Ep #42: Creating a $100K Business in 2020 with Jackie Skinner

You are listening to episode 42 of The Confident Coaches Podcast, the one where we find out how you can get all the results you want, no matter what circumstances are going on in your life.

Welcome to The Confident Coaches Podcast, a place for creating the self-confidence you need to do your best work as a life coach. If you want to bring more boldness, more resilience, and more joy to your work, this is the place for you. I’m your host, Amy Latta. Let’s dive in.

Hello, my Confident Coaches. I am so excited for today’s podcast episode. So, as some of you know, I just came off my own three-day in-person – which was actually virtual this year – mastermind of my own with my own coach. And it broke my brain in the best possible way. But that event also led to me recording this podcast and getting it out to you today.

Now, I’m not going to quite put all the pieces together just yet. No spoiler alerts for you of how the mastermind and this podcast, how they are connected. But today is an extra special episode of The Confident Coaches Podcast because I am interviewing my dear friend and former Confident Coaches Mastermind client Jackie Skinner.

Now, friends, Jackie is about to blow you away. You think you had a 2020 to remember? The number of 2020 events that hit Jackie’s life this year, and then what she still accomplished in her business when she put the Confident Coaches program to use is out of this world. It’s almost surreal. Like, I lived it with her and even I was saying, “No you did not, that did not also happen,” as we were recording this. I was like, “Really?” And I was there with her as all of this life stuff was happening to her.

What you’re about to listen to is the ultimate story of learning how to create the results that you want, no matter your circumstances. Grab your pens and papers, my friends. Be ready to take notes. Let’s dive in.

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Amy: Okay, my friends. So, today I’m so excited to introduce you guys to Jackie Skinner. Jackie teaches yoga teachers how to build a $100,000 business and finally leave their nine to five jobs using her proven formula. She’s a certified business coach, yoga teacher, with over a decade of experience in the yoga industry. And what I love about Jackie is she just believes you can not only do what you love, but make money doing it. Hello, Miss Jackie. How are you?

Jackie: Hello. I’m doing great. I’m super-excited to be here.

Amy: I’m super-excited to have you here because when we worked together, you were in my first Confident Coaches group. And there was a lot going on in your life throughout those six months, some of which I didn’t even realize until after the fact. I was like, dang. And yet, you were able to get to a place where you are not at the next level of your business. So, just right out of the gate, tell me a little bit more about, like, why do you do what you do?

Jackie: Okay, so I knew I wanted to be a yoga teacher when I was in college. I asked my parents if I could drop out. They told me no. So, when I was finally able to, I made the decision to teach yoga fulltime. And the first year that I did that, I made $15,000 the whole year. And I lived off of it. And I don’t know how. I’m like, how did I eat? What did I do?

But I did it and I’m like, what? So, I decided that it was definitely my career path. I had to figure out how to build a business around it. And I couldn’t find any kind of information of how to do it. All roads lead back to Rome, right? I started listening to The Life Coach School Podcast. And that was the first time my mind was like – you know, Brooke talks about 100K a lot for coaches. What if that’s possible for yoga teachers? And I started to question this kind of glass ceiling I had put on how much I thought I could earn and I went and made more money.

Amy: And what I really love there is only parents of kids who are probably in their teens won’t know this, but there was a movie, I don’t know if it was a Disney movie. It was a cartoon movie that was out about 15 years ago called Robots. And the whole theme of the thing was see a need, fill a need. And that’s what this sounds like. You went looking for something and couldn’t find it.

Jackie: Yeah, I really couldn’t. So, I decided to go get my coaching certification and show myself how to make 100K as a teacher. And now it’s my mission to, I would say, let’s go 200 yoga teachers making 100K, like truly change the industry and what people think is possible. Because I really believe in yoga. It serves anyone who meets the practice.

Amy: So good. And I love that, 200 yoga teachers, did you all here that? 200 yoga teachers making six figures as a yoga teacher. I know that in my head, at one point, I was a health coach. I hadn’t discovered life coaching. I got my personal training certification. I really wanted to be a yoga teacher because I preferred yoga teaching over straight personal training. But I was like, “I’ve got to pay how much money and I’m going to make how much money? I don’t think so.” It’s like $2500 and I’m going to go make like $10,000 a year as a yoga instructor. I like yoga, but I don’t love it that much. True story. That was a barrier of entry for me. So, I love that you’re making this our mission.

Jackie: Oh yeah, it’s so fun too. And the first time I tell a yoga teacher they can make 100K, they’re like, “What?” Like I’m telling them the sky isn’t blue.

Amy: Right, even I’m sitting here and that brain of Amy from 15 years ago was like – and I know you, and I know the work that you do. And even that old brain is kind of like, “I don’t know that that’s possible,” because it’s just the societal norm of what we assume yoga teachers – so good.

Jackie: Yeah.

Amy: So, by the end of last year, when you were signing up for that first round of Confident Coaches Mastermind that started in January – so we’re recording this in August of 2020. So, we’re talking about less than a year ago – where were you as far as the number of clients you were working with? Where were you in your coaching business?

Jackie: So, I went fulltime and actually stopped teaching yoga in October of last year. So, I was like two months int my coaching business fully and I had five clients. In December, I made 5K that year.

Amy: I have to tell you though, two months into a coaching business and you already had five clients and made $5000, that’s not too shabby.

Jackie: Yeah, looking back at that I was like, “Huh, look at that. When you go all in and commit to it, it works.”

Amy: Yeah, when you commit and go all in on yourself, it will work. So, that’s pretty impressive though, just two months out of going into fulltime that you had five clients and $5000. Okay, so as you worked through the spring – I will let you decide to share what kind of obstacles you had to face both in your business and what was going on in your personal life.

Jackie: Okay, do you have an hour? Do you want me to tell you everything?

Amy: You have had a couple of years in like six months, so…

Jackie: Yeah, so I will tell you – and this is so fun to see – the first month of the mastermind with you, I shifted from 5K to actually a $9000 month. And I was like, what happened? Like, what really changed? And I had joined the mastermind – I think I remember telling you this – I wanted to waffle less. I wanted to feel more consistent in my belief that it would be possible and not have those days where it feels awful and I don’t work and then have the days where I do work. So, that was obstacle number one was just my mind, right?

Amy: Of course, it’s always our mind, right? The waffling though, what do you think was creating the waffling that you were in?

Jackie: I mean, the lack of confidence. It really was, like, this doubt that it would be possible and a doubt that I was the right coach for my clients.

Amy: Yes, it’s so fascinating to me how our brains all have the capacity to allow this doubt to be a dream-killer, as opposed to just we’re humans and we have doubt. It’s not a sign that anything’s going wrong. It’s just of course we have doubt. That’s our cavewoman brain trying to protect us.

Jackie: Right, but no one had told me that before. So, I thought it was me that had doubt, like I was the only one waffling. So, being in a group of women and learning this from you, it was like, I’m not special, in a good way.

Amy: Yes, I say that all the time. You’re a special amazing unicorn, but you’re not that special.

Jackie: Yeah, like all of our brains work the same. So that was the first obstacle. And then, I wrote down a few more, but then 2020 happened, right? So, I got engaged in March, which was so exciting. COVID hit literally like a week later. I lived in New York City at the time. So, we were kind of the first wave. And my fiancée got laid off.

So, all of a sudden, I was responsible for paying rent in New York City. And this kind of fear of, oh my gosh, can I do it? Will my business do it? And you can kind of see the fear in my numbers. I freaked out for a little bit. And I started to set smaller goals to feel safer because of it.

Amy: Interesting, setting smaller goals in order to feel safer.

Jackie: Right, I think I came to you with this. I’m like, here’s my goal for May. I know I can sign one more client, two more clients. And you were like, “Why are you not going for the big goal? Why are you not setting the sign five clients a month goal?”

Amy: Particularly when you had evidence that you could do it already.

Jackie: I didn’t think so though. I’m like, I don’t know, that evidence doesn’t count, right? So, this huge a-ha of setting the big goal is part of the process. You have to set it in order to get it. And in this moment, I was like, oh my gosh, I actually have to set the big goal so that I show up in a big way. It changed everything, like truly changed everything. And I went all in again, which I think is the secret; go all in, even more when you think you’re all in. And I led a free training and all this stuff and my goal was to sig five clients in May. Amy, I did it on June first.

Amy: Oh, it’s so good.

Jackie: The universe just thinks that’s funny.

Amy: I think so too. I love when this happens. It’s this, “Well it may not happen by the end of the month. Okay, but what if it happens the next week? Are you going to be mad at the universe that your timing was just a little off?” What a perfect example.

Jackie: It was so perfect and it kind of made me just laugh. Like, I take the time so seriously, five clients in May, or else I’m not a successful coach. And it’s like, no, lighten up a bit.

Amy: I think you make a really great point of the balance between being serious about this business and being all in and, like, “I’m going to do this,” type of energy and that fun and lighten up, like set the big goals, but be willing to release your grasp on them.

Jackie: Yeah, which is so important. And that’s actually how I hit the goal. I asked myself, what would be the most fun thing to do this May in my business? We were in the middle of COVID so I wasn’t having the community I was used to and I was like, I love to teach, I would love to have the community, I might as well lead a five-day training in my community. And that was it.

Amy: That is the most fun thing that I could do in my business this month?

Jackie: Yeah, it was so fun too. So, we’ve got an engagement, and then COVID, and a layoff…

Amy: So, we’re living in New York City. There’s an engagement. Your fiancée is laid off. Your bread and butter is yoga instructors who are also living in New York in the time of COVID. So yeah…

Jackie: Yeah, so then he gets rehired and then refired all in like a couple of weeks. It was just crazy. And we, at the same time, find out that we are pregnant.

Amy: I was waiting for this moment in the podcast where I think even I forgot all of that happened.

Jackie: Right, so I’m now homeless. We need to leave New York. And I’m having a baby. It was a lot.

Amy: It was a lot. I remember that session where all of the boxes were packed up behind you and I’m like, “Hey, what’s going on?” And you were like – because you were moving to Chicago or Detroit or…

Jackie: See, that’s a whole other story, Chicago, yeah.

Amy: you were like, “I thought I was moving to Chicago, but then I was moving to Detroit, but now we’re not moving anywhere and I’m homeless.” I was like, okay…

Jackie: Right, like what is happening…

Amy: “And I’m pregnant.” I was like, alright I need a drink, okay.

Jackie: Right, I don’t think I was ever more grateful for that group of women though because I think y’all were the first people I told I was pregnant. Because I was just in this state of, like, oh my gosh, what do I do? Excited, like beyond believable and I’m so excited to have a baby. And I didn’t have a bunch of other mom friends to go be like, “Alright, what do I do now?” Let alone entrepreneurs building their own coaching business.

Amy: Right, I love that as far as when we put ourselves in the rooms of people who we can share these – because we kind of have some extraordinary thoughts and feelings about what we want to create in our life that are out of the norm, and so being able to be in a room of other women who say, “This is not a problem. Let’s do it. Let’s help you figure out how you’re going to do it.”

Jackie: I mean, that is invaluable, the biggest thing ever. It’s the quote of you’re the sum of the five people you surround yourself with. So, why not put yourself in a group where it’s other amazing women going after the same thing that you want?

Amy: Exactly, talking about things that – and I think this is something that I’ve seen – this is a safe place to share things that my non-life coach friends would be like, “That’s kind of crazy, Amy.” And out of a place of love too. They’re just like, that sounds whoa. But in these rooms, I can share these things and they’re like, “Absolutely. That’s not outrageous.” And that right there is worth the price of admission.

Jackie: Yeah, it really is. I would 100% agree with you.

Amy: Yeah, so when we wrapped up the first week of July, so you had started at you had made $5000 with five clients. And do you remember where you had finished?

Jackie: Do I remember? Of course. Yeah, so my last two months in the mastermind were both five-figure months. So fun. So, like June, I think was 12 and July was 10. And these are the months where I’m in my head homeless, not actually homeless but…

Amy: This story is phenomenal that you would go from 5K to 10 or 12K. But when you put it on the backdrop of mental homelessness, COVID, baby on the way. I even remember you posted something a couple weeks later and I was like, “Oh, now you’re in Savanah…”

Jackie: Charleston…

Amy: Charleston, yeah.

Jackie: Yeah, which is so ironic because it’s where we started a year ago.

Amy: Right, I remember being friends with you a year ago when you moved to New York City, and then you ended up back where you were anyway. So funny where the universe takes you. So, through the course of that process, obviously there are five steps that I teach to creating self-confidence, believing ahead of time, feeling uncomfortable, mentoring with yourself, having your own back, how to keep going. So, were there certain steps that you really relied on to help you through these – I mean, let’s be honest, you had your own personal year of 2020.

Jackie: Yeah, and it’s still 2020. We’re still doing that.

Amy: It’s only August. You’ve had like five years of life in six months.

Jackie: Yeah, I would say, I mean, number one was having your own back. Like, that belief that, with all the circumstances happening, it was still possible and it was still something that I could create. It would have been so easy, and I’m sure I did this on certain days, of just being like, “This is impossible. It’s too much and I need to back off.” And I didn’t.

And I think it’s because I learned how to support myself and really evaluate my business and kind of see, “Okay, what’s working? Can I do more of that? And what’s not working? And can I get rid of any of that?” And those last two months, I was tired. That was the first trimester and I didn’t feel good most days. So, I took naps.

I mean, I think I felt nauseous for at least four hours every day, so I worked a lot less, and made more money. And that was having my own back in that moment, of knowing that I don’t need to hustle 40 hours a week, or nonstop, or more than 40 hours a week if we’re being honest. I need to support myself and believe that I know what’s best for me in this moment. I know what’s best for my business in this moment.

Amy: You’re going to make a great mom with that right there.

Jackie: That’s sweet.

Amy: I think it’s just that intuitiveness – and I would love to take full credit of teaching the concepts of having your own back. But that right there is really a level of intuitiveness too of knowing, “I have a choice here. And if I put myself first, if I put care of myself first, then we all win.” That right there is a skill that mommas have to learn. Like, when I take care of me, it doesn’t sacrifice my children. If anything, it makes them even better. And you’re already learning that, when I take care of me, my business thrives.

Jackie: Yeah, but Amy, you did teach the concepts. I was really sitting down and thinking before this podcast, I don’t think I ever had anyone explain sitting in belief the way you explain it. And before the mastermind, I think I was looking for the right thought that I would just believe instantly forever to make my business work. And I didn’t realize, it’s literally something you have to practice daily. And the way you describe it is a lot like meditation. So, it really clicked for me and I’m like, “I can do that.” So, when everything hits the fan, really relying on this practice I have, the tools I have, it’s huge.

Amy: It’s so good.

Jackie: And you created that tool.

Amy: It’s so good. Here I am like going, “Oh, it’s your intuitive mommaness.” You’re like, “No, there’s some skill in there too.”

Jackie: Yeah, I’m like, “No, it’s this thing that you teach very clearly.”

Amy: Oh my goodness. So, I didn’t give it away before, but this work that you did, I did not even know that you had applied for the very mastermind that I am in, which is my coach’s 200K mastermind.

Jackie:  Which applying was a transformation in and of itself. But I think it was maybe a month into the Confident Coaches Mastermind, we did a vision for in six months where we wanted to be. And you specifically asked in that session, are there any groups you’d want to be a part of? And I was like, “Yeah, the 200K. That sounds awesome.” And here we are six months later and we’re in it. I’m in it.

Amy: We’re in it together, yes. Oh my goodness. Look at her manifesting her vision.

Jackie: It’s crazy. And it just shows that, like, I mean, it was not perfect and I didn’t fully know I was manifesting. Like, you can do it with a half-managed mind. It’s really true. Like, just showing up and doing it as you are is enough to make it happen.

Amy: And I want to offer you a little inside mom joke here of, like, not only were you working with a half-managed mind. You were literally, like, anybody who’s ever had baby brain knows what it’s like to, you know, I think I literally have half my brain cells right now because they’re all going to build this child.

So, not only was there the mind management of it, but let’s really understand, I remember what being in my first trimester was like, when your body is like, “We’re building a human.” And while you’re doing that, you’re applying for and being accepted into the next room you wanted to be in

Jackie: Yeah, the baby brain is real. I’m like, how can I go to a yoga class and not take my yoga mat? Great. I’m constantly forgetting what I’m saying. It’s humbling.

Amy: I was so relieved when I saw multiple doctors say, “No, that’s not an illusion. A large bulk of your brain has been redirected towards building a human, and so basic things like, where are my keys and have I eaten today, you know…” Yeah, that goes off the side.

So, what do you feel like you had to figure out on your own? I’m getting even better at building into the program because, of course, my own coach, now your own coach Stacey, has gotten really good at helping her mastermind members get better at solving their own problems and I’m building more and more of that into my own group. What did you feel like you had to figure out to not necessarily have to go seek the answer from someone but you had to figure out?

Jackie: Kind of what you just said, actually. So, I think learning that there was always a solution out there to whatever was happening in your business or wherever you wanted to go but weren’t there yet. That I understood. But then going out there and coming up with the solution and trusting that your brain just came up with the right thing and implementing that, that was huge. And then being able to evaluate it and do the same thing again and not take it personally when you’re not getting the result that you want, but just repeat the process, trust your brain, implement the solution, and the evaluate.

Amy: And have your own back.

Jackie: Having your own back, yeah. I mean, I think it’s truly – and I know you talk about this a lot, taking your teachers, your coaches, your mentors off the pedestal, but you actually do have to do that. Learning to do that on your own is not so easy because I’m always looking to, like, who can I go to? And they probably have the answer. And just spending 10 minutes being like, “You have an answer? What is your answer?”

Amy: Oh yes, reminding yourself in that moment.

Jackie: Yeah, and I think it’s a muscle that you can build, to start to trust your own answers more.

Amy: That was probably one of my own personal parts of my story myself, was really hiring these coaches going, “They’re the ones that are going to have the answer for me. They’re going to have the answer I haven’t.” And it was a lack of trust in myself that the ideas that wee in my brain were good ideas. But I think even more importantly, which is kind of the backbone of Confident Coaches is, even if it doesn’t get me the result, that doesn’t mean that I can’t figure out how to make it into the thing that’s going to get me there. It was the confidence to try different things, that I wasn’t putting my business’s responsibility on someone else’s shoulders because that doesn’t create confidence.

It’s not actually confidence building to go, “Stacy, just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” And she’s like, “I’m never going to just tell you what to do.” Which, of course, sometimes she will flat-out say don’t do that. There is kind of that a good coach knows when to step in and say don’t do that. But in general, like what you just said there, every time you’re noticing yourself starting to look for an outside source, building that muscle of going, “Wait a minute, what if I just spend 10 minutes going inside first? What might I find there?”

Jackie: Yeah, and it’s actually interesting because watching other people get coached in the group, you can, or at least I think, you can always see that they have the answer. They’re just not allowing themselves to believe it’s the answer. So, being able to watch you coach the other women in our mastermind, when you would ask them, like, “What’s your best guess?” Or, “What can you do? What’s in the way?” The answer they would give would be, like, “Yeah that seems right. You should trust that and go for it.”

And being able to see that reflected back to you, that helped me so much being like, “Okay, my brain is probably doing the same thing. I could probably trust myself the same way.”

Amy: It’s just hilarious to be in a group mastermind and you’re watching others get coaching and you’re like, “Oh, if only she would get out of her own way. The answer is so obviously right there.” And then you raise your hand and you’re like, “Listen, the answer is nowhere.” And you’re like, “Maybe I’m doing the same thing she was just doing.”

Jackie: Yeah, but it helps you see that, like, okay if I can see their answer so clearly, I’m the same.

Amy: So good. I love that thought. If it’s so easy for me to see other people’s answers – and maybe it should be even easier. What if we started believing that it’s even easier to see our own answers because they’re in our brain?

Jackie: Yeah.

Amy: Someone write that down. That was a good one.

Jackie: I’m like, I need to do that. I need to write that down.

Amy: I think those two ideas just came together there, really understanding that if it is so obvious, and I agree with you, I’ve built my business in a group format this entire time, and being able to see other people’s answers, it’s so clear. But I never considered that – and I’ve always said I probably have my own answers too. But I think we just brought that thought a step forward of, like, it should be even easier to find my own answers because they’re in my brain, not in her brain.

Jackie: Right, and I think that’s like watching yourself get coached, watching the recordings back of the group was so huge because you’re not in it in that moment. So, you can take that watcher stance and be like, “Okay, I didn’t even understand that she was saying that to me in that moment, but okay.”

Amy: And now that I’m watching it back, look at that, there’s a great pro tip there too of watching the recordings back and watching yourself get coached, to be able to see what you couldn’t see in that moment. Which is funny because I’m doing this more and more too of, like, I want you to go back and watch this one more time and I think that would really help you.

Jackie: Yeah, it really does. It’s huge.

Amy: So, where do you see yourself going? And I know, we just had a cathartic moment in our own mastermind where you had a really great epiphany. And I will let you share that. It’s definitely your story to share. And then where do you see this work moving you forward?

Jackie: Yeah, it was really cool. I mean, being a newbie in the mastermind, I was so scared to raise my hand and get coached. I’m like, “Stacey, here’s my goals for this year and next year, but I’m having a baby, so I don’t think I can hit them,” is kind of where I was coming from.

I had – and she did fabulous coaching – this a-ha that, like, I can’t take a pay cut, I can’t decide to make less money because I’m having a baby. Because it will just fuel my own belief and other women’s belief that we can’t make as much because we’re moms. And so, just this moment of, like, “Oh my gosh, okay, I get to still have everything I want, have the amazing family and the love and the time and build the business that I want to build and there’s no one who can tell me I can’t do both.” So, I’ve committed, this year, my goal is $150,000 and then next year, after I give birth, do 300K.

Amy: I have head to toe chills because you made $5000 last year as a coach. Holy wow.

Jackie: Right, and I say it and I’m like, “Don’t say that on the podcast. People are going to listen.”

Amy: Yeah, how many people are listening right now going, “You mean that’s possible?” So, here’s what I love, there are two realizations that you yourself have made that you now have to offer the world. The first one being yoga teachers, you don’t have to live on a pittance anymore. You can take this passion that you love and you can make not just a livable income, but a thriving income. Moms, you do not have to take pay cuts. You do not have to hold yourself back in order to be a young mom and have a baby and be a mom in general. Yoga teachers who are moms, are you listening?

Jackie: We’re going to do both, yeah.

Amy: We’re going to do both.

Jackie: Yeah, and I kind of feel like I’m at the very beginning again, when I first started my coaching business, I’m like, I need the how. I need someone to tell me exactly how. And setting those big goals, I’m like, I have no idea how I’m going to do that. Truly, I’ve no idea. But I know now that having learned this work, that you set the goal, you commit to it, and the how will come. So, learning how to trust myself for these past six months is now the skill that I’m using to trust myself to hit my big goals in the future, on a bigger level.

Amy: It’s a huge backbone of what I talk about, of these are skills, belief and feeling uncomfortable and being your own best mentor and having your back and evaluation and keep going. You’ll need them at every level because your brain will always tell you, “Well that’s great, but I don’t know how to do that next thing.” And then you figure that out and you’re like, “Yay, but I don’t know how to do that next thing.”

Jackie: Yeah, and I’m searching for the how, both in my business, well how do I actually make that money? But really, my brain is like, how do I be a mom? Can someone tell me the exact way to be a mom, please?

Amy: There’s about three and a half billion people on the planet wondering that question right now, I can tell you. We’re all like, “Am I doing this right?” I kind of love that the two things are growing at the same time, you as a business owner and you becoming a new mom because there are so many parallels. And I, more than once, have been coached – a big part of my master coach training was what dd I believe about myself as a parent?

My beliefs about myself as a parent are, I know I have no clue what I’m doing and I’m totally okay with it. It allows me to just kind of roll with it. And when somebody said, “Do you think maybe you could apply that to your business?” I was like, “Get out of town.”

Jackie: What?

Amy: That’s crazy talk. I mean, I’m talking about raising literal human beings over here and I’m like, it’s all good. But my business, which is just, like, it’s not a human, Amy…

Jackie: Yeah, like you’re doing it with humans. You can do it with your business. I’m going to steal that thought from you.

Amy: Yes, so I want to offer you, look what you’ve created in your business without really knowing how. Trust me, you’re going to figure out how to be the mom too. We all question that. This year, I have to tell you, 2020 has been a year. Us moms, some of us are sending our kids back to school or we’ve decided to keep them virtually, or for some of us, those decisions were made. We literally have no idea what’s the right choice. We’re kind of flying by the seat of our pants right now.

And so, I love the mentality of both of those, of like, but I know that it’s going to be okay. I know that this is going to work out. The same applies for your business as it does to raising kids.

Jackie: Yeah, you said something. I wrote it down in my notebook during one of my calls. And you were like, you have to be humble enough to offer your best and then come back and give better. And both are true. I’m like, that applies to being a mom and that’s my business.

Amy: Wow, I don’t remember those words at all.

Jackie: They’re your genius. They came out of your mouth.

Amy: I don’t remember saying that at all. I love it. I’m like, I love it when somebody quotes me to me and I’m like, who said that? That person sounds really smart.

Jackie: Yeah, but it just really hit me of like, okay, even if I don’t know to send my kids back to school or do this or do that, like, just do your best and then go get better and have your back the whole time.

Amy: Yes, oh my goodness. So, what do you really want to share with those coaches that are out there right now who are waffling, who are spinning in and out of doubt?

Jackie: I would just give them a hug first because that’s a really hard spot to be in. I think maybe the hardest in building your business, when you don’t have the confidence yet. And this is kind of cliché and it’s going to sound funny, but I really think that confidence is the thing. Like, when you decide to believe in yourself, which I think is another way of saying, “I’m confident in my abilities, I’m confident in what I offer and who I am,” then it changes everything.

It changes how you show up. It changes how you talk to your people and how you coach and what you do in your business. And I saw the same thing was true – I used to lead yoga teacher trainings and it was the teachers who had confidence, they were the good teachers. I hate to say good teachers, but they were the ones that truly made an impact for their students because it wasn’t about them anymore.

So, whatever it takes, even if you’re only confident in your ability to get up and do some self-coaching, do that at first and just build on that confidence day in and day out so it grows and grows over time. Because you can always lean back and fall back on that confidence. And that is really the only thing you need to keep growing.

Amy: Were there any specific beliefs that really served you, that really worked for you in those doubtful times, those waffling times?

Jackie: One was, “I’m the best coach right now for my clients right now.” So, not comparing myself or telling myself I needed to be better than I was, but truly trusting that I had enough to offer at that moment and that my exact clients would find me and it would work. And I think the other layer of confidence is, like, at the end of the day, whether I have made X amount of money or not, or hit my goal or not, or whatever it is, I’m not going to beat myself up. So, it’s a little bit just of, like, you’re doing it. This was good. This was what you accomplished today. Can you sit in that for a little bit?

Amy: I like that.

Jackie: Yeah, I have tons of journals of, like, five things every night, what did you accomplish? And sometimes, it’s like, “I went for a walk.” And then sometimes it’s like, “I led a free five-day training and it was fabulous.” But had to believe in myself that I could accomplish things, have confidence that I was going to in order to start really showing up.

Amy: Oh, I love that, celebrating the small wins every day, whether they’re huge big wins, like polishing off a brilliant five-day training, or whether it’s, “I got out of bed and I got outside.

Jackie: Right, no, like really though, when you’re waffling, that is huge.

Amy: It is. I agree with you. Like, I put on a bra, I got outside.

Jackie: Yeah, I didn’t stay in bed.

Amy: I didn’t stay in bed all day, yes.

Jackie: Like, knowing you’re not going to be in that place forever, it only gets easier. You get used to it, I guess.

Amy: Yeah, it’s funny. I like to think about that too. I think what it is about it only gets easier is, I think, the more accurate statement, it only gets easier getting myself out of this spot. These spots are always going to happen, these moments of doubt – I’m kind of bringing this full circle back to the beginning of one of the biggest things that you learned was having moments of doubt is not a problem. It’s the choosing to stay there and seeing that that is a choice. And I think that’s what actually gets easier, is recognizing the doubt and going, “Oh, I’m doing that thing again. That’s right. I know that I’m the best coach for my clients right now. Oh yeah, that’s right.”

Jackie: Yeah, and I think with the doubt, it’s this idea that you’re not enough as a coach. I think that’s what I’ve struggled with. And I think you were the first person that was like, it’s just a human condition you’re going to think that. I was like, “Oh, so it’s not a huge problem? I don’t need 10 years of therapy to make it to 100K?”

Amy: It’s so true. Really, it’s funny when I think about being a mentor to some coaches, having mentors of my own, the more I have, kind of going back to your pedestal comment, and I think I’ve done even a podcast about that is, some of the biggest gifts that I have learned myself is that, as you said, we are all operating with the same human brain. There’s never this magical place where that won’t be in there. So, these things that we make really huge problems when we’re starting out, I think that’s what’s easier is we just don’t make it as big of a problem. Everybody from top to bottom has moments during the day where, like, this is terrible, I should just pack it up, this is never… It happens all the time. Oh, there it is again. It’s not a big deal.

Jackie: Yeah, and that’s a skill that you practice. And like, I didn’t know that before I joined this mastermind. I really was looking for, like, the place where I would never doubt myself ever again.

Amy: Yeah, that’s not what I taught you. You’re like, “Wait, that was what I wanted.” I love it. So, how can people who are listening to this and they want to stay in touch with you, what’s the best way for people to connect with you?

Jackie: So, I’m mostly on Instagram. That’s my jam. So, it’s @jackieg.skinner.

Amy: Nice. And we’ll have all of these links, we’ll have Jackie’s Instagram and her website and everything in the show notes too. But I wanted to make sure people know, you can find Jackie on Instagram. She has a delightful Instagram feed. She’s cute as a button and I can’t wait to continue following her in this next journey. Anything else that you want to add before we wrap up?

Jackie: I’m just thinking about that coach who is still not sure if 100K is for them, or the 8K months are for them. And I can’t believe it for you. And Amy, you can’t believe it for them. And I know so clearly, it’s inevitable for each person who wants it, no matter what is going on, 2020 included. So, my heart goes out to you if you’re waffling and you’re in that doubt. But I also just know, you’re going to get there.

Amy: You are just truly – even I had forgotten half the stuff that happened to you this year. So, as you told that whole story again, I was like, “This is truly a phenomenal story that you’re sharing.” I kind of forgot about the Dallas and the Detroit and the Chicago, like, oh yeah that’s right, you were homeless at one point. What an incredible 2020 that you are having. I’m so incredibly just honored to have been your coach and now be a mastermind sister with you in our own mastermind. It’s just been a delight to talk to you today, Jackie.

Jackie: Thank you so much for having me. And so much gratitude to you, and kind of the example you set. I think I started stalking you really like way before the mastermind. And just seeing you kind of really own your genius and step into your own confidence, like you’ve been such the example. And now looking at you with two sons and running a super-successful business, I’m like, alright I’ll just keep following Amy. So, I appreciate everything that you’re doing. You’re making a huge impact for me.

Amy: Thank you, my friend. I appreciate you so much. Thank you for being with us here today. I’ll be seeing you on our own mastermind calls.

Jackie: Perfect, thank you.

Amy: You’re welcome.

—

What did I tell you? Is Jackie amazing or what? So, here’s something even more extraordinary. After I stopped recording but we were still on the line, Jackie says, “Oh my goodness, I forgot, we both got COVID too.” I damn near fell out of my chair.

So, her 2020 included getting engaged, living in New York City when COVID hit, her fiancée losing his job, both of them getting COVID, getting a new job in one city, finding out it was moving to another city so then not accepting that job but having already gotten out of their apartment, so then they were homeless, finding out she was pregnant, and then moving back to Charleston. And she still built a five-figure a month business.

She still went from $5000 all of last year to $9000 the first month of this year, all of those events happening and still ending the mastermind, the Confident Coaches Mastermind making 12K and 10K a month, and now she’s on track to make $150,000 this year. What? Holy crap, what a way to apply the work, when you go all in and then really go all in, what is possible.

And all because she learned that having doubt didn’t have to be a problem. It was just a sign that she was a human with a human brain. And believing that’s he was the best coach right now for her clients right now. And most importantly though, having her own back every step of the way, even with all these circumstances happening, setting big goals and achieving them was still possible.

Jackie, your story is inspiring as hell. Friends, make sure you guys are following her on Instagram. Follow us both and tag us both on this episode if this is just what you needed to hear today. Alright, my friends, take this inspiration, don’t just listen to it. Turn it into belief and action for you, okay. Alright, until next week, my friends, let’s go do epic stuff.

Friends, I am so excited to offer you a podcast-only treat. I am sharing with you the five-day Unblock Your Confidence mini course. It is only available to The Confident Coaches Podcast listeners and the only way to get your hands on it is right here. Why do you need this course?

Well, in this five-day mini course, you will learn why it seems like you struggle with confidence when others don’t, how to build trust in yourself, how to get over your fear of failure, how to stop caring so damn much what other people think, and the best thing you can do to unblock your confidence today.

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Thanks so much for listening to The Confident Coaches Podcast. I invite you to learn more. Come visit me at www.amylatta.com and until next week, let’s go do epic stuff.