Molly Wendell (Founder of Executives Network)
Jared:
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Hello everyone and welcome to the Kajabi Edge podcast where we talk to real entrepreneurs to give you an edge on Kajabi. I’m your host Jared Loman, Vice President of Customer Experience and today I'm joined by Molly Wendell who is a coach to CEOs and their leadership teams and founder of the Executives Network which is one of the largest networking organizations for executives in the United States. How are you doing, Molly?
Molly:
I am great Jared and thank you so much. It's exciting to be here to talk about my favorite tool, Kajabi.
Jared:
So today, I wanna spend some time talking a little bit about your journey on the kajabi platform but more specifically your journey as an entrepreneur. So just to get started, tell us a little bit more about what the Executives Network is.
Molly:
So the Executives Network is a network for executives. It’s pretty self-explanatory but I started my journey, I used to be in corporate America. I ran sales and marketing and strategy for technology companies and then I was on my own and I became a coach and I started evolving my business and one day I was in a meeting and someone was talking about this idea called an online course and I'm sitting in a meeting it was this speakers meeting and I said I'm not gonna build an online course I like to speak in person. I'm a people person. I love in-person things. The whole online world is not for me.
Jared:
What a crazy time for that right?
Molly:
And then they started to talk about how much money they were making and I'm like let me think about this. And that day, I decided to build my first online course and then, I knew nothing about it and so I quickly learned. Within 3 weeks, I'd filmed, written and filmed my entire course and then I had it all put together, and I had to come up with the platform, and then I researched all the platforms out there. Selected Kajabi and this was almost 4 years ago, and the rest is history. It has changed my life, changed my business, so it all started with an idea that I wasn't gonna do.
Jared:
You don't know how often that is the case. You know obviously, here in Kajabi we talk to entrepreneurs worldwide. We talk to hundreds, if not even thousands a day and how often I hear that I had no idea that I was going to explore this and I had no idea that this was something that was ever you know, in my career path or my trajectory as a person. It’s funny how often it does come just by chance. So, talk to me like, what was kinda first big step like you took to I guess, you heard about the others who were successful in the space, what was it that kind of like? There must be some apprehension at first, what was that big leap that you took to kinda get the ball rolling?
Molly:
I think it wasn't so much apprehension because the reality is I didn't hear about the whole ecosystem of this whole world until after I was in it. I'm like wow there's some big players here. But it all started with one person who said I'm doing this and I thought you know what, there's something that I know that I'm pretty sick of talking about it, and I don't get paid for it but I have great expertise in it.
And so that’s where I started, I said you know what, I know a lot about executive job searching. In fact, I know everything about executive job search and so I looked and said I can package this whole thing up into an online course. And instead of me talking about it all the time for free, I can actually package it into something and then sell it. And so that was like, that was the big thing is, I didn't have a lot of apprehension because I had content. And I knew that people needed it and then I was already making money as a business so it wasn't like I was starting from nothing.
But launching and making money you know, those are two different things. So we can talk about that in a little bit. But understanding like, thinking about the formulation, what's the step? What's the transformation that people are trying to solve? And we say that speaking is motivational, books are informational, courses are transformational. And I needed to think about, what's the transformation that I would give to my customers, to my executives, to my on the job search? How could I make sure that the - the only transformation that they want is to find a job that pays more money and I had to build a course that could do just that.
And so but it was a matter of prioritization, sitting down there and doing the work. It doesn't happen if you just think about it and keep thinking about it. You've gotta think about it and make the time and make the commitment. I think that's where a lot of people fail is they think that it's gonna be easier than this. It's not so hard like, but you actually have to do the work. You have to do it everyday, like it's a job, like you're building a brand new product, which you are. So I think that was kinda the lesson that I found is, just keep focused, build this thing and get it out there and then reach your next problem, not problem, opportunity to figure out how to sell it.
Jared:
So what would you say was kind of the, I guess, was it financially motivated? Was this just a way for you to, kind of, expand your audience? Like what was kind of your thought process when you decided what, okay I'm an executive coach and I now need a course. Like what was the driver behind moving to a course?
Molly:
The biggest driver was that I've spent almost 20 years helping executives on the job search for free. And I didn't just not make money, I lost money because I pay in my own dime. I travel all over the United States, helping executives and meet with them every single month in like 10 different cities throughout the country. And so I had a yearning to serve them to say, ‘Hey I can help you. I know how to help you’. And so what would have been easy for me to say, well I'm not making any money there so I'm just not gonna help them, but I can't do that. If I know something that I can help you, I'm gonna help you and if I can get paid along the way even better.
So my initial goal was I can quit talking about this and it's not gonna cost me anymore money and then realizing that I can actually make money from it, that was pretty motivating too. So it's more about spreading the message that was meant to spread and making money in the process. It's not all about money but it sure is nice when it coincides with...
Jared:
Sure sure
Molly:
For getting out the right message and helping people. I think most and least that I can see in the Kajabi community, most people are there to serve they all have something that they want to help others with and I think like anything if you’re all about going straight to revenue but that's great but you might not have satisfaction, it might be short lived, it might not even make money you want. So having kinda in your heart to say I'm here to serve I have a message. I can help these people. Let me figure out and package it in the right way, that it's gonna be the best for them and best for me.
Jared:
Very cool, kind of on that money note tell me, when did you kinda realize that this was just not a, I created my course like, when did you realize this is something that actually is not only something that like is, maybe supporting me but actually this is a true business for me?
Molly:
So it's kinda funny because I think with any most online course creators, they create their course and that's such a big achievement and you know like I’m done! And that's how I felt like I'm done. People have been asking for this information for years and now I have it and I'm gonna put it out there and so I finished. I uploaded it to Kajabi and after it’s all done and I’m ready to go, I'm ready to sell.
So I put together this really awesome email and I sent it out to my list because I've been building my list for so many years and I got a couple people who bought and I'm like what? I just spent all this time for this? And so then I realized okay you have to have a sales strategy and have a bit of a marketing background that makes a lot of sense right? So then I have to develop a sales strategy and I started to use webinars to sell my course. I remember, the first time I told my husband that I was gonna build a course. He looked at me because what about the book you just spent 3 years writing? I'm like honey books are gas money, courses are new car money, new house money.
Jared:
(laughing)
Molly: And so when I realized I had to have a sales strategy, I put together a sales webinar and you know, online training, a free training, and at the end, I was gonna sell my advanced training. And in my very first sales webinar, I made $15,000 and I went to my husband and I said, honey I just made $15,000 and he looked at me and he goes, ‘When’s the next webinar?’.
Jared:
(laughing)
Molly:
So I think the key is, you can't just like any product, the physical, online whatever might be, you can't just put it out there and build it and they will come right? You actually have to do the work. I think what's fascinating to me is kinda the evolution of my business and the mindset of how I look at my business to say, sure I could iterate, this could be a nice you know, I made six figures in the first six months so that's nice. But then I thought you know I could keep doing that or I could change the game and do so much more and that's kinda the process of I think any entrepreneur is to say, this was nice, how can it be better?
Jared:
Very cool. Well you mentioned that six figures in the first six months, like how long did it take to get from zero to one dollar? You probably didn't have a dollar offering, but just like what was that journey like?
Molly:
Well it was that one email,l but not a lot of people bought, but I did break even with the cost of my course because I hired a videographer. I hired professional editing, knowing that for my audience, it had to have a professional look and feel and I was also charging a premium. It was almost $1,300 for my very first course.
Jared:
So you started out, high ticket?
Molly:
Yeah. High ticket, which I later learned, it’s not high ticket, apparently.
Jared:
Very true.
Molly:
Like the first month I said, okay great I broke even but I'm not here just to break even. I'm here to make some money and so I think one of the things that you always have to remember is, you’re building your online product is that not everyone else sales strategy is gonna work for you and maybe the idea of the sales strategy will work for you but maybe there's different pieces in between that you have to fix. For example, one of the things that I decided to do after I made money so quickly is, I'm like, I'm gonna turn this to evergreen. I'm gonna automate the entire thing.
And so I spent probably a good year and a half figuring out how to turn something to evergreen, how to re-record my webinar, how to do the chat, how to create some scarcity, created all the bonuses. And I was testing the different model and the first week that I launched my evergreen, it went great. I sold a course today and then I thought this is gonna kill it right? And then I did sell another one for like four months and then I thought this is gonna kill me and so I pulled back and said what do I need to go back and do live? What if I go back and do live?
So I started to go back and do live and then I started to look up the ways I was doing it and I'm constantly iterating it. For example, I've launched a new master class, a new sales master class in the past month and I've done it three times and each time it's been a different class because I keep improving it and improving it, and testing it. And will, is this gonna work? Is that gonna work? And I'm about to give for my first time next week, and I think this is the one. But I think it's really important for people to say what you go out with is 1.0. It's not 2.0, 3.0. It's not your final. Iterate, iterate, iterate it along the way and the nice thing is, you can have something happening at 9 in the morning to one audience and you see that it didn't work, so you changed it up to the audience at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Like you can move that quickly and so I think that's important to have in your mind that not everything is gonna work exactly as you expected.
Jared:
Sure, so now you started off, I don't know if the physical space is the right way to describe this, but like, you started off doing like, more in-person presentations, like what percentage of your business is now entirely digital, or is it, 100%?
Molly:
It's not 100% so a lot of my business is always working with executives in leadership teams and running their executive retreats and it's hard to run in their executive retreat virtually. So I had to kind of re-adjust how I do that in the past year. The good news is they didn't cancel. We just did it a different way but they were still in-person.
The interesting thing was I looked at how do I implement and leverage Kajabi in how I'm doing those and so now I actually use the Kajabi website and I have special web pages just for, special landing pages just for my clients. I have countdown timers like they love it. They go, wow this is really amazing and it gets them excited about the event. I used to send all the details through emails on a PDF and one time, there was an executive who was flying in from Germany and we’re in Costa Rica and I had sent all the details and I had had him, a driver pick him up to the airport. His flight was delayed. So I had a driver pick him up from the airport and bring him to the hotel and he came to me during the event and he said you know Molly, I never got any information about the event.
And I'm like what? I thought you got on a plane from Germany for Costa Rica not knowing a thing? You know you must trust me. This is good. But what I realized was, I can't keep sending attachments over email. What if I just put everything on a Kajabi landing page and get people access to that page and now they'll have all that information. So I've looked at also with my, the coaching that I do not just the executive coaching, I'm looking at how do I emigrate online training along with in-person. So mine’s more of a blend and then I have pure online courses, so I like to do all of them because I think there's the right time and the right place, and the right audience for which different type but I love the fact, that I can use Kajabi on all of it to support me in my endeavors.
Jared:
For sure, I mean it wouldn't be a conversation if we didn't touch on something about the pandemic these days. I‘m curious you came into this pre-pandemic, you were ahead of the game, like how did you have to pivot for kind of these changes and did that turn out to be a good thing for you? Was it a negative thing? How did that ultimately impact you and your business?
Molly:
Well it was a very good thing for me. In some respects, I have a part of my business where I have helped other speakers with their online products and I was actually running an event in April of 2020, an in-person and I had all this people coming in to talk about their online courses. And I had to make a game day called it, turned it to a virtual event. And the cool thing was I used the Kajabi product to house all the information in the virtual event and they became very cool as a place to house all the recordings, house all the information, all the details. That's also where I realize you know I can also use Kajabi for other in-person things, but I ran in a virtual event.
My business fortunately for me has not changed drastically because I got in the game on Kajabi so much early, I wasn't having to learn while I, you know. I wasn't changing the tires while the car was on the freeway. I had already stopped my business essentially for a couple months prior and did my online products so I already knew how to build online products, how to get out there online. What I did with the pandemic is I better leveraged Kajabi.
I will tell you I have funny thing though, my yoga studio closed down and I was freaking out. So I called her up and I said, hey let me help you put this online. And so I got her on Kajabi and I built her whole site on Kajabi so she could get a recurring revenue and home classes within Kajabi.
Jared:
Very cool. I wanna dig in more just, I wanna get a better understanding of like, really dig into the mindset of what that was like for you as in, let's just call it an offline business. Like before you were in the digital space like, your mindset was I'm working with executive coaches. I need to acquire my leads by networking events. I need to acquire my leads by whatever mechanism that you used to acquire those leads. Like I really want to better understand like, what the shift was? Like and what point was your AHA moment that like, this is really working, once you kinda made that transition?
Molly:
I will tell you that the number 1 way I've gotten business for the last 10 years is by sitting next to someone on the airplane and if I’m sitting in first class and I see an executive, I'm like, oh this is gonna candy from a baby, this is gonna be easy right? Because I know there will be some kind of business we do, and it's easy for me. But when you go online, you don't have necessarily that one-on-one and lead generation, if you will. There was somethings that, when I first took this idea of building a course for executives on the job search and said this is something I know and this is something that people will pay for and I know it's needed all the time it's not just a January, it’s September, it’s everyday of the year, every month of the year.
One of the things when I was building my first online course is I actually built like 4 of them at the same time around I was building the first one. Because it's kinda like a book. Everyone has one book in them but you kinda have, once you kinda have your first book, you kinda have another book in you. And so the online courses I was mapping it out and I was like, this would be really good and then I'd say you know what but not for this course. And so I move it aside and my walls are just scattered with posted notes and easel paper and I've got four courses sitting on the walls waiting to be built or waiting for revenue. But I think it was the very first webinar where I went, oh my gosh like, I'm showing up lazy to this sales conversation and I'm making money. Imagine if I lifted a finger or two. I mean I basically send an email and say, ‘Hey, I'm having this thing.’
Although I worked really hard on the webinar. I was up all night the night before because I had to learn the webinar software until like 4 o’clock that morning and the event was at 10 and there were a lot of things that were very, thank God I wasn't on video because I haven't slept all night but that was an AHA moment where I went this thing is real and I can do this. And I think I always knew that I could create a good product but I didn't realize how easy it was to organise the course, how easy it was like, it just came to me and that it just, and I said okay this is good. Okay that’s a bonus, that's a lead magnet and that's part of the course. Okay, that's just like it organizes in my head and it's a gift and a talent I did not have until I got into this space. But I think just having success out of the gate, part of it’s good, part of it’s bad because when you have success out of the gate like even though that first email I didn't have much success but paid for the cost right? When you have success you probably don't take as many chances, and you probably don't push yourself more.
That's why when I decided to make my course evergreen and it failed miserably in my mind. I thought you know what this is good, I’m kinda glad it did. Because, at least that’s what I'm trying to tell myself. But at least it's forcing me to think again and think twice about how it, how it works. It's interesting on my sales webinar so I was, right regularly closing. I mean I didn't have a lot of people on but I have 20 to 25% close rates.
And so I know that when I, when I get the right audience, I can have the right conversation. Kinda like the airplane, I know that when I get the right person I can have the right conversation. But I think it's good to have some failures and have some things that where you learn from and you iterate, and you try different things to make yourself better and better. I think that's what's so fun about the journey, where I'm at right now. But I tell you, that first sale, seeing that revenue and you’re like, oh my gosh this is amazing and the part of you that’s just like, but before I was using Kajabi, I did different payment processes and some of those sales aren’t on there. They went through the other.
But it's pretty cool to see your constant results and the other day I sold a course I didn't even know it. I looked and it said, ‘Congratulations! You have a new student in your course.’ And I'm like I do? Which course is that? Cause now I have 3 of them or 4 of them and I'm like I don't even know this person. This is fantastic! But I think that it's such excitement to know that you're getting out there and people are finding you and you have a great product and when you get great feedback about how well you're doing like, hey this really helped me, hey I got the result.
It's funny, on New Year's Eve this past year it was about 9 o’clock at night and all of a sudden I get an email. I'm like honey I just sold a course, 2020 revenue right? And about an hour later I sold another one and I'm like what is that? What a great New Year’s! I just made a couple grand doing nothing and for sure, you're always doing something but I think that affirmation - this thing’s gonna work. I'm helping people. They're getting the results. I'm making money out of it. I'm having a blast. And before I never wanted to talk about job search ever again because I never made any money, now I'm like, hey let's talk about it all day long, right?
Jared:
Cause you can direct them to your courses.
Molly:
Right.
Jared:
Exactly.
Molly:
It used to be an hour conversation with a person and no revenue and now it's about a 2-minute conversation and I have one line in there that I say to them, and I'm like you know you can buy it or not your choice. And I say but if you don't just call me in 90 days when you've had enough success, I'll still be here.
Jared:
Yes!
Molly:
But you know it shifts your time too into, re-prioritizes yourself into the things that actually are more important to you, your family, things like that.
Jared:
I'm really convinced too like, I mean I know we moved forward further down the line in terms of the process, but I'm really convinced as an entrepreneur that like first dollar is the one that you never forget, like that is the one that no matter what, like that first sale like I wish we had a feature that like play the sound in mic, speakers in your house or something because like, that for every entrepreneur that I talked to you know, unless you just stumbled upon like and got lucky and if you’ve put your heart and your mind and you know your efforts into something as soon as you see that, I know for you it wasn't a dollar, but like that first sale is gotta be like the feeling that I imagined that it's lasted. It’s been 4 year now right?
Molly:
Right, right it's interesting I'm not one to be too much nostalgic, so I'm always pushing myself to the next. But it's every time you get on Kajabi and you see your dashboard, it's super motivating especially when something came in you and you didn't expect. I see a lot in the Kajabi community where people are like I got my first sale and you're so excited for them, because you know what it's like because what just happened is their life just changed. And I think that's really, there's a difference between being an entrepreneur and an online entrepreneur because I came into entrepreneurship years ago.
I came into online entrepreneurship just about 4 years ago, it's a whole different game, it's a whole different world, it's a whole different expectation, it's a whole different level of excitement and it's a whole different level of opportunity. And I think that when it makes me so excited is, to some people being an entrepreneur is like their nirvana, to me I'm like, oh my gosh I'm playing in a limitless space and I can be whatever I wanna be, and I can evolve my business to whatever I want it to look like and I think that alone is what being online has brought me is, the evolution of my business.
4 years ago my business is so different than it is today and I'm having more fun, making more money and doing what I love and coming up with new and great ideas to get my services out there in ways that are scalable and really checking the learns from the online world and applying it to the in-person world. I think that's what really drives me and brings so much joy and satisfaction that I'm like oh my gosh this is, pinch me I love my life right?
Jared:
Sure, acquisition on the airplane is not cheap, I imagine so.
Molly:
Well if the return is good it doesn't matter the cost.
Jared:
Exactly. So let's dig in to like particularly like let's start like early on like what were some the biggest hurdles you ran into getting this up and running?
Molly:
The idea of an opt-in, a lead magnet, getting people to opt in to your list. One of the challenges I have is, I have an old list like, they were all 20 years ago. Can you imagine what they are like now? And so how do I locate, refreshing my list and building my list going forward?
And there were two things that come to mind, one is I come from the background of integrative marketing and database marketing, and database marketing is different than online marketing. And in database marketing you’re creating custom fields for everything, and every single person has like 50 to 100 fields filled in about everything, every wish way from Sunday about them. And when I was moving my business to Kajabi, moving my entire list to Kajabi, there was, name and email. And I'm like what about the other 48? You know, what am I gonna do with that data?
And I remember I was in, I think it was the Kajabi implementation week. I think I was talking to Jake Crowden. He goes, who cares? Name, email, are they gonna buy? Yes or no? And oh my gosh, he's right, why am I worrying about all this data? And I think it's funny, not funny, interesting to watch people who have this massive list and come from massive and slash super expensive software platforms, and they're like, but I have all this data! And this is me channeling Jake Crowden, who cares? Name and email. You don't even need their last name. You just need their first name. In fact, you don't even need that. All you need is their email and if they become a customer great and if they don't who cares right? How do you nurture that, that opportunity?
But I think that was a huge mindset shift for me to not care at all about anything other than name and email. But I remember my very first lead magnet, I'm like okay I'm gonna refresh my list and I’m gonna get a lead magnet out there. And I spent all this time and I created this lead magnet and I think it's called, ‘The 27 Mistakes You're Making in Your Executive Job Search.’
And I gotta admit I put it on Kajabi. I don't even know what I did, like to this day, I don't even know how I attached it or uploaded it or connect it. Like I have no idea, cause back then I had no idea what I was doing right? And then I'm like, I'm gonna send this email, this opportunity, get this lead magnet out and people are gonna subscribe to the lead magnet and I'm gonna have all this sales because in the lead magnet one the very last page, I talk about my course.
So they’re gonna buy and no one bought from that we made. Nobody even got past page 2. Because 27, you can't show up with 27 problems and so I'm like, okay let me get down to 3. And so I started rethinking, like how I showed my knowledge like put it in all out there, and just tease them a little better at a time, and bringing them along to the ride and nurture from you know marketing 101 or 301 rather, right?
Awareness, interest, desires, sale. Nurture them along the buying cycle. Meet them where they’re at, agitate them to the next level and then try to sell. And I think that, that kinda, going back to my marketing fundamentals background, classic marketing background, I kinda sat back and went okay, just cause it’s online, it doesn't mean it should take a lot of pages. Just cause it's online, doesn't mean people are gonna buy. You've gotta show up in a different way and a better way. So it was in my mind a huge mistake. I still laugh because I'm like one day, I'm gonna go find that thing in my Kajabi account. The reality is, it doesn't matter because all the things I've done since then, they're working. But I do laugh in the very beginning when you, I remember deciding, I evaluated.
I come from a tech background, so software evaluation is pretty standard for me. I know what to look for, I know how to make selections. And I was evaluating all these different course platforms and I think now, at the time, why did I pick Kajabi? And I thought, I think I like their support and I like their vibe. And there were, and when you're outside looking in, you're like I don't even know if all of the things are equal right?
And after my first day of using Kajabi, I was on the chat support, and I put my entire course on Kajabi via chat support, and I’d be chatting them, like how do you do this? And they tell me and I'm like, hey can you hang out with me for a little bit while I do that and make sure I didn't mess it up, in case I have any other problems? And the chat people were just so amazing. And in 2 days I have my entire course, my product, my site, my offers, like everything built on Kajabi. And I was ready to go but I think now, especially when I went to that Impact Summit, Kajabi's Impact Summit and met all this other entrepreneurs and saw the community, the collective community that Kajabi attracts. I sat there and I'm like man I am so lucky to be supported by this company who loves its customers so much that they spend their days, their nights, figuring out how can we help our customers be more successful?
And it was just such a lesson for me, I've never personally, as an entrepreneur, seen how technology can be such an enabler, an enabler of business growth. And I'm like oh my gosh I'm a living, breathing example of it. And so as overwhelming as it can feel early on, it doesn't have to feel that way because Kajabi support is second to none.
In fact, now I evaluate every other company based on if their support is as good as Kajabi and so far nobody has. But I see that you know, you get smarter and better over time and the more you use it, the more you use it. And when you need to learn the tool, that's when you learn the tool. And I think that a lot of people can get frustrated with technology and knowing that they have this huge safety net in not only Kajabi, Kajabi chat and email and Kajabi Access and the Kajabi Community like you’re not alone. Like for the first time, in this lonely entrepreneurial world, you're not alone. And I think of that's why when you I remember I need someone and someone says you know it seems like Kajabi's some kind of a cult and I'm like it is and I'm like it is, it is. We love it so much we're all drinking the cool aid like we love it because they enable our business to be better and who does that? Who else does that for you?
And I think that's one of the things that, we're all gonna make mistakes when we start out. We're all gonna look back a couple years ago, oh my gosh I remembered the very first thing I did on Kajabi, my very first whatever it might be, and in my case it was the worst lead magnet ever but then you fought back and look how far we've come in such a short time.
I was thinking, just the whole online course, building online products and the opportunity to make money and there's a lot of people who work hard. I work hard. I love to work. I like to do things. I like to be busy but I really enjoy working. I enjoy serving my clients. I enjoy coming up with other money making opportunities but there's nowhere that I worked equally where I made as much. And so I think that’s what's really interesting is we all work hard. I mean, you can work at a bank and work really hard and you can make an income. But if you move to online space you might only have to work half that hard to reach, match that income and then have new income goals right?
Jared:
Sure.
Molly:
I think this whole online world is just such a transformation. It’s a mental shift. It's a mind shift. It really takes you to a place that you never, it's not that you never thought it was possible for you, you just never even thought about it. It didn't come into your world of existence. And in the Impact Summit, I would meet people and I loved, Kajabi has your revenue, your dollars in your pins like, your revenue pins and what was the most, I think the most revealing about a company in the people that attracts customers is how helpful everyone was. You walk up to someone who had a 1 million or a 2 million and you're like how did you do it? What do you do? And they say here's what I did and they just share, like everyone’s there to help everyone else. And I think Kajabi could be applauded for creating such a community of support, such a community that it's not just a rising tide lifts all boats, it’s everyone of us could be successful so let's all help each other out and we'll never know when we're gonna need help. Let’s just help each other out. I've made so many relationships through Kajabi and I’m laughing and going, I've never done that with any other software tool before yeah, platform right?
Jared:
Sure, yeah!
Molly:
It's astounding how it changes my business, it changes my relationships. It's pretty cool.
Jared:
Yes, the community we have is absolutely amazing. It is undoubtedly the greatest asset we have and like I was at Impact as well. Like undoubtedly you felt it there, like you really, truly just, seeing people face to face.
Molly:
Right.
Jared:
You see the passion you hear the success stories from others just like you and like there is just no way to walk away from that not feeling inspired that you can either do something new or do something more.
Molly:
Right.
Jared:
So to kind of wrap all this up, I'd love to hear a little bit more about kinda where you're at now? Like what has really changed for the positive for you? You started out as an executive coach, like and now you're an online entrepreneurial executive coach, like where are you at today?
Molly:
So one of the things that's really interesting to me and that's what I love about the online space is, you can evolve your business and also being an entrepreneur you can do whatever you wanna do. What's really nice for me is I don't have to say yes to anything anymore. I can pick and choose the kinds of things that I wanna work on and that's what I do. There's some parts of my business 10 years ago that I'm like oh my gosh I just got a new client.
Jared:
It's the dream of every entrepreneur.
Molly:
Right. And you didn't want to do the work but you did it cause you needed the money. And when you’re at a space and a place where you say, you know what, I don't wanna do that anymore. I'm taking it off my website like boom it’s off! Boom it’s on! You can do things so quickly but I think what's really interesting for me is how I've looked at the convergence of the in-person and the online, the Executive and the online space and I've been always in my mind with the strategy to say, I'm gonna converge this 2 at one point in time. And I was talking to someone I was working with and she goes, why not now? I'm like you're right, why not now? I can do it today. Because of the world that I live in.
And so I see an entire business where my life is gonna be different in another 4 years from now, because I'm looking at my business to say, how do I do more? With more with the people I wanna work with, how do I make the in-person elevate that a little bit, and how do I take the online and elevate that too and how do I bring them together as well? It's a really interesting dynamic and opportunity you have when you’re in both spaces.
One of the things that's really interesting to me, when I was first building my first course and I created that other second course, about 2 years ago, I actually filmed the whole thing and I filmed it. I have like 2 final worksheets to do and then I shelved it. And I didn’t really shelf it because I thought I'm gonna shelve this. I just had other priorities that shifted and I was planning to sell that course for $997. And so it was a nice course. It wasn't super high ticket but it wasn't low ticket and as I looked at that now I say you know there's some really good elements to this but I'm gonna take this online training and I'm gonna incorporate it into a bigger corporate service. And so now I'm taking a $997 product and adding a couple more figures to it and coming out with a proposal to a corporation where it integrates the online stuff but it also integrates some in-person things. And I'm so glad I never launched it 2 years ago because it’d be already out there, and it’d be hard to sell it, integrate it for something else.
But I think it's what interesting to me is how much the online space makes me think differently. How I write proposals is different. How I word proposals. How I was writing a proposal for a client, for a new client, a new prospect and I had my husband read through it. He's my editor right? And he looks at this and I had an offering and it was like a bonus, and he goes what the? I want this, and he goes what is that? I go, I don't know I haven't created it yet but it's just a really good day.
But that's what's cool about the online space is, you can name stuff and put it out there and see what happens and see if it bites and then go create it. Like you don’t have to build it before they'll buy. But I think that, that's really what's for me is, that evolution of convergence of the online space and the in-person world and how do I elevate the conversation with the executives and corporations that I'm working with? And I think that's what excites me the most.
The other kinda thing in, always in the back of my mind is, no matter the question, the answer is always Kajabi. And so when I think about how am I gonna take registrations? How am I gonna take payment? Kajabi. How am I gonna do my website? Kajabi. How am I gonna do my lead magnets? Kajabi. How am I gonna send out and track my proposals? Kajabi. How am I gonna do my proj- like it doesn't matter the question, the answer almost always is Kajabi.
So when you have a product to tool platform that is so integrated into your business, that's how I think I'm like, well I don't wanna do that if it's not Kajabi cause it’s a waste of my time because I don't need yet another technical distraction. What I need to do is figure out whether to do it at all. I'm gonna use Kajabi and I'm gonna figure out how to make that happen.
So I think that that's one of the greatest things about the evolution of our business. So I never go anywhere because I'd latched onto you guys like crazy. You’re such integral part of my business and I know that you know that, because I'm watching you evolve as an organization and a technology, where I'm like oh my gosh I have an issue I need to solve it. They're already thinking about it and they're already developing it. This is cool. I don't have to think all the time, they're thinking for me.
So where do I think I'll be? I think I'll always have some kinda in-person component cause I love that right? But leveraging the online component as much as I can to elevate that in-person component, I think that's where you'll always find me.
Jared:
I love it. Well, for anyone listening, maybe some executives on a job search or for anyone else, where can they find you? Aside from, we know on Kajabi, how do they get to you?
Molly:
So executives who are looking for help with their leadership teams, someone got to tell them what to do for their next executive retreat, if they're looking for coaching for the team, or even in job search, you can go to ExecutivesNetwork.com. That's Executives with an S and Network without an S .com. Or you can just google Molly Wendell. I am all over the place and online and there’s like 4 of us in the country but I was the first one with the credit card, so I have all the domains.
Jared:
Well thank you so much Molly, it has been a true pleasure chatting with you learning more about what you do and your experience as an entrepreneur.
Molly:
Thank you so much for having me! Kajabi in my mind is basically a dream come true for me because it’s changed the way my business runs and is and will be, and I encourage any entrepreneur out there who's thinking about, how do I evolve my business? How do I take it to another level? I say, take a look at Kajabi and leverage the heck out of it.
Jared:
And that's gonna do it for us today. Thank you so much for listening. Please do not forget to leave us a review. Subscribe if you can and we will look forward to seeing everyone next time on our Kajabi Edge podcast.
