the bossbabe podcast - 156. Why I Lost 1 Million Dollars + How I'm Rebuilding

Episode Date: March 25, 2021

Join BossBabe Co-Founders Natalie Ellis & Danielle Canty as Danielle shares how she lost 1 million dollars in 2020 and what she’s doing now to make it back. Insta Influence Kit: https://www.instainfluencekit.com/buy?affiliate_id=3009395 99designs by Vistaprint: https://99designs.com/bossbabe Follow:  BossBabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie: @iamnatalie Danielle: @daniellecanty

Before we dive into this episode of the Boss Babe podcast, I wanted to hop on to celebrate because just a few weeks ago, Boss Babe turned three years old and we hit three million followers on Instagram. And hitting those two milestones in a matter of a couple of days really made me reflect on the start of Boss Babe. Now when I started the Boss Babe Instagram I put all of my energy into the Boss Babe account. I knew that it would take a hundred percent all of my energy and effort that it would be smarter to focus on building one account up a hundred percent of the time rather than split my time between my personal Instagram and Boss Babe. I had such a strong gut feeling that Boss Babe had the potential to make a massive

impact. I knew how big our mission was, how massive the impact could be, and how important it was to reach as many women as possible and how possible that was because of social media. Social media is literally the reason Boss Babe is what it is today. It's the reason we've been able to actually coach over 17,000 paying clients just like you. It's the reason we've put over 120,000 students through our trainings. And it's the reason we've been able to interview so many amazing leaders on this podcast. So during the beginning of it all, we never invested in paid ads because social media served as free advertising space. And let me tell you, we were able to

leverage it like no other. So I wanted to hop on because whether you have a crazy amazing idea or are already in the midst of your entrepreneurial journey this is your sign to go all in. To show up daily at 100% and we have a tool to help you do just that. Our Insta influence kit is packed with over a hundred customizable done for you templates to help you show up at that 100% without wasting so much time and energy on the design and thinking through content creation. So not only will you gain access to these 100 templates inside the kit, but you'll also walk away with a full understanding of how to leverage the Boss Babe 3 system, which is the secret content pillars behind our viral growth and how to actually implement it on your own profile. Listen, it is not too late to be

starting or growing an Instagram account. And I want to make it as easy as possible for every single one of you. So you can stop wasting money. You can stop trying to be a designer when you're totally not. And you're actually going to be fed content prompts that you just need to go in. You need to add your value and it's done. You click a button, it's downloaded and it's done. So to get all the details on how to access these templates, tips and tricks to dive in, you can click the link below in the show notes. Rely on yourself and bet on yourself and don't misplace trust and faith in others. Hold that into your own. I think it's really, really powerful. It would have been so easy to give my power away to those

men telling me not to do it but when I held that power and I went after something that I really wanted to go after and I put the effort in that means a real lot. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast a place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance and learning how to bounce it all. I'm Danielle Canty, co-founder and president of Boss Babe and your interviewee for this episode because Natalie is actually going to be the host. So the reason we're doing this episode is ever since we founded Boss Babe, we've always promised to be totally transparent and really share the real behind the scenes of growing a successful business and we really recognize that it's not always great sometimes there are hard times sometimes there are things that you don't want

to share on that highlight reel but for us showing up with honesty and actually the reality of what's happening is really really important we want to be sharing with you the ups and the downs when it comes to building a business because for for us, yes, the pros have always outweighed the cons. But if you're serious about starting a business, you need to be going into this with your eyes wide open and knowing that there are some cons along the way as well. So in this episode, I wanted to share something that happened to me last year that was pretty gut-wrenching, I've got to tell you. And this title really isn't clickbait because in 2020, I literally lost $1 million because of a

business venture that was impacted by COVID. Now, honestly, saying that out loud really does make me feel a little bit sick. But I also know that these things happen in business. And there were risks that I was taking. And I want to talk about those throughout this episode. And I want to share this story because I know that I wasn't the only one who was affected by events in 2020 and particularly around COVID and so if this helps one person even learn something from it understand I share my takeaways right at the very end as well but really allows them to reflect and helps them move through a period of their life which might be hard and they're relating to then I wanted to put myself out there and share this story so without further ado I'm going to hand over to Natalie to interview me this. And if you

enjoy this episode, or if you take something away from this episode, I would love to ask that you share your biggest takeaways with myself at Danielle Canty. Also share them with at bossbook.inc and share them with Natalie too. So let's dive in. A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. We really wanted to do this episode because it's really important for us to be able to show the full behind the scenes of business.

And not everything is sunshine and rainbows. And especially in 2020, it was a rocky year for a lot of people. And I don't think a lot of people know what you're about to share, Danielle. So I really wanted to come on and kind of interview you a little bit. Obviously, I was there. I got to experience it all behind the scenes with you. But I want to interview you a little bit to talk about what really happened because it was a massive moment for you and I know you've learned a lot but I also think there's so much in sharing kind of the downsides of business. So I want to first just address the elephant in the room.

In 2020 you lost a million dollars. Correct and it freaking hurt. So we're going to talk right now about what really led to that. Yeah and before we do Nat and I have always pledged right from the beginning we had it as a value in Boss Babe that we would always be transparent. We never want to just share the highs and we always wanted to share the lows and I'm a big believer in to feel the highs you have the lows and they're not necessarily a negative thing they're just something that you go through and makes you realize when you are on those amazing journeys and things are going well you can really feel into them and enjoy them and this was a real though for me I just like so many people in 2020 I'm not the only person that lost money in 2020 I'm not the only person lost a business in 2020 and that is just what happens

when you are an entrepreneur and if those of you who are at the event that we had in October slash November I shared this story but I wasn't really ready to share it to the whole wide world I have my own processing to do with it as well and I just wanted to honor that which I also think is really important but I do really believe in being fully transparent with our community and just stories like this. I know there are so many takeaways and I want to share some of them so that people don't make the same mistakes that I made and I don't want to make the same mistakes again. So I'm really glad that we're having this conversation. And just generally, we'll get more into the story. But I

think sometimes, especially when you work in the space that we do we're helping women with their businesses there can kind of be this shame or embarrassment around talking about mistakes or failures and we'll talk about how a lot of it was really out of your hands but how does that make you feel generally was there any of that when it came to sharing your story did it put you off or were you like no I really want to talk about it? Maybe for a split second. I'm such a big believer in things happen for a reason. And I genuinely believe there are so many lessons in it for me that I'm willing to walk away from it feeling like, wow, I feel like that saved me from something down the line much bigger and much worse.

And the way all this worked out, I did have backup plans and I did, thank goodness, have other businesses by this point and I think it actually highlighted to me really really amazing decisions that I had made and it made ones like oh yeah you could have done better here so yes there is shame but not to the point I'm not shameful I'm like oh wow, I could have looked back and made decisions differently, but it's not something I'm going to dwell on. Yeah. And I think that's really important because for a lot of people on the outside who look at you as a businesswoman, there's probably so many people that are like, wow, she's completely got her shit together. I bet she doesn't miss a single like T or not dot a single I in the business. And so there's an element of like, wow,

if this can happen to you, it can really happen to anyone. And I think that's a really sobering thought and reminder that we're all human and we're all on this journey together. So if anyone is listening and like I had so many issues with my first business too and talking about those failures in the beginning,

I was like, oh God, are people gonna think I'm a bad business woman? Cause I didn't understand cashflow and all of those things. But I think for someone looking in from the outside, there's probably a bit of reassurance. They can feel that like, oh, we're all human or we're all going to make mistakes. Yeah. And I think it goes, comes down to as well. I always think when you make mistakes, it's like with a child letting to walk and a child falls over, you don't say, don't bother trying to walk again. He's he's like get up you like learn to do it differently next time and don't think like if you don't quit you can't fail and it's just something

where I'm like okay just get back up dust myself off again and let's go again so I completely hear what you're saying and I think there's lots of things that no one understands and I just want to say like it's sobering in the sense of wow this can happen and I don't want to be sobering to the point where it scares people either because look things can happen and look I'm all right about it it's like fine there's other things on the other side of it better that's what's really powerful yeah and the fact that at this point, a million dollars to you is something that you can make back very, very quickly because you have put a lot of effort into other things and having a really diverse portfolio, which we'll talk a lot more about finance on the

podcast. But I think having that diverse portfolio is a really good idea. Just the amount of money that people lost in the stock market on COVID. If you didn't have a diverse portfolio and you have all your eggs in one basket, I would be surprised to hear of anyone that didn't lose anything during COVID. So, okay. I wanted to just preface with that and just say, I'm so grateful that you're talking about this because there's not many people that would. So really grateful for that. So let's go back to your past life all right so danielle the chiropractor paint me the picture of how that led to you owning a business as big as what it was those who are familiar with us will know natalie always had the entrepreneurial background i was working really

hard in school i had several jobs i went to university with the whole idea of getting a job after university. And I was lucky enough or smart enough, however you want to play it, to get headhunted for my first job. But as I became a chiropractor at the age of 21, I quickly realized that actually there was so much opportunity in the world. And I started being really, really ambitious at that point. Started to be point started about okay what can I do next I'd always gone after the accolades during school and when you enter a workplace such as chiropractic for me like okay what next and that's when I really discovered my entrepreneurial spirit around like okay wow I can make money and then I could have multiple clinics of my own etc and so very

early into my career I think it'd been about two years I wanted to be a really good chiropractor first and really hone my skills which I felt was really important and I actually think it's really important in anything that you're going into whether you're starting your own business or whatever you just always find someone to learn from so that's what I was very much focused on for the first two years and then I got to this point where I was like you know what I really really want my own clinic and I feel like I'm really ready and probably some people think I'm crazy for actually doing this but I decided I worked up the courage one day I was so so nervous I remember driving to the clinic my hands are sweating I was like oh my goodness I have to do

this and I knocked on my hang on I walked into the clinic and I knocked on my boss's door at the time and I was like hey have you got two minutes and he was like yeah of course and I sat down he had five clinics at time and I said to him Kenneth I want to buy one of your clinics and he just looked at me he was in his 50s at the time what is this 23 year old kid doing in my room saying to me I want to buy a clinic from you and I think he was just like so taken aback about it but he was so polite and this is one thing that I really realized and I would encourage everyone to take away from this as well is do you know what his reaction was he was like wow I need to go away and think about this he'd never been

asked outright about this but he didn't shut me down and so he went away and he came back to me and he was like hey do you know what I've thought about this he's like I don't think you're ready yet and I'm not ready yet but I would like us to revisit this next year and so another year went by and I knocked on his door I'm ready to have this conversation he's like yeah I am and so he actually entered into negotiations for me to buy one of his clinics I did not have financial backing I was doing this for savings I was actually negotiating a way to pay it over a 10 year period, which you can do when you're buying businesses or even shorter periods. So the loan, I didn't have to go to a bank for a loan. I was doing it via him. And that was all in process. And we were like chatting backwards and forwards

and getting on the table. But in the meantime, what happened was he got approached by a different company who wanted to buy all five of the clinics and obviously understandably for him he was heading towards rough time and so he actually took that offer but on the day that even though we were still chatting but on the day he announced that he'd spoke so highly about me and he had been very honest with them about my interest and how we were having discussions about me buying the clinic that on the day they announced that their acquisition of all five of these clinics they actually took me into a room the CEO of the company was like hey I know that you want this clinic and I want you to be a partner straight away so although I didn't end up owning 100% of the

clinic I actually ended up owning 49% and over a two-year period I had well actually an 18-month period I doubled the revenue and tripled the profit I was like full-on driving in I was like right let's go made all the changes that was going to meant and I really really led into that and then what that resulted in and I felt like I want to share these pieces of my story because when we say an apologetically ambitious I feel this is a very very good example of this I had been there a year and like I said 18 months I'd done this my clinic was growing the most out of everybody's and I was taking home some really good profits and so I decided that I was going to knock on this year's so I did the same drive different clinic when I was working myself up sweaty palms knocked on his

door and it's like hey could I have two minutes it's never ever two minutes by the way and I said to him hey I know that I have this part of this clinic but I actually want to be a shareholder in the whole group and again he was pretty taken aback by this but you know what again he didn't shut me down this is a different guy he was like wow okay I need to think about this we had conversations I've really proven that I was able to add a lot of value and so then I became shareholder there was only five of us us. I actually invested money and became a shareholder in all of these clinics. So we actually grew. We became the fastest growing primary healthcare brand in the UK. Had around 25 clinics our peak. I had shown my worth and they let me invest in it and become a partner and be a leader in that and that was an amazing journey for me and it opened

up so many doors and I had so many conversations with them around like how we could grow it etc but what started to happen and before you go into that I just have more questions I have to go back so you went back a year later I'm really curious like the specifics of this did you put the date in your calendar and like actually go back a year late how did you know when it was a year late oh yeah I was desperate and in that time I had just started seeding so many things at the time I felt like oh my goodness a year is going to be such a long time but I started like preparing things I also started looking at other clinics just in case I went and bought one down the road but it made me realize that actually buying that clinic that I was already working in was going to be the smartest thing for me to do and yeah I literally I think I went 11 months because I was so eager I was like

hey it's only been a year are you ready to talk about it let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform Kajabi you know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place. So it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus

on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash Boss Babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash Boss Babe. Love that. And so then eventually you got given up 49% and being in your young 20s I'm imagining you had more student debt than you did savings so how were you able to buy 49% of a business that seems like so scary and intimidating for a young 20 year old well first of all this is a really good lesson in

negotiation for me I got all the figures and I made sure those figures were in a favor that was going to help me buy the clinic. The figures were high but I was bringing in a lot of the revenue so I knew my worth and this is not always the case in business deals but I was able to get so close to the figures that I had an interpretation of them which allowed them to see my value within those figures and I realized that if I walked that was a detriment to them as well whenever you go into negotiations it's really important to know what the cards you hold in your hand are and I ended up I made sure I held a really good hand going into those negotiations at the time I had been saving. So I've always been really

financially savvy and I was buying handbags or going out eating or like, I was just literally very focused in that. I'd already had that year notice. So I knew that I wanted to save. And outside of that, what was really powerful and what was really powerful is that I knew that, like I said, a lot of people, when they think they're buying businesses they feel like they have to give all the money up front you don't have to do that in business deals I was in an opportunity where at this point it wasn't that much and I could afford to do that but I'd also gone in with the chance of like paying that off over a two-year period as well so I had a few options and I've heard of businesses doing up to 10 and I think that's what a lot of people don't realize that quite often if you're buying somebody out or you

have value in there they'll be more lenient with the payment plans. Did you do something similar when you came in as a shareholder in the bigger group? No I didn't because again I saved the shareholder negotiation was a valuation that was much harder for me to negotiate on because I didn't have as much clout at that point in that high level but again they were keen for me to come in because they knew that and I have this when we own business as well when you get good talent and you have talent that's growing your business and pushing your business you want to keep them around and so they knew that they wanted to keep me and I knew that they wanted to keep me and I knew that I could bring a lot to the table although I couldn't

negotiate much on the finances it was the fact I negotiated my way in the fact that I was even able to get those shares in the first place was really crucial got it okay you were talking about you became a shareholder and at your peak you you had what, 25 clinics, you said? Yeah. Okay. So then what started to happen? Basically, like with any business, brick and mortar. You have high overheads, you have your premises, you have your staff that are delivering in healthcare with service-based industries so the profit margins are there and they're good but you add in a pandemic and this is one of the challenges was

with chiropractic was that it kind of in the UK fell into this kind of weird bucket as not essential for a little period of time okay so just before I cut you off, you were starting to talk about the growth of this business. I'm really curious though, timeline wise, when did Boss Babe begin to cross paths with you? I graduated from college in 2010. So all this was taking place over those six years after graduation. So by 2016, I'd got all these shares. I got my shares in my clinic and I was part of the main group. I was really enjoying it. And I'd started to experience, you know, financial freedom at that point. I think financial freedom can be a very different value to lots of different people. But at that point in my life, I felt quite financially free. Like I could afford the things that I wanted

to buy at that point. And so I had that freedom. But in 2016, and those who know me well will have heard the story before my dad had a really, really nasty accident whilst we were skiing. And it really shone a light on the fact that although I might have had what I foresaw as financial freedom, I really did not have freedom at all, because I lived my life in 15 minute appointments. So I was running the clinics I also was treating as well and so every single 15 minutes I would be seeing a new client and so I had to leave my dad in France with my mom having fractured his pelvis not being able to walk told he couldn't walk for three months and he had to have major, major surgery. And it was just so heartbreaking. Those

who have had family members who feel when they need you the most and you're literally like, I can't be here. It was so heart-wrenching and just really made me think, well, hang on a minute, like this is happening now. And I'm what, like 28? This is crazy. This is how I'm feeling right now. What happens when I have children what happens when other things in my family my dad's going to survive this but what happens if someone becomes really sick and I can't be there and that just really started testing my values and I really believe we all have these core values and I always to be growing for me stagnation is so so difficult I always like to be learning and

achieving and doing something new but the other thing was freedom and that actually meant freedom to choose where I worked freedom to decide how I spent my time freedom decide how I spent my money and that really shone a light on that and so off the back of his accident I really started thinking well hang on a minute. How do I create freedom for myself? And this is one thing, again, that lots of people might see themselves with the stories. I don't like taking no for an answer. And I'm like, okay, well, how can I look at this? What could I do? I'm not a victim here. So I'm like, I'm having this challenge. I'm not just going to be like, oh, you know, boohoo. I just, this is what I've created. I'm like, no, what

could I do? What could I bring into my life that's going to make it better and help me create that freedom? And so I started exploring the online world. I was like, wow, I'm actually getting pretty smart in this business malarkey. And I'm seeing a lot like business coaches, online world, all the things. I had no idea at this point. In fact, at this point in my life, I was not even on Instagram, guys. Basically, once I'd been building, I'll share this part of my story because once I'd been building the clinics, I had Facebook, right? And we leveraged Facebook. So again, this is 2012 to 2016. We were leveraging Facebook for audience. We were using things like the yellow pages in the UK, Google searches, all those things, like local directories. That's how we got traffic.

For me, social media was a waste of time. I'm like, come on guys. I thought I was so cool not having Instagram because I'm like, oh no, I'm a businesswoman. I've got far too much time. I'm not going to be timed to be on Instagram. I thought that was so cool of me not to have Instagram. And I mean, it was like really channeling my time in this. Anyway, I started heading into the online world started really understanding this space a little bit more I was like hang on a minute I actually have a lot to give here there's a lot of things that I could be doing but I also have a lot of things to learn at this point I started like having conversations on the online world everyone who knew me was like what are you doing why are you wasting your time with this you have a business

what are you doing don't be so silly and it wasn't even boss way at this point I was like just learning about like maybe online coaching and business coaching I actually did a certification in business coaching and people were just telling me just concentrate on what you're doing I actually came up against so many challenges around this but I just knew in my heart like I was never going to be happy just staying working at one location my whole time. So it really became a big endeavor to me. And fast forward to heading out to Brenda Bouchard's event. And Natalie and I will tell this full story in a different podcast.

But heading out to Brenda Bouchard's event in San Diego in 2017, meeting you, Natalie, doing some business pieces with you you then deciding to incorporate Boss Babe in January 2018. I went to several peers at the time all of which told me when I said to them hey I'm going to alongside this business with chiropractic stuff I'm going to start a business with a girl I've only known for three months. We're going to be buying some intellectual property alongside this. I'm going to put my savings into it. They were like, Danielle, you are absolutely crazy. So much so that the two people I looked up to the most, two businessmen I looked up to the most, said to me,

they really respected me until I made this decision they were worried that my ambition was going till I'm really worried at how ambitious you are I'm worried you're going to get hurt is what one of them said to me and various other things and just so condescending and also was just had no belief in me whatsoever that I could do this but I just knew in my heart and in my gut that this was absolutely the right decision for me to go in with Boss Babe it wasn't even all in it was like in because I was still working at time to go in with Boss Babe and so I very much felt at that point wow these people I respect are telling me not to do this but I have this feeling that I should absolutely doing the right thing and that

was so freaking scary I cannot tell you like it was one of the most terrifying decisions to go against mentors advice to do this but I just knew if I wanted to create the freedom I knew I had to take a leap and I also always had this approach that again I'll say again if you don't quit you can't fail and I just knew that actually if I was so dedicated to making it work there was a way I was going to find the solution of whatever that was and thank goodness that I followed my intuition and my gut on this and we created Boss Babe because I tell you what in 2020 when I had a phone call let's not get there yet okay keep holding me back. Yeah we incorporated Boss Babe in 2018 and we're obviously going to get to what happened in 2020. What I want to understand

or want everyone listening to understand is in what capacity did you step away from the chiropractic business and at what size was this business now what did that look like okay so we obviously met and we started working on our first product which would become the society in the November and we launched it in the March at this point I did not cut back at all so basically I was working full time in the day and then I would go home you were were eight hours behind me. So your 9am was my 5pm. I would go home. And also, by the way, guys, I worked till half six or 7pm. So I'd work 8am till 7pm in clinic, but I would have a lunch break that was an hour and a half. So I used to take a 10 minute lunch break and work the rest of the time. And if I had any slots where patients weren't

in, et cetera, I would be working on the business so I would basically fit boss babe into every single nook and cranny of time I could possibly find and then I would get home and then I would have meetings with you and connect with you in the evenings and I would work on weekends I worked religiously every single weekend whilst we did that because we couldn't afford to well to begin with when we were building neither of us were taking a wage from it in the build phase and then when we launched we always said like and I was very dedicated to this like Nassi we're prioritizing yours this is like you were working full-time on it and I was only working part-time on it and I had my wage and so we were very dedicated to making sure that getting you full time and paid into it was priority.

And then I would just fit mine on. And that went on for, I gradually, I would say I was doing that full on until about, must have been the September, November time. I must have done a good like chunk of the year like that. And then we decided that I could cut my hours back and do more. And so I cut my hours back, but it wasn't until September we decided that I could cut my hours back and do more and so I cut my hours back but it wasn't until September 2019 that I left my businesses I still kept my shares which we can talk about but I actually left being a chiropractor as a day-to-day a long time yeah and that was before September pretty early on really if you wanted to leave you could have and on paper and a wage

from Boss Babe but you didn't why well there was like a few things so one obviously I had shares and I had commitments in the new business I'm very loyal and so I'd made commitments that I wanted to see out within that other business and I always wanted to make sure it could be sustainable without me so that was really important if I just ripped out my wages that or my or the people that I was getting through chiropractic that would have been really really detrimental to that clinic so that was the first reason number one the second reason was and I always teach this to those who are in the society my chiropractic salary hourly rate was high it was higher than your average and so it made no sense for me to take that away and then do jobs that I could be paying somebody at that point

like $12 an hour for $15 an hour for when I was earning way more doing that chiropractic so I made that decision to be like hang on a minute let's move some of these admin tasks to other people. I will keep doing my chiropractic and I will manage those people doing those tasks so that it makes, again, financial sense of the business. And I see this a lot with people who have side hustles. They're giving up their corporate job way before they've actually brought people on into their business who they can delegate and manage in the meantime. And I'd say that's actually a really fundamental thing that a lot of people do wrong is that they they leave their big salaries and when I always saw my salary or the dividends etc I was taking from that business at the time in the UK as part of me and as part of Boss Babe's earnings so I saw it as one whole so I was like hang on a minute like where is this

best utilized if we have this team if we have these people including Natalie and I how do we get the best out of people and leverage the business so we can grow so that was a very intentional decision okay we're going to take a quick break right now to hear from our sponsor this episode of the Boss Bay podcast is sponsored by 99designs the graphic design platform by Vistaprint that makes working with a professional creative expert from around the world really simple. Now if there's one thing that we're known for at Boss Babe, it's our signature pink quotes and that brand recognition has been one of the reasons Boss Babe is what it is on social media. The graphic designers on 99designs know how important brand recognition is nowadays and are really ready to help you build your brand through

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fully that is such a great question and yes every part of me people love identity labels whether you want to label yourself as a virgo or a capricorn or as an enneagram three or an enneagram eight all of these things people love labels and so i had identified with a label as a chiropractor full on time second of all i put a lot of time and energy into that and so when you think around I had a lot of debt around it I'd gone so when I applied for my college or university degree you normally apply for like six colleges and six courses I applied for one I went all in right from the beginning I just paid for one course at one college that was it my friend's like what are you gonna do if you get it don't get in I'm like I

don't know I've not got a plan B, but there's no point putting a plan B in place that I didn't want to do. That's the way I saw it. So I went all in. And that was a big thing. I had seen my life going in a certain trajectory. And this is one thing that's really powerful about certain people. Some people are like, hang on a minute, I've put so much effort into this. I cannot leave this situation. Or I've put so much effort into this I cannot leave this situation or I've put so much into effort into this I can't possibly change now that really served me for that period of time I loved being a chiropractor for that period of time I got so much reward for it and I also felt like you know what this isn't how I want to spend the next part of my life or the next

part of my career like I want to be growing beyond these things I want to be leaning into this more I want to be leaning into that more I think that's actually a real gift that I have I never see things as like I've committed to something and so therefore I have to you know live or die by this one thing I decided to do when I was 18 years old I really believe that you can go on a journey and those things can serve you on to the next piece and so for me yes I was scared leaving my identity as a chiropractor and that's probably another reason why it took me a little while like I slowly came out of that but it wasn't something that was going to stop me I was so the fear of not leaving it was worse than the fear of leaving chiropractic for me when you eventually did let go of or shed that identity piece of you

what changed within you if anything? This is a really great question I think when I let go of that identity I really stepped into who I was I think for a long time I had hidden behind that label as well and so like I said people like labels quite often as they're like comfort blankets and so when I took that identity off it was very liberating obviously then I put a new identity on but there was definitely a lot of liberation around that but then there was also a lot of learnings there was freedom around that and for me I'd very much felt like I'd left that glass ceiling behind I know lots of women listening to this in the corporate world or in their

businesses they'll sometimes feel like someone else is in control and that's how I'd started to feel so because I was a shareholder and because a lot of the things that I wanted to do as well I had a lot of ideas that I wasn't able to necessarily get forward or get through but I felt very passionate about I think for me as well there was wow I actually with Boss Babe I get to make decisions that I know can really impact positively and I can get to push through some of those ceilings that I was starting to feel and I get to have more say and I think it really played into that freedom piece for me as well so there were a few things by letting that hat go one that label and that liberation of just being well I don't have to fall into this certain identity and

two actually by releasing that label and putting on a different one gave me a lot more creative space and financial freedom and time freedom and location freedom okay so you obviously left that and went all in with boss babe you moved to america all that people know all of that we'll definitely get into it in more episodes because there's a lot to that story so essentially you had a bunch of shares still in this company and that was worth a million dollars what did that look like yeah and part of the story is that my husband and I both invested so how in what capacity and when did that happen yeah without sharing too much of his story essentially I obviously been going a number of years my husband at the time he had his clinic as well and where he also decided you know this is a fast-growing company

wanting to be part of really changing the primary health care system in the UK we obviously have the NHS but chiropractic physiotherapy like having lots of clinics all on one roof and having a big brand we really really saw this visionary as like the potential of that and how amazing that could be so he sold his clinic in as well you know between us we had when we left the UK shares valued at around a million dollars in this so things that he had worked hard it was basically a decade's worth of hard work that had gone in to this business from both our sides but when we decided to move to the US you know we were very honest and very transparent with them and it was all spoken about and it was all parted on good ways in the sense of like we would keep our shares and we would have input from afar but not to the

level or anything that we were before but we would have the shareholders updates kind of things and I would be able to focus more on Boss Babe in the US and Greg will be able to start a new career path which he was really passionate about and wanted to do in the US as well so off we went in February 2020 little did any of us know what was going to happen in 2020 I mean I remember getting on the plane and them asking if I had been to China in the last 14 days and being like no not really thinking of it but as we know things within six weeks of us arriving took a significant turn for the worst over that period we started experiencing lockdowns in the US and obviously in the UK and things became very very aggressive and as everybody and no matter what country you're in there was a lot of uncertainty

at that time I mean Natalie when we were hearing first hearing about COVID and there was this mass panic you know stock markets were plummeting there was just if you were a business owner or even if you had a job you were just like what is going to happen is my health going to be all right is my business going to be all right what on earth are we going to do remember toilet rolls were on a shortage or you know food I was like buying rice and porridge in case we needed to be inside for ages and so it was a really really tense time so COVID hit obviously we're gonna do a lot more podcasts and talk a lot about what that meant for Boss Babe and that was just what that meant for a lot of people in general but I'm really curious I know you got a phone call and I know how that went but what I haven't asked before which I think

is interesting to preface this phone call with did you know or did you expect that you're about to lose a million dollars was that in your awareness yes and no so when you are in a situation that you know there's a lot of uncertainty with I was very aware there's a lot of uncertainty and my logical mind was very very aware of what could be happening and what could potentially happen but I think I was trying to hold space that not being the case sometimes it's really hard to face things that you don't want to face you're like just so nervous and so worried about that and so for me it wasn't things that I was like actively I had worries about it but I wasn't actively worrying about it I was

trying to focus on other things at the time etc and I was hoping for the best it was also out of my control I had no managerial role in that business I had nothing I knew it was very very stressful for them but there was nothing I could do about it so other than ask them every five minutes which I wasn't going to do because that's not constructive for anybody it was a lesson in sitting on my hands at that point as well because I'd already made my bed it was nothing that I could have done from the situation that I was in I was sat on my hands and so I made a conscious effort that I wasn't going to be like pestering them every single five minutes about any updates they were just finding out what was

happening right at the government what would you know initiatives were in place how the government was supporting financially but the point is is at that point if you think about it a brick and mortar business has huge amounts of overheads over that many costs those employees and yes there were stimuluses in place within the UK but ultimately what ended up happening with the business was that it was late September early October we had a phone call and that phone call was where so we just want to let you know that the company has gone into liquidation and it's not worth anything anymore so that's the moment where you found out you lost a million dollars so we basically lost and I would say a

million dollars but it was on paper right as well but that is like it's not wasn't just a million dollars it was a decade of hard work it was passion it was all those things and I guess this is how I started off by talking on the podcast right there's all these things wrapped up into that there's growth there's opportunity there's learnings there's like everything like no one can take that away they took away financial stuff for me but also no one could take away those learnings over that decade but man did that sting like when you hold out hope for something when you've put like 10 years of hard work into something you've believed in something and you're like this is going to be my retirement this is going to be part of my pension this is going to be part of you know me

buying a house in the US this is going to be part you've like started like rethinking around how you can support your family and friends with that to have that go like just overnight was what it kind of felt like although it wasn't but when you get that confirmation it does feel like that was really truly heartbreaking yeah that's the thing with like money on paper is like it's on paper in best case scenario that's what it's worth do you feel like and we'll get into lessons because I know there's lots but I'm really curious do you feel like what you got out of the business for what you put in over that decade was worth it? Or do you still feel like you didn't get out the, you didn't get back what you put in?

I don't live my life in regret. And yes, on paper, maybe I didn't get out what I put in. Like I lost money. I actually, I'd invested as well. So I lost money in that. But what did I get out of it? I got out the situation that I am in now. I would not have been the same person

if I had not gone down that path. I am a strong believer in not living in regret, not feeling like you wish you could have done something differently because you can't. And ultimately you are where you are and you are where you need to be. And if I said I said to you oh yeah I wish I'd done this differently I wish I hadn't done that like this is so in fact I wouldn't be here I wouldn't be sat at boss babe I wouldn't

be able to be creating what I'm doing I wouldn't have the lessons that I already had along the way the important thing for me there were lessons in it and the important thing for me is that I continue to learn from those lessons and I don't make those same mistakes again but I strongly believe in not living in regret and wishing things had been differently because I don't feel like that's where it's any like you shouldn't I personally don't feel you should put your energy in that place I agree and I definitely see that as your attitude and we're speaking from hindsight so it's a lot easier to have lessons and these big realizations from hindsight but in the moment I'm sure there was emotions that were a

little bit stronger than that right oh yeah I like cried I ranted braved all of those things and I think those emotions that energy emotion is really important I'm not gonna say to you yeah I was absolutely fine about it I just didn't I just took that call and then off I wandered it was really really freaking stressful that that sinking feeling that and you do go through that oh my god why did I do that why did I do this you know could I protect from here when I had this opportunity to get out I should have got out there and I shouldn't have invested I really want to talk about diversification because I think that's a big mistake that we made at that point we didn't understand how to diversify our portfolio and so there were all these learnings but yeah in the moment there were a lot of motions a lot

of tears there was a lot of stamping of my feet like frustration and that's what it is at the time and then I also journaled like I literally went to my journal in fact I just actually pulled it up it was October the 14th. That was the day I found out. Do you have anything in there that you feel brave enough to share that you wrote that now you're looking back, you're like...

I actually wrote the lessons I learned losing a million dollars due to COVID-19. That is my paragraph. That's literally the start of it. October 14th, 2020. And I wrote a list of things that I wanted to take away from this that's such a virgo response so and I don't want to go into Greg's story because this is just not the place for some like someone else's story but I think it does need

to be said this wasn't just a loss for you but your marriage was invested in this business what you'd both grown together was invested in this. So it wasn't a sense of you lost something, but your husband's there with something else. So you're diversified. The two of you together lost something massive. And I think that really could only have compounded things. How did that part feel? Yeah, that part was probably the hardest part as well, because I had obviously diversified more than he had, which allowed me to kind of be like, okay, right, I can really focus my energy. And that obviously, understandably, was different for him. And like, you're right, it's not really here to speak about his story. He can share that. But I think it's definitely

something that you go through together I think there was a lot of guilt on both sides around like oh yeah and when you think okay could I've done this differently that was definitely something that came up for me and particularly because I was in that business before I felt like some responsibility to that as well which I found but ultimately like we're both adults and we both have to make our own decisions and whilst I knew that like he made his decision and that was his to make solely there was also that feeling for me was around like oh goodness it was really hard and I think in that too there's an element of you were really young when you made the decision that you would step away from what was a really

successful chiropractic career to start a completely new business online when you barely even had an Instagram presence you were really really young and you didn't make that decision based on what you were seeing on paper because nor you or I knew that Boss Babe was going to be successful I mean I knew we would never give up but we didn't know it was going to be successful so combined with like using your intuition and being young those businessmen that you looked up to and respected having such a strong opinion there must have been an element of you in that moment looking back being like ah thank god I didn't take their advice and wow from now on I'm going to take people's opinions with a pinch of salt 100% obviously people reach out to you and

I Natalie a lot asking for advice and I love giving strategic business advice and helping people and supporting them in the businesses and I always say look I can give you this advice but you are in your business you intuitively know you have the vision particularly when we're talking to CEOs I'm like I can give you these things but don't make a decision solely on what I say. Go away and think about it. Go and look at like, what does this mean? Like, how does this feel? Because I think that's really, really powerful. And I personally went through a stage in my life where I didn't listen to my intuition. I wasn't at that point. And I've gone through phases. I've

really learned into my intuition and I'm really cut it off and for me this is just another lesson in like wow I really do need to listen to my whenever I follow my intuition and I know that people are like what does that mean like it honestly means for me pausing and feeling into my body like okay is this a full body yes like what's my gut telling me and just sitting in the silence sometimes it's very easy for me particularly as a Virgo and a three to be very logical and want to put things on paper and pros and cons and all this stuff. But actually sometimes just sitting with it and sometimes the illogical decision is actually the right decision because it just feels right. Like you just know in your heart, that's the right decision that ultimately was what was happening with Boss Babe for me is that I just knew my whole body knew that I had to do this and that's why I followed it but that was also again that was a big lesson

for me and one that I've carried forward is when anyone gives me advice now wow I really appreciate you giving me your opinion I'm going to take that on board and I ultimately think Natalie you and I always know what's best for Boss Babe like we can be told a million and one different things but it's ultimately our decision to make informed decisions but ones that we're most comfortable with and we hold the vision for and I think that's how we've managed to get to where we are because there's been so many bits of advice we've been given along the way which completely ignored yeah and one thing that I take from your story too which is just a massive parallel in my own story and I hope that for anyone listening, they can take this away too. It's really important to have a big vision, but it's also really important taking action, even if you sometimes feel like you are

taking a diversion or you don't know the kind of steps you're taking are going to get you towards your big vision. Like let's say 21 year old Danielle wanted to have a really successful company and wanted to have all of this freedom. And at the time it felt like, okay, well the first step here is to ask if I can buy this person's business. And my guess is that still didn't feel like, oh, I'm achieving my vision. It was like, there's one step towards that vision. and then when you met me and we decided on something else there was probably an element of you stepping forward into that because you've held that bigger vision and you know what that looks like and you're really flexible in the way you get there but you hold that and I know I've had that too in a sense of I wanted to be an entrepreneur I didn't have a business idea and I knew if I sat in indecision I

was not going to get any closer to being where I want to be so I just took action on the first business idea that I had and I was so open to taking and acting on opportunities and you know what putting in the work outside of the nine to five working weekends pulling all night as sometimes when it was necessary and I don't want to glorify the hustle but at the same time I don't want to minimize what it really takes and the kind of decisions and like you said the beginning you don't want your story to put anyone off but I also think the realness of what we're doing is really important and entrepreneurship isn't really the path of least resistance and it's not a path you take if you're just strictly wanting to work at 95 and take on no risk so

that's what I take away from this I'm really curious if I'm sure you had so many big breakthroughs but what's like the main thing that you really took away from what you learned yeah do you know what there are actually so many I'll probably share my top three as to which ones so the biggest one for me was like rely on yourself and bet on yourself and don't misplace trust and faith in others like really like hold that into your own I think is really really powerful like it would have been so easy to give my power away to those men telling me not to do it but when I held that power and I went after something that I really wanted to go after and I put the effort in that means a real lot so it really allowed me to say like always bet on myself

and I'll be fine like the number one with regards to the business I would say a big business takeaway for me was listen to the answers you don't want to hear and ask the questions you know you might not always want the answers for I probably could have avoided what happened and I think I could have walked away with money, not as much as that, but I think I could have left it earlier if I'd asked uncomfortable questions and I actually listened to the answers. My perception of what happened as well, looking back, was I wanted to hear certain answers and so because I wanted to believe in something versus some of the actual reality of those answers at the time if that makes sense.

Sometimes you have to ask the uncomfortable questions you have to listen to the uncomfortable answers when you are making decisions in business and that's something I'm really taking forwards with me. And the last point I want to share that I really learned was the importance of diversification. Now we're going to cover this on lots of other podcasts in the future but it really is so so important to make sure you don't have all your eggs in one basket I think that's really powerful and I knew that but it really came into fruition when I look at the situation right now where I said I literally had lost if I would sell back in the UK I would have lost absolutely everything was because I diversified and not just diversifying business but diversified in my investments whether it's real estate or stocks and shares or

bitcoin you know there's gonna be so many conversations that are gonna have on wealth over the next few episodes as well but I really just want to highlight that that was a real key learning for me too. I love that. And I just want to say also, I'm so grateful that you were willing to tell this story and be so open. And just a reflection that I have of you is just how much I admire your resilience. I've known you for quite a long time now and have worked with you very closely through a lot of life events, a lot of ups and a lot of downs. And the way you handle the roadblocks and the downs is really, really inspiring and I think that's one of the things that makes you such an incredible

entrepreneur. You always show up. It doesn't matter what's going on but you're willing to just show up anyway and I think if someone doesn't have that as an entrepreneur reaching a certain level of success is going to be very difficult and I've never seen you go through some shit I have never seen you sit and wallow and put yourself in kind of victim mode and use that as an excuse not to move forward so I just want to reflect that to you and I'm really grateful that I have you around and I have that example of what resilience looks like and strength looks like and that I just get to reflect that to you and I'm really grateful that I have you around and I have that example of what resilience looks like and strength looks like and that I just get to see that it's really incredible I really appreciate you saying that and yeah I also do see that in you as well and I think that actually like that victim piece is something that neither of us possess

and I really honor that I say it in a lot of entrepreneurs I think that's one of the things that really set successful entrepreneurs apart having that resilience to be like okay what can I learn from this what can I take and how quickly can you get back up put brush yourself off and get back on with it so thank you for that reflection and I want to reflect it back to you as well because it's very inspiring personality trait in you as well. I receive that and you know what's really funny so you guys me and Danielle have been just like putting together our story and including that in a brand guides that just our team know a little bit about like where did this company come from and what were the early stages like and what have

we gone through that maybe you haven't seen and one of the questions that the consultant leading us through this exercise asked was what's the biggest setback you faced and how did you move through that and both of us said there wasn't one we don't have any and the consultant at some point said it is pretty relatable to be able to talk about setbacks in your journey so that people can see themselves in you and what's hilarious is and this part isn't funny but you've lost a million dollars we've been hit with after a lawsuit we have had so much craziness happen with team members and just across the board we've had some serious relationships

all the things the whole thing I mean people we thought were friends trying to rip off our entire business like you name it we've had it and to anyone else I think that would be a setback but the fact that we looked at that we're like oh we didn't have any is really interesting because the minute those things have happened I think we've always flipped the script and just got on with it and I think for anyone listening too I really encourage that of you because there's always going to be a setback and if but if you see it as a setback and allow it to push you back it will do just that 100% yeah we won't say setback we'll just we just call them like what are the things that challenge you that you've overcome and pushed forward from that's why that's the reframe yeah well I've loved doing this and it's so always so interesting to just get to know more of your story as well so

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