Selects Edition: Building a 7-figure business from nothing with Jessica Zimmerman

This is the Selects Edition of the Eventual Millionaire, where we choose to republish the best interviews I had with millionaires. (This episode was originally published on March 23, 2020)

Jessica Zimmerman is a leading wedding planner, floral designer, and founder of Zimmerman Education, a floral design business education company specializing in teaching fellow floral designers the exact systems, sales processes, and other tools and techniques necessary to create their own successful six-figure floral design businesses and earn a living from flowers, without giving up their lives. Named a top wedding planner by Southern Living magazine, Jessica’s stellar wedding and floral work has been featured in PEOPLE magazine, Once Wed, Cottage Hill, and Style Me Pretty, among others.

Through free classes, tutorials, ebooks, mentoring, and more valuable tools, Jessica and Zimmerman Education regularly inspires fellow florists who want to profit from their passion and learn how to make money, save time, and grow their team with confidence, hope, and courage.

“Control is not love. What love is to support someone where they’re at.” – Jessica Zimmerman

Episode Highlights:

Jessica journey in her life and business
How to know when you are stress (And how to alleviate it)
Learn how Jessica shifted everything through meditation
Tips in preparing for your next business opportunity

Transcript: Download

Video Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services.

Jaime: Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I am Jaime Masters, and today on the show, I am really excited to have Jessica Zimmerman. She’s done wedding and floral arrangements, plus she has her own online business now. You can check her out at jessicazimmerman.com. Thanks so much for coming on the show today.

Jessica: Thanks Jaime. Thanks for having us. I mean, thanks for having me.

Jaime: I so appreciate your story. It’s like from burnt out, which, unfortunately, a lot of people listening right now are kind of in that state too. Actually enjoying time, and balance, and being with the kiddos. Can you just sort of give me a trajectory of your story on that?

Jessica: Yeah. The short version of it is that I knew that I wanted to own my own business. My sister died when I was little, and my mom kind of put all of her energy into me, which was her only living child left, which makes perfect sense as a mom. I get that. But, when I went off to college, I saw that that was really difficult for her. In a way, I was her job, her work. It’s what she woke up for, and so, I kind of really grew up knowing that tomorrow isn’t promised.

People say that, but I really know that to my core, and so, I knew that tomorrow wasn’t promised and I also knew that even if I got married and had children of my own, there’s no guarantee that they’re always gonna be with me, that I’m gonna live this long life with them and everything. And, so, I just saw how difficult it was for my mom when I left, and I thought, “I need to have something that is mine, outside of my family,” and in the event that something happened to all of them, I still have this. This one anchor that is just mine, so that I don’t lose my entire self.

But, I still wanted to be a present mom. I wanted to be able to be there like my mom was for me. I wanted to be able to pick my kids up from school, to go to dance recitals and soccer games, and all of that. And, the only way that I knew how to do that was to own my own business. I couldn’t imagine having to ask off for every Valentine party and everything. So, I just basically just knew I wanted to own my own business, and I got married very young. I live here in the south, and that’s what we do a lot, and I got married at 23 right out of college, to my husband Bryan.

Most of my friends had babies right away. We were in our 30s when we had children. We had waited eight years, and Stella was a surprise, and then about a year and a half later, we had twin boys. So, we went from nothing – to just us – to all of a sudden being a family of five. And, yeah, I don’t know.

Life got crazy really quickly, and my husband got very ill after that. He was kind of in and out of the hospital, and that’s when I really kinda took on this role of, “Okay, I have had this business –” “Business” – like a little hobby business that I got to kind of say was mine, but now, my husband who was always taking care of us
– I don’t see how he’s gonna be able to keep his job, being in and out of the hospital. He was a financial advisor, and you have to be out, and you have to be making deals, and I thought, “I’m gonna have to figure this out. I’m gonna have to do this.”

And, so, that year, he was in the hospital. I had a girl who had just turned 2. My son’s were newborn – newborn twin boys – and that was when I decided to get my act together with my business, and kinda turn it around, yeah.

Jaime: Oh my god. I have so many questions in regards to this. So, it’s interesting. No. 1, go you for not having kids till your 30, but No. 2, oh my gosh, I can’t even fathom. My best friend has twin boys, and one at the beginning and twin boys would be ridiculous. Let alone having a husband in the hospital. How did you even manage the strength to do more in that situation? Normally people would just go bankrupt, and call it a day, and just try and be the best mom they can to their kids.

Jessica: It’s really interesting, because I went into my business with the best of intentions, and I really believed the things that I heard, which was like, “Your business won’t turn a profit for five years.” You kill yourself, kill yourself, and then all of a sudden this five year mark happens, and then it’s gonna be great. I kind of believed that. Everything that I did, I did with the best of intentions. Like I did a new website, which costs money.

But, I had a business that was a wedding rental business at first, and it was a big storefront. I had a 6,000 square foot building, and what I realized was, I was having to spend the majority of my day from 9:00 to 5:00, working the showroom. And then, after that – because I couldn’t afford a team – I would have to stay and do the actual work. People were renting linens that weekend. I had to wash them and iron them, and I had to move the candelabras to the back to where they were gonna be loaded, and my husband would come help me.

And, after my daughter was – I guess – about 6 months old, I came home late at night and I reached out for her, and she didn’t want me. Of course she didn’t. She was with her grandmother all day. Her grandmother was watching her. And, here I am, and I go, “I’m not even making anything.” You know what I mean? There wasn’t even anything to show for it. The business was bringing in like
$30,000.00 a month, but it was spending $31,000.00 a month or
$29,500.00, and I just couldn’t keep up with it.

So, it was shortly after that that I made the decision – I don’t know how I got it. I still, to this day, have no idea. I went in – I guess I’m just good at sales – I went into the bank, asked the loan officer for a $100,000.00 loan. ‘Cause I believed that if I could just buy myself enough time, that I could learn this. To me, it wasn’t even about success at this point. It was about not failing. The miserable thing that I could ever do is go work at a corporate job. I’ve gotta have the freedom to take my idea and run with it, and I knew that I could do it if I could just buy myself the time. And, at the time, my expenses – like the overhead – was about $15,000.00 a month, and if we didn’t have any other thing we had going on with clients.

So, I took $60,000.00 of that $100,000.00 to buy myself four months, and then I took $40,000.00 to just immerse myself in as much education as I could. And, I really learned how to build the foundation of business, which is what I was lacking. And, it was all very simple stuff. None of it is rocket science. It was all very simple, basic things that you just don’t know until you know. And, I think that’s the thing that a lot of business owners are struggling with, is their intentions are so good. They’re not going into this trying to be reckless with money. They’re not spending it aimlessly. They genuinely want to do well, and they think they are.

My boys love The Three Little Pigs, and building the house of straw, and then of brick, and my business was built of straw at the first. And, so, anytime anything happened, everything crashed down and I had to restart, so there’s no way I could build up on it. There’s no way I could elevate, or scale, or grow, because it constantly was falling down, and I was having to redo those things.

But, by going and building the foundation correctly, that’s when things really started to change, and really asking myself: What do I really want outside of business? Let’s just pretend there’s a bank account filled with money and no one is depending on me. What would I do? How would I spend my time? And, I just realized that

time was my greatest commodity. Always has been, and I’ve known that since my sister passed away. And, so, really trying to get back into an effort of that, and so, that’s when I sold my rentals, decided to do floral only, by appointment only, and that’s when – we may have only brought in $10,000.00 a month, but we were only spending $4,000.00. That kinda thing.

Jaime: Nobody really talks about the boring foundational business stuff. They’re like, “Oh, get an MBA,” but that’s full of fluff of people – not always – but a lot of times that people have never really done what the basics of business are. And, I talk about this with clients all the time, and it’s like, “Oh my gosh, mind-blowing stuff,” which, like you said, it’s not really. It’s just timing and the right information at the right time.

But, you also had the guts. That’s what I’m really impressed with, is that you had the guts to take $100,000.00 loan when you had small children, and to cut off something that was your bread and butter beforehand. That stuff’s scary. How did you get through and how did you know that it was the right way to go?

Jessica: It’s interesting. So, I’ve known ever since I was little. This is weird to say out loud, because I think people think, “Really?” But, the truth is, is I remember when my sister died, I remember being at her funeral – and listen, I miss her every single day. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about her, that I do not miss her. But, I remember thinking there’s something more that you were supposed to do. There’s something bigger that you’re supposed to do, and I don’t really know what that is, but this had to happen in order for this to happen, that it was all part of a master plan, and I felt that has always given me peace.

And, what I learned later on by going to therapy – because a few years ago in 2017, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I was having a heart attack, and I drove myself to the ER because it was gonna take too much time for me to wake up a 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old twin boys and get them strapped in car seats and everything. So, I literally shook my husband and said, “I’m driving myself to the hospital and I’ll keep you on speaker phone.” ‘Cause that was gonna get me there faster.

They did a CAT scan. They asked if I was stressed and I said, “No, I’m not stressed.” I don’t view stress as stress. I just see what’s the problem, what’s the thing we have to do to solve it, and I just take those next steps. So, at the end, he said, “No, you’re stressed. Your

whole body is colonized with stress. So, I could either put you on medication or you can start going to therapy,” and I was like, “And, my insurance will cover therapy?” And, he was like, “Yes,” and I said, “I choose that one.”

And, so, what my therapist told me is that when my sister died, I aged emotionally about a decade, and so, a 13-year-old – I was really thinking more along the lines of a 23-year-old, as a 23-year- old, I’m thinking more of a 33 – these kinds of things. Which is why at 23, when all of my friends are having children, my thought process was, “I don’t care anything about being a young mom. I care about being a prepared mom. A financially stable mom,” all these things.

So, there was always – to answer your question – there was always something in me that knew there was a purpose for me. And, even though I didn’t really know what that was, I’ve always been willing to bet on myself. And, my husband who is the least risky human being on the planet – I mean, so not risky at all –

Jaime: Financial planner, yeah.

Jessica: Yeah. It’s the only thing he has ever not questioned – Jaime: Really?
Jessica: – is betting on me, ‘cause he had to co-sign that loan, and he’s sitting in that meeting, and he’s like, “Yeah, she’s gonna figure it out. She’s gonna do it. There’s no doubt in my mind.” And, so, anytime I have had a gut feeling – we bought some different property and stuff, and he’s kinda like, “I don’t know,” and I’m on the phone literally with the realtor saying, “Here’s our offer,” because I’m like, “No, Bryan. This makes sense, and here’s why.” And, I don’t get that feeling that often, so when I do, I really trust it. I really do think that that’s kind of my arrow.

And, here’s the other thing, so, at the end of the day, if it doesn’t work, if it all goes belly up, Bryan and I have lived in a teeny tiny
– I like to call them “teeniny” – teeniny little home. We have lived off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, we have – you know what I mean? And, we were fine and we were happy. So, if the very worst that happens is we go back to that, well we already know what that’s like. So, that’s really able to take a lot of the fear out of it.

Even today, I have a book coming out soon called Sleeping With A Stranger, and it’s really about what was going on personally when all of the business building was happening, and I’ve had to make some risks with this. I decided to self-publish it, ‘cause I wanted to own the right to it and everything. And, so, I’m having to front all the money, but even then, I’m like, “I don’t even know if one person’s gonna buy it.” But, at the end of the day, if no one buys it, the worst that happens is we have to sell some land or some – you know what I mean? It’s okay. It’s okay.

Jaime: I’ll buy it.

Jessica: [Inaudible – crosstalk] [00:13:27] –

Jaime: So, at least me, and then everybody listening will Tweet about it.
We’ll post it on social –

Jessica: Thank you.

Jaime: – because we know, as entrepreneurs, that risk is a little part of it, right? And, I’m quite risk-averse, overall. I interview people and I’m like, “Hmm…that’s an interesting choice. I really appreciate that.” So, I wanna dive into sort of your gut feeling, but before I get to that, over, and over, and over again, I hear people talking about stress, and entrepreneurs – I don’t even realize that I’m in it half the time.

And, we just did a retreat and they don’t even get it. They don’t even understand, and a lot of the times it can be trauma from the past – right – that brings it up. And, business and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is like, “Ah!” It makes it all the times worse, right? So, how did you not know that you were stressed? And then, what did you do to try and alleviate that? Was it just the therapy? Or, did it help in business?

Jessica: Well, therapy started me understand things. I continue to go to therapy every Tuesday. Every Tuesday 10:00 a.m., I’m sitting there at the therapist’s office. And, half the time, I’m talking about my business, but because I’m the owner of my business, it’s really wonderful to be able to go somewhere and just verbally process. And, just verbally process and be able to say, “I’m a little scared about this,” or, “I’m a little –” whatever. And, to come back and go
– well, even recently, I decided to sell that 6,000 square foot building downtown, and I thought I would never sell that, ever. I was like, “This is my retirement. It’s got the best real estate in all of downtown. I will never sell it.”

And, I just started feeling this gut feeling of – I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, there’s this image on the internet – it’s of Jesus, and he has a huge teddy bear behind his back, and there’s a little girl in front of him holding a small teddy bear, and he’s saying, “If you give the small teddy bear, I’ve got this great big teddy bear to give you, but you have to trust me.” And, that’s all I could think about with this building, was: “You’ve gotta trust me to give this to me, ‘cause I’ve got something else for you. We can’t get to the next level. It has nothing to do with this building. You gotta let it go.” And, I really thought I would have that building forever, and so, recently, we decided to do that.

And, I was talking to Lynn about it, my therapist, and he said, “Are you holding onto that building out of fear?” So, sometimes it’s really great to have a therapist talk about business with, and I was like, “Yeah, I think I am,” and he said, “Well, then there’s your answer.” Which was really helpful. But, to answer the question about stress, what I have learned over the past three years, more than anything, is that our mind, our body, and our spirit is connected. It’s connected.

And, so, for about two years solid, I was taking care of my husband, trying to find an answer to his illness – nobody knew what was wrong – trying to raise my children, trying to grow this business from hobby to bringing home a six figure salary, I was trying to – and I just was doing what had to be done, and so, my mind was working overtime. And then, when all of that kinda stopped, my body became exhausted.

And, what I have now learned is that if I am trying to write something and it’s just not coming to me, if I will go for a walk, the answer will come. If I get on the treadmill and I have the intention to run three miles and I can’t even get a jog going, if I will get down and just be still for five minutes, which is the hardest thing for entrepreneurs to do, because we’re like, “The more we can get done in a day, the – ” you know? And, what I have really learned over the past year is the power of passivity, because if I will sit and be quiet and then I get back on that treadmill, I can run. I can run five miles.

They’re connected. And, what we tend to do is burn out one of those instead of paying attention, daily, to all three. Now that is my biggest responsibility everyday. Before I do anything else, I’m gonna handle those three things. Then and only then can I start my day.

Jaime: Okay. Do you see my excited face? This stuff is huge. And, what I love specifically about talking to entrepreneurs that are in it – right
– it’s one thing to write a book about it and everyone’s like, “Oh, that’s great,” right? But, it’s another thing to be like, “Oh, I had to do this. There was no way around it.” I really, really had to make sure that I had all these three things and it comes up over, and over, and over again here. I usually say it’s like defragging yourself. We don’t, as entrepreneurs, don’t give ourselves a chance to actually defrag, even though it will get us farther faster. It’s like, “No, I just have to hold myself really, really tight and then maybe one day it’ll get better.”

So, your story of going, “Okay, I had to do some hard stuff. I’m taking care of –” especially for everything that you were going through with your husband’s illness and small – no offense, everybody that’s listening – this is insane what you went through. Let alone the trauma of your childhood. How did you actually make the shift? And, I wanna talk about the sweet spot of where you are now, ‘cause we talked about a lot of the crap, and I wanna make sure that we can talk about what you get to enjoy right now.

Jessica: Yeah, I always knew even when going through those couple of years with the illness and everything, I had this gut feeling there was a reason for it and, like I said, Sleeping With A Stranger is really about what was going on personally during this time, and there were hard things. Bryan, after his body went, after that started to heal, his mind kind of went, and so, I almost felt like I was grieving again. My husband’s body is walking around, but he’s not there.

And, what was interesting is that I was trying to really [00:19:46] let me heal him, let me give my kids these experiences, let me build my business, let me do this, let me do – just putting it all on me. And, once I was like, “You know what –” this was, again, Lynn, my therapist, was like, “What if you didn’t do anything for Bryan for a little bit? What if you –” and I was like, “What are you talking about?”

Again, going back to our intention, my intention was for better or worse, in sickness and in health, I’m being a supportive wife. And, what I realized is that I was actually not allowing Bryan to experience his own journey, that I was trying to really control his journey, and that control is not love, and that what love is, is to just support someone where they’re at. So, now, I really try to do that.

But, during that process of really stepping away from him is when I really started working on meditation and those kinds of things, which what I learned is that what it is, is passive prayer. If that’s helpful for any of your listeners. An active prayer, however you pray, you’re asking for things, or you’re seeking things, and you’re actively doing it. But, we rarely take time to listen. And, it’s not that I get a voice. There’s not a voice that happens to me that’s like, “Jessica, here’s your next move.”

What happens to me is that whatever I was worried about, I no longer am worried. There’s just more of a peace. And, when you have a peace with your work, you really know, “It’s all gonna be okay. This is all gonna work out.” And, that you don’t have to have all the answers today. Just what’s the next thing you need to do.

Jaime: I love all this. It’s funny, ‘cause at the retreat last week, this is what we were talking about. All super, super high level entrepreneurs and we’re talking about meditation. And, one of the things that I gave them was by Kyle Cease. Talks about how before meditation he’s like, “I have all these things on my to-do list, blah-blah-blah.” He sits down for meditation and he goes, “Huh, I don’t actually have to do any of those things,” you know?

Jessica: Yeah, literally. You think it’s so important, and then you realize it really isn’t, and some of those things are gonna get done. But, yeah, so I had my floral design business but I always felt like almost a fraud a little bit. I would meet other floral designers who, if you told them they couldn’t touch a flower again, they would be like, “Well, end it now for me, because I was born in a garden,” and I’m like, “I don’t care.” I really don’t care. I think they’re pretty, but I really don’t care. And, so, I was just like, “What am I even doing in this industry?”

And, people started to see my business picking up, and me getting these bigger weddings, and these bigger budgets, and people would just start messaging me asking me advice, and then I started doing just these little consultations. I think one of the things that was really appealing is I didn’t live in a big city. I lived in a small town in Arkansas and I was still able to get six figure weddings and all of that.

And, so, I noticed that I was asked the same question over and over again. I didn’t even really know what an online course was at the time. I wrote my whole process just ‘cause I was tired. I became kind of a master in efficiency, and I was really tired of just answering the same thing. So, I wrote it all down in this locked PDF. It was like 300 pages long, and I sold it, through my Instagram with 300 followers. And, I sold 43 copies of it.

Jaime: Really?

Jessica: Mm-hmm.

Jaime: Wow.

Jessica: And, so, I found an ad on Facebook of somebody who can help you scale it, and I told her that, and she was like, “Holy cow.”
Jaime: That’s exactly what I said: “Wow, that’s really impressive.” Jessica: She was like, “Okay. Yeah, we’re gonna take you on as a client,
and we’re gonna –” So, I was able to move it to a legit platform and then we sold – six months later – 250 copies of that. But, what I’m really proud of is the fact that what I teach – that program is The Business Behind the Blooms, and all of this can be found at jessicazimmerman.com, but The Business Behind the Blooms was
– nobody was sharing all of it. They’d share 60% but they needed their business. That was their main source of income, and for me, I didn’t really care. I was like, “I don’t really like doing it anyway. So, let me just share with you everything.” And, I found people really found that refreshing.

And then, I have program called Know Your Numbers, which what I love about that program is we, as creatives, have a hard time – we don’t even wanna talk about numbers – and I have several students who have husbands that are financial advisors, or accountants, CPAs, who they have sat down with their husbands and they can’t get it. But, they go through my program and they’re like, “Okay! Okay –” It’s like finally someone is speaking their language.

And, that is so rewarding to see people be able to be debt free after a year or pay off $50,000.00 in debt in one year. I had a student who thought it would take her 20 years to pay off her student loans. She paid them off in one year. Once you understand it, it’s really simple. And, again, it just goes back to that foundation of business, yeah.

Jaime: And, it’s not rocket science. I had a client the other day who was like, “I need to hire a CFO, like part-time CFO.” I was like, “You need to know these five things. It’s really not – don’t kill yourself over this stuff,” right?

Jessica: Right. Totally.

Jaime: It’s not rocket science, or at least the beginning stages of implementation really aren’t. And, we will overcomplicate things potentially, because we’re like, “I don’t know what the right thing is.” But, like you said, a lot of the times it’s just simple. It’s actually simple.

Jessica: Yeah, absolutely.

Jaime: So, tell me a little bit more about what your work life is like now. Like your team, what you’re actually doing. I saw beautiful photos on your website, so whether you like the flowers or not, they look amazing.

Jessica: Well, thank you. I was able to hone a craft, I guess. I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I have a definite appreciation for aesthetic. So, I really appreciate a gorgeous vintage 1960’s chair by a Danish designer or an Italian 1970’s sconce. I have an appreciation for aesthetics. So, I feel like I know what looks decent for a wedding, a color palette and stuff, but I don’t know all the names of the flowers and all of those things. So, I don’t do weddings anymore.

I feel like – and this is the other thing that I think is really important – I think there are some of us who – Lynn, my therapist, likes to say that I’m a entrepreneur at life. But, some of us are entrepreneurs of a certain business, like of the restaurant world, or of the – whatever. He’s like, “You’re an entrepreneur at life. You are constantly looking for a better way to do things.” And, I’m a bit of a multi-hyphenate, and at first I thought, “That makes me weird, or strange, or odd that I can’t just like – ” but then I thought, “No, that’s the whole reason why you didn’t wanna go into corporate. Is you didn’t wanna be in one job for the rest of your life. You know that sounds miserable to you.”

So, now, I’ve really embraced the fact that like – “Okay, I had to do the rental world to get to the floral world. I had to do the floral world to now be able to teach about wedding planning. I had to do that to learn how to teach to a broader audience about the foundation of business.” And, now that I’ve been able to share really vulnerably about business, now I’m prepared to share really vulnerably about my personal life in this book.

And, so, now I just look at it almost as a path. Like a road of big square stepping stones, and all the ones behind me are lit up, and I can see how each thing I’ve done has led to the next thing, and the one I’m standing on isn’t lit up yet, and the ones ahead of me aren’t, but I have to really trust my gut. There’s a difference between not like – like I don’t love doing payroll, but it’s part of business. I’m gonna have to do it. You know what I mean? That doesn’t mean that I’m gonna quit my job.

But, if I am just no longer passionate about weddings and there’s nothing that excites me or is interesting, well then that’s it. That’s a compass turner. It doesn’t mean you quit it right away, but I would say about a year before I stopped doing that, I started moving in the direction of: My last wedding will be June of 2018. And, what really solidified that for me was it was one of my best weddings. It was featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, which is like the Oscar of our industry. It was like –

Jaime: The epitome, yes.

Jessica: It was like what else is there to do? Do I keep just trying to do that again? So, for me, it was a real easy way to be like, “No, it’s time for the next thing.” Which is scary and risky, but success is never gonna happen until preparation meets opportunity, and I believe everything has prepared me for the next opportunity.

Jaime: Especially when you said that specifically. If you think of sport stars and you’re like, “They’re past their prime and yet they’re still doing it.” And, you just feel bad. It feels like that when you’re in the business, and your heart’s not in it, and you’re making the moves, and everyone’s like, “Oh, she’s –” you know? What tips do you have for that though? Because I love the analogy of stepping stones, and yet, that leap – that from one to another – that timeframe is scary as heck. So, what tips, besides meditating and that gut instinct – reminding yourself of that – what tips do you have during that time? ‘Cause that’s where a lot of people are and get freaked out.

Jessica: The in-between is the hardest part – called the “in-between.” Like right now I’m in an in-between. I still have my education, but I’m moving into – I have this book, and I have a TED Talk coming out, and I don’t really know what’s gonna come out of all of that. And, so, there’s some unknown there, and so, you’re kind of in this in- between, which is a hard place, but I think you really just have to – first of all, I think there’s a little bit of enjoying your life, and being like, “At the end of the day, this isn’t that serious.”

If we look back at things – history can teach us a lot, but I think if we look back and we go – history of our own lives – and we go, “Remember what a big deal I made out of that? If anyone knew – that I know now – knew what a big deal I made out – I seem like a crazy person.” I try to remind myself of that, and be like, “Okay. At the end of the day, this really isn’t that big of a deal. Let’s just make a list of what you need to do today, and as long as you get those things done, you’re good.” None of us have a crystal ball. We don’t know what’s gonna happen, but yeah, the in-between is hard. The in-between is hard.

But, I think, too, to ask how you know if you wanna go there or not
– I think this is interesting. So, I think if you look at people that you envy – not that you’re jealous of – we don’t wish these people harm. Envy. If you were to write down three names of people that you’re envious of – I did this a couple years ago and it was interesting. I ended up writing down three couples. I was like, “Huh…what does that say about me?”

And then, you write down what are the things you envy. And, for me, it was things like: They both have a lifestyle where they’re able to go and do. So, it’s not like one’s locked down and one can go. They have beautiful homes. The aesthetic. They have children and they travel. They do speaking – whatever it is. You write down the things – what that is, is that’s your arrow. If you’re naturally drawn to that, if you’re like, “I kinda want that,” you cannot go, “Well, that’s not for me. That’s for them. They all live in New York City. I live in Conway, Arkansas. They can afford whatever, and I can’t have this big brownstone in Brooklyn.”

You can’t kill your dreams with the “how.” You’ve gotta just be like, “You know what, I could live that life,” or, “I am worthy of that.” But, I think the things that we’re envious of are really – that’s our internal compass pointing us – like, “That’s kinda the direction you need to be going.” And, I find a lot of people just try to convince themselves that that’s not what’s wrong.

Jaime: Yes, ‘cause we’re stuck in our heads instead of our hearts. And, when you can disconnect and go, “What do you actually want?” – “Oh, wait. Those things are really important.” I love that exercise, because normally entrepreneurs are like, “Yeah, but the ‘how’ is so ingrained in their brain space that we can’t even get past that to even know what we want.” I have quite a few clients that confuse themselves, and you’re like, “But, you said you wanted this awhile ago. Do you remember that whole thing?”

Jessica: Yeah, totally. Totally.

Jaime: Yeah, and time’s gonna pass anyway. Yeah, go ahead.

Jessica: Yeah, and even just with a dream or something. A lot of people have a dream but, again, they kill it with the “how.” I’m just gonna give the book as an example. If you start and you go, “I wanna publish a book, but before I publish a book, I need to find someone to distribute the book. Before I find someone to distribute the book, I need to research distributors. Before I research distributors, I need an editor. Before I hire an editor, I need to research editors. Before I research editors, I need to have a manuscript. Before I even give her a manuscript, I’m gonna need to write the manuscript.”

It basically makes your steps, and even though – I’ve got a list right here of things that have to happen between now and when my book launches, and if you look at it as a whole, it can be overwhelming. But, if you take it and you go, “Okay. If I do one of these steps a week – one step a week – in 40 weeks, my dream’s gonna be a reality.” If you just break it down and don’t look at big
– ‘cause that’s just where we get overwhelmed, and that’s where fear takes over, and fear is not real. Danger is real, but fear is not real, and we’re giving fear way too much credit.

Jaime: A million times, yes. I love this. I know we have to start wrapping up, but I do wanna make sure – your memoir comes out when, so that way everybody knows?

Jessica: It comes out May 7th and it’s called Sleeping With A Stranger. You can find it at sleepingwithastranger.com or you can go to jessicazimmerman.com.

Jaime: I was like, “That’s a very sexy title. Is that fiction or non-fiction?” She’s like, “It’s a memoir.” I’m like, “Oh, okay –

Jessica: It’s a memoir.

Jaime: – just wondering. Just wondering.” Awesome. So, I know we have to wrap up. What is one action listeners can take this week to move them forward towards their goal of a million?

Jessica: Quit. I would say quit. My grandparents were farmers, my dad is a farmer, and there’s a reason that they work when the sun comes up, and that they stop working when the sun goes down, because our bodies need time to rest. We need to replenish, our mind needs to think about something else other than work, and so, to figure out a time everyday and actually stick to it.

Take email off your phone – I don’t have email on my phone – for me, that’s 3:00 everyday, ‘cause then I go pick up my kids. And, I don’t open my computer again until the next day at work, and I think that what that has done for me is it has allowed me to become way more efficient with my work hours, and I get way more done than I did when I was working kind of at 9:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m. in my bed with my laptop on my – that kinda stuff. I’m just better all around for it. My business is a lot better for it.

Jaime: I know. It sounds so counterintuitive. “Work less, and you’ll actually feel better, and potentially have a lot more money in the end.” But, I so appreciate you telling people to do this. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. Tell us your website again and are you on social? Give us some of the social ways we can follow you.

Jessica: Yes, you can go to jessicazimmerman.com – that’s my website – zimmermanpodcast.com. My Instagram is @jessicazimmerman_ and then you can find me – Jessica Zimmerman – on Facebook as well.

Jaime: Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Jessica: You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.

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