583. The secret I used to go from being $50k in debt to generating over $10M in revenue

And I had to get comfortable with. I'm going to have to make a big investment that I'm uncomfortable with. But then that will then push me to expand, to figure out how to make that money, how to make it back. I still do that to this day. Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is the Product Boss podcast. I've helped launch and grow that thousands of product based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours. Whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists, or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what are mistakes they could avoid, how did they turn an idea into successful business? And what are strategies they have used to make more sales and be discovered by more customers. This is what this show is all about. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to become a million dollar product boss, I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support and you too can be the next million dollar product boss. Let's do this. Hey, hey, product bosses. And welcome back to another episode. All right, so oftentimes I get asked about how I grew a multimillion dollar business in my 40s. And I say that because I think a lot of times when I think through the journey that I was on and the things that I thought were going to happen in my life and my business, I did the thing where I got married, I had kids, I had the business that I had, which was my consulting company where I helped over 2000 fashion startup brands. You know, I had launched one of my own, I had closed one of my own product businesses. And you know, I was 37 years old and thinking, okay, that's it. Like, I've got my two kids, I've got my career, I've got my business, this is what it looks like. And then, you know, the origin story is when I met Mina, who I co founded the Product Boss with. Many of you know her, many of you have heard episodes of the Two of us. And you also know if we skip forward about six years, that I ended up buying the business from Mina last year and going solo at the Product Boss. So all of these things that have happened over the last seven years, I would have never, ever, ever told you or planned out that this is what my life was going to look like when I was feeling like I was approaching 40 and this is like the thing that this is where I was and you know, I had my two kids and I had my life and then, and then everything changed and then everything changed again and then it keeps changing. And you know, I think when I look back and I reflect in terms of what, what has happened over, you know, I started my first business in 2007, so I'm getting pretty close to 20 years of being an entrepreneur and business owner. I know, I know. I'm only 25. I know. Just kidding. But you know what I'm saying, Like I look back and I'm like, wow. Like I don't know how I got here and how I've gone through so many iterations of starting businesses, closing businesses, buying businesses, becoming an investor in other product based businesses and just kind of this journey forward. And I know it's not stopping here and I know where it's going to go. Really the thing I wanted to talk about was where the biggest change happened for me. And that was a decade into being an entrepreneur and owning my own business. So the biggest change that happened, and that was about 10 years in to business. I had never listened to a podcast. I didn't even know what podcasts were. They were newer, you know, and I think people were listening to certain types of podcasts. But for me, I just, I didn't know that there were business podcasts out there. I didn't know about online business coaches. Now while I was a consultant and I worked with people in person in la, or they would fly in and work with me, or I would fly to them and work with them, I didn't know about, you know, digital courses and online masterminds and group coaching programs. Like just, I wasn't in that world yet. And honestly the world was smaller than I remember. You know, Tony Robbins was like the guy who was doing stuff online. Like there weren't always the things. And you know, I discovered people like Marie Forleo back in, I think it was like 2013, 2014. I was probably one of her first B school students, to be honest. And I'd already had my business started. So you know, that program for me, like I got into, I learned a couple things, but I'm a service business so don't forget that part either. I got in from the service and coaching part of it all. And so a decade into my business, I discover a podcast, I find a coach. So I started listening to the Biz Chicks podcast. Like I said, I had an agency model and I found Natalie Ekdal and I reached out to her. And I said, oh, my goodness. Like, you know, I love the podcast. It feels like you're speaking to me. All my pain points just, I loved all the things that she said in there. And then I asked, do you coach people one on one? Because I needed access. I was like, you're so smart. I hear you on this podcast. You seem like you have all the answers to all my problems. I remember going back to, to my husband and being like, oh, my goodness, she was amazing. I want to work with her, but I don't think I can afford many more one on one sessions with her. I don't know what to do, but I also don't know what to do because if I don't work with her, I feel like I'm in this catch 22 of. Is that right? I don't know. But I feel like, okay, if I work with her, she can help me solve my problems and get out of debt and grow my business and be more profitable if I don't work with her because I can't afford her. That was the story I was telling myself. I can't afford her. I'm just going to kind of stay stuck. And I think that happens a lot for a lot of people. A lot of you out there listening, you know, the idea of we kind of stay stuck because we have these stories we're telling ourselves that we can't afford something, we can't do something, maybe we can just figure it out on our own. A lot of times money gets in the way. And that reason is that we have these old stories playing in our head. And I had to take a step back and think to myself, like, how is that serving me? Like, if I keep thinking that things are too expensive, they will always be too expensive. But if I push myself past the edge of comfort and say, okay, if I am able to figure out how to pay to work with this person, do I believe that if I work with this person, she will then help me? 2x3x10x20x my revenue and I had to get comfortable with, I'm going to have to make a big investment that I'm uncomfortable with, but then that will then push me to expand, to figure out how to make that money, how to make it back. I still do that to this day. I still do that to this day. I have a coach now that I pay so much money to for three months of working with her. And what's crazy is the amount I paid her was an amount I actually saved on something else that I Was like, oh my gosh, like the universe, if you want to get woo, the universe just kind of made this money appear, which was the exact amount that I was afraid to pay her. Had that same conversation with my husband. He goes, excuse me, what? And it's like, but she's going to help me. She's going to help me to get to that next level, you know? And he's like, okay, you can invest. I didn't need his permission, I just needed to run it by him. And he was like, all right, I support you. Really, is where the conversation went. So, you know, I think that was one of the first things that I did, that was the first step in the secret of how I went from being $50,000 in debt to, to now, just a few years later, having a business that has generated over $10 million in revenue over the years. Right. And from what I've learned, I've been able to help my students, my clients, my masterminders do the same thing. So I wanted to talk about what I have done in my life and in my business. If this can impact you in any sort of way, is like modeling it for you so that you can push past those growth edges for yourself as well. Because wherever you are now, I promise you, my friend, you are not alone. You are not stuck here forever. This is not a forever, so you're not stuck here forever. And in fact, what we think we know, and what we think we know is going to happen next is actually only based on the history in which we've come through. Right? We don't know what the next step is. We don't know what's going to happen. We just know historically what has happened to us. And then we try and take that information, put it forward and say, this is how it's going to be. So at that point I could have thought, you know, it's hard running this business. Having all these employees is tough. I don't know how I'm ever going to like break past my half million dollar revenue. I'm not a good boss. I don't know if I have enough time for like my kids. There's all this stuff because I just didn't know what to do next. And so this is something that I have taught our masterminders. And I wanted to share it with you here too, if this is helpful to you, because I think it's really important to think about and know what I've done to move forward. Now here's something I want you to know now more than ever. Having A successful, profitable business that can create financial and time freedom for you will allow for your greater control of your life. Okay? And that is so important to me, the profitable business, having that financial and time freedom, having control over my life, because, remember, I'm married to an actor who would travel all the time, all the places, and I always had to kind of go on the road and go where he was. So the number one thing that helped me create that profit, that security, and the freedom for me to spend more time with my family, with those people that I love and doing the things that I love was that I ended up getting mentorship and joining a supportive group. Really what this means is that I just decided I was never going to do business alone again. And this does not mean partner or no partner, this means I'm never going to do it alone again. I'm going to have a group of people around me that, that have the same goals that I have, that maybe even have bigger goals than I could have ever imagined, that are going to push me, that are going to hold me accountable, that are going to show me what's possible, and then I'm going to always have mentors to help me get there. And so I bring all of this up because that is my origin story. That's sort of how I started. That's how I found out about podcasts. That's how I found out about coaching. And if you're wondering, like, okay, well, Jaclyn, were you able to afford working with this coach? Working. Working with Natalie? I went back to her after my husband was like, well, go to her and see how else you can work with her. And at that point she said, you know, actually, I'm starting a mastermind for six figure women entrepreneurs. It wasn't product or service specific. It was just for women entrepreneurs. And she said, that is a way that you can work with me. You join this mastermind. It's a small group of people. You'll have me as your mentor. You'll have this group of women to support you. And we're going to meet and we're going to do hot seats where, you know, you bring a big question to the group and the group gives you feedback and I give you feedback, and you're just going to have access to more things. You're just never going to feel alone again. So I said, awesome, sign me up. So I did. I signed up. I signed up and joined my very, very, very first Mastermind. This is actually pre the product boss ever starting. This was with my previous business and I've been in a mastermind every year since. In fact, sometimes I'm in several. Several. A couple. A couple masterminds. It feels like several, but I'm in a couple because I'm in a couple different groups for different things that I need. One I'm in for being around other moms that are entrepreneurs, that is a big mixed group of different types of businesses. And then there's one I'm in that's in a group that's very specific to the kind of business that I have. And now I've been in other masterminds that didn't feel like they were the right fit for me. And that's because they weren't in the same industry that I was in. It doesn't mean that they need to have the same customers. They just couldn't speak the same language that I could when it came to talking about the kind of business that I run. And I think that's what's so important, that if you ever are looking for a group to join or a mastermind to join or anything that you're looking at one, you find a mentor that has done what you're looking to do, that has experience in what you're doing, and that has curated a group together that is powerful for a common goal, a common reason, a common theme. The product boss started as a mastermind. That's it. That's what we started with. Before we even had a podcast, we were a mastermind company. We had a podcast, and then for two years, we only ran masterminds. And that was before we'd ever launch any sort of online course program, any other way of doing it. So this is really like the thing that happened and helped me in sharing this with you and joining her mastermind. The thing that I discovered was that I felt so stuck on what to do next. Do you ever feel that way? I always wished I had someone to guide me. I wish I had someone to mentor me. And I wished I had people at the same level that were actually sharing with me what worked and what didn't. And even resources, right? Like, hey, I need an attorney for this, or, what app can I use for my website? What tracking software do you use for this? You know, in my inner circle, Mastermind, the conversations that are coming up are like, you know, we talked about upsells and cross sells, and everyone's sharing their favorite Shopify app, for example. Or one of our masterminders is working on getting onto Amazon, and then another masterminder has crushed it, making over a million dollars on Amazon. And so she's actually helping her through it. Someone else was hiring an ad agency and they needed feedback on like the right ad agency or I'm running my own ads. And then another masterminder helped her through that. One big connection that just happened is my masterminder, who's making a ton of money on Amazon, wants to transition and start her own direct to consumer website. But her direct to consumer website is not converting. So she paired up with another one of our masterminders that just like crushes it in direct to consumer. They connected and she said, let me make an introduction to my web designer, my web developer. And they're doing such a great job and these are my conversions. So it's all these conversations that they're having that I had that really kind of like again got me unstuck. I realized that I was in the right place because I also found out that all of the people that I looked up to that were doing big things, that were changing their lives financially with time, freedom, that were impacting the world, they were also doing this right. And I'm going to share with you what they were doing in just a couple of minutes. And so like I said, I've been in these groups for the past eight years and there's all these different approaches and the way that I've refined it and, and done this for. I've been in so many programs, I've been in so many masterminds, I've run so many masterminds that I've really kind of like defined it into this framework that I want to share with you. And it is the proven path to a million dollars. And what I believe the only way to grow a successful, profitable, stable and joy filled business in any economy without hitting burnout or feeling isolated, right. Is through these three pillars that I came up with, which is mentorship, community and expansion. Hey, hey, product boss. So if you are a six figure, multi, six figure on your way to seven figures or even cross that seven figure mark. Product boss, ears up now. Listen. I was recently in a session with one of my masterminders in the inner circle, which is Julie. And she said, Jacqueline, I literally feel like I am building a castle on top of IKEA furniture. And I added that IKEA furniture has a few leftover screws that you don't know where they go. Right? It's this thing where you're building something amazing and beautiful, but you're so afraid that at any moment it could all come crashing down. And that's because A lot of times as we're learning, as we've crossed that six figure mark, we've hit multi six, we're heading to seven or even cross seven. We're still just figuring it out, right? We're still figuring out how to do this, how to scale the business, how to grow a team, how to be with our families and spend time doing the things we love, how to manage these amazing opportunities that come our way, how to keep leaping and growing. But the thing is, is that you can't expect us to know this and do this all on our own. People aren't meant to do this. And I'll tell you, the biggest shift and change that I ever had in my business was a decade into running my business by myself alone, complaining to my husband and he could not help me. And then I found a coach who told me she had a mastermind and I joined it. And finally I felt like I could breathe. I felt like all that pressure was off of my chest and I was like, finally, people I can talk to who just get it and who just get me. So if you have crossed that six figure mark, if you're in the six figures, multi, six, seven figure business and you are looking for that relief and that support and that strategy and to be surrounded by other product people doing the same thing that you want to do and going in the same direction, then I invite you to join me inside of the inner circle mastermind. Yep, this is my inner circle mastermind. It's the thing I love so much in this business. I've been doing it for the past seven years, working closely with those of you inside of my masterminds. And, and so this is for you, if any of this has applied and I'd love to see your application come through. So right now we're taking applications for a limited time. Once the spots fill up, they're full and you'll have to wait for someone to drop out or for another cohort to come up. So if you are interested in enrolling, all you have to do is head to the productbossmastermind.com, get that application done. It takes just about five minutes. And then I will review it, my team will review it, and then we cannot wait to get back to you and see you join us inside. So now back to the show. So if you want to know how I went from 50 grand in debt to a business that's generated multiple millions a year, it was through mentorship, community and expansion. All right, so let's kind of break them down. For you here. So let's talk about what mentorship is. So mentorship is when you get to learn specific strategies for your business. It helps you avoid mistakes, or it fast tracks you to a result you're looking for, and it helps you become a little bit more brave in making your business better. Because for me, when I work with a mentor, it helps me make smart choices that I'm growing my business confidently, right? Mentors will have feedback or experience or information from other things that are working, and they can just kind of like, ooh, get you there so much faster. And so mentorship was like, I experienced that on my first call with my coach. I experienced it week over week in the Mastermind. I've experienced it through all of the mentors that I've ever hired, as well as the groups I've been a part of. Because when I've decided to join Masterminds, I thought to myself, do I want to learn from the person who's facilitating the program? What are they doing that I want to do? Or what have they experienced or what information do they have that would be beneficial to me? And do I align with them, right, in terms of values and goals and all the things? So mentorship is huge. So the second thing is community, right? Because I believe that community took me from feeling so alone. I'm telling you, a decade of aloneness. I know you feel this way, too. A decade of me going to my boyfriend that eventually turned into my husband and completing about work and team and delays in shipping and, you know, production issues and quality control issues. I mean, all of it. All of it. Staying late at the office because I had to cut something. I had to, like, cut fabric myself and get it in time to get it shipped out. All of this stuff. I'd come back and I'd complain to him, and he would just kind of say, like, well, to fix it. All he thought was like, well, then why don't you go get a real job? And it's like, no, you're not getting the point. And then the other people that were in my community were either my neighbors in my building, because I had an office in a building that we would run into each other and be like, hey, how are you? But no one was willing to kind of share their sources of stuff, because if they had a sewer cutter or supplier for, you know, some raw goods that I needed, maybe raw goods they would give us, but it was only if it was, like, elastic or zippers. It was never something that was, like, really crucial to their business because they were like, well, I'm not going to give you, like, the place I get my fabric prints because I want my fabric prints to myself kind of thing. So there was a little bit of that when we had huge wins or like, something amazing happen that I could like pop into the hallway and knock on my neighbor's door and be like, oh my God, we just landed, you know, like, like an account with everything but water. Like, no, you know, and. Or oh my God, we just lost something big, or something problematic happened. And they were also not the person to go to for that, you know, And I had colleagues of people that I worked with in different ways, but again, none of that. So for me, community was huge, huge for me. And I got that through these curated groups of people that were curated together at the same level in the same type of business. But here's the kicker. When you get into community, it's really important that they have diverse experience. Experiences, but similar goals. That is why so many masterminds have applications that go with it. And for us too, like, we need to make sure that it's the right fit. We ask very specific questions on deciding if that person will fit well into this group that we're curating and creating. Do they have similar goals? Do they want to burn their business down? If they want to burn their business down, that's not the energy we need in a mastermind, for example, that's more of a coaching person. Like, you know, coaching one on one. Let's get you out of burning your business down versus, hey, I want to grow. I want to get to that next level. I want to give and I want to get like, all of it, right? Because in community, this is where people share their ideas and they have really, really smart ideas. They help each other stay on track. That's really great for people. It brings in different viewpoints, things that, like, we haven't even considered. And it's a place where everyone feels supported. And in fact, the very first mastermind that I was ever in, I. I'm still friends with a few of the people that I was in that group with. One of them I love so much. And I still talk to my mentor, Natalie Ekdahl. Like, now we're friends. And then my other friend, she has a hiring company and she helps me hire people for the team. And she actually works with some really, really, really big names out there, right? And we were kind of like coming up together and so still, like, she'll check in on me. Last year, when I bought the business, she was Checking in on me. And she was making sure, like, hey, do you need anything? How can I support you? And this was all post, being in a mastermind together, these are people that you just go through it with each other and you find a few people and you love them and they love you. And then it's just like you've added like a jewel to your jewel box. Like, they're just incredible humans that I find. I think that's the other great thing about being in a mastermind. Like, I find new people that I absolutely love and cherish and they become really good friends because it's very lonely. It's very lonely. And the reason they're good friends is they also understand everything we've done to get here, the good and the bad and the ugly. And so they're really great to be supportive as well. Okay. And then the last thing that I find to be really important, and this is in my pillars of, like, the proven path to a million dollars. And what has helped me get to generating over $10 million in revenue in my businesses over the last few years, is, is expansion. This is so important. This is probably why you love listening to podcasts, why maybe you attend live events, maybe you don't do these things and you feel like you need a little bit more of it. But the reason why I love, like a curated group, like a mentor with a curated group and a community that's smaller than some of these bigger online communities, is that the expansion, like, allows us to expand our ideas and think bigger and the expansion to, you know, develop growth tactics for our business, things like we couldn't even figure out or to leverage opportunities that bring us closer to our goals. And I think that expansion is so critical to our long term success. And it kind of is like what I talked about in the beginning, because it pushes our boundaries beyond our comfort zone. It is very easy to stay small and keep playing small. It is so easy to actually stay in discomfort more than it is to go into the unknown, because we know what discomfort feels like. We know what lonely feels like. We know what feeling broke feels like. We know what being in debt feels like. We know what all of that stuff feels like. The part that's scary is the unknown. But when we can push ourselves past that comfort zone, that is when we start to see our businesses evolve, because we start to evolve. This is the biggest, most crucial, most amazing thing that I have ever done was continue to push my expansion to the point that I recently took my husband to one of the masterminds that I am a part of. And I said, can he come with me now that I own the business fully? Like, you know, it's our family business, so he has to be more involved. And so they said, sure, he can come. It's a very family oriented group. And I was so glad that he was there and he expanded. Like his brain just shifted afterwards. And I was like, babe, this is what I get. Like when I go to these masterminds, when I go to these events, when I take these calls. You have no idea that the stuff that I'm learning or expanding or thinking bigger because I'm seeing other people do it or these discussions that we're having. And it's amazing. And I was like. But every time I came back, I used to feel like, you know, he's not taking these leaps forward in beliefs or thinking bigger. And I am and I would try and explain it all to him. So it's been this really great thing. And you know, in my mastermind, a lot of times there's husband, wife, couples that join, there's partners that join. But the thing is, is it first starts with you because if you're the business owner, you have to start to expand and think bigger. And then you get to take your partner along on the ride with you, right? Whether or not they're in the mastermind or not. But just watching him have like one mastermind experience in person and what changed for him, it was really cool. It was kind of like, I'm trying to think of like a mom analogy. Like when you watch a kid taste something for the first time, like a lemon, a young child tasting a lemon for the first time and you see their face like react to the tart and they like, their face, you know, changes and you're like, us, we don't really notice that anymore the more you've tasted a lemon, but the very first time you taste a lemon, like you can actually see that change. I've watched my kids do that the first time they ever had coke and their brains went cuckoo. So this one mastermind that I'm in that's very like family focused and you know, it's really expansive and it's with a New York Times bestseller. And it's just like an incredible thing for people with like multi seven multi eight figure businesses. He came and he was surrounded by these people that there were people that were like kind of in the industry that he was and they started kind of going back and forth on ideas. He was with this New York Times bestseller who also had Other amazing New York Times bestsellers. Come speak. Because this is a mastermind that I'm in for, book writing and things like that. And he was just blown away. And it was cool to watch. It was cool to watch these pillars of mentorship, community, and expansion all happen for my husband over the course of three days. And then to see that. And so seeing that for me was like, oh, yeah, this makes so much sense. Like, this is why it's been so impactful for me. This is why it's so impactful for other people. This is why it's been so impactful for the masterminders that I work with and our inner circle mastermind. It's just the big why. So I wanted to share this for you and with you, because as you were growing your business, if you want to get this to that next level that you're hoping to get it to, you really have to think to yourself, am I getting the things that I need to get past this point? Like that growth edge? Because if you're not, or you feel stuck, or you feel like you hit a plateau or you don't know what else to do, you can figure it out on your own, I'm sure, to a point, but it's going to take you longer. And time is costly because money gets burnt while it takes too long to do things. We have limited time, we have limited resources. And so it's like, how do you fast track and speed this up? If that makes any sense? I hope it does. So as you're thinking through this, I'd love for you to, you know, just make sure that you are constantly feeling like you have mentorship, that you have community, and that you have expansion. And one of the coolest things that I figured out while I was kind of researching masterminds and things like that was like, there is this mastermind from back in the day that was Community of Geniuses, and it was called the Uncommon Friends Mastermind. And in the Uncommon Friends Mastermind, these were the masterminders. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Charles Lindbergh, and Dr. Alexis Krell. Okay? They were all separate geniuses and kind of product bosses on their own individuals. They were titans of commerce and invention. And they had this group that they would meet. That's why they call themselves the Uncommon Friends Mastermind. And there's this really cool picture I found on the Internet of all of them in black and white, like, sitting outside looking like, you know, they've just enjoyed a really cool day of just resourcing each other, being in Community kind of mentoring each other and expanding. And so I want to wrap it with that because I wish this for you as well. If you are someone that is making six figures and beyond six figures to seven figures and you're looking for a mastermind that's specific for product based businesses, we do have our inner circle Mastermind. It's the productbossmastermind.com I'll drop a link into the show notes if that's helpful to you because we are always accepting applications and we are going to be filling up spots for the next six months. All right, so I will see you in the next episode. Thanks friends. Thank you for being here and listening all the way through the Product Boss podcast. If you love our show and it has helped you in any way in your business, would you mind doing two things for us? Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode and leave us a review. Reviews help other product entrepreneurs know that this is the place to be to grow their businesses and realize that they're not alone. And we know that you all know that a five star and honest review helps you sell more products to more people. So you know that your reviews help us reach more listeners around the world. Remember, what we give is what we receive and we are all about helping each other in the Product Boss community. 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