I Sold My Company for $22M. Here’s Why I Bought It Back.

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Jaclyn Johnson sold Create & Cultivate for $22 million. Then she hit pause – burned out, got divorced, and took a year off to figure out what she actually wanted. Now? She’s back, running the same company she sold, after buying it back for less.

Here’s what we talk about:

• Flipping real estate, investing in 25 startups, and turning $10K into $1.2M
• Spending $17K/month on rent – and not caring
• The number where she actually felt rich: $4–5M liquid
• Her full wealth breakdown: real estate, stocks, startups, and “a little” crypto
• Why angel investing works for her, and the returns that keep her going
• How burnout and divorce forced her to take a full year off
• What it’s like buying back the company you sold – for less
• Why she’ll never run day-to-day again (and how operators changed everything)
• Female founder scrutiny, and why being the face of the brand gets brutal
• Why she’s done chasing status, and how FOMO just disappeared
  
  

Cool Links:

• Hampton https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Lower Street https://www.lowerstreet.co/
• Jaclyn Johnson https://jaclynrjohnson.com/ 

Sponsors:

• Get US caliber talent at offshore prices with https://www.oceanstalent.com/
• Achieve your dream body with https://www.dailybodycoach.com/moneywise
• Protect your upside and get your time back at https://www.cressetcapital.com/moneywise

Chapters:

• (0:25) How Jacqueline Johnson built and sold businesses for millions
• (1:43) The three kinds of success every founder chases
• (7:04) What it actually feels like to have $15M in the bank
• (15:29) How Create & Cultivate became a brand women rally behind
• (18:37) The double standard: What it’s really like being a female CEO
• (23:18) The moments that made Jacqueline feel like she’d “made it”
• (25:37) What happens after you stop chasing FOMO
• (29:38) The money mistakes founders make after a big exit
• (32:04) What Jacqueline wishes every founder knew before selling
  
  

This podcast is a ridiculous concept: high-net-worth people reveal their personal finances. Inspired by real conversations happening in the Hampton community.

Your Host: Harry Morton

• Founder of Lower Street, a podcast production company helping brands launch and grow top-tier podcasts.
• Co-parents a cow named Eliza.

What is Moneywise?

This is Moneywise, a podcast where hosts Sam Parr and Harry Morton are joined by high-net-worth guests to explore exclusive insights into personal finance and lifestyle tailored for other high-net-worth people, or those on their way. They'll get radically transparent about the numbers, revealing things like their burn rates, portfolios, and spending habits. This podcast was made for the Hampton community, a private, highly-vetted, peer membership community for founders and CEOs of fast-growing, tech-enabled startups. Check it out at https://joinhampton.com/.