From A Single Mom To Messy Action Taking Entrepreneur

Episode 1

Being an entrepreneur takes a whole lot of courage, grit, and maybe a little naivety too. Every journey comes with lessons learned and sometimes we just need to take messy action, until we find what works! So, starting from the very beginning of my journey, when I was a young single mom, I take you through the ins and outs of how I got to where I am now today - Launching Untethered Moment.um.

• Transcript

  I was a 22-year-old, freshly single mom when I first became an entrepreneur.
  
  And to say I had to make it work was an absolute understatement.
  
  You know, I really had no other choice than success.
  
  Hi, my name is Leah.
  
  I am one of the co-founders of Untethered Momentum, and I am so excited to be here, so excited to launch this podcast and dive deep into everything about being an entrepreneur.
  
  We're going to be interviewing other female entrepreneurs, and really just getting into the nitty-gritty of owning a business.
  
  So let me quick rewind a year before my journey actually started as an entrepreneur.
  
  I was engaged to someone who made me feel like I had no worth, no ability, no business being my own boss.
  
  He made me feel like I didn't deserve any bit of success, that I didn't have it in me, and it really got in my head for a very, very long time.
  
  But that's a different story for another day.
  
  So what I am here to talk to you about is my journey from entrepreneurship as a single mom to what it looks like today, and what that turning point was for me in all of those different stages throughout my story.
  
  So at 22 years old, with a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, I had quit my full-time job, and I jumped into real estate 100% full-time, which at the time I probably was a little crazy for this, but regardless, I knew I had to make it work, so I just dove right in.
  
  And to be honest, I was probably a little naive too, but deep down, I just had this calling.
  
  I wanted to be more.
  
  I wanted to do more.
  
  I wanted to try and create better opportunities than a typical corporate life could provide.
  
  And I actually had pretty immediate success straight out of the gate, which was a shock to not only myself, but also those around me as well.
  
  And that's what like lit a fire deep within me.
  
  It made me believe it was possible to continue pushing forward and continue meeting goals.
  
  And, you know, that stage of my life was really great.
  
  I didn't have any really big things that happened to me during that time.
  
  I was, you know, pretty much sailing through hitting my goals.
  
  And during that point is also actually when I met my now husband, and I had been looking to make a move location wise, and he had ended up being in the same spot that I was moving to.
  
  So it kind of worked out anyways.
  
  So I decided to pick up my life and move three and a half hours south of Fargo, which is where I was, which landed me in Plymouth just outside the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
  
  And I had no idea what I was about to get into because I had such great success out of the gates when I lived in Fargo.
  
  I thought that it would be easy to do that here in the Twin Cities as well.
  
  I was definitely very mistaken.
  
  And so going back, when I first started in real estate, I knew that what caused a lot of my success was because I had joined a team.
  
  So I'm like, okay, well, I'm in this new area.
  
  I'm going to also join a team because I don't have a big network, and I'm going to need to get connected to people that have some sort of system already set up so I can get leads right away.
  
  So I jumped onto a team.
  
  And unfortunately, that team was not a hit.
  
  So I ended up doing a little bit of chatting throughout my brokerage, and I ended up moving through to another team.
  
  And this next team that I joined was an absolute nightmare.
  
  It brought me right back to the moments with my ex, where there was a lot of emotional abuse from the leader.
  
  My anxiety was climbing and just through the roof.
  
  It was just honestly a really toxic environment.
  
  And so I eventually needed to leave that team as well.
  
  And so I ventured back out on my own.
  
  And throughout that year, year and a half time frame, I was at like the lowest point of my business income wise that I had ever been.
  
  And at that point, I was in a new relationship.
  
  I was in a new city.
  
  I was broke as a joke.
  
  It was really just so embarrassing.
  
  And I was very like stressed out all the time.
  
  I couldn't figure out how to make it click.
  
  So, you know, I was trying to push through it for like a couple more months and just really trying to make it work and get connected.
  
  But I ended up finding a different brokerage, and they have such a great system for single agents, to be able to connect myself into their lead system.
  
  And that was it.
  
  That was my ticket.
  
  That's what caused me to finally make that switch of, you know, scarcity mindset and thinking like, how am I going to find the next buyer?
  
  And all of a sudden, you know, I had all the leads at my fingertips.
  
  And, you know, it's not to say that it turned out to be easy because there was still a lot of work involved, a lot of crying, a lot of stress, a lot of the things, you know, that you can experience through that.
  
  But that brokerage move was definitely one that was a huge turning point for myself in my life and business.
  
  So I'm not going to actually take you through my entire real estate journey, but I just wanted to preface the ups and downs that I experienced from the beginning of my journey.
  
  As you know, like I said, going from being a single mom, moving to a different state, moving to an area where I didn't really know anybody, but I just continue to press forward and I continue to find options.
  
  And I wanted to seek out, you know, different things that might work better because what I've learned is that you are not a tree.
  
  You do not have roots.
  
  You can move.
  
  It's okay to change and pivot and shift because you're not stuck where you're at.
  
  I kind of want to venture into the next portion of my entrepreneurial journey.
  
  This was back in like the fall of 2017.
  
  I had been married now for a couple months.
  
  You know, I had reached a point of burnout and stress, and I felt like I just wasn't enjoying my life anymore.
  
  And so I was looking for more of a creative outlet.
  
  I wanted something that really meant something to me and had a purpose.
  
  And at that point, I was really diving deep into my church network.
  
  I was really connected with the women there, and I was really inspired to create something around my faith.
  
  And so with a lot of soul searching and a lot of different ideas spilling through my brain, I came up with a new idea.
  
  And just to preface, this time era is when like the FabFitFun boxes or Ipsy, you know, all of those different subscription boxes that were getting really popular, it hit me that I should also start a subscription box, because why not?
  
  So I was super excited to get going into this new business model.
  
  And so I decided I wanted my box to be a little bit different format.
  
  I wanted it to be based around community.
  
  And so I started recruiting a group of women to go through a Bible study together.
  
  And then I would send them this really cool box of, you know, faith-inspired gifts or something cozy or fun, depending on the theme that I was going for.
  
  And I launched this without knowing what I was doing.
  
  And I quickly learned that I didn't have all the knowledge I needed or capacity to move the needle forward at the rate I wanted.
  
  You know, I wasn't a content creator.
  
  I didn't want to be on Instagram all the time.
  
  And this is when Instagram feeds were really highly curated.
  
  And I was just getting so overwhelmed.
  
  And, you know, like I said, I was also freshly married.
  
  I think I did, you know, three studies in total.
  
  And then I just decided to let it fizzle out.
  
  It wasn't my thing.
  
  Maybe it wasn't the right season.
  
  I don't know, but I decided to let it go.
  
  So then I dove back into real estate, kind of refocusing myself and doing a rebrand of sorts and making it more like an educational platform for buyers.
  
  And I focused on this style of real estate for a good year or so before I started to get the itch again to create something new.
  
  So it was the summer of 2019.
  
  I was just about ready to have a baby, and I started asking myself, OK, what's next?
  
  I knew I wanted to be home more with my baby when she came.
  
  You know, the nights and weekends of real estate were really killing me, and I just needed to get something that I could control a little bit more.
  
  And so I had been doing a ton of research about different business model opportunities and what I could do.
  
  And I came across something in the event industry, whether it was like a mobile photo booth or something around the lines of that, that I could tangibly own and rent out.
  
  But I couldn't get clarity on what it was or like what the vision was that, you know, it just wasn't working for me.
  
  And so I kind of just put it aside.
  
  And I said, you know, it's going to come to me at some point when I'm ready.
  
  So I just let it go for the meantime.
  
  And in January of 2020, my life and my family's life got absolutely turned upside down.
  
  It was actually the 10th birthday of my oldest daughter.
  
  And that night we had received a phone call that my stepdad, who basically raised me since I was young, had passed away suddenly.
  
  And it was earth shattering.
  
  And so for the next couple of days, we were just going through, you know, all the pictures, going through all the memories, trying to get like the joy back because of, you know, revisiting those pictures just helps bring that person into the room again.
  
  And I had come across my wedding album, and I was looking at all the pictures, and I was going through them, and I actually started smiling when I got to Todd's photos.
  
  He lit up the room with his smile, his joy and his presence, and all of a sudden it just hit me out of nowhere.
  
  I felt God saying, this is what you need to do.
  
  I was like, hold up.
  
  God, what are you talking about?
  
  I don't take photos.
  
  I'm not a photographer.
  
  This is not what I need to do.
  
  I don't know what you're talking about.
  
  This is crazy.
  
  So I kept digging and started asking myself, well, what was it about that day that I really enjoyed?
  
  You know, looking back at those memories brought me back to the feelings of joy that I saw in the pictures.
  
  And what came to my mind was the environment.
  
  I have such an incredible time creating that atmosphere for a wedding.
  
  And so all of a sudden, like these ideas sort of rolling and spinning, and I was like, oh, I could create an atmosphere for people.
  
  I could start collecting things that people can rent from me so that they can create that atmosphere, and then they can look back on memories and be fond of.
  
  So through this grief, through this insanely difficult part of my life, my new business, The Fond Collective was born.
  
  And I don't know the purpose of like why this happened in this moment, but I do remember for the first couple of months going through the motions of grief.
  
  This is what gave me something to like take my mind off with the pain, and it helped me focus on something that actually gave me joy.
  
  Okay, we all know what else happened in 2020.
  
  We will not discuss that on this platform because that's out of my mind.
  
  We're not going there.
  
  So anyways, I had set my launch date literally the week before the world shut down.
  
  And to say this was an utter disappointment was a huge understatement, because to remind you, my new business was all around events and weddings.
  
  And what was the first thing to go?
  
  It was event.
  
  I had to pause.
  
  I had to gather my thoughts and reassess the situation.
  
  And I said, you know, I'm going to take this opportunity.
  
  You know, I only had two or three months to prep.
  
  Now I get a couple more.
  
  Now I get a couple more months to collect items.
  
  Now I get a couple more months to research and dig deep into education and try and figure out actually what this business could be.
  
  In hindsight, I am glad it happened the way it did.
  
  Although going through it was, you know, I was definitely not happy at the time.
  
  But between my relaunch in the fall and booking my first client in the spring of 2021, I had done a ton of styled suits and collaborations.
  
  So I ended up gathering a lot of content and a little bit more industry knowledge under my belt.
  
  That spring of 2021, I began my journey in the business and was now collecting money.
  
  And I was getting clients.
  
  I was getting recognized.
  
  I was growing popular.
  
  I was getting to be a part of all these really fun, different things.
  
  And then I decided, oh, I want to add on luxury picnics.
  
  So I researched a little bit.
  
  I built my own picnic tables.
  
  I gathered all the supplies needed and launched.
  
  And it was also a hit.
  
  So I had a lot of great success with that.
  
  And I was like, oh, I also want to own or lease a space.
  
  I want to now host events.
  
  I want to have a space to store my inventory and get it out of my house or get it out of a storage unit.
  
  And I want a place to be able to make photo shoot sets and rent for shoots.
  
  And even though like this was a massive new fear because of the commitment financially, but if you're not noticing a pattern here, I just did it anyways.
  
  I started researching different spaces and I found the one that was like maybe a 10 minute drive from my home.
  
  I toured it, but I still felt like it was too big of a risk.
  
  I just hit pause.
  
  You know, a couple of months passed by and it was still coming to mind.
  
  And, you know, the idea of the space, what it could be, and I just got really excited and really just passionate about it.
  
  I called the owner to see if it was still available and it was, and I toured it again and I ended up signing the lease that night.
  
  So when I got into the space, it's this like really old building that was actually going to be torn down eventually.
  
  So I knew I didn't want to put a ton of money into it, but it needed to be renovated.
  
  I did that all on my own, and I just wanted to make it look better.
  
  And I knew it was just going to have to be good enough.
  
  I launched the space and all of this was done fairly quickly within a couple of months of getting the keys.
  
  And, you know, it was a little slow, and I didn't know what I didn't know.
  
  So now here I am running a business with luxury picnics, wedding rentals, design clients.
  
  And then now I had a studio space that I was also trying to fill with rentals.
  
  And it just ended up being a really big pressure.
  
  And I just don't think I was ready in that season to have that huge commitment, especially with a baby at home.
  
  We didn't have daycare.
  
  And so when I was inching closer to my one year term, I had to get really honest with myself.
  
  You know, I looked at my books.
  
  I was losing a lot of money in that space.
  
  And so I ended up deciding to let it go.
  
  And I had an inventory sale.
  
  I got rid of a huge portion of my items to try and recover that financial loss that I had in that space.
  
  And I just wanted to wipe my hands clean and start fresh.
  
  So I just decided just to like move on.
  
  But shortly after my lease ended, I actually started developing some really awful health issues, which caused me to pull back almost 100% in my business.
  
  My body just couldn't handle that physical exertion that my business demanded.
  
  And although I tried keeping it running for as long as possible, like for that next year, I just couldn't give it the love it needed.
  
  I had to make a big decision at that point to say, you know what, I think this is the end of this journey.
  
  And to be honest, that decision freaking sucked.
  
  I cried and cried and cried over this realization that I had to get rid of this business that I had built in honor of my stepdad.
  
  And it was a really hard decision, and I had never sold a business before.
  
  So again, I was being faced with a totally new experience, but I ventured forward, and within some time, I did find a new owner.
  
  I started getting things ready and up to date for her, and I ended up having some moments of peace, but also still sadness just because, you know, like I said, this was built through the grief of losing someone really special to me.
  
  But during that time, it actually brought me back to something that my husband said to me a couple years ago.
  
  I had this old dresser that belonged to my stepdad, and as much as I loved it, it just didn't fit with our new style and our new home.
  
  So I was having a really hard time letting this piece of furniture go, and it was actually just sitting in our unfinished basement, not being used, and he said, You know what, Leah?
  
  Todd is not that dresser.
  
  You still have his memories.
  
  No one can take that from you.
  
  And so that reminder popped up in my head when I was craving the loss of this business, and I reminded myself Todd was not this business.
  
  I still have the fond memories of him.
  
  It will still live on.
  
  And so moving a little backwards here for one second, in the midst of the idea of selling the business, I had approached my other co-founder of Untethered, Bree, and we had chatted a little bit about what that might be if she took on my business.
  
  And so we decided to jump on a call and go through like a vision projection of sorts, where we see our lives going, where we see our business going.
  
  And we just started chatting about those different elements and what we wanted in our lives.
  
  And all of a sudden, I'm like taking notes, and I notice a pattern.
  
  And I was like, hold up, you want the same things I want in business?
  
  And we kind of paused for a second and we're like, wait, are we going to create something here?
  
  Are we going to launch a business together?
  
  And it was such a light bulb moment, and it just made sense.
  
  So we both said, yes, there we were.
  
  I was just about to sell my business.
  
  Here we are birthing a new business, and neither of us had ever done anything like this before.
  
  What I think has been evident in my story, in my entrepreneurial journey, is the fact that what I don't know does not stop me.
  
  I will figure it out.
  
  I will make the mistakes in order to move the needle forward.
  
  I will take messy action.
  
  It just doesn't have to be perfect to start, because I can always change things and shift things as I go.
  
  So bestie, if I can call you that, because that's what I really, really want us to become.
  
  This is what I want for you too.
  
  I want you to be able to take that messy action.
  
  I don't want you to wait until it's perfect.
  
  I want you to identify the moment that shift happens for you, celebrate the heck out of it, but then get to work and just do it.
  
  Here at Untethered Momentum, we are all about those small steps that stack.
  
  It's the little wins.
  
  It's the little moments that move your business forward and ultimately leads you to your dreams.
  
  So what do you say?
  
  Come sit down, stay a while, and let's become business besties.