Sales and Cigars | Jessica Yarbrough | Creating Entrepreneurial Freedom | Episode 152

[00:00:00] Everyone, Walter Crosby with Helix Sales Development, your host of Sales and Cigars.

[00:00:04] Today's episode, I want you to listen to this least this intro.

[00:00:08] My guest is Jessica Yarbrough and her business is about helping

[00:00:13] coaches and develop a bigger program

[00:00:18] to go out and be able to grow their business and scale back

[00:00:21] the amount of time that they're putting into the business.

[00:00:25] So what we really talk about here is something that's applicable

[00:00:28] to every entrepreneur, every business owner that I've ever met.

[00:00:33] These ideas are what we should be thinking about.

[00:00:37] Jessica puts some ideas forward that

[00:00:40] are going to help you think about your business a little differently.

[00:00:45] Think about how you can think about your pricing strategies,

[00:00:48] you can think about how you're building your business, what pieces are missing.

[00:00:51] So go grab a cocktail, grab a cigar, strap in for another

[00:00:54] impactful episode of Sales and Cigars.

[00:01:19] So Jessica, I appreciate you taking some time out of your busy schedule to jump on the podcast.

[00:01:24] I've been looking forward to it.

[00:01:25] Thanks for having me.

[00:01:28] So I kind of like to just jump right in with some

[00:01:32] just to kind of get a perspective by asking some weird questions.

[00:01:36] So that's where we'll go.

[00:01:38] So if you think about like what's the book or the idea that you try to

[00:01:45] give people on a regular basis most consistently.

[00:01:49] I've got a book that I give people a lot happens to be my book.

[00:01:52] But is there one that when it stands out as you use as a gift most often?

[00:01:58] I love that book Atomic Habits by James Clear

[00:02:03] that's really talking about the power of your habits and the compound of consistent habits.

[00:02:08] As entrepreneurs, a lot of them have shiny optic syndrome.

[00:02:12] A lot of them are solar pernures or even if you're working in a job,

[00:02:16] it's hard to be consistent with your habits and great habits is what can take you to your goals.

[00:02:21] So I'm a big fan of that book.

[00:02:23] And it's almost like discipline is what gives us freedom and stops us from that

[00:02:32] shiny object syndrome.

[00:02:35] And he does a great job of that book.

[00:02:37] So one of those books you can go back to and revisit every 12 months and pull something new out of it

[00:02:47] that you missed the first time because it's pretty dense.

[00:02:49] I've got a lot of ideas in there.

[00:02:51] Yeah. And again, it comes back to like that word discipline that you said if we want to achieve

[00:02:55] any results in our life, there has to be discipline.

[00:02:58] If you want to have achieved a certain weight, you have to have discipline around your eating habits

[00:03:02] and your exercise.

[00:03:05] Same thing with the business.

[00:03:06] If you want to be successful, if you want to close sales, what are the things that you're doing

[00:03:10] on a daily basis that are going to support the outcome that you desire?

[00:03:17] Those ideas, those habits, tie to your health, tie to your relationships, tie to your,

[00:03:22] especially in sales.

[00:03:24] I'm constantly like, what are you doing every day, every week, every month

[00:03:27] on a consistent basis, regardless of what else is going on that keep you moving forward.

[00:03:32] And once we lose sight of that, so that's a great book.

[00:03:38] So tell me a story about something in your professional career where there was a failure

[00:03:44] that kind of like elevated you to success.

[00:03:50] I mean, gosh, I feel like there were so many failures along the way and this

[00:03:57] rocky road of entrepreneurship.

[00:04:01] You know, I think, oh, actually this is a good one for me.

[00:04:05] When I first started growing my business, one of the mistakes I made was,

[00:04:08] you know, I started making money and I got really excited and I'm like, let's grow fast.

[00:04:12] You know, and so I started to outsource a lot of things in my business, too many things.

[00:04:20] And, you know, ended up costing me a lot of money without a lot of return.

[00:04:24] And so and I'm glad that I went through that because it helped me go through,

[00:04:29] help other entrepreneurs as they go through that journey.

[00:04:32] It's like, you know, when you start making sales

[00:04:36] and you get that injection of cash flow, then the natural tendency is to want more.

[00:04:41] And of course, more sales is great, but you also need to make sure that you have the

[00:04:45] infrastructure to support it, both from a client delivery standpoint and your systems

[00:04:51] and starting to build out your team.

[00:04:53] And so there tends to be this, you know, this draw again to like pour all this money out to get

[00:04:58] more sales and more sales are great, but you have to make sure you have to infrastructure.

[00:05:01] So that was really impactful for me because it allowed me to slow down to then speed up.

[00:05:06] And where I actually watched some of my colleagues who grew and got so caught up in growing

[00:05:13] that they hit a million and their business imploded, right?

[00:05:16] Because they weren't set up versus I had that happen when I was in the low six figures,

[00:05:21] it allowed me to pull back and say, whoa, I'll hit that seven figure goal.

[00:05:25] But let me actually work on what are our internal systems and make sure that we

[00:05:30] have the infrastructure in place to not only support the addition of new clients,

[00:05:34] but that we can deliver to them at a high level.

[00:05:36] And it was a game changer.

[00:05:40] It's a really great point that you make is if you're lucky enough to learn that

[00:05:46] early, right? Then you have the chance to correct it.

[00:05:51] And I had a similar experience where as I was growing, I had that urge,

[00:05:57] like exactly what you described to keep going.

[00:06:02] And as sort of the one man band, right?

[00:06:06] You got a little assistant over here and you got a little support over here,

[00:06:09] but you have to deliver.

[00:06:11] And that is what's really important is to move the needle for your clients.

[00:06:16] And it was a simple thing for me was having some standard operating procedures, right?

[00:06:25] I knew what to do, but when I got busy, if you skip that one step by accident,

[00:06:32] right? You weren't trying to cheat, you just forgot.

[00:06:35] It could have detrimental effects that had rolled up.

[00:06:40] So figuring that out early is like you said, is an amazing failure point,

[00:06:47] but it really turns into a huge success.

[00:06:50] Absolutely.

[00:06:52] And I think that there's a quote from Drone of Blank on the guy that said this,

[00:07:01] but experiences the name I give to my mistakes.

[00:07:04] And I think that when you're dealing with your clients,

[00:07:09] or I'm dealing with mine, all of those things that occurred to us,

[00:07:13] that we had to experience the hard way really help us help other people.

[00:07:21] Especially when I get someone in the program who is charismatic and who already has that kind

[00:07:28] of edge around confidence in terms of their ability to be influential, whether that is

[00:07:34] on video or whether it's in the context of a sales conversation.

[00:07:37] Those people tend to get results really fast.

[00:07:40] And so it's just a reminder like this is what I'm like,

[00:07:43] celebrate the heck out of them and say, let's make sure we're set you up for success.

[00:07:47] So this isn't a one hit wonder year and that you're not only able to repeat,

[00:07:52] but exceed these results in the following year.

[00:07:54] And so just reminding them that entrepreneurship is a marathon.

[00:07:59] It's not a sprint.

[00:08:00] It's wonderful and it's exciting to hit those short term like objectives.

[00:08:05] And then let's also look at what's your overall strategy and what it really takes to

[00:08:11] run a multi seven figure business and build up.

[00:08:16] That's really, really great advice because if you don't have the structure in place

[00:08:22] to repeat and repeat and deliver the results, you can always tweak it and you can always go

[00:08:29] back and refine it.

[00:08:30] But if you don't have the basics in place and sometimes you don't realize you don't have them

[00:08:33] there until you get six or seven opportunities that all want to be done at the same time.

[00:08:41] And it forces us, at least in sales for me, it's become more discerning.

[00:08:47] Is this person really going to do the things that they say they're going to do?

[00:08:51] Because they have to change.

[00:08:54] I bet you experienced a lot of that where somebody's like, yeah, I can do that.

[00:08:58] And then push comes to shove.

[00:08:59] They don't have the commitment and the desire to go do the thing that they need to do.

[00:09:05] Yes, I've gotten really good about screening those people out

[00:09:09] over the years.

[00:09:10] There are plenty of people who want the end result.

[00:09:12] Like everybody wants time freedom.

[00:09:14] Everybody wants more money, but not everybody is willing to do the work.

[00:09:18] And I have a pretty thorough application process.

[00:09:21] We reject on average about 50% of applications that come through to begin with.

[00:09:26] But I'm really listening closely to what they're saying and their background,

[00:09:31] what they've been able to achieve.

[00:09:33] I'm trying to uncover like, what is their commitment level?

[00:09:35] What are their work habits?

[00:09:37] Because especially when I have clients who come in that are stuck

[00:09:41] at half a million or high six figures and they're already working themselves so much.

[00:09:48] And it's like we have to get back their time and restructure their business

[00:09:54] so that they have time to work on the business rather than in the business

[00:09:58] in order to drive growth.

[00:10:00] And so it's important that there is an alignment of not only values,

[00:10:04] but commitment on both sides.

[00:10:06] They have to make the commitment to do the work.

[00:10:09] But it's also a mindset thing, right?

[00:10:12] Where they got to be willing to go backwards almost to go back

[00:10:15] and look at what needs to change so they can take that next leap.

[00:10:19] We absolutely start with their foundation.

[00:10:22] We look at their ideal client, what their offers are.

[00:10:26] You know, it's like we can't start just marketing, marketing.

[00:10:29] If you want to change your business and you want to scale it,

[00:10:32] we got to look at how you're designing your offers and how you're delivering them.

[00:10:36] And most of the time people come to us and they're undercharging

[00:10:40] and they're way too caught up in the actual delivery.

[00:10:44] And so there's a disconnect and they start to resent their clients, right?

[00:10:48] Because they know they're not charging them enough

[00:10:49] and they're giving and giving and giving.

[00:10:51] And they're stuck at the same revenue for five, 10 years

[00:10:55] and they're ready to break free.

[00:10:57] And so we do have to make shifts around their strategy and the structure,

[00:11:00] but also absolutely their mindset and what does it really mean to

[00:11:05] shift into selling to higher level clients and delivering at a different level.

[00:11:08] So what comes first in your process?

[00:11:12] Is it the mindset after you've gone through the application process

[00:11:16] and you're convinced they're willing to do the work?

[00:11:18] Is it a mindset shift or is it to go do the thing that they need to do, whatever that is?

[00:11:24] It's a combination.

[00:11:25] So a lot of my clients are former executives, right?

[00:11:30] Like director VP have a lot of C-suite that come to me

[00:11:33] and they want to build a coaching or consulting business.

[00:11:35] I also have a lot of entrepreneurs who maybe were successful

[00:11:37] in other fields, whatever it may be.

[00:11:41] And so there is some measure of, I wouldn't say it's,

[00:11:46] it could be some measure of imposter syndrome, but there's number one,

[00:11:50] there's a lack of awareness of what the market is willing to pay.

[00:11:52] And then there is some fear trepidation of, hey, can I really do this?

[00:11:56] Can I 2x, 2x my prices and go out or go after a higher caliber market

[00:12:01] without like losing my business.

[00:12:02] So we do work through that.

[00:12:05] We do have someone that specializes on the mindset side of things,

[00:12:08] but I'm very practical and I'm a strategist.

[00:12:11] And I know that if we can get them confident on speaking the language,

[00:12:17] being able to articulate their value and have a solution

[00:12:21] that they're proud of and can powerfully and concisely like pitch.

[00:12:27] I know that they're going to be able to close the deal

[00:12:30] because I'm going to give them all of that information and training.

[00:12:35] And then they've proved to their subconscious mind like, hey, I can do this.

[00:12:39] Right.

[00:12:40] If their reference point is all I can sell is a $50,000 program or $20,000

[00:12:44] and I help them put together 150,000, they go sell to an organization.

[00:12:49] Now they have a new reference point of what's possible.

[00:12:51] So their whole mindset shifts and the only thing they ever say to me,

[00:12:56] can you guess what it is after they close the sale?

[00:12:58] I didn't think I could do it.

[00:13:00] Are you a rate?

[00:13:01] I wish I would have done this sooner.

[00:13:04] Because maybe this is true to your listeners,

[00:13:07] how many of you guys are listening right now knowing that you should be making more money,

[00:13:10] that you're not charging enough and you're like, you know it because there's telltale signs

[00:13:16] like the resentment, exhausted, the burnout, losing your passion.

[00:13:21] Right.

[00:13:21] Why?

[00:13:21] I love this is what I do.

[00:13:22] Why am I not passionate about it?

[00:13:23] Well, you're probably not being paid enough

[00:13:25] and you know these people have the money.

[00:13:27] What are the results you're getting your clients?

[00:13:29] Is there a disconnect?

[00:13:30] Are you saving them or making them hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars

[00:13:34] and charging them pennies like you know in your heart.

[00:13:37] And so it's kind of like when you know you're supposed to leave a job

[00:13:41] right?

[00:13:41] And you just sit there and you just wait for years to leave.

[00:13:44] So you got to take action, get the confidence, close the deal.

[00:13:48] You'll wish you would have done it sooner.

[00:13:50] You can't change the past but you can change your future.

[00:13:52] Absolutely.

[00:13:53] It's a really great way to look at it.

[00:13:56] I was looking at, I don't do a lot of research for these.

[00:13:59] It's just sort of my thing because I want to be curious.

[00:14:03] But on your website you've got a list of questions.

[00:14:06] If somebody goes there, goes to show notes and go grab your website.

[00:14:12] And it's like do any of these things sound familiar?

[00:14:15] Do any of these things like you?

[00:14:16] If you go through that list as an entrepreneur or some executive,

[00:14:21] you're going to be like uh-huh.

[00:14:24] Yep.

[00:14:25] Damn.

[00:14:27] Right?

[00:14:27] It's just that sort of that cadence where you get to it.

[00:14:31] And then the ones at the bottom here, I mean you obviously wrote this with intent but

[00:14:36] it really crescendos and it's everything you just said is true.

[00:14:41] We know that that resentment becomes something that we don't really recognize.

[00:14:47] We know it's there but we don't understand the why.

[00:14:50] And there's often a belief just by raising your prices, whatever it is.

[00:14:56] If you're selling a widget or a service just by doing that,

[00:15:01] you're not going to lose as many people as you think you're going to lose

[00:15:05] if you're really delivering value.

[00:15:09] That's got to be part of it.

[00:15:11] And when you're looking at, I know I disqualify people who just want to play at the bottom.

[00:15:18] They want to win business on price.

[00:15:22] I think that's the most important thing in my market, we're commoditized.

[00:15:26] And if that's where they really are and that's what they think,

[00:15:31] there's no way to get them to that realization that they could two times, 10 times their

[00:15:35] pricing structure because they probably don't have the value that they're delivering

[00:15:41] to their customers and they certainly can't articulate it.

[00:15:44] Hey, thanks for being part of the sales and cigar community.

[00:15:47] I wanted to share that I wrote a book, The Seven Critical Mistakes CEOs Make with Their Sales Organization.

[00:15:53] The CEOs who've read it tell me I cut to the chase quickly, get to the point,

[00:15:58] explain exactly what they're experiencing, why they're experiencing it and how to fix it.

[00:16:03] So if you want a free copy go check out the link in the show notes.

[00:16:07] Now let's get back to the interview.

[00:16:09] You have to deliver value.

[00:16:10] And it's, I always tell people it's not about slapping a big price tag on it.

[00:16:14] And sometimes we pivot the market.

[00:16:18] Like if you're marketing to people that can't afford to pay you more, then

[00:16:20] market to people who can.

[00:16:23] And same thing with businesses and you absolutely have to do,

[00:16:28] you have to be able to deliver the value.

[00:16:29] A high ticket comes with a big promise.

[00:16:32] So the bigger the ticket, the bigger the promise.

[00:16:34] And that's why it's so important when you do get that deal that you do everything

[00:16:38] in your power to ensure they get results because then you can turn those results into

[00:16:42] case studies and create more demand for your services.

[00:16:45] But if you sell a couple of big deals and you're not delivering,

[00:16:48] your bad reputation is going to go around too.

[00:16:51] So it's really important.

[00:16:52] That travel pretty fast if you don't deliver on the promise that you're making.

[00:16:57] Really fast.

[00:16:59] And that's why I focus my business on working with those that have experience.

[00:17:05] Like the average age of my client is like late 40s to early 60s.

[00:17:10] Right.

[00:17:11] Because I'm helping people that already have experience.

[00:17:15] I'm not working with the Starbucks barista who's like,

[00:17:17] I want to build a six figure business because that's really hard for me to make them an expert.

[00:17:24] Right.

[00:17:25] I need someone who's like, Hey, I've been doing this for 10, 20, 30 years.

[00:17:29] I'm ready to go sell this for a really high price tag.

[00:17:32] I know I can deliver the value because I have the real experience to do it.

[00:17:36] That's the people we can really help succeed at a high level.

[00:17:40] And what you just articulated, you described your ideal client profile.

[00:17:46] You're clear if you're out there as an entrepreneur and you can't articulate that

[00:17:52] and be able to discern who's not who is, then you're going to struggle because you're marketing

[00:17:58] to everybody.

[00:18:01] And I've heard this from so many different people said differently, but it all comes down to

[00:18:09] if you can niche it to a really small group like Seth Godin's like the smallest possible group of

[00:18:17] people that have the resources and need your value, the sky's the limit.

[00:18:24] Because then you get to decide where you go and how you deliver afterwards.

[00:18:29] But if you can find that smaller group, you're going to be fine.

[00:18:34] It's just some people find it scary to niche down.

[00:18:38] Well, everything's going to be scary at first.

[00:18:41] But I totally agree what you're describing is so I teach a concept called the ladder of

[00:18:46] influence and there's four levels of influence.

[00:18:48] The bottom is the trap of the generalists and that holds entrepreneurs back.

[00:18:51] Jack or Jill of all trades master of none trying to be everything to everyone and

[00:18:56] end up being no one nothing to the one person that matters.

[00:19:00] And so absolutely the name of the game is niche and specialization.

[00:19:04] And once you start to specialize, you can go up into that next level and then you can

[00:19:10] start to build credibility and become an expert for that niche.

[00:19:15] So absolutely you're right on the mark with what you said.

[00:19:18] And I would say that 90% of the entrepreneurs that work with me have a fundamental

[00:19:23] communication issue like that's why they hire me because they're somewhere in one of those

[00:19:27] like maybe they're a generalist or maybe they start to do specialization,

[00:19:31] but they're still all over the place with their messaging.

[00:19:33] They can't articulate their value or their ideal client.

[00:19:37] And so if you cannot communicate your value, you're going to run out of runway before ever

[00:19:42] taking off.

[00:19:44] So you have to address the communication and it's more important than funnels.

[00:19:49] People get so caught up in this.

[00:19:51] I always laugh and say I've sold my first $30,000 and $50,000 coaching packages.

[00:19:56] I didn't have a website.

[00:19:58] I had a landing page with an ugly order form that you put your credit card information in.

[00:20:02] So it wasn't about that like funnels are wonderful and these assets and I'm established and I have

[00:20:08] beautiful things now, right?

[00:20:11] But it's not necessary.

[00:20:12] Can you articulate their pains?

[00:20:14] Can you articulate your value in your solution?

[00:20:17] Can you have a powerful sales conversation where there's rapport,

[00:20:22] there's trust, there's that transference of confidence and certainty,

[00:20:25] which is what they're buying that you're the best person to hire them.

[00:20:28] And they don't need a website.

[00:20:30] They don't need the fan.

[00:20:31] They will buy and that is more powerful than all the fancy technology being sold to entrepreneurs.

[00:20:38] Oh, 100% agree.

[00:20:40] The person that's getting ready to get ready and I need to have my website ready

[00:20:46] and I need to have this pretty piece of PDF that's ready to go out.

[00:20:51] Now you're not even clear on what your potential customers or clients,

[00:20:58] you're not even clear what their problems are.

[00:20:59] You don't speak their language.

[00:21:01] From a sales perspective, we see that an entrepreneur will hire salespeople and assume

[00:21:10] that that salesperson knows how to message and knows how to tell the story.

[00:21:17] They'll be able to tell the story but we have to give them the framework.

[00:21:20] We got to tell them as the entrepreneur.

[00:21:23] We can't assume that that salesperson understands.

[00:21:26] So that's one of the first areas that we want to help them with is real basic clear.

[00:21:32] Like what do your customers care about?

[00:21:34] What's how do they make money?

[00:21:36] What is their concerns?

[00:21:37] What's their language?

[00:21:39] And it's actually pretty scary because they have no freaking idea who their customer is

[00:21:46] and what they struggle with.

[00:21:48] But like you said, it's good that you're addressing that

[00:21:50] because you cannot be effective at sales if you don't know that.

[00:21:54] You can't just follow a script if you can't relate to them and not understand really what

[00:21:58] they're struggling with and how to position your product is the best option,

[00:22:02] your product or service.

[00:22:04] Right.

[00:22:04] And the website's not going to do that.

[00:22:07] Yeah.

[00:22:09] Okay.

[00:22:09] Ultimately you need a website because somebody wants to go click on something

[00:22:12] but it's not going to be what moves the needle for you.

[00:22:16] It's just a pretty little thing that supports what you've already said

[00:22:21] or what you're saying and your other marketing messaging.

[00:22:24] So that's some really great advice.

[00:22:30] So the other thing I wanted to ask is in your space,

[00:22:35] there's a bunch of different gurus just like in my world.

[00:22:41] And in my world there's like three or four folks that I listen to,

[00:22:46] I pay attention to, right?

[00:22:48] They're thinkers.

[00:22:50] They're not scaring people.

[00:22:52] And then there's all these other people that are just trying to help I think but

[00:23:00] it's just awful advice.

[00:23:03] And I'm assuming that exists in your world.

[00:23:07] So what bad recommendations are you hearing that people should,

[00:23:14] if they hear it, they should run?

[00:23:15] Right?

[00:23:16] We don't need names.

[00:23:17] Yeah, we don't need names.

[00:23:19] You know, gosh, I feel like everyone is right now what I'm actually seeing in the coaching

[00:23:25] world is people panicking and slashing prices and making really desperate moves.

[00:23:35] And it's interesting to me because if you're selling to a high-end market,

[00:23:40] you're fine right now.

[00:23:41] You know?

[00:23:42] You're always fine.

[00:23:43] You're always fine.

[00:23:44] But what I see a lot is a lot of people wheeling and dealing and all it does is diminish

[00:23:50] your positioning and make you look desperate.

[00:23:53] So if that's who you are and that's how you sell all the time and you are the,

[00:23:58] the discount person, that's fine.

[00:24:00] But if you're trying to be an expert who's like been commanding a lot of money and now

[00:24:04] you're wheeling and dealing, it doesn't look good.

[00:24:07] The other thing is people are constantly jumping on the bandwagon of the next thing.

[00:24:11] Like everybody's got an AI course out right now.

[00:24:15] I'm going to fill your leads with AI.

[00:24:17] I'm going to help you write this thing with AI.

[00:24:20] I'm going to, whatever it may be, you know, a couple of months ago it was something different.

[00:24:23] And so it's constantly almost like confusing your audience and feeling like it takes away

[00:24:31] from the core of what you do.

[00:24:33] It's taking advantage of that.

[00:24:34] I'm missing out and there's this new thing, but it's taking out of the core of what you do.

[00:24:39] And so I see a lot of that happening right now in the industry as well.

[00:24:44] So my advice is, you know, there's always going to be these distractions.

[00:24:48] And if you want to be known as an expert and you want to get any traction for being known

[00:24:52] as the very person who solves these kinds of problems for your perfect client,

[00:24:56] then you have to stay the course.

[00:24:58] I had someone hire me, pay me nearly six figures this year and said to me,

[00:25:04] I've been following you for two years and I'm hiring you because you're consistent.

[00:25:08] She's like, all the other coaches I see are constantly doing different things, selling

[00:25:13] different things, even selling to different markets.

[00:25:15] Right?

[00:25:16] Like, and she's like, you are who you are.

[00:25:18] You never deviate.

[00:25:20] It's like steady.

[00:25:21] And that's not the first time I've got that.

[00:25:24] So you have to know that there are natural ebbs and flows to business.

[00:25:28] You're not always going to be like blasting it with sales, right?

[00:25:31] Just like there's seasons, there's summer, it slows down or holidays and that sort of thing

[00:25:37] that happen and stay the course and say, anytime you're thinking of offering something new,

[00:25:43] like does this support my positioning or does it weaken it?

[00:25:46] Is this, you know, destroying my credibility.

[00:25:49] Another thing I see is people getting too vulnerable and people teaching that.

[00:25:54] It's fine to be a little vulnerable about a story like I just told you and tie it to the lesson.

[00:25:59] But if you're just spilling your guts out about everything that's wrong in your life

[00:26:03] and I've seen people do this with mental breakdowns and talking about addiction

[00:26:08] and there's no happy ending and it doesn't tie back to how you can help them.

[00:26:13] No one wants to hire you.

[00:26:15] They want to fix you.

[00:26:18] How to be careful of things out there.

[00:26:21] I see a lot of that.

[00:26:24] There's one social media platform that I sort of focus on

[00:26:28] and then the rest of them, I don't even pay attention to.

[00:26:31] Right or wrong is just how I look at it.

[00:26:33] And the reason for that is, for what you just described,

[00:26:37] like I don't care what you had for dinner.

[00:26:39] I don't care where you're going this weekend.

[00:26:42] It's not that it's not relevant to me.

[00:26:45] And then I've even on platforms like LinkedIn,

[00:26:48] I see people sharing those kinds of stories.

[00:26:52] Like what value?

[00:26:54] They don't loop it back like you said.

[00:26:55] And it's just like, okay, it's cool every once in a while to share something about your personal life.

[00:27:02] But it still has to come back to the lesson that you're trying to make.

[00:27:09] It's not about something crazy going on in your life.

[00:27:14] And we all have that.

[00:27:15] It's consistent.

[00:27:16] We all have craziness but we don't need to put our dirty laundry on the internet for everybody to see.

[00:27:23] Nobody wants to hire that.

[00:27:25] If your message is I don't have it together and I'm dealing with a lot,

[00:27:31] nobody wants to hire that because they're already dealing with a lot.

[00:27:34] Every entrepreneur comes to me, they're in a sense of overwhelm.

[00:27:37] They're overworked and underpaid and trying to scale and confuse and everything else.

[00:27:43] And so you need to be that tree solid.

[00:27:48] I've got what you need.

[00:27:50] We're here for you.

[00:27:51] We can support you.

[00:27:52] I'm grounded.

[00:27:53] My roots go deep.

[00:27:56] We're going to go through some storms but I know how to navigate that.

[00:27:59] I can use it.

[00:28:01] You have to have that solid base, absolutely.

[00:28:04] I was going to ask you what are you most proud of in your business?

[00:28:13] One of the things I heard you say, and you can feel free to elaborate on it,

[00:28:18] that's one of the greatest compliments you can get is somebody like,

[00:28:21] why are you in you because I've been watching you and you've always been

[00:28:24] straight, that tree with the long roots.

[00:28:30] That's got to be something you're proud of.

[00:28:32] Is there anything else that sticks out in your mind?

[00:28:36] I mean, I think it's a couple of things.

[00:28:37] My greatest joy I get is really helping people step into their potential.

[00:28:43] You know when someone who clearly knows what they're doing and they've

[00:28:48] been stuck for years at the same level and then I should hold up a mirror and show them their

[00:28:53] greatness and they're able to confidently use the strategy to go and make a lot more money and

[00:28:59] change their lives and the lives of their family, that's the greatest gift.

[00:29:03] So I would say number one, I'm proud of that.

[00:29:06] Number two is I really walk the talk.

[00:29:10] I teach people how to build a business where you can work with fewer yet higher

[00:29:15] paying clients and really get your time freedom.

[00:29:17] And I've been able to do that.

[00:29:18] I'm a single mother, my daughter's almost nine years old and I've built this company

[00:29:22] raising her.

[00:29:22] It was the hardest thing I ever did in those first couple of years, I will tell you that.

[00:29:25] But today I have a business that can run without me.

[00:29:30] I work about 25 hours a week.

[00:29:33] I have an amazing team.

[00:29:35] I have amazing clients.

[00:29:36] I have amazing systems.

[00:29:38] I just spent three weeks doing a national park tour in California.

[00:29:41] I have a trailer that I pull and that was amazing.

[00:29:44] And we spent a week in the Virgin Islands.

[00:29:47] And so it's this lifestyle freedom piece that I'm not just building and grinding

[00:29:53] and working 80 hours a week and telling you, you can have all this, but saying,

[00:29:56] look, you actually can't have it.

[00:29:58] I'm living it.

[00:29:59] You know, I'm not here to donate figure business.

[00:30:02] No interest in that.

[00:30:03] I want a life.

[00:30:06] A thriving seven figure business and have time freedom if you design it the right

[00:30:11] way and put the right systems and support in place.

[00:30:13] You're your own case study, Jessica.

[00:30:16] I mean, it's really.

[00:30:16] I don't talk about it too much, but that is a personal post that I am going to do on LinkedIn

[00:30:22] because it's true and it's amazing to have created that and it doesn't come overnight.

[00:30:27] That's the thing.

[00:30:28] It took me years to be able to build out that infrastructure and to have team that I

[00:30:34] could trust and to have everything in order.

[00:30:37] And that's why I said it's a marathon, not a sprint.

[00:30:39] You're not going to start a business and be sipping margaritas on the beach,

[00:30:43] you know, in Mexico on your computer.

[00:30:45] Like that's wonderful.

[00:30:46] There's people that sell that.

[00:30:47] You got to roll up your sleeves.

[00:30:49] But if you have that three to five year plan, like you can get there.

[00:30:52] Yeah.

[00:30:55] It is a marathon.

[00:30:57] And I remember this incident where I was at a guy's house and we were watching a prize

[00:31:04] fight with Mayweather.

[00:31:06] And everybody, like he won the fight in four rounds and like $100 million and he did it in

[00:31:14] like 12 minutes.

[00:31:15] And they're like, what are you talking about?

[00:31:17] He's been in the ring.

[00:31:18] He's been in the gym.

[00:31:19] He's been running for 30 years.

[00:31:22] This is something that he's been working on forever.

[00:31:25] And I think people lose sight of that overnight sensation.

[00:31:30] It took him years to get there.

[00:31:32] And it takes a lot of hard work.

[00:31:35] And then that's the stuff that we should be proud of is that the stick to it, this of

[00:31:42] trying things, failing and getting up and going and then knowing when it's time to ask

[00:31:46] for some help.

[00:31:47] Yeah, failing forward.

[00:31:49] I mean, entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart.

[00:31:51] You're going to have some great experiences.

[00:31:55] I mean, that's...

[00:31:56] And you know, I actually talked about like lessons and mistakes on my YouTube channel

[00:32:00] because I don't feel like people talk about this stuff enough.

[00:32:03] They just talk about, hey, the result, everything's peachy.

[00:32:06] It's like, no, you're going to have all kinds of things that you could never imagine possible

[00:32:12] as part of those CEO growing pains.

[00:32:14] But it does.

[00:32:15] It's about that grit, that resilience, that determination.

[00:32:18] And honestly, there's so much inner work.

[00:32:20] Like just letting grow and realizing like in the grand scheme of things,

[00:32:25] doesn't really matter.

[00:32:26] Right?

[00:32:30] It's...

[00:32:30] Doesn't matter.

[00:32:31] You're going to be fine.

[00:32:32] Exactly.

[00:32:33] The...

[00:32:34] I've been studying the Stoics and that's one of the main themes is, control what you can control.

[00:32:41] And that ain't much, right?

[00:32:43] And what people are complaining about, you can't control that.

[00:32:48] Let that go and just focus on the things that we can do and go get the help when you need the help.

[00:32:55] I think that's where the focus should be.

[00:32:58] So one last big question is not really big, but you know, pastor-president,

[00:33:06] is there...

[00:33:06] You have a relationship with cigars?

[00:33:09] I would say I have much of a relationship.

[00:33:11] I certainly tried them in my 20s, but not since then.

[00:33:15] What did you think?

[00:33:17] I thought it was fine.

[00:33:18] It was a bit smoky.

[00:33:21] But, you know, my mom was a CEO and all of her, you know, board and colleagues,

[00:33:29] you know, they were all in the kind of the construction owner industry.

[00:33:34] And, you know, those guys always were smoking cigars.

[00:33:38] So I definitely tried it, but outside of that, I haven't done it again.

[00:33:42] Years ago, my wife somehow she had enough cocktails and she tried one.

[00:33:49] And she still complains that she can taste it after 15 years.

[00:33:54] It's not one of her things.

[00:33:55] I didn't have a really adverse reaction.

[00:33:58] It just, you know, wasn't really my thing.

[00:34:01] Absolutely.

[00:34:03] So you shared a lot of great advice and a lot of ideas here.

[00:34:08] If somebody...

[00:34:09] We're going to have a bunch of things in the show notes for them to grab you,

[00:34:11] but what's the best way for them to reach out to you?

[00:34:15] What's your preference?

[00:34:16] I would say number one is to connect with me on LinkedIn and just send me an

[00:34:20] outreach message and let me know you heard me on the show.

[00:34:23] Follow my content there, download my resources.

[00:34:27] And then of course, if after reading and learning more,

[00:34:30] you want to have a conversation, you can certainly apply for a call.

[00:34:34] Awesome.

[00:34:35] And there's some great content that you have going with in your YouTube.

[00:34:40] That's something that people should subscribe to because you share a lot of real valuable

[00:34:46] ideas and data.

[00:34:47] So any parting thoughts before we jump off?

[00:34:51] I think that's ended up pretty well.

[00:34:53] I mean, you said something at the end, provide value and that is how I built my platform.

[00:34:59] So people always ask, how do you do it?

[00:35:01] How much value can you provide to people?

[00:35:03] You provide value, you educate them,

[00:35:05] you're going to get great people coming to work with you.

[00:35:08] So if you're an entrepreneur, thank how can I add value?

[00:35:11] Awesome.

[00:35:12] Thank you very much.

[00:35:13] And I appreciate it.

[00:35:14] This was fun and impactful.

[00:35:18] So this is my, I appreciate it.

[00:35:21] I love sharing secrets when I figure them out.

[00:35:24] That's why I created this program called Sales, Hire, and Secrets.

[00:35:28] Earlier in my sales management career,

[00:35:30] I was terrible at hiring salespeople.

[00:35:32] They failed more often than not.

[00:35:34] Then I discovered the secret that you can't hire salespeople

[00:35:37] the same way you hire everyone else.

[00:35:40] That's why everyone fails.

[00:35:42] In Sales, Hire, and Secrets, I'm going to teach you all of the secrets.

[00:35:46] The secrets to understanding what you really need your salesperson to do.

[00:35:50] How to attract an ideal candidate with a unique job posting.

[00:35:54] I'll teach you how to save time and money by only interviewing candidates that are a good fit.

[00:36:01] I'll share the secrets to an interviewing process that ensures success.

[00:36:05] And the one big secret that everybody gets wrong is how to onboard a good salesperson

[00:36:12] so they ramp up quickly and stick around.

[00:36:15] I'm doing the Sales, Hire, and Secrets program on a monthly basis.

[00:36:19] You can click the link below to figure out when the next

[00:36:22] Sales, Hiring, Secrets program is scheduled.

[00:36:26] And you can sign up, click the link below and you get all the details.

[00:36:30] And it's designed for you to bring your entire team so you can get everybody up to speed quickly.

[00:36:36] Thanks. Look forward to seeing you on the other side.