Habits and Hustle - Episode 22: Lisa Bilyeu – Marriage, Partnership, and Business Success

Episode Date: July 30, 2019

Lisa Bilyeu is the Co-Founder and President of Impact Theory and Women of Impact, as well as the Co-Founder of Quest Nutrition. In this episode, Lisa shares with us the decision-making process that she and her husband, Tom Bilyeu, have used to help them create their very successful businesses. We discuss Lisa’s conscious transformation from housewife to entrepreneur, sacrifice, and the health struggles she has faced along the way.  Youtube Link to This Episode https://www.questnutrition.com/ https://impacttheory.com/ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Did you learn something from tuning in today? Please pay it forward and write us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. 📧If you have feedback for the show, please email [e-mail]  📙Get yourself a copy of Jennifer Cohen’s newest book from Habit Nest, Badass Body Goals Journal. ℹ️Habits & Hustle Website 📚Habit Nest Website 📱Follow Jennifer – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter – Jennifer’s Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Talk about a powerful badass woman. Lisa was a co-founder of Quest Nutrition, the co-founder and president of Impact Theory, and the founder of Women of Impact. She talks to us about deciding to be a high achiever, building an honest relationship with your partner, and finding your way to making your dreams a reality. This inspiring episode will light and encouraging but hot fire under your ass to get moving on building your life on your terms. So I'm really excited about today's podcast because we have the most wonderful power

lady Lisa Bill U today. Hello. Hello. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. Just for those of you who may not know, Lisa was the co-founder of Quest Nutrition and the co-founder of Impact Theory, which is not just Impact Theory. There's women's, there's women of Impact and Health Theory and relationship. And relationship theory. And lots of theories. Lots of theories. Lots of theories. I don't know how you have the time to have that many podcasts and that much of a studio. You're basically building like a you're kind of going arrival with like Disney it seems right. That's the goal. That's a very hefty goal. It is. Amazing. Her husband's Tom Billu as well. And how, my first question honestly is like how are you guys both working together, married and still like

not killing each other? That's what I want to know. You know, I think that's a lot of togetherness and well, share. It really started from our relationship. So what do we want as a family, as a unit? What is that goal that we both agree on? Because that makes all the difference. If you're not on the same page of that, then you're always going to, but heads we didn't come into conflict. So we said, okay, we really want to be in the film business. We both really love the art. I went to film school, he went to film school. So our goal initially was we want to make money so that we can use to make our own films. Because we both worked on movie set and we both hated it. Because Hollywood, especially back then,

don't wanna claim now, but back then, it's like basically eat or be eaten. Yeah. And my whole life, I wanted to be in the film business and so did my husband, but I was like, I'm not willing to give up who I am and allow people to treat me poorly. Right.

And I'm not willing to treat other people poorly to get ahead. So if this is what Hollywood is, I don't wanna be part of it. Right. And so he said, well, if we have our own finances, then we can make our own stuff. Now bear in mind, this is 20 years ago, and it's 700 square foot apartment, we're just married. We barely have two cents to scrape together. And that was his, he's like, well, let's just make

the money ourselves. I was like, cool, wait, let's do it. So you're telling me, sorry, please, please. So before Quest was even, quest was even west so you're your whole both of you you're will just go with to make money to make films correct and so he said it and it's denied to the beginner you're like sure let's make some money yeah can't be too hard so we agreed that we were gonna do beyond that part so that's key number one is make sure that you're

in agreement on the part we're about to take. So we said, what does that look like? Like the note, can I swear on this podcast? Yeah, sure. Okay. Um, the note like bullshit, like what is actually going to take for us to be achievers at that level? And so we looked at the really high achievers and you look at Steve Jobs and he always wears the same t-shirt. He'd never, you know, in the same color. Why? Because we have a limited amount of decisions we can make in a day. So we said, okay, well, if this is really true,

if Tom is going out to work in the business world and entrepreneurship wasn't really a thing back then, I'm kind of ageing myself now, but this was like 18, 19 years ago. Absolutely. Now it's become like a phenomenon. It's like a buzzword. Right. Right.

It did not exist back then. So it was like, I'll go out and make money and I'll try and be successful and bring home. So it's like, okay, well, what do I play in that? Do I go out to work as well? And now we're tag teaming. But then we let, well, if we're doing a nine to five, there's only a certain amount of money I can bring in from a nine to five. But if he's trying it exactly, but if he's

trying to build a business, then that cat, there's no cat. So we agreed as a team that I would take on all decisions other than business. So he was going to go out, he was going to build a business, and I was going to make every single other decision. So what clothes he was going to wear, I was deciding. So he would wake up in the morning because we were we were dedicated to this is our mission. Okay, what does it take to do it? If it takes not making any decisions apart from work then are we in? Yes we're in. Okay, what does that actually look like? You divided and conquered. Exactly. What are the roles? Okay, well I'm going to facilitate everything else.

He's going to go out to work, I'm going to do everything. So he wakes up in the day, his gym clothes were laid out for him. He would put on his gym clothes, go to the gym, he'd come back, his work clothes were laid out for him. He'd get changed, his food was already made for him. So he didn't have to make any decisions in the first part of his morning.

And as a team, we decided that was the life we were going to do in order to get to the goal, we had dedicated to each other and committed to each other. So anytime we hit a roadblock, let's say so I ended up becoming a housewife, a state-owned housewife for eight years and that was how, because initially it was going to be a year. We're going to make enough money in a year, I'm going to be a stay-home wife, and that's what we're going to do. But it turned into an eight-year journey. Yeah. And over that time, I did absolutely get bored.

I got complacent. I didn't feel challenged. I felt like my life was living for him. But I wasn't resentful towards him, because it wasn't that he put me in that position. We decided as a team. And so we basically, that's the strategy we've used all along the way. So when we started quest, it was, what is the goal? Are we willing to sacrifice the house? Yes or no? Yes. Okay. Now we know if we lose the house, there's no animosity because I think that's where couples get that's so true. Get caught up where it's like, oh, we've lost the house and I don't want to lose the house but if you make the decision together we call it

are we in and we in essence put our hand in a pile as they do we agree so that we both can take the responsibility if one of us is unhappy okay well it's not the other person doing it to you it's the situation has developed that now you're in unhats, so I became profoundly unhappy. And I stumbled into a quest that actually wasn't my goal. Like I'm going to break free and I'm going to start business with my husband. That wasn't my goal. It was like my husband came home one day and said, hey, him and his business partners had

this idea of making a protein bar. Do I mind helping? And I was being the good housewife. I was being the good supportive woman. Yeah. And I was like, of course,. I was being the good supportive woman. I was like, of course, babe, I'll help you. But that's how my journey actually started. It was purely accidental.

Wow, that's interesting. I love that you say that though. Those are very good points because when you come to it at a different people say that they take that role, that say the supporter wife role or the backseat role. And they don't put value, the same value on those things, like making the clothes or putting the clothes out or making the breakfast. But the truth is, you're putting so many things on autopilot for the other half of your partner to succeed. Without that support, they can have that same success.

And so that's what you how you guys came to it together as a team. And I at the time, and I've changed a lot since then, I did not have a growth mindset back then. And so I had, we had the goal, and it was like, I'm going to do whatever it takes, even if I'm profoundly happy right now. I love that growth mindset, that's a cure to work. Yeah, I love that. But I was like, I'm going to be unhappy.

It doesn't matter if it takes me one, two, three years, I'm going to do what it takes. And that was definitely my mentality back then. I think a lot of entrepreneurs have that even mentality now, where it's like my life is ceases to exist. And because of my health issues that I've been suffering, it's like, yes, have big goals for me, plan it. How am I going to execute? I'm going to go after it, but, have big goals for me, plan it, how am I gonna execute, I'm gonna go after it,

but I have to enjoy the now, I have to enjoy what I do, and it's not like you have to enjoy every day, because it's like the truth is even doing a business that you love, you're gonna have these are completely sucked. Yeah, of course, that's probably life. It is exactly. But if every week you feel like you're satisfied, and you're really doing something that like really

yeah, satisfies you, then it's okay, but I was just grinding. I was just grinding day in day out I was grinding as the house like as a housewife. I was just I call it emotional purgatory Yeah, where it's like I didn't really feel strongly either way I was like okay, well, I'm doing this for the bigger good Yeah, so and I didn't hate it. It wasn't like I was being tortured. I had a decent life. I had to roof over my head.

I had to complete it. The complacency. Yeah. And that, to be honest, is even more scary than being in a position that I hate because at least when you're down and you really don't like what you're doing, you feel strongly about it. Right. And you change it.

Exactly. You have to change it. But what happens when you're an emotional pegatory? Yeah. You just kind of keep on going and say, went, went, went. Like you kind of just kind of keep with the status quo. So then when Tom came home with his business partner with this idea of this bar or some kind,

what, like you said you're going to help out, how did it become, how did it go from that into what it is now? Yeah, so He came home with this idea and like we're gonna make the bars that we just need your help Like do you mind just measuring a couple of ingredients? We're gonna rent a kitchen and we're gonna make them with knives and rolling pins I was like, yeah, cool. Like what happened due to help? So we would rent a kitchen on in the evenings or really early morning and

So we would rent a kitchen in the evenings or really early morning and the Tom and his business partners and the Whites and we would all go there and we would roll bars and we were making about 2,000 bars in probably eight hours and it's very tedious. It's with a knife. It's with an old impen and it's your heat ceiling with a tiny little pedal and just to give you an idea now we make like 1.5 million bars a day. No, I know. Now the company is like sold for billions of dollars. Yeah. But you never can let you know. I think you're making more than a couple of 2,000 bars for sure.

Yeah, exactly. And so we were making them by hand and again, I was just supporting my husband. I was going to help him on this new business venture because again, what people don't may not know is we started like 10 other companies before Quest. We said we had a real estate company with a domain company where we're buying like website domains and then trying to resell them. We had a graphic design company

where I was doing graphic design for website. That many companies. Yeah, and it's just, you try it, you either hate it or you don't feel passionately about it. Or you're like, I'm not willing to give up X, Y, and Z. So for instance, graphic design company, I do arm in X, Y, and Z. So for instant graphic design company I do arm in my spare time and so I just put a design company together I got a coder and I started doing jobs for people and I hated it and the reason why I hated it was I was working for the client

And it was like what I loved about art was being creative. Yeah, and so I was like, okay Well, I realized this isn't a job that I can sustain because actually it's sucking the life out of me. And so we just moved on. And you should be a stylist actually, you're next to me. Oh, you're a stylist. Yeah. And so we just, so with Quest, we kind of just went in saying, you know, is this something that we really enjoy? It was definitely something that was going to bring value to people because my husband's family were very overweight

and so other Theresa said, I think it's the quote, like no one's going to help the many but people will fight for the one. So it's like you're going to fight for the person in your life that is going to make a difference for and my husband's mum was severely overweight and so was his sister and so we were fighting for that and so I was like of course I'm going to help you babe why you know I'm going to support you and so I was like, of course, I'm gonna help you, babe. Why, you know, I'm gonna support you. And so I was just shipping bars for my living room floor. And it was like, we got an order in, I'd be so excited that I would text him.

But we got, we got on one bar order. And then before I knew it, it was like, wow, we've got 10 orders today. And then before I knew it was like, wow, we've got 20 orders. I'm like, wow, my rug is getting too small for these 20 orders. So we went to, then our business partners garage

and I started shipping from there. And that, for me, it was like, well, Lisa, you already know it. You already know how to print, so just keep going. I was like, well, you already know, they, because they all had their full-time job that they were doing. So we started quest on the side. Right, because they had you were doing the other stuff and your baby is close.

What was he doing? What was Tom doing? They had a tech company. At the tech stuff, and your baby is close. What was he do? What was Tom do? They had a tech company. At the tech company, which he hated. Right. But it was the most financially successful we'd ever been up to that point, but it was miserable.

And my husband was coming home every day miserable. And I said, I don't care about the money. I need my husband back. Right. And I was like, you really need to quit this job. You need to tell your partners that, you know, we're moving on, all we need to do something

else. But sacrificing my husband for money isn't what I signed up for. I would rather live with you happy in a tiny ass apartment, then live with you miserable in a big house. So that was immediately he went to his business partners, he said we have to change and that's where Quest was born. So then who came up with the recipe for Quest? Who thought, okay, this tech company is not working We're gonna do I know you're set up obviously and I had Tom on before yeah, but his family being over you know overweight But then what what was the that moment that light bulb? They went okay, you know what I'm gonna start like a protein bar, you know I don't really think it's ever a light bulb moment. It was a discussion

Yeah, so it's like we all worked out but like I was kind of all the wives in fact were kind of making these like handmade protein bars. It was like you take some peanut butter, you take some water, you take some protein powder and then you kind of you know mash it together and Tom would take one of these that I would make from home, he would take them to work with him. But the second you made it, you put water to it, it activates the molding process, so they don't last long, you had to keep them in the fridge. And so they were kind of all sitting around,

like just being like, well, this kind of sucks. Yeah. Because I was like, well, what if we had a bar that you could actually use, it didn't have to, that was shelf stable. So it was kind of something that's like how it started. But when he came home and I started shipping bars, like I wasn't really thinking about

bringing the value or the impact we were gonna have on other people. I was again, just thinking, how do I help my husband? Right. And then when we committed to it, we said our house is on the line. So he said, are you prepared to lose a house

if this doesn't work? And I said yes. Because I looked at my options and I said, okay. I can hold onto this house and know that I'm actually holding my husband back for who he fundamentally is as she is human being, which is a man who wants to explore is an entrepreneur at heart. And so if I'm like, no, I don't want to risk my house, I'm, I am holding him back. And how would I feel if he was holding me back for something that was fundamentally who I was as a human. I wouldn't feel that that was a partnership. So I said okay I really do believe he needs to take this chance. And then also my house what does it really mean? I'm not

gonna, what's the worst case scenario that I'm out on the streets and I can't afford food? Well I know neither of those things are actually gonna happen because I know that I will be able to get food, I've got family that would help and I roof over my head. I know that I will be able to get food, I've got family that would help. Right. And I roof over my head, I know that I could stay with friends. So when my two worst case scenarios, I know will never happen. All I'm really holding on to now really is comfort. Right, comfort, exactly.

Yeah. And am I willing to sacrifice my husband, like who he is, feeling supported for comfort? No, I'm not willing to do that. So I said, play, play, play, do it. And if we lose the house, we lose the house. Right. So because we had committed to the house, that was when it was like, well, shit, Lisa,

you better get your arson gear, because we're gonna lose the house. Right. So every time we started growing, we were growing 57,000%. So I went from shipping from my living room floor to two years later, I had 40 for zero employees underneath me. I was running a 10,000 square foot warehouse. I was dealing with GNC, freight deliveries, international policies, and I had no idea what I was doing. And when people like, how did you do it, how did you do it? It really was, I had the option to fail or to learn how to actually succeed.

And I had to face my inadequacies. That wasn't easy. Like Lisa, you're not good at this, but you can get good. And so kind of going through that mindset of like going from being this housewife that was just supportive to like, you've got to figure this shit out on your own. Otherwise, you lose your house. I just took then the initiative to get that pain. Yeah, and you really did. And then it eliminated the fear because the fear of like, oh my god, what if I don't know? Well, you don't know. So face your fear because the only option is to face it and overcome it or to back off. Well, back enough to me wasn't an option because I didn't want to lose my house. So I became very comfortable with not knowing what I was doing. I became very comfortable with saying you're not good at it yet. But I also became very comfortable with knowing I could get good at it if I chose to. And that just shifted my mindset. That changed me as a human being.

That changed me of how I saw myself. And then that allowed me to really grow into the person I am today where it's like now I really love to learn and I love to tackle things that are challenging without it letting it dense my ego. Right, like you guys must have a super solid foundation, right, as a couple and I think that's why I think you have really, it's called relationship impact or relationship theory. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Theory, all together, you guys, like a whole shmorgasborg of words there. But because I think. Yeah. Theory. You're all together, you're all the same. It's like a whole shmorgas morgue of warrants there. But because I think you guys have a really good handle on like really like what makes a good

relationship and we said something earlier that I think it was really important like because it looks like you know you became you had strong relationship you have you've built this very successful business then you now have another very successful business. And it's like, how do you do it all? How do you have it all? And like you said something that really resonates, like well, you had a lot of sacrifice, you had to give up.

And I love that you say that, because I think a lot of times people don't realize that with a lot of that comes up, that there does come sacrifice. People don't want to be honest about that. So let's talk about that. Yeah, let's talk about that. Let's talk about that.

I mean, I sacrifice every day and we sat down and we said, what are we willing to sacrifice and what are we not willing to sacrifice? And that's actually the big thing with me and my husband. We just have such open communication. Even to the point, if you think it's about to hurt the other person's feelings, you still are obligated to say it

How do you guys get to that like did you guys take lessons in there? No, I have like a guru that like that that coaches you like Oh, it literally was just a little bit like we stumbled upon it We were young enough and I think this could be a blessing or occurs for people We were young enough that we weren't Dogmatic about anything so I was 21 when I met him, so we've been together for like 19 years. Yeah, for a long time.

Yeah. So you grew up together in a way. Yes, you know, yeah. But a lot of times when people grow up like that, they can either grow apart, or they grow closer together. And we were very aware of that. And so we knew that as we grow as humans,

you have the opportunity to grow together or grow apart. Right. And so for us, that was actually another reason why we structured our lives and we worked together because we want to grow together. And so we said, okay, if I've got this career over here and he's got a career over there, again, this is whatever people choose, I think, and there's no right or wrong. But for us, we realized that if we weren't in the vicinity of each other, yeah, that we would grow apart, not a grow apart, if we weren't in the vicinity of each other yeah that we would grow apart not grow apart but we would grow in the other

person wouldn't see it and I think the joy for us is seeing the other person grow and seeing them blossom and so when I you know Tom people know who now to be this great speaker you know it's like oh my god like he's such a great speaker but I remember we're sitting in my living room, where it was me, him, my mom, my brother, and my sister. So just like three people, and he was so, he had so much anxiety. Well, that when I asked him to tell my family a story,

I was like, oh, baby, you know this story, we can't tell them, he froze, with anxiety. So this is a man who I have seen, go from not being able to tell a story to my own family, to being able to stand up in front of 10,000 people and blow them away. And I got to see that growth.

And that bonded us, to see that. Now again, it depends on some people, they actually would kill each other and that would actually destroy their relationship. But for me and him, it brought us closer together. And he saw me from going from being a housewife, I would stay at home wife, to then stepping into my own, becoming a woman who feels very strongly, has a clear vision,

and will go after it with full force, and he's seen me evolve. And that has again, has brought us together. But it is having to have the hard conversations where like one of our principles that we have as a couple is if you think it, you are obligated to say it. So even if you think it's gonna hurt the other person's feelings,

you have to reciprocate when someone says that. So when someone for my husband, this is just like the one thing that comes to mind, I was wearing this one outfit one day and I had this shirt on it. It was all, it was new and I thought I look really good and I was saving it for him. We'll go on on the day and so I'm, I stand and he doesn't say anything. He doesn't make one compliment, not one, doesn't say anything. So I'm like okay well maybe he's got something on his mind. He's just not thinking about it so we go out on the day. We sit at the bar.

We order our first cocktail. he still doesn't say anything. So we have a rule in our relationship, don't test each other. So like if it's your birth, they just say what you want. Stop hinting and then hoping that they actually get it, because the chances are they're going to get it wrong. And so now you've set them up for disaster, not set them up for success. And so we always say set your partner up for success, because don't you want them to win?

Don't you actually want your partner to win? These are all, that's what I'm saying. This is all stuff that common sense sometimes isn't that common. Right. That's the truth though, right? Because everything you're saying, like I'm saying, yeah, of course like obviously, but people don't usually Execute on that on that obvious practical theory. Yeah, and you guys do. That's why I'm listening to this. I'm like, ma'am, that makes perfect sense. And we even do a sect of you, and it's like, okay, well why were you testing him? Why were you seeing if he figured out what birth they present you wanted? It's like, oh, I was testing because maybe I don't feel like I'm being paid enough attention. Okay, well, if you're not paying enough attention, what are you actually going to do about it?

Well, it's like, we kind of just, I said said why are you doing that? And then it just comes back down to them you want them to win. So in this date night I was like okay I want him to win. So I'm just going to ask him babe do you like the top? And he looks me up and down he's like me and I was like oh that's so hard and as a woman you want to like I wanted to feel attractive we handcon in a date night a month so this was my big thing I was like, oh, that's so hard. And as a woman, you want to, like, I wanted to feel attractive. We hadn't gone in a date night in months. So this was my big thing. I was going to knock his socks off and I didn't.

And so I went choir and he's like, why are you upset? And I was like, well, you didn't like the top. And he's like, but babe, I'm always going to be honest with you. Because he's like, when you're 80 years old and you're all winkly and I tell you look beautiful, you need to believe it. So I'm not going to bullshit you on times where you just want to hear it. It's true. And so I literally, it's exactly what I was like, God, he's got a point. So he said, okay, he's got a point, but I still don't feel good about the fact that now I'm,

I tried to knock his socks off and I didn't. So we came up with a strategy. He's like, okay, well, if I didn't like it, change it, right, change the behavior. So he said, okay, next time we go on a day, I'm just gonna ask you in advance, if you like the top before we leave the house. Then if he's honest, I can decide whether I want to change or not, because I don't always dress up for him.

I dress up for myself, but I like it as well. But at least I'm given that opportunity to change the top. So now we've made a deal that every time we go out, I'm just gonna ask him upfront. And then if he doesn't like it, I'm gonna then decide whether I change or not. And so we've come up with a conclusion or a solution

to that what may seem silly or trivial, actually in the long, in long time. If you don't have those discussions, now at least for me, I can only speak for myself, I would have probably felt unloved, unattractive, right? And then it becomes like a feeling of myself worth, like as I'm kind of, if I play this out and a lot of time, I start to understand

why then start to feel badly about myself. Well, hang on, backtrack is because you didn't actually feel connected to your husband, you tried to connect with him visually, he didn't reciprocate, and now I feel even more alone. And so I kind of, I think that's amazing though, this is a great information because I also think this couldn't apply to anything in life, right? Like yourself worth, your self confidence, how you read, how you deal with people, human interaction.

Like there's a lot of cross-pollination basically between personal and professional. But then I want to get back to, like you said, sacrifices. Sorry. No, no, no, no, that's good. That was all very good information. Like I said, it's like the stuff that's common sense isn't so common. So I love hearing it. But what would you say some sacrifices were to have this kind of grandiose success? Yeah, professionally. So it really was okay, what type of relationship do we want? Because if I want a husband that comes home at 6 p.m. and has dinner with me every day, then getting into your own

business is not the right solution, right? So it's, what are we, am I willing to sacrifice that? Am I willing to sacrifice the fact that I mean, we went, and it's the longest stint we ever went where we didn't have even one moment alone. We went six weeks as husband and wife. Now, we sleep in the same bed, but that was our pretty much our only time we ever saw each other. He was, and he comes in, he's got his headphones on,

and he's either researching or I'm researching, and he's brushing his teeth with his headphones on So literally we climb into bed We switched the light off and we're like to do have a good day. Yes, baby. Love you love you too And that is our interaction. We did that for six weeks and that's tough and it's going are you willing to sacrifice those types of times because when it comes to it When it comes to let's say moments of opportunities Because when it comes to it, when it comes to let's say moments of opportunities, right, well, what are you going to decide? And we go into things with full clarity.

So it's like right now we are deciding to put our relationship second. We are willing to sacrifice our relationship, but up to a point. And then that point came towards the six week mark, I said, no matter what opportunity comes to our table, unless it's like Obama, and we actually said this, like unless it's Obama, I think everybody as we said no to, so whatever opportunity came our way, because after six weeks, it now felt like it could be detrimental to our relationship in the long run.

So you put your relationship first? Exactly. So we sacrificed our relationship for six weeks. Right. And then we said, okay, this isn't good long term. So I'm going to now sacrifice the business. But knowing very well like with open eyes that we are possibly now hurting the company by saying no to these opportunities. Right. But you've got to be okay with that. Right. And then sacrificing, I mean, this wasn't, I guess it's a sacrifice, so not having children. So part of the decision making when I'm Greek,

so my entire life I thought I was gonna get married and have four kids, like that was my life. Until I, we got into quest and I realized, I love this. I love discovering who I am. And over time, I was like, I don't know if I want children. And so I spoke to Tom we both sat down and we said okay what does this look like and what sacrifices would we have to make and so if we were gonna have kids I told myself

but me personally I don't want someone else bringing up my children because I got that a lot right like oh well you guys have the money just but her and Annie I was like but that's actually not the life I particularly want. I understand exactly. So, if I do want to have kids, I have to make a sacrifice or I decided I will make a sacrifice for my business. And then I said, am I okay with that? And so I just weighed the sacrifices that I would make and I said, right now I love my life.

And then the next step, the last real thing for us, was our relationship, me and my husband's relationship. So I understand that nature makes sure that as a mother, you put your kids first. You'd have to, right? Back in the day, it's like when a lion's coming up, you've got to put your kids first. Husband comes second, maybe even third, depending on how many kids you have.

And that was a reality we spoke about. And I said, all right babe, are you willing to sacrifice? If we have kids, that you've gone from my number one to my number two to then potentially my number three, that would be a sacrifice we would have to make. And he said, no, I don't want to make that sacrifice. And I said, okay, well, that, you know, we have to be real with each other.

I didn't take offense to that. I want him to be honest with me. And exactly. I think a lot of to that. I want him to be honest with me. No, exactly. I think a lot of people overs, like, they don't talk about those things and they just kind of bypass that. Exactly. And I think it's really remiss because I have two kids. And it would be, there's, in the Jewish cult, in the Jewish, the one of rabbis say, you

always put your spouse first and your kids second in theory. Right. In theory. But as a mother of two kids, there's there's absolutely no way I would put anything before my kids. So by by by virtue of that, your relationship always will take a back seat. It's just what like you said, it's just what happens, it's human nature. Right. And people don't talk about those things. So that's why I'm saying you guys have done a phenomenal job in Cultivating a really strong relationship by open communication and talking these things out because what people do They they figure it out when it's too late. Why when they have kids

Why and like there's not in backwards right? There's no way backwards. Can't stuff those kids back in here You know what I mean? Or businesses where one person's doing their thing which happens and another person's doing their thing and then you grow apart. And then you're like, I wonder why my life feels incomplete. I wonder why I don't feel personally successful. Well because you didn't have the foresight to really look at those things. Yeah. And say, are you willing to be successful? Yeah. That's why I find this conversation to be so helpful in everything Because how you do one thing is how you do everything. Yes You know, and I believe that so much and then as you believe it you still make mistakes like that

You know or so that's why I love this. Okay, so please Yeah, so sacrifices. I mean yeah, every time we realize where we're, you know, a fork in the road or something, we just, okay, we sit down as a team and say, do we want to sacrifice and then do it individually. So we call it like the selfish desire game, which is like, don't even think about me. Yeah. Like, take me out of the equation. Think about yourself. What do you actually want? So when my husband, I was like, what do you actually, do you actually want kids to forget about what I want? Do you actually want them? And then I had to ask the same thing,

like forget about the fact that I told my husband when I got married that I was going to have kids. Like I have to put that aside for now because that brings guilt in, right? And then guilt would then make you do. Yeah, do a lot to think you're like, I think you're wanting to, right? So I had to set that aside as well.

And I had to set aside that my family, coming from a Greek family, they all wanted me to have kids. I had to set that aside, the family pressure. And I said, Lisa, what do you want? Like selfishly, no bullshit. What are you actually wanting like? And I was like, I freaking love what I do. Yeah.

And so that's when I was like, And I'm feeling guilty for it. And I know that a lot of mothers They make the sacrifice right where it's like you choose to do both and you've made the sacrifice hard and it's hard Yeah, and it's like you can't do everything exceptionally well at the same time right so one thing just has to suffer Right, so you'll never I guess I shouldn't say never but very rarely can you really can you ever get Self actualized or get to the press like the precipice of something because you have another obligation Why exactly yeah, and then I looked at what do I really want the father of my children to be like yeah

And so when I looked at Tom's life and what he wants out of life He said I'm never gonna be that person that's coming home at 6pm. So if you want a family, you know, kids where he's like, I'm not going to be that type of father, but I want to be present in their lives. So then we could say, okay, what does a Monday look like? What does a Saturday look like? Because if a Monday looks like he wakes up 4.30 in the morning, which he does, and he goes to work, and he comes back at 9pm and goes to bed, do I want to have kids with somebody who is like that? Now again, that's not a dig against him. But always being honest about who he is.

And I cannot ask for him to be anyone other than himself. So for me to say yes, you have to come home at 6. Now I'm asking for him to be someone that is not the man that I fell in love with, the man that I fell in love with, the man that I fell in love with was ambitious. So, kind of the same thing that drove me to be attracted to him is now something I'm looking to take away from him. That doesn't make sense to me. So, I really dissected all of that and then I said, okay, on a Saturday, let's say he takes the day off. He wants to be a good father. I want him to be a good father. So that means he'll be with the kids. Or where does that leave me? Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. I don't want to be his number two. Right. So that's when we go back to, okay, then that's how we came to the conclusion of having kids, right? Because it was like we just did this whole analysis over months and months and months

of being very raw and open and real with each other. And going back to what you're saying about that type of technique of communication, we using our business and that's exactly how we built quests and exactly how we built impact theory. It's like the no bullshit. Like what do you selfishly want to do? What's the no bullshit way of getting there? And then are we willing to sacrifice to do it?

Yeah, so many people should be thinking like this actually because this is like the core value core foundation. Vitamin water just dropped a new zero sugar flavor called with love. Get the taste of raspberry and dark chocolate for the all warm, all fuzzy, all self-care, zero self-doubt you. Grab a with love today. Vitamin water zero sugar, nourish out you. Grab a with love today. Vitamin water zero sugar. Nourish every you.

Vitamin water is a registered trademark of glass O. Do you think that you'll look back with the kids because you come from a Greek family, like I come from a Jewish family, very similar value system? Do you think that you're gonna regret that later on? I've thought very much about regret as well. Because the one thing I was gonna make sure of is that I've thought through everything to regret that later on? I thought very much about regret as well because the

one thing I was all going to make sure of is that I've thought through everything and I'm making a decision that's right for me now. So even if I do regret it, I can look back and say but I know why I made that decision. The worst thing is to look back, I should have made a different decision. Versus like no I made that with clarity. Now I can't predict the future so that's like I've got to kind of let go of that and at one point I said okay well maybe I'll freeze my eggs. Right. Because the truth is not to be morbid but the truth is to make it hit by a car tomorrow or in 10 years even which is even worse because less I really can't have kids in 10 years. So now my husband

no longer exists because he's been in an accident, he died. And now I've chosen to not have children and here I am with wealth but no family. How do I feel about that? I've thought about that very hard. So I was like, do I freeze my eggs? Do I freeze his berm? Do I have kids? I've thought all of this is serious.

No, yeah. But then in research and freezing your eggs, you have to do a whole new hormone therapy. And with my health right now, I've got to get my hormones on track, or like my estrogen is almost non-existent. So I'm like, hang on a minute. So I'm about to affect my body in a negative way for a future fear I may have. Right. Well, you have that additional thing to think about, like you said, your health. Exactly. Right. Well, you have that additional thing to think about, like you said, your health.

Exactly. Right. So, is it worth me risking my health now by doing the hormones for something that I'm just fearful of potentially maybe? Potentially maybe, exactly. And I was like, that doesn't make sense. And so I said, okay, if that happens, and God forbid something happens to my husband, I just know that I've thought through every scenario And I've gone, no, this is still the right move for you Lisa now and I want to build a life where I'm not alone Even if my husband isn't with me, right? And I have friends and I have family and I've built a community and people around me that mean something to me and that I mean something to them. And so that becomes my new focus.

But to have kids now, because I'm scared, I think there was a stat that's, oh God, I really wish I can remember, it was something like 96% of people that don't have children are happy, something like 98% of their life. But everyone in their last two years of their life wish that they did have kids. Really, only the last two years. It's something like that. So parents that had kids are very grateful they did in the last two to five years of their life. But the rest of their life they just want to like ring their kids next. Yeah, well it's true though. I mean I wonder what the stat would be on the amount of people

who have kids because they feel like that's what they should be doing. I bet you it's about 99.9%. Oh yeah. I mean I didn't even think about it until I'd go. Right until you actually thought about it. Yeah. Yeah until you had to think about it. Yeah but it was just ingrained in me and this is where like I love like the word perspective

right because the perspective of me or my belief system growing up it was just ingrained in me and this is where I love the word perspective. The perspective of me or my belief system growing up, it was handed to me in essence, by my parents, by the people that I'm surrounded by, I went to church every weekend. So everything that I'm surrounded by from birth up into my teenage years gave me the belief that I should be a wife and a mother. Yeah, absolutely. And so I think question it. And it wasn't like question it. That I was like, huh? I don't actually have to.

You know, like it was like it wasn't even a consideration. It didn't even dawn on you. Then you had that. Then you had that, like that you had the ability to actually make your own decision that way. So then what is exactly, I know you talk about it on social media, you have a digestive health issue. Yeah, it's about four years ago.

I was going to say it, but I know I don't know what I'm talking about. Yeah, no, no, no, no. The good or the bad news is I still don't really know exactly, but there's been predictions and assessments. So about four years ago, the quest was at its peak. We'd finally, so what people may not understand in business, is that even though you may, it may say your company's worth a billion dollars on paper, unless you're actually either celipin, or just saying that earlier. We were living in the set, which, quest of innards, billion dollar company, nothing changed

in our lives. We still lived in the same house which, Quisabin announced, billion dollar company, nothing changed in our lives. We still lived in the same house, I was, we were risking to lose. We were stuck in the company. Because we were taking any profits, we put every penny back into the company. So when you were in Inc. for a second most of the backstreet company.

Second boss of some company, yeah. You were kind of just still doing everything. So we literally, I can't remember the exact timeline. It was either just before or just after. We sold a very small portion of the company. Because we basically said, like anything something can happen tomorrow. You're a dust.

So, especially being a food company, it's like who knows what could come along. That's the thing. You guys like hit it. Out of the park. I mean, was a ton of Protein bars out there. 1500 protein balls on the market when we launched it. You see it and like yours just like

Exploded to like being everywhere. Yeah, what do you think it was not? I'm gonna get back to your health issue because I want to talk but but why do you think that was you think? I was like the stars were aligned? It was opportunity. What was it? Yeah. So there's one blanket statement that I'm going to make that I live my life by no matter what I do. So even like starting our studio,

up against Disney, there's always room for the best. And that's a great thing. That's a great line to be by. Room for the best. And it really was the best. Well, the nutritional breakdown was great. That's a great There's always room for the best and it was the best. Okay. Well, the nutritional breakdown was great.

I was a huge, I love them. And that was the thing. We basically looked at the commute, looked at what was out there and we said, because everyone's like, guys, what the hell are you doing? It was, you know, this was 2010. So it was people weren't spending money

on food back then, especially because you know, the crash. And so they're're like this is the worst economic time for you to guys to release a food product that isn't a necessity right right and what do you guys need what do you guys know about protein bars and marketing and all of this stuff right and there's 1500 other products on the market how on earth are you gonna go up against them and we Right. And there's 1,500 other products on the market. How on earth are you going to go up against them? And we just said, but there's nothing that's good. It's true. There are candy bars. There was either candy bars that happened to have protein.

What at that point you may as well get a Snickers bomb protein powder. And just put exactly and just put like a bunch of Deltos with protein powder. Yeah, yeah. Or dip it in the protein powder. Absolutely. Or there were ones that were good maybe on the macro level, but like were like cardboard. Yeah. You had to like have a bottle of water next to you. Right, you could drink that. You had to taste good. Exactly. Nothing tasted good and was good for you. Exactly. And that was the thing. And once we had done the prototype, we went to manufacturers and we were like, okay, like great, now you guys can make it, we figured it out and they looked at us like we're crazy and like guys the reason why this bar

doesn't exist is because you don't have sugar so you can't it's not malleable you can't put it through machinery and there's a reason why this so they're like yeah good luck and the narrative of the beginner we're like we're just making ourselves and that led to a whole like you know journey of like figuring out the machinery and you know we bought a piece of equipment there was a hundred thousand dollars and I was about to work it and you actually you actually made equipment or a bot or created equipment we bought equipment initially off a company that had just gone bankrupt and it was a chocolate making company.

So they had the slabs and the knife cutting, the automatic knife cutting machine. Right, instead of cutting it on your own. So we put, we're thinking great, the machinery comes in, my husband's business partner is really good with like, he's from Ohio, so he was really good with like, fixing things in machinery. So we kind of put it together and we're like, all right, it's it's up and running yeah we'll just put the product through and we'll make bars where you put the product through and it like jammed the machine oh wow dear god what are we gonna do yeah so then we figured out how to like um raise the rolling pin

so then we put it through and it stuck to it oh wow yeah yeah yeah it was just stick into the rolling thing so now it's just spinning to the rolling thing. So now it's just spinning on the rolling and I just thought, I know what you mean though, on the big, massive rolling thing. So we're just stuck to it instead of like when on the, so we're like, oh God, what do we do now? So it's like maybe wax paper. So I run to Ralph's, we get wax paper, we go bad, we're like trying to figure out how we jimmer with it to the machine. And okay, well now this word, but it's all falling apart. It's crumbling So literally it was like one after another and every step you're like well once we figure this out

We'll be fine. Yeah Again, the 90 to the beginner is it and if we had known how difficult it would have been would we have started? Right, I don't know obviously obviously, knowing the success, yes. But not knowing that. But not knowing that. And that's one thing just like for anyone that's listening to it, if they're going on that journey, there's never a guarantee that you're going to succeed. So are you loving what you're doing every day?

Right. And is it a part of your belief system, you know, so when you hit a brick wall, when you're like, you know, even when we're doing content, and we just, there aren't enough hours in the day, like if you really believe in what you do, you'll find a way. Yeah, that's true. But if you don't believe in it, and you're just doing it for the money,

then it's just like, the money's not a big enough drive and control. No, it's not. You need to be somewhat obsessed with what you're doing. Yeah, 100% right. I'm really putting that passion in like that, the energy it needs.

Yeah. So do you think that you guys became what you became because the product was so much better? Yeah. Truthfully better than any other product on the market. Right, sorry, yeah, going back to a question. Yeah, no, no, it's. So A, you have to be better than anyone, right?

B, and in fact, this is another phrase, another quote that I love that. I think it was Steve Martin that said it. B, so good they can't ignore you. Yeah, no, it's 100%. And so that's what we're like, was Steve Martin that said it be so good they can't ignore you Yeah, no it's 100% and so that's what we like okay our product has to be so good it cannot be ignored right and then also Baring in mind this was 2010 so people were not social media didn't I know it's a non-excited. Oh, so going back to was it like was it timing It was absolutely it was Social media had just started Facebook was just becoming a thing.

And Instagram wasn't around, there was nothing else, so it was Facebook. And so my husband, like at the time, a lot of stores were saying like, oh well, if you want us to carry you in the stores, these are the requirements. And you couldn't dictate the terms. You're going to leverage, you're your... You're a new product. No one knows who you are. And once we looked into what it meant to be on the shelves, it's like they dictate the terms, which means that if they put you at the back of the store

on the bottom shelf and they don't sell, they have every right to send the product back to you. And now you've got product you can't sell, because it's been sitting on rough shelves. So you're doing money and you're basically like, it's costing you. Exactly. So from you're doing money and you're basically like it's costing you. Exactly. So from the get going my husband was like no we're not doing it that way.

We want it, we need to do a product that people talking about it is either going to survive or die under people's opinions of our product. So on Facebook we literally just started a Facebook page again, no company was doing this. We started a Facebook page and we started no company was doing this. We started the Facebook page, and we started reaching out to all the real, high-level thought leaders in our space. The people that understand Macroes, right? They understand nutrition,

the real like geeks of the world. So we got into the community. So we got really into the high-level geeks of the world, and we gave them basically free product. And we sent, and we spent, we free product and we sent and we spent we said how much money are we willing to lose so we said I think I was like five thousand dollars I think at the time we said fine we're gonna give away five thousand dollars of free product to the most elite people that are gonna

understand what we're trying to do with this product and with that with two bars we put in a letter and we said thank you so much for trying our product if you love us, speak about us, if you hate us, speak about us, we only want the truth. And that was our letter. And people were like, now it's, wow, they don't expect anything. And so if people hated the taste, they said it. And if people loved the taste, they said it. And so people were actually looking at the nutrition, nutrition, wow, this nutrition profile is really amazing. Wow, it actually tastes good. So they were talking about it, who were listening.

It was the thought leaders in the trainers of the world. As I'm saying, all the trainers, a lot of leaders were the ones who were your biggest advocates. Right. Who are the best people? Because then they tell their clients, they tell them. It starts with the top, and it turns down to the mainstream. So that mentality of bringing value to people without any

expect and anything in return is exactly what we did at questions, exactly what we did at Impact Theory. For two and a half years, we have given away all our content. We've put every penny that we, not every penny we own, but we have put everything on the line again for the Impact Theory, we've put all our personal finances on the line and we haven't asked for a penny from anybody yet. You haven't raised any money, you know, it's all been from profit. So we've over the last year we've taken some sponsors. Right. It's an author podcast and YouTube. Yeah. YouTube

and through podcasts. So you have like I said, like that's a lot of content. Yeah. But again, bring value to people first Because our the next phase in our company is we make come we create comic books Which is empowering comic books we want to turn into television and movies that's the next-age and building I know that's what Thomas said the comic books. Yeah, so that's the next phase But everything is bring value to people so that they know you're not bullshitting Yeah, and so now it's like when we have comic books We have people that want to buy because they support the mission that we're on and the same with our product at quest

It was like we just we didn't ask for anything in return It's like man Just show people that you really do want to create impact and that you really do want to bring value to people's lives Right and they'll smell the bullshit. They know whether it's true or not. And so with a bar, if that's how it ended up being huge, it was opportunity at the time because no one was using Facebook, because my husband had the vision of this is a great tour that no one is using. It was the fact that we were one of the first companies that were very authentic, which back in the day people weren't doing that type of marketing. They were not. So, especially in that area right? Right exactly.

It was big companies that were like kind of archaic and dinosaurs. Yeah. You know, we're just kind of pretty mass producing these bars. Yeah. Like I remember the fact that the calories were 200 calories. There was fiber. There was no car count. Like. It had the profile was perfect for somebody. I remember this so well, and it just gained so much momentum. Fast. And so it's now the same with impact. So how many hours are you guys spending on impact now? Yeah, as a company.

It's a lot of content. Again, I'm keep on saying. It's like so much content. Yeah. So we have our all our content that we have on YouTube and podcasts, and then we have our comic book division that we have within the company. So we have three full-time artists in-house. We have writers on staff.

We have women of impact and that brand of just empowering women. Is that yours? Yes. How do you divide and conquer now? Yes. So, I'm glad you asked that. So, we deal with our business, like we do our relationship and vice versa.

So, what position do you hold in the relationship? What business do you hold in the company? Right. Because you cannot have two CEOs of a company, right? Absolutely. And the same we hold, that same thing with our family, our relationship. So there can't be two leads in the relationship.

And so we've just divided them conquered. So the household when it comes to the house, I'm the CEO. Okay. So my husband, even if he disagrees, I get final say. And we've just come up with an agreement. So with the business, it's like he's the CEO.

But we normally agree on most things. It seems like it. I mean, gosh, the success that you guys have had together is impressive I have to say. So he is the real high level visionary. So he's the one of like, we're building Disney, this is what the steps we're going to take to get there. We have to do the proof of concept of the story. So comic books is a cheap way of doing it. It's a beautiful art form. It's a way of expressing. It's a way of taking the comic book to then Sony Studios, for instance, and saying, this is what we're pitching. Or what we've actually done is we teamed up with Steve Aoki.

And our first comic book is teamed with him. And just in that strategy, we created so much buzz momentum because of his fame. We were like, you know, we had Hollywood Reporter covering us, TMZ, we had like all the like, the gossip mags, but also all the comic book magazines, like the Top in the Field were all recognizing us. So again, we didn't go out to them everyone came to us because we called cause enough noise

and that's what we did with Quest because we were doing so well online and everyone was asking they were like how do I get this in our store so we online had a letter that we could we'd said to people if you want in your stores download this letter and give it to the manager of the store so now the stores were coming to us saying they wanted to hold the product. And we did exactly the same with the comic book. We called so much buzz, we were printing it, we were selling it. And because of Steve Eurick, we created so much buzz that the main comic company distribution came to us.

Comic book stores came to us. And we're saying we want to hold your book. So once you create that buzz and now you basically you go by your turn. Right. So of course that often isn't. No, but how many have you thought? Have you thought a lot of these comics? So comic books, yes, we're doing very well. In the comic book world, it's, um, God, I'm going to say stats, but they're given it probably before. But basically, they stores a selling out, which doesn't often happen with comic books,

because it's somewhat a dying art. Yeah, it's a dying... So that's archy comics that I remember. Right, right. Or you know, I mean, or like Marvel, you know, Superman. Yeah, right. But I have a, I have a stupid question. And, what's the correlation between the comic book sector and

all the other content that you do? Right, sorry, yeah, going back to the question. Thank you. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Because so we have about 2014 members that work at our house on every day. Just 2014 members. So probably around 80% is on our content front. So that's doing impact theory, health theory, relationship theory, women of impact. Women of impact for me, so I went back to the question that you'd asked earlier, is it was my side hustle. So that's what Tomom and I do. We have a core that we've agreed on.

This is our business model. This is what we're going to do. This is how we structure our business and our company. And any passions that we have, it's, and that we want to bring into the core of the company, we have to prove its model. Because even, you know, it's like, we still treat it like, we ourselves like startups.

So I really felt like I was creating impact with women just by telling my story. I never wanted to be on camera. I never wanted to talk in interview and this wasn't my thing. I was like the neck that was holding the head up. So I was like the foundation of running the company. I was the boss. Yeah, the behind the scenes, the logistics, the staffing,

the crew, the all of that, until I just started telling my story. And so that's kind of stumbled into talking about my life. And then I realized that I was actually impacting women. So I was like, well, what if I did a podcast and then the podcast into into a show and a YouTube channel, but it was all a side hustle until I proved that it was doing well and I enjoyed it and it made sense with our core business model and that's when we brought it in as part of our core business now. But I still don't spend much of my time on it. Most of my time is probably 50% of it is running the business. So that's dealing with staff,

making sure everyone's happy, making of the impact theory as an umbrella. So you have the hook, could you're saying that you're dividing in conquering is the home. Right. And then this is the staff part of the home? So yes, so I'm sorry, I was kind of mixing those two up. So in the business side of things. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, hire? Okay, well, if we hire this person, what's the knock on effect? Where do they sit? What office are they in? Do we have the paperwork, registered operations?

So I'm like the COO in essence, but I hate being the COO. And I've realized that over the years. So that's another evolution I'm going through now. Is that literally last year, I turned to Tom and I'm like, I don't like being the COO anymore. I wanna be more creative.

I wanna be doing the women of impact. I wanna be creating comic books or graphic novels. Also. If you're an artist, like you were saying, it makes sense that you'd wanna be an outlet. Exactly. So, reassessing, okay, so what does that mean? It means I have probably have to hire a CEO now.

So, but most of my time, at least right now, is in operations. o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydol, o'r gydith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r gwaith yw'r because I think that one thing, one people struggle with, I know, I used to do it, oh, I can't go back on my word. I've said this now, so I have to spend the next five years miserable because I've said that I'm doing this. Right, and it's just like, why do we do that to ourselves? I don't know, but it's true, we all do that. Because we feel guilty. We do. We do.

I feel like everything always comes down to guilt. It's true. We do all these things because we feel bad not to. Yeah. That's really what it comes down to. And it's like how do we undo that to ourselves? We do not feel guilty because it's like 50% of the things that I do is because I feel bad if I don't do it.

It's a terrible way of doing fun, you know? And I think that and I used to do it all the time and I would just get it comes habit. So you don't even question it anymore. Exactly. And so I just make it a point that every month I say am I happy, am I going in the right direction. So last month I went on this kind of a mastermind thing. I got invited to this event and I was around really incredible people

that I really admire. And in fact I'm just going to name drop Rachel Hollis. So it's with Rachel Hollis and she turned around to me and I was really struggling with like I'm in the weeds, I'm just gonna name drop Rachel Hollis. So it's with Rachel Hollis and she turned around to me and I was really struggling Like I'm in the weeds. I'm doing this and I really want to be creative and she's just like does it part that does it pass your bus test I'm like what's the bus test? Yeah, and she's like if you got hit by a bus like would you like being glad that you just spent that last day doing What you're doing now? It's very different then if you only had one day to live what would you do? Yeah? I'll do it. Yeah, it's very different than that because if you only had one day I would literally shut down the company, I wouldn't answer my phone, I would lock myself in a bedroom with my husband and I would just hug him. Right, you know what I mean?

If you had one more day, but I couldn't do that on my, but every day. But you said that so she's the difference is if you are hit by a bus. Right, would your last day still have been worth it? With what you did. And it's like if it's what I love. if you are hit by a bus. Right. Would your last day still have been worth it? Yeah. With what you did. And it's like, if it's what I love. So even today, I've loved coming here and talking to you. So if I got hit by a bus right now.

You'd be happy? I'd be happy. That you spent a stranger? I did. Yeah, I spent a long a stranger. Exactly. Now we're no longer strangers. But I could legitimately say, yes, I did the right thing.

Now, it's not me locked in a room hugging my husband but it's still understanding that what I'm doing right now A it is a loving around other people that I like minded as me so being around you has got me in a great mood. I feel like we're actually doing something that can help other people so that hits the impact part of it. It's exploring a new thing, right? Like I came to your house, I have no idea where I am. So doing something that's out of my normal day today. So, and yeah, and so just breaking it down and going, what did I do today? And is that part of my enjoyment and my future, a big picture vision? Yes it is.

And so when she asked that of me about a month ago, I looked at my day today. I literally pulled up my calendar and I'm like, no, nothing this week passes the bus test. And we were in Puerto Rico at the time and on the wave. And I wanted these people, once I make my mind up, just freaking act on it. Like, just to procrastinating, I spent eight years of my life as a stay-at-home-wide procrastinating. And I'm just, I'm done with it. So, I'm complacent. Yeah, exactly. So I procrastinating and I'm just I'm done with it. So complacent, yeah exactly. So I'm like I'm just not gonna do it anymore and I told myself I've made a promise to myself I'm not gonna do it. So literally

but two days later I'm on a plane back. I pull up my calendar and I started making a list not doing this anymore not come into this meeting anymore not attending this anymore you're in charge of this now I'm not and I just started pushing things off my calendar and I was, I'm holding on to these things for what reason, and I realized a lot of it was ego. So for instance, every shoot we've ever done with impact theory, and we had before that it was called inside quest. So now I've done maybe 300 hour long shows of just our main show that isn't even including the other content we do I haven't missed one episode not one episode has ever been shot without me and not one episode has ever been released without me

Wow every show I review from and it takes me about three hours per show because I watch everything from what is being spoken to the video, to the way it's cut, to blink, I mean, I'm like a little obsessive with that. Oh wow. And I took pride in it. And when I was on the plane, I literally like that was like, I'm not doing this anymore. And I was like, because I'm holding onto it, because I've got some weird pride. Yeah. And it was purely ego. Yeah. I was like, I'm building myself a steam around having an ego that I haven't missed an episode but now it's actually holding you back so I just said I'm never come into another shoot anymore. I literally said that my producers can handle it. I trust them they're great. I'm never come

into a shoot anymore. I'm not doing any reviews and by the time I landed I completely cleared my schedule. In order to put things on it that pass the bus test. So it's still things that's pushing my company forward. It's still like big goals. It's still a lot of work. I've put back on my schedule. But it's all things that are going to move the company forward that pass my bus test that I know is going to make me happy on a big timeline. So I also, that's great. I mean, I think it's good when you have people out there

who can kind of point you, like kind of like ask you a question like that that puts like some kind of like clarity in what you need to do. And Rachel Hollis obviously with that. And I think that that's probably, and that's probably why I wanted to say her name, thinking about it,

I try and kind of assess why I do things. Yeah, I like it. And I think I, the reason being is I did a Maya has, I do it, I try and kind of assess why I do things. Yeah, I like it. And I think the reason being is I do admire her so much. And I read her books and I think she's fantastic. I think she's achieved great things. And she's creating impact. So when it's someone that you already have a vision of who they are, when they talk, I listen.

So when she spoke, I didn't just brush it off or I wasn't like doing in like five other things, I wasn't distracted like I miss and I'm like when she's giving you advice, like pay attention because that's another thing, like even people that listen to this podcast or other podcasts that you've done, like you may be given gold nuggets of advice, but it's up to the person, what they do with that. That's exactly it, I say that all the time but it's up to the person what they do with that. That's exactly it

I say that all the time is up to the person because you can know you someone can talk and talk and take great things But unless you implement it your entire life it goes nowhere You know, I don't even know if I told you this, but we're doing a journal So yeah, so Mikey was telling you so because people like you give such great information I want to be able to make people Implement it why versus just like listen at a very kind of like in the back at the back burner But because a lot of times I'm I'm a person like that like I listen to things and like I want to remember I want to like implement it but life happens and I forget So what I want to do is create a free PDF for people

where they can take these valuable things and then implement it and execute it into their life and kind of create, make it this podcast a little bit more unique than other podcasts because there's so many things like we're talking about there's so much clutter in everything. From a protein bar to any kind of thing. So how do you, how do how do you make yourself different?

How do you stand out? Be better than everybody else, right? And give some value added that people don't. So that's why I wanna tell people, that's exactly. I love that you're doing that. That's my biggest fear. But everything that we've just spoken about today gets heard and people are motivated

and for maybe the next hour to actually. They're like, yes, I can do it. Lisa and Jen said I can, so I'm going to. Now what happens when they hit the brick wall where they've just got the bad news that you've lost $5,000 in business or someone's just quit, that is a key person in your business and now you don't know how to, like what happens then? What happens then? That's exactly, I think motivation in general wings, it doesn't last. It's like, okay, yeah, yeah, like Tony Robbins is everything.

Where are I, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you come home, you're like, we're at, we're at, right. You need to have something to push you to the next place. So I saw something, I think you said in the notes that I thought was really interesting, that you on Sundays, I know I gotta wrap this up because it's been like forever,

it's been like five hours of talking to you. I'm going on and off for like five, they're all like, it's been over an hour, but I do recommend that I think is resonated. You sit on Sundays, you shut your phone off completely and don't take any calls. Now, number one, why? I could understand why, but what is it done for your life?

Yeah, and so my health has been really bad. I know, yeah, I know we're up and out, so I'll just leave it really quick. So about four years ago, dream come true, got the house of our dreams, literally the house of our dreams. I had always had the vision that I was going to do the, you know, in the back videos where the women are wearing bikinis and they're doing the talking by while pouring champagne over their bodies, that was my dream. I just want to do that by I'll waterfall for my husband. I was like, that sounds so fun to twerk with champagne. So I literally have a photo of

me and him drinking champagne by I'll waterfall. Within 10 intent of that photo taken, my stomach started cramping. Within 30 minutes, I literally couldn't stand up. And since then, I've been there, or for in fact, for the year after that, a whole year after that one moment, I could barely eat, which meant that my hair started falling out, my nails became brittle. I lost so much weight, my husband was, I was well malnourished. My husband was gonna take me to the emergency room because I put a tiny bit of pepper, just like black pepper on my food.

And it caused like that night. It caused me so much cramping. I could barely breathe. Oh my gosh. Now in hindsight, understand it and this has been a four year journey. So I've evolved and tried to figure out is when I was around 16,

I got a comment about like, oh, you're getting a bit fat. So I started reducing my food, I heard fat was bad for you, so I cut fat out. I had carbs were bad for you, I cut carbs out. So I was pretty much on just a protein diet. And I started getting sick, not understanding that my immune, 70% of your immune system is carried in your gut. So I started getting sick. Doctors would give me antibiotics, I would take them, I would recover, I would get sick again, I would take antibiotics, I had about 10 years of antibiotic abuse where I was probably taking it four to five times in the year. I wasn't eating anything pretty much except protein like I was

scared of all foods and so I wasn't replenishing the bacteria in my gut So over time my stomach started getting worse and worse now we've gone vacation I'll be like wow this food really helps that my stomach. I don't know what's going on So it was just an accumulation down to this one day have champagne It felt like literally my gut ruptured. That's like the best way I can explain it and Then I went on a whole journey of, I lost so much weight, I could barely stand, I was still working four time a quest, I didn't tell anybody, I was embarrassed, here I am, I've got one of the largest nutrition companies in the world and I was sick, so I didn't tell

anyone, so that's a whole lot there, that'll be on our next, our next, this is a whole lot of podcasts. I was trying to rush through it. In this podcast, we have nine episodes. I was in the past theory. We have a lot of help, but a relationship. We have enough time for your stuff. I'm trying to rush through it. No, no, I'm just kidding.

I literally have been on that journey for so long now. That was actually how health theory came about because my husband was getting up every morning for four hours researching about how we fix my gut. So in high, so it was so many things it was leaky gut, I had SIBO, I had parasite, I have thyroid issues, hormone issues, I haven't had a period in six years. So it's like everything. Oh my God, an hour already. And so now I can eat, which is good, but I am still very limited on the foods I can

eat. I have a chef that comes in and cooks home cooked food. It's quite difficult for me to still eat out because of hidden oils, that's a big trigger for me. So there's still a lot of foods that I cannot eat. It's not kaleidos though. No, it's not kaleidos. No, no, I was tested for that, so it wasn't that. And so it's just been an evolution of going to one doctor. I thought that going to like the best doctors, you know, throw money at it and it's not, you go to the best gastroenterologist, all they want to look at is one aspect, they don't want to look at your hormones or your thyroid. So eventually, so recently I found a doctor that looks at everything and that's, I end up taking ownership of it and that's another

thing I talk a lot about, is that people like, how could the doctors have given you antibiotics? And I'm like, it's my fault. It is my fault. Doctors may have prescribed them for me but I took them, they didn't force it down me. And second of all when people say taking too many antibiotics is a good for you. Did I ever research it? Did I ever look up why? So I take full ownership of how I got here and I find that extremely empowering. And so in taking ownership I'm going to all these doctors and still not finding the thing, I was like, well, I'm just going to own it myself. So we created a show.

It was a total Trojan horse, so we could get experts in and ask some questions we want. That's so smart. That's the health of them. And that's health theory. Health theory. Yeah. It's fine. It's throwing more to you.

But that's that. So we created a show because my husband was reading all these books. I was listening to all these podcasts and we're like well, we need to ask some questions to do the help So it's it's helped so I'm I'm so in we're getting these guests on one gets to say about fireworks And I'm like, hi, you know what? No doctors ever checked my thyroid So I went off and I just got my own test on and then another people are talking about lectins like what a lectins It's like wow, huh? It's funny every wow, huh, that's funny.

Every time I eat peppers, I actually get stomach upset. And so as we're getting these people on, they're saying things. I'm not taking ownership, looking for things and researching and researching and doing it. So that's interesting. I want to do a whole other thing on this. Now you're talking my language. Yeah, I know. I mean, OK, so then the Sunday. Oh, Sunday, it's a good. I told you I had to bring you now you're talking my language. Yeah, I know. I mean, okay, so then the Sunday.

Oh, Sunday, it's okay. I told you I had to bring you back, girl. I am. I'm so sorry. You've got a good memory. I do. And this is one of my problems is my memory loss. Really?

Yeah, I have a very bad short-term memory and sometimes I forget what I'm saying. And that's not good when you're running a show. But I've just had to own it and admit it. So this is part of the health thing I'm struggling with. And so in Sundays, I, I was that person that honestly I thought meditation was woo-woo. I thought, you know, relaxing was woo-woo, acupuncture like all of that's BS. People just trying to con you and now I'm the biggest advocate. Because once a doctor about a year ago,

that's when my health started to change, where they're like, what do you do when you eat? I was like, what do you mean? What do I do? I'm like, well, I eat this and I eat this. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. What do you do when you eat? And a doctor was asking, I was like, why are you care?

What do you do? And they're like, because of stress. I'm like, oh, that's just BS, stress, and you know, digestion, your health. And it's like, no, no, it's a real thing. He's like, give it a shot. I feel like, all right, well, look, stress and you know, digest in your health. And it's like, no, no, it's a real thing. He's like, give it a shot. Feel like, all right, we'll look. Everything I've tried up to this point, I feel,

you know, it hasn't helped. So I may as well give it a shot. So they're like, when you eat, go in a space where no one's around you, take a deep breath. And so we started, like, practicing all these things and I've noticing it helped. And so, Sunday, I'm on all the time. When you've got 24 employees that come to you

has every single day. From 7 a.m. is when we unlock the doors. We go to bed at 9 p.m. We should throw people out at 8.45. So my house is full all the time. We should out of the house. All the content's done from my house. And so I was like, I need to create space.

I need to like actively create space for myself. And that means so I decided I'm going to switch my phone off on Sundays and everyone initially, I'm my family, what if something happens? I'm not like, and I'm just like, you're going to have to deal with it. If something happens and something happens, are you in England? There's nowhere I can get too far than after. And then B, I hate to put it on my poor husband, but I was like cool him yeah literally what I've done and I'm like I just have to switch off has it helped it has really helped yeah tremendously that's a good one to try just to

kind of shut down from life for a while and recharge that way yeah I think that's a great one we're gonna have to wrap this up because there's no I know I feel I feel terrible because I have I can go on and on it's been like I don't even know how long Has it's been like seriously five hours? Okay, okay, so sorry Fuck the back. You have to go value to your It's just address that why the women always apologize for everything that's I mean you're sitting there apologizing to each other. Why are we apologize to each other? I'm sorry

I'm like no, I'm sorry. you're right. I don't know why. It's another one of those things. I don't know why we feel guilt and we feel that we have to apologize. This is a whole, again, this is a whole other podcast because I don't understand it. And yet, we're both doing it. So we're both like, we're both like evolved women

who like are aware that we do it. We're still are doing it. Right, which is why I try to call myself on it now. And I do do it. You should call yourself on. I think that we're aware we are of the fact that we do it. I. We're still are doing it. Right, which is why I tried to call myself on it now. Yeah, I do. You should call yourself on. I think that the more aware we are of the fact that we do it, I think the more we'll stop doing it. That's what you have to admit and exactly you start you stop the behavior when you recognize it. Oh God, this has been amazing. Can you come back? Of course. I love it. It's so much fun. No, me too. I can't tell everyone Lisa, where to find you.

Yes, please guys. Follow me at Lisa Bilu, I'm on Instagram and the Bilu is about BILY EU. And then to follow a women of impact, we've got women of impact on YouTube, and then impact theory, which is our main show, you can do impact theory or Tom Bilu. And congratulations on one million subscribers. Thank you.

Thank you. Not too shabby, my dear. Not too shabby. We celebrate for a day and then the next day it's like now for the two of you. Exactly. Back to work. Exactly. Where's that two million?

It's like, you aren't yet one million. That's just one million. Please! That's pathetic. Exactly. Thank you so much for coming on. It's so heavy on me. And, well, we'll see you guys later.

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