Motherhood, Health Challenges, and Life-First Business with Gabi Day

Racheal Cook (2): Gabby. I am so excited that you are joining me today to share a little bit more about your journey. But before we dive in, I want you to go ahead and introduce yourself and your business to all of our listeners on Promote Yourself to CEO.

Gabi Day: Well, thank you for having me. It is my pleasure to be on here.

It's, I've been on many walks with my boys listening to you in my ears, and now it's very meta and strange for me to be on the other end. Um, I'm Gabby, Gabby Day. Yes, that is my real name. Uh, and I am the CEO, founder, and formulator, uh, at Brightbody, which is a line of non toxic and refillable skin, hair, and baby care.

And I am also developing my own, um, consulting business called hype ma'am. And it specifically focuses on supporting other women and femme product business owners. There's a lot of, as you know, about advice out there, a lot of tips, tricks and hacks, but not a lot of. Well rounded, holistic, sustainable support for businesses that are kind of complicated to run and very capital heavy and, and all of the things.

So that is, those are the businesses and I got here a very roundabout way. I started off in healthcare administration. I have a master's of healthcare administration from VCU and I hated my job so much that my health exploded. And that was the catalyst for everything. So I, while I was out on FMLA, I started, um, looking at ingredient lists.

I had nutrition. I had movement handled. And I thought, what else can I do? Like, my immune system is a mess. Got interested in, You know, cosmetics, cosmetic formulation, the rest is history. And then hype ma'am came about simply because once I finally implemented all of your strategies in the 90 day operating system and learned meta ads and just got really crystal clear about the biggest needle movers for bright body, I realized that there was this massive hole in the market to support.

Other women trying to do the same thing. And I just imagined myself if I had known what I know now, five years ago, like what a difference it would have made. So I felt really passionately about being the anti gatekeeper and distilling everything that I've learned, you know, in combination with a 90 day operating system, but also a lot of Ecom specific.

Type skills and competencies and packaging that into programming that would be really valuable for other women trying to have purposeful, profitable product businesses.

Racheal Cook (2): I love it. And it's so funny. We're going to dive even deeper here because this is such a interesting way that we got to connected. And I think a lot of people really dismiss how like relationships can drive your business.

So I remember you had connected with Megan Ford, who has been a longtime client of mine. She's been on the podcast. She has be kind coaching. She's a parenting coach. So you were In her world. And then she connected you to me. And then when we started talking, literally, we had a conversation and Megan was coming to my office to have coffee same day, the same exact day.

And it was so funny because I'm like, you know, the right people always show up at the right time. I feel like in my world. And when we got connected, I was learning more about you and you are also a twin mom. Yes. How old now?

Gabi Day: Two, there'll be two and a half next month. So they're little happy nuggets.

Racheal Cook (2): And they're so precious.

And your husband is a school teacher. And his name is James Jameson James. Yes. I know and and like the parallels are just uncanny and You know you had started this business prior to having the babies, but of course having twins is going to rock your world I mean having kids in general is gonna rock your world, but when you have twins it really You know, you're immediately outnumbered.

And so I was like, Oh my gosh, you were me 12 years ago when I had really just gotten my business going, had these twins. My husband was teaching school and it was the point where it's like, okay, how are we going to do this? How are we going to get Jameson to be able to leave his job so we can have even more flexibility?

And those were the exact same things you were asking about. You're like, how do I juggle all of this? How can I get my husband? More involved and help me grow this business. How can I grow it when I have the same chronic health issues? I have twins. Yeah, that's

Gabi Day: also creepy. Like we have

Racheal Cook (2): POTS and

Gabi Day: EBS and Lyme.

I was like, hold on, what? Like every time I tell people about all the parallels with you, they're like, that's creepy.

Racheal Cook (2): How aligned it is. It's so well, and also your family is Brazilian and Jameson has Brazilian family. So we've lived in Brazil and it's just like, it's

Gabi Day: real

Racheal Cook (2): weird. The level of things that are similar is just, I've never experienced it ever before in my life, but it was so funny because it was just one of those moments where it's like, okay, clearly we're meant to one, know each other.

and be friends. But two, like I was really excited that I could help somebody who I just had such a parallel prior experience to. And I think it was interesting too, because you could kind of also see like what it's gonna look like. Trajectory. Yeah. Mm-Hmm. in 12 years, , it's gonna be, yeah. The goals. Yeah.

It's gonna be different, but it's possible. Right. And mm-Hmm. . I think that was really exciting to see because sometimes you don't see that all the time. Like, and it also helps, you're here in Richmond, so we've gotten to see each other more than, you know. A lot of other clients are all over the place, but we get to see each other both at CEO retreats and other events happening around the city.

So it was just really cool to be able to make all those. Connections. It was absolutely and it

Gabi Day: even goes deeper than Megan because I first had fired up and focused which I heard about from Amanda Montgomery who's one of my best friends and she has Hummingbird Flower Co and she started River City Flower Exchange and she actually Megan and her husband Jason lived with Amanda for a period of time so they were already connected.

Um, so yeah, the web. The web runs deep and it was it was just I had been on your newsletter list for a while And I loved everything you were saying but to your point about having twins rocking your world It having kids will light a fire under your ass as an entrepreneur. I hope I can say ass on your podcast But it was like red hot fire under the ass as soon as I was at that appointment You know, we went through iui ivf recurrent loss I was going through all that while trying to build my body.

And then we did one embryo, single embryo transfer, and I had a sneaking suspicion it split, but once I was confirmed and I saw that second little bean, I was like, you know, alarm bells, like, okay, we got to buckle down, you know, shit's about to get real.

Racheal Cook (2): Literally. And that's how I felt. I remember when I found out I was having twins, it was like.

All the thoughts of, well, I could always just go back and get a job. I could. You know, all those things, it was just like, nope, now or never, we're going to do it and we're going to do it how we want to do it. This is not the time to backpedal. This is the time to go all in.

Gabi Day: Yeah, it's like, this is not a drill.

Yes, it's now real, real serious.

Racheal Cook (2): Exactly. So I love that you shared all of that. So when you joined us and started going through all of the CEO retreats and starting to build in the 90 day CEO operating system for your business, your twins were still, they were like, Almost a year old months. Yeah, they were they

Gabi Day: had just I think I joined Uh about a month month and a half before they turned one Yeah, and then I had my first retreat the month that they turned one.

We're all me and them were all april babies aries um So yeah, I just I I knew I was going to try to just survive the first year We had a really traumatic birth and I just needed to get mind and body in a better place. And then once um Once the clock struck, you know, close to one, I thought, okay, now let's, let's buckle down and not only, you know, make the business work better for me, but make a legacy for them and, and bring Jimmy into the whole shebang.

Racheal Cook (2): I love that you share that it took you like a year to really be at that place. Cause same, I feel like a lot of new moms still Go into, you know, their first year with their baby and think, Oh yeah, I'll have a two or three month maternity leave and then I'll just get right back to how I was before. And it was not that way with me either.

Like it was really, really a lot to recover from. You have two kids, it's double the complexity. It took me basically a year to kind of get back into like, I can even think about something other than like what was immediately. On my plate. It was like I was kept everything running bare minimum for that whole year and then once they were older We weren't nursing anymore.

It was like, okay, I'm not like literally feeding children 24 7 I can think

Gabi Day: Yeah. Yeah, it was definitely like that. I was I was pumping and My whole life revolved around my boobs and making sure my boobs were emptied and refilling at the correct rate to feed them. And, uh, like I said, it was, it was traumatic birth for all three of us and I had a lot of like PTSD to work through.

And at that point I had, I had enough systems to coast and I think we actually grew 5 percent that year while I was mostly on coast mode. I did actually like a crazy person. That's when I expanded to baby products. But that almost felt more like the universe telling me, Hey, your kid's skin does not like what you're using from the other brands.

What you going to do now? And I said, fine. So it was actually kind of a fun break when Jimmy was home for the summer anyway, that I could leave the house. I could still bring my pump stuff, start formulating. So I did do some new stuff, but it wasn't nearly the level that I'm operating at now. Cause yeah, I wanted to make sure that I was in a good place physically and mentally, because it does take.

It does take juice and bandwidth from that perspective to make all of the changes and get really intentional about your systems. Because if you're operating from panic or stress or fear or scarcity. You're not going to make good decisions and you're not going to implement things as well as they could be so I just focused on Survival and coasting the first year and that was a good decision.

And then once I was out of that fog I was pumping. I knew it was that was the time

Racheal Cook (2): I think this is again just so important because we talk about having a life-first business and that means there's gonna be seasons In your life in your family's life and in your business Where it makes sense to just slow down and make things as easy as possible.

And this is one of those seasons and looking at, you know, my kids are now in high school. Every time there's been a big shift in the seasons of our life, we've had to adjust the business right alongside of it. And I think going into it, knowing that takes a lot of the pressure off that you have to do things a certain way, or if you're not doing it in a way that, you know, some other person is doing it, you're somehow failing.

I'm like, it's all about what works for you and your family and the season that you're in.

Gabi Day: I love to remind myself always, like, you make the rules. That's one of, like, my core values with Hype Ma'am, is like, break their rules to make your own, because there's a lot of, you know, coming from, Corporate healthcare administration.

It's a very old school, old white man's game. And I heard all the time. This is just how it's done, regardless of whether it was effective or effective. And I've always been a bit of a. Rebel in that way. As you say, I'm a mismatcher. People do things one way and I'm like, that's whack. I'm doing it this way So I've always had that in me, but I think being in that world, you know Even a little bit will kind of stamp your creativity out.

So being back in entrepreneur mode and Mom mode I kept having to remind myself like You are charting your own path and you get to make the rules. It doesn't, it's kind of irrelevant what other people are doing because they're not living my life. They're not you.

Racheal Cook (2): Exactly. And that's why I have been so committed to working with women business owners.

Because when I started all of the people who are talking about growing a small business and owner operated small business were men who had a stay at home partner and you know, It was just such a different dynamic that I was like that does not work for me in the way my life actually looks so I knew that I wasn't the only one and it's so hard to break out of those like constructs that we've all Grown up with so I love that you have really leaned into creating and breaking You know, breaking the rules to create your own.

I think that's such an important lesson, especially if you want a life-first business, because there's so much out there telling us what we need to do or how we need to do it. And you've definitely. do things the way that Gabby is going to do them. No one is going to tell you the way to do anything.

Gabi Day: No, no, no.

Not when you're in Ari's Enneagram, it's like, tell me, tell me how you want me to do it. Okay, I'm going to do it the other way. Yeah, it's, it is, but it's liberating though. I think that a lot of women, you know, millennial Gen X, we're, you know, it's interesting. On the parents raised us to. Have this notion that like you can be anything you want to be you're a strong woman and and when we are strong women They're like hold on you're a lot So we've been kind of fed this Yeah, very two sided coin.

And so I think, and you know, you know, as an eldest daughter, I'm the youngest, but we are often taught like, you need to just make people comfortable. You need to make sure that everybody else is happy. And when you are the CEO of your own business, that's what is what, why are we doing that? That's that shouldn't even enter the equation.

So it's like, how can I prioritize my own wellbeing? For myself as a person, and then also for my ability to be an effective leader and and ceo.

Racheal Cook (2): Yes, I think 1 of the things I appreciate about you so much, Gabby, is that. Like you said, we're very similar in that whole, like, you're very ambitious. You have a lot of drive, but when you're also a mom of littles and you have chronic illnesses, there can be some tension there between all the vision and the drive and where, you know, you want to go.

But the reality of we have to pace ourselves and like your health is not a optional, like I can just not take care of it because. It can be, it can derail everything. So as you got into the rhythm of our 90 day operating system, I want to hear about like, what were some of the first things that really stuck out to you that helped you to yes, put this into your business, but that helped you also to prioritize your life and your health and your family.

Gabi Day: So I think, I mean, I've always, like you saying, I've always been very determined. I have like, Through the roof, which is a blessing and a curse because it can mean that, you know, I, I push myself, but I think that the universe has taught me many times, girl, you need to slow down. You know, it's like right when I was doing great.

Postpartum started doing 90 day operating. I mean, I think when I actually had my first onboarding group call with you I was in bed because my first postpartum period led to like a crazy pot flare And I couldn't even walk around the house because my blood pressure was just so wacky and it would make me puke and it was miserable So every time I think that i've learned a lesson I get served It on another platter where it's like, Hey, you can't, what are you doing?

You need to, you need to pace yourself. So that's always been there. And certainly when you have little kids and you know, especially back when I started childcare was very spotty and sporadic, I would have to kind of. Fit in work and non traditional times. So I might not be working during the traditional work day.

I'm napping when they're napping, but then when I put them down for bed, I'll do 90 minutes of work or, you know, I'm not working during the week, but when Jimmy's home on the weekends, I'll take, you know, a Saturday and do some work. So a lot of what it looks like to implement was again, breaking the rules and kind of getting around, you know, just setting different boundaries.

It wasn't so much that, you know, it's not about. A certain number of hours. It's like well, what do I need to get done? This week versus what I want to get done like what's actually necessary And then how can I just make it work like tim gone on? Project runway make it work like that was just in my head all the time Like how can how can I make it work with my constraints right now my schedule right now?

And so it looked a little wonky for a while and now telecare is a little more regular We have a sitter once a week. They just started preschool. So I do have some more You predictability, but a lot of it was just being flexible and, and making sure that I wasn't creating rules for myself that were unnecessary.

I do that a lot where it's like, okay, I have this to do list. I want to do all of it this week. And it's like, what are you doing? So a lot of it was just right sizing expectations of myself. And then also getting out of this mindset where it's like work has to be done between 9am and 5pm. That's the only time you can do it.

And it's like, well, some days I'm just tired and I want to sit outside and blow bubbles with my kids and I can do work when dad is home and dad can have solo time with them. He's a very equal partner and parents. So. That was never a concern and I'm, I'm excited to listen to your, um, episode with Jameson when it comes out because I think that's, that's an unsung, um, very important element, I think, to building a life-first business as a woman and as a mom is that you have to have support, whether, even if you're a single mom, you have to have some kind of support and if you are partnered, it's important to have your partner on the same page and be able to step in.

At at home or wherever so a lot of it was just I I definitely have I had raging OCD as a kid I definitely have a little skosh of it as an adult, but i've learned to manage it and one of those things was setting rules for myself that didn't Need to be there. So it's like it doesn't count unless it happens in this particular way or I didn't do enough if I didn't get to X number of things on my list or What have you like I would just create all of these Hoops for myself to jump through mentally to feel like I was doing enough or doing it well enough or fast enough or whatever And so I think that was a big mental shift.

It wasn't hard for me to implement the things, it was more so what is my attitude around the how and giving myself permission to just make it work given my constraints without neglecting what I needed to feel good and have energy and do all of the things. So it was a lot of, I love a plan, I will work a plan to death, um, but sometimes When your kids are that little and you don't have much child care, the plan is however it works.

There's no specific recipe. But literally.

Racheal Cook (2): It literally is. And I love that you said like right sizing your expectations and this is again a twin thing I think is, you know, you look at your friends and family, whoever has had children in like the first baby, if they only have one at a time, usually they're like so precious about everything.

This is the schedule and this is how we do it and very particular about every single thing. And. I felt like my experience as a twin mom was I'm outnumbered. So however we need to do it is how we need to do it. Right? Like however we need to feed this baby is how this baby is getting fed. However, we need to diaper this baby.

If their outfits don't match, if whatever, like none of that mattered as much as like. Just getting through the day. And I think that's something that, you know, a lot of people say their business is their baby, but a lot of people are too precious about their business and about the expectations they bring into it.

And that perfectionism really holds. A lot of people back, I find, um, because they think that things have to be a certain way and that really limits you, honestly, because it's putting, like you said, extra hoops that you have to jump through and you're the one that put the hoop up. Like no one else is forcing you to jump through this hoop, but for some reason you've decided it has to be this way in order to be enough.

And enough is. What you have the capacity for right now and again with the seasonality like that will change. I remember when Jameson was teaching full time and my kids were really little. I was like counting down and looking at the clock every day until he walked through the door at three o'clock. And if he was walking through it like three Oh five, he by then had gotten calls and text messages because I had been waiting for my turn to do what I needed to do.

And because all of my work, you know, it was calls with people. It was the only time I could take a call is if I knew I had childcare and I just remember like realizing, okay, this is not going to work longterm. I need help. I need to adjust my calendar. So I'm not like completely having a meltdown mentally.

When he's running late because he had to call a parent or something and you realize you have to loosen up on some of those things and you have to be a little bit more flexible and not be so rigid with the expectations that we, we have.

Gabi Day: Totally. And another twin mom reference, Ellie Burke. Yoga meditation teacher life coach you guys shared a nanny.

I knew her through the yoga world I also have a background in yoga and meditation. She was one of my mentors for my 500 hour training I have many lives. That's confusing. I also like I did a year of architecture school. I'm a very confusing person but um She one of the things that I remember her saying years ago that she said really stuck with me was The contents are static, but the container can be flexible.

It's kind of like how you do your top three each week. And, you know, what are these? Okay, I need to make sure I do these three things. How and when I get them done can be flexible. Just as long as I hit those three and my CEO score, then okay, we're golden. And so anytime I would get overly rigid about things, I would be like, Okay.

Container can be flexible. Like it's going to be fine. And just last week when I got COVID for the first time. You know, I had to adjust one of my top threes. One of my top threes involved like recording some video trainings for hype man. But you know, my voice was weird cause I had COVID and throat issues.

So I was like, okay, what can I substitute for that? And old Gabby would have been like, well, that's, that doesn't count because it's not the original top three that you said. What? Why? That's so silly. So it's like, you can, you can, even the things that you feel like are concrete. It's not so much like that specific thing had to be done with COVID.

It's like, well, what can I. Substitute that makes sense. So I'm at least. Checking off three important things, needle movers this week that I can do while I'm sick and I don't need to talk. I can just, you know, do it and then take a nap and have some soup or whatever the case is. So that that has been helpful just reframing like the container and the content and not creating unnecessary rules for myself that don't add any value and just add more stress.

Racheal Cook (2): Absolutely. I think for parents, I think, with chronic illness, like, being able to have a plan is great, but we all have to go into that knowing that, like, situations are going to change. There could be an emergency, someone could get sick, your day could be completely derailed, and the important thing is that you are aware of, like, how to prioritize in the moment.

And make those changes. And I think that's where a lot of people just get really frozen and stuck because they're not clear on how to prioritize or how to, you know, move things around. And I think the more you work the system, the more you understand how you can swap those things around and it, it doesn't stop the plan from getting done.

It just means the way. It's getting done. It's going to shift. And I, again, it's about not holding on to things so tightly. Stop letting go of the a hundred percent perfectionism and instead let reality be reality. And adapt and adjust to it.

Gabi Day: Totally. I mean, I used to think, I used to run on, as I say, like I ran on vibes and it worked well enough to have decent results.

But then once again, there's those two little beans on the ultrasound. I was like, that's not, vibes are not enough. Um, But I used to think, well, I can't, I can't do strategic planning. I can't do a 90 day plan because of health issues because of young twins, because of whatever I used to think all, I don't have much childcare.

I would think all these things because I used to think that the plan meant rigidity and everything. But when I. Actually went through the 90 day planning process and learned how to implement all these things I realized that the plan actually gives you more freedom and running on vibes might feel freeing in the moment But it's because you're inside the bottle You're not reading the labels like once I got outside of the bottle and I made the plan I realized oh this actually Gives me so much more runway so much more freedom without decision fatigue or stress or sitting down and thinking, what newsletter am I going to write today?

It's just, it makes everything easier to have that container. And you, regardless of your life circumstances, you can still find a way to make the plan work if you have the right mind frame about it.

Racheal Cook (2): I love this running on vibes because that's what a lot of people do. And I find a lot of small business owners The reason they're struggling to grow is usually because they are running on vibes.

Like they, they will do marketing when the inspiration hits them or, you know, they'll throw a sale out there or, you know, do any sales activity when they look at their bank account and go, Oh no, there's no money in here right now. And running on vibes is not how you grow. It's definitely going to create.

Feast or famine. But as you start to need to, you know, make more investments into your business. So like your business has grown tremendously. You have a warehouse space, a manufacturing space. Now, how many people are on your team? You've got some people who are doing three, well,

Gabi Day: three or part time now, actually.

So I have a virtual assistant, I have a production manager and then two part time that help with production and fulfillment as needed. But yeah, it's been, couldn't do anything without them. They are my heroes

Racheal Cook (2): and you couldn't. Make sure they have a job if you are still running on vibes, right? Consistent marketing and consistent sales strategy in order to maintain the demand That allows your business to function So I want to ask about that a little bit because one of my favorite things that you ever did and you bring it to all The retreats is you 12 month calendar.

Gabi Day: Let me show you hold on for the people watching I have it on me. I just actually, I made it a little simpler the other day and got it reprinted. It's laminated. It's like laminated, double sided.

Racheal Cook (2): And it's so fabulous. Tell us a little bit about when that hit you in making that.

Gabi Day: I think it hit me within the first couple months of working with you where you were kind of giving me some one on one advice via loom about implementing some of the strategies that you talk about in the collective because it's, you know, it's primarily for service based businesses, but I think me and then, um, the, the Bo, the Bo, Nicole,

yeah,

Gabi Day: yes, Nicole, she, um, we're the, the few product, People standing out.

And so you sent me this loom and you're like, okay, you got to have something each month. You got to have at least a promo each month. We got to have some nurture marketing newsletters in there. And I thought, okay, what is the way for me to make this plan visually that makes sense to me so that it's not just a never ending list in a Google Doc because that was gonna not work for my brain.

So I just pulled up Canva and I got to work and I thought, okay, how can this Be basically my guiding light for nurture and invite marketing throughout the entire year. I decide once I don't know if you've heard of the lazy genius Kendra Adachi I love that book and one of the things that I use so much is decide once like just decide How you're gonna do it in a way that makes sense You can't just decide once willy nilly and then follow it because then what's the point?

You know, it took me several weeks to really nail this down. And, you know, to my point, I just edited a little bit the other day because I was like, I can make this better, but I just very intentionally took a bunch of time. How can I make my inner turn and bite marketing? Make sense, be consistent, rinse and repeat year over year.

And be visually easy to understand for me and for the team because one of these hangs up here in the studio So everyone knows like okay, there's a free, you know mini with purchase sale coming up later this month We need to make sure that's on the production schedule, whatever and they already know that because it's hanging up there I don't have to you know, have a whole special to do about it.

It's just everybody's on the same page So I I made This beautiful Canva, and it's actually one of my, um, free resources through Hypemam, is I made a template for this, and I also have, like, links to, um, GuideStar, and links to social media holidays, so if you're gonna be, you know, donating to a non profit as part of a promotion, you can do some research on what those non profits might be.

There's a lot of relevant social media holidays. For, you know, skin care and hair care and baby care that I will throw in through the year as it, as it makes sense. But it just gave me so much mental space to not have to think about this. Because when you have, you know, evergreen products, it's like, do you have skin and hair 365 days a year?

I hope so. Then, so, then, okay, then it's always relevant. So I always felt like, oh, I'm bothering people or, but it's already here. Why do I need to remind? Mind you and it's because we're inundated with marketing all the time. Like you have to remind people you exist repetition is the point It's like I was literally telling one of my clients this morning.

Like if your marketing doesn't feel repetitive you're doing it wrong it's literally repetition is the point and Getting this another hoop that I built for myself a little prison that I built for myself was Oh, well, I have to do something new and different. I always have to come up with like a new promo every year every month Whatever.

Why? You And nobody remembering what I did last year and even if they do that just means they're a VIP like super involved customer great that speaks well to it. So when I just decided once very intentionally about what the year would look like I just didn't have to think about it anymore. I just had to do it.

It's

Racheal Cook (2): so freeing and you know I relate this a lot. I know you know you did this specifically for a product based business because your promotions are going to look a little different than like someone who's a service based business. But. You know, if you think of it like, um, editorial calendar for a magazine, and this is how my brain always thinks of it is if you were to go into the grocery store and look at the magazine rack every month, there's a theme for the magazines, right?

And they're going to repeat those themes. Every year, the image on the cover is going to change, but they're still going to have something new year, new you in January, like they're still going to have spring, something spring cleaning, spring organization in the spring. Like, they're going to have very repetitive themes and that just eliminates so much of the decision fatigue.

And the other thing is it lets you build up assets. So now you've been running this system for your business long enough that it's like great. We already did holiday promotions. We already did this nonprofit. We already know these social media holidays, a new graphic, but not a whole new concept and a whole new campaign.

Gabi Day: I got templates on templates in Canva, everything has a folder, I have SOPs, so my, you know, at this point, my virtual assistant, who is actually, again, the web, uh, she's one of my husband's former students, shout out to Harriet, uh, she schedules all of our newsletters, all of our, you know, Instagram posts, everything that goes out, and it's just, Recycling what we've already done and it, it works.

So at this point, it's, it's really helpful to have this, you know, when I first created all the assets, I really needed to like have my thingies in it, but now that it's done, it's like, here you go, they're all created. We have an SOP about how everything works. Oh, is there a new link in bio that needs to be added?

Here's a link to that account. You know, go schedule this link for when it's live. It's like there's a, there's a rhyme and a reason and a system for everything. And yes, it took a lot of elbow grease and brain power to create it. But once it's created, it's just, you can breathe a little easier. Everything becomes less overwhelming.

Racheal Cook (2): It just eliminates a lot of that decision fatigue. And I think that's something as a small business owner, um, when we're getting started, we're, we're so much in that creative energy and the new ideas bring in all that dopamine, right? We love the new, we love the creativity, but. If we're just, like you said, coasting on vibes, then when we have to do the things longterm, those vibes die down.

Like it's not going to give you a ton of dopamine to be running a system that is super rinse and repeat, but that is. The secret to having more sustainable business is making as much rinse and repeat as you possibly can.

Gabi Day: And it's given me space and time and energy to focus on the new projects that do make sense.

So I, I did a lot of releasing new products that, you know, haven't ended up being evergreen based on sales and how I felt about, you know, do I want to keep doing this or not? But now when I, you know, I've had, you know, Next month will be our fourth, you know, new product this year. We've launched a total of four products and they've all been either reformulations or very strategic based on best sellers.

And I couldn't do that well if I didn't have this, you know, existing system for, for nurture marketing and invite sales, because so much is already handled. So it actually gives you more freedom. For the fun creative projects that make sense and it makes you be extra Intentional about the fun creative products.

It's not something that's just willy nilly and it's my next thing that i'm hopefully working on is um, I'm going to be crowdfunding to make an spf product which has been a massively requested Item so it's like again. I couldn't do any of that because If my wheels were spinning and my time was eaten up by what I've already created on my beautiful Lamination exactly.

Racheal Cook (2): Well, how has your role shifted since you started working with us? Because I know watching you you really stepped in to being the ceo of your business But i'd love for you to share a little bit like how has Implementing these things, the 90 day CEO operating system. How has that shifted your role day to day in the business?

Gabi Day: I, I still, you know, formulate all products, all products. That's one of my You know special sauces and I don't think I'll ever give that up. But once it's done I pass it off and Steph at this point. She is my wizard my savior my lord and savior stephanie christ She is like could not live without her She is better at production than me at this point because she knows what she's doing.

We have sops we have you know, plug and play Spreadsheets based on percentages of ingredients and the whole stuff. So I don't have to be involved in production at all You In general, I'm not involved in fulfillment, but we've actually found on Saturdays, or excuse me, on Sundays, our family afternoon activity is the boys and Jimmy and I come to the studio and we fulfill and they love it.

It's the cutest thing. And it's kind of like already introducing them a little bit to the concept of a business, but in general, I'm not doing the day to day ops. Harriet handles customer service inquiries through email. So I am doing purely like strategy, marketing, revenue generation. That's me. So all of our meta ads and that strategy, we're just now getting on Amazon implementing that, you know, a whole new sales channel requires requires a whole new system.

So please talk about templates, you know, for listing images, a plus content, yada, yada, um, all of that new strategies for, um, We have a giveaway twice a year and I will still be running some meta ads for it. But given that we're in election season, October is a giveaway and we'll have a lot of political ad spend during that month.

Um, I'm also doing a collaboration with a really established brand that has a really great audience overlap. So all the marketing, all the strategy, all the revenue generation is me. And it's, it's great because then I don't have to. You know Code switch brain switch. It's not like okay. I'm i'm in production mode now I need to go answer customer service emails now.

I need to go figure out what my You know ad and creative is going to be for this month now I need to figure out what i'm doing on amazon. I just it's i'm in the same mode all the time and The team appreciates all the systems we have and They know if there's ever a question, like there's a system for that.

They know that there's a standard operating procedure. There's a list somewhere in a Google drive and they will be able to find it. It's properly labeled and named and everything has a place. So it's been, it's allowed me to just focus on, you know, my role as the leader is supporting them to make sure they have everything they need.

And they know that's my, my number one role is like, I trust them. I already know that I don't need to. I hate micromanaging. I don't need nor want to do that. So my role is what do you need for me this week? Oh, you need me to place a raw materials order. Okay. Let me look at quantities and forecasts, etc Whatever, but i'm always like, what do you need for me?

What can I do for you? And That is also, it's so much more fun to be that kind of leader than to be like, Hey, this week we're having this sale and I need you to put this on the production. Like they already see it. It's on our laminated calendar. So it's, it's allowed me to be a better strategist, marketer, leader, all of the things.

And it just keeps me in my lane where I'm doing the most for the business in terms of. Generating, generating revenue. That's what I'm doing.

Racheal Cook (2): I love it. And it's so important, like being able to lead in this way. One, it just makes your business so much more fun to run. Doesn't it? Like, there's, I, I definitely see when people don't have this type of structure in place, then there tends to be a lot more panic mode, emergencies, putting out fires, but when you really.

Take the step back and put these systems in place and put this kind of operating framework in place that your team understands. I think that's huge. The team gets what you're trying to do. They're not confused and wondering what they're supposed to be focused on. It's all laid out for them. It just makes your business so much easier to run, which then makes your team happier.

They stay. It's a great experience for everyone involved.

Gabi Day: Yes, absolutely. I mean, I even my virtual assistant. I'm like, hey, make a I want you to make an SOP because we pretty much get the same, you know, 10 to 15 questions over and over again, put them, put them in a document, make it searchable. So it's like, everyone already knows whenever if we do things more than once.

I'm like, write that down, write that down, make it an SOP. Let's make it terrible in the Google drive. So it's like the, we're all on board and it just makes everything easier. And we just hired someone else who actually, again, small world. She knows Ellie Burke. She was one of my first teachers when I came to Richmond, um, Kathleen, and she's a Virgo and I said, Oh honey, you're going to love it here.

The Virgo systems are, you know, turned up to 11. They're going to love it. She was like, Oh, this is amazing. We have, like, I told Harriet, like, go zhuzh up that fulfillment SOP so that Kathleen has it, you know, we're all on the same page and she was able to do that. So it's, it's just, it makes everyone's lives easier.

Again, it's a lot of elbow grease to get these things up and running. But if you think of them, uh, to your point as assets, the return on that investment of time and effort to do all those things is through the roof, because it just keeps returning day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

Racheal Cook (2): Yes, and for your business, especially as a product based business, where you really like you couldn't operate at the scale you are right now solo, or if you didn't have a team that was just running on pace with each other, like clockwork, I think that's just so, so important for people to understand that when your business is going to grow, if you really do want to grow it, it means we've got to put the systems and the infrastructure in place.

Gabi Day: Totally. I was talking to one of my clients this morning. She runs a beautiful local jewelry business. And she's like, I don't think I would have been ready for ads until now because I have, you know, we've learned what do I need to keep in back stock versus what's made to order? How do we fulfill? Like, what's the workflow for that?

The whole she's like, I wasn't ready. I didn't have the systems. I'm like, exactly. Because You know, one of my hype family lead magnets is like an am I ready for ads checklist? There's like a minimum and there's a ideal level of readiness and it's you know you can't just hit turn the faucet on until you have a bucket ready to catch the water and It's unsexy perhaps to put all these things in place, but That's your bucket.

And if you don't have a bucket, you're just wasting water and you're running up your bill.

Racheal Cook (2): But that's what we see a lot of people do. They think scaling is just turning up the ads. And it's like, if you don't have that. System in place to make that turn into clients and revenue, then it's not going to get you very far.

Um, before everything's broken internally, the whole system starts to fall apart. So as we kind of wrap our conversation today, I definitely want to ask you what would you share with anyone who's considering joining us inside of the CEO collective, whether they are a product based business like my right body or a service based business like hype, ma'am, what would you share with them?

Gabi Day: Just do it. That's my, that's my Nike endorsement. I think it's just, if you feel like there's just something that you're missing, there's a je and you are on the precipice, you feel like you're, you've got some momentum, you've seen some success, but you're running mostly on vibes, you're finding Uh, cashflow to be inconsistent.

I feel like one of the number one things that has changed for me dramatically is if you cannot reliably within 10 to 20 percent predict your revenue month after month, you don't have the systems in place and you need, you got to do. You got to do a little audit and a little cleaning, a little rebuilding, a little remodeling, if you will.

So if you are at that place where you're like, okay, things are humming, I'm having some success, but I'm feeling a little scattered and I can't really predict. And I feel like. I always have to be doing something to see momentum. That's a sign that you would 1000 percent benefit from the CEO collective because it's going to get you crystal clear on what actually matters and what is just busy work and magpie, you know, shiny object.

Like you are not a magpie, you are a CEO and I think I find a lot of women, especially women, product business owners who call themselves makers. They think of like, Oh, CEO or business is a dirty, it's a dirty word. It's a four letter word. No, it's not. It just makes, if you, if you consider yourself a CEO, it makes running everything easier because of what it takes to implement and to actually live into that role.

So if you're, if you're on that precipice. And you think, okay, growing is just going to be 10x what this feels like, then that's not, that's not the move. You should join the CEO Collective because it's going to keep you on track and accountable and doing what you need to do for the highest impact with the least amount of spinning wheels or Scooby Dooing.

You know how Scooby Doo just like moves his paws really fast before he starts going somewhere? It's like, if you're still moving your paws and not going somewhere, then the CEO Collective will. We'll bridge that gap for you. Well, thank

Racheal Cook (2): you so much for sharing that with everyone, because that's exactly what we're here to help people with.

So I appreciate you so much, Gabby. Thank you for taking time today to share your experience inside of the CEO collective. Now, where can people find out more about my bright body and about hype ma'am, if they are a product based business looking for additional support.

Gabi Day: Yeah, so you can find us, uh, hypemam.

com. I'm still in the process of building a website, but some stuff is up there already. We're on Instagram, just Instagram, as hypemam. Um, and then for Brightbody, we're on Instagram, uh, at mybrightbody and also brightbodybaby, but everything is together on the same website, uh, mybrightbody. com. And yeah, I'm just, I'm already supporting several, Uh businesses and one of my favorite things that I do is called fairy ads mother So I support people through it's like one on one ads coaching, but it's more than just ads.

I can't help myself. It's very Conversion rate optimization in every possible channel and making your marketing Work for you. And I, I absolutely love it. It's been fun to even have clients before I'm officially launched, but yeah, hype ma'am everywhere you can find and my bright body everywhere you can find us.

Racheal Cook (2): Perfect. We will make sure to link everything up so everyone can go check those out. Highly both as I have now been converted into my bright body products and Also huge fan of the work you're doing with the clients that you're working with. It's amazing to see them already getting results, putting these things in place.

So thank you so much for joining us and everyone who is listening in, check out all of the things that Gabby is up to in the show notes. Thank you so much, Racheal.