Speaker 2 (00:00.288)
What's the number one thing that any company, any business, any podcast needs to have to be successful? That and just consistency.

You got to produce something of value. Staying power. Perseverance is an incredible trait. And it's not perseverance as you should just be heads down, continue to do the same thing day in and day out because eventually you will persevere and you will win. No, it's the ability to continue to try. And every day you're going to bring your best and you're going to try and you're going learn new things, you're going to adapt and you're going to overcome, but you got to keep coming back every day.

Welcome to Married to the Startup. I'm Alicia MacKenzie, a wellness entrepreneur and digital creator. Alongside me is my amazing husband, George, the CEO who's always ready for a new challenge. We've been navigating marriage and running startups for over a decade, and we're here to share the real, unfiltered journey with you. Join us for insights and candid conversations about integrating love, family, and entrepreneurship. This is Married to the Startup, where every day is a new adventure.

Welcome back to episode number 30 of Married to the Startup.

Wow, Married to the Star is getting old. It's 30 episodes.

Speaker 2 (01:14.894)
We're 30. I feel like we deserve a pat on the back. Talk about consistency. Go us. Babe. What? You and I have been able to coordinate and get our shit together for 30 episodes. 30 times. 30 times. Congrats to us. All right, so we are back for...

Yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 (01:32.684)
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:39.776)
Episode 30, you're the host, Alicia McKenzie.

host, Alicia McKenzie. I don't sound like that.

And I am the co-host, George McKenzie, radio DJ.

Please stop. No. No. Damn it. It's not working. I don't believe it. I mean, can we talk about the fact that somebody called you a young man? Who's that young kid that's in the field who's really encouraging to his players and he's like really young looking, you know, and he's kind of buff and I don't

I a face made for radio, they say.

Speaker 1 (02:15.682)
Was that the grandparent? I think that was somebody's grandparent.

I don't know even if it was like he called you a young kid. That's kind of adorable

It's all in reference. If you're 90, then yeah, I'm young kid.

We should hang out with more young or old

Yeah, makes me feel young.

Speaker 2 (02:32.578)
But first, the first thing I want to do, it wasn't on the docket until today, but I feel like it's relevant because we are coming out of allergy season and we're getting ready to head into summer. But last year, our sons, specifically one of them, had the worst seasonal allergies that he's ever had to the point where he needed to go on an inhaler and actually wear a face covering while he was in the field or else he would get this

horrible, hacky, allergic cough, and he had like really bad post-nasal drip, and the poor boy was just miserable. He couldn't sleep at night because he was coughing constantly. once we got out of this allergy season last year, I went on a full rampage in our household, and I got rid of all of the allergens. I changed our laundry detergent. I changed our cleaning supplies.

I went and bought air doctors and put air doctors in their rooms. We started using like wool dryer balls and just we made so many different changes. I got rid of all the plastic. Everything in our house is now glass. I switched to wooden utensils. We switched all of our cookware. I went on a full blown. We're changing all of this shit to see if we can help his allergies. And can I just say that

The difference between last year and this year is astounding.

Yeah, I think and not just allergies, but the cold and flu season. Like we were fairly healthy and I think you forgot the snake plants, right?

Speaker 2 (04:14.99)
yeah, I went and I bought a bunch of different greenery that helps rid the air naturally of toxins. So yeah, I went and bought a bunch of different snake plants and I planted them throughout, like I put them in different areas of the house, mainly just the high traffic areas. And it's been such a change. And when I was speaking to our nurse practitioner about it, the woman I go to for all of my blood work and stuff, I was contemplating whether or not it was a placebo effect.

But she like full blown assured me, she said that it is not a placebo effect. Everything you did that you researched worked and it did what it was supposed to do.

Yeah, I think we definitely have a defense in depth. So we have the plants, the air doctors switched out all the toxins and carcinogens that are in the things that we use day in day out, the microplastics, got rid of all that. Also have the humidifier, dehumidifiers with the Dysons strategically placed in the house. I think, you we took a lot of proactive measures.

Yeah, we were very proactive. And I want to say that the kids maybe caught two colds this flu and cold and flu season. Yeah. They weren't bad, which is a huge improvement because one of our sons, he was always sick.

Yeah, they weren't bad.

Speaker 1 (05:36.088)
Yeah, he was on some sort of a Moxicillin or something every month.

my gosh. And not only just the external things, like we also cleaned up what they were like showering with and what are they washing their hair with. So anything that

Brushing their teeth everybody switched the whole house with

The whole house switched and I did it slowly over a period of time because A, it just felt really wasteful to throw all this shit away. But B, I just think micro changes are better than full sweeping, overwhelming for eight people in a household changes. So I just started in one area of the house and then started with the cleaning products and then started with the bath products. And it was just very intentional, but a conscious switch.

It definitely worked. So if you are struggling or you have kids that are struggling with allergies, really take a close look at your products. Not to sound like doomsday, how many products do we use daily? I think there was a number, it was like 30, a minimum of 30 different products on your body. And I bet you if I were to count your...

Speaker 1 (06:38.882)
use that money. Well I guess the shampoo that's in, the detergent that's in your clothes, the detergent you use to wash your, to clean your plates. Yeah and then the stuff you prepare your food with, what you drink out of, brush your teeth with, put deodorant on.

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:57.794)
Yeah, you probably use a lot. I'm going to count your skincare routine. Yeah. No, but it definitely made a big difference. I really thought it was in my head, but now that we are out of cold and flu season and heading into summer, can strongly say that everything we did helped and take a look at your products if you're struggling with allergies. All right, soap box done. Moving on. Where do you want to go, babe?

I think we can talk like I had that conversation this conversation I think when I was on my last work trip. So it's interesting at dinners like just talking about our dinner the other night like we had all the kids at the house. We were all having dinner and we decided to start a discussion. I don't remember how we got started on it but it was really around the birth rate concerns in the United States. I don't remember how we got on it but the fact that you need 2.1

at least 2.1 births for every female on the planet to maintain current population, not even to grow it, just to maintain it. And the fact that the United States is far below that, kind of on par with where I think Japan or Korea was years ago. Was it Japan? There's a study that came out. The numbers came out and said, hey, we're on the similar trajectory. So you can kind of plot the future of the US if you use this other countries as a reference point.

And it was just an interesting discussion because we have an 18-year-old, a 13-year-old, both women. And then we have the boys. The boys didn't participate much. It's a little over their head. But you have three generations. So you have your mother, their grandmother, you, me, and the two girls. And then it was really around, why do we think population growth is slowing? Why are we having less babies? And it was interesting to hear their take.

and then for us to kind of give them more information and see how their answers either changed or didn't change and then really start to get to the thought provoking stuff of, okay, we all agree that this is true. How do you incentivize this behavior? And I thought that was very interesting conversation.

Speaker 2 (09:09.324)
Yeah. And the 18 year old was very much in the camp of she's not comfortable with the current direction of the world on a whole to be confident in the fact that she wants to have children. So she's in the camp of I don't think I'm having kids versus the 13 year old is I'm not sure I think I want to but maybe I want four type kids.

I think it was for me what struck me the most was just her visceral reaction or immediate reaction was really, well that makes sense because nobody wants to bring a child into this world. was her response. And then you probe a little as to why. Well, because everything's terrible. It's a terrible, this is terrible, this is terrible. And you start to dig in that it's, you can see how easily influenced young people are by social media because that's all they're fed.

is the negative. They click one negative story, then they're fed negative, then their outlook, their view is negative. Which was quite interesting. I don't know how you combat it, but I think the discussion that we had, I thought was good. Because we went through that piece of it, of why is it bad, and give me examples of why you think it's bad, and it's sound bite after sound bite, or some tick-tock thing that you harped on, and now your view of everything is based on that.

So we went through that discussion, and then it was we got on the topic of how do you raise more productive human beings? And then if you want a next generation to be more productive than you, you want to raise good human beings that want to further procreate and have prolonged the race of humanity. And if we all agree that a nuclear family produces the best children. statistics have proven that the most educated children, the people that are the best

equipped to deal with societal pressures, the most mentally equipped, and all those come from stable homes. Stable environments and nuclear families are a big proponent of that and that people are generally healthier coming from that family dynamic.

Speaker 2 (11:18.478)
And a nuclear family is one father. One mother. One mother.

father.

Speaker 1 (11:24.64)
Or in a unit, a family unit.

and a family unit. So it could be a father and a father, a mother and a mother. It's a two parent health.

A two-parent household is probably the best way say it. So you could be divorced but still having grown up in a household that has both of those parental units. Yes. Right. And we all agreed, even the 18-year-old agrees, yeah, that's beneficial. We should have that. So then it's, OK, well, why are there so many American families that don't have that? And then why is that? And then kind of got down maybe a rabbit hole. But it was an interesting discussion of we went from a

kind of community we culture into a me culture, which is really, I want to have my needs met. I want me, me, me. I want to be happy. I want, and marriage is not a me conversation. No. Right? It's a collective. And it was interesting to hear her perspective and even a 13 year old's perspective on that. And then if you do agree on that, the fact that nuclear families are more beneficial for us as a human race, how do you promote that?

How do you promote it but also do it in a way that is not tradwife?

Speaker 1 (12:36.934)
Yeah, we got down that hole. Because it's interesting because there's a lot out there that's, you want to, you want to, I don't want to say reward, but you want to praise single mothers. You want to praise parents that are doing it their own because they're still putting the work in and doing it. But at the same time, how do you want to also promote that, you know, a nuclear family is more beneficial to the child? So how do you promote that? And then you look at television and, you know, music, almost all of that.

does not promote that value system. what's the value system that we have today and how do you change it?

think it has to come from the inside out or the top down, right? It has to come from conversations like we're having around the dinner table.

But what if you're in a household that doesn't have two parental units?

I know. don't know how you change it. Because you can't. It's really hard to change circumstances that you can't control. So let's say you and I are married, something happens, I get into a horrible car accident, and I die. We are no longer a two-parent household. Correct. So what would you do then, right? There are circumstances that are so beyond our control.

Speaker 2 (13:55.06)
Even though we know a nuclear household is the most beneficial situation for children growing up, we're not necessarily in control of it. So what do you do? Does it come down to the community? Is it going more to that village aspect? Which I think we're in agreement that we have a great village and a great network of support and of friends and...

If anything were to happen to me or to you, I have no doubts in my mind that they would step up. They'd do a meal train. They would help with carpools. They would do this, that, and the other.

Yeah, I think the community aspect is probably a great answer for that use case you just came up with. But I think the more predominant use case is people get pregnant out of marriage and the male splits. I think that probably happens a lot. And then there's the other way, you just get divorced and never remarry and you raise your children independently, which I mean, isn't really, could be viewed poorly, could be viewed in positive light. mean,

hard to judge that but I think there's a lot of people choose to be single parents.

Yeah, so let's say I'm 45 years old. I can't physically have a child, so I go adopt. I'm not married, but I have a great support system. Is that enough to...

Speaker 1 (15:17.198)
I don't know. I wonder what, if there's data on that to show. I mean, obviously I think the... I mean, I would say the child is probably a bit better off in a single parent home than in foster care. Right? Yeah. That's probably, if you're looking at a hierarchy of expectations... And stability. That the expectations for greatness for that child would be higher being in a one-parent home than being in a no-parent home. Yeah. And then we got on that discussion. was really interesting how...

I mean, we know it happened.

Speaker 2 (15:28.877)
Yes.

Speaker 1 (15:46.592)
You can have some of these philosophical discussions now with an 18-year-old of, well, in the past, know, religion was that big value system creation and religion is losing staying power. that was the thing that really had a value system built in that, being husband and wife, the 10 command, all these things were like really drilling in good behavior or trying to.

good behavior or Gordon moral compass and value systems. Not that religion has to be your value system. Everyone should have a value system. So it was a great discussion there. And so they said, okay, if the church or if religion is not the predominant way in which you get your value system or to incentivize a nuclear family, how else would you incentivize it? And is that through education system? Is that through

government like I don't know it's just an interesting discussion to have how do you incentivize human behavior? That's one yeah

Model it? Model it? I mean, I hate to use social media, but social media? Maybe more nuclear normal families should, I don't know.

Yeah, what about that? Just having more positive reinforcement of good family dynamics, like how we want to reward single mothers and praise single mothers, which I think we still should. But why not also praise the nuclear family?

Speaker 2 (17:18.52)
Yeah, where's my pad on the back, dammit?

I give it to you. It's like back then the 1950s it was know Leave It to Beaver. It was the all-American household. It's the Brady Bunch. It's all these typical nuclear families were represented on television.

Yeah, what happened to all those shows? Now we've got like criminal minds in freaking suits. don't wear all the holes. Maybe they're still on. Maybe we should like turn on Nickelodeon or some of those older... No, those are a lot of like, I'm gonna stalk you because I love you so much. Right? That's what you'll find on the Hallmark channel.

They're on the Hallmark Network problem.

Speaker 2 (18:01.538)
Don't get me started. Yeah, so that was definitely an interesting dinner time conversation that we didn't have an answer to because it's just, it's so nuanced and it's just a very sensitive subject, right? At the same time, you want to promote nuclear families, but you also want to be supportive of those that that choice was made for them, right? So I don't know what the answer is to, but.

Yeah, I was just thinking more broadly, like the value systems of humanity, of people.

Yeah, it's very much a me culture right now.

Yeah, I feel like it's shifting more so in the next generations because it's all about how do I get more likes? How do I get more clicks? How do I get more fame?

Rich and anonymous people, rich and anonymous, that's the way to go. Once you start going for the fame, that social capital, it's just so expensive and it's just not worth it.

Speaker 1 (18:57.272)
Well said. But I think that's hard to convince these generations, the next generation, because they see these people and look up to them. That's their hero. Content creator. Yeah, I don't know, because they're inundated with it. And I'm sure there's a lot of studies on it, that dopamine release, they're addicted to the 15 to 30 second entertainment. then they know that within the next click, there's another chance of...

I wonder why though?

Speaker 1 (19:24.046)
you know, another jack is like why gambling is so addictive and slot machines. It's that next poll, the next poll, the next poll, the next poll, the same thing that happens in YouTube or TikTok. It's that next video could be great, the next video could be great, all the next video. You just click constant, you know, get new stuff.

How do you raise kids in an environment like this? We have a 13 year old, we gave her her iPad back and then she turned into an asshole. And then we took it away for a couple of days and I was like, are you done? And she looked at me, she's like, yes. And then we gave it back to her, right? But it's just, and she's not even on social media. It's just like the videos that are sent in group chats that take you to Safari, which allows you to watch a one video.

Or YouTube video via Safari or it's just that the texting non-stop I mean, I'm sure I was a the same way we were kids We were just on the phone like in your room on the phone for hours But yeah, I think trying to set some expectations like you know when I talked to her was really hate you need at least 30 minutes down here with your brothers and your sister either before dinner after dinner 30 minutes know I bet you're down here being a participant active participant in the family because you know

And her response is, the boys just annoy me. I'm like, yeah, because you see them for five minutes. They get five minutes of your time and they love you they want to hang out with you. So for those five minutes, the way they can get your attention is to annoy you because they're guaranteed to get your attention and get your response. So they're going to use those five minutes to annoy you because they'll get the attention they want. Yeah. And if you were here all the time and you guys just had regular conversations or did a game together or watch TV together or did something together.

they probably wouldn't annoy you so much because they would have your attention in a normal way. It's the same way kids annoy their parents because they want their attention. Hey mom, hey mom, hey mom look at this, hey mom look at this, hey mom look at this, right? It's all, they just want attention.

Speaker 2 (21:14.664)
Yeah, I know. It's just this is, it's definitely a learning experience, especially as we know more about social media and about what it's doing to your brain and about the loneliness factor that kids are feeling. It's not good. And it's also that, that elitism aspect to it, right? The creators of these apps don't let their children use these apps.

Yeah, it's that we talked about it a couple of podcasts ago, can't remember. Luxury beliefs. Yeah, that luxury belief system where you say it's great to have social media, it's great to have all these things that give access and they inform you and you can get educated via these and you can learn more and it's great and everyone should do it but I'm not giving it to my kids. The belief system is, yay, everyone should do it but then internally you don't do it.

Luxury Beliefs.

Speaker 1 (22:06.866)
So then people that espouse to be like you or look up to you, they say, they're saying all these great things about social media. My kids should be on social media. All in all, those guys are espousing that behavior, but then they're not actually doing it because they know it's not good.

Yeah. All right. Moving on. Moving on. Moving on. One of the phrases that comes out of my mouth very often is, I listen to a podcast.

Moving on.

Speaker 1 (22:34.542)
There's so many. Yes, that's whenever you're about to say something. And listen to a podcast.

No.

Here's the thing though. Do you realize how many podcasts are just like appearing left and right? I feel like everybody has a podcast. Of course. Everybody has a podcast. Everybody has an idea. And one thing I was considering is when you have this idea or when you have a new, just a new business that pops into your little brain, how do you differentiate yourself? Right? Like looking at this podcast, what differentiates us from the rest of them?

If we have one, everyone has one.

Speaker 1 (23:13.868)
Well, for me, I guess I didn't do a full business case on this. I know. It was more just entertainment for me. It was like, I'm unemployed. I need to do something. I need to do something to get the words out. And it's going good. I enjoy spending time with my wife. So this is a mechanism in which to do that. I'm all about it. you know, I don't know how many husband and wife podcasts are there. Talk about

How's that working for you?

Speaker 2 (23:41.016)
I don't think there's a time.

business and family. So I think that's, in my mind, that would be a differentiator. that it's you and I, half black, half Hispanic woman, Mexican woman talking with a white guy, both of who have five kids and have multiple businesses and have done the private equity game, have done multiple exits, who run real estate, also participate in social media, and have done tax.

And I think it's a lot of those things make us unique.

I think we are a pretty unique package. But what's the number one thing that any company, any business, any podcast needs to have to be successful?

You got to produce something of value.

Speaker 2 (24:27.022)
That and just consistency. It is. It's staying power like it's it's just having the plan to no matter what. And I actually saw something today online and it said that. Let me see if I can pull it.

Staying power.

Speaker 1 (24:41.464)
I mean, that's one of the things I even teach in the baseball to the boys is perseverance is an incredible trait. And it's not perseverance as you should just be heads down, continue to do the same thing day in and day out because eventually you will persevere and you will win. No, it's the ability to continue to try, right? And every day you're going to bring your best and you're going to try and you're going learn new things, you're going to adapt and you're going to overcome.

You got to keep coming back every day because there'll be a lot of days that it doesn't go your way, that things don't work. Right. And you got to just keep persevering, keep trying. It's the same with a podcast. If you came on and you go, I'm so excited about this podcast. I've got a niche. I've got a lot of things to say. I think, you know, I'm going to, I got to get this into, I got to birth this thing into the internet. Like everyone's going to love this thing. And then you do.

four episodes, five episodes in a month and you're not getting traction and you go, I need to pivot or I need to do something else. Like, and not persevere like, hey, let me do the same podcast for 10 years and get two views. No, it's, it's, but you got to just keep coming back and doing it.

But any of the major podcasts that you listen to, they all have the same story, right? They started within the first year. We're still trying to figure out how to do this thing. Year two got a little bit better, but then year three, year three is when they finally started picking up real traction, right? And then by year five, they were at like, I think maybe five million followers on YouTube because it's a YouTube slash, it's a YouTube show slash podcast. But this is something that I saw

today and it really resonated with me because as a female and having hormones, your mood could be any one which way depending on the week. Right? this is from... She says, fuck your mood, follow the plan. Right? Fuck your mood, follow the plan. There's nothing wrong with feeling sad, angry, upset, frustrated, disappointed, scared, anxious, and stressed.

Speaker 1 (26:35.412)
F you hormones.

Speaker 1 (26:51.864)
Just sounds like a two.

Just don't allow those feelings to dictate your choices, your actions, and what you do with your life. Right? And I think it's very easy to get into your head and just say, this isn't going right, this isn't going right, this isn't going right, and then try to change something versus... or give up. Yeah. Right? Or give up.

Give up.

Speaker 1 (27:13.346)
think that's the one thing we struggle with, at least I do, with the kids, making sure they understand that. you're not always... But you're not always going to feel great. You're not always going to be happy about doing it. You're not always going to be excited to do it. You just got to keep doing it.

Babe, that is going to put me in an early grave. It is going to put me in an early grave because getting that across to these kids that you are not going to feel great and that it's not always going to be easy and you're going to be sore and you might have a cold or you might have a headache or maybe your fucking period started great. Welcome.

Or some coach doesn't like you. Some coach said something about you.

It's just, it's not always going to be easy, but you can't just throw your hands up in the air and go take a nap. maybe you can go take a 30 minute nap, but then get up and keep going. Right. That is that messaging is just trying to say it in a way that is kind and parental is very, very fucking hard.

you

Speaker 1 (28:31.736)
Yes, it is. And that it's just, maybe people are born with it. Maybe it's, I'm so different than my parents and my sisters that maybe it is a born thing. It's, it's nature, not nurture, but yeah, you look at some people and they're like, I am going to succeed because I'm going to succeed. No matter. It doesn't matter about external factors. I'm going to fucking figure it out. Like

Yes.

Speaker 1 (28:56.524)
It's a bad day, I'm having a bad day, fuck it, I'm gonna keep going. I gotta get it, because I'm gonna succeed no matter what. I don't care what he says or what she says or what they think, I'm gonna do it. And then there's a lot of other ones and unfortunately I am worried for raising you that go, ugh, I'm just not doing it. Because I can't do it because X, Y, Z.

So how did two people who are how we are.

It's because they haven't had to struggle for anything. And that's the only reason, not the only reason. So one of the main reasons I love sports is because you can't wealth your way into it. Like you're either good or you're not. And you got to work hard to be good at it. Even if you have the most absenteeism from nature, you still have to work. And if you don't work it, you're not going to succeed.

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:44.718)
And the cream, I mean, the cream rises to the top, right? The cream rises to the top. So if you're a great athlete, you may be only have to try like 80%. If you're a mediocre athlete, you're gonna have to try the full 100. But you could rise as high as that 80 % athlete. But I will say that this past weekend in Utah for Nationals, these girls, this was a very trying weekend. They were down

two players, which means they didn't get a break. They were playing with a team that they don't normally play with because some of their 18s didn't go, so they pulled up 17s. One of the girls had a diabetic episode on the court. One of the girls took an elbow to the nose in the middle of a play. They had a really, really, really late night the first night because of travel delays, so they pushed the start back, I think, by an hour and a half.

So all of the courts ran late. They were basically playing till midnight and then had to get up the next day and then play again and then get up the next day even earlier and play again. So it was just a really, really tough weekend, but they did so freaking well. So when we say that sports is the way to create the friction, I fully believe it because they...

My only issue is that that was amazing. But then that same person will come home and go, I'm tired. I'm not going to school.

Babe.

Speaker 1 (31:15.118)
Say like, that's not the lesson you should be learning.

I know, it's not the lesson. It's not the lesson.

Lesson is you can still perform when you're tired. Like you still gotta do it. Put one foot in front the other and move. No, no, I'm tired. I'm skipping it.

Yeah, so we got that part.

I can't go in. It's allergies.

Speaker 2 (31:37.55)
We got 50 % of the equation right. I don't know how we fixed that other 50 %

I know. I wish maybe some listener can tell.

Right. there any parenting geniuses, experts out there?

How do you raise warriors in a field of dandelions? I just don't know.

and you know, my original question was more about business. I don't know how we got on.

Speaker 1 (32:04.206)
But it's podcasting and it's the perseverance and it's continuing to stick to your strategy. And your strategy is how to have a wide berth, but a lot of people pivot too early or they give up because things got hard. So I tried something else. And I think what you saying, the article podcasters take three years to catch on, on average. I think it's similar for most businesses, right? There's a few that have flashes in the pan and boom, they hit it right out of the gate. But a lot fail in the first year and then...

the ones that do make it, you know, it takes several years to build up the base. And then once you get the ball rolling downhill, yeah, you get it rolling.

Yeah, and it actually turns out that there was a woman that we were with this weekend and they were in business for 25 years before they sold, right? 25 years. That's like a quarter of your life.

Or three quarters or yeah, 30 % of my life

That's like half, that's over. Yeah, that's a long time. Right? How old was your first company when you sold it? Was what? 10? Seven. Seven? Yeah. But that's still, that's a long time. It was. And you didn't necessarily have to sell. You were courting a bunch of different people. No. Yeah. So I think, I don't know, as with anything. Three airplane.

Speaker 1 (33:04.373)
Now.

Speaker 1 (33:14.385)
We weren't

Speaker 1 (33:20.418)
Yeah, it's that, yeah, three to five year plan, you got to have a strategy and you got to execute on it, have your lead and lag indicators and monitor and.

But it's also really, really hone in on what makes you unique. I find that I'm constantly asking myself that question with this most recent startup. I'm like, what makes us unique? The four of us.

What's the uniqueness and it's what's your value proposition, which should correlate to, you know, your position in the market. What value do we add? And then why is, why are we better at it than everybody else? Because. Because it's not.

I'm amazed. Have you met me? I have. That's why I'm better than everybody else. No, but that is honestly a question that every business move that I've made for this last company, it's why are we different? Right? There are several different, there are several companies out there that do similar things. What makes us different? Yeah. How do I measure it?

Got it.

Speaker 1 (34:21.688)
How do you measure that?

Speaker 1 (34:28.064)
No, thank you. Come on. I think you need to do the OPSP. I am helpful. I give advice. I'm not a strategic consultant. You are. not going to come in and do a strategy session.

helpful.

Pretend you don't know.

Speaker 2 (34:40.449)
Pretend you don't know me and strategize my... You're not being helpful. Very helpful. You're not. I am. Help a girl out.

I'll hit on you all day.

Speaker 1 (34:52.386)
I think you guys need to sit down and brainstorm together. mean, if the four of you sat down and did the OPSP and took your time to like really think about it and do it, I guarantee you would leave either with a lot of questions or really thoughtful discussions on what it is you're actually doing. I've done it in every company I've been a part of.

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (35:12.769)
interest.

Speaker 2 (35:16.846)
Have done it by yourself or have you done it as a group?

twice as a group and this last time by myself. Because I'm the one, I got to lay out the strategy first. So I'm trying to figure out, okay, what is it that I want to do? And then how would I measure success in this strategy? And then I'll discuss it with the other leaders. We just don't have a lot of leaders and where I'm trying to go now, I think. but in previous companies, yeah, we did off sites where we sat down and we went through it and tried to get feedback. it's, you because you don't know everything. You don't know what you don't know. And when you talk about it with other people,

And you start to, as long as everyone understands the definitions and what you're trying to put down the paper, so you don't get sophomoric answers or you don't get things that are like so out of left field. Like what's your vision statement? What's the brand promise of the company? it's to empower women across the world. Like, okay, what the fuck does that mean? Right? No, it's got to be something that you can actually execute.

Right? So I mean, think you guys should do it at some point. And you can break it up into multiple days, multiple sessions and just say, hey, the first thing we're going to focus on, what are our core values? What is our brand, vision and mission statement? And then how do we measure, what are the KPIs that we measure ourselves against? What is it? It's like, how do you measure success? And it can't be just revenue. Because chasing revenue is not, it is a metric.

but it can't be the metric. how do you know? Is it net promoter score? So like the people that come to your events recommend you to other people and then you get that as part of your feedback and you have an MPR of 110, 120, whatever it is, or MPS, sorry. And then do you have repeat clients and you can track that as NRR? So you can say, okay, I want an NRR of over 100%, which means people come and then...

Speaker 1 (37:12.302)
You know, they refer other people. So I'll count the referral as an addition to the hundred. So if I have, you know, 10 people come to the first event and all 10 come back and they bring two friends, right? So now I have 12. You have lists, right, of who came. And then if you have, you should track it as part of your on the ticket purchase of how did you find out about us? Was it Instagram? Was it referral? Was it website search? Was it word of mouth? Like,

How do you capture that data?

Speaker 2 (37:41.196)
Yeah, I have that on my demographics.

Yeah, so then pull in that data and say, how many people were referred by somebody who would come before? And then you can start to create kind of this, you know, revenue, maybe it's not revenue retention, net or repeat client, net client retention or net, I don't know, you can figure it out. I'm just spit balling, but those could be measures of success because we're having repeat, which means we're adding value or creating value.

So if that number continues to grow and is over 100, that means that we are providing value because they're recommending us to other people. And if it drops, why is it dropping? So that's probably a good KPI for the company.

Absolutely. That was a good Gaby. I am going to steal that. See, I know if I just get you talking that you'd start splitting gold. Good job, baby.

You're welcome.

Speaker 1 (38:27.758)
But I think, yeah, your core values and then once you get those set, then okay, how do I live my core values? And then what are my key initiatives over the next three years to get aligned to the strategy I want? Three years I want to be X, five years I want to be Y.

You know, one of our biggest mistakes though, what are you never supposed to do when you start a company? You tie yourself to the work.

I don't know, why don't you tell me? Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Right, we can only grow as fast as we can.

Yeah, you only have so many hours in the day. You gotta have a business that can...

Speaker 2 (39:01.07)
thrive without me. Scale. You have a business. You need a business that can scale. Correct. How do I scale this fucking thing?

scale.

Speaker 1 (39:09.836)
No. Is it the brand? Is that what's important? Can you franchise the brand and market other market segments?

That's actually a really good idea. you know, that is one thing. Skinny Confidential, Lauren Bostic. I am not quite a fan of her, but I am a fan of her business model and how she never wanted to tie her personal name to the brand. Right? So Skinny Confidential, that is the brand. Right? And I think that is one thing with Lift Like A Mother that I've been very, very careful of doing. I don't ever want...

like a mother and everything to be Alicia McKenzie. Like I want it to stand on its own. And a lot of media and brand companies have been like, no, it needs to be Alicia McKenzie. No, it needs to be Alicia McKenzie. I don't want it to be about me. I want it to be about the wellness and about the content and about the media that it's putting out. Like, it's not just about me because eventually I want it to roll into product and that kind of...

scale, but without my name tied to it. And that is one thing that she, when she started her blog and everything, it was always, she wanted it to be skinny confidential, not Lauren Bostic. And I'm like, okay, seeing how she's grown and scaled that company, I'm like, okay, I'm not that far off by fighting back against, it should be Alicia McKenzie. It's not. Okay. I think we've rambled enough for today. Yeah. Any other?

Yeah, I'm excellent.

Speaker 1 (40:39.67)
Ramble, ramble.

Nuggets of Wisdom you have to offer? I don't Whatever.

I've offered any yet so I blacked out there for a minute. What I say? Did I say something?

Oh, you humble one. All right, guys, we'll be back next week.

I'm out.

Speaker 2 (40:58.328)
Thank you for tuning in to Mary to the startup. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, please take a moment to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast. Your support helps us reach more people and keeps the conversation going. If you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover, drop me a message. I love hearing from you guys until next time.

Out.