The Key to a 95% Customer Retention Rate | Jennifer Lea | Entry Envy | Profits on Purpose
Aug 01, 2025
Episode Description
In this episode, Jennifer Lea, founder and CEO of Entry Envy, shares her inspiring journey of personal reinvention and entrepreneurship. From overcoming the challenges of divorce and the pandemic to building a purpose-driven home decor brand, Jennifer emphasizes the importance of community, customer experience, and heart-centered leadership. She discusses her strategies for customer retention, the significance of relationships in business, and her vision for future growth. Throughout the conversation, Jennifer highlights the lessons learned and the courage required to navigate the entrepreneurial landscape, ultimately aiming to empower other women to pursue their passions.
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– Nate and the Profits on Purpose podcast team
Transcript
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00:00 Introduction to Jennifer Lea and Entry Envy
01:51 Rebuilding Life and Starting a Business
07:32 Overcoming Fear and Embracing Entrepreneurship
11:56 Empowerment and Community in Business
18:49 Customer Retention and Business Growth Strategies
24:38 Evolving Business Strategies
26:13 Financial and Operational Challenges
29:22 Scaling and Growth Opportunities
32:31 Navigating Time and Attention
40:25 Lessons Learned and Future Aspirations
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Nate (00:01)
Welcome to the profits on purpose podcast. I'm your host, Nate Littlewood. And today's guest is Jennifer Lea. Jennifer is a founder and CEO of Entry Envy, which is a purpose driven home decor brand born out of, from what I understand, one of the hardest chapters of her life. What started off as a personal project to basically rebuild and beautify her home and
as I gather her sense of self has since evolved into a business that delivers joy, beauty and empowerment, one front door at a time. She's built more than just a product here. She's built and is building a community of women all across the country. And today we're going to be digging into what that journey has looked like for Jennifer from behind the scenes. Jennifer, welcome to the show. It's great to have you here.
Jennifer Lea (01:01)
Thank you for having me. Super nice to be here.
Nate (01:05)
Of course, of course. Well, for those who are unfamiliar with Entry Envy, maybe we could get started by just talking a little bit about what the company does.
Jennifer Lea (01:16)
Yeah, absolutely. I think you did a great introduction and the premise is essentially we deliver faux floral holiday and seasonal decor to front porches across the country.
Nate (01:28)
Cool. I love it. Thank you. Thank you. So I wanted to really understand the backstory here from what I understand. You left a marriage, moved in with your parents and basically rebuilt your life during the COVID pandemic. Could you talk a little bit about that,
that phase of your life and what did that reinvention kind of teach you about yourself and how has it kind of shaped the vision of what Entry Envy is today.
Jennifer Lea (02:04)
Yeah. So I always say that the hardest decision I made in my adult life was leaving my marriage and the scariest decision was starting a business. And when I left my marriage, it was in January of 2020. So this was pre-pandemic. Moved in with my parents for a couple of months and the real estate market went through the roof. It was not great to try and buy a house during the peak of the pandemic and during
a financial turmoil situation of a divorce. And so I got a fixer-upper, I would like to call it. And my dad was in construction for 45 years. I grew up
pre-cell phone days. So I was often helping on side jobs or spec homes or whatever it was that we were doing. And so it was, I was well into my 20s, maybe even 30s before I learned that not every single woman knows how to use a hammer and read a tape measure and a drill. Then I learned that most men don't know how to do that either. I just wasn't afraid to tackle the project and moved into this house and just literally the first night repainted the entire garage and just started taking it room by room,
ceiling by ceiling, outlet by outlet, right? And I did the whole thing and it, managed a law firm at the time. So all day long, I was managing a large, fairly medium sized firm. And then at night I was remodeling all night long into the wee hours of the morning. And it was probably one of the most therapeutic experiences that I could have had, but I didn't know that at the time. And so,
When I got done, I was about 1800 hours of sweat equity into my remodel, about nine months into this house. And I have always been a really big person of first impressions. My background has been in marketing and business development. And I just always think about when you walk into a space, how does it make you feel? And I don't care whether it is walking into a meeting, into somebody's home for a dinner party, into a hotel, and into your own home. That is your first impression.
Even if you've been there a thousand times before, what does it feel like? And I think a lot of people don't consider how does it make them feel when they pull into a garage that is disorderly or into a mud room that has a lot going on. And just, it's this instant feeling of overwhelm and I have a lot to do, right? As opposed to walking into a very well organized space that is well kept and just has a feeling of sense of peace. And I think
People don't understand when I'm talking about, I always say walk into a hotel room. How do you feel when you walk into a hotel versus walking into your own home? And I think that you want your home to feel obviously welcoming, but peaceful. And when I was pulling in my driveway of my fixer upper, the inside looked beautiful. When I got to the door, it was great.
But when I was pulling up in my driveway, I was not pulling up to a home that I felt proud of. You couldn't see the house numbers very well. It looked outdated. It still looked like a fixer upper, but I was out of time, money, and energy. And I was like, how do I add curb appeal and help somebody be able to find my house easier without spending a lot of time, money, and energy? Cause I was out of all of those. And I started thinking through and I was like, well,
I'm like, if we just started with the house numbers, like I could update the little light fixture on the front porch, paint my garage door, paint my front door and update these house numbers that were kind of above the garage. were old, they were falling off. couldn't see them. And I didn't want to put a wreath on my front door that I just got done painting because I feel like it always gets scratched. And so I thought, I'm just going to see what's out there. And I started Googling modern house number signs. That was super boring. There wasn't much out there. And then I started looking at, you know, like,
what are some of the options? The only one I found had this vertical sign with the little planter box. And I was like, similar to what we make today. And I was like, well, that's kind of cute, but I live in Nebraska. What are you going to plant in there that's going to grow? You're going to have to water it twice a day. All of the reasons to not do this, but I made it anyway. And then after I got done and I decided it was going to absolutely have to be something artificial that didn't require water because I didn't have time and I didn't want to worry about it.
And then I went to the craft store and it took me 45 minutes to source the materials, design in my head what I had, $38 to buy all of the materials, drive home. I had to still put the thing together. I had Spanish moss all over the garage. I had to find my wire cutters. And I was like, this is a lot of work. Doesn't somebody ship me just a little kit? I just need a kit, you know, to go in here with all of my stuff.
And nobody did. And that was really how the business was born. It was a reoccurring revenue business model in front of me that made sense. And I hundred percent knew that women love to identify their home in a personal way. There was way more of a market out there than just my little front porch that needed a slight curb appeal improvement. And this really had, β
reaching. And in addition to the homeowners, I thought about the people who lived in assisted living and, you know, how do I help them identify their doors? So we have a smaller version that also accommodates any of assisted living communities and apartments.
Nate (07:05)
Got it. Okay. That's quite, quite the story. Quite the story. So when we were chatting the other day, one of the things I remember is you mentioned that one of the best decisions that you'd ever made was simply starting and getting going on this. I'm not sure if it's accurate, but I inferred from that, that there was maybe a period of time when you had an inkling or some perhaps...
interest in entrepreneurship or maybe even this business specifically, but maybe that there was a period in which you were held back or that there was something stopping you here. Is that the case? And you know, if so, was there some belief or fear or voice in your head or something that, you know, maybe delayed the start of this business for longer than
Jennifer Lea (07:50)
was specifically this business need, I had always thought about in, I went back from my executive MBA in 2013. And at the time I had thought that I might be wanted to be a law firm practice management consultant, but I had small children. And I knew that it was going to require a lot of spousal support and a lot of travel time. And it wasn't, it just wasn't going to fit in my life right then and there.
I also wasn't sure I wanted to do that particular profession for the next 30 years. so I just, I finished my MBA, but I put the idea on hold. did look at some franchises. I looked at some other ideas, other ways of like being an entrepreneur. Nothing felt right. Nothing felt right. I probably explored, I would say a solid 10 to 15 different business ideas of whether that was starting something on my own or doing a franchise. And I didn't like any of them. This was so not on the bingo card.
I mean, this job, when it sort of came in front of me of like, you could start a company and there are women who would buy this. And I knew without a doubt that I was right, but it was like a deep breath of where I thought, are you kidding? Like you are a single mom, know, fairly recently divorced. know, just getting through still, we're still in a pandemic mode. You don't have time, energy or money to start a company. Like, no, but there was one person and I don't know if you,
I'm sure you know the statistics, like most founders don't tell anybody for a year that they're working on something because they're afraid that somebody is going to steal their idea or tell them it's a bad idea, talk them out about whatever. And I was in that category, but I knew that there was one person that I had to tell in order to go forward with this. And I was 99% sure she was going to tell me no, and I was not going to do this.
Nate (09:42)
Who was this person? Is this a friend or?
Jennifer Lea (09:47)
My mom has been in corporate, very level headed, knows me better than anybody. Not entrepreneurial exactly, but very creative, but also very logistics oriented. And I thought my mom, there's no way she's going to think that this is a good idea, but I knew I would need her help at least with my kids in order to move forward with it. And so I spent this weekend, I spent that first weekend that I came up with this idea and I didn't tell her just, I don't think I slept or ate. did. just, all I did
was build up prototypes, build out the business model, all the Excel spreadsheets, like really to make sure like, is this, do I just think this is a good idea or is legit their business model that to be had. And when I got done with that and knew the answer was yes, I thought, okay, I'm going to tell her. And so I talked to her, but it was like, it wasn't, and I'm going to do this. was like, I have an idea I want to talk to you about. And I was shocked. She's like, actually, I think it's a really great idea and I'll help you. And I was like,
Okay, now I have to do this, right? Like she gave me the answer that I wasn't prepared.
Nate (10:53)
You were expecting her to say, no, this is terrible. And then what would, what would have happened if she did tell you that this.
Jennifer Lea (11:01)
I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have done it. I just, I would not have. And what she said was, I think it's a good idea and I'm retiring in a few months and I'll help you. And I was like, okay. So she did and you know, has been by my side and my rock through all of this. And that was four years ago. And so I, yeah, it's been, it's been a great journey. It really has been.
Nate (11:26)
Wow. Awesome. So my understanding is that, you know, this has evolved into very much a sort of story about empowerment and community. you're, you're. Feel very passionately from what I gather about the, you know, the people that you're working with and the lives that you're enriching here. Could you, tell me a little bit more about that? And was there a particular time or phase or trigger when you kind of realized that this is.
about more than just, you know, shipping products and started to get a bit bigger sense of the mission and purpose here.
Jennifer Lea (12:02)
Yeah, it's so interesting that when you start a company, I mean, again, I was in corporate for 20, 25 years and we, I had a lot of training around culture and mission and vision and values and how important it is for a company. What I never, I never thought about prior to owning my own company is like, where does that come from? Where it doesn't, it doesn't like.
I suppose that there's different arguments, but it's founder led for the most part. And when you are on day one, it is me, myself, and I, right? Like there isn't anybody else that is helping you form a culture. And then you hire your first employee and then you hire your second and then you hire your third. And I don't know, somewhere around maybe number four or five, you know, one of them asked, what's our mission statement? And I was like, well, that's a great question. Maybe we ought to give a little bit of talk to that, right?
Maybe we got to think about what is our culture, right? What do I want it to be with more conscious intention? But I think at the beginning of a company and I think how a company ultimately ends up, it is founder led. It's heart led leadership, right? Like it's just, the passion. β Kendra Scott says that she has the sister rule in their company. And I've always loved that because I think I treat it the same way. I was raised in a steak house by, that was my very like first experience to
customer experience and customer service. And I was four and I remember my mom worked in this restaurant and I remember Saul Har was this old Jewish man who owned this restaurant and he and his wife and he was just the kindest person. And he said, I just want to tell you one thing, the customer is always right. And I was four and I remember that.
It's just stuck with me, everything about my, whether my customer has been a lawyer that I worked for or my customer was retail in front of me. It didn't matter. I knew that they were right. And so that is how I went into this company saying that's where I love Kendra Scott. She's like, how would you treat your sister? How would you handle it? If this was, you know, her in that situation. So I think that it being very, from the beginning, me knowing
I've always worked in very male dominated industries and this got to be my own culture that I wasn't walking into somebody else's. I got to create it and women, have so many different things that they're juggling at any one given time. And they are thinking about 50 different things all the time. And you don't have to give them, if you hire the right people.
Steps one through 10 to get things done. don't have, all you need to say is this is what I need done and when I need it done by, and let them figure out how to do it in their life. Juggling their kids and their spouses and their moms and their siblings and friends and sports activities and all of the things. And so when we created this culture, it was really driven around. don't have set hours. We want to be able to respect each other and our lives for what they are. We want this to be.
We want it to be fun. Want it to be a place we want to come to work every day. And that is who we have continued to attract over and over. is like, can't culture is it is intentional, but it also you are who you kind of attract. And I think that that's, it's been very organic who we've brought in. So we have our foundational team, but then we added another line, which became.
1099 design consultants that wanted to work as a boots on the ground sales team for us. And that was a different reason that they were attracted to us, but still based on the same foundational values of what they wanted to do. All of the women in our company love faux floral. They love porches. They love helping other women. They love bringing women together in community. The number one thing we do is deliver joy. I don't care whether they are dead or alive, meaning they're fake from the beginning or they are real.
Women love flowers. They love getting flowers. And so when we started doing some customer research a couple of years ago and said, what is the number one reason? Because we have a 95% retention rate over a 12 month period of time in the subscription box.
Nate (16:29)
95% retention? That is insane. Like there are SaaS businesses that aren't even that.
Jennifer Lea (16:37)
Insane. Insane. so we started doing research. Why? Like what is the secret sauce here? And the number one word that we continued to hear from our customers was joy. They just loved how happy this made them. And what it was interesting because the business is sort of divided into, there's a team that...
produces the personalized signs and our customer experience starts there. So if somebody orders a sign, they get a personal text, nothing automated, a personal text from a designer who says, here is the first proof of your sign. Does this look okay? Do you like it? And there is this very unique, like AI didn't do this. Like it's just this like instant connection where the customer's like, wow.
I really, here's my expectations for this company, whatever it was, it just went to here. And so then the other side of the company, once the first order is produced, they're now on the subscription side. And the women who work in the subscription box, both floral component side are women that are semi-retired. They love crafts. They love hot glue guns. They love making this and everything that they do is with care and it's wrapped. It's not.
It's not a manufactured made in China. And our customers know that when they get it and they take it out of the box, there's this, this is adorable. It doesn't look like it came from a craft fair. I'm not saying that like it's just adorable. Like, my gosh, this is for me. Somebody did this for me. Cause most things aren't done for women. Women do them themselves. And it took, was easy and they, brought them joy. was literally one minute to switch it out. wasn't a craft project. didn't take them any time. Their front porch looks great. And they're moving on.
So that is, and then not only that, 30% of our customers have bought a second subscription for their mom, for their sister, for their office, for their second. So I think it says a lot about the culture of the company of where that all comes back to of just heart centered leadership, customer service focused and delivering joy.
Nate (18:49)
Wow. Wow. I hadn't appreciated that your retention rates were that good. And I just, for the sake of the audience, I want to kind of circle back on that point because it's really important. Typical retention rate for any commerce businesses. I'm used to saying, you know, 30, 35 is not bad for a lot of homewares, you know, single purchase items. might be, you know, five or 10%. I would, you know, I'm very impressed when I come across a business that's got 50 or 60% retention rate.
To be north of 90, that is, you know, phenomenal from like a customer financial math perspective. And if you've also got the benefit that customers are recruiting and referring other customers for you, that's, β yeah, phenomenal in terms of, in terms of the math. β I guess there's a lot that other founders could learn from you in, in terms of that. You've already, you've already shared a lot about, you know,
your approach and how you've gotten there. But is there anything else that you can think of that may be contributing to that? Any decisions that you've intentionally taken in product design, user experience?
Jennifer Lea (20:02)
I think the number one thing is that we keep saying yes. And that is contrary to a lot of advice given in startup world. And sometimes I question it too because, and I've referenced this article actually, I reread it and referenced it to my team a couple of times, Paul Graham's famous article of do things that don't scale, right? And so much of everything that I've done in this company, I would say has been based upon that.
Nate (20:24)
Right, right, right.
Jennifer Lea (20:32)
Is there a market and then figure out how to make it scalable? And I'm really good at processes of being able to, my gallop strengths, my number one is strategic, two's maximizer and three's arranger. So I can take a problem and say, this is where we're trying to go. And then how do we get there in the highest ROI and what are all of the pieces, energy, resources, money that, it's going to take to get there. And so I'm not.
been so worried about the things that don't scale, but always very aware of how do we make the scalable if this works. And so when I use that as an example, it was customers that started saying, like we originally did monthly and quarterly subscriptions. We only recently made the change to remove the monthly and only do quarterly. But the reason, one of the reasons that that kind of came about was because we had so many customers who wanted to celebrate
different things. If you think about like we were celebrating sort of the five major holidays, if you will, in the United States and then the seasons, but there was some overlap and you know, 50% of our customers wanted to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and the other half were like, I don't care. I just want spring. And you know, we have a couple of customers in Canada. They wanted Canadian Independence Day, not 4th of July. Or we had customers who wanted a Juneteenth kit. Pride month.
Like my son's graduating. I want a graduation kit. I want a birthday kit. I want all these kits. And so I kept saying yes. And that was creating the customer service standpoint of being like entry and be able to do anything that we want. But it was also creating the scalability challenge of company is growing. How do we keep saying yes and accommodating everybody? And so.
One of the other trends that we had seen over the last two years was not necessarily a change in our churn rate, but when customers were coming on board, they were originally the first two years in business, about 75 to 80% of them were subscribing to the monthly decor kits and the rest were quarterly. I would say based on data and talking to other founders in e-commerce that it's...
primarily economy driven, but over the last two years, particularly in the subscription box world, there was sort of the great subscribe during COVID that lasted into 2021. And then they called it the great unsubscribe and a lot of subscription boxes started to have a lot of fall off. We never had the benefit of the great subscribe because we didn't launch until October 1st of 2021. So I guess that's a blessing and a curse. We never felt that. What we saw,
launching in 2020, the end of 2021, 2022, and about halfway through 2023, 75, 80% were subscribing to monthly. Over the last 18 to 24 months, we've seen that shift and more substantially in the last six to nine months, 50, 50 were subscribing to monthly and the other half were moving to quarterly. So I kind of lead through
I call it data, faith and guts. And data is like, what do you know? What do you see? What are the numbers tell you? And, you know, where's the trends? And then the guts is like, what's your intuition as a founder? What does, what direction are you going? And then guts is just the courage to make the decision and see it through. Right. And so looking at the data, I felt like we were moving in a direction that we were going to be more successful long-term if we focused on the quarterly.
seasonal subscription and that was also initiated by customers asking us to do more. Will you please do something for my front for my front pots, which really are very seasonal. You want spring, summer, fall, winter. I mean, some people are putting Christmas in for sure, but most people are just doing that four times a year. So it made more sense from the business perspective to ship quarterly decor kits for the signs, quarterly kits.
For the pots, the planters out front. If you were gonna have a new wreath or a new rug, that was gonna be quarterly for the most part. And then add on this holiday and special occasion kit shop where if you wanted to buy a kit for Halloween, you could. If you want to buy a rug for Halloween, you can. But core business is spring, summer, fall, winter. So I don't know if that answers. I probably answered more than one question in there, but
that's sort of the evolution of what we've seen and what we've gone to. I don't think the churn rate hasn't changed. It's just been, I think, how people are spending their money has changed a little bit in the last two years.
Nate (25:21)
Interesting. So it sounds like you kind of noticed a pattern or trend in terms of where your customers were going to. And a lot of entrepreneurs would see that and they probably start freaking out. Like, β people are not buying the same way they used to buy. Like how do I get them to, you know, go back to the behavior that I wanted them to have? But it sounds like you took the opposite strategy, which is you're like, okay, I can see where you're going. Let me help you get there. Like you actually enabled it,
rather than try to resist it, which is a really interesting approach. Have I understood you correctly? Yeah. Okay.
Jennifer Lea (25:58)
Yeah.
It a lot of courage. is a lot of that data, faith and guts, it seems, just felt right. Kind of what I do with it. I'm like, you know, think this makes sense. Don't try and fight it. Just in the flow.
Nate (26:13)
Okay. Data, faith and guts. I like that. I like it a lot. So tell me with your data, and guts, what are some of the hardest financial and operational decisions that you have had to make so far and what made them so difficult? How did you, how did you get through them?
Jennifer Lea (26:33)
All of it. have more than once. say it regularly. If I would have known then what I know now, I never would have gotten down this path. I'm so grateful that I did. don't ever want to be misunderstood, but I think there's a quote from Alex Hormozi that says something like entrepreneurship is going to be twice as hard as the thought it was going to be. then times 10, right? Like that's and expensive and everything. So.
Nate (26:34)
We have to begin.
Jennifer Lea (27:02)
I think that on the finance side, when I started the company, I just bootstrapped it. I didn't even know you could raise money. I was not, I knew I was kind of starting a startup, but I didn't really know. And starting a tech startup is different than CPGs. I didn't know that it was going to be much more difficult to raise capital for a CPG company than tech. It's harder as a female. Every single statistic β shows that. So I didn't.
I didn't even know that people would give you money to start a company. So I bootstrapped most of it β for a long time. And then it was like, okay, I got the opportunity to get into an accelerator. And so the first equity I gave away in the company was the opportunity to be in the accelerator. And that was, you know, a 14 week program that was kind of like a mini MBA and raising venture capital.
And then I chose after that, instead of giving away equity to do promissory notes, to kind of get me to the next level. Then I bootstrapped some more. Then I did my first raise, but they only allowed women investors in the company. And that is still to this day, is 100% woman owned, woman led, woman run. I mean, everything about it.
Nate (28:25)
So every employee is a female to a ratio?
Jennifer Lea (28:28)
Yep. Yep. And so it, that's not, I mean, it's just, think again, like you are who you attract. Like it's just kind of like, that's been very organic, but those were the cheerleaders and everybody that keeps rallying. I would say that right now we're at the next kind of big, deep breath space β of the version that got you here won't get you there.
And so there are, on the e-commerce side, there is a beautiful opportunity to scale that. And I have proven the business model. I know, I know what it's going to take. And I know that I don't currently have the team to get it done. And so it's, kind of am holding this space saying I've
Bring it willing to bring in the right co-founder at this point to literally have that ownership mentality of scaling the e-commerce components of it. And, know, we're, talking, you know, dozens of AB testing on the website for, you know, consumers buying psychology and all of the ad creative management that goes along with it. All of the SEO. mean, just there it's, it's massive, right? All of the funnels. I mean, it's all solid right now. Solid.
but the differential of going from the version that we have to the next level is significant and it's a major investment, major lift. In the meantime, there's this other side where I still go back to it's doing things that don't scale and it's testing.
It's the pipeline piece of these in-home pop-ups we're doing, building the Boots on the Ground sales team. Like, am I building an MLM? I don't know. I don't really think so. That wasn't the intention, but maybe. β I, you know, the planters are taking off in ways that I never saw before. I never had the opportunity and we're getting requests on wholesaling and white labeling and, you know, different, like, for example, you know, lawn mowing companies.
have had requests for years from their customers of, you do planters? Well, any landscaping company that does planters knows that they are extremely time consuming. They're hard to make money on. People want them, but they don't want to pay for it. And consumers especially know how expensive they are as well. And there is just an income bracket that can afford somebody to come in and do it and take care of it. And then there's the bracket that
either doesn't have it or will do it themselves. And then there's a whole middle market of like, pay, but I'm not going to pay X, but I'll pay this. And so what, what we're finding without even seeking it is that those are those, there's some of those businesses that would be interested in working with us, which would be a great channel. I just, there's, and then kind of the third, so it's the port, the pop-ups, the planters, and then porches. What else doesn't scale?
The women who are saying, you just come and do this for me? Like anybody can order something off of Amazon and get it delivered to their door. But how do you add the level of service for the customers who want somebody to just do it? They want to know it looks great. They want their front porch to be clean and they want the confidence that it's all done correctly.
Nate (31:55)
So they're physically wanting someone to come to their house to do it. Things that don't scale.
Jennifer Lea (32:02)
So we're currently, yep,
yep, but there is a market there. So β that is, those are sort of the three channels that are in the, I would say pipeline of testing things that don't scale. And again, they will someday, they can, everything is scalable in some way. The e-commerce side is like, okay, I just need somebody who knows how to scale the,
the consumer product packaged good for women that are 45 to 60 years old and manage all of it because it's not just one piece. And even if you hire an agency to just do, there's so many agencies out there and they're lovely people, right? But you have to have a hub that knows what the right hand and the left hand are doing. You have to have the funding behind it to make everything work and somebody really managing it. And so there's,
there's skill set and then there's time and it's just as the company has grown and where the opportunities are at. That's where I see. So I have gotten through every financial challenge we've had just being on strategic about the next place that we're going. What's the next thing that we need? How is the best way to get there? Have I done everything right? I don't know. I think one of the hardest things as a founder is to not compare yourself to somebody else's journey.
Nate (33:27)
Totally.
Jennifer Lea (33:28)
It's, it's very hard. isn't a playbook out there, right? Nobody's done what you've done. so would I do it different? I don't know. Maybe, but every single decision that I've got that has gotten me to where I am is what will lead me to the next place that I have to go. And you can't rewrite it. So I think men and women again, think differently as founders. Not right, not wrong.
Definitely multi-time founders, there is value in having done this before. I think people are so willing to give you advice and most of it is free, right? There's so many, so many resources out there to learn from, but there's also just lessons that there's no way to learn them until you do them. And you you think, you know, I think Facebook ads are a great example for us. Great example. I mean, I have tried with good,
intent, three different ways, if you will, because everybody says they should work for us. And the next agency that I have that says, well, actually they've already had, they've already used this line, but you know, there's no way these are going to work for you. I'll say, okay, you do them, you finance it, and I'll give you a percentage of the profit because I can tell you from these three other experiences, they're not working for us. And so.
It's hard again, because it's like the logic and what worked for somebody else, you know, and again, people who, if you haven't done this before, there's so many complexities, right? There's the creative and the placement of it and the, you know, a lot of different ways to skin a cat, but I just think it's interesting. If you wanted to go off of somebody else's playbook to say why. Absolutely. Should have worked, right? Doesn't always.
Nate (35:19)
Absolutely. There's, I'm a huge believer in, β I guess, personalizing one's own journey as it relates to entrepreneurship. And there's so many gurus and, you know, spatters of wisdom out there who will tell you that, hey, if you want to do grow a business, is way you got to do it. And it's like, no, that's your way of growing a business. And I'm happy that it worked for you, but I'm me. I'm good at different things. I don't enjoy all the same things you do.
So I need to kind of figure out my own way of growing the business and, you know, a path that, works for me. I'm a hundred percent on board with that, which I guess brings me to the next question, which is that at any given day as a founder, I'm guessing that you're overwhelmed by things that are screaming for your attention, whether it's marketing or supply chain or
HR or legal, whatever, there's always stuff that's trying to pull you in different directions. How, how do you go about navigating that? And what are some of the things that, what are some of the decisions that are easy to make for you when it comes to focus and where to give your attention? And what are some of the decisions that you may be still struggling with a little bit?
Jennifer Lea (36:39)
Yeah, never an easy answer to that. I think managing a company for 18 years before owning my own helped tremendously with that.
Jennifer Lea (36:52)
As the executive director of two different law firms, I mean, I was balancing 12 different partners who were all my bosses at any one time. The team of people who worked, you know, with them, with me. β And essentially in that role, I'm managing, I mean, it's HR, it's finance, it's, β you know, the fire marshal coming through on any given day, right? Like it just, it doesn't matter. It's all the things. So I think a lot of founders, β
I mean, the average age of a founder is 42. So everybody comes from a different point of view of experience, but a lot of founders have not had the opportunity to run a company for as long as I did. So running a company doesn't scare me. Balancing my time within that is not terrible. It's, it's okay. The hardest part for me was figuring out how do you start a startup, right? Like, I mean, how do you take an idea from infancy to market? And that's.
I think still the challenge, a hundred percent. I mean, a lot of problems are always solved with sales and it's how do you, when you talk about focusing your time, I think if you, the easy answer to sketch it out on paper is that nothing should be more important on my calendar than focusing on revenue and sales. When you start to dissect that, that gets really messy, right?
So somebody can say, β is being on this podcast today, spending an hour of your time generating sales. Well, maybe, maybe not. Might be somebody two years from now who buys, right? Now, everybody wants sort of to give you input on how your time should be spent. Relationships at the end of the day, and I just actually posted, I read a lot on LinkedIn and I just wrote about this like,
at the end of the day, everything is competing for our attention that is usually electronic in front of us. It's the screen in front of us, right? whether it's emails or texts or all of the social media platforms that we have and all of the wonderful AI that's coming out is fantastic. But at the end of the day, it's still the relationships that give us a stun. It's still whether it's a team member that's in front of you that is only going to perform and do their job as well as they can because they...
respect the company and they respect the leader or whether it's you're negotiating a deal and it's because of somebody that you knew who you knew or it's at a networking event. I mean, there's just so much that's in relationships. So I think the hardest part about everything competing against your time is making sure that at the end of the day, you're still taking care of people first and foremost, and then getting everything else on the to-do list done. there is.
No easy answer. And some days are way more overwhelming than others for sure. trying to take care of like my mental and just physical health has been the most grounding of like, I have to be, I have to make sure that I'm in the right place every day to do the next thing in front of me. And that's my philosophy, like get up, dress up, show up and do the next thing in front of you. Just keep going.
Nate (40:04)
Yeah. Wow. Lots to take in there. How do you know when you've made a bad decision about time or attention allocation?
Jennifer Lea (40:16)
No bad decisions. Every decision is, it's just feedback, right? Like there's no mistakes. There's just feedback.
Nate (40:23)
Feedback, learning.
Jennifer Lea (40:25)
Yep, and I think that's where there's a whole lot of faith over fear. Like there are definitely things where you can play the game of woulda, shoulda, coulda all day long, but it doesn't get you anywhere. So you just have to believe that everything is happening exactly as it is for a reason and it's in perfect timing even when it does not feel that way.
Nate (40:45)
Yeah, which I'm guessing is a lot. If your experiences are found, it was anything like mine. I remember thinking that a lot. Tell me if it sounds like this business has a fantastic future ahead of it. And I'm really excited to see what you do with it and where you take it. But as a hypothetical, if this business were for some unforeseen reason to end tomorrow, what would you hope that people say you stood for?
Jennifer Lea (41:14)
Well, I think I would tell you about my next venture, if you will, and I don't think they're separate and apart. I speak a fair amount and the number one piece of feedback that I get is from, generally it's women, and that there's an inspiring story and that they walked away with more courage than they had to do something that they hadn't considered. I think that part of my mission of...
being here is just sharing what I've learned. I mean, I look at my business as a million dollars education have, you know, 20 years of corporate experience before that in medical and legal, a lot of formal education on top of that. And I just feel like I have a responsibility and a duty to share and not be selfish with the knowledge. I think that, β
you know, the heart centered leadership and just doing the right thing, but making bold decisions is part of that. I think it goes back to that data faith and GATS framework. Women in general have a hard time making decisions. I mean, I always say just go into a nail salon on a Saturday and look at how long it takes women to pick out a color that they're going to live on in their nails for two weeks. And I mean, there's a lot of time and you know, decisions that go into that. it just, it kind of cracks me up, but it's like,
But to my point, those are decisions that they have a hard time making. And so when we talk about big decisions and there's a lot of women who it's part of our culture. We are people pleasers and we think that by doing everything for everyone else first will make us happy. we have taken, know, we've tried to be the best, you know, daughter and sibling and mom and wife and all of these things. And then you get to...
call it midlife crisis or whatever, all of sudden they're not happy. There's a lot of women out there who are just not happy. They don't even know what happy is anymore. I always think about the Runaway Bride movie and Julia Roberts was talking about Richard Geary's yelling at her that she doesn't even know what kind of eggs she likes. With this guy it was over easy and with this guy it was scrambled with a side or whatever. But I think it's true.
there you get to this place where you're just like, what makes you happy? What lights your soul on fire and what gives you energy and makes you show up as the best version of yourself or everyone else in your life. And so I think that I have lived authentically. I have been true to myself and it has been heart centered and I love life and I just, not afraid to make bold choices and I want to help women learn how to.
have the confidence to make their own choices and live their own life and be happy.
Nate (44:02)
Hmm. That's amazing. That is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing it. I love that. So to kind of wrap things up here, if you could go back now and whisper something in the ear of the younger version of yourself, younger Jennifer, who is just about to get started on this business and you could say anything you want to her, what would you say?
Jennifer Lea (44:30)
God, that's such an interesting question. I go back and forth between you're going to make it, don't worry, and then like do it. my gosh, that's so funny, dichotomy. I think it's, I think it would just be like, this is going to be the hardest thing you've ever done. You think you've been tested, that this is going to test you in ways that you've never thought of or dreamt of, but you're going to be the strongest version of anyone that you could have imagined when you get through it.
Nate (44:58)
I love that. Cool. Well, Jennifer, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. Thank you so much for sharing your journey and your story with me. You've taught me about data, faith and guts. I love that model. I'm going to steal it probably and try to apply it to my own work. You've taught me about, I'm really struck by the way that you've incorporated mission and
Jennifer Lea (45:05)
Thank you.
Nate (45:25)
purpose into this business and the way that it's just so multifaceted. Like there is just so much here in terms of, how you're thinking about staffing, how you're thinking about leadership, how you're thinking about, you know, what you're doing for your customers and also, you know, the role model that you're trying to be for other women who might be, you know, on the verge of entrepreneurship and, you know, thinking about doing something like this. I'm really, really struck by that and β kudos to you for doing what you do.
Thank you. If people want to get hold of you, you mentioned earlier that you may even be looking for a co-founder. If that sounds interesting to someone or if other folks out there have got other stuff that they would like to get in contact with you about, or if they just like to learn more about what you're doing, where should they go? I'll drop all these links in the description.
Jennifer Lea (46:16)
Yeah, if they are curious about Entry Envy and any of the business that we have, entryenvy.com. And if they are interested in connecting directly with me, it's just [email protected] and I'd be happy to visit with them.
Nate (46:31)
Okay, perfect. Thank you again.
Jennifer Lea (46:32)
And follow me
And drop that link in as well for LinkedIn. I think you know this, Nate, but I share very openly the startup side of the business on LinkedIn, but I don't share that on Facebook and Instagram. So you can follow me in lots of places, but that's the only place you get kind of this side of the story as the book is being written.
Nate (46:55)
Okay. I love it. I love it. Cool. Well, thank you again, Jennifer. It's been an absolute pleasure to have you on the podcast. I wish you best of luck with the business and looking forward to seeing where you take this all from here. Thank you again.
Jennifer Lea (47:08)
So much, appreciate it.
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