From Government Job to a Luxury Design Franchise with Alisa Sparks

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Susan Sly 00:03
Hey, what's up? Your friend Susan here. How are you doing? Raw and Real Entrepreneurship®, I hope you are having an amazing, amazing day. I have a question for you. Do you have a full-time job right now and you're thinking about being an entrepreneur? Or do you know someone who keeps talking about being an entrepreneur and has a full-time job? Yeah, if that's you, or you have a friend who's in that situation, like a lot of people are, this is your episode.
I'm going to be talking to an amazing founder and CEO who left a government job to go full-time and build a business with no entrepreneurial experience. So we're going to have that conversation, and I will tell you they are absolutely rock star amazing.
The question I have around entrepreneurship is, why aren't you? Why aren't you taking the leap? And it ultimately comes down to courage, resilience, readiness, your mental health, your physical health, setting yourself up for success financially. And at the end of the day, the most valuable commodity we all have is our physical health. Because when we are healthy—and I've interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs—when we're healthy, we can do anything.
And so you might be wondering, Susan, what are you doing these days to take care of your health? And I've had a lot of friends notice, oh my gosh, Susan, you look incredible. You weigh less than you did a few years ago. And I'm actually eating more, and I am working out less. I used to be a professional Ironman distance triathlete. I used to work out a ton, and what it's ultimately come down to is me using thePause® app, Harmoni® by thePause®.
And this is the app that Dr. Mia Chorney and I have created. And I'm tracking my symptoms every single day. So I'm tracking my mood. I am tracking my perimenopause, menopause symptoms. I'm tracking my sleep, and I'm engaging with Harmoni®. And she's noticing, hey Susan, normally your mood is unstoppable. What's going on? That's not what's going on today. Maybe today is a good day for a rest day. She's making suggestions, and we're constantly adding new features to the app.
We do a new release almost every single week, and we are a female-founded company, and we won't sell your data. So as you're tracking, that data is yours and it's for your experience. So I would encourage you to check out thePause® app, and that is in the App Store and the Play Store, and we have a seven-day free trial. Check it out.
Female-founded, and we also have an incredible Facebook group. So if you or someone you love is going through perimenopause or menopause, check it out. That group is thousands and thousands, and it's growing every single day. And Dr. Mia and I go in there, we answer your questions. It's incredible. So check it out. Find out more at www.thepause.ai.
The other thing that I have been doing for my health for a very, very, very long time is, of course, detoxing once a week. And for over 20 years, I have used the Isagenix Cleanse. It is clinically proven to remove certain toxins from the body. It has been studied and researched. It's absolutely amazing.
And you can go to my website, susansly.com/trustedpartners and find out more. And I would encourage you to do that. So the Isagenix Cleanse absolutely changed my life. I've been traveling. I just got back from the World Economic Forum in Davos, and I was speaking in Davos on agentic AI. And I'm constantly on the road.
And with the new movie, The M Factor 2.0: Before the Pause, which I am in talking about women's health and artificial intelligence, I'm traveling to all these different movie screenings. That's why I stay healthy. I do a one-day-a-week reset, and it's not about your weight, it's about your health. So check it out: www.susansly.com/trustedpartners.
So this founder that I am going to talk to is amazing. She was working in the Navy, and she was in finance, in a very stable job, and had never been an entrepreneur. And she started to really think about, with some feedback, what could be possible for her.
And it turned out that she had a talent for home staging. And so she went from an idea to the courage to say, hey, I have this PTO, so I'm going to take off Fridays. I'm going to literally start knocking on doors and see if there's anyone interested in this business.
And when she went full-time, the business became profitable very quickly, within months. And during the early years of this company, she also went through a divorce. Her children were two and three, her little girls.
And she is, of the hundreds of founders that I have interviewed, this person who has an incredible mindset. She's resilient. And in this episode, we're going to talk about challenges with scaling quickly. We're going to talk about the courage to leave a job and become a full-time entrepreneur with no entrepreneurial background. We're going to talk about the decision to franchise a business, because that was something that she did as she grew the company, and what happens when you are needing a solution that doesn't exist, and how to actually build your own technology.
She's phenomenal. And so I invite you to enjoy, to learn and to share, and to give a five-star review to my sit-down chat with the amazing Alisa Sparks, the Founder and CEO of Linden Creek.

Voice Over 05:49
This is Raw and Real Entrepreneurship®, the show that brings the no-nonsense truth of what is required to start, grow and scale your business. I am your host, Susan Sly.

Susan Sly 06:03
Alisa, my friend, fellow mom of four. We were having the best conversation before the show, and it's like, oh my gosh, let's do a show. One of the questions I ask every entrepreneur in the hundreds and hundreds of interviews I've done—because I kind of, at least, I'm doing this straw poll—are entrepreneurs born or are they made? So your first business, what was it?

Alisa Sparks 06:29
My first business was actually Linden Creek, which is the business that I still have today. I know I've gotten to listen to some of your episodes, and most of your entrepreneurs have the story of, when I was a kid, I was, you know, selling this at school, or had the lemonade stand.
My story isn't like that. I grew up in a family where entrepreneurship just wasn't part of the conversation. You get your steady nine-to-five job, you grow and you go up the corporate ladder, and one day you retire with your pension or your 401(k).
And so the fact that somewhere along that career path I paused and went, maybe entrepreneurship is something that I want to be part of, sort of was this really unique shift for what my family was used to seeing, and a mindset that really changed for me as I grew older.

Susan Sly 07:15
That—and thank you for saying that, because so many people—and we were having this conversation—think, oh, I didn't have a lemonade stand, or I didn't sell rattlesnakes like Gregory Shepard did, or whatever it was, the watermelon sales or whatever, selling candy and having that side hustle.
And my philosophy has been that anyone can learn a skill, but they can't learn heart, and character has to be developed.
You had this stable career managing naval aircraft budgets, and as a sidebar, my husband—he worked, he was managing budgets for a joint base in Afghanistan between the US and Canadian government. So I know how big those budgets are.
And you said, I'm going to leave this and do something so much less predictable. So how long did it take to sort of say, I have this idea, there's this little thread that I'm pulling on, to actually saying I'm going to go for it? Because that's what people want to know, because everyone's thinking, I want to start a business, but very few people actually do.

Alisa Sparks 08:28
Yeah, and I will say, honestly, in that transition season, I had a lot of doubt that it was going to be successful or that I knew what I was doing, because I didn't necessarily have this great playbook.
So I worked for the Navy for nearly a decade managing budgets. And during that season, I loved doing creative things, so I would study magazines and beautiful pictures of homes and think about why and how they worked. And then I would renovate houses in my free time and flip them or build furniture in my garage just to fulfill this creative itch.
And I remember there was this day I was at the gym, and I'm running on the treadmill, and I'm listening to the Rich Dad Poor Dad audiobook, and he's talking about the importance of really building something beyond just your W-2. And it was this moment for me of maybe I should think about entrepreneurship, maybe I should think about starting a business, but I would love it to be in design, but I don't have the design degree, so that can't be it.
But what could this really look like?
And as I was exploring this, we had one of our properties for sale, and the feedback on it was, the staging is really good. And I thought, I don't need a degree to stage houses. Maybe I can start this part-time. We'll see where it goes. We'll test the concept.
And so I kept my full-time job. I started building business plans and SOPs and kind of figuring out what I thought I was going to provide. And I would take my Fridays off. I would take PTO, and I would knock on as many doors as possible of real estate agents and home builders just to see if the market opportunity was really there.
I said the safest way to test something crazy like this isn't just jumping and not having a stable income, but keeping my stable income and really building proof of concept.
And in about four months, found myself in a position where I had to make that decision of business is growing. Do I jump and I go all in now, or do I stay back in my previous position?
And I think, you know, honestly, people thought I was a little crazy. I remember my managers at the time in the Navy, they were like, hey, if this doesn't work out, come on back. We got you. Don't worry about it. And I thought, I don't know if that's a compliment or not, but I gotta find a way to make this work.
And so I made that jump. And I think when you reframe your mind of like, failure just isn't an option, we have to figure this out—we might get punched a few times, but we're just going to keep plowing through it—it changes that perception, and you figure it out. At least I had.

Susan Sly 10:51
This image—I don't know if you saw the Vince Vaughn movie—Nonnas.
So he's—so he basically decides to open a restaurant, but he's working full-time for the transit authority, and he's sneaking off and doing all of the restaurant stuff like on the side. And I had this vision of you using your PTO, but, you know, being very covert about it.
So how did you have that conversation with your colleagues that this was something you were going to explore?

Alisa Sparks 11:24
You know, I think it just came down to—well, let me say, when you work for the government and the Department of Defense, no one starts their own business. Like, they are in it for the long haul because of all the great benefits and retirement opportunities and things like that.
So this was certainly an anomaly and not something people normally do, but I think they saw and understood that I was excited and passionate about something.
I think a lot of people saw it as me choosing to pursue some hobby that I was passionate about in design, and so changing my industry was maybe important. And a lot of people, you know, they were like, that's really great, good luck. But I think they scratched their heads and went, you're leaving something that makes so much more sense, that's stable, that's this beautiful income.
And even a couple years in, as I was still getting my feet under me, I sat down with a former colleague of mine, and she looked at me and she said, do you know how much money you'd be making had you stayed here? Do you know the opportunities and the promotions that you would have received? Like, do you think you made the right decision?
And I remember thinking, you know, I was still reinvesting in the business. I wasn't making the money that I could have been making over there. And I remember thinking, I still feel confident that this was the right journey for me.

Susan Sly 12:31
Oh, that confidence. Because the number one reason startups fail is cash flow, right? Yep. I have a contrarian opinion that that's not the number one reason startups fail, because money is abundant.
And especially—I know Robert Kiyosaki, I've done speaking events with Robert and Kim—and that there's always money out there, but it comes down to the founder. It comes down to the founder, grit, the integrity.
And what was the first hard lesson for you, right? So four months, you're making the decision, and you're going all in, but you also knew you could go back to the Navy, right?
And things are different now—we talk about it, especially women of our generation being in similar ages—we talk about stability, but stability isn't what is current now. Nothing is really stable. But back then, it was like, yeah, I could go back to this.
But what was the first tough thing that you faced that caused you to maybe not necessarily question, but maybe just feel like, oh, am I on the right path or not?

Alisa Sparks 13:46
Interestingly enough, when I started the business, my biggest fear was I'm not going to find any customers. No one's going to come and say, Alisa, come hire me for these services.
And that wasn't the case. We grew really rapidly, and we found an opportunity to really niche ourselves into a market that was underserved. But what came from that was very natural, organic growth in our industry.
Every time we stage a house, it's actually us marketing our services to every other agent that's walking that property. And so the growth that we saw was very fast, which is a beautiful thing for a business, and you think that that's a win, but in this industry specifically, it requires inventory.
And so I found myself in a really challenging position early on, where we were growing at such an exponential rate that it was this cash challenge of where does the money come from? How do we say no? When to say yes? How do I know when to say no?
I could 10x my business tomorrow, but do I have the capital for that? And how do we execute that?
And it was very interesting as you're growing this successful business, and everybody wants you, and it's everything you've ever dreamed of, and you look at your bank account and you're like, but that does not reflect this. And how do we support the needs that are really happening and growing?
And that was that first moment where I—I didn't see this in the cards. I thought entrepreneurship, I thought we'll slowly work on building our client base. But I never thought, what happens if you grow so fast that now you have these challenges around capital and around how quickly can you staff and get somebody trained up?
And the uniqueness that happens in growth that oftentimes is just as challenging and painful as the slower seasons.
And that was a trying time of okay, like we're in. So either you jump ship and say, just kidding, or we double down and we go, let's figure this out.

Susan Sly 15:31
So how did you figure it out? Where did you get the capital to scale?

Alisa Sparks 15:35
Yeah, I decided to continue bootstrapping there. Of course, there are opportunities to find funding solutions, whether it is lending or it's investors.
For me, I wanted to have full ownership because I wanted the ability to make decisions on when to put my foot on the gas and when to put it on the brake.
In that season, I had two little girls that were three and four, and my greatest fear is if somebody else came in, they would say, hey, you know, you being in the carpool line and picking kids up in the afternoon is a non-negotiable, and I didn't want to lose that.
And so I just decided I needed to figure it out. And so for me, it really came down to more of a let me revisit pricing. Maybe if there's this much demand, do we need to raise our prices?
So some of that happened. Some of it came around revisiting how quickly we could cash flow different assets—what product, what inventory and furniture was working better than others—and so really analyzing that so I could buy smarter.
Some of it came around recognizing that it was okay for me to say no to a client until I had the capital to really execute a project in the right way.
And so it was a combination of different things, and we grew slower because I decided to take that approach. But that slower growth allowed me to really analyze and learn from every single project and do the next one better.

Susan Sly 16:51
What I'm dying to ask you, because I've been in a situation in another company that I helped build where I was like hiring like crazy, and I did things that I wouldn't do now—I, you know, like I would look at the references, I would do the three interviews, and I do all that stuff—but now I give people a trial period before I make them an offer.
There's a whole host of things. Did you ever make bad hires? And if so, how do you know? How has your—

Alisa Sparks 17:25
—hiring ethos changed?
Yeah, I've absolutely made bad hires. And I'd love to say, like, I never make bad hires now, but I still make bad hires at times.
You know, we've gotten far more aggressive in the hiring process and the interviewing process. So yes, we do culture fit. Do you have the technical skills?
But also anything that we can do to give them sample projects or get them in the field with my team so that my team can provide feedback, because oftentimes they're going to look and speak differently to my employees than they are to myself, and so we really like to bring those elements in.
But I think the other thing that's been interesting is, as my business has scaled over the last eight years, the person that I would have hired that was an A player in year one looks very different than the A player that I want to hire today.
There's a different skill set that happens. The vision and the mission of who Linden Creek is and where we want to go has gotten so much bigger that there is space now for even more qualified hires to come in and build and grow that need to have different skill sets than they used to.
And so some of this journey has been learning how to hire better, but some of this journey has been learning and recognizing that who we were in year one is different than who we were in year five, which is different than who we are today, and preparing and planning for that new hire that is going to allow our business to grow.
Because in this season, if everything hinges on me and my decisions, we're all in trouble. We're too big for that, and so I need heavy hitters that are really analyzing who the business is and how it can grow and finding ways to optimize who we truly are.

Susan Sly 18:59
Do you—if you had to weigh one as being more important than the other, which is more important, skills or cultural fit?

Alisa Sparks 19:07
Culture fit through and through. I—you know, skills are important, don't get me wrong, but I think oftentimes it's easier to teach skills. It's so much harder to teach culture and get somebody that truly believes the way that you believe and has the same values.
In our company, we actually just had an interview a couple months ago with somebody—we made a wrong hire. Lovely person, just not the right fit.
And so in the second interview around, I just said, you know what, I'm going to be totally transparent. Like, this is who we are. We are hustlers. We are crazy people that eight o'clock at night are still thinking about work, and not because I tell you to, but because you can't help it.
We're people that get excited and innovate on a Saturday because it's just in our blood, and we want to make this impact.
And I was really transparent about who we were, and I said we're kind of a little bit psycho. And I was like, if either that turns her away, and that's okay, or she's going to be like, that is in alignment.
And she loved it. She's like, I'm a little bit psycho. This is perfect. And I've heard her say that to a couple of our employees internally since.
But because I was so transparent about who we are and what our culture is, I was better able to find somebody that actually fit with it.
And not that this is right and a different version of somebody else is wrong—it's just this is who we are in this season, and so we need other people that have those similar traits and qualities. And there are other cultures and other businesses that are going to be beautiful for other individuals as well.

Susan Sly 20:31
What's the hardest fire you've had to do?

Alisa Sparks 20:35
The hardest fire was a dear friend of mine that, of course, became a friend throughout the years. That was with me early on in the business. She was one of my first hires.
We—I had her for years, but as our business grew from look at us, little, raw, early—to we're going to scale to a national brand and franchising, and there are a lot of people in it and a lot of moving parts.
She loved that small, intimate, small business sort of approach, and the tension started to build as we kind of pivot into this new version of who we were.
And so it became the conflict, and the tension started, and that became one of those decisions of you're looking for who we used to be, and those businesses are still out there, but you've got to find that and are not necessarily ready to go with where we're going with our business tomorrow.

Susan Sly 21:24
That's so hard. I know I've lived that, and it's really, really hard.
And so what has changed for you, and especially as women, we're often more empathetic, right? And we're moms.
So what has changed for you in terms of taking a longer time to let someone go versus who you are now as a CEO of—like, let's face it, it is a rapidly growing company—and we're going to talk about the decision to franchise versus expand in other ways.
But how have you changed, Alisa, as a person—as the person who can fire quickly? Because that's not an easy transition. A lot of people can't do it.

Alisa Sparks 22:06
Yeah, it's really not, but I think I've started to take the same philosophy that I did when we think about people saying no.
So you know, there's always these conversations around you should say no, because if you don't say no to an opportunity or to something, you're actually saying no to something else.
And so the way that I see it with the firing piece of it is I have a team of amazing A players. And so if I have somebody else on the team that's maybe not the A player that we need, I'm actually challenging everybody else on my team and preventing them from being wildly successful, or I'm frustrating them.
And the last thing I want to do is frustrate them and lose them because they're adding so much value.
And so I see it more as me choosing to fire somebody is less that I don't—it's not that I don't care about them, because I do. And it's really easy to sit and think about the decision that you're about to make is going to impact them personally and their family, and you can go down that line.
But I also recognize that I am responsible for who our organization is and the other individuals that are in it, and the clients that are part of it.
And if I don't make that decision, I'm doing a disservice, and I'm not protecting the people that I need to be protecting. I'm not helping them be established and successful.
And when I reframe it that way, it allows me to recognize that, yes, this firing over here is a tough decision, but if I don't make it, everybody else is going to suffer. And that's not being responsible as a CEO.

Susan Sly 23:28
Absolutely. And that one person who—whether it's absenteeism, presenteeism, underperforming, not a cultural fit—it's amazing how they drag down the entire organization.
And then when they're gone, I know for myself, I've gone, why did I wait so long?
Right? And I do, and it's very easy in those pockets of my life to go, but they have a family, and—but it only takes one person to be a detriment to an entire organization.
One of the things you and I discussed—and you mentioned it—the girls being little, and you were quoted as saying, I needed to be in the carpool line.
And even you just talked about that between 2:30 and 5. And as a mom, mom guilt is real, yeah.
And it's because there are so many reasons, right? It's how we look at ourselves, it's how we show up in the world, it's how our kids are giving us feedback.
And you said I wanted to retain that control. I didn't want anyone really questioning, like, this is where I'm going to be.
And so my question for you is, how did you navigate building a company and having two really young girls?
And I know when they're that age, and they're so snuggly and they want mama, and they have days when they're sick and they have recitals and they have all sorts of things—how did you juggle all of that?

Alisa Sparks 25:01
Yeah, you know, what's interesting is I started the business, and a year in, my first husband and I got a divorce. We separated, and we're amicable, but that was not in the plans.
And so here I was with this fast-growing business that needed a lot of cash as a single mom of two little girls, and we had just moved to the new city of Raleigh a year prior. And so I didn't have any family close by. I didn't have anybody I could necessarily trust to take on those responsibilities.
So it was a little bit of a like, we're just going to figure this out, and that was what I did.
But what was interesting is, during that season, it forced me to delegate and to train and teach my team probably so much faster than had I had the option of working in my physical warehouse 80 hours a week. I would have done it just to save $10.
And the reality is, by training up my team that quickly and coaching them and being forced to rely on them, it allowed me to scale at a much faster rate and actually delegate to the level we're at today even.
And that wouldn't have happened had the girls—you know, had the flexibility to not necessarily be what I felt like was a little bit of a time constraint at that point.
But what's interesting is, as we were building and developing Linden Creek, you know, you have this—this mom guilt is a very real thing.
I can't tell you how many times it would be, you know, potential evenings where for a couple hours I'm still juggling and handling emails while they're awake, or we spent a Saturday, you know, in the warehouse handling logistical things or packing or unpacking.
And I'm like, they're here in a warehouse on a Saturday instead of spending their Saturday, you know, going on swings in the yard. And I'm like, I'm the worst mom in the world, is what I'm thinking.
And it's interesting because fast forward today, they go back and they're like, Mom, remember when we used to go to your warehouse on Saturdays and we would take the teacups out and we'd have tea parties and we'd hide and we'd play hide and go seek, and that was so much fun?
And I'm like, everything that I told myself in that season was like, I'm torturing my children because they have to be part of this journey, and they look back at that as fond memories.
And it's interesting too, because, you know, they're in the car oftentimes that I'm taking a client call or I'm taking a call or a conversation with an employee, and I'm like, sorry girls, you know, pause, let me just handle this call.
But they now understand things about employee relationships, about leadership, about client interactions and client service that I never had an understanding of because they just are around it and absorbing it.
And so there are these little business entrepreneurs that are starting their own businesses at a young age and loving it and talking through marketing strategies with me for fun and geeking out over it, because it's almost become a love language for us.
Like we all enjoy it, we get excited, we get invigorated.
And so it's become a fun pastime that I think they would have never been exposed to had I not started Linden Creek.
And so I'm thankful for it now.
And I say that to say to all those moms out there that feel the mom guilt, it is a real thing, and it's something I still struggle with.
But I will say coming out on the other side of these girls being older now—they're 11 and 12—and them reflecting on the journey going, yeah, mom worked really hard, but look at what she has.
And yeah, mom works really hard, but I know all of these things that I didn't know before, that you're probably not doing a disservice to your kids. You're probably serving them in a really—

Susan Sly 28:20
—beautiful way. Absolutely so well said, Alisa, because it's an education for them, and it's helping them become resourceful and giving them different skills.
I've taken my children on so many business trips. They've been in business meetings. They fully understand how to network, how to look someone in the eye, shake their hand.
And as you were sharing, I was thinking—every parent knows what I'm about to say—so let's say it's Christmas and it's, you know, the baby's first Christmas. The baby is maybe not quite a year old, and we want it perfect.
If we go buy the toys, what does the child always play with? We all know the answer—the wrapping paper.
Yeah, right?
Your girls with the teacups, playing tea party, playing hide and seek, and those memories for them, because that was the environment they created in the situation, right?
And we tell ourselves stories about what an environment is, and oftentimes are very different than the reality that we get to create.
I want to know, when did you actually start to be able to pay yourself? Like to be able to go, oh, I could pay myself a salary now. How long—

Alisa Sparks 29:33
—we did enough to get by those first probably two and two and a half years.
And I actually sat down with another business owner. I think that's been one of my favorite things in this journey, is like the more business owners I can connect with and build relationship with, the better, because you can learn from them all.
But I sat down with one of them, and he—we covered sharing numbers and sharing our growth. And he said, at what point are you going to pay yourself more than just the bare bones?
And I was like, well, I don't really need more than bare bones. It's fine. I can keep reinvesting.
And he's like, yes, but are you going to notice if just a few thousand dollars more ends up in your bank account every month?
And I'm like, no, I wouldn't notice.
And he's like, so then you do it. You start paying yourself, because at some point in time you need to reap the rewards.
At some point in time you need assets and investments and opportunities that are outside of just the business.
And that was really valuable advice for me at that time, because I think I was in that mindset of like, I'm just going to suffer forever and I'm just going to keep reinvesting every penny.
But there comes a point in an entrepreneur's journey where you have to pause and go, it's okay for me to reap some of the rewards and the benefits.
It's okay for me to live in a situation where I'm really excited about my compensation and I'm excited about the benefits of all of the reinvestment.
And so, you know, where that time is in your journey really depends, I suppose, on the business and it depends on you.
But as silly as it sounds, that was the biggest challenge, is being okay with not reinvesting every single penny back into it at a season and going, it's okay to bring some of this home and truly enjoy the fruits of the labor.
Awesome.

Susan Sly 31:01
So you were—the business was profitable then?

Alisa Sparks
Yes.

Susan Sly
At that point, yeah, and that's the key, because there are—like in the tech world, you may go a very long time without the business being profitable.
But at some point, founder fatigue is very, very real, and you lose the motivation if you're not paying yourself.
And that would be my advice to anyone listening who is in that situation—and I've been in that situation before—where you're not paying yourself, and there's only so long you can go before you say, like, why am I doing this, right?
And so if you're going on and on and not paying yourself, then that's about how your business is working.
How long before, from the time you started to the business became profitable?
Alisa Sparks 31:51
We were profitable, truthfully, the first few months in, so it didn't take long to see a position where our cash flow was positive, where every month we were bringing more money home.
It just came down to the question of how quickly do we scale. We had the opportunity to keep reinvesting, and so the conversation always then became, where do you reinvest? Where do you pause? Where do you reinvest? Where do you pause?
And that answer changed, you know, on a month-to-month basis as I reexamined our goals and things of that nature as well.

Susan Sly 32:21
So to have a business that becomes profitable that quickly, you have a lot of different opportunities.
So you can grow it, retain control, you could sell it. Essentially, there's different things. You had the opportunity as well to perhaps branch off and do different things with Linden Creek—with the brand—creating CPG products, creating, you know, investing in real—I mean, the list goes on.
And you decided to franchise. How did that happen?

Alisa Sparks 32:53
Yeah, it's a fair question.
So I—you know, I told you I got really good at hiring somebody to help me in that carpool lane, right?
But what was interesting is, about five years into the business, I remember it was Memorial weekend, and I was sitting on my couch reflecting on my week prior, and I was like, that's odd. No one needed me to do anything last week.
Like they were all running the day-to-day. They were running the sales. My team was happy. My customers were happy. Like no one needed me for anything.
And I looked at my week ahead, and I was like, that's interesting. I could not show up any day next week, and nothing's going to change. Like they've got it.
I have accidentally worked myself out of a job.
And usually that's so like, I made it. This is amazing. But I was like, I love working. What did I just do? That was not the goal.
And so I sort of panicked and talked to another business owner friend of mine. I was like, this is so bizarre. What do I do with this?
And as this is happening, I was getting these messages on Instagram from other home stagers, other interior designers, asking questions about, hey, how do you store your mattresses in the best way that they don't take up as much space? How do you keep your art in the warehouse so it doesn't get scratched? How do you handle pricing objections?
Like all of these different things where I thought that's interesting. We have systems for all of that. We have answers for that.
And this is an industry where oftentimes people come here because they love the industry, and so it's a hobby that maybe pays for itself rather than a business that really is run like a business.
And I watched too often that entrepreneurs in this industry were closing their doors three years later because they weren't thinking like a business. They were thinking like a designer or a decorator.
And I thought how interesting that we have unintentionally really built all of these systems and this structure so that I could have the flexibility that other people are looking for.
And I loved my life. I loved how much money I was making. I loved the services we were providing. I loved every ounce of it.
And I thought if there's a way to get this opportunity to other people, that's what needs to be next.
And so as I was trying to figure out what that looked like, my friend said, hey, I have a franchise in a totally different business. He's like, you could franchise this.
And I thought, no, I can't. It's a creative space. Franchising is for systems. You can't franchise this.
And I was clearly wrong, but it made me think about things.
And so I went to a franchise attorney, and I said, listen, can I franchise interior design? Like, is this even an opportunity?
And he asked me some questions, and we talked through the systems I had, and he said, well, could I buy your franchise and design?
And I said, well, yeah, because we have this system here, we have these floor plans here, you utilize these brand standards—you could design a space that looks just like mine next week.
And he's like, then you have a franchise opportunity, Alisa.
And I went, huh, I guess I do.
And that was really what started the journey.
I got excited about franchising because I could have provided education, but I loved the idea of the long-term relationship that came out of franchising.
I loved the fact that we could build a relationship with our owners and support them—not just in this season while they're paying for a coaching service—but for the next 10 years of their journey.
Because they're going to need different things at each stage, and we have been there and experienced that pain, and I get what it's like.
And if I can be there to be a positive ear or to protect them from a painful turn that I've made, then I want to be able to do that.
And so that's really what made me decide to franchise this.

Susan Sly 36:20
When I was researching you, I thought that was so interesting.
Because like you, I was like, huh, right?
And I have had many franchise experts on the show, and they're like, you can actually franchise anything, Susan. Like you can—there's always a way.
To your point, if there are systems, if there's some kind of SOP there, it's franchisable.
So I have a question for you—this ray of light. It's like, okay, I'm finding the positive. I'm finding the upside.
You either were born from a family that way, or you've really trained yourself to be that way.
And so which is it?

Alisa Sparks 36:58
I think it's a combination of the two.
My mother is very optimistic. My grandmother would always—I remember we'd pull into her garage when she'd get home and she'd say, thank you Jesus that we made it here safely.
You know, it's just the simplest little things we were grateful for. So I definitely grew up in that upbringing.
But there was a season where my life was not a pretty version. I didn't love my career at the time. I didn't love a lot of aspects, and there were pain points, and there were really real challenges.
And so I think coming out of the other side of it all, I can look and go, this is the most amazing, beautiful thing that I've ever seen, because I know what the alternative can be, and this brings me joy.
So I think it's a combination of the two.
I think when you go through something really challenging, everything else feels like a cakewalk.
And sometimes I even reflect on my Linden Creek journey, and I'm like, that was really hard, that thing that I did back there—but I did it. It didn't feel hard at the time. I was just so grateful for the opportunity.
That joy really has become a big part of, I guess, who I am today.

Susan Sly 37:57
What is that process for you?
Because as founders, there are things we are going to face. There's, you know, potential lawsuits, there are employee issues, you know, delivery issues, there are ice storms.
There are also—you know, there's no end of everything.
And when something happens, I've always referred to them as WKM—wall-kicking moments.
What is your process to keep you grounded?
Because as founders, as CEOs, it's so important for us to be the calm in any chaos.
So what do you do when something happens?

Alisa Sparks 38:35
Yeah, there's a gentleman out there called Alex Hormozi that—he says when he hits these pain points, I heard this a couple of years ago—he goes, what else did you expect?
If you thought you were going to make an impact, if you thought you were going to be given these responsibilities of something bigger and something greater, did you think that was just going to come easily?
Of course challenges are going to come with it.
And so I always think back on that.
So every time you feel like you're getting punched in the stomach—and it happens, and it happens often—it's like, well, that's going to happen.
If we're going to do something big, there are going to be really big wins, but there are going to be really big punches too.
And so usually I look at it and I go, it's a sign. Because every punch seems like it gets bigger, it's a sign that we're on that right trajectory to making bigger impacts.
And that doesn't mean that it's easy or painless to get punched, but you recognize and realize this is just part of the journey.
And if there is one thing I know, it's every time I've gone through something challenging in my life, I have become a better and stronger person because of it.
And so I think I look at that and I just keep reflecting on this is going to make me stronger. This is going to teach me a new lesson. This is going to elevate who I am, or give me more empathy if I need it, or whatever it may be.
But using it to understand that this is something that I can use as a lesson, and this is something that's going to strengthen me is kind of the thing that I cling to in those seasons until you get through it.

Susan Sly 39:57
That's incredible advice—like this is going to make me stronger, right?
We know growing pains, they're painful, but if we're going to live into the founders and CEOs that we know we can be, we have to be stretched.
So I'll share with you as friends and moms.
So I went through a really challenging season, and my therapist Mark—who was referred to me by a friend who had grown a billion-dollar company—I'm like, well, if he could be her therapist, you know, he could be mine.
And he said to me, Susan, what is the hardest thing you've ever gone through?
And so I started to talk about, you know, being abused and kidnapped as a child.
And he said, okay, let's call that a 10. He's like, on a scale of one to 10, that being your 10, how tough is this?
I'm like, a three.
And I was thinking, Alisa, of what I was going through at that moment in business—that it was like a 10.
And once he gave that perspective—and everyone listening, you know, whether it's a divorce, or whether it's infidelity, or whether—we had a founder on here, God bless her, her daughter was diagnosed with cancer, and her husband was diagnosed with cancer within a month, she gets diagnosed with cancer—there's her 10.
And what she was saying, she was like, well, that was my 10. Everything else was going to be a one or two compared to that.
And when we think about that, right, I love how you shared your perspective.
Because as founders, it goes back to—even as an investor in startups—I, everyone has great ideas, but there are certain types of founders that are so gritty and resilient like you, you know they're going to win no matter what, because they can shift their perspective like that.

Alisa Sparks 41:45
Yeah, and that's great advice. I absolutely love that perspective too.

Susan Sly 41:50
What I'm thinking about—who you are now, polished, and you know, you have it together, you're growing this company—if you could give yourself advice when you were first starting out, when it was Friday and you were taking PTO, what would you tell yourself?

Alisa Sparks 42:11
I would tell myself that it's going to be a wild ride, and it is.
You're going to feel uncomfortable almost every day, but it is going to build you into a whole new person, and that is the journey that's worth taking.
It's not how big did the company get, it's not how much money did you make, but the person that you become on the other side of it is what's worth it all.
I was on a call the other day with a prospective franchise owner that's considering joining our world, and she said, hey, Alisa, I have to be honest with you, I'm terrified of selling.
So I'm a little nervous about this idea of if I start a business, I have to sell.
And it brought me back, and I said, do you know the very first time that I went and I knocked on doors when I took PTO on Friday, I was shaking when I pulled up to go and speak to somebody.
Because I didn't have to sell in my previous career. I was the Excel person behind a spreadsheet that didn't have to pitch why they should be working with me.
But I've learned those skills. I've developed that over time.
But everything to me is a skill that you can learn.
And so it just comes down to understanding that you may already have this in your toolbox, but you're going to be missing this.
And that's how I see it today, is my toolbox is bigger now, but there are all these other opportunities and skills that I want to continue to grow and learn.
And that journey of growth, personally and professionally for me, is what gets me so excited about being in business and doing this.

Susan Sly 43:33
That's huge.
And thank you for casting that vision, because that—I keep—
So one of the things I do, like, because I tell everyone, the global audience, like everything about my life, so it doesn't really matter—but one of the things I started doing is when I'm having a wall-kicking moment, writing my current self a letter from my future self.
And sometimes it's, Susan, it's going to be okay, right? Susan, you're going to get stronger. Susan, you're going to learn skills. Susan, the right people always show up—prove a time when they didn't, right? And whatever.
And it's that wisdom that comes.
How has technology shifted your business?
I just got back—as we're doing this show—I just got back from Davos speaking at the World Economic Forum. I was speaking on agentic AI.
And AI has been my background in my life for almost a decade, and then when I was in my late teens, I was coding early facial recognition algorithms.
So technology is shifting the landscape of every business.
So how is it shifting Linden Creek?

Alisa Sparks 44:36
Yeah, technology is a huge part of who we are and what we do. I think if you are sitting on your hands thinking it's not going to impact your industry or your world, you're going to miss the boat really fast.
I think one of the things that interests me the most about technology today is the rate at which it's growing and adapting.
So we do—and me specifically—I dive in every quarter and go what resources and opportunities are out there in our industry today that could help us propel and be better, because they might not be there today, but they might be there in three months.
But one of the biggest things we did in technology is there really was not a system out there to help support home stagers in inventory management and everything else that we did to operate our day-to-day.
When I first started, I had an inventory management system, an invoicing system, and like seven Excel spreadsheets to manage my operations.

Susan Sly 45:26
Can't see me, you're not on YouTube—I’m laughing because I so understand that.

Alisa Sparks 45:32
Yeah, we've all been there, and you're just like, this is painful. And something to just know what's happening in my business should not take me three, four hours of every day.
And so I remember my directors that were in charge of sales and management were like, Alisa, we need to hire an admin.
And I was like, forget an admin. This should not be this hard.
And so we've built our own software company about two years ago that does everything that you need it to do all in one for a home stager.
So it manages where your inventory is, it handles your invoicing for your clients, it is your CRM, it automates the email process so that you're actually doing the things that matter.
Because people and human interaction is huge. That's never going to go away, but you should focus your time doing that, not the administrative tasks behind the scenes that don't actually move the needle but are necessary for survival.
And so for us, technology is huge. It's where can we bring it in to streamline something silly we're doing so that we can have the biggest impact in front of our clients.

Susan Sly 46:29
And that's often where technology comes from—great technology.
It's like, I want something to solve this problem.
Like even with what we're building at thePause®, it was like going through perimenopause and menopause, I just wanted someone to tell me what time to go to bed, how much exercise to get today, what to do to ameliorate all of those symptoms, right?
And it's like, that's where it comes from.
I have a question for you, like just a deeply personal one.
Like you're driven, right? The company, all of the things you're doing—what's something that is on your bucket list?

Alisa Sparks 47:09
Personally, gosh, on my bucket list—personally, I do want to travel more one day.
I think these last couple years, as we've grown and we've scaled, we've gotten the opportunity to travel internationally for business purposes, which has been amazing and so rewarding.
And I think it's opened my eyes to see the value of what you learn when you force yourself into different cultures and experiences.
And so prioritizing that and finding time to carve out to grow honestly from that perspective is something that gets me excited about a new journey for us in these years to come.

Susan Sly 47:52
So where do you want to—

Alisa Sparks 47:56
—go right now?
I think the nearest bucket list is we want to finally hit Spain as a family and get the kids involved with just true immersion—not just coming here on vacation and seeing the pretty things and going to the beaches—but the opportunity to really be part of the culture for a more extended period of time.

Susan Sly 48:11
Well, I'll share—founder to founder, woman to woman.
Yes, I spent many years building my last company, didn’t travel. The last time we took a family vacation was Israel, 2018.
And so coming into this year, I looked in the mirror and I was like, I don't even recognize myself.
I'm the crazy person who went undercover in brothels to rescue kids in Cambodia. For years, I did all sorts of stuff, and I've traveled all over the world.
And I didn't even know who I was, because work became my everything.
So this year, I poured myself a glass of wine. I'm like, screw it, booked a trip to Rome for my kids.
Then when I was making my list of what I wanted to manifest, I was like, I haven't been to Greece.
So I said, I'm going to go to Greece—but I'm not, I'm going to get paid to go to Greece.
And literally the very next week, a company reached out to invite me to come and train their attorneys in AI fundamentals in Athens at their retreat.
And so now I'm getting paid to go to Greece.
Then I was like, I haven't been to Kenya. And then this girl reaches out and goes, we're doing a girls retreat to Kenya. Do you want to go?
And like, heck yes.
And I think just having this coffee chat, cocktail chat—the time never comes, as you know. We've got to create time.
And one of the, I think the greatest things that I ever chose to do is definitely travel with the kids.
Go to Asia, go to Europe, go everywhere and anywhere, because we don't get the time back.
And now that my oldest one is 28 and my youngest is 16, I'm like, I have to rally them even more, because they have their lives.
And so that's my invitation to you, sister—create that time.

Alisa Sparks 50:03
I love it. Thank you. That is some of the best advice.

Susan Sly 50:07
Well, on Raw and Real Entrepreneurship®, we get to give each other advice.
My final question for you is, I'm looking at this trajectory and all the things you've created, and you said—I wrote a quote really about celebrating your wins.
So at what level is the next celebration for your company? When you go, yeah, yes, I'm going to Spain for a month, y'all—let's see—what is that?

Alisa Sparks 50:43
So when I made the decision to franchise, the research that I did is like, it doesn't really work if you franchise and have five locations.
You need to kind of do something bigger because economies of scale and impact and all these things.
And so as I started devising this plan of I think I'm going to pull the trigger around franchising, I always used to say, we're going to sell 96 locations in five years.
And everyone looked at me like I was crazy.
I had actually just started dating my husband now at the time, and I think it was like our second date. I was like, I'm going to sell 96 locations.
I had one. I was like, I'm going to sell 96 locations in five years.
And he was like, oh, you cute, dumb blonde, that's a little bit crazy. You know what, I don't know what I signed up for.
And on my team on day one, we're going to sell 96 locations in five years.
That is, to me, the next massive celebration.
It's wild to say—we very intentionally started slow and built a really strong foundation and framework to set our franchise owners up for success and learn all the lessons before we scaled.
And we're in a season now where we just kind of turn on the gas, and it starts to happen very organically and naturally now.
And so we are on track to hit that goal of within that five years, hitting 96, and that will be a really massive one for me.

Susan Sly 51:55
I love that you—Alisa, you are an inspiration. And thank you so much.
I would encourage—where are we at as of this moment, between now and 96? I can't keep up. I did try and research. I'm like, where is she at with this?

Alisa Sparks 52:09
We are at 20, so we are a fifth of the way there. We've got a long ways to go.
Ask me again in six months, and I'm going to have a different answer for you by a long shot.
But we are on the path to a lot of exciting things over here.

Susan Sly 52:22
So if someone's listening and they're interested in applying, discovery, to have a franchise, how do they do that?

Alisa Sparks 52:31
Yeah, check us out online. Our website is lindencreek.com/franchise, and you can explore franchise opportunities, what states we're offering it in, and more information about our program.

Susan Sly 52:43
Let's get you to 96 and get you on vacation. Love it.
Sounds great.
Well, Alisa, thank you so much for being on Raw and Real Entrepreneurship®.
Everyone listening, if this episode has touched your heart, give us a five-star review.
We are power girls and we work—give us a five-star review, share it with your friends, drop a comment on social.
And if you are serious—and I'm not talking curious—if you're serious about being one of the 96, who knows, maybe there's an opportunity to get to go on a team trip to Spain.
I don't know.
Make sure you do check out lindencreek.com/franchise.
Alisa, thanks again for being on Raw and Real Entrepreneurship®.

Alisa Sparks 53:25
Thanks so much for having me, Susan. This is great.

Voiceover 53:29
This is Susan, and thanks so much for listening to this episode on Raw and Real Entrepreneurship®.
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If you're interested in any of the resources we discussed on the show, go to susansly.com. That's where all the show notes live.
And with that, go out there, rock your day. God bless, and I will see you in the next episode.