Build That Business

145: I Love Money (and I think you should too)

The money advice most of us grew up with was built for employees. Budget everything, cut back, save more. And in that context? It makes complete sense. But you are not an employee. You don't have a ceiling. And applying a fixed-income framework to a variable-income life is quietly holding a lot of entrepreneurs back.

In this episode, Lindsay gets honest about money. The conditioning that makes women uncomfortable talking about it, wanting it, and enjoying it. The mental cost of money anxiety and where that energy could be going instead. And the four filters she runs every significant spending decision through.

In this episode:

• Why the traditional money playbook doesn't apply to entrepreneurs
• The mental bandwidth cost of money anxiety (and what to do with that energy instead)
• Why you are going to make bad investments, and what to do when it happens
• The four filters Lindsay uses for every spending decision
• Why investing in yourself is maintenance, not indulgence
• The giving practice that changed how Lindsay relates to money

If money makes you a little uncomfortable to talk about, this episode is a good place to start asking why.

Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsayvanharssel/

144: The Clue Stack: The Word Was Yes. Everything Else Was No.

You just wrapped a sales call. It went amazing. They laughed. They nodded. They looked you dead in the eye and said, "I'm in. Send the contract."

Seven days later...  crickets.

Here's the thing. You didn't miss a word. The word was yes.

You missed the tone. The pause before the yes. The shoulder shift when you said the price. The follow-up link that never got opened.

The word was yes. Everything else was no.

In this episode, I am breaking down the framework I teach: The Clue Stack. 

Four layers you are reading on every sales conversation (verbal, paraverbal, nonverbal, behavioral), and if you are only reading one of them, you are getting fooled on the regular.

Inside:

– The nine psychological triggers every buying decision runs through, laid out in one clean place

– Why the verbal layer lies the most, and how specific word choices diagnose which trigger is weak

– The three paraverbal tells I listen for on every sales call (pace shifts, breath catches, and the fake-cheerful uptick)

– How to read nonverbal cues on Zoom when all you have is a head-and-shoulders crop

– The 48-hour rule: why your buyer's behavior in the two days after your call tells you more than anything they said on it

– Why the Clue Stack is the single most important skill you can build as an entrepreneur in the age of AI

If you have ever hung up from a sales call feeling amazing and then gotten ghosted a week later,  this one is for you.

Register for our masterclass at www.easiestyes.com for the full sales system, it is completely free.

143: Break the Ice Before It Freezes: The Gordon Principle

It's April in Buffalo. My car is coated in frost. I'm standing at the window being dramatic about it when my brain pulls up a memory from when I was a kid.

Our dog, Gordon.

Gordon figured out, at some point, that if he dipped his nose into his outdoor water dish every few hours, the thin layer of ice would never get thick enough to seal off his water. 

Crack the surface. Walk away. Come back. Crack it again.

That is the move. It is the Gordon Principle. And it is one of the most important things you can be practicing in your business and in your personal life right now.

Because every tension starts as a thin layer. Left alone, it thickens. And left alone long enough, a ten-second conversation becomes a ninety-minute blow-up.

In this episode, we are talking about the ice forming right now, in both places, while you are listening. The conversation you have been postponing for two weeks. Two months. A year. And why the bill doubles every week you wait.

Inside:

– The three business conversations we postpone the longest, and the exact opening sentence to crack each one this week

– Why "keeping the peace" is almost always a lie (and what it is actually costing you)

– The personal relationships where thin ice is thickening right now, the flaky friend, the family comment at Easter, the partner, the parent you keep managing around

– The math of ice: why conversations get exponentially harder every week you wait

– The ten-second sentence that prevents the ninety-minute blow-up

If you have been carrying the weight of an unsaid thing for weeks or months, this one is for you.

Cold-nose energy.

142: The Soft CTA is Killing Your Sales 

You're at Costco. The lady with the friendly smile holds out a tiny paper cup with a single wonton on a toothpick. You take the bite. It's unreal. You go, "where do I find these?" And she smiles and says, "feel free to check the website when you're ready."

What?! Ridiculous right?

That is what most entrepreneurs are doing to their buyers every single day.

In this episode, I'm breaking down the single most expensive sentence in your business...  the soft CTA. The "whenever you're ready." The "DM me if you're curious." The "feel free to reach out." And why it is costing a lot of you listening over $200,000 a year.

Inside:

– Why a whole generation of entrepreneurs got raised on bro marketing and overcorrected into barely asking at all

– The three stories you tell yourself to justify the vague pitch

– What your buyer is actually doing in the ten seconds after they say "I love this"

– The clean ask scripts for DMs, webinars, sales calls, stages, and booths

– The integrity flip: why pitching clearly is more respectful than softening every ask

If you have been leaving money on the table because you didn't want to be "that person" — this episode is your third option. Grounded, warm, direct sales that honor you AND your buyer.

They want the wonton. Give them the damn wonton.

Head to easiestyes.com to grab a spot in the masterclass and get the full framework.

141: Why We Quit Before the Yes

Links mentioned in the episode:

Join our free live sales instincts masterclass: The Easiest Yes at www.Easiestyes.com 

Something happened in a live Q&A today that I couldn't stop thinking about. Someone asked, "What do I do when they say no?" And I started answering it the way I normally would until I glanced at the question again and something about the way she asked it made me pause. 

Because here's the truth. It's rarely a true no. It's almost never a true no. 

But we treat every bump, every hesitation, every "let me think about it" like a wall. And we walk away. From the sale. From the relationship. From the dream. Right before the tipping point.

In this episode we're talking about what it's really costing you every time you leave before the yes. We get into:

• Why we're wired to read friction as rejection and what's actually happening in your body when someone hesitates
• The difference between a true no and a handbrake, and why most of what we call "no" is actually just fear
• Why resistance is proof of investment, not proof that it's over
• The personal story of how my "no tolerance" went from a 2 to a 10 and what changed
• Why staying in the conversation is sometimes the most caring thing you can do, and walking away is the less loving choice
• What staying actually looks like in practice, including the exact questions I use when someone hesitates

This one goes beyond sales. We're talking relationships, friendships, dreams you shelved after the first bump. The skill of staying in the conversation changes everything. In your business and in your life.

The yes you've been waiting for might be one conversation away. Stay in it.

140: When Hustling Harder Actually Becomes Hustling Backwards: The Turning Point 

I've been doing the thing that works. The data is clear. And yet every part of me kept saying it wasn't enough.

In this episode, I'm getting really honest about what happens when you finally find your formula, and then your nervous system tries to talk you out of it. We're talking about the subconscious craving for chaos, the difference between productive hustle and nervous system-driven hustle, and why adding more things is often the fastest way to undermine the one thing that actually converts.

I also get personal. I share what came up in therapy this week that stopped me cold, including why workaholism can actually be a trauma response, and how taking care of myself became the most strategic business decision I've made.

Here's what I cover:

• Why your nervous system gets addicted to the hustle phase and what to do when it hasn't caught up to where you actually are
• The difference between the figure it out phase and the refine it phase, and how to know which one you're in
• What it actually looks like to dial in every lever around the thing that works instead of adding new things on top of it
• The soccer ball analogy that completely reframed how I think about focus and strategy
• Why honoring your capacity isn't laziness, it's the infrastructure everything else is built on

If you've found what works and you're still somehow trying to talk yourself out of it, this one's for you.

139: Let The Chips Fall. Gather The Data. Ask The Question.

We spend so much time asking everyone else what they think...our friends, our family, other business owners, the internet, honestly even AI, and somewhere in all of that noise we stop trusting the one person who actually has all the data.

Ourselves.

In this episode, I'm sharing the framework that changed how I make decisions in my business and my life. Let the chips fall. Gather the data. And then ask yourself the one question that cuts through all of it: does this actually work for me?

Here's what we get into:

• Why we keep measuring our lives against a ruler that was never built for us
• The difference between fear and your gut, and why it matters more than you think
• Why the people around you, even the ones who love you, can accidentally skew your data
• How long you actually need to gather data before you have enough to decide
• What acting on the answer actually looks like in real life
• Why asking AI for life advice might be the most unhinged thing we're all doing right now

Plus a personal story I've never shared publicly before that taught me the most important lesson I know about whose opinion actually matters when you're making a big decision.

Spoiler: it's yours.

138: "Always Be Closing" Is Gross. Here's What to Do Instead...

"Always Be Closing." It's been celebrated as the golden rule of sales for thirty years. Turns out it was written to show how gross that world is and bro-marketers put it on a poster and ran with it as the gospel. The irony is almost too good.

In this episode, we break down why ABC culture spread, what it's actually costing you, in refunds, in reputation, and in how you feel after every sales call, and the framework she uses to sell with full confidence and a clean conscience.

You'll learn:

• The 8 classic high-pressure tactics and exactly why they work against you
• The real difference between guiding and pushing (and how to tell which one you're doing)
• Why pressure selling erodes your confidence over time
• 4 guardrails for ethical, high-converting sales conversations
• What it actually sounds like to invite a decision without pressure

Plus the one thing my mom told me when I started my business that reframed everything she thought I knew about sales.

Ready to sell in a way that feels good, converts well, and builds a reputation you're actually proud of? 

I'm hosting a free masterclass where I teach the full framework behind ethical, high-converting sales conversations, the nine psychological triggers, how to read where someone is in real time, and how to guide someone to a yes without ever feeling gross about it.

Save your spot at 👉 www.easiestyes.com

137: The Co-Signer Problem: Why Your Dream Was Never Theirs to Approve

There's a conversation I keeps coming back to. One of my clients who was done explaining. Done justifying. Done trying to make the people in her life understand what she was building and why it mattered so much.

If you've ever felt that way, this episode is for you.

Today we unpack one of the most quietly damaging things entrepreneurs do. Waiting for permission. Waiting for someone to co-sign the dream before fully committing to it. And why that waiting is costing you more than you realize.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN:

• Why the people who love you most are sometimes the ones who understand you least, and why that's not a reflection of your dream
• Where permission seeking actually comes from and why it follows us into our businesses without us ever questioning it
• The co-signer framework, and why your dream was never theirs to approve
• Why crazy usually just means you were right too early
• Why hiding your ambition is costing you the version of life that's actually waiting for you
• The validation trap and how to break it one decision at a time
• How to find your people, the ones who grab a marker instead of giving you a worried look

136: What Separates the Top 2% in an AI World: The Human Advantage

If AI can write your emails, build your funnels, and generate your content.. what's left?

That's the question we unpack in this episode. And the answer has nothing to do with finding a better tool.

For the first time in history, emotional intelligence is more predictive of success than IQ. This is the fundamental shift happening right now, and it has massive implications for every entrepreneur building in an AI world.

In this episode I walk through the 6 human skills that AI cannot replicate, why the online business industry stopped investing in them, and why the entrepreneurs building these skills right now are quietly pulling away from the pack.

This one is going to change how you think about where you're investing your time and energy.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN:

• Why the barrier to entry just dropped to zero and what that actually means for your competitive advantage
• The 6 skills that separate the top 2%: Presence, Active Listening, Emotional Intelligence, Persuasion, Conviction, and Storytelling
• The skill nobody puts on their resume that closes more sales than any script ever could
• Why human skills compound differently than tactical skills and why that changes everything
• The honest truth about why the industry stopped teaching these skills

MEMORABLE MOMENTS:

"AI just handed everyone the same playbook. Skill is no longer enough. The strategies are no longer exclusive. The tools are available to everyone. So what's left? The human."

"For the first time in history, EQ is more predictive of success than IQ. AI handed everyone the same analytical brain. IQ is no longer the scarce resource. Everyone has it now."

"The asset was never the funnel. It was never the framework. It was never the tool. The asset is you. It always has been. AI just made it impossible to ignore."

"The question in an AI world isn't what tool are you using. The question is who are you becoming."

"Every conversation you show up fully for builds the kind of intuition that can't be taught."

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

• Join the The Easiest Yes Free Masterclass: www.easiestyes.com

CONNECT WITH LINDSAY: Instagram: @LindsayvanHarssel