Latest / The One Small Change Podcast / Designing Your Business Around the Life You Want

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Designing Your Business Around the Life You Want · The One Small Change Podcast

0:01
Welcome to the One small change. I am really thrilled that you took this time
0:05
out of your life to embark on this journey of exploration and transformation
0:09
with us. I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years
0:12
of entrepreneurial experience. And I have a passion for
0:16
discovering growth through the power of seemingly small change.
0:20
As I said, I am so glad you're here. One of the reasons that I
0:23
do this is to help to expand your world and see that there are
0:27
lots of different ways that you can grow your business. I've invited people
0:31
who to share with you some of the things
0:34
that they've done that have had a big impact, even though it seemed like a
0:38
small change at the time, to grow their business. And today
0:43
I have with me Jessica. Jessica Koch. I'm sorry.
0:47
Who is amazing. You will learn so much
0:51
from her. I am so happy that she's taken the time out of her very,
0:54
very, very busy schedule to spend time with
0:58
us today. Jessica, hello. Hey. I'm
1:02
never too busy for friends or amazing collaborations
1:05
or trying to, you know, give, give to anyone that
1:09
I can so try. I always try to plan a life that
1:13
leaves space for that. We, we should never be too busy
1:16
to take a day and just go kayaking, reschedule all the meetings and do
1:20
whatever our heart sings too, right?
1:24
So I'm going to tell you right there, that nugget right there
1:28
is worth the price of admission because as an entrepreneur,
1:32
how many times, you know, my kids say to me all the time, mom, you
1:35
make your own schedule. Why can't you find time to
1:39
do this? So that right there is worth the price of admission.
1:42
And Jessica, even though we have not done a lot of collaboration together,
1:46
I have followed you for a long time.
1:50
So tell people what it is that you do and,
1:54
and why you are particularly good at it and how this
1:57
change help you get that way. Well, I
2:01
am Jessica Koch. Koch likes scotch. And I am the
2:05
Italian mother of seven. We have seven children and nine
2:08
grandchildren. So I'm a young hot nana. That's my story and I'm sticking
2:12
with that. And I've been in sales and marketing since I
2:16
was actually very young. And.
2:21
I can literally tell you true life story of being
2:24
in my first preschool class and making a
2:28
sale. So
2:32
I, it has been a part of me for most of my
2:35
existence and I do sales and marketing
2:39
consulting, social media training. We have a virtual assistant
2:42
membership program. We make custom AI task agents and
2:45
automations for our clients. And I've been a podcast host
2:50
for going on. We're having our 10 year birthday next
2:53
year and we interview people who improve someone's personal
2:57
life or grow their business. And I love this small increment,
3:01
kind of small change, small adjustment
3:05
of the dial to make our lives better concept
3:09
of your podcast, Yvonne. And I've been following you equally
3:13
for a very, very long time as well. So I'm so
3:16
glad that we're merging our worlds together in a way that
3:20
better serves us and our communities right. How much value
3:24
my community will receive from all the things you're up to.
3:27
So just, I'm really happy to be here. Should we start talking about
3:31
these small changes now? Absolutely.
3:35
Well, one of the very first ones, when I started my business, I recognized
3:39
right away I'm a big believer, like I said earlier,
3:43
in designing my life so that any moment
3:47
I, I could be doing only and always exactly what
3:50
I want to be doing. Right? I don't want to be anywhere else but here
3:53
with Iran right now. And I was playing
3:57
Yahtzee. This is True Story one night with my
4:01
daughter, who's now 14, but at the time she was much younger because this was
4:04
on the beginning of my business and my husband and
4:09
I didn't like that. I was thinking about
4:12
the virtual networking had attended and how I needed to take that
4:16
chat and put it into a spreadsheet and import into my CRM system and reach
4:20
out to everyone individually and connect with them on LinkedIn and send
4:23
them a nice message to say, hey, here's my calendar link. Let's collaborate. I'd love
4:27
to learn more about you because we really didn't get to meet well and all
4:31
the things. My brain knows that as a sales professional that needs to
4:34
be done. I wanted to be fully present in
4:38
Nazi right and manifesting my
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Yahtzee man. I want to win the game. When I play, I play to win,
4:47
but I do that in everything I do, right? And so it occurred to me
4:51
that I needed a solution to that. And my instant
4:55
solution was, oh well, I just need to hire someone. Well, I'd only been in
4:58
business a few months and so I thought, well, I don't want to go into
5:02
debt paying someone if I can't afford to pay someone. I had a few clients
5:05
that were consistent, but, you know, still getting my bearings. I was
5:09
still figuring out my expenses. And so what I did was I looked at things
5:13
that weren't nailed down that our family just no longer needed around
5:16
my house and I put them up for sale on Facebook Marketplace. True Story.
5:20
And I made about, you know, five to seven hundred bucks
5:24
Cash like right away on Marketplace with stuff we weren't using anymore.
5:28
And I made that my virtual assistant fund. So this is what I
5:32
was going to use to outsource the tasks that I knew had to happen. And
5:35
there were money making actions that were going to lead to new clients and better
5:38
relationships and more collaborations and I would get them to do
5:42
them. And so I immediately hired three people I hired based on project,
5:46
based on need. I interviewed in groups, I trained
5:50
them all three in a group and then I assigned them
5:53
specific projects based on me and I use that fund. And I made
5:57
sure I had them doing tasks that were going to lead to more revenue so
6:00
that I can then continue to grow their amount of time with me and, and
6:04
helping me. And then that grew to. We now
6:08
have, you know, the VA agency for over seven years. We end up,
6:12
we typically have between 60 or 100 base at any given point. We
6:15
help clients all over the world with their back office things. And so that
6:19
began to grow to that. But before I launched my
6:22
agency myself only just for the clients I was consulting
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and the other speaking of work I was getting paid for, we had about 15
6:30
days just working for me before I kept getting the
6:33
question of how do you do that? And the world and, and the
6:37
universe decided to say, you need to start this agency. All right, I need to
6:40
stop you because you have said so many things
6:44
that we need to go back to. Okay. So the
6:48
first thing that we talked about is, what you talked
6:52
about in the beginning is having a business that lets you live the life
6:55
that you want to. So we kind of covered that other
6:59
thing that you said that I think is so impactful
7:04
is you assign them tasks
7:07
that were going to bring in business. And I
7:11
think as entrepreneurs sometimes we get into the creative
7:15
mode. We're creating. We're creating. And I know I did this. I created
7:18
programs and courses that nobody wanted to
7:22
know. And it was a shock to me when somebody said,
7:26
don't create the whole thing. Only create like one or two chapters or
7:30
one or two lessons just so that you're far enough ahead of somebody that
7:34
you know if you sell it, you can, you can actually deliver. Right.
7:37
So you know, stick a pin in that. Look at the activities
7:41
that are going to make you money. Right.
7:45
The other thing is I love the fact
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that you said you took things in your house that you
7:53
didn't need and sold them to get the fun. And, and, and
7:58
you may not know that at one point I was a hippie.
8:02
No, I did not know that. I'm old enough that I was a hippie,
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you know, and every time my. My kids. Both my kids and my
8:09
grandkids at some point have said to me, we're doing this new thing.
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We're doing tie dye. And I'm like, oh, God, I'm.
8:18
You know, where there is a will, there is a way. And
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there is a difference between spending money
8:25
and investing in your business. I mean, there was a point when I
8:29
wanted to go someplace and, you know, like when in
8:33
my hippie days and my husband and I collected beer
8:37
cans and we sold them and, you know, did the recycling thing to make
8:40
money to get a trip. You know, our car smelled like steel, stale beer.
8:44
But we got to go in the. So
8:48
and so make a way. So that. That is a mantra I live by on
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my vision board. To the right of me here, it says in very
8:56
big letters, I make a way. So if I want something or I see something
9:00
that I don't like in my life that, like, I wasn't fully present in
9:03
that moment of Yahtzee, and in my mind, I thought, I don't want to be
9:06
thinking about this. I want to be fully present. And how do I
9:10
achieve that? How do I make a way for that to happen?
9:14
And then I started thinking about my options. Hire someone. Well, I don't want to
9:17
go into debt. So how do I make a way that I can have this
9:21
and not go into debt having it? And then so. And so I just
9:25
kept working through the problem or. Or the
9:29
scenario, the formula. I can. I like it when you use
9:33
formulas and math equations versus problems. Right? So
9:37
I kept working through the formula. So I made a way
9:40
that met. Because just hiring someone and going into debt would have made the
9:44
way. Would it? Would have done it, but it didn't make the way. That. That
9:48
was in line with my mission and my values. So until I keep
9:51
working through the formula, until I can make a way to make
9:55
it happen just the way I want it to.
9:59
And I. And I think that's another, you know, stick a pin in
10:03
it. You can hear a strategy, which
10:07
makes sense generally, but you have to figure out how
10:10
it works for you. So if, you know, people say
10:14
speaking is a great strategy. All right, well, if you don't
10:18
feel like you can stand on a stage, you can still do a
10:22
LinkedIn live. You can still do a video.
10:25
Put the video up if you're not comfortable being, you know, being live.
10:29
And so you have to find a way that fits you
10:33
in the way that you are. Right? So I Mean, if,
10:37
if I were to say to you,
10:41
you know, you have to memorize this 10 page speech before
10:45
you can get up and speak. I would never speak because
10:49
I have a fear. I mean, I had a thing when I was, when in
10:52
high school that I practiced a speech for the
10:56
Junior Honor Society. Got up on the stage and went totally blank,
11:01
right? And ended up the bottom. I didn't know it at the time, but
11:05
apparently ended up ad libbing my whole speech. I mean, I came off the stage
11:09
crying and, and my speech teacher said, why? You did a great
11:12
job. I mean, nobody knew that you forgot your speech.
11:16
I don't memorize speeches. I memorize points
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or, and I can always remember the three points that I want to cover and
11:25
each of those points. Underneath them lives a story.
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And stories are almost impossible to forget, right?
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Is that, you know,
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don't listen to a strategy and take it as a hundred percent.
11:42
I have to do it exactly like this. And, and
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so someone else may say, well, I don't have anything to
11:49
sell, but I have something else that I can do to get this money,
11:53
right? And, and, and so the point is, you
11:57
know, here's a formula for you problems. PSPs, problem
12:01
solution, problem solution, right? So if you have a problem
12:04
and you find a solution, chances are that solution is going to give you another,
12:08
another problem that you, you know. So for instance, you don't have enough clients,
12:12
you get clients and suddenly you discover your back end is not working,
12:17
right? You haven't thought about it back in. And so you, one of the things
12:20
that you also brought up is the fact that
12:23
even though you may think you are a solopreneur, you
12:27
really are not. Especially if you have got, you've
12:31
got apps that have support system support teams or
12:35
you've got other things, you know, that you're doing that have support teams.
12:38
And this became very clear to me
12:43
this summer when I thought I had canceled my workshop but
12:46
didn't tell anybody and so
12:50
found out that I still had affiliates that were good. You know,
12:54
a week before the workshop I had 20 people registered
12:58
because I had people that were promoting and I had never told anybody that I'd
13:01
cancel. That's a good
13:05
thing. That is, that is, that is not a humble
13:08
brag. That is like a really good thing. That momentum is going.
13:12
Okay, so tell me.
13:17
I have gotten so much from talking to you already. So
13:21
just because my brain is like a swirl. Let me let you bring
13:24
it in. If there were three things you would tell
13:28
entrepreneurs to do to help
13:31
them to grow their business, what would it be? Especially in the
13:35
marketing realm, figure out. How to have
13:39
systems, processes and outsourcing tools that
13:43
automate things and have
13:46
an accountability community or process. Put
13:50
accountability into your life. Because that is the other thing
13:54
that has moved the needle for me tremendously.
13:58
And I'm part of several different kinds of accountability
14:03
depending on what I need it for. And I'm very
14:06
consistent with it. I'm very consistent with what I
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do. So I guess consistency is the other thing.
14:13
So have systems and outsource, have accountability
14:17
and be consistent in everything that you set up.
14:21
I truly believe consistency.
14:25
I did a post once that said consistency is not sexy and somebody
14:29
wrote me back and said consistency is very sexy because it
14:33
gets you results. So talk about
14:36
accountability more if you would, and the kind of accountability
14:40
groups and why it made such a big difference.
14:44
So I have a Monday morning one I've been doing for years and
14:47
years and years with a specific individual. And it's more,
14:51
it touches different aspects of my life. And then I have a
14:55
Friday morning group with other entrepreneur women where we
14:59
focus on a book, we read a section of the book and then talk
15:02
about it together. I have another Monday morning small group
15:06
pod where we go through our celebrations, our wins, our commitment
15:10
for last week and our commitment for the upcoming week.
15:14
And I've been involved in daily accountability
15:17
calls or group texting and things. And those
15:21
really push the needle. Because if you have a plan for
15:25
the upcoming week and then you have someone you need to check into, even if
15:28
it's just in a group text or a pod, however you set it up
15:32
or just a one on one, you can just find that person that
15:35
it can't just be your friend. Friends will let you off the hook too easily.
15:40
Or if they are a friend, they need to make a commitment to you that
15:43
they're not going to let you off the hook easily. And I'm
15:47
not a big punishment person. Some people do
15:51
the what happens, you know, the consequence of what
15:54
happens, the reward of what happens when we do it.
15:58
But there, there has to be something real
16:02
driving you forward because if it's just a buddy, they'll be like, oh, that's okay,
16:05
you didn't feel good today. You need to take care of yourself and you need
16:08
to do this and that. Yes, it is okay to have a sick
16:12
day, but how are you going to adjust to reach the
16:16
goal still for what you didn't achieve yesterday that needed to be
16:19
achieved so that you can still reach that goal, you know, so having
16:23
someone that has that Little bit of tough love
16:27
and an expectation in you so that you can, that's the point of an
16:31
accountability partner, you know, otherwise it's just a friend that you're
16:34
chatting with. And you're right, because I have
16:38
someone that we do joint working every morning. And you know, the
16:42
good news is we go, okay, what are we going to accomplish during this time
16:45
frame? Right? And so there are times when I come back
16:49
and go, I went down a rabbit hole.
16:53
And so it is important to have somebody that says, okay,
16:57
now what are you going to do? How are you going to get it back
16:59
on track? Right. And what I love about what you said is that
17:03
you have different accountabilities that, you know, groups that
17:06
do different things. And I think
17:10
what's really important in terms of making progress
17:14
is that your check in points are
17:18
as close to possible, as close together as possible. And, and I say
17:21
this because when I was losing weight,
17:25
my mantra for myself is it doesn't matter how many times you fall down,
17:29
it only matters how many times you get up and how fast. Because if you
17:33
say to yourself, I'm going to start this again next year, it's going to take
17:36
you forever. If you say next month, if you say next week, if
17:40
you say tomorrow, but if you say I'm going to, you know, I'm
17:44
gonna get back up and get started again on this next meal,
17:48
then your progress is not going to be hindered. And so I think that
17:52
is so important. And so I think one of the ways
17:56
to be accountable, you know, and consistent
17:59
is if you say, I'm gonna post at
18:03
least once a week, right? I mean, there have been times when
18:07
I was like, I do not feel like doing this. I didn't do it ahead
18:10
of time. And I'm like, okay, I told people I was
18:14
going to do this. And so, you know, and of
18:18
course over the time I've gotten smarter and I've, I've gotten ahead.
18:22
So. But the thing is I know that, you know,
18:26
I have my Sunday scoop that comes out on Sunday and
18:30
people are waiting for it. Yeah, the tool, the
18:34
automation tools, the skit, once you've written your creative, unique,
18:38
authentic human piece can be scheduled, right?
18:41
And so just deciding how you're going
18:45
to use automation and scheduling and
18:48
other resources are really important
18:52
because we can just do so much more, so much more
18:55
consistently if we determine how
18:59
to automate it. I love automating things. Oh yeah.
19:03
And I think that's part of, that's part of the,
19:08
the consistency is if you say, I'M gonna do
19:12
a newsletter. You know, like I do my Sunday scoop on
19:16
Sunday. And then there's a system now that I have a form where people can
19:20
put in their things so that I can, and I'm getting it to a point
19:23
where I can take the form and put it in the chat GPT and it'll
19:26
generate the whole thing for me. You know, it's, it's getting a lot
19:30
more streamlined. But the, the, the, the point for me
19:34
is the accountability is my feeling like people are waiting for it.
19:38
They know that it's coming. I promise other people that I'm going to promote their
19:41
stuff. Right. Okay. So let's see.
19:45
We, we did, we, we talked about the three things
19:48
and I would definitely say outsource as much as you can
19:52
possibly outsource and get it, you know, off your. And you're not
19:56
spending money. I mean, my example is would you,
19:59
although, okay, would you, would you pay a surgeon to do
20:03
filing? You know. No, you
20:07
would not. It would cost you a huge amount of money to do it where,
20:11
you know, and they wouldn't necessarily do it well either because,
20:16
because they're not interested in it. Right. So that is
20:19
one of the things to take a look at. The other thing is.
20:26
All right, let's shift gears again. And, and you said you wanted to build a
20:29
life that you like. So like a life, let's try it again. A
20:33
life that you like. When was the last time you
20:37
did something new for the first time? Something
20:40
new for the first time? You asked me this earlier. Well,
20:44
you know what? I am doing something new right now for the first time.
20:48
I have been consistently aspiring speaker and a paid
20:51
keynote and at other people's events and
20:55
I'm doing a legacy gratitude and a money gratitude event of
20:59
my own. So other than hosting the podcast, I've always been the
21:02
party crasher. And so we are now throwing
21:06
our own party and that has been a journey of discovery
21:10
and learning curve for
21:14
all that goes into, especially the way I envision it. I
21:18
want something more long term and not just a virtual summit that people are going
21:22
to give you tickets and then everything is gone when the event's over.
21:26
We're building long term websites and long term directories and micro
21:29
courses that will have long term value and you know, as
21:33
well as giving these speakers the spot to virtually speak
21:36
at an event live, you know, on these events.
21:40
So that has been a big, a new
21:43
exciting thing for me. We're not having the events themselves and until
21:47
next year, February and November of next year, but we're already building
21:51
collaboration and affiliate and speaker
21:54
relationships to get everything set and to
21:58
have a really amazing, successful event. And that was
22:01
my way of approaching it. Like, I've seen and watched so many other people
22:06
do this summit thing, this virtual summit thing, and
22:10
I've been on yours, and they're wonderful. But
22:14
I just, I knew I needed it to go differently
22:17
or be done differently if I was running it. And
22:21
so that's been a new thing for me that I've never done before.
22:25
And I did a summit this summer, and I
22:29
did it differently than the traditional way, and I loved it.
22:33
So more of them to come. So I'm looking forward to hearing
22:37
about that. Absolutely. So, all right, it's time for a
22:40
commercial. And if you haven't done it yet, make sure that you
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subscribe and share this podcast podcast with other people. And as I
22:47
said, this is my way of giving back to my vibrant community because
22:51
I want you to be exposed to as many things as possible
22:55
to spark your creativity and your innovation. And so I hope you'll
22:58
continue to join me on the one small change so that we can keep
23:02
embarking on this journey so that we can collaborate, so we can build a
23:06
world of bold vision and innovative possibilities. So,
23:10
Jessica, you've told us so much, but if you had
23:13
to give people, like, your last words and, you know, share
23:18
words to live by, what would they be? So I mentioned that
23:22
I am the Italian mother of seven. So at one point we had six teenagers
23:26
in the house pretty much all at the same time because six of them are
23:30
all adults. Now we have a 14 year old at home. But one of the
23:33
things I'm going to leave you with a quote, and
23:37
maybe it makes me seem a little fool of myself, but it's a quote by
23:40
me. It's a Jessica Koch quote. And the quote
23:44
is now is later, sooner. So do it now. So if you'll think,
23:48
oh, I'll do that later because my teenagers say, so go do your homework,
23:51
go clean your room, oh, Mom, I'll do that later. And my comment
23:55
always was, now is later, so much sooner. So go do it
23:59
now. So now is later, sooner. Do it now. Don't do that to yourself.
24:02
Don't tell yourself that you'll do it later and you'll get to that later.
24:06
It's on the list for later. It's a project I'll do
24:10
later. If it makes your heart sing, do it now.
24:13
Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more.
24:17
I can't believe our time is up. All right. So, guys,
24:21
you know, remember, change is simple, but it's not always easy. And it
24:25
requires courage, resilience, and a willingness to step out your comfort
24:29
zone. If you're comfortable, then you are not good growing. So you want to be
24:32
uncomfortable. And so although this is not
24:36
uncomfortable, it is a change. You have to put time aside
24:40
for it. So I hope you will continue to join me on the one small
24:43
change as we embark on a great future together.
24:47
Jessica, thank you so much for giving me your time today. I really
24:51
appreciate it, and so does our audience. My pleasure.
24:55
Thank you so much. Don't forget to grab my free gift help.
24:58
Absolutely. And it's in the notes. Bye.