Welcome to the Peace Grows Here podcast.
I'm your host, Yelena Theofilatos with My Blooming heart, Hypnotherapy & Coaching.
And this is a place for you if you're looking for business strategies,
emotional wellness, advice, and stories from fellow ladies entrepreneurs.
Hello everyone.
Welcome to the podcast, the Peace Grows Here podcast.
Here today, I have my friend from the UK, Jeanette Spencer, joining me.
She is a brand strategist and the founder of Wolfman Entrepreneurial Network.
And she is here to share about her journey as an entrepreneur
and give us some tips and tricks that we can take away with us to make our lives better.
So without any further ado, I'll invite her to come on in.
Join us, share about yourself, share your story.
Thank you, Jeanette.
Thank you so much for having me here.
I'm super excited to be here and very appreciative
for you to have invited me to be your guest today.
I'm going to be sharing a little bit about my story,
kind of where not so much where it started for me,
but where it started to get a little bit real for me.
What I'm hoping is that the people that are listening to this
are going to be able to take away some kind of inspiration.
So basically about three years, no, about three and a half years ago,
I decided that I was going to quit my nine to five job
and start my own business.
So a little bit of background.
I was working in an insurance company and I had been working in that sector
for about 10 years, roughly.
And at first it was great.
But then, like a lot of people experience, I started to kind of feel
a little bit unfulfilled and like a bit confused about what it was
that I actually wanted for myself and for my life.
And I realized that doing that corporate job in that corporate role,
it just wasn't it wasn't lightening me up.
It wasn't doing anything for me.
And I definitely felt like it definitely was not something
that I wanted to do or that I envisioned myself doing for the rest of my life.
So a few years prior, I had set myself a five year,
a five year plan, a five year goal.
And that was to actually become self-employed in five years.
But then obviously five years come and then what do you do?
You get scared, right?
You you start saying you start thinking about all the reasons
why you shouldn't make that move, because it's a big it's a big deal.
It's a big life changing move. Right.
So I started to say to myself,
you know, you don't have enough money saved.
You're not ready. Maybe give it a few more years.
And I really started to convince myself to wait.
And then something happened. My dad died.
I lost my dad. And it was a real eye opener for me
in a lot of different ways.
So obviously, you've got the element of that situation
where you kind of feel like life is too short.
You need to kind of make your move.
But then on the other hand, I was
I was a underwriter in an insurance company, as I said, and
I had a three month notice period.
And when I came back before I resigned,
they were really not supportive.
And I had been there for five years.
And it was just one of those kind of eye opening moments for me
where I realized that I was literally a bum on a seat.
And I was just there to kind of fulfil someone else's dream. Right.
So I resigned and I had to work
the longest three month notice period of my life.
And I remember the end of that period was
the end of December.
And I remember that so clearly because my my mindset was
it's a new year coming.
I'm literally just going to it's so exciting.
I'm just going to just dive into this business.
Again, a little bit of background.
This wasn't an online business.
My first business was an events management agency,
which I did run alongside my full time job for a long time
before actually deciding to run it full time.
But anyway, so in the January, the January came.
In fact, it was the first of January.
Remember, like, it was just now.
And I got an email through
so near as day saying that all my stock and all my inventory
had been burnt in a fire and the whole place had literally gone down.
So, yeah.
So on the first of the year, just after the first of the year,
just after quitting my job,
I literally lost this business,
but like that I had obviously wanted to to jump straight into.
And it was a really, really tough time.
I got into a very low place
because I didn't know what I was going to do next.
And honestly, it was the support of my friends and my family
that kind of really helped me to get through that.
And I'm forever grateful to them.
But what ended up happening was I ended up rebuilding that business,
which was a blessing.
And I went from, you know, feeling like I was drowning
to actually feeling like I was thriving.
And that was amazing.
But then Covid happened.
And anybody in, you know, that kind of industry
knows that Covid hit hard.
So I had events booked, I think, two years in advance.
And I literally lost all my bookings prior to about, sorry, except about three.
And I ended up having to, well, I didn't have to,
but I ended up giving a lot of refunds as well.
Just because I just felt like it was really unfair
for the people that were, yeah, that were having these events.
And, you know, and so I did what I could do.
But then that left me in a very difficult situation financially.
So what I then had to do was pivot.
I had to find another way to generate income.
And when I thought about what I could do, I kind of went back to
what is it that people come to me for?
What is it that I'm really good at?
What do I kind of thrive speaking about and doing?
And where I had been running this events business for almost 10 years prior,
a lot of my friends and family would always come to me for business advice.
So naturally, I kind of went into that direction
and it took a few different shapes in the beginning
before I actually got it to what it is today,
which is the Women's Entrepreneurial Network.
But it's literally been incredible because I really do believe
that you get kind of pushed into the direction that you're supposed to be in.
And, you know, when you start something that doesn't align,
because in all honesty, I know for sure I was supposed to be an entrepreneur,
I was supposed to be self-employed, but first business attempt
wasn't in full alignment with me and who I am.
And it's just incredible the way that you kind of get pushed into your calling.
And I really do believe that.
So, yeah, so WEN was born
and I've been running WEN for about three years now.
Yeah, about just coming up to three years now.
And I absolutely love it.
I love what it stands for, what it's about.
And that's kind of a very short, short background story of where I'm coming from.
Mm hmm. Thank you so much.
And oh, my God, so much has happened.
There's fire in there somewhere. What?
That's yeah, you live through so many sounds like transformations.
And some of them you chose.
Some of them chose you, sounds like to me.
And here we are three years down the line.
After that pivot that you did towards something that been already speaking to you
in all of the advice that you gave to other people along the way.
And now here you are doing it in earnest,
speaking to female entrepreneurs and helping them out.
I'm one of them, by the way.
Definitely love reading your posts online.
Oh, thank you. Yeah, no, it's great.
I, as I said earlier, I do believe that, you know, we go through
things for a reason to kind of pull us or to push us in the right direction.
And I've I've learned a lot over the past three years.
And it's been very character building.
And yeah, like I probably wouldn't have my past experience any other way,
just because it's kind of got me to this point that I am at now.
And for that, I feel very grateful.
Mm hmm.
I'm just thinking about ladies entrepreneurs out there
who's listening that and to that and thinking, oh, I'm going through
a hard moment right now, but it is character building after all.
Maybe that I can look back at Jeanette is doing right now
and say that it was a good for me, ultimately.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think generally with life, you have to learn to take the highs
with the lows, the good with the bad and just trust that, you know,
things are kind of aligning in the right way for you.
I think there are a lot of people that do start on the road of entrepreneurship
and it doesn't go the way that they anticipate going.
And so they kind of say, OK, maybe this is not for me
or maybe I should be doing something else.
But, you know, if you take anything away today, it's just keep persevering
because you will be pushed into the direction that you're supposed to be in.
And if it's something that you want and if it's something
that you feel passionate about, then.
You know, you have to keep going through those highs and lows
and get to where you're trying to get to.
Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
Definitely there are highs and there are lows.
And when there are lows, you're like, oh, why am I doing this?
When there are highs, you're like, yay, this is it.
This is a thing for me.
But the whole point is to be able to understand that both of those moments,
times and business are inevitable.
And I'm curious about what is it about you that you can recognize
and acknowledge and perhaps even appreciate that allows you to have
this kind of a mindset of persevering and keep pushing and until until it works
and embracing the highs and lows?
Well, I feel like I've done what I've been trying to do a lot of work
over the past, say, 15 years, in fact.
And this is obviously on mindset and this is kind of trying to transition
my mind from being glass half empty to glass half full.
Just appreciating that life is life and life is always going to life on you.
So at the end of the day, you have to just appreciate
when you're going through something, you can't let that consume
how you see things and what you do going forward.
One thing that I kind of trained myself to do over the years
is when I'm kind of in a place where I feel a little bit low
or a little bit like, you know, things are not where I want them to be
or, you know, something's not quite right.
What I do is I give myself a moment to sit in that, but not very long.
So my thing is one to two days of self-pity is more than enough.
And then we need to keep it moving.
We need to keep it moving after that.
So the trick is just to say, OK, I've got a choice here.
I can either sit here and my feelings or I can decide to move past this
and try and kind of get past what I'm going through
and hopefully get to something a little bit better.
And I would always choose the latter.
Yeah, that makes sense.
It's a middle path, so to say.
You are acknowledging your feelings, you're not just going right by them,
trying to perhaps forget about their existence and go right back in it,
like a lot of us do, we try to bypass difficult emotions as they come up
because, you know, they are not so comfortable to deal with.
But at the same time, if you choose to approach them and embrace them,
just make sure that you don't stay for too long.
Exactly, exactly, exactly.
And that's kind of the advice I'd give on that note.
Yeah, definitely.
Bookmarking that one right there for a later use.
Could you share a little bit more about, all right, so here you go.
You're doing this.
You're a brand strategist.
You have a community that you're working with.
What are you offering at this very moment?
How are you supporting people?
What is it that you do?
Sure, so WEN is an online support and resource hub
for aspiring and established entrepreneurs in the online business space.
And what we do is we offer a membership where you can come in,
get access to trainings, resources and support from myself
to help you launch or grow or launch and grow your business.
I also provide women with courses, digital products, a mentorship, coaching.
So basically, WN is kind of an all-round support hub
for women that want to grow an online business.
Mm-hmm, yeah, you have a lot going on there, it sounds like.
Yeah, for sure, very busy.
Mm-hmm, and if you would give us a bit more of an insight look
into what your community is like on a daily basis,
is it, what is the platform for you guys, your ladies, I guess, meeting on?
Do you have breakout rooms?
Do you network?
What does that look like a day from being in your community?
So, all right, so on the technical side,
we have a four-stage roadmap that we provide,
which basically takes you through launching your business,
growing your online presence,
kind of growing your business generally,
building your email list, that kind of stuff.
And separate to that, we have something which is called a template vault,
which is our resource centre.
And that's basically like a load of template,
there's over 100 templates that we offer to our members,
where they can literally just plug and play things into their business.
So, it's things like social media templates from Canva,
sales page templates, webinars, slide deck templates,
business plans, marketing plans, trackers, statistic sheets.
So, there's loads and loads of different things in there.
So, that's a huge resource that we offer our members,
which is actually one of the most popular things about our membership.
But we also do a weekly event.
So, one week, we have a Q&A session,
where members can, if they're feeling stuck about something,
they can come to that session, ask their questions, get some answers,
connect with some of the other ladies as well.
We also have a goal-setting and accountability workshop.
Again, this is an opportunity for us to come together and just be intentional
about what it is that we want to get done for that month.
And again, this is a safe space where women can come in, ask questions,
and just be accountable for themselves and for each other.
There's also a networking event that we host at the end of the month.
We have a book club.
Honestly, it's this kind of full-on place,
where we offer a lot of value of resources, of support to our members.
And then, not forgetting our forum, we have a forum.
So, if you do have a question and you can't make any of the live sessions,
you can jot a question in the forum and that will get answered for you.
And that's also a place where you can socialise with other women as well.
So, yeah, that's pretty much the main features of the membership.
Mm-hmm. Sounds like you are one step for a lot of things.
Yeah, I do try to be...
I kind of envisioned it as this space where...
I mean, when I started out online, it was...
Although I did have experience as a business owner, it was very different.
And I kind of wished I had certain resources and that support,
people to go to in a diverse environment.
And so, that's what I was kind of aiming to create for myself and for my members.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Right.
Yeah, you're making me think of the book that I'm writing right now, actually.
I'm writing it because I haven't found a book on this topic that I like.
So, I'm like, I'm gonna write my own.
And it's gonna be like, because I want it to be a certain way.
Sounds like you were coming from a similar place.
Yeah, for sure. Definitely.
You gotta do that sometimes.
You know, if what you want is not out there, then you've got to create it yourself.
Yeah. This is what it's about.
Yeah, and you are also the one who is in it, you know, really invested.
So, you better like what you're doing and do it for yourself too.
Absolutely.
But I'd say that generally, running a business, I feel like it's very important that
you do enjoy what you're doing.
And that's not saying that you're not gonna have days or maybe weeks
where you kind of question yourself in the direction.
But just overall, it should feel good to you.
It should feel in alignment.
Yeah, that's for sure.
I'm curious about how you are juggling all of the offers that I heard.
Maybe I'm missing the studio.
It sounded like you also have one-on-one coaching going on that you coach people,
you guide them one-on-one.
I just wonder how you make it all work.
The membership, the one-on-one coaching and what else you are offering.
Sure.
One of the amazing things about running your own business
is that you do things how you want to do them.
There's no one telling you that you have to do this or you have to do that.
Basically, I don't take on a lot of coaching clients,
mainly because I thrive more in a one-to-many environment.
So, although I do love to offer that kind of one-to-one mentorship and coaching,
I'm very, very picky and very choosy about who and when I do that for.
So, that's kind of how that gets handled.
In terms of the membership, again, because it's by my design,
I create it in a way that works for me.
So, I mentioned earlier that we do a live session once a week.
The courses and the resources and the trainings,
most of that is just in there for you to view or watch
or get involved with whenever you want to.
So, that's not really something that I'm having to do on a weekly or daily basis.
It's kind of say it and forget it a little bit.
And then I will just go in and update that content every now and then.
And the same for the digital products, to be fair,
and the same for the courses.
As you know, when you do a course, you do your launch
and it takes a lot of energy to begin with,
but then you kind of get it to a stage where it requires a lot less work from you.
And so, it just kind of works.
And Rome wasn't built in a day.
I mean, I've only started to do it once a week.
I only started this past maybe six months working a little bit less
because for the lead up to six months ago, I was going in really hard.
And I was working a lot of hours and I experienced burnout.
And yeah, it literally just came...
It was a decision that I made where I just knew
I had to kind of step back a little bit and just find something that works for me.
And this is what I think as entrepreneurs,
we have this thing where we kind of always want to over-deliver.
And we always want to kind of just provide the best,
the best service, the best experience for our customers.
And we kind of forget ourselves sometimes.
And it just kind of took me just going,
do you know what, this is my business.
I can run this how I want to run this and still provide value to my customers.
So, yeah.
Yeah, I wish all entrepreneurs eventually come to that place
of living and knowing that, allowing them to find their own rhythm
because burnout and overworking is a thing.
As much as we like to say that, oh, we're all about self-care and et cetera,
doing it in more of a flowy way, when you actually get down to it,
like in my experience, there's a lot to do at all times.
And that's not going to change.
You just have to learn to make it work for you.
Right. Yeah, definitely.
Okay. Maybe we could transition to talking about more about those tips and tricks
and any other kind of advice, maybe in regards to that particular how to weather
through all the parts of intense labor that comes with running your business
or some other tips and tricks that you want to share
so our listeners can take away them with them into their life.
Oh, okay. So, I'm going to share a couple of tips that have helped me.
So, the first self-care tips.
So, the first one is, and we have definitely touched on this throughout this podcast,
but the first one is to rest when you need to and to not feel guilty.
And just take that time off and realize that
just take that time off and realize that it's okay.
And we all have to be able to step away from our business.
If you step away, it doesn't mean it's not going to happen
or that it's necessarily going to take that much longer for you,
but you really have to prioritize your mental health and your physical health.
Yeah, I definitely would say rest when you need to.
And again, don't feel guilty for doing that.
So, my second tip would be to get in the habit of saying no.
So, this one is, I think, one that a lot of women,
like a lot of women that I speak to,
a lot of women in my membership struggle with
and something that I struggle with too.
And it's that when you're kind of a people pleaser
and you kind of just always want to help and do for people.
Sometimes you take on a bit more than you can chew
and that's your own detriment.
So, I think my advice would be get into the habit of saying no.
Be able to say no to anything that you feel doesn't align
with your business goals or with who you are as a person.
My third tip is to just give yourself time and grace.
When things are not going as planned
or if they're not happening quickly enough,
just realize that you're not failing.
You're actually learning, you're growing, you're developing,
and you're developing as both a person and as a business owner.
So, give yourself grace.
Don't be hard on yourself.
I know that we are so hard on ourselves.
We are so hard on ourselves, especially as women entrepreneurs.
Remember that nothing happens overnight.
So, really enjoy the journey and always just give yourself
that little bit of grace.
Yeah, and then I guess the last thing I would say is always ask for help.
Don't be afraid to ask for help.
Ask for help when you need it.
You don't have to do everything on your own.
You're going to be more productive not doing everything on your own.
So, don't be afraid to ask for help yet.
Thank you so much.
I love how I actually wrote them down for myself right now as well.
I paired them in my mind.
Saying no, it kind of goes well together with asking for help as well.
You're saying no to one thing, to something,
to something, and then you then bring more support in.
You are free and welcome to do both of those things because ultimately,
we all need to find our sweet spot how much we can do.
And saying no and asking for help really helps to do that.
It really does.
You have to be, I think, very conscious of how and where you kind of put your time and energy.
So, you have to be able to say no to make sure that you're putting those things in the right places.
Right.
Yeah, because every time we say no, we say yes to something else.
We can not say yes to something that is really important unless we say no to something else.
I think that tends to happen a lot.
And just in terms of time and resources, allocation, everything is accounted for.
Is accounted for.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
And thank you so much for reminding about giving ourselves grace and resting and not feeling guilty
about that.
Giving ourselves grace, that's something I learned from actually a lady.
She's also brand strategist that I work with just at the very beginning of my entrepreneurial journey
and that she was repeating over and over to us, over and over, give yourself grace.
Every time I get stuck over, I don't know, something difficult and I'm like,
Yelena, just give yourself some grace, just breathe.
Absolutely.
You'll be okay.
It will.
It usually is.
Yeah, I love that outlook.
Yes, thank you so much for those tips.
I feel like they're good for any entrepreneur, regardless of what stage they're on
in their development, early or later on.
And now maybe you could share where can we find you?
How can we send you a message?
What should we ask about when we want to look into the membership that you're running?
And that'll be it for now.
Oh, so everything that I mentioned today can be found on the website.
So the web address is www.thewomensentrepreneurialnetwork.com.
And I know that is a bit of a mouthful.
I'll put it in notes.
Okay, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
But yeah, I'm also on Instagram.
There's no that it's Women's Entrepreneurial Network.
And to be fair, I'm kind of all over the social space.
So yeah, just hit me in Google and yeah, you'll find me.
But as I said, everything that I mentioned today in terms of the membership, our products,
courses, coaching, everything can be found on our website.
So if you've got any questions, or if you just want to chat or whatever, whatever the case may be,
just reach out.
Beautiful.
Yes.
And I'll put the Instagram and the website, all of the names for them for you in the description
of the podcast so people can just click on it and go right in into your world and check it out.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate that.
Oh, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us with me.
I really grateful for all of the tips and tricks that you offered.
I'm taking them away into my day and I give myself some grace today.
Thank you so much for being a platform to share my story.
And thank you for having me as a guest.
I really do again appreciate you having me here.
So thank you so much.
Thank you.
Have a beautiful rest of your day, rest of your evening.
Me too.
Bye everyone.
I'll see you.
Thank you.