Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Lisa Song Sutton - 8-Figure Entrepreneur & Venture Capitalist | How to Build Multiple Businesses From Scratch With No Experience

Transcript

Lisa Song Sutton - 8-Figure Entrepreneur & Venture Capitalist | How to Build Multiple Businesses From Scratch With No Experience · Success Story with Scott Clary

• 0:00
  First line of your origin story is always I was making six figures at 26. I thought I'd made it.
• 0:04
  I realized my definition of success was different than what my parents had told me success was.
• 0:11
  Get good grades, go to college, go to law school, and then get out and get the great job.
• 0:16
  What if the life you want requires you to build it from nothing? Again and again.
• 0:22
  Lisa Song Sutton has done exactly that, launching multiple businesses across industries
• 0:28
  and turning ideas into millions. A girlfriend of mine called me one day and she said,
• 0:32
  hey, I've been making these alcohol cupcakes and I was like, that is genius.
• 0:37
  And I said, just move here. I'll help you start the company.
• 0:39
  Complete 180 and to leave a law firm and then go to Vegas.
• 0:43
  From law firms to real estate to venture capital, she's built, scaled, and moved where
• 0:49
  opportunity actually exists. Four businesses that are alive and running well and
• 0:54
  profitable. The way that someone handles stress knowing that is very powerful before you go
• 1:00
  into business with them. A former Miss Nevada turned serial entrepreneur. Today she breaks down
• 1:06
  how to spot opportunity, build from zero and create momentum in a world that rewards action.
• 1:21
  Lisa, your first line of your origin story is always I was making six figures at 26. I thought
• 1:28
  I'd made it, but you didn't stop there. So why didn't you stop there?
• 1:32
  I realized that my definition of success was different than the entire idea of what I thought it
• 1:41
  was growing up. And what my parents had told me success was, which was get good grades, go to
• 1:47
  college, go to law school and then get out and get the great job. And I was so fortunate to have
• 1:55
  the experience of working in a big firm, learning the trade, and then getting an opportunity to
• 2:02
  start a business. So I mean, you were following your and I've spoken about this a lot. Parents
• 2:07
  always mean so well for us. And they their definition of success usually comes from their reality.
• 2:15
  And they want us to just have the best. So that's what they ask us to do. Like, you know, go get a
• 2:20
  job. This is what my definition of success is. I think you'll be comfortable and happy with this.
• 2:24
  So you followed this, like you followed this playbook to a T to a T like six figures at 26
• 2:30
  are killing it. But what is this thing that sort of wakes you up? What's the inflection point
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  where like this isn't exactly what I want? Well, I really enjoyed my job. I was doing business
• 2:41
  litigation and business bankruptcy. Really like the people I was working with. I liked my client.
• 2:45
  So it wasn't maybe a stereotypical story of, you know, I hated my job and I wanted to stick it
• 2:50
  to the man and go create something myself. It was completely by accident. A girlfriend of mine,
• 2:56
  Danielle, actually here from Florida called me one day and she said, Hey, I've been making
• 3:01
  these alcohol cupcakes. And I was like, that is genius. I was like, tell me more about this.
• 3:07
  And then I said, you should move to Vegas. And I just got really excited for her and for us.
• 3:12
  And I said, just move here. I'll help you start the company. And it was like, it was like that.
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  It was just like, so are you like an impulsive person? Like no, and I was like not in a bad way.
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  And like if you have an idea, like the gap from idea to starting is like this big.
• 3:28
  I don't consider myself impulsive that I, if I've strong conviction around something generally a
• 3:35
  business idea, I want to move fast. So when you are making this decision, so you're, you know,
• 3:42
  Danielle calls, she says alcohol cupcakes. And you say we have to move to Vegas to do this.
• 3:49
  Did you ever, at that point, at that point, you followed this super stable career path.
• 3:56
  Was this scary? Was this exciting? Was this something like, oh my god, I feel like I'm finally doing
• 4:00
  what I meant to do? What are my parents going to think? Like, what's going through your mind?
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  Because to complete 180 and to leave a law firm and then go to Vegas, like that's for a lot of
• 4:11
  people. That's like a very scary thing to do when they've only ever followed the traditional
• 4:15
  career path their whole life to date, right? So I stayed working at my job for the first 18 months
• 4:21
  that since the cupcakes was alive. As we know, businesses take money and we needed that startup
• 4:28
  capital, right? And I realized through that process, wait, I can have my own company as long as I
• 4:33
  team up with an operations partner. And so I kept kind of replicating that model. But I didn't even
• 4:38
  know how to bake. When we first started the company, it was just, it just hit me as like, this is
• 4:42
  such a great idea. And this is something that works in Vegas. This is the place where people come
• 4:47
  to overspend over indulge, buy and do things. They're not going to buy and do it at home.
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  Drank any cupcakes at the same time? Yeah, I was like, this is a marriage made in heaven, you know?
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  And so I kept my day job. And Danielle moved to Vegas. I was already there. She moved to Vegas.
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  I just bought my first house. And so it was this, you know, random, I guess what girls do in
• 5:08
  their 20s, right? You're like, moving to my house. Let's start this company together. And so we
• 5:12
  started it out of my home kitchen while I still worked at the firm. Okay. So talk to me about, uh,
• 5:17
  talk to me about since city cupcakes. So we ran for 11 years. Um, you had 30 to 35% margins on
• 5:24
  these cupcakes. Uh, obviously you don't still do that. And there was things that you didn't enjoy
• 5:30
  about that business, but ultimately the thesis of fund it. And then it can work out. That was true.
• 5:37
  Yes. It was, it was exactly the playbook of risk mitigated startup. So my bills were paid,
• 5:45
  my personal bills, right? Like my mortgage and my car payment, my car insurance, you know,
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  those kind of basic things covered by my day job. And then every extra dollar I had, I was just
• 5:57
  funneling it into the company. And so during the day, kind of like nine to five, I'd work my day
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  job. And then nights and weekends, I was helping Danielle bake, run deliveries, set up events. So I
• 6:10
  was working seven days a week, but it was so much fun. And thank God that she was available during
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  the day because that's what it took for us to just get our feet under us and get going.
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  Um, why would you and you've said this, uh, whatever I do now, I don't want to work on a perishable
• 6:28
  product anymore. Okay. So what was the trauma that you went through when you were building this
• 6:34
  company where you never want to work with the perishable product anymore? It was, it was such a great
• 6:40
  fun company. We had it for 11 years when we were able to sell. So it was, by the way, that's like,
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  that's by all measures, a successful business. Like there's no way that's not like, what is the
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  average, I mean, you know this because you're more in it than you invest in companies and whatnot.
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  What is the average business? Like the tenure of the average, like the average, like a year,
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  six months, like what is it? Um, so over 40% fail within year one. And then an additional 50 up to 50
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  percent can fail by your three. So the longevity of what you're speaking about of how long someone
• 7:13
  stays in the game and how long the business is there. Sometimes it's simply just outlasting
• 7:17
  the competition. And that's exactly what happened with us too. After we came on the scene, there were
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  other kind of pop-ups that came up with, ooh, we're doing alcohol cupcakes too. And we outlasted
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  them. So why would you never do this kind of business again? I like I said, I'm so grateful to it.
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  It was such an incredible part of my life. From a pure business standpoint, having a perishable
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  product is tough. You end up with waste. You end up with wasted product. When you have a business,
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  a food business, now you also have other regulatory agencies that have to be involved. Health
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  department, water reclamation, all kinds of different things, at least in Clark County and Las Vegas.
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  And frankly, those are just their additional costs. Your overhead just continues to increase
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  the longer that you're there. And I knew once that business was done, I was like, I don't want to
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  deal with a perishable product again. I've always found that most of my friends who go into the
• 8:23
  restaurant business, they always find a way to lose money even if they're very, very smart.
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  So I feel like it's a very difficult business to succeed at because also, before we press
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  record, we were talking about what makes a good podcast. And it's about being culturally relevant
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  and capturing attention. And I feel all the food businesses that succeed, yes, you have to have
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  a good product, aka, good food. But I also feel like the marketing has to tap into culture to a degree.
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  Like now, the restaurants that make it, I look at, in Miami, at least, you look at
• 8:55
  Grapman and what he's done with group hospitality. And obviously he's been very successful, but he gets
• 9:00
  influencer marketing. He understands how to get Kim Kardashian or whatever, or mess he to come
• 9:07
  out to his restaurant and a lot of restaurants style. And I can only imagine it's the same thing
• 9:11
  for a food business. So you have the perishable component compounded with, are you cool?
• 9:16
  Yeah, exactly. And are you, are you hitting the right demographic in the way that they want to be
• 9:21
  served? And we just, we were fortunate in that Vegas as a place where it's a celebratory place.
• 9:28
  So alcohol cupcakes, as this very kind of tangible item, it's superfluous. It's a
• 9:36
  perfect list item, but it's a small luxury. It's something fun. It's niche. And it adds perfectly
• 9:42
  to your celebration. I don't know that that same bakery with our same fun recipes, delicious
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  recipes, would work in a place that's not a celebratory. When I was looking through sort of who you
• 9:55
  are as a person, as an entrepreneur, as an investor, you have this playbook of being really,
• 10:01
  really good at being the architect of a company, but not necessarily always being the operator of
• 10:07
  a company, right? And, but with this, with this company, like, you were sort of stepping in a
• 10:14
  little bit, but then not entirely like Daniel was doing most of the work. Is that correct?
• 10:18
  Because what I'm trying to understand is like how you look at your involvement in companies. And
• 10:23
  when you step in and when you step back and how much you with your skill set should be involved
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  in how much you should find an operator who's a little bit, you know, a little bit more in the weeds
• 10:34
  and a little bit more competent at whatever the baking and whatever it is.
• 10:37
  My goal is always to scale up and scale out. I am a doer by nature. And so I have no problem
• 10:44
  rolling at my sleeves and being in the thick of it for one year or two years, three years. Whatever
• 10:49
  it's going to take to stabilize us. And then hopefully replace myself with people who are far
• 10:55
  better at it than I am. We got to a point where we were able to obviously hire bakers and people
• 11:00
  who have pastry degrees. I mean, that's a completely different level thing. It's totally a thing.
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  And I very much lack the skill set for it. So the company obviously was better with better skilled
• 11:14
  folks doing the necessary tasks. What's the strategy to pick the right partners, to pick the right
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  people? Like yes, you said you can roll up your sleeves, but you also want to scale up and scale
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  out. So you want to find the right talent. So like walk me through the next one. What are the
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  lessons from the alcohol cupcakes that you took into the next one when you just wanted to get it
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  started? Well, the first assessment is what is it that I'm bringing to the table? And for me,
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  even to this day with the ventures I have, certainly it's the legal background. I'm able to save
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  our startups 10 grand off the bat because I can help with formation documents. I can get partnership
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  agreements, you know, 99% of the way there and they get blessed by our attorney, right? And so it
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  saves us a lot of money at front. And then that kind of organizational structure of saying,
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  hey, here are the things that I'm good at and what I'm going to bring to the table, including
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  maybe I'm the funding partner on this venture, but I need an operations partner. And I love
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  partnering with people that I actually already know. So people always ask, they're like, how do
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  you find an operations partner? Who do I partner with? And I love looking at your own sphere of
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  influence. Who do you know within your own circle? People that you know like and trust, right? We
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  love doing business with people that we know like and trust. It's human nature. And I think there's
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  something really powerful about partnering with someone that you already know on a personal level
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  in the sense that you've seen them on their worst day. You've seen them through a breakup.
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  You've seen them when they've had a fight with a family member. You've seen them get into,
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  you know, a situation where they had a flat tire on the road like, did it completely derail their
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  day or did they just call triple A or fix it themselves and they're back on the road? And the way
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  that someone handles stress, I think knowing that is very powerful before you go into business with
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  them. Have you ever tried to partner with something like this like a lesson that you've learned
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  from a bad decision partnering with the wrong person? Yeah, I've had a mix, right? I luckily
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  have had some great partnerships truly work out well in my favor partnering with close friends.
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  I did have a relationship, a real estate relationship that worked for almost six years
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  until it didn't work. And with that, we had started out very aligned and in short, you know,
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  things happen in life, right? And things will happen in people's personal lives that
• 13:48
  regardless of how much people say that there's a separation between Georgian state, we all know that
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  when there are elements in your personal life, it always trickles into everything else you're doing,
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  including business. And I'm just a really big proponent of proximity and who's around you
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  and who's input you listen to, right? So maybe not necessarily someone that you spend the most
• 14:14
  time with, but who's around you that you weigh their opinion. Exactly. Exactly. And if those people
• 14:26
  don't have your best interest at heart, right? Like if they're not invested in you and thinking
• 14:31
  about your success while you're sleeping, then there's a misalignment. And I think that that can
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  really create a wedge obviously that starts in your personal life. And then of course it trickles
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  into into business. How do you find that person though? Like outside of outside of knowing the person
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  for 10 years. Like how do you actually find or is that the answer? Is that like just like having
• 14:57
  a great group of friends and then eventually you all do business together, which could be the answer
• 15:00
  too. Yeah. Well, I look back even the way that Kathy and I met actually we met volunteering in
• 15:06
  the community. That's how we met. And I'm a former Miss Nevada. And I had MCD a charity gala for
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  a nonprofit that I had done work with. And she happened to be on that board. And I didn't meet her
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  until that night. And we just like hit it off. Like as you know, as great friends. And from there,
• 15:29
  we actually then established a business relationship because she's in commercial real estate.
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  And we were looking for a new bakery space. And she represented us on the lease of our production
• 15:41
  facility. And she killed it. And I was like, I thought Kathy was just like the fun friend.
• 15:46
  You know, I was like, wait a second. You're actually quite good. I was like, actually she's also
• 15:50
  very, she's like a bulldog with the real estate. And that's when the light bulb went off.
• 15:55
  Now the other question about partnerships is like, I know this is your model. You feel that it's
• 16:01
  smarter or easier just to partner with somebody if you trust them versus just go at it alone.
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  And build from scratch and like totally, you know, solo founder figuring it all out.
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  You don't have to rely on anyone else for decision making. You can do you don't like that version
• 16:19
  of entrepreneurship or I don't think that model is sustainable. Of course, there's outliers.
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  But I think the idea of maybe the the gravitas of thinking that you know it all and that you can
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  just figure it all out on your own. I think that is like the most make-believe fantasy people
• 16:38
  tell themselves. That's fair. And it's not sustainable. Maybe you could do that for a year. Can you
• 16:44
  grind it? Can you do it for two years? Could you just grind that out for three years, right? You
• 16:48
  will hit a point where it's just not sustainable anymore. And for me, every time I enter into the
• 16:54
  venture, I'm looking at it from a lens of, are we going to be on a multi decade journey together?
• 17:00
  How do, okay, so we have sort of like a framework for picking a good partner based on
• 17:05
  you knowing them and you understanding, you know, their ethics and their worldview, whatever.
• 17:10
  But what are some questions that you should ask that your partner? Because we could be
• 17:15
  politically aligned, ethically aligned. And I can still see a scenario where it blows up and
• 17:21
  nothing works out. So what are the questions that we should be asking to make sure that we are
• 17:25
  like the right person for each other to build this business? It comes down to truthful communication
• 17:31
  around roles and responsibilities. And those can change over time. But there is, there's a
• 17:36
  meeting of the minds in the very beginning where, just like we mentioned before, I'm going to talk
• 17:42
  about what I'm bringing to the table. You're going to talk about what you're bringing to the table.
• 17:45
  And we're going to first find if there's an alignment there. We're agreeing that what we're
• 17:50
  what we're each ring to the table is in fact what the business needs and what we each want to be
• 17:54
  doing. And then that's, that's memorialized in a partnership agreement. There has to be something
• 18:01
  in writing. So that we at the very base, we can always point back to it and we can modify it
• 18:06
  if we need to. But I think that is a huge misstep with a lot of folks that will partner with people.
• 18:12
  They just never formalize it. And because it is so fun and exciting in the beginning,
• 18:16
  and you just want to move fast. But taking the time, articulate roles and responsibilities,
• 18:24
  get it down in writing, make you both sign it, and what the understanding that it can be modified.
• 18:30
  But get that down. So that way there's just no confusion. There's a lot of, I think there's a lot
• 18:36
  of strain and disappointment that'll happen when I think I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
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  And every day you're getting frustrated at me because you're like, she said she was going to do
• 18:46
  that. She hasn't done it yet. And it's now three days isn't right. Communication would fix that.
• 18:52
  So how many businesses have you built and exited over your life at four or five total,
• 18:57
  like just personally? So personally, I've built an exited three. I currently have four businesses
• 19:04
  that are alive and running well and profitable. And I've even from the first venture,
• 19:13
  which was Cupcase, that was when I had that moment of, wait, I can have my own company as long
• 19:20
  as I team up with an operations partner. And that was really when the light bulb went off of,
• 19:26
  okay, like I don't, I don't have to say no to opportunities that come my way because all I'm
• 19:32
  thinking about is, well, how could I do this? And the question is, how could I do this
• 19:36
  along with who do I know can help me with this? So that's what I was, that's what I was going to ask.
• 19:42
  So now Cupcase was the first thing. So you're just figuring, you know, business and life out at that
• 19:48
  point. But now you're, now you've progressed to the point where you have a new opportunity.
• 19:54
  Do you step in operationally at all or no, not anymore? It depends on the venture.
• 19:59
  So you still will sometimes, but with the primary goal of you're going to remove yourself as quick
• 20:05
  as possible to the degree where you're going to find somebody who's a little bit better at that thing.
• 20:09
  Well, and continue to focus on the core things that I'm going to continue to bring to the table,
• 20:14
  right? And whether that's getting clients, whether that's business development, whether that's
• 20:19
  representing the brand and the organization, bringing the funding, right, whatever those
• 20:25
  elements are, I'll continue to do that. But the day to day of the nine to five part of it,
• 20:33
  I may not be the best person. So let's put someone in that position to be the best person.
• 20:38
  When you start a new venture, now you're thinking about handing things off, but you have to
• 20:45
  understand like what you're good at, what a potential partner could be good at. What's the model
• 20:50
  or the framework that you have to decide what you should keep? They should keep. We should hire
• 20:55
  four. We should find an equity partner for like, how do you, all the different tasks in the business?
• 21:01
  Because obviously you just mentioned you can do business development. You can go help raise money
• 21:05
  for the business, but you could make the argument that there could be somebody better than you to do
• 21:09
  both of those things to who do that for living, just for living. So what's like the framework that
• 21:14
  you use to decide what you keep versus what you hand off? Of course, it's different at the beginning
• 21:17
  of the business compared to when it matures, but even like our shipping stores, right? We started
• 21:22
  those now eight years ago, which is crazy to say. And I was so excited about the business model,
• 21:28
  and I knew I wanted to do it when I just didn't, I didn't know how to run a shipping retail store
• 21:33
  at the time. And I knew that I didn't have the time and bandwidth to sit and work at a shipping
• 21:40
  store, money through Saturday and nine to six, right? So I immediately thought to myself, who do I
• 21:47
  know in my network that I could partner up with this and who would have the skill set for what we
• 21:53
  need? And if you really think about that business, the business out that core is a customer service
• 21:58
  retail business, right? Why are people not going to go to the post office or not going to go to some
• 22:05
  crazy, you have to start with lines out the door and they have bad service. They want to come to an
• 22:09
  independent store where they're quick in and out. It's great service. They remember their name, those
• 22:14
  little touches. And so then that's when I partnered with a friend of mine, Sarah, her background,
• 22:20
  actually, she was a seventh grade science teacher, but she realized she was making more money bar
• 22:24
  tending on the strip than teaching, which is like sad, right? That is actually a whole other issue.
• 22:30
  It's a whole other issue. Yes, because she's obviously an incredible smart person, which we would
• 22:35
  need to be teaching kids. But she was making more money bar tending on the strip. And so that's
• 22:40
  what she was doing. But again, because we were friends and I would hear her talk about how,
• 22:45
  you know, having done that, I think at that time was like three years or so. She was tired of
• 22:49
  the late nights. She was tired of dealing with drunk people, just kind of all those things that
• 22:55
  bartenders would burn out on. And I thought to myself, oh my gosh, I may have a great solution
• 23:03
  for this because the store closes at 6 p.m. There's no work to take home. There's no, you lock the doors
• 23:09
  and it's it's done, right? You're in fact, you could even keep our tending if you wanted to.
• 23:14
  You know, pick up a shift here and there. And I thought to myself, she's so personable.
• 23:20
  She has such strong customer service, personable skills. And she was a manager at that point too.
• 23:26
  So I knew one she'd be able to train anybody that we need to hire. And she was going to be able to
• 23:32
  knock this out of the park in relation to what I thought was going to be really important to the
• 23:36
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• 25:24
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• 25:32
  Scott Clary. That's nettsuite.com slash Scott Clary. That's shipping story because you were about
• 25:38
  to pay $250,000 for UPS franchise. So first, I need you to tell this story because
• 25:47
  this is a very interesting story. And I want the audience to understand how you think through
• 25:51
  opportunities. But before we talk about the $250,000 potential UPS franchise territory purchase,
• 25:58
  and then shadowing somebody and paying them $10,000 to figure out if that was a good investment or
• 26:03
  not, before we go into all that story, which I do really want you to tell, how do you think about
• 26:10
  opportunities? So why was paying $250,000 for a UPS franchise territory even on your radar?
• 26:19
  Where does that come from out of all the potential things you could put time or money into?
• 26:24
  So I would get an email alert on my phone. And every year, my credit card was getting
• 26:32
  autocharged for a mailbox that I rented at a local UPS store in Las Vegas. I used it as a
• 26:38
  business mailing address, right? And every time I get the email, I would say,
• 26:44
  you know, I should just cancel it. I don't really use that box that often. And then I would never
• 26:48
  cancel it. I had this for years. And then I thought to myself, if I'm not canceling this,
• 26:54
  other people are not canceling this. What is this business model? I found the worst idea, actually,
• 26:59
  to be honest, I should go through all, you know, actually, I think there's a service now that
• 27:04
  like shows you all your recurring charges on your credit card. And then it helps you cancel that.
• 27:08
  That's a good idea. But if people did that, there is like for sure a business in there somewhere.
• 27:14
  So anyways, sorry to interrupt, but yeah. So that's smart. So you saw this. Yeah. And I was like,
• 27:20
  what is this business model? So I went down the rabbit hole of looking into a UPS franchise. That
• 27:25
  was kind of like my first stop. And then I learned about the investment amount that was going to be
• 27:33
  required for a Southwest territory in Southwest Las Vegas. And at the time, I was like, okay,
• 27:40
  if that's the cost, that's the cost, I didn't like it. And I was like, I still need to do a little
• 27:45
  bit more due diligence though. And a friend of mine, Greg had three UPS stores in San Diego. So I was
• 27:50
  like, tell me about this business model. And he was like, mailboxes or it keeps the lights on,
• 27:56
  so pays the staff steady recurring revenue. He's like, here's my issue. He's like, you call any one
• 28:03
  of my stores right now. And you say, hi, I'm the new mailbox customer. I want to rent a mailbox.
• 28:07
  He's like, I don't even have one to give you because I'm maxed out. And I was like, can you
• 28:11
  put in more mailboxes? He was like, no, because I'm a franchise. They dictate my layout. And I was like,
• 28:19
  like, I didn't, I didn't think about that, right? And so then that's when I started looking at
• 28:23
  the independent model, which is, you have an independent store, yet you still have the ability to
• 28:29
  partner with post, an offer post office, UPS FedEx, even DHL, if you wanted to meast, there's all
• 28:36
  these different carriers that you can essentially be an authorized shipper for. Yet you have no franchise
• 28:43
  fees, no corporate marketing fees, no territory fee to get in. And I was like, I think I like this
• 28:50
  model better. And then I started looking around. And I was like, well, where do I find this,
• 28:55
  you know, an independent store that's in existence already. And I realized the store up the street
• 29:00
  from my house in Somerlin, I just thought of it as a UPS store because it's called postal pros
• 29:06
  and it has the UPS logo outside. Right. It's called postal pros, right? I just thought of the UPS
• 29:12
  store as do most people. Correct. By the way, when they see a UPS sign on a random, you're like,
• 29:16
  it's the UPS store. Yeah. No, it's called Ship Loss Vegas. Yeah. And it's right. And it's an
• 29:21
  independent store and it actually has all the logos on the door. You just don't, you don't think
• 29:27
  about it until you like the scales fall off your eyes and you're like, that's an independent store.
• 29:32
  And, and then it took off from there. So what was this $10,000 you paid somebody?
• 29:36
  So I went into postal pros in Somerlin and I knew the owner Andrew because I was a patron of his,
• 29:44
  right? And I said, I think I want to start one of these like, are you interested in expanding?
• 29:50
  And he was like, no, I know. I was like, great. Why not? He just didn't want to.
• 29:57
  Okay. He was just over. I was like, I'm not here to change anyone's hearts and minds, right?
• 30:01
  I am just here to, um, you know, hopefully I'd like to start one of these down the Southwest. It's
• 30:07
  far enough away. It's not competition for you as you knew my background. I was like, as you know,
• 30:12
  I don't know anything about running one of these stores. I'll pay you $10,000 if you let me follow
• 30:17
  you around for two weeks. And I will capture all your processes. I'll build you a nice handbook,
• 30:23
  um, and then I'll go start my store. Yeah. And consulting arrangement, basically, right?
• 30:30
  Even though at the time he's not really consulted, right? And he was just like, are you serious?
• 30:34
  And I was like, yeah. And he was like, okay. He was like, let's do it.
• 30:38
  You have a lot of conviction in like, unsexy boring businesses. Is that, yes, is that fair?
• 30:44
  Yeah. They work out. Yes. And especially with AI and everything. I mean,
• 30:49
  you're speaking on a panel today, right? Especially with AI on the rise and you see all those
• 30:55
  headlines about, you know, is AI going to take the jobs of this industry and that industry,
• 30:59
  this industry. I have strong conviction that it definitely will not replace these kind of
• 31:06
  brick-and-mortar, mom-and-pop, um, experiential types of transactional businesses.
• 31:12
  They just, they, they can't. It's not possible. But there is a lot of opportunity to make
• 31:18
  them more efficient if you understand how to use AI. Yes. Because they will be the last
• 31:23
  adopters of any tack or innovation at all. Um, so now you teach, I mean, one of the many things
• 31:30
  do you teach people how to do this? Yeah. It was, uh, that caught me by surprise. I never,
• 31:37
  you know, had started out of wanting to create this platform around like how to open your own
• 31:44
  mailbox store. I literally had people like finding me on the internet, right? And they were like,
• 31:49
  I want to open my own store in in Montana, New York, wherever. And I was answering these one-off
• 31:55
  emails, which obviously is not sustainable, right? It got super inundating. And I was like,
• 31:59
  I don't want to ignore people either. And I was like, you know what? I'm just going to put it
• 32:03
  out there. And it's a, it's a program. And, and my metric for success with it is how many of
• 32:12
  our students actually go on and open or acquire a store. And to date, it's over 140.
• 32:18
  That's amazing. I know. All our own country. Um, what is the, so I think that, so I, I've heard
• 32:25
  Scott Galowe speak about this before. And, and this is sort of tying into what we're speaking
• 32:29
  about right now. Less people have to start band like vanity businesses, like sexy businesses.
• 32:35
  And I think he was talking about in the context of like podcasting and social media. It's a very
• 32:41
  vanity business. Like it's a sexy thing to do to start a podcast. It's a sexy thing to go into
• 32:46
  tech. Like these are all like fun things. But if you think about a vanity business, assume that,
• 32:53
  you know, point the point, oh, oh, oh, one percent of people that do it are actually successful and
• 32:57
  make good money versus an unsexy business. Like I've never even thought of mailboxes, but
• 33:04
  at a lawn care business or even an unsexy, like I say, unsexy business, like being a lawyer,
• 33:10
  being the top one percent or even top five percent of people that run a lawn care company or
• 33:16
  people that practice lot like your front, like you're flying private. You're making an insane
• 33:20
  amount of money versus super sexy business. Like how many tech startup founders really,
• 33:26
  really exit compared to how many people start, you know, so I think that there's something to be
• 33:31
  said for just making money in these unsexy industries and nobody really thinks about.
• 33:36
  Well, unsexy and essential, right? So even, you know, I know people are like, oh, do a pull route
• 33:42
  or like do, you know, a lot landscaping business. When household money gets tight, what's the
• 33:48
  first thing they're going to cross off? It's going to be the pool guy, you know, I can do it
• 33:52
  myself, never mind. I'll cut my own grass. Exactly. So if people are thinking about, you know,
• 33:57
  unsexy brick and mortar, also be thinking about what are essential services? And we experienced this,
• 34:04
  right? We started those stores in 2018. So we were all during the pandemic, right? We didn't close
• 34:09
  a single day in the pandemic. And in fact, we had a better 2020 than 2019 because of guess what?
• 34:15
  All the shipping that was going on, more folks started working from home. So they wanted a private
• 34:20
  mailbox address. Think about what are essential services that are not going to go away anytime soon.
• 34:27
  Shipping is at the top of the list. What is one thing about running an unsexy but essential
• 34:34
  and relatively boring business that people maybe get wrong or aren't aware of until they
• 34:40
  actually do it? Like you said, you have 140 people that you've helped start these stores.
• 34:45
  What's one thing they screw up or don't take into consideration? I think
• 34:52
  especially if it's their first time owning a business, they just don't
• 34:57
  sometimes are surprised at the amount of work that it takes. It is a simple business in the sense
• 35:04
  that there are specific lines of revenue, right? Mailbox is shipping, you haul,
• 35:10
  notary, you have very specific lines of revenue. And it's a simple model.
• 35:17
  However, it's a real business, right? And in the beginning especially, you are going to wear all
• 35:23
  the hats. Yes, you're going to be maybe you're the operator in there opening the door. You're also
• 35:29
  janitorial. You're going to be cleaning the place. You're also the marketer because you're going
• 35:34
  to be thinking about ways to get folks into your store. You're going to be the social media person.
• 35:41
  Yeah, you're going to be wearing all the hats. Okay, so how do you figure out the math around an
• 35:47
  opportunity is what I'm trying to for somebody who's going into this who doesn't understand real estate
• 35:52
  and doesn't understand foot traffic? Is it like you just throw an address into like chat
• 35:56
  GPT or cloud and ask what's going on? I'm like, how would you actually like help somebody make
• 36:00
  a decision to go in on this? So there are several factors that make a great location. Location is
• 36:06
  key as you had mentioned. One thing I do highly recommend is looking around your neighborhood or
• 36:13
  area for existing independent stores and going in and asking if they're ever interested in selling
• 36:19
  give you a call. The reason is because you already know that location works, right?
• 36:25
  I'm also a big fan of starting from scratch to my source or from scratch.
• 36:30
  And so when you're looking at the location, why not highly recommend working with a commercial
• 36:34
  broker because they know the ins and outs of the area in relation to retail commercial real estate.
• 36:41
  You unless you are in fact a retail commercial real estate broker as well, you aren't going to know
• 36:46
  the nuances. You aren't going to know the strategies around that specific lease. You may not even know
• 36:51
  the landlord and sometimes the broker does. So it's very powerful to work with a commercial broker
• 36:57
  that specializes in that area with mom and pops, right? There are retail brokers out there that
• 37:03
  represent whole foods and target and find them retail spaces. You're not a whole foods or target.
• 37:09
  So what they do and the way they negotiate is completely different for the needs that you'll have.
• 37:14
  You can look at the median income of the neighborhood. Any commercial broker will be able to pull that
• 37:21
  data up for you. And so this comes back to like finding the right people and bringing the right
• 37:26
  people into this. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, absolutely. And the median income is important only because
• 37:33
  that should help you in relation to what kind of rent threshold you want for the store.
• 37:39
  This model, the mailboxes, the business, it works in every type of income level. So it's not
• 37:45
  that you need to be in a high income area or a low income area. It's just depending on what the
• 37:50
  median income is. That obviously should also drive the rent rate, right? You don't want to spend
• 37:56
  $5,000 a month on a space where the median income is $65,000. So that doesn't make sense.
• 38:01
  Listen, like the through line is bringing the right people into this deal with you and figuring
• 38:06
  out who can be the person is going to help out, figure out the things that you don't know.
• 38:09
  Who is the expert in the room that can help you with that specific area of the business?
• 38:14
  And the nice thing about being a tenant when you're looking for a space, you aren't paying the
• 38:20
  commercial broker's fee. The landlord is. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Okay. I want to pivot a
• 38:29
  little bit. So right now, obviously you're raising a fund and you're focusing on, I guess, veteran
• 38:36
  owned and founded businesses. So you've given back to the U.S. to the country in a variety of ways.
• 38:43
  Like I know that you ran for office. I guess that was like one version of trying to give back, I
• 38:47
  guess, to a degree. Talk to me about what you're working on right now and sort of why is this
• 38:54
  obviously a wonderful initiative, but where does it come from? So I know that if I'm not mistaken,
• 39:00
  so your dad was Air Force, your husband was an F-22 pilot. So obviously you have a lot of connections
• 39:07
  to the military and veterans and whatnot. But there's fun too that you're raising now. So fun
• 39:13
  one was 20 million, fun two was 50 million. I think it's about halfway done. So if people are listening
• 39:19
  and they can write checks or reach out to Lisa. But where does this investment piece is? Because I
• 39:24
  think that it's already hard to raise a fund and deploy capital and find good founders. So
• 39:32
  was fun one focus on veterans or not? It was as well. And how did that go? And explain to me sort of how
• 39:37
  raising money, focus on veteran owned businesses and founders, where did that come from?
• 39:41
  Yes. So all of this came about in 2021. My three partners in the fund, it's called the veteran
• 39:48
  fund. My three partners Mike Ryan and Justin, they came together and they they created this fund with
• 39:54
  this thesis that we should be investing in the best tech startups that are led by military veteran
• 40:04
  operators. And they're all veterans themselves. And the way I first got involved with the fund
• 40:10
  was they initially pitched me as an LP. I came in as an investor because I loved it. I was like,
• 40:15
  yes, I was like, take my money. You know, I'm so aligned with this mission. I love,
• 40:20
  love, love this. I love the team. I'm in, count me in. And I called Justin back two days later.
• 40:27
  I knew Justin the best out of the three. And Justin is amazing. Former Marine, former
• 40:31
  federal prosecutor, big law, the whole thing I knew him from law. And I called him back two days
• 40:37
  later. And I said, what is it going to take for me to be a GP general partner? And he's like,
• 40:42
  it's not really how it works. He's flipping over LPs and a GPs. And I said, here's the thing. I was
• 40:50
  like, I know you guys are just starting out with friend one. And I really think I can be a huge
• 40:57
  value ad. I know I can bring in other LPs. I really believe in this investment thesis. And so I
• 41:04
  would love to have a say in the companies that we invest in. And perhaps more importantly,
• 41:09
  be able to stand alongside the founders that we invest in because I've built companies. I know
• 41:14
  how hard it is. I will take less in fund one, because I know you guys already started it. You
• 41:21
  guys already have your cappable done. I will take less in fund one, but like make room for me.
• 41:26
  And then we can talk about subsequent funds later after I've proven myself. And he was just like,
• 41:32
  you're not like going to let this go. Are you? And so I flew to San Diego. So I'm meeting with all
• 41:38
  the guys and need to say we worked out a deal. Yeah. So fund one actually started as a 10 million
• 41:44
  dollar proof of concept fund initially. And this is 2021. This is the previous presidential
• 41:50
  administration. It was a very different environment than what defense tech is now. I mean,
• 41:58
  we had folks especially in Silicon Valley who were like, oh no, no, we can't invest in anything that
• 42:04
  has kinetics or the ability to take human life. And I was like, if we as American investors
• 42:10
  are not willing to invest in American companies that are building this type of technology,
• 42:15
  who do you think is? And no one had an answer. And it was just so alarming to me. And our fund one
• 42:24
  proof of concept 10 million dollar fund got over subscribed at 21 million because of individual
• 42:30
  investors, high net worth individual investors who were so mission aligned with this thesis and
• 42:36
  like advancing America forward through venture capital. So that was how fund one came out.
• 42:42
  Are there not a lot of funds that focus on either? Like, so talk me at the landscape because I don't
• 42:47
  really know what that well. Are there no funds that really invest in veterans? Or are there no
• 42:52
  funds that just really focus on defense tech? Are these not things that are popular venture
• 42:57
  thesis? These these these yeah, they're very popular. But they're kind of before we came on the
• 43:04
  seam, they were really in two camps. You either had big players that were focused on national security
• 43:08
  defense tech, dual use. And then you had a lot of, you know, accelerators and small funds that
• 43:15
  would focus on veteran own businesses. Which doesn't they don't have to be defense tech. They
• 43:20
  don't have to be tech. Exactly. It could be a lawn care business, right? It could be a marketing
• 43:24
  business, whatever it is. And that's fantastic. And that's needed. There was no one in the space
• 43:29
  of precede technology startup that needs big money, right? This is not a 5K 10K 25K check, right?
• 43:38
  We were writing 250 500 out of fund one out of fund two. We're writing 500 to a million.
• 43:44
  So this is big money up front because if you're as you know in tech, you're iterating quickly.
• 43:50
  You need funds up front. It's like jet fuel, right? So there was no one in that space that was also
• 43:58
  very much focused on the veteran military operator as someone who's on the leadership team.
• 44:06
  Okay. And and we really we kind of filled that void. And how did fun one work?
• 44:13
  Yes. So we have 26 portfolio companies out of fund one and they're crushing, which is incredible.
• 44:20
  I mean, firestorm, they just raised a $750 million around. Obviously we didn't go in at that,
• 44:25
  you know, we came in way earlier. Havoc is out there. They just raised a $60 million
• 44:31
  around. These are incredible companies that are a mix of hardware and software. So 3D printed drones,
• 44:38
  3D printed satellite, cyber security, just incredible technology again being built by
• 44:45
  US military veterans who it's it's a wonderful lens. They're building the technology that they
• 44:51
  wish they would have had when they were boots on the ground, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East.
• 44:56
  And it's the archetype of that entrepreneur of someone who is truly battle tested.
• 45:04
  Yeah. They understand and have the mental grit that it takes to build a business because they've
• 45:11
  been in situations where certainly if it's life or death, that's completely different scenario
• 45:16
  than any business you're building. But they just they have that mental grit where no is not an
• 45:22
  acceptable answer that the answer is be solution oriented and figure it out. And that's what they're
• 45:27
  doing every day. So when somebody comes from like the worst possible environment on earth, like
• 45:33
  truly like in combat overseas, that you see like that gives them like the mental fortitude to
• 45:40
  be a more successful founder. Absolutely. It makes sense. It does make sense, but it plays out.
• 45:46
  Yes, because and what we found actually as well is that the perfect pairing is taking a technical
• 45:51
  co-founder with a military veteran operator. This is your again life piece. That is the thesis,
• 45:59
  and these veterans, you know, this is not just kind of like you're running the middle person,
• 46:04
  right? These are high-level operators of former Navy SEALs, former Green Braids, former
• 46:08
  Arbor Rangers, former combat pilots. Like these these guys are so attuned to
• 46:16
  picking a mission and then executing. They only know how to execute, which is exactly what you
• 46:23
  want in a business. And on top of that, the most successful type of founder is somebody who's
• 46:29
  lived through a problem, understands it better than anyone else, and then can build a solution for
• 46:33
  that problem, which is what they're doing. Yes. You come in as capital, but you also come in as
• 46:38
  like supporting the actual growth of the business. And and I would ask for something like you
• 46:45
  understand the basics of business, but some of these some of these companies are super technical,
• 46:49
  probably think they're building things that I mean, you have it a cursory understanding of,
• 46:54
  but like not like there's no way. So how do you know in your investments, when you should be
• 47:00
  the support and give advice versus when you should just be money? We are so blessed to have an
• 47:07
  incredible LP base that are made up of subject matter experts. So we have General Stanley Macrystal,
• 47:12
  General Edwards, like we have really incredible folks who are experts from military,
• 47:19
  business. And so as a result, we really lean on them during the due diligence process, where
• 47:26
  part of our DD process is that if a company is far enough along in the process, we then essentially
• 47:32
  hold an LP call where we bring in our subject matter experts on the call with the founders so
• 47:37
  they can pepper them with the technical questions that we just don't have the expertise for.
• 47:43
  And a great example, we were looking at a 3D printed satellite company and we ended up
• 47:49
  investing their incredible proteus. And on that DD call, we had General Edwards who stood up space
• 47:55
  force. So the conversation was going like this. It's like way over my head. And it just made me so
• 48:03
  grateful that we have such incredible people in our corner, which has been the theme of this whole
• 48:10
  podcast anyway, surrounding yourself with the right people. It's so smart. I guess I guess I'm
• 48:14
  assuming that a lot of the big venture funds, they understand this, but I've never heard of
• 48:19
  and this could be because I'm not in some of these rooms. So that's fair. But it's just a normal
• 48:24
  thing to have this like round table of LPs that offer advice and guidance in the due diligence
• 48:31
  process. I don't think it is because I've never heard that before. The big ones obviously have
• 48:36
  people hired sub-dremendors. And then they'll help with the vetting and the DD. But this
• 48:42
  sort of like this collaboration of like LPs saying, hey, it's your money in this and you know what
• 48:46
  you're talking about. And we all want to be successful here. So get on this call and go talk
• 48:51
  with satellites with this person. So this is not something that people do. But so you are very
• 48:58
  particular about who you raise money from then. We have to be. We have to be and it's not just
• 49:03
  can this person invest. It has to be far more than that. It has to come down to mission alignment.
• 49:10
  Do they believe in the mission? And is it something that's just as important to them as it is
• 49:15
  to us? Because if it's not, they can put their money anywhere. Of course. I'm curious because of
• 49:21
  the type of companies you invest in. Have you had like potential risks of certain people trying to
• 49:28
  put money into these things that shouldn't? We're very particular in relation that, you know,
• 49:33
  for example, we have had foreign capital. Yeah. That's what I was thinking about. Yeah, it's
• 49:38
  obviously it's a non-starter for us. We don't have those conversations around allowing that in.
• 49:44
  There are firms out there that will just take anyone's money wherever it comes from. And again,
• 49:49
  you know, for us, it's very important that our folks be mission aligned because,
• 49:54
  for example, every year we host an LPs summit and we get all of our LPs together in a room.
• 49:59
  And it's so powerful. It's so powerful and important. And that's also part of our criteria.
• 50:05
  It's like this vibe check, right? Where we're like, is this person going to get along with all
• 50:09
  of our other really cool LPs? No, it's important. And especially because the stuff you're building
• 50:14
  is sensitive too. So the goal right now is to build out fun too. So you're raising for 50 million.
• 50:21
  Yes, we're in the middle of our raise for fun too. It's a 50 million dollar fund. We have about
• 50:26
  half committed at the moment. And also we joke, right? It's taken us seven months to raise 25 million,
• 50:33
  where it took us three years to raise 20 million dollars. It's always how it works. So it always,
• 50:37
  like you prove it out and then it's only going to get easier from here. Exactly. And luckily,
• 50:41
  for fun too, obviously we're able to point back to the traction in fund one. And the performance
• 50:46
  there, we're out of 52% IRR right now. Very good. Yeah, we're in the top desial of VC funds of
• 50:53
  that 2021 vintage. Yeah, that's very, very good. Okay, so now back to sort of like your life
• 51:00
  portfolio. So this is your main focus right now. You still run the other four businesses, but
• 51:07
  you have operators. Great partners. Yeah, great partners. Okay, so what is next for you?
• 51:12
  What is next for you? What's like, I mean, I find, I find how you look at opportunity,
• 51:16
  very interesting, because you do, I mentioned at the beginning, like, are you impulsive? You're not
• 51:22
  impulsive. But when you have high conviction, you jump into this next thing with like a hundred
• 51:27
  percent of yourself. Like we didn't even talk about you, like, like running for office. And I
• 51:31
  think that's just like it just, that's going to take away from everything else we're talking about.
• 51:35
  And for YouTube, you got to like package the episodes properly. So I don't care about politics.
• 51:39
  But the point is, like, looking at the personality of somebody who does that,
• 51:44
  that's somebody who like, if they want something, they go after it, which I think is like
• 51:48
  very commendable. That's probably why you're successful. But what, like, what is next for you? When
• 51:52
  you think about next opportunity, next thing you get excited about, tell me, like what's, yeah.
• 52:00
  Well, frankly, I mean, last year I took quite a bit of time off because our son was born
• 52:06
  March of last year. Thank you. And I will say, you know, motherhood and being a parent,
• 52:15
  it's, it's the best thing I've ever done. It's truly the best thing I've ever done. And it's,
• 52:23
  you know, I've met, especially a lot of professional one-in or young women in their careers. And they
• 52:29
  have expressed almost fear around, well, you know, if I, if I get married or if I have kids,
• 52:36
  you know, take away from what I want to do and what I want to build and where I want to go and the
• 52:40
  things I want to do. And my lens on that is that actually, parenthood actually gets you very focused.
• 52:48
  It doesn't pull you away from all these things that you're doing and all these things that are
• 52:53
  important to you. It actually gets you laser focused on the most important things. And it's,
• 52:59
  it's, I think it's a forced multiplier. I think it's the best thing you could do.
• 53:03
  The HubSpot podcast network is a success story partner. Now, real quick, if you like this show,
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  something you can use that day. Hule is a success story partner. Now, I'll be honest with you,
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  start with one free app. There's one other person in my life who's told me this. So I'm going
• 55:17
  to tell you a story. So my fiance, Gina and I, we were obviously get married and have kids,
• 55:24
  but I get stressed out because I work a lot. And this is obviously, I'm not dealing with
• 55:30
  motherhood. I'm just dealing with parenthood, obviously. But I still get stressed out and I'm
• 55:33
  thinking about, okay, where do I have time to like hang it with kids? So it's, it stresses me up.
• 55:38
  And one of my good friends, very successful guy, Leo Pereja, he's a CEO of EXP, like the real estate
• 55:45
  company, but he's had two exits. Has wonderful family and all him, his wife, his kids as well. And
• 55:53
  I mentioned this to him one time. And he said, Scott, you got it like all wrong. So the second you
• 55:58
  have kids, you become a better entrepreneur, you become better at, because of the laser focus,
• 56:03
  because you no longer can afford doing the bullshit that doesn't move the needle. Because like,
• 56:09
  you know, you know, you know the saying that the work expands the time we give it. And it really
• 56:12
  does. Like if you have unlimited time, you'll find a way to fill it with work if you're a highly
• 56:18
  ambitious, you know, like a person. And, and he's like, when you have kids, well, like if you got to
• 56:24
  go pick them up from school at five or go to the soccer practice or the dance or site or whatever
• 56:27
  the thing is, you have to stop working at a certain time, or else you're just going to be an absent
• 56:32
  father, which obviously you don't want to be, you want to be there for your kids. So then you
• 56:36
  realize, okay, only have eight, nine, maybe 10 max hours of time to work today. So what are like
• 56:43
  the most urgent, important things to do that will actually move the needle forward. And then you get
• 56:48
  laser focus. So you're only the second person that said that, but that to me was the biggest
• 56:52
  reframe on kids and time and that it makes you a better entrepreneur. And I appreciate you saying
• 56:58
  that because I don't think a lot of people think like that. Yeah, I think it, he's exactly right.
• 57:02
  It makes you very efficient with your time. And because I think anyone who's who's concerned
• 57:09
  about wanting to be a good parent, as a result, you want to set an example, right? Because of that
• 57:16
  now forced accountability, because you have this tiny little human, but you're trying to keep
• 57:20
  alive and also send a good example for it. It makes you a better leader, a better person in
• 57:26
  business, because you're like, are the things that I'm doing going meet my, my kid, and my setting
• 57:32
  the right example for my child, the conversations that he overhears me having in my home office on
• 57:38
  Zoom or on calls or whatever. And I conducting myself in a way that's setting an example. And all of
• 57:44
  those are hilarious. There's even stats like if you have a child, like there's as a man, if you
• 57:52
  have a child, you're less likely to be incarcerated, because all the decisions you make are like you're
• 57:57
  considering other people now, not just yourself. Exactly. And you mentioned before like you, I can't
• 58:04
  remember if you said this is something that you struggle with mentally or you just find that
• 58:08
  women struggle with it mentally, which one was it? Both. I was fearful of it. And I've had women
• 58:14
  reach out to me and express that same feeling. So now being on the other side of it, I always tell
• 58:19
  them exactly what I shared with you, which is don't be fearful of it. Embrace it when that time comes
• 58:26
  for you. If it's on your heart and it feels right for you and you want to do that and have children,
• 58:31
  have kids, don't let your ambition be fearful that your ambition will be derailed because in fact,
• 58:39
  it actually makes you more efficient, a better leader, better at business. I love that because it's
• 58:45
  important. If you have ambition, you want to build. But I think that this is what is tough for women,
• 58:51
  because before, say before, past generations, it was mostly the guy working and bringing
• 58:58
  home money. And now women want to work and want to build and they have ambition to do their own
• 59:04
  thing, which is great. But they like never moved out of like the role of, should I still be a mother?
• 59:10
  And now it's like, how do I balance both? And I think that's, I think that messes with a lot of
• 59:14
  people. I think that really throws them off. It's important, I think, especially for women to
• 59:19
  recognize there are seasons, right? Seasons and like, I had a grind season when we were building
• 59:25
  cupcakes and building the real estate brokerage, but you know, like all those things,
• 59:29
  and I was doing that with no kids, I was doing that with no spouse, you know, I had relationships,
• 59:33
  but like I wasn't married, you know, and so I had the opportunity to be as selfish as possible,
• 59:39
  70s a week and only pour myself into these businesses. So there's seasons for these things.
• 59:45
  That's another important idea too, because I think that people don't realize that like,
• 59:49
  you can be something for a season of your life. And then even for even for a guy,
• 59:55
  I'm a big fan of not having balance when you're like 20 to like 27 and just going all in on
• 1:00:01
  something. And that was the time building. And even if you build and it's not successful,
• 1:00:06
  you'll learn so many different skills that will make you so competent and valuable and
• 1:00:12
  successful and dangerous in all the right ways at the later stage of your life so that
• 1:00:17
  when you want to have a family and you want to slow down and you move into a different season of
• 1:00:22
  your life, now you have the skill set to be able to figure out what again moves the needle,
• 1:00:27
  and you can be more successful with less time invested. And I think that that's why the first
• 1:00:32
  season of your life should be selfish and unbalanced. And then you can move into the second season
• 1:00:36
  of balance and family and kids if you want that. And they're going to be micro seasons,
• 1:00:41
  right? Last year or sun was born in March. I basically took like half the year off.
• 1:00:45
  Yeah. And you shouldn't feel guilty about that. And I loved it. I enjoyed it so much. And it
• 1:00:50
  was such a precious special time because you're so little. You only have them so little for so long.
• 1:00:55
  And now he's like running around with like Spider-Man outfit on our ready. You know what I mean?
• 1:00:58
  Like it's a completely different season. I think that also people get tripped up because
• 1:01:03
  their identity becomes the one thing and they can't imagine themselves as anything else.
• 1:01:08
  Like I listen, I'm not a woman so I don't really know and I don't want to speak from that
• 1:01:12
  perspective. But I know for God, I'll speak from the perspective of somebody who's an entrepreneur,
• 1:01:16
  who's business fails or somebody who's an entrepreneur and then tries to become a dad and all they know
• 1:01:22
  is being an entrepreneur and that's their whole identity. I can only imagine it's difficult for a
• 1:01:26
  woman who again, super ambitious like she's building and then she's like, oh, I got a pivot
• 1:01:31
  completely like now I have to be like the mom identity as opposed to the entrepreneur identity.
• 1:01:36
  And that's to be able to do that is healthy. It just shows that you like have a good grasp on
• 1:01:41
  reality that you're not your work but I think that for some people to get too deep into their work
• 1:01:46
  and they become their work and I think that's when they have a tough time switching to something
• 1:01:50
  else. But I will say and for when this is a particular to women because we're the ones that
• 1:01:55
  carry the baby, we're the ones that kind of sustain the baby. That mom title is so precious and
• 1:02:04
  for me, I felt so grateful to add that to my identity. Yeah, as you should. No, I think that it's
• 1:02:14
  I don't want to be misconstrued. I think it's beautiful that and you should add it to your identity.
• 1:02:18
  I was just saying that I guess if you feel like it's tough for you to add that to your identity,
• 1:02:25
  maybe understand for a moment that like your ambition and your work is not all that you are
• 1:02:29
  and you're like much more than that. That's really what I want to for anybody who's struggling
• 1:02:34
  with this because I think that is a thing that ambitious truly ambitious people and I'm sure
• 1:02:38
  people that are listening to this feel this at least some of them do. Guy or girl like you are
• 1:02:46
  yes, it's good to be involved in your work and love your work but it's not like your value as a
• 1:02:50
  human and I think that a lot of people struggle with that if they've been building for too long
• 1:02:56
  in that like build season for too long. When you're always building and like say you're in this
• 1:03:01
  season of life like where you're like non-stop and obviously you have you have been for a minute
• 1:03:05
  before you took a break and then you had you had a kid. What about relationships and dating and
• 1:03:11
  finding the right person? Is that hard? Is that I mean I'm assuming that
• 1:03:18
  your filter for who you want to spend your life with is pretty high considering you're successful
• 1:03:23
  in all these other parts of your life. So how does somebody who is like you a woman trying to
• 1:03:28
  find the right part and how do they do that? I will say so I'm 41 now. I met my husband at 39.
• 1:03:38
  The man that I was looking for and attracted at 39 was different than when I was 26.
• 1:03:47
  Right? Even when I was 32. That evolved because I evolved. If that makes sense.
• 1:04:03
  I realized looking back in my 20s and 30s of that build season that I was in even though I had
• 1:04:11
  romantic relationships I had great boyfriends and I realized I actually was not a good partner
• 1:04:18
  in the sense that work always came first. My businesses and what I was building were always the priority
• 1:04:25
  and if there was anyone else in my life that took time away from that they got like the snippet
• 1:04:32
  version of me or the tired version or the you know whatever was left and so I do I do feel bad
• 1:04:42
  that I wasn't I guess just like a better I feel like I could have been like a better like
• 1:04:47
  girlfriend right back then but it's just it wasn't a priority and I got to a point in my
• 1:04:55
  mid to late 30s where I was in a relationship and I stayed too long because I had told myself well
• 1:05:05
  you know it's always going to be something you always have to deal with something with somebody
• 1:05:10
  right no one's perfect and if I'm serious about wanting to get married and have kids one day
• 1:05:17
  which I've always said since I was in my 20s that I do want that one day I said well if I'm
• 1:05:22
  serious about that are my war are my actions lining up with my words and like right now they're
• 1:05:28
  not so I need to be making this relationship a priority then and what I realized through that
• 1:05:37
  process was that there has to be kind of life alignment with obviously whoever you plan to
• 1:05:45
  partner with and that wasn't a criteria that I had really thought about and invested into prior
• 1:05:54
  to that because it just wasn't on my radar it wasn't part of my filter again because the businesses
• 1:05:59
  were such a high priority and I am so grateful my husband Josh and not only is he someone who I
• 1:06:08
  respect and admire for the amazing things he's accomplished but it's like part of my filter like
• 1:06:15
  I was like is this someone who's going to be a good dad yeah is this someone who's going to be a good
• 1:06:20
  husband and it's crazy to say but those weren't questions that I had asked myself in prior years
• 1:06:27
  when I would meet people and I mentioned like as like a ambitious high performing woman how do you
• 1:06:33
  find the right partner but like the answer would be the same for a high performing guy who is
• 1:06:39
  always working or in build mode and he's trying to find somebody who's cool with him always working
• 1:06:45
  and like again from my from my perspective that's the only one I can really speak about
• 1:06:51
  Gina and myself we worked out so well because she's also an entrepreneur and she also has her own
• 1:06:55
  business so like she gets it she gets when I'm you know working at like two in the morning like she
• 1:07:02
  gets it and I think that's the only reason why like there's a lot of reasons why we work out but
• 1:07:07
  that's one of the main reasons because I've had X's in the past where a lot has been aligned but
• 1:07:13
  they're just not in the same season of life as you and and again you have to have the you know
• 1:07:21
  the emotional intelligence or awareness to understand that it should be a season and you have to
• 1:07:27
  communicate that and I think the most screwed up partnerships and relationships are when
• 1:07:32
  you like the person you well I mean there's like this like lust and infatuation when you first
• 1:07:36
  meet them but then after a while you're just like okay this is like a really good match but
• 1:07:40
  you lie and you hedge and you sugarcoat like where you're at and you're like oh I'm building a
• 1:07:45
  business but it's like not that much time or and then you know six months later when you're pulling
• 1:07:52
  200 weeks then then the person's like this is not what I signed up for and I think that's an
• 1:07:58
  issue doesn't matter a guy or girl I think it's like an issue with high performing people who are in
• 1:08:02
  build mode regardless like they commit so much of themselves with their business and they don't
• 1:08:06
  communicate it because they're worried that the other person's not going to understand their
• 1:08:09
  craziness and their obsession which is a valid concern but then that's like the signal that maybe
• 1:08:14
  that's not the right person for you as opposed to hedging and and and lying about something that
• 1:08:20
  seems like not so bad like oh I'm just going to downplay how much work I'm not like cheating
• 1:08:24
  on them I'm just going to say that I don't work a lot like that's not the worst lie in the world
• 1:08:28
  right but then it blows up a relationship you know six months later and I do think there's you
• 1:08:33
  know that kind of intangible chemistry right where I mean my husband is truly like my favorite
• 1:08:39
  person so like I love spending time with him right and I've been in relationships where like
• 1:08:45
  I didn't love spending I'd rather work on my business right and now it's it's opposite where
• 1:08:52
  of course I've these businesses I have responsibility and I have things I have to do but like
• 1:08:57
  if he's like hey he's like I have time for a quick lunch like do you have time yeah I will
• 1:09:02
  rearrange my schedule to like make it happen you know and there that didn't happen before I never
• 1:09:08
  okay so on the same way so we always joke about like how we like would never leave the house if
• 1:09:13
  we could because like we love like hanging out so much like it's just fun I don't really understand
• 1:09:18
  when people are like hey I want to get away from my partner I never I never understood that
• 1:09:24
  because I've never dated somebody like listen their access for a reason there was something
• 1:09:28
  didn't work out but I've never dated somebody where I want to escape from and if I did I'm like okay
• 1:09:31
  this is not like the right person it's just at and again we're aligned on like a personality level
• 1:09:39
  on on an ambition level on the fact again like yeah we can make jokes and we like to the same
• 1:09:45
  shit on Netflix and and it's a lot of fun to just chill but also we both have business problems
• 1:09:50
  and we can you know bounce ideas back and forth off each other so it's almost like alignment across
• 1:09:56
  all parts of our life you have the same you feel the same yeah so important and I think that
• 1:10:01
  level of trust too yeah no I was gonna say that's why I think like I don't know I hope hopefully
• 1:10:07
  it works out for a very long time for both of us but I think that's the answer to like you know
• 1:10:12
  who's the right person and I think people I think people rush into things too quickly and I think
• 1:10:20
  that also like when you're again somebody who's so busy you you see somebody's like a 70%
• 1:10:26
  match and you're like oh fuck this I'm tired of dating I have no time to yeah yeah you you
• 1:10:31
  justify like or like the good on paper person and then meanwhile like the chemistry is not there
• 1:10:37
  right and and I I'm affirmably I never did the dating apps I literally I met my husband at a
• 1:10:42
  gun range it's about us but it's just there's no you know what I mean like you there's no formula
• 1:10:48
  yeah to like meeting your person right the only advice and I have a lot of women who will ask me
• 1:10:54
  thus the the advice I have is once you make room for that in your life which may mean letting go
• 1:11:04
  of someone or something that you are holding on to because you think that 70% whatever it is
• 1:11:12
  a good on paper person once you make room in your life for that it just appears it's so crazy
• 1:11:21
  yeah I know I think that you know I was having a conversation with somebody last night actually
• 1:11:26
  about how important it is to like quickly cut people out of your life that are not good
• 1:11:30
  because in my mind there is no such thing as like a neutral anything there's no neutral person there's
• 1:11:36
  no neutral job there's no neutral like there's it's either improving your life or it's hurting you
• 1:11:42
  in some way like even like a neutral friend or a neutral partner like oh they're good enough what
• 1:11:48
  are you good enough like like if they're not adding then they're subtracting I genuinely believe
• 1:11:54
  I don't feel like anything in life is just like maintaining status quo I think a status quo is
• 1:11:57
  like a myth it doesn't exist it doesn't matter if you're like chilling at a job a career it doesn't
• 1:12:01
  matter if you're chilling in your health journey and you're trying to lose weight and you've like
• 1:12:05
  like status quo maintenance is like atrophy over time I believe I mean doesn't even exist in
• 1:12:12
  finance you keep money in your checking account you lose every day every single day you want to
• 1:12:17
  base on inflation so there is no such thing so like status quo maintenance is atrophy including
• 1:12:22
  with people and I think that's why it's important like if they're not adding like you have to cut
• 1:12:29
  does Josh right Josh Josh he was okay with you being very entrepreneurial very ambitious
• 1:12:37
  obviously working a lot he was fine with that yeah and how did you how did you make sure that he
• 1:12:42
  was fine with that before dating marrying having a kid with him I think I think the really
• 1:12:48
  nice thing about us meeting when I was 39 which people are like oh my gosh that's crazy you know
• 1:12:54
  and I'm like well like that the I think the lovely part about that is that one I very much know who I
• 1:13:02
  am and I'm already established in the sense that it's like what you see is what you get and so
• 1:13:09
  it was no surprise to him right as obviously other relationship evolved that this is what my life
• 1:13:15
  looks like and these are my priorities and this is what I'm building and this is what I'm working on
• 1:13:19
  and he was so supportive and excited for me and was truly figuring out like how he could be a value
• 1:13:28
  ad wherever I needed him to be and truly it was just I was like I need like calmness at home like I
• 1:13:35
  can deal with the chaos of business and putting fires out and all that kind of stuff I can't also
• 1:13:40
  have a chaotic home life and that was such a huge filter for me of realizing okay this is this
• 1:13:47
  is someone who like I feel we have such a good home life like it's a calm like our relationship is
• 1:13:54
  calm you know like so that was that was really special and important to me and that he just
• 1:14:01
  made me feel safe and loved and supported so that I can go out and like do all these things
• 1:14:08
  that's so powerful I think the people under I mean you hear this a lot as like an entrepreneur
• 1:14:14
  cliche but your partner is like the single biggest asset and it's like it's a cliche because it's true
• 1:14:20
  but the flip side like the inverse is yes your partner can be your biggest asset asset but if
• 1:14:27
  they are chaotic yeah you can't accomplish anything no you really can't like you can't it's such a
• 1:14:34
  distraction it's such a suck it's such a and I think that if you walk into your house and there's
• 1:14:39
  nothing but negativity like I'm I'm gonna make the assumption that you are not the one that is
• 1:14:44
  starting the thing that's causing the negativity like I'm not saying like if you go cheat on your
• 1:14:48
  spouse you should you should expect a lovely moment yeah like that's not it but say there is
• 1:14:55
  nothing you're doing and it's just chaotic and stressful even if you go out into the world
• 1:15:01
  to go to the coffee shop like people don't understand how all that negativity not the sound
• 1:15:06
  we will but like all the stress it's in your subconscious all the time it's in your nervous
• 1:15:11
  to stress yes exactly so it's very real right the body keeps counting like and you cannot operate
• 1:15:16
  at full capacity when you don't feel like you have a whole like a safe home that's right 100 percent
• 1:15:23
  so most importantly where can people reach out to you and connect with you and if I mean if I
• 1:15:29
  don't know if there's any veterans I should do a survey I'm sure there's some in the audience for
• 1:15:33
  sure but is any veterans who are starting companies or if there's people that can write checks
• 1:15:37
  obviously that's what you're focused on right now so tell them where to go for that but also where
• 1:15:41
  can they find you on social or anywhere else yes I'm on social at Lisa Song Sutton and my website
• 1:15:47
  is LisaSong Sutton.com and if you are a veteran that's building a great tech startup had over
• 1:15:55
  to veteran.fund and we have been in take from there that is a fire domain congratulate that is
• 1:16:01
  a very good domain easy to remember um okay so the last thing I want to ask is obviously you know
• 1:16:08
  you've been very successful in your career um you've you know taught a lot of this podcast as well
• 1:16:13
  but if you could just pass on one lesson to uh what's what's your baby's name Gabriel Gabriel
• 1:16:19
  so you could just pass on one lesson to Gabriel the most important lesson or would that lesson be
• 1:16:23
  this is a quote that my parents have told me since I was young growing up um it's hard work
• 1:16:29
  beats talent when talent doesn't work hard and I've found that to ring true and so many elements
• 1:16:34
  of my life so what does that mean for Gabriel what is that what do they have to do to be successful
• 1:16:39
  and happy and filled in life you have to bring your best you have to give your best every single day
• 1:16:44
  and um just keep improving um even one percent is progress and um just know you're very loved