the bossbabe podcast - 283. How To Manage Multiple Businesses, Run Your Business With Excellence + Balance Motherhood In Between with Miki Agrawal

Episode Date: April 18, 2023

As Bossbabes and mothers, we often feel like we can and should “do it all” … but do we have to? And more importantly, do we even want to? The truth is you can have a full life as a Bossbabe mompreneur without doing it all. If you’ve ever felt guilty about taking time for self-care, or you want to succeed in business and motherhood, but you’re not sure how to do both… this episode is for you. We know what that pressure feels like… and here to get real about it is a powerful Bossbabe who’s found solutions. On this week’s episode, Natalie sits down with disruptive social entrepreneur and author, Miki Agrawal, to shed light on how her career has changed since becoming a mother and how she’s still “getting shit done with excellence.” Miki Agrawal is the founder of several acclaimed social enterprises: TUSHY, THINX, & WILD. She’s the author of the #1 best-selling books DO COOL SH*T and DISRUPT-HER. Miki Agrawal was named “Fast Company's Most Creative People,” “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum and INC's “Most Impressive Women Entrepreneurs.” She passionately speaks about her 15 years of entrepreneurial adventures, from inventing products in taboo categories, to creatively launching them, to marketing and scaling them exponentially, to dealing with shocking setbacks - and she shares her colorful, authentic revelations along the way. Highlights: How Miki created her new diaper business, Hero Technologies, during her weekly “thinking day.” Why it’s vital to set standards and boundaries with your team (and to not be bffs with everyone). What NOT to do when hiring a co-founder and developing a strategic business partnership. Links: Check out Miki Agrawal’s books Miki’s website: www.mikiagrawal.com Follow: bossbabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie Miki Agrawal: @mikiagrawal Tushy: @hellotushy Thinx: @thinx WILD: @eatdrinkwild Mentioned in this episode: The Influencer Masterclass: Join bossbabe CEO, Natalie Ellis on a free, 90-minute training to gain full clarity on your personal brand, learn how to create easy, consistent content, build an audience of raving followers + generate revenue, without the stress. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try and get 10% off your first month of therapy at betterhelp.com/bossbabe and get on your way to being your best self.

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. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, a place where we share the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance and learning how to balance it all. I'm Natalie Ellis, co-founder of Boss Babe and your host for this episode. Oh, you guys, I'm finally back home in my house. For those of you who didn't see on social, I was sharing. I literally built my house a year ago.

It was completed last March. And a few weeks ago, we started finding some discoloration in the floor in the kitchen. We brought the builder in. They ripped it up and realized that there'd been some kind of leak when they were installing something when they were building they did it wrong and so there's been some kind of leak and we have mold in the house or had mold in the house so they started trying to remediate and the mold basically spread from the kitchen into our living room and we just didn't feel safe staying especially having Noemi in the house and so we were like okay we can just move to an Airbnb in Austin and feel really sad that we're

not at home or we can make this a vacation and so we did we just packed our bags and we literally only had a few hours to leave because the builder had said listen this just doesn't feel like a safe place for you to be so we need you out we going to start ripping up all the floors and that's when things can get a lot worse. So we need you out tomorrow. And so we literally just packed our bags, booked a flight and we went to Scottsdale, which was just incredible. I feel like the universe always gives you what you need when you need it. We just had the best time. It was such a last minute, but fun vacation. And just give both of us so much gratitude for the way that we've designed our lives. And I love sharing this, especially having a baby too,

because I feel like, you know, as entrepreneurs, we can sometimes think that there isn't a lot of freedom that comes with business because so many people are depending on us or having a baby kind of limits you. And while that's true in some cases, I really believe that we get to design our businesses to support our lives versus have our businesses dictate how our lives look and run, which if you've heard previous episode, I was talking about, I did get into that place and I felt like I actually didn't have so much freedom,

as much freedom as I wanted. And so I've been making such huge shifts in what my role looks like and what my day-to-day looks like. And it's so different compared to what it looked like a year ago. In fact, it's night and day. And I feel so much happier, so much lighter, so much more creative. And it means that I can just take a last minute vacation and use that time to just be with my family, but also get a chance to think and have space and create. And the ideas that come out of that are just so incredible. And I realized this is not going to happen if I'm stuck behind my desk seven days a

week. Like that's just not going to be where my creativity and where my ideas come from. And I really love to be in that visionary seat as an entrepreneur and if any of you read Traction you'll know a visionary and integrator and then having your team and I really feel like that's the kind of setup that I do have at Boss Babe and it's you know been a long time in the making this wasn't just kind of an overnight decision but it it feels really good so anyway the work got done we got back in our house and it was amazing. But yeah, definitely a lot of happiness about how my role looks and how my business looks. And, you know, we are just growing so much as a company and it feels really good to be able to grow, but not have to sacrifice life like I did in the past. So I love sharing that. And if any of

you want me to go deeper on that stuff, definitely let me know because I can share all like I can get as specific as you want. I can literally pull my calendar up and walk you through it or morning routines, even whatever it is, how I, you know, get certain reports from my team, how I check in on how everyone's doing, like I can get as granular as you want. But anyway, speaking of visionary entrepreneurs, our guest is in a whole league of her own. She is absolutely incredible. She was named as 2018 Fast Company's most creative people among so many other accolades. Our guest is Mickey Agrawal. She co-founded Thinks, a high-tech period-proof underwear brand, and she led the company to a valuation of over $100 million. It was Fast Company's most innovative company of 2017.

And she also founded a company called Tushy that is revolutionizing the American toilet category with a designer bidet. She is absolutely incredible. She's written two books, both of which made her a number one bestseller. And she sold 10,000 copies in her opening week. To say she is an incredible entrepreneur is an understatement. And she loves to bring fresh perspectives to what's generally considered taboo industries. So she calls it poops and periods. Like she's really disrupting in such an amazing way. She's also an incredible mom.

And I get the chance to dive into how is she doing so many things at once? How is she balancing being an entrepreneur with being so creative? How is she managing teams, but at the same time managing to actually innovate and create products? We really get into the details because I love to know, okay, you're really successful. Give me the specifics. I love to know the specifics of how you are doing this, even to the point of how are you managing business relationships? How are you managing employees? Like we go into the details. So without further ado, let's dive straight in. I think you're going to absolutely love it. Oh my goodness. I feel like we've already had a full on conversation before we kick this off. But what I was just saying to

you was, I feel like I want to dive into the personal stuff because Mickey, the incredible innovator, entrepreneur, CEO, you've done so many of those interviews. But I'm in the phase where I'm six months postpartum now. And I'm in it. And I'm like, I've been to the depths of my soul this year. And I'm in that place of full rebirth of myself and figuring out what my life's gonna look like in business. And some of the things I've been reading about your journey, I love how open and honest you are. And so I want to know what changed for you when you became a mama, you were already an incredibly successful entrepreneur and you still continue to innovate and build whilst doing the mama life. What changed

for you? Oh my gosh, priorities. I mean, the priority shifted so much around just wanting to tend to, I mean, first of all, our hormones just kind of guide us towards the baby. And so I think, I do think it's really important to take that important time. I love that you took six months to really, really cocoon with your baby. It's so important and beautiful. And that time is so precious. And so for me, like I really wanted to be there for my baby when he turned over the first time and when he grabbed something for the first time and when he laughed for the first time and I was there for every one of those moments. I knew before I gave birth that I didn't want to miss those moments. And so changed is, you know, I want to build my businesses and in some ways they are babies for me.

But when it comes to this you know like little you know innocent creature you want to you know give it your energy just like you would in a in a brand new startup yeah it's a very different type of startup did you notice that you your energy shifted did you ever go through a phase of i don't know that i want to work or did you always know that did you slow down did you speed up like how did you notice your energy shift while you were in your cocoon because I feel like the cocoon lasts quite a long time probably to some extent you're still yeah in it I think I think my the way I ran my companies completely changed okay tell me about that in that I put you know for my next company after thinks I put I put, I brought a CEO in early,

early, early, early days when we were just still a very small business, you know, really gave a lot of responsibility to my co-founder for Tushy. I just gave away the responsibility of like the CEO revenue driving, which, you know, it's always in the back of my mind as, you know, the key shareholder of the business, but at the same time, like being just great, glad to just give the rope to somebody else, you know? And so I think oftentimes in our own businesses, like we are the business, you know, you are the business for your company. I mean, it's a big, beautiful company and you have a lot of people who look to you as they're, you know, in from a lens of leadership. And just sometimes we feel a deep sense of responsibility. And, um, and I think it's totally okay to give

some of the responsibility away and then you just do what you do best and just focus on that. You know, I call it the zone of genius model and just focus on your zone of genius and allow everyone to focus on theirs and bring in people to support you in their zones of genius. I love that. Cause you hear a lot, women can do it all. Do we have to? No, that's exactly, you don't. And I kind of had that before becoming a mom. I kind of had that mindset of like, I'm going to do it all.

And then I have really been questioning, but I don't want to do it all because then how am I filling my tank? How am I pouring from a really full place? And I feel like if we put that pressure on ourselves to do it all, that becomes really difficult to do. You also think about like the lens of like one in, I mean, what is it? Six or seven women have thyroid issues because they're just like pushing their bodies past their limits.

Like, you know, women have a lot of GI issues and shot adrenals and leaky guts and all kinds of issues, mostly stress related. Yeah. When we're putting our bodies through, you know, pushing past our cyclical system, you know, we, we are, we are really cyclical. We have four phases of our menstrual cycle and each one of those phases, our hormones dictate a lot of how we show up in the world. And so for me, like I've like shifted to the zone of genius model where I feel filled up by what I love doing, which is the creative and like that part, product

development and design and that kind of stuff. And then, you know, really delegated the rest of it because I could, yeah, like you said, we could do it all, but don't want to. Yeah. Do you ever find yourself, because I know this is me if anything maybe someone else is doing is not quite going to plan the way you want it to part of he's like oh I think I know what I could do here stopping yourself jumping in and was that something I had to do why you always had to train the muscles of not jumping in I think like what how I've created the system is that I have the final like check off like a sign off so, you know, I brought in a design director, for example, in the creative realm, right? I've designed director and art director, a bunch of designers, you know, and the creative

team, for example. And so before it gets to me, it goes through several people of checking off. And once, once those requirements are met, then it gets to me. So hopefully I'm at a final, like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. done. If I have to come back a lot of feedback, usually that happens earlier on in the first or second sort of rounds of the initial kind of, you know, idea creation. And so, yeah, I think it's, I have no problems giving away responsibility. I do have a standard. And I think the way you just, just like anything else, you create systems to maintain those standards. And I think it actually creates more efficiency versus being like, oh no, no, no, you know everything. And therefore let's just get

it to her and she'll figure it all out. Versus like, did it meet these checklists? Did all these things get met and actually get more organized and more so that in case, God forbid, like we get, something happens to us. Totally. And, you know, there's systems that are set in place that someone else can basically jump in and operate. I love that so much. And what about the concept of focusing your energy in one direction versus multiple? Because one thing I really admire about you is how much of an innovator and a starter you are. I mean, you've completely transformed

a number of different industries and you have more ideas. You have another business that's brewing. How do you still manage to grow things while having energy in different places? So, great question. So I started taking Fridays as I call my, what I call my thinking days.

Oh, I want to hear all the scheduling. And so, and so, you know, I watched Bill Gates's documentary like a few years ago and he would just take a bag of books into nature and go away for like a week or two. And every quarter he would do that. And then he would get a lot of ideas and just go into deep inquiry and

self-reflection and reflection of his businesses and come out with tons and tons of notes and ideas and things like that. And I think what I learned and it's true for me too, is if, and for any creative, I said, if you're not given a lot of space, there's not a lot of downloads of ideas that come through. And so what I said to myself was like, wow, like he's doing that once a quarter. Like what if I did that every Friday where every Friday I get to just be still and just allow for ideas to come through. It's like, okay, we have a campaign that's coming up. What, you know, maybe I can go to like a museum or someplace, go to nature and just gain inspiration from around me and have the space to have ideas download. You know, my idea for my new company, Hero, came from one of these thinking

days. Yeah. tell us about this because this idea is yeah so it's actually the craziest story of just cosmic alignment you know um so I was thinking a lot about just the plastic crisis and how like we're such as new moms you know we want to protect our kids the next the planet for the next generation and isn't it crazy the the feeling you get around protecting the world when you bring a baby in i mean beforehand i cared but i care right yeah and it's like the the new mom conviction of like oh my god like i'm part of the problem i mean the number of diapers every week you just have bags of piles and you know that each one of these diapers take 500 years to decompose in a landfill. There are billions that end up in a landfill every single year.

It is an atrocious problem. And a glycolic acid, all the stuff that's in the diapers are causing major toxic issues in the soil and on our planet. And so I started thinking, I was like, wait a minute. And I was sharing a little bit earlier with you. I'm like, if breast milk is liquid gold, you know, like, you know, it's nutrient dense. It's like what the baby pretty much ingests for the first year of their life. If not in Europe, they take it to, you know, they drink that for mostly two years of their life and, um, and sometimes longer, but that's like the main food for the baby. I'm like, oh, if breast milk is liquid gold, then therefore baby poop must be fertilizer gold.

And we're now just taking this fertilizer gold made from mama's mana from heaven and wrapping in plastic and throwing in the trash and not harnessing potentially billions of pounds of baby poop for good. And so I was like, oh my God, like what if something was in the diaper potentially billions of pounds of baby poop for good. And so I was like, Oh my God, like, what if something was in the diaper that can grow, trigger this dormant thing to grow and eat the diaper? What could it be? And I was asking myself this question, it's gonna be called hero diapers.

And then my son, I named it for my son and the company is called tier technologies, but the first product is hero diapers. And I was like, ah, like, and I was like, Hero diapers. Like what if the baby poops, what could it be? Hero who's two at the time comes running into my room at two years old as on my thinking day, as I'm like thinking like what could eat plastics? Literally asking myself this question. He comes into my room, two years old hero, and he points to book in my nightstand. And I look in my nightstand and there's a book there called Pacha's Pajamas. And this book had no business being there. It was there. I got this book by this beautiful woman who I was speaking at a conference like a year and a half prior.

And she was, you know, when people want to talk to you after and give you their books. And oftentimes those books end up in your bookshelves and you'll get to it at some point. But somehow this book got from my bookshelf into my nightstand in my bedroom, where you only, you know, your nightstands you have like five books. You don't have that many books.

And the fact that my son, who doesn't read at this point too, he points the book and he says, Pacha, Pacha, and Pacha Mama. So like nature mama. It's like, so then he points this book and I'm like, what is this book? So I pull out this book and I start reading it to him. And then he, after page three, he like runs away because he's two. But because it's my thinking day, I keep reading. And on page 29, it says mycelium eat plastics. So my son hero gave me the answer. I pointed to a Pacha Mama on nature, solving nature and gave me the answer to this problem that I wanted to solve. And so then I was like, oh my God, my, my ceiling fungi eat plastics.

It's crazy. And of course I looked into it and there was like so much, decade of studies around plastic eating mushrooms and things like that. So then, you know, I just went deep into the mycelium fungi world. You know, Taro, the founder of Four Sigmatic, who's like 14 generation mushroom farmer, who's now my co-founder and CEO of this company.

He's been on the podcast as well. We freaking love him. He's the best. And he's my co-founder and CEO of this company now. Oh my goodness. Oh, this could be huge. Yeah, he's been on the podcast as well we freaking love him he's the best he's my co-founder and ceo oh my goodness this is oh this could be huge yeah he's incredible yeah and you know we it's just it's been the universe just attracting the most incredibly beautiful aligned people for this for the sake of pachamama but it was such a perfect example for me of like wow when given space right and time to reflect to think like these deep downloads happen that can potentially shift a lot of things in the world oh i mean this

is going to be huge i'm so excited by it and one thing that i love as you're telling the story and you now have a co-founder and you're building this thing is a lot of people have ideas that come to them and they'll be like I know I can speak myself too oh but I'm already so busy I'm already doing this thing like I wish someone else would go do it you are the person that's like well if not me then like you go do it how are you able to to do that how are you able to like do multiple things and you do them very very very well and continue listening to ideas and actually executing on multiple things you're not defined by one business one thing you are building such an incredible empire of businesses that make the world better well first of all I only do one business at a time got it okay I don't I don't

really focus on, there's always an overlap. So like right now there's an overlap between Tushy and Hero. There was a little overlap between things in Tushy, but like there was, it was always like the second business doesn't, is, is secondary to my, what I'm focusing on right now in building.

So is it like your baby gets to a certain age and you're like, okay, they can walk on their own. Now it's time. Yes. Got it. For me, like I always, I like to think of myself as zero to 100, you know? certain age and you're like okay they can walk on their own now it's time yes got it for me like I always I like to think of myself as zero to 100 yeah you know and then and then and then hand it off to someone who's like you know he's the baby's off to college and like you know they're gonna go

and and then build and get a job and do their thing and like that's yeah that's what this little business is it's strong it's got all this resources it needs. And now it's like, off it goes. And I'm not that person to go from like a hundred to like a thousand. It's never been my interest. I've always been interested in changing culture. Right. And you know, and I think with that comes a lot of scrutiny and a lot of challenges, but I've always cared about how do we get people to try something different that's better for themselves and better for the planet. And whether it's like bleeding in your underwear or whether my first business, but I still have, which is gluten-free farm to table

pizza. You know, I have, you know, a couple of restaurants in New York still, I've been around for 18 years. It was crazy, you know, to, you know, washing your butt with water, which feels like duh globally in this country, it's still a very bizarre know, washing your butt with water, which feels like, duh, globally in this country, it's still a very bizarre, like is poopy water spreading everywhere? No, it's precise shower for your butt, you know? And there's still a lot of interesting and exciting creative challenge, challenges to overcome a lot of these perceptions that people have about just pooping in general or general or bleeding and all these kind of like unmentionable things that every human does, you know, and every woman

has, and that creates human life. Every human is here because of that very important time of the month. And so to destigmatize that has really, really been something that I, that I care about a lot as well. And so do you take playbooks from like every business and does it almost get faster and easier each time because you have like a playbook of how you've done it before? Oh, if we do this kind of PR thing or we do this, it's going to work.

If we do this kind of storytelling or you kind of start from scratch every time. Well, yeah, I mean, so just to rewind because I kind of lost my train of thought a little bit, but you know, you're like, okay, how do you do a lot of things at once? So first I do everything one at a time. Well, yeah. I mean, so, so just to rewind, cause I kind of lost my train of thought a little bit, but you know, you're like, okay, how do you do a lot of things at once? So first I do everything one at a time. Right. And then before I start any business, you know, I, I, I always ask myself three questions. And this is actually, these questions are actually in my book, do cool shit, which is the question. Number one is what sucks in my world. You know, oftentimes we try to

start a business that we think would be good and it's not really a personal challenge so then you kind of get bored with it over time so question number is what sucks in my world like i had stomachache with stuff in my world just started my gluten-free pizza restaurant i had bleeding out all the time so it's challenges where i started things and then with tushy you know just kept having to jump in the shower or put water under toilet paper it was such a messy experience because I'm trying to get clean. And so a bidet just made a lot of sense. And so what sucks in my world? Does it suck for a lot of people is a second question.

Does it suck for a lot of people? So one in five Americans are gluten intolerant or have gluten, you know, don't eat gluten. That's a huge opportunity. Every woman has had period accidents. Every person who's had like GI issues or, you know, all kinds of gut issues and chronic hemorrhoids, UTIs, these infections, you know, BV, like whatever those are, you know, those could be solved with a bidet. And a lot of people just don't know that. And so just, and that's low hanging fruit, people just want to be clean. And so it's like, does it suck for a lot of people? Yes, it sucks for a lot of people.

And then the third question is, can I be passionate about this issue? Cause your community for a really long time. Because oftentimes, you know, as you know, it takes 10 years to be an overnight success. We've heard that saying before over and over again. And oftentimes people are like, oh, well, look at Instagram. It took them three years and they like sold for a billion. Like that's gonna be me. It's like, well, that's like winning the lottery.

And most companies fail after one year. You know, most companies fail after their second year. And unless you really care deeply and can sit in the discomfort of this ride for at least 10 years, then I wouldn't start the business. Yeah. 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 yeah there's so much talk about the overnight success but even even now if your company was successful in a year two years it's because of the decades and decades decades of mistakes you've made yes and you're like oh i get to skip that part this time there's gonna be new mistakes but i'm not starting from scratch for sure for sure i i do think that there's yeah you met you you overste the landlines, the initial original

landlines for sure. It's like, oh, I don't want to work with investors like that. Or I want to make sure that I'm protecting myself on the shareholder cap table where I give myself additional founder shares. I didn't protect myself before, you know, or things like that, where I was like, oh, I wish I had done that. And now the next go around will be much tighter, much cleaner. So for sure, all those lessons carry forward. Okay. So tell me about your schedule. You said you had Fridays, which are clear. Do you do, do you have like a rhythm? Do you have blocked out days for certain things? How does it work? Yeah. So Mondays are sort of the big management team meeting calls, um, where I have like a call with my executive team,

with my marketing team, with my creative team and just all of the teams. And so to get them kind of ready for the week. And then Wednesday we'd kind of do a check-in and, you know, we do a check-in at the end of the week as well, if there are certain projects that are due. But I also will say that what's important to me for my own wellbeing based on just like burning myself out so much is that I do, I do do four hours of body work a week. I can do two, two hour massages a week. And oftentimes that's like in the afternoons because I have a kid as well. And so, and he, while he's at school, I can take care of myself and then I kind of, you know, finish up, you know, things I need to get

finished up, you finished up after dinner. Sometimes I really, really, really focus on hiring the very best people, delegating and really being kind of the big visionary on creative and new product development. But outside of that, I really want to give the responsibility to my amazing teams. And then so that I get to really focus on my wellbeing because I think like my wellbeing, just like your wellbeing is the most important thing for us to be able to continue to, to, to, to build and create and continue to do all the things that we're doing. And I've pushed myself way too much for way too long to not really, really listen to my body and give it a lot of self care I love that you bring this up actually because what I noticed for myself before I had a baby I

was very good at self-care thing because I had a lot more time evenings weekends and when once I went back to work after having Noemi Noemi yeah it's such a she's so sweet. Yeah. I noticed, you know, the times when I would be working, that's when I have support with Noemi. And so my evenings, my mornings, my weekends, I want to spend all that time with her. And I was noticing my self-care slipping. And once that slips, everything else slips. Like I can't be the best CEO or leader or wife or friend or mom without it. A hundred percent. And I have no guilt around that. Exactly.

But finding the time or creating the time, that's something I'm definitely working on right now. I don't have it figured out, but I'm working on it. And that's the word that I would kind of bring, pull out from what you said, the guilt. Yeah. Right. Like we, because we're the leadership of our, of our companies. And we have all these people working all the time that we, that, you know, or, or need us all the time that we feel like, Oh, we have to just be martyrs and just not take care of ourselves. And I'm like, I just pushed through. And then what happens is I then get sick for a week and then I'm out of commission

for a whole week and no one can talk to me because I'm just like dying in bed versus I take care of myself two hours, twice a week where I'm like, you know, deep self-care relaxed some support around, you know, just, just some of the heroes, basic needs being taken care of. And at first I was like, oh, like I should be the one bathing him. I should be the one feeding him. I should be the one doing all these things. And I'm like, no, no, no. I need to be on playing with him, being present with him, reading to him, teaching him things. And those other ancillary things that are just like more, just like busy shit like stuff. I don't need to be doing that anymore and you can find you know a nanny for twenty dollars an hour and like i guess you know it depends even if it's a couple of hours like

whatever it is for self-care is worth it but if you're a boss babe like we oftentimes like self-sacrifice yeah instead of self-honor and we self-abandoned instead of self-honor and that self-abandonment and, and, and, and just like foregoing our deepest, like just needs actually builds up over time. You know, my, my, my tarot, my, my co-founder for hero was like, you know, our, like one of the main things that we have to do is, is make sure you're happy, you know, for me and he's, and our team and everyone, but just like, he's like, cause if, if, if, if you're happy in leadership, it trickles down if you're stressed and like, you know, like it trickles down. And so like for us in our leadership positions, it is important

to be relaxed, happy, like clear. And for me, thinking days, giving body work, like that kind of stuff is like mission critical for having longevity in building companies over, over time, which all have, I mean, hero is a complete frontier business. There's no precedent for it. There's no manual for it. Everything is being learned as we go. We have incredible scientists on our team working full time on this business. We've hired the best business operations, you know, team from McKinsey, you know, who's working with us. We've got just epic people. We just brought in a product designer from, you know, Procter and Gamble, who's now our lead, lead of product, head of product. We're building the team and it's, it's, it's really exciting and they need me to be at my best, you know, and I can't do that if I'm

like just running on fumes. Yeah, this is definitely speaking to me because I've noticed that. And it's so interesting because the guilt part never really creeped in for me. And we hired an incredible nanny quite early on and she's become part of the family. And it's amazing because now when I take breaks, start my day and I'm feeding my daughter, I'm playing with her, I'm present. I'm not worried about the next type of change and getting her down for a nap. And is she staying asleep and those things. And that's great for me. That's what works for me. I'm not saying that's the right thing for everybody, but that's what works for me. And I've noticed that time I've got, I've been throwing myself into work. I think from a guilt place, I think my guilt,

I should be, I should be. I didn't have that with my daughter because I know what serves her and me and our relationship. So then I threw it into work. Oh, well, I should be present. I should be doing this. You know, not many people on my team do have children. Oh, so I want to show up. I want to show that I can. And just noticing it has changed everything for me. Totally. And also just calling it out and just saying like, for example, with me, like I'm like, I have to go pick up my son at three 30. And so at the beginning of calls, I'm like, I know our call, you know, is an hour, but I might have to cut it short 10 minutes because I have to go pick up my child, you know, and everyone understands that. And so it's just a matter of just setting expectations early on and right away versus

like being like, Oh God, you know, and feeling guilty and apologetic. It's how we like powerfully share. This is what I'm doing. The job's going to get done. Most important thing that anyone cares about anyways, the job gets done and it gets done with excellence. Like for me, like I don't care what your schedule is. If you get your job done and you do it with excellence, go as you wish. It shouldn't be about hours spent FaceTime. I did that when I was working investment banking, working 100 hours a week and just sitting there doing FaceTime, which just was such bullshit versus like, no, no, do precise, excellent work. Prove to me that you can do that and get your other shit done. I have no problems with you

leaving a relationship. I love that. And that's also such a power, the power of remote work work yeah I've loved seeing that and I love knowing my team can go to the doctor when they need to go the doctor they can go if they needed to pick kids up from school if that's part like I love that we can do that and have that flexibility as long as you get the job done exactly you know if that starts to fall then it's like a conversation and and some of the challenges that we faced you know as leaders is like, well, I had to do this. Why do that? Well, great. Like I'm supportive of you doing all the things you need to do for your personal life. And it's important for you to take care of business too. Like you've been hired for a job, you're working full time. We're taking care of your insurance,

taking care of your salary. We're taking care of those things. And in exchange, you have to get your job done really well. And so, and sometimes I'm sure as, you know, a loving, fun, you know, female in the room, you know, it's probably sometimes challenging to have to wear both faces, right? To be the friend and be the boss. And then, you know, like it's, you know, they say it's a whiplash sometimes where you're like, okay, now it's time to get the job done. I've had to learn to like have arm's length because at my last company, it was like, we're all friends. We're all like, you know, like, you know, solving the, you know, the, like

the, the, the period problem together. And you know, like, let's like girl power, like, let's do it. And then I got deeply burned from that experience. And, um, because a lot of it was the whiplash of like, we're friends, but then when I tell you that you have to do a great job, you're now defiant because I thought we're friends. And I was like, just because you think we're friends doesn't mean you can't do an excellent job. I still have a very high standard. And if I have to fire you because you're not doing an excellent job and you're not great for the culture, then I'm so sorry. But then they feel like it's a betrayal from their friend. Right. Right. So I've had to learn that like,

Ooh, like can't be, can't be close to my team unless there's deep, deep, deep, deep, deep trust. And oftentimes when you have to make tough calls, like fire people,

even if they're your friend, that is tough to do. And so I've learned at my, you know, at Tushy and you know, that to have a bit of an arm's length you never fully blur the lines they're not the lines are very clear yeah I've definitely experienced that too and it's it's one of those things I think you have to have the experiences

because sometimes to hear it you're like okay I get it but until you experience it with like with a lot of things yeah you learn what your boundaries are. But I definitely have noticed myself in situations not saying what I want to say because of the friendship. For sure. And, oh, if I say that, it's going to rock a bit. I don't want to make her feel bad. I know. Then you feel bad. That's the thing.

Then you're walking eggshells and it's your company. And you're not doing the relationship in any form or service in that sense. Right. Exactly. You're not doing the relationship. You're not doing the business. You're not doing, know yeah and so it's the whiplash of trying to be friends with your with everyone is is really is really hard and for me being like someone just wants to be friends with everyone like yeah it's bitten me

really hard yeah past and so I'm like it's like you know fool me once shame on you yeah we twice shame on me yeah yeah yeah and so I've I've learned that I've learned that the hard way yeah that is a very good lesson to learn I'm still learning it but I've been through that and seen it and speaking of the person on the business one thing I really want to talk to you about is you have such a full life I mean especially from the outside you have such a full life and and you are doing so many things you still have fun while you're doing it that's really what it looks like. How do you, I don't like the word balance because I feel like it's harmony always.

It's different seasons, different harmony. And people take advantage of that word. Yeah, I know. I'm burnt out. It's like, well, like, I don't know how you work remote. It's 10 to six. You get all the holiday, like you get all the time you want. You have to leave whenever you want.

Like there's sometimes it's self to six, you get all the holiday, like you get all the time you want, you have to leave, you can leave whenever you want. Like it's, there's some, there's sometimes it's, it's, um, self-inflicted, you know, also anyways, but carry on. No, I completely agree with that. Very self-inflicted. It's like the slack at midnight. Well, you didn't need to be doing that. Um, but how, how do you go between seasons and have that harmony and be able to have a full life, a full life, not just a work life or not just a mom life, a full life. Something that I really index off myself and I really want to prioritize is I want to have an amazing relationship. I want to be an amazing mom. I want to really love my work. I want to see my friends. I want to have the fullness of life and I want to embrace the seasons that that comes in. How have you navigated that? And how do you continue to navigate that? Yeah. I mean, I think it's prioritizing. I think a lot of times when people go into business or

they start new jobs or they're, you know, they kind of just, just go completely offline and then they start to lose friendships. They start to like isolate themselves. They start to like, it does take a toll over time. And so one of the things I always share with new entrepreneurs or people going in, people who are starting new things is the first thing I would suggest you do show up for your friends and still show up to all the things and still, because they'll not only serve your spirit, but then when things do get challenged in your life, and then you just keep saying, sorry, I can't make it because I'm busy. I'm building my company.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. Over time, they'll stop calling you. They'll stop inviting you. Then you'll just stop. And it's more isolation, more isolation, more depression, more stress, more burnout. And so for me, it's like, it's the actual opposite. The more I spend time with my friends, the more I self-care, the more I can give my business. And so it's like,

it feels counterproductive because there's this guilty feeling like work, work, work, work, work. But it's not saying don't like not work. I'm saying work efficiently and work excellently and do work precisely, but work resourced, you know? Cause like, you know, when you're like burnt out and you're just like, I'm working all day long, like it's shit work. I'm slacking all day long. Well, are you not getting anything done? Yeah. And so it's like, let, like, let's do excellent work and also go and serve your soul because the more you serve your soul. So for me, like I get so filled up playing with my friends, I get so filled up being with my, with hero, you know, and I think like that, like bright eyed, bushy tailedness comes back to the business. And so then when I went with my team, they feel that energy. They don't feel like a burnt out, like what's, what's going on right

now. I'm like, yeah, like this isn't me. Like, you know, there's so much excitement, enthusiasm in the businesses when I'm in them. And, and, and so it's not like a forced balance. It actually is what works the best. It's actually the most, it's the, it's the, it's the high, it's the most productive way to build a company is by being satiated the rest of your life. Yeah. And I think people say that and, and, and you hear it, but to actually see successful entrepreneurs living it. But most people then say, I live a balanced life, but then they just stop showing up for their work. Interesting. And then they just be like, I need to be balanced.

Right. And then they just stop. And so I think it's like, no, no, no, don't, you don't have to like, you just have to start again, focusing on what you do best. Right. So for me, the zone of genius, like I love creative. I'll do that all day long. It doesn't feel like work for me.

Yeah. But like the operations, like all the emotional shit, like that's hard for me. And it takes a toll on my body. So like bringing the troops who are excellent at that, you know, and who I admire deeply for that. And so there's a mutual admiration so that we get to be lit up on what we're doing and then also lit up in the rest of our lives. It only begets more lit up. Like, and then of course, like that energy attracts people to your business and attracts people

to wanting to learn about it. And it's just a positive, we call it a boom spiral, like an upward spiral. I love that so much. And also, one thing it sounds like, you've had co-founders with a lot of your businesses?

Yes, I've brought in epic co-founders. I have with Boss Babe too, and I absolutely love it. And I'm curious what that decision was for you and how that works for you. Because I think a lot of people, they mentioned to me and Danielle,

oh, I feel like I could never have a co-founder. Oh, I'd love a co-founder, but I don't really know how to go about it. I don't know how it would work. I've learned in a very, very deep way what not to do.

Tell me what not to do. What not to do is like, oh my God, but me and my best friend, that's like the fast track to not being best friends ever again. Because step on each other's toes, you have differing opinions about certain things. It just does not work. To me, the best partners are completely different temperaments and completely different skill sets. So like, for example, my COO and CEO for Tushy, right? They're both calm people. They're both pretty stoic, just chill vibes. I'm like, and then this, what about this? You know, my CMO or my marketing, my VP of marketing, we're all just super like spirited people because that's the role of creatives and marketers.

Right. They're just like, oh, like, oh, what about this? But like the COO and CEO have to be steady handed. Yeah. So different temperaments. I see the feminine and masculine in that too. Not in men and women, but bringing different temperaments. Yes.

Yes. And so different temperaments and then skill sets. If my co-founder, like, for example, for Hero and for Tushy, for, you know, Justin's a former lawyer, you know, Jason is, you know, business school, Amazon executive for a decade before joining Tushy, you know, with Hero, Larry worked at McKinsey, Taro was CEO of his company. And so just like very, very strategic thinkers, you know? And so like, those are the types of people I want to, I need around me as a creative, like, Oh, what about this? And what about that? You know, and different temperaments, different skill sets. Right. And if, if, if we, I, I believe that like,

and I've learned that now over the last 20 years as an entrepreneur, that that creates the right winning partnership formula where you're in mutual awe of each other. In my restaurants, for example, my, my partner, my restaurant, Waleed, he's, you know, a restaurant operator. And when he showed up, our business numbers like doubled in one week, tripled in a month because he knew how to run a restaurant efficiently. But I was always a person like recruit, getting people to come in the door and getting pressed to come to the restaurant and trying to get people to write about it. And like, you know, making sure the experience was amazing when customers had come in. And so that was like my zone of genius. And his was making sure the back of house was just running like a well-oiled machine. Wow. Like it works. And across the board,

different temperaments and different skill sets is like the way to go. This reminds me of something I heard Brandon Bouchard say, which was, it's not necessarily about fairness in co-founder relationships it's about the alchemy yes that you both bring yeah it's like that in any relationship think about your relationship with your husband or your partner or your friends there's an alchemical thing like you said it's not it's not it's not like okay well this is your resume it's but it's it's yes different skill sets different things and there has to have a special juice. Yeah. And so how with co-founders do you do that balance between friendship and business relationship and partnership? Because I definitely know with me and Danielle, our lives are so intertwined.

Like, it's so intertwined. I think co-founders are different from team. Okay, tell me about that. I think co-founders for me are like, I consider them family, friends, like deep, deep, you know, soul fam in a lot of ways. So I, I spend a lot of time in friendship with my co-founders because we're on the, we're, we're, they're, I, they're not necessarily working for me. And so because of that, there's no automatic hierarchy or power dynamic. It's, we're the same, we're equal. Whereas even if I want to be friends with,

I will say I'm, I'm dear, I'm like closest with my, with my new head of business operations for Hero, but we, we actually signed an agreement that said, you know, like here's a, like NDA, not a spare, like things that like, we can be friends and do friendship things outside of our, you know, business relationship. But it's the one, it's the one exception that I've made so far in my, in my interest, since my experience that, that last time that I had at my last company where there was like a power dynamic thing and friendship thing. And I was just like, ah, you know, and I got really burned by that experience. And so as a result, I'm like, okay, like I met, I met this person, my head of business operations in a friendship situation. And so we kind of made, it was a kind of a funny thing where I was like,

okay, there are two ways we can go. Either we establish a very like stoic employer employee relationship, or you can sign agreements that say like, you are totally fine with us. Like, with like, you know, like a non-disparagement, non-disclosure kind of a thing outside of our business that we're both very eyes wide open coming into this business partnership. Like having a piece of paper to turn to over and over again, I think is actually very important. That's very interesting. I've not heard it said like that. I know. And so it's new and we've never done this before either, but you know, and he was like, obviously I want to go with this because we're friends and I don't want to like not be friends anymore yeah so but yeah that was a very kind of

unorthodox thing that that we did but I think made me feel safe how do you then balance having those crucial conversations in a business setting with people that are also really close friends do you find that that clouds things or does it make it easier that's why I think it's important to work with to bring it so like for example this particular person he was already he's already serious he's a serious worker like he just doesn't like he keeps me in check you know like we have to cover these things like this is what we're doing what about your co-founder my co-founder my co-founders are always deep like finance legal like so like again we're in a mutual awe of each other. And so it's this like level of deep respect. And I think you can't start any partnership without like the depth of

respect. Yeah. I, I love that so much. Yeah. What I found having a co-founder with Boss Babe too, is it's almost, it's for me, like another marriage and it's a sacred relationship that you get to treat that way and you have to water it. And the a sacred relationship that you get to treat that way and you have to water it. And the relationship that you have as co-founders, I think really will determine the success of the business because it all trickles down, like you were saying, the way the strength of that relationship will trickle down. A hundred percent. And do you feel like you and your partner or co-founder have different skill sets and different temperaments? Yeah. So we weren't friends. We became friends after we co-founded which i think was the right

complete opposite and then i'm sure different is she also personality different as well yeah i mean we have we do we're virgo capricorn i'm capricorn she's so we do have a lot of similarities but we communicate slightly similarly but we feel in different ways. So there's definitely been some differences, some similarities, but our skill sets have been completely different. Which I'm sure has been so huge. It has. It's been really great because then the lines aren't blurred. Who's doing what? That's been really interesting and taught me a lot about co-founding. Just let's not have blurred lines. I know what she's doing because it's inherent to

what she's good at I know what I'm doing because it's inherent to what I'm good at and when the lines get blurred or you have expectations of someone that they're not able to meet I think that's where it gets tough for sure whereas when you know who you're getting into business with I think that's really important I also think it's super important to have everything written down so that so that because you've now established a friendship. So like, these are your roles and responsibilities. These are my roles and responsibilities written down very clear. I sign off on it. You sign off on it so that in the event that we have a run in, you can always point a piece of paper. You're like, look, will you sign this? This is your responsibility and your role. I don't want to like create anything that's untrue, but this is

what, this is why the people because everybody like you know it's like that shit works like you know sometimes but like after a while when you've built something really powerful that you like you have yeah you've there's got to be some piece of paper to point to and so now like I I create contracts for every single thing everything and every partnership and everything that we do and what kind of thing would you put in a contract like I I know the standard operating agreements but one thing and i think a lot of entrepreneurs make this mistake because i'd had a partnership before my my business with boss babe and i didn't really do an agreement because i didn't know much about it i was like we don't

need to pay the lawyers for that that's an expense obviously i learned that the hard way pay lawyers um do you go with a typical operating agreement do you both sit down and discuss different things and put that in i love how tactical we're getting here no it's great yeah i mean i think i think roles and responsibilities are just generally clear it's like okay your job is to like make sure you find the best talent to work with or to do partnerships with or whatever it is that you're doing and her job is to like run operations and make sure the business is running smoothly i'll build our page whatever it might be right and so it is to like run operations and make sure the business is running smoothly. I'll build our page, whatever it might be. Right. And so it's just like, it's, it's as simple as like in the appendix, like usually standard operating agreement is like pretty standard, but then the

appendix just states like, this is my job. This is your job. And we both agree to that. And we're both like stoked on that. Yeah. And so I think like most oftentimes, like I said, when it's done between friends, they don't do the piece of paper piece, which then later bites them in the ass. And so just having everything written down, it feels like formal, but that's like- Formal's good. Formal's good when it comes to just creating like a sim- Like actually when you create that boundary and like, this is my job, this is your job, it actually creates so much more freedom and actually more like, okay, like I know my role, you know, your role, now we can go

play because we know what each other's roles are. But before that, you're like, what am I doing? What are you doing? Like, I don't, you know, and then you actually feel ungrounded versus like, we actually signed something concrete. I feel really good about it. Let's go. You know?

So I think it actually creates more freedom and less like constraints. I agree. I think we've probably just saved a lot of people listening to this, a future headache. So you're welcome. But I agree. I think what's been really helpful for us is having completely different roles and responsibilities.

And when you talk about doing something with excellence, it's a lot easier to do something with excellence when you know what you're doing. Right. And if, if the, if your role's not clear and you don't know what you're bringing to the table,

it's very hard to do your job well. For sure. I've really noticed that. And my role definitely has evolved and changed. But when I'm clear on what I'm doing, I'm like, oh, I can do this. I know that when it's blurred, it's harder. And I will also say, like, you know, when you're starting a new company, especially in this realm of, like, frontier science, you know, that there's no precedent for it.

There is a lot of trust that it's like, okay, like I can, I can work with not exactly knowing my roles and responsibilities. Like, like, like, okay, I'm running business operations. I'm running like, for example, all of the different work streams. I don't know what the work streams are yet. I just know that I'm going to be handling the processes of like, once we figured out what they are to do that part of the job. So there's also,

there's like, it's like not having the blurred lines, knowing concrete, but then also in the startup world, having a little bit of flexibility around like getting to figure out what those exact things are. They'll develop. What is needed of you.

And that could change also over time. And so it's, it's in the beginning, it's okay. Right now, this is what we need. It's almost like a balance sheet. Like this is what I need right now. But then it could change. Like the needs of the business changes.

And then we sit back down. Like, okay, every quarter we'll sit back down and kind of reorganize our responsibilities. Like that's also possible. Or in a year, we'll do that because the business will be at this point of the business yeah you know but this first year we're all science like let's just go deep in the science and we know that's our roles responsibilities but then in a year it's marketing or it's partnerships or it's pr or it's finding retail partners or it's you know like all the different pieces of of of the next part of the business yeah that's yeah that's exactly how my journey's evolved.

The business gets into different stages and you're like, oh, that's not needed for me anymore. Okay, what's the next thing I'm taking on? And what am I stepping into? What is my growth edge? And it's such, I mean, I think being an entrepreneur is the biggest growth. Totally.

You're like, okay. Yeah, you're always being pushed. Yeah, I very much feel that that what I'm also really curious about is the support that you have around you so for me I feel like I definitely couldn't especially since I've become a mom it's even more important for me to have support around me so I'm not doing all the things so I'm curious what kind of support you have around you, whether you have an assistant, what they might support you with, like who, what is your team that makes you able to like stay in your genius zone? Yeah. Um, I, I do have an assistant, um, and, um, Quinny, she's my queen. Um, I love her name. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She, um, she just, she just handles my scheduling, my kind of travel,

my emails. Um, she also actually, this is my biggest challenge for me as a creative where I get very present with what I'm doing is I just forget about time. And so even, you know, I, sometimes I forget to set my alarms for like meetings or things like that. So she, she calls me like two minutes before every one of my calls and at the time of every one of my calls. Cause sometimes in those two minutes, something happens in those two minutes where I'm like, shit, like I just got present again, what I'm doing. And I just, you know, usually in the two minutes, two minute notice, like I can wrap up what I'm doing and then get on the call. But then two, in those two minutes, I might get rewrapped up and then she calls i'm like okay i gotta go you

know and so she calls me two minutes before every call at the time of every call and i've looked and that's like i think every person has their own systems yeah right like anything else i have my nanny from my home who handles like the bathing and the food creation and like some of the cleaning and whatever and and and i get to do the playing and the deep creative stuff with the kid and really like teach him soccer and teach him inventive like Like how do we make three inventions a day? And we like work on like all these different things. And he's always just, and he makes songs every day. We make up songs and dances every day.

We just made up six games that we're going to go and practice this weekend. And we're going to test out the games and just make sure that they're good before we bring in his friends to do an actual like, you know, real competition. Like, you know, and it's just having, you know, like for me, it's a clerical stuff that I'm really bad at. Like I'm, I, I, you know, I call it logisticing. Like I'm really bad at like being a logistician, like, you know, I'm just not a logistician. And so I'm just like, you know, and so that's my biggest point of stress in my life is like being late for calls, being late for meetings, keep keeping people waiting. And they just think I'm like being rude, but it's not like I don't want to like, but I just have so much going on. And I'm also so present with what I'm doing

that I just like, you know, and so, and then, so then what do I do? I set up systems. And so I think like having an assistant and you can find an assistant literally like in Philippines for like $5 an hour. Yeah. Literally that could do this job and they'll gladly do this job. Their only job is they just want to make you happy. So people are like, well, I can't really afford it. You can find ways.

There's always a way to make it work. There's always ways to make it work and doesn't have to be full time. It can be part time that just handles some of the stuff that you can just focus on what you do best. And if you focus on what you do best, the ROI really that paying for themselves. That's it. And well overpaying for themselves. It actually multiplies what you paid your assistant to take care of,

like some of the stuff. And it could be not that much. Like it actually supports like three times more of like what you could be earning as a result. And so, so I, you know, having an assistant,

having a nanny for my, for life. And then of course, like building the team, it's like my creative leadership, my, you know, our marketing leadership, our executive leadership, like, and that takes time, you know, like, but I think the more energy that we gain back, the more we focus on our zone of genius, the better the business does. Like, Oh, I'm spending this much money on a CEO. I was spending this much money on this, but that means I can spend more time on my zone of genius. We'll then take us double what we're paying him. You know what I mean? So just like you said, it's an exponential return. Yeah. That's the way I try and think of all the support systems that I have in my life as investments. I just recently hired a new coach

and the investment probably to the outsider looking is like, that is insane. But to me, I just see the ROI. I'm not seeing it going out like, oh, what I can achieve because of that 60 minute session a week is so far beyond what I would have ever achieved. Totally. And also some people, for example, they're like, oh, wow, you do like a lot of body work every week. Like, oh, that must be expensive. And I'm like, it's like, oh, wow, you have a ton of purses. I don't have a single purse. Right.

I don't own a purse, actually. Yeah. I don't buy stuff like constantly, like all the time. Yeah. I spend money on self-care. Yeah. And that's my priority in like healthy food, you know, and taking care of certain things. And some people prioritize like going out and going to fancy dinners and this and that.

Like I prioritize like getting like yummy, like healthy, organic food delivered to my house. And then I make, you know, it's very clean and, and I'm, I don't like the, it's like I choose where I put my dollars. And, and I think that, that is what creates like the efficiency of excellence too. Yeah. Like getting shit done. Ramis Sethi talks about that. He talks about creating your rich life and your rich life is you invest in the things that really make you happy. And it's different for everyone. For some people it's travel, it's eating out. For me, it's team

support, self-care, and then you don't spend on the things that don't matter to you well if you don't like bags why are you buying that thing is it just to show off and then you're bored of it totally and once I adopted that mindset I started doubling down on the things that really matter to me like when I have a travel day I want to travel in the nicest way possible so it makes me feel good and I'll spend less on going out eating and that doesn't really matter to me I like to eat healthy food yes or and so I think about it in that way and it makes such a big difference and when I think about self-care and you know all the things I do for my health or coaching it might look crazy but I'm like oh I know exactly what I'm getting from this and this

is so worth it to me 100% I loveizing. Yes. Yes. And again, like take the guilt out. I think women in business right now, I mean, all these boss babes listening and watching and whatever, it's like the idea that like, like, oh, I need to lean in. Right. And there's still this like philosophy of like, I need to push past myself. And I think like, if we eliminate that and still have an excellence mindset, because it's like, again, like I keep saying this over and over again, like, and I've experienced as a leader over and over again, where I've had to sit people down and be like, I get it. You want to balance lifestyle, but you're just using it as an excuse to not actually

do excellent work. Right. And I don't like that either. It's like, you can do both. So like, that's what you can do is like, you know, when you say women can do it all, you can do it all by taking care of yourself and doing excellent work and don't phone it in and call it self-care like that. I hate that. That's like greenwashing to me. Like, it's kind of like what they, there's this like storybook of

this, this story that I read about this, a cleaning lady who cleans like, you know, like Picasso paints, you know? And it's like, she takes such pride in cleaning homes and it's like to keep it pristine. And she just treats it like literally Picasso painting, you know? And I'm like, every job can be treated and worked on with that level of excellence if you so choose. Yep. And I just like those who half-ass or phone it in, I don't have any, I don't have any respect for that. And I think that's sometimes part of the challenge. And when I have to sit people down and say like, today's your last day, you know, like, and I've had to do that in the past and their own guilt

of their own, like knowing of their, like not, or they're like bad for culture or not doing excellent work. They then turn it on me. Like you're the worst boss. You did this to me. You, you, you versus being like, yeah, like I,

cause they know it. They just knew they know it. Yeah. And oftentimes you project out versus looking in. Yeah. And I, I, you know,

I'm also guilty of like defensive knee jerk reactions. And then I always check myself and be like, Oh, Hey, that was my own projection. I'm sorry. Like we can all fuck up and make mistakes and say the wrong things. As long as you come back and say, Hey, I reflected, I'm sorry. That was, that was my own projection. I, you know, so there's, but I, I, I do, I really do believe like that. If people are focused on doing excellent work, they'll feel so much pride in that. And then they won't feel the guilt of asking for time off.

Totally. You know what I mean? And there's something I love witnessing. People do excellent work. Yes, because they feel like, ah. Yes. The person that comes to mind is my FedEx delivery guy. He is freaking phenomenal.

He shows up every single, I get a lot of packages, every day, so happy. And I love going to the door. Like he rings the doorbell, he walks away. I try and race to the door because I want to see him.

I'm like, thanks. I get fed with the energy. I get so fed with the energy. He's like, have a nice day. Good to see you. How's the baby? And he's hopping in and he just takes a couple seconds,

but he's driving with the biggest smile on his face there'll be someone else doing that exact same job that might be in a completely different mindset and they are not enjoying that job at all and it comes out and it shows and they don't feel good probably people they're delivering to doesn't feel good that manager doesn't feel good everyone that comes into contact with this guy feels so good yes and i have people like that on my team too where they care so deeply and i just love witnessing that because if we take that energy into our work it's a way that you can turn around a shitty day and make an amazing day yes yes i love that it's it's everything's an energy exchange and you know doing excellent work is an exchange of like oh like i did that and then that projects

outwards onto other people as well yeah and then it's just again this upward spiral of like positive like self-respecting energy yeah i love that and it's not like i'm oh do this and you'll get a promotion do this for this like i'm doing this i want to do this and i want to do the i feel so lucky with my tushy team and my and my hero team right now. They're both, they like, everybody cares so much. Like nobody's phoning it in. Like everybody cares so, so, so much. And it's like, when you do weed out the certain people who kind of like talk shit or brings energy down or just says negative things all the time and just like always poo-pooing the job and just, you know what I mean? Like sometimes people feel like an

affinity with other people by talking shit about their work. Like, oh, I hate my job. Me too. Like versus like, oh, like I was so inspired by what I'm doing. Like, I feel like we've weeded out all of like the shit talkers. Yeah. I remember reading somewhere, the number one reason that you'll lose A players is surrounding them with B players. Yeah. And that always stuck with me. And one thing I've noticed at Boss Babe

is if we hire someone that isn't that A player, isn't doing their job with excellence, doesn't have the energy, our team's very quick to call it out. Yeah. Hey, I'm all for teamwork, but I'm not for doing someone else's job and them taking the credit.

Or, and the fact that they call it out, I'm like, yes, like's job and them taking the credit or and the fact that they call it out I'm like yes like this is exactly what we want I want you to be surrounded by people that give you energy and I think that's the sign of a really great team 100% 100% oh I love this I could talk to you all day but I know I can't keep you forever but thank you so much for doing this and for everything you do in the world I can't you need to come back when you launch these diapers do you have any ta does it do we know when this is gonna launch 2024 okay yeah 2024 i will say in the meantime though if you really care about like disrupting the way you think about things i did write the book disrupt her okay as well so it'd be something that's great i think your your listeners would

be into so if you've checked it out yet but um yes i have yes disrupt it and where can everyone find you on socials just at mickey agro I love it I'm so excited I think by the time I have my next baby I'll be using your diapers yes thank you mickey this is great you're awesome I'm excited in Austin we'll hang out I know yeah I would love that thank you so much for listening and if you enjoyed this episode on the boss babe podcast then I'd absolutely love it if you leave us a review. As a thank you, we'll send you our side hustle success kit. Your simple, no BS guide to keeping track of everything that you need to do to start and grow your business. To access this freebie, all you need to do is leave us a review,

then share a screenshot of your review with contact at bossbabe.com and we'll send this must-have kit straight to your inbox. Bye.