The art of scaling your passion into a profitable business – with Holly Jean Jackson

Are you a heart-centered entrepreneur who wants to go big so you can give big, but you've found yourself trapped in the relentless pursuit of success?

Or maybe you're a former corporate employee who is having trouble untethering from the "right" way to do things.

This episode is for the entrepreneur, solopreneur, or business owner who has felt stymied by trying to do "all the things."

Holly Jean Jackson is here to help you shift toward peak performance in your business. As entrepreneurs, we're often our own harshest critics, but in this episode, Holly lays the roadmap for embracing imperfection, leveraging your strengths, and fostering an abundance mindset.

She believes service-based entrepreneurs can not just succeed, but thrive by refining your operations. 

Whether you're flying solo or leading a team, this episode arms you with the know-how to optimize your business processes and sales to welcome your ideal clients with ease.

HOLLY JEAN JACKSON

Holly Jean Jackson is a Revenue and Performance Consultant, Speaker, Podcast Host, Author, and founder of Business Builder Throw Down. Her career spans from technology to communications as well as organizational change, public relations and content strategy.

She has dedicated over 12 years helping business leaders get their groove back physically, mentally and emotionally. She led a Local to Global Policy Initiative to influence future leaders' impact on communities. Fun Fact: Holly played in Carnegie Hall first chair clarinet and is a Black belt in karate.
In her Peak Performance Blueprint, she looks at a holistic and logistical approach to success. After all, one can’t have massive success in business without a life of equal or greater success.

Connect with Holly:

• LinkedIn
• FB
• IG
• YouTube
• Website

Freebies:

• Your Life & Business Compass
• Schedule a Revenue & Performance Roadmap Call

Transcript

Jen Liss: 0:05

And welcome to Untethered with Jenless, the podcast that's here to help you break free, be you and unleash your inner brilliance. I'm your host, jen, and in this episode we're going to talk about mastering the art and science of real success. So you can get your business groove back. Let's dive in. Hey there, friend, it's Jen. Welcome back to the podcast. Today we have Holly Jackson, so this episode is for any leader, but really for the entrepreneur.

Jen Liss: 0:45

If you're an entrepreneur, if you're a business owner, if you're a solo printer, and especially if you are any of those things and you might feel a little bit lost in your business, maybe you feel like gaining clients is hard right now, that your message isn't clear right now. Whatever that thing is, this is an episode for you. Holly is going to tell you all of the things that are preventing you from feeling like you are in your business groove, and she's going to share the things that you need to know, the things that you need to hear to support you in getting there. Now, if you're not an entrepreneur, she also shares so many good and very real things that so many of us can struggle with. It doesn't matter if you are a business leader or if you are an employee, if you are mid-level manager, wherever you are at, there are things that are stopping us from our own success, and she is going to share some of those things with you, whether it's the perfectionism, the fear of getting it wrong, all of these things that can really stop us. So, without further ado, I welcome to the podcast Holly Jackson. Hi, holly, hi, how are you so good?

Jen Liss: 1:50

It's fabulous to have you here on the podcast to talk about peak performance. It's so interesting that you use this term peak performance, because many of my listeners and myself just assuming that you all are a reflection of myself, because that's how it works in business. We are achievers, achievers, and yet here's the paradox we're achievers, but we find ourselves achieving in the things that are not actually always serving our businesses, and one of the things that you do is to help entrepreneurs recognize the business leaks, the things where they're wasting energy, and those kinds of things. So I'm so thrilled to have you come and talk about this. Why is peak performance? Why is that something that you yourself have gone into? Why is that something you're fascinated with and that you've gone into so much? So you've gone into business to do it?

Holly Jackson: 2:38

Yeah, so my long-term mission and vision in this world is to heal more of the world, and while that sounds kind of like a pipe dream to many people, how that actually happens in actuality with this business work that I do is by helping business owners who are doing good in the world have positive visions, positive missions, where they're helping communities go big so that they can give big. And the best way we can do that is by giving them the tools, platforms, technologies and strategies, tactically, that they can use to reach more of those people and heal more of those communities that they directly serve. And most of the folks that I work with are service-based business owners and they can only go as big as they're able to, and so we work together across five key areas where they're typically either leaving money on the table or they are not at peak performance. And then, as a side note, since you have achievers on here and we have a shared connection, that's how we met.

Holly Jackson: 3:35

For those of you who are these recovering perfectionists like myself and your type, a high achiever peak performance is not expecting perfectionism, that's just. Perfectionism does not exist. Being perfect is not possible. So stop chasing the ideal Peak performance. Is you figuring out exactly what your priorities in life are and what success looks like for you, not comparing to anyone else and doing the same thing in your business, so that we can make sure that you are following that North Star or that compass that you have specifically designed.

Jen Liss: 4:11

Yeah, oh, so many good points there. The perfectionism, and we can say it all day and still it's hard for us to experience. For you yourself, have you had a journey with letting go of perfectionism, with letting go of some of those things? Has that been part of your life?

Holly Jackson: 4:29

It's an ongoing recovery process, yeah, so of course we'll think about it.

Holly Jackson: 4:33

We've grown up in this society and education system where we are taught to do things a specific way.

Holly Jackson: 4:39

We were taught to compete for our grades, for the first chair clarinet, for the thing in the sports, for that first place ribbon on the swim team, so of course I don't know anybody who's not recovering from either achieving or labels or going after that certain thing making their parents proud.

Holly Jackson: 5:00

I think that where I'm at today, though, is really pretty evolved. I understand where I don't want to become really good at something and I want to hire a person to do that for me, because I can actually grow and I don't love doing that thing, so there's no point in me becoming good at that thing. And today I also know that I need a community and that I don't have to be great at everything. I also stop comparing myself to other people because my definition of what success looks like is so different and unique to myself and is not the same as anyone else out there, and so when I do that, I still find myself falling back into old habits where I start comparing and despairing, but I can recognize rather quickly that that's old Holly, and let's get back on track and get back to new Holly, which she's a lot happier.

Jen Liss: 5:52

Yeah, I love it and I love your honesty about that too, because I also believe this is a continuous process. I think very recently I described it to somebody. I'm like we spend the first half of our life becoming tethered and then the next half we spend untethering. I think that's the process, that's the hero's journey.

Holly Jackson: 6:11

Oh my gosh. Yeah, we could talk about all of the different ways we untether for decades and eons because, honestly, the moment you think that you have so-called arrived at the summit, you're digging your grave. This is a continuum thing that we are constantly learning and perhaps you let go of something, but there's something new to let go of. There's always a new area of opportunity for growth that's going to make you happier, more settled, more balanced and more harmonious and peaceful.

Jen Liss: 6:40

Yeah, and we can either look at it as. What you just pointed out is that we can either look at it as frustrating or fun or maybe you didn't point it out and it just pointed it directly in my brain but we can look at it as we can look at this development process and this process of letting go. We can get so frustrated with it because we're trying to get to an end, or we can let it unfold as it does. It feels like you're beautifully illustrating that simply in the way that you're looking at your current process and your business evolution.

Holly Jackson: 7:10

Yeah, and right before you hopped on here, you were like what do you want to focus on today? And I was kind of just divulging how, before we hopped on this call because I didn't have an answer immediately, I was so focused on all of the things I need to stop doing in my business and all of the things that I need to double down on or start doing. And it's exciting, but it's always overwhelming when you make those pretty massive pivots and there is that process of letting go and grieving. We used to do things and the person used to be. I think that's the normal part of the process.

Holly Jackson: 7:46

It was not just saying gosh, it's all positive and rainbows and butterflies. It's not. But I do think that when we look backwards, at where we came from and see how far we've come which I know our shared connection and Charis were both rereading the gap in the game when we look at the gap versus the gain, it's a lot happier, a lot lighter. And when we look at how far we have left to go and comparing against an ideal or societal norms, that is super depressing and that's energy stealing.

Jen Liss: 8:19

So true, yeah, for anybody listening, charis was on the podcast a while back. Everybody loved her episode. If you haven't heard that episode with Charis, she's wonderful. That's how we connected and people often say how did you meet this person, how did you meet this person, how did you get this guest? And it is that it is connections between other amazing human beings who are also asking all these questions and allowing ourselves to evolve in the way that you are.

Jen Liss: 8:42

Also have to say, holly, breath of freaking fresh air. You're a breath of fresh air. You're the kind of person who I want to work with, because I can feel that you're real, you're honest, you're practical and you get it Even in just what you shared right now. And that's. I say that in hopes that any business owners who are hearing this that vulnerability to be like yeah, my business is evolving. That actually makes people want to work with you, as opposed to pretending it's all perfect, because I can also feel that you know what the fuck you're doing. We use that from on this podcast sometimes I use that in mine too.

Holly Jackson: 9:19

So no worries, we're the same, we're cut from the same thread here. Now I mean, here's the reality. If somebody is telling you that you're potentially considering working with that, it's just rainbows and sunshine and perfect, and they're promising you things that feel unrealistic. Listen to that spidey sensor, that small voice inside of you, because it's real. And what's interesting is I actually had to do a lot of untethering and undoing from my corporate world, because in corporate America you have to be perfect and you have to have the perfect emails, the perfect outfit, the perfect look, the everything, and you can't really bring your whole self to work. And I found that in marketing my own personal business that doesn't work, because actually what sells to people is true, authentic connection, vulnerability, being real about your stuff.

Holly Jackson: 10:09

So it has taken the full six years I've been doing this business thing to get this comfortable and saying, yeah, I fucked that up or yeah, I need to let that go, or that didn't work. I failed really fast. I mean, most recently I hired a new assistant. The first two failed really fast and I learned a lot about onboarding and offboarding. Now the one that I have she's freaking amazing and it was worth it, and I'm really good at onboarding and offboarding for this particular position, and so, instead of looking at the loss, I'm like yeah, I'm really glad we waited and we got the right person.

Jen Liss: 10:49

And you learned. You practiced with a couple of people first. I'm sure you learned so so much.

Holly Jackson: 10:54

Yeah, I mean, I've onboarded and offboarded people before, but this is for a very particular role and with the first agency I worked with was unethical, so that doesn't fly with me, so that was cut off. And the second agency, the first round, we just had somebody who wanted a doubling in their hourly rate in nine days. Y'all if you're listening to this, I don't care what generation you're from, you don't ask for that nine days in. Start negotiating some slow pay grade bumps and ask about your growth journey and the KPIs, the key performance indicators you can hit to earn your hourly wage. But that is not realistic. Just putting that out there.

Jen Liss: 11:37

Yeah, and nine days ago you should have asked for more. That's what you wanted.

Holly Jackson: 11:42

Yeah, it's like you know. And so, yeah, you just learned about how to weed out the people that have pitfalls, that you don't want to work with, and what I have learned, whether it's hiring a person, working, deciding which clients I work with because I will, I'll tell you right now. I don't work with every client that wants to work with me. I'm very selective, and that's because we have those headache clients. We have those headache business partners.

Holly Jackson: 12:08

I have learned to listen to my gut and my intuition more and more in all those areas Because, boy, when I don't, it bites me hard and it drains me and I miss out on massive opportunity. But when we're in flow and we listen to our gut, or maybe if we use your heart, or maybe it's that small voice in your head magical things happen and serendipity flows. And you know the things that you put out into the university take action on them too. I'm not just a woo woo person. You take action, but you put it out there. They magically come together when you're in flow and when you're not, everything feels really hard.

Jen Liss: 12:44

Yeah, it's the combination of the two. You're a very boundary person. I recognize that from the first like 10 seconds that we spent together on this call and that is appreciated. We forget how important it is and how relieving it is when we experience somebody who has boundaries and knows what they will set for themselves and what you will accept for yourself and that's relieving for your clients, your potential clients, those who aren't for you. Like it's just good all the way around. It's just good business to know what you want and what you don't want, who you want to work with and who you don't want to work with. That connection to your intuition, yeah, action.

Holly Jackson: 13:22

I would say the boundaries thing. It's been really interesting when it comes to interpersonal relationships, clients in particular, dating. I feel like it's so funny how many people can't handle people that know their boundaries and but that's it.

Holly Jackson: 13:39

Yeah, I'm like, okay, but those people are not my people. So I would rather fail really fast in any kind of relationship for somebody who's not going to be willing to respect my boundaries or hasn't done any of the work on themselves that I'm such a strong Mirror that they're running for the hills like please run for the hills, because I do not want to be your Therapist, and I mean, honestly, the work that Jed and I do like. Ultimately, to some degree, we kind of are a therapist. We hold space for people in very different ways and, and that's fine.

Holly Jackson: 14:11

But you know, in my partnership, intimately, I certainly don't need or want to be your therapist. And so when it comes to that, I want to work with Clients who are willing to take big and bold action against their dreams, no matter how hard it gets or how scary it feels, and at the same time, be their support network. They're cheerleader to help them feel empowered, help them borrow the belief that they might need from time to time. Because I had to tell you guys, when you're scared, doing it alone doesn't work. I'm telling you I did not build this business alone. It has taken a huge community of business peers, mentors, masterminds, coaches, advisors, family members, friends supporting me like this has been built up From so many people support love and belief and you need that too.

Jen Liss: 15:06

Yeah, that idea I'm borrowing. Belief is incredibly powerful. Okay, you mentioned I'd love to get into a little bit of the work that you do and how you support people. You mentioned I don't know if you called it five pillars or five ways or five strategies Could you get into those? Are you comfortable going into those and sharing what those are with people and how it can support them?

Holly Jackson: 15:26

Of course and you know I tell if I wasn't comfortable, be like Jen, we can't go there. Valje's, that was a funny moment, Of course. Yeah, I'm comfortable going there. So the five areas where people are either leaving money on the table or you are probably not very efficient, like you, have opportunity for gaining and becoming more efficient and reaching peak performance, whatever that looks like for you. So the first one is your lead generation and it's funny because I always tell people about diversifying their lead generation and before I got on this call, I was doing what I call super thinking work on my business and I was like I am leaning too heavily on one mode of lead gen and this was keeping me up at night last night. I said we got to fix this. This is not good for a long term longevity is we got to fix that. So I walk the talk of what I teach. So with your lead generation, we need to have that optimized. Where you have Ways that you're bringing people onto your calendar in terms of what I call the four piece, those are your ideal potential purchasers, potential partners that refer you business. They're also your potential platforms that you can speak on professionally to get the other two piece into your world. And then the last P is your promoters, potential promoters, people that serve the same audience. So, just like I'm guessing here with Jen, she's gonna promote this podcast to her list, I'm gonna promote it to my list. We are cross promoting by sharing our audience lists and doing this experience together. So those are the four P's we're targeting and we want to make sure that we diversify the first five early generation and make sure we're filling your calendar with ideal, qualified people for those four P's. So the more clear you are on that, the more we can make that Magically work for you.

Holly Jackson: 17:12

And it's not magic, it's a systemized and automatic, automated. So that's the first one. The second category is your sales process. I can't tell you how many small business owners I work with that suck at sales and they are leaving so much money on the table. They don't have a process that systemized that they can lean on. And the biggest thing I hear and if I didn't have a system it I would lean on this and have a problem as well but the problem I hear is you know, this person was perfect and that ghosted me, I or I don't want to reach out too much, I don't want to be a bother, guys. Sales is about building relationship. It's about getting that person to a yes or no. It's about going into a deeper relationship to solve a problem for that person. You need to have a repeatable, systemized process for your sales process that works so that when you feel that they ghosted you, you can lean on the system and realize they didn't. Life happens. You are not the focal point of their universe, just like you. They're overwhelmed, they don't know what day of the week it is half the time, and so give them some peace and continue to lean on that system and follow up with them and stop the excuse of I'm too much for them because you're not All right.

Holly Jackson: 18:23

The third place people are leaving money on the table is their customer experience. If you are not obsessed about your customer experience, you are failing already. And it's interesting I had somebody on my podcast yesterday and he talked about for their customer experience. His main focal point is treating humans and customers with love. If you think about this, if you love every prospect, you love every potential client, you love every person you come into contact with, you're gonna want to optimize and create a really unique, special, delightful experience. So, with all the touch points, from getting to know someone to onboarding them to maybe they don't do work with you anymore, but they're a huge fan. How do you create moments of delight where they feel loved and supported and they love you so much that they want to refer you business? So we create that experience.

Holly Jackson: 19:17

That includes pricing. It includes your service pyramid. What's the sweet spot for your business? What's the capacity planning you need? There's a lot behind that. And then the fourth one is your employee experience. So, whether you're a solopreneur or you're hiring your first person, you're hiring a new person, you have a huge team and you're seeing that employee retention is a problem. People are leaving the company. Where you're having trouble finding the right fit, or you have a culture problem. We dig into where you have inefficiencies, problems and opportunity, where you're leaving revenue on the table in your employee experience. So we could talk for a whole hour on that, if not more.

Jen Liss: 19:55

And you're your own employee as well. How are you treating yourself?

Holly Jackson: 19:59

Well, yeah. So if you're a solopreneur, it's you know. Are you working too many hours and waiting too long because you're afraid to hire that first person, even if it is a contractor, part-time? Most people wait too long for that. So let's get you in the right mindset to hire that person.

Holly Jackson: 20:15

And the fifth category is legacy. So we live in a very interesting time and a lot of people, especially younger generations, really want to vote with their dollars through social conscious companies. So if you have a legacy where you want to align your, you want to be remembered for, you know, saving the planet. You want to be remembered for healing the world. You want to be whatever that thing is.

Holly Jackson: 20:42

We a lot of my clients will create nonprofits or a foundation and a percentage of every service purchase goes towards the operating budget for that thing, or donate something specific, or they'll do a charitable donation to an existing charity for every sale they make. The more we can apply your personal long-term legacy and journey to your business that sells. And we can apply that to marketing, which, by the way, goes across all five of these areas. People leave so much money on the table, with their marketing and messaging being far from optimized, not knowing how to share their message. So we dig into all of these five areas and when they're all working and systemize, boy magic happens. Lots of money, lots of opportunity to give back.

Jen Liss: 21:28

That's where the unicorns and the rainbows come in, huh.

Holly Jackson: 21:31

That is where the unicorns and rainbows bud, and they just pop out from nowhere.

Jen Liss: 21:37

Yeah, thank you for sharing all of this. I think that's helpful to anybody who is an entrepreneur. You definitely have their brand spinning and their mind buzzing, and I myself, I worked in employee experience for a number of years that I did employee experience strategy and that is something that I'm leaving a company right now actively. I was working with a platform for my business and the experience for me was so bad, but the experience for my customers was even worse.

Jen Liss: 22:07

I could not bandaid this thing enough to make it enjoyable and I just I couldn't. Fortunately, they are listening to me and we've had multiple conversations, but I'm like I don't think this is gonna move at the speed that I need it to in order for this to be a good experience. So it really matters, like there's no excuse this day and age to not make that better. But you're also making me think how can I make it even better? Which, like, how can we be just obsessed with it? It's so important. It's so important we can get so caught up in our own stuff that we miss the point, which that is the point. The point is people and what we're offering them.

Holly Jackson: 22:43

Yeah, and I mean when I say obsessed. It needs to be part of your core pillars, your core values. And, tactically, if you have weekly meetings with your team, you need to be talking about your customer experience every single week. You need to have key performance indicators related to your customer experience. You need to have numbers and metrics so you can dial in to see how that's going. Is it trending in the right direction? And if all of a sudden it's downtrending, why? What's happening there? And the more dialed into your customer experience you are, guess what? It makes everything else easier Sales marketing, getting more clients, getting more cashflow. Because your customers will be obsessed with you. When you get it right, they're gonna be like, oh my gosh, working with Jen is the best. So they'll run into somebody who needs help from Jen because they understand the problem she solves so clearly, because her experience is that good. They're gonna say, oh, I know the perfect person you need to talk to. Let me make an introduction, and then they hand it off to you.

Jen Liss: 23:39

Yeah, so beautiful. What do you think is the number one thing that is really stopping entrepreneurs? I mean, you just listed five things, but if you could just like point to one big thing that you see all the time that people are struggling with, they're trying to do it all themselves and they're not investing in other who's that can help them get there faster.

Holly Jackson: 24:00

Stop trying to do it all. You cannot be good at all the things. You cannot be good at the thing you actually want to do in your business and marketing and sales and list building and customer experience and employee expert. You just you can't. You cannot do all of the things, and so my point is that you need to work with experts that know how to do this and hire people that make up for the gaps and blind spots that you don't have, nor do you want to. I mean my assistant. She is so, so good at detail orientation.

Holly Jackson: 24:32

I think the first week of training she corrected me on things. I'm like thank you for helping me not click a fool on that small thing that I missed. And so hire people that in the past maybe your ego got in the way and you didn't want to hire them, because they're so smart, they're going to help you. So stop being afraid, stop getting in your own way and work with people that are going to help you get there, even if they're just a couple steps ahead of you, so that you understand we're going to invest your time and money, because otherwise you're going to burn yourself out.

Jen Liss: 25:01

Yeah, that that burnout is real and the burnout, especially the spinning wheel burnout, can be very real.

Holly Jackson: 25:09

And it's a lot. It's lonely like if you're trying to build your business completely in solitude. You're not going to make it. I mean, you're really not you. You need to be involved in masterminds. You need to have pure supportive business owners that are you know when you freak out about something it's not like you're a significant other or your family and most in most cases can understand what you're doing, unless you're in a family and have a spouse that is also an entrepreneur which is, by the way, pretty rare.

Holly Jackson: 25:37

So you need to have people that when you have that thing keeping you up at night, or this thing where you have to do this massive pivot, or you're on the roller coaster, guys, I hate to tell you it doesn't go away, it's still there. It's just you know how to deal with the roller coaster more than longer. Your business, but a lot of other people in your personal life will never understand what you're going through. So stop beating your head against a wall and try and explain it to your spouse or your family when they're not in the same realm as you, and find peers and your business, family and community to lean on so you're not doing it alone and so that when you have that big win. It feels that much better because they understand how significant that win is, whereas other people don't have no idea how hard it was to build that win.

Jen Liss: 26:21

Oh my gosh, you just said everything that we all need to hear. We all need to hear about that conversation that we're trying to have with the people who we love, who just don't get it. Find the people who do get it. Work with the people who get it and who can celebrate those wins alongside you, because they understand how big that win is, creaking huge. Thank you so much for sharing that. I have one last question that I ask every single guest who comes on the podcast and it's funny because we alluded to magic and magic sometimes not being there and other times being there but where do you personally see the magic in the world?

Holly Jackson: 26:58

I see magic all over. So my word of the year last year and this year has been magic. Now she's like I got goosebumps. So the reason I like to focus on magic, it's not to say that it happens just magically. To me, magic is when you are in flow, when you see these constant moments of serendipity. That means that you're not fighting the river of life. And that did not come from me, that came from my mom, aka Yoda. She says to me Holly, holly, jean, you are slimming up stream right now on this thing. When I'm, when I'm struggling, just like, just let go low on the river of life, I'm like, ok, you're right, you're right. So where in your business, where in your life are you fighting that tide of the river? That is not something you can beat. Where do you need to let go? Who do you need to help you? Because when you're back in flow, that's where the magic happens. And I can give you two examples from last year. Maybe it's two years ago. Life goes fast. Two years ago I had these two massive bucket list things I wanted to do and and I believed because that's part of the magic too I believed I could do it, but I didn't know how. So I put it out to the universe and I have practices for that. But I also took action on those things. I wanted to publish my first book and I wanted to do a TED talk. And I did both of those things. But working with my coach at the time, I said Hope I can't find the publisher I want to work with. I've been working super hard on this, it's just not happening. And she said, holly, have you not learned yet that as soon as you take action and let go, it happens? I was like, ah, thank you for that reminder. So I had already taken a lot of action, planted a lot of seeds, and I still took action. But I stopped obsessing about the result and as soon as I let go, I organically, serendipitously and magically met by publisher who to this day is a client of mine, a good friend of mine. I'm speaking at her writer's retreat in May. She's been a delight in my life and we had a best-selling book. I'm working on the second book. It's amazing.

Holly Jackson: 29:05

Ted Talk same thing. It's like you know, I want to do a Ted Talk. How do I do this? So I started systematically reaching out to TEDx curators in my state and surrounding states and building relationships with them. But I didn't try to just sell it, I just wanted to build a relationship and have it organically happen and instead of forcing it, I actually didn't need my coach to remind me because I had learned earlier that year about the publisher thing and I just let go.

Holly Jackson: 29:33

Then I trusted it'll happen, and I think it was three weeks later that a TEDx curator I had created a relationship with said Holly Jean, we are starting to take in applications for speakers and we're only going out to our trusted network of people we really like, and you're one of those people. Can you join us on this group call? And I landed my first TEDx speak speaking opportunity. So take action, yes. Believe in yourself. Yes, and if you need to borrow belief for somebody, find a coach, find a consultant, find a mentor to work with and then let go and stop fighting upstream because you can't make it happen. You have to be in flow for that to happen. I feel like that was a really long answer, sorry.

Jen Liss: 30:19

It was a long answer, but the perfect answer, and the perfect answer it's so true. What you're sharing is really a process that I talk about a lot with my clients, which is taking aligned action and then you let go and then it's your chance to shine. So it's aligned release and shine and that's like you're walking through that process just to bring people back who have maybe been in this vicinity for a while to understand some of what you're sharing there and how it aligns with some of the conversations that we've had before, because it is that process of letting go and it's often the hardest part, because we wanna grip and we wanna plan and we wanna make things happen and we wanna control, especially if you've been wrapping it back to the perfectionism thing.

Holly Jackson: 31:00

Now, y'all, if I could just do this in my dating life, maybe I wouldn't be single anymore. This is an area where I have a lot of trouble letting go, so I'm letting go. You hear that on the record today. I'm letting go. If it happens, great, I'm done with the whole dating out thing. It's crazy.

Jen Liss: 31:16

There you go envision it, believe it. Borrow somebody else's belief. Yeah exactly. And I think it's.

Holly Jackson: 31:23

Gabby Bernstein, that instead of like when you see people that have the thing that you want, instead of looking at that and despairing and being jealous, look at it as driftwood of like the river of life showing you remnants of what's coming for you. And so recently, a good friend of mine that I didn't think was gonna like find their person found their person and I just been like, wow, and instead of getting jealous, I was like, ooh, this is driftwood, I'm on the right track, I'm gonna find my person, and so that's been a nice reframe of instead of being jealous when you see the things that you want. So for a lot of people I work with its money and they have a lot of bad relationship with money Instead of looking at people that are wealthy or have got a significant job or have a fancy car or whatever that thing is, instead of being jealous, look at it as driftwood of what's coming to you next.

Jen Liss: 32:15

Yeah, that's absolutely beautiful. I have a client who met her. Her and her now husband were in their 40s and they were both at Walmart and they were out of chicken. Each of them had come to buy fried chicken and they were out, and so they're both just awkwardly standing there, huge introverts. Both of them just awkwardly standing there waiting for the chicken, and he eventually just made some joke about we'll just stand in here waiting for the chicken or something, and they struck up a conversation. They've been married now for 15 years, I think, but you just never know. Like that reminds me of your TED Talk, all of the things that you've just said. It's like she had been setting out into the universe this perfect person that was coming her way and she had finally let it go. And that's when the weird chicken incident happened, and that's where the magic happens.

Holly Jackson: 33:05

When we stop thinking or obsessing about that thing so much. We still take action, but we let go and trust it. That's where magic happens.

Jen Liss: 33:14

Yeah, she was still willing to have the conversation with him too, so that's like there is that being ready. So thank you. Thanks for letting me tell that story about the chicken, and it always just cracks me up, thank you for coming on the podcast. It is driftwood I think I hope it's driftwood for you today, a little piece of driftwood for you.

Holly Jackson: 33:31

Yeah, of course I'm looking for the chicken guy. I'm just kidding. Just go to Walmart.

Jen Liss: 33:36

Here's your process you go to Walmart, you stand there, you wait until they're out of chicken and then you wait for the person to show up. But really is that not what we're asking people all the time in business is like show me your process.

Holly Jackson: 33:47

Yeah, yeah. Well, one of these days, when I have my meat-cute story, I'll come back and tell your listeners, so stay tuned yes please.

Jen Liss: 33:56

Well, I was at the butcher shop and I had gone to.

Holly Jackson: 33:58

yeah, who knows what the story will be? Who knows?

Jen Liss: 34:03

I can't wait. I can't wait. Thank you for coming. Thank you for sharing. Where can people find you? Work with you, get to know you even further?

Holly Jackson: 34:12

Absolutely so. You can find me at hollyjeanjaxsoncom. You can also email me at hollyjeanjaxsoncom, and I'm extremely active on LinkedIn. You can find me there at hollyjejaxson. Look forward to connecting with you. I also have a podcast myself. You can find that at inspirationcontagioncom, and the book is the same name, so pretty easy to remember. Beautiful, thank you.

Jen Liss: 34:37

And maybe one of the listeners is actually your future romantic relationship. We just don't know.

Holly Jackson: 34:43

Whoa mic drop moment, mic drop moment.

Jen Liss: 34:47

Everyone. Please go connect with Holly. I know you're going to want to. I'm thrilled to get to know you even further. Thank you for coming on the podcast and sharing everything you shared.

Holly Jackson: 34:55

Thank you for being a great host and for holding this platform for other people to share their message. It's an honor If you're an entrepreneur.

Jen Liss: 35:02

There is no way that you did not get so much goodness out of that episode with Holly. I myself, she and I, got in a conversation about my own business at the end of it, because she really is able to see things through this lens and her skill set is helping to support entrepreneurs with these very specific things that so many of us struggle with. So if you are struggling with that, she's somebody who you might consider reaching out to. All of her links are in the show notes. She is definitely going to tell you like it is. I appreciate those people in my life Nice, untethered people with firm boundaries. I'm all about it. My Midwestern heart has struggled with that for so long and I've come so, so, so so far, and it's really about celebrating those little things we talked about like celebrate the growth that you have had along your journey, celebrate it, recognize it and know that you're moving forward exactly at the pace that you were meant to. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Stay tuned for Thursday, where I'm going to pull out a little nugget, a little thread from this episode for a Thursday thread episode where I go a little deeper on one of the things that we talked about today with Holly. Thank you so much for listening to this episode If you enjoyed it.

Jen Liss: 36:14

I hope you enjoyed it. If you enjoyed it, I encourage you to share it with a friend. Share it with somebody else who might need to hear it Any other entrepreneur, solopreneur, business people in your life who might gain a little something from this episode. Another thing you can do if it really hit home for you, share it with all of your friends. Take a screenshot of this episode. Share it on social media. Tag me, tag Holly. Our tags are in the show notes. I'm untethered on Instagram. We will always reshare your posts if you tag us. Thanks again for listening. You just keep shining. You're a magical unicorn light out there for all to see. I'll see you next time. Bye.