Welcome to Elevate with Elsner. Join us for inspiring conversations with individuals who have transformed their lives and are making a difference through the work that they do. And now, here's your host, Blake Elsner.

Welcome back to another episode of Elevate with Elsner, the show where we go beyond the hustle and talk about building legacy, mindset, and a meaningful impact. Today's guest is a powerhouse in every sense of the word. She's a certified professional coach, a two-time international best-selling author, an award-winning leader and the voice behind Badass Direct Sales Mastery Podcast, a show for direct sales leaders who want to lead like legends. Her mission, helping top performers buy back their time while keeping their income strong and steady. She's known as the direct sales dom. Don't worry, her coaching methods are empowering, not painful. And her motto says it all, I don't half-ass anything. I badass everything. So let's dive in with the one and only Jennie Bellinger. What's going on, Jennie

Blake Elsner

Hey, hey, hey, hey. Thank you so much for having me here. I am. I'm super, super stoked today.

Jennie Bellinger 

Yeah, I'm glad because, you know, as two salespeople, we we, you know, we share probably a lot of similarities being self-employed. Have you know what? I guess take us back to your early days of, you know, getting into business.

Yeah, so I started my adult career as a middle school science teacher, so not a whole lot of business going on there. But I did take off time when I had my first kid. That was 16 years ago. My thinking back then was, I'm a teacher. I can go back into education at any time. But if you do the math real quick, you'll realize that I took off time right in the middle of a recession. For those of you not familiar with the big recession that happened between 2008 and 2012, I took off time to have my baby and literally a month later, the real estate bubble popped. It didn't just pop, it exploded everywhere. My then husband and I, about two years into being a mom, I was like, okay, I think I'm ready to stop talking about kids' TV shows and nap time and binkies and things, and I want to go back to working. And so in 2010, I went on 18 different interviews trying to get hired at a school. And as much as the principals wanted to hire me, they couldn't afford me because I was a teacher with experience. I was an award-winning teacher, in fact. And so they were like, we'd love to hire you, but it's $15,000 less to hire the brand new college grad who you know, is the second runner up in our, in what we want. So we got to go with them. Okay, fine. So that's about when I was introduced to direct sales, network marketing. I was invited to go to my sister-in-law's launch party. And, you know, I was like, okay, well, I'll go buy a necklace or something, help her out. And I walked out of that party with my own business. I was like, OK, I asked the universe for something to do, and it said, here, start a business for five bucks. And I went, OK, let's give this a shot. And a year later, I had double promoted, earned two trips and had started earning car bonuses and had started growing a team.

Oh, wow. So is this like a, what is it, one of those diamonds or what are the, like the jewelry? Yeah.

It wasn't Touchstone. I was with a company called Park Lane Jewelry. So it was, they're still around and they're still an exceptional company. You know, You know, I'm very, very biased because I did spend 7 years with them. And I know their compensation plan, inside out, backwards, forwards. And it is a phenomenal compensation plan. And I recommend anybody who's looking at a business, if they're interested in fashion, and they're interested in helping people feel their best, look their best, It's a great company to be with.

That's pretty neat. I didn't know that part about you, but when people talk about that, it's like the early days of that. You see that there's very few super, super successful people that got into that stuff in the beginning. Now it's a little harder, obviously, just like anything in sales.

Well, it really depends because if you're getting in when something's early, so I live here in the St. Louis area, and in 2010, Park Lane was already a 50-ish year old company, but they had very little presence here in the St. Louis area. So I had this perfect storm of it being a company with history, they knew what they were doing, but then also the newness of being new to the area. And so it was this perfect thing. So I got to be part of the ground floor with a company with experience. So it was really a cool way to get into this particular industry of sales. But I also tell people the benefit of going in with something for like a Mary Kay, for example, Mary Kay is a household name. When you say Mary Kay Cosmetics or Mary Kay Skin Care, people know what it is. So you don't have to educate. Whereas people were like, Park Lane, what's that? So I spent a lot of time explaining about the company and what they were and how they operated and all of that stuff. Whereas people, if you go in with something that is very well known, you have an easier time of it. It's just a matter of now finding people who are not already a customer of somebody else.

Yeah, that's a good point. Because I always think of touchstones. When you said that, like Park Lane, I'm like, I've still never even heard of that, honestly. I feel like somebody could come in again and be on the ground level. I don't know if you're still doing it or not, but you said seven years.

That's a long time. I really built a strong team over here on the Illinois side of St. Louis. I claim St. Louis, but I'm on the Illinois side because if I tell people the town that I'm from, they ask me how close I am to Chicago. And I'm like, five and a half hours if you drive like me, seven hours if you drive like my dad. But yeah, so I built a really strong team here on the Illinois side. I had a few people over in St. Louis. But I also grew my team in other states, because having grown up in the Air Force, I have connections literally all over North America. And so I grew, I grew my team in Los, I had team members in Los Angeles, Colorado, New York, Georgia, Florida. So I had people all over. I think I even had a couple in Oklahoma and Indiana at one point as well, too. So my goal at the time was to grow, and I wanted to have people in all 50 states because I figure if I'm going to do this, let's really do this. And what I learned was There were not a lot of people who were lucky enough to have an upline leader like I had, who was such a fantabulous leader and mentor. And so I started having a lot of people asking me to, Hey, can you help me do this? Can you help me do this? Can you help me do this? And I was spending more time when I was given a choice to go work on my own business, you know, go talk to a hostess, go, you know, check in with a customer to make sure that they had received their jewelry and everything was, you know, blingy and beautiful and et cetera, et cetera. Or I could reach out to somebody and help them grow their business, help them be successful, help them learn something that they didn't already know. I always chose the second one. even though I made money on the first one. So that told me something after I had that realization of, oh, when given a choice, I'm going for the thing that brings me more fulfillment versus the thing that brings me money. Now, how can I get paid doing that? And that's what I found out about coaching and training, paid coaching and training. And I went, oh, let's do that.

No, I love that because it is true. Like sometimes those, those sales sides where you make more money, you just, you're chasing deals and you just don't feel the joy or fulfillment or the, you know, the Pat's not the passion. And then you go, well, I like helping people learn about it. I don't make as much, but I have a lot more joy inside. And that's, I feel like, uh, uh, that's that emotional intelligence type type stuff.

Oh, yeah, for sure. And, you know, what I've learned as a as a leadership coach now, because I, yes, I talk about sales a lot. But one thing I try to explain to people is great leadership is sales. You know, and that emotional piece that you just talked about, the emotional intelligence, is a really important part of leadership. And great salespeople, great leaders, have emotional intelligence and the ability to have those kinds of conversations. They have the ability to have that insight, take that time to look inside themselves and go, okay, what just happened? How does that affect X, Y, or Z? What's the best way to approach this so that we get the result that we want on the other side? There's a lot going on there, for sure.

That is, that's true. And, and, but yeah, the emotional side, like you do have, because I mean, if you're a leader and you have a bunch of, you know, different personalities to lead and different temper, I mean, you don't know what they're going to come in, what's going to happen the night before, what's going to happen the morning of like, that's, it's a hard job. Yeah.

It definitely can be. I think, again, like I said, a great leader is able to have those kinds of insights and be able to do those things on the fly. They're also able to take a moment to process and communicate, you know, Hey, give me, give me just a minute to think about this. I want to make sure that, you know, we do what's best for the situation here. We do what's best for you, or whatever it may be, right. And Leaders are learners, right? Leaders are learners. So they are going through and learning the things that they need to, including that emotional intelligence piece. I personally found that through a book that I read called The Ohana Way. And then another set of books by the same author is called Emotions Are a Language. And so I I have read those three books and it has really helped me. And then now I work on those three books with my own clients to have that emotional intelligence so that they are able to be better leaders.

Out of all three of those books, which did you say to start with first?

The Ohana Way 2.0, 100%. 100% start with that one, because the emotions are a language fit into the Ohana way of being, and it truly is a way of being, and it meant so much I actually tattooed it. ear on my arm. It's a constant reminder for me to be Ohana, to bring Ohana to the world. Teach it to people because really this style of leadership is one that people follow. And, you know, I've got the trophies to prove it because I was doing OhanaWay before I knew what OhanaWay was. I just didn't know how to teach it to people.

How did you learn how to eventually teach it to people? How did you just start? you know, besides the books and reading?

Well, what it was is, so I, of course, have my own coach and mentor, and she had met the guy who wrote The Ohana Way. And she introduced the book to me, and he was launching a program where he was going to do an in-depth coaching, mentoring, training piece around it. So we got the book and we got to participate in the six-week program. And so I did that. And that was in 2018. And that was when I finally was like, oh, Like my team members used to regularly tell me all the time, like, oh, of course you can do that because you're Jennie. And I'm like, I don't know what that means. Like I didn't I didn't get it that they felt that I could and I'm putting air quotes around this in case somebody is listening and not watching that I could get away with doing or saying certain things. because I am a certain way. And what I then learned in participating in the Ohana Way was, oh, I have a way of being in the world that lets people connect to me quickly and easily. I connect to them because I care about them as a human being. And so other people think I get away with more, which I'm not getting away with anything. I'm just calling things out and bringing things to people's attention and in a loving, caring way of saying, hey, by the way, did you know that when you say things like that, it doesn't help your cause?

That's true. And if some people don't know, Ohana means family, right?

Yes. Yes, it does.

In Hawaiian?

Yep. It's in Hawaiian. Yeah. And so Scott Conway, he's Hawaiian by birth, grew up in San Diego, California to a Hawaiian mom. And so he figured out very quickly that the Hawaii way of being was not something that was taught. And so he took the term Ohana, which means family, O-H-A-N-A, and created a 5-step system that really helps people understand how to create the feeling of and create the connection of chosen family. So, you know, the O-H-A-N-A stands for five different things. Oasis, Harmony, Assertiveness, Nobility, and Aloha. And when somebody is doing all five of those things, that helps create a connection between two people, or between one person and many, like on a team, and creates a culture that actually allows people to have more connection be able to sell more, be able to grow a team because people want to be a part of that. I mean, I still to this day, I haven't been in Park Lane Jewelry since 2017 and I've got friends that I'm still hanging out with and I still talk to on social media very regularly and consistently because I was already doing the Ohana thing. I just didn't know I was doing it and didn't have a way to explain to people how to do it. And now I do.

That's that's pretty neat, because I actually had never heard of Dohanna until you. And like looking into it, it's obviously about culture, people first, passion or shared purpose, I should say. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, it really is. It's a fantastic way of showing up in the world, and it really does help people build businesses. And the story I like to share with people is, for me personally, because I learned Ohana in 2018, which is also when I was going through my divorce, Ohana actually saved my divorce. It didn't save my marriage. We still divorced. But my ex-husband and I, which I actually call him my husband, we're still friends. We still get along. We were able to take the concepts from the Ohana way and apply it into our divorce to say, OK, let's put the kids first. Let's learn how to deal with our own emotions instead of getting butthurt about certain things. Let's have a conversation about things and see how we, you know, what's a win in this situation. Well, the win is that the kids come out better. Another win would be we figure out a way to resolve things, you know, and so we we really go through that process and we we use the Ohana way, even though my husband doesn't always know that that's what we're doing. It's what we're doing because I'm, I'm leading the conversation from that side.

Uh, yeah, I, I love that. And you, when you say like, what is, what'd you just say?

Your husband, my husband, not my husband. He's my husband. He was my husband.

That's funny.

2018.

Oh man. That was. Yeah. Pre-COVID.

Pre-COVID. Yeah, a few years ago. And it, you know, it really ended up helping a lot. So.

No, that's awesome that you're able to do that like that because it's, you know, you see so many toxic, you know, divorces and. You know, the kids get dragged through it. And so now that's awesome that you were able to do that like that, because obviously it would help help your kids. Definitely. Yeah. So so tell us about a moment that like you realized where, you know, the bad ass version of balancing and that alignment with the two kids. Like, how did you continue to build this business when you were obviously in the jewelry business and then you wanted to become a coach and an author? How did that all Come together.

Yeah. Well, I've known for a long time. I don't know if you allow cursing on your show, but yeah, balance is bullshit. It doesn't it's a unicorn. It doesn't exist. Right. True balance isn't out there. And because it's such a myth, you know, I don't expect balance. What I expect is that whatever I'm doing right now aligns with my priority. So, if my priority is business building while spending quality time with my family, you know, because I only have my kids 50% of the time. So, you know, the weeks when I'm not with my kids, I'm with my fiancé, who is my new added family, right?

Your few-bin.

Yeah. Very true. So, yeah. What I'm looking at is, you know, what, what are my priorities? And am I OK with how things are lining up? If I'm not OK, then I change my priority, or I change what I'm doing to align with what my priority is. That way, there's no worry about, like, balance because especially when you're talking about, you know, business, family, time to write, time to create and produce a number one podcast in the world, you know, keeping all of those balls juggling in the air. I heard a really great analogy a number of years ago, and I love to share this, and I actually heard the story in BNI. As a business person, we are juggling a bunch of different balls, and every one of those balls is made of something different. Your family and your relationships are glass. So you don't wanna drop those balls because if you drop a family ball, if you drop a friend ball, if you drop a relationship ball, that could shatter. Depending on how strong that glass is, it might shatter or it might crack. And that's really hard to repair and it doesn't look as pretty as it did before. But your business, that's a rubber ball. You can always make more money. You can always go do something different. It's a rubber ball. It's going to bounce, right? It may feel like the end of the world that you dropped a ball, but you didn't. You have the opportunity to bounce back, right? So it's just taking a look at the different things that we have going and really thinking about, OK, what matters to you, right? And those are the glass balls in your life. And then the things that you're like, yes, this is important. I don't want to drop the ball, but let's face it. We're not doctors. Nobody's going to die with what we do. I'm a coach. I regularly joke with my clients when I go on vacation. I'm like, we're going to take a week off because I'm literally not going to coach you guys for a whole week. You can reach out if there's a coaching emergency. But I'm telling you right now, in eight years, I've never had a coaching emergency that couldn't wait until I came back. Never. Nobody's going to die with what we're doing.

True, that is true. You know, that's a really good analogy too. I've never thought of like, you know, juggling a bunch of balls and the relationships and the family being the glass and then the business being like the rubber ball and you know, it takes a while for it hits the ground and then for it to bounce back, obviously, you got to have some patience, right?

Yeah, it'll come back. And, you know, and obviously, the more adept you are at doing this, the longer you've been doing these kinds of things, it's easier for you to catch it and get it back into the circulation of the juggling piece. Right. So, you know, sometimes I feel like I'm juggling and spinning plates at the same time, being one of those like circus performers every once in a while. But, you know, I roles.

Yeah.

So it's like, you know, again, those plates, just do your best to make sure they're plastic plates, not ceramic.

Or foam, styrofoam, right? You might be able to catch it on the way down.

Right.

Yeah. No. Oh, that is that's funny. So, you know, you call yourself the direct sales dom. And it was like, where did that come from? I'm so interested in all that.

Well, so when I first started coaching, my first company name was Level Up Coaching. And the reason I did that is because I'm coaching and training in the world of direct sales and network marketing, people were always interested. My thinking was, people are interested in leveling up in their business. They want to level up. They want to go to the next level. They want to go to the next rank. They want to you know, do those kinds of things. And I realized very quickly that people weren't going to Google and typing in, you know, I need a direct sales coach. It just, they weren't doing that. So not that I'm going to complain that all of my clients were by referral, but all my clients were by referral. I didn't have a way to grow my reach. At least I didn't think I did. And then I got introduced to a podcast coach. And he and I were having a chat and he goes, well, what if you could launch a podcast and fill your client funnel at the same time? And I was like, tell me more. And so he told me more. And in working with him and then also my coach and mentor, Virginia Mooskies, who I've been working with since 2017, we came up with the name Badass Direct Sales Mastery because when I did my podcast research, so back in, it was early 2019. At the time, there were about 350 podcasts that were directly related to direct sales, network marketing, or MLM. And when I looked at the cover art of all these different podcasts, of the ones that had female hosts, a vast majority of them were middle-aged white women, which, for those of you who are listening and not watching, I'm a middle-aged white woman. And at the time, I did not have purple hair. So I was like, how am I going to stand out amongst all of these other women? And I started noticing they seemed to fall into two categories based on their profile picture on the podcast art. And it was soccer mom. And I am not a soccer mom. My kids do not play sports. They are creatives. They are artists. So I was like, OK, not soccer mom. Cool. The other category of these female podcast hosts for direct sales was the power suit, power pose, like, I'm going to help you. And I'm Also, not a power suit, power pose kind of girl. So I was having a conversation with Virginia one time because we're not only coach and mentor, but she's also one of my best friends and she lives locally to me. And we were sitting down having a glass of wine and just shooting the shit one day and realized, well, what is it in my life that is different than probably most other people? And I'm like, I'm part of the kink community. part of the LGBTQ community be kind of fun because I really saw myself as this badass direct sales mom, right? And I thought, well, that's already BDSM, but I don't just work with moms. I also have men who are in network marketing who hire me. So What's another M-word that we could put on there? And it, bad-ass direct sales mastery, because we want to master our sales skills, master leadership, master sponsoring. Like we want to master all of those skills. That's what we want. Or at least that's who I want to work with, are people who are like that. And so we came up with the moniker direct sales dom and it stuck. And people regularly call me the dom, the dominatrix, whatever. I will tell people I don't actually whip anybody. My tagline is I whip businesses into shape, not people. So we just have a lot of fun with that. And it makes for some fun episodes, for sure. I like taking concepts from the kink world and explaining how they work in business or how that might apply to business. So, for example, a great dom is a great leader because she wants to know what your goals are. She wants to know where you want to go, what kind of experience you want to have. and then makes you have that experience.

You know, that's interesting. You found like a gap like that, because I like when you were talking, I'm kind of like I feel like I was going through like a tunnel. I'm like turning left, turning right. And then like you kind of go, well, right in the middle here, right? I'm going to write in the LGBTQ community, get a purple hair. Here's a little spot for me. And it seems like you did it perfectly. I mean, You know, I mean, I can't there's nobody else like you. Like that's that's impressive. Yeah.

Yeah. And really, it's so interesting because I actually just had a conversation with somebody who does branding for websites. And I had met him about three years ago when I interviewed him because I have another podcast that is on hiatus right now. It's called Bad Girls on Business. And we, we interviewed, we interviewed this guy and he remembered my brand and he had looked at my website back then. And he and I were talking about, and he goes, you're one of the few people in the world that when I hear your brand, I remember exactly like, I remember who you are and what your brand is and what you do and who you work with. And I was like, I've done my job. And my branding specialist, who I work with, her name is also Jennie, she's done such an amazing, amazing job with the look of my brand now. So the podcast and the website and everything all just has this really cohesive, beautiful look together.

Wow. Yeah. You're, you're an OG like when it comes to, I didn't realize how long, I mean, because there's very few people that have gotten into podcasts that early on and, and coaching and like, that's like when like the first, I feel like people really came about.

Yeah, I mean, I'm going to be honest, when I was in my direct sales business and I started meeting coaches, I remember asking the first coach who I ever ended up going and having coffee with, I'm like, so what do you do? I thought coaches stood on sidelines with a whistle and a clipboard and told told athletes to go do X, Y, or Z, right? I didn't realize that there were business coaches. So as a business coach, like, what do you do? Like, I don't, I don't know how that works. And so he explained it to me. And then I met another business coach, and she explained what she does. And her, her way of doing things was a little different. And she worked with a different group of people than the first business coach that I met. And then I met another and another and I went, Oh, wait, and none of them work with network marketers. And I went, I'm already, like, based on what y'all are saying, that's what I'm already doing over here for free. I wonder if. And so, yeah, so I found a coaching certification program in 2017 and got certified as a coach. So that way I wouldn't go screw somebody up because that was, I was like, I take on a big responsibility as a coach when I'm working with somebody. Because now I take some responsibility for their business, you know, and giving them, helping them find the right answer for them. Because I, I'm not a consultant. I don't tell people what to do. We have conversations about what are your goals? What do you want to do? How do you want to get there? And then I just make sure they do the things that they say they need to do to get there. And then.

Empowering.

Yeah, really? Honestly, that's what it is. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, that's a, you know, it's a hard thing. It's not hard. It's a talent that some people have, some people don't, but you obviously clearly have it and you've been successful now. I mean, we're in 2025 now, so to be able to do it this long, clearly you've built a brand because, yeah, it's hard. You do have to like brand yourself and you're like, yeah, I didn't realize how well branded You've been because like I see some of these people that are that have been branded since maybe twenty one, twenty two, twenty three. Yeah. And I look back, I'm like, wow, you've had an extra three, four years prior to that.

Yeah. Well, it helped to have the podcast. And then, you know, to go back to what you were asking, you know, I started the podcast. It officially launched in June of twenty nineteen. And within a year, people started introducing me out in the world as Jennie. She's the badass coach. And I went, oh, so badass has really caught on. No one was talking about leveling up anymore. And so I eventually dropped that brand and switched over. And so now my business is named the same thing as my podcast. And You know, badass is my, it's now part of my brand. It's part of who I am. I mean, I've always been badass. Like I said, I felt like a badass direct sales leader when I was in direct sales. So, you know, badassery has always been a part of my lexicon. That's funny.

I think there's a isn't there a coffee that's made in Hawaii that's called like that?

Yeah, but there's badass coffee. Yeah, there's badass coffee. There's a book out there, actually a series of books by an author named Jen Sincero or Jen Sincero. I'm not sure how to say your last name called You Are a Badass. You're a badass at making money, badass habits, you know, all that kind of stuff. By the way, I'd love to interview her in case anybody happens to know her. Like, I would love to have her on my show, I think.

There we go. Hopefully we get it. We need to make that happen.

Seriously. Well, that's the great thing about podcasting, though. Like, I think I mentioned this to you before we hit record. You know, podcasting has really not only opened doors that I was banging on for years. before I opened or launched the podcast, but it also opened doors that I didn't even know were possible. So I've been able to interview some amazing human beings, like some of the authors of some literally life-changing books for me. My number one recommendation for book reading, I think everybody should read The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. Everybody, whether you're in business or not, it doesn't matter. It's not a business book. It's a life book. So much so that the mayor of a town in, I think it was Russia, actually bought a copy for every citizen of his town. And they read it and improved the quality of life of the entire town because they were all living the success principles. And I was like, Oh, my gosh. But I heard that story when I interviewed Jack on my show. And, you know, without my podcast, I would not have been able to reach out to Jack or I wouldn't I personally would not have felt comfortable reaching out going, hey, can I just like talk to you? But because I had a podcast, I reached out. I was like, hey, it's COVID. We're not doing anything except sitting at home. And I know you're a big supporter of network marketing. Would you like to be on my show? And he was like, sure. I mean, this is the guy, this guy was in the movie, The Secret, like, oh my God. And I got to talk to him for reals.

So that is neat. The law of attraction.

I'm telling you for sure. Yeah. And, you know, in podcasting has just really helped. I feel really blessed and lucky to have found podcasting when I did, because I get to talk to all kinds of people, learn all kinds of things and then go share what I learned with the rest of the world, you know, and people get to have their own aha moments from those conversations.

Yeah.

Or Ohana moments, right?

Yes.

That's what I've had.

Good. Good, good, good.

What? So let me ask you a question here. So like what? Someone's feeling overwhelmed today. This is just like hypothetical. What's one small, badass move they can do to, you know, take control?

Ooh, that's a that's a really great question, because I know a lot of people right now are going through some of those emotions because of everything going on in the world. I think you're looking at one. Right. I think the key is to, you know, look at where they think the overwhelm is coming from. Right. Is it coming from like their to do list or is it overwhelm of information? Is it overwhelm of like a lot of heavy things happening in their life at that point in time? Like, where's the overwhelm coming from? Like, identify that piece. And for example, let's, I'm going to go down the, you know, I have so much to do, right? The to-do list is overwhelming. What I recommend doing in that case with my clients is write down all the things they can think of that need to be done. And then start breaking them into chunks. Like, do like a brainstorming session and just brain dump all the things that need to be done. And then start chunking them into areas. Like, these are business to-dos. These are house to-dos. These are personal to-dos. These are family to-dos. Like, put them in different areas. Then start, you know, categorizing them. And then within each one, then go through and prioritize. Like, Out of the business to-dos, what's the one thing, and this comes from the book, The One Thing, what's the one thing that if I did this, it makes almost everything else irrelevant? So, for example, it might be the one thing on my list is to do market research calls. Because if I do enough, when I do enough market research calls, I'm going to end up developing a new program with people who want that program, because they're the ones who told me they wanted it, because I was talking about market research. And I might actually get some new clients for this new beta program. And that makes all my other to-dos irrelevant. Because new clients brings in money, and that makes almost every entrepreneur Take a deep breath. Right? You know, if it's a family to-do, like, then it's the, then it's a matter of looking at your list and doing the four D's. Are you familiar with the four D's for your to-do list?

No, let's hear them.

All right. So first thing you have to look at is, um, what's the thing that only you can do? So those are, those are the, that's the first D is what's the thing that only I can do, right? That's a D. What are the things that I can delegate? What are the things somebody else can do? Like, I don't have to be the one to empty and refill the dishwasher. My kids can empty and refill the dishwasher. My fiance can empty and refill the dishwasher. That doesn't have to be on me. So who can I delegate that to? They may not do it the way I want it, but I don't care because it got done, right? So do delegate. Third thing is delay. What can wait to be done? Right. None of what are the things that have to be done sooner rather than later. So figure out what can be delayed. Push it off. Be like, you know what? I'll do that next week. Taxes. Right. Yeah. Well, for me, I was like, I want that sooner because I want that refund sooner. Right. It's it's all how you think about it. Right.

Yeah, that's true.

But what can you delay? And finally, the last thing is. Of all those three things, whatever is left. is probably something that can be deleted off your list. Delete it. It doesn't need to be done. Because if you don't have to, if you don't have to do it, if someone else can't do it, if it can't be delayed, and it doesn't impact the rest of your life, take it off your freaking list. Just don't Be like, you know what? I can't do all the things. I have 24 hours in a day. What matters to me? Because as an entrepreneur, we get to pick the life we create for ourselves. Why create stress? Why do something that we don't have to do? We don't have to do it. It can wait or just take it off. So do, delegate, delay, delete.

I love that. I think those four things, like, you know, I try to live by that, uh, because it's like my wife and I, it's never 50 50. That's one thing that we have always like, Hey, sometimes it's, you know, she's 90%, I'm 10%. Some days I'm 10%, she's 90%. And that's one thing we figured out having a five-year-old and a one-year-old, like we, we all are going to have our bad days, our ups and downs. And you just have to figure that out using emotional intelligence.

Yeah, absolutely. And I would also say, because you do have young ones, one of the life-changing things that I ended up finding and sharing with my clients, because when I started coaching, my kids were also really young. They were 7 and 4, I think, when I started coaching. So they were, they were really young. I found this really cool chore chart that broke down the types of chores that kids can do by age. And it starts with 3- to 5-year-olds. Here are chores that three to five year olds can do around your house. Here are chores that six to eight year olds can do around your house. Here are chores that nine to 11 years old, 12 to 15, 15 and older. life changing because eventually my kids started looking at the chore chart when they were like coming near to their birthday to be like, what do I get to start doing now? Because I told them they weren't allowed to do this stuff until they turn that age. And so they started, they were like, but, but I, I, I want to fold the laundry. I'm like, you can't fold all the laundry yet. You're not eight years old.

That is brilliant. I never even now with AI. I mean, I bet you could pump out a schedule in a second.

Oh, yeah. Easy. But it was so nice because someone else already pre-created this simple little chart that was like, you know, three to five year olds can do these like five or six simple things, right? And then they feel like they're contributing to the house and it's just this whole wonderful piece and it gets them in that habit early on. So it was really kind of cool, especially when you have a younger one looking at the older sibling going, well, why did they get to do that? Because they think it's like a fun chore. Like,

carrying in the groceries.

Yeah, I'm total. I'm totally Tom Sawyer in my own kids. Like, it's so cool to whitewash a fence. This is awesome. All the cool kids are whitewashing.

I love that. Right. I mean, it's true. I mean, that the way you set that like mindset, it's kind of interesting. I mean, that makes complete sense. Like if I was five and, you know, I'm still picking up blocks and I see at six, I can go do something else. It's almost like, you know, getting your permit to your driver's license. Right. You know, right.

Yeah. Driving looks so cool until mom starts making you go to the grocery store and buy stuff. Yeah, true.

Yeah. Yeah. And then I guess I guess it only lasts or it only works until a certain age. Right.

Right. Well, interestingly enough, my 16 year old looked at the chart and they were like, wait, I'm not doing this thing on the list. I'm like, go for it. 16. Okay, 16 still looks at that list and goes, wait a minute. I haven't been doing that. Cool. When do you want to start? Uh, I don't know now. Sure. Awesome. Go for it kid. Like high five. You're responsible at like almost adult. Um, I'm super proud of you and they're really happy with the, the, the, you know, you go kid.

I love that. Yeah, that's I mean, but that's to be able to for them to, you know, take the positive feedback like that. That's obviously you've had instilled that for a long time. That's, you know, something that clearly you've done for years.

Yeah, well, we've been working on that emotional intelligence piece for a long time with the kids, because I'm like, this is stuff I wish I had learned when I was a kid, like ways to communicate with people. And, you know, that stuff is all learned. You know, nobody is born a skilled communicator. Right. Like, literally, we are all born screaming, crying, naked, hungry and want to nap. We can't even walk, right? So anything that we can do as adults, we've learned, you know, that are passed on, I guess.

Right.

Well, and in some cases, some people do have a, maybe more natural affinity to something. Cause obviously, like I said earlier, my, my kids are more artistic. They're just, they're down that creative realm. Maybe it's because they saw me creating stuff through my business, doing lots of, I'm personally a creative person. I knit, I do sing and do music and do all that kind of stuff. So yes, they probably have a natural affinity to it because that's what they've been around. But if they grew up around athletes, then maybe they would be more kids who were out there playing soccer. But they didn't have that, right? But they still would have had to have learned those skills some way, shape, or form. So my kids learned a lot of their creativity from watching mom and dad doing creative things.

Did you play sports growing up or would you just strike creativity?

Uh, I, I did a little bit. Um, I was, I was on the swim team in seventh grade. I played volleyball for a number of years cause I'm, I'm a pretty tall chick. So of course the volleyball coaches were always like, Hey, do you want to come play? Like, okay. Yeah. Um, so I, I did a little bit of sports, but once I hit high school, I didn't do a ton of sports. I was in marching band, but I was in color guard. Um, so I, I was. doing something that was athletic-ish. Which is flags, right? Yeah, that's the flags, right? But that was my first two years in high school when I was going to school in Indiana. And then when I moved here to the St. Louis area, I ended up joining choir instead. So I was definitely more on the creative, like singing and did theater and musical theater and things like that when I got to high school here. So, yeah.

I see. I, you know, the sports side, I feel like that was like what we were all brought up on. And it's like, I think I was more creative side and it's interesting to see like, you know, the difference between somebody who starts their creative journey a little earlier than somebody else. And it just takes time and practice and consistency to just keep building your brand and keep putting yourself out there.

Well, it's the, but that's the same for sports though, right? Like you don't get to be a, you know, an elite level athlete without practice consistency, you know, doing some of those same things. It's just a matter of where are you taking that effort and energy and putting it towards, you know? So even though I'm on the creative artsy side, I am still a sports fan. I love football. I like. I'm in the St. Louis area, so I think you kind of have to be a Cardinals fan or else they, they boot you out of the neighborhood or something like that. But, uh, no, I, I, I also enjoy watching sports. I love going to live sports. I have fun going to a lot of the games that we have, uh, here in the area. It's fun.

I love that. Uh, yeah, it is. You gotta be a, yeah, you gotta be a Cardinals fan, a blues fan. Yeah, I know. Whether they're losing or not, right? We always gotta support the squads. So, no. Well, I really appreciate this. This has been truly a really awesome conversation. Honestly, there's a lot of things I feel like people could be taking notes on or, you know, if not, go back and listen to it again. I would, because if you're in direct sales, business, just trying to figure out how to juggle life, like with the glass balls and rubber balls, I mean, you laid down the blueprint for sure.

Well, thank you. I always like bringing value first, allow people to see what the possibilities are. And then if they want more, we can have a conversation and see what that looks like.

Yeah, that's awesome, man. We'll put all of her links in the show notes and make sure you check out her podcast, Badass Direct Sales Mastery. And you can also connect with her for coaching that helps you reclaim your time and your power. Remember around here, we don't just talk, we elevate. See you on the next one. Thanks, Jennie, for being on here. Oh, thank you.

You're welcome.

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