INTRODUCTION

Lesley Logan
Oh, my goodness. Welcome back to the Be It podcast, the Be It Till You See It podcast. I’m Lesley Logan and I am beyond grateful that you’re here. I’m also completely on fire and cannot wait to take on my whole day, after just getting off of this interview with Renee Dick. My girlfriend, Renee, I, we ended the podcast and then we talked for another 30 minutes before she to start her podcast. So it’s safe to say, this podcast has lots of gab, lots of ways that you can see yourself in it. And when you get, you have to get to her tips on how to Be It Till You See It at the end, because I visualized everything that she was saying. And it made me even more fired up to do what I have to do for myself today. Look, you know, wherever you are, whatever it is that you’re trying to be, maybe it is to step into a new group of friends, or maybe it’s to step into a new gym, or a new job or to start your own thing. There are so many gems in this podcast, and I can’t even wait for you to dive in and hear how Renee stepped into a room that she probably didn’t feel like she should be in but she made herself do it anyways, and, and how she changed the perspective of that it’s nothing short of inspiring, but also something you can totally do, you can totally do it. And I’m all about bringing you women, and we have a few men who can help you see how you can Be It Till You See It that you don’t have to have all the answers. And so this whole podcast, I just can’t even wait for you to hear it. So I’m not going to keep talking Renee Dick, as you can find her on Instagram at @mygirlfriendrenee. And you can also listen to her on her podcast if you’re interested in business tips for small business owners. All of the stuff about her and her amazingness is in the show notes below. So please check it out. And without further ado, we’ll actually a little ado, we have a little short message for you. And then we’ll get to dive into this really fun, really awesome interview with Renee Dick.

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Lesley Logan
Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I’m Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and business fitness coach. I’ve trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it’s the antidote to fear. Each week, my guests will bring Bold, Executable, Intrinsic and Targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It’s a practice, not a perfect. Let’s get started.

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EPISODE

Lesley Logan
We are recording. Okay. Hello. Welcome to the Be It podcast. Oh my gosh. Okay, so true story. I heard this woman on my friend Amy Ledin’s podcast and I was doing my Pilates workout and Amy Ledin was a guest on this podcast. She’s one of my favorite women in the world. We have an accountability call, accountability call every two weeks. And you came on and I was like talking in the podcast to the two of you as it was a three way conversation. And it didn’t even occur to me that like you were not actually responding to me. (Lesley laughs) And I don’t even think I waited for the podcast to finish before I was like sharing it, tagging you and like voice dm-ing, “Oh my God, I’m in love with you. I want to have you on mine. I want to have you in my, my communities.” And then Amy said, “Oh, you have to meet her. Want me to introduce you?” Like we’re already talking. We already have a call on Monday. So without further ado, my girlfriend Renee, why don’t you share about who you are and what you do.

Renee Dick
You know, I’m not surprised this happens all the time. (Renee and Lesley laughs) I get this message daily. (Renee laughs) Just kidding. No, it was such a fun podcast to do. And it always that’s the beauty about podcasts, is it gets you into other people’s ears, it gets you into new audiences where you can become new friends, and not just sit on Instagram and hope to be seen. So it’s just a great way to really you know, fast forward the connection. And I think you meet such good people. I’m so I’m so excited to be here. It’s gonna be such a fun topic today.

Lesley Logan
Yeah, thank you for being here. So, Renee, um, I mean, you are @mygirlfriendrenee on Instagram and, and the way Amy was always saying my girlfriend Renee, my girlfriend Renee said so I just want to know, how did you decide to be “My Girlfriend Renee” and also, what do you do?

Renee Dick
I know always asks that like cuz it could be, I could be a hooker. Like, I, nobody knows exactly what (Lesley laughs) “My Girlfriend Renee” is and I’m like, that’s where branding comes in. Right? Because you have to know and see because once you see me, you get it. But when you hear it, (Lesley: Yeah) you’re like, “My Girlfriend Renee… What?” (Lesley laughs) But no, no, I started my business in 2019. I was at a woman in business conference. I had like, no computer, no nothing. I used to be a hairstylist. I’ve always worked for myself. I did like hair styling and then I was a spray tan technician. And so I became a stay at home mom and I was like, kind of going down that rabbit hole of like this isn’t the life I’m supposed to live, I was not living in my purpose. I can go down that whole rabbit hole, but blanket statement, I wasn’t living my purpose. And my husband was like, “Girl, you need something.” So I go to this woman in business conference, and I was like, “I’m gonna start a blog. My husband told me I need to start a blog. I’m gonna do it.” And so I did. And I was coming up with the name. And I was like, “Okay, what am I gonna call this thing?” You know what I mean? I don’t really know, I don’t know what my content is going to be. It’s more like lifestyle. And it took me back to my hairstylist days, where people would say, “Where do you get your hair done? Who does your hair.” And everybody would always say like, “Oh, you got to go to my girlfriend Renee.” Or, “Who does your spray tan?” “Oh, my girlfriend, Renee does it.” So that’s how “My Girlfriend Renee” was born and it just hit. It was perfect.

Lesley Logan
I love that. So I, I love the story behind things. So I think some people make it a little harder. Like, “I don’t know what to call this.” And like people are taking their time to figure what to call something. And it’s oftentimes if you just look back to when you were having the most fun, the name is in there. So I know that you mentioned this briefly like you weren’t living in your purpose. And I think that I think it’s easy for people to go, “Oh, yeah, I understand that.” But like, on a surface level. And then I think if you ask someone like, “What does that mean?” So everyone not living their purpose to me, it’s very different. It looks different for everybody. So and also, if you’ve never really lived in your purpose, it’s, it’s kind of hard to know, because you could just go your life without living in your purpose and it’s like the same. So how did you, I mean, he was awesome to like, say, “Hey, what’s up? We do something here.” Awesome husband, but what what what were the feelings that you were having that were like, you’re not living in your purpose?

Renee Dick
Well, you immediate… I think it’s that feeling of like, you know, you’re supposed to be doing something, right. You can’t put your name on it. You don’t know exactly what it is. But you know, that there’s something missing, you have this for me on to be a 100% real with you guys. I was so negative, I was insecure, I was jealous, I was competitive. And it was all of these feelings that weren’t me. Like, normally, you know, you’re happy, whatever but when when you start to get down this spiral of, you can’t be happy for anybody, like anytime somebody would when, I would be negative, or anytime somebody would be doing something, I would be sitting in my mind like, “Well, what does she have that I don’t” and it wasn’t in a good way. And I can feel it going deeper and deeper and harder and harder. I just couldn’t be happy for anybody. And it wasn’t like I can say, you know, there was a reason behind it. There wasn’t a reason I just personally could not figure out why I was one – getting anxiety, two – why couldn’t be happy for anybody, why I was so negative. And the more I the more personal development, this didn’t come overnight or anything. I’ve put in a lot of years and personal development to get to this point. But it was because I wasn’t living my purpose. I wasn’t channeling who I am supposed to be on this planet, like, “Who I’m supposed to do? Who I’m supposed to speak to?” And I wasn’t channeling that, I was living a subpar version of me. And the way that I’ve heard it explained perfectly is from David Meltzer. He says, like, all successful people feel this pressure, right? You feel this pressure of like something and you can’t really name it. It’s not people that put this pressure on you, it’s yourself. And he says, all successful people must be what they can be and ever since I heard that, it made total sense. I was negative, I was complaining, I was not happy for anybody, because I wasn’t happy with who I was. And that is where the switch happened. And that’s where I started to do the personal development. That’s when I knew that I had to, I had to catch up to my girlfriend Renee, who she’s really meant to be.

Lesley Logan
Oh, okay, I have heard that quote, before and I it’s like, I think it needs to be on a shirt. And it needs to be on a picture. It needs to be on people’s phones. Because it is true there’s some, I think for some people in my life who are like, “Well, you’re working so hard, you’re working so hard.” And I’m like you have to understand like, not working like not working doesn’t make me feel better. It actually makes me feel like I’m not my purpose and there is a balance there. Like there’s I don’t know if it was you and I ever talked about this, that there’s a difference between hustle and a hassle was that you in a conversation? Somebody, I was talking with someone a couple weeks ago, and about when about when we met and I was like, you know, I don’t think I feel like hustle gets a bad rap because there is a hustle to working. But it’s a hassle that’s where it’s different. But I do I do think that you’re right. When you’re successful person, there is a pressure that isn’t from you and it’s not from other people. But it is because you know that you have this, like this place to be on this planet. And there’s this pool and if you are not going that direction, then it’s very easy to drop into that negative vibe. And then if by chance the people in your life are those people already because they’re not in their purpose. And it’s just like such an easy spiral and I remember I had to move towns, I lived in Orange County. I lived in Newport Beach and I had to move to LA with a girl I just met because I just needed to be I was like, “I have to change my environment. And I’m just gonna move, I’m gonna tell everyone I transferred. (Lesley laughs) I’m gonna move and I’m gonna make new friends.” Because I couldn’t, it was really hard to be that positive person when everyone was being that negative vibe. And if you are trying to do that personal development and try to change, you kind of have to put some boundaries in place. And so when you start doing your personal development, what what I mean, what changes did you see first, what changes do you have to make? Because if you, it’s not like you’ve got there overnight to being in that negative space. So you kind of there’s things you have to do, right?

Renee Dick
Dude, it’s a constant battle. It’s not just like, we just did a podcast episode on this, like personal development isn’t like a diet that you can just do, and once you lose the weight, you’re, you’re done forever, right? It’s like the same thing with personal development. You can’t be like, “Yes, I can accomplish personal development. I’m done.” Like it doesn’t work like that it just keeps coming back. Because you keep bringing back these old feelings. It’s a lifetime of crap that you have to fix or re-correct, correct or retra-ject whatever the word it is. But with me it was. I think when you start, I started listening to podcasts, and my husband had a two hour commute. So he was listening to podcast, I didn’t even know podcasts were a thing. I’m like, “What is a podcast? Like, AM radio?” You know, “Will people listen this?” Like, “What are you talking about?” …

Lesley Logan
I remember the day, “Lesley, are you listening to this Serial podcast?” That’s what got me into podcasts was Serial, which I think is where everyone got into it. But (Renee: So freakin’ funny) But I was like, “I don’t even is, this on your radio? Is it AM? How do I find them?”

Renee Dick
Legit! I was like, “What is the podcast?” But he had such a long commute that he had to find other things to entertain himself on the road besides a radio. So he started listening to Andy Frisella’s podcast. And he was like, “You should probably listen to this guy.” And I was like, “Okay.” So I started listening to him and I had hit like 15 f-bombs in the first like, 10 seconds. And I was like, “Done, this is my guy, (Lesley laughs) wrap it up,” like, here we go. And it just the one thing is it makes you see things differently, is switch, it’s like this flip you get, it’s literally a flip, that’s the best way I can describe it, is you see your life a certain way, you see things a certain way, you see success a certain way, you see people and lives that they live a certain way. And when you finally hear it, you switch it to where now you understand, why they’re living that way, why they are successful, why they’re doing it, and it eliminates that ingrained feeling of successful people are lucky. It’s only meant for some people, and you can never have it, they have some secret sauce that isn’t attainable to you. And they just got they got you know, lucky. And it just makes you really dig into, “Well, why?” It starts making you ask those questions. “Why am I not that special? Why don’t I have that secret sauce? What is it that I don’t have?” And you start doing that’s kind of like the snowball effect. Does that make sense?

Lesley Logan
You’re … Absolutely makes sense. And I think it’s like, you know, we see evidence for which we believe to be true as well, and our ears pick up on things. I think that our subconscious is also trying to attract and trying to understand. And when you listen to a podcast, first of all, even if you’re in a negative space, you’re not like, “Let me find the most negative podcast,” like that’s just not what you’re gonna find because that doesn’t sound fun. And people aren’t really, I don’t know, maybe people are putting out negative podcasts. But most the time you’re me like, “Oh, I’m listening to Andy Frisella” and your brains gonna start to hear all this positive stuff. And then because our subconscious is so malleable, the more positive stuff you put in it out outweighs all those negative thoughts. And so it really does start to help train the brain and you start to hear the things like, “Oh, oh, that’s how they do it. Oh, I can do that.” And it breaks things down and I I think that I think for a lot of people, podcasts are such a great way for personal development, and it’s free. You don’t have to pay for it. Even if the podcast is like, if you join this thing, then you get no ads. I’m like, give me all the ads. I want to hear about the new stuff. (Lesley laughs) I want to support. But like I think I hope that more people are saying that you don’t have to go to some seven day retreat, no knock on those I do retreats. But like you don’t have to have the money and the time to do that you can literally make your commute your personal development time. And so you listen to Andy Frisella and then you, what made you start to want to work for yourself was like between the podcast and the women in business. What was the the leap there?

Renee Dick
Well, I’ve always like worked for myself. I just didn’t know I worked for myself. Like I didn’t know it was called something, I just thought I was a hustler. I’m like I always found ways to make money. If I needed money, I figured out a way to do it. And I don’t do well with people telling me what to do. I never went to school, I went to beauty school so I didn’t have to go to college. Like you know what I mean? I went to all of these things to immediately get out of the norm like my mom worked nine to five my whole life, like I didn’t. I knew that wasn’t going to be my path. I’m like, she worked there for 20 years, nine to five Monday through Friday, every single day. I’m like, “What is this life like?” I knew I never wanted to do that ever since forever. And so um once I kind of started like learning listening to that I was like, “Oh, I’m an entrepreneur,” like I didn’t understand it. I was like, “Oh, I just don’t like to work.” Like, you know what I mean? But I did … (Lesley and Renee laughs) I guess I was just stingy. I don’t know what to keep all the money, I have no idea. So when I went to that woman in business workshop, and I met 30 other women that were CEOs, entrepreneurs, business owners, and I was like, “Holy crap, I’m not weird,” like I find myself, (Lesley laughs) “Oh, my gosh, I’m normal.” And I actually want to be around these people, like, the conversations were different. And so it kind of lit that fire even more that, “Hey, you have something here” and the way that I stood out and I embraced my confidence, because I didn’t have anything and I was either like, “Okay, you’re gonna go to this workshop with 30 other women that are business owners, and you’re coming in with never even sent a damn email.” Because when I did hair it was all handwork, you know, I never even owned a computer. And like, “You have two choices. You can sit in the back and be quiet, and say, ‘Okay, I don’t belong here. These people are, were too advance for me,’ or I can own this shit.” And I decided to own it. So I made the most biggest presence I think I can ever do in my life. And that’s where it kind of started where I was like, “Alright, I’m gonna do this, and I’m never gonna look back.”

Lesley Logan
Okay, so that is insane. I think a lot of women listening to this have been in that exact same place, whether it’s going to a fitness class, and they’re like, “I’ve never worked out before.” And so they like I used I taught, I taught in group fitness y’all I know where you sat, you sat in the back row, guess where I sat the first time I do Pilates. I was like, how far in the back could I go? And little did I know the teacher sat in the middle. So I was in the front row anyways. (Lesley laughs) And whenever I go to spin class, I’m like, “I don’t do that at all.” Now with COVID, I have everything in my house now. But I hated to go into a spin class. I’m like, “I’m in the front row because it’s guys gonna come off the bike and he’s gonna look at me and motivate me.” (Renee: Yeah) And I’m like, “I just want to be in the back.” But I think a lot of people go into these rooms. And they know, they felt the same way. I don’t have a business, or I don’t know what I’m doing in a gym class, or I don’t know, I’m going to take a writing class and I don’t I actually don’t know how to write so they sit in the back. And you’re you asked yourself this question, I could sit in the back and be quiet and think that I’m not good enough. Or I can make a big presence. And so you said confidence… Do you think that like, was there a time in your life that you were like, “I’m just gonna be in the front of the room?” Or what what did you tell yourself each day in that conference to like, get up and get in the front of the room? Or was it just that as soon as you did that everyone embraced you? Like I kind of want to feel like I’m in that room with you.

Renee Dick
Well, you think about it you … the hardest part is deciding to go. Right? (Lesley: Yeah) Like, I mean, that’s the hardest part. Once you realize, like, “Holy shit, I hopped on the plane by myself. Holy crap, I’m staying at this hotel by myself. Holy crap, I just got an Uber.” like, all of these things that you’re like, “I just did all of this stuff by myself.” That doesn’t seem as hard because I’m like, “Okay, I just paid a lot of money to be here. So am I gonna get my money’s worth? Or am I gonna throw this money in the trash?” That was my first thing was like, I I told my husband, “I wasn’t working. I was a stay at home mom.” So I was like, I just told him, I was like, “I have this pull on my heart. I have to go to this conference.” He’s like, “Go,” and so I’m gonna let him down. Right? That was another thing. I was like, he believed in me. And if I go in, and I just sit there, and, “Hi, my name is Renee, nice to meet you everybody.” Does that serve me or him or my son? No, I went to go kick some ass and figure out what’s wrong with me. That’s what I went for because I was tired of being who I was, I was exhausted. I was devastated. I was negative. I was just, I needed help. And so I had that option to say, “Okay, I’m going to be scared and just not get my money’s worth. Or I’m going to soak every last penny out of the thing, because it costs a lot to get there.” And so that’s kind of the (Lesley: Yeah) choice. And what was really cool is like, so the first day, you know, how you do introductions, right? Like (Lesley: Yeah) anytime you go to a conference, like, “Hi, what do you do?” You know what I mean? (Renee laughs) Like, so I, they started going down the line, and everybody would just stand in their chair, like, we’re at da… like tables, and they would stand at their chair and then stand up, they look at everybody. And you know, like, when everybody’s introducing yourself, you’re not really listening. You’re like, “Oh my god, what am I gonna say? What am I gonna say? It’s almost my turn. I have three more people to my turn. What am I gonna say?” (Renee and Lesley laughs) …

Lesley Logan
Well, I have a story to share. We’ll keep going.

Renee Dick
… You literally, you’re not listening to anything Jessica just said, because you’re like, “Holy shit, I got to talk to people.” So I was doing that in my head and I’m like, “Okay, Renee, what are you gonna say?” Like, all these people are like, “I’m the CEO of this, and I have 30 employees.” And I’m like, I’m gonna get up here and be like, “Yo, I got an iPhone.” Like, what am I gonna say? So I was like, trying to figure it out. And I’m like, you know what, I’m gonna own this. So when it comes to my turn, I walk up to the front of the room on like, the stage. And I’m like, “I’m Renee. I have no business. This is what I’m here for. Never sent an email, but I’m here to do something. I don’t know what it is, but I’m gonna do it.” So I then I sit down, and everybody’s like, “Whoa, okay.” And then every single person after that went up on stage to introduce themselves, every single one. And I knew I had something. I was like …

Lesley Logan
Chills! You can’t see this if you’re listening but I have like the chicken skin all over my body. That is amazing.

Renee Dick
Because every single person, it was almost like I didn’t, I didn’t know that now or then. But I know it now like, I gave them the confidence to do that. I took the first step, and I made that, okay. Right? I made it to where it was okay, I went through. So that’s how I run my business too is like, I go first in all aspects of business and then I come back, I report all bloody, all bruised, and I say, “Don’t wear these shoes, you’re gonna need this tool, you’re gonna need this knowledge and this is how you do it.” And that is kind of how I’ve built my business is like, I go first, I eliminate the fear and I report back to you. So your journeys a little bit easier. I give you the confidence to go forward. Because we all need that, we do, we all need somebody to push us forward and I’m more than happy to do it.

Lesley Logan
Oh, amazing. Okay, so I’ve been in that room. My first time I went in the mastermind, first of all, you know, I just the year before, I just spent like $30,000 in Pilates equipment. And so I’m sitting in this room, it’s February, and I tell my husband, like, “I want to do this mastermind. I need to be in there.” Like, I feel like I have gone as far as I can on my own. We know all the things, I’ve read all the books, and we’re not scaling, like we’re keep hitting the same numbers, and I keep having to trade time for money. Nothing wrong with that. But like, I know that my purpose is to help more bodies do Pilates, and I can’t do that teaching one at a time. So I need to be in this room. And he’s like, “Okay, well, you know, if it helps, we’re not buying $30,000 of equipment this year.” (Lesley laughs) So I didn’t spend 30,000. But I did spend thousands. And I go in this room. And they part of me wanted to be in the back row, right? Like I was like I walk in and there’s like six or six rows of tables, and two sides. And all the back row seats are taken. And the next row seats were taken. And I was like, “You know what, you paid a lot of money get in front row.” (Lesley laughs) And so I was able to get into the second to the front row. And they went alphabetical order. So I’m a Lesley Logan, which means I’m dead middle, no matter how they do alphabetical. First name, last name, I’m in the middle. And you had to do a brag, you had to brag about like something you’ve done. And then you had to say why you’re there and what your strengths were. Well, I was raised, like don’t brag. It’s not attractive. Nobody wants to hear you brag. And so be quiet, (Lesley laughs) so you should be seen not heard that was like, you know, so I’m like, “Brag? What do I have to brag about?” Like, I’m just this is me, when you’re out of your purpose. I’m like, “I’m just a Pilates teacher,” like these people are going up there. The first person to go up there was Amy Ledin. So guess what she did seven figure fitness business and I was like, “Whoa, we need to know her.” And what am I going to say now? (Lesley laughs) And so I like but I also I was like you, I was like, “What am I gonna say? What am I gonna say?” And finally I said, just stop thinking about and just listen to what other people are saying. And what I realized was, we make people, we may think people are further along than they are. We make people like this big thing and we interpret that their success is like much bigger than we could ever have. And so when I got up there, and I said my brag, I was like, “Well, I’ve wrote a book… I’ve written a book, and I’ve traveled over a travel over a 100,000 miles a year to teach Pilates. I have a retreat house in Cambodia. Here’s my strength and ideas machine and here’s what I’m here for.” Right? And I sat down, and people came up to me afterwards and they’re like, “You have so much confidence.” It was like, almost wet my pants up there. But the truth is, when you own it and you celebrate your wins, people don’t see how scared you are on the inside. They only hear like what you said, and they too are so like, “I don’t know why I’m here.” And then we all you just rip the band aid off. So when you went up there, and you just gave people permission, you rip this band aid off to make everyone feel comfortable. And then they were like, “I need to be friends with My Girlfriend Renee. She makes me feel comfortable.” Okay, so now, since then you have started your blog, and you have started your business. And what since you know, I mean, you’ve done so well in the last couple of years. But you had to you had to be this business girl before you’re the business girl. So how did you do that?

Renee Dick
It’s so crazy. Because it’s evolving, right? Like you like now when I look back of where I started the blog is it taught me what I needed to know which I’m so thankful for but it isn’t my thing. Like I don’t it’s the it’s the last on the train versus the first or the first stop, however you want to call it, but I needed to know that. So it’s like this, it’s so funny because you think in the time, you have to know everything now and when you decide something, it’s your end all be all. And that’s never the case.

Lesley Logan
It’s in concrete. You can’t change it.

Renee Dick
Yeah. And people think that when they start their blog, or they start their thing, they’re like, “Okay, so the name is so important because if I do my name, then I’m locked into it.” And it’s like you’re not! Nobody’s locking you into anything. If I would have thought that I would have stayed where I was, I wouldn’t be where I’m at. I wouldn’t have all these opportunities, all these businesses that I run and branches of my business, if I would said, “My name is Renee, I’m a blogger. That’s all I have.” And I would have stopped there and like, stopped, you know, evolving and stop learning and stop taking on more opportunities. I wouldn’t be who I’m supposed to be but it evolves over time. And I think that’s the hang up a lot of people have is that they think that once they start, that’s their it’s, it that’s it, that’s their path. And it’s not it’s (Lesley: Right) it’s, it’s ever changing.

Lesley Logan
Yeah, well, um, Humble the Poet in this book, I think, I actually don’t know what the books called. Anyways, it’s on Brad’s desk, we bought it, we put it in Amazon cart, and one of us bought it. But he has a quote that says, “We are constructs not concrete” and so you’re always changing. And if you think of yourself as concrete, then you are going to limit yourself and you’re going to actually feel like you’re not in alignment, you’re not your purpose. And it’s going to get really hard because it’s not fun to just be, to just stay what you were 10 years ago or two years ago, like your body isn’t the same, like my skin is not the same as last year. So. (Lesley laughs) So, I mean, I think that’s really cool that you you welcome that and you appreciate that and then you don’t let you didn’t let, “Okay, I’m gonna start with this be this is all I do.” You actually kept going and seeing what you attracted and I agree. Like, I feel like if I just stayed teaching Pilates, and I was like, “I’m only a Pilates teacher, so I only teach Pilates.” Well, no, actually, I teach business. You know, my husband, I like to give dating advice out, it’s super fun. (Lesley laughs) You know, in my next life, I’ll just actually be a dating coach, that would be really fun. So, um, alright, so you that blog, though, led to you creating more, and so you have an amazing community that you’ve created and how did that come? Like, what was what was that? Because I think it’s really hard to, for people to take the next step because they do think they need to see the whole picture. And it’s, I don’t know, did you know the whole picture? I’m someone who sees the picture and then knows the first next step. That’s me.

Renee Dick
No, not even close. I would love to be that person. I know, I have a vision, right? There’s this blurry vision. That’s just my best self down the road. Like, I know she’s there but I don’t know how I’m getting there. Right? So with me, I started the blog and I was so like I said I was so in that point where this is where people were still shady. Like, nobody shared what they were doing. All the people that have the cool profiles. Were still like, you know, trying to hide behind the curtain. Like, “I’m so cool.” And I was just sick of it. Right? I was like, nobody wanted to help. Nobody cared. Everybody’s insecure. That was before, like community over competition was like a thing. (Lesley laughs) So I was like, building my own website from scratch, right? Like my husband, and I built my blog. And people were like, well, “How did you do that?” You don’t they knew me, because my followers were, you know, my friends and family. And they were like, “How the hell are you doing this? You were a hairstylist, you were a stay at home mom, how are you building a blog?” And so I would share and I’m like, “Well, I’m doing this.” And then I would, I’d be like, well, I want to cool Instagram, like all these other bitches like, you know what I mean? And I was like, I’m gonna figure out how to do it. So I would and then I would share it. And I’d be like, this is how I found it. This is how I do it, take it or leave it. And so my content started shifting to answer questions from people that were like, “What are you doing? How are you doing this? Blah blah.” And so my content started shifting to that and that’s how I started attracting other small business owners. Because it was like, “Well, I want my Instagram to look like that too. Well, I need a blog too,” and it was just kind of like teaching through what I was learning. And so my friend was like, “Hey, you should start a boutique, you like taking pictures of yourself” because I needed to monetize somewhere. I was just doing all this stuff for free. (Lesley: Right) And eventually, I got to make money somehow I didn’t know how …

Lesley Logan
… Gotta make some money. (Lesley laughs)

Renee Dick
Right. I make money, up in this is bitch. So I started a boutique and I was like, “Why not?” Googled it, figured it out, started selling clothes and I thought I was crushing it. I was like, “Dude, I am crushing it. I have this babe support babes tee. It’s selling out month after month and I’m crushing it. I’m making all this money.” And my husband was like, “No, no, no, you’re not. You’re selling the small. (Lesley laughs) You’re not selling the larges, Renee.” And I’m like, “What do you mean?” He’s like, “You think you’re making money because you’re selling out of your smalls. But with wholesale, you have to buy in multiples of six, two small, two medium, two large. You’re selling your smalls. Your larges and your mediums are stacking up over there, and I’m sick of looking at them.” And I was like, (Lesley laughs) “Oh crap,” so he’s like, “You need to make your own shirts so that you can control the inventory and you can control your spending.” And I’m like, “Alright, fine. I don’t know how to do that.” He’s like, “We’ll figure it out.” I’m like, “Well, fine.” So I did just prove him wrong. Figure it out, start making my own shirts. And people were tagging, like, so people would tag me in their stories. And then the girls would be like, “Oh, well, I want to meet with her. She’s a small business owner. She’s in your shirt. Well, she’s in your shirt while I’m in your shirt.” And then I started a Facebook group because all the girls were like, “Well, we want to connect.” And so that’s kind of how the community was born. So it wasn’t, “Hey, I’m gonna create shirts and build a community.” It was I’m learning that I’m failing at making money because my inventory is just sitting here. I’m thinking I’m crushing it, to. Now I’m making my own shirts and the girls are connecting because they’re seeing you’re wearing community over competition, well, you’re wearing community over competition, we should probably connect. And so it kept evolving and reaching that next level. That’s how the subscription was born. Because I was like, “Well, this is super fun, why not get a tee delivered to your door every month.” And then, after it started growing, it was like, everything I did got me to the next step, if that makes sense. So the more I shared, the more attracted this type of customer, then I started listening every single time to my customer. And that’s how it evolved. It wasn’t me deciding to go for it. It was my customer and me working together to evolve my business.

Lesley Logan
It’s basically that action brings clarity. 100% like … (Renee: Oh my gosh, yeah.) And, and whether or not you’re listening, “Lesley, I don’t, I don’t want to make shirts,” it’s like, No see yourself in this. All she did was take action then she listened and she got clarity. And then she took action. And then she listened. She had clarity. She didn’t wait to have all the puzzle pieces figured out before she actually started to go and do the thing. Like, I when I started OPC, all I knew was that I wanted more people doing Pilates. And I was like people have access to this. I’m traveling a lot. So now my clients will have access to me while I’m traveling. And then as it grew, they’re like, “Oh, I would love to know what other people are feeling with the classes.” And I was like,” Oh, yeah, we should do this.” And so now there’s a Facebook group. And now that Facebook group is hundreds of people having the best time talking about their (Lesley laughs) Pilates practice, cheering each other on, asking how their kids are doing. And I did not see that when I was create… I was like, “This is the problem I want to solve. Here’s how I’m gonna solve it. I listened to the people” and then so that’s really amazing. Even if you’re not trying to do business, if you’re just trying to figure out like, what hobby you want to do to make yourself feel better on the weekend. Take action, and then listen, like listen and see. Did that make me feel better? No, it actually made me feel stressful. Pick a new one.

Renee Dick
Yeah, no, it’s so I love that because it’s, it’s something that I I 100% believe I’m gifted with that, like, I act now think later, where like, my husband is the complete opposite. He’s literally the planner times, a thousands every piece has to be perfectly laid out 10 steps ahead, everything that can happen will have like he’s one of those and I am … (Lesley: Was your husband on boyscout?) No, which is funny. (Lesley: Okay) He just like just this planner guy. He’s like a thinker, like he thinks 24/7. And so he’s very type A, and I’m very like jump now. And like, we’ll figure it out later, as I’m in the air, I’m that kind of person. So I’m lucky that I have that because a lot of people let that stop them to where everything has to be perfect before they take action. And that’s never gonna happen. It’s never going to be like you think it is, and you have to take action. And trust me the frickin net will appear every single time. As long as you’re doing it right. And you’re living in your you’re leading with your heart and not your ego. Everything’s always gonna be taken care of everything. I have no, no doubt in my mind. (Lesley: Well) …

Lesley Logan
I agree. Because … unless you’re a brain surgeon. (Renee: Yeah) Right, like, most of us are things that we’re going to do, if you leap, the net is going to appear, especially if you have to leap whether you see the net or not. And I think like I think it was Brené Brown, who was in a podcast years ago. And she said that that thing is like the leap and the net will appear. She’s like, “I want people to think about like, what would you do even if you didn’t see the net? Like, what if you did like, even if you couldn’t do the net? What would you do anyways?” And I am someone who’s like, “If I can’t get something off my mind, I have to do it, just so that I can like … just stop thinking about it.” And then it’s like trying things on. Right? It’s like I do it. And I’m like, “Oh, actually, I really liked that” or “Oh, this could be really cool,” for so I’m, again ideas machine. So sometimes things aren’t for me, there for others, but my husband is an Eagle Scout. So you know, we have everything and he really does like to plot things out. But he does. He’s not so type A and that when we booked our honeymoon, we only booked our first flight and our last flight we should not book the flights in between and we went to three countries (Lesley laughs) and it was like, like a couple months before we’re like, “Okay, so where do we want to go?” because we have a flight to Thailand and we have a flight from Japan but we don’t have anything to … (Lesley laughs)

Renee Dick
… past I mean, I’m even not even close to type A and that makes me have anxiety, so heck No. (Lesley laughs)

Lesley Logan
So but when he but when we actually traveled, we had a dropbox folder that was downloaded to the phone so you need to have internet with every single flight, every single day’s itinerary, all the visas, all the things and he was he was in a band. So we went on like basic tour. We went on nine flights and 14 days three countries all these things. And I was like, “Can we do this?” He’s like, “Oh, yeah, trust me I’ve been this is a tour.” So but he’s he will figure out the steps but he’s willing to let me go a little bit, I have to sell him on the idea a little bit but he he will take the vision and then like break it down to at least I can get started.

Renee Dick
Oh my God, bless. I could never do that in my lifetime. (Lesley laughs)

Lesley Logan
So okay, so now that you um now that you have your community and it’s … your two years in and you’re listening to this, what are you, what are you feeling called to you right now? Like what are you kind of Be It at right now Till You See It? Can you share? I mean, maybe …

Renee Dick
Yeah. So I just … (Lesley: I’m putting you on the spot.) Um, so forever I was I’ve been using Pinterest to grow my blog because like I said, I didn’t know what I was doing. And I was like, “Well, I’ve made this blog and why is nobody coming to see my amazingness?” (Lesley laughs) So I started googling and everybody’s like, “Oh, Pinterest is the biggest traffer traffic driver, whatever.” So, I literally spent a year just diving in on Pinterest and growing my traffic through Pinterest. And people kept saying, like, “Dude, you’re like really good at this, like, you’re really good at this.” I started, my brand just became the Pinterest person. And I’m like, “Whoa, okay. Never had any intent of actually doing anything with it.” And started, so I started like teaching me people on it. And I started realizing, everybody just wants me to do it for them. They were like, “I don’t have time for this.” (Lesley and Renee laughs) Like … (Lesley: … someone who does it.) Yeah, she’s like, “Whatever you’re doing is great but like, can you just do it for me?” And I’m like, “Oh, shit, there’s a market for this. Okay. All right. I did not know.” So I started thinking about how I can grow, because the community is almost like, it’s for chapter one through chapter five business owners, right? It’s that education, DIY, kind of like, you need to do everything yourself. You need to get scrappy, you’re wearing all the hats. But I wanted to reach a different type of person, because I know that where I’m at mentally and what I’ve, I’ve honed my craft so good. And I figured out what my secret sauce is and what I’m freaking good at. And that is repurposing content and Pinterest marketing, because that’s what I’ve done for my business. That’s how my brain works. And I realized by meeting more people and kind of upleveling myself, other people don’t think like that. And so I was like, Well, “How can I figure this out?” So I started launching Pinterest management, and then I started doing like an agency service. So that’s kind of where I’m leaning towards now is (Lesley: Cool) utilizing my skill to what I feel like I’m very good at that. This is something to I think a lot of people don’t realize, is something that you’re good at that comes easy to you, doesn’t come easy to everybody else. And I don’t think we realize that because we think like, “Oh, well doesn’t everybody know how to do this?” And no, they don’t (Lesley: Nothey don’t) like the beauty in what our paths are. Our purposes are is because we’re meant to do something way different than everybody else. We have our own secret sauce. And that’s something that I embrace. And finally, after I don’t even know how long was like, wait, doesn’t everybody think like this? When it came to like repurposing content? And I would teach them people like, “No, I don’t think like that. That is even crossed my mind. And that’s when I knew I had another business lined up.” I was like, “Well, okay, here we go.” You know what I mean?

Lesley Logan
Yeah, that is I do know what you mean. And I think that you hit the nail on the head. And I think everyone listening, if you just think about, like, what does come easy to you, you you actually could monetize that. It’s, um, so I get asked all the time, how you do all the things, how you do all the things. And even before I had a team, I was asked that, and I was doing all the things… And now we have people who do a lot of things, but I still do all the things that I love, I kept the things that I love doing. And I was like, “Doesn’t everybody make their schedule about them? Doesn’t everybody, like make it so that they have the morning that they want to have? And that they work out when they want to do it? And then they time block these things?” And it’s like, “No, actually, people just let the day come at that.” So so I was like, “Okay, well, I guess our next thing is helping people with time management and helping them put themselves first.” But it’s so easy to think, well, it’s just a schedule, or it’s just Pinterest. Like there’s so many courses on it’s like no the things that come easy for you the things that you see, there is a there’s seven and a half billion people on this planet, there are a ton of people that that doesn’t come easy to do … Even if everyone that it came easy to monetized it, you’d still make money doing it.

Renee Dick
Dude in this world, like I have paid people for stuff that I would have never in my life known people made money for. Right? Like the more you actually meet people, and you’re like, “Wait, what do you do?” Like, you know what I mean? What do you do? And then they tell you and you’re like, “Well, yeah, I totally paid for that.” Like right now I have, because I’m signing on and doing my agency. And I have Dubsado, right, which my brain does not Dubsado is fabulous, but my brain just blah, right? So it would take me four hours to do the onboarding process, because I’m like, “What the heck, this overwhelms me.” My friend that I met in a mastermind, that is what she specializes in, systems and processes for clients, and for agencies and for service based businesses. And I’m like, “What the hell, I paid her for it.” Because I’m like, “Girl, you’re gonna give me eight hours and set up my whole thing?” That is what she does, like, who would have thought, “Oh, I like being organized and creating systems because that’s how my brain works. Let me charge for it.” And guess what, she’s crushing it. And who would have thought somebody like that loves systems and loves finding holes in people’s systems into you know, automate and do that. Like she loves that! That doesn’t even (Lesley: Yeah) register on my mind. And I’m willing to pay top dollar for it because guess what, it helps me be able to do the things I do love, like this stuff.

Lesley Logan
Yeah, 100%. I am, I think more people don’t realize that the problems that they that are frustrating them, it would have taken you eight hours but also like, probably a weekend before thinking like, “Oh my God, I have to sit down learn this thing.” And then like you get in, you’re like, “I forget it.” And then it takes longer because now you’re like, “I’m gonna say check my phone because I’d rather do that then do this right now.” And so it actually doesn’t take eight hours takes 15 hours. It’s really stressful. So I’ve definitely been there. Okay, so because people want to stalk to you, like, I want to stalk to you, like I stalked to you. (Lesley laughs) Where, what’s the easiest place for people to connect with you? How can they find you?

Renee Dick
Literally @mygirlfriendrenee on everything made it easy for y’all. I even matched up my profile pictures. I swear when people are like, “Oh, you can find me at my dash 123 girlfriend 495.” I’m like, “Why do you do that to yourself? Make it easy. One name one picture. All platforms. My girlfriend Renee, find me on everything.” (Renee and Lesley laughs)

Lesley Logan
Amazing, and they can and they’ll be able to see your your community there and your podcast there. What’s your … tell everyone your podcast name? …

Renee Dick
So my… Oh, yeah. So that one’s different. So backup … (Lesley and Renee laughs)

Lesley Logan
… Oh you got to partner on that one. So, can’t be my girlfriend …

Renee Dick
(Renee laughs) So it’s Dreams to Plans podcast where it’s just for small business owners. It’s my other friend Kat. I’m a co host and she does stationery and wholesale and products and customer based service. And it’s just, it’s a good mix of two different personality types. She’s like the super sweet caring and I’m just like this witty friggin just nightmare version that just gives it to you like it is. But it’s it’s a good way to get two different perspectives on your business. There’s not a right or wrong way. So that’s something that we truly believe in. It’s called the Dreams to Plans podcast where we just talk about stuff like that. And it’s just, it’s everything you need for your small business. Just two different perspectives.

Lesley Logan
Yeah, I, I’ve definitely been bingeing out and I, you know, I love it. I love it, because you both do, are very honest. And sometimes you don’t agree. And I’m like, “That’s right, because there isn’t one way to do everything.” And so you’re not going to agree and you shouldn’t. (Renee: Yeah) So it’s been so awesome to have you here. Everyone, please stalk her there. And then, okay, last question. I asked everyone, because this is so inspirational. It’s so fun. But I am all about people taking action, because otherwise they are like, “Okay, that was good download, and then they go on their day.” So, what is your, what would be your tips for help people Be It? What is something that they could do to prioritize being bold, executable or find an intrinsic value and motivation or targeted steps?

Renee Dick
Dude, I mean, there’s so many, one the net will appear right? We all know this. This is like rule number one in business and jump in the net will appear I guarantee it. But think of it like every opportunity is I like how you said trying things on. I think of it as a hallway. Right? Your goal is to get to this master suite with the jacuzzi tub and the big like dope ass balcony beat, right? But you’re in this hallway. And you have to open all of these doors to find out which one is the master bedroom. So if you don’t open those doors and peek your head in and say, “Oh, this is a twin bunk bed. I don’t want that one.” How are you going to know? So say yes to all opportunities, stick your head in and see if it’s something you want to pursue so that way if you don’t want to do it, you close the door and you keep moving on your hallway. Do not feel like once you open that door, you’re stuck there. All you gotta do is hang out for a minute, just hang out see if you like it, if you don’t like it, close it. Shut the door if you end up loving it keep the door open. Cool, you learn something new. That’s how I think of it it’s like don’t overthink it say yes to opportunities so you know whether you want to pursue him or not. Who are you to say no.

Lesley Logan
Ah! … that’s beautiful. I love it. I was pictured in the hallway as like looking (Renee: Right) my doors and and you know what some doors won’t open and that’s because it’s not the door …

Renee Dick
Right and don’t take it in.

Lesley Logan
Yeah, it’s like … going you know what, we’re not even gonna waste your time with this one. (Lesley laughs) This is not for you …

Renee Dick
Yes … trust that everything is happening like it’s all happening in divine timing like everything is happening for you it I truly in my bones and proof and I believe it in my core that that is true.

Lesley Logan
Yeah, I guess there I would love it. I think if everyone could be born with this is all happening for you. (Lesley laughs) Get your time you fall that was happening for you. That’s happening for you. (Renee: Exactly) Because we, the more we can ingrain that anyways. All right, my girlfriend Renee, love you so much. Love this chat. I’m gonna want to do it again. So we’ll have to figure out how to make that happen. Please screenshot this, share it on Instagram tag @mygirlfriendrenee, tag @be_it_pod. Let us know your takeaways. It’s how we get more information out there to people to help them, Be It Till They See It. Until next time. See you later. Thank you.

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Lesley Logan
That’s all I’ve got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It podcast! One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate this show and leave a review. And, follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the @be_it_pod on Instagram! I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us help others to BE IT TILL YOU SEE IT. Have an awesome day!

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Lesley Logan
‘Be It Till You See It’ is a production of ‘As The Crows Fly Media’.

Brad Crowell
It’s written, produced, filmed and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan and me, Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan
Kevin and Bel at Disenyo handle all of our audio editing and some social media content.

Brad Crowell
Our theme music is by Ali at APEX Production Music. And our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.

Lesley Logan
Special thanks to our designer Jaira Mandal for creating all of our visuals (which you can’t see because this is a podcast) and our digital producer, Jay Pedroso for editing all the video each week so you can.

Brad Crowell
And to Meridith Crowell for keeping us all on point and on time.