Lindsey Williams from GOAT Chicago On Enduring Trials and Tribulations

Lindsey Williams is the owner of GOAT Chicago, a wellness spa offering Cryoskin, Endospheres, Whole Body Cryo, and other aesthetic and wellness modalities.

She has been a personal trainer for over 15 years and has the battle scars to prove it.

After having her building shot at, investor deals gone awry, and endless adversity Lindsey has found her inner peace, her authentic voice expressed in her brand, and is back on top living the life she wants. 

Connect with Lindsey at www.goatchicago.com

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Transcript

BBS 92 Linsdey Williams on Trial and Triumph

[00:00:00] Austin: I think my guest today is wearing what might be the most fitting shirt. In history, Lindsay Williams finished joining me today, sporting her Metallica shirt, which is so fitting for a rock star, AKA the goat of goats. The greatest of all time, Tom Brady was scheduled to be on today, but I kicked him out. I said, you know what?

[00:00:23] Make way Lindsay's in town. And here she is today. Lindsay. Thanks for joining the show. How are you? 

[00:00:28] Lindsey: Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm great. How about you? 

[00:00:31] Austin: Amazing life is good. I'm super pumped. Can I say to have you on? Yeah. So I wanna start with what I think is, Hmm. We could go back to the beginning, but I wanna make a remark about you first off that I think is one of your defining qualities.

[00:00:51] And then we will rewind the clock and go back to, uh, how you get your, uh, feet in the world of all things. Beauty, wellness. [00:01:00] And, uh, fitness, which was your origin point. Right? So as we were talking in preparation for the show today, you struck me as one who has been through, I don't know hell between facing looting, having staff that don't wanna work, literally coming into your space.

[00:01:19] And having bullet holes in your building being forced to sell your equipment bad investor, just let's just say engagements. Mm-hmm um, having to go through being open and en closed and having to reopen changing locations all the while. Probably doing this largely on your own, you are the American entrepreneurial hero archetype.

[00:01:45] And I wanna just give first off, give you a shoutout for that because you have gone through oh, thank 

[00:01:49] Lindsey: you. And it's important. It feels like it . 

[00:01:52] Austin: Yeah. And you've, you've gotten through, so I don't know where to start. Maybe your inception point when you got into fitness and [00:02:00] how that led you to beauty, and then we'll take it from there.

[00:02:01] So if you wanna tell us that story. Yeah. Love you. 

[00:02:04] Lindsey: I mean, I, I always knew I wanted to be in fitness at first. I thought maybe physical therapy. Um, but honestly, I didn't wanna go on those at least three years of schooling to do physical therapy after the five that I had already done. Um, I was in school in Indianapolis, moved to Chicago.

[00:02:21] I just knew there was more opportunity got into personal training into, in Chicago, ended up working at kind of would say one of the best gyms there is and met a lot of great people. And through there, um, they actually closed on us and then we were supposed to walk into work one day and not have a job.

[00:02:41] So that was kind of a blessing in disguise for me. Cause I had to non-compete and was able to take my clients and then go out on my own with them. And then after that, you know, I trained them for about three or four more years and then just got kind of bored and went into. Move on to something else.

[00:02:58] Like how could I do better [00:03:00] with training them? If I get more clients, charge them more money, how do I progress? You know, without killing myself and working, you know, too many hours every day. So then, um, I had a friend who kind of approached me to start something fitness related, and then we also decided to do a cryotherapy at the same time.

[00:03:19] So I kind of got more into the beauty end, I would say, because we opened a fitness and recovery studio. And then all these other cryo places had something similar to cryo skin, or they had cryo skin. So that I'm like, all right, I don't know about that thing. So let me check it out. Ended up checking out.

[00:03:37] And it was like, oh wow. It actually works. Definitely not something I would've believed in until I tried it. And I had a lot of clients like struggling to get results and things like that. So to find something like that, I believed in, I was kind of struck by it and the results that it had given. So I think that makes me a good salesperson also for cryos skin.

[00:03:55] So that kind of brought me more into the beauty business. And then, [00:04:00] um, yeah, now, now I mentioned skin of indoor beer and I went to some other tenets of a lot of other beauty services right now. Wow. 

[00:04:11] Austin: You said something in passing that I wanna drill into, which was when you said that you were, you fired mm-hmm that it was blessing in disguise,

[00:04:28] Lindsey: all that disguise. 

[00:04:32] Austin: What about that was a blessing and, and I'm, I'm asking because I think there are people, how do I say this? There are people that are looking to make a leap or take a leap of faith, but they're terrified to do it, but you strike me as a person that is maybe it's not confidence, but it's courage that you have just an ocean.

[00:04:52] Your of 

[00:04:54] Lindsey: a little bit. Yeah. I mean, I just know I gotta make shit work, you know? yeah, its true. And then it has [00:05:00] to there's no other option. So for that, they were actually just closing the gym like that whole entire facility. So everyone that worked there was kind left hanging. So, and actually I figured it out the day before is my, I saved all my client's information, you know, and how much money they had already paid for their services.

[00:05:19] I mean, I guess key note, there is keep a record of everything you do, cuz you never know what's gonna happen. So then, you know, you can help maintain your business if things shut down on you that you know, and you have to be on your own the next day. 

[00:05:32] Austin: Mm-hmm . Yeah. So let's go back to that, that moment. So up until that point, you were working as a, a fitness per effectively, right?

[00:05:41] You were doing personal training, personal training. Yeah. At a gym. The, the job goes bye. By. you have records of all your clients, and then you're forced into a position of, I have to do something well, there's no better time than now to start my own thing. You [00:06:00] did. Mm-hmm you had your records of all your, your clients, but they had paid you.

[00:06:03] Um, and at that point it was literally just physical training. No, no aesthetic treatments or any of the store? No. No. Okay. And then you, you had a pivot where you went from fitness to aesthetics. How did that happen? 

[00:06:18] Lindsey: Um, I would say cryo kinda happened. I mean, it kinda came upon me cause I knew I was gonna do cry like regular cryotherapy, like whole body cryotherapy, localized and was more into the recovery side of.

[00:06:31] For fitness reasons. And then, you know, all, all the different health reasons. And then because other cryo centers had cryos sci or something similar that's I had to check it out to see what the competition's doing, obviously, and then tried it. And then, um, I was kind of, I was wowed by it and it actually worked.

[00:06:48] So then was kind of going down that avenue of just other, you know, services that are similar to that. 

[00:06:55] Austin: I see. Okay. So it's an adjacent swim lane to fitness, [00:07:00] obviously. Mm. Um, and then that was when the real friction started to happen, where you all these hardships that I mentioned of mm-hmm, facing looting doing with staff that didn't work the bolt whole story.

[00:07:15] Um, I want, I wanna, I wanna touch on these stories, these, these low points, cuz I think the, okay. Let's see. The reason why is the valleys are what make the peak beautiful. If you have a landscape and it's all mountain, it's like, there's no contrast to the point. And I think when we struggle and we suffer, there's a couple of interesting, interesting things that can happen.

[00:07:39] Um, one is that if we can find a way to attach a dopaminergic, let's say, um, release or a, how do I say this? , I'm trying to paraphrase doctor Huberman here from his podcast, but this idea of you find a way to attach joy to the struggle and that itself becomes reward. And I would [00:08:00] think at this point, you've become pretty damn good at that.

[00:08:02] And that's made you impervious. It doesn't matter what the world throws at. You. You're gonna find a way to plow through and make it happen and stand your feet. Not even a pandemic when you were operating by yourself, right during COVID, that was all you doing the whole thing. And you had all these expenses you had.

[00:08:20] If I'm not mistaken, you had a $21,000 a month lease. Oh, yeah. Yeah. COVID and you survived. You're a hero. God, you're the archetype of the hero and the hero's journey chart. Seriously. So I don't know which particular hardship story would be interesting to drill into maybe chronologically some of the, the, the points that prior to the show.

[00:08:44] I'd love to hear about that. Um, because again, I think there are people that listen to the show, watch on YouTube, et cetera. This will resonate with, and it might save their life mm-hmm . [00:09:00] And so you are , this is your opportunity to give some hope to people that are maybe in a similar situation. So which of these stories of hardship stand out in mind as being some of the more difficult points that you've had to navigate?

[00:09:15] Oh, man. 

[00:09:17] Lindsey: Um, I don't know, they were all kind of hard to be honest. So I don't know which one of would stand out the most. I would say the one that stood out the most was, um, I opened a fitness and recovery studio rented to a physical therapist. Um, we opened in 2019. We spent years working on the project. I raised over a million dollars to begin the business we opened.

[00:09:43] Um, maybe we were open for. Six seven months and then had our first profitable month. And that was February, uh, right before COVID March Chicago, February shut down. Um, and then we've reopened in June just [00:10:00] for, you know, a certain percentage of our services. And then made it to December and then knowing that our rent was like $21,000 a month and we couldn't really do the fitness side of the business.

[00:10:11] Um, unfortunately we don't have the best mayor, so she wasn't, you know, every, all the things in Chicago just working, weren't working out at that time for us. So then the best thing to do at that time was to get out of our lease. Cause it was a 10 year lease. When you're a startup in Chicago, no one's going to lease.

[00:10:29] And at least in this neighborhood for anything less than 10 years, so kind of ended up getting out of the lease, sold the majority, you know, tried to sell pretty much majority of everything that we could take out with us, um, that wasn't, you know, built in. And then, you know, just worked on selling that and also try to make money for myself to survive.

[00:10:51] So I would say cryos skin is kind of, well, what helped me get through that? So any clients that had already paid for their packages for that business, that closed, [00:11:00] I honored them, um, finished those sessions out and then started renting like a room for myself at a hair salon just to get those clients in while looking for, you know, maybe the next spot to do it.

[00:11:14] And then at that time I also Hado sphere, but then I ended up send sending iNOS SP back. Cause I didn't know what the next move was. And. Quite an expensive lease for the endos SP so then rented from that hair salon, that hair salon was moving location. So I'm like, all right, here we go. Maybe I'll move with them.

[00:11:33] Unfortunately, it was a, not the best, um, location for me. No one would've really found me there. So then I found another location, started leasing, subleasing, a room to do cryo skin. And the girl I was subleasing from actually ended up getting evicted. So it had to. Wait about a year to, for that to run through, cuz that girl wasn't being responsive to the owner of the building.

[00:11:58] And then that went through the whole [00:12:00] court system and say that it, they exhausted her trying to get ahold of her. And then finally about a year later, I ended up taking over the lease and was able to bring, get some other equipment in and just kind of start up the whole recovery side that I was doing before.

[00:12:14] But this time, like on my own, without any investors.

[00:12:22] Austin: What was the low point? 

[00:12:24] Lindsey: Was there a date? Um, I mean the lowest point is like obvious, like looking at your bank account and like, okay, well, how, you know, like I owe this person this much money, you know, getting out of that lease and then just kind of, you know, just making sure all your expenses could be paid and I have money to live on when.

[00:12:42] You don't know what's happening in the world. If things are gonna shut down, are they changing their restrictions? People are scared to come in. Um, so yeah, just really, really not knowing what's gonna happen the next day. Wow. I would say that's probably the lowest point, but you know, that went up and down for a while [00:13:00] really the year.

[00:13:00] So, um, yeah, but just knowing that, you know, just gotta make it work and then always, you know, Making sure you can stabilize and then work towards the next step 

[00:13:12] Austin: and you through all this have of course developed an extreme stomach for volatility mm-hmm emotionally and otherwise. Yeah. What was your strategy for hope?

[00:13:24] So, let me when address this question a bit, um, you're faced with adversity after adversity. One day you come in, there's a bullet hole or holes, bullet holes. Mm-hmm and you're building looting, which this is all during COVID. Right. All the insanity of COVID. Right? Yeah. Writing and whatever. Okay. Um, when you were in those and I'm, we are gonna get to the light we're I know we're obsessing over the darkness at the moment.

[00:13:52] Um, but as you were enduring, the dark spots, was there something that you, you clung to. [00:14:00] You know, I'm thinking of the, the story of Michael Phelps. I think it was during his seventh or eighth, um, race. And this was the race that if he won this, he was going to win the most gold medals, I think in history or something.

[00:14:13] And right outta the gate, his goggles fell off and he is swimming blind. And that's probably a moment where he's like, oh, oh my God, this, like the stakes could not be higher. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. And I'm about to blow it. And he had a way to, to get through that and ended up winning the gold medal.

[00:14:33] So I'm wondering if, if for you, there was something like that where you, in those moments that you could share with the audience that they could use themselves mm-hmm , that was a strategy for hope that began in your, like your mental space. Let's say, is it, is it affirmation? Is it visualization? Something like that.

[00:14:49] Oh yeah. 

[00:14:50] Lindsey: Um, I mean, I think by the. What happened to me the most is I learned how to control everything. I stopped listening to other [00:15:00] people and I, I know what's best. I've been doing this longer than anyone else. That's trying to give me advice. Um, luckily, you know, the first location I had a business partner that we complimented each other really well, but even with him, like came to a point that we agreed to just let me control everything.

[00:15:17] Mm-hmm and then, and then once I did, you know, I just had more of the con I've always had the confidence, but I thought, you know, Maybe other people, you know, I've always openminded to listen to other people and learn from other people. I've always been like that. But at this point I'm like, all right, I've learned enough, you know, and it's time for me to like take control and do things, how I wanna do it.

[00:15:38] And, and then after that, it actually like worked out even better. 

[00:15:43] Austin: I love I've learned nothing 

[00:15:46] Lindsey: actually. I mean, I could, I can always learn, but I'm like, alright, now, I'm tired of everyone coming at me. I'm tired of everyone, you know, shutting things down at the time. I had employees that, you know, didn't wanna come to work and I [00:16:00] understand like they took public transportation.

[00:16:02] It's COVID, uh, we don't know what's happening on the streets here. So I just had to be prepared that no one was gonna showed up to work and pretty much had to do it all on my own. So at that point I'm like, all right, I'm just gonna control and do everything now just to be, be on the safe side to make sure everything was operational.

[00:16:22] Austin: This reminds me of, well, some of the contrarian advice that you, you alluded to before we started the show, um, which might be a good segue actually. So let's do that. One of the things that you mentioned that seemed very contrarian to the more, more hyper growth we gotta scale. Mm-hmm we gotta get franchise and have a hundred locations across the states, et cetera.

[00:16:45] Is your view that less is more, and that is mm-hmm staff, presumably with, with. Potentially even income. So I'm curious in terms of contrarian advice that you have either listened to [00:17:00] or would give, are there things that jump to mind that are contrarian views that you have along those lines? Yeah. And you can speak to the less money or less staff piece first.

[00:17:09] Lindsey: I mean, I think now is different times and maybe whatever we would've thought, like pre COVID or whatever, but, you know, we started started big, you know, raised, it was definitely over a million dollars, had about a 5,000 square foot facility, um, you know, made it beautiful, made it trendy, made it really fun, you know, required.

[00:17:29] A lot of employees just, you know, required a lot of people to, to, you know, to work and. And then, you know, at the time, and I wouldn't say that was the best thing to do, but then COVID happened. So it kind of taught me a lot. So it kind of made me realize that, you know, less is more, um, so, and people enjoy having, you know, I would say that small business.

[00:17:53] Um, experience and, um, that personal experience with the people that worked there and rather than [00:18:00] trying to be franchisee, which, you know, we were actually about to open, you know, in the works of possibly opening something in Toronto. We had some people interested in doing the same concept there. So we were just kind of discussing that and that kind of fell through and then COVID happened.

[00:18:16] So that's probably for the best, but, you know, I would say kind of the bigger isn't the better.

[00:18:25] Austin: Yeah. So when you think about, uh, when you think about that, are you, are you thinking of something like, I have an income target that I want, and that's fine if I get that rather than some sort of just obsessive, hyper growth thinking, how do you, how do you arrive at whatever your number is or whatever your enough, right?

[00:18:47] Yeah. 

[00:18:48] Lindsey: So I would say now I focus more. I would say on my lifestyle and with lifestyle obviously comes income because there's a certain amount of income. You need to have that lifestyle. I would say when it's [00:19:00] bigger, when you have more, when you're, if there's just more stress, cuz you have more people involved and when you have more people involved, you have too many personalities.

[00:19:07] You have too many opinions. You have, again, too many people telling you the small things, not seeing big picture when. When I just learned, I'm like, all right, I can control. I just need to control this. Cause I know what's best. And then you kind have to block them out and kind of do if you, if you know what you're doing and you think you do it well, you just need to do it.

[00:19:29] Austin: Mm. This reminds me of something I'm gonna pull up here on another screen on, have you heard of this idea of essentialism? Uh, I'm not sure. Okay, so essentialism, let me pull it up in my notion doc. So essentialism is something like this ruthless discipline of saying no, no, no, no, no. To growth, no. To more, no to whatever it might be.

[00:19:57] And so I'm wondering how you think about, like [00:20:00] you mentioned that you've decided okay. No to investors mm-hmm no, to hyper growth, no, to a lot. How do you, how are you, you mentioned the lifestyle piece, like thinking about the lifestyle that you wanna have, but is there anything else there that you would give the listeners, viewers of the show to think through as they're defining what they're enough is?

[00:20:24] Cause this is, that's what this is about. Like what is the essential thing that I want to attain or goal I wanna achieve or income. I want to attain et C. Any other thoughts for those, uh, audience members that are stuck? Yeah. Trying to figure this out themselves. 

[00:20:41] Lindsey: Um, I think some people just fixate on numbers and things like that.

[00:20:45] And with me, I found, especially being a female in the fitness industry, I thought that was very challenging cuz most of the time, you know, people think guys know what they're doing more in that industry, which, you know, they, I wouldn't say they do or they don't, but again, every, [00:21:00] you know, that's just the.

[00:21:02] Persona that people have. So I think I had to work hard to prove myself, and I'm not someone to put myself out there or kiss ass to anyone. So I prove myself through my quality of work and, and just how I interact with people. So I think that goes a long way. So now I try to give the best experience to the people that come in and my knowledge and.

[00:21:23] Just make it, you know, real, just enjoyable for them to see me. I have people that come in every day to cryo and I think if you put what you want into it, you, you get in return the money and the lifestyle. 

[00:21:37] Austin: Yeah. So I found this, the document on essentialism and there's, there's four pieces to it. And I'd love to hear your, your thoughts on this.

[00:21:47] The first chunk of it is when, so what is important now? So apparently before the 15 hundreds, and this may not be literally true. I think it is. Um, this is someone citing. This is third hand from [00:22:00] Peter Drucker who was probably citing somebody's second hand. So, uh, don't, don't send the, uh, hate mail. This is wrong, but apparently there was no word for priorities before the 15th.

[00:22:11] Or 16th century, there was only one word. It was priority mm-hmm . So this first chunk of essentialism is win. So what is important now? What is that one priority with the idea being that you need to prioritize your life or someone else will. And so it seems like for you, Lindsay, your experience has been when I start allowing other people to have a say and the strategy, the course of the business, et cetera.

[00:22:38] You just, you find yourself maybe diluted you are, uh, you're almost being drawn in quarter, like you're being pulled apart and there's, you're like losing that, that site on what is enough for you, which is mm-hmm that you just said. Um, but perhaps the, I think the thing that stands like the most actually is, is [00:23:00] trade offs, which is the third piece of essentialism.

[00:23:02] So the first is when what's important. Now, the second is the paradox of choice. Um, which is this concept that when you know what your priority is, and you have clarity on that. So maybe for you, it's, I'm just doing recovery. Um, and I'm focused on non-invasive treatments that provide that aesthetic benefit, but largely focus in recovery, something like that.

[00:23:24] Mm-hmm, hurting words in your mouth here. When you deviate from that and you become more successful, more people get involved, then you get further diluted, further diverted. And then long story short, the paradox end up being here's this here, here's the paradox in a sentence. It's that the pursuit of success can be the catalyst of our failure, especially if it leads to the undisciplined pursuit of more thus, the antidote is the discipline pursuit of less.

[00:23:53] So that's really essentialism in a nutshell. And it seems like you've figured out what is essential for you. Mm-hmm and you're drilling your teeth into that. [00:24:00] And everything else is just noise. That is ignore. Pretty 

[00:24:04] Lindsey: much. Yeah. 

[00:24:06] Austin: okay. I love it. That's genius. Yeah. Very cool. Um, are there other pieces of advice that are contrarian or ways of thinking that jump to mind?

[00:24:18] So maybe here's one way to approach it. Is there some sort of advice that you hear parroted all the time in our industry that you think is just bad that people should ignore? 

[00:24:29] Lindsey: Uh, , I don't listen to a lot of that though. I, I mean, I kind of know I've just, you know, had a lot of up and downs. I've just had a lot of experience and in the service industry, I would say, um, and I kind of, I don't know, I just don't listen to much.

[00:24:46] I stick to what I know and it ends up working, but I kind of do. Put my personality into it and kind of give my touch on it. And I would say what I'm not doing now is being more corporatey mm-hmm . Um, I think people have a, an [00:25:00] idea of when they walk into, you know, like the facility or, or somewhere like how it should look.

[00:25:05] How it should be like, my place is like the exact opposite. I would say of that. Like the decor and just the whole vibe. When you walk in, like, it's not, it's not like a spa vibe, you know? I mean, it has a relaxing vibe to it, but it's, it's different, but I don't, I don't wanna be of a franchise. That's basically it.

[00:25:24] So I wanted everything to be like small and like personable and just different and just sticks out as in a different experience. Different than I would say definitely just not, not a corporate franchise buy. 

[00:25:38] Austin: That reminds me of an article I read from David prill. I think it was last month on this idea of the great flattening.

[00:25:45] Have you heard that by 

[00:25:46] Lindsey: chance, Uhuh? I haven't. You could tell me though. 

[00:25:50] Austin: um, okay. Fair enough. So the great flattening is this idea that. For whatever reason be it, um, potentially [00:26:00] because design tools have, um, have evolved in such a way that, well, okay, let me set this up a bit more. You, you might notice if you look at logos for a ton of these big companies, companies like good reads like Facebook, like hinge, you know, I'm thinking of different disparate, um, industries.

[00:26:20] A lot of these companies are using the logo called corporate Memphis. And corporate Memphis is this logo that has these characters, these, these people E characters that you see used, you know, whenever these corporations want to show fake people effectively, they all look basically the same and all the, the characters look like alien or something like they're not, they're not black or white or brown or pink or purple.

[00:26:45] They're like just, just like this gray nothingness of, um, a devoid of personality. There's just like, you look at it and like, there's nothing. Really identifiable about it, except for the fact that it is that, you know, that category of Vaness, [00:27:00] let's say. And so, whatever the point is that that is a symptom of most big corporations.

[00:27:07] It seems choosing to try to appeal. This is the punchline trying to appeal to everybody and therefore appeal to no one mm-hmm . So it's a zip they're afraid to stick their flag in the ground and say, this is what we are. This is what we stand for. And if we're not your people, that's fine. Maybe the, uh, the gal down the Street's better for you.

[00:27:28] Right. And it seems like you have identified your flag. My flag is I wear a Metallica shirt. when I'm in this spa. And if you don't like that. Yeah. If you don't like Metallica, I'm not your girl. That's fine. That's exactly it. When, when did that change for you? 

[00:27:46] Lindsey: Um, I would say as soon as things opened back up after COVID, you know, mm-hmm, , I feel like, I feel like a lot of personalities changed at that time, or people learned a lot, um, for the better or the worse.

[00:27:58] And, [00:28:00] and then I think when we reopened, I saw these, you know, franchises in corporations, making their statements and. You know, trying to make people happy by what they were posting or, you know, what they, what they stand for, what they were just trying to stand for, what they thought, you know, they were supposed to do.

[00:28:19] And then it wasn't authentic. Mm-hmm so I guess now, you know, I I'm against, I mean, just be your authentic self, just do what you wanna do. Don't post don't, you know, try to represent something you don't know what's about. And then eventually I feel like that's kind of turned on them a little bit, cuz now.

[00:28:35] Kinda overdoing it on their marketing, you know, for, for different things to appeal to people. And you know, now it's like, now I don't wanna, I don't wanna be anything like that. Hmm. So I would say at that point, the reopening after COVID is when it really stood down that I'm like, oh, here you are trying to open up maybe possibly another location and you know, become bigger.

[00:28:58] But all these big people [00:29:00] aren't that cool. yeah. 

[00:29:02] Austin: You know, It's as if there's a crisis of authenticity. Exactly. Yeah. Expressed in branding experience. Um, yeah, 

[00:29:14] Lindsey: it's it's and too many people train just to have the generic, you know, cookie cutter of what they think of, you know, a business should look like and how it should be.

[00:29:22] Um, because most people wanna be bigger. That's, you know, what's, I mean, I guess that's maybe most of the goal of people and, you know, we started off, I was seeing a big facility and started with, you know, a decent amount of funding. So. I got a little glimpse of what it's like, and then yeah. Don't like it 

[00:29:41] Austin: and now you're rocking metallic shirts.

[00:29:43] Uh, 

[00:29:43] Lindsey: yeah. Now I can wear whatever I want and you know, , 

[00:29:48] Austin: which is awesome. And I'm sure your people love you and you probably, maybe not bizarrely, but paradox. Mm-hmm um, it's as if the, the more you maybe. There might be some sort of phenomenon [00:30:00] here, but it's like the more you repel people, the more, the people that are drawn to you are magnetized towards you, right?

[00:30:05] As if, as if the more willing you are to be polarizing, you will suffer from repelling. The people that will probably, or would have probably ended up being your worst customers in the beginning and simultaneous the attracting in this lifelong I'm with you until the day I pass, um, relat. Uh, I dunno, other term to use other than magnetism with the customers that find you, that wind up sticking with you for life.

[00:30:30] So I would imagine your churn rate is pretty low. Yeah. Once 

[00:30:34] Lindsey: they find you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, if they live in this, like, I mean, if it, if they're convenient to get here, um, they definitely still common. Honestly. I can't say I have like any customers or clients that come in. But I don't like, you know, when you have like a bigger place, you could probably think, oh, here they come.

[00:30:51] You know, I see they made the appointment or, but honestly, everyone that comes in, I they're great. I even do class pass. I think all the class class people are great. [00:31:00] Um, yeah. There's like really no one that comes in that I'm like, oh, 

[00:31:05] Austin: that's amazing. That's amazing. And is that you think in part, because of the way that you brand yourself online and that you have self selection mechanisms.

[00:31:13] Lindsey: Maybe a little bit, but honestly, like I'm not like super active, I would say online. There's like the website. Like I have Instagram, actually my Facebook and Instagram that hacked. So one, I have two business pages, one I had over the 7,000 followers on that got hacked. So I don't, and now it's disabled. So I have don't even have that one.

[00:31:33] And then I started a newer one to emphasize more like PIOs, get an endo at first. That one doesn't have as many followers, but that one is active, but part of it is still disabled. So I can't do a lot on it. So I would say online presence really isn't that huge. So I would say most people Google, like word of mouth, um, just referrals right now.

[00:31:56] Yeah. And actually, like, I feel like I've had better [00:32:00] months of those times when I haven't been really active on Instagram and Facebook. Wow. Interesting. So I really don't know, you know, I think it makes an impact, but I don't, it's not something I stress about. Like, you know, oh my God, let me make an Instagram post.

[00:32:15] Yeah. It helps. And I think, you know, it's a great tool, but again, like, you don't know when your page is gonna get hacked. So don't just rely on, on that to be your avenue of business. 

[00:32:25] Austin: Is there something you think that you are doing better than most? Um, 

[00:32:31] Lindsey: no, not, not at all. If anything, I. You know, I don't, I don't have any employees right now.

[00:32:37] So, you know, I wouldn't say that anything I'm doing is better. Like, it's always great when you have some help or, you know, have some other things going. I would just say the only thing I'm doing better is, is maybe doing everything myself and, you know, putting all my, all into it and making it my priority.

[00:32:56] Um, but again, like, I don't think it's work or anything like [00:33:00] that. Like I enjoy everything I do. I enjoy everyone that comes in. So it's not something. You know, I think it is work or I dread doing. Um, but I wouldn't say maybe the only thing I'm doing better is like listening to myself. Or if I don't know it, I try to figure it out some way.

[00:33:17] Um, and I don't stress. Maybe that's the thing I don't ever get stressed. So I feel like maybe that's the only thing that sets me apart from people is like not getting stressed. Uh, 

[00:33:27] Austin: well, that's, uh, a thing you'd like to see written and shared. What's the secret? How do you not get stressed? 

[00:33:34] Lindsey: I mean, there's no reason to, I mean, you just have, it's just gonna suck your energy for no reason.

[00:33:38] So like why you stress out about anything? Cause it's just gonna waste your time. 

[00:33:43] Austin: Hmm. You have a practice that you do to what is the secret let's? 

[00:33:50] Lindsey: Uh, I just pet my dog a little bit, you know? So maybe some animal therapy . Mm. But no, I mean, I just know I've just, no, I've kinda always [00:34:00] been like that. I would say maybe nice.

[00:34:03] I learned that at a young age, not to stress out about things and yeah, that's probably, that's probably the one thing that sets me apart from a lot of people, 

[00:34:13] Austin: sounds like a call to meditation. and I call to pick up a not book. 

[00:34:19] Lindsey: Yeah. I don't have time to read or meditate really, but I would say, Hmm.

[00:34:28] Yeah, I would say just my dog. Maybe that's not it. 

[00:34:33] Austin: go get a dog listeners, go get a dog. 

[00:34:36] Lindsey: Hey, I used to have at the people, that's another thing. If in the window attract 

[00:34:44] Austin: yeah. Cheap ads cheap. 

[00:34:48] Lindsey: I get reviews for people like, oh, I love the dog. I love when I come there and the dogs there. Or I've had people call, like I see the dog in the window, um, planning on SAP in[00:35:00]

[00:35:00] Austin: That's funny. That's funny. Dogs are great, indeed. Yeah, indeed. Well, what, what would you say gives you the most joy in the work that you're doing today? Is it, is it some, is it a device? Is it a treatment? Is it running the books? Is it, what are you enjoying the most in your day to day now? 

[00:35:22] Lindsey: Um, I enjoy making, giving people results and them feeling better.

[00:35:26] And I think with, with that, you know, everything else comes along with, you know, hand in hand with it. Um, as far as like, you know, which device or income or things like that, obviously everyone likes making money and, you know, generally money should make you happy to a certain point. Um, but, but really, I, I just like helping people when they come in and help make letting them, you know, feel better and have a great experience a lot of times.

[00:35:51] Everything seems skeptical or, you know, they've never tried it before. And cryotherapy is something that, you know, a lot of people haven't tried and it seems scary. And especially when they come in [00:36:00] alone. Um, so just really making people feel good and learn something new and something that can help them, you know, as they get older and feel better.

[00:36:09] And, and the body that they live in

[00:36:13] Austin: and your, your three primary devices that you're using today are if I'm not mistaken, cryos skin, Um, iNOS spheres and you have an infrared sauna. Yeah. Are you doing other, oh, you have whole body as well. Okay. So, uh, whole body crowd as well. Okay, cool. Hmm. How do you cryos get an SPHS pair together in your experience?

[00:36:33] Lindsey: Um, really well. Um, but a lot of times like people come in, you know, maybe cryos skin is just, you know, they have a great body or, you know, everything else is good and they just have one separate area. So cryo skin might be the best thing for them, but then you have people that come in and they. Multiple areas.

[00:36:49] And I think, you know, I've had, you know, a lot of different health things myself with inflammation. And, you know, I think before I had some younger employees and they were great, but I [00:37:00] think having someone that you know is in an age that's relatable to the customers that come in for these service means a lot.

[00:37:07] And that I could relate to all the things that are in their body. And the fact that I had done personal training before is always helpful because I understand, you know, What they're doing and what they're not doing and what it takes, you know, to get the results they want. So I think that comes great with it, but, um, I would say

[00:37:28] Inosphere will help the people that, you know, have those multiple areas. And maybe if someone's not getting results with cardio skin, they compare it. But a lot of times people come in with, they wanna work on their cellulite and then I'm like, okay, they come in for prime skin right away. And I'm honest with them, you know, If you wanna do all around your legs, that's gonna be a lot of treatments.

[00:37:46] And you know, here I have fear. It's not gonna cost you as much. It's gonna take you less time, but you have to come in, you know, more frequently to do it, but it's gonna be able to target your whole entire body rather than, you know, one section at a [00:38:00] time. So I think, you know, being honest about that, then they end up doing.

[00:38:05] At some point. Um, but yeah, I think angios helps like create and restore the skin and, and the tissue to give the results that cryo skin can. Hmm. 

[00:38:16] Austin: I love it. Is there anything about any of those devices that you have even whole body cryo that have shocked you? I mean, results wise or otherwise? 

[00:38:24] Lindsey: Um, all of them actually, I would say they all have people come in with a lot of different issues.

[00:38:30] I would say. I mean, Sphere is probably my favorite of all of them. I saw actually on Instagram. And when I first saw it, I'm like, oh, wow. Cause I was looking for lymphatic drainage, um, treatments just for myself. I have a lot of li you know, edema in my own body and lymphatic issues and inflammation issues, but it was all in Italian.

[00:38:52] So I'm like, oh shit. Like where do I find this at? So when I would go visit friends in LA or Dallas, you know, or Miami I up, you know, tried to find it, does [00:39:00] anyone have it there? And then one day Ardeth reached out to me and asked if I wanted a pilot into a sphere. And I'm like, oh my God, that's it. And let me go try it.

[00:39:09] And I have a lot of heaviness in my legs and I met, um, Christy with endos fear in the suburbs to try it before I committed to it. And I hate running. I'm not a runner. Um, Only because I would feel heavy in my legs. Like I just knew it was funny and wasn't meant for me in my body. So after the first time I tried into, I walked out to the parking lot and like, oh my God, I feel like I could go for a run, felt so much lighter on my feet.

[00:39:33] I feel like I had the most dramatic maybe first time experience. And I don't tell. Everyone that story when they come in, but I could see people that maybe have a similar body type is mine and can relate to them. Um, so I'll kind of give them like the gist of it. And somehow I'll tell the whole story too, but I don't want everyone to think like they're gonna have that dramatic result after the first time.

[00:39:54] But the fact that I did, like, I would say, like that was a big shocker to me. 

[00:39:59] Austin: [00:40:00] So you had one SPHS body treatment and you had suffered from just hating, running. You felt heavy. Um, I 

[00:40:08] Lindsey: just had, um, edema, so like more like fluid retention and just the legs. Yeah. 

[00:40:13] Austin: And then after a treatment of S you were able to run.

[00:40:17] Lindsey: I felt just laid on my feet and just more capable. So yeah. Usually my knees were always swollen. Um, so they can maybe, especially like a few hours afterwards, I actually went to the gym and my friend's like, oh my God, look at your legs. And I'm like, oh, you notice for, you know, and it was a guy like, oh, a guy noticed my legs so nice.

[00:40:35] Like yeah, my knees look great. Don't they usually there's swollen. 

[00:40:39] Austin: Wow. That's amazing. That's credible. So yeah. Yeah. SPHS does seem to be. One of the majority of our partner's favorite devices out of all three of them. Mm-hmm and I think it's because it really addresses. I mean, it's, it's a whole body treatment.

[00:40:56] Yeah. System is just 

[00:40:58] Lindsey: involved with it, addresses a lot of things [00:41:00] and I think that's like the lymph, anything with the lymphatic system I think is gonna be. What are the bigger things, you know, people are starting to look it up a little bit more. I can actually see, I get an email from Google, like monthly on just what people are searching.

[00:41:15] And I can see, you know, I feel like this last month people were looking up INFR sauna the most. Um, I get sometimes a lot of go yoga. You know, you never know what you're gonna get, but, um, I think lymphatic drainage and like things on the lymphatic system, people are gonna start learning about a lot more.

[00:41:30] There's just a lot more knowledge on it. Now it's gonna take some time. I feel like that's probably gonna be like, I would say the next like fitness, health, um, trend. And it's not a trend because it's been around in a lot of different places, but not so much in the us. So that's why I was looking at Italy on Instagram and trying find different lymphatic.

[00:41:50] Austin: Wow. Who is Inosphere for what type of business you think? 

[00:41:56] Lindsey: Um, it could be, I mean,[00:42:00]

[00:42:01] It could be, I would say even like anything from massage to more like beauty, um, before I was more into fitness, I think I could see how it would go along with fitness, but I think it was more of a fitness class studio. So those people are a lot harder to sell on something like that. Um, as far as like just how much money they wanna wanna spend and in the age too.

[00:42:23] So I would feel like fitness people are a lot younger. You need, I would say it's best for like middle aged people to older, anyone younger probably doesn't, you know, have the money to spend on it. And they, you know, they probably not have issue issues with their body yet. So I would say any business that has definitely women anywhere, you know, I would say definitely 35 and older coming.

[00:42:46] And I would say I did rent a room in a hair salon. I think, you know, those, that type of place, isn't a bad idea either. Cuz you're getting that, you know, audience coming in that, that it is good for. And they're sitting there for a long time. [00:43:00] So they're sitting there, you could talk to them, you know, tell 'em what it's about.

[00:43:04] And like, even while they're processing or doing whatever they're doing, they could actually get the treatment at the same time. Mm. So I would say yeah, anywhere that has 35 and older. Definitely like women there, it would be successful. 

[00:43:19] Austin: Love it. Love it. Love it. Well, I think we would be remiss to not ask the goat who runs goat Chicago, um, for some goat guidance.

[00:43:32] Yeah. So this is, uh, I would say this, we haven't done. Segment, so to speak for a while, but this is something that I've, um, I've done in episodes past called levers and landmines. And the idea is the levers are the things that you've done that have been amazing. Oh my gosh. If I had to do it over, these are the decisions that I would've made, the products that would've added, the partnerships that would've formed, the software tools [00:44:00] that would've purchased or acquired or whatever.

[00:44:02] Whereas the landmines were, oh my gosh. I can't believe I did. I will never condone anyone doing that again. Now you've already alluded to some of these, but mm-hmm, starting with the landmines. Are there any things that you would say people should avoid doing or the like, 

[00:44:23] Lindsey: um, I mean, avoid doing, I would say, you know, initially we did have someone help with Instagram.

[00:44:29] I didn't like it. um, only because. We have different things that a lot of people aren't familiar with. So it was hard for people to get, you know, across what we're actually doing. Um, so yeah, I mean, if it's something that's kind of skeptical and people don't have much knowledge about don't trust them, you know, to market things for you or promote things for you, they don't really know what they're talking about.

[00:44:53] So I definitely wouldn't do that again. Um, let's see. [00:45:00] Um, I would say. Be careful hiring friends or people, you know? Um, sometimes most of the time it doesn't turn out well yeah. Um, what else? I mean, I definitely learned a lot from everything, so it's hard to say if I didn't do it, then I wouldn't have known, you know, so you gotta always learn like the hard way.

[00:45:25] Sure. So I learned everything that hard way. Um, what else? I mean, I mean, I think aesthetics goes a long way when you're, you know, how things look and are decorated or whatever, but don't get caught up on having something super specific. Like right now we're sign sucks. So we at the signs was temp temporary in the window right now.

[00:45:47] Um, because it was winter time and the final they're putting on the window could only be outside technically for it to look better, but it's on the inside because it was too cold and, you know, I don't think the [00:46:00] sign makes a big deal. I mean, it does make a big deal if you're not maybe in a good location.

[00:46:05] Um, but our location is good. The last place, the first one that, you know, raised over a million dollars for, we had almost like a $10,000 sign outside. Do I think that site made a difference maybe a little bit, but. I have people tell me, oh, it's really hard to, you know, find you guys. I'm like, well, we're right here.

[00:46:23] How did you not see us? But yeah, sometimes depending on the time of day and the sun, like, it might be hard to see inside, but I think that's just where you're at, but I'm not gonna get caught up. Like, oh my God, like I need, you know, set this specific thing. Um, so I would say just not getting caught up on specific.

[00:46:41] Austin: Hmm. Okay. So know what to say no to, I think we're, we're hearing the theme of essentialism. What is important? What is the priority in ignoring the noise? 

[00:46:51] Lindsey: Right. And the sign. I mean, the sign means a lot. Yeah. Especially like, if you need a knee unsign to get people's attention to really find you, but. Most people, they can know where I [00:47:00] address Chicago.

[00:47:00] There's so many places, there's a business in the basement, like next door to us. So like good luck finding that one, you know, it's in the basement, but Chicago, we go by street, the number. So, you know, you're on your phone, you're on the map, you see the number, you know, you find it. So, so you definitely need to sign, but don't get caught up.

[00:47:20] Yeah. In the specifics of, of things like that. 

[00:47:24] Austin: Beautiful. And don't hire friends, millions and disaster. Yeah. 

[00:47:27] Lindsey: Yeah. Cool. And when people tell you, you know, or, you know, give you like, oh, maybe you need to change the sign or you need to sign like, whatever, like everyone else finds it. Like maybe 99.8, you know, people find it and other 0.2 don't, but don't get caught up in those people.

[00:47:44] They just, just don't know like, yeah. they, they just don't. Aren't good with directions in general. 

[00:47:50] Austin: Hmm. Know what matters? Beautiful. . Okay. What about, what about levers? So positive decisions that you made that were [00:48:00] fantastic that you would do again? Hmm, 

[00:48:04] Lindsey: let me think. Um,

[00:48:11] I would say when I first opened, but we had a fitness side too, so I feel like we did class pass. Right. So working through like third party people and things like that, you know, I remember someone gave me advice to not do class pass at first. Um, you know, like do it on your own. And I think the advice you take from people depends on where they live so that person actually lived in Denver.

[00:48:38] So the people are giving you advice, you know, that don't know, like they have to be. I would say, have experience where you're at in your shoes almost, or in your neighborhood. So I'm not taking advice from anyone in any other city or any other, you know, town or whatever. Um, unless someone has a business like the block over, so everything here is so different.

[00:48:59] If [00:49:00] you go, you know, six blocks that way it's gonna be completely different. Um, so I didn't start class pass at. And that was actually really successful. You know, I think it was good for us and I even now I enjoy doing it and I've already kind of mentioned those people before I enjoy them coming in, but that might be different in the suburbs here.

[00:49:17] They hate, they don't like those people, you know, they're not that that's not that great of a thing. So, um, I would think I enjoy doing that, but I would say just basically learning to take advice from people that are just kind of nearby and maybe have a similar business, um, That kind of helped me like make those decisions, but I think, yeah, class pass and getting something like that was great.

[00:49:38] Groupon, not so much. Um, but whatever helps you get, like people in the door is good. 

[00:49:45] Austin: Love it. Very cool. Mm-hmm well, is there anything we didn't touch on that you would want the audience to hear? No, go read books, resources, or otherwise that you wanna leave the audience? [00:50:00]

[00:50:00] Lindsey: Um, I, I don't have time to read so I wish I did.

[00:50:04] I mean, I used to, but now yeah, I, and even reading books, it's like, who wrote this? What did they do? You know, like, what is their experience? Who are they? You know, so I'm not gonna, I don't really like taking advice from, so, I mean, I've, you know, listen and read some, I kind of get halfway through it and ski through the rest.

[00:50:21] Um, I don't know. I don't really trust those people that take their advice all the time. So just because you read something. You know, I think you gotta do what you think is best. And maybe if you don't know, find someone that's in your neighborhood, a block over, you know, someone you can confide and that owns a business and has that experience rather than, you know yeah.

[00:50:40] Reading the books, that what it, what do they, what's their success besides writing the book? You know, I 

[00:50:47] Austin: think the theme that I have gleaned from you is that the, the way is forward. Not, not seeking the next best YouTube video for [00:51:00] this inside of that inside or that opinion or that opinion. Yeah. Just go do the thing.

[00:51:04] What's the next thing, Lindsay, I don't know. Can you see a next step? Take it. Problem solve. . Yeah. Awesome. Well, Lindsay, you are, uh, again, you are a rockstar and it's not just because you're wearing a Metallica shirt, but it is because you are rockstar faced an ocean of OBS, uh, absurdity adversity, rather not adversity.

[00:51:26] Those words are so close adversity and you fought through and you're on the other side. Relatively unsaid, at least healed. Thank God. The boat hole didn't land in, uh, in your arm or something. 

[00:51:39] Lindsey: Hey, we were closed. So we just walked into it. 

[00:51:42] Austin: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, thank God that's in there when that happened.

[00:51:45] Yeah, exactly. So, well, uh, again, we appreciate you being on the show today and, uh, I wish you nothing but the best. Thank you, me too.