Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast founder with Sarah Michelle NP Reviews, the lady herself, Sarah Michelle Boes. How are you?

Sarah Michelle Boes: I am incredible. Thank you so much for having me today.

Stone Payton: Well, it’s a delight to have you on the program and I got a ton of questions, but I think a good place. There’s just so much I don’t know, Sarah. Uh, I think a good place to start, though, would be if you could articulate for for me and our listeners. Mission. Purpose. What are you really out there trying to do for folks?

Sarah Michelle Boes: You know, honestly, I’ve thought about that a lot this year. And I think at my core, I really just want to rewrite what’s possible and kind of help people reframe their brains about what their lives could look like. Because if you had told me five years ago that I was going to create and sell a business and become a mom and all these incredible, exciting things I’ve been able to do, I would have never believed you because I was very risk averse, and I never would have thought I would have been entrepreneur. But being an entrepreneur has just really opened up a whole new season in my life that I am forever grateful for.

Stone Payton: So say more about that journey. How did you land here?

Sarah Michelle Boes: You know, a lot of great businesses come out of your own pain in a way, and I was about to graduate nurse practitioner school. It was in literally the prom and thick of Covid, and the market for nurse practitioner review courses and test prep to take the exam was very archaic. And so during Covid, they took what they used to do in two day in-person conferences and threw it on zoom. And they thought that would be a good fit. But that’s not exactly how that works. And so I was having major test anxiety preparing to take this exam. It was getting canceled all the time because it was Covid. And then I finally got to take the exam. It’s one of the easiest exams I’ve ever taken. And I was like, oh my goodness. Like, I really feel like if you can graduate nurse practitioner school, you can pass this exam. You just have to be able to believe in yourself and manage your anxiety to be able to do that. And it was that very, very simple idea of this is really about test anxiety. It’s less about the content. And I already know I love to teach. Like, could I create something that would have been what I wanted and serve my own pain points? And so I literally did it in a single weekend. So Memorial Day weekend 2020. My husband was outside building a smoker out of cinder blocks because he desperately wanted a smoker and we were too broke to buy one, and I sat inside and recorded a course on zoom that changed the entire trajectory of our lives.

Stone Payton: What a incredible leap of faith. I mean, that had to take some some guts to do that.

Sarah Michelle Boes: You know, people say that I don’t know, you know, because I’m a little bit risk averse, which is funny now looking back. But I think like the guts came in the sense of like willing to be cringe almost and put yourself out there and just see what happens. But I do think very fortunately for me, like there wasn’t a huge monetary risk, like the real risk I was running was like loss of time. And I was like, it’s Covid. Nothing else is happening in my world, in sphere right now. Like, if I lose a week of my time, two weeks of my time this weekend, etc. building this course and it doesn’t work, That’s fun. Um, but that course really ended up being what people not only really wanted, but they also really, really needed.

Stone Payton: So did you find that people embraced this pretty early on? Did it take off pretty quickly for you?

Sarah Michelle Boes: Yeah. So I made over Memorial Day weekend and that following Monday, I put it out to all my classmates because me being overachiever me, I was the first person in my class to test, and there were like 30 or so of us. And so I gave it to my 30 classmates for free and said, look, I’m going to give you this course. You tell me what you think and invite one other person to my group. I made a Facebook group, and so I let in the first 100 people for free, and by day three I was like, okay, like I’m already getting some good feedback and people are liking it. And this is a three hour course that I have made over the weekend. I was like, I’m just going to try to sell it and see what happens. And so the very first person I went to sell it to, I was selling it for $25 for lifetime access to my three hour course. And she said, absolutely not. My friend got it for free. Why would I pay you $25? And so she ended up haggling me down to $15. So for the very first day of my business, I sold it for $15, and I made $1,000 in a day. And it was so insane to me that I could possibly make $1,000 in a day and not leave my house. And from something that I actually enjoyed and wanted to do, I was like, oh my goodness, I have to like, dive head first. Like, what if I made $1,000 every single day? How cool would that be?

Stone Payton: So now that you’ve been at this a while, what what are you finding the most rewarding? What are you enjoying the most about it these days?

Sarah Michelle Boes: Well, you know, it has been a wild ride over these last few years. So to kind of give a bird’s eye view of the business, I started at the very tail end of May 2020. By August of that year, I made my first hundred thousand. Um, and by the time we were seven months in, I had made $1 million. And so I was kind of riding this rocket ship, and it was so much fun building, and it was so much fun exploring and really co-creating with my students, because what a lot of people don’t see from the outside is there was so much co-creation because I talked to thousands and thousands of my first customers, and I’m like, what did you like? What didn’t you like? What did you want more of? And that co-creation, that iteration and pivoting piece is so important in a new business, which is also why you can start messy and pivot later. I tell people all the time, I’m like, don’t overcomplicate starting a business. Just start messy because you’re going to change it anyways. But that being said, I was writing this rocket ship. I didn’t know how long it was going to be a rocket ship. I just knew it was flying into space. And so that was ultimately about the time that I decided to sell, because it was growing so rapidly that we were breaking every piece of software that we were touching and Like every like literally all the problems of a big business. But when you’re kind of like running it as a solopreneur feel huge. I mean, even just figuring out how to pay sales tax in every state because it was an online business was a huge thing to tackle, and I was really wearing all these hats. But the thing that I love in my life the most is to teach and to educate.

Sarah Michelle Boes: And so the more hats I took on, the less teaching, educating I got to do. And so my hope and my dream was in selling my business. A we would get the resources and the software that we needed like so desperately needed. But b I would get back to the parts of the business I love the most. And I’m not sure how much we talked about this when we talked previously, but within a month of selling my business, I was pregnant and I found out my daughter was sick. And so that really kind of flipped on its head what I imagined the acquisition process would look like and what I imagine my role would look like. And so for me, now, I’m doing the thing I love most, which is educating and teaching, but I’m kind of doing it in a brand new way because my daughter, with being born with congenital heart disease, I’ve now become such an advocate for her, and I’ve become an advocate for the congenital heart disease community. And I’m trying to educate and teach people all the time that congenital heart disease. So heart defects are the most common birth defect there is is 1 in 100, but they’re one of the very least funded. And so my mission and my advocacy work is to change that because awareness is what creates the funding, and funding is what creates the research that’s going to change my daughter’s life and the lives of those like her. So in a long winded way, I’m still doing the thing that I love the most. I’m just not necessarily doing it within my previous business and the way that I was. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing either.

Stone Payton: Well, I wouldn’t think so. And it sounds like everything that came before is is now helping you be that much more powerful and productive in serving this new pursuit of yours. I think that’s fantastic.

Sarah Michelle Boes: I absolutely agree every day, like being able to have the entrepreneurial expertise for nurse practitioner expertise, because I am technically a nurse practitioner, but also like the personal advocacy story of almost losing our daughter when she was four months old. All of those come together to create a really powerful way to advocate, which is I mean, I was literally in Washington, DC a month ago, so advocacy work is a really huge part of my life these days. And I think even in my previous business, I was advocating for mental health because, you know, none of the other review courses were talking about mental health as part of that game. And I was really the first person to bring that to light. So I think I’ve just switched my advocacy hat.

Stone Payton: So now a day in the life of Sarah Michelle is a little bit different, but but a lot of common threads like you tell us a little bit more about how you’re investing your time and energy on a day to day basis now?

Sarah Michelle Boes: Man, I think today is a perfect example of me as a human because I got up this morning with my daughter, and it’s always super important for me to have a slow morning with my daughter and be really intentional and get to soak that time in. And then we actually were invited by the American Heart Association to a go red luncheon, where we did a survivor fashion show. So I got to be my daughter’s escort down the runway this morning and get to talk all about congenital heart disease and how important it is to us and our family and those around us. And then I’m doing podcasts this afternoon. I’m on the board at our local children’s hospital. I have a children’s hospital event this afternoon as well. So today is very much an advocacy day and an advocacy filling day for me, but also a lot of my time right now, outside of the advocacy work I do, is working on my memoir because I’m about 100,000 words in which I’m very proud of, but I’m not done quite yet. And I really I want to be able to tell my story in a way that shows people just like what is possible, because I grew up in eastern Kentucky. Five years ago, I was making $40,000 a year as a nurse. And now to be able to have, like, the freedom of time and flexibility and money to chase the causes I love the most. Like I can’t even begin to describe how lucky I feel every single day when I wake up.

Stone Payton: Well, I would certainly say that you are fortunate to be blessed in that way. I don’t think luck had anything to do with it. And hearing you describe how this journey has, uh, has, has unfolded for you, I do have kind of a tactical question that you might have some insight on. Uh, what do you think people sometimes get wrong or misunderstand about getting ready to, to sell and live through the selling of their business. Any insight on that?

Sarah Michelle Boes: Oh my goodness. It is such an emotional process. That’s what I want people to understand before they ever walk through the door of the first meeting. It is an emotional process and you want to be as clear headed as possible. And so I think one of the very best ways to do that, if you’re thinking about an acquisition, and one of the things I’m most grateful that me and my husband did together was that we decided what our number was before we ever talked to anybody. So that way, when we got our first letter of intent and we got our first offer and valuation, when we looked at it and it wasn’t our number, it wasn’t like, oh my goodness, we really liked these people or we really want to do this over here. It was no, it’s simply not our number. So I really think that’s a great place to start. And the other thing I tell people a lot is that the deal is not done until it’s done. And it can be really difficult when you’re excited and you’re thinking about the valuation, you’re thinking about how your life is going to change to get lost in that fact. But the deal closes when all the papers are signed and it can fall apart at any moment. And a lot of deals do. And it’s nothing to do with you necessarily. That’s just also part of the process. Normal, unexpected part.

Stone Payton: So I want to hear more about this podcast. Are you being a guest on a podcast or is this one that you’re hosting?

Sarah Michelle Boes: Oh, I’m a little bit everywhere right now. So I actually had a podcast episode come out today. Um, that is another medical parent, and we’re talking about different advocacy work that we do in medical play and the different ways that we prepare our doctors for their appointments. And also as a passion project side project. For me, this will sound a little out of left field. Um, but for anyone who knows me personally, it makes a lot of sense because I’m very multi-passionate and I like to do all the things just for fun. I actually have my own astrology podcast, so.

Stone Payton: Of course you do.

Sarah Michelle Boes: Of course I do. Um, but for me, I gotta have a little bit of fun in there. And the astrology podcast, which is called the Cosmic Group chat. Me and my best friend do it is my little bit of fun that I get to sprinkle in.

Stone Payton: I love it! So what do you need more of and how can how can we help?

Sarah Michelle Boes: You know, I think the most important thing for me right now is just building the foundation and letting people know about who I am and my story, because my memoir will be coming out later this year, and I’m very excited about that. But it’s obviously it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of marketing work. It’s a lot of getting it out there. And so everyone who could possibly even be remotely interested by reading the story, which is so much more than building and selling a business that was obviously a big piece of it. I’m grateful for every opportunity to do that.

Stone Payton: What an exciting time for you and for all of us. I we’re going to continue to follow your story, and I want to make sure that we leave our listeners with some coordinates to connect with you, to tap into your podcast work, to get their hands on this memoir when it’s ready. Well, let’s leave them with some coordinates.

Sarah Michelle Boes: Oh, yes. I think the easiest place to start is Sarah Michelle Bowes. Com and that is Sarah with an H. And that is Bowes spelled in as B, as in boy o e s. And then I also have a pretty heavy social presence. Everyone knows that they can get Ahold of me at my Instagram, which is Sarah Michelle MP, MP. Being as a nurse practitioner, I’m the one that runs that account, so I’m the one that answers the messages. So you’re not getting a robot or a different human. It really is me and I love having human to human connection with people. You can also find me on the more standard places like LinkedIn. I do a lot of writing there, and if for whatever reason you’re interested in astrology or that piques your interest, I do the My Beginner Astrology podcast for anyone who’s just, we call it Astro curious, and that’s called the cosmic Group chat.

Stone Payton: I love it, Astro curious. Now I have a new phrase at the cocktail party. That’s terrific. Well, it has been an absolute delight having you on the broadcast. Keep up the good work. The the work you’re doing is so important and impacting so many. And we sure appreciate you.

Sarah Michelle Boes: Thank you so much. I really hope to change the world for children with congenital heart disease. So I got a lot of work ahead of me.

Stone Payton: You do, but I think you’re up for it. And it’s been my pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Sarah Michelle bows and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.