Meet Richelle, a Business and Mindset Coach helping corporate women turn their service-based side hustles into full-time online businesses so they can experience time freedom doing work they love!
Click HERE to listen to the Episode
Check out her Corporate to Full-time Coach Facebook Group, a place for high-achieving corporate women who want to build a profitable coaching business so they can ditch their day job and experience time and financial freedom doing work they love! Richelle hosts a free live training every week:
Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/corporatetocoach
Contact Info:
Website: richellejessey.com ;
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richelle.jessey/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richellejessey_coaching/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richelle-jessey/
About Richelle:
Richelle is a former Training and Development Manager where she worked for a global medical device manufacturing company for over 7 years. She always knew she wanted a very “people-centric” job, and found coaching through her time in HR and Training and Development. She fell in love with what the power of coaching could do for individuals so she went for a professional coaching certification through iPEC, and launched a coaching business right as she was completing her certification. She loves empowering women to create the life and business of their dreams so they can experience time and financial freedom doing work they are passionate about! She enjoys networking and collaborating with other female business owners, and loves to volunteer her time to different organizations that support business development for those just starting out (SCORE and WiseHer). She is always looking for ways to develop both personally and professionally, and enjoys bringing new learnings to her business and her clients! Richelle resides in CT and enjoys the changing seasons that come with living in New England (although fall is her favorite!). She enjoys spending time with her friends and family, trying out new restaurants, and learning from industry leaders!
5 Fun Facts about Richelle (in her own words):
1. I have been to over a dozen Dave Matthews Band concerts.
2. I’ve lived in CT my whole life but love to travel and explore new places.
3. I prefer baking over cooking any day!
4. I absolutely love fall in New England and all of the activities that come with it.
5. As a solopreneur I love surrounding myself with as many female entrepreneurs as possible to share ideas and collaborate!
Top 5 Tips:
1. Do market research and speak to your audience BEFORE launching your business! It’s common for coaches, and really any service-based entrepreneur, to want to dive into launching a business without getting a pulse on the market interest and the wants and needs of their audience. This is critical information to make sure you are providing services that your audience will want to buy!
2. Work on your mindset every single day. If business was easy, everyone would do it! Make sure you have mindset practice in place to help you when challenges and obstacles arise (meditations, journaling, etc.).
3. Dive deep into your WHY. Why is having this business so important for you? What does having this business mean for you and what does having this business allow you to do? Reflect on this often!
4. Choose who you work with carefully. This is your business which means you get to decide who it is you would ideally like to work with. Don’t take this lightly- you want to enjoy working with your clients, so think about the characteristics that are important for them to have in order to work with you!
5. Enjoy the process. Starting and scaling a business is a process! It is a never ending journey. The more you can embrace the challenges and lessons that come along the way, the better!
Episode 14 Transcript: Alexandra/Richelle Jessey
ALEXANDRA:
Hey everybody, and welcome to the 9-to-Side podcast where we chat with super amazing and inspirational people who pounded the pavement before and after their nine-to-fives to get their side hustles off the ground. After listening to the interviews, with these amazing guests, you’ll walk away with a refreshed pep in your step and a newfound motivation to make your side hustle a reality.
Hey everybody, and welcome to season two, episode 14 of the Nine-to-Side podcast. Hope you guys are all doing well. And so I just feel like January and February just drag on. And I don’t know lately, I just feel like I’m failing at my life, parenting just generally everything. And I feel like there should be like just an applied life coach for everyone. I know they do have coaches that you can get for careers and you know your life and stuff. I just feel like everybody should be equipped with like a general life parenting coach, because I think I’m tapped out of my natural gut resources for parenting and what I think is right, and I’m just– I’m really kind of like flailing lately. And I could use some guidance. So I always think coaching is such a great idea. And I think when you’re growing up, you always have a coach for sports. And there’s a coach for helping you get into colleges, sometimes in you have coaches or tutors or things to help you with your studies. And then you become an adult. And it’s like, there are no coaches offered anymore, and you have to seek them out. And I think that people that do seek them out are incredibly smart and really benefit from them, especially people that have their own businesses. So I do think that my next guest, is an incredible benefit to her clients. Her name is Richelle Jessey and she is a career coach. She helps female entrepreneurs who are in the space of having their own coaching businesses. Without further ado, here is my interview with Richelle Jessey.
RICHELLE:
My name is Richelle Jessey, I live in Connecticut. I went to school at Southern Connecticut State University for my undergrad. I went to the University of New Haven for graduate school. And really, I thought I was going to be in the HR corporate world forever. And I am now a business and mindset coach helping corporate women turn their service-based side hustle into a full-time online business. So I have escaped to the corporate world. I like to call myself the corporate escapee. And I want to help women do the same thing. So that’s what I have been working on for quite some time. Now I actually had a business prior to this, that was a side hustle to my corporate job at that time. And that was really focused on leadership coaching. That’s what I did in the corporate world, I spent a lot of time with leaders, helping them develop their managers. So I started a business that I scaled while I was still at my nine-to-five. And then I quickly saw my passion shifting from leadership coaching to helping other women create and scale a business of their own. And that’s what brought me here today to what I’m doing.
ALEXANDRA:
That’s great. So it’s a full-time job, what you’re doing right now, tell us the name of your–
RICHELLE:
Yes, it’s full-time. That is what I’m doing right now. My business name is Richelle Jessey LLC. But my signature academy is called the Side Hustle to Main Hustle Academy. And that’s what my clients go through. And that is the package and program that I created to really guide and coach my clients through transitioning their side hustle to a full-time business.
ALEXANDRA:
I’m just wondering back when you went to school and you started out your first career, what was like kind of the initial first reason that you started branching off from the nine to five to start doing like your first business of like leadership coaching and talk to me a little bit about that. And like how did that get started?
RICHELLE:
Sure. So in HR, and anyone who’s listening to that works in HR has– can probably, this will resonate with them. There’s a lot of administrative work that comes with human resources. There’s a lot of back-end work. And I went into that field really hoping to work with people, to be with people all the time, to spend time in meetings, developing coaching. And what I found was I was spending a lot of my time at my computer typing and doing notes and processing things behind the scenes, dealing with a lot of policy and procedural different tasks. And what I really thought about and had to reflect on one day as if there’s something in this job and in this career that I would love to do full-time, what would that be? And that’s when I really thought about coaching. And that’s when the coaching industry was introduced to me. We actually were hiring consultants from the outside to do coaching within the company. And I was looking at them, and I was like, gosh, that’s what I want to do. I want to be them. So I started having conversations with them learning more about the industry, learning about how to be a coach, and what that process looked like. And once I did that, I didn’t look back, to be honest, I enrolled in a coach training program, probably a month later. I did that for about a year, it was a really comprehensive program, and there was a certification process involved in it. And right when I was wrapping up my certification, I formed my LLC. I just started from there.
ALEXANDRA:
So I have a question for you. So for somebody who’s listening, who’s interested in coaching, how much money– One, did you have to invest? Would you recommend that to other people who
are interested?
RICHELLE:
Yeah, you know, the coaching industry is not regulated. So you don’t have to have a certification. I think that there are a lot of pros to getting certified. It’s very much a unique skill set. And it’s something where you think you can, you know, it’s asking questions, it’s empowering people, it’s helping people find the answers themselves and all that great stuff. And it sounds easy, but asking the right questions can be pretty tough. It’s hard. And it takes practice. So I highly recommend a coach training program. Although it is not required to be a coach. I personally went to IPEC, which is the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching, it is all around the world, you can find programs really anywhere, it is a very comprehensive program at the time I was going through it, I want to say it was around an $11,000 investment. So it’s not a cheap program. But it is very hands-on, and the support is amazing. It’s a great community, you do long weekends, in-person training weekends, do weekly webinars, there are assignments, and it’s very, very comprehensive. And I do recommend it for coaches, I definitely felt more confident in my coaching abilities. From a business standpoint, a lot of coach training programs don’t help you start a business they really focus on what we’re gonna train you on how to be a coach. And then the business side, you might have to do your own research and your own preparation to really start that yourself. I don’t know too many programs that really focused on okay, we’re going to train you on being a coach, and we’re going to train you on how to start your business. So I would probably look into a bit more if anyone was interested. But it’s pretty uncommon to have both of those factors in a coach training program.
ALEXANDRA:
Got it. What was it that you were looking to do after you finish that training course?
RICHELLE:
I kind of just dove into what I knew at the time, which was leadership coaching, it just made sense to me. I didn’t spend any time really thinking about what other type of coach I would want to be. That’s what I knew I was comfortable with it. So I did that. And I was working with small to midsize companies. And I mainly supported their middle management team. I enjoyed it. But once I started having other women come to me with questions about how did you do that? I want to have a business. What did you do to get it off the ground? How did you get it going? And I started informally just sharing. That wasn’t my business at the time, right? The more I started doing that, the more I was like, wow, I am being pulled in this different direction. I love the business side, and I’ve invested a ton of my own time and training to learn the business side. I’ve been mentored on the business side as well by my own business coach. If I’m going to make a shift and pivot my business, now’s the time to do it before I continue investing more time and money into leadership coaching,
ALEXANDRA:
What kind of marketing strategy? What kind of outreach do you have to do? How do you get clients? How do you get going to prove yourself to managers and leaders and things like that?
RICHELLE:
It can be a long game in the beginning, it truly can, because you’re a new face, you’re new to whatever industry you are coaching in and you’re trying to prove yourself to be an expert in. I like to leverage many different ways of getting connections and getting sales both in what I’m doing now. And in what I was doing with leadership coaching. So what I would first do is outreaching, especially when I was doing leadership coaching, I had to really do research and look on LinkedIn for companies that were nearby, companies that fit the employee size that I was looking to work with making connections, sending DMs and just inquiring about what they were doing about their challenges with their business. And then what I was doing also is I was doing weekly live video trainings for free on LinkedIn. And I would broadcast it I would invite people to come in and join I do a Q&A at the end and that was all free and that was a way for me to say, this is how I want you to perceive me, as an industry expert, I want you to get to know me in this space, and I want to share value. So you know what I can offer to you?
ALEXANDRA:
That’s really smart. Did you learn about advertising marketing?
RICHELLE: Yeah you know, I did do some marketing training. And then I also was researching a lot, I was looking at what people were doing with people that were ahead of me. And I was saying, Okay, if this person is a seven, you know, high six-figure or seven figure, an industry leader in leadership, coaching, what are they doing, and I was observing, and I was absorbing what they were looking at. And then I was also doing the marketing training on the side of that as well and making tweaks as you go. But I found weekly live video to be very effective, it’s a great way to not just post content on social media posts, where it’s just copied, it’s good for people to see you put a face to you, here, you and really be able to read your energy, because a lot of people will say, and I believe it, people buy your services for you more so than what it is you’re offering. They want to know I can work with this person, I trust this person. And I like this person.
ALEXANDRA:
Such smart advice, and so true. And then the last question I have just regarding this, and then I want to shift to your current business is just pricing like, how did you get started and know what to charge for your services?
RICHELLE:
I did a lot of competition research. So I wanted to see what are other people in this industry charging. And it’s tough, because, you know, a lot of people don’t just post their prices on their websites. And I understand that there’s a lot of value in having a conversation with somebody and going in depth about what your services offer that a web page just can’t really convey in the same way. So I did a lot of competition research, I looked at what people were offering and what their pricing was, and I also had some very open conversations with coaches in my network. So a kind of a combination of that. Pricing is hard, especially the first time because you’re like, can I charge this? Is this too much? Is this worth it for someone to pay this much? So you have to do a lot of mindset work, you need to feel very comfortable and confident in your abilities and the transformation you offer to charge a price that’s reflective of that.
ALEXANDRA:
Yeah. So at your highest, I’m sure there were different kinds of tiers, but just a ballpark range, what your services would cost for the leadership training for like a bid manager.
RICHELLE:
Yeah. So for that, when I was doing the leadership coaching, I was charging for a six-month commitment, which was the minimum, I didn’t offer anything short of that, especially for them, it takes six months to really get some traction there, I was charging for a one-to-one VIP client, I was charging upwards of about $8,000 for six months. And that had you know, several sessions involve several different templates, scripts, and workshops. So it was kind of a combination of not just doing calls, but also doing a lot of hands-on work with them. And you tweak things as you go. And one of the pieces of advice I have for coaches is if you are really stuck, and you’re stuck on pricing, and you’re not sure about your program, even and you think you’ve got something good, but you just don’t know, do a beta group with people and charge less and be open and say, Hey, I’ve got a new program. I think you’d be a great fit for it. Can you trial this out with me? And we’re gonna work together to co-create it and make adjustments along the way. I did that. And it was fantastic.
ALEXANDRA:
And you got good reception?
RICHELLE:
Oh, yeah. And people like transparency. So I wasn’t trying to hide the fact that like, Hey, this is brand new. This is the first time I was like, Hey, this is the first time guys, how do you feel about it? I did it for a group program. And they were like, We’re in, we’ll do it. And I asked for feedback constantly. After every module. I said, guys, here’s a feedback form. What did you like? What did you not like? What could I change? What could I add to all these things the feedback was great. They got the results that they wanted, which was phenomenal. And I got feedback to know what I could do to make it even better. So I can feel comfortable charging that higher price.
ALEXANDRA:
That’s a really good piece of advice. So let’s shift now to– you have this side hustle of a leadership coaching business, you are still doing your nine to five and then all these people are coming up to you. Are they women? Did you decide to– they were all women?
RICHELLE:
Yeah. All women
ALEXANDRA:
How you made the shift or the decision to just focus your attention on women for your business?
RICHELLE:
Yes. And it’s funny because, in the leadership space, it was mostly men. When I came to business coaching, what I’m doing now I really focus on women and it’s not a dig against men. It’s not like I don’t like working with men. I just like to create a very comfortable collaborative space for women who are in a– they’re in vulnerable place, either just starting their business or they’re trying to scale it and I feel that men and women bring a different energy to the business world. And I like to provide a space where women just feel like they can unload, talk about what’s challenging and what obstacles they have, and not feel embarrassed or feel like their question might be dumb or anything like that. I really kind of made that decision very early on that it was just going to be for women. And that’s how I was going to run that program.
ALEXANDRA:
And so you decided to do the female coaching for a little bit before you decide to leave your nine-to-five. How that financial jump because people are always curious. It’s like, Oh, you just decided to leave your nine-to-five once your business just took off? Everything was great!
RICHELLE:
Yeah, I like to call that the messy middle. That’s what it feels like,
ALEXANDRA:
Well, that is more transparent than like, people are just like, oh, sunshine and rainbows.
RICHELLE:
Oh, no, no, I am very open, I had scaled my leadership coaching business to a place where I was like, I’m making a good income, I could leave the nine to five and go off and take this further if I want to. That’s where I was when I decided to pivot. Oh, so you can imagine I was like, excited about the new venture. But also like, oh, my gosh, I put so much into this leadership coaching business, it’s at a great spot. And now I’m going to lead it. But my passion was pulling me in a different direction. So I said, I have to do this. So what I ended up doing was I had contracts that still had time left in them for leadership, and coaching. And a girl in my word, I didn’t break the contracts, I continued those until they finished. I was at my nine-to-five, and I was continuing my remaining leadership coaching contracts until they were completed. And I was taking on business coaching clients. So I had three things going on here.
ALEXANDRA:
I didn’t ask you this, but how did you fit in doing leadership coaching while having a nine-to-five? Because those typically would be during the same hours? How did that work out? And then how did you pivot to doing more coaching, which I’m sure you could push off to later hours if it was like women and their own businesses?
RICHELLE:
So I was juggling four calendars at this time, I was juggling my nine-to-five calendar, my private leadership coaching calendar with those clients, my business coaching calendar, and then I also had my personal calendar. So I had these four calendars. So what I did was, first of all, I will say I had a phenomenal boss in my nine-to-five, he knew what I was doing, and he was very supportive. There were a few hours that I was doing some of the stuff that my job, you know, I did some of it during lunchtime because it was virtual, which was helpful, I did not have to be on-site for this leadership coaching stuff. So I did have to cut into some work time again, he supported that which was great. Not everybody has that leisure. So I know I was lucky with that when I also was bringing on the business coaching on top of these two other things, those were all evenings because these were corporate women that couldn’t do calls during the day. So it worked out well for me.
ALEXANDRA:
That’s wonderful. Not everybody gets that lucky that their nine-to-five is that flexible. Tell us about how you kind of got started with the structure of the business because you have a signature program you put people through and what that looks like. And then also about the specific type of business that you coach for.
RICHELLE:
The research is so important before you dive into starting a business. I see this a lot of times because entrepreneurship is exciting. In the beginning, you have this great idea and you just want to go you want to take it, you want to run, and you want to get clients. And a lot of times people forget about the prep work you need to do to make sure that: A. there’s a market for what you want to do, and you can come up with a great business idea. But if no one wants it, it’s not going to be a business for as long as you’d like it to be.
ALEXANDRA:
Right. Right. Right. Do you have to break that bad news to people sometimes?
RICHELLE:
Yeah, in a couple of ways. Do some research and see if you have competitors, find someone doing what you do, and your Google searching and you’re looking high and low to see if there’s either a coach for X, Y, and Z or a service provider for something specific and you’re not finding anyone.
ALEXANDRA:
Talk me through what the next steps are. Now I have this idea or people already like I started this I have a website, and I have a little bit of traction. When do people come to you
RICHELLE:
Honestly, in both instances, I have people coming to me for both of those. Either I’ve got the idea and I’ve done nothing yet or I’ve done it and I’m hitting a plateau I’m not making the traction I think I should make. And in both of those scenarios, I bring them back to these basics to say let’s do market research. What are competitors doing? What does your audience want? That’s the second part of really diving into the market validation is reaching out to people that would be a client, or ideal clients of yours, to ask them what would you want in a program or in this service. If I’m a VA or a graphic designer for coaches, for example, as a coach, what would you want? What would have to be provided in my service for you to feel that it’s valuable? So talking to people that could be your potential client is also huge because you want to know what they want, and what price point would they be willing to spend. And what do they find valuable for the service that you want to provide to them?
ALEXANDRA:
Got it. So just curious, if somebody comes to you, and I’m thinking about your pricing and how you structure your business model? Are there different packages that you offer where you’re like, Look, I’ll partner with you. I’ll walk you through what it looks like to do business research. How does that work?
RICHELLE:
I actually haven’t had that come up yet. I will say, I’ve had typically people, even if it’s just an idea, they already have done a little bit of like, I see people doing this, this girl was my inspiration or so and so. They’ve got some inspo from somewhere. So I haven’t had that happen yet. If it did happen, I would say it’s a service that’s common, but maybe it’s who they want to help that’s not really being marketed yet. Maybe that type of person doesn’t want that type of help. But you feel like you could still do it. But it’s not going to be marketable. So we would probably shift at that point to say, Okay, you want to be a VA? That’s great. Maybe this type of person isn’t the person that needs your services? Who would you want to work with next? Who is the next person that’s marketable, that we can shift you to?
ALEXANDRA:
So you’d help them kind of pivot their strategy? Okay. When somebody signs on with you, you have a typical kind of plan and program, is that for everybody? Or is it customized based on the person? Talk to me about the program you created
RICHELLE:
It is for everyone. So there are four modules in my program. First, we start with the CEO’s mindset and business vision. So we do mindset work, we do business planning, we go through time management audits, really the prep work to say, okay, how can we set you up well, to now, do the work to build and scale your business, then we do a lot of marketing. So the next module is all about marketing, it’s doing the research, it’s talking to your audience, it’s nailing your marketing message, it’s nailing down the offers, you’re providing all of that good stuff, then the third module is all about systems and processes. When you are scaling a business, systems, and processes are your best friend. Because if you don’t have any in place, you are the one person doing all of the work. And it’s preventing you from elevating your business to the next level. And then the last module is sales. And I teach methods of sales that are easy, they’re comfortable, they make you feel confident in what you’re selling, you’re selling from a place of service, not a, oh my gosh, I gotta sell to this person to make my revenue type of desperation. So those are four modules. And I don’t have people pick and choose because it’s really in a logical progression of you start here. And this is where you end up in the program.
ALEXANDRA:
I think that’s nice that you send everybody through because it makes sense, the logic and the order that it’s in. So what is the general investment that somebody would have to kind of put aside to get into the coaching program that you offer? And then what’s the time commitment like
RICHELLE:
it’s a six-month minimum academy, and I have various options with various price points. So what I like to do is get on a call and just find out where someone is in their business, and then look at the different options, what would best benefit them, I do recommend one-to-one for some people that are like, I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m frustrated, I’m stressed, and they just need more of that one-to-one setting. And then I also offer a group setting for people that are like, hey, I want kind of the community of women and I want to get on group calls. But it is six months minimum. That’s the whole timeframe of the academy. And then people that finish can also do a month-by-month extension with me. And then I will be looking to add another program for advanced clients that finish the first side hustle to the main hustle academy.
ALEXANDRA:
That’s great. And you bring in other experts as well.
RICHELLE:
Yeah, so that’s my lovely group of the business board of directors, I call them and they are all women business owners. So they have full-time businesses that they’ve been running, which was important for me to have as criteria because I want clients to feel fully supported by women in business that have done what they’re wanting to do. And what they do, the business board of directors is they come in and they host a group call with my clients, and they train them for 90 minutes to two hours on their area of expertise. So I have a brand strategist that comes in and talks all about how to create a business brand for yourself. I have an SEO copywriting specialist who is all about how you get on the first page of Google with your website. I have a money mindset coach because again, the mindset work is critical and she comes on every single month and does a coaching call with all my clients in a group setting. Well, I also have a social media manager who just keeps us up to date on the crazy changing trends of social media that we can all hardly keep up with. And then I have an insurance expert for those women that are like, Hey, I’m leaving the nine to five, what the heck do I do about insurance? And she does consultations for free and really shows them what options are available to them.
ALEXANDRA:
Now for a coaching business for you, and the business model of that having an expert board of directors, basically, how does that work in terms of pricing? Do you pay them out directly, or do they get a portion of the revenue coming in for the courses as people register?
RICHELLE:
That’s exactly how it works. So they get a portion of the cost of the program. So when I’m in charge of clients, I add in the money that it costs for me to pay these women to come in and support them and train them. What’s nice, too, is that I like to showcase the fact that these are women that are experts in these certain areas. So a lot of times my clients will reach out one-to-one and purchase services from them. So it’s a way for them to not only come in and make money in my program by sharing their expertise, but it elevates their business, and I’m able to provide more clients to them on a one-to-one basis for them to work with.
ALEXANDRA:
So it makes so much sense. You guys are all working towards a common goal and getting to share clients and how you market besides that, I’m assuming they obviously market your business, and you’re doing the same for them. But in terms of bringing in new clients, what other marketing strategies are you doing?
RICHELLE:
Yeah, they’re wonderful, you know, we definitely all promote each other, support each other, you know, when we’re doing events and whatnot, and with bringing on clients. So I have LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, it’s the three platforms that I am active on from a marketing standpoint, I also have a referral, I call it a referral tree. But essentially, these are individuals that I’ve partnered with, and they help my clients in a different way than I do. So they’re not competition, because they’re not business coaches. But maybe it’s a business attorney, who somebody goes to when they want to form an LLC and get the legalities of their business in order. I have a relationship with someone that does that. And he will say, hey, you know, how are you doing with your business? Do you need help? I know someone and he can refer people to me. And on the flip side, if I have a client who hasn’t done the legalities of their business, I flipped them over to him. So it’s having these referral partners, and really focusing on who helps my clients in a way that’s different from me, at some point of the journey, where I’m helping them and how can I form a relationship with these individuals where it’s mutually beneficial, I can flip people to them, they can flip people to me. And it’s like having a marketing team, just out there in the world sending you people, you kind of form terms that you both find reasonable. Maybe it’s a 10% referral bonus, you give somebody or a bartering service, whatever you feel comfortable with. It’s a wonderful thing to develop a team of referral partners.
ALEXANDRA:
But it’s so smart because you’re building like a network of people that are experts in other areas that you’re connected to it. So I think what you’ve done is really smart. Question for you in kind of just some of the challenges. I think it is important for people to hear that. Was there anything you could think of in doing this, like one of the biggest challenges you faced, or, you know, one of the biggest setbacks that you faced along the way?
RICHELLE:
Oh, gosh, I could go on for hours. I’ll pick some good ones. Because yeah, you know, before I even dive into the challenges, I think one thing that’s important to know, as an entrepreneur, and it’s something you have to remind yourself of constantly. I mean, I still remind myself of this, if you’re not facing any challenges in your business, you’re likely playing it very, very safe, and you’re not fully reaching that potential for you and your business. Business has nothing but challenges you most of the time, it’s fun, but there’s always going to be a new challenge. And a lot of times people will say, Oh, but once I get it off the ground, I’ll be good. And I’m like, no. You know, things won’t be easy, breezy. Once you launch it, the challenges just change, they don’t go away, they change. And I like to say your mindset is truly a muscle that you need to flex repeatedly. Yes, there are challenges always. And I think when I was first starting out, and this is something that my clients often will complain about and say it challenges you to think once you flip the switch and say, Hey, I’m open for business, this is what I do. People are just gonna run, right? It’s like the floodgates open and you think like, I’m gonna be out of this nine to five, I’ve got a business, it’s gonna be so good. And then you’re like, Oh, I got to– I have to do more, I have to do more to get clients and because people don’t know you, they have no idea who you are outside of your friends and family when you first flip that switch and say, Hey, I’ve got a business now. When I opened my leadership coaching business, that’s what I thought was gonna happen. I was like, Oh, these business owners are gonna look at my– what I have and be like, we have to hire her. And that didn’t happen. Like, why isn’t the phone ringing off the hook? I’m so confused! Like, I checked my email every morning. And I’m like, no emails. So that was challenging. And I think that’s where a lot of people throw in the towel early on, because they’re like, What the heck, I’ve got a great business. And a lot of times, it’s not a reflection of the business or its services. It’s just a reflection of them, they don’t have an audience yet. Yeah, people don’t know them. And that’s where I tell people and I had to do this in the first two months of leadership coaching, I didn’t have anybody, I had no clients, two whole months of me doing some social media posting, I was just starting to do live videos, probably towards the end of that two-month mark. And I was like, What am I not doing right? I feel like I’m doing what everyone else is doing. And they’re successful. The difference was, they had been doing it for 10 years, and they had a name out there. And they had a business out there and little me was a month and a half in. So no one knew who I was. Yeah, I like to say, do audience building as early on as you can, right? When you flip that switch, get on podcasts, get in front of someone else’s audience, like I’m doing here with you, you know, it’s like, your audience is likely not my audience, they might be after listening to this, but get yourself in front of a different audience. So you can grow your audience by doing publicity, if it’s not a podcast, and that’s not your thing, do a blog post for a journal, people, and journals are always looking for experts to come in and write on a topic. But what that does is it puts you in front of a larger audience that you likely don’t have yet. And it positions you as an expert in your subject area. Getting into a networking group would be my second piece of advice. So you can not only get referrals, but people are talking about you and your business. People are leaving those meetings saying oh, hey, so until you’re starting a business, I just met Richelle, she actually helps business owners. Here’s her contact information, again, free people that are marketing for you. Those are two things, and then get yourself out there on video, and do live training, a lot of people will say why do you do all this for free? You’re giving out all this content for free? And what I like to say is, yeah, can you imagine what I do for paying clients?
ALEXANDRA:
That’s really smart. One of the biggest things and one of the reasons why I think a lot of people who listen to this, but my hope is they kind of get inspired to push through where they are. Because I think a lot of the reasons why people don’t pursue side hustles is it does get hard, you flip that switch, and then you get frustrated. But it is finding that audience which is hard, and it takes time, and you do have to kind of persevere and constantly change and adapt and change your strategy. So thank you for that. And just kind of wrapping up, I want to hear a little bit. What do you see for the future of your business, in the next couple of years?
RICHELLE:
Sure. So I’ll share some secret insider information. Because I’ve got some I love having big plans. And, you know, I think everyone should strive for big goals, whether it’s personally or professionally. And what I see for 2023 my side hustle to main hustle academy will be a year-long academy program, it will go from six months to a year-long, and there’s so much more I want to pack into it. So that’s what we’ll be starting it will really be an all-inclusive, comprehensive academy for anyone who is building and scaling their business.
ALEXANDRA: Wow, that’s impressive. I was going to ask you earlier on but how many clients do you have in total?
RICHELLE:
So I take on clients all the time, I don’t do the like launch like if you join at this date, you’re in for six months, and I don’t take people until that cohort ends. I can sign on a client any day of the week. Generally, I have about six to seven at a given time. And that could be a mix of group and one-to-one. But generally, you know my goal is to get a few clients a month if I do more than that, amazing.
ALEXANDRA:
Got it. And is it just you that runs it– besides your board of experts? Is it you that runs the program?
RICHELLE:
It is and my goal is for 2023 to have another me. There’s a lot that I want to be able to offer and to be able to do to support these women that are doing what I did because I know the challenges I know the struggles and it’ll be packing a lot more into that academy possibly having a larger business board of directors, another full-time coach because my goal at that point will be bringing in more and more clients.
ALEXANDRA:
Well, I love I mean you fit in so perfectly with the podcast because they’re all about the side hustle to the main hustle so it’s perfect. And just wrapping up. Thank you so much for being on and for everything that you’ve shared. Tell everybody where they can find you, your website, where they can find you on social media, and all that stuff.
RICHELLE:
Sure, yes, and thank you again for having me this was– it was a fun conversation. And it’s obvious I love talking about this stuff. So thank you. My website is richellejessey.com. You can also find me on Instagram and my handle is richellejessey_coaching. You can find me on Facebook just by searching my name, Richelle Jessey. And you can also find me on LinkedIn the same way, just by searching my name. I am having a Facebook group kickoff in the next couple of weeks. So that will be where I’ll be hosting all of my weekly live training videos. I also will be doing networking calls where I’ll invite anybody in that Facebook group to get on and network with each other, just to provide that opportunity. And then I’ll also be doing group member spotlights once a month where somebody can come on and train other individuals in the Facebook group on their area of expertise and elevate their business and themselves as business owner.
ALEXANDRA:
Thank you. That’s great. All right. Perfect. Well, thank you so much!