Jess (00:11.5)
Welcome back to How to 20 something and boy am I excited for today’s guest. I feel like I say this with every guest, but it’s true. And today is extra special because I’m bringing on my coach to talk about what it takes to be an entrepreneur. This is the woman who helps me put out content for all of you, be a better coach for my 20 somethings and honestly help keep my head on straight because this entrepreneurial world is not for the faint of heart, which we’ll get into today.

But it is possible and part of what makes this possible is having your support system like a coach to guide you along the way, which is why I want you guys to hear from mine. I believe in the benefits of coaching and mentorship. So I started working with my coach the moment I left my full time job and have been with her ever since. I’m bringing her on today to talk to you all about the mindset, the trials and tribulations and really just what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

from the words of an extremely successful one, Stacey Brass Russell. So without further ado, I’m going to introduce her to you guys so you know a bit about her background and expertise. Stacey Brass Russell is a transformational business and life coach who helps coaches, experts, creatives, and thought leaders turn their passion into profit using their gifts, skills, and expertise to transform lives and make a bigger impact in the world. Drawing on her decades of experience as a course and curriculum designer,

teacher trainer and event leader. She works with clients to develop their unique signature system and increase their visibility to attract ideal clients with authentic marketing and human focused business strategies. Stacey’s career spans from Broadway actress to yoga studio owner to inspirational speaker and host of her popular podcast, Passionate and Prosperous. She has helped hundreds of people overcome big life changes and challenges, do the next big thing.

rewire their brains for success and confidently pursue the lives and businesses of their dreams before they even know how to do it. Stacey has been featured in Forbes, the New York Post, Entrepreneur, and was named one of NYC’s top 15 coaches in 2023 and 2024 by Influence Digest. Hi Stacey, welcome to How to 20 -something.

Stacey (02:27.598)
Hi Jess, I’m so excited to be here and thank you so much for having me.

Jess (02:33.664)
I’m so glad you’re here and for the audience, I’m a little nervous to have her here, but I’ve been working with you for two and a half years. So I know a bit of your story, but for my listeners who don’t know you, can you talk about how you started your entrepreneurial journey from leaving college and progressing from your twenties until now?

Stacey (02:54.592)
Absolutely. you know, when I, I don’t think that a lot of people think of themselves as entrepreneurs when they are working for themselves, essentially. I was an actor, actress, actor. And so when I left college, I was pursuing my career in show business and looking back on it, I will say that I think that is an entrepreneurial journey because you are

making your own way in the world, you know, and even though you are relying on other people to give you the job or cast you, there’s a lot that you have to do on your own in order to get that work, you know, and in order to stay in the game, stay the course. So I was an actor for a good part of my life and I transitioned into teaching yoga not…

thinking that it was gonna be another big career, but really originally it was, well, I really don’t love waiting tables. Like when you’re in between gigs as an actor, you gotta work and make money. And I did all the things, right? When I was in between acting jobs, and I had a lot of acting jobs, so it’s not like I was the out of work actor my whole life, but in between jobs, I did everything. I mean, I was a temp.

I, you know, an office temp, I worked at toy fair at the big trade shows. I worked sample sales. I worked in catering. I worked in events. I worked in restaurants. You know, I did anything that anyone asked me to do for money. I did. And so that was a lot of, I built up a lot of experience that way. And a lot of, I learned how to do a lot of things, you know? And, but I also,

didn’t love the inconsistency and also I didn’t love all those things that I was doing. And so when I started practicing yoga, this was like before yoga was nearly as popular as it is now, I really loved yoga. I mean, it made perfect sense. I come from a performing background, I love a dance background, I loved the movement and I especially loved the way it made me feel like mentally. Like it felt like it was…

Stacey (05:13.954)
It felt like it was mental health as well as something that I love doing physically. And so I had this great idea that I could teach yoga to make money instead of all those other jobs while I was in between acting gigs because I thought, well, I might as well do something that I love and that I think I’m good at, you know? And so I started teaching yoga. took yoga teacher training and I started teaching yoga and

it was kind of addictive to have something that I really enjoyed doing and that I also could, I was getting a lot of classes and a lot of one -on -one clients, people requesting to have one -on -one yoga with me, private yoga. And I started making pretty good money. it was still a little bit of a hustle, but it was the first time that I had a knowable

Like I was in control. I was in control. I wasn’t just waiting for other people to give me the acting job, but I could be really proactive and seek out as many classes as I wanted to teach or look for as many one -on -one clients as I wanted to have. And I started realizing that I had a lot more control over making money myself than I had realized. And so that became a little bit of an addiction.

I want to make money my own way. I don’t want to wait for other people.” That led to a pretty successful yoga teaching career and I eventually opened my own yoga studio, which I did have partners, but very big risky leap to step into the unknown without a lot of savings or a lot of guarantee and opening up this business with the hopes that

because so many students liked us, you know, that they would want to come to our studio. And I did that for seven years. And the owning of the yoga studio and having two business partners started to not feel so good anymore. I think the big part was having business partners. You know, when the alignment and the vision wasn’t there anymore, how we wanted to grow the business and how we wanted to

Stacey (07:39.556)
show up in our mission had really shifted for us. And I didn’t want to have to stay in a business where I felt like I was having to conform to other people’s wishes or where I was unhappy because there was friction and a little bit of a toxic environment. And so right before I was turning 50,

Jess (07:55.606)
Thank

Stacey (08:06.172)
I made another huge leap. This was probably the biggest entrepreneurial leap because I was leaving the security of a business that I had built for seven years that was making money to go off again and start something from scratch. And I started my coaching business. I did my certification while I was still, you know, had the yoga studio and I had no idea.

how I was going to do this business. And it’s now been six, around six years, maybe a little bit more. And I think I have a very successful business. So when I look back, I would say my journey has always been relatively entrepreneurial because I literally never went the route of get a degree and then, you know.

go plug into the job market and get a job with benefits and have a schedule. I’ve literally never had that.

Jess (09:10.378)
Okay, so you went from… Because you started school, we missed that part. Left school, didn’t finish the degree, which I think is honestly pretty cool, especially for the time. I think it’s slowly becoming more normal for people to not have a college degree. But you went from being an actress on your own to picking up side jobs, to having a yoga studio, to now being a coach. And that’s what you’ve been doing. And I like how you started.

Stacey (09:36.386)
Yeah. Yeah. And like you said, sometimes I get a little bit, and you’ve heard me talk about this because I’m very transparent because I want my clients to know about the human. You know, we’re all human and we all have a lot of stuff to deal with. know, you’re right, I didn’t get my college degree. I mean, it was for a good reason. I got cast in a Broadway show and I took a leave of absence. And when

I wanted to go back, I went to NYU. When I wanted to go back and finish, I no longer could afford NYU. And they didn’t really seem to care that I had done three years of school. And they didn’t really wanna work with me and help me like apply my life experience. I mean, you’d think that if you were on Broadway and then you were a theater major, they might give you a little credit for that, but they didn’t. And so I made…

I had to make a decision, which was, you know, I’m not gonna go back. And, you know, all these years later, I literally turned 56 a few days ago. And, you know, every once in a while, my imposter syndrome pops up, which is, you know, who am I to be, you know, saying that I help people with business and doing all this when I don’t even have a college degree?

Jess (10:58.112)
which I think is funny, not in the ha ha I’m laughing at you sense, but in the sense that I have an interior design degree and I love telling people that I have a degree that I don’t even remotely use anymore. it’s mainly, I mean, it works well for when I’m talking to college students and they’re stressed about it or even high school students who are approaching mid to end of high school. And I’m like, it’s not that serious, especially in today’s world. It’s not that serious, but.

Stacey (11:12.089)
Right.

Jess (11:27.872)
can understand where the imposter syndrome comes up. What I do want to say is that when you first started explaining your journey, you said you didn’t consider yourself an entrepreneur at first. maybe this is a universal experience that I didn’t even realize, but it took me a while to own that title. I would just be like, I’m self -employed. I’m not an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur invents something, something tangible.

Then it really took me a while. was like, well, coaching does have tangible results. I am building a business and it took a while, but how had, at what point did your vision change and when did you start to own and step into the entrepreneurial spirit and just own up to it? Like, this is who I am. This is what I do.

Stacey (12:13.294)
Well, you know, I think again, the word itself, the title, I don’t think I really fully identified with that until I started this business and had my own business like by myself, you know, even with the yoga studio, I think because I had worked at a yoga studio first and I was the manager and I ran the teacher training, I had really worked my way up at someone else’s business. And then when I opened mine, I had two partners.

And so I don’t even think I fully identified as an entrepreneur until I started this business and had my own business. But when I look back and when I need to look for evidence, which is something that you know that I work with everyone on and coaching, is whenever we start doubting ourselves or feeling unsure about what we’re doing, we have to look for the evidence of our success.

why we’re qualified and why we’re the people to be doing what we’re doing, when I look for the evidence, and even when I look back at my, when I started teaching yoga and how I was getting requests to teach one -on -one yoga, and I started out doing what so many people do, which is trading time for money, right? Like I’d say, okay, at first it was probably $75 a session or something.

And you know, I would show up to someone’s apartment. live in New York City, so it was apartments, not houses. And I would show up and then I’d get my $75. Like a couple of months in, I realized I can’t pay my rent if I’m just getting dribs and drabs of like $75 here, $75 there. And so I think one of my first brilliant entrepreneurial moments was when I said, from now on, if somebody wants

me to be their private yoga teacher, they have to pay for 10 sessions at a time. And I’m going to charge them $100 a session. So every time they reload, I get $1 ,000. And that felt like monumental, know, like where I was like, I’m switching over from feeling like I’m an hourly worker to someone who is not really discharging like

Stacey (14:36.184)
like that time for money thing, but who’s really thinking in a bigger picture and saying, well, wait a minute, like if you want me to be the person that teaches you and you think I have something unique and special that makes you want me to be your teacher, well, then this is how you can pay for it. And I think that that might have been one of my first entrepreneurial aha moments. And as you know, as my client,

You know, I, and that’s why I went into the coaching business already knowing you should not exchange, you know, time for money. You should not charge by the session. should create something that is yours, something that is proprietary, something that makes you the person that your client specifically wants to work with. And then they’re going to pay for that. And, and, and that’s what I’ve been teaching my clients ever since.

You know, I started business coaching, but that I think was one of my first major moments as an entrepreneur and realizing, wait a minute, I get to set the terms and the pricing and I get to create the model that’s going to give me the life and the, the, the income and the revenue the way I want it to be. And I think that that’s a big definition of being an entrepreneur is when you take ownership that you get to control.

your experience of your business. And as an entrepreneur, you get to decide what is your business model? What is your, how are people gonna pay you? What are you charging? And that’s a big deal to shift from the mindset, the money mindset, as you know, of even being scared to charge people.

Jess (16:27.456)
Yeah, and I think entrepreneurs come in all walks of lives. I know you work with lot of creatives, entrepreneurs, coaches, that realm, but I like a lot of the people listening aren’t necessarily going into coaching. They might be, and if you are, hi, welcome.

Stacey (16:41.292)
yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no. Entrepreneurship is anything that you decide you’re going to, I think, you’re gonna create your own way. You’re gonna create, whether it’s a product, whether it’s a service, whether it’s a, you know, whatever it is, it’s deciding that you’re gonna create your own business, right? And whether you’re selling something that’s tangible, you know, I always use the example of couch, you know, or if you’re selling a service.

you know, or your expertise, right? You’re a consultant. Like, but when you create your own business and you set the terms and I don’t think you have to invent a product to feel like you’re, you’re inventing something new because anyone who turns their own unique gifts and expertise and skills and your special way that you’ve learned how to do something and you put your mark on it.

It’s yours and you invented it and, and therefore you’re an entrepreneur.

Jess (17:45.012)
Yeah, I love that definition. When it comes to pricing, whether it’s a service or a product, whatever it may be, what would you recommend someone do when it comes to being able to profit off of what it is of the business that they’re building?

Stacey (18:04.174)
What a great question. So the other beautiful thing about entrepreneurship, and I don’t know if this really applies to products, okay? Like obviously, like if you’ve created a product and there are other products like it out there, you know, you’re gonna have a hard time charging triple for yours than everyone else charges, right? But I do think when you are, when you’re offering a service or something that is,

that it’s tangible in that you’re telling people the details and logistics and you have clarity, but there’s all this other stuff in there which has to do with what you bring to the table and your experience and your expertise and all of that. I think there’s a little bit more, you’ll see a greater range in the marketplace when that’s what we’re talking about. So here’s what I’m gonna say. I think that whenever we’re…

starting out pricing our services. There’s so many factors that or our products. There’s so many factors that go into it. One is knowing the market, right? Of whatever it is that you’re selling. What is the current market for that? And what is the median or the average price range that things are going for in your business? That’s always an important thing to at least know to start with.

The second thing that you really want to pay attention to is your own, we use the word mindset, it’s a big term, but like your own mindset. Because when you’re starting out and you’re literally the one declaring how much your amazing service or product costs, there’s a lot of that goes into you having the confidence and the courage and getting over if you’ve got any

issues around believing that people are going to pay you, you know, like to tell someone how much it costs to work with you, you have to have, you have to have a lot of confidence in, in, in what you’re offering and also in that people are going to say yes, right? So when we start out, I always say, make it an easy yes. But then the other beautiful thing about entrepreneurship is that you get to change or raise your prices at any time. And how do we do that?

Stacey (20:27.192)
Well, then we start to use certain markers for ourselves, right? Like when you’re getting enough sales at a certain price point, you might realize, okay, wow, like this is validated, this is established. I’m gonna see how it feels to go up from here. As you start to become more experienced and seen as more of an authority or an expert in your industry based on your experience and

your social proof, we call it your testimonials and stuff, you’re going to feel more justified that like people are going to pay a higher price to get what you’re offering. And, you know, and then of course, as you evolve and scale your business in whatever way you’re scaling it, you also, you know, figure out that you can have a range of offers and some things are more expensive than others. And it might be based on

how much access people still get to you as the main person. Let’s say you start building a team and you have people that work with you or for you. Entrepreneurs build teams, right? So there’s so many factors that go into your pricing. And then as far as profitability, I’m just gonna go back, because you asked about that too. I’m gonna say the most profitable way to have a business is to recognize that you’re gonna do

pretty much everything yourself or almost everything yourself, unless there’s something you can’t do yourself for a while. And you need to establish your business that way. And then there’s gonna be a little bit of a scary time when you do start spending money for your business, whether that’s hiring your first, maybe virtual assistant to help you out or spend money on your coach or…

Jess (21:59.114)
you

Stacey (22:16.194)
You know, like any of the things that we are starting to maybe invest in some more tools for your business, like, you know, that you maybe you didn’t start with, but like a client management system or, you know, and so the profitability piece is just always looking at what are you spending to have your business? And in the beginning, I don’t see any reason why if somebody wants to have their own business and you know, I’m a big

I’m big on not making people think that you can just have some passive income business that makes tons of money in your sleep. I don’t think anyone starts out that way. I think people try to dangle that in front of people as something that they can have, but they’re not always telling the story of how long or what it really takes to get to that place.

Jess (22:45.484)
Thank

Jess (22:49.142)
Yeah.

Jess (23:11.968)
been running my business for three years now. I left the corporate world two and a half years ago, but I’m still a one woman show. I haven’t hired out. I do spend money to upgrade on things like Calendly and MailChimp and just different things that my business needs to run more efficiently. But it’s not I haven’t hired out anybody, but you have. What was that decision like? Because you mentioned that it is scary. You do have to take a moment and pause and think for yourself. So

How did you go about finding your team, building the team, any struggles that you’ve had with some team members? Maybe you’ve had to let go or conflicts, just everything that it comes with, you’re no longer just you running your business.

Stacey (23:54.752)
Yeah, that’s a great question. So when I hired my first virtual assistant, I had already been doing all the things myself for a while and I had a successful business. I don’t think that I hired my first virtual assistant until I was at Six Figures, but I don’t know that that’s necessarily what you have. I don’t think that you have to be making Six Figures before you hire a virtual assistant.

I, some of my clients, I recommend that they hire someone. Like if I’m working with someone and so this is what I’m going to tell you. For me, it was when my, the requirements in my business, I was starting to send out more emails because I had programs running. Plus I, you know, was being very consistent with my email list and I was having more graphic design needs. You know, I was

putting out more workshops or programs or creating more assets. It takes me a really long time and I don’t enjoy it at all to work in a program called Canva that so many business owners use because it’s a great tool for creating social media graphics and for creating lots of stuff that we need. We need visuals in our business.

And I found that doing some of that and setting up the emails in the system, right? I had MailChimp at the time and you know, doing those tasks were starting to feel like they were taking me away from my zone of genius, right? From like doing the things that really required me to do them, which was to show up on social media, to create my own content, right? But then to do those other things.

it felt like it was now sucking my time, you know, and it was taking me away. And that’s because of where I was in my business. On the other hand, you know, I sometimes, and so also I taught myself Canva and how to use MailChimp and all those things and did all those things. I always say I did them in a very scrappy way by the seat of my pants, but I did them. And, you know, but I’ll get clients who come to me

Stacey (26:16.748)
and they don’t have any clients yet, but some of the tasks like getting their, you we talk about having a free resource called a lead magnet, getting that turned into a PDF that looks good and then setting it up with the email system and the tech stuff, it is so irksome for them and their brain just doesn’t work this way that after enough frustration,

Jess (26:29.844)
Thank

Stacey (26:45.612)
and enough time of it taking forever for them to do one thing in their business and it’s taking them away from doing the things that they really should be doing to get clients, I might say to someone, I really think it’s worth it for you to hire someone. You don’t need a million hours, you like you don’t need someone full time, but even five hours right now, you know, of someone who can bang this out and it’s easy for them is worth it. So I think that

when we hire, the first thing we usually hire is someone like that, right? A virtual assistant who maybe is gonna take some admin off our plate or take some of that stuff that like takes us twice as long to do as it would take them and is taking us away from doing the things that are really what we’re supposed to be doing in our business. For me, I had that virtual assistant and

a couple of months, maybe it was a year, I felt I started to have more empowerment around that she wasn’t the right fit for me because she really wanted to have very strict hours of availability and she had a very long turnaround time for things and that just started not working for me. And so I hired my next person and that was a short -lived thing because she wasn’t as adept at

the design elements. I didn’t really love what she created for me and that wasn’t really her strong suit and that’s a big part for me. So not everybody has to have a very strong visual brand, but I do. I mean, I don’t have to, but I make that choice, right? so there was that and she was lovely, but also she wasn’t as meticulous as I am. So I’m a very, very

meticulous person with punctuation and typos and I really don’t like to send things out with mistakes on them and you know, and that’s me. And if I was doing everything myself, I would be triple checking it. And so giving over control to someone else, you know, I learned through that person that I needed to work with someone who was way more meticulous, you know? And so then my next person that I, that became my assistant was

Stacey (29:12.202)
actually someone who I hired to redo my website and she also offered virtual assistant services. And so I went all in with her and that was amazing. And then during that time, and now I am a coach and I have a coaching business. So my business was getting bigger. So I hired two coaches who now work for me, who you know very well.

Jess (29:28.353)
You

Jess (29:40.278)
Thank

Stacey (29:40.328)
and they coach in my program along with me. So that was a hire. This is part of my team. And then I started my podcast and I know you do everything yourself. I started my podcast at a point in my business where I was already running a pretty robust business and I really didn’t want to take on the tasks of knowing how to edit my podcast or like do any of those things.

And so, you know, I have a podcast editor slash producer who makes my social media reels along with the show. And then I, my designer decided she didn’t want to do virtual assisting anymore, just design. So Ashley is still my design person. And we do a lot of stuff because I run a lot of workshops and programs and I have a lot of dashboards and pages and all kinds of things all the time.

And plus I run my Academy, which is a website in and of itself. then so recently in the spring, I hired for the first time someone who’s called an online business manager. So she’s a little bit more than a virtual assistant in that she’s really someone who kind of now she manages me a little bit, right? so, so the way with everyone else, was like, managed everyone else and now

I have someone who sort of makes sure I’m doing the things that I need to do. so that’s been a big shift. So I technically have five people on my team right now.

Jess (31:20.02)
Yeah, which is incredible. And I think really where it comes down to is that you’re taking a risk on the people you’re hiring. Obviously, you’re doing your research and you know most of these people prior to bringing them on your team, but it’s still an investment. the last episode, the last guest that I brought on talked about he went back to grad school and it was an investment in his education.

and I think a lot of people have different money stories and different relationships to money. You talk a lot about how people’s three most valuable resources are time, money, and energy, and that everything in life requires you to invest in one, two, or all three of them. Can you elaborate a little more on that and put it in terms of a 20 -something listening and how that can show up in their life or in their business that they’re wanting to build?

Stacey (32:13.642)
Absolutely. So this is such a great topic. think I’ve made so many podcast episodes on this because, and I’ll tell you one of the ways that it started was one time in a Facebook group that I’m in of like coaches and whatever, I saw someone make a post and what she was asking was that she had the opportunity to like pay to have a

I think a booth at some sort of I don’t know, health fair or something. And she made a post saying, who here has done this? What is the ROI? She literally was like, is this a good investment? Will I get an ROI or return on my investment? And it really, I immediately was like, well, you’re not gonna…

You’re not gonna go to some health fair with a booth and stand there as a health coach and be able to show when you came away from that health fair that you got three new clients that are paying you $1 ,500. But the ROI of spending some money to have that booth and standing at that booth, which is your time and your energy for eight hours, the ROI may be that you come away with 10 people

that expressed interest in knowing more and now they’re gonna be on your email list and now you can reach out to them and now you can cultivate a relationship with them and maybe they’re gonna become a client now or maybe they’ll become a client six months from now if you’re doing the right thing in your business. And so sometimes our ROI on things doesn’t come back in the same currency that we invested in, right?

And so that made me that that just sparked like this whole, you know, where I realized, wait, people need to hear this. Right. And so another reason why I started talking about this was how many people start businesses because somehow they think that that is going to give them all this time freedom. And they’re like, I’m going to be an entrepreneur and I’m going to make my own hours and I’m going to have all this like lifestyle freedom and I can work from anywhere. And.

Stacey (34:36.676)
What they’re not really realizing is that there’s a huge investment of time and energy that you have to put in to get something going before you’re gonna see the monetary return and before you’re gonna get to the point where you can turn that business into something where you’ve got all of that time freedom. And that brings us to investing in the team. Nobody that’s out there claiming that they work 10 hours a week and have this super successful business doesn’t.

Jess (34:42.22)
Thank

Stacey (35:05.462)
isn’t actually paying other people to help them run their business. Like that’s the whole point, right? And then the thing about the investing in your education, and this is something that I hear so much from a lot of the people that are in my world, which is you spend money to get a certification or to up your education in what you really wanna do, which I’m a huge fan of. mean, I have so many…

I have the highest level of yoga certifications you could ever imagine. I mean, I’ve taken more advanced trainings to be a yoga teacher and a meditation teacher and I know so much. And then on top of that, I’m a master level coach. I’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars in my own mastery of my craft, right? This is me. I’m a lifelong studier and learner and I always want to be

better at what I do, but I don’t think of those investments as investing them in my business. I think of those investments as investing them in my craft, my skills, and in myself as a person. And then investing in my business, right, is not the same thing. But there are many, many people who invest in getting a skill or a certification or whatever, and then they come out into the world.

and they want to start a business doing it and they are having a hard time figuring out how to do that. Maybe they don’t really know anything about marketing or about, you know, packaging their services or how to attract clients. Maybe they don’t even know how to really create their own niche and really, like really get clear on.

what sets them apart from other people, whatever. There’s so many things about business, including systems and all the things, right? And most people come out and go to start a business and they realize that unless they had some sort of prior experience doing that, they don’t know where to begin at all and they’ve realized that they need help. But they’re very reluctant or resistant to pay.

Stacey (37:20.174)
for the business coach or for the thing that’s gonna help them with the business because they’re mixing up the investment that they just made. They’re thinking, but I just spent all this money on my business. it’s like, well, no, you didn’t. You actually spent money on a skill and to get better at doing something.

and now you want to have a business, but you didn’t have a business when you spent that money. So please don’t think that you were investing money in your business because your business didn’t exist yet, right? So the time, energy and money thing as your three main commodities are, you know, this is what you’re always going to be investing in getting anything that you want. And sometimes investing money is the way that you’re going to get where you want to go or get what you want.

faster because you’re taking something off your plate or you’re accelerating your growth of learning by paying for it. And the alternative is to invest a lot more time and energy. And in some cases, that means it’s going to take you a lot longer.

Jess (38:30.348)
Yeah, and I mean, when I found you, I knew that any successful entrepreneur, all they talk about is have a great mentor, have someone that can show you the ropes, can teach you what you’re doing. And I was like, I need a business coach. I knew that from the start. And I know my clients come to me and they invest their money to save time or to save confusion, which that confusion is energy. I had a 23 year old earlier this year say, need help with her nutrition. And she’s like, there’s so much out there on the Internet.

Just want you to tell me what I need to do to take care of myself to be healthier to know what I need to be eating and how I need to be moving my body because that’s a lot of wasted time of me trying to search through all of these influencers online and everything and I think a lot of up -and -coming entrepreneurs Get lost in that they get lost in the social media the lost in the glam of what you were saying of I work 10 hours a day My mom made a point to me

probably within the first year of me being fully self -employed. And she said, you’re working way more hours than you were with just a 40 hour work week when I had my nine to five. And I was like, yeah. And she’s like, but you’re loving it. And I was like, yeah, it’s different. I’m not feeling drained by the end of the day. I am putting in a ton of work. I do have like 16 hour days almost every single day. And it is exhausting, but I’m building something bigger. And

As an entrepreneur who’s been an entrepreneur for a few years now, it’s so important to keep that vision in mind of this is the start. I’m working towards building something for future me to be able to fully bask in. And I feel like I’m starting to bask in it now. it’s all thanks to you because I found my mentor. So for those of you listening, you need to find yours. It can be Stacey, but you need to find someone that you want to follow in their footsteps.

and that you agree with their form of business strategy. Stacey is an organic business coach. She wants all of us, as well as herself, to find clients organically out in the real world. I don’t find any clients on social media. I have not gotten a single client from posting on Instagram. And that’s such a key part to remember.

Stacey (40:40.697)
Right.

Stacey (40:47.01)
Yeah. you know, Jess, I mean, the other thing, I just want to go back to something that you said that was so such a mindset shift for that I hear for you that from you, which is that you recognize, right, that you have clients out there that would be that are willing to pay to get a speedier outcome, right? That the end and to get and to not have to go through

all of what you said about the sorting through all the stuff out there. And I love, I just wanna say that I love that you recognize that because I think that that’s a really important thing for anyone who’s wanting to be an entrepreneur to know, which is that there are many, many things that make something valuable to someone and make them feel that they would rather spend the money to get the outcome that they want than

then try to do it themselves. And that’s a big motivating factor. And then the other thing that I wanna just say about working 16 hour days and stuff and about me being your mentor, I always like to tell everybody, it also depends on what you’re here to do in the world, right? And I think that one of the reasons why you and I are so well matched as in our partnership is that you…

want to do things the way I do them, right? Which is you do love, you want to have your podcast. That takes a lot of time and effort and that’s a labor of love, right? I mean, like us podcasting, we do that because we feel like this is another way that we can get our voice and our message out into the world. And we love doing it. Not everybody wants to have a podcast. Not everybody wants to be a speaker the way you do, right? We spend a lot of time working on

your speaking and what your talks are gonna be and how we can take your expertise and your thought leadership and your message and turn it into that kind of content, right? Not everybody wants to do that. Being who we wanna be and having the kind of businesses we wanna have takes more time, you know? And so I also think it’s important for people to really think about what is their vision.

Stacey (43:08.524)
and what is their mission and what are they really here to do in the world and to recognize that the more you wanna do and the bigger you wanna be, the more time and energy it’s gonna take for you to do that. There’s no magic formula to, there’s no such thing as an overnight success. Anyone who you think is an overnight success because the moment you discovered them, you’re like, my God, they just won their first Grammy, right? Believe me, they didn’t start playing music last month. You know what I mean?

I went to the Newport Jazz Festival and one of the women who I saw, she just won best jazz vocal album Grammy, but she has been doing what she does for 25 years. She’s been in the business. And so it’s just so important to remember there’s no such thing as an overnight success.

Jess (44:01.74)
is gonna say, no offense, but a more relatable example is I watched a TikTok and it was on Sabrina Carpenter. And it said that this girl is so successful right now, but she’s been doing this for over 10 years. And then it played a clip of her doing the hoedown throwdown, applying for a Miley Cyrus special guest event. you, this is not something that happens.

Stacey (44:06.433)
Hahaha.

Jess (44:29.578)
in the blink of an eye. It is a slow growth and I think it’s putting that into perspective and being realistic with what building a business looks like. You need the savings for it. You need to plan for it.

Stacey (44:41.988)
Absolutely. And there are a lot of people out there who promote quitting your job and everything. And you know from me, I I’ve told you a million times that for the first two years that I had my coaching business, even though I didn’t own the yoga studio anymore, I made them put it in my agreement when I broke up from the partnership. I had a contract that said that they had to keep me on.

as a teacher and teaching the teacher trainings and stuff and paying me a certain amount of money for, was a year, I ended up staying for two, you know, they just let me. But when I was building my business and coaching and starting to coach, you know, a lot, I was still teaching a lot of yoga because I, and I was working so much and I was already in my 50s, you know, and that’s the other thing is,

when people are like, but I’m old. I wanted my life to be X, Y, and Z. And I’m like, well, it doesn’t always work out that way. And so I was working so much. And so when I have people come to me and they’re younger, especially than me, and they’re like, they have some idea that they’re gonna be able to quit their job without, like you planned for it and you saved and you’re so…

You’re amazing about your budgeting and about your spreadsheets. mean, you when you report your quarterly earnings to me and we talk about like the numbers and how many clients and you’re incredible. Not everybody realizes that, that, that you need to do that, you know, or you need to be okay with, you know, with the not knowing, you know, and with the not knowing how and when the money’s going to come and

You said you want to talk a little bit about how entrepreneurship is not really for the faint of heart. I don’t remember if that was the words that you said. I always say it’s not for the faint of heart. yeah, one of the reasons is your business doesn’t become a knowable steady income where you can know that you’re going to make X amount of dollars every month or every week the way you used to when you got a paycheck.

Jess (46:44.17)
Yeah, that’s I say.

Stacey (47:02.148)
You knew what that paycheck was going to be down to the cent after taxes. It was the same amount every two weeks or however you got paid. In your business, in entrepreneurship, it doesn’t work that way. You might make great money one month and a lot of money came in one month and then for the next two months, it’s none or very little. You have to be prepared to look at your business not…

as a day -to -day thing. You can’t wake up every morning and go to sleep every night going, didn’t make money today. It’s not like that. And you really have to learn from somebody how to look at your business and how to manage your mind when you have those times when things don’t feel as lucrative and the money isn’t coming. And what do you do?

to keep yourself in a higher vibration so that you don’t fall into the energy and mindset that is not gonna serve you and then you’re not gonna make more money in your business because you’re like all low and feeling all defeated and you’re not showing up.

Jess (48:14.966)
So on the topic of mindset, what do you think is crucial for an entrepreneur to succeed in the way that they think about themselves, their business, their life, just everything?

Stacey (48:26.478)
Well, I think it’s crucial to have practices that you do. don’t think that anybody that you would talk to that’s like super successful, and I mean like successful like at my level, whatever, all the way up to like, I don’t know, bazillionaires, know, unless they’re like kookaloonie. I don’t think anyone is gonna tell you that they don’t know that there are habits and practices that everyone has to do.

in order to keep your, I said it earlier, your vibration high, right? I I talk a lot about how your human brain is designed to basically keep you alive and keep you safe. And that’s what your human brain is programmed for. It’s not really programmed for ultimate fulfillment. It’s not really programmed for fulfilling your purpose.

It’s not really programmed for doing risky big things in order to take your life and business to the next level. It’s not the settings. Those are settings that you have to intentionally put in. Otherwise, you’re waking up every day like it’s Groundhog Day and you’ve got these default settings of your brain that are going to put you into what your brain thinks is gonna protect you the most. And what your brain thinks is gonna protect you the most is gonna be stay the same.

Don’t do anything different. Don’t make any big sudden moves. Don’t make any big changes. No one likes change. Familiarity is much better. Comfort zone is where it’s at, right? These are your default settings. Not believing in anything, being skeptical, being very, very jaded. And especially if you don’t have…

any kind of spiritual practice. And when I say spiritual practice, it’s just the best word because I’m not talking about religious practice. I’m talking about having some sense of like that there is a greater energy out there, that there is a universe and that there are universal laws. There are laws of attraction. There are laws of, you know, there are laws of energy and the way things work. you want to participate in that,

Stacey (50:44.864)
You can be part of that, but all of that is intentional and it all takes practice. so waking up every day and recognizing that your mind is going to go on to default unless you do something else. And then the more that we do that, you know, we don’t always go all the way back to default zero. You know, we wake up on some days we’re like feeling good, but there’s always going to be ups and downs and there’s always going to be.

hardship and the hardships not only in business, it’s also in life. I mean, you’ve made so many episodes and you talk all the time about moving, you know, and having to start a new friend group and you know, that’s your whole niche, your whole thing is like navigating, you know, all of the challenges that come up in life.

And then imagine doing that while also trying to like start and run your own business. I’m not even saying imagine, you know, you don’t have to imagine it’s you. And, you know, so we have to have tools for that. And so, you know, I would say that, you know, knowing how to connect to your higher self, meaning like knowing how to get out of the everyday, the mundane and knowing how to recognize which thoughts are the thoughts that are like your ego and

old limiting stories, know, stuff that you default back to where you start thinking about every time things didn’t go your way instead of all the times things did go your way. Right? So we can remind ourselves of our successes. We have to build up our resilience, right? And we really do have to trust that confidence is built.

It’s built by doing, it’s built by taking risks and stepping outside your comfort zone. And every time you survive doing that, you build up a little more confidence. so, know, having courage and resilience are the foundation of being able to take the actions that will build your confidence. So the mindset stuff, mindset’s such a big word, but I think what’s really important is to get in the habit of recognizing what your slippery slope is.

Jess (52:43.476)
Thank

Jess (52:50.398)
We need to do something.

Stacey (52:59.416)
Like what is your tendency? When do you go to default? And then having the right tools and practices in place that are going to help you to get out of that. Even if it feels fake for a minute and you feel like you’re acting as if. But as soon as you act as if and you put that into your nervous system, something changes.

Jess (53:18.529)
you

Jess (53:25.568)
Well, you said it all. I want to stay kind of on this topic where if life is getting hard, you’re still on your own. Your business is your doing. You’re not going to make money without you taking action. And that’s part of one of the toughest parts of being self -employed is that it’s all on you. You’re creating your own deadlines. You’re making sure everything gets done so you can continue to succeed.

Stacey (53:28.028)
Yeah.

Jess (53:52.7)
even when the world around you feels like just keeps hitting the fan. What are some of your techniques to staying disciplined and making sure things get done maybe even if your world feels like it’s falling apart around you?

Stacey (54:07.022)
Well, first of all, having a support team, right? So, you have me, right? I know you don’t have like an assistant yet or anything like that. That helps, right? When you’ve got people that can do stuff for you, you know, and they’re, I mean, my online business manager has been asking me every day, you know, you know about this, about me, Jess, your audience doesn’t, but I’ve had a pretty challenging couple of months. have an aging.

parent who has needed a lot of support in the last few months. It’s been very stressful for myself and my brother and our families, my husband, his wife. We’ve all been rallying and it’s been a lot like more than any other time I would say in my life. And my online business manager, know, asks me on the daily like, what can I do? How can I help? Right? So that’s really great. And having my coach, I have more than one coach, my coach, my

my network of colleagues, I surround myself constantly. So a lot of that helps my mindset. It helps me to feel like things are gonna be okay, even when they don’t feel okay. So that’s first of all. But then second of all, it’s having an order of importance of the things that you know, you are like the things that are the must do’s in your business, right? So I always say,

I wake up every day and no matter what’s going on, if I already have people that are paying me, which I always do, I mean, there’s always people that are my clients and that are in my programs, my first priority is I’m just gonna serve those people no matter what, because they’ve already paid me, they’re already invested, they’re already a part of my business, and it is of the utmost importance to me that…

at a bare minimum, I’m serving my clients. That is always like my first order of business, right? And then I look at like, what is my debt? Do I have deadlines? Do I have something that’s important that I’ve already committed to in my business? Like for example, I have an event coming up at the end of October, right? There’s stuff that has to happen for that. I have other things that have deadlines. I’m presenting in something and

Stacey (56:23.306)
at the New York Public Library next week and I have a deadline. So then I look at like what’s already happening that has deadlines and what do I really need to do and how can I plan to make sure I execute on those things. I have task boards. I have things that remind me of deadlines and things. But then with all those other things that have to do with like getting more business, right? The marketing, the promotion, the getting new clients or the selling more, whatever. Sometimes

I know that that’s gonna take a backseat, right? I’m gonna go in order of the things that feel like they’re of priority. And it’s always gonna be my clients and delivering in service to the people that are already paying me. Then it’s gonna be, what have I already committed to? How can I make sure that I’m getting in, even if it feels like the bare minimum of those things? And how can I ask for support if I need it? And then I’m gonna go to, okay,

Jess (57:15.828)
Thank

Stacey (57:21.154)
I don’t want to drop the reins completely. So what is my lowest lift of making me feel like I’m not losing touch with my business? And so for me, that’s continuing to do my podcast. And it’s also doing personal outreach. Like if there are people who I had been nurturing or in contact with and making sure to keep those lines of communication open. And then I’ll be honest with you, the thing that happens last is like,

promotion and marketing, like, ooh, I have to show up on social media. And I don’t mean to like put that down, but I’m just saying when life is hard, you have to have a system for how you prioritize what’s gonna be the most important stuff for you to focus on. so that you’re not, you can’t shut down, but you have to have a way of sort of deciding what is gonna, where can you put the time and energy and focus that you have?

Was that a helpful answer?

Jess (58:19.37)
I agree. That was a helpful answer. I have one more question for you before we wrap up today. And it’s, is there anything you wish you knew before starting your entrepreneurial journey at whatever point you started to define being an entrepreneur?

Stacey (58:36.046)
Ha ha ha, yes, you know what I’m gonna say. I’m gonna say that I wish I knew that growing an audience or like building a way of having people on an email list or who like are in your audience or that you’re, know, like focusing on building something.

where you’re building a pool or an audience of potential clients. I wish I knew that as early as possible because I was very fortunate in that my clients, originally my yoga clients came from the fact that I worked at someone’s yoga studio. Then my original coaching clients came from the fact that I owned a yoga studio. And then once that well dried up,

I realized, shit, I’m like out in the world now and I don’t know where to get clients. And so I think that like, I think that I wish I knew earlier what it really took to find clients out in the wild, out in the wild, right? When someone’s not, when they weren’t like readily available or being handed to me. And I think I would have loved to have been like focusing on that earlier.

Jess (59:57.526)
So when you guys get emails from me, if you’re on my email list, just know Stacey’s making me do this.

Stacey (01:00:03.998)
wait, blame it on me. Blame it on me. It was the number one thing that Jess had to, it was one of our biggest battles, but I still hold firm in it. I hold steady in that you need something of your own. You can’t live on social media. You can’t rely on social media. Do not build a business on social media. You don’t own it. Mark owns it. Google owns it. Like Microsoft owns, I think, LinkedIn. The thing is,

Social media platforms are not yours, you don’t own it. And the only way that you can have your own business is you’ve got to your own leads basically. And the only way that you can do that is with your email list. Even having big listeners on your podcast, it doesn’t translate to anything unless those people step forward and identify themselves to you and let you know that they’re interested in what you’re offering and they’re gonna do that by getting on your email list.

Jess (01:01:03.166)
Yeah, well, amazing. Thank you so much, Stacey, for coming on and being a guest on my podcast. I feel so honored to have you here.

Stacey (01:01:12.536)
Well, I’m honored to have been asked, so thank you.

Jess (01:01:15.468)
Where can people find you if they want to learn more about you or have questions or want to coach with you?

Stacey (01:01:22.916)
Well, my website is my name staceybrassrustle .com and I’m on all the socials and I love really, you know this about me. I just love personal. So I’m not one of those people that’s like, don’t reach out to me. I love questions, I love messages. So I can be found everywhere. DM me, shoot me an email, get on my email list, go to my website, listen to my podcast. If you are really interested in

and in being an entrepreneur, even though I do sometimes talk to coaches, I think that there’s a lot that you can get from listening to my podcast too, just about wanting to get out in the world and do your own thing.

Jess (01:02:06.828)
I because I send her podcast to every entrepreneur that I know. All of her information will be linked in the show notes for you guys to access. But this does include another episode of How to 20 something. If you liked what you heard, if you want to be an entrepreneur, if you know someone who does, then please share this episode, pass it along to a friend or family member, post on social media and tag me, tag Stacey when you do. And as always.

Stacey (01:02:10.708)
Hahaha.

Jess (01:02:33.962)
I can’t wait to be in your headphones again next week with another brand new episode. And stop.