S1: Welcome to Building Billions, the podcast for business owners who
S1: are getting things done and scaling fast. I've helped business
S1: owners create billions of dollars in value over the past decade,
S1: and now I'm here to share the strategies that actually work.
S1: This show is for the doers, the ones solving problems,
S1: making tough calls, and building real value. If you're ready
S1: for straight talk on what it takes to grow a
S1: massive business, you're in the right place. Let's get to work.
S1: Welcome back to Building Billions. It's a cool day today.
S1: I am officially kicking off annual planning for 2025. I
S1: get really anxious before these meetings. There's not a lot
S1: of things these days that I get nervous about. I
S1: feel like I've spoken on stages. I've shown up to
S1: events by myself. Like I. I don't get nervous, to
S1: be honest. I get excited about most things. But every year,
S1: the night before and the morning before annual planning, I
S1: get anxious because our team has put a lot of
S1: work into this, and I just I believe it matters.
S1: It really matters. And so I just went live prior
S1: to our annual planning kickoff that I'm about to rush
S1: over to right now. And this live was pretty cool
S1: because I was able to talk a little bit more
S1: about how I've gained my confidence. And if you are
S1: in a place where you don't have a lot of self-confidence,
S1: what exactly you should do in order to get that self-confidence?
S1: So enjoy this Q&A. Good morning, good morning. Hello. Drop
S1: your questions in the chat. I will get to them
S1: and we're gonna have some fun. How do you stay
S1: in shape while working stressful jobs? First of all, I
S1: never tell myself that my job is stressful. Even when
S1: people try to tell me that my job is stressful.
S1: You know, people who are well intentioned in your life
S1: will oftentimes tell you things like that. Oh, you seem
S1: so stressed. So first of all, I never tell myself
S1: that I have a stressful job. I have my dream job.
S1: I have the job of a lifetime. I have the
S1: opportunity every single day to show up, to work, to
S1: make an impact on people. So never tell yourself you
S1: have a stressful job. First and foremost. Secondly, how do
S1: I stay in shape despite having a job that is
S1: quite demanding? I would say my job is demanding, so
S1: I have to work out first thing in the morning.
S1: Like I literally just finished working out. I'm still in
S1: my workout clothes, um, which is just a non-negotiable for me.
S1: If I don't do it in the morning, I'm not
S1: doing it in the evening. Even when I try to, like,
S1: walk during the day, it's just hard for me. I
S1: forget there's other things going on if I wait for
S1: for doing it till the end of the day, I'm
S1: not doing it. And the way that I look and
S1: the way that I feel, they matter to me. It's
S1: important to me. I want to look good. I want
S1: to feel good. So I have to get the workout
S1: in in the morning, and I just remove as much
S1: friction as possible from getting to my bed, getting from
S1: my bed to my gym. So I just make it
S1: a priority. I put it in my calendar, I have
S1: workout blocks in my calendar, I lift weights, I lift
S1: weights four days a week and then do Pilates and
S1: or some other form of like abs or cardio at
S1: least one day. So that's five workouts and you just
S1: make time for it. Like you put it on your schedule.
S1: You make time for it. I recognize that when I
S1: do take a week or two off from doing that,
S1: I don't feel as good. I'm not as productive. So
S1: I think of working out as honestly part of what
S1: makes me really good at my job. And if I
S1: stop working out. My performance at work also does not
S1: maintain and I don't feel as good about it. Sometimes
S1: I might work out, uh, or stop working out and prioritize.
S1: Work like that really would be the only reason that
S1: I've stopped working out is there's, like, ridiculous travel going
S1: on and other demands on my time. So I might
S1: be getting more done, but I don't feel good. I
S1: don't feel good about myself. I don't feel good about
S1: the decision. So make it a priority. Uh, okay. How
S1: do you know what aspects of your business you have
S1: to focus on first when you have multiple ideas for
S1: one project? Great question. Funny enough, today is actually day
S1: one of an annual planning offsite, so I've spent the
S1: last couple of weeks working to figure out what are
S1: the priorities for our business over the next year because
S1: as you can imagine, we get countless opportunities and great
S1: ideas thrown our way. So I think you first have
S1: to figure out this is my process for it. Like
S1: what is actually going to move the needle? For instance,
S1: you might have a product that then you're you're thinking
S1: of all these different extensions that you could make to
S1: the product. Let's say you own a gym and you're like, well,
S1: I could also do supplements, and I could also sell
S1: workout equipment, and I could also do online training. Like,
S1: you start thinking of all the different ways you could
S1: serve your customer until you make $1 million servicing the
S1: first customer with the first product. Do not give any
S1: attention to the additional ideas that you have because it's
S1: a waste of your time. You haven't even figured out
S1: how to scale the first thing, and now you're prioritizing
S1: all these other things. So that million dollar mark is
S1: such a huge milestone of discipline for business owners that
S1: once you get there, you've demonstrated that you have the
S1: competencies to understand your customer, acquire that customer service, that customer,
S1: give them a product that they like. And ideally that
S1: million dollars is broken down depending on what the business is. Ideally,
S1: is at least 40% of your revenue, 40 to 60%
S1: of your revenue is repeat business. So it's not just
S1: new customers and you're churning out your clients on the
S1: back end. But if you're doing less than $1 million
S1: in one product to one customer, highly recommend that you
S1: don't have multiple ideas for one product. You execute, execute,
S1: execute on the first one. And. A little crazy with that.
S1: And then you go from there. Do you drink coffee?
S1: I am a sporadic coffee drinker. I technically have a
S1: cup a day, but sometimes I only drink a sip
S1: of it. It's more like habitual than anything. I drink
S1: other types of drinks, like water with electrolytes. I love
S1: our solid electrolytes. I have some actually right here. Just
S1: put it in this bottle. Love love love our electrolytes.
S1: If you've not tried these, they are fantastic. They are amazing.
S1: They're my favorite. We have lemon, lime and crusher. Wave
S1: Crusher ten out of ten. I'm just not a lemon lime, girl.
S1: But if you like lemon lime, people love that product
S1: as well. Best advice for new CEO. Get clear on
S1: your targets. You will fail or succeed based off of
S1: your clarity on what your targets are. If you're clear
S1: what your targets are, you will then be able to
S1: provide clarity to your team members about the targets, but
S1: you will never provide clarity like I could. I literally
S1: could not do what we're doing today with annual planning.
S1: If I wasn't first clear on the target where we're going,
S1: what we're doing, what we want to create. It always
S1: starts with you having the clarity. So if you don't
S1: have the clarity, it's going to be really difficult to
S1: lead other people. It's going to be really difficult to
S1: find your customer that you're looking for because you don't
S1: know where you're taking them. You don't know what you're doing.
S1: So target selection first thing. Second thing. Start every meeting
S1: with what is the target? What is the target for
S1: this meeting? What is the target for this initiative? You
S1: should be saying this multiple times a day. I learned
S1: this from Grant every single time I talk to Grant.
S1: It doesn't matter what the initiative is. His is first
S1: question is always hey guys, what's the target? Hey guys,
S1: what's the target? Hey guys, what's the target? It's so
S1: easy to get lost in the freaking minutia. That's actually
S1: the challenge that I'm going to overcome today. I'm not
S1: going to have this challenge because I'm going to overcome
S1: this challenge. But when you bring 25 people, 25 leaders
S1: into a room that all have different perspectives on what's working,
S1: what's not working based on their department needs, and you
S1: have fixed resources in an organization, how do you get
S1: people to focus on the macro, get aligned on the
S1: big picture, and then create a space for them to
S1: be able to. Solve the problems they need to solve
S1: for their departments. But it's never it's never in a
S1: group setting. The group setting is for the target and
S1: the clarity and the target and the alignment around the target,
S1: where everything is going and what the challenges are across
S1: the whole group so that they can then go be
S1: responsible every single day for alleviating those challenges and really
S1: understanding the challenges that other people that their department creates
S1: for other people if they don't solve these problems. So
S1: that starts with you, though, because if I went in
S1: today with a PowerPoint presentation that didn't have clear targets
S1: for every single department, and I didn't know what I wanted,
S1: we would be going a million different directions. We still
S1: will go. We'll go a thousand different directions because people
S1: have perspectives, but we will not go a million different
S1: directions because ultimately the direction has already been set. The
S1: direction is not a group activity. The direction is a
S1: leader activity. The direction is a CEO activity. This is
S1: where we're going and then the how and when the
S1: specific coordinates. That's a team activity. I'm trying to get better.
S1: My makeup is not really know how well that initiative
S1: is going. It's fun getting better at something that you've
S1: been doing every single day for your whole life that
S1: you just don't really want to. I don't know, I
S1: forget to do it better. Uh. Love you. Thank you
S1: for your leadership. Uh, favorite memory of Chris? What's up? Mom? Uh,
S1: it's my brother's birthday today. And my favorite memory with Chris. Oh,
S1: my gosh, I have so many great memories with my brother.
S1: First things first, guys, if you can figure out a
S1: way to incorporate your family into your business. Single greatest
S1: gift in my life. I adore working with my brother,
S1: and I also get to work with my husband's brother.
S1: And I'm not saying that it's not difficult and challenging.
S1: It doesn't have its own set of things you have
S1: to navigate in a business, but man, it is so rewarding.
S1: It is just honestly one of the one of the
S1: things I think I will look back on this time
S1: frame in my life and be so appreciative for. Uh. So, uh,
S1: favorite memory with him? Probably going to Disney World two
S1: years ago. We were just like little two little kids
S1: going to Disney Drive in there together listening to Morgan Wallen.
S1: Sometimes it's the littler things, but it was just the
S1: two of us and we just got to be, I
S1: don't know, it felt like we were 12 years old.
S1: We're grown ass adults, but we were acting like we're
S1: 12 years old. Uh, how do I get accepted to
S1: luxury affiliate? Do you promote luxury? If I were to
S1: look at your Instagram page, do you look like, act like,
S1: Promote in a way that is. Attractive to a luxury client.
S1: Because if you're posting things that aren't a luxury, a
S1: luxury affiliate isn't interested in having you represent them because
S1: you're going to degrade their brand. I think one of
S1: the easiest ways to collaborate with people, affiliates, or just
S1: people that you want to meet online, it's this idea
S1: of like user generated content and matching the brand and
S1: the aesthetic that you're looking to have represent you. But
S1: I use that because I don't generally like that's not
S1: my business. Becoming an affiliate for somebody else. But I
S1: do want to attract people like I think of like
S1: Elena Cardone, when I wanted to put Elena Cardone in
S1: my life and get her attention and have her repost
S1: my content because she liked it. I would post things
S1: that made her look good. Like you post things that
S1: make the other person look good. You don't post things
S1: to make you look good. They don't care about you.
S1: They care about them. So even when people like tag
S1: me in posts, if I don't look good in the picture,
S1: I'm not reposting it. If I don't sound smart in
S1: the clip or if I'm. It's like a weird like
S1: stage shot where I'm like, eh, I'm not reposting it,
S1: but they think like, oh, Natalie Dawson. Like I'm tagging,
S1: you know, post it in my brand. Post it in
S1: a way. Don't use your fonts, use my fonts if
S1: you want me to repost it. Now, if you don't,
S1: and you're just sharing with your friends that you're at
S1: some cool event or you're you've bought some cool product. Okay,
S1: that's great. But if you're really trying to meet people
S1: and collaborate, like really collaborate, the best question you can
S1: be asking yourself is what's in it for them? How
S1: do I make it so interesting for them? How do
S1: I make them look good? How do I just really
S1: highlight them and make them look successful and make them
S1: look bigger than they are? Because I'm advocating for them?
S1: There is nothing like the power of somebody else saying
S1: things about your business, you, your brand in a way
S1: that makes it so that you don't even have to
S1: say it. That actually is the power of a real brand.
S1: Like a hold on. I've got to finish this. There
S1: we go. That's the power of like, a, a powerhouse brand. So.
S1: That's how I become a luxury affiliate. I would be promoting.
S1: I'd be very targeted as to which brands I want
S1: to be a luxury affiliate for, because Prada's aesthetic is
S1: different than Brunello Cucinelli aesthetic, which is different than the
S1: Hermes aesthetic. So you pick which part of luxury. You're
S1: looking to be represented by become an affiliate for. And
S1: then how do you ingratiate them? Ingratiate, ingratiate, ingratiate. Make
S1: them look good. Create content and offerings in your social
S1: profile that really highlight the strength of that brand, and
S1: they'll be interested in using affiliate. How do you have
S1: energy of two people? Ask this how do you navigate
S1: when you don't feel the energy to do your tasks?
S1: I just do it anyway. I remind myself that people
S1: are counting on me. Even if people aren't counting on me,
S1: I'm like, wait, I'm counting on me. I don't want
S1: to be the person that doesn't do what I say
S1: I'm going to do. I remind myself of our core values. Oh, shoot.
S1: If if we say that we're disciplined here, that's the
S1: fallacy with core values. People think core values are like the, like,
S1: easy things for the founders. No they're not. Where's how
S1: they choose to continue to show up. It is not
S1: easy being disciplined. I loathe doing the things that I
S1: say I'm going to do. I would much rather not
S1: do what we're about to do today and sit here,
S1: clean my closet. Oh, I could come up with a
S1: thousand things I'd rather be doing than what I'm about
S1: to do today. But I'm doing what I'm going to
S1: do because I know that it's the right thing in
S1: a business. I don't feel like it. I don't want to.
S1: So if I don't feel the energy, I just do
S1: it anyway. And I make up stories that I tell
S1: myself about why it matters. Because you just have to
S1: make your life be important. If you don't think your
S1: life is important, no one's going to think your life
S1: is important for you. So I'm going to make it important. Hey,
S1: who's who's going to be really let down? If I
S1: don't do this, who's going to who's going to be
S1: negatively impacted if I don't do this, what's going to get? Stopped. Or, uh,
S1: who would believe in me less if I didn't do this? Like,
S1: I just pulled these different levers that I know work
S1: for myself. One of them would be imagining that somebody
S1: that I really respect is in the room with me. Like, okay,
S1: if Elon Musk was in the room with me, would
S1: I be talking about how I don't have energy? No,
S1: we freaking lame. That'd be ridiculous. So therefore, if I
S1: thought about Elon Musk being there, how would I show
S1: up differently if Elon Musk was there? Okay, great. I
S1: now know what I'd show up like, so I'm just
S1: going to act like he's there. I also imagine writing
S1: a book one day and writing two books, but I
S1: imagine if I'm going through like a really challenging time
S1: where I don't want to act the way that I
S1: should act, or I'd rather just like, hide or retreat or.
S1: Watch television and just, like, escape from whatever it is
S1: that I'm trying to not do. Uh, I imagine I'm
S1: writing a book one day and I'm like, and then
S1: this person was attacking me and they said all of
S1: these things, and none of them were true. And so
S1: I decided to watch Netflix. Like, that is a shit book.
S1: That's a terrible book. I cried. I ate starbursts and
S1: went to town on Selling Sunset. No one wants to
S1: read that book. That book versus I got back to work.
S1: I still showed up for my team. I didn't attack
S1: those people. I had integrity, I was honest, I didn't
S1: go the low route like, I want to be able
S1: to tell that story. And so I use these different
S1: levers to make my self do whatever it is I
S1: should be doing, despite not feeling like I want to
S1: do that thing. Have you ever struggled with social anxiety?
S1: If so, what things did you do to overcome it? Um.
S1: I think I have struggled with social anxiety, and I
S1: struggled with it because I wasn't confident in myself in
S1: what I brought to the table. So. I remember I
S1: used to get really nervous to go out to dinner with, like,
S1: business people in my early 20s because I didn't want
S1: to say anything stupid. But I also didn't want to
S1: sit there and not say anything for four hours. So.
S1: I honestly would like I don't know that in the moment.
S1: I handled things super well. I don't know what strategies
S1: I would have. That's actually a really good question. I've never,
S1: ever thought about this before. How would I have to
S1: handle social anxiety? I tried to just stay as present
S1: as possible and realize that no one is looking at me.
S1: Nobody cares. Everybody is in their own head. So, like,
S1: what am I worth? Like, really that worried about? That's
S1: how it would make me feel better in the moment
S1: of just remembering that people are super self-centered and no
S1: one actually is going to remember that I was in
S1: this room. Um, and then for me, I would actually
S1: the most successful thing that I do from a mindset standpoint,
S1: especially in social situations like that, there we go. The
S1: most successful thing that I do is I harness how
S1: uncomfortable I am in that moment. Like, I really am,
S1: like I feel the discomfort that I have. And that
S1: is so motivating and useful to me the next day
S1: when I don't want to wake up early, to go
S1: work on a project, or to go work out, or
S1: to do whatever, the thing is that I don't feel
S1: good about myself. And I just, like, remind myself of, like,
S1: what is it going to be like in a year
S1: from now when you show up to that same dinner
S1: or you meet those people again, or you have that
S1: conference and it's the 2025 version of it, and you're
S1: different and you feel confident and you show up in
S1: that room, you're like, this is what I've created. This
S1: is who I am. This is what I do. Maybe
S1: you're a bad public speaker. For me, that was something
S1: I would get a lot of anxiety around the public speaking.
S1: So I would use like the discomfort that I had
S1: instead of shying away from it to really think about, okay,
S1: how am I going to get better at public speaking
S1: so that next time I don't have the same nervousness?
S1: We're going to try to do lashes today, guys. I
S1: just don't know if I'm feeling it. Uh, so in
S1: the moment, you know, it's not like you can make
S1: yourself super impressive as soon as you feel social anxiety.
S1: But for me, my social anxiety actually came from not
S1: being very impressive and knowing that I wasn't very impressive.
S1: And so I used it to encourage myself, motivate myself,
S1: and really ask myself deeper questions about why do I
S1: feel this? And social anxiety. Do you think, like Ariana
S1: Grande when she shows up to her room feels social anxiety?
S1: Probably not. She's freaking Ariana Grande. She spent her whole
S1: career doing really cool shit that she's known for. Taylor
S1: Swift probably doesn't feel so social. Anxiety. Why? She's Taylor
S1: freakin Swift. So how do you become Chelsea Wilson? It's like, oh,
S1: this woman has created all of this amazing impact and
S1: the real estate space. And I think that, at least
S1: for me, is what actually created the social anxiety was
S1: not having not feeling like I'm Natalie freaking Dawson. Whereas today.
S1: I don't again, I just don't struggle with it as much.
S1: As they don't need it, I feel like I glued
S1: it onto my eyelashes though, instead of my actual frickin lid.
S1: Your advice has helped me out. Thank you. Keep going. Keep.
S1: Keep doing it. Keep implementing. I am a palm reader.
S1: Don't really believe in that, to be honest with you.
S1: It's not my thing. Oh, there's a fake Natalie Dawson
S1: on here. Listen, fake Natalie Dawson, Natalie Dawson, 736. Hope
S1: you're still on here right now. Disgusting. You are disgusting.
S1: You need to stop. Stop scamming people. Stop being an
S1: unethical person in this world. You do not need to
S1: drag my reputation in the mud because you're trying to
S1: make a buck. There are so many other ways for
S1: you to make money, so you should be disgusted with
S1: yourself right now. You should stop it. It's ridiculous. It's gross.
S1: You do not have to make money like this and
S1: go do something that actually allows you to feel good
S1: about the work that you're putting in. Like go find
S1: any other career than scamming people. It's gross. Stop. You
S1: don't have to be gross forever. I bet you have
S1: a lot of social anxiety. People who do unethical shit
S1: have social anxiety. Don't be unethical. Guys, this is like
S1: freaking life lesson when you feel like shit about yourself
S1: because you are unethical and you're scamming people, or you're
S1: telling somebody that you do something that you don't actually do.
S1: Whatever level of unethical like whoever is pretending to be
S1: me on Instagram is scamming people for forex. Like pretty
S1: freaking unethical. But whatever your version of unethical is, maybe
S1: you tell people that in your business you do something,
S1: you're a personal trainer, and you say that you should
S1: be walking 10,000 steps a day and you haven't walked
S1: for two years. I don't know, whatever your version of
S1: ethics being unethical is. That's why you retreat from people.
S1: That's why that's. That's why you have this, like, nervousness.
S1: It's not actually because you're a bad person. It's because
S1: you're doing something that's not ethical and you actually are
S1: a good person. So you retreat and you want to
S1: protect other people. So just like, cut the shit. Stop
S1: doing that stuff. Natalie Dawson 764. It's ridiculous just to
S1: go do something else. Go make money in a different way. Oh,
S1: I think a filter just came on. We don't know
S1: how I did that. No clue how I did that. Natalie,
S1: what do you suggest you do when people wish to
S1: improve their self-image? What helped you, uh, to improve your self-image?
S1: I would highly recommend that you start working out. That's
S1: honestly what helped me. I had to confront why I
S1: was uncomfortable speaking on stage. And it was because I
S1: didn't feel comfortable in my body. I gained like £15
S1: and I really was like, clothes. Oh gosh, I hate
S1: this filter. There we go. Um.
S2: Uh, I.
S1: Didn't like the way that clothes fit on me. This
S1: was like 6 or 7 years ago, and I'd never
S1: really worked out consistently in my life. I was always, like, thin.
S1: I was never, like, overweight, but I was just not
S1: like I didn't have any muscle on me. So to
S1: improve my self-confidence, I got in the gym and I
S1: kept promises to myself. So that is the first step.
S1: Like whatever, you don't feel good about yourself, fix that thing.
S1: Start with one thing I didn't start with fixing every
S1: single thing at once. I started by fixing one thing,
S1: and then I was like, oh, I can trust myself.
S1: And then I started fixing another thing. And all of
S1: a sudden, when you realize that you do all these
S1: things that you don't like, but that you can actually
S1: fix all of these things that you don't like, you
S1: feel so much more. You just feel better about yourself.
S1: You feel like you can change and you can do
S1: life differently. All because. You look to something that you
S1: didn't like and you're like, ah, I don't like that.
S1: I don't like how I talk to that person. I
S1: don't like how I feel when I am around those people.
S1: I don't like that I am not able to stick
S1: up for people and I just talk shit, even though
S1: I really like those people. Like, whatever it is in
S1: your life that you don't feel good about, as soon
S1: as you start to realize that you can change those things,
S1: then you just. For me, I just feel like I've
S1: been on this quest to change all of these things
S1: that I don't like about myself or my character or
S1: my integrity. And it's been a six year process. Just
S1: looking at things, understanding that I don't like certain things. Okay,
S1: now I'm going to fix those things. And then all
S1: of a sudden your self-image is like, wow, I'm a
S1: I'm an ethical person. People should trust me. People should
S1: listen to me because I do the right thing. I
S1: don't hurt people. I actually help people. I make the
S1: right decisions. I don't lie to people. I have to
S1: have hard conversations with myself than I do things that
S1: make me feel really uncomfortable. All right, party people, I
S1: gotta run. It is quarterly team meeting or annual planning day.