Behind The Spotlight: Lani Jackson

Hey, hope everyone's had a great day. I cannot wait to bring you this next interview in with Behind the Spotlight. I forgot to put the Behind the Spotlight graphic up, but that's okay. You are gonna meet my friend Lonnie. She is amazing. Yep, here she comes. Gonna request her to bring her on. And Lonnie is one of them. Wait till you see this blonde bombshell because She has 6 children. Yes, you heard me, 6 children. There she is. I was just talking about all your babies.

Thank you. Speaking of babies, they had my phone right before this, so I'm like, is the screen or yours at me?

Tell everyone about you because I have your info here. You are a business strategist, yes, mindset clarity coach, and the founder of Empowered to Profit More, a program for female entrepreneurs who are ready. You have to be ready. Design your life and business that they love, empowering themselves to create that amazing customer strategy that brings in what? Profit, time, energy, fulfillment, and revenue. Welcome, Lonnie, to the show.

Thank you for having me. You know, I love doing anything with you, Beth.

It's the— oh, we always do have a good time together. So Lani, let's start with telling people a little bit about you. And because I know you so well, I know you are not going to give me your bio. You're actually going to give me your story, but how you got started. As long as Instagram cooperates. I don't want to have dead air. Like, first, so as a PR media person, having dead air is the worst, but I have bars. So when Lonnie comes back on, I really want to talk about how to actually grow your business in a way that doesn't make you feel crappy, right? I hear from business owners all the time how they're they're just doing what somebody told them to do, or they're going to create the framework for that person. But actually, Lani teaches you how to create a business the way you need it to be.

Yeah, I don't know what happened there, but I'm back. Who knows? Yeah, so I'll give you my story and tell you kind of how I got here. So I've been an entrepreneur for 15 years. I started some businesses when I was younger. My very first business and business plan I ever made. I didn't really know what I was doing. I was 15 years old and I had babysitting kids and I did a birthday party for my younger sister and all the moms were like, can you do that for us? And I was like, yes, let me write all my expenses and how much you're going to charge you. And I made a whole business plan on how I was going to cover all my expenses and what I was going to charge and how much money I was going to make, even hiring some of my friends to come and help me do it. So that was my first business plan I ever made. But fast forward to when I was having babies and getting started with just one kiddo. Now I have 6. I had— I did MLM businesses. I was a virtual assistant right when blogging was really starting to take off. I began blogging and I would have always had this fascination of behind the scenes and brainstorming and getting creative and I always felt like I couldn't copy anyone else because I just didn't fit the mold.

Not feeling anybody's mold. Not at all.

And I would see everybody else, they had like these beautiful homes with white couches and white walls and perfectly styled homes. And I'm like, I got, you know, milk on milk stains and trash everywhere from kids leaving the trail of snacks. And I'm like picking up constantly. And I felt like I could never show my home. I couldn't show up as me because my hair wasn't a mop. Bun. I like— nobody taught me to do my makeup perfectly. All these things that had like felt like I couldn't be successful because I wasn't like them. And finally I had to learn, stop trying to do what they're doing and do what works for me and how I like to show up because I'm different and I don't need to be them to have a successful business. Not that anything's wrong with them, and they probably have chaos behind them, just not in their, you know, frame of the Instagram or Pinterest account. So I learned, okay, I can show up differently. I can say I have this much time. What can I do with this too much time to do like a ton and all like really hyper-focused action to get me where I want to go? And that's really how I got into being an entrepreneur and then I became a Coach because I really was lonely, wanted to meet up with other moms and women and get out of my house and my kiddos. And whenever we would get together, I would spend the whole time telling them, oh, you should do this, you need to do this. And what if— let me just like paint you a picture. And I would tell them all these things they should do. And I was like, this is the best. And one day after one of these meetups, one of the girls goes, man, you are so good at this, you know, brainstorming. I was like, I just want to get paid to brainstorm all day long. And she goes, girl, that's called coaching. So I was like, oh yeah, I can do that. So that's how the idea got started with me really actually getting paid to do what I was already doing.

I love that. I have to tell you how much I love the brainstorm hot seat of my mastermind as well. I know you have a mastermind. About it in a few minutes. But like that, I actually was just talking to my coach before we got on. And after this launch, I want to see how I can kind of change my offer. So it's more about helping you move the needle because in my cohort right now, we haven't honestly been doing the teachings of our hot seats. And the two women today in the group, like I, their, their lives are different. And they said that to me today. And I was— they're like, I got this and I feel different. And I'm— and it's little tweaks. But if I didn't have the chance to really sit with them and hot seat with them every week, that wouldn't be happening. So to me, it's like, oh, our people need that kind of stuff rather than the straight coaching. Because doesn't everybody say, I just need somebody to look at my business. I just need some— right? That's what you do.

Exactly. I find— I bought all the plug and plays. Like, oh, just take this course, put it into action, you'll have the same results. I just don't see that working anymore. Maybe it did when, you know, all these platforms were starting, but it doesn't work like that anymore. And to stand out, you have to stand out by your uniqueness, your personality, your story. Exactly what you teach everybody to do is like, that is what people gravitate to. They're tired of this, like, just do these 5 steps and you're going to be perfectly fine, because it's not true. So I really love those brainstorm sessions. Like you said, getting in and like in real time as we are growing together, making adjustments. Why do you need to wait 6 months to figure out if this is working?

You don't. It's all about the data here and now. I think we wait too long to make changes in our business, or we very discouraged and we give up. Not us, of course, but other people give up or You know, I get a lot of DMs from people, or I get— my clients are like, I didn't know what else to do, and I think you were the solution. Because like you, I do things a little differently than everybody else, right? In my, in my industry, it's about writing the pitch, getting the pitch out. And I'm like, if no one opens the email, no one's reading the pitch. And even if you get booked, what are you saying? So it's going to make revenue for you. Because how many times have people said to me, Well, I did media ready and nothing happened. Am I— if you're on my Instagram, you know, I'm like, it's your fault.

Yes.

When you hear from your clients, what are like the things that explode or expand their business when they have limited time?

So really understanding when you have limited time, what are the things you have to prioritize that will bring you profit? I call them Power, profit, priorities. That's a tongue twister, right? But, but it's like, if I can only do 1 or 2 things today, if I only have an hour today, if I just have 10 minutes right now, I shouldn't be in Canva tinkering on a graphic. Like that is a, that's not going to bring me any revenue. What is going to make me revenue is to go follow up with 5 people, uh, to go and post a call to action. To post a hand raiser, a disruptive content, a story that you would post, a selfie. I can't tell you how many of my clients I'm like, take an authentic crappy picture of you looking at the screen that is not edited. And you will get more interactions with that photo in a group than any other piece of content. If I post my, like, I just did a styling shoot and I posted a picture of me at the styling shoot. It was everybody's like, oh, you look cute. No one commented on my actual content. But when I post a picture of me sitting in my office with my coffee cup in hand and going like this, um, I get so many people reading the actual content saying like, I get why you made that face. So I just like, like, that's the difference in how we can stand out. We don't have to be like this perfect style Instagram. And then Letting go of this perfectionism that we are so much pressure on ourselves. Perfectionism is a waste of time. So if you can understand what my power profit priorities are and just do those actions in 10-minute increments every single day, you're going to move your business forward every week. And it's, it sounds so simple, but really it's how I changed my entire business structure. From $400 to $1,000 in consistent income. In 6 months, I went to $4,000, and then after that 6 months, I went to $8,000. And, you know, that's the end of the story. But it's just like, it's crazy how much of a difference it makes when you take small, really purposeful action that you say, if I do this, even if I don't get a result today, I know it's going to move me forward.

So what, like, can you give us what your top 2 actions would be? Because first you said don't play on Canva, it's not going to get you anywhere. Do that in front of me when you're like at night after the kids go to sleep. Yeah, well, you know, my kids are gone, but you know what I mean. But what, you know, because I find that for me lately I'm like, oh, I'm going to get this done, this done, this done, but I'm not actually looking at how long it takes and I'm not getting all those things done. So I'm working later and it's for me, that's fine because I don't have kids home. My kids are in college. But for somebody who wants to work with you, which probably does have their kids home, what are the—

so one of the first steps I do before we get into the nitty-gritty of your business is to break down when, like, when you have a task, you're like, this is really important to my business to move it forward. So let's say I would say number one, always be every day talking to your community. So pick one place you want to pick a Facebook group, you want to pick your Instagram. You want to pick somebody else's Facebook group. I'm serious. That's what I did when I first started business coaching. I picked somebody else's Facebook group and I showed up there every day. And so it doesn't have to really be your community. It's just where your people are hanging out, go talk to them and engage, set a timer for 10 minutes and engage for 10 minutes. Like that is the simplest action I can tell you to do. And I do that still every single day. My business is way surpassed the $8,000 a month, right? So, so don't negate those small actions. Also, if there's something like, okay, my email list is really important to growing my sales and nurturing my audience. Okay. If I'm going to put an email out, I don't have an hour to write a full email, schedule it, make it look all great. What if I broke that email up into 3 or 4 different 10 to 15 minute actions. So maybe on Monday I have 10 minutes, I'm gonna brainstorm, okay, here's 3 ideas for the month of February for writing an email. I, I write a quick outline. The next time, 10 minutes, another 10 minutes, I'm going to write the subject and put in my little emojis, schedule it, go. Like, you can break your task up into small things so that you still are really prioritizing. Hey, just because I didn't have an hour to sit down and do my whole email Today I got a piece of it done so it can get scheduled another day.

You've told me this 10-minute strategy before, and when I do do it, it actually works, right? So everyone that's listening, we've let— we have a lot of people on. I love to ask everyone that's watching a question like, do you actually break down your tasks and time limit or look at the time? Because that's something that I don't think I— so whoever's watching, please answer in the comments. Because I don't think that's something I ever did before I met you. Yeah, I think it's really smart and something that everyone should know. So listen to Lani, she's back.

Well, it's— so two things I want to point out to you. One, set a timer so that you stay on track. You say, okay, this should take me 20 minutes, set a timer so you don't get distracted. I can, I can take a 10-minute task and turn it into an hour. And also another trick I've learned is to, when I'm setting up my week in the beginning, I will look at it and say, okay, I see a lot of really like brain-heavy tasks. I'm going to do those when I have a lot of energy, not when I'm dying at 2:00 PM, right?

Yeah, totally.

So if you can organize your tasks, like, oh, I have 10 minutes. Am I feeling good energy? I'm going to do a higher energy task in this 10 minutes and I'm going to be much more efficient than if I waited until, late at night. Like Lauren just said, tasks expand based on the time you give them. Exactly.

Smart. And hopefully, Lani, you're taking this as content that you can go put on your social next week, because that's, that's why, that's how my brain works. I'd love you to talk, because what I'm thinking is, as people are doing this and you're talking about all the tasks that need to get done, that's when the overwhelm creeps in.

Yes.

How do you combat the overwhelm? Or somebody who like keeps everything in their head, which a lot of my clients start to do when I hit them, but to plan out your week, 'cause I know you have a good strategy for that too.

I do. And I say, you gotta get it out of your head because the brain power you're using up just to keep track of the list is doing two things. One, it's keeping you from being able to really focus on what you need to do. And two, you're also, you're telling your brain by not actually organizing it on what's important, that everything is important all at the same time. When everything is important, nothing's important. It just— this is right. So, and also we have this pattern because I am constantly rolling things over to the next day, the next day, the next day, and never accomplishing anything. My brain also doesn't trust me to do anything. So my subconscious is literally showing up and saying, don't forget this, don't forget this, don't forget this. And it's like, that's not really important. But my brain is also like, it will be at some point in the future. And I must remind you every day because you don't do these things. So we, we as like this culture, because we have so much going on and especially as moms, we have not just our business tasks, but our kids, dentist appointments and homework. I mean, like the list is forever. So I was overwhelmed and fatigued for like my brain fatigue was strong. So I had someone introduce me to Trello which is a project management system. Fortnite uses it, so you can be a cool mom.

I cannot use Trello. My—

it's not for everyone.

It's not. I can't see it. But my VA uses it for my business, and it's changed the way that she helps me. So I'm not— for me, because I just can't do it.

But other systems— but this is just one of them I picked This works for me. I look at it, I already had a to-do list and Trello is like formatted like to-do lists, but it breaks it up better. But really my first time I used it, I, my only goal was every day open Trello 9:00 AM. I set a timer for 9:00 AM or an alarm and every day open Trello. That's all it said. And I was like, all I, that's my only goal is just to open it. And because I started getting in the habit of opening it. Now, if I'm talking to someone and they say something and it triggers, oh, don't forget you need to, make that appointment, I'll open up Trello, put it on the brain dump list. And I, my brain now, trust me, I don't have to think about that again. And then Friday I set for my week and put due dates on things. It's just like this huge relief to the pressure and overwhelm to, to know everything I need is in one place and I don't have to think about it until I'm ready to think about it.

I love that. Also creating a space for you to not only the brain dump and getting everything done, But like you said, if you do those little tasks, tasks every day, you're actually moved. So as a reminder, whoever one's who's watching and everyone watch later, it's really about doing those small things and being repetitive. I think sometimes we get— like, I read an email today that I was like, it was about email marketing and how no one's going to open your emails. And I was like, oh my God, no one's gonna open my email. So I signed it, you know, it's a friend of mine, so I signed up for her class and I was like Is that a real problem I have? Like, I went back and looked at my numbers. I'm like, I think I'm okay. But I think that there's so much coming at us every day that we get off base of what our, what our, you know, the marching orders are. And that's why I think somebody that's having those issues needs to work with somebody like you in your mastermind. So I'd love for you to talk about it a little bit because I know how much you help people in there who maybe don't have that set framework for how they're working yet. And aren't making consistent money.

Yes. And, and this is really a great way for you to get in and get someone to help you focus in and understand your business and your goals and your priorities. That's, that's my goal. So my big word is customization. Expand your business through customization that works for you. So this mastermind I'm going to be opening up, um, I'm going to be taking applications come Send me a DM if you're interested. Um, it's going to be for 7 women and it's going to be for 6 months. What we're going to be doing in that mastermind is creating momentum for you without the overwhelm. Really, it's just breaking it down. We want to create momentum in your sales, momentum in your actions, momentum in your audience growth, and momentum in your conversions. We are really focused on 4 areas of profit in everything I do. No matter how I work with you, I want to give you a profit in time. So at the end of the week, you feel like I got everything done. I don't have like to work the weekends if I don't have to. I don't have to stay up late. I'm not stressed. I want a profit in energy so that you feel like I am not exhausted and I can have my kids.

What?

That's, that's amazing. And a profit in income. Of course, we want you to feel like I'm making sales. I'm growing week over week. I'm doubling what I'm doing. I love to say like, let's double the income without doubling your to-do list, right? That is, that is what I want to do with you. And then the last piece is really creating impact and fulfillment from your business. I think when we are, you know, the women who are coming into this mastermind, you've already been in business for a while. You're like, I'm making sales, I've just plateaued and I need somebody to get me out of this spot. So we want to rev you up and create momentum. That's what this mastermind is going to do. And it's going to be small, intimate community where we're going to be brainstorming, working on our mindset, helping you take things— I, I tell people all the time, like, throw things off your to-do list like a toddler throwing Cheerios off their high chair. Like, just get rid of the things that don't matter. And if you can't decide what matters, that's what this is for.

You need Somebody like hers right there, 100%. Lonnie, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you.

I'm gonna— in the caption will be all the information so people can come find you. And if you need some— if you're listening to this pod— the podcast— this record—

this—

what do we call it? Episode of Behind the Spotlight, which I have to get better at branding. Then you should go to work with Lonnie, because if you keep saying hell yeah, or I want to throw my tasks off my task list like Cheerios off a high chair, then she's the girl for you. I really appreciate it. Thanks again for watching Behind the Spotlight with Beth Nidic. We have more episodes coming up this week. Pay attention to the stories, and you'll see who's coming. And as always, I love you too, Ellie—

Ella.

I'm like, I can't— I don't have my glasses on, so I can't read. Thank you, Ella. I appreciate the support of everyone being on today. Loni, any last words?

You're amazing. I love you.

Talk to you guys soon. Everybody, go see Loni.

Bye.