Reigniting Your Entrepreneurial Spark: Wisdom and Strategies with Jennifer Dawn

Welcome to the Profitable Painter Podcast. The mission of this podcast is simple: to help you navigate the financial and tax aspects of starting, running, and scaling a professional painting business. From the brushes and ladders to the spreadsheets and balance sheets, we've got you covered. But before we dive in, a quick word of caution. While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date financial and tax information, nothing you hear on this podcast should be considered as financial advice specifically for you or your business. We're here to share general knowledge and experiences, not to replace the tailored advice you get from a professional financial advisor or tax consultant. We strongly recommend you seeking individualized advice before making any significant financial decision.

This is Daniel, the founder of Bookkeeping for Painters, and today I'm here with Jennifer Dawn. Jennifer Dawn coaches business owners to go from overwhelmed to laser-focused, escape from the hamster wheel of constant doing and build an unstoppable mindset to manifest their boldest business vision. She's the founder of Jennifer Dawn Coaching, creator of Best Planner Ever, and author of two books, The Joy Guide: Finding Your Joy in a World of Crap, and The Apple Stand: How to Rekindle the Love for Your Business. Welcome to the podcast, Jennifer.

Thank you, Daniel. I'm super excited to be here with you guys.

I'm super excited to have you. There's some, definitely some key points I want to dive into with you today. One of the things that I'd like to ask you about is that I often see working with folks is like there's this honeymoon phase when you first start your business, you're like super excited to get things started. And then after like the first year or two, things starting to seem a little monotonous. You kind of get caught in the day-to-day. Instead of you owning your business, it's like almost like the business owns you in certain ways. And I see a lot of folks getting distracted, you know, not having that initial love for their business. Do you have any guidance or ways we can get ourselves out of those ruts, uh, and kind of focusing on the long term and getting refocused?

Yeah, absolutely. And I've— well, gosh, I've been a business owner since I was 23. When I was 23, I started my first business. I didn't know anything, and I just knew that I could do it better because I'd seen other people in the industry. And it was a software company that I started, and I remember, you know, I jumped in just super, super gung-ho. Here we go. And of course, when— if you're— especially if you're funding all your startup costs yourself, you're highly motivated to like, let me get some money coming in. And it's almost like this just, you know, adrenaline. You're just kind of really running on adrenaline to get that business going, to get it, you know, off the ground. The problem is that we can get ourselves into a rut with it. We can get burned out and we can start to sort of like lose that love and feeling for our business. Now, this doesn't just happen at the beginning of business. This can happen at any stage of our businesses. I've been through periods— my current business, my coaching practice, I've had for about 12 years right now, and I've probably been through 4 or 5 times in that, in that period of time where it was just like, you know, I'm loving my business and it's so great. And then it's just like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? Like, I need to just go get a job. I just need to, you know, have somebody pay me. I've got to go back into corporate. If any of you have ever just been like, okay, let me just get on Indeed and see what jobs are out there because I can't do this anymore, you know what I'm talking about, where you've just sort of like fallen out of love with your business. And so the good news, though, is that there's absolutely something— there's many somethings that you can do about it. And it doesn't have to be— business ownership does not have to be this grind, this drain. It doesn't have to steal our personal lives. It doesn't have to be financially difficult. It really doesn't. Um, but in order to change it, it really always starts from within. And I know nobody usually wants to hear that, but at the end of the day, it's the truth. And I'm all about truth and speaking truth. And so at the end of the day, it all starts with us. It starts from inside us. And once we own it and we acknowledge, hey, wait a second, these things in my business that aren't going so great, that are causing me to maybe even like hate it, um, are, are on me. But the good news though is that it is on you, and that way you can actually do something about it. So I really feel like the very, very first step in starting to turn things around is to take ownership, because too often we are just blaming circumstances, people, places, things, all these other things. Then we wanna make ourselves right, so we just make up a bunch more, uh, nonsense to tell ourselves, and it just sort of keeps us stuck in that rut. So if we just really take a moment and check the ego and just say, all right, you know what? I created this mess and now I'm going to fix it. Taking ownership is really the most powerful first step because once you own it, now you can change it. Now you can really do something about it.

Yeah, I think that's an excellent point. I know I've fallen guilty to this. You know, when things aren't going the way that I'd hoped, you know, I'll have some excuses. Well, it's not my fault. It's, you know, some other circumstances. You know, that's why it didn't pan out the way. That, uh, in this, you know, giving yourself those permission to give you excuses kind of like, uh, takes ownership off yourself, which is not the mindset I think that is appropriate for running a business. You, you gotta have— you gotta take ownership regardless of what's going on around you, you know, kind of have like a no excuses, uh, type attitude almost. Would you agree with that?

Absolutely. Our businesses, um, came from our idea too. So it was our creation, like we decided to create this business, so they are an extension of us. And so anytime that you are tempted to blame all these other things, and, and things do happen, absolutely, it's not that circumstances don't happen, but how we react to them, that's really 100% within our control. So the business is an extension of us, and so we— it always starts with us. It always starts with us no matter what. So if we just start there, that's a good place to start. And then, and then from there, now we can take actions that will get us the result that we're actually after.

Yeah. What, what are some practical steps that can kind of, uh, revitalize your enthusiasm or motivation to, you know, fall back in love with the business that you, like, that initial love you had when you started your business?

Yeah, one most important step we've mentioned is to take ownership. Because when you are feeling out of control, when you're feeling powerless, you're really kind of in that victim mindset. And from a victim mindset, you are not going to feel better. In fact, you're going to be way more tempted to just pile more stuff on top to just keep yourself feeling worse and worse and worse. So to really get out of this, we've got to start by getting out of victim mindset. So one, taking ownership. 2, get some help. Because as entrepreneurs, at least myself for sure, like, there have been so many times in my business where I felt like the world was on my shoulders and I had to carry it all alone. And if I asked for help, it was a sign of weakness, which it isn't. And so I would just suffer in silence. Um, and that's really just my ego keeping me in this, you know, place where I felt like I couldn't ask for help and I was all by myself. But it's, again, it's another lie that we tell ourselves. Um, And if you're telling yourself this lie right now, like, oh, I can't ask for help for whatever reason, it's baloney. And so toss that out the window and get some help with whatever it is that you're struggling with. Even if it's— well, I'm a business coach, so I get business owners all the time that come to me and they're just like, I already know all this stuff. But then why aren't you doing it? And that's really the gap that we have to get past is why they're not actually taking those actions. But when you're working with somebody in whatever fashion it is, now you're not going through it alone. Now you're starting to take action, which is going to get you the result. And you might even learn some different ways of doing things that you hadn't thought about. So that'll help you to be more efficient and can help you get, you know, your mindset and things like that back on track. So take ownership of the, of the issue, get some help, no question whatsoever. And number 3, give yourself grace. Um, we can be so hard on ourselves as entrepreneurs, and the more that we beat ourselves up, the, the more our mental and emotional space like takes a hit and we just start feeling worse and worse. And so just, it's okay. Like there's gonna be people listening to this and I just want you, really want you to hear it. You know what? It's okay. It is okay. We don't have to create like this, um, huge, like right and wrong and I'm doing wrong things all day, or, you know, these are the only right things I can do. It doesn't have to be so quite so black and white. We can give ourselves grace. We can take a big, deep breath. We can work at a pace that actually feels good for us. And it doesn't all have to be done today. I remind myself of this in my business every day when I start getting like a little like, I got to get it done a lot faster. It's like, wait, just take a breath. I have all the time I need. I get to choose the pace that I'm gonna work at. And you know what? It always, it always works out just fine.

Yeah. I, I think the, the second step you said, you know, get help. And then you mentioned the, you had that distinction of, oh, I already know all this, but why aren't you doing it? I think a lot of folks, I think I was reading, I think it's Poor Charlie's Almanac, Charlie, Charlie Munger's book. I think, I think if I might be misremembering, but he was making the distinction of, you know, knowledge isn't just about what you know, but it's what you know and actually implement. So the key part to knowledge is, is not just the thing that's in your head, like, oh, I know I should be doing this, but you haven't learned anything unless you've actually put that knowledge into, into practice. And so I know I'm guilty of that. Like, I know I should be doing something different. but then, you know, I have, so I therefore have not actually learned it yet cuz I haven't put it into practice. I think that's like a super key point. And to your point of, uh, getting help, one of the things that's helped me with, uh, coaches that I've worked with is that kind of holds me accountable to doing those things. Um, and helps me learn, you know, even though I know like, yeah, I should be doing this, but then I have to kind of, uh, meet with my coach and I better have done something towards that goal, you know?

I, I do. And you're so right about the difference between— there's a big difference between awareness and knowledge and, and then the practical application. So I— one example I love to use, so I learned how to ride a motorcycle last year. Me and my husband, we've been riding together for years and years, and I finally like learned how to ride my own motorcycle. And because I had been on the bike with him as I was learning, you know, I was just like, Oh, I know, I know, I know, right? I found myself saying, because I've seen him do these things. But then when I had to actually, like, do it, and I'm like, uh-oh, like, I could really get run over by a car because I might, like, know it, but I don't really know it. So we can see somebody, you know, do a flip on a motorcycle and now have an awareness that it's possible to do these things. But until you actually practice and start doing it and then have the you know, that experience of actually learning how to do a flip on a motorcycle, which I have no intention of doing, but like actually put it into practice, we don't really know. So there's a, there's a big difference between like, I have an awareness of these things, I have an understanding of these concepts, but until we put it into practice, until it literally becomes second nature or becomes a habit for us, or that's just how we do it, we really don't know. You really don't. So it's just, I think it's so important to just like kind of throw that out with, you know, a little bit that like, I know, I know, I know. It's like, you don't until you, you are actually doing it, practicing it, and have mastered it. Then you know.

Yeah. And going back to what you had mentioned before, the third thing, uh, as far as the practical steps, you know, to, to fall back in love with your business, the third thing you mentioned was giving grace to yourself. Because I know, you know, in my business, we use Traction to kind of as the framework to run the business. And we have a huge list of issues, like, it seems like it's never ending. And, you know, I always have the tendency like, oh, we got to fix this all right now. And when we're going through our Level 10 meetings, and, you know, we have to put it down, we have to say, okay, well, We don't have to solve all the problems today. We can save it for next meeting and try to work through these things. So I think that's like a key thing, like, because I feel like I know I've gotten overwhelmed with, you know, you have all these things you got to do. You just have to figure out what's the most important and tackle those first and realize that you're not going to— it's a never-ending— I think it was Ray Kroc. I just read his biography. He's like, you know, your business is always— you're always having to improve it. It's not like a painting. Like, you can't just finish a painting and hang it up on a wall and be like, oh yeah, that's my painting, or that's my business, you know, it's— isn't it nice? It's something that you're always having to, to work at. So it's true, right?

I mean, think about, um, we, we have children, and children grow, and as they grow, they outgrow their clothes, their shoes, their everything. And as parents, it can be like, man, when's this kid gonna stop growing? Like, they just outgrew this and talk with this. Business isn't much different. So we birth the business, and as we're growing it, it's going to change, and it's going to outgrow what used to fit, and now it doesn't. And so we don't get upset that, like, our child has grown and we need to give it— we need to, hey, here's a new pair of shoes, and it'll serve you until you need the next pair. And for our businesses, it's not any different. I mean, a business that's growing is going to be changing, and it is not going to be stagnant. Versus a business that's dying, you probably won't need to, you know, change that much stuff anymore. So I always like to embrace business growth. It means my business is growing. The change is a good thing. Um, we're always getting better. One of the things— I love Traction. Um, we use kind of a version of Traction in our— in, in my business. And one of the things that we added to our meetings was wins. And so we always start all of our meetings with like wins. What have we done? What are we most proud of? What have we accomplished? And it's a nice tone to kind of set that meeting so everybody gets into more of a solution-focused mindset instead of, man, we have so many problems, they're never-ending, da da da da. And it just— it's been a nice shift for my whole, whole team to just like, we get to start with positive, get into a solution-focused place, and now we're in a much better place to handle these challenges and these issues that are going to come up. Because we're a growing, successful business. So it's not, it's not a bad thing, even though it can feel like, ah, you know, if we do treat it like a painting, thinking that it'll be done and we don't have to do it anymore. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Not gonna work that way.

Yeah. And, and I think part of it is just needs to be reframed. Like enjoying the, the journey is really a mindset, uh, mindset change is You have to enjoy the journey. It's not, it's definitely not a destination running your business. You, you might have these goals like if I can just get to $2 million in revenue or whatever the, the goal is, uh, everything will be great. That's definitely not how it happens.

If then, oh, that's a killer of happiness. The if then cycle. Oh, if I just get here, then everything will be fine. And if you've grown a business, you know that at least in my businesses, it was like, oh, I thought if I just get to that, first million, it'll solve all my problems. And the second— no, the second million— no, it does not happen that way. Yeah.

And, uh, I know you're, you're, um, I guess during this, this process that we're falling out of love with your business and trying to fall back into love with your business, um, what are some financial— because this is a financial type podcast, so Do you have any guidance for someone that's having some financial issues in their business that maybe they can employ something in their business that helps them kind of find that love again?

Yeah, I would say that the 3 biggest things that I see in business for business owners that cause us to really fall out of love or even start hating pieces of our business are usually going to be around time, our time management, people, the people in our business. It could be our clients, it could be our employees, vendors, whatever. And money, right? And money can be prob— in some ways, money can often be one of the biggest challenges in business that cause us to feel like, ah, I don't want to do this anymore. So, um, there's a lot of things that we can do with our money. And we always have to remember that whenever we're tempted to say, you know, I don't have enough money, there's not enough money, like these things that we tell ourselves, that's actually a lie. It's not true. And the more lies that we tell ourselves, the more deeper we're gonna bury ourselves in a lot of very negative emotions. But the truth of the matter is that you, you are a business owner, you have a business, and there are things that you can do to improve your money situation until money becomes a joy in your business. And it absolutely can be. So you can look at your profitability when you're doing a job and you think This happens all the time with clients that I work with where we think we're making more money than we actually are. But when we sit down, we look at all of the overhead, the expenses, all those things involved, and we actually run the numbers and see the true profitability on a job. It's often very shocking, like, oh geez, here I was going thinking it was this thing and it's actually this thing. So sitting down and really looking at your profitability will often answer a lot of questions about, um, why I don't have any money. It's so funny. Next month I'm getting ready to teach a workshop and it's called Where'd My Money Go? Because what do I get asked all the time? It's like, Jennifer, like, we're doing so great on revenues and where'd all my money go? Well, the way that I answer that question is with an operating budget. And so I've created a template for an operating budget. It's just a really nice Google Sheet. But in the budget, you can see the flow of money as it comes into your business. So we see where it flows in from the top, where, you know, materials, COGS, you know, have to come out, the money that we have left, what our operating expenses are, payroll, if we owe any debt. And then at the very bottom, the field, it turns red or green and it calculates your net profit margin. And so it's just a, a really easy way of like answering this question, where'd my money go? So if you find yourself like hating your business and you're, you're just like, I don't know where all my money is going, put your fanny in the chair and run through something like an operating budget where you can actually now see this is where my money's going. And now you can make some empowered decisions, some empowered choices that are different in your business to make sure that more of that money is actually going to your bottom line. Another tool I love using is Profit First. So I've been using Profit First for over a decade in my business. It's a system of cash management. It's not an accounting system. It's a cash management system. That was developed by a gentleman named Mike Michalowicz, and he wrote a book. You can get it on Amazon for whatever it is, $10, $20, something like that. But it's a great way of running your business on a system of percentages. So as the money's coming in, you're earmarking it for what its intended purpose is, and then you're putting it into a series of accounts. So that way, as a business owner, we're not making financial decisions based on one balance, one big balance in a bank account. That's how I used to run my software company is like, if I had money, I'd hire people, I'd go buy whatever, and then it's like, crap, no, I can't make payroll. Well, because there was money in that account that was earmarked for payroll that I wasn't taking into consideration. So the nice thing about Profit First is it really does help you to kind of earmark that money for its actual use, and now you can make decisions based on a way more accurate bank balance, um, than just like all of the money sitting there. So absolutely love Profit First. I use it so, so often when I actually— the way I found out about it was I ran a networking group and I brought Mike in as a speaker before I even knew, like, about him or who he was or what he spoke at. And I'm in the audience and I'm listening to him speak about Profit First, and he's a great speaker. And I remember sitting in the audience, even though I was running this association, and I was just like, man, if I had used this, I would have literally spent millions of dollars better. So I started using it with all of our entrepreneur members. And then I went out on my own and started my own practice. And Mike reached out and he's like, Jennifer, you know, will you start my mastery group? And I did. And so I worked with him for 2 years to start his mastery group for Profit First. And then I stepped away because my business was so, was so gangbusters. And but I kept using Profit First. And I just, I think it's one of the most powerful tools out there as far as like our finances are concerned and can really help us when we implement a system like that. To bring that love for our business back in.

Yeah, it's, it's really intuitive. And because I use it in my business, we have several clients that usually use it as well, and it's just like, it's very intuitive, you know, because like you said, uh, without it, unless you're super savvy with looking at— even if you are savvy with looking at financial statements, it's just easier to look at your bank account balance like you just pop it open on your phone or whatever and you can see, oh, do I have money or do I not have money for this thing I'm trying to invest in or whatever? And just having separate bank accounts, one for profit, one for payroll, one for operating expenses, you know, however you're splitting it up. And just at a glance, you can easily understand, okay, I have this much money allocated for payroll or, you know, whatever the case is. So you, it's just like super simple, like a simple idea that just makes things, makes decision making a lot easier. And, you know, also forces you to plan ahead of time, like what, how much money am I going to put us, what percentage of my money am I going to put towards profit or towards paying my employees or et cetera. So that, that planning piece, that forcing mechanism to do profit first in the beginning, which is the planning is really impactful as well.

Yeah, and I love Profit First and Traction together because Traction, as much as I love the system and the whole thing they got going there, they don't do very much around profitability. And so I think when you add Profit First to a system like that, now you're really keeping your eyes on the profitability and running that business on a, on a system of percentages. So those two really go to what go together quite well.

Yeah, that's a good point. I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense as you say that because you're right. Yeah, Traction is great. I love Traction, but it doesn't have like the financial— it has, it talks on financial stuff, but not like in depth or doesn't give you a framework and Profit First, you know, plugs in nicely because they don't overlap or, you know, so they work well together. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. Um, one of the interesting things I came across, uh, looking at your, your website and, and some of your content was that, uh, this concept of emotional work. So could you define what that is, what that means, and why, why you think it's, you know, crucial for entrepreneurs to prioritize that?

Yeah, absolutely. We can call it emotional intelligence. Um, we call it like our inner work that we need to do. We can call it mindset. Um, whatever labels, terms that we want to put on it, it's that work that we need to do on ourselves, which is usually at an emotional level. So often as business owners, we are thinking our way through the day, and we are often trying to think our way through problems. But many of these problems that we face as business owners are actually deeper emotional issues. For example, cuz hopefully we're not gonna lose everybody. They're like, ah, she's gonna start talking about going back to my childhood and I don't wanna talk about that. It's like, okay, fine, we don't have to talk about that, but just hear me out for a second. We just came back from our retreat. I host a retreat twice a year and we just did one in Sedona, Arizona. And one of the people at the retreat, um, she was really, really struggling with sales and she happens to be a therapist. And as we talked a little bit further, she had this underlying belief therapists don't sell. And I'm like, okay, so you're a therapist sitting here, I asking me to help you grow your business and you know that you need to build up sales, but you've got this underlying belief therapists don't sell. And as we dug a little bit deeper into it, it really was, um, an issue around her self-confidence, not feeling good enough. And so that's what I mean of I can sit here all day and I can share with you a tac— a tactical action that you can take to sell more, right? We can look at your script, we can look at your lead gen, we can look at your paid ads. Like, we can look at all of these different, you know, tactical action things. But if you've been trying to solve a problem for a while and it just— it's— you're in this repeating pattern, it's just not getting solved. There's usually going to be a deeper underlying emotional component to it. So to help this, this client of mine solve her problem, we have tools that we use to go in and look at the underlying confidence issues. Let's work on those. And now once we fix that issue at the core, we're not band-aiding it, we're fixing it at the core. Now it's fixed. Now, like with that new self-confidence, now she can really start to work on her sales from a, a very, very different perspective. So that's one of the things that we do a lot in our coaching is we are combining the inner work with the tactical action to get the desired result that the business owner is after. And sometimes, you know, they come in and I actually have another client. He just like, Jennifer, is this going to be therapy? I'm like, no, it's not therapy. But like, this is a feeling problem. This is not a thinking problem. And you're going 100 miles an hour trying to think your way out of this. And is it working? No, it's not working. So that's where we have to slow down for a little bit and do a little bit of that feeling work, that emotional work, that inner work on ourselves. And that's what's going to blast through all those limiting everything. So that now that tactical action that you're taking is actually going to get you the result that you're after.

Yeah, I think the, the idea of limiting beliefs, or, you know, you give the example of the therapist, like, she could have been— maybe she's the best therapist in the world, but nobody knows about her because she doesn't want to market or sell herself. So, you know, just because she had that limiting belief, like, therapists aren't supposed to sell, or or whatever it was. So like, it's a completely— even though her potential is, you know, maybe making $100 million a year because she's such an amazing therapist and all this stuff, versus where she is, where she was then because she had that limiting belief. It's, it's something that I see often, uh, with working with painting contractors who have a limiting belief about their pricing. Like, they think, okay, I can only I can only add a markup of, you know, 40% or 50% or something like that. And, you know, the market's not gonna take anything more than that. And I'm like, well, hate to bring it to you, but you have competition, uh, competitors out there that are charging, you know, marking up their stuff by 100%, and they're, they're doing just fine and they're profitable and, and everything's going well for them. So, you know, it's, it's And, and I've fallen into this too, have having limiting beliefs on what I could accomplish or what the business could accomplish. And it just, that was literally the only thing stopping us from getting to the next level was just something that I thought was true about myself or the business that wasn't true. And that can just be a huge bottleneck.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. We can tell ourselves whatever we want to tell ourselves, but at the end of the day, if we're not getting the result It's usually something deeper that's going on, or, um, I use the word lie because it is what it is. Like, it's a lie that we're telling ourselves, that it's a pattern that we're stuck in. So if, if anything, like, in any area of your business, you're not getting the result— maybe you're doing the work, you're not getting the result— it's usually a deeper issue, and it always starts with you. Always. Sorry, guys, those of you don't want to hear it, but the truth is It always starts with us. And if you start there and you work from there and you, you work through whatever emotional junk is, is clogging things up, right? I mean, painters, if you have a paintbrush and there's a bunch of junk on it and you try to paint, paint, you're not going to get a good result. So it's kind of like sometimes we just need to like clean those brushes, like do a really, really good job of cleaning those brushes and then The same effort you were putting into painting is gonna have a way better impact because you've got— you're working from clean brushes.

Yeah. Do you have any recommendations on how someone can revisit this idea on a regular basis? Like, how do they evaluate it? Do I have these limiting beliefs or, you know, have some, some sort of way to evaluate or self-reflect on incorporating that into their regular schedule so that they're catching those limiting beliefs as they, they move through life?

Yeah, one of the most powerful practices that you can do is, and I do it in the morning, you can do it whenever is a good time of day where you feel really good. So it needs to be like a good time of day for you. But often in the morning, I will just sit down with a journal, pad of paper, whatever works, because I love using a little bit of the writing to kind of help me work through it and figure out what's really going on. But anytime I'm not getting a result that I want, I just start with, okay, this is about me. Something's going on in me, which is creating this external stuff that I don't really like. And I'll just start by asking myself, well, well, what is it? What is it within me? How am I feeling? Um, when we ask ourselves how we're really feeling, sometimes that can be a great, uh, clue as to what's really going on. So we ask ourselves, you know, what am I feeling? Why am I feeling this? Are there any other times maybe in my past where I've also felt this? Because from there we can start to kind of identify some limiting beliefs. I have a, a tool that I use in my coaching practice. It's a coaching technique where we go back and we, we identify this stuff and then we correct it so that we don't carry it forward. Um, it's way more in depth than we can go into on the show, but the idea behind it though is to really start exploring and understanding ourselves. How long we've been telling ourselves these things. And I'll ask myself, how am I lying to myself? And I'll just sit with it and kind of journal it out of what lie am I telling myself? And we know it's a lie if it doesn't feel good in our bodies. So a simple one would be like, well, this is why sometimes affirmations won't work too, because if you've ever had an affirmation that says, I am rich, but you're not actually rich, it feels bad. It doesn't feel good. So then people say, oh, affirmations don't work. And it's like, that's not true, actually. Words have a lot of power. Um, our thoughts, our feelings, and our words really create our reality. And so an affirmation can work, but it needs to be true. So, I am rich might not feel right, but I love having money— that probably is pretty true, and that probably feels really good. I love having strong cash flow. And so if you don't have these things, starting to just sit and ask, you know, how am I really feeling? What lies might I be telling myself? When has this come up before? And just kind of journaling through it a little bit can be a great practice in awareness of, of what's really going on. And then you can always, from that, from there, go and get a little bit of help from a coach, a therapist, a mentor, or somebody who's actually some professional that does this kind of work and can help you through it. Because once you move through it or you learn tools on how to correct it, it empowers you the rest of your life to be able to do this kind of stuff for yourself.

Yeah. Do— what resources, like, as far as books or mentors or podcasts, um, have been helpful in, in your journey of, of prioritizing emotional well-being?

Oh, Daniel, so many. So, so many. So a few of my favorite books, Byron Katie, Loving What Is, Michael Singer, both of his books, The Untethered Soul, The Surrender Experiment. Very, very good book. There's a book called The Tools, and I can't remember who wrote it, but The Tools is also another really great book. And I've gone through several courses by people who actually don't have books. But when you're really ready to dive in and you start to really be like, okay, this problem isn't going away. If I listen to Jennifer and she says it starts with me and I accept that, okay, this starts with me. Often when you start to get out there and you start to look, you're going to find things that are going to resonate for wherever you're at. So I just really just It's you. I promise it starts with you. And even from there, you can get out and you can just kind of start Googling and looking for answers. Come to my website, shoot me an email, whatever. I can always help point you in the right direction to, you know, a tool or resource that you can find to start some of this work on yourself.

So how can folks reach out to you or learn more about your consulting practice?

Yeah, absolutely. You can find me online at jenniferdawncoaching.com. From my website, you can there's links there to my books, my upcoming book, The Apple Stand: How to Rekindle the Love for Your Business, comes out April 30th. Sorry, a little plug there. And, um, on my website, Jennifer Dawn Coaching, you can also link to my podcast, which is called Happy Productive. And we have a contact page there. We have a schedule a call page there. So we're very easy to reach. And if you have any questions or anything like that, just feel free to reach out to me and I'm more than happy to share a resource or point you in the right direction or help you.

Excellent. And we'll include the links in the description of the podcast. So I really appreciate your, your time, Jennifer. It's been super informative. And with the folks listening, we will see you next week.