Hey Reader,
It's been a minute (okay, 5 months π³) since my last update. The short version? I bought back BestSelf and wow... it's been a journey!
You might think, "She's done this before - how hard could it be?" That's exactly what I thought.
But here's what nobody tells you: taking over a scaled business solo is nothing like building one gradually with a team.
Picture this: You built a house from the ground up, sold it, and then bought it back years later. Coming back after two years away has felt like returning to your childhood home only to find it's been completely renovated - nothing is quite where you remember it, and the familiar faces are gone. The bones are still good, but rebuilding has been more work than I expected. Despite having founded and run the company for eight years before, it has felt more like starting over than coming home.
Oh, and you're supposed to host daily events there starting today. Oh, and you have to do it without a team in place, in < 8 hours a day (daycare hours) while also raising a headstrong toddler and somehow having a life.
The business was still making money (thankfully), but that almost made it harder in a way. I was suddenly solo-piloting a seven-figure operation with zero support staff.
Imagine going from having a full crew to being the pilot, flight attendant, and mechanic all at once.
The Plot Twist π
Here's the part I haven't shared publicly until now:
This solo journey wasn't Plan A.
When this deal came to me I didnβt want to do it solo. I had a partner lined up - someone I could trust and had the experience to run the day-to-day. Someone who I would allow take the grand majority stake while I advised from the sidelines so they had skin in the game and acted like an owner.
But then came the eleventh-hour power play. They tried to change the terms last minute, thinking either that I would agree or Iβd walk away and let them do the deal solo. They mistook my kindness for weakness.
They miscalculated. Badly.
Within 48 hours, I had a new plan: buy it myself, run it myself and figure the rest out later. Was it partly spite? Absolutely. But it was also because I thought it would be a fun challenge and hell it would make a good story the grandkids.
In retrospect this person did me a huge favor and forced my hand. The best gifts donβt come wrapped and on a specific day of the year. The universe conspires in our favor more than we realize
The Challenge of Constraints
β
I set myself a challenge when buying back the business: no additional capital injection beyond the purchase price. Everything had to be funded through sales. Was this making things harder than necessary? Probably.
But I wanted to build differently this time and I had more to lose than I did when I first started it.
This constraint led to an interesting timeline decision. The PE firm wanted to close later than I did, but I pushed hard for an earlier date - specifically, two weeks before Valentine's Day (if you know BestSelf, you know we have a lot of relationship products π).
Here's why timing mattered so much:
The purchase price included existing inventory, but waiting longer meant I'd miss the Valentine's Day rush AND inherit less inventory(since they'd keep selling during those two weeks). By closing earlier, I secured both the full inventory and the seasonal revenue spike.
It was simple math: same purchase price, but with more inventory and a major sales opportunity in my court instead of theirs.
The gamble paid off. In February alone, the Amazon revenue (not profit) generated over 80% of the purchase price. The profit from that first month funded new hires, software setups, and operations - all without touching external capital.
It's amazing what setting constraints can push you to achieve. And speaking of constraints - the biggest one wasn't financial, it was time.
Unlike my first round with BestSelf, I now had a toddler and an 8-hour workday max. This forced me to think differently about everything.
β
Reality Check
When I sold BestSelf in 2022, it was in what Tony Robbins calls the "Growth" phase - like a capable teenager who could handle responsibilities, could be trusted to be independent and was hitting their stride.
When I bought it back, it had regressed to more of a "Toddler" phase - technically able to walk and do basic things, but needing constant supervision and support to avoid disaster.
Like a determined two-year-old who insists "I do it myself!" while trying to pour milk into a glassβ¦ π
Yes, the business could function on a basic level, but without the right guidance systems and constant oversight in place, it was one unsupervised moment away from chaos.
The AI Paradox
This is where those time constraints led to an unexpected breakthrough.
β
When I first started using AI tools, I worried they might make the business feel more robotic and impersonal. Which would be dumb for a company based on empowering people and personal development...
Plot twist: it's done exactly the opposite.
Think of it like hiring the world's most efficient personal assistant. All those little tasks that used to bounce around in my ADHD brain like ping pong balls? AI can handle almost all of them, simultaneously.
β
And here's the cool part - with all that mental clutter cleared out, I can actually show up as a real human being. I'm having genuine conversations with customers. I'm thinking deeply about our brand instead of drowning in busywork.
Turns out, automating the right things doesn't make your business more robotic - it frees you up to be more human.
ββ
And speaking of humans - Black Friday season taught me a humbling lesson...
I took my old team for granted. When you work with great people for years, you forget how much institutional knowledge lives in their heads. The countless little things that make everything run smoothly. The problems they solved before they became problems - I see it all clearly now when I didn't before. AI definitely didn't fill this gap and I appreciate them more now than ever.
Profit > Revenue
You know those "I run an X-figure business" posts? Let's talk about what they're not telling you. Revenue without context is just a vanity metric. What matters is how much you keep.
Here's the reality: When you're chasing top-line growth, you might be handing a huge chunk of that revenue straight to Facebook ads or taking losses on acquisition. There's a point of diminishing returns where more revenue actually means less profit.
That's why we're focused on sustainable growth this time around. Sure, our total revenue might be lower than last year, but our profit margins tell the real story
β
Some interesting Amazon data from our Cyber Monday: β
We generated 50% of the revenue and sold half the units compared to last year but matched the same profit. Using just 25% of last year's ad spend.
Instead of slashing prices for volume, we focused on smart pricing and efficient marketing. It's validating to see that our strategy of prioritizing margins over pure sales volume is working, especially on Amazon.
The business as a whole is at nearly 4x the profit margin we were at before, despite being down 50% on the revenue.
Tools making my life easier:
β
βGranola.so for meeting notes
βSuperwhisper for transcribing instead of typing
βMercury love this bank. It feels like the future and it keeps getting better and better.
βSellerboard use this everyday to track Amazon profitability
βFinaloop for real-time bookeeping and metrics. I never have to wait to see my P&L so I can keep easier track on everything in real-time.
β
A Public Commitment π―
No more sporadic updates - I'm committing to writing twice a month. And to keep myself accountable: if I miss an issue, I'll donate $500 to a cause I strongly disagree with and share the receipt publicly. Nothing motivates like a public humiliation.
Coming up next...
There's so much more to share (seriously, this could be a book), but I'll save these for the next email:
- My tool stack of 2024
- Where my time's actually going these days
- How I'm reconnecting with customers
- Specific strategies we're using to increase AOV
- Custom GPT's I've built out
But for now, I'll spare your inbox (and my typing fingers π
).
Cheers,
Cathryn
P.S Here's a recent video I did with appsumo that people have been liking:
βP.S. If you enjoyed this newsletter and want me to dive deeper into any of the topics covered, just hit reply and let me know. Your feedback helps shape future emails!
Enjoy this newsletter? Forward to a friend or have them signup here.
β
β
