468: Evie's Entrepreneurial Journey

Summary

The Heart & Hustle Podcast

Episode 468: Evie's Entrepreneurial Journey
Release Date: January 20, 2026
Hosts: Evie McLeod & Lindsey Roman

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Episode Overview

This episode offers an updated, 30,000-foot view of Evie McLeod's entrepreneurial journey over the past decade. Evie reflects on her initial career aspirations, the beginnings of her photography business, her leap into business education, and her multi-passionate ventures—including launching a swimwear brand and running multiple companies. Lindsey joins as a supportive co-host, asking clarifying questions and providing “listener” vibes throughout. This chat provides inspiration, real-life pitfalls, and honest truths for creative entrepreneurs at every stage.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Early Aspirations & Unexpected Beginnings

• Evie's career ambitions initially centered on politics and law. From age 15-19, she was focused on working in state politics, aspiring to manage campaigns or work in government.
  • Quote: “I was fully like, I am going to become... I definitely never wanted to be the president, but, sure, yeah, let's run with that.” (06:21)
• Realized that lifestyle goals, such as young marriage and motherhood, might not align with demanding careers in law or politics.
• Photography enters her life around 2014 as a hobby that gradually developed into a side hustle, eventually overtaking her career ambitions in politics after a pivotal and challenging season post-ministry school.

2. The Pivot Point: Embracing Photography

• After a difficult breakup and feeling doors closing with politics, Evie felt pushed by circumstance and faith to fully pursue photography.
  • Quote: “I really felt like the Lord was like, just be faithful to steward what is in front of you. And that was the only thing.” (14:55)
• Her dedication and previous skill development enabled her to accelerate quickly when she pressed the gas on her business.
  • Quote (to Evie): “You were talented. Like, you didn't have to work on the actual art part.” (16:08)
• Mentored other photographers as she gained recognition in the field, initially offering advice for free, then integrating formal mentorship sessions.

3. First Steps into Education & Collaboration

• Began paid mentoring, which helped others achieve business breakthroughs—prompting thoughts of scaling via workshops.
• Reached out to Lindsey (via FaceTime) to co-host what became The Heart Workshop.
  • Quote (Lindsey): “Evie, we're not India Earl. Who do you think we are?” (20:05)
• Neither had a large following at the time (3,000–5,000 followers), making their rapid workshop sell-out remarkable.
  • Memorable Moment: They sold out their first workshop in under 8 hours without prior announcement or waitlist. (24:53)
• With overwhelming demand (eventually a 10,000-person waitlist), the workshops transitioned into The Hart University and the creation of online courses.

4. Massive Growth: Scaling & Diversifying

• 2017–2020: Photography business “exploding”—constant travel, high volume of clients, and simultaneous growth in educational offerings.
• Workshops consistently sold out, leading to the development of online courses to serve more students.
  • “We were like, ‘We’re onto something. God has given us some level of strategy or resources... and we want to get this to people.’” (27:29)
• By 2020, Evie knew she needed to trim her photography workload for sustainability and to support the Hart University’s growth. This shift coincided with COVID, which eased the transition.

5. Expanding Beyond Photography: Multi-Passionate Ventures

• Evie Swim: Driven by a personal frustration with swimwear options, Evie used her business income to fund a new, modest/feminine swimwear company.
  • Quote: “Me being delusional and a multi passionate entrepreneur was like, I know nothing about fashion. I'm gonna start my own swimwear company.” (31:45)
• Simultaneously, she and Landon (her husband) launched a “silent business,” details of which remain private.
• At peak, Evie was juggling: photography, mentorship/coaching, The Heart (workshops & courses), Evie Swim, a silent business, and (briefly) planning a wedding.

6. Burnout, Reflection & Downshifting

• 2021: Burnout hits amidst business overload, chaotic manufacturing issues with Evie Swim, and personal changes (engagement, marriage planning).
  • Quote: “2021 was the year when, like, I was like, ‘I have to readjust some things’ and I really had to rearrange... it was mainly EVVI swim was so chaotic.” (36:33)
• The Heart University launched new events (including conferences) and resumed in-person workshops post-pandemic.
• Life events (moves, miscarriages) prompted deeper reflection on alignment, sustainability, and priorities.

7. Scaling Back & Realignment

• By 2024, Evie chose to close Evie Swim and downshift The Heart for sustainability and family focus.
  • Quote: “I felt peace... on closing the doors to Evie Swim—at least for this season. And I did that, I think, last year.” (41:15)
• Business now centers on photography, coaching, The Heart (at a sustainable pace), and the ongoing silent business with her husband.
  • “Now, I work like maybe two days a week. And it's a completely different season of business... I couldn't be more grateful for it.” (42:25)
• Feels her life now supports her businesses, not the other way around—a long-term aspiration fulfilled.

8. Final Reflections & Encouragements

• Leaned into faith and intuition at each crossroads.
• Views her journey as a testament to not only business strategy, but to listening for seasons to accelerate, pivot, or rest.
• Quote: “I feel like what I'm doing now is where I'm supposed to be now. And it feels like something that I can now build my family, which was ultimately what I wanted. And that my businesses will support my life versus my life molding to my businesses.” (43:04)

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On unexpected pivots:
  • “God literally was like, no. I was like, I'm sorry, come again?” (12:21)
• On scaling quickly:
  • “Our wait list was at 10,000 people... we could stop wedding photography right now and do this forever full time, like every other week and not even come close to putting a dent in that 10,000 person wait list.” (27:19)
• On burnout:
  • “2021, really, truly, like, I hit burnout that year for sure, which makes sense when you put it all together.” (36:33)
• On listening to God’s prompting to slow down:
  • “For whatever reason, I feel like God kept closing the door on that, which felt really frustrating because... we were hoping to have it at a place where... we could step away... and for whatever reason, I feel like God closed the door on it.” (40:44)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00–04:49: Intro, premise of episode, recap of Evie’s earlier journey (see Ep. 38 for deep dive)
• 05:26–11:15: Politics ambitions, law school thoughts, early adult years, ministry school
• 11:56–14:47: Pivotal “everything burned to the ground” moment—shift to photography
• 16:08–18:23: Transition from amateur to professional, start of mentoring, early business hacks
• 20:05–27:29: Launch and meteoric rise of The Heart Workshop, collaboration with Lindsey, explosive growth
• 31:45–36:01: The birth and tribulations of Evie Swim, juggling five businesses, planning her wedding
• 36:33–38:45: Burnout, business realignment, conferences, resuming events post-COVID
• 40:44–43:55: Downshifting, closing companies, embracing sustainable success, family focus

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Resources & Further Listening

• Episode 38: [Evie's Story: How Closed Doors Turned into a Wildly Successful Career] — For the full deep dive on Evie’s early years in photography
• Episode 24: "Navigating a Breakup with Evie and Landon" — For Evie's personal story
• Episodes on Evie Swim: Search “Heart & Hustle Evie Swim” for swimsuit brand journey
• Episode on Downshifting: Search “Heart & Hustle downshift” for more on recent pivot and business recalibration

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Tone and Vibe

Upbeat, candid, supportive, and faith-driven. Lots of friendly banter, some playful interruptions, and heartfelt storytelling with raw honesty about the challenges and joys of entrepreneurship.

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Summary Takeaway:
Evie’s journey is a case study in pivoting with purpose, embracing multi-passionate entrepreneurship, and keeping faith at the center of business decision-making. After years of hustle and incredible outward success, she’s found peace in paring back and letting her businesses serve her life—not dominate it. A message rich with hope, realism, and encouragement for any creative entrepreneur.

Transcript

[Evie McLeod]

You're listening to the Heart and Hustle podcast. We are your hosts, Evie McLeod and Lindsay Roman. Welcome back to the show, friend. This is going to be a fun episode, one that we haven't done in a long time, an updated version of and it's kind of sharing a little bit of a peek into our entrepreneurial journeys. We're going to split this into kind of two separate episodes and today I, Evie, am going to walk you through an overview of kind of my entrepreneurial journey and what that has looked like over the last 10 years and give you a peek in the behind the scenes of what I have kind of the road I have walked over the last 10 years. So it'll be fun. I'll be revealing and sharing just kind of some of the flow of of my journey, what I've learned along the way. And I'm excited for you to come along on it. So let's dive in without further ado. All right. Do you want to be a destination wedding photographer but you feel like you can't because you live in the frickin middle of nowhere? Like anyone relate. Just a few years ago we felt that hard. As two girls born, raised and starting our businesses in the smack dab middle of the Midwest, it took some serious strategy and planning to get booked as a destination wedding photographer. It wasn't easy, but it is possible no matter where you're based.

[Lindsay Roman]

We are here today to give you the tools we learned through our process to help you pursue destination wedding photography. To do so, download our free guide six tips to Break into the destination Wedding Industry for a pep talk and learn our strategies to get your business booked out the wazoo in places that you you've been dreaming of for years. Go to theheartuniversity.com destination to grab the freebie.

[Evie McLeod]

Hey. Hey.

[Lindsay Roman]

I'm Lindsey Roman.

[Evie McLeod]

And I'm Evie McLeod and we are family and legacy focused serial entrepreneurs and the founders of the Hart University, a business education company with a mission to help you thrive in your business and life.

[Lindsay Roman]

Welcome to our Entrepreneur Cocktail hour where.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Business and marketing strategies meet faith.

[Lindsay Roman]

Real talk and raw and life changing conversations.

[Evie McLeod]

At the end of the day, we are all in this together figuring out how to navigate the ups and downs, the messy and the beautiful and everything in between. This is a community where you can come as you are, get inspired and walk away equipped to build a legacy filled life.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

You're listening to the Heart and Hustle podcast. All right. Evelyn.

[Evie McLeod]

Lindsay, Noel.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Guys, I'm here for Vibes today fully I am just Here as a listener.

[Evie McLeod]

A participant, she's going to ask clarifying questions. If I, as I always.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I probably do too much.

[Evie McLeod]

Let's be real. Lindsay does not know I. The amount of times I've tried to tell, like, you a story. And. And Lindsay's like, but wait, why? And I'm like, you're like, if I.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Would just finish what I was thinking.

[Evie McLeod]

Mid sentence of explaining why.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Wow, we have, like, four, almost 500 episodes, y'. All.

[Evie McLeod]

Lindsay's trying to pull up the episode number. What we're trying to do right now. While Lindsay's vibing over there on her phone, she's trying to pull up the episode number of when? Way back at the beginning of the podcast. I think it's within the first 10 episodes. Lindsay thinks it's within the first 30.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I mean, I can confirm right now with you.

[Evie McLeod]

She's about. She's about to find it.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

It's not. Basically, when we first started the podcast in 2019, I think this probably then aired in 2020. We did two solo shows where it was like, just Evie on the mic for an episode and then just me on the mic for an episode. And we gave you the n. Gritty back, like, detail of, like, how we got into our photography businesses. And we went very deep. It was like an hour episode each of, like, this is how I got clients. This is what I did next. Like, it was very, very nitty gritty. And we realized in creating these episodes that we were like, we haven't done like a. What happened next?

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah, we haven't really, like, done a. Hey, here's kind of a synopsis of our journey since then on the podcast. Obviously, if you have been, like, following along on social media or on this podcast at all with. With us and our kind of journeys as entrepreneurs, then you've probably seen a lot of this unfold or you've heard us mention it on the podcast. If you're somewhat newer in the last, like, I don't know, a couple years or anything. Like, like, we. We've talked about stuff, but we've never given a synopsis and an overview of, like, here's kind of been my journey.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Well, so if you've started listening to the podcast anytime since 2021 and. And till now, and you don't know how Evie started her photography business because she's not going to go as. As in depth today into that portion of it.

[Lindsay Roman]

It's more.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

So what happened since kind of the.

[Evie McLeod]

Well, yeah, but also just the overview. Like, I just kind of wanted, like, 30,000 foot view of like, here's been my journey of entrepreneurship over the last 10 years.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

But if you want to know exactly step by step how Evvy got into photography, which was the beginning of her entrepreneur, um, go to episode 38.

[Evie McLeod]

Oh, you're right, it was in the 30s. I really thought it was in the first 10.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

It's. It's called episode 38, Evie's Story. How Closed Doors Turned into a Wildly Successful Career. So if you want to know like, almost like the first version before you start listening to this, or like a.

[Evie McLeod]

Deeper dive on the first few years.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Of my entrepreneurial journey, then go listen to that. Especially if you found the podcast anytime after 2021 and you don't. You've never heard that and you never went back to the beginning to listen. Do that and then come back here because she's gonna pick it up.

[Evie McLeod]

Okay, Picking it up. So I'm gonna do the overview. I'm gonna do the, the. The 30, 000 foot perspective. I actually think I can cruise through this pretty quickly. Famous.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Last night, I'm like, wait, what happened?

[Evie McLeod]

I'll just start duct taping Lindsay's mouth as we go through this episode. I'm here for vibes, so let's start at the beginning. I truthfully, I grew up in an entrepreneur. I should have known that this was probably my lot in life. I'm just kidding. But I really, I didn't foresee. I was never the person who was like, I'm going to build my own business and like planned on that. So it kind of all fell into my lap. But around 2014, I think I got into photography. I fell in love with it. I was not the girl who carried around a camera forever. When the little age went, the first question. I'm two seconds in was barely two sentences after.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Or. Or before you wanting to be a politician. Because that's a part of every story that I feel like is like what this is.

[Evie McLeod]

During. I was fully like, I am going to become.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

You were like this side, but career driven goal. I will be the next president.

[Evie McLeod]

I definitely never wanted to be the president, but sure, yeah, yeah. Well, let's run with that. I was planning to be President of the United States and I got picked up. Photography is a hobby anyways. I fell in love with the challenge of photography, the art of photography. And I just like continued developing and learning when I feel like that.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

You go into much more in depth on episode 38.

[Lindsay Roman]

Yeah.

[Evie McLeod]

So I began developing and learning that over the next year or two or Maybe even more. I forget. I think it was year two. I was really developing my skills like daily with photography because it was so much fun. And that kind of naturally segued into okay, you know, my friend wants me to shoot her senior photos for $50. And you know, this friend just got engaged and they want me to do their engagement photos for a hundred dollars and whatever. So it kind of segued into like, oh, a little side business with side cash. This is great. So turned from, you know, hobby into kind of side hustle. And then it kind of slowly began to be like, okay, now, you know, whatever. I, I'm booking a couple of weddings. That friend who got engaged wants me to shoot their wedding for $400. And I've never shot a wedding before, but I've been second shooting weddings. Anyways, it kind of turned into a, from a hobby into like a side hustle business developing on the side that I really loved that in my mind at that time, I was like, well, I'm going into politics, but this could be an incredible business for me to have, especially when I become a mom and I want to step away from like a political career and I can have a side business that makes me money as a stay at home mom.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

That is wild. That was my two completely different things, like working in the Oval Office and then not that obviously you can be.

[Evie McLeod]

Involved state politics, but sure, Lindsay's putting me in the presidential position.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

But, but like on one hand you're like, I'm going to work in politics, which to me, government in general, that's just like, whoa, that's one.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Industry, it's totally different.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

And then you're like, oh, but then I'll do photography as a side hobby as a mom too.

[Evie McLeod]

Because I was planning at that time, at the time of wanting to be in, in politics. I was, I think I really felt the passion for it start when I was like 15. And so from the time of like 15 to 19, I think that was like my plan. So all through high school that was my plan was like, I, I really want to get into politics. But I knew, I've always known that any career that I had, I, I would either let go of. I also really considered becoming a lawyer, but the problem checks out because law school, obsessed, whatever. But the problem with law school, the reason, the reason I ended up, I only considered that for maybe six months in that window, I was like, law school is like seven years of. By that time I'm gonna hopefully be married and ready to have kids and so I'm gonna finish all of this schooling and then not continue the career. So I was like, okay, so politics it is again, like back to politics. Anyways, my plan was always, I'll have a career and then step away from it to have be a stay at home mom.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

So did you never want to get married young?

[Evie McLeod]

I did.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Okay.

[Evie McLeod]

I very much did.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Yeah. But you can't if you're getting married young and having babies young.

[Evie McLeod]

But I was also like, I'm not gonna sit around, I'm not gonna. Maybe this is me. My perspective was always like, yes, I would love to get married at like 19, 20 and. But also I'm not just going to sit around and assume that my husband's going to walk through the door and marry me at 19.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Totally get that.

[Evie McLeod]

But which did not happen.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Everything that you're saying in, in my brain. Politics, lawyer, all these things are careers that take a very long time to even get semi successful kind of.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah, I didn't, I wasn't trying to become like a president or anything. Like that was not.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

That's fair.

[Evie McLeod]

My plan was either I am a campaign manager for a state representative, state senator, or.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

And can you do that like just straight out the G, Right? You don't have to like rise and.

[Evie McLeod]

I mean, yeah, somewhat. But like within a matter of like a few years, depending on who you know and like, whatever, like you can get to certain positions. Okay, cool. Or like working with like lobbyists or whatever. There's all sorts of different. Yeah, I had an internship lined up with a state representative. I had a, like a relationship with somebody that I was like, I could get in as an intern and then within a year or two, I could hopefully be running like a campaign for this person. Okay. So that was my thought process. Not that the political is whatsoever in my entrepreneurial journey.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

It's your journey.

[Evie McLeod]

I think I might have covered this in the other episode too. But anyways, that was kind of my plan. It was like, okay, this is a great, like business on the side as a photography that I could possibly pick up later. But I was not trying to build it into my career at that point. So then I went off in this window of time. I graduated high school. I was like, I'm gonna go to ministry school to really shore myself up on like, like apologetics and to get.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Into that White House. You gotta know your worldview.

[Evie McLeod]

I was like, I really, I want to, like, I want to impact. Like politics to me was a ministry as well as a career. And so I was like, I really want to impact the political realm, and I really want to be shored up on, like, you know, my. My faith, my, like, apologetics, everything. So I went to ministry school. Planning to go to.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

So funny.

[Evie McLeod]

Just knowing where.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Where it went and, like, the girly pop energy that it became.

[Evie McLeod]

Okay, anyways, ministry school for a year. And then coming back from ministry school, I believe this was spring.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I'll just. I'll insert real fast that we met while she was in ministry school in person. Yeah, we.

[Evie McLeod]

You have to clarify that because we were. We were.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Can I claim that I disrupted your political journey? No. Oh, okay.

[Evie McLeod]

Not at all. I mean, but, like, not even a little. But I love you to death. Not even a little.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

No, but, like.

[Evie McLeod]

Okay, no.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Okay, keep going, Keep going.

[Evie McLeod]

We were like, Instagram best friends for, like, three years prior to us meeting in person.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

No, but after we met and my photography was, like, got that part of the journey.

[Evie McLeod]

Okay, this is not going to be 30 minutes if we keep going.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Okay, I will shut up. I will really shut up.

[Evie McLeod]

Okay. Anyways, I finished ministry school. I move in California. I move back home to Ohio, being like, okay, great, awesome. Now here, like, I'm going to go to school for a poli sci degree, maybe with, like, a degree in either economics or business, like, as, you know, a double major or a minor. And I have this internship lined up with a politician, fully intending. That was my career path. The minute I get home from ministry school. God literally was like, no. I was like, I'm sorry, come again? This is.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

He's like, you met Lindsay. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'll shut up.

[Evie McLeod]

This has been years, God, of me feeling you tell me to do this. Whatever it was, it was actually kind of like a. Kind of. It was a very, very difficult season for me because it was more than just that.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

You had broken up with Landon.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah, Landon and I had broken up.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

God was like, I'm throwing you into the fire.

[Evie McLeod]

I was devastated by that breakup because we both very much still loved each other, but we felt like that's a whole other story. I don't know if we've. I think we've shared it on the podcast. Oh, that was rough. So there was that. It was also, like, all of my friends were, like, going off in life.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

And I'll find that episode for you while she talks.

[Evie McLeod]

Anyways, it was. It was a messy season. I feel like, just Google, like, our breakup story or Landon and Evie, the Heart and Hustle. You can find it.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I'm just. I'M just gonna give them the number.

[Evie McLeod]

You keep talking. And so I sat there feeling like every door that I had planned to go through, every opportunity, every, like, thing that was in front of me was kind of gone. And so I was like, what do I do? The only thing that was in my lap, left in my lap. It felt like everything was burned to the ground.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

What this episode was before our Entrepreneur. It's episode 24, navigating a breakup with Evie and her ex boyfriend, Landon. What a clickbaity title was that?

[Evie McLeod]

That's. Wait, but is that our story? Maybe. It is. Interesting.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Episode 24. Okay, continue.

[Evie McLeod]

That's hilarious. Okay. Anyways, I felt like everything around me had, like, burned to the ground except my photography. And I was like, okay, look, I have no idea what's in front of me. I really thought I was going to marry that man. I really thought politics was like, the next few years for me. I have no idea what burned to.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

The ground in politics. Just the Lord being like, no.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah. God was just like, no. That was the hardest part.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

But okay. Do you unpack, like, what that looked like?

[Evie McLeod]

No, that's not what this episode is.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Okay. I'm sorry.

[Evie McLeod]

I don't know if I've unpacked that somewhere else. I feel like that would be too long. A too nuanced of like, okay.

[Lindsay Roman]

Says no.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Okay.

[Evie McLeod]

It was just very clear to me in that season that God was closing the door there.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Okay.

[Evie McLeod]

And I had to listen and obey.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I will actually shut up now.

[Evie McLeod]

I'm still at, like, the beginning.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I know, I know. That's why I really need to. I need to zip it.

[Evie McLeod]

I haven't even gotten to, like, I anything.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Lindsay is exiting the building just verbally. Okay.

[Evie McLeod]

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to see how long it actually takes her to ask the next question. Moving on. Photography was the thing in front of me, and I really felt like the Lord was like, just be faithful to steward what is in front of you. And that was the only thing. I mean, I was working full time, full time, like 50, 60 plus hours a week at a restaurant at that point too. And so I was like, okay, I want to be faithful and steward what I have, which is this restaurant job and this photography career. And I began to pour every spare minute in my life into my photography. And that makes it sound like that was. Became my whole world. Let me. Let me tell you the amount of time I spent with God in that season too, because I needed him so badly in that season. But my. When I wasn't at the restaurant and I wasn't spending time with God. I was pouring into my photography. I was building it, I was starting to market it, I was starting to hustle, I was starting to grind. And oh my gosh, it literally began to accelerate so quickly and so fast. Because I will say this is the caveat, and I think I probably cover this in the other episode. I had spent so many years developing the skills and the experience, so by the time I was pressing the gas on the business side of things, like, okay, I'm ready to take this seriously. You were talented. Thank you. Sure.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I mean, like, like, you didn't have to work on the actual art part.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

And there's an element of, like, if you want to grow a photography business, you probably should be good.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah. Or it just. I, I wasn't, I wasn't learning how to operate my camera. I wasn't. I. I had shot many weddings by that point. I, you know, I had contract. Like, did I have systems and workflows and, you know, all the clients just banging at my door? No. But, like, I wasn't starting from a place of, like, I'm learning how to direct a couple. I don't know how a wedding operates. Like, I knew all of that. I had years of experience in all of that at that point. So my business started really growing. And what I noticed was there were a lot of photographers in that season who were beginning to ask me questions of, like, how are you doing this? Wait, how. How did you get that booking, that destination booking? Like, how did you do this? How did you. What, what, what are you doing? And I just began to be like, oh, my gosh, totally. Here's what I'm doing, here's what's working for me. And then I started seeing the results for those people who were asking, like, people who had been doing photography for like 10 plus years who were coming to me being like, I've been trying to, you know, do this in my business or break through this or get this number of clients or raise my prices here, whatever it was. And I was like, well, here's what I'm doing. Like, I didn't view myself in that season whatsoever as like an educator or a mentor. Like, I was literally like, like, oh, yeah, sis, like, we're in this together. Here's what I'm doing. And then I would see, not only was it like, absolutely working for me, but it was working for everyone that I was giving my, like, my journey and strategy to. And that was the point that it began to kind of, like, click in. And I was like, maybe I could, like, I'll just do coffee for, like, you know, a hundred dollars, and I'll like, three hours. Give whatever any entrepreneur who wants, like, resources. So I started doing, like, super cheap, casual, like, mentor sessions. When people would ask me, when you.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Say super, like, they would pay for your coffee. So you're charging, like, $5 for three hours?

[Evie McLeod]

No, I. 100. Like, a hundred. Oh, okay.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

So not just coffee.

[Evie McLeod]

No. Okay. But like. Like, to me, that was like, right. A mentor session where I sit with you kind of for an indefinite length of time and give you whatever you want to know, and you just throw.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Some change at me kind of.

[Evie McLeod]

I mean, a hundred dollars isn't pocket change, but. But yeah, when I was charging, like, 4 or 500 for a couple session, at that point, there was an element of like, okay, I'm gonna sit with you for three hours for a hundred dollars. Like, it. It was like I was starting.

[Lindsay Roman]

Yeah.

[Evie McLeod]

And I'd done it for free for months and months before I started charging. But anyways, I started getting into, like, mentorships, and I started seeing the results more and more as people were, like, paying for the education and then implementing it. It was like, oh, my gosh, this is working. So that by that point, I was, like, starting to feel stirring in my heart, and I was like, okay, my business is exploding. This is working for me. I have now seen this work for dozens of fellow photographers. I want to get this to even more photographers. And I was like, I want to do a photography workshop. Which is kind of funny that I thought that, because when I look back at that season, photography workshops were like.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

You didn't go to any at the flat?

[Evie McLeod]

I had never been to one. But also on top of that, I'm.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Like, well, they're not nearly saturated popular.

[Evie McLeod]

Back then, I feel.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Well, they existed for sure.

[Evie McLeod]

Existed.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

But there was, like, four. Yeah, five that were, like, popular. Now it's like, every bro in there and their sister wants to make one.

[Evie McLeod]

Same with courses.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Like.

[Evie McLeod]

Like, at the time, like, there was. There were, like, two photography courses that I knew of in the entire industry, and there were, like, four photography workshops that I knew of in the entire industry. So it was kind of crazy, looking back, being like, why did I jump to a workshop in my head? God. Anyways, I called up this girl that I'd followed on Instagram for years and was like, we align our energies, match Our values match. Like, things are just like, our approach to our photography businesses match. We're both like grinding and building these great businesses right now. So let me call her up and see if she wants to co host a workshop with me. So I FaceTime spoiler. I FaceTimed Lindsey and was like, hi, I feel like God's telling me to do this. Do you want to do it with me? And she was like, no, I'm just kidding.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I didn't say no. I was just like, evie, we're not India Earl. Who do you think we are?

[Evie McLeod]

You're like, we. We're nobodies.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

And I. I also probably phrased it. I can't remember exactly, but I was like, oh, that sounds so dope. But like also, could we do that? Like, that's probably more closer to what I actually said, something like that.

[Evie McLeod]

But it was very much like, yes, we can absolutely do this. Anyways, so we.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

But I think we both at the time had like less than 5, 000 followers. Yeah. Each probably even, maybe even less possible.

[Evie McLeod]

I'm pretty sure I had like, like 30002900 something like that.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

So it was, it was low. Yeah. Comparatively to. To the. The workshops that we had seen. Yes. In that industry, people time.

[Evie McLeod]

The people who were hosting workshops had like a hundred thousand plus followers. And we were like over here with like three thousand being like, we can do it.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Yes, I can.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Just, I mean like, like negative Nancy over here. That I was in that moment, I was, I was a little more like I wanted to do it, but I also was.

[Evie McLeod]

You were probably more realistic. I was riding high on a God dream.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Yes, you were high on a God and I, I jumped on that ship of God dream. We had that like small little pessimistic self of me being like, who do we think we are?

[Evie McLeod]

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[Lindsay Roman]

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[Evie McLeod]

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[Lindsay Roman]

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[Evie McLeod]

Hello, I wanted to interrupt this episode really quick to remind you that we have an apparel shop with heart filled pieces. See what we did there that we have designed with you in mind.

[Lindsay Roman]

In the shop we've got T shirts, crop tops, sweatshirts, mugs, hats and more, all created with comfy and cute designs that you can rock in your everyday life.

[Evie McLeod]

This collection is for you if you love the show and want to share it with your friends in a cool way. Or if you want to wear something cute as heck that was intentionally designed with powerful phrases to remind you that you can do it, you were made to be a world changer and that the Lord created you wildly capable of big freaking things.

[Lindsay Roman]

Now Obvi, this is a podcast and we can't show you how cute as heck these pieces are on the show. So run, don't walk to the heart shop to check out our apparel and more. You can head to www.theheartuniversity.com apparel to grab your favorite pieces today.

[Evie McLeod]

Anyways, long story short, that was kind of the beginning of we just thought, I think both of us thought we would just host one photography workshop and kind of feel it out. Maybe we'd host a few more. But like it was just planned on, like we're just doing one. And so we began to plan that workshop. My business at this point was absolutely Photography was exploding. I was on the road 10 months out of the year. I was shooting a wedding just about every weekend. I was shooting like three to four couple sessions during the week and I was doing two to four mentor sessions in the week as well, which often included a couple session too because it was like boots on the ground, like hands on training. So I was shooting like 8 to 10 times per week including a wedding. Sessions. Mentor sessions. It was. I was bat s h I t crazy in that season, like going hard. So we were building out the first workshop and kind of like planning and dreaming. In that season we launched the first workshop and we thought maybe it would sell out within a Few months like, that. We genuinely were like, maybe we would actually get this sold out before the workshop happens. Like, that would be crazy. And we had 17 tickets.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

No, we had 12.

[Evie McLeod]

12.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

We had 12. And then we added a couple more. Off campus.

[Evie McLeod]

Yes.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

But I think it was. It was 12 to begin with. 12 girls.

[Evie McLeod]

And we were like, maybe we can get 12 girls to pay for this and come to this within a matter of three months.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Well, also, just to give a slight perspective, we had not announced it or, like, created a wait list. Nothing.

[Evie McLeod]

We just were like, here is this workshop in Malibu, California. Do you want to come?

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

And here is the availability right now to buy. Like, no, it's not like people knew about it and then could buy at a later date. It was like, hi, here's the announcement. Here's something new that is brand new to you that we're doing. And also here is the cart.

[Evie McLeod]

And it sold out within the day. Seven. Seven to eight hours.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Seven and eight hours. And then we were like, well, you're like, maybe this is like a greedy thing in hindsight, looking back at that. But I'm like, we added on, I think five extra. That's probably where you're getting 17. Yeah, we added on five extra tickets that you could come in just for a cheaper price. Not stay in the.

[Evie McLeod]

In the Airbnb.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

In the Airbnb. Which we never did that after because we didn't like it as far as.

[Evie McLeod]

Like, it just disconnected the. The attendees, which we weren't a fan of. But it worked the time. And I think it was good. The amount of people we had. There was, like, a good workshop. Anyways, we sold out the first workshop in a day, and we were shocked. And we were like, okay. Our businesses were exploding. We had so many people being like, wait, we want. We want the next workshop. We hosted that workshop, and I think we, at that point were like, I think we should do another one. And so we were like, okay, let's do another one. And how fast did the second one sell out?

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

That becomes a blur.

[Evie McLeod]

I think it was like, three hours.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Three hours? Yeah, because it got shorter.

[Evie McLeod]

And then we were like, okay, well, we're already going to be in this location. We checked the venue, and we're like, we can do another week in this location. Let's offer another week to all these people who are like, literally, like, I didn't get a chance to buy a ticket. Like, they sold out too quick. So the next day, we basically opened week two of that second workshop that sold out in, like, an Hour. An hour? Yeah, something like that. So we sold out two full weeks of our second and third workshop, or second workshop.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

At that time, I think the get, like the count for each was like 22 girls or something like that.

[Evie McLeod]

And at that point, we then were like, okay, well, we're only doing two weeks. This was also, like, right before Christmas, like, that both of the workshops were happening, like, their dates. And we were like, that's our limit. That's all we can do. That's whatever. So we're like, well, let's do a wait list. And by that point, between those selling the tickets to essentially three workshops, our wait list began growing by like the thousands. And people being like, I'm ready for the next workshop. I'm ready for the next workshop. Our businesses, both of us were like, traveling the world, going crazy. Everything was just going crazy. And I think by the time we were getting close to our, like, third workshop, second. Third workshop, our wait list was at 10,000 people. Like 10,000 people. Girls were waiting to come to these future workshops. And we were like, okay, well, when our workshops host, like 20ish girls, maybe.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

30 above that, like, to keep the.

[Evie McLeod]

Intimate and whatever, like, we're hitting maybe 30 girls.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

It's like we could stop wedding photography right now and do this forever full.

[Evie McLeod]

Time, like every other week and not even come close to putting a dent in that 10,000 person wait list. So that began then. We were like, well, how can we serve these entrepreneurs? And truthfully, that kind of became like the infancy in the beginning of the Hart University, because it was the heart workshop prior to that. And it wasn't even a whole, like, LLC and business and anything. It was just literally like, us partnering together and whatever. Because our heart has always been from day one, how can I serve these entrepreneurs? So when we saw that wait list, like, piling up and Lindsay and I were seeing these results, in our business, our business is exploding. Our prices raising, our. Our inquiries and our client base not decreasing as we raised our prices and, you know, whatever. It was like getting busier and busier. We were like, we're onto something. God has given us some level of strategy or resources or information, and we want to get this to people. So that began then, okay, let's consider turning this into an online course so that all the information that we give at the workshops can be given to as many of these 10,000 people as want who can't attend a workshop. So we began working then. I think it was that fall or winter, we began work on what became the photo major, which started out as the Hart University. That was technically the name of our.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

First course anyways, because before that, the business was just the Heart Workshop. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Evie McLeod]

So the workshops were exploding. Our photography businesses were exploding. Well, mine was exploding because I guess this is my story, but kind of. It kind of can't separate the two of us anyways. Photography was exploding. The heart workshop was exploding. We began building out the course that. Oh, my gosh, when we launched that, that was insane. That exploded with people desiring it. All about it. I'm just like. That whole season was such a crazy, like, blur of, like, serving. We were still doing workshops at that time. We were, like, launching a course and doing, like, our next workshop, which had sold out in 15 minutes. Like, things were just getting crazy at that point, which was really incredible to see, like, God moving and all these entrepreneurs, like, just being blessed by what God was doing through us, hopefully, and just blessing them in their businesses. So that was like, a couple of years of the heart just grinding and serving and pumping out a course and workshops and all of that. My photography business, I was, like, on the road 24 7. It was like a grind season for sure. And then around 2020, 2019, 2020, I kind of was like, okay, I need to, like, trim back the amount of weddings that I'm shooting. Because the heart was taking off at that point, and the amount of work and effort and the team that we had built was like, I. I need to give this a little bit more attention. I can't give, you know, the full attention to 30 clients a year anymore. Like, 30 weddings a year. So I have to trim that back. So I began the process of, like, significantly increasing my prices and trimming back. I mean, I was shooting so much for so many years or, like, several years, to the point that I, like, I knew I had to make a shift, which actually turned into kind of a blessing. None of us saw Covid coming, but I was beginning the shift of slowing down my photography for the year of 2020. And then Covid hit, and obviously I had cancellations and reschedulings and, like, I had a lot of stuff that I still had to deal with, but I didn't have the level of that that I would have had in 20, 19, 18, 17. So that was a blessing in disguise. But in that process, I was living in Southern California and I was surfing regularly, and I was always at the beach, and I was so frustrated by swimwear. This is a little pivot out of education and photography, and I was like, Okay. I personally, I'm frustrated by the lack of feminine, functional, but still modest swimwear. And me being delusional and a multi passionate entrepreneur was like, like, I know nothing about fashion. I'm gonna start my own swimwear company. So in this season.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Okay. You've shared this before in a past episode that we've recorded recently, but you had the cash investment ability because of photography and then the heart.

[Evie McLeod]

Yes.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

To be able to be.

[Evie McLeod]

I was rolling in the dough, like, and I, and I was ready to invest. That was the thing I was really looking at, at some real estate investments and Evie Swim, which turned into like my swimsuit company.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Because I feel like to do what you did, you can't do without a.

[Evie McLeod]

Good chunk of gesture or your own capital to be able to invest in it. Yeah. So, yeah, I was in the season where I was ready to invest and diversify, I guess, my investments. And I felt like starting a swimwear company was what God was telling me to do. And I felt a lot of peace on it and a lot of excitement and. And I began, I think it was.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I think, as if she's not busy enough with weddings. Oh, I was literally, you know, obviously she's downgrading them, but still she's still actively doing them, still doing workshops, still doing, well, courses. I guess we stopped the workshop once 2020 hit, but still regardless.

[Evie McLeod]

But at the time I started developing ivy swim in 2019 and we started.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

This podcast in 2019, we were doing the workshops, we were doing multiple courses because we had expanded beyond just the photo course.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah, we.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Yeah.

[Evie McLeod]

Welcome to the life of a multi passionate entrepreneur. Yeah. So I, I began developing EV Swim in 2019 and spent all of 2020 and beginning of. End of 2019. All of 2020, beginning of 2021. Really developing and building out this company. The brand, the marketing, the designing. I like designed the, the swimsuits, tested them, all of that. So I built out EV swim in like roughly a two year process and launched it in 2021. And in that season two, the heart was still just growing and developing. Also, I, I have to be unfortunately, a little cryptic on this because it's, it's a silent business for a reason. And it's just one of those things. Someday maybe Lynn and I will feel like ready to like publicly talk all about it, and we have so much information and things we've learned and all of that, but for now we've just chosen to keep it as like a quiet business that we operate on the side. But at the time also in 2020, Landon and I started a silent business. So another business with the two of us that we were building out, developing, running. So at that point, I had my photography that was exploding, my mentorships, coaching that I was doing that was exploding. The heart that was exploding with everything that entailed within that, the workshops, the courses, the, you know, all the stuff. Every swim that I was building out, and another business with my husband, but who wasn't my husband at the time we were dating that I was also building out. So I had five different companies that I was running, developing, building out, and 2021, mainly it was EV swim. That was really. That was a whole process. You can go. I know there's another episode in the backlog of my journey to starting EV Swim. And I talk a lot about stuff, and then there was a recent one where we talk about mistakes we made in business, and I talk a little bit about EVISWIM and some of the mistakes and, like, the chaos that was unfolding in that business there too. But 2021 was a hard year for me. Clearly I had a lot on my plate and it kind of all caught up to me. But especially, like Evie Swim was a absolute dumpster fire in some ways. Like, the. The crap that I was dealing with with, like, manufacturers and stuff was getting crazy. So that was a little interesting.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Well, you were dealing with that. And we also were then recording, I believe, more courses. We were.

[Evie McLeod]

We've outlined and recorded, I think four.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Courses, and we have many courses and some were bigger. But yes, yes, we.

[Evie McLeod]

We were doing a conference.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Well, we were planning it. We didn't do that until April of 2022, but we were still planning it.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah, the whole planning process of a brand new event that. That was much bigger than we'd anything was, like, underway and then.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

And then Landon decides to propose.

[Evie McLeod]

Landon proposes in the middle. Yeah, we got married in 2021. We. He proposes end of May. And we got married May.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Yeah.

[Evie McLeod]

And we got married end of August of 2021. So I planned a wedding in the midst of all of this, too.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I am just. This is. I'm stressed listening to this.

[Evie McLeod]

What's funny? I'm stressed saying all of this, but what's funny is, okay, 2021. Really, truly, like, I hit burnout that year for sure, which makes sense when.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

You put it all together.

[Evie McLeod]

And there was a lot going on, but, like, really, at the time, up until 2021, 2021 was the year when, like, I was like, I have to readjust some things and I really had to like, rearrange some of the ways I was operating some of my businesses. But it was mainly the EVVI swim was like so chaotic and I was dealing with such crap from my manufacturers. Like, that was the main thing that really like kind of drove me mad in that season because I had been going pedal to the metal, like hard and fast for multiple years at that point. And it had always like there had been such a grace in it. But I think 2021, which makes sense. The year I got married, I really felt like God was like, like, hi, let's. Let's readjust some things. And that was what I needed. I needed to like, rearrange. I needed to, to reassess. But in all of this, Evie Swim was technically growing and like, you know, doing amazing. The heart was still growing and doing amazing. My photography was doing amazing. I wouldn't say it was growing. Cause I was like, down. I was like, stay quiet and calm. But I was still shooting a reasonable amount of weddings and sessions and Landon and my business was growing pretty quickly as well. So there was a lot going on and I just began to kind of like, really look at my business, be like, okay, I need to readjust some things so that from 2021, I feel like until honestly like 2022, maybe a year, year and a half, I really spent like kind of digging into each of my businesses and being like, what can I restructure here? What needs to shift? What needs to change? And from then until now, like, there has absolutely been like, small changes. Like, we are not even small. We downshifted the heart in 2023.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

We did two conferences before that. And we picked the workshops back up. Yes. Because we had stopped the workshops after 2020. We had a. A march, I think, like 20th start of a. Of a North Carolina, not Carolina, Northern California workshop workshop. And you all know what happened there.

[Evie McLeod]

March of 2020 was not the year for in person events.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

We basically had to cancel the workshop like a week before it happened, which was a fun delight.

[Evie McLeod]

Just love it. Yeah. So we, I mean, we did two major conferences with the. The heart and I moved twice and I got married and I had two miscarriages. Like, there was a lot of like, personal, you know, stuff, but also like, like business stuff, development. The Evie Swim was doing great. And then I got to a point where I was like, look, I need to simplify, especially in a season where I'm looking towards building a family. And you know, all of this, like, this is all great. I'm running multiple like, at that point, I was running four different six figure companies and one seven figure company. And I got to the point and you could look at that and be like, holy crap. You know, you had it made like you were. You were doing everything. Like you were making bank. You were, you know, whatever. But I still, from, like, I think it kind of happened slowly, but, like, over a couple of years of, like, succeeding. I was like, this is amazing. And I had hoped on, like, something like Evie Sloan. I'd hoped to have it at a place where it could be self sustaining in a sense. Like, I had a team built out or whatever. And same with the heart. We were kind of like hoping to have it in a place where, like, we could still hit the, you know, seven figure marks. But Lindsay and I began to kind of step out of it to step, you know, have more time and space and whatever to. To be in motherhood. And for whatever reason, I feel like God kept closing the door on that, which felt really frustrating because that was like, that was a whole. That's a whole other conversation of why we downshifted, which I think we talked about. We have an episode.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I like, blacked out a little bit. What'd you say? Sorry.

[Evie McLeod]

Very, very rude. But that's okay.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I was talking about the downshift.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah. Like, it felt like God closed the door on it. And I was like, I think we did an episode just on the downshift, didn't we?

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Yes, we did. We did. Well, I think the downshift was mostly because we both separately felt God being like, what you're doing is that. Or I think the. We kept trying to shove in a certain direction and be like, why is this not working? Why are we not growing in the direction that we want to grow? And in that moment, we both felt peace on like, oh, it's probably because God's telling us to, like, calm down.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah. Yeah. So it was interesting having, like built, you know, five massive machines of businesses and then kind of feeling like God was just encouraging me that, hey, even though I had hoped and planned for all of them to turn into kind of self sustaining, you know, like, run on their own businesses, and I could step away. I just felt like I hadn't either hadn't done something right to build them that way or that God was like, that's not actually what I have for you. I want you to trim some stuff back. So I just felt peace. It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made, but I felt peace on closing the doors for Evie Swim at least for this season. And I did that, I think, last year. Right? Last year. So 2024, I felt peace on closing the doors to Evie Swim. And then we downshifted the heart also pretty dramatically. And so now I'm in the position where my husband and I still run our silent business that's like super successful and growing and all the things, and we love it. And I run, you know, my photography and my coaching, which is just thriving and feeling so much more sustainable and just aligned. And then we run the heart, which also feels incredible aligned and sustainable. And I now, like, I, you know, multiple of these companies all, like, I'm still at a point where I'm like, I'm so proud of what they do. They're financially so successful. The revenue is amazing. And I work like maybe two days a week. And it's a completely different season of business than it was in, you know, 2019. 20, 20, 2021. And I couldn't be more grateful for it. So it's been like an interesting journey in some ways, but I have loved every second of it. I wouldn't change any of it. And I think it taught me so much about business, about strategy, about running a team and, you know, launching things and developing a whole new company in an industry I didn't knew nothing about. And like, you know, there's so much that I've learned, but I'm also now in the place where I'm like, I feel like this is sustainable. I feel like what I'm doing now is where I'm supposed to be now. And it feels like something that I can now build my family, which was ultimately what I realistically what I wanted. And that my businesses will support my life versus my life cure like molding to my businesses. So that's my journey. That's where I'm at now. Did I cover everything?

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

I feel like you did. I feel like that was a great summary because I feel like as. As also as you talked, I feel like we've discovered that you've actually done niche episodes along the way of, like, almost different parts of your journey.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah, for sure. Which is fun. So hopefully that was fun. Hopefully that was a fun insight.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

It might take a little bit to search this, but if you type in like heart and hustle, Evie swim one word.

[Evie McLeod]

Right? Yeah.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

Into Google, I'm sure the episode that she talks about that specific journey will come up.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

And then also if you type in heart and hustle and then the word downshift, I think that episode will come up on kind of like more of the heart reason and deeper episode of why that happened also.

[Evie McLeod]

Yeah. Anyways, that's been my journey. I'm loving all of the seasons God Takes has taken me through in business, but this one is very sweet, especially as I sit here currently recording waiting to welcome our first little boy.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly Lindsay Roman or another participant)]

And when you're hearing this, she'll have.

[Evie McLeod]

Already I'll have him in my arms, which is crazy. And just I feel like I've built businesses that are sustainable to support my life and that ultimately is always what I wanted and it feels so aligned and so incredible and it's been such a fun ride for the last 10 years of doing it all. So I love it. Anyways, friend, I hope that was fun for you. I hope that was a fun little overview sneak peek. I have no idea how long that was, but I don't know. I don't think we hit the 30 minute mark, but hopefully it wasn't too much longer. But we love you and if you have any questions about anything on my journey, always DM me. I'm an open book. But that was a little sneak peek. Thanks for coming along on the ride and the journey and we will see you on the next episode.