Ep 232 Conversation with Jennie Lakenan: Using Technology to Increase Efficiency in Your Day to Day Life
One more bonus in the Empowerment Interview Series! Today I am introducing you to Jennie Lakenan – she is a Certified Digital Business Consultant and Certified Life Coach.
When she discovered coaching in 2018, her life transformed for the better and Jennie quickly saw the need in the coaching industry for website services for coaches, and founded her design agency.
Her mission is to get more coaching into the world by helping other coaches to promote and grow their businesses via extraordinary websites and strategic marketing
You don’t have to be a coach to learn some great ideas from Jennie and I think she had some great information around how technology can help you be more efficient in your day to day activities sales activities, why doing b- work is important, and how letting go of trying to control everything can help you achieve more goals in your life.
In This Episode:
- The Importance of Personal Brand
- How social media can help build your career and network more
- ChatGPT in the workforce
- Efficiencies of Password Managers
- Doing B- work in order to hit bigger goals
- How loosening the grip can bring more magic to your life
- Connect with Jennie: @jennielakenan on IG and https://jennielakenan.com
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Episode Transcript: Transcribed by OtterAI with minimal edits
You are listening to the It’s Your Time podcast and I’m your host certified life coach Michelle Arnold Bourque, and today’s episode, I’m sharing a recent conversation with Jenny Lakenan, where we discussed how the latest technology can help build efficiency in your day to day life.
0:17 Welcome to the It’s Your Time Podcast, the podcast where busy professionals like you get the practical solutions and support you need to gain control of your schedule so you can strive to be the best in your career, but without the stress and overwhelm. If you’re looking to increase your energy and decrease your stress, you are in the right place.
0:41 Hello, hello. Hello. Welcome back to the podcast friends. Okay, so we just finished up the march women’s empowerment series, and I had so much fun. Thank you for being here. In fact, I had so much fun that I wanted to give you two more bonus episodes. And this week, I’m sharing a recent conversation with Jennie Lakenan. And next week, we will close it out with one more special guest. When I started this new year, I mentioned that I wanted to bring more strong, powerful voices to you and I do envision more to come in the future. But for now, I want to tell you a little bit about today’s episode, I want to introduce you to Jenny Lakenan. She is a certified digital business consultant and certified life coach. When she discovered coaching and 2018 Her life was transformed for the better sidenote, I think that is the truth for so many folks. Once you find coaching, everything changes. And in fact, Jennie quickly saw the need and the coaching industry for website services for coaches and founded her own design agency. Her mission is to get more coaching into the world by helping other coaches to promote and grow their businesses via extraordinary websites and strategic marketing. And listen, you don’t have to be a coach to learn some great ideas from Jennie in this episode. And I think she had some really fantastic information around how technology can help you possibly be more efficient in your day to day activities, and sales, for example, and your sales capacity as well. I loved her thoughts around why doing b minus work is important. And how letting go of trying to control everything can help you achieve more goals in your life. So without further ado, please take a listen.
2:35 I am so excited to get this conversation started. So can you just go ahead and introduce yourself any way you see fit, share all of the goodness that you think is possible to share. Okay, awesome. So my name is Jennie Lakenan. I am a web designer and a website strategist for coaches and other online entrepreneurs. I’m really just like, determined that my clients online presence should match really well with the kind of like people that they are with the quality of the services that they offer. I think that’s just super important when you’re like attracting and selling. We sort of innately associate whatever we find, like on Google about a person with their business and with their professional skills and trustworthiness. So it’s important that their website or whatever other places they can be found like LinkedIn or whatever. Those online presences match them well, and are really optimized to like, convert into leads, you know, so that’s like, that’s kind of me in a nutshell. I help coaches and other online entrepreneurs to like figure that whole situation. You are, I have to say, the most probably helpful person in the tech realm. As far as I know, in our coaching industry, like you stand out top notch. And I know, there may not be necessarily a lot of people building websites, per se, but I think what you just touched on is super important is the branding part of it. And we all are our own personal brand. So can you maybe speak to that and how you think or what you think is important when considering branding? Yeah, like I don’t think it really matters, what kind of offer or product you’re selling. It’s the same with coaches with sales reps or with anyone really like having a great reputation is always going to be helpful for sales. And in my opinion, I think that’s what a personal brand kind of boils down to, is your reputation like your personal brand, or your reputation is what you’re known for. And if you’re known for being someone that’s trustworthy, someone that really cares, someone who does what they say they’re going to do, who goes to bat for their customers and their clients needs then you’re much more likely to be successful in selling your offer. Yes, and it makes you was just gonna say it makes you more appealing to work with to because your customers and your potential clients, like they don’t just want to buy from anyone they want to buy from you. You know? Yes. And I love what you
5:00 you’re seeing here because I think you specifically work maybe in the entrepreneur,
5:05 world. But I think as salespeople were some of the most entrepreneurial people, they’re like, we run our territory. So I feel like everything you have to share is going to be really relative. And I would love to take this kind of into parts because I love sharing, like, professional and personal information on the podcast. So I would love to pick your tech brain. And I think this is important to so many folks who are listening. And I, you were the first person I saw talk about chat GPT. And then I saw something on LinkedIn specific to device reps, can you please share your wisdom around that? I am so curious.
5:43 Yeah. So I think that
5:47 chat, GBT and just AI tools in general are going to be really life changing, game changing business changing over the next like decade.
5:57 Because they just have such a power to, like, save us so much time, when we’re creating content, especially. And then, which for sales reps, I mean, obviously, you’re not necessarily having a website or a blog, but you do create content and in the form of, I’m sure, like brochures and you know, content for like social media, where you’re trying to engage with people and stuff, and so it can be useful there. And then also potentially, like potentially market research, that’s not something like market research isn’t something I’ve used chat, DPP chat GPD for a lot. But, you know, just getting ideas for market research, I think could be a really fascinating use case. So that’s so interesting. And I’m going to get to the like, nuts and bolts of it, because I have not used it myself yet. I’ve been waiting for this conversation, because I feel like you are the All Knowing. So how easy is it to us? Like what would be the process? Yeah, so I think the first time I logged in and use chat, GBT, it’s free to create an account. So you just go in and create your account. And then I opened up the it’s basically like a chat box, like almost like a Facebook Messenger like window. And you just type into it, and then it jumps back at you, in response. So what I asked it, I said, a client had recently asked me about bounce rate, they’re like, What is bounce rate? What do you know, for for a website? What what’s a good bounce rate? It’s just like an analytics percentage that we use to measure the performance of a website. And so I’ve already been thinking about writing a blog post about that topic. So I said, Okay, check GPT. Like, write me a blog outline for a blog post about bounce rate for coaching businesses, like a website bounce rate for coaching businesses, and it outlined this, like, blog posts that I was like, oh, that’s actually like, really good. And then I said, Okay, now write me the introduction and aroma, this introduction. But it was like, a little bit formal, you know, and but it was like, very well thought out. And so I checked, I chatted back and I said, Okay, now make it more conversational and more like, personable, and it did. And then like, I still would have wanted to tweak it some to sound more like me, or maybe add a story into it, or whatever. But like, it sounded pretty good. And then I proceeded to ask it to outline all of the sections of the blog post. And it really did in a coherent way. And then I was like, Well, what if I wanted to, like make a content upsell for this blog post, like something that I could offer people at the end, like call them to action to say, give me your email address in exchange for like this free download or whatever, this free video or something? As like, give me but I had no idea what kind of free content to like write for this blog post. I said, Okay, well give me some ideas for what that upsell could be. And it gave me like five or six different ideas, and one of them was really good. And I was like, Okay, now write me the PDF for that specific like, that specific freebie it did it like. Anyway, it was basically by the end of it, I had a blog post and a PDF free download that I could get their email address with and an opt in page to actually offer them that PDF and a thank you page and a video scripted for the thank you page. It was like a whole thing. Of course, I would have had to take that and like, copy it into my own dock and tweak it and like adjust and probably change some of the topics and make it sound more like me. But the fact that it gave me something to start with, and I wasn’t starting with like a blank page, because that’s like the worst, right is when you open up a doc and there’s this blink cursor blinking at you and your brain just goes blank. Right?
9:32 Yes, and I love as I’m listening to you, there seems to be so many different ways to use it. And I was just thinking like, maybe it’s somebody who is writing a letter and they are applying for a job like they could use that to get them started if they’re getting into a sales position. Or maybe it’s something that somebody has to reply to an email and they can maybe use it for ideas of how to you know, have that conversation back and forth. That is so fascinating. I love it. Thank you so much. I am going to
10:00 You I am going to work on that for sure. For sure. Well, and I think the one thing we have to be careful of is just that we, we like, and this is what everyone does kind of the elephant in the room, right? People like, Oh, it’s so impersonal. Like it just takes the human element out of it or like, I can’t believe that you used it for responding to an email, like That’s so cold or whatever it is like, Well, no, it’s just designed to give you a place to start, like we said, like, and then you bring the human element into it. So yes, and I think back to your original point about branding, you have to have that human element because that is what you’re selling. Right? You are selling yourself that trustworthiness. Yes. So important. Speaking of selling yourself, I know you do a lot with social media, also, you had mentioned linked in earlier, can you maybe just speak to that, and some ways that you help your clients maybe gain greater reach? Because I do see this in our industry, too. People are turning more to social media to connect, whether it be physicians, whether it be the reps, the companies, and I see it’s a super important topic. Yeah, so like, basically how to kind of use social media to connect with people. Yeah, I think that
11:10 using AI, the way that I look at social media in a way that helps me to really use it well, is to just see it as a tool for building relationships, like building one to one relationships. And, you know, some of the social platforms are more leveraged for, like Instagram is a one to many, you know, you write a post, and then a lot of people can see it, but I like to still look at it as a one to one. Like, if someone follows me on Instagram, which is like the platform that I kind of hang out on the most. I try to like I DM them, and I’m like, Hey, thanks for following me. Like I don’t pitch them, I don’t try to offer them anything, because it just feels kind of gross. But to me anyway, like, there’s nothing wrong with doing that, I just don’t really want to do that. But just and that sometimes, most of the time, they don’t reply, sometimes they just sort of like heart my message, but sometimes they respond. And then we have like a little bit of a conversation and we get to know each other better. And it’s like a relationship building tool. And the important part there is to make sure that whatever social platform you’re hanging out on is the one that your people are on, you know, like, for me, Instagram, a lot of people, my people are on Instagram.
12:19 But there are also a lot of people that are in Facebook groups that I hang out in. And it’s especially helpful that I’m in a few Facebook groups where people are actually typing out talking about topics that are relevant to what I’m selling. So like if I were just to go join any Facebook group, or if I were to join a facebook group for coaches that they were only talking about, like their sales process or something, and they weren’t talking at all about tech or websites or how they market themselves, that probably wouldn’t be as useful a place for me to hang out. But I just really love spending time where my ideal client hangs out in online communities like Facebook groups, where they’re talking about marketing and tech, and I don’t even pitch myself like this. The funny thing I don’t even mention what I do, actually, unless it’s relevant to the thread or like someone asks, just there and it’s helpful around any questions or conversation that’s happening around like tech or web design or online marketing. And so, you know, if your clients are spending time on, where are they spending time on social, if it’s on LinkedIn, then be there, sharing things and engaging and if someone comments on your posts, like, go comment back, like build relationships and be be thoughtful, it doesn’t even have to take a ton of time. But having the consistency there, builds relationships over time. And I think that is so important, especially for younger people who are just getting started around the idea of networking. I had a concept call recently and the young person was talking about how she wasn’t, she wasn’t really feeling comfortable about networking, and she wasn’t sure to your point like does it feel a little sleazy like kind of that in between, but you are such a great example of what networking can be like when you truly offer value in a way that is not at all selling or salesy or anything in that realm. And then when you are helping others, they come back to look for like, oh, gosh, she gave some great information. Let me see if I can just reach out to her or it might not even be I remember one of my coaches saying, Michelle, it’s not necessarily who you are interacting with, but maybe seven people behind that person, right. So that Exactly, yeah. Showing up and giving value. Again, the theme is like just being yourself and giving that information in a way that works for you. I think that’s important too because oftentimes people feel like they have to be on in air quotes right and do something different for networking when it can really just be show up BE YOURSELF give value. That’s, that’s good. Yeah, well, and so much of it comes from the emotion that is behind it, which like for me, the emotion that’s behind me helping in those Facebook groups that I’m in and some of them you’re in, you know, like you see me doing that isn’t
14:57 like sleazy salesy, like Oh, Unknown Speaker 15:00 Oh, no, I’m, I’m only going to reply to this person because I think they’d be a great lead to work with me, you know, which I mean, sometimes I think that but the primary emotion that I’m feeling is, like, charity. And like, I care, like I really genuinely, in that moment, when I’m responding to someone’s question, like, it’s like, oh, I can help. And I want to be helpful, and I care about them. And I want to help them solve their problem. And I think that people really sense when you care. And that’s like, why you’re helping. So I just wanted to throw that in there. Because I like that’s really important. I mean, you You talk a lot about thoughts and stuff and emotions on your podcast. I know. So like, Yeah, let’s I think that’s an important emotion to make sure you’re just checking with yourself that you’re coming from. Yes, I that word comes up and so much of my journaling care, like I want like maybe to a fault almost because I want people to care. Like you should care more. I think that’s so important when you show up to care. And something that you just said also made me think about the fact that networking is does not have to be looked at, if you are the person reaching out as what is that other person going to give me it can feel much better to come to the process as How can I help that person? Exactly, exactly. Yes. Love it. Okay, one more tech question. And then I want to kind of pick your brain on some of the mindset stuff around the business. I know, you talk about password managers, for coaches, and I think this is important for people in general. I know for me, I am always forgetting my password, or I think I’m going to change it with an exclamation point or a different dog’s name or something. Can you maybe speak to that and why you think that it’s so important and how it can be helpful? Yes, so password managers, password managers are basically just like a tool that lets you manage your passwords, it gives you a central vault, to save all of your passwords in under what’s like a master password for your vault. And it just makes it really easy to manage, because you don’t have to remember any passwords. And also, a lot of password managers will sort of like do what we call like autofill. So if you open up a website, and there’s in your password manager, if you have like an extension installed in your browser for like a Chrome extension or whatever, then it will sense the path like it will basically autofill the password based on whatever website you’re on. If you have a password for that site saved in your vault.
17:30 It just saves you so much time and and honestly like, I’m just I’m so passionate about password managers and password management now because this last year, I had a client who Unknown Speaker 17:40 she had her like Google account hacked. And she had saved a bunch of her passwords into her Google, she was using Google’s like sort of password feature, which is not really like a true Password Manager, it’s more of just kind of like a
17:56 I don’t even know what to call it. But its level of security wasn’t as good obviously as like a more traditional Password Manager. And so she had like her Instagram hacked. And that was such a, it was such such like a traumatic thing for her because this person didn’t just like it wasn’t just like a bot that kind of like, took over her account. It was like no, this person had been like, following her. And like, in like, almost, they were they had copied some of her old content. And we’re like, continuing to post as if they were her to like get anyway and DMing people it was like this whole thing and, and it was because of she had stored her passwords in Google and not in more of like, kind of a proper password manager. And, and anyway, so I just think that it’s so important, because there’s just so many there are just so many people out there that are trying to take advantage. And anyway, so that’s my little like spiel about it. But that’s important. I had a girlfriend who her son it same thing happened, I guess I never really thought of it like that. As far as the hacking part of it. I was thinking more of like my memory part of it. But same thing, somebody hacked his account and was like reaching out to people as him and they had to go to like the police. It was like crazy. It took forever to like get it all situated to right. And you know, the police can be less helpful, partly just because like it’s such a digital world. And they’re kind of like, I mean, how are we supposed to know how to track down this person like and usually, at least for my client, they weren’t really able to help her very much. And she just ended up kind of having to figure it out on her own. And
9:29 so yeah, I think that like password managers, and then setting up two factor authentication for as many you know, where you like login and then like Textio code or whatever, for as many of your important platforms as you can. Just for better security is really, really great. All right, that’s a good story because sometimes I roll my eyes and sigh when I have that to authentication. Like send me this is so annoying. I know it’s so obnoxious, but yeah there for a reason. And to your point it
20:00 saves time. And we are all about time here on The it’s your time podcast. So I think that that’s a great point. So, yeah, and then it because it also helps you to have better security overall, because
20:13 then you don’t reuse any of your passwords. Like I never reuse passwords anymore, because my password manager makes it so easy for me to like, just generate a new one. And that’s really unique. And then I don’t even have to remember, it just saves it in the vault. So none of my platforms have the same password, which is great for security. Yes, that is so good. Okay. Now, I would like to shift a little bit to some of the mindset stuff that I know is important to you, as far as you know, and I say, I think in your business, but I think this is really in life. Like I think the things that we’re going to talk about are, are very much important to like who we are as humans. I know a lot of people listening are high achievers, they’re perfectionistic thinkers. And can you maybe discuss the idea of doing b minus work and how it can be more beneficial than always trying to go for that a plus? Yeah, totally. So the concept of B minus work, at least the way that I think about it is like,
21:09 you know, there’s that like growth curve, where, and I’m trying to use my hands here, none of you listening could see my hands. But where we talked about like decreasing returns, like as the more effort you put in, the more you get higher returns for a little while. But then there’s a certain point where putting more and more in, like the line just goes flat, like it’s not really actually helping you that much more, it’s not ticking the needle that much more by continuing to put an effort. And that’s kind of how I think about being a b minus work is like, Yes, I could take my, you know, blog posts that I wrote for this last week and tweak it and spent hours and hours and hours of research and curating to get it to a plus. But the effort that it would take to get it from B minus, which is what it is now to a plus is I could probably write three more blog posts with all that effort. And it’s not actually going to benefit the reader that much more than if I just left it at B minus. And the three more blog posts that I can write with that effort will help them exponentially more than me taking this this one blog post to be mined from B minus to a plus. So like, that’s just one example. But that’s kind of how it helps me to think about it is like, oh, it’s actually more useful for my client for my audience, if I just
22:28 put my perfectionism aside and use that energy in places that are actually more useful. Yeah, I think that’s so important. Yeah, I mean, I feel like it also touches again, on saving time, right? Because we can sit there forever, and try to make it perfect, and waste all of that time, or we can be much more productive. And just like being okay with it, I would love to know your thoughts, I have my own on how yo
23:05 like, Unknown Speaker 23:08 I’m thinking about when I first started my business, and I, before I got my first paying client, it was really important to me to like, write out my process for how I was going to actually build, take them through a website build, you know, so that I can make sure that okay, as soon as I have someone that signs on, I want to know what I’m going to do next, I want to know that I’m going to be able to actually deliver the service that I promising. And so I sat down, and I literally just opened a Google Doc, and typed out like, okay, week one is going to be, you know, the prototype, like the black and white version of the site, that doesn’t look very pretty, but it gets us on the same page as far as like, where everything is gonna go on the site and what the flow is going to be. And I put I put down like just maybe three bullet points of like, how I would take them through that process. And then week two would be, you know, the mock up and blah, blah, blah, kind of like, you know, for six weeks worth of that my process was six weeks, I’d kind of knew that ahead of time. But actually breaking it down was really useful. Unknown Speaker 24:05 And I’ve talked to a lot of like agency owners since then, who are also starting their business, and they’re trying to figure out what their processes and they’re like, oh, Jenny, how did you do it? Like, I feel like I need to make like project templates, I need to have all this fancy stuff to begin with. And all my systems like lined out and nailed down. I’m like, no, no, no, like, just write it in a Google Doc.
24:25 And then run a few clients through that. And then you can add to it and tweak it. And then when your Google Doc gets 20 pages long, then you can export it and actually put it in your you know, your task management tool or whatever it like but just start really simple. And I think if I had been so stuck on making sure my process was completely perfect and nailed out and there wasn’t going to be any gaps or anything in the beginning like it would have kept me from starting my business when I did which was super important that I did when I did because that connected me with those first
25:00 Do clients who really were the mouthpiece to help, like, kind of spread the word about me in their network. And if I hadn’t been available at that time, I think that it would have really hampered my ability to grow. So, yeah, that’s I was just gonna say you probably grow so much more, if you just get started and learn from whatever it is that you’re doing, and then move on, instead of thinking like, I need to make sure I have it all perfect in my brain before I actually put it out into the world, whatever that thing is, right? It could be as simple as like, a sales presentation that you’re doing, like, just get out there help people. Exactly, yeah, well, and the more that I work with, like, coaching businesses that are, you know, quite large, and like, really growing fast, the more and I see kind of behind the scenes a little bit more than where I’m like, Oh, they really, like, they’re just figuring it out, too.
25:54 You know, like, they’re just kind of stumbling along and seeing what’s working, experimenting and pivoting, when what they thought was gonna work doesn’t and like, you know, and they’re really okay with the minus work. And let’s just actually really inspiring to watch because it makes me more willing to actually do that in my own business.
26:13 And if if someone’s listening to this right now, and they’re like, like, this is totally causing so much dissonance for you where you’re like, but But it needs to be perfect. Like, because I still deal with that, too. Part of what helped me was just stepping into b minus work with some faith that like, Okay, other people say that this is better. So I’m going to try it.
26:36 And then long term, like the consistency of doing that, and then seeing the fruits of it, like seeing what you’re able to create with just that b minus work overtime. Like, it actually is really eye opening. And, and so yeah, if you’re, if you’re like having some inner dissonance, just be willing to try it, and then just see what it creates for you. Because you might be surprised, right? How amazing it is. And you can always go back to the I have to sit and make sure it’s a plus if you really want to, but you might surprise yourself so much that you love the way that life is kosher. Yeah, well, and that’s that’s to say, that’s like brings up a good point, like, there are certain things that you’re not going to want to leave at B minus, like, you will put it out there for like the first draft will be B minus, and then later, you will come back to it. And you’ll want to make a plus like, for example, I made a course last year, it’s sort of like a more entry level offer for coaches who are brand new, they’re just getting started. And you know, like my done for you services are, they’re pretty high ticket. So it doesn’t always make sense for a brand new coach to like, invest that much in a new site, when they just need to get something up. It’s really simple. And I wanted to create this course to meet that need. But I was like, I was kind of I did sort of spin in that perfectionism for a month or two, where I was like, feeling overwhelmed by the task of creating it, because I was like, Oh, it needs to be, you know, perfectly recorded and like professionally, you know, edited and it needs to have all these kind of bells and whistles. And then and then one weekend, I was like, You know what, I’m just gonna start a pilot group, like I’m just gonna do, I’m just gonna get 10 coaches to raise their hand and say, Yes, I will be willing to run through your course. And basically, and I did. And basically what I did was, each week, I just recorded the videos as we went using loom, like, which is just a stranger software. And they were very rough and ready. And, you know, I sent so I sent them a video each week for about seven weeks and got their feedback, like I just said, Hey, you can have this course for free, as long as you give me feedback. And they did. And then by the end of that I had my course all outlined and I had feedback on it. And like, I had the videos, and it was probably more like C minus. But then I was able to take that and I re recorded the videos and put it up on a you know, like a portal and actually, you know, started selling it. So like, that was an example of me being willing to kind of like, okay, I just need to have like a pilot group, I just need to start very minimum viable concept, and be willing to do really rough work in order to then okay, now I’m gonna, then I went back and I made it and more. I mean, it’s probably still be plus, at this point, I probably couldn’t make it even more polished. But I’m like, you know, that’s me at polishing, it is not going to help these coaches get that end result of their website up any more than, you know, that is in the current method.
29:15 And I think as you’re speaking, it really reminds me I think the important thing is also how we talk to ourselves in those moments when we’re putting out the B minus, right. It’s, it’s really having our own back to say that you’re doing it for the good of whatever the goal is, right? Like you are helping these people and you don’t have to beat yourself up about it being b minus. Yeah, totally. Totally. And you might still at first a little bit, but then when you start actually seeing people being like, Oh, this is so useful. Thank you so much or whatever, like then you start to kind of believe in a little bit more like oh, maybe this is actually something that I want to keep doing. Yes. Oh, that’s so good. One other area that I want to touch on is there are a lot of like a personalities here. Unknown Speaker 30:00 People that are like busy busy like that is a badge of honor. But I know you are a fan of kind of loosening that grip. And really, you mentioned earlier energy and not wasting the emotional energy on second guessing. And I guess that kind of also ties into the having your own back idea as well. Can you maybe speak to the idea of having more magic in your business and, and our lives right and less fretting? Totally, yeah. So this, this concept of like, loosening your grip first really hit home to me, when I like my first year in business, when I wanted, like, you know, we all kind of have this goal of like, 100k, or whatever, you know, like six figures when we’re first starting out, and like, I sort of had that goal loosely in my head. But I’d only been in business for like, a few months. And I, you know, like I was seeing some success, but I was just kind of like, I’m not really sure, you know, if I can do that. And I was, I had thoughts about how I could do it. But I was really like holding tight to that. Okay, this is the how, and, you know, I have to figure it out. And like totally just overthinking it. And then I listened to this podcast episode by Jody Moore, who’s like a coach that’s kind of well known in our network. And the episode was called faith and magic.
31:15 And I still go back and listen to a couple of times a year, because in that episode, she shares how she was like, you know, when I, I had made about 200, or 300k, in my coaching business, and then my business coach was like, you should make a million dollars this year, you could totally do that. And I was like, I spent a couple of days, you know, this is her in her work, we’ve totally probably botching summarizing the episode, but she’s like, I spent a couple days kind of fretting about it. And then I sat down, and I made my plan of about how I thought I might get to that million dollar goal. And, and she said, you know, that my, what I outlined was probably going to get me about at 85% of the way there. But then there were just, you know, the rest of it was just sort of like,
31:58 I don’t really know how it’s gonna happen. And she said, there was something kind of freeing about that, because it helped her to just leave room for the faith, and the magic, and to like, really loosen her grip. And because as you go through, you know, your business and selling, there are certain things and certain, certain opportunities that you’re just not going to know beforehand are even available to you. And so you can’t even fit them into your plan. But being willing to leave room for the belief that those opportunities will come along as you continue, and are consistent with putting yourself out there and providing value and making, you know, offering making offers to your customers. Like there’s just something really powerful in that. And that’s kind of what comes to mind for me when I think about faith and magic and is that episode. And that was really inspiring to me, because that helped me to take to really loosen my grip as far as like, Okay, I’m just not going to overthink this, I’m just gonna focus on doing what I can to make this goal happen. And then leave room for you know, whatever else is gonna come up in the process. And I mean, ultimately, like I did reach my goals, and I did what I wanted. And you know, that’s not always what happens. That’s a happy ending, right? That’s not always how it goes. But I think that like, on our way there, it just makes the process a lot more enjoyable, because we’re not holding so tight and kind of like, micro analyzing everything. Yes, I think a few things that you’ve touched on in there are so important. And I try to share this with our team too, because we have been tasked in the next year with a pretty significant uplift on our sales numbers. And I I almost joke, but I’m totally serious is I’m like we manifest this you guys, right? Because it is the energy by which we get there. Sure we have a business plan. But to your point, if we are so stuck on the how we are going to do it, and then something changes, then your brain like freaks out because well now we’re not going to hit that number because this didn’t happen. But if you can, and you spoke to this earlier, as far as networking, what is the energy that you’re bringing to the process in order to get to that goal? That’s what’s important? Yes, yeah. And whenever in the past, I’ve kind of gotten in this place where I’m like, oh, you know, we don’t have like, as many clients this month as we wanted, or, you know, I’m not like, you know, looking at our revenue numbers and feeling a little bit like disappointed or anything my my business partner who’s she’s also my brand designer Deanna Rutter. She always just kind of like shares the thought she’s like, No, my thought that always helps me is just like, I wonder who the next claim is gonna be, you know, like, I wonder whether I wonder who it’s gonna be, you know, it’s just like, it just totally shifts you into like, more curiosity and kind of like, future focus and also more of a place of service because then you’re considering Oh, like, you know, who can I help next and yeah, so that’s just been really helpful for me. Oh, I love that. I wonder who I feel like like if there are device reps, you know, listening, it could be like, Oh, I wonder who the new patient next patient is going to be or next five patients or whatever as opposed to like, I need that doctor to start
35:00 Working with me, right? There’s just such a different feeling. And it’s so much more freeing. If you’re thinking about coming from service in my opinion. Yeah, exactly. So many good things here today. Have we missed anything that you feel is like, we need to make sure this, we need to make sure they know this? I don’t think so. I think that we really, this has been super fun. Like, Thanks, Michelle, for inviting me. It has been a blast. And I feel like I am going to be going to the chat GPT and my password. I gotta get my password manager like you’re gonna totally you know, bring me up to speed here. Yep, absolutely. Where can people find you? Because you have so much so much. I’m telling you people, she has so much great information. Where on Instagram is that where people will most likely be best to reach you? Yeah, if you’re on social media, if you’re on Instagram. That’s my like, kind of most active social media platform. But you can also go to my website, it’s just Jenny liikanen.com. My name is spelled weird. It’s Jennie. And then my last name, Lakenan. So, yeah, just any linkedin.com I’ve got a blog there that has just all kinds of helpful content about like online marketing. And, and, you know, I don’t know, like social media strategy, and just all the things. Yeah. And I would really encourage people when they’re going to, you know, really look at it through the filter by which it’s going to be helpful for you. So it might be specific to coaches in the way that you’re writing it. But I feel like there’s so much great information that could be used from sales perspective from like, personal, you know, tech stuff perspective, like, just look at it through the filter that’s most helpful for you. Yes, absolutely. All right. Thank you so much. And we’ll have all of the links in the show notes as well. Yep.
36:48 All right. Thank you so much. This has been such a blast. Thank you. Wasn’t that so great. I love the energy that Jennie brings, especially around sharing value. She is such an example of doing it the right way. And if you want to learn more about Jennie, please do check her out Jennie lakenan on Instagram, and Jennielakenan.com. You can find more detailed information and of course, all of the links will be in the show notes. Okay, friends, I would love to hear your takeaways on this. So please go ahead and tag at Michelle Bourque coaching and @jennielakenan and on Instagram, it can be so much fun. That’s what I have for you today. As always take what works, leave what doesn’t and tune in next week for another opportunity to transform your life. Make it a great day. Take care
37:43 Did you know you can take this work to a deeper level with me one on one. Go to Michellebourquecoaching.com and click on get started to begin