1561 – Over Coming any Issue with Jennifer Dawn

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0:58with us right now it's jennifer dawn jennifer you're a business coach and you are found on the web at jenniferdawncoaching.com jennifer thank you for joining us thank you for having me josh i'm excited to be here business coach is a is kind of a broad term so let me allow you to kind of define that like the kind of the work you do and the impact you have in the world Yeah, that's so great. Thank you so much. And so I really help business owners with all elements of their business. So if like the sales aren't where they need them to be, we help drive revenues. If the profits aren't where you need them to be, we do a ton of work in money management and cash flow and helping to manage all of the money and the profits, hiring people problems, marketing.

1:44Oh gosh, we do a ton of marketing. So really just all of the pain points and challenges that business owners face, that's really what me and my organization, we help them to overcome and solve. Yeah. You know, I see we have, we do have a mutual friend who's a client of yours, Eric Ritter from Digital Neighbor. I just interviewed him recently, in fact. But talk about like what that, what that journey is like when somebody, first off, like maybe address like to our friend that's listening to our conversation right now, where might it be hurting and how can you help them kind of grow beyond that or solve that problem?

2:24Yeah, absolutely. And so often for business owners, at least I found in my journey that it's usually pretty easy to identify where I'm hurting. It's like, oh, my bank account, I'm hurting. Or my marketing, oh gosh, I'm not generating enough leads. This person on my team, oh, they're driving me bonkers. And so usually that part is pretty easy to identify. If you think about like wave a magic wand and fix anything you could fix, those things are probably where you're hurting. And so from that, once you've identified, hey, this is where the problem is, what we do is we generally like to go in deep and figure out what's the source of that problem.

3:04Sometimes it's something very simple and tactical, but usually it's not. Usually it's something deeper with the business owner. It's something in their thinking. It's a belief system that they have. It's a fear that they have. Sometimes it's just knowledge about how to do something that they just don't have that knowledge. And so in coaching, that's where we kind of explore the issue deeper because I'm a big fan of fixing things at the source. I don't want to band-aid problems. I want to go deep. I want to fix the problem for good so that we don't have to deal with it anymore. So that's really the process that we use in coaching to help our clients overcome really any issue that they're facing.

3:41Yeah. Yeah. And how did you find yourself in this road? You know, because, boy, and I'll tell you, I know you have a pretty good team here. But what I like, Jennifer, you know, what I'm seeing on your website, sometimes we might know that there's issues. and we don't necessarily know what the solution is. And it sounds like that you either have a lot of key relationships or a team that can kind of fulfill, you know, everything from, you know, just kind of accountability all the way to done for you marketing services. So in that sense, it feels like you're kind of a full service coaching and consultancy.

4:21We really are because I'm a business owner too. I've been a business owner. I started my first little company when I was eight years old, not a company, but my first business when I was eight, it was an apple stand because I saw, I would spend summers with my grandparents and they had a chiropractic office and I would see the patients walking in and out. And there was a big apple tree in the front yard that was dropping apples on the ground. And I'm like, Hmm, I'm going to do an apple stand. And all the adults said, no, do a lemonade stand. I'm like, no, the apples are right here. So that was like my first business.

4:52So I've been an entrepreneur my entire life. I've grown a seven-figure company in software on my own. I went into corporate, grew a multiple seven-figure company there, and now I've taken my coaching practice to seven figures. And so as a business owner, I'm very familiar with all of the challenges and all of the problems. And like what I just said, I like to solve problems at the source. And so through my practice over the last decade, you're absolutely right. I've just started to accumulate these tools, these resources. Hey, this is what helped me. This is what helped another client. And about two years ago, we started our internal marketing agency just because I saw I was struggling with agencies that didn't like provide service or and charged a lot of fees.

5:35And I didn't like that. And so I saw my clients struggling with that as well. So that's why we created our in-house marketing agency. So we have an agency just to support our business coaching clients along with other tools for processes and systems. And just whenever you get to those different places in business, we like to be ready with whatever that solution is that we have tested. We found that it works. We never refer anything that we haven't actually tried ourselves because, yeah, you know why. Yeah. Today, do you see any trends of where business owners are saying it hurts or do you see any like, oh, yeah, I'm hearing that a lot today?

6:18What are some of the things that you've observed? Trends, perhaps? I would say right now, definitely hiring is probably one of the biggest things that I'm hearing right now where it's hard to find people where, and I've seen this in my own business as well and with my clients that, hey, before when I used to put a job ad out, I'd get, you know, 100 resumes and the challenge was digging through all the resumes and trying to find somebody. now you put the job ad out and very very few people actually apply at least that's one of the things I've seen happening where the candidate pool seems to be a lot smaller and it's kind of shifted a little bit to I don't have a hundred resumes to pick from I might not have any that are actually good candidates or people are seeing people applying when they're not even like they're not candidates at all it's just like it's almost like they're going through the motions of just putting resumes out to stay on unemployment or something.

7:14So that way they can just, you know, say, yes, I applied for a job, but they're not actually qualified for it at all. So definitely hiring has been one of the things that I am absolutely seeing. But, you know, when we work with our business owners and we work on their mindset, we, you know, start to look in different places. We start to expand their, hey, you know, it's, you can go other places to look for people. We do overcome those problems. So there you go. But that's one of the trends I see is definitely hiring. Yeah. And so what would you recommend generally? Like if, let's say, let's say hiring and, you know, attracting and retaining, you know, the right team members is pretty vital.

7:55What are some things that we can do maybe culturally or operationally, organizationally to become a more attractive workplace today from your experience? Yeah. One of the things that we have done is developed our core values. We call them immutable laws. They're actually on our website. So when somebody is looking for us, whether it's a client or whether it's somebody who's looking to actually come in as a contractor and work with our team, we're really, really clear on the website of who we are, what our core values are. And it's very interesting. They're not front and center on the website. They're kind of buried a little bit intentionally because then I can tell who got on the site and who actually looked through it.

8:36And that obviously helps me to filter out who I really want to work with. Like, did they actually take the time to look at the site or not? But getting clear on who you are, what you're about, what you stand for, and then bringing that into your company culture, meaning we hire on it, we fire, we discipline, we reward, all based on these core values that we're super, super clear on. And that's really helped us to have a very, very high retention rate of our people. And the people who are on our team love working with us because we treat them well. But we're also like, you know, we're attracting the kind of people that I am and that we are.

9:17And it all kind of works together. So getting clarity on that first, but then also bringing it into the business and actually using it in the business can go a very, very long way. Yeah. In regards to marketing, you brought this up a couple of times, folks might be frustrated with inconsistent sales or maybe cash flow is frustrating. So obviously, some things you could do maybe to increase profitability or retention, that sort of thing. But I know a lot of business owners are always looking for what can I do to drive more sales? What are you a big fan of today? Okay. Digital marketing, huge fan.

10:00Well, yes. Okay, good. And I know like digital marketing, those two words, they encompass so much, but I'll take it a little bit deeper. So I'm a huge fan. Probably my number one thing I'm the most passionate about is that somebody right now is looking for your services and they're going to Google and they can't find you. And that's a problem. So one of my most passionate things is making sure that when people are actively looking for your service and they get on Google, that they can actually find you and, and have a conversation with you, or at least put yourself in the running in that market, you know, and even if you have competition, big, I have big competition in that space, huge competition.

10:49But I'm like, I don't care. Like, I don't need as much business as some of the really, really big boys. I only need a little bit of business and I need, you know, I only need a little bit. So why not put, you know, throw my hat in the ring and put myself in the running by doing everything that I can to allowing myself to be found by somebody who is actively in pain and looking for my services. So, I mean, when we talk about digital marketing, that's the place that I always start is making sure that people can in fact find you who are looking for you. Sure. And so best practices then for SEO or getting Google to notice, what are you a big fan of just blog content or is there anything else besides both onsite or offsite or what do you like?

11:35All of it. I like all of it. And what I generally do with a client is based on the client, we will create a strategy that works for them because I never want to say, oh yeah, I just start blogging more. I've blogged for years. Did it help? Not so much. Maybe. Okay. But based on the business, there are definitely things that you can do to get found on Google. So for example, I love to be a guest on podcasts and here we are, Josh, right? And so you're going to put this episode out and it's going to create a backlink to my website. So now I've accomplished a little bit of SEO. I've accomplished, you know, getting myself out there.

12:16I've helped you hopefully deliver valuable content to your people that they go, oh man, that's great. So it's a win-win for everybody. And it's also an SEO strategy. So those are the kinds of things that we like to do that align with the business owner to accomplish those goals, but do it in a way that's not miserable because sometimes if people love to write, great. But if you are like, I hate to write, you're probably not going to be putting out a lot of blog content. I am very bullish on podcasting. I mean, I could just tell you privately now that no one else is listening. We have been 100 % inbound for three and a half years, and we have an unending list of amazing people that we can explore partnerships and collaborations and potentially working together in different ways and just expanding that network.

13:06And And I think today, too, human connection and associations and our ecosystem and who we know, if you can really, while you're doing everything else in business, you really focus on those connections, I believe you get to a point where you just don't have to work real hard anymore because your reputation and your presence exceeds you. That's always been my, you know, kind of my focus. on that. It sounds like you're a big fan of, you know, again, attracting inbound through that presence as well. Yeah. But doing it, cause clearly you're super passionate about this. I can just see that like, it's something you love.

13:49It's something you believe in. So you're doing it and you're loving it. If, if I say, Hey, you know, go, there's somebody out there, somebody who probably likes to cold call. There's a whole bunch of people that don't like to cold call. So it's like, does it work? Yeah, it can absolutely work, but it's got to be something that you're going to really resonate with and really enjoy doing so that you stick with it for the long-term because that's the key. You've been doing it for so long now that it starts to feel like, Hey, I don't really have to do anything anymore because you've just been feeding it and feeding it and feeding it.

14:20And that's the beauty of it, but you've stuck with it over a long term. So find something that you like and that you are like, yeah, I could keep doing this. Yeah. Can you believe they pay me for this? Right. That kind of thing. Yeah. So that kind of activity, you can find other people that have made that work. So if you love like being, you know, producing video content on YouTube, you know, find mentors, find teachers, find coaches, you know, and they figured it out. And if they figured out, you know, it's that modeling knowledge, just do what they do, but learn from people that have already made the mistakes.

14:54I, yeah, I'm a huge fan. Again, upfront investment, yeah, but, you know, if it can get you to market a year or two faster and help you, you know, improve cash situations. So, hey, Jennifer, what does engagement typically look like when somebody goes, you know, kind of engages with you? Maybe they're in the research phase right now. They've come across this podcast and then they go to jenniferdawncoaching.com. What's kind of that user journey typically? Yeah. So usually they have maybe seen me out doing a show or something like this. Or often, I mean, a huge portion of our incoming traffic is people on Google and they are searching and they're in some kind of pain.

15:38They need some kind of help. and it's a business owner or it's an executive. We do a little bit of very high level executive coaching and a lot of business owners. And so they hit our website, they read all about us, they schedule a call with us. As part of that process, they're filling out an intake form. So we have an idea of who fills out the form and who doesn't. That already tells us right off the bat, like who's really serious and who isn't. And then they have a free call with us. And so they get on the phone with one of my team members who does a little analysis and talks with them to really determine if we're a good fit.

16:12We don't work with everybody. I know a lot of people say that, but we actually really don't work with everybody because we want to make sure it is going to be a good fit. Our coaching style is going to mesh with the business owner. And we really want to work with people who are willing to be coached and who will do the work and they'll show up and they'll get the result because one of my biggest joys in life is getting results for my clients. And if they don't show up and do the work, it's still my joy. And I'm like, I'm not having that. Like I love my joy. So I need to work with people who are going to show up and get the results.

16:43And so if it seems like it's a great fit, we, we bring them in and we get them started right away. And it's a very, very simple process. If, if you, a lot of our, a lot of our incoming new people are, they've, they've been out there, they've been doing the research. They've seen some of what's out there, which actually works in our favor often. And when you compare our products and packages with what's out there, like we have a lot to offer. So it's a very simple process. Jennifer, you are also a podcaster. I am. How are we just discovered? I just discovered this now. Way to bury the lead. No, your podcast is Happy Productive with Jennifer Dawn.

17:25So to our friend, again, let's listen to our conversation. Just find that little search box, search Happy Productive with Jennifer Dawn, you'll find it. Hit subscribe, start binge listening. What do you talk about on your podcast, Jennifer? We talk about all kinds of things. In our last episode, we were talking about intimacy. We talk about obviously productivity. We talk about, gosh, we talk about anything that a business owner is faced with. And the idea behind happy productive is one, be happy first where you're at right now. and productive, meaning like get the most from your time. And so on the show, we like to really tackle unique topics, difficult topics, but anything that a business owner might be faced with, we are talking about on the show.

18:14All right, Jennifer, your website one more time is, well, there was a happy productive podcast, but your main website, Jennifer Dawn Coaching. Going from here, what would you recommend somebody do? I don't know if you have any long form content. If you've got some, oh yes, you should definitely grab this or that. Or like, what's a good next step for folks? Great. So just hop on my website, jenniferdoncoaching.com. And from there, you're going to see on the menu, there's one that says free. And so if you're looking for some free resources, just click free. You're going to see a dropdown. We have five or six different opt-ins, all different things around productivity, time management, creating a business plan.

18:52Those are all free resources on the site. You can also link to the podcast, Happy Productive Podcast. You can check out my planner, which is Best Planner Ever. It'll link you out to bestplannerever.com. Or you can fill in the contact form. Like whatever makes you happy, you can find everything at jenniferdoncoaching.com. I love it. Jennifer Dawn, thank you so much. I appreciate everything you've shared. Again, world-renowned business coach. And again, your website, jenniferdoncoaching.com. Thank you, Jennifer. Thanks, Josh.

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