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Full Transcript

John Dumas:  Hire Fire Nation and thank you for joining me for another episode of EntrepreneurOnFire.com, your daily dose of inspiration.  If you enjoy this free podcast, please show your support by leaving a rating and review here at iTunes.  I will make sure to give you a shout out on an upcoming showing to thank you!

John Lee Dumas:  Okay. Let’s get started. I am simply electrified to introduce my guest today, Nathalie Lussier. Nathalie, are you prepared to ignite?

Nathalie Lussier:  You bet I am!

John Lee Dumas:  Alright! Nathalie found success as the Raw Foods Witch where she teaches people about the benefits of raw foods. She has since used her tech design and marketing skills to create Nathalie Lussier Media where she helps small online businesses get off the ground.

I’ve given Fire Nation a little overview, Nathalie, but why don’t you take it from here? Tell us who you are and tell us what you do.

Nathalie Lussier:  Yes. So like you said, my journey has kind of led me down different paths. I have a degree in Software Engineering so I’m very technical and I recognize that people were coming to my raw food website and asking me who made my website, how did I put all these systems together so that I could have an online business, so I decided to start offering some of those services, and that now I basically consult with people who are just getting started in the online world to get their websites up to start selling online and put together products and start blogging, and all that good stuff. So I basically am now an online business digital strategist.

John Lee Dumas:  Well, as you know, EntrepreneurOnFire is all about the journey, and I just love this journey that you’ve been on. As I’ve done the research about you prior to this interview and during our pre-interview chat, I really got a little bit of a taste for, but I’m really excited to delve into it further into the interview. But for now, let’s really transition to our first major topic, which is the success quote, because again, EntrepreneurOnFire, it’s about getting that motivational ball rolling and getting people excited for that content that you’re about to deliver. I do that here with the success quote and I want to hear your success quote, Nathalie.

Nathalie Lussier:  Yes. So this is actually a Chinese proverb, and it is “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” So I just feel like a lot of us are always like, “Oh, maybe that idea has already been done” or “If I would’ve started 5 years ago or 10 years ago, then I would be more successful,” but I think this quote brings it back to, well, actually, the second best time is start now.

John Lee Dumas:  I love that. And the first best time is not available, so we might as well deal with the second best.

Nathalie Lussier:  Exactly.

John Lee Dumas:  So I think that might actually be the first Chinese proverb we’ve had on the show, and you’re actually Interview Number 61. So that says a lot. Maybe we have had another one, but people just haven’t given it the correct attribute. So I’ll go back and check on that, but I’m pretty excited that we have finally a Chinese proverb on EntrepreneurOnFire. So thank you for that.

Nathalie Lussier:  You’re welcome.

John Lee Dumas:  Nathalie, let’s take this down to the ground level. I know you just gave us a successful quote, but I want to know how you applied this to your everyday life, either through your mentality or just in your business.

Nathalie Lussier:  Yes. So I think a lot of times, when I was faced with the decision for what to do in my business, I had that second guessing thought that we all have where I’m like, “Oh, maybe this isn’t the right decision or maybe if I had started my business this way in the first place, I could be doing this.” One specific example is when I was doing the Raw Foods Witch. I was actually turning people away from the technology side of my company because I was like, “No. I did study software and this is what I’m really good at, but I kind of set on this path to kind of teach people how to eat more fruits and vegetables, and that’s all I’m supposed to be doing. But when I kind of realized that actually, I was kind of keeping people at bay and not giving them all of my gifts, it was like, oh, actually, it doesn’t matter that I didn’t start that business right away because it was kind of part of that evolution that I had to have.

John Lee Dumas:  I love that. You definitely want to always be listening to what your clients, your consumers, your fans are telling you. That’s the most important thing. That’s why we always hear from entrepreneurs the best thing that they’ve ever done was to release their product early, or in your situation, it was just to plant that tree as soon as possible. You listened to your clients. You may have taken a little time to come around to it, but when you did, you saw the value in it and you really were able to create a business full of value. So I commend you on that.

We’re going to use that to transition now to our next topic, which is failure, because as an entrepreneur, Nathalie, you have faced failure. You’ve faced obstacles, challenges that you’ve had to overcome. That’s just part of our journey. Can you take us back to a time when you really faced a very specific challenge and tell Fire Nation how you went about overcoming that?

Nathalie Lussier:  Yes. I would say these are one of the things that I kind of see as one of my failures. It was when I was first starting out in my raw food business, I tried to do a big launch just because I had seen other people launch products and programs, and I was like, “Okay. I think I know how this works.” I had watched them from the outside so I figured I would just kind of imitate what they were doing, but I didn’t have kind of that foundational piece that they had coming from the inside out. So I launched something. It was like crickets. There was nobody buying. It was a total flop. Just ghost city. It was totally not what people wanted. That really just made me realize, okay, let me regroup. Let me find out what people actually want from me. What can I actually get them that’s going to get them excited and get them results. When I did that, I was able to do a real launch that actually made money and that actually helped a lot of people. I did that maybe two or three months after once I had kind of regrouped and really figured out what would work for my market.

John Lee Dumas:  Let’s get a little more specific here. What was this launch that you did that flopped, and then tell us a little bit about the launch that you did that was actually successful and intermingle why you were able to make that switch.

Nathalie Lussier:  Yes. Okay. So the first one, I think it was called something like “Raw Food Success” or “Set Yourself Up For Raw Food Success.” It was very kind of bland and generic and it was just what I thought people wanted. I had been hanging around a lot in the raw food community so this was just kind of what I had been seeing being offered. So I was like, oh yes, if other people are selling it, it might be working, right? And then when I actually kind of regrouped and surveyed my list and kind of figured out exactly what people wanted, I realized what they had problems with was not becoming a successful “raw foodist,” whatever that means, but it was actually that they wanted help with their cravings. So I created a program called “Cure Cravings Forever” which included menu plans, it included videos, and it was a lot more in-depth in terms of how to deal with cravings and when you want a snack late at night, what do you do. It was very specific instead of just this generic overview type program.

John Lee Dumas:  Now, you said that you went through and mined your list. That is such a valuable tool to do, and most people don’t even think to go to the people that follow them the most, which would be your email list or your Facebook fans or whatever platform you’re using. Get a little specific with Fire Nation right now. What exactly did you do to pull the information you needed from your list?

Nathalie Lussier:  Yes. Well, I actually ran a contest. So what I did is I basically asked everybody on my list to hit reply with their biggest challenges, and then I picked three people at random that I basically had one-on-one sessions with. There are kind of two benefits to that. One is that first of all, I got a lot of different answers from a lot of people on the email list, but then I also got to speak one-on-one with three different people and it was kind of really candid, open conversations with those people that I figured out, okay, cravings seem to be a really big issue for people. Whereas if they were just emailing, they might not have thought about that, but when I was kind of probing and asking more questions in the phone calls, then I got a lot more in-depth information.

John Lee Dumas:  Very, very moving and very invigorating. What was the major lesson that you learned from this initial failure that you had?

Nathalie Lussier:  I would say the major lesson is to definitely listen to your audience, but also, I think it kind of comes more from starting from the inside of your business instead of looking at the outside of other people’s businesses. So I had been kind of watching other online business owners and other marketers and seeing how they had like certain marketing systems or certain like launch sequences or whatever you want to call them, but I didn’t really understand kind of the mechanics or the underneath foundation that they had, which is they had probably talked to their clients, they had figured out what people wanted, and I think that was really important for me to do in my business and I think that was kind of the real reason. It was like, okay, you can’t just look at the outside of someone else’s business and try to make yours kind of – even if it’s just in a functional way and not necessarily in the look and feel – but that’s not how you’re actually going to get results. It’s starting from the foundation of your own business and the people who are a part of your business.

John Lee Dumas:  Valuable insight. Thank you for sharing that. Nathalie, we’re now going to transition to the other end of the spectrum, and that’s the aha moment. As entrepreneurs, just like we face failure and challenges every single day, we also have these little aha moments that make our business better and propel us to the next level and inspire us to pivot or to move forward in the direction we’re currently moving. Can you take us back to a point in your journey when you just had this really large aha moment? You’ve shared a small one, you’ve shared a large one, but I want one that really would resonate well with Fire Nation.

Nathalie Lussier:  Yes. I think this was probably when I kind of hired my first coach. I would say that was a big aha moment for me because I had somebody who could listen to what I was talking about in my business and then kind of be separate enough from the issues to give me real insights. So you can kind of look at your business all day and all night, which is what we all do, but you don’t see kind of what’s going on beneath the surface because you’re so close to it. So it’s kind of like a forest for the trees kind of moment. It was just having somebody else’s perspective on my business really helped me do things differently and take different actions to get different results.

John Lee Dumas:  What were some specifics that this outside person gave to you that really helped improve your business?

Nathalie Lussier:  Yes. I think just getting me to recognize what was working and what wasn’t working. So for example, in the raw food business, things were going really well, but then I had all these other people coming in and wanted more technology type stuff. So she was able to look at me and look at the way I was talking about the two different businesses, and what she actually said which still stays in my head to this day is when you talk about your raw food business, it’s almost like you’re talking about a boyfriend who beats you but you still keep going back to him because you love him.

John Lee Dumas:  [Laughs]

Nathalie Lussier:  Whereas, like the technology side of the business I was so excited about and I didn’t have any kind of hang-ups around that. It was just like pure I want to go for it. So yes, so just kind of getting that perspective, and I was like, “Oh yes,” because I did feel like I would be leaving my raw food business if I started the technology side of my business and I didn’t want to leave them hanging. When she kind of gave me that perspective, I was like, “Oh, actually…” That really took me out of my closeness to what was going on so that I could actually make that decision.

John Lee Dumas:  Let’s really get specific now and go down to the ground level. What actions did you take when this aha moment hit?

Nathalie Lussier:  So the first thing I did was I built the new website and I basically put up my shingle for that kind of service. Yes, I started blogging in that realm so I put up a new email list and that whole thing. And then I just got my first client like within less than a week. It was just kind of insane how quickly just kind of announcing it to the world shifted everything. From there, I kind of just figured out, okay, so here’s kind of the content I want to be putting out on my blog and my newsletter and here are the services I’m offering, and I kind of fine-tuned my services over time as well.

John Lee Dumas:  What’s something that you attribute having such quick success to?

Nathalie Lussier:  I feel like that all happened when I got out of my own way. So I feel like all of that business and all that success was coming my way, but I was kind of holding it back. So I think in a lot of times like we’re kind of standing in our own way when it comes to actually getting stuff done, or the right things done.

John Lee Dumas:  So true. It’s a lot of times psychological, it’s a lot of times even subconscious, and if you can just get out of your own way and let your heart and your passions drive you, really good things can happen.

Nathalie Lussier:  Absolutely.

John Lee Dumas:  Nathalie, have you had an I’ve made it moment?

Nathalie Lussier:  That’s a great question. I think so. Yes. I would say it was actually pretty recent. I actually just moved to Brooklyn, New York from Toronto, Canada. So I think I probably would never really have tried to do that before I felt like I had made it. So I think that was kind of my, “Okay, if I can make it in New York, I think I’ve made it.”

John Lee Dumas:  Are you quoting a song right now? “If I can make there, I can make it anywhere”?

Nathalie Lussier:  [Laughs] It’s one of my favorites, so yes.

John Lee Dumas:  In post-production, I might have to go back and just have that little theme song playing in the background as you’re saying this. This would be perfect.

Nathalie Lussier:  That sounds awesome [Laughs].

John Lee Dumas:  Nathalie, I’m glad to hear you’ve had an I’ve made it moment because one thing that entrepreneurs struggle with on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis – you name it – is really just taking a step back, taking a deep breath and appreciating what we’ve accomplished up to this point. We’re always setting goals and we’re really good at setting goals and making them high. We’re really good at achieving these goals because we’re putting our nose down and we’re working hard, but a lot of times when we get there, we just immediately set that next goal at that next plain at that next level and just drive forward again. EntrepreneurOnFire is really about stressing the journey. Here, we’re talking about your journey as an entrepreneur, and I always stress to Fire Nation listeners, you need to enjoy the journey. It’s important to have a destination in mind and to have those goals, but also, once you do achieve that, take a step back, appreciate it. Uncork that champagne and what have you. Have you had a moment where you really have given yourself that kind of success moment?

Nathalie Lussier:  I would say so, yes. I think sometime last year. I don’t actually remember which part of the year it was, but basically, my husband and I sat down together and it was just like, “Okay. Like things are going really well. Let’s just go out for dinner and have fun and just celebrate together.” His career is going well. So it’s basically just like a mutual thing that we wanted to spend time together and just honor each other’s successes.

John Lee Dumas:  That’s beautiful, and even if it’s a small token like a dinner or a big token of a trip or what have you, what’s really important is that you’re identifying that. So I commend you for that. Good job. Nathalie, we’re going to roll now into your current business because there are a lot of things going on. I kind of have my head around it. You are the Raw Foods Witch. Now you’re really doing great things in design. Kind of tell us how you’re balancing the two, or are you even balancing the two? Is there still a Raw Foods Witch or are you focusing solely on your new venture?

Nathalie Lussier:  That’s a great question. So actually, because I set up the Raw Foods Witch so well in the beginning with SEO – Search Engine Optimization – and kind of systems to optimize things and just have them running by themselves, that side of the business is actually just running by itself. I’m making money and people are kind of visiting the site and finding the site. So I feel like I’m really comfortable with what’s going on in that side of the business because I’m not dedicating tons of time to it, but it’s still helping a lot of people. In terms of my new business, the media side, yes. So that’s basically where I spend most of my time in the company. I’m basically creating content, working with clients one-on-one, doing consulting, and then I also have my digital products on that kind of side of the business.

John Lee Dumas:  That’s phenomenal. We always try to pull the curtain back a little bit at EntrepreneurOnFire and let people look in the window and see what an entrepreneur does during the course of a day. You have a lot of things going on. No two days are the same for you, but you do have common tasks that you’re doing day in and day out. Can you talk about two common tasks that do seem to occupy a good portion of your day?

Nathalie Lussier:  Yes. I would say probably the one that I really enjoy the most is one-on-one coaching or consulting time with clients. That tends to be in the afternoon so I’ll have a couple of consulting calls with people and work on their kind of strategy with them over the phone, and then kind of send them notes after our calls. So that’s kind of one chunk of my day. Then the other chunk is creating content. So whether that’s writing emails or creating videos, writing content or copy for programs or whatever kind of materials that I need, those are kind of the two main tasks I would say.

John Lee Dumas:  What is your vision for the future for Nathalie Lussier?

Nathalie Lussier:  Yes. So I think I would definitely want to branch out and do a lot more public speaking and hold some workshops locally as well and maybe even internationally. I’m actually working on a book as well. So that’s going to probably occupy a big chunk of 2013.

John Lee Dumas:  Well, you definitely have a very articulate and good voice. So I commend you on that and I think that that will lend you well with your speaking gigs. Your audio quality is quite high, and as soon as you get a pop filter, you’ll be all set.

Nathalie Lussier:  [Laughs] Awesome!

John Lee Dumas:  [Laughs] So Nathalie, we’ve now reached my favorite part of the show. We’re about to enter the Lightning Round. This is where I provide you with a series of questions and you come back with amazing and mind-blowing answers. Does that sound like a plan?

Nathalie Lussier:  It sounds awesome.

John Lee Dumas:  So listen, we’re doing really well on time right now. So feel free to just take these questions, digest them, and then take your time and really expound and share with Fire Nation the true story behind it.

Nathalie Lussier:  Got it.

John Lee Dumas:  What was the number one thing that was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Nathalie Lussier:  So I think the number one thing that was really holding me back from actually becoming an entrepreneur was probably society’s kind of rules and the feeling that I had when I told people that I want to become an entrepreneur. So when I was going to school, I was following this very well-respected path of going to school, getting your degree and doing internships, and it felt like I was on this fast track. And then when I went to get off the fast track and start my own company, my parents kind of had some resistance towards that, and they were like, “Well, you just spent all this money and all this time becoming a software engineer. Aren’t you going to take that job offer that you have on Wall Street?” I basically said, “No, I’m actually going to start my own online thing.” So that was definitely some resistance that I felt. Then also just friends of mine that I went to college with who were also kind of on that fast track and who saw me kind of take a step to the side instead of going forward with them. I think that was definitely probably the biggest thing that was holding me back.

John Lee Dumas:  Very, very interesting, and they do always say that it’s who you associate yourself with is really where you find yourself in the next five years. So have you found a group of like-minded individuals to associate yourself with?

Nathalie Lussier:  Yes. I have. And I would say that’s actually a huge part of my success.

John Lee Dumas:  Talk to me a little bit about that. Where have you found this group and how often do you meet and what do you get out of it?

Nathalie Lussier:  So I initially found a lot of these people online on Twitter and Facebook and on other blogs. Probably people who are [Unintelligible] on this podcast. Initially, it was just kind of an online relationship, but then when I went to some actual live conferences is when we really connected and got to meet in person. Once I met people in person, that really changed the game for me because I feel like these people were real, they were up to cool things and they were on the same path that I was, and it made it more acceptable, in my mind at least, and I could basically look at my parents and be like, “Actually, I have a bunch of friends who are doing what I’m doing so it’s totally normal,” or at least in my world it is. So now we actually do keep in touch again through social media, but we always try to get together whenever there’s an event or a conference that we all go to.

John Lee Dumas:  Social validation. I love it.

Nathalie Lussier:  Exactly.

John Lee Dumas:  What’s something that’s working for you or your business right now?

Nathalie Lussier:  Okay. So one of the things that I’ve recently implemented that I really, really love is my website checkup tool. It’s basically like a quiz that people take and they’ll say, “Okay. So what are the things that you’re struggling with to get your website optimized?” So there are different categories. Some of them might be you’re not getting enough traffic, you’re not getting a lot of conversions so people aren’t getting on your email list or you don’t really know how to update or maintain your website or you don’t really know how to set up kind of the e-commerce side to start selling online. So what this does, it basically figures out what three things they really need to focus on to move their online business forward. After they’ve taken that quiz, then they’ll get basically a series of emails that teaches them about that particular topic. And then if I happen to have a program or an offering related to that topic to kind of take them deeper, then I offer that at the end of that email series, and that’s been working really, really well for me.

John Lee Dumas:  Awesome! I’m going to go take that quiz directly after this interview.

Nathalie Lussier:  Awesome!

John Lee Dumas:  What is the best business advice that you ever received?

Nathalie Lussier:  The best business advice that I ever received is to be of service, but also trust your heart and your intuition because a lot of times, we’re so busy in busy mode that we don’t take time to kind of recalibrate and figure out what we actually want to do in our businesses, and also what’s going to be of biggest service to the world. So you could just kind of get caught up in trying to make a lot of money or trying to move a certain number in your business or something like that, but when you kind of take a step back and just feel what kind of business you actually want to create, what kind of work you want to be doing in the world, that just changes everything and kind of the money actually comes back in much easier when you’re doing it that way.

John Lee Dumas:  I love that. Well, well said. Do you have an Internet resource like an Evernote that you’re just in love with that you can share with our listeners?

Nathalie Lussier:  Okay. I would say that right now, my favorite resource is probably “Asana,” Asana.com. It’s basically like a to do list system, but I really like how it integrates with Google Calendars and you can have different people be assigned to different tasks. It’ll do things like let’s say you have one task that recurs every single week at the same time. It could also send a reminder about that. I just feel like it’s the smoothest app that I’ve found online to just organize my days.

John Lee Dumas:  I love that! You are the second person to bring this up in the last two weeks, which is great. It’s just validation. So I’m excited to check that out. Have you ever heard of the app “Workflowy”?

Nathalie Lussier:  No, I haven’t actually. I have to check that one out.

John Lee Dumas:  Yes. I would highly recommend it. I don’t really know how it compares with Asana because I haven’t checked Asana out yet. I’m currently using Workflowy. I think it’s an amazing to do app that I just love for a lot of reasons. Because it’s compact, it’s efficient, it’s quick, it’s in the cloud. But there’s definitely some things I would like it to integrate that it doesn’t, so I’d like to see where Asana maybe does fit that bill. If it does, then a switch could happen, or maybe you’ll find the opposite with Workflowy and you’ll be a convert there.

Nathalie Lussier:  Actually, yes. If you want to connect Workflowy, there’s something called “Zapier.com.” It’s basically like a little integration tool. So if you have two different things you want to integrate, it basically uses the API of each one without any programming. So that might be worth checking out.

John Lee Dumas:  Wow! That’s great intel right there. I’m so glad I brought that up because that’s been really my only complaint about it. So Zapier.com integrating the API. I’ve just written that down. Splendid! Nathalie, what’s your favorite business book?

Nathalie Lussier:  My favorite business book right now is “Ready, Fire, Aim” by Michael Masterson. The subtitle for it is “Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat.” I feel like this book is just kind of a must read for everyone in business because it really shows you about the basics of getting something that works in your business that you’re already making money from, and then expanding it from there so that there’s different kind of tiers in business as you grow that you can kind of continue to expand beyond.

John Lee Dumas:  I love that. It’s another book that has made its first appearance on EntrepreneurOnFire, which I love. We have a decent number of repeats because there are a couple of books that people are just so in love with. So I just love when we hear a new one. That’s definitely going to be on my Kindle Fire at some point tonight. So thank you for that.

Nathalie Lussier:  You’re welcome.

John Lee Dumas:  Nathalie, this is the last question, and I’m going to apologize a little bit upfront because I’m using you as a guinea pig. This is my favorite question and I just haven’t been getting the kind of answers that I wanted, and literally, you’re my 61^st interview. So the last 60 interviews, I’ve been getting some good answers to this question, but just not exactly the ones that I wanted. So I changed it up just before this interview. It was overdue. I have no idea how it’s going to go off and I’m going to use it for the next 5 or 10 just to see how it is. So just do your best. No pressure. Okay?

Nathalie Lussier:  Got it.

John Lee Dumas:  If you woke up tomorrow morning in a completely new world – this new world was identical to earth, but you knew nobody. You still have all the experience and knowledge that you currently have, but only $500 in your pocket and a computer with Internet access. What would you do in the next seven days?

Nathalie Lussier:  Oh, the seven day part is hard. Okay. I would definitely use let’s say $400 of that $500 to go to some sort of a networking event, if it was a paid event. If I can find something local that’s free, all the better. But definitely, I would get out of my house and out of my apartment and try to meet people who are in the business that I want to start. So I’m assuming I’m starting a business here. I would just network with them, just kind of get a feel for what they’re looking for, what they need help with and get a feel for whether I can help them.

Definitely, I would try to do that in the first day or two. And then based on that information and kind of just those contacts that I made, I would follow up with them and get in touch and see if there’s anything I could help them with. If it’s too soon – like if they feel like we just met and they don’t want to do business yet – that’s fine. Then I would use the extra time to kind of get just a quick one-page website up that basically explains what I do, how it works, why they want to work with me and what kind of results they can expect, and then just keep following up with people and just kind of continue going outside of my apartment and try to meet people who are looking for the services that I want so that I can help them.

John Lee Dumas:  I love that. That is so actionable, Nathalie. You’ve given us some great actionable advice this entire interview and we are all better for it. Give Fire Nation one parting piece of guidance, then give yourself a plug, and then we’ll say goodbye.

Nathalie Lussier:  Great. I would say probably the biggest piece of action would be get comfortable with new technologies. I know you probably are if you’re listening to this podcast, but things are always changing and it’s just a great thing to be technically savvy. Even if you’re not the one doing all the work and all the implementation, then you can at least hire people and understand what they’re doing and kind of give them the right guidance so that’s done the right way. So that’s just going to just take you very far, especially because everybody pretty much has to be online if you want to do business today. So that would be my big tip.

If you want to learn more about the website quiz and website checkup I was talking about, you can go to GetTechieNow.com. Otherwise, I’m also blogging at NathalieLussier.com.

John Lee Dumas:  Wonderful! I will link all of these up in the show notes. Once again, that was GetTechieNow.com?

Nathalie Lussier:  That’s right. Yes.

John Lee Dumas:  Then your name as a website. We’ll have both of those links in the show notes. Thank you so much again for your time. We, Fire Nation, salute you, Nathalie.