Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Allison Ellsworth Sold Poppi for $2 Billion. Here's What Happened Next.

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Allison Ellsworth built Poppi from a homemade prebiotic soda to a $2 billion brand acquired by Pepsi… but you already know that. Today, Allison talks about what happens afterward, and how to follow-up a successful first act. Allison opens up about the unexpected grief of letting go of a company that was her identity, and the pressure of building a new company after a successful exit. She also digs into advice for anyone who has a different money mindset than their spouse, and how to find common ground.  Plus, Allison shares how she’s talking to her three young kids about money and work— and why her kids waving her off with "Have fun, Mom" is her greatest parenting win. Check out Nicole's financial literacy course The Money School Find a Financial Advisor or Financial Coach from Nicole's company Private Wealth Collective Watch video clips from the pod on Money Rehab's Instagram and Nicole Lapin's Instagram Keep up with Allison on Instagram and TikTok Here's what Nicole covers with Allison:  00:00 Are You Ready for Some Money Rehab?  01:10 When the Wire Hit 03:20 What People Get Wrong About "Billionaire" Headlines  04:15 The $50K Investment That Went Bankrupt Overnight  05:50 What Skills Transfer From Running a Company to Managing Wealth (And What Don't) 07:30 Running Your Personal Finances Like a Business  09:00 The Grief Nobody Warns Founders About  11:05 Separating Your Identity From Your Company  13:00 Founder-Led Content and What's Coming Next in Brand Building  15:20 Building the Second Company Differently  17:40 Self-Funding vs. Taking on Investors  19:30 The Emotional Payoff of Returning Money to Early Investors  21:45 Making 44 People Millionaires  22:00 Lessons From Being a Shark on Shark Tank 23:30 Female Founders, Mom Guilt, and "Spreadsheets in the Bedsheets"  26:40 Opposite Money Mindsets in a Marriage  31:30 Why Allison Has No “Fear Gene” 33:30 Raising Kids With Money Values 36:55 How to Talk to Your Kids About Work Without Losing Them  39:00 Buying Back Time 41:00 Secure the Bag 45:25 Allison Ellsworth's Tip You Can Take Straight to the Bank

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Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Bitcoin services provided by Block Inc. brand. For additional information, see the Bitcoin Disclosures at cash. Dot app slash legal slash podcast. This little kindergartner ran up to me. hugged my leg. She's like, hi, Mommy, Poppy, are you a billionaire? Alison Ellsworth founded Poppy, grew a cult following around the brand, and then sold it to Pepsi for about $2 billion. But you know all that. Today, she talks about parts of this

story that you don't know. She really opens up about the emotional side of ending a chapter of your career. Hey, there's also a lot of loss that I think a lot of founders don't talk about. Advice for partners who have polar opposite money mindsets. He won't buy things if I buy things. because he feels like he has to hold back because I'm spending. Well, then that creates resentment. And how to talk to your kids not just about money, but about work. And at the end of the day, when we leave to go somewhere, they're not screaming, crying as we're walking out. I know I'm doing good because my kids will say, hey, mom, where are you going today?

I'm like New York. They're like, when are you coming back? I'll be like Friday. And they're like, have fun. Like, they're okay. I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. Alison Ellsworth, welcome to money rehab. Thanks for having me. So excited to talk. You have been so open and honest and really helped a lot of entrepreneurs about your origin story,

which I love so much. But I would love to dig into what happened after you sold the company. Can you remember when the wire hit? Oh, man, we're hitting hard right from the beginning. I'm obsessed. You know, it's funny what a lot of people don't know is obviously me and my husband. We were co-founders. And so half of equity of ours was in my name and half was in his name.

And I'll never forget hitting refresh about every five minutes, then 20 minutes, just waiting all day for the bank account to change the number. And we're like calling our financial advisor. And then finally mine hit first. And it was so funny that I got mine first. And then his didn't hit for like two more hours later because it was just paying out people and it didn't know when the wire was going to come. And it was weird because it hit.

And then I got back to work. I was on Zooms. It was a crazy day. We were having to go full integration into the Pepsi system. And it's such a weird feeling to be like, okay, well, now what? So it was like anticlimactic. It was very. And not that I am not so blessed and that it didn't change my life.

But I think what was really important was we still had a job to do when it came to like getting Poppy integrated. and making sure the employees were good. But I remember me and my husband, we wanted to make a moment of it. And he was like, clear your calendar. Let's go to lunch. And I was like, I can't. I said clear your afternoon.

Let's go to yoga. He was like, I can't. And we ended up getting into a big fight. Like, why aren't we celebrating this? Why aren't we taking this moment? And the next morning, we both woke up and were like, that was the dumbest thing to get in a fight for. And we ended up finally clearing our schedule.

We got some breakfast and went to a yoga class. A lot of people probably saw the headline in the association. and they assume you have $2 billion in your bank account. I have a lot of friends who have gone through other exits and through different raises, they'll have a smaller and smaller percentage of ownership. So while that headline number is really big, they just assume that you have that in your bank account. Yeah, everyone thinks we're like these mega-mega-billionaires. And it's so funny. One of my favorite things, because you just said it was so public and it was. And I remember the next week I went to my kid's school and it's kindergarten through fifth grade. And I'm pretty well known within the school as Mommy

Poppy and this little kindergartner ran up to me. She hugged my leg. She's like, hi, Mommy Poppy. Are you a billionaire? Oh my God. Stop. A kindergartner. So it's so interesting because it is so public within it and like having those conversations with my kids. It's a lot to navigate. And then there's a lot of joy. There's also a lot of loss that I think a lot of founders don't talk about. You exit. You're working towards something for nine years of your life. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, I, I, I need. need to take a step back. We sold the company. You don't sell the company. Or you don't like sell your house and tell them where to put the couch or how to paint the walls and you're here just to kind of give advice. And it's been an interesting transition. Once you get the money, you have to like go to work.

Put the money to work. And how did you put it to work? Nobody's just good at investing overnight. And I would say we even made some really bad investments towards the beginning that kind of like scared us a little to kind of like maybe that's not quite for us right now. Like what? Like a private investment? One of our first investments, it was just like a fun one. It was $50,000 into a grocery store chain called Foxtrot. They were out of Chicago. And I remember just being really excited. They were growing, you know, you see like the airwans of the world.

And you're like, oh, it could be the next air wand. No, it went bankrupt and we lost our money overnight. And it was like a really good lesson of, I think it was within six months of investing in them, of just like $50,000 gone overnight to be like, okay, there's a few things we want to look at here. The founders, right? I think that's really important. How much is this founder willing to take advice? Because most people don't start companies and they want to be told what to do. I was even that way. Like I didn't really want anyone to tell me what to do. My ego was really big. And so I look at the founder, like, are they willing to like take my help at the end of the day? A lot of people don't want it.

But I can, I know I can give some good advice. And then is it a good product that's kind of more proven? Is it, you know, something that people want or need. And then I think at the end of the day, is it mass? Is it niche or is it mass? And it's so funny because within that investment, it hit all those buckets, but it still went bankrupt. So it kind of like scared us a little bit and knowing that, you know, not all investments, good investment. You bring up so many interesting points that I don't think enough founders talk about. And the first one is that the skills of running any kind of P&L, even a huge PNL or having a huge exit, don't actually translate into personal finance or investing. Did you find that there was like a learning curve and how much are you into the investments now?

The beauty is my husband, he used to work at like Wells Fargo Financial. He like understands that world. But the problem for me is I'm not that interested in it until I was. And so I would say for the first eight months, he was setting up the family office and getting all of the planning and like where we were doing it. And I was like kind of not paying attention because I was like, ugh, that's so boring. And then one day he was out of town. I was trying to pay a bill. and I didn't even know how to log into our credit cards.

And I called my financial advisor. And I was like, I think that we need to start having one-on-one weeklys just mean you. And I need to learn this stuff. Without your husband. Without my husband, just because I need to know what's going on with our money. I was kind of just like, really nilly trusting. And I trust my husband. I absolutely could have not been involved.

But I was like, I actually feel like I need to know these things. So it kind of took me some time to get into it. And once I started learning about it, it was really fun. And we now have weekly meetings, all three of us. I want to live well below my means. So I don't have to think about it, right? I think that's like the nice comfort that we wanted to be. And we just didn't know.

So it's been a lot of meetings up until this point now. I feel like we're in a really good groove. And it's kind of moved to quarterly. But I think you do kind of have to act like you're a business more so than just, you know, trusting that it's doing what it should be. And so I love it. Well, you mentioned being under budget. guys have a budget? We do. We put together a one year plan, a two year plan, three year, five,

year, 10 year plan. And our financial advisor is amazing. You can model all of these out where you're living below your means, where you want, and then if you're spending way over. And you just look at it. And it's once again, like a budget within a business. And you look at these things and you're just readjusting. And so within it, we're just making sure that we're staying positive with, I still have income coming in on my end as well and not just living people just love to get rich and like spend all their money and I just think that that's actually crazy well I think anyone at any level has anxiety around money and the antidote for that is transparency just seeing your numbers whatever they are because we make up so many stories in our head about what could happen or what they could be you need purpose you need

values you need friends you need family you need life that is rich and full Right. And I think that without purpose, it can create a lot of chaos. And so for me, I'm absolutely going to continue to work. We're already working on our next project. And you'll have to tune in to find out soon. I can't wait to hear more. I'll always say that money without meaning is just paper. And I think that really rings true. Like you can have all the money in the world, but if you don't have meaning or purpose, what is it for? Something else that you brought up that I wanted to dig into that not a lot of founders talk about. We had the founder of Equinox on who talked about the depression she went into

and she sold her company. And so people didn't, she said, feel bad for her because they're like, you just had this insane outcome and you're depressed. Did you go through any of that? Yeah, and I think it's really common. At the end of the day, we're all human beings. And with any goal that you're working on for so long for then there to be changed, I mean, just think of like Olympic athletes.

They're going to the Olympics. they're four years over, they know they're never going to go out. It's anybody working towards a goal, right? And the change. Now, it's okay to be depressed and it's okay to have that moment of sadness and change, but it's what you need to do to work through it. And so for me, I've always been very proactive and understanding that this is the moment in life that I feel this way right now, but like, what am I going to do about it? Because I don't like that feeling. And so I got an incredible business coach that focused on the future. And she worked with me and my husband, because we were both going through change and then what does our relationship look like post exit, right? Because we were

working towards one goal and it was to sell poppy to create this generational brand to revolutionize it for the next generation. Now what are our goals? We've been on one goal. Now he has goals and I have goals. How do we work through those and have that common purpose? I absolutely cried. I absolutely got mad. I was sad. And I think those feelings are all completely normal. And it took me about I would say almost six or seven months to really kind of feel like myself again. And I think the biggest thing was creating separation from Poppy that I intentionally did. So I miss the team immensely. I think that's been the hardest piece of the loss is like the collaboration and the team of it rather than just Poppy. It's the people. And so I had to intentionally pull back because I would find myself going

in these moments. I'd go into a brainstormer. I'd see them. And it'd bring up so many emotions. And so I think it's just like how you handle it. Now I can be around them and I'm like cheering them on and I'm just so proud. But I had to do the work to get to that moment. Or how do you think about identity with your company? A lot of people talk about it like a baby or like a relationship. Did you have to separate your identity from Poppy too? Like if you look at your life as portfolio, how much of that is allocated to Poppy? Well, it was so different on my end because of such the face of Poppy and I feel like the culture piece and just everything about it. But I do know at the time that we sold it, the brand was standing on its own and it wasn't so heavily dependent on me to be successful.

And I absolutely still advise. I was in the office two weeks ago creating content. I'm still here cheering them on or helping work through the team and talking to people. And so I think I had to do that like separation to get my identity separated from it, but I'm still always going to be known as the founder of Poppy. And I think celebrating that is really amazing while allowing it to be on its own and living on its own. And I think that's more of like a me thing rather than like a Poppy thing. Poppy is going to be just fine without me.

It's the me being like, oh my God, is Poppy going to be okay without me? It's such an emotional roller coaster. So I think that I need to look at it through kindness and joy versus sadness and loss. And like that's a huge shift that I feel like I've kind of gotten to in the last like three or four months. I've heard you talk about it. And it's really important too that like it's okay to work that you don't have to have that balance necessarily. Or if you want it, great. Or if you want to be working because you love it, great.

So do you think it's necessarily bad to have your company wrapped up? in your identity if you love that? I don't. I think that if you are not doing that nowadays, you're going to fall behind your competitor because let me guess. Let me tell you they're doing it. So to be founder led, to be digital first, to be online, talking about your brand and about you and connecting on an authentic real human level, it's like crazy not to do that. But I will say everybody's doing it now. The smart ones are doing it now. So you have to do that and. And. And. other things. What's the next thing that's going to be big? You know, we're all about lo-fi,

founder-led, authentic. Everyone talks about the word authentic constantly, real content. I feel like it to be a drinking game. It's so annoying, you guys. Like, that's just part of the job now. So what's next? I actually think that there's going to be a really big shift. If someone can figure out long-form content on YouTube as a brand, it'll be breakout. Like, how do you create like a reality show within the office. How do you think differently on more highly produced content? We moved away from it, but I feel like people are like bored with like, oh yeah, another founder in the office, skipping through Whole Foods. Like back then I was like one of the only people doing it. Now everyone does it. So you have to do it and I'm excited to see what brand figures out. What's next?

Totally because the next poppy is not going to copy the playbook of how Poppy was created. And culture moves so quick. So if you're trying to do what someone did five years ago, like you're going to get left behind. You're working on something new. I know you think about Poppy as like your first baby. You have three actual babies. I have one baby. I can't even think that I could love another human baby as much as I love my current baby.

Do you think you could love your next business baby as much? It's really hard to even think about it because, you know, I have three boys at home, four, seven, and nine. And then I always wanted a girl. And I was like, well, I'd never got one. Poppy was like my girl. She was my fourth child. And now I just look at it as, okay, she's off at college. I'm here to help, but she's thriving. And then someday she's going to like have her own family and be in like every country and just thriving everywhere. Right. So I think I can because

one, I do have multiple kids and you can split your heart and love them fully and equally. But what I do know this time is just how much easier in certain ways it'll be, but so much harder in other ways because when I first started Poppy, I didn't know anything about the beverage industry. Now I know a lot. And so am I going to be as willing to take those risks and do those things? That's the thing that scares me the most. But I'm not worried about loving it. I think one big thing that I'm going to do is bring in such an incredible team earlier. When we first started Poppy, it was like, I did everything. My husband did everything. You do 38 jobs. You're trying to survive. It's that work-life balance. now I actually feel like I will still work as hard, but I don't have to because I know there's

smarter people out there that can probably do a better job than me killing myself. And so it's funny, this time we actually started, like the first thing we did before we had a name or really anything was an org chart. We really looked at like how do we professionalize this business and bring in baller people to surround us to allow us to maybe not have to be so exhausted all the time? And that's okay. Do you think that's what goes along with anyone's second act, maybe operationalize more to delegate more? I mean, as we think about your second act, and I can't wait to hear more about it,

what should people think about in that transition period before between the first and the second act? I think something that second time founders fall into is they grow too quick, right? We can get easier meetings with the retailers, the manufacturers, the ingredients, the ingredients, suppliers. The problem is if you grow too quick, you're not truly building a grassroots brand. And you don't want to go so far and wide that you're just kind of everywhere. No one really knows the why they're eating, consuming your product, right? So that's something that we're very hyper-focused with that I think sometimes second-time founders just go everywhere really quick. And everyone's like, whoa, where is this showed up? It's everywhere. So I think also there's a huge

problem with like celebrity backed and influencer backed brands right now that it works really good at the beginning but then they don't know how to run a business they don't know how to professionalize a business and so what I love what I can bring is I've kind of created my own brand for myself but I've ran a business before and so if we can combine the two I think it'll be great also the pressure for like exit is not as like intense right so we can have a little bit more fun I absolutely would be remiss to say I would not start another company not exit. That's crazy to think that you wouldn't do that. I absolutely would. But it takes a little bit of the pressure off to allow us to do it right, build the brand correct, and kind of do it again. You don't have to bring on investors,

but would you bring on investors? Yes, I think that's a great question. So absolutely we're going to sell fun probably for the first year. And that's really because we want to protect our equity through it. You want to have like a proven concept. We have so many people willing to get. give us money, but we want to be smart about the right time. But I do think you should take on investment. It just de-risks any kind of, you know, possibility of something going wrong that it's not all your money. But on top of it, it brings in other smart people to sit at the table with you, with other resources that we might not have. So I think versus just taking on like friends and family money, which is what we did before, we might not have to do that. I think I would bring in like

other creators or influencers or people that can really help load up. culturally and that can actually make impact and they want to help versus, you know, I love my sister and my dad. They're our first investors at Poppy, but I'll let them invest through our family fund. But, you know, you don't need that $20,000 check anymore. And so I think it's kind of fun. We can kind of control that narrative and kind of just like have fun and do it our way this time, even though last time it was amazing, but you know what I mean. And you brought on a lot of those influencers who helped you get the word out, but you brought on your, sister and your dad and that money that you gave back to them, which I don't think we talk about as

much, when you are able to give meaningful money back to early investors. What was that like? I mean. Because some of them didn't need it, of course. They got a return and that's so lovely and incredible and a great investment for them. But for some people, that return is life changing. It was life changing. We talked about my sister, who was our first investor. She was able to, they're still doing a few things. She has like a side. hustle. She's always been, my family's very entrepreneurial. My dad's an entrepreneur. My sister is, but she was able to quit like her day job of like 14 years by her dream home with her family in the town. So now she can like work on her side hustle full time too. And it is wildly becoming success when

it's so fun to see that we gave that opportunity to do that. And on top of it, what I also think is really important is we gave everybody equity at poppy. And we changed people's lives. I think we made over 44 people millionaires, which is so cool. I'll never forget the day when people were calling us crying that they bought houses, paid off their student loans, cars, you know, bought their mom a car. Like, real change, I think, is really cool within it. And so I do remember the night we kind of got the sheet of the return on some of those early investors. I mean, see you're like calling them and telling them how much and we're crying. It is very emotional. And it's pretty cool to kind of see that happen. That is more than pretty cool.

Can you tell us anything more about what the next act is? Is it going to be in the food and beverage space? It's 100% going to be in CPG. It's what we know. Not ready to talk about it yet because we're still working through some stuff within how and when we're going to launch it. So it'll definitely not be this year. I remember watching it. I don't know if you've seen it. Elizabeth Gilbert's. I think it's her second TED Talk where she talked about the pressure after Eat, Pray, Love came out. and what it was like and how scary it was to follow up such a big success. Do you feel any of that kind of pressure for your second company? I do. And it's almost, it's scary. And I think me and my husband look at each other almost daily.

I'm like, are we really doing this again? And you're doing it together. We're doing it together. Yeah. We constantly look at each other. Are we doing this again? We're doing this again. Are we doing this again?

We're doing this again. And it's like a daily thing of like, oh my gosh. But things are really falling into place with it. and it's really fun to kind of just see how much confidence everyone has in us. So why not do it? And I do think, yeah, there's a lot of pressure, but I also believe in myself. Like I've always been a pretty confident woman. And when I set myself towards a goal, I'm going to do everything to get there and succeed.

And I'm investing in myself and I believe in myself. And it's funny because I was a shark on shark tank this season. And I started investing in other founders. and I give a lot of my time to mentor other female founders and give back. And it's so funny because throughout all those processes, I just keep telling myself, like, I just want to do this again. Like, I love helping and mentoring, but like, I miss operating. And so I think it's been a lot of affirming just thoughts and emotions throughout of it that I feel good about it.

So when you guys look at each other, answers, yes, it's a go. And together, I would never do it without my husband. We're so different. I think with any co-founder, you need to find. someone that is opposite of you that you can respect your lane. So he ran our innovation, supply chain, and I did like our creative and brand at Poppy. And so we do things very differently. And I just so respect what he does because I can't do that. And he respects what I do and he can't do that. And so when he gets in my lane and tries to pitch some fun like marketing

campaign, I'm like, honey, that's cute. Same thing. Well, can we make this? He's like, honey, don't worry about it. Of course, you have always been the face of the brand, but I had Em agreed on the show last week and I asked her if she gets different questions than her husband about the business. Like, do you hear questions that you like, don't like? I don't know, you tell me about balance and being a female founder versus the questions that he gets asked in a business capacity. You know, I think everyone gets annoyed of the, do you have mom guilt?

You know, they don't get that. But it doesn't bother me necessarily so much because I think that I have set such an incredible example for other females to be in my shoes. And sometimes you need to say those relatable things for them to be seen. So like, we do all have mom guilt when we're working and that's okay. But it's also okay just to work and live in chaos and travel and work just as much as me. men both can coexist together. And so yes, absolutely I wish people would stop asking women those questions. But I also feel like there's so many times I've gotten DMs from mom saying I didn't think I could do it. I couldn't have kids in a business. And I listened to you talking about that. And now I've

started XYZ. So I think there's a little bit of a balance on on those questions. And it's always easier if it's coming from a female versus like a man on stage asking those questions. I also feel that feels a little bit icky. So I think it just matters within the moment. But, you know, work life balance, I don't think, I think it's like once again a buzzword, like the authentic and the real. I think if you're doing anything that you love and you're working eight hours a week and you're doing spreadsheets in the bed sheets after the kids go to bed.

Spread sheets in the bed sheets. I mean, come on. Who doesn't put their kids to bed and work until you work. You put a reality show on. you pour a glass of wine. Like, baby, get in my sheets. Get in my Excel sheets. It's so true, right? Like, everyone's working in bed after the kids go to bed. And I think that it's like okay to do that. And it's like chaos is fun. And it's, you can do it or you can't. But if I'm here to tell you, if you want to be successful, you do have to do that. I had a founder the other day say to me, I closed my computer at five o'clock and I sauna and I call plunge. And I'm just really,

protecting my mental state right now. I was like, oh my gosh, when was your exit? And he was like, oh, I haven't had one yet. And I was like, yeah, no shit. Like, obviously you haven't. Tell me you haven't had an exit without telling me you haven't had an exit. Literally. I was like, uh-huh. Yeah. Scary. And it's just like, I love it. But I think it goes back to if you're doing that. It's called passionate. If it's stressing you out, it's called stress. And you got to find your own journey within that. So no one's asked even if he has dad guilt. No, I don't, I don't think so. But I will say he would say yes. He feels way more guilty being away from the kids than I do. And it has nothing to do with me versus him. But it's more so I was the face of the company for the longest time.

For the last five years, he's been working full time and actually at home more with the kids. And so he's really taken on this like protector role with them. And so he has a little bit harder time leaving them than I do. Not that I don't love my kids the same as him. But I do think this, it's an interesting balance that he's trying to work through. So he, I think, has more dad guilt than I have mom guilt. Yeah. You've also talked about how you and Stephen have different approaches to money. Of course, we're money rehab.

So you've said that he leans more frugal and you like to spend and enjoy money. Do you compromise or how do you compromise or what's the conversation when you guys disagree on something? You know, honestly, I really feel like I made this money to at least have. of it's mine, but we're married, so all of it's mine and all of it's his. And because he's uncomfortable spending money, let's say clothes, for example, he won't buy things if I buy things because he feels like he has to hold back because I'm spending. Well, then that creates resentment. He should go be able to buy things as well. He's made the money. And so these are the conversations

we're having is like one does plus one doesn't equal. Two, he's just like so black and white within it. And so I think it's just been really hard having and navigating those conversations and then having a conversation of those big one-time purchases that you were just so excited about post-exit. Like buying jewelry or clothes or vacation that aren't going to be forever things. Like, we are not going to go spend a month in Europe again this summer. Right? That was so expensive. We took 20 of our family and my mom and his parents and cousins and like all of these things. Like that's a one-time cost. Like get over it, the cost of that. And he's really hard for And I think he's getting better now with time and seeing our spending over a year and understanding with our financial advisor that we've never once gone over budget.

And so I think he's starting to pull back. But it's just like kind of, it's just his nature. He's very frugal. So I kind of just have to buy stuff for him. I mean, my husband and I, we do like a scale. So when we disagree on something, we say like, how important is it to you? And so because I think that puts it into perspective and it quantifies it. So we disagree on something and I'm like, how important is this to you?

It's a seven. To me, it's a four. It's like, okay, you win. That's smart. I also feel like I don't, I don't know if you've read the book like Die was Zero. No. I gave it to him. So it's basically like spend your money in your lifetime.

Is that where you're planning to do? No. And it was funny. I just gave him the book because I was like, I think you need to read just how. other people think about money that's not always about planning and financial futures and estate planning and like what would it be like if you spend money? And it was an interesting, I saw like a shift in him afterwards. Now I absolutely do not want to spend all my life our money. I want to leave money from my kids, but I also don't think I should leave so much to them that I didn't get to live

the life that I worked hard for. So it's a conversation, it's a balance. It's also a conversation yearly that can change. You might have a great year. You might have a down year of the stock market was crap and you made really bad investments or you could go, you know, three years from now we could have a couple exits and some of our investments. So I think it's fluid and I think he'll get more comfortable

as we sit into it over the next few years. I always say that the sweet spot is somewhere between thinking you're going to live forever and thinking you're going to die tomorrow. It sounds like you guys are on kind of both of those. I would be like if we die tomorrow. Like I genuinely would go have fun and just do whatever I want responsibly. If someone has a different mindset than their partner and they're watching, what advice would you give so that it doesn't cause tension?

I think conversate daily about it. I think it's like, hey, I want to buy this or I want to invest in this. Don't do it the day it needs to be done. Start that conversation if you can a month, two weeks. three weeks ahead of time, that time of people get really resistant to something that's not their idea. This is in life and this is in business and every day. If someone tells you something and it wasn't your idea, your first reaction is to say no. And I've learned that over time with a lot of people. People need time to process stuff. So the more space and time and it's like, hey, I want to do this.

I know I need to make a decision in the next two weeks. You don't have to answer now. Just think about it. and like let's chat about it tomorrow. That can go so much further than I want to buy this and I'm going to and you have nothing to say. Like it can come across very wrong. Yeah, you're saying the same thing. You're saying it differently or you're giving time. But it also depends on the risk tolerance of the receiver, right? So you hearing that, you might just say, yes.

Maybe your husband would need time. Correct, yes. And a lot of people, too, are more risk-averse after they have kids. You went on Shark Tank when you were nine months pregnant. You've talked about it. Your family being feast or famine. Sometimes your dad would have huge swings, like millions of dollars up, millions of dollars down.

Do you think some of your fearlessness came from that? Oh, absolutely. I don't know. Like, I sometimes worry, like, if something's wrong with me because I just don't have that emotion of, I just, I literally could lose everything tomorrow and I'd just be happy as long as my family was there. And I think that would freak a lot of people out. That would freak my husband out.

And we'd have to totally change. but I think the difference is we have an incredible network, I would work hard and I would build that wealth again. And that excites me so much. I love the build. I love the chaos. I love making money. And my dad, to your point, he did make a lot of money. He's lost of money. And he's built three businesses since and now he's retired. So I think I have seen that horrible swing to nothing to the rebuild. And I think it's not as scary if you've seen. it, but you have to be built differently to handle it. Yeah.

What gene do you not have? I don't know. My husband's like, do you need to go to therapy to work through it? I'm like, what is there to work through it? I'm happy all the time. And when you think about how you want your kids to think about money, is that a different way than you grew up? So something that I think was really important in what I was raised with was I was always

told yes. I was always loved, always loved, and we have incredible values and we're God-fearing people. So we go to church every week, we pray with our family, we study the Bible, and we have such a clear path to philanthropy. So I educate my kids on give back. We give back at our church. I show them what we do when it comes to give back. And I think that that's really important throughout this to create good humans is for them to, yes, they get to go on the vacation, but what else can we do to give back in the world? And it's been really fun throughout this process. My dad, I said, just retired, we've been able to fund him going on over seven mission trips this year. And he's sending pictures and he's building schools in Africa and Thailand and all of these places. And I'm just like,

look what Papa's doing. And next summer, we're going to take them and do that. So I think as long as they're getting that groundingness in their lives as well as it's my money. It's not their money. Like we're very open with that. They have to do chores. They have to understand that like they don't get everything they want. But something that I think is really fun is we just recently opened up three Fidelity investing accounts for our kids. And we they were asking about it and I was on chart tank and this whole thing. They're like, how do you invest? And I was like, well, let's let them. We made them sit down with our financial advisor, learn about it, think about what stocks and what bonds and all of these things they want to invest in. And it was so funny because they lost $65 last week. And they were

just like, wait, what just happened? And I'm like, yeah, it's not so easy, is it? So we're just having these conversations. I'm sure we'll fail along the way. But as long as we're just like really open about it, I think we'll create not horrible children, hopefully. I'm obsessed with that. So how do you, how do you talk to them about money? Look, they're very little. Four, seven, and nine. So I think you have to have those conversations at the level that they can understand. And I also think not overly talking about money is important. Not everything has to be about it. I think it's about experience and give back in working hard.

Me and my husband, Stephen, are some of the hardest workers I know. And I think that that's such a core value that if we can instill in them, they're like kids, they're lazy. You know, we were at the baseball game this week and my middle child was like playing in the sand. and I'm like, pay attention. The ball's coming towards you. Like, they're just kids. So at the end of the day, also just letting them be kids and not making them grow up so fast

and all this pressure of life. And, you know, we'll get there as they get older. Age-appropriate conversation. Yeah. But also like that kindergartner who asked you about being a billionaire. I know. So two different questions. First, how do you talk to your kids about money, which we talked about?

And second, it sounds the same. But how do you talk to your kids about work? work. I think they see how hard we work. One of the number one questions I get from them recently is, why are you guys doing this again? Why are you working on? Great question. Why are you doing this again? And it goes back to that purpose piece of we like to work hard. Do you see this house that we're living in? It's not something that just comes by lightly. And I do think them visually seeing us continue to work hard will instill hard workers. But we're actually pretty tough on our kids. So they have a strict, like, after-school activities, sports, you know, the pianos, the

homeworks of the world. But I think normalcy, hard work, and them just seen by example. But at the end of the day, you never know. Like, their kids are unpredictable, so we're just going to try to do our best. You know, I've heard some parents say it's important to tell their kids that they enjoy their work but then how do you do that without making them feel like you're choosing your work over them? Yeah, I don't think you have to choose. I think you can have both. And I think I was really big with Poppy. I mean, I breastfed on Zooms. I brought my kids to all of our big events. I like allowed to do where we

would be in New York for a pop-up. I'd bring my kids. They'd go to the pop-up. They could see what we were doing. and it kind of like coexisted. I think like family values within the company was really big. And so I think that just that transparency and allowing them to ask those conversations, I think the biggest hack that I've actually learned is when you're home, you are present. I think a lot of working parents come home. They've worked for five days on the road. They've been at dinner meetings and early meetings.

And they come home and they're exhausted. And they start yelling at their kids because they want them to go to bed instead of putting your phone down, sitting with your kid on the couch, popping popcorn and snuggling. Like, you'd be so surprised how many working parents don't take time to be present with their children. And I feel like those micro moments that I'm extremely present with them makes up for me being on the road for five days. And at the end of the day, when we leave to go somewhere, they're not screaming, crying as we're walking out. I know I'm doing good because my kids will say, hey, mom, where are you going today? I'm like New York. They're like, when are you coming back, I'll be like Friday and they're like, have fun. Like, they're okay. Right. And so I think that just be present, put your phone down, hang out with your kids when you are home and they'll be okay. Yeah, be wherever you are. It's hard because then, you know, the guilt can go both ways. You're like, oh, I'm, you know, guilty. I feel guilty that I'm not, you know, doing this spreadsheet in the sheets or, you know, I'm not doing this work thing that I need to and I'm here with my kid. And vice versa. When I'm at work, you know, I'm guilty that I'm not.

not with my kid. Well, it's funny because, like, you know, we're talking about money and, and wealth. I think what comes with that is I'm actually buying back a lot of my time just so I can spend it with my kids. And an example is I'm obsessed with cooking. It's one of my favorite things to do in the entire world. But recently we've brought in a chef to come in cook two to three times a week. And I'm buying back my time of me cooking for two hours for the three nights I'm home a week to now I'm outside throwing the ball with the kids or playing Plato or painting. And it's actually been harder on me. I want to be cooking because it's something I really enjoy. But I've allowed myself to buy back that time. It's same with, you know, hiring a housekeeper or a nanny. Sometimes people

look at that as like a really bad thing. Like, oh, you have a nanny or you're not raising your kids. I actually look at it different of like, we have a nanny to allow me to maybe do one-on-one things with my kids. And so it's a big thing that I think we've made also part of our life is like this buying back of time to allow us to kind of be more of a family unit. Yeah. And you've talked about the breastfeeding on Zoom and after your second kid going back two weeks after you gave birth. Do you feel like you had to do that or is that something that you wanted to do? I think success looks very different in the early years of say mother beverage and poppy and success now. Back then we had to do that. There was no there was no choice, right? We, Stephen was working a second job. We were, could barely pay our mortgage. We didn't know

sometimes if we could buy groceries. We sold our cars to buy bottles. We were all in. And so we had to do that. Then we don't have to do that now. And that's the difference. And so your success level of what you have to do at different stages, it can change and it can evolve. And I love that we did go through that because it just taught us just so much hard work and how willing and how passionate we were about Poppy. And then you secured the bag, which brings us to our game, Secure the Bag. That's so fun. Okay.

What's the best piece of money advice you've ever given someone else? I think that if I'll speak through an entrepreneurial lens. Go as long as possible without paying yourself if you're truly building a business. Really? Hire other people surround yourself. with other people that can take things off your plate. Now, I know some people can't do that, but for example, post-shark tank deal, I actually still did not pay myself almost the first six months of Poppy launching. And when I did, we started, me and my husband's starting salary for the first

year at Poppy was $50,000. I think some people take on investment pay themselves too early versus hiring someone else and getting stuff off your plate. I mean, so many people say pay yourself first. I know. I think it's... I think you have to pay yourself something. So I started my company bootstrapped with my life savings and didn't want to pay myself and didn't for a while. You can't go crazy, but the bare minimum feels like you're putting your oxygen mask on first. So my husband got a second job that he worked nights and weekends for like two years paying our mortgage. So yes, you do need some kind of income, but I do think don't put as much back into the business as you can and tell you.

you can't. So yes, at some point you do have to pay yourself to put food on the table on a roof over your head. But if you can't, or if you don't need to, like go as long as possible. Okay. Have you ever felt embarrassed by your bank account balance in a good way or a bad way, I guess, could be interpretive? So I've always made really good money. I worked in oil and gas research and made good money working previous to starting poppy. And then even in college, I was like a hustler. So I would work in my summers doing oil and gas. I would do workforce service fires, making like $2 to $300 a day at like 19 years old.

In oil and gas? Yeah, oil and gas when I first stopped, I was a landman. I was making like 500 bucks a day. So like I've always made good money. I've never been embarrassed. But what I was not good at was saving. So I never saved a single dollar until I met Steven. So I was making like $200,000 a year and spending all of it.

So maybe more on that side of things, but never by the amount that was a, the bank account, but maybe not that I wasn't fiscally responsible. Okay, is there something rich people buy that you think is ridiculous? I'm 39 years old. I feel very blessed to have some kind of wealth earlier on. One cringy thing that I think is when you see like a 65 year old guy in Miami at a club like with girls and a table. Like I'm just like that is so gross. And, you know, like those type of things like really give me the ick because one, I don't want to. I, I don't want to at a club ever in Miami with like a bottle service unless I'm at a bachelor at party. But I do think that they see the value in buying people's time and people around them versus having

true friendship and true relationships. Because I think people sometimes don't know how to act around people that don't have money. Like I could care less if my friends have money and they can't do things and I'm just going to do what they can do. Do you pay for your friends or have people asked you to borrow money post-exit? I think I've had like two people asked me for money. I was actually surprised at how little that happened. One, I was a friend from college that asked me for $20,000.

It was very awkward and we don't speak anymore. And it was okay. I hadn't really spoken to her in 10 years post college anyways. So you gave it to her? I did not. Oh, no. So you don't speak because she asked? Yeah, it was weird.

I think if someone came to me and they were truly hurting in life and you wanted to have a conversation, I would have that conversation. I think giving back is important and valuing people, but it was like, hey, you're rich, give me 20 grand. You know, I think that that is like very weird and crude of like just asking like, hey, I need this money. Like that's just like, that's just weird to ask anybody that ever, right? But you would never lend a friend money. I don't know if I wouldn't. I think it under the right circumstances, if someone wants to invest in like their business or their dream or something, I probably would.

it was like a good idea. Like why not give someone else a chance to live their dream? If it's like a good idea, if it's like a really bad idea, they're like, I want to make candles. And I'm like, kind of been done before. Let's talk about this. Let's get to the bottom of what we should do. Let's workshop it. Exactly.

So we end all of our episodes by asking our guests for a tip that listeners can take straight to the bank an investing tip. I want to get your thoughts actually on oil and gas because you worked in the space. Do you have investments? No, it's funny. I mean, it's been wild lately. We looked at it post-exit and like how we wanted to work in that, but it is such a different world of you have to know it and you have to know the right resources and it's highly risky. It's very capital intensive and it's, yeah, it's just very expensive. I wouldn't say we wouldn't ever. I think we're more interested in like if we want to do something, it would be like a real estate side of things. But oil and gas, I think I would, but not right now. But you're, but you're not. But you're, we're more interested in like, if we want to do something. It would be like a real estate side of things. But oil and gas, but not right now. But you're. But you're. But you're. But Your oil and gas was not like you trading oil futures. You were like landman. I was a landman. So I worked for seven years on the road, like going out to these small teeny towns of like

3,000 people. And I would be negotiating with the landowners and the Indian reservations and the local, just community on can we come in? You work with like the water resource and the environmental stuff. And it was just like so fun. So we basically would go into the courthouse and you'd open up the big books. And you'd go back to the 1800s when the United States gave the patent to that settler at the time. And then you would just track it forward. Who owns the oil rights?

Who owns the land rights? And so I'd live in these teeny towns for like two years. And I remember, I mean, Stephen, we lived in a motor home our first year of marriage in a town of 3,000 doing this together. So, but it makes good money and it was fun. You could work like eight months out of the year and travel the rest of the time. And so I look fondly on it, but I didn't, I wasn't passionate about that. I think that's a good example of making good money without passion. And so I know now working hard and having passion making money is way more fun.

Did you see the show? It's not true. The show is like there's nothing. No. What do you mean? No, there's no explosions. There's no drama. Nobody's like, I will say something that is true with the show is like they do have like

the worker places where all the workers are like living in like Fargo, North Dakota and like all of the motels. Like they do take over the town. and do that type of stuff, but all the drama of it, no, there's no people. But the money? There's a lot of money. Yes. Yeah, but I mean, I worked on like the landman side.

I wasn't like the oil company getting the money. So unfortunately.