Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / The Path to Profits: Building a Business That Supports Your Life with Michelle Jacobik

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The Path to Profits: Building a Business That Supports Your Life with Michelle Jacobik · The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

• 0:37
  Jennifer Johnson: One of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs face isn't lack of passion or talent.
• 0:42
  Jennifer Johnson: It's learning how to manage the money side of their business in a way that fuels growth instead of stress.
• 0:49
  Jennifer Johnson: Cash flow, profitability, and strategic financial decisions are what keeps keeps businesses healthy.
• 0:56
  Jennifer Johnson: Yet they're also the areas that trip us up, as so many business owners can attest to.
• 1:01
  Jennifer Johnson: Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Mel Michelle Jacobic.
• 1:05
  Jennifer Johnson: She's a powerhouse business strategist, award-winning author, and motivational speaker, known for guiding entrepreneurs from financial chaos to clarity.
• 1:15
  Jennifer Johnson: She's the author of several best-selling books.
• 1:18
  Jennifer Johnson: And Michelle's story and practical advice have been featured on ABC, CBS, Fox, and Entrepreneur Magazine.
• 1:25
  Jennifer Johnson: In this conversation, we'll explore how entrepreneurs can align their vision with their financial strategy, avoid the pitfalls that sink so many small businesses, and learn to build companies that actually fund the life that they want.
• 1:41
  Jennifer Johnson: Michelle, thank you so much for being here today.
• 1:45
  Jennifer Johnson: Oh my God, I'm so excited for this conversation, Jennifer.
• 1:48
  Jennifer Johnson: I am too, because I have to admit that the things we're talking about today are not my strong suit.
• 1:55
  Jennifer Johnson: I know that's gonna come to a shock as a shock to many, haha.
• 1:58
  Jennifer Johnson: But I'm the creative side.
• 2:02
  Jennifer Johnson: And I know that that is where a lot of people fall into in their realm of their business.
• 2:08
  Jennifer Johnson: And, you know, they leave this up to someone else, the financial part.
• 2:12
  Jennifer Johnson: So this is gonna be gold today.
• 2:15
  Michelle Jacobik: I really let's go.
• 2:17
  Michelle Jacobik: I love it.
• 2:17
  Michelle Jacobik: And listen, we we've all been there, right?
• 2:19
  Michelle Jacobik: One of the things that I'll just add, you know, it's funny when you sit back and you're listening to somebody read your bio, you're like, oh yeah, whatever, you know, because like the truth is that for somebody that's listening, right?
• 2:29
  Michelle Jacobik: Like that's kind of like my middle right now.
• 2:32
  Michelle Jacobik: I mean, some people might think it's the end, or maybe when I was in my 30s, I was like, I'm done at 50, right?
• 2:36
  Michelle Jacobik: Here I am 57, and I'm like in this whole new reinvention chapter, right?
• 2:40
  Michelle Jacobik: And really in a new place of service.
• 2:42
  Michelle Jacobik: And I think what I love so much is when I step back and I'm listening, it's like, wait a minute, let's talk about the messy middle.
• 2:49
  Michelle Jacobik: Because the truth is that the girl that started this journey, right, I leapt out of the house at 19 years old, thinking I had this complete sense of financial confidence.
• 3:00
  Michelle Jacobik: I had all of my crap together, right?
• 3:02
  Michelle Jacobik: And I was just gonna make this huge vision dream, everything on my vision board come to life.
• 3:08
  Michelle Jacobik: And the truth was that I found myself three years later in major amounts of credit card debt, payday loans, right?
• 3:16
  Michelle Jacobik: And I was actually working for a financial services firm and learning all the things about finances and compound interest and all the things as I was playing that keeping up at the Joneses, right?
• 3:26
  Michelle Jacobik: And that whole fake it to you make it thing.
• 3:29
  Michelle Jacobik: And add to that that I'm a huge law of attraction person, right?
• 3:33
  Michelle Jacobik: So at the same time that I left out of the house, right, with like this huge sense of like what I thought was financial maturity, uh, my angel investor showed up, visa and MasterCard, right?
• 3:44
  Michelle Jacobik: And so here I am.
• 3:45
  Michelle Jacobik: Yeah, let's grab those cards, look at that.
• 3:48
  Michelle Jacobik: You know, my parents didn't necessarily, they wanted me to have more structure and less risk.
• 3:52
  Michelle Jacobik: They both work for a municipality, you know.
• 3:55
  Michelle Jacobik: I the their whole goal was you need health insurance at 18 years old, not 26 like today.
• 4:00
  Michelle Jacobik: You need to have health insurance.
• 4:01
  Michelle Jacobik: And I was just like, whatever, right?
• 4:04
  Michelle Jacobik: I didn't want that security and stability because I thought like an entrepreneur, but I the thought the big thinking is what actually brought you the results.
• 4:13
  Michelle Jacobik: And the truth is that what it brought me was a mess.
• 4:17
  Michelle Jacobik: And so um it it gave me the space, right, to go when I when I talk about this messy middle piece, it gave me the space to figure out when I landed there, how did I have to work my way out of it?
• 4:30
  Michelle Jacobik: And I'll and I truly believe that financial consistency is actually what leads to financial stability and allows entrepreneurs to actually take those bigger leaps that they may not be taking today if they actually get out of the financial avoidance.
• 4:44
  Michelle Jacobik: And I was in complete financial avoidance at that time.
• 4:46
  Jennifer Johnson: That's what it is.
• 4:47
  Jennifer Johnson: It is like I'm gonna dig my head in the sand, it's gonna go away, it this will be fine, and the house is burning down.
• 4:54
  Michelle Jacobik: Yes, yes.
• 4:55
  Michelle Jacobik: And you know, I write about this on the path of profits.
• 4:57
  Michelle Jacobik: It's one of the top things that people highlight, right?
• 5:00
  Michelle Jacobik: They highlight, I talk about the results of financial avoidance when I work with clients.
• 5:04
  Michelle Jacobik: It's always the same three things that I see.
• 5:07
  Michelle Jacobik: It's misaligned spending.
• 5:08
  Michelle Jacobik: We're putting money in places that we likely shouldn't have done.
• 5:12
  Michelle Jacobik: We're actually spending money on the fix, the next thing that we think is going to actually make the business work or profitable.
• 5:18
  Michelle Jacobik: So it's misaligned spending, it's missed opportunities because when the right thing does come along, we don't have the the cash flow or the credit even to leverage to say, oh my God, that's it.
• 5:31
  Michelle Jacobik: This one opportunity could have changed the trajectory of the business.
• 5:35
  Michelle Jacobik: Maybe being in a room, right, at a conference or something.
• 5:38
  Michelle Jacobik: You know, I host my Envision event at the end of every year.
• 5:41
  Michelle Jacobik: Millions of dollars have passed and we have a rule of no-selling.
• 5:44
  Michelle Jacobik: But the connections and the incubator and the magic that happens in there when people can't get themselves in the room because they, in financial avoidance, have spent money in other directions, they miss opportunities.
• 5:55
  Michelle Jacobik: And then the third thing with the financial avoidance that people highlight in the Path of Profits is this sense of financial instability and financial scarcity, like the guilt, the shame.
• 6:07
  Michelle Jacobik: We've all felt it if we've made mistakes.
• 6:08
  Michelle Jacobik: Even when you have a kick-ass year and you're like, oh my God, I have the best year, and then you get the tax bill, and you're like, oh, I'm $30,000 short from what I needed.
• 6:18
  Michelle Jacobik: And I thought I did a great job, right?
• 6:20
  Michelle Jacobik: So I love going into these conversations, right?
• 6:24
  Michelle Jacobik: Because the pitfalls that happen with entrepreneurs usually happen around money.
• 6:29
  Michelle Jacobik: They happen around our addiction even to the hustle.
• 6:33
  Michelle Jacobik: And then our health is, you know, put at risk.
• 6:36
  Michelle Jacobik: So it your your show is the ability to talk to people about the things that are icky, right?
• 6:42
  Michelle Jacobik: That they can be like, all right, all right, I hear you, Jennifer and Michelle, right?
• 6:47
  Michelle Jacobik: Yeah, let's do it.
• 6:48
  Michelle Jacobik: Yeah.
• 6:49
  Michelle Jacobik: And then really, like it's an invitation for change, right?
• 6:52
  Michelle Jacobik: Like, what what do we really want to create?
• 6:54
  Jennifer Johnson: So it's being real about it.
• 6:56
  Michelle Jacobik: Yeah.
• 6:56
  Jennifer Johnson: So getting real about it.
• 6:58
  Jennifer Johnson: You have what is is there really a difference?
• 7:02
  Jennifer Johnson: I I just people think debt is debt, right?
• 7:05
  Jennifer Johnson: But you're saying there's good debt and there's bad debt.
• 7:09
  Michelle Jacobik: Yeah, I think that you know there is a difference, right?
• 7:11
  Michelle Jacobik: I think the first thing that I love to do is teach entrepreneurs to look beyond the debt label, right?
• 7:17
  Michelle Jacobik: The bigger question is do they have a clear vision?
• 7:20
  Michelle Jacobik: Do they know what they actually want this business to do for them, right?
• 7:24
  Michelle Jacobik: Like what is it, what is the vision for their lifestyle?
• 7:26
  Michelle Jacobik: What is the I call it like, let's do it life by design, right?
• 7:30
  Michelle Jacobik: Build the business to align with the lifestyle and the things that authentically are what you want to create, right?
• 7:37
  Michelle Jacobik: So when I host my Envision event and actually the pillars and the path of profits, the whole vision pillar is bringing people through the exercises to figure out where are you now in different areas of your life?
• 7:47
  Michelle Jacobik: It's not just about the business, it's not just about the money.
• 7:50
  Michelle Jacobik: It's where are you in regards to social and fun?
• 7:53
  Michelle Jacobik: Where are you in your personal relationships, right?
• 7:56
  Michelle Jacobik: With your children, with your spouse, with your family, where are you in terms of money?
• 8:00
  Michelle Jacobik: Where are you spiritually?
• 8:02
  Michelle Jacobik: It's all of the things.
• 8:03
  Michelle Jacobik: And getting a clear vision of where you are now and where you'd like to be is the first step, right?
• 8:09
  Michelle Jacobik: And then I think that it's also this whole get out of the debt label and get clear about your cash flow strategy.
• 8:15
  Michelle Jacobik: Like, what do you need this business to do for you, right?
• 8:19
  Michelle Jacobik: What is the lifestyle cost?
• 8:20
  Michelle Jacobik: What is your contribution?
• 8:22
  Michelle Jacobik: If you're single, it's all on you, right?
• 8:24
  Michelle Jacobik: But if you're part of a partnership, there's room for conversation that has to happen about, well, what part are you responsible for with the lifestyle?
• 8:32
  Michelle Jacobik: So the flow pillar of the path to profits gives you the exercises to get clear about the cash flow strategy and not necessarily even before you apply it to the business, but looking at it through a lens of like going under the hood of the lifestyle of the business overhead and saying, all right, what do I need to create?
• 8:50
  Michelle Jacobik: Right.
• 8:50
  Michelle Jacobik: Again, I believe that the vision activates the money.
• 8:54
  Michelle Jacobik: And part of the vision is getting clear about what you need the business to do for you.
• 8:58
  Michelle Jacobik: You know, people say don't create a job for yourself.
• 9:00
  Michelle Jacobik: But if you can't take a paycheck from your business, that's a problem, right?
• 9:05
  Michelle Jacobik: And I think the other part of this is before we even like talk about labeling debt, the clarity also has to be in your profitability model, right?
• 9:14
  Michelle Jacobik: Are before you take on financing, is the business or what you're going to do, is there a profitability model that supports taking on the financing and actually being able to pay it back, right?
• 9:26
  Michelle Jacobik: Not just to pay yourself, so to speak.
• 9:29
  Michelle Jacobik: Maybe it's a runway to pay yourself, which I don't recommend, but there are places where people can use the leverage, right?
• 9:37
  Michelle Jacobik: In terms, but if the profitability model doesn't support it, then there's a problem.
• 9:41
  Michelle Jacobik: Debt isn't the villain, right?
• 9:44
  Michelle Jacobik: It's actually the lack of planning that people step away from, they don't work on that actually puts them in the situation where things that could have been good debt actually become bad debt because the business closes and they're stuck with the debt, right?
• 9:59
  Michelle Jacobik: Or they're now yeah, I I agree.
• 10:03
  Jennifer Johnson: So many people though, if you're uh an entrepreneur or a small business owner, you start your business because you you see a hole in the market, right?
• 10:13
  Jennifer Johnson: And you, you're like, you know what, I know I can feel this, I know I can do this.
• 10:17
  Jennifer Johnson: They don't think ahead to that.
• 10:18
  Jennifer Johnson: They don't think how, what do I want this business to do for me?
• 10:23
  Jennifer Johnson: They're essentially, like you said, buying themselves a job, which is not the way to look at it.
• 10:28
  Jennifer Johnson: But how do you get somebody to step back and say, all right, before they even start their business?
• 10:35
  Jennifer Johnson: I mean, people should have like 101s on these before they even start their business.
• 10:40
  Jennifer Johnson: There needs to be, before you get your business license, yeah, tell me your why.
• 10:45
  Michelle Jacobik: Yeah.
• 10:45
  Michelle Jacobik: So I call it starting with the financial baselines, right?
• 10:49
  Michelle Jacobik: You have to know what you need the business to do for you, as I said, right?
• 10:52
  Michelle Jacobik: And then model the cash flow to see if the business can actually sustain repayment without choking your growth.
• 10:58
  Michelle Jacobik: So here's what happens, right?
• 11:00
  Michelle Jacobik: You just said it.
• 11:01
  Michelle Jacobik: Many entrepreneurs they want to bypass the sweat equity that could have kept them financially sound.
• 11:05
  Michelle Jacobik: They grab their credit cards to start or even to grow their business before they've even tested to see if they actually have a solution to a problem that people want solved, right?
• 11:16
  Michelle Jacobik: We are entrepreneurs, we're always going to be inspired by new ideas, right?
• 11:19
  Michelle Jacobik: We have this different lens of glasses that we wear.
• 11:22
  Michelle Jacobik: Um, and I think that that's part of the creativity piece.
• 11:25
  Michelle Jacobik: Like you said, you're creative.
• 11:27
  Michelle Jacobik: Like you run multiple things and you can see opportunities in the marketplace, right?
• 11:32
  Michelle Jacobik: With different ways that you can create money.
• 11:35
  Michelle Jacobik: So the first thing is going like, okay, I know that I have this gift of seeing things, right?
• 11:40
  Michelle Jacobik: But that isn't what makes the business profitable.
• 11:43
  Michelle Jacobik: So bypassing the work, the business plan, the financial modeling and forecasting, like what does it look like for the first five years, for the first seven years?
• 11:53
  Michelle Jacobik: If you don't sit down, if you jump and run that start that business before you even sat down and ran any financial model on the business idea or build out a solid business plan, that's a problem.
• 12:04
  Michelle Jacobik: If you go grab debt and you're you're like, this is what I'm gonna do.
• 12:08
  Michelle Jacobik: I'm gonna literally like leverage my credit cards, leverage my equity in my home, whatever those, whatever the leverage is, before you know how long that leverage will last, even if there's no issues, right?
• 12:21
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes.
• 12:22
  Michelle Jacobik: What happens is the runway that we we think the runway is gonna be shorter, right?
• 12:25
  Michelle Jacobik: Even for me, right?
• 12:27
  Michelle Jacobik: I I took a seven-figure exit.
• 12:29
  Michelle Jacobik: I owned an insurance agency and in Connecticut, did that for 27 years, and I had the benefit of building something.
• 12:36
  Michelle Jacobik: I built it to sell, I built it for cash flow, right?
• 12:39
  Michelle Jacobik: And then I built it to sell.
• 12:40
  Michelle Jacobik: And so for me, I had to look at like, all right, if I'm gonna make this decision to leave, what are the things that I'm gonna take on in my lifestyle, right?
• 12:50
  Michelle Jacobik: Well, I had a company car, I had health insurance, all of those things.
• 12:54
  Michelle Jacobik: I left a marriage, right?
• 12:56
  Michelle Jacobik: I had to, I that financial crossroads before, and I had the benefit of sitting down and figuring out the modeling of it.
• 13:03
  Michelle Jacobik: Some people are in a like a flight situation where they need to get out and they don't have the runway.
• 13:09
  Michelle Jacobik: But when you do have the time, and I think a lot of entrepreneurs do have the time, and they make a decision to leave that secure job on Tuesday, thinking that they're going to be making money by like the following 90 days.
• 13:20
  Michelle Jacobik: And lucky for some people, they are.
• 13:23
  Michelle Jacobik: But even for me as a seasoned entrepreneur, when I came out of my exit, I took a year off and kind of like visioned like what would be next for me.
• 13:32
  Michelle Jacobik: And I thought with all of the years of experience that I had, that it would be a shorter timeline.
• 13:37
  Michelle Jacobik: Well, guess what?
• 13:38
  Michelle Jacobik: It wasn't.
• 13:39
  Michelle Jacobik: I thought it would take me a year to get to 300,000.
• 13:42
  Michelle Jacobik: It didn't take me a year.
• 13:44
  Michelle Jacobik: It took me three years to actually figure out who I was, the market I was serving.
• 13:49
  Michelle Jacobik: The first book is called Prosperity After Divorce, Take Charge of Your Finances and Recreate the Life You Want.
• 13:55
  Michelle Jacobik: It's again all about personal finances and helping people like reset after any type of transition.
• 14:02
  Michelle Jacobik: I thought that was the place I was anointed to go and serve.
• 14:05
  Michelle Jacobik: But the truth was that while I was doing great work, it was depleting me going into divorce situations because I'm the girl who wants to bring you forward into the prosperity.
• 14:15
  Michelle Jacobik: But many people are stuck in that place if they're not ready yet, right?
• 14:18
  Michelle Jacobik: They're in the grieving place.
• 14:19
  Michelle Jacobik: So I was meeting them in that space of the financial accounting and the getting through the mediations and all of those things.
• 14:26
  Michelle Jacobik: So they have my trust to move forward, but they weren't necessarily ready.
• 14:30
  Michelle Jacobik: And I remember like praying on it, Jen, and being like, okay, am I quitting before the miracle happens?
• 14:36
  Michelle Jacobik: Am I a bad servant leader?
• 14:38
  Michelle Jacobik: Like, oh my God, like are am I quitting on the thing, my assignment?
• 14:42
  Michelle Jacobik: All the normal things.
• 14:44
  Michelle Jacobik: And you know what?
• 14:45
  Michelle Jacobik: I literally, that was year three.
• 14:47
  Michelle Jacobik: And I remember just thinking, I'm financially depleting myself, I'm emotionally depleted, and I don't believe that abundance and when we're in our true gifts, I don't believe that the suffering goes along with it.
• 14:57
  Michelle Jacobik: And so I had to take a step back and follow my own modeling and say, okay, God, like am I really in my gifts?
• 15:03
  Michelle Jacobik: And I literally heard you left half of your gifts in the last chapter because I came into this chapter thinking, oh, this is my purpose chapter, right?
• 15:13
  Michelle Jacobik: I'm looking for the place to make the impact in the world.
• 15:15
  Michelle Jacobik: But I had worked with entrepreneurs for 27 years as a trusted advisor.
• 15:20
  Michelle Jacobik: And I put all those gifts in the last chapter and didn't bring them over.
• 15:24
  Michelle Jacobik: And as soon as I heard that, I was like, wait, what didn't what didn't I bring over?
• 15:30
  Michelle Jacobik: It was so clear to me.
• 15:31
  Michelle Jacobik: So by the time I hit year three, I finally got it, boom, two by four, and I pivoted the business, right?
• 15:39
  Michelle Jacobik: Which is scary because you're like, I just put all of this effort and financial resources and time into something, but I had to intuitively go in and say, all right, what now?
• 15:48
  Michelle Jacobik: So that runway that I thought would be one year was really five years.
• 15:52
  Michelle Jacobik: It was really five because I re-re-engineered in year three, and then it took three to five to actually get my you know bearings and get out and rebrand and kind of do the things that I was doing and call in the people that I was meant to work with.
• 16:05
  Michelle Jacobik: And I think that's what we're talking about.
• 16:07
  Michelle Jacobik: We're talking about if you aren't looking and you think that the leverage that you're pulling is going to be like accessible and last for a year, I'm telling you, you better have two to three years accessible or some other way to create money before you just throw everything at the business and make a run for it, right?
• 16:28
  Michelle Jacobik: And that's 90% of the people.
• 16:29
  Michelle Jacobik: 10% of the people, they'll come out and they'll hit magic and they've got a lot of experience and they've got a great idea.
• 16:35
  Michelle Jacobik: But even they will tell you, most people that have been at it, even with the sweat equity, that they're doing something else to create revenue or they've made some decisions about the wealth that they built to put towards the new thing, right?
• 16:48
  Michelle Jacobik: So does that answer your question?
• 16:51
  Jennifer Johnson: It does.
• 16:51
  Jennifer Johnson: And it always, we as entrepreneurs, I think we always shoot for the moon and think, oh, this is gonna happen so much quicker.
• 16:57
  Jennifer Johnson: We're the eternal optimists just knowing, hey, set yourself up that this could take five years.
• 17:04
  Jennifer Johnson: It's going to take longer than you think it's going to actually take, is really good advice.
• 17:09
  Jennifer Johnson: You know, during that building process, how do you evaluate whether or not taking on debt's a smart move?
• 17:16
  Jennifer Johnson: Because, you know, again, there's the good debt, the bad debt, right?
• 17:19
  Jennifer Johnson: That's what we were kind of talking about.
• 17:21
  Jennifer Johnson: But how do you how do you discern whether or not it's a good idea to do that?
• 17:27
  Michelle Jacobik: You know, I think one of the places that I say to people about taking on good debt, I believe in investing in human capital.
• 17:34
  Michelle Jacobik: Okay.
• 17:34
  Michelle Jacobik: Human capital, when you're first of all, many times we're trying to do things ourselves, right?
• 17:39
  Michelle Jacobik: And we know that we become the bottleneck.
• 17:42
  Michelle Jacobik: Because if you're trying to make more money, you need to be focused on the things where you're gifted and the revenue is actually being generated.
• 17:49
  Michelle Jacobik: So if you're spending time in the weeds and you're doing all the things that are keeping you from connecting with new customers, letting people know that you're open for business and looking for more, building strategic alliances and partnerships and serving the clients, then there's a problem.
• 18:05
  Michelle Jacobik: So I'm a firm believer that if you're going to take on any type of debt and leverage credit to your advantage, that you should be doing that when you're investing in human capital, which should have a return, right?
• 18:19
  Michelle Jacobik: If you're bringing on somebody, like for example, the first person that I brought on, I went from having 22 people in my business to me.
• 18:26
  Michelle Jacobik: And I was like doing all the things.
• 18:28
  Michelle Jacobik: And now you also have to be strategic.
• 18:30
  Michelle Jacobik: I didn't go put somebody on my payroll coming right out of the gate, right?
• 18:34
  Michelle Jacobik: But when I was ready and I was like, okay, I've got to get some of these things off my plate because they're weighing me down, right?
• 18:40
  Michelle Jacobik: Um, the first thing I did was I hired somebody five hours a month.
• 18:44
  Michelle Jacobik: And that five hours a month when somebody's in their gifts is equal to your 20, right?
• 18:48
  Michelle Jacobik: And just starting, right?
• 18:51
  Michelle Jacobik: It just starting with five hours a month or taking and hiring somebody for a project is the first thing that allows you to take that project and activate more money.
• 19:01
  Michelle Jacobik: So I believe that, you know, for me, I've always invested in mentorship, always.
• 19:06
  Michelle Jacobik: I've for 37 years, I have had someone on my consulting team that is smarter than me, trusted advisors from the CPA to the attorney to the people that I know.
• 19:17
  Michelle Jacobik: They know more than me, and they're it's not my zone of genius.
• 19:20
  Michelle Jacobik: I know taxes, I did taxes for years.
• 19:23
  Michelle Jacobik: I know financial advising, I had my financial advising license for 23 years, but I never did my own advising.
• 19:28
  Michelle Jacobik: I did it because it was a stream of revenue that was a part, a leg of the insurance agency, right?
• 19:33
  Michelle Jacobik: Um, but I have people, I've always been willing to invest in a team, a team of advisors that are gonna help me collapse the timeline, save me from mistakes.
• 19:43
  Michelle Jacobik: They know the the, you know, I always say like when people come to me, they don't what's the difference between myself and somebody else?
• 19:49
  Michelle Jacobik: I'm like 37 years of experience, right?
• 19:53
  Michelle Jacobik: And and someone who's been in every industry, because in my insurance world as a risk manager and trusted advisor, I had 600 manufacturing plants and 300 general contractors and doctors and restaurants and multiple retail stores and nonprofits.
• 20:08
  Michelle Jacobik: So my acumen for business isn't just what I did in my own business and creating it, buying it, pouring gasoline on it, and selling it, it's all of the experience that I have in working in the other places where other people are.
• 20:22
  Michelle Jacobik: So I I think human capital is always paid off for me, right?
• 20:26
  Michelle Jacobik: Even if you make the wrong hire, you can always go back and rehire.
• 20:31
  Michelle Jacobik: And so I feel like that's a great place to leverage.
• 20:35
  Michelle Jacobik: I also feel like if you're needing support, and I think one of the biggest mistakes that I see people make, and look, you and I are both business strategists that work with people to shorten their timeline.
• 20:45
  Michelle Jacobik: But one of the things that I see, and I'm sure you see this as well, Jennifer, is so many people at the emerging stage of business are making advanced business investments.
• 20:56
  Michelle Jacobik: Like cut it out, right?
• 20:58
  Michelle Jacobik: You are a new business.
• 21:00
  Michelle Jacobik: Why are you pulling out your credit card for a $30,000 coaching program?
• 21:05
  Jennifer Johnson: Because they want to, they feel like a timeline or it's going to get them in the crowd with the big guys, which is proximity, right, right, proximity.
• 21:16
  Michelle Jacobik: But then get yourself in the room and meet some people and take the things that you can do to elevate the business, right?
• 21:22
  Michelle Jacobik: Read the book, listen to the podcast.
• 21:24
  Michelle Jacobik: That's why I love you're always putting out content to be able to help new entrepreneurs and people that are in the weeds come out of it because you're like, wait, listen to some of these strategic things that I've learned.
• 21:35
  Michelle Jacobik: You bring on guests that can support that.
• 21:37
  Michelle Jacobik: But I think that's one of the biggest things that I see.
• 21:39
  Michelle Jacobik: One of the things that I would say is please stop pulling out your credit card and making advanced business decisions.
• 21:46
  Michelle Jacobik: Now, listen, I make a living supporting people, but ask the person that you see as a guide to you whether or not if you're if you're not in a position to make that investment for the advanced business, can you do a power hour?
• 21:59
  Michelle Jacobik: Can you do a VIP?
• 22:01
  Michelle Jacobik: Right?
• 22:01
  Michelle Jacobik: I could have somebody come in for a weekend.
• 22:03
  Michelle Jacobik: I just had somebody leave here this weekend and she wasn't even on the plane and literally put up a beautiful post.
• 22:09
  Michelle Jacobik: I was brought to tears and said, this trip to Naples, getting she only had one day with me.
• 22:14
  Michelle Jacobik: She came in.
• 22:15
  Michelle Jacobik: We only worked one day.
• 22:16
  Michelle Jacobik: Normally I work two half days with people, and I get a whole, you know, two and a half days with them.
• 22:20
  Michelle Jacobik: So I get the whole entrepreneur.
• 22:22
  Michelle Jacobik: She literally said that what she got in six hours was equivalent to four or five different one year programs.
• 24:55
  Michelle Jacobik: And it was literally 25% of what she spent on her highest program, right?
• 25:01
  Michelle Jacobik: And so as Asking the person that you see yourself as aligned with, what else you can do if the bigger ticket item doesn't feel right to get that first taste, to get the first alignment of profitability or striking out some new idea and maybe taking that playbook and collapsing time, but also not having buyer's remorse that the playbook wasn't one you should have been playing with.
• 25:26
  Jennifer Johnson: And let's be honest, you and I have both seen in our world, and and many entrepreneurs see this too, is there's so many people out there who, you know, they put a shingle on their door and they're the expert because, you know, the whole adage that if you know 10% more than someone else knows, yeah, you're the expert, right?
• 25:43
  Jennifer Johnson: We've been spoon-fed that forever.
• 25:46
  Jennifer Johnson: When then that that couldn't be further from the truth.
• 25:49
  Jennifer Johnson: Just because you learned something a little bit more in depth or took a class for two hours, doesn't mean that you're the expert that can charge $30,000 a year for a program and you're going to come out on the other side of it better.
• 26:02
  Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely.
• 26:02
  Michelle Jacobik: And then you just lost your money.
• 26:05
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 26:05
  Michelle Jacobik: And I think the biggest thing too, like as entrepreneurs, is we have to know that it's okay to ask questions.
• 26:11
  Michelle Jacobik: It's okay to ask for references and call them, right?
• 26:14
  Michelle Jacobik: I wouldn't hire somebody without calling references.
• 26:17
  Michelle Jacobik: I wouldn't hire somebody without doing a background check, to be honest with you.
• 26:20
  Michelle Jacobik: I wouldn't hire somebody without having them do a Colby to see what their natural gifts are, right?
• 26:24
  Michelle Jacobik: So how my biggest thing with entrepreneurs is like take that same lens that you would apply and anything else that you're doing in your business when you're building your team of trusted advisors, whether it's your CPA, your insurance agent, right?
• 26:38
  Michelle Jacobik: Like the best referral always comes from a referral because you know someone else has had an experience and they work with this person, right?
• 26:45
  Michelle Jacobik: That's that's where I do my business.
• 26:46
  Michelle Jacobik: It's like, oh, I moved to Florida four years ago.
• 26:49
  Michelle Jacobik: I didn't knowbody, right?
• 26:51
  Michelle Jacobik: And so here I am with this big geographical change.
• 26:53
  Michelle Jacobik: And who's the best resource?
• 26:55
  Michelle Jacobik: My hairdresser, right?
• 26:56
  Michelle Jacobik: Who's like connecting me, right?
• 26:58
  Michelle Jacobik: To all of these people.
• 26:59
  Michelle Jacobik: And I'm like, Because yes, because she's been here for you know her whole life.
• 27:04
  Michelle Jacobik: And she she knows who would be aligned and who wouldn't be aligned.
• 27:07
  Michelle Jacobik: She knows what I was looking for.
• 27:08
  Michelle Jacobik: So I think a lot of it is just like putting on that CEO hat, right?
• 27:13
  Michelle Jacobik: Many times that when we're in the weeds of our business, we forget that we have so many different lenses to run our things through.
• 27:21
  Michelle Jacobik: But step back, take a breath, don't be pressured, don't worry about the FOMO, and don't worry about somebody who even might be at a different phase of their business.
• 27:29
  Michelle Jacobik: If you're at the beginning or the middle, if they're if they're at the 10-year mark, that investment they made is clearly gonna be a different output because they may have more time to give to the program.
• 27:39
  Michelle Jacobik: They may have more time to invest in like building out the things because they've got staff support.
• 27:44
  Michelle Jacobik: So I think it's kind of looking at the lens and saying, like, where where are you gonna get the most, you know, the most like return?
• 27:52
  Michelle Jacobik: I think be really diligent.
• 27:54
  Michelle Jacobik: Again, human capital, which takes back, gives you back some of your time, not going all in, right?
• 28:00
  Michelle Jacobik: Like I opened up Naples Beach Chair Rentals.
• 28:02
  Michelle Jacobik: Uh, we do beach chair and umbrella rentals.
• 28:05
  Michelle Jacobik: We launched it in January.
• 28:06
  Michelle Jacobik: A lot of people don't even know that it's mine.
• 28:08
  Michelle Jacobik: But my husband and I are running it like literally um, no employees, but we created this business to create jobs here in Naples.
• 28:15
  Michelle Jacobik: We don't want to run it, but we did not go hire and put people on the payroll in the first year because we don't know what we don't know.
• 28:22
  Michelle Jacobik: We've never run a rental company.
• 28:24
  Michelle Jacobik: So we're sweat equitying it.
• 28:26
  Michelle Jacobik: I he does the morning deliveries, I do the evening pickups, and we're making it work to see what we don't know before we go take on debt to run it, because the debt would be running payroll, right?
• 28:37
  Michelle Jacobik: So when I say human capital, even the investment in human capital, I could go take out a $50,000 loan and leverage that to hire.
• 28:45
  Michelle Jacobik: But let me tell you something.
• 28:46
  Michelle Jacobik: What I if I didn't know what season was like here, we've never lived in a seasoned community.
• 28:51
  Michelle Jacobik: I wouldn't know whether or not the business could sustain, right?
• 28:54
  Michelle Jacobik: If the business could sustain the payroll.
• 28:56
  Michelle Jacobik: And I don't want to create a job just to take it away.
• 28:59
  Michelle Jacobik: And you know that because you have this thriving company and you have to be really cognizant as well of how many people you hire to run the store.
• 29:07
  Jennifer Johnson: I agree.
• 29:07
  Jennifer Johnson: And I'm so glad that you brought that up because my next question is centering around cash flow.
• 29:13
  Jennifer Johnson: And what is your approach when cash flow gets tight?
• 29:17
  Jennifer Johnson: Because it's inevitable, it seems like, and no matter what business you have.
• 29:21
  Jennifer Johnson: And I know Southwest Florida, we are extremely seasonal.
• 29:25
  Jennifer Johnson: So the people usually feel it by the time August, September, October rolls around, we're like ready for everyone to come back from season.
• 29:34
  Jennifer Johnson: What are your suggestions around cash flow getting tight?
• 29:40
  Michelle Jacobik: This might be my favorite question that you've asked today.
• 29:42
  Michelle Jacobik: Cash flow is king.
• 29:44
  Michelle Jacobik: And I say cash flow, meaning it can't just come in and go out.
• 29:49
  Michelle Jacobik: There has to be a sense of it coming in and you telling the dollars where they're gonna go, right?
• 29:54
  Michelle Jacobik: When they come in and before they come in.
• 29:56
  Michelle Jacobik: So my clients build reserves, they track profitability, they know their break-even numbers, and they don't scramble reactively.
• 30:04
  Michelle Jacobik: They don't have their head buried in the sand, as you said earlier, right?
• 30:07
  Michelle Jacobik: But for those that aren't there yet, right, when cash flow is tight or clogged, I love one, telling people to remind themselves that they can create money in a multitude of ways.
• 30:18
  Michelle Jacobik: So the first thing that I say is make a decision to change it.
• 30:22
  Michelle Jacobik: Make a decision not to go into financial avoidance, as we were just talking about, right?
• 30:26
  Michelle Jacobik: I tell people to sell something.
• 30:28
  Michelle Jacobik: Like we all know that we have more stuff than we need.
• 30:32
  Michelle Jacobik: Sell something.
• 30:33
  Michelle Jacobik: Just selling something on marketplace or like selling something feels like you had a win.
• 30:39
  Michelle Jacobik: It's like, and it reminds us, it reminds us that there's this energy to money, right?
• 30:44
  Michelle Jacobik: That we can come out of this, like, oh my God, my business is failing.
• 30:48
  Michelle Jacobik: I don't know how I'm gonna make payroll Friday.
• 30:50
  Michelle Jacobik: It's like, can you sell something and then feel a win that reminds you that you're a creator?
• 30:54
  Michelle Jacobik: Okay.
• 30:55
  Michelle Jacobik: The second thing is cut something.
• 30:57
  Michelle Jacobik: Like, what can you cut?
• 30:58
  Michelle Jacobik: Go under the hood, look at the subscriptions, look at the places that you're spending money, and get rid of the things that are, and even if it's temporary, if you're not going to the gym because it's hot outside, guess what?
• 31:10
  Michelle Jacobik: Like, I'm sorry, if you're if you're not going to the gym because it's beautiful outside, guess what?
• 31:15
  Michelle Jacobik: You're gonna take advantage of being outdoors in the winter, pause the gym, right?
• 31:19
  Michelle Jacobik: The other thing that I tell people is re-offer something that worked before and get back to business basics.
• 31:26
  Michelle Jacobik: Get out and network, connect.
• 31:28
  Michelle Jacobik: Don't think that just posting on Facebook and a social once a day is enough because it's not enough, right?
• 31:34
  Michelle Jacobik: And then lastly, I I want to talk back to a lot of people get stuck here in this cash flow shortage and this clogging because they're playing by other people's playbooks.
• 31:46
  Michelle Jacobik: And what I mean by that is like a course, a webinar, the coach they hired is telling them that there's a shortcut to the results they want.
• 31:54
  Michelle Jacobik: And they stopped doing the thing that actually was generating consistent revenue.
• 31:59
  Michelle Jacobik: And that's actually one of the things that causes the cash flow clog.
• 32:02
  Michelle Jacobik: I'll share my own example.
• 32:04
  Michelle Jacobik: Okay.
• 32:04
  Michelle Jacobik: So I made a pivot, uh, oh God, two years ago, right?
• 32:11
  Michelle Jacobik: After putting out the path to profits, right?
• 32:13
  Michelle Jacobik: Got three book awards and that international book award.
• 32:17
  Michelle Jacobik: It was in the Grammy gift bags, right?
• 32:19
  Michelle Jacobik: Like it was, it had a lot of recognition around it the year that it came out, that first three or four months.
• 32:24
  Michelle Jacobik: Um, I had a lot of people in my inner circle saying, take a pivot and move to paid speaking, right?
• 32:31
  Michelle Jacobik: And I know that you also speak, I speak.
• 32:34
  Michelle Jacobik: Like, and here's the thing: I don't love speaking on stages as a keynote, right?
• 32:39
  Michelle Jacobik: But I'm like, okay, I'm gonna build my confidence.
• 32:41
  Michelle Jacobik: I love workshopping, I love transformation, I love getting in and like running my own thing and like moving people through an experience and connecting people in rooms.
• 32:50
  Michelle Jacobik: I know what I love.
• 32:51
  Michelle Jacobik: You can feel it, right?
• 32:52
  Michelle Jacobik: Like you can feel the difference between I'm like, oh my God, I'm gonna go keynote.
• 32:56
  Michelle Jacobik: And I'm grateful for I do.
• 32:58
  Michelle Jacobik: Yeah, okay, I love that.
• 32:59
  Michelle Jacobik: So you're gonna love this, right?
• 33:01
  Michelle Jacobik: So I was eight, so here's what happened.
• 33:03
  Michelle Jacobik: I took a 30% hit on my revenues last year.
• 33:06
  Michelle Jacobik: I'm sorry, the year before, listening to everyone else's playbook, right?
• 33:11
  Michelle Jacobik: I was already in my revenues were at 350,000 with no paid speaking gigs before I wrote book two, right?
• 33:18
  Michelle Jacobik: And when others started to convince me that I should be getting paid to speak, that I would easily hit a million dollars, right?
• 33:23
  Michelle Jacobik: And I was like, well, of course, right?
• 33:25
  Michelle Jacobik: 4,000 of speaking gigs, 7,500, 15K.
• 33:29
  Michelle Jacobik: Now the truth is that I did hit some of those gigs out of the park.
• 33:32
  Michelle Jacobik: I had quite a few $4,000 gigs.
• 33:34
  Michelle Jacobik: I had a couple $7,500.
• 33:36
  Michelle Jacobik: I even had a $15,000 one in the metrics, right?
• 33:39
  Michelle Jacobik: However, here's what I realized a year later, okay.
• 33:43
  Michelle Jacobik: When I sat down mid-year last year and looked at my own metrics, not the playbook that everybody else was playing by.
• 33:51
  Michelle Jacobik: When I looked at my own metrics, was I know that I wanted to move 150 entrepreneurs through my one-on-one financial foundations program, right?
• 34:00
  Michelle Jacobik: I build the tool, I go under the hood of their money, I build out their cash flow tools, I build an escrow envelope system, personal and business.
• 34:08
  Michelle Jacobik: It's very, it's very, very holistic, right?
• 34:11
  Michelle Jacobik: And I knew my goal was 150 people that I wanted to run in 12 months through that program.
• 34:16
  Michelle Jacobik: Here's the truth.
• 34:17
  Michelle Jacobik: If I wanted to earn that same 350, which I was already doing by running people through this program, right, by just giving useful and helpful advice, 20 minutes, getting on a podcast, doing whatever for free.
• 34:29
  Michelle Jacobik: Um, here's what it meant.
• 34:31
  Michelle Jacobik: The same 350, if I use that benchmark of like $7,500, I would need 47 speaking gigs.
• 34:37
  Michelle Jacobik: I don't want to travel 47 times around the country, right?
• 34:43
  Michelle Jacobik: And actually be living in hotels.
• 34:46
  Michelle Jacobik: Like I finally get myself to my dream location living here in Naples.
• 34:49
  Michelle Jacobik: I don't want to leave.
• 34:51
  Michelle Jacobik: I love it here.
• 34:52
  Michelle Jacobik: So I when I sat down and I started looking at this closer at the mid midpoint last year, I was like, I gotta look at my own playbook, my own metrics, right?
• 35:01
  Michelle Jacobik: And when I reverse engineered it, it was 47 speaking engagements to get to the same 350.
• 35:07
  Michelle Jacobik: And the truth is that I know my metrics.
• 35:09
  Michelle Jacobik: If I can have a conversation, if I can share something useful and helpful to 65 people without even making an offer, I can convert 20% people, right?
• 35:19
  Michelle Jacobik: So that means that with that closing ratio, all I have to do is talk to 65 people a month, and I don't have to go anywhere.
• 35:28
  Michelle Jacobik: I can connect with people, share information in other communities.
• 35:32
  Michelle Jacobik: I run a community, I can invite people into my own rooms.
• 35:35
  Michelle Jacobik: But the truth is that I can easily hit a million by just serving 150 people.
• 35:41
  Michelle Jacobik: I'm literally just shy of a million.
• 35:43
  Michelle Jacobik: But you know what?
• 35:44
  Michelle Jacobik: I didn't sit down.
• 35:45
  Michelle Jacobik: I just was like, oh, that's what I'm gonna do, right?
• 35:47
  Michelle Jacobik: I'm a best-selling author.
• 35:48
  Michelle Jacobik: Da-da-da-da.
• 35:49
  Michelle Jacobik: So I think the biggest thing is really looking at if you're stuck in your cash flow clock, step back, sell something, cut something, re-offer something that worked.
• 35:59
  Michelle Jacobik: What was working for me, I actually started to abandon.
• 36:02
  Michelle Jacobik: And my revenues dropped 30%.
• 36:04
  Michelle Jacobik: And it was starting to look at that to say, what how what's happening?
• 36:08
  Michelle Jacobik: What why am I not generating what should have been an easy benchmark?
• 36:12
  Michelle Jacobik: You were listening to it.
• 36:13
  Michelle Jacobik: Yes, as soon as I re-engaged the field with what was working, everything struck the last 18 months in the right direction.
• 36:23
  Michelle Jacobik: And the truth is, what I want is to serve more people.
• 36:26
  Michelle Jacobik: It's not about more speaking engagements, it's about serving more people and helping them stay in business.
• 36:32
  Michelle Jacobik: That is my goal.
• 36:33
  Michelle Jacobik: I want to help 100,000 businesses until I die.
• 36:36
  Michelle Jacobik: That's my goal.
• 36:38
  Michelle Jacobik: Actually stay in business and do it profitably.
• 36:41
  Michelle Jacobik: So re-engage the field.
• 36:43
  Michelle Jacobik: Yeah.
• 36:43
  Michelle Jacobik: Re-engage your own field, right?
• 36:45
  Michelle Jacobik: And see if what you've done in the past was working, go back to it.
• 36:50
  Michelle Jacobik: If you were networking and you stopped and you realize that your cash flow is clouding, get back out there and network.
• 36:56
  Michelle Jacobik: Build those strategic partnerships, do the things that actually work.
• 36:59
  Michelle Jacobik: Like write a press release for God's sakes.
• 37:02
  Michelle Jacobik: Most people may have done that in the beginning of their business, right?
• 37:05
  Michelle Jacobik: They put out a business brief, they told the chamber what was happening, and they haven't sent anything in in like three years.
• 37:11
  Michelle Jacobik: Right, because you know, the one time was enough.
• 37:14
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 37:14
  Jennifer Johnson: One time is enough.
• 37:15
  Jennifer Johnson: I love what you're saying.
• 37:17
  Jennifer Johnson: It's it's like momentum building.
• 37:19
  Jennifer Johnson: You get the small win of the selling the thing, or you get the small win of cutting something out, and that gives you the courage to take action on a next item and it builds on each other.
• 37:32
  Jennifer Johnson: It's very much like PR.
• 37:34
  Jennifer Johnson: When you get that first win, you're gonna use that first win to get your second win, and so on and so forth.
• 37:40
  Jennifer Johnson: And then it just layers on top of each other, which gives you that great confidence that you can do this.
• 37:47
  Michelle Jacobik: Yeah, absolutely.
• 37:48
  Michelle Jacobik: Absolutely.
• 37:49
  Jennifer Johnson: You know, but what if you get to a point where you feel like the debt is just unmanageable?
• 37:56
  Jennifer Johnson: You you've tried all the things, you've done all this stuff.
• 37:59
  Jennifer Johnson: And what's the first step in trying to untangle this whole, oh my gosh, I'm in debt kind of situation?
• 38:08
  Michelle Jacobik: And it's I'll be honest with you, my phone is off the hook right now because people are there, right?
• 38:13
  Michelle Jacobik: A lot of businesses are there.
• 38:14
  Michelle Jacobik: And I'm seeing people grab for not your traditional streams of leverage, like you know, the personal credit cards or equity line, their home equity lines or business lines.
• 38:24
  Michelle Jacobik: They're grabbing because those things have run out, they're grabbing for things like invoice factoring, they're grabbing for MCA loans, which are absolutely awful, awful.
• 38:33
  Michelle Jacobik: So the first thing that I would say if the debt feels unmanageable is get support, right?
• 38:38
  Michelle Jacobik: You've got the step one is to have clarity so that you can actually craft a repayment plan, right?
• 38:44
  Michelle Jacobik: So many entrepreneurs don't even know what they're spending.
• 38:48
  Michelle Jacobik: And my work honestly starts with untangling the numbers so they can actually make real data-driven decisions and not emotional decisions.
• 38:57
  Michelle Jacobik: And for me, it's data, right?
• 38:58
  Michelle Jacobik: And I can come alongside of people because I've been there with the stress, the shame, the guilt, and help them understand like we you just have to make a different decision today.
• 39:08
  Michelle Jacobik: And sometimes that first decision is I can't do this alone because I might make the wrong decision.
• 39:12
  Michelle Jacobik: So the wrong decision, meaning grabbing an MCA loan, that's at 40%, you don't realize it.
• 39:18
  Michelle Jacobik: And it's a if you already have cash flow problems and these loans are there for you, they're they're coming off of your future accounts receivable.
• 39:26
  Michelle Jacobik: There, a lot of contractors are doing these and getting tons of phone calls.
• 39:29
  Michelle Jacobik: The truth is, if you already have a cash flow problem and you're trying to use the future invoices that you're waiting on from your general contractors or somebody that hired you, or you know, clients that owe you money.
• 39:42
  Michelle Jacobik: It could be, you know, an insurance agent that does financing even.
• 39:45
  Michelle Jacobik: It's a problem because if your people aren't paying you, you aren't going to have the cash flow to pay the daily loan back.
• 39:51
  Michelle Jacobik: Because those are daily loans and weekly loans that crush your cash flow that's already crushed, right?
• 39:56
  Michelle Jacobik: So I think the first thing is untangling the numbers so you can make data-driven, non-emotional decisions and putting this space between your buying decisions, right?
• 40:05
  Michelle Jacobik: I think one of the biggest muscles that we all have to build is actually putting space between ourselves and the buying decision.
• 40:13
  Michelle Jacobik: Marketing is flying at us, credit is available at an all-time high.
• 40:18
  Michelle Jacobik: So we think that grabbing at that thing and not putting some discernment between ourselves and our situation and the actual buying decision is a lot of the problem because we haven't built the muscle of putting something between it, right?
• 40:32
  Michelle Jacobik: The discernment muscle.
• 40:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 40:34
  Michelle Jacobik: And so I think, you know, many times when you hit this wall where it feels unmanageable, um, people go into financial avoidance or they've been there for a while, right?
• 40:43
  Michelle Jacobik: So I see the same things.
• 40:45
  Michelle Jacobik: Like I said, when they're there, they're misaligned spending, they're grabbing at the wrong types of fixes for credit.
• 40:50
  Michelle Jacobik: Um, they're taking and going with like credit repair companies that aren't really even helping with the credit repair.
• 40:56
  Michelle Jacobik: So get the right support, right?
• 40:58
  Michelle Jacobik: It's one of the things that I love to do is just hear what's happening for somebody and make sure that they don't make the wrong decision around the support that they're taking.
• 41:06
  Michelle Jacobik: And the truth is that there are many times where I have to guide somebody on bankruptcy being the right decision.
• 41:12
  Michelle Jacobik: And being okay with the fact, like if you've tried everything, I mean, sometimes the economy is the reason that the business is where it is.
• 41:22
  Michelle Jacobik: And you didn't play, you didn't overplay, you didn't overspend.
• 41:27
  Michelle Jacobik: And when I come alongside of somebody and I see like this is where you are, and it wasn't because of misaligned spending or different things that you've done to go big too fast.
• 41:36
  Michelle Jacobik: Sometimes it's the economy.
• 41:38
  Michelle Jacobik: You've got to have some support to be able to say emotionally, even it's okay, right?
• 41:43
  Michelle Jacobik: You need a reset.
• 41:45
  Michelle Jacobik: And so I think, you know, for me, it's helping people, it's it's that support piece.
• 41:51
  Michelle Jacobik: It's if the debt is unmanageable, don't try to manage it alone.
• 41:54
  Michelle Jacobik: Get support.
• 41:56
  Jennifer Johnson: That's been great advice.
• 41:58
  Jennifer Johnson: Great advice.
• 41:59
  Jennifer Johnson: We're moving into what I call the final four.
• 42:02
  Jennifer Johnson: And it's four questions that I always ask all of my guests because I just am excited to hear the answers because I learn something every single time.
• 42:11
  Jennifer Johnson: Are you ready?
• 42:12
  Jennifer Johnson: I am.
• 42:13
  Jennifer Johnson: All right.
• 42:14
  Jennifer Johnson: What is your favorite book and what was it that made it stick with you?
• 42:19
  Michelle Jacobik: Okay, so my favorite, okay, my favorite book.
• 42:24
  Michelle Jacobik: If I think about my favorite, I won't think about the most recent because I'm an avid reader.
• 42:29
  Michelle Jacobik: Um, I will say never eat alone by Keith Farazzi.
• 42:33
  Michelle Jacobik: Never eat alone.
• 42:34
  Michelle Jacobik: It moved me from being the woman or business owner that would walk in the room, expecting that I was going to leave with business, or like what's in it for me, right?
• 42:46
  Michelle Jacobik: I had this posture in my early 30s.
• 42:49
  Michelle Jacobik: I mean, obviously, I, you know, bought the company that I worked for.
• 42:52
  Michelle Jacobik: I had all of these employees.
• 42:53
  Michelle Jacobik: I had a $17,000 a month loan payment, an $11,000 a week payroll.
• 42:57
  Michelle Jacobik: I was like, I need to get business when I walked in a room, right?
• 43:00
  Michelle Jacobik: But that posture of walking in the room is so like off-putting, right?
• 43:06
  Michelle Jacobik: It's even more off-putting now than it ever was.
• 43:08
  Michelle Jacobik: And I yeah, 25 years ago, that was my posture until I read Never Eat Alone.
• 43:14
  Michelle Jacobik: And I remember thinking, oh my gosh, like it is about building relationships, right?
• 43:21
  Michelle Jacobik: It is about being useful and helpful to somebody else's journey and being part of that and knowing that that's how the world works.
• 43:29
  Michelle Jacobik: The magic of it is synchronicities and the connections and the ability to breathe life into somebody else's dream and vision.
• 43:36
  Michelle Jacobik: So that would be, I think, of all of my books, and I have so many favorite books, that would be one of my favorites for sure.
• 43:45
  Jennifer Johnson: I've read that.
• 43:45
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm gonna have to go back and read it again because I might do the same.
• 43:49
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 43:50
  Jennifer Johnson: You have a favorite quote or piece of advice that you find yourself going back to time and time again.
• 43:57
  Michelle Jacobik: Uh probably two.
• 43:59
  Michelle Jacobik: I'll share one of my own and then I'm gonna share one that um my readers quote, because you know, when e-readers read your book, they highlight and I can see the highlights.
• 44:07
  Michelle Jacobik: And so one of my favorite books, uh, one of my favorite quotes in the Path of Prophets is you can be profitable at the expense of your you could be profitable at the expense of your life, or you can be profitable in support of it.
• 44:20
  Jennifer Johnson: That's great.
• 44:20
  Michelle Jacobik: That's one of my favorite quotes, right?
• 44:21
  Michelle Jacobik: Because it is a choice, right?
• 44:23
  Michelle Jacobik: Whether we want to be profitable, right?
• 44:25
  Michelle Jacobik: Because I built the monster and literally like my family got crumbs, right?
• 44:30
  Michelle Jacobik: I was the mom at the games who was always on the phone answering calls, da-da-da, acting like I wasn't working.
• 44:35
  Michelle Jacobik: And the truth was I was always working, right?
• 44:37
  Michelle Jacobik: I and so yeah, I was profitable at the expense of my life, not profitable in support of it.
• 44:42
  Michelle Jacobik: So I think that's one.
• 44:44
  Michelle Jacobik: The second one um that I love is don't let blind people proofread your vision, right?
• 44:49
  Michelle Jacobik: Oh, I've heard yet.
• 44:51
  Michelle Jacobik: That's mine.
• 44:52
  Michelle Jacobik: That's mine.
• 44:53
  Michelle Jacobik: Don't let blind people proofread your vision.
• 44:55
  Michelle Jacobik: So it may not be politically correct today, right?
• 44:57
  Michelle Jacobik: But the truth is that we have so many people in our circle, family members, friends, that just don't get it.
• 45:03
  Michelle Jacobik: We're entrepreneurs, they aren't gonna get it.
• 45:05
  Michelle Jacobik: We think they're gonna be our customers, they we think they're gonna be our raving fans, we think they're gonna share out our stuff.
• 45:10
  Michelle Jacobik: The truth is they can't see what you see.
• 45:14
  Michelle Jacobik: So you have to make sure that the people that are in your front row, I've been telling my kids are in almost in my daughter's 31, my son's 25, be careful who you put in your front row.
• 45:24
  Michelle Jacobik: There's only one front row in the arena.
• 45:27
  Michelle Jacobik: Don't discard people, so to speak, right?
• 45:30
  Michelle Jacobik: They can go in the other bleachers, other other seats in the bleachers, but who you put in that front row is so important, right?
• 45:36
  Michelle Jacobik: So don't let blind blind people proofread your vision.
• 45:39
  Michelle Jacobik: Get around people that are big dreamers and that are gonna support you and breathe life into you and see the light that you're that you are in the world, not somebody that wants to blow out your candle or darken the room when you walk in.
• 45:52
  Jennifer Johnson: That's fabulous.
• 45:53
  Jennifer Johnson: What is one habit or practice that has changed your life for the better?
• 46:03
  Michelle Jacobik: Hard question, I know.
• 46:05
  Michelle Jacobik: Okay.
• 46:06
  Michelle Jacobik: This is what came up for me intuitively.
• 46:09
  Michelle Jacobik: So I have an appointment with my voice of doubt every Friday at 410.
• 46:13
  Michelle Jacobik: Every Friday.
• 46:14
  Michelle Jacobik: Um, you know, the voice that says, Oh my god, I have to talk on Jen's podcast today, and I have no idea whether we're gonna like, oh my god, what if what if I don't bring value?
• 46:22
  Michelle Jacobik: The voice that just it's that voice of doubt, right?
• 46:26
  Michelle Jacobik: The barking dogs.
• 46:27
  Michelle Jacobik: It's um a voice that says, I have a talk tomorrow to a group of 400 people, and am I going to suck?
• 46:33
  Michelle Jacobik: Is my tech gonna work?
• 46:34
  Michelle Jacobik: All the things, right?
• 46:35
  Michelle Jacobik: What if I disappoint them?
• 46:36
  Michelle Jacobik: What if I disappoint the host, right?
• 46:38
  Michelle Jacobik: What if insert whatever?
• 46:40
  Michelle Jacobik: I literally started this practice back in 2019 when all of the visibility stuff was scaring the crap out of me, right?
• 46:47
  Michelle Jacobik: When I was being called to come into more spaces to have more conversations, right?
• 46:53
  Michelle Jacobik: Remember, I owned an insurance agency and while I had 7,000 clients, I did that one on one, right?
• 46:57
  Michelle Jacobik: Or in board meetings, and it was like not so visible.
• 47:01
  Michelle Jacobik: And um That was really scary for me.
• 47:03
  Michelle Jacobik: And so I had in order to continue to be in mission and in order to continue to do big things and make the impact that I want to make in the world, I have to stop the barking dog so I can keep moving.
• 47:13
  Michelle Jacobik: So here's what happens when it starts, and it starts on Monday at four o'clock, or it starts on Tuesday morning at nine, because I know I'm having this podcast with you, whatever, whatever it is that week, right?
• 47:24
  Michelle Jacobik: Some weeks that some weeks I don't hear it, but there's always spaces where I do.
• 47:28
  Michelle Jacobik: I simply say, you have to come back Friday at 4 10.
• 47:32
  Michelle Jacobik: I have no room for you right now.
• 47:34
  Michelle Jacobik: And here's what happens on my phone Friday at 4 10.
• 47:38
  Michelle Jacobik: I don't care if I'm hosting an event, my alarm will go off.
• 47:41
  Michelle Jacobik: And I'll joke about it because I talk about this inside of my inner circles, and I'll say, What is that?
• 47:47
  Michelle Jacobik: And they're like, Oh, the voice of doubt.
• 47:48
  Michelle Jacobik: Yes, I give myself 20 minutes between 4'10 and 4:30 to let that voice have its space.
• 47:54
  Michelle Jacobik: And here's what happens: by the time the alarm goes off, most times Friday at 4'10, when I'm thinking about what was, what were the thoughts, what were the fears, the doubts, the things that it was saying, it's already, I've already bypassed it.
• 48:06
  Michelle Jacobik: Like I took action and I executed.
• 48:08
  Michelle Jacobik: So there is no voice, right?
• 48:09
  Michelle Jacobik: It's like, oh, you were wrong, right?
• 48:11
  Michelle Jacobik: And where there is time where where something might keep coming up, I have 20 minutes to journal about it, work it out, see if any of the tools that I have, whether it's meditation, visualization, anything that I need to do, writing down the evidence that says that this isn't true, right?
• 48:28
  Michelle Jacobik: Like, is it true is one of my favorite questions.
• 48:31
  Michelle Jacobik: Um, having that 20 minutes is everything.
• 48:34
  Michelle Jacobik: So that is probably the biggest habit, uh, or I would say practice or ritual.
• 48:40
  Michelle Jacobik: I like the word ritual over routine, um, that has changed my life for the better.
• 48:45
  Michelle Jacobik: And I think that sharing it here hopefully will help somebody else as well.
• 48:48
  Jennifer Johnson: I that is so great.
• 48:50
  Jennifer Johnson: I have never heard anyone say that before.
• 48:52
  Jennifer Johnson: And I think that added a great amount of value to our listeners because they're probably going, oh my gosh, I'm totally gonna do that.
• 49:01
  Jennifer Johnson: And it could be whatever time works for you, right?
• 49:03
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 49:04
  Jennifer Johnson: Exactly.
• 49:04
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 49:05
  Jennifer Johnson: And my final question is if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be and why?
• 49:12
  Michelle Jacobik: I would say I would want to have dinner with Wayne Dyer.
• 49:15
  Michelle Jacobik: I love Wayne Dyer.
• 49:17
  Michelle Jacobik: You know, he passed on, but he had been a true mentor and a guide to me for 20 plus years.
• 49:22
  Michelle Jacobik: Uh, he moved me from that Tony Robbins, you know, goal, goal, goal, hustle, hustle, hustle into, and I loved it because I feel like Tony moved at the same time that I did.
• 49:31
  Michelle Jacobik: He moved into also a holistic place of it, can't be all about the, you know, crushing your goals.
• 49:37
  Michelle Jacobik: It's more, you know, his NLP and all that.
• 49:39
  Michelle Jacobik: So um, Wayne Dyer, I I still listen to him almost daily.
• 49:44
  Michelle Jacobik: I would love to sit down and have dinner and have one-on-one conversation with him about my work and the bigger impact that I want to make and literally just get his one-on-one guidance.
• 49:53
  Michelle Jacobik: So he would be the person that I think that comes top of mind for me.
• 49:57
  Jennifer Johnson: That would be a great conversation.
• 49:58
  Jennifer Johnson: Great for certain.
• 50:00
  Jennifer Johnson: Michelle, this has been a uh joy to have you on.
• 50:04
  Jennifer Johnson: You provided immense value to our listeners today, and I appreciate that very much as I know they do as well.
• 50:10
  Jennifer Johnson: For our listeners who want to learn more about your path to profits and what you do, how can they get in touch with you?
• 50:18
  Michelle Jacobik: Yeah, so the easiest way to find me is uh simply follow me on socials at Michelle Jacobic on Instagram, Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, right?
• 50:28
  Michelle Jacobik: I have a weekly Path to Profits newsletter where I share tips and tricks and different things about business.
• 50:33
  Michelle Jacobik: And then visit my website, right?
• 50:35
  Michelle Jacobik: If you are interested in getting some support around, you know, the business consultancy, the financial foundations piece, and just getting out of those weeds, you could set up a call with me.
• 50:45
  Michelle Jacobik: There's a link on the website.
• 50:46
  Michelle Jacobik: And again, it's just Michelle Jacobic.com.
• 50:49
  Michelle Jacobik: I try to keep things pretty simple.
• 50:50
  Michelle Jacobik: And then grab the book.
• 50:51
  Michelle Jacobik: You know, um, the book is if you have a Spotify premium subscription, you can listen to the audiobook for free.
• 50:57
  Michelle Jacobik: Many people have audible credits.
• 50:59
  Michelle Jacobik: Go download your credits and cancel the subscription or pause it until you've listened to the things that are there.
• 51:04
  Michelle Jacobik: But you can grab the audio version if that's easy for you.
• 51:07
  Michelle Jacobik: A lot of entrepreneurs are busy.
• 51:08
  Michelle Jacobik: And, you know, while the book you can listen to it, the theory will change your life.
• 51:13
  Michelle Jacobik: But the exercises are the place, the intersection of where the transformation happens.
• 51:18
  Michelle Jacobik: And at each at the end of each chapter, there's exercises for you to be able to implement the vision, the flow, and the grow.
• 51:24
  Michelle Jacobik: And if reading isn't your jam, come to my event in November, which is actually going to be here in Naples that I'm hosting.
• 51:31
  Michelle Jacobik: And it's where I actually walk you through all of the pillars where you get to meet other entrepreneurs, but go through the whole business planning for the next year, the upcoming year.
• 51:39
  Michelle Jacobik: And we're on year eight.
• 51:41
  Michelle Jacobik: So, you know, if somebody's listening to this in two years, guess what?
• 51:43
  Michelle Jacobik: Envision will still be happening.
• 51:45
  Michelle Jacobik: It just might be in another town.
• 51:46
  Michelle Jacobik: Yeah.
• 51:47
  Jennifer Johnson: Fabulous.
• 51:48
  Jennifer Johnson: Thank you so much, Michelle, for joining us today.
• 51:51
  Jennifer Johnson: And thank you to all of my listeners.
• 51:53
  Jennifer Johnson: I will see you again.
• 51:54
  Jennifer Johnson: Thanks, Jen.