Carl J. Cox 7:10

Awesome. I love how you shared that. And near the end, you shared something that really resonated with me. And it was interesting in the right in the middle of COVID. Last year, you know when it first everything stopped in the US. And it was I think around April, and somebody it was I think it was on LinkedIn. And somebody just said there there was like, you know, what do you do? And nobody’s answering the phone? And how do you and somebody just said, simply add value? Yeah. And when you add value, then people are going to call you up, right? But if you’re not adding any value, it doesn’t matter what you say, you know, you’re not you’re not ultimately creating a real impact. And and you’re not you have a real business, right? You’d have a real business, if you aren’t actually people aren’t willing to buy your services and thinking you’re going to be able to actually help them get through. And so I love it that you have that to be a part of it. Because obviously the other parts your system wouldn’t work, right. If you weren’t, you can’t deliver extraordinary results. So I know you mentioned a little bit throughout when you’re talking about the five steps. But what is typically, I know it can be different for each person. But what is the most common obstacle with those five steps?

Jessica Yarbrough  8:19

Well, it really depends on we have two different calibers of entrepreneurs that come to us, we have the ones earning under a quarter million. And then we have the ones who are at quarter million all the way up to you know, one point something to three, we even have in the program, three mil. And so the problems, new level new Davos, different CEO growing pains, but let’s talk the higher level one, typically their biggest issue is they’ve grown their business to a point. And by putting a trying a lot of different things, seeing what sticks, they have a ton of different offers. They, they are at the center of their business, they’re literally like, I can’t do more to make more that’s not going to work for me anymore. So I need a fundamental restructuring of my business. And so what we work to do is get the owner out of the center of the business, streamline their offers, restructure, like get rid of all the low ticket stuff and restructure. So we’re selling high value. A lot of times this also means leveling up the the quality or the type of clients. You know, one of my clients, Michelle, she’s like, I just want to work with seven figure interior design firms. I’m like, Great, that’s what we’re going to do then. So we’re not going to take on the others as clients and by working with obviously a high caliber market, it makes it easier to sell a higher end service. So sometimes it’s reworking who they’re actually marketing to restructuring offers and then we have to upgrade their marketing and everything that goes along with that. But the biggest thing for a lot of business owners is they are the bottleneck. And until we restructure their business, like nothing’s gonna change and they know that that’s why they come to me they know like, I can’t keep going Way, and bouncing around $50,000 difference in revenue per year, you know, contingent on them? If the answer is if they want, you know, if they continue that way, they’re doing to make more, they would have to burn themselves out. And so we don’t want to do that they come to me, and we realigned, and it really uncaps their income, and we’re able to double, triple even quadruple their growth over the next 12 months.

Carl J. Cox 10:24

So that I get imagine, once again, especially with, you’re working with really smart people, right? They know their expertise really well, they are adding value, but you’re telling them to stop. Right? And, and so, and or they’re saying he was saying, Are you saying, you know, we can have somebody else do that for you? So give me example of like, where you did, you pulled away something right from the CEO that were like, their hands were bleeding, you know, I think, a particular task, and but once they understood, they could delegate it, and actually make more money as a result of it. They were they had that freedom, you know, that you talked about, you have like, a specific example, something like that. Yeah,

Jessica Yarbrough 11:07

I mean, one of my clients, and we want it, the goal was to scale a one a high end, one to many a group offering, which is something we do with our clients, because you can only have so many one to one. And so I mean, I think her program went from, I want to say it was like, a few 1000 a year to now today she’s selling a group offering for 36,001 of the things we needed to do was to pull out accountability from her to put some other like team members in place that could take ownership of ensuring her clients were happy and getting the results so that she could scale that part of her time. And so again, it was about putting the right person in place, putting a little bit different processes in place, so that you could still deliver amazing experience actually improve the experience and the deliverability of your program, and therefore create more value. And as you add more value, you can increase your prices. And so that was obviously something that was very challenging. There’s a lot that goes into building value into a program in terms of like your infrastructure, and the right person and hiring and all of that. But once she did I mean, it was like a game changer for her business.

Carl J. Cox 12:22

When when you’re trying to once again change not only the how, but the who, who’s doing the work? Or what are you doing with what are the clients your clients typically doing? Are they hiring somebody? Are they? Are you helping them out with some specific task, your team? Is it a another consultant? Or if you may, you know, kind of third party? What do you what do you end up doing on a regular basis? Or is there a consistent thing you do, or you use all three when necessary.

Jessica Yarbrough 12:51

So we give them multiple options just to based on what their budget that we are not an agency. So I do have people that I can, you know, refer them to, as far as providers, what typically my highest level clients will do, quite frankly, is use a specialized recruiter that is specific to the coaching and consulting industry. She’s amazing. She’s placed my employees, she’s placed many of my clients. And so they kind of do the heavy lifting for you, they actually go beyond and look at your personality, and find out what makes you tick and what ticks you off. And so it goes beyond just trying to fill a role. But of course we give them there’s that option, you can also hire on your own, I’ve clearly identify like what key people we put in place, and when in order to scale up my organization. So we teach them that. But I find that the busier the clients, the more money they’re making, the more likely they are to outsource that part of the recruitment process. And then those that are, let’s say, under a quarter million, they’re more likely to take that on themselves as something they do.

Carl J. Cox 14:00

Yeah, so let’s actually let’s talk about that that. yet. There’s such a broad range. And I see it’s interesting on LinkedIn, I see that like, Hey, can you try to make 5000 a month, right? And then you have other people like, make 10,000 a month and then getting to make it you know, 250 a year and then and then there’s, you know, the different scales and consulting. It’s, some people can’t even imagine getting to that six figure mark, right, because of where they came from the past. So there’s a lot of fear, right? And a lot of doubt that somebody has that they could even get to these different values, right, get getting to something making something 250 500,000 a seven, you know, a million dollar business being in consulting. So from that group, right, right, that are you doing that maybe are you doing a lot of just for lack of better term confidence coaching with them, that this does work. And let me show you how I mean, how do you get that confidence in somebody that they’ve never experienced that right? They’ve always been like an employee for somebody else, but they have the skills they have the talent, right? Yes, I’ve never marketed themselves in the past. What do you have to do with that group of people to get get them to that upper level?

Jessica Yarbrough 15:05

Well, I think there’s a couple of things, it’s important to point out. I mean, number one, I only take on people as a client, who had demonstrated excellence and expertise in their field. So I’m not taking somebody that was like work, your retail job, took a weekend life coaching certification is like, okay, Jessica help me build a half million dollar life coaching practice, there are plenty of people that can help them, I say, you know what, go generate 100,000 and company, and then I’ll help you. So I work with people who have real experience. And so if someone is just exiting the corporate world, and they they’ve been a VP, they’ve been director level, I can take them take that skill set, and I can help them build something profitable that we can accelerate their growth. So number one, I’m looking for the right caliber of people, the right people who have not only the the experience, but also the drive and the commitment. And you can see that through their job history and how you know, if someone’s committed to a corporate job at a VP level, then you know what, they’re going to roll up their sleeves and do what I tell them to do. Once they get into the program. Here’s what I tell people we do have mindset built in. And and and that is not something I even lead I have a specific mindset person. Because I’ll tell you right now, crawling, this is gonna sound kind of funny maybe. But I’ve seen self sabotage come up from anything from let’s say, a woman not wanting to make more than her husband subconsciously being afraid to, to a man not wanting to earn more money, because he didn’t want to pay more spousal support to his ex was Yeah. So self sabotage can come up in a lot of different ways, which is why mindset. And that support is so integrally built into our program. And it’s something that really separates us. I’m strategic, and practical, though. So I know this, and I proven this over and over and over again, right now, in your mind, you have a number a number is your worth, this is what what you believe you can get. And it’s only there because that’s what you’ve done in the past. And that number might be $100, an hour might be 250, it might be a $5,000 package might be a $10,000 package. And so what we have to do is create a new reference point a new possibility. And what we can do from a strategic side is I can help you build an amazing how an amazing solution that becomes your IP, something that you feel phenomenal about. And I can help you articulate that and sell that I’ll work with you personally on how you’re, you’re actually going to pitch that. And then I’m going to help you package it into something that is so value pack, that you’re gonna look at it and say, You know what, that’s worth 25 grand hack, it’s worth more than that. And so that gives you enough confidence having and being empowered with that those tools and that information in that pitch to go out and sell it. And when you sell it. Now you’ve created a new reference point. Right? The new reference point is I’m worth 25,000. And it also once you get to that first high ticket even at 25, you’re going to 5075 multiple six figures, it just it opens the the ceiling of possibility, because now you’re like, that was so easy. And you know, the only thing my clients say to me, Carl, the only thing they always say, Gosh, I wish I’d done this sooner, huh? That’s it? Yeah, I wish I hadn’t held myself back for the past three 510 years and undervalued when I’m creating massive results in these organizations are these individuals lives. I self sabotage because you determine your worth. And once I did it once I figured out, okay, there’s a structure, there’s a blueprint, I’m empowered with the knowledge, the tools to do it. And they said yes. And it was easy. And in fact, the guy said, that seems reasonable. I should probably charge more. And I have a little chuckle. And I say yes. And we get started. So that’s how we solve that Carl.

Carl J. Cox 18:46

That’s awesome. And I appreciate the expertise because I’m sure there are people in the audience who are in that situation, right. Where they I, one of the the examples that has been pretty well known was like the four minute mile, right? And it was actually I think, at one point they said it was sight is humanly impossible, right to break the four minute very, but as soon as it was broken, then all of a sudden, just a ton of people just passed it right? Because right now, I am not one of those people that pass for minimal. just clarify. But But you know, saying it’s incredible, right of where these we have these mental barriers, and we actually will say it’s scientific, even in some cases, like there’s no way there’s no way you can make $1,000 an hour, there’s no way to do $10,000 an hour. But you can’t, right if you are once again adding value, and you’re willing to ask, you know, I think that’s the part that you’re getting to is that you have to be willing to ask. And what’s I think you probably find this sometimes people don’t take you very seriously unless you’re charging enough

Jessica Yarbrough 19:50

100% and I’ve seen this over and over for my clients. It is easier to sell high end than it is to sell the lower end and you know what higher end clients are more Did they show up, they do the work. They don’t whine. You know, I mean, it’s, I’m a big fan of the model. And I know, I know coaches who have completely let go of all their other low end stuff, because they got tired of dealing with refunds of courses and chargebacks. And people, you know, saying it wasn’t valuable enough to a $2,000 package, you know, course, meanwhile, they’re selling 50 $100,000 coaching and getting, you know, the most amazing people. So, yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s not for everybody. You know, if you have a vision of making a real impact in people’s lives and working intimately in someone’s business or life to create true transformation, then embrace the high end model, it’s going to be very fulfilling for you and life changing for your clients.

Carl J. Cox 20:51

Absolutely. No, I think that’s so how do you measure success with your business? Or with your clients? What is that? What are you doing on a regular basis? No, we were getting it done.

Jessica Yarbrough  21:02

Yeah. So we treasure, we track all kinds, I said, treasure, we track all kinds of metrics. So of course, we have, you know, we’re looking at our marketing, we’re looking at our visibility, we’re looking at our reach, we’re looking at leads and conversions, and closing, and all of those things. But we also look at our client metrics. And so we actually have KPIs that we track for our clients, which again, is I don’t know, a lot of coaching programs, I don’t know of any that do this. So we want to know that they’re not only completing, like, the milestones that we’ve established in terms of acquiring the knowledge and, you know, completing the task, but that those tasks associated with it are producing the kind of ROI that we want. And so we track them on a monthly basis, because we want to make sure that, again, they’re succeeding in the different metrics that we specifically help them with. So we have like, a dashboard, we’re looking at numbers, we’re looking at data, you know, and of course, I’m looking also at my my team and making sure they’re happy and satisfied. So really, we have KPIs across all different departments.

Carl J. Cox 22:06

What you shared, and I’m not sure probably the audience that we talked about leading and lagging indicators a lot and measuring success. And what you were talking about with the leading indicators, often, you know that yes, the results, but you don’t get the results unless you’re doing the little things, the important things right to get the outcomes, right. And I love that, that you mentioned that because it’s probably the miss one of the most misunderstood It was interesting, my youngest daughter, just was at the University of North Carolina, at a women’s soccer camp there. And it was an incredible experience, she loved being there. She was actually got MVP of the camp, which was really cool. But what was really what she really loved was that every single thing they measure, they literally every practice, they rate one to 30 their players and the performance at all the different different areas of their being, and they measure it and they track it. And that’s how they create excellence right there. Their bar is we’re going to be the best, but they be the best bike by literally having practices that are harder than the games. Right? And and that’s what you’re saying along with this from a business perspective, right? How do we actually do these leading indicators on a regular basis to help make sure we get these outcomes? And and then it’s not luck? Right? You know, I mean, that then it should be like, it’s actually what will we end up getting taken care of. So this has been awesome. So let now I love to just I want to hear a little bit more about your personal side, I find anybody who has a successful business like you have been making what’s really funny, you helped make other people’s lives and more successful and give them freedom and help them accomplish things for them and their clients that they probably never dreamed? In many cases? How do you keep yourself on top of your game? You know, what are you doing on your own on a personal level to help make sure you have the energy to support your clients in your business?

Jessica Yarbrough  23:58

a great question. Well, I have really strong boundaries around my time, and scheduling. You know, I don’t I work a four day workweek. And I make sure that, you know, my time is scheduled like appropriately and meetings are productive and have an objective. Beyond that, though, family time. You know, when I’m off, I’m off that is family time, nights and weekends. I made a commitment several years ago that I would take a minimum of four weeks vacation per year. And so we’ve done that even despite COVID but we do take four full weeks of vacation per year. Other than that, I’m like my health is very, very important to me. So eating right, exercising, even during COVID I invested in the mirror which is that cool. Home Gym, and that’s that was amazing while things were still shut down. So just really take staying on top of my physical health, eating right drinking green juice, all of those things. I’m in Southern California and Epicenter have health and, you know, I just make sure I, I, I take care of myself. And and, and all of that is necessary because what I learned years ago when I wasn’t in a healthy place, I was kind of in that hustle, grind, you know, it’s the fast path to burnout and it if your energy isn’t right, as a business owner, you’re going to attract that and you’re going to see it show up in all areas of your business. And so when you become really aligned from a health and wellness perspective, when you’re, you’re operating from a place where you’re true to yourself, where you can grow it, you know, your business actually will skyrocket the quality people are going to change, everything is going to change when when you get yourself right.

Carl J. Cox 25:47

From from a time on, like you start out in the morning, and you have like a list of things that you know, you’re doing it on these like daily basis things to help get you going or, or is it kind of go by the flow? You know, we’re what what do you typically doing to? I mean, you you describe a lot of the things that you are doing? Yeah, but are you like checking off? I’ve made sure I did these things?

Jessica Yarbrough 26:08

Yes, yeah. So I am still a type A, and I run by list. And so having like, have I done my daily gratitude, have I done my meditation, energy work? My exercise, you know, tracking, those kinds of things are really important to me. And then I kind of have my to do list. I have my creative time. You know, everything’s very structured in my life. And there’s freedom in structure. I found. Yep.

Carl J. Cox 26:34

Yep. I’m curious, just from a normal day. So a normal one, your work week, days, where you’re going to put in yourself time? How long is that typically is is it an hour, half hour, hour and a half? More? What we know how much time does it take you to kind of do those kind of minimum basic, get yourself up ready for each day? Yeah, I

Jessica Yarbrough  26:56

would say in the morning, it’s like 20 minutes to half hour, it’s pretty short. And then I typically do a half hour workout later. And then I will go for a walk or something with my daughter. So I guess, an hour and a half total throughout the day, but it’s kind of spread out.

Carl J. Cox 27:10

Oh, cool. Cool. That’s good. So yeah. And it’s Yeah, I appreciate you saying that. And I think there’s some value behind that, too, of just not doing all one time, right to create yourself from different pockets, right? Where you’re, you know, we can all have a tough day, right? for one reason or another. And it’s good to like to have a second part of it, where you’re able to relax and unwind again. So

Jessica Yarbrough  27:28

we’ll find what works for you. So ever. Some people are like, No, you have to work out in the morning, you have to do that. Well, for me, that’s always been challenging, because I’ve got to get my daughter, you know, ready for school. So I actually work out in the afternoon, and I still have my morning kind of routine, I get a lot of creative stuff done in the morning, and I actually work out in the afternoon. It’s not what I used to do before I had a child. But after having a child, it’s what works for me, and it’s fine. So find what works for you. The important thing is that you fit it in.

Carl J. Cox 27:56

Yeah, yeah. That’s great insights. And I love it that you’ve done it four days a week, right? Because that you’ve actually done it. So is if I may ask, is it then you’re having a 10 hour day? Or you actually know, you do eight or 12? Or what what are you doing to make you

Jessica Yarbrough  28:16

know, on during the summer, I’m looking at about 20 to 25 hours a week work, honestly, and then in the fall spring are really very busy time. So we’ll look at 30 to 35. And I’m definitely I will put in more as needed. But I’m going to tell you, I’m gonna brag for a minute, I had the most amazing team. And the team that I built, I told them if I lose one of you, you’re you each represent like to two or three hours a week in my work week. And so having them has reclaimed so much of my time. And so I’m like they literally gave me my time back. So that that’s that’s 1010 hours right there eight to 10 hours a week right there that because I had the key members in place of things that I just don’t do anymore. Hmm. Oh, that’s how I’ve been able to do it.

Carl J. Cox 29:04

I think that’s a great, you know, it’s interesting. There’s the edge. I’m sure you read the four hour workweek by Tim Ferriss. And I think people get a little confused with that. Because like there’s this impression like he’s not working. He stopped working. It’s like, No, no, he built the systems. Right. And and the reality was he went off and did a bunch of other things afterwards. It wasn’t but because you’re not built to not get things done, right your life. He said you have to focus but you really have once again, created great boundaries, and are trying to walk your walk as best you can. And of course that probably resonates with your clients when you could say, Look, I’m doing this and there’s no reason you can’t do that because I’m already doing it.

Jessica Yarbrough 29:43

Absolutely. I model what I teach and that’s very important. Again, when we talk about being congruent. If you say you’re doing something, you’re modeling that and then you know it helps your clients to embrace that as well. So, and I will tell you, Carl, this wasn’t an easy process. It wasn’t an overnight thing. Like it’s been a journey. To get here, but I will point back to strong systems and processes. Again, that level four that we talked about, on a solid foundation in great marketing and sales. That’s where they were, I was really able to reclaim my time that’s that solopreneur to CEO, you know, I quit wearing a dozen different hats. And I’m just very focused with my time now. As

Carl J. Cox 30:23

that’s, that’s incredible. And I love love the testimony of what you shared. And and so one of the questions I like to ask all our guests, what is your, one of your favorite books that you’d like to recommend to our audience?

Jessica Yarbrough 30:36

I love Atomic Habits by James Clear, which he talks about measuring a lot. And he talks about those little incremental changes that you can make, again, to sports teams, the way they practice, even improving by 1%, you know, over the trajectory of a year is going to be very significant. So you’re looking for those small changes and that consistency, which I always tell people, it’s all about consistency, can you commit to whatever that consistency is, and just stay committed to it, make those small changes to your habits, and you know, you won’t reap the reward immediately. But over the course of the next year, 234 or five years, you’re going to see huge, huge changes.

Carl J. Cox 31:20

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, is a great book. And I appreciate you recommending that to the audience, for sure. And I don’t think I mentioned to you earlier, but I’m going to be down thinking of habits. I’m running my first marathon. And then my first ones planned to San Diego actually marathon. So who knows might get a chance to see because I know you live down in that area. So I’m looking forward to being that beautiful area. How can people find out more about your business? sportwear is a great website for them to get more information.

Jessica Yarbrough  31:49

Well definitely check out jessicayarbrough.com. You can download our seven figure case study down there on the website, but also connect with me on LinkedIn. I’m very active on LinkedIn, send me a request and let me know that you heard me on this show. And I’m happy to connect and then you can follow me on all my all my content where we’re very active there.

Carl J. Cox 32:09

That’s That’s great. So Jessica, this has truly been an honor to have you on this show. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for having me. And to all of our guests, we are wishing you the very best that measuring your success. Have a great day.

Outro 32:26

Thanks for listening to the Measure Success Podcast. We’ll see you again next time to learn from the best. Remember to subscribe now to get future episodes.