Ep.24 Building Your Brand & Community with Lindsay Pinchuk

It takes courage (and planning!) to walk away from a 6-figure career and go after that flexibility you desire. Lindsay Pinchuk, pregnant with her first child, did just that - and used her skills and connections to start and grow Bump Club into a 7-figure business with a thriving community of more than 3 million families.

In this episode I sit down with Lindsay and chat about how she built her 7-figure business from the ground up, sold it and then transitioned into her current marketing & consulting business. We get into the details about how she grew such a massive audience and what life was looking like during those times of transition.

Key moments in the conversation include:

• The gut check to know it'll be ok
• Things to consider beyond just the nuts & bolts of business
• Working smarter, not harder
• Being resourceful
• Expanding your market
• Knowing when to pivot
• Gathering proof of concept
• Meeting the bottom line

Click here for links and show notes.

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Transcript

Jamie Stephens: 0:03

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Breaking up with corporate today I have Lindsey Pinchuk on and Lindsey is the founder, and it's okay. What did I just say? marketing and consulting Wednesday project.com. We say it for me.

Unknown: 0:20

Lindsay Pinchuk, marketing and consulting. Yes.

Jamie Stephens: 0:23

Okay. Lindsay is the founder of Lindsay pet and Chuck, marketing and consulting and our guest here on the podcast today. Welcome, Lindsay.

Unknown: 0:31

Thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you. Yeah.

Jamie Stephens: 0:35

Thanks for coming on. First of all, go ahead and tell us where you're from Lindsay?

Unknown: 0:39

Yeah. So I actually grew up in Detroit, well, outside of Detroit, Michigan, in the suburbs. And now I live in Chicago in the suburbs of Chicago. I have lived in Chicago for when we got over 20 years.

Jamie Stephens: 0:52

Cool. And what are you doing there today? And then we'll kind of get into a little bit of your backstory.

Unknown: 0:57

Yeah. So today, I have my own marketing and consulting firm. I help other small business owners, female founders, and actually some big brands as well, to tell their story, to grow their community and ultimately to build their brand. But my expertise is in growing communities and connections, and I do that through strategic social media content and marketing plans. And so that's what I'm doing.

Jamie Stephens: 1:26

Okay. Yeah. So how did you get started? And, and all of that, what was your journey before? Before you left corporate? Like, let me go all the way back? Yeah, yeah. Let's get into that. And then we'll kind of see how you wound up here.

Unknown: 1:37

Okay. So in 2010, I was pregnant. I was working at the Hearst Corporation at a job that I loved. I was selling integrated marketing programs to Fortune 500 companies. I was working for good housekeeping. I had worked in that field. And in that position for just about 10 years. I was the director of I think I was my title was Midwest director of sales at Good Housekeeping AM. I loved my job. But I also was pregnant. And I knew that I needed support and community. I am a transplant to Chicago. I don't have family here. Neither does my husband. And I was starting to feeling really like feeling really lonely just about being on this pregnancy journey without anyone, none of my closest friends. And in that moment, were pregnant. We all actually have fifth graders. So it you know, I was just the first Yeah. But so what I ended up doing was I told my husband, there has to be some kind of business in this because there are so many businesses for parents. But what about that those nine months before you actually become a parent? How do you learn to become a parent? So I started hosting events. First, I did prenatal workouts and I did some prenatal shopping events. And then people were like, what's next? What's next, and we started hosting educational dinners. Our very first event, this is totally dating me. And dating the whole process. But the very first event was done before businesses even had Facebook pages. So you know, I sent an email I told everyone I knew, and we had 35 women show up for this workout. And then the next week, we had 70 women show up at this prenatal, sorry, maternity store for this shopping event. And then people were like, what's next? What's next? So we started hosting educational events. Really, truly, I did it with me in mind, what did I need in that moment? And I showed up as an expectant parent and I shared my journey. Keep in mind not on social media, right? So how are

Jamie Stephens: 3:36

you finding these people if this was was researched word

Unknown: 3:40

of mouth. So I mean, really, truly, I sent an email to everyone I knew the advertising industry, here in Chicago is very close knit people pass it along. I reconnected with people that I hadn't seen in years that were pregnant. I put it on my personal Facebook and my personal LinkedIn, but there were no business, you know, social media activations at the time. Gotcha. And, and I started working with partners. So like the maternity store that I worked with, like, of course, they had a huge database, and they told everyone about the event I was hosting. So there was a lot of strategic partnering going on as well. And it grew from there. So from there, we started hosting events in other cities. I started working with brands such as Target Nordstrom, the Honest Company, and I really grew this company to be something big. It was one of the largest communities in North America for parents and parents to be. It was a It became a seven figure business year over a year we were reaching 3 million families are i It's hard to say families, 3 million parents and parents to be through all of our platforms every month. And it was amazing. It became a lifestyle for me. I was the face of this company. I was doing all of our content over social media. I mean, I was running the business and I totally bootstrapped it, no investments, nothing. And in the summer of 2018 I was approached, oddly enough, by three entities on LinkedIn, which like I was, I was planning to start trying to figure out what my next step was not necessarily my end game. But did I want to get investors? Did I want to sell it? What did I want to do, and I ended up selling it, I sold it to a large agency holding company, based in California, and I ended up working for them for two and a half years. Last summer, I made the decision, I know we're gonna get into kind of all the whys, as well, but I made the decision to exit. And I, they became my first client, but Colombian became my first client. And I started my marketing and consulting firm. And now I really, truly want to help other founders in small businesses. And even like, I'm working with a bunch of female founders from established brands as well, to make changes and to really just grow their businesses and grow their brands in a very natural way. Very similar to how I did bump club. And that's how I got to where I am.

Jamie Stephens: 6:04

So I have so many questions. So at what point did you leave good housekeeping? Like, where were you in that journey? Whenever you decided to leave there?

Unknown: 6:16

Yeah. So I had my daughter. And during the time that I had my, during the time I was home on maternity leave, I got a lot done. And I know that that sounds crazy and counterintuitive. And I have to admittedly, like I'm not one to sit still, I like to be active, I like to have things to do. I mean, it's not for everyone. And I get that mean people heal in different ways. I also had a really easy baby. And so I want to say that too, because if if my second baby was born first I don't know that I would have bumped club because I didn't really have help. But, you know, I she slept a lot. And she was so good. And I would check my email when you know when she was sleeping. And I really started growing this brand beyond what it was for the first six months of its life. And I decided that I was going to go back to work, we made the decision that I was going to go back to work and kind of see how it went. During the time I was on maternity leave actually right before I had gotten a new boss, she which ironically, she was not so supportive of my business. And I understand but I never faltered, I always made my number I was one of their best sales people. And she made it very clear when I was coming back that she was not going to make it easy on me. I had asked for a day at home, every mom on the floor of Hearst in Chicago at that time, even moms with kids in like college and high school had a day at home. And she made it very clear. I'm not letting you have a day at home. And I knew that I knew that it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience. And so I told my husband, I'm gonna go back, we'll see what happens. And I went back and she did make it really hard for me. And at the end of the day, I said to my husband, you know what, what's the worst that happens if I leave? And that's kind of my bit my my gut check, always even now, what's the worst that happens? And can you live with that. And for me, the worst that happened is the business didn't take off. It didn't go where I wanted it to go. And I came back and got a job. Right. And that that was the worst that happened. And so despite the fact that I loved the job, I loved the company. I loved my colleagues other than the new boss, I made the decision to leave. And it was really the best decision that I ever made. I was back for I think two or three weeks before I left. And from there, I never looked back.

Jamie Stephens: 8:43

Great. So you had mentioned before that you left corporate twice was that the two times you were talking about or was there another stint and there's so

Unknown: 8:54

that I left her first and then I had bumped club and I and I grew that brand. And then after it was bought I worked for the corporation that bought me for two and a half years.

Jamie Stephens: 9:04

Oh, Okay, gotcha. So, tell me something that you learned like what was the biggest surprise? Like once you've left corporate the first time before you kind of got into the the new business fully? Like what was the first thing that you were doing to grow like, beyond what you were doing? You said you were really kind of growing it more after that six months. So

Unknown: 9:28

a lot of I think a lot of people think that when you start something new, you need to have, you know, a full staff, right? And it's in you need to really focus only on the business, but it's not just the business you need to focus on. It really is your surroundings in your personal life as well. And for me, my husband and I made the goal that if we could pay the part time nanny the first year, that would be like the goal and we far exceeded that. So it was really I need up the proper support not just for my business. But for me personally as a mom, to allow me to work in the business when I was working. And I went to work I, I'd say like, with air quotes went to work every day, I went to the Starbucks, and Armitage, and pointed Bucktown. In Chicago, that's where I literally camped out three days a week, from the time I dropped my daughter off until the time I picked her up, I ate all my meals there. And I didn't move and I really made it a goal to get as much done as possible. Now, of course, when you start your own business, you're doing so a lot for flexibility, right? Like that is like a lot of the reason why you're why you're starting this. And I did have a lot of flexibility. But in the beginning, I didn't really give myself a lot of flexibility during the day. It's not like I was running errands, I wasn't getting manicures, people would ask me for lunch. And I'd say no, like, I can have lunch on a day that I have my daughter, and I'll bring her with me. But I really was focused on the business. And so I think that is kind of one of the big things that people need to understand that they they need to stay focused. But they also need to set themselves up for success surrounding their business, not just within their business. Does that make sense? Yeah,

Jamie Stephens: 11:13

yeah, for sure. I know, a lot of whenever I first left corporate, like what I had struggled with was less of the business stuff, and just more of the mindset and just kind of that loss of identity with not being an employee anymore, which was never my desire, but it was still like this whole undoing that had to happen.

Unknown: 11:37

You know, it's interesting, because I didn't really go i My situation was a little different. I didn't go through that, really, because I was creating this new identity where I was the face of this brand. I heard, you know, for 12 years. And so that part of it. I didn't have because I was Lindsay the girl who owned bumped club. In fact, I was in the bathroom at the airport yesterday and someone yesterday, and someone came up to me and they said, Are you Lindsay? And I said, yeah, there we go. I did bump club with my first and she had three kids with her. So you know, that was the identity that I created for myself. But in order to grow, I really had to be disciplined about when I was working, what I was working on, and how it looked in my personal life too. And I did a lot of work in the evening, like I would pick up my daughter and be with her and you know, have dinner with my husband and I would sit down on the couch at night and I would really crank things out. And so, you know, I became a really diligent, smart worker, it wasn't about working hard. It was about working smart.

Jamie Stephens: 12:39

Yeah. So how far apart are your children?

Unknown: 12:42

They're three years apart.

Jamie Stephens: 12:44

They're three years apart. So three years into the business. Whenever you have your second baby, what is it looking like at that point,

Unknown: 12:51

so bomb Club was much bigger actually, when I had my second. Like, I had my second in 2013. And we were just starting a large partnership with target. Actually, like five weeks after she was born, I was like pumping in a target back office because we were hosting an event. So that was that was probably my roughest moment as a founder, as well, because I it was in that moment that I was actually burning the candle at both ends. And it was too much. And I and I made some sacrifices and made some changes. But the business itself. At that point, I had, I think four or five employees. So I had help. I was we were doing events in I think five or six cities at that time. The the year that that my second was born. So she was born in October. And that year, we started hosting the signature event that we threw in Chicago, we started hosting it in Los Angeles and Austin in Minneapolis. And where else in LA and I think in San Francisco. And it was interesting, because it was that year that I really had to start to delegate because I couldn't travel. Right. And so you know, there came a point that I couldn't travel anymore. And so, you know, I had to really rely on my team and on my staff and I had the best team in the world at bump club and many of them stayed with me for many, many, many, many years.

Jamie Stephens: 14:17

Yeah. So how did you get the experience to start hosting all of these events and growing and multiple cities and like was this were you like pulling on your roots of like your corporate days? Or was this really just kind of everything was new and you were learning as you go?

Unknown: 14:36

So everything was new? And I was learning as I went but i There were two there are two skills I would say that I took from both my corporate and then like my educational days because I did get a master's degree in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern and I always said I always said like, I'm never going to use this and I did actually use it when I was doing bum club but um Two things. One, I'm a natural connector even before I started bump club, like networking and connecting are two skill sets that I've always been very good at. And so right then in there, like that was, you know, a big part of this business, both on the b2b and b2c side. Yeah. And then the other thing is, my marketing routes. You know, I never had an issue, growing awareness or marketing club, never. I mean, we were probably the last people in the game to pay for Facebook ads. And we did eventually when we had the budget to do so for, you know, our events, but I really am a natural marketer, and I understand how things work. And right from the beginning, like, I had no marketing budget, I had no money. And we right away grew from grassroots marketing strategies. And those are strategies that I carried to the last day of me working at bump club. And so, you know, I think like that, those are two kind of big skill sets that I had, I did not really have much experience in the event space. My first employee was, she had just graduated grad school, she also didn't really have event experience. However, she was a hustler. And she figured it out. And she, you know, it's not rocket science, right? Like planning events isn't rocket science. And together, we figured it out. And she executed. And so when she eventually left, she was with me for about six years. And then she moved on. And we had hired a marketing manager. And that marketing manager had worked at Harpo, which is Oprah studio and had worked in the events division of our the largest children's hospital here in Chicago. And she immediately moved into the director of events role. So my answer to that is, surround yourself with people who know what they're doing and who are willing to learn because I recognize that I couldn't do everything. But I grew the brand and the business and I had someone who was executing the events. And by the time we were in like our fifth or sixth year, it was to the point where I didn't even really have to be involved in the events. process. I just showed up as the face and I was the person who was growing the awareness and getting people to buy tickets and getting people to show up at the events and online.

Jamie Stephens: 17:12

Yeah. And how were you doing that? I mean, like, what were you actually doing? Whenever you say I was the one getting people to show up to this course. Tactical,

Unknown: 17:23

multipronged? I mean, I can talk about this for hours. This is I actually teach a class I teach multiple classes on this. So the first thing is partnerships, so and really borrowing other people's audiences. So right from the get go, we did that I had mentioned we were working with the maternity store, we worked with prenatal workouts, we started working with experts. Naturally, those people were sharing our events with their communities. So it's a very natural attrition. So if we were hosting an event in a maternity store, Emily, who owned the maternity store would send an email to her database and say, Hey, pregnant people have preggers maternity like we are hosting an event with this new company Bug Club. And so I would bring people and she would bring people and it kind of grew over time. Second, was the customer experience. So you never wanted anyone to have a bad experience. I started surveying the customers from the very first day about their experience with bump club. And their experience with every touch point of what we did from the minute they walked in the door of an event was incredibly important to me. And if they offered feedback that can make it better, I changed it, I didn't get defensive. So I followed up every event with an email with a survey. Everyone who signed up for my events went into a database, and they started receiving information. And so naturally, because I was ensuring they had a good experience, they were spreading the word moms are also your best word of mouth marketers. But like if you if you have a product for moms, and you really hit the nail on the head, they will share it. And they did. So a lot of this came from word of mouth, and then the partnership. So we started working at first with a lot of brands. And initially it was free. The brands would send product to put in our gift bags, we became known for these gift bags, if you Google bump club and beyond on YouTube, you can find people from like 2016 2017 2018 unboxing, our gift bags, there's many, many videos of it. And they were amazing. Like they were two $300 with a product Nice. Baby companies want these women and they have a really short amount of time to get them so they were giving us product to put in these bags and we would essentially talk about it online and they started talking about the events like hey, go to the bump club event and make and you'll get a swaddle of summer infant in our gift and your gift bag. So that was a very natural thing. But then we started getting sponsors. So the brands started paying to sponsor the events and to gain access to the community to gain access to the data and those sponsors were also sharing the events. So it was a very natural thing that went on that went on. And then as social media became a thing we started working with I want to say influencers but I don't want to say influencers because I'm not I'm not big in the influencer. That's not. That's not something that I that I say is I'm not a big like influencer marketing. I'm a big influential marketing person. So we would work with moms who were influential, who, you know, had large followings. They weren't just like holding up products for money. And we never paid them. So like if they were pregnant, and they wanted to come to our event, and share about it naturally great. And so we started doing that, we started featuring moms on our website, and on our social platforms. I mean, I think by like 2018, we had 100,000 followers on Facebook, and we never bought any of them. So it was a very organic engaged community. When I left bump club, I think we were at about 130 on Facebook, and we were at 70,000 on Instagram. Again, we never bought any followers. So it was totally organic. And then by featuring people in our community, they were naturally re sharing it and drawing attention to us. So like that's over time, kind of the way we did it. And then of course, as we got larger partners like Huggies and target and Nordstrom, we had budget that we would, we would run Facebook ads directly on our events. So like we never really ran like awareness campaigns on Facebook, they were more like register for this sign up for this buy a ticket for this. And this was before the iOS update. That happened a couple years ago. And things are very different on Facebook with Facebook ads now. But at the time, I was like running our Facebook ads, we later got an agency who did it. But that was really the only like, paid advertising. I also became an expert in the space and I was on TV often. So that was also a large those kind of what we did for awareness was I would go on TV in the markets where we were hosting events. And in Chicago. Nationally, I was on access live, I was on the doctors, and we would share you know tips and tricks on parenting favorite products and whatnot. And that helped as well.

Jamie Stephens: 22:18

So how like, obviously, we know that pregnancy is, you know, a constrained amount of time, like how were you serving these women after like, the nine months was up and they had their baby, were they still kind of connected to you or what was like that next we kept

Unknown: 22:37

going? I mean, you know, and this was something ironically, I knew in the beginning. So when I started bumped club, it was called bump club Chicago. And when I had my daughter, the group of women who were coming to the events were like, well, like what's next because we love this and we still want to be a part of this. And these women became some of my closest friends. I mean, I'm in touch with many of them. Today. Even the ones who left Chicago, we're we're in touch over social media. And so six weeks after my daughter was born, we hosted our first ever mom event. It was not that was not planned. That was not in the works. But it was a brunch, we brought in a sleep expert. We were also sleeping tired. And we were like, you know, and so everyone came I have pictures. I and I share pictures of this often, like we all came we brought our babies, everyone had their babies on their lap and we were listening to Janine Hayward. She was our longtime sleep expert, tell us how to get some sleep with our kids. And that started a whole like secondary curriculum for bumped clubs. So as I grew as a mom, I brought in what I needed and and you know, eventually we had a class for how to welcome a second child. And then we had classes for that were more like parties for kids and playdates we were hosting playdates for toddlers until the pandemic so it was a really natural attrition. A lot of that happened online. We weren't hosting like live in person events for for parents across the country, really until we were bought when we were bought. We ended up getting a large sponsor sponsor Seventh Generation sponsored a playdate series in 10 different cities and we hired a brand ambassador team to execute these events for moms. So we really still tried to meet them where they were, and give them the information we needed. We started hosting more webinars, you know, we have their data and they were still engaging with us and I think a lot of it had to do I don't want to sound conceited, but a lot of it had to do with me. I mean, I was still showing up just in a different way. Like I wasn't you know, it wasn't just at our events, although I did go to many of our events across the country but you know, now we had Instagram now we had Pinterest now we had Facebook groups now we had Snapchat, you know, and I was showing up you there and sharing my story as a mom of two women, two girls who were who was running a company. So, you know, I, you know, it was it became very different and people had a connection to me. Yeah. And a lot of them came over to my personal Instagram when I left bump club.

Jamie Stephens: 25:15

Yeah. So tell me about leaving bump club. Tell me well tell me about like the whole kind of process like, how did you know you were ready to sell it? And what? What happened then like, what were your first steps, once you decided that this is kind of the direction you wanted to go in.

Unknown: 25:31

So ironically, I had hired a part time cmo in the beginning of 2018. And I said said to her, I just want to make sure everything is buttoned up really nicely, because I do eventually want to either get investors or sell the company. My goal was to do it by my 40th birthday, I knew that I was not going to always as much as I was always going to be able to, and I still can be an expert in the parenting space and, you know, do the strategy for this company. I just couldn't be the face of a parenting company forever. My kids at that point were six and eight, six and nine. And I wasn't pushing them in strollers anymore. It felt very inauthentic to tell people what products to use, even though they were products I've used forever and love them. Like I just wasn't in it. And so I knew that I had like a shelf life, right is kind of like the face. And I knew that I had also taken this brand. As far as I could have taken it. You know, we were at a point to where we were a little bit overextended in terms of our spending, I wanted to be making more money. I felt like you know, my employees always came first there were times that I didn't take a paycheck. And I just I bootstrapped it for so long. And I just, I needed to feel that sense of relief of someone else bearing the responsibility of what I had built. And so when I was approached by these three entities, it was very ironic that it was all on LinkedIn was the one who bought me I thought it was someone I knew it wasn't. And that's actually why I responded. So it's like, kind of funny how that happened. But one of them was, was not a fit. One of them was I can say now it was some spider who owns scary Mommy, I actually I did a podcast with the founder of scary mommy about that. But that was not a fit. We we went through multiple conversations I was supposed to go there, they ended up wanting an aqua hire. And so they wanted to hire me dissolve my brand. And they wanted me to do what I was doing for bump club for scary mommy. And that, to me sounded terrible, because I had a brand with a lot of equity. And, you know, a lot of clout, both not only among parents and expectant parents, but among the brands. I mean, we worked with hundreds of brands, I was a spokesperson for hobbies. So that became apparent that that wasn't going to be a fit, but the entity that bought me, they wanted me they wanted my brand. And they wanted my team and they told me that they would let me run it is just as I had when I was on my own and their their words were we will be giving you rocket fuel to grow this, they also had a very large partnership with target and beauty and they wanted my relationship with target and baby. And I just I felt that I needed more resources. And this felt like the best opportunity. And so in 2019, I closed on that deal. It was a very quick thing. I mean, we started in the summer of 2018. And January 1, we had closed, all of my team except for one came over with me. And we started working for the new company. The first year was really rocky, as a lot of people told me it would be. And at the end of 2019 we had got our footing back with target. And we were on track to do our first large scale activation with target. So to put it into perspective for you when bumped Club was just mine. Our target partnership was it was a six figure deal, low six figure. And it was in 20 cities 20 stores total. This activation was going to take place, march 21 2020. And it was going to be in 300 stores in one day. So previously, it had been 20 stores in the whole year. This was going to be 300 stores in one day. And on March 1 We obviously kind of got the like Target pulled all events. And I said to the team, they've already invested so much money, we've already invested so much money, we need to get them to commit to this virtually. And I created a virtual program and you know we pitched it to them and they said yes and so you know I said to them, you you don't want people are still having babies, we don't know what's going to happen. People are still having babies we need to see They'll reach them. And so we created this virtual activation where we did a series of webinars and live events on Facebook. And we ended up giving out 10,000 gift bags like direct to home. And we ended up reaching millions and millions and millions of parents and parents to be, and it was a win and target renewed it, they renewed it through the rest of 2020. And they renewed it through 2021. And they're still doing the target partnership to this day, target. BK went from a low six figure to a seven figure revenue driver for bump club. And I do think that's what saved bump club during the pandemic. From there, everything we did went online, we started doing a whole host of webinars and activations. I was online all the time. Yeah, I mean, I was reading our content or social media, our strategy, and five nights a week, I was moderating something. And it became too much, to be very honest.

Jamie Stephens: 31:06

Well, not to mention the mental toll, like during COVID. Plus, you've got two school aged children. So there's that added impact. Everybody's at home. I mean, like, yeah, everything became too much. It's just like, I totally get it that all of the additional that you were taking on. So I'm, I'm gonna pause for a second. And just, I'm curious about how that felt. Because now you're like putting in all these hours growing this for somebody else, right?

Unknown: 31:39

Yeah. So in so in the beginning, I just really I wanted it to succeed, I wanted to continue the growth trajectory. And, you know, I wanted to make it a household name. That's why I sold it. And, you know, so I was really like, working my ass off to help make that happen. And as I moved along, you know, there were in, you know, I'm bound by a lot of NDAs, and whatnot. So I'm going to be careful with my words. But, you know, as we went along, it became apparent that there were just a lot of corporate things that were more important, you know, to the powers that be. And I wasn't necessarily feeling like I was getting all the resources that I needed. And it just, it wasn't feeling like, as great anymore. And I was not happy. And like, where's this rocket fuel? Yes. And makes rocket fuel correct. And, and I was burning out and, and I, you know, but at first I was kind of like, I really, I went through like a mourning process, like, it was kind of like, a death and then like a Shiva and then like a mourning process to be very honest. Like, you know, I kind of went through at first I was like, Well, how do I leave this? You know, I am the face of this brand. I love this community. I love my team. I could not have been done them. But then, you know, I was not happy. I was having a hard time getting up in the morning. I felt really stifled, like my creativity, I felt like I was my values weren't necessarily aligned with the new company. And, you know, I got to a point at, I had told my manager in December of 2020, I'm thinking about an exit. I don't really know that they ever quite believed me to be honest. And, and because she was like, okay, and then like that was that. And then, you know, I got to a point to your point where I was like, I am tired of making money for someone else. Yeah. And I was being approached by other brands, both both like clients above club and people who knew me because I have a very large network. After 10 years of doing this, they were asking me to take on projects, and they were offering me a lot of money to do it a lot more than I was being paid. And I went back and I said to my manager at the time, you know, I I can be making a lot more money. And I don't I don't really think that they no one did anything. Okay, so like, no one did anything. So to me, I was replaceable. Yeah, and the minute that I kind of realized that they that I was viewed as replaceable was when I started changing my my thoughts because why was I showing up every day busting my ass for to your point, a brand that wasn't mine anymore. And you know, I never wanted anyone to feel abandoned and I don't think that they did. I didn't just up and leave. You know, I told them in May that I wanted to leave by July. I wanted to spend some time with my family in the summer, and there was a lot of back Come forth to get to that agreement. And when we did get to the agreement, it was like at the 11th hour to be very honest. And I became a consultant and I became their consultant. So I, they became my client for eight weeks, I was able to transition out. And honestly, like, I had two really big moments of relief. The first was the my last day as like an employee of that company. When I close my computer, I I actually, like, This is so crazy. I fainted. I like I like the adrenaline I think that I carried like I was, I very vividly remember I was on the phone with my counterpart. Like she needed like three more bits of information. For me, I think it was like the password to Instagram and like some other things that they didn't have that only I had. And I was on the phone with her. And I said to her, I need to call you back. Because I had gotten so lightheaded. And I like blood. I was like blacking out, essentially. I was like, I have to call you back. I think I'm gonna blackout. And so I ended up calling her back. And like I just I remember the relief that I felt was just it was not just an emotional mental thing. It was physical. Yeah. So I think that says something. Right? And yes, yes. I mean, I just like I was done working for someone else I was done. And so over the next eight weeks that followed, I worked for I worked for bump club, consulting for 10 hours a week was enough. And during that time, I created my website and I put out an email to everyone I knew I let them know, I was able to make an announcement on bump clubs, Instagram, as well. And I got I got three clients. And so I started working for other clients. And then very similarly it was September 8 was my last day at bump club and I loved bump club. I loved what I did. I loved what I built. I loved the community and I made it very clear. I'm not going anywhere you can find me at Lindsay Pinchuk, like you can still I mean, I'm still happy to talk to you, you know, it was the day before my 15th anniversary, my husband and I were going out of town for the weekend and closing my computer on that last day, I just felt so good. Like, I knew I had done everything that I could have ever done to get the brand to where it was. And I'm really proud of it. And I'm really proud of what I did. And to me, it was time, it was time to cut the cord, it was time to do something for myself. My kids were feeling my unhappiness. And I wanted to wake up excited about work again. And I am now I do every day and I'm with my kids, when I want to be with my kids. I'm making money for myself. And, you know, it's funny, because I'm working a fraction of the amount of time for my clients than I did for the company. And I'm making just about the same a lot of money.

Jamie Stephens: 38:05

That's a nice place to get to working a fraction of the time. That's great. So is there anything that like any advice you would give to people like to that are looking? I mean, I don't even know where to start? Because there's such a big trajectory that you had. I mean, I think like, what is that very first piece that people should really kind of focus on whenever they're first getting started.

Unknown: 38:33

You know, I think if you can do it as a side hustle to prove your concept. I think that that's it that makes it a lot easier when you're making the transition, like, you know, I have I interview founders, my podcast is called Dear founder and I interview founders twice a week. And I've had founders who have said that they've started it started their company while they were in corporate America, and I've had a couple who have said that they have, they just cut, you know, cut the cord and started, the majority did start their business on the side. And if you can do that, and have the bandwidth to test it out, and at least prove your concept. I think you'll feel a lot better when you actually do leave. So and then the other thing is go back to what I said in the beginning and ask yourself what's the worst that happens? Yeah. And can you live with that? Because I could, I was able to live with it. Yes, we made changes, like like, I am not sugarcoating this by any stretch of the imagination. You know, I when I left Hurst to, to kind of like paint the picture because in you said I love talking about money but like to paint the picture for you. Like I had a really successful job at Hearst. I was the youngest person ever to be hired in Chicago as an account manager. I was making six figures by the time I was 2425 Okay, like I had a really good cushy job. But I wanted flexibility and I want it to be around for my kid. And we made changes to accommodate that I don't just, you know, I don't want people to think like, oh, I left this job and replaced it like no, but there was other benefits outside the monetary component that came with it. And we were able to work with that and make that work. And so I would also say, just sit down with your family with your partner, if there are other people involved, and see how you can make it work, be creative about making it work. Like, in my situation, I might not have been making my salary. I also never paid for anything for my kids. Never. I mean, I'm not kidding when I tell you, I bought a Baby Bjorn carrier, and I very specifically remember it because it was the only thing I ever had to buy. I was given car seats, I was given strollers, I was given family photos, I was given classes for my kids, like food diapers, I mean, like I very rarely bought anything. And so even though I wasn't making my sandwiches a small fortune, yes, I was I was still benefiting in other ways. And also I have to pay taxes. Ya know, like, so you know, I say get crushed, share that because like, get creative, like, how can you maybe not make the money but like, still save on your bottom line? Does that make sense? So like, you know, those are the three things that I would say I would say, try to start it as a side hustle. Ask yourself, what's the worst that happens, and get creative about how you bring in income or bottom line revenue, because it's not just the top line revenue that comes in, it really is, you know, what owning your own business brings. And here's another thing that that I think is really important to point out. When I was leaving Bob club, one of the things that I said constantly, when I was lobbying for a raise was yes, my salary might be more than I was paying myself, it was a little bit more, not much more. I said, but when I owned my business, I was able to write everything off. Yeah. And I lost the ability to do that. I mean, I, you know, we would go to California for a TV appearance, and I would bring my family. And so I would be able to write off my vacation. I mean, there were there are a lot of benefits that come along with having your own business. And I lost that when I sold it. So even though my top line salary was a smidge more than what I was paying myself, I was losing money on the bottom line. And, you know, like there's something to be said about that as well. So I think my fourth bit of advice would be to talk to a financial advisor or your tax preparer and see how you can benefit from owning your own business and what are the implications because you might be in a better financial position to own your own business, then you are to work for someone.

Jamie Stephens: 43:03

Yeah. Yes. All good advice. Well, thank you so much, Lindsey. I've had such a good conversation.

Unknown: 43:11

Thank you so much for letting me share my story. This is a different, like way than ever before. And I am just so happy to hopefully help motivate other people to find it within them to take that leap.

Jamie Stephens: 43:25

Yeah, well, I mean, you're definitely motivating me. I mean, this is like the perks of like this podcast is just that I get to talk to so many just badass women. And obviously you're in that crowd so that Oh, so much fun. I mean, like, I just love it all. So can you tell people where they can find you online about your podcast, anything you're promoting right now all of the good things?

Unknown: 43:49

Of course, when do you know when this is going to air? No.

Jamie Stephens: 43:53

I don't I can coordinate it with whatever you've got coming up. It'll be it'll probably be right. If I had to guess like June mid June.

Unknown: 44:03

Okay. All right. So you can find me on Instagram at Lindsay Pinchuk. I share constant tips about founding, scaling growing selling business there. You can find me on my podcast twice a week. It's called Dear founder you can listen to it anywhere where you listen to podcasts. And again, that is my weekly, bi weekly, twice weekly letter to female founders who are looking to start, grow, scale and even sell a business. You can also find me at Lindsey pinchuk.com. I constantly have workshops going on I have a free social media for small business masterclass. We're doing one in what month are we we're doing one in April May and then we will do one again later this summer. And then I do a Marketing for Small Business on a shoestring workshop. That's a three month long program on really how to market your business. And that is a bit aid program and that's something that I will be running once in May June July and then I will likely do it again July August September so you can find information on that on my website

Jamie Stephens: 45:11

great thank you so much

Unknown: 45:13

thank you so much

Jamie Stephens: 45:15

let me hit pause