[00:01:00] Hala Taha: Young and profiters, welcome back to the show. And today we're really lasering in on pivoting. Pivoting is something that us entrepreneurs are gonna have to deal with at one point or another, because entrepreneurship is never a straight line to success. It's a rocky road. We might fall out of love with our business.

We might find another opportunity that seems more lucrative. We might have a business that fails. So many startups fail, it's so hard to even just launch. The right idea, whatever it is, pivoting is something we've got to get used to and got to get used to doing with grace. And there's no better person to talk to us about this than Lori Harder.

Lori Harder is a serial entrepreneur. She's a best selling author, speaker. She's also the host of the super popular podcast called Earn Your Happy, which is now in my Yap Media podcast network, which I'm very excited about. And Lori has such an incredible story. She's been pivoting and transforming her entire life.

She started out as a very obese, overweight child who got teased and she transformed into a fitness model, fitness influencer, and fitness three time champion. Talk about a transformation. She then pivoted from the fitness world to the self improvement and entrepreneurship world. She then pivoted into podcasting and now she's pivoted into live events and DTC products, even pivoting her first product from an alcohol brand to a skincare brand.

She has so much information to share when it comes to pivoting with grace and I can't wait to get into it with you guys. Without further delay, here's my conversation with Lori Harder.

Lori, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. 

[00:02:45] Lori Harder: I'm so excited to be here. I can't wait to chat with you. 

[00:02:49] Hala Taha: Likewise, I love chatting with my girlfriends and Lori, I thought I knew a lot about you, but it turns out I didn't know much about you once I started studying all your work and your life. And I found out that when you were a child, you were actually pretty overweight.

And that was so surprising to me because I've always known you as somebody who's super fit. You've been a fitness model in the past, and I just had no idea that you had this transformation. So I'd love to understand, what was it like for you as a kid? How did that actually shape who you are as an entrepreneur today?

[00:03:25] Lori Harder: Oh my gosh, coming from a family that It really stemmed from all of our joy came from connecting over food. It was just as far as I can remember back all of our extracurricular time when we were sad, when we were happy, when we were bored, we connected over food. And I remember having a really, loving childhood as far as family and parents go.

But also there was a lot of pain that's connected to when you use food as a crutch. Because when I think about my mom, my sister, and all of my mom's sisters, who she had four sisters, there was a lot of anxiety. There was a lot of depression. There was a lot of health issues. There was a lot of self loathing.

So it was kind of a mix of everything. And for me, having those moments as a young kid, I remember when I was eight or nine years old, it was the first time I realized, Oh, this is going to be a little bit painful being in this body. I got invited to a pool party with a bunch of friends in my church. And I remember having such a massive crush on this one kid.

I was that kid who was so outgoing before this, even before this moment, which we'll chat about in a second, but it was always, oh my gosh, look at my dance moves, look at this dance I made up, record me, somebody put a camera on me. This is who I, my personality was at the core. And so I remember going to this pool party and I got this new swimsuit because the love of my life was going to be there and I could not wait to go up on this diving board and show it off and do this pool flip.

And I remember walking up, one of my best friends at the time, she was super skinny. She was climbing up the ladder in front of me and looking at her legs going, Oh my God, being that young going, Oh, I wish I could be that thin. And all the boys liked her and I get up on the diving board and I can hear the kids, my friends chanting something and they're saying whale over and over and over again.

And I just remember standing on the edge of the diving board. And having that moment of, I want to hide. And so I went from this really outgoing, look at me, can't wait to perform, I want to sing, I want to dance, I want to be your friend, to starting to hide because of my body. And I remember being under the water though, and thinking, literally, I'm not going to let this happen to me.

And so even though I was really young, I started thinking, is there a way that I could have this not be my destiny? So fast forward to being about 11 or 12 years old, I was sitting at the table with all of my aunts. And again, a really loving family, but a lot of struggle around weight, thinking that this was our genetics.

And we were all sitting around eating at a family get together, and they had known that I started working out, just doing some exercising at home, doing exercise videos. And they're like, just wait, you'll be fat just like us, no matter what you do. And in that moment, I remember rejecting it again, like, no, this can't be.

This can't be genetics because what they're saying to me is this is just how you are and it's who you are. And it just led me on this lifelong journey of searching for other people to learn how they were being healthy and fit. And as a teenager, I would beg my mom to buy me fitness magazines when we'd go to the grocery store.

And those were the first times that I was able to understand that I'm reading what they eat and how they live. Because they would post their schedules and things in these different magazines. And I was like, we're not doing that. So that was the moment for me of, wow, certain ways of living, get certain results.

And our way of living is getting one result, but it was this moment of the work is hard. It's challenging to be healthy and get the things that you want. And so that was the catalyst for all of that in the fitness world. 

[00:07:35] Hala Taha: It's so amazing. And I love what you're saying in terms of the fact that when you were younger, before you got this external feedback from your peers, you were who you are today, an outgoing girl who loves to be on stage, who loves the shine, who loves the attention.

You get the external feedback and suddenly you're like a shell of yourself. So talk to us about the things that you did when you were a child that isolated you and then how, once you were a teen and got out of the house, that you were able to pull yourself out of that. 

[00:08:07] Lori Harder: Oh, I think there were a couple other reasons for isolating as well.

So I had that, and then I grew up in a more restrictive religion, so we weren't allowed to associate. with anyone outside of our religion. So take a small town. I'm from Upper Michigan. I'm from Marquette, Michigan. It's a fairly small town in Upper Michigan. You're surrounded by the woods. Anything close to that really resembles a city is about three hours away.

So taking a small town and making it smaller by only being allowed to associate with people in your congregation, in your religion, We had approximately around 110 people in our church growing up. So I wasn't allowed to do any extracurriculars and I wasn't allowed to do anything with anyone in school or quote unquote worldly people.

So for me, I think the hiding also started because I was going to school in elementary school and middle school, but because there wasn't a whole lot of different kids in Upper Michigan, like there wasn't a lot of diversity up there. I remember one African American student in my entire school career.

And so it's like, you're also abnormal if you're not celebrating holidays and you can't do the art projects and art and you can't date and you can't go and spend the night at people's house and you can't go to their house after school. And so I got made fun of a lot in school and I started to get panic attacks.

So then I labeled myself because my mom was also experiencing these things, and I labeled myself as someone who has panic attacks, and I labeled myself as an anxious person. And I just started isolating more and more and more, and it became a much bigger challenge for me as I was older to try to work through those things because you gain an awareness that once you're out in the real world, you're not going to function well if you can't connect with other people.

And so my entire life's work has been. How does a girl who came from a restrictive religion, who isn't allowed to associate with anyone else, who did not have any other network because I ended up leaving that religion at 18, into a world of no friends, really. I had a couple from my religion who also left, but that didn't go well for that more us either.

When you're held like a spring and you let go, it's like we had a disastrous life for a few years there. It was the drinking and partying and it just was not a great experience. So how do you build a network? How do you overcome anxiety? How do you even start to dream when you've never seen the possibility in your social circle of what is possible for you?

Because it's never been in your social circle. And how do you create an entirely new identity outside of this woman that I used to be, or girl that I used to be, who was very much like, okay, we need to make sure we just preach about the Bible? And if you struggle, that must be righteous and really challenged money story challenged with my weight and all of those different things.

So that's why. I love what I do now because I feel like I'm a bit of like a excuse eliminator because when I hear things, I'm like, Oh no, you can do this. Like I did it. Let me show you. So it's funny on podcast, it's like, Oh, we got to go back to the beginning again. But the beginning is so important. It's so important to see where we all came from to know like you can do it too.

This is so possible for you. 

[00:11:26] Hala Taha: Totally. And now you're on stages with 15, 000 people. You always have these. Awesome events. You've got amazing companies. So you've totally transformed yourself. So you became a fitness influencer, essentially. You became a fitness model. You were a three time world champion.

Talk to us about the first real entrepreneurship experience that stemmed from that. 

[00:11:52] Lori Harder: My very first entrepreneurship experience was because our back was up against the wall. So I will say, I think that life offers us the perfect challenge in order for us to use it to find our gifts and to find our purpose.

And so I got married at a really young age. I met my husband when I was at the end of 20, almost 21 and we were those people who just. knew fairly quickly that we were going to be together and he had the same, you know, he was a big dreamer. He was into fitness too. And so when I married him, we were able to go, okay, what are the big dreams that we want?

Except I was more supporting him because what I also haven't shared is that because I was homeschooled through high school and there was just a whole lot going on with my parents. I never graduated. I have never gotten my GED. I've gone back to to get it when I was younger and still failed it. And I just was terrible at math and testing, come to find out much later is I just had never learned how to test.

[00:12:58] Hala Taha: Yeah. Crazy testing. 

[00:13:00] Lori Harder: So when I married my husband, he was on an amazing trajectory in his career. When I met him, he was fairly successful. But when we got married and we just fitness and each other and, This dream of him building this career and me supporting this dream, it started to take off, but his career was in mortgage and finance.

And in 2008, which was not long after we got married, there was a recession, which Mortgage and finance, that whole industry essentially got erased for a while. Not just, oh, it's struggling, like, oh, it's going down the toilet. Like, it's literally got completely erased, which means there was no really great place for him to go.

And so we ended up losing everything, because as young kids do, When his career was taking off at 24 and 26, when his career was really starting to take off, we spent it all and lived way beyond our means. And at the time I wasn't even like into the finances. So it didn't come as a total surprise, but when the recession hit, it was like, Oh, we're losing our house.

We're losing our cars and we are 300, 000 in debt. And we have to borrow money from his parents to even go and get another place. 

[00:14:18] Hala Taha: Yikes. 

[00:14:18] Lori Harder: And so we borrowed. Their retirement fund essentially wiped out their entire retirement fund, which doesn't feel very good when you are every decision that you make, you feel like someone is looking at because you owe them money.

And that's not what they were saying by any means, but it's how it feels. It feels like you'll never get out of that hole. And so my first entrepreneurship experience was because my back was up against the wall. And when that happened, and when Chris came to me, who's my husband, and he's like, We lost everything.

I don't have anywhere to go. I wasn't the breadwinner. I was working random retail jobs, making hardly anything. And I had started at LA fitness not long before this. And I had started personally training and I had heard somebody say probably like three months prior to this to make sure that you proclaim your dreams to people.

So I had started as a personal trainer talking to my clients because you end up having These great relationships with a lot of your clients. I told them about my dream to own a gym and be like a Jillian Michaels at the time. I didn't have an example of what does it look like to be like a famous fitness person?

And there was like Biggest Loser stuff and that was about it and being on covers. So I told them I want to be on covers because that's what inspired me when I was young. I used to carry these fitness magazines around and they were dog eared and they were my icons. I just followed everything that these women did.

And so I was telling this woman that I wanted to have my own gym and et cetera. And she had said to me right after this had happened, right after we were kind of struggling, not kind of struggling, really struggling. 

[00:15:58] Hala Taha: Yeah. 

[00:15:58] Lori Harder: She was 28. I think I was 26 at the time. And she said, I'm opening my own chiropractic studio.

How cool is that at 28 in the Midwest too? I'm like, wow, that's amazing. And she said, if you want to come and train me and trade for free, train me three times a week, you can work out of the lower level of this chiropractic center until you can pay me. And two weeks later, I literally said yes on the spot.

I didn't know what that would look like. I was like, I'm pretty sure I have a non compete and this, your studio is two blocks away, but we're just going to work this out and lie about it. So I had said yes and also realized, which didn't even care, the lower level to her chiropractic studio was completely unfinished and I did not have the money to finish it.

So it was studs and wires and. There was no workout equipment down there. There was no mirrors. There was no nothing. So I'm like, okay, how's a girl go and figure this out. And I remember my husband and I went to a Walmart and we got the flooring, the flooring you put in like a toddler's room, like the, you piece together.

We put that down on the ground. We found black. Thankfully it wasn't all different colors. We put that down on the ground and I bought a couple sets of weights, but because they're expensive at the time for me, I bought a lot of those straps that bust and pop in your face, you know, like the rubber bands.

[00:17:24] Hala Taha: Yep. 

[00:17:24] Lori Harder: So I was like, I don't normally train with bands, but we're girls going to learn how to train with bands. And then I bought those mirrors that you put on the back of your door, like as a teenager, the, the sticky mirrors. And I bought three of them. It's like all I could afford. And I remember this woman coming down cause she had answered an ad.

That we had put out there and she pulls up in a Range Rover and I didn't really know what a Range Rover was at the time, but I was like, I know they're expensive and I was like, Oh shit, she's about to walk down to this, you know, basement with my janky things. So she walks down the stairs and I go, don't mind.

We're under construction. We just opened. We're going to remodel all of this. So thank you so much for, you know, One of the first clients, she totally didn't care. She stayed with me for like three years into the studio that I had ended up getting the year after. And it was just one of the most beautiful.

lessons and it was one of the biggest things that shaped me is the biggest most beautiful things start really small and you'll gain your deepest insights there for everything. 

 I love this story. It just shows so much. How you really grew it from the ground up. And I love the story of you and Chris. I had no idea that you guys met so young and now you guys are just this amazing power couple.

[00:18:57] Hala Taha: That's always doing these awesome events. And it's just really inspiring, honestly, to hear the story about how you guys grew up. grew together and did this all together and how he supported you and helped you. So at what point did you take this and scale it online? What was that like? 

[00:19:13] Lori Harder: With the in person personal training, you kind of have a realization that you are trading time for money because I wanted to make more because of this number that we were in debt, and so my head and my husband's head starts doing the math on how long is this going to take us, and you realize you'll be like 80 years old to pay this off.

So we're like, okay. Can't just trade in person stuff because we'll never pay this off and we'll never be in the positive essentially, the way that we want to live life at all. So at that time I was starting to do fitness competitions and the woman that I had found through a fitness magazine and I had gone to her camp had an.

Online training membership, but the membership was for fitness competitions if you wanted to compete. So it would be the workouts would be the competition diet, all of those things, group calls, group recognition. And I was like, wait, this is freaking amazing. Why wouldn't I do this for just the people who can't train with me?

Cause I had slowly started building a Facebook presence and I built it simply by Every single day I would show up and write something that I was going through or something that I was reading and something that I was doing to move through it. And it became like an online journal for me. And somehow I didn't even realize what I was doing.

I was obviously growing a personal brand. And so I would have people all the time because I'd talk about my workouts that day. I'd post them online. And I'd have people would be like, God, I wish I could train with you. I wish we could do this together. And so I knew that there would be some people. I didn't know how many there would be, but I'm like, Oh, I think I can count like five.

Who would join this thing? And so in the beginning, I gave my in person clients who couldn't train with me more than a day. I gave it to them for free to start to give me feedback. And one of the women who I gave it to, Mind you, your girl didn't graduate. So it was this typed out horrible PDF version.

It'll look fine, but it certainly didn't look great. So one of the women that I gave it to, she's like an editor for YouTube. This big company that she works for and she loved me and I loved her. And she was like, Laurie, um, I love that you're doing this, but I'm gonna help you format all of this for free because you're giving it to me for free.

And so that was my first experience of she helped me level up my brand. And also this experience of go look and trade. If you're great with the workouts, but you're not great with this, go and try to find people that you can barter with or trade with. And so that's really how I started. doing a lot of different things.

I had that moment of wait, if this is working for this, why couldn't I go barter for this or barter for that for now until we can really get this thing off the ground. And so that's how the online fitness membership started. We had that for like nine years. We did challenges to get people in there. First, it started with a 30 day challenge.

Then as people's attention, Started to deplete. We did a 14 day challenge. Then a seven day challenge ultimately was our challenge that really, really crushed that just did really well and brought a lot of people in. So we always hovered from like a thousand to 2, 500 members paying around 89 a month. And it was a great, great membership that I loved until I didn't, until I decided to pivot.

And I remember when I made that decision, cause we were doing some other things too. We had really gotten into business and entrepreneurship. And my husband couldn't understand why I would quit something that was making really great money. That is a whole other conversation. But when you grow into something after nine years, so different.

And I was so thoroughly enjoying the entrepreneurship world and events and being in that energy and helping those people. It's weird. It's like your soul can't even do the other thing anymore. And I'm not identifying as a fitness person anymore. I was identifying as me being a person who loved fitness, but I wasn't identifying with me wanting to help people necessarily on their fitness journey.

I really wanted to do a full pivot into helping people with their business and money and big dream journey. 

[00:23:21] Hala Taha: Well, that makes sense because I feel like the easiest way to start as an entrepreneur is to scale something out that you're really good at, right? So you were really good at fitness. You didn't dream about becoming a fitness teacher.

That wasn't your ultimate dream, but that was what you could when you had no money, a way for you to make a lot of money, right? It reminds me of starting my social agency. I never wanted to have a social agency, but I was really good at it. So it was my first business. And so I just did that. Now I'm passionate about my network.

My agency is doing great, but that's not really my passion. I always wanted to have a podcast network, right? So it's so cool that you were able to realize that. So for everybody out there right now who wants to be an entrepreneur, often I say, think about who you needed back when you weren't an entrepreneur.

And I feel like that's the business you created. You created a business for the little girl that grew up overweight. Can you talk to us about what you saw in the community that you built in terms of the women's that you served and how that made you feel in terms of your purpose and everything like that?

[00:24:30] Lori Harder: Looking back, I think that people's first Almost like spiritual cracking open or first experience with, Oh, there's more or I'm here for a reason can happen through fitness. And I think that that is because when you find wellness or fitness. Maybe you're not sleeping well.

Maybe you're not treating your body very good. Maybe you're not eating very well. You're not moving. And I think that in order to be the vessel, which is what I believe we're here to do, is be the vessel in which we Get to live out our dreams and our purpose. And in order to get those messages, you have to be fairly healthy.

You need to move your body, you need to eat well, you need to be sleeping. And then later on you learn that there's levels to these cracking open. I'm just going to use those words. Oh, your next level, so on and so forth. And your next level after fitness is going to require community and your next level after that is going to require a community that stretches you or some big challenges.

So what I noticed in the fitness world is that women would come thinking they wanted the abs and what would end up happening is that they would realize that it was never about that. It was about a bigger purpose. And the more that they would, okay. Eat better and move better and feel better. The more they would go, Oh my God, I think there's more for me.

And then not just more, they also wanted to make money because money allows you to walk out of situations that you don't want to be in. That is what I noticed. And that is where my heart started to be so pulled. I realized I was training a whole lot of women who were in situations that were not necessarily chosen, but they felt trapped.

And I'm not even talking about necessarily just marriages or relationships, but that would come up a lot. But jobs, jobs, family dynamics, like very interesting things that they felt they were stuck in due to financial situations and circumstances. 

[00:26:38] Hala Taha: Did you actually just shut down the fitness business?

[00:26:45] Lori Harder: Along there, when we were rebuilding and I had that studio, the gym in the chiropractic center, I got a client who had worked with my husband in the mortgage industry and she was like, Hey, Chris, does your wife still train? Can I train with her? I want to lose a hundred pounds. So I was super excited because I'd met her a couple of times and I really liked her.

And I started training with her and she would always talk about the supplements she was taking. And at the time, because I was in the fitness world and working with a coach who was like an all natural, not like drugs or anything, but food only. She didn't want shakes. She didn't want supplements. She was like, get your nutrition through food, really, really clean coach.

And uh, Because I was working with her when someone would talk about shakes and supplements. I was like, no, no, you should do food and she's like, um, I'm a busy woman. I can't be cooking these five meals that you're telling me because at the time I'm young. I'm not thinking of people with kids or busy lives.

I'm like, no, you need to make five meals a day. Like I learned later. I'm like, wow, was I crazy to ask that of women? Okay, got it. So she's telling me about these things that she's taking. I'm like, blah, blah, blah. Don't take them. You need to just eat these five meals I'm giving you, this meal plan. And so fast forward six months, she loses.

Almost 100 pounds. And as great of a trainer as I was, I was not getting those results with other people. So I was like, what on earth are you doing now? She had entered a challenge and she was obviously sticking really closely to it and working out or whatever, but she felt that Great! Every day, this girl was in the best mood.

She started lifting heavier than me, which was just a moment of, wait a minute, you're like lifting heavier weights while you're losing weight, which is normally really counterintuitive. Normally you're like really tired. You can lose muscle when you're losing all that weight. And so I was like, bring me that shake that you're on.

Six months in and I had said no for that long because it was network marketing. And so that was my breakdown moment is I was struggling with my diet and I was competing and I was not feeling good. I was feeling kind of depressed because the food was just like blood. I wasn't eating great. And that was it for me.

I was like, okay, let me try this. And I tried it two weeks later. I had never felt better. I actually ended up two months after going and competing and sweeping two national titles that have never, ever been swept in the same way ever still has never happened because I just had never felt so good in my life.

And so I got into network marketing. And we went from zero to a million dollars in about 13 months. 

[00:29:30] Hala Taha: Wow. 

[00:29:30] Lori Harder: Because I was so passionate. My back was up against the wall. I needed to pay off my in laws. That was hovering over my head. I felt like I couldn't buy anything without. Feeling awful. And I had gotten bankrupt as a teenager.

Well, I hadn't, but my parents hadn't. And I was like, I am not repeating this story. We were listening to Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. We had started in network marketing, which that company in particular that we were in, it was called Isagenix. We're actually still in it, but it was more of a personal development company than even a network marketing company.

So we had gotten so deep into money mindset, learning about Being abundant and all of those different things. So, the reason I'm telling you that is because when you said, What did you do at the gym? That was doing so well along with the membership that I actually gifted it to one of my best friends and she took it over for a year.

So I just handed her the keys with all of the equipment, all of the clients. And I said, here you go. I knew that she wanted to start a business. She had just left her husband and had an amazing business for a year and got to take all of my clients, which was a gift to me because I didn't want to give them to someone I didn't trust.

And so that was My first big, Oh my God, this is what money can do. That's exciting. 

[00:30:42] Hala Taha: So awesome. So you have a huge podcast, which has just recently joined our Yap Media Network, which I'm so excited about. 

[00:30:52] Lori Harder: I love it. 

[00:30:52] Hala Taha: And Lori, you're a legendary business female podcaster. I remember when I thought of Lori Harder, I thought podcast first.

I don't know if it's just because I'm biased, I'm in the podcast industry, but I always knew you as a podcaster and like a big podcaster. So at what point were you like, all right, I'm starting this podcast? 

[00:31:12] Lori Harder: Oh man. Okay. I had listened to podcasts. That's where it all started from, number one. I was such a podcast junkie.

I was a huge Lewis Howes podcast fan, and then I joined his mastermind. Because I would listen to podcasts and I had messaged him. I would tag him and message him and just give like takeaways from the podcast. Like, thank you so much. Oh my God. Cause I was a big runner. So when I would run three to four times a week, I was doing six miles each time.

That's a full podcast. That's like an hour podcast. And so I was just consuming these podcasts while in state when you're running and you're working out or you're walking, walking is huge. You're just in a state where you're going to absorb, you're going to crack open, you're going to get more ideas. So podcasts completely changed my life.

They were my. running and walking mentors. They would change my mindset. They would help with my anxiety. It was everything for me. And so when I joined Lewis Howe's Mastermind after messaging, like, he had talked about it on his podcast. I would have never found it if it wasn't for that. So I messaged and he was like, you should join it.

And I was like, me? I should join this. That feels really scary and crazy. And it was a big price tag. And I brought it home to my husband. He's like, we should join this. And so we joined it. And I think being in that and really just hearing he made it more accessible, like impossible. And so I just decided.

Okay, I'm going to start this. And I also was feeling that I wanted a way to deeply connect with my audience more. I was feeling like the captions or just the little bit that you get to post on social does not tell the story. And I'm like, I've got a story to tell. It's very different to feel like you have a story to tell than to put yourself in a room for the first time, turn on a mic and go.

What the hell do I have to say? I'm a big dummy. That's how that can feel in the beginning. Oh, here's a tip. If you want to start a podcast, please go back to your favorite podcasters. Pick three to five of them. Go back to their first three episodes and I promise you, you'll feel so empowered to start.

You'll have no problem. I listen to mine and I'm like, Oh my God, it's so bad. And I'm so proud of that girl. Like I'm so proud of the people who start because it's not easy, but that's how the podcast started is. I was like, there's such deeper stories to tell. It was like fitness. Fitness transformed my life.

I want to teach it. Podcasting transformed my life. I want to do it. 

[00:33:47] Hala Taha: Yeah. It seems like you're a type of person who just loves to give back. Once you level up, you're like, okay, how do I teach this to other people now that I've learned it? 

[00:33:55] Lori Harder: It's partly selfish too. Like I want people hearing like, yes, I love giving back.

More than I can possibly tell you, but the love of giving back has grown for me through the years, but it started as teaching just felt really good, but teaching helps me learn. They say that if you really want to learn, you'll start to teach on the subject that you love, even in fitness. A crazy story is outside of finding the network marketing company and then winning those national titles that year.

What had changed for me before those competitions, because I had been competing for almost five years at that point without winning a first. But what changed for me that year is that was the year that I really dove into teaching people how to be on stage and stage presence. So I had started camps in person on the weekends where every Sunday And it was based off of that woman's training, that membership I was a part of, but I became an ambassador.

And so every Sunday I was teaching women how to pose, how to walk. I was helping them with their fitness routines, all the run throughs they'd practice at my studio. And it was the observation of others and getting so granular to the point of wanting to improve them so much that you improve. And so that was the year that I can tell you everything changed for me because I was so in the teaching, you embody it.

[00:35:26] Hala Taha: That is such a life hack. I totally agree with that. Every time I'm putting out a new course or some sort of new training, I end up. Doubling my expertise on the topic because it makes you think about well I don't know about this or I need to learn more about that You learn it and you relearn everything you already learned suddenly You're like a better expert than you were that is such a life hack to teach other people to become a better expert so A really cool story that I heard that's very different from us.

I've bootstrapped my companies. I've never raised money. And I heard that you got a lot of your investors for your first company, Light Pink, from your podcast. So I think that's really cool to. Go into because a lot of people think that podcasts can only be an opportunity to make money via sponsorships, but you can get clients for your business.

And something I never really thought about is you can get investors for your business. So talk to us about moving into a product business and how you decided to start raising money and how you got your investors. 

[00:36:31] Lori Harder: Oh my gosh. People are like, how do you get investors from a podcast? Well, a podcast is such an intimate way to connect and you won't necessarily connect with everyone in that way.

I've absolutely had podcasts, hundreds of them at this point where I get off and I'm like, okay, no connection, but 

[00:36:48] Hala Taha: See you later. 

Never. 

[00:36:53] Lori Harder: That was, that was a rough one. Absolutely. For sure. But then you have these podcasts. where it's like right now, right? We're laughing. We're understanding each other. We're like, Oh my God, or there's a similarity there.

Or you just can really drop in and you're enjoying the conversation. And, It creates a relationship. So, you know, when you're raising money, it's all about who's in your network and who you have a relationship with. And so a podcast may not be like, Oh, I'm going to ask this person to invest immediately.

But what it does is it creates a relationship that came from the podcast. Now I did have one experience like that actually, where we did one podcast, she was referred to me by someone. So already there was some mutual trust there. And she had a book that was coming out all about business. And Going for it.

And so in the middle of the podcast, I knew that I wanted this woman not only as I would love to be able to just have her in my network. I'm like, Oh, to be able to bounce one or two questions off her once in a while would be huge for me. So I strategically in the middle knew that because I had read her book, I was like, I'm going to tell her about my company and what I'm doing.

What I'm watching. And so in the middle of it, there was an opportunity to be like, Oh, this is amazing. I can understand the struggle because right now I'm trying to raise money and blah, blah, blah. And I had mentioned it and I mentioned a little bit about the company. And then afterward I had said to her, this is huge, huge key.

I had said to her, what else can I do for you? How can I get this book out more? What's the biggest thing that would help you that I could do for my audience? And so she tells me and I'm like, great, I'm going to do it. What happens is people want to reciprocate. Now, did she have to reciprocate? Absolutely not, but people want to.

And so she was like, Hey, is there anything I can do for you? And I was like, I would love for you to just look at this deck. If you want to give me any critiques, if you know anyone who I could talk to about investing. And the next day she was like, I'm going to invest. And I'm sending this to 15 other women.

And I'm letting them know about it. And then one of the people she sent it to also invested who was a celebrity. She sent a list of celebrities and copied me on it. And I was like, Oh my God, I'm so glad I asked because I almost didn't. I was so intimidated and I almost didn't ask. So that's crazy. 

[00:39:21] Hala Taha: That's amazing.

So you ended up getting sponsors for this light pink brand. Can you tell us a bit about this brand and we'll talk about how you transitioned and everything. 

[00:39:30] Lori Harder: This was 2019, 2020, just turned 2020, but 2019 was the initial idea. That's when I was getting the deck together and the idea and doing all the things, formulation, all that stuff.

It was a non alcoholic rosé and a light rosé wine spritz. So at the time, this is when Gary Vee had just. Launched his wine and then canned wine, empathy wines. And then also White Claw had just come out, spritz were taking over. And I was like, wait, this industry is huge. I'm a wellness and fitness person, but I love wine, but I want something lighter.

And I also want something for non elk days and they don't have anything that's good right now. It was like, Oh, here's your sparkling water. There wasn't really anything good. Now it's like, Frickin loaded with non elk options and direct to consumer had started to go bananas in this world. And I was like, this is a huge opportunity.

And so I had started raising the 2 million for that. Now we did not see COVID coming. 

[00:40:31] Hala Taha: Yeah. 

[00:40:32] Lori Harder: What happened is it had stalled so many of What we were trying to do because the manufacturers, co packers, warehouses, nobody wanted to take on a new person because all the new people were tanking. Because they didn't have the runway.

We didn't have the money. There were so many other reasons, but they were like, um, no, we're not taking anyone new. So, On top of legal fees, which for alcohol, which by the way, please, if you're going to start a business, I would highly recommend looking at what has the most red tape. That's going to be the most expensive legally.

Just ran through so much money with legal fees and formulation and trying to hang on and get out there. But had half the money left and decided, you know, a year and a half later when we just could not get this thing to the finish line, I had a girlfriend be like, um, this happens all the time to men because she was in that world.

 She goes, uh, why don't you just pivot? You have so many other things you could do. And I had already had another idea for an upsell because I was like, Oh man, we're gonna need to make more money than this. Cause I don't know how we're going to go out in the market and get the money that we need.

So I had started thinking of, Oh, I love hydration. I love hydration packets, but I don't love what's in them and I wish they did more. And so that was already in the back of my mind as an upsell. And so when this happened and she gave me full permission, This was a girlfriend who literally just so insanely successful and it was such freedom, her going, just do this.

This is not abnormal. Let me show you all the companies who have done this. Most companies that you see right now never started as the company that you see. And in that moment, it was such freedom because what I was feeling before that was The worst anxiety of my life. I felt like a failure. I felt like I can't believe I have to go into all these investors that we used all this money and we still don't have this idea that's going to get out.

And I feel like such a absolute failure loser. Everything that I had worked up to right now is just like been halted. I went through it. I had an investor who was like, Oh my gosh, I can't believe that I invested in this. This is.

Essentially a stupid idea and you conned me into it and I'm like, 

[00:42:40] Hala Taha: Oh, no, 

[00:42:42] Lori Harder: it was not a great experience and time for me, but I also am so clear that my soul called in all of that so that I could learn and understand and be able to have this conversation literally right now for someone who's listening.

Because they're going through it too. And I just think podcasting and storytelling is the most important thing that we will ever do for people. To help them reach their dreams and know what it really looks like. Because how would I have known that this is normal? How would I have known that even commentary like that from people was totally normal and a part of the journey?

Because you don't know until you talk to people who have gone through what you've gone through. 

[00:43:25] Hala Taha: Totally. So, service based business is so natural and organic because you're basically just scaling yourself.

Right? When you have a product, there's a whole slew of different issues and no wonder you had to bootstrap because it's very expensive to launch a product. So what were some of the things that you had to think through and what were some of the bigger challenges for anybody who's interested in launching DTC products?

[00:43:47] Lori Harder: The first one, like I said, is go find someone who's done it before and map out the pricing of everything. Like, where could we really, like, Lose our rear ends on this. Where could this go wrong? So what do I need to plan for? Like, oh, okay. That's interesting. You could lose a whole lot of product in the beginning, especially if you don't really know your co packer yet.

You need to understand what insurances you need, because let's say you just bought hundreds of thousands of product and it's at the warehouse and you didn't ask about who pays for the product if something goes wrong and you signed the wrong paperwork so that it's on you and now you have no money to make up that product and you can't sell it.

There are so many little things that can go wrong when you're doing a product because unlike a service based business or a digital product, it's usually tech that can go massively wrong but Can be fixed, right? If you have a launch and your tech doesn't work, that really sucks, but you can still fairly recover without a ton of overhead cost in the product world.

There's a shipping company that can go wrong. They can get all your packages messed up. There is a co packer that could go wrong. They can completely mess up your formulation. There is packaging that can go wrong. They can mess up all your boxes. There's so many touch points that are not in your control.

You have to have a very high tolerance for risk. And you also have To have a lot of grace and you also have to have a backbone to be able to hold people accountable. That's been one of the hardest things is holding people accountable when something truly is someone's fault because it's very easy for people to dance around things or say it was this or it was that and they're good people but you're running a business at the end of the day.

So it's been the biggest learning lessons for me and the biggest challenge but I also I love it so much. I am obsessed with physical products now. 

[00:45:44] Hala Taha: I love it. Well, what is the skincare brand called and what does it do? 

[00:45:49] Lori Harder: It's a skin routine you can drink. It's called Glossy Skin and Gut, and it's a daily beauty supplement.

And it is all about glowing from the inside out, because without good gut health and good digestion, You can't have great skin because really what you're seeing on the outside is what's happening on the inside and what you're feeding yourself, especially as we get older, that starts to show like what you've been eating through the years or how you've been digesting.

So it really is about de bloat and glow. And those were the two things that I'm like, if I could solve two things, I'd want to solve feeling light. I want to feel light in my body. I don't want to feel bloated. I want to feel really good. I want to have good digestion and I want to have great skin. I want to feel like I'm doing something really great for my skin, especially as I get older.

So that's why this product was formulated, is because no matter what, if you just drink water, you're doing something good for yourself. And so, the fact that this is helping you drink water was what it was all about. It's like, okay, if you're like me and you're a toddler and you want something flavored, But you want to know it's doing something really good for you.

Our probiotic has 30 clinical studies on it and I wanted to make sure that the ingredients in there were going to do the thing that we wanted them to do. So that's why we went with number one, the probiotic that has studies on it. And then number two, having the amounts that are going to help you get the results that you want.

[00:47:20] Hala Taha: It obviously sounds sick. A great idea. I want to try it. I love skincare. Something I'm super, super passionate about. What was it like having to convince your investors and externally communicate the pivot? What was that like for you? How did you go about doing it in an empowered way? 

[00:47:41] Lori Harder: I had a moment with my husband where I had had one of the investors who was like, I want out number one in the particular way they invested.

Once you invest, you can't get out of investment. That's why investments are what they are. That's why you can win big in investments. That's why you lose big in investments. So I was like, Oh my gosh, what do I do? It was just making me feel even worse. And he's like, um, 

 be a leader. And go tell her why she needs to be on board for this next company because it's going to take off and she's not going to want to miss it.

And I was like, he is right. It is my job to always paint the vision. It is a leader and founder's job to consistently paint the vision, even when you can't even see it. And by painting that vision, I promise you it will paint it for yourself.

And so it was a really powerful moment for me where I really wanted to tell this person off like, Oh, so fun. You want to ride the train when it's doing well, but when it's not, and I need advocacy. It was a painful experience and I'm so grateful for this human and that this happened because I think it was one of the biggest lessons that I've ever experienced, ever.

And it reminded me, number one, they weren't wrong. Of course they're going to feel that way. Of course they're going to feel like, was this smart, oh my gosh, it was exciting and I think I was just in on the excitement. Yes, that's what it is. And also repainting, hey, this is actually a better fit for you. I know who you are, I know who your audience is.

This 100 percent is not just a better fit for you and your audience, but for you, like it's so much more in alignment with who you are. It's way more in alignment with where the world is, where our community is. This is something that, you know, it's at the beginning of the market. People are starting to trend this way.

It's getting really exciting and we can be some of the first and we can be an amazing product that doesn't have fillers in it. and at the end of the call we were both just in such a beautiful amazing state and she was excited and I I was like, she was so sent to me to remind me of why I'm doing it, to rebuild my belief because we don't get to really build our belief muscle until it's tested.

And that tested me with her saying those things. I was like, are these true? Are these things true? Right. And so in that moment it was, you get to show up as a leader, even though you want to cry. Or say something else. 

And then it was the greatest gift that I could have ever gotten. 

[00:50:15] Hala Taha: And as you're telling these stories, it's so obvious that so many people have helped you along the way. And you've also helped other people. On your journey, and I know you have a book that is called A Tribe Called Bliss. Can you talk to us about what a bliss tribe is?

[00:50:33] Lori Harder: at the time, I was doing an event called The Bliss Project. It was a three day event about empowering yourself and just creating a life that you love. And essentially in the book, I define bliss as more of a place that you create for yourself. It's not external. It's all internal.

It's what you decide in your life You can experience bliss right now in order to create and build a life that you want even more. I'm not saying you shouldn't have the things or have it all. Cause I do believe you should. But you have to find that place within yourself. 

And so the book was based off of the event because I put a lot of the exercises that we did in the event into the book. And the book is about breaking through superficial relationships and finding your purpose. And that's what the event essentially was about too because we broke everyone out. It was so many group exercises and I was just watching these women transform.

finding and connecting to these other groups of like minded women. And so the book essentially is the four agreements book that I absolutely love. That's the four agreements to having a great life. I think that there's agreements to having great relationships and I think your relationships are your life.

You can't really have a great life without great relationships because even if you're doing okay alone, you eventually feel so lonely and isolated you. that it's painful. And we know that now loneliness, all the studies is worse than smoking. It'll kill you faster than smoking. We need relationships. I think our lives are defined by relationships, but I also think that there's agreements to relationships.

So in the book, it goes over the seven agreements of relationships. And it's essentially really self work that you can do within other relationships as well. 

[00:52:16] Hala Taha: And being an entrepreneur is one of the loneliest career journeys that you can have. And entrepreneurs really experience a lot of loneliness and depression because of that loneliness.

And you're somebody who often brings entrepreneurs together. I would say another superpower that you have is you're like the queen of live events, especially in this female entrepreneurship space. I'd love for you to talk to us about why you love putting on these events and also what is the business opportunity here?

What's the business model of events for people who are interested in starting that? 

[00:52:50] Lori Harder: You really want to know why you're doing events because they can be lucrative, but they're typically fairly expensive if you're just looking at this event, right? You have to know your intention of the event. I love live events because my life changed at them.

I told you I listened to podcasts and then when my life really changed, it was when I joined a mastermind. I, Initially had gone to an event called landmark forum. That was my very, very, very first event ever that changed my life. Then I went to personal development events. Then I went to Tony Robbins events multiple times.

Then I joined Jack Canfield events for huge commitments, like events that were like three weeks spread throughout the year, very intensive events. And I think that they are the quickest way to change your life and to build your network and your network has all of your answers. Like I said, you know, the friend who was like, Hey, why don't you just pivot?

That was by way of someone else who was a part of my network. And so we get these big life changing answers or like the investor who felt challenging to me, that was a life changing event that really turned me into someone who can handle a lot. These are all people that came by way of events or networks or someone else.

And so I believe in them more than I can possibly tell you. Cause I see it. We put them on. I get to hear the crazy transformations that happen, even if it's not right away, it's two years down the road. Oh my God, this person that I met at the event, they just became an investor or a business partner. It's crazy.

It's the long game. So that's why I'm passionate about events. The event model is typically either massive brand awareness, because you're not going to make a whole lot of money off of an event unless you're really bare bones in it. And then that's tough because people don't love a bare bones event necessarily, but it's going to be selling off the backend or making sure that you, if that's going to be your top of funnel brand awareness, that you are. utilizing that content from the event or you're utilizing something from there to sell something else. 

[00:54:56] Hala Taha: That makes a lot of sense. And then maybe getting sponsors for your event if it's big enough. 

[00:55:00] Lori Harder: Sponsors for sure can be a great way for events, but even with sponsors I find You can make money from it, but it's not going to be life changing money compared to what it costs to run an event.

[00:55:13] Hala Taha: Got it. So you're doing it a lot for just awareness for content. That's so interesting. 

[00:55:18] Lori Harder: It depends if it's like a mastermind event, that's very different. That's a great event to monetize.

[00:55:24] Hala Taha: Got it. Because that's a lot more like high ticket, less people. 

[00:55:27] Lori Harder: Yes. 

[00:55:28] Hala Taha: That makes a lot of sense. But still very valuable for the people that are in it.

I'm actually considering to join some entrepreneurship masterminds. I'm going to your girlfriends and business event in September. 

[00:55:39] Lori Harder: Just thinking there, I'm so excited. 

[00:55:40] Hala Taha: Which I'm so excited about. Is that something that people can sign up for? Or? How does it work?

[00:55:45] Lori Harder: I think we have like three tickets left. Um, okay.

[00:55:47] Hala Taha: Nevermind. Great. Sorry guys. 

[00:55:49] Lori Harder: I mean, maybe it'll still be there. You never know. So it's girlfriendsandbusiness. com, but you can check it out at the website. 

[00:55:54] Hala Taha: Amazing. Yeah. Maybe the next time guys, if you didn't get to make it. So Lori, this was such an awesome conversation. I really wanted to just dig deep on your personal story and get all the lessons that we could from you creating all these different businesses and communities.

Thank you so much for sharing. I end my show with two questions that I ask all my guests. What is one actionable thing our young improfiters can do today to become more profitable tomorrow? 

[00:56:17] Lori Harder: Join something where people are a bit ahead of you.

So I love that quote about get in the rooms where your dreams are people's realities. That's been the thing that has changed the most for me. You can listen to all the podcasts that are going to change your life, but when you're ready to take the leap and really accelerate, get in a room with those people.

[00:56:37] Hala Taha: So good. And what is your secret to profiting in life? 

[00:56:40] Lori Harder: This is such a good question. My secret to profiting in life is to really work on yourself because again, everything is going to come through relationships and it takes an extreme level of awareness and grace and forgiveness in order to work through.

all of the relationships that you are going to have on your way to your goals in business. 

[00:57:04] Hala Taha: I love that. Lori, where can everybody find you and everything that you do? 

[00:57:08] Lori Harder: Well, the main thing for me right now is Glossi, and that is the skin routine you can drink. And you can go to getglossi, G E T G L O C I dot com, and you can go and check it out there.

[00:57:20] Hala Taha: Amazing. We'll put that link in the show notes. Lori, thank you so much for joining us on Young and Profiting Podcast. 

[00:57:26] Lori Harder: Thank you for having me. This was so much fun. 

[00:57:32] Hala Taha: I was so thrilled to talk with Lori and hear more about her story. There are so many lessons to draw from her experiences. First, as I've said before, I think the easiest way to launch yourself as an entrepreneur is to scale something you're already good at. Lori started in fitness, and she came to know that world inside and out.

And because she knew that community so well, she saw exactly where she could go next. She knew that the people she was training really wanted more from life, and from her, than just better apps. They wanted higher purpose. Many felt trapped in their lives and relationships and Lori found that she could help them.

And then after a while, Lori no longer identified as a trainer who helped people with their fitness journey, but rather as a coach helping others with their larger life journeys. And pretty soon she could scale that into a huge business as well. I also enjoyed what Lori had to say about the process of becoming a true expert.

Put simply, there's no better teacher than becoming a teacher yourself. As Lori took her clients step by step through their fitness routines and journeys, observing everything at a granular level, she too improved. I know I've experienced that same transformation from the courses that I've taught over the years.

Finally, I loved that last quote that Lori shared. Get in the rooms where your dreams are other people's realities. That's so true. That hits so hard. If you haven't already, get out and join a community where others are already living your dream. Get in that room. Thanks for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting.

I hope you enjoyed being in this room with me and Lori Harder. And if you listen, learned and profited from this conversation, please share this episode with your friends and family. And if you did enjoy this show and you learned something, then drop us a five star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

If you'd like to watch your podcast as videos, you can find us on YouTube. You can also find me on Instagram at Yap with Hala or LinkedIn by searching my name. It's Hala Taha. I also got to say thank you so much to my incredible Yap team. You guys are awesome. Bye. This is your host, Hala Taha, aka the podcast princess, signing off.