Jessica Yarbrough, CEO & Expert Accelerator, talks about the keys to monetizing your expertise and creating the life of freedom by positioning your genius into a high ticket offer. Step into a role of influence by tapping into your genius.

Jessica Yarbrough website: https://getstarted.jessicayarbrough.com/optin1639460012013

Jessica Yarborough Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicayarbrough-bizconsultant/

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the podcast today. Again, I have the opportunity in the podcast to speak to someone who has created a business out of there genius. We get to learn about entrepreneur influences we get to learn about the process. Learn these fundamental tips that help businesses be really successful. And today we have the opportunity to learn from an expert accelerator. Jessica Yarborough has created a business out of helping people get to the next level in their coaching, their executive presence, all of those things, and I am excited to learn more about it. So Jessica, welcome to the interview today. Thank you for having me on your show. Yeah, can you just start by introducing yourself and your business and what you do? Yeah, so I am an expert, strategist and consultant for coaches and consultants who want to sell and scale ultra high end programs. So really monetizing your genius and packaging it for high five and even multiple six figures, whether that's selling to a high net worth individual or marketing to organizations small to large.

Again, this in our brief conversation beforehand we just had so much is there's so many similarities in what we do. I work in the genius space to helping people put together programs and courses which which is a maybe a part of that, but doesn't necessarily have to be, but it's just fun to be in a conversation with somebody that does similar things. I agree. So tell me how you got into this space because it's not something you just step into immediately. No, I agree. I mean, my background was in marketing. I manage multiple companies. I built a startup here in San Diego and my early 20s had a spiritual awakening walked away. did about four years of self discovery backpacking around the world. It was my own Eat Pray Love journey. Came back to San Diego. I got pregnant with my daughter and was like, Okay, you need to focus and build something again. And of course I could have gone back and got a job easily but by that time, I'd have enough taste of freedom that you know it was really wasn't aligned for me. So I rolled up my sleeves, started building my company and built a seven figure business as a single mom consulting originally I help do things for people I was doing in the space of done for you. And you know, in my heart I am a teacher. I love to see breakthroughs. I love to share knowledge and when you're doing behind the scenes, it's not very fulfilling. And so I transitioned into you know, give a man a fish feed him for a day Teach a man to fish feed him for a lifetime and to really showing people how do you do this? How do you bring out the greatness that is in you within you? And then use that to fill a massive urgent need? In the marketplace that you can charge a premium for and solve those problems and make a massive impact while being highly profitable?

Absolutely, absolutely. So many pieces in there. I want to talk about more. But the you know, there's once you've experienced that freedom and you've broken free from the chains you don't want to go back to that I think that's something that that our a lot of our listeners have that feeling and maybe they're stuck in their industry or stuck in their job and they don't know how to step outside of that and and really discover that freedom but that's really when you have the ability to manifest the life that you want. And it's it's incredible that you built a business that you did as a single mom with all those challenges and all that time commitments and people you know there's your stories are very few and far between. So it'd be interesting to hear a little bit more detail about that. Can you can you talk about that? Are there methods that you use or month grin? I think that'd be something interesting for the audience to hear. Well, thank you. I will say if anybody has that gut feeling and you're feeling that, that you need to leave and that it's time to trust that feeling because if you ignore it, it's going to come back, something worse, maybe a health problem or a crisis, 20 years down the road. And so you need to trust your intuition. If you're unhappy, make a change and I and I use my story to say look, if I could do it with these things stacked up against me, you certainly can do it when you're making six figures a year in a corporate job, you have you know funding you have savings, you have all of these things to be comfortably make the transition. So that would be the first thing I said I would say to any of the listeners. The second thing is I find that the easiest way to monetize your genius is to start with what you already know and translate that into training, coaching or consulting. Now I work with a lot of former corporate director, VP, even C suite so they have a lot of experience and education and credibility within their company. So yes, could you go take a course and learn how to become an Amazon drop seller? Sure. Would that be the easiest path? No, but you're already doing, you're already doing work for your company. Remember that companies hire outside consultants all the time. So you have the ability to become a consultant for companies and that will uncap your income. It'll give you the freedom to choose your clients. It'll give you the freedom of working anywhere in the world. It is the more challenging path in terms of it's easier to stay where you're at. It's easier to stay with in some ways. Okay.

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With with just collecting a paycheck, right? The path of least resistance is to do nothing. The harder path is to walk through the fire and do something new and face all your fears and all of those things. But, you know, if you stay with where you're at, there's a limit on how far you can go and that's what entrepreneurship really allows you to uncap and allows you to break through that self imposed ceiling, in your own income and in your own potential. And so, I do recommend, that is where people go if you have a passion for for spending time with people and solving problems, if not then yeah, you might be the person who is better off with an E commerce business. But if you like solving problems and you like working with people, then coaching and consulting is a great avenue for you to use your Genius to create a very nice lifestyle for yourself and your family.

Absolutely. If you can solve a problem. People will pay for it. Right? Yes.

Yeah. And the key to success at least where I help my clients especially when it comes to easily replacing their their corporate salary and then being able to double, triple quadruple that is to go and play in the ultra high end space. And so a lot of especially corporate folks, they make the mistake of trying to build more of a lifestyle business and they're trying to market to people that they're, they really don't relate to, versus if your world is in the corporate world, you know how to work with with that. You know how it works with HR, you know how it works with the chain of command down from the C suite. So it's a natural progression for you to turn around and sell your services to the very space that you've been playing and, and you can do that if you can solve an urgent need you can charge a really high premium for that. Because the the the company is not going to have to hire hire another employee, which is very expensive. They can do for a contracted amount of time for a specific problem. You solve it you get in and get out and now you've gotten paid and you've got a result without being quote unquote chained to the company. Right? Right. It's uh so one thing that sticks out to me from that whole conversation is that we that not only do we put silos on ourselves, because we put we develop it we grow in an industry and we climb up the corporate ladder and then we're in the C suite and then we keep going up and are we keep getting these incremental raises, but there's a ceiling on that and you can only go so far and then your skills are in that area. And imagining stepping outside of that and teaching that and making that bridge is something that we've done a lot of in corporate America and at you know, I'm an academic. So in education, we don't teach that either but to think about your expertise outside of that space is absolutely I think it's challenging because the the conventional wisdom tells you to get into a job and to work your way up and to make this kind of money, but not to become a teacher of that so well. And I think a lot of people devalue what they bring to the table and it's hard because we are blind to our innate brilliance. The things that we're so good at that we can just do like that. We were blind to it. We assume that everyone else can do it because it's so easy for us. Well, it's not. You know, I'm a strategist, most of the world is not a strategist as a small percentage of the population. So if I can solve something strategically for a company very easily, does that make it less valuable? No, that makes it extremely valuable. And so that's when it helps to work with someone outside of you who can shine a light on what your greatness is, that's important, And then show you where the opportunity is because that's one of the most overwhelming things for entrepreneurs is where do I go? okay, so I know I want to do this and I know I've got some strengths in these areas. what the heck am I supposed to do with it, and where do I position myself, and believe me I have people coming and former C suite, even of major companies come to me and they're still.

And they're still have no idea how to position themselves to command a lot more money. And they're people that are making mid high six, mid to high six figures, even seven figures. They don't know how to do that for their own business. Right, right. Let's talk more about positioning because that's that's what your job is all about. So you work with LinkedIn, you do a lot of these things. Can you talk about talking about positioning in the fact of you know, where you want to work? I always talk about how it's important to have that match. Right, right. You your personality, your goals is a match for who you want to work. With. And making sure that that story can match both things, which is, is important, but also if you want to position yourself at a higher ticket place, rather than where you're at. Can you talk about some of those methods or some of those ideas of talk to our audience about how to think about positioning themselves in the marketplace? Be absolutely well positioning is perception. How are you perceived and a big part of that comes down to two things, branding and messaging. And one of the biggest mistakes people make is they try to be everything to everyone jack of all trades, Jill, of all trades, master of none right? They're trying to serve everyone through their message and doesn't work. Because when you're everything to everyone, you're no one to the one person that matters, right? So if you're if you're like, I want to sell to the C suite, and I want to charge $180,000 or $150,000 for my programs, that's who you have to market to. Everything that you do needs to embody that. So your branding needs to be on point the colors need to resonate. The font needs to resonate can't be whimsical. If you're marketing a corporate, you have to look the part, you know for corporate because that's going to create an anchor a level of perception of professionalism. So it's really important even if you're working at home and you're normally in yoga pants that you're showing up differently for your calls or for your videos. And then you need to have the right message and the name of the game is relevancy. We are living in a highly distracted world. You're competing with cute cat videos and Leonardo DiCaprio, memes and everything else. So you have to be able to stand out and be highly relevant. And part of that a big part of that is do a deep dive understanding into what your ideal client is struggling with. I know people talk about this a lot but still 90% of the coaches or consultants that come to me even been through a course I've I've I have alumni from every guru program. 90% of them still are missing the mark on their messaging. They're ineffectively able to communicate their value, so they run out of runway before ever taking off. Forget sales. They're not getting leads because they're failing to communicate. So you have to be relevant. You need to understand who this person that you're going after is and not be afraid to deeply speak to their pain points to the to their innermost thoughts, that's one and to show them too that you have a way out so people miss the mark. On understanding that pain, but then they also miss the mark oftentimes on communicating their solution. You know, it becomes like a meandering river. And if you're trying to target high caliber people, you better get to the point, because time is their most precious commodity. We talked a little bit about this before you hit record, right? I help people go after people, ideal clients who value time more than money, why they have less time they have more money, which is good thing for you as a coach or consultant. Because when time is the most important thing and they have money, they're willing to throw a lot of money at the problem. If you can solve it quickly. So you have to be short and concise and get to the point. And that's another big issue with a lot of coaches and consultants and why when they do things like try to leverage the power of LinkedIn, they're unable to do it successfully. So you have to fundamentally understand how to communicate your value how to be concise and powerful with your messaging and relevant and absolutely how to have that high end expert branding. And that trifecta is what can catapult you to expert authority in the marketplace.

And your business you help with the visual brand you help with all those things, your business, all those things you've all all the things as if we're going to sell and scale so not just a one off create attaboy you sold 150,000 But if we want to be able to repeat that and actually create move from the trap of the generalist into specialization up into expert authority, which is that high six to multiple seven figure range, we have to teach the whole thing. We have to understand who you're going after. codify your method, package it for six figures, build the influence, close the deals, build the systems build the team and the important. Build the back end delivery because when you're selling at that high level, your delivery has to be tight. You have to be solving the problem that they paid you six figures for, so that you can create. Well, you can be an integrity number one with your brand promise, but you can also create stellar results and the more people that want your health the more want your help. It'll skyrocket your brand reputation. All five of those are key if you want to scale high end to the high six and seven figures.

It's much less about the like constant visibility but maybe that's a piece of it too. Right. So there's Yeah, the visibility hat is is is there and it always has to be there. Every business has to have a product sell a way to market it a way to actually get the money to sell it. They have to have systems to run it a team and they have to have a way to deliver it like we have it no matter what business in the world we have to have those things. So the influence has to be there. But where what you don't have to do is go crazy with it or try to mimic the gurus where you're on every channel putting out 20 pieces of content a day. Like that's another mistake. A lot of coaches and consultants make they try to compete with the gurus you can't those guys are spending six figures a month on ads on that alone Yeah, on ads and they have a team of 20 doing their social media. Don't worry about them. You're not trying to compete with them. You can if you're trying to go after the C suite for example. You can build expert authority and be that go to person you can have a relatively intimate size audience on the platform where they exist, which for me and my clients, that's LinkedIn decision makers, b2b.

And if your messaging is relevant, you don't need that many clients, seven figures, you're selling $150,000 packages that's less I mean, what the less than 10 clients, right? You don't need that many. And so it's not a volume based business. That is a different model. It's a valid model, but this is a more intimate, high touch high quality, low volume ultra high ticket business model. Right.

So I have another question about LinkedIn before we move on to the next piece. So on LinkedIn, I feel that LinkedIn has been flooded in flat and I think it's always been that way but I think particularly since everything has post pandemic, yes, there's a ton of coaches out there building their business and like oh COVID hit, I lost my job now.

So there's a ton I think it's I think the coaching industry, in general is very flooded. And so I've talked with quite a few clients. I've talked about how it's it's hard to stand out on LinkedIn. And what's the best approach Gee, can I find my ideal client which might be in the C suite on so So can you talk a little bit about that and what your experience with that? Absolutely, well, a couple of things one i because we are in that world, you and I it feels like it's inundated, we're inundated but think about the sheer number you have because but the coaching and consulting role is actually very tight. It's very small. If you compare it to the number of businesses just in the United States alone, I mean, think about it. Yeah, right. So and a lot of those businesses have no idea of the coaching and consulting world it's once you're in it, it's like a it's a vacuum. So there is still a tremendous amount of opportunity. Even for me, I market to other coaches or consultants, my opportunity is much smaller than if I were to expand and work you know, just with small business owners like that would open me up to so much more but I love the entrepreneur. I love coaches, consultants, right. So there is a lot of opportunity. Sometimes it can feel flooded because certainly their spam that happens, but they don't feel like it's any more than any other platform and in fact, I still feel like LinkedIn, you still have a strong ability to grow your authority. I don't feel like it's become Facebook. Because even if you look at the metric of content, content has a very long shelf life. You can post something and it ride for two weeks on LinkedIn people still see it good luck on Facebook. I mean, Facebook, it's gone in like two hours if a person for some percentage of your audience even saw it. So LinkedIn still has a lot of potential compared to the number of users the actual people putting out content small. And just to test something I found this really interesting. I looked at, let's say the last 100 people that joined my network, right and these are executive coaches, leadership development, business strategists. 50 to 60% of them have never even posted once on LinkedIn.

Bananas, they are marketing to organizations, right and they're not even taking the time one time to put out their voice. And and and they're losing so much money because they're not putting their voice out there. So I think the opportunity is huge. LinkedIn, still a goldmine. It's the number one b2b platform 62% of all decision makers are active on LinkedIn. 41% of all millionaires are active on LinkedIn. You have the filter and ability to drill down data like no other platform to connect with these people. If you take the time to put your voice out there, you're ahead of 50 to 60% of your competition. So crazy statistic is just over and over and over. There's opportunity. Now does that mean that you can just start posting and be successful? No, we talked about you've got to have the right message which most people miss the mark which I think is why people give up feels like oh, it doesn't work and I'm like well let's look at your input. Let's look at what you're putting out there. No wonder or let's see what how you're reaching out to people. Are you being super spammy? are you assuming and pushing for calls like I never do that? Ever. I'm value based. Experts teach experts share their value. And if you should create enough rapport with your audience, they're going to want to buy from you. No one wants to buy from someone that they're constantly being sold to. So there's still marketing strategy that has to go behind the platform. But I firmly believe that LinkedIn absolutely is a goldmine and I've seen it not only my own business, but my own clients, you know, who get six figure deals from LinkedIn and have relatively really small audiences, but they're doing it the right way. And it's about quality over quantity. You know, it's not about vanity numbers. And metrics, and that's not going to support your bottom line.

At this level, only supports it when you're, you know, a guru, and you're getting those advertising dollars and affiliate relationships and have a bunch of money to put into it for sure. There you go. Yeah, that's makes a big difference.

Oh, I had another question. But I lost it. Um, tell me tell. Tell me if the advice that you had, oh, I know what I was gonna ask. I was gonna ask when you have somebody talk to you as a former executive. I work with a lot of authors. I work with a lot of service providers that want to step into the consulting space. And I'm Sim I'm curious about in your experience in transitioning C suite members to a platform similar to that. Have you had a is it a challenge to move them from the doer space or the experts face into the teaching space? Because that's because the methods are different and you have to communicate differently in your teaching your craft rather right in your craft. So, for example, I'm working with some optometrists now, brilliant optometrists very successful they build a very successful business. And now they want to teach others how to build their business. Right. It's a totally different language. It's a different way of explaining they're talking a lot of business in the craft that they've been trained in. So I would imagine you see some similar challenges in that relationship. Yeah, and that's why we have to start with who you're going after and codifying what is their methodology like there has to be a clear blueprint. It because number one, you need a blueprint to get people results. You can't just, you know, show up to copy like, hey, what do you need help with today? You need a you need a blueprint. You need to be able to take them from the Valley of pain up to that mountain of possibility, right. And so your blueprint we codify becomes the map, and then you become the Sherpa, like, you're gonna guide them up the mountain and they're gonna avoid all those crevices and valleys. They're gonna get stuck in for years like you can Quantum Leap them there. So we have to have that blueprint. To get them to where they want to go, but also to effectively market and sell it. Because again, if you can't explain your solution, you're not going to sell it especially to a high caliber, high caliber professional. They are more savvy, the internet marketing tricks just in time for my webinar, stuff doesn't work. If you're trying to sell to them. They don't care. They don't want to watch it. They literally just want to buy your service. Can you solve my problem? Great. Let's have a call, boom, write the check. Very simple model. But you have to be clear with the blueprint. And then a part of I think what's powerful is going through the process yourself and you do this with your clients when they get to peek behind the curtain and see how do you put this together and how do you teach that's going to empower them to be a great teacher.

Right? But if you've if you've never had a great teacher, you're probably not going to be good at teaching and I know this because I went through many coaching programs. And I remember being so difficult because they were successful, but they couldn't break down how they got there. Right. They didn't know how to teach and my first coach that I came across and a lot more disorganized like it was just a nightmare. I'm a high organized ducks in a row. Give it to me kind of person. And I remember the first coach I had that was a great teacher. And I was like, wow, this is what I'm looking for, you know how to translate this information and so understand being able to go through the experience is going to help and see how it's done. Right helps you to shape your own teaching ability.

Absolutely. Stepping into it, rather than as stepping into it confidently rather than fumbling around. There's just a whole lot of methods to teach around that because I teach very similar things. You've got to have a method to help solve the problems and help navigate all those pieces and visuals right? You have to understand not everybody is going to be able to look at a document so I always try to use visuals and little drawings on my iPad whiteboard. Because a lot of people will get it that way and you have to be able to teach and give them ways to consume your information in a way and all the different ways that their brain can learn and the different learners so I have been part of teaching and you know, this is just practice.

Right? I remember my first methodology, when I look back, compared to where I've grown today, it wasn't the best it still was good. It works. But you know, you become more sophisticated, the more you do it. And this is why I'm a big proponent of either doing group coaching or going in and working with teams, because your ability to grow as a teacher is exponential. When you when you have to do it in a group practicing it means that you're speaking in your walking at the same time. So it's like, yeah, he's have to be able to do that and command and think on your feet. Right. You're getting pummeled with question after question after question versus just working with one person at a time so I do believe that teaching in a group setting is going to propel you forward in terms of your ability to teach and your strengths as a coach and I also believe it adds a lot of value for your students to have that mastermind type of feel, to have the community and to learn through others asking questions. It's extremely impactful some of the biggest breakthroughs that my clients have or when someone asked a question and get an answer. And they were saying, oh my gosh, I need help with this too. So, so much power in in that learn that shared environment setting. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, Jessica, I feel like we could talk for hours. Yes.

After the podcast, but to kind of move the podcast forward. Is there some advice that you would give for people that are thinking about creating and stepping into their genius? What What piece of advice would you give or, or? Or well, what would you say to them if they're thinking about doing some start now? Start now. You know, have you heard of Lodi law of diminishing intent? I have Yeah. So So for your listeners it's the longer you the law of diminishing antennas that longer that you wait to take action on something you know you should do the less likely you are to do it. So another year goes by oh I didn't do my weight loss plan another year goes by I didn't start my my I didn't write my book. I didn't you know start this business. So don't let allow yourself to fall prey to Lodi if you if there's something you want to do. You need to take a big action to ensure that will propel you forward and so invest and the help that you need, whatever that stage is if it's a course if it's a mentor, whatever it may be, but put some money behind it and take action and you'll be less likely to fall prey to low low dive and you'll actually move forward to achieving the goals that you want to achieve in your life. Sure.

It's never too late to start, but then you need to start now to discover what path you potentially could be on. So yes, start now. Start now hardest part is just getting started. I think that's a great piece of advice. And if people do want to contact you Where can they find you? I could definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. Send me a DM and let me know you heard me on the show. Follow me on YouTube. I am literally putting out videos every single week on YouTube and be sure to go to Jessica yarborough.com forward slash influence and download my 33 page guide on the ladder of influence.

That is great provide so much value to your to your potential clients provide value to help people elevate their game and step into space of their genius. So enjoyed this conversation today. I look forward to interacting with you in the future and talking more about again, we could talk for hours about all these things. But I appreciate you coming on to the podcast today and sharing your story with us. Thank you so much for having me. Yes, thank you and for you listeners out there if you want to reach out to Jessica over information is in the byline and you could find all of her information or find her on LinkedIn. And I look forward to speaking to another genius that has transformed their genius into a business you can do it too



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