We should all be millionaires with Rachel Rodgers

Rachel Rodgers is an internet marketer, intellectual property lawyer, and business coach. Over the last seven years, she worked with NY Times bestselling authors, tech startups, coaches, consultants, doctors, accountants, nutritionists and so many more.

Rachel went from being a young lawyer grinding away day and night to being the owner of a million-dollar business, a mother, and visionary featured in publications like Time, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and The Washington Post.

Her motto is “Work hard once.” So you can pocket the profits forever. That’s why she helps entrepreneurs create and protect their intellectual property to scale their businesses to a million+. Her first product, Small Business Bodyguard, took 10 weeks to build and has made her over a million dollars.

Mission: Is to help women hit seven figures without sacrificing their families and sanity.

(This is why I love her so much!!)

“Trust yourself and trust your own instincts more than anything else. And it’s all unfolding, so be patient.” – Rachel Rodgers

Episode Highlights:

How to cultivate patience and trust
How to take risks in business when a lot of things go horribly wrong
Work-life balance: family first before money
How to deal with the craziness that is happening (Business, COVID-19 Pandemic, BLM, etc.)
How to coach business owners when they have excuses for everything
How to prioritize (what comes first)
How to push yourself out of your comfort zone
Rachel’s hard-earned hiring tips
Dismantling racism in the workplace (especially during the hiring process)

Transcript: Download

Video Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services.

Jaime: Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I am Jaime Masters and I am so excited to have Rachel Rodgers on the show. Her website is Hello Seven.Co for Hello Seven Figures, and she has a club called We Should All Be Millionaires with a book coming out next year for that same title. Of course, she's perfect for the show and she's a mom. Thank you so much for coming on today.

Rachel: Oh, it's my pleasure. I'm so excited. I've been following you for a long time, and whenever I see someone talking about millionaires, I get excited because that's what I'm about.

Jaime: Your mission and mine are so the same. I was reading through. I'm like, This? No. Yes. We have to talk. Because we're going to... so many yeses and so many synergies that come up, especially from you being an IP lawyer and then business coach. But before we dive into your story, because I have a lot of questions on that, you just posted on Facebook about a huge big deal, and the big thing that I saw was the photo of you from ten years ago.

Rachel: Yes.

Jaime: When I saw that. Ten years goes by pretty quick especially when you've got kiddos, right? Can you really talk about what you would say to yourself back then knowing what you know now?

Rachel: Oh, my God. I would probably say, "Trust yourself." I would say, "Trust yourself and trust your own instincts more than anything else. And it's all unfolding, so be patient."

Jaime: Patience is a hard thing, right? How do you do that? How do we deal with both patience and trust? It's very that's I feel like is the crux of a lot of the issues.

Rachel: Yeah. I think so too, but I think the key is to be getting those wins along the way. Taking risks. Putting yourself out there. It feels good. It feels exciting and exhilarating and even if it doesn't happen, you're trying. You're going for it and I think there's a lot of joy in that. People underestimate how much fun it is to actually just go for it. To be trying something. To be creating something and putting it out there to be judged by the marketplace, which is very unforgiving. You know?

Jaime: Seriously.

Rachel: And when people say, Oh, this good. I like it. I'm going to spend money on it. It's like, What? You know? So, there's a lot of joy in the process, and I think we need to enjoy that more and really notice it and have gratitude every day.

Jaime: Well, I really appreciate that too. Everyone talks about the journey. It's so fricking clich, because you're like, Yeah, I know, except that it sucks right now or I'm looking at all the shit. Right? It starts to pile up a lot.

Rachel: Yeah.

Jaime: How can you stay taking risks, especially when there's a lot of things that do go horribly wrong in business?

Rachel: I think you just have to decide that you're worth it. That's what it is at the end of the day. I also think too that for a lot of us, we can't not do what we feel compelled to do. It's going to nag you. It's going to bother you. It's going to follow you around and just be in the back of your head. You're just going to see other people out there doing their thing, and you're going to be like, Why isn't that me? Why am I not in the game? I'm like, Get in the game. Listen, even if you fail, fail publicly. Fail wildly. Embarrass yourself greatly. That should be the goal because then I will tell you, at the end of your life, you'll be like, I lived. I think that we can't lose sight of that part. I think being a mom really helps because when you're around kids and you're like, I just had a million-dollar month. Your kids are like, Okay, can you make me breakfast though?

Jaime: Seriously. Yes. That's funny.

Rachel: You're like, Oh, okay. I'm just regular. You're right. Nothing's changed.

Jaime: How? How can you? This is what I loved about learning about your story and stuff like that. You've got kids, and you do put life first and then money. That's sort of the point of the show. We love money. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that in any way, but we really want to be able to have and I don't believe necessarily imbalance, but we want to be able to have both. The joy in the moment with the kids and pushing yourself. But I feel, and this is my own issue, I'm always like, Well, I can't push myself too much because if I commit to too much, then my family which is first negates itself or feels bad. I feel like you've done a really good job of that, so help me.

Rachel: Yes. Well, I will tell you work life balance is something that just never goes away. You're always recalibrating. I'm recalibrating every season. It's like, Oh, now it's summertime. It's this going on. Let me rework my schedule because of XYZ. And then, school's back in session, now I need to rework my schedule because of that. So, I think you've just got to be flexible and roll with it and know that you're always going to be renegotiating work and family life. It's just part of being a mom and being a business owner, being a parent and being a business owner. But for me, I have to tell you, I don't try to I think a lot of parents, especially mothers, think that they need to be available to their children 24/7. They think that they owe their children their entire lives, their entire being, every ounce of their attention while they're awake and I don't believe that.

So, my children will come to my door. I have French doors and they can see through them horribly. They are glass doors. I'm like, Why? I need to put up a curtain. But anyway, they will plaster their little faces and be like, Oh, come spend time with me. I'll be like, Mommy is working. They'll say, Well, I wish you were like a mom who doesn't work. I'm like, Okay, cool. Well, do you want to not go to private school? Do you want to not live in this house? We could live in a smaller house. We could not do soccer and not do all of these things that you do. It costs money to live comfortably, so if you want to live comfortably, then you've got to be all in, and this is a team effort. The whole family has to contribute. I'm contributing by working, and I need you to contribute by occupying yourself right now.

My daughter gets it. My son gets it. They are all on board and they understand we're all contributing to our well being and comfort as a family, you know?

Jaime: Oh, I do know all too much. I'm laughing so much because I've had the exact same conversations, but my kids go, Well, then let's live in a littler house. I'm like, Oh, that's not where I was going with that children. Right?

Rachel: Yes.

Jaime: Just do your chores. Come on. Right?

Rachel: Yes. But it's not just that. I think the other part of it too is that I really enjoy my work. This work makes me happy, and I want you to do work that you enjoy and that makes you happy when you get older. I want to see you seeing me working and loving it and making money and getting paid well. We want to model for them what we want to do. So, I think it's both part of the conversation. My daughter is like, No. I'm going to private school. I love my school. So, she's like, No, carry on.

Jaime: Mine listens to this show. Jett, just so you know, and I know you're listening right now, listen well, please.

Rachel: Wait, your son's name is Jett?

Jaime: My daughter's name is Jet, yeah.

Rachel: Oh, my God! I'm obsessed. I have a son name Jett.

Jaime: Really?

Rachel: Yes. My littlest one is named Jett. J-E-T-T.

Jaime: Oh, mine is J-E-T. This is... see?

Rachel: I love it. Oh, my God, so much synergy. This is magical.

Jaime: I know. Man, it's so funny because you understand. One of the reasons why I started this show was it was so hard for me to find examples especially for people that really did care. Not that other people don't care about their children, but I put my children first and yet, I still have to put boundaries because I have so much more that I want to be able to do. I don't want to live vicariously through my children. I never have wanted to. But with that ebb and flow of how business works, like you were saying with the seasons, do you determine in advance? Because I feel like flexibility is not totally my strong point. You were a lawyer. Tell me how you got that flexibility thing.

Rachel: Well, I wasn't really suited to the law to be totally honest, which is why I don't practice anymore. It was definitely very too structured for me. I feel like in terms of work life balance, it has gotten so much better now that I'm not practicing law anymore. I just was ready to move on. Now I take Fridays off. I don't have appointments on Wednesdays usually. I usually do half on Monday mornings I'm free. So, I've built into my schedule just to have thinking time, mental space and honestly, I just go with the flow. That is actually I'm an Aquarius. This is how I roll.
Jaime: I am too. That's funny, of course.

Rachel: Oh, my God. Insane. Do you live next door to me?

Jaime: I know, right?

Rachel: I thought we were going to discover it in five minutes.

Jaime: Well, we should. Apparently, I need a smaller house, so I can't live in your neighborhood. No.

Rachel: Oh, my gosh. Hilarious.

Jaime: How do you? The season thing is interesting because what I look at for you is ? the season that I'm in is pandemic craziness and a whole bunch of other personal things with their dad, who is passing away which really sucks, right? So, I'm dealing with a whole bunch of person stuff. But you're dealing with not only pandemic, not only Black Lives Matter, not only, and a million-dollar month. I don't know how you're doing it all.

Rachel: Yeah. Me neither, honestly. No. I think I'm just doing the things that I feel really energized about. Because I think we see people working, and we're like, Oh, she must be so exhausted. Not if it's work that lights you up. When I was running my law practice, I was exhausted all the time. I had two little kids. I was so tired. I was so worn out because it was a zone of excellence, not a zone of genius for me. Then when I moved into business coaching and consulting, that, it just lights me up. I enjoy it. And also speaking my truth is just that's who I am. It was the same thing. When I started speaking up about Black Lives Matter a lot more, it really was just because it was nagging me, and I felt like I had to. There were things that I was seeing that I didn't see other people talking about, and I wanted to talk about it.

Jaime: The truth, the ability to speak your truth, is extremely inspiring because I know that's something that I've been working on. And as a mom and a female, I feel like I have held myself back in a lot of ways because I'm trying to people please. I've got a lot of people-pleaser in me and all that, and it is...

Rachel: Oh, my God. Don't we all?

Jaime: Thank you for saying that because I'm like, "Does she? Because she looks like she doesn't, because she's a bad ass."

Rachel: Oh, no. I'm battling it, trust me, every day.

Jaime: I appreciate you saying that. I appreciate how real, and this is why I joke that we all need to be millionaires also. Not because we need fricking retirement, because we all need retirement also, but the person that we become along the journey of pushing out of our comfort zone is really what I care, is what I want to model for my children regardless of that.

Rachel: Yes.

Jaime: And so, how do you see I talked about the 10 year beforehand. You've evolved insanely. How do you feel like you've really evolved, pivot-point wise? It feels like there's different catalyst moments in your life.

Rachel: Yes. Well, I started my practice mainly because I didn't like... I mean, law school was traumatizing for me to be honest.

Jaime: I think for everyone. I have so many lawyer clients. Sorry, but who does that anyway? Continue.

Rachel: It's horrible. It's just the whole culture is toxic, really. And so, once I got through three years of that, I clerked for a judge for a year where I just kind of got to hide out with an awesome amazing judge, so it was just a really enjoyable job. And then, at the end of that year I used to tell my judge he ruined me, and I can't work anywhere else because he was the best boss I was ever going to have. So, I was like I'm just going to do my own thing. I had a couple of job offers, but nothing that really was so exciting. I was just like, I can't imagine going back into this toxic environment of having a partner screaming in your face. All that stuff really does happen. It's almost like they want it to happen. They pride themselves on yelling at you. I was just like, I'm not that girl who is going to get yelled at and keep her job. I'm going to get fired or quit.

So, I started my own practice, and I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I actually tried to create a t-shirt company after reading The Four-Hour Work Week.

Jaime: Right, didn't we all?

Rachel: It's like right of passage. I even had designs done and all of that, and then I realized I didn't know what the heck I was doing. It was so hard just to get the design done and get it on a t-shirt. I was just like, I have a law degree. I could probably just practice law. That's an entrepreneurial thing I could do. So, I just started a practice and grew that to about $700,000.00 a year in revenue is where we were at. I transitioned out between it took me a little while. Years six and seven into my entrepreneurial journey, I was revving up coaching and kind of winding down the law practice.

But in my law practice, I had attorneys working for me. I had admin assistants. I had a whole team and I learned so much that has served me so much as a business coach. Just knowing how to manage a team, how to make payroll, how to take care of your people, how to get them to be productive, how to make the marketing work, how to sell. I loved selling. Now, I love that I sold legal services because it is literally the hardest thing to sell.

Jaime: It really is. The amount of regulations that you guys have over everything else is ridiculous.

Rachel: You can't market yourself.

Jaime: Yeah.

Rachel: And nobody wants to buy legal services. You buy it because you need it, not because you actually want it.

Jaime: Totally. It's a really crappy industry. No, I just have so many lawyer clients and I sit there and go, You have to be ridiculously good at marketing.

Rachel: Mm-hmm.

Jaime: Even though, because you can't market, you have to come around to all of these extra sides. So, anybody in any industry right now that's not law, or even financial services, just be grateful that you don't have to...

Rachel: Yes. I think, I find this with therapists too. I have a lot of therapists as clients. Any of those highly regulated industries, when you start moving into to really... you're an entrepreneur. You want to market yourself online. You really want to get your name out there. You want to stand out as an expert and be in the media. There's so much, even just the mental state. It's like they put the fear of God in you that you're going to break a rule and lose your license. So, a lot of my clients, I'm constantly coaching them on, I know how to get around this. Let's actually read the rule. See what it actually says. That's where the lawyer brain does come in handy.

Jaime: I bet.

Rachel: And then let's find other ways to do it without breaking that rule.

Jaime: Well, it's a very good excuse for people not to do it at all also. Not that we don't have all the other excuses in the world, but it's so easy for people in those specific situations. So, how do you get people? Because that's what you were talking about taking risks. These are all micro-risks where you're like, I could do social, but I have to learn compliance. There's all this head stuff of what we deal with.

Rachel: Yeah.

Jaime: How do you coach people around or through that?

Rachel: Well, in our program we have a course called Worthy and it's mandatory. Everybody has to do it. I don't care if you're already making multimillions, you have to take this course. People fight me on it. They're like, I don't want to do this. Blah blah blah. I'm like, You're doing it. And then, by the time they're in the second lesson, they're like, Oh, my God. This is changing my life. Because we make them really sit and think about their relationship with money, and how they think about money. That involves looking back and what are the stories that stand out to you? Stories around money that you experienced with your parents, et cetera, but then also this is where I think our program is unique is what are the systemic issues that have affected your relationship with money?

Because the truth is, with women especially, the media sends messages constantly, Stop shopping. Cut coupons. Get ahold of yourself, woman. You don't know what you're doing with money. That's the message that's constantly in your brain. And so, you're battling that. You're battling the fact that women couldn't have credit cards until the late '70s. You know what I mean? Women didn't have the right to vote for a long time. And, of course, whenever we're talking about that, it's even worse for black women. It's even worse for women of color, right?

So, we talk about that and we integrate that political and sociological knowledge into it so that they can see. Listen, we're living in the matrix. It's not just you. It's what's going on in the world and the messages that we're taking in. We have to battle that, and we have to see it and notice it every day, so we can overcome it. I think that's a really important piece of recognizing the environment that you're in. And then, of course, community. Being with a squad of people who are going for it, it's contagious. As soon as you see one person winning, you're like, Okay. Let me get off my butt and go do it too.

Jaime: I watched your webinar and I was like, Yes. I am so excited. And being able to have that, because I think it's so engrained and so consistent in our head that the self-awareness. I know for the journey that I've been on, I didn't even realize the stories that I had in my head about money and about all these things until they start popping up. And when you say them out loud, it's like, Oh. I sound like a victim right now. Or, Oh, I sound? Right?

Rachel: Mm-hmm.

Jaime: You start bringing those things up, and the only way that you can really work on them is once they come to light. I loved in your webinar you sort of have, This is what broke ass people do, and this is... Right, just the thoughts that are going on.

Rachel: Yeah. That's from the book. Broke Ass Decisions Versus Million Dollar Decisions. It's just reframing those thoughts. It's just having language around it. My clients all are like, I was about to make a broke ass decision you all, but now I'm going to make a million-dollar decision instead. It just becomes part of the language. You just start to notice in your everyday life, and that's when you really start integrating it. This is the stuff. This is not a strategy when it's, Here's the step-by-step things that you have to do to make this happen. This is some of the soft stuff that a lot of people are like, I don't want to work on mindset. I don't care about mindset. I'm like, Let me tell you something. Mindset is the number one thing in your way 100 percent. It's not the strategy.

Jaime: But it's not metric. I think that's it. I agree with you a million times. You can, especially with coaching clients when you have somebody and you are like, "I'm giving you the exact same strategy as this person."

Rachel: Yes.

Jaime: Almost the exact same industry. There's a difference, and I can tell. Right?

Rachel: Yes. There's a reason why she's over here killing it and you're not.

Jaime: No doubt.

Rachel: It's mindset issues. That's the only difference. You know?

Jaime: But it's so squishy. I have a degree in computers and I love data, and so, when anything comes up that is squishy, that you can't really put in tangible, or it's spiral as far as evolutionary nature of seeing progress. I know if I look back 10 years, I can see progress, especially in my language and a lot of different things. But when I'm in it, it's hard to recognize. So, that's why I appreciate the lists. I need lists of people going like, Is someone actually doing your laundry? Well, not during the pandemic, of course. But the small decisions, because I don't even realize what I don't know yet, and when someone gives you a voice to it, I can see myself in it and really notice it. I'm very excited for your book as you can tell. I will have you back on the show when it comes out.

Rachel: Yay.

Jaime: Because it's intangible, so we can't go, Oh, let's go work on this and see that I improved from 80 percent to 100 percent, or whatever it is, but it's so critical. So, how do you get people to put it on the forefront? Besides just, of course, taking the Worthy course. But how do they actually put it on the forefront every day?

Rachel: Well, I guess, by me yelling at them. No. That's part of my strategy.

Jaime: I like your strategy.

Rachel: I just yell at you every day. I'm like, "You're doing laundry? What are you doing?"

Jaime: We all need a slap. We really do.

Rachel: Exactly. It's this ongoing conversation. In our community, we have this call. That's a money minds call once a week and our clients have called it money church. It's their money church where they just sit and notice, I did totally spend all weekend doing laundry and I could have sent it out for $40.00. Spend the $40.00. Are you kidding me, right now? You know, it's always getting started. I always start with laundry because it's the least expensive thing to outsource and it makes ? it saves you hours.

I think, especially for women, the household stuff is so much bigger. And there is nothing but stats after stats after stats, all of this research that shows that women are still, even though we're more likely we're becoming the breadwinners at higher rates at this point. Even when we're the breadwinner, we're still doing more work than our male counterparts, those of us who have male counterparts, in our homes. And so, we have to start outsourcing that and renegotiating that as well.

My husband and I, we sit down, and we are like, I don't want to do that crap. He's like, I don't want to do it either. We have four kids. There's more work than two adults, who also have a job and need to parent, can do. And so, we're like, It's not about me against you. It's about us against whatever this problem is. Let's get creative. We have a chef now, but before we could hire a chef, we got the boxed meals that came, and then we'd fight each other over who was cooking, and then we were like, Let's just get somebody to cook it.

Jaime: That's not really as expensive as you think either. It's crazy when you actually know the numbers.

Rachel: Totally. It's so true.

Jaime: How much pain I go through when I'm like, I don't want to do this right now. Do you still...

Rachel: What is about dinner in particular? I'm just like, No. I just worked a whole day. I just made magic happen in the world and now I've got to cook?

Jaime: Seriously. I think what's difficult for me, too, is I've always been too much of a perfectionist. Level of excellence is very important, but where is expectation in this also? Because when you're trying to juggle everything, something is going to fall through the cracks, and it should be the laundry. You know what I mean?

Rachel: Yes.

Jaime: Having somebody else doing it instead. But it's hard to manage when you're trying to hold a million things at once and not let any of the balls drop. So, how do you really prioritize this stuff?

Rachel: Well, I don't do it. I just don't do it. I'm the queen of outsourcing and honestly, I try my best to have so little on my to-do list. Even in this pandemic with the kids, I also empower my children to do things for themselves. My husband taught them how to get on Zoom for their classes, so that ? because I'd be in meetings and then get a notification, Oh, my God. My kid needs to be in a Zoom. I'd have to run and be like, Hold on a second while I go get them on the Zoom. Which is always a catastrophe, and then come back. I'm like, This is driving me nuts. So now, here's how it works. Here's the icon on the desktop. You could click this and you'll go to your meeting. You know?

Jaime: Yeah.

Rachel: But I also think it's not just laundry and dishes and things like that, it's also managing birthday parties and the ridiculous amount of communication they send from schools. It's like, Do you think I have time to read 17 emails this week? I don't know what my children are doing at school nor do I care. You have them. Leave me alone. It's just a lot, so I really try to get as much help as possible. And I think it's letting go. I have an assistant and she would manage my business inbox and my schedule. But there was so much personal schedule stuff and personal inbox stuff that was becoming overwhelming, so I was just like, Here's my inbox. Now you know all my business. You know what I mean? Here's my business. Just know it and help me, right?

Jaime: Yes.

Rachel: Just get the help you need. We have shame around, Oh, I don't want anyone to see this. I have to clean before the cleaners come because I don't want them to know how messy I am.

Jaime: Who does that? Oh, my God. Anyway, we could talk about that for days, but I think ?

Rachel: We must stop it.

Jaime: I think...

Rachel: We must stop.

Jaime: Well, and being okay with that is number one, but I also think what's so potent for what you were saying before is learning actually how to manage a team and delegate and what can be delegated, can be somebody else's. Because as an entrepreneur when you first start, it's all about marketing and sales. So, how do I just make more money? Right?

Rachel: Yeah.

Jaime: But then as you start to grow, you realize that time and your strengths are really the most important thing that you could be doing. How did you start to understand what your strengths really were? Because it's easy to know what to delegate after, when you really know what gives you energy and what doesn't drain you. How did you figure that out?

Rachel: I think I just noticed that I love sales and marketing. I was really good at it, and I was always having a good time when I was doing a webinar or mapping out a campaign. And then, when I would be, when I had legal work to do, it would be like I had to file something before midnight in, let's say, the Federal Trademark Database or whatever. It would be 10:00 at night and I would be getting this contract done because I would procrastinate because I didn't want to do it. I would always do a good job for my clients, but it's just I did not want it was draining for me. So, I was just really noticing what lights me up and what doesn't. I had a coach. Actually, shout out to Charlie Gilkey, years ago.

Jaime: Oh, Charlie. I know Charlie.

Rachel: I love Charlie.

Jaime: I love Charlie, too. Awe.

Rachel: He's amazing. So, yes, years ago, I was working with him on my law practice, and he's just like, Write a list of everything you hate. I wrote it and it was a long list, and he was like, Great. Guess what? We can get other people to do this. I'm like, What? Who? Who's going to do it? Then I hired my first VA. It was a bust because that's how it always goes.

Jaime: Yeah.

Rachel: And then, I hired a second one. She was better, but not quite there and I probably couldn't give her enough hours. And then I finally found someone who was really amazing, and she was supposed to do five hours a week and immediately I was like, Could I have 20? As soon as I could, literally six months later, I was making her full-time, and then six months after that I was hiring my first full-time attorney.

I'm grateful that I had two little kids back to back. My kids are 19 months apart. I was six months into the entrepreneurial journey when I discovered that I was pregnant with my daughter. I had her. On her first birthday, the day before her first birthday, I found out I was pregnant with my son. So, good at business planning, not great at family planning. Everyone was like, We all have strengths.

Jaime: Surprise! More babies.

Rachel: So, because of that, I didn't have the option. I wasn't thinking, Oh, I'm just never going to hire anybody. I'm too scared to hire. I was thinking, I have another baby due. And that's exactly what happened. With the first one, I had my assistant. We were rocking and rolling, but then with... Very, very part-time, like ten hours a week or whatever, and then I got pregnant. I was like, I'm already overwhelmed. I have a lot of business coming my way which is exciting because I'm good at sales and marketing, but there's too much work to do. I'm always procrastinating on it because truth be told I don't want to do it. I was like, I don't know how I'm going to manage all of this.

I just reached out to a friend who is an entrepreneur and he was like, You need a project manager. You need people who can organize you. You probably need to hire another attorney. I was like, Okay, great. Then I just went on this journey of systematizing because I had to. I had to systematize this business, so I could go on maternity leave. So, my frequent maternity leaves have been a blessing because every time you start to really, Oh, this business needs to operate without me, you're making that's exactly how entrepreneurs need to go into business. So, just pretend you're going on sabbatical or maternity leave, and then you'll start to build the business that you actually want.

Jaime: I'm laughing so much because yesterday I had a client who is having a baby in 10 days, and we have worked him out and he wouldn't have done that otherwise. Deadlines, baby deadlines specifically, whether you're male or female, put such a hard-core real date that we... But to me, being committed 100 percent. You have to because you have to have that baby, right? There's nothing you are going to do about it.

Rachel: Yes. That baby is coming out one way or another.

Jaime: Yes, no matter what. But in business a lot of people half ass commitments or deadlines or whatever and we just keep... and we don't trust ourselves because of that, right?

Rachel: Yeah.

Jaime: So, how do you deal with that? Do you put deadlines and then you just automatically do them? How do you get yourself to really push yourself out of your comfort zone, in regard to that?

Rachel: I mean, honestly, I don't struggle with deadlines on things that I love to do. I wake up like, Let's do it. I'm so ready to go, and I can't wait to work on those projects. And then the things that I'm always pushing deadlines on are the things I don?t want to do. And in terms of I have a team and I really put a lot of effort. I've learned over the years, and this is hard one knowledge, of how to hire people and how to find the right people, and it just takes time. We think, I'm a new entrepreneur. I'm going to get the perfect hire the first time. It's just like, Why? Why do you think that?

Jaime: Even the best of the best, don't do that.

Rachel: You're not going to.

Jaime: Yes, exactly.

Rachel: Exactly. You've never done this before. You're learning, right? So, you've got to hone those skills and that's exactly why I tell my clients, Even if you?ve got a brand new business, even if you don't have a business yet and you're just preparing for one, hire a personal assistant for just five hours a week and get some crap off of your plate because it's going to turn you into a leader. You're going to learn how to manage that person, how to manage their personality, how to keep them motivated, how to give them feedback. You're going to have lots of hard conversations with that employee. You know?

Jaime: Oh, yes.

Rachel: That is what turns you into a leader and a manager. And when you can manage great people and find great people, it's everything. We have an incredible team at Hello Seven. I'm so grateful for it. And I'm not allowed to go to meetings. Our company meetings, they are like, Do not come unless it's on your calendar. If we didn't put it on your calendar, you're not allowed to attend because you're just going to come in there with new ideas and mess it up. We're already doing your old ideas. Okay?

Jaime: Less work. Yeah. Well, I wrote down all about leadership because it does seem like you've got hard earned wisdom from over a long period of time, but there is a difference between leadership and management. I want to talk about hiring. Give us some tips on hiring because hiring is, unfortunately it seems like hard-earned wisdom from everyone being like, Well, don't do that again. Do this again. Right?

Rachel: Mm-hmm.

Jaime: So, what tips do you have for hiring, especially more diversely, because I know a lot of people need help with that too.

Rachel: Yes. Well, let's see. Where do I even begin? I would say I think there's a lot of fantastical thinking with hiring. We're just so desperate to get things off of our plate, that we'll just take whoever the first person shows up is. I think we have to start to recognize once you have one or two painful experiences where you have to fire someone, and then sometimes you fire them and you have a good relationship and you're like, What is your next thing you want to do? Maybe I can help you find something that's more suitable. And then you have those other situations where you have to let someone go and they're angry and they post all over the internet about what a horrible human being you are. Both happen. Just expect it.

And so, when you go through those experiences it reminds you, Oh, I need to take this a lot more slowly and I need to be a lot more intentional. My philosophy is I require people to jump through 8,000 hoops before they will be offered a position at my company. If they make it that far, that means they really want it. That means we see in them the skills that we're looking for. That they are a culture fit, which is huge. Oh, my God. People could have all the talent in the world for the thing that you want them to do, but if they are not a culture fit, it's going to be clash after clash and a nightmare for the whole team, so that's really important too.

I also am very big on assessments. I have people do disks. I have them to strengths finders. I will, I don't know, I care more about your disks and your strengths finders than your resume, for sure.

Jaime: Me too. Yes. Data. Data.

Rachel: Yes. Data, right. Because I can't tell you how many assistants or kind of executive assistants or program assistants will apply for a role where it's really execution-based, hands-on, and they have low or no C. Which is in the disk, that's all about detail oriented I'm like, No. You're going to hate this job and I'm not going to be able to feel like I can rely on you to get these details done.

I am high D, a high I, so I suck at details. I'm horrible at it, so I want everybody on the team to have some level of detail orientation because I lack it completely.

Jaime: Me, too. By the way, mine is as low. I'm high. I'm 99D and 99I and then almost nothing in both.

Rachel: Yes. Exactly. Same. Same.

Jaime: Yeah. I need the people. I need all of the people to do all the things because I am not going to, and I just won't, and I know that about myself.

Rachel: Exactly. Exactly. So, I think just really taking it slowly. I always do test tasks and we've gotten even more. There are five test tasks, and we're happy to pay people to do them. We really invest in that hiring process and take it very slow, even if it's painful. One of the things that we'll do is just get a temporary VA or a temporary project manager in if somebody leaves and we really need some help short term. It's better to do that with zero commitment and say, I need you for two months. I don't know if I'll you can apply for this role if you're interested. There's no promises and no guarantees. It's two months and that's it. That way, you have the time and space and that person isn't going to be perfect because you're just throwing them to the wolves, but they are going to help pick up some of the stuff that's falling. And that's better than hiring somebody who is not a fit, who you have to fire in six months and it just disrupts your whole business.

Jaime: As people learned painfully too many times.

Rachel: Yeah, many times.

Jaime: And it's not perfect rocket science, but you can definitely mitigate your risk a lot.

Rachel: Yes.

Jaime: But when it comes to, once you've hired someone, because I hear this all the time and I'm sure you have opinions on this, and I would like to hear them. You went through a pretty good hiring process. You were slow to hire. You are like, Yeah, I'm super excited because everybody is an A at the beginning. Then it turns into this sort of gray area mush of, Am I a bad manager? Are you a good? Whose problem? What's what and who is sticky? You know what I mean? It starts to get very gray and it's hard to understand especially for people pleasers to go, Oh, I understand. Oh, wait, here sure. You're not getting it done. How come? But they are good people and I know I can train them. Gray area. Please help.

Rachel: Yeah. I'm not one of those people that believes that I can train them. I think how you're showing up is how you're going to continue to show up in this business, so I just believe people when they tell me who they are. That's exactly what I'm saying about fantastical thinking.

Jaime: That's what my therapist says.

Rachel: Yes. We are always, we will work so hard to talk ourselves out of firing someone that they are probably absolutely miserable in their job because they know they're not cutting it because they are probably ill-suited to the role. It just doesn't match their talents and strengths and you're being driven nuts because you can't delegate the things that you really need to get off of your plate, so everyone is unhappy.

I go to clients, there are clients, or sorry team members, that I have had to let go that I'm like, What do you want to do? I will help you do it. I will help you with this next thing. I honestly see that you're much more suited to X. And then they are like, Yeah, that's what I actually always wanted to do. So, I'm like, Don't do this job. This job sucks for you. There's somebody else who loves spreadsheets. You hate them. You know?

Jaime: Yes.

Rachel: So, I'm just about 100 percent transparency. I share my numbers with my team. I share the struggle. When this pandemic hit and we had a tough month, I was like, Hey, we're having a tough month. No one's getting laid off and we're going to do everything that we can to make sure that it doesn't happen, but I need all hands-on deck. I need your support so that we can, I know we can do this together. I mean, we...

Jaime: I know, right? Biggest turnout ever.

Rachel: That turned out wrong for me.

Jaime: I know.

Rachel: But you've just got to be I like to be transparent and be like, Listen, we're all on the team. Let's just go. Here's what's going on. Here's what everybody's role is. I also have really, and I say this in my hiring process, I give very direct feedback. So, you have to, I don't like this phrasing of thick skin, but you've got to be open to having a real conversation with me too. And I like when my employees tell me, Well, here's what you do that drives me nuts. Just tell me because then I know, and I'm like, Oh, okay.

Jaime: Okay, you suck, but usually...

Rachel: I see what's going on here. Please don't act like it's always the employee. Sometimes it's us. We are a pain in the ass to deal with.

Jaime: Thank you for saying it. I say it all the time. Yes. I know it. Come on. I know it. I'm crazy. It's fine, right?

Rachel: Exactly. This is why I'm not allowed at meetings.

Jaime: Exactly. You've trained your team well. Great job. They manage up very, very well.

Rachel: Yes. Well, I've just empowered them, and I've said, This is your domain. This is your project. This is your baby. You want to get past the place where you're just giving people a to-do list, and where they are giving you a to-do list and saying, Here's what I need from you. I'm owning this project. I'm owning the results. I'm owning the metrics and milestones that come with it. You know?

Jaime: Totally.

Rachel: That?s key.

Jaime: Being able to, empowering your employees, I think, is really important like you said. I don't feel like entrepreneurs are good at giving the responsibility over, that letting go that you were talking about before. Because we're like, Well, I'm just going to hold onto a little bit of it. But then they just over-micromanage or whatever it is, and they pull it back and then they never give the person the chance to actually be able to be empowered and do it themselves and actually tell you what to do, which is what we really want them to do in the long run. How did you get rid of that?

Rachel: Exactly. I think, I'm the opposite. I'm the type, I'm the one that's coming to shove you off the cliff. Here you go. Fly. Sometimes they're like, Well, you shoved me off that cliff and I wasn't quite ready. Could you give me a little bit more information or whatever? I'm like, Okay. I'm sorry. I needed to spend more time with you. But I'd rather find out that way. I find that when I just give it over and let people shine, they do shine. They will own it, and they will make it amazing and be better at doing that part of the work than you ever were or ever will be.

Jaime: Yeah, and if they don't, you either have to fix it or fire them, and then you have more information and data and you're still moving. It seems like your speed of orientation is very quick.

Rachel: Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm all about that. Learn quickly. Fail quickly. Go for it and find out if it's going to work or not. I tell this to my team all the time. This came up recently about overworking. I found out recently that one of my team members was working on a Saturday all day, and we don't do that unless maybe if it's a launch. But even then, it's all organized. It's kind of like you're covering the sales page chat from these hours to these hours. Then I'm covering it from these hours. You know? It's all organized, so nobody is spending their whole Saturday. I was like, Listen. Don't ever do that. Let the work fall down, or come and wave an SOS flag and say, ?Hey, it?s Thursday. This project is not going to get done by the due date. I need some help.

Because if you work on Saturday or you work on evenings and I don't know it, especially with a remote team, you don't know. I'm thinking you can handle that amount of work then I just keep giving it to you without knowing. If I know the truth that that's too much work for the hours that you should be working, then I know, Okay, great. It's time to hire another person.? That's exactly while I talk [inaudible] [00:38:35] the time, and I let my team know. Listen, you've got to tell me what's going on. You can't expect me to know what I can't possibly know unless you tell me. And we also deal with the whole person, because we have a lot of young moms on our team and I'm a mother, so I know exactly what that looks like. When I notice that someone is not around or they're struggling to hit deadlines and they've got young kids, I'm like, What's going on with the daycare situation? Tell me about your childcare situation, and usually that's a struggle.

So, I think really dealing with the whole person. We do a weekly meeting. Every single team member gets a weekly meeting with their supervisor. Sometimes we're just talking about life for 20 minutes. Let's talk about what's going on with you, so that you know Hey, I'm dealing with this family situation. Hey, I'm dealing with this. So, then you can we have resources as small business owners. Sometimes, I'm like, Oh, I can solve that problem for you. I have a connection. I have a friend who lives in the same city and I know she's done with her babysitter. Maybe you could get the babysitter. Let me see what I could do? Right? I've got resources. Use me.

So, I really try to let my team know that I'm there for them. And I think that's really important to your point about being able to hire diverse hires. Really understanding their life, understanding what they're dealing with in their life and being supportive of it, being in a place where celebrate pride at work. Celebrate your LGBTQI+ employees and members of the community and say, Hey, how can we celebrate you? What could we do? Could we donate to something? What could I do better? Ask them. Ask them how you could do better, and I think that makes a big difference. Showing it's really just caring. At the end of the day, just care.

Jaime: It's so... I've said those exact words, and this is why your mission is so important to me. It's the same thing because the people that care and the people that have integrity are the ones that should have the wealth and should have the ability to tell it like it is enough. Evolved enough to make huge change in the world because we need to. We need to have people that actually care about other humans enough to ask about what's going on their life as a whole person. Because we're all people and we're all holding ourselves back for all of these things and community-wise is going to be huge.

I just see you shine as the leader, and you tell it like it is. You let people move forward on their own. I just feel like you do a shining example of that, so maybe later you'll write a leadership book. For now, you can write about the millionaires, but later.

Rachel: Thank you. Thank you. I think a lot, definitely for black people specifically, we're accustomed to going into a workplace and having to fake it and having to put some part of our personality and culture and experience aside to be comfortable or just to be functional in a workplace. If you are really clear about the fact that you don't expect that and that you want them to bring their whole selves to work and you're prepared for that, and [inaudible] [00:41:37] interviewing people who are black people or people of color, how can we make this workspace more comfortable for you? How can we make this workspace one where you can truly thrive? We noticed that we have mostly white members on the team, or we don't have a trans person on the team yet. I want to make sure that we are accommodating you and meeting your needs. Just acknowledging that they are dealing with stuff that other members of the team don't have to deal with.

And that's what equity is about, right? It's not about making it perfectly equal. That doesn't make sense. We don't have an equal experience, so I think that's really, really key. And talking about it in your marketing and your branding and talking about it everywhere, and then also making sure that it comes up in the hiring process as well. Because I think honestly people will interview for roles, but they won't take them if they don't feel like this is going to be a comfortable place for them to work where they can thrive. They will be like, Hey, the money sounds great. It sounds good, but I just don't want to be uncomfortable, or I don't want to have to fake it. You know?

Jaime: Yeah. How can we do that in the interview process? How can we make sure that you can ask them more questions about that? I am here for you and I want to hear you for what you are, and we're trying to get better at this?

Rachel: Well, I think in the anti-racist small business pledge, one of the things that we had is the last thing actually, is to make a statement about your stance on racism, on diversity, inclusion and equity. Decide how your company is going to commit in a feasible way that you can actually do. Make it unequivocally clear. Because this is what customers are doing and team members are doing. They are going around on the websites and saying, "Did this person make a statement about this? What did they say? Let me go on Twitter and see if their employees are disagreeing." You know?

Jaime: Yes.

Rachel: Because that's happened a lot recently. And so, they...

Jaime: I love the internet, for so many ways. Yes.

Rachel: I know, right? Talk about truth and transparency. We're getting a lot of that right now all over the internet, namely on Twitter.

Jaime: Yes. How amazing is that though?

Rachel: It's my news source.

Jaime: Right. I mean, I think giving a voice and being able to have the companies that can, beforehand, in the past, were able to shirk a lot of things because we didn't have access to as much information or as much voice for people beforehand. Now we do, and it's going to come out people. It's going to come out no matter what, so just be kind, please, and pay more attention.

Rachel: And just focus on it and give it some attention. Put some money and some energy behind it. And if you're educating yourself, let your audience know how you're educating yourself. Let potential applicants know. This statement that you make can go right into your job descriptions. My job descriptions are four pages long.

Jaime: Really?

Rachel: Yes. We have our mission statement. We have our company values. We go deep into. We have a narrative about what this role looks like and what it feels like to work on the team. And then we have the specific responsibilities of the role. It's insane. It's like, I don't know, a book report.

Jaime: That goes in the leadership book later also.

Rachel: Exactly.

Jaime: Because the values, and what you're talking about, culture and values is something to me that we make a stance, but as you start hiring, it will start to ebb and flow. You'll be like, Oh, that last hire, we need to add this to our culture. Or we need to add this to our values.

Rachel: Right.

Jaime: And test on it in the beginning of our hiring process, so that doesn't happen again. Right?

Rachel: Exactly.

Jaime: It's amazing that you have it all in there already. Is it pretty clear as people are going through the process whether they know that they are a culture fit or not?

Rachel: I think so. Honestly, I think our hiring process has made it so that people kind of self-select out. So, most of the applicants in our inbox wind up being, probably 80 percent of them are a culture fit, because I have put so much content out there. We ask them, Go check out our podcast. Follow me on Instagram. We expect you to check us out a bit before we have an interview. They usually act like they know me because they've listened to the podcast.

Jaime: Well, I read your FAQ.

Rachel: They're like, I know all your business.

Jaime: I read your FAQ and I was like, Oh, wow. Yeah, just tell it like it is in a wonderful way. I know how it feels. I know you.

Rachel: Yeah. Exactly. And I do that consistently. In my sales pages, I'm always trying to repel people who are not the right people for my work who I just don't enjoy working with and they probably won't enjoy working with me. You know?

Jaime: Yeah.

Rachel: Not all money is good money.

Jaime: Good way to put it.

Rachel: So, I think you want to do that. If you know how to build a sales funnel, then you know how to build a hiring funnel. It's the same thing. You're trying to tell them upfront as much as possible, ?Here's what is great about us. Here is what it's going to be like to work with me. If you've got to put in work, you're going to have to put in work. We're not going to pretend that we're going to hand-hold you through the whole thing. And then, here's who we are. Here's our expectations of you. Here is what the role looks like. You will occasionally work on a Saturday, but not often. Really saying, Here's who we are. Lay it out. Here's the benefits of working with us. Here's maybe some of the negatives and then decide if this is for you or not. The whole point is to really get far fewer applicants, but they're more qualified and they are more of a culture fit. So, most people that come to us are very exuberant and they are like, Oh, my God. I'm obsessed. Let me in. Which is wonderful.

Jaime: You made me go through a gauntlet in order to get here, so let me in now.

Rachel: Yes. It's so true.

Jaime: Well, when it comes to that too, and it's really awesome to see how far you've come. How many nuances, and how many tweaks you've done, and how much change you've created, and I think that is what's so important to see. It's not as though you came out of the gate being this clear on everything.

Rachel: No.

Jaime: The clarity that you have now is just fantastic. So, just know, anybody that's listening, it took her some time to get all this stuff set up, for sure.

Rachel: Yes. It is a tweaking, right? You're constantly tweaking your branding, your messaging. How you do your offer. How you onboard clients. Every single aspect of your business is constantly being tweaked. Every quarter we do planning we are like, Okay, which parts of the business are we tweaking this quarter? Because you're always just trying to improve. You're always evolving and that's what keeps it interesting. Otherwise, it would be really, really boring and we'd be like, I want to quit this job. What else could I do?

Jaime: I know. We're insane and like progress too much. So, recalibration we'll call it instead of squirrel and switching tracks, right?

Rachel: Yes.

Jaime: Recalibration, refinement, those things really matter especially as you are growing, especially to hit a million. I did not realize that we are almost way out of time.

Rachel: Wow.

Jaime: This is lovely.

Rachel: Time goes fast.

Jaime: So, I have to ask you the last question. What is one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of a million?

Rachel: I think the one thing that you should do is look at your story around money and really think about what do you believe around money? What do you think is possible? I'm coming off the heals of literally having just had a million-dollar month and if I told you how close I was a week ago, you would be like, That's not that close. How the hell? But once we were over that $600,000, $650,000 mark, I was like, That's close enough that we could hit it. And my team, they were pretty much ignoring me at first because they were like, This woman is insane. What is she doing? I was like, No. We can do this. I believe it. But I need the help of our community. Honestly, it did take some money mindset work to just even think that I was worthy of going for it, to even put out there that I was going to do it. So, I encourage you to challenge your beliefs around money. Set a big insane goal. Share it publicly. Let people support you, and then go make it happen.

Jaime: Everybody has to go check Rachel Rodgers out and I want to have you back on when the book comes out, just so you know. Because we have way more to cover and it goes by really quickly.

Rachel: Yes.

Jaime: But where can we find out more about the We All Need to Be Millionaires Club and more about you online?

Rachel: Well, you can follow me on Instagram. I'm at rachrodgersesq. Rodgers with a 'd'. People always forget that. Then you can check out the club at Helloseven.co/club.

Jaime: Everybody check it out. I watch the webinar. Go follow her. Listen to her podcast. You're amazing. Thanks so much for coming on the show. I'm so glad someone recommended you and so glad to be connected.

Rachel: Yes. Thank you. It was awesome.

Categories: All, Business, Featured Millionaire Interview, Millionaire Interviews

Millionaire Interviews

Websites:

Resources:

Connect with Rachel:

One response

Leave a Reply Cancel reply