeah, that's a great place to buy.

00:27:12.174 --> 00:27:16.721
Yeah, you absolutely can.

00:27:16.721 --> 00:27:17.144
All right, right.

00:27:17.144 --> 00:27:20.319
So you were buying trucks when you could because your business was growing and expanding.

00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:28.913
Talk to us about those later phases where you knew you wanted to sell the business.

00:27:28.913 --> 00:27:30.182
This was not sustainable.

00:27:30.182 --> 00:27:32.686
You, you knew you needed to tap.

00:27:32.686 --> 00:27:38.748
How did you get it to that point of I know somebody is going to want to buy this from me.

00:27:40.981 --> 00:27:45.157
I didn't think anybody would want to buy it from me, because it's a landscape business.

00:27:45.298 --> 00:27:46.740
So I was like I don't.

00:27:46.861 --> 00:28:08.755
I just had never heard great things about selling service businesses, and so I started talking to a broker in 2020, 2020, 2021, something like that and we were I got a valuation.

00:28:08.755 --> 00:28:16.049
The valuation came back, okay, but I was like I want to build it for two more years and get more.

00:28:16.049 --> 00:28:20.083
So no, actually, let's, let's think about that.

00:28:20.083 --> 00:28:43.866
I started talking to the broker in 2022 and then I was going to grow it to like 2025 to try to hit a certain benchmark that I had set, and so I was working on that and the biggest thing was putting people in place, which I had already.

00:28:43.866 --> 00:28:45.049
It was already hands off.

00:28:45.049 --> 00:28:54.346
I had already had an operations manager and I wasn't working much at all at that point, but I needed to get my, my profit and revenue up to a certain point.

00:28:54.346 --> 00:28:57.077
So it was really at that point, but I needed to get my profit and revenue up to a certain point.

00:28:57.077 --> 00:29:01.067
So it was really, at that point, just managing a team.

00:29:01.067 --> 00:29:09.901
And when I say managing a team, I meant that I managed my operations manager and he managed everybody else, so it was pretty easy at that point.

00:29:09.901 --> 00:29:23.692
It was just working and trying to get more, more clients coming in, more jobs on the books and building up profit, but it was cut short and I ended up selling in 2023.

00:29:23.692 --> 00:29:30.767
There's there's a ribbon that runs through my entire life of like things that are in common and it's horses.

00:29:30.906 --> 00:29:45.333
So I was in a horseback riding accident, um, in last year, and I guess I should start with so I had I had a management team at that point.

00:29:45.333 --> 00:29:46.401
I had two sales guys.

00:29:46.401 --> 00:29:49.788
My two sales guys had put in their notice.

00:29:49.788 --> 00:29:59.252
So, as an hands-off owner, whenever a management team member quit, that was when I would have to jump back in and make sure that spot got filled.

00:29:59.252 --> 00:30:02.450
So that was pretty much my primary role at the time.

00:30:02.450 --> 00:30:19.189
So I had two people quit and it was kind of devastating because they were my two key guys and replacing them, I knew, was I was afraid of it, which I shouldn't have been, but I was and so they put in their notice.

00:30:19.189 --> 00:30:22.666
I think it was on a Friday.

00:30:24.221 --> 00:30:29.665
That weekend I went horseback riding and I got bucked off and it was really bad.

00:30:29.665 --> 00:30:32.088
I spent three days in the hospital.

00:30:32.088 --> 00:30:33.300
I had to have emergency surgery.

00:30:33.300 --> 00:30:34.361
I spent three days in the hospital.

00:30:34.361 --> 00:30:35.001
I had to have emergency surgery.

00:30:35.001 --> 00:30:52.152
I couldn't work because I was pretty much stuck at home on the couch like, couldn't do anything for six weeks and I felt like at my lowest point.

00:30:52.152 --> 00:30:54.273
I was like I don't know how I'm going to overcome this.

00:30:54.273 --> 00:30:56.035
My business needs me right now.

00:30:56.035 --> 00:31:04.162
I just had two key people quit and I'm supposed to jump in to rehire them and I can't do that because I'm injured.

00:31:04.162 --> 00:31:09.633
So I know this story is a little confusing, I think no, it's okay.

00:31:18.200 --> 00:31:27.847
I had hired a new operations manager before my two guys put in their notice, but they didn't know it yet and he was supposed to start that Monday, that Monday that I was still in the hospital because of my horseback riding accident.

00:31:27.847 --> 00:31:37.824
So this is kind of where it all came together to me that what, what I had put in place was working, because I couldn't work, I couldn't do the things I needed to do.

00:31:37.824 --> 00:31:43.402
I had this new operations manager starting and I couldn't be there to train him.

00:31:43.402 --> 00:32:03.711
So I did it through Google Docs or Google Drive because I had all my SOPs there, and so he and I just chatted and I trained this new operations manager through chat and written SOPs that I had from, like, my couch at home.

00:32:03.711 --> 00:32:08.902
So seeing those systems work was my first cue.

00:32:08.902 --> 00:32:26.144
That okay, my business is actually probably more valuable than I give it credit for, because it really does run without me being there with just some guidance and being at that low point of having that injury.

00:32:26.424 --> 00:32:36.223
I listed the business at that point because I was like I'm not needed, like I have everything documented, all my SOPs are super thorough.

00:32:36.223 --> 00:32:41.144
This new operations manager he's you know after two or three weeks I'm like he's doing a good job.

00:32:41.144 --> 00:32:43.509
He learned how to do it through my written SOPs.

00:32:43.509 --> 00:32:47.250
I'm like I think I'm just going to sell this business now because I don't think it.

00:32:47.250 --> 00:32:48.823
It doesn't need me.

00:32:48.823 --> 00:32:50.286
It's clearly working.

00:32:50.286 --> 00:32:55.395
And we listed it and it was under contract within two months.

00:32:55.395 --> 00:32:58.503
I had a bunch of people interested because it was a hands-off.

00:32:58.503 --> 00:33:04.520
You know, it was an investor business and it was an easy process.

00:33:04.520 --> 00:33:06.663
It was closed.

00:33:06.663 --> 00:33:11.950
So I listed it in like June and it was closed in September.

00:33:11.950 --> 00:33:13.251
So it was quick.

00:33:13.251 --> 00:33:21.930
Lots of people were interested and it was because my written SOPs worked.

00:33:21.930 --> 00:33:27.023
That kind of pushed me over that edge and then having that injury.

00:33:27.044 --> 00:33:27.585
Did that make sense?

00:33:27.585 --> 00:33:28.405
It made perfect sense.

00:33:28.405 --> 00:33:34.803
So the question I have is what was the thought process?

00:33:34.803 --> 00:33:40.631
You know taking, you know, several steps back to you, starting to put in the SOPs throughout the course of building your business.

00:33:40.631 --> 00:33:58.990
Reason I asked that is because, I would say, majority of business owners are so busy on the day to day that they don't take a step back to work on the business because they're too busy working in the business and years and years pass and then you know they want to sell it, but then they don't have any of those things in place that you do have and they have to take all this time to go back and do all that stuff.

00:33:58.990 --> 00:34:01.909
So what prompted you to start doing that early on?

00:34:04.380 --> 00:34:10.012
Well, knowing that I wanted to either build my way out or buy my way out from the beginning was part of it.

00:34:10.012 --> 00:34:14.527
But as soon as I started hiring employees, I pulled myself out of the field operations.

00:34:14.527 --> 00:34:20.197
So I was no longer the person pruning shrubs and raking leaves I.

00:34:20.197 --> 00:34:33.027
My primary goal from that first year, as soon as I hired, you know, my first crew, was to sell, get jobs schedule, get my crew scheduled and just keep that going.

00:34:33.027 --> 00:34:42.036
So it was get jobs, schedule my crews, hire, buy trucks, that kind of stuff and you know scheduling.

00:34:42.036 --> 00:34:43.380
I know you asked about that earlier.

00:34:43.380 --> 00:34:58.824
Like the first year I was just doing a Google sheet and old fashioned like here's when you show up, here's your list of jobs, here's when you should get back, yeah and um.

00:34:58.824 --> 00:35:02.030
So that helped.

00:35:02.590 --> 00:35:11.510
And as I hired more and more people, I just I just made sure that I wasn't stepping back into operations out of desperation.

00:35:11.510 --> 00:35:16.201
So if I had people quit, I didn't jump in to do work because we were shorthanded.

00:35:16.201 --> 00:35:20.610
I just went to hiring immediately and replaced that person right away.

00:35:20.610 --> 00:35:32.791
And that was one of the harder lessons that I learned was, every time somebody quit I felt like I had lost a major asset and that it was going to hurt my business.

00:35:32.791 --> 00:35:43.251
But actually every time somebody quit, my hiring got better and I ended up replacing them with somebody who was more qualified and fit our culture better and the company would grow.

00:35:43.251 --> 00:35:55.148
So it was kind of counterintuitive where you have people quit and you're like, oh my gosh, this sucks, that was my key person.

00:35:55.148 --> 00:36:04.804
And then you go and replace them and you realize, oh, within a week we're back up and running full staffed and everything's good again.

00:36:04.804 --> 00:36:11.088
So that was, I think, one of the bigger lessons was like everybody's replaceable.

00:36:11.088 --> 00:36:13.500
Even I'm replaceable in my own business, clearly.

00:36:27.610 --> 00:36:28.271
Everybody's replaceable.

00:36:28.271 --> 00:36:29.692
Even I'm replaceable in my own business.

00:36:29.692 --> 00:36:37.998
Clearly owners do the same are likely those SOPs and the automation and the systems and tools in place.

00:36:37.998 --> 00:36:51.063
Can you walk us through what you learned in your own business and now you know I don't want you to give away your secret sauce, but kind of what's the secret sauce you know to being able to walk away from your business?

00:36:52.688 --> 00:37:00.329
Yeah, it is those standard operating procedures and having them in writing, and I really used Google Drive for all of that.

00:37:00.329 --> 00:37:10.134
I use Google Docs because I could share with my team, I could link documents together and I was very thorough so that.

00:37:10.134 --> 00:37:20.896
So the way that I wrote my SOPs was I actually shadowed every single employee that I needed to write an SOP for, which was all of them.

00:37:20.896 --> 00:37:28.673
So, to write the admin assistant's training documents, I shadowed her for a week.

00:37:28.673 --> 00:37:37.998
She taught me everything she does and how she does it and I wrote it down and then I linked stuff together.

00:37:37.998 --> 00:37:50.427
So if you were like through an sop of how to enter data into quickbooks, for example, I would have a link to where to find the data that you have to enter into quickbooks.

00:37:50.427 --> 00:37:52.152
So I had it all down to like.

00:37:52.152 --> 00:37:54.371
You couldn't mess this up.

00:37:54.371 --> 00:37:56.621
If you follow the, you couldn't mess this up If you follow the instructions.

00:37:56.802 --> 00:37:57.885
You can't mess this up.

00:37:57.885 --> 00:38:03.945
It's all there, it's all linked, and I did that with every single role in the company, including my own.

00:38:03.945 --> 00:38:08.541
So that's how I did that and it didn't take too much time.

00:38:08.541 --> 00:38:13.090
I think it took three months to actually get it all down in writing.

00:38:13.090 --> 00:38:22.342
I mean, there were trial and error earlier on in the company where I would write SOPs and I would do it incorrectly, so I learned how to write them generically.

00:38:22.342 --> 00:38:29.423
You didn't use names like employees names, because the employee is probably not going to be there in two years Right.

00:38:29.523 --> 00:38:39.929
So I learned how to write them very generically and precisely, and then I just made sure people were following them.

00:38:39.929 --> 00:38:46.927
And I think that's a key, too, of like when I say I let people train me so that I could write the SOPs.

00:38:46.927 --> 00:38:52.255
That was something I did early on was I hired people who had skills that I didn't have.

00:38:52.255 --> 00:38:55.050
So admin skills have never been my thing.

00:38:55.050 --> 00:38:57.268
I'm terrible at most of it.

00:38:57.268 --> 00:39:06.367
So that was the first person I hired was an admin to help me stay organized, answer phones, enter data, all of that stuff.

00:39:06.367 --> 00:39:08.079
I never trained her.

00:39:08.079 --> 00:39:12.751
I hired somebody who already had those skills and I said make it work, please.

00:39:12.751 --> 00:39:16.277
And here's the outcomes I need.

00:39:16.277 --> 00:39:19.849
As long as you're meeting these outcomes, I don't care how you get it done.

00:39:19.849 --> 00:39:28.492
And so I let my employees train me on skills that they know and that they had that maybe I didn't.

00:39:28.492 --> 00:39:30.885
You filled the gaps.

00:39:47.831 --> 00:39:48.271
That is so like.

00:39:48.271 --> 00:39:55.918
What you just said is so extremely important is that you hired people, you filled the gaps and do everything, and the reality is that we all have our special skill sets, and then we have the other ones that we're not so good at.

00:39:55.918 --> 00:39:59.286
And the ones that we're not so good at, those aren't the ones that we should be focused on doing.

00:39:59.286 --> 00:40:02.804
We should hire somebody who's much better at them to do them for us.

00:40:03.347 --> 00:40:09.110
Yeah, and I guess maybe that's an advantage to starting a landscape company with no landscape experience.

00:40:09.110 --> 00:40:13.923
I didn't know how to do most of it, so I had to hire people.

00:40:14.503 --> 00:40:18.668
Well it worked out pretty well for you what I did know how to do was bring an element of professionalism.

00:40:18.809 --> 00:40:23.913
I knew how to sell, I knew how to get jobs and I learned how to hire people.

00:40:24.534 --> 00:40:25.315
But other than that.

00:40:25.315 --> 00:40:26.215
That's the hardest part.

00:40:26.815 --> 00:40:39.266
Yeah, because if when we were doing construction jobs like we were doing, like paver patios and like heavier duty landscaping stuff I didn't know how to do any of that, I had to keep somebody hired at all times.

00:40:39.266 --> 00:40:42.601
That did, because I knew how to tell if it was done right.

00:40:42.601 --> 00:40:46.070
I knew the steps so that I could make sure that the quality was there.

00:40:46.070 --> 00:40:52.692
But when it came to like using a laser level to know how to get it level, I couldn't do it.

00:40:52.931 --> 00:40:55.855
I didn't know how well, the hard part is like.

00:40:55.855 --> 00:41:03.686
So the people that are skilled in doing that often don't have the skill to find the jobs to do it and do all the paperwork and everything that comes with running a business.

00:41:03.686 --> 00:41:08.307
They don't necessarily want to do that or they're not good at it, so it's that's what I teach.

00:41:08.327 --> 00:41:13.751
So that's why I that's how I got into what I'm doing now, because I'm like these people that run these service businesses.

00:41:13.751 --> 00:41:36.692
They're not business people necessarily and that's their lacking element to really reaching a point where their business is valuable and runs without them, because really a valuable business, to have a valuable business, it has to run without you doing multi-millions in sales every year.

00:41:36.692 --> 00:41:43.266
But if you have to be there as the owner, somebody is not going to just buy that because that is a huge job for them.

00:41:43.266 --> 00:41:45.110
Like they're going to have to come in and learn how to be you.

00:41:45.110 --> 00:41:50.483
So you have to learn how to make your role duplicatable so that anybody can step into it.

00:41:50.483 --> 00:41:56.420
And that's what I teach, because these most people don't don't know how to do that.

00:41:56.420 --> 00:42:11.746
And I know I did a lot of trial and error and it was a headache, at lots of low moments, lots of tears, like, yeah, so if I could save people all the stress and the anxiety and the tears that I had, that's what I want to set out to do.

00:42:12.407 --> 00:42:14.110
Yeah, I love that we.

00:42:14.110 --> 00:42:20.304
I went to a session actually at FinCon where we met you and it said exactly that you could have let it.

00:42:20.304 --> 00:42:22.568
You should probably pitch that for next year actually.

00:42:22.568 --> 00:42:28.478
But the whole concept around it was if you are the business, you don't have a business.

00:42:28.478 --> 00:42:29.199
You have a brand.

00:42:29.561 --> 00:42:31.463
If people are hiring you to speak.

00:42:31.463 --> 00:42:32.405
They're hiring you.

00:42:32.405 --> 00:42:33.186
You know they can't.

00:42:33.186 --> 00:42:39.215
If they hire me, they can't outsource to Brandon because he's not the brand or the face that they're hiring.

00:42:39.215 --> 00:42:40.925
It would be me or you.

00:42:40.925 --> 00:42:53.376
And they gave the example of if somebody is hiring Rihanna, they're hiring Rihanna to come and sing and be there and be the presence that she is on stage.

00:42:53.376 --> 00:42:55.485
That is the brand.

00:42:55.485 --> 00:42:57.969
Her business is Fenty Fenty Beauty.

00:42:57.969 --> 00:43:04.885
You can buy that any hour of any day, day or night, doesn't matter where on the planet you live, and she does not need to be there.

00:43:04.885 --> 00:43:06.842
Yes, you know.

00:43:06.842 --> 00:43:14.782
Or they said Mark Wahlberg, same thing, right, Like if you need him in a movie, well, he can't be anybody else, he is Mark Wahlberg.

00:43:14.942 --> 00:43:23.693
But if you want to eat at Wahlburgers, you can do that in you know 300 locations across, whatever the world without him having without him being there.

00:43:23.773 --> 00:43:33.367
That is the business, and so I think what you just said about building a scalable business that you actually can walk away from, I mean, that really is the secret sauce.

00:43:33.367 --> 00:43:37.101
So let's pivot into how you're doing that.

00:43:37.101 --> 00:43:44.125
So you sold your business for seven figures earlier than you anticipated, so big congratulations for that.

00:43:44.125 --> 00:43:50.880
When did you have that click, that moment of like, oh, I did this and now I can help other people do it.

00:43:50.880 --> 00:43:54.945
And what does that look like when you're working with these business owners?

00:43:57.407 --> 00:44:02.791
Yeah, I mean, I'm too young to retire, so I'm only 38.

00:44:02.791 --> 00:44:28.045
It's like one thing that I struggled with when I stepped into a investor owner role instead of an operator owner role was this feeling of not being needed and, as someone who's a doer and an entrepreneur and wants to build businesses, like it wasn't the best feeling ever.

00:44:28.045 --> 00:44:35.512
So people think you know, time is great, yes, but we all still need purposes and I found myself like what is my purpose?

00:44:35.512 --> 00:44:40.672
Like I just am, like I don't, I don't know, my crews don't need me, my company's running without me.

00:44:40.672 --> 00:44:45.706
I pretty much feel useless and it was a little depressing.

00:44:46.307 --> 00:44:54.650
So I learned some other skills and really what I jumped into was investing.

00:44:54.650 --> 00:44:56.275
I learned how to invest.

00:44:56.275 --> 00:45:04.251
So I bought some online courses and learned how to invest money and create cash flow.

00:45:04.251 --> 00:45:12.972
So not just invest for like hold and wait and you know that kind of growth, but like active cash flow.

00:45:14.353 --> 00:45:19.811
And that's something that really interests me a lot is financial independence.

00:45:19.811 --> 00:45:23.043
That's something that I had in my vocabulary from age 18.

00:45:23.043 --> 00:45:25.028
I was like I want to be financially independent.

00:45:25.028 --> 00:45:26.112
I don't want to rely on anyone.

00:45:26.112 --> 00:45:28.989
I don't want to rely on my boss or my job.

00:45:28.989 --> 00:45:31.217
I don't want to rely on my husband.

00:45:31.217 --> 00:45:35.751
I love my husband, but I'm like I want to be financially independent.

00:45:36.681 --> 00:45:48.135
To me, that was the ultimate freedom where I get to live the life I want, when I don't rely on anybody else to feed me, clothe me, put a roof over my head.

00:45:48.135 --> 00:45:54.873
So the investing was the way that I saw that being able to happen.

00:45:54.873 --> 00:45:58.690
And the step before investing is building a business.

00:45:58.690 --> 00:46:03.987
So if I wasn't able to, if I wasn't able to build a hands-off business, I would have never had the time to learn how to invest.

00:46:03.987 --> 00:46:28.958
So after selling the business, it clicked in my head Like there's a lot of business owners out there who are kind of stuck in their business and, yeah, they might feel trapped there because really, like you said, if you, if your business can't run without you, you don't have a business, you have a job and and you never have downtime.

00:46:29.105 --> 00:46:31.550
You can't go on vacation without checking your email.

00:46:31.952 --> 00:46:33.255
Exactly, sounds terrible.

00:46:33.275 --> 00:46:44.117
So, I was like I want to help those people because I know how to do this a different way and you know, like you're mentioning Rihanna and Mark Wahlberg, they invested in their businesses.

00:46:44.117 --> 00:46:45.666
They don't.

00:46:45.666 --> 00:46:48.715
They didn't bootstrap them and start them.

00:46:48.715 --> 00:46:49.365
You know.

00:46:49.365 --> 00:46:56.458
They invested in them and they found people who knew how to do what they wanted to accomplish and they hired them.

00:46:56.458 --> 00:47:06.579
And I think a lot of service business owners think that that can't be done with a service business, because they're like I'm the only one that can do it the way I want it done.

00:47:07.545 --> 00:47:10.675
I've tried hiring people and they just don't do it right.

00:47:10.675 --> 00:47:15.452
A lot of them live by the motto if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.

00:47:15.452 --> 00:47:20.085
It's not true, but you have to be able to delegate properly.

00:47:20.085 --> 00:47:28.056
You have to know how to communicate to people who can get the work done, because employees can get it done.

00:47:28.056 --> 00:47:54.505
It just comes down to are you communicating the right way, Are you giving them the right guidelines and are you giving them the freedom to actually get the job done, Because there's more than one way to do it, and if an owner delegates and then micromanages and doesn't let the person do it, that's when tension happens and it's like, okay, they might not be doing it the way I would do it, but if the end result is the same, that's all that matters.

00:47:54.887 --> 00:48:07.768
And so I gave people the freedom like here's the outcome I need, here's my expectations, here's how I want you to check in with me.

00:48:07.768 --> 00:48:09.956
As long as they were doing those things, I did not interfere with how they were getting it done.

00:48:09.956 --> 00:48:11.762
I was like you're meeting the codes, it's getting done right.

00:48:11.762 --> 00:48:14.989
I don't care about everything in between A and B.

00:48:17.271 --> 00:48:31.938
I feel like your mindset, even going into starting the business, was like there's an exit strategy, right, you had an exit plan in mind and I don't know that most people are starting their businesses thinking, hey, there's going to be a better way I can.

00:48:33.646 --> 00:48:34.329
I'm agreeing with you.

00:48:34.329 --> 00:48:36.074
Yeah, I don't think people.

00:48:36.985 --> 00:48:40.992
You let go of that control because you had the exit in mind.

00:48:40.992 --> 00:48:48.030
But if you don't have that exit in mind, I think it's really hard to relinquish your baby, I think people started.

00:48:48.150 --> 00:48:52.065
I think a lot of people started business with no actual plan, 100%.

00:48:52.065 --> 00:48:57.226
Just like I'm good at this, I can make money off of this, so I'm going to do it 100%.

00:48:57.226 --> 00:49:08.797
They don't have a, you know, two-year, five-year, ten-year plan for the business, which is kind of winging it, and I think that's the big difference is that you had a plan, basically before you even really started the business per se.

00:49:10.166 --> 00:49:12.775
And I find that a lot of business owners lack a vision.

00:49:12.775 --> 00:49:23.260
And I think that's something that I struggle with talking to business owners is they don't even have a vision of what their life could be.

00:49:23.260 --> 00:49:33.916
And you know, as you guys, being a financial podcast, like financial independence, opens up a lot of doors and it doesn't mean that you don't have a purpose anymore, like I said.

00:49:33.916 --> 00:49:38.436
You know, like when I started to feel like I didn't have a purpose, I found another purpose.

00:49:38.436 --> 00:49:42.704
I learned a new skill and now I can teach other people to do it.

00:49:42.804 --> 00:49:52.653
But they, they're like I don't want to retire, I'm I don't, I don't know what I would do, and I think people box themselves up because they don't think that.

00:49:52.653 --> 00:49:57.829
I don't know if they don't have belief in themselves or exactly what it is.

00:49:57.829 --> 00:50:05.432
But I'm like, if you can have a mindset shift, like there's a whole world out there If you could just get your business to run without you.

00:50:05.432 --> 00:50:07.740
But they don't even.

00:50:07.740 --> 00:50:09.547
Yeah, they don't even.

00:50:09.547 --> 00:50:11.972
They don't even have the vision beyond their business.

00:50:11.972 --> 00:50:16.630
So that is something I run across when I was doing one-on-one coaching.

00:50:16.630 --> 00:50:19.958
I ran across that quite a bit Well from my experience.

00:50:20.646 --> 00:50:25.697
a lot of people in general don't even just stop think about and talk about out loud their goals.

00:50:25.697 --> 00:50:32.077
So you'll ask somebody like even if, like you know, they'll give you a generic one, like, oh, I want to retire one day, what does that mean?

00:50:32.677 --> 00:50:33.059
One day.

00:50:34.289 --> 00:50:34.851
Like when?

00:50:34.851 --> 00:50:36.650
Like, can we get a time frame here?

00:50:36.650 --> 00:50:37.592
What is it going to look like?

00:50:37.592 --> 00:50:38.215
What do you want to do?

00:50:38.215 --> 00:50:39.456
Do you want to do, do you want to travel the world?

00:50:39.456 --> 00:50:40.817
Do you want to live in a different country?

00:50:40.817 --> 00:50:46.282
Majority of people, honestly, do not really think about their goals and they definitely don't talk about them out loud.

00:50:47.382 --> 00:50:53.152
Right, and I think I probably made a lot of people mad when I was growing my business because I always talked about my goals.

00:50:55.268 --> 00:50:56.192
We're our circles always.

00:51:01.565 --> 00:51:10.351
We always talk about our goals, just not between each other, with our friends, what we want to see them do like it helps push you forward and it's the sense of accountability and pride and they say, like a rising tide lifts all boats or something like that.

00:51:10.391 --> 00:51:17.365
Like that's exactly it when you have a group of friends where you can talk out loud with your friends about your goals, like you help each other get there.

00:51:17.365 --> 00:51:19.269
And you know, even fincon.

00:51:19.269 --> 00:51:26.465
I've met a handful of people that I've been meeting with um just through Google meet or whatever, and talking about our goals together.

00:51:27.025 --> 00:51:27.827
And it's fun.

00:51:27.827 --> 00:51:46.094
Yeah, like accountability check-ins, we started doing those as well, and I think they're great, cause you you do need to be in community with like-minded people who you know they might not have the same goals, and that's totally fine, but you have people that are also working towards whatever it is that you guys are working towards.

00:51:46.094 --> 00:51:47.237
I think that's so powerful.

00:51:47.237 --> 00:51:50.030
You mentioned one-on-one coaching.

00:51:50.030 --> 00:51:54.168
Is that something that you still offer, or how are you working with people now?

00:51:55.972 --> 00:52:03.032
I am no longer offering one-on-one coaching because I felt like it was a distraction to me.

00:52:03.032 --> 00:52:23.684
It was a way to because consulting and coaching is easy, quick money Like you trade your time for money and you can generate an income right away with it and so it was appealing to me and I'm like, okay, I'll do this one-on-one coaching thing to me.

00:52:23.684 --> 00:52:25.108
And I'm like, okay, I'll do this one-on-one coaching thing.

00:52:25.108 --> 00:52:39.456
But really I found it distracting from what I want to do, which is to build an online educational database of courses, both free and paid style courses, with mastermind sessions where I can help more people at a time.

00:52:39.456 --> 00:52:56.197
Because one-on-one is a low leverage activity and the way that I built my last business was I leveraged everything and that's kind of just my mindset is leverage, so one-on-one just doesn't fit.

00:52:56.197 --> 00:53:03.059
But group coaching, mastermind sessions through my online courses is what I do offer.

00:53:04.224 --> 00:53:08.836
Okay yeah, because I was just thinking, if you're doing one-on-one again, how does that scale?

00:53:08.836 --> 00:53:17.630
Because then again you're the business People want to meet with you, the girl who built the seven-figure business, not somebody else that you've trained, right yeah, Reimtrained, right yeah.

00:53:18.231 --> 00:53:33.286
Starting a business and you know I've invested quite a bit into various things, like you know, technology, cameras, just random Starting a business.

00:53:33.286 --> 00:53:38.833
There's always expense that goes with that and so that immediate, you know income, so that I wasn't investing money.

00:53:38.833 --> 00:53:39.434
I had.

00:53:39.434 --> 00:53:43.119
But you know, making money and investing it, that was the appeal to it.

00:53:43.119 --> 00:54:01.307
But, yeah, after spending 2023, no 2024 doing that, I, I just it didn't align with with my goals, but that was the appeal, was the money and I'm like I don't need, you know, like I didn't, I don't need that income.

00:54:01.307 --> 00:54:03.653
It was like I wanted it, but I'm like I don't need it.

00:54:03.653 --> 00:54:09.927
So now I am just focusing on building out online courses.

00:54:10.909 --> 00:54:11.331
Perfect.

00:54:11.331 --> 00:54:19.574
So the people who are listening that are like, okay, I need to whip my business into shape or man, you're right, I don't want to work forever.

00:54:19.574 --> 00:54:24.934
How can I turn my business into something that works without me being present?

00:54:25.295 --> 00:54:29.253
Also, let's be honest, Majority of people, if you're listening, you have a business, you know you fall into this category.

00:54:29.253 --> 00:54:30.096
Let's be honest.

00:54:30.385 --> 00:54:32.451
Yeah, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.

00:54:32.451 --> 00:54:34.346
Like you said, I think it is the majority of the people.

00:54:34.346 --> 00:54:43.550
Um, if they do want to work with you and learn more, where can they find you, and what resources do you currently have available for people?

00:54:44.775 --> 00:54:45.257
Right now.

00:54:45.257 --> 00:54:52.873
All the resources I have I share through my newsletter and I have marketing guides and roadmaps.

00:54:52.873 --> 00:54:56.980
I also put out a the newsletter every two weeks.

00:54:56.980 --> 00:55:09.655
It always has very actionable, detailed business tips and advice in there and you can get my newsletter at trainajuliancom slash newsletter.

00:55:09.655 --> 00:55:19.628
You could subscribe there and that is the first place that I will be announcing my courses as I launch them, which will be in 2025.

00:55:19.648 --> 00:55:20.791
Nice.

00:55:21.994 --> 00:55:22.275
All right.

00:55:22.275 --> 00:55:25.608
Well, the newsletter sounds fantastic, comes out every two weeks.

00:55:25.608 --> 00:55:28.255
We'll make sure to link that in our show notes.

00:55:28.255 --> 00:55:40.213
So, please, if you're listening to this and you need another free resource of great business tips, tricks, ideas, the marketing campaign, all of that sounds fantastic.

00:55:40.213 --> 00:55:43.067
So thank you for giving all of that away for free.

00:55:43.067 --> 00:55:45.856
If you're not signing up for that newsletter, what are you even doing?

00:55:45.856 --> 00:55:49.494
And then where can people find you on social media, trina?

00:55:51.764 --> 00:55:55.492
Instagram, facebook X and LinkedIn.

00:55:55.492 --> 00:56:06.251
I'm on all of those, and all except LinkedIn are my name, so Trina, julian or Trina underscore Julian, but something along those lines.

00:56:06.251 --> 00:56:10.175
If you Google me, it will all pop up Perfect.

00:56:10.244 --> 00:56:12.311
And we'll link all that information in the show notes also.

00:56:12.552 --> 00:56:25.396
Yes, do you want to leave our audience with like a final thought, either for people who are thinking about starting a business or people who already have a business that they're looking to grow and potentially exit from?

00:56:28.467 --> 00:56:37.396
Yeah, I really just want to encourage people to believe in themselves and to go for their dreams, because that's the biggest thing that holds people back, I think, is they're afraid of failing.

00:56:37.396 --> 00:56:41.733
And things are easier than people realize.

00:56:41.733 --> 00:56:45.849
When you just put the effort in to do it, it's achievable.

00:56:45.849 --> 00:56:51.206
So, whatever it is that you want to do, don't stifle that because you're afraid of failing.

00:56:51.206 --> 00:56:52.489
Just go for it.

00:56:54.092 --> 00:56:54.492
I love it.

00:56:54.492 --> 00:56:56.757
We'll end on the note go for it.

00:56:56.757 --> 00:56:58.768
Thank you so much, trina, for being with us today.

00:56:59.471 --> 00:57:00.813
Yeah, thank you for having me.

00:57:00.813 --> 00:57:02.077
You guys have been awesome.

00:57:03.545 --> 00:57:04.025
Don't forget.

00:57:04.025 --> 00:57:08.534
Benjamin Franklin said an investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

00:57:08.534 --> 00:57:11.338
You just got paid Until next time.

00:57:11.338 --> 00:57:23.119
Thanks for listening to today's episode.

00:57:23.119 --> 00:57:25.965
We are so glad to have you as part of our sugar daddy community.

00:57:25.965 --> 00:57:34.175
If you learned something today, please remember to subscribe, rate, review and share this episode with your friends, family and extended network.

00:57:34.175 --> 00:57:38.516
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00:57:38.516 --> 00:57:40.835
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00:57:40.835 --> 00:57:49.751
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00:57:50.545 --> 00:57:52.853
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00:57:52.853 --> 00:57:56.210
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00:57:56.210 --> 00:58:00.467
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