The Science of Your Social Circle and How to Network with Nathalia Levterova

n this episode, Nathalia Levterova shares her inspiring journey from a confused college student to a successful entrepreneur and marketing agency owner. She discusses the importance of networking, sales skills, and building a personal brand. Nathalia emphasizes that anyone can start a business by offering a service and highlights the significance of surrounding oneself with the right people. She provides practical advice on how to network effectively and the steps to take when starting a business, focusing on service-based models and high-value skills. In this conversation, Nathalia Levterova shares her insights on entrepreneurship, stress management, the value of education, wellness, and the importance of travel. She emphasizes the need for quick monetization strategies, the significance of handling stress and taking calculated risks, and the varying relevance of college education based on individual goals. Nathalia also discusses the impact of health on overall well-being and the transformative power of travel in personal growth. Finally, she reveals her motivations and aspirations, highlighting the importance of autonomy, giving back, and family.

Takeaways

Networking is essential for growth and finding opportunities.
Sales skills are crucial for any entrepreneur's success.
Building a personal brand can facilitate connections and opportunities.
You are influenced by the five people you spend the most time with.
To network effectively, show genuine interest in others.
Regularly visiting places can help initiate connections.
Starting a business is as simple as offering a service.
Service-based businesses are easier to start than product-based ones.
Focus on making money before worrying about business structures.  Monetization should be prioritized over perfection.
Experience is crucial; starting for free can be beneficial.
Stress can be managed by assessing worst-case scenarios.
Saying yes to opportunities can lead to growth.
College may not be necessary for entrepreneurs.
Health and wellness are foundational to success.
Travel broadens perspectives and fosters self-discovery.
Understanding your hormonal cycle is important for women.
Networking can happen outside of traditional settings.
Your 'why' drives your actions and goals.

Nathalia's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathaliadventures?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Transcript

Hello everybody, welcome back to the energized podcast today. We have Nathalia Levterova. I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. She is She's the owner of a marketing agency and an entrepreneur. She's also somewhat What's the word for it she's pretty big on Instagram as well so you guys can go check that out afterwards I'll put that link in the description, but she's she's got a lot of awesome things to say lots of topics We're gonna be talking about some wellness exercise business

Nathalia Levterova (00:06)
You said it great.

Ian (00:29)
lot of great topics. So let's just get started with who are you?

Nathalia Levterova (00:33)
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me on. I have really enjoyed seeing like all the guests that you have on the podcast. So when you reached out, I was like honored. I was like so excited, especially since my entrepreneur journey started like two years ago. And I honestly like stumbled into it. So like the fact that now I'm like working for myself and like have the opportunity to like share some of what I've learned is like super exciting and hopefully is able to like.

just help someone else who's on their journey and wanting to escape the matrix and pursue a life of freedom. So yeah.

Ian (01:09)
I love that. listening to your story is honestly like it's really helped me out as well. Like just having someone I can talk to about this because I feel like a lot of people my age, I don't have as many people to talk to about it. So, and there may be some people feeling the same way. So how do you market a product or service? Cause I know marketing is kind of your thing. That's what you've been doing these past few years. So how do you do that? Kind of a broad question, but.

Nathalia Levterova (01:21)
Totally.

Yeah.

Yeah, well,

totally. I'm just gonna pause for second. Do you want me to go back and tell my story? Because I don't think I really told my story. It's okay, it's okay if not, but I don't mind moving forward, whatever. Just let me know.

Ian (01:40)
You can do that, Go ahead.

We can edit anything out that goes wrong or anything. No worries at all.

Nathalia Levterova (01:48)
okay, perfect. Sweet.

So I am actually going to go back a little bit and talk about my journey because so I'm currently 23 years old and like completely working for myself, have the opportunity to travel, have my own podcast, have been able to build a six figure marketing agency, which a couple years ago I was just like, there's no way that's possible. I didn't even understand like what an LLC was. So.

It's really funny because Ian, actually think that we met when I was still working at summer camp, which is only a couple years ago. Yeah. So it was really interesting because I had gone to college in Tennessee originally and I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was studying for physical therapy. I wasn't even sure. thought maybe law. I had like taken prereqs or like bought my LSAT book. I had taken prereqs for PA school. Like I was all over the place.

Ian (02:22)
Yeah.

Nathalia Levterova (02:44)
Halfway through, ended up switching to marketing two and a half years in, and I was still like, what do people even do with a business degree? What do you do with a marketing degree? Everyone's like, marketing makes money, sales makes money. I was like, what's the career path? Because I feel like with nurses or doctors, you have such a clear line of you do this, and then you're going to go to hospital, you're going to get a job, you're going to go to a family practice. But with business, it's so wide open. It was a bit confusing to me.

So I ended up halfway through dropping out of college because I got a sales and marketing internship in Hawaii, which was basically just like glorified retail. was selling like super expensive bamboo mattresses to like tourists. And I was like an opportunity to live in Hawaii. Like I'll take it. So I ended up going and I fell in love with sales and I was like, I didn't even realize you could get paid to just like connect with people and

sell stuff. It's like, this is crazy. So I learned a lot during that experience. I was there for six months and then I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do. So that summer I had come up for a summer job driving boats up at the summer camp, which is around the time we met. And a church in the area ended up asking me to help them part-time with a youth program. So they were like, you can stay part-time here, stay wherever you want. I still didn't know what I wanted to do at school. I was super young when I went to college. So was like, okay, I'm going to

just take a year off, like help out, like work at this church and work part-time. So during this time, I was still reading a ton of like marketing and podcasts and listening to books, but, and I obviously knew that I had enjoyed sales, but I was still completely lost with where I wanted to go, which I feel like is like very standard for like most kids. Like even like most of my friends who are still in college, it's like, I don't know what I want to do. I have a degree in communications or whatever. And I'm like, I don't know where I'm going to go. And

Ian (04:31)
on.

Nathalia Levterova (04:41)
Anyway, yeah, so like I was still in a place where I was like, I have no idea where I'm heading, but I'm just going to start here. So I ended up connecting. I was also a part-time yoga teacher, ended up connecting with this yoga studio owner and I was looking for another part-time job and she was like, she tried to hire me for yoga, but I was actually like, hey, I feel like I can help you with your marketing. So I just kind of pitched myself to her and ended up doing like, she was like, well, do you offer like consulting services? And I was like, yeah.

For sure, even though I had never done that before in my life. But I had read, I've been reading so many books, reading so many books, listening to so many podcasts. I had done a bunch of like Enactus and like small business projects like at my college. And I was like, it was so funny in the age of like chat GPT and internet, I was literally Googling and like chat GPTing, how much do you charge for marketing consulting services? And then I was like, how to offer, yeah, was like, how do you offer marketing consulting? And it's so funny because I feel like

Ian (05:12)
Yeah.

Just throwing yourself into the deep end.

Nathalia Levterova (05:41)
Anytime you started something, you have no idea what you're doing. to, like, it's just so interesting because like until you've done something, you don't know what you're doing. And that's at any age. Like you could be 50 years old, you could be 20 years old, you could be 15. Like until you've done something, like everyone has the first time doing it and like you're never, you're never going to feel ready. but she was amazing, took a chance on me. It was a super small job that ended up turning into like, they hired me hourly to like work at their med spa and do a marketing for them. was,

Ian (05:47)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (06:11)
At that point, like working at the church part-time, doing that part-time. And over that year, I realized like, this is actually silly. It's a dumb model because the better I got at my job, like even if I was making ads, so I started running Google ads, Instagram ads, Facebook ads, and managing social media, doing email marketing for them. Again, like learning most of this stuff online. But I realized the better I got at my job, the less I'd get paid because it was hourly. So I had

Ian (06:20)
Mm.

Nathalia Levterova (06:40)
bought an online or my boyfriend bought me an online course, which I am such an advocate for online education because I feel like nowadays, especially for so many of like sales, marketing, photography, videography, filmmaking, like you can go to a four year institution, which we can talk about later as well, like thoughts on college and what you're gonna do. I'm so curious, but.

Ian (07:01)
Yeah.

Nathalia Levterova (07:05)
You can go to a four-year institution or which is going to cost a ton of money, or you can find a specialist who's like already done what you've done, has a course online and like figure out exactly how to imitate what they did. So I took a course on how to start a marketing agency, which gave me a lot of confidence to approach my employer at the time. And I was like, Hey, instead of paying me like X amount, pay me like $500 less.

and put me on retainer and I was like, I'll deliver the same amount. But it was a win for them because it's a no brainer. Why would they not save money to get the same amount? But for me, it was no longer hourly and it was remote. And now I had the opportunity to scale. So I laid out like my deliverables, laid out everything and then and yeah. And then they said yes. So from there I was like, wait, now what do I do? I have a business now. So I.

it was funny when I was selling baby mattresses I had sold to this, couple. It's so funny how every single like piece of your story, sometimes you're like, it's so random. Like I remember when I left to do the sales internship and why I had so many people like, why are you dropping out of school? Like, what are you doing? Where is this? opportunity is this going to get you? But, when I was there, I had sold this mattress to this couple and, they had told me, Hey, you're really good at sales. If you ever want a job, like call us. So I called her because at this point I had just like cut my income.

And I was like, hey, I need a job. Like, do you have availability? So she gave me, she was like, yeah, actually we need a remote sales closer, a high ticket remote sales closer, which by the way, I recommend to any person who doesn't know what they want to do with their life because high ticket remote sales closing is basically like you have an influencer or

Ian (08:29)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (08:52)
or some sort of person who already has like warm leads coming to their page. So maybe that's a fitness coach, maybe they're teaching investing, maybe they're teaching finances, but this person has like a page that they're using to get leads. Most of the time it's on social media, on Instagram. They have a bunch of people, they have a course that they sell for like 6,000, 5,000, $3,000. They have people that are wanting to do it, but they're so busy with the delivery of the course and with like the content creation and like creating the warm leads that they don't have time to sell. So they'll hire someone who's a third party

like a remote sales closer and you basically like they fill up your calendar. You tell them these are the hours I'm available. They fill up your calendar with people who are already interested and you get to close the sale, get 10 % of the deal. So it was a really good like side gig and I had a sales coach that I worked with during this time that literally taught me like I took hundreds of sales calls within the span of three months. Like I love sales. It was, I honestly think every entrepreneur who does anything business related needs to do sales.

And yeah, and there's so much with that. So I started doing that to make my mistakes on someone else's brand. and then I started networking and finding business owners and basically asking what problems, especially marketing problems, can I solve for these business owners? like, how can I bring them new clients and how can I arrange a meeting and pitch to them using these skills that I've learned through sales? and so basically rinse and repeat and a lot of like up and downs and like, like,

Ian (10:12)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (10:20)
situations later, two and a half years later, here I am. And I actually have like built my agency and I did, did go back to school and finish my marketing degree. So I do have my BS in marketing. But I had already been like, I had all my clients before I went and I did that. So it was really wild because honestly, again, I didn't realize that literally anyone can start a business like, like,

Ian (10:38)
Yeah, it's busy.

Nathalia Levterova (10:43)
I thought it was something that you had to get special permission from somebody somewhere. No one in my family did business, it was quite the learning experience, but that's kind who I am and how I got to where I am today.

Ian (10:56)
Yeah, that's awesome. And you mentioned networking and I feel like a lot of people talk about networking so much and like going out and finding business owners to talk to. But can you give like an example of a situation where we do that? Because oftentimes I'll even find myself thinking like, if I want to go network with this, like people always say networking, but how do you do that? Where do you go? Who do you try to find? Like, what's that process look like?

Nathalia Levterova (11:13)
Mm-hmm.

No, I feel like that is such a good question and learning how to network and build connections can feel so overwhelming. Yeah, so I would say my first advice is be the person that you want to attract. If you are wanting to be in a community where you're with, for example, if I know that I want to service super driven business owners that are purpose driven, I want to find entrepreneurs that I have to first

become the person that I want attract? Why would someone trust me if I don't take care of myself well? To me, it's really be the person you want to attract. So start reading the books, start hanging out in the places of the people that you want to network with. Start adopting, what characteristics do these people embody? these people, maybe they wake up early, maybe they eat a certain way, maybe they go to CrossFit, maybe they do this, maybe they do that. Find out who is it that you want to attract? Who is it that I want to network with you?

Ian (12:11)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (12:17)
How can I become a person that you would be friends with? So like, that's kind of number one. And I think it's the same thing for dating for otherwise. It's like, everyone's like, well, I want like the most like, I want a ripped partner or I want someone who is rich or I want someone who is like healthy or I want someone who is selfless and like service oriented. It's like that person is not going to be interested in like being in your network if, and I think especially the higher up you go in like entrepreneurship or in

like society, like people are so picky, like most business owners I know that like I really want to be in their circles. It's like they're so picky with their time. I'm going to mute my notifications really quickly. They're so picky with their time and who they're around that it's like I, like I aspire to be that way to like understand that like people aren't just going to let like anyone who's not headed in, like people want to surround themselves with people who are headed in the same direction.

Ian (13:02)
Okay.

Yeah.

Nathalia Levterova (13:16)
So that's like one thing, but I have a couple more. Have you noticed that? Like, do you feel?

Ian (13:20)
Yeah.

just about picking your social circle or that business owners are freaks.

Nathalia Levterova (13:26)
Yeah,

and just like being the person that you want to attract. Like, do you feel like that's, yeah.

Ian (13:30)
Yeah, no,

feel like that's super valid, honestly, because if you're not surrounded by, I feel like on the opposite end of that, if you're not surrounded with people that are like that, you're gonna start losing that because obviously everybody knows the quote where it's like, you are the five people you hang around the most. so whoever you hang around is who you're going to become. And so like, you need to be able to network and change your social circle if you want, if you want to become a different type of person. But.

Nathalia Levterova (13:46)
Yeah.

100%.

You know what's really interesting about that, Ian, is I was listening to this wellness podcast that I followed yesterday and this gut health doctor came on and she was like, do you know why they say that you're like the five people that you hang around? It's because we share gut bacteria. because of, yeah, no, no, genuinely. So the five people you hang around, it's because you share the same gut bacteria and your gut bacteria will, and you have a gut brain connection, right? So basically,

Ian (14:11)
my word.

Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (14:22)
They have done studies now where they can basically healthy. Okay, this is kind of gross, but there is literal companies where if you take a healthy person who has like a really like, let's say like they have like a really solid decision-making like decision-making skills, really good mental health. They're very resilient. They're hardworking. They're, they're like fit, they're disciplined, like all of these characteristics and traits, right? So basically,

their gut bacteria is super healthy and same vice versa. Like if you eat like a diet that's high in sugar, super inflammatory, you're like chugging like monster energy drinks like every two minutes and like not eating like vitamin and minerals and nutrients, it's like, it's pretty easy to depict like obviously your body's not gonna be as healthy, but also your mind, like your mental health, your discipline, your like all of those things, right? So here's what's even crazier. I'm totally going on a side tangent, but.

Ian (15:19)
No, it's

mine.

Nathalia Levterova (15:19)
Basically,

if they can take the gut bacteria from a healthy person and put it in an unhealthy person, it will completely change the way that that person behaves and same vice versa. Yeah, so there's a company that basically will take the fecal matter from like really healthy people and extract their gut bacteria, put it in pill form, and then you can buy it. So there's only one right now, but I think it's...

Ian (15:31)
That's crazy.

That's insane. That is actually insane.

Nathalia Levterova (15:46)
Yeah, there's only one right now, but I think it's going to get really popular in future. So you are the five people you hang around and it's because of your gut bacteria. And that was a new thing that I learned yesterday. So yeah.

Ian (15:55)
That's insane.

Yeah. I was also thinking like the other day around that five people hang around most. I'm wondering if you listen to a podcast enough, would that become one of the people that you hang around most? Because I was thinking like, if I want to surround myself, like if I just ingest so much of this podcast or so much of this book, does that become like a part of me, I guess? But, well, yeah.

Nathalia Levterova (16:06)
Yeah!

Totally.

Who you are? No, that's such a good question. And

I honestly feel like we're so lucky that in today's day and age, like even if you don't necessarily have like the networking connections around you, because like for me, when I started, like I didn't know a single entrepreneur. Like I just didn't, you know? And like growing up. And so it's wild though, because like you said, like you have access to the inside brains of like the people that you admire most.

I feel like we're so blessed to have the internet, to have people's personal brands, to have podcasts, to have, you know, and I know a lot of people hate on social media and a lot of people hate on the internet and like I completely agree, but I think it's a tool just like anything else. It is an addictive tool. It is an addictive tool. So I think that is where you have to be really careful. But in reality, it's like, how blessed are we that like, if you use it in a positive way and you're keeping your feed like full of stuff that's like,

Ian (17:11)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (17:14)
motivating you and like the type of person that you want to become, you can literally hack your own brain into becoming a better person if you curate your feed, right? Right. And if you listen to that. yeah, so I think that's such a good point. And I think that kind of brings me into like the second point that I had for networking is, I'm a firm believer in the power of social media and a personal brand. because, and obviously

Ian (17:22)
Mm-hmm. That's so true.

Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (17:41)
These are all just tools. There's 101 different ways to like get to the top of the mountain. like not everyone needs a personal brand, but it makes life a whole lot easier. So I think having a personal brand is not necessarily about having millions of followers or, but it is about like people nowadays. Like it's like your social resume. Like if someone comes to your page and they see like this person's into business, this person is into health and wellness, this person is into whatever, it makes it really easy for them to be like,

Ian (17:45)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (18:11)
like, that's someone I would want to connect with. Like we're super similar people, right? So it like, it like helps, it helps like jump yards in like connection of, like fine building a community that's likewise. And I think at the beginning, cause like you were talking about before, like I know when I was in high school or even later on, like at the beginning, when I first decided, like, I want to be an entrepreneur, like I want to.

start and again, I'm so far early in the journey, but like, I want to build a legacy of like generational wealth and like do good in this world and like have the resources to like make a difference and be a person who's disciplined and be a person who's organized and be a person who's selfless. Like when I started this, that was not the reality of like people that I was surrounded with, you know? And I think there's a period of time where when you first start like putting it out there of like, this is who I want to be, you know, like this is where I'm trying to go.

Ian (18:42)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (19:03)
I'm trying to build a business. I'm trying to be fit. I'm trying to surround myself with other people. At first you lose friends and you don't have the rest of that community. And this is whether you're using social media or not. That's just the reality. At first it's lonelier. But after a while, when you keep becoming what you want to attract, you're gonna find the other people that are doing the same thing. And I think a personal brand makes it that much easier. The amount of connections and jobs and relationships and...

Ian (19:06)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (19:31)
friendships that I've been able to make because of social media have been just like crazy and some of those experiences have just been wild. So I think that's another one. And yeah, I have a couple more but yeah.

Ian (19:34)
Hmm.

Yeah, I agree with that.

Back while we're on the networking track, can you give like a direct example of you said going to, for example, a CrossFit or like somewhere where those type of people that you want to hang out with are gathering? What would you do? Like, would you go talk to them? How would you like initiate a connection in that situation?

Nathalia Levterova (20:01)
Totally. Man, that's such a good question. I feel like honestly, wherever I go, there's three things that I do. I find a coffee shop that I'm going to go work at like on a regular basis. Or maybe if you still work like in an in-person job, like just go there every single morning with a book that you're reading and a workout class and or a gym because and other hobbies, which I'll talk about in a second, but that I think are really good for networking.

But let's start with, let's say like the coffee shop example. So, and then I'll get to CrossFit and the rest of it. But let's say, which I don't, just a disclaimer, I'm a horrible CrossFitter. I do not have the, I do not have the athletic capabilities to do CrossFit at the moment. But that's a different story. Sorry, Ian, I have like such a stuffy nose. I need to like breathe in for a second. Okay, that's disgusting. Okay, I'm good.

Ian (20:52)
It's all good, no worries.

Nathalia Levterova (20:59)
So with like with the coffee shop, for example, so let's say that you're bringing, let's say that you right now it's like a side hustle and you're building your personal brand and let's say you're building a website for a business and a service that you want to offer, which I want to talk about. I want to talk about how to start a business later because I'm like so passionate about that, but that's a whole different thing. Let's say you're bringing a laptop and you're working on like your square space website or you're working on your content, your social media platform, or you're bringing a book.

Ian (21:16)
Yeah, for sure.

Nathalia Levterova (21:28)
and you have $100 million offers by Alex Hermosy that you're reading or Main Street Millionaire by Cody Sanchez. I don't know, like you're reading this business book, right? And honestly, listen, if you're shy and you don't want to approach people, I guarantee you that if you go there at a similar time every single day for two weeks, somebody is going to see that book and be like, that's a really good book.

And then that starts a conversation. people, like honestly, just becoming a regular at a spot, even if you're not social and I'll talk about how to initiate, but even if you don't want to initiate, like just show up like every single day. And again, do those things that are going to attract that conversation. And maybe like, maybe you see someone at the coffee shop reading a book and you just ask them like, Hey, like, how is that book? Do you recommend it? And then that turns into, like, what do you do for work?

Ian (22:27)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (22:27)
cool.

Hey, like you talk for 20 minutes and I think a huge thing about networking is it's not about you. It's about you making the other person feel like you're interested in them. So instead of going to places and trying to like pitch yourself, like don't do that. Like go to places and take a genuine interest. And it's not fake. Like I'm saying like develop a genuine, like I think the number one thing you can do for networking is develop a genuine interest in the problems and successes of other people.

Just go to that person and ask them, like, like, what do do? like, how did you start? like, continue to ask these questions. Like, learn how to ask good questions. And at the end of the conversation, be like, hey, it was so nice meeting you. Like, do you come here often? That's like weird. But just like, you know, like, do you, like, is this a regular place for you? like, okay, I'll see you next time. Or maybe another time you're like, hey, like, can I save your contact? Or do you have a social? Honestly, I always ask, like, do you have a social media? Because I feel like that way,

Ian (23:05)
in

Yeah, because then you can really

show who you are because you have your personal brand on your social media.

Nathalia Levterova (23:29)
Exactly. So like if they see like you're posting about your, I don't know, like let's say like you have a lawn care business and it's like, like you have a pinned post that talks about your lawn care business or et cetera, et cetera. Maybe they're like, my lawn needs mowing. Like I'm going to call you because I need it. Or maybe, you know I'm saying? Like just show up regularly. And like same thing with your, honestly, like for example, with a fitness class, you're probably, unless you're like super social, like

Ian (23:46)
Hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (23:54)
You're probably not going to go to one fitness class and like make best friends, but I guarantee you, like you show up to like for me, it's like a Pilates class or yoga class or a CrossFit class or you show up to a gym at the same time every single day for a month. Like I guarantee you, you're going to see some similar people. And after a while, like it's not weird to be like, hi, what's your name? Simple, you know, and yeah, and make efforts to connect online, online. That's in person, but online.

Like again, make efforts to connect, reach out and be like, hey, like, or slide up on someone's story and be like, hey, this is super cool. Like love the work that you're doing. like just like casual, you don't need to ask for like that. Like, you be my mentor? Like the first time, but just like, keep building that connection. and make efforts to connect. Like if you're always in the house, like how do you expect to meet people? Like, do you expect someone to come to your door and like knock down, like knock it down and be like.

Ian (24:33)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (24:52)
You, like, no, like you have to put yourself out there consistently for a long time and be willing to fail. I have actually a story with one of the first people that I, when I first started networking, I would go and work at like Coeur d'Alene Coffee Co. because there was like a bunch of business owners there.

And I met this one guy, he was super nice. he like was like later on in his business career and was like, I just really want to help young entrepreneurs. I would love to get you and honestly just vocalize what you want. was like, yeah, like I'm really trying to find like new business owner. I'm willing to do performance based work just so that like I can get a couple of people under my resume. This was like a couple of years ago at this time. He sets up a meeting with this like startup. I, I'm actually going to name drop because they were very rude to me, but Drip7.

But anyway, so like I get this call, he sets up this call with the CEO and she clearly did not want to be there. And I start talking, I'm super nervous. This is like my first time pitching because this is actually like a, like I thought we were just having a conversation. She was expecting a full pitch deck. I was not aware of like, there's a lot of miscommunication going on. She literally within one second, like, like it was two minutes into the call. I was super nervous, like stumbling over my words, like this is my first time doing it. And she was like,

Yeah, you're wasting my time hung up on me. And it's just so wild because like, I guess my point with this story is just like, guys, like, be willing to fail. Like, it's okay to get rejected. In fact, another reason I think everyone should do sales because it's so important to learn to get rejected and keep going. Like, if you, if you quit, fail. If you keep going, you're going to make it and you're going to be fine. So yeah.

Ian (26:31)
Mm.

I like that a lot. Yeah, I know you said you wanted to talk about how to start a business a bit So let's kind of move into that how to start business and marketing all that good jazz How did you start your business first off?

Nathalia Levterova (26:48)
yeah. Okay. So this is, okay, it's way more simple than you think it is. The moment that you decide that you offer a service and you're committed to fulfilling it, you have a business. Like it's that simple. So you don't even need an LLC. You don't need to complicate it. You can focus, I think so many people, and the misconception is you have all of these like Instagram,

business influencers and all of these people who don't, in my opinion, fully understand. They forgot what it's like to actually be at the beginning stages, they're trying to get you to focus on how to save money on taxes and your business structure and what's best and what bank account and this and that. You can work as a sole proprietor until you're making 75 grand from your business.

you really, unless you have a ton of assets that you need to protect, which I'm assuming, like if you're at the start of it, like you don't, like don't stress about it. Like first do, first do the service in the business. First find the market, find the customers, offer the service, and then worry about saving money on taxes and, and your business structure and the rest of that later. Because truly, for those of you guys who like don't like, like I did when I started, I knew nothing about business. like,

was you don't actually, so basically what happens is with the state, can file for like doing sole propriet, you don't even necessarily need to file like for like a DBA, but like doing business as, but you can just basically put like, make up your name and then you can basically file as a, truly, even if you have a single member LLC, you're still gonna be filing like through your social security, not your business EIN until you change to like,

until you're making past a certain amount. I guess like how to start a business, truly, I will say when you have the money to pay someone to help you with the rest of it, or you can just do your research and Google like, what are the steps to register my business, et cetera, don't do that until you legitimately have a business because otherwise you're going to go waste like $200, like $500, like $700 each time. And you don't even know if you're going to stick to it first. So like my first piece of advice is like, find out what service or product you're offering.

Unless you have investor, unless you have, this is a side quote, unless you have investor money and you're doing this on like a huge like scale at that point, like definitely work, like make sure your business is set up correctly. But otherwise like don't complicate it. Pick what service, is it lawn care? I mean, honestly, yeah. I mean, to make it simple, you can do this doing anything. You could make flyers on Canva. Like let's say you're in like high school or middle, even in middle school, you can make flyers on Canva for business owners. Go ask a business owners, hey,

I have a subscription model for $20 a month. I'll make you a new flyer that you can print out every single month. You get a free Canva like login. You go on there, you make a bunch of like flyers. You make a flyer for each of the businesses and now you're making $500 a month because you sold that to like whatever, 20 businesses, right? So like that's a very simple version. What I recommend people do to do if they're like interested in starting their own business is the easiest thing to start.

in my opinion, is service-based, not product-based, unless you have money or you have someone who's willing to invest in you. When I started, I had no capital. So starting a product-based business didn't make sense because to sell t-shirts or to sell, I don't know, headphones or sunglasses, I would have to have the money to place a huge order in advance to understand supply chain management.

Ian (30:07)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (30:33)
to like do so much stuff that I don't, how to build a Shopify, et cetera. I think the easiest thing to do is to start with a service-based business because you don't have money at the start, but you have time, right? So do something where you can exchange your time for money, but it's not like a normal job. Like there's ways to structure it, but find something where like a service-based business, find a high value skill. Honestly, you can learn so much through YouTube University and ChatGPT.

and online courses, but even if you don't want to take a course, like start with YouTube, start with books, find a course that's like legitimate and like don't get scammed. There's a lot of scams out there, but if you ever need help, like just you can reach out to me on Instagram. I'd be so happy to help you find one. We're going to high value skills. So whether that's sales, whether that's marketing, whether that's content creation, user generated content, which I'm happy to talk about, user generated content. If that's

Maybe that's investing. Maybe that's like something finance related. don't know. there's find a high value skill, something that business owners are already paying for. Or if you want to take like a more, you can always go like more like blue collar route as well of like house painting or like window washing or whatever, like depending on where you're at and depending on your goals, like if you want something that's remote or if you want something that's in person and yeah. And then start to.

Ian (31:36)
and

Nathalia Levterova (31:57)
advertise it and just figure it out. Find a problem people pay for, solve it, and then sell it over and over and over and over again. Even if it's art or music. Imagine like if you're an artist, okay? Like you can literally make a business doing anything. Imagine you're an artist and you can find a local restaurant or a local house or a local... Honestly, if it was me, I would find a rich person in the area. Again, starting at... What coffee shops do the rich people go to in your area? What restaurants do they go to? What schools? What churches? Well, whatever.

Ian (32:22)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (32:27)
Like go immerse yourself in that community, make an Instagram or a website with all of your artwork, right? And then find someone who's willing to pay, maybe you start with $100, $100 for your artwork. And then eventually over time your demand grows, now $200, now $400, like whatever. And figure out like how, get one person to buy your art, then get another person to buy your art.

and then do it over and over and over again. And I will say the biggest thing that I think people make the mistake of is they focus so much on this fancy stuff of like, what business structure should I do and how do I save money on taxes? It's like, dude, like I had someone give me advice when I first started out there, like you don't have money to save on taxes. Like, why are you worried about how to minimize your taxes? like when you don't, you've never even made money, like focus on making money first, right?

Ian (33:11)
you

You

Nathalia Levterova (33:19)
I think we get it so backwards or people have like such a fancy like this, like they're so worried about like their website and this and that. And it's like, find ways to monetize fast. If people are not buying what you're selling, you don't have a business. So the biggest thing to me is like, who is willing to pay for what I have to offer? If no one's willing, maybe, and then there's a couple of things you can ask yourself. Is it that I don't know how to sell yet? Is it that I don't know how to convince people that there is value in this? Is it that what I'm offering is not valuable enough? Because that's also a-

possibility. Sometimes it's that what you're offering is not valuable enough. Sometimes it's that sometimes it's that you don't know how to show that what you're offering is valuable enough, right? Because everything's like perceived value. And third, am I in the right place for the market? Because like maybe there is, there are people who would pay for that service. They're just not the people that you're going to. So yeah, I would kind of say like figure out how to monetize fast.

Do a messy, you don't need a perfect website, you don't need a perfect business structure, you don't need a perfect Instagram, just start doing it. Make small monetization and then once you have, the hardest thing to do is get that first customer, that first client. Once you do that, it's a lot easier. I've done work for so and so, I did really good work for them, here's the work. Maybe at the beginning you even do it for free. Maybe you do three, four people that you're like, hey, can I do this for you in exchange for referrals and reviews?

Like I will mow your grass for free. will make a flyer for free. I will make an ad for free. I don't know, you know, like whatever. Or you could do performance based, like with marketing, that's a whole different thing. But I don't know if that's helpful or not. I kind of rambled.

Ian (34:58)
No, it's definitely helpful for sure. I love the idea of starting for free. I'm pretty sure that's is that something from her mozi because I've definitely heard that before like starting for free people are not going to turn something like that down at all.

Nathalia Levterova (35:04)
Yes.

Yeah,

because at the beginning you need experience, right? Like you don't have experience yet. So, but honestly what I think is even better than doing it for free is doing it performance based where I guarantee that you don't pay me if I don't do the job right. So you only pay me if I exceed your expectations. Like you can even frame it like that. And honestly, if someone came up to me like for my marketing agency and told me like, hey, I guarantee

Like, I will work for free for you running these ads for some of your clients. If I exceed, like if I outperform what you've been doing for yourself, you pay me. If not, you don't. I would 100 % take them up on that offer, you know? Because it's risk free for me and the only thing I can do is win. So try to think about it that way, like no matter what you're offering for other people.

Ian (35:58)
Yeah, I actually love that because I've been reading a lot about sales funnels and some book recently and it's dot com secrets. And it's he's talking he talks a lot about making the product. So like if people turned down that product or service, they would be stupid. Like you have to make it so desirable that it they have to buy it. Like. I love that idea, but. Yeah, word. Yeah.

Nathalia Levterova (36:05)
Yeah.

Yes.

So good. No, that's so good. And then you don't have to work completely for free. That's like the other nice thing is like you have the possibility to make money.

Ian (36:28)
How do you handle stress and take calculated risk?

Nathalia Levterova (36:32)
That's a good one. I feel like honestly, I stress super easily, but I perform well on stress. It used to be caffeine. This is now that I'm like super into wellness. I don't do this anymore, but truly I used to thrive off of like hardcore workouts, like running super far, like chugging energy drinks, like at all hours of the day and just being like, I just thrived on stress, like just like...

Ian (36:33)
Thank you.

Nathalia Levterova (37:02)
work hard, grind hard mentality. That actually was not great for me or my hormones or my nervous system. And I've now understood how much chronic stress can literally cause disease in the body. So my mentality has really changed because one of my big goals this year is like to regulate my nervous system and like to not stress. But I guess I'll kind of get into that. So I have a very work hard, play hard mentality. Like I

work extremely hard, but I also play just as hard and I try to do something that's fun for me at least once a day. And for me, I guess the way that I handle stress is I use this frame. If the worst case scenario happened, could I handle it? Especially when it comes to decision making. And if the answer is yes, then I'll proceed. And if the answer is no, then I learned that I shouldn't take that risk. So to me, it's like,

How do you decide if a risk is worth taking? What is the worst possible outcome that will happen if I make this decision? Can I live with that? And if I can't, then that's a risk I should not be taking. So I think that's true for investing money. I think that's true for a decision. Let's say you make a decision to, like when I dropped out of college and I went to do the sales internship, it's like, what's the worst case scenario that happens?

This doesn't bring me any money. It doesn't bring me any opportunity and I hate every second of it and I realize sales is not for me. Cool. Like I can live with that. Like I'll come back. I'll finish my degree and I will move on with my life. So, you know, that's kind of like the main framework that I do. Like, for example, if I was going to invest $5,000 into like Bitcoin or something, you know, and

Ian (38:39)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (38:54)
Let's say that I could not, like, let's say that I, and that was my calculated risk or whatever. Maybe it's not Bitcoin, maybe it's something else, like some other opportunity. And it's like, if I lost that money completely, can I live without it? If the answer is no, I probably shouldn't make that investment. If the answer is yes, then that's a high risk I'm willing to take. You know, that's kind of the, and life will always be stressful. So the question is, you wrap, like stress is normal.

But the question is, would you rather be stressed because you're broke or because of your business? Would you rather be stressed because you're unhealthy or would you rather be stressed because you have to go to the gym and cook dinner? And I guess my last piece of advice is let your lungs adjust. Expect a bit of panic any time you jump levels in the game. It's always going to happen. The first time...

I have a philosophy. Like I always say, say yes, especially the beginning. Now it's a little bit different, but at the start of your business, say yes, then figure it out later. Right? Like if at the beginning, you're again, you're never going to know what you're doing. The first time you do a podcast, you're not going to know how to host a podcast. Right? So it's just like, say yes to, especially at the start, like there's going to be a time when you say yes, whether it's now or when you're 50, like you're going to have to say yes to your first job sometime. So like.

Ian (40:00)
Mm-hmm. I've been, yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Nathalia Levterova (40:18)
Say yes, figure it out later. Expect that you're gonna be panicked. Like the first time that you take a job that's a little bit bigger than your britches, like a little bit above your pay grade, it's gonna be scary. You're gonna be panicked and the workload is gonna be harder than what you're used to. But after a while, let your lungs adjust. After a while, that becomes your new normal. And then the next time you, maybe you're scaling your business or maybe you're taking on more clients than you had in the past. Or maybe this time you're hiring an employee for the first time.

It's gonna like expect the panic, like expect the stress. Like it's gonna be really hard for a little bit. And then you have like let your lungs adjust. Like you've adjusted to this new layer of oxygen. I think that's just a game. Like you're just gonna keep doing it until you die. But honestly, to me, it's like after you practice, like...

Ian (40:59)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (41:11)
I'm so stressed. don't if I can do it. You have all these negative thoughts. You have all of this imposter syndrome. You have something go horribly wrong for the first time. And then you live through it and you're okay. And you keep moving and you realize you're actually better off. Even though you took a jump and you fell, you're still higher than you were before you took that jump. And you realize, it's not so bad. Like I'll be okay. And over time, like you get used to it then it's not as stressful anymore.

Ian (41:37)
Yeah, I've found that recently. just love putting myself in situations where there's no way to go out. Like when you say yes to everything, you don't have a choice to not do it anymore. Like you literally are forced to do it and that can be scary at times, but then you do it and you're fine afterwards exactly like you said. So I love that.

Nathalia Levterova (41:42)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

100%.

When I just want to speak to people who I definitely used to deal with anxiety, pretty bad anxiety, and don't let that stop you from doing the things that you want to do. You can do something scared to death. You can do a job completely insecure, not knowing if you're going to be able to do it, freaked out. Your thoughts are not king. You can decide to take action despite feeling a certain way.

If you feel like you're not good enough, if you feel like you're not ready, I promise you the best way to get there is feel the anxiety, let it exist, and then move on with your life. Keep doing the stuff.

Ian (42:33)
That's awesome I We've covered the topic of college a little bit in this but I kind of want to go back over What's your take on college? Is it worth it or not? Does it depend on the university where you go to like? I don't know how far you've looked into that but what's your take?

Nathalia Levterova (42:42)
Yeah. Yeah. I think

it really depends on your goals and your major. And I will say go to college unless you want to do trades, real estate or entrepreneurship, then just don't go. I promise you, you'll learn faster being in the field in those three areas than you will going to college. But

I don't want to say college is a complete waste of time for people who I'm just, I'm assuming if you're listening to this podcast, there's a part of you that's interested in entrepreneurship. So I will say for you, absolutely. think it, okay, it depends on the school and it depends on what area of business you want to go into. Like if you're trying to work for yourself, I will say no one's going to ask for your degree. Do you know what I'm saying? Like if you're the business owner, no one's going to ask for your degree. They're going to ask about your experience. So I think it would make a lot more sense.

If you're working in real estate, if you're doing trades like plumbing, electrician, if you're working on like owning, know, entrepreneurship or owning your own marketing agency or digital media agency or whatever, like you do not need to go get an entrepreneurial degree from like some like local community college and just an absolute waste of your money, especially if the business professors have never owned a business, like not worth it. And it would make a lot more sense for you to find a business owner to

Ian (44:01)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (44:08)
to buy a bunch of books, buy an online course of someone who has the business that you want, and then go all in on that skill, go all in on that trade, do an internship for someone, be like, hey, I'm going to work for free. I'll work for free for you. Can you just go to someone you admire and ask, I'll work for free so I can learn your business, you know? And I guarantee you that when people see driven people, they're really happy to help.

Ian (44:34)
Mm.

Nathalia Levterova (44:35)
again, depends on your school. If you're trying to go, like, if you're trying to be like a top executive at Microsoft or something like, go get your degree. but if you're trying to be an entrepreneur and work for yourself, like I would say what's the end goal and then work backwards. Does the degree lose money for you? Does it help? and again, I think you can make just as many, if not more connections with a personal brand. Then you can, and networking, and internships and apprenticeships and all that stuff.

Ian (44:51)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (45:04)
then you can, I mean, can an MBA bring you connections? Absolutely, if you go to a good one, but you can get the same amount just like being out there crushing it in business and meeting other business owners, so.

Ian (45:12)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, my take on that is like I'm neither right at the moment. I'm there I'm neither for or against college But I agree with the networking thing that you're saying about college like I don't think an MBA or a degree creates connections for you because I've already seen proof and Other people's lives in my life. You can do that yourself and you don't need a degree or a college to get that for you, but

Nathalia Levterova (45:33)
Yeah.

Well,

and like to get to that MBA, what you're going to do your four year degree first, and then you're going to do another two years on top of that. So it's like six years to get those connections or six years becoming that business owner who those people want to connect with, you know, saying like your choice.

Ian (45:51)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, exactly.

Let's go a bit dive into a little bit about wellness and exercise. I'm huge on it as well. So I'm very excited to talk about this. But what have you found just in that area that has really helped you in your life?

Nathalia Levterova (46:05)
Yeah.

This is so good. I feel like more and more I'm starting to understand that like a healthy mind literally will dictate like where you go in life. Like if you don't take care of your body and don't take care of your mind, like you're gonna hit a bottleneck in your business and your relationships and your friendships and your quality of life because like sound, I mean, we talked about the gut brain connection already, but like.

Sound decision-making skills and having a good head on your shoulder literally starts with the food you feed yourself and the way you move your body, period. So if you're binge drinking a bunch of alcohol and you're eating a bunch of sugar and you're literally poisoning your body and you're laying in bed watching Netflix shows all day every day, when you have low energy, your hormones are messed up and you can't think very clearly and you have brain fog,

how far is that gonna take you? beyond just like, it's not everything in life is about achievement and success, right? But just for your own happiness and your own quality of life, don't you wanna be healthy? I know you've been super into health and fitness recently. What inspired you to get into it?

Ian (47:16)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So really last year I don't even know what got me started I my parents took me when I was like 13 and then I was on and off until this last year, but Since then I literally just love it. That's literally it I love the way it make me feels and now after eating healthfully and working out and just feeling how it feels I don't want to go back because anytime that I do like eat something sugary or it's like even have like a little cheat day or whatever it just You don't feel right like the difference between how you feel on both ends of the spectrum is so

Nathalia Levterova (47:47)
How is that?

Yeah.

Wild.

Ian (48:00)
Wild. Yeah.

Nathalia Levterova (48:02)
No, absolutely.

think for, I don't know how many females you have listened to your podcast, but for the girls listening, I think it's really interesting because while the basics of nutrition are kind of the same for everyone, I think if there is a girl who's listening to this right now, just want to kind of, something that I've really gone on a journey on and understanding is like,

your hormonal cycle or like men's hormonal cycle is on a 28 day, I mean, sorry, is on a 24 hour. Like your hormones reset every single day. So like your energy levels, like your testosterone, like everything resets every single day. For women, our cycles reset every 28 days. And also like all of the health studies that have been done on like cold plunging and like Ironman and like endurance training and all of this stuff.

Ian (48:38)
Mm.

Nathalia Levterova (48:56)
And even like vitamin supplements, a lot of these things weren't, women were not included in health studies until the late 90s, which was not that long ago. Yeah, because we're really complicated. Like our hormones are really complicated. Our bodies are really complicated. And because we're on a 28 day cycle, it's really hard to test a lot of these things. So they just didn't for a long time. So I will say that like, while the bases are the same of like, everyone needs daily movement.

Ian (49:05)
Crazy.

Nathalia Levterova (49:26)
Everyone needs to be like, if you can, like look at sunlight first thing in the morning, like not overdoing caffeine and alcohol consumption, like eating an anti-inflammatory diet. Like the basics are the basics, right? But like, will say for like girls listening, like understanding your own body and like your cycle and like finding out, maybe doing some research on some of these things that are, so like, for example,

Ian (49:39)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (49:51)
If you're like stress is really bad for all of us, right? But stress is really, really like your body because of your testosterone levels. Like you're a lot more resilient to stress than like a woman's body. like cold plunging, for example, if you're a woman who like tends to stress easily, which most of us do like, like it's a lot better. Sauning three times a week will have way better health benefits for women than like cold plunging. In fact, like if you cold plunge during certain times of your month, it can actually like,

do more harm or even like two intensive workouts at certain points of the month can actually do more harm to your hormones than good. So I know this is like a whole tangent, but I just wanted to say like, to bring that up, because I feel like I never knew that. Like for so many years, I thought I was, I thought I was being so healthy and I was actually messing up my hormones and I had no idea. So that was just something that I wanted to bring up there. Yeah.

Ian (50:39)
That's crazy. was

kind of the journey that you went on to find that? Like, what made you go out and seek that?

Nathalia Levterova (50:45)
Yeah, so you know, I had horrendous acne. Like I had, like when I was high school and then freshman and sophomore in college and junior. Yeah, honestly, all my college years, like I had the worst acne. Like I'm talking like mountain ranges on my face, like could not hide that. Like it was, it was bad.

and I had a lot of inflammation in my body, like a ton of info, but like at the time, again, I was like, was on my gymnastics team in school. I was, running a half iron man or trading for a half iron man. was running marathons. I was, again, all the stuff that you're like, like that's healthy. but I was also like eating a lot of processed food that I thought was healthy because it was like protein bars and like, but I was, it was just not.

I was eating a very processed, not whole food diet. Anyway, I had a lot of inflammation in my body, really bad anxiety, like really, really, really bad anxiety. And I think I was just like, I reached a point where I was so tired of feeling so terrible about myself that I was like, I cannot keep living like this, like just mentally. Like the amount of anxiety I was dealing with was just like so bad. So what kind of got me on a journey was like starting to read a lot of books on health and like doing a lot of research and

looking into, think a huge part of it was when I started working at that original med spa. told you about where I was working hourly. They had a functional medicine doctors there, which, a lot of Western medicine is just like trying to get you to the baseline of like the average health measure in society, which the average American is not healthy. So why would you want to get to like the, you know what I'm saying? Like average is not actually healthy. Functional medicine actually tries to get you to like optimal health and it's super focused on changing lifestyle.

to heal diseases in the body and reduce inflammation. So that was a huge part of it. And then eventually with social media, ended up doing like talking about women, about women's health. ended up finding like a lot of like educational apps that help women with their hormones. And then I ended up doing like social media partnerships and then some marketing work for them. And honestly, like deep diving into that has changed my life, but it was a whole thing. Yeah.

Ian (53:02)
I Love that because I think that health contributes so much to your happiness and like your overall well-being and your quality of life but Yeah, I know that you well actually pause game. Let me refresh that What do you think about traveling? Like do you think that that is necessary?

Nathalia Levterova (53:08)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

All good. You're really good at this by the way, Ian.

100%.

sorry. Can you hear me? I like, I cut you off, but yes, 100%. I traveled before I could even afford to travel. So like when I was in college, I would find like $30 flights on like budget airlines to, and then like go stay with like friends of friends of family friends, like in different places. But

Ian (53:28)
Yeah, there's a little bit of glitch, but...

Nathalia Levterova (53:56)
Give me a second. okay. And even when I, I think everyone has what they like to spend their money on and travel has been something that for me has been like such a non-negotiable and like such a, it's just changed my life. Like, so I grew up in Dallas, Texas. My family originally was from Eastern Europe in Bulgaria. So.

We did travel some like growing up like going back home and like visiting my grandparents and all of that. So I was grateful that like my mom, she's a language teacher. She speaks five languages. It was super important to her that we learned about culture and understanding that the world was way bigger than like the little town that we lived in. yeah, like growing up even like she, like she took us, we did this like Spanish immersion program in this school in Guatemala and like we lived with host families and

like learned how to, like she made sure that I was fluent in Spanish and like learned that and same with Bulgarian where we come from. But I think the big thing is like, I realized, I think because it was a part of my life from such a young age, I was never interested in living in just one place or like not getting to see the world because I think everyone should leave their hometown and go somewhere and be the new kid and be the observer and

Ian (55:08)
Thank you.

Nathalia Levterova (55:12)
and figure things out in a different place, even if it's just a different state, because for a couple reasons. Number one, I feel like you learn a lot about yourself when you're alone, when you don't have the influence of your parents, when you don't have the influence of your childhood best friend, when you don't have the influence of all these people, who are you? When no one else is there, I feel like that teaches you so much about yourself. Second, again, networking, you end up making really good friends from different...

Ian (55:23)
Yes, my word.

Nathalia Levterova (55:42)
experiences that you have and I think it just like adds like a richness to life and On top of that. I feel like it puts things into perspective sometimes if you're like stuck in your hometown drama or you think that like life will never work out you realize like actually like the world is a lot bigger than like I realize and Also, I think the perspective that there's a lot of different ways to live life Like there's not like one correct path one correct way of living like one correct

business, career path, one career, like there's just so much out there. And I think it gives you a lot of autonomy to have more perspective in deciding, deciding who you are, not just like accidentally becoming someone that was just like molded influenced by the people around you.

Ian (56:28)
I like that idea a lot. I have this quote from you says spend time alone get to know yourself Take time to journal to write out your goals to dream to play and to connect with yourself. I Kind of goes hand-in-hand with what you're saying, but can you add a little more on that?

Nathalia Levterova (56:39)
Yes.

No, yeah, I love, love, traveling. That's what I mostly share on my social media as well. So that's funny. I forgot. I forgot about that. But I think it's so true. It's like you have to take time to like, I think for so long, like my biggest struggle growing up was like being by myself was really hard. Like I was such a people pleaser, like always needed to be around people. And I realized like, it's so good to like, actually, if you love who you are,

and you can actually enjoy spending time with yourself. It adds a magic in life because no one can take that away from you. You can wake up anywhere in the world and know that you enjoy your own company. There's nothing worse than being in a mind and in a body that you don't like who you are. Yeah, it's not fun. It is not fun. And it's normal. I feel like everyone goes through it a little bit at some point in their lives. But yeah, and then when it comes to play,

Ian (57:30)
You hate. Yeah.

Nathalia Levterova (57:42)
Play is so important to me. I have so many hobbies that I'm not great at and I love it. I love doing stuff just because for the joy of it. I feel like as people grow up, they start adulting so hard that they forget to have fun. And there's so many studies by like Brene Brown and other psychologists who talk about the power of play and how much better you actually work and connect when you actually keep that childlike play in your life.

Ian (57:47)
That's awesome.

Nathalia Levterova (58:10)
just do things that you love for the heck of

Ian (58:11)
That's insane.

Nathalia Levterova (58:12)
it. Yeah. It can really impact everything. so yeah. and also I was going to say, believe it or not, and I, this is not for everyone, but activities like skiing, skydiving, even surfing are really, really good ways to network with, business owners, extreme sports in general. again, not that you have to do any of these things to you'll be fine if you don't, but.

Ian (58:29)
I

Mm.

Nathalia Levterova (58:38)
What's actually really cool about it is, so you either, like for example, with like skydiving or skiing, like you're either broke because you love these activities or you own a business and you're time rich and financially rich enough to be able to have the time and money to invest in those activities. So like, of course you always have like dirtbagging, which is great. And then, but a lot of times

Ian (58:53)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (59:02)
The people who are into these activities are like entrepreneurs, business owners. like, I think when it comes to like skydiving or surfing or a lot of these other stuff, like people really enjoy the adrenaline as well. And a lot of times entrepreneurs have like a little bit of a adrenaline addiction as well, cause they enjoy the high stress. Otherwise, like if you can't handle high stress, entrepreneurship is very difficult. so yeah, that was like a really interesting thing. I didn't realize until like, if you start hanging out at a drop zone or you start hanging out on the mountain or you start hanging out like by the ocean, you'll realize.

Ian (59:18)
Mm-hmm.

Nathalia Levterova (59:32)
there's a lot of, or even traveling. Traveling is a really good way to to meet business owners as well. But you start to meet some really interesting and cool people and yeah.

Ian (59:35)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Well, I just love all these topics so much, honestly, OK, I just have one final question for you, and that is, what's your why? Like, what keeps you going? What's the reason that you're doing all this?

Nathalia Levterova (59:45)
I know, me too.

100%. I think that's such a good question. I word vomit a lot, so here we go. I can't give you one. I have three whys, but maybe they're three. I don't know. Let me think. So the first one is I want to...

Okay, so my first why is truly that I have a really, this is like the most like superficial why, but I have a hard time being told what to do. And I really, just my personality, like I do not enjoy working for other people. Like I want to know that I have, like everyone has their core values of like what's important to them. Some people it's stability, some people it's like loyalty, some people it's a bunch of different stuff, right? For me, it's like one of them is autonomy. Like I need to know that I actually like,

have a say in what's happening in my life and that someone can't tell me, actually, we're cutting your paycheck tomorrow, or actually, you can't go spend time with your kids because of XYZ. So the freedom, the time freedom and the financial freedom. And yeah, so that's one thing. Second thing is giving back. That's a huge thing for me. So my parents grew up in communism and they moved to the US with $500.

like to know that I have the freedom to develop myself. Like I think God gives each of us like gifts and it's our jobs to like develop them to the max that we can in this life. so I feel like number one, a responsibility of like, have a skillset and I want to develop it and also give back. think for so many, the reality is for so many like single, for so many.

Something I'm very passionate is people in abusive relationships, especially women in abusive relationships and kids who have grown up with single parents or kids that grow up in poverty in general. It can be really as hard to like for a lot of women, for example, like they'll put up with a lot of abuse from like partnerships or whatever so that they because they cannot financially survive without like the abuser or like for single kids who like

want to be able to take care of their single mother or whatever, or even just kids in poverty who want to be able to take care of their parents. Finance is a language, business is a language, and there's so much that if you're not around it, you just don't understand because you've never learned that language. So something that I'm very passionate about is in the long run, I would love to be able to start a nonprofit helping underprivileged communities and especially women.

learn how to start businesses online and make money so that they have the freedom. again, freedom is a core value for me, but they have the freedom to be able to decide with their life. if they want to leave a situation, they can, like, and that they can take care of their kids. And for kids, like, you know, like that they're not stuck in the cycle of poverty, like that they can actually change their lives and like do something about it. And

Honestly, it's not just about kids who grew up in poverty, but just people in general, like to be inspired and like to be empowered that like you do have freedom with your wife. You have a choice of your health. doesn't matter where you start. Like you can start in the dumps, like, but you can actually change your life, figure it out and build something huge. So that's the second one. And then the third one is I would love to be a mom someday. I would love to have a family and I want to build a business now that will give me the ability later.

to have something that's running for myself, but to at that point have hired everything out and to be able to like live that stay at home mom lifestyle, but still have a project for myself that's like bringing me like have this million dollar business that's like still running, still bringing me money, but that I have the freedom to like be present with my kids and like to show up to all their games and to like take them skiing on the mountain and.

Ian (1:03:42)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Nathalia Levterova (1:03:57)
Yeah, so like and to build that lifestyle and to be able to like retire my parents and like do all of that. So like that's those are kind of like my three whys for what I do. Yeah.

Ian (1:04:06)
I love that. Thank you

so much for calling the podcast. I very much appreciate it. It's been awesome. lot of good stuff in here

Nathalia Levterova (1:04:12)
Yeah, thank you so much. hope I didn't talk too much. Yeah. I know. Thank you so much, Ian. This was so great. And I'm really excited to continue to watch this podcast grow and you on your own journey. I'm like super inspired by everything you're doing. I'm like, I like, you're going to crush it. I like wish I started at your age and it's really inspiring. Yeah. Sweet.

Ian (1:04:15)
I don't know what you're supposed to do on the podcast.

I feel this exact same way honestly, but