The Power of Partnership with Co-Founders of the Bold Women Society, Amanda Cahill & Caytie Langford

AMANDA CAHILL (00:00):
We need help setting up X. We could go to the group or even the connections that we’ve made and said, Hey, I’ve seen that you’re really good at this. Like, do you mind just helping me with this? And everybody’s like, yes, of course. Let me help. And it’s like they understand because they too once started it at day one. Everybody starts at a day one. And that’s the power of being in a group where like you are forced to level up, but they’re also forced to level up. But it gives people the opportunity to give back too, to say, you know what? I was there once. It was miserable. Let me help you do it so you don’t have to say misery that I did. Right?

JESSICA BURGIO (00:48):
Welcome back to Fast Foundation’s. The podcast is your girl, Jessica Burgio, joined by two beautiful ladies today, Amanda and Katie of the Bold Women’s Society. Welcome to the show ladies.

CAYTIE LANGFORD (00:59):
Thanks for having us, Jess. It’s so awesome to see you and get to connect with you again and talk about Fast Foundations.

AMANDA CAHILL (01:06):
We’re super excited to be here. As always, love chatting with you.

JESSICA BURGIO (01:11):
Seriously. I know it’s been too long. You guys have been on my podcast, the Beauty Inspires Beauty podcast and I’m so honored to be able to interview you guys today for the Fast Foundation’s Mastermind podcast because this is something that the new, the new guys run in the show, RT Custer and Jim Carter, two of my buddies, um, really wanted to bring out to the world to be able to serve at a higher level and by having this podcast to be able to share experiences of what’s gone on inside the mastermind because so many people have heard of Masterminds but they don’t really know what they are. You two experienced it when it was still being ran by Chris and Lori Harder and Nick Harder and your round was actually virtual. So such a different experience. And, and I know though for you guys being in that mastermind has helped you guys figure out a lot of things in your business and I know you had a lot of good stuff to share about it. So I’m excited to kind of give the listeners like a behind the scenes view. And that’s kind of what my role is here on the show is to kind of pull back the curtain and be like, tell us about your experience and why masterminds are important and what they’ve kind of done for you and your business since being a part of it.

CAYTIE LANGFORD (02:13):
That sounds excellent. Yeah, we’re super excited and it’s really interesting. I, I don’t know if you’re ready for us to dive in, but you know, we started our business during Covid and so being a part of a mastermind was so integral to us figuring it out, right? We were business partners for the first time. We were trying to figure out what were we gonna do, how are we gonna do it, how are we gonna do it in a virtual world? And so fast foundations, we went through two rounds, both of the virtual rounds and it was such a game changer for us personally and for our business.

JESSICA BURGIO (02:51):
Definitely. I feel like let’s dive into a little bit of your guys’ story too, cuz you both have incredible backgrounds on your own and the way you came to work with each other I thought was really, really cool and such a great story. I’d love to share because collaboration and getting in the rooms is one of the key like takeaways from masterminds like growing your network and being able to collaborate with people of like mind and people who have like similar backgrounds. And I think your guys’ story really like talks well to how that kind of all happened. But Covid Covid took a lot of people out and gave people like the clarity and the time to kind of sit back and be like, is what I’m doing really what I want to be doing is where I’m going really where I want to be going? What, what the heck am I even doing? Right? Because we we go, go, go. And like Caytie, you shared your C-Suite story and, and I’d love for us to be able to tell that story again here on, on the podcast to kind of how you guys met each other and then what decisions ma were made in order to be like, Hey, I really like where this is going. Let’s partner and and create something together.

CAYTIE LANGFORD (03:49):
Yeah, absolutely. So I started my career 20 years ago, which is insane to say cuz it feels like it was just yesterday. But I started my career and I was promoted very, very quickly. I went from entry level to the management team within 10 years, and then within 13 years I was in the C-suite. I was the number two person at the organization that I worked in. And I just came to that place where I questioned where I looked and I said, is this it? And at the same time, I was crying in my corner office every single day because I, my gut knew that it wasn’t it, but it, it took a while for my gut and my head to catch up and my heart. So I wound up walking away completely with Zero Plan because I will tell you, if you’re an executive and you’re trying to figure out what else you wanna do, it’s very difficult.

(04:45):
So I took six months off and it was a real nice blessing. I know that not everyone can do it, but it was, it was a great time for me to really discover who I was and what I wanted. And I was about 35 at the time and so I was trying to figure it out. I decided that I wanted to help women specifically. I wanted to go into personal and professional development. I’d always loved helping women get where they wanted to go. And so I became an executive coach. I did that for a few years and I started really thinking, I wanna be on stage, I wanna speak. And I’ll tell you what, when you start looking at all the conferences that you wanna be in and all the, you know, awesome shows that you wanna be on, it didn’t say Sally Smith, executive director, it would say Sally Smith, founder of something.

(05:39):
So fast forward, it’s 2020. The first day of shutdown here in Dallas, Texas was actually my 40th birthday. Just a few months before that, my husband and I had sold our beautiful big house and we had moved to a high rise. So here we are, I’m turning 40, I’m in the middle of my glass building that I called it. And my husband was essential, he owned a construction company, so he kept leaving and I was sitting there every day, as many people I know who are listening were thinking, what the hell am I gonna do? And so I just thought, okay, I’ve always wanted to build a women’s empowerment business and I don’t necessarily know what that looks like, but I’m gonna go ahead and do it. And so fast forward, that was in March and June I launched, I put it out on social media and I’ll tell you what, I put it out on social media before I knew what it was gonna be before I was ready.

(06:33):
I was terrified. I was terrified, y’all. And along came this amazing woman who I had met in 2017. Amanda reached out to me and said, oh my gosh, what is this? What are you doing? Can I talk to you about it? So we jumped on the phone and one of the things that I knew when I was building Bold Women’s Society was that I wanted to have an advisory board for anybody who’s listening, being an entrepreneur can be super lonely, and so many of us, we start out as solopreneurs before we can build that team. And so I knew if I had had an advisory board, I would have some accountability and that I would have somebody to really talk to and bounce ideas off of. So I shared that with Amanda, which was really weird because I had not told anyone other than the five women I was asking, and Amanda so bravely and so boldly said, do you have room for one more?

(07:31):
And I thought, oh my gosh, yes I do. So I said yes. And Amanda joined our advisory board and then a couple of months later she reached out and said, I have this crazy idea and I wanna talk to you about it. Of course, we jumped back on the phone and she said, I would love to be your business partner. Have, have you ever thought about that? And what’s crazy and what I go back to, again, being lonely as a solopreneur, but there are things that we’re trying to manifest, right? There’s always goals that we have. And one of the things that I had been praying for was a business partner. I wanted somebody to do the work with me. I thought I had found that person a couple years before, but she wasn’t the right person. So when Amanda said it, it was amazing. And so we went through a ton of due diligence to make sure that we were the right business partners, um, and we jumped in together. But I would love for Amanda to kinda tell her side of the story and what it was like on the other side, um, joining me and, and helping me. I mean, gosh, that’s in two years now and we wouldn’t be, we wouldn’t be where we were if we weren’t partnered up together, that’s for sure.

JESSICA BURGIO (08:38):
I love that. Yes. Amanda, please tell us how, how this came to be, because I know, I know there’s so many more details in there.

AMANDA CAHILL (08:44):
Oh, yes. And you know, every time we share this story, I just go back to that very first time that we met in 2017. And Caytie didn’t mention this, but, um, I was actually one of the very first coaching clients that she ever had when she started her executive coaching business. And it just so happened that she was speaking at an event that I went to. So just, you just never know. I mean, the power of being in the room with other people, right? So that just goes to show you many, many years later, you never know what’s gonna come from it. So just super crazy that we’re here now doing this of old women’s society. But my background, I bring a little bit different take to the table in that, you know, I’m still in my corporate career, it’s thriving. I’ve, uh, two have grown up the corporate ladder very quickly as well.

(09:26):
And coming on board with Caytie, it’s so funny because I had always wanted to do something where I helped women. I helped bring positivity. Like that’s who I am. Everybody, anybody who meets me is like, Amanda’s so happy all the time. She’s so optimistic, she’s so positive. And it just rubs off on everybody that, that, that I meet. And, um, it was something that I wanted to bring to the table, but I never knew what that would come to look like. I didn’t know what it, what the embodiment of it was. And then when I saw what Caytie was doing with Bold Women’s Society, like she said, I reached out, I’m like, Hey, what is this? You know, I wanna be more involved. Um, you know, tell me, tell me what’s going on here. Um, and after we talked that first day, I was like, this is it. This is, this is a path for me to help shape what I’ve wanted to, to shape, even though I didn’t know what it looked like at the time. Um, you know, and so that’s just the power of two people coming together. And I mean, we’re, we’re still growing up trying to figure out what we wanna do. So it’s, uh, every day is an adventure <laugh> to say the least.

JESSICA BURGIO (10:22):
That’s a fun, fair way to put it. Like, we’re still trying to figure it out. And that’s one of the things that like, I always love to make sure we reiterate, like especially on podcasts or when people look people up on social media, like, looks like we, of course we put our best foot forward on social. Like, we want you to think we have our shit together. Like, and some days we really do, some days we actually do have our shit together. But the greater mission is like what you’re trying to build. And that’s, that’s helping women and being like a support system for women when they’re going through these big changes and, and creating more boldness in their life. And sometimes that’s sticky and hard and you’ve gotta figure all the things out. And I list, I love how you guys both always just like keep things super real even though you’re so high level and positive about stuff, you’re also like, and everything’s not always sunshine and rainbows.

(11:05):
Okay? So, you know, that’s like that, I hate the saying, but like toxic positivity, it’s like it’s you, you really embody like listen, like you’re gonna get to a point sometimes in your business in life and things aren’t gonna be super great and super, you know, perfect. Here’s what to do, here’s how you get around community, here’s how we can help you like come have conversations with us. That’s why like being an executive coach, having been a, a mentored by her and then also seeing how the, that can help in your business, in your life. Like, I wish so many more people would give themselves permission, especially women to like get the help from their peers or people who have gone before them, even if it’s like two steps ahead of them, you know?

AMANDA CAHILL (11:44):
Yeah, absolutely. You hit a spot on. And honestly, it’s one of the reasons, like when Caytie mentioned that us coming together as partners, we did so much due diligence in the beginning, like, what are Katie’s strengths? What are my strengths? What are her weaknesses? What are my weak weaknesses? And we saw that we complimented each other really well to help balance that out. But there’s so much power in the two of us being together because like when I’m going through a period where maybe, you know, my shit’s not straighter and I’m, I’m just not, you know, not not performing at my best self, then Caytie, I’m able to lean on her and she has that power to step in and say, you know what? I got you, I got you. I got this. We’re gonna be all right. And vice versa. You know, if Caytie’s ever in a bind, Katie, I got you. Yeah. And that’s just, we have, we have grown so much as women, as entrepreneurs, as business owners, as friends, you know, I mean you put any label on it just because of the partnership that we’ve had together and being able to lean and support each other.

JESSICA BURGIO (12:38):
Can we dive into that for a second? Because I feel like that’s a really untouched topic. I know a lot of people have gone into partnerships with people and they haven’t worked out because of not doing their due diligence and maybe by no fault of their own, maybe they just didn’t know how to have those kind of conversations. And I think when you’re starting something new, maybe you don’t really know what the expectation level should be from each player. And sometimes that’s where the confusion can come in. Because if you assume somebody’s gonna do X, Y, Z or if you assume someone’s really good at something and then they don’t do those things, like when expectations are not met, that’s when things start to fall off. But you guys just painted it slightly different. It wasn’t like, I carry my weight, she carries hers. Like it’s when she needs extra support, I’m there and vice versa.

(13:22):
Like, I love how you just explained that because actually in my, in my experience over, you know, a partnership I had before, I didn’t feel like that, but we definitely did not do our due diligence. It was more of a just like, Hey, you wanna go do something cool, yeah, let’s do it. And then it was like, I don’t know what we’re doing. We were just kind of winging it. And then that’s when things started to feel out of alignment and like, because we hadn’t had the conversations before the shit happened, when the things happened, it was like, oh, well how do we handle this? And who is supposed to take care of it and how come it wasn’t talked about? And you know, it was like so interesting. So I think for anybody listening, like if you are an entrepreneur and you want to do life with other people, if you’re not wanting to be a lonely entrepreneur and you want to collaborate and have partnerships or even a a a board, you’d need to be able to have those conver conversations with how, how did you guys go about doing that? Was that some skillset that you learned, Caytie in that like corporate world Amanda? Or did you guys kind of just like have a sit down, drink some spicy margaritas and like figure out who’s doing what and then arm wrestle for the rest of it? Like how did it go?

CAYTIE LANGFORD (14:26):
Yeah, I think that actually both of our backgrounds and corporate nonprofit really led to this. One of the things that we did was we did a SWAT analysis and so we did a SWOT analysis on ourselves where we had to rip band-aids off and then tell each other, this is what I’m good at, these are my strengths, this is really what I’m not good at, these are my weaknesses. Um, we talked about what our threats were, right? Where our areas of opportunity were. And I think that’s one of the things that I’m the most grateful for is that we got granular, we got granular really fast because we knew that becoming business partners wasn’t just like, oh, we’re gonna do this together. Right? I had put money into this, I had put ideas into this. Amanda was coming with money, right? So there was an exchange of money and I don’t care if it’s a dollar, like if you’re gonna put your money behind something as well as your sweat equity, you know, you’ve really got to to do that.

(15:34):
Just like if you were like buying a house, you get an inspection, right? And then we also got our attorney involved really early on and our attorney wrote a really great contract for us. We gave a lot of input. In fact, like one of the crazy steps was that both of our husbands had to sign something about our contract, right? Like we literally have like what happens if one of us dies? Like what, what happens to our husband? Like, like we went that far down the road because we weren’t just thinking of, you know, what is this business gonna look like for the next couple of years? But we’re really trying to think about like what can this brand become? How can we make a global movement? And so we know that’s not gonna take a year or two years. Amanda, I want you to jump in cuz I’m sure you have total, you know, other thoughts that maybe I haven’t mentioned or just how you see it differently?

AMANDA CAHILL (16:34):
No, I mean you, you hit it spot on. I think getting granular in the beginning, thinking through the, oh there’s this new si shiny object, I just wanna jump on board and I wanna run with it. You know, it’s taking that pause to say, is this what I really want? Let’s talk about it, let’s figure it out. Like you said, pointing out your strengths and your weaknesses is like the hardest thing to do in the world, especially thinking about it from my side coming in where I am trying to pitch you to let me be your partner. I wanna talk about that. That was probably the scariest thing that, I mean, not the scariest but probably pretty top five scariest thing that I’ve ever done to say who am I to come in and pitch myself to somebody who’s already founded this company and going back and doing work that I know how to do on myself, getting my, you know, clarity on is this something that I really want?

(17:23):
How can I empower myself to be a part of this brand and to help grow it into something that we both have this collective vision of, you know, helping empower women all over the world. How do we bring that together and am I that person? Who am I little me, Amanda, how can I do that? Working through that process helped me grow in so many ways. And then being able to bring that together with Caytie. Just getting back to that granular level of what are you good at? What are you not good at real with yourself? Being honest, being honest with yourself is the big key. And then trusting that I’m gonna share this with this other person and they’re not gonna judge me for it. In fact, they’re gonna see the power in saying, you know what, she’s self-aware, she understands all these things about herself.

(18:05):
Um, and just being able to ask those tough questions. You know, we talk about it a lot in coaching, asking tough questions like when you journal, um, you know, when you’re trying to get clarity on things, but even as a business, asking yourself the tough questions early on so that way you lay that good foundation. Cuz I think we even put stuff in our contract, Jesse, um, about what happens if we get in a fight. You know, what is the, what is the mediation process? I mean, it’s crazy. We’ve been in, we’ve never had a fight, not once, which is blows my mind, right? But um, that just goes to show you how well we work together, but we got down to that level like what are the steps? What are the mediation steps?

JESSICA BURGIO (18:43):
That to me, like I feel like that is the stuff that people avoid. Like the play. We’re like, we’re not even gonna talk about the fact that we might have a fight. Like I think even just hearing you guys discuss how you went about putting this all together, what if solo entrepreneurs even did this level of due diligence for themselves? Like we should all do our own swat analysis to see what our threats, our weaknesses. Because how much easier would it be to hire team once you knew what your real superpowers were and what you were willing to like actually show up and do on a database basis? Because we all love to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll do all the things, but especially Amanda, like if you’re pitching to Katie that you wanna be part of, like no problem, I’ll do this. And then could you imagine like how many things that really wouldn’t have been in your wheelhouse that after about six months you would’ve felt resentful for or frustrated because you really didn’t wanna be doing those things? You just said yes because it was easier and you wanted to get in. So I love the transparency that you guys shared with that. So, okay, so you came together as a team, Caytie, obviously you were stoked to have Amanda on, you guys built this very, very strong foundation, which you guys could take off and do anything you want together. Now, where did Fast Foundations and Mastermind role in for you guys? Who discovered what and how did you decide that you two wanted to get in community with that mastermind?

AMANDA CAHILL (19:53):
Well, it’s, I love this question <laugh>. I’ve been following Chris and Lori harder for years. Um, and I’ve actually met both of them a couple of times. So I had, I had known who they were, I’d been, you know, involved in some of their programs before and I had on the periphery seen fast foundations, but I had never been an entrepreneur, I didn’t have a business. So there was a lot of imposter syndrome for me, even though I had these aspirations to do something where I was like, why can’t join this ma? Who am I again? I get back to the, who am I, I don’t even have a business. How can I join this mastermind? So when we were doing Bold Women’s Society together, I think two months in or something like that, the faf Fast Foundations was coming up for 2021 and I was like, again, built up a case for it to Caytie cuz Caytie really didn’t, um, I don’t think, I don’t think you had ever heard of Fast Foundations before.

CAYTIE LANGFORD (20:39):
No, I’d never heard of Chris Harder, I’d never heard of Lori, I’d never heard of Fast Foundations. I mean, early on when I became coach I had small masterminds so I understood the power of them. But yeah, I didn’t know how badass they were. Like I, I had no idea

AMANDA CAHILL (20:57):
<laugh>. So I, I built up a pitch just like I pitched her, you know, for me becoming her partner and was like, these are the benefits. This is how I can see how I could see us growing. And at the time, even now, I mean we’re still growing every day, right? But our business is so different now than it was even then early on in the first month of Fast Foundations. Fast forward two years later and like it’s completely one, it’s a complete 180, it’s a completely different business. And so I had visions of that when I was coming to Katy with this and I was like, we have to do fast foundations. You don’t understand. I’m like all these people and I’m listening us. Like I, I’ve seen this person grow and this person grow and this per, you know, and all these things. Um, and Katie, you know, trusted my me coming forward with that and she trusted my opinion and said, you know what? If you think this is what we need, let’s do it. Let’s, let’s invest in it. Let’s do it for us.

JESSICA BURGIO (21:47):
Well you guys have already proven that you wanna lay the bricks, right? Like you built your personal foundation between the two of you and then the next step was like learning from people who have gone before you, who are doing the big things you wanna be doing. And I’m sure Caytie, once you realized who Lori was with the event space and the women empowerment space that she was in, and then Chris kind of his equal equally yoked on that side, they really brought a good blend of all of those things. Plus they’ve been growing their network. So the ability to like bring the right people together, uh, I think that’s the power of amazing Masterminds is like when you have a great collective of people, um, brought on by the people who are running it, and that’s when you see the real magic happen. Um, because it’s, it, it is true. I mean, what would be your definition of a mastermind? Caytie, especially, I’d love to hear your version of that because you ran them prior to being in this one. So what is, what is that, like, what is, what does the word mastermind mean to you?

CAYTIE LANGFORD (22:35):
Yeah, I mean I I I kind of go back to the original definition, right? Like Napoleon Hill, that’s, that’s where I learned about them. Um, I learned about them through getting my own coaching certification and I just think, right, if you have great ideas and someone next to you has great ideas and you can share your struggles, your challenges and get insight, you know, again, I think that’s one of the reasons why I love having a business partner because I, I can bounce things off of Amanda, but even that, like we sometimes become so in the forest that we can’t see the trees, right? Because we’re in it. And yet when you sit with someone else, you can learn from them. And then the other thing about fast foundations is you see people that you’re like, damn, if they can do it, I can do it.

(23:29):
You’re like, whoa, look at the path she’s been on, look at the path he’s been on. It just gives you that excitement. It’s that, I dunno, it’s like that butterflies in your stomach to be like, we can do this. Like we can do this. Especially when you see people and you know, Jess, we haven’t talked about this, but you are our coach in the second round. And it’s funny because there are people that would be like, oh my gosh, you know, you do like beauty stuff and of course your podcast and all that and you’re doing some coaching, like how could that resonate? And yet at the same time, like things that you would talk to us about and coach us on and push us like the, and how we see your business growing, like that’s the power of being with a group of people.

(24:15):
And I think the other thing is when you’re an entrepreneur, unless you put your self in a space where other entrepreneurs are, you’re not with them. All of my friends are corporate American women or they’re stay-at-home moms now, right? I have very few friends who are also entrepreneurs. My husband is an entrepreneur, but even that, it looks different, right? And so putting yourself in a space where other people get it, I remember the first time we were in Fast Foundations and the word cajabi came up and we were talking about Cajabi and I was like, oh my God, they know what Cajabi is because I had been living in a land where no one knew what it was. So that’s just part of the reasons

JESSICA BURGIO (25:02):
I love it. Yep, that’s, that’s such a good point. Like I feel like so many people, and we talked a lot about this in the last in person around and it was, it’s, it’s been talked about over and over. If you are around people who are not dreamers or think that your ideas are stupid and crazy or question why you would give up the C-suite in order to go chase them, what they wanna call far off dream, people can’t relate to that. And as much as like people wanna support you, they can only support you to the level of which they’re at. Like they just can’t. And you know that they don’t know what you’re talking about, they know or you know, that they don’t really care that much to know any more than are you good? Everything’s working out you happy? How’s your little business thing going?

(25:41):
You know, it’s always like, how’s your little side hustle? When are you gonna get a real job? Well, that’s cute. Your husband’s taking care of you now. It’s like, not to be negative, but it’s, it’s, that’s also something that I learned and why I found Fast Foundations to be the thing I needed to expand my network of people like Jim Rt. And I joked in the first couple episodes, like we joined Fast Foundations because we wanted higher level friends that could have these conversations. I have awesome friends at home that I grew up with. I have amazing family members and those conversations are just different. They wanna know how well you’re doing. They, they want you to be doing good, but like the entrepreneurs Chit chat, like, it’s not really there. So I, I feel you to that level and I think I, I couldn’t agree any harder than that. Amanda, what about you? What’s your definition of what like a mastermind means and kind of like your experience from it?

AMANDA CAHILL (26:28):
Well, I’m laughing too cuz I also got my take on masterminds from Napoleons Hill, Napoleon Hill. So pretty similar to Caytie. But I, I wanna add on that. I think one of the most powerful things from being in the Mastermind it was touched on a little bit is like, now there’s so many people in my network that I’m connected to. And even as we were in the Mastermind, right, it was like if we had a question about anything, you know, I mean, we’ll we’ll use Caja Cajabi as an example. It’s like, you know, we need help setting up x we could go to the group or even the connections that we’ve made and said, Hey, I’ve seen that you’re really good at this. Like, do you mind just helping me with this? And everybody’s like, yes, of course, let me help. And it’s like they understand because they too once started at a day one, everybody starts at a day one.

(27:09):
And that’s the power of being in a group where like you are forced to level up, but they’re also forced to level up. But it gives people the opportunity to give back too. To say, you know what? I was there once, it was miserable. Let me help you do it so you don’t have the same misery that I did. Right? Um, totally. And so like for me it’s those, having those connections and still having those people, like you said, you and Jim and RT have kind of grown up together with your businesses, right? Since, since connecting the first time and now come full circle back in, found fast foundations together, right? So you literally never know what is gonna come of it, who you’re gonna meet, who’s one connection away from, from somebody who’s in that group. Um, just the possibilities are endless once you start getting in rooms with people’s whose minds are open

JESSICA BURGIO (27:57):
Yeah.

AMANDA CAHILL (27:57):
To anything.

JESSICA BURGIO (27:58):
It’s wild, isn’t it? It’s wild. Like just a couple years ago I was just doing hair full-time, super full-time, loving it, but knowing like there’s, I know I’m meant to do something different. I don’t know what it looks like. Oh my gosh, my mentors who I’ve always like admired l Lori, especially from the fitness world that we had relations back, back in the day and then Chris popping on talking about this fast foundations for early stage entrepreneurs. The key word that he used that got me was he called for any of you accidental entrepreneurs. And I was like, whoa, that’s all of the beauty industry. I think for the most part, some people go into it thinking I wanna open a salon or be like the head haunted. But most people get into the industry because either it’s a fallback, like I’ll try this until I find something else.

(28:39):
I’m really creative. Maybe this would be a good industry for me. But, but I don’t, the realization that you will be responsible for your own business and your own wellbeing doesn’t really get spoke about until a couple years into the business. And so that was the catchphrase that I was like, okay, I’m an accidental entrepreneur, I’m making said money, but like, like you Amanda, I didn’t have the quote unquote online scalable business that was supposed to be the thing you needed to join the mastermind. But luckily like you, I was like knocking on the door, I’m like, Hey, so I don’t have this, but I have that. What would it look like if I was in the group? And luckily I had the guts enough to ask Chris that question and Lori separately, and they both answered me similarly, which I don’t know if they ever knew.

(29:17):
I asked them the same question separately and they were just like, listen, we’ve been involved in so many high level masterminds, we’ve learned so much shit that no matter what, even just being around, they, they, they spoke highly of themselves. We’ll we’ll help you figure something out, but the power of being in rooms with a bunch of other people who wanna help you figure something out, that’s what a mastermind really is. And I was like, that doesn’t sound scary. That doesn’t sound too bad or intimidating and it sounds like I’m probably gonna meet some really cool people. So Yolo, like, here’s my credit card. Like, it was such an interesting experience because up until that point, other than like investing in school or other things, I hadn’t invested a chunk of money like that without knowing like a st like you buy something right for 10 20, buy a car.

(30:00):
Like you have something in return, like a, like a very clear r o ROI with, this was the first time I was like, we’ll, we’ll just see what happens. Like I, I hope this works out in my favor and I tell this story and I’ll continue to tell it because I think it’s important. I didn’t see like a quote unquote ROI like a lot of people did when they scaled their coaching services or they took their product to market. Because like I said, I didn’t have anything when I started. And so, but the trajectory of what you just said, Amanda, like who I was able to meet, how I was able to network, how I learned to network, how I learned to have conversations and ask better questions, like evolved throughout that process. And then one, once I had the guts to start my podcast, I had Chris harder on and then I also had the, you know, whats to, at the end of the podcast I said, Hey, you should really have like a training certification for coaches because people like me still need a coach and I can’t hire you at 15,000 an hour.

(30:51):
Where’s the in between? Do I, do I just grab somebody? And he’s like, well we actually have coaches in the program now would you wanna be one? And it’s like you Amanda, like pitching yourself to Katie. Like you have to sometimes put yourself in a situation where you can have that opportunity. And the masterminds really do create that for a lot of people. I know you guys met a lot of really amazing people in there and circa two years later, I’m now running the podcast for this program and they don’t even own it anymore. They passed the torch down to Jim and RT and I kind of weezled my way in again. I was like, rt, yo, I’m a really good podcaster. You should have me be a co-host. And he was like, uh, okay wait, what? Uh, sh sure Jess, we’ll give you a chance. I’m like, that’s all I’m asking for. Just give, give you a girl a chance. I’m like, lemme talk about people and it’s been working out. But if you don’t create that space and opportunity, like there’s are those are, those are missed like dreams that you’ll never knew cuz you didn’t even think big enough to have ’em. Right?

CAYTIE LANGFORD (31:43):
Yeah. I mean it’s crazy Jess, because where we started, like what my vision was for bold women’s society and how I thought we were gonna make money and now what we’re becoming and, and even we had a conversation earlier this week, like we don’t necessarily know what Bold Women’s Society is gonna be in a year, but we know that we’re open to growing and learning. And part of that came from watching other people in fast foundations. Like we also went in thinking like, oh my gosh, do we have to have an online business? We kinda figured out maybe that’s not really what we love, but we wouldn’t have known that have we not been surrounded by those people? And you know, we’d never thought of a product and I’m not saying we’re gonna become a product company, but just hearing like our first coach in the first round, she developed a product and sold a business.

(32:39):
Like just knowing that and understanding that like someone else who is similar to me who has a similar story to me can, can do that. Like that’s really big. And I think that that’s part of why entrepreneurship can look really scary, right? Because the truth is the education system that we have here in the United States, whether you go to public or private school, is to create people to work for companies. That’s literally what we’re for, right? It’s to educate you and get you there. But there’s always gotta be those of us who are like, okay, but I know I wanna do something on my own and I wanna create something. And I think, you know, one of the things that inspires me about Amanda is that she’s taught me that, you know, her favorite saying is the answer is always no until you ask. And I used to be terrified of asking, terrified and she’s driven this into me so much now that, you know, when we talk about leading our business and where our business is going, like sometimes it’s me asking Amanda like, Hey, what about this crazy idea? Can we try that? Yeah, sure. Now I’m getting all excited about like why, how cool it is to be an entrepreneur. Cause let’s all face it, there are days where you’re like, why am I doing this? I could just go work for someone else. We could just be easier.

JESSICA BURGIO (34:03):
Well, and that’s how people end up entrepreneurs because they’re working for somebody else thinking there’s gotta be better in this. I might as well go work for myself.

CAYTIE LANGFORD (34:09):
Hundred percent. That’s what what I did.

JESSICA BURGIO (34:11):
Yeah. Yeah. <laugh>. See I think that’s what we all did. No, that’s amazing. And I, I love you guys so much. So what’s on, what’s on the future path for Bold Women’s? Tell me about what’s going on with you guys now and what, what the current pulse of everything looks like.

AMANDA CAHILL (34:25):
Yes, absolutely. So we, you know, we’re ever evolving and um, like Caytie said, I think one of the things that we realized was that the virtual space, while it’s great for some people, it’s not, we are, Caytie and I thrive, like we love the in-person aspect. It’s the part of humanity that we both absolutely love. We both get energy from being around other people and we wanted to be able to turn that into something. So we have just started doing these round table events and them, right now we’re focusing on lunches and dinners, but we’re bringing like-minded, ambitious women together. Um, and we probably didn’t even mention this, but the women that we work with are typically corporate women. And so we both know that we want to see women who are in corporate, who are empowered, who are confident, who know how to, you know, kick ass and take names and not apologize for it.

(35:13):
You know, the answer is always no until you ask. Like, we want them to know these type of things. So we curated these in-person events and we had our first one last month in September, um, where we’re bringing them together to have these conversations that are, that are hard conversations to have. It might be around, um, you know, asking for more money or embracing your ambition, you know, if there’s something that that is on your heart, like the most re the one that we’re having, um, next month is, is talking about embracing your ambition. And it’s for, for the woman who’s like, you know, there’s always been something in the back of my mind or there’s something that’s been weighing in my heart here recently, whether that’s a big ask or they’re trying to make a pivot or trying to do something different in their career, or they have, maybe they wanna start a business who knows, right?

(35:53):
Like we, we don’t know what’s on somebody’s heart, but giving them the opportunity to get in room with other women to say, Hey, this is what I’ve been thinking about. I mean, and just like we’ve learned in the mastermind, once you start getting with people who think a little bit higher, when you start throwing those ideas out there, then you start getting the support from other people and they say, no, that’s not a crazy idea actually. Have you ever thought about this? Maybe you could try it like this. And that’s theory and that’s the goal behind why we want to bring people together in person. Um, like a prime example, we had a woman who we were working with, um, and she had this crazy idea that she wanted to write a child’s book. She thought it was a crazy idea. We thought it was fantastic, but she was like, how can I do that? Who am I to write this children’s book? And we got her in a room with other people and as soon as she said it, she was embarrassed. She almost didn’t even say it. Everybody in the room said, oh my God, you have to do this. Let’s talk about how to make this happen for you. And that is what we’re trying to do with these curated events.

CAYTIE LANGFORD (36:52):
She wrote a children’s book that hashtag that’s the punchline. Like it happened.

JESSICA BURGIO (36:57):
Hashtag she actually did write the book

CAYTIE LANGFORD (36:59):
Yeah, yeah. And it, it’s funny, I didn’t even think about this, but when Amanda was talking about these small round tables that we’re putting together, we actually say like, it’s part networking, part mastermind. I mean, we’re talking about getting like 7, 8, 9 women at a table, like creating that safe space to have conversations. Um, and who knows, maybe, maybe a true big, you know, multi-month mastermind will come outta it. We’ll see, I think that’s the other cool part where Amanda and I are right now is we’re letting it unfold in the way that it’s supposed to. We’re letting the people that we wanna help tell us what they need. We’re, we’re inviting them to participate with us in different ways. But, you know, I think that five years from now, we’re gonna look back to this time in 2022 and go, thank goodness we weren’t so rigid. Like it has to be this way because I think us, you know, manifesting the big dream, but staying open to how it’s gonna happen is, is the way to go.

JESSICA BURGIO (38:02):
Mm. I love that. Manifesting the big dream, but staying open to how it’s gonna happen. So good. Ladies, I love you so much. I’m so proud of you and I, I think what you’re doing is magic and is so, so needed. So keep doing the good things that you’re doing. Thank you for sharing your experience with Fast Foundations and Mastermind to anybody who is listening to this podcast. Is maybe on the fence still around, should I, shouldn’t I? What’s, I don’t know, like I know you, Amanda said you watched for a while and maybe you didn’t have what you thought you needed in order to join. Um, what would you say to someone else who’s on the fence right now that’s like, Ooh, I totally resonate with Amanda. Don’t have a business maybe yet. And I don’t know exactly what I’m getting myself into. I’m kind of scared and nervous and I don’t know if I should take my seat at the table.

AMANDA CAHILL (38:44):
I would say that if it’s on your heart, if you, if there’s even that, if it came up in your mind, you need to be in the room. It was the thought was placed there for a reason. And honestly, you never know what’s gonna come of it and you don’t wanna think of yourself a year from now and you’re still in the same exact place thinking the same exact thoughts and no progress has happened. You need to do the scary things. If it scares the shit out of you, it’s probably gonna be pretty good for you on the other side. <laugh>

JESSICA BURGIO (39:12):
So true. I was scared shitless. We always joke about the hot seats, me and Jim, like, when you have to get up and introduce yourself, you guys didn’t have to like almost shit your pants, but you did have to unmute and come off camera and talk about yourself, right? Do you remember how you felt like when you had to just say, my name’s Jessica and I’m like, nobody knows who you are, like you don’t like the pressure like we put on ourselves is so unfair. literally, [inaudible]

CAYTIE LANGFORD (39:38):
Oh my Gosh, I Was sitting in Amanda’s dining room behind one computer, but we had two because we didn’t know if we were allowed to have two or only be one, and then we didn’t know if we were gonna each get to introduce ourselves or it was only gonna be one. We were so nervous. Amanda, do you remember that? Like, I, like, I’m sweating thinking about how nervous we were

AMANDA CAHILL (39:55):
I me too. I was literally about to once I was like, I was like, my heart is racing. I’m like, oh, I need to put my hair up. Like it’s not, yes. I mean, you feel like, and you only get like 30, 60 seconds, whatever it is. But I remember, like for me, I still kept having this imposter syndrome and I was like, I don’t even, I’m not an entrepreneur. Like what are you talking about? I’m like, yes, I’m in a, I have a, I’m in a business, I have a business, I don’t know, and now look at me. You know, so

JESSICA BURGIO (40:23):
<inaudible>. So if you’re listening and you’re on the fence and those are the reasons that are holding you back and keeping you stuck, please reach out to either of us and just shoot us a DM and be like, listen, I just need some hype. Can you just hold my hand? And that’s exactly what this podcast is hopefully doing for you when you listen to these stories of everyone who’s gone before you. Um, and just reminding you that you don’t have to have it all figured out before you start. Like that’s part of the amazing journey and listening to you to talk about where you were when you started your business to where it’s evolving to now. Even with the, like, we are not sure about like where it’s going, but we’re open and we’re here for it. I think letting go of our expectations around how we think things will come to be is like the biggest gift you can give yourself as an entrepreneur.

(41:03):
Like the goal doesn’t have to change, but like how it happens and when it happens is like totally, you know, something that you should be flexible about and kind of be able to like roll with, especially when things like babies come into play or like, you know, I don’t know, covid, things like that. It’s nice to be able to be flexible and roll with life rather than being so stressed out because, you know, we all gotta choose our hard and if hard means you’re working really hard for yourself, we’re we’re here for it. You got three women cheering yawn right now. So if you’re listening to this podcast and you have any questions about Fast the Mastermind, reach out to Jim Rt, myself, the girls, we’re all open to sharing our experiences with you and holding your hand as you experience this amazing thing that we call a mastermind. Ladies, thank you so much. Where can we follow you and keep up with all the good stuff you got going on?

AMANDA CAHILL (41:48):
Yes, yes. So Bold Women’s Society is our handles across all platforms, so please come follow us. Um, even if you wanna hit us up in the dms, we’d love to hear your story and as Jess said, if you need any help convincing yourself that Fast Foundations is absolutely for you, <laugh>, reach out to us. We’re happy to talk to you about that.

JESSICA BURGIO (42:07):
Awesome. And if you guys are interested, you can go to fastfoundations.com. We do a wait list open for the next round. Uh, we’re right in the beginning of our fall season that just started. Uh, there are two curated three day in-person events along with the six month Mastermind community on an app that we use. So all yummy good stuff. If you have any questions, check it out at fastfoundations.com and we will see you guys on the next episode of Fast Foundations, the podcast.