Building a 7-Figure Business After Losing Everything with Jillian Murphy

"Fun is an energy that people are magnetized to." —  Jillian Murphy

There's a version of starting over that doesn't look like a five-year plan. For Jillian Murphy, it looked like losing her corporate job on a Tuesday, giving herself one day to feel bad about it, and hiring a business coach 48 hours later because she didn't have time to figure it out alone.

In this episode, Jillian Murphy joins Heather to talk about building a seven-figure sales coaching business after being the first woman hired at her company since 1963 and then losing that job during the pandemic. They get into why Jillian calls her lead list her "love list," the moment she realized her old podcast brand no longer fit who she'd become, and why she still refuses to outsource her DMs or her content even with a thriving business. It's an honest conversation about women's identity, self-discovery, and what it really takes to rebuild on your own terms.

If you've ever felt boxed in by a version of yourself you've outgrown, this conversation is for you. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Timestamps
00:00 — Introduction — Heather welcomes Jillian Murphy
02:06 — Being the first woman hired since 1963, and dropping out of the police academy
04:42 — Losing her corporate job on a Tuesday, hiring a coach 48 hours later
21:16 — Why she renamed her lead list her "love list"
41:29 — The moment she realized her podcast brand no longer fit her
14:26 — Why she'll never outsource her DMs or her content
44:20 — Where to connect with Jillian Murphy

About Jillian Murphy

Jillian Murphy is a Sales and Marketing Specialist with over 25 years of experience helping entrepreneurs master sales, messaging, and business growth.

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Transcript

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Jillian Murphy: Make sure you're having fun. Make sure you're genuinely obsessed with what you're doing. And if you're not, take time, evolve, change, and figure out what that is. Because fun is an energy that people are magnetized to. I'm always like, hey, come over to my world. It's a freaking party over here. And people can feel that because I'm genuinely having fun in my business every single day. And number two, if you're selling something right now that you're not sold on anymore, or you've shifted, just make sure you're really sold on the thing that you sell. I can talk about GLP-1 and peptides because I sell them. I can talk about my Infinity program because I'm obsessed with it. But if it wasn't something that I actually loved, sales doesn't feel as fun. So just find something that you guys are really obsessed to talk about.

Heather Nelson: Welcome to Her Story Unscripted. I'm your host, Heather Nelson, a connector, business strategist, and someone who truly believes that the most powerful conversations happen when we stop performing and start being real. This podcast is a space for women to share honest, unscripted conversations about life, growth, and the experiences that have shaped who we are. No perfectly polished narratives, no pressure to have it all figured out, just real, authentic stories told exactly as they are. 

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Her Story Unscripted. I have Jillian Murphy here. We actually just physically met. But was connected through a mutual friend, Darcy, who was also on the podcast earlier this season. We are going to talk about sales. This is like my favorite topic to talk about, and I'm really excited to have this conversation with you, so welcome to the podcast.

Jillian Murphy: Thank you so much. I love when other people are excited about sales, because most people that are scared are cringe. To meet someone else who's like here for sales, like I am down for this conversation.

Heather Nelson: Yeah, I actually speak a lot about how to make sales not so scary, especially in the networking setting. Because I do a lot of networking, and I'm like, it's like meeting a new best friend, and you never know what opportunities are going to happen. Obviously, we're gonna dive into the work that you're doing now, but talk about the history of your career.

Jillian Murphy: Yeah. I always tell like, I have a quick like two minute backstory. So I actually was in college going to the police academy, and I dropped into the police academy like 8 weeks in. My parents were like, okay, well, that's great. Now, you have to get a job. And I was like, that sucks. So my dad was a super successful business owner at a company, so I took an internship there. I was the first female hired in their organization since 1963. I tell the story because I came from an old school boy club. People were smoking cigars back in the day. Our meetings, like every guy was in a three piece suit. It was basically like a gangster area. And why I tell this is because even growing up in sales that was all men dominated, I found a way to really do it in a way that felt good for me as a female. And at that time, a young female, I was in my early 20s when I first started. And then unfortunately, I lost my corporate job during the pandemic. Our company was actually bought by investors. I was working for a smaller distributor at the time. I had no desire to be an entrepreneur. I had friends that talked on their social media. I thought they were super cringe and weird. I'm like, I don't know what you guys do over there. And then I move over to the online space, and we can obviously get into that a little bit more.

Heather Nelson: Yeah. I'm very much on Facebook or social media stalking you before. And now, I'm hearing that story, how much that's changed for you because you feel so confident in it now. 

Jillian Murphy: Thank you. It was funny. I actually just did a video yesterday on these ad bloopers because this is a great reminder. Even if you see someone online that looks really polished or confident, it usually has a few takes to happen. So I was creating these ad videos yesterday, and it was like blooper after blooper. I was like, you know what? I'm gonna make a reel about this because I think people need to see that it's not as easy as what makes it seem out there.

Heather Nelson: Yeah. I have been working with a client right now, and they have an intern who can whip out a reel like that. And I'm like, I need an hour to two to put together a reel. Literally, my daughter is in marketing, and she comes over a lot and works at home with me from her office. She'll be like, mom, you should do this. I'm like, do you know how long it will take me to make what you're telling me? You're lucky I'm getting a talking head out today. So funny. Okay, so pandemic, I feel like that was a big change and shift for a lot of people in their career. What did you do? I'm sure that it was messy. I think anytime we start a business, especially in the sales or consulting world, it's messy because you're like, what? I have all these skills, I have all this experience. How do I project that out in the world? How do I get people to pay for my experience? Talk about what starting a business was like, and how you got to where you are.

Jillian Murphy: So when I lost my corporate job, I literally gave myself 24 hours to eat Ben and Jerry's, to go watch Grey's Anatomy, to feel bad for myself. And then I was like, by Thursday, you got to figure this out. So I lost my corporate job on Tuesday while I got a pension and everything. I had no income coming in. I hired a business coach 48 hours later, and I think that's an important thing for people to understand. I did not have time to try to figure it out on my own. If you're trying to start a business right now, you are literally paying for speed, not always information. So I was like, I got to figure this out. I also feel, and I say this a lot on podcasts, I hit the online space at the right time. I also sell something that every single person needs, hairdressers, realtors, brick and mortars, gyms, network marketers. I did have almost a different experience in the online space because everyone was coming to the online space. Everyone was going to be a coach, but no one knew how to do it. So instantly, and I really say instantly, my business blew up. And it happened because I think, number one, I took messy action and moved quick. But I also believe it was because I was selling something that everybody needed, and it was so micro specific. If I would have been a manifestation coach to build the most aligned life ever, I would not have grown my business to where it grew as quickly as it did. But it was so specific, and so many people could say like, go to her for this.

Heather Nelson: Who is your ideal client? Who are the people that you're working with?

Jillian Murphy: Yeah. I always love this question. And people always cringe when I say it, but honestly, it's everyone. It is every single person. Because it doesn't matter what your business is, you need people coming into your business. You need a way to retain those clients. You need a way for those people to become your internal sales force. So let's use a gym. You need new members coming in because members move. Unfortunately, members pass away. They decide they don't want to work out anymore, so you always need new traffic coming in. You also need a way to retain those clients that they're having the best experience ever. And how do they leave your gym and say like there is no better Pilates studio or bar studio? So then they become your sales force on the streets. So yes, I work with brick and mortars, I work with real estate agents. I work with coaches, consultants, and network marketers. If I had to pick a favorite, it's definitely people in the network marketing space. But people who are not starting in network marketing, they've already got it up and running. And it's like, how do we pour fire on this? Our friend Darcey is a great example, or coaches, consultants, and healers, because there's a framework that I walk everyone through, and it's a little bit different from brick and mortar. I'm also not afraid to say, you are not the ideal client for me. I actually don't understand your business. I've never worked in this business, but let me send you to someone else that can.

Heather Nelson: Yeah, so good. What programs and stuff are you offering?

Jillian Murphy: Yeah. I sold the same thing for almost two years, which people also think is wild. But one of my taglines is like, one person, one problem, one platform, one year, and you can make a million dollars.You literally can. We are proof that this has happened. I think so often people have way too many things, especially in the beginning, right? It's like, I have a low ticket offer. I have a freebie. I have a masterclass. I have a workshop. It's like just get really good at one thing. I'm going to use Darcey as an example. Darcey could literally sell my program for me, and she does because I've been talking about the same thing over, and over, and over, and my audience also becomes aware of that. It also has a name, so people are like, oh, it's easy to go to her for this. Just this year, we saw a shift in the way that people buy. So up until the end of 2025, you could only work with me as a 4 or 5-figure investment. That was it. Whether it was 5 grand, 8 grand, 10 grand, whatever it was. But I saw that there was a shift in the market. 

And just like I did in my corporate job, I paid for speed quickly from someone else who figured it out because I saw her move her business very quickly. I was like, what is she doing? She used to sell like a $5,000 offer. And now, she's got this lower like $500 offer. So we just created this thing which is called the society, which is like my feeder into my bigger item. But this is the thing. Sometimes, I meet people and they have a coach already, or they're in a program already, or they've been burned, or they're not ready to make a 3, 4, 5 figure investment. So we created this program called the Society where really it's like high level networking in one call a month with me. Which then, once they're like, okay, I like her. I want a taste of her. We moved her up into the big thing, and it has been a great ascension offer flow into our business.

Heather Nelson: So it's like one small feeder to get them in to see how you work, and then now you only have one program that you sell on multiple levels.

Jillian Murphy: Yeah. Or they can work with me one on one. But I'm pretty particular about who I work with one on one. And the way that we run our business, I always say, I will give you all the tea. I don't care. My one on one is obviously our highest level investment, and it's almost three times as much as the group. And then I have Society, which is a low ticket. So when people ask me like, hey, how do I work with you? I'm just making up numbers. We have one-on-one coaching that's 25 grand. We have a group program that's 6 grand. Or we have this low-ticket offer for 500. Well, this feels cheap. This is not accessible to everyone, so we drive people to the center all day long.

Heather Nelson: Interesting. I think one of the things where I get stuck, I obviously have my podcast, but I'm also a consultant, and I'm still trying to figure out my niche and where I fit in in the industry. How do you help people get unstuck? How do you find that sweet spot of like, yes, people are going to buy that.

Jillian Murphy: Yeah. So number one is when I work with people, I get very hands on in their business. Nothing is cookie cutter. You and Darcey could be in the same program, but you guys do vastly different things, and you're also vastly different humans. So first, I want to be very clear of, why are you different? What sets you apart? And I think so many people are really missing this. This is the thing why people buy from you. So if I was to ask people, hey, why do you work with me? What is it about me? People are always like, you're very direct. You're not in an unlabeler, and your energy either activates me or irritates me. I'm like, perfect! That's what I want. Those are the things that set me apart because you guys can ChatGPT your way through anything right now. You really need to show up as a human, and I want you to know an authentic human. How I'm talking on this podcast today is the exact same way I would talk if you met me in real life. It is the same way I talk on my podcast, the same way in which I coach, because there needs to be a through line, because people are buying humans at the end of the day. So that's number one. Who are you as a human? 

Number two is most people are selling things that people don't know that they actually need yet. So what I mean by this is maybe you're selling, let's just use Arbonne for an example. Maybe you're trying to tell them every single day about these energy sticks, and you're talking about your stories, and you're over, and over, and over about it, but people don't know if they have a problem with energy. They might just be like, I'm tired at 3:00 o'clock, or I didn't sleep well. So you have to first create problem awareness content that's like, I think I have this problem. Then you become the only and obvious choice. So let me give you an example in my business. I talk about selling without getting on sales calls. So what I'm not gonna say is like, hey, I help you sell without getting on sales calls because it might be like, well, sales calls are fine. I'm gonna first identify the problem. You are yet again on a sales call that someone either stood you up for, or you basically just trauma dumped you in the last hour, or you've gotten ghosted. Or most importantly, they have to follow up with their husband or check in. This is what's happening. This is how you close in the DM. So now they're like, yeah, this is me over here in problem land. She literally just identified it. Then over here, Jillian Murphy becomes the only and obvious choice to fix the thing that I just gave you problem awareness on. That's a little bit of what I do when I'm in my clients' business because so many people are selling something they don't know. 

The last thing I'll say on this, I think this is really important, sales is a process. Which means that you need leads coming in to then sell them. And so many people, you guys, if you're listening to this podcast right now, literally pause it right now and do this exercise. Go to your Instagram stories if this is where you sell, and ask yourself, who is my ideal client? Okay, so my ideal client is a female that is a coach. I'm going to go to my Instagram stories and I'm going to swipe up, and I'm going to be like, she's a female coach. She's a female coach. She's a female coach. She's a female coach. But what so often happens is you guys do this exercise, and you're like, I have some friends from high school. I got some weird 90 day fiance guy. I got people that are already my clients. Well, it's not the offer or the problem. It's that you don't have the right people. So we have to like time out, go get you more visibility, and demand in your business. So that when you're speaking, it's the right people. So it's a process that you have to follow.

Heather Nelson: So true. You do a lot of work in the DMs, and you've mentioned that a couple times. Talk about that. I definitely have noticed too that the more interactive you are on Instagram, you get the DMs, and you can tell that there's almost like automation happening. Talk about how that's become such a thing now.

Jillian Murphy: Yeah. We run a 7 figure company over here. Two things I do not outsource. I do not outsource my DMs, and I do not outsource my content. And I think this is important for people to hear because we do see a lot of people who have automations, or we have someone doing their social media. This is my bread and butter. So my community is who I talk to, why would I ever outsource that? Even to like a Jillian AI, I'm literally never doing that. Mark my words. I'm never having my own clone. But this is how you actually stand out. You stand out by being a human. At least once a day, somebody says to me, oh, my God, this is actually you. Who else would be in my DMs? Who else would it be? So that's the first thing that I do. I always use this example of someone coming into your house and you're having a house party, and if they come in, your butler's greeting them, or your husband's greeting them. Or even more importantly, nobody is greeting them. They're not going to stick around very long. 

But imagine if someone came into your world and you gave them a hug. And you said like, I'm so glad that you're here. I can't wait to get to know you better. So that's the first thing that I do. You're never going to get a cold pitch from me in my DMs. I'm never going to ask you about your business first thing in the DMs. I am building true, genuine relationships, and I collect people in three categories. There's four fingers, but I collect people in three categories. So when I meet people in the DMs, they are either a cheerleader for me. So Darcey is a great cheerleader. I'm on this podcast because she was a cheerleader for me. She is also a client. But then there's also collaborators. So maybe you and I never work together. Maybe you and I will become collaborators. So I think so often, people go into DMs and they're like, oh, this is a client or isn't a client. There's so many other opportunities. I have people that have never bought a single thing from me, but are my biggest raving fans that get people to come to my workshops or listen to my podcast. So we really remove your agenda and just genuinely get to know people, and be genuinely curious.

Heather Nelson: That is my favorite thing. Obviously, that's why I'm a podcaster because I'm curious about everyone's lives, what they're doing, and how they do it. But in my 25 years of sales, that's when I went into a meeting. It was never like, here, buy for me. Here's what I have to offer you. What do you do on the weekends? What's your family life like? Do you have kids? And that's how I grew a business from a little mom and pop place to this massive multi-million dollar company before I started my business. It was all about creating relationships and creating authenticity. And even to this day, I'm still friends with all of them. And again, now they're my cheerleaders because they know how I've created this ecosystem of actually showing up and caring, reaching out when it's not a sales thing. It's like, how was your trip to Hawaii? How are your kids doing? And it's not about, what can you buy from me? How can you connect me to other people that might buy from me? And again, how do you be your biggest cheerleader? I love that.

Jillian Murphy: Yeah. I give you a great example. I had this happen yesterday. And guys, when someone cold pitches me in the DMs and it's like god awful, I do not just get angry. I actually coached them back. I'm like, I actually want to help you, so let me give you a great example. You came to my page for any amount of time, you would know that I am a health junkie. Okay, you also would see that I'm very small and I'm very fit. So literally yesterday, somebody sent in my DMs and they were like, hey, I would love to know if you're looking for help on increasing your metabolism. Okay, well, if you just watch my stories, you will see that this is probably not something that I'm challenged with. The easiest thing that she could have done was said, hey, Jillian, I just consumed your stories today. You are smoking hot for 47 years old. What are you doing? Because I'm also in the metabolism space now. I could bring her on my podcast. I could be like, hey, you're not a great fit for me, but I have a lot of clients that are struggling with this. But immediately, she annoyed me. You don't know what people are actually going through, right? I get these things all the time. Oh, let me help you with your ads. My literal Instagram says no ads, so pay attention and genuinely get to know someone. I think that's the biggest thing. Like that's the secret sauce. Everyone is so shitty, honestly, in the DMs. So if you just half-ass care, you're going to be ahead of your competition.

Heather Nelson: I was just talking to somebody the other day, and I'm like, it's two key things to sales. One, respond. So if they do message you in DMs, respond. Or if they email you, respond. Respond. Just respond in a timely manner. And to follow up. I can't even tell you how many sales opportunities came my way because I followed up. It may and it might be like you email them once, and then a week later, you email them again. But then maybe you don't hear from them, email them in a couple months, and you never know what opportunity, where they're sitting in life. They might change their mind. I just talked about this yesterday. I think those are, for me, two important ones.

Jillian Murphy: It's so important. I think so many people would say to me like, how do you follow up without being pushy or salesy? Well, you have to remember that if they've asked me a question, they have a problem. So it is literally my job to figure it out or fix it. I'm also very casual in my DMs. I never gonna say, hey Darcey, I know you asked me about this. I'm just gonna be like, hey, I saw that you were really busy this week with Miles with his graduation. You probably didn't see this message. I'm gonna shoot this back. Also, now that shows her that I'm actually paying attention because her kid just graduated, and his name is Miles. So now it's like, okay. Versus like, oh, I'm just circling back or following up. People ask me all the time, how many times do you follow up? I literally will follow up until someone tells me to go away. But not in an annoying, aggressive way. Also, if you're building real relationships, have conversations with them other than the thing that you're trying to sell them. So let's again use Darcy for an example. Maybe she's asked me about my Infinity program, and she hasn't made a move. I'm not going to be like, hey, I'm just circling back or following up on that message. I might be like, hey, tell me what's going on with your life right now. I see that you were crushing it over there. Oh, I'm crushing it, but this is also happening. Well, let's revisit a couple of months ago when we had this conversation. So it is a methodology, but people are making it much harder than it needs to be.

Heather Nelson: Do you ever find it overwhelming to keep up with people, keep up with clients, keep up with how you have a system that allows you to remind yourself to follow up? How do you handle that?

Jillian Murphy: Yeah. People are always amazed by this when I tell them this. We do not have a CRM system. You guys, we are bringing like hundreds of people into our world a year. The way that I do it is the same way that I started. So you can see this whiteboard paper behind me, but I also have one over here, and this is anyone who I feel would be an ideal client, or who I feel has maybe asked me about coaching but hasn't said anything. Their name goes on that board. And I don't call it my lead list. I actually call it my love list. So what this means is I'm just gonna love them a little bit more. I'm gonna comment on their stuff genuinely. I'm gonna maybe throw them a podcast episode that I just did, but they just become the people that I pay a little bit more attention to. I also use the flag button on Instagram. So when I go into Instagram, they're just orange. But this is also my, I don't know if you call it like my framework, but just have conversations. If you have enough conversations, you will have conversions. I did a workshop this week inside of our business and built a 6-figure calendar. And one of the things that I asked them was, at the end of every week, ask yourself how many sales conversations did you have? How many times did you invite someone into your world? How many times did you say like, this is exactly what I saw. And if it's not very many, you're just not having enough conversations. Again, simple as that.

Heather Nelson: How much time do you spend on your business?

Jillian Murphy: I just did this training, which was called a 6-figure training, and I think that people need to understand that I don't work, aka, very hard. But I work extremely intentionally. There's three things that I focus on every single day in my business. Number one, I do one hour of organic lead generation every single day, and I do this every morning before I get out of bed. I'm like half awake because before anything really gets in my way, I just do it. It's on my calendar every day for 60 minutes of organic lead generation. Do I miss it sometimes? Yeah. I'm a human, but it is on my calendar because just like going to the gym, or nurturing a friendship, or having date night with your partner, what's on your calendar gets done. Okay, so every day it says 60 minutes of organic lead generation. Underneath that, it says, do something fun. Because I also believe that fun is the strategy that gets us there. You have to be enjoying what you're doing. People have to see that she genuinely loves what she's doing, right? I genuinely loved creating those ad videos yesterday. There was fun that was happening in it. 

So what can I do every day that's like fun? So 60 minutes of organic lead generation, have fun. I obviously serve clients. I coach clients Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and I block my days heavily. They are like back to back, to back from 10:00 to 3:00. I only work from 10:00 to 3:00. Why? Because I don't set an alarm clock. I love to sleep in. I'm actually a sleepaholic. I love to sleep in, and I don't want to be rushed to get to my first call. I rushed for 25 years in corporate. I want to sleep in every day. Today, I woke up at like 9:30 this morning. Then I get my stuff done, and then I book my times accordingly. Mondays are like my CEO day, so I might batch content. I might reach out to you and say, hey, thanks for coming on my podcast. I'd love to have you on mine. I'm doing that type of stuff on Mondays. And then Fridays are usually like a flow over day. Maybe someone couldn't get on a call, or they missed it, or there's something I need to follow up on. And then I think something that is really important that I just talked about in my training last week was I never go into Monday without a plan. Yours can be different. Yours could be Friday afternoons. Yours could be Friday mornings. Could be Saturday, Sundays. I personally like Sunday evenings. I'm also single. My daughter's 24. I'm keeping any humans alive, so I have a lot more free time. I set like two hours every Sunday to be like, what am I working on? What are the goals this week? What are our sales targets? What do I have to prepare for so that when I go into Monday, I'm not like, what should I actually be doing today?

Heather Nelson: That's so good.

Jillian Murphy: I definitely don't work 40 hours.

Heather Nelson: I know. Sometimes, do ever feel guilty.

Jillian Murphy: I do. It's actually interesting because I have a client. Her name's Hillary, and she is someone who just does a lot of mindset work. Even though she's my client, I'll message her and be like, I actually feel bad that I literally laid on the couch all day today and didn't do anything. She's like, no, that's okay because you're doing it somewhere else. I think as long as you are getting things done and you are moving the needle, and I also think it's important for your clients to see that. My clients are blown away that I don't have a 5:00 AM morning routine. I am not journaling and cold plunging. 

Heather Nelson: When you said you were doing organic lead generation, I was like, you're emailing or you're reaching out to people. I am like, I can't do that at 6:00 AM when I'm waking up. But that makes sense. 

Jillian Murphy: I tell my clients this too, organic outreach with something else that you love. So I do organic outreach in three places, walking on the beach. Because I live here in the south so I might go for a walk for an hour and be like, I'm gonna do 30 minutes of it because I'm not sitting at my computer hating it, so I do it there. I do it in bed before I wake up, or I actually do it in the bathroom because I'm moving it away from something else. But if you're like, oh, my god, lead generation sounds terrible. Get out of your office, get off of your computer, and go mash it. Be like, I'm gonna go lay in the sun for 60 minutes and do my outreach there. Pair it with something else that's enjoyable because it's not the most fun thing ever.

Heather Nelson: It's not. When you do lead generation, are those people who already are in your ecosystem? You are probably at a point in your business where you don't have to do cold calls, which I don't believe in that theory as much. But what does that look like for you?

Jillian Murphy: Yeah. So number one is I pay attention to people that are watching my stories, and they're the first people that I talk to. Hey, Heather, thank you so much for being here. I saw that you are consuming my stories. Looks like we are new friends. Tell me a little bit more about you, not your business. I'm a mom. I live in wine country. X, Y and Z, right? That's the first place that I go. Second place I go is people that are following me that probably have no idea what I even have going on right now. They are not on my algorithm. They are not seeing it. And the way that the algorithm works, if you guys don't know this, is who you talk to. The algorithm pushes you to. Like Heather said, she didn't know who I was. And now, I can probably guarantee that if she opens her Instagram, I'll be one of the first people that pop up because Instagram pays attention to like, oh, Hillary consumes Jillian's content. We want to keep her on our platform. Let's serve up more of that content to her. So go and just engage in your ideal client even if they're not responding back, because that puts you in front of new people. 

And then I have 3  to 5 lookalike audiences that I spend time in. I'll break this down exactly what this looks like so you guys can understand. Lookalike audiences are, number one, someone that does the exact same thing as me. So other sales coaches. Because just because they're following someone else in the sales space, maybe they don't align with that person. Maybe they don't want to work with a man. Maybe they don't want to work with a 20-year-old. It could be a million different things. So people that do the same thing as me, and I try to pick people that have the same energy or vibe. Let's use like Shelby Sapp for an example. I'm not a Shelby Sapp fan, but she and I have the same demeanor, the same way we kind of talk to our clients. But there's a lot of people that follow her that's like, yeah, I don't want to work with someone in their 20s, so I'll spend time there. I will then spend time in a sales coach that is a man. So maybe like Daniel G or Jeremy Miner, people that are doing something similar to me, but they are the opposite sex. And then the third one is, who else teaches something that my ideal clients need sales after? 

I'm sure you guys know about the YAP Challenge right now. It's blowing up the internet. Everyone's talking about this challenge. Where am I spending time right now? In Jessi's audience. Why? Because when these people get really good talking to camera, people are then going to ask them how to work with them. She's not teaching sales, she's teaching how to be a good yapper. So what I'm going to do is start to bring these people into my orbit. So when their videos start popping off and people ask how to work with them, it's like shit. What do I do? Oh, I've been following this girl Jillian that talks about how to turn your face to camera content into a sale. So  everything I do is very intentional.

Heather Nelson: I love that. One thing that I took away from that is knowing who your competition is. Like that in sales one on one. And in my world locally, when I was in that sales space exclusively, there's only a few. But now that I'm in the space that I'm in now, I know that it's there. But it's so important to know who your competitors are, follow who they're following, and get into their ecosystem. 

Jillian Murphy: We have AI now. I personally don't really use chat much in my business. My team does, but I don't. But this is such a simple exercise. Take your Instagram profile, go to profile, hit share profile, put it in your chat, whatever it is that you use, and ask chat to find you five competitors. They'll literally tell you. They'll be like Shelby Sapp, Jeremy Miner, Daniel G, right? And then that's literally done. The other thing that you can do, this is a great one, is if you have five ideal clients that you are obsessed with working with, I always take my five favorite clients and load their Instagrams into chat, and I see what is the through line with all of these people. They might say they're second timers, which means they've already built the business. But now, they're doing it. They might say, oh, they're all moms. They might say, oh, they're all network marketers. Or they're coaches and network marketers. So now, there's like a through line. And then again, you can go down the rabbit hole and ask more questions. But I do use it a lot for discovery stuff like that.

Heather Nelson: I never even thought to use it that way.

Jillian Murphy: You can also do this, and this is a great one. Put your Instagram into chat and say, give me your feedback on what I do. You'll be shocked.

Heather Nelson: I don't know if I want to know.

Jillian Murphy: A lot of my clients do this. We've mastered our messaging pretty well. So what I was saying, oh, you're a sales coach. As an expert in DM selling, you have a very direct best friend energy. But you guys, a lot of my clients do this. I'm actually not certain. Can you send me more information? That's a telltale sign that if chat doesn't know what you do, your audience definitely doesn't know what you do.

Heather Nelson: That's so good. How big is your team now?

Jillian Murphy: Oh, so it's super small. I have one person on my team. It's been one person since the beginning. I love this question because I think that a lot of people think that in order to have a successful business, you need a big team. This is the thing, I like money, and I like keeping money in the bank. So we are very particular about where we spend our money. I also want my audience to know that they don't need a million things to build a big business. We have a director of operations. I always say, Paul is basically my boss. Paul does everything in it. Now, Paul has an assistant, so I shouldn't say I have one person on my team. I have one, and then Paul has an assistant underneath him. But you guys, this is how I break down my business, what am I good at? What do I love? What do I hate? What am I bad at? And everything that I do not enjoy doing or I am bad at gets delegated to Paul. The other day, I was telling you guys that I was trying to make these ad videos. It was a nightmare. Finally, I'm like, this is the thing. I'm going to create one video. It might be 30 minutes long because that's what I love to do, talk on camera. I'm going to send it to him to edit because I don't like doing it, and I'm also terrible at it. It'll take me way longer. So yeah, we have a very small team. Paul is overseas, so he's in the Philippines. He's been with me for about 4 years. He's like my ride or die. I'm actually trying to marry him to come to the states, but he's not on board. I'm like, can you come to Myrtle Beach and just work? He's like, I'm not a U.S. citizen. I'm like, I will marry you. I will marry you just to get you here if I have to do it.

Heather Nelson: My podcast team, probably the biggest thing that I did for my podcast is hire a team to do the editing and all of the things, and upload it to all the platforms. Doing all of that work was something. And yes, it's expensive, but it is worth every penny of it because I have more time, and I can do the things that I do love, which is interviewing. That's all I like doing about the podcast, and that's all I do.

Jillian Murphy: It's amazing to stay in the things that you're really good at. Like right now, we're building a relationship. Your audience is becoming aware of me. I'm creating visibility. Imagine if I was sitting on Canva right now. And this is why I tell my clients, a lot of you guys are the absolute best at what you do, but nobody knows who you are because you're sitting behind tasks that somebody else could do for little pennies on the dollar.

Heather Nelson: This might be your answer. One of my questions to you is, from all the clients that you have worked with, especially it sounds like more small business type businesses, what is the one thing that you consistently see that you're like, if you could change one thing.

Jillian Murphy: Messaging and marketing. I say this all the time. Even though I'm a sales coach, I bet you, 99% of my time is spent on content. I don't want to ever be a content coach. We have a million content coaches out there, but there's a big difference between your content going viral, and your content getting a lot of views, and your content being the thing that sells for you. And so often, people come into my world. It's like, you're pumping out content, but it's not micro specific, or it's not doing the selling for you, or it's not taking clients on a journey. So I would say again, 90% of what I do is the messaging and the marketing. Even if you own a gym or a med spa, what makes you guys different? What sets you apart? Why would someone go through it? And I think the other thing, because I came from corporate sales so I always use this example. 

If you're driving down the street and you pass In-N-Out Burger, which I'm also obsessed because I don't have it anymore in South Carolina. I know you guys have in California, and I'm dying for In-N-Out Burger. But you drive pass In-N-Out Burger, you know it's a burger, right? You drive pass Bass Pro, you know it's a fishing place. You drive pass Staples, you know it's an office supply space. Why are you guys making it so difficult in the online space for people to know what your signage is? Sales expert, I teach sales. Podcasting editor, I teach podcasting. But so often, my clients come in, and I'm like, you are using so many words. It's so fluffy. People don't even talk like this. And this is why they're literally walking pass your store, aka your door, because they don't know that they need to come in because they don't even know what's inside of it. If I had a coffee shop and it was called like Jillian's, nobody would come in. They don't know that it's coffee. But if it's like Jillian's coffee cafe, they know it's a cafe in the coffee shop. People are going to come in the door then. It's so basic.

Heather Nelson: You literally just said something so basic.

Jillian Murphy: Bang the wheel over here, guys.

Heather Nelson: You do a lot of content creation. You're very much visible on Instagram.

Jillian Murphy: Thank you.

Heather Nelson: This is like the conversation that every small business in my ecosystem talks about. We know that we have to be there because that's where our potential clients are. That's how we get noticed. Especially the podcasting world. That's how people find me. How do you handle it? Do you batch? Do you plan for the month? Do you have a little tip on how you manage that?

Jillian Murphy: Yeah. So again, I am definitely more of a spur in the moment type of thing, but I'm not just winging it. So for example, let's just take this podcast. What you just asked me on this podcast after this podcast comes out, I will say to Paul, my assistant, hey, put that podcast episode through a transcriber and tell me what Heather asked me on there. Then he'll send me a list, and I'll go and create content like, how do you create content so easily? What does your daily schedule look like? What is one of the biggest mistakes that you're seeing that people are making? And I'll also make podcast episodes on this, so I'm double doing it. So right now, I'm on the podcast, getting visible. But then I'm also taking that to-do as my content. Also, every single thing that my client asks me, I keep my phone literally next to me on all my calls, and I will record their conversations in their words. Because how you and I talk on sales is different from how my clients are talking on sale. I want to make it their thing. And I do batch a good amount of content. Even before this podcast episode today, I had about 30 minutes, and you can see how many talking heads I did. There's probably like 10 talking heads here. So I might use these tomorrow. I might use these in six months. I have no idea. But I have a bunch of content at all times, so I'm never waking up and being like, oh my God, what should I do? 

And I think this is the biggest hack that I want you guys all to take away with content creation. I use the same thing over, and over, and over, and over, and over. Your audience is not paying attention. You guys follow me on Instagram, it's thejillianmurphy. I have a pinned post at the top and it says, simple DM conversations that have made me millions. We have probably taken that same one and used it 20 times. I've also used that as a B roll. I've also used it as a flip through. I am saying the same thing. Paul will make a piece of content, and I'll say, okay, now make this also as a B roll, and give me three different variations of this B roll. One of me walking on the beach, one of me drinking coffee, and one of me running. Because they're hearing the same message, but the esthetics are different. I am not  recreating the wheel in every piece of content by any means. Sometimes, I'll even do a talking head. Stop it. Say the same thing again, because the second time is going to be a little different. Maybe I play with my hair. Maybe I will move. Maybe my dog's in the background. I'm not recreating the wheel on every single piece of content. No one has time for that.

Heather Nelson: What is a talking head?

Jillian Murphy: Face a camera.

Heather Nelson: Oh, got it. 

Jillian Murphy: Face it, and face the camera is the best type of content right now to put out. It really is the thing that connects you to your audience because people connect through their eyes and they connect through tone in sales. So when they're scrolling, this is what they want. Also, high performers don't usually read a lot of content because they're busy. They're on the go, so they're watching, watching, watching. So if your client is more of a high premium buyer, you're going to want to use more fast paced content because they're not saving carousel posts to go back and read. More beginners are doing that.

Heather Nelson: Interesting. I had this conversation with another person yesterday. When you are creating content, make sure, you might feel different, using captions, because I'm one that does. I'll lay in bed and watch reels, but with no sound. And so for me, if there's captions, it's better because if I can't hear it, then I pass through it because I don't want to turn my volume up. 

Jillian Murphy: So true. Captions are huge. I'm not huge on like you got to have like a crazy hook. But people also need to know what your videos are. So if you are doing like, let's say a talking head face to camera, or you are doing a B roll, put a cover photo on it, which is almost like a magazine cover of what is this thing. Make it kind of sexy and juicy. I did one yesterday where I talked about losing $30,000 on an ad agency recently. My cover photo just said, I lost 30 grand. Well, anyone that follows me can be like, I want to know what she's talking about. Versus just a video that's like my face, and they have no idea what the juice and the meat behind it.

Heather Nelson: So good. I have two more questions for you. Talk about your podcast. What can people get from it? All the juice. And you just recently changed your name.

Jillian Murphy: I did. Yes. I think this is a really great invitation for a lot of people. You guys get to evolve. You get to change your mind about what you want to talk about. So our podcast for years was called Scale Your Sales, which put me in a little bit of a box because I was like, how do I bring this conversation into sales? Or I would meet somebody out in the wild and I'd be like, oh, I have a podcast. They'd be like, I don't really need to listen to a sales podcast. So at the end of last year, I was like, you know what? I want to have different conversations. I'm a health junkie. I'm a cancer survivor. I'm a woman who's dating in her 40s. I've been on a GLP-1 journey. I love peptides. There's just so many things I love talking about, and why am I not taking it to the mic? So by changing it to my name, but also my name now is a brand that people know, right? In the beginning, it wasn't. So in the beginning, I did use Scale Your Sales intentionally because scaling and sales were more like keywords. Where now people are going to find me and be like, oh, yeah, I listened to that girl Jillian Murphy on Heather's podcast. I'm going to look her up. My name has now surpassed the thing in which I do, so that's why we do it. Our episodes are fun. They're like 20, 30 minutes. I do two episodes a week, and talk about all sorts of crazy things. It's a great podcast, but also very tactical. You will learn something on the podcast. It's not just I'm just like riffing. You're gonna walk away with information. 

Heather Nelson: Where in your weekly schedule was your podcast? 

Jillian Murphy: I record a lot of my podcasts on the weekends for my solo episodes. I don't know about you. I don't know if you do solo.

Heather Nelson: Because I just rebranded as well on my last show, which was for 5 years, I would, but most people always listen to the interviews versus solo. 

Jillian Murphy: Which is interesting. Because of my episode, we have far more downloads on solos. But I personally don't like doing solos because I'm like, oh, I got to sit down. I got to think about what I want to say. So that is what we do. Also on my podcast, I bring a lot of people back. I dropped an episode this week with my friend Andrew Chris, it was like her fourth time on there. My best friend went on multiple times. My business besties have been on multiple times. So I think if you have an episode and you guys pay attention to your analytics, bring them back, or even be like, Heather, this was a really great conversation. I can't wait for part two. And then at the end be like, hey, let's book this out in a couple more months to talk about X, Y, and Z because your audience will tell you what they like. But yeah, so that's what we do. We do batch a good amount of it. But not too far out that by the time it comes out, I'm not really excited about the podcast anymore.

Heather Nelson: I know. I did a lot of batching for this season. And now I'm like, okay, I think I'm going to take a little pause because I have three months' work, which is great. But now I'm like, okay, take a break. 

Jillian Murphy: Do you monetize your podcast?

Heather Nelson: That was one of the reasons why I wanted to rebrand. That's my goal.

Jillian Murphy: Great. Yeah, I love that. I think something that a lot of people miss too is when you're on a podcast, you have the opportunity to monetize it. So let's do this in real time. I'm not pitching Heather by any means. But let's say I'm on Heather's podcast today. We stop hitting records. She's like, hey, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I'll be like, hey, I'm just curious. Are you currently closing on sales calls, or are you closing in on the DMs? Oh, girl, I am on sales calls all day long. Well, you just heard that selling in the DMs is my jam, so I'm just gonna shoot you a message over on Instagram, and we can pick up the conversation there. I take every podcast that I'm on to ask that question. And then I also do this. Heather, it was so great being on your podcast. If you know anybody that you think would be a great fit for me to be on their show, let me know. And also, who can I share you out with? So I always ask that question at the end of the podcast.

Heather Nelson: I love that. So good. I've learned so much. I'm taking notes, and I probably have to listen to this like five times. 

Jillian Murphy: That's part of having a podcast. I feel like the other day, I just started running a TikTok recently, and I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna bring a TikTok expert on. So I basically can just pick a brain for the hour on the podcast. I think that's such a benefit of having a podcast is we get to literally get coached all day long on our own show.

Heather Nelson: I learned so much. I'm always so inspired by the people that are on. I'm like, why would I not want to do this?It's crazy. It always fills my cup. I always think that guests are on uncertain days for certain reasons. Obviously, I'm really good at sales. I think for me, it's finding what I want to do next with my business that really drives me. So that's where I feel stuck. But selling, I got that. I have another event in the labor business, and that's booing because that's easy. Sales are easy for me. A business grew so easy because of all my connections.

Jillian Murphy: It's relationships at the end of the day. It really, really is. And I think a lot of my success is because I put myself in rooms and I've served way before I've ever asked. And it's not rocket science. Just literally get to know people, connect, build a network of people, and you'll be fine.

Heather Nelson: That's so good. Anything else that we didn't cover, or little tidbit that you want to leave us with today?

Jillian Murphy: Something I always say at the end of my podcast is, number one, make sure you're having fun. Make sure you're genuinely obsessed with what you're doing. And if you're not, take time, evolve, change, and figure out what that is because fun is an energy that people are magnetized to. I'm always like, hey, come over to my world. It's a freaking party over here. And people can feel that because I'm genuinely having fun in my business every single day. And number two, if you're selling something right now that you're not sold on anymore or you've shifted, just make sure you're really sold on the thing that you sell. I can talk about GLP-1 and peptides because I sell them. I can talk about my Infinity program because I'm obsessed with it. But if it wasn't something that I actually loved, sales doesn't feel as fun. So just find something that you guys are really obsessed to talk about.

Heather Nelson: I love that. We will put in the show notes how everyone can find you, your podcast, your Instagram, which I am already stalking. I'm like, I have to go back later and stalk some more. 

Jillian Murphy: I love the new reorder feature on Instagram. Have you tried it yet?

Heather Nelson: No. What is that?

Jillian Murphy: Just came out over the weekend, and you can actually reorder your grid now. You can put things in a different order, which I really love because, let's use Heather for an example. Maybe Heather just came into my world, but she doesn't really care to watch ad bloopers. So now, I reorder my things. That's what I'm the expert in, great value, and I just keep reordering them, and then pushing the other stuff down. But I think it's a really great feature that they just rolled out. 

Heather Nelson: Then now we can make our grid look a little more pretty. I'm always like, yeah, there's too much here. And it doesn't flow. Oh, my god! Thank you so much for being on the podcast. I loved learning. I've been doing sales for so long. I learned so much today, so thank you again. I'm so happy that we're in each other's ecosystems. Me

Jillian Murphy: Thank you so much for having me.

Heather Nelson: All right, talk to you soon. 

That's a wrap on today's episode of Her Story Unscripted. Is something you heard today made you feel a little more seen, a little less alone, or just got you thinking that's exactly why we're here? If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to share it with another woman in your life who needs to hear it. And if you haven't already, make sure you subscribe wherever you listen, or catch us on YouTube so you never miss a conversation. I'm Heather Nelson. Thank you for being here, for listening, and for showing up for real stories. I'll see you next week.