Episode 14 – Rebranding Life & Business: Tracy Jepson on Sobriety, Success and Personal Growth

Todd Bertsch: 0:08

Welcome back to BOLT Podcast. I’m Todd Bertsch, your guide on this exciting journey of personal growth and leadership, where my guests and I will share personal stories from our transformational journeys of how small changes can lead to massive results. You’ll discover tips on overcoming obstacles, setting and achieving goals, building lasting habits, living a happy, healthy and positive life, and so much more. If you’re ready to cultivate a growth mindset and become the best version of yourself, then let’s ignite your growth today. On today’s episode, I’m thrilled to introduce Tracy Jepson, a powerhouse in small business consulting and strategic growth. With over 20 years of experience, Tracy is an expert in finance and a passionate advocate for transforming businesses into profit-driven ventures. As a CEO of Kantex Financial and a certified Profit First Master, she helps entrepreneurs gain financial clarity and success. Tracy’s personal journey of growth, including embracing sobriety, has shaped her into a resilient, goal-oriented leader, making her a truly inspirational guest. Listeners, get ready for a great episode. Tracy, welcome to the Bolt Podcast.

Tracy Jepson: 1:25

Thank you, todd, thank you for having me.

Todd Bertsch: 1:28

It’s so good to see you again, gosh, it’s been so. You had me on your show, one of your podcasts. I see you have a new one now.

Tracy Jepson: 1:36

I have a new one now where I’m just kind of going solo on it.

Todd Bertsch: 1:39

It’s kind of being revamped.

Tracy Jepson: 1:40

So that’s kind of, like I said, a solo podcast venture. But it’s been a couple of years. We had a mutual friend introduce us and you were you were on our small business big deal podcast, which is still a fantastic episode too. So maybe we can link that one back so people can listen to kind of how your story has transitioned as well, because that was, I remember it being a really, really great episode for listeners.

Todd Bertsch: 2:01

Yeah yeah, that was fun and it’s been exciting to watch you and your transformation, which we’re going to dig into today.

Tracy Jepson: 2:10

So, yeah, a lot has a lot has happened in those few years since we last connected.

Todd Bertsch: 2:14

Same here on both ends. I think we’ve both been through a big transformation, which is so exciting.

Tracy Jepson: 2:21

It is, it is, let’s dig in.

Todd Bertsch: 2:23

Let’s dig in All right. So exciting it is, it is let’s dig in, let’s dig in All right. Well, you, you know, looking at your bio, your LinkedIn, you’re definitely a serial entrepreneur. You definitely have a passion for small businesses, which is awesome. I love that. So let’s talk about your main business, which I believe your main business is the CanTax Financial. Tell us a little bit about the mission, the story behind that, why you started it and what types of services you provide.

Tracy Jepson: 2:48

Absolutely so. Key Tech’s Financial kind of started out in a very different place. It started as a side hustle when my husband and I were going through Dave Ramsey getting out of debt and it needed kind of an extra side gig in order to make some of that debt go away a lot quicker. And what turned into or what turned from hey, let’s get some extra cash and get this debt gone, turned into a full-time job and then the job turned into an actual business. And I like to think that that transitions once you start hiring a team and start being intentional about what you’re doing, because I think a lot of entrepreneurs can actually create a job for themselves versus actually creating a company, and there’s a huge difference and not that one is better than the other for everyone, but there’s a difference in that.

Tracy Jepson: 3:32

So where I started out doing bookkeeping for firms all across the country so I always said I was doing Zoom before it was cool Everything always started out kind of at a distance and when I was working with small business owners, it wasn’t. You know, hey, let’s get my P&L looking good. Or can you explain my balance sheet? You know, to me it was how do I pay myself more? How do I pay for my kids to go to college? How do I pay for dance class my daughter wants to take, you know, extra specialties and I just don’t know where it’s going to come from. And it was started out as those connections between personal finances and business. That really led me to kind of where things are today in the business, where it’s way beyond bookkeeping, it really is strategic conversations with business owners so that way they’re able to connect their personal lives and their personal finances to the business and that the business is actually supporting what they want to do in life and not just a job.

Todd Bertsch: 4:25

Yeah, wow, I love that. A couple of things to unpack there that I want to talk about work-life integration, and that’s really what it’s all about. You know, call it whatever work-life balance, work-life integration. But I first things you said, because that took me that concept of are you creating an expensive job for yourself or are you creating a business. It wasn’t until I think it was right before the pandemic for me, I saw a post on Facebook I think it was from Tony Robbins, and he said that exact statement and I was like dude man, I don’t believe you.

Todd Bertsch: 5:05

That did not resonate with me at the time and I struggled with it, but I took a screenshot of it for whatever reason, and I came back to it six months later. I’m like, holy crap, you were spot on. This is what I’ve done is I’ve created this expensive job Although I had employees. I really wasn’t thinking about not necessarily an exit plan, but just creating these processes and you know these SOPs, you know creating a business that could run without me. That wasn’t all about me. So I can totally relate to a lot of what you just said.

Tracy Jepson: 5:40

Yeah, it’s really hard to see yourself not having a business Like. You’re a business owner, right, you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve got this thing and, yes, maybe you do have employees, maybe you know you have a lot going on, revenue wise, or maybe you’re even incredibly profitable. But if you’re still the face of the business and you’re still the one in the position that everything has to go through, it really is an expensive job and sometimes it’s not a profitable job, which then, just you know, raises a whole lot of other questions that I have to imagine go on in people’s lives. But really being able to look clearly at your company and say, you know, can this run without me? Is it repeatable? Is it scalable without me in the picture, could you step away from your business for four weeks at a time, for six weeks at a time, and it not collapse? Would you still get new clients during that time? You know, would things still be running?

Tracy Jepson: 6:31

And for most people, a large majority of business owners, that answer is no. And that’s when I think, taking that step back and, you know, having a third party, kind of like myself, go in and look at a business from a perspective where we’re not, you know, emotionally connected to the business, a lot like going to a therapist, right Like they see things very differently than we do. I can see somebody’s business very differently that I’m not emotionally attached to and can be able to point out and have conversations about changes that can be made. So the owner actually has more freedom. Because if we are starting a business, you know, from the perspective of we either want more money or we want to help people.

Tracy Jepson: 7:09

A lot of times it’s both, but generally those are one of two reasons why people start their own businesses because they either need money or they want to help someone. But if they can’t even help themselves and they can’t create space for their own life and be able to go on vacation when they want to, or be able to make your kid’s soccer game without being on your email or on a phone call or, you know, trying to resolve something going on in the business, there’s a lot more going on that can be, that can be solved and to, you know, focus on that work-life balance and it’s not always a balance and I don’t really like that word, I don’t know of a better word to call it. But yeah, the integration I think is more appropriate, because some people the balance they really do like work more than maybe some of the things going on in their life, so it doesn’t have to be balanced, but it does have to make sense.

Todd Bertsch: 7:54

Yeah, no, that’s interesting. I’m actually working on a solo cast about work-life balance and that’s juggling the balls of work-life balance and that’s, you know, juggling the balls of work-life balance. That really is, to me, all about just what’s important to you and then the balance is what is important. So maybe it is 75 work and 25 relationships and everything else, but just making sure that you’re fulfilled and whatever that may be.

Tracy Jepson: 8:25

Oh, absolutely, and I do think that it’s important you know, when people talk about that, to remind them that it is okay if you know, if your kids and your family are not your whole world. Maybe you’ve got something else going on, or maybe it’s great the way you’re able to balance it, but your, your outside life, doesn’t have to necessarily win the majority all of the time to still feel fulfilled and successful. I do think that beyond work there is more, but not everyone has to feel that way.

Todd Bertsch: 8:50

Absolutely, and it’s all about the season in life too, you know when you’re first first starting out, young family getting started you might just have to work 70, 80% of the time because you need to put food on the table or take on some overtime or some freelance work. And that’s just where you’re at. You’re trying to buy your first house and you’re just trying to get ahead, right.

Tracy Jepson: 9:11

Yeah, and that’s definitely how this business started, you know it was.

Tracy Jepson: 9:15

It was me working 80 hours a week doing this part-time working my full-time job.

Tracy Jepson: 9:20

I mean we ran into.

Tracy Jepson: 9:22

I mean I feel like I’ve done every failure that you can do in business without actually closing, I mean, but failure in my personal life, like I had no boundaries.

Tracy Jepson: 9:29

I had no, I had no balance at all, which is why I’m so passionate about it now, because I know what that did to my marriage and I know what it did to my relationships outside that they you know they started to disappear and you know things between my husband and I were horrible during the startup part of my business. But if I’d have known then what I know today and how to create boundaries and that there are no such thing as accounting emergencies, like no one needs an accounting email responded to at 10 o’clock at night, like it just doesn’t exist. And there’s a difference between again having customer service and being able to serve the clients that are paying you to be there, as well as also teaching your clients how to work with you and that you can have boundaries and that it’s important for them to see it so that way they can put them in their own business as well.

Todd Bertsch: 10:15

I love it. I love it Setting expectations.

Tracy Jepson: 10:18

Yeah, Cause you do you. You teach your clients how to work with you just as much as you teach your team how to work with clients, and you learn how to work with clients. But you’re creating those boundaries not only again for yourself, but to show them that they can also have them. So it’s a teaching moment on all sides of it.

Todd Bertsch: 10:34

Yeah, coaching moment and you just did a podcast about it. Yeah, absolutely. I listened to that one before we got on. It’s a big deal.

Tracy Jepson: 10:43

Yeah, boundaries are important.

Todd Bertsch: 10:45

It is yeah, and, and I like that you know coaching moment. So yeah, absolutely. Do you have another business too, this diving?

Tracy Jepson: 10:55

I say, I have two other businesses.

Todd Bertsch: 10:57

So let’s you know. I don’t have to go into detail on all of them, but I’m just diving one. I was kind of curious so I kind of knew that you were a profit first master, um, and you know, in the financial space and business coaching and stuff. But yeah, I was a little surprised by that one. So what is that?

Tracy Jepson: 11:14

about. Yeah, I like to say that I um an accountant with a side gig as a mermaid. So I think being an entrepreneur, like a serial entrepreneur, is definitely something that is, you know, in my soul, and I love creating. But I think I create things that I see are in need, and when I see them as a need for myself, I have to imagine I’m not the only person who has that need. So my kind of venture into the businesses that I’ve started have come out of things that I’ve wanted personally. So obviously the consulting side of things makes a lot of sense. It’s helping other business owners and then finding balance for myself, finding something that I really enjoy and that I loved.

Tracy Jepson: 11:52

And I took my first scuba diving class when we were going on a trip with friends. Several people were going to be diving and I thought, oh, that sounds like fun, I’d like to do that. My husband is still on the fence. He does not like the water. He definitely. He doesn’t even like to snorkel. We have lots of very funny stories about that but I found myself underwater and having my brain be quiet for the very first time in my entire life.

Tracy Jepson: 12:15

It’s the most peaceful place and thing that I have ever done. And when I popped up out of the pool for that very first time, I knew that I needed to dive for the rest of my life, and so did everyone else. Like I had never connected, you know, finding something that just brought me so much peace before, and I thought, okay, great, how can I continue to do this and do more of it? And opening a dive shop in Kansas during the pandemic seemed like the perfect uh, the perfect explanation of how I was going to be able to solve this going forward. So we um, I partnered up and we opened the shop in the beginning or the end of 2021.

Tracy Jepson: 12:56

And again, it was pandemic time, so we couldn’t get any gear from overseas. Like it was a real challenge. But we were able to connect people with travel and our dive shop is a little bit different. Like we were kind of bougie, like that’s a little bit of my personality and that’s okay. But so we tend to take like luxury type of trips and sell gear that’s going to be higher end than other shops do. Like we’re targeted at a very specific type of person and family who wants to go in the types of dive trips that we like to go on, so I’m able to connect again like a business and personal fun.

Tracy Jepson: 13:28

It’s all deductible, so that’s um, so that’s great.

Tracy Jepson: 13:30

But I’m also being able to share that experience with my clients or with other people about why I do it. So it’s not so much like I wanted to go see really cool fish and pretty things underneath the ocean, which is incredible, but the peace and calm that it brings me. So maybe somebody doesn’t want to go scuba diving but they need to find something in their life that brings them that type of thing. So maybe it’s meditation or bike riding or camping or fishing or whatever that thing is and be able to lean into it as a business owner and know that you can step away from the job that you’ve created or your business and be able to find that sense of peace and re-energizing feeling that it brings to you so that you can take that energy back to your business and back to your team. So for me, starting a dive shop was really just an excuse for me to be able to dive more and to be able to feel that calm in my nervous system and really feel grounded when I’m underwater.

Todd Bertsch: 14:25

I did not know that about diving and I’m big into meditation. I have a meditation practice every morning 5, 10, 15 minutes depending on the day, but definitely meditation throughout the day, different points in time. So, yeah, I’m a big, big fan. And time so yeah, I’m a big big fan. But I was not aware of diving as potentially a really powerful meditation tool so that’s that’s really interesting to me.

Tracy Jepson: 14:52

It’s great because I mean, it’s true grounding too. I mean, if you think about it, you’re underwater, so you’re connected with the environment, you’re connected with the earth at that point.

Tracy Jepson: 15:00

So you’re grounded during that. They use scuba diving to treat a lot of PTSD in military personnel and veterans, that type of thing, because it’s the way I describe it. It’s like being in, depending on if you’re in warm water. I prefer diving in warm water, not cold water, but you’re like in warm water with pressure, so it’s almost like having a weighted blanket around you. So it’s calming your nervous system the entire time that you’re underneath water, as long as you’re breathing properly and you’re not panicking and of course there’s people that are going to have different, maybe initial experiences if they’re not familiar with it but that grounded calm, you know kind of pressure that is around you, like your whole nervous system just relaxes.

Tracy Jepson: 15:41

And breathing is a very important part of diving, one you have to keep doing it. It’s the first rule of diving. But I will kind of look at my dive computer and I can see you know when my heart is elevated and I can see when I’m, you know, breathing at a really calm low level. So just like I practice breathing, you know when I’m in a cold plunge or in a sauna, just like through my meditative breathing. We’re doing the same thing but underwater and my whole system just calms when I’m down there. So if you are somebody who’s into meditation, it would certainly try like a tri scuba class or something that’s near you, since you’re landlocked as well, and just see, like, what that feeling is and like. But yeah, the calm and quiet in my brain is really what drove me to want to share that experience with other people.

Todd Bertsch: 16:24

That’s awesome. Yeah, I’m kind of with your husband. I’m a little afraid of water, but I’ve tried some things. My wife’s not a big fan either, so it might be tough for us to venture that way, but if I’m ever out in Kansas I will check you out If you’re ever at our pool.

Tracy Jepson: 16:41

We have a shiver-free environment and it’s 90 degrees, so it’s a nice warm pool to be able to do that, but it does it definitely creates a calming in your nervous system. So, again, if you you know, like camping or being outdoors, some people get that same calm from hiking up a mountain or you know something else. So it’s like find it’s find the experience that works best for you.

Todd Bertsch: 17:02

Yeah, yeah, sitting around the campfire, that’s. That’s one of the things that does for me, especially during COVID, that was my my go-to practice.

Tracy Jepson: 17:15

Yeah, and that was all that was actually. Often ours was sitting out by a campfire.

Todd Bertsch: 17:18

It tended to used to have a glass of wine or bourbon in my hand while we were at it. I was just going to mention that.

Tracy Jepson: 17:22

That has now changed too. So, like you mentioned kind of in the intro, is that I have embraced sobriety so today is October 21st, so I’m almost to 18 months in that and that has been something that also, I think, has been just eye-opening in my life. And the goal of feeling better is really like what inspired my third business, which is a wellness studio. So we have infrared saunas, cold plunges, iv therapy, that kind of thing. But it was as I had learned to meditate and learned to ground myself and kind of work into that sort of holistic wellbeing for my life.

Tracy Jepson: 18:01

All of a sudden alcohol seemed like it felt very out of place in how it made me feel and what it was putting into my body. If you start looking at, obviously like ingredients of alcohol and what they do to your cells and your system and just your sleep patterns and anything else. I just want to feel really good in my life. I want to go to work and feel really good. I want to work with amazing clients. I want to just make my life a place where I enjoy it, and alcohol no longer fit that enjoyment arena and being without it has been life-changing in so many ways Weight loss, feeling better sleeping, better hormone balancing, I mean I could name off a hundred ways that alcohol has improved my life and it was really hard to find one thing that it improved for me when I was doing it.

Todd Bertsch: 18:51

Wow, congratulations to you, that’s. I know that’s a tough thing for anybody. I know I’ve had my battles over the years with addiction and drugs and alcohol and things of that nature. I do enjoy a bourbon and cigar on occasion and the one thing I’m very intentional about that in terms of moderation. In fact I have a whole life optimization system. It’s kind of geeky but I track how many times I do my good habits and my bad habits. And I had a goal.

Todd Bertsch: 19:28

I was creeping around three to four times a week last year and I said to myself I do a life audit At the end of the year. I have a whole year’s worth of data. I’m like, ok, kind of in the same camp as you. This just isn’t working and it really doesn’t feel. It feels out of place to me and the obvious of, you know, feeling like crap the next day. So I really did make some intentional changes this year and I’ve stuck to them two times a week and even cutting back. Because the bourbon, you got to be careful, you know a lot. Most of it is hunter proof and that can escalate very quickly. And there were a few nights where I embarrassed myself and I’m home at home drinking and I’m, you know, stumbling into the house Like this is ridiculous, but I, you know it wasn’t intentional just sitting around the fire having a good time, and you know next thing, you know, yeah, you’re hurting, you know and.

Todd Bertsch: 20:21

I’m not driving or anything. I’m responsible in that sense. But nonetheless I had to make some shifts and you know it’s ironic, just I see some parallels in a lot of ways. Personal growth I’m definitely huge into holistic mind, body, soul. Past four years during COVID, you know I’ve kind of started my journey when it started with this program called Positive Intelligence which was all about kind of, I’ve done that.

Tracy Jepson: 20:50

Yes, oh my gosh. Okay, I’m like sitting here doing like little PQ reps like right now.

Todd Bertsch: 20:54

Oh my gosh, I had no idea. Finally found some, okay.

Tracy Jepson: 20:57

So Positive Intelligence. That was one of the things that started me down my path. A friend of mine he’s a doctor, he’s actually kind of a partner in the other business that we have but he knew I was really stressed out and that things had been going really poorly. He was going through a terrible divorce at the time and he sent me this thing and he’s like I want you to listen to this and I want you to join it and go through it. And I was like, oh, this sounds stupid and I honestly didn’t like the guy’s voice and like the whole thing just like was really off putting. He’s like just stick to it and try it. And I will tell you that I will be in any sort of stressful situation now and you’ll see me just like rubbing my fingers together, cause that’s the one that like gets me the most, or I’ll play with, like my ring or something, Like I will do something and it will calm my nervous system.

Tracy Jepson: 21:42

And then all of a sudden, again that’s when I was feeling really good and it’s like, well, what else can I keep doing that makes me feel good? But no, I think that everyone needs to go through the positive intelligence and I realized like maybe financially it’s out of sorts for some people, but like it’s amazing.

Todd Bertsch: 21:58

Oh, but so yeah, I didn’t know we were going to go there, but I am.

Tracy Jepson: 22:04

I’m like sitting here, you’re the only other person I know that’s done it, aside from the guy that told me about it.

Todd Bertsch: 22:08

I know. So this program I mean it was a New York Times bestseller his book Shirzad Shamim and so many people, even coaches, don’t know about it. I’m like, dude, why aren’t you marketing this thing? Like, so I’m actually going to be a certified coach next year. That is one of my goals because I am all about it. So if he has me and I go through the application process, whatever, but that is definitely a goal of mine.

Todd Bertsch: 22:32

But it changed my life Tracy Absolutely. So I did it. During COVID I had a high performance coach reach out to me on LinkedIn. She just saw a post of mine that resonated with her and her and I connected and then I hired her to be my coach and then one of the first things we did was take me through the positive intelligence program. So she was certified and she is still certified in that. She took me and my colleague and a few other friends. So we had a pod that went through it during COVID and it was great.

Todd Bertsch: 23:01

And then I continue to do the app and do my PQ reps throughout the day and but it changed my life. For me it was building a pause button. I talk a lot about this in my episodes and I have a whole episode solo cast devoted to building a pause button. So I had a horrible temper and I struggled with patients my entire life, from kid all the way through adulthood. And oh my gosh, now and my wife, she makes fun of me. She looks down, she’s like, oh, you’re doing a PQ ref.

Todd Bertsch: 23:30

I’m like yeah, babe, like I just need to you know, whatever you said or whatever’s going on, you know, just let me do my thing and I’ll give me a minute and I’ll be good. But yeah, you know, it’s amazing how powerful our brains are and you can rewire those and you can build that mental muscle.

Todd Bertsch: 23:48

I mean, like anything, it takes time. You got to do the work but, oh my gosh, life changing. Like I can’t imagine my life without going through that program Tracy. Honestly, like I will be on a mountain and I will praise Shirzad Shamim and his book and his program Positive Intelligence to the day I die. It changed my life.

Tracy Jepson: 24:09

No, it’s absolutely one of the.

Tracy Jepson: 24:11

It’s absolutely one of the greatest things ever because, again, I I have a very quick temper, I can say things just at the drop of a hat that I probably shouldn’t, and it has gotten me to, yeah, to stop and think and hear inside of my head and again that that calm, sort of peaceful place that you can get to through it and really stopping before you speak and moving forward to the next step.

Tracy Jepson: 24:34

Like, yeah, it’s been game changing in relationships, it’s been game changing with team members or clients. Like I could just fly off the handle and like want to fire somebody, or you know, you know, just, my patience was very, very thin. And when stress builds on that, and sometimes when alcohol goes on top of that, like you can start piecing that all together and go, wow, I really can, yeah, rewire your brain and really rewire how you react to things and that changes who you are, it changes who you want to be around, it changes the environments that you put yourself in. Like it is, it’s just life-changing and so, yes, I would encourage anyone listening to this who’s ever considered it or not heard of it, to read it and then to go through that program.

Todd Bertsch: 25:14

It’s amazing. Yeah, at the very least 29 bucks for the book. Email me and I’ll send you the book. That’s all. Yeah, how much I believe in it. Like, I will help you go through that program by at least buying you the book.

Tracy Jepson: 25:26

I think you being a coach for that is incredible and I think you would be so good at it, cause, again, you’re like, just like in our conversations we have a lot of similarities where we’ve kind of talked about, like you know, just being intentional and intentional with our spouses and things of that nature, and I think it would be so good for you to to be that, to be a coach for that, and I really hope that you get accepted to that program and that that goes forward for you, cause it would be, that’d be amazing and just who you connect with um at the same time and help put through that.

Todd Bertsch: 25:55

Yeah, really good. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate that vote of confidence and I mean there’s nothing better. I mean I walked the walk, I went through it, I did the work. Who else better to take somebody through the program that like literally had some issues, and work through them from this program? So, yeah, I’m a big believer in it. So, wow, this is super exciting I did not. There is somebody that knows about the program. I can’t wait to tell my coach. She’ll be so excited, don’t you feel like?

Tracy Jepson: 26:23

sometimes, when you talk to people about stuff like that or like you share it, cause, like you know, you’re like you’re so excited about it, like sometimes I think I’m like people look at me like I’m crazier, that I’ve come up with like all of these, like found all of these. You know method, but like I just can, I want to scream it from the rooftop sometimes and then, but it’s like I feel like I’m pushing it on people or you know they’re going to think that I’m weird or you know whatever, which I probably am, and I’m okay with that. But I would love to tell everyone that I meet about it and I feel like I just keep it to myself because I’m like nobody’s ever this.

Todd Bertsch: 27:13

they’re not going to listen to it. Yeah, anytime you talk about meditation or rewiring your brain, people tend to shut down. But it’s real. Hey, we have two testimonies right here.

Tracy Jepson: 27:17

So it is the real thing. We get no profit from it. We wish we did, but not at this point.

Todd Bertsch: 27:19

But yeah, just one heck of a program. So that’s so awesome.

Tracy Jepson: 27:22

That’s amazing. No, I love hearing that other people have experienced it and have have walked through it, Cause, again, it’s not an easy program to to stick to, but even just reading the book gives enough. Gives enough information for somebody to get the idea of what they can be doing for it, Even if they’re not going through the entire program.

Todd Bertsch: 27:44

Absolutely, I’d say. You know, couple that with atomic habits.

Tracy Jepson: 27:46

You got those two, and you’ll be set. Yeah, I love that. That’s so good.

Todd Bertsch: 27:48

Yeah. So let’s go back to you choosing sobriety for a moment. Was there a moment? Was there something? Did you have a real bad evening, you know? Was there a moment where you’re just like, oh man, I’m done, I’m out of here? Or you know, what was your process Was? Was this kind of a weaning off?

Tracy Jepson: 28:09

For me it was kind of a. It started out as kind of a weaning off. I had been overstressed and you know, I’m over 40 as a female and, of course, like hormones and body change and all kinds of things as we age, I was really just unhappy with how I felt. I wasn’t sleeping, I was overweight and just not enjoying how I felt. And again, if we go back to, I always want to feel good and live a life that I feel good about myself. That does include my health and my appearance. And so I said, well, I’m going to just quit drinking for like 30 days and see what happens. I’d read a lot online and it said you know, you can lose weight by stopping drinking. So I thought, okay, great, let’s do that. And so 30 days turned into 90 days because weight was starting to come off, I was starting to sleep better, I was feeling better, it was around the time of my birthday, and so I thought, well, I’ll just not drink until my birthday and then we’ll go out and we’ll have champagne, like always.

Tracy Jepson: 29:04

And it will be so much fun. Well, I got to my birthday and I thought, man, why would I ruin these last like three months? Like I feel incredible, I should probably just keep going because weight was still falling off. Like I was like this is really good. And six months later, half a year, you know, half a year into this, I was like wow. I told people at that point, I was like, well, I’ll restart someday and I just don’t know when it’s going to be. Right now, you know, I feel amazing and we’re just going to keep going. I had really started to kind of dive into finding really great non-alcoholic options and diving into a whole world that I did not know existed in the you know, kind of in a space of cocktails and different things.

Tracy Jepson: 29:43

So I liked experimenting, so that was fun. I had, you know, an alternative when we’d go to football games I would drink like Corona zeros, which are by far the best non-alcoholic beer on the market. You would not know the difference. I can probably put one of the regular and one of the in a in front of you, you wouldn’t know the difference.

Tracy Jepson: 30:01

So, there was a lot of options that I had that I could still feel like I was partaking in the fun without mixing an alcohol into it. And when I got to about eight months I had lost a little over 50 pounds and I knew it that yeah, well, I’ve actually lost more, so that’s kind of exciting. But I’d lost about 50 pounds in eight months and I knew at that point that I was never going to of exciting. But I’d lost about 50 pounds in eight months and I knew at that point that I was never going to drink again. But I told people cause I wasn’t quite ready to like admit that out loud, but I knew for me that it was not going to happen and I thought, well, if I’m this close to a year, like why not get to a year point, just to say that you did it and then you know who knows, we’ll decide from there. But I knew at that point there was no going back, like there was no way I was going to reverse my sleep or reverse the weight loss. Because it’s not just booze, right, like it’s the charcuterie boards that go along with girls wine night. It’s the snacks at the tailgate that go along with beers, like it’s the compounded calories that are on top. It’s not just alcohol, it’s the. Anything could turn into happy hour for my husband and I. We will celebrate anything right, like if we’ve had a bad day at work, great, let’s go out to dinner and have a glass of wine or a bourbon. Or if we’ve had a wonderful day and I signed a new client, great, let’s go out and celebrate. Like there could be any reason to go out and drink and eat things that we wouldn’t normally do and that can escalate. So I got past my year mark. I knew I was not going back, but by this time, like, my husband was my drinking buddy, right. So he has, you know, massively slowed down drinking. At this point, I think, now that we’re in October, I think it’s been at least six to eight months since he drank. My business partner just hit his year of not drinking.

Tracy Jepson: 31:43

It started to escalate. To the people around me they’re like, wow, tracy’s lost all this weight. She feels really great. She swears up and down by this thing which is not drinking. Let’s see how it goes.

Tracy Jepson: 31:55

But it’s also, you know, it’s proximity. If you’re around people who aren’t doing it, you’re probably not going to be doing it. If you’re around people who do it all the time, not going to be doing it. If you’re around people who do it all the time, it’s going to be really easy to fall into doing it. So now I’ve lost over 80 pounds because when you feel really good and you’re not hungover, you want to get up and go work out and you want to get up and go for a walk on the weekends.

Tracy Jepson: 32:11

Or you want to be, you know, active and you don’t feel sluggish or hungover. Or you know you’re not planning your day around oh, we’re going to go to this party. Or oh, we’re going to go meet friends for drinks, for lunch and something else, like you just start doing other things. But the beginning of sobriety was really really hard. Got a lot of judgment from people who are not necessarily friends any longer of mine.

Tracy Jepson: 32:33

I really realized you know kind of who’s in it to want to hang out and have fun versus who actually cares about you, for you and having something else to do. I mean because that’s what we would plan our lives around Like. It was a lot of like football or sports watching and drinking always came with it and there was a point where I was like I don’t even know, like, what else I enjoy doing. I don’t know what else I like, because we might’ve been going to a concert but there was probably drinking involved, like there was just so many things that seemed to be connected to it and I would never have called myself, you know, addicted or an alcoholic or anything but man. We were sure living a life that it was intertwined with about everything that we did, and now it has nothing to do with what I do on a daily basis and I can be around people who are drinking and I no longer.

Tracy Jepson: 33:22

You know, I don’t feel weird about saying, oh hey, I don’t drink. It just is very natural and normal now, but at the beginning it was definitely you had to be intentional about it because it was very easy to go. Oh well, I’ll just start back up tomorrow or you know whatever. Going to conferences I don’t know how many you go to, but how many do you know of that? Don’t have, like happy hour events after all of the day’s breaks and people feel really pressured into attending those and thinking that they need to, you know, see and be seen, and if you’re not drinking at them, you’re not going to be included. Like there’s a lot of people just that feel very a lot of pressure from others to be the one drinking and I’ve just let all of that go and it feels a lot, it feels so much better.

Todd Bertsch: 34:05

Wow, I absolutely love this. Wow, I did not expect all this. Today, tracy, you started a movement Like literally you started a group movement that is so powerful, so inspiring.

Tracy Jepson: 34:20

And I hope to be able to actually start a movement for business owners Like so. I’ve started a newsletter. It’s called Lifepreneur Lounge and it’s where I talk about balance and it’s where I’ve really started to talk about sobriety and I talk about it a lot on LinkedIn and the messages that I get I don’t necessarily get the comments on the post itself, but in my messages it’s. I feel so much pressure to drink. I’m in an industry where it’s expected as part of my sales job I have to take clients out, like people are complaining that they can’t stop drinking because it’s expected at work. We have to change that narrative for people because there is so much stress and anxiety and other things that come along with that that I want to make not drinking normalized in business and in doing business with other people, and I’m just hoping that being open and talking about it is something that will continue to pick up again, just with other professionals and being that it’s okay to not drink or to not have a conference based around wine, dinners or whatever.

Todd Bertsch: 35:23

Okay to not drink or to not have a conference based around wine, dinners or whatever. Yeah, I love that. Well, I mean, no harm can come out of that right. Only positive things can happen. So it’s interesting. I never really thought about the pressure, but yeah, it’s absolutely there and I’m sure there’s tons of people. I feel like I’m hearing more and more people who started and, you know, did Dry January and are continuing on, and it’s interesting. I feel like I’m on my way there, which I thought I would never say.

Todd Bertsch: 35:53

Like I said, I have a very addictive personality. I’ve struggled with it for years. Covid, there wasn’t nothing to do, so sitting around the fire, I mean, I went through so many bottles of bourbon and, ironically, that’s when I started my big transformation. That’s when I met my high performance coach, went through positive intelligence and actually you’ll appreciate this, I don’t, maybe you have it. So I have the aura ring, so that’s my wedding ring, but it tracks a lot of things. I wanted to track my sleep and I can see it every single time I drink. All my metrics.

Tracy Jepson: 36:28

What happens to your HRV when you drink at night?

Todd Bertsch: 36:31

Yeah, plummets, yeah, yeah. So I have my.

Tracy Jepson: 36:33

Garmin. This is what it’s actually. My dive computer also, but it tracks all my same things that your ring tracks. It’s the.

Tracy Jepson: 36:39

HRV. It’s your sleep, it’s everything Like again. Tracks. It’s the hrv, it’s your sleep, it’s everything like again. If it matters, you measure it right, right, and mine was the same way. My hrv would just, and my hrv is terrible anyhow like. I still can’t figure out how to get it up. It. Mine’s always low, but I it’s. It was so much worse when I was high, stressed or drinking or anything else, and it’s drastically different now yeah and like you know that that’s, you know it affects it, so it.

Tracy Jepson: 37:02

So I think it’s awesome and I don’t think that everyone has to embrace sobriety. I think eventually we’re going to look at booze like we look at cigarettes. But I do think that being mindful, like what you’re doing, and saying like, hey, I’m going to do this twice a week and here’s how much I’m going to have, like that’s still intentional and you’re still making that choice that you know is best for you, and it doesn’t have to be all or nothing and it doesn’t have to be oh, I went 12 months and now I drank and now you’re a failure. Like, the amount of time doesn’t make any difference, it’s that you’re choosing to be healthier for your body and you’re choosing to be healthier for your mental health and for your family. And the choices and the intentionality I are the important part. It’s not how many days you went, you know, in between having a drink, like if I had one now, is it going to do anything to my body? No, I might not sleep well for a day or two or you know it’s not going to kill me. But for me, I just know that there’s no, there’s no positive to doing it Like and I loved wine and bourbon, and like I was a connoisseur and I still have an entire cellar full of wine down in my basement that I don’t know what I’m gonna do with, but like I liked it, like it tasted good, I enjoyed it, I enjoyed the education around it, I liked knowing where it came from and the makers and like I liked all of that stuff.

Tracy Jepson: 38:19

But I’m still finding that I can learn all of those types of things about other stuff. So, whether it’s, you know, de-alcoholized wine, there’s a couple of excellent ones on the market and I love learning about how they make it, and so it’s just a shift in in changing my thought process about what I want to learn about and, you know, become educated about. That was just what we tacked onto the drinking side of things, but now I can do it, you know, with something else.

Todd Bertsch: 38:42

Yeah, it’s all about making those small shifts.

Tracy Jepson: 38:46

Yeah, small shifts, they’ll go small shifts can move mountains.

Todd Bertsch: 38:50

Yeah, we talk about all the time on the show. It’s my life coach, that’s her, that’s her motto or tagline. It’s it’s all about small shifts, yeah and it. You know it’s ironic that for me the bourbon cigar is kind of meditation. It’s usually quiet time by myself, so it is a time when I can kind of reflect and slow down In my mind. I don’t know about you it sounds like we’re very similar. But being a serial entrepreneur and just being a business owner, like I’m just constantly my mind’s just going like 24 seven.

Todd Bertsch: 39:24

And for me, having a little break I’m not saying you know, alcohol is is good for me. That’s how I use it. It allows me to block the thoughts and just kind of wind down. You know what I mean. It’s the only thing for me at the time. But, like I said, I could see that I’m on my way off. I’m cutting back and honestly, with this podcast show I have to be on my A game every day and I’m the kind of person I don’t feel like hung over, but it affects my memory and I’m just consuming so much content, I’m learning so much each day and meeting new guests that I honestly don’t have time for it. So I’ve almost pushed it out no-transcript.

Tracy Jepson: 40:38

Like you know how do you want to show up and experience. You know it might be the worst recorder concert ever that we have to go to to watch a child perform, but going and being, you know, having like wine in your cup, like there might be a bigger problem going on. Like we can’t just block that out, like we still need to experience even the bad things wholly and we still need to be able to feel all of what’s going on around us, even if it’s not good and it’s not enjoyable. Feeling and being in the present in those moments is just as important. As you know, being able to go perform at our best or celebrate clearly and being able to remember important moments in our lives and sometimes booze just is not going to help that.

Todd Bertsch: 41:21

Right, Absolutely Sorry. I got hung up on the recorder choir.

Tracy Jepson: 41:26

Well, I was actually thinking because I remember I remember going to like when my husband’s kids were little and we would have to go to these awful recorder concerts or these like musical performances, and they’re in third grade and they’re adorable but not everybody else’s kids adorable in third grade and I didn’t want to be there, and so we would go out and we’d have like margaritas beforehand. I can tell you there’s many of those concerts that I probably don’t remember as much of them as I should and it’s funny to kind of think about. But then when I really think about it I’m like shit, like that’s. You know that’s not a memory that I would have wanted them to have. Like, oh, you know, dad and Tracy showed up and you know they’d had four margaritas before they went to it. You know, just not an ideal situation, but that’s what a lot of parents do.

Todd Bertsch: 42:08

Yeah, absolutely yeah. Noted, I do see a lot of parents holding their containers. Yeah, and I don’t know what’s in them.

Tracy Jepson: 42:22

I’m not judging. I thought maybe it was coffee, but maybe not. I think there’s like a mommy wine movement that you know just to be able to get through kind of the experience of parenting, and booze helps do that. Really it would make you a better parent not having that and being able to experience feelings of frustration or joy again.

Tracy Jepson: 42:39

It doesn’t always have to be bad ones in a really authentic way that alcohol will cloud any day, even if it’s one drink versus. Again, we’re not talking about addiction here, it’s just simply covering up those. Oh, I just want to clear out a bad day. Well, that clearing out of a bad day with booze isn’t actually going to help you clear your mind, and we all know that from an educated standpoint. But doing it is very different and I think once people start to put that gap and that space in between themselves and alcohol, your life will change for the better every single time. And it may take a little bit to get there because it’s a weird transition, but I don’t know anybody who’s ever quit drinking that said that they wouldn’t have done it. I’ve never met anyone who is sober who says that going back to drinking alcohol would improve their lives.

Todd Bertsch: 43:31

Right, that’s a great point that going back to drinking alcohol would improve their lives, right.

Tracy Jepson: 43:34

That’s a great point, so yeah. So that’s why I just I kind of just preach it all the time now and fully like share it, because I just know how good it makes me feel. So, whether it’s meditation or, you know, talking about scuba diving or something else, like we, if we feel good, we want to share that with others, and so for me, I know that sobriety feels really really good, and so for me, I know that sobriety feels really really good, and so I like to share it with other people in hopes to just inspire, like one less drink or one day that didn’t involve drinking, and if I can do that for somebody and, like I said, I know I’ve done it for the people around me. That’s really the message that I want you know, business owners, to understand is that you can cope with a lot more things when you when you don’t mix that in top of it so cope with a lot more things when you don’t mix that in top of it.

Todd Bertsch: 44:13

Yeah, absolutely. I’d be curious to see some research on a stat on how many business owners have challenges with alcohol. I bet you that percentage is high.

Tracy Jepson: 44:25

If you look at the top performing ones so take a Tony Robbins name a handful of people ask them if they drink, and they don’t, you know. It’s not surprising to see actors and actresses and athletes, high-performing individuals, high-performing business owners, come out and say that they don’t drink and that they’re successful, like there’s a correlation. For sure you know you’re not going to see some of the most impressive CEOs out drinking every night. It’s not going to happen.

Todd Bertsch: 44:58

Right.

Tracy Jepson: 44:59

But so you know, just taking after that too, like a lot of the, the mentors that I know and the people that I know who are incredibly successful in their industries, are sober and I don’t think it’s a, I don’t think it’s ironic.

Todd Bertsch: 45:12

Yeah, I would agree with you on that.

Tracy Jepson: 45:15

So no, it’s a. It’s just definitely I feel like I’m. I feel like I found out about it late, Like I was late to the party, but yet, at the same time, it’s gotta be. You know it’s. It’s becoming a trend, Like sobriety is becoming trendy, and I will just stand by it that we will look at alcohol like we look at cigarettes, and I would say, within the next 10 years, maybe even sooner, but it will become a thing where people will start looking at it and going like what are I know? What were we thinking?

Todd Bertsch: 45:43

Yeah, I agree with you there. It’s never too late.

Tracy Jepson: 45:47

No never too late.

Todd Bertsch: 45:48

Every day is a new day. So, yes, you can’t look back, just look forward. Yeah, absolutely, day is a new day. So, yes, you can’t look back, just look forward. Yep, absolutely. So, tracy, you have. You do a lot, my gosh you got. You have a third business now that I didn’t know about. So three, is that all, or is there more three?

Tracy Jepson: 46:03

three businesses and then you know just some like rental properties and just actual things.

Todd Bertsch: 46:07

So just and a podcast and a podcast do you still have the other?

Tracy Jepson: 46:11

profit. Yeah, so two podcasts and which I’ve just been recording, those seasons, those are getting ready to launch, so I’m excited to get those back out on the air. But I do a lot and I think this might be where we’re going, but how do you do so much, right?

Todd Bertsch: 46:27

Thank you. There’s the softball or the golf ball.

Tracy Jepson: 46:31

The golf ball. Yeah, I just got back from a women’s golf tournament in California last week and it was incredible.

Todd Bertsch: 46:37

All that post no drinking. Was that the?

Tracy Jepson: 46:38

first class. Yeah, first class. Definitely no drinking, which is just, you know. Another thing to remember Like it was like the second I’d get on a plane, it’s like, oh, I’d get champagne, but that champagne was really shitty.

Todd Bertsch: 46:51

Yeah, drinking on a plane, I think is overrated.

Tracy Jepson: 46:59

No, it’s total waste. But I’m not able to go to those golf tournaments, I’m not able to go diving or anything without my team. So a team in every single business. And without without them, without processes, without procedures, without proper training for that team, without them, without processes, without procedures, without proper training for that team, I wouldn’t be able to have the space in my life that I do in order to do the things that I really enjoy. So I wouldn’t have podcasting days or I wouldn’t have golf days.

Tracy Jepson: 47:22

And I golf several days a week or five days a week sometimes, and it’s not necessarily the whole day, so I’m not like taking the whole day off, but I can take half a day off, whether it’s the beginning part or the end.

Tracy Jepson: 47:34

And I set my calendar intentionally so I meet with clients on certain days during certain timeframes and I am intentional about when I go see my golf coach or want to go play, you know, in ladies league, or go to tournaments.

Tracy Jepson: 47:46

That kind of thing. I think planning out and being intentional with my time has has served me as much as it is being intentional with how I work with clients or how I’m sober or you know when you fit in a workout whenever it is. If it’s important, you’re going to schedule it, and my free time is important to me and even today, before this podcast, I went and did a sauna session and so I spent an hour of my time this morning, while I spent one hour in therapy and I spent one hour in the sauna, and those are always on my calendar, they’re scheduled in, they’re intentional and I don’t have to try to fit them in. And I think when we try to like fit things in and say, oh well, I’ll get to it, oh well, I’ll get to it, you will never get to it. If it is not on my calendar or planned ahead of time, it’s not going in, it’s not going to get done.

Todd Bertsch: 48:38

Right, yeah, I see one key phrase or one theme that’s carried throughout this whole episode intentionality. You are truly intentional about everything in your life. I am too. I track everything. My calendar I’ve talked about in every episode, so I’m not going to talk about it here. But everything’s in there. There’s a block, and don’t make fun of me, I don’t have like going to the restroom or things like that yet, but everything else in my life it’s in there.

Todd Bertsch: 49:07

So I want to make sure the things that are important to me it’s in there, and if it’s in there it’s visible and, like James Clear says, if it’s visible it’s going to happen. So, yeah, I want to make sure that I get time for myself, for my kids, for my wife, for all my relationships or all the things that are important to me in my life.

Tracy Jepson: 49:24

So and I think when people, when people take the time, and when I took the time to say, okay, I’m going to be intentional with my time, I’m going to do, you know, calendar, blogging or you know whatever you want to call it. I was, it was very intentional with my schedule you start realizing when you start tracking your time so it’s maybe not even planning it, but if you just start paying attention to what you do and you start writing down, like here’s what I did today, you’re going to find things that weren’t valuable. You’re going to find things that, man, I should have been doing something else during that time. Like those phone trackers like that have so how much time you spend on your cell phone. I think people should look at those more often. They might find a lot of time in their life that they could have been doing something.

Tracy Jepson: 50:02

And people tell me all the time gosh, Tracy, you’re so busy, you do so much. I’m like I’m really not that busy, like I don’t really have that much going on, like, because I’m intentional, like I don’t feel overwhelmed, like I’m in bed by nine o’clock every night, like I’m not staying up till midnight, like there is nothing that’s that important in my life that I’m going to be awake at that time of the evening, like I. I choose when I do things and I just don’t like. Busyness is not a badge that I want to wear, and being intentional with space and time and time or downtime and rest and relaxation is just as important as time for productivity.

Tracy Jepson: 50:41

Without space in my world, like without time that I just have for me, I can’t be productive at work and I can’t be productive with clients and have high energy. You know, when you’re on calls with clients for a half a day or a whole day, you need to be at a hundred all of the time with them, like that’s what my clients deserve. They deserve me. At my best I can’t do 10 clients back to back to back on phone calls or calls and have my energy still be there. So I have a few calls a day for a couple of days a week but I can’t have everybody just slammed into one day. I see a lot of calendar blocking like that and I’m like I would have zero energy if I peopled all day long.

Tracy Jepson: 51:19

So I have to mix in like sauna time or a workout or a walk around the block, like if I don’t put that stuff in there, like my energy is just sucked out. I’m not feeling good and my clients feel that like they know. If I’m not feeling good and my clients feel that like they know, if I’m not showing up at 110% for their call, like they’ve been expecting and waiting for that time together and if I can’t show up the way that they deserve, I’m not doing anybody a service. So I think, being intentional with my time but again as much intention as rest and relaxation as I am, productivity.

Todd Bertsch: 51:50

Man, I love it.

Tracy Jepson: 51:53

I love it Because I think I think even you and I had talked about one time I think we talked about on my podcast where I take my CEO retreats. So I’ll go away for like a week a couple of times a year, just solo travel and I go to spas and things like that, because that’s what energizes me. But again, it’s intentional and it’s blocked off and it’s on my calendar and my team knows that that’s when I’m going to be gone and my husband knows that that’s what I’m doing when I’m gone and it just it makes me a better person. It makes me come back and be able to put more energy into other people when I’ve put just as much energy into myself.

Todd Bertsch: 52:29

Amen, I love it and I noted that that’s been on the shelf since we talked and I’ve never made it happen. But I’ve told so many people about it so maybe others have done it. But I still love the concept and plan to do it at some point, sharing everything. You know these are these are personal, personal stories that you dug into, but, like I said, it’s it’s a movement and it’s powerful and I just love it and we have so, so many similarities.

Todd Bertsch: 53:05

The fact that you went through positive intelligence that just made my day. You know this has been great. I know our listeners are going to get so much out of this. I know you’ve inspired somebody today. So if it’s just one person, right, that’s all we ask. That’s why we do what we do. That’s why I’m doing this show just to inspire and help people be 1% better, just to make a little shift. That’s all it takes. We’re all capable of it Sometimes just need a little push, a little inspo. So this has been great. Tracy, if somebody wants to follow you, learn more about you and your journey, or maybe even hire you for some business consultation, how can they get in touch with you?

Tracy Jepson: 53:43

Yeah, so the best way is to stop by my website tracyjepsoncom or connect with me on LinkedIn. It is the one place of social media that you will always know is me and not my team managing. I love LinkedIn and I like connecting on there, so LinkedIn is definitely the place to find me and connect with me. But yes, take a visit to my website tracyjepsoncom and you can find all of my podcasts on there, and the Lifepreneur Lounge newsletter is there as well. We have a couple of thousand subscribers to that newsletter, so I do think that the movement is growing. It grew significantly when I threw in sobriety as a talking point, and it’s not all about that, but there’s a lot in there of steps that people can take, and that has really has boomed since I made that sort of shift in that communication, so I would love to see people there.

Todd Bertsch: 54:31

Awesome, interesting. You called it lounge.

Tracy Jepson: 54:34

Yeah, I know it’s play on words, right, it’s a dry, dry lounge.

Todd Bertsch: 54:37

Yeah dry lounge.

Tracy Jepson: 54:39

But it’s a fun one because it’s where business owners are going and hanging out. And I think it’s that balance. It’s that place where they’re going to get business advice and tips, as well as tips about being sober and how it benefits their life. So again, it’s a it’s a good balance inside of there as well.

Todd Bertsch: 54:57

Awesome. Speaking of balance gosh, I wanted to talk. I wanted to ask about the flamingo. When are we going to see the flamingo.

Tracy Jepson: 55:04

So the flamingo is coming.

Tracy Jepson: 55:06

I’m waiting for the website to get its final touches on the rebrand. But yeah, I it was a really funny story that every picture that I would take I looked like I was standing on one leg, and I have a whole series of these photos that every time I would have my photo taken it was one leg. And so a friend and I would joke about it, about how I looked like a flamingo, and I started talking about how they have such grace and that balance is really important and so I thought you know what, how fun is this? I’m going to bring it into kind of the personal side of my branding. So there’s a business logo, but it’s going to be on all of the kind of fun, the balance side of things, where it’s a little less expected from a consultancy and a little bit just more of my fun personality. So you’ll see more of the flamingo coming soon. But it really did. It started out as a hilarious joke and now I see flamingos everywhere, so it’s on the brain and they’re all over the place.

Tracy Jepson: 55:58

So, it’s super fun, but had a lot of fun with the designers on getting that one right, so it was good.

Todd Bertsch: 56:04

That’s cool. That’s always fun to go through Well, I shouldn’t say it’s always fun, depending. I know I’ve been through a lot of rebrands, but we’re a marketing company too. But doing my brand was fun and I got to see some of the inspiration for the rebrand for you, for the Flamingo. So it looks cool. I’m excited for it.

Tracy Jepson: 56:23

I think it’s just unexpected, right? It’s unexpected in business, where everything sometimes is so serious, especially around numbers and accounting, and while all of that is important, again, it is all about having balance in life and I think flamingos do it best.

Todd Bertsch: 56:37

Absolutely, but it’s it’s. It’s classy as professional and it’s got some style to it.

Tracy Jepson: 56:43

It does and the person who told me years ago that I wasn’t allowed to have red in my brand. I yeah, I shouldn’t listen to that. I was like that’s like my favorite color, so it’s back in. I mean, there’s a lot of red brands that are doing it red, definitely.

Todd Bertsch: 56:58

I mean it’s. It’s a powerful color. It has a lot of different emotions to it, but so, anyhow, great stuff. Tracy, thank you so much again for just spending time with us today, sharing, putting it all out there on the table. I am so happy for you, excited for you, and I can’t wait for us to just continue this conversation, stay connected and share things that we’re learning. Cause I’m all about the sauna. I bought a portable sauna last year for Christmas and I have it in my gym. I love it. So just spent 15 minutes in it the other day. I’m like, oh my gosh, it’s just meditation, it’s so so anyhow, I want to go down another, another topic, but for another day. Perhaps we have a podcast too. But this was great. I really appreciate it. I hope you have a great rest of your day and we’ll talk soon.

Todd Bertsch: 57:47

Thanks, Todd, thanks for the time. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. You are on your way to growth, transformation and joy. If you find this episode helpful, please like and share with your friends and, by all means, please leave us a review. You can also view the show notes and subscribe to BOLT newsletter newsletter at toddbertsch.com. Remember, real change takes time. Start small and watch that growth take shape.