EP09 Getting Gutsy with Jenny Fenig

“I’m here to lighten your load, take away the fear, and help you find and walk your true path in life (and have A LOT OF FUN doing it).”
- Jenny Fenig

Links from the Show

• Jenny Fenig Website
• Jenny Fenig Get Gutsy Coach Training School
• Jenny Fenig Book
• Jenny Fenig Giveaway
• Jonathan Fields Website
• Jonathan Fields Book: Career Renegade
• Amazon’s CreateSpace Self-Publishing

You’re listening to The Business of Life podcast. Practical advice for creating the life you love to live. Here’s your host, Keith Callahan.

INTRODUCTION

KC: Alright, welcome to Episode 9 of The Business of Life podcast. Keith here and excited to introduce you today to Jenny Fenig. So, Jenny’s a storyteller, brand strategist and champion of gutsy women in business and through her online courses, live events, coach certification program and bestselling book, Get Gutsy, Jenny teaches ambitious women how to reach more, make more and play more. Her husband and 3 children make the journey sweet. So, Jenny actually lives in the same town that I do. So, it’s been awesome getting to know her over the last couple of years, her and her husband Steven and their 3 kids. Their kids actually go to school with my kids. So, it’s awesome to be able to introduce you to her and most of her work is for women but I have to tell you, I’ve learned a ton from her. So, although she directs her work and especially her events are women only, definitely not just information for women and, like I said, I’ve learned a ton from Jenny. Also, as usual, it’s usually, we listen to someone and we’re listening to someone talk and we want to get the information, what they talked about and we think we’re going to go to the website and get the show notes and then we forget. So, as you are listening today you can always send a text message to 38470 and then just include the word Jenny, j-e-n-n-y in that text message. So again, 38470 and include the word Jenny and we will send you the show notes for today’s episode with Jenny Fenig or you can always jump over to KeithCallahan.com/episode9. Alright, well, let’s get Jenny on here. Enjoy.

INTERVIEW WITH JENNY

KC: Alright, so I am super excited to introduce today’s guest, Jenny Fenig. Jenny, welcome to the show.

[02:30]

JF: Thanks for having me here Keith. I’m really excited.

[02:33]

KC: Alright, so you know, I’m really excited to dive in and learn a little bit more about your business myself. So, do you mind if I jump right in and start asking you some questions?

[02:44]

JF: Let’s jump.

[02:45]

KC: Alright. So, the podcast that we have here, it’s about creating the life that you love to live and you really did that. You went from not just starting a business and creating a business but really creating a life. Like, you built your business around your life and I was wondering if you could just take us through how that process went from having a 6-figure, the big corporate job in New York City to becoming a yoga instructor and now to your coaching business.

[03:18]

JF: Yeah, yeah, it’s such a, I love being able to tell this story and I want everyone listening to know that you too have a story and you should be in love with your story, you know.

[03:28]

KC: Yup.

[03:29]

JF: And, we get to these points where we’re not loving the story and when we realize that we are in-charge of the story, when we stop being victims or thinking that the world’s out to get us and all these stuff happened to us and it’s no fair, when we really take ownership and say, ‘You know what, I’m writing all of this, right, this is dream, I’m creating it’ that’s when things get really juicy and really fun. So, as you said, Keith, I, you know, found my way to New York City as a young twenty something, straight away from college. I grew up in Florida, University of Florida and I fell in love with career called Public Relations and I thought I was going to do that for the rest of my life. I was like, “Oh my God.” I didn’t even know that the world of Public Relations existed until I found it in college.

[04:11]

KC: Yup.

[04:12]

JF: And, when I found it I said, “This is it.” Like, these are my people. This is so what I was put on earth to do and I really and I’ve rose to the top within the PR major, like the opportunities that were available to me at the University of Florida and we had the number 2 Journalism and Communications School in the nation. So, it was a great place for me to be learning all about communications, writing, PR and putting yourself out there and I scored a huge internship the summer after my junior year in New York City at a global PR firm called Porter Novelli and just did it. I just went for it. I didn’t have, all of my friends were like staying home, you know, going to the beach, working at a restaurant which was fine but, you know, there was me heading up to New York. Luckily, I had people who were a year older than me who did it the prior summer and they were like, “Jenny, you have to go do this.” They were like my mentors. And, you and I, Keith, we know the importance of mentors. So, they said they had the best summer of their lives. They said, “You have to do it. Next year, when you qualify you should go.” And so, I did and it just, I fell in love with the city. I ended up moving back to New York, after I graduated that same company hired me and I was there for 4 years working on big clients like Pfizer, Kellogg’s cereals, M&M’s candies. Polaroid cameras, you know, working on the biggest of the big projects, traveling around and then hitting a wall and realizing, “Oh my gosh, this is just not what I thought it might be. This is not the dream. I don’t love it enough.” And, that was a tough pill to swallow because I had thought I had found the dream. I was doing all these wonderful projects, a big responsibility but I was there, Keith, when 9/11 happened and something inside of me shifted. You know, death and big events like that has a way of doing that to you and I just knew that there was more to life than that. I was spending so many of my waking hours at a job that I just wasn’t passionate about. And so, I jumped from there into a career called conference production which I didn’t know that existed until I found it.

[06:16]

KC: So, still in the corporate realm, right?

[06:19]

JF: Yes, still in the corporate.

[06:20]

KC: Okay.

[06:21]

JF: I didn’t know, I mean some people are like, “I knew I was going to be an entrepreneur from the time I was, you know, 5.” I didn’t know that. You know, I’ve always been independent. I love making things out of nothing which really is a great trait to be an entrepreneur.

[06:34]

KC: Yup.

[06:35]

JF: But, I didn’t have like, my mother or father they weren’t entrepreneurs. My grandfather was, my grandfather on my mother’s side. And so, now that I m one, I realized just how much he’s alive in me and how much I have that trait from him and I appreciate that. But no, I was still in corporate, I just, that’s all I saw, that was my reality. It was like, you live in New York, you work at a big job and you go to your office every single day and you just do the job. But, that job, Keith, I have to say, I mean I was blessed in that I was producing events and inviting big name people to speak on my stage, people like Tony Robbins, the peak performance expert, you know, everyone knows Tony Robbins, Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of a number of books, Tom Peters, management guru, Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, like all these dudes, they’re all guys, took my stage, amazing stories, amazing storytellers and amazing lives and I said, “Wait, they look like they’re having a lot of fun. They look like they’re really just out there doing it.” And, by the end of that job and I too spent about 4 years there, I just knew that I learned everything there was to learn and I really hit this wall. It was my 30th birthday, I tell this story in my book, Get Gutsy, I just was on the strip in Las Vegas out on a business trip and I was really bored and I had run from this feeling, I’d run from this voice inside of me that just said, “Jenny, what  are you doing? This isn’t you. You have something bigger to do with your life. It’s different than this. This is preparing you but you will need to take that leap and it will be scary but you’re going to be safe and you’re protected.” And, that was that voice that just hit me loud and clear so it was that year in 2007 that I decided to sign up for yoga teacher training as you mentioned and it was during that training that I got the courage up to quit my job one day, a 6-figured job, I went from 6 figures to no figure overnight. I didn’t know then I was going to be an entrepreneur. I wasn’t already starting up my business. I wasn’t working with a coach. I mean I was really just listening to that inner voice and being willing to trust those nudges inside of me and know that I was smart enough to figure it out when I would give myself the space to do so. So, that’s really, that’s what I did and I took some time off. I went to an Ashram. Anyone listening who read Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Eat Pray Love, I have just read that book. I really….

[08:58]

KC: My wife love’s that book.

[09:00]

JF: Right and I believe that books are here to give us guidance and to give us messages that we need to hear. And so, that was a big book for me and I applied for some jobs. I wasn’t excited about those jobs. I was getting callbacks and saying ‘No thanks.’ I interviewed for Lululemon to work at retail. I didn’t even get, I got one callback, I didn’t get another callback, like I was at a really, you know, I was just like looking at everything. I considered working for Teach for America.

[09:29]

KC: Yeah.

[09:30]

JF: I was, I mean I considered just about every different avenue possible. Luckily, my husband was very supportive emotionally and just said, “Jenny, you will figure it out.” You know, I didn’t want to just go jump into some other job, what’s the point, you know, like what would be the point of that? I really wanted to love what I did and, luckily at that time, one of the yoga teacher trainers who owned the studio at that time, he’s a man named Jonathan Fields. You may have heard of him, Keith, really cool guy.

[09:56]

KC: Yeah, so what type of yoga were you teaching?

[09:58]

JF: Vinyasa.

[09:59]

KC: Okay, yup.

[10:00]

JF: Vinyasa. I went into my yoga teacher training not knowing if I was going to teach yoga. I just wanted to go deeper into the practice. I wanted to go deeper into everything I could learn about yoga because it made me feel good and it made, it helped me make smarter, healthier choices and up to that point, I looked really perfect in the outside. It looked like I was, you know, this type A overachiever but I was doing really unhealthy things to my body. I was drinking too much. I was taking drugs. I was working too much, you know, I’m really good at going to the ‘ahalism’ side of things. And so, yoga helped me not be in ‘ahalism’, you know, like so I just said, “I have to go deeper into this. I don’t know where it’s going to take me.” And, quite frankly, I wasn’t a great yoga teacher of asana, like I just would rather be taking the class than teaching the asana portion. I love teaching the philosophy of yoga and I do a lot of that in my coaching and just the way I run my courses and my business but that led me into the next phase. And so, what I have found, what I teach my clients, my students is that each decision will lead you to the next thing. You don’t have to get so to ‘is this the perfect thing’, ‘is this the right thing’, it’s just ‘is it what you need to do next’ and then from there it’s a stepping stone. So, this guy Jonathan Fields who, he’s written a number of books, he’s just a wonderful guy. He was working on his first book which is called Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love. And so, he was doing a workshop with that topic and I just went and from there, I met a gal who was a yoga teacher and a coach and I said, “What is this coach thing?” And, she explained it to me and I said, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t know that that was a job. That’s what I always loved doing most at all of my jobs, you know, my career.” It was like I didn’t know you could just to that and people pay you for that because I was, people always came to me for that. My co-workers would come to me for advice, insight, brainstorming, strategizing, motivation, inspiration. I mean I was a cheerleader in high school, like I’ve always been great at seeing the glass half-full. My sister died when I was a teenager and I was able to see what that could be, what I learned from that and really navigate through really tough terrain, trauma, loss, death and still decide that I wanted to be here. You know, that’s not easy, I have something. I have a gift. I know I’m here for a reason. So, from there, I discovered coaching, got certified as a coach and the business just creating itself around me finding the call, you know, hearing the call, listening to the call and then deciding to work with lots of mentors and coaches around entrepreneurship and marketing and, you know, information marketing and just, you know, learning as much as I could on how I could touch as many people possible with my message.

[12:48]

KC: You got to this point that corporate America wasn’t the way you were going to go. You didn’t know what you were going to start doing. So I guess the question is, were you trying to get a business started before the vision was clear, were you playing with things and testing things or is it like the vision just came and then like it was an all or nothing type of thing?

[13:10]

JF: That’s a really great question. I’m a big fan of vision. That’s actually a chapter, the first chapter of my book is called Vision. I had a vision for what I wanted my lifestyle to be.

[13:20]

KC: I love it.

[13:21]

JF: And, that’s really important. There’s so many of us, we like choose the career and then we try to build our life around the career and I do it the other way. It’s let’s have the lifestyle and then build the work into the lifestyle.

[13:35]

KC: Yup.

[13:36]

JF: So, I knew that I wanted to become a mother. I wasn’t a mother at that point but it was coming, you know, I felt this child. My first baby was like knocking on the door and I said, “I can’t, I don’t want to go back into a corporate structure which is very patriarchal.” And, trust me I love companies and I love serving people who work in those companies but that wasn’t the place for me and the kind of lifestyle I wanted. So, I wanted to, the key for me was I wanted to work with, I wanted to work where I wanted, when I wanted and with whom I wanted.

[14:04]

KC: Yup.

[14:05]

JF: You know, that was it, it was like that the freedom. My husband was and still is a sports television producer. He traveled a lot for his career. I wanted to be able to go with him and work while I was there, no problem. When he’s working like I’ll work from the hotel room. No big deal. I wanted to be able to do that without having to ask permission, without  having to be a, you know, like a deal breaker which it had been in my last job and I just knew that I was, I felt like I was shackled to my desk and there was a big world out there and I wanted to be able to explore it. So, that was it. And then, I just, I did I just started testing things with, you know, I did teach some yoga and I was like, “This is cool but it’s not really it.” Plus, remember, I’m coming from that 6-figure job, you know, it’s $175,000 in my last corporate job. Like, teaching yoga, that, no. You know, money is not the root of happiness but I had a lifestyle that I wanted to uphold. I want to give to causes. I want to live my life and money makes that a lot easier to do. So, that wasn’t going to cut it. And so, once I discovered the field of coaching, I just started layering in these clients. Work with them. It came so naturally to me but what I realized and this is a big piece of my teaching and why actually just this year, Keith, I launched my own coach training school called the Get Gutsy Coach Training School because I wanted to teach the future coaches how to actually make a great living as a coach because for the vast majority of them coming through like the classic coach training school model that’s not happening because they’re taught a model that’s just not going to cut it. It’s just not going to cut it and I realized that myself. And so, that’s why I then invested lots of money and time and working with entrepreneurs and high level marketers that I could develop a leveraged model so that I could go on vacation and still earn money. I can work, you know, 3 or 4 days a week, my schedule around my kids and my family and still have the business earning money without me having to noodle in it 24/7.

[16:06]

KC: So, a lot of times an entrepreneur or an aspiring entrepreneur, what’ll happen is we fall into the trap of consulting, like doing one-on-one consulting and you were talking about something that’s very different than that, like you don’t have to trade hours for dollars.

[16:23]

JF: That’s right.

[16:24]

KC: So, I was wondering if you could just share a little bit about that.

[16;27]

JF: Yeah, that’s huge. You hit the nail on the head. The hours for dollars mentality, that model which is very much what is taught in the classic, you know, old school coach training which was how I got my start and why I have an issue with it because it just doesn’t work, especially if you’re a parent like I am and you are, Keith. I mean we both have 3 kids.

[16:51]

KC: Yeah.

[16:52]

JF: You want to be able to do great work in the world and not be tied to your phone or, right, like with a phone in your ear like I was. That’s how I started the first couple of years and I’m like, “This, I love the work that I’m doing but I will burn out.”

[17:09]

KC: Yeah.

[17:10]

JF: You will. It’s not sustainable. What seems like a novelty at first, you’re like, “This is so awesome. People are paying me to do something that I just love and it comes so naturally to me.” Over time, you’re like, “Okay, like this is getting old.” And, what you realize is that you are saying the same things to all of these different clients that you talk to through the week and because the issues are the same across the board even if they manifest in different ways. And so, the entrepreneurs, the smart entrepreneurs out there, not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. So, if you are join the club, if you’re not, it’s okay, there’s a lot of other jobs and opportunities out there for you. The true entrepreneur says, “How can I make a bigger impact with less of my time invested?” Alright, so that’s why I started developing courses and programs so that I could develop curriculum, develop content, have, you know,  however many people go through that content and then let’s join together in group coaching call. Let’s join together at a live meeting, you know, I have a program, it’s a year-long program called the Business Adventure School and we have essentially quarterly retreats where we come together here in the Berkshires where you and I live, Keith, at a great spot called the Red Lion Inn which is this historical hotel, been around since the late 1700s and we do some beautiful masterminding and connection there. It’s a true retreat where your soul gets this rest and you come together and you really map out your plan, you know, the coming quarter and it’s awesome. And so, that’s a way to leverage your time. You know, I have programs and courses of all different price points, really talking to that client or that prospect, where they are and allowing them to stretch and then it gets me into this place where I’m creating experiences and content that is going to touch so many lives versus just that one because I’m just talking to them one on one and then I’m burning out and then I go on vacation. We can’t have our call. You know, it just, it gets, that old model it breaks really quickly.

[19:13]

KC: Yeah. Who’s the ideal person that comes to work with you? And then, what are the courses that you offer and then I know we also talked about that you do have a free giveaway that people can sort of start testing the waters with you as well?

[19:31]

JF: Yeah, yeah, great question. So, the ideal person is and in this stage of my business, it may change at some point, but where I am now and I just actually asked my like crew of, my inner circle people come about to go and work with my mentor and do some high level business stuff with some other high level business owners. I’m really psyched but we had homework, you know, before the meeting.

[19:54]

KC: Yeah, of course.

[19:55]

JF: It was like, “Where are you a leader, like where is it that you shine? What do you do better than anyone else?” And, you know, and I put it out there, “I am, I am a leader of women.” You know, that is something that I do really, really well. I love bringing women together in what I call Sacred Circle and allowing these women to come together and step into that fact that we are leaders. You know, some women have gotten a bad message around being a leader. And, you know, for leaders who are bitchy or where we ask for too much or we’re too pushy, you know, it’s like when men are leaders it’s like what we expect from men, like be a leader.

[20:30]

KC: Yeah.

[20:31]

JF: But, when women do it we get bad reps sometimes.

[20:35]

KC: And, I have to interject, you know, what’s an amazing thing that women have going right now?

[20:40]

JF: What’s that?

[20:41]

KC: And, I think there’s going to be a huge shift, is social media.

[20:44]

JF: Yes.

[20:45]

KC: Because, women are much more social than men.

[20:47]

JF: Yes.

[20:48]

KC: And, it’s really, it’s bringing women together and empowering women.

[20:51]

JF: That’s right and I do. I love social media. I use quite a bit in my world and we can do that as women and what we need to know is that we’re allowed to be seen and we’re allowed to be visible and we’re also allowed to make offers and invitations to dive deeper, right, which again is sometimes hard for both genders. So, the ideal person for me, my ideal client is that woman who knows that she’s here for a reason. You have listened to the call. Even if you’re not quite sure what that call is and I know a lot of people who are in that camp and my giveaway that I have for you today is going to help you with that. So, you know, you’re her to do amazing work with your gift and with your call and you want to turn that into a business, something that allows you to live comfortably in the world, something that allows you to give back to causes and you really want to help people. You want to heal the world with your gifts. So, you know, in terms of the courses that I offer, kind of like that entry course is something that I have called the Live Your Dream Challenge and that’s that course for those people out there who aren’t quite sure what their call is. They’re not sure, you know, you’re not, you know you have gifts but you’re a little muddy as to what they are and you feel like you’re kind of living somebody else’s life. You’re not quite sure how to say ‘no’. You’re not quite sure how to blaze through the fears that you’re wallowing in right now. So, that’s one of the courses that I have. It’s all online. It’s just super simple and intuitive and it’s a lot of what I talk about in my book, Get Gutsy. That’s why I wrote the book because I wanted to get it into as many people’s hands as possible and that’s the cool thing about a book, Keith, is, you know, the price point is what it is at the majority of the Western world in particular can get their hands on a book and my book is in eBook format and paperback on Amazon. So, it’s just like a really great way to help these women and men who’ve read it and loved it too but to help you find your calling in the world and to know there’s a simple process that you can follow to live this every day. And then something, yeah, go ahead.

[22:53]

KC: Great. And, for everyone listening, we’ll have everything that Jenny’s going through right now we’ll have in the show notes. So, if you’re driving down the road, you don’t have to pull over. We’ll have everything for you in the show notes with all the links and everything. So, go ahead, Jenny.

[23:09]

JF: Thank you. And, that book too, I mean and it’s what I want people to realize when they read it is that you have this story.  That’s how we started the talk today, Keith. Everyone has a story and so much of what will liberate us is the piece of our story that we’re ashamed of, the piece of our story that we think, “Oh Gosh, if I’m honest around this then I mean people might not like me. Some people will think differently and I might lose some friends or I might lose some followers or some this but that is the piece that will unite you to the people who really want to learn from you and it’s been, it’s just amazing.

[23:48]

KC: Because they have that “Oh, you too” feeling, right?

[23:51]

JF: Yes.

[23:52]

KC: Like, you’re not this, you haven’t been handed this silver spoon and life hasn’t been perfect for you.

[23:58]

JF: That’s right.

[23:59]

KC: It’s what humanizes you. I totally agree.

[24:01]

JF: Yeah. It’s really fantastic so I tell a lot of these stories in my book. I call it Memoir Mixed with Medicine. So, it’s like part memoir, part personal growth guide. So, that has been like the proudest creation of my entire career and that’s why I’m actually, I’m creating something called the Book Writing Immersion to help people write their books because the vast majority of the world actually wants to write a book, Keith, and the vast majority will not because they don’t know how and they don’t, they let everything else infringe upon their writing time and they get scared to actually tell the story.

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[24:36]

KC: Okay, before continuing, I want to quickly let you know about our sister podcast, All About Beachbody Coaching. So, partnering with Beachbody, the makers of P90X, Insanity, the 21 Day Fix, Shakeology, you know, the Shaun T, Tony Horton company, it’s played a huge role for Amy and I in creating the freedom to do what we want, when we want, with who we want and not only has it helped us to achieve our goals, it’s how I’ve mentored hundreds of others just like you to achieving their goals and ultimately living the life they love to live. So, if you’d like to learn more about how you can partner with me and be mentored one-on-one by me for free, check out the All About Beachbody Coaching podcast. Alright, back to today’s episode.

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[25:28]

KC: Did you self-publish or did you use a publishing?

[25:30]

JF: Yeah.

[25:31]

KC: You self-published, okay.

[25:32]

JF: I self-published. I sure did through Amazon’s create space. Because, for so many years, like ‘am I going to write traditional publish, how many am I going to do’ and I let that question stand in my way of actually just writing. Like, I love to write, I think that writing is one of the most beautiful acts that we can do. And so, I just, I realized what the role of the book was and my overall message in my overall business and I decided to self-publish and I couldn’t be happier with that decision. And so, the course that I have called the Book Writing Immersion, it actually teaches people about actually how to write it and then the world of self-publishing because it’s a great space.

[26:08]

KC: So, that’s a whole ‘nother conversation.

[26:10]

JF: Yeah.

[26:11]

KC: But, if you want more information on that, go to Jenny’s website, you know, and get involved in her e-mail list because that course isn’t out yet, right, but it’s going to be coming out.

[26:20]

JF: Yeah, it’s launching in May. It’s launching in May, I don’t know when. You know, when you’re launching this particular episode, Keith, but yeah, that’s when I’m putting it out there and it just, you know, things come to you. That’s the coolest thing when you are an entrepreneur and you’re a creator. You get these downloads and that was download I’ve been wanting teach, you know, teach writers for and I did it in college, at the university of Florida. I worked in the writing lab as a tutor. I’ve always been a great writer and I feel like we, everyone has this gift but you just need, you need to fine tune it. It’s like an instrument. So, that’s something I’m really psyched about and as I mentioned too, we now have this Coach Training school that we launched. So, we have our first round of future coaches going through it now. They have the option to get certified. They could become Gutsy certified coaches and I did that, Keith, because I got, I started getting really pissed off, honestly, when I’d see all of these coaches out there calling themselves coaches. They had never been formally trained and you don’t have to be formally trained to be a coach but then they didn’t know what they were doing as coaches. And then, some of them, they didn’t know how to support their clients and then they were giving the world of coaching a bad rap because they just don’t know how to hold space for their clients. Coaching is not just some like simple thing that you just roll out and start doing. There are some skills and tools that you need. And then, on the flip side I saw all these people going through the classic old school coach schools. They didn’t know how to freaking run a business if their life depended on it. And so, they were out there calling, again, calling themselves coaches not knowing how to even get a client and they were doing the one-to-one model. It wasn’t working. And then, again they were like poverty-minded coaches and they weren’t making it and that was breaking my heart. And so, I just said, “I can do something about this.” That’s what it is, Keith, and you do this so well with the work that you do. I love how you’re just, you’re so high energy, you so want to help people. When you see that you can provide a service, it is your job to provide that service to help. That is our job. That is our job. And so, I get these downloads all the time. I know I can fill a need in the market. I know that there’s a gap that needs to be really catered to and I just step out there and if I feel like I am the person to do it. I can provide something that nobody else can in the market quite like me then I dive deep and I say, “Okay, I’m going to freaking do it, I’m going to freaking do it.” Yeah.

[28:52]

KC: And, sometimes it scares the heck out of you too, right? You’re like, “Oh my God, do I really have to do this?”

[28:57]

JF: Yeah and you should be terrified and some of my clients would come to me like, “Oh my God, I’m terrified.” I’m like, “That’s awesome.” I’m terrified and especially if you’re going into a market that, you know, some of the like heavy hitters have been in there, the old brass, right, and you have that fear of like, “Am I even allowed to do this?” Oh no, is somebody going to come after me? And, I just actually said this to a client of mine in another course that I have called Cash In On Your Calling which is all about kind of the online marketing world and she was saying to me, she was putting something new out there and she felt like she was kind of getting heat back from somebody who’d been doing something, you know, different but kind of in the same landscape for a while and that this other women was feeling threatened by her and I said, “Listen, it’s par for the course. Do you think that cab companies welcomed Uber with open arms? No. Do you think that the hotel industry was like doing back flips because Airbnb came into the scene? No. So, you must be a disruptor to go in and do your work and people are going to be pissed off, you know, because they’ll feel threatened by you and that’s when you know that you’re doing it right because you’re really shining your light. Get used to it. You know, if you want everyone to like you, you’re in trouble. You know, you want your people to love what you’re doing and be ready to ruffle some feathers as well.

[30:19]

KC: I think that’s an important point and I just want to really highlight what you said there, Jenny, it goes back to what you said about not everybody’s cut out to be an entrepreneur and I think what you just said is one of the number 1 things. If you’re not willing to have some people not like you, like if you need everybody to like you then entrepreneurship just, it may not be right for you because in order to make change in the world you have to be able to stand up for what you believe in and really promote and you have to stand tall and stand solid when that person wants to come and knock you off where you’re at, knock you off what you’re trying to do, right?

[31:04]

JF: Right, totally and it’s really when you know that the creation and your desire is coming from source. I’m a very spiritual woman so I listen to that and I know that God, Source, the universe, fill in the blank, you know, everyone watching, listening, whatever feels right for you, that’s where it comes from. The download comes from the Divine. You trust the download and you make it real. It takes a lot of courage and guts, that’s why I called my book, Get Gutsy, to follow an idea. So many of us, we get, you know, thousands of ideas a day. What do we actually have the courage to make real?

[31:46]

KC: I love that statement, “We get thousand of ideas a day. What do we have the courage to make real?” Awesome. So, as far as the free giveaway that you have, what’s the easiest way to get that?

[32:00]

JF: To grab it?

[32:01]

KC: Yeah.

[32:02]

JF: Okay, everyone, I want you to get this. This is super pretty, which I’m into pretty, that’s part of my brand and part of my, part of what I put on to the world because one of my values is beauty. So, we put together this super simple, it’s like a guide, a cheat sheet called the 8 Keys to Living Your Soul’s Calling and I essentially took the key takeaways in like the 8 chapters of my book, Get Gutsy, and we made a beautiful guide for you. It’s a one sheet. You can print it out. You can go to JennyFenig.com/calling, JennyFenig.com/calling, a really simple opt-in page for you there. If you’re wondering, those of you entrepreneurs out there who are like, “What page does she use that? What form? What template?” That’s a lead page, you know, those of you who use lead pages in your business. It’s something we use big time in mine.

[32:53]

KC: Okay.

[32:54]

JF: So, that’s the template that we use, JennyFenig.com/calling. You’re going to learn how to find and live your soul’s calling even if you’re totally lost and not sure where to start. If you’re in there, that camp, don’t feel bad. There’s no shame in that. I was totally there. Like 30th birthday, wakeup call in a Las Vegas trip, like I was petrified because I was so lost and it was a horrible feeling. But, that was the day and I tell that story in my book. That was one of the memoir pieces. That was the day where I just said, “God, universe, Source, I trust you.” I believe that when I take these steps and I just say yes and I’m willing to walk away from the, you know, that 6-figure salary that was the job which is not for me anymore. That lifestyle’s not for me anymore. When I said, “I have faith that as I keep taking these steps that the whole universe is going to emerge for me.” And, that has proven to be true and the women who would then come forward and then learn from me, it’s just I’m amazed, I’m so, so grateful to be doing this work in the world. So, that’s what I have. It’s this 8 Keys, print it out. You can follow super simple tips to take action on every single day.

[34:07]

KC: Awesome. We’ll have the link to that in the show notes. So, going back to when you knew you were going to start this coaching business.

[34:16]

JF: Yeah.

[34:17]

KC: How did you get started? Like, did you have a product that you designed and then once the product was designed, how did you start, like how did you get that first sale or the first customer?

[34:29]

JF: That’s a great question and this is funny and I actually shared this when I was launching my Coaching Training School. I didn’t even have a website or an Ezine or a newsletter or a list for the first like 18 months of my business. I started my business in 2008 and I was still in my coach training school. I just started getting clients right away. I was like ready to hit the ground running and it was not until 2009 that I launched my first website, signed up for constant contact, you know, and did my first monthly newsletter which I was so freaking psyched about and in my first group program, I want to say I must have done in like 2010, I want to say that’s when it happened and it was for moms actually. It was called the Inner Mama Mastery Program. And I, I’m at a gala…

[35:21]

KC: I love that name.

[35:22]

JF: Yeah, it was really fun and I was super fired up about that. Remember, I was a first time mom at that point.

[35:27]

KC: Okay.

[35:28]

JF: My son, Shaun, was born in January 2009. I’ve always been inspired by my life. That was what, that’s what dictates my creations. So, I was leading new moms’ support groups in person in New York City. And again, just this feeling like, “I want to serve women all around the world not just in person in New York City.” This resource that New York was great with providing to the Manhattan mothers, I wanted every woman in the world to have this. And so, that was the first idea of leverage, Keith.

[35:55]

KC: Okay.

[35:56]

JF: And so, I went with a gal. She had a desire to do the same. She knew a lot more about online marketing than I did at that point. So, we offered that program for like 2 or 3 cycles I want to say and then eventually that program died. I went on. I want to really want to do things on my own and then I just really started getting into the whole online space. My first kind of in person workshop which then led to just my business exploding was called Goddesses, Guts & Glory, The Art of Knowing and Getting What You Want. That was it.

[36:26]

KC: So, how did you get that? Like, how did you get that workshop? Was it a solo thing or were you a part of something else?

[36:37]

JF: It was a solo thing. I actually partnered with yoga studios to bring me in and to promote to their people and then I’d also promote to my list. And so, that was big. I work with my clients a lot on that too. They don’t have big lists. I’m like, “Can you get in with institutions who already have a community developed? And then they can bring you in. You do some kind of either pay, you do some kind of profit share split.” You know, and so that’s what I did. And, I just started going into yoga studios and that’s where I felt at home and teaching vision boarding which is like something that I’m a total fan of and I talk about that in the book and that’s one of the keys when the people get their freebie and, yeah.

[37:14]

KC: I saw all the beautiful ones on your website too.

[37:18]

JF: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, and so, and that was it and then at that workshop, Keith, I launched my next group program which was the Live Your Dream Challenge, which I now offer as, you know, kind of like just an evergreen course that people can go through it anytime. We have people joining all the time into that course. But, when I launched that, that Goddesses, Guts & Glory live workshop, it was like a, you know, you join by this point, we’re all going to go through it together in the course and then from and I ran that live probably about 5 times I want to say over the course of a few years. And then, we turned into, you know, just a course that’s running all of the time for our people because it really is just that foundational element, you know, that foundational knowledge that people need.

[38:03]

KC: It’s so great. So, you never really went through the consulting phase that so many coaches or entrepreneurs do?

[38:11]

JF: Well, I had one-on-one clients for sure.

[38:14]

KC: Okay.

[38:15]

JF: And, that was, yeah, I did. And so, and that’s, you know, the first 18 months without a website, one-on-one. I had packages though. I was, I was, well, there was one little element where I sold like a one off session but it was, you know, it was premium priced but I was always selling packages and I still teach this to my clients now, those going through my coach training school, I’m teaching them how to sell in premium packages, not just like a, “Hey, one off, hire me for one hour kind of thing.” No, let’s band together and let’s do this thing for 3 months, 6 months, a year, depending on the collaboration, depending on what’s being offered but I’m a big fan of premium packages.

[38:55]

KC: Got it.

[38:56]

JF: That allows you to connect and serve your client over a period of time because you and I both know that someone’s going to get a lot better, more sustainable results if you’re going the distance together. It’s not just like a, you know, a one night stand.

[39:09]

KC: Right.

[39:10]

JF: This is a relationship, like you are together.

[39:11]

KC: Yeah, yeah, because otherwise you’re not going to get anything out of it.

[39:14]

JF: Exactly, I’m such a fan of this and I see it, you know, it breaks my heart in some other models that I see, some of those therapy models, just some different service provider out there and I want to say to them like, “Hey, let’s just, you know, let’s do this for a period of time. Let’s commit now.” Your clients are so much more committed to the process and everyone enjoys themselves more and people get better results all around.

[39:36]

KC: Yeah, it’s kind of like going to therapy for a day, right, like you’re not going to get anything out of a day. You need to put the work in and, yeah, lay that foundation. It’s so awesome. As we’re talking here, maybe sometime we’ll be able to get you on the show at a future day because I really think that there’s so many people that teach, “Okay, this is what you do when you are a life coach but how do you fill the room? How do you fill your funnel of people to teach in, especially women and that’s a big part of your clientele which is such an amazing, you know, it’s an amazing testament to you? Like, we look at marketing as an icky thing when all it really is, is getting your message in front of people like you have a message to help people and now how do we get that message in front of people, so?

[40:29]

JF: Totally, I love marketing. It’s a tool key. It’s as you said. It’s a tool to connect with those people you’re here to serve. So, it’s Inuit, marketing is really your megaphone.

[40:39]

KC: I love that.

[40:40]

JF: I just thought about that because we were talking megaphone before we got going today. Marketing is your megaphone. I think the former cheerleader in me is like doing a, you know, like jumps right now with that idea. That’s what it is. We need megaphones, otherwise, you’re doing the world a disservice because a fraction of those who are desperate to hear what it is that you have to say, I mean there’s people right now, everyone listening right now there are people out there right now who are struggling, whose soul will be served by hearing what you have to say, guaranteed.

[41:16]

KC: It’s so awesome. One final thing, I would want to end on this. We all have this thing in the back of our minds that says, “Somehow, someway I’m destined to do something more than what I’m doing” and I was wondering if you could just share and close us out with the piece that everybody struggles with thinking that you’re not good enough in taking that step to move forward.

[41:42]

JF: Yeah, yeah, everyone struggles with that, Keith, that feeling, that voice inside and this is a big piece of the book, Get Gutsy. I talk about the inner voice which you’ve heard me mention today and the inner critic. We have both. There’s no way around it. This is a part of being human, alright. The inner critic can get really loud especially when you are about to make change, especially when you are about to take a step in a direction and don’t even worry if it’s the right direction or the wrong direction like you’re just going to make a step. You’re going to make a freaking decision. The inner critic flips out because the inner critic is your ego and you’re ego wants you to stay small and stay safe because the ego in the inner critic fears for you. It fears for your safety. And then, when you change the inner critic is flipping out. So, I will say to you that you are safe and the world needs you to use your voice, okay, what’s true is that inner voice, it’s that benevolent voice that tells you that you are smart enough. You are good enough. You are, you know, beautiful enough, like fill in the blank. That is what’s true. That is what’s real. Go inside, take time for yourself every day. Be quiet. Have an exercise routine. I know, Keith, all your people are very healthy so I’m sure they’re doing that already. But, to take that time for yourself and listen to that wise inner voice which comes when you are willing to get quiet and also break away from the pack. It might feel lonely at times. It has for me. This isn’t but you hear that quote, Keith, “It’s never crowded along the extra mile.”

[43:22]

KC: Yup.

[43:23]

JF: It’s also not crowded amongst those who listen to the call but it’s a great crew of people who I promise you will fall head over heels in love with because you’ll realize they’re your people and the world needs more those of us who are willing to be awake and living our calling in the world.

[43:42]

KC: So awesome, Jenny, and you know I really appreciate you taking the time out to chat with us and all of the links, everything that Jenny shared with you today we’ll have it all in the show notes. And, it was great talking with you, Jenny, and hopefully we can get you back on sometime in the future and talk a little bit about that front end marketing piece.

[44:02]

JF: Love it. I would love to do that and then thanks everyone for being here, sending you so much love.

Thank you for listening to The Business of Life podcast. Apply what you learned today and you’ll be one step closer to creating the life you love to live.

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