My business is shifting... Come behind the scenes with me | 98
I’ll be the first to tell you change can be a scary thing, especially when it comes to your business. I’ve had my business long enough to know that shifts and pivots happen - and I always come out better because of them. But, it doesn’t stop that pit in my stomach that says, “Jenzaia, you are self-sabotaging!”
In episode 98, I am lifting the curtain and giving you an inside peek to my business. Right now, I am in the midst of a messy phase as my business undergoes big changes. It’s scary to talk about because I know people will have their opinions, but also I’m so excited to share this new passion project.
Where I Started
I wasn’t always a FB Ads expert. Actually, I started as a seller on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace for educators to sell teaching resources. I started running Facebook Ads for my own business, and eventually someone said, “Hey, I’ll pay you to run my Facebook Ads.”
I had no idea people could get paid to run Facebook Ads, but I ran with the idea and have built a business that I love doing it. The good news is - my Facebook Ads services aren’t going anywhere!
Where I’m Headed
Last year in October, you may have noticed the Market, Scale, Grow podcast making small shifts and changes. Instead of just talking about paid ads, I brodended to talking about building a well-rounded marketing plan that I call holistic marketing.
Holistic marketing is the idea of looking at the entire marketing elements of your business and customer journey, and making sure they are functioning together. Instead of seeing your social media, email marketing, and blogs are separate entities - you want a top down view. How do they connect and intertwine? How do they support each other? How do they support your customers (and potential customers)?
Pssst, want to learn more about holistic marketing? Download the FREE guide to Creating a Holistic Marketing Strategy for Your Teacherpreneur Business.
I’ve talked a lot about holistic marketing on the podcast in the past year (like episode 64 on Holistic Marketing Tips in a Crisis and episode 55 on Facebook Ads as a Part of Holistic Marketing), and while I didn’t exactly know it at the time, they have led me to this shift.
Along with Facebook Ads, I am now offering marketing strategy sessions! We can work together with a 12 week package. During this time, we will look at the current marketing elements of your business, gather data, and craft a game plan for making sure each element is pulling its weight and moving the needle in your business.
These holistic marketing plans are specifically built for you and your business. It’s not a prescribed program that we are implementing. I absolutely love doing these sessions because my clients walk away with clarity and are actually excited to market (I know, crazy idea). Plus, I promise to be your hype girl during the entire session!
Book Yours Now —> Let’s Chat Strategy Sessions!
The biggest takeaway I hope you have though is that changing and shifting in your business is scary - and oh-so amazing. If I listened to what everyone said I “should” do in my business, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Be open to change…and then changing again!
Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @heyitsjenzaia and tune in next Saturday for more business tips and strategies!
xo, Jenzaia
Thanks for listening to this week’s Saturday Strategy Session! If you found this podcast helpful for your teacherpreneur journey, then head over to iTunes, so you can subscribe and leave a review. Each and every review means the world to me and helps me continue to create valuable content while also reaching more fellow ambitious teacher business owners just like you!
Episode Transcript:
Hey there, I'm Jenzaia and this is Market Scale Growth, a podcast created for ambitious entrepreneurs looking to have a bigger impact on the world, achieve freedom, and flexibility, and ultimately make more money with weekly strategy sessions and inspiring stories from fellow teachers just like you. My goal here is to help you create a customized marketing strategy so you can grow your teacher business beyond your wildest dream.
Okay, so before we hop into the episode, I just want to remind you to download my free guide to Facebook targeting audiences. It has been created specifically for teacher business owners and I go through the warm lookalike and cold interest-based audiences that you need to have set up to be running Facebook and Instagram ads. There are checklists and brainstorming pages so that you know you have everything. But as an exciting special, I'm opening up some audience audit calls where you can hop onto a 15-minute zoom call with me and you'll get my eyes on your audiences so that you can make sure not only do you have all the audiences, but they truly are perfect for your business. So head to Marketscalegrow.com/Audienceaudit to book your free audience audit call today.
Welcome back to Market Scale Grow. I'm your host Jenzaia, and this is a Saturday strategy session. Today we are gonna be talking about something really, really important.
And it is marketing. It is marketing related. It's not Facebook ad-related, but my business, my life, not my life. My business is going through a shift right now, and I wanna take you on the journey because, Uh, so often you hear these and you see these people going through these shifts on the business, and it's, it's like, Hey, huge announcement.
This change is happening. Or it's a podcast episode and it's like, six months ago I made these decisions and I thought, So for full transparency. Today is August, It is not August. It is October 13th, and this episode is scheduled to air on November 12th. So I am recording it a month in advance. Um, because I'm a good little, little business owner.
I'm a good little, uh, client and I like to get the episodes to my podcast editor and my copywriter early so that they have time to work there. Um, but this is real-time. Like by the time this episode comes out, my business will not have pivoted, right? And so I want you to really see the behind-the-scenes, understand and if you're going through something like this,, to feel not alone, right?
Because it's scary. And, um, before I dive into what's currently happening back in 2020, I found Facebook ads for my own business and I kind of started doing it and I was talking to people about it and I helped some of my friends and they're like, Oh, cool, you can do Facebook ads. Why do you help me?
And then, a mutual friend of those friends was like, Hey, I'll pay you. And I was like, Wait, what? Do people pay for this? I think I've told this story before on the podcast, but like, I had no. No idea, which is just insane. But no idea that people paid for Facebook ad support and Facebook ad strategy and any of that.
And I love doing Facebook ads. I still really enjoy Facebook ads. Um, but I love doing it. And I was like, Oh, I can get paid for this. Yes, please sign me up. I will take more of that. Thank you very much. And so with that, um, Before I started doing Facebook ads, I was a TPT seller, primarily, exclusively. I had a miniature mini course that I sold very few spots to, and um, but mainly I was a TPT seller.
And, um, the pandemic was great for me because I had tons of digital resources. And so, uh, I went from making. A couple hundred dollars a month to make a couple thousand dollars a month. And it was great. But I really,, felt this pull towards Facebook ads and I just knew something deep in my soul knew like, this is where my business is going, but I had no idea how to make the pivot or make the change.
And so I kind of froze and. It's a little bit harder to see now because I've archived a lot of posts, but at the time, if you had gone back in my news or not my newsfeed, my Instagram feed, there was a good few weeks where I just didn't post anything cuz I had no idea how to make the transition. And it felt hard and it felt sticky and I, there are no examples that I could follow.
About how to like just jump in and go. And so finally after tiptoeing a little bit here and a little bit there, I finally did make that jump. And um, yeah, it was, it was really good after that. But, so I really just want you to know that I'm going through the messy part right now. I'm going through the hard part and I'm gonna let you see inside my brain a little bit, um, and explain some of the changes that are happening.
And how it is completely normal for us to grow and evolve and lean into new things over time. But I also wanna say that I'm really struggling with feeling like I'm self-sabotaging right now because my Facebook ad business is doing really well and I still enjoy Facebook ads. I'm, and to any clients of mine current or potential.
I'm not stopping Facebook ads. This change that's coming is not like the one I did back in 2020 where. M my t p t store has been on the back burner ever since. It was a conscious decision that this is now passive income and my Facebook ads are my focus. Whereas now I wanna add, and this change that's happening is adding a layer on top of the Facebook ad.
So I'm not, not saying goodbye to any of my clients. I'm not shutting down the shop. I'm continuing my Facebook ads. So just so that's clear. That is continuing. I still enjoy doing them and I will continue doing them. Right. Um, but again, it's normal to, pivot and evolve. And if you're going through this and you're like, Okay.
No, but I need to shut down that part of my business, the old piece, to move into the new piece. That's okay too. That's what I did back in 2020, and now I'm layering on top, but my brain is still saying, Oh, you're self-sabotaging this new piece that you've been getting pulled towards. And I'm gonna talk about that aspect in a.
Um, but this new piece that I'm getting pulled towards, I've been getting pulled towards it for a while now, right? And just waiting and letting it formulate and trying to determine exactly how I wanna layer it on top has been a really important part of this business. So I just, if you're in this moment where you're starting to get pulled to somewhere, I don't want you to make a rash decision and be like, Oh, Jen z I said, Just go for it.
I want you to let it percolate. Let it. Whether you like coffee or tea, I went in both directions there. But, uh, I want you just like, let it, let it percolate in you. Let it evolve and let it come out and find the natural and authentic way for you to go about whatever the shift might be. Okay? So now that I've kind of talked through that, what exactly is even happening?
And that is why I'm leaning into holistic marketing more. And if you've been listening to the podcast and I'm following my Instagram, this is a shift in my content that's kind of been happening for a while now. I, episode 44 is when this started. I. Created this, holistic marketing braid is what I called it, because these different elements layer on top of each other, and if you think of each one as its own little rope when you braid them together, they become stronger.
And you have this holistic marketing strategy. And that concept has just evolved with me over time. So episode 44 would've been, oh my, I'm gonna open Buzzsprout and I'm gonna find out. That's me typing right now, getting Buzzsprout open. Um, okay. Episode 44 was on October 16th. Oh my gosh. It was like a year ago.
Cuz today, right now is October 13th, so I might have even, Okay. Back then I was recording mine. Either the day they went live or the day before they went live. So I probably recorded that episode on October 15th. So that's like super cool that this is a, like a moment if you will. Um, so the holistic mark approach to marketing.
Go back, and listen to episode 44. It's great. We'll link it in the description, and in the blog post in all of the places. I'll make sure it's there because it's. Was one of my favorite episodes ever. Even now, if someone asks about my podcast, it's one of the episodes that I like directing people to. So, um, yeah, that's where it all started.
And since then, well even before then, I. Uh, the idea of holistic marketing. I love Facebook ads and I think that they're really important I think that we wait too long to get into them, but Facebook ads only work in,, a complete ecosystem, in a holistic approach, especially now, especially where the digital marketing space is.
And so, um, yeah, I've just been getting pulled towards that, and so I've been kind of, Considering how I can add a holistic marketing strategy and support. To my business, and I do this with my clients. When we first get started, we talk about strategy, we talk about all of these pieces, but I wanted it to be more, and so I have been thinking about like coaching for marketing and, uh, director of marketing or DOM services, so like fractional CMO services where, um, fractional CMO services are where you don't need a full-time chief marketing officer. You, you just need like, a fraction of one. Right? So just trying to figure out where it all goes and how it all fits together and how I can support more.
Of that holistic marketing, that strategy piece that I love. And so I've kind of landed on the one-to-one coaching support because I love strategy sessions. They're my absolute favorite. In fact, um, my business coach and I. got into a discussion about strategy sessions. One of her favorite questions to ask is, What would you do with six figures?
Or if you're at six figures, what would multiple six figures do you do? Or what would seven figures do? Right? It's such a great question, like envisioning your future and what you would do, and so many of the other girls in the program were like, Oh, I don't wanna be on calls at all. . And so I started to feel like, Okay, I need to get rid of calls.
I need to get rid of these strategy sessions, or I need to increase their prices like I'm charging at the time it was 1 47, I need to get up to 1 97, 2 47, 2 90, 97, right? And I did. I increased the prices of my hour-long strategy sessions. Considered taking them off of my website. But there was just this nagging voice in the back of my head that was saying, Jenaya, you need to keep them affordable and you cannot get rid of them.
And I didn't understand because like seven-figure me, would, would she be on calls? I don't, I don't know. Right. And everyone around me is saying six-figure them wouldn't even be on calls. And six figures you are still on calls. So, it is seven-figure you gonna be on calls is multi-six-figure you gonna be on calls.
I love these calls these are my favorite. When I see somebody's booked an hour-long strategy session, I get so excited. Like, I just love these calls. And so something just, I couldn't take them off my website. I couldn't get rid of them from my scheduler. I, I just, I didn't want to Right. And. It took me a really long time and a lot of back and forth with my business coach and re-listening to coaching calls, which by the way, is one of the best things that you can do, especially if.
As it was, you got defensive, which I often do when I'm getting coached. Um, get defensive or something isn't sitting right with you, going back and listening. Once you're in a different head space and there aren't other people listening and you're not trying to defend yourself, there's so much gold that can come from that.
Um, if you can get it. The nails on the chalkboard are your own voice, or it's not just me who thinks their voice sounds like a nail on the chalkboard. Okay. So anyway, I couldn't get rid of those one-to-one strategy sessions cause I love them so much and so I've been. Trying to figure out how I can add holistic marketing to my business.
I realized that I wanted more of that. I wanted more one-to-one interactions with clients and more support, and I didn't want it to be a one-off. Right now, for my strategy sessions, I would say about 80. 90% of them are single strategy sessions. Some people rebook, and I also offer packs of three.
But, um, that, that is by far the minority. For most people, it's just one single session, right? And so I was trying to figure out how I can bring more of that to my business, More of that to my life. And so I started to flirt with, if you will, the idea. Like a bigger, longer package that involved more, right?
So because I love the one-to-one, I love the interaction, the strategy, and I also love marketing strategy. Um, All like, it just kind of suddenly made sense, like a coaching package where you're working with people to develop these strategic holistic marketing plans for their business that they can then go and implement into their business over the next, uh, six to 12 weeks, depending on what plan we create.
Right. And I just wanna say like, what's so, so, so important here is to realize that there's no right way. And even though I'm like a marketing expert and I preach this, like there is no right way. Like webinars work, challenges work, and video series work, but they also don't work, right? It's all just, it's not about the right strategy, it's about finding what's right for you and making it your own.
And so, Strategy sessions and these one-off calls were right for me, like I love them. And so, I had to make it like what I wanted for my business. And that next step is no longer, well, I still will offer the single strategy sessions, um, but to create an opportunity, have those longer. Coaching interactions, right?
So I'm really, really excited about that and it's gonna gimme the chance to help more teacher business owners figure out what's right for them and how they can lean into their strategy and make it their own, and market their business in authentic, sustainable ways, which is just like so important to me.
Like I'm getting goosebumps from it. Um, okay. Um, next question I kind of already covered where it all started. And that like all the pieces has been falling into place and I've just kind of been sitting with it and trying to listen and journal and talk through it. I'm a talking kind of person if you didn't catch that from my podcast.
And so, um, just trying to like, like let myself create it and to let it bubble to fruition. So that's kind of where we're at. Um, I also have been like letting go of what should be, and I think I really addressed this when I was telling the story about like, The rest of the people in my mastermind group saying, Oh, I wanna get rid of calls.
And me being like, Oh, I want more of them. And then just like thinking, I definitely thought like I shouldn't want calls, right? Like as you get more advanced, quote unquote in your business and your business grows, you shouldn't want to be on calls. But I do. And so there's been a lot of like-minded work I've done on, um, leaning into what lights me.
And listening to what I want and what feels right to me versus what I should want. And then, um, the next question I wrote down is, what does it mean for my business going forward? And I did address this a little bit at the beginning, but let's go into it now. So for now, uh, nothing major is changing. I do have two spaces that I've opened up on my calendar.
For private coaching clients. So if what I'm talking about is creating a marketing plan for your business that's strategic and holistic and really unique to you and designed for you, if that's something that you're looking for. If you feel like you have a little bit of this going on and a little bit of that going on and it's all kind of working by itself, but you wanna streamline it into.
Like a really clear strategic customer journey and marketing plan. Then send me a DM on Instagram. I'm at, Hey Jenaya. I'd love to chat with you about the package and see if it'd be a good fit for you, but really like for the time being, nothing major is changing. I'm still running. I have a full roster of Facebook ad clients.
Love running Facebook ads, so I don't wanna abandon it. Right? So this is like me exploring the coaching side and um, figuring out. If I really like it as much as I think I do, I like it. Um, because who knows, maybe a one-off hour-long strategy session is my sweet spot and I just need to lean into that. And maybe three-month coaching packages, uh, will be absolute horror, will and will like make me want to pull my teeth out.
right? Like, who knows? Um, and so I think it's important when we're getting pulled in different directions. that we like to tiptoe into things and feel it out and let our emotions. I, I mean, from a human design perspective, I don't remember a lot about my human design in and of itself, but, One thing that really stuck out to me is that I can be very emotional, and it's really important for me as a human to ride the emotional waves.
and wait until those emotions have settled. And so for me, riding it out and just like waiting on it, sitting on it, thinking about it a lot has been really helpful. Cuz there's moments where I'm like, Just burn it all down. Just burn it all down. You don't wanna do this. You're just trying to self-sabotage.
And then there are other moments where I'm like, Go all in. Go all in and just do it right now. Right. And so letting them. Positive and negative settling has helped me stay clear-minded in all of this. And that kind of leads me to the last question and the last thought that I wanna go to is how am I feeling?
And so I've brought up self-sabotaging a couple times because, uh, I guess maybe I've been listening to some podcasts where they talk about self-sabotage and specifically in. Your business hits a certain level and instead of leaning into the success that you're having, um, you're self-sabotaging by going away from that success and starting something new.
And I, I've really sat with that and I wonder if that's what I'm doing. It doesn't feel like that's what I'm doing because I'm not running away from Facebook ads. I'm continuing them. I will continue them for the foreseeable future. And I, I feel like the way I'm going about it won't cause this stall in my business.
Those podcast episodes I've been listening to or talked about, um, I'm also concerned about my current clients. Like if any of you are listening, I know I've said it a couple times I'm still running your ads. You are still like, A huge part of what I love doing and what I'm gonna continue doing. So I'm, but I'm still worried that they're going to feel like I'm abandoning them and or that they're gonna have their thoughts and that they're gonna have their feelings, which are absolutely allowed to have thoughts and feelings.
But, um, I'm really, I've been journaling about this one of how to not worry about other people and whether it's my clients. Like you could just be a casual listener of the podcast and you could have your own. About this and your judgments and whatever, and I, I'm worried about that. Like, well, what will other people think of me pivoting my business, right?
Um, what will, well, how will other people look at me and what are they gonna think? So, um, I don't have an answer for that one. I am just trying to remember that like, it really doesn't matter what other people think, as long as my clients don't think that I'm abandoning them. But really, like, it doesn't, it doesn't matter like what's important is does it light me up and does it bring me joy?
And it does. So that's the last thing that I have written down right now I'm feeling excited. I'm feeling really, really excited about this change, and I'm feeling fired up and it very, very much feels. When I learned I could get paid to do Facebook ads. Like, what? This is great. Like, let's do more of this.
Right? And so I, because I'm feeling lit up and I'm feeling excited about it, and I'm feeling like a kid in a candy store in a little way that feels really cool to me. It feels exciting and fresh. Um, just like them, an experience that I am so ready for and ready to take my business to that next level.
So, okay. Those are all of my thoughts and feelings and the inner workings of Gen Z's brain about my shifting. With the changes that are coming in my business and like right now, at the moment, I probably won't have another episode about this until the new year, but I promise to give another update as these things continue to happen.
Um, and I say I won't have another episode because we are gonna be, we're gonna be taking some breaks. Let me look at my schedule. Um, where is it? Here it is. So right now I currently have episodes scheduled until December 17th. Um, but I did just get another request. For an interview. So, um, I don't know. I don't know.
This is such a casual chat, um, because I released podcasts on Saturday, December 24th, which is Christmas Eve, and then December 31st, which is New Year's Eve, our Saturdays this year. Which is pretty exciting. Um, I love it when holidays fall on the weekend, but just because of that, I really don't think I'm gonna have episodes come out those two weeks.
Uh, it just doesn't feel like good timing to me, and I said this over the summer, but taking a break is important. I want my podcast manager to take a break. I want my podcast copywriter to take a break. I want them to be able to enjoy their lives and their families without stressing out about podcast episodes having to come out.
So I really do think that we're gonna be taking the two-week break and then coming back January 7th. So, Yeah, that's my thoughts right there about this. But, um, in the new year, actually, I'm gonna write it down. I already have a topic for January 7th. Maybe I'll switch it to this one. Um, but I promise to give you another update about where the business is, um, and where these, these changes in the pivots and what the next couple of months and how things are going.
Um, you can also get updates like this on Instagram. Um, and then just one last thing. This is episode 98. So in two episodes, we have episode 100 coming and I'm gonna be doing a q and a. So if you have any questions, feel free to send me a DM or keep an eye on my stories on Instagram. Again, I'm @heyitsjenzaia, so many calls to get you to Instagram today.
I'm gonna have some question boxes over the next few weeks. To pull questions for episode 100, so I'm really super excited about that. I can't believe we hit episode 100. Uh, we've been doing this for about a year and a half now. Originally I was doing two episodes a week, um, and about a year ago now, I still had a few weeks that had a second episode.
But then, going into 2022, I cut back to one episode a week. So, um, but it's been really cool to grow and grow so quickly. So I can't believe episode 100 is here two weeks away. Um, but yeah, so get those questions in obviously two weeks away from November and that episode is gonna be like almost the day before that kind of thing was recorded.
Cause I wanna make sure I get all the questions. So, I will chat with you soon and I hope that you are having a wonderful day. I'll be back next week for an interview. I will be in your ear next Saturday. Thank you so much for listening to Market Scale Growth. If you're ready to build your email list and generate consistent leads on autopilot, then we would love to partner with you.
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Head to marketscalegrow.com/worktogether fill out the application and someone from my team will be in contact with you to schedule a free strategy session to ensure that it's a good fit and to get you on the path to consistent lead generation with team JD. Thank you again for listening, and I look forward to working with you.