92: Your Bags Are Packed Featuring Lisa Jacobs

You can realize that you've gotten as far as you can go with the decisions that you've made and the what you have surrounding you. So if you think of those doors as the decision you walk through, it's not only the thing that you're deciding on, it's also the opportunities and the next pathways that are available to you through those closed doors. It's where we plateau and we know we need to if we really want to level up. We know that there are actions we have to take in order to progress.

I'm Bonnie Christine and this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spread. Spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom

you want, and is wildly profitable.

Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

Hi everyone. Welcome to our episode today. I'm here with one of my favorite people back on the podcast is Ms. Lisa Jacobs. Hi Lisa.

Hi Bonnie. Thank you for having me.

You're my favorite guest of all time. If you're unfamiliar with Lisa, she is my integrator. And you've been on the podcast several times and I am so excited about what we're talking about today. The title of this episode is your bags are packed. And the reason that I want to talk about this is because you, Lisa, have told me this phrase, your bags are packed on a handful of occas. And it was so incredibly impactful for me. So I want to unpack for everyone today what that means. What are we talking about and how does it really identify where we need to go next in our business?

And I'm so excited to talk about this. I'm a huge believer in business and life that behind your pending decisions are your biggest, best breakthroughs. I would say this is not only true for businesses, but even in life. There's something in your house that you know you want to upgrade, that if you upgraded that, you feel like the house would rise to meet you. When you walked in and you haven't just taken that leap or taken the time to tackle that project. The same thing happens with business. And somewhere along the lines of my business, I noticed a pattern that in front of each one of my breakthroughs was a giant decision that was waiting for me to make it. So it might be a decision that I'd been hemming and hawing about for years, afraid to just take that next step or take that leap into trusting the business to provide, trusting that that's what my business needed. And I knew that was what my business needed. And over time, I began to call this the next level list, because I would make a list of big decisions I know I needed to make, and then I would combine them all together. You recently talked about bottlenecks. I think one of the things that I did was look at areas that I would be embarrassed to share out in the world about my business and say, I know I really need to fix that, but I haven't fixed that yet. I know what I need to do, but I haven't done it yet.

Oh, that's a scary question. So the very last time that you told me this, I love, because it was actually around this podcast. So Lisa knew that I had this podcast on my heart. I had been probably talking your ear off about it for a year, really thinking about when and how and all of this stuff. And you finally looked at me and almost exactly a year ago is right before Immersion Live last year. And you looked at me and you said, bonnie, your bags are packed. Let's go. And it's as if I had packing my suitcase with all the things I could possibly need, and I had zipped it up and put it on my bed and let it sit there for months and months. I never left the house with my suitcase, and it was already packed. And so that was all I needed. You're like, you're exactly right. I have packed my bags. I'm prepared. All I have to do is go, right?

And if you actually look at the the idea generation, the ideation of the podcast that you knew was on your heart, that you were going to do. And at time we were talking, that idea had reached probably the 98% point. There was an idea of what it would be called, what the. The title of the show would be. There was a list of topics that you would talk, went on for days. You had everything at your fingertips. You had the research on how to put it all together. You knew the best softwares, you knew everything about it. And you were at probably the 98% point. And so when I remember that moment as well, and it was this time of. And it was 92 episodes ago. And so when that moment happened, it was. You had everything you need. And this happens so frequently where it's just. Sometimes it's in the form of an external nudge. Somebody says, you're ready. You know, you're ready. You have it all together. Let's go. And it's time for takeoff.

At that point, you know, I hadn't really thought about this before this moment, but I just. When you said 98%, I just have a feeling like you're about to tell me this again, because, you know, I've got something on my heart that's probably 98% baked.

Right.

Just at that point where I'm like, let me just keep my bags packed a little bit longer before I take off on this trip. And this is. We're not going to say what it is, but we are going to probably tell me your bags are packed, and we're going to announce this bad boy in the next few weeks.

That's right. And you know, it's so interesting to too, because we got to go back to the story of origination, because everybody has something like this that they're sitting on, and they're sitting on it. We have to boil down, what are you sitting on it for? It's likely uncertainty. You've never done it before. You are just. Just because it's a path you haven't carved yet. You know, you have to just slash through that little bit of brush that's in your way, those few last obstacles, and a new path is going to be carved. But it's hard for us. Our human nature goes against carving those new path. And so it's so interesting to me, that little tiny. Just bit of momentum you need at the very end there.

And, you know, that simmer period is important. I think we all do it. We simmer on ideas so that we can ideate on them, we can wrap our arms around them. I've simmered on things before that I was excited about, and through that simmer process, decided, no, this is actually not what I need to do. But there are always some things that we simmer on too long, and this is when we need that little extra nudge. You've done all of the thinking that you need to do now. You know whether this is a yes or a no. And so now it's time. Let's go.

Yes. I call that incubation period. And it's the Same thing. And actually, as you were saying that, I was thinking about the difference of your simmering periods in my incubation period. Because one thing I've noticed in watching you is that you also like to gather a lot of feedback. You're extremely careful about putting out a quality product that's going to cover everyone's needs and going to answer all of what they might be looking for you from you for. And one of the things I've heard you say multiple times before putting something out is, I need to know this is going to help them. And you really thoroughly research what you're about to put out. So when you put that final package out. So your simmering is more like. I call it incubation. And mine would be very solitary. But to me, I would think of your simmering more like a gathering phase. Like, you're gathering everything you're going to need to actually create and bake your product perfectly.

I love baking it. And you're right. Like, if it doesn't taste delicious, then. No, you're right. Like, if it's not helpful, then I have no business doing it. And I do. I do think about that a ton.

Yes.

Okay. So I'm dying to go back to the origination of this story because we had known each other for many years before this, but this is one of, like, mine and your together, like, key memories.

Yes. And I'll take you there, too, because actually, the fact that we were sitting together, it was my book launch. The year was 2017, and the fact that we were sitting there was an indication of one of my breakthroughs. It was. My bags were packed. I was ready to host a public book launch. I was ready to invite people from everywhere to sit with me and celebrate the release of a book. And I did that. And you came as one of my guests of honor. And the workshop was based around the concept of what do you need to do to reach the next level? And then the. The current edition of your best year was released. So that book is about next leveling. And so I'm sitting there and I'm delivering this workshop, and what do you need to reach the next level? Was, you know, the whole. The whole conversation built up to it. I offered many examples of the big decisions I made that had led to the big breakthroughs. And that night, you and another friend of ours, we had our husband. We all went to topgolf. We're enjoying the evening. And you turned to me and you said, I know what mine is. I've been teaching on different platforms and it's time for me to put my own course out. I know it and I'm going to do it. And I was like, yeah, I know you are. That's going to happen. One of my favorite things that I love about this story is that you, you've given me credit for that breakthrough. The thought of all of. But you and every other guest sitting in their chairs that day already knew what they needed to do. It was that external nudge. It was that validation. It was that I see those big ideas on your heart and it's perfectly doable. I can see it. I can feel it for you. And it's just time to do that. You know what you need to do to next level. And anybody listening knows it too. And it's just hearing somebody sometimes from outside of your own head and your own thoughts and your own objections or fears or uncertainties tell you, yes, that's a valid pursuit. Please go do that for us.

I have to tell my version of

this story because you mentioned it was 2017. And for those of you who have been in my world for very long, the Immersion course debuted in February of 2018. And so your book launch was. What month was it?

It was October.

It was October. Oh, this month. So Lisa invited me up as a guest of honor. So here I'm coming. I hadn't read the book. I'm a guest of honor. And in my personal life, this was the first time that I had ever left my tiny children. So in 2017, they were 2 and 4. And I remember David and I drove up to Virginia. It's been probably about six or seven hours. And I cried for the first couple of hours of that trip from leaving my little small children. And then I'm certain that I took more away from this workshop than anyone else sitting in that room. I showed up as the guest of honor and I was the most like schooled person in that room. I devoured this book and it was like your name is on my timeline of huge pivot moments because this book changed everything for me. It was exactly what I needed and exactly the time that I needed it to understand what my next level list was and what I needed to do. So I buckled down and four months later, I had this life changing thing come out into the world because you gave me permission and told me it was time to go.

Mark your calendars for this. October 19th through the 21st, because our annual conference for Creative Immersion Live is coming up. We've gathered a spectacular lineup of industry leaders, artists and entrepreneurs like Amy Porterfield, Morgan Harper, Nichols Glow, Otonmo and Nicholas Wilton, plus many, many more for an unmatched virtual conference experience. Immersion Live this year is all about the art of business for the professional creative. Over three days, you'll unlock strategies to guide your business effectively, refine your designs and establish a flourishing creative career. And the best part is that you can experience it all from the comfort of your own home. We do a live virtual conference like nobody else. Sessions will allow for real time interaction, questions answered, and a sense of community that's honestly hard to match. Our event kicks off with Open studio night on October 19th, where you'll get to peek behind the curtain of some incredibly successful artists and designers. The next two days you'll immerse yourself in keynote sessions and workshops where you'll learn, interact and have all your questions answered, come engaged with like minded creatives, make meaningful connections and open the doors to collaboration. We're also recording every session so you can revisit and absorb this wealth of knowledge at your own pace. Head on over to bonniecristine.com 202023 immersion

live to join us.

Yes, and I love that you said four months because actually in the book I, I counted, it's a, it's approximately 90 days. A big decision is made. Approximately 90 days later you see the breakthrough of it, there's that delay and it's a beautiful thing because once you, once you pick your path here, oh boy, hold on to your hat because here it comes. I love it.

You know, another we, we have so

many of these breakthrough moments as you move through and I love to think about proactively and retroactively. So what do we need to do next? What is our next level list right now? But also looking back at different things that you did, you did them scared and they were a huge payoff. And so one that comes to my mind was when I really realized that I didn't have a group of people that I could really talk about business with. So there was this time in my career where I was bringing my day to day friends into what I was doing and then all of the sudden it became unrelatable. And a lot of that was the entrepreneurial mindset. Like I'm driven, I'm showing up hard every day. I'm not taking, you know, these middle of the day breaks to go out to lunch and things like I'm really driven, I'm very much goal orient. And a lot of just the entrepreneurial goal setting mindset, how we were talking about our online business like you know, email marketing and social media and all of this stuff. It just all of the sudden came to a place where nobody else had that in common with me. And I felt like this is a breakthrough moment. I've got to surround myself with a group of people who get me, understand me, and can, you know, they won't laugh or think I'm crazy when I tell them about my next big goal. And so for this meant joining a mastermind. And it was 2019. I'm still in the same mastermind. It's Stu McLaren's, and it was a huge, huge decision. This mastermind's $25,000 a year. And I had never invested that amount of money in my own future ever before. And I can't tell you how it's paid for itself over and over and over again for so many different ways. But now I'm in a room where people are really understanding the next level. And so a lot of this has to do with identifying those types of things that are holding us back to what do we need? What circumstance do we really need in order to take ourselves to the next level?

Yes, because you really touched on. It is important the people in your regular life, in your real life, there will come a time where they don't understand anymore. Entre. That entrepreneurial mindset is rare, and you really have to find a room full of entrepreneurs who are speaking the same language. You'll know it if you're there. You'll. You just know that at some point in the conversation, it has stopped translating. And that is exactly a necessary step for every entrepreneur who is looking to step up into the next room. And it doesn't have to be so hard by doing it all yourself. You don't have to figure every single step out for yourself. You need a room full of people who have been down that path, who've carved these paths before. You're not the only person you knew who started a podcast. You had people to lean on and ask questions to. And that is a gift and a beautiful thing to do for yourself in business because it helps normalize these fantastical pursuits that you are trying to accomplish all the time. And it's too much to do alone.

Tell me some of your own examples. I know you have several things. Times that you just upgraded.

One of the. One of the things. And it seems so silly now to me. It seems silly now because it's so far, long ago. But one of the things is I was on a basic email manager and I was about to hit a platform that was going to introduce me to a lot of people at once. And at that time I realized that my email manager wasn't going to cut it. I need, I needed a proper CRM, a robust customer management system where I could segment and run different sequences to different audiences and really break down that sales process. And I'm still, I was very, very much still a one woman show at the time, but that was a big deal for me because I was not at a place where the income was so high that I could justify taking that from my family and putting it into a software that was going to take a couple of hundred dollars a month. It was a big leap and I had never made such an expensive decision for my business. And I just decided, yes, it's time to do this. And I think that was the year that my side business income went from somewhere in like the 30 to $50,000 range to over the six figure range. And I absolutely credited to that little software upgrade that I needed. I knew I needed it and I was just hesitating to take that plunge.

Well, there's also something about being willing to upgrade when you know you need to. It makes all of the things that are happening just happen. It's like you're open to them happening. And you know, we spend so much time and energy and mental bandwidth piecemealing things together. We piecemeal knowledge together from YouTube, at every corner of the Internet. We piecemeal software together and connect zapier to a million different things. We just piecemeal because honestly, our greatest strength, everyone who's listening, is our creativity. But we've got to understand where that stops being a service to us and it's holding, holding us back because we're piecemealing it all together. And we need to focus our creativity on the things that actually help us run more smoothly and more efficient.

And can't you imagine this? Can't you imagine that in your business and through the different levels that you've gone, there comes a time where you seem to reach the end of the hallway and at that hallway is an octagon full of doors. There's doors everywhere. Those doors are unlocked for you. Those doors are the decisions you can realize that you've gotten as far as you can go with the decisions that you've made and the what you have surrounding you. So if you think of those doors as the decision you walk through, it's not only the thing that you're deciding on, it's also the opportunities and the next pathways that are available to you through those closed Doors. It's where we plateau and we know we need to if we really want to level up. We know that there are actions we have to take in order to progress.

Okay, one more example that I know you and I have in common that I think is such a good example of this is making a first hire. This is the most terrifying thing I've ever done, ever. But I decided to up level what I was doing and how I was doing it. And then in hindsight, there's literally an elbow on my graph. When I stopped trying to do everything in my business and I started bringing other people in, it was like the bottlenec released and the business really began to grow. But it was terrifying and I did it. Scared.

Yes. And I did, too. And I love being in a room full of entrepreneurs who are on the brink of this decision. And I love how there's nothing holding them back but the fear of that decision. I understand it because you want to do it perfectly. It's a big responsibility and you want to do it well. However, I would just say when you do come upon that one, take the pressure off doing it perfectly and just do it the best you can. And they're going to show up and they're going to do it the best they can as well. But I think that we put a lot into. We put a lot of pressure into that first relationship. And you learn so much from it that it's. Give that a chance if you're ready, if that's this next step for you or the next level for you. Give a chance and lean into it and learn. Be willing to learn and be willing to always get better.

Yeah, it's a learning process for sure, but it's so, so good.

Yes.

Okay, so we want to talk about the listener really having some time to think about what are you currently hemming and hawing over? What are you really delaying that you need to just start?

Yes. And if you're there, just think about. You probably have one giant one just go do that thing. Your bags are packed. You have all the papers and all the research and all the documents somewhere to go. Do that. Go ahead and do that. But also consider the bottlenecks, as Bonnie discussed, and the areas that you might be covering up or a little bit embarrassed about, or if you had a business guru come in and check out your operation today, what would you sort of hide from them? Those are probably the things that it's time to do to. To go into upgrades or seek new opportunities. Just look around and ask yourself what seems to be presenting feels right. Where's your intuition calling you? But you're holding yourself back. And maybe sit down and ask yourself, why are you holding yourself back? Do you need to? Is possibly a breakthrough on the other side of that big decision.

Listen I him and haw with the best of them. I will just chew and chew and circle and circle. And it is so beneficial to have someone like you in my life, Lisa, that can just say go, your bags are packed. And so I also just want to say that if you don't have someone in your life who can really identify when, you've got to just get out of your own way and do it already to find that person, find that group of people, find a friend, a family member, someone who can really help you get out of your own way. Because I. I stand in my own way with the best of them.

Yes, I love that. And we all need it. Each one of us needs it. There's always a time and there's plenty of opportunities out there. I this just brings me back to that commercial space is available to you. You can have as much as you can take up. And so whatever is holding you back, take a look at that. Ask yourself, who is the person that you believe can help you get to your next level and start a conversation. It's time. It's your time. It's waiting for you. Your bags are packed.

We can't wait to see what you do with this. And we would love to hear what is your next level list? What do you need to just take action on right away? And what do you need to uplevel and upgrade, my friends? Create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world.

And remember, there is room for you.