#77 - Systems, Signature Offers & Legacy Brands with Jen Morilla

Meet Jen Morilla — a multidimensional business coach, TEDx speaker, and digital marketing mentor for coaches, creatives, and service providers. we dig into what it really takes to build a business that leaves a legacy.

Inside this episode:

•  Jen’s journey from travel blogger to online business mentor — and how early lessons shaped her success
•  The power of crafting a signature offer that actually converts and creates organic referrals
•  How to simplify your systems so you can scale without losing your mind
•  Why your mindset and team are your make-or-break foundations for growth
•  Real talk about “CEO energy,” sustainable scaling, and how to step back without your business crumbling

🔗 Connect with Jen:
Learn more about Jen’s work, coaching programs, and free resources at jennifermorilla.com — and follow her behind the scenes on Instagram at @jennifer.morilla.

Mindset to Market is a Luminous Creative Production. If you'd like to learn more about our business coaching program and group coaching container, please visit us online at DeborahcSmith.com.

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Mindset to Market is produced by Deborah C. Smith and designed to inspire and support big-hearted creatives in finding their own unique path, building a sustainable business, and creating financial, spiritual, mental wellness and abundance.

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Transcript

 Okay, you guys, my guest today is Jen Marilla. She's a multidimensional online business coach. She's a digital marketing mentor for coaches, for creatives, and for service providers. So that's everyone listening to this podcast. So you're in for a really. Big treat. I met Jen very briefly when she was a keynote speaker at a recent women's entrepreneurship conference that I was at, and it was called The Rich Girl Conference.

Which by the way, you guys. Network, get out there and meet people. This conference was so empowering and like I said, Jen was a speaker and, I just loved her keynote and I thought that she offered a really succinct way to think about developing your signature offer.

And, you know, I talk all the time about scaling and systems and like automating things so that you can save time and, you know, trying to help with the tech and the, and the mindset around that stuff. And I honestly think that Jen is a gold mine. On this particular topic of just like smart marketing, okay, so we're gonna talk today about.

The idea of crafting your signature offer, we're gonna talk about, some of the most critical and foundational inner work and, , the importance of having a rock solid mindset and smart streamlined systems.

So that's essentially what our conversation's all about. So get excited. Jen, thank you so much for being a guest on the show today. Welcome. Thank you for having me, Deborah. This is exciting. I love this. I love when I get invited to podcasts that are like, we're gonna dive into your mind and how it works.

Yeah. And you do what you do and how you do it. And then we'll also talk about, you know, why, how this all started and all things. So I'm very excited to talk to you about what we're gonna talk about today.

 I love to just start at the beginning. Mm-hmm. So I know you. You technically started your business as a travel blogger. Yes. And now you are a master coach and a mentor, and you have this incredible business that you've created. So, take us back to the beginning.

What was the impetus to step into the world of entrepreneurship? Go out on your own and really start building something for yourself? What inspired that? And also if you, you know, if you wanna weave that in. Um, my next question is gonna basically be, what was the shift between your first business and where you landed now?

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, okay. So I've been an entrepreneur. My, my whole life truth story. Uh, my mom reminded me of this a few years ago when she was like, my, my parents are entrepreneurs and they used to own a clothing wholesale business. Awesome. And in storefront, I used to make jewelry as a little girl, like little like.

Um, you remember Lisa Frank? Oh, did I have the entire collection? Yes. I, the whole sticker book collection? Yes. Okay. And they also used to have like the jewelry, right? Like the beads. Mm-hmm. So I like Lisa Frank Jewelry, and then I used to sell it, and I literally used to stand in front of the store as soon as they would come in and I'd be like, look at my jewelry.

And I was too cute for them to say no. Right? Like, think of like a little girl with a smile from ear to ear. Probably covered in chocolate and like crazy curly hair, speaking English and Spanish and being like, look at my necklaces. Like how can you not buy them? Yeah. And I would sell them for like $2, $5, $10, like, and I would actually make money.

So I started there, then started. Um, my parents, we lived on a dead end block and it was a bunch of kids and in the summer we used to play all day, and then everyone was always thirsty. Mom and dad were, nobody's parents were home. It was either like the cleaning lady or the nanny or the grandma, but like nobody's parents were home, home.

So everyone would come to my house and in Costco, you know, they sell like the giant popcorn bags. Yeah. I used to take the giant popcorn bags and fill 'em with a cup like the, the solo cups of popcorn. I used to sell them for 25 cents. Oh my God. So my, my God, mom come home, half the bag was gone and she would have a bunch of quarters and I'd be like, I need you to go buy more popcorn.

My God. And she would be like. What do you do? Where did, first of all, where did the pop? Did you eat it all? Which if you know me now, you're like, she probably ate it all. I love popcorn. Um, and one day I am gonna own like a popcorn shop where people can come in. That's a whole other podcast, but I love it.

Needless to say, I've always been an entrepreneur. I've always been someone who's like looking for opportunities, seeking to fix problems. Yeah. And so I was working in corporate New York City. I was working in a marketing agency. And I worked there for about almost three years. And, um, prior to to that, um, my senior year of college, like the catalyst of me, you know, taking the big leap and, and trusting myself was then in my early twenties, my younger brother passed away and we were Irish twins. We were a year and a half apart and.

If you ever read the book the Defining Decade, if you haven't, you should. It's all about, you know, developing your mind in the twenties, especially how impactful it is for young adults. Mm-hmm. And, um, my brother was 19 a month away from being 20 and I was 21, about to be 22. And, um. My life really did like a full 180 and I began to look at life much differently.

And for five years I struggled with a lot of depression, a lot of anxiety, panic attacks left and right. Um, and then one day I kind of was like, something's gotta change. I. Because if nothing changes, nothing changes. Yeah. Um, I was working at this agency, I was also running my social media business for small businesses, so I was doing social media management.

So I was diving head first into work, and I was consuming myself by the work and not giving myself the time and space to like focus on me. Um, and so yeah, we, that's, that's essentially why it started. So in 2015. Uh, I quit my corporate job and I started traveling the world with clean water filters to developing countries as a travel blogger.

And because I came from the marketing world, I understood how to talk to brands, how to pitch to them, what they were looking for. Mm-hmm. Who they were looking for, and create a story around that. So it worked to my advantage. Um, but that's essentially how it, it all started. It all started because of him and I was on a mission to like heal myself and help.

Long way. I did that for like three and a half years. Before I slowly made this transition and pivoted into the coaching world. But much like you said earlier, like business coaches nowadays have to have a sense of how it all works, right? So, and anything in the online space, right? So when somebody comes to me and they're like, I wanna work with brands, like, okay, I'm not the person to come to like, yes, I know how to work with brands, but that's not what my specialty is, but I have someone for you.

Right? And I fully understand how that business model works, right? UGC, influencer marketing, branding, yeah. All of that, like I've dipped my toes in all of it. Video editing, social media management, all of it. All of it. And so I think there's something to be said about having the vision and having a piece of all of those parts to be able to then look out from the outside and be like, okay, this is the business you wanna create.

Here's the direction we wanna go in, like, focus on this one thing. Yeah, I mean, it's so interesting because I feel like as a coach, if you ran your own business, right? If you're a solopreneur and you're like, oh, I'm gonna go out and deliver clean water filters to third world countries and be out in the world, in the wind, in the jet stream, and then blogging and monetizing your blog, all of that stuff.

Which I assume that's how you Yeah. Funded your business. You monetized your blog, correct? Yeah, a hundred percent monetized. I blog my YouTube channel I through brands, so the way it would work is I would get the brands to pitch me the money and I have the audience, right? And then the audience would buy the water filters, the brands would then pay for the trips, cover the expense, all of that stuff.

Amazing. The more I grew my audience, the more money I was able to get from brands. Um, but I didn't have, and I, this was like when influencer marketing was just like, this was 2015. Instagram was still a photo app. Yeah. Only eight years old. Like when I say it was like pulling, like I see people make deals now with brands for nothing.

They're just like, Bing. Okay. Yeah. I would get hired by companies to come in as a consultant and pull together the best influencers for this specific campaign because they didn't know how to look. They didn't know what to look for. They didn't know they needed somebody who was actually in the area to be like, oh, this person knows what they're talking about.

This person has real engagement. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it was always, it was so interesting, like looking at it now and being like, who would've known like 10 years later? I mean, I knew it was obviously going somewhere because it wasn't changing. Yeah. To me it always made sense because I always looked at it like you were more likely to buy something if your friend told you than you were if you to see an ad on it.

Yeah. Oh my God. Word of mouth marketing. Yeah. It's basically we have the, there's two factors, right? The greed factor, I want what my friend has. Mm-hmm. And that trust thing that we talk about all the time in any sales deal, which is like mm-hmm. If you're like, the cornerstone of sales is trusting that the person is not gonna cheat you out of your money.

Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. When you go back to traditional sales mechanisms, which is like an interesting thing about being sort of Gen X and having lived an entire life in the analog era. Yeah. And then being somebody who's like, okay, digital systems are the way to go. Yeah. I think about this all the time.

Nothing has changed in marketing. We still need to trust that you are gonna deliver on the value that you promised us. Yeah. And what is the quickest way to translate that feeling of trust? Then? My friend said she loved it. There's no more powerful stamp on a, on a product or brand other than you gotta, you gotta go listen to this girl, Jen, this.

You gotta go try this popcorn. Like that's it. There's no other, it doesn't get any more. And engaging and exciting. It's literally marketing 1 0 1. Yeah. Like you can't, I'm gonna be 80 years old. It's gonna be the same way. It's the same way. It's the psychology of how you communicate influence people, right?

Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. And and I always say when businesses come to me and they're like, I'm not in the online space, but I make all of this money, it's all referral based business. I'm like, you've cracked the code. Yeah. That's ex sucks. When people come to me and they have an audience. But they have no one referring their product.

That just tells me their shit sucks. I'm like, we need to go back to the drawing board. We need to go back to, we need to figure out why their product isn't converting right? Like, what is happening there? You know, what is the messaging? What is the customer journey? Are they creating that transformation?

And so I always say this the best, the best kind of marketing is referral marketing. And what I teach my clients is. Once you've sold this product, once you've created your signature offer and you run that first round, the goal is to create a a, a community flywheel is what I call it. And it's like you sell it, somebody buys it, they get results, they share the results, you share the results, they get more people.

So it's free advertising. Yeah. And it's once you can crack that within your company, right, within the product that you sell, you've made it. Because then it's just how do we get more people into this and more people doing it, right? Yeah. If you have a system that actually works, then it's not hard to scale, but you have to have a system that actually works.

Well, one of the biggest things I've learned, and, and you and I have been around for a long time to be able to say this, and we've ran several types of companies, is team having the right people.

Um, you can hire somebody, you can hire anybody, right, to do whatever job that you're asking for, but it's very difficult to find somebody that's one really good at what they do and two, willing to put in the work, like if it was their own. And I think that's one of the hardest things. And so yes, you can have the great systems in place, the operation.

But if you don't have the right people to execute it, that will also crumble. Yeah, it's a really good point. I've seen it hundreds and thousands of times, like I've worked with companies where I'm like you, your business is built on a house of cards. Yeah. One that is standing on that house of cards is waiting for it to fall because they don't like you as a leader and they don't believe in what you're selling.

And so. You have to go back in and it's almost like a disease. Like you need to fix it. You need to go in clear and cleanse a disease in order to move it. And I think that's where entrepreneurs hit the ceiling because, and I can personally speak to this as well, um, is you get to this point where I, I think there's, I've, uh, well, for me, only for, only for yet, but I say there are four levels of entrepreneurship.

Granted, I haven't reached the million, like the full, like annual million dollar a year yet. Um, but I'm there, almost there. And so I think the first level of entrepreneurship is just taking action. I can't tell you, and I'm sure you've had this Deb, where like millions of people have spoken to you. I. That one person is the only person that ever takes action.

Like it's so rare for people just to make that first move. And I get it. Yeah. Me next entrepreneurial venture that I'm thinking of her taking up, I think about 20 times and I'm like, who? Who is this girl? Like I, this is the girl that quit her corporate job to go travel the world in a backpack. Like talk about risk, right?

Completely solo with $14,000 in the bank. Like that's the spirit I need for this next venture. Right? And so I think the first left of entrepreneurship is just taking action. Yeah. Doing the thing to the next goal. The second step, and this is what I tell people, is when you've, when you've made some money and you realize, okay, I'm making money.

This is working. How do I then create something that's scalable? Yeah, you have to let go of control. That's when you start hiring your first couple people. That's when you start looking at everything and you're like, wow, this is kind of really shitty way to doing this, but if I did it this way, it would be a lot better.

Oh man, I could have done it better this whole time. I. You like break shame and guilt and all that stuff, right? Yeah. You have to have a little mini death of the ego and realize like your ideas are not always the best ideas. There's other people out there who are really, really good at what you're trying to do and they, they can help you.

Exactly. And then the third one is when you've made a lot of money and you have yet again another ego death. And this is what, and I, we shared this behind the scenes, um, on our little voice notes when we, before we met at the conference and like. It is when you realize that what you've been doing, and maybe not for everybody, but there's a point in which your success is either done because it was the way you were wired to create success, or is because it was something you actually wanted.

Right? And so I looked at my life and I was like, everything I have, I've made all this money. I'm doing very well. Why am I not happy? Hmm. And it's like, I'm supposed to be happy. They said I was going to be happy, so why am I not happy? So it's yet again another ego death. Um, and I have a mentor who said to me, Jen, in order for you to make a million, you have to lose a hundred thousand.

Hmm. Okay. Check. So, and that could look like actual a hundred thousand or it could look like, you know, the energy of your life, right? Yeah. And so that's the third level. And then I think the fourth level is very much going to be when I hit that million dollar mark, is like, how do I retain it and how do I get it to 10, which is a whole other beast that I, my mind can't compute yet.

Um, but I think that. The, the biggest thing, and I've seen it so many times, is finding the real reason as to why you do what you do. Yeah. And your why has to be bigger than the pain that you have. And not, like my brother died, I went through a lot of pain to get to where I am today. To be even to, to be able to say that sentence without cracking a tear.

Right. Yeah. And there was such a, how do I say? Like. It's just a whole different way of thinking that it's, you gotta go, I had to go through all of these things to be able to get to where I am today. Does that make sense? Like to be able to withstand the pain and effort that I had? Yeah, I think that, yeah.

Oh, sorry. I was just gonna say, I'm so, so sorry about the loss of your brother. It's such a huge tragedy and I feel like there are these defining moments in our life where we, if, if you have an experience like that in the younger part of your life. It reframes everything and it there, it's impossible to not reflect upon that as the, as a core platelet shifting moment in your life where.

Everything. There's the life before that, and then life after that. And , just to reiterate what you just said, the why in your business has to be greater than the pain that you're experiencing to, to show up and do the business.

You have to really know why you want what you want. And it's not rainbows and butterflies and like Instagram, like it's a hundred thousand dollars months and million dollar. Like, those are all awesome. And I'm not gonna take away anybody who's had that, right? Like, I've had those too, but. You, you get to a point where I'm gonna sound like a selfish asshole here.

None of that matters because you're like, I already know how to do that. I, I beat that part of the game. Why don't I feel fulfilled? Yeah. And that goes back to your core of like, why is it that you do what you do? And I think every single entrepreneur goes through that. And I think that's when shit really changes because that's when you begin to look at yourself.

Like, it's almost like a mirror is held up and you're like, okay, why do you want this success? Why do you want this money? Why do you wanna help these people? Right? Because you don't have to do this. This is a choice that I chose. Right? Like, I can easily go back to corporate. And I say that loosely because like, I don't think I can ever see myself working for somebody again.

Right? But like, you know what I mean? Like when you sit down with yourself and you're like, if this isn't working. I'm choosing to do this, right? Like I get to do this every single day. And I think even that changing, that reframe in your mind changes everything. Yeah. 'cause you're the one that's deciding how you're gonna show up and if it's gonna work.

Right. And so, yeah. I mean, it goes back to our original point of like, I think the, yes, you can have all the systems and operations in place, but if you don't have the people to withstand that and the people that believe in what you see. Which means you have to believe in it more than anybody. More than, yeah.

Yeah. So that's kind of a good segue into this question that I have about building a legacy brand. So on the homepage of Jen's website, you'll see the sentence. Screw your dream business. You're meant to build a whole ass legacy, which is bold. And I loved it. I was like, tell me more. And I, I, I have my idea about what that, what that meant for me when I read it.

But I would love to hear you if you wouldn't mind share about how do you define a legacy business? Yeah. And talk about how you think a solopreneur shifts out of thinking about their, their business as like. They created their own job for themselves. They've learned how to generate their own income.

They're now starting to think about scaling like that, that leap, and you did just sort of touch upon this, but that leap from like, I have a business to, I'm making an impact. Right? I'm creating a legacy. Yeah. Oh, I'm curious to hear what you thought when I said when you read that. Well, I think, I think it's like we only have so many precious.

Years on the planet. Yeah. And let's leave it be to me, I immediately 'cause of who I am, I immediately thought leave it better than you found it. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Leave it better than you found it. Yeah, a hundred percent. I think. Okay. So my talk at um, at Rich Go Conference was very much like teach people how to fish so that they can fish themselves.

That's always at the core, been my mission. And when I, that statement is, leave it better than you found it. Any single room, any single conversation that I have, my hope is that, that I meet somebody and it's the first time they meet me and they walk away and you know, they might not fall in love with me and I'm okay with that, but they're like, you know what?

Like, I like what she said. Like it made me smile every single person. Maybe that would be awesome. But I also know that's not possible. You can't be liked by everybody. Yeah. Um, but to me, a legacy business is leaving something behind that helps the next generation. Yeah. You get to a point in your business where it really isn't about the money, it isn't about the, the, the material aspect.

All those things are really nice. Yeah. And I'm not gonna take away with that. Like, your girl loves the spa day. Happily love my reiki meditation. You know, Kundalini private sessions all day, any day. Um. And what fills my cup even more is being able to turn around and say that this person, you know, changed their life because they came across what I had to teach them.

Um, yeah, this person did this because of what I offered them. Right? And so I think it's all a ripple effect. I think we are all, my brother died, he left a ripple effect, not only in myself and my family, but his friends, his, his girlfriend, like. There was, we all leave ripple effects. Yeah. And we realize it.

Right. I gotta chill. It's like that butterfly effect like the movie. Yeah. Where it's like a butterfly flaps, its wings in Africa and then there's a rainstorm in Brazil. Right. Yeah. It's like something as simple as that, that we don't realize that we're all in it for each other. We're not doing this loan.

Yeah. And it's so, it's so interesting too. Like it's just, 'cause the way that I think about business is just, it's, it's like an exchange of energy. It's just I have this thing that I can do this skill. Yeah. This ability to help you in this way. Yeah. You have either money or something I need. Yeah. And you're exchanging energy, you know, and it's just like if you, if you reprogram yourself to realize that business and sales is really about exchanging energy.

It becomes way more fun. It's like, what do I get to play with today? Inside my business I get to like interview this great amazing woman. I get to go sell to my clients later 'cause they want, they wanna work with me 'cause they want mm-hmm. To make the progress that they're gonna make if they do these steps.

Right. So it's like not hard for me to sell my offers because I think of it as, as an exchange and as a, but I love the ripple effect. That's, that's awesome. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about, I'm gonna skip down here 'cause I wanna talk a little bit. You mentioned already, um. This idea of cultivating and developing a signature offer.

Mm-hmm. And so you have a program called Simplify to Amplify. Yeah. And that's your signature program, right? Yep. Mm-hmm. So two questions inside of the conversation around signature offer. Mm-hmm. Number one, what is the purpose of honing in on that signature offer?

Yeah. And what's the biggest marketing mistake that you see solopreneurs making around that topic? Yeah. Um, okay, so the reason why I say one product, one offer is 'cause I think we are in such an inundated, like saturated market Yeah. Where everyone's trying to compete against each other. So it's like, let's.

Let's turn down the noise on social media for a second. Like, stay in your lane, stop watching other people. Yeah. What, what are you essentially good at and how could you turn that into a process and a framework? Right, so when I look at businesses, I always look at businesses in four ways. I look at one, the.

Product. The actual product. 'cause some people forget, like people will be like, I have a marketing problem. And like I said to you, like a lot of the times it's not a marketing problem, it's just a product problem. Right? Yeah. Like does it work? Are you getting your clients' results? Yeah. There are a way in which the person that's going, if I were to buy a product right now, how is my experience?

Because it's a digital exchange. People forget that. Like if I go to a restaurant, it's a lot easier to see my experience. Yeah. When you walk into Cartier. My favorite. Even if you don't buy anything, they greet you. If you're looking and you wanna try something on, they give you a glass of champagne and they talk to you and they spend time with you.

You get to try it on, and you get to take photos, and you get to look at yourself in the mirror. All of that is an experience. How is the experience that you are having when your person buys your product, what does that feel like? Are you giving them the A plus Cartier experience, right? Mm-hmm. Are you letting them wait to get to be with you?

You know what I mean? Are you throwing them into a group of 20,000 other people? Right. Into like a mosh pit. So the product, then the second part that I always look at is then the marketing is, and everything coen, like everything circulates and feeds off each other, right? If, if one thing is off, everything else is off.

So if the marketing isn't, isn't attracting the right client, it's because you don't know who your actual product is solving. So when people come to me and they're like, oh, we have, you know, I help everybody. You don't. You can't, and you're not supposed to. And you can't. So why don't you get very crystal clear on the type of woman that you help, right?

People that come and work with me very much, like, I have a sweet way of coaching slash I'll give it to you the way you need to see it. Like, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it if I thought, I think we need to fix your product. I'm gonna tell you, hey, we need to fix your product. And it's not coming from a place of like, you suck, you're stupid.

No, it's coming from a place of you've hired me, I am now gonna hold you at your highest and let's. Let's do this together, right? Like I'm with you. We're, I'm not gonna help you fall. I'm gonna support you. I'm gonna give you the tools so that you can then take it and do it yourself, right? So I look at the marketing and the messaging.

The third piece is the sales and the automations, right? So once you've nailed the product, once you have the messaging, it's like, how do I consistently bring in sales? Right? And then the fourth piece is overall the mindset, the leadership, the quality of the business, right? Is this leader of the company, is the CEO an actual CEO or are they letting the team make the decisions?

Right. Um, I think that is one of the biggest, biggest, biggest, biggest things that, and most underrated qualities that people don't look at. Like once you already sell a product, then you've already made it to a million. People are like, oh, you can take your foot off the gas, it's great. And it's like, no, you are a CEO.

You are the, the founder of this company. It's when you sign up to be an entrepreneur, you can't actually take your foot off the gas. You can take it like, you can lift it up a little bit, but you can't actually take your foot off because it's your baby, right? It's your thing. You can have somebody put their foot on the gas.

Again, you have to find that person. You have to mold that. The leadership. Yeah, the just the, the role and responsibility shifts. Exactly. So when I think of the signature framework, I think of that like if we could ignore social media for a second and you could just focus on the one thing that you're really good at, create a product around that.

And once that thing works, and when I say works, you have people coming in, completing it, getting results, and then there are more people coming in and you don't have to have like a hundred people at a time, but you start seeing an influx of people over time, increase. Then you have something solid. Okay.

Move on to something else if you want to. Um, but also, like I've gotten my business to multiple six figures from one product. Like Yeah, yeah. Like it was the mastermind that I turned into, what you're looking at now as the accelerator. So I made the Mastermind even better. It's a 90 day program and it's flush through and it's, people get in, they get results, you know?

And that's what I wanted. I wanted something that was solid that had foundation, and then the next level of that is depending on where you are in the business. Right. I. Um, but I think we make it so complicated, and I think it's 'cause we get in our head about, you know, what so and so is doing versus like, just stay in your lane.

You're gonna get to where you wanna get to, but you have to have the core belief that you're gonna get there. Right? Yeah, a hundred percent. I feel like, you know, I, I, I do think that people get really stressed out about trying to pick a lane because they're, they feel like they need to be able to do everything, especially when we're talking about like.

You know, in the realm of business marketing, coaching, really any kind of coaching, I am a certified holistic health coach, and I worked for many years alongside the juice business as a coach around nutrition and wellness. And you know, I've see a lot of people struggling to niche down, to narrow down to pick a lane. And a lot of the clients that I've been working with too, I'm trying to help them to see, like, I get it, you wanna be able to help everybody. Right now you're new at coaching, but.

Your business is separate from your desire to help everybody. Mm-hmm. Requires focus. Yeah. And the, and the more clear and more specific you can be, the quicker you are going. People are gonna come out and say, oh, she's for me. And it's just that, it's picking, I. Yeah, which is the hardest part. Um, I find it more difficult, uh, for women than men.

Right? When I work with men, they're very like, okay, so you're telling me I just to pick one person? Like, yes. And they're like, okay. And like, that's it. They pick that one person. I think women, because we're such emotional beings and we do care and it's beautiful, right? Like it's, that's what makes us who we are, right?

Yeah. We're caregivers, we're nurturers. I wouldn't change that about myself over anything. And that's why mentorship, like working with you, like that's why that stuff works. Because all the times that I've been scatterbrained and I'm like, I don't know what to do and I know what to do. I've always had a mentor to be like, you know exactly what to do.

You need to pick. And I'm like, okay. You know, and it's removing your emotion from the outcome. And that's all into like manifestation everything, right? So like, you wanna get to a million dollars, it's, I wanna get to a million dollars. I'm gonna put in the work to get there. Like, I know what needs to happen.

Then I'm just gonna trust that it's gonna happen. You know? And that's one of the hardest things as humans. Like we are just beings that like want instant, especially nowadays, instant gratification, you know? Yeah. And it's, it takes time. And so I think that's, that's just something that you do with time growth.

But I tell my clients all the time, for anybody that's listening, that's starting out and is thinking to themself, no. She has no idea what she's talking about. I'm gonna help everybody you can. And I do, for what it's worth, I help everybody. But that's my free content. My paid clients are my clients who are ready to scale to six figures.

Yeah. So \ that's actually perfect segue \ I really wanna talk about systems with you because we So fun fact, Jen was, Jen was a keynote speaker, but we had talked before this conference briefly, we were chatting about maybe trying to do a live interview at the conference. Super hard to do that.

It was impossible. Um, which brings us here today, but. In that, in, in like at one moment we ran into each other in the bathroom and we were like, oh my God, what platform? We were like talking tech really fast, which I love. I loved it. And um, so I wanna talk systems, so. Scaling. Right? You're, let's say you figured out your signature offer.

Mm-hmm. You've got clarity on who you're gonna serve you. Yep. Tried a couple, you've served a couple clients, you've gotten some results, you've got some testimonials. You're like, holy shit, this works. Let's do it again. Yep. Now you're like, okay, how do I improve? We have to have these systems in place. So what do you think are the essential systems that take somebody from foundations are set to this thing is rinsing and repeating and I'm getting back some of my time and I'm making more money. Yeah. Okay. So the first thing I do is when somebody comes to me and they're at that stage, is I have them write their entire process.

So make a list, and this sounds very tedious, but it is, it's gonna be able to differentiate what we're, what is actually needed. So make a list of everything. You do in the business or everything for that specific product, right? So if it's a coaching program, how many calls are you on? Are you sending the onboarding emails?

Are you sending the reminders? Like, what are you doing in your day to day for that specific program or for the business? Now highlight everything that needs to get done in yellow, but doesn't necessarily need to be done by you. Right? So that's where you can highlight the onboarding process, the reminder emails, um, the checkout, the retention email, like whatever it is that you're doing.

That doesn't necessarily need to be done by you. Um, and then that is the thing that you then automate and then you have to look at the software that's going to support that. Um, you can ask around, there's millions of CRM processes and email marketing and all the things. Um, always, like you said, just go to somebody who's doing exactly what you wanna do and just ask them, Hey, what do you use for your system?

Yeah. And so, um, I get asked a lot actually about tech platforms be obviously because I'm a coach, uh, I, I don't think there is a right. The be like there's a lot of. And amazing pieces of software. Depends on the business. It depends on the business. It depends on how much you enjoy opening that program.

If you are resistant and hate the way it's set up and don't know where the buttons are, try another one. Yeah. Um, but also like systems shouldn't scare you. You, you have to think at that stage two, when, when your product is working and functioning, you have to think to yourself, okay, how can I remove myself little by little and set up a game plan?

So, for example, the program my signature offers is simplified to Amplify Accelerator. Um, it's a three month program, right? It's officially been running for over a year and a half functions very well. We have systems operations in place. This is the first year that I'm going to start to set, set back a little bit.

So we've set up a plan that in the first six months we're gonna bring in a supporting coach. It's gonna be less like, how are we slowly letting me do what I love to do? I love to create content. And I love to be with the clients, right? So I wanna do more in-person stuff in order for me to do that. I can't be constantly on the computer, although, don't get me wrong, I love my coaching calls, right?

So where can you step away? And this is where you have to know your own belief, your own vision and mission for the company. Where do you see it? Where do you wanna take it? How far do you wanna take it? You know? Um. I think all of that, you that, like you said, like it all really depends on the type of person, company, and business that you have and where you are at what stages.

Um, I know I, I shared this with you that I'm moving everything over to go high level. Oh, you are? I wasn't sure if you decided to do that or not. Okay, cool. Oh, I did. I did. I absolutely did because, and I'll tell you why. Um, the, the, I, I, for what it's worth, I think they're gonna take over the industry like they're doing so well.

Their CRM process. Like when I actually looked at the platform, I was like. I have the same thing on Clickup and it's not as functional like, and I would love, like this is genius, right? So, and, and just like the sales automation process, like being able to have everything nice and neat and like being able to walk through the steps and just, it feels so intuitive to me.

So for me it was an internal no-brainer. And then obviously being able to give that to my clients is also another no-brainer. Yeah. I mean, can we pause there for a quick second? So, because. I wanna just like go a little deeper into this. Mm-hmm. So I have clients at the very be, many of my clients are at the beginning of their online business journey.

So they're not new to business. Yeah. They have been running their business. They know what their product is, they know who they serve, but they don't have an online presence and or infrastructure. So I help them like, come online. That's a, a large part of my clients. Many of them. The idea like a go high level product, even though it's simple to you and I, 'cause we're techie and whatever, and it is, you look at it and you're like, holy cow.

They do it all for you. It's so simple. They're doing, it's making it so much easier. Yeah. Somebody who is brand new to online marketing looks at that and they're like, it's Mandarin Chinese. I can't speak that language. I don't understand. I can't do it. Yeah. So. Do you think it makes sense to start people kind of on platforms like Kit and lower level, technical programs that are slightly simpler?

So here's my take on that. I think it's a great question 'cause it's a question that my team and I brought to the table and we were like, do we really wanna do this? I think it's a, first of all, it's not expensive, right? It's a hundred dollars a month for the basic, the, the reason why it looks Mandarin Chinese is because you can.

Create the dashboard, however you wanna create it, but you need to understand how to do that. Yeah. So if someone is giving you the plugin of like, this is the business that you have, and we're gonna give you the onboarding, the offboarding, all your contracts, all your email sequences, everything, and all you do is plug it into the software.

I feel like that's a brainer, right? Yeah. Because it's already built out and it's created. But if you're listening to this and you have nothing and you're like, what the fuck is she talking about? Um. Yeah. For anyone listening who doesn't know what we're talking about, go high level. Is A-C-R-M-A customer relations management tool?

Yeah. Similar to Kajabi, has that, that functionality similar to, yeah, but Kaja, I've had all of I I think. I think they're. I mean, I think they're better than Kajabi. I'll say it loud and proud. Whoops. I do like, yeah, I don't get me wrong, I, I, I use Kajabi. Kajabi is like over super expensive. Um, especially for just starting.

I've used, I've used them all. I used MailChimp. Um, I use MailChimp. I used Kajabi. I've used, right now my email runs through ActiveCampaign. I used Dodo for my CRMI used thrivecart, and so basically we're getting rid of Dodo and thrivecart. I'm sorry, Dato and email and active campaign and marrying the two into, go ahead, level.

Right. So with the evolution of tech, there's been so many changes in the last three years. Like just like new platforms coming out left and right. The price points have shifted drastically. People are, I mean, I think also with ai there's just a lot more that you can do. So the, so it's all, it's a shifting landscape.

A hundred percent. And I mean, but that's the cool part, right? And I got news for you, anybody's listening and you're like petrified of what Deb and I are saying, you're probably in the wrong business. Because the truth is that you have to have an idea, you have to have an understanding of how these things work because it's only going to get harder.

Yeah. I still teach email marketing 1 0 1, where I literally just teach the strategy and I show what is possible. I guys, I have run my entire business off of email for 15 years. That's crazy. Like I'm an email. I, I I don't, it's like cultivating a relationship with your audience. Tell them what you're offering, bring them in, you know, generate leads.

It's just, yeah. It's, it's the same way. It's the, so I look at email marketing as the original social media. Yeah. That's how I look at it. Right. I look at blogging as the original. Um, YouTube and UGC marketing and influencer marketing platforms. Like I was an og, like I was the OG influencer before.

Influencers were even a thing, right? Yeah. Based on when I used to. And so I look at email marketing as the same way, and email marketing is I. One of the most underrated, effective ways to build audience because for people that won't say it louder for the people in the back, for people that don't like social media, um, that they're connected through, through emails.

Yeah. And so, I mean, that's, that's one of the reasons why I, I will onboard clients onto Kit because they created something. They, they were smart. \

You talking about ConvertKit that they now move to call Kit, right? Yeah. It's com, it used to be ConvertKit, it's now Kit. Basically they were, they had, their paywall was, you can use this all you want up until a thousand subscribers, but you can't automate it until you start paying us. So people, it's not a lot of money, right?

It's what, 20 bucks? 25? I was gonna say a month. But the point is, if you are brand new in business and you have no clue what you're doing, you're not. You're not ready to start paying anybody anything if you don't understand how the system works. Yeah. What they changed is now they allow you to have what they call a newsletter plan, and it's a free starter plan, and \ within that plan, you get one fully automated system, meaning you can have people sign up on your newsletter, they get an automated welcome email that leads to a whole sequence that you can write out.

That's awesome. And you can sell products through it. So like. You can accept money, you can do business now without having to hit their paywall. You start paying them when you wanna go anywhere beyond that one simple automation, which anyone making money wants to do quickly so they know you're like investing in their basic system and then you're building up.

It's for people who don't already have a course or another digital reality like a community. Yeah. I feel like that is a good starting place because they gave that option out. But you know, once you reach the point where you're like, I need other digital tools, such as a space to gather people for like a community or a place to harbor my content, that's a, that's a course.

Yeah. And a more advanced CRM then you wanna be in with. A company like Go High level or one of these other things that we're talking about? Absolutely. Well, right now what we do is we send people to, to Kit. I never use Kit, but I did know that it was a good software for people that are starting and it's a cheap cost effect.

I think it's best in class for people who are just starting out. Yeah. Which is great and I totally support that, but I think you've, you, the secret sauce is right there. Or like the, the secret of transition is there when you start making some money. Yeah. It's like you're getting clients and you're like, wow, this actually works.

Like I now need to take it up a notch. Like I wish somebody would've told me this sooner. Don't undermine the systems and operations. I said this in our talk that a mentor of mine said this to me and I will never forget this. At the time, I didn't understand what was coming out of his mouth. Being who I am today.

I think about this all the time and anything I create something, I always think, what is the exit strategy? He said, build a business with an exit strategy. Because even if you do not sell it, right, if you go into it with a mindset of I am going to sell this baby one day, from day one, you will begin to look at it as something that is outside of you and not part of you.

You will remove the emotion and you'll be like, okay. How do I build this so that it functions on its own? It's the analogy I heard a couple days ago, which blew my mind, was like, is he, I don't have kids, but it's like if I had a child and at 18 years old, he or she was like, mommy, I can't function without you.

I did a terrible job as a parent. Oh my God. And that's what I want for my business. I wanna be able to say, fuck, I don't wanna wait 18 years, but what to say? It's such a gold nugget right there. That is like some pure goal. I wanna be able to say that like within five to 10 years. This thing can function without me.

And if I choose to sell it, great. If I don't, great. But I've built it with that mindset. And so, and that goes back to the original like thing that we were talking about is like your belief in yourself and to create something at the core, that's all it fucking takes. Any millionaire multimillionaire that I have met, they have this unwavering belief and curiosity to change something.

And that is what keeps them going. Yeah. And I think that is at the core of what people need in order to make a difference, in order to be successful. Like you can't doubt yourself, and I know you might sound crazy and you might be the only black sheep in the family, all of that stuff, you're not alone.

Find your people. I. Vibe with your people. Get in the room with those people. Stay in connection, in contact with, listen to podcasts like this. Reach out to people like us. 'cause we, we get it. Yeah. At the core you have to like, you don't understand how much it costs you not to be in a room and be in connection with these people.

Because if you only surround yourself with people who don't do what you wanna do and are constantly telling you that's not gonna work, that's not good enough. You're crazy. You have no idea. You will stay small forever. Yeah. You know, it's so true. Yeah. The networking thing, I mean, coming outside of your comfort zone, like basically as they say, growth only happens mm-hmm.

In the, in your place of discomfort. You don't grow at all when you're like super cozy, curled up on the couch. Okay. Jen, it is amazing chatting with you. I could keep talking to you for hours. I'm gonna invite you back. Before you go though, I have a couple quick, little fast questions.

Um, yes. Number one. What is something that you are looking forward to? Like what's really jazzing you right now? What are you, what are you most looking forward to this year? Um, honestly, meeting more of my community. Like, um, I'm ready to take the online curriculum to the, you know, the in-person experiences.

Nice. Very excited for. What, that's what that's gonna look like. I don't actually know what it looks like, but it's something in, in me intuitively that is very much like I wanna connect with people, I wanna meet people, um, I wanna host these workshops, host these retreats, and be more. Find my people. Yeah. I so resonate with that.

I feel like we all really desperately need in-person connection. Yeah. It's been like, what, four plus years? Five years since the pandemic we're like, oh, it's really okay for us to be in rooms together and like do the work. Yeah. And I feel like, yeah, I love that so much. And where can we find you online?

What's the best way to find you? You can reach out to me on Instagram. You can check me out. jennifer.at Jennifer dot Marilla. Um, if you like what you see, stick around. If you don't, it's okay. Keep going. Amazing. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I love chatting with you. No, this is great.

We'll have to come back. We'll have to do more of this. I feel like we could do like a full two hour podcast. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. I would love to have you come back and, and continue the conversation guys. If anybody has any questions, reach out to us and drop the questions and then we'll do another one.

'cause this was such a good po I really enjoyed this. Genuinely, like, I love this system conversation. I mean there's, we don't talk about, it's so much. We could do an entire podcast just on the tech. Um, you guys go to Jen Marilla. Dot com

she's got a gorgeous website. And all of her content and all of her links are in the show notes, so you can go follow her on Instagram, find out more about her signature program, and share this episode with somebody that you know would benefit from it.

And as always, my friends, until we meet next time, may you be vibrant.