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The Power of Masterminds

Small Biz Buzz hosts Crystal Heuft and Scott Martineau are joined by Lindsey Schwartz, the founder of Powerhouse Women and author of “Powerhouse Woman,” who discusses how she benefited from attending mastermind programs where she got the chance to dive deep with a group of other people on the same journey that she was, which reaffirmed all of the overwhelming feelings she was experiencing about starting her own business.

As far as focusing her business strictly on women, Schwartz said, “I never intended from the start to create a women's community only because in my past I worked with men and women, but I noticed most of the conversations I was having were specific to women.”

Schwartz believes there are so many women with really brilliant ideas who aren't getting into the entrepreneurial spirit because they only see the highlight reel and think they’re not meant for this journey.

“That whole conversation inspired [my book], which was really written from my own story of how not together I have it and showing women how you don't need to become more, you don't need to learn more in order to be this powerhouse, you just need to turn into what's already within us. And the fundamentals for creation, just creating things from nothing are within all of us,” said Schwartz.

She also hosts a podcast where she talks about how to equip women with the tools and the mindset to get out of their own way and into action around their own big ideas.

“That's actually one of the reasons I love having a podcast. We can just go a lot deeper into what a little caption can share, but I think it's more just about us realizing that if we're feeling icky looking at social media, we're just comparing our blooper reel to someone else's highlight reel,” said Schwartz. “You have to get it straight, social media is always going to be a highlight reel.” Tune in for more.

Transcript:

Speaker 1 (00:00:00):

Howdy listeners, as we all know, planet earth has 7.5 billion people and 7.4 billion of those people have small businesses. Now to be fair, numbers that size can be hard to envision and to be even fairer, most of what I just said is entirely made up. But I'll tell you what isn't made up, Keap. Keap is the all in one client management software designed specifically for small businesses. Keap takes the most annoying and laborious parts of running a small business and metaphorically tosses them into the sun. Stop grinding yourself to death with busy work and repetitive tasks. Let Keap integrate your customer follow-ups, messaging automation, next-level appointment setting and so much more. Head over to keap.com and start your free trial of Keap Grow, Keap Pro or for those looking for something beefy or talk to one of our coaches about Infusionsoft, the product that started it all. More business. Less work. That's Keap. Just go to keap.com to start your free trial. That's K-E-A-P.com. One more time, that's K-E-A-P.com.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:00:58):

It's really not that hard, it's just a matter of sticking it out and we'll, I'm sure get into all this stuff but yeah, someone acknowledged the other day, that like, "Wow, just last year you talked about starting a podcast and now you're at episode..." will be at a hundred soon. And I was like, "Well yeah, isn't that what you do? You say you're going to do something and you'd do it." But that's not, that's actually the secret to success.

Scott Martineau (00:01:18):

No, that's not what you're supposed to do, you're supposed to go out there [inaudible 00:01:20].

Lindsey Schwartz (00:01:21):

I mean when I wrote my book, I joined this group of almost like a mastermind for aspiring authors and I wrote... it started at like 18 then dwindled to six and that was four years ago. I'm still to this day the only person who published a book. And it literally launched everything, that's what started this all. I think that's the unsexy part that we don't hear enough about. It's kind of boring, you just keep doing the work and then that's when good stuff happens.

Crystal Hueft (00:01:48):

I love, I was reading your bio and you were-

Scott Martineau (00:01:50):

I feel like we need to start rolling.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:01:51):

I know like I'll save... Don't worry, I got this all saved up.

Crystal Hueft (00:01:53):

Oh, good. I can always count on Dusey to be rolling usually when I am going to say something stupid and then he puts it in the transcript and I'm getting random slacks, like I can't believe you said that. But usually, I would say it's true to my personal brand, unfortunately, which is a work in progress.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:02:13):

Very on brand, that's great, I think we could really be friends.

Crystal Hueft (00:02:16):

Totally, I was going to say, I was so impressed by... when I was reading your bio and you were talking about the ups and downs. And it's very refreshing, until I worked here, I had never heard people be so candid about that. When we hear Scott and Clate, they're so honest sometimes being in the PR and the social world, I'm like, "Okay maybe bring it back just a touch."

Crystal Hueft (00:02:40):

But they are about the most honest leaders you'll ever have and I think that's actually one of their biggest strengths because they share everything, the good, bad and the ugly. They share it and they... people relate to that and that's the kind of stuff they want to hear because they are in those moments of darkness being a solopreneur or an entrepreneur. And I think if you just made everything sound jazzy, it's not that exciting and it's not real. So I liked that you had that in there too.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:03:08):

That's honestly what has inspired everything that we're doing. Is that was my... the biggest thing I was looking for examples of is, we don't need more examples of how people are crushing it, that's called social media, we're inundated with it. And what we need to hear, especially entrepreneurs, in that stage where you're like, I don't know if I'm supposed to be doing this, who's going listen to me? Who am I to be creating this thing? We need to hear other people who are achieving success, whatever that looks like to us. Hear that not they overcame a struggle 10 years ago, but that they ugly cried yesterday because they don't feel like they're enough or their team is growing and they don't know how to manage that new challenge. And that's what I was looking for and couldn't find it. So I was like, well then, I guess that's my answer, then I guess I get to create it.

Crystal Hueft (00:03:56):

So Lindsey, how do you want me to introduce you?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:03:58):

I mean, I'm an aspiring backup hip hop dancer, you definitely need to-

Crystal Hueft (00:04:01):

Oh my god me too, we totally could be friends. I'm in a dance troupe.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:04:05):

Did we just become best friends?

Crystal Hueft (00:04:06):

Of course, I literally have a dancer recital June sixth.

Scott Martineau (00:04:10):

Okay, you two stop this, this is what we're not supposed to do on-air.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:04:11):

That's not in my bio, but that should be, you could honestly... I mean, founder of Powerhouse Women is probably the best.

Crystal Hueft (00:04:19):

Okay, perfect. Hi, I'm Crystal.

Scott Martineau (00:04:21):

And I'm Scott.

Crystal Hueft (00:04:23):

And this is Small Biz Buzz presented by Keap and today we have a great guest here who I just discovered we're going to be besties after this for lots of reasons, one being that she's an aspiring hip-hop dancer just like myself, which it's hard to find out there, especially if you're past 18. So Lindsey Schwartz, thank you for being here today. You are the founder of Powerhouse Women and you've... you're a speaker, you're an author, you run a very active Facebook group, you have a podcast. I mean, we could keep going on and you're a hip-hop dancer.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:04:57):

And I'm an aspiring hip hop dancer. I mean there's just a lot to talk about there.

Crystal Hueft (00:05:02):

I feel like you checked all the boxes for me in terms of bestie behavior, so I'm in.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:05:06):

Solidified, it's recorded.

Crystal Hueft (00:05:08):

What of you Scott, are you going to join the dance troupe?

Scott Martineau (00:05:09):

Oh, yeah, I'm an aspiring hip hop dancer. No, dancing and me? They don't really happen together at least not prettily.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:05:16):

Well, I didn't say I was good. But that's part of what we'll dive into today, you've got to be willing to be bad before you get good at something.

Crystal Hueft (00:05:24):

I swear it's not our first recording, Lindsey.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:05:27):

This is a lot. I'm like, I barely can handle recording my own voice, I love this, this is so fun.

Crystal Hueft (00:05:33):

I think it's been really interesting to hear myself back. I was telling everyone it's starting to give me a complex. I'm like, "Oh, self-discovery, it's hard."

Scott Martineau (00:05:41):

You have such a great... your voice is fantastic.

Crystal Hueft (00:05:42):

Well, thank you.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:05:43):

Actually, going to say the same before we even got on the mic, it sounds even more fantastic in my ears right now.

Crystal Hueft (00:05:48):

Well, thank you. I think I meant the things that come out of my mouth. So that's where the self-discovery is coming in. But that's okay, that's good, growth is good. So you just to let the unnatural feeling eventually subside.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:06:01):

Yeah, so is there any interesting background to the hip hop dance for either of you?

Crystal Hueft (00:06:05):

What's yours?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:06:06):

Do you want to go first, friend?

Crystal Hueft (00:06:07):

I say go for it.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:06:08):

Okay, so sort of here's the pieces of the story, we'll piece it together. I've always loved to dance and this ties into so much of my entrepreneurial journey too and what could have gotten in my way is I wanted to be... I only wanted to do things that I was immediately great at. And I was not blessed with... just, I can keep rhythm, but I'm not a hip hop dancer. There's just like a fluidity to hip hop that is awesome. And it was one of those things that I always would talk about wanting to do more. I was really inspired I met this woman in an airport once who is a member of the Golden Grannies. Do you know the Golden Grannies?

Crystal Hueft (00:06:48):

Oh my god, the Silver Sneakers, it's like right up there, right?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:06:50):

Well, Golden Grannies do hip hop dances at the halftime of the Phoenix Suns.

Crystal Hueft (00:06:55):

Oh my God, that's way better than Silver Sneakers.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:06:57):

No, it's so much better, legit hip hop, they twerk, they whip Naynay like the best of them and you have to be 55 years old to even audition.

Scott Martineau (00:07:09):

You might want to be a Sun's fan, Crystal just for that.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:07:09):

Yeah, I'm not even a basketball fan, but I'm a huge Golden Grannies fan. So I literally created for myself, that's my future, that's how I want to go into my-

Crystal Hueft (00:07:17):

Who wouldn't?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:07:17):

The oldest member on the squad last year was 93. I know way too much about them, but I was like, well, if I'm serious about this life goal, I've got to put some action behind it. And last year finally was like, "You know what, I'm going to seek out like adult hip hop classes." So I've been training really more just staying limber so that when I turned 55 in 19 years, I can audition to get into-

Crystal Hueft (00:07:39):

Okay, but are you taking a dance class?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:07:41):

Well, I go to a hip-hop class in old town, yeah. But I don't have recitals so I'm really interested in hearing what you're doing.

Crystal Hueft (00:07:48):

So my story is nowhere near as cool as yours. Yours has a purpose and mission and all the things we tried to do over here at Keap, they're all aligned to your values. Mine was one of my good friends who we go to all the 90s hip hop concerts together, she said, "Hey, Stella's Dance..." I don't even know what you call it. "... Studio is doing adult hip hop classes. Do you want to do it?" And I said, “Absolutely." I didn't know how much it was, I didn't know what the details were. Then my second question was, will there be a recital? Because for me it's-

Scott Martineau (00:08:18):

That's an important question.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:08:19):

What's the point, otherwise?

Crystal Hueft (00:08:20):

Yeah, I felt like if this is just going to be your standard hip hop workout class, I already have a trainer, I already do workouts, this would be fun so it should we dance? And for me, it's like the only reason I really said okay is because the absurdity of being 38, I literally go to a children's dance studio every Tuesday night. So tonight, is the night and I'm going to go and show up and dance tonight with a teacher whose name is Hush, also cool and June 6th is my recital, just with all the kids.

Scott Martineau (00:08:51):

You guys are total nerds, total nerds.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:08:53):

We're going to take this offline because this could be the whole podcast, but I need the information for that.

Crystal Hueft (00:08:57):

I mean, I really want to recruit you into our troupe, which I don't say often, so this is great.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:09:02):

Okay, cool, awesome, without even knowing any moves.

Crystal Hueft (00:09:05):

We have similarities... yeah without, just sight unseen. But now we know we have a lot in common, so dance, but also, I admire entrepreneurs and you are an entrepreneur. So I don't have the guts yet to do anything myself, but through people like you and Scott here, I get really excited about helping because I think it's amazing. So tell us a little bit more about what you do regularly and then we're going to get into this great topic about masterminds, which I know Scott you're very passionate about and really why small business owners should invest in themselves and their business.

Scott Martineau (00:09:39):

Actually, if you can start your story, please. Just go back to beginning, give us the quick, your quick entrepreneurial journey and then when you're at today.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:09:45):

Yeah, so before I realized my life goal of being a Golden Granny, I had a background in health and fitness, so that was my first venture into entrepreneurial anything. But it was within the context of network marketing so it was... what I love about network marketing is it's like entrepreneurship with some training wheels to it. But in that journey, I would find myself in so many conversations with people, specifically women in my life who would say I would ask questions like, "Well, what do you really want to be? What do you feel like your unique purpose in this world is? What kind of impact do you want to be making?" And they would say, "Well, I see what you've done. I don't think health and fitness is for me, but I've always had this idea."

Lindsey Schwartz (00:10:28):

Somehow whatever I brought to the table would bring these visions out of them that maybe they'd never shared before, maybe they did talk about a lot, but it was... it was always in the context of they would share it. I would hear, "Wow, the world needs that. No one's doing that, or no one's doing it like you." And without fail, in the very next breath they would share why they weren't ready, why they didn't know enough, why they weren't the one or they were afraid.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:10:54):

And every single time I would find myself, if we were in person, I would literally be grabbing this person's hands across the table, looking into their eyes and saying, I feel everything you're saying on a daily basis. That's how we know we're going in the right direction. And it had me sit back and go, "Why aren't more people sharing this? Why aren't we talking about how entrepreneurship isn't just what we see on the Gram?" It's a lot of late nights, it's taking yourself on way more than any other job I've ever had, has required me to do and it's awesome. It is awesome and we just skip right to the awesome part versus sharing what it looks like in the day to day.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:11:33):

And I think specifically among a lot of the women in my life, we're doing such a disservice because there are so many women with really brilliant ideas that aren't getting into action because they only see the highlight reel and they see that, "Well, that's not me, so I guess I must not be meant for this." So that whole conversation inspired a book that I wrote called Powerhouse Woman, which was really written from my own story of how not together I have it. And showing women how you don't need to become more, you don't need to learn more in order to be this powerhouse, you just need to turn into what's already within us. And the fundamentals for creation, just creating things from nothing are within all of us.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:12:15):

And then that inspired... we do a big annual conference every year called the Powerhouse Women Event. We have a podcast where we just really talk about how not together we have it, but also, we equip women with the tools and a lot of that is mindset to get out of their own way and into action around their own big ideas.

Crystal Hueft (00:12:34):

That's so cool. I'm ready to burn my bra on the quad right now.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:12:38):

Oh, I still wear bras. It's different but very empowering.

Crystal Hueft (00:12:44):

I just meant in terms of the women's movement, I'm ready to go. Anyone else?

Scott Martineau (00:12:50):

I'm there.

Crystal Hueft (00:12:51):

Yes, Scott's there.

Scott Martineau (00:12:53):

What's your theory, why are we so infatuated with just sharing the highlights? The highlight journey of the positives and not the real stuff?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:13:02):

Well, if we look at what social media actually is, but that's kind of what it's about. It is kind of us all putting our best foot forward. I think that has changed. I think there's a lot more authenticity and that can even be kind of a slippery slope because then there's certain things that come across to me and I'm like, "That feels like it's contrived authenticity." So at the end of the day, I think that it's more important just to remember what it is we're looking at. We're looking at someone's highlight reel and it may not be appropriate for me to share all of... like the fights I have with my husband or that kind of stuff, because that's just not what I'm going to put on my social media.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:13:40):

But of course, I have them, I have my own internal struggles, so I try to be transparent by sharing it. That's actually one of the reasons I love having a podcast. I think we can just go a lot deeper into what a little caption can share, but I think it's more just about us realizing that if we're feeling icky looking at social media, we're just comparing our blooper reel to someone else's highlight reel. You got to get it straight, social media is always going to be a highlight reel.

Crystal Hueft (00:14:06):

Yeah, it should be. If they're posting other stuff, I mean when they start getting emo, I can't deal with it. No one wants to see that.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:14:14):

Someone brightened my day, or educate me or inspire me, that's what I want from that platform.

Scott Martineau (00:14:20):

It's interesting because my journey as I built this company was really fascinating, there was something that started happening inside my head as we got bigger where I felt like, “Hey look, I started a company that is now making 100 million bucks. I should have all the answers to this stuff.” And I know I clearly didn't have all the answers but it's that thought, there's an interesting thought that says, "I should know exactly what to do or I shouldn't have a day where I'm feeling like I just want to quit." I mean there... so it's a fascinating mental construct that we ourselves and it's probably because, "Yeah, we're only looking at the other great stuff that other people are doing, which ironically everybody knows it's only their highlight reel, fascinating."

Crystal Hueft (00:15:01):

I love that idea of comparing it to the blooper because that is what everyone's doing in their head, they're thinking of all the missteps they've had versus this person doing great here, so I think it is important to keep in mind what is the equal to equal that you're looking at. And if your highlight reel doesn't match up to their highlight reel, what can you do to get to somewhere where you're admiring what they're doing?

Scott Martineau (00:15:23):

What about my hip-hop highlight reel is only bloopers?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:15:29):

Hey, there's a market, I can market that too.

Crystal Hueft (00:15:31):

I was just going to say, there's people that want to see that. I mean the best thing on the Bachelor are the blooper reels at the end. So I mean, people hang out to watch all this hot mess just to see the bloopers at the end. So there is somewhere for your blooper hip-hop. I can't say I will take you in my troupe, but there is a troupe for that, somewhere, just not in Peoria Creative Edge Dance Studio.

Scott Martineau (00:15:54):

So the truth is my wife and I did actually get into West Coast Swing, which is... Oh, did you hear that? Was it just me? Okay, that was like, "Oh, okay."

Crystal Hueft (00:16:05):

No, that was like, "Okay." I'm scared of Swing.

Scott Martineau (00:16:07):

I will show you video so they do these, what do they call them? Jack and Jill, where two people who aren't dance partners will get called up drawn at random and they have this song and it's awesome. I'm going to show it. Dusey, let's put it in the show notes.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:16:23):

Yeah, I think the world needs to see this.

Scott Martineau (00:16:24):

We'll do a little like who likes the hip hop dance stuff versus the... I'll send a West Coast Swing thing that is my version of the Golden Sneakers, except that I'm not really doing anything toward it, nor am I planning on getting any better. Anyway, so we're going to talk about masterminds today, but before we do that, I want to just jump a little bit more into the mindset. So what are some of the things... I mean obviously we're going to have listeners who are like every other human on the planet, who every day they have these thoughts that's like, "Am I a fraud and I shouldn't be feeling this way." So what are some of maybe the top couple of ideas that you share with people to keep themselves mentally strong and maybe releasing some of that pressure that they feel to be perfect?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:17:09):

Yeah, man, what I'll say is that it's an ongoing daily battle for me and that's our number one job. I think specifically as people who are creating entities to create something and give it back to the world. Our biggest job is to make sure we don't get in the way... In fact, joining a mastermind is one of the things that I'll... and I'll tie that in in a moment, but it really started for me with actually paying attention to what I say to myself about myself. And I do... I have a talk that I give where I make people actually write out as though it was a third person saying it to them. Like, "You're not enough, you're not smart." I mean just like the deep ugly stuff that we don't really ever put on loudspeaker. But there was a time in my life where it was as true to me to say the sky is blue as to say, "I'm just not enough."

Lindsey Schwartz (00:18:04):

That was equally true to me and it wasn't until I actually started to separate that, that's not me talking, it's definitely not God talking, I don't know who that is, but there is this inner critic within all of us and that is... it's like this version of us that walks around and documents every single fear, every single mistake, has a little Holly Hobbie notebook and Fisher-Price tape recorder, at least mine does. You're going to realize I have a very vivid imagination. But it's like every time we go through anything in life that makes us kind of question like, "Oh gosh, am I enough?" There's a record of that. So when then when we go to take the next big risk or we go to put ourselves out there, at the end of the day our mind just wants to be safe and the only safety and security is in what we know to be true, which is always from the past.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:18:53):

So it's going to pull up like, "Yeah, but remember last time you put yourself out there or we were talking about offline dating, you go to put yourself in a new relationship and then your mind is like, "Yeah, but remember that last guy." And we just have to understand that all of that is just working for our safety. But entrepreneurship inherently is not safe, it's about taking risks, it just is. So I had to really start to separate, there was this day where it became very apparent to me. I'll just kind of tie it together with this.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:19:23):

I was on social media, go figure, looking... I was just... my daily Instagram scroll past videos of little kids hip hop dancing, another passion of mine, probably random cat videos and memes and then all of a sudden nothing in my outside environment had changed and all of a sudden I literally felt like this is totally dating me as a child of the 80s-90s, I felt like I had just been slimed, like the Nickelodeon goo was starting to wash over me. It's just this feeling of ick.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:19:52):

All of a sudden, I was so aware of how not good enough I was. And I had to pause and be like, where did that come from? So I actually reversed my scroll and I went back up and I... it was so momentarily, it was literally a flash of someone's photo. I didn't even hover on it, I just saw it and kept going. And my mind it was, I don't even remember what, but it was like, "You don't have that, you are not that, you will never be that." All it takes is one little trigger in our outside environment so we just have to be like ninjas to catch it when it happens because it still happens to me to this day.

Scott Martineau (00:20:26):

I love this so much.

Crystal Hueft (00:20:26):

I love that you went and found the image. I mean doing the workshop starts opening your eyes to what the triggers are, so good job being brave enough to even look for that. Because that's crazy but I think it starts helping you identify what those moments are and what's starting to change your mind about yourself. So with that being said-

Scott Martineau (00:20:46):

Hold on I had a comment before we go to-

Crystal Hueft (00:20:47):

Yes please, you know where I was going with that.

Scott Martineau (00:20:49):

I did. So this is awesome, my wife is a coach and part of her coaching methodologies are very... it's a similar concept of just tuning... her, she coaches moms. Tuning moms into the thoughts that are going on in their head. And one of the things that she teaches them is that every feeling that you have, these emotions that are flowing through our body that feeling of discouragement or hopelessness or whatever, it's the direct result of a thought. We tend to think it was a result of the situation that we're in, but it's not.

Scott Martineau (00:21:24):

And so I love that... you said it in passing, but I love the concept of slowing down enough to actually... and this is what I think you're doing with the Instagram reversal, is let's retrace the actual thoughts and then let's pull them out and actually hold them accountable. And so this idea of writing it down and I like the idea of a third person, but just dump those out on a piece of paper so you can actually see what's going through your brain and then just be okay with the fact that your brain is doing its job of keeping you safe and out of harm's way and so exciting, I love it.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:21:57):

I forgot, thanks for reminding me what I said because I didn't finish that point. But what I have people in the audience do is I have them write it in third person and then turn to a stranger and look them in the eye and say, you're not enough. Even just looking at you right now. I'm like, "But you are, I would never say that to you." But we put up with it when we say it to ourselves.

Scott Martineau (00:22:14):

Gosh, we're so judgmental.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:22:15):

I know right, it's not a fun exercise, but I tell people, if you actually want to be set free, do that, get an accountability buddy and be like, "Look, this is going to suck, we're going to have to hug it out afterward, but we're both going to do this and we're going to say out loud and actually hear what it sounds like when these words come out of our mouth because that's what started to set me free. The next time I had the thought I was like, "Would I ever say that to someone else?" Someone else said that to me, would I ever choose to be around them, no.

Crystal Hueft (00:22:43):

Absolutely not. Okay, well, with that being said, we are going to break for just a quick minute to go to some Worst Business Ideas In History. But during the break it might not be the best idea to turn to the person you're sitting next to and tell them your meanest thing that you've thought about yourself, it's a practice that should only be done with the help of experts like Lindsey. So anyways, here we go, Worst Business Ideas in History and we'll be back in a few.

Derek Harju (00:23:15):

Howdy folks, I'm Derek Harju.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:23:16):

And I'm Dusey Van Dusen.

Derek Harju (00:23:17):

And this is Worst Business Ideas in History.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:23:19):

The show where we look back at some of the most brutal missteps, failures and flops in consumer history.

Derek Harju (00:23:25):

And make fun of it.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:23:26):

But also learn something.

Derek Harju (00:23:27):

Nope, it says in my contract I don't have to learn.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:23:30):

Fine, the rest of us will learn something and you can just mock people's misfortune.

Derek Harju (00:23:34):

Sounds good.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:23:36):

Welcome to The Worst Business Ideas in History.

Derek Harju (00:23:40):

Howdy everyone and welcome to another episode of Worst Business Ideas in History, I'm Derek Harju.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:23:45):

This is Dusey van Dusen.

Derek Harju (00:23:46):

And today we're going to poke fun at one of the most successful businesses in human history, McDonald's.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:23:51):

That's true, they are extremely successful, but there are still things that are bad ideas that we can learn about from McDonald's.

Derek Harju (00:23:58):

McDonald's isn't hurting they're doing just fine. But if you've been around this long, you test some products that just don't quite cut the mustard so to speak.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:24:07):

And I love... cut the mustard. Good job Derek, good job.

Derek Harju (00:24:12):

I feel bad. I'm going to go home now.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:24:15):

So I love talking about fast food. I don't know why, but there's so many wonderfully bad ideas in fast food and they managed to be successful somehow still. And I don't know, I just... it's one of my favorite things to poke fun of. So you have a list here of many things that McDonald's has tried.

Derek Harju (00:24:35):

A list I cut down by the way, there was more on this list, some of them and there just wasn't any information to talk about.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:24:41):

So some of these will be the first time that I've even seen that we're talking about these. I would love for you to walk me through a couple of these.

Derek Harju (00:24:46):

Yeah, two pages front and back by the way. So the first one I want to talk about is, I remember, there's some of these I remember in some of them I don't because I was "lucky" enough to have moved around, lucky in air quotes, a lot in my youth. And so I tended to end up in a lot of smaller towns and so I would get test cases for different products and fast food items a lot. Because like we've talked about on a previous episode, they test that stuff in middle America a lot of the time.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:25:15):

Me, and maybe we're the same this way, but it's like I love trying new foods, even new crappy food. It's like I want to just go try that one random thing that they may only have for six months. I really, I have to taste it once, when else am I going to get the chance?

Derek Harju (00:25:28):

Okay, here's one. I know this isn't even a test food. I know it's something that people love. I've never eaten a Taki. They look disgusting to me.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:25:35):

Oh no, I definitely have. See, I really, when I say I've got to try a thing I've never had before, I really have to try a thing I'd never had before. And I like them, they're quite hot. So if you need to clear out your sinuses, just eat a handful of those spicy Takis and you're good to go.

Derek Harju (00:25:52):

Okay, cool. I'll try some of someone else's, but I'm not buying a bag of that product. And if you eat Takis and you like them, good, you're allowed to like them. It just they look weird to me.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:26:03):

They're basically like rolled up little Doritos. They are not that bad.

Derek Harju (00:26:06):

Okay, all right. I eat Doritos, Doritos are fun.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:26:08):

They're just much stronger.

Derek Harju (00:26:09):

Oh, okay. So the first one I'd like to talk about is the Big 33, or the McJordan, depending on what part of the country you were in.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:26:20):

I love the two different names across... what a different world when you'd have two different names in the same country for the same thing.

Derek Harju (00:26:26):

Oh, that's like the people that are the whole Hardee's, Carl's Jr. mystery where on the West Coast it's Carl's Jr. And on the East Coast it's Hardee's. And also some of them are a dual restaurant-

Dusey Van Dusen (00:26:41):

Hardee's Carl Jr. or something?

Derek Harju (00:26:43):

No, the Carl's Jr. has green burrito attached to it. Hardee's has red burrito attached to it because somebody wanted to go home at five o'clock and they said, "What's the name for the new place?" And they're just like, "Red burrito, good enough."

Dusey Van Dusen (00:27:02):

Okay, what is the Big 33 or the Jordan special? Let's get to our first one on the list.

Derek Harju (00:27:08):

So it's 1992, basketball is huge, Michael Jordan is huge. So McDonald's-

Dusey Van Dusen (00:27:14):

I remember that but I'm not a sports guy.

Derek Harju (00:27:16):

Yeah, does the most obvious thing and they make a product called the McJordan because people love Michael Jordan. Everybody likes Michael Jordan, except the people who don't like Michael Jordan. And for those people, they make the exact same sandwich and call it the Big 33 in reference to Larry Bird. For those of you who are a little younger or not into basketball, Larry Bird was kind of the rival, not even enemy, but kind of rival to Michael Jordan. Nowhere near as good, let's say things how they are, but he was a very good basketball player, good at free throws, good rebounds.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:27:54):

I just recently had a compilation of assists by him, come across my feed. There's tons of awesome little passes to somebody that nobody saw and off they go to make-

Derek Harju (00:28:02):

A fantastic play maker but not a highlight reel guy. So it's basically just a... it's a quarter pounder with barbecue sauce, that's all, that's the whole product. They put out a quarter pounder with cheese and they added barbecue sauce and they called it a completely different product. It was only on their menu for less than a year. Because people... I don't know, do you care if a sports character is tied to a sandwich? By the way, that shows how much I'm into sports, I call them characters.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:28:32):

Character, yeah. Well, and I imagine ordering too like, "Well, what's the McJordan? I don't even know." Whereas if you tell me I put barbecue sauce on this sandwich, I go, "Oh, I like barbecue sauce." Right?

Derek Harju (00:28:43):

Yeah, that'd be a situation where you just call it the Western Quarter Pounder.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:28:47):

So this next one, I could have sworn that onions and rings, rings were good enough for the shape of an onion, you would think.

Derek Harju (00:28:54):

So onion nuggets, McDonald's put out a product called onion nuggets, which is whatever you're imagining right now, that's what it is. That's what it is. They hucked up an onion with a knife and then they batter it and they deep fry it and you get a bunch of nuggets and they're onion nuggets.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:29:12):

It just goes to say that change for the sake of change isn't always a good thing.

Derek Harju (00:29:16):

Yeah, and people are like, "Oh, that's gross, why would they make that when they already had chicken nuggets?" They made these before the chicken nugget.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:29:24):

Oh, what? Okay, I totally... Okay, yeah. I was in that camp of like, "Yeah, our chicken nuggets are popular so let's make onion nuggets."

Derek Harju (00:29:31):

No, no, no. The chicken nuggets didn't come for literally a decade later.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:29:37):

Well there was a nascent good idea in this one. They're like, "This didn't quite good out yet."

Derek Harju (00:29:42):

Somewhere there was a chalkboard at McDonald's headquarters that just said nuggets?

Dusey Van Dusen (00:29:48):

Beef, chicken and onion?

Derek Harju (00:29:50):

And the word onion is crossed out. Then we had a, I remember this, I was living in Ohio when McDonald's tried to produce pizza.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:30:00):

Like, "Hey, let's compete with Pizza Hut Who was super popular at the time probably, right? That kind of-

Derek Harju (00:30:04):

Sure, it absolutely makes sense because what a lot of people don't know, pizza is a super high-profit margin product because it's basically just dough and cheese and sauce and you're done. There's... the markup on it is huge. So McDonald's is like, "We like things that have a huge markup." The problem is that pizza takes a long time to cook and people want to get in and out of a McDonald's as fast as possible so it just failed.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:30:26):

Got you.

Derek Harju (00:30:27):

Next one on the list, we have the Arch Deluxe. I want to talk about the Arch Deluxe for a hot second.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:30:31):

I remember this. And I specifically remember that it was like for grownups.

Derek Harju (00:30:35):

Yes, so they had ads literally showing kids being disgusted by this product. They're like, "This is gross, I don't want to eat this." Which the marketing... I don't know the idea of immediately alienating your core audience-

Dusey Van Dusen (00:30:50):

You know what was weird? Maybe I'm just weird person-

Derek Harju (00:30:52):

Are you about to say that you loved them? Because I did.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:30:54):

I don't even remember what it tasted like, but I remember I went to go get one because of seeing commercials that said they were for adults.

Derek Harju (00:31:01):

Oh yeah. They had a-

Dusey Van Dusen (00:31:02):

And as a kid I want the thing that adults want, right?

Derek Harju (00:31:04):

Yes, absolutely. I remember I was, because I'm a shade older than you just enough to where I was in driving age in high school. And I remember for a month I stopped at McDonald's on the way home and I cycle through the different flavor of Arch Deluxes. Next up we have, this one is absolutely abhorrent just based off... just the word makes me sick, the McLobster. The McLobster is exactly what it sounds like. It's a lobster roll made by McDonald's.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:31:35):

I don't even know where to start. I don't even know that we need to say anything else.

Derek Harju (00:31:38):

No, let's... sea food at McDonald's that isn't fried. No, I'm good. I'm super good. Here's one, the McGratin Croquette. So this is a product that was made primarily in Japan and it is deep-fried macaroni, shrimp and mashed potatoes fried into a patty, which to me sounds awesome.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:32:00):

Yeah, that actually doesn't sound too bad because I know and they do, well, a lot of those kinds of fish patty kind of things in Asia at times, so that seems like a fit there. But I guess if it comes back every so often that's kind of like the McRib here, they can only take so much of it. Every so often there's a surprise visit from the McGratin Croquette. I don't even know how to-

Derek Harju (00:32:25):

It's hard to pronounce, McGratin Croquette, I think is how you're supposed to say it. Then we have the McHula burger.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:32:32):

The Hula burger, so this, I mean, I think of a Hula burger pineapple, barbecue sauce?

Derek Harju (00:32:37):

Yes, you got a burger, you got pineapples. I actually like a Hawaiian burger. I'll have one every once in a while. Here's the problem, there's no burger in this burger. It's just the pineapple on a bun with American cheese. And it was made to satisfy the appetites of Catholics who did not want to eat meat on Fridays before McDonald's created the fish filet, which ended up being their product of choice for that demographic. It sounds just, I like pineapple, but just pineapple on bread sounds disgusting.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:33:11):

Yeah, yeah, just soggy. And Derek's gone to extra effort on this one and put a picture in here of the McSpaghetti. This is-

Derek Harju (00:33:20):

And would you like to read what the notes for it say?

Dusey Van Dusen (00:33:22):

This picture is just gross, no further info.

Derek Harju (00:33:25):

That's right.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:33:26):

Go find... I'm sure most of the pictures online look pretty much just like this. So go find a picture of McSpaghetti.

Derek Harju (00:33:32):

You can do a search for this. Look at a photo of McSpaghetti. It looks like the worst high school cafeteria spaghetti you've ever seen.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:33:40):

You know it's funny, I always think of McDonald's in other countries as having all the weird things that we're not used to, but I guess they just went through all of those phases early here to get it figured out for us.

Derek Harju (00:33:50):

Yeah, in like Branson, Missouri, people had this and that's it. The McAfrika, the McAfrika didn't die for lack of it being delicious. This is basically a cheeseburger in a pita instead of a bun.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:34:04):

Okay, that doesn't sound bad.

Derek Harju (00:34:05):

No, it's great. It came out in the Netherlands primarily and parts of Europe. The problem was at the exact same time, Africa was experiencing unprecedented famine.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:34:16):

So not a great thing to brand your cheap convenience food.

Derek Harju (00:34:21):

Your marketing department didn't take a second look at this. Then we have the McHotDog. I was living in Ohio when the McHotDog came out at all the local places.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:34:31):

It seems like McDonald's could do a hotdog.

Derek Harju (00:34:33):

Yeah, here's an instance where people actually seem to like it. The reviews for it, people enjoyed it. They said it was tasty. It was priced right. The problem was people weren't buying it because when you go to McDonald's, you don't want a hotdog, that's it. Your brain is just programmed to have, if not a burger, then a burger shaped sandwich, that's it. I wish there was more info on this, but the McHotDog just died because people didn't think about buying hotdogs at McDonald's.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:35:00):

Now this next one, the McDLT. I primarily know from the commercial featuring Jason Alexander, AKA George Castanza, the McDLT. So this is, there's a styrofoam container that has all of the hot stuff in one part and all of the cold stuff and one part, and I can hear George singing in this commercial. You have to go watch it. Keeps the hot stuff hot. Keep the cold stuff cold. I don't remember how the tune goes, but there's a whole cadre of people singing about keeping the hot stuff hot.

Derek Harju (00:35:28):

Okay, so you already nailed what happened to this. You said it comes in a styrofoam container that has the hot stuff on one side-

Dusey Van Dusen (00:35:36):

Like four times the size of a normal container, like a big tray.

Derek Harju (00:35:39):

It came in this aircraft carrier of styrofoam. So imagine if you haven't seen this, those of you who are younger, McDonald's used to put all of their burgers in these styrofoam clamshells. Now, imagine one of those clamshells open it all the way so it's flat and then put another one on top of it to enclose it. So basically you're doubling the amount of styrofoam. And this was... came out in the 90s when people were just starting to notice that our environment may be finite.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:36:12):

Yeah, and styrofoam was at the top of the list in the 90s of things to get rid of.

Derek Harju (00:36:17):

Everybody knew a couple of things for sure. Cigarettes were good for you and styrofoam was bad for the environment.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:36:24):

So next on the list of Big N' Tasty. I don't even remember this. I don't know anything about this.

Derek Harju (00:36:28):

It's easy to forget. I remember it, but it was basically, it was the McDonald's answer to the Whopper. It was just a vain attempt to try and steal the limited market share that that Burger King had.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:36:39):

We've got... Well we can kind of breeze through these next few salad shakers, so shake up a salad to get it all tossed inside of a cup for some time.

Derek Harju (00:36:48):

Yeah, it was just salad in a cup basically. Imagine an icy cup with the domed lid, except you pour your... and here's the thing, I don't think this is a bad idea because when I get a salad I pour the dressing on top and turned the whole thing upside down in the box and shake it up. This was just that. But you could do it all one-handed because it was in a cup. It was in like a giant Slurpee cup.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:37:08):

I like the name of this, the Triple-Double Burger. Is it a triple burger? Is it a double burger? Is it, I don't know how much burger I'm buying. Is it two double? Is it three doubles? Is it two triples? I don't know.

Derek Harju (00:37:21):

So I saw this and I was like the triple-double burger. I was like, "Oh," a triple-double is a sports term, I believe. I think that's a basketball term that I've never learned the meaning of. But I was like, "Oh, this must be another tie in with sports." It's three beef patties, two pieces of cheese. It's just a stacked triple burger and it's called the triple-double with a tie in to Batman Forever. And I tried to find, I searched for longer than I should have, how the triple-double burger, which was designed just for this ad campaign ties into Batman. And I have no further information for you.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:37:58):

I'm just picturing George Clooney holding a bat credit card, that's about the same sort of time that we've got.

Derek Harju (00:38:05):

I loathe to correct my cohost. That's Batman and Robin, Batman forever we're talking about Val Kilmer arguably, the worst Batman.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:38:15):

Definitely the worst Batman, fantastic.

Derek Harju (00:38:22):

And then wrapping up our list for today. This has just been a stroll down memory lane. I'm really hungry right now, is the Cheddar Melt.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:38:31):

All right, so a quarter pounder, onions, that are teriyaki butter, sauteed and teriyaki butter top with cheddar cheese sauce.

Derek Harju (00:38:40):

Yeah, it was fine. I looked up pictures of it. It looks like it's just a quarter pounder with Nacho Cheese on it, but you always want to be careful when you see... because I looked it up and all the marketing didn't say cheddar cheese sauce. It said cheesy cheddar sauce, which whenever you see the words cheesy or chocolatey with a Y, that means the actual product has not come anywhere near the food.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:39:08):

Yeah, not actually cheese, this thing is cheesy though.

Derek Harju (00:39:11):

Yeah, this is salt and industrial runoff whipped together until it resembles cheese.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:39:17):

So, here's the takeaway, I love this one because even though it's probably the furthest away from having a specific story, I think it has one of the best takeaways, which is McDonald's has failed a lot but they are extremely successful. So part of the point of this little interstitial podcast inside of a podcast, the Worst Business Ideas in History is to give you all some foresight and some ideas of how to prevent failure. We want you to succeed. However, when we say prevent failure, it's preventing your business from completely failing. But there are... you have to be okay with trying things that will fail within your business.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:40:01):

And I think the key is finding ways to say, "I'm going to try this thing and it may fail, but how can I do it in a way that it doesn't sink the business just because I tried this thing that failed?" McDonald's has tried all of these different things, some of them wider releases, some of them small releases, they're constantly testing. They're constantly trying to find out what people want and stay on top of the pulse of the market. And to be on top of that pulse, you have to put yourself out there. You have to try things that might not take off. And I think the key is just doing in a way that doesn't sync everything that you're doing.

Derek Harju (00:40:35):

Because you know to a mathematical certainty every single time one of these new products come out, one of the very first questions that's asked is how much does this cost if nobody buys it? McDonald's knows to do their due diligence on the worst-case scenario for any change in their business plan.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:40:52):

A small business may be in a position where they may have to do a little more risk because McDonald's got a big pocketbook that they can test stuff with. But it's talking with your customers to find out what they think of an idea before you launch a thing. It's trying one of them with somebody that maybe is one of your better customers and that would be willing to give you some time to give you some feedback. It's pushing the thing out there to just part of your audience and not all of your audience to see if they like it or not. There's these ways that you can kind of mitigate risks while still taking chances and doing things that may fail because if you don't ever do those things there could be whole untapped markets. Like the chicken nuggets, the chicken nuggets might not have ever happened were it not for the onion nuggets and that is what I want you to remember today. It's okay to have onion nuggets.

Derek Harju (00:41:41):

You got to fry up some onions before you get to a chicken nugget.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:41:47):

That's it, exactly.

Derek Harju (00:41:48):

This has been Worst Business Ideas in History. I've been Derek Harju.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:41:51):

This is Dusey Van Dusen.

Derek Harju (00:41:52):

And we'll talk to you guys next time.

Dusey Van Dusen (00:41:53):

Bye.

Speaker 1 (00:41:55):

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Crystal Hueft (00:42:39):

And we're back. Hopefully, you enjoyed that Worst Business Idea in History. Scott did, right?

Scott Martineau (00:42:45):

You always ask me this as if I know what it is live but I never do.

Crystal Hueft (00:42:49):

I know I just was waiting for you to call me out on it. So now that game's over, thanks a lot. Anyways, we're back and I really want to dive into masterminds because technically that's what we came here to talk about. But you're so interesting. We got completely sidetracked and talked about a lot of other great things, but I want to give the people what we promise. So can you start with what is a mastermind for anyone out there that's never heard of that?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:43:13):

Yeah, I think in its simplest form it's a group of peers coming together to share ideas, get feedback. And the more I looked into it, it's something that has been used in business for years and I think is now becoming more of a buzzword, especially in this digital age we... I see... I was where I first learned about a mastermind, people that I looked up to in business saw that they were part of one so it had me curious what is that? What can I gain from it?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:43:41):

But I almost look at it as two different things, informal masterminds, which is where I started, where I got together a group of people who are similar places in business and just said, "Hey, what if we create a really simple structure?" We came together once a month. And I think the two questions we always came prepared with was what's one thing you want to be held accountable on producing between now and the next time and what's the one thing you want feedback on?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:44:08):

Because I think especially for solopreneurs, which I was for most of my journey, we are left with our own thoughts. So if you just need a quick little bit of feedback or which tagline resonates, whatever that is, it just helped me move forward a lot faster. Then I graduated into being a part of a paid mastermind program, which is where I joined almost like a business coach, but it was a group coaching format where you really get to dive deep with a group of other people again on the same journey as you are.

Crystal Hueft (00:44:38):

That's awesome.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:44:39):

And I think it ties in perfectly to what we were saying earlier because one of the biggest things I gained is, wow, these people who are, I'm using air quotes "crushing it" are having the same fears and they also don't feel like they're meant to be here. Like, "Wow, if we're all feeling this, then I guess that just comes with the territory."

Crystal Hueft (00:44:57):

That's awesome.

Scott Martineau (00:44:58):

So you feel like one of the benefits of the mastermind environment is people do let their guard... I mean they're kind of having... They're having to ask the hard questions about things that are uncomfortable.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:45:08):

Yep, for sure.

Scott Martineau (00:45:08):

That's great.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:45:10):

Yeah, I mean I will say being part of paid masterminds is what has exponentially grown my business. I think that there's something to investing in yourself. There's like the energetic investment of saying, "I'm worth it. My business, my idea is worth it to invest." We as entrepreneurs, a lot of times we're so much more readily investing in technology or in other things that could grow our business. But we have to remember, especially if we're driving the ship, guiding the ship. What do you do with ships, steering it? I think it's steering it, that didn't sound right, but if you're-

Crystal Hueft (00:45:48):

I think I would be okay with any of them though.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:45:50):

Right, I mean it has a wheel. So I'm like if you're driving the steering wheel of the ship, you have to make sure, and this again ties back in, that you're staying out of your own way and getting into a group that's going to hold you accountable and stretch you to think bigger. I mean, that's what has exponentially grown Powerhouse Women over the last four years. Not just as a community, but as a business on paper actually scaling. It's because I have been so willing to bet on myself and put myself in rooms where I feel like I don't belong as the person who has the most to gain. Because if you're the smartest person in the room, what's that? You're in the wrong room. So I just look for rooms with really, really smart people and bet on myself to be in there.

Crystal Hueft (00:46:39):

Those are the best rooms to be in.

Scott Martineau (00:46:39):

So walk us through kind of the, I don't know, the revelations and transformation that you've gone through as part of masterminds. So what was it like when you walked into your first paid mastermind? What did you see? How did it help you develop?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:46:51):

Yeah, oh, that's such a great question. So I've been a part of two, both were year-long masterminds. So one of them just started for this year and first and foremost-

Scott Martineau (00:47:03):

So what did you... do you mind sharing what you pay.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:47:05):

Yeah, sure. So the first one that I joined was $15,000.

Scott Martineau (00:47:09):

And how did that feel to you at the time?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:47:12):

Horrible, I felt terrible. I remember... so I'm married. My husband and I don't have children. It's just the two of us. And he is, supportive is not even a strong enough word to describe this man, he's just incredible. And I was really afraid to go to him and say, "Look, I want to invest this in our business." He has... he works in sales, but I very much relate to what Powerhouse Women is, he's just as much part of the decision-making. So I had to go to him with a business plan of what I was going to turn that into. So the biggest switch with that first experience was realizing these investments don't feel comfortable for a reason because I wasn't investing in the business I had right at that point, I think this was like mid-2018.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:47:56):

So if I looked at my bank account at that point, it didn't make sense. It was such a large percentage of what our income that year had been. But I was looking forward to the business I wanted to create, which was breaking through six figures for the first time in this business entity. And it was just getting in the room with people who were thinking bigger than I currently was. And I remember going to him and I sat down, I had this official... I almost had a PowerPoint, without a PowerPoint I sat him down and I said, "Look, this is going to scare you. I'm just going to say it" And I would like to invest this $15,000 and here's what I see, it's going to help me be able to do faster. And because he is the man that he is, he was all for it and also sort of like, yikes, so.

Crystal Hueft (00:48:42):

Yeah, I mean just gulped for you when you said that. I was like, "Holy cow, why are we sharing this? This is such an expensive thing."

Lindsey Schwartz (00:48:51):

Don't worry, there's more.

Crystal Hueft (00:48:53):

I want to hear what you got out of it because I think anyone else listening who's a solopreneur out there that is scared for their life right now, they're going to be like, "I'm getting off this podcast because I can't afford that."

Lindsey Schwartz (00:49:07):

Well, true. Well, but that actually that's a perfect mindset to check in, I can't afford that, where you got to dig deep and I've always... my business has also grown because I asked myself better questions. How can I? Because it wasn't that we just had an extra 15K stuffed under our mattress. It was, "I feel really strongly, this is pulling me." Not that it had an answer that I didn't already have access to. It's not about finding... there's no secrets. Let me tell you people, you don't get in these rooms and someone's like, "Okay, now that you're paid to be here," here's what no one... what Google isn't telling you, what no one else is telling you. It's not that.

Crystal Hueft (00:49:43):

But it is the investment.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:49:45):

But it's... making that investment in myself changed me because I now showed up for my business differently. And here's... I'm going to say this with so much respect, but the first mastermind wasn't what I thought it would be. So I actually want to share that sometimes we go in with this... because I had the expectation they had some secret that I didn't know. And so that showing up to that first weekend I learned really quickly there's no secret, that I'm going to get the value out of this based on what I put in.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:50:14):

And because I was so bought in, I remember there was a girl who shared, we went around and people are sharing just their breakthroughs over the last quarter and she said something like all... it was almost like Charlie Brown talking and then I heard this one, it was like "Wah, wah, wah, I made 30,000 in a month, Wah, wah, wah." But that was just an okay month for her and I remember my brain exploded, there were fireworks. I was like, "Wait a minute, someone is literally generating that much impact in the world, that it's coming back to them in the form of $30,000."

Lindsey Schwartz (00:50:46):

I was thinking so small and so I remember this was so bold for me, I sat down at lunch and I said, "What you said in there changed my life." And I was... I felt so vulnerable because I was like, look, I'm making about 2-3000 a month right now or whatever it was. And I didn't even consider it that I could create something that... so it felt vulnerable for me to admit, "I'm not there, but will you tell me how you got there?" But because I was so bought in.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:51:15):

But long story short, so after that year, it wasn't even directly related to the anything I learned in the mastermind, but because I was investing in myself, it put me in a position to partner with someone that I have tremendous respect for. That turned into an opportunity that 10xed my investment. So I more than broke through six figures which gave me the confidence to know that, okay, wow, a scary investment in what I wanted to create then uppped the bar even further. So this year my husband and I actually joined one together so he can be a part of this conversation too.

Crystal Hueft (00:51:48):

That's great.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:51:48):

Yeah, and it was... that one was even more.

Scott Martineau (00:51:50):

And was that someone that you met at the mastermind or was that a result of the way you start thinking and-

Lindsey Schwartz (00:51:56):

Yeah, it wasn't even someone that I met at the mastermind, it was someone who was already in my life and what she said to me was... this is someone who has a multi, multimillion dollar business, but she said, "I saw you doing the work and investing in yourself and putting yourself in the room. So I knew you were playing at the same level. And that partnership alone is probably going to turn into now something else we created out of it, almost a million dollars in revenue this year." So it worked out okay.

Crystal Hueft (00:52:20):

That's great. And I was being a little silly with that but I think a lot of people do. I mean, it's hard to think when you're starting a business, one, to take the time to do anything outside what you think you need to do to get the grind of the daily stuff done. But then two, to put money on it when you might not be in a place to do more. And so I wanted to ask you that because I think the mindset is it's the investment in yourself and that in turn turns to the investment in your business. So that's kind of why I was being a little facetious. But yeah, that is a scary number to hear if you're not in that place but you get a lot out of that and you grow.

Scott Martineau (00:52:58):

And I appreciate you sharing vulnerably where you were too because I think it's easy for people to look at that and say, "Oh, I'm here, let's be..." All those people who do masterminds, they... it's a probably a clear decision for them. They have piles of cash sitting under the mattress. It's an easy call and it clearly wasn't for you, at least on the first one-

Lindsey Schwartz (00:53:14):

Yeah, and I would even say if you're considering one, don't go with a mastermind that doesn't challenge you to put that money down. I actually think that's part of where the biggest growth is because if it's sort of like, "We'll see what happens," you're not going to show up for the same way as you will if you put so much into it, whether that's time or money, whatever you're investing into it, it's got to feel like a stretch for you to actually produce the result that you're wanting, I think.

Crystal Hueft (00:53:42):

It's like a trainer, I pay for him whether I show up or not. So the idea of paying, it's like there's something about putting that investment in that means you're committed and that now that I've done this, I have to show up. I have to do that because I'm paying and I'm invested and I'm committing to this. So there is something about that. One thing I would like to talk about, just kind of to wrap this mastermind up is what I... this is a topic I was very curious about actually reading through your bio and hearing about more from you from Paige, who was looking at our... my partner in crime in social over here that found you and she's been in your group for a while and she's actually spoke about your group a lot. So I am curious about what do you think in terms of investing yourself is different for a female who's on her way to solopreneur entrepreneurship or a male who's on that same journey? How do they differ and why did you want to invest in that group to help women?

Lindsey Schwartz (00:54:40):

Yeah, I never intended from the start to create a women's community only because in my past I worked with men and women, but there was that theme that I shared that I noticed most of the conversations I was having were specific to women. And now talking to women about this conversation of investing in themselves, whether that's an event, a coach, a mastermind, we are so... we're such givers for the most part, I think most women are natural nurturers. Not to make a blanket statement but I just see it time and time again where one woman who joined the mastermind that we're starting said her husband is, soon to be husband, is a dentist and they invest in his business all the time. She's like, "I realized how uncomfortable it was to invest in me. I will invest the same amount if not more in someone else in my family, but it feels like taking if I'm investing it in me." And I don't know why that is. I also... I'm not really... I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about that.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:55:41):

I think women just need to be called into their greatness and sometimes just someone saying, "I think you're ready for this, I think you're ready to be around people who are going to challenge you to think bigger." Or we have a lot of women in our community, and this is another reason why I put my... why I knew I needed a mastermind. So if someone listening, if you are this person, I'm the one kind of in my group, my circle that is kind of going first on things. Or there's even like people in my family, my friends are all really supportive and cheering me on. But then there's the group of people in my life who are like, "Oh wow, but you're already doing a lot," when I'm like, "Hey, I'm going to start this new business, I'm doing this new thing."

Lindsey Schwartz (00:56:21):

So the ones who... your growth is uncomfortable for them and they're not even trying. Some maybe actually outright oppose you or try to keep you small, but sometimes it's even just like you can sense that your growth is starting to be uncomfortable for people around you. And I think that's just a natural part of this but I have a really hard time with that. So I go in search of people who are like, "Yeah, for sure. Like you're, you've done some incredible things and I know you have more in you."

Lindsey Schwartz (00:56:49):

I look for those people who call, really speak to the greatness in me and what... because I actually am capable of a lot more. So I was looking for those environments that would speak to that especially since I wasn't seeing it maybe in my immediate circle or in my family. I'm an anomaly in a lot of the circles that I'm in and I love that. I think I get to be... I think I'm just called to be that person, but also then I can't rest on the fact that I'm the one who's going at a certain speed. I want to find the people who are running faster and learn from them.

Crystal Hueft (00:57:22):

Well, I feel like this time went way too fast, so we're clearly going to have you back.

Scott Martineau (00:57:27):

Don't... you're not ending on me. You tried this again before. I have another follow-up from before we started recording.

Crystal Hueft (00:57:39):

Scott, do you see this though?

Scott Martineau (00:57:39):

Oh, I don't know. I don't... I can't quite see that.

Crystal Hueft (00:57:39):

Okay, Scott's the boss.

Scott Martineau (00:57:39):

What are we talking about?

Crystal Hueft (00:57:39):

We don't see it.

Scott Martineau (00:57:40):

So before we started recording I just want you to share what you shared with us about the need to take action and the unsexy action that just keeps... that's about persistence. So share with us your views on that and what you've seen as you've worked with either the people that were sort of around you and as well the women that you work with.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:57:55):

Yeah, I think... and... this actually ties in beautifully. We'll give you another outpoint don't worry, we got this, we'll tie this up with a bow. And so there's... Our business right now is that a point that people are going, "Whoa, hold on, two years ago you were someone that was here and now you're here, how?" And there's always like this, you can tell the question because I used to ask this question of people too. Like, again what's the secret? What am I not getting? And I really think when I look back, and this is what I was sharing before we turned on the mics, it's so unsexy. It's I make a decision and I keep showing up for that decision every day. Now, I haven't always done that so this is not from a person who just had naturally... has been very willing to do the boring in-between stuff.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:58:43):

I just like anyone else want immediate results but I also just, when I set my mind to something, I'm willing to see it through. So whether that's my podcast, writing the book, those are cool accomplishments on the surface. But what I'm actually most proud of is the days that I would get up and I wouldn't feel like writing and I would sit at my computer and just bawl my eyes out, because I'm like, "Who's going to read this? What are people going to think?" And it's those days that actually made the end result, the end product. So it is, it's just a... I mean it's so unsexy, but we all want the quick fix, we all want... I also would like the quick fix. If anyone has it out there, you can hit me up.

Crystal Hueft (00:59:20):

I know, me too. Make sure to tag us on Twitter @Keap and let us know what the fix is.

Lindsey Schwartz (00:59:26):

Let us know what the quick fix is, if you know it we're totally open. But then that combined with this willingness to bet on myself by investing at really, really uncomfortable levels in, not a quick fix, but in putting myself in an environment that's going to force me to grow.

Scott Martineau (00:59:45):

Yes, it's like there's a transition from dealing with the... beating myself... all the discomfort that comes from beating myself up and not being in control of the way that I'm thinking to now I'm going to intentionally put myself in a place of discomfort where discomfort actually is the currency for this progress in this growth, which is... it's... I guess that's the silver bullet. It's just not the easy silver bullet. It is sign yourself up for the discomfort that's required to get there, wow.

Lindsey Schwartz (01:00:11):

Yes.

Crystal Hueft (01:00:11):

Well, Scott, I'm going to say I'm so glad that the rebel in you is standing by me because I wasn't ready to go either. I'm still not, I could literally talk to Lindsey all day, but that being said, I still want our producers to like us. So Lindsey, where can they find you? Make sure to tell every... all of our listeners where they can find you and learn more about what you're doing, your goals, your work, how maybe they can get help. And then we're going to unfortunately be forced to end this great show.

Lindsey Schwartz (01:00:42):

We're going to continue the fun offline.

Crystal Hueft (01:00:44):

Exactly, starting with dance.

Lindsey Schwartz (01:00:46):

To follow along my career over the next 19 years of becoming a Golden Granny, you can... my favorite place right now to hang out is on Instagram. I would actually love... I love to make actual real connections. So follow, yes, but actually send me a message, let me know that you heard this, screenshot Keap, these amazing people are... I am just like I told my assistant is here with me. "We're just going to move in, you're just going to see us in a random corner in your office." But it's just LLindsey Schwartz has two Ls at the beginning and then powerhouse_women on Instagram.

Crystal Hueft (01:01:20):

Awesome, and we'll make sure to add that into our blog about this episode so that they can find it.

Scott Martineau (01:01:27):

Lindsey has two Ls.

Lindsey Schwartz (01:01:28):

There's a lot of Lindsey Schwartzs apparently. So that was the only real estate I could get was L-L-

Scott Martineau (01:01:31):

That's not your biological name, got it. I just wanted it to be clear.

Crystal Hueft (01:01:33):

I know how that goes.

Lindsey Schwartz (01:01:34):

Lindsey Schwartz, like LL Cool J. It's just the hip hop vibe, yeah.

Scott Martineau (01:01:38):

I don't actually know the answer but do you also offer a mastermind or you not in the mastermind business yet?

Lindsey Schwartz (01:01:44):

So we...Yeah, I mean that wasn't like the intention of this conversation, but our community has been asking for it. So everything we create is in response to what our community wants and needs. And there are women who, as we've grown, have really grown with us. So we have a conference in September in Phoenix, Arizona. It's the most fun ever, you're all invited.

Crystal Hueft (01:02:04):

How exciting, oh my gosh, I want to go.

Lindsey Schwartz (01:02:05):

There's mimosas and hip hop dancing.

Crystal Hueft (01:02:07):

Oh my gosh, I'm in.

Lindsey Schwartz (01:02:08):

So no, but it really is a day all designed around getting out of our own way and into action around our big ideas. And then there's, yeah, there's a group of women within our community that are really ready to scale and break through some of those income barriers that I have broken through. So we're right now filling our very first part. It's a business mentorship with a mastermind component. And depending on when this airs, it might be full, but we'll definitely be doing another round, so.

Crystal Hueft (01:02:36):

If your community's anything like you, I would go even without the mimosas or the hip hop dancing. Well, they are, just saying.

Lindsey Schwartz (01:02:42):

Wow, well the are, just saying.

Scott Martineau (01:02:42):

It says a lot.

Crystal Hueft (01:02:44):

Yeah, I'm in. So anyways, thank you so much for being here today. We really appreciate having you and I think that was a lot of really good information.

Scott Martineau (01:02:52):

Yeah, loved everything we talked about. Great energy, great advice. I hope our listeners were taking good notes or they going to listen to it again, but thank you for the time, Lindsey.

Lindsey Schwartz (01:03:00):

Appreciated, so much fun.

Scott Martineau (01:03:01):

We'll have to do this again some time.

Crystal Hueft (01:03:02):

For sure.

Lindsey Schwartz (01:03:02):

I would love to.

Crystal Hueft (01:03:03):

Awesome.

Scott Martineau (01:03:04):

All right, thanks everybody. We're going to call this a wrap for Small Biz Buzz.

Derek Harju (01:03:09):

Thanks for listening to small biz buzz. Please take a second to subscribe to the show and leave a five star rating. It helps keep the show going and if you need a hand with growing your small business head over to keap.com, that's K-E-A-P.com and get started. More business. Less work. That's Keap.



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