222 MINISODE Sharla Jacobs: Shift Your Inner Game

Sharla Jacobs is the co-founder of Thrive Academy where she and her husband Jesse Koren have helped 50,000 holistic healers, coaches and entrepreneurs transform their passion into profitable businesses and realize their first $10,000 month. Sharla advises entrepreneurs to embrace community and connection if they wish to succeed, and look deep inside to get rid of any money blocks or limiting beliefs standing in their way.

Melinda Wittstock:         Sharla, welcome to Wings.

Sharla Jacobs:                  Thank you so much for having me Melinda.

Melinda Wittstock:         I am always grateful for everybody that shares so abundantly about their success secrets on Wings in these Friday minisodes, and I like to start with what’s inspiring you.

Sharla Jacobs:                  Yeah, you know, there’s so many things that inspire me that keep me motivated, and keep me moving, and it’s such an important part of our success as women, isn’t it? That we’ve got to stay continually motivated and inspired.

A couple of things that are really inspiring me is that I’m really inspired right now by changing the way transformational leadership is put out in the world. I believe that particularly in this time that we’re in right now where many people are emboldened both with the me too movement and some of the things that we’re seeing where people are … People of color are really stepping out, and standing out, and having their voice being heard.

And then just the marketplace as far as entrepreneurship is going out there in the world that a lot of the people who are consumers are saying, we don’t want to put up with things the way that they’ve been. We don’t … You can kind of see what’s happening in the launch world these days where results aren’t as good as they were before, and I think it is a culmination of all of these things of people are really waking up and having their voices be heard, and so it’s my commitment, and also my husband Jesse Koren, he’s my business partner, to really see the way transformational leadership is put out in the world, to see that change, to have us be more aware, to have us be … To hear those voices, and to listen, and to stop, and to look at what can we do differently.

So personally I’ve been educating myself really deeply on what are some of the issues around where people of color aren’t feeling heard, seen, gotten in the coaching world, and really changing some of the practices and policies that we have in place in our business.

And then as a leader in the transformational leadership world, really seeing what we can do to influence friends into paying attention to what the marketplace is asking for, and really paying attention to what our people are asking us to step up to, and having us to continue to evolve. That’s for me what I’m most inspired about.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s beautiful because it seems like people are so much more open to transformation now, and yet we’re all suffering from this infobesity. I can see how-

Sharla Jacobs:                  That’s a great word for it.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right?

Sharla Jacobs:                  Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:         Like how offers have to be crafted differently, and I guess this is a nice segue into the challenge part of the Minisode in terms of what is challenging you right now. Is it harder to be heard in this environment?

Sharla Jacobs:                  Yeah, you know, when my husband and I first started, we weren’t married. So we started back in 2005, and we actually had a precursor to this business we have now back in 2004. So almost 14 years that we have been teaching coaches and holistic practitioners how to attract more clients.

And there was nobody doing what we’re doing now. I mean, literally I could count on one hand the people that were doing things for entrepreneurs that might have mentioned coaches. With the exception of Malana Lachinsky and Christian Michelson, they were specifically speaking about coaches. But we were talking about coaches and holistic practitioners. People told us we were crazy to be doing this, and that people who were having a hard time attracting clients wouldn’t be able to afford our services.

We’ve made many, many, many millions of dollars doing this work now and our clients have earned over a hundred million dollars collectively. And in the beginning it was hard because it was new, it was hard because coaches and holistic practitioners didn’t know that there was a place to go to get a heart based way to attract clients to sell their services. So we were based only in referrals, and to be honest with you most of our business still comes from referrals.

And then we got into the world of launches, and anybody who’s ever done a launch, it’s crazy. It was new, it actually took us several years to really do a full fledged big, huge launch with a lot of partners, and we did it for about a couple years, and then a lot of us are seeing that trend really dropping off and being harder.

And we also stepped away because I just got exhausted of just sending so many emails and it just felt like too much. As a mom, I have two children, two boys, Zachary and Jacob. Zach is seven, and Jacob is 10, and I really felt like living that launch life was exhausting, and I was having a really hard time balancing my family and work life, so I stepped away, just really went back to focusing on getting referrals, and focusing on partnering with organizations that maybe weren’t … Didn’t have 50000 to 200000 people on their email list, but that they were really a right match for us.

And I will say this, that there is a lot of noise out there, that being an organization where we go like A to Z everything you need to attract clients and that messaging has become … It sounds really trite, or heart based. We were talking about heart based almost 14 years ago when we started out, and some of these terms that we’ve been using for so many years have become really saturated. And we’re partly responsible because we’ve trained thousands and thousands of coaches and holistic practitioners, and many coaches have taken our stuff, and are teaching our stuff and making it their own, and so we’re partly responsible for saturating the market.

So it’s become a little bit harder, so we have to find different ways to really build trust, to really show what we have to offer, and one of the things that we’ve done recently just for the last time I did a little internal launch that was opening up full scholarships for a client attraction summit, it’s our three day live event that we offer three times a year. And we decided to do a five-day challenge instead of just doing the webinar. And that was a really wonderful experience. What I really appreciated about it most is it felt like I was getting to know the people who are playing the challenge. It was really sweet to read their responses, and have people being in action rather than just consuming information and making comments that we were really giving people actionable things to do.

So I got to thank my friend Elena Vincent for teaching people how to do five day challenges, and I’ll just say that in my experience, I think what we all need to be doing right now is rather than feeding the infobesity as you say, that’s such a great term for it, we need to be supporting our potential clients to take action, and really giving them a taste to be teaching more. We’ve always led webinars where we’ve given too much value and content. So just going back to that.

We give a lot of content on our webinars, and we have people have actionable things that they can do right away, and I think that’s really where things are headed nowadays.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, so interesting what you say about saturating the market with these words. You create a market, and then you become sort of a victim of your own success. You have to keep chasing these new terms, like summits were big, and now they’re not. We went from webinars to master classes.

Sharla Jacobs:                  Right, always changing.

Melinda Wittstock:         And all these things, and it is really tricky. So on your journey Sharla, as an entrepreneur, but also as a mom, what are the top three go to pieces of advice that you give women in business, and entrepreneurs at whatever stage they’re at in their entrepreneurial journey?

Sharla Jacobs:                  Number one is don’t do this alone. I see so many people. I watch them, like right now we have a Facebook group that’s called Coaches and Holistic Practitioners Have Changed the World. We ran our five-day challenge, and then on Tuesdays it’s an opportunity to ask us questions.

And I see people who are out there struggling, well they got their training. That’s step one, you got to go get your training to do whatever you do, or whatever you develop. Step two is you have got to master client attraction right? And that is not going to happen by sitting in your house alone, or in your home office alone. It really needs to happen both with a community and a mentor who can lift you up. It’s got to be both. You cannot be out there … Even home studies, it’s like three percent of the population that actually can do a home study and be successful with it right, and stick with it.

You’ve got to be with people, you’ve got to be in real community being supported with like-minded people, that is so important and you have to have a mentor who can lift you up. I can’t tell you the number of mentors and communities that I’ve been a part of as we grew this business. I mean we went from zero to 175 thousand our first year together, and I’m not going to tell my whole story right now growing my own practice before we did that.

And then 265 the second year, 732 thousand the third year, and on to multiple seven figure business after that. And we studied with multiple mentors, and we actually put ourselves in a classroom type setting, a live event. It doesn’t feel like a classroom because live events can be so much fun these days.

But wanted to be with other people and developing those relationships over time. I mean there are people that we met 15, 16 years ago that we are still friends with today that we partner with each other, that we support each other, and co-mentor and coach each other.

So being in community is so important, and then having a mentor that really gets you, and that has been where you’ve been that teaches a system that you know is proven. And not just by a few people who have gotten results, but that they have got like consistent, a high percentage of people getting traction with their system. Otherwise you’re going to sit there alone and spin your wheels.

I see people ask me questions in our Facebook group on our get support Tuesdays, and I see that they’re … I can tell that they’re sitting there doing it alone. I can tell that they haven’t hired a mentor. They haven’t gotten the basics down, even how do you communicate about what you have to offer? Like if you still sound like everybody else that’s out there, you’re not going to … You’re going to have a really hard time growing your business.

And so you’ve got to learn from somebody that can give you the system, and that can support you to write about what you do, and talk about what you do in a way that’s really compelling for people.

So that’s my first tip number one is don’t do this alone.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh my goodness, that’s so, so important. What about tips number two and three?

Sharla Jacobs:                  Yeah, so number two is to make the commitment to shift your inner game if you’re not getting the results you want. Now I will say this with a caveat. So many people that I work with, and you know, we work specifically with coaches and holistic practitioners, but we’re talking about women entrepreneurs here. Most of our clients are women.

And they … I just meet so many who are so focused on just inner game. Like maybe they’ve just hired a life coach to try and help them work on inner game to grow their business, and they’re still not getting the results they want. You have to work on both inner and outer, right?

So I already talked about outer with the “don’t do this alone”. You also do have to work on the inner game. So if you are not getting the results that you want in your business, you’ve got to shift your inner game too. You’ve got to take a look at, where are my own concerns that keep me from taking the actions I need to take to grow my business? Where are those stopping me? Where are they stopping me from being with my potential clients as they’re shifting those things?

Here’s the thing, if it was easy to change our lives, if it was easy to get results in our business, everybody would be rocking it, right?

Melinda Wittstock:         Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Sharla Jacobs:                  But there are people who are, and people who aren’t, and I will tell you that everybody who is has shifted both their inner and outer game, and there’s so much inner work to do around how much do you charge? There’s so much inner work to do around receiving money. There’s so much inner work to do around your own worth when you’re in your business, and really getting like, you have to charge a good amount for your time when you’re working with people, or for your programs because you have to sustain the business, and it costs money to sustain the business.

So there’s so much inner work to do around that, and just the negative beliefs are so intense. If I listed the sabotaging beliefs that I had to go through transforming when I was first building my own practice, and then of course growing a multi million dollar business, it would be pages long. So we’ve got to commit to … And even to this day there’s still places where I do that inner game work, and maybe it might be more around relationships, or health, but we have to continually be willing to grow ourselves from the inside out.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh My Gosh, this is so true. I joke often on this podcast that if you want therapy, become an entrepreneur. That’s the way to go for sure.

Sharla Jacobs:                  It’s like the fastest spiritual path, right?

Melinda Wittstock:         Sharla, so how can people find you and work with you, and do you have any special offer for our listeners today?

Sharla Jacobs:                  I do. You know, I haven’t talked a whole lot about our work, but one of the things that people find most supportive of their journey as an entrepreneur is to learn our system called Heart to Selling, the five elements of heart selling. So we have developed a system of having conversations with potential clients where your clients practically talk themselves into working with you if it’s a good match. It’s called heart selling, and we have that system available for you in our book, The Art of Attracting Clients.

So there’s so much more. I’ve kind of touched the surface of the things that I’ve talked about today, and there’s so many things that will help you on your journey to success as an entrepreneur in this book The Art of Attracting Clients, and you can pick up a free digital copy at GiftFromThrive.com/Wings, and you’ll actually be able to read about all five elements, and you’ll get some templates in there that you can use with potential clients that will have them be more likely to say yes to working with you if it’s a good match.

One of the other things that’s really exciting about this book is contained inside this book, is a link where you can get a scholarship, a full scholarship to our three day live event, the Client Attraction Summit. This is where we spend three days with you live, and in person with other like minded coaches and holistic practitioners, and a few other heart based entrepreneurs sneak their way in there.

And we’re going to go through the eight keys to attract clients without struggle, so you have those foundational basics. And whether you’ve been in business for years, or you’re just starting out, you will find big shifts and pivots that will really make an extraordinary difference for you.

We’re really known for launching transformational leaders, and we are known for helping our clients have their first 10000 or plus month.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s wonderful. Well thank you so much Sharla, for putting on your wings, and flying with us today.

Sharla Jacobs:                  My absolute pleasure, thank you so much Melinda.

Subscribe to Wings!
 
Listen to learn the secrets, strategies, practical tips and epiphanies of women entrepreneurs who’ve “been there, built that” so you too can manifest the confidence, capital and connections to soar to success!
Instantly get Melinda’s Wings Success Formula
Review on iTunes and win the chance for a VIP Day with Melinda
Subscribe to Wings!
 
Listen to learn the secrets, strategies, practical tips and epiphanies of women entrepreneurs who’ve “been there, built that” so you too can manifest the confidence, capital and connections to soar to success!
Instantly get Melinda’s Wings Success Formula
Review on iTunes and win the chance for a VIP Day with Melinda
Subscribe to 10X Together!
Listen to learn from top entrepreneur couples how they juggle the business of love … with the love of business.
Instantly get Melinda’s Mindset Mojo Money Manifesto
Review on iTunes and win the chance for a VIP Day with Melinda
Subscribe to Wings!
 
Listen to learn the secrets, strategies, practical tips and epiphanies of women entrepreneurs who’ve “been there, built that” so you too can manifest the confidence, capital and connections to soar to success!
Instantly get Melinda’s Wings Success Formula
Review on iTunes and win the chance for a VIP Day with Melinda