April 23, 2025 • 58 mins
What do free lunch money, a horse, and a seven-figure landscaping company have in common? Trina Julian.
In this episode, Jess and Brandon dive into how Trina built Country Girl Gardens from a $10K side hustle into a seven-figure business—all with one goal in mind: freedom. From day one, she designed her company to run without her, documenting every process, system, and role. So when a horseback riding accident sidelined her, the business kept thriving—thanks to her standard operating procedures.
Her exit wasn’t luck. It was strategy.
Now, Trina’s on a mission to help service-based entrepreneurs build businesses that run and sell without them. If you’re stuck in a business that feels more like a job, this episode is your wake-up call.
Listen in for real talk on building wealth, scaling smarter, and creating a business that doesn’t own you.
Visit prenups.com/sugardaddy to learn more about fair prenups that help couples plan for a healthy financial relationship.
Watch this episode in video form on YouTube
To apply to be a guest on the show
You can email us at: thesugardaddypodcast@gmail.com
Be sure to connect with us on socials @thesugardaddypodcast we are most active on Instagram
Learn more about Brandon and schedule a free 30-minute introductory call with him
Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review.
Notes from the show:
Explore Trina’s Website and subscribe to her Newsletter
Connect with Trina on Facebook
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hey babe, what are we ?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
talking about today.
Today we are talking about howto scale your business into a
seven-figure business throughsystems and automations, and I
know in the world that we arekind of in in this finance space
everybody's like be anentrepreneur, it's the most
amazing thing ever, like onlywork for yourself and all of
(01:19):
those things which sound greatin theory.
But we know it's a lot of hardwork.
And do you want to do it ifyou're not making any money?
And I think the answer to thatis no.
But we have somebody here whoknows how to scale a business
into a seven-figure business andnow helps other people do that.
Because if you're going to doit, if you're going to take the
(01:39):
time to invest in yourself andbe an entrepreneur, we want you
to do it right and we want youto have the tips and tricks and
systems in place to actuallymake money so that you're not
just burning yourself out, notworking for the man.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, it's also two different skill sets between
being able to grow, have asuccessful business and then
grow it successfully.
There are two different skillsets.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
That's absolutely right.
So today we have Trina Julianwith us to help us understand
how to do this the right way,because she has done it the
right way.
We're going to get into herstory, but we want to learn from
somebody who's done it.
We have not done it.
We are not there yet yet, butTrina has.
So, trina, thank you for beingon the Sugar Daddy podcast with
us today.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Thank you, I'm really excited.
You guys are great.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Oh, thank you so much .
Well, let's get into your bio,because we met you at FinCon and
you just had such aninteresting story and we were
like automatically just blownaway and we were like we have to
have you on the pod, peopleneed to hear this.
And so let's get into the bioso people know who we're talking
about, or what we're going tolearn from you, and who we're
(02:42):
talking to, and then we'll getinto your first money memory.
Trina Julian is the founder ofCountry Girl Gardens, which she
started in her backyard shed.
In just seven years, she builta million-dollar landscaping
powerhouse, understanding thefrustrations of growing a
business and experiencing therelentless demands of daily
operations, she now helpsbusiness owners work to build a
(03:05):
hands-off business that runslike a profit-making machine.
I love all of that.
She is here to provide theroadmap of owning a seven-figure
business and help you put yourmoney to work for you so that
you can achieve financialindependence.
Yay, this is going to be a goodconversation.
Trina, thank you for being withus.
Yes, of course.
All right, it's a financialliteracy podcast.
(03:29):
We're going to talk about thatseven-figure business that you
built, but first tell us aboutyour first money memory, please.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, I mean, the thing that comes to mind with my
first money memory is so I grewup in like Central California
and I was always on free lunch.
I had a single parent and youknow she worked a lot to just
make ends meet and so we were,you know, on the lower end of
(03:57):
the income spectrum.
So I always got free lunch.
And you know, looking back Ilaugh because I'm like, ah, I
wouldn't do anything like thistoday.
But I don't know how she didn'tknow, but I didn't tell her or
she didn't know that I was onfree lunch.
So she would give me twodollars every day to buy lunch
and I got free lunch.
(04:18):
So I pocketed two dollars everyday.
And this is probably likesecond, third grade.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
And um.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I really wanted a horse.
Like I was one of those littlegirls that just loved horses and
I, you know, our neighborsalways had horses and had family
members that had horses.
So I was like I really want ahorse.
So I was pocketing two $2 a dayuntil I saved up $400.
And then I looked in theclassified ads for a $400 horse.
(04:49):
Did you find one?
I found one.
And my mom's like I can't buyyou a horse.
And I'm like no, no, I have$400.
I mean, I didn't add up howlong it took to get there.
But I know it's so weird, I have$400.
She's like how on so weird Ihave $400?
Oh, my god, you know she's likehow on earth do you have $400?
And it was because I had a oneof those big water jugs in the
(05:12):
back of the closet that I wasputting my two dollars in every
day and we bought the horse.
I got my first horse.
I paid for myself.
Yeah, so that's my first moneymemory.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Um, I think you, we, okay, we start every guest
episode with that first moneymemory and we've heard some
really crazy ones.
That, I think, is my this youwin for absolute favorite money
memory.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
At this point, like to date, I have no idea, crazy
stuff like that I have no ideahow much horses cost.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I have so many questions?
What kind of?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
horse do you get for $400?
Like, is this like back then?
Was this like an average horseprice or was this like you kind
of got?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I mean I'm sure it wasn't a Kentucky Derby winner,
but like I mean it wasdefinitely um year old pony of
America.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So pony of America is a common horse for kids.
It's not full size.
I think she was probably inbetween 11 and 13 hands, so she
wasn't a full size horse and shewas only two.
So she had never been riddenbefore.
So it was definitely like notthe wisest decision.
But I was so determined and mymom doesn't know anything about
(06:23):
horses really but, like I said,I have, you know, neighbors,
friends and family that hadhorses.
So I did end up getting helpwith this horse and I was nine
when I bought her.
So I'm thinking it must havebeen like four years or
something it took me to save it.
But, um, I did get help withthe horse.
I had her until I was 11 or 12and at that point had outgrown
(06:44):
her.
So it worked out.
But no, it was a cheap horse.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, but okay, I don't need to ask him to hear
this episode, because we're notgetting a horse.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Our daughter would be like I can do this, Cause she
she talks about saving her moneyfor things that she wants and I
need a horse not to be on thatlist.
Um, I mean, I'm sure it costs alot to maintain a horse and to
feed a horse, and was there anyconversation following of like,
okay, we're going to let you buythis horse, but how are you
going to help keep it alive?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I mean I probably gave my mom or $2 back every day
, I don't know.
I actually don't need the lunchmoney anymore.
Let's, let's put that towardthe feed.
No.
I don't actually remember thatpart.
I know that we had to board thehorse and that usually includes
feed.
So, yeah, I didn't work thosedetails out and my mom didn't
(07:38):
share with me how we made thatwork.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But she did.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
She's probably very impressed that you saved that
long she's like wow, somethinglike this has to be rewarded.
Well, shout out, and I stillhave two horses.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I still have, you know, I still have horses.
I actually have, uh, half drafthorses now and they pay for
themselves, because my likehobby business that I do for fun
is I give carriage rides indowntown Spokane at Riverfront
Park, and so my horses now paytheir own way.
So that's fun, oh my gosh, Lookat that.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I mean we've come full circle.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
So the money memory 100% transferred into adulthood?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, it did.
That's amazing.
Thank you for sharing that withus.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
That's amazing.
Thank you for sharing that withus.
You're just in a tough season.
I created something just foryou because I've had people
reach out who are serious aboutchanging their money story.
But the full financial planningpackage just wasn't the right
fit yet.
So I built a new servicethrough Oak City Financial
that's focused completely ondebt reduction.
No fluff, no shame.
You'll get a one-time planningsession, a personalized payoff
(09:01):
strategy, your own financialdashboard and monthly, if you
want extra support while youclimb out, it's $300 to get
started in a hundred dollars amonth.
If you want that ongoingguidance, that's it.
This is about helping you getunstuck, not making you feel
like you failed.
If this sounds like what you'vebeen needing, go ahead and
schedule a call with me.
The link is in the show notes.
(09:21):
Let's take the first steptogether.
The link is in the show notes.
Let's take the first steptogether.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That's incredible.
Okay, let's pivot into CountryGirl Gardens.
And where did that idea comefrom?
And were you going into thatwith the idea of, okay, this is
going to be a seven-figurebusiness and then I'm going to
sell it and teach others how todo this, or what was that
(09:49):
journey like?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Well, I graduated college in 2009.
And, if anybody, I'm sure youguys remember because we're
about the same age 2009, thereweren't many jobs, especially
where I live.
2009, there weren't many jobs,especially where I live.
We're like a very much ahospitality tourism town, and so
there just wasn't a lot ofoptions of jobs.
(10:12):
So I went back to being abarista, which is what I did all
through high school and college.
And while I was a barista, Iwas just trying.
I knew I wanted my own business.
I didn't want to move toSeattle or Portland, which is
what most of my um, the otherstudents that I graduated with,
had done, and I didn't want todo that.
So I was just trying to deviseup a plan of what business to
(10:36):
start and I started researching,um, like self-sustainability,
so like growing your own food.
That was always an interest ofmine and that was something I
had been kind of reading up onsince I was like 19 or so.
So it was a good opportunity.
(10:56):
I started a garden in pots whenwe didn't have, you know, any
land or anything, and I justkind of started studying it and
talking about it at the coffeestand.
And it started because I wantedto grow food and flowers.
And that's hard to do in, youknow, North Idaho where half of
(11:19):
the year is freezing and yearsfreezing and there wasn't.
It was just difficult.
So I had to pivot a lot anddecide what was going to
actually have a demand.
And planting flowers had ademand, not really growing and
selling them, but planting them.
So I had people at the coffeestand asked me to plant flowers
(11:41):
for them and I had enough that Ikind of started a side hustle
of planting landscape plants forpeople and that's how it
started.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
I just love origin stories like that.
Something so simple of like Ihad this interest and so I
talked about it as I was makingpeople's coffee, and then they
decided, hey, can you come dothis for me and I will pay you.
Exactly.
I mean, it's so simple, butlike it can be so powerful, it's
amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, I think nowadays it was just seeing the
opportunity, like seeing thatpeople okay, people are asking.
So I'm like there's a demandhere and that's what I was
looking for was something thathad a demand, and If people are
asking me to do something forthem, I'm like then more people
will also be interested in that.
So I saw the opportunity andran with it, and then I started
(12:32):
talking about it more toeverybody, about how I'm
planting flowers and landscapeplants for people, and it took
off from there.
I started as a side hustle in2015.
And I only did like $10,000.
Like on my days off, days thatI wasn't working at the coffee
(12:56):
shop, I planted flowers.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
And, but only $10,000 .
I mean, that's a lot of moneyfor a side hustle that you
created on your own.
You know kind of just talkingabout your passion.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah, and I was 29 at the time and for some reason, I
had this idea that I'm like Iwant to be out of my job by 30.
Like I don't know how I'm goingto do it, like the numbers
didn't really pan out in onpaper.
I was like I don't know how I'mgoing to make this work, but I
want to quit the coffee stand atage 30.
And so I started in May of 2015.
(13:35):
Like I said, I did $10,000 thatyear.
2016.
Spring rolls around and all ofa sudden I had gotten traction
and I had so much work coming inpeople who wanted stuff done.
My birthday is in March.
I put my two weeks notice in onmy birthday my 30th birthday
(13:56):
and my last day was April 1st.
So I managed to do that and Iwas full time ever since and
just kind of went hard, so youset your goal and you hit your
goal.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, that's amazing.
There's something pivotal about30.
I don't know how it's going towork out.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
I don't see how it's going to work, but it did oh my
gosh.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So were you doing all of the work yourself at that
point, or were you having toactually hire people to get it
all done?
It was all you.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
At that point it was all me.
At that point it was all me andI think I hired my first
employees that first full-timeyear, probably four months in,
four to six months in.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Wow.
So with hiring your firstemployees, would you say that
you hired them proactively oryou had a demand and you had to
hire them after realizing thatyou couldn't do it yourself?
Had a demand and you had tohire them after realizing that
you couldn't do it yourself.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I knew pretty much from the get-go of this, of the
landscaping business, that Iwanted to.
I kept saying I either wantedto build my way out or buy my
way out, and what that meant wasbuild my way out means I hire a
team that runs it without me.
Buy my way out means I justmake enough money and invest it
that I can sell it and don'thave to do anything with it,
(15:10):
like it wasn't something that Iwas.
I was passionate about plantsand I love gardening.
I have tons of house plants inmy office and I did my own
landscape Like I loved it, butit wasn't something I wanted to
do.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
long term it's well, it's like very physical.
It's a tough grueling work too.
It just wasn't.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
And so, from the early days, I just I knew that
that was the route I wanted togo, and I got off track on what
the actual question was.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I always know that for most people, like you know
most you know entrepreneursstart out just by themselves and
then they start to grow theirbusiness and now they're going
to transfer from the person whoactually does the work to being
the person who also manages thepeople who do the work.
And that's a hard transitionfor a lot of people and often
people tend to hire people toolate rather than being proactive
(16:05):
in hiring people beforehand.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Too late rather than being proactive and hiring
people beforehand when, like youknow, people in retrospect are
like, yeah, you shoulddefinitely try to hire before
you need rather than waitinguntil you need right that is a
that is a very good point andthat's something I tell people
all the time is like hire rightaway, hire before you're ready,
because hiring is a whole newskill and it's something you're
going to get wrong at first andit's good to start learning it
(16:30):
before.
You absolutely need need peopleto come in and you know do
things right, cause that's awhole nother learning curve of
you know how to delegate and getpeople to do things how you
like it done.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Plus, it gives you a more of a runway to find who you
really think would be good atthe job, because if you're
scrambling at the end because oh, I need somebody, I need
somebody, more than likelyyou're probably going to not
hire the right person becauseadded desperation.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, that is 100% true.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yes, when you went from sharing about plants at the
coffee stand, did you have anLLC?
Once people started asking, hey, can you come do this for me?
I've got this big project.
How did you figure out pricing?
I mean, walk us through thoseearly stages of really building
(17:23):
a business from the ground up.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yes, it was confusing .
I did have an LLC that I hadstarted while I was in college,
because in like 2007, 8, Iwanted to do the whole real
estate thing, so I had startedan LLC for that.
All I did was use that LLC thatI'd had for a while and just
change the name of it.
So that was set up and ready togo.
(17:46):
And then pricing wascomplicated.
I didn't know, I wasn't.
I was charging $25 an hour.
When I started, I was justtrying to get work and that was
more than what I was making, soI just undercharged.
And then as I got busier, Ijust kept increasing my prices
(18:07):
and I let the demand kind ofdetermine what I was charging.
So as my schedule was full, I'dincrease prices.
And when I increased prices Iwould lose some customers that
were paying the $25 an hour andI'd bring on the $35 an hour
customers and I just kept thatcycle up until I sold the
(18:28):
business.
So it was.
It was trial and error.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Everybody underpriced this other price themselves,
Cause right now I'm in theprocess of changing my prices
because I'm underpriced but it'sokay.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I keep telling him I'm like people.
People are selling theirtoenails online and people are
buying it.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
And as long as you're increasing your prices and you
understand that you're going tolose clients, but you're going
to replace them with higherpaying ones who are going to be
better clients for you, becauseusually I find that the higher
paying clients are the betterclients.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah, that's he says that all the time that is
unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
From my experience, the people who are the busiest
and paying the most are theeasiest to work with.
It's the individuals who maybequote unquote have a little bit
more time on their hands andthey're paying you the least
that become the biggest headache.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yep Like our parents who pay him nothing.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah, we all have to start somewhere.
So if you start out and you'rejust, you know, underpricing
yourself, that's okay.
Just raise your prices and keepdoing it until you find cause
you'll.
You'll find a gauge of likeokay, I'm, I'm charging too much
.
Now I'm not getting as muchwork as I need, so I better
bring the prices back down, andyou just have to.
Always, my prices weren't'tever set like it was really
(19:46):
demand driven.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
And my parents, meaning your mom.
Let's specify.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Let's move on from this part of the conversation.
How long or can you walk usthrough the journey of $10,000
as a side hustle to?
You're quitting your job onyour birthday.
What did the following year,the year after that, what was
that revenue increase?
And then, how did you get to?
Oh, somebody's knocking on mydoor to buy this business from
(20:17):
me.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I was able to increase the revenue a hundred
percent plus every year, yearover year, for the first five
years.
That's amazing.
So I went from and it was waymore sometimes like that.
First year was 10,000, but myfirst year full time, I think I
did 174,000.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
And then the second year I think it was 247,000.
And then the third year waslike 380,000.
So it was like major leaps andbounds but I was pushing like
exceptionally hard because itwasn't a long-term game for me,
it was.
I knew I wanted to get in,build it, get out.
If you're building it, you know, if you, let's say, somebody
(21:05):
that's listening has like awindow cleaning company or a
house cleaning company orsomething like that, and if you
are in it for the longterm, likeyou want to run that business
for a long time, I don'trecommend growing that fast
because it's leaves you no timefor anything else.
Like I don't have children.
My husband has kids, butthey're in their twenties and at
(21:27):
that time I think they wereteenagers.
So I didn't have theresponsibilities of children and
I mean there were.
I just wasn't giving attentionto family at that time.
I was just working and it didtake its toll.
So I did it exceptionally fast,but that was because I knew
(21:49):
that there was a finish line.
So I don't recommend somebodydo that if they are in it for
the long term.
That's a good call out.
It's unnecessary torture.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I appreciate that call out because I think
sometimes those things getmissed when other people are
watching externally someone growbusiness.
It's like, yeah, I think weoften think that someone is in
the same position as we are andhave the quote unquote the same
responsibilities, and that's notalways the case.
Like you said, you know, forexample, we have two young kids,
so that'd be very hard for usto do in comparison to you.
You know you didn't have youngkids, so I appreciate that call
(22:24):
out.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Yeah, have young kids .
So I appreciate that call outyeah, and it's not worth it.
I just shared something on myInstagram yesterday actually,
that Nicole Curtis, the gal whodoes the rehab addict and like
repairs old houses she had, Iguess, mentioned that she didn't
think that the that it wasworth it to sacrifice her family
time, um, to grow her businessthe way she did.
And I think that's a supercommon regret of people looking
(22:49):
back, especially when you'reraising kids, that they they
focus so much on growing theirbusiness in those early years of
their kids lives and then theymiss out on a lot.
And it really isn't like I andthat's kind of how that's my
philosophy is like I feel likefamily should always come first,
like over your business.
(23:10):
Your business should supportyour lifestyle so that you can
spend time with your family,cause really, when it comes down
to it, that's the mostimportant thing in life, I think
, is being there, for you knowpeople who love you and the
people that you love.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, and Time is the most you know valuable thing
that you can't get it back.
Regardless of how much moneyyou make, how big you grow your
business, you can't buy moretime.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Right and not to be morbid, but you never know when
it's up either.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
So that is very true.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
You know that's always something that you got to
live like a happy mediumbetween YOLO and be responsible.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
That's so true.
Let's talk about theinvestments that you had to make
into your business.
From I mean landscaping, I'mthinking truck and wheelbarrows
and, you know, material supplieslike all.
Like, did you, were you rentinga truck or did you own a truck?
Like, did you, were you rentinga truck?
Where did you own a truck?
How did you actually geteverything that you needed to do
(24:14):
these landscape projects?
And then I'm also thinking ofyou know how were you scheduling
people?
How were you invoicing them?
Can you walk us through thelogistics of the business tools
you know, literally andfiguratively, that you needed in
order to grow this business asquickly as you did?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yeah, when you know, when you talk about a
bootstrapped business, I waslike the definition of that
because I did not have a truckbut my husband did.
So that was his contribution tomy business was.
I started borrowing his truckand he never got it back.
I'm sure he's okay with it.
Yeah, so I started with, youknow, his truck and rakes that I
(25:01):
had already had just fromraking my leaves in my yard.
So I started with like a rake,a shovel, a hand trowel and a
truck and that was it.
And as I started getting paid.
So this is why starting as aside hustle is a good idea,
because that $10,000 I made thatfirst year as part-time, I took
that and bought more equipmentso that I could expand the
(25:25):
services.
I also felt comfortable hiringpeople because I had a little
bit of a cushion there.
So I didn't spend maybe any ofthat money at first.
I just put it back into thebusiness right away so that I
could.
I think I bought my secondtruck pretty Like six months
into my first full-time year andI bought it at an auction for
(25:48):
$1,000.
Wow, I still had that $1,000truck in my fleet when I sold
the business.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
So it was a good purchase.
Yes, most of the time you thinkof buying a car for $1,000.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
That's amazing.
I'm like, yeah, it's probablynot going to last that long.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Well, it's funny, the other skills you pick up when
you own a business, because Iwasn't a landscaper anymore, I
was really a buyer of assets.
I had to find trucks.
I had to find trucks, I had tofind them at good deals.
I bought at least a truck ayear, um, sometimes two, and I
(26:22):
would always buy them at auction.
Another horseback riding storyis I was um riding horses with a
girlfriend and I had my phoneand I had the auction up on my
phone, so I was bidding on thistruck as I'm horseback riding
(26:42):
and I ended up winning the truckon this horseback ride.
I'm like, yes, it was like a$2,400 truck at that point.
But, um, yeah, so I was justalways looking for trucks, Like
I was always buying if a truckcame up, whether I thought I
always looking for trucks, LikeI was always buying If a truck
came up, whether I thought Ineeded it or not if the truck
came up that fit the descriptionof what I wanted, I would buy
(27:03):
it.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Nice, my first car was an auction.
My dad went to an auction and Idon't remember what he paid for
it.
But yeah, that's a great placeto buy.
Yeah, you absolutely can.
All right, right.
So you were buying trucks whenyou could because your business
was growing and expanding.
Talk to us about those laterphases where you knew you wanted
(27:27):
to sell the business.
This was not sustainable.
You, you knew you needed to tap.
How did you get it to thatpoint of I know somebody is
going to want to buy this fromme.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I didn't think anybody would want to buy it
from me, because it's alandscape business.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
So I was like I don't .
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I just had never heard great things about selling
service businesses, and so Istarted talking to a broker in
2020, 2020, 2021, something likethat and we were I got a
(28:08):
valuation.
The valuation came back, okay,but I was like I want to build
it for two more years and getmore.
So no, actually, let's, let'sthink about that.
I started talking to the brokerin 2022 and then I was going to
grow it to like 2025 to try tohit a certain benchmark that I
(28:31):
had set, and so I was working onthat and the biggest thing was
putting people in place, which Ihad already.
It was already hands off.
I had already had an operationsmanager and I wasn't working
much at all at that point, but Ineeded to get my, my profit and
(28:53):
revenue up to a certain point.
So it was really at that point,but I needed to get my profit
and revenue up to a certainpoint.
So it was really, at that point, just managing a team.
And when I say managing a team,I meant that I managed my
operations manager and hemanaged everybody else, so it
was pretty easy at that point.
It was just working and tryingto get more, more clients coming
(29:15):
in, more jobs on the books andbuilding up profit, but it was
cut short and I ended up sellingin 2023.
There's there's a ribbon thatruns through my entire life of
like things that are in commonand it's horses.
So I was in a horseback ridingaccident, um, in last year, and
(29:39):
I guess I should start with so Ihad I had a management team at
that point.
I had two sales guys.
My two sales guys had put intheir notice.
So, as an hands-off owner,whenever a management team
member quit, that was when Iwould have to jump back in and
make sure that spot got filled.
So that was pretty much myprimary role at the time.
(30:02):
So I had two people quit and itwas kind of devastating because
they were my two key guys andreplacing them, I knew, was I
was afraid of it, which Ishouldn't have been, but I was
and so they put in their notice.
I think it was on a Friday.
(30:24):
That weekend I went horsebackriding and I got bucked off and
it was really bad.
I spent three days in thehospital.
I had to have emergency surgery.
I spent three days in thehospital.
I had to have emergency surgery.
I couldn't work because I waspretty much stuck at home on the
couch like, couldn't doanything for six weeks and I
(30:48):
felt like at my lowest point.
I was like I don't know how I'mgoing to overcome this.
My business needs me right now.
I just had two key people quitand I'm supposed to jump in to
rehire them and I can't do thatbecause I'm injured.
So I know this story is alittle confusing, I think no,
(31:09):
it's okay.
I had hired a new operationsmanager before my two guys put
in their notice, but they didn'tknow it yet and he was supposed
to start that Monday, thatMonday that I was still in the
hospital because of my horsebackriding accident.
So this is kind of where it allcame together to me that what,
(31:32):
what I had put in place wasworking, because I couldn't work
, I couldn't do the things Ineeded to do.
I had this new operationsmanager starting and I couldn't
be there to train him.
So I did it through Google Docsor Google Drive because I had
all my SOPs there, and so he andI just chatted and I trained
(31:54):
this new operations managerthrough chat and written SOPs
that I had from, like, my couchat home.
So seeing those systems workwas my first cue.
That okay, my business isactually probably more valuable
than I give it credit for,because it really does run
(32:17):
without me being there with justsome guidance and being at that
low point of having that injury.
I listed the business at thatpoint because I was like I'm not
needed, like I have everythingdocumented, all my SOPs are
super thorough.
This new operations managerhe's you know after two or three
(32:39):
weeks I'm like he's doing agood job.
He learned how to do it throughmy written SOPs.
I'm like I think I'm just goingto sell this business now
because I don't think it.
It doesn't need me.
It's clearly working.
And we listed it and it wasunder contract within two months
.
I had a bunch of peopleinterested because it was a
hands-off.
You know, it was an investorbusiness and it was an easy
(33:03):
process.
It was closed.
So I listed it in like June andit was closed in September.
So it was quick.
Lots of people were interestedand it was because my written
SOPs worked.
That kind of pushed me overthat edge and then having that
(33:26):
injury.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Did that make sense?
It made perfect sense.
So the question I have is whatwas the thought process?
You know taking, you know,several steps back to you,
starting to put in the SOPsthroughout the course of
building your business.
Reason I asked that is because,I would say, majority of
business owners are so busy onthe day to day that they don't
take a step back to work on thebusiness because they're too
(33:48):
busy working in the business andyears and years pass and then
you know they want to sell it,but then they don't have any of
those things in place that youdo have and they have to take
all this time to go back and doall that stuff.
So what prompted you to startdoing that early on?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Well, knowing that I wanted to either build my way
out or buy my way out from thebeginning was part of it.
But as soon as I started hiringemployees, I pulled myself out
of the field operations.
So I was no longer the personpruning shrubs and raking leaves
I.
My primary goal from that firstyear, as soon as I hired, you
know, my first crew, was to sell, get jobs schedule, get my crew
(34:30):
scheduled and just keep thatgoing.
So it was get jobs, schedule mycrews, hire, buy trucks, that
kind of stuff and you knowscheduling.
I know you asked about thatearlier.
Like the first year I was justdoing a Google sheet and old
fashioned like here's when youshow up, here's your list of
(34:53):
jobs, here's when you should getback, yeah and um.
So that helped.
And as I hired more and morepeople, I just I just made sure
that I wasn't stepping back intooperations out of desperation.
So if I had people quit, Ididn't jump in to do work
(35:15):
because we were shorthanded.
I just went to hiringimmediately and replaced that
person right away.
And that was one of the harderlessons that I learned was,
every time somebody quit I feltlike I had lost a major asset
and that it was going to hurt mybusiness.
But actually every timesomebody quit, my hiring got
(35:36):
better and I ended up replacingthem with somebody who was more
qualified and fit our culturebetter and the company would
grow.
So it was kind ofcounterintuitive where you have
people quit and you're like, ohmy gosh, this sucks, that was my
key person.
And then you go and replacethem and you realize, oh, within
(35:59):
a week we're back up andrunning full staffed and
everything's good again.
So that was, I think, one ofthe bigger lessons was like
everybody's replaceable.
Even I'm replaceable in my ownbusiness, clearly.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Everybody's replaceable.
Even I'm replaceable in my ownbusiness.
Clearly owners do the same arelikely those SOPs and the
automation and the systems andtools in place.
Can you walk us through whatyou learned in your own business
and now you know I don't wantyou to give away your secret
sauce, but kind of what's thesecret sauce you know to being
(36:49):
able to walk away from yourbusiness?
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Yeah, it is those standard operating procedures
and having them in writing, andI really used Google Drive for
all of that.
I use Google Docs because Icould share with my team, I
could link documents togetherand I was very thorough so that.
So the way that I wrote my SOPswas I actually shadowed every
(37:13):
single employee that I needed towrite an SOP for, which was all
of them.
So, to write the adminassistant's training documents,
I shadowed her for a week.
She taught me everything shedoes and how she does it and I
(37:34):
wrote it down and then I linkedstuff together.
So if you were like through ansop of how to enter data into
quickbooks, for example, I wouldhave a link to where to find
the data that you have to enterinto quickbooks.
So I had it all down to like.
You couldn't mess this up.
If you follow the, you couldn'tmess this up If you follow the
(37:56):
instructions.
You can't mess this up.
It's all there, it's all linked, and I did that with every
single role in the company,including my own.
So that's how I did that and itdidn't take too much time.
I think it took three months toactually get it all down in
writing.
I mean, there were trial anderror earlier on in the company
(38:17):
where I would write SOPs and Iwould do it incorrectly, so I
learned how to write themgenerically.
You didn't use names likeemployees names, because the
employee is probably not goingto be there in two years Right.
So I learned how to write themvery generically and precisely,
(38:37):
and then I just made sure peoplewere following them.
And I think that's a key, too,of like when I say I let people
train me so that I could writethe SOPs.
That was something I did earlyon was I hired people who had
skills that I didn't have.
So admin skills have never beenmy thing.
I'm terrible at most of it.
So that was the first person Ihired was an admin to help me
(39:02):
stay organized, answer phones,enter data, all of that stuff.
I never trained her.
I hired somebody who alreadyhad those skills and I said make
it work, please.
And here's the outcomes I need.
As long as you're meeting theseoutcomes, I don't care how you
get it done.
And so I let my employees trainme on skills that they know and
(39:26):
that they had that maybe Ididn't.
You filled the gaps.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
That is so like.
What you just said is soextremely important is that you
hired people, you filled thegaps and do everything, and the
reality is that we all have ourspecial skill sets, and then we
have the other ones that we'renot so good at.
And the ones that we're not sogood at, those aren't the ones
that we should be focused ondoing.
We should hire somebody who'smuch better at them to do them
for us.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
Yeah, and I guess maybe that's an advantage to
starting a landscape companywith no landscape experience.
I didn't know how to do most ofit, so I had to hire people.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Well it worked out pretty well for you what I did
know how to do was bring anelement of professionalism.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
I knew how to sell, I knew how to get jobs and I
learned how to hire people.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
But other than that.
That's the hardest part.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Yeah, because if when we were doing construction jobs
like we were doing, like paverpatios and like heavier duty
landscaping stuff I didn't knowhow to do any of that, I had to
keep somebody hired at all times.
That did, because I knew how totell if it was done right.
I knew the steps so that Icould make sure that the quality
was there.
But when it came to like usinga laser level to know how to get
(40:49):
it level, I couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
I didn't know how well, the hard part is like.
So the people that are skilledin doing that often don't have
the skill to find the jobs to doit and do all the paperwork and
everything that comes withrunning a business.
They don't necessarily want todo that or they're not good at
it, so it's that's what I teach.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
So that's why I that's how I got into what I'm
doing now, because I'm likethese people that run these
service businesses.
They're not business peoplenecessarily and that's their
lacking element to reallyreaching a point where their
business is valuable and runswithout them, because really a
valuable business, to have avaluable business, it has to run
without you doingmulti-millions in sales every
(41:36):
year.
But if you have to be there asthe owner, somebody is not going
to just buy that because thatis a huge job for them.
Like they're going to have tocome in and learn how to be you.
So you have to learn how tomake your role duplicatable so
that anybody can step into it.
And that's what I teach,because these most people don't
don't know how to do that.
And I know I did a lot of trialand error and it was a headache
(41:58):
, at lots of low moments, lotsof tears, like, yeah, so if I
could save people all the stressand the anxiety and the tears
that I had, that's what I wantto set out to do.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Yeah, I love that we.
I went to a session actually atFinCon where we met you and it
said exactly that you could havelet it.
You should probably pitch thatfor next year actually.
But the whole concept around itwas if you are the business,
you don't have a business.
You have a brand.
If people are hiring you tospeak.
They're hiring you.
You know they can't.
(42:33):
If they hire me, they can'toutsource to Brandon because
he's not the brand or the facethat they're hiring.
It would be me or you.
And they gave the example of ifsomebody is hiring Rihanna,
they're hiring Rihanna to comeand sing and be there and be the
presence that she is on stage.
(42:53):
That is the brand.
Her business is Fenty FentyBeauty.
You can buy that any hour ofany day, day or night, doesn't
matter where on the planet youlive, and she does not need to
be there.
Yes, you know.
Or they said Mark Wahlberg,same thing, right, Like if you
need him in a movie, well, hecan't be anybody else, he is
(43:14):
Mark Wahlberg.
But if you want to eat atWahlburgers, you can do that in
you know 300 locations across,whatever the world without him
having without him being there.
That is the business, and so Ithink what you just said about
building a scalable businessthat you actually can walk away
from, I mean, that really is thesecret sauce.
So let's pivot into how you'redoing that.
(43:37):
So you sold your business forseven figures earlier than you
anticipated, so bigcongratulations for that.
When did you have that click,that moment of like, oh, I did
this and now I can help otherpeople do it.
And what does that look likewhen you're working with these
business owners?
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Yeah, I mean, I'm too young to retire, so I'm only 38
.
It's like one thing that Istruggled with when I stepped
into a investor owner roleinstead of an operator owner
role was this feeling of notbeing needed and, as someone
(44:22):
who's a doer and an entrepreneurand wants to build businesses,
like it wasn't the best feelingever.
So people think you know, timeis great, yes, but we all still
need purposes and I found myselflike what is my purpose?
Like I just am, like I don't, Idon't know, my crews don't need
me, my company's runningwithout me.
I pretty much feel useless andit was a little depressing.
(44:46):
So I learned some other skillsand really what I jumped into
was investing.
I learned how to invest.
So I bought some online coursesand learned how to invest money
and create cash flow.
So not just invest for likehold and wait and you know that
(45:10):
kind of growth, but like activecash flow.
And that's something that reallyinterests me a lot is financial
independence.
That's something that I had inmy vocabulary from age 18.
I was like I want to befinancially independent.
I don't want to rely on anyone.
I don't want to rely on my bossor my job.
I don't want to rely on myhusband.
(45:31):
I love my husband, but I'm likeI want to be financially
independent.
To me, that was the ultimatefreedom where I get to live the
life I want, when I don't relyon anybody else to feed me,
clothe me, put a roof over myhead.
So the investing was the waythat I saw that being able to
(45:54):
happen.
And the step before investingis building a business.
So if I wasn't able to, if Iwasn't able to build a hands-off
business, I would have neverhad the time to learn how to
invest.
So after selling the business,it clicked in my head Like
there's a lot of business ownersout there who are kind of stuck
in their business and, yeah,they might feel trapped there
(46:18):
because really, like you said,if you, if your business can't
run without you, you don't havea business, you have a job and
and you never have downtime.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
You can't go on vacation without checking your
email.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
Exactly, sounds terrible.
So, I was like I want to helpthose people because I know how
to do this a different way andyou know, like you're mentioning
Rihanna and Mark Wahlberg, theyinvested in their businesses.
They don't.
They didn't bootstrap them andstart them.
You know.
They invested in them and theyfound people who knew how to do
(46:54):
what they wanted to accomplishand they hired them.
And I think a lot of servicebusiness owners think that that
can't be done with a servicebusiness, because they're like
I'm the only one that can do itthe way I want it done.
I've tried hiring people andthey just don't do it right.
A lot of them live by the mottoif you want it done right, you
(47:14):
have to do it yourself.
It's not true, but you have tobe able to delegate properly.
You have to know how tocommunicate to people who can
get the work done, becauseemployees can get it done.
It just comes down to are youcommunicating the right way, Are
you giving them the rightguidelines and are you giving
(47:34):
them the freedom to actually getthe job done, Because there's
more than one way to do it, andif an owner delegates and then
micromanages and doesn't let theperson do it, that's when
tension happens and it's like,okay, they might not be doing it
the way I would do it, but ifthe end result is the same,
that's all that matters.
(47:54):
And so I gave people the freedomlike here's the outcome I need,
here's my expectations, here'show I want you to check in with
me.
As long as they were doingthose things, I did not
interfere with how they weregetting it done.
I was like you're meeting thecodes, it's getting done right.
I don't care about everythingin between A and B.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
I feel like your mindset, even going into
starting the business, was likethere's an exit strategy, right,
you had an exit plan in mindand I don't know that most
people are starting theirbusinesses thinking, hey,
there's going to be a better wayI can.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
I'm agreeing with you .
Yeah, I don't think people.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
You let go of that control because you had the exit
in mind.
But if you don't have that exitin mind, I think it's really
hard to relinquish your baby, Ithink people started.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
I think a lot of people started business with no
actual plan, 100%.
Just like I'm good at this, Ican make money off of this, so
I'm going to do it 100%.
They don't have a, you know,two-year, five-year, ten-year
plan for the business, which iskind of winging it, and I think
that's the big difference isthat you had a plan, basically
before you even really startedthe business per se.
Speaker 3 (49:10):
And I find that a lot of business owners lack a
vision.
And I think that's somethingthat I struggle with talking to
business owners is they don'teven have a vision of what their
life could be.
And you know, as you guys,being a financial podcast, like
financial independence, opens upa lot of doors and it doesn't
(49:31):
mean that you don't have apurpose anymore, like I said.
You know, like when I startedto feel like I didn't have a
purpose, I found another purpose.
I learned a new skill and now Ican teach other people to do it
.
But they, they're like I don'twant to retire, I'm I don't, I
don't know what I would do, andI think people box themselves up
because they don't think that.
(49:52):
I don't know if they don't havebelief in themselves or exactly
what it is.
But I'm like, if you can have amindset shift, like there's a
whole world out there If youcould just get your business to
run without you.
But they don't even.
Yeah, they don't even.
They don't even have the visionbeyond their business.
So that is something I runacross when I was doing
(50:15):
one-on-one coaching.
I ran across that quite a bitWell from my experience.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
a lot of people in general don't even just stop
think about and talk about outloud their goals.
So you'll ask somebody likeeven if, like you know, they'll
give you a generic one, like, oh, I want to retire one day, what
does that mean?
Speaker 1 (50:32):
One day.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Like when?
Like, can we get a time framehere?
What is it going to look like?
What do you want to do?
Do you want to do, do you wantto travel the world?
Do you want to live in adifferent country?
Majority of people, honestly,do not really think about their
goals and they definitely don'ttalk about them out loud.
Speaker 3 (50:47):
Right, and I think I probably made a lot of people
mad when I was growing mybusiness because I always talked
about my goals.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
We're our circles always.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
We always talk about our goals, just not between each
other, with our friends, whatwe want to see them do like it
helps push you forward and it'sthe sense of accountability and
pride and they say, like arising tide lifts all boats or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
Like that's exactly it when you have a group of
friends where you can talk outloud with your friends about
your goals, like you help eachother get there.
And you know, even fincon.
I've met a handful of peoplethat I've been meeting with um
just through Google meet orwhatever, and talking about our
goals together.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
And it's fun.
Yeah, like accountabilitycheck-ins, we started doing
those as well, and I thinkthey're great, cause you you do
need to be in community withlike-minded people who you know
they might not have the samegoals, and that's totally fine,
but you have people that arealso working towards whatever it
is that you guys are workingtowards.
I think that's so powerful.
(51:47):
You mentioned one-on-onecoaching.
Is that something that youstill offer, or how are you
working with people now?
Speaker 3 (51:55):
I am no longer offering one-on-one coaching
because I felt like it was adistraction to me.
It was a way to becauseconsulting and coaching is easy,
quick money Like you trade yourtime for money and you can
generate an income right awaywith it and so it was appealing
(52:16):
to me and I'm like, okay, I'lldo this one-on-one coaching
thing to me.
And I'm like, okay, I'll dothis one-on-one coaching thing.
But really I found itdistracting from what I want to
do, which is to build an onlineeducational database of courses,
both free and paid stylecourses, with mastermind
sessions where I can help morepeople at a time.
(52:39):
Because one-on-one is a lowleverage activity and the way
that I built my last businesswas I leveraged everything and
that's kind of just my mindsetis leverage, so one-on-one just
doesn't fit.
But group coaching, mastermindsessions through my online
(53:00):
courses is what I do offer.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Okay yeah, because I was just thinking, if you're
doing one-on-one again, how doesthat scale?
Because then again you're thebusiness People want to meet
with you, the girl who built theseven-figure business, not
somebody else that you'vetrained, right yeah, Reimtrained
, right yeah.
Speaker 3 (53:18):
Starting a business and you know I've invested quite
a bit into various things, likeyou know, technology, cameras,
just random Starting a business.
There's always expense thatgoes with that and so that
immediate, you know income, sothat I wasn't investing money.
(53:38):
I had.
But you know, making money andinvesting it, that was the
appeal to it.
But, yeah, after spending 2023,no 2024 doing that, I, I just
it didn't align with with mygoals, but that was the appeal,
was the money and I'm like Idon't need, you know, like I
(53:59):
didn't, I don't need that income.
It was like I wanted it, butI'm like I don't need it.
So now I am just focusing onbuilding out online courses.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
Perfect.
So the people who are listeningthat are like, okay, I need to
whip my business into shape orman, you're right, I don't want
to work forever.
How can I turn my business intosomething that works without me
being present?
Speaker 2 (54:25):
Also, let's be honest , Majority of people, if you're
listening, you have a business,you know you fall into this
category.
Let's be honest.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Yeah, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.
Like you said, I think it isthe majority of the people.
Um, if they do want to workwith you and learn more, where
can they find you, and whatresources do you currently have
available for people?
Speaker 3 (54:44):
Right now.
All the resources I have Ishare through my newsletter and
I have marketing guides androadmaps.
I also put out a the newsletterevery two weeks.
It always has very actionable,detailed business tips and
advice in there and you can getmy newsletter at trainajuliancom
(55:08):
slash newsletter.
You could subscribe there andthat is the first place that I
will be announcing my courses asI launch them, which will be in
2025.
Speaker 2 (55:19):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
All right.
Well, the newsletter soundsfantastic, comes out every two
weeks.
We'll make sure to link that inour show notes.
So, please, if you're listeningto this and you need another
free resource of great businesstips, tricks, ideas, the
marketing campaign, all of thatsounds fantastic.
So thank you for giving all ofthat away for free.
(55:43):
If you're not signing up forthat newsletter, what are you
even doing?
And then where can people findyou on social media, trina?
Speaker 3 (55:51):
Instagram, facebook X and LinkedIn.
I'm on all of those, and allexcept LinkedIn are my name, so
Trina, julian or Trinaunderscore Julian, but something
along those lines.
If you Google me, it will allpop up Perfect.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
And we'll link all that information in the show
notes also.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
Yes, do you want to leave our audience with like a
final thought, either for peoplewho are thinking about starting
a business or people whoalready have a business that
they're looking to grow andpotentially exit from?
Speaker 3 (56:28):
Yeah, I really just want to encourage people to
believe in themselves and to gofor their dreams, because that's
the biggest thing that holdspeople back, I think, is they're
afraid of failing.
And things are easier thanpeople realize.
When you just put the effort into do it, it's achievable.
So, whatever it is that youwant to do, don't stifle that
(56:50):
because you're afraid of failing.
Just go for it.
Speaker 1 (56:54):
I love it.
We'll end on the note go for it.
Thank you so much, trina, forbeing with us today.
Speaker 3 (56:59):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
You guys have been awesome.
Speaker 1 (57:03):
Don't forget.
Benjamin Franklin said aninvestment in knowledge pays the
best interest.
You just got paid Until nexttime.
Thanks for listening to today'sepisode.
We are so glad to have you aspart of our sugar daddy
(57:25):
community.
If you learned something today,please remember to subscribe,
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Don't forget to connect with uson social media at the sugar
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(57:46):
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Speaker 2 (57:50):
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It is very important to do yourown analysis before making any
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You should take independentfinancial advice from a licensed
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Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hey babe, what are we ?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
talking about today.
Today we are talking about howto scale your business into a
seven-figure business throughsystems and automations, and I
know in the world that we arekind of in in this finance space
everybody's like be anentrepreneur, it's the most
amazing thing ever, like onlywork for yourself and all of
(01:19):
those things which sound greatin theory.
But we know it's a lot of hardwork.
And do you want to do it ifyou're not making any money?
And I think the answer to thatis no.
But we have somebody here whoknows how to scale a business
into a seven-figure business andnow helps other people do that.
Because if you're going to doit, if you're going to take the
(01:39):
time to invest in yourself andbe an entrepreneur, we want you
to do it right and we want youto have the tips and tricks and
systems in place to actuallymake money so that you're not
just burning yourself out, notworking for the man.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, it's also two different skill sets between
being able to grow, have asuccessful business and then
grow it successfully.
There are two different skillsets.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
That's absolutely right.
So today we have Trina Julianwith us to help us understand
how to do this the right way,because she has done it the
right way.
We're going to get into herstory, but we want to learn from
somebody who's done it.
We have not done it.
We are not there yet yet, butTrina has.
So, trina, thank you for beingon the Sugar Daddy podcast with
us today.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Thank you, I'm really excited.
You guys are great.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Oh, thank you so much .
Well, let's get into your bio,because we met you at FinCon and
you just had such aninteresting story and we were
like automatically just blownaway and we were like we have to
have you on the pod, peopleneed to hear this.
And so let's get into the bioso people know who we're talking
about, or what we're going tolearn from you, and who we're
(02:42):
talking to, and then we'll getinto your first money memory.
Trina Julian is the founder ofCountry Girl Gardens, which she
started in her backyard shed.
In just seven years, she builta million-dollar landscaping
powerhouse, understanding thefrustrations of growing a
business and experiencing therelentless demands of daily
operations, she now helpsbusiness owners work to build a
(03:05):
hands-off business that runslike a profit-making machine.
I love all of that.
She is here to provide theroadmap of owning a seven-figure
business and help you put yourmoney to work for you so that
you can achieve financialindependence.
Yay, this is going to be a goodconversation.
Trina, thank you for being withus.
Yes, of course.
All right, it's a financialliteracy podcast.
(03:29):
We're going to talk about thatseven-figure business that you
built, but first tell us aboutyour first money memory, please.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, I mean, the thing that comes to mind with my
first money memory is so I grewup in like Central California
and I was always on free lunch.
I had a single parent and youknow she worked a lot to just
make ends meet and so we were,you know, on the lower end of
(03:57):
the income spectrum.
So I always got free lunch.
And you know, looking back Ilaugh because I'm like, ah, I
wouldn't do anything like thistoday.
But I don't know how she didn'tknow, but I didn't tell her or
she didn't know that I was onfree lunch.
So she would give me twodollars every day to buy lunch
and I got free lunch.
(04:18):
So I pocketed two dollars everyday.
And this is probably likesecond, third grade.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
And um.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I really wanted a horse.
Like I was one of those littlegirls that just loved horses and
I, you know, our neighborsalways had horses and had family
members that had horses.
So I was like I really want ahorse.
So I was pocketing two $2 a dayuntil I saved up $400.
And then I looked in theclassified ads for a $400 horse.
(04:49):
Did you find one?
I found one.
And my mom's like I can't buyyou a horse.
And I'm like no, no, I have$400.
I mean, I didn't add up howlong it took to get there.
But I know it's so weird, I have$400.
She's like how on so weird Ihave $400?
Oh, my god, you know she's likehow on earth do you have $400?
And it was because I had a oneof those big water jugs in the
(05:12):
back of the closet that I wasputting my two dollars in every
day and we bought the horse.
I got my first horse.
I paid for myself.
Yeah, so that's my first moneymemory.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Um, I think you, we, okay, we start every guest
episode with that first moneymemory and we've heard some
really crazy ones.
That, I think, is my this youwin for absolute favorite money
memory.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
At this point, like to date, I have no idea, crazy
stuff like that I have no ideahow much horses cost.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I have so many questions?
What kind of?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
horse do you get for $400?
Like, is this like back then?
Was this like an average horseprice or was this like you kind
of got?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I mean I'm sure it wasn't a Kentucky Derby winner,
but like I mean it wasdefinitely um year old pony of
America.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So pony of America is a common horse for kids.
It's not full size.
I think she was probably inbetween 11 and 13 hands, so she
wasn't a full size horse and shewas only two.
So she had never been riddenbefore.
So it was definitely like notthe wisest decision.
But I was so determined and mymom doesn't know anything about
(06:23):
horses really but, like I said,I have, you know, neighbors,
friends and family that hadhorses.
So I did end up getting helpwith this horse and I was nine
when I bought her.
So I'm thinking it must havebeen like four years or
something it took me to save it.
But, um, I did get help withthe horse.
I had her until I was 11 or 12and at that point had outgrown
(06:44):
her.
So it worked out.
But no, it was a cheap horse.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, but okay, I don't need to ask him to hear
this episode, because we're notgetting a horse.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Our daughter would be like I can do this, Cause she
she talks about saving her moneyfor things that she wants and I
need a horse not to be on thatlist.
Um, I mean, I'm sure it costs alot to maintain a horse and to
feed a horse, and was there anyconversation following of like,
okay, we're going to let you buythis horse, but how are you
going to help keep it alive?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I mean I probably gave my mom or $2 back every day
, I don't know.
I actually don't need the lunchmoney anymore.
Let's, let's put that towardthe feed.
No.
I don't actually remember thatpart.
I know that we had to board thehorse and that usually includes
feed.
So, yeah, I didn't work thosedetails out and my mom didn't
(07:38):
share with me how we made thatwork.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But she did.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
She's probably very impressed that you saved that
long she's like wow, somethinglike this has to be rewarded.
Well, shout out, and I stillhave two horses.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I still have, you know, I still have horses.
I actually have, uh, half drafthorses now and they pay for
themselves, because my likehobby business that I do for fun
is I give carriage rides indowntown Spokane at Riverfront
Park, and so my horses now paytheir own way.
So that's fun, oh my gosh, Lookat that.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I mean we've come full circle.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
So the money memory 100% transferred into adulthood?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, it did.
That's amazing.
Thank you for sharing that withus.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
That's amazing.
Thank you for sharing that withus.
You're just in a tough season.
I created something just foryou because I've had people
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But the full financial planningpackage just wasn't the right
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(09:01):
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This is about helping you getunstuck, not making you feel
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If this sounds like what you'vebeen needing, go ahead and
schedule a call with me.
The link is in the show notes.
(09:21):
Let's take the first steptogether.
The link is in the show notes.
Let's take the first steptogether.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That's incredible.
Okay, let's pivot into CountryGirl Gardens.
And where did that idea comefrom?
And were you going into thatwith the idea of, okay, this is
going to be a seven-figurebusiness and then I'm going to
sell it and teach others how todo this, or what was that
(09:49):
journey like?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Well, I graduated college in 2009.
And, if anybody, I'm sure youguys remember because we're
about the same age 2009, thereweren't many jobs, especially
where I live.
2009, there weren't many jobs,especially where I live.
We're like a very much ahospitality tourism town, and so
there just wasn't a lot ofoptions of jobs.
(10:12):
So I went back to being abarista, which is what I did all
through high school and college.
And while I was a barista, Iwas just trying.
I knew I wanted my own business.
I didn't want to move toSeattle or Portland, which is
what most of my um, the otherstudents that I graduated with,
had done, and I didn't want todo that.
So I was just trying to deviseup a plan of what business to
(10:36):
start and I started researching,um, like self-sustainability,
so like growing your own food.
That was always an interest ofmine and that was something I
had been kind of reading up onsince I was like 19 or so.
So it was a good opportunity.
(10:56):
I started a garden in pots whenwe didn't have, you know, any
land or anything, and I justkind of started studying it and
talking about it at the coffeestand.
And it started because I wantedto grow food and flowers.
And that's hard to do in, youknow, North Idaho where half of
(11:19):
the year is freezing and yearsfreezing and there wasn't.
It was just difficult.
So I had to pivot a lot anddecide what was going to
actually have a demand.
And planting flowers had ademand, not really growing and
selling them, but planting them.
So I had people at the coffeestand asked me to plant flowers
(11:41):
for them and I had enough that Ikind of started a side hustle
of planting landscape plants forpeople and that's how it
started.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
I just love origin stories like that.
Something so simple of like Ihad this interest and so I
talked about it as I was makingpeople's coffee, and then they
decided, hey, can you come dothis for me and I will pay you.
Exactly.
I mean, it's so simple, butlike it can be so powerful, it's
amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, I think nowadays it was just seeing the
opportunity, like seeing thatpeople okay, people are asking.
So I'm like there's a demandhere and that's what I was
looking for was something thathad a demand, and If people are
asking me to do something forthem, I'm like then more people
will also be interested in that.
So I saw the opportunity andran with it, and then I started
(12:32):
talking about it more toeverybody, about how I'm
planting flowers and landscapeplants for people, and it took
off from there.
I started as a side hustle in2015.
And I only did like $10,000.
Like on my days off, days thatI wasn't working at the coffee
(12:56):
shop, I planted flowers.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
And, but only $10,000 .
I mean, that's a lot of moneyfor a side hustle that you
created on your own.
You know kind of just talkingabout your passion.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah, and I was 29 at the time and for some reason, I
had this idea that I'm like Iwant to be out of my job by 30.
Like I don't know how I'm goingto do it, like the numbers
didn't really pan out in onpaper.
I was like I don't know how I'mgoing to make this work, but I
want to quit the coffee stand atage 30.
And so I started in May of 2015.
(13:35):
Like I said, I did $10,000 thatyear.
2016.
Spring rolls around and all ofa sudden I had gotten traction
and I had so much work coming inpeople who wanted stuff done.
My birthday is in March.
I put my two weeks notice in onmy birthday my 30th birthday
(13:56):
and my last day was April 1st.
So I managed to do that and Iwas full time ever since and
just kind of went hard, so youset your goal and you hit your
goal.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, that's amazing.
There's something pivotal about30.
I don't know how it's going towork out.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
I don't see how it's going to work, but it did oh my
gosh.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So were you doing all of the work yourself at that
point, or were you having toactually hire people to get it
all done?
It was all you.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
At that point it was all me.
At that point it was all me andI think I hired my first
employees that first full-timeyear, probably four months in,
four to six months in.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Wow.
So with hiring your firstemployees, would you say that
you hired them proactively oryou had a demand and you had to
hire them after realizing thatyou couldn't do it yourself?
Had a demand and you had tohire them after realizing that
you couldn't do it yourself.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I knew pretty much from the get-go of this, of the
landscaping business, that Iwanted to.
I kept saying I either wantedto build my way out or buy my
way out, and what that meant wasbuild my way out means I hire a
team that runs it without me.
Buy my way out means I justmake enough money and invest it
that I can sell it and don'thave to do anything with it,
(15:10):
like it wasn't something that Iwas.
I was passionate about plantsand I love gardening.
I have tons of house plants inmy office and I did my own
landscape Like I loved it, butit wasn't something I wanted to
do.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
long term it's well, it's like very physical.
It's a tough grueling work too.
It just wasn't.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
And so, from the early days, I just I knew that
that was the route I wanted togo, and I got off track on what
the actual question was.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I always know that for most people, like you know
most you know entrepreneursstart out just by themselves and
then they start to grow theirbusiness and now they're going
to transfer from the person whoactually does the work to being
the person who also manages thepeople who do the work.
And that's a hard transitionfor a lot of people and often
people tend to hire people toolate rather than being proactive
(16:05):
in hiring people beforehand.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Too late rather than being proactive and hiring
people beforehand when, like youknow, people in retrospect are
like, yeah, you shoulddefinitely try to hire before
you need rather than waitinguntil you need right that is a
that is a very good point andthat's something I tell people
all the time is like hire rightaway, hire before you're ready,
because hiring is a whole newskill and it's something you're
going to get wrong at first andit's good to start learning it
(16:30):
before.
You absolutely need need peopleto come in and you know do
things right, cause that's awhole nother learning curve of
you know how to delegate and getpeople to do things how you
like it done.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Plus, it gives you a more of a runway to find who you
really think would be good atthe job, because if you're
scrambling at the end because oh, I need somebody, I need
somebody, more than likelyyou're probably going to not
hire the right person becauseadded desperation.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, that is 100% true.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yes, when you went from sharing about plants at the
coffee stand, did you have anLLC?
Once people started asking, hey, can you come do this for me?
I've got this big project.
How did you figure out pricing?
I mean, walk us through thoseearly stages of really building
(17:23):
a business from the ground up.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yes, it was confusing .
I did have an LLC that I hadstarted while I was in college,
because in like 2007, 8, Iwanted to do the whole real
estate thing, so I had startedan LLC for that.
All I did was use that LLC thatI'd had for a while and just
change the name of it.
So that was set up and ready togo.
(17:46):
And then pricing wascomplicated.
I didn't know, I wasn't.
I was charging $25 an hour.
When I started, I was justtrying to get work and that was
more than what I was making, soI just undercharged.
And then as I got busier, Ijust kept increasing my prices
(18:07):
and I let the demand kind ofdetermine what I was charging.
So as my schedule was full, I'dincrease prices.
And when I increased prices Iwould lose some customers that
were paying the $25 an hour andI'd bring on the $35 an hour
customers and I just kept thatcycle up until I sold the
(18:28):
business.
So it was.
It was trial and error.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Everybody underpriced this other price themselves,
Cause right now I'm in theprocess of changing my prices
because I'm underpriced but it'sokay.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I keep telling him I'm like people.
People are selling theirtoenails online and people are
buying it.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
And as long as you're increasing your prices and you
understand that you're going tolose clients, but you're going
to replace them with higherpaying ones who are going to be
better clients for you, becauseusually I find that the higher
paying clients are the betterclients.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah, that's he says that all the time that is
unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
From my experience, the people who are the busiest
and paying the most are theeasiest to work with.
It's the individuals who maybequote unquote have a little bit
more time on their hands andthey're paying you the least
that become the biggest headache.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yep Like our parents who pay him nothing.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah, we all have to start somewhere.
So if you start out and you'rejust, you know, underpricing
yourself, that's okay.
Just raise your prices and keepdoing it until you find cause
you'll.
You'll find a gauge of likeokay, I'm, I'm charging too much
.
Now I'm not getting as muchwork as I need, so I better
bring the prices back down, andyou just have to.
Always, my prices weren't'tever set like it was really
(19:46):
demand driven.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
And my parents, meaning your mom.
Let's specify.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Let's move on from this part of the conversation.
How long or can you walk usthrough the journey of $10,000
as a side hustle to?
You're quitting your job onyour birthday.
What did the following year,the year after that, what was
that revenue increase?
And then, how did you get to?
Oh, somebody's knocking on mydoor to buy this business from
(20:17):
me.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I was able to increase the revenue a hundred
percent plus every year, yearover year, for the first five
years.
That's amazing.
So I went from and it was waymore sometimes like that.
First year was 10,000, but myfirst year full time, I think I
did 174,000.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
And then the second year I think it was 247,000.
And then the third year waslike 380,000.
So it was like major leaps andbounds but I was pushing like
exceptionally hard because itwasn't a long-term game for me,
it was.
I knew I wanted to get in,build it, get out.
If you're building it, you know, if you, let's say, somebody
(21:05):
that's listening has like awindow cleaning company or a
house cleaning company orsomething like that, and if you
are in it for the longterm, likeyou want to run that business
for a long time, I don'trecommend growing that fast
because it's leaves you no timefor anything else.
Like I don't have children.
My husband has kids, butthey're in their twenties and at
(21:27):
that time I think they wereteenagers.
So I didn't have theresponsibilities of children and
I mean there were.
I just wasn't giving attentionto family at that time.
I was just working and it didtake its toll.
So I did it exceptionally fast,but that was because I knew
(21:49):
that there was a finish line.
So I don't recommend somebodydo that if they are in it for
the long term.
That's a good call out.
It's unnecessary torture.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I appreciate that call out because I think
sometimes those things getmissed when other people are
watching externally someone growbusiness.
It's like, yeah, I think weoften think that someone is in
the same position as we are andhave the quote unquote the same
responsibilities, and that's notalways the case.
Like you said, you know, forexample, we have two young kids,
so that'd be very hard for usto do in comparison to you.
You know you didn't have youngkids, so I appreciate that call
(22:24):
out.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Yeah, have young kids .
So I appreciate that call outyeah, and it's not worth it.
I just shared something on myInstagram yesterday actually,
that Nicole Curtis, the gal whodoes the rehab addict and like
repairs old houses she had, Iguess, mentioned that she didn't
think that the that it wasworth it to sacrifice her family
time, um, to grow her businessthe way she did.
And I think that's a supercommon regret of people looking
(22:49):
back, especially when you'reraising kids, that they they
focus so much on growing theirbusiness in those early years of
their kids lives and then theymiss out on a lot.
And it really isn't like I andthat's kind of how that's my
philosophy is like I feel likefamily should always come first,
like over your business.
(23:10):
Your business should supportyour lifestyle so that you can
spend time with your family,cause really, when it comes down
to it, that's the mostimportant thing in life, I think
, is being there, for you knowpeople who love you and the
people that you love.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, and Time is the most you know valuable thing
that you can't get it back.
Regardless of how much moneyyou make, how big you grow your
business, you can't buy moretime.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Right and not to be morbid, but you never know when
it's up either.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
So that is very true.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
You know that's always something that you got to
live like a happy mediumbetween YOLO and be responsible.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
That's so true.
Let's talk about theinvestments that you had to make
into your business.
From I mean landscaping, I'mthinking truck and wheelbarrows
and, you know, material supplieslike all.
Like, did you, were you rentinga truck or did you own a truck?
Like, did you, were you rentinga truck?
Where did you own a truck?
How did you actually geteverything that you needed to do
(24:14):
these landscape projects?
And then I'm also thinking ofyou know how were you scheduling
people?
How were you invoicing them?
Can you walk us through thelogistics of the business tools
you know, literally andfiguratively, that you needed in
order to grow this business asquickly as you did?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yeah, when you know, when you talk about a
bootstrapped business, I waslike the definition of that
because I did not have a truckbut my husband did.
So that was his contribution tomy business was.
I started borrowing his truckand he never got it back.
I'm sure he's okay with it.
Yeah, so I started with, youknow, his truck and rakes that I
(25:01):
had already had just fromraking my leaves in my yard.
So I started with like a rake,a shovel, a hand trowel and a
truck and that was it.
And as I started getting paid.
So this is why starting as aside hustle is a good idea,
because that $10,000 I made thatfirst year as part-time, I took
that and bought more equipmentso that I could expand the
(25:25):
services.
I also felt comfortable hiringpeople because I had a little
bit of a cushion there.
So I didn't spend maybe any ofthat money at first.
I just put it back into thebusiness right away so that I
could.
I think I bought my secondtruck pretty Like six months
into my first full-time year andI bought it at an auction for
(25:48):
$1,000.
Wow, I still had that $1,000truck in my fleet when I sold
the business.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
So it was a good purchase.
Yes, most of the time you thinkof buying a car for $1,000.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
That's amazing.
I'm like, yeah, it's probablynot going to last that long.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Well, it's funny, the other skills you pick up when
you own a business, because Iwasn't a landscaper anymore, I
was really a buyer of assets.
I had to find trucks.
I had to find trucks, I had tofind them at good deals.
I bought at least a truck ayear, um, sometimes two, and I
(26:22):
would always buy them at auction.
Another horseback riding storyis I was um riding horses with a
girlfriend and I had my phoneand I had the auction up on my
phone, so I was bidding on thistruck as I'm horseback riding
(26:42):
and I ended up winning the truckon this horseback ride.
I'm like, yes, it was like a$2,400 truck at that point.
But, um, yeah, so I was justalways looking for trucks, Like
I was always buying if a truckcame up, whether I thought I
always looking for trucks, LikeI was always buying If a truck
came up, whether I thought Ineeded it or not if the truck
came up that fit the descriptionof what I wanted, I would buy
(27:03):
it.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Nice, my first car was an auction.
My dad went to an auction and Idon't remember what he paid for
it.
But yeah, that's a great placeto buy.
Yeah, you absolutely can.
All right, right.
So you were buying trucks whenyou could because your business
was growing and expanding.
Talk to us about those laterphases where you knew you wanted
(27:27):
to sell the business.
This was not sustainable.
You, you knew you needed to tap.
How did you get it to thatpoint of I know somebody is
going to want to buy this fromme.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I didn't think anybody would want to buy it
from me, because it's alandscape business.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
So I was like I don't .
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I just had never heard great things about selling
service businesses, and so Istarted talking to a broker in
2020, 2020, 2021, something likethat and we were I got a
(28:08):
valuation.
The valuation came back, okay,but I was like I want to build
it for two more years and getmore.
So no, actually, let's, let'sthink about that.
I started talking to the brokerin 2022 and then I was going to
grow it to like 2025 to try tohit a certain benchmark that I
(28:31):
had set, and so I was working onthat and the biggest thing was
putting people in place, which Ihad already.
It was already hands off.
I had already had an operationsmanager and I wasn't working
much at all at that point, but Ineeded to get my, my profit and
(28:53):
revenue up to a certain point.
So it was really at that point,but I needed to get my profit
and revenue up to a certainpoint.
So it was really, at that point, just managing a team.
And when I say managing a team,I meant that I managed my
operations manager and hemanaged everybody else, so it
was pretty easy at that point.
It was just working and tryingto get more, more clients coming
(29:15):
in, more jobs on the books andbuilding up profit, but it was
cut short and I ended up sellingin 2023.
There's there's a ribbon thatruns through my entire life of
like things that are in commonand it's horses.
So I was in a horseback ridingaccident, um, in last year, and
(29:39):
I guess I should start with so Ihad I had a management team at
that point.
I had two sales guys.
My two sales guys had put intheir notice.
So, as an hands-off owner,whenever a management team
member quit, that was when Iwould have to jump back in and
make sure that spot got filled.
So that was pretty much myprimary role at the time.
(30:02):
So I had two people quit and itwas kind of devastating because
they were my two key guys andreplacing them, I knew, was I
was afraid of it, which Ishouldn't have been, but I was
and so they put in their notice.
I think it was on a Friday.
(30:24):
That weekend I went horsebackriding and I got bucked off and
it was really bad.
I spent three days in thehospital.
I had to have emergency surgery.
I spent three days in thehospital.
I had to have emergency surgery.
I couldn't work because I waspretty much stuck at home on the
couch like, couldn't doanything for six weeks and I
(30:48):
felt like at my lowest point.
I was like I don't know how I'mgoing to overcome this.
My business needs me right now.
I just had two key people quitand I'm supposed to jump in to
rehire them and I can't do thatbecause I'm injured.
So I know this story is alittle confusing, I think no,
(31:09):
it's okay.
I had hired a new operationsmanager before my two guys put
in their notice, but they didn'tknow it yet and he was supposed
to start that Monday, thatMonday that I was still in the
hospital because of my horsebackriding accident.
So this is kind of where it allcame together to me that what,
(31:32):
what I had put in place wasworking, because I couldn't work
, I couldn't do the things Ineeded to do.
I had this new operationsmanager starting and I couldn't
be there to train him.
So I did it through Google Docsor Google Drive because I had
all my SOPs there, and so he andI just chatted and I trained
(31:54):
this new operations managerthrough chat and written SOPs
that I had from, like, my couchat home.
So seeing those systems workwas my first cue.
That okay, my business isactually probably more valuable
than I give it credit for,because it really does run
(32:17):
without me being there with justsome guidance and being at that
low point of having that injury.
I listed the business at thatpoint because I was like I'm not
needed, like I have everythingdocumented, all my SOPs are
super thorough.
This new operations managerhe's you know after two or three
(32:39):
weeks I'm like he's doing agood job.
He learned how to do it throughmy written SOPs.
I'm like I think I'm just goingto sell this business now
because I don't think it.
It doesn't need me.
It's clearly working.
And we listed it and it wasunder contract within two months
.
I had a bunch of peopleinterested because it was a
hands-off.
You know, it was an investorbusiness and it was an easy
(33:03):
process.
It was closed.
So I listed it in like June andit was closed in September.
So it was quick.
Lots of people were interestedand it was because my written
SOPs worked.
That kind of pushed me overthat edge and then having that
(33:26):
injury.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Did that make sense?
It made perfect sense.
So the question I have is whatwas the thought process?
You know taking, you know,several steps back to you,
starting to put in the SOPsthroughout the course of
building your business.
Reason I asked that is because,I would say, majority of
business owners are so busy onthe day to day that they don't
take a step back to work on thebusiness because they're too
(33:48):
busy working in the business andyears and years pass and then
you know they want to sell it,but then they don't have any of
those things in place that youdo have and they have to take
all this time to go back and doall that stuff.
So what prompted you to startdoing that early on?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Well, knowing that I wanted to either build my way
out or buy my way out from thebeginning was part of it.
But as soon as I started hiringemployees, I pulled myself out
of the field operations.
So I was no longer the personpruning shrubs and raking leaves
I.
My primary goal from that firstyear, as soon as I hired, you
know, my first crew, was to sell, get jobs schedule, get my crew
(34:30):
scheduled and just keep thatgoing.
So it was get jobs, schedule mycrews, hire, buy trucks, that
kind of stuff and you knowscheduling.
I know you asked about thatearlier.
Like the first year I was justdoing a Google sheet and old
fashioned like here's when youshow up, here's your list of
(34:53):
jobs, here's when you should getback, yeah and um.
So that helped.
And as I hired more and morepeople, I just I just made sure
that I wasn't stepping back intooperations out of desperation.
So if I had people quit, Ididn't jump in to do work
(35:15):
because we were shorthanded.
I just went to hiringimmediately and replaced that
person right away.
And that was one of the harderlessons that I learned was,
every time somebody quit I feltlike I had lost a major asset
and that it was going to hurt mybusiness.
But actually every timesomebody quit, my hiring got
(35:36):
better and I ended up replacingthem with somebody who was more
qualified and fit our culturebetter and the company would
grow.
So it was kind ofcounterintuitive where you have
people quit and you're like, ohmy gosh, this sucks, that was my
key person.
And then you go and replacethem and you realize, oh, within
(35:59):
a week we're back up andrunning full staffed and
everything's good again.
So that was, I think, one ofthe bigger lessons was like
everybody's replaceable.
Even I'm replaceable in my ownbusiness, clearly.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Everybody's replaceable.
Even I'm replaceable in my ownbusiness.
Clearly owners do the same arelikely those SOPs and the
automation and the systems andtools in place.
Can you walk us through whatyou learned in your own business
and now you know I don't wantyou to give away your secret
sauce, but kind of what's thesecret sauce you know to being
(36:49):
able to walk away from yourbusiness?
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Yeah, it is those standard operating procedures
and having them in writing, andI really used Google Drive for
all of that.
I use Google Docs because Icould share with my team, I
could link documents togetherand I was very thorough so that.
So the way that I wrote my SOPswas I actually shadowed every
(37:13):
single employee that I needed towrite an SOP for, which was all
of them.
So, to write the adminassistant's training documents,
I shadowed her for a week.
She taught me everything shedoes and how she does it and I
(37:34):
wrote it down and then I linkedstuff together.
So if you were like through ansop of how to enter data into
quickbooks, for example, I wouldhave a link to where to find
the data that you have to enterinto quickbooks.
So I had it all down to like.
You couldn't mess this up.
If you follow the, you couldn'tmess this up If you follow the
(37:56):
instructions.
You can't mess this up.
It's all there, it's all linked, and I did that with every
single role in the company,including my own.
So that's how I did that and itdidn't take too much time.
I think it took three months toactually get it all down in
writing.
I mean, there were trial anderror earlier on in the company
(38:17):
where I would write SOPs and Iwould do it incorrectly, so I
learned how to write themgenerically.
You didn't use names likeemployees names, because the
employee is probably not goingto be there in two years Right.
So I learned how to write themvery generically and precisely,
(38:37):
and then I just made sure peoplewere following them.
And I think that's a key, too,of like when I say I let people
train me so that I could writethe SOPs.
That was something I did earlyon was I hired people who had
skills that I didn't have.
So admin skills have never beenmy thing.
I'm terrible at most of it.
So that was the first person Ihired was an admin to help me
(39:02):
stay organized, answer phones,enter data, all of that stuff.
I never trained her.
I hired somebody who alreadyhad those skills and I said make
it work, please.
And here's the outcomes I need.
As long as you're meeting theseoutcomes, I don't care how you
get it done.
And so I let my employees trainme on skills that they know and
(39:26):
that they had that maybe Ididn't.
You filled the gaps.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
That is so like.
What you just said is soextremely important is that you
hired people, you filled thegaps and do everything, and the
reality is that we all have ourspecial skill sets, and then we
have the other ones that we'renot so good at.
And the ones that we're not sogood at, those aren't the ones
that we should be focused ondoing.
We should hire somebody who'smuch better at them to do them
for us.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
Yeah, and I guess maybe that's an advantage to
starting a landscape companywith no landscape experience.
I didn't know how to do most ofit, so I had to hire people.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Well it worked out pretty well for you what I did
know how to do was bring anelement of professionalism.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
I knew how to sell, I knew how to get jobs and I
learned how to hire people.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
But other than that.
That's the hardest part.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Yeah, because if when we were doing construction jobs
like we were doing, like paverpatios and like heavier duty
landscaping stuff I didn't knowhow to do any of that, I had to
keep somebody hired at all times.
That did, because I knew how totell if it was done right.
I knew the steps so that Icould make sure that the quality
was there.
But when it came to like usinga laser level to know how to get
(40:49):
it level, I couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
I didn't know how well, the hard part is like.
So the people that are skilledin doing that often don't have
the skill to find the jobs to doit and do all the paperwork and
everything that comes withrunning a business.
They don't necessarily want todo that or they're not good at
it, so it's that's what I teach.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
So that's why I that's how I got into what I'm
doing now, because I'm likethese people that run these
service businesses.
They're not business peoplenecessarily and that's their
lacking element to reallyreaching a point where their
business is valuable and runswithout them, because really a
valuable business, to have avaluable business, it has to run
without you doingmulti-millions in sales every
(41:36):
year.
But if you have to be there asthe owner, somebody is not going
to just buy that because thatis a huge job for them.
Like they're going to have tocome in and learn how to be you.
So you have to learn how tomake your role duplicatable so
that anybody can step into it.
And that's what I teach,because these most people don't
don't know how to do that.
And I know I did a lot of trialand error and it was a headache
(41:58):
, at lots of low moments, lotsof tears, like, yeah, so if I
could save people all the stressand the anxiety and the tears
that I had, that's what I wantto set out to do.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Yeah, I love that we.
I went to a session actually atFinCon where we met you and it
said exactly that you could havelet it.
You should probably pitch thatfor next year actually.
But the whole concept around itwas if you are the business,
you don't have a business.
You have a brand.
If people are hiring you tospeak.
They're hiring you.
You know they can't.
(42:33):
If they hire me, they can'toutsource to Brandon because
he's not the brand or the facethat they're hiring.
It would be me or you.
And they gave the example of ifsomebody is hiring Rihanna,
they're hiring Rihanna to comeand sing and be there and be the
presence that she is on stage.
(42:53):
That is the brand.
Her business is Fenty FentyBeauty.
You can buy that any hour ofany day, day or night, doesn't
matter where on the planet youlive, and she does not need to
be there.
Yes, you know.
Or they said Mark Wahlberg,same thing, right, Like if you
need him in a movie, well, hecan't be anybody else, he is
(43:14):
Mark Wahlberg.
But if you want to eat atWahlburgers, you can do that in
you know 300 locations across,whatever the world without him
having without him being there.
That is the business, and so Ithink what you just said about
building a scalable businessthat you actually can walk away
from, I mean, that really is thesecret sauce.
So let's pivot into how you'redoing that.
(43:37):
So you sold your business forseven figures earlier than you
anticipated, so bigcongratulations for that.
When did you have that click,that moment of like, oh, I did
this and now I can help otherpeople do it.
And what does that look likewhen you're working with these
business owners?
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Yeah, I mean, I'm too young to retire, so I'm only 38
.
It's like one thing that Istruggled with when I stepped
into a investor owner roleinstead of an operator owner
role was this feeling of notbeing needed and, as someone
(44:22):
who's a doer and an entrepreneurand wants to build businesses,
like it wasn't the best feelingever.
So people think you know, timeis great, yes, but we all still
need purposes and I found myselflike what is my purpose?
Like I just am, like I don't, Idon't know, my crews don't need
me, my company's runningwithout me.
I pretty much feel useless andit was a little depressing.
(44:46):
So I learned some other skillsand really what I jumped into
was investing.
I learned how to invest.
So I bought some online coursesand learned how to invest money
and create cash flow.
So not just invest for likehold and wait and you know that
(45:10):
kind of growth, but like activecash flow.
And that's something that reallyinterests me a lot is financial
independence.
That's something that I had inmy vocabulary from age 18.
I was like I want to befinancially independent.
I don't want to rely on anyone.
I don't want to rely on my bossor my job.
I don't want to rely on myhusband.
(45:31):
I love my husband, but I'm likeI want to be financially
independent.
To me, that was the ultimatefreedom where I get to live the
life I want, when I don't relyon anybody else to feed me,
clothe me, put a roof over myhead.
So the investing was the waythat I saw that being able to
(45:54):
happen.
And the step before investingis building a business.
So if I wasn't able to, if Iwasn't able to build a hands-off
business, I would have neverhad the time to learn how to
invest.
So after selling the business,it clicked in my head Like
there's a lot of business ownersout there who are kind of stuck
in their business and, yeah,they might feel trapped there
(46:18):
because really, like you said,if you, if your business can't
run without you, you don't havea business, you have a job and
and you never have downtime.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
You can't go on vacation without checking your
email.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
Exactly, sounds terrible.
So, I was like I want to helpthose people because I know how
to do this a different way andyou know, like you're mentioning
Rihanna and Mark Wahlberg, theyinvested in their businesses.
They don't.
They didn't bootstrap them andstart them.
You know.
They invested in them and theyfound people who knew how to do
(46:54):
what they wanted to accomplishand they hired them.
And I think a lot of servicebusiness owners think that that
can't be done with a servicebusiness, because they're like
I'm the only one that can do itthe way I want it done.
I've tried hiring people andthey just don't do it right.
A lot of them live by the mottoif you want it done right, you
(47:14):
have to do it yourself.
It's not true, but you have tobe able to delegate properly.
You have to know how tocommunicate to people who can
get the work done, becauseemployees can get it done.
It just comes down to are youcommunicating the right way, Are
you giving them the rightguidelines and are you giving
(47:34):
them the freedom to actually getthe job done, Because there's
more than one way to do it, andif an owner delegates and then
micromanages and doesn't let theperson do it, that's when
tension happens and it's like,okay, they might not be doing it
the way I would do it, but ifthe end result is the same,
that's all that matters.
(47:54):
And so I gave people the freedomlike here's the outcome I need,
here's my expectations, here'show I want you to check in with
me.
As long as they were doingthose things, I did not
interfere with how they weregetting it done.
I was like you're meeting thecodes, it's getting done right.
I don't care about everythingin between A and B.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
I feel like your mindset, even going into
starting the business, was likethere's an exit strategy, right,
you had an exit plan in mindand I don't know that most
people are starting theirbusinesses thinking, hey,
there's going to be a better wayI can.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
I'm agreeing with you .
Yeah, I don't think people.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
You let go of that control because you had the exit
in mind.
But if you don't have that exitin mind, I think it's really
hard to relinquish your baby, Ithink people started.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
I think a lot of people started business with no
actual plan, 100%.
Just like I'm good at this, Ican make money off of this, so
I'm going to do it 100%.
They don't have a, you know,two-year, five-year, ten-year
plan for the business, which iskind of winging it, and I think
that's the big difference isthat you had a plan, basically
before you even really startedthe business per se.
Speaker 3 (49:10):
And I find that a lot of business owners lack a
vision.
And I think that's somethingthat I struggle with talking to
business owners is they don'teven have a vision of what their
life could be.
And you know, as you guys,being a financial podcast, like
financial independence, opens upa lot of doors and it doesn't
(49:31):
mean that you don't have apurpose anymore, like I said.
You know, like when I startedto feel like I didn't have a
purpose, I found another purpose.
I learned a new skill and now Ican teach other people to do it
.
But they, they're like I don'twant to retire, I'm I don't, I
don't know what I would do, andI think people box themselves up
because they don't think that.
(49:52):
I don't know if they don't havebelief in themselves or exactly
what it is.
But I'm like, if you can have amindset shift, like there's a
whole world out there If youcould just get your business to
run without you.
But they don't even.
Yeah, they don't even.
They don't even have the visionbeyond their business.
So that is something I runacross when I was doing
(50:15):
one-on-one coaching.
I ran across that quite a bitWell from my experience.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
a lot of people in general don't even just stop
think about and talk about outloud their goals.
So you'll ask somebody likeeven if, like you know, they'll
give you a generic one, like, oh, I want to retire one day, what
does that mean?
Speaker 1 (50:32):
One day.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Like when?
Like, can we get a time framehere?
What is it going to look like?
What do you want to do?
Do you want to do, do you wantto travel the world?
Do you want to live in adifferent country?
Majority of people, honestly,do not really think about their
goals and they definitely don'ttalk about them out loud.
Speaker 3 (50:47):
Right, and I think I probably made a lot of people
mad when I was growing mybusiness because I always talked
about my goals.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
We're our circles always.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
We always talk about our goals, just not between each
other, with our friends, whatwe want to see them do like it
helps push you forward and it'sthe sense of accountability and
pride and they say, like arising tide lifts all boats or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
Like that's exactly it when you have a group of
friends where you can talk outloud with your friends about
your goals, like you help eachother get there.
And you know, even fincon.
I've met a handful of peoplethat I've been meeting with um
just through Google meet orwhatever, and talking about our
goals together.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
And it's fun.
Yeah, like accountabilitycheck-ins, we started doing
those as well, and I thinkthey're great, cause you you do
need to be in community withlike-minded people who you know
they might not have the samegoals, and that's totally fine,
but you have people that arealso working towards whatever it
is that you guys are workingtowards.
I think that's so powerful.
(51:47):
You mentioned one-on-onecoaching.
Is that something that youstill offer, or how are you
working with people now?
Speaker 3 (51:55):
I am no longer offering one-on-one coaching
because I felt like it was adistraction to me.
It was a way to becauseconsulting and coaching is easy,
quick money Like you trade yourtime for money and you can
generate an income right awaywith it and so it was appealing
(52:16):
to me and I'm like, okay, I'lldo this one-on-one coaching
thing to me.
And I'm like, okay, I'll dothis one-on-one coaching thing.
But really I found itdistracting from what I want to
do, which is to build an onlineeducational database of courses,
both free and paid stylecourses, with mastermind
sessions where I can help morepeople at a time.
(52:39):
Because one-on-one is a lowleverage activity and the way
that I built my last businesswas I leveraged everything and
that's kind of just my mindsetis leverage, so one-on-one just
doesn't fit.
But group coaching, mastermindsessions through my online
(53:00):
courses is what I do offer.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Okay yeah, because I was just thinking, if you're
doing one-on-one again, how doesthat scale?
Because then again you're thebusiness People want to meet
with you, the girl who built theseven-figure business, not
somebody else that you'vetrained, right yeah, Reimtrained
, right yeah.
Speaker 3 (53:18):
Starting a business and you know I've invested quite
a bit into various things, likeyou know, technology, cameras,
just random Starting a business.
There's always expense thatgoes with that and so that
immediate, you know income, sothat I wasn't investing money.
(53:38):
I had.
But you know, making money andinvesting it, that was the
appeal to it.
But, yeah, after spending 2023,no 2024 doing that, I, I just
it didn't align with with mygoals, but that was the appeal,
was the money and I'm like Idon't need, you know, like I
(53:59):
didn't, I don't need that income.
It was like I wanted it, butI'm like I don't need it.
So now I am just focusing onbuilding out online courses.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
Perfect.
So the people who are listeningthat are like, okay, I need to
whip my business into shape orman, you're right, I don't want
to work forever.
How can I turn my business intosomething that works without me
being present?
Speaker 2 (54:25):
Also, let's be honest , Majority of people, if you're
listening, you have a business,you know you fall into this
category.
Let's be honest.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Yeah, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.
Like you said, I think it isthe majority of the people.
Um, if they do want to workwith you and learn more, where
can they find you, and whatresources do you currently have
available for people?
Speaker 3 (54:44):
Right now.
All the resources I have Ishare through my newsletter and
I have marketing guides androadmaps.
I also put out a the newsletterevery two weeks.
It always has very actionable,detailed business tips and
advice in there and you can getmy newsletter at trainajuliancom
(55:08):
slash newsletter.
You could subscribe there andthat is the first place that I
will be announcing my courses asI launch them, which will be in
2025.
Speaker 2 (55:19):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
All right.
Well, the newsletter soundsfantastic, comes out every two
weeks.
We'll make sure to link that inour show notes.
So, please, if you're listeningto this and you need another
free resource of great businesstips, tricks, ideas, the
marketing campaign, all of thatsounds fantastic.
So thank you for giving all ofthat away for free.
(55:43):
If you're not signing up forthat newsletter, what are you
even doing?
And then where can people findyou on social media, trina?
Speaker 3 (55:51):
Instagram, facebook X and LinkedIn.
I'm on all of those, and allexcept LinkedIn are my name, so
Trina, julian or Trinaunderscore Julian, but something
along those lines.
If you Google me, it will allpop up Perfect.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
And we'll link all that information in the show
notes also.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
Yes, do you want to leave our audience with like a
final thought, either for peoplewho are thinking about starting
a business or people whoalready have a business that
they're looking to grow andpotentially exit from?
Speaker 3 (56:28):
Yeah, I really just want to encourage people to
believe in themselves and to gofor their dreams, because that's
the biggest thing that holdspeople back, I think, is they're
afraid of failing.
And things are easier thanpeople realize.
When you just put the effort into do it, it's achievable.
So, whatever it is that youwant to do, don't stifle that
(56:50):
because you're afraid of failing.
Just go for it.
Speaker 1 (56:54):
I love it.
We'll end on the note go for it.
Thank you so much, trina, forbeing with us today.
Speaker 3 (56:59):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
You guys have been awesome.
Speaker 1 (57:03):
Don't forget.
Benjamin Franklin said aninvestment in knowledge pays the
best interest.
You just got paid Until nexttime.
Thanks for listening to today'sepisode.
We are so glad to have you aspart of our sugar daddy
(57:25):
community.
If you learned something today,please remember to subscribe,
rate, review and share thisepisode with your friends,
family and extended network.
Don't forget to connect with uson social media at the sugar
daddy podcast.
You can also email us yourquestions you want us to answer
for our past the sugar daddypodcast.
You can also email us yourquestions you want us to answer
for our past the sugar segmentsat the sugar daddy podcast at
(57:46):
gmailcom, or leave usa voicemailthrough our Instagram.
Speaker 2 (57:50):
Our content is intended to be used, and must be
used, for informationalpurposes only.
It is very important to do yourown analysis before making any
investment based upon your ownpersonal circumstances.
You should take independentfinancial advice from a licensed
professional in connection with, or independently research and
verify any information you.
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