← The Goal Digger Podcast | Top Business and Marketing Podcast for Creatives, Entrepreneurs, and Women in Business
The Goal Digger Podcast | Top Business and Marketing Podcast for Creatives, Entrepreneurs, and Women in Business
882: Your Questions Answered: Email List Growth, Biohacking Sleep, and Launching Big
00:55:32
Loading summary
Transcript19 lines
- [00:02]
Jenna Kutcher
Thank you to Cozy for sponsoring the Gold Digger podcast. Transform your living space today with cozy. Visit cozy.com spelled C O Z E-Y.com the home of possibilities made easy this episode is brought to you by Shippo, your one stop solution for shipping labels helping small businesses save up to 90% off retail rates for a limited time. Shippo is offering listeners 25 in Shippo credit when you you spent your first $25. So shipping your first few packages is basically free. Years ago I ran a print giveaway for my wedding photography clients. Now this sounds simple. Send out a few framed photos as a thank you, but the response was wild. I ended up sending out stacks of orders and handwritten notes and boxes were piling up on my kitchen table. I essentially had no system, it was just me, some stamps and a lot of stress. That is why I love Shippo. It is designed for small businesses like mine. You can print shipping labels in batches, track orders, manage returns and sync with all your online stores from one clean dashboard and with access to discounted rates from USPS, UPS and FedEx, plus a free starter plan. When you only pay for what you ship, it makes fulfillment way less overwhelming. Head over to shippo.com gold digger and claim your spend 25 get 25 offer today that shipo.com gold digger I love being creative and so for me to run a business that is this structured has had its own challenges in terms of staying focused and staying the course. But I will argue that the wins that have come out of having a rhythmic business like this far outweigh any frustrations or hesitations I have. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a 300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven figure online business that feels even better than it looks. All from my house in small town Minnesota with my family here, we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical no fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence, Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired and empowered. This is the Goal Digger podcast. If we could sit down together for a cup of coffee or a walk through my garden, these are the exact questions you might be asking. How do I grow an email list without a huge following? How do I launch something big like a book while navigating motherhood or a major life pivot? How do I turn my business into a rinse and repeat machine instead of reinventing the wheel every single week? Oh, and can we talk about sleep? Because I'm tired and you're tired. Let's fix that too. This Q and A episode is packed with real, raw and super actionable advice from questions submitted by you, my community of doers and dreamers and builders. We're diving into email marketing, delegation, identity shifts, creative strategy, and yes, the sleep hacks that are actually working in my life right now. Whether you're just getting started or knee deep and building your next big thing, this episode is like a power packed voice message from a friend who's been there and who wants to see you win. Before we dive into the first question, this month has been a joy, celebrating you, our amazing community and to wrap up our Small Business Month spotlights, I've got one more voice to share that will leave you feeling inspired and fired up. Here is today's final Small Business Spotlight.
- [04:02]
Caroline Dana
My name is Caroline Dana and I am a new nurse career coach. I started my business about a year ago solely with the focus to help nursing students land their dream job out of school. Most people don't realize it's actually very competitive for nurses to get their first job. Now fast forward a year and I currently run an online community with close to 50 new nurses as members and I teach them not only how to navigate the job market, but also I host monthly workshops that are focused on topics outside of just job searching to really help them transition to life at the bedside. It is so hard to be a nurse and I also created a podcast called Life After Nursing School in hopes to serve new nurses on a larger scale. Yes, I did buy the podcast lab, so thank you so much for that. The number one thing that I learned while I've been building my business from the Gold Digger podcast is just your continued message of building a business that you love that is aligned with you. And I continue to ask myself, how are you really all the time? Because I want to make sure what I'm building is exactly what aligns with me and my passions. So now I'm honestly Getting a bit emotional now. I feel as though I have built something that I'm really proud of and I enjoy. I jump out of bed every day ready to do it. And I just want to thank you so much for that.
- [05:25]
Jenna Kutcher
Oh, my gosh, Caroline is so sweet. If you are a nurse, go check out her podcast, Life After Nursing School. All right, without further ado, let's hit play on our first listener question.
- [05:38]
Caroline Dana
Hi, Jenna. This is Nicole from New York. I am the owner of Speech Rise Private Practice and the creator of the Tiny Talker Playbook digital course. And my question for you is, early on in your career, what was your secret sauce for ensuring that your lead magnets and other content was getting in front of your ideal customer to ultimately build your email list and grow your business?
- [06:00]
Jenna Kutcher
Hey, Nicole. All right, I love this question. And for anyone that is listening and they're like, wait, what is a lead magnet? What Nicole is referring to is essentially a freebie or a free offer in order to grow her email list. So when you are just starting out your email list, you want to start creating lead magnets or freebies that will attract your ideal customer. Now, one thing that I recognize is a lot of people immediately think about the masses, right? Like, they're like, how do I get thousands of people onto my email list? And hopefully that will come. But in reality, what you want to really focus on is having super strategic lead magnets that don't just get people to opt into your email list, but that are directly aligned with what you want to offer or what you are selling, right? So we want to lean more on strategy and not get so fixated on the number, but more so how do we tie the email list growth to real results? So if I were just starting over and I didn't have a huge audience, these are a few strategies that I would consider. So first is Pinterest. So I have been using Pinterest for eight years. I talk a lot about Pinterest, and in the first year of using it, I had 20x my website traffic using my one hour a week organic strategy. Now, why is this important? When you think about having some sort of free offer, one of the biggest things you need is traffic to your offer. It's kind of like that whole, if you build it, they will come. But any entrepreneur knows that is simply not the case. You have to lead people to where you want them to go. You need to lead them and get that traffic so that you can convert that traffic into an email subscriber. And so Pinterest is A search engine, it's not social media. And what's amazing about Pinterest is when you bring pins onto the platform, which you can do as a contributor, you can link to any destination. So if I were just starting out and I had a lead magnet or a freebie and I wanted to grow my email list, I would make a bunch of pins, put em up on Pinterest using my strategy and I would link them to the opt in pages. Pinterest is an amazing way that we grow our email list. And the best part is, is it's not a popularity contest. So you don't have to have a massive following to gain traction. Because again, it's a search engine and not social media. So Pinterest would be the first place I would start. The second thing that I would consider is once I have a lead magnet that is proven to work, AKA people are opting in, people are engaging with the content and people are naturally looking for the next step, which again would be my paid offer. Once I see that I have something that is working, even if it's not at a mass scale, I would absolutely consider putting my ad dollars and strategy behind it. So most of the time when people run ads, they wait until they have something to sell to run ads. And I argue that is the worst strategy. I think you should be putting your ad dollars behind your free offers because your leads are going to be way cheaper. But it also gives you an opportunity to nurture and serve and then sell. So once I had something that I've proven like, okay, people actually want this, they're willing to opt in for it. I have kind of the thought process around where is this going to lead and how would this connect to a real result? I would absolutely put ad dollars behind it. I have ads running to a bunch of freebies every single day. I never shut them off. And our cost per lead is pretty small. It's like a DOL $2. So when you look at that, if you can tie that cost per lead to a real result, it's worth every single penny. Another thing I would consider is sharing on social media. Yes. Even if it's just your friends and family, you want people to start seeing you as whatever it is that you're creating or what you're going to be selling. And there are likely people already in your ecosystem that are a fit for whatever your freebie is. And you can get feedback, you can get that real time data. So starting to pivot. Even if you're using social media as a personal person and Not a business yet. I would absolutely go on to social again. It's not about the masses, but it's about seeing proof of concept and that people really want what you have. And then lastly, I would consider all of the places that I could loop lead magnets in where I'm creating or publishing or showing up. So if you have a blog, you could have popups, you can have footers, you could have a sidebar, if you're on podcast episodes as a guest, or if you host a podcast, having your lead magnets, you can have your lead magnet in your email signature. Right? So just considering all the different places where people can be exposed to that free offer and opt in, one of the things that we say in my business is no dead ends. We don't want people to finish a piece of content and be like, okay, now, like, where do I go from here? What's next? And so just thinking through all the places that you currently have in your business or you're creating in your business and how you can loop in email list growth as one of the main objectives. So that is exactly how I would do that, and I hope that's helpful, Nicole. All right, on to the next question. This caller's name is Lindsay.
- [11:10]
Caroline Dana
Hi, Jenna. My name is Lindsay. I'm calling from Houston, Texas. So I have a question on how to get my business to the level of rinse and repeat that you have so beautifully graded in yours.
- [11:26]
Jenna Kutcher
Hi, Lindsay. Okay, I love rinse and repeat. So the business that I am running today is incredibly similar to the business that I was running over six years ago when I first had my daughter, Coco. It's crazy that I've been a mom that long. That feels absolutely unreal. And beyond a few little offers that we tested in between, literally, my business has been pretty much the same for six years now. Here's what's interesting. I am someone who is easily excitable. I have a lot of ideas. I love being creative. And so for me to run a business that is this structured has had its own challenges in terms of staying focused and staying the course. But I will argue that the wins that have come out of having a rhythmic business like this far outweigh any frustrations or hesitations I have. So much. So one of the things that was so important to me and how this business came to be so rinse and repeat was before I had my daughter, I went through a three year period of two pregnancy losses, miscarriages, and then a year of pregnancy. And I promised myself in that season of waiting That I would focus on building a business that could run while I rested, that could actually run without me, because I was coming from the land of being a wedding photographer, where I was trading time for money. The only way to make more money was to work more essentially. And I didn't want that sort of life when I became a mom. And so what I had to do is figure out how do I build and set things up with intention to have it be something that can work for me not just today, but in the weeks and months to come. So I really had to shift the way that I looked at creating content, whether it was an offer or a freebie, whether it was a podcast episode or a blog post, and really change from those quick dopamine hits, those flash in the pan posts that maybe get a little bit of traction and then live and die very quickly, to thinking with a long term strategy in mind. So everything I create today I am trying to think of like, how can this be used and repurposed? Does this still make sense in weeks and months to come? And really building up a system that allows me to have the piece in my mind of anything I'm working on today is still going to be working for me in the future. The second thing I really had to think about is how can I have a plan or strategy to freshen things up? So I don't want to just set it in, Forget it. Like, I would argue that if that is your business model, your offers are going to go down very quickly. And so I have a plan and a strategy of every single year, every single quarter, I'm freshening something up, I'm checking in on the offer, I'm reinvigorating energy into it. So basically the kind of 30,000 foot view of my business is I am doing one big launch per quarter. Each of my programs is launched one time a year, live launched, which means we are updating all of our copy sales pages, ad graphics, ad videos, the actual course itself. And so every single year, everything is getting refreshed, if not more frequently. But make sure that if you are creating things that can live on, you also are creating a plan or a strategy around how am I going to keep these things fresh and how am I going to make sure that they continue to work and work efficiently. The next thing that I really focused on is having a plan to get people into my offers if you're not actively promoting. So as I just stated, I have one launch per quarter, which means that there are a lot of months out of the year that I'm not actively promoting. I'm not in a live launch. And so how are you going to lead people to those offers? Right, you can have amazing evergreen offers, meaning offers that don't just open and close, but they're ongoing. But if you're not thinking through how am I actually going to get people to them, then you're missing a huge part of the equation. And so for us, it's paid ad strategy and having our email list and then incorporating these little micro pushes or micro advertisements into our organic promotion. And so making sure you're thinking, okay, I have these offers. These offers are going to work. They're going to be more long term. How am I freshening them up and then how am I getting people into them? Now the biggest challenge that I see people face is they want the rinse and repeat business, but they are diverters. They love to divert from the plan. Right. If you truly want a rhythm that can be rinse and repeat, you have to stay focused. You have to put the blinders on. You have to really let go of this idea that in order to stay relevant, you have to be creating something new. It takes a lot of discipline to continue refining something than it does to just be chasing new. Because for entrepreneurs, chasing new is easy, it's comfortable, it keeps us in motion, but it doesn't always mean that we're being efficient. And so I have coached different entrepreneurs over the last year, and one of the biggest things that they struggle with is sticking to the plan and staying excited about old offers. And I have had to learn how to stay so excited about offers that I created six years ago to keep them fresh and exciting and amazing, but also to stay excited about advertising them. And so how can you bring that fun in while staying super disciplined and stay sticking to the plan? And then the last thing I will say is, if you want more of a rinse and repeat business, you have to get really granular and dig into what works and what doesn't work and do more of what is working for you. When you create systems and you have the confidence that your efforts are actually tied to real results, it is so easy to copy and paste a process from one offer to the next. So you don't have to always be creating. You don't have to always be thinking through, okay, I need something new, I need to do something new. And so we have really systemized my entire business, created very beautiful rhythms that can be executed without me having to be a part of every single thing. And so create systems, refine them and then copy and paste them. That is like where the rinse and repeat comes in. And I was reminded by a sweet friend one time when I was feeling bored in my business, quote, unquote. And she said that the rinse and the repeat is the gift, not the burden. It is the gift that has allowed me time to have hobbies. It's allowed me time as a mom. It's allowed me, you know, the ability to say, like, I'm not launching anything in the summer. It's allowed me so much freedom. And so it's up to me to fill that freedom with things that bring me joy and to just keep the business fun because it's predictable. And to me, predictability is more sexy than any flash in the pan or hack or strategy that might work today and not work tomorrow. Like, give me long term success and I'm totally bought in. So I hope that helps answer your question. Lindsay. One of my favorite things about summer is spending time at the lake. And we are in the process of refurnishing our lake house slowly but surely. And I have been obsessed with cozy lately. You know when you first find a brand and you think, okay, they totally get me for me, that's cozy. Their pieces are beautiful, but more than that, they're practical. And as someone who juggles business and motherhood and maybe moving the couch for the third time this month, which Drew can confirm, I need furniture that keeps up. Cozy's modular couches have totally caught my eye. They are designed to adapt whether your living room turns into a dance floor, a playroom, or your office for the day. I love that you can reconfigure them, add pieces as your space changes. And yes, they have washable covers for the win when you've got kids running around. They are all about being modern, adaptable and worry free. They truly open up new home possibilities with free furniture that adjusts to your life and not the other way around. And let's be real, your home should be your way, reflecting who you are and how you live. Transform your living space today with cozy. Visit cozy.com spelled C-O-Z-E-Y.com the home of Possibilities made easy. I love finding pieces that feel timeless and high quality, but I am also all about staying intentional with how I spend. So so I am genuinely excited to share that this episode is sponsored by the RealReal. That is the best place to shop authenticated luxury from shoes to watches to designer bags and dresses. Now I have been slowly curating those timeless pieces that I know I will wear for years, and the RealReal has become my go to. I actually just found a gorgeous Jenny Kane sweater that I had been eyeing forever at a price that didn't make me wince. They drop 10,000 new items every single day at 10am and 7pm Eastern Standard Time. And every single piece is authenticated in person by experts. So you know you're getting the real deal. And since it's resale, you're giving beautiful pieces a second life, which is so much better for your closet and for the planet. In fact, the RealReal has found new homes for over 37 million authenticated luxury pieces. So instead of producing more stuff, they're making what already exists new. The Real Real is the world's largest and most trusted resource for authenticated luxury resale. With thousands of new arrivals daily, no one does resale like the real real. And now you can get 25 off your first purchase when you go to therealreal.com gold digger. That's therealreal.com goal digger to get 25 off. Start shopping now at therealreal.com golddigger. All right, next question is from Greg. Let's hear from Greg.
- [20:44]
Caroline Dana
Hey, Jenna. This is Greg from Lynchburg, Virginia. You're always talking about how you're not quiet about the things that you love or that you're obsessed with. So what are three recent purchases that you can't stop recommending to other people?
- [21:00]
Jenna Kutcher
Ooh, okay, this is a fun one. Okay, I'm gonna have to think for a minute. So one of them is something I'm about to do, but I keep talking about it to everybody. So have you ever heard of getting your colors done? So I had heard of it. In fact, my mom did it years and years ago, but she never really brought it up. And my friend Amy Porterfield got her colors done recently. She did it with her mom and her niece, and she has been raving about it. And what has been so interesting? So essentially, somebody comes into your house. They're a color consultant. They're trained in this, and they put all of these different fabrics on you, and they find out which colors are best for you based on your skin tone, your hair, your eyes. I don't know. There's a whole science behind it. I don't know the science. That's why I'm paying somebody to do this. And essentially, after your consult, you have, like, swatches of colors that look best on you and tones that you should stick to that will just make you look and feel vibrant. And I am so excited about this, which you might be laughing and rolling your eyes if you've been around a while. Because I used to be a sad, beige girly. No shame in that. I was, like, neutral everything. Like, give me the white linen shirt and the jeans. That was me. And over the last few years, I've incorporated so much more color into my wardrobe, into my life. I, like, love color now, and so I want to make sure that the colors that I'm wearing and using fit me best. And so Amy, for my birthday, got me a color consult. And I'm so excited. My mom and sister are going to do it with me, and somebody's coming to my house, and they're going to do it. And what I want them to do is, like, go through my closet and pull out, like, the best tones for me. Like, I noticed when I'm wearing bright colors, Like, I look more alive, and I can tell certain tones look better on me. I'm also excited about this because I think it's going to make me shop less because I'm going to be able to, you know, go into an online store and sort for specific colors, and I think it's going to help me build up more of a capsule wardrobe. And so I'm really excited. So I have done a halt on buying any new clothes until my colors are done. And I will report back what I am. But I'm very excited to hire a woman to come over to my house and tell me what colors to wear. And so I've been telling people about it. Just yesterday, I was at a boutique, and the woman was trying to sell me some colored clothes, and I was like, hold up. I can't buy anything colors until I get my colors done. And so I'm very excited. And they even go as far as to say, like, if you should do silver jewelry or gold jewelry. I'm really hoping they say gold, because I have so much gold jewelry. I'd be very sad. Okay, so I will report back on that. But that's one thing I can't stop talking about. Another thing I am literally obsessed with. And this is very niche, so I apologize. Chickens. Oh, my gosh, you guys. So we finally got chickens. I've been wanting chickens for two years now. And it kind of started as a joke. I actually have, like, a collage in my office, kind of like a dream board, and I have chicken pictures all over it to the point where one of my friends was like, okay, we've got to pare down the chicken content. And we got four chicks. Like, they were like, Two days old. We got them a few months ago. They are now outside in our coupe. We got the smart coupe and I am obsessed with them. All I want to do is go hang out with them. They are so fun, they are beautiful. They love us. Like whenever we come outside they just come running like we're obsessed. We are such a chicken family. So we have four chickens, they have not laid a single egg yet and I cannot wait till they lay eggs. Cuz if I love them this much without them laying eggs, I'm going to be obsessed when I can collect farm fresh eggs. So if you're thinking about getting chickens, they're actually not that much work. They're not super intimidating and we literally love them. They're just so great. So chickens, very niche. I apologize, but I am obsessed. I am a proud chicken mom and my kids literally love them. Okay, the last thing I will say and I've gotta apologize because I was trying to think of like cheap things I've bought and I can't really think of anything. I feel like I haven't been spinning as much is blood work. Okay, hear me out here. I know again a little bit niche, but it's true. So I think that especially for entrepreneurs where we are in cortisol rising situations and we need to have energy to run the type of businesses we want to run and do all the things we want in our precious life, I think that investing and getting your blood work done either if you have insurance and they can do it, awesome. If you don't have traditional insurance, paying out of pocket is an expense. But I will say that I believe that getting your blood work done is going to stay save you money because you will buy only supplements and things that are for you that you know you need. And I also just think that it gamifies your health in a way that makes it really fun to make super healthy changes. Like I will argue that your health is worth every penny. And so I typically get my blood work done two times a year, three times if there's something going on that I'm watching. But I love it because it gives me basically the guidebook of like, here is what I need, here's what my body actually needs, here's what I'm doing better on, here's what I need to focus on. And so I am a huge believer in getting your blood work done. And I just think that modern medicine doesn't do enough to help us be proactive about our health. And I am someone who I'm like, I will invest this money, just one, to make sure that the vitamins and supplements I'm taking are actually what I need, but also to make sure that, like, I am staying on track. Like, once I started to watch my blood work move, as I got healthier, it just became so much more fun for me. And as somebody who loves numbers and results, like, actually seeing it on paper was such a huge motivator. So, Greg, these are kind of niche things. Chickens, getting my colors done and blood work. But those are three things that I feel like I talk about often. And that's why I'm hesitant when people are like, what supplements do you take and what do you do? I'm like, I think that everybody is so bio individualized that I don't think we should be taking full supplement lists from people who have very different needs. And that's just my opinion on it. But blood work helps me with that. Okay, let's dive on in to the next question.
- [27:06]
Caroline Dana
Hey, Jenna. My name is Stephanie Ross, and I'm a fellow Midwesterner just across the river here in Wisconsin. And I'm recently a new mom. And I'm about to launch my first book that I wrote in the last two years of making some huge pivots for my personal life and my business. My question to you is, because I know you've done this yourself, how do you make a big launch like a book while you're a brand new mom?
- [27:37]
Jenna Kutcher
Ooh, okay, this is. This is a tricky one. And, you know, I think that for every single mom, this is going to be a unique situation. Would I advise on tackling a very big launch when you are a brand new mom? Probably not. I would leave room for choice, if that's possible. Like, you could pencil something in. But I really, if you are a mom, there's just so many things that are so unpredictable, like how you are going to feel, how your baby's doing, how your health is. So I launched my book when my daughter was about six months old, and it was when I knew that was kind of the pub date and especially going with a traditional publisher. I was with HarperCollins. You don't really have a lot of wiggle room. And honestly, I loved the timing of everything. It worked out well for me. But again, I think this is a very unique experience for each person. One of my really good friends is having her third child and she has a book coming out and she was just asking me advice of like, okay, what did you do? How did this work? And so here are a few things that I would Do. So I would make the plan prior to having your baby. So lay out the plan and lay the foundation in as many ways as possible. So I tried to hit all of my deadlines before I gave birth in terms of all the things I could control. So getting my manuscript in, doing our first round of edits, and all of that happened before my daughter was born. I also really had to thoughtfully plan out, like, when was I going to do promo, and what was that going to look like? And was I going to bring my baby with me or was she going to stay home? So, like, the week that my book came out, my whole family, my mom, Drew, and my two daughters flew to New York City with me. And I will never forget, like, nursing my daughter and then going on the Today show and then getting home to nurse her again, nursing her in Barnes and Noble. When I saw my book for the first time in a bookstore, doing an event and then having to, like, pause to nurse her. Like, it was. It was crazy, but it was also so beautiful and just, like, awesome. So get support where and when you need it. Plan in advance as much as you can. Leave room to push around dates if necessary. And for me, every time I went on to maternity leave, I always tried to set myself up so that I didn't have to do anything while on leave, but if I wanted to do something, I could. And so it just left me with more spaciousness and the ability to just be present, which I think is so huge. And the last thing I will say is I don't believe in balance. Like, I just don't. I think balance is a moment in time, not a state that's meant to be maintained. And so things will get out of balance if you're doing something really big. But just make sure that you have end dates so that you don't stay out of balance. So for me, I said, once my book comes out, I will go really hard with promo for one month. And after that month hits, I am taking time to be with my family. And that worked out really well because I had a Runway. I knew how long I was going to need to be in promo mode. And then I just kind of peaced out and enjoyed that last month of summer with my family, and it was really, really fun. I will also argue, for me, personally, I feel like the first few months of having a baby, after you get over the initial, like, birth recovery is when they sleep all the time. And so you have the most flexibility and freedom. I will argue that once they start hitting that, like, eight, nine, Month mark, all the way to, you know, a year and a half where they're really figuring out mobility and they're more on the move and they're more alert. That season, to me, is more challenging than the newborn stage where they sleep all the time. So that's just me, though. But I'm excited for you, and I think sometimes, too, as moms, it's beautiful to prove to ourselves that we can do both things and we can do them well. So I'm very excited for you, Stephanie. Best wishes on your launch. All right, next question comes from Jessica.
- [31:37]
Caroline Dana
Hi, Jenna. My name is Jessica. I've been juggling two businesses, and they're very different. One is being a fitness instructor, and the other is photography. And I'm trying to merge those two businesses into one experience where someone goes through a fitness journey and then ends it with a photo shoot. So as far as I know, there's nothing really like this out there. And I'm wondering if you have any tips as to how I can reach my ideal client who would be out there wanting, like, a massive transformation.
- [32:08]
Jenna Kutcher
Oh, okay. So this is a really cool idea, and I really love it. I think it's fun to incorporate in both of your passions as an offer. Now, here's what I'll say. I will say that this could be, like, your dream offer and your main offer, but what I'm very curious about is how many people just want one piece of it, right? I have noticed that a lot of times as business owners, when we bundle things together, we see the value as super significant, where people might value just one part of the offer more than the other or be willing to pay a certain amount just to get one piece of the offer. I see this all the time with, like, online courses where people throw in all these bonuses, and it's like they're valuing it super, super high. But as a person or a consumer, you might just want one piece of that. So what I would say is, is if I were you, Jessica, I would have both offers separate. So I would have the fitness instructor side and the photography side separate, with a goal to be to meld those two together. And I love it, because I think, too, once people start to get results on the fitness side, they'll be way more likely to want the photography side. But I feel like people might feel intimidated going into the experience thinking, oh, my gosh, I have to have this perfect, you know, after experience, and my body has to look a certain way before I'm ready for photos. And so the other thing that I'd be really curious about is if Pareto's principle is at play in your business. And Pareto's principle is essentially that 80% of our results usually come from 20% of our efforts. And given that these are two very separate and distinct offers, I'd be curious to know if one side of your business is giving you 80% of the results and the other one is kind of just like the cherry on top. And so take what is already working, go really hard on that and then see if there's a natural path to the other offer. So all of this to say I would still keep two separate offers, one fitness, one photography, have one dream offer where it is the whole shebang and then really investigate, okay, what is already working and how can I naturally lead people to the full shebang? Does that make sense? I think it's a really, really, really cool offer. And I'd just be curious to see to see if the data is saying that people value it in that way and that they want it or it might be something that they don't even know they want or need yet. And so the goal would be to get them in the door, get them working with you, and then naturally lead to that extension of the offer. When I created my first course, I had no systems, no team, and I kept wondering if anyone would even care. But if I had waited, I might have given into the doubt and missed the business that changed everything. What if the only thing standing between you and your dream business is just starting? You don't need a perfect plan. You just need Shopify. Shopify powers 10% of all US E commerce. From brands like Chamberlain Coffee to Thrive Cosmetics to businesses just getting started. You get beautiful ready to go templates, no code required and tools to manage everything in one place. Payments, inventory, emails and more. Shopify's AI tools can write product descriptions, clean up photos, even generate discount codes. And with built in email and social tools, you'll actually reach the people who need what you're selling. Whenever you need help. Shopify's award winning support team is there 24 7. So what if you didn't wait turn those dreams into and give them the best shot at success with Shopify. So sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com golddigger go to shopify.com gold digger shopify.com gold digger this episode of the Gold Digger podcast is brought to you Buying Mercury Modern business banking that helps businesses like mine simplify their finances. When I first started my business. I remember feeling so confused when it came to my finances. I was juggling invoices, tracking payments and managing cash flow all across different tools. And let me tell you, it was messy. That's what impressed me about Mercury. With one clean dashboard, I can send international wires in US dollars, pay vendors and issue virtual cards with 1.5% cash back. I can even lock cards to specific contractors and team members to keep spending on track. And if I ever need capital to fund inventory or a launch that's built into Mercury brings banking, credit cards and capital into one powerful platform so that I can stop stressing about the back end and get back to creating over 200, 000 startups and small businesses already. Trust Mercury and trust me, I can see why Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC insured bank. Check out the disclosure in the show notes to learn more. Deposit $5,000 or spend $5,000 using your Mercury credit card within your first 90 days to earn $250 dollars or do both for 500 in total rewards@mercury.com goal that's mercury.com goal. Living six hours away from Drew's family means that we often opt to meet in the middle and get Airbnbs for our get togethers. We've stayed in some pretty unforgettable places, like a house with an indoor pool, which was so fun for the Midwest. One where I discovered Drew's dad is a pool shark, and even a place with a hot tub that the kids refuse to leave. We've even celebrated holidays in these cozy homes away from home. And it got me thinking, if you've got a few trips on the calendar too, and your home's going to be empty, you should be hosting with Airbnb's co host network. You can have a local co host take care of everything they can manage guest messages, check ins and all the details for you. It's not about turning your home into a business. It's about making it work for for you on the days that you're not in it. So if travels on your calendar, this is your sign to start hosting. Your space could be creating memories for someone else while you're off making your own. Find a co host today@airbnb.com host. Next question is from Mary.
- [38:20]
Caroline Dana
Hey Jenna, this is Mary Boker. My business helps women find, learn and enjoy playing golf. One question that I have is just as I'm looking to kind of scale and make things more repeatable and make more systems, you've talked a little bit about your team Structure and stuff, but just looking to get advice and guidance on how to build that team as I'm looking at, you know, growing this online business.
- [38:46]
Jenna Kutcher
Hey Mary. Oh, this is so fun. I used to work at a pro shop. It was one of my first jobs. I was the only girl in the entire pro shop and I was so good at selling golf clubs even though I had never golfed a day in my life. That is where I learned how to sell things. Okay, so I loved this. So let's talk about where you need the most support. So if you are trying to go more online and create more systems, one of the best ways to figure out where you need the most support is to do a time audit, like a calendar audit. So what this looks like is for two weeks time, you literally write down almost to the minute what you are doing in your business and that is going to reveal trends and places where you are spending a lot of your precious time. Not necessarily as the visionary or the CEO, but more in the weeds. So I always think naturally that the first place that you want to hire somebody for is as a virtual assistant to help you manage your inbox and to help with other tasks online. So like my va, who is amazing, her name is Steph, she has been with me for eight years and over the years she went from managing the inbox to helping us pull things into courses, to quality checking pages, to helping serve our clients, to you know, noticing what are we getting most questions about so we can create content around that. So she is kind of the hub and the main person in the business that like has eyes on everything. And so usually I would say a virtual assistant, especially if you're going more online with your business and trying to find somebody that is trainable so you can teach them different aspects. So I think a lot of people get stuck cuz they're like, well I would only need a VA for like one hour a day or I'm not really getting a lot of volume in my inbox. So this doesn't make sense. But VAs can do a bunch of different things. But what I'm gonna tell you is I think that when you do a time audit, you are going to see some really clear places where you need support, whether it's social media, building out landing pages, creating email funnels, like all the different places. And I would argue that if you did a time log and you pulled it into ChatGPT and you said help me see my blind spots or tell me like what type of talent I need to look for you could probably really quickly land on what sort of position you need to create. And you could also create a job role based off of what you need to get off of your plate in that audit. So you could hire the exact type of role you need. And I will say I hire more based off of personality, and then I train for talent, but you can kind of decide what that looks like. And so with the online business, like, you're basically taking your offers and getting them online, obviously. And so there are a lot of little tiny nuances within there that you might want. Somebody that has experience in that space of knowing, okay, do you know what a landing pages? Do you know what a thank you pages? Do you know what an email funnel is? How would you respond to this support request? Do you know what this platform is? Et cetera. But the time audit should give you a really clear look at, like, here are the roles that you need the most in your business. And then you can figure out, is that one person, Is it two people? Is it part time, is it full time? What does that look like? And then you can hire a person based off of exactly what you need the most help with. All right, this one is coming in from Kat.
- [42:10]
Caroline Dana
Hey, Jenna, my name is Kat, and I'm calling from Nashville, Tennessee. I'm really hoping you get some better sleep. What are some recent hacks you've come across to get better sleep?
- [42:23]
Jenna Kutcher
Ooh. Okay. This is one of my favorite topics. It was funny. I was climbing into bed last week and I told Drew. I was like, I have got do an episode about the ways that we are controlling what we can control with sleep. After six years of very unpredictable sleep, thanks to children. And one of the things I've learned, especially if you are in a stage of parenthood where sleep is unpredictable, is taking control of the things that you can control helps ease anxiety around sleep and helps you sleep sleep better. Okay. So I have gotten really nerdy when it comes to sleep, and it has become just a huge focus for us and a part of our life because it's like, when it comes to our health, controlling the controllables, there are certain things when it comes to sleep we can control, and there are other things that are out of our control. So the first thing is this. One of the things that has been such a game changer is our kids go to bed around 7:30 or so. As soon as the kids go to sleep, I go into my room and I, like, set up the room for the environment that we want to be in. So we have, like, Throw pillows, I like organize those, take them off the bed, turn down the sheets. I turn on our humidifier. We have an oil diffuser. I close all of our curtains. I put our lamps on super low. I turn on our white noises. Like I get our room so ready and there's something so powerful with this. Not only does my future self always thank me, like when it is bedtime, I'm like, oh my gosh, just get to crawl into bed. But I also feel like it is signaling to myself, my brain, my body. Like okay, sleep is coming soon. You will be able to wind down soon. So just kind of doing like a little Turndown service at 7:30. I also do my skin care at this time. So let's walk through that. So I used to wait and do my skincare right before I went to bed. I would half heartedly do it. Some nights I'd just like wipe my face off and be like, call it good. And so at this time at 7:30, I turn down our bedroom and then I go in and I do like a mini spa experience. And for me again it is like an experience where I come back into my own energy, right? I just got done parenting, I got done putting kids to bed. It's kind of stressful and so it's like returning to myself, being back in my own body, doing something that is caring for myself. So I am obsessed with primally pure. It is the only skincare I've used for the last seven years. I love that it is all natural, it's non toxic. I used it all through pregnancy, through breastfeeding, through every stage. There's no hormone disruptors in it. Like I feel so good about the skin care. So a lot of times I'll turn down my bed, I'll put the cleansing oil on. And one thing my therapist told me to do was like just pa like pause and enjoy it, right? Like let it be a visceral experience where you notice how it smells, how it feels, the temperature of your washcloth. Like it is just like an experience where I come back to myself. I don't know how else to say it. So I do the cleansing oil, then I do a toner. I either do the everything spray or the clarifying spray and it just spritz your face. And then I do serums. So my favorite serum is the clarifying serum. I also use a plumping serum. It's a little bit more floral for me. So I like the smell of the clarifying. And I also just feel like as someone who is prone to get, like, hormonal breakouts. I feel like the clarifying everything is amazing. And then if my skin is drier, they have, like, the most, like, the deepest cream. So there's clarifying cream, which Drew steals it all the time. The other day, he was, like, at the bottom of it, and I was like, dang it, I gotta order more. And so I'll go cleansing oil, spray serum, and then cream if I need it. And then I also use the baby balm. I'll use that as, like, an eye cream and, like, a lip balm. And that is the routine. So I love doing my skincare then, because not only does it have time to, like, soak into my skin before I crawl into bed, because if you think about it, a lot of people are putting, like, expensive products on their face, and then they're just putting their face up against their pillowcase, and their pillowcase is getting all the product. So I feel like it gives my skin time to, like, soak everything in. And then when it is bedtime, all I have to do is brush my teeth and climb into bed. It's, like, the best. I have a humidifier that is next to my bed that is running. And it is crazy to me that I have to, like, refill the tank almost every day. But I love it. And then we do different oils. So, like, I love eucalyptus oil. It feels like a spa. And we'll just have oils going in our room. So our room smells really good. We have this thing on our mattress called the chili Sleep. There's also one called the eight sleep. I don't. I think they're both very similar. We got it a few years ago, and I kid you not, I swear by this thing. So it is like a mattress pad, and it runs water through the mattress pad at a specific temperature. You can set your temperature different than your partner's. It is expensive. Let me tell you. It is an investment. But we sleep so much better. There's some crazy data on how most of the time when you wake up in the middle of the night, it's because your temperature changed. Like, you're overheated, right? If you're one of those people where you, like, stick your legs out of the blanket or you throw the blankets down, or you just have your sheet. And so I sleep so much better because I love having blankets on me, but I don't want to get too hot. And it's funny now because if we sleep somewhere without our chili sleep, we sleep like crap. Like, we just want to get home and back to our bed. So our chili sleeps on and set to a temperature. I think I have mine at, like, 80 degrees. So if you think about it, your body temp is 98. So it keeps me cool, but I'm not, like, cold. And you can also set it to, like, be warm when you get in and then go cold and then get warm again when you wake up. But it is insane because. Because it runs water every once in a while. It'll run out of water in the middle of the night. I will literally wake up sweating if it runs out. So, huge fan of the chili. None of this. This is not sponsored. These are just things that I, like, swear by. And we bought ours years ago, and I always just look at, like, if I get one hour of better sleep a night, how much is that worth over time? And I. I'm a huge fan. We love it so much that when we designed our furniture for our bedroom, we made sure that the bed that we ordered fit our little chili sleep docks underneath it. Like, that's how much we love this thing. Okay, so chili sleep on. Then when I climb into bed, I do a sleep spray on the bottom of my feet. So primally pure. Just came out with this, like, amazing magnesium lavender spray, and I love it. So I spray the bottom of my feet. I can spray my forearms, and I massage it in. It smells really good. But I also just feel like it helped. Helps my body absorb magnesium, which is huge, and it helps with sleep. And then we have done this for literally a decade. We do not sleep with our phones in the bedroom. Our phones do not come in the bedroom. We are in a weird camp where I know a lot of people will listen to this and be like, what? But we sleep with our phones in our pantry. So not even on the same floor as us. In a decade of doing this, we have only ever missed one call that was an emergency. And other than that, we've never missed, like, an important call. And yes, we have aging parents and grandparents and, you know, life, but to me, I get hours of better sleep. I wake up without scrolling on my phone, like, the benefits far outweigh it. And maybe you charge your phone in your bathroom, but I. We have been so huge on this, and I think it helps us sleep better. I think it helps us connect better. I think it helps us wake up better. So, like, I don't even go on my phone until typically, when the kids go to school in the morning, I'll peek at it. Just make sure nothing came in overnight. And I don't Take my phone out of the box in our pantry until my kids go to school. So no phones in the bedroom. We have our Kindles. That's the only device that we have. And so I'll lay down and I'll read my Kindle. Sorry, this is getting long. But I am obsessed with sleep and I do my my higher dose red light face mask which is hilarious because it is bright. And Drew always like laughs because I look like crazy. But I will do 20 minutes on the red light face mask while I'm reading my Kindle. Typically I will fall asleep while the mask is still on, which is crazy because it's bright. And then I will take the mask off and I put mouth tape on. And I am someone who never thought I could do mouth tape. One I like H I'm claustrophobic so the thought of like having my mouth tape shut felt terrifying to me. But I am a mouth breather and there is so much studies around how breathing through your mouth impacts your sleep, it impacts your health, all different things. And especially since I did Invisalign and I have to wear the retainers at night I would wake up with the driest mouth like ten times a night. Like just wake up with like cotton mouth. It's the worst feeling in the world. So mouth tape has been amazing. At first I tried really thick mouth tape and I felt so claustrophobic and I didn't even really know how to breathe through my nose. And so it lasted like 10 seconds cuz I would panic. But I ended up going on Amazon and I got this really cheap. It's like clear and it looks like an X so you can still breathe through the sides of your mouth if you need to breathe. Or you can drink through a straw if you're thirsty. And I can still kind of talk to my kids if they come in my room in the middle of the night with this mouth tape on. And so oftentimes it I will hold the mouth tape right against my Kindle and when I'm about to fall asleep I'll put the mouth tape on and go to bed. And it has changed my sleep so much. It's good for sculpting your jaw. It's good for like parasympathetic nervous system. It is amazing. I am a mouth tape believer and now if I sleep without it, I notice it. I wake up so much my mouth is dry, my teeth feel gross, like just everything. So mouth tape, huge believer. I have an organic co op pillow. There's this brand on Amazon, it's like organic co op. I slept somewhere once that had them and I loved them so much that I like opened up the pillowcase to look and now I have a body pillow and the head pillow. And what I like about them is you can take stuffing out of it to make it like the perfect height. I love pancake pillows, like super thin pillows. And so the organic co op pillow is great. And then also Drew and I have eye masks. So we have curtains in our bedroom, but they let light in, which I like because I just love sunshine, especially like as we're getting into summertime. But we have, we sleep with eye masks on our nightstand so that if it's like 5am and it's bright out and we want to keep sleeping. So like, even this morning, Drew woke up to work out and he like tapped me and gave me my silk eye mask and then I put that on and got a little bit more sleep. So can you tell I've gone down a rabbit hole when it comes to sleep? I am obsessed. I will link to all the things I just talked about, just if you're curious. But I love all of these things and I feel like coming out of six years of just not sleeping great as parents, we're finally in a more predictable sleep rhythm and schedule. We still get some, you know, intruders in the middle of the night, but I feel like my sleep has been never been better. And I feel like, yes, I'm high maintenance when it comes to sleep, but to me it is so worth it because I wake up feeling rested and having the energy that I need to do all the things I want to do. All right, that was a long one. Okay, next question is from Dr. Pam Johnson.
- [53:56]
Caroline Dana
Hey, Jenna, this is Dr. Pam Johnson. I'm a semi retired veterinarian. I noticed that you do a lot of posting on social media about your personal life, which I very much appreciate and wanted to know what percentage you post personally versus professionally.
- [54:17]
Jenna Kutcher
Okay, I love this question. And ideally I would say I try to go 30 business, 70 life. I would say lately it's felt more like 40 business, 60% life, essentially. Like, when I think about social content, I think 2 out of 3 posts are personal. And when it comes to email content, we definitely try to air more on the side of personal and serving versus selling. I don't necessarily try to separate as much about personal versus business, but more like serving versus selling or like connecting intentionally versus, you know, trying to promote something. And so I think find the balance that works best for you. But I think there is so much power in having content that is created just for the sake of it encouragement and serving and connecting. Especially in a world where we are constantly sold to. So whenever we lay out our content plan, we are constantly looking at like, okay, what is the breakdown? There are going to be months where it is heavier on the business, especially when we're in live launches, which is typically four months out of the year. But then the rest of those months we weigh really heavily on serving content versus selling. So I hope that answers your question. All right, that is a wrap on questions. Thank you so much to everyone who reached out. If you would like a chance to be featured on the next goal Digger Q A, simply call in and just leave us a voice message with your burning question. The phone number is 218-203-9660 that is 218-203-9660 and just leave your name, where you're calling in from and your question. The number is also in the show notes in the episode description and I hope you love today's episode and if you know anyone that could benefit from any of these answers, take a second to share this episode with them, have a conversation around it, work together and collaborate. And thank you again for letting me be a part of your life. And thank you for these awesome questions. Until next time, Gold Diggers, Keep on digging your biggest goals and I'll be in your earbuds soon. Thanks for pulling up a seat for another episode of the Gold Digger Podcast. I hope today's episode fueled you with inspiration, gave you information that you can turn into action, and realigned you with your true north in life and business. If you've enjoyed today's episode, head on over to gold diggerpodcast.com for today's show notes, discount codes for our sponsors, freebies to fuel your results, and so much more. And if you haven't yet, make make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss a future show. We'll see you next time, Gold Diggers.