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The Wake Up Call That Changed Everything with Sarah LaMont · The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

0:38
Jennifer Johnson: Life has a way of giving us wake-up calls that completely shift our perspective on what really matters.
0:43
Jennifer Johnson: A serious health diagnosis can be one of the most profound of these moments.
0:48
Jennifer Johnson: Suddenly, time feels precious.
0:50
Jennifer Johnson: Priorities become crystal clear, and dreams that were someday projects become urgent missions.
0:57
Jennifer Johnson: Today we're talking about how facing cancer can actually become a catalyst for business acceleration and personal transformation.
1:06
Jennifer Johnson: Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Lamont.
1:09
Jennifer Johnson: And Sarah is an award-winning and fabulously talented personal stylist.
1:16
Jennifer Johnson: We're going to explore how cancer diagnosis became the unexpected catalyst that accelerated her business and changed her approach to entrepreneurship.
1:25
Jennifer Johnson: Welcome, Sarah.
1:27
Jennifer Johnson: What an amazing intro.
1:30
Jennifer Johnson: You are amazing.
1:31
Jennifer Johnson: I have known you for what, 15 years?
1:35
Sarah LaMont: I mean at least.
1:36
Jennifer Johnson: I'm just gonna say at least.
1:37
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
1:37
Jennifer Johnson: 15, 16 years.
1:40
Jennifer Johnson: So I've known you a long time.
1:41
Jennifer Johnson: And I mean, I knew you, I think, when you were first starting your business, probably.
1:46
Jennifer Johnson: Oh yeah.
1:47
Sarah LaMont: I remember coming to your store the right when I first started my business and wanting to just work exclusively with you to give all of my all the donations away.
1:55
Sarah LaMont: I was like, I need a place where I can house all this stuff.
1:57
Sarah LaMont: And you're like, I'll take it.
1:59
Sarah LaMont: And we were here.
2:00
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, and it was when you're in your old spot, which was super fun.
2:04
Jennifer Johnson: So we have a long history, so I've known you for a long time, but I want you to take us back to when you received your cancer diagnosis.
2:12
Jennifer Johnson: And we've talked about this.
2:13
Jennifer Johnson: You're very open.
2:14
Jennifer Johnson: You love to share this story because it's impactful to other people.
2:19
Jennifer Johnson: But when you received that first, the first words when they called you or you were there and they told you what your diagnosis was, how did it initially affect you and what you were thinking about, not just with your life, but your business, your goals and all of that.
2:35
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, like on a micro and a macro level.
2:37
Sarah LaMont: Right.
2:37
Sarah LaMont: I mean, one, I just want to say thank you for bringing me on so I can talk about this because I think that more people should talk about it and be open.
2:45
Sarah LaMont: And so I know this is vulnerable and scary, but that's all the more reason to share it.
2:49
Sarah LaMont: Um thank you guys for having me on this.
2:52
Sarah LaMont: Um, yeah, when I got when I got diagnosed, I I mean, I think a lot of I did not think that that was gonna happen.
3:00
Sarah LaMont: I mean, I did not, I had no symptoms.
3:03
Sarah LaMont: I was not expecting that to be the result.
3:06
Sarah LaMont: So the day that I got called, um, I'm obsessed with my job.
3:12
Sarah LaMont: I'm a workaholic, a business owner.
3:14
Sarah LaMont: I I was in a client's closet and I had a hard stop at three.
3:18
Sarah LaMont: It was in Fort Myers.
3:20
Sarah LaMont: I was training another stylist.
3:22
Sarah LaMont: I had a hard stop at three.
3:23
Sarah LaMont: I had to like exit and take this call with my doctor.
3:26
Sarah LaMont: And he was like, Are you alone?
3:29
Sarah LaMont: Are you sitting down?
3:30
Sarah LaMont: And I just remember being like, No, I'm at work.
3:33
Sarah LaMont: And then he told me.
3:37
Sarah LaMont: And I was like, Oh, okay.
3:40
Sarah LaMont: And he's like, Okay, did you hear what I said?
3:43
Sarah LaMont: Like, you know, like he was very like, let's just take our time with this.
3:47
Sarah LaMont: Because I didn't absorb it right away.
3:49
Sarah LaMont: And then I remember driving home and just being kind of like numb, you know, the hour-long drive to my house from where I was.
3:56
Sarah LaMont: And when I got home, I just thought, I I just I could I I was numb.
4:02
Sarah LaMont: It took me about 24 hours to like let it hit me.
4:05
Sarah LaMont: Again, because it's just I I had little ape boobs.
4:08
Jennifer Johnson: I didn't, I did not our our listeners have no idea what kind of cancer.
4:12
Jennifer Johnson: Would do you mind sharing what kind it was?
4:14
Sarah LaMont: Oh, I'm so sorry.
4:15
Sarah LaMont: Yeah.
4:15
Sarah LaMont: So I um when I thank you, Jen.
4:18
Jennifer Johnson: I'm just you said you had little, you you you mentioned about we should probably tell brain cancer, yeah.
4:24
Sarah LaMont: So um the doctor called and diagnosed me with a stage zero breast cancer.
4:30
Sarah LaMont: Um, and stage zero, uh for women who don't know, because I certainly did not know, um stage zero just means that the cancer is still contained in your milk ducts.
4:40
Sarah LaMont: So oftentimes, breast cancer, it starts by being fed with estrogen in your milk ducts.
4:45
Sarah LaMont: And it's like uh, um, some people have it, some people don't, but it's just like a little cell that like kind of mutates a little bit and then it just grows and grows and grows.
4:54
Sarah LaMont: Um so mine hadn't become invasive yet.
4:56
Sarah LaMont: It was very treatable.
4:58
Sarah LaMont: Um, so it was a weird dialogue with my doctor.
5:01
Sarah LaMont: He was like, You have cancer.
5:03
Sarah LaMont: It's the best cancer.
5:04
Sarah LaMont: You're gonna be fine, but you have cancer.
5:07
Sarah LaMont: It's not bad, but it's bad.
5:09
Sarah LaMont: And I'm like, I don't know what you're saying, the words don't make sense.
5:12
Sarah LaMont: So breast cancer.
5:13
Sarah LaMont: And I had just found the lump maybe two weeks before that.
5:16
Sarah LaMont: Like it was a really fast diagnosis.
5:18
Sarah LaMont: Um, I was hosting a pop-up shop at uh an event for the whole weekend.
5:23
Sarah LaMont: I think I had two days with that until I had that pop-up shop.
5:27
Sarah LaMont: And weirdly, when I got the news, it was like it should, it was scary.
5:35
Sarah LaMont: None of this wasn't scary, but it was also equally freeing.
5:40
Sarah LaMont: It was as if I struggle with anxiety and a little depression and um have for a very long time.
5:47
Sarah LaMont: And um I, as a business owner, there's a lot of there's a lot in my head, there's a lot of expectations, there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of anxiety.
5:57
Sarah LaMont: And when I got this, it was scary, but then it also was like, it gave me this math, this big macro perspective.
6:05
Sarah LaMont: It's like all of those things you care about or are stressed about don't matter.
6:11
Sarah LaMont: Like this is a big deal.
6:13
Sarah LaMont: And then it made everything, it just like filed everything else really cleanly in my mind.
6:17
Sarah LaMont: I was like, oh my God.
6:18
Sarah LaMont: It like it was really relaxing.
6:20
Sarah LaMont: It was really so crazy.
6:22
Sarah LaMont: Like, that's crazy.
6:24
Sarah LaMont: So, two days after my diagnosis, I'm at this pop-up shop and I meet a woman who is now my business coach.
6:32
Sarah LaMont: Um, but I did not know that's what she did.
6:34
Sarah LaMont: And I just, I'm a very open person.
6:36
Sarah LaMont: She's like, You look tired.
6:37
Sarah LaMont: I'm like, I got diagnosed with cancer.
6:39
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, like I was like, and here's my story.
6:41
Sarah LaMont: And we connected, and she started asking me about scaling my business.
6:45
Sarah LaMont: Have you ever thought about scaling your business?
6:47
Sarah LaMont: And I'm like, absolutely, every day.
6:48
Sarah LaMont: I want to scale my business, but I'm really good at styling, and it's just a little bit too far out, but I'm ready for it now.
6:55
Sarah LaMont: This cancer diagnosis really lit a fire under my butt.
6:58
Sarah LaMont: And I, and like I hired her maybe a week later, and now I'm launching this basically franchising curriculum to allow other people to learn my methodology around styling and to grow this business like outside of myself.
7:11
Sarah LaMont: So it was both the worst thing I think that's happened to me in my life to this point, and the most um energizing, like directional thing that's happened to me in my life at this point.
7:26
Sarah LaMont: It just, it just was like pointed me in the direction I was supposed to go.
7:29
Sarah LaMont: You were being guided.
7:31
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, it was a moment.
7:33
Sarah LaMont: It was it was a moment.
7:34
Jennifer Johnson: So that was a complete shift in mindset.
7:37
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, it was from and it was abstract.
7:40
Sarah LaMont: It was not my choice.
7:41
Sarah LaMont: It wasn't like, you know what I should do?
7:43
Sarah LaMont: I should be really strong through this.
7:45
Sarah LaMont: I need to focus on something positive.
7:46
Sarah LaMont: It just happened organically.
7:48
Sarah LaMont: It was like my female mind just went, let's center.
7:52
Jennifer Johnson: Right.
7:53
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
7:54
Jennifer Johnson: So I'm curious because a lot of times being an entrepreneur, you can either be the kind of entrepreneur who's a risk taker, yeah, or you can be the one that likes to play it safe.
8:06
Jennifer Johnson: Typically, you don't find someone who's really in between there.
8:09
Jennifer Johnson: Could you see a before and after where before maybe you were one way and then all of a sudden you turned the other way, or did you kind of stay the same?
8:18
Sarah LaMont: I turned, I became more risk taking.
8:21
Sarah LaMont: I'm definitely not, I don't want to say I'm risk adverse because I do a lot of risky things in my life, like a lot of um scary things in my life.
8:29
Sarah LaMont: Um, but I for my business especially, I I didn't, I was not raised with a lot of money.
8:35
Sarah LaMont: I was raised working class, you know, put your head down, get shit done.
8:38
Sarah LaMont: Um and I I get the feeling because that was similar upbringing, yes.
8:43
Sarah LaMont: Exactly.
8:44
Sarah LaMont: And so when you're thinking about your business, you're not like, oh, we could expand like this.
8:48
Sarah LaMont: You're like, how much, how many months of mortgage can we pay if we don't make any more money today?
8:53
Sarah LaMont: Like, um, are we gonna be able to go out to dinner tomorrow night?
8:57
Sarah LaMont: Like, I was I was really very low overhead.
9:00
Sarah LaMont: No, let's not invest in this.
9:01
Sarah LaMont: Let's just like get let's we're making good money.
9:04
Sarah LaMont: Why ruin a good thing?
9:05
Sarah LaMont: And that was always not that always my thing because I did start my own business, but as it was getting bigger, I mean, baby steps.
9:12
Sarah LaMont: And then when this cancer diagnosis happened, it took it blew that out of the water.
9:17
Sarah LaMont: No more baby steps, let's just go full throttle because you don't have so much time, you know.
9:23
Sarah LaMont: Like this just put it like, yeah, it makes sense on fire under your butt.
9:28
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, it makes you realize how much time goes by without really annoying it, especially as you get older, you know?
9:33
Sarah LaMont: Right.
9:33
Jennifer Johnson: What were your fears?
9:35
Jennifer Johnson: And I want to just talk about business for a second because I'm sure there were a lot of personal fears too.
9:41
Jennifer Johnson: But I know there were, but about your business's future, because I'm sure that probably played a part into where you're at today.
9:51
Jennifer Johnson: But what when this happened and when you were able to sift everything out and you had time to think about your business, what were the fears surrounding your business with this whole diagnosis?
10:03
Jennifer Johnson: The fears surrounding my business.
10:04
Jennifer Johnson: So, like, you know, yeah.
10:08
Sarah LaMont: You're like feeding, you're like like like this.
10:12
Jennifer Johnson: But not like this.
10:13
Jennifer Johnson: How did you feel?
10:14
Jennifer Johnson: What were you, what was your concerns about your business at the point after you realize, okay, this is a cancer diagnosis, and then how we play all this stuff in our head, oh my gosh, you know, I'm gonna die or blah, blah, blah.
10:27
Jennifer Johnson: All these things are gonna happen.
10:29
Jennifer Johnson: When you had the chance to sit back and think about your the health of your business or your business going forward with this, with the cancer diagnosis, how did that look?
10:38
Sarah LaMont: I I think my fear when I got diagnosed, it was just all of a sudden very clear to me.
10:46
Sarah LaMont: I don't know if it was my own hubris that was not letting me see this, but like I it was all of a sudden became very clear to me that I am just one person and that I cannot do everything.
10:57
Sarah LaMont: And I don't know if I ever truly believed that until I got diagnosed with cancer.
11:02
Sarah LaMont: So like I was gonna have to remove myself to from my business to be able to heal and take care of myself.
11:09
Sarah LaMont: And while my business and my amazing clients were gonna allow me to do that, um, that I was like, oh, that's gonna happen eventually.
11:19
Sarah LaMont: Like I was like, that's not just gonna happen now.
11:22
Sarah LaMont: That's that's forever.
11:23
Sarah LaMont: I'm 43, uh, which I know is young, definitely young for my diagnosis.
11:27
Sarah LaMont: But like when I'm 53, am I gonna be hustling like I'm hustling?
11:32
Sarah LaMont: I really hope not.
11:33
Sarah LaMont: And I don't think I really saw that time ticking away until I not that you couldn't.
11:38
Sarah LaMont: Not that I couldn't, but do I want to?
11:41
Sarah LaMont: Do I want to feel my energy?
11:44
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, it was a lot.
11:47
Sarah LaMont: So um that was a big fear.
11:48
Sarah LaMont: Like that was a fear that I addressed.
11:50
Sarah LaMont: Like this, maybe this fear that I've always held of like, what happens when I become irrelevant?
11:57
Sarah LaMont: You know, I'm a stylist.
11:58
Sarah LaMont: It's very, it's very current.
12:00
Sarah LaMont: Like, what's gonna happen when I'm irrelevant or when no one wants my opinion anymore or whatever?
12:04
Sarah LaMont: And I'm like, oh, I one thing that used to be scary now became like a directional approach.
12:11
Sarah LaMont: Like, you're right, I am just one person, and I don't have all the answers.
12:14
Sarah LaMont: And I want to have a community of stylists that will argue about what the right direction is because there is no right answer, there's only opinion.
12:23
Sarah LaMont: And I'm like, oh, it was again freeing.
12:26
Sarah LaMont: Like this idea, this thing that I was holding on to so much, this just clenching onto, it was just ripped out of my hands.
12:33
Sarah LaMont: And I thought, oh, it's not that bad.
12:34
Sarah LaMont: That's okay.
12:35
Sarah LaMont: How can I build it?
12:36
Sarah LaMont: How let's focus on this energy, let's focus on this community idea as opposed to just how am I gonna drive this?
12:42
Sarah LaMont: How am I gonna do this?
12:44
Sarah LaMont: Huge wake-up call for sure.
12:45
Sarah LaMont: Talk about it.
12:46
Sarah LaMont: Thank God that was the call that I got.
12:49
Jennifer Johnson: So after you realized this, after you got what had gone through all of the emotions and everything that you were feeling and realized, you know what, I don't want to do, I don't want to hustle till I'm 53.
13:01
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
13:01
Jennifer Johnson: What specific actions did you take with regard to your business growth after that?
13:09
Sarah LaMont: I think the biggest, the scariest thing that I did, the biggest thing that I did was I hired a business coach.
13:14
Sarah LaMont: Um, I have a very close friend whose business is fantastically successful, who's worked with multiple business coaches in the past.
13:21
Sarah LaMont: I called her up and was like, is this legit?
13:25
Sarah LaMont: Like, is this something that people do?
13:28
Sarah LaMont: Am I gonna regret this?
13:29
Sarah LaMont: And she's like, absolutely not.
13:30
Sarah LaMont: Like she said that my friend gave me really good advice.
13:34
Sarah LaMont: Just said, like, if you're if your intuition is telling you that this is right, you're a woman and your intuition is guiding you in the way that you're supposed to go.
13:43
Sarah LaMont: So if you want to hire her, you should hire her.
13:45
Sarah LaMont: Like vet her, but like hire her.
13:47
Sarah LaMont: So when I hired the business coach, I think it might have been, I think it was the very first time that I truly collaborated, like let go of the sense of control and allowed different perspectives in, which is I'm a Virgo, I'm I struggle with anxiety.
14:06
Sarah LaMont: It was very scary, like and it very um almost I felt very vulnerable in that.
14:14
Sarah LaMont: Um, and the second I made that choice, things just exploded.
14:18
Sarah LaMont: It was like everything became clear.
14:22
Sarah LaMont: There was um all of these opportunities, there were people coming into my life.
14:27
Sarah LaMont: It was like the universe would just knew, like, okay, she's available, she's ready, and then I have all these people coming into my life that want to be a part of the community and want to help.
14:35
Sarah LaMont: And it just felt very organic and natural.
14:38
Sarah LaMont: But that was the first time.
14:40
Sarah LaMont: That was the first time I did that.
14:42
Sarah LaMont: That was a massive um decision that I made.
14:44
Sarah LaMont: That was like the first step, you know, and now I'm not afraid of, yeah, exactly.
14:48
Sarah LaMont: And you've you've done a great job at that.
14:50
Sarah LaMont: Like you've always been about community and always been about letting letting go of some of that control, which is hard, but it's that's what you're about.
15:00
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, but it's very hard.
15:01
Jennifer Johnson: Once you make that that realization, that's when things start changing.
15:07
Jennifer Johnson: But people get stuck because they're they're on that hamster wheel every day.
15:12
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, and when you're working in your business every single day, you can't see past that.
15:17
Jennifer Johnson: But you I I you've heard me talk about pink space before.
15:21
Jennifer Johnson: You had your pink space, and your pink space allowed you to step back.
15:24
Jennifer Johnson: In this case, it was your cancer diagnosis, allowed you to step back and see everything that was happening around you and what else that could be, and that's what you came up with.
15:35
Jennifer Johnson: So that's that's beautiful.
15:38
Sarah LaMont: I'm really lucky, really lucky that my mind or that I naturally went someplace positive and I didn't have to fight through, I don't know, the negative thing.
15:46
Sarah LaMont: And that I had those people in my life already just on the lines, like ready to support me in business and uh personally, that helped a lot.
15:55
Sarah LaMont: So I wasn't like, I didn't step back and go, I've got no one.
15:58
Sarah LaMont: I stepped back and went, all these people are trying to help, and why don't I invite them in to help, you know?
16:02
Sarah LaMont: Right.
16:03
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
16:04
Jennifer Johnson: What was throughout all of this with your journey here?
16:07
Jennifer Johnson: What has been an a business activity or strategy, or perhaps it was mindset, that you just said, you know what?
16:15
Jennifer Johnson: No, I need to let this go because it no longer serves.
16:19
Jennifer Johnson: Um, it's not aligned with me or it doesn't serve me anymore.
16:23
Sarah LaMont: Uh-huh.
16:24
Sarah LaMont: The first thing comes in.
16:25
Sarah LaMont: I'm like, okay, I let go of a lot of things.
16:28
Sarah LaMont: Uh having your own business and having to take two months off for cancer diagnosis kind of forces you to let go of a lot of things.
16:35
Sarah LaMont: But one practice that I started almost immediately, and it probably was because I mentally just needed to have emotional space to be able to like absorb what is happening to me, register what's happening to me, like go through those feelings, like kind of sit with yourself a little bit, um, was I started putting my phone down.
16:53
Sarah LaMont: Like really putting your phone down, like completely maybe turning it off, or like do not disturb in another room, like plugged in.
17:02
Sarah LaMont: That was big.
17:05
Sarah LaMont: Like when you have space, when you have time, like a day off with memorial or labor day was yesterday.
17:12
Sarah LaMont: So a day off with my husband, John.
17:14
Sarah LaMont: My phone was like in my handbag, like in my room, like the whole day.
17:18
Sarah LaMont: And I had a ton of texts and emails.
17:21
Sarah LaMont: And when you look at it initially, if you're not used to this practice, you look at it and go like, ah, like the world is ending.
17:27
Sarah LaMont: Everything's falling apart.
17:29
Sarah LaMont: Right.
17:29
Sarah LaMont: And then you look at it and it's like, hope you're having a great Labor Day.
17:32
Sarah LaMont: Like, you know, it's like it's all these client messages are, you know, my stylists or my family.
17:38
Sarah LaMont: And it's great.
17:39
Sarah LaMont: I'll put it there tomorrow.
17:40
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, they'll be there tomorrow.
17:42
Sarah LaMont: And it's great.
17:42
Sarah LaMont: And I look at it in the morning, I answer it in like five minutes, and then I start my work day.
17:46
Sarah LaMont: And it's like, oh, that's that's a practice that's really helped me, especially now that I'm creating this curriculum, and there's a lot of details and a lot of things, a lot of outside work that people are helping me with.
17:57
Sarah LaMont: And so I could easily just be on my phone and working just all of the time, but uh the same amount of stuff happen gets done if I'm right not there versus in the middle of it.
18:09
Jennifer Johnson: That's I mean, that's a really great strategy that a lot of us should be should really be listening to.
18:16
Jennifer Johnson: Are you listening, everyone?
18:18
Sarah LaMont: I mean, my husband does take my phone from me sometimes.
18:21
Sarah LaMont: I'm not gonna lie.
18:21
Sarah LaMont: But he I'm like, help me with this.
18:23
Sarah LaMont: And then his way of helping me with that is just like grabbing it from me and like taking it away.
18:27
Sarah LaMont: You don't get it back.
18:29
Sarah LaMont: Yeah.
18:29
Sarah LaMont: I don't know where it is then.
18:31
Sarah LaMont: That's the problem.
18:32
Sarah LaMont: But yeah.
18:33
Jennifer Johnson: So how would you how did you balance or how maybe the the real question is, how have you learned to balance taking care of yourself health-wise while keeping moving your business forward?
18:47
Jennifer Johnson: I know that the you know, removing the phone part has been a good part of that, but going forward, how are you doing that?
18:56
Sarah LaMont: Oh, I'm I'm just because in the in the um spirit of being honest, I'll be gonna be very, very honest.
19:04
Sarah LaMont: Um, I that is one of my biggest struggles.
19:07
Sarah LaMont: That is still currently one of my biggest struggles.
19:10
Sarah LaMont: Um as now a cancer survivor.
19:13
Sarah LaMont: I I got a lot of information before surgery on like protocols and you know, like all like how to deal with my drains and like a care I should get, and like different things to help me through the surgery and the recovery from surgery.
19:30
Sarah LaMont: But post-surger, there there is very little support or like communication about it.
19:37
Sarah LaMont: And post-surgery, like, oh yeah, you're cleared, you don't have cancer anymore.
19:43
Sarah LaMont: Um, now you can go off and live your life.
19:46
Sarah LaMont: That's been the hardest part because post-surgery, I'm very weak, like mentally and physically.
19:54
Sarah LaMont: I can't, my capacity was really limited post-surger.
19:58
Sarah LaMont: Um, I have a hard time breathing a lot of the time because I was under my surgery, it was eight and a half hours, and I my my my lungs like cramp still.
20:08
Sarah LaMont: Like different things.
20:10
Sarah LaMont: Like I have my breasts are completely numb.
20:13
Sarah LaMont: Like they're just numb.
20:15
Sarah LaMont: Like that's weird to get around.
20:17
Sarah LaMont: And then like going to work out, you which is something that I do for myself um in the morning, like you do get your body moving, and it takes takes you a long time to get back into like your mental and physical focus after that.
20:31
Sarah LaMont: Like, I'm wow, it's you know, you're like stretching, you're doing your physical therapy, you're making sure you're hydrated, you're drinking electrolytes, you have to have enough protein, you have to stretch again.
20:40
Sarah LaMont: Do I you feel tired?
20:41
Sarah LaMont: Maybe you should take a nap before I mean all of that has been really hard to manage.
20:45
Sarah LaMont: Um, very different.
20:48
Sarah LaMont: So, the one thing that I have been doing to help myself, that's like for me, that's to help me with my recovery, is to consistently move like every single morning, like without without exception.
21:03
Sarah LaMont: So if I wake up and I'm really tired, I'll sleep in maybe a little bit and just give my body that break.
21:09
Sarah LaMont: But then instead of going to the gym, we'll go for like a two or three mile walk and I'll just walk.
21:14
Sarah LaMont: Or I'll go to the gym and I'll work out really hard, but then I'll give myself an hour post-workout to like sit and watch a mindless show or like take a really long bath or something that's just like sit and be still.
21:27
Sarah LaMont: And so it's it's so I guess that space for that feeling is what I've been doing for myself to to kind of recover, if that's the answer to your question.
21:38
Sarah LaMont: It's been hard.
21:39
Sarah LaMont: Completely makes sense, and everyone's like, oh, you look so good.
21:42
Sarah LaMont: Look at your energies all back.
21:44
Sarah LaMont: And I'm like, none of my pants fit, gained a solid 10.
21:48
Sarah LaMont: Like, in fashion, that's fuck that's hard, you guys.
21:51
Sarah LaMont: Because I have to like look cute every day.
21:53
Sarah LaMont: I can't wear stretchy pants all the time.
21:55
Sarah LaMont: But like that, it's it's rough.
21:57
Sarah LaMont: Like, all like physically, you're not there yet.
22:00
Sarah LaMont: And why are you wearing stretchy pants?
22:02
Sarah LaMont: Because I don't my pants don't fit.
22:04
Sarah LaMont: My waist gained a size, and I haven't gone shopping yet because I feel like I'm gonna get back there.
22:10
Sarah LaMont: But like I'm literally wearing these rag and bone.
22:13
Sarah LaMont: Oh my gosh, I know what you're talking about.
22:16
Sarah LaMont: Love them.
22:17
Sarah LaMont: I'm grateful.
22:18
Jennifer Johnson: But they're in style, they look great.
22:20
Jennifer Johnson: Hey.
22:20
Sarah LaMont: Thank God.
22:21
Sarah LaMont: Don't go out of style, not for another year, please.
22:24
Jennifer Johnson: So I'm curious as to what insights you have gleaned from your journey with regard to time management and productivity.
22:34
Jennifer Johnson: Oh
22:36
Sarah LaMont: Gleam from my journey, time management and productivity.
22:40
Jennifer Johnson: Coming out of this, how does that look compared to what it looked like before?
22:44
Sarah LaMont: Well, yeah.
22:45
Sarah LaMont: Um, I have always been really good with my schedule.
22:50
Sarah LaMont: I have a I'm gonna start off by saying, like, I've had I have a very large capacity.
22:54
Sarah LaMont: Like my nickname is the Energizer Bunny.
22:57
Sarah LaMont: I'm I I share that sentimental.
22:59
Sarah LaMont: I know.
23:00
Jennifer Johnson: I was like, Can you imagine us together doing a closet cleanup?
23:05
Sarah LaMont: It would be there would be shit in the air.
23:08
Sarah LaMont: It would just be in the air.
23:09
Sarah LaMont: There would be perpetual.
23:11
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, exactly.
23:12
Sarah LaMont: Um, so this diagnosis, especially since I'm young, like I hadn't been starting to slow down.
23:18
Sarah LaMont: And uh so I'd always been really good with my schedule in that I would divide up the type of work that I would do from like if I was doing a really deep creative project in the morning, I would kind of counter it by doing a lot of logistical stuff in that afternoon.
23:37
Sarah LaMont: So I'd be like unpacking boxes and steaming product and like doing very maintainable, easy things to counterbalance that like creative, you know, exertion.
23:47
Sarah LaMont: Um, so I would always kind of balance my schedule that way, but it was jam-packed.
23:51
Sarah LaMont: So now um I'm realizing that I can do more if I schedule less, which is really weird.
23:59
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, it's think about it.
24:02
Sarah LaMont: Yeah.
24:02
Sarah LaMont: Yeah.
24:03
Sarah LaMont: Like when you're in it, you're like, what people have been telling me this for like the last decade.
24:07
Sarah LaMont: Like, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, you're not as productive as me.
24:12
Sarah LaMont: But no, it's true.
24:12
Sarah LaMont: Like, if you, if you just schedule, like if you give yourself more downtime, true downtime, not like I'm gonna answer emails, I'm gonna answer emails, and now I'm gonna go to work, like I'm gonna go meditate or I'm gonna go do yoga, and I'm not gonna be on a screen and then I'm gonna go do work.
24:26
Sarah LaMont: You are so much more productive.
24:28
Sarah LaMont: So, like, I guess the way it's changed me is that I'm I'm more actively resting than I ever have before.
24:36
Sarah LaMont: I'm scheduling the rest, not just physical rest, like couch potato rest, but like mental rest.
27:09
Sarah LaMont: Like, yeah, I'll have a long conversation with my friend in the middle of the afternoon because that's gonna give me, it's gonna fill my buckets and give me energy later.
27:16
Sarah LaMont: Um, and I'm scheduling less work during the day, but I'm being more productive in those appointments.
27:21
Sarah LaMont: So I guess it took cancer to teach me what my mom wanted me to do all the long.
27:25
Sarah LaMont: I don't know.
27:27
Jennifer Johnson: That glump just hit you over the head and you went, I got it.
27:30
Jennifer Johnson: It really did.
27:31
Jennifer Johnson: That's what happens.
27:32
Jennifer Johnson: It is absolutely what happens.
27:34
Jennifer Johnson: Um, how has your journey changed how you serve your customers?
27:41
Sarah LaMont: I think I'm more, I think I'm more um sensitive like not uh I've always been sensitive.
27:48
Sarah LaMont: I'm I'm definitely lean more into like the emotional side of our of our connection, our relationship now.
27:55
Sarah LaMont: I think I've been I'm very uh task-oriented.
28:01
Sarah LaMont: I'm very I want to be I want to be very productive in the time that I have my clients.
28:05
Sarah LaMont: They charge me, I I charge them by the hour.
28:07
Sarah LaMont: I don't want me to show up and then have to like shoot the shit for 20 minutes and have me charge them.
28:12
Sarah LaMont: So I I really wanted to just be a doer for them.
28:16
Sarah LaMont: Get in and you get it done.
28:18
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, and now I'm realizing like that I'm missing a whole other adept to it, and I want to be there for them emotionally too, because that's where the style comes from.
28:27
Sarah LaMont: That's where their fashion comes from, like understanding that deeper level.
28:32
Sarah LaMont: Um, so I think I have been in tune to that in the past.
28:35
Sarah LaMont: I'm like very, I leave space for it now.
28:38
Sarah LaMont: So instead of just being picking up what they're throwing down, I'm like asking questions and leaving space for us to kind of connect to the deeper level now.
28:46
Jennifer Johnson: That's you know that's that's pretty nice.
28:48
Jennifer Johnson: But you know, that's I and again, it takes something to make people realize that.
28:54
Jennifer Johnson: It does.
28:55
Sarah LaMont: I also it I'm sharing more about myself.
28:57
Sarah LaMont: That's another thing that's happened with me.
28:59
Sarah LaMont: Like, I I think since this diagnosis, I've been very insulated um in my business.
29:06
Sarah LaMont: Like you don't like you don't need to see behind here.
29:09
Sarah LaMont: I'm I'm here for you.
29:11
Sarah LaMont: And now I'm like, now I'm really just allowing myself to be out in the world too.
29:17
Sarah LaMont: You were guarded.
29:19
Sarah LaMont: You were you were hearted, and now you're vulnerable.
29:22
Sarah LaMont: Yes, and now I'm vulnerable, which feels fantastic.
29:26
Jennifer Johnson: Right.
29:26
Jennifer Johnson: And and it opens up so much more.
29:28
Jennifer Johnson: They can see inside.
29:30
Jennifer Johnson: Yes, exactly.
29:32
Sarah LaMont: I'm allowing people to see inside now, which is which is wonderful.
29:37
Jennifer Johnson: So, what advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who are facing a similar health challenge and trying to build their business or trying to change their business or find meaning in what they're doing?
29:50
Sarah LaMont: I think I would say that this doesn't just because you're taking a break because of a health diagnosis doesn't mean that things have to stop.
29:57
Sarah LaMont: Like, even if things literally stop for your health, uh, you know, your healing, um, it's gonna be there when you come back to it.
30:07
Sarah LaMont: Like it's gonna be there.
30:09
Sarah LaMont: It's not gonna go away.
30:11
Sarah LaMont: So I think that that would be one thing I would say.
30:13
Sarah LaMont: And then another thing I would want to share is like they don't wait until there's a health.
30:20
Sarah LaMont: I right.
30:21
Sarah LaMont: So I've heard this so many times.
30:23
Sarah LaMont: I never truly understood it until I went, until I got, until I had to get fucking cancer.
30:29
Sarah LaMont: But like there it just because it's scary doesn't mean it's not worth doing.
30:35
Sarah LaMont: Like, just do it.
30:36
Sarah LaMont: Who cares?
30:37
Sarah LaMont: Literally, who cares?
30:39
Sarah LaMont: Exactly.
30:39
Sarah LaMont: Just do it.
30:40
Sarah LaMont: Mess up.
30:40
Sarah LaMont: Who cares?
30:41
Sarah LaMont: You did that.
30:42
Sarah LaMont: My criminal might fail.
30:43
Sarah LaMont: That's that's okay.
30:44
Sarah LaMont: That is a legitimate thing that might happen, and I still want to try it.
30:48
Sarah LaMont: Like, just because something might be might be bad or might be scary or people might not like it or might fail, doesn't if you're feeling strong about it, does not mean that you shouldn't do it.
30:58
Sarah LaMont: Right.
30:58
Sarah LaMont: Just do it and do it now.
31:00
Sarah LaMont: Like, don't wait.
31:01
Sarah LaMont: Do it now.
31:03
Sarah LaMont: Right.
31:03
Sarah LaMont: I should have done this.
31:04
Sarah LaMont: I thought that I thought about this when I started my business.
31:06
Sarah LaMont: Like when I started my business that first year, I was like, oh, it's gonna fail.
31:10
Sarah LaMont: And then the first year, I'm like, why the hell did I not do this 10 years earlier?
31:15
Sarah LaMont: I should have done this.
31:16
Sarah LaMont: So should have or should have.
31:19
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
31:20
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
31:20
Jennifer Johnson: I mean, the only thing that you regret are the risks that you didn't take.
31:25
Sarah LaMont: Yes, and all of those, all of those little isms are now like slapping me in the face.
31:31
Sarah LaMont: They're just, I am just living in that world right now.
31:36
Jennifer Johnson: But that's okay because you are where you are today.
31:38
Jennifer Johnson: And that's what matters.
31:39
Jennifer Johnson: And that's what made me.
31:41
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
31:41
Jennifer Johnson: Right.
31:42
Jennifer Johnson: So as we start to wrap up, what would you want other entrepreneurs to understand about how life-changing events can actually accelerate your business rather than derail it?
31:53
Jennifer Johnson: We kind of just talked about it, but what is one key takeaway?
31:58
Sarah LaMont: I think um the more life experience you have, it doesn't have to be positive.
32:04
Sarah LaMont: It could be negative.
32:05
Sarah LaMont: It makes you more relatable to the client base that you're serving.
32:09
Sarah LaMont: So when I got diagnosed with breast cancer, um I didn't know if I should share it or not.
32:16
Sarah LaMont: I kind of just wanted to just keep it to myself.
32:19
Sarah LaMont: And then I thought, no, I didn't know this could even happen to me.
32:22
Sarah LaMont: I should share it.
32:22
Sarah LaMont: And the second that I put it online, um, I was inundated with people who were like, I went through that, my sister went through that, I just got diagnosed myself.
32:33
Sarah LaMont: Like, I'm here for you, I'm here to support you.
32:36
Sarah LaMont: Like, there was so much understanding and like um it bonded me to like my clients in the community.
32:45
Sarah LaMont: And it was, it like was a it brought us all together.
32:48
Sarah LaMont: So don't try and keep things.
32:52
Sarah LaMont: I guess my advice would be like it's going to connect you with people.
32:56
Sarah LaMont: Like, I understand that mine is not as mine is personal, but like there might be other challenges that you have that you don't want to share.
33:02
Sarah LaMont: But like the more you can be open and real with people, the more you're going to, you know, cement your community for your business.
33:09
Sarah LaMont: Yeah, make you relatable.
33:11
Jennifer Johnson: That's great advice.
33:12
Jennifer Johnson: I love that.
33:13
Jennifer Johnson: We're gonna go into the the portion of my podcast that I asked the same four questions to all of my guests.
33:21
Jennifer Johnson: It's called the final four.
33:22
Jennifer Johnson: The final four.
33:23
Jennifer Johnson: The final four.
33:25
Jennifer Johnson: Four great questions that I just I'm so excited to hear what people have to say.
33:30
Jennifer Johnson: So, what is your favorite book that you've read and what was it that made it stick with you?
33:35
Sarah LaMont: Okay, my the I actually just finished reading this book.
33:38
Sarah LaMont: It's called On All Fours.
33:40
Sarah LaMont: Have you read it?
33:41
Sarah LaMont: No.
33:41
Sarah LaMont: Okay, you're gonna read fiction, Sarah.
33:44
Sarah LaMont: It's fiction.
33:46
Sarah LaMont: I forget the author's name, but it's like New York bestseller, and it's about a woman who hits menopause and literally goes crazy.
33:53
Sarah LaMont: Wow.
33:55
Sarah LaMont: And she's awesome.
33:57
Sarah LaMont: It's relatable, it's weird, she goes on these weird journeys, but the writing is amazing.
34:02
Sarah LaMont: And what stuck with me was how uh like open and honest every single character was.
34:07
Sarah LaMont: They like there was zero shame about any of their quirks or fetishes or whatever.
34:12
Sarah LaMont: Some of the scenes get kind of hot, but they're just like, here's me.
34:16
Sarah LaMont: Let's get let's get it on.
34:18
Sarah LaMont: Like, and I I love that.
34:19
Sarah LaMont: I loved that weirdness, that acceptance of weirdness.
34:22
Jennifer Johnson: I like that.
34:22
Jennifer Johnson: Everyone, put that on your list of two reads, please.
34:25
Jennifer Johnson: After people are gonna be like, I read that, it was weird.
34:29
Jennifer Johnson: Just don't email her and say, What were you thinking?
34:32
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah exactly.
34:35
Jennifer Johnson: Do you have a favorite quote or piece of advice that you find yourself coming back to time and time again?
34:41
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
34:42
Sarah LaMont: That's a real, that's a real quick yes.
34:44
Sarah LaMont: My mom would always say to me, and I don't know what this means about me as a child, but my mom would always say to me, use your powers for good and not evil.
34:52
Sarah LaMont: Okay.
34:53
Sarah LaMont: And that is literally saying it's like been around me forever.
34:57
Sarah LaMont: Like you have the ability, you have these like really great qualities, and you have the ability to use them for either positive or negative.
35:03
Sarah LaMont: So just use your powers for positive whenever you can.
35:06
Sarah LaMont: So I think about that a lot.
35:07
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
35:08
Jennifer Johnson: What is one habit or practice that's genuinely changed your life?
35:14
Sarah LaMont: I um I actually have two, but my most important, I'd love to know both.
35:18
Sarah LaMont: Okay, cool.
35:19
Sarah LaMont: The most important one is when I turned 30, um, was it 30?
35:25
Sarah LaMont: It was like 28 or 30.
35:26
Sarah LaMont: I I told myself that I was going to set aside time in the morning to work out because I could never get to the gym in the evening after work.
35:36
Sarah LaMont: And it was a struggle the first like two or three years.
35:39
Sarah LaMont: Like we did you have different jobs, different bosses.
35:42
Sarah LaMont: Um I always worked for Nordstrom as a company at that point.
35:46
Sarah LaMont: And so it was really in retail, it was really hard to get like mornings off.
35:49
Sarah LaMont: But three days a week, I would go to a 9 a.m.
35:52
Sarah LaMont: class and um do Muay Tech kickboxing, which I love, but like it could be any workout.
35:57
Sarah LaMont: I would do CrossFit, I would do yoga.
35:59
Sarah LaMont: If I did that and I I started that routine and I have that to this day now, and I own my own business.
36:05
Sarah LaMont: And instead of waking up and immediately just like furiously working, I have my coffee, I go for a run with my dog, and I go to the gym in the morning.
36:12
Sarah LaMont: And it like totally sets my tone for the day.
36:15
Sarah LaMont: And I think that it's led me to be like a healthier person.
36:18
Sarah LaMont: I feel like I'm I was better equipped to go through my cancer diagnosis and my cancer because of that.
36:23
Sarah LaMont: I I could have easily just gone in the slippery slope of eating less and drinking more caffeine to be thin.
36:29
Sarah LaMont: And I'm glad that I have invested that time in my like fitness, I guess.
36:34
Jennifer Johnson: That's great.
36:34
Sarah LaMont: That's oh, my second one is eating dinner with my husband.
36:38
Jennifer Johnson: Awesome.
36:38
Jennifer Johnson: Well, that leads into our last question, which is if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?
36:45
Sarah LaMont: You're gonna you're gonna hate my thing.
36:47
Sarah LaMont: Okay, if I could have dinner with anyone, I would have dinner with my grandmother.
36:52
Sarah LaMont: My grandmother, um, my mom's mom, she always wanted to be French, so she would have us call her grandmere instead of grandma, but she wasn't French, she was Scottish, but she lied to everyone and told them she was French.
37:06
Sarah LaMont: And she was very misunderstood and a raging alcoholic and a lovely person.
37:14
Sarah LaMont: And I only knew her when I was a kid, and the older I get, the more connected to her I feel.
37:19
Sarah LaMont: And I really wish if I could have dinner with anyone, it would be sitting down with her and asking her, asking her questions about herself instead of instead of always telling her about me.
37:29
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
37:30
Sarah LaMont: That's what I would do.
37:32
Jennifer Johnson: That is wonderful.
37:32
Jennifer Johnson: Well, Sarah, it has been a joy having you on today.
37:35
Jennifer Johnson: You shared a lot of life wisdom with people, and that translate to translates to things that they can actually use in their business as well.
37:44
Jennifer Johnson: And it's been wonderful.
37:45
Jennifer Johnson: If our listeners would like to get a hold of you, how can they do so?
37:49
Sarah LaMont: Ooh, well, I'm start launching a curriculum on October 1st.
37:52
Sarah LaMont: This is really exciting.
37:53
Sarah LaMont: So you can go to my new, freshly designed website.
37:57
Sarah LaMont: Um, and all of my information is on there.
37:59
Sarah LaMont: It's why style, like the question why dot us, because I'm cheap.
38:05
Sarah LaMont: And uh and or you can uh DM me on my Instagram, which is my business name y style underscore Sarah.
38:13
Sarah LaMont: I'll pop right up.
38:14
Sarah LaMont: You can do either of those things.
38:16
Sarah LaMont: Thank you so much, Sarah.
38:17
Sarah LaMont: Thanks, Jen, for being such an amazing friend and business owner.
38:21
Jennifer Johnson: And