2134- Power in Progress: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs with Jenna Capozzi

0:05Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, influencers, influencers, and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt-in required where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments.

0:51Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you.

1:05With us right now, it's Jenna Capozzi. Jenna, you're a marketing and advertisement consultant, and you were found on the web at jennacapozzi.com. And of course, to our friend that's listening, you can click in the show notes, click on the little information tab so you can follow along and see Jenna. Well, Jenna, it's great to have you. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, well, tell us about your superpowers, who you work with and what you do. my superpowers. Wow. Um, that is very complimentary. Um, mostly who I work with are women 35 plus who are looking at that new direction in their life.

1:46You know, they've been at a corporate gig or they've started their business and they're ready to sort of go that next level. And so that's the group I work with mostly with retreats or events or coaching or, you know, through my podcast or so anything like that. Well, okay. So why is that badly needed in the world today? Well, it was badly needed because I was 51 years old and I was sitting at a red light here in Florida, as you know, they're very long lights. And I realized that I was completely bored with what I was doing. You know, it was, I was making very good money, but if I had to do one more commercial for Samsung or one more for Target, I think I would probably just lose my mind because I didn't know what sort of value I was providing.

2:31And I was really taking a look at like, how do I want to spend the next half of my life? How do I want that to go? What do I really enjoy doing? And a lot happened in that red light, by the way. But I was thinking to myself, you know, what I really enjoy is seeing others have that aha moment, whether it's some sort of realization in their business, they've been doing something a certain way for five, six, seven years. And they're like, how do I just get it to get that next level? How do I get past just 10 employees and make it 50 to 100? How do I really scale? And I, you know, with my experience in from Hollywood to advertising and to marketing and dealing with big brands, I thought to myself, you know, I could take all this information and provide it especially for women.

3:15And honestly, I led with women because that's just smart marketing because it's the lowest hung fruit for me. You know, it's just who's going to relate to me the fastest. And I wanted to pivot very quickly. And so when I launched within the first eight weeks, I was already at six figures because I knew out of the gate I was hitting the right audience with the right information that was needed. And really, essentially what I do is I help leaders build an audience so that they can communicate their message, whatever it might be with their business or philanthropic viewpoint or however it is that they needed to build their audience.

3:49Yeah. Well, let's talk about kind of the female entrepreneurial experience. And, you know, if I were to give you like a little mini TED talk or you were to give a little mini TED talk on that and you were maybe delivering a message to to female executives and business owners, like what would you imagine that you would share? And go ahead. Enlighten us, please. I think to my surprise, especially for women at this age, I did not expect them to run into as much insecurity or perfectionism as I thought there would be. And because the women I deal with have been executives for a few decades, our parents are running a home or running a business or they've worked in the corporate world.

4:37But interestingly enough, branching out onto their own to go after their passions and dreams or start a new business was surprisingly, you know, the insecurity sort of came through. And so I didn't realize how much of a sort of therapy session I was doing in the beginning of coaching and helping women. And truthfully, the message that I gave them that seemed to really impinge was stop thinking and just do. Stop trying to be perfect. Stop trying to have that great checklist of all the things you need to do. Just go after it. Because after working in a male-dominated industry for so long and observing men, there's definitely a quality about, and I'm speaking in generalities, of course.

5:20But generally with men, there seems to be more of a, let's get into action. Let's go. Let's just do. It might not think about every single step. And I see those people progress much further. In fact, that's what I had to do in Hollywood. I just had to step in and go and be 125%. So I think the thing that I help women with is stop their perfectionism and just get out there and start communicating and start getting into action. Because man, these ladies have some bright ideas and some great ideas and truly they understand their audience and what is needed and wanted. And that essentially is what marketing is.

5:55It's coming up with all the bright ideas one needs in order to suffice what their audience needs in order to expand, you know, and so that I would say has been the biggest hurdle or the surprising hurdle. Yeah. And, you know, let's just kind of, you know, broaden back out, you know, not necessarily male or female, but, you know, trepidation or perfectionism. Can you share, you know, maybe where that there's instances where that's incredibly helpful. And then there's instances where, you know, I see it, you know, I see this, you know, with brand new podcasters that, that, you know, they, they just wait to become perfect before they record their first podcast.

6:38I'm like, that's impossible. It's, you know, to me, you know, it's like, I started learning the bass guitar about a year and a half ago, you know, I just turned 50 and I'm like, oh, I don't know, let's learn an instrument. And, you know, and when I started it, it was, I was so bad at it. And, but, you know, I could only watch so many videos about, and I can only do so much thinking about playing the bass. It really wasn't until I just, you just got to muscle through it. Sure. It's going to stink at the beginning. That's my take on it. You take the ball and run with it. Let's talk about perfectionism.

7:13Yeah. I mean, okay. It's just a false idea that anyone's perfect. There's no absolutes. It's absolutely false. And I think that we look at movies or social media or whatever, and this comparison that occurs, there's an expectation that they should be a certain way. I see with my children. And I'm like, knock that off, get started, get going, fall down. It's going to happen. I think people know that innately, that they're not – that they don't have to be perfect when they're at the gate. I think what they're actually wrestling with is that uncomfortableness, that uneasiness. and that there's sort of this assumption that, well, if I'm perfect, then no one will criticize me or no one will hurt me or whatever.

7:54And I think it's really overcoming that uneasiness or seeking to be liked and admired. We just have to stop that. That just isn't going to work. I mean, easier said than done, I know. Obviously, I spent a lot of my years wanting to be liked by others so that I can get promoted or wanting someone to give me sort of that validation. And I think something has really happened. I don't know if this happened for you, Josh, but it really happened for me midlife where it's like, you know, you hear the phrase, you don't really care. It's not that I don't care. It's just that I care more about my viewpoint of myself and my self-confidence of myself that I am okay if I make a mistake because I know that I am going to learn from that mistake and I'm going to then apply something differently.

8:37And so I think what people wrestle with, with perfectionism is just overcoming that uneasiness of not knowing, but you have to remember when you don't know something, the next step is, you know, so you have to kind of not know in order to know, and that, you know, you can't, otherwise you're just guessing and trying to play it, pace your bets, you know, safely. And that's just going to waste time is what I found at least, is it just waste time. Like just dive in and I make a mistake. I'll just take another right turn, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And I think, how do you balance that, Jenna, against people who say, well, this is my brand and, you know, I don't want, you know, it's so important to protect my brand and, you know, everything needs to be, you know, presentable and in a way that's going to embrace, you know, exactly who I am as a person.

9:25Well, I don't think people understand what a brand is. I think they understand, they think a brand is a look and feel. And really a brand is in essence, you and your message. And I think when you start with that and you really find that, and you do need to do that before you launch out there, you know, or even if you've been out there a while, right? You've been out there, you've been doing your business, let's say, you know, less than 10 years, you've been going at it for a bit. There's things you've learned along the way. There's things that you need to kind of stop and take a moment and quote unquote rebrand.

9:54But all rebranding is, is looking at, okay, what's actually working and what isn't working? What do I need to keep in my business and what do I need to get out of my business? And that's sort of the rebrand. I don't even look at it as a rebrand. I look at it as like a refinement. Like, let me just narrow in a bit more on exactly what it is that I am doing and what it is that the market is responding well to and communicating that. But no one is sitting there on social media going, oh yeah, Josh did that video three weeks ago. Oh, that was so off brand. Like no one cares. No one cares. No one's noticing.

10:25That is some serious, what's that spotlight? You know what I'm talking about? It's like, people are too busy. They do not. No, I mean, look, here's the hard facts, right? So about 25 years ago in advertising, you could have a touch point, meaning you're either hitting a billboard or an advertisement or, you know, a magazine ad or whatever. You know, you could hit it seven to 12 times and the customer would get it. Now it's 27 to 35 touch points before a customer even turns their head to look in your direction So what I tell people is like just post a video who cares use social media It's organic you learn I have a lot of clients that are ready to start ads right away And I said you're not ready and they get very mad at me And I said look you can run ads if you want you're going to waste money And they're like how am I going to waste money?

11:14I said because you don't know yet Use organic like an ad post a video post that video again What do you think your ad's going to do? It's going to be the same video over and over and over and over again. Do it organically. Just post it and post it and see, am I getting attention for this video? Am I not getting engagement? What are they like? What are they not like? And honestly, it's a great testing ground for ads, truthfully, you know? And that's what people really should start with before they start dropping money into ads. And then by all means, do ads. It absolutely will boom your business, you know?

11:43But you got to kind of know what you're doing and you got to make sure you're hitting the right buttons, you know? Mm-hmm. Well, Jenna, tell me specifically about how you work with your clients. Like, what does that look like? Yeah, so mostly I do retreats and events. And then I have an online community. And what I found last year, I tested everything, Josh. It was my first year out. I tested group coaching, private coaching, events, small events, large events, retreats. And unfortunately, every single thing I set out to do was profitable. So now I had to take a look at, well, what is it that I want to do?

12:20And what is it that's going to work? And truthfully, I am steering away from sort of the group, from the one-on-one coaching to more a broader group coaching for a couple of reasons. A, mostly my audience is women and women really need a community. The most surveyed button was that women felt that they were alone going after their business or trying to expand their business. and that really what I'm trying to teach people is how do you build a group in an organization because honestly, that's really how you're going to scale. That is the difference between somebody staying small and really going to that next level, but people struggle with making the right decisions on how to hire or how to build the group.

12:58So I've built a community that these solopreneurs can come into and start working with each other and network with each other. It's actually going much better than I expected. But people can work with me with retreats, with the events. We have a huge event that we're doing actually locally here that will go over content creation. We'll do those about four or five times a year. And the online community is great. I go live in there. My partner, who's like an amazing social media guru, goes live in there. And then people can sell in there. I'm building this audience so people can come in there and they can network.

13:29And I don't care if they sell to other people in the community, but we need a pool of the right audience that people can sell to. And so that's essentially what we're creating. And it's 47 bucks a month. And they come in and there's videos they can learn from and they can network. and they can collaborate and they can, you know, create a business from there. Okay. So you generally work with more lower stage or earlier stage, uh, solo per newer type businesses. My privates are all like big corporations or men because I don't bring men into the community yet. And, um, and then, so yeah, I have people who are just starting out who are reinventing themselves.

14:04I would say 40 % of my clientele are people who are in that. I've been in business for about a decade. I have about five employees. And how do I really get to the next level? Sure. And what does that engagement look like? That is very customized. I go in there and I study their business and we try and find out where in the flow line of their business of the client life cycle is missing. Where are the holes? What's happening? Where are they either lacking staff or where are they lacking some sort of organization or where are they missing offers? And I just sort of do a really good assessment of that whole flow line and we figure out where we need to strengthen it.

14:41You know, a lot of times people think it's their sales that is out. Well, actually maybe their sales cycle is pretty good, but they're not doing a great job on hitting a broader audience. And, you know, people worry about sales only because they don't have enough people in the pipeline. They wouldn't worry about sales if they had thousands of people there, you know? And so that's really, so they think it's sales, but really what they're lacking is building an audience and communicating to have a large enough pool of the right kind of people to sell to. So that is, that's where I go in. And then that's very custom.

15:11And we work out a plan for them to execute and either they're using some of my team or we, you know, train up their team in order to take it to the next level. All right. So Jenna, your website is jennacapozzi.com. And I know in addition, I mean, you've got resources on your site. Do you mind maybe sharing about the, you know, what you do in terms of sharing content and kind of giving, giving to the, the, the online world? Yeah, absolutely. If one was to go to my website, here's the thing too, nobody can spell Kaposi, let's be honest. So I've also created for your listeners, Josh, a lead with Jenna.com, which is a free download.

15:52It's about 12 pages long that will really help people start thinking with brand and style in a new way, not just with logos and colors, that people can download and get connected to the community. But on my website, we have the online community people can join for $47, two weeks free, they can cancel at any time. We also have our retreats on there, which ones are coming up, we have Costa Rica next coming up in May, and our events on there, as well as in our online community, I have a whole learning lab of videos. And the really unique thing to that, that people might like is that they can make a request.

16:28Hey, I don't know how to do this in Canva or, hey, I don't know how to do this and go high level or what is a great way to do an email campaign. They can make customized requests and my team within a week will put in a video with that request on how to do something. So, you know, we just wanted to make it more personalized. Honestly, that's how we're building the library because we're learning what it is that people really need and want. And that's how we're defining it. But that's really what they can find on my website That is a great way to get connected. I'm also on Instagram a ton. So anybody can DM me at Jenna Capozzi underscore retreats.

17:00And that's a great way to stay in communication too and ask for any help. And look, if people want to pop on and get a free 30 minute with me, I'm doing those or someone from my team is. And it's great. I want to help people. I want them to expand. I want really good leaders out there helping other people. I don't care if it's five people, 10 people, a hundred people or a million people. Let's just get out there and help each other. It's really my message. Jenna Capozzi, just down the road from me in the Tampa Bay area. Jenna, it's great to have you. Again, your website, jennacapozzi.com. And your other website, you said it was at leadwithjennah.com?

17:33Yeah, leadwithjennah.com. Thank you, Jenna. You're welcome.

17:43Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

18:24I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed.

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