177: How To Navigate Adversity in Entrepreneurship with Jackie Dragone
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Who you are is in times of adversity is more important than who you are in times of success. And this is actually going to be the thing that either makes or breaks your success.

Welcome back, B-Worders. Oh my God. Today we have got Jackie Dragone in the house. I freaking, first off, I just freaking love the last name, Dragone. Like it's so, it just makes me like, I should probably just say Jackie Dragone because you're a normal person, but I can't, I have to be like, yes, it's almost dragon-like. So go you, you're in the marketing space and you've got the most badass name on the face of the earth.

Everyone, welcome Jackie to the studio. We're going to get down and dirty today and talk all things branding and sales and authentic marketing because this girl is the bomb on it all. So take it away, girlfriend. Yeah.

Yes. Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited about my last name too, because it used to be before I got married, Smythe, which is like not fun or key. I was like, Smythe, that sounds like meh. So yeah, I'm so excited now to be married for 12 years and have this cool last name. So thanks for pointing it out.

I used to say, so my last name, my maiden last name is Hayes. And I'm like, well, how boring can you get with Hayes? And then I married a guy whose last name is Bolt. And at first I was like, well, that's just as boring. And then I was kind of like, wait a minute. No, God has a sense of humor. He legit, like I'm a spitfire. I'm snarky. He legit gave me a last name that fits my personality. So thank you, Jesus, for that one. I know it's, it all worked out for us. Thank you.

All right, so your jam on the gram is sales and messaging. And I know you and I talked a little bit about the authentic, we're so tired of the download 20 email subject line content crap to do. So let's walk through your strategy and your thought process behind it because this is what we really need to know. Yeah, absolutely. I always say you don't need to make content. You already are the content. The content lives within you.

You, your experience, your story, what you've gone through, your perspective, the content that you need to market your offers, the content you need to put on Instagram, all of it is already within you. It's not going to be in some plug and play content guide that you download that let's be honest, it's like collecting dust. You have 17 of them. You've paid a hundred dollars for each and they're collecting dust in your inbox and you've done nothing with them. Amen. Amen.

All right. So then how do you tell people, you know, well, then how do we reach inside you and just pull that content out? Yeah, there's a couple of different ways. So one thing is really looking at the why behind starting your business is what I find is nine times out of 10, you've had some kind of experience where you're like that experience led me to want to do the thing that I want to do.

I talk a lot about igniting your voice. And that came from an experience in myself where in childhood and even into early adulthood, I didn't want to speak up for myself or I would just like kind of let things roll over where in the inside, like you said, I'm like an Aries. I have this fiery personality. I'm really sassy, but I wasn't letting that side of me show just because, you know, we go through things and we're conditioned to do certain things. And I was like, no more. Like, I'm going to speak up and say what I want and go put myself out there.

And now I really love to help other people do the same. So what me just telling you that story, that's a piece of my brand. And I can guarantee that you have that within your own business, especially if you're a personal brand or honestly, even a product, you probably created a product because you were like, oh my gosh, I want that product. I'm going to be the one to make it.

Oh, yeah. That's exactly why we started the podcast, Her Network, is because I tried so hard to get into the big girl networks and kept getting rejected just because, you know, I don't have a million followers on Instagram and I don't have half a million downloads per episode. I was like, well, fuck it. Then I'm just going to start my own, you know? So, yeah, I think.

I think you're right. And it's just pulling that out, right? Yeah, absolutely. And even you saying that it's like, look at how many people you just made feel seen. You want to be in this big, crazy, like you want to go for the gold and be in like the big, whatever you want to call it, podcast network. But you keep getting rejected. It doesn't mean that you're not worthy of it. Like

come on over here. Like let's, you can build that too, right? The only thing that somebody has ahead of you is either time or a certain situation they landed in. Like you get to build that too. We're going to do it over here. Like, let's go. That's your messaging. That's your branding. So it really all ties back to why you started in the first place. I mean, that's one piece of it. We can go into the other depths and the other parts of it, but I think that's one of the most powerful because your truth, your story, your vulnerability is so magnetic. You know, I think

sometimes as women entrepreneurs, we often, you know, we look at what everyone else is doing and we don't want to give our own message out there in our really true voice because we're already looking at the people who are successful and we're just a little bit timid to be like, no, I really want to be like her, but do it my own way. And for whatever reason, we end up doing it their way. And

And I see so many people get caught in that trap. Don't you? Yes. Time and time again. And this comes back to sales as well, because it's like, all right, you really need to sit and look at your business and what you're doing and how you're creating offers. And honestly, I was even talking with my clients about this this week, the way that you want to coach people just because so-and-so is saying, don't give a lot of access to you. If that's not true to you and you like to be in business with people, or you like to be hands-on with people, we need to look at your truth.

We need to look at all the ways that make you stand out and make you unique in your business. So, and I've been through this too, where I'm like, oh my gosh, I created a business that I just was like, that offer look cool. So I created it without asking myself the question first.

Is this how I actually want to work with people? Or is this highlighting the things that I'm really good at helping people with? Or am I just following it because it's, it's trending. It's really coming home to yourself and looking at your own gifts and qualities, no matter what other people are saying. Cause you, I bet you believe this too. Like,

anything in business can work. There's so many ways. There's so many ways you can make it work. Okay. Let's talk about the Voxer trend for just a second, just to hone in on the whole coaching thing. When Voxer first got to be like the way to coach, everyone in my world was like, oh, you have to have Voxer access. No.

I'm just like, sure. And then yeah, I'm a boxer fail. Like I never check it. I don't get back to it. I'm like, it's just one more fricking thing for me to log into. Please dear God. No, like don't send me an email and don't send me a boxer. Just send me a WhatsApp or a text message. And like, you might actually find me. Yeah. All right. So what advice would you give our audience?

to move forward in like getting their message and figuring out who they're, you know, they really are at the core of things. First, I would, like I said, start with your story, go back and look at, okay, well, what was I going through? Where was I at in my life that I was able to transform into where I'm at now? And why am I so, why do I feel like that's tied to my purpose and my passion? And why did it move me to start my coaching business?

Why did it move me in that direction? And then I would also look at your gifts. Like, what are you really excited about helping people with? For me, I know when I can get into the business with somebody and hear them talk about what they want to do, it lights me up so much to be like, we're going to build it with this strategy. And this is what you're actually saying to me. Like, do you, let's put that into your messaging. Like working in that way with people excites me. So look at the parts of what you coach, um,

that excite you and double down on them? Like if you're a weight loss coach, for example, or in fitness, you don't have to teach Pilates and weightlifting and nutrition and macros and all of these things. What is the part of that that is

where you love to be, like be okay with being there. And I'm not saying you can't be multi-passionate because like Lord knows I am multi-passionate, but I'm just saying when you're creating an offer, when you're creating your brand, what are the things that you actually want to be doing versus what you feel like you should be doing? Look at all of that stuff. And then look at the ways that you want to work with people in your offers. I'm a hands-on person.

I like to be in the business with somebody. I don't like to create digital downloads or pre-recorded courses and sell them. That's not exciting to me. It's exciting to me to be with people. So all of this goes into how you're going to build your business. And then when you go to sell the offer, you're freaking excited about it. You're behind it.

You don't have any of that like resistance behind it or imposter syndrome because, you know, imposter syndrome really is like, okay, well, there's something there that you don't believe. Like, how can you fully be behind what you're doing? Then sales become so much easier because you genuinely believe every word that you're saying. I keep hitting the mute button by accident. Y'all, this is so funny. This is,

Real life podcasting right now. Okay. I am reaching down here because I'm like, ooh, that was so juicy. I want to mark that clip for my editor. Yeah. And I keep hitting the mute button instead. So just welcome to my world. You're a part of it. Yes.

I love that imposter syndrome piece because I do, I agree with you completely. I actually told a group of women earlier this year, we were taught, we were in a mastermind and we were talking about our affirmations and like, what did we want to get out of the weekend? And I was like, you know, I need to get over some of my own imposter syndrome because

And Keisha Gamede was sitting next to me and she's like, you know, you don't have imposter syndrome. You just have a lack of confidence in yourself at what you're doing. And I was like, oh my God, I'd never heard it like put that way before. So thank you for bringing that up because I think oftentimes one of the reasons we do miss the mark on our offers, miss the mark on our messaging, miss the mark on our branding is we are trying to do something we're not authentically aligned with.

We're doing it just because we think we should. I totally agree. How often, let's get the real juice here. How often, like 50%, 60%, are you telling your clients that's the wrong offer for you to be selling? That's the wrong message for you to be doing? Yeah. It's like, I can see it in them when I talk to them more so. I'm like, well, how, I always ask them, well, how does this feel to you? I, maybe that's because like in human design, I always, my gender, I'm a generator. I feel things, but I'm always like,

how does this feel to you? Does that sound right? Does that feel right? Can you say that? And I can see it in them instantly, like yes or no. And then we go from there because if we're going back and forth on messaging and offers, I can see it in them. If something is off just by the way, they're like reacting to us talking about it. So it's often, and I think it's a,

it's a process, but what you need to do as the business owner, regardless of if you have a coach or not, because you need to be the one to lead yourself at the end of the day, we need to be self-led is ask yourself these questions.

When I say this, does this feel right to me or am I fumbling over what I'm saying? If I am, why? What is the piece of this that is off for me? So really just going a little bit deeper and asking yourself these questions in your offers and playing it out in your head. Like what is this actually going to look like to coach the person? What am I actually going to take them through? It's not that you have to have it all perfectly mapped out, but you know, like you know that you can guide somebody through.

like roughly through this transformation. Oh, I love, I just, I love this conversation so much because I really feel like

For any entrepreneur who is listening, girlfriend, you know that we are speaking to you right now because you're getting that little like tingle in the back of your neck and you're like, I think I just want to turn this episode off because it's resonating so hardcore with you right now. But here's the truth of the matter. If this is resonating for you, it's because it is for you. It's because you are the entrepreneur who is mis-messaging, misaligning, not doing the right offer. You're broke as a joke. It's because you're not selling the right thing. It's

probably you're showing up wrong, wrong, wrong. So Jackie, what would the next step after you figure out your vision and your why, what would they, that like next step you take someone through? In terms of business, it would be, let's create your offer and sell it. How, what are we going to sell? What are we going to-

bring to the world, I think that's my favorite place to be is the creation process of it. What offer are we going to create? And I see this too. Sometimes the thing that you really want to create is the thing that you keep shoving down for some reason because you haven't seen anyone else do it. So you're like, oh, will that even work?

because I have no, I don't see proof, but like, that's what entrepreneurship is. Like the more that you haven't seen it. Great. Like, let's go there. What do we, what do you want to do? Yeah. Let's fucking go. Like, let's, let's create the thing we wish we existed. Right. It's my sign behind me. It's, it's my mantra in life. I'm like, no, if I need it out there, then someone else does too. And I may not have that social proof yet, but that's because they haven't raised their hand yet. Right. But if I'm feeling it, you're feeling it. Exactly. All

All right. So what's the favorite, like what, what are you working on with someone right now that you can't really maybe reveal, but you're like, Oh God, when this comes out, it's going to be so damn good. Yeah. Can you give us a little juicy tease? Yeah. I have a client who's developing this like whole behind the scenes thing. That's going to be like, so cool for the backend of people's businesses or even help women who want to have sort of like a VA business or something like that.

really develop it. And it's in the beginning stages, but I could just see it blowing up. So I'm so excited about that. And this is like something that this individual birth don't like on their own. Like it's a really unique idea. I haven't seen it anywhere else. Like that to me is so, so freaking exciting. And then I have another woman who I feel like she's been in health and fitness for a while. And

she's just got to the point where she realized that what she's teaching is actually not health and fitness. She is like showing women how it's controlling their life, you know? So it's usually so much deeper than the health, the fitness, the weight loss, the business, the money. It's usually so much deeper. And she's just recently like through conversation uncovered, like, no,

Like, this is the thing actually that I'm selling. It's not about what they're eating or how they're exercising. It is a little bit, but it's really about the emotion and the way that they're living their life that is so detrimental to that human. And when you can tap into that, the core more, yeah, when you can tap into that, it's like, oh my gosh, you're changing lives now, right? You're not just like simply losing 20 pounds. You're literally changing the entire way this human is going to exist.

because you've been there and you're not going to let anyone else go there. So these are the things where I'm like, these things can change the world. You're changing the fabric of the way that people live. Oh my God. And you get to be in on the ground floor, helping all of this develop because, and this is the other thing I really want people to understand. And one of the reasons I wanted to bring Jackie on was so often people

As entrepreneurs, we think we have to be solopreneurs and start the whole damn thing ourself and really just ground up, bootstrap it, get it running and

And oftentimes that is why instead of being a millionaire or very successful in six months time, it takes 18 to 24 and you get frustrated and burnt out. And the truth is in the very beginning, you can still be a solopreneur and bring in someone like Jackie to say, okay, here's my thought. Here's my ideas.

She's not going to, you know, she may not be the person who tells you, will it work? She tells you how to make it work. And then she'll work with you to get it, to get it going. God, I wish I'd met you like three years ago. We can't go back in time. No, we can't. And everything in the right time. I always am saying everything is working out for me at the right time in my head. Every, every season has its place, right? Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. All right. So what else do you want our audience to know? Like give us, give us some more juicy details, like take us through the next step in the process. What is, you know, the super jam that you, you know, every person listening here needs to know? Yes. I need you to know that who you are is, um, in times of adversity is more important than who you are in times of success. Ooh.

This is going to be the thing that either makes or breaks your success is how you show up in times of adversity when things don't go right. Because I mean, there's going to be times when you're like, oh my gosh, I can't even believe this is happening in my life, in my business, in my personal life, with a client, with a income, whatever it is, there are going to be these times of adversity. They're just, we're human. They're unavoidable. They're going to happen to you.

What you believe about yourself, about your vision, about your business, about all of the things in those moments will either make or break you. And this is how you can stand the test of if you were made for entrepreneurship or not, because literally I looked up the definition the other day out of curiosity and it was like somebody who's willing to take financial risk. Now leave the financial part out of it, but it's literally risky business. Like,

We're doing things that nobody has done before our own way. That's going to bring adversity. You can't go to your boss. You can't hand it off to a company. You can't hand it off to your parents, your mom, your dad, whatever. So what, who are you going to be in that moment? You can't blame anyone else.

You can't blame anyone else. Like there's literally, it's you and yourself. That's so good. So good. We could like stop right there. It's just so damn good. Yeah. I feel like we're just having a therapy session for budding entrepreneurs. Yes. Yes, it is true. And it's just, that's, that's the thing. And people give up too easy. Don't give up so easy. Like let's go. Yeah.

Let's go. All right. So if they want, and I know that they're going to want to, they want to get in touch with you. They want to start working with you. What is, what is your best, you know, advice for someone? Is there pre-homework they need to do, or do they just reach out to you and jump straight in? Like, how do we get more of Dragoon in our life? I love that. I'm going to start going by my last name. You just like sealed the deal for me. There you go. My gift to you.

Thank you so much. Yeah. The pre homework is I only want to work with you if you really want it. And this is what you really want for your life. That's the only prerequisite. I don't want to work with anyone who's half in half out. You're all in or bust. That's it. And that doesn't mean that you can't like be having a part time job. That's not what I mean. What I mean is your energy, your vision, your passion, your desire. You're not going to quit or give up.

because that's not the vibe. So that's the only prerequisite. If you're like, yes, I'm in, let's go. That's the vibe. All right, let's get busy in the DMs guys. And then once you go work with Jackie, tag me in and let me know that you guys became besties because I love it when I can tell you who you need to know in your life. So thanks for tuning in to this episode of

the B word because you know, we're bringing it straight to you. This is the shit you didn't know you needed to know. And I'll see you same place, same time next week.

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