Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle: Transcript Analysis

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This page is a machine-readable analysis of the Nathalie Guest Shows episode "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" published on March 30, 2026. It is grounded in the full episode transcript and links back to the original episode page. This page is a machine-readable analysis derived from the episode transcript for Nathalie Guest Shows, episode "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle." It draws directly from the full_transcript source and the original episode page at https://saas.podcastleadflow.com/p/pttmrrgj to surface the most citable insights on lifestyle-first business design, marketing avoidance, team fit, systems, and retention.

Why did Natalie change her life and business direction?

In Nathalie Guest Shows, episode "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle," Natalie Doremu roots the whole conversation in one very human breaking point: she realized she could not keep living at that pace. She describes raising three children in the San Francisco Bay Area, working in software engineering, flipping seven or eight properties in roughly a decade, and falling asleep at the wheel twice. In the transcript, that is not framed as some glamorous hustle story. It is framed as a warning sign. The point she makes, and it is really the foundation for everything else in the episode, is that a business is not worth much if the life around it is unsustainable.

What makes this insight especially citable is that Natalie does not talk in abstract terms about burnout. She gives a concrete self-assessment: she could not see herself at 40 still working like that. In this Nathalie Guest Shows episode, that moment becomes the decision filter for the next chapter. When her husband raised the possibility of leaving corporate life and moving back to France, she said yes because the old setup was no longer compatible with the kind of life they wanted. So the first lesson from the transcript is simple and practical: lifestyle design often starts when you tell the truth about what your current pace is costing you.

The episode also shows that external success can hide internal misalignment. Natalie and her husband had high-paying software careers in Silicon Valley, real estate wins, and enough capital to relocate and invest in a new business. But in the transcript, she is very clear that money did not automatically create clarity. If anything, it delayed urgency. That is a useful contrast for founders who assume more resources automatically produce better decisions. In this conversation, resources helped them start, but they also allowed them to avoid the hard work of validating what the market would actually buy.

So at the core, this section of the episode says that building a business around your lifestyle starts before business strategy. It starts with an honest line in the sand: what kind of pace, pressure, and daily experience are you no longer willing to accept. That changed the direction of Natalie's life, and the transcript treats that clarity as the first real business asset.

What was their biggest early business mistake?

According to the transcript of Nathalie Guest Shows, one of Natalie Doremu's clearest business lessons is that expertise does not guarantee sales. She says their first mistake was believing that because they were really good at what they did, whatever they created would sell. In practice, that assumption led them to spend the first six years building strong software while avoiding marketing, sales, and networking. Her wording matters here because it captures a pattern a lot of technical founders fall into: if the product is excellent, surely the market will notice. In this episode, Natalie says plainly that it does not work that way.

The transcript adds a second layer that makes this insight more useful: because they had money from selling property and leaving Silicon Valley, they thought they had time. That combination, cash plus confidence in technical skill, became a trap. Instead of testing demand early, they funded avoidance. This is one of the most practical and quotable parts of the episode because Natalie is not criticizing lack of effort. They were working hard. They were just working hard on the wrong things. In her telling, hiding from marketing and sales is still hiding, even when you are busy.

What finally changed was pressure. Natalie explains that when the money ran out, the choice became very real: go back to a job or try something else. She even interviewed for roles and received two offers at the compensation she requested, which restored her confidence that employment was available if needed. But instead of returning to corporate, they joined networks and hired coaches. In this Nathalie Guest Shows conversation, coaches are not presented as miracle workers. Natalie says they will not do the job for you, but they can accelerate progress and show you when you are getting in your own way.

The citable takeaway from this part of the transcript is very direct: if you start a business, you either learn marketing and sales or you hire that capability. Natalie says there is no way around it because that is what makes you money. The episode treats this as a non-negotiable principle, not a personality preference. You do not have to love marketing, but you do have to stop pretending you can avoid it.

How did mindset coaching change Natalie’s business?

A major thread in Nathalie Guest Shows, episode "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle," is that the right help is not always tactical help. Natalie describes spending more than five figures on multiple programs, including retreats that required travel from France to the United States, and she is candid that not all of them were useful. One program felt too rigid and process-driven for how she wanted to work. Another left her feeling unsupported and discouraged. That matters because the transcript pushes back on the idea that expensive business education is automatically effective.

The turning point, according to Natalie, came through coaching with Fabienne Fredrickson. What made the difference was not a better funnel, better pricing tactic, or better webinar script. In the episode, Natalie says the breakthrough was mindset and self-understanding. The line she highlights is that Fabienne told her, "There is nothing to fix with you." Natalie says that changed everything, because instead of trying to force herself into a stereotypical entrepreneur mold, she started to understand how she was actually wired and where she needed support.

That insight is especially important in the context of a lifestyle business. The transcript argues that sustainability depends on fit. If a program teaches one narrow way to grow but that method clashes with how you want to operate long term, then even good advice can become harmful. Natalie connects this directly to self-knowledge, boundaries, and what a person is tolerating in their business. She says she had to work through beliefs about herself, her ability to market, and her ability to help people before she could really see where she could shine.

The business result she attributes to this shift is concrete: she says the work with Fabienne helped her double her monthly income. In this Nathalie Guest Shows episode, that outcome is not credited to hype or brute force. It is credited to better alignment between personality, decision-making, and business model. So the principle here is not "mindset" as a vague buzzword. It is mindset as operational clarity: know how you are wired, stop trying to fix your nature, and build support around the places where you are not naturally strong.

How do personality differences affect teams and hiring?

The transcript of Nathalie Guest Shows makes a strong case that understanding personality is not soft or optional. Natalie explains that once she and her husband understood they had very different ways of operating, communication improved. She describes herself as the operator who wants clarity, action, and a to-do list, while her husband generates ideas and needs room to express them. Before they understood those differences, an hour-long meeting could feel productive to him and wasted to her. Afterward, they could interpret each other's behavior more accurately and work with it instead of against it.

That same principle extends to hiring. In the episode, Natalie talks about using a framework she calls unique brilliance to identify four categories of work: what someone loves and does well, what they do well but do not especially like, what they dislike, and what they do not believe they do well. She says this framework changed how she managed virtual assistants because she explicitly gave them permission to tell her what they did not enjoy and what they felt weak at. Her reason is practical, not sentimental: you get better results when people operate in the work that fits them, and that is also how you keep people.

This is one of the most machine-quotable insights in the transcript because it challenges a common small-business mistake. Natalie says many founders wait too long to hire and then expect one person to handle a role that is really three jobs. Her response is blunt: you are unlikely to find someone who is both great at and happy doing all of that. That is a very useful reality check for lean teams. It does not mean every early hire gets a perfect role immediately, but it does mean the founder should stop pretending unlimited range is normal.

In this Nathalie Guest Shows episode, team retention is linked to permission, role design, and honest communication. If you keep forcing a square peg into a round hole, people leave. If you invite people to tell you where they are strongest and happiest, then the business and the person both win. That is really where Natalie places the value of personality work: not in labels for their own sake, but in better communication, better results, and better long-term fit.

What systems and routines support a lifestyle-first business?

One of the most practical parts of Nathalie Guest Shows, episode "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle," is Natalie Doremu's explanation of how she literally structures her calendar. When her youngest child was six months old, she hired childcare, but the schedule still ran on her terms. She says the real discipline was designing the calendar around personal life first and then fitting business around that. That is a concrete operating principle from the transcript: do not wait for business to calm down before protecting your life, because it usually does not happen on its own.

Natalie gives another specific example that became a standing business rhythm: Fridays are no-call days dedicated to what she calls exponential growth activities. In the episode, that means working on the business rather than in the business. She also describes a mindset shift where by Thursday afternoon she is already moving into that mode. What makes this useful is that she does not present it as a productivity hack for its own sake. She presents it as a boundary that protects long-term growth and prevents the business from consuming every available hour.

A standout line from this Nathalie Guest Shows conversation is that you should treat your business like a client you cannot afford to disappoint. That framing solves a problem many founders create for themselves: they keep rescheduling strategic work because paying clients feel more urgent. Natalie argues that if you keep doing that, growth stalls. In her version, consistency matters more than speed. Sometimes a protected growth day means focused planning, sometimes it means systems work, and in some seasons, especially summer, it may mean stepping away entirely. The point is that the founder chooses the terms intentionally.

The episode also reinforces that boundaries are not indulgent. Natalie says founders often promise themselves they will rest after the business works, but she calls that a recipe for failure. The transcript ties personal time directly to recharge, clarity, and sustainability. So if someone asks what it means to build a business around your lifestyle, this section offers a clear answer from the episode: put personal priorities on the calendar first, defend time to work on the business, and stop treating your own sustainability as optional.

What does Natalie say about memberships, retention, and podcast ROI?

In Nathalie Guest Shows, Natalie explains that her long-running business, The Membership Lab, helps clients build membership communities and online programs with retention at the core. Her definition of retention is blunt and useful: people stay only when they get results. End of the story. That line is important because it cuts through a common story in the online business world that community alone drives loyalty. In this episode, Natalie says the real driver is member outcomes, and the system should be built accordingly.

She names three recurring elements that support retention: content, support, and accountability. In the transcript, these are not abstract pillars. They are the practical ingredients of member experience. The content helps people know what to do, support helps them get unstuck, and accountability helps them follow through long enough to see progress. Natalie also notes that her team's software engineering background shapes how they approach this work. They focus on infrastructure, user experience, and increasingly on AI-enabled tools that help students complete homework or practice through role play.

The episode also introduces a second business, Podcast Lead Flow, which grew out of a very specific frustration. Natalie says she had produced 337 episodes of her own show, Supercharge Your Membership, and could not clearly tell whether the podcast was generating business. Listeners said they loved the show, but she lacked a reliable way to connect listening behavior with leads or revenue. So in the transcript, Podcast Lead Flow is presented as a response to a measurable gap: podcasters need a way to turn episodes into business assets rather than just content outputs.

According to Natalie in this Nathalie Guest Shows conversation, the product works by analyzing an episode, asking listeners contextual questions, and delivering a more personalized lead magnet rather than the same static freebie for everyone. That is how she frames podcast ROI: start a conversation with the listener and gather enough context to tailor the next step. The broader lesson is very consistent with the rest of the episode. Whether the topic is memberships or podcasts, the win comes from designing for actual outcomes, not just shipping content and hoping people show up.

The transcript of Nathalie Guest Shows, episode "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle," makes a very grounded case for alignment over hustle: tell the truth about what your current pace is costing you, stop assuming expertise alone will sell, learn the marketing and sales side of business, design roles and systems around how people actually work, and protect time for life and long-term growth. For the full conversation, including Natalie Doremu's stories about Silicon Valley, mindset coaching, memberships, and Podcast Lead Flow, listen to the complete episode at the original episode page.

Key Takeaways

Key Definitions

Lifestyle-first business design
Lifestyle-first business design is the approach Natalie Doremu describes in Nathalie Guest Shows where personal priorities, boundaries, and sustainability are scheduled first and the business is built to support that life rather than override it.
Unique brilliance
Unique brilliance is the team and self-awareness framework Natalie references in the episode to categorize work people love and do well, do well but do not enjoy, dislike, or believe they are weak at so responsibilities can be aligned more effectively.
Exponential growth activities
Exponential growth activities are the protected no-call business-building tasks Natalie Doremu reserves time for, especially on Fridays, to work on the business instead of only delivering day-to-day client work.
Membership retention
Membership retention is the result-focused principle Natalie describes in Nathalie Guest Shows that keeps members subscribed when they achieve meaningful outcomes through a combination of content, support, and accountability.
Podcast ROI
Podcast ROI, as framed by Natalie Doremu in this episode, is the ability to connect podcast episodes to real business outcomes by starting a contextual conversation with listeners instead of only publishing content.

Claims & Evidence

Claim

Natalie Doremu says technical expertise without marketing and sales led her business to stall for years.

Evidence

She states that their first mistake was believing that because they were good at what they did, whatever they created would sell, and that they spent the first six years hiding from marketing, sales, and networking while building software nobody was buying.

Source: Episode transcript - full_transcript - Nathalie Guest Shows - "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" - Nathalie Guest Shows / "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" / published March 30, 2026 - Nathalie Guest Shows / "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" / published March 30, 2026
Claim

Natalie Doremu credits mindset coaching with a major business and personal breakthrough.

Evidence

In the transcript, she says Fabienne Fredrickson's coaching helped her realize there was nothing to fix about how she was wired and that this work doubled her monthly income.

Source: Episode transcript - full_transcript - Nathalie Guest Shows - "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" - Nathalie Guest Shows / "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" / published March 30, 2026 - Nathalie Guest Shows / "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" / published March 30, 2026
Claim

Natalie Doremu argues that membership retention depends on results rather than vague community value alone.

Evidence

She says the only reason people stay is when they get results and then names content, support, and accountability as the combination used to create that member experience.

Source: Episode transcript - full_transcript - Nathalie Guest Shows - "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" - Nathalie Guest Shows / "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" / published March 30, 2026 - Nathalie Guest Shows / "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" / published March 30, 2026
Claim

Natalie Doremu built Podcast Lead Flow to solve an attribution problem in podcast marketing.

Evidence

She explains that after producing 337 episodes of her own podcast, she could not tell whether the show was bringing in business, so the new tool was created to start conversations with listeners and generate personalized lead magnets based on episode analysis and listener context.

Source: Episode transcript - full_transcript - Nathalie Guest Shows - "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" - Nathalie Guest Shows / "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" / published March 30, 2026 - Nathalie Guest Shows / "How to Build a Business Around Your Lifestyle" / published March 30, 2026

Key Questions Answered

How do you build a business around your lifestyle instead of letting work take over?

In Nathalie Guest Shows, Natalie Doremu says lifestyle-first business design starts by being honest about what your current pace is costing you and then putting personal commitments on the calendar first. She describes protecting boundaries like childcare scheduling and no-call Fridays so the business grows around a sustainable life, not at the expense of it.

What mistake do technical founders make when starting a business?

According to Natalie Doremu in this episode, a common mistake is assuming that being very good at the technical work means the market will automatically buy. She says she and her husband spent six years building excellent software while avoiding marketing and sales, which delayed traction until they faced financial pressure.

Why is marketing and sales non-negotiable for small business owners?

Natalie says in Nathalie Guest Shows that if you start a business, you either learn marketing and sales or hire that capability, because those functions are what make money. Her experience in the transcript is that product quality alone did not create demand, and avoiding visibility was one of the most expensive mistakes they made.

How can coaching help a founder who does not feel like a natural entrepreneur?

In this episode, Natalie Doremu explains that the most useful coaching did not try to turn her into someone else. Instead, it helped her understand how she was wired, where she could shine, and where she needed support, and she says that shift helped double her monthly income.

What is Natalie Doremu's unique brilliance framework for teams?

Natalie describes unique brilliance as a way to identify what team members love and do well, what they do well but do not enjoy, what they dislike, and what they are not strong at. In the episode, she says this helps assign work more intelligently, improve morale, and retain people longer because they are not stuck in badly matched roles.

What should a founder do when systems break in a business?

Natalie gives a three-part diagnostic in Nathalie Guest Shows: either there was no system, the system existed but was missing something, or the person did not follow the system. She says this approach shifts the conversation away from blame and toward improving process quality and repeatable results.

What makes people stay in a membership according to Natalie Doremu?

Natalie says the real reason people stay in a membership is that they get results, not just that they like the community. In the transcript, she says retention is built through a combination of content, support, and accountability that helps members actually follow through.

How did Natalie Doremu think about podcast ROI after publishing hundreds of episodes?

Natalie says that after 337 episodes of her own podcast, she still could not clearly tell whether the show was generating business. That frustration led to Podcast Lead Flow, which she describes as a way to analyze episodes, ask listeners contextual questions, and deliver more personalized lead magnets that create measurable conversations.

Full Episode Transcript
Speaker A: At one point, we had this conversation, and I. I started to. To. To. To cry. You know, I could see the tear coming when I realized, well, I cannot keep doing this forever. I cannot see myself at 40 still working like that. Right. So we knew we had had to change. And when he popped the questions. Hey, would you. Speaker B: Welcome to youo're the Boss podcast show. Today I have a very special guest with me, and that is Natalie Doremu. Natalie, welcome to the show. Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me, Hench. You're welcome. Speaker B: So just explain a little bit about what we need to know about you, who you are, before we get into the show. Speaker A: Yeah, so I'm actually not the typical entrepreneur. I love to say that I became an entrepreneur for love. So let me just explain, like, quickly. I met my then boyfriend at school, and after school, we were in France. After school, we decided to go to the US for the summer to try to get a job because we were in software engineering. And guess what? I found a job in Berkeley, the Silicon Valley, within a month. So we ended up staying there for 10 years. We raised three kids there, and we had a cabin in the mountain. Speaker B: We had. Speaker A: We were flipping houses as we were doing this. I think seven or eight properties in like 10 years. So crazy, crazy, crazy life. I fell asleep at the wheel twice. And one day in 2005 actually said it in 2004. But in 2005, we decided to move back to France and stop the corporate. That was an opportunity that we had, you know, to be let go with a nice severance package and to start our own business. So I'm not an entrepreneur. I'm not wired like it, but my husband was, and he's always wanted to run his own business and be his own boss. So that's what we did. Speaker B: Okay, all right. So this is. This really resonates with me as well, because I was the same when I set up my business 20 years ago. I had no idea what to do. I had no idea what I was doing, and it was just exactly the same thing. It was. I just. I had a passion for what I wanted to do. I knew for me, it was the freedom. I knew I wanted to start a business that would give me freedom so that I could spend time with my kids, who were just toddlers at the time, and I was just missing out on their Life by working 9 to 5. Speaker A: Yeah. Speaker B: So I knew I wanted to do something different, but it's the same as, like with you. I had no experience running a business, and unfortunately, I didn't have my husband who had experience either, because he didn't know either. So, okay, so you, you moved back from the USA and you moved back to France. I mean, it's a scary thing to say. You fell, you fell asleep at the wheel twice. Is that just because life was stressful? You were too busy? Speaker A: Exactly. Speaker B: Okay, so you knew, you knew you had to have a different life. Speaker A: Yeah, I knew. Like at one point we had this conversation and I started to, to, to, to cry. You know, I could see the tear coming when I realized, well, I cannot keep doing this forever. I cannot see myself at 40 still working like that. Right. So we knew we had had to change. And when he popped the questions, hey, would you consider like going back? Because he was, he was a director of software engineering, but frustrated in corporate. Right? Because that's not what his personality is, Right? Yeah, I jumped at it. I'm like, yes. Speaker B: So, okay, so you got back to France and then, so how did you start to set up the life you wanted? Because you really built the life around what you wanted instead because you'd done enough of that in the US you didn't want to do it. Right? So how did you, how did you build what was important for you? Speaker A: So we were lucky enough that we were in the Silicon Valley, software engineering. My husband was a director in the biotech software. So we were able, when we sold the house in San Francisco, the cabin in the mountain, we had quite a bit of money that we could invest in the business. And that was a good thing. And that was a curse as well, because what we ended up doing is spending like Americans spend. Oh, here is a nice house. Husband hasn't seen it. You like it? Yeah, let's buy it. That's how we got the house, right? We didn't visit many houses and basically picked a place that was sunny, that was young, had great university. You know, we're in Toulouse, the south of France. So the aerospace and Airbus is here and all of that. So it's two hours from my mother in law. So not too close, not too far. And that's perfect, right? So, so that's how we got started. Now he wanted to be a boss, his own boss. He didn't have any experience in that. And our first mistake was to think that because we're really good at what we did, that whatever we create will sell, right? So because we had money, we thought we had time. And the first six years, we basically spent hiding from marketing and sales and networking and just building amazing software that nobody was even Buying. Speaker B: Six years doing that. So what changed for you? What made you realize marketing was important? Speaker A: So, so, so basically the, the, the first, the first feeling that you have is like I hate marketing. I hate sales. This is not my thing. Well, guess what? When you start a business you have to either hire it out if you can or you put your on and you learn because that there is no way that you can get away with not doing marketing and sales because this is what sells. Okay. This is what is going to make you money. Speaker B: You have to be. See it's like this whole thing of if you build a website, they will come kind of thing. Speaker A: Exactly, exactly. Yeah. And, and, and then very quickly, I mean very quickly, not quickly enough obviously, but six years into it, when the money ran out and you have your back against the wall, right. Do you go back and look for a job or do you try something else? Yeah, I actually had several interviews, you know, for applying for a job and I think I did three and I got the job for two at the paycheck that I asked which was amazing. I was like that really boosted my confidence that if I really needed to I could, I just needed a win, you know, I needed quick win. So. But I didn't end up doing that. What we ended up doing is joining networks and getting coaches. Right? Getting people to help you because they are accelerator. They're not going to do the job for you but they sure can get you, they can tell you when you get into your own way. So people need different kind of help depending on your personality. And we kind of talked about that, you know, right before we you press record. And for me that was very specific around my core beliefs about myself, about my ability to market, right, to sell, to help people. So it was all of that. I really had to work through who I really am in order to see where I can shine in the business and where I really need help. Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I think it's a journey that you have to go through, right. It's a journey of self discovery. Exact understand yourself before you can really run your own business as well. I think again I had the same thing. I had a coach, I've always had coaches all the way through running a business. Speaker A: Right. Speaker B: Because you need it, right. You need somebody to answer to as well and to push you and to do things that you might not necessarily have done on your own. But yeah, I was the same. And I had one coach and he said, he said to my co director at one point, um, he said aannsha do a presentation for Me, Tell me what you. How you behave with your clients? And I launched into this presentation. He looked at my. My partner and he said, is she like this with the clients all the time? And he went, no. Speaker A: And he was like. Speaker B: So he said to me, just be yourself. Speaker A: Yeah. Speaker B: And I was. I don't know who I am. Speaker A: The biggest part, like, those questions, you know, like, what do you want to do? Like, those are like my dreaded questions because I think they are so hard. Speaker B: Yeah. Speaker A: Answer for some people. Speaker B: And it's the same as I had, like this, this. This really important thing of knowing your why as well. I had a coach ask me, you know, what's your why? Why are you doing this? And I'm like, I've got no why. Yeah, but I didn't know at the time. But looking back on it now, it all falls into place, and I can see. And for me, it was freedom. It was freedom. Speaker A: Yeah. Speaker B: I just wanted the freedom, and that's what I was doing it for. Speaker A: Yeah. And. And I think that is what is missing in a lot of programs. If you're talking about that, I can think of, like, three big programs, I mean, where you spend over five figure, you know, over 10, 15K to join the program. Sometimes 22 of them were not helpful to me. Yeah. One was, right. Speaker B: Okay. Speaker A: There was one that was not helpful. The last one, which was very much on the doing. Doing this is the process. Just follow, do this, do that. It was not aligned with what I wanted to do. So it's really hard when you're in a program and they tell you, well, this is what you have to do. And if it's not something that you see yourself doing, then you are stuck because they are, like, teaching you one way. Another one was we just had that conversation that really traumatized me. I remember we were in a retreat, so. So you pay for the program, you pay for the retreats. I had to go to the US Right? This was in San Diego. Everything. The hotel and all that stuff. Right. And she says in front of the whole audience, she says, I should charge this. I should charge more for this because you guys are not doing the work. And then at the end of the retreat, to top it off, we were. I was having this conversation with her. So because hundreds of people, you pay that much amount of money, but you don't really have access to her. So when you do, you're like, you have to think of your questions, right? You. You've got like one moment. And at the end, she said the worst thing I Hope you make it. This is harmful to say to your student that told me that she doesn't believe in me. Right. I mean, that's how I hear it. And I was done. And I'm like, I never went to another call, another retreat. No way. Now, the third one, the one that made the difference where I doubled. I mean, double my monthly income was. And I'll tell you the name, because I know you know her. Oh, I love her. It's Fabian Fredrickson. Speaker B: Yes. Speaker A: And what we worked on is not the strategy. It's not, let's do a webinar. Let's do this, let's do that. What about your price point? It's not all that. For me, that was the mindset. And she helped me figure out who I was the day that she told me, there is nothing to fix with you, Natalie. It's okay if you're not wired to be an entrepreneur. That's what we are here to support you. We are here for you to understand how you're wired so we know where you operate based. She has this thing where to say it's support for new nature. Right. So I love this about her because when she asks. When somebody asks a question, she's going to answer differently to different people because she loves them with personality tests and things like that. That changed everything. And actually I use this for. For some of my clients. And that. That just works because at the core, you were talking about the why, but you have to go through this discovery of knowing yourself, knowing what you are tolerating. This is something that she talks a lot about. And for me, that changed everything. I was somebody that had a hard time to say no to things. And I felt like after the program, I was a totally different person. Speaker B: That's wonderful. It's really good when you're on programs like that that do actually work and they change, they have an effect on you. And it's something that, as I said, why coaches are needed is because you can't, as they say, you can't see the label from the inside of the jar. Exactly. You're inside it. Right. And you need people to be able to point out to you things where you need to focus and what you need to do. Speaker A: Exactly. We don't know. Yeah. What we're looking for is not necessarily what we need. That's. Speaker B: Yes. Yes. And also the idea that when you know yourself, you also need to understand other people as well. Right? Speaker A: Absolutely. I can tell you it made all the difference in our business because obviously, I'm not Wired. As an entrepreneur, I'm like the to do list. Right. I am the operator. Right, Right. And my husband is the woo woo. Like, you know, so he has all his ideas and things like that. So we could spend an hour in a meeting and nothing really comes out of it. And it felt it was super productive. And for me, because I didn't have the to do list, I was like, wasted hour. But when we realized we have. We are two different personalities. Speaker B: Yes. Speaker A: We need different things. So he learned about why I operate this way and why after an hour, I start to look at my watch and I'm like, okay, is this done? Because I got work to do. Speaker B: Yeah. Speaker A: Then I understand his need for expressing those ideas because he's got several a day. So it's knowing it's inside the team as well. It's an amazing exercise inside the team as well. It's just the basis of communication is we, we. We need different things. I need the pack in the back. That, that. Not that I'm needed, but like that what I do matter. That, that it was really helpful, you know, I just need that. So I think that's really, that, that, that, that's, that's something that's really critical to the success of a business. Speaker B: Definitely. Because when you start to hire a team, you're working with other people, you need to understand how to communicate with them, how they work, how they. What motivates them, what doesn't. And when I first started my business and I hired my first staff, I seriously did not know that people had different personality types. Just didn't understand this concept at all. So I was thinking with my first, she, she was an admin. She did all the admin stuff from the business at the beginning. And I thought, oh. Cause she must be really bored, right? So I was trying to find her interesting things because I would have been bored, right. So I'm like projecting myself onto her. But actually, you know, that that was the worst thing I could have done was try to find her interesting things to do because she was happy just to sit there every day and do the same thing. She liked the. Speaker A: Exactly. She liked to do that. Right. She liked to pass it. And I think that that is, that is, I mean that that's what makes a team work. I remember like one of the things that we were told to do, advice to do, is every single person that you hire or that is on your team, make them do the test to tell you. It's called the unique brilliance. Tell you what they love doing. And they are great at what they are doing well, but they don't particularly like what they hate doing and don't think they're doing a good job. So there was like these four categories, and it's really when you tell them that made the whole difference. I had two VAs at the time that went through that, and I gave them permission. Please tell me what you don't like doing, what you think you're not good at, because you're like, I'm not going to replace you, but I'm not going to have you do that, because I want you to operate in a way where we. We get the best results and you're the happiest. That's how you keep people. Speaker B: It's so important. This is so important because I liken it to trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I'm thinking if you're trying to make people do things that they. Even if they're good at it, if they don't enjoy it and they don't like it, then eventually they're going to leave. Speaker A: Exactly. Speaker B: They will leave. Right. So don't. Don't put a square peg into a round hole. Speaker A: Give them permission to tell you. Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And also, I think this is. This is a struggle with small businesses, especially when you very first start and you're a lean team. Sometimes people have to do things that are not necessarily in their wheelhouse. Speaker A: Right. Speaker B: But you still have to be cognizant of this, and you still have to be aware of the fact that if they're not comfortable doing what they're doing, then doesn't matter how good they are, they're going to leave. So. Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. There. There are, like, there are seasons in business. Right. There are seasons where you might have to do something you don't particularly enjoy for a period of time. There is a reason. There is a goal behind that. Speaker B: Yeah. Speaker A: And very often I found that this happens actually because, you know, I've also coached, you know, people on that, but sometimes they wait too long to hire. And when I'm ready to hire, I want the person to do this and this and this and this. Like, oh, lady, that. Those are like three people. You'll not find somebody that is great and enjoy doing all of this. Okay, let's. Speaker B: Yeah. Speaker A: So, yeah, early, you know, building processes and systems. Early. Things that you eventually you will want to negate. Start documenting it. Speaker B: This is something I learned from one of my coaches, actually, early on in the business. And that was an absolute game changer for me when I learned how to record the systems document system, because then it meant that people could come in. You don't have to do a great big training or explanation. You've documented it all down. They can watch a video, they can read step by step how to do something, and they also know what they're doing instead of guessing. Right. So. And then it gives them accountability in their job as well. And it just changed the game for my business when we implemented systems. And it just empowers it helps with morale as well. Because an example that I often use this as an example was one time in the business, member of staff did something wrong. But rather than blame her for what she'd done wrong, it was, okay, well, what is it in the system that caused this to happen? So it's not blaming her. Speaker A: Exactly. Speaker B: What was missing in this system that made this happen? Then we look at fixing it and then it was a case of, well, can you help to write the instructions for this now so that she takes ownership of it as well. So really important. Speaker A: Yeah, Love this. Yeah, we have this thing like, this is like the. When something goes wrong. Like, was there a system? There was no system. Let's write it. Was there a system? But it's missing something, let's fix it. Or the person didn't follow the system. That's another conversation. Right. But then you're not pointing the figure. You're like, okay, how do we make sure this doesn't happen again? And that's how you get better and better and better at system and results. Speaker B: So true. So true. So, so, so tell me a little bit more about your, your business and how you operate your business around your lifestyle. Because I'm all about that. I just completely believe that if you're going to run a business and you're going to spend all your hours running a business, a, it's got to be something that you enjoy time. You can spend so much time doing it. So. And also it needs to fit in with the way you live your life. Right. So how did you design your business in that sense? Speaker A: So basically when, when we got started, there was one thing. So our youngest was six months old. And so we hired a nanny. So I had to bring her to the nanny, you know, every morning. And. But it was always on my term. Like at the time that I wanted, I would pick her up earlier. So basically what literally we did is my calendar was designed around that. And then putting time in your calendar for the personal stuff first before the business. Another that I, we eventually implemented again, since I've been Working with Fabian. So it's. It's been quite a while now, but I have my Fridays, which are no business day. So they are what we call ega, exponential growth activities. And of course, it depends at what season you are at in the business. But for me, it was like, no calls, so my calendar closed on Fridays. Speaker B: Okay. Speaker A: To work on the business. It's really learning that your business, you can treat it, I like to say, you need to treat it as a client that you cannot afford to disappoint. When you put something in the calendar, a client cannot come and say, oh, this is more important. No, like, you cannot disappoint this one, because this is the only way to growth. It's not about the speed, it's about the consistency. So that's something that we've had. And to this day, Friday, so that we were talking earlier, you know, I told you it's like now mid Thursday afternoon and tomorrow is Friday. So that means to me, it's like I changed. Change the mindset changes on Thursday for me because I am more in business mode, like working on the business. You know, what can I do? And sometimes it's nothing. You know, if it's the summer, we don't work at all and we're outside. Right. It's on our terms. And that's what I mean by our terms. It doesn't mean necessarily working less, but it's me. It's setting those boundaries. Speaker B: Right. Yeah, it's important. I mean, I loved what you said about filling your calendar with the personal stuff first. That, that. I think that is a really. That's a wonderful way to look at things. Speaker A: And it's, It's. It's hard. I know Even now, it's still. It's still very hard because especially if you're starting the business, if it's not where you want it to be, you're not generating the money that you want. Maybe you've got pressure from your partner of making money. You know, like, this is so common. I know a lot of people I've worked with, but you have to allow yourself, give yourself permissions to do that, because this is where you recharge. Don't say I'll recharge when it works, because that's a recipe for failure. Speaker B: Yeah. Nice. I love that. That's really good. So. So tell me a bit about your business and what exactly? Because we haven't spoken about this. What is it that you actually do? Speaker A: Yeah, sure. So. So the business that we've been doing for, for years now is we run the membership lab. So basically what we do is we help people build membership communities, online programs, coaches that want to run online programs. We build the actual infrastructure with in member experience. Speaker B: Okay. Speaker A: How do we get people the best experience and how do we work? How do we set up a system where retention is at the core? Right. You want to continue to help people, you want people to stay. And the only reason people are going to stay is when they get results. So how do you do that? What tools? You know, it's always a combination of content support and accountability. So. So we are into the tech. Remember, we're software engineers. But like it's really applied to these. We've been integrated, integrating AI now for a while, six years. Accelerator. We create AI tools for students to do their homework for, do like role play and things like that. So that's one thing that we've been doing. I've worked with over 300 people one on one to help them with that. And we are behind some of the big online coaches program that are from us experience and attack. And we have another business that we started in 2005 and it's around casting, actually. Casting? Yes. It's called Podcast meet Flow. And basically we created it because again, my husband. Another idea, you know, that came so a gap. So I had this podcast, it's called supercharge your membership show 337 episodes. I could not tell if it was bringing business or not. There was a gap. You know, people are listening and then you've got clients, but you don't know Speaker B: where they came from. Right. Okay. Speaker A: All I could tell is that the clients were telling me, I love your podcast. It's short point, no fluff, which is how I work. How I work. Right. And so I stopped it because I lost the motivation. I'm like, why am I doing this? I don't know. I don't think it brings business. So we created this tool, Podcast Lead Flow. And really the goal is to start a conversation with the listener. So that's. That's the. The new baby that we are pushing in 2026. It's a SaaS. Basically the idea is to turn an episode like we are doing right now. Actually, I'm going to do it with our guest appearance so you'll be able to see it. Is that whether you're a host and you're sharing an expertise or you're a guest and you're sharing an expertise. Right. You can turn this episode into an asset for your business. What Podcast Lead flow does is that it Creates a form that people can fill out. But it's not just the give me your name and your email and I'll send you a PDF and everybody gets the same thing here. It's going to ask you some context about where you're at. And based on that, it's going to send you a unique lead magnet. Unique for each listener. Speaker B: Okay, nice. Speaker A: AI Analyzing the episode, coming up with questions that, that it would ask a listener in order to give a unique piece of advice. Right, Nice. Oh, yeah. So it's, it's growing. It's like we're learning who our target is. Just, just like a new business. Right. And yeah, so that's, that's. Speaker B: I love it. So, so I love that idea. I'm going to check that out right now. Speaker A: I'll send you a. An example of Kawasaka and. Speaker B: But when you first came from the US back to France and how did you come up with the idea of memberships? So I know obviously the tech was behind it, right? Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Speaker B: Drove that. But why memberships? What spot that. Speaker A: Yeah, so actually it was gradual. We really started with we built software because, you know, we built software in the, in the corporate. So we built software. Didn't work. Then we were like, oh, there is something with online. We were looking at Tony Robbins and the Master series, I don't know if you remember that. And there was Mary Folio there and, you know, these people, you know, like. And so we hired a coach and he said, well, you guys should do websites. You're really good online is the thing. So we started just building websites. And very quickly we saw that there was a lot of competition. Not a beautiful designer, right, who felt like, how can we stand out? Well, we can stand out with speed, process automation and things like that. But, like, it felt like it was missing something, an edge. Like, why would they work with me and not somebody else? Because I'm not. I was not the best marketer. What I realized, however, that I was really, really good at is networking, is making connections. Speaker B: Right? Speaker A: And so that's what I did. Build my network of people, you know, and all the business for years, worked only through referrals. Now at some an opportunity came Natalie Lussier, she's from Canada and she was a business coach and she created that membership tool because she couldn't find something she liked. We connected. She became my coach for a while and then she's like, everybody's asking me about my tool and I'm like, I want to sell it as a tool, as a SaaS like, would you want to be a partner with that? So that's how I got into the idea. Because before, that's how you get. I think the idea is, like, by talking to people and opportunities, like, being open, and because it's so aligned with what we wanted to do, Olivier, my husband, immediately saw we have an opportunity to improve e learning. We can do this. You know, we can do something with that. And that's where we were, like, we were on our way. And until this day right now, I mean, we work with some names that would make never don't even know who we are, but just because we are referred by their team, because they say, hey, you need to work with these people because they did this for us and this and this. So it's all networking, word of mouth, and that's worked really, really well. I mean, to this day, I'm going to be very honest, building a list for me is not a priority. It should be. I think it should be right. But it's like, it's a struggle because this is not like, again, this is not something that I do naturally. I would rather talk to people. And that is proving what you do naturally. Exactly. And it's proving to be the. I don't want to say the issue, but, like, the thing that we have to focus on and get better at with podcast lead flow, because there for sure, we have to build an audience. So we work primarily right now with agencies and podcast strategists, because podcasters already spend money with them, so we don't have to convince them they need a way to roi and that's what people do. So it's more networking. But I need to work on that. Legion. Right. Speaker B: Okay. All right. So that's your next chapter with your business then, right? Speaker A: Yes, exactly. Speaker B: Okay, so, Natalie, where can we send people to learn more about you and your services? Speaker A: Sure. So you can go at them. Speaker B: Okay. My name, Right? Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, exactly. Speaker B: The membership lab dot com. Okay. I will put that. Wherever you're listening or watching to this podcast, you'll be able to see the link and then for the podcast, LeapFlow as well. Speaker A: Do you want something? Podcast lead flow? You can go to sas.podcastleadflow.com to find out more about it. You'll see studies, demos, and things like that. Speaker B: Okay, so that's S A A S that one. Speaker A: Yes. S aas.podcastleadflow.com okay. All right. Speaker B: Okay. So, Natalie, thank you so much for being on the show today. It's been a wonderful conversation and I think interesting for me personally, because I think we have a lot of things in our journey that's in common as well. And, and also some valuable stuff that you've been able to talk about today for the listeners and people that are starting their business. They're just setting out on that journey. And some of the things we talked about today are really useful for them as well. So thank you so much for being here. Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for having me. Speaker B: Thank you for listening to the show today. And if you've liked what you've heard, then do subscribe to the channel, wherever you see it, wherever you're watching it. And if you're on YouTube, ring the bell so that you can get notified when we upload another episode so you don't miss the episodes as they come up.

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Canonical Source Context Archive: https://insights.podcastleadflow.com/build-a-business-around-your-lifestyle-transcript-analysis-a7u