Welcome to MARGIN

Speaker A: Welcome to Margin. Most people think margin is something you measure in business. I believe it's something your business should create. More profit, more time, more clarity, more freedom, more life. I'm Julie Gregerson, a wife, mom, um, to three young kids, paid ads expert, and a serial entrepreneur with nearly a decade of experience. And I teach founders to own their ads, own their data, and own their growth. We're done outsourcing our power on Margin. We'll talk about paid ads, profit identity, and the real life tension of scaling while still being present for the people in the life you started this all for. Because of course I want you to make more money and I also want you to have the margin to actually enjoy it. That's the kind of life we're building here. So grab a coffee and let's go. Hello. Hello and welcome back to the podcast, you guys. And welcome to Margin. If you've been listening for a while, you notice that things look a little different around here. New name, new cover art, but same me, same voice, same opinions about paid ads and building a business that actually supports your life. But margin, it's been something that's been in the works for a while. I've been trying to put words to what has been in my head, what I am trying to achieve and kind of the movement I'm trying to create in the entrepreneurial world around how you can scale your business and how you can take back control and vision over what that looks like for you as a female founder. So Margin finally put words to the conversation I've been having all along. The ones I keep coming back to with clients, with friends, with myself, usually late at night because you all know, I am a night owl. But here's what I've noticed after managing multiple eight figures in ads and helping founders scale across the board. And guys, I've been doing this for nearly a decade. When I say that, I'm like, wow, I have been in the game for quite a while. But after working with so many women, here is what I have found. I have found that the women who have built something that creates the most margin in their life, the most margin for them to be their creative visionary self, the most margin for them to be able to pour in to their family, allowing them to travel, allowing them to actually honor their body and work out because they actually have the time and the margin to do that. The women who have created something like that, those are the ones who, uh, made it to the top. They are multiple eight figures, whatever your business goal is, but when they got there they still enjoyed their business and they, uh, still liked what they were running. Whereas on the flip side, I have helped founders who have eight figure businesses and I had a couple of them tell me that they enjoyed their business more at five ah, figures or six figures than they did at eight figures. And it's because now they feel trapped. They feel like they have way more to do. Even though they have this team, even though they have the systems, they just feel trapped. And part of it is because I think that they just take on everything, all the shiny objects with no vision as to where it's actually going to take them. Like, one of the biggest things I walk my clients through is looking big picture. Like anyone who is in my world knows that looking big picture is such an important business skill, especially for female founders. Because when you stay narrow vision and you are jumping on every growth strategy under the moon, then yes, you're going to be scattered all over the place. It's going to strip you of your energy and your time and usually it doesn't actually get you where you want to go as quickly to where as you. If you look big picture and you actually have a broader vision for where you want to go and you realize that you actually have the power to make that decision on how your business is going to look in the future. Those are the women who loved their business at the end. Those are the ones who felt like they were fully in control of their business and they were able to choose how they were growing it. And that's obviously the goal, right? We all want to get to that place. But after being in the game for so long and, uh, just the nature of my job, seeing the back end of these businesses, hearing the heart of the founder and her scaling, you know, desires that she has for her business, then I have found that it's not always the case. There's so many women still throwing spaghetti at the wall, still not feeling settled in her growth strategy, still feeling like she's walking on eggshells and that she can't let up, that she has, you know, a team to pay and clients or students that she needs to show up for. And she feels like the weight of the world is on her shoulders and she feels like she is giving her business, her everything. And eventually she might look in the rear view mirror and wonder if it was all worth it because look how fast time is going. She's missing those moments with her kids. She's not traveling, she's not able to be present in her actual life because she's so Laser focused on her business. And don't get me wrong, like, we are all highly ambitious. We all have massive vision. I am one of those people who could work 24 7. I just made a reel on this on my Instagram and I could seriously work 247 because I actually love my business. I think it is so fun. Um, especially when I'm like done with client work and I actually have spare time. I'm like, yes, I get to work on my business and I have young kids at home and I have a husband and I have dreams to travel the world. And so you really do have to pull back and really analyze. Like, yes, I have a big vision and yes, I wanna work toward that. But am I leaving margin for my life? Because what I don't wanna do is miss out on relationships with my kids, relationships with my husband, relationships with my family and my friends, my dreams of traveling the world, me honoring my body and actually giving myself an hour a day to work out. Like, those are things I don't wanna have. Time is flying. Like, the fact I was able to say in the beginning, I've been doing this for almost a decade, blows my mind because it has truly flown by. So all that to say is that the people with the most margin in their business and the most ownership over how they're growing it and where their business is ending up, those are the women that had margin in their profit, margin in their calendar, margin in their decision making. So they weren't stuck in the weeds. They were able to step back into that visionary role, margin in their energy. They actually had the energy to show up for their family, for themselves, for the life they wanna live, and most importantly, margin in their life. That word kept coming up over and over and over again and it just kept coming back to me. Like maybe call it a, uh, divine download. But what it came down to is my goals for myself and my goals for the women I am helping. And my mission in this entrepreneurial world is to help women actually live the life they want to live while scaling a wildly successful business. I want them to have more margin in their profit and I want them to make a ton of money. But I also want them to have more margin in their life white space on their calendar time to actually enjoy what they want to do. Because what I have actually also found is that when you do have that margin in your calendar, that margin in your life, and you are able to dedicate it to actually living, then your inspiration is going to come back. The burnout starts to disappear and you start to enjoy your business more. And when you enjoy your business more, it is going to do better. Like, people can get a read on your energy. Energy is such a massive thing. And I think especially because of AI and you know, I feel like everyone's messaging is blending together. People are looking for that human connection and they're looking for good energy. You know, in the state of the world right now, people don't want a bad vibe. And they can tell if you are burnt out and burning the Kindle on both ends because you haven't created a business that actually allows you to be happy in your business and your life because the two are intertwined. And I have been saying this time and time again that you got to keep your life at the center and you got to build a business around it based on the vision you have for your life. Because we get so stuck in our business vision, I think that we forget the whole reason we went into entrepreneurship. We forgot that the reason we did it was so we wouldn't have chains because we didn't want to work for someone else. We didn't want to go into a 9 to 5. We didn't want to feel chained down. We didn't want to have a cap on our financial potential. We didn't want to be told that we could or couldn't take a vacation. Right? We wanted freedom. That's ultimately the goal of most entrepreneurs when they go into entrepreneurship is freedom of some sort, whether that be financial, location, time, freedom like most of us were after. Freedom of some sort. And our vision for our business got so big that we lost that filter. And so now we have this business that is sucking the life out of us and we're wondering if it's all worth it. I see it again and again and again. And I think that is why entrepreneurship is so hard for women, is because not only is it just a hard career path in general, it really does take some self development just as much as business development. Like, it really is bringing you to your core. Like really having you do that inner work to figure out what it is that you want to bring to this world, what it is that you are passionate about, what it is that you want to help other people with. You are doing that deep inner work. And then you have to go through the struggles of comparing yourself to others. And all of the noise that's on the Internet right now and this person over here telling you, oh, you should do this strategy, and then this person saying, actually that strategy is garbage. You should do this one. And it just going back and forth, and when you are just getting into it, sometimes it's overwhelming, and so you try all of them, and then you totally lose that vision of why you started entrepreneurship. Okay, so I kind of went on a side tangent there. I tend to do that, but I just wanted to circle back. That margin is a growth podcast. I am pro money. I am pro ambition. I am that person. I have wildly ambitious goals for my business. I am creating generational wealth. Like, I believe that to my core. And so I am not anti money, anti ambition. Like, you just have to live your life and be present. Who cares if you make money? Because I know that that's such a big goal for women. Like, we want to reach that next level. We want to create generational wealth. We want to our full potential to the end. We are ambitious, and we don't want to stop midway and wonder what could have happened if we would have went all out. But on the flip side, we also care deeply about honoring our life and our energy, and we don't want to feel like we missed out on that either. So I do want you to scale. I want you to make more money than you ever thought was realistic. I'm not here to tell you to slow down, to want less, or to build some quiet little business that doesn't bother anyone. But I'm, um, also not here to pretend that burning out is the price of success, because it isn't. That's a broken model, and that's not a badge of honor. But that is what the industry tells you is required for success again and again and again. It's like you got to grind. You got to go balls to the walls. You got to, you know, put your head down and go through your trenches. And yes, like, when you are growing your business, it is going to take evolution. It's going to take determination. It's going to take the effort. And most of us here, we're not lacking that. And so I'm not worried about that, but I'm not going to pretend that burning out, that's just a price you got to pay to build a successful business. No, because I've seen women at the very, very top with those goal businesses that you all want and I want, but it wasn't a goal business behind the scenes, and that is not what I want for you. And so, as someone who has stepped behind the scenes of, uh, some of the top names in the industry, honestly, and I have seen how chaotic it can feel and how they're running around like a chicken with their head cut off and they don't feel like they have time to do the things they want. I realized, uh, well, you know, if I'm being honest, I would rather have a smaller business and actually be able to have fun and enjoy my life. And then all of this stress on the back end. But then what gives me hope is I've also seen businesses at the very top. And those CEOs they do have, they have the boundaries, they've got the margin in their life, and they've got the profit and that financial freedom that we are all after. So I'm not here to say that you can't have both, because I do think you can. And another thing that I'm really going to be covering on this podcast is precision scaling with precision, getting precise on your goals and your vision, all of that, just narrowing down and cutting out the noise. And sometimes, guys, even subtraction, when you are subtracting, it doesn't mean that you are less ambitious, that you are, you know, giving up. Sometimes it means that you are locking in because you've been in the game long enough to know that this scattered method of growth that everyone is doing where their energy is spread in a million different directions isn't getting you where you want to go as quick as you want. Because, guys, precision creates margin. I've seen it time and time again when you get specific about who you're talking to, when you commit to one growth method instead of chasing five different ones, when you actually read the data and you make data informed decisions instead of guessing and going off of good feelings and good vibes, when you make intentional decisions instead of reactive ones, everything gets simpler. And simple is where profit lives. And so many women either don't know that or they don't believe it enough to actually implement it. And I think a lot of it does come, and this is something I'm going to be covering a lot on the podcast as well, is that women have gotten so used to outsourcing their power to everyone else that we almost don't trust ourselves enough to take it back. But when you can trust yourself enough to know that you have everything you need inside of you, that you are capable, that you are powerful, and that you are the person to move this business forward and honor your vision along the way, then that is when you can step into that next evolution as a CEO founder, the next evolution of your business, because you're able to take that back. And I see women do this in their messaging, in their direction of their business, in their Growth methods. We think someone outside of ourselves has the answers. And I honestly think it's really sad because a lot of times it comes from a place of I'm lacking something. And so I'm going to look outside of myself for the answer instead of saying, I actually have what it takes and I'm going to move forward and honor my vision for my business and my life. And do I think mentorship is great? Yeah, I invest in mentors all the time. I think putting yourself in rooms, that's going to expand you. That's going to make you think about things differently, that's going to take you to the next level. That's going to get you rubbing shoulders with other highly ambitious women with massive visions. That is going to absolutely aid you in your growth. And I will say again and again and again, I will always put myself in rooms that I'm going to be elevating myself as a founder, elevating myself as a person, and like I said, making those connections with other powerful women. And so I'm not saying, oh, it's all inside of you. You don't need anyone else. You don't need to put yourself in rooms. That's not what I'm saying. Like, of course you can find those rooms that are going to take you to the next level. Absolutely. But I think women too often doubt their own abilities and capabilities and what is living inside of them, and they wait for validation from other people or other programs or courses or growth methods, and they think that it has to live somewhere outside of themselves instead of getting, like, really honed in on what they already know is their mission and what they were meant to do. And it just hinders their growth, which I know so many women are like, no, I'm doing all of the things because I do want my business take off. And I'm like, girl, doing all of the things is why you. Your business is not taking off. So that's another thing that I really try to get people to reframe their mindset around, and it's something I'm going to be covering a lot on the podcast as well, is that you can own your power. And I truly believe that with your growth. I think we outsource our growth too much or the biggest lever in our business, we just give to other people when you could own it. And then you have this mechanism that you can turn up or down at any time. And it's so empowering because so many women are out there wondering what next month is going to look like and hoping that they have organic stuff that's going to keep going viral so they can keep making money when they could be installing this growth mechanism that's going to grow their business predictably. That's, like, obviously my thing. I'm like a paid ads expert. So I believe heavily in the power of paid ads, but I believe even more so in giving women the power back to run her own paid ads, which just puts more money in her pocket, more power in her hands, and more control over the direction of her business. I mean, paid ads truly is one of your biggest growth levers, so you should own it. That's a big thing that we are going to be talking about on the podcast. And paid ads are obviously my expertise. That's my edge. That's my thing. Like I said, I've spent nearly a decade inside ad accounts. And they're not just a traffic source. They are one of the clearest, most controllable windows into what's working in your business. Your messaging, your offers, your funnels, your positioning, it all shows up in the data. And isn't that an empowering feeling? So many women, when they actually learn how to read their data, when they actually learn how to think of ads as like, hey, I'm buying data. Like, if I could pay a coach to tell me exactly what's going to work on my messaging. And it's like, true. It's not just her vibes and her feelings over what's going to work. It's like, no, this is actually what's working. Then a lot of people be like, yeah, sign me up, I'll hire that coach. But then when they think about buying data with ads and, like, learning how to look at data through that lens, so many women are like, ah, sounds complicated. Sounds risky. I, uh, never was a math gal. And I want to show you guys that actually owning your data is one of the most powerful things you can do in your business. And that it's not hard. I was never a math gal, either. You just need someone to show you how to read it strategically and the easy way. Because I myself was never a math gal. And I have managed millions and millions and millions, millions of dollars in ad spend, and I do a pretty good job at it. So this show is a lot bigger than ads, though. And I always say that to people, like, it's so much more than ads. If you watch my Instagram at all, anything I post on there, you're going to see me say that it's so much more than ads, because I truly believe that. And so on this show, we are going to be talking about money. We're going to be talking about the real conversations behind growing a successful business, being highly ambitious and wanting to reach your full potential in your business and with that massive vision you have, but also honor your life, your family, what you're living in the day to day, your body, your energy, all of the things that you are dealing with in your actual life beyond your business. We're going to talk about the conversation and the friction of both of those. We're going to be talking about profitability, we're going to be talking about freedom. We're going to be talking about identity, mindset, scaling. We're gonna be talking about CEO decisions, where to focus, what to ignore, how to stop being reactive and start leading your business with actual clarity. We're gonna talk about growth strategies, offers, funnels, customer journeys, and the systems around paid ads that determine whether scaling works and it actually works with your life. And obviously we are gonna be talking about life, getting your time back, being present, designing a company that supports the life it was supposed to create in the first place. And you guys, there's a reason I took a break from my podcast. Like, if you have been following the podcast, you know that I haven't posted on Life First Business Growth, that was the name of my podcast formerly. And I took a break from that because I knew that this mission is this podcast. My business direction was evolving. It was evolving before my eyes. I have invested in mentors that are helping me work through this. I have really been doing deep inner work and not only in my business, but also in my life. Like, what do I want my life to look like? I am not one that just preaches something and then I live my life totally different. I am working through the things we're going to be talking about on this podcast in real life. I'm putting it to practice because I'm not saying I have it all figured out. If you watched my Instagram reel about the work life balance thing or work life boundaries, I mentioned that I could be a workaholic. I could work all day long. But I have three babies at home, a two year old, a four year old and a six year old. And those little kids are growing so stinking fast it actually makes my heart ache. And so I really had to take some deep inner work and really reflect on the mom I wanted to be, the wife I wanted to be, how I wanted to show up for my friends and family, the energy I wanted to be able to put into myself for Self care and working out and moving my body, doing the things that used to light me up that I haven't had time for because I'm, you know, so busy with client work and building this business. And like I said, I have felt this deeper evolution of this brand, this deeper evolution of my vision for it and how I'm going to be helping women. And so I took a step back from my other podcast and it really transformed into something I'm so passionate about and I'm so excited for. So I am going to get back to consistency here. And if you listen to this and you were thinking, this sounds great, this sounds like exactly the kind of podcast I want to listen to, the kind of corner of the Internet I want to be involved with. Because when you surround yourself with women who are thinking like the women in my world do, with work, life, boundaries, and honoring the fact that we are highly ambitious with massive generational wealth visions for our business business, but also honoring the fact that we have a family that we don't want to ignore and a life that we actually want to live. If that sounds like your type of people, please follow the show, leave a review on it. That would greatly help me reach more women and just really expand our community in the podcast world, which is ultimately what I want to do. That's one of my big goals as we come in to Q4 of 2026 and, and moving in to 20, uh, 27. So help me on that mission. Make sure you leave a review, share it with a friend. Other women who you know, would be in the same mindset as the women that I'm talking about, the mission I am talking about. We are going to make a movement. We are going to change how women think about paid ads. We're going to change the way women think about scaling their business. We're going to change the way women are taking back their power and stop outsourcing everything and realizing that we can have full control over how we grow our business and what our vision looks like for our business. And we don't have to fit some mold. We can actually grow a business that, uh, aligns with the life we want to live, our vision for how we want our business to look and it doesn't have to fit into some cookie cutter strategy or cookie cutter business model. And I just want to wrap up this episode by saying thank you for being here, thank you for supporting this vision and this mission. Thank you for sticking with me. And I have some amazing things coming on this podcast. Welcome to Margin.