Breaking the Sex Shop Glass Ceiling with Searah Desaych
Release Date: 03/08/2022
Why Revenue Growth Isn't Making You Feel Safer
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More revenue does not automatically create financial security. In this episode, Brian Thompson explores why so many entrepreneurs still feel anxious even when business is going well, and what actually builds business stability over the long term. Brian gets honest about the gap between revenue growth and emotional security, drawing from his own experience and years of working with entrepreneurs at every stage of business. If you have ever hit a goal and still felt like everything could fall apart, this episode will help you understand why, and what to do about it. In this episode you...
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The Cost of Hiding Who You Are in Your Business
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Let's explore the real emotional and strategic cost of hiding parts of yourself as an entrepreneur, and why building a business rooted in authenticity creates stronger alignment, better marketing, and a more sustainable path forward. Brian gets personal about his own journey navigating visibility as a Black, gay entrepreneur and financial planner, and what he has learned about the difference between protecting yourself and slowly erasing yourself. If you have ever felt exhausted by performing a version of yourself you thought people expected, this episode is for you. In this episode you...
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How to Achieve Sustainable Leadership Through Delegation
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Most entrepreneurs reach a point where doing everything yourself stops working. In this episode, Brian Thompson gets honest about the emotional side of delegation, what he has learned since bringing on his first employee, and why sustainable leadership requires letting go of the need to carry everything alone. Delegation is one of the most talked about business strategies, and one of the most misunderstood. Brian shares why delegation is not just an operational decision, it is an emotional one. Underneath the resistance to delegating are fear of mistakes, fear of losing control, and fear of...
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What It Really Takes to Hire Your First Employee
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Hiring your first employee is one of the biggest leaps you'll take as a business owner, and most people don't talk openly about what it actually involves. In this episode, Brian Thompson sits down with his operations manager Jesica Berger to share the hiring strategies that shaped their journey, from both sides of the table. Brian and Jesica worked together for nearly seven years before Brian launched his own financial planning firm. When the time came to bring on his first hire, the foundation of trust they had built over almost two decades made all the difference. In this honest...
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Why High Achievers Struggle to Feel Successful in Business
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Many entrepreneurs hit their goals, grow their revenue, and create real impact, and still somehow feel behind. In this episode, Brian Thompson unpacks why high achievers so often struggle to feel successful, how comparison and constant striving distort our sense of progress, and why mission-driven entrepreneurs are especially vulnerable to this pattern. It is a candid and reflective conversation that ends with a challenge to redefine what success actually means for you. The Pattern Entrepreneurs Get Stuck In A pattern Brian sees in himself and many of his clients: Hit a goal, feel proud...
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Why You're Feeling Stuck: The Hidden Cost of Clutter in Your Business
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Clutter has a way of building quietly, and before long it starts affecting more than just how your desk looks. In this episode, Brian Thompson takes an honest look at how small pockets of disorganization pile up during busy seasons and what they actually cost you, not just in time, but in decision-making, financial clarity, and the ability to move your business forward. Coming off tax season, Brian gets personal about his own clutter habits and offers a simple, practical approach to clearing the backlog without overhauling everything at once. Clutter Is About Avoidance, Not Organization...
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Why You'll Never Find Balance in Your Business
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Balance is one of the most talked about goals in entrepreneurship, and one of the most elusive. In this episode, Brian Thompson gets honest about why balance isn't something you achieve once and move on from, and why chasing that perfect equilibrium might be the wrong goal entirely. Coming off a particularly intense tax season, Brian shares what his own body was telling him, and what it made him realize about the way entrepreneurs expect themselves to show up all year long. What Does Business Balance Actually Look Like? This year's tax season hit differently for Brian. For the first...
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How to Bet on Yourself and Build a Business Around Freedom
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Building a business around freedom is more than a financial decision, it's a deeply personal one. In this episode, Brian Thompson sits down with Kyra Mitchell Lewis, a brand strategist, marketer, podcast host, and founder of and , to talk about what it truly means to bet on yourself. Kyra shares how more than 20 years in corporate marketing led her to a pivotal moment of liberation, how she built a thriving consulting business in under a year, and why keeping an open mind has been one of her greatest entrepreneurial assets. A Business Built Around Purpose Kyra defines a mission-driven...
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How to Prepare for Next Year's Taxes Without the Stress
Mission Driven Business
Tax season doesn't have to be a scramble, but for most business owners, it is. In this episode, Brian Thompson offers a simple, practical system for taking the stress and surprise out of taxes by shifting from a once-a-year reaction to a year-round strategy. If last episode left you wondering whether you missed something, this one is your action plan. Start With a Mindset Shift Before getting into tactics, Brian makes an important reframe: taxes are not a once-a-year event. They are a year-round strategy. This matters especially for mission-driven business owners who are growing...
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How to Optimize Your Tax Return for More Business Tax Savings
Mission Driven Business
In this episode, Brian Thompson discusses key insights from the recent tax season, highlighting trends, surprises, and strategic opportunities for business owners to optimize their tax planning and financial health. Your tax return is not something to file and forget. If you pay attention, your tax return gives you a roadmap for what to do better this coming year. Brian also gives real-life examples of two clients that stood out this tax season. Understanding Unexpected Tax Outcomes One of the most significant stress points during tax season is the unexpected tax outcome. Many business...
info_outlineBrian Thompson chats with Searah Desaych, the founder of feminist sex shop Early to Bed. For the past 20 years, Early to Bed has operated both as a retail store and as a safe place to explore sexuality. Searah founded the company to create the warm, women-oriented, queer and trans-positive environment she wished existed in the male-dominated sex shop industry.
On the episode, Searah shares some of the hurdles she’s faced in her two decades at the helm of Early to Bed. She also discusses how she’s managed her anxieties around running a business and praises the importance of networking and being kind.
Episode Highlights
Mission-driven businesses sometimes make unprofitable choices.
Early to Bed is a for-profit business, but it’s also a mission-driven one, Searah explained. Searah will make a decision most in-line with the mission of the store -- even if it isn’t profitable. In practice, that means Early to Bed holds raffles, donates products, and provides education to benefit the community.
“The business is about more than profit,” Searah said. “Sometimes I don’t make a profitable choice. Sometimes, I make the choice that’s best for my employees and for what I want to be in the world rather than making money.”
Follow a business plan -- when it makes sense.
After dropping out of graduate school, Searah had a business plan she now says had no basis in reality. She quickly learned she had to ditch the plan and be flexible to make the business work.
“If I had tried to use that plan to drive the business, I don’t know where I'd be,” Searah said.
At the same time, Searah needs to make smart business decisions even if they’re not what she had initially envisioned. For instance, she didn't like the idea of creating an online storefront for her business, but she realized it's a necessity in the modern era.
“I’m an idiot if I’m going to stop people from Texas buying my products,” she said. “So even though that wasn’t part of my mission in the beginning, I decided to do that.”
The anxiety is always going to be there.
About seven years into her entrepreneurial career, Searah asked a business owner when the worrying about running a business stops. The answer wasn’t what she had hoped for.
“She’s like, ‘Oh, honey, never,’” Searah said. “It doesn’t matter how long, you’re always going to have those worries.”
Now that she’s 20 years into running Early to Bed, Searah worries less than she used to. But she can confirm that the anxiety never fully subsides.
“I go to sleep pretty soundly every night, but it’s always in the back of your head forever,” Searah said.
Resources + Links
- Early to Bed
- Searah’s Social Media: Twitter, LinkedIn
- Brian’s Social Media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
About Brian and the Mission Driven Business Podcast
Brian Thompson, JD/CFP, is a tax attorney and certified financial planner who specializes in providing comprehensive financial planning to LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs who run mission-driven businesses. The Mission Driven Business podcast was born out of his passion for helping social entrepreneurs create businesses with purpose and profit.
On the podcast, Brian talks with diverse entrepreneurs and the people who support them. Listeners hear stories of experiences, strength, and hope and get practical advice to help them build businesses that might just change the world, too.