Ep 90 Transcript: The Mindset Shift That Turns Breakdown into a Million-Dollar Breakthrough with Kandi Lee

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.

Shauna Lynn Simon (00:02)

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today's guest is someone who took one dollar and eleven cents and a whole lot of grit and turned it into a multi seven figure legacy. Kandi Lee is the CEO and co-founder of the 111 network. Guess where that name came from? And for over 30 years, she has coached over 10,000 or sorry, 100,000 entrepreneurs to scale their businesses with clarity, confidence and systems that work. And she's been where we've all been.

Over 30 years ago, after divorce left her with two suitcases, her daughter and just $200 to her name, she made a decision that would change everything. And she didn't just rebuild, she redesigned her entire life. Kandi has been where so many of us have been. She's the strategic force behind the Cashflow Compass, a proven system that helps legacy led women scale freedom based profit without the hustle. She's been featured on CNBC, HuffPost, HGTV. She shared stages with

legends like Mark Victor Hansen, Bob Proctor, and Jack Hanfield. And so she's not just teaching business strategy. She teaches the identity shifts that make million dollar momentum possible. And today she's going to share exactly how you can stop plateauing and start scaling with structure and not stress. So welcome, Kandi, to the Real Women Real Business podcast. my God. I love that. So funny when someone's reading my bio and like, yes, I remember all of those moments in time. I those things. I did those things.

Yeah, I'm so excited to be here. I am so excited to have you from the very first conversation you and I had. was like, I got to get this woman onto the podcast because you have such a powerful story. And I think the best part is that you're so grounded and so real. And I think that's where you and I really connected. And I mean, everyone talks about their sort of rags to riches types of stories, ⁓ but they are powerful stories. And especially when you hear another woman who's done this, I mean,

I know women who are looking at their bank accounts and seeing zeros in the wrong direction. And saying like, how am I going to myself out of this? Yeah, right. So let's go back to, it was 1994, I believe you've got two suitcases, $200 and your daughter. How did you make that shift from I'm broke to I'm gonna build something here? Well, it's a very important shift. I was in what I'd like to call a half two moment. So as you talked about, I went through

a major life change, a holy crap moment. I was married to Satan's brother. Let's just call it what it is. Okay. Sorry to laugh. No, that's, yep. Got You're like, know a lot of people like I'm married to his cousin. So having that, I was in Nashville pursuing my singing career because I'm also a singer and I'm like, I need to get the F out of here. And so my grandfather had passed away. I wasn't able to come to his funeral and I'm like, okay, that's it. I am going back to the West coast.

So I literally came for a family visit. I had $200 to suitcases and I didn't go back to Tennessee. I rerouted without like knowing anything. Like think about like how crazy that is, but really not. I knew one person in Las Vegas. So I knew in Vegas, I could still sing, still model and still be a mom to Caitlin. And really my fate found me because I was invited to a personal development seminar graduation, which doesn't sound weird now, but 31 years ago, it was like, what is that?

That's really woo woo. It's outside of the box. It's a cult. I'm like, fine. I'm in reinvention convention in my life. I'm starting over. So why not? And so saying why not and leaning into different things was a part of the beginning, right? Amazing. I, ⁓ sorry, go ahead. No, just, and like you said, though, like self-discovery, personal development, that wasn't a thing we talked about 30 years ago. Nobody did. Nobody even knew what it was.

And so I just leaned in, I'm like, I'm gonna trust myself and trust the process. And I went to this graduation, I'm like, my God, where has this been my whole life? I just fell in love with the transformation coaching, speaking, training industry, which I didn't even know it existed. And so that's where everything shifted for me, but I had to be willing to lean in to the messy middle. When you're in between some of my favorite just stories in life and business,

When you have a point A, meaning you want to create change and you have a point B and you can see the destination, you have to be willing to have unwavering faith and walk into that messy middle and keep going. So that's a really great beginning of my messy middle. And it was me and Caitlin and I had, I mean, I have to, I have to figure this out. And I think this is so key though, because, you know, we often hear about these transformational moments. Yes, you had a transformational moment. It didn't mean that instantly everything just fell into place.

Girl, definitely not. Like lots of moments of, you know, the 2 a.m. I've been joking, Shauna Lynn, for like 30 years. I should create a 3 a.m. club. For all of us women that are up at 3 a.m. going, what in the actual F am I doing? Have I lost my mind? There was a lot of those moments. Yeah, it's so true. I mean, these are the things that are keeping us up at night. And especially when you have...

very real responsibilities. Here you've got this other human being who's relying on you. That is a lot of pressure. And maybe you don't have a human being relying on you. Maybe you're like me. I've got three cats. quantity of cats varies depending on what day of the week you get me. So there's often a lot of cats that are relying on me. But aside from that, I've got a responsibility as a daughter to helping my parents and helping my brother and my nieces and my friends. And as women, we feel all of this.

We want to be successful and we want to be responsible not just for ourselves, but for everyone around us. And I think we're often even taught that we are irresponsible. Women are not good with money. Women can't really build a business. Women aren't powerful. I mean, 30 years ago, I can only imagine the different voices aside from your own that are telling you you're not good enough, you're not enough, you're not going to be anything. And here you are, you're fighting against that. And so that messy middle, think we gloss over a lot of times, but

Yes, don't talk about it enough. That's why I talk about it everywhere. Like fear and the messy middle. It's the reality of what it's like to take your life, whether it's business or personal to the next level. And what I used to do when before I had this personal development training, I would feel that fear and be like, my God, stop, drop and roll. Something's wrong. I'm going the wrong direction. But the problem with that.

is you don't go back to your original point A, you go back a thousand feet before that because you're in fear, you're shrinking. But this is why I like to talk about it because it's all part of you upleveling your life. It's transformation in real form. And I think we all need that validation some days. I mean, I've had the, you know what kicked out of me at times and...

My mom, especially, she's always saying to me, she's like, my mom calls herself a pessimist. She's a self-proclaimed pessimist. I used to fight her on this, but I got to admit her mind goes from zero to absolute world disaster in about 60 seconds. If that like it's it takes nothing for her to go immediately to the negative. And I can understand, know, there's a lot of people who when when negative things or bad things keep happening to you, it's you get to the point where you almost assume they're going to. And she often says to me, she's like, I don't know how you

keep going the way that you do no matter what comes at your at your way. Like you're always you're pivoting, you're shifting, you're looking on the bright side, you're finding the best in things. But yeah, but it doesn't mean that I don't have some of those two and three AM thoughts. It doesn't mean that I don't have those negative moments. I've just learned how to not let myself stay there and get stuck. I think this is one of the biggest things that we run into is the getting stuck. And this happens no matter. And I want to be clear. It doesn't matter if you have two hundred dollars or a dollar and eleven cents.

or six figures in the bank. These thoughts are not different. They're not necessarily dictated by your bank account. That's very true. it's actually this is such a great conversation, Shauna Lynn, because this is literally why I became a coach. The first weekend in the first ⁓ that was called The Basic, I learned, oh my God, the mindset I need to become a master of what's driving. It's like have driving me having an internal GPS.

And from the ages zero to four, 50 % of who we are today, however, it's really who we think we are, was being formed based on brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, life, teachers, all the things. And then from the age of five to nine, another 30%. And by the time we're 18, 95 % of what's actually driving the bus.

what's leading us on an unconscious level. So it's like Freud's iceberg theory. It's underneath the surface. We only really see the 5%. It's why I love being in this industry because when we can actually really dissect what is in the driver's seat and it's based on other people's version of us or like your mom and her thought process is probably generational coming from a passed down. we at

In this stage of the world, we get to be the interrupters in our own life where we get to decide, okay, what is that thought that's running me? And so being aware on that level, whether it's fear of failure, fear of success, I don't want to be out of control. Like there's different drivers in different buckets that are driving us. And that's where the magic happens is, wait a second, I am not even in my own driver's seat. So what shows up as the results, the attitude, all the things, but we have to dissect what's going on underneath that's causing it.

And then what's really cool about that is we don't have to own it. That's somebody else's version of who we are. Like I love what you said, you are powerful and give ourselves one of my favorite tools that I work with my clients is that five minute funeral. So when you're stuck, when you're freaking out, when you're having those moments, five minutes, you give yourself a five minute funeral because to say that you're never gonna feel like that again is flipping unrealistic. But what you do with that and how long you stay in that, because it's so expensive to stay stuck, five minutes.

set a clock, run around, scream, hit a pillow, jump, do whatever you gotta do, and then boom, next. Move on to what's next. I can't tell you how much I love that. Now I have it as a 15 minute rule, but I'll tell you where it comes from. ⁓ My dad lived with MS for over 30 years and just passed away about a year ago. And I can remember, thank you. But I actually spoke about this shortly after he passed. Actually just before he passed, I believe was the first time that I shared this.

So it wasn't just his legacy that I was sharing. It was just a part of something that he ingrained in me so many years ago. ⁓ It was a really tough disease for him. He went from walking with a cane to a wheelchair in 11 months. Massive, massive transformation very quickly. And every day I would watch him just get out of bed with the same spunk and energy and face the world and just happy to be a part of life despite all the challenges that he was facing physically. And I would see him get frustrated every now and then, but not like a real

frustration, like how I felt that he should be feeling. So I asked him one day, said, dad, do you like, how do you, how do you do this? How do you face the day with so much energy, so much positivity, so much optimism, so much grace? Like, how are you doing that every day? He oh, that's easy. I give myself 15 minutes a day to feel sorry for myself. That's it. There you go. I don't bank it. If I don't use it up one day, I don't get to add on 15 minutes the next day. But every day, if I want to, I can spend 15 minutes sulking. But then I got to get on with my life.

because you're going to miss too much if you spend your time there. And this is how he made such a beautiful life up until his very last moments. And so I love what you're saying, the five minute funeral. Love that term because it's so true. You can feel sorry for yourself. And in fact, you should because it is an important part of the process. In order to be able to process it, we're not talking about compartmentalizing or ignoring things. We're talking about facing it, but then move forward because what's going to happen if you just keep sulking?

I was actually expensive, right? Depending on what you can work every hour, you depending on how many hours you work, million dollars is valued at around eight hundred and thirty three dollars and thirty three cents. So if I'm wasting an hour as a business owner, that's expensive. That's expensive. That's really expensive. And I was actually just on a call earlier today and we were talking about how what you wear each day can really impact you. And it's so true. Like if you if you are feeling a little bit down,

Dress it up, sister. Let's go. Because you will feel better. And I'm not saying that that's the instant fix to everything. I'm saying that find what's going to help you to move forward. Because sometimes you do have to almost fake that momentum in order to get real momentum. So OK, so the 111 network, you started with literally $1.11. It did. So that first year, you're chasing, you got no leads, you got no website, you got no business cards, and you're

looking to make six figures here. So like, what did you do differently? wrong with me? was I thinking? Are you crazy? Well, so it starts before that, right? So 31 years ago, took my first class, then I took all the classes and then I volunteered because there was no coach training back then. There was no certification. Google hadn't even started yet, right? So we're talking a long time ago. So I volunteered for 10 years to learn how to coach as a job.

I was a corporate sales trainer. So really what I was doing is creating the frameworks that I use now. So when I started 111, I had 10 years of background. But what I recognized is if I want to be a six figure business owner, I need to embody her. And this is not something that was talked about really. So July 23rd, 2004, we started 111 after being in corporate training. said, that's it. Okay. So it wasn't just about whole.

Hustling because there is a part of prioritizing your time and understanding your pipeline and your profitability and all of that But it was really how do I need to show up? Who do I need to be? Because here's where a lot of and I and I think it's more women than men We get caught up with imposter syndrome, which I really don't even like that phrase because it's like a new thing that's out there It's the same thing. It's you being the next level version of you

So I knew from my 10 years of background, I need to show up as a six figure business owner. So before I had my client, before I had any of that, I need to be her. So what are the qualities and characteristics of a six figure business owner and I need to embody them. And that's- Okay, so what does that look like for you specifically? What were some of the things like, is it about how you're dressing each day? Is it about the language you're using? Is it about-

spending money on lattes and house cleaners and like, what does it look like for you? ⁓ No, for me, it looked like, okay, I made a list of like who, and this is something that anybody can do regardless of your goal. Who is the person that represents success to you? So if it was Oprah, what are her qualities and characteristics? So it's more about the beingness of who I am. Because let's be clear, I did not have my USP, my Unique Selling Proposition down at the beginning, but I was showing

It's an energy. It's a confidence. It's stepping into that next level before I am the next level. Sometimes we are waiting for it to show up. It ain't showing up. You need to show up. So the confident version of me, right? It wasn't about the things. It was about the me. I love what you're saying there. And I think that, like you said, anyone can do this exercise, but instead of waiting for someone to teach you how to be you,

you have it in you already. Like, let's just go. Let's go and do it. Yeah. And showing up. But it's also important, you know, we talk about if you want to attract those higher end clients, you have to embody someone that they would actually work with. And that doesn't mean, like you said, the fancy cars, the fancy clothes or any of that stuff necessarily. It's about all about that confidence that you're showing up with. And maybe it means taking some courses and gaining another level of knowledge like you did, you know, getting the training that you need. Like there's other elements to it. But what is it?

What are you going to need in order to feel like you're that person? I don't want everyone getting stuck in over analysis paralysis either, of course, but. Right. But what is it? Three things. What are the I like the power of three in so many ways. But what are the top three qualities and characteristics that you admire in somebody else and be that show up like that? Now, here's the thing is inside of my head, one of my biggest limiting beliefs is fear of failure. The fear of failure was trying to be so loud. So I decided I'm going to

Bless and release the beast. Like, sorry, you don't get to exist. You don't get to rent space in my brain, rent free. I'm minimizing her. And really like moment to moment, hour by hour, day by day, that's a practice that I still work with. But no, I'm gonna be confident. I'm gonna show up. I have 10 years of experience. I'm gonna be that six figure business owner. within 45 days, we had our first client for 5K a month. The first year.

Again, starting from Madonna, no business cards, no website. So I know what it's like. If I can do it, you can do it. Our first year was $98,853 and 23 cents because I was showing up and embodying her, but there's obviously a lot of things that come after that. I didn't get on the couch and sing Kumbaya. You have to get into action. Yeah. Well, I like how you're also talking about, you know, getting rid of that, ⁓ your fear of failure.

It's not as though it was just a you said bye bye and she didn't show up anymore. She still she still tried to get into my way, but I'm the boss of her. So what's the advice for someone who's got some of those limiting beliefs, some of those ⁓ you talk about like thought trails and recalibration for someone who's stuck in that loop of overworking, under earning? What's the first thought trail that they need to interrupt?

Well, one of the things that I think people get stuck on is what is my biggest limiting belief? And then we analyze ourselves to death. Like seriously, let's start with that. right. It's ⁓ like the problem starts. Yeah. With the actual analysis part of it. Yeah. Yeah. So here's the thing. You don't have to worry about your thought trails showing up because as, as people, women have around 68,000 thought trails a day. When I heard that first time, I'm like, holy crap balls. How am I going to manage that? You don't need to worry about it.

So if you have a really big goal, your thought trail is gonna reveal itself. So take on the biggest one. fear of failure is any conversation in your head around looking to the past of what you're capable of. It's one of the biggest ones for most people. we're looking at the past to determine our future. It's not relevant.

the fear of success is looking to the future of what if, can I hold this? Can I keep this? It's fear and it feels the same way in our body, but being able to recognize that thought trail is fear of success, fear of failure, whatever it is, how is it showing up for me? Because a lot of times people get stuck in analysis paralysis. They get stuck in procrastination because what's really happening

is their limiting beliefs are actually driving them. So they actually have. sorry. Go ahead. No, I'd say I actually did an episode on how procrastination can actually reveal so much about you if you just listen to it, because it's yeah, it's your fear stopping you. It's a lack of knowledge. It's maybe just not in your wheelhouse. And you shouldn't be doing it anyway, because no matter how much training you get, you're still not going to enjoy doing it. Like there's so much that procrastination can reveal. But I like what you're saying about how that can actually reveal some of your thought trails to not just procrastination, but like what are

What are those things like, how are they sneaking into your head? And then how can we translate those into that, what that limiting belief actually is? Yeah. Well, I think that one of the things I love about awareness training is, which is what I consider my background is, is once you have that awareness, you always have that. So if I have a big goal and then I listen for the biggest limiting belief that's coming up. So the four Rs, recognize, recalibrate, reverse and replace. I feel like you and I could talk about this for a month.

So recognize what is it, recalibrate it, reverse it and replace it. So I am a six-figure business owner. that instead of, my gosh, what if I don't have like everything to say? What if I don't make any money? What if I'm like all of that conversation is not necessary. I am a successful business six-figure business owner. So you replace it with something that is positive and then focus on your next hundred feet. Sometimes we're trying to focus on our next 10,000 feet.

What is the one thing that you can do that's going to move the needle in your life or business and focus on the one thing? I like that. Yeah, I work with, um, you know, mindset coach. He's one of my success partners, um, in my program. And one of the things that he talks about is, you know, thinking about, for example, and we use money often as.

the measurement tool, not that that's the only measurement tool we should be using, but let's use using money as an example. He's like, yeah, well, what's your now money? And then what's your future money? Like, yes, you have to be working on future money, but you need now money, too. So what's your now money? And then how are we going to get the future money? So the future money are the seeds that we're planting. The now money is the I need money like this week. So how am going to make now money as opposed to that overthinking? I mean, I know so many people who are like, yeah, I'm going to launch this program or I'm going to.

you know, announce this big idea, but it's, taking months and months and months to even release it out, the reason that Jeannie from the bottle. And the reality is the sooner we can get it out there, the sooner you can actually start making money on it. I'm not saying to have a half cooked idea and throw it out there and hope something sticks. I'm saying that there is, there is a point where done really is better than perfect because you can continue. Yes. Always. We'll see spheres underneath that. And so we would figure out, okay, what is, what are you really scared of?

Are you scared of failing? Are you scared of being visible? Are scared nobody's going to like it? So once you recalibrate that, because that's really what's stopping somebody from actually releasing it to the world. That's why it's so powerful. Well, I think going back to what you were saying earlier about how so much of our identity and our idea of ourselves and who we are and how we're showing up is formed at such a young age. And I think one of the things that keeps us stuck sometimes is how those people who have known us for all this time, how they see us.

And I don't know about you, the people that I grew up with don't really see me the same way that I am today. Like they see 16 year old me sometimes. they see this old version and it takes a lot to recalibrate them and their thinking, but I'm not gonna let that hold me back in the meantime. They can catch up whenever they're ready. And you know what? I love that. And you know what? That's where they're at and not having the expectation, just be her or be it and they will catch up. Yeah, exactly.

Now, talking about you were talking about how you love threes earlier and so do I. And I love this when you and I first spoke, we both have our set of three P's and our three P's are very similar. They're slightly different, but you got, you call them your three profit leavers. Yeah. Let's talk about that. So what are they? Let's kind of break down what each of them means. Like how do they work together? I know we've only got so much time here and actually, you know what? Hang on to that thought. We're going to cover that exact thought when we come back after this quick message.

All right, welcome back to the Real Women Real Business Podcast where we're chatting with Kandi Lee and we're going to be talking about her three P's. Now you probably heard my three P's on this podcast before. We're going to talk about her three profit leavers. All right, Kandi, tell us all about this. Well, I love that you have three P's and that we like totally matched on that if you think about the synergy that that creates. the first P is priority. What are you prioritizing? Are you prioritizing your top 20 % of the things?

that are gonna get the biggest result? Or are you prioritizing the 80 % which is not gonna move the needle? And a lot of times this comes from our feelings. Our feelings can get us into a lot of trouble. And I'm not talking about the feeling of, I'm in an unsafe environment kind of thing. I'm talking about sometimes we lean into the 80 % stuff that feels good.

Feels comfortable, it feels familiar, feels, yeah, or it also feels like people pleasing too. We feel like we should be doing these things. And yeah, and I know when I talk to clients, one of the things that we identify though is, and you probably run into this as well, they don't know which are the 20 % and which are the 80%. Like if it was just mapped out, that's a whole different story than trying to figure out what those things are. Well, let me give your audience a real quick tip on how to do that.

I like simple frameworks. Same. Write a list of the top 10 things that you need to do in, let's just say in a business context. So business development, marketing, social media, admin, invoicing, all the things. And then you look at that list and pick the top two that are going to be the most important priorities that you need to do on a regular basis. That's your top 20%. Make it sound so easy. Well, girl.

Here's the one thing about being a coach for 31 years. When you become a master, you can make it really simple. Wasn't it simple? I like 31 years ago. Yeah, yeah. But now everything you've learned. Yeah. And potentially, depending on your business, it might change from week to week, really making sure it's so funny. I was having this conversation on my coach calls today, making sure that that top 20 % is actually prioritizes itself into your calendar. Right. Yes. The second one is pipeline.

What's happening with your pipeline? I love the now money and future money. You've got to continually be focused on some level of marketing, whether you go to in-person events or virtual events, or you do webinars or lives, whatever is gonna move the needle. This is what happens when people start having a business and they start scaling it. The first thing they wanna let go of is pipeline building. I don't have time for that. That is a kick in the butt. That is the recipe for...

In 90 days, it's gonna be cricket. So whether it's you or somebody else on your team has to be focused on building your pipeline. Cause there is a magic sales formula. And I thought I would share it. It's 16, four and one. And the numbers don't lie. If you want one new client, you need to have four potential A clients that you think are a hell yes. And out of that, you really need 16. Cause if you have 16 hell yeses, four of them are gonna be, but you're guaranteed one.

So when you look at your pipeline, and when I asked this question, most people are like, uh-oh. How people are you nurturing, connecting with? Right? Because if you don't, for example, I have 16 ⁓ available connect calls. At this point, I have the bandwidth to do that because I know every single week I have the space for that. So accidental CEOs, we're talking to you. You know who you are. So you follow more passion than plan.

And these are often my interior designers, my home stagers, and they look at marketing as a faucet that gets turned on and off. And they either flood everything like, my gosh. It doesn't have to be like that. Yes, exactly. That's what I'm saying. But this is where we run into challenges because all you want to do as the Accidental CEO is you want to do whatever got you into business in the first place is whatever brings you joy and passion. And you want to do that thing. And you don't really care to do all the things that bring people

to allow you to do that thing. And so if it does mean that you gotta outsource some things and maybe that's the solution to it, I'm not saying that that is in all cases, it's just you need to ensure that it's always turned on. You can't just turn it off when things get busy because you can't expect them to have clients three months later when things slow down again. So I love, love, love that you're talking about this and that we're filling our pipeline. I love the 16-4-1, I have a math background, so anything with numbers and like you said, numbers don't lie.

So don't be scared of them. Yeah. But this is the thing that I think a lot of us get into is that everything feels vague and abstract, but it's not. It is tangible. It is real. And so I deal with it with my clients all the time when they say, things are kind of drying up. Like, OK, well, who are we going to call this week? What do mean, who am I going to call? I've got some social media post plan. I've got a newsletter going on. I'm like, yeah, yeah, no. Who are you going to call? And call might not be literally picking up the phone. Because I understand not everyone actually enjoys that.

But I'm talking about our DM or email or text message. It's a direct message that didn't come from your email marketing program. It didn't just blast it out to your entire list. It is a personal connected interaction of some sort. That's what I mean by calling people direct outreach. It is powerful. I will tell you every time I tell one of my clients to to do some sort of direct outreach when I say what you know, what are we going to do? Who are we to reach out to this week? You can find maybe one or two people per day to reach out to.

Okay, let's say we need two people a day, five days of the week. That's 10 people you reached out to this week. There is a very good chance there is a warm lead in there who's gonna turn into an actual client. It actually does not take that much effort. But instead, we're constantly trying to bring new people in. Yes, we always wanna be bringing new people into our pipeline. But when you need that now money, reach out to your direct list. Absolutely, and don't ignore them. That's part of the priority. Like what are you prioritizing? Then that's what I mean by the feel good stuff. It feels good to do, especially for

Creatives and passionate people to do the things that we love to do of course. I've got to do the reps in the gym You don't get a six-pack without showing up and doing doing the non sexy boring stuff is Really what a lot of times business is like but give it a different meaning You know that this is gonna help you do other things and I think we missed that somewhere along the way I don't like to do this. Well, yeah, because it's the non sexy boring stuff. It's the reps. It's in the gym

to make sure that you always have a predictable, repeatable, and consistent cash flow. There's a recipe and a formula to that. And the best part is it actually doesn't take that much time. If you are doing it, like you said, consistently, like the numbers don't lie. You don't have to spend a ton of time doing this. You will spend more time creating that one social media reel than you will doing direct outreach to someone. As an example, I'm not saying direct outreach is the answer for everyone. I'm saying like, as an example, sometimes if you've got the numbers in front of you,

that step that you need to take, whatever that non-sexy thing is that you need to do, it's probably gonna take you less time than the sexier thing that you really want to do. Almost always, yes. And when I started 111 21 years ago with the Donald 11 cents, no website, I joined a chamber of commerce and they had, I think 1600 people, guess what? That was my leads list. And since I didn't have any clients and there was no social media back then, I made a hundred phone calls a day.

And I had like 20 to 30 appointments per week. Cause I knew that it wouldn't take that long to get our first client. But you have to be willing to do the work to get there. And I want to share something really quick. Harvard did a study of business graduates. And there was, think 1500 people. And they took a look at ⁓ them 20 years later. And they asked them a question. Why did you start your business? For passion or for profit?

And 20 years later, there was 101 millionaires in the initial 1500 class. Guess how many started their business for passion and how many started it for profit out of the 101 millionaires? I don't know where you're to go with this one. I'm really 100 of the millionaires started their business for passion. Only one said they started it for profit. So for all of you passionate.

Entrepreneurs out there just know that that's a really, really great thing. You just want to use all the frameworks and the formulas to set your business up for success. So I love that story. I love that. That is a great story. I'm so stealing that. ⁓ That is amazing because I love that because, I mean, I think that I've always believed that you need to love what you're doing, but that doesn't exclude the need and the necessity for doing some of that boring stuff like you mentioned.

And that's where I think a lot of people get really stuck, like, but I don't want to do that other stuff. I know, I know. But if you want to keep doing the stuff that you love, you got to do some of this other stuff. you get to a point where you are certain parts of it. Yes, you can absolutely outsource that when you get to that stage. But there are going to be things that you have to do in order to be able to really grow your business. And so on that note, you've got the third P, which of course is profit. It is. And it depends on what season you're in.

Like I couldn't make a hundred phone calls a day right now, just based on the season that I'm in. So profitability, sometimes we're stepping over a dollar to make a quarter. And so it's being conscious of that. So how can you automate? How can you onboard differently? How can you set up systems that will replace you? It's one thing to create cashflow, right? And then you get to a point where, I'm a successful, making cashflow. Where am I leaving money on the table? But a whole different question is,

Where am I leaving profit on the table? Where are my profit leaks? But it starts with priority and then your pipeline. And then it's a different way to look at, okay, I've painted myself into the corner. If there's only one me, how can I automate it? Can I have a membership? Can I have trainings? Can I have an assistant? Can I have a VA? But being conscious of your profitability. Yes, is you can't scale. I always say you can't scale chaos. girl. Girl.

I'm so true. So many people try to, I'm like, no, no, no, no. We need to the first, make sure that everything is calibrated. And also being willing to be that next level version of yourself where it feels kind of, well, not kind of, it feels really scary. And we have a saying at 111 it's called barfalicious. So it's that barfalicious feeling of, my God, I'm so excited. I want to barf.

Right? So you're in between. So feel free to steal that. You might be the first person to say barf on this podcast. So, yeah, I'm one of one. I'm original. So you know that barf-alicious feeling like, you know, you're meant for more. You know, you can get to the next level. And sometimes you have to be willing to be a little bit messy in between and use the three P's. How are you prioritizing your time? What are you focusing on? Are you building your pipeline? And how could you be more profitable to get to that next level?

Okay, so someone's listening to this and thinking, okay, well, I'm really driven by passion and everything you're talking about doesn't sound like it's gonna fuel my passion. I think a lot of women are afraid to step into that CEO role because they're afraid they're going to lose out on the stuff that got them started. So how do they balance keeping either, is it a hand, a foot, a toe or something that's entrenched in the passion while still making sure that they've got their priorities, pipeline and their profit all in check?

Well, I think it really starts with like, why am I gonna do it? I'm gonna do those things because I get to live my passion more. And sometimes we have to kind of go in the back door. And what I mean by that is when I think about if so many moments throughout the last 31 years, specifically the last 21 with my own business, there's been so many moments where I'm just gonna burn it all down.

Yeah, that sense. Especially entrepreneur has those moments, by the way, for anyone who's listening. Yes. Yeah. You're not you're not abnormal. You're not alone. This is a normal thing. Sometimes it's a daily, depending on what you're in. But remembering, why are you doing it? And so in those moments, I remembered, OK, someday I'm going to meet Shauna Lynn Simon and we're going to have an amazing podcast that's going to help people that I will never meet. And so remembering, OK, yes, your passion is part of it.

but you have to fuel your passion with the activity, the daily, weekly, monthly, yearly things that may not seem like it has any value, but it does because it gives you the opportunity to be in bigger spaces and meet other people. So we're not even really doing it for ourselves. We're doing it for our potential clients, collaborations, friends. So giving it a different reason why we're doing it, because it's not so.

Scarcity is one of the biggest limiting beliefs on the planet. And scarcity is a conversation in our head around either or. So this is not a matter of I can have a business built on passion or prioritize, have a pipeline and profit. Abundance is the game of and. So I know why I'm doing it. How can I make it easier, better, more profitable that will give me more exposure and more opportunities. So it's not either or. So that's also part of it too. It's and, it's both.

Yeah, and I like what you're saying about, you know, thinking about who is it that you're helping? How are you helping them? So maybe it looks a little bit different the how you do it as you move into a different role. But the reality is, so if it's a matter of, you know, let's say a coach like yourself and you want to help all these women. But if I'm not coaching and I'm just a CEO, how am I helping all these women? Well, from all the incredible coaches that you've trained that are now coaching all these women, like it doesn't have to be you. And I'm obviously like simple oversimplifying it. But the point is that.

you're still delivering the results. It just might not be as a direct line as it once was. But it doesn't mean that you don't get to still enjoy and participate in all of the joy that comes from being able to have provided that service and be able to help in that way. Well, it's like a stew. You can't just have meat. You gotta have the spice. You gotta have the broth. You gotta have the onions. So it takes all of these things to have a beautiful stew.

which is kind of a simple analogy, but just really ⁓ understanding the value of, we do have to put the time in and the activity in so we can live our passion more. It expands and it amplifies our passion. And so you've talked about, you know, automating some things to help to free up our profits a little bit. you've actually got, tell us a little bit about Candyland because this is like, this takes automation.

or helps people to free up a lot more of their time, right? And that whole, your freedom-based profit, that philosophy that you've got. So tell us a little bit about this. Well, it's so funny because Caitlin is my daughter and also my co-founder, and this is her brainchild. So I'd like to take credit for it, but I really have to give the credit to her. And we're like, how can we create a product that at three o'clock in the morning, a perfectly good Tuesday or over the weekend, you want coaching, you want support?

And so we did a lot of investigation and created Candyland, which is basically our AI coaching clone. But the distinction is it's not built on ChatGPT, it's built on our own framework. So at this point, I've worked with over hundred thousand people and generated 250 million. All of those strategies, coaching, tips, thoughts are built inside of Candyland. So you can 24 seven on demand.

It's built on 7.5 million coaching, words, calls, lives, trainings, like all the things. So literally you're like plugging into the mothership and getting access to my genius. And the reason why I love it so much is sometimes people are like, I'm not sure I'm ready to go into a full on coaching program. It's an opportunity for someone to dive in and we have a test drive for the first 30 days.

for $11 and 11 cents. Hello branding, right? But they also get a live coaching call every month. Cause we're like, I've been told, I think we shared this on one of our calls that we're real coaches. Yes. Yes. We're real coaches. And what does that mean? We do real coaching. So people can have an opportunity to amplify their business, ask me anything. And we had to test it. Cause I was like, am I sure this is going to work? So I asked, I'm not sure how to, what to call her. She, her, I asked me,

all of the most difficult coaching questions ever. And I was like, girl, right? You don't even need coffee. You don't even need exercise. Like you're on point. All this shows up. Yeah. she's like, it's amazing. So we're so proud of it. And people can access that for the first 30 days for $11 and 11 cents. It's a more AI coaching tool. I love it. And yeah, she looked like me just in the matrix version.

And we're going to drop the link into the show notes. Be sure to check it out. It's at the 111 network, which is 1-11network.online/Kandilandtrial But we're going to drop that into the show notes so that everyone can check it out for sure, because I think this is incredible. It's so powerful. But what I love is going back to what you're saying about being a real coach and doing real interaction is that you've got not only have you downloaded all of that wisdom into this model, but then you're also still getting live onto a call. That is huge.

So like for $11 and 11 cents, you get 30 days of this 24 seven amazing coach. And then you also get the real IRL, so to speak, 3D version of her once a month as well, which is pretty incredible. So now if you could go back and give your 1994 self, the one who had $200 and two suitcases, you could give her one piece of advice. What would it be?

Hmm. That's a really good question. There was so much going on. I guess the first thing honestly that came to my mind is you got this. You got this. Yeah. I think, you know, it is actually such a simple phrase that kind of became a bit of a cliche phrase, like a catchphrase in a lot of commercial shows, whatever. But honestly, I say it out loud to myself more times than I can count those three words or guess technically almost like four words.

are very powerful though. Like you got this. this. Yeah. You got this. And the more you say it, the more you believe it too. And I think that's the other thing getting past those limiting beliefs is you have to verbalize things. have to start allowing yourself to believe the things that you don't currently believe. You got to open yourself up to that. So. priority is your mindset and what you focus on because what you focus on grows,

And I was just going to say, what's one thing that you hope every listener will take from this today, this week, if they're going to do something to kind of start shifting their mind, what would it be? And I think that's exactly it. That's perfect. on that you can. Focus on why not versus why. Why could I not have it? Yeah. Flip the script. Love that. If I can do it, anybody can. Like, here's the deal. A Donald of a sense and, you know, basically like nothing to start with. So if I can create six figures year one, you can too. Whatever your goal is.

You got this. Yeah. And I think that's, I love that part of it too, where it's year one, like not in three years, in four years, this year, right now. Well, maybe not technically 2025, because given that we're kind of close to the end of the year here, but the point is with that one year, 12 months from now, you can absolutely do that. No problem. Absolutely. And if you've already hit six figures, let's work on seven now. Like what's the next goal? Let's raise the bar. Amazing.

Kandi, I cannot thank you enough for joining me today. This has been such an incredible conversation. We could go on for hours. This has been our conversations to date are exactly that. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. And I'm super excited to ⁓ have the opportunity to be introduced to you and your community. And I'm here, whatever I can do to support you or your community. We're down for all of that.

Well, I think stay tuned everyone because I'm sure there's gonna be more of Kandi Lee in your future because there's so much power here and we're loving every second of it. So thank you again, Kandi for joining us. And if you've been listening to this podcast and what we're saying today is really resonating with you, I hope that you will continue to allow us to be a part of your journey. Tune in every week, new episodes drop every Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. Eastern time. And of course, be sure to subscribe to us.

on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. It really does help the algorithm and means a whole lot to us. And as always, the best way to support not only this show, but your fellow women entrepreneurs is to share this podcast with someone you know really needs to hear this today. Who do you know who is stuck in limiting beliefs, who is stuck in a cycle of under undercharging, overworking, being underpaid? Who needs to hear Kandi's message today? Share this episode with them. means so much to us and to them.

And so thank you so much everyone for joining us today and until next time, keep thriving.