A Deep Dive into Modern Entrepreneurship with Lani Jackson
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Episode Summary
Have you ever felt pulled between pursuing your entrepreneurial passion and savoring the highs (and lows) of being a mom? Trust me, you're in good company.
I recently had a refreshing chat with Lani Jackson, an incredible woman who's not just built her dream business but has scaled it to six figures and beyond! The best part? She did it without an ounce of mom guilt. She believes every mompreneur can craft their business dream without the shadow of guilt. Whether you're kickstarting your entrepreneurial journey or scaling it up, Lani's insights are pure gold. Join us, get inspired, and remember: It's absolutely possible to have it all – the thriving business and the joy-filled mom life. I can't wait for you to listen in!
Topics Discussed:
Lani's journey from feeling overwhelmed to seeking rejuvenation in her business
Why is it so important to pursue personal passion and fulfillment
How to navigate the challenges of being a "mompreneur" and still prioritize your family
Understanding the pivotal role of self-guidance in entrepreneurial success
About Lani:
Lani is a Business Strategist, mindset clarity coach, and founder of Empowered to Profit M.O.R.E., a program for mom entrepreneurs who are ready to design a life and business they love by empowering themselves to create a customer strategy that brings high profits in time, energy, fulfillment, and income. She is a mom to 6 kids, host of the Brilliant Mompreneurs Podcast, and community leader of the Brilliant Mompreneurs Society.
Connect with Lani:
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Emily Gorrie (00:01.423)
Welcome to today's episode of the Project Mom Podcast. Today I'm chatting with Lani Jackson. She is a business strategist, mindset clarity coach, and founder of Empowered to Profit More, a program for mom entrepreneurs who are ready to design a life and business that they love by empowering themselves to create a customer strategy that brings high profits in time, energy, fulfillment, and income. She is also a mom to six kids, host of the brilliant Mompreneurs Podcast,
and community leader of the brilliant Mompreneurs Society. Let me get that right. Lonnie, welcome. Thank you for being here.
Lani (00:39.734)
Thank you so much for having me. I am really thrilled to be on this podcast with you.
Emily Gorrie (00:44.787)
Thank you. And I am just gonna take a quick moment to give you a little bit of kudos because we first met each other kind of online, right through your Facebook community. And I wanna just give you a shout out because, and I mentioned this to you, I think when we spoke last, but I'm super impressed with the quality of women that are showing up in your Facebook group. And I just wanna put that out publicly because I don't think we always see that.
I think we want to, we want to feel like people are showing up for us, but sometimes we feel like there's like an ulterior motive or you know, whatnot. And I just really find that the women who are showing up in your group are obviously, yes, they're there to, you know, empower themselves and put themselves out there, but they're genuinely there to support the other women who are doing the same. So I just want to put that out there and give you some kudos because the women you are attracting is impressive.
Lani (01:13.836)
Yeah.
Lani (01:40.862)
thank you so much that really it's a testament to them. And I really intended when I started the group to put out an energy of, hey, I'm not just here to take, I'm here to show up for everyone. And when I show up for everyone, I get the most value. That was a big intention behind it because I've been in those groups that feel like a bunch of takers. And yeah, so that's been a big part of.
Emily Gorrie (02:03.539)
Yes.
Lani (02:08.874)
me just trying to really be intentional with it. And I'm really blessed. And it's such a fine group, a fine community. It's turning three in November. Oh, well, December 1st. Can you believe it? It's crazy. So yeah. Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (02:20.287)
Congratulations, happy anniversary, that's amazing. I love that. Well, and maybe we can start with your journey because this is just one of the things that you are currently cultivating for yourself. And I wanna really get an understanding of kind of your journey of entrepreneurship and where motherhood came into the picture for that. So maybe give us a quick rundown of that timeline. What did that look like for you as Lonnie?
Lani (02:33.783)
Mm-hmm.
Lani (02:50.306)
Yeah, so I jokingly say I wrote my first business plan when I was 15 years old. I was babysitting for my sister's birthday party. I put on a birthday party for her. She's five years younger than me. And so I was babysitting all of her little friends at the same time. And so their moms came and all these 20 little girls were like, this is the best birthday party ever. And I was like, yeah, I hosted it for a hundred dollars. And that's all the money we spent. And I, you know, because that was what the budget was.
Emily Gorrie (02:58.441)
Amazing.
Emily Gorrie (03:16.041)
Amazing.
Lani (03:18.862)
And they're like, could you do this for our daughters? And I wrote out everything and it was, yeah. So I've always had this fun fascination with, uh, business and things like that. I've been an entrepreneur for 15 years and my husband and I run nonprofits together. We, um, had brick and mortar businesses. I've done a lot online. I, you name it. I've seen the behind the scenes of it. Probably. I started out as a virtual assistant. I worked in the blogging world for a long time.
Emily Gorrie (03:19.049)
Yep.
Emily Gorrie (03:24.08)
Incredible.
Lani (03:48.79)
So I kind of did a lot of things and threw spaghetti at the wall at all kinds of industries, especially when I got started. I even did MLM Pampered Chef for a while. And 15 years ago is when I had my first baby. And as I grew my businesses, my family also grew. And so ended up with six kids there. And we adopted half of them for foster care. So we fostered for a couple of years and then adopted our youngest three.
Emily Gorrie (03:55.209)
Yeah.
Lani (04:18.754)
I have three biological kids and three adopted kids and it's chaos. And I, along my journey, really learned that my favorite thing in the world was when we would get together with other business women, women in business, all kinds of industries, whether they're bloggers, whatever it was, whether it was going to a conference or a local meetup in town. I would get lit up and so excited.
Emily Gorrie (04:43.97)
Mmm.
Lani (04:44.862)
If you started talking to me about your problems in your business or where you were stuck, I'd be like, oh girl, I got you. Just do this, and this. And oh, you should totally do this. And I would brainstorm and come up with all these ideas, solve their problems, come up with a marketing strategy, tell them about a course they should create. And it was my favorite thing in the world. And when they would ask about me, I was like, ah, it's fine, it's fine. Let's just talk about you. So.
Emily Gorrie (05:11.339)
Sure.
Lani (05:12.426)
I realized after one of those meetings, I jokingly said, I wish I could get paid to brainstorm like this all day. And they're like, yeah, people do that. It's called coaching. And I'm like, oh yeah. So I had the opportunity for one of my business best friends at the time. We were working together on a project and she decided to have a coaching program. She asked me to be a guest coach.
Emily Gorrie (05:18.443)
Mmm. Hahaha.
Lani (05:36.962)
I had that opportunity and I just fell in love and decided in 2020 to go all in on it and coach full time. So since 2020 is when I was doing it full time, but I've been doing it for about five years coaching in the industry online and everything unofficially for 15 years probably, but officially coaching for five years. And I consider myself a business strategist. So we're strategizing your business and your growth.
Emily Gorrie (05:58.887)
Yeah.
Lani (06:07.426)
And, um, but we're also factoring in mindset and clarity. And I've used what clarity, it's not used a lot clarity coach. People think it's a little woo thing. It's not me being clairvoyant. Okay. One of the gifts that one of the gifts that I have is to come in alongside someone and say, tell me about where you want to go and what your big dreams are. Then tell me where you're at. And then we clarify the vision to be even.
Emily Gorrie (06:13.247)
Hmm.
Emily Gorrie (06:21.296)
Yeah, yeah.
Lani (06:37.142)
but bigger and better and the path along where they are now to where they want to go becomes simple and clear. And I get that over and over and over again when I work with clients. I was just working with someone yesterday. She's like, within five minutes, you understood where I wanted to go and how to use what I've already built to get me there. And that's really a key thing that I love doing. And when we could start there with the clarity, we bring in the mindset work.
Emily Gorrie (06:43.168)
Mmm.
Emily Gorrie (06:47.187)
Yes.
Emily Gorrie (06:57.471)
Hmm.
Lani (07:05.842)
and then we can create a business strategy with ease that's really fun and easy.
Emily Gorrie (07:10.247)
Yeah, that's amazing. I think you're right. I think clarity sometimes comes across as a little freaky. People are like, what does that even mean? You're just going to predict this for me? Or how do you get clear on that? We can't see the future, so how do we get clear on what the future should hold or whatnot? And so maybe we can talk a little bit about that. How do you support your clients in finding that clarity? Because I know for me, a lot of
Lani (07:19.596)
Hahaha
Lani (07:25.099)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (07:38.795)
clarity comes from action. So taking just trying things or taking new steps. And I think your history is a testament to that too. You spent maybe almost 10 years going through the motions of trying out new businesses or whatever. And eventually you've gotten to a point where you were able to find the thing that let you up. So how do you support your clients in finding that clarity on whether it's the path to get from A to B or really finding what...
Lani (07:41.518)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Gorrie (08:07.743)
Point B looks like.
Lani (08:09.718)
Absolutely good question. One of the things that we start with is, I ask very self-led questions. So two things come to mind immediately, is what is the thing that you picture yourself five, 10 years from now doing or having accomplished? Do you see yourself on stage speaking to a room full of women? Do you see yourself retiring early? Do you see yourself having a book published? What are those things that you're like, someday it's gonna happen?
Emily Gorrie (08:19.093)
Mmm.
Lani (08:39.37)
start there. Talk to me about the someday. And then the other piece is to let go of the expectations of everybody else's shoulds on your business. And if you tell me you want to make 10K months, I'm going to call you out on the BS because that is, I would rather you tell me you want to make $9,999 or you want to make, you know, $11,1200, you know, like something like specific.
Emily Gorrie (08:40.008)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (08:55.859)
Hmm
Emily Gorrie (09:01.489)
Mmm.
Lani (09:08.166)
What is it that you need? And then the money is also not the only factor. What is the lifestyle you want? So we dive into lifestyle. What is the freedom that you wanna feel? The flexibility you want for your family. Do you want your husband to leave his crappy job? Do you wanna be able to allow your kids to go to college and not have to worry about their bills because your business is supporting it? Talk to me about that. And then what lights you up? We dive into what is the thing that you
absolutely love because every one of us has things in our business that we're like, I could do this all day, every day. And it didn't matter if I get paid. And then there's things in our business that were like, this takes me nine hours and 22 minutes to accomplish when it should take me five minutes, you know? So, so if we can really lean into those things, what are those things that you, where we bring in the alignment and clarity and true vision of what you want? And then we can say, okay.
Emily Gorrie (09:44.223)
Hmm
Emily Gorrie (09:52.811)
Sure. We all have that, yep.
Lani (10:05.19)
If that's what brings you expansion, I love this word expansion. I use it all the time in my coaching. If I feel expanded with something, I'm going to lean towards it. I feel open in my body. I feel lit up. I feel energized. I feel like I can breathe on the flip side. Contraction. I think of like the kids here, like defeated, like, oh man, I have to do tours. You know, like, it's just like we instantly sink into ourselves.
Emily Gorrie (10:09.525)
Hmm
Emily Gorrie (10:24.116)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (10:32.296)
Mm-hmm.
Lani (10:33.974)
We feel like, nope, don't want to do that. I feel like gross or anxiety is coming up. So if you have a business that makes you feel expansive, if you start thinking and talking to me about your big dreams and you're like, I just, if I could do that, that'd just be amazing. I'm just so excited. And then you're like, but then I don't want to do this. I have to do it this way. And you're just, well, come back down. So we want to clarify where you're feeling expansive and let go of those places that you're feeling contracted.
Emily Gorrie (10:39.658)
Yep.
Emily Gorrie (11:02.12)
Mmm.
Emily Gorrie (11:05.372)
I love that. I love.
Lani (11:05.775)
So that's kind of a lot on the whole clarity thing.
Emily Gorrie (11:09.475)
I mean, but there's really no simple answer, right? That's like in motherhood and in business. I mean, it does take effort. It does take time. It takes dedication and reflection to figure all of this stuff out. And I think we can all appreciate that because the kind of who's listening now runs the gamut. You know, a lot of us have our own businesses. Some of us are looking to start businesses because we're in that stage of our lives where we are...
Lani (11:15.815)
Oh yeah.
Lani (11:32.532)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Gorrie (11:37.963)
growing our families and being out of the home all the time doesn't necessarily align. So we are all in different stages. And I think just trusting that it takes the time to get to a point where you have that expansion or we are feeling really light and energized in our work. It will come if you put the effort in. And I love that just reminder as we go through this conversation and maybe talk to us a little bit about
that first five years for you in entrepreneurship, you were starting to grow your family. How did the balance or harmony or whatever word you wanna use to kind of navigate the two channels amongst other things in our lives, right? It's like not even only the two things we navigate, but like, how did you start? Like what were some of the kind of maybe expectations that you had and what did reality look like?
Lani (12:25.749)
Uh-huh.
Emily Gorrie (12:36.139)
you a little bit as you started this process to figure out what worked and what was your highest path.
Lani (12:43.586)
Yeah, I love that you're asking this question because I think this question is left off too often. You know, people like, oh, they're like, oh, you're making six figures and plus and all these things. But I'm like, hey, guess what? There was like five years where I mean like nothing. So when I first started my business, I really didn't have many expectations for myself. I was just hopeful. I was hopeful. I would say that's where I was. I was really hopeful. I
Emily Gorrie (12:48.435)
Hmm
Emily Gorrie (12:57.907)
Totally, yeah.
Emily Gorrie (13:07.004)
Mmm.
Lani (13:11.394)
didn't know it was really when the online space was really getting to the point where you could monetize it and people were understanding, oh, I can make money online and not have to go host parties in people's homes or pedal products. And so blogging was really taking off at the time. And I started a blog, my sister told me I should start a blog. I would love the pioneer woman. So I copied her style of writing recipes.
Emily Gorrie (13:25.983)
Right.
Emily Gorrie (13:41.011)
Love it.
Lani (13:41.654)
One of my friends from college reached out to me and she's like, hey, do you want to write some recipes for my blog? And I was like, sure. So she paid me $12.50 a recipe. And that was the recipe development, the photography, and putting it into the WordPress website and editing and all the things. $12.50 for all that work. But I was so happy and so thankful to have that opportunity. And
Emily Gorrie (13:59.209)
Yeah.
Lani (14:09.802)
really that was the gateway for me to really like seeing the behind the scenes of all these possibilities. And that connected me to more opportunities. And, you know, for me, success was making $175 a month and paying for a couple weeks worth of groceries. And success then became $400 a month. And I tell people all the time that, you know, why I give a hard
Emily Gorrie (14:27.738)
Mmm.
Lani (14:39.21)
Maybe what your family needs and what you're really would be super exciting to you is $400. Let's not make $400 when you're first starting your business feel like, you know, a piece of trash. That's a big deal. And so for me, when I was really getting into those first five years and having babies and juggling business and I call it juggle, I don't, you know, I don't believe in balance.
Emily Gorrie (15:04.071)
Perfect. Yep.
Lani (15:06.302)
I don't know if it is a harmony because I was very hormonal at the time. I think for me, I learned, I just learned it's a juggle and really that has led me to my experience of really being in the weeds of business and babies has led me to learn to be a kind of coach that tells you to stop waiting for normal.
Emily Gorrie (15:13.003)
I get that.
Emily Gorrie (15:32.779)
Hmm
Lani (15:32.854)
stop waiting for things to be consistent, stop waiting for the kids to get out of this stage. That's just not gonna happen. You know, I heard somebody say to me just a couple of weeks ago, well, once the kids get back to school, we get back to normal. I was like, girls, soon as you get back to normal, quote unquote, whatever that is, then it's gonna be the holidays. Then it's gonna be the flu season. And then it's gonna be the new year. And then we're gonna be spring and spring break. And then it's summer again. And...
Emily Gorrie (15:55.859)
Yep.
Lani (16:02.174)
Oh look, now we're a year later and you're in the exact same place you were last year. You know? And it just makes me sad for them because I was stuck in that loop too and I understand. So as we were putting business and babies and growing the things, I learned a couple of very valuable lessons. One, I am allowed to go my own pace and I need to stop comparing my journey and my story and my pace to everybody else because I do not know the facts.
Emily Gorrie (16:24.552)
Hmm.
Lani (16:31.434)
behind the scenes.
Emily Gorrie (16:33.191)
Yeah, totally. I think that's like such a big, yeah. I mean, that's such a, and I just wanna touch on that quickly and then I'd love to, if there was anything else you wanted to share, I don't wanna cut you off. But I think money is the big, money is the big comparison trap, I think. Like when people are like, I wanna make this much or I wanna do this, it's like, yeah, where did you get that and why, right? Does it align with what you're looking to do?
Lani (16:34.78)
So big lesson.
Lani (16:52.13)
It is.
Emily Gorrie (17:00.523)
Can we get out of that cycle that comparison travel that it should have been this quick and I should be making this money at this point. So it gets hard and we sometimes need somebody to call us out on what's the motivation there. Why that?
Lani (17:15.182)
Right, right. And what is that money gonna actually do for you? And like is it, is it a magic wand you're imagining? I use this word when I coach my clients. I tell them there's something we need as women. We need two things. We need support and security. And we need them in our mom life. We need them as women. We need them in our marriages, our relationships. We need them in our business too. It's unique to each one of us. So what is the security number you need? Don't tell me 10K.
Emily Gorrie (17:20.936)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (17:32.334)
Mmm.
Lani (17:44.998)
So tell me like so far like first is what I told you first was my first security number was $400. That was a big deal. If I could make $400 a month I would be providing for my family in a very real way and that made me feel good about the time that I was spending in my business. It helped me not feel mom guilt. It made me feel like I was contributing so that was my first security number. My next security number moved to a thousand dollars because I was like
Emily Gorrie (17:45.195)
Hehehehe
Emily Gorrie (17:51.659)
Mm-hmm.
Lani (18:12.754)
$1,000 will pay for this, and this, and it will relieve our budget this way. It'll make me feel really good. That's what I needed. Now, I wanted more, of course, but my goal was if I met this minimum, then I could take the pressure off. Instead of pressuring myself to meet this big jump, I could meet my first goal, that release of my nervous system, and then that allows me to play and have fun and scale.
Emily Gorrie (18:18.303)
Mmm.
Lani (18:41.65)
A lot of times when clients come to me, they don't know their security number and they're shooting for their big goal number and they're completely dysregulated in their system because there's no security. And so everything feels stressful. Everything feels like I have to find a client. I have to make a sale. I have to do this. And it's just like, well, there's so much like really hard energy in your nervous system is just exhausted from not feeling safe.
Emily Gorrie (18:49.372)
Mmm.
Emily Gorrie (19:03.572)
Yeah.
Lani (19:10.53)
So let's get you feeling safe and secure. And most of the time, when we dive deep, it's a number like $2,000, $3,000, $4,000, maybe lower, maybe bigger, but depending on where you're at with your business, it grows as your business grows and you get more consistency and bigger numbers, your security number is kind of like, I call it your floor, becomes a higher floor. But knowing that can allow you to make better goals and better...
Emily Gorrie (19:40.196)
Hmm.
Lani (19:40.522)
like, okay, I can regulate my nervous system, then now I can play and grow my business without a dysregulated nervous system.
Emily Gorrie (19:51.315)
Yeah, and I can imagine right at that point, we're also able to show up in a way we want to in other facets of our lives with our partners and our relationships with our kids, with our friends. Maybe we can give ourselves permission to like have a hobby, you know, that's something that doesn't require us to bring in any money associated with it.
Lani (19:59.426)
Yes.
Lani (20:12.442)
Yes. I don't want your livelihood number to be the same as your goal number.
Emily Gorrie (20:17.685)
Mmm. Yeah.
Lani (20:18.53)
Because those are two different things. If our goal number is what we're expecting for livelihood, you just, oh, that's shaky. That's very scary. What if I don't hit that? So we need those two goals to have clarity.
Emily Gorrie (20:33.659)
Yep, I love that. And I am curious kind of how you support your clients that perhaps you have that conversation. And I wonder if this kind of stemmed or mirrored your experience at all, either of like, you know, from what you had shared, right? There were some pivots along the way. So how did you, in your experience, and how do you support your clients? Perhaps you're having these conversations and you're like, what I'm currently trying to do in my business, maybe.
can't afford me that security number right now. Do you, how do you help them find clarity on the pivot that will give them the maybe expansion we're looking for and the security number? Because I imagine, I know personally from experience, I can imagine some of those listening, right? It's like, I dedicate myself to trying something. At some point, maybe we come to the realization that it's just not working for us anymore. We thought maybe this was the path and it wasn't. So,
How do you support your clients long-winded question in maybe that recognition and then trying something different?
Lani (21:37.61)
Oh yeah, that's a good question. So I'm always checking in with my clients and I've learned for myself, I need this too, is I called it, you have to audit yourself, audit your business, not the scary IRS kind, but a chance for you to sit down and say like, I can audit the actions I'm doing to say, is this working for me? Am I happy I'm showing up this way? Do I wanna keep doing it? Is it producing a return on my investment of time?
Emily Gorrie (21:49.364)
Mmm.
Lani (22:07.69)
what we're investing in to start with is we're investing a lot of our time. I tell people you're investing in your business no matter what, whether you're spending money or you're spending time, you're investing. Um, so we have to take a look at what is what we're spending our time on and evaluate some data. So a couple of things I start with. If you came to me right now and Emily, you said, Hey, this is not working. I'm going to check your data first. Okay.
Is it not working because you feel like it and you're feeling a little drama because you're not feeling secure? Or is it not working because it's totally not a good business plan? It's not aligned. It's not, it's not set up properly. What is the true thing behind it? I had someone who recently a client, she, I love her so much. She came to me and she's like, Lani.
Emily Gorrie (22:46.047)
Hmm.
Lani (23:03.018)
I launched my program and I've told everyone about it and no one has signed up for it. And I just don't understand why. So I was like, well, where have you announced it? Let's go check out your marketing. And we went back and she's like, I talked about it in my group. Went back while she's talking and she's just dumping and super upset while she's on the phone with me. I'm scrolling her Facebook group. Two times in three weeks, she talked about the launch of what she was promoting.
Emily Gorrie (23:31.164)
Mmm.
Lani (23:32.722)
In her mind, she would doing much more, but in reality, it was just two times. So people just didn't know about it. So I'm like, it's not the launch. What you're offering is not the problem. You, we just haven't done it enough. So we have to kind of look at this. These factors, like, have I truly been doing enough to let people know? Is my marketing clear? What are the responses I'm doing? Am I showing him for the right places?
Emily Gorrie (23:37.663)
Hmm
Emily Gorrie (23:57.262)
Mmm.
Lani (24:02.206)
Am I showing up sustainably, enough action? Have I taken enough action on this? Or am I just feeling like I had this on my to-do list for weeks and weeks and weeks and I've been thinking about it and it feels like I've been doing the work but I actually have.
Emily Gorrie (24:17.579)
Hmm. Yes. I feel like that's a big one. That's the big one that we have to admit to ourselves, right? It's like, are we actually, we actually doing it.
Lani (24:20.407)
Yes.
Lani (24:25.002)
It is hard. Yeah. I will tell you sometimes I think I've done something because I've seen it on my list or I've thought about it so much. I'm like, I've done that, haven't I? And then no, I haven't. Or I feel like I've done more than what I did. You know, and I'm guilty of this too. I'm in a coaching program and they have a data tracker every week. And they ask us to put down what we did for the week. And sometimes I'm like,
Emily Gorrie (24:37.409)
Mmm.
Lani (24:53.566)
surely I did more than this. And no, I just did, no, you just did it twice. Not five times, not, you know, and setting goals for yourself. And so a lot of times we leave, we quit something without really having the data to prove we should quit.
Emily Gorrie (25:01.897)
Yep.
Emily Gorrie (25:14.738)
Mmm, that's powerful.
Lani (25:15.618)
And it's a hard pill to swallow. It's sometimes hard to see ourselves. So that's why I'm a big fan of having a coach myself, because I can't really fake the data to them when they go and say, okay, show me. Because I'm all up in my head saying, this isn't working. It's so wrong. Like, I'll get the drama too. But if it's truly not working, then we can dive in and say, okay, well, you have shown up, you have produced it. And I have clients who...
Emily Gorrie (25:29.225)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (25:36.156)
Yeah.
Lani (25:45.218)
come back to me and say, okay, I did all the things. Still no responses, still no one's buying. So we dive in deeper and we say, okay, do your people actually want this? Or do we need to reward it? Do we need to give it more power, more clarity around your messaging? And a lot of times I find too, it's the offer is not a bad offer.
Emily Gorrie (25:58.021)
Mm-hmm.
Lani (26:11.41)
is wrong is you're talking to them in college language and they need it in fourth grade.
Emily Gorrie (26:17.589)
Mmm. Yeah.
Lani (26:18.07)
So you're talking to them at a college level, which you're at a college level in whatever that thing is, and they're at a fourth grade level. So of course they're zoning out and not paying attention. So like, so let's just little things like this. We can start to kind of go through the self-evaluation steps and really dive in and say, why? Or another thing that comes up is.
Emily Gorrie (26:30.931)
Yep.
Lani (26:44.13)
You didn't want to do it in the first place. You did it because you thought it could make you a lot of money. And it really wasn't something that you should be doing in the first place because it just doesn't go with your personality or, you know, you don't want to get on a bunch of sales calls in. You don't like being on sales calls or you don't like group coaching programs. Um, yeah, you might be self-sabotaging because you didn't want to do it in the first place and you're just trying to get money. So that's also comes up.
Emily Gorrie (26:49.387)
Mmm. Yep, there you go.
Hehehehe
Emily Gorrie (27:04.947)
Yep. Interesting.
Emily Gorrie (27:12.051)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, and it's interesting because I think without the outside reflection, we don't always have those hard conversations with ourselves. So it's so important, like you said, right, to have somebody to help you reflect on that and maybe ask some of the tough questions that we're refusing to ask ourselves in some of those situations. So maybe talk to us a little bit about in this journey,
or evolution of entrepreneurship that you've had. At what point did, I mean, you mentioned, right, being lit up and having these conversations and supporting other women in doing this, but at what point did you recognize the need for that yourself?
Lani (27:56.738)
absolutely needed that all the whole time. But when I recognized it really, when I recognized it really, my big aha moment, I could point back to probably 2016, 17-ish. I got on Marco Polo the app. Have you heard of Marco Polo? Yeah, I love it. So my sister and I, every day, and I realized...
Emily Gorrie (28:02.645)
Hahaha
Emily Gorrie (28:19.175)
Yep, yes I have.
Emily Gorrie (28:24.808)
I love that.
Lani (28:25.918)
I realized every morning I would get up first Marco Polo of the day. I'm so tired. I'm so overwhelmed. I have too much to do. I don't know how I'm going to do it. Like literally some version of that was said every single day, every morning. And I realized I didn't want to say that anymore. And nothing was going to change. I had six children and they were not going away.
Emily Gorrie (28:39.292)
every morning. Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (28:46.251)
Mmm.
Emily Gorrie (28:52.807)
Yeah.
Lani (28:52.854)
And I wanted to make money for my business and there was not going to be any Nothing was going to change in my environment But me and my mindset and how it's approaching my day and my expectations so it was a big aha moment of like I I'm the one that has to change and really Self-leadership in entrepreneurial world is extremely important The ones who are killing it out there are self leaders
Emily Gorrie (29:02.554)
Mmm.
Lani (29:23.17)
They are empowering themselves by asking themselves questions and then taking action. So I asked myself the question, how can I make this not be this statement every single day? So I started there and I created systems for myself. I got on Trello. I made five beautiful Trello boards, gorgeous.
And then I didn't look at them for three months. I'm just being honest. Right. So I made these Trello boards. And I was like, this is going to solve all my problems. And then I didn't look at them. It's like in January when we buy those beautiful planners. And we're like, we use them for two weeks. And then they sit on the shelf. After three months, one of my friends in business was like, did you make a Trello board for this? And I was like, yes, I did. So I set an alarm on my phone.
Emily Gorrie (29:54.192)
Step by step, huh? One thing at a time.
Emily Gorrie (30:05.339)
Yep.
Lani (30:17.646)
for 9 a.m. every morning, check Trello. And so my only goal for the first few weeks was to open the app. Just open the app. And by opening the app every day when that alarm went off, it just started to be like, okay, refocus me. This is what I need to do today. I don't have to do all the things. I don't have to do everything.
Emily Gorrie (30:21.69)
Mmm.
Lani (30:43.818)
It also encouraged me because part of my system was to start breaking things down into 10, 15 minute actions. Because I used to feel like if I didn't have an hour to do the thing I wanted to do, there was no point even trying. Because I'd just get interrupted. You know, the kids constantly interrupted me. So I was like, what can I do in 10 to 15 minutes? Because they can be busy for 10 to 15 minutes. I can go check on them. Is it ideal to have a very chopped up business strategy? Not ideal.
Emily Gorrie (30:52.075)
Hmm
Emily Gorrie (30:57.811)
Mmm. Yep.
Lani (31:13.086)
Not my not what I would choose. But was that what I had available to me? Yes. So I started breaking my business down into 10 and 15 minute actions that I could do throughout the day. And then I prioritized them. What's the one that's most important? So especially during that time I was blogging full time. Pitching to brands was very important because that's how I got paid. That was where I made the majority of my money. So I made sure.
Emily Gorrie (31:37.279)
Hmm.
Lani (31:42.038)
that three times a week I sent out three pitch letters or three emails, three times a week I said three emails in ten minutes. That's all I, like that was my goal. And it just, that led to my biggest year ever of income. So within six months of actually opening that app every single day.
Emily Gorrie (31:56.403)
Yeah. Yep.
Lani (32:08.65)
my income went from $400 to $1,000 of inconsistent income to $4,000 a month. And
Emily Gorrie (32:14.343)
Yeah, that's amazing. And I think it's a testament to also, right, the kind of lofty goals we set for ourselves and what we look at our to-do list. Like, I feel like if I opened my to-do list right now, they're really not, each task that I have on there to do is made up of smaller tasks. It's like, I have to, you know, mail something in. Okay, that's a simple one. But if I'm like, write this solo episode, okay, there's research involved in that, there's...
Lani (32:32.64)
Mm-hmm.
Lani (32:43.138)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Gorrie (32:43.183)
outlines involved in that, then there's recording. So it's like, there's actually pieces and we do that maybe subconsciously, we sabotage ourselves a little bit. So I love that breakdown reminder of like, what can I do in 10 minutes? Okay, I can probably do a quick research part for that solo episode today, right? And you're slowly checking away at the things until you're able to fully accomplish that goal. So I absolutely love that reminder. And I,
Lani (32:59.522)
Uh huh.
Emily Gorrie (33:12.059)
I'm grateful for that because for personally, I mean, sometimes we just set these like crazy goals for ourselves and that's why we never get them done because there's not enough quote unquote time to do them.
Lani (33:18.83)
Yeah.
There's not, there's not enough time. And if you think about it in the one big chunk, it is so overwhelming and like, I'm never gonna get to that, but I can get to 10 minutes of the whole project. So I use this as a very practical example because I also during that time felt like my house was constantly a hot mess. So I added in my home management to the same kind of principle. So.
Emily Gorrie (33:46.556)
Mmm.
Lani (33:49.006)
Tuesdays were trashy Tuesdays and I took out the trash because trash comes on Wednesday We would empty the trash cans and I would clean the toilets We have four bathrooms. I didn't do all of the bathroom cleaning. I didn't clean the sinks I didn't touch anything. I didn't mop the floors. I didn't wipe the mirrors down. The only thing I did was toilets And I could get that done in 15 minutes like
Emily Gorrie (34:16.875)
Amazing. Yeah.
Lani (34:17.662)
It was so simple. And then the next day we did sinks. I just cleaned all the sinks. I just went, wiped down every sink. Boom, boom, boom. And I went as fast as I could. It's not deep cleaning. It's just, it's like, it's, it's maintenance. Same thing with emails. I would spend 10 minutes, I'd brainstorm four emails for the month. That's all I did. The next 10 minutes, I would write two of the outlines. Next one's fill in the blank schedule. And we use.
Emily Gorrie (34:39.603)
Yep.
Lani (34:46.25)
It is amazing how productive I was and how game changer it was for bringing this in. And the same thing can be true with like, I still use the same thing right now in my business because I'm lazy and I like, you know, doing things simple. And it's how I came up with the, with 10 minute marketing strategies, like everything. I have a whole strategy that is 10 minutes of daily marketing that grows my audience every single week.
Emily Gorrie (35:04.005)
I love that.
Lani (35:13.582)
That's how I grew my group to 5,500 in less than three years. 10 minutes a day, that's it.
Emily Gorrie (35:18.195)
Yep, yep. And we'll make sure to link to that because that is something that I know you are working on sharing with your community right now. And I think it's huge. I mean, it could really be a game changer if we can reframe just how we're approaching some of these tasks that feel momentous in our day to day.
Lani (35:26.015)
Yeah, I-
Lani (35:36.938)
It's, it is game changer. I've seen my clients just like, if once they grasp this and bring it on and customize it to themselves. And again, what I do, I don't want you to adopt. I want you to customize for yourself. I'm big on this. I think this is a downfall for us as entrepreneurs. We like, like the 10 K months adoption. We also adopt, Hey, just do this strategy. What I did to make this much money and plug in play.
It's like magic. It's not because you aren't her personality. You also are not, don't have the same foundation in your business that she did. You don't have the same connections. So the plug and play kind of makes me frustrated with, you know, seeing the results of my clients, they'll tell me that I spent $5,000 on this thing that was supposed to make me 30 grand in three months and it made me nothing. And I'm just like,
because you didn't customize it. And it's not, you know, you have to customize it to you. So if you could take these ideas and these concepts and start to ask yourself the questions, like, where am I getting frustrated? Where am I losing time? Where am I stuck in a loop? Where am I feeling like this isn't working? How can I change that narrative?
Emily Gorrie (36:37.907)
Mmm, mhm.
Emily Gorrie (36:58.515)
Yeah, yeah, totally. And I think also that's where the support and community comes in, right, to help you ask yourself some of those tough questions, whether it be like a coach that you hire individually for you in your business or it's finding those women at community events who are in similar situations and are able to help you kind of reflect on some of those hard-hitting thoughts of why isn't this working for me? I did try this and it didn't work out. I think.
Lani (37:04.662)
Yes.
Lani (37:15.258)
Mm-hmm.
Lani (37:26.295)
Yes.
Emily Gorrie (37:27.475)
There's, it comes back to right this hope that, well, someone else did it. I should be able to do it. And why isn't it working exactly this way for me? And we don't always spend the time to reflect and adjust for our particular situation.
Lani (37:42.37)
we need that. And I want to encourage you, you know, if you're not in the space where you can hire a business coach, the moment you can, do it. It's game changer. But if you're not, I didn't always have a coach, but what I did was I was actively looking for community and a business best friend, whatever you want to call them, a colleague. You just tap on jingo blocks. Excuse me. See if they respond.
Emily Gorrie (37:51.796)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (38:10.568)
Yep.
Lani (38:11.946)
If they do, keep asking questions, keep engaging with them. Some of my closest friends have come from me sending a DM or from me responding to a post in a group and saying, oh my gosh, I'm so excited for you, can I ask you a question? Or I'd love to cheer you on with this project, can I just be your cheerleader? Can I be a fan? Like those kinds of things can lead to amazing relationships, collaborations, even clients. So you.
Emily Gorrie (38:20.242)
I love that.
Lani (38:41.122)
but you have to kind of tap, tap. Excuse me, can I talk to you? And you won't always get the immediate, yeah, you won't always get an immediate yes. I tried to do a couple of those, I see them still happening sometimes even in my group. They're like, I just wanna have accountability partners. Let's make a group of us. I can't, I don't want it to be a non-paid mastermind. And like, I love it.
Emily Gorrie (38:50.099)
Put yourself in there, yeah.
Lani (39:09.674)
So much energy, so much excitement. I joined like five of those and they fizzled out within three weeks, all of them. Like it just, if nobody's in charge and skin is not in the game, it's hard to keep maintaining it. But I will say for sure, going to start with your local community. There's local meetups for business women in just about every city. Start there. If there's not one, start one. Start a Facebook group. Go to the online network it means.
Emily Gorrie (39:13.639)
Yep.
Lani (39:37.41)
I host a free networking hour for my community because I'm just like, if we can connect each other, it's gonna just empower us. And that's the whole goal. But you gotta show up. I have 50 people register every single time, but 10 to, you know, 10ish to 12, 15 show up. And I'm just sad for those other people who are like, you would wanna be here and you're missing out because you didn't remember it. Mark your calendar.
Emily Gorrie (39:50.603)
Totally.
Emily Gorrie (40:02.161)
Yep.
Emily Gorrie (40:06.067)
Or something else came up that was a different priority for you, yeah. I think that's the biggest thing too. It's like, I think we have these desires to like want to do things differently or better, or we hear these conversations, we're like, yes, that's something I can totally do. And then it's like, okay, we have to make it a priority. We have to make our time in that sense of priority.
Lani (40:09.13)
Yeah, yeah.
Lani (40:26.51)
too.
You absolutely do. You have to commit to it. And really, business growth is a commitment. It's a commitment to do things differently and to be a scientist about what you're doing, what you can do better, what you wanna try, and then evaluating how it works for you so that you can do more. You can't, it's not an instant, it's not a magic wand. I hate the marketing that makes it feel like it is because it's not.
Um, do people go viral and have instant success? Yes, sometimes it's happened for sure. But is that the norm? No, here I am 15 years later and I'm like, I feel like I'm successful and I'm helping my clients have success. I do. I want more for my business. Absolutely. Is it going to take time or is it going to happen tomorrow? I don't know, but I got to show up today in order to find out.
Emily Gorrie (40:58.59)
Yep.
Emily Gorrie (41:23.463)
Right, right. And I think that's also a testament to the comparison game of like, okay, so certain people did go viral. That's those lofty, lofty goals that we're like, well, I should be able to hit those monetary goals, the community number goal, the number of people in my, my Instagram page goal, whatever it might be, right? We have these like lofty goals and then we're not.
Lani (41:30.062)
Mm-hmm.
Lani (41:46.862)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Gorrie (41:50.779)
setting ourselves up for those security goals of where can I just get myself to next? So I love that. And I think I want to talk a little bit about, you had mentioned to me kind of as we were prepping for this interview, this need to create profit, not just monetarily, but also in other facets of our life. You had mentioned it's energy and fulfillment and time. And I want to talk a little bit about that because I think there's also this misconception that
once we start a business and we're hitting these goals, we have to just keep growing it. And like the business monetarily should be the focus. But I wanna talk a little bit about how it's okay to hit a goal in our business and be willing to allow that to give us time in other facets of our lives or fulfillment in other facets of our lives, like motherhood or hobbies or relationships. So talk to us a little bit about that mentality for you.
Lani (42:48.906)
I love that you brought this up because this is core values for me. My program empowered to profit more. My goal is at the end of that six months or however long they're in the program is that they're in a profit, not just in income, but a profit in time, energy, and fulfillment. Too many of us get into this mode of, I have to make money, I have to make sales. And then we're like burnt out.
We don't feel good about our business. We feel defeated. We feel imposter syndrome. We feel gross about the sales, family, aggressive, whatever it is. And then we aren't fulfilled. It's not something we love. It's we feel mom guilt. We feel like, you know, just, this isn't what I really wanted in the first place, but we don't wanna admit that because we're too hopeful. We're chasing after that dollar. And I laugh because I saw someone in another community ask, would you rather at the end of the month,
have more time or more money.
and the overwhelming response was more time. And as a community of moms, and they're all entrepreneurs too, and I just was like, this is really just so true. We don't, more money does not mean more time. It doesn't, like there's not an equal across the board. But the fun fact is, that I see over and over again, is when you focus on creating profit in time, energy and fulfillment,
Emily Gorrie (43:50.323)
Hmm.
Emily Gorrie (43:55.64)
Uh huh.
Lani (44:19.53)
The income is easy.
Emily Gorrie (44:21.631)
Mmm.
Lani (44:22.706)
it feels like more natural, it feels attainable, it doesn't feel hard like you're scraping and you have this desperation energy, it feels good to show up. So we need to relieve that pressure. So how do you get that profit in time is you start by like really focusing in on like what is the time I want to commit so that I put up boundaries. So it comes with boundaries. The profit comes from putting boundaries. It's like budgeting.
Emily Gorrie (44:46.517)
Yeah.
Lani (44:50.926)
If you want a surplus in your bank account at the end of the month from your, you know, your income, you have to budget. You have to put boundaries about what you're going to spend. Same thing with your time. You can't, there's not an unlimited amount of time. And if you work from 5 a.m. in the morning until 2 a.m., you're going to be exhausted and burnt out. And so put up some realistic time.
strategies and things in your business that light you up, give you energy, find ways to do them to make them simple, to make them flow with you, release things that are not aligned. And then the fulfillment is like, why are you doing this in the first place? What is it that you want from this business? Is it to be like applauding? Is it to, you know, stretch your brain to engage yourself?
Emily Gorrie (45:25.204)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (45:33.277)
Yeah.
Lani (45:49.55)
I know a lot of moms are like I just I started my business because I needed a creative outlet. Is that still true? So that's how you started now. Here we are a couple years later and you're chasing after this dollar And I'm like so you started because you needed a creative outlet Is that still something that was that fulfills you is when you can be creative? Are you even being creative anymore? And are you burnt out because you no longer are giving yourself that opportunity to be creative
Emily Gorrie (45:57.156)
Hmm.
Emily Gorrie (46:12.892)
Mmm.
Lani (46:17.91)
I had a really great coaching session with a friend of mine. It was impromptu. And she's like, I'm hiring you as my coach today. You're not my friend. Like, OK. And so she she's been moaning me money. She's like, I'm serious. I'm like, hey, she's like, I'm just so burnt out. I don't want to do any of my business. I want to burn it all to the ground. I was like, well, what's going on? And she's like, I just I was like, what do you want to do? She's like, I just want to sit and draw. I'm like, then sit and draw.
Emily Gorrie (46:19.156)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (46:28.811)
I'm sorry.
Emily Gorrie (46:44.956)
Mmm.
Lani (46:47.254)
Like it was something as simple as that. We had to give ourselves permission to, instead of doing all this marketing stuff. So it's like, what if you incorporated every week time for you just to sit and draw and make it graphics that you can use for your business? So it's still fulfilling, still bringing you towards your goals, still doing some action that gives you some move forward movement in your business, but it feeds into the fulfillment need that you have.
Emily Gorrie (46:47.743)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (47:04.168)
Mmm.
Lani (47:15.522)
just to have freedom to sit and be creative.
Emily Gorrie (47:18.739)
Yeah, amazing. I think, I mean, it's such a lovely reminder because sometimes we think like the money has to come first in order for us to have the permission to have the time to create again, right? If we're gonna put, invest money into the business, the money has to come out of it. And we're all like wrapped up in this like ROI and financial. But I think it, right, ROI also comes on, are we feeling fulfilled? Do we have the time to do what it is that we...
Lani (47:28.57)
Hehehe
Emily Gorrie (47:47.239)
need to do for our bodies physically, for relationships and things like that. And I think if you simplify it that way, right, the reminder of, well, what gives you fulfillment still are you doing that? And can you still leverage that in some capacity to move your business forward? Just to take the pressure off.
Lani (48:09.37)
It's amazing when you just like remove that like expectation that guess what only you are putting on yourself. No one else, again you're an entrepreneur, solopreneur, no one is putting these expectations on you but you. You are allowed to also remove them and say I want to view this a different way. We literally like I for me personally I don't have a nine to five
Emily Gorrie (48:17.93)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (48:22.431)
Ha ha.
Emily Gorrie (48:30.1)
Yep.
Lani (48:36.322)
because I don't want to be burnt out at the end of the day. I don't want to have all my time spent at somebody else's, building somebody else's business, and being told what to do, and not being able to be flexible for my kids. So on the flip side, if my kid interrupts me, I'm happy about it. I'm okay with it. I gotta be okay with that. And be, allow my business to have flexibility for me to stand up and go take care of their needs, because that is why I have this job.
Emily Gorrie (48:59.293)
Yep.
Lani (49:06.29)
Also, if I'm working nonstop and super stressed about my success, then I'll just go get a nine to five, get that guaranteed paycheck. Stop like that just depleting your energy. Like you know what I'm saying? We're like readjust yourself to bring it back to focus. And again, because you know that security number say like I, I had to come to use this moment last year. I was like, look.
Emily Gorrie (49:19.699)
Yep, there you go.
Emily Gorrie (49:26.192)
Totally.
Lani (49:36.682)
I had to take a step back. My health was really, really bad and I could not figure out what was going on. I had no energy, had a lot of things come to light. It was just, yes, long story short, I had to be okay with bare minimums and be proud of myself for the little that I was showing up and how it was working in the capacity that I could show up and start some gratitude practices.
Emily Gorrie (49:43.732)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Gorrie (50:01.991)
Yep.
Lani (50:05.09)
to be like, oh wow, look, it's so amazing that I have this business that allows me to work only 10 hours a week and make the security number that we need for our family and allow my body to heal from the things that I picked up. And I'm just like, wow, that's amazing. Instead of beating myself up for not reaching this next goal that I was hoping to reach.
Emily Gorrie (50:22.451)
Yep.
Emily Gorrie (50:28.799)
Hmm.
Emily Gorrie (50:33.063)
Yep. I mean, mindset is such a powerful thing. Yeah, so powerful. And I think if we're able to do that shift, if we're able to help ourselves come to that kind of adjustment and mentality, really we're unstoppable. We can shift and navigate and pivot and do ultimately what works for us in each season of life. And I just love that we can touch on that briefly because I think about that for myself too. There are days where I'm like, you know,
Lani (50:33.89)
Big shift.
It is.
Lani (50:51.618)
Oh yeah.
Emily Gorrie (51:02.659)
I had started this podcast to have these conversations for me personally. And I sometimes find myself being like, okay, maybe I can have my husband pick up my daughter from daycare today because I want to do this and I want to do this. And then I have to be like, hey, but that's why I started this. So I didn't have to be like stuck at a nine to five job so I could actually pick her up from daycare. Whatever it is that I was doing, can it wait until the next day? And it is, I mean, when you shift it that way, it is a...
Reframe that just takes the pressure off of you.
Lani (51:38.526)
It's amazing. It's an amazing thing that our minds can do that for us. And also it does the opposite. But no one can change that but you. And you also have to have that self leadership. Again, this is why I come back to self leadership being so important to acknowledge, oh, no, this isn't why I'm doing this. This isn't what I wanted. And I also have the power to adjust to something different.
You know, if anybody can build a business and grow with six kids, like if I can, anybody can, you know, I just laugh about it all the time. I saw a picture from that, that era, I call it the era of overwhelm. And I reflected back on how I felt at that moment when I was behind the camera taking that picture. And I was just like, man, I was exhausted. And I was tired. But also when I shifted.
Emily Gorrie (52:07.943)
Mmm, yep.
Emily Gorrie (52:16.235)
Hehehe
Emily Gorrie (52:23.643)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (52:33.547)
Mm-hmm.
Lani (52:35.71)
and showed up the way I wanted to, it was so empowering. And it gave me so much back from that.
Emily Gorrie (52:42.131)
Yep.
Emily Gorrie (52:47.955)
Yeah, I love that. I love that. Well, Lonnie, thank you so much for sharing this journey and these amazing tidbits of information and wisdom. I know I got a lot out of it. I know my listeners are gonna get a lot out of it. I would love to just give you a quick minute to let us know where they can find you. How can our listeners engage with you? What's the best way to start a dialogue?
Lani (53:11.814)
Well, you can start a conversation with me anytime. You can send me an email. You can send me a DM. I love DMs on Facebook personally because I'm on Facebook all the time with my Facebook group. But you can also DM me on Instagram, Lonnie J. Jackson. I am always hanging out in our Facebook community, the Brilliant Mom Entrepreneur Society. So if you're a mom entrepreneur, come join us. You can promote your business in our group. My goal of the group is when you join, you find a client from that group or a business best friend.
So come and join us there. I also have the podcast, the Brilliant Mompreneurs podcast, and you're on that as well. And so, yeah, that's where I like to hang out and do all the things.
Emily Gorrie (53:55.179)
Amazing. Well, we will make sure to link all of those in the show notes. And again, just appreciative. Thank you so much for being here.
Lani (54:01.954)
Thank you for having me, Emily, it's a privilege.
Emily Gorrie (54:07.784)
night.