The Entrepreneur DNA - Why the Smartest Entrepreneurs Are Choosing Community Over AI | Heather Simpson

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

Everyone wants to talk about AI, but my guest this week would rather talk about people. Heather Simpson spent years in real estate building brokerages and personal brands for agents before making a hard pivot to build something for women entrepreneurs specifically. Today she runs Her Connection Hub, a coworking and community space in the Pacific Northwest, and she is expanding into Northern California. We got into why she thinks too many people are outsourcing their thinking, the gap she saw between hustle culture and the "make a million from the beach" crowd, and what actually separates the women who win from the ones who stall out. We also had a real conversation about sacrifice, about what it costs a mother to go after something bigger, and about how she is adapting a physical business in a challenging 2026 economy. Heather uses AI for systems, never for her voice, and honestly I think that is where the smart operators are landing. If you are a builder who feels wired for more, this one is for you. About Heather: Heather Simpson is a business strategist, community builder, and the founder of Her Connection Hub, a female-focused coworking community in Bellingham, Washington. Simpson began offering monthly Connection Breakfasts in 2018, and they proved to be the catalyst for something much bigger. The events resonated deeply with attendees, who then voiced their desire for a physical coworking space, and so Simpson turned that dream into a reality with Her Connection Hub, which opened to the public in 2021. Before building for entrepreneurs, Heather spent years in real estate helping agents develop their brands and helping launch brokerages. She is also the founder of She Leads Me, a company devoted to supporting women on their individual journeys in their lives, careers, and businesses. She hosts the podcast Shatter This, a show for leaders, founders, and builders who are done outsourcing their thinking and ready to create what actually lasts. Her first book, Shattering Glass, is coming soon. Connect with Heather Simpson: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weshatterglass/ Website: https://shatteringglass.com Her Connection Hub: http://herconnectionhub.com Her Connection Hub Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herconnectionhub/ Shatter This Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shatter-this-with-heather-simpson/id1866931224 Heather's book, Shattering Glass, is coming soon. Stay updated at https://shatteringglass.com About Justin: Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The M.O.R.E Show podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience. Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence. Connect with Justin: Instagram: @thejustincolby YouTube: Justin Colby TikTok: @justincolbytsof LinkedIn: Justin Colby Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is up the entrepreneur, D-N-A-A-I-A-I. It's all anyone can talk about. Now, this is going to be a great topic because everyone wants to talk about AI, except for my next guest. We might talk about it, but she cares more about human connectivity, communities, clubs. Heather Simpson is here. How are you? Hi, I'm so great. Thanks for having me this morning.

Yeah, I'm excited about it. You have a wealth of resume. Obviously, we can go into all that. But I really wanted to start out out of the gates. Everyone in their mother wants to talk about the new AI thing and you're leaning in to connectivity. Tell me why. Yeah. Because I think that far too many people are outsourcing their thinking and that's becoming a really big problem.

And the more disconnected, the more plugged in we become, we become disconnected in person. So that has a ripple effect of things that don't impact us as human. very positively and can actually bring on a lot of negative things into our world as I think we're continuing to see more and more. It's hard to know what's real when you're online, but it's it's so easy to actually like tune in, read body language, read tone and connect with people face to face and be able to tell what's real. And so I think that now more than any time in the pandemic era, I think that now bringing people together, and having connectivity in person is more valuable and important than it's ever been before.

Now, let's take a step back. You started in the real estate space. Like most of us awesome entrepreneurs. Amen, girl. Amen, right? And so I think my audience knows I have 20 years in the real estate space. And so you made a very brave decision, right? You stood up for what you actually believed in, what you wanted to do. I actually use the I don't like the people to say what's your why and follow your passion.

I think that's a little cliche and over delivered. I actually like to think about what's going to actually be the longevity of your business. And you're only going to have longevity of your business if you actually enjoy what you do or at least believe in what you're doing. Hard to believe in real estate. Right. Like I didn't wake up for 20 years and I'm sure you didn't like, God, I love real estate. It drives my, you know, you never have those days. So, but you did. You said, you know what, I'm going to make a hard pivot. I'm going to make the choice to go into a direction that I actually desire to go into. Did you get any blowback from some of the closest people around you?

I think I've always just taken a different path. And so, yes, the people closest to me have always been concerned with the choices that I have made because they can rather me take the safer route. And, you know, what I was really doing in real estate at the time was very, like, agent focused. Like, yes, I did do property development. I did do help clients buy and sell. But mostly where I found my greatest, like, gifting and joy was really helping agents. behind the scene and develop their brand eventually helped start a couple of brokerages and really be kind of the first one at least in our area back in like 2010 where it was like very agent focused

instead of brokerage focused. And so deciding to kind of remove just the real estate umbrella from that and see how I can do that just for entrepreneurs in general. And specifically for me, my audience is women. That was a very important shift. And, And I think it was, yes, like, what is Heather doing now? But also when you see now and you look back the trajectory of like all of the things that I was doing in real estate and helping build brokerages and helping build people's careers and now what I'm doing, the common thread is still there, it just changed from just real estate specific to be like, why don't we do this for all businesses? Why don't we help people really develop? And then now, you know, everybody has a personal brand and that's not a. new thing, but at the time, it really was. And it was about a company more than it was about an

individual and a person. And so that transition felt very natural to me. And yes, I'm always used to people questioning my decisions and not being able to really understand the scope of where I'm going. I've accepted that. I now know that that's called being a really strong visionary. And not everybody is like that, a very small percentage of the world is. And so I've just really embraced that. Yeah. And still do it anyways. Well, you know, I have a coach and he talks about more doing, you know, following your burn. And again, not to use the cliche of like what's your why. Because anyone listening as a parent is going to say their kids or their fans. Like that's it's an easy answer. But what's your burn, right? And how do you wake up every single day and connect to it?

And I think that's the brand difference in who you are today versus when you're in real estate. is now women know you predominantly that audience is your audience as someone who can help propel them into their burden and in what they really should be doing and what is their voice and what is their brand going out there and doing. Now, just out of curiosity, why do you choose to specifically focus on the women community? I found this really interesting gap when I was specifically in the real estate space and helping build these companies. I worked with a lot of really incredible men. I vibe really well with high producers. I have a high drive. And then there was this interesting juxtaposition between what was available as far as like now sometimes what is referred to as like toxic masculinity.

But I really, I actually, I don't think, I think that a demonizing hustle culture is actually like not a great thing. I thrive off of hustle culture. It's one of my best friends and it's actually helped me produce a lot. And in the women's space, there was this gap that was just like so the opposite of not really tapping into strength as a woman, but like more into softness and balance. And I just, that's not anything I really relate to. Yeah. I know what I'm wired for. I know what I feel like my mission is that God has put on my heart and in my life. And I am going for that and going for it pretty rapidly. And I think that there was this missing kind of storyline of, well, hey, you don't have to be this extreme or this extreme. Like there is times where it is absolutely necessary for you to hustle. There are times where it's like normal for you to be tired because you're working towards

something greater than you. And that's going to come along with the territory. And there was this missing component of the story that wasn't being told. So on one hand, it's like, you know, hustle culture, da, da, da, da, da. And on the other hand, it's like, I'm making a million dollars from a beach. And there was nothing in the middle there specifically that was speaking to women. And so I saw these really like energetic high charged women that are very strong, struggling with like, I want to tap into my femininity. I want to be able to use my strength and my power, but I really don't relate to this, what's being sold to us as women.

Where is the part in the middle? And so I felt like that was very important. I still feel like it's very important because everything on a pendulum swings back and forth pretty rapidly. And I think that somewhere in the middle, there is a solid truth for a very specific type of person that I am speaking to. that are builders that do really want to change certain elements of their world or the world. And that comes with a lot of elements of hard work that isn't really discussed and talked about

to the brevity that I think that it should. So you are looking for your, you know, your avatar of who you'd like to make an impact with is the woman who knows that they can push harder. They're not okay with just being feminine and empathetic. pathetic and a stay-at-home mom. And by the way, my wife is a stay-home mom. So there's nothing wrong with that. But you're looking to try to make an impact on the woman that's like, man, I not just deserve more, but I can do more. I'm more than this, right? I meant. Wired for it. Yes. Like so wired for it. It's not going against the grain. It's actually going

with the grain. And that, yeah, it's just, I think, been a missing piece. I would agree the rhetoric out there is almost this, you either have this really far pendulum, right? And they're definitely, I think there's a truth of being in the middle. You know, you've worked with some really smart women. And what would take one very smart woman versus another smart woman, what would be the reason why one wins and succeeds and then one fails at their attempt to go, go crush it? There's a couple of things that come to mind initially. I think just, the drive and the commitment to not have a plan B is number one. That no matter what kind of comes up in front of you as a barrier,

you realize as you go on the path further and further that there's always a solution even when it seems like there isn't. And of course, you also learn who you are along the way. Challenging times really refine like what that path is supposed to be. if you have three in front of you, which one are you really going to walk down? So I would say really understanding yourself, getting to know yourself, and having a no plan B mentality is one of the key differentiators that I see in women that are super successful. And I think the other component to that is that those women also don't look for permission.

So they're not looking to create kind of their own internal confirmation bias by speaking to specific people getting some affirmation that, you know, you're built for this. I think that there can be components that help with that. women that continue to charge forward and really build no matter what seek out things like great podcasts and good books and things that will help kind of give them information or sometimes have that manifestation aspect of affirmations. But they don't go from thing to thing to thing or person to person to person to look for somebody to just affirm who they are. they go out and do and do and do and do and do.

And they don't stop just because something happens like a recession. They don't stop just because their parents said, I wanted something different for you. Or their partner says, I don't understand what you're doing. They keep going. They work on refining themselves and developing themselves. And I think the third most important thing is they are not a victim to any circumstance that comes about them. Everybody has a story that they can tell. Everybody has hard things that

overcome. And outside of the far worst of the worst situations that are out there, which is not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about the generalized grouping of people in our population, we all have hard things. We've all had stuff growing up in our childhood. We've all experienced trauma in some way. So outside from the outliers, these people don't really subscribe to victim mentality. They look on how to overcome and how to continue on no matter what.

Do you give any validity to woman's fear of rejection stopping them from actually going and doing anything? I do. Yes. I think that there are situations that people have been in and

have grown up in. That that everybody's feelings are very real and valid to them. And the success that you want doesn't care about those feelings. So that's the tipping point. It's not that people's feelings aren't valid. It's just that the rules of the world, which you didn't create, I didn't create, just how things happen, though the rules don't care. And so that can be a really compelling part of your story if you use it as fuel.

But to use it as an excuse is not what the greatest stories are written about. And not everybody's here to write the greatest stories. But if you are and you feel like you're really called for something more like, yes, experiences, things, feelings, all of those are very valid. They're very real for you, for I, for anything that anybody's experienced. And on the other side of it, like, okay, and now what? Now what are you going to do? Because that doesn't, the feelings don't necessarily solve anything that is there to solve in front of you. I think cultural speaking, you know, the men forever, right, have been known as like the breadwinners and you go out and you work and you provide.

And the mother can do that. But really historically speaking is much more the nurture and raising the family. what do women have to sacrifice? I believe it's a totally different level of sacrifice, right? If a woman says, I'm a go-getter, but she has kids. But I am meant for more. What are women now sacrificing that they have to make a very real decision on if they're willing to sacrifice that? Yeah, there's a lot of considerations that I think because the incredible differences between women and men, right?

Like the I love that there's so many differences between us because when put together, it becomes a really phenomenal powerhouse, right? And when I go about my day to day with my husband, I'm thinking about like all throughout the day. My son has a golf tournament who's going to support, who's walking with him on the golf course, who's prepping dinner, who's making sure the dogs are being walked, what time is somebody going to be home to feed them? And then my job, you know, I show up to work every single day and run a business. So I'm thinking about all those things. I am recalling my husband had this really important meeting because he also has a pretty big job that he does. And the superpower of women is that we can hold all of that and we can juggle really, really well with all of those things. Whereas men are wired for different. And that's great. And when it when it does come to somebody, who is wired in the way like I am where it is like I know that I love being a mom and I love exploring other giftings that I have because I do feel called for something different. That is there is just an added weight. It doesn't make men the enemy and us the savior, you know, the glorious people that can

juggle it all. It's just the reality. And so I think having those conversations around, you know, that element of if we want something that is so unique and a unicorn in business, that is going to come at the cost of things. And so at what point are you willing and what areas in your life are you willing to like expend that cost? when I was younger and my kids were really little, my life looked very different, how I showed up and the risk that I took on was different. I was in the real estate industry. I was able to do what I wanted to do and develop my skill set in that within the confines of that, of something that worked well for my family at the time when my kids were really little. Now that my daughter just

graduated college, my son's in high school, that looks very deep. different. My family needs and my home needs are very different so I can expand in ways that I'm that I'm doing now that I wouldn't do before. And the missing part of the conversation is the weight that we do feel as women because we can hold all of that information at one time is that instead of talking about it as like, hey, how do we find resources that help us support one another in wanting to do those things. How do we crowdsource information on how this mom did it compared to this mom and at this stage of life and whatever.

It becomes almost like a talking point that can become kind of, what's the right word, complaining, right? We just kind of complain about like, oh, well, the men don't have to deal with us or worry about it. Like, yes, because that is in our giftings as, like, that is, naturally embedded in us as women. So instead of complaining that our partners don't hold that, what I think is more practical and more helpful for us is to actually come together and go, well, how did you do that and how did you do that? At what point did you decide that it was

okay to miss these certain elements or how did you and your husband like a balance like, you know, this season of life for me this year, I missed far more golf tournaments for my son than I ever have before. And so really identifying, like, what are the important ones that I really want to make sure I'm getting to and bring my son in on that conversation as well and actually work together with each other to help find a solution instead of just complaining about it. Yeah. Well, listen, I would be the first to advocate, like, women. are incredible. Like I could never do my wife's job or your wife in your job, right?

Like I just don't, it's quite literally like a biology thing, right? Like you give me two or three hours and this may come off wrong, but you give me two or three hours with my kid and I'm like tapped. Like I'm built to create. I'm built to go out and hunt. I'm built to and I love my kids dearly. But it's just not the same for me as it is for my wife. Right.

And so I give all the women, All the mothers, all the credit, because what they deal with, right? Like, I have a five-year-old and a two-year-old, the toddler complaining and being a brat and then the two-year-old trying to figure out how to talk while teething and all the things. And I'm like, oh, my God, I would lose it. And you say all of that and I'm automatically like, oh, I miss those days. Oh, I know. It's just like. It's a total weird time, right?

Because I'm like, man, it's tough. But I watched my girl, who now is five, go from the girl at. two that I see my son to be and I'm like, oh, the cute girl is gone. She is a tall. Like she is a girl, right? Like she's not like this little cute. She's like, so anyways, uh, it's an odd moment for me to watch that. Now, I bring that to because guys, like you were mentioned, guys always had some level

of an outlet. Like in the business world, we have these masterminds. I'm sure your husband's probably a part of them, right? And I'm a part of three, right? So I get to travel and I get to commiserate and I get to, Men bitch too. We complain too about like, oh, there's it. But then you get to hear the other guy's perspective and what he went through or how he handled the thing. And I get a solution out of it because I'm able to meet with these guys, predominantly guys, by the way. You've developed something similar

for females, right? Let's talk about kind of what you are kind of leading the force on because I think it's needed. Now, is it only females, right? Everything you've done. Yeah, it's female focused for sure. and I still work with a lot of men one-on-one and help develop, like, I'm working with some really cool businesses right now that is, like, really phenomenal. What I create, as far as, like, that is predominantly for women is really in-person experiences by way of co-working. So we have a physical co-working space that I'm in right now in our podcast studio in the Pacific Northwest. And we also create different containers. based on why people come into our space.

So if people are a business owner, we have certain like small groups that we create that are like somewhat like many masterminds. We have more commitment as, you know, people want to become more committed. But we have a wide variety of people that come in that are remote workers. They just need to be able to get out of their house because we balance so much in our brain. It's hard for women to just sit at home and actually get, work done, women actually work more when they work from home because they're thinking like,

oh, I should just go like walk the dogs real quick. I just need to start that load of laundry or do those dishes. And then without the barriers, they, they work longer hours because there's no separation and their brain is always like juggling. So we have people like that come in that need just they, they want to have our kind of our funny tagline that we have that's kind of we've adopted over time is like we have co-workers that you actually like here. And so people, want that community, they want that camaraderie, they want to be able to have lunch with somebody and then be able to go to a space that's clean and beautiful. And we have flowers and we have just like really phenomenal design where they feel good and like getting their work done. And then

in the entrepreneurial space, we have small groups. We have more specific contained like business development growth, masterminds, private dinner masterminds. We have our monthly, we call it a non-networking group that we have where there's a no business card rule, where it's relational first and then business second. And so we have a lot of different ways that we do support women and really tap into where people are at, what they're looking for, and how we can help support them on their journey because we do have a very wide net of people that come into our space. And so there's a lot of different needs that are here. And so we try to provide a little bit of everything in our physical spaces so that we can really support women in the work that they're choosing to do

right now in this place that they're at in their life. Did you ever open up the Northern California spot? We're working on it actively right now. So we'll have more spaces to come. We're very excited about that. And we've been bringing together community down there. So we've already been hosting events and things down there. And so we're building that before we have the building, which is the most important thing because we need that vibe and that energy because anybody can, anybody can slap pain on a building and call it a co-working space. We're activating community. And so that's the most important component to us. I would agree. Now, everyone talks about AI, right? And so let's, let's dive into this. this because it's this hopic everywhere.

You are, I don't want to say you're by any means the antithesis of it, but you, you said it yourself, you're developing community. You're developing energy of vibe. What do you, how are you looking at AI and how that can or cannot help the mission of community, vibe, energy? Mm-hmm. I've been thinking about this a lot, especially because as a company, we also just put into place this like AI engagement policy at work so that we have certain ways that any contractors

or employees that work with us, the do's and don'ts of using AI because what we're starting to see out there and everybody can read through a post and recognize like, oh, this was written by AI, right? So the individual thought process, the intellectual property that used to exist more and more, which would help people stand out, is now no longer. longer. And so the way that you stand out is really very specifically choosing things that never get utilized for AI. And then where AI can be helpful and supportive in systems, we have, we're using AI to build out certain dashboards that we have that will automate and run data entry points

that will then spit out certain things for the entire week. So we use it in a very systematic way, not in a creative way because we think that we as people that are experiencing our customers in real time in person, how would AI know better than us what those people need? Like so much of what we do here, even in how I design a space, like one of our main co-working spaces that we have out here has been through like five or six iterations. because when we first came into this building, I watched people's behavior. I watched how they interacted. I watched where they gravitated towards.

And I started to place certain pieces of furniture or situate tables in a certain way to see how people would respond. AI cannot do that. AI cannot do something like that and watch how people interact with it. Put up certain events and how people respond to those events, how they interact with each other. how much parameters do they need in an event versus how much is kind of free-flowing, just kind of mingle as you want, do you need? So I think that there have been some, we're discovering some really incredible ways that we're using AI to help us build out things that can systemize how we support our

customers, but not in a way that is for email marketing, for any visual, component, excuse me, or post component, anything that needs our voice, we're not outsourcing to AI. Anything that needs our individual thought process, we're not outsourcing AI because, as I said, at the jump, you know, too many people are outsourcing their thinking to AI, and it's becoming very obvious in conversations in the depth of which people really understand. And so I'm pretty, I wouldn't say, when people first really started using chat GPT, I was like, never, nope, we're not using that. And now we use all of the anthropic products to like actually create systems to help support our business as opposed to outsource our thinking.

Yeah, listen, I think the smarter people are all saying the same thing. use it to the benefit of output, but have the human ability behind it, right? I mean, it just, it can speed things up, but you still need the human ability. I just asked the question even this morning, and I'm going to pose the same question to you. And I did it to my social media and it's just going rampant right now. Is 2026 is still a pretty challenging year for your business, given that it's a physical location primarily? Because I think there's too many people talking about how, oh, no, I'm just still crushing it and easy, peasy on entrepreneur street. And I've just got, I've interviewed thousands of you guys. And I go, it's such bullshit.

So, I mean, where are you seeing the challenges for you right now in 2026? I, to not open a can of worms here. I really leaned into actually understanding my local politics a lot more because I'm recognizing the more and more I, the longer I'm in business and the more older and wiser I'm becoming, I'm recognizing where there are, there are decisions that are being made locally that definitely impact the landscape of business. And I think it's very important to be informed about that and to attend public meetings and make. make public comment and really activate your voice in your community where it can really make the most impact. So there are things nationally that are impacting business for everybody, right? There is the everybody's considering what's in their budget. Everybody's considering what they can cut when gas is as high as it is.

and people are really conditioned to be online more than they are in person. There's definitely a challenge that is there. It's not, I wouldn't say that it's actually the thing that is hurting us. I would say that the way that we're being conditioned to be online more is actually helping us because we can stand out a lot easier when we are going against what is being promoted and propagated. And there are certain elements that are just really challenging about the business landscape. As I mentioned, I'm in Washington State. And so there are certain things like on the legislative level that I'm learning about more and more that I am becoming more educated about and sharing that information with other entrepreneurs that are here too because it really can make a difference when you have certain layers of things that just make doing business a lot.

more challenging than say Florida or Tennessee or states that are a bit more business friendly. So I would say that that has been a surprising layer for me that has been become a very important one. And the short answer to what you're asking is that, yes, the business is still very challenging. And I think that it's, you know, There's always going to be the next thing, right? Like AI is the thing right now. And it's how you adapt and adjust in your business that will help you innovate and stay in business longer and longer that is necessary. And you only develop that skill set by walking through the hard stuff and actually having to use your critical thinking in that time.

So I kind of love it. but I also don't. Well, it's structured you, right? The challenge is you and you become better going through the challenges rather than sitting on the couch and having their challenges. You can never develop and you can never grow. Yeah. Now, good.

Oh, I was going to say. And in business, too, you know that like when the good times are there, like you know that those are only for a temporary period of time because things change your, you know, your client cycle changes like, you know, people kind of go in and out. And so it's, you know, you know that. But when it is good, that that's a short-lived experience. What are the things that you guys, you know, physical businesses are different than virtual businesses, right?

I mean, you literally have a business that is built around the physical. What are the things that you remove AI for a second? What are you innovating, adapting, changing, maybe flexing or bending based around how you started this business, right, to where we are today with all that goes on? you just said it yourself, gas prices. I mean, I know I talk to people who are trying to limit their driving. They're choosing not to do certain things because they're like, oh, that's going to be $15 in gas. So what are you guys doing as a physical location?

How are you adapting, innovating, flexing, bending? What are you changing now in 2026 that you didn't think about when you first started? I think we just continued to become more and more curious about what. community needs are now versus in 2021 when we first opened our location. At the time in 2021, everybody was just so eager to be back in person that it didn't matter what we did or where we were. People were just like, yes, please. What do I mean? Or where are the people?

Like, let me just get back to the people. And so community has always been the focus. And then it's just the curiosity around like, okay, where are people at right now? like what is greatly impacting them like, you know, the economy and affordability. And so it's a lot of what we do is not necessarily reliant upon people telling us specifically. Like, oh, if I had this, this or this, then this would be a very valuable thing to me. It's really watching behavior. It's testing things out.

It's watching how people respond. And it's gathering that information to then make different decisions or try to guess a little bit differently. It's a lot of educated guessing. And we're just, we're continuing to do that more. I think in the climate that we're at now versus when we first opened, we first opened in a space that was just essentially kind of one big open room with some conference rooms available for people. Now what we're recognizing in the last couple of years and we moved to a larger location and one that we had more private offices so that we could actually support not just remote workers and brand new entrepreneurs, but entrepreneurs that are also growing in their businesses and recognizing that

long-term commercial leases, going back to my real estate knowledge, is not always going to be very beneficial for a starting business or a business that's a couple of years old. So how can I leverage the real estate that we have to help support business owners with where they're at today, give them space that hopefully they eventually, if their plan is to grow bigger, we're temporary. We help them as a launch pad and grow into a bigger space with their own unique, you know, individual commercial real estate space somewhere. But for now, we help support people, whether it's we have a home health care office in here. We have therapists. We have bookkeeping. We have tree removal. We have our local our local newspaper is in here. So really seeing the landscape of

business and how can we fill the gap. Commercial real estate has been in a free fall now. We know that now for a significant period of time. How do we help not only provide space for people that has less stringent, you know, longer, long leases, big deposits, huge TI budgets, that they have to pay tax on and whatever else. But really take the burden of that off, make it easy for them to say, yes, we have a front desk staff that checks their clients in, and really be kind of a full service hospitable operation to help where people are at today and then look for other ways to engage community too. So those are people that have in-person services. So other ways that we're looking at business now versus when we started is also helping to. people that do have a lot of online businesses, makers and creators, that are really getting

kind of washed out by the noise of online or people being really fatigued online. And so we have a like pop-up shop area. So local makers and creators, it gives them a place to have a quote-unquote storefront for them so it can sell. So things like that, that it's just really, it's watching, it's listening and it's being very in tune with your audience to understand what are the needs, what are the things people are struggling with and how can we fill the gap, which your audience knows. It's always a question. How do we fill the gap? So that's what we're looking to do. Are you coaching any of these individuals or do you have a program people can go to you? Yeah, we do. We have something that's within our business called the Academy. And so people can

definitely receive some coaching services and helping develop their businesses if they want it. Yeah. Well, first, where do people reach out to you just to talk about all things, but also maybe saying, hey, I really resonate with Heather. I'm a female. I got all this cooking. Like she's really, where do people find you? So my Instagram handle is We Shatter Glass. I have a book coming out soon called Shattering Glass.

And my website is Shattering Glass.com. Shattering glass. Okay, tell me about the book. What's the shattering glass? What's behind the meaning of that name? Because I don't think there's a whole book you could write about how to shatter glass. Well, it's more around the concept of, you know, when the feminist wave was really making a big thing, you would hear this sentiment out there that's like, go shatter glass ceilings.

Just, you know, go, you go, girl, you just go do it. And then what I found was I found it as like a really interesting metaphor. I was like, oh, okay. So I just went and shattered some glass. And now I'm like cut and I'm bleeding and there's a mess. And like what now what? What happens now? Did I do you're at a new level and you've never gone through the glass before?

And by the way, you see how oblivious I am talking about. I didn't even think about that phrase, shattering glass like your black feeling. Because we're in my audience. So that was a perfect example. Yeah. So, but yeah,

so listen, you talk about that and then the metaphor of being cut and bleeding. Because, like all of us, when you get to a level you've never been at before, you're going to find things you've never dealt with before. And it's usually going to hurt. Like one way or another,

you're like, this is kind of painful experience. So, and that's the press of the point of the book. Yes. That's it. And where we can make glass thicker, where we're putting the glass ceiling on top of ourselves versus like what really truly is something that is like a barrier to be broken that we haven't broken through before.

So it's a really fun, windy journey through all things like personal growth development and really tapping into that like strength and for the builders, the female builders that I am writing for and that I tend to work with the most. So that's who's going to resonate really well with this book. And I'm excited for it to come out. Where do you find, you know, female builders, right? I mean, do they typically are they on LinkedIn as much as they are on TikTok or social media? You know, where does, where do you find that level of audience, right? Because female, female builders are quiet oftentimes. They're not very loud.

It's not very obvious that they are building most. of my, I'm now developing like this kind of personal brand side of things for the first time ever because I always want to build brands that promote other people. Female builders are very similar. It's not about them. It's about the thing that they're doing. And so they're often very quiet and they just watch. And most of the times I don't find them.

They find me because they'll hear me on a podcast or I have my own podcast and they'll hear that or they'll see something and they'll like kind of pull the thread. like, okay, this her connection hub, which is the name of our co-working space. Like, who's behind it? What's happening? Like, what is the mission here? Because I'm not anywhere to be found on our website. And so they kind of pull the thread, pull the thread, and eventually find me.

And then are like, yeah, you're speaking my language, but I don't know that I can say that on the internet or out loud even. And I really want to, like, this is resonating with me. So I don't find them. They find me. I love that. Well, I'll give you another great place for them to find me. you and that is in the club the entrepreneur dna club you're needed you will be there for all my listeners if you're not in the entrepreneur dna club go to the entrepreneur dna dot com join it's fifty dollars a month

everybody this is a no-brainer because you get access to incredible people like heather uh this has been great everyone need when's the book come out we don't know yet we don't know yet we don't know yet but hopefully in the next hopefully in june okay well i love that and obviously we'll be here to help you promote that book. I'm sure it'll be on Amazon and all the places. So thank you for spending some time. And for all my females listening, thank you for listening, by the way. And let me know you do listen. But also, make sure you get with Heather. If this has resonated with you, she's incredible. And all these topics are so privy. And it doesn't have to be about AI. So thank you for spending some time, Heather. Thank you. Really appreciate it.

All right. If you think you have a female or anyone who needs to hear Heather in the points that were made today. Please share this with the least to your friends. We'll see you on the next episode. Peace.