With a knack for digital marketing, Jen Lehner has quite the story to tell

I met Jen Lehner 4 years ago in Kimra Luna's program, and I knew we'd be fast friends. Her love of digital marketing and techy tools matched mine, so there's always a lot for us to talk about.

I wanted to go deeper into Jennifer's history to find out how she ended up where she is today as an emerging force in this industry, gracing stages, and attending important events to network and gather information.

I also snagged her course on how to set up Alexa Flash Briefings and got mine set up right away. Thanks, Jen!

Here's the full interview.

Transcript:

00:23                                     Okay. Hey everybody, this is Sally Hendrick and I've got Jen lighter here of Jen laner media. Is that what your business is called? [inaudible] the official title these days. Yeah. Awesome. And Jen and I have known each other for several years now, back and forth through different groups and different programs online and in each other's groups and so on and so forth. And we've had blab conversations we've had. Um, yeah, I think a couple of blab conversations and then now, today, just here on this zoom call. So how are you doing?

01:04                                     I'm doing great, Sally. Um, thank you for having me on. It's always good to catch up with you.

01:08                                     Yeah, it is good. And I don't remember what we talked about last, but I do know that we've got some things in common right now with kids in college.

01:21                                     Yup. We entered into the, um, to the college parent, you know, now were those parents who go, you know, oh, I have kids, I have kids, they're in college, but they're in college. Like they've moved out, they're gone. I mean we still have a little one at home, but yeah, actually I have two still at home. But yeah, I was just thinking today my identity is now changing because eventually there's not going to be anybody at home. I mean, Yup.

01:50                                     And I'm only two years away away from that. My 16 year old is the last one at home. So it's not that far away.

01:58                                     I think we're going to embrace it.

02:00                                     I think we will too. And what do you think it's going to do with our businesses?

02:06                                     Oh, how many times do you watch certain people out there who don't have kids or husbands and they are crushing it because they are able to just like, ah, and um, and although trust me, I mean I wouldn't trade what I've got for the world, but I, I think like, man, what could I do if I did, you know, if I could just shut myself off from the world at, on any given day and just build funnels and just do Facebook ads and just emails my Lord. I mean, so that's what I think in my little light, when, uh, our babies leave, um, it'll look a little more like that anyway. I think, I mean, we want to have room for fun, you know, but, but, um, there's always for me, a tugging, like if it's after three o'clock, you know, and I'm working in my business or it's a weekend, I'm always feeling guilty, you know, it's always like, well, I should be, you know, and I've gotten a lot better about that.

03:03                                     I've learned some hard lessons. So I do shut off the computer usually by 3:00 PM when the school bus pulls in. Um, you know, and I try to, um, not, you know, I don't bring my laptop home from the office, so like when I leave my office, I'm literally gone for the day and that's helped a lot. But, but when I'm not on those, if I'm in the middle of a launch or whatever, and I'm working on business and I'm not with my family, I always just feel that there's always guilt, guilt, guilt, guilt. So it'll be a lot less of that I think, when I don't have to, when they're not home.

03:39                                     Yup. I agree with you very much. And I've done the same thing. When I first started my business. I feel like I was in and out of it all the time. It was constantly around me, you know, have laptop. We'll, we'll carry, we'll, we'll pop it open and on to IFI, wherever you go and finish up that email that you were interrupted a while doing, you know, five times that day or whatever it is. So things definitely change in our businesses. Um, speaking of that, I wanted to kind of go back into, you know, your history. What is your history like, how in the world did you even get into digital marketing because you obviously haven't done it your entire career because it hasn't been something that we could have done. So, you know, like I did my actuarial career forever. And what were, what did you do before that?

04:32                                     Um, well, professionally speaking, I, um, I was director of a nonprofit, um, and that's what I did before I had kids. And then I was a stay at home mom. And then when I started back into this, um, it was, it was really a very, it was sort of a strange little journey. But, you know, looking back, I'm speaking of the digital, I mean looking back, way back, um, and I bet you're the same way. Like I was always fascinated by gadgets and cool systems. And I remember I wanted so badly there was this, um, there was this robot, I must have been like, let's say fifth grade, fifth or sixth grade, and it was a robot. And the commercial showed that you could interact with a robot. So like you could talk to it and it would talk back. And I wanted that more than anything.

05:26                                     And it was like $75 or something. It was really expensive at the time, you know, and I don't remember what it was called, but I got it. And it was such a huge disappointment because it was essentially like a cassette tape could have even been eight track and you stuck it in its mouth and then you would ask it a question like what's your favorite color? And then you'd have to push a button and he would be like, blue, what's yours? So it was just really like a taper. Yeah. But the point is, it was a cool gadget. And I used take the black flat, um, way back. Um, when I was really little tape recorders, cassette recorders were these flat black things, you know what I'm talking about? They can you press it and then the thing open and you slip, you slit in your, your cassette tape.

06:11                                     I used to press record, slide it underneath my brother's bed. I have four older brothers and like, you know, that could keep me busy for hours. Like, you know, what am I going to find out? And um, so it was like using gadgets and then, um, I've sold something on Ebay. Um, this, this past week, I sold a few things that I haven't been over there in ages, but I noticed on my profile it said member since 2000 so early on Ebay, I always liked this stuff. I always liked marketing. I was a marketer as early as first grade. So marketing wise I always had an interest and that's what I did a lot of in the nonprofit. Um, and when he, when email came around, I was like the first person in my city, I think to even to get email and I was trying to explain it to people.

06:58                                     I can remember really clearly having this conversation with my friend Jennifer. And I was like, there's this thing, it's called email and you send it and then it just, hmm. And then it just goes to another computer and you can like talk to each other. And she was like, yeah, that's weird. Um, you know, and so it was, I always, always loved this stuff. Fax Machines though, probably excited me more than anything. And, um, and again, I was, I was always, I started a side business with a fax machine on how to get restaurants, uh, started on. So I would sell to restaurants the opportunity to advertise on my facts newsletter and then we would locate, I mean, and I'm talking there was no sign, it was like opening up the phone book and trying to find restaurants in the area and manually writing down their phone numbers and manually typing in the phone numbers in the fax machine at lunchtime.

07:52                                     So the menus would go out to the surrounding areas, like the offices surrounding that restaurant. And actually, gosh, it's just a little side business, but it was because I was fascinated with the technology of the fax machine. And if you think about it, because it was the idea, I just imagined a piece of paper going through a machine and like magic coming out in Hong Kong at the same time. And remember this is before the Internet, so that thought was just like mind blowing to me. So this is a really long answer, but, but that, that just, that's just how, that's why I was always interested in digital stuff. So it all, so when these things presented themselves first, it was like constant contact and I was helping, um, uh, um, launch this new farmer's market in Mississippi. And so I got all the everybody's emails and we started doing like a newsletter.

08:47                                     People really were not doing that back then. And constant contact was one of the few male champions around and constant contact with. Those were the two big, you know, newsletter, email platforms. So that like, really, uh, like I totally loved that. And then, uh, and then when it really came time when it, when my daughter started kindergarten, or actually a little before that, I was like, Huh, I think, you know, I'm interested in doing some stuff. I wonder, I wonder what I'm going to do. And I had, uh, I had, I always have lots of volunteer type projects and I did this thing, you know what I do you know what a flash mob is or a cachement. Yes. So, so for, for anybody watching who doesn't have flash mob is when you just show up randomly. It's an organized sort of, people will dance in a public place or sing a song, but it's just a bunch of people get together and do this thing that's choreographed from, you know, um, as a surprise, like a public surprise performance.

09:44                                     But pash mob is when you organize in advance a bunch of people to surprise a merchant and purchase a whole bunch of stuff. Um, and so I decided to start one of those in my local community and I called it flat flash cashers so it was a cash mob and uh, but it was, uh, it was more organized than pre the previous example that I gave you. And like the merchant would have to offer discounts to the people who came. It was for a three hour period. I promoted it for a week prior, but we wouldn't announce the actual location until the day before to create some buzz and excitement. And this was like really successful people and I was using Twitter and email to promote it and um, we would have lines like a, of a little pie shop that opened. They had a line wrapped around the block because I got, um, Michael Simon and um, uh, mark Ruhlmann two celebrity chefs to retweet it.

10:41                                     They're from this area and they recreated it. So we had lines around the door and I was like, what do you know? This stuff really works. I wonder if I could like teach other businesses how to like, do this kind of marketing. So then I just started doing consulting and uh, and, and, and realized I could charge people for this. And I never, like I had a client who, who needed to, she wanted to learn how to use Twitter and I didn't really know how to use Twitter that well. Like I know how to tweet. So I read a book on Twitter and I looked at some youtube videos and I learned that like if you were just a step or two ahead of your client, it's really all you had to, like, you could still help them. And two carbs. I mean, right. Did you have a moment when you sort of realize like it's all right, I don't know what, but I know you actually, I know the answer to this question. I will figure it out and then I will, I will rock it.

11:36                                     Cheers. Remember it was about two years ago and I hired you to, you had the agency, do you still have that any anyway?

11:45                                     Yeah, I know.

11:46                                     No, no. Yeah, it's a lot of stuff. But anyway, I hired you to do all of the social media stuff so that we could get it posted all over the place, Instagram, Twitter, whatever it was. And,

12:01                                     and I was like, okay. And so we're going to start like, what in a month? And I think like another week went by and the next thing that happened was, um, I said, okay, I'm going to do this. It's going to be hashtag science and I'm going to create this challenge that goes my husband and I'm going to create this challenge about how to develop like how to concoct your branding story with, you know, with your hashtags or your branding formula with your hashtags. And I literally made it up on the fly and went and did a bunch of research and pulled together all of these things to create your own hashtag formula and created a five day challenge out of it. And I was one day ahead of everybody in the challenge creating my videos and my eds.

12:49                                     The awesome thing. That was a really cool thing that you put together.

12:55                                     Easy. We do that.

12:57                                     Yeah. I mean, and it's so you really, so you know, there's a lot of people with imposter syndrome where they start and they're like, I don't, I just don't think I'm there yet. Let me, let me get some more credentials, some more testimonials, some more. No, you just do it like as long as you, as long as you with integrity and sincerity can say to yourself, I can help this person. And you know that you really can, they're not asking you to be the world's best expert in whatever. There's an asking you to help them to help them where they are. And so that was super liberating and stressful sometimes, right? Like, cause I did have major impostor syndrome and um, and so I started doing that. And then funny enough like you start making money for people were word travels pretty quickly in a small town and I had a waiting list of clients but it was like, I never could figure out the formula for like scaling that and not killing myself.

13:52                                     And I know you're like this to Sally, like it's just you're a natural plot problem solver and you're a creative and so what happens is you can't really turn it off. It's like if you have a client who is, you know, there's certain challenges and it's a constant creative process. So your, your, you're always thinking about them and you know, you know, jotting notes and, and probably probably doing lots of work off the clock because you want to figure something out for them. And I was doing so much of that. And it was like even when I would double my hourly, I just could not, I just couldn't, I just couldn't get any momentum. And then sort of around the same time I was listening to Amy Porterfield's podcast and I can't remember the name of this one, but it's James Van orden. And um, it was internet marketing mastery, is that what it was called?

14:40                                     I don't know where I pulled that out of, but whatever. Really good podcasts for where I was at the time. And I started learning about course creation and all that and I was sold. I was like, yes, this so much sense. And um, and I think my first course that I ever created was going to be about, was going to be for realtors. Cause I thought, well this makes sense because realtors are everywhere and realtors mostly have crappy marketing. So I'm going to do realtors and man, I struggled and struggled and struggled. Um, and then I realized I don't, I'm not interested in real estate. Like why, why, why am I doing this? So, you know, I'm not going to say the time was wasted because it was a super powerful learning experience. Um, and so I dropped that. Anyway, that's how I got into it.

15:31                                     Exactly. And then, uh, when did the front row start? Uh, the front row. That's my, that's my um, free online classroom, which by the way, that language was, was totally borrowed from you. Um, it's my Facebook group and it started because I did this um, Twitter webinar. I don't know what year it was, so let's say 2015, maybe, probably 2015 and I did a Twitter webinar and um, I was in B school at the time and s and I had helped one of the B schoolers with some Twitter stuff and I mentioned to her that I was having a webinar that she should join. And then I turned around and 30 minutes later she went into the b-school group and like this was when you are allowed to post links and she raved about me and put a link to my webinar and I got 200 people register for this Webinar for free.

16:23                                     Who are my complete ideal target audience. And I was like, oh my gosh. So they're all starting to come in. And I'm like, I'm actually for the first, when I started seeing them come in, I'm like, I really need to capitalize on this. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? So I was like, I'm going to create a Facebook group and get them into the Facebook group. So I created a Facebook group. I called it the front row. I figured that gave me a lot of room right to exist. So you have me give you a ton of room to grow and stretch and um, and figure out what this was gonna be. And on the thank you page. So when they register for the Webinar on the thank you page, I invited them to join the group. And because so many people were joining so fast, um, the, the, it created this momentum and excitement and filled up, um, the group with a couple of hundred people really quickly.

17:15                                     And so then I was like, oh crap, what do I do now? I panicked because I was like, it felt like, which is ridiculous now than I would look back on it, but it felt like, oh my gosh, I have all these people, all these people have this expectation of me, so I'm going to need to go in there and really dazzle them. But fortunately I did. I was ignorant in that way because it forced me to because I had that, I had that thought that people were expecting me to do so much. I did so much and I was like constantly, you know, free trainings every day and anything I can think to teach them. I did and I interacted all the time. Talk about round the clock. I mean, I was just day and night. Didn't matter. You posted a question. I was in there in minutes with an answer. Um, but it served me well because then, you know how these things go. I mean, people word starts to spread. So, um, so that was sort of the best thing I ever did because I've been able to really launch a lot of things out of that group. Um, and um, and yeah, so, so I'm glad that I did that, but I think it was 2015 I should probably check that.

18:21                                     I think that's probably close to right because 2015 is when I joined Kimra Luna's group. And that's first taught your Twitter Webinar to the students that she had launched a, that was her first million dollar million dollar on. Yep. Yep. So it was probably about that time. Yeah. Um, speaking of the front row, Ah, you have definitely morphed that into more for you. You also have a podcast called the front row

18:57                                     entrepreneurial. Well technically cause you know, with a big thing now it's technically um, the front row, the front row podcasts for entrepreneurs. I had to think about what the name is cause I had to change no podcast for entrepreneurs. Yeah. And it used to be called the front row entrepreneur podcast.

19:17                                     Okay. And what was the catalyst for changing the name of the front row entrepreneur podcast in the front row podcast for entrepreneurs?

19:27                                     Well, the catalyst was a mean old, nasty company that nobody should ever do business with called entrepreneur. Um, yeah. Um, no, it's like, you know, it's, it's, it's really is PR. They, they put out some good stuff but it's pretty bad what, what they do. And that is, they came after me and they, they threatened me with a lawsuit. Um, they said I could, I can change the name or they would sue me. And um, and so because they say they own the word entrepreneur, which I know sounds ridiculous. And whenever I tell people there, they're like, oh no, that's impossible cause it's a generic term and all this kind of stuff. Trust me, I've talked to all the lawyers, I've done all the research. They, they do, they do own, they do have a trademark on the word entrepreneur. Now if I were to actually fight them in court, there is a chance that I could win.

20:26                                     But the problem is, and what they know, they have a huge, a law firm called lay them in Walkin Watkins. They all that law firm does all day long is fine. Small entrepreneurs like me and send them the same letter and um, and I can't fight them. Like, I can't, I would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and it would just be a crap shoot, you know? So, um, so I changed it, but, um, when it got really ridiculous, so I said, okay, I'm going to change it. I'll, I will change it. Um, I will, you know, do as you say, and I did, but you know, our websites have hundreds of pages on them and all the content we've created over the years, I mean, it's possible to find everything. No, it's impossible. Right? So, um, I had a blog post that had the word [inaudible]. I wasn't even using it as a brand.

21:18                                     It was like, let's say the seven effect effective habits of entrepreneurs. That's not what it was. But let's just say it was, hey, email me. And they said, we just wanted to bring it to your attention that you have used the word again or whatever they said. They said it more intelligently than that. So I was just so annoyed. I emailed Seth Godin, Oh, let me put that on do not disturb. And so I emailed Seth Goden and I just, I said, I just thought you should know that the word entrepreneur is owned by Entrepreneur magazine and we can't use it. And then I sent him a link, um, I mean I'll send them a copy of the thing and then we started corresponding me scores, spawning me with me back and forth and um, and Oh, it wasn't in that order. First thing was he came on my podcast, which was awesome.

22:13                                     It was like, so this ended up being a blessing in disguise. Right. Cause I love him. He's my hero. So he came on my podcast and that was great. It was right after that that they sent me the letter and um, and I sent it to him and he said, do you want me to write about it? And I said, why? Yes, I do. The amazing. And so he, he was so generous and he wrote about it and man, it went so viral and it went so viral. And um, and right at that same time I fixed right. It was like a week after this complete crazy, like everybody was like down on entrepreneur, don't subscribe to entrepreneur. You know, people were going, they were so mad. Rightly so. So, um, about a week later I replied to that said email where they said you've used the word again. And all I said was like, you know, dear so and so I said, um, I have fixed, I corrected the blog blog post as you, um, as you asked, let me know if there's anything else I can do right. And I didn't reference like, but of course they knew and I haven't heard a peep from them.

23:23                                     So, um, so now people ask me all the time, like, Jen, you know, I'm going to do a, I'm going to create a Facebook group with the name entrepreneur in it or I'm going to do whatever. Then what do you think? Well, I'm not a lawyer and all I can tell you is that definitely what I could tell you for sure is never file for a trademark. That's how I got their attention because I was, I was trademarking the name of, of the podcast and it got their attention, um, and that flagged them. So that's, so for sure if you apply for a trademark in your brand name, then they're going to come after you. And then on the other hand, you really want to trademark for your business. Like it's a good thing to have. So it's like you're without a trademark, you're like unprotected. But if you use the word entrepreneur, but if you file for a trademark and use the word entrepreneur, they're going to come after you 100%. If you're not going to file for a trademark, are they going to find you? I don't really know. Um, I really, and the other, the other, the other side of me thought, you know, we might have just done their dirty work for them with all this Hoopla and publicity. The message that really came out of it in the end, after all the dust settles is what

24:35                                     entrepreneur owns the word entrepreneur.

24:37                                     I mean entrepreneurially, bet or not use it, which is a humongous like public service that I did for, I mean a um, marketing campaign that I did for them. Other, you know, set sets said, no, that's not true. He said this was, this was not good for them. So

24:55                                     yeah. Well, and it may not have been. They also, here's something that's happened that's changed the way I've had to really reconstruct, construe everything in my business is that they came out with a digital marketing bundle for $37 with all these courses on digital marketing, including Facebook ads, including all these other things. And of course, Facebook now has their Facebook blueprint out, which has been out for a little while, teaching you how to do Facebook ads. Of course, that doesn't teach you strategy, doesn't teach you the custom things that you could be doing for your particular type of business, but it does compile a lot of information that other people are either going to someone like you or someone like me about to get digital marketing education or they're going to youtube university and trying to piece it all together. Or Google searching things until they piece it together.

25:54                                     And so this fact that they, and I did a, I did this expos a, if you will, of all of the ads that entrepreneur was running. You know how you can go to the page transparency and I pulled out all of the ads that they were running that were leading into these, the sale of these digital courses. And I also was able to piece together how much money they were making on these because in some of their ads it would say we've sold 10,000 something something, something of these courses today. And then there would be another ad that said we've sold 11,000 something, something of these courses today. And so I was able to show people, all right, here's an article that they did about this particular thing in entrepreneurship and it's something that was just a general brand awareness type of content ad. And then here's where they re targeted to get you to sign up for something else and here's where they retargeted you to get you to buy their $37 package of courses.

27:01                                     And then here's where they're doing it again on these other things that they're selling. And I've used it as a lesson to teach, you know, how Facebook ads are done. And um, as a result of that, I decided, you know, it's just easier for me to kind of go in and just show people here's how you do things, here's how they're doing it, here's how somebody else is doing it. These are different strategies that work for different businesses. And then I was like, you know what, I've got all these digital marketing courses that I'm not selling anymore and there, cause I'm so focused on Facebook ads and funnels and that sort of thing. Similar to cause I think you're doing a similar thing. And um, and so I just pulled all those old courses out, spruce them up, cleaned them up and stuck them out there for a dollar and just said, you know, here you go, you just take the courses and do what you want with them. And then I turned around, I put a funnel on it, of course, with some bumps and upsells and my $5,000 in the first five days.

28:07                                     But I thought you were going to say digital. I thought you were going to say, I'm digital marketer who came after you.

28:13                                     No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm just saying that the, because I was seeing those ads for entrepreneur selling these copywriting courses and digital marketing courses and Facebook ad courses and they were bundling these things together and it was only $37. And I was like, well, heck, I used to be able to sell those things for a couple grand, you know, and the fact that I can't do that now, I'm going to then say, okay, fine, here they are. They're practically for it. I think,

28:41                                     you know, and this is a good, this is an interesting topic because what's happening now is that people are still selling $2,000 courses. Um, but because this information has been so devalued by Coursera and you to me and you know, places and there's information just everywhere, there's no shortage of information. But where, um, I think people are like, uh, separating themselves, um, and able to continue to charge $2,000 is with the experiences. So like, you know, whether it's weekly calls that you provide to people or you know, your own personal templates and swipes that you can give them. Um, and guidance and strategy as you said. I mean that's, that's where, you know, but yeah, it's like the courses, my lower like there's so much information and there's so much good information. You know, there really is a lot of good information out there, um, from very sophisticated, smart marketers. But it's just overwhelming.

29:42                                     But I have to say that I noticed, especially I'm in the Kajabi group and you're in that group as well. We Love Kajabi. Absolutely praise Kajabi. We're not worthy and thank you so much for saving my technical headache lies. And um, what I noticed is that, so a lot of people who come in that are putting their course together and they're so ready to just throw it out there for sale and they're like, well, it's not selling. And I'm like, okay, but what else comes with it? Because guess what, courses don't really sell by themselves. You've got to have an experience to come with it and it doesn't matter if w what your name is. Granted you might make a lot of money if you have a bigger name on some sort of course. But those people also have to have some sort of experience to go with their products as well. So I think the expectation in this digital marketing courses area is that people can just throw a course out on the Internet and then people are going to buy it.

30:54                                     Right now there are courses that like I will do that with because I don't, I don't want to mess around researching. I remember I bought a, um, I got a new DSLR camera. This was like two years ago and um, I just knew right away I was not going to be taping together. Youtube videos. I just wanted to good course that showed me how to use this DSLR camera and I've googled it and I found this adorable guy in New Zealand. His name is grant something. He did the best course and it was like, it was so tight and good and like short lessons and really specific and click here and do that. And it was such a good course. In fact, I, I, he, I think he put my testimonial on his, um, on a sales page. Cause I was like, I just wanted to let you know that I teach people how to create courses in your course is like the bomb and um, and I would've paid, you know, I mean, it just, it just was so good.

31:43                                     And so I think there, there are certain niches and certain, um, things, people will go out of their way to just, you know, we'll pay it. But in this space that we're in, you know, we're, we're, you know, there's a million of us doing this and giving the same messages overwhelmed with your social media. I mean, don't know which way, you know, feel like a hamster on the wheel. I mean, everybody's Kinda saying the same thing, but we all know that when you get in there, the quality is really different. And the way people teach is very different. You know, so, so it's um, it's interesting I've been watching it um, closely these days and seeing like the way things are changing. It's very interesting.

32:28                                     Yep. Well I love hearing all about how things have been going for you. What exactly are you working on right now?

32:37                                     Hmm. Well, I am so through all of this, you know, course creation and I created a, a paid membership site called front row VIP and that's been amazing. Um, and I've done retreats and I've been doing goop group coaching and um, uh, in a, in a, in a program called accelerator and I that has been so gratifying to work with like a small group of people over the course of 90 days and like have them set goals and then have them reach the goals and then exceed that. Like that's been the most fulfilling thing I think I've done since I started. But through all of this, and I know that you, I know that you are going to be able to like nod your head on this, but through all of this, these different directions that we've gone in our business, I have learned how to create some pretty awesome systems.

33:23                                     And so I love systems. It's another thing that I've always loved. And, um, and I find that my friends and colleagues struggle with that, that they tell me, even ones that are really successful, they'll say, you know what, I secretly, I don't really feel like I have a real business. Um, I feel kinda like, you know, if people saw the hotness that was like really going on around here and we all have a little bit of that, you know, but like if they, if they really saw this, they would not say that I had a business. You know, I don't feel like I really have a business. I say it, but don't feel it. And so, um, and so I've created, it's not launching until October. Um, but it's called front row CEO and it's all about systems and um, and actually how to outsource, uh, to get the help that you need to create those systems actually.

34:12                                     So the system, uh, you don't even do that. You don't even create the system. So it's pretty cool. Uh, and I'm very, very excited about it. So that's the next thing on the horizon, uh, that I have. And then my favorite thing that I do every day is my, um, uh, Alexa flash briefing. It's called the, what do you think? Front row entrepreneur, flash briefing. And every morning I do that and um, that that has, um, I'm speaking at the agents of change conference in May and I'm in Maine in about nine days and I'm going to be talking about Alexa flash briefings. And, um, so this is fresh in my mind, but I just, you know, in my presentation I talk about how this daily practice is kinda changed my life actually. Because when I started, I did not know I was going to need to do this every day.

35:00                                     I was just really kind of clueless cause I was experimenting. And I said, well, I'm going to do this briefing, I'm going to do the news. Well you can't batch record the news. Like you can't batch it out. You gotta, you gotta do it right. So I was like, Dang, I gotta get up early because people listen to flash briefings early. So I thought, well, alright, I will just, just see where this goes. So I started doing it every day and that meant I had to get up earlier than normal every day. So I started getting up earlier than normal every day. And then I, so that, so then I was like, well, I'm up and I've been doing this. And it was like consistent. I was feeling really kind of good about myself. So then I started, I was like, well, I'm going to exercise every day before my briefings.

35:44                                     So I started doing yoga every day and then walking every day. And then I was like, well, I'm up early. Anyway, walking and doing yoga every day before I do my flash briefing. Why don't I start journaling every day? So, so journaling every morning before I go to exercise and I'm exercising before I do my flash briefing, and pretty soon I feel like I changed so much that it gave me a new way of like eating. My outlook changed so much change. And I know that sounds like a stretch, but you know, one of my favorite mentors of, um, self-development mentors, uh, or Gurus, uh, Jim Roan. I mean, I didn't, he wasn't personally my mentor, but I just read his stuff and listen to him. But he said, he said, you know, every discipline affects every discipline. So I would say that has been like the coolest thing. The most powerful thing that I have done for my business is that flash briefing. I mean, aside from starting a Facebook group, for me personally, you know,

36:42                                     [inaudible] well that's cool. And I've run into some people who are doing, have Alexa flash briefings and they feel like they're the only person out there. Um, not only person listening, but the only person in their space, they really feel like they're getting a lot of traction on Alexa flash briefings. And so, and they're like, Sally, you need to be doing this. I'm like, okay, I know, I know, I know. So

37:07                                     I'll give you a link to my core cell. You can have it for free. Um, and it'll, you'll have it set up in no time. But that PR, those people telling you that are telling you the exact truth because there are 9,000 flash briefings and honestly half of those get abandoned because people aren't keeping up with them. And then another half of that half is they're not very good because people just don't really know what to do yet, you know? So the people who are doing them regularly and, and have sort of nailed their content and like what, what their messaging is going to be, they're owning that space because their competitors are not there at all.

37:43                                     Wow. That's pretty cool. And I wonder, you know, do you ever wonder like, what am I going to talk about today? Or do you actually gather just the news or do you pick out something, you know, amazing from the front row brain that you have to put out there with it?

38:01                                     No, I'm a, my assistant was so great because she's in the Philippines. She scours the news. And so when I wake up, it's the freshest news, right? Because she's doing that at, you know, five in the morning, 5:00 PM her time, 5:00 AM our time wakes up, right? And it's like, it's the freshest news. And then I read it and I'll like edit it a little bit if I need to. And I literally just read the news. If it's a slow news day, I've started doing, um, uh, people will, I've got a little speakpipe button on my page, you know, so people can leave a voice and, um, and I ask people to tell me about their favorite professional or personal or professional development book, uh, and why. And in a minute or last or two minutes or less or something, I think I say in a minute, and I've gotten some, I've gotten a lot of, you know, famous in the online space, people to do that.

38:53                                     A lot of prominent online entrepreneurs, Mike Stelzner and Mark Schaefer and Laura Belgray and you know, a lot of people. And it's so awesome because, uh, first of all, I've read every single book that they recommend, you know, because it's their favorite professional development book and they are that successful. Like I'm listening, I want to know what they're reading and consuming. Um, so that's been really popular. Um, and then, and then listeners, I invite them to do that as well. And then, um, just record on that button and then I'll play it. But I just saved that for slow news days. I keep it pretty tight. It's like, it's got a format. It's um, the news and then, um, the days, so like, uh, like as you plan your content for tomorrow, keep in mind that it's national chocolate day and love your secretary day and all that kind of days. And that's pretty much it.

39:46                                     May 7th is national leg of lamb day and my daughter and her and one of her friends used to wear badges at school for the national leg of lamb. That it was a total joke. And every year it's on my calendar now. And I remind her, and I'm like, make sure you reach out to your friend Jessica is, you never talk anymore. She's off in Colorado and you're in Boston. And they just laugh and think it's the most hilarious thing.

40:14                                     Oh, I'd say that's fantastic. That's really great.

40:17                                     Yeah. Well, thank you so much. I think this has been a really fun talk. It's been good to catch up with you and also to hear all about your past and in your career and the pathways that you've taken with it, and also about some of the bumps along the way with these entrepreneurs out there. So it's been really fun. Thank you both so much.

40:40                                     Thank you, Sally. I really appreciate it.

40:43                                     Alright, thanks.

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