Jadah Sellner is an entrepreneur who built a million dollar wellness business that ultimately made her unwell – Ironic, right? Now, she uses her signature framework to help women develop anti-hustle businesses. We’re ALL struggling to stay afloat in hustle culture. Whether you’re a business owner or not, there’s a nugget of wisdom in here for you.
Disclaimer: This podcast does not constitute medical advice. You should always speak to your doctor before changing your nutrition or exercise habits.
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Anti-Hustle Entrepreneurship, with Jadah Sellner – Episode Transcript
Lauren Chante 0:11
Hello rockstars! Welcome back to another super special episode of Rock Your Wellness with Lauren Chante. Before I introduce today’s guest, I want to share a little story with you guys. Most of you know me as an entrepreneur. The entire time I’ve been online, I’ve been an entrepreneur. You may be surprised to know that I really never wanted to be an entrepreneur. It was like the number one thing I said that I would never, ever do. Never ever!
This was because I grew up watching my mom be an entrepreneur. She was a serial entrepreneur in the 80s when basically there were three things you could be that were terrible. A woman, a single mom and an entrepreneur and she was all three of them. You didn’t really have the opportunity to leverage the Internet to have relationships. Or to go online and learn like we can now. I just really, really watched my mom suffer going through entrepreneurship and I never wanted that for myself.
Lauren Chante 1:07
Flash forward, to becoming a wellness strategist. I see how much what we do for a living and how much we make is tied to our wellness. We know from research that the more money you have typically the more access you have to healthcare resources and the healthier you are. Especially when we look at issues with race and equity. It’s really important to me that we are having conversations about how women can make money in a way that feels good for them. This has so much to do with their wellness.
So for me entrepreneurship has been such a gift. I’m so glad that I was pushed into it . I do think if some misconceptions about it were dispelled that I would have gotten into it sooner. So that’s why I’m bringing on a special guest today.
Lauren Chante 1:55
Her name is Jada Sellner. She is the author of She Builds – The Anti Hustle Guide to Grow Your Business and Nourish Your Life. She’s an international keynote speaker, a TEDx presenter and host of the Lead with Love Podcast. She’s also co author of the best selling book Simple Green Smoothies where over 1 million people have embraced this simple and healthy habit. You guys know I love the word simple when it comes to wellness.
As the founder of Jada Sellner Media and the She Builds Collective, she helps women entrepreneurs build their businesses and live lives in a way that works for them, with love! She has been featured, because she’s a badass, in Forbes, ‘O’ which is the Oprah Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and you can learn more about her at JadahSellner.com. When she’s not speaking on stage, you can catch her dancing to Beyonce in her living room or sipping on a chai tea latte by a cozy fireplace. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, daughter and dog, Easley. So welcome Jadah to the podcast.
Jadah Sellner 2:55
Thank you, Lauren for having me. I just love the power of relationships and in person gatherings. We got to meet at an event in Los Angeles, California. I just love seeing dots get connected along the way!
Lauren Chante 3:11
Yeah, right. You know, they always say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear, right? I think I was sharing with you how, here in New York where I am currently living after being on the west coast for so long, everything feels so hussely because we’re right outside of New York City, and everybody is just involved in this daily grind. And I was like, I just don’t like the hustle. And you were like, well, that’s interesting because I just wrote the book on anti-hustle (entrepreneurship)!
Lauren Chante 3:37
One of the things I love about having you on here is because one of your businesses was wellness oriented. I think that’s such a unique take on it. You’re someone who really values your wellness and spends a lot of time and money on it. An entrepreneur that had a business built on it. To now be sharing with women how they can do the same. Maybe you could share some of the biggest misconceptions that you’ve seen about what it means to be a female entrepreneur. Then how you got out of those to help other entrepreneurs now.
Jadah Sellner 4:07
Yeah, so one of the misconceptions that I see is around that there’s just one way to build a business. The ‘right way’. So oftentimes, as I was growing my businesses and companies, I would see how men were building their companies. They tend to be the most vocal. I remember, one of my business coaches was a male. He was kind of anti all the things that I valued. Like freedom & lifestyle. He just kind of sayingid that all of those things that, if you value that, then you are not a real entrepreneur. And so I started to question if I was an entrepreneur, you know? I’m like, here’s someone who’s my coach, that I’m looking up to and investing in to grow my business [saying] the things that I value as an entrepreneur actually don’t make me a real entrepreneur.
Jadah Sellner 4:59
I think this is something that a lot of women can experience where they think they’re not doing it right. That their things that they value mean that it’s at odds with actually growing a meaningful business. And so I really had to unpack that for myself. To get out of that way of building. That we can give ourselves permission to build differently & to build with love. That doesn’t mean that you can’t have a meaning, profitable business in that way. So really kind of checking in with your own value systems and what you care about and what you value.
Jadah Sellner 5:35
I’m a mom. I started my first brick and mortar business when my kid was 18 months old. So she’s basically seen me be an entrepreneur her whole life. So I think that has really helped me realize that there is another way to be an entrepreneur. People just aren’t talking about it. And so that’s why I had to write a book about it. To model and center women’s stories on entrepreneurship. All of the business books we have been reading have been centering male stories. Mostly white men, mostly college educated.
All of those pieces and me being a woman of color, I’m black, Chinese and white, being married, being a mom and also no college education, no degree! I mean I do have college education, but no degree . I had to find a way to get that proof of possibility for me. So I wanted to start to model that there are other ways. There are women entrepreneurs who are building successful businesses in a way that aligns with their own personal values.
Lauren Chante 5:47
That’s so amazing because I speak to so many women, as a wellness strategist for what I call the intellectual Wonder Woman, a lot of whom are employed in high power fields like law, medicine, and maybe the C suite and corporations. They really feel trapped. Like if they were to step into entrepreneurship, it would just be a different type of handcuffs. Different than the corporate handcuffs. I think I understand why people think that because in many cases, those are the only role models we have.
Maybe you can share the type of success that you’ve had. Success that you’ve seen your student have with this anti hustle entrepreneur approach. I kind of feel like some people just think it’s too good to be true, right? Like, wait, you can be an entrepreneur and build this amazing, beautiful business and be happy and have freedom. So let’s center everybody and ground them. Let’s let them know that we’re not over the rainbow. and this is like real life.
Jadah Sellner 7:25
So I think it’s important to also highlight the low parts of being an entrepreneur too. If we just show our highlight reel, then people actually are not able to see themselves. We do have those highs and lows as an entrepreneur. I started my first brick and mortar business in 2008/2009 when the economy crashed. We’re kind of in this cycle again of needing to rebuild & reimagine. There was no other place for my husband and I to find work at the time. So, we decided to open our own play and learning center.
Jadah Sellner 8:01
We wanted parents to pay to stay and play with their kids. What we realized was parents wanted to pay and then go away while we play with their kids. And so we had to adjust that brick and mortar business model, you know, they talk about product market fit. So we were like well, the market doesn’t want what we want to sell so we need to pivot & we need to adjust. We did that and then we realized it wasn’t aligned with how we wanted to serve. So we were slowly burning out in that process.
Jadah Sellner 8:33
We ended up closing down that business and we were $42,000 in credit card debt. We moved away from Kauai, which is where we started our business, and then moved into my in laws house. Which is like worst case scenario, you know! The things that you’re like “what will happen if I fail?”. And even that in itself is a privilege right? To be able to have family to lean on and stay with.
So being able to be aware if you do have access to those types of resources to not look at it as a bad thing. But I lived with my in laws for six months and in that time, I felt out of control. I felt like I didn’t have control if what I put in the kitchen. There were all these groceries and things that my kid has access to. And there was just this pivot that I made.
Jadah Sellner 9:22
At the time, I was interning with my husband’s aunt who basically made me my first green smoothie. I drank it, loved it and I got my my kids and my family to drink green smoothies. I became the biggest ambassador within my family ecosystem! Telling my family ” You’ve got to try these green smoothies, there’s spinach and banana and mango and water”. It was so exciting and I had lost a lot of weight in that time of making that shift. But, as an entrepreneur, that wasn’t the business that I was going to start, right? I was still trying to figure out what’s my next step. My friend and I ended up starting a parenting blog called Family Sponge. We never made any money! Actually, we were in the red like negative thousands of dollars. We were trying to become a mom blogger & we were like “Oh, all you have to do is share affiliate links and sponsorships” and it just never happened.
Jadah Sellner 10:15
But in that experiment of that blog, we started sharing green smoothie recipes. I started an Instagram account called Simple Green Smoothies. I thought I was going to promote an ebook about green smoothies to the mommas through the parenting blog. And then the Simple Green Smoothies recipe kind of took a life of its own. We had zero followers then we had 800 followers then 3000 followers. And within six months we had 30,000 followers on Instagram and this was at the beginning of 2013. With that we really decided I think there’s something here. We have an audience that’s paying attention.
So my business partner, Jenna Hansard, at the time built a website Simple Green Smoothies. We launched the free 30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge. Then we sold our first ebook and I think we did like $8,000 in seven days. We were just like “Oh my goodness! We’re out of the red!”. We could pay ourselves back for the blog, the parenting blog that never made any money. Then with that we just rinse and repeated that 30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge. This is where we grew our email list to over 355,000 email subscribers. We had over 400,000 followers on Instagram, and we did over a million dollars in sales in two years.
Jadah Sellner 11:35
So I just want to paint the whole arc of being an entrepreneur. Many times if I just highlight the Simple Green Smoothies highlight moment and the success, then you don’t see all of the before, right? So it was like 2008-2009. It’s like oh, I actually didn’t feel a sense of success until 2013. And then I had to straddle my wellness and well being in that process. That’s when I started to learn the little secret trap that happens when, as an entrepreneur, you start to build a successful business. That that is where the hustle culture starts to get embedded even deeper.
Lauren Chante 12:15
That’s so good. And I remember , you talked about how you were running Simple Green Smoothies, and you just felt so unwell. It was from how much you were putting into it and the burnout. What was that like to like have that aha moment? What did you learn from that?
Jadah Sellner 12:31
Yeah, so I think the biggest moment was when we got a book deal for Simple Green Smoothies. It was coming out in 2015. And we had deadlines, right, you know, you got to make the deadlines. I remember the manuscript was about to go off to print. It was our last moment to be able to make any changes. I ended up staying up for over 24 hours. I was on my living room floor. Spread out with manuscript pages and highlighters and pens. I was in my yoga pants from the day before. My family is walking out the door to go to school and I’m still on yesterday’s clothes. And like, probably had three cups of coffee, which I don’t drink caffeine! But I’m like coffee, yeah!
Jadah Sellner 13:19
So for me, that was the moment where I’m like well, I made the deadline. I also sacrificed my body and my well being in that process. And I knew that was not sustainable and also that I was a walking paradox right. Here I am writing a health and wellness book to help people embrace this healthy habit. And I’m over here exhausting myself and burning myself in the process. So that was a real aha moment that this wasn’t sustainable for me. I knew that I had to do something differently.
Jadah Sellner 13:57
Also my heart knew I had a calling that was moving me towards what I’m doing today . Being able to coach women entrepreneurs in building their businesses in a sustainable way. So there was a calling. That also can be a form of burnout and fatigue that can happen. When your body and your heart wants to move in a new direction that doesn’t always make sense on paper.
Lauren Chante 14:23
That’s so true. I feel like a lot of people who aren’t entrepreneurs experience that in their careers too. They feel so burned out in their in their career. They don’t necessarily recognize that it could be a calling challenge, right. So cool. So this book that you wrote, She Builds, is amazing by the way. I post it on my Instagram stories every week that I take it on sushi dates with myself. It’s kind of like you getting in a time machine and going back in time. Giving yourself what you didn’t have. Except now you’re paying it forward to women like me and the women that you coach. How different are you seeing their journeys as they come through your coaching program? As people read your book? How different is it looking because of the work that you’re doing?
Jadah Sellner 15:02
Yeah, I mean the beautiful thing is building the practice of self awareness and reflection. Also having someone outside of you who’s been on the journey. And can help shortcut those pieces. So for me, I think about anti hustle strategies. You know, I believe that the antidote to burnout is anti hustle. And so some of the strategies that I share within She Builds is really moving away from F.E.A.R. to L.O.V.E. So F.E.A.R is Forcing, Exhaustion, Avoidance, Rigidity. And this is where I still pop up in some of these categories, but also my clients. This is where they’re at when they come to me. That they’re forcing or trying to make force happen. They just push like no matter what, by any means necessary. I’ve got to make this happen. Just go go go!
Jadah Sellner 15:57
And what happens, when we’re in that energy, is that we move into exhaustion. Where we are tired, we’re depleted, we’re overcommitted, and we just fall apart and we move into avoidance, right? When we’re tired and we just want to hide under the covers or go in the bathroom,. Scroll on our phone, get away from our kids, or whatever we need to do. Binge watch shows, you know, to kind of numb and avoid.
Jadah Sellner 16:22
When we do that, then we get stuck in the rigidity. This is I made this plan, I set this goal, I said I was gonna get it done by this time. So you don’t make any adjustments. You just want to stick to the plan, right? You want to be committed to that process. So this is where I see a lot of my clients. They are usually in one of those cycles of fear – F.E.A.R. What I do is move them into my build with love framework, which is L.O.V.E, build with love!
Jadah Sellner 16:50
So Lead, Optimize, Visualize and Expand. Depending on where my clients are at, we’ll focus on one of those at a time. Then we kind of build upon it step by step. So lead is about leading from the inside out. Really connecting, as an entrepreneur, to a vision that pulls you forward. That inspires you and not a definition of success outside of yourself. We’re not looking for external validation. It’s really connecting to what is it that you really want.
And one of the big things in there is being able to define your enough number. And for that it’s all about getting clear of what is it cost to sustain your life? What it costs to run your business and do the math, like pull out the calculators, fill out the spreadsheets. I’m not a huge spreadsheets person. But in this instance, it’s really important for us to really know our number. Because what happens is then we create arbitrary numbers as an entrepreneur. Where we say I want a six figure launch or I want a seven figure business. What does that mean and what does that do for your life. And there are so many women who already have what they want.
They’re already sustaining themselves but they’re not happy because they haven’t hit $1 million in sales, right? They’re kind of in this constant chase and moving the goalposts forward. Constantly chasing this number when they actually already have everything that they want or need. So defining your enough number allows you to not hustle just for the sake of hustling. Also, if you’re not making any numbers or any money, it lets you know “Oh, this is where I need to get”. This is what I need in order for this business or for me to stay open”, right? And not be depleted because I think all of us need to be financially rewarded. So that’s in the lead category.
Jadah Sellner 18:51
Then optimize is about our time, our energy, our joy. What is giving us energy, what is draining our energy. The exercises that I love to do with my clients is the weekly workflow plan. Being able to focus and have some flow in how they show up. I think that piece is really important.
Jadah Sellner 19:13
Then we go into visualize, which is about making your dreams a reality and actually taking imperfect action. Taking visionary action on your ideas and not over committing. That’s my biggest thing. In the visualize section I like to do quarterly planning with my clients. We work on our VIPs which is very important projects. And I think we have to pay attention to the seasonality of the collective. Like what’s happening in our world, but also the seasonality of our lives.
You and I are both mamas. We’ve got spring break coming up. We have summer. That takes you out of the pocket of what you can do in your business at that time. So being able to honor your capacity and seasonality of your life and in your business. Being able to build around that.
Jadah Sellner 19:20
Then E is expand. And that’s really allowing us to expand in deep in our roots building on a solid foundation. So once we’ve done L, O, V, then we can actually start to build. Start to expand our network as an entrepreneur, our relationships, and really deepening in a way in our own trust and sense of well being in that.
Jadah Sellner 20:22
So for me, that’s the framework I like to guide my clients through as an anti hustle strategy. To not feel overwhelmed or burnt out. It takes some stepping away from your day to day to actually think about what that looks like for you.
Lauren Chante 20:39
Yeah, that’s so beautiful. And I especially love how you anchor people to moving towards what their desire is and what their vision is. I think something that a lot of people do is we tend to motivate ourselves by trying to avoid pain. Instead of moving towards the joy and moving towards the pleasure. That’s something I’ve been shifting with my wellness students lately. It’s such a difference when you set that intention. So that’s so cool.
Lauren Chante 21:07
What are you seeing in terms of your entrepreneur students who are getting the benefit of learning this earlier and easier. There’s always going to be ups and downs in anything you do. I’m guessing they’re probably a little bit less extreme than what you experienced when you first started your business. So share what your seeing through your work.
Jadah Sellner 21:27
Yeah, so one of my entrepreneur clients, Megan Hill of Culinary Hill, she has a food blog. She came to me when she was just like, just hit $100,000 a year. And now she has a seven figure food blog. Makes over a million dollars annually. She has a lean team, but has a team of full time employees that support her. One of them is a family member. That is a big shift for us. If you’re wanting to grow to the next level, to be able to have support systems in place. Building that dream team so that you don’t burn out.
It’s getting those things off your plate that you don’t want to spend most of your time on. That was a huge shift for her instead of just trying to do everything herself. She has a photographer, a videographer, and social media support. She has people who can handle the logistics. Then a majority of her time is spent on the things that she loves to do. The creative direction part of the business. Then she also has time to volunteer in her kids classrooms. So she has three kids who are school age and preschool age. She’s able to show up and take them on bike rides. She’s been my client for over five years now and she’s like, I love what I do. I love my work. And to me that’s where a lot of joy happens.
Jadah Sellner 22:51
Another example, I have another client, who you got to meet, Meri Cherry.
Lauren Chante 22:55
Hi Meri, if you’re listening.
Jadah Sellner 23:00
She is an entrepreneur that has a brick and mortar business in Los Angeles . I have a huge heart for brick and mortar clients. I know what it’s like to have that monthly lease no matter what. And to be able to navigate, you need teams to run those pieces. I’ve been with Meri since just after her first full year in business. Right after that is when she hired me and we’ve been working together for almost six years now. And going from that six figures to high, high multiple six figures like so close to the seven figure mark.
I think we were like $40,000 off one year. But being able to grow that revenue and also being able to take time off. She’s actually getting ready to take a two month sabbatical away from her business. It’s those type of things where you’re able to step away from your business. Build a team that is aligned with the company culture and vision that you’re setting. Being able to empower people to take things on and being able to show up.
Jadah Sellner 24:04
And also, for me, I love helping my entrepreneur clients find alternative revenue streams that are really easy and joyful. We found a little for her to start doing some group coaching where she did like $25,000 in 30 days. This is something that she did as an experiment and loved it. She’s going to do it again so now she can rinse and repeat that offering.
And to me, that’s where I’m like where the joy is and also where to throttle my clients ambition. The people I work with are big visionary thinkers. They have lots of ideas. They want to follow that impulse for something new. I have to help throttle the different ideas and projects . Where’s the true joy versus this would be nice to have. But would it be nice to have and then you’re also overwhelmed? Burnt out because you’re juggling so many things at one time. I have a huge gift for finding where is the joy and where does it teeter on overwhelm and burnout.
Lauren Chante 25:10
Right you keep the balloon in the air! It’s so wonderful to have somebody like you in their corner. Everybody needs that person to kind of ground them. That’s amazing! From a wellness perspective what have you noticed in the health and vitality of yourself and the people that you work with? How has this approach impacted your life?
Jadah Sellner 25:16
Yeah, so I think a big part is really prioritizing our well being while we’re creating and launching. Not once I do this launch then I’ll take care of myself. So another example of a client, they did a $160,000 + launch in like two months, with my guidance. She called it sacred launching. Because in that I was also inviting her to tune into her nervous system. To tune in while in the height of the ‘Is anyone gonna buy?’ and those type of things. Because wellbeing is not just physical health, it’s also our mental health too.
Being able to tend to those emotional parts that come up and acknowledging it. Being able to be in communication and conversation with the clients, and things like that. Then also scheduling massages, scheduling bodywork while you’re doing this high output that is actually increasing the stress response. How do we soothe or making sure you’re having meal delivery during that time? To make sure you’re still making healthy choices when you don’t have the time to make these slow, healthy meals. Have them delivered when you’re in the seasons of high commitment that take up a lot of time and energy. Just being honest with yourself about your capacity and in certain seasons of your life.
Jadah Sellner 25:16
So, for me, I’m like go walk right now. And the same thing for me. I have my coach who says “I think you need to walk. You need to move your body”. I love to dance! I have to find movement practices that bring me a lot of joy and feel like they are soothing my body. Soothing my nervous system versus the hustle culture. Push, push, adrenaline, go! So really listening to my body.
Jadah Sellner 25:16
I also do a lot of hot tub dates. I do hot tub dates with my husband. Even as I was inviting people to my mastermind, She Builds Collective. I did my invitations in DMs and Voxer while I was sitting in the hot tub! I’m like okay, I’m sitting in the hot tub and being able to take care of myself in that way.
I talked about this in chapter 11 of the book of Refill Your Well. Just being able to create a self care menu. It’s not a checklist, but it’s like what are the things that nourish me? What are the things that, when I’m doing a little bit more heightened or in a push season in my business, I can turn to so that it’s not all work all work all work and no play? No rest, no joy, no nourishment.
Lauren Chante 25:23
I love that and feel like very few people bring the holistic approach of not just worrying about your bottom line. But also worrying about you as a person which is so important. I think a lot of people see entrepreneurship as this self sacrifice thing, right? When you really get into being an entrepreneur, you realize that you have to protect the asset which is you. You’re the visionary & if you’re not doing well, you are not going to do well in your business, right? And especially the male driven entrepreneurship programs, a lot of people don’t talk about that. So I’m so glad that you do.
Lauren Chante 25:23
I always laugh about the hot tub because I take calls from my bathtub all the time! I don’t have a hot tub here but I will be in my swimsuit on coaching calls in the bathtub! It’s like the very best. Well, thank you so much. Jadah! If you have any last words for somebody who maybe is considering entrepreneurship but has been afraid to do it. Maybe they’ve been afraid of the hustle. Do you have anything that you would say to them?
Jadah Sellner 25:23
Yeah, I would just say giving yourself permission to be a slow cooker. Really allowing ourselves to slow down in our businesses. If you’re stepping away from a corporate job, sometimes we can become our own worst boss. We kind of repeat that toxic work culture within our own businesses. Instead of kind of being like a pressure cooker that is complicated. It has all these complicated buttons. The burn notice and you have to release the steam and it’s like so intense, right? That’s one way you get a nourishing meal.
On the other side of that, a slow cooker, you also get a nourishing meal. It takes a little bit longer, you know, 6, 8, 10 hours, but the buttons are really simple. You get to step away, let things simmer. So that would be my invitation. To not put a timeline on your dreams, but a timeline on your actions. When we do that, then we’re able to know that we don’t have to rush everything. We don’t have to be so hard on ourselves if we don’t make the goal. We’re really just asking for more time. So that would be my invitation is giving yourself permission to be a slow cooker in your business. You don’t have to be at a billion dollar valuation in the next 12 months. We can build out a more sustainable pace and really allow things to simmer.
Lauren Chante 25:23
That’s so beautiful. I love the pressure cooker and slow cooker analogy. I keep both in my kitchen so it really clicks with me! Oh that is so good! If you guys want more of Jadah you can get her all over the place. She does these amazing retreats! Trust me, you want Jadah’s energy in person. She’s just like, you step next to her and she just oozes comfort on to you. So you can get on a waitlist for that at JadaSellner.com/retreat.
Lauren Chante 25:23
You definitely want to read She Builds which is amazing. There is a free preview chapter if you go to She Builds.com/preview. You can also get a guided self paced journey to create your future vision by going to JadaSellner.com/build-your-vision. I’m going to put all of these in the show notes for you guys, so you can take advantage of them. So thank you so much for being here, Jada! This was a pleasure.
Jadah Sellner 25:16
Thank you. Thank you
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