Note: This transcript was automatically generated and may include typos.

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Dollar Sprout Podcast, where it’s all about building a business that offers consistent income and flexibility so you can live life on your terms. And now your host, Megan Robinson.

Introduction

[00:00:18] Megan: Welcome back to the Dollar Sprout podcast. Thanks so much for being here with us today. Our guest today is Jenny Weg. Jenny is a full-time mom and social media manager, and today we talk about really the experience of going through different seasons in your business. Jenny has been a full-time freelancer.

[00:00:40] There have been times in her business where that supported her full-time. There have been times in her business where her course, which you’ll hear more about in this episode, has supported her business full-time. And um, now she’s in a season where she’s gone back to a full-time corporate job and she’s using her business.

[00:00:59] More really supplemental income for her family, for her and her husband and their three kids. And this was just a really good conversation, a really great reminder that there’s really no such thing for most people, a linear business journey doesn’t exist. It’s all about the hills and valleys and. That’s okay.

[00:01:20] It, your business journey doesn’t have to be a completely, you know, straightforward or, you know, straight up all the way sort of experience. Um, that hasn’t been the case with myself and that also hasn’t been Jenny’s experience. So I’m excited for you to hear her talk about what that’s been like for her business.

[00:01:39] You’ll hear about how she got her first ever freelancing client in this. And she also talks about some tips for networking and getting referrals, why she decided to go back to a full-time job and use her business as supplemental income. She also talks about how much profit her business makes per month now that she’s only doing it part-time, and I think she said only working about.

[00:02:03] Five hours a month. Is that what she said? I can’t remember. You’ll just have to listen to the episode for that. Um, but she is definitely doing it part-time and you’ll hear about how she made $20,000 with her first ever course launch with no training and no prior experience, which is just crazy to me. I mean, she did a lot of things right and you’ll get to hear all about that.

[00:02:29] So, without further ado, please welcome Jenny.

Interview

[00:02:33] Jenny Weg: Hi, Megan. It’s great to be here.

[00:02:35] Megan: Yeah, really excited to have you. Um, would you mind to just start out by telling everybody listening what your business is? So what products and services do you sell? Who is your business for? Um, and then upfront, if you don’t mind, to share, um, what your current revenue looks like.

[00:02:55] Jenny Weg: Yeah, you bet. So what my business looks like for me, there’s a lot of different avenues to it, actually. Um, it started out with me just being a freelance social media manager, and as I started doing that, I had so many people, especially local people, um, also some people reach out to me and say, how are you doing what you’re doing?

[00:03:11] You know, how do you get extra income working from home, having those flexible hours? Um, a lot of the people that I correlate with are other. And they’re saying, you know, how are you making this money while being a mom, while your kids are home? Mm-hmm. Um, and what, what does that look like for you? So at that point, I realized that there was an avenue for me to take where I could create a course and teach other moms how to do the exact same thing that I was doing.

[00:03:34] Just like the course that I took that got me started doing social media management. So I started that course back in 2018. Um, and that’s still available today. And then I also do freelance social media work for myself, for other clients. Um, and that mainly looks like doing like Pinterest management services for those people, um, which is something that I just have found that I really, really enjoy.

[00:03:57] So currently right now, my course brings in anywhere from a thousand to $1,500 a month for me, and my freelancing brings in about a thousand dollars a month as well.

[00:04:07] Megan: Very cool. Awesome. Thank you for sharing. Um, yeah. I love, uh, love that you’ve tried some different things. I’ve done the same thing in my business, you know, from freelancing to trying courses and, um, it’s all a dance of like figuring out what works.

[00:04:26] And so, um, yeah. So you said about a thousand to 1500 a month from your course, and then about a thousand a month from freelancing right now. Um, how much of. How much of that is profit? How much of that is your, um, or, I’m sorry, like personal income paid by the business, if you don’t mind sharing.

[00:04:48] Jenny Weg: Yeah, you bet.

[00:04:48] So right now I pack at about $1,500 a month. I put away a thousand dollars a month for taxes, for extra expenses. Mm-hmm. And my subscriptions, things like that. And that $1,500 a month is just kinda like a little bit of fun money for. Yeah, in addition, my time job. So it’s just nice to have that extra money for, you know, vacations or extra things that our family wants to do, and just to have it as you know, that extra additional income.

[00:05:13] Megan: Yeah. And $1,500 a month and like additional income, like, you know, just free spending money or vacations is like no joke. So, um, oh, without a doubt. Yeah. That’s great money to be stocking away every month from your business. Yeah. Um, what does it look like for you to make that $1,500 extra a month? How much time are you putting into your business at this point?

[00:05:41] Jenny Weg: So my course is fairly on autopilot. You know, I do a little bit of maintenance things with the course, a little bit of promotion of the course, um, you know, through publishing on Pinterest, on their social media platforms. But as far as like building the course, all that dirty work is done already for me.

[00:05:55] So that’s just kinda my autopilot. And as far as my freelance work goes, it only takes me about five hours a month to do my freelancing work. So sometimes it looks like sitting down on a Sunday afternoon and pounding it all up at once, or kind of spacing it out throughout the month. An hour here or there in the evenings.

[00:06:12] Megan: Hmm. Very cool. Awesome. So I know your business has kind of taken a a few different turns and is not exactly. Where it is not exactly today where it was when you started, of course. Um, so what did that look like when you were first starting your business? What gave you the idea to do social media management and what, what was the, what was the before picture?

[00:06:41] What were you doing before you started this and why did you.

[00:06:45] Jenny Weg: So when I started social media management, it was actually when I was pregnant with my first child, and I, in the worst way, did not wanna have to go back to work after maternity leave. And so when I was six months pregnant, I took my first course.

[00:06:57] Within a month, I had landed a client and I thought, okay, this is perfect. I had about six months of three months being pregnant, three months of maternity leave. So I thought in that time, I’m going to build this to match my full-time income. I’m gonna leave my job, and it did not happen. So how it looked for me was at that point I was making about $1,200 a month, which was not matching my full-time income.

[00:07:18] My husband said, there’s no way you can quit your job. So I sent the baby to daycare, and it was really the best thing that ever happened to both of us. She got acclimated to daycare. I continued pushing super hard in my business to get to that point. When she was 18 months old, I had built a business to where I was bringing in almost $6,000 a month.

[00:07:39] Wow. And I was able to leave my full-time job and stay at home with her. And I quickly, quickly realized that working full-time from home with her all the time was not sustainable either. Mm. Yeah. So a lot of just learning as we went. So we were able to find part-time daycare, and that was a really, really great balance to where I could still feel fulfilled in my.

[00:08:02] And be a hundred percent focused on my work when I was working, and a hundred percent focused with her when I was with her. So I was only working about 15 to 20 hours a week at that point to make that $6,000 a month, which was a really, really good balance. Wow. Yeah. Um, And as things went on, we had a second baby and we were able to get full-time daycare again, which was something that I felt like I needed, um, for myself just to kind of have that escape a little bit.

[00:08:32] And so with the addition of full-time daycare, I was able to join with an agency and do agency work and then also keep my freelance on the site so I could scale back and just work for the freelance clients that I absolutely love. And I’ve had super long relationships with. And kind of have that as just more of my fun side hobby again, and then also do the digital strategy yet within the agency, but have a little more stability with the agency side of things.

[00:08:57] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve done the same thing in my business. I think I started my like L l C for my business in 2017. Um, and. You know, I don’t have a family, I don’t have kids, but I knew that I wanted to start this business and it was so much back and forth. Um, I originally went into it full-time thinking like, I have enough savings to where I’m gonna figure this out.

[00:09:22] Same, kind of similar to what you said. I’m gonna figure this out in like six months and I’ll be good to go. But I ended up like living off my savings for a year and then eventually being. Okay. I should probably, you know, I was making money in the business, but not enough. And so, yeah, I think my journey has also been, um, full-time in the business and then back to like working a full-time job and doing the business on the side.

[00:09:50] And, um, yeah, it’s just, it’s been nice to have the business there for additional income. During those times when I’m like working full-time. Um, and also, yeah, just nice to, nice to know that you have that option kind of. So, um, it’s funny, the journey of like, Entrepreneurship.

[00:10:12] Jenny Weg: It’s so true. And you know, if you had told me, you know, even five years ago that it would be so back and forth, um, I think like a lot of times you hear these stories of people who just dive in and all of a sudden it scales super fast.

[00:10:22] Right? And that’s great that it happens, but it’s always nice to have that diversification of, you know, there’s times where the course has really sustained me. And there’s times where the freelancers really sustained me. Um, and my time commitment to both of them have been different at grade points in time in that, so it’s just really interesting to see how it ebbs and flow.

[00:10:42] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. And with that, what was, if you don’t mind sharing, what was your motivation or what really drove the decision to kind of go back and, you know, work for another company at this point? Because I think you said you’ve been doing that. For a few months now. Is that right?

[00:11:00] Jenny Weg: Yep. So I’ve been back with an agency now since July, and honestly, it came down to I really needed some adult conversation in my life.

[00:11:08] Um, I, my clients frequently, um, but a lot of that communications over email and I just miss the culture of being around people. And even now I’m only in the office, you know, a couple times a month, but just knowing that I have that. Kind of escape and that I’m gonna be able to collaborate and mm-hmm. Work with other people during that time.

[00:11:29] Um, really, really feels good. And I, I check in weekly with the team, um, where we have a lot of team meetings and those are all over Zoom if I can’t make it to the office. But we still get that human interaction without having to just have my little people around all the time.

[00:11:43] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, I l again, I don’t have kids.

[00:11:48] I can’t imagine. Um, but I still. Like, I work from home all the time, and sometimes I’ll just go to coffee shops and hope a random stranger strikes up a conversation with me because I’m like, I never get to talk to anybody. Um, yep. Yeah. So I understand. Yeah. Um, so I wanna go back to sort of the beginning of your business again.

[00:12:11] Um, what made you choose social media management as you know, the thing that you wanted to do for your business?

[00:12:22] Jenny Weg: So in 2015, actually I started a blog just as a hobby. Um, and it was just something, I’ve always been a writer, I’d love to write and so I had already kinda had a little bit of experience, you know, building a website on the backend or promoting a blog, and that was all just for fun and, you know, kind of helping.

[00:12:39] And even in 2015 blogs were still, I mean, they aren’t what they are today. So it was just something that I was like, I have the expertise in this area. I know what I’m doing here and I can help other people do the same. So when you had somebody who was like, you know, I wanna have a blog too, but I just don’t know how to build a blog.

[00:12:55] You know, I could go in and design a website for them and have it ready to go, or they’d say, I already have an established blog and I love doing the writing part, but I just don’t wanna do the social media side of things. It does not bring me joy. It’s not something that I really enjoy devoting my time to, I know it’s my time is better spent just writing, so then I could just kinda hop in and help them out with that as well.

[00:13:14] Mm-hmm. Um, and so it’s just been a really, really. Balance for me to be able to help other people and be fulfilled in what I’m doing. Um, because honestly, I had zero education in marketing in, um, especially digital marketing. I graduated high school in 2010 before digital marketing was actually a thing.

[00:13:32] Hmm. So it’s just been a really, really good, um, transition for me into the digital world.

[00:13:38] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. So how were you getting, when you first started your business, how were you getting those first few clients? Were they like people who were finding your blog and your website, or were you doing cold outreach?

[00:13:53] How did you make like your first few dollars there?

[00:13:58] Jenny Weg: So my, as soon as I finished that course that I had took on social media management, I randomly saw a blog that I was filing. She had posted, she was looking for a virtual assistant, is how she had listed it. Hmm. And I reached out to her and she hired me.

[00:14:13] And my first paycheck from her was $135. And I felt like I had won the lottery, like I had booked a client. Getting paid. Um, and I still, to this day, I still talk with her frequently. She actually doesn’t do blogging anymore. And that’s what’s been really beautiful too. I’ve seen a lot of other businesses that have evolved and changed.

[00:14:32] Mm-hmm. Um, but still have been able to maintain a really, really great relationship with them. Um, in fact, I even worked with Benette for a while when they worked with their pinch working on their Pinterest services. Um, yeah. And still to say, you know, I love seeing Ben’s kids on Facebook, and it’s, mm-hmm.

[00:14:47] It’s been a really relationship thing to watch those relationships evolve, even when it’s not a working relationship anymore. Yeah. So after I wanted the first client, um, almost 90% of my clients after that came from networking and. Um, there was maybe one or two other ones that I had reached out when I was really trying to scale and I landed on a cold pitch, but after that it was all word, mouth and, um, just building up with people they had connected with or people that they knew needed services.

[00:15:18] And I did always offer a referral discount, so if they referred me to somebody else, I gave them $50 off their monthly package. Oh, nice. Um, for the entire time that I worked with those people. So there was always a little bit of incentive for them to refer me as.

[00:15:31] Megan: Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s always, yeah, that’s always a nice motivation to get extra referrals, offering some sort of incentive.

[00:15:41] Um, when you say networking, do you mean like did you join any local networking groups? I know when I first started doing financial coaching, there was, oh, I can’t even remember. What is the name of, it’s like a really common, uh, business networking group that has like local. Branches everywhere. I don’t know.

[00:16:02] Did you join anything like that or were you going to conferences or just like messaging people?

[00:16:10] Jenny Weg: So a lot of my networking, I live in a very, very rural, rural area. I live in Iowa. Mm-hmm. And um, actually when our internet catching is little unstable. We get unstable internet anytime that the corn gets too tall, that it interferes with our signal.

[00:16:26] That’s so funny. I mean, our hometown has like 2000 people. It’s very, very small. So I didn’t have any book groups to connect with, but most of it was all through blocking groups online. Um, and different places that I connect with people, if it was other people who had taken the same courses as me. Mm-hmm.

[00:16:42] You know, it seemed like we were always into a Facebook group and there’s always somebody saying, you know, I need help with this, or, my expertise is in Facebook and I need help with Pinterest services. Is there somebody who can help me with that? So it was just a really good way to collaborate and build and expand my network.

[00:16:56] Megan: Yeah. So were you like when you were in these groups? I’m always interested in how people like do networking cuz I’m so bad at it. I feel like it’s the hardest thing for me, you know? Um, so when you were in these groups, were you just like responding to people and being helpful or were you like, you know, I don’t know.

[00:17:14] What did that look like?

[00:17:17] Jenny Weg: Without a doubt. So if people would ask questions, and a lot of times it wasn’t even specifically blogging groups, it would just be somebody had posted and said, you know, I tried to do this on Pinterest, it didn’t work, and I just share my expertise. You know, give out free advice.

[00:17:29] Um, and they’d come back and say, wow, like, how do you know how to do this? And at that point I’d say, well, you know, this is what I do for a living. You know, I help people with Pinterest. And then that would kind of open the conversation for, mm-hmm oh, maybe I should look into pursuing this because I can’t dedicate time to it myself.

[00:17:43] So that was just, I always free information. I and networking group is a great place to give free information. It’s a free, a great place to get free information. You know, those same people were returning the favor to me when I had questions on platforms that I wasn’t familiar. So always just looking at ways to be helpful before ways to be salesy.

[00:18:01] Megan: Hmm.

[00:18:05] Yeah. Um, yeah, and that makes a lot of sense. I, uh, Yeah, I should probably do more of that in my own business. Networking is so hard, though. It feels so time consuming. Um, but it, it pays off, um, is what I keep hearing again and again. It pays off. Um, that’s great.

[00:18:25] Jenny Weg: It was super helpful for me. What I really did is I just try to sit down for maybe about 15 to 30 minutes in the morning just to kinda review the groups that I was a part of.

[00:18:33] Mm-hmm. Out time, you know, to find the groups that I found were actually really engaging and helpful. Um, and then just kind of go through the questions that people had posted during the day and that, you know, 15 to 30 minutes instead of waiting for every notification to pop up that oh, so and so posted in this group or whatnot.

[00:18:49] Just taking that really dedicated time to focus in on those, review the stuff that I’ve been posted the past day, interject where I could, um, and then move on for the day and I have to go back to it.

[00:18:58] Megan: Yeah. Are Facebook groups still a good place for that, do you think?

[00:19:05] Jenny Weg: I, I go back and forth. It really depends on who you have in the Facebook group and the quality of people. I think people’s loyalty to Facebook groups have really changed lately, and I’ve seen even some more, uh, like apps being created more so where people are leaving the social platforms, where they’re mm-hmm.

[00:19:26] More so controlled to where they can have their own freedoms. So if you have groups like that where it is an app or more of like a, a group you would join in that way, those. Probably a little bit more effective. Um, but when you just get started, I really do Facebook groups. Yeah.

[00:19:43] Megan: Yeah. Is, is that still something that you do today or how do you get most of your clients or your work today?

[00:19:49] Or do you mostly just work with the same consistent clients and you’re not taking on any new work?

[00:19:56] Jenny Weg: Yep. So since I’ve started working with the agency, I, with the balance that I have right now between three kids, my agency work, and the freelance work that I do, I’m not looking to scale in this season. You know, there might come a time where all three of my kids are in school and I have ample amount of time and I’m looking to fill that space.

[00:20:13] But right where I’m at right now, my clients are so loyal to me. I haven’t had a lot of turnover with clients, so I’m not having to go out and find those clients again. Yeah.

[00:20:24] Megan: Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense. For the season that you said you’re in right now, um, are you still doing. Like, I know you mentioned Pinterest, uh, like you started out, I think doing Pinterest, social media management.

[00:20:38] Is that still kind of your specialization?

[00:20:41] Jenny Weg: It is. And actually that has really evolved since I started doing Pinterest. So originally Pinterest was just a traffic driver to get people to websites. And it was actually after I started doing Pinterest services that Pinterest went public, meaning they started offering advertising.

[00:20:56] So Pinterest ads were completely new, um, which was actually a really, really great boost for my business because I was willing to become educated in Pinterest ads, and people who had a good grip on Pinterest didn’t have a good grip on Pinterest ads. So even if they could manage their own Pinterest account, they couldn’t create the ads and get the same revenue.

[00:21:15] So it was kind of a good turning point for me to really become specialized in something very, very specific and be able to be that expert and help people.

[00:21:27] Megan: Very cool. Is that still, um, like I know you’re right, Pinterest has changed so much over time and I hear bloggers say it over and over again because there was like, you know, the golden days of Pinterest where uh, it was just so much easier for bloggers to like be on Pinterest and drive a ton of traffic to their blogs.

[00:21:47] Um, so I guess, would you say today that it’s still Pinterest management is still a strong market? For people who are listening who maybe wanna start that as a business or a side hustle?

[00:22:00] Jenny Weg: Without a doubt. So the shift that I’ve really seen in Pinterest is instead of it driving people to a blog, it’s driving people to products.

[00:22:10] Mm. And so, especially in a world where we have so many digital products, or even for online shopping, I mean, online shopping is huge and you don’t even notice it as a consumer, I don’t think, when you’re scrolling Pinterest, but there’s so many products, interject. And those are mostly all Pinterest ads. Um, and so that’s definitely the market that I’ve seen and the shift in the industry.

[00:22:32] Yeah. Very cool. Yeah, I know like nothing about Pinterest ads. Well, and my freelance clients, especially that I’m working on with Pinterest, they have physical products that are products that are shipped and the return that they get on Pinterest is so much more than what they get on Instagram. Mm. Um, and Instagram is just such an infiltrated market, I feel, and there’s so many ads on Instagram cuz they were there first.

[00:22:59] Whereas Pinterest is kind of this new land with the ads. So it’s, it’s been an interesting.

[00:23:05] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. Was there ever a time in your business that you offered something other than Pinterest management or, um, have you ever had any products or services that you tried out that were just like a total flop?

[00:23:20] Jenny Weg: So when I first started, I was, I had the mentality of I will do anything for anybody, anytime. Like I want clients. I, whatever job you give me, I will do. Um, and I remember one time I was working for a network marketer and what she wanted me to do as a virtual assistant was go through in cold message people on, like, if they had liked to post on her page, I had to take a script that she had and message them.

[00:23:44] And it was the most unfulfilling thing I have ever done in my life, and I didn’t. Mm-hmm. Think about it. And it was just one of those things that I like, this is not, what is it for me? Um, and that was when I really shifted my mind from thinking of things as a virtual assistant and more so a social media manager.

[00:24:03] Hmm. Um, and just saying, you know, I will come to you and this is what I offer and this is what I see. Like big picture strategy for your page. You know, it might not just be, I’m gonna come in and do posts for you every month, or I’m gonna come in and do this. I’ll do what you tell me what you’re doing.

[00:24:17] I’ll just do it. I would come to them as the expert and say, this is what I see you’re doing. I could be more effective if we did it this way. Um, I’m presenting myself that way. Just gave me a little bit more credibility as well instead of just saying, I’m here. Tell me what you want me to do and I will do it.

[00:24:33] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. I think. That was true of me when I first started my business and I first started freelancing too. I would do anything that you would pay me for. Um, some things I had no business doing whatsoever, like mucking in people’s website code thinking I was a web developer after I took like two online courses or something.

[00:24:54] Um, nobody’s a website ever failed. Don’t worry about that. Um, but, but yeah, I think that was such an important thing for me to go through. And I think a lot of people go through as like trying out a ton of different stuff to see what you enjoy, what you’re good at, and also like what’s in demand, um, and kind of finding the sweet spot there.

[00:25:16] Um, and speaking of sweet spot, I wanna talk about you coming to the decision to create your course. I know you said that, um, you had.

[00:25:29] A ton of people who were coming to you and asking how you were doing this, how you were making extra money while you had kids at home and all of this. Um, so that makes sense as to why you started your course.

[00:25:41] Um, had you ever done anything like that before though? Had you ever created a course or what was that learning curve like for you to launch that?

[00:25:52] Jenny Weg: Yeah, so I had been referring people to the course that I had taken, and there was a 10% affiliate commission for that. So every time I referred somebody, I was making, you know, 30 to $40 for them going to sign up and take that course.

[00:26:04] And it just kind of hit me like, wait a minute, you know? I have the expertise here, why don’t I create my own course platform and I can share it with them. So I did a lot of research on where I was gonna build my course, um, what platform to use. I ended up going with Teachable, and I spent, it was about three months, uh, creating my course.

[00:26:23] And at that time, looking back like hindsight, 2020. The way that I could have done it could have been probably a lot more efficient. But I started promoting my course before it was even built. Mm-hmm. I started building a list of people. I was, I was gonna say, this course is coming and it really, really helped in my launch, I didn’t really realize at the time that it was a launch strategy, but it really, really helped.

[00:26:45] The week that I launched my course, I had, um, list of like super engaged people that were just waiting to buy this course because I’d been talking. Um, and it’s been just such a beautiful thing to see, you know, that first group of people that actually took the course. It was in 2018 when I launched that.

[00:27:01] Um, I still talk to a lot of them today and one of ’em actually just reached out to me this summer and she’s in a totally different season of life than me. Her kids are grown. Um, high school, college age. One of her daughters just got engaged and he’s getting married, and she said, you know, when I started taking a course, it was to help pay for my college.

[00:27:17] Or my kids’ college education and now we’re helping pay for our daughter’s wedding with it. And it’s just been so like full circle for me to think, you know, my life 10, 15, 20 years down the road, what that’s gonna look like. And that, you know, it’s not just for a young mom who wants to stay at home after maternity leave, it’s for a mom who has other commitments with her kids who are older as well.

[00:27:39] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. That’s amazing. So you were doing this launch strategy that you didn’t know you were doing, um, and you said it paid off. How did it pay off, or what did your first course launch look like?

[00:27:53] Jenny Weg: Uh, So my husband and I actually made a little bit of a deal, and not that we like to gamble against each other, I guess.

[00:28:00] And he had told me, he goes, I, for the longest time I wanted this minivan. And he had like this huge ego issue with mini minivans. He mm-hmm. Was not gonna be a minivan dad. He was not gonna own a minivan. And I wanted that north, the sliding doors, like the convenience of everything was just my dream. Yeah.

[00:28:18] And so at this time, we had one child, And I told him, he said, you know how, how much money do you think you’re gonna make on this course? And I said, well, my goal for the time, I have invested into it so far. When I launched this course, I’m hoping to make $5,000. And he said, okay. He goes, if you hit that $5,000 mark, we will go and look at it.

[00:28:38] And at that point it was just, we are just gonna go and look at one. You’re not gonna buy one. But we’ll go and look at a minivan. Mm-hmm. And so my first month of launching that course, I made $20,000. And I mean, I, I, myself surprised myself, I couldn’t believe it did that well. And so, needless to say, we went to the dealership and the same day that we went to the dealership, they took Coleman a minivan.

[00:28:59] And the minivan is still here today. Four years later, three kids later, and it has been a very, very good minivan.

[00:29:06] Megan: That is amazing. Yeah. A goal of $5,000 and you made $20,000 on your first launch. You really blew that one outta the park.

[00:29:17] Jenny Weg: It totally, totally shocked me. And like I said, you know, that was a season where my freelancing, I was only working for a couple of clients cause I had little, little kids at home and I could do extra client work.

[00:29:27] So having that course as another avenue of revenue was just huge for us at that time.

[00:29:33] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. That’s amazing. So, Did you, I forget if you said, did you have any like courses you were taking on, like how to launch a course or was there anything, did you just kind of figure it out all out on your own?

[00:29:49] Jenny Weg: I did.

[00:29:50] So I’ve kind of done it backwards actually in 2021 I took a course on course launching. Mm-hmm. Um, and kinda more evergreen course launching. So it’s not constant hyping up and doing the course, launching all the time yourself. But I do always kind of wonder. How different it would have been if I had gone into it with a course launch strategy or preparing myself before I just jumped in and did it myself.

[00:30:13] I mean, I was very, very happy with my results, no doubt. But I kind of wonder if it would’ve scaled in a different way if I had set it up with the knowledge that I have now.

[00:30:24] Megan: Yeah. What, is there anything that you can think of off the top of your head that you might have done differently?

[00:30:31] Jenny Weg: Oh boy. I mean, I think more than anything building my email list would’ve been mm-hmm.

[00:30:36] A higher priority to me. Um, I know when I’m signing up for courses, it comes after I have received the boatload of emails from that person that I’ve really built more of a relationship with. It’s not because I saw it on their social channels, it’s because mm-hmm. They’ve been emailing me, they’ve been keeping me updated, and they’ve really been cultivating that relat.

[00:30:55] Um, and having that list that they have to be able to do that. So I definitely think email list building would have been more of a priority for me.

[00:31:03] Megan: Yeah. Gotcha. That’s still amazing though, like $20,000 four times what you were hoping for at, you know, your best. That’s incredible. Yeah.

[00:31:15] Jenny Weg: Um, so, and actually just for about a three month time investment, it took me about three months to build a budget.

[00:31:20] Oh wow. And it’s hard to say how much time I spent in that three months. It was, you know, after the kid got the vet night and working on things like that. So it was just really a, it’s hard for me to put down like what I made hourly doing that, but it was really, really fulfilling for me at that point time in my life too.

[00:31:37] Megan: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, so if there are people out there right now who are hearing your story and are like, you know, this sounds amazing, I would love to. A side hustle or like start playing around with the idea of, uh, doing social media management and getting paid for it. Um, what tips or advice or first steps would you offer them?

[00:32:04] Jenny Weg: So the biggest thing for me was I just did not give myself another option. Um, I was, I was going to do this and it was going to, I know that’s not a theory or a strategy that’s gonna work all the time. There’s been times in my life too where I have that strategy and things have flopped, but I kinda felt like I had my backup with him.

[00:32:23] So Wall with, you know, a timeline on maternity leave and I was kind of put forth as much effort as I possibly could to make this work. And so just kind of blindly jumping into it, and I don’t know, maybe the faith that I had when I was 25 years old has been more than what I had now. Or more of the confidence, but just going into it and saying, you know, knowing that you are capable to do it.

[00:32:44] There are so many online resources out there. If there is ever a question, I can’t tell you how many tasks that I’ve been given from a client that I have YouTubed my way through because I was unsure, right? Complete it, but I figured it out every single time. Just knowing that there’s free resources, there’s paid resources, there’s things you can invest in.

[00:33:02] And like I said, with the networking, there are so many people out there that want to help as well, and that are experts and they’re willing to. Give that information out. So getting in with the right people, putting over time and just knowing that it’s a very, very real thing today. Um, like I said, you know, living in rural Iowa, I even feel like when I’m out and about in town, I mean, it’s a very, very small community.

[00:33:23] So you know a lot of people, and if I try to explain to them what I’m doing, It doesn’t even seem really credible to a lot of people, but knowing that the online space is huge and it is just going to continue to grow, yeah. Um, with this for four years is even astonishing. So knowing what 5, 10, 15 years down the road looks like, And just knowing that the possibilities that are there to continue to grow is, is really, really encouraging.

[00:33:49] Megan: Yeah. Do you have any stories, um, of maybe when you bit off something that was a little more than you could chew in terms of like something that you, uh, like you were saying, a task that a client gave you that you were like, oh yeah, I can do this, and then you started to do it and you were like, oh, oh, no.

[00:34:11] Jenny Weg: So actually Ben and Jeff, when you’re listening, cover your ears. They were one of my very, very first Pinterest clients, and my knowledge on Pinterest was very, very base level. I mean, it was like I was a current blogger using Pinterest myself. Yeah, not even in the most effective way. I’d actually taken their course on Pinterest.

[00:34:31] Um, and so I started working with them and their account was huge. It was so much bigger than what I thought it was gonna be. So at that point in time, it was actually the assistant that I had hired to help me launch my course or with a lot of the backend things on building my course. She had taken a Pinterest course, and so she sat down with me.

[00:34:52] She helped a lot with the work with Ben and Jeff. I also, um, kind of jumped in that then, and she did a lot of the training that I noted on Pinterest, I learned from her. Um, and so it was just really kind of a good, a good way for me to grow in a really fast, uncomfortable way.

[00:35:08] Megan: Oh yeah. Yeah. You’ll definitely grow really quickly when you bite off more than you can chew like that.

[00:35:14] I’ve done the same thing where like, I mean, there’s a difference I think in biting off more than you can chew and just dropping the ball and, you know, screwing people over. Um, Versus like what we’re talking about, which is like biting off more you than you can chew, and like having to really learn and step up to the plate in a big way that you weren’t sure you could do.

[00:35:38] Jenny Weg: So, yeah, and it’s just kinda a really, really great way for growth I found, you know? Mm-hmm. At that time it meant, you know, I was taking on this client, it was this many hours, this is what I was gonna get paid, but I also had to devote extra hours to extra training, extra courses, going out and finding that information.

[00:35:53] And so now I can be a lot more efficient with it. When I take on a Pinterest client, I know I’m not gonna have to relearn all this again. So, mm-hmm. It’s just been a really good, a really good change for me and a good way for me to challenge myself. Yeah.

[00:36:06] Megan: Awesome. Well, before I let you go, I have some rapid fire questions that I would love to go through with you.

[00:36:13] Does that sound.

[00:36:14] Jenny Weg: Yeah, you bet.

Rapid Fire Questions

[00:36:16] Megan: First rapid fire question I have is, what is one of the best or most worthwhile investments that you’ve ever made in your business? And it can be an investment of money, time, energy, anything.

[00:36:29] Jenny Weg: So the best investment that I ever made was, the very first course that I took, it was a $249.

[00:36:38] And at the time it felt a little bit uncomfortable to pay that for an online course. Um, but the mentality that I had was what I paid per credit in college for college credit. And I’m like, okay, I paid more than $249 for every single college credit. Again, I can do this. So I had bought that course in June and by December that course had paid me back 55 times.

[00:37:02] Wow, I figured out. So just getting that start and that was really my start to what my career is today. Um, both agency work and freelance work. So that $249 course compared to my college education was such a better investment for me.

[00:37:18] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. What, what all did that course cover? Was it like how to, was it the, you know, entire how to of like setting up your business, getting clients or what, what was.

[00:37:32] Jenny Weg: It was, so, it was very, very, um, broad on virtual assisting. It kind of lets what you could do with virtual assisting, but definitely started with, okay, are you going to create an LLC for your business? Is your business big enough to do that? Um, how you’re going to invoice clients, how you’re going to find clients, uh, what services you’re gonna offer for those.

[00:37:53] So there was very, very small section on social media management, and that was just what really stuck out to me of what I wanted to do. Cause I felt like I had enough base level knowledge of that. Mm-hmm. So from that course, then I went on to take other courses that were more specialized in social management.

[00:38:08] Yeah. But that was really my first. My first step in just creating my business and knowing that this was where it was gonna take me.

[00:38:15] Megan: Yeah. I’ve talked to people about the idea of like, the difference between, like, there are different times in your business when you need a more general broad course like that versus when you need something that’s more specialized.

[00:38:27] Um, and getting started, I also found it very helpful actually. I think, oh God,

[00:38:32] I’m not, I’m not gonna.

[00:38:35] I spent too much money my first year in courses that were like very specialized in ways that I didn’t need, but I think I could have benefited a lot from like taking one of those broader, more general courses.

[00:38:47] I’m curious if you don’t mind sharing what the course was that you took.

[00:38:52] Jenny Weg: Yeah. At that time that was called Horkey Handbook. I don’t know. Okay. Yeah. Offered today, um, or you’re offered in a different way, but it was 30 days or less virtual system. Um, and it was just, yeah, really, really eye-opening for me.

[00:39:06] Megan: Yeah, yeah. Very familiar with Gina Horkey and all her work and her courses. Um, awesome. So second question I have for people too that, sorry. Sorry, go ahead.

[00:39:19] Jenny Weg: She’s too, that has, she has really, really ebbed and flowed over her business too. I mean, when she first started offering that course, it was, like I said, $249.

[00:39:28] Right. And I know now she’s gotten into even more specialized courses and, um, really scaled her business too. So it’s been interesting to see that.

[00:39:36] Megan: Yeah, it is so fun. Like really just watching people because there are people that I’ve followed for so many years and it, it is interesting seeing how people’s businesses change over time

[00:39:49] Jenny Weg: without a doubt.

[00:39:50] Megan: Yeah. Um, so second question I have for you is, in the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life and or your business?

[00:40:04] Jenny Weg: So for me, the biggest thing is definitely habit wise, knowing that I had to be super, super committed and being ready. To take on anything, any time. Um, for me it was schedule wise, it meant I was a lot of times waking up at four 30 in the morning to get worked up so the kids were awake.

[00:40:23] I had the, that I knew I needed to get tackled for the day. It had to be done before the kids were awake. Cause there was never a guarantee. That I was going to have the time during the day. Um, I worked a lot, a lot of nap times and there was times where I had a four hour nap time and there was times where I had like a, maybe a full hour.

[00:40:40] Mm-hmm. So just knowing that I had that commitment and if it wasn’t done after that, it was staying up until midnight maybe to finish up my work for the day. So yeah, I’m really, really being committed by time and knowing that I had to put time in.

[00:40:51] Megan: Yeah, definitely not an easy thing to do. No waking up at four 30 in the morning.

[00:40:58] Yeah. Um, okay. So last question I have for you is, when you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, you’ve lost your focus temporarily. What do you do to get back on track?

[00:41:13] Jenny Weg: So my biggest thing is I make personal development books. Um, I love, love Mel Robbins. Um, and just knowing that there’s so many people out there that, like you said, your business is gonna have highs and.

[00:41:24] And being able to just kinda read those personal development books just gives me that little bit of boost that I need. Um, to kinda drag me back to why I started in the beginning. You know, I started this so that I had the flexibility to be there when my kids needed me. And so knowing that that’s such a gift that I have and that it’s not time to give up on that.

[00:41:42] Megan: Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing today, Jenny. Um, before we leave, where can people find you and connect with you?

[00:41:51] Jenny Weg: Yeah, you bet. So I’m my Instagram. I’m Mrs. Jenny Weg, and if you’d like more information on the course that I offer, that is www.workfromoma.org. Um, and the course is always open.

[00:42:06] I’ve gone through periods where I’ve, you know, open enrollment and shut enrollment. Um, but I know everybody’s at a different stage at like, at different times. So knowing that it’s just always there if you need it when you’re ready to happen, um, the doors will always be. Awesome.

[00:42:21] Megan: Well, thank you so much for being here today, Jenny.

[00:42:23] This was great.

[00:42:25] Jenny Weg: Yeah, thank you, Megan.