Pod Insights The School of Greatness 250 How to Grow a Powerful Brand with Heart with Jen Hansard and Jadah Sellner of Simple Green Smoothies About this episode "If you can create a free opt-in that's better than someone else's paid product, it's gold." - Jadah Sellner If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/250 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 This is episode number 250 with Jen and Jada from Simple Green Smoothies. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.
0:33 Speaker 00 Now today's episode, I've got my good friends Jen and Jada on here. They are two world-changing moms and the founders of Simple Green Smoothies. And Simple Green Smoothies is on a mission to help busy families rethink their lifestyle choices by establishing healthy habits that are easy to stick with. With over 500,000 green smoothie rock stars in their community, they make healthy eating a lifestyle, not a diet. And in this episode, you're going to learn how they work together as equal partners in such a fast-growing business, when it can be challenging to build something together and really stick to the same vision. So they're going to talk about how they manage that. Also, where someone should start who is just launching their online business and where they should get started.
1:19 Speaker 00 Why good design is essential to make your brand stand out. And these ladies have done an incredible job with their design. How they built their email list from 0 to 30,000 people in one month. One month, they got 30,000 people. The power of dreaming and allowing yourself to create and maintain a huge vision. It's all included in this episode. Make sure to share this with your friends, lewishowes.com/250. And let's go ahead and dive into this episode with the one and only Simple Green Smoothie ladies.
1:55 Lewis Howes? Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. Very excited about our guest. It's my first three-way and it's with Jen and Jada from Simple Green Smoothies. How you doing ladies?
2:08 Speaker 02 We awesome.
2:12 Lewis Howes? I'm excited about this because you guys have a book that's coming out right now and it's all about Simple Green Smoothies and what you guys have created over the last couple of years. You guys have blown up. I remember seeing on Instagram a couple of years, I think it was two years ago, when you guys were first kind of growing and getting into it. And now you've got this huge brand. You guys speak all over the world at huge conferences. You've got like half a million people that subscribe to you. You're crushing it. And so I want to dive into how you guys have done it all, why you got into it and where it's heading. But first, how did you guys meet? I'm curious about that.
2:52 Speaker 02 Yeah, that is a fun story because Jada and I first met in 2007 when we were in a mom's group in Studio City, California together. Uh huh. And but it wasn't until 2011 that we actually became friends. So that was 2009 was our first contact. We were in this mom's group and her daughter Zoe was a couple of months older than my son Jackson. And when your kids are babies, even a couple of months different puts you in different categories and where you hang out at the park. Yeah.
3:28 Lewis Howes? So even if you have a one-year-old or two-year-old, you may not be friends because you'll hang out in different areas.
3:34 Speaker 02 Yeah. It's crazy.
3:37 Lewis Howes? Wow, okay.
3:39 Speaker 02 But so that's how we got connected and became acquaintances and friends on Facebook. And we'd run into each other in town and stuff like that.
3:47 Speaker 03 Yeah, and I remember our group, our moms group was, it was through meetup.com and it was called The Valley Moms Social Club. And Jen actually designed the logo for our moms group. And I just loved her style. And I remember saying to her, I was just like, one day I'm gonna work with you on something. I don't know what it is, but I'm gonna work with you on something. I just, I loved her, like, just her style and her edge towards design. And I had no business idea at that time, but it was just the seed that was planted a long time ago.
4:24 Lewis Howes? Gotcha.
4:24 Speaker 02 And at that time, I was doing, I was, just became a mom and I started my own design business. So I was doing freelance design for people during naps or late at night when I wasn't playing mommy. And so that's why I picked up the logo for our moms meetup.
4:40 Lewis Howes? Got you. So you were doing design and you were working as a freelancer, right?
4:45 Speaker 02 Yep, for my own studio. I launched my own thing and was giving it a shot.
4:49 Lewis Howes? Gotcha. So, so you guys started hanging out, you met up, you had kids, and you said you wanted to work with Jen. And how did this idea come about? Did you guys try something else first? Or was this the first idea you guys had? And why green smoothies?
5:04 Speaker 03 Yeah, well, we, it was actually funny because in 2008, I moved to Hawaii.
5:10 Lewis Howes? I love Hawaii.
5:11 Speaker 03 It's amazing there. It's just has a little piece of my heart there for sure. And Jen moved across the country to Florida. So we were 6,000 miles apart and not in communication. And it wasn't until 2011 that I moved back to California and Jen was still in Florida. And I started learning about online businesses. And I actually, again, this was my moment of reaching out to Jen and I asked her to design like this. I wanted to create an eZine, like that's how old school online marketing I was thinking about in 2011. And I asked her she could design this newsletter header. And she's like, well, it's $150, but I will give it to you for $75, the front discount.
5:55 Speaker 03 And then we just had so many great conversations about just kind of sharing the idea around this parenting e-sign that I wanted to create and Jen always wanted to create a parenting blog. And so we kind of fused our ideas and I actually remember Jen coming up with the name Family Sponge because she was obsessed with design sponge and I was thinking like family newsletter and so we just kind of like
6:19 Speaker 02 We got married.
6:22 Speaker 03 So we made a we made a name baby and so actually our first business idea together was family sponge.com, which is a parenting website.
6:30 Lewis Howes? And how did that do?
6:31 Speaker 02 It did pretty awesome for being our first online adventure together.
6:38 Speaker 02 And it gave us so much, it was a playground, honestly, for growing a business and we learned that was my first WordPress website I ever built and I learned coding through that and watched tons of YouTube videos at that time. And then we also geeked out on sending out newsletters every week to our list, which was growing by the fives a week. It was usually our family and friends that were subscribing to it, but it was, we did find like people were coming behind us and really enjoying what we were doing and sharing. And it got to the place where Jod's mom was like our number one supporter. And where everything we'd post on social media, her mom would comment and share it and just encourage us to keep on going,
7:23 Speaker 02 even though we hadn't had a big break yet and we weren't making one dollar. But Jod and I were both working on the business, I would say at least 30 hours a week each.
7:34 Lewis Howes? Not making any money.
7:35 Speaker 02 No, no, no. And remember, we were doing a Christmas giveaway.
7:41 Speaker 02 We wanted to do like a huge Christmas giveaway because that's how you grow your list. And we couldn't get anyone to give us products for free, so we had to buy them and give them away ourselves.
7:52 Lewis Howes? Wow.
7:53 Speaker 02 So.
7:54 Lewis Howes? Okay.
7:56 Lewis Howes? So, so when did you guys start transitioning and have this idea for what you're doing now? When did that come about?
8:02 Speaker 03 So, you know, Jen and I with Family Sponge, we were talking about eco-friendly arts and crafts, how to live intentionally and just really eat healthy as a family. And we did talk about green smoothies. And that was something that we were both obsessed with by the summer of 2011 when we first connected. And we thought of creating an ebook. So as mommy bloggers, we weren't making any money doing affiliates. We weren't making money doing giveaways and no one was paying us to write blog posts. So we were broke mommy bloggers and we're like, well, there's this other way to make money online and that's an ebook. So we were committed to creating a green smoothie ebook because it was something we both just obsessed about.
8:46 Speaker 03 And I had a friend, her name is Mai, and she actually has My Healthy Dish, which is over a million Instagram followers. So I'm so glad that I listened to her in 2012. But she's like, if you want to promote your ebook on green smoothies, you should be on Instagram. Everyone is geeking out on fitness and health. And I had so much resistance to that because we had already been hustling for a year on Family Sponge. We were on Facebook, playing on Twitter, and I'm just like, not another social media platform. It's like the same thing when you look at like Periscope and Blab and all these new platforms. It just feels so overwhelming and it's also vulnerable to be on social media. When you have, the only person that's commenting on your blog is your mom.
9:34 Speaker 03 So I kind of pushed through that resistance and was like, hey, if this will bring some awareness to our green smoothie ebook, then let's go for it. And so that was kind of the start of the business that was never supposed to be, which is some green smoothies today.
9:50 Lewis Howes? And you guys really didn't start taking off until you started doing challenges, is that right?
9:55 Speaker 03 Yeah.
9:57 Lewis Howes? So I mean, so what is, you know, I see these fitness challenges all the time and health challenges. But what is, what is a challenge? Cause I'm sure there's a lot of people who are wanting to build their business who are on Instagram. And are terrified because they're like, it's too crowded now. There's too many people who already have huge followings. Why would they follow me? How do I grow it that fast? So what's this challenge model and kind of how is the structure work?
10:23 Speaker 02 Yeah, we really felt that doing a challenge was just a way to pull in a community. And create something that we could do together and share the experience together. And by giving it a certain amount of time, it was something that was accomplishable by people that were joining. It had an end date and we could celebrate what we had done over those 30 days together. And one of the main reasons we even wanted to do a 30 day challenge was because we had connected with another health and wellness website. That was talking about doing a 30 day challenge as well. And we decided that we should partner. This would be a great way for us to grow our list. And also a way for them to leverage their brand because I was willing to do all the design and just really take it to that next level.
11:08 Speaker 02 So we reached out super excited, thinking like, there's no way, like, they're gonna be so excited. They're ready to rock and roll. And it was crickets.
11:17 Lewis Howes? Wow.
11:17 Speaker 02 Like no response. And I remember Jada and I were like, what do we do? Like, we're so excited about this. Like, we know it's gonna work. But we don't have them to do it with us. And that's when we decided we were just gonna do it on our own. And this was in the beginning of December and we were planning to launch it January 1st. And so having no experience doing a challenge ever, we managed to figure out how we were gonna do it, which was with a weekly shopping list. And five recipes a week that we would send them through email. And cheer them on every week, like encourage everyone and like just share our journey with them as well.
11:56 Speaker 02 And so that's how it began.
11:58 Speaker 03 Yeah.
11:58 Lewis Howes? So how do they, I mean, how does the challenges work? They, because you're posting a photo on Instagram every day about the challenge. But is it in order for them to win? They have to opt in and follow a certain amount of steps? Or what do they need to do?
12:10 Speaker 03 Yeah, so on, um, we create the community engagement through social media. So we post the daily recipes on Instagram and Facebook. But the way that we focused on building our email list and to really create more of a deeper relationship with our audience was they had to opt in to receive the shopping list and recipes a week in advance. So it's like, we create this free valuable content. Like you can, you could do the challenge on your own, never subscribing to us. And we'll still add tons of value and share all of the recipes on social media. But if you actually want it packaged week by week, then you subscribe and you opt into our email list and we're able to share just this beautifully designed newsletter with
12:54 Speaker 03 photos and you have your shopping list ready to go. When you go to the grocery store, you can just pull it up on your phone. And like Jen said, we just send it one week at a time. And when we were first doing that first challenge, we were sent, we were creating the emails the night before. Like, yeah, it was, it was live and in real time and we were doing that. And the model that we started with in January 2013 is still the model that we do today. And we've done 12 challenges now.
13:24 Lewis Howes? Wow. In 30 days, is that too long for people or no?
13:28 Speaker 03 We don't think so. I think what happens is what's something that I share is that it, you're courting your community during that long of a time and you're able to really connect with them. So sometimes you can do challenges that are a lot shorter. And, and we believe that people start getting results within the first week of drinking one green smoothie a day, which is kind of why we have a 10 day kickstart in our book, because we want people to have an easy, quick win from the beginning. And you experience those results within that first week.
13:58 Lewis Howes? Right.
13:59 Speaker 03 Um, and the 30 day green smoothie challenge just happened to be what we started with. And we're just like, we can't change it.
14:07 Speaker 02 But also, like, we're really passionate about making a simple habit, like, making it something that you can do and succeed in. And so making a daily green smoothie is actually really simple. The first time, it's a little intimidating. But once you do it, even two days in, in under five minutes, you have your smoothie done and your blender cleaned. And so thirty days of doing that is not overwhelming. Like, by week two, they're already like, this is easy. I'm in my groove. And it's actually cut their life and made it a lot simpler because this is their breakfast a lot of times. So now they have a five-minute breakfast that's super healthy, and the dishes are done.
14:46 Lewis Howes? Right. Wow. So, I mean, what are the transformations you've seen since starting this business in your own lives, but also the success stories you hear from other people who are just drinking green juice and green smoothies on a daily basis?
15:02 Speaker 03 There's so much, especially in our community. That's the one thing that we love about our business is, you know, we do sell, we have our book for sale, but we also sell like a twenty-one-day cleanse program. And we just say, like, every dollar, like Jen says, every dollar that someone, like, gives to us means that someone said yes to their health. And the transformations that people experience are getting off their blood medications, their, all of their, their blood results are going down lower from their doctors. Just from drinking a green smoothie, they start craving things like kale chips. I know personally, I started craving mushrooms, and I hate mushrooms. There's just so many of those kind of things
15:45 Speaker 03 where people are getting their entire family on the bandwagon. And for me personally, when I started drinking one green smoothie a day, it was a ripple effect of healthy habits that followed. And within the first three months of drinking green smoothies, I lost twenty-seven pounds.
16:01 Lewis Howes? Wow. Amazing. Now, green smoothie, now, a green smoothie and a green juice, what's the difference and the benefits of both?
16:10 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm. That's a great question. And I, when I started... Eating a little better was in, when I was in college still and I started juicing. And that's what I did every morning before I went to college. And I had to juice one day and drink it for the next five days, even though I know it's not as nutritious because the nutrients get zapped quickly with juicing. But it was so much work to clean that juicer that I just couldn't do it every day. So the, and now I'm a huge advocate of blending. And so both are so good for you. Like it's fruits and vegetables. Like we all need that in our bodies. With juicing, your, the juice machine pulls out the fiber and separates it from the juice.
16:54 Speaker 02 And so all you're drinking is the liquid and minerals straight from the fruit and vegetables, which will enter your body super quickly. It goes straight to your bloodstream. You're going to get an instant energy jolt, but you'll also crash quicker because of that, because there's no fiber in it to like stabilize your blood sugar levels. So with smoothies, you're keeping the fiber in it. You're putting the entire piece of fruit or vegetable in the blender. Like I do whole pears. Like I don't even cut it in half with my Vitamix. I throw in the pear. Strawberries, you can leave the leafy green tops on them too, for extra greens. And you blend that all up and drink it just like that. And so you're getting the fiber, you're getting all the nutrients too. And it lasts longer in your body.
17:40 Speaker 02 You're not as hungry because it's working its way through your system. And it also helps clean out your intestines and you're always, it's fiberlicious is what we like to say.
17:51 Lewis Howes? Got it. I love it. Yeah, you know, I've been doing smoothies and green juices for a while now, probably three or four years. And it's definitely a game changer for me. It's something I believe in. I'm curious to know about what gave you guys this moxie to launch something in a very competitive space? When you had no followers, you know, when there's tons of smoothie blogs and books and podcasts and Instagram pages already out there, what gave you guys the confidence to think that you could do it as well?
18:24 Speaker 02 I think it had more to do with, we just had the passion behind it. Like we believed in it so much. Like Jada was telling you, she lost 27 pounds when she started drinking a daily green smoothie. And to her, that was, that gave her the energy, the confidence and just the, like the desire to keep going with her health. And for me, at that time, when I started drinking them, we didn't have health insurance. And my kids were one and a half and three years old. And we were so scared that we were gonna get sick and have to go to the hospital or see a doctor. And like, how were we gonna afford it? And so we started drinking green smoothies as a way to not get sick as a family, and it worked.
19:06 Speaker 02 And so, like, it's every, like, and that's another benefit is from our community is people are saying, like, my kids have been in school and they're not getting sick. So it's super huge.
19:17 Speaker 03 And I also love, just for Jen and I, like, we really believe in, like, fueling your passion. And it's, we were, like Jen said, we were so passionate about it to really take this to the next level, because there were other green smoothie sites out there. And we were really looking for the gap in the marketplace of how do we stand out? And how did you? And we, we knew that we were young. We knew that design was a thing that, like, everyone, everyone's photos were either just stock images or just a tall glass of green sludge, which isn't very attractive to someone. Right. And our heart, like, our mission is to serve people who are not health enthusiasts. They're not raw foodists. They're not hardcore yogis.
20:02 Speaker 03 Like, they're everyday moms, real families, raising their families just like us. And so we wanted, like, how can we make this appealing and appetizing and fun and incorporate community? So one of the things that we did to stand out was actually taking pictures of the raw ingredients before they go in the blender. So then it doesn't feel as intimidating. You're just seeing this, like, vibrant mango and this, these bright red strawberries going into the blender. And we also included exact measurements. So it was like two cups of kale, two cups of water, three cups of mango. We were very specific because I know personally for me, when, when my aunt, she was making the first green smoothie, and I was freaking out, like, I was like, wait.
20:48 Speaker 03 She's like, I just eyeball it. I just do a handful of this. And I'm like, wait, like, how do I, like, I wanna remake this, but I don't wanna mess it up, and I don't want it to taste like grass. And so we just knew that there was a gap in the marketplace where people were questioning like, well, what, how much is a handful? What do you mean by eyeballing it? So we did exact measurements and we made it, we made it not only look good, but also taste good because I think people go too hardcore in the beginning where it's just too many leafy greens, too little fruit. And so our green smoothies tend to start out being really sweet, but that's because we want to fall, you to fall in love with healthy eating. We don't want it to taste like yuckiness.
21:27 Lewis Howes? Makes sense.
21:27 Speaker 02 And one other thing that we did with sharing those photos on Instagram and on Facebook of the raw ingredients was we also included the full recipe in the copy within each social media post. And that was something that no one else was doing at that time. We did start following other green smoothie websites and they would always share a photo of their finished drink and then say, go over to our website to learn more. And a lot of times I would click over because I'd want the recipe for myself and you couldn't even get the recipe. You had to buy their ebook to get it.
21:59 Lewis Howes? Right.
22:00 Speaker 02 And so there was this huge hurdle for me as a new green smoothie lover, like wanting more recipes and like having to jump over these hurdles to get the next one. And so we decided that we were going to give every day a free green smoothie recipe to everyone in the world and so that they can make a green smoothie. And that's what we've done to this day.
22:19 Lewis Howes? So how did you start monetizing if you're giving it all away for free?
22:24 Speaker 03 That's a great question. We, we had our first $5 ebook. So Jen and I had been hustling for 18 months through Family Sponge and then starting Simple Green Smoothies with $0 in the bank account. We were actually negative. And January 2013, our first 30 day green smoothie challenge. Before the challenge started, we had zero people on our email.
22:48 Speaker 03 Email list and by the end of that 30 day green smoothie challenge, we had 30,000 people who had signed up for our challenge.
22:54 Lewis Howes? Wow, that's crazy.
22:55 Speaker 03 And this is like no paid advertising, no affiliates, no guest posts. This is just pure heart through all the value that we were adding on Instagram and Facebook. And so when we had a captive audience like that, we were like, holy wow, like people are like paying attention to every email, like.
23:14 Lewis Howes? Get the jackpot.
23:15 Speaker 03 Yeah, we've got to like sell them something. And like I mentioned before, we were working on this green smoothie ebook and to this day, that ebook has never made the light of day. Like it's just one of those books where we were really tuning in and listening to our audience and they were like, hey, I just signed up for your challenge. I want to get, you know, access to the shopping list or, and I just want it all in one place. And so Jen and I heard that and we're like, what if we just package this challenge that we're doing right now and turned it into an ebook? And there was a lot of fear and resistance around that because we're like, they just did it for free. Why would they buy this?
23:51 Lewis Howes? Right.
23:52 Speaker 03 And we just like, we were committed, like, let's just see what happens. And because we were so scared, we only charged $5.
23:59 Lewis Howes? Right.
24:00 Speaker 03 And we, we even launched it where I think we launched it like a day early. We're like, day 30 is here. And it was probably like day 29 or something. And like, you did it. So we definitely had like the oops of our first launch and that first seven days, we did $8,000 in sales.
24:17 Lewis Howes? Amazing for a $5 ebook.
24:19 Speaker 03 Yes.
24:20 Lewis Howes? Amazing. Really like, wow, we hit the jackpot.
24:23 Speaker 03 Yes.
24:24 Lewis Howes? Wow, that's incredible. So, and what has evolved since then? Do you, every time you do a challenge, you do the, the same thing with an ebook of five or 15 bucks now or what is it?
24:35 Speaker 02 That we've changed a little bit, but we do four challenges a year now. So we have quarterly challenges that start January, then we have one in April, one in July and one in October. And what we do now is at the beginning of each challenge, we create a recipe card PDF that has all 30 days of the recipes in it and the shopping list. So it's not the full challenge package. It's more of just like a quick start, everything you need in one place. So you're not having to wait for those weekly emails.
25:04 Lewis Howes? Right.
25:05 Speaker 02 And each quarterly challenge has different recipes. And so we don't repeat until the next year. So you could join us for an entire year
25:13 Lewis Howes? Right.
25:13 Speaker 02 of our challenge and have tons of recipes through that. And we charge $5 for that recipe PDF now.
25:20 Lewis Howes? Hmm, got you. So recipe PDF. Each challenge is a $5 PDF.
25:25 Speaker 02 Yep. But one of the biggest things we learned from that first 30 day challenge was that in our, because our list grew so fast, we realized that if we can create a free opt-in that's better than someone's paid product.
25:38 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
25:38 Speaker 02 It's gold. Like, and it proved it right there. Like, we, every quarter, we put about a month into production of our 30 day challenge.
25:45 Lewis Howes? Wow.
25:46 Speaker 02 And so four months a year is dedicated to creating the challenge and just like loving our community while it's live. And then we reap the results later through sales of our future products.
25:57 Lewis Howes? Wow, amazing. So why did you guys decide to do a book?
26:01 Speaker 02 It's a bucket list item. It's like a dream come true for, for me personally. I, in high school, I was the editor in chief of my newspaper. And so I have just loved the power that you can have when you share what you've written and blogs and change through that. And so I ended up going to college for print journalism as well. And my dream when I was 19 years old was to be an editor at Cosmo Magazine. And that's what my goal in life was back then. So now to be able to like have this community that we're nourishing and loving and just changing their lives, like the next step was to give them the gift of this book that they can keep
26:44 Speaker 02 at their house, put it on their coffee table, and have their loved ones, have their sister come by to hang out, be like, what's this book? And then open it and see these gorgeous photos. We did, we did the exact same thing where we show recipes with all of the ingredients. So it's super easy to follow. And just to inspire more people to live out the green smoothie lifestyle.
27:03 Lewis Howes? Right. It's like the mom-friendly thug kitchen.
27:06 Speaker 03 Yeah, we love them. We actually have conversations with them.
27:11 Lewis Howes? Those guys are brilliant.
27:14 Lewis Howes? I'm curious now, how did you, so it sounds like two things really stood out to help you get to where you are. And I always talk about this with people and for you guys, it was this challenge where you grew this list really fast. But what I would, what I would guess to say is that if you didn't have the design, those emails, that list, the business wouldn't be growing as fast as it is now without design.
27:38 Speaker 03 Yeah, I think, I think that they dance together for sure. It's like the, and Jen and I actually really kind of like own our lanes of like celebrating our community. So there's the community engagement and really taking care of the community in the front of social media where they get to know you and that's like the club and the dance party and like showing your dance moves there. And then there's also the community experience and that's really nurturing your fans and making them just feel like they are at home and that happens through design. That happens through the words that you use once they say yes to being on your email list and really taking care of them from the very beginning, all the way to becoming a customer.
28:22 Speaker 03 And if someone never becomes a customer, like we are totally fine with that. Like we believe that our 30 day green smoothie challenge is changing people's lives in a big way. And we're like, we're cheering you on no matter where you are in our community. And I think people really feel that, that we, we deeply care. We deeply care about how beautiful things are and we deeply care that every person in our community is seen and heard. And that's why we say like no comment left behind and really invest in our community happiness specialists to actually respond to questions and comments and really cheer our community on.
28:57 Lewis Howes? So you have one person responding to every comment on your Instagram page?
29:01 Speaker 03 Yes, we have two people now. So we have someone that kind of takes over the emails and Instagram. And then we have another person who focuses on Facebook comments and website comments.
29:12 Lewis Howes? Wow. Do you think that's important to comment to everyone's post?
29:16 Speaker 03 It's important to us. Like, we really care about our people and for them to take the time to comment or ask a question, we just really feel like we are in the business of answering questions and nurturing our community in that way.
29:30 Lewis Howes? Amazing. I love that. Wow, that's fascinating. So how do you trust people to log into the Instagram page, you know, to leave all those comments since there's no, I guess, admin login and all these other things? What do you, how do you do that?
29:44 Speaker 02 Yeah, we have a whole hiring process that we do when we bring people on to our rock star team. And that's part of it is we, we get to know them through video conversations and Jada and I, we're really good at having the same gut feeling about people.
30:02 Lewis Howes? Right.
30:03 Speaker 02 And so far, we have not been steered wrong by the ones that we choose to work with us. And yeah, so it's really trust, the main thing, and just encouraging them when they're in that space of commenting to just own it and love what they're doing too. And
30:19 Lewis Howes? That's great.
30:20 Speaker 03 And our filter, our filter is, would we want to go, would we want to spend a week with this person on vacation? Would we want to sit with them on an airplane? So we, and then we also do kind of a 60 day trial with people that we bring on to our team. And then we say, we'll put a ring on it after 60 days to make sure that it's a good fit on both ends because we really want people to be lit up and passionate and excited about the work they do. And if it's not a fit for them with us, like, that's okay. We want you to continue doing that somewhere else.
30:49 Speaker 02 Yeah. And we've always hired through our community, which is a neat thing. And so whoever, the only people we reach out to for hiring is to our community. So we'll send a dedicated email about a position opening to them alone. And those that reply, we already know, have been ingrained in SGS. They drink in a green smoothie. They're excited about this lifestyle and wanting to be more a part of it to help it grow.
31:14 Lewis Howes? Right. I'm curious about how you guys communicate as, because you guys both, you're fifty fifty in this. And you kind of started out like, okay, let's try this thing out and see what happens. And now it's blown up. How do you guys handle the pressures of staying on the same vision and being aligned to where you want it to go and all the opportunities that come in? How do you guys make decisions? Because I know some people might be terrified to be working with their friends. Um, and especially something that grows so fast where they might have different viewpoints of what they want.
31:51 Speaker 02 For us, what happened was with the fast growth was almost that we lost focus of our vision. And we just felt like we were in the day to day of just keeping the ball rolling. And so about four months ago, we reached out to someone to be our coach.
32:08 Lewis Howes? Yep.
32:08 Speaker 02 And so we have a business coach that is willing to work with partners and we did a two day intensive up in New York City. Recently where we sat down, Jada and I and our coach and just really like let go and released everything that was holding us back, all of our daily to do's. And figured out like, we started to dream again and we're like, what if we did this? What if it looked like this? What if in five years SGS was this? Would it make us happy? Like, would we feel like that success? Have we changed enough lives? And so that's what we did. We had to step away from everything we were doing daily because it's really easy to get distracted from bigger goals when you're stuck to emails and responding to things like that.
32:52 Speaker 02 So that was super helpful for us to like get back aligned. And also through that coaching, we've found a way for us to own our space in the business again. And so like Jada was saying, she's in charge of community growth, which she does an incredible job with. And she has her team under her who's helping her strategize and grow the community to get into our thirty day challenge, visit our website. Where then it's my job to give them the community experience. And so then I have my team help us with that. And that's through um, the emails we send out, the products that we create, how we deliver them to them. And also just making sure that the website's always beautiful, easy for them to use, and just helpful.
33:37 Speaker 03 Yeah, and I also, and I love what Jen said about like to dream again, because those, those first, you know, two to three years, like Jen and I were super aligned, which was like, um, make money doing what we love. And so it's like going forward to that space. And then it's, um, and that was the beautiful thing is we were just on board and creating new products for our community. How can we take care of them? How can we serve them better? And that was really kind of like the initial dream and vision. And I think it's important to remember that once you hit that, that goal, which for us, we did hit that goal of like, make money, doing what we love and change the world at the same time. Like we pinch ourselves every day that we get to do the type of work that we do, that
34:21 Speaker 03 we get to employ other people to support our vision. But then, once you get there, it's like, well, what's next? Because we strive for more. We strive to grow and expand as human beings. And I think Jen and I also, our desires change and they grow and they expand. And so it's like, we're growing into that next level of dreaming. And you do need to take that time and space to actually think of what you really want. So as an individual, you're fully resourced to like make a huge impact and ripple in the world.
34:54 Lewis Howes? Wow. So what's the vision now for you guys?
34:57 Speaker 03 What is the vision, Jen?
35:00 Speaker 03 You're on a roll.
35:03 Speaker 03 I mean, I, the biggest thing is just getting the green smoothie movement. Like it's a global movement to expand into the physical realm, which is kind of what we're doing with the book. You know, the online community, the online world knows simple green smoothies so, so well, but we want to get blenders into every classroom. We want Michelle Obama, like to partner with her. Like we want to take it to a bigger scale with simple green smoothies. And then for Jen and I, like, we want to make sure that we are fueling our passions in simple green smoothies, but also fueling our passions beyond simple green smoothies and being the fully expressed women, mother entrepreneurs that we can be too.
35:47 Speaker 03 And so we're creating that space to really dream and make our lives and our dreams even bigger than they've been before.
35:54 Lewis Howes? I love it. If you give one piece of advice for someone who's Got a dream and they wanna launch something, but they're scared. Where would you suggest they start in the next six months with all that you know about Instagram and online marketing and all the different social media platforms out there? Where do you think they should start? Obviously, it's probably based on the industry and the things they're doing. But what do you think is kind of like a for sure not gonna go away? And it's gonna build your brand over the next six to 12 months if someone's getting started now?
36:28 Speaker 02 I think it's really important to not focus so much on where you're gonna do it as far as which social media platform, but really to figure out how you're gonna do it when it comes to the biggest message that you can put out there. And so what I mean by that is like for us with green smoothies, we did tons of research. I mean, I was subscribed to every green smoothie website, email list, following them all on Instagram and Facebook. And my goal was never to be like them. And where I know a lot of people starting their business, it's tempting to see someone else doing coaching, if that's what you wanna do and be like, I wanna be just like you. So I'm gonna follow in your footsteps and do what you do. But I think it's important to actually go a different direction than what's already
37:13 Speaker 02 been blazed and find your own path. And so for us, we did that by not looking at what everyone else was doing in the green smoothie world and following it, but seeing what they were doing and how we could do it differently and finding companies outside of the industry that you're looking to build your community within and pull from them for inspiration. And so for us, that was Tom's Shoes, Starbucks Coffee. Those were two and Method too was a great visual campaign and just how they've created these movements within a product and just this passion that not only was ignited within their business, but within this community that they've created. And so that's where I would tell them to go first.
37:56 Lewis Howes? I love it. I wanna wrap up with a couple of final questions. And so I'll have you both answer these separately. And the first one is, what are you most grateful for in your lives?
38:10 Speaker 03 Hmm. For me, Jada, I am just grateful for my family. Like, when people ask me, what is my, my daily habit? What do I do to kind of fuel my day beyond green smoothies? Is just snuggling, connecting, hugging, touching, saying I love you to my daughter in the morning, whether she wakes up first or I wake up first. Like, that like grounds me into like, why I do what I do. And expressing that gratitude daily in the morning for me to start my day.
38:46 Speaker 02 I love that. I, I was also gonna say my family because they have been incredible throughout this whole journey for, for me. I mean, we started super in super hard times. Like, my family moved from LA to Florida to start a church with no money, no resources. And we left all the support behind and we embraced it as an adventure. And we still do to this day. And I believe that every time my husband and I have seen a little crack in a door of like a direction to go, rather than be scared of what's beyond that door, we have gone through it full blast. And our lives, I never, ever would have expected them to look like this right now.
39:30 Speaker 02 And I'm just so thankful for having him and my kids on board for whatever crazy stuff comes at us.
39:38 Lewis Howes? That's awesome. Next question. If you had one final Instagram post to post today, each of you, and everything else was deleted on your Instagram page and website and everything else you've ever put out there, it's gone. But you have one final post, each of you, to write down three truths. Maybe call it the three simple truths. And that you have experienced in your lives all up until this point, that you know to be true about life. So three simple truths, what would you say?
40:12 Speaker 03 Number one would be to choose love in everything, in business and life. That is how I'm guided by decisions is, am I doing this from a place of love? And I believe in love over metrics in our business, no matter how much money, how many social media followers we have, that we always choose love over the numbers. And I think that is so important. Number two would be to say yes to your dreams. I believe in chasing possibility and making the impossible possible. And I think that so many people are lit up and unleashed when they follow their dreams
40:56 Speaker 03 and their passions, no matter in what way, whether they're making money or not, just to not let go of those dreams and giving yourself permission to do that. And number three, for me, it's just take imperfect action in life. Like, give yourself permission to be messy, to fall and fail your way forward, and use that as feedback to grow as a human being, I think is so important. We feel like everything has to be so perfect, so polished, and it really makes us stuck in our lives when we're waiting for perfection. So choose love, say yes to your dreams, and take imperfect action.
41:37 Lewis Howes? Thank you.
41:40 Speaker 02 For me...
41:41 Lewis Howes? That was Jada, right?
41:42 Speaker 03 Yes.
41:45 Speaker 02 All right. For me, I would say the first truth would be make life an adventure and just live for that and just enjoy the ride. And the second one is trust in the unknown. The unknown is scary, but just knowing that it's always gonna be there and going through with it is gonna be so powerful. And so I always say, do what scares you. I'm scared a lot, like, that's just how I am. I'm a worrier. And like, public speaking, I know that was a fear of yours too, Lewis. And that's, I keep trying to do those things and putting myself out there and just trusting in the unknown and the fears behind it and just still going through with it is my truth.
42:30 Speaker 02 And then the last one is strive for greatness. I mean, things, we can always make things better. We can love more. We can work harder. We can play harder. And I believe if we just settle for mediocrity and complacency, that you're going to miss out on what you were really created to do and the lives that you were meant to change.
42:53 Lewis Howes? Hmm, I love it. One final question before I ask, where can we go get the new book? That just came out and where should we follow you guys online as well?
43:05 Speaker 02 You can head on over to Target, Barnes and Nobles, Walmart, Sam's Club. You can also go online on Amazon, Barnesandnobles.com and pretty much every online bookseller is carrying Simple Green Smoothies, which is such a blessing for us.
43:23 Speaker 03 And yeah, and you can find all of those links at simplegreensmoothies.com/book and we'll also have extra little lovely leafy goodies, digital goodies for our people that
43:37 Speaker 03 purchase through simplegreensmoothies.com. We really love to love up and take care of our community that way.
43:42 Lewis Howes? That's awesome. Okay, cool. Makes everyone go pick up a copy. I want to ask you one final question for each of you again, but before I do, Jan and Jada, I want to acknowledge you both for your courage because you're both moms who have a lot going on. You have a lot of worry, as Jen would say, and I acknowledge you for trusting yourselves, trusting your passion and going after it with your full heart and supporting so many people that need that support and inspiration. And without you guys having the courage to go through the fears that you had with this, so many more people would be in pain or unhealthy
44:26 Lewis Howes? or having disease because of it. So I acknowledge you for the courage, the inspiration, the goddesses that you are to serve so many people. So thank you for all that you guys do.
44:38 Speaker 02 Thank you, Louis.
44:41 Lewis Howes? And my final question for both of you is what's your definition of greatness?
44:47 Speaker 03 I will go first, Jen.
44:50 Speaker 03 Sure.
44:52 Speaker 03 This is Jada. Definition of greatness, I think, is just being open to change and growth. That we are not here to be perfect human beings, but we are here to be great human beings. And again, it really comes back to loving yourself first, loving the people that you impact their lives immediate through your family and your friends, loving your community, and then just loving, like having a deep, deep love to serve and loving the world and all of the pain and suffering, that there is so much joy and love amidst all of that
45:35 Speaker 03 chaos. And I believe that when we come from a place of love first and openness to change and grow, that the greatness is found there.
45:45 Speaker 02 Good one, Jada.
45:50 Speaker 02 For me, I think it's just being your true self and owning that completely and living it out fully and not letting other people decide what that is for you and giving you labels of who you are and trying to fit within those definitions, but really just listening to your heart and to your soul and taking the steps towards whatever that looks like, even if you don't know how it's going to play out. Just take that first step of what feels good to you and where you think you really should be going. And I guarantee that by doing that, you are going to impact so many more lives than you could have if you
46:30 Speaker 02 just went big in one area without really figuring out who your true self was first.
46:37 Lewis Howes? There you have it. Jen and Jada, thank you ladies so much for coming on and for sharing your wisdom today.
46:43 Speaker 03 Thank you.
46:43 Speaker 02 Thanks, Lewis.
46:48 Speaker 00 There you have it, gang. Thank you so much for listening today and for tuning in. Make sure to share this out again to anyone you think would find this interesting or anyone who's looking to build a business. LewisHowes.com/250. I love you guys so very much. It's been an incredible week. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.
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