Lessons learned and looking back – celebrating 5 years of TFA

Michelle Lynne: Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Fearless Artist Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Lynne, and today I have someone very special on—Deanna. Welcome to the podcast.

Deanna Petre: Thank you. Great to be here.

Michelle Lynne: The other half of TFA—this is your second episode with us, and by us I mean me. So thank you for joining me today. I’m happy to have you, and, uh, we’re gonna talk today. We have very exciting news.

Deanna Petre: Our exciting news is that we have just hit five years of the Fearless Artist Mastermind, which is incredibly exciting.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, we did absolutely nothing to celebrate this, except this podcast episode is the reason. So we hit five years in February. We don’t actually know the date; we have to look back and see what the day was of our first mastermind call. Uh, but yeah—we started TFA on the 20th of February, one month before lockdown together, and it’s been a wild ride.

So I think this episode is to, first of all, celebrate and celebrate the impact and talk about what we’ve learned and the highs and the lows of running a company together as best friends and now business partners. And yeah, I think it’d just be fun for the audience to, first of all, get to know you a little bit better because that’s why I started this podcast—to be more open and vulnerable about the actual, real, behind-the-scenes process of what it takes to be a musician, because Instagram is very shiny and glamorous, and, uh, the podcast gives time to go deeper into thought. So I’m excited to have you. I’m excited for our audience to hear more from you. You started a blog recently, which is how you’ve been sharing a little bit. Do you wanna tell us about that?

Deanna Petre: I did. Yes. So I am a mom of two and I started a blog, this past six months ago, and it is all about being a mother and a musician and just the absolute craziness that that entails. It is chaotic, it is messy. It is not easy to be a freelance musician doing multiple different things. I am performing, I’m a violist, and, um, I’m also teaching a regular studio of about 10 students, and I am also running the Fearless Artists. So managing all of that with kids is absolutely nuts, but so worth it, and it definitely is a wild ride.

Michelle Lynne: I think you’re inspiring a lot of people. You get a lot of messages every time you release a blog article—people thanking you for being real, people who are looking up to you, women who want to become moms. Also dads. We’ve had dads write in and be like, “Hey, it’s not just the ladies.” We are, you know, one of our very first mastermind clients, Nick—a very good friend of mine—and now he has two little girls. So he was like, “I know what you’re going through. I, I hear that too.” So we’re all about helping musicians learn how to balance the crazy, whether it’s that you’re traveling on the road all the time performing, or you’ve got a family at home that you have to manage while doing other things—teaching, you’re coaching.

Deanna Petre: Exactly… And I felt like I had not seen a whole lot of other—like, I don’t have any mentors to show me, like, how do you do it? So my initial question was, “How on earth do other musicians be parents and balance that with their careers and everything?” So it was just, it’s really fun to be able to open up the conversation to that and to hear other people’s stories and experiences and to connect about that has been really great so far.

Michelle Lynne: Tell us a little bit. How do you do it? What’s the secret? What’s the secret to being a—you just listed everything that you do, so what is it?

Deanna Petre: You learn as you go. I mean, because every stage of babyhood and then toddlerhood is, you think you’ve got something handled and then some developmental change happens, or somebody gets sick in the night, or you have to go to the hospital in the middle of the night… whatever it is.
Um, these things actually happen, and you just learn to, first of all, rely on your community—who’s around you who can help—um, making sure you have the childcare that you need so that you can be fully focused when you are doing something. For example, I have a very hard time practicing with my kids around. I need someone else to do that so I can be a hundred percent focused on that. And then just making sure that you have open communication within your family, with your partner, and being able to juggle just the day-to-day stuff and make sure you have energy. There’s no magic solution, but I think a lot of it is learning as you go.

Michelle Lynne: Thanks for what you’re sharing with that, ’cause I know it’s impacting a lot of people and I know that’s kind of your lane right now. I wanted to start this episode by asking you, okay, take us back five years ago. Where were we? What were we doing? You know, who came up with this crazy idea? Did we know what we were getting into?

Deanna Petre: Did we know? If you could’ve told us where we would be in five years, I think we would. We would’ve done that. We would’ve laughed exactly like that and been like, “That is insane. Uh, can we even—like, how can we make that happen?” So I think it’s grown into so much more than we ever expected. I think we had a lot of the things that we are doing now. We had as dreams when we started and thinking… “Some day we will have membership…”

Michelle Lynne: Like, like, what? Like what?

Deanna Petre: Like the membership…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Okay. Yeah,

Deanna Petre: It’s like…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: And then we could do different types of programs and, um, maybe someday…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: We’ll run workshops. And we have done so many. So a lot of these things started off as, like, little bubble ideas—brainstorming what we could actually do. It’s more than just one thing, one mastermind.

Michelle Lynne: Because Mastermind was what we started with. It’s good to say that—that was the original concept. It was a small group. We put out an Instagram post. We had eight people sign up the first round.

Deanna Petre: Yep. Yeah, we had two different groups and we, um, just started—we didn’t have the name; we didn’t even have our name yet—the Fearless Artists came slightly later. We didn’t have a website, and it was really just, “Let’s just jump into this and see what’s gonna happen.”

Michelle Lynne: It’s crazy, though. It worked just from an Instagram post and talking. I mean, they were all personal friends in the beginning, and it was one month before lockdown. We didn’t know Covid was coming. We had done a mastermind with some of your Juilliard colleagues. We loved the concept. We thought it could go deeper with the facilitation and having good conversations. We understand the power of coaching because we had done some, some stuff before—we’d been introduced to that. So, okay, but why did we agree to do this together in the first place? I mean, I have my reasons, but what were, what are your reasons?

Deanna Petre: Too.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, good.

Deanna Petre: Yes—my reason, yes, is because Michelle and I worked so well together, and we realized that when we were performing together…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: I was living in Paris at the time. I’m now in Minneapolis, but I lived in Paris for about 10 years. And I met Michelle in 2015. We started playing together, and when we really were like, “Whoa, this is kind of weird—how well we worked together,” it was when we were doing outreach concerts through the Juilliard Global Initiative program. We were going around Europe, giving master classes, interactive concerts that we got to create our own program with. And when we were doing those concerts, it was just like things were just flowing. You had your skills, I had my skills, and, um, we had an amazing time and we were fantastic travel partners. Like that does not just happen with just anyone—it’s like the combination of both of us being flexible, but, like, also spontaneity. No problem—we didn’t have any issues. It was just, we had a lot of fun. Um, and we saw our complementary skills come out when we were facilitating the concerts, and it was like, “Wow, we really work so well together.”

Michelle Lynne: That was like, honestly, a light bulb moment for me. I remember the moment when I was like, “This is weird, because when you travel with people, you really get to know them—and they usually piss you off at some point.” And I don’t know, eight to 10 trips across Switzerland, multiple times—Madrid, Warsaw, Prague—and we were, you know, trying new restaurants and we were going out and we could just agree. And like you’re saying, there was this beautiful flow. Also, in the facilitation of the outreach concerts, we would do the trade-offs, like you would explain the viola and I would explain the piano, and then we’d get the kids—you know, we were like facilitating for 300 kids in Warsaw that one time.

Deanna Petre: And you were great capturing everyone’s attention. Being like, “the crowd control”—Michelle’s amazing. I was like, “That’s—I can’t do that.”

Michelle Lynne: The crowd control. I’m like, “Alright, everybody, listen up because we’re going,” you know? Yeah, totally.

Deanna Petre: Our energy matched, um, and we just had so much fun.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, yeah. So I think that was definitely, um, and also getting lost together. We were never really mad about it—we were just like, “Okay, like…”

Deanna Petre: “We’ll figure it…”

Michelle Lynne: “Like…”

Deanna Petre: “Or waking up at…”

Michelle Lynne: That one time—oh yeah. Okay. So this one time, we got into a cab—yes—we took a cab in Geneva to go to the airport at 4:00 AM, and I jumped on Instagram to, like, make a story. And you were like, “Put that away…”

Deanna Petre: “Put that away…”

Michelle Lynne: You were like, “No…”

Deanna Petre: “Put it away.”

Michelle Lynne: You were like, “Now is not the time.”

Deanna Petre: Yep.

Michelle Lynne: This… Um, what was I gonna say? Oh yeah. And then that one time that we got to Switzerland and we didn’t have Wi-Fi ’cause this was before we had like European, uh, data. So we were completely lost and we couldn’t contact our host to come pick us up.

Deanna Petre: Yep—and… we had to get Wi-Fi off of a bus. There was a bus that had free Wi-Fi. Remember?

Michelle Lynne: That’s right. That’s right—’cause I had to, I had to go stand beside this bus to get this. Exactly. And then she picked us up anyway. And I think, I mean, coming back to your point, like the thing about being flexible was so key because those days when we were doing international outreach—like we were doing master classes, private lessons, concerts in the evening—we had one wine-and-dine fancy concert in Switzerland. But like, the whole schedule would be thrown off. They would tell us, “Okay, arrive at nine, and then you are working with these two classes, and then you’re gonna go here,” and like everything would be different. And we had to be so flexible.

Deanna Petre: Yeah, absolutely.

Michelle Lynne: So I think that’s probably one of the key skills that we’ve brought into running TFA with this flexibility, because we’ve had—like you mentioned earlier—”learn as you go.” It’s like, well, that’s literally how we’ve built TFA. We have learned step by step as we’ve gone; I mean, we built our website in, uh, in August.

Deanna Petre: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We never said, “Okay, well we can’t run a company until we have taken these courses on accounting and business plans and all this stuff.” Like, we really learned as we went. We did some learning before we started the mastermind about how to run a mastermind, but it has just been constant—constant learning. And when you’re open to learning something new and you’re passionate about that being a continual thing—probably a lifelong thing—then it’s really this growth mindset that we infuse in everything we do with our musicians, but we also use that ourselves.

Michelle Lynne: And I think another thing is that we’ve upgraded as we went. So we didn’t start with all the bells and whistles and super fancy—like, we built our own website from the beginning. Our Instagram—I was just building it one Unsplash picture at a time, like stock photos. We were just trying to start sharing ideas and connecting with other musicians and, like, getting the word out basically. And back then, with Mastermind, we were just starting groups every, what, three, four months or something.

Deanna Petre: Yep.

Michelle Lynne: So then it was a lot of talking to people and just explaining the idea. Many people didn’t even know what it was like or why you would want it or need it, and then we were trying to figure out things like pricing and what was actually helpful for people. But then we got results so quickly from those first groups. Do you remember?

Deanna Petre: Oh yeah. It was really, really cool to see that, like, “Okay, wow, this thing is working. People wanna do it.” Um, they’re accomplishing projects and ideas and things that they would never have without us. So that was proof that we’re onto something here and we can continue developing it.

Michelle Lynne: Okay. What do you love about coaching? What do you love about facilitating our groups?

Deanna Petre: Just—I’m very much a one-on-one or small group person. I love getting to know people, getting to know their thoughts, and having the exchange. So especially with our small group things, seeing everyone’s viewpoints and letting ’em have a voice, and seeing their discovery moments or their learning—I love when people are sharing their own experiences so that others can learn from that. But especially from the coaching perspective, like being able to unlock and see, kind of dig deeper so we’re not just like, “You call your friend up when you have a problem. They say, ‘Oh, well, just do this,’ and then you’re like, ‘That’s not really my issue here with coaching.’” It’s really more in-depth and figuring out where you’re coming from, what’s going on, what’s the background—and that way you can start to unlock the pieces in there.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, and we just saw so many musicians struggling on their own because, like, oh, we—you, you’re the one who came up with our catchphrase: “We don’t wait for the phone to ring. We make the phone ring ourselves.” I mean, I say that every lesson in my entrepreneurship class. We make the phone ring because we’ve learned we have to take initiative. We have to send the pitches, we have to send the emails, we have to think of ideas and projects and talk to people. And I think when you and I graduated, it was like, “Okay, like somehow there’s gonna be a career waiting for us.” Uh, if you’ve been listening to this podcast and you know our stories—but, and I mean, that’s changing now. I think people are, like, becoming more aware of the fact that, “Oh, I need to actually make this happen.” What’s something that you remember from the early days?

Deanna Petre: Something I remember from the early days, um…

Michelle Lynne: Like, what was the feeling that we had when we started this? Like, coming back to the first question of, “If we saw where we would be five years later”—you know, ’cause I mean, what do we have right now? We have thousands of Instagram followers. We’ve got a podcast, we’ve got a blog, we’ve got a membership with over 30 members. We’ve got a mastermind with eight people in the mastermind. Uh, we’ve got our social media programs. Um, we get messages constantly from complete strangers reaching out to us, asking for advice and wisdom—and like, we’ve, we’ve created this platform. I don’t think, I don’t think I realized how big the potential is…

Deanna Petre: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: …and that we stepped into such a needed area.

Deanna Petre: Yes, and I think, I mean, I would be blown away if you told me all those statistics from the beginning, like, “This is where you’re gonna be in five years.” But I think what astonishes me the most is how we’ve built everything that we have when this is not our full-time job.

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Deanna Petre: This is not full-time. I mean, in the beginning we had two work sessions together of two hours each, and it’s like, “Whoa, how did we make all this happen?” And it is by building up more and more and investing more time and expanding our team eventually, and, um, and so much more. But, um, yeah, it’s really, it’s really amazing to see how far we’ve come with all of the things that we’re doing.

Michelle Lynne: Okay, so in the last five years, did you have a moment when it was like, “Okay, wait, we’re actually doing this?”

Deanna Petre: Mm, that’s a good question.

Michelle Lynne: I know.

Deanna Petre: Oh…

Michelle Lynne: I was thinking about that too, because I think as you’re saying, like we were kind of figuring out as we went—we were seeing that there was success—but then all of a sudden we started really going after it seriously, because we were kind of, I mean, even now we’re not even at halftime. We’re working like 10 to 15 hours each on this. While you know, you’re momming and freelancing and teaching, and I’m playing 10, 12 shows a month—so we’re putting in as much time into this as we can. Uh, there’s so much more potential we can have. I mean, when you say, “We’re not even doing it full-time,” it’s like, “Yeah, imagine how much further we could be if we had, like, 20 hours a week.” But it’s just not possible. It’s not possible the way that we are. And we’ve expanded the team—like we have two, uh, two girls working for us and they’re doing a great job, and that’s helped us a lot. And then, uh, building as we go. I mean, we started bringing, finally—you know, I think a big moment for us was when we hired out a new website and brand design. That was like a really turning point, I think.

Deanna Petre: That was…

Michelle Lynne: Um…

Deanna Petre: That was a financial investment. And that was like…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: …our website was working for us. We had built it from scratch, but we are gonna make this for real now. We need the branding; we need the clarity; and just, like, stepping it up a level. So I think we keep having, every year, these levels where we step up, and I think the moment when I’m like, “Oh wow, we’re doing this,” is like every year when we do our review of the year and we’re like, “Look how much we have accomplished. Look how much…”

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Deanna Petre: …we have learned. We always do this. Every year we do a year-in-review. And so those are the moments where I’m like, “Whoa—you can really compare it from one year to the next and see all that we learned, all that we invested in, all that…” We expanded upon how many musicians we worked with, and especially this past year has been enormous compared to, um, the year before it. So it was just really amazing to see.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. This year has been huge.

Deanna Petre: We’re not just plateauing and just going along and saying, “Well, okay, even with the number of hours that we have available, we are still going up on the graph.”

Michelle Lynne: Okay. Why is that?

Deanna Petre: Why is that? We got smarter. I think, like you said, we… we were just being the two of us—’cause we realized there are only so many hours in the day that we can both do. But once we realized our strong points in the company and then what we can delegate to other people, that has been huge—’cause all of a sudden we both have weights lifted from us, of things that someone else could do and do not have to be us. So that we are doing the things that only we can do.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, that’s true. We got really specific in job roles early on. We read a couple of really great books that helped us—like E‑Myth (if anyone’s listening) or Rocket Fuel—which totally changed the game for us because that really helped us figure out the founding members of the company: one’s the visionary, one’s the integrator; so one’s got the ideas and the vision—and mostly the ideas, you know, a lot of pizazz—and then integrators like, “Okay, following up with structures and systems and putting things in place.” But you need both. I mean, I think both of us have, at times, complimented those roles or taken those roles over from each other. I mean, you—well, I mean, your husband named our company for an idea, but you also had great ideas; and then sometimes, I mean, we’ve had to pull back and make sure things… we’re running smoothly. Okay—if you could go back to when we first started TFA, just to wrap up that idea, what would you tell the 2020 version of Anna and Michelle?

Deanna Petre: Well, I mean, kind of what we were doing—I would say, “Just stick with it. Be persistent.” ‘Cause we’ve had moments where we thought, “Well, is this worth it? Should we continue? Are we wasting our time? Um, should we throw in the towel?” Those are the hardest moments we’ve ever had to experience, and they were very hard.

Michelle Lynne: So just to know—just be persistent—and, um, talk a little bit more about those really hard moments. I mean, there were a couple of times when we were like, “Alright, this is—we don’t know if it’s worth it anymore.” What did that mean to you?

Deanna Petre: I think that meant that, like, we have to make it. There were, it was like a turning point in the road—like we’re going straight and then, all of a sudden, there’s a fork, and either we say, “Know what, this is not a hobby. We can’t have something that’s a hobby, um, that we’re investing so much time into because we both have careers aside from this,” or the other option is, “Whatever’s not working, we’re gonna figure it out. We’re gonna fix it, change it, hire a business coach—which we have—and really take it, take ourselves more seriously and be more efficient with our time. Maybe delegate to other people.” We’ve had that moment where we’re like, “Well, either we do this for real or we don’t,” because it can’t just continue to be a hobby for us.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, exactly. I mean, we didn’t pay ourselves for the first three years that we worked for TFA, and we saw returns in other ways. I mean, I got hired at Conservatory Jobs, where I was teaching, and I felt like that was a direct result of my authority on what I was coaching and, like, all the Instagram content and newsletters and stuff. Um, and I know, uh, it was very rewarding in other ways. And just building our… what you’re saying—hearing from people, hearing how musicians are struggling and how we’ve seen so much impact and the results of what they were accomplishing—was really hard. And, I think another big turning point was when we got serious about paying ourselves a salary. I know I saw in you a huge shift at that point. Do you remember?

Deanna Petre: It can be very motivating. Imagine that.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Right.

Deanna Petre: Yeah. But it was just like, “Okay, yes—we’re doing this, and we’re committing the time, and, um, trying to figure out how we can do things in a more efficient way.”

Michelle Lynne: Okay. Talk a little bit about the fact that we’re best friends and running a company together. How has that been for us? I mean, how have we stayed close, connected? Do you have any thoughts around this?

Deanna Petre: Oh yeah, sure. Um, I think one of the highlights of us as friends and as a company is that we are very easily able to weave in and out of discussions about the company. So maybe we’re talking about how our day was, and then we’re like, “Oh hey, also, did you notice this?” Or, “Did you think about this?” I was thinking about this for the program—it’s always been that we haven’t had this, like, “Oh, we have to only talk about work during certain hours,” or “we can’t talk.” I mean, we do—in our work sessions, we are very focused, right?

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Yeah.

Deanna Petre: We’re absolutely a hundred percent focused. But, and on the other hand…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: …we can also just be friends. We can still, you know, even when we see each other in person, we’re still talking a lot about the company. Like, we’re always going in and out of conversations about it. Um, so that’s something that I always enjoy—that just comes very naturally to us.

Michelle Lynne: I think it’s ’cause we care so much about people. I think both of us are deeply caring about the musicians that we work with, and I think more and more recently I’ve become, maybe, uh, I’ve recognized the honor that it is to have so much authority and influence to speak in people’s lives. I think a turning point for me was when people started telling me, “We hear your voice in our head when we’re going to do things,” and I’m like, “Oh my gosh!” That, I dunno, kind of just hit me a little bit. I was like, “Okay. I mean, I am so grateful to have a place in your brain, and I really hope it’s like a good voice telling you to go for your dreams and, you know, be fearless,” and all the things that I preach about on Instagram every day. But I think that for me it was like a little bit of a smack in the face. Like, people are paying attention and they’re listening—and like, what are you doing with that responsibility? Because we are shaping— I mean, I’ve had one of our early participants tell me that he made a serious career decision because of something that I had said in a coaching call with him. And I think that was also a big moment for me. And not that I’ve ever been careless with a coaching session, but it just made me realize even more the weight or the responsibility of really trying to hear where people are at and help them. And so I think that’s why it’s so easy for us to go in and out during our day-to-day conversations—because we really care about the people we’re working with and we really just want musicians to have every opportunity that’s in front of them—to be able to go for it and not have any limitations because the industry that we’re in has given us nothing but limitations from the beginning.

Deanna Petre: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: To play perfectly, you need to look perfect. You need to meet all the right people. You need to go to the right schools. You need to be with the right orchestra programs and, like, you know, all these rules. And so we wanna take off the limitations and look at possibilities.

Deanna Petre: Yeah, exactly. It’s—yeah, it’s just an honor to see the impact that we’ve had on so many people whenever we receive messages from people saying how much we help them or how they’ve seen development over the years—’cause we’ve had musicians working with us for several years now. And it’s just incredible to see, like, “Wow, if we didn’t exist—like, that would be a crazy hole; like, we’ve created this huge web of musicians from all over the world, and if we hadn’t…”

Michelle Lynne: Yes.

Deanna Petre: …this, it’s just, it’s hard to imagine if we didn’t have it.

Michelle Lynne: I mean, talk a little bit—’cause I know our originals, they would love a shout out. So, like, you know, Mari and Omar—they’ve been with us for five years. For five years, they’ve been in all of our programs at some point—every program that we’ve offered. So we are—we have…

Deanna Petre: …you.

Michelle Lynne: Yes, they currently are. So, Mastermind, the social media sprint (which is six weeks), and then we have our monthly memberships. Like, I mean, we’ve developed deep friendships with these people as well.

Deanna Petre: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: And we now consider them friends. I mean, Omar even came when he was on his Europe tour, came and visited, and, like, met Hannah and stuff. And I mean, it’s just like, yeah—when you say it’s a privilege, how do you feel about that? That we’ve had these people in our lives for five years that we never would’ve met if we hadn’t started TFA.

Deanna Petre: I…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: …incredible. And the only thing better than that would be when we, when we someday have a reunion and meet everyone in person. But, um, it is— it is so cool to have developed those kinds of relationships where we are just continually in touch with the same people and to see them blossom, to see them grow, and just to have them with us. It is such a positive community, and I think that is…

Michelle Lynne: Yes.

Deanna Petre: …a reflection of our authenticity. Like Michelle said, we care so much about people. We are authentic. We are not, like, salesy or pushy or trying to say, “Oh, we have all the answers.” Um…

Michelle Lynne: Exactly.

Deanna Petre: …in all of our messaging, it is a hundred percent authentic, and in all the programs we have, we have a really strong group of positive musicians who are, um, when that kind of person comes together, it’s like, “Wow—you see what energy can come out of that?” And it’s really cool.

Michelle Lynne: I think that’s probably the most important thing you can say—the culture that we have built in the Fearless Artist. And that’s something that we have crafted very intentionally. Um, and, uh, you know, Puck and Constantina who worked for us—we’ve also shared that it’s—we, no, we call it the fearless mindset, but it’s a culture of honor. It’s a culture of being authentic. I mean, I compared myself for years to other pianists wearing fancy dresses, playing big venues, and thinking I was never gonna be good enough or pretty enough or whatever. And all this toxic mindset of perfectionism, you know, killing— we didn’t even mention the Killing Perfectionism challenge. I mean, that’s one of our main things. There’s been so much growth and impact with TFA—it’s crazy. It’s good that we’re doing this episode ’cause I don’t think we take a lot of time to reflect on all of this, ’cause we’re still so busy trying to keep up with what’s coming and the to-do lists and things.

But, um, the culture that we’ve built—of, I think, every musician who comes in knowing that they are highly valued and respected, and that we also deeply value their contribution in the membership—and we invite everyone to give feedback and receive feedback. And even right now, with the sprint of social media that we’re doing, everyone is giving feedback on everyone’s content. And so you and I act as facilitators, but not as the people who have all the answers, because it’s very interesting to hear multiple points of view—and that’s the point of a mastermind: that you are exchanging ideas at the highest level. And I think that is—you can’t put a price on the…

Deanna Petre: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: …price of an idea, because the potential of the idea—the potential of TFA, if we look back at how many, uh, not just how much money we’ve generated, but how many lives we’ve touched—I mean, you can’t put a price on that. So if you find an idea and you find a way to execute it, this is priceless.

Deanna Petre: Yeah. What would you say about our friendship and how we can manage that and the company at the same time, and we’re still friends?

Michelle Lynne: I mean, it’s just like, it’s insane to suggest otherwise, you know? I mean, one of the funniest moments was when I was on a podcast and they said, “Tell me about Deanna, your business partner.” And I was like, “Deanna is the reason I’m alive today.” And I, I laugh when I listen back to it, but like—we’ve done life together, we’ve done some really hard stuff together, and sometimes you just go through seasons with people. You go through things. I mean, we’re talking—you know, we met, we’re both expats. We moved our entire worlds over to Europe. We restarted in new cultures, new languages, new networks—you know, that’s a hard thing. So that’s something we had in common. Then we found each other. Um, you moved back. I think that move back was probably the most trying time for TFA. I would say, uh, adjusting to that—you know, you were adjusting to moving back. We’ve been through some very difficult private things, and so I think at some point you’re just like, “This is my ride or die. Like, we’ll figure it out.”

Deanna Petre: It’s an…

Michelle Lynne: …you know, like if something…

Deanna Petre: …then we can figure anything out. Yeah—learning how to deal with conflict and to not take things personally, but to be open and honest. And when things do come up, we deal with them. We do not brush things under the rug. We don’t, uh, let resentment build up—we just are open to receiving that kind of feedback from each other. And that is definitely essential for both friendship and especially the business relationship too. So, that has gotten us through a lot of times.

Michelle Lynne: We talk a lot about an inner circle and the importance of having an inner circle—especially as online public figures. Both you and I are careful about what we share online, what we don’t share online. We have boundaries and, like, different levels between the two of us. But then you have your inner people—and you’re one of my core people in my life. So when you say something, I know that probably my ego is gonna take a hit and I need to shut up and listen. And it might take me a couple of days, but I’ll think about it and reflect, and maybe I’ll come back to you and be like, “Okay, yeah, I hear you.” And it takes me a little bit of time, and you—I think you learned how to, first of all, have conflict and have these open conversations and say, “You know, this isn’t working,” or “This needs to change.”

Deanna Petre: Yeah. I’m not a person who loves confrontation, so for me it’s a big thing to say, “I’m not gonna run from this. We’re gonna deal with it head on.”

Michelle Lynne: But I think I…

Deanna Petre: …work things out.

Michelle Lynne: What also is interesting is that all of our conflicts or confrontations have been calm. Like we’ve never had these blowups. It’s never been like, “We’re not speaking,” or, you know, it’s never been dramatic with us—and I think that’s probably because of you, because I’m a little bit…

Deanna Petre: Zero drama. Zero, please.

Michelle Lynne: I’m like a little bit more—I’m a little bit more dramatic than you. I don’t know. I mean, I’m sure everyone listening to this is very surprised right now, but, um, I think because of your steadiness and your groundedness, it’s been like, “Okay, there’s an issue here. We gotta work it out. Let’s come back to it.” We’ve always been really honest. We have—and also our communication methods.

Deanna Petre: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: Whether it’s a long voice memo that we’ll dump on each other when one of us—most of our conversations happen while we’re driving—or like a voice note or a long text, we’ve done all things. Like, I showed up at your house, I took a plane—you know, I drove to Paris, you know, to come see you, like, multiple times. And actually, it was kind of hard today because I was in Paris for the day and, uh, I could have gone to our favorite cafe, but I chose to go to the other location ’cause I didn’t wanna go there without you. I was like, “I can’t do it.” What are some fun things we’ve done? One of them is, uh, the photo shoot in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Deanna Petre: That was really fun. Yes.

Michelle Lynne: Yes. We should bring back those pictures. Yeah.

Deanna Petre: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, that was our first ever photo shoot for our, for our first… That was in 2020, walking down a busy street in Paris, getting photos. It was fun. Um, trying—oh, we were both like, “I think we were both trying to figure out how to be business people too.” Like, we both wore blazers.

Deanna Petre: Well…

Michelle Lynne: …that photo shoot.

Deanna Petre: …weeks postpartum. I’m like, “What are we doing, having—”

Michelle Lynne: Right?

Deanna Petre: …when I’m like, “It’s seven weeks—”

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: …but…

Michelle Lynne: …yeah, yeah, yeah.

Deanna Petre: …just, you know, do things with crazy timing ’cause that’s how life is.

Michelle Lynne: Exactly. Well, what you’re saying—I mean, we’ve had to just go with the flow and, like, “Okay, like, you just had a baby.” And by the way, we’re still coaching—and, I mean, Mastermind saved; I mean, actually, we were having this conversation two days ago about, uh, remembering the lockdown because you had a very, very strict lockdown in Paris. You were allowed one hour a day outside, one kilometer radius once a day, and you had papers you had to show the police that they stopped you. Like, it was intense. I had total freedom—I’m sorry to say, but I did; I could go outside wherever I wanted with the dog. And we were talking about that, and I said, “How did you not go insane?” And you said TFA had really saved you those months. Like, the structure of it?

Deanna Petre: Mentally, I would’ve just gone bonkers. My apartment was 32 square meters—which is like 350 square feet—and almost 24/7 locked up in there. You know, cooped up in there.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: It just drove me insane, but it was so great to have this to work on. It just happened to be the right time. So, I have a question for you. Um, if…

Michelle Lynne: I can tell you do, ’cause I knew—you knew I was listening.

Deanna Petre: Looking at it—so… if our roles were suddenly reversed for a month, what would be the first three—first thing you would struggle with?

Michelle Lynne: Struggle with—I mean, I was thinking about it today, um, coming back from the car. I mean, I think we have three new people who wanna sign up for Fast Forward, and I literally don’t know, like in the back end, you know—this form and this Excel sheet and writing this down here—and, like, I’m just like, “I’m the talker.” Like, I’m like, “Oh yeah, this is what you’re gonna get in Fast Forward,” and, like, “Be awesome,” and, like, we’re gonna hype you up and then make sure you get your goals and you’re gonna feel super supported, and, like, “Okay, here you wanna join? Here’s the Stripe blank.” And then, I don’t know—then what happens next? I dunno.

Deanna Petre: I…

Michelle Lynne: I’m like, “See you on the call.”

Deanna Petre: …lost in Asana. Getting…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, Asana. Asana is my death wish. I do not—anyway, but I’m ironically the one who brought it to the company because I had a business coach who was like, “You need to use this,” and I was like, “Oh, Deanna, we’re gonna do this thing called Asana,” and then I, like, just don’t use it the way that we’re supposed to anyway.

Deanna Petre: And…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: …my favorite thing. Yeah. Can get everything all organized.

Michelle Lynne: Is it your favorite thing? I don’t think I knew this.

Deanna Petre: Uh, I mean, not literally my favorite thing—it’s just helpful. Well…

Michelle Lynne: Well, I know it’s helpful, but, okay—uh, what would you say? I mean, I know what the answer is, but what would you say?

Deanna Petre: We, we both know what this answer is. I would be like, “No, don’t make me do stories and posts and content,” and I would be sitting in front of the camera being like, “Okay, I—I don’t have to tell you guys.” You know…

Michelle Lynne: That’s not true? No, don’t even.

Deanna Petre: No, but…

Michelle Lynne: We, we posted a reel of you.

Deanna Petre: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: …improved, first of all. And second of all, people love hearing from you. And now I’m arguing—but I mean, we posted a reel of you yesterday and we already got like three or four new people who messaged us that they wanna join the membership because of you. So, like, you’re good on camera; people love listening to you, you have a different approach. I mean, what would you say about our facilitation style?

Deanna Petre: Oh, facilitation style. Um, it is complementary, which is, I think, the best part about it. Um, we’ve got the—you know, you are very, uh, proactive in saying, you know, and pushing people to their limits in the good way, like, for them to grow and feel like you’re asking the hard questions. Um, for me, facilitation is more of the empathy side—say, “Oh, yep, I understand that. I really do.” And to have just kind of a, yeah—a different approach, different style. But…

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Deanna Petre: …if we were both the same style, I think that would not work as well as it does—’cause we need that energy, we need that flow, and that give and take. And that’s what I really love is that for most of the stuff we do—like, we have different skill sets, we have different personalities, and they’re so complementary—and that’s why everything with TFA works.

Michelle Lynne: All right, so here’s another question. Um, how do we deal with setbacks? ‘Cause we have a lot of new ideas coming up and we try new things. Um, and if something fails, how have we handled that?

Michelle Lynne: Uh… uh, frustration?

Deanna Petre: First of all, frustration.

Michelle Lynne: No, I mean—I, there have been moments that have been really tough, like, I mean, we couldn’t figure out how to get people—like we did a workshop once in August. It was with my life coach, and I remember she’s just like the most beautiful person, and I really think she has transformed my thinking and helped me so much with perfectionism. So we brought her on to this workshop, and then I think getting people to sign up—like, we only had, like, seven or eight people—and I was just so crushed, you know, or when people say that they’re gonna come and then for whatever reason they don’t—uh, that was also just like, “Oh, like, what are we doing wrong?” Um, is it the timing? Is it the pricing? Is it the messaging? Is it the content? Like, I mean, these are all ways that, you know, you know what, you know what… how—my answer, I’m getting to my answer is, um, consistently trying again and letting the ebbs and flows—like, they’re little losses now. They’re not big losses. Like, “Okay, you know, we had a, you know, let’s say I get someone on a one-on-one and I invite them to join Mastermind, and they end up saying no. It’s like, ‘Okay, well I’ve got, like, five more calls this week, so it’s okay. I’m not devastated.’” You know, I really hope that that person comes, and if it’s the right fit for them, but it’s not like these huge losses anymore. If, you know, if a workshop doesn’t work, it’s like, “Okay, well, we do post feedback.” That’s been huge.

Deanna Petre: That’s what I was gonna…

Michelle Lynne: Feedback. What? Oh, okay. Go ahead.

Deanna Petre: …my answer would be, “We always look back after we finish something and we say, ‘Okay, how did it go? What went well? What went less well? What could we do better? What are we going to, what have we learned?’” And being able to critique ourselves. It’s kind of like after playing an audition instead of just walking out of it being like, “Well, that didn’t work.” Um, being able to look at it in detail and kind of analyze. Um, I’m not a naturally analytical person, but when we specifically set out to do that, we really see, “Okay, we can figure out why it didn’t work, um, for those reasons that you mentioned. Maybe it could have been any of those reasons. And then what can we do differently next time?” And that’s kind of part of our ongoing learning process—and our ongoing, we wanna improve our programs, make them better, um, make things work smoother. Uh, if we have technical glitches, we fix those right away. Um, so that’s been one of the things. The other…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, and…

Deanna Petre: …remember, do you remember—you’re probably gonna forget about this one—but, uh, one year we thought, in the beginning, “Let’s do a summer bootcamp.” Um, I think you even called it, like, “a bootcamp something,” and…

Michelle Lynne: I don’t…

Deanna Petre: …took.

Michelle Lynne: Forget that. I was proud of that idea. I thought it was the best idea. I was excited about it.

Deanna Petre: Bombed. Totally. That was just, um, it didn’t go anywhere, but our mindset was like, “Oh, okay, that didn’t work. No problem. Let’s move on to the next thing.”

Michelle Lynne: Well, kind of—I mean, I have had to overcome a lot of frustration, I would say, and I think that’s also like—we celebrate wins a lot because I do this very consistently, ’cause we have to train our minds to focus on what’s working and the positive. And so I—me personally, I do tend to be critical or negative sometimes, mostly towards myself. Um, but then that means it translates into, like, “Uh, people didn’t show up for the workshop,” or “people said they were gonna join and they didn’t.” Or like, we followed up five times with one person and they ghosted us or whatever, and then they’ll be like, “Ugh.” Like, you know, that can really get me down sometimes. So sometimes I’ve been like grumpy in work sessions, and then, you know, having you to just be calm and a bit neutral and like, “Okay, let’s just keep going, like what’s on the task list today,” and keep moving forward. I think one thing I wanted to talk about today is the importance of tracking. Like, when we started keeping track of stuff, that changed everything—because before, we were just like having loose ends coming out of our ears and we didn’t know what was happening with, like, “Well, we learned what a KPI is, first of all,” and then like, “performance,” and then, “how to follow up with people.” Yeah, and like what to track, what’s important; trying not to get overloaded with information, like what needs to be written down, where—dates, times, people, you know, all of that changed everything for us.

Deanna Petre: It sure did. Because you can feel, like, there’s the emotional reaction: “Oh, nothing’s working.” Or we can actually look at the numbers on paper and be like, “Well, hey, we forgot.” Or, like, we were just focusing on the things that were working—all the things that we did in the right direction—’cause that’s the thing. It’s a fine line between balancing critiquing ourselves and wanting to improve and, uh, you know, sometimes there are frustrations when things aren’t working as we want them to, and then the balance of that with, um, celebrating the things that we have accomplished and all the things that we are doing. So maybe sometimes we have a fantastic month—we have, maybe, several new members joined; program plus we did, uh, launched a new one—maybe it’s our sprint—but if other things happen, we can forget about all the wins. So we do—yeah, like you said—try and track the things that are going well, the things that are working, and focus on that and how we can do more of that.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, you know what my answer to that question was? The membership Fast Forward. Um, we thought that we were gonna fail, but then we pulled it off, ’cause I remember there were a couple of calls in the early days—we had like three or four people on a call—and we were just like, “Oh man, like, what if, you know, where is this going and how are we gonna do it?” And we were pricing it so low back then—it was, what, $37 a month or something? So we’re basically making like nothing from this. And it was costing so much energy to figure out how to talk about it and promote it and market it and make content around it. I was sending my entire life on Instagram and four people in the membership, you know, and then I remember my business coach, and she was just like, “We’re gonna fill this thing.” And I kind of was like, “Okay, but how?” ‘Cause I’ve been working so hard, and now we have over 30 people—and a lot of them will have the VIP version, which is where you get a coaching call one-on-one per month, which is great. Yeah, that was very cool to see, and I guess it was like a pretty short turnaround. I dunno—sometimes I have people ask me, “Okay, so how long did it take you to build your company?” I’m like, “Well, I mean, we’re not—as you said—we’re not working on it full-time, and we’re musicians trying to figure it out. We didn’t learn any of this in school. Like, we didn’t learn; we didn’t do MBAs; we didn’t get, you know.” So I think it would be interesting to go back five years and, um, go back into our brains and see the lack of knowledge we had then and to see how much we’ve actually learned.

Deanna Petre: Yes. It’s, it’s just, um, I think exponential if you look at it—um, learn—and we have so many different systems and processes, like how to, you know, handle payments and invoices, and, um… oh, and we became our actual, real company too along the way. Um, that was a big milestone for us.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. 2021, July.

Deanna Petre: And we—the people that we’ve hired on now to delegate things to and to take things on and to be able to have, to make sure we have our monthly goal meetings and our monthly finance meetings and make sure that these things are regularly happening so we can really stay on top of all of our business goals. Um, that’s something we did not do. We didn’t know about these things in the beginning.

Michelle Lynne: We’re more serious about our goal meetings, that’s for sure—just like reviewing the goals. But that’s also something I’ve kind of learned across my whole life, ’cause I realized in 2024 I’d made all these goals and then, at the beginning of 2024, I was like, “Wait, I didn’t do any of them,” so like, there’s a problem here. I think one of the biggest things we’ve learned is that we can make goals all day, but unless we put the systems like you just said in place to actually get the daily steps going—the weekly steps going, tracking that you’re moving in the right direction—it’s not going to work. I mean, that’s the beauty of Fast Forward: every two weeks you sit down, you’re like, “What have I actually done in the last two weeks? Am I making progress? Where’s my time going? Where’s my energy going? Am I happy with my result? If not, what can I tweak?” I think we find… I’d love for you to talk a little bit—what have you learned from our musicians? Like, what are people struggling with the most?

Deanna Petre: Oh, well, the first word that comes to me as you’re speaking is accountability. Because without accountability, these things don’t happen. Those goals that we have—like, “Well, I’d like to be doing this thing. I’d like to record an album, or I’d like to pitch my concert program to different series”—and life gets just in the way. It gets too busy. Um, even for me, I’ve struggled with, like, “Oh wait, I don’t have time for my blog,” but with accountability—having you help me and say, “Let’s just pick out your topic. Let’s do it.” And, and it works. And everybody who is in our programs—like, that’s one of our biggest things as freelance musicians—we don’t have deadlines unless they’re self-imposed. Often, I mean, there are some things that do have deadlines, like grant writing and things like that. But when we don’t have a deadline, we say, “Well, I kind of like, in general, to see my career change in a certain way.” Some people say they want to perform more and teach less, and they need a space to figure it out. They need people to talk it through, and they need to say, “Well, here’s what I’m gonna do in the next month,” and that’s gonna be my deadline for having done this. And then have actual people say, “All right, how’s that going? Have you made progress on that? Did you do it? And if not, where did you get stuck? And how can we help you overcome that?” That’s where the magic is—because I think just as freelancers out there, we don’t have that accountability in general.

Michelle Lynne: A hundred percent—the accountability. Because if you know you have a meeting coming up and that you’re going to be sharing and you haven’t done anything, that is a great kick in the butt. And people use that very positively. They’re like, “Oh, I knew that I was coming to this session tonight and I had to get going on my goals.” And, like, we’d have people say, “I literally did this an hour ago.” It doesn’t matter when you did it; the fact is that it’s done, and now we can create some momentum and build some progress and move in the direction that you wanna go. And I think—like, seeing people’s eyes light up with the possibility, again, like taking limitations off of musicians, uh, giving ’em an abundance mindset or scarcity mindset…

Okay. Just like wrapping up, give me three highlight moments—like if there was a highlight reel of the last five years, are there a few moments that jump out to you as like, “That was awesome. We had fun. We did a cool thing.”

Deanna Petre: That’s so—that is so hard. Um, I remember in the very beginning, so there’s the beginning stages—whenever we finished a Mastermind, which at the time was a 12‑week long program—we just had this sense of, “Yes, we did it, and we got great feedback, and it’s amazing.” It was just like this high of having finished what we set out to do and seeing how people really enjoyed it or made progress or loved it. So that really was a great affirmation that we were doing something really impactful in people’s lives. And another one—oh my goodness, so many moments. I mean, when we came—became a company—that was pretty exciting. It’s like, “We are, it’s the next step of taking ourselves seriously. We’ve got the accountant, we’ve got the company, we’ve got, um, those things. Like, this is a real thing, you know?” And a third— that’s so tough to say. I mean, I keep thinking about Fast Forward because we love our community so much, and just to see it grow and to see how, you know, like you said in the beginning of our Fast Forward membership, we had a couple of people on the calls, and now we go on and it’s a sea of faces from…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: And then we’re like, “Hey, connecting people—oh, so and so is…”

Michelle Lynne: Yes.

Deanna Petre: …and, um, people are seeing people meet up in person because of TFA.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: I was like, “Oh, we just met up in Vienna for coffee,” and, um, it’s all thanks to the community that we’ve built—bringing people together—and I think that’s just when that happens, I’m, I’m so happy.

Michelle Lynne: That’s true. I mean, our membership kind of exploded the last six months, so now we’re facilitating calls with, like, sometimes 16, 17, 18 people on a call. And I was like, “Whoa, it’s like a party in here. This is so fun. Like, ‘Alright, what are we doing, everybody?’” ‘Cause in the beginning it was like four of us—it’s like, “Okay, how’s everybody doing?” But now it’s like, “Whoa, we’ve got a group of people and everyone’s here for a reason, and we’re here to get stuff done, but also to connect.” We are very good at celebrating with nice dinners, I have to say.

That’s definitely a highlight.

Deanna Petre: Yes. Good food. Really good food. No matter where we are, you can find good food in Minneapolis.

Michelle Lynne: What’s one of the best meals we’ve had? I’m thinking back to the place beside, um, your house—in, so…

Deanna Petre: Oh.

Michelle Lynne: …a restaurant…

Deanna Petre: …right on top of a restaurant, which just was incredible, and I wish I had gone there all the time. Now that I’m here, I don’t have access to it.

Michelle Lynne: Oh man. Um, there’s another place in Paris that we went to. What’s that place called?

Deanna Petre: Oh, near the Eiffel…

Michelle Lynne: It’s like, it’s like there’s a walkway and then there’s an overpass—kind of fancy—and then you, you go into, yeah.

Deanna Petre: Incredible food. I mean, yeah. Nice meals, good wine.

Michelle Lynne: Yes, exactly.

Deanna Petre: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: I remember we watched a course about how to build a membership, and that felt significant to me. I was like, “Okay, I think that we could really make this a big part of what TFA is,” ’cause the Mastermind is very high-intensity, a higher price point. So it takes a certain kind of person at a certain stage in their career to say yes. But the membership—we make it really accessible financially.

Deanna Petre: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: I was like, “Okay, we gotta learn how to do this. How are we gonna manage this when it becomes, like, 30, 50, a hundred people?” We watch a course about it, but then actually it’s dormant for a while. But I think that’s also the thing that we’ve done: we learn a lot of ideas and then we let them kind of stew and marinate and then we take action on them, like when we feel it’s time.

Deanna Petre: Yep.

Michelle Lynne: And then I guess, I mean, the last one would just be like getting to see each other so often in person because it’s like, “Okay, we have to meet for the business.” So it’s just a really great excuse to also, like, you know, spend time together.

Deanna Petre: Touch points. It’s harder now that, uh, we are on different continents, but Michelle has already tracked over here a couple of times, and, uh, it’s so fun to be able to be in…

Michelle Lynne: …since three times—so then I’ve been there.

Deanna Petre: Three. Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: That’s crazy.

Deanna Petre: Three times. That’s amazing.

Michelle Lynne: Wow. Okay. Well, Deanna, five years in—what’s something we’re gonna, we’re gonna listen back to this episode in five years and be like, “Wow, I wish that they would’ve known.” What are we—what are we going for? What are we dreaming of?

Deanna Petre: Next five years—five years, um, keep, keep growing that membership because it is such a beautiful thing. And, it’s, it’s exciting. People have energy. They’re excited to be there. There’s positive energy. Um, who knows where it could be in five years.

Michelle Lynne: I mean, we talked a lot about working with other, um, artists outside of the music industry because we see so many people struggling with the same concepts—like we’ve had painters and writers and journalists approach us and say, “Oh, we have the same problems with, like, what you said earlier: accountability.” Also, like, bring on other facilitators, um, so that we can have more coaches under the TFA umbrella. Um, I’m being certified as an ICF (International Coaching Federation) coach. Um, so…

Deanna Petre: I would love to do that as well. That would definitely be in my next five-year plan—to…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Deanna Petre: …get that certification, ’cause it is so cool to be able to do that.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. There’s so many people we wanna impact and, like, just having the numbers grow—um, keep spreading the word. I mean, constant thinking is hilarious—Mees—which is really helping get our numbers up because more and more people are discovering us because of the funny content, which comes back to just being more us, being labeled. Um, and yeah—in person, a retreat—that’s for sure gonna happen in the next five years.

Deanna Petre: Retreat—definitely happening. It’s been a little bit difficult with small, tiny children, so traveling is not quite on my plate at the moment, but it will be in the future. That’s one thing we both love to do: travel, you and me.

Michelle Lynne: Okay, well…

Deanna Petre: …years.

Michelle Lynne: …here’s the next five years. Thanks for everything that you’ve done to build your side of TFA and everything you continue to do.

Deanna Petre: It was a team effort.

Michelle Lynne: Us together.

Deanna Petre: Yep.

Michelle Lynne: A good team effort.

Deanna Petre: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: Thanks for being the most fun to work with.

Deanna Petre: You too.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, everything that you’ve helped me—

Deanna Petre: …all the energy and light and just, it’s very contagious—bright, positive energy that everyone loves. So, um…

Michelle Lynne: Thanks for letting me—thanks for letting me do that though, ’cause that’s something I was thinking about before this episode. Like, you’ve let me come with the ideas and the energy. You’ve never said to me, “You’re too much.” And that’s something that I’ve dealt with in, like, other relationships—and you’ve never been like, “You need to tone it down. Like, stop,” you know? You’ve only just encouraged me to go bigger. So, I mean, I think—thanks. Thanks for giving us the space to shine and for agreeing to keep building, ’cause I know it’s been like this journey of, like, how much do we invest and how much do we go and what can we put into this? And you’ve always been like, “Yeah, let’s go. Like, let’s do this.”

Deanna Petre: And we’ve always made things work. You know, when there’s a new—when there’s a new infant involved, it, it is really hard to have those ups and downs, the flows of, in terms of how much and what we’re pouring into the company and everything. But to be able to have that understanding, flexibility, support, communication—um, these are the things that are gonna make it, that we can get through anything, that we can keep continuing to build every year. So, uh, yeah—so excited to see what the future has for us.

Michelle Lynne: Well, thank everybody for listening to this special bonus episode of our podcast, and we actually are gonna do a giveaway to celebrate five years. Um, so, uh, we’d love to offer five winners a free month of our membership when you sign up. And all you have to do to enter is screenshot this episode, share it to your stories, and tag us. And we’re gonna pick five winners to get a free month of Fast Forward when you sign up. So that’s gonna be fun. We’re looking forward to meeting new people and, uh, yeah—Deanna, thanks for everything today, and you have an action point that people can take after listening to this episode.

Deanna Petre: Action point. Um, yeah…

Michelle Lynne: …how we finish every episode.

Deanna Petre: Be fearless. Um, my action point would be: I would say, “Find the place that you need the support, and get those people around you. Surround yourself with people who are gonna hold you accountable, who are going to listen to your ideas, um, who are gonna help you advance in the ways that you want to in your life and in your career. And then hold onto those people.” That’s what we have built here, and that’s what we love to see.

Michelle Lynne: Amazing. Thank you, Deanna. Thanks to everybody who’s listening, and we’ll see you within the next episode. Until then, be fearless.

Deanna Petre: Be fearless.