In today’s episode, I’m joined by Cassandra Britton—entrepreneur, business coach and powerhouse behind The Business Savage. 

Cassandra Britton built a thriving 7-figure brand, trained hundreds of artists, and created massive impact in the beauty industry. But behind the scenes, she knew the business she’d built no longer reflected who she was becoming. In this episode, Cassandra opens up about the bold decisions behind walking away, starting over, and redefining success on her own terms.

Key Takeaways:

• The hidden cost of clinging to what “works” (and how to know when it’s time to walk away)
• What it really looks like to rebuild your business from feminine energy and freedom
• How to build a scalable business that serves your purpose

Cassandra Britton is the founder of The Business Savage, a speaker, former pro athlete, and multi-7-figure entrepreneur. She helps leaders own their voice, scale with purpose, and build businesses rooted in power and presence.

→ @the.business.savage on Instagram
→ The Business Savage Podcast
→ https://www.thebusinesssavage.com

Together, we reflect on the highs and lows of building a brand, the power of listening to your audience, and the importance of aligning your business with your passion and purpose. Tune in now – this conversation is packed with insight, inspiration, and real talk about finding alignment in business and life!

Tired of inconsistent revenue & marketing strategies that leave you overwhelmed? Whether you’re just starting out or ready to scale to multiple 7-figures, book a call with the Embodied Team to see how we can help: http://helpmystrategy.com

_________________________

More ways Embodied Marketing can support you:

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily: All right, we are live. I’m so excited for this conversation and honestly to get to know you better in the conversation. That’s been my experience with the guests. I’m like, I never knew that story. I never knew that about you. So welcome to the show.

Cassandra: Thank you. I’m excited to be here. Excited to have a juicy conversation.

Emily: Yeah. So I thought we’d start with your story and I’d love to go back like even before entrepreneurship. I know you were an athlete and then that was like, that’s a big part of your personality and your journey of like a heavy masculine energy to the feminine. And I know you and I have connected around that before.

So let’s start with your story.

Cassandra: Yeah, beautiful. So I grew up in Canada. I think that surprises and shocks a lot of people. So I always like to start with that and you’ll hear the accent come out throughout the interview. Uh, when I was three years old, I was skating on the ice and it, I was about four years old when my father put me in competitive hockey.

There wasn’t a league for women at the time, obviously four years old. So I was playing with seven year olds. And I remember him literally having to come out on the ice to pick me up to get me off ’cause they’d be, the play would be going from one end to the next. And I was too slow to get to the other end.

So I grew up playing competitive hockey boys hockey, the highest level girls hockey that you can imagine, like imagine six nights a week playing competitive sports. And so that was my entire life. It was all I knew. It was how I created all of my discipline habits and learned self-love and I learned how to be really dedicated to something.

And I learned teamwork and everything that you can imagine. I played hockey throughout university, throughout college, all through high school. Volleyball, basketball, baseball, everything that you can probably imagine under the sun. And so when it came time for me to go to school, it was kind of this natural progression for me to take sports, something related to sports.

I had such a passion in the sports industry. And so I ended up taking sport business management, which was a really great amalgamation of learning how to run sports businesses, Nike sporting goods, things like that, all the way through to professional sport. I graduated that class, one of five women in a class of 80 men, and all of us were climbing for the exact same position with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which is the governing body for the Toronto Maple Leaf, Toronto Raptors, Live Nation, Toronto, Argonauts, and TFC, which is our soccer club.

And so I ended up doing sports sponsorship with them. Fast forward maybe a year, and it was everybody’s dream job except for mine. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Emily: Tell me about that a little. Like, why, why do you hate it? Yeah.

Cassandra: Yeah. I’m not meant to do a nine to five. Yeah. You get that. Mm-hmm. And probably everyone listening to the show can resonate with that.

And someone may argue me with with that comment, but that’s my truth. I just, I’m not meant to do someone else’s nine to five to have somebody else tell me what to do, when I can do it, when I can take time off my set salary that I’m allowed to make, suppressing my ideas. And it, it just didn’t feel like living.

And I remember one day looking at the calendar to book some time off, and I had like two days left and I’m sitting there with a space heater underneath my feet ’cause I’m so cold with a blanket on my lap, sitting in a cubicle, staring out at a go train, coming and going all day. And I’m like, this is not living.

This is not my life. My dad was an entrepreneur. My uncle was a very successful serial entrepreneur throughout his life. That’s a whole other episode. So I had seen what it looks like to bet on yourself and to take those risks. And so maybe I had a little bit of a edge or advantage there, but I just knew that I needed to bet on myself.

And I remember one day sitting with my dad when I was really young. A beautiful sports car drove by and I said, dad, if I’m a doctor one day, can I, can I afford to buy that car? He’s like, maybe if you’re like a plastic surgeon or something really specialized, maybe. And I’m like, well, what if I’m a lawyer, lawyer make a lot of money?

And he’s like, maybe if you marry a lawyer and you’re a doctor, then maybe you guys could have that car in a great life. And I was like, but what if I’m a business owner like you and like Uncle Bob? And he goes, you lit up. And from that moment he’s like, I knew that you were destined to run your own business.

And so fast forward, I left 19 years old. I started my own business in the beauty industry. You’ll hear me outta breath. ’cause I’m 28 weeks pregnant right now.

Emily: Yeah. You need a break.

Cassandra: I was on stage the other week and I’m like, how am I doing this? Um, started my first business. Didn’t know exactly what I was doing.

There’s of course no roadmap to success. It was a lot of fall in your face and figure it out as you go along. But betting on yourself and just knowing that I still would choose this every single day, even through all of the hardships versus having somebody else give me this paycheck and tell me the number that’s gonna be on the front of that and when I can work and where I have to go and what I have to do.

That was not my definition of freedom. And so that led me to a multiple seven figure business in the beauty industry. It went really well. We can tell that story and then Covid shut us down. We weren’t allowed to run any of the services throughout Covid, and so I said, well, what’s next? What does God have in store for me next?

And it took me down the path of coaching and personal development and a lot of the stuff that you talk about and that you do like a really, really beautiful understanding of myself and discovering who I am and a lot of personal development. And that’s led me down the journey of the business savage and impacting other lives and really discovering what my true purpose is that God put me here to do.

Emily: Yeah. So beautiful. I didn’t know you were 19. I don’t think I knew that detail. There you go. We, we were both, I was 19 too pregnant and then had my son at 20. But same like yeah, you’re, you’re kind of told this story. I, at least, I don’t know about you, but I was told go to college and, and check those boxes and maybe even get a job.

And then if you wanna be an entrepreneur you can, but you’ve gotta like earn all that first And I just jumped into entrepreneurship pretty early and ended up leaving college. But you know, at that age, you definitely don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s so fun. Yeah. I mean, some of the best times I look back on like just the figure it out and the excitement of like, it’s working, it’s starting to work or it’s not.

Yeah. I mean, or it’s not, but you’re like, when it does, you’re like, okay, I can do this. Yeah, yeah. Totally. Let’s talk a little bit, I know you recently sold that business, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so you had it for a while. Um, 16 years. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about that business, that process. Yeah.

Cassandra: Of selling or just the process of discovering or just back to, yeah.

Emily: Like

Cassandra: how did you know what business to start at 19? Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t, uh, I had actually nothing to do with the industry of beauty. I was the girl who wore too much makeup underneath my hockey helmet, and I just enjoyed it. It was a creative expression for me, and I loved it, and so it was.

Uh, I don’t even know how I fell upon it, to be honest with you. I probably saw something on Instagram and I knew I was really good with my own makeup and I thought, okay, let’s see. And I took a course with the Canadian Beauty College, became a licensed makeup artist. And so I started doing people’s makeup and realized I was good at it and loved it.

And you know, fast forward when you have business skills and business knowledge, I learned how to turn that into a business. And so that’s how it started. I had a mobile kit and I was traveling around to people’s homes or venues doing weddings, and that took off. And then I realized the specific skill within that that I loved was browse.

And so I was like, well, what’s next? I can only make so much doing weddings. I’m turning down days when I’m getting a request ’cause I’m already booked on a wedding, so this has a cap. And unless I train a whole bunch of other artists, which I also did, and there’s pros and cons to doing that, it was really hard to scale.

And so I said, I need a service that’s more lucrative. And so I got into permanent makeup, 700 to a thousand dollars a head to do permanent makeup, and I was banging out four or five a day. By the time it ended up taking off, I got really good, developed a signature technique. A lot of people were reaching out, how do I learn your technique?

How do I, how do I do this? And so I realized, okay, I wanna start teaching. And so I created a training academy, and then that took off, and that started doing really well, $5,500 to take the course. And it was a three day course. So that’s where a lot of it kind of took off. And as you elevate in any business, the next question we ask ourselves is, well, how do I scale this?

Is this scalable? How do I scale this? How do I remove myself from all the little nitty gritty things that are bogging down my time so that I can now do the next thing? Like where, where’s the next version of Cassandra that’s needed? And so that’s what ended up really scaling it. But if I’m being really honest with you, before the Covid thing happened, it was a little bit of a blessing, I think, for a lot of us, because I had lost my passion.

I had completely lost my passion for it. I wanted to have conversations of depth, and I was having women sit in my chair, whether it was makeup or eyebrows or any beauty service that we were doing. And I’m like, you know, tell me about what you wanna see for today, or tell me what you would like in your eyebrows.

And every single time it was just how they’re ugly, how they’re not this, take away my double chin, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The list went on and I just so badly wanted to help them understand how beautiful that they were. And so I would start having these deeper conversations and I had said to my assistant at the time, before Covid happened.

I’m ready for something else. I thought about real estate for half a minute, but I was like, I’m so ready for something else. I’m feeling confined to these walls. I know I built them and I know I’ve built this, but I’m so ready for like out there in the world. What’s next for me? And so it was almost, you know, a blessing that as it usually is, oh, that happened.

It was like two weeks I think. I sat at home partying, drinking way too much, smoking too much weed, sitting on the couch, sleeping every day during the beginning of covid depressed and like, what am I gonna do? And then this light bulb went off. I’m like this, first of all, this isn’t changing right now.

Like this is gonna be a long time. And second of all, this is a beautiful opportunity to step into my next gift and opportunity. Yeah. It’s

Emily: something new that you wanted. Yeah. Yeah. I love, I love the story of, you know, starting the business. It’s such an example of starting with a passion and something that you’re good at, which was makeup and then just being along for the journey.

Yeah. And I, I feel like so much entrepreneurs. At least in the beginning think they need to have it all figured out and like, where exactly am I going and what’s the plan to get there? And I’m telling you like every single time it doesn’t work out that way. Mm. It is like I started as a virtual assistant.

Mm. Like

Emily: no way did I think I’d have an agency and then be running retreats and all these things. And like that is literally the journey of entrepreneurship. It’s so beautiful. And 10 years from now, I have no idea where I’ll be. It’ll be different. I don’t need to know. Yeah, right. Like that unknown piece of it is that is literally the game.

Yeah. And as you go, you build the experience. And the experience is what tells you, oh, I liked that. I didn’t like that. I’m good at that. Oh, that didn’t work out super well. That felt easy, that felt hard. And then you just create

Cassandra: from that place. Totally. And I think a lot of it too is listening to the audience.

Right? Like listening to, if we were to start talking about branding, which I know is a really big piece of what you do. We will follow our passion and we can talk about like Iki guy for a second. We follow our passion and what we’re good at and what the world needs and where there’s an opportunity to make money.

But as we grow, your audience will really tell you by, if we pay attention to what they’re asking us, what do people come to you all the time for? What are people asking you? Hey, could you help me with this? And if you start to really listen, that’s what helped position me to keep Nisan and narrowing down to where I am right now today, which as you said, who knows where that’ll be in two years from now, is me listening to the most common questions and problems that people were coming to me for.

So if they’re thinking that I’m an authority in that figure, and they’re looking up to me in this space, is that something I’m passionate about? Is there an opportunity for me to make money? ’cause I already know there’s a demand and a need. And so that just kind of kept on feeding every new service, every new offer, every new program, every new retreat, you create an offer because you hear from your audience where there’s a need and you’re like, huh.

And that’s one of the cool things about entrepreneurship is we get to go, I wanna create that, I wanna birth that, I wanna bring that to life,

Emily: right? It’s that beautiful combination of what they need. What they think they want usually and what you know they need. And then what your na, your gifts, what you’re naturally good at, what you like doing, what you’re passionate about.

It’s like that blend of the two is, is absolutely where the magic happens. For sure.

Cassandra: Yeah. Which I think it’s really important too, to note. It’s not necessarily just about what they’re asking you, but you definitely have to be passionate about, one of my clients right now is pivoting. She’s a successful coffee shop owner and she’s pivoting out of that into helping other people start coffee shops and brand them and market to them on content and everything related to that.

But when I ask her like, what are you really excited about? She says that, but then I’m like, well, what’s the offer that we’re creating? And she’s like, I wanna help people with time management, like systems in their business, like just business owners in general. I’m like, why? You’re passionate about this.

You built a really successful business doing that. You wanna help other coffee shop business owners. You like the content more than the time management stuff. Why are you, well, I just figure that, you know, there’s maybe a better opportunity or this, that and the other thing. It’s like, no, we do really have to listen to your passion and your calling as well.

Emily: Yeah. And I think if you can catch that because it’s, it’s sometimes you can miss where you’re telling yourself you have to do something because you saw somebody else do it or somebody said something and like, catch that moment where there’s that resistance, right. And, and be like, okay, wait, let me pause and think about this more.

Because like, that is also the reality of entrepreneurship is like you make the rules. Mm. And so, yes, you want to obviously meet your audience where they’re at with what they want and they need. That’s very important. We’re here to serve our customers at the end of the day in a business. But I think especially for, for beginning entrepreneurs, it can get so loud in your head with the noise of what you should be doing and like what works today that they lose track of that.

Permission to just be like, play. Okay. What? Yeah, what’s, what comes easy for me? Like what could I do all day long that doesn’t feel like work? And, and really that passion and I’ll share a quick story ’cause it’s top of my mind. I just got back from Joe Dispenza. I know we talked on Instagram about it. And like middle of the week, my husband was there with me and I said, he is obsessed with what he does.

Like he runs these events and they’re, you know, 14 hour days and we go out, do a walking meditation on the beach. He doesn’t have to be there. He’s there walking among the 2000 people. You know, like he’s obsessed with what he does. And I was like, look at Elon Musk. Look at Alex or Moey. Look at anybody who’s creating not just success for them.

Yes. But it’s no longer about that. Like they are in their life purpose. Mm. And they have found and followed. What they love and are so passionate about and built a business around that. And that is so magnetic and so impactful when, you know, Joe Depen, I swear he probably spends majority of his day looking at scientific research of meditation and talking to scientists and like, he just loves it.

It’s not, it’s not even a business to him.

Mm-hmm.

Emily: I think that that is the one of the most powerful places you can, you can try to be in. Yeah. As a business owner.

Cassandra: Yeah. I could not agree more. Could not agree more. And I think a lot of people don’t always find that, and they will put, how can I make money in front of what lights me the hell up every single day?

And it, it is a true blessing and a true gift when I, I totally hear you with all of those really successful people. I always hear them say that and like, we can pivot to talk a smidge about masculine and feminine because some of those people that you just named. You know, they talk so much about hustle, but to them it’s not hustle to them, it’s okay if they’re working 14, 15, 16 hour days ’cause it doesn’t feel like work.

And they integrate it into their lives with their wives, with their kids, with everything that they do and the way that they live that works for them. Whereas on the other end of the spectrum, we have some of these like super woowoo people that are like, no, you need to rest. You shouldn’t be working, you shouldn’t be.

Well what if that is rest to them? What if that is where they thrive?

Emily: Yeah. Like that was so top of mind because I think that we’ve, we have been in a space right now where we’ve swung really far to the other side. Yeah. Of of anti, I don’t wanna call it hustle ’cause it’s not hustle, but like that is the perception of it, right.

Is like you’re lacking a balance and you need to do more of nothing. And, and I get it, but I think I’ve even reframed this for myself like in the last week looking at this because exactly like what you’re saying for these people. Who’s to say that’s not their life purpose, that they work 14 hour days.

Mm-hmm.

Emily: Because they are making such a massive impact on society. That that’s what, that’s their, that’s what they’re here for. Mm-hmm. And they’ve built their life around it. And I think it comes down to the energy of the masculine and feminines. Like, are you forcing yourself to work and, and white knuckling it and going about it in that energy of exhaustion and I have to do this to make money.

And, you know, in that place of force, which is the masculine. Mm-hmm. Or are you in a place of, this feels so fun and easy, there’s ease to it and flow, then you’re not out of balance. Mm-hmm. You know? Mm-hmm. If that, if that looks like 14 hour days for you, maybe it’s a season, maybe it’s a year, and I’m sure it ebbs and flows for all of them and we don’t see it.

Right. But. It. Like, there are no rules. And I, like, I keep, I always come back to that. It’s like, who’s to say what is right and wrong there? What if there was no right and wrong? Mm-hmm. And we love to attach because we’re such linear mm-hmm. Thinking beings myself included to like, how much should I work?

What’s the right amount? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That is why people love to know like, what’s your day like and how much do you work? And how much do you spend time doing this? And the reality is we live in cycles. Right? In seasons, it’s not linear. So this is very top of mind because I think that I’ve, at times made working too much wrong because of what you’re, you’re like, am I healed?

Like, you know, I’ve just had this conversation with someone on the podcast of like, am I doing CrossFit too much? Like am I, is this coming from the right place? And kind of analyzing that. And it’s like, okay, if, if the idea is to just be in the present moment and how do you feel in the present moment and are you grounded and.

Present and here, and you know, feeling love and joy.

Yeah.

Cassandra: That’s the goal. Yeah.

Yeah.

Cassandra: I think that there’s just so much comparison that happens and social media has helped us in so many ways and hindered us in others and we take one scroll on social and it’s like you see the complete end of masculine and then you see the complete other end of feminine.

And so you’re constantly like, I should be like that, but I should also be like that. But I have to listen to him, but I have to listen to her. And there’s just so much noise. And just to your point, I think the most safe place is when you can come back to yourself and just ask yourself, am I okay? Like, yeah.

How does that make me feel? Like, am I good? Right? Yeah. Because, and I know you resonate with me on this, it’s something that we’ve connected over is traditionally we come from more of that masculine energy and yes, I found my feminine and she’s amazing and I love her and she’s with me every step that I take.

But also like I thrive a little bit more in chaos and like I threat, which is a feminine energy, but I thrive a little bit more in the masculine like that, that is, there is a reason why that’s probably my more dominant, typical energy and that works really, really well for me and I love it. And so, uh, I just think it’s that invitation for the person to just check in with themselves and ask themselves where, where is the underlying reason of why I am doing this and in pursuit of this?

And does it feel true in an alignment for me?

Emily: Right. I mean, and and that’s a lot of your work now, just like me, is like bringing people back to themselves. Yeah. And really it’s like. You have the answer. Yeah. You, you we’re just conditioned so deeply to think we don’t Right. And to search outside

Cassandra: of ourselves.

Emily: Yeah.

Cassandra: The answer that I’ll give so many of my coaching clients, you probably are similar, that they hate, they just despise, is, I don’t know, what do you think?

Emily: Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Cassandra: How does that feel for you?

Emily: Yeah. Like if you had to come up with the answer, what would it be? Yeah. And then they always have it,

Cassandra: right?

Right. Or they, they just ask wanting an answer. And so many of the questions you just asked, well, what does your day look like? Well, how many pieces of content should I post? Well, how long should the video be? Well, X, Y, z, all these masculine questions. I’m like, I don’t know, dude, do you want the, the video to be a minute?

Does it feel good to talk for a minute and a half?

Emily: Right? What’s the intention behind it? You know, what are we trying to accomplish? We lose ourselves in that. And I mean, I’m guilty of it too, you know? I think it’s when you go into a new. A new space of where there is the unknown. Your brain is like, well, I need, I need known, I need predictability.

I need to be told how long, what to do, how many times, so I get it right and I can create that predictability, like that’s how we’re wired. But. There’s so much magic in in, okay, let’s step back and remember why we’re doing what

Cassandra: we’re doing. Right, right. And also, your version of success and what worked for you is different than mine and what worked for me.

Of course there’s overlap and of course there’s probably 10 things we could both write out and say, sure, you should potentially explore some of these options. But that doesn’t mean it’s like a recipe for success or a fancy formula that you can print and repeat and somebody else can just pick up the manual and it’s like, oh, okay.

This is the bible for a billion dollar brand. Like, that’s not how it works.

Emily: Right,

Cassandra: right.

Emily: There’s principles, but how you get there, it’s like there’s, there’s infinite possibilities. Yeah.

Cassandra: It’s such a gray area, which I love, but so many, this is why I was horrible at science because I was like. But what if we wanted to do it this way?

Like you can’t do it that way. Like this is how it works, this is the science. That’s the formula. And I’m like, I don’t really like formulas. What if I like take that piece out and I do it this way, what’s gonna happen?

Emily: Yeah. And that’s, I mean, that’s the beautiful thing about entrepreneurship and, and is that you get to create the rules.

And I think, yeah, not forgetting that is huge because even outside of your business, it’s like how you wanna market, how you wanna have your offers, how you wanna structure your day, how much you wanna work. Like what if there was no right and wrong? Yeah. What if it’s just what, what you want is the right way?

Yeah.

Cassandra: I think one of the biggest things too with that is just knowing what like freedom feels for you. What does that feel like for you? And that’s such a big question that I don’t think enough people stop and ask themselves in different seasons of their lives. Right now is a beautiful example for me, stepping into motherhood and being a wife.

A chapter that I’ve never explored before. And traditionally being like multiple entrepreneur businesses going at the same time. I always have templates spinning or I don’t feel like I’m. In my power or purpose, it’s just how I am. And now I have this whole new definition of what freedom looks like and feels like for me.

And I’ve had comments after comments from women in my dms since I announced that my pregnancy. And they’re like, oh my God, like you are building an empire. Like what are you gonna do? You, you’re just gonna be a mom now. Like you’re just gonna stay at home and like be a mom. And I’m just, I know you’re laughing ’cause three kids over here and this is when you’ve built your most success.

It’s just like what happened to you? Like what were you taught, shown, and told to believe? To really think that that’s true, right? There’s so much fear.

Emily: Yeah. Like so much do we, do people come from a place of fear or lack?

Yeah.

Emily: And I learned last week that in order to create in the 3D world, there has to be lack because our brain goes, I don’t have that thing.

So now I’m gonna go and get that thing. And that’s how the brain is wired, right? Is like to create from lack to create from fear scarcity. So when you connect beyond that, beyond and into like truth, you don’t have to create from lack. It’s like anything is possible, which is that, which is I can have a reality where I am a mom, I am present, I am a wife, and I have an empire.

And I’ve always known that, but I haven’t been able to describe the how behind it and, and yeah, because we can’t see how that’s possible. And a lot of times for people, what drives them to create is a lack. Like I don’t have that, so I have to go and create it. Right? That’s how we see things in the world.

When my backs up against

Cassandra: the wall, I’ll figure it out. Yeah. Right. That’s so interesting. Yeah. That’s so interesting. I, all I know is that I feel more in my power than I ever have in my life. I feel more aligned, like I’m building and creating for an entirely different purpose. And I’m so excited. I’m excited to have built what I’ve built so that I can pause if I want to for I’ve had, well, how long are you gonna take off?

I’m like, what if I answered you two hours? Would you freak out? Like, what if that was my truth? What if two hours after giving birth, I’ll check my phone and make a sale and continue working? H how long to like create a new offer or get back on a stage? I don’t know. Maybe till I can walk and feel good. I don’t know how long that’s gonna be, a week, a month, I don’t know.

Emily: Right. And you’re, you shouldn’t, you shouldn’t really need to know and let until you get there. Right, right. And then it’s like, okay, now I’m, I’m in the present with the baby and this is what feels good. Yeah. Man, that is, it’s, and I, and I really empathize with people because I’ve been there. It’s like, especially as you get into the more, um, spiritual side of, and even feminine, I remember being like, well give like, okay, gimme the manual.

Like give me the steps on how to accomplish that or the steps on how to feel that way and. There it’s not there. And that’s because of you’re operating from a place in the present moment. Like you don’t know what, how you’re gonna feel after the birth right now. So what’s the point in like spending a bunch of time and energy?

Yeah. Making a huge plan and then feeling like you have to stick to it.

Cassandra: Yeah. Even the birth plan in general, right. Like literally even that process in general, everyone’s like, well, what’s your birth plan? And I’m like, baby’s coming out healthy and I’m surviving. Yeah. That’s the plan. Do I want it to be naturally in water?

Yes, I do. But it’s God’s plan. And so wherever that path takes me to make sure he comes out healthy and I’m good is where we’ll go.

Emily: That’s it. It’s so beautiful. It’s like That’s true. True surrender. Yeah. Here’s the intention. And also I know that I don’t know the best. Right. I’ve never done this before.

And it’s God’s plan, like you said. Yeah. And really learning to, to sink into that and trust that is such a beautiful experience. Yeah.

Cassandra: Yeah. There’s so much surrender in it. Yeah. Recently. A two second story that I think could be relevant for some people, because even an entrepreneur who’s been in business for so long, we still have these thoughts and doubts and scarcity and fear.

And so maybe about, uh, six, seven months ago or so, to make a long story short, a very high ticket client of mine came to me starting a new business idea, every reason to believe that it would be a billion dollar business in a couple of years. All of the track records to prove that. And basically said, I want you to be on my leadership team, like an executive vice president of sponsorships and media, and I want you to run this beside me and have equity in the business and all of these things.

So my brain goes to what an incredible opportunity, you know, a leader that’s five steps ahead of me and, and still a phenomenal way to kind of run my own thing under the leadership of somebody else. And so I stepped into it with an incredibly taunting Lehigh salary and, uh, equity payout. And so I started it and I was two weeks in and I knew it was wrong, but I kept going and starting to let my own business slow down and not creating as much, and not answering as much and pouring into the other.

And a couple more weeks kept on going and wanted to kind of see it out. And it was like a brick wall that just hit me one day to make a long story short, and I bawled my eyes out, called my husband, called my father, the two people whose opinions matter the most to me. My dad’s an entrepreneur and we have a baby on the way.

And it was life changing stability. And I said to my dad that the exact words of, but it’s life changing, stability. And he said, but don’t you bet on yourself like you’ve always bet on yourself since you were 19 years old. You’ve made more money than that. Why do you, and you know, why are you now at a time when your son needs to see you step into that even more?

Why are you now resorting to trying to fall under somebody else’s leadership? Because it’s secure and not as risky? And so I just said, I’m done. I don’t wanna do this anymore. I don’t wanna build your business and your empire, and I believe in you so deeply, but I believe in myself even more. And so I had to walk away from that opportunity.

And I remember the conversation. He’s like, are you crazy? And are you sure? And I was like, I’m so sure. I’ve actually never been more sure.

Emily: Yeah. And you, you knew Oh, probably from the beginning. Yeah. But it’s like, it’s hard. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, we get in those, we let our brain get in and convince us like, this is better and I need this out of a fear.

Cassandra: Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. It was more stepping into motherhood and I was like, well, I don’t know what that will look like and this will be so much security. And yeah, it was tempting. I tried it and it was so unaligned. I, I was forcing myself. It was something as simple as the middle of the day. I wanted to go work from a coffee shop and somebody put a meeting in my calendar and I was just like, it was the signs again of when I went to go book time off and I couldn’t, ’cause I didn’t have enough days off back when I was in pro sport.

It was that same feeling. I was like, oh, somebody else controls my schedule. Somebody else controls what I can and cannot do. I have to report to somebody. I have to tell somebody I’m taking a flight right now, then I’m offline. I don’t, I’m not doing that. Yeah. I’m not doing that. And you probably

Emily: needed that experience for that reminder.

Cassandra: Yeah.

Emily: Like you, you had to go through the month or whatever it was of that just to, just to be reminded of like, oh wait, no, that isn’t actually course correct. Right. That’s not what I want.

Cassandra: Which brings me back to definition of freedom. Like of course there’s a component of money that’s always gonna be in that we need, we need money to survive.

But for me it’s time. It’s how I live my life. The fact that it’s a Tuesday afternoon and I can say yes to you and come be here and decide what I wanna do with the rest of my day. There is no amount of money that you could pay me to take that away.

Emily: I totally agree. I’m the same. Yeah. Yeah. And to be able to have a family in that space.

Yeah. Like the time with the kids and vacations and all of that, just. Pure freedom.

Cassandra: Yeah. I literally just got chills. Yeah. Just thinking about that, like bringing my son into the world and knowing that I don’t have to go back to some job or have somebody to report to. Like, I’m gonna be working on my book and I have the space to do that.

And I’ve stepped into what I’ve built with my brand that I do a lot of speaking. And so that’s like a big thing we hype up for. We prep for it, we fly out, we do a big gig, you get paid a lot of money and then we get to like, have content on the back end of that. But other than that, like I don’t, I don’t have to really do that much right now.

I, I get to be in this season of podcasting and impact and building relationships and being a mom.

Emily: Yeah.

Cassandra: And a present mom and being

Emily: space for that and, and like whatever that brings for you and like literally who knows in a year what you’re gonna be feeling and doing then. And that’s like actually the beautiful part about it too.

Totally. Yeah.

Totally.

Emily: So let’s talk a little bit about, I know we’ve like veered off all these lessons and I love it. Um. Your last business in the 16 years, like, and getting to the point of selling it. Yeah. Just maybe some, anything that comes to mind that you wanna share of like that experience mm-hmm.

And, and kind of how it molded you for the entrepreneur you are today. Mm-hmm. Um, mistakes, lessons and experience that stand out from that first

Cassandra: business. Yeah. Biggest lesson that I learned was to, uh, build a brand that doesn’t revolve just around your face, whether it’s a personal brand or not. And I know I’m in branding right now with the business Savage.

I ask myself every day. I’m like, Ooh, I’m heading down a similar path. Like, does the business Savage really run if you remove Cassandra’s face? Not really. And so that business, CB was in the name, literally my initials and everything was built around the physical tool being in my hand. I was the one who was good at doing the craft.

And so, and I tried to train other people. It wasn’t the same. And I had to come in and fix it and X, Y, z and so. I have, I, I needed that lesson. I need to go, I needed to go through that business, but I’m in this really interesting phase right now where I have an entirely new business idea. And it will not be around the face of Cassandra.

It’ll be something that’s very scalable and something that I create with selling in mind from the very beginning. And so I think one of the things that’s powerful is when you get into business is think about like what is the exit strategy? Is there an exit strategy? What does it look like in five years, 10 years?

Like what are you building for? Are you building something that you’re gonna just run for 25 years and you just want to kind of create your own little space? A lot of people in the beauty industry are like that, right? They wanna do that. So what does that look like for you? And then the second thing is to hire as fast as you possibly can.

The things that you don’t wanna do in order to actually scale. So many people are scared to invest in a team to scale their business, but I am a very firm believer with systems and teams. Same thing, different but same. We can’t really scale without those two things. You are one person. There are only so many hours in a day, and I don’t care how much Alex Hermo you have in your blood, there’s only so much that you can do.

And so. Two biggest things, looking back from that was how do I be a better leader? I wish I had better leadership skills from the beginning to teach people how to grow without me having to control and micromanage them. And then I wish I had a better thought plan to what that exit looked like because I hung on way too long to that business way too long.

I should have let go of it before Covid, but I hung on until December. And so its value went down like crazy because I was building this business alongside that business with no passion over there and resenting it. And it wasn’t worth anything near what it was before Covid.

And

Cassandra: so things to think about for anyone who’s in that position is we do wanna sell it when it’s high, right?

And have the next opportunity in mind. But also when you get into business, what is the five-year plan? What is the tenure plan like? What are you doing it for?

Emily: Right? And so you, you took, I mean, that’s amazing that you took a business that you started. You know where you didn’t know where it was going. And so of course it was revolving around you at the beginning.

It was kind. It was that, figure it out and then you must have successfully removed yourself to be able to sell it from that, which is. Yeah. Yeah. How did you do that process? Like how did you successfully remove yourself from the brand?

Cassandra: Yeah, I think the biggest thing was, um, figuring out all of the pieces that it needed to run.

And slowly, one by one taking, having somebody else take over that, whether it be a system or a person, and like, okay, I’m gonna set this up so that this runs and then I can step away. Okay, now what’s the next thing? Like, what is the next piece of that? So, for example, some physical things, like I had to train makeup artists because we had to say no to bookings.

’cause I was in the States for whatever I was doing, building other things or speaking or whatever. And so we’re saying no to bookings. So now we’re losing money. Okay, that’s a problem. So I need to train artists, but when my artists are going, they’re, people aren’t liking the service they’re requesting Cassandra, they’ll pay more for Cassandra, not even just the skill, but the service and the name and the brand and the reputation and all of these things.

So I had to get really clear on if I had a formula for how I did bridal makeup. What is that formula and how do I teach it to 17 other people so that they can go out and take bookings and I don’t have to do it. That’s a small example. It, you know, times is a hundred and all the different avenues of the business, but like, start with the things that are really weighing you down.

The little things that, even answering emails or all of the little things that you don’t need to be doing where your energy is actually better suited somewhere else. Dan Martel, buy back your time. A great resource for people wanting to do this. And I had to ask myself, well, okay, what are the things right now that if Cassandra’s not there, it turns off, it will not run, it will not work.

And one at a time, I need to replace that as a machine with a framework, a system or a person that can do that so I can remove. And then I just kept on doing that until every piece of the business ran without me. And then I had to emotionally let go, which was the last and longest step for me, was still hanging on to my baby that I built when I was 19.

Emily: Yeah. Yeah. And I wanna, I wanna talk about that and just kind of emphasize what you’re saying. ’cause I, I’m fully removed from the delivery of my company and been through a similar process. Don’t have plans right now to sell it, but took my name out of the brand. And it is, you become where you need to sell the, the method and the process.

And people are now not buying you, but they’re buying the process and then training a team on that, which it’s not as simple. It’s simple, but it’s not as easy as here’s, you know, the 10 steps and here’s the manual. It’s like, how do you think, like the little things when you’re working with a client and really like the values that you carry, the things that you just naturally do, and you’re like, why doesn’t everybody do it that way?

You know, like that, those are the things that I’ve learned. Over the years that you have to train a team on. Mm-hmm. Because, yeah, I can give you the steps, but if you hire someone skilled, they’re gonna know the steps. And it really, a lot of times, especially client work, it comes down to the experience and those little things that you think of naturally.

Mm-hmm. And that’s how you built your business that most people don’t. Otherwise they’d probably have a business. Mm-hmm. You know, that size. And so that’s been my experience is really getting clear on our values as a company and how that, that correlates to clients. Um, like one of ours is we spend, we, we treat our clients’ money as if it was our own.

And that’s how I’ve always, you know, looked at clients. And to me it’s obvious, but I really enforce that with my team and it’s like, okay, was that decision one you would make if that was your own money? And it’s just been something, you know, those values that you can just continually, um, infuse. So I, I have found that the values of the company and not having them be surface level, like we just say this to say it, value on speech.

Yeah, exactly. But like truly that you can reference. Who you hire, who you fire, the decisions that you make like in the day to day all the time. Yeah. And sometimes it takes refinement and then the process has got those like little nuances and those little things taught in it. And then you, anyone can remove themselves.

Mm-hmm. Yep. And I know entrepreneurs oftentimes are like, no, like only I can do it this way. I’ve yet to see that actually be proven. Yeah. Like minus, you know, things like create this podcast. Right, right. No, someone couldn’t come in here and be me. Maybe with ai, maybe we’ll be there in a

few years. Couple years.

Emily: Yeah. But I mean, there are a few very few things that only I can do, but very few. And that’s the way you want it to be. Totally,

Cassandra: yeah. I think that’s the biggest secret it to scaling is to figure out all of those little things. And I promise you, the person who’s listening to this, who thinks, well, I am a control freak and I do everything the best myself.

Keep on thinking that and see how far you get. That was me. A hundred percent. That was me. I thought I was the only one who could do everything right. Including answering the text messages or the emails, or responding to client inquiries. No, I can train you. No, you won’t pick up the call and know how to sell the student on the training course the way that I would.

’cause I have the knowledge in my brain and you don’t, but I can give you a script and I can get really clear on how to handle this. And you’re gonna get better, and you’re gonna get better. And eventually maybe you answer it even better than I do.

Emily: Exactly. And they will. Right? You will find people who do better through, through

Cassandra: the proper leadership too.

And I, I know, um, Dan Martel talks about this a lot and so does Cody Sanchez and they talk about when you’re hiring what to look for and how in that first initial stage, you shouldn’t be telling them what to do, but you actually wanna see what they can bring to you. Hey, this is the goal. This is where we’re trying to get, these are the systems, the tools, the resources that I can give you.

Show me what you wanna do. How do you wanna solve this problem? What do you think I should do? What do you need from me to support you in doing that? And that’ll show you so much more about the type of person and their problem solving skills and how they’ll approach things versus that person who sits there all day long and is like, okay, what’s next?

I crossed it off. What’s next? I crossed it off. What do you need from me? What do you need from me? Because that’s draining. And that is where the entrepreneur’s like, oh, having a team is so exhausting. I spend all my time telling them what to do. I’ve made that mistake.

Emily: Same. Yeah. And thinking that that’s how you had to hire.

And it’s like, no, I mean I Now we hire based off of experience that they have specific experience coming in and values. Yeah. Like I can’t train someone on their values. I’ve learned that, you know, like I can’t change someone in how they show up in terms of what they value as a human. But I can train other things.

Mm-hmm. I can train skills or how we do things in the company. Um, and I think, I mean, I think hiring help, especially in the beginning, I, it’s like so overwhelming because you’re like, well, I don’t have time to train. You’re in that place where it’s like, I’m maxed out. I don’t have time to train people and like explain these things.

And so it’s, that’s where the, it’s easier if I do. It comes in. It’s like, it’s not easier if you do it. It’s easier if you keep doing it. You think it’s easier if you keep doing it because the time to train someone initially feels so overwhelming. Right. And I think a lot of times my advice is like, just do it a little messy.

Right. You don’t have to have this like perfect manual ready for someone when they come in. Mo more than likely your first hire, someone’s gonna come in and you’re gonna be like, please help me.

Mm-hmm.

Emily: Like, at least that was my experience. And do I wish I hired earlier? Yes. But you know, sometimes it’s just the beginning of a business when you don’t know.

Mm-hmm. You wait until it’s like a 9 1 1, I need help. I have no more, you know, capacity. And you’ll figure it out. Yeah. You’ll learn through the experience. You can’t become a good leader without taking the steps to try to be a leader. Mm-hmm. You’re not gonna learn it in the books and the courses, like you’re gonna learn it through making the mistake.

And just like you said, made that mistake. Made that mistake. It’s like we had to learn that in order to become the good leader with the team that runs the company for us. Mm-hmm.

Cassandra: I think the only thing that could potentially help with some of that, no, there doesn’t need to be a huge manual, but I do think that there should be some sort of system or process in place that you work by and not even just.

To consider the hire, but for yourself, like I could give a super small example of a launch if we’re gonna launch a course. Well, there’s steps, there’s a certain number of emails. There’s a certain way we do that. There’s templates for things. If I’m reinventing that wheel with every single launch, that’s exhausting.

No wonder you feel drained. But if I, for the first time I do it, create a system and templates, and this is how many emails and the type of emails and what we say in the emails and how we structure them and all of these things, well then when I launch, again, I just refer back to my templates, my systems, my manual, even if it’s not completed or messy.

And so when somebody comes on board, you say, okay, step one, you’re gonna help with this launch. Here’s the Google Drive, here’s the resources, here’s the systems of how we do that. Go explore that for a week. There’s some trainings in there. I’ve done some loom videos for you. Go watch that and then come back to me in a week and you tell me what you think that we should be doing and what we, what we can improve on.

But at least there’s something there that doesn’t require me to be like, okay.

Emily: Yeah. Launching

Cassandra: from scratch. Here we go.

Emily: Yeah. Every time.

Cassandra: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah. And I think, I mean, even if you’re in that place where you’re so overwhelmed, you’re fir first hire, if they have this skillset can help you make the manual too.

Like if you just a hundred percent get on Zoom and you’re like, this is what I do and one of your first jobs is trim into a process that I can look at, you know, you can, you can do that. And I think, like you’re saying, the faster you hire and get that support, and I think it’s the faster you value your time and energy as a CEO, that, that’s the thing I see with beginning entrepreneurs is they, they get stuck for a very long time in the bootstrap, make it happen through just killing myself basically.

And they don’t actually see the value of their time and energy. And if they put that into higher. Level activity is the impact that would have on growing their business. So, so therefore they stay in this place of doing everything.

Mm-hmm.

Cassandra: It’s the entrepreneur mindset versus the CEO mindset. And CEO by the way, doesn’t have to mean like of some massive Fortune 500 company.

Right. You’re a CEO. I’m a CEO. It can be what it is, but it’s, it’s, to me, it’s a mindset of how we think. I never used to think like a CEO or in my last salon, I don’t know how I did what I did because I was very much entrepreneur mindset. It was like daily thinking rather than big, bigger thinking and how, how do I remove myself?

And so it’s definitely a switch in mindset and a switch in the way that we approach business and thinking, well, what is next?

Emily: Yeah. And, and valuing your time and energy and protecting that like fiercely. Yeah. I know for me, I’m sure for you, I mean, I’m relentless with my time and energy. Mm-hmm. And I say no to a lot.

And I mean, I just had someone who. They were supposed to get a 30 minute call with me as a bonus. They asked for an hour and they’ll sign up. And I was like, I’ll do 45 minutes, like literally that 15 minutes. I was like, yeah, it’s my boundary. You know, that’s like, I am, I am constantly, I mean, our time and our energy is our one limited resource.

Right. And so where we, where you spend it in your day will dictate Yeah. Your growth. Yeah. And, and how far you can take your company and Yeah. Like you shouldn’t be responding to your company and your environment. Like you get to be in the driver’s seat. Mm-hmm. You know? And, and that’s also why you know, each morning, how you start your day and are you in like a reactive place and just reacting to the email and the slack and all the messages?

Or are you like, no, this is how today’s gonna go.

Mm-hmm.

Emily: Like, I am in charge here.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassandra: Creating the reality around that. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a totally different way of thinking. In a completely different way going into your day, even knowing like, what is the one main thing I’m gonna create today or get out of it, and what does everything else around that have to support and look like in order for that to be true?

So the question I ask myself all the time is, what has to be true in order for that to happen? If I wanna make a million dollars this month, okay. Forward thinking, backward planning, what has to be true? Well, if Cassandra is responding to 75 emails every day, it’s probably not gonna be true.

Emily: Yeah, right.

That’s a great question. I love that. Just to like evaluate and give yourself perspective on where you’re spending your time.

Cassandra: Yeah. And then that typical audit’s like a, a great place for people to start. ’cause oftentimes that can look different for every single person. Like, what’s my first hire? Or where do I start?

Like where do I scale? And I think if you are so clear on where you’re spending your time, and I have this rule of like, I’ve done it three times, delegate. Like if I’ve have, if I have had to do something more than three times. There’s enough like I, it’s enough of me doing that. There’s certain things that we have to do in our businesses that truly do revolve around your thoughts and the way that you think.

My thoughts and the way that I think no one else can get up on a stage and give a keynote. No one else can be sitting in this chair right now having this conversation with you as part of my team. But there’s a lot happening right now for both of us that’s still growing and moving the needle while we’re sitting here doing less.

Emily: I mean, the whole company is running, right? Yeah. Like while we sit here, which is how it should be. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, okay, so you’re back to your story on your company. What held you on for so long? You said, I should have sold it before Covid and I didn’t. And like emotionally letting it go. Yeah. Talk to me about that.

Cassandra: Yeah. That was just, that was a ego for sure. There was a lot of ego involved. There was a identity that I was holding myself to that I thought my identity was the beauty girl, and so many people knew me as that and reached out to me as that. There’s probably still a little bit of fear of what happens financially when that is completely gone.

Hmm. There’s probably still a little bit of fear in there. Uh, a little bit of, is it, is it failing? Am I giving up on these people? Am I giving up on my clients? Am I giving up on my team? Am I turning my back on them? Am I got some of those comments? I got some of those comments from clients. I got some of those comments from staff.

I got some of those comments from my own family. Like, what? But you built that for 16 years. Why would you turn your back on it? And so it took me a long time of processing all of those thoughts and allowing those things to sit with me to realize I, I know you understand and appreciate this. I’m a very firm believer that God puts us on this planet for.

A purpose for you are here to do something, to create something, to be something, to shift something. Everyone has a purpose. And I think that our lives will take us in these beautiful paths and these beautiful journeys to figure out what that is. I don’t think any baby wakes up and goes, this is what I’m doing for the rest of my life.

This is why God put me here. And I know that that was part of my path. And so there was a little bit of fear of like fully cutting the cord of like that initial season of my identity and actually letting go fully to step into what God put me here to create. And so if I really kind of get down to the depths of it, there was still fear of stepping into this new version of myself fully and fully letting go of that identity in that chapter.

And am I ready for that?

Emily: Yeah. Makes total sense. I mean, you question yourself and it’s like, yeah, what’s the right, what’s the right decision? And we want that. Our brains, of course, want that kind of guarantee that that’s the right move. Did you have like a moment where you knew or did just an opportunity kind of arise to sell it?

Cassandra: I don’t, no. I don’t know if there was one moment, right? Like I said, since before Covid, I can remember saying to my assistant, this needs to go, like something else needs to shift. I remember the first time I stepped foot in Austin, it was this whole new energy I was, I was like, oh my gosh, something is here for me.

So it was just micro moments over the last five years and I started this business alongside that and it was just micro moments of going to do a wedding and I’m like, this doesn’t feel the same or answering climbing. I’m like, I don’t wanna be doing this, whatever it was. And it just kept on building. I knew, I knew the whole time.

I just was hanging on.

Emily: You were just in the process. Yeah, yeah. Of letting it go. Yeah.

Cassandra: I was grieving it while it was happening and I would go in and I would cry ’cause I didn’t wanna be there. But then I’d cry when I left. ’cause I was so proud of myself for what I had built, but also like embarrassed and ashamed because I was like, how can you turn your back on this?

What are you doing? And then I’d go back and I’d have an amazing week and great conversations and things would go so well. And I’m like, you can do this, you can do both. And I would convince myself, and it was this whole process and I’m like, it’s not even the time and just someone calling you to say that there’s a flood or whatever it is.

It’s not even that. It was the energy that it took up in my brain that was stopping me from fully stepping into what I’m doing. And you know what happened the second I made the decision and finally did what I did, I got pregnant.

Emily: Wow. Of course. You need to create the space for that next chapter. Yeah.

That’s beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. I remember the first time I met you was when we went to the Cody Sanchez event and you asked the question, the question, you got to ask a question to Cody and you were wrestling with, do I sell the business? You know, it’s successful, but you know, I’m not really happy in it. And you asked that question and so like that was maybe a year ago, maybe not.

You were still really

Cassandra: wrestling with it. Yeah, and it, it started way before that. So it was, and at that point it had already started to do this and it’s worth and in its value because I wasn’t there and all of these types of things. And then I had to kinda like save it to get it back to a place where I’m like, okay, either I just close the doors or I figure out how I want to do this strategically because that’s where it was.

I knew I didn’t wanna do it anymore. Yeah, but I didn’t know how to let go. You do the

Emily: timing. That makes sense. I mean, if it, yeah, I could see how it’s like telling yourself, well I wanna get it back to like its highest point before I sell it. And I had

Cassandra: to realize that that wasn’t gonna happen. And

Emily: yeah, let the

Cassandra: highest point was the highest point and everything now is gonna be down from that highest point because I wasn’t ready to go back and do what I was doing when it was at its highest point.

I was excited about what I was building here and what had been already birthed and created here. Yeah. There was no part of me that was gonna go back and put in the work that it needed to get to where it was. Yeah. And so, and I

Emily: bet if you go back to like around Covid, if, if someone told you like, Hey, the right thing is to sell this business right now.

Yeah. You probably still wouldn’t have done it. Probably not. You needed to go through the whole process. Probably not.

Cassandra: And the evaluation of it then.

Emily: Woo.

Cassandra: Yeah. Yeah. Totally different. Totally different, but I probably wouldn’t have,

Emily: you probably wouldn’t have, you needed to go through that journey and like, and who even knows also what that journey is gonna lead to next?

Like you, maybe there’s pieces of the last four years that you needed for what’s next

Yeah.

Emily: In the current company. Yeah.

Cassandra: I mean, every piece of it taught me so much. Of course, yeah. As it always does. So, and

Emily: not even Yeah. About yourself too. Yeah. I mean, in your leadership and your decision making and trusting yourself, it’s like you need that, we need those journeys.

And I feel like a lot of people talk about the end, like, I sold my business. Right. And that’s the thing that gets focused on as the main piece. But like that messy in between, in that journey and that process is actually where a lot of the gold is. Mm-hmm.

Cassandra: Yeah. Depending, depending on what it is. I mean, yes.

But depending on what it is. And now, like I said, this, this next idea that I have, it’s, it’s, um, you think like this. Very much so. But I think a lot of entrepreneurs, when they’re starting, they don’t, it’s. It’s so different than the way I built my first few businesses and it’s, it’s even different than the way I built this one.

It’s much more along the idea of creating it right from the beginning with the idea of being sold and me not being the face of it. And like, I’m a, I’m a piece of it. I’m a leader in it, but I also, I’m gonna hire all the right people right away to be in their roles from the beginning. ’cause now I can afford to do that and it’s going to solve a very large problem that doesn’t need me in any of it.

I’m gonna create something that can work without me needing to be on a physical coaching call on a physical stage, physically doing somebody’s service. It runs without me.

Emily: And it’s like all your experience up until now. Yeah. It gave you the ability to come up with this idea and execute that. Yeah. That’s incredible.

Cassandra: Yeah.

Emily: I’m excited to, to watch that unfold.

Cassandra: Yeah. It’ll be a long process for sure. It’s just in the early stages. Yeah. But. I’m excited about it. ’cause I think, I felt like I was still stuck in still thinking small. And everyone has a different version of that. Some people look up at me and they’re like, you’re the biggest thinker I know.

And I’m like, well, it depends on what room you’re in.

Emily: A hundred percent agree. And when I went to, I went to Cody Sanchez’s book launch and that was one of the things I said when I left is like, man, I need to make sure I get into the room with people who are way ahead of me, which gets harder as you grow.

You oftentimes find yourself as, again, people are like, you know, you made it. Mm-hmm. And it’s like, yeah, but if I put myself in a room with Cody, right? Like, no, I’m not thinking big enough and thinking about investing and having portfolios and like that’s the next iteration of, of growth. You know, I’ve taken my current business to this place and yeah, I, I agree.

You have to really push yourself though to get, ’cause it’s also easy to get comfortable when you have everything that you. Wanted, right? And then you’re also get into, okay, why am I doing this? What’s the bigger impact? Like, you, you get to that, I don’t know if you’ve had this experience, but like, once I built my business to seven figures, it was like, all right, well I have way more than I ever could have imagined.

Like the travel, the house, whatever. So how do I still push my comfort level mm-hmm. And, and not just stay comfortable in this great place. Mm-hmm. And challenge myself. ’cause the beginning phase is like, you’re constantly being challenged. You’re like, oh my gosh, $5,000. You know, like, it’s like the next level.

And so I think, um, yeah, push putting yourself in rooms with people who are thinking way bigger than you. And that’s, I mean, bet Cody would feel like that if she’s in a room with Elon, right? Like, and her billionaire investor friends. Like, there’s always people who have achieved. You know, I don’t wanna even put, make it about achievements and money.

It’s, it’s not about that. It’s not like, let me put myself in a room with people who make more money than me. It’s bigger thinking. It’s impact. Yeah. And it’s bigger. It’s bigger thinking, thinking and, and, and pushing the edge of what you believe today is possible. Right. And that’s the thing is like, we don’t know what we don’t know.

Right. And so if we don’t put ourself in situations where we can get a different perspective and challenge that, and then you find those moments where you’re like, Ooh, I really like that.

Mm-hmm. Like

Emily: I looked at, you know, Joda spends it last week and I’m like, an event with 2000 people, they’re all paying $2,500 a ticket, like $5 million event.

Mm-hmm. Like imagine mm-hmm. The impact. And it just being at that event, not even for the purpose of business growth, gave me a perspective of what could be a possible, if I wanted it to be with events. Mm-hmm. So I think, yeah, it’s super important and, and as you grow. What’s the impact? Like what’s the bigger thing that you’re here for?

Way beyond money and I think it’s in the beginning and it’s hard to look at that because you need to make money. It’s a need.

Mm-hmm.

Emily: You’ve gotta be able to pay the bills, cover the expenses, and have enough in the bank. And then it’s like, okay, now I. What are we doing it for?

Mm-hmm.

Emily: What’s the impact that you’re here to have?

Yeah. And then money becomes a byproduct.

Yeah.

Cassandra: I could not like double click or echo on that. More like, I honestly feel like there’s one main thing for people to take away from this episode over all of the things we’ve talked about. It’s simply that, and I understand that not everyone has $2,500 to drop on a Joe Dispenza retreat the way that you and I have access to.

And so I understand that, but I also think that they use it as an excuse to not do it in other ways. Start listening to the podcast. Don’t listen to the podcast of the person who hasn’t done that yet, because she’s cute and it’s fun and, and she talks about gossip and random boy crap and whatever the hell else.

I don’t get it. I don’t get it. And it comes back to how do you live your life and where do you give your time? Okay. You wanna think like Alex Hermo, you wanna think like Cody Sanchez? You wanna think like do Joe Dispenza and all of these people that are, you’re like, oh my gosh, imagine the only difference between them and you is they went from dreaming to deciding.

That’s it.

Emily: And they became the person that they needed to be to make that a reality.

Cassandra: Right? And so maybe you don’t have the money to go to their retreat yet. Maybe you don’t have the money to join their coaching program yet. Maybe. Maybe, maybe. But they probably have a book and they probably have a podcast and they probably bid on a lot of podcasts.

And you can probably be very strategic about what you allow into your brain and what you don’t. And that’s why friends, friendships like this and conversations like this, I value so much because it’ll challenge you to the next level and keep you and remind you of some things when you’re slipping. But, and this is not meant to sound egotistical or mean or rude.

I don’t have conversations like this with people that aren’t at my level. I won’t ask someone for advice who hasn’t done what I’m trying to do, or in and around that space. Like I’m not gonna ask my mom how to build a business. I’ll ask her how to bake an apple pie, love her to death, and she’s awesome at that.

Don’t eat my apple pie, eat my mom’s. But don’t ask people for advice who haven’t done the things that you’re trying to do. And if you wanna be inspired, stretch yourself. Like truly stretch yourself to your capacity. So many people, oh, I wish, I wish I could afford your program. I wish I could do that. I wish I could do that.

The only difference between me and you is that I went from dreaming to deciding of how I was gonna make that my reality. I had a really cool opportunity to being in, uh, Cody’s YouTube video a couple of weeks ago. She had this really cool thing that she did on the street. I saw that as a challenge. Yeah.

Yeah. And it was an awesome opportunity. So we’re sitting at lunch and I’m sitting with cider, and she’s like, so tell me about your business. Tell me about what you do. And I’m telling her, she’s like, that’s really cool. She’s like, that’s dope. I love that. So what’s next? Like couldn’t. Like that’s cool, but also I could care less.

Like that doesn’t impress me, right. At her level. It’s like, what’s next? And I’m like, well, and you know, and she’s like, cool. So yeah. So what’s actually next? How are you selling it? How are you exiting it? What happens if you can’t show up in the camera? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I literally looked at her and I was like, I don’t, no.

And she’s like, you should probably figure that out.

Emily: I love it. Yeah. Is that how the idea came after that or, yeah. Oh,

Cassandra: so

Emily: that’s where this new idea came from, is after that lunch with her. Wow. Yeah. ’cause

Cassandra: I went home and I told my husband, I’m like, I’m still thinking small. He’s like, but you’ve done this and you’ve done this, and you’ve got this happening and this happening.

And I was like, yes. But what do those all have in common? I need to be there. To have them all done. I have all these opportunities of speaking. I love it. It is my future in, in some degree, and I could go on with all of these different things. I don’t wanna create another program. I don’t wanna create another offer.

I don’t wanna create another funnel. I don’t wanna create any of these other things that need whatever it is for me to be a piece of, I want an entirely different business model that if I wanted to just pop out 10 babies and get to do only what I love, if I woke up every single day and I only did exactly what I love, what would that be?

And so I really sat and started thinking about it and I’m like, I wanna build a business in an entirely new way than what I’ve ever done before. And I have no fucking idea how I’m gonna do it, but I’m gonna do it because that’s, that’s my next step. That’s my next level.

Emily: I love this. I, okay, I wanna dig into this because I feel like.

One of the key things here for you and that question of what’s next and how you arrived at whatever is next is you sat with what do I, what do I wanna create? Yeah. What’s important to me? Like you came back to yourself And I wanna point that out because I think that people will skip that step and they’ll go, what’s next?

And then they’ll fill in what they think because they saw somebody else do it or it’s for the money or something. And that’s the mistake that you make. And, and because it’s not about the chasing what’s next. That’s not what we’re saying here of just keep chasing the next thing and chasing the next thing and chasing the next thing.

No, it’s about saying, let me think. So big on a dream that the yesterday me would’ve looked at my me and said, that’s fucking crazy. Mm-hmm. Like there’s no way that could happen. And the today you is gonna go, but what if? Right. And I think that is like such an important, because. There is also entrepreneurs who are running from something and will constantly chase what’s next and never be fulfilled.

So two things. First, you gotta find full fulfillment in the present moment. And at the same time you can dream and bring the impossible to reality, but you have to know where the intention is coming from and you paused versus saying, lemme look at what Cody’s building and like maybe I’ll, you know, buy some boring businesses and do what she said to do because she’s making a lot of money.

Like, that’s the difference that I think is just like so important to point out because we’re not saying just chase for the sake of chasing. Mm-hmm. We’re saying think big, because again, we don’t know what we don’t know. Yeah. You only know what you have created as of today.

Mm-hmm.

Emily: And challenge that.

Mm-hmm. And look at what, like those moments that you go. Like, if you would’ve asked me, you know, if I really thought about it, an event of 2000 people, I’d be like, oh, that’d be cool one day, but probably not. I could do that. Right. Or have the level of impact that Joe Dispenza has or Cody Sanchez has. And it’s like, well, why can’t I do that?

There’s room for me. And, and that’s what we’re saying, so. Mm-hmm. I just think it’s important to make sure people don’t just chase, because they’re never fulfilled, they’re never happy. Like, I also bet if you lost everything today, but had your husband and your new baby coming and who you are today, you’d be fine.

A

Cassandra: hundred percent.

Emily: And me too. Like, I could lose it all. Like Yeah, it would suck a little bit. You know, I’m sure I’d be bummed about the luxuries I have, but my kids, my husband, who I am today mm-hmm.

And,

Emily: and feeling so good about how I show up in the world, I’d be fine.

Cassandra: You also have the skillset that you could do it all over again.

Right. And, and the knowledge now and experience to do it in an entirely different and faster way. Right. So there’s, I’ve had that conversation before, like, what would happen if, what happens if I taste take this risk and like we lose it all, like what’s gonna happen? He’s like, then we build again. He’s a business person too, right?

So that’s a beautiful thing is like to have those conversations. So somebody who challenges me, but yeah, I, I mean this, this creation and I will share when I’m ready. Like it’s, it’s a brand new, just like full, full alignment of yes, it came from the idea of that version of me and what needs to be true to make that possible exists within me, but she doesn’t exist yet.

Like there is so much I don’t know how to do that. And so that’s a true edge, like that is a true edge, but it’s also coming from a place of, I don’t wanna keep building on the way that I’ve been building. With now this new chapter of my life. And so when I talk to women who say, you’re gonna slow down because of being a mom.

Now, I will argue you in my personal experience that’s been true so far for me, is that it’s created an entirely new way of thinking. For me, I wanna be a present mom and I wanna show him what’s possible, and I wanna be him, and I want him to travel the world with me while I’m doing all of this. So go ahead, tell me.

I’ll never take a trip ever again. He’s coming with me like, I don’t care what your limitations and your beliefs are, they’re not mine, but how I’m gonna build this business is also because I want it to set him up. I want him to learn how to do this in a way that’s not hard and every day and on a hamster wheel and grinding or the same thing over and over again, or needing to sell more or whatever it is.

And it’s more impact. I can make so much more impact if I approach things from a way that I’ve never done it before. And so it requires a version of me that I am not yet. That I need to step into in so many different ways. And that’s exciting.

Emily: Yeah. I mean, business and life is the, the biggest personal development journey we can go on.

That’s the, like my favorite part about it is, yeah, you have to become a different person to have that future reality. And like, you know, when, when I hear people like, well, I, why don’t I, like, I don’t have this business yet. I don’t have this level of money yet, or whatever. It’s like, well, you’re not the person yet who can have that.

Mm-hmm.

Emily: Like, would they be, you know, like you said, consuming gossip and trash. Would they be spending time, you know, scrolling an hour on social media in the morning? Like really, like we’re not victims.

Cassandra: Yeah.

Emily: Like we are in control of, we are the full creator of our reality. And so when people are like, well, I don’t, I don’t like, it didn’t work out for me like it did you, or, or those things, it’s like.

I’m sorry you feel that way. And that’s literally the thing stopping you from having this success. ‘

Cassandra: cause you believe that. Yeah.

Emily: Like that’s the only thing wrong with you is that you believe that.

Cassandra: Yeah. The, the first indicator, and often we know this before, like the first indicator is like, well why? Like, when someone’s like, well why did you do that?

Or, well, what do you mean? Like any of that? I’m like, I’m, I am exiting this conversation right now. I’m sorry, I’m just leaving. Um, two things I, I always say around this that people will argue is like, well, why don’t you have a television? Like you don’t, like sports are on, or this is on this, this is on. Why are you not watching tv?

I don’t have a TV because I choose to spend my time in other ways and I’m not judging you. If you do, and maybe there’s things you wanna watch, and I’ll put on a Netflix move every now and then when my husband and I wanna relax. But I choose to spend my time in different ways. That’s just not how my brain works.

And so with social media, I say this and people argue me all the time, why are you following all of these people that you’re following? Like ask yourself that every time they pop up for me, I’m in a season right now of like unfollowing, and it’s like, oh, ’cause she was a client. Okay, well first of all, she’s not even a client anymore.

That’s done. You don’t need to follow her just so you can root her on like she’s not inspiring you. She’s not doing what you wanna do. And watching what you’re watching right now is not fueling me. So why am I following you still? I love you. I think you’re awesome. I don’t need this to get to my next level.

You don’t need to follow your mom. Like you don’t need to follow your ex-best friend from high school. You don’t need to be following all of these people. It’s not that you don’t love them. If it’s a business account and you’re trying to grow, and I’m trying to use that. If I do scroll for an hour in the morning, I want it to be inspirational.

I want it to be educational. I want it to light me up. I want it to show me what’s possible. I don’t want it to be like sad or whatever comparison, whatever, whatever. All of the stupid little shit that you’re like, ha, it was funny. I’m gonna send it to 16 people. Like, cool, and I’m a mom right now. We’re gonna be so like, I am interested in a lot of different stuff and I’m kind of getting caught in that because I’m like, oh, do I need that stroller?

Do I need that stroller? Yeah. So there’s that going on. But for the most part, like that is such a be that’s a perfect place, like perfect opportunity. I can look at someone’s social media and I’m, I can say to them, well, show me who you’re following. I can tell you why your brain is filled with the thoughts and the beliefs that it’s filled with.

Emily: Yeah. People do not realize, I mean, the noise we take in.

Cassandra: Just from social. Yeah, from social alone. From social alone.

Emily: And I, I play with all the time, like going off of it completely. And like, I’ve actually recently had that conversation of like, if I look at my future self five years from now, would she even be on social media?

And I don’t know the answer to that.

Mm-hmm.

Emily: Like, I don’t, I I think there’s a, there’s an answer to that of No. Like, completely not. Yeah. And so, um, yeah. That, that you don’t realize I did that too. I was like last year following like 700 people. I think I went down to like 200, like I just unfollowed anybody that I didn’t really know, like Yeah.

That I’m not connected to. I met you

Cassandra: once at an event, right. And you were like, oh, follow me. And I felt bad, so I followed you back. Yeah. And then six months later I’m like, who is this?

Emily: Yeah. And it’s just so much noise. I mean, that’s noise. Like your brain can only take in so much. Right. So why let it take that in?

Right. And. You know, I think I wanna point this out too, of like, you don’t have to always be like productive and consuming like business, you know, trainings and whatnot. I think it comes down to intention. And when you consume, are you completely checked out and unconscious and just like in that doom scroll, or is whatever you’re consuming intentional.

If it’s a Netflix movie that is, you know, trash TV or whatever, who cares? But is it intentional, right? Like are you, are you being present to what you’re doing? And I think that takes a lot of energy. Mm-hmm. It’s easier to go subconscious. Mm-hmm. And to just let your environment kind of be what dictates how your day goes.

I think that’s majority of how people live. Mm-hmm. Is like they wake up and. They check their phones and like all of a sudden you’re reacting. You’re reacting. You’re reacting to the text messages. Oh, that message that someone sent me made me feel this way. That email from the client made me mad. Now I’m thinking about it two hours later while I’m with my kids.

Like that’s the piece that it takes every single day, and I’m not perfect at it. Like, heck no. Do I find myself in situations where I’m like, man, like walked past my phone in the morning, picked it up and started scrolling and wish I didn’t do that. Okay, we’ll do better next time. Right? Right. Catch yourself in it.

It’s awareness too. I think that awareness and that intention is, that’s it. It’s like you now become the creator Mm of your day. Mm. And of where your time and energy is going, and now you get to choose the thoughts, the beliefs, and what you know is, is coming in. There’s no right and wrong. Like I’m sure there’s some really smart people who watch whatever those, I don’t watch the reality shows, but like I know a lot of friends who watch like, I don’t know, love is blind or whatever.

Is it intentional, right? Like I’m doing this for the purpose of entertainment and I’m being intentional, okay?

Mm-hmm.

Emily: Most of the time, I think probably 95% plus of people live in a re reacting to the environment around them versus being present. Mm-hmm.

Cassandra: That’s the reason why they call it the 1%. Yeah.

There’s a reason I laugh, uh, when I put up a story poll. If you put it in the bottom right hand corner of your story, like for a poll, like sometimes if I’m not thinking or depending on the photo, like that’s just where it looks best and it’ll always get so many more votes because the people that are like looking through stories, right?

Wow.

Cassandra: And I think to myself, ’cause it’s true. Try it. Yeah, it’s true. And I laugh because I’m like, dang, there are so many people on autopilot just going through their stories like this. And the bottom right hand part of their phone is where they click. And so they’re accidentally voting on polls all the time.

And sometimes our team will message ’em like, Hey, thanks for voting on the poll. Did you want information about blah, blah, blah blah. Sorry, I clicked by accident. I’m like, I know you did.

Yeah.

Cassandra: I, ’cause you’re not even a business owner like I know you did Right. Or whatever it is. Wow. But dang the number of people that are on that, like autopilot and just like the attention, like more anymore dopamine, dopamine, dopamine.

Yeah. I don’t even know what I voted on. Yeah. I’m like, cool.

Emily: Yeah, I’m gonna try that. That’s so funny. But yeah, I, I mean, and I have to be so intentional with social media. I don’t know about you, but I mean, because it’s literally like our phones are created to be that addiction machine. Mm-hmm. And dopamine machine.

And um, it’s something I think about a lot. Like, would that future person even have any social media be putting my kids on social media

Cassandra: at all? I don’t know. Yeah. And the season that I’m coming into, again, it’s a big thought of mine right now. I’m more intentional than I ever have been with my phone. And, uh, my partner is building an empire and he’s on the verge of a massive breakthrough.

And so it’s glued to his hand 24 7 from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed, to the point where a couple of very large fights of driving and he’s on his phone and I’m like, Hey, just pull over. I’ll drive, I’ll drive. You can work if you need to. Church now pulling it out like places that he never used to before and he hates it, but he’s so addicted to what he’s doing and what he’s building and it’s, we’ve had to have some conversations.

Like, there is a very hard stop for me. I don’t care what’s going on in your world and what’s going on in your business and what, who you need to get back to because they’re doing this. I don’t give a shit when I’m in the vehicle with you and this child, whether it’s in my belly or it’s in the back, that is a hard rule for me.

That phone is down and so he’s very respectful of that, but. Yeah. Like, it can, it can suck you up. And he’s not scrolling social media. He’s not even on it. He’s building. Yeah, he’s working. He’s he’s building. Yeah. And he’s

Emily: in that season, which, yeah. Again, there’s no right or wrong, it’s just, is it intentional?

Is Yeah. What your best self wants. Yeah. Or

Cassandra: even still, you know, sometimes I’ll, I’ll ask him a question and five minutes later what, and I’m like, oh, wow, baby. Yeah. Like, you are in it. Yeah. You are in it right now. Yeah. Yeah. So,

Emily: so, um, as we get to kind of, now without obviously sharing about the new company, what are you super passionate about right now?

And I know you have business Savage and you run events. I’ve gotten to be on a panel at your events. We run similar retreats. You and I both have, um, that more embodied of like doing somatic and business workshops kind of mixed in.

Yeah.

Emily: Um, but yeah. What are you, what are you passionate about? Where do you see your impact going?

As much as you wanna share with the new venture? Yeah.

Cassandra: Yeah. It’s all related to voice for me. Everything’s related to voice. Um, I’m very, very passionate about helping people discover the power of their voice. And that’s not just physically the sound of your voice. Yes, there’s communication components in there.

I believe so deeply that every single person on this planet has a message to share and most people won’t share it. And so whether it is the words that you’re saying, whether it’s the physical sound of your voice, um, whether it’s speaking your truth, whatever that is, I want to help inspire more people to stop suppressing what they truly want to say and how they wanna be seen in the world.

And so that’s like a glimpse of what I’m creating is how can I do that on a very massive scale? I get in front of a stage, I’m obsessed with speaking. Right now it’s lighting me up. And so I get on a stage and I get to look at all, all these eyeballs, and I get to see that. Happening over and over and over again.

And I’ll go deep into a story and I’ll see tears and see things happening. And I’m like, this times 5,000 is what I want to be able to create is. That’s impact. Yeah. That’s impact. Mm-hmm. And so when I’m creating on a phone or on a podcast, I can’t see the reaction happening on the other side and on social media.

I don’t know who’s looking at something but not liking or commenting. So I, I don’t know the true impact or reach of it all, and it’s not about me at all and being like, oh, I helped another person. It’s just truly about elevating the consciousness and helping more people. And so whether that’s a woman who’s in a bad relationship and doesn’t know how to speak her truth and get out of it, or a person who wants to build a massive empire and wants to figure out their branding and their messaging to do that, I want to help more people move the masses with their voice.

Emily: I love that. And you’re already so amazing at that. I mean, that’s where the content creation that you support people with your events. Thank you. And that’s come from. I’m excited. I’m so excited to watch this next season unfold for you. Thank you.

Cassandra: Yeah, thank you. Just help me name my child.

Emily: It’ll come to you.

You don’t even need the name before they’re born, and like when you see him, you’ll be like, it’s this. Right. Our last one, we didn’t, we didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl. I didn’t find out on the last, on the third, and so we didn’t have, we had names, but it took us like over a day for him. I was just like, I don’t know.

But it will come to you.

Cassandra: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I’m not too, too worried about it. We’ve got a couple that are locked up, but Yeah. It’s hard. Yeah. I mean, it’s like they’re, they’re named for the rest of their life. You both wanna love it and you gotta think about nicknames and bullying and all the crap. Right,

Emily: right.

But they’ll get the, he will get the perfect name that Yes. Is already picked out for him. Yeah. You just haven’t had it drop in yet. No. Or maybe you have. Yeah, I think I have. Yeah. Yeah. What has come up for you so far? Um, in pregnancy business? Like, I know for me, when I was pregnant, it was like a big, um. I got so many ideas and it, it pushed my thinking because you, you realize like my, my whole life’s gonna change Yeah.

After the baby comes, right? Yeah. And so, like, like you’re saying, it’s, it’s, each one of mine has represented like different big milestones for me, each one of my kids, because I realized that once they were born, the reality would change so much that I had to adjust that before they were born. And it was like such a fire, such an inspiration while I was pregnant, um, to get to that place that I wanted to be before they were born.

Cassandra: Yeah. I’m not gonna answer this with business ’cause I think I kind of have in some ways. Yeah. I like, and I get emotional, like even thinking about it because, um, first of all, there’s so many women who want to have this ability to have a child to, to carry a child and they can’t. And so there’s like this overwhelming sense of gratitude from God that I’m able to do this and that I have the honor of doing this.

I’m getting emotional because I have been struggling with body image issues Mm. This whole time. And, um, fitness and, and sports has been such a big part of my life and I’m physically not able to do things the way that I used to for this season right now. And looking at your body and looking at the scale and trying on 75% of my wardrobe and it, I think things are gonna fit.

And I go to a photo shoot and I can’t get it over my hips and this whole spiral of my eating disorder background and things come up for me. It’s like, it’s been challenging, but also the beautiful duality of also like, I’m creating life. And so it’s, it’s a very different feeling of gratitude. And I think the biggest thing I’m excited for.

Is I have become so aware in the last six, seven months of things that I don’t wanna pass on to him. Hmm. Things that I say to myself, whether it even be about my body and my partner’s like Cass, you’re beautiful. And it’s like, dang, I don’t wanna hear my son hear me say that to myself because he will then think it’s okay to talk to women that way, or that women think that way, or whatever it is.

And so it’s this season of me identifying almost daily. Uh, I have a anger problem. I’ll still sometimes go from zero to a hundred really fast and my partner’s the most patient man in the world and he will never yell at me. And he’ll say, Cass, just lower your voice. Just lower your voice. You don’t wanna have our son hear you yell.

Right? That’s not how we handle conflict. And so I’m excited to be in a season where I’m so aware of the things that I saw growing up. That I don’t wanna pass along to him, and this is my time and my season. To become aware of that and to change that and to make the conscious decision to not pass that on to him.

Emily: That’s so beautiful. Yeah. Thanks for sharing about the, the body I mentioned. Yeah, I know. It’s like in those moments, in the different things that come up when you, when you’re pregnant, it’s easy for people to say, well, but you’re beautiful and it’ll, you go back to normal. You know? It’s like, but I still feel that way.

Mm-hmm. I still have to process those things and kind of go through that myself and

Cassandra: but also like to any woman who has thought that or think that or any anything, like give yourself space to feel that.

Emily: Exactly. That’s what I’m saying. Like instead of being like, don’t feel that ’cause I’m creating life and you know, all the reasons why you shouldn’t feel that.

It’s like, but I do feel that way.

Cassandra: Right. And my partner again, he is, marry your best friend. Marry someone who thinks the way that you think. ’cause he’s so freaking phenomenal with me. Like, he’ll sit me down and he’ll say, okay. Tell me everything you’re thinking right now. Tell me everything that you’re feeling right now.

I wanna hear it all. Go ahead, rifle it off. And I’ll tell him all, and I’m crying and all these things. And he goes, he doesn’t even need to say the other side. ’cause I came to that realization myself. I just needed to feel it. And then he’ll just look at me. He said, I love you. I said, thank you. I love you too.

I’m good now. Because

Emily: acceptance is the first step. Yeah. Like we can’t run from that. Right. And so through that process, you’re also probably doing a long-term healing of, you know, body image and thoughts that have probably always been there. Yeah. They’re just being heightened through being pregnant. And now you get to have the awareness and then go, okay, let me choose the new beliefs and choose the new thoughts that I wanna

Cassandra: have.

Yeah. And let me even throw this in here, um, means that from the best of places, but this gives you a small taste of kind of things that I heard and and experienced growing up, especially related to my body, but also in sports and just how I grew up with my father. Amazing man. And he means no harm in any of this.

He’s simply not aware. He said to me the other day, I posted a picture and I want women to know what I’m going through. So I’m talking about it because I know a lot of women look up to me in this light. And so I want to be vulnerable about, Hey, I’m not perfect and I’m not feeling perfect and this is what’s actually going on in my brain.

And so I posted my weight. I’m normally about 1 35, 1 40. I’m five foot nine and I’m hitting, I’m almost hit one 90 now. And so I talked about it. My dad responded to the story and he said, if you keep going at this rate, this scale is going to say one at a time. Please. Like making a joke, thinks it’s funny.

Ha ha, let’s lighten the mood. And then he follows it up with, you’re gonna catch me soon. ’cause he’s like 2 0 5, something like that. So he doesn’t mean harm.

But it’s just like a bad, like, come on man. Right?

Cassandra: And then follows it up with, have you talked to your doctor about how much weight you’ve gained? The normal weight gain is this.

And so I read, I screenshotted it, and I looked at it and I was like, wow, I’m at such a different place now where I can look at this so differently. And also can say to you, Hey, I know you didn’t mean any harm by this, but this is how that made me feel, and this is how I’m receiving that. This is also something I’m going through in processing right now.

And so those comments are not helpful, and I just wanted you to be aware of that. But you can imagine, right? Like he means no harm by it. But that’s, that’s what I grew up hearing. And so where a lot of these things come from, we are conditioned by the environment in which we are raised. Mm-hmm. Incredible, incredible.

Man never means any harm, but he doesn’t realize the power of those jokes and those comments.

Emily: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean. That’s a cool moment for you as an adult to now go, okay, let me tell you how that makes me feel. Yeah. Because I’m sure there was many moments of that as a kid, you know, that you couldn’t, you weren’t mature enough to be able to even understand it, say that, or even understand how it made you feel.

Mm-hmm. And yeah,

Cassandra: it was just, oh, okay. I’m, I’m overweight. That doesn’t fit whatever it is. And putting food in my body equals weight and weight equals bad. So that was my thought process. And then there was sports involved in that and having to be a certain size to be fast. I was always the fastest skater in all of that stuff.

That plays into where I was at in my life.

Yeah.

Cassandra: And so it took a long time for me to gain, lose that weight and, and have a healthy relationship with food in my body. And then all of a sudden this beautiful little baby boy goes, oh, I’m just gonna test you, mama.

Emily: Yeah. It’s like a, a whole. Another level, a new season for you to heal on a much an even deeper level.

Yeah. And that’s beautiful. I mean, the babies, the kids, they really are like the greatest teachers and they bring you exactly what you

Cassandra: need. Yeah. I had my maternity photo shoot yesterday and the photo for said, it’s gonna be hard for you to see your body like this before we even took the photos. And I was like, why would it be hard for me to see my body like that?

And so she’s turning them around and showing me the photos and I was just like, I look so beautiful. Yeah. It’s not hard for me. No. Like maybe it is for you or maybe it is for a lot of other women and yes, I’m working with this stuff, but like I look so beautiful. It’s beautiful. I mean, it’s so beautiful.

Mean you’re joy in life. Yeah. And so I thought that that was interesting, right? How people will sometimes, right. You’re gonna feel this way

Emily: and like project what they might feel.

Cassandra: Yeah. I’m like, I don’t feel that way at all. Yeah. I actually feel like, I mean, I’ve done hundreds of photo shoots and so this is the first time it looks this way.

I’m like, but this is so special. So beautiful.

Emily: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, again, I’m really excited for you. Thank you. And to step into motherhood and to watch that journey unfold. I’m just

Cassandra: excited to get my breath back. That’s it. Yeah,

Emily: I know that push on the ribs, like sitting down working, I can remember being like, Ugh.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for this conversation today was amazing. Thank you. And if anyone wants to continue to tune into your work and watch what’s gonna unfold and your journey, where should they go?

Cassandra: Yeah, I used to always give social first, but I’m gonna give the podcast because I just think that there’s more impact in the voice.

So the Business Savage is my podcast and then @the.business.savage on Social.

Emily: Awesome. Yeah. Yeah, definitely follow. ’cause I can’t wait to see what you’re launching and Yeah. The next

Cassandra: year plus, yes. Yeah. Thank you. Bring it to life so much. Thank you for having me. Perfect. Was so great. You’re doing okay? Yeah.