Entrepreneur & Investor Susie Carder Was Overleveraged and Got Burned

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My guest for Episode #95 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Susie Carder. She is a Profit Coach & Founder at SC Consulting. Susie has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, building seven multi-million dollar companies, selling two that she built to $10M.

She is the author of a book, released last year, titled Power Your Profits: How to Take Your Business from $10,000 to $10,000,000. Her book's website is PowerYourProfitsBook.com.

In today's episode, Susie shares her “favorite mistake” story about getting destroyed financially in a three-year period starting in 2007, losing 90% of her wealth and her marriage. Her lesson learned was to “not be so overleveraged.”

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Quotes:

"I've made millions, lost millions, made millions again. Oh, what did I learn?"

"I have coaches in every area of my life. I have a personal development coach, a therapist. I have a mindset coach. I have three financial coaches. Got a fitness coach."

"As a leader, I used to think that I had to have all the answers. No, I'm a really great coach because I'm a really good student and I'm willing to sit at the feet of people that have produced the result."

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Automated Transcript (Likely Contains Mistakes)

Mark Graban (0s):
Episode 95, Susie Carder, serial entrepreneur, and author of the book Power Your Profits

Susie Carder (8s):
Made millions, lost millions, made millions again. Oh, what did I learn?

Mark Graban (16s):
I'm Mark Graban. This is My favorite Mistake. In this podcast, you'll hear business leaders and other really interesting people talking about their favorite mistakes because we all make mistakes. But what matters is learning from our mistakes instead of repeating them over and over again. So this was the place for honest reflection and conversation, personal growth and professional success. Visit our website at myfavoritemistakepodcast.com for links and show notes. For more information about Susie, her coaching, her book, and more go to markgraban.com/mistake95. As always, Thanks for listening.

Mark Graban (58s):
Our guest today is Susie Carder. She is a profit coach and a founder at her company, SC Consulting. And it's not just this company. She has 25 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur, as some would say, she has built seven multi-million dollar companies. She sold two that she built to $10 million. So Susie knows what she's talking about when she's written her book power, your profits, how to take your business from $10,000 to $10 million. So, Susie, thank you so much for being here. How are you today?

Susie Carder (1m 33s):
I'm fabulous. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Thanks for doing this. Thank you for being a leader in our industry. We need more people like you sharing the message and bring in people like me so we can see that they're not alone, right? Entrepreneurship can be so lonely

Mark Graban (1m 47s):
And, and, and people. Yeah, it's hard for someone who's not, not pure entrepreneur to understand. I mean, I even, it makes me think twice that phrase, serial entrepreneur, we hear people described the only like serial killer is the only other time that prefix gets used. I think that's not nice.

Susie Carder (2m 7s):
Well, the reality is I know I don't like no one can be the boss of me ask my man. He will tell you no one is the boss of me. I realized early on, I think I need to do this entrepreneurship because I love creation. I love building. I love, you know, creating teams, you know, it's just how you determined a play, right? So that's my, I love doing it. Once it gets past that 10 million, then it's too corporate-y for me. And then I want to pass it off to somebody else. That's not fun for me. I love the startup mode and the, you know, from starting your business to growing into a multi-million dollar entity and being an entrepreneur, my life is completely unrecognizable. I don't think a job could have provided me the lifestyle that I've had.

Susie Carder (2m 49s):
I've traveled all over the world. I've had all the things, right? The dream homes, the vacations, the, you know, sent my kids to the nicest schools in the country. So very, very well it's done me very well in my life.

Mark Graban (3m 4s):
Well, you're talking about, there's a sign over your head that people listening to the podcast. Won't see, but it's a sign. My wife has. I think that exact same sign. It says, well, behaved women seldom make history. So as you alluded to, I w did you say uncontrollable? I was trying to remember the exact word you used, but what, what, what, you know, before we talk about mistakes and things, like what, what was that dynamic that got you into entrepreneurship in the first place? Was it having a first job that where you said, okay, no, I, I need to do my own thing.

Susie Carder (3m 38s):
No, actually I found myself early on divorced with two little girls, no child support, no alimony, dude. My picker was off. And so I had to figure out, how am I going to make money? I was a hairdresser at the time. And as most entrepreneurs, 15% of your financial success is based on your technical ability. The other 85% is your sales, your marketing, your operations and your finance. So I was amazing at my 15%, I wasn't making much money back then the average hairdresser makes 30 grand a year. I live in Southern California. You're not paying, you're not living on 30 grand a year. So I had to figure it out quickly and figure out how to market and how to sell and how to leverage it.

Susie Carder (4m 21s):
So it really came from a need. I find a lot of entrepreneurs have too many back doors. And what I mean by that is either they have a husband or they have, you know, parents, somebody that's kind of giving them that scapegoat, that they don't have to earn money. I didn't have a choice. I'm like, I got to figure this out. My family wasn't supporting me. They're like, you made your bed, you lie in it, girl. I'm like, okay, that's tough love. But it was the gift that was wrapped in sandpaper. Right? It was hard and challenging, but it really taught me how to build business. I literally would go to the library. I had no money go to the library, find a book. My books were my first coaches. Then I would go to the used bookstore, find that same book and buy it for 25 cents.

Susie Carder (5m 2s):
So I would go find the best business books and then go find them cheaper. Cause that was my budget. That's what I had like as entrepreneurs. Are you that hungry? Right? Are you that scrappy? Right? I'm scrappy. I've always been scrappy. I've been an entrepreneur since I was 11 years old. I grew up with nine brothers and sisters, Bobby, Ronnie, Stevie, Terry, Johnny, Shelley, Susie, Kelly, Debbie. And my dad's was like, there is no money here. You get no allowance. You want money? Go work for it. Go do yard work, go clean houses, go wash windows, go ask the neighbors. If you want them to do stuff. I sold everything imaginable because I liked money. And I learned early on the power of barter. So with nine kids, we would make cookies, maybe once a quarter.

Susie Carder (5m 43s):
So I don't like sweets. And I think it's because I trained myself not to like sweets. I don't think it was truly, I didn't like sweets. But what I realized Mark is that one cookie could represent chores. So my brothers and sisters would eat all their cookies and I would have my of cookies. And so my brothers would like, I want a cookie. I'm like, do you, now you want to do the dishes? Cause I'll give you a cookie for the dishes. Now think about 11 people in the household. That's like Thanksgiving dinner, every single night, we didn't have a dishwasher, like an automatic dishwasher. We were the dishwasher. So I learned all I could one cookie and they would do the dishes for me that night. So we'd have seven or eight cookies that would be seven or eight nights that I didn't have to do dishes.

Susie Carder (6m 25s):
Right. Or fold laundry. So I'm like, this is a powerful tool. And so for Halloween, I would have my Halloween candy. They'd eat all their candy and then I would have candy. And then I would barter again, Easter I'd have my Easter candy. I would barter again going, this is genius. I think back that was the early days of being an entrepreneur. Right. And figuring out that entrepreneurial hustle. And that's kind of where, where I originally, originally got my start.

Mark Graban (6m 50s):
So it sounds like you're kind of wired that way. You make me think of the musical Hamilton. You were a young scrappy and hungry. So, you know, there you've built a lot of businesses. There are a lot of ups and entrepreneurship can be a roller coaster where there are some downs. And you know, I appreciate that you and others are willing to come on this podcast and share those stories and talk about the learning and the recovery and the growth. And that's what we're always excited to hear about here. So Susie thinking back at all the different things that you've done, is there something that you would look back and say, well, okay, that, that was a favorite mistake.

Susie Carder (7m 34s):
Well, I don't know if they're favorites never, they're never favorites, but I will say I've learned a lot. And, but first to really talk about the mistake, you've got to see how high the journey was. Right? So in 2005, we sold our training and development company. We weren't looking for an exit strategy. We were looking for a partnership. So we sold it to the largest publishing company in the world. There are $400 billion organization and they bought our company for $10 million. We got half the money up front, half the money on the backend. So at that point we're like, this is awesome. Well, inside that journey, they had sold the company to another company, unbeknownst to us. And so that company, instead of their motto, being cradle to grave, it was profit, profit, profit.

Susie Carder (8m 18s):
And so as a training and development company, you're, you're training people to be consultants. You're training people to be trainers. It it's a long learning curve. And so they started firing people and as they were firing people and going, you can't fire them, they're right on the precipice of a success. No, there is a formula for this and they're, oh, Susie, it's not your concern anymore. You don't own the company. And so we came to the meeting and said, listen, we can't, we can't do this anymore. You're sabotaging the company. You're bankrupting the company. And they're like, you're not going to leave. You're going to half a year money on the backend plus. Right. So it was plus plus, and we have made more. That was like the negotiation point.

Susie Carder (8m 58s):
There's, you know, you're going to be tied to the, the revenue and like you're, you're bankrupting the company. There is no plus plus plus. So we walked away and at that time it felt good to walk away. We had money in the bank or like we had real estate holding things. Right. We had, we had diversified. We did all the things the expert told us to do. Well, 2007 hit. And I don't know if you remember 2007, but 2007. I felt like somebody had pulled the rug out from under my feet. So what took us 20 years to build was destroyed overnight unless 90% of my assets in the market crash. And not only 90% of my assets mark, I lost my marriage of 17 years.

Susie Carder (9m 38s):
My ride or die. My, my man who said, I will never leave you. The, my man who said that, I'm here, I'm going to take care of you. I'm gonna take care of the family. Like I love you. The stress was too much, right? If you look at the number one, cause of divorce is financial finances, right. Which we were no different. We were in this bubble. He felt like a failure because he's the one that negotiated the deal and said, this will help us. We'll grow while we didn't. And I remember being on the floor crying and not from a place of a pity party, but I really felt like I did everything right. I was a good steward. I, I really did what the experts said.

Susie Carder (10m 19s):
I leveraged, I had multiple strings of income. We risked, we did a lot of things. And at that time I think I was 43. And I remember thinking I don't have 20 years and I don't have the energy to redo this again. Like it it's, you know, it's hard work, building an organization. And so as I'm laying there, I literally in a ball on the floor, I think it's important to know that there are hard days. And as, as much as you learn inside of them, they're never fun to go through them. And I thought, who who's gonna listen to me now. Right? I'm supposed to be this money lady. I'm this profit coach. I help businesses make money, leverage money, grow money. And here I am with 90% of my wealth gone.

Susie Carder (11m 2s):
And so I heard this voice in my head and the voice said, I will never leave you or forsake you trust in me. Get up. This will be your biggest victory and your biggest lesson you need to share. Okay, I am not sharing this now. I'm not sharing it. Right. But I had two clients at Lisa Nichols. Who's one of the top motivational speakers in the world, the top secret speaker in the world. And John Ashraf. Who's one of the most respected brain specialists on how we use our brain. And so I did a turnaround situation and John's business. I built Lisa's company to $10 million.

Susie Carder (11m 44s):
Cause what I do know is I knew the system of money. It didn't take me 20 years to rebuild my wealth. Cause I already knew it when I started, I didn't know anything, my formal education, although I do have my PhD, which is my public high school diploma. That was my formal education. Everything else was books. Everything else was, you know, going to a class, listening to back then we didn't have a podcast right. Listening to trainings, right. Getting it on CDs or tapes. Right. My, my car was my university. So I had all this education that I didn't have when I started. So I was, it was, I was able to rebuild and rebuild my wealth quickly. And the first thing I did was invest in real estate. Even though I lost my Jaime in real estate, right.

Susie Carder (12m 26s):
I've also made millions in real estate. So it, it was like, well, I know this works. I was just too leveraged. So it taught me not to not over leveraged. It taught me my risk level. It taught me how do I leverage what I'm doing? How do I monetize what I'm doing and was able to turn their businesses around very quickly because I know what I know. And then, you know, help my clients, you know, raise millions, build millions because it is strategy businesses strategy. We make it way too hard, right? 15% of our financial success is our technical ability. So as an entrepreneur, it's whatever your vocation is, that's only 15% of your success. Now you have to be amazing at your 15%.

Susie Carder (13m 7s):
It's got to be good. You've got to be the best, but I can make a bigger difference in your sales, your marketing, your operations and your finance. So I want you to look at, ah, let's focus over there, right? Don't we go to what we're naturally good at, which is our, our vocation. None. No, no. Let's look at what you're not good at. And let's start working at that. Which normally the number one is finances. They don't, most entrepreneurs want to put their head in the sand. They don't want to look at it. They're like, I don't like math. I'm not good at math. You got to lose that conversation. I didn't like math either in 10th grade, Mr. Cybersyn said, you need to go find another, whatever you do in life do not do anything with math. And I'm like, first of all, this is algebra. This is not math. And they're putting the in math.

Susie Carder (13m 48s):
So that makes no sense to me.

Mark Graban (13m 51s):
Right?

Susie Carder (13m 53s):
What he tell you what you're good or not good at? You decide for yourself. I decided at a need and necessity. Right? In both situations when I was married young, early, you know, a picker was off and finding a husband and found myself as a single mom with two little girls and had to create my financial wellbeing. Right. So when you look at it, I didn't have a choice. I didn't have a backdoor. I didn't have someone saving me right. To go here, here, do this hobby, this isn't a hobby. This is my vocation. Right. Let's treat our businesses as a vocation. Right. I'm paid for the amount of work that I do or don't do. Right. But the results that I get in my, my life, my world, my business as well, I do juicy, juicy, juicy stories and juicy.

Susie Carder (14m 39s):
That's

Mark Graban (14m 40s):
One of my words. Yeah. So I think it's interesting. So you talk Susie about going back to real estate investing. I mean, I think you alluded this, a lot of people would be scared off and say, well, I was burned by that, but you learned, you know, the, the, the, you know, the, the financial crisis, the real estate crash. That wasn't your mistake. I mean, you, you pointed to okay. Being over leveraged, it seems like it would have been a mistake to completely stay away from something that you knew you learned from that over leverage. You've, you've prevented. You've avoided repeating that.

Susie Carder (15m 15s):
Yeah, exactly. I've made millions in it before, during and after. Right. Made millions, lost millions, made millions again. Right. So it's, it's all about strategy and technique and to go, oh, what did I learn? I think when, you know, when I was on the floor, bawling and praying, I was like, what is my lesson? What is the lesson here? There has to be a lesson. You don't go through this without a lesson. I think if I just stayed in victim and martyrism, I would have not, I would have not risen. Right. But I really, I didn't like when God told me to share my lesson, that was a little more humbling. But I realized that when you share the bloody knees, the bloody elbows, that's where entrepreneurs get their, I just got chills.

Susie Carder (15m 57s):
Right. That's where we get our like, oh, if she can do it, I can do it versus me just teaching on the mountaintop. Yes. I've done amazing things. But let me tell you what I've done wrong. Cause those are some, those are even better than the highs, right. Is the stupidity, even in selling my company, that one little clause that they didn't share with us, who they sold the company to before they did it now, was that my fault? Yes, it was my fault, but it was also my, my advisory team. We didn't look at it. We had some of the top attorneys in the world working on our, our deal and to not know that in the middle of them buying us, that would've changed the deal. Cause their, their philosophy was completely different than ours.

Susie Carder (16m 37s):
We loved the company that the original company that purchased us, they have our values were the same. Our mission was the same. And then all of a sudden that immediately changed overnight. Okay, well that was a lesson. So now when I'm talking to my clients and they're like, we want to sell as I, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. Let's look at all this. Let's look at everything. Let's look at the back, end, the front end. And if you want to leave, what's the exit strategy, right? I literally walked away from millions from my exit strategy because it was all tied to the back end. Well, that seemed like a good deal when we were courting. And we were like, do you want, do you like me? Do you not? But the reality is we didn't have the, what if scenario? What if you do shenanigans? What if you know, and you know, businesses, businesses, business, their goal is to make more money, right.

Susie Carder (17m 22s):
As everybody else. But I learned a lot from that, right. That was a crappy learning lesson too. But I learned,

Mark Graban (17m 28s):
It sounds like one of the lessons there is be careful who you sell to like on the front end of starting a company taking investment, there's an expression or people talk about good money and bad money. Right. You know, at some standpoint, money is money, but good money is an investor who is aligned with you, who can make connections and doors as opposed to somebody who is just writing a check. And then let's say, it's just going to be a pain.

Susie Carder (17m 56s):
Right? My advisors, which was amazing. I had a really good advisory team. They said to me, Susie, you have to be happy with the money they give you upfront because nine times out of 10, these things don't work out. Now. I didn't think that because I really felt like I did it. We did a good job picking. And we did the, the parent company we did, but they sold that company in the middle of the deal. So now all of a sudden, I'm not dealing with that company. I'm dealing with this other company than our buyers. We're not the same. So we were okay with the money up front to go. That's why it was easy to walk away. It's because we said, if this is all we get, we're happy. Right. What sucked was the shenanigans that was going on in the marketplace that none of us knew about that we all heard years later about all the financial correctness that was happening, that affected us the small business owner.

Susie Carder (18m 45s):
Right? Whatever middle-class is where people are. You're not middle-class. I got my ass handed to me. I was middle-class right. I was not protected the way some people were protected, you know, from not knowing. Right. And I think that's the power in sharing these kinds of stories to go, oh, okay. Cause I was feeling like I really was feeling stupid. Like I should have known better. And it wasn't until probably 10 years later, when we start uncovering all the shenanigans and all the financial corruption that you saw was part of the cost. And part of my cause was over leveraged. I'm not, I'm not blaming anybody else. I take full responsibility for that. Right. And go, okay, I would have done it differently.

Susie Carder (19m 25s):
Now I do it differently. Right. If I pay cash for every property that I own. Right. Cause it's going to fund itself. I'm not going to be in that situation if the market crashes again. Okay. I can write it where before we were really overlapping.

Mark Graban (19m 38s):
So I want to hear a little bit, Susie, like even going back to the first business you started, you know, you were a hairdresser. Was that business, a direct extension of that domain that you were working in, in the new, how did, how did that first business gets get going on accident? The accident entrepreneurs

Susie Carder (19m 59s):
Start, we start on accidents. Well, as a hairdresser, you know, you're all independent contractors. Most people are independent contractors in that industry, especially in California. And so as a hairdresser, I was doing a quarter of a million dollars a year working three and a half days a week. And then I worked for Paul Mitchell, the other three days a week. And so when Paul Mitchell, we started talking about my revenues and what I was doing. They're like, oh my God, how are you doing that? Again? The average hairdresser was making $30,000 a year. The average salon was doing a hundred thousand dollars a year. And I'm a solo technician doing a quarter of a million dollars a year. And so they said, can you teach our salons and spas?

Susie Carder (20m 39s):
This I'm like, sure. Now I didn't know how to speak. I didn't have business strategy. I was just coming to share the good news. Like, let me show you what doing, because if I can do it, you can do it. Right. I'm really a servant heart. And so I didn't have business strategy. I didn't have like, here's what you're, you're going to buy. I had none of that. I just went, let me help you mark. Here's what I'm doing. Here's what you can do from a place of contributing. And then client said, Susie, I love what you do. Do you have a book? No, I don't have a book. I'm a hairdresser. I'm just, they just wanted me to share some sharing. I don't know. You want a book? We would buy the book. I'm like hairdresser. I'm not writing a book on how to write a book. They're like, no, no, no. So I, you know, when the universe right comes knocking, you got to do it.

Susie Carder (21m 22s):
So I wrote a book, then they were like, oh my God, Susie, I love the book. Hate to read. Do you have it on audio? I'm

Mark Graban (21m 27s):
Like, I just did this book. Do you know how hard that was? So then we went

Susie Carder (21m 31s):
In the studio, did the audio. And then as we were teaching, they're like, do you have that? Can I buy that from you? I'm like, you want to buy my system? They were like, yeah, we'll buy that. So I just started selling stuff. Right. We listened to the market. The market will tell you what you need. So we built a multimillion dollar training and development company truly on accident. Right. And then I'm like, I had to figure out how to make money at this. Right. And that's the company we sold to this, the largest publishing company. Because by then we became really good students in business and went, okay, let me monetize this. Let me leverage this. Let me build this. Let me scale this. Right. And we started the largest technology company in that industry as well. So we saw a need where people needed, what we had.

Susie Carder (22m 14s):
So we started one of the first membership sites. We have the largest membership site in the beauty industry and actually in the membership industry as a whole way before this was in 2000. Think about it in 1999, 2000. When we launched this business, built this business, there was no Google. We didn't have Google back then. Right? So when you look at why, wow, we were such early adopters, but again, it was fine. The need, fill the need, find the need, fill the need, find the need, fill the need. And so then when we sold that company, then I took over Lisa Nichols company and ran that company for 10 years and built it to a $10 million company. And then launched this business a couple of years ago in 2019, launch this brand and publish the new book, power, your profits, which is all about building a sustainable business that you can sell every day.

Susie Carder (23m 4s):
You build your business. You want to build it as if you're going to sell it. You don't have to sell it, but I want you to build it as if you're going to sell it, because that allows you to detach a little bit versus being so attached to go, what systems do I need to put in place? What strategy do I need to put in place? So I really give you my roadmap of everything I did to build the tem companies that I built, right? To build multimillion dollar companies for my colleagues and my clients, to help them leverage scale, grow, and then sell their business. So walk you through, what do you need to do? And how do you need to do that?

Mark Graban (23m 38s):
And, and part of that is maybe what not to do. And one thing you write about, we've talked about roller coasters of, can you use the phrase, the cast, let's see, I made a mistake and trying to say it, the cash crisis, roller coaster. What, what is that? How do people get into that? How do they stop the roller coaster and get more stable?

Susie Carder (24m 2s):
Okay. She has an illusion, right? Cause there's always cash flow, but cash flow does not necessarily mean you're profitable. Right? So I have a client that when I first met her, she was not paying herself very much. And we finally got her to a place where we built the business to millions and she was personally making about a half a million dollars a year. That was her income. Well, she was spending $550,000 a year. That's the rollercoaster, not managing your budget, not looking at what's coming in. What's going out. So only 1.7% of small businesses. Mark hit, hit that million dollar. Only 1.7% of businesses. To me, that's a tragedy.

Susie Carder (24m 41s):
88% of small businesses are doing less than a hundred grand a year. We can go get jobs and make more than that. Right? When you look at that to go wait, businesses supposed to provide us a lifestyle that a job can not. And it all starts with managing the cash. So in chapter eight, it's called math is money. Money is fun. Nobody likes to do the math, but we all like the freedom money gives us. So when I look at that, I want to, I want to make it fun. Cause I always tell my clients, this can be fun. Let's make a game. I made it a game by game was survival in the beginning. Like, okay, the game is, I gotta feed the kids today. Right? The game is I've got to pay my rent today. The game is I've got to pay my water bill today.

Susie Carder (25m 22s):
The game is so from early on, I was playing a game with how do I make 200, 500, a thousand dollars to live. And then as I got my survival handled, right? When you remember in school, you had the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. At first level is food, shelter, clothing. Once you get through food, shelter and clothing, you can breathe, right? You're out of survival. And you're like, okay, now, right now I want security. I'm out of survival now when security. And so then when, okay, this game thing works. And I started teaching. I created a whole system around. We call it the booking game. Look at your books, look at what you're doing. And let's play double the day, right? Because it worked for me in my business and it worked for me and my entrepreneurial spirit versus going, I have to make the minute you start hanging onto money, the minute you start squeezing it, that prosperity goes away.

Susie Carder (26m 11s):
You can't hold struggle and prosperity at the same time. Right? So you've got to figure out for you and your entrepreneurial spirit. What is your language? Most of us have a limiting belief around money that we inherited from our mothers or fathers or grandparents, even culturally, even men, women. Right? We have inherited beliefs. You as a man, mark, you're supposed to provide for us and be the man and do the things. And it's like, it's so unequal to go. Well, what if I'm really good at that? And you're not, what if you're good at? What if I'm good at building stuff? And you're good cooking. Does that mean you can't cook? Right? But we have these old beliefs. Right? And a lot of beliefs are, you know, money's hard. Rich people are mean money doesn't grow on trees.

Susie Carder (26m 53s):
Right? Whatever that was when you were growing up, that's a younger conversation. Well, let's upgrade that conversation. I believe that wealth is our birthright. It's not for some of us it's for all of us. We all have the ability. We live in a country where we can create our own financial wellbeing blessings. Right. And we're still there blessings right? To go well, if it's our birthright, it wasn't deemed to us.

Mark Graban (27m 19s):
Birthright doesn't mean easy or handed to you. No,

Susie Carder (27m 22s):
It just means we get to, we get to choose. Now. I, we grew up poor. There were nine of us, right? Nine of us, Bobby, Ronnie, Stevie, Terry, Joanie, Shelley, Susie Kelly, Debbie. Right. Nine of us in 1200 square feet, six girls, one bathroom. I don't know how we did it. Right. But we did it. And the reality is I should not be where I'm at, based on my upbringing. But I decided something different. I decided that I wanted something different and I was willing to work hard for them from a very young age to go, well, what do I need? How do I get this? How do I do this? Which has always been entrepreneurship. And so when you look at that, where else in the world, can you go to go, oh, I'm just going to make it up.

Susie Carder (28m 5s):
Right. I used to tell my team that y'all making this up and they're like, you're making it up. And as my team got

3 (28m 9s):
Bigger, I realized, I couldn't say that. I had to find other entrepreneurs that

Susie Carder (28m 12s):
Got what I was saying, going mark, I'm making this up. And you're like, me too. Okay, good. But you're a team. That's getting a paycheck. They're like, what do you mean? You're making it up? You don't know what you're doing. No, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm making it up.

Mark Graban (28m 23s):
There's a mistake there. Don't admit that to your team that you're making it up. So

Susie Carder (28m 27s):
Do not admit that that was a, that was a hard lesson that day.

Mark Graban (28m 34s):
And so not having a college degree. I mean that, that hasn't held you back at all. And, and, and some, some people would say maybe, you know, it's, self-defeating, I, I can't do such and such because what of missing you, you figured out a way. I mean, that's really impressive. And I think inspiring.

Susie Carder (28m 54s):
Yeah. Well, I felt like an imposter for years. Right? Cause I'm like, well, they're going to find out, I don't know. They're going to find out on how that piece of paper. And then I realized the truth set me free. What I did have was a credibility. What I did was for myself as an entrepreneur doing a quarter of a million dollars a year, that was credibility. Number one. Then we built a million dollar business in the salon and spa or salon. We bought a salon and took it from a negative opportunity. We bought it for 30,000 and built it to a million dollar company. Then we launched the training and development company built that to a multi-million dollar company. Then we launched the technology company, built that to a multi-million dollar company. Then we had a real estate firm and investing firm and built that to a multimillion dollar company.

Susie Carder (29m 37s):
So we just kept building these credibilities, which is that much more valuable than a piece of paper. I have a lot of colleagues that have lots of piece of papers that aren't doing anything with that. And so I think for me, I had to work on my self esteem. I had to work on my self worth. I had to work on that limiting mindset that I had that poor little girl, like you'll never have anything. You'll you'll never be anything. And to go, oh wait, I can be whoever I choose. Right. I had to learn that I had to work on that and I've spent years right. In personal development, AKA therapy. Right, right.

Mark Graban (30m 12s):
And there's no shit there. And there's, there's nothing wrong. I mean, there's no shame in, in therapy. You're right.

Susie Carder (30m 19s):
I am who I am because I invest in my education. You know, Benjamin Franklin says, take the coins from your purse, invest them in your mind. And your mind will fill your purse overflowing. So I have coaches in every area of my life. Right. I have a personal development coach, a therapist, right. I have a mindset coach. I have three financial coaches got a fitness coach. Right. So when I look at my life, my life works. I've got two business coaches. So I look at what do I need right now? And what's the resource I need right now. I'm not hiring them all at the same time. I'm not that cuckoo. Right. I'm looking at, what do I need right now? Like this season, this year, what do I need for my technology company?

Susie Carder (30m 60s):
We won the top technology company of the year from Microsoft. So I don't know anything about technology. I had coaches that supported me and we raised $1.2 million for that company. I didn't know how to raise money. I found a coach that helped me learn about the sec, helped me do it. Legally helped me put my plan together, helped me talk to investors, helped me do it legally and ethically helped me put together the, our shares and how many shares do we sow? Right. That all came from me, investing in my education. Cause that's what I needed at the time. Right? So I want you to look at what's that thing you need that's next. So we need to invest in what's the skill set that I need right now. Like I'm in three different masterminds right now, right?

Susie Carder (31m 42s):
For three different areas of my business. Because even though I've been doing business for a long time, there's different modalities. I want to look at what's what's my blind spot. So I'm hiring other experts that I'm working with to help me in my business. Right? So I think a lot of times we think once we're an entrepreneur we're done. And as a leader, I used to think that I had to have all the answers. No, I'm a really great coach because I'm a really good student and I'm willing to sit at the feet of people that have produced the result. Here's what I don't do anymore. I don't believe people's hype. Like if you say you're an expert in this, show me the results, show me your case. Studies. Let me talk to some clients, do your due diligence. Even if you want to work with me, do due diligence, get my book, read the book.

Susie Carder (32m 24s):
Right. And get going on. Our programs, read the program before you jump in, right? People are like, wow, you're pretty expensive. Well, you're paying for my expertise. You're not paying for my time. Right. You're paying for, you're paying for that, that market loss where I lost millions of 90%. But I rebuilt that millions you're paying for that right. There was this article about Picasso. And this lady came up to him in a square and said, will you paint me this picture? So he paints, this picture takes five minutes. And he goes, here you go. That'll be $30,000. She goes $30,000. It took you five minutes. He said, ah, it didn't take me five minutes. It took me 30 years to learn how to do it in five minutes. Right. That's powerful. Right?

Susie Carder (33m 4s):
You ma I don't care if I'm investing a hundred grand, if I'm going to make a million. But I have to know that that source is credible. That they have predictable results that they're producing that. So make sure whoever you hire, you do due diligence so that you can make sure you can get that ROI that you're investing.

Mark Graban (33m 20s):
Yeah. And there's a good reminder there that whether it's a price we pay or a price, we charge, try to have that based on value, not time. Exactly. That's part of how you get from, as you were saying earlier, from having a job that provides a paycheck to building a business that can create wealth.

Susie Carder (33m 40s):
Yes, exactly. And I love that. It's, you're going to pay for it one way or another. You're going to pay for it in time yourself, right? Just, you know, in the learning curve or hire the experts that can help you. I'm going to shave 10 years off your learning curve. Whether you get the book, you read the book, you implement it from the book. Whether you come to a course, whether you come to an event, whenever that is right, you're going to shave 10 years off your learning curve. Cause I'm just going to show you how to do it. Step by step by step by step. What I do know is entrepreneurship is a system, right? It's strategy, right? It can't just be a good idea. Can't just be your talent and it has to be strategy.

Mark Graban (34m 16s):
So there are so many ways that you can, the audience can go and learn from Susie. Again, the book is powering your profits. How to take your business from 10,000 to 10 million, you can get that. Now her website is one of them is Susie carter.com. And I'm sure this is a mistake that happens a lot. It's spelled a C a R D E R and my amendment in my Midwestern roots, accent Carder and Carder spelled with a T and a D it's on exactly the same, but there is a link in the show notes so that you find Susie at the right place.

Mark Graban (34m 59s):
And then one of the things we'll talk about here, a so the book's website is power, your profits, book.com. And when it comes to programs and other ways to learn, Suzanne has a program called it's your bullet train to big profits program. A bullet train is more powerful than a rollercoaster. Right? Tell us about that program.

Susie Carder (35m 18s):
Yeah. So we took the book because what I know from my early days when they said, write a book, write a book. Oh, I don't like to read is we created a companion course called bullet train to big profits. Cause we walk you through the book and I'll walk you through visually with the book, with exercises, everything that's in the book, but I bring it to life on video. So it's a very powerful way to, for those of you that are visual, those of the want to be guided through there, come to that. We've got many ways that you can play. And I love that you, you know, declared Carder, cause it is C a R D as in dollar, a dinero, E R

Mark Graban (35m 56s):
Lots of people have made that mistake. So thank you for saying that. I also got a six letter name. That's not that long, but it is a struggle for people to spell and or pronounce. So I have a sensitivity to that as well. So Susie, you've brought so much to life here in the podcast, whether people are just listening or watching. So that's, that's evidence that the, the program and the course or an audio book, did you do it? You did an audio book for power, your profits. Yep.

Susie Carder (36m 27s):
So you can get that on Amazon, right? Amazon books, a million, any of those websites as well. But I would love for you to come over or you can follow me on social media by my name again, Susie Carder, C a R D as in dinero dollar, ER right. Our website. I've got lots of resources for you. What I do know is I don't want you to feel like you're alone and that this journey, you need tribe. You need community. You need people that are like-minded, there's too many people that think you're a cuckoo because you're an entrepreneur and this is the funnest ride on the planet, right? When you know, when you fall down, there's gotta be someone to help you get back up so that you don't give up.

Susie Carder (37m 7s):
Right? I think back if I would have given up on so many of those journeys, you know, their successes right around the corner to go. When I got up off that floor, success was right around the corner. It came from helping other people. I didn't do it. You know, I didn't start another business. They're like start another business. I'm like, hell no, let me help other people. Right. And poured all that into my community. My tribe, my clients. And you know, we have story after story, after story of making this complicated thing, business, very systematic and fun, right? Math is money and money is fun. And I love the freedom money gives me and the lifestyle that it provides me. So we want to power your profit.

Susie Carder (37m 48s):
Don't do it alone. Get some support, get the help you need to have the business you love and dream of.

Mark Graban (37m 54s):
Yeah. Well, seriously, this has been both informative and inspiring. I'm so glad that you got up off the floor 14 years ago or 10 plus years ago. And that, that you're, you're bringing so much to people here today. So we got a little bit of time with Susie. I'm sure a lot of the audience will reach out for more time. Like you said, whether that's a book, audio book programs, hope people come spend more time with you. So Susie, thank you for the time you spent with us here today. This has been a real pleasure.

Susie Carder (38m 25s):
Thank you, Mark. And thank you for being a leader in our industry. Again, we need more people like you holding that flag to help us see our dreams and fulfill our dreams,

Mark Graban (38m 33s):
Links again to the Susie Carder for being a guest today, to learn more for links to her, coaching her book, her programs, and more, you can find all of that by going to markgraban.com/mistake95. If you like the episode, if you find value in it, please share it on social media, share it with a colleague that are really helped. Get the word out about the podcasts and our great guests as always. I want to thank you for listening. I hope this podcast inspires you to reflect on your own mistakes, how you can learn from them or turn them into a positive I've had listeners tell me that they started being more open and honest about mistakes in their work. And they're trying to create a workplace culture where it's safe to speak up about problems because that leads to more improvement and better business results.

Mark Graban (39m 16s):
If you have feedback or a story to share, you can email me myfavoritemistakepodcast@gmail.com. And again, our website is myfavoritemistakepodcast.com.

Entrepreneur & Investor Susie Carder Was Overleveraged and Got Burned

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