In this episode, our producer Christan Neal, steps in to interview Alane Boyd. Alane is on a mission to make your workday more easier. She is a serial entrepreneur who has started 6 different companies in various markets and has written multiple cookbooks. This is an episode you do not want to miss! make sure you check out her current ventures at: bgboco.com and askarvo.com
00:17 SPEAKER_00 Hey everyone, and welcome to Hello Chaos. Hello Chaos is a podcast that is brought to you by the OrangeWIP. That is Orange W-I-P. At the OrangeWIP, we strive to provide founders with real-time success stories and Failure forward moments, we provide you with great resources so that you can continue to grow, learn and expand your knowledge as a founder and entrepreneur so that you can continue to grow your business and live your dreams because we believe that every founder is doing it because they felt a way to improve the world. So here we are today, and I'm so excited to be with you. My name is Kristen. I normally sit behind the producer chair over there, but today I get a chance to be the host, and I'm so excited for it because we get to interview Elaine Boyd. Elaine has been in the entrepreneur game for many moons, and she's been a boss at it. She's also written a book. She is a mom. She is a wife, and she is doing all this with what I feel like from externally at a grace and a poison. So I'm so excited to introduce her. Here she is. Hello, Elaine.
01:24 SPEAKER_01 How are you? Oh, man, I'm wonderful. I'm excited to be here with you.
01:30 SPEAKER_00 Excellent. Elaine, where are you calling from?
01:32 SPEAKER_01 Nashville, Tennessee.
01:33 SPEAKER_00 Nashville, Tennessee. Music City. I love it. So you're in Nashville. You have been on an entrepreneurial journey. We talked a little bit beforehand. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey and where you are now?
01:45 SPEAKER_01 Where I'm at now in Nashville, you know, I think life just has this really interesting way of showing you what you should and shouldn't do. And so right now I own a company that we help companies put in workflow and operations. So how do they make their companies more efficient? And that was from a lot of learning with my previous companies. What were we really good at? And I remember after I sold my last company, my business partner and I, we had gotten some consulting jobs here and there on different things. And we're like, well, let's start treating this like a real company. What are we going to sell? And he's like, you know, we're really good at operations. What if we helped other companies put in operations, workflows and efficiency? And I was like, do you think people will buy that? And it turns out they did do. And, you know, we really do help these companies. And it's a lot of fun for us because we're living the life that we love doing and get to come and improve everybody's workplace. And because, you know, everybody doesn't want to work forever. right? You want to leave So that's our mission. Le
02:53 SPEAKER_00 That's amazing. I feel like more companies should be, I feel like the hardest part for me as a founder is like, how does this help me produce more so that I can enjoy my life more and make more money? And it sounds like what you're trying to do is help people produce more by being more efficient, right?
03:09 SPEAKER_01 Right. And it can be produced more or being done at three instead of 7 30 PM. So you can go and do other things that work life balance that people love to talk about.
03:22 SPEAKER_00 I feel like a lot of people talk about it and few people achieve it. I'm trying to be an achiever here. I'm trying to be an overachiever. Yeah, that's very fun. So what was your first entrepreneurial venture?
03:33 SPEAKER_01 Well, I guess my first one was the cliche lemonade stand with my best friend growing up, man. We crushed it one summer. My real first one. was I had finished, I went to school to be an engineer and I actually hated engineering. And so I started, but I was better at sales. I could talk to engineers. So I started, I had a lot of relationships in this one industry I was in. And so I was like, you know what, I could actually do this for other companies for myself, right? So I was I went and negotiated with about a handful of companies that I would rep them and their products. And so I just had my first company was basically a sales rep for about five manufacturers.
04:20 SPEAKER_00 That's incredible. That's absolutely incredible. So what made you get it? What? Okay. So you went into engineering and just for some backstory for everybody else, we, what, she went into engineering and then she went and got her master's degree in mathematics. So, all right. So we've been in this very mind math centric inner like direction. So how did we get to engineering and then how did we find it boring? I'm so curious.
04:49 SPEAKER_01 So my whole life, I didn't know I was good at math, but I kept doing really well in it. And like when I was in sixth grade. they put me in seventh grade algebra and that wasn't a thing. I went to Catholic private school. Like it wasn't like nowadays I feel like, you know, they, you can finish it with an associate's degree in high school. Like things were very common like that, but in my high school it wasn't. So they put me in seventh grade algebra. Um, and so I started, I was like, wow, I'm, I'm good at math. I didn't, you know, I didn't even realize it. And then kind of going through high school, I was starting to kind of realize it too. Cause I'm doing my math homework and my best friend who I thought was smarter than me, is like, how do you know I'm like, what do you mea Anyway, so I go to college to do is be a boss. That' I just want to be a boss cute outfits. So that's m I got there when I did, but I'm going to be a boss. I'm going to wear really cute outfits. And so I was going to go into business and entrepreneurship. And man, I was so bored in those classes. They just, you know, it's a lot of concepts because none of us were business owners. So, you know, it's not a very, it was very dry to me, very dry content. And so I was like, okay, I'm super bored, but I was really good at math. So I'm going to be an engineer. And so, and also at that time, I realized I was going to be 20 years old when I graduated college. And I still had another year on my scholarship. So I was like, well, I gotta, I gotta milk this as much as I can. So that's when I added an engineering degree. And actually in school, I really loved it. It was a lot of fun. My professors were such wonderful mentors to me. And they were so excited to have a girl and have somebody interested.
06:32 SPEAKER_00 Yeah, absolutely.
06:34 SPEAKER_01 I didn't fit the mold. So they were really great and really helped me get additional scholarships. So when I graduated, I went to work for an engineering firm. Actually, I did an internship in an engineering firm. And I'm like, this is what y'all do every day. They're like, yeah, this is awesome. I'm like, no, this is not awesome. I've been sitting here all day and only looking at my computer and Excel spreadsheets. And they're like, well, what did you expect? I was like, I guess I didn't know, which is also why it's so important to do internships in your field so you can learn. Well, a hundred percent. What what don't you actually like so you can go and do things you like? So I graduated and and went and started working for a manufacturer I didn't particularly like the position I was at, but I realized when I could go and do this for other companies, I didn't have to just stick with one. Like people have businesses just repping a bunch of manufactured products. And so that's what I ended up doing. And to answer how I got my master's in mathematics is. I just always thought I wanted to have a master's degree and Owning my own company gave me that flexibility. I could go to school and run my company at the same time.
07:47 SPEAKER_00 That is very cool. And I want to pause like you just, and I come from a very, um, I come from very church background. So I'm gonna say this word. You just ministered to me whenever you said, I just wanted to wear cute outfits and be a boss because my whole life, I'm like, I don't know what I want to do with my life, but I want to be a boss. That's what I want to do. I want to be the boss. And as I'm watching, I watch my five-year-old now, I got a five-year-old and this was the, we've told him his whole life, like, Hey, we just believe you're a leader and you're going to, you know, do great things in the world. And he had this thought the other day, we go, Hey, you're gonna have a principal at your new school. Cause he's going into elementary school. And he goes, what's a principal. I said, principal is like the leader of the school. He goes, huh? I'm a leader. I'm the principal. I said, no, not, no, you're not good self-confidence, but that, but I think it's that gear that's inside of founders of like, No, I'm going to be the boss. I don't know what it is yet, but we're going to be the boss of whatever it is next. You got to have a little bit of that self-confidence to make it in this. That just really blessed me. Thank you very much for that.
08:48 SPEAKER_01 I really appreciate it. A loaded answer to your question.
08:52 SPEAKER_00 We covered a lot of ground in that. Look, I loved it. Thank you so much. Okay. So you started this company of selling, being basically a sales rep for multiple manufacturers and manufactured goods. What did you do with that company? Is it still up and running or did you sell it? Well, how'd that go?
09:10 SPEAKER_01 Well, I ended up just closing it around the time that I was about to graduate my master's degree. I've been running my company for a few years. I was actually a little burnt out on the industry and, I wasn't enjoying it very much anymore. And I wanted a change. And I had a friend that was working for a company. And he's like, you know what? We could use somebody like you that's got some tech behind them and has a kind of an entrepreneurial sense. Let me introduce you to the owner. And so that's when I just ended up. I ran my company for a little bit longer while I was transitioning. But I ended up just closing that one.
09:50 SPEAKER_00 OK. How was that? How did that feel to close that?
09:53 SPEAKER_01 It took me a little time to let go. And I was still managing a few city contracts. Well, I mean, it was also easy money. They would just call me and reorder. And then I would go to the manufacturer and say, Hey, I need this. So I, I milked it for a little longer. Cause I did have time, you know, a hard time letting go. It gets in the way. And, you know, even though I was ready to leave that and pursue other things, you know, my ego also didn't want to let me let go of it. So I dragged it on for a little bit. I had some hard times with that.
10:23 SPEAKER_00 I mean, I imagine it's, it's that double-edged sword of the ego that tells you that you can be the boss and wear cute outfits is also the ego that goes, no, I made this. I can't give it up. It's that weird double-edged sword.
10:34 SPEAKER_01 I've ran into that a few times, you know, it's, it's hard to let go of a, and I hate the word failure because, you know, people change their minds and do other things in life. And so I hate that with, with entrepreneurship and owning businesses that we've gravitated toward this idea of failure when it's really like, I didn't want to do that thing anymore. Or maybe I was into a mature for that time that I was at in my life, but I've learned a lot from that. And so but yeah, I ran into those instances in a few of my businesses where I was like, actually, I hate this. I do not want to do this company anymore. I need to let go of this.
11:12 SPEAKER_00 Hmm. So you said a few of your businesses. How many businesses have you ran in your lifetime?
11:21 SPEAKER_01 Probably six. So my first one early on, and then I'll tell you about two of them that I'll tell you about one of them because it's kind of it shows you how crazy that people can get. So I was pregnant with my son and we live a little bit outside of Nashville and it's a small town. Um, I was running my company. We had a hundred employees all over the country. I was traveling between them. I was handling contracts with like BMW and GMC and Toyota. So I was traveling to visit these manufacturers with these big, um, car dealership brands that we worked with and then managing all of our employees. So I've become pregnant and I'm like, Oh my God, I actually do need cute outfits. I have to be able to fit in my clothes. And. I have to go to these meetings still. And my mom came to visit and she was like, Elaine, I want to take you shopping for some really cute maternity clothes for you to wear to your meetings. I'm like, Mom, that sounds great. Let's do it. There was nowhere to go. There was nowhere to buy any maternity clothes. And so I decided that I was going to open a maternity store. Okay. I opened when I was eight months pregnant. And I had my son two weeks later. I'm still running my other company. Like this wasn't Elaine sold her other company and now it's going to do this cute maternity store and have a baby. Like, no, I didn't even have maternity leave. Like I was breastfeeding my son with my laptop on pillows working.
12:56 SPEAKER_00 And what is your husband saying in all this?
12:59 SPEAKER_01 My husband, I mean, you got two entrepreneurs in the room together and they're like, yes, great idea. Let's do it.
13:08 SPEAKER_00 I feel like I would look at my wife, which I'll tell you about that. My wife started her PhD while pregnant with our, um, child, our second child. And it was just like, what are you? I remember going like, yeah, this is fine. Totally fine. But now if I look back and I go, what were we thinking? This was a terrible idea. Maybe not. Maybe it's a great idea. Who knows? I don't know.
13:27 SPEAKER_01 For me, it was not a good idea. I was so tired. My son hated to sleep. And he did not sleep through the night until he turned seven. So it wasn't just like that baby stage.
13:37 SPEAKER_00 Seven months? Seven years old.
13:39 SPEAKER_01 Seven years old. So I was so sleep deprived and also just so naive. Like you think, Oh, I'm going to have a baby and I'm going to have, my husband's going to help me. My mom's going to help me. We've got this family that lives here. Yes, they do help, but there is so much more that has to get done besides, you know, what those things. And I've got, I had too many things on my plate. So that lasted less than a year. And I was like, wow, I hate retail, because you have to have somebody there. And I remember I was on a business trip and my employees like, well, I can't come to work today. I'm like, then we're just gonna close the store. Like, how does this work? Like, no, she's like, I'll just put a sign up. And I was like, we don't put signs up, we open the store, our hours are 11 to six or 10 to six. So it was just very stressful for me and, and adapting that mindset. And I was like, you know what, after I really close it about a year later. I was like, you know, learning about things that you don't like, you know, what I like about tech, I can be anywhere in the world, as long as it is, and I can do it, I don't have to be attached to one place. And for me, I learned that that is really important, that I really like having that flexibility and not having to be somewhere when you're getting something started, like a real retail shop.
14:57 SPEAKER_00 That's, I mean, that's really smart. You know, one of the things I've, I've always had a dream about is starting a restaurant and the thing that's, or like a coffee shop kind of diner, um, came out of that world, um, through college and everything loved it. And I just, the thing that stops me from doing is like, this is you're married to this thing. You can't leave this thing. You can't disappear off of it. You can't just say, well, sorry, close the day. It's like, no, you gotta be there. That's, but so what you're saying is you found that the lifestyle you wanted to live. was better conducive to a tech world and you could build a business around that to support your life. Yeah. So how did that, I mean, cause that's not something I feel like they teach you in business school, right? That's not something you got out of Louisiana tech. That's something they got out of life and experience. So what has been the most rewarding part of your journey, um, as an entrepreneur?
15:53 SPEAKER_01 Learning, Really, so I, I'm hard on myself, but I really had to learn. It's okay to be hard on yourself, but also to see the progress that you've made. And now with having so many years of entrepreneurship, I've sold two software companies. I can now look at, and even like the maternity store, that's like So it shows how crazy I am. But like, I learned so much running that company. And so like, what's rewarding to me is now at this point is I can recognize the things that I've learned, because this company is successful, not because of what I'm doing in it, because of all the things that I've learned over 15 years of owning companies, selling companies, negotiating with partners, negotiating with, you know, fortune 500 companies, like So now I really do get excited. Like people pay me to go do this stuff because I have so much knowledge on this thing.
16:50 SPEAKER_00 That's amazing. I, I'll go back to it. All right. So we've got, we've got a sales business that does sales in between these, we got a maternity store. What are the other four or five businesses we're missing here?
17:03 SPEAKER_01 Okay. So, um, when, okay. So I mentioned I had a company when I opened the maternity store, that was, so we had, um, We worked with car dealers social media and reputat what we started off doing platform that was a conte dealerships and actually radio stations loved it because all their listeners would go to a website to enter in their first name, their name and email address. So now radio stations could pull from their listeners and actually build a database of their listeners.
17:37 SPEAKER_00 And then they could sell their ads and know that they had a right robot.
17:40 SPEAKER_01 Yeah. They sold ads on the landing pages itself for it. So that was, um, that was one of the s the other one is, well, w media and reputation mana what kept coming up is, y like to be stressed and ha about car dealerships, bu all bad and most of them r they're really terrible a positive reviews from their customers.
18:07 SPEAKER_00 I mean, you always say bad things.
18:09 SPEAKER_01 They only want to go say bad things. So the software platform that we built was to it we tied in with the dealerships database so that when a customer left the store, whether they purchased a vehicle or service to others vehicle service, it received a text message from our system saying, Hey, how would you rate our service? And if they had a good experience, it would lead them to like Google or Facebook reviews or somewhere to leave a review.
18:34 SPEAKER_00 That's smart. That's really smart.
18:38 SPEAKER_01 That one was a fun one.
18:40 SPEAKER_00 I would say that feels like very rewarding because you take somebody, yeah, I feel like you always hear jokes about the sleazy used car dealership or somebody, you know, I bought a lemon from so-and-so and so-and-so. Look, there's this guy in town who has a massive magnet on the side of his truck that said, don't buy a truck from blank dealership. This one's a lemon. And I was just like, I feel like all you ever hear is the negative, negative, negative, but you have millions of cars on the road. Clearly they can't all be negative.
19:09 SPEAKER_01 Right.
19:11 SPEAKER_00 Gosh, that's smart. That's real smart. All right. So we got software. We get two software companies. We got an attorney store. We got the sales. All right. Where are we at? We're at four. Now we're at four.
19:23 SPEAKER_01 Okay. Then we've got BurgerFit. So I sold those companies in 2018. And BurgerFit was something that I've been in my head for a couple of years before we sold. And that's when I started in retirement.
19:39 SPEAKER_00 First off, way to go retiring. This is amazing. What is burger fit?
19:43 SPEAKER_01 I got to know. So one thing that I started doing, so my dad is about to be 87 years old and I have an older brother and they're the pickiest eaters of anyone I've ever met on planet earth. They only want to eat bread. pie, cake, and meat. That's all I want to eat. I mean, I just don't. Right, right. To be a healthier person, we try to add in some vegetables and stuff. But you can't get them to eat it. And so they love eating burgers. And what I kind of was thinking about is, you know, nobody really asks what's in a burger before they eat it, they might ask after they eat a bite. And they're like, man, listen, this burger, this is so good. So I was like, I'm just gonna try hiding vegetables in the burger and see if they'll eat it. And they were eating beets, and zucchini and kale. And like, I came up with about 25 different recipes, Brussels sprouts, like, and there is mixed in with meat. So it's not these aren't vegetarian burgers. They're about 20% vegetables. And so it worked. And it was I started doing it at like if we had barbecues and stuff and people would come over and I was like, OK, so people are liking this. And then after we sold, I was like, you know, I'm going to pursue I'd done tech. And so I wanted to do something not tech again. And so I wrote wrote the cookbook. And where I got burnt out is. Well, Covid happened while I was doing this and going to a food show where you're putting samples of your burgers out. There are so many things around food safety for good reason. You don't want to make somebody sick. And it got to be so challenging for me through COVID and getting to a place, because I live outside of Nashville. So if I needed to go to a certified commercial kitchen that you could rent, sometimes getting through traffic, sometimes it would take me three hours to get there. You would just be sitting in Nashville traffic forever. And I got really burnt out after about a year of doing that and shipping products from here to Florida. We were meeting with Disney, but this is all through COVID. So you have all these other challenges on top. And it kind of got back to, I wasn't enjoying it anymore. And I felt like I did when I was running the maternity stores. I was so, um, like I had this like little small world I could operate in. And I had to go to a commercial kitchen, then I had to figure out a freezer truck to get it from Nashville to Orlando, so that the food didn't spoil. And it was like so many things that I just was like, I really enjoy tech.
22:25 SPEAKER_00 I think I want to go back to tech.
22:26 SPEAKER_01 Yeah, like there's a reason I did this before. And I need to remember this so I don't repeat the cycle.
22:32 SPEAKER_00 That's such a brilliant idea. Uh, I'm going to now start hiding beets and Brussels sprouts into my five-year-old's burger. Yeah. So picky. It is unfortunate. It is very unfortunate. Um, you just gave me like joy and hope yet again, yet again, you ministered to me. Um, okay. So we have five being burger fit.
22:52 SPEAKER_01 Yes.
22:53 SPEAKER_00 And is six the one we're on now or we got another one in between?
22:55 SPEAKER_01 And I was running and I should say, too, I was running six during BurgerFit. So when we when we sold is talking to my business partner and we're trying to figure out what we want to do next. And. He was like, well, what are we going to what are we selling and what are we going to call the company? And I was like, we're going to help companies with our their biggest goal and their biggest obstacle. And so we named it BGBO, which is very like, in hindsight, a terrible idea, because people cannot remember BGBO. And it's so hard to like, spell it out. But that's how we came up with the name. And we did, we started consulting at first, we were kind of all over the place. And then one day, we're like, okay, what are we selling? And he's like, we're really good at operations. And that's what we did really well at our last company. You know, aside from tech, you still have to run your company somehow.
23:50 SPEAKER_00 Yeah.
23:51 SPEAKER_01 And so we were a really lean machine. Our employees, we learned how so they could leave work at the end of the day. They didn't have to check their email all night, but they could go on vacation and enjoy vacation. And so we when we got acquired, we had to stay on for a period of time. And that's when we realized, like, wow, this is actually not something every company does. That makes us this makes our knowledge special and how we do things. And so he's like, you know, I think we can help companies with this. And I just like looked at him like you people are going to buy this. If we sell it, people are going to buy it. Turns out they do. And you know, just like you would any other part, like you need a marketing expert or you need to know how to do drip campaigns or build a software. Like there's all these things that you need to know as a company and you can't be good at all of them. And so that's where we launched BGBO. And then we have a software platform that we launched last year under it called Arvo.
24:46 SPEAKER_00 Amazing. So would you consider yourself a serial entrepreneur?
24:52 SPEAKER_01 Yeah, I guess, because I do keep repeating it. And yeah, I also really enjoy the journey. So you know, at some point, if there's a buyer for BGBO, or Argo, or both, like I would entertain that because I have a lot of ideas and a lot of things I want to do. And so I don't know what the future looks like. But I could see myself always running some company.
25:15 SPEAKER_00 That's That's really, honestly, I feel like it's encouraging because I've talked to several people who are in the entrepreneurial space. I got a buddy of mine who has, he's a 50% investor in like 12 companies and he goes and he spends time in every single one of them for about six months. And then he goes to the next one and spends 12, you know, six months in them. And I'm just like, I love this because I feel like the American ideal was you go to work. and you work really hard and you build your little castle over here on the side and you hopefully, you know, hopefully you have a good life. Right? Right. And I feel like there's these sect of people that are serial entrepreneurs that kind of go, yeah, but what if we did this? And as they keep the dream alive, I feel like I feel like you got dreamers who are putting wheels to the ground and making things happen. What but what I'm keep on hearing from you is you wanted a lifestyle. to some level, or you wanted your employees to have a lifestyle. Hey, I want you to go home and go enjoy your family, go on vacation and not think about work. What has driven a lot of that inside of you? Because that's more of a missional mind in my mind. To me, at least, it's like I have a mission to help people have a better life, is what it feels like from you. Correct me, obviously, if I'm wrong, but what drives you?
26:33 SPEAKER_01 Yeah, I mean, our mission is to help make workdays easier. That's what our mission is, because, you know, as Americans, we're you're right. Like and we're raised to like think work, work, work, work, work, be successful. And our mental health gets affected by that. Yeah. And stress. I mean, stress was killing me faster than any bad food. I was eating anything. And I had started having an autoimmune reaction where be, I'm not joking you, i this big, it would just s my hands, I just, it wou and it would burn. I look and I had a meeting with one morning and a huge de florida and I had to canc I couldn't even open, I to the airport. I couldn' that airport. People woul impaired because I was so how much chronic stress it was showing me and to me in a different way than it shows other people. And it was like, I have to change this lifestyle that I have. Life can't be all about work and success and work and success because you're just killing yourself at the end of the day is exactly what you're doing. Yeah. So I realize that having life outside of work is extremely important and having hobbies outside of work is really important. So your mind can just wander and have creativity. And it's funny when you do those things and it becomes natural that it helps you at work because when you're just drilling, drilling, drilling, drilling, you are missing a bigger picture. Absolutely. You're so far in the hole that you can't even get a ladder out of it. You're only seeing dirt walls.
28:19 SPEAKER_00 So, I mean, I, I feel like for me, at least what I've seen it happen is it, nobody intends to bury their life in work, but you slip into it and it's just like, You look up after six months and go, how did I get here? I don't even know that I enjoy anything that's happening around me. Like what is going on with my life? Oh, it's really hard. Yeah. So you mentioned hobbies being like a healthy outlet for creativity. What are some of your hobbies? Like, what do you like to do?
28:48 SPEAKER_01 I have some really favorite ones and kind of to your point, I know, uh, to your point, like having accountability for me so that I can't work myself to death. So I do boxing is one of my hobbies. And so I got a boxing class, but I also wanted to get better at it, not just going to class. So I do two private lessons a week. So that's accountability. I have to show up twice a week to my boxing coach and I'm taking a break from work, man. Sometimes I'm, I leave there and I, my face is so red. My husband is like, are you okay? Are you dying? I'm like, I just went to boxing. It might be, but it might be. And so I started, I've been doing boxing on and off for about 12 years.
29:36 SPEAKER_00 Why boxing? Just curious.
29:37 SPEAKER_01 Why boxing? Yeah. So my dad was a boxer in the army. But he wouldn't let me box. So my dad, he's a very interesting man because almost anything in life that I ever said I wanted to do, he's like, babe, go do it. But I told him I wanted to be a fighter. And he was like, girls, don't do that. And I was like, OK. So I waited till I was an adult and could make my own decisions. I was already a pretty aggressive kid. So I think there was a little bit of a worry. He was a little afraid. Yeah. But I could have been a great boxer back then. So that's how I got into it. And now my dad's really cute. He comes to some of my boxing lessons and my son boxes and he comes. So he's real supportive now. So that's one of my hobbies. I play tennis. So I've played tennis my whole life. And I was having a hard time getting back into it. A lady was like, hey, she saw me on the court with my son, teaching him how to play. And she said, do you play? I said, well, I used to, I haven't played in about 15 or so years. She's like, well, I do a ladies night on Wednesdays. Do you want to come be a part of it? You're great. I'm like, sure. I had to go buy all like new outfit. I need new cute outfits.
30:51 SPEAKER_00 I had to go buy a new cute outfit.
30:54 SPEAKER_01 Had to get some new tennis shoes. So, but now that's accountability for me. Every Wednesday night, I'm out there. Today's Wednesday. We're going out and playing tennis. And so I've gotten back in, she does fundraisers on the weekend and it's helped me re-prioritize not working. Cause on a Saturday I could easily do a little bit of work, but now I go to boxing class on Saturday morning at nine and usually we'll play a round of tennis too. That's awesome. And then not sport related, I love leather working.
31:23 SPEAKER_00 Okay. You are just a Jill of all trades and I love this.
31:27 SPEAKER_01 I am not good at any of it.
31:30 SPEAKER_00 You don't have to be. That's a great thing. You can just enjoy it and be a, and I don't know. I love that. Um, I'm that way. My wife will look at me and she goes, Hey, when was the last time you went fishing? I went, it's, it's been too long. She's like, yeah, I think you need to disappear and go fishing. And it's for me, it's like literally going to hide in the woods and go fly fishing is my hobby of hobbies.
31:53 SPEAKER_01 Well, you should have been with us this weekend. We were in the mountains of Colorado fly fishing. It was amazing.
32:00 SPEAKER_00 I'm so jealous. It is, it's been so, so where we live at in Greenville, the water is too hot right now. The trout will not rise. And so I'm hoping we're, we're catching a break in the weather. So I'm going out next Sunday. Like I don't skip, I don't typically skip church. I mean, the family go to church together, but it's the day that works and we're going outside can be your church. Absolutely.
32:24 SPEAKER_01 It can be really close to God out there.
32:26 SPEAKER_00 And that's, that's it. That's a hundred percent. It's like, we don't do it often, but man, we gotta get, we gotta get out there and have a few beers and enjoy the river a little bit, but good for you. Yes, absolutely. Uh, that's man. So I'm so fascinated. Like I knew this was going to be a great podcast. I knew every, I knew like everybody needs to hear this because I just, as I'm reading your bio and LinkedIn, I'm going, this is the most fascinating human being I've ever read in a bio. Um, so, So when we say author, the cookbook is the book. What was that process like?
33:00 SPEAKER_01 It was brutal. And actually, under BurgerFit, I have three books that I published. So it's so much work. And I'm I'm a really good person at progress is better than perfect. But when you're publishing a book, not that it's perfect by any means, but it was like, OK, well, now I need or I need an editor to rework my words. And I'm not a really strong writer. And so there was a lot of feedback on that process on about correct. And I'm like, whatever, it's fine. Like, let's just leave it. I'm really blunt to the point. But you could add a little bit more here. And I was like, oh, OK. And then the photography. getting the plates and everything.
33:39 SPEAKER_00 Product photography is real.
33:42 SPEAKER_01 It was, it was so brutal. And I did that twice. And then I, um, my, my third book that I did was a lifestyle journal. Cause what I wrote, what I realized what I was really creating with burger fit was a lifestyle.
33:54 SPEAKER_00 Yeah.
33:55 SPEAKER_01 And even though I had the idea because my dad and my brother were unhealthy eaters, it really starts at childhood. You know, we especially in our society now, oh, well, my kid doesn't like that. So I'm going to feed him this or her this. And it isn't, you know, this is what's for dinner and you can choose to eat or not. Right. Or adapting their palate. So we have a lot of adults that have a two year old palate because they never trained their taste buds differently. You know, I like French fries, mac and cheese and ketchup like anybody else. Sure. But there needs to be, you know, more vitamins and nutrition. So I realized through that journey of BurgerFit and And who I realized was my target market, which were moms, is that there was really a bigger need for healthy lifestyles. And how do you do that when you're raising a family? Because you might have a significant other that isn't on board. You might have multiple children with different needs. And how do you really adapt to that and get everybody on board with, no, we're going to eat healthy. And we're going to take baby steps to get there because you can't just go to a kid and say, you've got to eat these beets and Brussels sprouts. Like, how do we get from A to B now that we've already had this life where they haven't had to make these decisions? And also because I had those episodes with that autoimmune disease, it was called angioedema. I realized there is this aspect of health and healthy eating, but there also needs to be the aspects of health that are mental health. And how do you get to being in a state of not in chronic stress? And so I was really kind of blending those together in BurgerFit.
35:31 SPEAKER_00 That is just trying to digest this because I have a picky eater. My five-year-old is very picky. And I'm just sitting there thinking, oh my gosh, because it is it feels like you have two ditches. You have the ditch of, well, let me cater to you and give you whatever you want. And the other ditch is here's what we got. You better eat it. And it's like there's a there's a big middle road, but it's not neat. It's not easy to navigate. It's really not. And. I love that you've created this business because it was built around your family and needs that you felt specifically with your family. Right. And so that comes from the heart. And then you have these other ones that are like, hey, I have this. I see this opportunity to grow the business. What has been your favorite business?
36:13 SPEAKER_01 The one the one that we have now. So talking about Workday, making workdays easier. I mean, I could talk forever on what could that look like at a company. And it could be as simple as something, making email templates for your team that they have access to so they're not having to search old emails. You know, that can make a workday easier for a small business. Yeah, having access to a knowledge base, like there are so many aspects to this. And I get to talk about it all day long to companies, you know, how do you automate a sales engine for you, especially when you're small, and you don't have a 20 person sales team going knocking on your door, how do you do it? Well, there's an automation you can do. And I can show you how to do that. So this one, and this one, Because I worked so hard and made so many mistakes in every business, even the ones I sold, man, I look back and said, I would have done these things differently. We would have been 50 times more successful. But if if it hadn't been for those, then I wouldn't have the knowledge I have now. Right. So I can't go back and change that. So that's what that's what I'm really enjoying now is and having all these blessings to where I can, if my son's third grade classroom is doing cougar run on Friday, I can be there. I have that. I don't, I have, I have built boundaries in my work life now to where, you know, an entrepreneur could say, well, I can't take that time off. Like I couldn't be gone. Clients would need me. Employees would need me. No, this is my time. I can take that time. And I've learned how to handle that. And also realize my son's only gonna be in third grade this, this one time, maybe, well, most, most likely he'll be in the third grade one time. And yeah. And so I need to be there. Those are important.
38:02 SPEAKER_00 Absolutely. One of the things that I say around my house is my babies get one daddy and that's me. I mean, I mean, they get one daddy and I'm going to be there for every bit of it. I mean, one of the gifts of running my own business is that, hey, look, I'm going to build the schedule and nobody has to know why I can't be somewhere else. I can be right here. So we're getting really close to our time. So we always ask, Or one of the slogans we have for Hello KS is where aha meets oh shit, because I feel like every entrepreneur has that moment. Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh, this is the idea. Like we need burgers in the world. And the other moment is, oh, shit, that's not going to work. So what is your greatest aha moment?
38:43 SPEAKER_01 Oh my gosh, well, that, because of the confidence I have, and what I'm saying, that I can sell a lot of different things. And sometimes I come up with new products on the fly that I can sell. I like this is a great thing, I can sell this. And then I'm like, oh, shit. Now we figure out how we're gonna figure it out. Yeah, some of my ideas haven't been great. And you know, it might have cost us money more than we made. But yeah, that's a lot of it is I have this idea, we're going to try it out. And now we've got to actually deliver.
39:18 SPEAKER_00 Yeah. So you would say your greatest Oh, shit moments also. Oh, I got this great confidence. I can sell whatever I want to. But now we got to figure this out in the back end. I've already sold something.
39:27 SPEAKER_01 You know what, team, I need help figure out how we're actually going to deliver this thing I just sold. Sometimes it works out great. I mean, But you know, there's a bit of a couple of oh shit moments where I'm like, yeah, maybe that wasn't my best idea.
39:39 SPEAKER_00 I run a handyman business. And so there've been many moments where we walked in and said, Oh, yeah, we can definitely do that. And I immediately leave, hit me with a, can you hit me a quote? I'm like, I'll send it to you because I have no idea. I'm just taking a great guess that I can fix that or I can deliver. I'm like, yeah, I can do that. Immediately go home and start Googling the YouTube and stuff. Please, God, let me be able to do this.
40:04 SPEAKER_01 We'll have to see how many five star reviews you get.
40:08 SPEAKER_00 Hey, look, right now we're holding strong. We're doing we're doing all right. Mostly four and five stars. The good thing is I think this is the other side of like, man, my character is going to uphold the fact that if I do something terribly wrong, I'm going to make it right. I'm going to own my mistakes. That's so much fun. Oh, my goodness. Well, what would be one massive or not maybe massive, but what would be one piece of advice you would want to say or to tell any founder getting into the game? Like, hey, I want to start a business. Like, what's the thing you tell them?
40:40 SPEAKER_01 Put yourself out there. Do it. You might find out you hate being in business. Great. You know what you're going to be then after years of going through this? You're going to be an awesome leader in another company, even if it doesn't work out. You know, there's nothing wrong with putting yourself out there and don't ever look at it as a failure. It's like going to college. You know, you you leave with so much knowledge of running a business that you are going to be an amazing asset to your company or to somebody else's in the future, no matter how the cards fall.
41:10 SPEAKER_00 Man, Elaine, you have been truly a gift. I feel like you, I feel like more people need to know about you. Like this, I'm hoping more people because.
41:18 SPEAKER_01 This is my opportunity. They're going to hear me on this podcast.
41:21 SPEAKER_00 Yes. And I hope you're on a lot more for other people as well, because I feel like you have a wealth of knowledge and I love that you're bringing a wholeness to people. Are you building, bringing a wholeness to being a founder and you want to bring that into the world. Um, That's just amazing. Where can, uh, let's ask this, where can people find you at and where can they find, um, you said it was Arvo and BGBO. Yeah. How can we find you?
41:45 SPEAKER_01 So I'm very active on LinkedIn. So you can find me on LinkedIn, Elaine Boyd and my company askarvo.com is my software. Arvo means afternoon in Australian slang, by the way. So you get to enjoy your afternoons when you use Arvo and bgboco.com is my other company.
42:04 SPEAKER_00 Amazing. Well, hey, we're gonna make sure that all that's in the show notes for everyone, but make sure you hit up Elaine on LinkedIn, Elaine Boyd, and then go check out this because I know that there are founders that are listening to this that need some help with automation. It is the operational efficiency so that they can truly grow their business and do it in a healthy way. That's gonna be it for Hello Chaos today. And we hope that you guys will check out the new edition coming out on Sunday. We got a new edition for September OrangeWIP. It is going to be all about financials. So how do you get financial help? How do you grow as a financial business? Like, how do you actually get money to start your business and to grow your business and to fund your business. So we're going to be talking about all that in this next edition. And that is at orange whip, O-R-A-N-G-E-W-I-P.com. So y'all make sure you check that out. Elaine, thank you so much for being here today. And, uh, I'm going to be checking out burger fit too. I don't know. I got, I got to look at these menus and these recipes right now. So anyway, you have a great day and we'll talk to you soon.
43:08 SPEAKER_01 Thank you, Kristen. Bye.