SG Podcast Episode 120: 7-figure coaching and business sales with Jesse Johnson

Transcript

[00:00:00] Josh: Hey everyone. This is Josh for episode 120 of the Solopreneur Grind Podcast. I am here with Jesse Johnson. Jesse, thank you very much for coming on the show today. Can you start, Jesse, just by telling us a little bit about yourself?

[00:00:14] Jesse: Yes, I am a money and mindset and sales coach for spiritual teachers and healers.

I built my own seven figure business in less than two years with literally no experience in sales or business at all before I started. And that really inspired me to examine what’s possible, really, truly in this world. I would say that now my mission is to. Help build a new economy that’s based on a paradigm of everyone winning.

The win win win is what I’m here for. So hopefully that happens today. You winning, me winning. Everybody listening. Winning.

[00:00:52] Josh: Absolutely. I, I love it and I’m interested to hear more about it. Jesse, cuz when I was reading into your background of. What you do now versus what you did previously. It’s a pretty big dichotomy.

So can you tell us a little bit about maybe your, your first career we can call it to, just to give everybody a background?

[00:01:10] Jesse: Yes. I would say that my foundation actually going into my career was being an artist. And when I couldn’t figure out how to make money as an artist, I decided to become a high school math teacher, , And for me it’s, it makes me giggle now, but it was actually like the only thing that I could think of at the time I was living in New York City trying to make it as an artist, you know, with various different jobs, but art was not making money and I didn’t know anyone that was making money with their art.

And so I just kind of was like, Okay, if I’m gonna be compromising to make money anyway. Then let me choose to do something that I believe in and that I think I would be good at and, you know, could perhaps move the needle in terms of making the world a better place. Mm-hmm. . So, so I went down that path and ended up finding that I was extremely passionate about it.

It was extremely challenging, rewarding. You know, it’s like it’s different every day and I’m a people person in a lot of ways. And so I got to be with these, you know, these mostly 15 year olds, but lots of people every day, building really close, intimate relationships and studying how we as human beings learn.

It was also the hardest thing I’ve ever done for sure. I cried a lot. . I felt like a failure a lot after really. I mean, I was very good at school and very good at most of the things that I did as a kid, so I was not particularly adept at navigating failure before this job. And anyway, I stayed in New York City public schools as an educator for 12 years.

It was really compelling and I learned a lot about myself and a lot about how we learned and a lot about. Systems and why they work and why they don’t. And at the end of that time, I was feeling really,

it was like I had spent over a decade kind of systematically addressing every limitation that I knew I was bringing to the table. That meant, you know, that limited my impact. Until after about a decade, it was like, okay, not that I don’t have room for improvement, I will always have room for improvement, but that’s no longer the primary issue.

And still there’s something fundamentally not working here. And every, like I was working with teachers at the time, actually, I was a math coach and everything that we were doing was sort of systematically being undermined and undone and. It started to get upsetting. Like up until that point I was upset, but I was upset at myself.

Mm-hmm. , at that point it shifted and it was like, okay, I am not the problem here actually. And if I’m not the problem then I’m not sure how to be the solution. There’s something, there’s something deeper at work here. And long story short, I went seeking what, what else could I do with my life? How else could I use my life force energy?

Cuz that was the other thing is that although I loved my. I didn’t feel like it was using all of the resources and assets that I bring to the table, and I wanted something where I would have more freedom, more integration of all these different parts of me, the artist, the spiritualist, the teacher, all of it, and I wanted more impact.

And so it took me, I was, I think I was, I felt kind of like I was beating my head against a wall, you know, playing hide and seek was someone that didn’t wanna be found for about a year. And then I ended up in a conversation with a really good friend of mine who had been a math teacher, and I had read on Facebook, this is about seven years ago, I read on Facebook.

She was now a life coach and I was, I must not know what life coaches are cuz if she’s doing it there, there’s some, She’s excellent, she’s amazing. I don’t, what is that? And I called her and within about three minutes was like, Oh, every single thing in my life has prepared me for this. This is what I’m here to do.

So I started my business with her as my coach right then and there. And the rest is,

[00:05:21] Josh: Wow. And so I always love to focus on the transition period because so many of the guests that we’ve had is, you know, have interesting ones and because so many of our listeners might be working a nine to five right now and thinking about getting out, and so anyways, I like to get into the nitty gritty.

So, Jesse, like when, when you say started your business, did you. Call the school the next day and say, Hey, I’m done. Did you start it on the side? How did the, how did the trigger get pulled?

[00:05:51] Jesse: That’s a great question. I, so it was probably middle of October of 2015 that I had my first coaching session with my coach, Marla Madson is her name.

And I didn’t, I don’t even think I fully understood quite yet that I was starting a business. Like I, Yeah, a big blank slate in front of me. So I was following intuition and I trusted her. And I trusted myself. I think I had a lot of confidence, which I wanna shout out because I think that’s something that a lot of people struggle with.

You know, you kind of have a. You gotta have a healthy balance. Insecurity about the unknown, yes, but also like confidence and resilience. Like, I know I can do this, so I didn’t really know what I could do, but I had, I had enough confidence that I could do, which my coach thought I could do that I was willing to put one foot in front of the other.

And I would say over those first maybe, maybe first four to six weeks, we were crafting what would become the beginning of this business. I was gonna work with retreat leaders. I was gonna coach them just like I coached math teachers about their curriculum. I was gonna go on retreat with them and observe them, just like I observed my math teacher cl you know, they weren’t clients, but audience and, and then debrief with them after that was, that was kind of the initial vision.

Was coaching retreat leaders. And I think, again, because I was being paid to coach math teachers still, the business component was like a little vague for me. You know, I was, I was like, I’m clear about the work itself. I’m clear about what I’m gonna be doing and who I’m gonna do it with. But around the turn of the year, right at the beginning of 2016 was when I started having my first sales conversations with potential clients and realizing like, Okay, like this is, this is different, you know, in, in schools for better and for worse.

The audience just fills the room whether you like them or not, whether you wanna wanna work with them or not. And in contrast in business, We have to fill the room, or at least when we start, so, So I had a couple sales conversations. Everyone that I talked to said no, but I felt clear even though I hadn’t heard yes yet, I felt really clear.

This is gonna work. I’m gonna figure out how to close these sales conversations. I’m gonna work with people who are gonna benefit from this and it, Boy, would it work better and faster if I quit my. And so I really seriously considered, like, I remember over, I think it was over the holiday break, really thinking, I wonder if I should just stop now for better and for worse.

Again, I chose to finish the year and I’m glad that I did. It was, it gave me time to sort of close this chapter of my life, this over a decade of, of work in schools to say goodbye not only to people that I was working with, but to the, I, I wanna say like the identity. Of me as a math educator first and foremost, and that whole time I was kind of cross fading from, you know, I mean I functionally, I was working two full-time jobs, but in mindset, in energy, in passion.

I was cross fading, you know, kind of phasing out the math education stuff and phasing in the business. And in June of 2016 was my last month in. And then I went out full time into my business and in August of 2016, This is just a fun story. I made $0 .

[00:09:34] Josh: We, we all definitely have some good, good stories with low sales numbers to tell early on.

Right? Yep. Very cool. Jesse, I have two unrelated questions, so I’ll throw them both out there and, and, and you can take whichever. Number one is how did you get those first few sales conversations to begin with? And then secondly, I guess semi-related is how important do you think it was having a coach at the time?

And, and maybe for people that are thinking of starting out, would you recommend it to them?

[00:10:07] Jesse: I’ll go backwards cuz I like both these questions. I, I really feel like the first action step that I did in order to build my now multiple seven figure business was higher coach. That, that, like, there were internal things I knew, like I was saying before, I had this kind of knowing that I, that I was worth.

Something that I had some value to contribute to the world, and I had a strong desire for more, right? I, I wanted the more impact, the more freedom, the more integration. I didn’t really know yet that I wanted more money, but I found that soon enough. But that was it. Like I did not have a big vision for my business.

I really didn’t even know what it could look like. And so for me, hiring a mentor, hiring a coach, Absolutely step one game changing in terms of taking action on the outside. So yeah, I, I, I believe in coaching at the highest level, and I actually have a, I think a lot with my team about this vision for the world that the future we’re building.

Is one in which anyone can have a coach and everyone who wants one has one. So I, yeah, I really, I really believe in coaching and especially at the beginning, especially at the beginning. This is something that I teach cuz a lot of people feel like they have to get their ducks in a row first. They have to like kind of know what they wanna do.

And I, I’m not mad at that. Maybe some other people have their ducks in the row, ducks in a row in a way that I didn’t. But for me, . If I had waited to have my ducks in a row, I don’t know that I would’ve ever done it. Mm-hmm. . So hiring a coach for me was, was radical game changing move. Yeah. It’s

[00:11:56] Josh: almost like the two-sided help plus accountability.

Right. And, and we see it in almost every other aspect of, of life, right? When we’re growing up, we have teachers that are coaching us. When we play sports, we have, even at the professional level, right? There are coaches. So it, it totally makes sense.

[00:12:16] Jesse: Yeah, I agree. There’s a beautiful article in the New Yorker.

I’m not remembering the name. This is maybe 15 years old, this article, but it’s something about something in the operating room and it’s, it’s, it’s a, the guy that wrote the article also did a Ted talk about coaching. His, his career is in surgery. He’s a surgeon. And in that field also, it’s kind of un, it’s unusual that someone would have a coach.

You know, you get, you go to med school and you get your credentials and then you, you graduate and everyone expects you to just continue to be the best. , you, you can be without any external support. And in that article he really kind of debunks that whole philosophy. It doesn’t actually make any sense why, how, how can we grow?

Mm-hmm. without someone sort of prompting us and prodding us. And even just really simply looking at what we’re doing with eyes that are not our own. Mm-hmm. . Cause none of us can see what we can’t see.

[00:13:07] Josh: Well, and, and, and it almost seems like a waste. If you have the example that you’re talking about, you have a a 60 year old surgeon who’s been doing it for 30 years and has that level of experience and knowledge to not take advantage of that.

Yes. Or to not, you know, take that and provide it to the younger, upcoming surgeons or any profession just yes, seems like a waste. Right. So anyways,

[00:13:31] Jesse: I love that. Yeah. And the first clients that I got, I, I will say that I think I have been kind of a networker my whole life. Hm. Not, not that I went to BNI meetings or something like that, but just that I, I like people and, and was liked by people and had various communities in a lot of different areas of my life.

And so when I decided, once I finally knew what I was doing in my business, I told people about it and I asked them if they knew anybody who wanted to lead a retreat and or was leaning a retreat and wanted. And I think I also posted on Facebook, like I, I’m launching this program, I’m looking for people who might be a good fit.

Dme, if you, I don’t think we said that then, but dme if you, if you are interested, you know, combination of just literally calling people on the phone and telling them, Hey, I’m starting a business. Do you know anyone who would be a good fit? And, and using, using my networks, you know, to, to make announcements.

At the time, if you had asked me at the time, I would’ve felt, I would’ve told you that it felt like there was, I didn’t know who to talk to. And I think that that’s also super common that new entrepreneurs, sometimes even older entrepreneurs you know, who have been in business for a while, have that experience of like, I don’t know who to call next.

I don’t know who to talk to next. Like, shouldn’t they be coming to me? And my experience is that actually, this is one of the reasons that I hit seven figures so quickly and with such ease is just that I, I was coached and was willing to take the direction that my coaches gave me to keep getting on the phone, to keep expecting that people would be ripe and ready and waiting even.

And now, You know, I have a lot of team I, the business has been around for a while. There are people that do come to us and say, Hey, we, we wanna talk to you, We wanna work with you. But still at the heart, there is a, there’s still that willingness that I have to, to get on the phone and call whoever I’m thinking of today and follow my intuition about who wants to hear from me.

And every time I do that, they thank. Hmm. It’s wild. It’s wild. Cuz cuz my insecurity, my self doubt, my subconscious sabotage would have me think they’ll be offended. It’ll be, you know, it’s like, don’t, I don’t wanna bother anybody. But in fact, every time that I really come from a place of love and service and make the call and I’m willing to, willing to hear now, it’s an amazing experience and deepening of our relationship.

So I highly recommend that. Yeah.

[00:16:16] Josh: No, it’s, it’s great advice. So, can we talk about, Jesse, your first sale? Do you, do you remember the first one, or first one or two?

[00:16:23] Jesse: Yep. It’s funny cuz I, I hadn’t been this, the first person that hired me or one of the, maybe one of the first three people that hired me, worked with me for almost three years.

And then we had a, an amazing and very complete closing of our work and I haven’t spoken to her. in three years, and she just called me like a week ago. So it’s a fun moment to just be celebrating time. What do you wanna know about that first sale?

[00:16:54] Josh: How did it happen? How did it come about? How did you meet the person or how did you communicate with them and, and then how’d you close?

[00:17:03] Jesse: So one of the things that was going on in my life when I started my business, I was, I was full time working in schools, but I was also building spiritual community and conscious community and throwing events and parties in New York City. And so I knew a lot of people and was organizing these events with a lot of people.

And many of them either wanted to be leading transformational retreats. They were already, or I knew they should be. Like they had something really powerful to give. That’s actually a fun little note, like I also believe in the power of retreat. You know, when people go out of their normal environment, put themselves into an unfamiliar context and the container is designed for transformation, people have huge, huge experiences.

You know, let things that would. Decades to uncover and heal in therapy can happen so quickly in a really high, high level retreat. So I had experienced that and I just was, you know, part of the business. I think inspiration was really wanting to support people like that, that I was already working with and collaborating with in stepping it up and taking their gift to the next level.

So I mentioned that because although I wasn’t. It’s not like I designed my business specifically for this person. Like I, I did not have their name written down. It wasn’t that explicit, but energetically it was. It was like, this is a person who I had, I had been collaborating with. I had seen her facilitate all kinds of workshops.

I knew how talented she was and I knew that she was hungry to do this kind of work in the world. I don’t think I had the confidence when I called her. To know for sure that I could just say, Hey, I’m doing this program and I think you should do it. I was still too scared about that. So I called her for a referral and I said, Hey, you know, I’m doing this work.

Do you know anyone who might be interested? And she said, Me. And I was like, Boom. That’s right. Of course. And so then I took her through a sales conversation where I basically asked her what she wanted, what, what she was dreaming about. What resistance she had. Why, why it wasn’t already happening. What would happen if she didn’t, if she didn’t make it real, You know, what were the stakes really?

How serious was she about making change happen? And my experience was that she absolutely sold herself into the program. You know, just by answering those questions. And by, I think also by feeling the truth of my support, my belief in. Helped her to say things that she had never said before and really believe, if not believe in herself, believe in the possibility that she could believe in herself.

You know, there was something really significant there, and that was the beginning. And I, you know, I just kind of like took a deep breath and told her the price and. I don’t remember that being particularly challenging for her. Actually, I have had many people b at my prices, so it’s not like I haven’t experienced that.

But I think that, that, that particular sale, that money wasn’t such a big deal. I, I made it easy for her to say yes.

[00:20:17] Josh: That’s, that’s great. Can you talk a little bit, Jesse, about how you came up with that price and program and, and maybe more specifically, it sounds like. , maybe alongside your coach or with the help from your coach, you pretty quickly came up with a pretty defined niche and program and, and that’s probably something that a lot of people struggle with.

Especially if they’re working on their own. Could, could you maybe talk about how you picked that? Because putting it into perspective too, we’re, we’re going from, as you said earlier, math teacher to basically, I don’t know if you would call yourself a cons or I guess a coach. A coach for retreat runners.

Yeah. That’s like a pretty long path. So w would love to hear how, you know, was it, were there some iterations? Did you put a. Niches up on the board, would, would love to hear about that process.

[00:21:10] Jesse: I definitely felt confused before the sessions with my coach and it was hugely helpful to have her poke and prod and ask questions.

To be honest, I don’t remember. Oh, no, no. I probably was considering coaching teachers that, that was probably the other thing that was on the board, but I just knew that I wanted to work with People who were more spiritual. I wanted this, I wanted the spiritual component of my life to be more central.

And I think sh, my coach recognized that maybe even more than I did, and helped me just kind of look at these different options. And I chose that. And it made, for me, it made sense to me because at the time, it was so similar actually to the work that I was already doing. It was just with a different group of people.

Mm-hmm. . So instead of coaching math teachers, I was coaching spiritual teachers. . And but the work was the same. And then one of the iterations, the program that I designed was the one I just told you about where I would, you know, go on retreat with them, yada, yada. And that’s the one that nobody bought.

And I, one of the iterations was like, Okay, let’s simplify this. Let’s make a 90 day program just coaching. We’re not gonna try to do this other thing. And I think I was nervous about that because it was, There wasn’t as much structure, there wasn’t as much curriculum, and I felt like somehow that meant I might have to, I don’t know, I felt more exposed, but that thing sold like hot cakes, , you know, people, people, I, again, I think it was easier at the time, maybe even still, it was easier for people to say yes to growth and investing in themself than it was to actually this, this final result of producing a retreat.

So, So that happened. And then within Josh, I feel like it was like two weeks into actually selling that. I realized that actually the thing that my people needed help with wasn’t so much curriculum. I mean, they might enjoy that and benefit from that also, but what they really needed help with was money.

And so the retreat program is actually still like, you know, I would do that custom. If somebody was like, I really wanna bring you to Thailand and like, have you there as my support coach to, to debrief and observe and do I, That would be so much fun. I would love that. But that’s not, that was that, that went out the door pretty quickly actually.

Mm-hmm. because? Because it was more about what I thought would be fun than what they actually needed. And so I really felt like money kind of picked me. Money was like, Jesse, you, you need to help these, this specific demographic of spiritual teachers and healers really integrate money. Mm-hmm. . And so I was just following the breadcrumbs of my own inner guidance and ended up teaching sales within that first year.

Mindset for sure. But teaching, Cause that first year, I mean, that first year I was in business in 2016, I was working full time in schools for half the year, and I still made $330,000 just for my business. So it was like, there’s, I, okay. It really felt like I was given this thing to just shepherd and, and move around.

And I don’t wanna poo poo like I, that was, that was not a I don’t wanna say difficult cause I don’t really, I’m part of my work is actually redefining, I think what, what work really requires of us. But it was deeply uncomfortable. I was really uncomfortable. I still am. Mm-hmm. discomfort is one of the things that I, I feel like has just become a companion.

Another, another inner guide, another. Fairy godmother is discomfort. And and

[00:24:55] Josh: the sooner, the sooner you can be comfortable with the discomfort, the better. Right. But it’s, it’s so interesting because it’s a very common theme now that I’ve spoken to plenty of, of entrepreneurs that what I hear very often and what I’m hearing here, What was most important was to put yourself out there.

What was, What was not important was to have a perfect business plan. From the very beginning, I’ve still yet to talk to someone who said, Hey, day one, my plan was this. In day a hundred. It was the exact same. Right. That that happens. So you put yourself out there and then you followed what the world was kind of spitting back to you.

Yes. Jessie, can you talk about, so your teaching career ends and. Now you’ve got all the time, Well, all the time in the world. I guess all the time that you were previously spending in that, in that full-time job for the business, what did those first few months look like? Was it just pounding the phones? I mean, that, that, that’s a big number for a first half year.

That’s a big number for like a second or third year. Right? Even for some, So entrepreneurs especially, Yes. So would, would love to hear more. How that first six to 12 months went and maybe, what do you think were the two or three key things that you did that led to that level of success that maybe some other folks that are early on and are listening to this right now could benefit from or, or could emulate?

[00:26:25] Jesse: Well, I, I actually have a whole framework that I’ve already told you half of, so I’ll just tell you the other half the, it’s a six step framework and. , the framework is what I did to go from zero to seven figures exponentially, you know, to do that so quickly. And it’s, it’s still the framework that I use in my, in my exponential growth, which is how I like to grow.

I like to grow exponentially. And step one is, is about know. And I believe that everyone has access to this. It’s, it’s a, it’s what spiritual practice is designed to do. So my clients are often really good at tapping into their knowing, whether it’s a knowing of value or belonging or even a concrete vision, that that’s where it has to start.

Is this. It’s this strong sense of self, strong sense of what you are here for. Whether that has words or not, doesn’t matter. It’s, it’s a feeling. That I think is where the most efficient and effective work in the world comes from, whether it’s business or anything else. So that’s step one, is this. Rest in your knowing.

Rest like go close your eyes, go deep into your body and feel the part of you, even if it’s small, the part of you that knows why you’re here, that knows that you belong here, that knows that you have value, that knows that you are here to co. And receive both. And then two is to, from that place, feel the truth of your desire.

You know, I, I wanted more, I probably have wanted more every hour of my life. Like more money, more food, more freedom, more affection, more permission, more joy, more lusciousness, more orgasm, more money, more whatever. So to let that desire, . And that’s of course something that some people need to sort of rewire because so much of our desire in these material bodies has been thwarted or called sinful or something like that.

So to let, and I think actually one and two go together because when we, when we let our desire come from that deep place of knowing, it’s, it’s like a soul desire. It’s not, it’s not a selfish desire. It’s different. The quality is. Step three is hiring a mentor, hiring a coach. And then step four, five and six are so much easier.

Actually, 1, 2, 3 is, is, those are I think the more nuanced work, but step four is making the decision to change. And I think of that like skydiving, you know, there’s a lot of preliminary steps that you take when you go skydiving, but ultimately, when. Up in the air, in the airplane with all the gear attached to, It’s a different thing to decide from there and that that kind of decision, I think is, it’s impossible to.

Overestimate the importance of that many people have not yet made the decision to really go all in. Then step five is strategy. And I, one of the most radical things I teach, I think, is to not do strategy until steps one through four are handled. Most people wanna think about the how before they start, before they tap into their knowing.

But I, and, and then everything else I, for me, strategy needed to come much later. And then step six is sales mastery. And what I mean by that is that truly for those first two years, and still I’ll come back to the more, more recent stuff, but in those first two years when I was building to seven figures, My coaches, I would bring them idea after idea and over and over and over again.

They would just say to me again, like, Jesse, stop following the bright shiny object. Like there are no magic pills. There’s no magic trick that’s gonna rescue you from having to do sales. Stay in your lane and get back on the phone. And it’s not that I, it’s not that I was like, you used a really nice phrase like, Pounding the pavement.

I, it wasn’t that it was so hard how much I was on the phone, it’s that I was so scared still of hearing no, Of feeling disappointed, of being rejected, that I avoided it and wanted to do anything else. And my coaches, bless their whole lives, just wouldn’t buy it and kept redirecting me. Like, Who are you gonna talk to next?

Who are you gonna talk to next? And probably in those first two years I worked with maybe.

I’m just guessing maybe 25 people. It’s not like it was so many. I probably had sales conversations with 200, maybe more. There was a, there was a a couple week period where I talked to a hundred people, cold called a hundred people. I was supposed to do that in one week. I didn’t actually, as I’m saying that it was, maybe it was more like 500 in those two years, but you know what I mean?

That’s a lot of people. But if you spread it out and do the math, it’s not like, It’s not like I was working 50 hour days. You know, it was that I was uncomfortable Yeah. With how exposed I felt. And, and so the that, so the, the combination there is, is what I, Well, that, that’s just step six. Mm-hmm. , the sales mastery is step six.

Yeah.

[00:31:48] Josh: I mean, we’ve certainly all been there. Well, some of us have been there in terms of waking up and looking over and seeing the phone and be like that, I gotta take that on today. Right. It’s just not. The most fun sometimes, right, Is just not the most fun, not the most fun thing you wanna do. But what I’ve found too, and, and you’re alluding to some of those numbers, is sales can also, assuming you have a lot of what you mentioned down, just be a numbers game, right?

If you can get to a point where you’re closing 10, 20, 30%, whatever the number is, right? Depending on what you’re trying to sell, that rate may be very high or very low. But if you get a good enough list of leads and you can get to a point where like, Hey, I’m closing 10%. If I can just talk to 10, 12 people today, I’m probably gonna make a sale.

Right? And then another piece of advice that I’ve heard a few times from guests is just make that initial kind of goal very small. Don’t think about the 500 people you have to call this year. Set a goal to make three calls each day. And, and what one of our recent guests said is, it’s easy to make three calls and then once you get the three done, you’re already in the groove.

Maybe one of them went well, you’re like, Okay, well let’s you know. Next thing you know, 10, 20 go by. And so anyways, just a tidbit there, but it makes a lot of sense, Jesse. The, the other thing I quickly wanna say, I’m not very spiritual or religious. You’ve, you’ve mentioned a lot of sp spiritual references, I’ll say energy and, and some different words like that, and they make total sense to me in, in regards to everything you’re saying and and business.

How intertwined do you think those things are? Because like, I’ll say it again, I’m not very religious. I’m not very spiritual, but when you were talking earlier, Having the right energy and connecting. I totally believe that energy plays a big part in the world, and if you are focused and good intentioned and doing stuff, taking action, that I don’t know what it is or how it’s explained, but that energy does kind of like move around and, and cause stuff to happen.

Right. I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe you can, because. You’re more kind of entrenched in that world, but how, how important do you think those and interrelated those things are?

[00:34:16] Jesse: I love that you’re bringing this up because it, it, I think it warrants a little distinction that I’ve sort of forget to make because for me they coexist.

But really what we’re talking about is consciousness. It’s awareness, self-awareness. Mm. Now a lot of spiritual practices teach people how to become more self-aware, but it’s not the only modality. You know, you go to therapy, you can read books, you can just make a choice. And I would actually say that, you know, if you go in the direction of something like mindfulness, it’s not religious at all.

It’s often not even that spiritual. It’s truly. Observing, What is it that your mind is doing? What are you thinking about? How present are you? And I think that that stuff, the work of, of self-awareness, the work of consciousness, that stuff is game changing. I don’t think there’s anything more valuable you can do in your business because if, if you aren’t aware, That your, the image that I just had was like, imagine a dinosaur, like a T-Rex or something, you know, like moving around my office.

His tail, big, huge tail is just gonna be whapping. I mean, he’ll just knock everything off the, the bookshelf behind me. If he’s not aware that he’s doing that, he’ll cause damage everywhere he goes because he can’t see behind. and he’s not aware that he’s doing that. Mm-hmm. , the work of consciousness, the work of self-awareness is simply becoming aware of what we’re doing that we may not have previously been aware of, and then being able to leverage that.

It’s like you got all that stuff working for you and or against you in your business, get it all working for you, and how do you do that? You just become aware of what you’ve got. So for me, the awareness was like, I have a fear of rejection. Okay. How am I gonna make that work for me? You know, I have a, I have a resistance to, you know, people not liking me.

Okay, great. What am I gonna do with that? It’s like, none of it has to be bad. None of it has to be ugly. None of it has to be gross. It’s, it’s just a willingness to look. And I do think that that is a huge part of what has set me apart from. I never used this word, but the competition .

[00:36:35] Josh: Yeah, no, it, it makes sense.

And, and the way you described it was, was perfect. I want to talk a little bit, Jesse, about pricing. You, you alluded to it earlier about having some clients b at it I’m assuming as well, based on the numbers you mentioned in terms of revenue and number of people that you talked to, that your pricing was probably not too cheap.

Are, are you That’s true. Are you able to talk about that first? Product that your program you were selling, how did you pick the first price? How did that go? And, and, and partly because some people that are newer might just have no idea what the price stuff at. Right. So yeah, would, would love to hear more about that and, and maybe also how that’s evolved over the years if it has maybe.

Maybe it hasn’t.

[00:37:20] Jesse: Definitely. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I’ll say, I will say now, cuz some people listening might be ready to just skip ahead to this part. Now I feel like my prices are a combination of intuitive guidance. You know, when I tune in, it’s like, what, what? It’s not about my personal preference. What does the program want to charge?

I know that’s a weird thing to say, but I feel like I, I talk to my business, I talk to my programs. I, I talk, I ask them what they want. And I think that partly what’s happening there is that I’m tapping into my clients who will step into those programs and what price is going to be the most growthful for them.

That’s really important. I think of prices as portals, meaning that they take us into new dimensions, they take us into new timelines. They, they open up possibility that wasn’t there before, like a wormhole opening in the floor or some science fiction image like that. So that is certainly what happened to me when my first coach.

And then every other coach after shared the price with me. I could feel like, Okay, this is scary and uncomfortable, but if I go this direction, it opens up totally new realms to me. So, so I’m just share that because I think that you can trust, you can trust your intuition, you can trust your numbers, you can trust what comes through.

And that’s really where I think we have the most fun as entrepreneurs. But in the beginning of my business, I, as you’re saying, I had absolutely no idea what was possible and I had no real idea what I wanted. And the whole thing made me kind of overstimulated and like wanna shut down. And so I used my coach a lot and we came up with this beautiful program, the one that I offered to two people and then never offered.

In that form anyway. And that I was, I could, like, I could hold onto that program and my coach was like, How about $3,000? And I, I just like nearly vomited . And she was like, Okay, how about if you, if you offer fast action bonus, like it’s 50% of the price to the first three people that buy $1,500. Okay.

Okay. I could kind of like wrap my head around that. And so I got onto those first two calls that I told you about with that price in mind. That’s the price that I set. I, I think I did say it’s $3,000, but half off to the first three people that buy, You’re one of them. and after those two calls, I think it took me both calls to really get through it.

And actually, by the way, I think I had multiple conversations with each of these people. It wasn’t just one conversation, maybe two or three. And when they both said no, I was like, Okay, I get it now. The program is worth more. Like there’s something about what I just did that isn’t worth $1,500 actually.

Like the, the container that I’m holding. So immediately I was like, Okay, I’m done with the 1500, even though three people didn’t buy . I’m moving on. And I like to share that story too, because you really can, at whatever point you feel ready, you can raise your prices. Nobody can sell you that. You can’t, This is entirely up to you.

People pay freaking $15 for a fancy cup of coffee. Like you, you can charge whatever you want. The market will hold it. If you can hold it. If you can hold it. So then I came up with that 90 day program and that was $5,000. And I think I played around like it was 6,000, but if you paid in full it was five or it was $5,000 in 2015, but four and a half thousand in, or I mean, the other way around, like I, I played with it just little bit.

Basically it was a $5,000 offer, and I think, again, I just needed to get in there. I just needed to start doing the work and see what was actually possible because once people were in my containers, which I think were beautifully priced, as well as being underpriced at that time, then I could see like, Oh, oh, they’re getting like, this is literally changing their lives.

There is no question. And so then I, I raised my prices again, kind of more as I started, as I felt ready. And then I started to raise my prices also with the vision in mind. Like, I wanna make X amount a month and I wanna work with this many people, so what is it? What do I need to charge in order to do that?

And oftentimes, I needed to grow into that. It wasn’t always, it’s not like I’m not recommending that you just like, I’m just gonna charge a million dollars for my program and someone’s gonna buy it and it’ll be great. It’s like you gotta be able to really hold your own integrity, that your prices are sacred, and that they represent the truth of what you’re delivering.

And then at the same time, let, don’t let your insecurity devalue. And let your prices, your true prices, call forth the best version of you. Cuz that’s the other thing that happened was that I think I grew into my prices.

This is such a, an esoteric thing to talk about. I love that this is somehow coming up. I, I believe that at the moment that I started my business, I had the raw material to work maybe even at the level that I’m working now. But I did not have the confidence. I did not have the clarity, and I didn’t, and I was still looking for approval.

From the outside. Mm-hmm. , and those three things were absolute deal breakers. You cannot charge, I mean, now I charge sometimes as much as $200,000 for a program. You can’t charge that kind of money and be worrying about what other people think. You can’t charge that kind of money and be letting your insecurities drive you, and you can’t charge that kind of money and be whatever.

The third thing I said was, it’s like the, the price is called fourth. The full, true, powerful version of. . And still do. And still do. So my clients get the best of me cuz I, cuz I can’t charge what I charge and not offer that. Mm-hmm. ,

[00:43:31] Josh: I mean, you could, you just wouldn’t be around for too long. Right. So so that, that’s usually how the market works, Right.

Which is basically what, what you’re saying. So that’s really interesting. Jesse, This is, this has been a very, a very different. I don’t wanna say not different in a bad way. A very different, but in an interesting way, insight into business. I don’t really know how else to, to say it cuz I speak to a lot of entrepreneurs and sometimes it can be a lot of Xs and Os on a board and, and this feels like we’re on a three-dimensional board in instead of two Right.

In, in a way. So it’s been really interesting. The, the last thing I wanted to ask before we wrap up is, Scaling. We’ve talked a lot about kind of how you got started in pricing and programs and earlier you mentioned having a team. If you could quickly talk about at what point and, and how did you scale from just yourself to adding a couple people?

What was that like?

[00:44:33] Jesse: Yeah. Such an important conversation cuz I, I actually think that the, the hard part you could say, or the, the. The big transformation that’s required to go from startup to six figures or even seven isn’t about scaling and it isn’t about team. Not that you can’t work on those things. A lot of people do, but I don’t, They’re not required.

I don’t think that that’s the, that’s the, again, I keep wanting to say hard part of that, but after seven figures, I have personally, that feels like what I’ve been thinking about and working on for the last five years, and. It’s, it’s increasingly important. The vision that I have. Now’s a little, I’m a little shy to say this here, but I want to be making 10 million per month in this business.

Let me say that differently. I want the business to be bringing in 10 million a month. I will not, I don’t need the 10 million for myself, but I want the business to be flowing that kind of money. That’s a nine figure business annually, 120 million a year. I have no idea how to do that, but I, I was actually just working numbers yesterday cause I’m like, all right, it’s time.

You know, I gotta look at this. Let’s, let’s get into the strategy a little bit. And it means working with tens of thousands of people. Well, I don’t know, tens of thousands and so the business no longer, It’s like the business wants to grow beyond my assets and resources. I had enough personal assets and resources to get us here, but what happens from here requires more than me.

So, My specific location might be different, but I think that that’s a really useful lens through which to look. It’s like how far can your own resources get you and at what point do you need to bring in other people to leverage more resources? For me, I had a personal assistant at some point in those first two years, and that was frankly, like probably mostly a lesson in receiving and delegating.

Working with someone, which I, I just had not really done that much of as a teacher. And I say that because had I known how to properly use an assistant, that would’ve been way more effective and. It was definitely part of my curriculum, but I don’t know that it was, again, required to get to seven figures.

I think if, if all I wanted to do in this life was make a million dollars a year, I don’t need a team to do that. I could do it all on my own, especially with all the tech that’s available now. But beyond that, both because I, I need it, the business wants it, but also because it’s fun. I got all kinds of people on my team and I, the collaboration.

Helping the business to grow and expand in ways that I personally wouldn’t know how to do on my own. Mm-hmm. , I spend now as much as $75,000 a month on team. It’s an enormous, enormous investment in my business because of where I’m going, and I know that those numbers will continue to increase. I want my team to be well paid.

I want them to be, you know, if any of them that are at the highest level, you know, they should all be making six figures and more. So that’s, that puts a huge demand on me and on the business to, to think differently. I think you’re asking me a somewhat different question that I’m answering, so let me pause and check in.

Is there something else that I should be speaking

[00:47:52] Josh: to? No, that was, that was great. That was, that was great. It makes a lot of sense and I think it’s a great way to kind of wrap up the episode. The, the last question, Jesse, second last question I always ask. , and we’ve probably covered a whole bunch of these tips, but if, if, if you could, if you’re talking to one person right now, they’re Jesse back, however many years ago working there, nine to five, they feel like they’re ready for something else or they want to take the next step.

What’s, what’s one or two things that you would tell them right now?

[00:48:26] Jesse: What you want is wanted, whatever vision it is that’s coming to you, whatever you’re dreaming about, whatever thing you wish you were doing instead of the. Form of your life and job. The world wants that, and we are living in a time where I think increasingly people know.

so you get to know it too. You know, Covid and the pandemic and the way that our lives shut down really opened up. I think people’s awareness about how much more they want in their life. And that would be my first tip, is to give yourself permission to want what you want, and recognize that what you want is something that the world wants.

The world will benefit from you having it. And the second is to keep thinking about the win win win. What does it look like when you don’t have to choose between? Two things that matter to you. What does it look like when you don’t? Conceive of your business as somehow giving to you, but taking from someone else.

What does it look like when you prioritize the win, win, win? Cause that’s, that’s the movement that I wanna be building and a part

[00:49:31] Josh: of mm-hmm. . Yeah. It makes everything so much easier and it, it makes the world a better place. Right. So, Jesse, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for, for coming on the show, sharing your story, sharing tips, sharing this advice.

It’s, it’s been really valuable. If anybody wants to learn more about you or the company or get in touch, where do you recommend they go?

[00:49:53] Jesse: Jesse Johnson Coaching on all the platforms. You can find me everywhere. Awesome. Let us, let us know what lands, you know, ask any questions that came up. We’re happy to, Happy to meet you.

[00:50:04] Josh: Sounds good. That makes my job easy for the edit. . Jesse, thanks again for coming on the show. Really appreciate it.

[00:50:11] Jesse: Same Josh.