Episode 006: The Prison She Built. $5M in Sales and Still Trapped w/ Cris Beam

February 24, 2026 / 01:09:06/E6

She Built a Prison Instead of a Business. Here's What She's Doing About It.

Episode Summary

What happens when you escape the corporate grind only to build yourself a different kind of cage?

Cris Beam is a one-woman e-commerce powerhouse. North of $5 million in sales. Over a decade in the game. No team. No safety net. Just her. On paper, she is the success story. But behind the numbers? 3 AM wake-ups. A failed private label investment that will take years to recover from. Crypto losses. A business that runs on pure grit because discipline has never been her thing.

In this raw conversation, Cris drops the highlight reel and goes straight to the basement. She talks about trading corporate stress for a different kind of weight. One that never clocks out. She opens up about being the ultimate control freak who built a business that can't exist without her. And she shares the moment a book called "Buy Back Your Time" hit her like a ton of bricks and forced her to start making changes.

If you have ever felt stuck inside a business you built with your own hands, this one is for you.

In This Episode, You'll Discover:

The real difference between corporate stress and entrepreneur stress, and why trading one for the other still comes with pain
How Cris went from $0 to $38,000 in her third month on Amazon by being obsessively impulsive
Why a failed private label investment and crypto losses nearly buried her in a six-month financial spiral
The prison she built by keeping everything in her head and refusing to trust anyone else
Why self-confidence is not arrogance, and how Cris refuses to give herself any option other than success
How "Buy Back Your Time" cracked her open and got her to finally hire help after years of doing it solo
Why shiny object syndrome has tanked more businesses than bad products ever will
The power of treating life like a video game. Beat the level. Beat the game. Keep going.

Key Takeaways:

Every Problem Is Your Problem: When you own the business, there is no CFO to bail you out. No marketing team. No boss to blame. Every single problem lands on your desk. That is the trade you make for freedom.
Impulse Can Be a Superpower: Cris did not overthink her leap into e-commerce. She saw an opportunity on a Saturday morning and had an account open by the end of the day. Sometimes analysis paralysis is the real enemy.
Overconfidence Meets Overtrust: Investing in nine private label products at once while trusting others to execute was a costly lesson. Confidence in yourself is powerful. Blind trust in others can be expensive.
You Built a Prison, Not a Business: If everything lives in your head, no documentation, no systems, no team, you are not the CEO. You are the most overworked employee in a business that cannot survive without you.
Discipline Is the Tax You Pay: Cris openly admits discipline is her biggest struggle. Inconsistent buying. Neglected bookkeeping. Shiny objects. The lack of discipline creates a financial rollercoaster that grit alone cannot smooth out.
Protect Your Bread and Butter: Chasing Walmart, crypto, UGC, and every new thing nearly cost Cris her core Amazon business. New opportunities should be add-ons, not replacements.
Everything Is Figureoutable: If you can Google it, you can solve it. Computer illiteracy in today's world is a choice. Click on everything. Break something. Fix it. That is the process.
Isolation Will Eat You Alive: Solo entrepreneurs only hear one voice. Their own. And it is usually the most critical one in the room. Building a circle is not optional. It is survival.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Introduction
[01:30] Meet Cris Beam. E-com powerhouse, one-person army
[03:19] The 3 AM wake-ups and the weight of owning every problem
[08:00] Burning the boat. How Cris started her Amazon business the day after leaving corporate
[11:05] Baptism by fire. $6K to $38K in three months
[13:14] Self-confidence vs. arrogance. Why failure is not in her vocabulary
[16:00] The financial basement. Private label losses, crypto hits, and the six-month spiral
[21:04] The control freak trap. Why trusting others keeps backfiring
[25:08] Building a prison instead of a business. The wake-up call
[26:02] "Buy Back Your Time" and the decision to finally hire a VA
[28:29] Discipline is garbage. But it is also the answer
[35:14] The troubleshooting mindset. Click on everything
[42:41] Shiny object syndrome. How chasing new things killed the core business
[50:07] Talking to the Chris who is sweating at 3 AM right now
[52:30] What grit looks like in the season of rebuild. Dog with a bone
[55:56] The quote that keeps her going. "I always figured it out"
[59:33] The Iron Chain question and Cris's question for the next guest
[64:05] Closing thoughts. Why entrepreneurship is lonely and circles matter