266. Jess Glazer Interview: Turning A Side Hustle To A Multi-Million Dollar Business

jess audio
Tue, 5/17 3:54PM • 45:22
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
canva, people, jess, side hustle, sell, trainer, learning, years, build, business, started, scottsdale, husband, teaching, call, pivot, friends, thinking, money, teacher
SPEAKERS
Jess Glazer, Susan Sly

Susan Sly 00:00
Well hey what is up Raw and Real Entrepreneurs, wherever you are in the world, I hope you're having an amazing day. And we're gonna have like, I'm just so excited about my guest today. We were, we would not stop talking prior to the show. So I was like, we better get into actually doing the show. And you write in, and I want to acknowledge Mandy for your most recent review where you said, you know, you love that the show gives you reassurance. So if you want reassurance that it's okay not to feel okay, it's okay to know that you gave away your power, you can get back your power and you can clean it up then today's show is for you.

Susan Sly 00:39
Welcome to Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, the show that dares to bring no nonsense insight to those who have the courage to start, grow and scale a business. I'm your host, Susan Sly. And my guest is absolutely amazing. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, on The Today Show, Good Day New York, The New York Post and in Shape Magazine. She's a former celebrity personal trainer. So we share that in common, an elementary school teacher which we do not share in common. But I've had plenty of elementary school children in my you know, that I've given birth to. She once turned her quote unquote, cute side hustle into a multimillion dollar business. And she did that in two years. She's going to tell us about that. And right now, she is traveling across America with her husband and brand new rescue child and, it is a fur child by the way, and coming live from Alabama. So Jess Glazer, welcome to Raw and Real Entrepreneurship. I'm so excited to talk to you today.

Jess Glazer 01:49
Thank you for having me here. I'm so excited and just realized that we live super close to each other. So when I'm back on the west side, west coast, love to get together.

Susan Sly 01:58
Oh, absolutely.Yeah, like look at Scottsdale.

Jess Glazer 02:03
So nice. The weather.

Susan Sly 02:04
Yes, yes. Yeah. All of you listeners, you're all invited. One of my, Yeah, actually one of my guests who does live in Scottsdale, Jeffrey, who has the, YouTube channel's like millions of subs. JR Garage. He hosts fan meetups in Scottsdale in this park. And Jess, like all of these, like a lot of his fans are like kids, and they all come for meet and greets. And he has like, it's just awesome. So you never know. You never know. I might do like burpees and wine with Jess and Susan. Who knows what it's gonna be. We'll have our mutual friend Lori Harder sponsored with Lite Pink. So you can have like no carb, alcohol beverages and burpees. But in the order of your choosing. Anyway, Jess you are a serial entrepreneur. And another thing we have in common, I, before I did my science degree, I actually prepared a art portfolio and a fashion portfolio because I wanted to go to art school and I didn't even tell you that. But you know, going back, you know people look at you and who you are online and all of your success. What was the first business you ever started?

Jess Glazer 03:18
Oh, gosh, did I have to be making money?

Susan Sly 03:21
No, no, yes.

Jess Glazer 03:23
So I probably was seven. I think I was seven. I started selling those little hair clips that flipped, like the pop clips that you put underneath your ponytail. And I would paint them with glitter nail polish and I sold them to my teammates in gymnastics, I would sell them for four for $1 or 35 cents apiece.

Susan Sly 03:41
So your margins were not that high.

Jess Glazer 03:43
It wasn't great, but you know what? My mom bought them for me. So I profited everything.

Susan Sly 03:48
You know what? That's, that's awesome. Like we you know, one of the questions I asked every guest is about that first business. And we, we have a lot of entrepreneurs like yourself, it was some kind of thing they did in childhood where they thought this could be a good idea, right?

Jess Glazer 04:05
Yeah. The funny thing is actually didn't grow up with any entrepreneurs in my life. That was not an option. That wasn't anything that anyone in my life did. We grew up very traditional doctors, lawyers, accountants, that was sort of my family. And I don't think I knew what an entrepreneur was until I was in my late 20s.

Susan Sly 04:22
And how did the, how did you figure out what an entrepreneur was?

Jess Glazer 04:27
I had people asking me, and this happened a couple of different times, whether it was in fitness, or it was in fashion, I would have people asking me to give them the service that I did, or to make them the thing that I was making, which when I was in fashion was I was making purses and belts and jewelry just for myself and people would ask me all the time, where can I buy it? Do you sell it? You should sell it. And so it was in those moments. Same thing with personal training. Could you train me and I'm like, No, I don't, That's not what I do. Right? But it was what I was doing and it was what I was making and so these little lightbulb moments started to go bing, bing bing, kind of in my late teens, early 20s. And there was a time where it just kept coming up, kept coming up. And so I finally started to take action on those things and make some sales.

Susan Sly 05:12
And are you naturally a salesperson? Because there's this whole, like Lady Gaga thing when it comes to sales, and people are like, they're just born that way. Or if people say, I couldn't sell, but we all know it's essential to be able to sell as an entrepreneur. What, what is your history with selling?

Jess Glazer 05:30
So if you were to ask me, no, I am not natural. It did not come easily to me. I was in network marketing for a couple of years. And I, that's where I learned how to sell. I did hundreds and hundreds of cold calls. And no one said yes. And so it's where I sort of grew my thicker skin and started to understand psychology of sales. And I started to do more research and learning about just how it all works. But if you were to ask my husband or my parents, they probably would say the opposite, that I am a little bit of a natural, or just really good at connecting. I think that's one of my superpowers is networking and connecting. So I thrive in a room of strangers. And I think that and sales are very closely related to one another.

Susan Sly 05:31
Yeah, they have to be because when, when someone's trying to sell but they're not connecting, it's so disingenuous, right? What's the worst thing that has ever happened to you on a cold call?

Jess Glazer 06:15
I don't think there was ever anything bad. I think it was just rejection, getting ghosted, getting hung up on. But in that moment, it was the worst thing. Because you attach it, you attach it to, we're meaning making machines. And so the meaning I made out of getting rejected or ghosted, now goes deeper, deeper, deeper into layers of like childhood trauma or wounds of not feeling good enough. Not feeling loved, not feeling worthy, when in reality, you're still safe, you're fine. Everybody gets rejected. Right?

Susan Sly 06:51
Yeah, it's, it's interesting. I love what you said about it's that, you know, it's that perception. And it's also that trigger. I was running ads in USA Today. And this is many, many years ago. And I had some guy leave a message on, you know, on the Ad call in number that I had set up. And he said, There were things because I like a PG rated show. But he said, a whole bunch of things he was going to do to me, and then he was going to like, he was going to hunt me down, he was going to do some horrific things to me. And then he was going to kill me. And I looked at my husband, and I'm like, I'm done. Like, and my husband's like, he can't even figure out how to find you. Because there's no, you don't have your name associated with that ad. It you know, and on and on and on. And I purchased it through an ad broker anyway. But um, you know, that was how people used to bully you before it was on a phone or to your face. Now they just do it on social media with fake accounts. That's a whole other story. When, when you, when you, when you were getting rejected early on, how did you overcome that? Because, as you said, there, it definitely triggers any past insecurities or places where you're out of alignment with your power. How did you overcome it though?

Jess Glazer 08:08
I don't know that I overcame it. I think it was more of a competitive, I have a very competitive nature and a very prove it type of attitude. And for a really long time, now I'm just almost 40, but for a really long time it was having to prove it, having to show that I'm worthy, having to validate external validation, accolades, awards, that's really what I was fueled by. So simply being told no or ghosted, was enough fuel for me to do it again. But also at the time, I had a full time job, I was an elementary school teacher, I was a part time personal trainer, bartender and waitress. So I was very busy. I also had safety nets financially. And so I had a job and this stuff was practicing, or these things, these skills I was learning, were for this kind of cute side hustle, which at the time was a miss. So I didn't put too much pressure on the outcome. And I think for me, that was huge. I think there's also just a level of ignorance is bliss. And so I just kept running into the wall. I just kept running into the wall over and over again. And it wasn't until years later that now looking back, I realize all the different lessons and probably also the interest that I had in learning more because from that was birthed, Let me go actually figure out what's not working. Let me ask for help. Let me recognize that ego truly is your biggest overhead and it's not a weakness to ask for help, but rather a strength. And so through those experiences of not getting what I wanted, it was just kind of pushing me towards trying in a different way.

Susan Sly 09:34
Ego is your biggest overhead. I love that.

Jess Glazer 09:38
That's correct. That's Chris's. Yeah, he said that to me a couple years ago, and it changed my entire business.

Susan Sly 09:43
Yeah, well, I might have to borrow that. I'm doing a talk for a Real Estate Association on AI in the metaverse in the real estate sector, and that will be a good opener. So what's your biggest overhead? You go. Love it. And Wayne Dyer always said ego stands for edging God out. Right? And, and there's no place for ego, especially as an entrepreneur. Let me ask you this. So you grow the side hustle into a multi million dollar business in two years. So what was the business? And how did you do that?

Jess Glazer 10:19
Yeah. So while I was working as a teacher, the side hustle was a bunch of different things. It really actually started with online personal training. This was back in 2012. So I had been a trainer at the time for probably at least 10 years, maybe longer, 12 years. And I started doing fitness competitions. And my coach was in Massachusetts, but I was in New Jersey. So I had this idea because I was paying her to email me my workouts and my macros. And so I had this lightbulb idea of Wait a minute, all of my friends from college who live in different states have been asking me since we've graduated college, how can I train them. So if I'm paying this woman, then I could do the same thing. And so I started training people online, just through emails, and then it morphed into blogging, which I wasn't making any money. And for the record, my mom was the only person who read my blog, but I still did it weekly. And I went and started building 12 week workout programs and $79 ebooks. And then I started doing paid Facebook groups. And so this iteration of still not thinking it was a business. But the cute side hustle was morphing into what I saw in 2013, '14 and '15 as the trends in this online industry. Still working as a teacher. So 2016, I'm driving to work in October, listening to a podcast, this woman is a teacher, and she sells jewelry on Etsy. So my ears are perked up because I'm a teacher and I sell jewelry as well. And the man interviewing her said, If you gave it your best shot, because she wanted to go all in on entrepreneurship, if you give it your best shot, you gave yourself one year, and it didn't work out what would be the worst case scenario? So she said, I don't know I'd probably go back to teaching. I've been a teacher for a decade, probably just get another job. And his answer changed my entire life life. He said, Oh, how does it feel to wake up every day and live in your worst case scenario? How does it feel to wake up and live in your worst case scenario? And I pulled my car over on the highway, I was bawling, crying. I texted my husband Mike and I said I can't do this anymore. About eight weeks later, I walked into my principal's office and resigned with absolutely no plan. The plan was do whatever I have to do to make ends meet. And at that point, it was how can I grow this cute side hustle? So to answer your question, it first started with online personal training and ebooks. And then it went into low ticket and high ticket group courses all in the health and fitness space. We left New Jersey, moved into New York City which he was working there and commuting anyway. And I started working as a trainer because I had been for at that time now about 15 years. So I walked into a gym, got myself a job, had to wear the little name tag and do the whole front desk thing and picking up weights which again, I had to put my ego aside because for 15 years, I had already been training celebrities. And now I'm back to the quote unquote bottom.

Susan Sly 13:00
Floor trainer. Yeah, and for people who don't know, so well and Jess knows the story, but I was the, I was the top Personal Training Manager in the world for Bally Total Fitness back in the day when we had the television ads with the ribbed abs and stuff. So when you start in the gym, you are starting at close to minimum wage, and you are what is called a floor trainer. So that means when new members come in the gym, you have to do their fitness assessments. And if you can sell them on personal training, then you will be able to get a percentage but the, when you first start you get a very low percentage of what the, the quote unquote billing rate is. So it could be as low as 30%. Back in the days, Ballys doesn't exist. So I can disclose this. Like our peak trainer are like most seasoned trainer, they're Paul Chek certified, there are every certification under the sun. They would get like 65% of their billing rate, 65 to 70%. So you were, you, Yeah, but that was like, that was like before Bally, before all those clubs got acquired where the most than a person could get as like 50% of their rolling. So you had to be a floor trainer, which is what happened to me after I was homeless. I was like, I went to work for Bally's and I was in management. But when one of my floor trainers would call in sick, I was a floor trainer and the day I met, re-met my husband Chris, I had cut off all my hair, I had sworn off dating. I was wearing Danskin flair tights and an oversized men's Bally Total Fitness sweatshirt. And I had no makeup on and it was five in the morning. I was so mad because Kimberly called in sick. I knew she wasn't sick. She was hungover. And I had no one I could call and I walk across the street to the club and I'm stocking towels, Jess and I'm like, And he walks, I'm like, anyway.

Jess Glazer 14:56
That's funny.

Susan Sly 14:57
Don't do this at home kids but Chris and I moved in on our second date, and we've been together now for 23 years, but I re-met him when I was being a floor trainer.

Jess Glazer 15:10
Isn't that funny? So it was very similar not in the meeting of my husband, but I had been doing about, I was taking home about 100, 225 a session when I was in New Jersey training. I go to New York, and like you're saying floor sessions, I think I was taking home like $20. And you're picking up weights. But to answer your question from earlier, this is also where I got really good at sales, because I hate this term. I hate this term. But, you know, you eat what you kill. And so when you're a floor trainer, if you don't sell the session, then you're not making money, and they're not going to just give you clients and so 18 years as a trainer, I did get pretty good sales through that, just learning that. So I go back to floor training, and I'm just hustling on the computer building my business. And what once was this cute side hustle making, Gosh, 300, $500 a month while I was a teacher, quickly scaled to multiple six figures in about three months. Because I went all in, I had nothing else, I had no safety net. And what happened was, a lot of the trainers in New York started asking me, What are you doing? Now this is 2017, 2018. What are you doing? Why are you always on computer? How are you making so much money? And so I just started sharing and teaching. I'm a teacher. So I just started teaching my friends. And I was teaching them for free. And in between clients, we'd sit down behind my computer. And I was teaching them how to build landing pages and email lists and how to launch and the first friend had an $80,000 launch. So very similar to what had happened when I was in fashion, which we didn't really get into. But I basically had my purses, and they were prototype that I brought to the gym I worked at, and I'm like, let's see if we sell any, I don't have any inventory. But people kept asking me for it. We sold like $4,000 worth of orders that day. And so I say, my mom was helping me. And so we went home and made those orders. So now the same thing happened, I'm helping my friends for free. They're having $80,000 launches? And so I started to recognize, wait a minute, I think I have something here. So I used a bunch of my friends as beta, not use them. But I gifted them sort of this methodology that I started to put together. Because in teaching, I wrote curriculum for eight years. So I wrote a curriculum on how to help people build businesses. And that's really where our signature program started. So it was fitness and business both for a couple years. And actually only in 2020 did I finally retire from all of the fitness things and just go business.

Susan Sly 17:30
And that, yeah, I need I want to acknowledge Jess because in that space, she, when she was building that business was the go to person for trainers to learn how to build that kind of business. And because, I was just doing a speaking event in Miami, and I was talking about fundraising for your company and one of the people in the front row, she's a Clickfunnels' Two Comma Club member and personal trainer, and she built a million dollar plus per year business, doing the whole ClickFunnels funnel thing with the paid membership that was very small, like free paid levels, events, and so on. And but you were one of the people to go first. Just like you know, '95, I was doing email fitness programs. I was, I was a fitness coach online in '95, when the internet was just getting started and it was still on dial up. Right? And thinking about, thinking about that, and you do learn how to sell it. Because if not, you're going to be one of these floor trainers who's living with like three roommates who are like just a train wreck, and you come home and there's someone else sleeping in your bed and they're not supposed to be there. And it's just like, you know, you either say, I surrender, this is what my life is gonna be like, or I'm getting out of this. But you know, someone listening to the show and they're like, Okay, yeah, I get it. You know, that makes so much sense. But if you could go back in time now, so you know, as you mentioned, you're about to turn 40, if you're not seeing Jess, she doesn't look it, she looks like she's 23. What would you go back and do differently?

Jess Glazer 19:13
It's funny, I don't know that I would do anything differently, because then I wouldn't be here with the lessons that I have. But I do think I could have used support earlier. You know, thinking back to two times I've dealt really, really dealt with burnout, adrenal fatigue and a breast cancer scare from just overworking, overstressed, not taking care of myself. I do think I could have used support earlier. And I think so many solopreneurs and entrepreneurs run into this where we think it's the chicken or the egg and they're like, Well, I have to make money first before I can outsource or hire. I'm not there yet. I'm not, I didn't hit this proverbial goal that I need to hit, who am I to hire? And I think just even, even maybe an extra mentor coach, maybe having a family member help, a barter situation, an intern, anything that I could have taken something off of my plate but Again, I wouldn't have changed it because I know for me, I don't learn the lesson until I'm like whacked upside the head. So had I not gone through the moments crying on the floor, terrified for my life, that I wouldn't be here.

Susan Sly 20:13
Yeah. And it's interesting because you, Lori and I are all friends. And when Lori was on the show, when we're doing the Lite Pink launch, you know, similar question and she had a similar answer, I would have leaned into my network earlier. And my mentor always says your network equals your net worth and, and thinking about who is your personal board of directors or support. When Dave Asprey was on the show, and if you all haven't heard that show, go in the archives, there are lots of shows there. So Dave was talking about Jess, the, you know, and I have so much respect for Dave, because, you know, here at Radius, I was telling you before we went like, our current valuation for this company is about 120 million. I haven't built a billion dollar company yet. So I'm learning from people who have, right? And I have friends in my network who have, but there are some common themes. And it all goes back to what you said. And so it's about that support, you know, do you have a business coach? Do you have a therapist, do you have that friend, whoo you call and go, I'm having a wall kicking moment, or, you know, I'm thinking of doing something crazy, like getting a forehead tattoo, you know, and they're like, Okay, wait a minute, you know, that's okay. I still love you, you know. And it's that, it's that support. And I don't think that's something just for women. I think that's, I think that's for everyone. Did you ever give away your power in the journey?

Jess Glazer 21:44
Yeah, a couple of times, and probably more than a couple of times. It's interesting. Looking back, there were times that I gave away my power that actually catapulted me to take action. And I can think of a specific example, and I'll give that, and then there were times that I gave away my power and it sort of sucked me down into this dark hole of inaction and being paralyzed, which is really interesting. And when I look at what those things were, for me has always been comparing. So there were moments in the gym, I was a gym teacher, so phys ed, in the actual gym, where in between classes, my students would, I was Elementary School, they'd get walked down to me, and then they'd get walked back, you know, to their classroom. And I would quickly look at my phone, and I would scroll and I would watch what all of these other people were doing on Instagram, whether it was the network marketing company I was with, or some of these kind of new influencers. This was back in 2012, 2013. And I would compare, not my life, but where they were in what I perceive to be their successful business. And then where I wasn't like, you know, cute side hustle. And so that comparison, at the time was the fuel to say, I totally can do this. There's nothing that he has, or she has, or it's nothing that they're doing or teaching that I'm not capable of doing. I just don't have the capacity. And so for me, it was really the fuel to leave my job, and to go all in, but at the same, all in the same breath, I've gotten caught in comparison, specifically, about a year ago, where it was just, it was taking me down. It was paralyzing me, I was going through an experience, I was going through an ego death or a shamanic death, just a shedding of an old identity. You know, Mike and I used to live in Manhattan, we were doing the whole big New York City thing in an incredible apartment with the big business with the celebrity, you know, training and all the events and TV shows. And when we left New York, we jumped into an RV, a 40 foot motorhome for 14 months, traveled the country for 27, 27 states for 14 months. And I feel that it was the first time that I actually could hear myself. Like in 38 years, it was the first time that I could hear myself and I wasn't sure that I liked what I heard. But then when I was seeing online, from other people that were mentors, or peers, or had been clients of mine, what I saw them doing and then what I was questioning myself of what I was doing, and us just bopping around the country together with no noise. It was the first time I didn't realize how loud it was in New York. And if you're listening right now, you might be laughing because like, of course, it's loud in New York, Jess. But when you're in the vortex of it all, it's not loud, it's energizing. And so those 14 months in the RV, there were definitely a lot of moments where I was questioning just everything. What are we doing? And where's the business going? And who am I and what do I believe what I stand for? What do I not stand for? So it's interesting how the comparison could both for me fuel me but then also really sort of take me down.

Susan Sly 24:35
Yeah, and now that, now that things are quieter, when you are scrolling, when you see say someone else who might be up here, what's the narrative in your head now?

Jess Glazer 24:46
You know, it's so interesting. I think the worst part of the comparison wasn't even necessarily about the other people. It was about myself and the previous year or two of work. So if we, we've doubled the business every single year I've been in business, and it was the first year last year, which we didn't double it, we were right there. We didn't double it. But it was an intentional not doubling it, because we were traveling, I intentionally shut off a stream of revenue. So we knew going into the year that unless something crazy happened, we weren't going to be doubling it. But the stories that we tell ourselves and all of a sudden what we make that mean about us, and how dare I bring my husband into the company and not double it? And how dare I not double it just because I always have and what does that mean about me? And um, is it, was the other shoe gonna drop? Is it over? Like, has it been a great run? Do I just quit? Do I give up? So the interesting thing was, it wasn't even always about the other people it was about me. But to answer your question, and you might think I'm crazy, I actually shut my account down and started a brand new Instagram page. Completely new from zero, I had, like 24,000 followers on the old page, it was eight years old, I shut it down, I created a new one, I changed my name. So you can't even necessarily find me with ease, and had to just detach from, but all of the old podcast episodes I've been on and all the media and all the press and how people know me, it didn't matter. I just, I shut it down and started fresh, I wanted to be detached from old stories, old beliefs, old pivots, old people, old energy, and just start again. So that's what I did in December.

Susan Sly 26:15
So healing, it is so healing and, and the, when we decide, you know, to have that, whatever anyone wants to call it, you know, divorcing of an old self or the dying off of that cell for the birth of a new self or a new chapter, that the, the biggest thing is the mixed messages, right? Because you can't move forward if you're always looking backward. And so, and it is so cathartic to do that, and I get interviewed a lot on the career pivot, you know, there are less than 2% of tech companies have at least one woman founder. And then for visible minority founders is like, so small. And here I am in artificial intelligence, right. So you've like, You've known me for like, a very long time, or, like, have me. And, you know, it's it's so dramatically different than what I was doing. But it aligns so much with who I am now. And I, and the same thing, anyone who has tried to keep me in their version of who they need me to be that is convenient for them, is no longer in my life.

Jess Glazer 27:33
Yeah.

Susan Sly 27:33
And as entrepreneurs, if we aren't growing, then our businesses aren't growing.

Susan Sly 27:39
Yeah, my mentor now always says your business is a direct reflection of you, and it will only grow to the extent that you do. And the amount of times people have said to me, oh, my gosh, you've changed like, it's a bad thing. I'm like, Yeah, I have, I've actually been working really hard for the last 15 years, or 20 years or 10 years. Thank you—

Susan Sly 27:57
Thank God, you changed, because I don't want to stay the same.

Jess Glazer 28:01
Yeah. And that old version of me was not bad. This one is not better. It's just that's the, that's the journey. And so funny enough when I was kind of going through it, if you will, that's when we finally named the company, which is like our umbrella company. And we named it Digital Business Evolution, because it's constantly evolving. And I've been able to even reframe the pivots because there was a point in my life where I thought all these pivots and quitting this job and that job, I thought they were bad. But it's just an evolution of self, an evolution of the business. So they're not bad. It's neutral.

Susan Sly 28:31
So as an entrepreneur, a lot of people get entrepreneurial ADD, so they dabble. Like you had your cute side hustle that you had like several different jobs, and the quote unquote, cute side hustle. Right? So but by the same token, you have been in the same vertical for a very long time by entrepreneurial standards. So how did you resist? Or did you ever have it, that urge of entrepreneurial ADD to jump from one thing to the other?

Jess Glazer 29:04
I definitely have entrepreneurial ADD for sure. I know, it's interesting, the more that I learned about myself, which I think is the key self awareness is the key. And so whether that's Myers Briggs and Enneagram, or if you're into astrology, or just sitting with yourself in journaling, over the years, I've learned a lot about myself. And I've learned that the way that I'm wired, I love, I'm a visionary. So I'm constantly getting downloads and ideas. And I like to bring them maybe birth them maybe, but I could care less about finishing them. I really don't care and I don't care about bringing it to market. And so I'm always up in the sky, like pulling down all of these ideas and downloads and constantly wanting to change, pivot, pivot. Before we started recording, I said you know, Mike, and I've never lived anywhere longer than two years ever, because we just get bored easily. He's, he's very much the same as I am. So in my daily routine, I like to be grounded and I like my routine, but in my life and my job and my ideas and where I live, I'm constantly changing it because when I get bored, I'm done. I like to master something, and then I move on. And so it's been really interesting in entrepreneurship. I think for me, surrounding myself with an incredible team, we have the most amazing CEO, our integrator of operations, she kind of brings me back down to earth all the time. And she'll keep me a bit more grounded, because I am always up in the clouds wanting to do the next thing. The amount of ideas we joke all the time, you know, I use Canva. If you're listening Canva's like a really great kind of graphic design program.

Susan Sly 30:27
It's a, let's just, just have a moment. There might be an addiction to Canva that I have. Just—

Jess Glazer 30:35
100%

Susan Sly 30:36
Even, even for Radius, this is so, so concessionary, but we have the money, we're an ad revenue company to hire an agency or whatever, I still do. I do them. And I put in my calendar, I'll have like, focus time, and I'll be like, three hours. And one of our co founders is like Susan, you're so good at putting focus on it. I'm like, Yeah, Bobby, cuz you know what I'm doing. I'm on Canva. And I'm like, my favorite thing, if we're not doing anything as a family, Friday night, glass of red wine, and I'm on Canva.

Jess Glazer 31:12
Literally the same except white for me. Same. And I, we joke all the time, this, my integrator and I always say we should just sell, you can steal this idea, go for it. But we're like, we should just sell a membership. It's like $10,000. And you get lifetime access to my Canva. The amount of programs that I have created and never launched, the amount of workbooks that are in there, especially being a teacher, like my Canva, you can build a multiple seven figure business just by sifting through the content in my Canva. That's never actually made it to social media, because I just like to create it. I don't really care about the the rest of it. So, you know, to answer your question, I think it's just having people around that keep me grounded and keep me on track and being okay with that as well. Because initially, there's a lot of resistance and control. You know, I'm the boss, I'm the visionary. I'm the founder. What do you mean, right? And now it's okay, her name is Lauren. All right, Lauren, you're right, you know, we're not going to get through the first project if now I'm already on to the second. So bring me back to Earth. And just recognizing that. And the interesting thing was too, part of my, my ego death and part of my comparison journey last year was just that. So I'm teaching a lot of the same stuff that had been teaching for years. And I started to compare myself to some of my peers, who, through our own evolution, they started teaching new things, right. I'm not reading the same books now that I was six years ago. But my clientele are reading the books that I read six years ago now. And so I started to get lost in the shuffle, if I'm being honest. And I started to feel that I wasn't growing, or who is I, or how embarrassing that Jess is still teaching about niche and ideal client, like she's been teaching them for five years. And what I had to recognize was, I had a choice, there was a fork in the road. And the choice was either continue to serve that person who I serve very well. And we get incredible results for and I love working with the newer entrepreneur. Or if I am going to start teaching and sharing other content, recognize that I'm also going to have to pivot my messaging, maybe build a new audience. And I won't really be teaching, I still can, but I won't be teaching that information to the capacity at which I was. And so through some of the confusion, we birthed a couple of different programs and products. And my team allowed me the space and freedom to kind of figure out what I wanted to do. And about three months after playing around with some new stuff, I was like, wait a minute, guys, you know what I'm really good at. And they're all laughing, you know, they're like, We you know this and I'm like, I'm really, I really love that newbie stuff. And they're like, Yes, welcome back, you know, so I kind of had to go off on my own journey to recognize I'm not any less than, and now, what we've done is instead of just having me teach or have a course or coaching program, we've built a machine that really, we can put people through this machine and the results they get just keep getting better and better. And our program keeps getting better and better. And I would rather be known to help with this one particular thing than doing a million different things. And on my own time, I can be learning about higher level stuff.

Susan Sly 34:12
Well, you know, it's not surprising since you were an elementary school teacher. Kindergarteners need the same learning every single year. It's a new class of kindergarteners and, and very similarly too, like in my, for my my tech incubator, I chose to focus on women who didn't come from tech backgrounds who want to start a tech business because that is my passion about teaching those fundamentals, especially since I've walked them. And it's so like, this whole conversation, so I have like to totally digress I was like forget book club. We should have wine in Canva club. So we could have a membership. And if you all are like as you know, creative as we both are, then you can, you know it's once a month you come up and we just build stuff on Canva whether I go..

Jess Glazer 35:06
That's amazing. I'm into it. And you need to just be creative. That's the best part. There's no right way to do it.

Susan Sly 35:12
When you come back to Scottsdale, it is so on.

Jess Glazer 35:16
Canva party, screw the burpees and the wine, we're gonna do Canva and wine instead.

Susan Sly 35:23
We can have it in my new house if it ever gets finished renovation.

Jess Glazer 35:28
Canva and cabs.

Susan Sly 35:32
I've already, in my mind, Yeah, I'm already thinking like, who are we inviting to this party. Going back to this, it is this whole realization, and especially as the, as an athlete, right? So this athletic mindset, it almost feels like to say, Okay, no, this is my zone of genius. And this is the group I want to focus on. Even though I've been focusing on them for a long time. It almost feels like a downgrade maneuver, when in fact, it's the opposite. It's a place of empowerment, because suddenly, you have this space and grace to go, Yeah, this is my zone. And it feels really, really good. And as you were sharing, you know, and as you know, so, you know, for years, I spoke on big stages, 20,000 people, you know, Tony Robbins speaking, Jack Canfield speaking. So when I, when I pivoted and had that moment of after I almost died in 2016 and going if I had have died, what in my career have I not yet done that I want to do? And so I made a list. And there were only a few things on this list. And I'm doing them now. And so when I started in tech, it's like I had to earn the right to be here. And so now, three years later, I'm speaking on these stages, but I'm on panels. Now I'm on panels with people like McDonald's, NVIDIA, Deloitte like, it's a whole different thing. And my friends who is, there are hardly any women in AI, Jess like, there's like five of us maybe, but we'll all be at the Canva party, because we're all like. Anyway, she said, you know, the first year, you have to do the panel, but they watch you, they go in and they watch all the panels. And then the next year, your panel goes to the mainstage. And then the next year, they take the individuals from the panel, and they're the keynoters. And it was, I felt like it was a downgrade maneuver in so many ways from a money perspective from a career perspective. But now I just feel so in my power. And so I get it, I so get it. And I hope everyone listening, I know it's like Jess are just having a girlfriend chat, which is I hope you are all loving this. And Jess and I ask for what we want. So we would love five star reviews, thank you and share and tag and all that good stuff on social. But it's not a downgrade maneuver to be in your zone of genius and to serve at that level.

Jess Glazer 38:14
I love, I love what you just brought up though, because I'm getting this visual. And you're the one who mentioned sports. But it's, you know, you look at these pro athletes. And I just think of, my husband loves football, Patriots, right? So we think of football or baseball. And it's like that athlete at that pro level, taking an hour at practice to just do one skill over and over and over. And for me I was a gymnast. So getting up on the balance beam and doing your you know, you're tumbling series over and over and over and over, and you'd fall and you scrape yourself and you stick some and it's great. And you do it and to the point where you're exhausted, but it doesn't make you, it doesn't make you less than, you're not going backwards when you're honing in that skill. And so it's kind of the pullback to sling forward and from an outside perspective it's incredible to see you going on the panel and then moving forward. But what it is, is it's delayed gratification. And I think that's what people forget about. And I think all of us humans, we are just living in such a world of instant gratification where, and it does feel and look like a lot of these businesses are successful overnight. It was easy for her. He has a lot of followers. They have a big email list, but it's delayed gratification. And so just do the live. Just put up the post, just speak on the panel. And you know, my favorite quote, you've said part of it before, which was funny, is a Steve Jobs quote. And you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward and have to trust that they'll appear. And I'm a visual person. So for me those dots are stepping stones in a river and we're just working our way across the river. And so yeah, you're standing on a stone right now that represents the panel and the stone in front of you is, you know the next version and then the next version is the keynote but you wouldn't have gotten to those rocks if you weren't willing to get on the ones before it.

Susan Sly 39:57
Beautiful. And I'd read you were a gymnast. Since since you brought up the Patriots, which I love, look at Tom Brady. I mean, he retires for like a second, and then comes back. And some people are like, Well, why would you do that? Because he still has his moonshot. So that leads me to my last question, what is your moonshot?

Jess Glazer 40:19
Oh, I love that we're having this conversation. Because I have this, I call them crazy, stupid ideas. And I have amongst all of the downloads, I have a crazy, stupid idea too. Yes, build a company to sell but it's actually in the tech space. And I know nothing about it, and I don't know how to do it. And I'm still going to just figure, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna figure it out. But that's definitely in the business arena, like, still want to do all the coaching, I love that and really build a company out so that we can just help more people, we're all about impact. We've built a school over in Africa, and I can't wait to get there to visit it because it opened during pandemic, but moonshot would definitely be building a company to sell specifically in the tech space. And then just being able to take care of the people that we love, you know, we always say, don't judge your carrot, the thing that's sort of dangling in front of you. And so many times our carrot is just to make money or to retire a spouse or to be able to take a vacation, go to dinner and not look at the menu price, not stress out and and then we get into this like weird cycle of judging ourselves. And then we don't take action, because oh, gosh, I'm not a good person, if that's the thing that I want. And you know, from training, I mean, you've trained 1000s, and 1000s, and 1000s of hours, everybody comes in to change their physical body. I don't think I ever had someone come in for another reason that wasn't a vanity metric. But it's over time that they come back, because now they feel good. And they're addicted to it and the endorphins, and they want to do a Spartan Race, and they want to learn a pull up, and they want to get faster. But it starts, the carrot starts usually with some sort of a more vanity type metric. And so for me, there are a lot of things. I'm super unapologetic about wanting to create a lot of wealth. And we want to so that we can do good things and can take care of the people that we love and just provide opportunities for other people, provide jobs for other people, provide a work environment that might not exist. And that's something we're working on right now with our team and team culture and creating whatever it is that we want to create and having that freedom is, is really part of it.

Susan Sly 42:18
Well, the good news is, you know, someone who knows how to create a tech company, and with, with Fem Boss, with the incubator I created, so when women come through, once their pitch is accepted, we actually build their MVP tech for them. We come alongside them, we help them raise the money. And then the moonshot with that is to launch, grow, and scale, and sell 1000 Female led tech companies in the next 10 years. So we have applicants. And if you're listening and you want to apply it's fembossincubator.com We have applicants coming through right now. One woman is in her 60s. She's a nurse and her tech company is all about helping care from home with the elderly who are isolated. So she's going through the process right now and I think she's done a second stage. So yes, I do know I can help you do that. We can chat over Canva and wine. The title of this episode is gonna be Canva and Wine. Like what is that episode about? See, yeah.

Jess Glazer 43:25
I created the logo for this fake company on Canva already, like I have the logo created. But I think that's the only action step because I was dreaming about it. I was thinking about it. So I did get that far.

Susan Sly 43:36
Excellent. I love Well, hey, Jess, thank you so much for being here and go to Jessglazer.com. I did, I totally did that. And on Instagram. Jess.Glazer.

Jess Glazer 43:50
Oh, I changed it.

Susan Sly 43:51
Oh, you changed it.

Jess Glazer 43:52
So IamJessicaDeRose, which is my name.

Susan Sly 43:58
IamJessicaDeRose. So don't go to the one I told you because that is wrong on the bio. Don't do it.

Jess Glazer 44:04
Sorry.

Susan Sly 44:06
Well, Jess, thank you so much for being here. I can't wait to welcome you back to Scottsdale, your new hometown for at least two years. And everyone, please tag us on social, please give us a review. I do read all of your reviews. So I would love a review. And just so everyone knows, most podcasters, 90% of podcasters haven't put out a new show in the last 90 days. So it's like, the fact you're here, the fact you're listening, the fact your fans. I love you and I appreciate you. Thanks for being here. And Jess, thanks for being here. This has been like such a great show.

Jess Glazer 44:40
Susan, thank you so much. I love it, can't wait to come back.

Susan Sly 44:44
Oh Thank you. All right Raw and Real Entrepreneurs, this has been another episode of Raw and Real Entrepreneurship. And don't forget to go back and listen to some of the past episodes. Go check out Lori's show, check out Dave Asprey's show. And by all means, if you have a business, you want to be a guest, Go to Susansly.com You can apply. We are taking bookings I think six months out but I would love to have you. So with that, God bless, go rock your day and I will see you in the next episode.