How to Make Your First Million

food voice. If it was about just kind of my first round of success, A Place of Yes was a really good book for people who were just at that cross road. So many girls in particular have come up to me and saying when they were at a cross roads,

that book at them through so much. So, Uh, this is a book that came out of me because I've never really talked about business, and I haven't talked about my non traditional path to business and the crazy mistakes I've made and the unpopular choices I've made and just

inside baseball things that I've gone through. Not because you are going to have those same experiences, because you are your own brand of non traditional business person, whether that's at your office or uh you have an idea, or because of this crazy time now when the world has changed astronomically and people have It's just been shaken up. And whether people wanted to jump or not, they have to jump now. Whether people had that idea that they want to execute, now the door has been closed behind

them and they have to do it. So it's an interesting time. And I'm just I did not plan that. I don't believe that. I don't remember when I got the book deal, but I certainly don't know if I was. I think I actually was wise enough to think about it. I think I thought about the shock to the system. This pandemic or in Ukraine is a shock to the system. It's just everything is weird and strange. Is a new normal. And I'm not a traditional entrepreneur, luckily for the people

that I connect with. I did not go to business school. I never thought I would be an entrepreneur. I didn't even know what that word meant. I didn't have any level of success by anyone's measure until I was in my late thirties, and I don't even I wasn't successful in relationships. I didn't have a child, I didn't have any money, like I wasn't successful by any metric except for that. I was like funny and like to laugh,

which is a metric. But I mean I didn't even have a good closet, Like I don't even mean close in it. I had like a disorganized closet that my dream was just to have organizers in my closet and just like have look normal. I mean I really was thirty eight when I peeked, so I was a late bloomer. So anybody. Gail King put it best. She said, this is a book for somebody who wants to start a business, wants to get a business, wants to be in business, wants to get a head in business. Um, so this

is a tool. Kid. So when you are faced with something, you might say, okay, Bethany said it, you've got to be in it to win it. What does that mean? It means something different for everybody. But what it means is talk is cheap. You're talking about it. You need the perfect business plan. You've got to do that. Once this happens, once that happens, once the other thing happens, you know, then you'll do it. You have to be

in it to win it. It doesn't mean I'm telling people to leave their job and their insurance and therefore, oh, one k if they're supporting a family. It gets more difficult as you get older and you have more responsibilities to be courageous. Okay, you can still do it. You can be an entrepreneur at ninety years old. And I'm not even kidding. But if you are young and you don't have major life responsibilities, there's no reason you shouldn't be on the road that you want to be. This

is the time. It's not going to be later, okay. And if you're on that road, if I want to meet someone, I want to get married, I want everything tied up in a perfect little box and to be taken care of. That road is swervy to and not reliable. So if you have something inside of you and you want to go get something, you go get it at any age. But certainly if you do not have major, major life responsibilities. I mean, I can't go move to

certain countries because I have a daughter. I can't just run off and you know, promote what I want to promote in Australia because I have a daughter, Like I have a partner in life, and I can't just do what I want to do um and now I have partners in business and philanthropy and all these other things. And you know, I owe myself to a lot of people. So when you don't have that, that's when you can really go for it and hit your stride. So that's the thing about you've got to be in it to

win it. Success is the intersection of success is the intersection of intention and luck. Talk to so many mobiles on my podcast. We all agree it doesn't matter how lucky you are, you better be prepared for when that luck shows up, that those fish are in that water. You better have your net and a sturdy boat, and you'd be standing there waiting to catch them. Because talking about it and thinking that a unicorns flying through your

window and making you successful does not exist. Trust the process. You don't need to know what you're doing. You don't need to get out of college or leave a job or have a side hustle to know what the point is. You are not supposed to at any point really know what you do. I still don't have a whole big plan.

I never have. I played check. I played chess and know what the board is doing and have fantasy plans and know what my brand is and what my culture is and what my code is, and you too should know what your what you stand for, what you want. It will change, but you do not need to know. You have to trust the process, and whatever job you take, you do it the best you can. You could be shoveling snow, you could be picking up poop, you could be cleaning people's houses. I don't care what it is.

You do it to the best of your ability. Because trust me, whoever you meet and whatever you do will come in handy later. There will be lessons in those things that you think are beneath you. And if you think they're beneath you, you cannot do this well. You have to do every job like it's your life. And I've had every job and I've always treated it like it's the most important job. Other ones no one to hold them and went to fold them. Not everything is

a good idea. Not everything has to be pushed through. Sometimes you have to walk away. That is important. Uh. If you're building a team, if you work in a corporate environment, if you have a staff at all, even if it's a house staff, you're only as good as your weakest link. People always say you're only as happy as your most miserable child. Okay, So whatever is negative, whatever is not working, whatever you're is pulling the focus the attention. One little gnat buzzing in your ear can

druin a whole day. So whatever is not working in your infrastructure, you've got to cut it, loose, move it out to some other place, or fix it. Those are your choices. Drinking a situation pretty is not going to happen. Um. Keeping your circle tight, you just must do that. You just can't trusts most people. It's related to uh my rule that's never connect the dots. Don't connect too many dots. You can network, you can talk to people, you can

have conversation. You just don't need to tell everybody everything you've done and everyone that you know. You just don't need to because the more you reveal, the more something comes back. You mentioned a person that you know, they know them too, they don't like them. Now they're judging you based on the fact they don't like them. You say you're doing this deal. They think you won't be able to do the deal you're doing with them, or they judge you for that deal, or they tell someone else,

then you don't get the deal. Is just no need to over connect the dots. Protect The realm is your brand, your code, your culture, what it is you do. Not go off to the shiny objects and the other things that are fast cash or just seem like a good idea in the moment, or that you can't resist, because you're always doing things that adhere to the line of what your main main goal is. Um, fewer buckets full.

It's my mantra about stacking and just I'd rather have fewer quality things to work on to give me a good return on my emotional, physical, or financial investment. Then spreading yourself so thin. It all sounds good, Then the calendar gets clagged. You're telling people you can have plans with them. You're doing too many things, and you've got to get militant and strict. You've got to cut things out.

Oh my god, we must discuss my plan experience. I get on the plane on Jet Blue, first row, um, and everybody thinks I should be flying, you know, a first class spaceship when I go to Orlando or do an appearance. Evidently, Oh, you don't have a private plane, right. I don't fly a plane just to go down to Orlando. Every time I leave my house to go to fucking CVS and get lip. Plus, I don't take a plane, pry the plane. So I was in the first row of jet Blue and there were two people next to me,

thin blonde couple, tan like, look very like. They definitely live in Florida. They live in Orlando. They were going home, and um, they were in love. They were very, very very much in love. There was a long delay because there was weather and they were very much in love. And how do I know this Because they were making out and that's their body and it's their choice. But there were sounds that were attached to this. And this is where I draw the line. This was and I'm

not I never exaggerate. You'll find out. Everyone who works for me will tell you. I do not embellish, I do not exaggerate. I'm a very literal person. Okay, So they're next to me and it's back and forth, and this is what it sounds like. And it's not over like they're not they're not like moaning, but it's exactly, it's just it's it's because you know, I love you so much and I love you so because the kiss is not enough. Like even like they were making out,

there were window in middle. I wouldn't have even but it was the noises, and I wanted to fucking grab the goddamn vomit bag in front of me, like, like I love, it's an exaggerated fucking you know, it's more than a kiss. It's more than a kiss. It's just like a slightly wet smooch, you know, but it's love, it's lust. It's like I want to fuck you smooch, okay, And I'm like Jesus fucking Christ. So in addition to the smooching the man next to me, she massaged him.

At one point she gave him. He leaned forward and she was giving him a full massage because she loves saying she's the best partner ever, and they love each other and they smooch, and I'm just like, of course, I'm like, what level what level of their relationship are they? Add like do they where are they in this journey? Okay? I was thinking that the whole time. So then he's and I'm not kidding, it's not singing. He's humming singing.

He's like dinging. He's doing this like in between, like because they're so in love, they're like this like sort of rock and roll ee kind of couple and he's going like this, he's going mmmmmmm, but like getting into it, you know, like John Mayory, like mmmmm. And I'm thinking, I don't what am I gonna do it? Like what am I gonna do? I have to be Buddhist, I have to be a monk, like what what am I

going to do? Because sometimes it would go on longer and then it would stop and I'd be like, Okay, we're safe now, and it would go on longer and it would stop, and it was. It was a lot, and I was happy for them to be so in love. And I did, of course think about my relationship and that we are not like slurp smooching in on the plane and like I might give Paul a kiss, but

I would never be something that was audible. And I had and I talked to no one ever because I don't want to engage in conversation, but I had to say when we were landing, like we were like it was about to be deep when the thing goes off and you can get your fucking bags amazing race. So I said, how long have you guys been together? Because I needed to hear the answer to like the slurping stage.

And he said six to six eight months. I was like hm, and I was like, oh great, yeah, And I was like, exactly, exactly, the fucking soul hasn't been ripped out of his relationship. Like it's not avoid dead love that's solid and that you enjoy, but where you've been through like full bickering arguments and like logistical debates and differences in personality and differences in sleeping styles and

fucking who wants to eat at this time? And did your partner need to meet in a potato at every meal where you like to eat him homeless and snacks? Or did your partner like make noises at night or are they super messy and you're super organized or do they every fucking night? Ask you what do you? So? I was like, thank fucking god, six to eight months. It's exactly what I needed to hear for the slurping smooching stage. Mind you, I was never at the slurping

smooching stage. Okay, all along the same lines, closed the slurping chapter and relationship chapter. This happened. I was in the first seat, and I think I wanted to go get a snack or something, and I was getting on the plane. And I walked onto the plane and the gentleman and it wasn't full yet the plane, if vally had loaded, my zone had loaded, but my row I think, had five seats and three people sitting in them. So I showed up to two out of the five people

in that row weren't there yet. So I walked directly onto the plane. You know, you entered the door and the man who later was he was a very nice man, and I he was actually a wonderful flight attendant. And what they fucking don't go through. I put me in an institution. But this is what they This is exactly precisely the interaction that ensued. I walk on. I have an enormal sized carry on suitcase. The first thing, like he's waiting to you're gonna have to check that. You're

gonna have to say. I didn't even get on to no four plane, no fucking lube, nothing, just walked right into the plane. There's only like twenty five people on the plane. My fucking zone entered. But like I, it's not We're not, you know, on the goddamn Titanic, jumping on lifeboats yet. So I entered at the door and the man looks at me and he says, you're gonna have to check that, and I'm like and it's like why,

And it's like why, of course? Why? Why? I know why because a fucking donkey came on the plane and said so obviously he's gonna say why because all these are the things. So I'm like, there's no closet, but I'm not in first class when they have a closet that you never even get anyway where they put their fucking coats. And he's like, well no, and I'm like okay, And so everything you do because there's nothing to do.

There's nothing to do when you're sitting on a plane, but like, look at everything everyone else is doing that's annoying or wrong or being extra or being like a diva. And now some people know who I am. So I'm self conscious of every move, which will get to in a second because my assistant put me in an interesting position on the same flight. So so I now and feeling like I'm gonna I want to believe him that it's all full, but I want to be like a non public person and just be a fucking Karen, and

I want to know what's going on. In these above things. So and of course I'm in the front row, so I have nothing beneath me where I couldn't have put that bag anyway. But he was like, and we'll also have to find something for your other which is just my toe. He was already drilling down on my toe. We hadn't even talked about the checking of this thing, and I was like, he's like, I'm a losso have to find because I didn't have any under my seat. I only had like a normal size square toad and

like the seat. So now I'm sweating, and anybody else who wants to get on the plane, this is the thing. And I don't want to create a drama. And I'm just like okay. So I opened up the two front things. But you know how like the first one is connected to the second one. They don't like stop they're connected. So I opened up the first one, and of course there are you know, bags for these three people in those two and maybe one of them has a purse. So I opened up this, but I could see to

the second one. There's only one bag in there, and it's like one and a half bags. But you literally, and I mean, I've jammed fucking bags on the plane. All you had to do is like like just move it over, like a normal thing, like moving over. I was like, and so I look at it and said, yeah, well I go. I opened up. I go. I like to come from a place of yes in these situations and just moving this ahead and puts my bag and

the other bag with no problem. Because it was like this man started with a place and know and I was gonna have to check my bag and not even think about. All I did was open one compartment and it was there. But it started off on like this aggressive thing where I was the bad guy because I had said it, and I like, you know, and I was in my mind I was a no one all too. I was like, say, one cabinet I opened and and

solved this crime. So the moral is I like for someone to just come from the place said yes when we start, like, I'd like to just at least give me the god damn benefit of the debt. Okay, let's open two fucking things and pretend we try. So that's what happened on my play