Who are you, what’s your business, and what’s a personal tidbit about you?
Today’s Lessons in Entrepreneurship brings us Jenny Lee of Hello Brio. She is a writer, designer, and a minimalism mentor. She helps people find their true selves through minimalism and intentional living.
Personally, she is married and a mom of two young boys. “And yes, I still consider myself a minimalist even with a growing family!”
Read on to learn:
- What she says is the first step toward uncovering your dream life.
- How to push through the emotional rollercoaster of being an entrepreneur.
- When to invest in professional help in your business and how to start lean.
What is your main product or service and why are you so passionate about it?
My signature service is 1:1 coaching for people who want to find a life of abundance through minimalism.
In 3 months of coaching, we walk through every aspect of your life and do an audit to uncover areas that drain you of energy. During our time together, we’ll find the root causes for dissatisfaction so that you can begin to let go and find contentment and purpose.
I’ll help you re-write your life through principles of minimalism so that you can find abundance in thought, love, time, focus, or money.
I truly believe that anyone can take the reins and design their life to be what they want it to be. Physical, mental, and spiritual minimalism is the first step toward uncovering your dream life.
What is one trait of a successful entrepreneur?
Easily, resilience.
Entrepreneurs face so many struggles, discouragement, and inner fear.
There are so many great memes of the thoughts that go through an entrepreneur’s mind in a typical day, which include things like:
- OMG, I’m awesome!
- Do I even know what I’m talking about?
- How will I reach my goals?
- How did I surpass my goals?
- Everyone hates me.
- I’m going to run the world.
An entrepreneur will go through a rollercoaster of emotions and varying levels of confidence, but the important thing is that you show up consistently.
In order to continue to show up, you need to have resilience, which will help you get past the hard times (think imposter syndrome, a low-income month, or a life-changing pivot).
What is your favorite free or inexpensive resource that has made the biggest impact on your business and why?
Notability! I searched long and hard for the best note-taking app on the iPad, like the ever-popular GoodNotes and even Apple Notes.
Notability helps me bullet journal on my iPad so that I can prioritize and organize my tasks. I’m able to design and create custom templates for my digital bullet journal so that I can meet my ever-changing needs in my planner.
Most importantly, digital bullet journaling on Notability gives me the flexibility and space to work through ideas in order to have the most impact in my business.
What is your morning routine?
My alarm goes off every morning at 4:45am so that I can spring out of bed and sneak up to my office for a solid hour and a half of uninterrupted writing time.
I don’t look at my phone, my email, or my social media accounts before I write—I simply chug a huge amount of water, look at my digital bullet journal for the writing tasks I assigned to myself the night before, and get writing.
This has been a game-changer in my business and for my sense of self, and gives me time and space to focus on creating before I face the day and begin to consume content online.
So between 5am and 6:30am I write, and then after that we run through our morning routine of breakfast and getting the kids ready for school. Once they’re out the door, I get in a run or a yoga session depending on the day.
By 8am I’m showered and dressed, and then have an hour for my business before my 9-5 begins.
How are you currently marketing your business?
Mostly through my YouTube channel, though I don’t explicitly talk about my coaching business in my videos. I do my best to supply free information to people in my videos so that they can walk away with helpful tips without being solicited.
I also have a presence on Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest, which mostly points new people to download the Minimalism Map, a free life audit tool to help people uncover their true selves and find abundance through minimalism.
What have you tried in marketing in the past that didn’t work?
Cold emails worked once for me, and I no longer do this. Admittedly, I landed my most prized ghostwriting client that way, but it’s probably more due to the fact that we’ve been in the same niche/space for several years than it has to do with the fact that I emailed the client out of the blue.
What is a piece of advice you’d give someone new or struggling in business?
Start lean and be scrappy. Learn how to do things yourself, and invest in professional guidance and help when your business has consistent income.
There are so many free resources out there (hello, YouTube!) where people are happy to walk you through something from start to finish, whether it’s designing a logo, building a website, designing in Canva, etc. Don’t let initial investments hold you back from launching your business.
The other piece of advice is to focus on your resilience. Starting a new endeavor is NOT easy. Get yourself in the right mindset and keep chugging!
Where you can find Jenny:
Website: hellobrio.com
Social channels:
