From Broke To Brave—Just Say Yes And Figure It Out

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and I'm really excited for today's guest for a number of reasons. But before we talk to our guests, I'd be remiss if I didn't properly introduce my co host, Six Sigma. You know him, you love him. Scott Todd from Scott todd.net landmodo.com and most importantly, if you're not automating your Craigslist and your Facebook postings, posting domination.com TheLandgeek Today's podcast is sponsored by Landmodo.com TheLandgeek Start listing your properties there today. Scott Todd, you hear that background noise? What is that? I do.

Someone just started printing right here next to me.

Sorry. That's what it is.

See, this is. Yeah. So you know, when the family starts printing, there's nothing we can do. Family first, Scott.

I can't do anything about it. I mean, I could go find out who, who hit the print job and like, I don't know, yell at them. But that would be very compassionate.

Mark, that wouldn't be. That would. Yeah, you gotta be more understanding. Just, you know, it's okay though, because our compassionate guest, Jenna Rodriguez from bravemasters.com if you don't know Jenna, she is a wife, mother, serial entrepreneur, love of all things business, a brand specialist, an artist, a numbers gal, a coach, and committed to eradicating unrealized human potential. That is quite a bio. Jen Rodriguez. What is all that about?

What is that all about? I think I'm crazy. I've gone loco. No. Hi, everyone. Thanks for having me here. Mark and Scott and yeah, it's a list, right? It's a laundry list. But it is who I am. It's who I show up as every day. And of course, it took years to get all that. It took a while.

Let's rewind the tape and let's talk about the beginning where you went from broke to brave broke to brave.

I love it. So, yeah, that was a journey as well. And so, you know, my story begins with basically corporate America. First. I was one of those that went to college really early at 16, and then got. I was curious about entrepreneurship, but I didn't have any mentor like role models. My mom and dad were not that. And that was fine. They lived in corporate America or was, you know, a housewife or took care of the kids kind of thing. So. Point being is, after college, I ended up studying accounting and I got bored. And so then I Started studying fashion design. So, you know, I don't know what those have anything to do with each other, but that's who I figured out was running things, was both the creative Jenna and the numbers Jenna and. And the business savvy Jenna. And I spent quite a few years trying to figure myself out and ended up in corporate America as a controller for about eight years. Because numbers do come pretty easily to me. They are important, especially when it comes to business. And I really learned the ropes around that. But there was a point in 2006 where I got. I got. I mean, I kind of hit my ceiling. Not so much corporate America's ceiling. I was moving into. I was offered these higher positions and I just didn't feel the love anymore for crunching numbers for someone else and building other people's businesses. I was a consultant for entrepreneurs, building their profits and things like that. And I decided to buy a storefront, of all things. And so when I jumped out there into entrepreneur world, I took on a $200,000 loan to buy the. The store that was pre existing. And what it did was brought together all of my skill sets. Fashion designer. I also used to be a makeup artist. I had marketing experience, I had a controller experience. I had all of these things. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is a perfect storm. This is going to be great. And I had very big visions of expanding and building locations and all of that. And I started with just one. And that's the business I leaped into and. And basically said goodbye to my corporate America and my promotion. And what occurred next was not expected. And that's probably the hardest part of my story, is that I was very excited, very gung ho. And a year later, I found myself 700,000 in debt with all the loans and inventory and leases and all of the things that come with it. And had I not only made $300,000 in sales, yet I was two months behind on rent, not able to keep up. So the equity was flipped and the cash flow was clearly flipped. And the short story is I had to close it. I had to change my direction. And I really didn't have a choice at that point other than to close it down and file bankruptcy. And it was one of the most painful times. At the same time, I can very clearly look back and go, this was so meant to be. Like it's on purpose. And fast forward, here I am. I left that and said, I'm not going back to the job. I'm just not going to do it. And made a decision to partner with my husband in a web and graphic design company. And then there's much more to that story if you'd like to hear it, but here we are about 11 years later, and this is my third iteration of my business. My husband no longer works in the business. He has his own. He's a musician and does studio and freelance and all of that. And so I'm now in charge of Brave Masters 100% full time, and truly have taken from 700,000 in debt to making over $1.3 million in this iteration of my business. So it's been exciting, scary, and brave all the way along. So here we are. Yeah.

I mean, it's so funny because it's so easy to talk about the successes, but, you know, so few of us want to kind of go back to that dark period in our lives.

Right.

And, you know, nobody writes for free. Everyone has it. But for you, you know, coming out of it, what do you think was your biggest takeaway from going through that?

Yeah. So there were so many lessons along the road. Number one, not know. It's kind of like knowing what I didn't know and seeing the blind spots that I was not able to kind of move through in the moment. So when I look at that now, there were things that I just, I didn't know to do. And now I now that I know I've obviously excelled at it better in my current businesses. And one is getting mentorship and hiring a coach or hiring someone that knows more than I know. Right. So that didn't occur to me in that year. It wasn't as prevalent. I think we have a lot more coaching and mentorship that's for hire now. And it just wasn't the thing to do in the moment. And the other thing I learned is I spent my entire life afraid of the bk. Right? I made it wrong. I made it bad. I made it traumatic because I had watched my mother file bankruptcy when my dad and her got divorced at 8 years old. And because of that, I spent my life afraid of it. So what I learned in the moment, I had to make the decision. I remember actually laughing, like in my car. I was like, of course I have to file bankruptcy. Because what I had learned at that time is that your fears are perpetuated or come real if you hold them to be true. And so I had spent my whole life, so much of the time afraid of something called bankruptcy. Failure. Right. Falling down, not succeeding. I was so afraid of all that. And of course, it became my reality. And within a Split second. I chose to see it differently. I chose to see it as a gift. I chose it to see a blessing. And I also really got clear that my 2 year old and my 9 year old and my husband and my livelihood was way more important than what that apparently meant. And my sanity was way more important than anything that was happening in the moment. And I just made a business decision and I took responsibility at a whole different level. And that's what I got out of it, is that when I or someone takes responsibility 100% for how you've gotten to where you are, then you have freedom to choose how you go forward. And when I did that, everything started to open up differently and I made new decisions and I didn't dwell on it and I didn't stay in the sadness or the sphere or the like, oh, crap, what did I just do? I just chose and then moved forward. And it was one of the best things that happened to me so that I could learn that lesson. And it sucked. But here I am.

Scott, Todd, let's play a fun game. All right, let's go.

Oh, gosh.

Let's lighten it up, right? Let's do that.

Okay. So you know how, like, the intellectual elite go into a museum and they look at a piece of art and they kind of look at it and they, they cock their head back and forth and all of a sudden they start analyzing it and creating this sort of flowery story about the art that they're looking at. You know what I'm talking about? So when you hear Jenna's story, let's have a museum moment, and let me know, when you look at it, what do you take away from that?

I mean, it's funny because I was thinking along, look, I was thinking about doing the same thing, right? Because, Mark, the one thing that, that, that I hear Jenna say said is, hey, look, I'm this, I'm a, I'm a controller for, you know, corporate America. And I got tired, right? And then I made the leap to start my own deal, right? And it's so easy to get, you know, to think. Like, it's easy to make that leap to entrepreneurship, right? The reality is, is that without a Sherpa, without somebody to help you, without a kind of a coach or without someone that there, I think the success rate is so small, you need someone who can see it from the outside because you're living it. Even, even like a skilled executive, you're living in it. And like, you don't necessarily see what's coming at you. You need somebody from the outside to help you. And I think that was kind of like even a takeaway that Jenna said was like, you need some guidance. And maybe she didn't. Maybe if she would have had guidance to begin with, it could have helped her. But it's such a hard leap, especially when you go and you get a retail store or something like that. That's my thoughts.

Yeah. You know, it's so funny because when I hear her story, my museum moment, looking at Jenna's picture is a little different because I see actually Jenna as your female doppelganger, Scott. Because there's very few people that are really analytical on the number side of it.

Yeah.

But then they're also super creative from a business and marketing side. And you look at those people from the outside, and you say, okay, that person's probability of success and entrepreneurship is really, really high. Right. And that just kind of shows you how difficult it is without a Sherpa. Even with that skill, even with that experience, and arguably even with all that talent. Right. It's still super, super tough. And you gotta. You gotta say a variable of it is gonna be luck. Right.

I agree. I agree. I think that, um. It's funny. I. I don't know about the doppelganger part, but I will tell you, you know, we do. We do have a lot of. We do have a lot of skill sets in common. One, we both work for corporate America. Two, we both have a finance background. I was also a controller. I was a controller for a Fortune 300 company for a while. And so essentially, you know, there. There is that piece.

Mark the leap.

Some people make it look easy, but, Scott, you made.

You. You made the leap. You did it slower, you did it more.

So what I did was. The difference is that I made the leap after I had the bridge built. Like, I had the revenue coming in. I wasn't starting from scratch. Like, I made the leap, and I had assistance. I had guidance along the way. At the same time, it's so hard to, like, go from, like, this, you know, paycheck every two weeks to, like, now you're the boss, and you got to pull it all together, and you still got to pay your own bills. That's a. That's a very hard leap to do if you haven't built a foundation.

Right, right. So, Jenna, now, you know, let's give you your museum moment. Right?

Yeah. Look at my own. Yeah.

Well, not necessarily for you, but. But just for your clients. So you've got an entrepreneur who comes to you and says, Jenna, I need to boost my brave. Right. I want to get to the next level my business, you know, maybe I'm weak on branding or marketing or, you know, even just the numbers of my business. And so now you look at them and you kind of look at what they're doing, and then your big takeaway is typically what. I mean, can we, you know, create sort of a museum moment on that story or is that too general? Yeah, for sure.

You know, I mean, I think that's where, thank goodness I have the creative and the numbers side of my head. 50, 50 only because I'm listening from a place of not only what do they have in place, what are their strengths and skills that they can pull from to step into entrepreneurship, but I'm also looking for other characteristics that are they in place? And some of those are, are they action oriented, are they fear driven? Only, you know, it's like. Or do they overcome fear? Do they have the finance. One of the biggest questions I ask on one of my application forms is, do you have the means necessary to invest in yourself, or will you figure it out and find the means and make it happen? Or I am living paycheck to paycheck. I don't have any way to make it happen. You know, something like that, right? There's these three choices. And so I'm looking from a place of mindset. You know, you may not have the money in the bank, but you better well have an attitude called I'll figure it out. Because there's gonna be times like I've experienced where cash is tight or it's. Or the season dropped or the. I mean, I was going into 2007, 2008, and I was the ninth store to close in my square. I wasn't number one. I was sinking with the other ships. Not to say that that was the only reason it closed. I could have figured out possibly a way around it had I known more. But, you know, am I one to look at that and blame the circumstance, or am I the one to say, all right, this is happening, but I'm going to figure it out. And so when I observe or look at a business owner and start to work with them, I ask a lot of questions up front. I get a sense of their current state of business and number one, their current state of mind and how they approach the challenges, because that's what you're going to get inside of entrepreneurship. No matter what you do to set it up to win, there's going to be things you got to make decisions About. And, you know, we can look at brand and we can look at marketing. We can also look at what if, you know, it's like, do you have the means to support yourself if this doesn't work right away, if you don't get the sales done? Or are you that highly committed that you're going to make the actions happen to turn the boat around? So I'm looking at a lot of different aspects when I'm in that conversation with them. And it comes directly from what I've been through and how I did it not so smartly or whatever it's going to, like I didn't do it so well. And so I'm looking at it from, how can I circumvent this missteps that I took and help them not make the same mistakes? And I can't solve it all for them. They really have to have an attitude of brave, an attitude of get out there and do the work. Because I can't do it for them. But I am there to support them in the strategy and the clarity of who they are and what they're charging, what they're selling, how they're going to market themselves, and ultimately what brand are they going to show up as so that they can be in the marketplace in the right way. So it's very multifaceted. And I think that's what is kind of a disillusion for people or an illusion is that people, you know, it's like, oh, I'm really good at this, so I'm just gonna go make a business about it. Except the business owner has about 10 hats, and you may not master them all, but if you're not aware of all the hats that you have to wear and the tasks and the operations, the accounting, the branding, the marketing, the sales, the client fulfillment, I'm like, there is a lot to business ownership and you may not obviously tackle it all at once, but you've got to have the awareness that there's going to be more demanded on you and a leadership is going to have to, you know, to be there in order to succeed. So I do my best to kind of give them a reality check. At the same time, empower them to take brave steps. Because I did right, and that's where I am, why I'm here.

Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about your top 10 core values. Number one, say yes and figure it out. Number two, brave daily verb. The act of being decisive, committing consciously and taking action. Number three, focus on attitude over experience. Number four, value connectedness. Number five, Vulnerability, key to connectedness. Number six, know that intentions shape one's reality. Number seven, presume the positive first. Number eight, ask how can I versus say I can't? Number nine, have a work it out attitude always. Number ten, be transparent, Scott. Todd, what do you see uncommon out of those 10 core values? I love picking on Scott.

I think it goes.

I need to learn how to pick.

I think it goes back to personal accountability. Yeah, it is. It's can do, the can do attitude and personal accountability. It's what I see.

I think it's our mindset with her, isn't it, like attitude over experience. You know, figure you'll figure it out and then can you be brave enough to show up? Can you. Can you show your authentic self and that connectedness and that vulnerability? I feel like, you know, vulnerability has been kind of hijacked in the business world now, where, you know, Brene Brown kind of popularized it, and now it's like, oh, I'm vulnerable. But it's not, you know, I think it's more sort of authentic showing up every day as you, you know, not sort of puffing up, not shrinking, just doing your kind of your best version of yourself. Am I? I mean, Jenna, what do you think of that? What does vulnerability mean to you? What does vulnerability and connectedness mean to you?

Yeah, no, that's a great question. And you know, for me, I guess where I live in vulnerability, and I wasn't always, so. So the distinction for me is that there was a time, I mean, up until 2013, which is not so long ago, that is five years, if I can do my math correctly. It's so many years past the bankruptcy. And I didn't speak of it. I wouldn't talk about it. I wouldn't share that ugly truth as I held it back then. And so for me, when I was willing to be vulnerable, it was a space of. And I tie it very closely to transparency. And what I mean by that is being real and being honest and open. And, you know, it's like being willing to share what's really underneath all of the success or the good things, but also the ugly truths. And, you know, being vulnerable has catapulted my business. It is the one thing that brings the human element into business, in my opinion, because when we are connected with others, I think it's, like I said, in my core value, it's because of that vulnerability with each other. If we can support each other even in the hardest times, and if we can hold each other's hands and be willing to really stand up for people when they can't stand for themselves and when you can believe in yourself, when it's really like you're really tested. Those are all very vulnerable moments. And it's a way of being not just. Not a temporary choice, right? So I think vulnerability is much bigger than just like, oh, I got on stage and told my story for the first time, which is a huge part of a shift for me. It shifted the needle for me when I started being able to do that because I was so worried about what people thought of me instead of really being concerned with how do I help them, meaning who's in the audience. And I think that's vulnerable. I think it's when you can be about something bigger than yourself and you don't really even know what the heck that is, and you're willing to face the unknown and be brave and all of those things that kind of tie in together, then that's vulnerable. And it's a practice for me. It's a practice. It's not always comfortable and, you know, sometimes a little scary. And there's, you know, even my brave this year and moving forward, I built my business. I built this machine off speaking in public, which I had never done before 2013. And so I built my business being in front of people, one on one, in person. And so, of course, I was scared at first, and then I got used to it, right? I got more comfortable. And this year I'm noticing what's the next level of vulnerability is me being online at a much bigger pace. I guess I don't know what the word is, but, you know, like, to be really visible online and access to millions and, you know, like to really put yourself out there and being willing to be judged, I think is highly vulnerable as well. And that's kind of my next brave right now is like, you know, people think this is easy for me right now, and it's like, you know, I've got to build my comfort level with it and just like anyone else. And so I'm on a mission to really impact a lot of people out there. I mean, if I can impact a million people and a million entrepreneurs and inspire them, then I've got to get vulnerable. I've got to be willing to, like, you know, be uncomfortable, be judged, to be whatever it is, because I got to be committed to something bigger than that, and I think that's vulnerable as well. So there's a long answer for you.

I like it. I like it. Scott. Todd, do you think the male listener is going to drop off now for us. Oh, Mark, it's got to have gotten too woo woo with all this vulnerability stuff.

No, if they were going to drop off, they would have dropped off a long time ago, Mark. Don't worry about it. But, you know, I think that there's something there because, you know, Mark, it goes back to the mindset that we've, we've talked to other people about. You know, look, no, like everybody has things about their lives, business lives, you know, public lives, whatever that you're uncomfortable with. There's things that just, you're going to feel uncomfortable. There's nobody that's not uncomfortable with something.

Now.

Some people do a better job of like playing it off, but there's certain things that we all have that, you know, it's like, man, it's just, it's, it's a negative energy, right? It's draining from us. But that said, when you kind of just go into it and just do it, the more you do it, the lower your anxiety is going to come about it. You know, it's just, it's, it's going to get easier the more you do it. It's when you avoid it. It's when you like, go, go. And like, I will do anything except for that, that it never gets any better because you're not getting the, you're not getting the exposure that you need to kind of lower that, that stress or that anxiety or whatever it is.

Yeah, absolutely. There's a great book by Patrick Lencioni called Getting Naked and he talks all about vulnerability in the business world. So, you know, I highly recommend that. But which leads us to Jenna. See how I did that segue. Our tips of the week. So I think your mentorship has been amazing, this podcast, but now we're going to ask you for one more tip. A website or resource, a book, something actionable where the art of passive income listeners can go right now, improve their businesses, improve their lives. What have you got?

Yeah, so a tip of the week. One of the books I picked up, I was going to. I wanted to share a book that I recently got probably a couple months ago that really started to impact.

Me.

In a bigger way and kind of shift where I'm going in this year, in the future. And it was from Brendon Bouchard. And it was the. I'm looking it up because I don't want to get it wrong here. Hold on. It's got too many H's. So I'm like, what is that again? It's The High Performance Habits, I believe, is the book. Let me double check that. And what I loved, High Performance Habits is the book. So what I loved about it is that I was floored that he had done all this research and talked to millions of people. I don't know how many, but lots over three years. And it boiled down to six habits. Six habits of these highly successful people. And, you know, all of that. And I was like, that's interesting. You know, it's like, we try to make this so complicated, but it's really these six habits. And the cool thing is, if you access the book, they have, like, an assessment, and you can kind of check out and see where you are. But I would highly recommend picking that up. It's. It was one. I gifted it to all my private clients because I was like, wow, this is really big, you know, because I'm always learning. If you look at my bookshelf, it's all non. It's nonfiction, all development, all personal development, business books, how tos, you know, things like that. And this one I just had to add to my bookshelf, and I would highly recommend people to grab it and consume it. It's kind of a big book. But if you can just really get kind of the synopsis or the Cliff Notes around those six habits, I think you can really, as an entrepreneur, you can start to see where you're lacking and where you need to put your focus, and it would make the most difference for you. So, yeah, that's the tip. Tip for the day. Tip of the week, whatever it is.

I love it. I got a new book to read now.

You got a new book to read? Yeah, I like it. I haven't read that one, so I got to pick that one up.

Which one? Oh, yeah. Getting Naked. Yeah, yeah. Right now I'm listening on audible to Angela Duckworth. Is it grit?

Grit.

Okay. Yeah.

I was like, what is that one called?

Yeah, yeah, it's great. It's great. Scott Todd from Landmodo.com TheLandgeek what's your.

Tip of the week, Mark? Mine is a very simple one. Check out this website.

Days.

You know, like, days.

Right, Dot. Days to.

Days to. Days. Two.

Okay.

Days to.

All right, I'm checking it out.

And what's cool about this is on the main screen there gives you kind of how many days until, like, certain events, but then you can go in there and you can say, like, days until, and you can get to a specific date. So, like, let's say that I wanted to have, like, days until January 1, 2018. Well, then it will do the countdown clock for me. And what I really, really think is cool is like when I access it from my phone, you know, I did like a save too. So it creates like a kind of an icon on my phone. And what's cool is like right on my phone, on my home screen, I have how many days until. And then I click on it tells me how many days until that special day. So whether it's December 31st or whatever it is, it's. It's a countdown clock for a specific date. Okay. And it's really, really cool if you're trying to create it, have a deadline or something like, you know, there's nothing more pressure than knowing that you only have X amount of days left.

Mark.

You always talk about like you only have X amount of days left to walk the planet. Maybe you want to plug that day in there and then it just keeps count down. I don't. It seems a little dark for me, but that's.

Yeah, yeah. You want to know how many days left I have on Earth?

I don't, but yeah, don't scare me with that.

Okay.

There is a website.

You got to know the death clock I've got. I tell you what, I love this thing. It is very life affirming. Life is short. Make the most of it. I've got 11,069 days, 8 hours, 11 minutes and 44 seconds left.

What year did you.

That's assuming everything goes well. I think the. I think the average lifespan is like 78 for a man.

Wow. Okay.

I think it's just based on actuarial tables. I don't know if they have a. They know I've got a, you know, a walking treadmill desk.

I got like 30 years left, Mark.

Yeah, I'm excited about those 30. So yeah, this is great. So I just, I just downloaded this. I want to plug in how many days until the next boot camp. Yeah, there you go. How do I do that?

All right, so here, I'll go to my phone because it's.

I'm in there. Okay. So events.

Let's see dot to. Because I had it on my computer. Let's see days two. So what you're gonna do is you're gonna go to calendar and when's the next boot camp? Next boot camp is. Okay, I got it right here. I got it. Yeah. So click. You like would click on, click on that day.

That's cool.

Okay.

Do you ever get these spam things on your phone? Jeez. It's trying to take me to like I want an Amazon gift card. I don't believe it. But.

Okay, so Sunday, how many days until Sunday? And then hit the gear. And then.

No, on the bottom. You know how you get. You know on the bottom down there where the arrow. The little box is with the arrow.

Yeah.

Okay, so hit that.

Okay.

And then do. And then do add to home screen.

Oh, okay. I'm on the home screen. Yeah.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Are you in the browser?

No, no, I already downloaded on my phone. I just need to add like actual date on using the app. So it says when is and then. But how do I add my own day?

No, you got it. Here, wait.

Go. You guys are really geeky.

Audience is gonna be like, I'm lost too.

All right. No, this is. This is a cool tool. I like this. You know, there's 23 hours till the first quarter moon, so that's good to know too. Nice. Alright, so my tip of the week is learn more about Jenna Rodriguez at.

Nice.

I didn't pay bravemasters.com don't worry, Jenna. The bill is coming. Bravemasters.com Learn more about her, her story, how she can help you. Let her be your Sherpa. If you are an entrepreneur and want to get to the next level, it's a really cool site too. It's just, you know, go to the blog. It's awesome. I bet there's some cool resources here. So if you just go to bravemasters.com blog, yes, free digestible golden nuggets await you. And she's got a podcast and she even had yours truly on it. So, you know, it's good.

That's right.

There you go. Well, you've done a lot. 135. This is you. You're killing it.

Yeah, I'm right near my third year anniversary, right? We, we push it out weekly, so. I can't believe it's been that long. It's crazy.

Wow.

Yeah, it's good.

Well, I want to thank all the listeners and I want to remind you the only way we're gonna get the quality of guests like agena Rodriguez from bravemasters.com if you do us three little favors. You got to subscribe, you got a rate, get a review. The podcast. Send us a screenshot of your review to support@the landgeek.com we're going to send you for free our $97 passive income launch kit. So please do that. Scott, are we good? Wait, I lost your audio there. You're still on mute. You're still playing with that app, right? No, not your mark. All right, Jenna, are we good?

We're good. This is great. Thanks, guys, for having me, and I really appreciate it. And the conversation was great.

Thank you. And, Scott, are we gonna do this? Are we gonna embarrass ourselves in front of Jenna?

I just say we do it real fast. Ready?

It's called vulnerability. Go.

Right.

3.

Let freedom.

Freedom.

Ring, ring.

Practice, guys, practice.

I know Jenna's like, I have been practicing for years. I know. Jenna's like, there's competent and vulnerable. Be competent.

Two different things.

Right, right, right. All right, well, thanks, everybody.