Welcome to the Entrepreneurial Leap Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dubay. Now for context, this podcast is inspired from the book Entrepreneurial Leap by Gino Wickman. Gino is the founder of EEO S Worldwide, and an author with over 2 million copies of his book sold Worldwide. Now, in his next phase, he has taken his passion for helping entrepreneurs by partnering with five equally passionate, successful entrepreneurs, myself included, who have created the E LEAP Academy, where we teach the content from the book in a one year program guaranteed to increase the success of early stage businesses. A quick note about me, I've been an entrepreneur since the age of 14. When I started my first business selling Blow Pop lollipops out of my locker with my best friend, I ran a company that I sold to a public company and later bought it back. I'm an author, speaker, host of an annual leadership retreat and in partners in several other businesses, and I'll be your host for the Entrepreneurial LEAP podcast, where every other week you'll be hearing life stories from successful entrepreneurs who took the leap into entrepreneurship.

You will learn from their mistakes and successes and be inspired as you move forward on your journey. Now, before I introduce my guests, I wanna share with you a bit about the inaugural Elite Academy, which begins on May 23rd, 2023, in Detroit, Michigan at the Derphy Innovation Society. The Academy is an immersive nine month experience with four in-person full day classes taught by an experienced entrepreneur. Attendees will have four unique experiences. The first class experience is confirm who am I. Attendees will learn the six essential traits that make up your genetic coding and help you discover your passion and core values for this academy only Gina Wickman will be sharing his personal journey and doing a q and a session with the group. The second class experience is glimpse. What do I want? Attendees will gain absolute clarity about what they want. The clearer you are about what you want, the more likely you are to succeed.

The third class experience is me. How do I get it? Attendees learn how to effectively solve problems, understand accountability, finances, and PRI prioritization. Each person leaves this experience with a crystal clear 90 day plan. The fourth and final class is we, how do I get it? Attendees learn the importance of building a strong team, starting with recruiting to hiring, and effectively communicating with them. This allows the entrepreneur to stay in their personal sweet spot that allows them to make the biggest impact in the world. Along the way, powerful connections are cultivated with fellow academy entrepreneurs, and each attendee is matched with a seasoned mentor. Registration is open now, and you can find more information@e-leap.com. Again, that's e-leap.com. Today's guest is Jillian Lorenz. Jillian graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in mechanical engineering. After graduation, she joined Accenture, a global consulting firm, spending over 10 years immersing herself in business consulting, working in countries all over the world.

Her entrepreneurial journey began in 2010 when co-founding the Barcode, a national fitness franchise that offers group classes in an empowering environment. She has been co-leading the brand with her partner since founding, and they are located in 13 states. The brand thrives on a positive training approach, focusing on gaining versus loss and appreciation for our differences. Jillian has been highlighting alongside the brand in publications such as Forbes, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, self Glamor, women's Health, and Inc. Magazine. The business has been named in the entrepreneurial franchise 500 for four consecutive years from 2018 to 2022. Julian was awarded Chicago Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018 at her alma Mater, Michigan State University, and serves at a a venture coach for the Burgas Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In addition, Julian facilitates leadership retreats and serves as an executive coach for aspiring entrepreneurs, and I am so excited for you to hear about Julian's story and the many nuggets of wisdom she shares. So here we go. Enjoy my chat with Jillian Laurenz. Jillian, welcome to the Entrepreneurial Leap Podcast. I am so excited to talk to you today. I can't even tell you, and I am thrilled to be here. Awesome. Be fun. You are so kind to spend some time with me and I always like to start our conversation actually with a quote. So I'm gonna share the quote and then you could just provide me with your feedback and if you happen to know who who said the quote, that's great. Okay. So the quote that I dug up is energy is everything and everything is energy.

You know what I, I don't know if anybody else said it, but that's actually coming from me. Yes, it

Is. I know I had to embarrass you at the beginning.

Ok. So I love it. Yes, that's what it's all about. So I hope to bring the energy to this space. That's the motto I live by. Everything is about the energy first and then everything that creates is from that space.

Yes. And so what, what do you mean by energy? Because we're gonna learn more in a moment that you're in the fitness industry. So some people might think about energy in terms of like physical energy is, but is that what you're speaking about?

No, I'm speaking about just intentional energy. Okay. So the the positive thoughts, starting with thoughts. So bringing the energy of the right thought to create the right outcome.

And so if I'm a, and I was at one point, and I still am to a certain degree, a struggling early stage entrepreneur. You were there.

Yes.

And you're slogging through the mud. Okay. I've been through,

Have you been there? Wrenches of mud? Yes. Yeah.

You've been there. So you're slogging through the mud, and we're gonna get to your story in a second about slogging through the mud. But what does this do for somebody and how can they get themselves in the right state of mind?

It's all about mindset. Especially just being an entrepreneur. There are so many tough days. If you can't realign to have the right thought to get you going in the right direction, change your focus wheel, then nothing you, you won't make it. You know, being an entrepreneur, it looks like glam from the outside, but on the inside it is the hardest, the most extremely challenging roles that we can play.

You are so right about that. So I wanna talk about your early days. Okay. And back to when you were a child actually. Yes. And did you know that you had an entrepreneurial gene in you? Did you do any sort of businesses or anything like that growing up?

No, my business partner did. Yeah. So we had very different upbringings. My myself, my parents had a hard life. My dad's dad died when he was 18. He was the youngest of six. And my mom was, grew up in the projects of Cleveland and they came together and their whole dream, which I didn't learn until later in life, was to get our kid, their kids through college to pay for their college education. So my upbringing was always about college education. You do what you're told or you're supposed to do. But my dad always kept hope because my passion was dance and movements and music. It lit my soul up. And he always said, get your education, then do what you love. And that's exactly what I did. I didn't really know what it meant until later in life. And I never heard the word entrepreneur, but my business partner, on the other hand, she grew up and knew she wanted to be her own boss. So she was, you know, on the corner selling lemonades, trying to make a buck. And when we met, it was, it was just like a perfect, perfect encounter to, to get us the skills and the desire and the passion that we need to take that leap. And she kind of, I needed her to take that leap. It was kind of my safety net to just dive all in. Yeah. And know that somebody was gonna do it with me. A co-dependency, if you will.

Yeah. I want to come back to that partner aspect of things. It's really interesting what you're sharing about having somebody who can give you the confidence to do this. And so you learned early on, for you, it was important from a family perspective that you go get a degree, go to college, which you did. And so now upon reflection, would you do anything differently or are you glad that you took the path to college? And I'd also be curious, what kind of lessons did you take away from your time there?

I wouldn't change anything. I'm not a look back and wish kind of person, especially being an entrepreneur, you learn that because you can spend all day wishing. But you know, when I went to Michigan State, I got my degree in engineering, so I'm a mechanical engineer by study. And then I also, after, after college joined Accenture, which is a consulting firm, which gave me such great business experience. And also, you know, my family had never left the states, so I got such international exposure and so I wouldn't change anything. The other thing that happened at Michigan State, which led me to, to launch the barcode, I was a sorority president. And during that time I was managing many women as a sophomore. And that's when I was exposed to the struggles that women have and the body image issues, which I caught myself. And I had my own struggles to recover. And that's really what led me to launch the barcode, is the barcode is more than just a fitness space. It's a vehicle to empowerment, self-acceptance, and self-love. So I, I used the barcode through my channels of recovery to find that love for myself again in a real true acceptance, which I think many, many women and, and people struggle with.

Yeah. So when you came outta school and you went to Accenture and you were on the consulting side of things, obviously great experience that you were getting on the business side of things, but you were struggling on the inside. Is that how I understand this?

Absolutely. Yeah.

And, and so just on the business side for a second, then I wanna come to personal. Were there a as again, just just upon reflection, were there things that you learned through those 10 years that you felt were worthwhile jumping out 10 years later and starting a business versus just doing it right outta college?

The what I learned confidence. Confidence that I needed to feel like I can make it. Yeah. It gave me, it gave me confidence. I had exposure to many C level individuals and you know, I got to work with different people. I got to learn new skills or new habits. It also taught me work ethic in Accenture or any consulting firm, you're gonna work like an 80 hour work week and you also had a fixed problem. So that industry specifically gave me not only confidence, but taught me work ethic taught me you just don't stop until it's done. Kind of, I think. So it really did pave the way for entrepreneurship.

And did you, there's six essential traits that are written about in Geno Wickman's book, the Entrepreneurial Leap. And I'm curious, as I read them all, just I'll, I'll go, I'll go medium slow. Okay. See, I'm just curious if you feel that, you noticed you had them visionary.

Absolutely. I got that Shaq

Passionate

Check

Problem solver.

Oh, Jack

Driven

Jack,

Okay. This one's gonna be interesting. Risk taker.

Ooh, learned. That was my business learner. So that was a learned. Yes. So Ariana is the risks risk taker. Yep. And that was the co-dependent that I needed for the risk taker.

I love that. And then responsible big check. Absolutely check. I can tell

I told you I was the first early person to this meeting, right? You said That's right.

That's right. You were so on it. You were so on it. And so, you know, this being your first business, your business partner's name is Elle

Ariana.

Ariana, I'm sorry. How did you meet Ariana and how did this whole thing sort of come about?

Okay, so we both grew up in Michigan of, like I mentioned, very different upbringings. We met through our now husbands. They were, they were friend or they were boyfriends at the time. And they were friends. They introduced us and it was kind of just a soul sister moment. We really got along. And then it was fate. We were invited to her house for a New Year's Eve dinner. And during that New Year's Eve dinner, we had little cards on our play settings that said, what are your goals for 2010? At the time I had been going through personal struggles. I, you know, was engaged and, and that didn't work out. And I w wanted to have my feet on the ground. So I asked Accenture to place me local in Chicago so that I could just personally get some time to figure out what's next.

And I was working a local position at Accenture, which freed up so much time. It was, you know, a a 50 hour work week versus an 80 hour work week. So I had all this extra time and I started really diving back into my passion. So teaching classes, working out, using music, and I just loved it so much. So I wanted to start a side business. I was gonna start a side business around fitness and wellness. And so when I was at dinner with Ari at her boyfriend's house, it said, what are your goals for 2010? I had a little bit of liquid courage as I, you know, it was in New Year's Eve. And I said, I'm gonna start a business in, in fitness and I'm, I'm really gonna amp up women empowerment, completely flip the script the way that people train, which is about historically lose everything inches, waist size and gain all you can confidence and love for the Skinner in.

And she just looked up across the table from me, as I told you, she was the risk taker and knew she wanted be an entrepreneur. She's like, can I do it with you? I was like, you know, we, we didn't really know each other. I was like, sure. So we cheersed our glasses, had a grand time that evening. And then sure enough, the next morning she called me at 8:00 AM and was like, were you serious about last night? Because I'm ready to come over? I said, yeah, let's do it. So we spent 24 hours on January 1st, 2010 learning about each other, the ins and outs of our personal issues, our soul story, and what led us up to today. And that's where we created our mission for the barcode, which was to be a best-in-class fitness program to provide personal growth and self self-acceptance and to do so in an empowering environment. And that mission stayed the same throughout our 13 years in business. And we haven't strayed from that mission. Of course we've taken many turns along the way cuz you have to be very nimble as an entrepreneur. But we've stayed tried and true to our passion, our why and what we're here to do.

So there are a couple things I wanna touch on. The first is when you mentioned fate, and I'm wondering if there's any wisdom that you can share around paying attention to that?

Mm, okay. I just got the goosebumps. So the universe, God, whatever choice of words you use individually is always there for you. And that's something that, that entrepreneurs need to have some, some faith because they will be hurdles that you could not even imagine that happen. And then there will be answers that you can't imagine that happen so long as you keep your mindset in the right space. So I've learned to look for the signs, you know, it's a, it's a whole soul journey and, and this is something I'm super passionate about and what I try to help entrepreneurs that I coach on is that faith and that that really uncovering of their why and their soul and what they're leaning into the entrepreneur space for. And so that they can start to leverage all that's coming in and the energy that's showing itself to help, you know, if you're on the right path or even when you feel like you're on the right path, wrong path, that, that your, your thoughts and your desires will help you turn right back into a direction that you're supposed to be on.

Yeah. So if you take a look at, you know, just what you, you mentioned to me earlier was would you change anything? You know, of course I didn't wanna struggle going through that struggle in my time and the way that I felt about myself was horri horrific. But it was the catalyst for me to start this journey and to touch so many lives and to help so many women overcome thoughts of less than and really get comfortable in their own skin and know that they have a gift to give the world. Yeah. So I wouldn't change any of it. So it's the same thing, it's just in life, the entrepreneur life is life, I like to say kind of they're one and the same once you join the entrepreneur community, you, your business Mels into your life and it is just one, it's not separate. That

Is No so true. Thank you for that. And you have a partner. It's a successful partnership from what I can tell.

Oh shoot. She's family.

And, and, and I think it was really interesting for my perspective that the first meeting you ever had was to sit down and talk about your soul story. And so for those entrepreneurs out there that are wondering if they're a partner person, and if so, what should I do? Where should I start? Maybe your story will be really helpful. Tell us about that.

Well, I think, you know, we've be become one and the same, but when we first started we had very different skill sets, but you know, at the core our, our values were the same. And I think when you're looking for a partner, you wanna make sure that the core of their being is similar. The, the areas they excel in should compliment each other. And so we, we were very different individuals as far as what we brought to the table for our business, but our, our souls and our desires and our passion were equal. If that makes sense.

Yeah, for sure. And getting really clear on that at the outset, know thyself know thy partner.

Yes.

And having a strong foundation of trust from the outset is worth the extra time before you jump into a partnership.

Absolutely. And you,

You felt, yeah, go ahead.

One of the things I like to say to anybody that's looking for a partner is that you should view it as marriage. If you really want this business to succeed, yeah. You need to make sure that you really enjoy spending time with this person. You need to really work on your dynamics and your earned interpersonal relationships. And you also have to put each other first. So one of the things that we agreed along the way, and we had some, we had some struggles, you know, it didn't just come easy just as any marriage. Now we're to the point where it's funny, sometimes my husband's like, like Ari and I are in bliss, you know what, we're in cause we've gone through it all and we've stuck in it, you know, and we put the work in to understand how to communicate better with one another, when to lean back, when to push in, how to put each other first. You know, we both have, we have six kids between the two of us. We're mothers, we're running a business. We had to go through covid o we had a homeschool while we were running the business in an industry that was shut down for over a year. It was a lot. And that could either make or break a relationship. Oh yeah.

So one of the biggest things is yes, get to know the person, think of it as a long lifelong commitment and put each other first because things in the entrepreneur life, as I mentioned, it is one life where business and life come together. You need to put the person first and business second.

That's beautiful. In the book, there's a list of eight critical mistakes that many entrepreneurs make. One of them being that I wanna ask you about because I think you're quite focused on it. And the mistake that's often made is not knowing who your customer is. And so talk to us about knowing who your customer is and what your experience has been in really understanding that.

You know, we have to, so one of the, the biggest issues I think in, in the entrepreneur world, once you get in is starting to want to go down different routes. And there's so much opportunity and especially if you hit those check boxes that we just checked off, if you're a visionary, you're gonna get sidetracked by the next shiny object or a market space that you can open into. And obviously like our classes are fit for men and, and men struggle and need what we offer just as much. But we've been able to really focus in our, our our and, and lean into our market space and our customer base and who we're trying to hit. And that's something we had to, like, we had to struggle with to, to make sure that we stuck with it. And I would say get to know your customer, know exactly what they're coming for, what you're bringing to them, where you can get better and, and also how you can perfect the, the product or the experience so that they get it every single time.

So I'm in the service business and that's been one of the biggest struggles is making sure in the franchising space as well, where, you know, in fitness it, it was up to the operator. You had to have, you know, the instructor needed to be exactly the same in Metro Detroit versus Chicago versus Dallas. And that was one of the biggest struggles that took us years to figure out how to create a training program that would get the same output and use the same language and positive training to deliver. And we did that by getting feedback from the end user and and understanding what they were getting from the experience, what was missing from the experience versus the other experience. And really listening to them and knowing where the impact fell and how we could then step back and recreate and then create the processes that continue to recreate that experience.

So another one of the critical mistakes is not staying true to your core. And you, you've spoke a little bit, not so much about not doing that, but just how you can kind of get distracted sometimes. And I don't know this to be the case, so I'm really curious about it. Did you intend for the barcode to be a franchise from the outset or did that evolve and how did that kind of factor into staying true to your core?

Well, what's funny is, you know, unfortunately we didn't have Eeo os e o s launched when we launched our business. So I like to say I did all the wrong things to learn the right things.

I hear ya. So I hear ya. I'm

The one with the war wounds. You all have these tools at your fingertips, so that's right.

Yes. So

We did not know the reason why we decided to franchise was because we were staying true to our mission. What was happening. We had clients coming in that didn't wanna take job opportunities in different states because they couldn't imagine a barcode not being there for them. Wow. They, it was their second home, it was their place of worship, if you will, where they would come and light up and feel finally whole. And so we are like, we can't do that. We also didn't raise capital A and I just put all of our profits back into the business. So we were a slow growing business and we heard about franchising, so we decided to become franchise experts and our first full-time hire was a lawyer and we built a an f d d a franchise disclosure document, launched our first franchise location, fell flat on our face many a times, learned lots of mistakes, picked ourselves back up and repeat. Right. So, but we, we franchised because of that, we decided it hit our mission of empowering women to live the life they want by giving this service to their local community and the ripple effect of positivity.

Yeah. And so it's, what was interesting to me about it is you start off with this mission and you have a studio or something like that, I might not be saying Exactly. Right. And then going into the franchising business is actually like a different business even though you're selling the concept. And so it's interesting to hear you say, for example, your first full-time hire for this business, for the franchise business was an attorney. Was that scary? I mean, when, when you decided to make that leap and and change kind of the core focus around now becoming a franchise?

Well, my lessons learned, I, it was, it wasn't scary because at the time I didn't have any children and I was just a full-on entrepreneur. So I had already learned the risk taking. So I had that checkbox so I was ready to go. I was leaping all in. But love it. But what I would say is, in hindsight for anybody new coming to the space is that really diversified our growth because it's basically running two different companies, corporate studios versus a franchising model. It really split up our time and then we had to hire so many full-time resources to support each and we were tugged in two different directions. And so I would not recommend doing that unless you're extremely well capitalized and you've treated them as separate businesses. Yeah. Under the same brand umbrella.

That's great. Well, again, going back to the book, there's the life of an entrepreneur and what is written about is there's the nightmare and then there's the dream. And I made up a story in my head what your nightmare is, but I'm not gonna say it. I wanna hear what you have to say. Can you think about what has been the quote unquote nightmare scenario for you?

Well, COVID was the nightmare and Covid was the nightmare. Oh,

I feel so smart.

But the, the dream, you know, the, the other thing that comes from it, again, this is just the mindset because we could look at it and do woe is me business shutdown. We had so many locations that had just opened up and we had to also put our mouth where our, our mission was where these individuals just invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and covid hit and they couldn't operate. And we had to release people from contracts. Right. And we made that right core decision for our business and our mission. And it was hard, it was really hard to put to do what we did. But now in hindsight, a third of the locations within the fitness space in this industry permanently shut down and we're still standing. And I also saw it as an opportunity for us to not focus on growth but become smarter, smaller, better, and just mighty Yeah. Ready for the next stage of growth. And so that's what we've been doing. You know, we, we've, we feel like we can, we got through this nightmare and now there's this huge opportunity that we're walking into cuz we're still standing.

What you always come back to mindset, which for the listeners please really listen intently to that part because I think it's so important, especially when you think about it that time, as in, in the fitness industry, we all know how challenging that became. And so I wonder were there points during the pandemic where you felt like, what's the opportunity here as opposed to this is such a drag, I can't stand this another day?

Yes, we did. And that goes back to the relationship with the partner. And that's why I also love about partnerships. You know, I can't speak enough that solopreneurs, individuals, you know, if you have your family or you at least have somebody underneath you, if it's not a partner that you can treat, like a partner helps so much. You can't do it all alone when you go through catastrophes like this. Otherwise you wanna just throw the towel in. So you have to have some kind of a confidant, whether it's like, like I said, a partnership or somebody just underneath you that's on salary that you treat like a true partner. Those help so much in times of distress that, you know, we had each other to pick, pick one another up. And sometimes in the most uncomfortable spaces, like you just laugh because you can't script what's going on.

And

You know, it's like so true when, so true when you think it's, when you think it's bad, it just another thing out and you're like, are you kidding me? So you have to like find humor or find something to keep your spirit going. And then when you do, your ideals will flow or will or confidence out of nowhere will happen. Like one of the things that was really cool that happened in Covid, the industry was very competitive. So a lot of us didn't know each other, especially the women in the space and, and, and fitness and Arian. I picked up the phone and called everybody. We were like, Hey, you know, hey Jill Daley, I'm Jillian Lorez, like, how you doing at, you know, daily method? Or we called up, you know, Sadie Lincoln at bar three and we're like, Hey Sadie. You know, so it became, you know, you gotta seize the opportunities Yeah. When catastrophe hits. Yeah. And then finds the joy or fun that you can create in it. Yeah. Otherwise

The alternative isn't that exciting. So what's the point?

Yes.

I'm curious at any point, and maybe it's today, have you had a mentor? And I know you're a great mentor to others. Yes. And I'm curious if you've been a mentee. You

Know, that's something I I've had a few along the way who've crossed our paths. No, no one consistent. Yeah. But, you know, the universe will throw somebody in here and there that I've been able to lean into and, and use for advice. Fortunately, like my business partner and I kind of play that role with one another. It seems like one person's down, the other person always has to stay up so that we, we balance each other out. So we kind of help each other through the ride. But I've definitely leaned into advice through, you know, family, friends that were in successful in business or entrepreneurs. I also have some, you know, some people from Michigan State that I looked up to that I would reach out to just for some advice here and there. But one of the things, and we also have a board now, one of the things that I'm truly committed to is, is, is having consistent people that I reach out to where, you know, if I'm in a, you know, if I'm in a place of indecision that I can always lean into and have them help, help just listen honestly, it's hold space and then give their, their expertise if they have it or their opinion or honestly just regurgitate what they're hearing me say.

Yeah. Because some, one of the things I, I also think that has been a really big learning lesson in my career. You know, we always, you sometimes when it gets so tough or the business is growing, this was like in 2019 specifically too, everything was going great and all this stuff. And now all of a sudden we're like, oh, we need this person. This person's gonna have the golden ticket, gonna have the answer. Or you always think somebody has the answer to that, that that's gonna have something that's gonna make your business better that you can't do. And, and sometimes you, you get 'em and you're like,

You know, there's no golden thicket I know better than you. You know, so yes. To sound advice for people that, you know, have experience in the area and, and I think there's nothing better than entrepreneurs that have done it. Yeah. You know, people that have been in it that can relate to how challenging it can be or have worn many different hats or finding skills like for example, fundraising was not in my portfolio because we used all of our profits for a next business. Or if something, there's something that we were doing for the barcode, I would seek help for somebody that's been doing that and done that well. But when it comes to your bread and butter, know that you're always gonna know best with what you are doing. And, and there is no magic pill outside of you when it comes to your core. If that makes sense.

Yeah, it makes total sense. And one of the things I liked you that you said at the outset of that answer was, the universe always seems to present themselves. So pay attention because yes, the answer might be right under your nose. Yes. Just pay attention and reach out was another thing that you did. You weren't afraid to just make a phone call. And I'm imagining from just speaking with you, you were open, honest, and vulnerable. So just lay it out there. Don't try to sugarcoat any of it. So thank you for that. I'm curious about, oh, go ahead. Were you gonna say something?

I just wanna Yeah, please. I wanna reemphasize that because I think that just nails at home, you know, one of the biggest challenges personally I've gone through is just lay it out on the table. Like, you don't have to ever sugarcoat anything because it won't help. So it's better to be completely open and honest about what is going on so that the right answers come. Yeah. And you don't have to feel like a failure. You don't have to feel, you know, like you did anything wrong. Particularly it's part of the process, it's part of the entrepreneurial journey. Justin is in life, right. We're gonna have ups and downs and we're gonna go through, we're gonna make some wrong choices, we're gonna make some really right choices. We're gonna have things happen to us that are uncontrollable, but it's really about how we keep that calm mindset through the whole, the space that will let us get out of it. Yeah. And, you know, we can take our time to be upset angry. Ari and I do this all the time. Sometimes we'll say, okay, let's give ourselves today, you know, to be angry, to be

Swan day.

Yes. Give us ourselves one day, be angry, let out all the emotion you need, but then tomorrow we're coming back in with the right mindset and, and we're gonna march forward. Yeah. And the other tip I wanna say that we always, that we learned that was really great. Don't make any choices on big choices with less than 24 hours of sitting on it. Because sometimes emotion comes in and you'll either be excited or be like, let's just do it. Let's leap so quickly. Yeah. Into the action when, if we would've been able to just to sit on it for a little bit longer Yeah. We would've had a much better approach on where we push and pull. Yeah. So we have this big commitment to ourselves that there's no big decisions made with under 24 hours.

So great. There's no rush. No, there's no rush. No.

If it's meant to be, it will be. That's right.

That's right. Sometimes you have to just let things flow and 24 hours is it a horrible amount of time to just sit on something. And it's amazing when you pay attention what comes to you. And I, I, that's what I take away from you when, let's just, let's get into like some tactical thing here. When, when we talk about different stages of businesses and what they're going through, when did you realize the importance of generating cash? Just actually having cash on hand.

When we started to grow too big. I mean, it was really easy in the beginning because just money was flowing. And so one of the issues that I learned there was when expense didn't matter, we didn't pay attention to that. So both of us don't have accounting or finance backgrounds. You know, we, if cash was readily available, we would make some choices that in hindsight, if we were actually paying attention to like we are now and we would've not made. But you don't know until, you know. But what's great is, you know, now we are very, you know, very much into managing the bottom line, which if you can do that from the onset, even when cash is flowing, you know, you'll be ready and you'll have those reserves for when hard times hit. And again, it's another, another lesson that we, we learned.

Yeah.

Really, really learned.

Yeah. And so many have, and you know, this idea of having it, it sometimes cash isn't flowing actually in, in the early days, and that's even harder, obviously. Yeah. Okay. One more I'm curious about in your business, the value of capitalizing on coaching and training and mentoring your employees or your team members. I'm not sure how you refer to them, but is that valuable?

Oh my goodness. It is, it is invaluable for entrepreneurs to build their team members and to invest in them individually. Especially when you're building a company, they're, the people that you wanna hire are aspiring entrepreneurs. You want the same mindset, the same will, the same tenacity, the same check boxes that we just went through, the same passion, the same risk taking. We wanna empower those individuals to have all of those marks. And if we, if we get those people, then we need to invest in them and we need them to know that we're, they're a part of our team, they're a part of this growth and that we care for them and the human soul level that they're getting fulfilled just as much as we are as the, the, the, the owner of the business. Right. Right. So coaching and developing your people is what, you know, what I do as well on the coaching side, and it's because a lot, you know, we have e o s on the operating systems, you have operating systems, but what about the human systems?

You know, what about the love languages of the people that work for you, and how do you keep those people happy so that they thrive and they want more and they wanna stay a part of this business and their needs are met. And then also making sure that you put the right people in the right place and continuing that dialogue and understanding of where their desires are, where they are personally, what their dreams are and where they wanna go so that they stay with you or, you know, if they're ready to move on, you know, it's an open conversation and and it's something that you're prepared for. Yeah. Because that's the other thing. You invest so much in these individuals you need to know and prepare for. If there is a departure, you know how you're gonna bring the people in and having those strong and steady interpersonal dynamics within the business is gonna make your life so much easier and allow you to grow so much quicker.

And again, I had to learn that the hard way working with so many women. And you know, early on in our business, that was the hardest, the hardest thing that we had to go through was, you know, interpersonal dynamics and, and, and the way that, you know, there's a bickering and, and all of those things that we, we struggled with that you have to get out because it, it really is like a cancer in the business. Yeah. So making sure that the business and the personal relationships within the business are super healthy. Everybody's in the right seat, everybody has the right mission, everybody has the right mindset and, you know, that's gonna make the business go. Yeah.

Yeah. So, you know, it's like we're entrepreneurs and we get into this because maybe we're passionate about a service that we wanna offer a product or something like that. And then we start to grow and it's exciting and you have people coming in on your team and if, if it isn't a human relationship that's going on there versus you come in and work for me, do your job and then leave. Why, why do it? It, it's exhausting. Exactly. Don't put yourself through that. Exactly. And that's what you're doing. And that investment that you're putting into the people, it it, it helps the business and it just helps the relationships. Like just showing up in life flow so much more nicely. And that's all we really, really all we want is, is good flow in our life.

Exactly. I know there, I don't, have you heard of the happiness project or the study

That was done? Yeah. You know, with,

I think John F. Kennedy was part of it, but you know, the two things, they had two groups of really wealthy Harvard individuals and then inner city individuals and the commonalities of happiness was doing something you love and connection. Yeah. So if you're gonna take the leap to be an entrepreneur, why not create that healthy connection within your business? Yes. So that you can have both, you can thrive in purpose and passion and then also have really healthy connections within your company. That's right.

And if you're just selling widgets and widgets are no big deal and nobody's all that excited about it, you're still changing the world. Because if you have, if you have eight employees that you're making a difference in their lives and they have families and they have friends, and it just all kind of flows out there. Okay. Finally, one last question. You're, you've mentioned a few times, but I'm curious about it. You're also an executive coach for aspiring entrepreneurs. So where did that come from and then how do you fit all this in?

Well see this, once you're an entrepreneur, you just want more, right? You can't stop.

You can't stop. But my, I'm actually gonna Michigan State right now, I sit as a, a venture coach for M S U new graduates coming out and starting their own businesses. So I'm, I'm a judge next week and a competition, but then also I work with executives on the human system side and how they can help to align and create energy within themselves to, you know, use that energy and, and those systems and those processes to better illuminate their employees and how they can bring wholeness to, to their workplace. So I'm really excited about it through the personal growth and self-acceptance side of my business here at the Barcode. You know, fitness really is the vehicle to create healthier energy. And I'm also a meditation breathwork expert. So using modalities and also coaching the positive coaching that we do at the barcode and, and, and I do in business to help leaders bring that to their space.

Thank you for sharing that. And I, I wonder for some of the listeners, they might be sitting there going, wait, this is a thing like that I could actually bring into my business. So it's really cool. Yes. This is a thing you can have this in your business. Yes. Jillian, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today. I so appreciate you.

Thank you. This was a wonderful experience and congratulations to entrepreneurs listening for taking the leap. Yes. And also for leveraging all these incredible tools that book that you have at your fingertips. It's just, I wish we had it in 2010.

I'm with you. I'm with you. And, and likewise to all you amazing entrepreneurs listening today. I greatly appreciate you spending time with Julie and I today, and I wish you all much love and gratitude.