Impact Warrior
Impact Warrior
EP 2: Overcoming Barriers Using Creativity and Perseverance with Lindsey Shipley
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Hey, and welcome to the Impact Warrior podcast!
In this episode, I talked to Lindsey Shipley, owner and founder of Lactation Link, as well as an RN, Childbirth Educator, certified Lactation Coach, and mother of three. Lindsey uses EasyWebinar to run her online courses and coaching business, and has undeniably impacted the thousands of moms and families she has educated.
We talk in-depth about Lindsey’s journey: From putting her first online course together to learning about sales funnels, to leveling up with TribeMinded. Lindsey is a cancer survivor and also touches on what it was like to be battling cancer while establishing and growing a business.
Needless to say, Lindsey is a Warrior in more ways than one. I find her story so inspiring. She has used her knack for creatively solving problems and passion for serving others to build a sustainable and ever-evolving business that has had a massive positive impact. How awesome is that!?
It was a joy to talk to Lindsey and get more insight into her story. Her mindset is worth hearing about, including what she’s learned about the importance of starting small and never giving up. Even when faced with what seem like insurmountable challenges, Lindsey has found a way, and I believe you can, too.
Enjoy the episode!
We release new episodes each week, so subscribe to Impact Warrior wherever you listen to podcasts to be the first to see when a new episode goes live.
Don’t forget to check the show notes after each episode for links, free gifts, and additional resources for our listeners! All episodes can be found at www.CaseyZeman.com.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
[8:45] Lindsey’s story of teaching her very first class and the importance of starting small.
[15:15] Lindsey explains her thought process of making something happen by finding a creative way around barriers
[34:50] Casey on getting people results and being ready for the battle, and what makes Lindsey, and others, Warriors
[38:50] What Lindsey considers to be the secret to her success.
[43:45] “Entrepreneurship is the ultimate resilience Olympics.” Both Lindsey and Casey on wanting to quit your own business, and how to persevere.
To find out more about Lindsey and her business, follow @lactationlink on Instagram, or go to www.lactationlink.com. You can also send her an email at lindsey@lactationlink.com and say hello!
Links mentioned in this episode:
Where to Find and Follow Lindsey Shipley:
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> Click here to take advantage of EasyWebinar's 14-day FREE trial and start making your impact today!
Click here to check out a transcript of the show
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Impact Warrior
Episode 2:
Overcoming Barriers Using Creativity and Perseverance
with Lindsey Shipley
Full Transcript
Introduction: 00:00
You're listening to the impact warrior podcast. This podcast was created out of a vision to have like minded entrepreneurs who have faced similar battles and understand how difficult entrepreneurship can be. We will feature guests who are here to share with you how rewarding the journey can be. If you stay focused and disciplined to achieve the desires of your heart, every business owner will face a certain level of difficulty at some point, regardless of the industry. And we are here to share with you the story of warriors who have knocked down massive walls to inspire you to keep fighting on this journey. Let's conquer the journey together. And here's your host, Casey Zeman.
Casey: 00:43
What's up everybody? How are you? Casey Zeman here. I am so excited about today's guest. Her name is Lindsey Shipley, and Lindsey is a registered nurse, lactation consultant and she's the founder of Lactation Link and she's in her sixth year of business. And I've had the pleasure of working with Lindsey in her business, I thought she would just be so perfect to bring on. She is just the epitome of what I consider an Impact Warrior. If you go to you know, @lactationlink, you'll see so many amazing videos from her and her story. And she's a cancer survivor, a mother of three, which I have three kids as well. So I'm like, we so jive with that and connect with that. And she is like the entrepreneur who's running her business, raising three kids, you know, kicking cancers ass, and I am just so pumped to talk to you. So thanks for coming on Lindsey.
Lindsey 01:48
Thanks for having me, Casey. I'm excited to chat.
Casey: 01:51
Yeah, I would love to dig in straight away and just talk about like, how you started, like, where all this came from? So you're a registered nurse, you know, how did how did this all come? Because obviously, you, as we mentioned before, you didn't you didn't-- you don't have a business degree, you went from nursing to, "maybe I'll create this program and product in and go out and, you know, teach education through courses." So how did all that come about?
Lindsey 02:21
Sure, sure. I'm really this was born out of a need, you know? You and your team might might call it "the reluctant hero", you know? And really just that at the bedsides of hundreds of deliveries as young labor and delivery nurse, 22, no kids of my own, and living in the highest birth rate per capita, you know, state, which is Utah. And so this was just like, kind of here locally in a community, like having babies young is just like kind of the norm and having lots, right? And it's kind of ingrained into the family culture as well, oh, my mama had, you know, lots of kids, so she's gonna be able to help me, or my sister or whatnot. But after seeing the bedside of so many deliveries, and watching moms and parents struggle to know how to hold their baby, let alone to start that breastfeeding, or that feeding journey kind of caught me off guard. And after witnessing this time and time again, and seeing kind of fear in parents eyes, or just kind of not quite knowing where to turn or where to start, I kind of took a step back and was like, wait a second, like where I think we're failing these parents like is there has to be something more and kind of dug into the research side of it, having just graduated from a research based university, and found that the number one indicator of breastfeeding success was a prenatal breastfeeding class. And so I kind of I kind of and I never set out to, you know, start a business called lactation, like I went to find a resource that I could give to the OBs and midwives that they could pass to their clients because I thought, you know, they've got to have peace, and they've got to have resources and tools before they even walk in these doors of the hospital, because it's so time sensitive. You're so depleted and exhausted after delivery, it's not a great time to learn a new skill, you know, so we've got to have a foundation there. And when I went digging, everything I found was super outdated. The videos were from the 80s and was not relevant to the modern parent, you know, and so I think that's when the seedling started. And then I kind of went down this road to get this specialty credential. My husband thought I was crazy multiple times along this journey. I said, I'm going to get this credential and it's going to cost you know, $1,000 to take the course it's going to cost another $600 to sit for the exam. He said, "Okay, so what kind of raise you're going to get at the hospital?" and I said "I'm not going to get one, honey." Um, so I got that.
Casey: 05:02
And he was like, "Go ahead, do it. Do it, do it."
Lindsey 05:05
Oh, he's been awesome. But I think, you know, in the in the beginning it was kind of like "What is she doing? Okay, I'm just gonna gonna hang on for the ride here." Um, and that may have been the the beginning of resiliency because I had just had foot surgery, I had a six month old, but the only training was in San Diego. So I took a flight. I took my baby with me for a week long course got that training done.
Casey: 05:30
Your foot was hurt as well?
Lindsey 05:31
Yeah, yeah, at that. Yeah, at that time when I was getting that, you know, coursework done. Anyway. So when I got that credential, I went to, to interview at the hospital for just kind of a position in the hospital of Lactation Consultant, and I got the offer to take that job. But I took another step backwards, and that that's not quite what I want to do. I want to be able to impact families in a greater way, you know, give them this foundation beforehand. And then if they need support afterwards, then we're supporting, but then we're going back to kind of this library of information and these experts that can. So that's really, that really was the beginning. And then I had I had a recurrence of cancer right, maybe, gosh, two or three months after I started Lactation Link, I had a recurrence of cancer. So I actually had to go into chemotherapy and things like that. And I remember sitting in that chemo chair, and I had a book on my lap, that said, "How to Be a Private Practice Lactation Consultant." Um, and the first page Casey, of that of that said, "If you want to make money, stop", like don't do this career, you know, because it really is a service based, you know, person that goes into doing this that cares so much about families and serving. Yeah, but that didn't deter me. I guess I knew like, yes, it's wonderful to have, you know, to give service, but it has to be sustainable for the individual as well. So that's another I guess, red flag of my craziness or my resiliency to kind of push back against, like, what people tell you can be done.
Casey: 07:26
Yeah, sure. Yeah.
Lindsey 07:27
Yeah. And yeah, go ahead.
Casey: 07:30
Well, I just, I'll stop you there. But, you know, that, that you're already starting to, I'm seeing sort of this, the onion is peeled away, and I'm learning about the layers of like, that resiliency, as you said, as that, that, that that curiosity of like, or that or that maybe that, you know. I think of like the Warrior that we like to highlight is, is people that are slight rebels, you know, if someone, like someone says I can't do something that's just going to push me a little farther to prove them otherwise, you know? And maybe that's where you're like "This, this is such a blanket blanket statement that you're not going to make money." You know, it's like, I need to, you know, "Let me prove to you that that's, that's wrong. Let me find, let me find my own narrative. Let me find my own story arc on that." So keep goin, this is awesome.
Lindsey 08:26
Like, yeah, kind of like, well, just because it hasn't been done doesn't mean we can't retool and get creative and you come at it from a different perspective, that's gonna both serve families and create an amazing solution, but also make it sustainable for a builder to you know, to get paid for that. Um, and so that kind of reminds me of the story of like, my first class, you know, my first paid class, that I think I started the business like December 28. And I had put my first class for January 15. And my husband's like, you know, okay, well, how are you going to get people there, you know, and it was, it was just in my living room, you know, we started really, you know, humble and small, which is also a key to anybody who's listening, that's thinking about starting a business. You don't have to rent a space, you don't have to pay full time employees right away. Like there's so much that can be done in a scrappy way to test your concept. And then to build from there, and put a little bit money more money in and a little bit more in, you don't have to, like, go into debt out of the gate. Um, so he said, "How are you going to get people there?" And I looked at him and I said, "Well, if I have to stand outside Babies R Us and hand out flyers, to pregnant pregnant people, I will get 10 people there," you know? Yeah. Um, it's one of the things my husband says he says, I love, I love this about you, but it's also a curse for me at times that you're so stubborn about things and like you see something and you go for it. And so it can be really fantastic, but it can also be hard in some regards. And so I did it, I got 10 people to that first class, we charged $35. And it was like a little PayPal thing, it was just texting or, you know, Facebook message on my personal page. And maybe one of them was my cousin. And one of them was my best friend. But we got 10 people there. And so that was like the really humble beginnings. And then I started an Instagram page. And it was way less, way less beautiful. And way less, you know, thought through than it is now. But I think people saw the passion and they saw just the love to teach, you know, and help in a new way. And we started getting people all over the world that were chiming in on on social media. And someone said, you know, hey, I'd love to do your class, but I don't live local to you. So we started doing Google Hangout classes that were maximized at 15 people, you know, that was the that was the cap.
Casey: 11:02
I remember, yes.
Lindsey 11:03
Yeah. Yeah. So I did that for about, gosh, six to eight months. And I consider that like, my market research phase. Because I had a curriculum, but I was adding, okay, can someone send me a picture? Or have I met with somebody that I can get a picture to show this, um, and I was also noticing the same questions that were coming up that weren't already built into my curriculum. Um, and so that I think is what led to the online courses was partly because of the lifestyle piece, you know. Sometimes I would hold classes that I could do it, but somebody in Poland couldn't come that emailed us and said, "We want to do it," you know, also, I had to kick my family out of the house for two hours. And I think my babies were like three and two at the time.
Casey: 11:51
That sounds impossible.
Lindsey 11:52
Yeah. And we were doing them weekly. And so that was really, really hard. And so I think that's where the idea came from, to do an online course that could be on demand and available to families everywhere.
Casey: 12:03
That's incredible. How long did it take for you to put the online course together?
Lindsey 12:08
Yeah, yeah. This is going to also go back to the whole, you know, "don't wait till it's perfect." Um, I had my slides. And I hired somebody to come and record because I didn't really know anything about tech. Like, I didn't even know how to do a conversation like this yet. So I had hired somebody to come and just record me as I was teaching almost podcast style, as slides were rolling. So they recorded that. And I put some still pictures in. I think I have three videos, and that first original set of the online courses.
Casey: 12:43
Right.
Lindsey 12:44
And I gave myself a deadline, I think I put it together in a month. And I was like, at the library, doing it, like a way cuz I didn't have like, a shared space or anything at that point. Um, so yeah, and then we launched it. And I started on Gumroad, I don't know if you're familiar with that.
Casey: 13:02
Yes.
Lindsey 13:02
It's not really a video or a course platform, it's more of a PDF. You know, where you house PDFs and purchase them. But it was the cheapest, and it was what we could afford. And that first two weeks, we made like three grand off those, like, on demand courses and like, I thought I was, like "Oh my gosh, that is so amazing!" Yeah.
Casey: 13:26
That's so incredible. And I love that you just like you just did it, no matter, you know, what the, the sort of like how how extensive your knowledge was about how to use the technology, or where you could do it, a lot of times, what stops us is, well, "I don't have a space for doing this," or "I don't have the right skill set for being able to record" I mean, there's so many little things, and all these little things are little obstacles, because we run in that you just that the pain of them, you know, you've just overcame that, overcame that, overcame that. And, you know, and unfortunately, what many of us do is we let those little things build up to a massive wall that we just will wait another day to break through. And so I think, thus far, I love how your progression has shown that, you know, all the little challenges did not stop you, didn't deter you, they they may have slowed you down and you had to think how am I you know, I what I gained from that is you put a deadline there. And even though you still had to learn how to do X, Y and Z, you still made that deadline. Right? And, and by putting the deadline you know, then you're working odd hours and doing different things and as a mother of three especially little ones like that. Holy moly. It just it just really goes to show like how when we, when we really dig in, we can accomplish many different things under, you know, multiple, multiple levels of duress and stress and things like that.
Lindsey 15:12
I appreciate that for sure. And yeah, I think I think it's definitely not like, Oh, I can never accomplish this just kind of like almost that beginning thing like, "Oh, well, you know, if you're going to be lactation consultant, you know, don't worry about ever making money," just kind of taking that step back and going, how can we go around it? How can we go over it? How can we go under it? How can we find a secret trapdoor to make something happen, but then also being okay with "Okay, this isn't my final version. But it's a version that's gonna serve this percent of the population super well." Right. And then down the road, I can widen that net and and do more.
Casey: 15:48
What was that first? So you created the first course you launched it out? You made $3000. Obviously, the business has grown substantially since then. Was that, you know, was that a was that the $97 product? Cuz I know you had a $97 product. Or was that a different price?
Lindsey 16:14
We had it priced differently at the very beginning, I think we did like a single course, because we had three courses, even at the beginning, and then we bundled them. So I think we did single courses at like 39. And the bundle was 89, to try to just make it like no-brainer to do the bundle. And even from the very beginning, 90% of you know, our transactions where the bundle, have been the bundle.
Casey: 16:40
Nice.
Lindsey 16:41
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I think I think in the progression that, you know, that whole first probably year and a half after we launched those, because I was stoked about the three grand, I'm like, "Okay, this is what life is like, now," like, I thought, like, okay, that's just gonna keep going at that pace. Yeah. And I didn't understand the saturation, like of your customers, I didn't understand, you know, the need for constant new lead generation. And so then when those, like sales slowed down, I was was kind of left scratching my head. And that whole first year and a half, we really had to rely on sales and coupon codes. I didn't even know what a webinar was at that point. And then I kind of got to the point where I was like, gosh, I don't want to train my audience to only want a discount. Yeah, I want Lindsay's product, but I know she's gonna launch a coupon code in the next, you know, month or two, so I'm just gonna wait. So I started to notice, okay, that's a problem. Um, and, you know, the other thing I would say is, you know, I went places and I did things. So like, I went down to like the ABC Kids Show, which is where they showcase like all the new baby products every year, I'd go to Lactation Consultant Conventions, and I just, I don't think you need to, like run yourself ragged doing that. But the reason why I mention that is, you can't be afraid to reach out to people, email them, even if it's a cold email or jump into something, if you have a good feeling about a networking opportunity. There's probably so many people who just haven't answered my emails or say no, but they're-- out of all those, there's been a percentage that have said yes, or, you know, whatnot. And it's brought tremendous rewards and up levels in my business. Yeah. So going down to that ABC show, I ran into a group that invited me to kind of dinner with them. They were doing like little baby bassinets. Yeah, I had a marketing girl on their team. And I sat right next to her at dinner just randomly. And she started asking me what she did. Or, what I did, and I told I had online courses. And she said, "Well, do you have any sales funnels?" And I said, "What's a sales funnel?" I'm like, dead serious. And she started talking to me about, "Hey, you could create kind of this free email course. And then we could put like timers in it. And then people would have more urgency and scarcity," and like all these new concepts, yeah, when I got back home, I hired her to put together my very first sales funnel, which was that free email course. And that that was great. That was awesome. That started to give us a little bit more regular revenue coming in. And that was kind of like that first step. And so maybe three, six months go by, I was approached by a hospital to create a program for them. So I kind of shifted my focus. And I got really into that project, and it kind of got my eyes away from revenue and numbers, which is never a good thing when you're a business owner. During that time, the same marketing girl reached out to me and said, You've got to try a webinar. And I kind of put her off and I was like, No, no, I'm too busy. Right now. I'm focusing on this hospital product. Like, like, kind of go away. But your credit like she was pretty persistent. Maybe she was trained by you back in the day, Casey.
Casey: 20:05
Hahaha, I hope so.
Lindsey 20:08
Yeah. Yeah, must have been, and-
Casey: 20:11
I'll have to get her name at some point.
Lindsey 20:13
Exactly, exactly. And she came back to me and she said, "No, you really need to do this webinar." And I. So I basically said, Okay, well, if I can pay you to set up, do everything, to set up even the slides. And I'm just going to show up and teach for an hour. Great. I'll do it. You know, yeah, she was actually great, cuz she dove into my website. She did all the copy, like, and I showed up, and I did the webinar. And I made five grand, on that first webinar I did. So yeah, yeah. You had my attention then after that, you know about webinars. Um, yeah. Yeah. So that was another kind of little turning point of learning. Mmm, hmm. Yeah, for sure.
Casey: 20:56
What happened with the hospital thing, though? What? Did that continue on, or?
Lindsey 21:02
I don't regret going down that path. But there, you know, we went about a year and a half. That's actually what made me, pushed me to create better content. Now our content is so much more amazing than, you know, those early podcast style slides, um, was because of this opportunity to potentially be in the hospital. So I took, that's what was taking up a lot of my time, we got so much B-roll footage from probably 50 different models, all different sizes, shapes, colors of women, which we thought was so important. And it was costly, you know, it costs, it costs quite a bit of money to do that, because I brought in a videographer. I had other experts weighing in on the script and the writing. Um, but that ended up not being able to move forward just because of so much red tape in the hospital, you know? And so I could have at that point, gone, "Hey, I can go get an investment," and bring a huge sales team in and just more manpower to do that. But personally, I wasn't in a place to take on that type of responsibility. And so I had to even that was hard, because I would have loved that I kind of had to close that off a little bit and really focus on the consumer side to keep the doors open for the business, if that makes sense.
Casey: 22:28
Yeah. And so then, did you get to keep the content that you that you had started to create?
Lindsey 22:36
Yeah, well, I had paid for it. Yeah. So it was my content. You know, another thing where I came to my husband and said, "Okay, I've got x amount," which was, you know, multiple 10s of 1000s, to create this content, he said, "You crazy," you know, "that's not gonna work." And I got, once again, I backed it. And I remember sitting on the couch with my babies, and kind of just, you know, when you're in that deep train of thought of, how am I going to, you know, I haven't let go of this idea, but I don't have a solution yet. And I just, I created the biggest sale we had ever had with the most bonuses and partnered with physical product companies to come up with that money off of that one sale so that I could pay for the new content.
Casey: 23:21
And you did.
Lindsey 23:23
Yeah. Yeah, I did.
Casey: 23:24
That's amazing. Well, so um, so the webinar worked.
Lindsey 23:32
Yeah.
Casey: 23:32
Once you did the webinar, what happened after that? How many times did you run it? Did you do more? Like, what was the situation?
Lindsey 23:39
Oh, yeah, I quickly ran to do more. You know, because I loved that, that reward there of being able to reach so many people and giving them an amazing resource, but also make it sustainable for me, right. And so I ran more webinars, and I think we ran another one. And we did like $3000. And we ran another one. And we did like $2500. But I'm, once again, still not quite grasping the need for constant fresh lead generation started to tap out my list because I was only going to my email customers, and my social media. And so that, you know, that whole process of going okay, well, why isn't it working? Is it the content? Is it this? Is it that? And then finally realizing, "Oh, wait a second. We're going to the same people. Several of them have purchased," and I think the way we realized that as we were doing a live webinar, and so many people in the comments, were saying love the courses have the bundle. And then people started saying, "Oh, I've got the bundle. What else can I buy?"
Casey: 24:45
Hmm.
Lindsey 24:46
So that was kind of another turning point of realization. That Okay, well, we're going to the same people and they love us, but we're offering the same thing. Yeah. And we don't really necessarily have fresh people in there. So I think, you know, since then it's been a matter of trying to figure out new lead generation, how to maximize your warm traffic conversion, and have that campaign going while also starting kind of a cold traffic campaign. And doing some of that through ads, and learning, you know, starting to learn that whole, you know, game and, and whatnot as well.
Casey: 25:28
Yeah. Well, and then, you know, you came in into our program. And I'm not sure how you entered into it.
Lindsey 25:39
Well, let me let me let me tell
Casey: 25:41
Okay, because I, I wasn't sure if you were an EasyWebinar customer at the time or not.
Lindsey 25:46
I think I was on another webinar platform, to be honest. Um, but I don't know if you remember, Casey, I think we brought I brought this up to you when I joined, TribeMinded, but, you know, I found you on Periscope. Many, many years ago, you know, um, and, you know, yeah, yeah, Periscope, it's see it's not, it's kind of dead. But it's still, you know.
Casey: 26:09
Yeah yeah yeah. No, I, I, I loved it when I was doing it. Yeah, that was a great way for me to like, meet new people. It was yeah, it was great at the time.
Lindsey 26:18
And I think what I initially connected with was like, I think you went live almost every day, you know, on there, if you remember.
Casey: 26:24
Absolutely. I was absolutely nuts on Periscope.
Lindsey 26:26
Yeah. And I think I just love that like commitment to doing it. And also, like, no matter what the situation is, I think I remember sometimes your family would be in the background, or you'd be in different locations. And yeah, um, I thought that was really cool. Like, just to be able to go for it. Not always having like a perfect plan or in the perfect setup.
Casey: 26:49
You're saying I don't have the perfect setup today? Still, by the way everybody, still in my wife's childhood bedroom. In the middle-of-nowhere in Iowa.
Lindsey 27:00
Yeah. Um, and so so yeah. So to kind of set up what how I came into TribeMinded was, um, I had had a baby boy, December 2019, and miracle baby after having three bouts of cancer. But I had been four and a half years disease free, you know, we just knew there was one more little soul for our family. He was born December 2019, I went in for a routine MRI checkup, which, you know, becomes kind of normal for you, if you have a cancer history. So no symptoms, no problems. The day after Christmas, So two weeks after this little baby was born, expecting totally normal results, like I had had for the previous four and a half years. And I, you know, my original cancer had been in the lower part of my body, and that was all fine, but they saw a tiny, tiny lesion in my brain. And so I had just, you know, that was literally hell on earth, you know, to have that, you know, you're you're just caught completely off guard, you've got a brand new baby to care for. So going through that whole thing, I had already planned to take three months off for maternity leave. But now it was, you know, maternity leave plus, you know, trying to treat and recover from cancer. So to be honest, in the depths of that in January or February, I didn't know if I was going to be coming back to work at all, I had no idea what the future of Lactation Link would be, I had no capacity to think about that. I was literally trying to survive day to day. And we can't get into the specifics of just that whole cancer history. You guys can, you know, get that on another podcast I've done but I was able to get treatment for it. I had quite a few side effects. I was in and out of the hospital, the first part of 2020 You know, when everybody else was in quarantine, stuff like that. And then kind of one day in March, I worked for 20 minutes while my little guy was taking a nap. But my older kids were at school. And I did that a couple times. And then the next week, maybe I worked for an hour a couple times. And it just was like I never made a decision like hey, I'm going back. It was just like I started doing it. And I had reward and I I just kind of sunk back into it. And then of course being the person I am, you know, I can't do anything halfway. And so I got really jazzed about scaling the courses and scaling the webinars and optimizing them. So I think I came back on to, you know, the EasyWebinar website, and I saw that you were doing, you know, weekly free seminars. I think you did that like almost every week last year, and I started jumping into those and being a loudmouth. And putting lots of comments
Casey: 29:51
I love it. It really just makes me want to actually start those back up. They were they were valuable for me. Yeah. So many levels that I may start those back up, but I haven't done them in a while. Yeah, the pandemic sort of threw things off a little. Yeah.
Lindsey 30:08
So in the in your, you know, soft-sell style, I think it you know, in the comments, you should oh my gosh, Lindsey, you might be a great fit to chat with, you know, Tony on our team. And so I was able to jump into a discovery call with Tony. And, you know, he could say that I was kind of, I wasn't an easy sell, cuz I kept cuz I had had a few situations with consulting groups that hadn't turned out well. So I was pretty like, Hey, is this a good fit for me or not? You know, and so I kept asking Tony, so why do you think I'm a good fit for TribeMinded? Over and over again, um, and, you know, jumped into it. And I really loved it. I, you know, I loved that there was pre recorded content that I could get into at any time. And then we had live Q&A sessions. And it was like, sometimes people are like, well, is this prerecorded? Or is it not? Or is it live? Or is it not? And there's some pre recorded stuff, and I didn't care. I didn't care if it was pre recorded, because it was so valuable. So it didn't matter to me, you know, that some of that was prerecorded and in in the library, and it was actually better for me, because I could do it on my time. But then I also loved having those live Q&A sessions. And I always utilized those and what always text you guys beforehand, say "Can I get in the hot seat today?" Like, probably going "Lindsay again? We'll see."
Casey: 31:32
No, I mean, that's the thing is like, we I love when people get into the hot seat, like it's a it's a massive value. Hold on, someone's coming in. Oh, you're good. I need to keep Oh, for the car thing. Oh, hold on. You're good. Nothing. Well, we'll be we'll be cutting out. Hold on. Let me get the van key. Here we go. Thanks, Mom.
Lindsey 32:02
Oh, you're good.
Casey: 32:03
Yeah. That's funny.
Lindsey 32:07
You were talking about hot seat stuff.
Casey: 32:09
Yeah. So. So we I mean, I always love it when people happen into the hot seat that that are really like, they have questions they have like, how do we get to this place? How do we, you know, what, where should I you add such valuable questions about "Should I be pricing my products higher? How do I keep scalability? How do I keep consistency? How do I get my, you know, my ads to perform better?" I mean, you had such valuable questions that were that were also valuable for everyone else. So no, we, I loved getting you in the hot seat. And I know, I mean, from what Tony had told me, you know, you had started at a certain income level? At the start of it, I don't know. Can you remind me what what that was? And where you're at? Like, where, where that evolved to and where you're at now, basically,
Lindsey 33:01
For sure. You know, I think we were more around 7-10k a month, um, and just really looking for more consistency, and predictability. You know, because it's hard to make plans, or it's hard to do things. It's like, every month, you're like, Okay, what's coming, what's coming, what's coming. Um, and so that's really what I talked with Tony and you about is, you know, I really want to get to this higher level, you know, I really want to be, you know, eventually, you know, at 50k plus per month. And, you know, through that time of working with a TribeMinded, you know, I started to break that 15k and 20k barrier. And, you know, that I had a month that was 28k. And I, you know, so excited about that. Um, and, you know, that's kind of where we're at right now we're kind of in that 25 to 30k per month realm. And, you know, looking for ways to grow beyond that, but we're, we've obviously definitely have demolished you know, where we were even a year ago, which is fantastic. And the other thing I've loved about about working with you guys, is you guys are super committed to the results, not just oh, you know, the program is this long and after it like See you later, um, I'd love the ability to kind of get back in and obviously being respectful of your time and whatnot, hopefully, but you know, being able to ask little questions, and then getting nuggets to go and work on, you know, and implement, I've been really, really grateful for that part of it. And you know, just to be able to kind of consider you guys on my team and as mentors has been really fantastic for me.
Casey: 34:54
I think that's really what it's about, for us. It was about the results we wanted to, I mean, you, when we spot someone with massive potential and a curiosity and you know, someone who's like, "I know, this is a battle, I know that I have to be in battle with so many different things and I'm ready for the battle." And being ready for the battle is simply just saying, "Okay, I'm here I'm gonna do this" you might not be in the best, you might not feel the best you might not know all the things, it really is just and this is the epitome of why I consider you just this kind of Impact Warrior, because you want to create more of a light, more of a legacy in your life. Maybe you have good days, we all have moments of good moments have bad moments of, of ultimate low and, and life moments where, you know, you're battling cancer and you can't think of how am I going to grow this. And, and in allowing yourself to go through those moments and allowing yourself to, to know that you can come back to that moment, right. And and I love that you gave that to yourself, you said, You know, I started focusing an hour a week, you know, and then more it grew more and more and more from there, because you started to it, you know, you started to be able to open up space for it. And in Tony and I could tell right away that that you are a you are a just a natural, naturally curious fighter, someone who wants to build a massive impact in the world. And you're doing it right now. And it's and it's and that's this is the the journey is the fun, is the challenge and also the fun. And you know where you're you're on this road, I'd love to talk about a couple things going on right now, you you apparently have some opportunities that are pretty awesome. But at the same time, you know, I totally get the hesitation about some of those opportunities. Because I've been in the same boat, basically, I know what they look like, and but it's just, you know, when you get to a point where you're at in your business, you have more flexibility, you have more options. Would you like to share a couple of things?
Lindsey 37:16
I think, you know, um, a couple things is that opportunities present themselves, and, you know, we have to decide what's gonna work best for us. And we also have to decide what we're going to put value on. And it's, you know, is it? Is it money at that stage? Is it impact? Is it serving a group that is really going to be rewarding on your side as well, I think we have to decide that for ourselves. I mean, Tony's really good at that with me, he'll say, "Well, I know you're asking all these questions, but what do you want?" You know, yeah, because it comes down to to what is going to be, you know, our legacy, what is going to be rewarding for us, you know, and as well as those that we're serving. So I think that that's, that's a, you know, never finished question that we have to continue to evaluate as we go down this journey. You know, but I think as you progress, there's always different paths. And yes, there's opportunities, you know, recently we've had opportunities of, okay, maybe we can have some really fantastic strategic partnerships of people who are in that same realm and things like that. Maybe we can consider rolling up or merging with other companies? And what kind of combined impact can you have? So I think those are those are amazing. Or, you know, do I continue going to the loan? And do I add, you know, additional offerings? And do I build out my team more? And do I expand out of my niche now that we've created some brand awareness? Can we, you know, go a little bit more horizontal than vertical. I actually love that we've had that focus in such a niche, because it's allowed us to easier, like easier recognition, rather than just saying, well, "We're doing everything for motherhood," there's like, okay, like, how is that gonna come up in a conversation of moms at the park, right? Because there's so many people trying to do everything. So I love that, that we focus there more vertically than trying to do everything at once. And I think that is probably been the secret to the success, you know, in this specific niche. But But yeah, it's all comes back to what kind of impact do you have what's what's going to work for your life at that time and whatnot. So those are things I'm still learning and going through as we speak for sure.
Casey: 39:42
Yeah, like you. It's not easy. And, you know, I've been in situations where I've had the opportunity to merge with another company and at the time, I had just come back from you know, bringing my two sons home from Haiti, and just, I came off the rigorous tir- this tire tire, you know, just the how draining it was the process of bringing home, the tirelessness of it, I guess? But it was, it was just such a drain that I was like I was considering doing, you know, merging with another company, that would mean more resources, that would mean more. You know, I would, I would, I felt like, because I had so much more now that I was responsible for I was like, "Am I good? Do I have enough of a foundation, a cushion, a, you know, a net? And would these, this merger, give me the net that I'm looking for?" You know, and, and at the time, you know, I go back to the the concept of legacy and like, this is what I want to accomplish. But then you look at that, but then you also have to look at where you're at, right now. And, and I will say this, that that merger, didn't go through, it just didn't happen. For whatever reason, there was some, some little things that happened, that made it not happen. And once it didn't happen, and I realized that I was I needed to do this on my own again, and consider and keep going. It gave me this energy of, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna keep on doing what I'm doing, and push forward more and grow more. And so the next year, we grew by 50%, because of some of the, like, the, the realization that that the ownership lies back on me and, and that I, that I could, that I could still dig my heels in and get it done. But, you know, we have to weigh in those different times of, of when we are feeling like, you know, dude, "What am I going to need right now?" But I will say that when I when I think about the now I think about-- What I'm feeling right now is temporary.
Lindsey 42:24
Yeah.
Casey: 42:25
What if- I'm feeling confused or feeling like I got a, I'm hitting a roadblock, and I'm trying to actively fix it? It's a question, I'm just gonna keep on trying to fix it. And until it eventually resolves itself. And so the, I think about the reward, I can I keep the baseline of the legacy thing as a way to be able to look at the now and realize the now is a temporal position compared to what the future is. But at the same time, both have to be acknowledged, and it's, uh, and but that is the opportunity, that is the opportunity, this is a, this is a good problem to have, having this problem of being offered something. And being you know, and and potentially taking a certain, you know, pathway is not a bad thing. And there's no right or wrong answer here. That's the benefit. That's the beauty of it, once you get to this point, it's just a, if I if I do this, that's fine. I live with the results of that. But I can still do X, Y and Z. Right?
Lindsey 43:39
I think the more that you can persevere along your entrepreneurship journey, the more opportunities that are going to open up. I saw something like yesterday that said, "Entrepreneurship is like the ultimate resilience Olympics," you know, and I believe in that, because I've only quit my my business about 10 times, you know, in the past six years only to restart it an hour later, you know? Like, Oh, yeah, I'll have this just like low level conversation with my husband, where I'm just like, ugh, and then about an hour or two later, I'll start a sentence. And I'll basically be presenting an idea or something, and he'll look over perplexed and say, "Oh, you're still doing it?" Yeah, you know, kind of facetiously making fun of me. But, um, I think that, that shows a couple things that shows like, you know, your your resilience to continue to grow and to get to that, you know, end result, whatever that's going to be, and also too, your passion. Because the other thing I'll say is that if you're not passionate about the subject, it's going to be so much easier to drop and never pick up again. Um, you know, there's a couple you know, things that have been presented that we partnered on or whatnot and, you know, if there's just not passion there You're not going to come back to it, you're not going to have that creativity, you're not going to have that ability to, like I said earlier, go over, under around, find the trap door. But if you're really passionate about the solution that you're headed towards, typically that resilience is going to come naturally.
Casey: 45:17
And I think you're right, I think you, you have to ultimately have that, that has to be what fills your coffers when there's, when they're so bleakly drained by whatever life is throwing at you, right? And I and I do feel that like we, the more the more obstacles we knock down the, the more we are so comfortable with knowing that when knowing how there's, there's another obstacle. I mean, it's, it's, it's really, it really is about being comfortable with the uncomfortable and knowing that every day, there's something uncomfortable that you're going to have to get through and go. Yeah. And it is that you're so I love that you've you quit almost 10 times, I totally have been there as well. It's the it's the, you know, you ultimately, you're a problem solver. As a business owner, as an entrepreneur, you're always trying to solve problems. And, and you and because you're always solving problems, that muscle is being worked on all the time.
Lindsey 46:30
I have so much more tolerance. Like I remember, you know, the very beginning, my first employee that you know, quit and moved on, it wasn't personal. It gutted me, because I didn't understand how to create a training manual, I didn't understand how to transition a role. So I was literally I remember being on the floor in my house, and just like what am I going to do now, because I felt like all that money that I had paid, which probably wasn't that large, but it was large to me as a small business. I felt like that was you know, put down the drain. Whereas, fast forward six years, and we've created a system to put training manuals in place for all, you know, any position, so I don't have that same gut wrenching feeling if someone needs to move on or take another opportunity, you know, I'm just like, "Oh my gosh, I loved working with you, fantastic. Let's, you know, do this off-boarding", you know, there's that. And then also, like, when you get your first person that comes at you, you know, on social media or something like that. Somebody called me, you know, disgusting for charging for, you know, lactation services. You know, and that hurt that hurt me initially. And those were things that I had tears over frustration over. And that doesn't happen every day. But now when we have ebbs and flows like that, I'm not saying it's easy, but like you said, that muscle is more built up to take it on, deal with it, and then kind of move on.
Casey: 47:57
Exactly. Lindsey, I just want to thank you so much for your time today. This was awesome. And I really got a sense of like, the journey you've gone through where you're at how you have, you know, persevered in business and in life, all while having three kids and, and beating cancer. Are you cancer free right now?
Lindsey 48:26
Yep, I'm about 15 months disease-free. So I'm gonna keep stretching that out and out and out, as much as we can.
Casey: 48:32
That's so exciting. I'm so happy.
Lindsey 48:35
Yes, I feel so grateful that you would even ask me on so thanks for having me, Casey.
Casey: 48:40
Oh, this was my pleasure for sure. So thank you again, and everybody. So where can we where can everybody find you, Lindsey?
Lindsey 48:49
Yeah, so lactationlink.com or you can always find us on Instagram. That's our most active channel. People want to say hi, they can always shoot me an email at Lindsay@lactationlink.com, I'm sure you'll put all those links in the show notes as well.
Casey: 49:03
Absolutely. Well, thanks again, Lindsay, so much. And thank you all for listening to this episode, and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye bye.