Financial Feminist - 251. From Idea to Income: How to FINALLY Start Your Business with Mal Rowan

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

Save your seat inside Business Bootcamp! Your COMPLETE roadmap to go from idea to income: ⁠herfirst100k.com/business-bootcamp  If you’ve ever thought, “I want to be my own boss, but I don’t even know where to start,” this episode is for you. I’m sitting down with my friend, business coach and entrepreneur Mallory Rowan, to talk about how to finally stop dreaming and start building your own business. We’re unpacking the fears that hold you back—like not having the “perfect” idea, worrying about failure, or feeling like you’re not the entrepreneurial type—and giving you the permission slip and playbook you need to move forward. From learning why “ready” is not a feeling to understanding how entrepreneurship can change your finances and your life, this conversation will inspire you to take messy action, trust the process, and start your journey from idea to income. Mallory’s links: Website: https://malloryrowan.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/malloryrowan/?hl=en  Business Bootcamp: herfirst100k.com/business-bootcamp  Free Idea Generator: herfirst100k.com/idea  Read transcripts, learn more about our guests and sponsors, and get more resources at https://herfirst100k.com/financial-feminist-show-notes/how-to-start-your-business/ Looking for accountability, live coaching, and deeper financial education? Check out our exclusive community! Join the $100K Club: https://herfirst100k.com/100k-pod   Our favorite travel and cash-back credit cards, plus other financial resources: https://herfirst100k.com/tools Not sure where to start on your financial journey? Take our FREE money personality quiz! https://herfirst100k.com/quiz Special thanks to our sponsors: Squarespace Go to www.squarespace.com/FFPOD to save 10% off your first website or domain purchase. Indeed Get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com/FFPOD. Rocket Money Stop wasting money on things you don’t use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to RocketMoney.com/FFPOD. Quince For your next trip, treat yourself to the luxe upgrades you deserve from Quince. Go to Quince.com/FFPOD for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Netsuite If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, download the free e-book Navigating Global Trade: 3 Insights for Leaders at NetSuite.com/FFPOD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you've ever thought, I want to be my own boss, but you have no idea how. This episode is the permission slip, push, and playbook you've been needing to start. I'm here with my friend Mallory Rowan, and we both were sitting at jobs we hated daydreaming of quitting, but had no roadmap in sight. So this episode is covering all of the real talk on starting your own business from scratch, why entrepreneurship was our ticket to financial freedom, and the launch pad that we've built to help you do the same. But first, a word from our sponsors. It's Rona Week. Now until Wednesday, rain or shine, you can always be building yourself a better summer. So head on over to Rona and save 35% on cans of 3.78-liter Rona interior paint.

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Limited time only at participating Wendy's Taxes Extra. Hello, Mal. Hi, thanks for having me. I'm so excited. I'm so excited too. Okay, so talk to me about where you were at prior to being a business owner. What was life like for you? So I knew I was really ambitious early on. So I was working full-time corporate during school. So I was balancing school, working a marketing job that was in the high-tech space, kind of moved into the startup world. So I was like starting to, you know, move myself closer to entrepreneurship, but still ultimately a little bit afraid of it. What about life did not feel fulfilling? Like, what kept you thinking maybe this is all there is? Like, how do I get out of this? Honestly, I think for me it was that I had always been intrigued about personal finance. And just the math wasn't mathing for me with most nine to five scenarios.

And so it honestly just came down to the math of it of seeing, okay, well, maybe it's going to be a risk that I'm taking. but if I don't start building something, I don't see how I'm going to make the numbers work for the kind of life that I want to live. Yeah. I think that is a realization that a lot of people have, but entrepreneurship is not necessarily the thing they think of. So if like you're in debt, you are trying to save your first 100K, like that was my scenario of like, okay, how do I save my 100K before I turn 26? Yeah. And I was negotiating my salary. I was paying off my debt. I was investing. I was doing all of the financially smart things. Yeah. But probably the biggest thing that got me to that goal and every financial goal after that was being a business owner. Yeah, absolutely. I know

people say you can only save so much. You can only budget so much. And I think to the same point, yes, there's so much great advice now about how to get promotions, how to get a raise. But I ultimately feel like entrepreneurship actually puts you in the driver's seat more than ever before. I know we'll talk about this more as the episode goes on. But I think for so many people, I mean, our parents both taught us, oh, you get the staple job. You get. You get. But you're Canadian for me. You get the health insurance. You get the 401.

Gay. Still the health insurance. Yeah, yeah. But it's like you get the two-week paycheck every and like that is how that's the American dream or that's what you do. Yeah. And that was so unfulfilling for both of us. Yeah.

And I also think that pandemic was kind of the thing for our generation that showed a lot of people that this promise of stability. I feel like that's when it started to get shaky for a lot of people of hang on. I actually thought I took the stable route and all the same. sudden it feels like the rugs being pulled it out from under me. Whereas at that point, already being self-employed, I felt, again, a lot more in the driver's seat. And like, I could say, okay, well, things are changing everywhere, but I can look more at my own picture and decide how I'm going to adapt and change and feel more in control of that and in control of my financial

future. We talk a lot on the show about how, you know, you can control what you control and you work to change everything else at the systemic level. And I think that for most women listening, We all have control issues. So it's like, this is actually a great way to have more control over a very uncontrollable scenario between like layoffs and getting fired or just having your job change. And I like to have fun. So I'm like if I can have fun doing my work and that means that I'm not. I feel like you're making an impact.

Yeah. I think that's such an important piece too. It's like, okay, maybe you do have a job that you enjoy. But for me, it was just seeing both the financial opportunity and just that really, opportunity to go after a dream and be like, I think there is a version of life where you get to enjoy every day. You're not sitting in a cubicle and air conditioning in the summer. That was a big thing for me as a university student at the time. I was just like, again, for me, the math wasn't mathing of like, it's a beautiful day out. And I have to sit in this specific seat with these fake

walls around me for what? That was me where it was like, am I doing this for the next 40 years? Yeah. Like, is this, it felt like Groundhug Day? Like, am I doing this for the next 40 years? Like, making men I don't respect rich and begging for PTO and navigating office politics that you want. Oh, and I'm getting like weird misogynistic things said to me at work. And I'm like, I don't like this. This is what I have to do for 35 years. Okay. So somebody's listening to home and they're like, this sounds great, Tor and Mel, but how do I actually do this? So when we talk about both in so many conversations we've had privately and publicly, people getting stuck. Yeah. Like, the first narrative, I think, is like, okay, but I don't know enough.

Like, Tori and Mallory know something about running a business that I don't know. Even if that's not, like, a conscious thought, it's like, okay, I don't know enough about running a business. Yeah, I think, like, there's certain aspects of life where we put so much pressure on ourselves and we don't realize that we don't really apply that pressure the same way in other instances. So for me, that would be, like, going to the gym, right? Yeah. Usually when you go to the gym, you start with the basics of like, okay, am I comfortable going to the gym to do, there's usually a tour or something, right? You're like, can I go get some information? Right? You start there. You're not like, do I know how to use every single machine in three different ways? Yeah. Yeah, do I know how to squat 300 pounds? That's not the expectation you put on yourself going to the gym. If you were deciding you want to start cooking or a new hobby, knitting, you don't say could I knit an entire blanket and scarf right? Scarf right now, right? So I think with business we just put a lot of our identity into it too and sometimes it can feel really scary and it feels like more of a past fail than we look at something like the gym. And so I think that's a big part of it. It's just you have to accept that you're going to learn as you go just like everything else in life and that there is literally no world where you know everything before you start because there's no rubric.

So I think the biggest thing is you actually don't know what you don't know. So to put that expectation on yourself is a little bit wild. The problem I had that I know listeners have, too, is speaking of control issues. It's like, I am trying to anticipate every single problem or have answers to every single question that are going to happen like five years from now. So what happens when I have to hire a team? What happens when, I don't know, somebody sues me? I don't know.

Like you're making up like the worst case scenario. And it's like, nobody hands you a playbook for entrepreneurship. I mean, we built you one. We'll talk about it. But like, no one hands you the playbook. And it's like you do figure it out. So getting caught up in the like five years from now problems. Yes.

You five years from now knows how to handle those. And actually, you know, we talk about this a lot later of like, you know, what got you here won't get you there. I feel like people are familiar with that. But it's also realizing that means that the steps you have to take right now are actually not the same steps in five years. And so those beginning parts are important with my first business. We had, as you know, a powerlifting apparel company. And one thing we did was we put handwritten postcards in every package, right? And it's one of those things where when you start to do, people go, well, what happens

when you have 100,000 orders? We're like, well, we don't right now. Right, right, right. Which is such an obvious, like, yeah, we don't. And so it means that you can do those things that maybe you don't get the opportunity to do when your business is massive, right? But those are the things that really built our customer base, and people loved those things. So I actually often think it can be an advantage to be on that smaller end where you're like,

oh, I can actually do things now that maybe Tori doesn't face as the business owner that she is now. Yeah. Talk to me about your jail quote because it's always so funny to me. I say you're further from jail than you think because obviously it makes sense. We all get nervous about how am I supposed to register my business. What kind of bank account do I have to set up? need a lawyer. Yeah. How do you file taxes?

What are business taxes? There's so many different elements that intimidate people. And so I like to say that because it's true. When we put it that way, it feels like, yeah, you know what? You are right. Like it's silly that I'm that worried. But with our first business, we just kept receipts for a year. We were like, I'm not really sure what you're supposed to do, but we know you're supposed

to have your receipts. And the only consequence really was that we had to sit down and take a chunk of time to go through them. And that is barely a consequence. There was nobody knocking on our door being like, were you every week doing this thing? Like, no. So I think there's those little steps. You just do what you can and you will continue to learn as you go.

Google is free. YouTube is free. And people you know. I guarantee you you know somebody with a business or you know somebody who works in accounting. I love to call my accountant friends before I had my own accountant and ask those kind of questions. I still sometimes call them for an opinion. Yeah.

So when we talk about the next question. laundry or the next concern for people, which is, like, I don't have the right idea or even, like, yeah, I don't, I haven't settled on that idea or I have 500 ideas and I don't know how to pick one. I think that, one, we're helping with that. We have a free tool and a free challenge that will link down below in the description, but, like, that will literally help you figure out what your best business idea is. Because that's something that people do get hung up on is, like, picking the perfect thing. Yes. But talk to me about the experience of like picking the right idea. I mean, there's a photographer quote. Actually, people say often that's like the best camera you have is the one in

your hand. And they say that a lot for beginner photographers because you can feel that pressure to have the most expensive one when really the iPhone or the Android will do for now because it's what's going to get you starting to use that photographer eye, right? Experience. Yeah. I really think it's similar that way that in one sense, the best business idea is just one that you can take action on. And that's going to often be the first step, right? We think I have this, you know, business idea. I'm scared and I have to go for it. And again, it's going to be that past fail.

But it's also okay if it's the business idea that gets you to the next thing. Oh, and I think that's super common. I mean, her first 100K was not a financial education company. Like, a lot of people do not realize that. I was, like, peak Tumblr blog era, like 2010. Take me back. Oh, I miss Tumblr. Like, good old Tumblr.

Oh, we got bought by Yahoo and I just went downhill immediately. But like that was, it was like life of a 20-something woman, right? And I was like following travel bloggers and that's what I thought I wanted my life to look like. So I started running this blog on the side of my 9-5. Was it making me any money at that time? No, it was not. Yeah. But only by doing that did I realize, oh, every blog post I'm writing has something to do with money.

And I am the person, all of my friends were coming to to talk about money. So for at least a year, I think a good two years, I was just running this like very, very general life of a 20-something blog. And that was not the right idea. But I only realized it wasn't the right idea by fucking doing the thing. Yeah. And you learned how to make a blog. You learned how to be a better writer for blogs, right? I learned how to design on Canva and did it look pretty. You bought a domain. I did buy a domain. It was the $40. The first $40 I ever spent was Squarespace domain, Squarespace sign up. That was it. Yeah. I had a student that was actually a long time follower, and I knew that she was an aspiring business owner, but she didn't quite

have an idea. And so there was a lot of, you know, she would come to some of my workshops, we would chat in the DMs, and it got to the point where I was just like, Jordana, you got to start. You got to do something. Right, you got to stop talking about. You got to do something. And so she started building this kind of home DIY project, um, Instagram page, knowing that that was something she was really enjoying. And once she started that, it really just evolved like her artistic creative side. Yeah. And she had, ended up, you know, pivoting from there. And she now makes these really incredible dog portraits that she actually makes out of dog hair. So if someone's dog passes, yeah, they send in some hair

and she makes these beautiful replicas of them. And it's so special. I know. I know. It makes me like emotional just talking about it. But like, how would you come up with that? Right. And so for her, it was really, she had so long where she wasn't taking that first step. Yeah. And then And once she took the first step, it was quickly the second, the third, the fourth. Now I'm onto a new idea and just was no big deal to switch ideas, where she was putting so much weight in that first idea. And now it's a business that she uses to, you know, directly fund particular things in her life and really give her some extra stability that feels really good.

Well, you were mentioning, I think she's like paying off her father's like medical bills, right? Yeah. Which is, that's the kind of financial impact we're talking about too. Absolutely. This is going to be a recurring theme. and what you and I are talking about is it's like it's not that serious dude it's not that serious like I'm always like just do it well it's like you do it okay it didn't work out exactly the way you wanted to or you learned something new again like I learned oh I want to

talk about money and I only learn that by doing it like you only learn by doing it and I think so many people they work up the business in their heads they're like I don't have the logo I don't have the website I don't have the perfect idea yeah the only way you figure that out is by doing it. Yeah. I mean, we built our first business to like a globally recognized multi-six-figure business and then walked away because it wasn't in the end the idea we wanted to continue with and I was extremely burnt out, a story for another time. Yeah. But for me, it's like that business gave me so many lessons past as we were talking about, you know, the domains, these things. I learned how with every launch, what kind of things to add, right? And so when we went to build our next

businesses, we were able to do it exponentially faster, exponentially more efficient. And so even though I went from product business to then a real estate team and coaching and services, it's wild how many skills will really get you there faster. Yeah. I think the third concern people have is like, well, I'm not that kind of person. Like, I'm not the kind of person that could be an entrepreneur. Or I haven't like, yeah, I'm a nurse or I'm a teacher. I like, what would I do? Yeah. And, And I won't say everything about him to keep his privacy, but, like, I'm helping my partner launch a business right now. And he is a civilian. He's not on social media. He doesn't post. He is not, like, he's not currently an entrepreneur. And had that same thought. He was like, Tori, I see what entrepreneurship has given you. You know, where you're able to take Fridays off to spend with me. You're able to work from anywhere.

You're completely financially independent. I kind of want that. how do I do that, even if I'm not that type of person? And I think that there's so many different entrepreneurs than we see both online, but also that to this point about this example of like, yeah, how are you coming up with that idea? It doesn't have to be like the thing you went to school for or like, okay, I'm a nurse. How would I make that a business? It can be related to a skill you have or a skill you want to pursue. Yeah, absolutely. So when we talk about, yeah, like I'm not that kind of person. Yeah.

How do we debunk that myth for people? Yeah. I mean, for myself, I always thought I would be like a really high level exec at a big company. Me too. Yeah. I think that's like the version of success we also grew up with. Oh, yeah. It was like Gorboss in the pavement and wearing our little pencil skirts and our coffees and our briefcases.

Dare I say lean in. Yeah. Lean in really hard. And you might just, that's what we might just make you. So I think it is like, you know, I, we say business is the biggest, like, personal development bait and switch where you will learn so much about yourself. And I think that first lesson is that you can be that type of business owner. As you said, it doesn't have to be a specific degree. It doesn't have to be related to

your current job. Neither of us did stuff related to our degree, really? No, it can be a skill set that you have. Yeah. It could even be something that you just feel like there's a gap in your industry for us with our powerlifting brand. We were honestly starting just filling a gap that we felt in community and that can be enough. Yeah. And I think when we talk about that also fear of like, okay, what if I've never sold anything? Again, we're like, it's not that serious, dude. Like, I'm going to keep saying that. It's not that serious. You figure it out. Yeah, you learn by doing. What about that fear? Like, I've never sold anything. I've never marketed anything. I've never had to like talk to somebody and convince them to buy a thing. Absolutely. You know what?

When you were talking about that theme, another thing that comes to mind for me is like a talk. learning to walk, right? When a toddler takes its first steps, baby, I guess it's probably a baby. Toddler. Whatever, same thing. That was Mal's experience. I started walking at seven. She walked last week for the first time.

It was so incredible. I was really proud of her. She's running multi-six-figure businesses and just finally took her first steps. Basically. But like when a baby takes its first steps, right? It takes a few and it falls and we all cheer. And we're like, oh my gosh, it's first steps. we're not like, what a loser that made me fell.

Like, how embarrassing. Like, it's never going to make it, right? No, we really celebrate those first steps. But I think we have this crazy expectation that we have to nail it on the first time. And I think that's really what we want people to understand more than anything. Also, like a scientist or like, what if the people making electricity tried once? Oh, it's the Einstein of like I learned 100 ways not to make a light bulb. Yeah, exactly.

Like, imagine how embarrassing it would be as a scientist if you tried an experiment once. And then you quit. You changed no factors. And you said, well, that didn't work. Yeah. Right. And now I quit. Okay.

hilarious because actually on the sales side, the example I have in mind is a student who used to work in a lab. And I did not do that segue on purpose. But I had this student and, yeah, she worked in a lab. Like, thought that would be everything. Got kind of interested in fitness and then in some energy healing spaces and really wanted to start offering some services to people. And so she started with a side hustle with two clients and then was able to take it full time. And this was someone that did not come from a sales

background. Right. And then through their business, they learned how to sell one-on-one things. They learned how to sell group things. They do an in-person retreat, right? It's really those skills that have evolved. But she started with zero sales base. Well, she works in a lab. She's not that person. Totally. I'm putting that in quotes. But she went for it. Yeah. And I think, too, when you have a passion for what you're doing, sales can feel big and scary in general, but that passion can really come through because if somebody's coming to me, let's say I'm a personal trainer, right? And you're coming to me for help. If I am so passionate about fitness, normally that's the thing you can like nerd out on so much. So if you were telling me, hey, these are the problems

I'm facing. I can probably go straight into nerd mode and be like, oh, yeah, like I know all the ways to fix it. I'm so excited about helping you. And you're actually really naturally selling. it's just when we put that label of making sales, it can feel really scary. It's kind of like networking. Networking is just talking to people. As soon as you call it networking, it's, again, like pencil skirts and like a student tie and you're like at roundtables trying to figure out how to talk to people. Exactly. You have a name tag on immediately.

Exactly. Yeah. And when we come back, we are talking about that fear of your business absolutely failing. It's not going to fail. We're going to be fine. And if you actually need to be on camera on social media in order to grow your business, stay tuned. It's hard to know what's going to happen in the future. Between the election and the new year and everything that's going on, if you're a small business owner, you are trying to figure out what's going to happen to your business.

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less time looking backward and more time on what's next. If you're a small business owner, NetSuite is a great solution because they're bringing all of these things in one place. You're not having to find like seven different platforms for all your different needs. Download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at NetSuite.com slash FFPOD. The guide is free to you at netsuite.com slash ff pod. All right, we're back with Mel. So I'm scared. I'm going to fail.

That's the one I hear all the time. Like, what if my friends from high school see me trying to be an influencer or like trying to be a business owner and they laugh at me? Yeah. First of all, get new friends. Second, like, what if this doesn't work out and I've gone all in and I feel, yeah, I feel like a failure. Mm-hmm.

I think it's like if you looked at something like a relationship, right? We often like, we're in it in the moment and we can see these things developing, right? It's like when you start dating someone, you could tell if it's working or not. But I think with this idea of business, we think there's almost like a time, an invisible timeline where you're like do it for a year and it works or it doesn't. And if it doesn't, it's exploded your entire life. Yes. And also that you must marry the first person you ever went on a date with. And that is your life partner for the next 50.

years. Yeah. And I think when you can let go of that and just say I'm open to like this changing, however it might change, then your idea, your idea of failure really starts to shift. Like, you know, if I had a question that's like, oh, you know what people love to ask, like, is there anything you change or do you regret anything? Like, what's your biggest failure? Like, I actually can't think of a thing and it's not that I haven't made mistakes. It's just you stop categorizing it that way because it was actually just a piece of information. It's a data point that you collected and then you learned from it the same way if a launch goes really well you collect those data points if the business isn't working here collecting those data points and for me i look at it

as if you know two people just both had business ideas one spent the next year going for it yep the other one kept their notebook and just wrote the ideas over and over and brainstormed the one who really went for it and just started taking that messy action is going to have collected so many data points that now they can make such educated decisions they probably have. They probably have started making money, whereas the other person might go, okay, I've done all my research for a year. I'm ready to start. They might be a week into their business and then go, oh, actually, this is all different and playing out differently than the research told me it would. Time is going to pass anyway. It's like you can either be

five years older and have this business that's successful, which is option number one, or went for it. And yeah, maybe it didn't work out. Yeah. Like, I'm scared. I might fail, you might. That doesn't make you a failure. That's not an identity. That's an incident that happened. And I think you also get to decide what type of business you want to run and build for yourself. And I don't think that part is as loud in a lot of these conversations. We see things like the sale of poppy, right? Sure. And we see these big billion dollar sale stories. And so people can get really intimidated by that. But if you look around you, there's way more people who are self-employed then you realize that have maybe decided to make 75K but be working for themselves or make

100K or 150. And so I think also knowing like you can pick whatever type of business you want and scale it at whatever pace you want. Exactly. Yeah. And I think with that five years example too, again, like the outcomes either I have a really successful business because I went for it in five years. I don't.

But I went for it and I learned a lot. and I'm really glad I did so I don't have that regret. Or I'm sitting five years later and still wondering, oh, maybe I could be a business owner or something. Yeah. And sometimes you learn that maybe it's not for you, but you learned all of these skills that then allow you to go get a different job that you would really love.

And I think the other thing of that, like, failure again, is it's like the fear of looking cringe or stupid. Yeah. I did. Yeah. I do all the time. Like, I look back at my TikToks in 2020, and I'm like doing the dances and I'm like, oh, boy.

Wow. No, did it make me like $250,000 in a month? Yeah, it did. So I can't be that upset about it. But it's like I look back at my old website, the graphics I used to make that I thought were good. And I'm like, oh, God, this looks awful. I only realize that because they did it. Yeah, I mean, people tell me somebody who doesn't look back at their life and cringe in other ways, right? But I'm glad you went for it. Exactly. People cringe at the person they dated, the clothes they wore, right? Like, that is just part of being human. It's that you're evolving. It's a Gambino quote, too. Then he just came out. He was like, I think the price is being successful is being cringy. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I've experienced this a lot after my first business, too, where like the people that maybe were making the sideline comments are not necessarily supportive.

All of a sudden, it's the, hey girl, DM. Oh, absolutely. Oh, I was just, you know, I have this business idea. I was wondering if I could pick your brain because you've been so successful in it, right? And so I think it's such wasted energy if I had spent all. that time thinking about that person and like having them hold me back when ironically just going for it actually meant those people were going to turn around and change their mind yeah and i think if we talk so much about this on the show about if you are living your life to make other people

comfortable at the expense of your own joy or your own comfort like is that a life you want to live there's actually a really great trend i've been seeing where it's something like um it's like so-and-so said you're so cringe or so-and-so said you're so annoying online And then it's like, oh, great, they didn't say I was mean. They didn't say I was a bad person. It's like, if all that I am is cringe, that's pretty good. Well, and again, it's like, it's the cringy. Yeah.

You only feel cringy because you're seeing somebody go for their dreams. Yeah, also, life is kind of cringy. I give myself the ick all the time. Yeah. Well, it's like, it was what happened. Anytime I can weave in Timothy Shalama, I'm going to take it. But he had, he won the SAG Award for his Bob Dylan movie. And he did this great speech where he was like, I want to be.

great yes like you said in the speech he's like i want to be one of the greats and there was a certain subset of the internet that was like oh you're so pompous you're so full of yourself and the other part was like why wouldn't you want to be great yeah and why wouldn't you want to say that now greatness can be winning oscars and doing all of that greatness can just be you know what i have enough time to go to school pick up every single day like i've built myself a certain life where I can do all of the things I want to do. Yeah. And I never have to say yes when I don't want to.

And I never have to say no when I don't want to. Yeah, it's not embarrassing to take the steps required to get the life you want. I think a lot of people probably look up to you and they don't look at the things you did as cringe. They look at where you are and go, wow, how does she do that? And it was cring by being cringed. And again, I am glad I look back though and it's a little cringy because it means I've grown. It means I've actually learned. And again, the only way you learn, the only way you figure it.

this out. If you think you want to be an entrepreneur, the only way you know for sure is by doing it and then going, yeah, that felt good. Or I'm going to tweak this one thing and see if it feels better. Or actually, this is not for me at all. Yeah. But wouldn't you rather know? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Brief here. I don't have the followers, right? What, I have to be on camera. I have to do social media. I don't want to be an influencer. Like, what can you do if you want to build a kind of business where you don't have to show up online. Yeah, I think, I mean, I think we see so much on social and we see that entrepreneurship journey online, but a lot of businesses are not built online. Right. Probably the reason you're listening to this podcast is that you saw me or Mel

on Instagram or TikTok or something. And like, that is one path, 100%. Yeah. And I think there's versions of showing up online. I had a student that was a mortgage broker. And she wasn't even that comfortable with feed content. She's a little bit older. It was just a really big learning curve. And so she started just doing Instagram stories and she was doing mortgage Q&As. And she was getting, you know, she had less than probably 1,200 followers to start. And she was getting clients through that. And that was her version of showing up. And by getting more clients and then also using her offline channel, she was able to then build a team. And then you can have different people in the team too that maybe do like to do those kind of things. Yeah. But it actually allowed her to get out of a lot of the doing in her

business because finding that way of showing up instead of just not showing up at all meant that then she could grow, she could add to her team, she could really change her role in her business, especially as a mom, right? Being able to take that mat leave as a self-employed person and take more time to be with her kids. Well, and what you just said, which is 1,200 followers and she's making decent money. I mean, my partner is not posted on social media at all. He's about to land his first client at $2,500 and like did not post on social media. once has a website that we built over the weekend. Like, you don't need a million followers. And like, I kind of feel like the hard truth sometimes is like sometimes there's just elements

of doing anything that you want where you have to work through and you're like, this is intimidating me or this is a little uncomfy at first. Can I give an example? What was your example of that? Because I do feel like sometimes you just got to suck it up, buttercup and do it. Oh, one that I said to you? Or one that you feel. I can give you one while you think. Yeah. I mean, I was going to say, I feel like people don't realize social media for a lot of business owners or even content creators. People go through these waves of saying, oh, I said to you yesterday. I literally said we were walking a beach yesterday. And I was like, I don't want to post on Instagram, but I know I need to.

And I like don't have any ideas. But it's like, there's so many massive creators and business owners in my life right now that have such, uh, with social media. And at the same time, it's like if you asked us all if we were walking away, it's like, no. I just want to have my little temper tantrum and it's okay to do that. I think numbers are one that people hear a lot of like, I just want to be a creative business owner. I don't want to worry about making money.

And I'm like, you cannot run the creative business you want to run. Yeah. Unless you know where the money's coming from. Yeah. Unless you know your numbers. And something we talk a lot about is different content categories that you don't always have to be making content

that's designed to become a massive influencer. You can actually lean into certain content categories that will just help build a really strong trust with your existing community, and you would be surprised how many conversions. I had a different mortgage broker. Similarly, had 1,400 followers. We started posting a little bit differently on her account, and she got a lead every time she would post. That's crazy. Yeah. Insane, right? But it's because people connected with her, and they got to know her. And sometimes it's even just that reminder, like, oh, yeah, that person is a mortgage broker because they're popping up in my feed, right?

Okay. So for everybody listening, again, we have a free resource that we can direct you to. It is actually so impactful. I'm not going to bullshit everybody and be like, go sign up for this. But it's like step by step going to help you figure out what your idea should be. Yeah. Get you out of your own head, actually get you started. Okay. So before we talk about specifically how entrepreneurship changed our lives, let's focus on some of the themes because all of these, you know, I am not, I don't feel ready. I don't have an idea. These all come back to one, it's not that serious, bro. Yeah. It's not that serious. This is not life. death. Yeah. Again, just like any other hobby, you can pick it up. You can figure out how good

you want to be at it. Yeah. You can say, ah, actually, this isn't for me. I don't like knitting. I like crow shaking. Cool. You're going to pivot your business. Great. I think it's also the perfectionism mindset, which is I have to do it perfectly or not at all. I've said it many times on this show. Liz Gilbert has a quote that I live by, which is perfectionism is fear and stilettos. It is fear. It's fear looking stupid. Fear that you're failing. Fear that somebody's going to make fun of you, fear that maybe you don't know enough. Yep. And then I think comparison and overwhelm are also in this too, which is like you are comparing

yourself to maybe Mallory to people you see online. Oh my gosh, we still do it ourselves. Yeah, we still do it. But like how many years in business are you? When did you start your first business? 10 years ago, almost 11. Yep. And I am nine, almost 10 years ago.

So if you're comparing yourself as a newbie business owner or as somebody who wants to be a business owner, hopefully you're using Malina as inspiration, but not comparison. We know a lot more. Yeah. We've been at this a lot longer. I could do a whole episode on all the mistakes you actually. Truly. Truly. And like I look up to business owners who are 10 years ahead of me or who, you know, I think, oh, that's a really interesting way of running her business that I wouldn't have thought about. So use comparison as inspiration, not as this is the reason I can't do it, is they know something I don't know. We probably do. We know a lot that you don't know because we went for it. Because we did it. And then I think that overwhelmed piece too of like, I need the brand. I need the

website. I need the logo. I need like what would I even talk about? And I think starting is the fastest way to squash that overwhelm because if you just decide I'm starting with the website, then your brain is just going to be on the website, right? It's like all those other things start to go away. If I'm just going to start by running a social media account, you know, I had another student that wanted to start coaching and was so overwhelmed by the tech side of things. And so we launched just with her Instagram profile, like no sales page, no nothing. She was able to fill her group program and even have a wait list. I launched my partners. We launched it with literally just a long landing page. Yeah. We don't have an about page. We don't have like a contact form. It's just like,

yeah, you don't need much. You used a Squarespace template and called it good. And I think the other thing I like to point out is it's almost like a bit of being bit by a bug of like if entrepreneurship has always been on your brain and even if you can't land on that idea, I think like if it's something that intrigues you, it doesn't go away. Yeah. And so it's one of those, like not everybody has those dreams. And so if it is in you, I think you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't go for it and see if you like it. Talk to me about why ready is not a feeling. We saw a great quote the other day that's like ready is not a feeling. It's a decision. The like, I don't feel. I don't feel ready. That's not an emotion. Anger's an emotion. Sadness is an emotion. Ready is not an emotion.

Like, imagine inside out. Right. There's a ready. She's like, I'm either ready or I'm not. In the back corner, she just presses a button. That's literally what we're talking about, though, is it's like, you can tell me, and I'm going to give you tough love, you can tell me I don't feel ready. You will never, ever, ever feel ready. Yeah, I don't feel ready. I don't feel ready. I don't You're ready either. I didn't feel ready. I still don't feel ready sometimes. And again, this is where it's like you're getting caught up in trying to answer questions that are five years from now questions. Well, we keep talking about how we keep feeling these feelings. And I think that's a big theme of a lot of these things that might hold you back at the start of the business are actually

challenges you continue to face. So by taking that decision to work through them the first time, that does make you an entrepreneur. That does put you in the right mindset to be. be a business owner, and it's a really important skill set, and you're going to get better and better at it. There's always going to be things that feel scary. I'm sure when you signed, I was like, wait, you're a bad example. Maybe for this. As you say, your book deal, you might be scared, right? Of, you know, what if this fails? What if I'm not the person to write it? It was more when the book came out. It was like, what if I've put all of this time and energy into something and no one likes it? Yeah. Or people read it and they're like, actually, that wasn't very good.

Yeah, so you're going to keep going through those feelings at every stage, right? Watch the podcast. What if nobody listens? What if it's like good news and bad news, right? This isn't the first time you're going to feel that way. But if you can start exercising that muscle of just taking action to work through it, I'm a big fan of just like put three things on a to-do list, circle the first one. And like that's how you're going to work through those feelings. And overcoming the analysis paralysis. It's such a good point, Mal, because everything we just talked about, again, I don't feel ready. I don't have the right idea. I've never sold anything. I'm not that kind of person. Like, you were going to encounter, as somebody who's, you know, both of us have been in this for a decade, you are going to encounter those feelings every time you do something new in the business.

Yeah. Like, I've never managed a profit and loss spreadsheet. I don't know how to do this. Okay. I've never launched a book. Yeah. I've never launched a podcast. But again, tell me you don't feel that way in life.

There's a new recipe. You're like, I've never done this before. I've never gotten married before. I've never gotten divorced before. I've never gotten remarried before. Like, all of these things are. I've never had children before. I've never gotten a dog before. Yeah. There's just something about this career element that I think people end up really holding

themselves back because they're so scared of the idea of failing around that. Right. Because it's caught up in our identity. If I fail at this, I am a failure. It's not an incident that happened. It's an identity. I am a failure. Yeah. And you're not. It's all right to go for things. And if they were, again, like, what's truly the worst that can happen? I know we're asked this question a lot when you end up where you started. That's what we're saying can happen. But what's the best? What's the best?

Okay, so we'll talk about the best. Let's talk about how entrepreneurship changed our lives when we come back from break. Stay tuned. The conjuring last rites on September 5th. We're doing you out. Array! Array! Array!

Okay, so we can talk all about building a business and being business owners. let's give some concrete ways that our life got better when we became entrepreneurs. Yeah. I mean, not to be kind of a dick about it, but I can wake up whenever I want. Yes. You know, I think there's the day-to-day ways that are really nice. And I think especially for people with like neurodivergent folks, people with disabilities, there's so many aspects that I find are overlooked for entrepreneurship. Parents are for me. Yeah, our caregivers.

Sensory overload. Like, there's so much in my life that I find in the day to day, it's like I can choose to work in a setting that feels good for me. I can choose to make the hours. I can choose to wake up one morning and say I thought today was going to be super productive. And actually, I just need to watch TV and go for a walk and change up the pace, right? And I think that in itself for me in the day to day has really been life changing, especially as a woman.

I could talk about menstrual cycles all day. But, you know, waking up in a certain part of your science. cycle and being able to make your schedule based on that or make accommodations. So I think day-to-day accommodations is huge. And then for me, it's about collecting memory dividends. That's something that Bill Perkins talks about a lot and die was zero of, we talk about like dividends from investing. But thinking of memory dividends of are you, I almost picture them like super, Super Mario's, Tori would prefer me to say, the coins in that. Like I think of collecting the coins of when I look at all of the life experiences

entrepreneurship has brought me. I've been to Mexico to tour properties, right? I've got to meet the author of one of my favorite books and hung out with them and now have a close friendship with. I've done more trips than I can count, and it's all because of

that. Yeah. The thing that as your resident financial expert, I have to tell you, you can do all of the financially responsible things. We were mentioning this up top. You can negotiate your salary every time. I talk about that a lot. You can pay off your debt, have many episodes about how to do that. You can save

money. You can save your emergency fund or save to buy a house. You can buy property if you are financially able to do so. You can do all of the right financial things and still not make enough money to live. And that is 100% a systemic issue. Yeah. And also, also my not-so conspiracy conspiracy theory is we are taught especially as minority groups as women, people of color, LGBTQ, like you are taught to have a certain path in your career and in your life that's very linear. And my suspicion is that path is taught to keep you underpaid, overworked, and not really loving your life. And there's a reason I went from 100k net worth of 25 to less than two years later at 27 years

old being a multimillionaire. Yeah. I invested. I did all the right things. That got me to my first 100K. Yeah. The reason that we went from 100K to multi-millions in less than two years is single-handedly because of entrepreneurship.

There is no other reason. Oh, absolutely. Even my first business, I didn't start investing until after that. first business. I had learned so many lessons, finally learned more about money. And then with my next business, I was able to look more even further through that personal finance lens. I feel like business one, I knew like, okay, entrepreneurship is a path for personal finance. Right. And then business two, I got to really zero in on that. And then in less than five years I went from not investing to a million dollar net worth before 30. Right. And that is what fuels a lot of

the things I was talking about of being able to then wake up and have that that day-to-day freedom to be able to create those memory dividends to, you know, bail on my workday because my sister needs me to pick up my nephew or things like that. Or to do like actually impactful work that feels good. Totally. There's so many people I talk to who are like, I work at X company that I don't really like working for, but it pays me okay. Or I feel like I can't leave. And yeah, my boss is terrible, the work we do makes me feel a little icky and when you run a business

not only do you get to work from everywhere and travel and fund your life like again if you have goals to be debt-free this is the easiest way to do it if you have goals of buying a house if you have goals of saving a certain amount of money like entrepreneurship is your rocket ship to get you there

and also you get to do work that actually feels like you're making a difference like both of us meet people every single day who come up to us in public now who say your work changed my life yeah i was never ever going to have that experience working a nine to five job no i think i think people get so scared of the income dip that you might take at first if you're like yeah well i'm on path for this in my business so i have to sacrifice the salary to go after my dreams to have that impact but actually what you'll realize has we both have with entrepreneurship is that you

there actually is a world where you have both. You are going to make more money than at your corporate job and you are going to have the impact. Yeah. And again, we're not looking at entrepreneurship through rose-colored goggles. There are plenty of businesses that don't work out. Yep. But again, wouldn't you rather have gone for it? So, you know, I've talked about my net worth. I've talked about, you know, the flexibility of taking Fridays off to be with my partner. I'm about to do six weeks in Europe, not working at all to do a cooking intensive. in Italy that I'm just so excited about and literally, like, worked through with my therapist where she's like, hey, you've worked really hard to build this business. Like, let's have

something to show for it. Let's go do something fun. And she's like, what would you do? And I was like, cooking intensive in Italy. And she's like, really? And I was like, yeah. And like, immediately I was just like, this sounds incredible. And like, I get to do that not when I'm 68 and retired. Yep. I get to do it at 31. Yep. That's how I feel about our cottage. Yeah. Yeah. So you bought a cottage. Yeah. Because we were like, I would rather have it in our 30s to have all of these memories and experiences with our friends and family now and not wait until we're 60 and retired a lot of our neighbors on the lake, right? They're there and their retirement and it's lovely, but they're restricted. It's going to make me cry. I have friends who didn't make it

to 30. I'm sure I'm going to have friends who didn't make it to 40. Like, don't wait to live a life that feels good. You don't have to earn it. You don't have to like put in 40 years to earn it. And like everything we're talking about, none of this happened from a paycheck. No. None of this happened from a paycheck. The ability to do work we care about. The ability to take care of our families and the people we love most. The ability to donate a lot of money. Like that's where I'm at is like I'm donating so much money to causes that I really love. Yeah. Buying property, doing all the things we want to do. That happened from entrepreneurship. So what if somebody's like, okay, I'm in. I want to be an entrepreneur, but I have a thousand ideas floating around and I can never land on one. Here we go. Okay. So we created the idea challenge for you. It is entirely free. You can sign up down below. It is 72 hours. You're going to have your business idea. Anything else I'm missing? No, that's simple. Great. Keep it simple. Don't overcomplicate it. Yeah. It's not that serious, bro. Okay. Mal, thank you so much for being here. Tell me everything about you. And I didn't really give you a proper intro. Tell me everything about you.

Plugging. No, but I say this both to her face and behind her back, that she is probably the most brilliant a marketer I know and like is so smart about building her own businesses but then teaching people how to set up a business whether it is I just want to make enough money to live and pick my kids up from school and like do what I want to do versus like I want to skill this business because I want to make a massive impact and so I just love you personally we're very close friends and then I also just admire everything you've built so thank you thank you tell me everything about you meaning plug away my friend it's like do you want my full life Social security number. I want everything. You can pretty much find me at Mallory Rowan everywhere.

Instagram is my main platform. My website's Malloryoen.com. If you're looking for business coaching or anything like that, happy to have a conversation in the DMs or shoot me an email. And we're launching something really exciting called the business boot camp. We've done it before in the past, but we're kind of, we've renovated it now for 2025. And that free idea generator is a great place to get started. So you can come into business boot camp with that idea. So again, head on. and the link down below. We will see you there. Thank you for being here, Mel. Thanks. Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, a Her First 100K podcast. For more information about Financial Feminist, Her First 100K, our guests and episode show notes, visit Financial Feministpodcast.com.

If you're confused about your personal finances and you're wondering where to start, go to Her First100K.com slash quiz for a free personalized money plan. Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap. Produced by Kristen Fields, and Tamisha Grant, research by Sarah Shortino, audio and video engineering by Alyssa Midcalf, marketing and operations by Karina Patel and Amanda Lafue. Special thanks to our team at her first 100K, Caitlin Sprinkel, Mashabak McKeever,

Sasha Bonar, Ray Wong, Elizabeth McCumber, Daryl Ann Ingman, Shelby Duclose, Megan Walker, and Jess Hawks. Promotional graphics by Mary Stratton, photography by Sarah Wolf, and theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound. A huge thanks to the entire her first 100K community, for supporting our show.