Jaime T.

In this episode, I talk with Jaime T., a wellness entrepreneur, about her journey from starting online support groups to coaching and course creation in the sobriety space. We discuss the importance of pivoting, adapting to the digital era, and the challenges in finding the right target audience. Join us as we explore the lessons learned and the power of taking imperfect action in building a business.

Jaime T

About the Guest

Herbalist in 2013. From there, she began to advance her knowledge of healing the physical, mental, and emotional body with a wide array of wellness practices.

From bodywork to movement, Jaime untapped the magic of radical self-care and began to experience heightened levels of health and well-being that eventually brought her face to face with the one habit that seemed to be sabotaging all areas of her life: her drinking habit.

Finally, in 2017, after completing a successful Whole90 (an extended version of a Whole30), it clicked…she had begun building a healthy life where alcohol no longer held significant importance.

And now, she is dedicated to helping and teaching others to do the same.

You can learn more at: The Ultimate Non-Drinker’s Toolkit: https://hypegirlhealing.com/sober-toolkit

GUEST LINKS

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EPISODE LINKS

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HOSTED BY

Audra Carpenter

SPECIAL GUEST

Jaime T.

PRODUCED & EDITED BY

CJ Carpenter

 

 

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EPISODE 22

Episode Transcript

*What follows is an AI-generated transcript may not be 100% accurate. 

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[00:00:00] Audra: All right. Today we are back with another special guest to talk about the mess in the middle and how fun it’s been, or challenging.

[00:00:46] Whichever way you’re gonna look at it. But it’s going to be a good session. I’m looking forward to it.

[00:00:52] Why don’t

[00:00:52] take a few minutes to let everybody know who you are and a little bit about what you’re working on.

[00:00:58] Jaime T.: Sure. first off, I’m really excited to be here. Good. my name is

[00:01:01] Audra: Jamie

[00:01:02] Jaime T.: I’m the founder of, hype Girl Healing, which is a place for people to learn about the techniques to changing their relationship with alcohol. And, I’ve been in the online space, for three years going on four. And, it’s. It’s been challenging and fun and emotions. I’m not even sure I know how to describe, but I think it’s really important to be fully transparent about what’s happening as you’re growing an online business because I’m sure so many people can relate.

[00:01:34] It’s the highlight reel and nobody is. At least from what I’m seeing, nobody’s talking about [00:01:40] the years that lead up to it of failures and potholes and struggles and real like isolation and what that can feel like when you’re building an online business. Yeah. And I was talking with my audience about this, and this can be the same way when it comes.

[00:01:55] To, quitting drinking and starting this non-drinking journey, you can feel very isolating and alone and it seems so simple. And then all of a sudden they’re like, nobody’s talking about this mess in the middle. What do you mean I have to have feelings again? What does that mean? And so I hear you. I was really drawn to this podcast because, I have experienced the mess in the middle.

[00:02:15] I’m still in the mess in the middle with my business. And it also translates to my direct audience with who I help with this good. Thing in the middle. So I’m really excited to dive in and chat with you about

[00:02:25] Audra: this today. Good. thank you again for being here. of course. So you said three or four years for your business, so you started pre Covid?

[00:02:34] Jaime T.: I did. Okay. I started in October of 2019.

[00:02:38] Audra: Oh, okay. So right before all the fun started Now has your business model changed a bunch after going through what we just went. Oh yeah,

[00:02:48] Jaime T.: because I started with, holding online circles, which are basically support groups. Okay. And the absolute.

[00:02:58] Hysterical. Part of that is that I was like, nobody’s doing anything online. Everybody wants to do in-person meetups. And I scrapped the idea two months in. Now, granted, I was so brand new, I thought things were supposed to take off in a, in an instant, and when it didn’t take off within two months, I ditched the idea.

[00:03:18] And then enter in the pandemic, [00:03:20] enter in the digital true digital era when everybody made everything online, including online meetings and zooms and the popularity of all of that. but yes, the business model has definitely shifted since I

[00:03:31] Audra: started in 2019. Wow. Now I’ve been doing it and we briefly talked about this.

[00:03:36] I’ve been in the industry since 2009, so I feel like I’m in maybe my fourth generation of. when I first started, it was all direct response. We were just figuring out how to do stuff online. websites have taken so many iterations in the last 10 years.

[00:03:54] Social media wasn’t, there was no ads, there was no, we were just starting to get used to Twitter and what, how to even use tools like that. so we were always doing stuff online. But, or doing things, meetings and stuff. What I really appreciated about the pandemic was it made it okay.

[00:04:13] It made it acceptable to do it and do it from a room, or do it from your house, or do it from your car. Before that, people would eh, it’s not really professional. They must not be doing that well. And so that the pandemic really normalized that and now it’s okay, and now it’s normal and people got over whatever mind garbage they had going on about it.

[00:04:39] So that is definitely a good pivot from that. okay, so you started before that. Now do you feel like you didn’t give it enough time? it’s always easy to look backwards and say, yeah, I should have.

[00:04:51] Jaime T.: Sure. I had very unrealistic timelines. I thought by six months I should have been in the seven figure income bracket.

[00:04:58] cuz all you have to do are follow these [00:05:00] three simple steps to a seven figure launch..

[00:05:03] Audra: Oh sister, if I had a penny for every time I’ve heard that.

00:05:08] Jaime T.: talk about Yeah, it was, I’m glad, I think a lot of business owners can relate. When you’re pivoting, there’s a reason cuz you’re growing and figuring out what works for you, what doesn’t work for you, what’s better for you, what’s better for for your audience, and,I’m glad that I pivoted.

[00:05:25] I’m glad I started there. I wanted to start somewhere because all I knew is that I wanted to help people. And it wasn’t even with with drinking in the drinking habit just yet. back then I just had this overwhelming desire to help people who were struggling. Basically in the wellness field, I knew I just wanted to help people feel better, who were stuck in the struggle of this life that they were unhappy with, and I didn’t know how that was gonna shake out or pan out.

[00:05:51] And I knew I had to take action cuz it wasn’t gonna happen by me just thinking about it and having this. Overwhelming desire to help. I needed to take action and do something about it. Cuz it was at the point before I launched my business that it was consuming my every thought, keeping me up at night.

[00:06:06] What am I going to do? So I knew that there was something growing inside of me that I had to take action on. So I took imperfect steps forward, imperfect action. I didn’t know how it was gonna do, but I knew I needed to do something and one of the mantras back then, which I still, follow today is just, One small step forward, it might not be the right step, but you gotta keep moving cuz you’ll figure it out along the way.

[00:06:30] And so that’s where I started. Yeah, that’s where I started with the online business of the business model rather of hosting like online circles, which are basically [00:06:40] support circles, bringing people together. I knew the power of community, I knew the power of conversation, I knew the power of connection. I wanted to bring people together.

[00:06:49] So we started. And then the pivot happened during the pandemic for the first of many pivots.

[00:06:55] Audra: Now, did you have a job before this or a different business? Yeah. So

[00:07:00] Jaime T.: I have been in the hospitality field in restaurants. All my life. I’m still in it and Okay. I just leverage that because the hours are super flexible.

[00:07:10] And I’m able to leverage that while I’m working and growing on my current

[00:07:14] Audra: business model. Good. Many people do that.it’s the best way to do it because you don’t have the fear of nothing. so you’re still able to keep something going. It also helps, creativity wise, because you’ll run into things in your day job, or whatever you wanna call it, your other profession, that’ll you’ll will come up with ideas, oh, I could use it over here.

[00:07:36] how it would translate very well for this audience and it’s like your own testing ground to come up with creative ideas?

[00:07:44] Jaime T.: Oh, a thousand percent. if anything, yeah. I am working on, I think I’m, I know that I have a mind that, Isn’t like many others, and I see restaurant work as micro connections and it’s, it is about transforming lives because every walk of life is coming into the restaurant and they’re looking for an experience.

[00:08:04] Whether they’re hungry, they’re upset, they’re on vacation, whatever the moment is that brings them to that table, you have an opportunity, or at least the way I view it, I have an opportunity for half an hour to change that person’s life, their view, their. Their day, they’re set them off on the right [00:08:20] tone and it’s a challenge every day because I want to make an impression.

[00:08:24] And at the very least, make sure that they remember that. Wow, that restaurant was awesome. Not only for the food, but the interaction, which translates into the user experience. No matter how you building your business, whatever field you’re in, because that can be your leg op in a very saturated market, it’s the user experience, cuz that is an area, as I’m sure most of us have experienced on the customer service side that is lacking.

[00:08:48] Sure. So I use that every single day. Ooh, I can translate back to this. Ooh, I can translate this back to that. And how I, implement this. And it’s constantly firing off creativity constantly. That’s

[00:09:00] Audra: awesome. so where’s the business going now? What direction are you headed?

[00:09:05] Jaime T.: So I am coaching and a course creator and hopefully looking to launch a membership, but right now I’m still on the growth stage of finding my direct target audience.

[00:09:14] Okay. I think I was too broad. I was too general. I was talking about wellness as a general term. That’s a big one. Yeah. That’s a massive playing field, and so I. We’ve really niche down and even in the sobriety space, that is a really big playing field. So we’ve niched down even more so it’s gray area drinkers and okay.

[00:09:34] We, I focus with people who are wellness minded, who are really looking to make changes with their drinking habit for. Health reasons because they’re trying to create healthy habits in their life, not necessarily, different spectrums of that sober curious spectrum where we have addiction and we have,the person who really struggles and needs like medical attention to stop that habit.

[00:09:57] Audra: okay, I, wait, I got a question. I don’t know what gray area [00:10:00] drinking. Oh

[00:10:01] Jaime T.: really? Okay. See? See this is fascinating cuz to me, I feel like that’s such a saturated term. So if you think about the space that I’m in is people who are sober curious. Okay? So they’re not necessarily sure that sobriety’s for them, okay?

[00:10:15] Most likely they’ve tried to moderate their drinking habit. But yeah, they’re never able to moderate. So you’re sober curious. You’re thinking about what this thing called sobriety is, but you’re not quite sure You wanna dip your toe into it. And there’s a spectrum when it comes to sober curiosity.

[00:10:29] And if you think about drinking, it’s like the person who can have that one drink on Christmas even that’s the only alcohol beverage that they’ll drink

[00:10:36] Audra: the entire year.

[00:10:37] Jaime T.: don’t wanna end it with addiction, but we’ll call it the other end of the spectrum would be addiction.

[00:10:43] There’s millions of people who are somewhere in the middle who don’t, who will never just be a one drink wonder. But they are certainly not at the addiction spectrum. They’re high level achievers and they’re, thriving in life. But there’s just this thing that like, why can’t I just stop after two?

[00:11:01] Why is one never enough? Why do I still experience hangovers if I’m having three drinks? So it’s the gray area of

[00:11:09] Audra: drinking. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. Sorry, I didn’t mean to derail us, but I didn’t know what that was. No, that’s a great

[00:11:17] Jaime T.: question. And I thought that was like common knowledge, but again, that’s like industry jargon,

[00:11:21] Audra: so probably more industry jargon.

[00:11:23] Yeah. And so from a marketing perspective, you’d wanna take that and label it with some of the stuff that you just said. So gray area means something for you. But if I had that issue, you just lost me, and I would’ve kept going because I didn’t know if that was me. Or not me. You know what I mean?[00:11:40]

[00:11:40] yeah. Interesting. Okay, so you’re doing coaching, you’re doing courses, and How’s that going? Where are you at in that process?

[00:11:47] Jaime T.: we’re still growing because I thought I could just build an evergreen machine and it could just run on autopilot and I could post on social media and the followers would flock to me, and that’s not quite how it works.

[00:11:59] So we,

[00:12:00] Audra: I’m gonna just clip that. I’m gonna clip that and I’m just gonna rinse, repeat, and just play for everybody because there’s so many people that go down that path. I thought it 14 years ago, that’s all we had to do. Yeah,

[00:12:14] Jaime T.: I built it. It’s here. It’s great. I know it’s great. I’ve helped people.

[00:12:18] It’s not consistent, but it’s good enough and it’s given great results to the people that trickle in, but it’s not the endless flow of traffic that I want by any stretch. so we are dialing it way back to, Diversifying my traffic to finding my ideal clients and really dialing in on that and making sure that the messaging is pretty specific because I was getting people.

[00:12:43] Who, were not my ideal clients, and I would have to like, let them know that I couldn’t support them and help them because they’re looking for this, and I only focus on this. So I knew I had a messaging problem. I knew that I had a traffic problem. I knew I had a target audience problem and everything was built, but it could be built and it can collect dust over there if nobody’s coming.

[00:13:02] I’m back at square one, but with so much more experience Sure. And so much failure under my belt to really execute on this and, know exactly what the strategy is to really build that foundation that I need that’s already there. But really tighten up the bolts now. [00:13:20] Yeah. And really strategize on it instead of just, oh, I posted my content and all the people are gonna come.

[00:13:25] Great. I’m done. No, it doesn’t work like that.

[00:13:29] Audra: I’ll just keep an eye on my stripe payments. and see if they’re coming in. No,

[00:13:33] Jaime T.: got my loops turned on. We’re great. I’m good. I’ll just, I’ll go live my life now. Cause that’s what they tell me. Cuz now I can go live my life and they’re just gonna come in while I’m at the beach.

[00:13:42] This is Grace.

[00:13:43] Audra: Oh Lord. If only that was the case. I wish that more people coming in and that’s part of the reason for this podcast is what you’re talking about is. A hundred percent normal. I 9.9% of the people I ever talked to went through the same thing. They had an idea. They ran out to, step 82.

[00:14:07] Spent some time out there doing 85 and 95 and 200, and then they’re like, oh, yeah, this doesn’t work. Nothing’s happening. And then came back and said, okay, you know what? The idea’s not bad, but like you said, maybe I’m going out to the wrong audience. Or maybe the messaging isn’t right. COVID did do, besides, a few good things that came out of it from a business perspective.

[00:14:29] It also quadrupled our competition.. So there were a lot of businesses that, yes, they were online, but they weren’t really focusing online. They, maybe they’re brick and mortars, maybe they’re local businesses, or they’ve been around forever and so maybe, 20% of their revenue came from stuff online.

[00:14:48] COVID swapped that and pushed everybody online. And then those people that maybe you weren’t paying attention to because you weren’t local in that area, now you see them and [00:15:00] it became super, super challenging for especially the guys at the beginning, right? Maybe they were just starting to get some momentum, but now instead of being a hundred guys that do that, now there’s 10,000 that do that, and you gotta find some way to differentiate.

[00:15:18] And nicheing down is definitely, many of the times makes sense. As long as that audience is big enough. If it’s not, or there’s so many people in that little tiny niche to share, those 10,000 people, it’s pretty tough to make money at it. So you actually have to go the other way just depending on who your audience is.

[00:15:37] Jaime T.: And I think it’s important to mention too that in that space that. when you’re focusing on step 85, but you skipped over one, two, and three, that it’s nothing that’s wrong with you. Because I was absolutely, definitely putting that on myself. it must be me because all I’m following the advice, to a t You tell me what you, I’m not, I don’t shy away from implementing at all.

[00:16:01] I don’t get stuck with ideas. I know that in order for me to grow, I have to move forward. So I would be implementing these things and there were plenty of times up until quite recently where I was like, what is wrong with me? What is wrong with my business? But I think it’s important to say that because I know so many people experience that because you take it and you internalize it.

[00:16:26] It must be me because what I’m seeing everywhere that I turn when it comes to online marketing, anything small business online, if you’re following your. I don’t wanna say all of the gurus, but there’s so much noise out [00:16:40] there. It must be me, because according to them, all I have to do are these three things and I’m gonna be a converting machine.

[00:16:49] Audra: I love that. I

[00:16:49] Jaime T.: think it’s really important, and the work that I do inside of my business really heavily focuses on mindset, and I know that so many businesses, you have to start there. Because we think it’s inherently something wrong with us. It must be me. Something’s wrong with me. I’m not doing enough.

[00:17:04] I’m not saying enough, right? The I’m not enough wound pops up. And it really, needs to be echoed out that it really isn’t you. There’s just so much information and at a certain point you just have to cut out the noise and find the folks that are teaching you the things that you really resonate.

[00:17:21] And turn out and block out every other piece of advice. Cuz I was chasing the shiny object syndrome Yeah. For a really long time and just being like, it must be me. When in actuality I just really needed to turn off the noise and figure out what my business looked like and what I was lacking.

[00:17:37] And it was. My messaging in my audience, which is, that’s beautiful. Step one. Which is step

[00:17:43] Audra: one. Step one. something that I see often is people go out and. Think that, to tie back to the mindset thing, one mindset affects us. Anything we do right from trying to grow as a human being, to try to learn something, to try to grow something, the mindset plays such a huge role.

[00:18:03] But with, I think where marketing is failing startups online, especially startups or smaller businesses, say under two years, because they have over simplifi. Now my message in this whole thing is one, our space is not [00:18:20] organized. The entrepreneurial space. You can go here to learn this, you learn this here.

[00:18:25] Another version here, I mean there are what, 50 well known, very successful, just email marketing platforms. That do have millions and millions of customers because there are a hundred ways to send an email, correct. So I think what happens is the basic foundation has been not talked about enough so people understand how each one of these pieces fit into the engine to make the car run.

[00:18:54] They give you amazing pieces. But without that bottom roadmap, this, people, I see them taking so many steps. I’m like, so what are you working on? They’re working hard. They’re implementing, they’re committed. They have a good product, but they don’t have a, maybe it’s a puzzle and they don’t have the outside of the box to see what the picture’s supposed to look like when it’s.

[00:19:19] But they’re building away. And I’m like, oh Lord, you only needed to do three of these steps to get where you’re at right now. And you’ve spent three months on it. it just, hurts my heart to see people suffer like that. I’m like, oh lord, somebody should have just stepped in and said,no.

[00:19:36] Come back here. Come back. You don’t need to do any of that. Just come over here and do this one thing and it’ll move you to what’s next.

[00:19:44] Jaime T.: we need more people like you because I wish I, I knew you when I was starting because I was following the s m s people because I had an online coach who told me that email marketing was dead, and I.

[00:19:58] a product based [00:20:00] person telling me that all I need to do is print on demand and you can just sign it, set it up, and then you just sell it and you make it’s seven figures in 30 days. So I did the print on demand. Who am I selling to? Who was I selling to? I spent months on design, learning design.

[00:20:16] Ooh, I’m gonna make all my merch and this is gonna be great. I’m six months in. I’m selling to absolutely no one to the void of the universe, and nobody’s telling me, like bringing on back, sister. You need an audience. You need to make sure that there are people who are interested. And even before that, what problem are you solving?

[00:20:33] Audra: You know the basic, there should be, you can’t pass go until you have that figured out.

[00:20:39] Jaime T.: I’ve been it like once we booked this spot for this podcast, I just thought about it. I think about it like, could somebody just create the life manual? so that we have the Bible to know like what we need to do and where we’re supposed to start, and just something that is even if it’s a rough draft, so we can start, because we as humans, nobody knows what the hell we’re doing.

[00:21:00] Translate that into online business. Can somebody just start the online business manual instead of just throwing the shiny object syndrome? Like where are those people? Because so many of us start at Step a hundred not knowing any other way and get burnt out, and God forbid you give.

[00:21:17] Audra: Not realizing, give up and run outta money.

[00:21:21] Jaime T.: Run outta money, give up and the passion is still there, but if only you reversed the order and you stayed in a little bit longer to realize that it wasn’t a you problem in the first place. and that’s really where I’m at with my business right now is realizing that it was like I just need to dial it back to step one.

[00:21:38] Cuz I skipped all of that.

[00:21:39] Audra: [00:21:40] even with this many years in the industry, I have to unplug as well. Because, so the people that I’m chasing, if I was to say that, they’re steps ahead of me. So I’m coming from a little different perspective. The guys that are doing 10 million and 20 million I was the one standing right behind them telling them what to do.

[00:22:02] Nobody knows me though, because I’ve owned an agency for the last 14 years. I have no audience. I’ve worked with clients. So my clients know me, but outside of that, I built no community. I, so some of these elements, I have to start from scratch as well. And I look out there and I’m like, I know the value of email.

[00:22:21] I, we used to send hundreds of thousands of emails a month. I am starting with number one, and so it’s a little bit different perspective and so sometimes I have to just shut that off

[00:22:32] So it doesn’t dismiss the knowledge that I’ve acquired or the people that I’ve helped or any of that kind of stuff. But if you try to compare yourself, of course you’re gonna feel disappointed or feel like maybe you haven’t achieved, or maybe it’s not the right path.

[00:22:49] So sometimes I too have to just turn it off, put my head down, focus. This is the direction I’m meant to go, and focus on migraine. Because I believe you are where you’re right where you’re supposed to be. You don’t have to like it, but you are where you’re supposed to be to learn whatever you need to have in that part of your journey.

[00:23:09] Yeah, I agree. Yeah.

[00:23:10] Jaime T.: I’m finally in, in the stage of good year four. Good. I’m like, oof. I’m so glad. Those first three years, those were [00:23:20] terrible, but they were filled with so many lessons and now I get to take all of that into year four. Build a real deal strategy and I don’t feel like I’m losing momentum or that taking these steps back is putting me behind the, the years.

[00:23:37] No, actually,anybody can say, I’m starting from experience and I now know what’s gonna move this forward and I’m ready to go and, Yes, I, there were some times where you wanna quit and you wanna throw on the towel cuz it feels like you’re not, and you compare to this person and that person.

[00:23:52] And just like you said, just I have unplugged a lot just being like, I didn’t come this far to come this far, and quitting will a thousand percent guarantee that I’m not gonna move forward. And I know that this is only the beginning, so let me keep going to see really how far I can

[00:24:07] Audra: go. Good. That’s the right attitude to have. And tomorrow could suck, and Thursday will be great. And that’s just part of this journey that we’re on. And yeah, I think getting to a place where we can just, our high, so initially, I think when you start, you have a high end, you have a low, right? I’m up, maybe I sold a product, I’ve backed down, nobody’s bought anything from me for a month, I’m back up.

[00:24:31] And they’re pretty extreme, almost manic, Kind of stages we go through, but then as you start to realize, oh, okay, this is just part of the journey. Then when those kind of things happen, you’re not so manic. Then things just you do have ups, you do have downs, but the, you’re not going all the way down and all the way up every single time something take place, and that’s really the place to get to as an entrepreneur.

[00:24:55] You get better. Offering solutions, you get better at working [00:25:00] through challenges that come up. The tech broke the video, didn’t record the email, didn’t add the first name. all these kind of little things are gonna come up and haunt you in your business. But it’s just part of the business.

[00:25:14] So how we react to it is really if we win or if we don’t and we’re just torturing ourself for no reason because you’re not gonna prevent it. But

[00:25:25] Jaime T.: yeah, you, it’s literally just learning to not be so strict and rigid. And learning just to bend each way and just weather the. Weather the storm because it’s just, I didn’t come this far to come this far.

[00:25:40] I have literally, and I’ve talked to tons of business owners. I’m in support groups. I’m in, it’s a tough place to be by yourself and I’ve learned that pretty early on. So I’ve leaned into other online businesses and communities and,even they have said wow, I’ve really never experienced that.

[00:25:56] And it’s always one after the other, one after the other. And it’s one person can only take so much. So I definitely have had my share of stumbles from getting locked out of my Facebook account to bank accounts getting declined to,you name it. Just even getting licensed as a small business owner where I live, that was like a whole thing.

[00:26:18] I just grit through it and it’s, I didn’t come this far to come this far and I’m not quitting over this. You’re not gonna win on this today. You’re not winning on these today. Good. And, it’s just, and then as the blows come, you learn to bend with them instead of really letting them punch you in the gut and just walk away when you need to walk away.

[00:26:37] Cuz it’s gonna be there when you come back. The business [00:26:40] is gonna be there when you come back and you just learn your techniques on. Roll with the punches and come back and then it’s a better day the next day.

[00:26:48] Audra: what’s really worked for me over the years is becoming very good at compartmentalizing.

[00:26:54] So zindo and Company Marketplace was the business that I’m working on now. Inside of that, I’ve built out six of the properties so far. So think about a mall. I’m building a mall, I’ve got my anchor stores. So I’ve got WordPress hosting, I’ve got tech support, I’ve got a training site, I’ve got a freelance site, help desk, all these different pieces.

[00:27:17] And the goal is to build in all the little stores in between. So really to just be one central hub that somebody can go to. I have an idea to start a business. What do I do next? And I’m connecting the dots. So it was funny that you say that. I’m about this close from publishing a book called Marketing (Re)set.

[00:27:36] That connects the dots. Perfect. Step one, step two, but I believe that’s all we’re missing. Yeah. We just need steps. you can take ’em and modify them to what works for you, but this really can be blueprinted quite a bit, oh, absolutely. so I’ve been working on this a couple years, but I had the idea of this back in 2010.

[00:27:59] I couldn’t do it then. I, it was too big for. I didn’t have the confidence, I didn’t have the experience yet. I was only about a year into marketing. My marketing knowledge, but I felt like we needed something to rally around so things would make sense. I had to learn it the hard way, Yeah. you say you, you get a pick up, a new [00:28:20] contract for a web design. I don’t wanna build websites. What am I supposed to? Then you hire five of the wrong people, you pay them all and then you end up, really losing money on the job cuz you didn’t know what you were doing. many of those.

[00:28:32] But it was also very good testing ground to teach me how to put these pieces together. so looking at it back then, I had to go through that journey. To get to where I’m at now, where I am prepared, and I do have the skills to be able to serve this larger project. this is pretty massive.

[00:28:53] It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done. And sometimes it’s scary, holy moly, what do you thinking, sister? But I know I’ve got the knowledge to do it. I’ve just gotta sometimes compartmentalize it down and just say, okay, today, you know that looking out there is too big right now, so I’m just gonna look right here and I’m gonna get these tests done, and then I’m gonna go to these and I’m gonna go to these.

[00:29:17] Because sometimes you do this and you’re like, oh, it’s too much. It’s too much. I can’t do it. Just stay right here, keep moving forward. And then when you’re, you’re stronger, you have better days, you get more sleep,then you’re like, oh my gosh, this is so beautiful.

[00:29:35] Jaime T.: Look what I’m building.

[00:29:37] It’s a thousand percent. I just in terms of the business model that I’m in, yeah. Who think about never drinking again is way too massive for people. Way too massive. So we break that down and how about we just take a minute, take a break. Let’s figure out a timeframe that works for you. Seven days, 14 days, 30 days.

[00:29:59] And let’s start [00:30:00] with today, what your choice is gonna be today. Good where you’re not gonna pick up a drink. And the same thing when you’re thinking about the visions. For a lot of us, I think the business vision that we have seems so massive. even mine, yeah, it’s gonna take years to execute on. So I know that today I need to focus on getting in front of the right people who wanna hear me speak, who wanna hear about my ideas, who want to learn from me and grow with me and be a part of my community.

[00:30:27] And. once those small pieces are started to be being built, then you have a strong foundation. Then you can start adding in the layers of these grandiose plans that you have for your business and just breaking it down on what you can do for today,

[00:30:41] Audra: what you can do today. so from a different perspective, how do you find when you go out online and you’re like, okay, I need to learn the next X, how do you start your research to try to find where to learn?

[00:30:55] So say you wanna pick up a new skill in marketing.

[00:30:58] Jaime T.: what has really worked for me is that I was following everybody, anybody that was talking about online business, I was following you. I was signing up for your newsletters and talk about analysis paralysis. I didn’t know where to go, what I should focus on.

[00:31:12] So I got rid of all the people and I focused on the core. Three. And right now there’s one person that I’m learning all of my things for because they have a business model. Good. or I should say they have a way of teaching that makes sense for me. Good. I feel like we all have to learn the ways that we absorb knowledge.

[00:31:35] Who we feel is giving us trustworthy information. And it’s not [00:31:40] just this scammy gross marketing that’s out there, this like click. Crap and really like hone in on does, is this like hitting home for me? Am I really learning what this person is like putting in front of me? Am I able to like really digest it?

[00:31:56] And I have turned it all off, and I’m now focusing on the one person, on the one business that I wanna learn. And for me, signed up for a year long like program that’s teaching me soup to nuts and bolts. All of the things, that I feel like I need right now. Good. And there’s group coaching elements.

[00:32:16] There’s a course element, there’s the community element for me to connect. There’s the masterclass and that’s it. I don’t need to learn from a million other people and that’s gonna work for me because I. Too much from every direction and I didn’t know what to do and I was trying to execute on 15 different, try these best tips.

[00:32:36] And for me, like we already discussed, they had to turn out the noise and really who is moving the needle for me? Who do I like really like resonate with their teaching style? And that may change as my business evolves. Sure. But I know I’ve made the commitment for this year, for this program, and this is all, everything is turned off.

[00:32:54] I’m not listening to any other because I need to hyper-focus on these steps. So that’s what’s working for me at the

[00:33:02] Audra: moment. Good. That’s good. That’s great advice. So if you’re listening to this and you are overwhelmed with all the knowledge and, methods and systems that are available for small businesses, find one.

[00:33:16] we get it. Everybody says, why buy a program or Why follow a [00:33:20] coach? Cuz I can just go to YouTube and learn it. You can, but YouTube teaches horizontally. They’ll teach you a little bit about a lot of. But actually taking some of that content online and nicheing it down into your business, into a system, that’s a very different conversation.

[00:33:38] And they typically only give you parts of it. So you could learn some stuff from this s e o person, this from this email marketing person, this from the social media, but you didn’t really learn how they’re all supposed to work together. Which is part of the challenge that I see with clients over the years.

[00:33:55] They have these silos of different marketing things, but nothing talks. So their brand is inconsistent, their message is inconsistent, and they don’t get the results that they could be getting if all of that was connected the way it should be. so that’s good for you that I’m going here, I’m following it step by step.

[00:34:14] I’m committed to go vertically with this program versus just surfing the top. there’s a time and a place to be a generalist as specialist when it comes to this and when you Yeah, when you get your marketing down, you gotta do it.

[00:34:29] Jaime T.: And I think it, it, it needs to be said, I’ve been following this person for two.

[00:34:34] Oh, good. So I’ve had my eye on them since like late 2021. So I’ve been watching and studying because I think people also need to learn,when it comes to your business, people are watching you, but they’re not buying right away. They’re not purchasing right away. They wanna know what kind of person you are.

[00:34:50] are you gonna be able to help me with my unique circumstance? Because we all feel like we are the unique one with our only problem that nobody else in the world is [00:35:00] going to understand. And,the timeframe for people to really start to invest in your products and services changes depending on your niche, depending on your industry.

[00:35:10] And this one person, it’s not like I just pulled the trigger and I was like, here you go. I’ve been watching them for quite some time, but I’ve also spent the first three years of my business. Picking apart all of the free pieces online because I’m, I don’t have the money to invest. And I was trying to put it all together.

[00:35:31] And the thing about this program is it gave me the blueprint so that I didn’t have to piecemeal it together good. And try to figure this out on my own, because I’ve been doing that and it didn’t work. So now I’ve followed this person. I felt really good about the decision, right? I turned off, literally turned off all the other noise focused in on them for the last few months to be like, is this really what I want?

[00:35:54] and then I made the decision, yes, we’re going in on ourselves, we’re investing in ourselves because I believe that I deserve to do this, and my business deserves to have that support. That’s what’s worked for me right now.

[00:36:07] Audra: Good. I think it also helps shine some light and direction where you can take off the, am I doing the right thing?

[00:36:14] Am I not doing the right thing? But this person said this person said that, and I’m not getting the same result. You just, I’m just gonna stay head down, do the work. Keep building it. that consistency, and commitment is so huge, especially when the revenue’s not where you want it to be. at some point momentum kicks in, which is super sexy when you get to that place.

[00:36:37] Where the sales come in and then you just build on [00:36:40] top of that. That is super fun. But a lot of businesses don’t get there because they couldn’t figure out the stuff here at the. Yeah. And what, my goal as far as what I’ve built is to change that conversation. Too many people are walking around in the dark and they just don’t need to.

[00:36:58] You are

[00:36:59] Jaime T.: so needed. I don’t know how it’ll be far. You’re so needed. Just having your conversation like my former self back in 2019 needed you desperately because there was just so much everywhere and your work is gonna be, it’s so needed it, it’s one area I feel like in the online space. That I feel is lacking cuz everybody has their, I’m the email marketer.

[00:37:24] This, I’m the content creator. I’m your social media person. I’m your Twitter person. I’m the this, but nobody’s I’m the person who’s gonna tell you what your steps are from step 1, 2, 3, 4, all the way to full blown whatever. And that is so needed because that actual, like from Day one, that blueprint is missing and so many people need it.

[00:37:45] So many people need it.

[00:37:46] Audra: They do. You know what else I find is a common problem is we focus on the wrong things at the wrong time. so when it comes to business, we can actually break it down into six steps. That’s it. You have that upstart where you’re, you got that idea, you’re validating it, you’re testing it.

[00:38:04] Then you go into a launch. You launch it, you start selling it, right? Some things start happening. Then you accelerate a little bit, which you’re growing. The business is growing. You’re hiring staff. Then you go up to scale. Then you start to [00:38:20] automate. And then you hit impact, and that’s when you arrive.

[00:38:23] And each one of them has financial levels that you hit as you go through them. this idea’s not new, but when we step into launching a business, we don’t think about it that way. So we g jump in, we have an idea, we don’t typically test it, or we ask a few friends and family, Hey, what do you think about my idea?

[00:38:41] It’s gonna be great. I’m gonna sell a hundred of them for a hundred dollars. I’ll be a millionaire. By the end of the. I just gotta set up a funnel and then all this traffic’s gonna come and I’m gonna buy some Facebook ads and we’re all set. But they shouldn’t have been worrying about any of that until they got through that first stage.

[00:38:56] So what I find the disconnect is trying to, deploy the wrong marketing tactics at the wrong stage of the business they’re in. At least it was, for so many clients, I’m like, why are you guys worrying about this yet? You haven’t even built this. we gotta do this stuff before you can add that onto it cuz it’s not gonna work.

[00:39:17] why are you trying to automate, you don’t even have, you don’t have customers yet. Let’s focus on this first. And I think if they knew that there was like actual steps that you should go through now, not that you have to do every single thing and every step, but if you even covered the basics in some kind of resemblance of an of order.

[00:39:40] Oh my gosh, so many more businesses would work. It’s

[00:39:44] Jaime T.: crazy. automation was my first step. Was

[00:39:47] Audra: it?

[00:39:49] Jaime T.: We didn’t validate. We didn’t lo we don’t, I still don’t know how to launch. No. So we’re learning how to live launch Good. Never on a live launch. Good. we just automatically figured I [00:40:00] put out these products that I like, that I know are gonna help.

[00:40:03] I didn’t validate any ideas. I don’t. Don’t know how to validate ideas. What do you mean put it in front of an audience? You mean by 10 people? I just put it on the market and it’s automated and it’s gonna sell on its own, and all I have to do is post on social media. I skipped all of this. I skipped all of these stuff because I was following the people.

[00:40:25] Over here, over there, over here, over there, who were telling me these three steps and you’ll convert and you’ll be a five figure business in the end of 30 days. and this, like all of the scammy time. I bit and I bit hard into all of it and I built it and I was sitting here like, why am I not a millionaire in three months?

[00:40:43] I don’t understand. Don’t, and like the thing is I truly thought that yeah, I bit into it so hard and I. So confused as to why this wasn’t working. Everything’s automated. Everything is ready to go. I’m on social media. Why? I get a lot of likes. I get a lot of follows. People like my stuff. So I’m validated.

[00:41:05] There I am. I’m validated. Why aren’t they buying my stuff? What? I understand it and I’ve made those mistakes. And now, like I said, like we started this podcast. I am dialing way back because as far as my business model comes into play, it’s built cause that was built on day one.

[00:41:22] I automated it. I made the websites, I got all, I have all of that, all of my products, all of my services, my product suite, my value ladders, I have it all. Has it been validated? No, it has not. No, it has not. Have I run Facebook ads? No, I have not. What are [00:41:40] ads? We’re not even there yet. there’s just 1,000,001 steps that were

[00:41:44] Way out of order because to me, I’m doing it passively. Give me all the automations, give me all the automations. All I have to do is post online and they’re gonna come. Perfect.

[00:41:53] Audra: Yeah. I wish. and in those people’s defense, early on, it did used to work that. We could build a product and find customers all day long.

[00:42:05] But what’s happened over the last, I don’t know, 5, 7, 10 years, maybe it’s too competitive and the buyer is driving now before the sellers drove, right? It was more of a, on demand type stuff. We could build products, test ’em, and we could make a million dollars in a launch. And not to say that still doesn’t happen, cuz it does, but.

[00:42:29] There’s still so much noise and people have niched down so far where the buyer gets to decide everything, and they’re much savvier. They’re much more, direct in what they expect from the product. they drive if your brand makes it or not. If you’re able to deliver or not. when I laugh with you, I’m laughing just cuz I’ve experienced it.

[00:42:53] like I said, 99.9% of clients I’ve worked with over the last 10 years have experienced it. At some point, Walter, we built a list. I’m like, okay, so where’s the list? we haven’t sent an email out because we don’t have a funnel to send them to and we don’t have a one-off product and we don’t. And I’m like, wait a second.

[00:43:09] So you got all the pieces. reconnect it all the way it’s supposed to work, and then we could put some automation behind it. Once we do it for a little while and we know it works, then we’ll [00:43:20] automate the things that the customer doesn’t touch or that where you shouldn’t be. I’m not a big fan of automating communication with my people.

[00:43:27] if you should be talking to ’em, you need to talk to him. a lot of what we do as marketers, we can automate. So automate that. But you gotta work up to that. It doesn’t come out of the gate for it to be successful. So it’s just finding a way to like we’ve talked about, these are the steps.

[00:43:46] Try to follow ’em as directly as you can. If your product takes off, don’t necessarily skip them, but be aware of what they are and how they fit into the bigger puzzle. Then it’s easy to grow and if you make mistakes, which, how far back down to. you don’t wanna have to start over every single time because you didn’t build right to begin with.

[00:44:07] that sucks. And most people don’t have the Stamina for it because

[00:44:13] Jaime T.: it’s, that’s where people are burning themselves out because they’re just go all, firing off at every angle and. It’s exhausting to see little to no, return on that investment, that hard work, and you’re like, what’s the point?

[00:44:27] You could talk yourself very easily that conversation, what’s the point? Nobody’s buying anything. You’re putting in hours of work. And now we’ve scrapped that idea and we started from scratch. But this idea and. Still nothing. What’s the point? What are we doing? And as long as you can just keep telling yourself, I’m just, I’m not, there’s a missing link here.

[00:44:45] There’s a missing link because I just gotta figure it out. Cuz there are 1,000,001 pieces when it comes to building an online business. There is, and for me, I thoroughly enjoy the learning process. I love. there’s just, the learning curve is [00:45:00] massive, but it’s so incredibly rewarding. You know when you learn the tech element and you’re like, oh my God, this is so cool.

[00:45:08] Like now I know how to do this part of my business, or, whatever it is. And that’s why I was drawn to your podcast cuz I don’t get to talk about online business all that much and what it’s like to be an entrepreneur and it’s such a fascinating magical ride. but buckle up. It’s bumpy, all of us go through these.

[00:45:27] These issues, which is so important to me because I’m very transparent in the groups that I’m at, where people are sharing their launch numbers and oh my gosh, I just signed up my dream client and I’m like, I just did all the things. I took the funnel, I did the this. I showed up every single day. I followed your steps and I had nothing.

[00:45:45] Thing. And I know that there’s other people in this group that are feeling really defeated and wanna give up. And I will be the person who’s gonna speak loudly into the mic. It didn’t work for me, but it doesn’t mean that I’m going to give up. I’m gonna give myself a day to feel really frustrated and figure out the mess when I catch my breath.

[00:46:03] But I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that this was, a walk in the park cuz it wasn’t. And guess what? I sold zero. I made zero on this. supposed launch like this Black Friday, we didn’t make any money. Why? Because we didn’t have all the pieces together. Even though I was following this and doing this, and very transparent about it, cuz everybody wants to talk about the numbers, but nobody’s talking about the eight years that it took for them to figure out the secret sauce for their business.

[00:46:29] Audra: For their business. That’s the key. So you gotta remember when it comes to a coaching program, They have figured out a system, right? For whatever it is. If it’s [00:46:40] e-commerce, if it’s coaching, if it’s courses, whatever, they figured out one direct path for them. If I do this, I get these kinda results, but this is what people don’t realize when they buy into a coaching program.

[00:46:52] To get that system doesn’t necessarily fit their audience, fit their message, fit their market, fit their personality. Here’s a perfect example. I got into a coaching program. I’ve done, I’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars up for my education, but I got into a program and I had a physical, business.

[00:47:11] I had a service business. I used to own a title company, so I wasn’t even in market. I got into a mastermind group at 25 grand a year, and this is 16 years ago. They were that expensive. Everybody else was online. I was not because I had a title company. My business was local. I had a ton of business, but I was looking at, input on how to take it online and scale it.

[00:47:38] their program was a great program, but it wouldn’t fit me. And so I tried to force me and my personality and my business into their widget and I got no results from it. I mean it, so some of it too is will that model work If part of the model is I have to do a Facebook Live every day for the next three months, and you’re an introvert that has never done a live and feels completely overwhelmed to think about doing.

[00:48:06] you’re not gonna get the same results because you are not that personality. So getting a coach doesn’t mean I get to transfer all my self-doubt and imposter syndrome and fear of failure, and your program’s gonna fix [00:48:20] it for me. And there’s that disconnect where Yeah, unfortunately, the story that you just gave is normal.

[00:48:28] It is, and I

[00:48:29] Jaime T.: mean, I’ve invested in a few different tools to learn different things for online businesses, and I think it’s totally okay if you find yourself not aligned or not getting the results, because I’m sure there’s something, some element. From that course, that program, that mastermind that you’re going to take moving forward and implementing it, even if sometimes it’s just as important to learn what’s not working for you and scratch it.

[00:49:00] it’s just as important to learn what’s working as, as it is to learn what’s not working. sometimes that’s all, I don’t know how I’m supposed to, what I’m supposed to do next, but I know I can’t do. So I’ll figure it out, and that’s okay. It’s not a waste of money.

[00:49:14] It’s not a waste of an investment. You’re not a failure for not getting the results because in fact, you know that you’re taking and extracting something from that will indeed help you along the way. For

[00:49:25] Audra: sure. That’s good. That’s good. Yeah. I’ve learned I’ve probably 50 50. 50 50 in lessons.

[00:49:32] Yeah. 50 50 in moving forward. Yeah, because definitely have learned my fair share, oh that crap, that didn’t really work. Okay, that’s okay. Liz, I know we need to go this direction. And that one’s not going to makes decisions easier, right? Yeah, it does.

[00:49:50] Jaime T.: Cause Lord knows there’s a ton of decisions to make and that can be a whole discussion for another day with decision overwhelm and.

[00:49:57] the things that you realized I’m [00:50:00] not ever going down that path again. at least that’ll be an easy decision moving

[00:50:03] Audra: forward, right? not to take that road. All right. so as we get close to wrapping it up, what would you say would be your one piece of advice to keep people focused or in the fight?

[00:50:18] Jaime T.: I’ve said it a bunch on your podcast. You didn’t come this far to come this far. If it was that easy to do it, everybody would be doing it. And you hear these cliche sayings. Yeah. And they are sayings for a reason. And it is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. Failure is a part of the success formula.

[00:50:39] And if you can just remember that failures will always give you lessons. Money that you feel is wasted will always give you lessons. Completely different outcomes than what you wanted. Are gonna give you the lessons to keep on going and you didn’t come this far to come this far, and you owe it to yourself to see what magic lies on the other side if you just keep going and taking one step every single

[00:51:05] Audra: day.

[00:51:07] thank you, Jamie. This has been great. I’ve truly enjoyed it. You’re so welcome. You have to come in the group and talk to all these other business owners. They need to continually hear that we’re all together in this. It doesn’t matter if you’ve made a dollar or a million dollars, you’re still gonna go through this kind of stuff.

[00:51:24] Oh, yeah, absolutely. All right. thanks again, and until next time for having me. [00:51:40]

 

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