SPEAKER_00
Guys, I cannot believe we are at episode 100 of the Jory Business Academy podcast. It's absolutely wild to me. And so today we're celebrating.

Today I'm actually going to be doing a very different episode. I'm going to be doing a solo, so just sharing my story in much more detail with you guys. So buckle up and let's go.

My name is Robin Clark and I'm obsessed with all things business and marketing. I'm a Jory designer who left the corporate world and grew a successful Jory business. And now I help women just like you from around the world do the same.

I'm the founder and CEO of the Jory Business Academy, the host of the Jory Business Academy podcast. And I'm here to help you scale your Jory business to six figures and beyond without burning out. Through my coaching program and podcast, I help you navigate the challenging seasons of business as well as teach you the secrets to building a sustainable business that makes you feel good.

So grab a cup of tea and your notebook, get cozy and let's dive in. Hello guys and welcome back. Today we're diving into the 100th episode of the Jory Business Academy podcast, which is just wild to me that we are ready at the 100th episode.

You know, I look back to the day that I actually started this episode and it almost just feels like it wasn't that long ago, but it really was, I think almost two years ago actually when we started the podcast and since our first episode. And so today I'm going to be doing a special episode for you. It's going to be a little bit different because I'm going to be sharing my story and I know I've shared little elements of my story.

I have a short version of my story at the beginning of this whole podcast series. It's episode number one and I did that one very short, very sweet, but I haven't shared like a lot of depth to my story and I thought, you know, it's the 100th episode. It's the perfect time to kind of take a moment, celebrate everything that we've achieved so far, celebrate our community, celebrate you being here and just really share a little bit more about me because I do get questions all the time.

People ask about my life, my experience in business, my journey to getting to where I am today, what it looked like and so that's what we're going to do. I am just going to go with a flow. So we'll see what comes up.

You know, this is an interesting thing I was talking to someone else about this a couple of days ago who's also in coaching and she was saying how, you know, every time you share your story, like different, different sort of iterations and versions come out based on how you're feeling that day, based on like the things that you're processing. And so it's always interesting just to see like, okay, well, there's different levels and different layers to your story and I'm not sure how deep we're going to get today. I'm hoping to go as deep as possible.

And yeah, I will say if we do go deep, there are some dark moments, which is okay because that's life. But I will probably just start right at the beginning. So you know, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you probably know that I am originally from South Africa.

So I'm completely South African. When people hear I'm from South Africa, they're like, okay, but when did you move there? And I was born there. My family was born there.

We have multiple generations born in South Africa. That was my home for many, many years. And that's where I actually started my love for jewelry, believe it or not, because for many years when I was growing up, I was literally doing all the arts and crafts things possible.

I was in sewing classes from the age of five. I was doing fabric painting. I was making tablecloths and pillow slips and all of those things.

I was doing jewelry for many years, wire wrapping from like age seven. I was doing it all. Anything creative, anything artsy, I was obsessed.

That's all I can say. I was obsessed. And so that has always been a part of my life.

You know, I made jewelry for so many years. I made nothing that way I was selling, but it was just something that I loved. I loved working with my hands.

I loved being creative. I loved like working with jewelry and beautiful things. And I love putting beautiful things there like out into the world or for me to wear myself and things that were meaningful to me and to my story, which when I was growing up was anything to do with horses.

So a lot of my jewelry was very much horse inspired when I was a kid and just a lot of animal pendants and all of that. I do really remember those first few pieces that I made because I was obsessed with them. And yeah, looking back, they were not very good.

But anyway, that kind of started my creative process and that creative side of my life. But at the same time, I was always obsessed with science and maths. And I just, to be honest, never even considered having a business at any stage.

And I never considered that you could even have a business doing anything creative. It just did not cross my mind. So when I was, I think I was like 11 or 12, I moved to Spain with my family.

So I lived in Spain for about five years and did my high school there. And it was such an incredible opportunity and such an incredible way of life and just experience overall to experience a different culture and not just visit for a short period of time, but like live there, like speak the language. I was fluent at that stage in Spanish, which unfortunately I've lost.

But you know, it was, it had its fair shares of ups and downs, but I did really enjoy that. And then we moved to Portugal for a few years, which I'm obsessed with. Portugal is one of my favorite countries.

It's just so beautiful. The warmest people, the kindest people. Honestly, Portugal has my heart.

It was just glorious. And then I went to Wales in the UK for university and spent some time in Norway as well. And then I moved to Canada.

So it's been quite a journey. You know, I've moved a lot. I was thinking about this the other day and I think I've actually lived by the age of 18, I think I'd lived in literally 16 to 18 houses.

So I have moved a lot. So I'm really good with transitions. Moving countries is never something that really phases me.

I make those types of decisions very quickly. You know, when I decided I was moving to the UK, it was, I made that decision in a day. I, same with Canada.

Like big decisions, I don't know. They just don't overwhelm me. Maybe they should, but they just don't.

I am quite good at making those decisions and I'm quite good with those transitions. And I will say that I think that's been a massive benefit to me in the business world and in entrepreneurship because I don't get phased by big decisions easily, you know. And I'm able to make a decision and commit to that and make the best out of it because you can't always control the outcomes, but you can control your approach to that.

So yeah, then I moved to Canada and I had a science degree. So in the UK, I got a BSc in science. I graduated with honours and I intended on working in the science world because that's what I was qualified in.

That's what I was really good at. But I realised after working in labs, after seeing all these different environments, it wasn't quite like fulfilling to me. So I did a marketing course after that in Canada and Toronto.

And one of my favourite parts of being part of the programme that I did was that all of my lecturers were actually all business owners. None of them were full-time lecturers. They were all business owners and they would take calls during class and then tell us what the call was about.

They gave us real-life examples of real projects that were happening or issues that were happening in their businesses that we got to see. They told us real stories of what was literally happening in their business and it completely opened my mind to this world of business that I had never ever ever been exposed to. And so it was so fascinating to me and I remember thinking like, wow, I wish I was good enough to have an idea to have a business.

I just thought anyone who had a business was the coolest thing ever and I was like, I wish in another life I could have been one of those people but I'm not so I'm going to stick to my path and I'm going to climb the corporate ladder because that's what I'm good at. So I went into my first job which was as a consultant in Toronto. I was just obsessed with the image of being a consultant to be honest with you because yeah, there's like an element of status.

You get to dress up. You're in the city. There's work lunches.

There's like, it has a vibe and that vibe got old very quickly, very, very quickly. And the reality of working for other people, having them be in control of my time, of where I'm spending my time, what I'm doing, my weekends they have control over because I don't know if anyone listening to this lives in Canada or in Toronto at least but the demands placed on students in new jobs especially anyone who's a foreigner. So at that stage I was still a foreigner and they know it and they take full advantage of it, full advantage.

It's actually quite shocking when I look back and I know that they know they were in the wrong but they work you to the ground. They make you work weekends, evenings, non-stop. So I worked non-non-non-stop for many months in that job and what was interesting was I was working in some, I don't want to obviously share details, but some top companies in Toronto and I was blown away by the standard of some people in management in these companies.

They did not know what was going on. It was a hot mess and it just blew my mind that these people in these like authoritative positions really had no idea what was going on and we're kind of winging it and I was like what is going on here? But it showed me that to be successful in the corporate world there's a level of confidence you have to have. You don't have to be necessarily the best in that industry, you just have to have a lot of confidence and it was just eye-opening to me and mind-boggling that these people were in those positions.

And anyway, so I then was like you know what? No, this is not it. I got clear on like what I wanted from life again. I was like what are the elements that I loved from my life before which was at university? What are the elements I loved about that that I'm not able to have in this current life that I'm trying to bring back? And so I was always good at being like okay let's get perspective, let's not just hop into another job, let's get clear on what it is we're looking for.

And so I was like you know what? What's really important to me is that I'm not commuting. Like I don't want to commute. It needs to be a 10-15 minute drive from home, that's it.

My gym needs to be around the corner. Like my whole world needs to be in a small place because I'm not interested in spending half my life driving and commuting and going on trains and all of that. So that was one of my key criteria.

The next was like I want to be done at five. I want to work nine to five or eight to five and that's it. I'm not doing evenings.

I'm not doing weekends. And I also was like you know what? I want a workplace where I actually get to work with people that I enjoy working with and talking with and spending time with and I just want a nicer environment. And I got really crystal clear on what I was looking for at that stage and that same week got offered a job in marketing in a company that fit all those criteria and more.

And I absolutely love that job. It made me realize marketing is where I wanted to be and this was another startup. So both the companies I've worked for were kind of formed as startups.

They had a startup environment and the benefit to that was as somebody who's super curious, I just love knowing how businesses work. Like I'm so curious about what's working, what's not working, why it's working and I always had that innate curiosity about it. And what I did really love and really appreciate about this job and like my manager at the time is they really opened up opportunities for me to learn as much as I wanted to about the whole business, not just the marketing, which I was already obsessed with and already handling all of that.

And so I got involved in all things when it came to pricing, when it came to shipping, when it came to managing teams, when it comes to sales teams, when it comes to overall scaling of a business and what that looks like. And it was just an incredible experience and this is where I will say, somebody who's listening to this who wants to become an entrepreneur, you can really learn so much by getting into the right company for a year or two or three or even a few more than that. You can learn so many invaluable skills that will take you longer to learn on your own by doing that and those skills will translate into business.

And so I was in that company, I was promoted to marketing manager and I had in my mind put the position of marketing manager is like, when I get that title, I'm going to be so happy and I got the title and I was like, huh, I'm not feeling it. Like I thought I would feel different. And I was like, okay, well, I need to obviously renegotiate my income I was making at that time, my salary.

And what I saw was the way that whole negotiation was handled, put me off the corporate world for life because it was very clear that, you know, I don't want to say anything that's going to get anyone in trouble, but it was just very clear that I was being underpaid and it was very clear that they had the money to pay me more and they just chose not to do that. And I just decided, you know what, that's fine. I'm going to start my own business.

I did first think, well, I'm going to go and get another job somewhere else. And then I spoke to other people that worked at the company who had years of experience in other corporations in Canada. And let me tell you those stories were I opening enough for me to be like no Robin, you're going to move from one hell island to another hell island.

Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't over invest yourself.

Let's just start at the bottom and start something sustainable that you own because ultimately one of the massive pet peeves is other people having control over my time. Like I cannot deal with people having control of my time. I've been like this since I was a kid.

I remember in school getting so frustrated when there's like kids chatting and whatever and you're the one who has to kind of get held up or whatever because they're doing other things and or you finish your work early and you have to just sit there and do nothing, you know. My time is my most valuable assets and it always will be because it's the one resource we never get back. So what really frustrated me in my corporate job was that my energy is not, I'm not a man.

I don't have a 24 hour hormone cycle where my energy is just consistent every single day. So I'd have days where I get into work, you know, it's getting there around 8, 8, 30 every single morning and then I had to stay there till 5 and I work at a really intense pace when I work. I work really, like I get things done at a high level very efficiently.

That's just how I work and I always have been that way. But it's not sustainable to do that from 8, 30 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon with a one hour lunch break. Just not sustainable, just not possible.

And I didn't at the time understand why I was just so tired all the time and I was like oh, by 3pm I was ready to go home and let me tell you most of the office was as well. If you're in a corporate job and you do work from an office occasionally, go take a walk around around 3pm. Nobody's doing any work.

They're shuffling papers and they're watching the time so they can leave the office. And to me that is just the silliest work culture thing I've ever seen. You know, it just shows me that people don't know how to be leaders.

They don't know how to be like how do we get the most out of this team? Well getting the most out of the team is being able to say you know what, what's going to be best for our businesses for you to have your best energy. So what's going to give you your best energy? Well it would be better for you at 3pm to go to the gym, go buy groceries, go make food and then later in the evening go finish your work for two hours if that's needed or let us have a shorter work day. Which to be honest most of these companies are backwards and they won't be getting there in our generation.

So ultimately that's where I was. I was feeling frustrated because I had poured myself into this company. Like poured myself in.

I worked at such a high level. I was so consistent. I showed up all the time.

I showed up when I was deathly sick. And when I look back I feel so bad for putting my body through that. The fact that I was never even told when you're sick stay home.

Look after your body. Don't even try work. That was not the culture I was exposed to.

The culture I was exposed to was you better show up no matter what and if you're literally on death's door you better be working on your laptop in your bed and showing up to all the meetings. So it was just to me it's a very toxic culture and it goes across most corporations especially in Canada. I don't think it's the same in Europe.

I think Europe is much better because what I saw when I was living in Europe was they have a much better work life balance but where I live in Canada you know that's just not the case. And so there's a lot of different layers to this but ultimately I was unhappy. I was frustrating and frustrated and I was very resentful at that stage after being promoted that I wasn't being paid what I should be paid and let me tell you guys I was not even asking for that much.

Like when I look back I'm like wow I was literally asking for a $10,000 raise over I think a year which is absolutely nothing. And so anyway I was very upset and I knew I needed to change something so I started listening to podcasts, reading books and one night literally just a few weeks after I had been promoted I woke up at three in the morning and I remember grabbing my phone and checking the time it was three in the morning and I had just woken up from a dream and in this dream I literally saw this jewelry business that I was going to build. I literally saw it.

I knew what the name was going to be. I knew that it was going to be like dreamy, light, meaningful, effortless pieces for every day. I knew it was going to be just the whole aesthetic of it.

I could vividly picture it vividly and so I immediately grabbed my phone. I didn't even have a personal laptop at that time. Grabbed my phone and bought the website at three in the morning and then I had family staying over and I went and worked them up and I was like hey I just want you to know I'm starting a business and they thought I was like absolutely crazy.

But anyway, the next day I registered the business and as soon as the registration came in I opened the bank account and literally three months from that dream I handed in my resignation and I left the corporate world and everybody thought I was crazy. Absolutely crazy. And to be honest when I look back I'm like wow I'm so glad I was so young and so dumb because that's the only way I was able to make that decision.

But I knew at my core that I would always make things work and I also knew I could always go back to the corporate world. And people like to make you feel like those types of jobs are scarce but I got offered multiple jobs after leaving. I got offered six figures from people from companies after leaving and it was just a blessing that I didn't take any of those up because what I can see now after working with so many business owners being exposed to so many people in business is one of the biggest threats to being successful in entrepreneurship is being comfortable.

And I see it all the time people who are just too cushy in their life, they just too comfortable, they just don't have enough pain points. It's really really hard for them to get through the first like three years of business and actually keep going because it's tough. Business is tough, business is challenging and you have to have that grit and determination.

You have to be like I'm going to make this happen. And for some people they just too comfortable like the cost and the pain and effort and energy of making something happen versus the option of just staying home and staying in their cushy job, it just it's too difficult. So to me it's actually such a blessing and I'm actually very very grateful for everything that I went through and all the experiences that I had and even like the pay situation I look back with so much gratitude because I'm like wow for like a tiny bit more I would have been just comfortable and that would have probably hindered my entrepreneurial journey for many many years because I just wouldn't have made anything happen.

So anyway fast forward I dived into my business, I did not have what I now have in the Dory Business Academy, I did not have the launch plan, I did not have all of this, launched my website after developing my collection to crickets. Nobody nothing and I was shocked. I was like but I don't get it, I've launched my website, I have my social media, like I've got this collection and I don't understand why nobody's buying.

And that was my introduction into really building a brand that people become obsessed with, know about, trust, love and become really like super fan customers and it was a very challenging season the first year and I actually nearly gave up. I think it was, I can't remember, it was about seven months after launching, I was on the struggle bus let me tell you so when people come to me and they're like oh I'm on the struggle bus and they feel there's a lot of shame that goes into that, there's a lot of like struggle, I was on the struggle bus as well but I was very confident about it, I don't know where that confidence came from but I just had this innate knowing that I was going to be okay and that I was going to make it happen, I just knew I was. And so I had moments where I was like what's going on, I don't get it and I was frustrated and I was like maybe I made a mistake but that didn't really last long enough for me to actually go do anything about it and I showed up every day, this was key, I showed up every single day in my business, I worked on it every day and I kept my routine that I had in the corporate world for two years which means that for two years after diving head first into entrepreneurship I woke up at quarter to five every single morning, I started my work day around eight every single morning and I finished at five or later every single day and that routine is not necessarily something you have to do but what I have seen for a lot of people who go from the entrepreneurial world into entrepreneurship is suddenly you have all this time and you have all this space and you start saying yes to coffees with friends in the middle of the day and then you go for your grocery shopping in the middle of the day and honestly your day gets away from you so I did do things like go to gym or go for a walk in the middle of the day but I had my key time for focusing on my business and that honestly got me through those challenging periods and I remember sitting down one day and I was like okay Robin you have one more month to make this work and then you're getting a job and if you don't hit my goal then was just like okay we're gonna start here I'm gonna save, I don't hit ten thousand dollars next month this business is shutting down like I'm done and I came up with the plan, wrote it all down and I hit it that month, that next month I hit ten thousand, I went over and that was then just the start and I then just kept building momentum from there and started building my community, building my email list, going all in I got my stuff into stores all across the GTA you know and again there's different layers to the story because I remember the first store my pieces were in we didn't sell one product and I was again shocked because I was like I don't get it these pieces are selling so well at events they're selling online why are they not selling in stores and so I went and sat this specific store had a coffee shop opposite it and so I went and sat every day for a week for like six hours at the coffee shop to watch customers come through that store and watch how they engaged and interacted with all the products and looked at why they weren't engaging with mine and I shuffled things around I redid the display I changed the way I laid them out and I went back and watched and I kept tweaking and about three months after doing that my products became in the top one to five brands in terms of sales in almost all the stores that it was in and these stores have like 75 to 100 brands in them and that was literally from my obsession of being like okay how are they interacting with things where are their eyes drawn to as people walk in the store what types of displays draw them into engage how do we get them feeling connected to a piece of jewelry when I can't be there to sell it to them in person and what does that look like and how do I like really optimize the display and the collection and the way it's presented to drive that connection and to drive sales so I got obsessed absolutely obsessed I mean I was driving three hours to some stores to go watch and see what was happening and I even at one point got a job at one of the stores just to be like I just I wanted that experience of selling in a store and interacting with customers and seeing how they navigate through a store the questions they asking the hesitations they have because I just wanted to know it all and I did little experiments and little tests and I'd be like what's the product that never sells in the store to the store owner and then I would take that product and I would make that like sell then that day I would be like this product is the one we're going to sell and it was so fascinating to me to realize like wow as a store owner as a brand owner as a business owner we rarely have the power to control sales we rarely have so much more power than we give ourselves credit for and a lot of people just think oh all I have to do is put the jewelry out and put my products out then and it's going to sell and it's not always going to be the case but you do have the power to actually control number one which designs are selling which pieces are the best sellers how fast pieces are moving you have so much more control than you recognize and I recognize that then and I was just blown away as like wow wow wow and so when I really refined that I really I was constantly refining my business refining my processes developing this structure for my business plan which was easy effortless straightforward so that I was very clear on all the collaborations I was doing all the giveaways all the stores all the events all the online marketing strategies that I was doing like I was very clear and I developed the strategy which actually took three years for me to refine and then I did another two years of refinement and that's actually the strategy that I now have in the jewelry business academy and so what's also fascinating about that strategy is I had someone a friend who has a eight figure company I showed them the strategy at one stage and they were so impressed they like you know what can you just give me copies of this framework because I want to use it in my company and honestly it's a game changer it's it's an absolute game changer because what I found at the beginning of business is that things can feel overwhelming and confusing but actually business isn't that confusing if you have the right framework in place if you have the right structures in place it's it's not that confusing you just have to do what's required to get your results you don't have to do your best you don't have to do all the things you probably think you have to do you just have to do what's required to drive brand awareness drive brand connection and drive sales so it's pretty simple when you break it down like that but a lot of people really struggle with like okay well what do I do and so you know during these many years that I was a jewelry business owner it was my full full-time career for many years and I remember being invited to Toronto Fashion Week as a designer so I was there as a jewelry designer and a massive gorgeous booth with all my jewelry on display and we did incredibly well during that fashion week and I remember having so many people come up to me people who were like you know what I went to fashion school I went to design school I used to make jewelry I've been doing this and and all these people who are incredibly talented way more talented than I ever was because I don't know if I mentioned this but I was completely self-taught jewelry designer I wasn't you know doing any complex designs my stuff is very much just assembly kind of designs very minimal technical side of it when it comes to my designs and so these are people who had that design background who were much more technical who were much better designers and they weren't able to sell they one of them I remember her coming up to me and she's like could you just help me with my marketing because you obviously know like you obviously have something happening again like people know who you are people are buying from you people are coming back again and again and I hear people talking about you and you're brand new and I don't really know like how you've done it and she's like can you just help me with with with this and I was like oh well this is so fascinating because this is somebody with a lot more experience a lot more years of experience but she's clearly struggling with the making parts of the business which well the selling part of the business and so that was one of many interactions I had with people who are like I'm not too sure like what's going on here because I just can't sell and can you help me with the business side and can you do the marketing side and obviously I didn't have the time to do anybody's marketing side but I would hop on calls with them I'd give them free advice I remember I had store owners at pretty established stores being like hey can we just pick your brain for an hour about this and this and so I was doing a lot of like consulting for free and I did that for many years just to help and support other business owners and jewelry business owners so yeah I had many of these experiences over the years and interactions with business owners who were obviously very creative very talented a lot of people also struggled with actually selling their artwork or their designs because they put a lot of their heart and soul into it and it is challenging to learn how to sell in a way that feels good and in a way that you're like but that feels aligned as well and so I recognize that for sure and it was just always interesting to me and I remember thinking I wish there was a way I could help people and I also remember thinking and I actually voice this to somebody very close to me at the time and I said I want to start a podcast and I want to help these business owners and I was told at the time like why would anybody listen to your podcast and so we put off the podcast for many many years after I was told that and that was an offhand comment from somebody who really cared about me a lot and it just is such a good reminder for anyone listening to this don't let other people's offhand comments have such an impact on the decisions you make in your life and be very careful with who you share your ideas with ideas are very fragile and they're very easy to squash so honestly you want to be very careful with who you're sharing your ideas with you want to share them with people who ideally have done the same because those are the people who will be like yeah that sounds realistic that sounds doable and not with people who aren't in that world or haven't done what you're what your dreams or ideas are and just it just seems unrealistic to them so fast forward you know I obviously had my fair share of ups and downs running the jewelry business and it wasn't necessarily the sales side it was the emotional side of being alone all the time you know I did a lot of events but then I also had seasons where I didn't do events and I just focused online and with stores and I was just on my own so so so much and I didn't have anybody to just bounce ideas off I didn't have a support system I had my family who was very supportive but they had no background in business nothing whatsoever and you know during this time I was still getting my fair share of people being like when are you heading back to the corporate world and somebody sending me a book on when to know how to know when it's time to quit and things like that you know which is very funny so I had my fair share of challenges and I did go through seasons that were very dark even though on the outside I looked like I had everything together and that's one of the reasons that it's so important to me to really build a supportive community in the jewelry business academy because I have seen firsthand how challenging business can be how lonely business can be and what was really fascinating to me I did some research on this a couple of months ago and entrepreneurs have significantly higher mental health challenges than people in standard corporate jobs which is mind-blowing to me because the corporate environment I came from was so toxic and it was just very eye-opening to me that wow this dream that I've built this business I've built this community around my brand I've built somehow there's a there's some kind of disconnect because I'm doing it I'm supporting myself I'm financially supporting myself I have control over my time I have control over my energy but I am on the struggle bus and I was like I I don't get what I'm doing wrong here and so it took me a long time to recognize that I was missing that community and that support system and I even remember being super jealous of people who had business partners because I was like wow I would love a business partner but I just don't trust anyone and I would never have bought them into my jewelry business but I just wanted that somebody who's invested in me and invested in my well-being and invested in my business who understands my business who understands the ins and outs of how I work and how I thrive and is able to just help pick me up in those moments where I'm feeling low all where I'm starting to spiral is able to give me a pep talk is able to give me support is able to be like here's the action steps just do these and is able to give me that accountability to keep building that momentum because it was very very hard to do that on my own and I realize now it was a very unfair position to put myself in because you know I was talking to another client about this yesterday actually when you're in the corporate world or you're in another job you have a support system and they're giving you they you have managers you have team members you're talking you're engaging you're bouncing ideas off each other and when you're an entrepreneur it can be very very lonely so that was one of the things that was really important to me as well it's like well I need to be able to give people the support and the structure that they need to actually get results in their business I need to teach them the business and marketing side in a way that makes sense in a way that is actually actionable because I did at one stage I worked with someone who specializes in Instagram at one stage and you know the idea the concept behind that program was interesting it was good but what I found was that there was no structure was very much go with the flow which I was really drawn to at that stage and I did okay I did okay because I'm somebody who's like okay yes I get this this makes sense I'm gonna structure it in my own way take action and see results but what I saw for a lot of the members that were in this with me was that they needed structure they needed structure they were so confused they were all over the show and every week they were in the same place they were not moving forward and they just needed somebody to break down a plan step by step in like here's the steps you need to take here's what you need to do every single day and here's how to do it and here's how you know you've done it effectively and that's what they were missing and I remember just being like wow this is fascinating to me again because I wouldn't have thought that people needed that level of breakdown but seeing this seeing how many people really are just overwhelmed with all the decisions they have to make in business overwhelmed with having all that responsibility just want someone to give them a clear path a clear plan that they know works is what people need and so it was actually still many months later I think even a year or so later when I decided to launch the Jory Business Academy and again name came to me not in a dream this time it came to me the day I decided like hey why don't I do this why don't I build a program to help and support Jory business owners because that's what I was really passionate about doing you know I've always been I was in business because I did love Jory I loved making pieces that I wanted to wear because I wasn't actually a fan of Jory to be honest with you I had a very particular style very particular about what I'll wear even now I still only really wear my own stuff because it's light easy to wear effortless and all of that but where was I so I definitely knew that you know I wanted to start a program to help and support business owners and I decided to obviously focus on the Jory industry because it is a very different industry to other product based businesses and again I noticed this other products sell differently in stores compared to Jory Jory is a different type of product creating a collection around a jewelry and creating a collection that's going to sell is a completely it's just a completely different strategy to these other products and so I did lots of brainstorming and I was like you know what I'm going to do it I'm going to go all in and give people who are excited and ready for this type of support create a program that is going to give them life changing results and completely change the trajectory of their business and their life because what I'd seen I'd obviously been doing free consulting for many years in the past when you just give people like here's an hour of me just chatting to you they don't take action on it they intend to take action but they don't really do a great job or they do a few steps but there's no accountability there's no like real plan and you can only dive into so much on an hour so I was like how do I get clients the most intense life changing results and how do I do it in a way that feels good and how do I help them enjoy the process of building a business and how do I make them not feel so alone and what does that look like and I'd obviously already spent many many years developing the actual strategy the marketing strategy the sales funnels the email marketing funnels all of that and honestly that's always under refinement as well but it was then like okay I'm going to build this program to support business owners and support creatives and help them really thrive in business and in entrepreneurship and so that's when we started the program and you know one of the things that makes this program so different from everything else out there is there's an abundance of information out there I mean you guys know there's podcasts there's YouTube there's an abundance of information online about absolutely any topic that you're looking for and so the information is not the problem that most people are struggling with they're overwhelmed with information what they're struggling with is implementing and so our whole program has been developed around how can we make this as easy and as straightforward for you to actually implement the key things that you need to implement in order to scale your business successfully and in a way that feels good so our whole program is developed around that core ideal of supporting the implementation of what you're learning and one of the things that's been incredibly helpful for me in business is that I have my science background you know I'm obsessed with researching data analytics all of that but I also have the creative side so being able to merge those two together into this program and create a program that simplifies complex sort of approaches to business and simplifies it in a way that anybody can do it takes them step by step through a journey a pathway to success so they know every day when they wake up what they need to do in their business how to do it and they have that accountability to keep showing up every day and they have that support when challenges show up which inevitably they will so you know we launched the program we launched the podcast and I'll be honest I didn't anticipate how busy it was going to be I will say you know some people I've had people be like oh coaching looks so fun and so easy and I'm like coaching has been a wild ride I work more than double the amount of hours in my coaching than I ever did in jewelry and it is just another level of energy and another level of work it's just it can be very intense and I don't take it lightly because I'm here supporting and helping people through challenging times in their lives in their businesses you know ultimately I'm here to help them build profitable businesses in a way that feels good and in doing so you're helping people navigate challenging seasons of life you're helping them navigate challenging seasons of business you're helping them dig themselves out of holes that they got themselves into before they came into the program and it's it takes a massive toll on you but it's something that I find incredibly fulfilling and I've committed all my work all my energy all my time into doing this because this is something that truly fulfills me at a soul level you know I've spoken about this before but coaching is in my blood and I don't know if I shared this earlier but you know I remember at a young age I think I must have been like eight when I started kind of coaching my family and I remember at like age 14 I would be like holding regular meetings to discuss things and like come up with plans and talk about approaches to living and approaches to doing things and I was like a mini little life coach when I was growing up and even in university you know I was the one people would come to to be like hey help me work through this and help me go through this and I didn't recognise it as coaching but I look back and I'm like ah it was always a part of my life it was always a part of my world and one thing that's really fascinating to me you know the more I've dived into this is we have a lot of clients with ADHD in the Jory Business Academy a lot and I remember working with a director at one of the companies I worked with who has ADHD I don't know if he knows it but he a hundred percent has it and I was put in charge of making him get things done and I was able to get such good work out of him I was able to get him focused I was able to get him getting results for the company really easily and I didn't recognise it at the time like how how powerful that was and I only recognise it now and I'm looking and I'm like wow the way we've developed the program it's actually very actionable for people with ADHD it's very actionable for people who struggle with actually like focusing and taking action on things and the way we have all these multiple levels of support and multiple levels of accountability we help people who struggle to get things done actually get things done actually take action be consistent be intentional be strategic and get those results and that's why we have clients you know we have clients who are getting incredible results we have people who come in and one of my clients came in and within 60 days of being in the program she again did have ADHD for sure and within 60 days of being in the program we cut a lot of things and we tweaked her strategy she drove 30% more sales in those 60 days than any previous 90 days in the history 14 year history of her business which is incredibly powerful and then we've had people who are starting from scratch in their business hits incredible milestones you know we've had a lot of them on the podcast as well and it's just so beautiful to see the impact that this is is having on the community around us you know we even have people who aren't in the jewelry business academy yet who are just listening to our podcast and consuming our free content on Instagram and I get messages from them being like this has changed my life this podcast has changed my life the content you're posting has just made me feel so much better about my business or so much better about my journey and this is helping me so much and these action items that you said to do I went and did them and I'm seeing results I'm seeing sales and it's just a very very rewarding thing to see and look back at like all the time and energy and money that's been poured into building this academy and this community and to see how it's positively impacting you know all of our listeners all of you guys listening to this our community who's part of our Instagram community and then our jewelry business academy members as well so yeah it's gonna make me all teary eyed when I really like take this moment because honestly life gets so busy I don't you don't always have time to be like look at how far you've come but it's like wow you know I knew this was gonna be good I didn't realize how incredible it was gonna be I didn't realize how incredible each of our members was gonna be and the dynamic between them and the support between them it's just at a whole other level which I could only have dreamed of and the way we've set it up really sets them up for success in there as well so I think that's a pretty good summary of my story maybe this went a little longer now you guys can see why I gave you the seven minute version the first time around because this is a long one so yeah I think we'll probably leave it at that because I am losing my voice and I'll probably just do some more solo so it's about this down the line because there's obviously lots of little things that we haven't touched on but we can definitely do some more solo so it's on those and dive in and you know while you guys are here I just want to remind you that if you are ready for support and strategy and intention and you're ready to start actually taking action in your jewelry business you're ready to enjoy the journey then come join me in the jewelry business academy you guys know that this is the most expansive container for jewelry business owners wanting to scale their business to six figures and beyond without burning out we're gonna get all the systems in place that you need to set yourself up for six figures we're gonna get you taking all the key action items each day getting the right strategies in place that are gonna be optimized for you and your energy and how you work and what stage of life you're at in your business because everybody's business journey looks different and that's why we optimize it and we customize it for you and so if that feels supportive if it feels exciting head to jewelry business academy dot c eight learn more and you can go ahead and book in a call with my team so I'm looking forward to seeing you on the other side and I hope you guys enjoyed this episode I would love to hear from you so screenshot the episode and tag me on Instagram it's Robin Clark coaching and let me know and let me know your favorite takeaways from this episode it's always a little daunting sharing more personal episodes like this I'll be honest with you because I'm like I'm putting it out there with the best of intentions and then we have some keyboard warriors potentially listening so we'll see we'll see the response but if you did enjoy this please let me know I'd really appreciate it and I also really love connecting with you guys on your entrepreneurial journey on Instagram as well so I think I'll leave it at that for now I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your day and again thanks for joining us for our 100th episode so so well still cannot believe we're here and I'm looking forward to many many more and I'll keep you guys updated on how we go