0:00:00 - Betsy Jordyn
So do you really stop and celebrate your growth in your big milestones in your consulting or coaching business journey? I know I sure don't Find out what big milestone I achieved that I actually want to hide but know I shouldn't. On this episode of the Consulting Matters podcast. And welcome to the Consulting Matters podcast. This is the show for purpose-driven consultants and coaches who are ready to own the power of what they do and position themselves for greater influence, impact and income. I'm your host, betsy Jordyn, and I help consultants and coaches make great money and a big difference doing the consulting or coaching they love. You can find out more about what I do on my website at wwwbetsyjordyncom. And don't forget, Jordyn is with a why.
So today, what I'm going to be talking about is really really hard. For me, it's all about celebrating successes, and I'm talking specifically one of my big successes. So a few weeks ago, I got this award from Kajabi, which is the platform that my website is built on, and it recognized me that I have earned a million dollars. I'm a $1 million superhero, and when I got this award, I felt really weird about it. I wasn't sure what to make of it, because it's like wow, I made a million dollars from this B2C business that I've been working on for the last few years, and at first it was like I just I don't want to celebrate it. I'm embarrassed because it took me so much longer to achieve this milestone that it did when I started my consulting business. But then, right before I went on vacation, so I got this award. It came about the same time that it was my 15 year anniversary of being in business and then I did this podcast with Karen Laus on confidence in pricing and confidence in general. And then I went on vacation so I had lots of time to think about why do I want to hide something that is so meaningful that I actually did make a million dollars in this B2C business. And yes, I think it was because it took me longer to achieve this milestone. So I was discounting it because it's like, wow, I should have achieved it faster because I did that. I've already achieved it in my consulting business.
But then the other part is it's just, this is my, this is my MO, this is what I do. It's really easy for me to share my mistakes and what I learned from them, because you know, that's all about humility. It's all about helping other people. It is so much harder to share like this is when I've done things right and this is when it really mattered.
So in this episode, I'm going to do something really uncomfortable. I'm going to give voice to my successes. I'm going to talk about the things I did right, where I was courageous and where I stayed true to my values, my integrity. And I'm going to do this even though it makes me really actually want to die and crawl under the bed. And I'm doing this because what is my business all about? What did I tell you is my mission of the show? You know it's like I want to help consultants and coaches own the power of what they do, and part of owning the power of what you do is the successes that you create because of it. So if I can't do this for myself, then what am I teaching? So, again, this is really hard for me. I know for a fact I'm going to have a vulnerability hangover after I hit publish on this particular podcast. But the thing is is, if I push myself, if I'm this example, and if I could celebrate myself in this way, maybe I'll inspire you to celebrate yourself. You know, a lot of us are just so hard on ourselves, like we just feel like we should be doing more instead of like recognizing, like, wow, what have we accomplished? So, without further ado, I'm going to dive in and I'm going to share with you what my successes were and what I have learned as I've been pondering. You know where confidence comes from and how do we celebrate what we do, when we do it right. So, before we get into it, I want you to just think for a second. You know when was the last time you paused to recognize what's really working in your business or your life, and what's something that you've accomplished that you've brushed off, in the same way that I was very tempted to brush off this $1 million milestone instead of celebrating it. So, without further ado, now let me really get into my successes. So I want to talk to you about my real success in leaving Disney to start my own business.
The true story is, I didn't leave Disney to go directly into my own business. That's not actually what happened. There was a couple years between leaving Disney to actually when I started my own business, and where I was at at Disney is I was leading this massive transformation project for the operations leaders at Walt Disney World. It was really powerful. It was about to go global. This project led to these best practices that are now taught at the Disney Institute all around the world. And what had happened for me is my dad had died and it just created this big wake up call because I had these two young kids at home and I didn't want to miss out and I didn't want to have any regrets Like I didn't want to wind up somewhere in the future saying I wish I had more time with them and I knew that these 70 hour work weeks that I was doing at Disney was interfering with the mom that I wanted to be. I wanted to be there for them.
So the truth is I didn't leave Disney for some bigger potential that I knew I was walking into. I really left for just the potential of achieving that potential. So this is my first real act of courage. Is I really stepped out into the unknown with no clear vision, but just because I felt like this was something that I needed to do, that I would regret it if I didn't. So that's my first success. It really was not something that you could put on paper. It was just really more like I had the courage to make that move.
The second success is when I was at this crossroads, after I was faced with an unexpected divorce. So I had a choice. That moment, you know, like what can I do? You know, should I go back to corporate or should I really just go all in on my consulting business? You know, because I was kind of freelancing for a little bit. You know, after I left Disney. You know what that's like is. Because you know, when you leave a big corporate job like that, people are like, oh my gosh, it's so exciting that you know we could work with you. And so people just start coming out of the woodwork and they want to work with you. So but I had to make a decision like am I going to be really committed to this business or am I just going to have to go back and get a job?
So where I was at at the time is I was single.
I was a single mom. I didn't have a second income, but I knew what I wanted and I wanted to be there for my kids. So I went for it and divorce wasn't really all that great to my finances. But around that same time I had a grandmother who was this entrepreneur in the 40s who was also a single mom too, and she became a millionaire. She left me a little money and I'm like what a better way to honor her than invest in my business. That's exactly what I did. I could have taken that money and lived on it for a little while, but I'm like you know what? I just need to put some faith in myself and my future, and so I invested in world class business development training and a world class website, and it paid off. You know, within the first two weeks of launching, I had my first potential client, literally almost exactly 15 years ago, like this month. So that's how I got started.
But I was at this other place too, where I was working on my website. I was getting more clarity on my value and I really understood what it is. And I had this opportunity with this client, which, again, could have definitely, was definitely going to make the money that I needed, because I was definitely in some financial straits and this client really wanted to work with me. So it was for a two-day executive workshop and they literally handed me the competitor's proposal and they told me meet it or beat it. And I'm like OK, but this two-day workshop is not going to get them to what they actually needed. So what am I going to do? So part of me was like, ok, I'm just going to give the client what I wanted, because you know I need this money, you know right now. But then, at the same time, like no, but it's not going to deliver the results that the client is looking for. So I pitched what I felt they really needed, which was beyond this two-day event, and so I'll never forget this.
I was pitching my proposal to this executive team and they started grumbling like, oh, we're going to have to break the bank to work with Betsy. And something came over me at that moment and it's like, hey, you know this other guy, he's an expense to be managed. That's not me. I'm an investment that will deliver return. And they signed with me on the spot for a contract that was five times larger than the competitors. And then they went and hired me for a second engagement. They referred me to another company, and this is what changed my earning trajectory on the whole. So this is actually how I went from zero to three,000 in the first 18 months and how I achieved that million dollar milestone not long after that. So this moment changed. You know how I was making money as a consultant. I really saw my value and I charged for the value. So you would think that when I was pivoting from consulting to the B2C business mentoring, brand positioning business that I have now all of that would be the same and it wasn't. So now we're gonna get into the success that I am here to celebrate, which is my million dollar milestone as this B2C business.
So when I felt called to pivot from consulting to mentoring, it took forever to figure it out. It was so different. I was blindsided that I was really building a whole new business. It was a completely different business model, and to make the same amount of money that I did as a consultant, I needed a whole lot more clients and I needed to learn a lot more about digital marketing. I needed to learn a whole lot more things than I knew right now. And so for a little bit I was like straddling the fence, like, okay, I'll do the consulting while maybe I'll make a course and try to use that to help consultants. Which that failed. That didn't work. And then I was like, oh, maybe I'll start the Consultants Institute. That didn't work either.
You know, it took a long time for me to figure out that what I really wanted to do was the brand messaging and positioning that I do now. It took a lot for me to realize that this is what it is. But the big moment of courage is when I decided I am retiring from consulting by the way, against my accountant's advice. He told me there is no way that I should ever close down the consulting business until I was equally profitable with the coaching business. But I ignored him and I did it anyway, and that's when I wound up really focusing on this.
This is when I wound up on Kajabi, and this is where I have this milestone right now with this million dollar recognition. And I'm pretty sure that I have achieved this beforehand because not all my clients paid through Kajabi. But this million dollar recognition from Kajabi made it clear Like I have the analytics on my website, so I've really had to sit with this like what this recognition really means. And the thing is is that with my consulting business, I achieved that million with fewer than I would say like 10 clients. 10 clients is probably the most that it would be, but with this business it took so many more clients, it took so much more trial and error, so I was almost like embarrassed by it rather than wow.
Look at what I accomplished. With a lot of challenges, I completely reshaped how the market understood what I did. I get very few consulting requests, you know, most of the time I am known for brand messaging and positioning for consultants and coaches, and that's amazing that I did that. And that's what this million dollar recognition shows me is that I did this, and I did this without a safety net. I did this as a sole breadwinner for me and my daughters. I got my kids to adulthood on this revenue, in part just from this B2C business. I achieved success on my own terms and I now have work that I love with clients that I love. That is huge. That is huge. That is something to celebrate. So, yes, the million dollars makes me pause, because it's a lot of money to picture when the sales that I have like they're not as big, they're not like the $100,000 contracts that I was landing as a consultant. There are a whole bunch of smaller gigs and it's amazing to have been here and to have achieved this, and so the unexpected outcome of this milestone is what it took to get me here and what I have now.
I now have grit, resilience and courage that I never imagined beforehand. I can't even imagine 15 years ago me having the courage just to take a seven month sabbatical, like I did last year, because of this resilience and this courage. So people ask me all the time like, oh, you're so fearless, like, why don't you have fear? And it's like that's not really true. I have fear, it's just. I fear something that maybe is different, like I don't fear anymore about. Like, if I fail, like what's everybody going to think? I mean, this is even harder for me to say like, oh, I have the successes I could. I could talk about failure all day long, you know, but my successes, that's a little harder. But the fear that I have is not listening to the voice when it calls me to do something more. You know, it's my fear of not trying. That's what I'm afraid of and that's what drives me, and I think that's what's kept me resilient in all this time. I knew that. I knew that when I pivoted my business from consulting to the work I do now, this is what I was supposed to do. And when I do work with my clients, it feels like this is what I was meant to do.
I love, every single day, helping my clients find the words to express the value of what they do. I love helping them have that aha moment that all these pieces of their career all serves for what they want to create in their business. There is nothing more satisfying for me to see other people land the type of engagements that make them great money and help them make a bigger difference. I love being behind the scenes, coming alongside people like Katie Anderson and helping her expand her impact, build her thought leadership. I can't wait to see what's going to happen with her. I love working with so many of my other clients. The clients are now in my impacted income accelerator. I help them achieve what's possible for them.
This is what the courage paid off in doing is. I'm doing work that is aligned with my purpose, and so I'm going to ask you to think about what is it that you know that you know that you're supposed to do, and what are you afraid of when it comes to going in that direction, and what would it look like to lead with that vision and let that vision drive you and help it quell your fear. So those are my successes. I hope you will celebrate with me. I am unusually proud. As I'm getting into this episode, I thought I was going to feel all kinds of shame, but as I start talking I feel really proud of myself. So I'm really grateful for the opportunity to have this podcast and start going through this transformation. All right, so now let's get into the next point, which is why do we dom play our successes?
And the thing is, I know I'm not the only one. You know, like the clients that I work with, we all are similar. Like I don't work with people who go out and say, hey, I want to make a million dollars consulting. You know, the people I work with are people who really care about their clients and really care about their work. So they have a lot of traits in common with me. You know, we have a lot of self-awareness, humility. We have this growth mindset, so we never really feel like we're this complete type of person. You know, like we are all about learning and evolving, so that's what we're focused on. You know we're not here to be admired, so when we make mistakes it's like cool. You know, I see a story that I can use to help other people.
But when we succeed. It feels riskier to share that, you know. It fears it. It triggers fears of being judged, envy or creating distance. Like it makes me think about myself when I was, like in the second grade and thankfully I don't think they do this anymore because this sounds kind of rude but when I was in second grade we were divided into reading groups. You know, we were the below average group, the average group and the above average group and I was in the average group and I got moved into the above average group and I had a full on anxiety attack like, oh my gosh, I'm going to lose all my friends. You know, nobody's going to like me if I'm going to step into this above average group.
And I think what it is is that when we step into our power and we step into really the, the fullness of our strengths, like we feel like, oh, we're different, you know we're going to have rejection, you know. And and I think that like I'm still in some ways like that second grader, you know, or the person who was in the gifted program, or it's like, oh my gosh, I have to like be embarrassed that I was gifted, but the fact is I was gifted. That's the way my brain works. This is who I am. So we hide our light at times because we don't want to make other people feel uncomfortable, but here's the truth, I think is the truth. I would love to get your feedback.
If this is the truth, sharing our successes doesn't separate us. It connects us through possibility. You know, we all love those stories, you know, where you know people like start off with nothing and then they have a success, and it's like we love seeing those. And this story is for us as well. You know, even though we're humble, even though we want to help other people, we are a part of that whole overall big picture of people who are achieving incredible things. So it doesn't separate us. It actually connects us.
So I want you to think for a minute. You know, like when you think about sharing your achievements, celebrating your successes, you know what fears come up for you. Is there fears of judgment, rejection, being understood or the fear of being seen? I would also love those who are listening, who have a coaching background. You know I serve coaches and I would love for those of you who are experts in this mindset, I would love for you to weigh in. You know, if you are listening to this and you're finding out about this particular episode on LinkedIn. I would love for you to share your thoughts. You know why do we do this and what are your tips of how can we start being more bold in sharing our successes and celebrating our wins?
And then the last point of what I want to talk about is the reframe. I'm working on that. Sharing success isn't bragging, it's generous. I would love for you to consider and try that on. If you are like I am where it's hard for you to celebrate your successes, because when we do this, we give evidence to other people what's possible. You know, like what I want to be able to say is like hey, here's what can happen when you own the power of what you do.
So it's really not about attention, it's about integrity. It's sober judgment. You know, like I'm not doing shameless self-promotion where I'm making something up or talking about my accomplishment in something bigger than what it is. I'm telling you authentically what happened to me and what it took to create it. So this is integrity and I'm practicing what I teach, because I'm not boasting beyond what I have accomplished, but I'm not minimizing it. So it's somewhere in the middle and to me, that's the reframe of sharing whims. It's about sober judgment. You know we're not speaking more highly of ourselves than we ought, but we're also not talking less than ourselves.
So if you want to become more comfortable in sharing what went right versus just what went wrong, you know, really think about sober judgment as the goal and you want to anchor your story in the meaning you know, like not necessarily just the metrics, like yes, a million dollars sounds cool and all, but the meaning of it is what's the grit and resilience it took to get there, you know, and connect your success to the difference it made for yourself, for your clients. And if you have fears, say it out loud and share what you have accomplished anyway. You know, what I loved about my episode with Karen Lyle says she calls herself a confidence cultivator. So what that tells me is that this is a skill that we can cultivate, it's something that we can develop, and so this type of humility is different than the humility of sharing your failures. You know it's sharing our light as well. So I would love for you to think about right now is who needs to hear about your success right now, not to impress them, but to inspire them. I want you to think about what is something that you've accomplished, big or small, and I would love for you to join me in my journey of posting about my success. Post it on LinkedIn, you know. Get out there, maybe do an episode of your own. You know where you are sharing like I did this and it went right and I am so proud of myself.
You know, one of my clients called me like, I think, a month or so ago and she just wanted me to witness the fact that she had doubled her revenue. So she just launched her business. She had her first six figure year and she's already on track to double that for this next year and she wanted me to witness that. You know what? That's great. I love what she did and we should do more of that. Have other people witness our success. So share it broadly, you know, and don't be embarrassed by it. That's amazing. You know.
Think about what the impact that your transparency can have on someone else's courage. I know that I've gotten this week when I was trying to think about if I should do this episode. You know Karen had posted that she just launched her new website and she asked the question you know, when have you celebrated your milestones? And I'm like, oh gosh, should I do that? And then I got an email from somebody else who was sharing her milestones. It really creates courage. I don't know if I would have put this podcast episode if I didn't see other people doing that.
So think about what can you share and what's the impact your transparency can have on somebody else's courage. So that's it for today's episode. It's a little bit shorter than usual, I think, but you know, what I really talked about is like what my milestone was and why I'm a little nervous of sharing it. So what I would love for you as a next step is I would love for you to celebrate with me. I would love to hear the encouragement from you that I've achieved this milestone and I would love for you to celebrate yourself.
So again, post, celebrate yourself the decisions, the courage, the persistence that got you this far, and celebrate other people, like let's all get on a search, you know, like a little scavenger hunt to go find the people whose courage successes that you admire and tell them. You know, when we all celebrate ourselves and each other, we can expand what's possible for everyone. So that's it for today's Consulting Matters episode. If you want to learn more about how to own the power of what you do and position yourself for greater impact and income, definitely head on over to my website. I have many ways that I could help you at BetsyJordyn.com. And until next time, celebrate yourself. You've earned it and thank you so much for listening.
