How to Get More Done with Jessica Koch

Kathi: Hi everyone. As promised, I'm back and I'm with Jessica Koch. Today we're going to talk about how to get things done and how to have fun in our business. So welcome to the show, Jessica.

Jessica: Thank you. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. I love the concept of organization. I haven't mastered it in all aspects of my life, but I have really, in the last five years or more, grasped systems and automation and really become a master of it. I just dove in in such an exciting way. So there are places in my life where I'm very organized, and other places, like my closet, not so much.

Kathi: Well, organizing is an ongoing process, and I really applaud you for taking the time to set up the systems, because now you're saving so much time every single day and every single week. The average entrepreneur wastes a month a year just trying to catch up with stuff because they haven't stopped to put systems in place like you have. So congratulations on that. We all have areas of our life that need organizing. It's just a thing. But I applaud you on that. We could talk about your closet a little bit later offline.

Jessica: I made that statement, and then I thought, I could tell you I have a section where short sleeve and sleeveless hang together. I have a section for pants and shorts, and I have a section where only the skirts hang. I have a section for just dresses. And usually, when I've updated it and tweaked it a little, they're in order by color. But it tends to get messy quickly. The organization falls apart, and then I have to readdress it. So the system exists in there. It's just not as automated as some of the business systems, which I really like because they rarely mess up, unless the technology stops talking to each other and you have to tweak that. So I guess it's kind of the same.

Kathi: Yeah. If you could say, okay, dresses that I've never worn for a year, come forth. That'd be something.

Jessica: Yeah, right. I can easily do that with software, because I can see what free gifts aren't getting any hits. I can do the analytics. Super simple, all in a report, all at the press of a button. That does not happen in my closet.

Kathi: That is true. All right. Do you want one hack? Okay. Here's your hack. We're here to talk about you, but here's the thing. You go into your closet and you turn every hanger around.

Jessica: Yes, I've heard this. That would drive my brain crazy. I'm not sure I can handle that. My OCD will not allow that.

Kathi: Okay. So you do it the reverse. Every time you wear something, you put it back backwards.

Jessica: Yeah. The whole backwards thing gets me. I'll have to try it. I'll have to see if I can make it. My husband will hear me in the closet at 2 a.m.: what are you doing? I had to turn all the hangers back. They're backwards and driving me crazy.

Kathi: Absolutely love that. Well, there's no one way to do anything. So the fact that you have your systems together, this is great. So let's get back to you, Jessica. That's why we're here.

Jessica: So I just thought of a system I could use that's similar. For anyone out there who would also go nuts if their hangers were backwards, but really wants to use this hack, I could color code or tie ribbons on certain hangers, or on the clothes I wear all the time. Then I know that I would only use those hangers, and I would see the ones that were the other color and never got put on the new hanger. If I color coded, that might work.

Kathi: Yes, I've had clients do that as well. That actually does work. And they have little rings too that you can put over the hanger, so you don't have to worry about tying bows. One of my clients uses the ring idea, and that way she sees everything that she's worn and the things she hasn't worn for a long time. You could also move them from one end of the rod to the other end of the rod. Like your sleeveless: instead of color coding, you could have them by frequency of use and put the ones that you try on and don't wear off to the right. There are so many different ways to do it. That's why I love getting organized.

Jessica: I tell you, there are. And I've hired people to come and help me. I'm a big believer in hiring people to come help you, because who wants to do it alone?

Kathi: Yeah. Right. It's not fun to do it alone. It's much more fun to do it with an organizer that has fun doing it. And that goes into masters hiring masters, which is one of the quotes that I used for you today. That's my quote, but your quote was, I think, professionals hire professionals.

Jessica: Yeah. Right. The most professional people in the world do hire professionals.

The most professional people in the world do hire professionals.

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Kathi: That's what we all do. We all have coaches. That's how we become masterful. So let's talk a little bit about your journey, Jessica, so that people get to know a little bit about you. Where did you come from, and what are you doing right now?

Jessica: Well, let's see. I was a military brat, so I lived all over growing up, and I'm now in Solomons Island, Maryland, about an hour outside of Washington, DC. I have a consulting firm. We do sales and marketing consulting and social media training, and we started a virtual assistant membership program about five years ago. So we have VAs from all over the world to help our clients get things done and create those systems and automations, and now AI. We build custom GPTs and online courses and bots, and there's all this cool stuff now: funnels and free gifts and speaker one sheets. We do all of it for them, so that they can enjoy the benefits of technology without the nerve-wracking stress that some people experience with technology, because it's not my experience. I love it. And I've run a podcast for the last eight years.

Kathi: Yeah, I've been blessed to play with you in that court. So you love systems, you love tech. For the people who don't really like it but need stuff… I have so many clients, and of course everybody needs systems. Tell me the story about one of your clients, how she or he came to you, and then what happened through the process.

Jessica: I think really the best story is a little bit me. When I first started my business, I actually didn't have the VA business. I was only about three months into working, and I made a decision that I needed a virtual assistant, because as a sales and marketing expert, I know all of the follow-up tasks that are required to actually yield cash and revenue from your efforts. I know what they are. I know what the steps are. I have a system for that. However, I found myself in this place in my life where I was starting a new business, and my business story is that I was kind of a Jonah and the whale. I didn't want to start a business. I didn't want to have my own business. I went kicking and screaming, let's just say. And so I made some decisions that I was going to live my life the way I wanted to live it. I had a younger daughter at the time, and I live by the water. So I wanted to spend my Wednesday nights not following up from virtual networking things, not building a spreadsheet from the chat so I could import it into my CRM system, so I could send them all a nice email and connect with them on the different social media platforms, and all the things I need to do to have a one-on-one with them, so I could build a real relationship with them, so that we could collaborate and work together. Or I could be their client, they could be my client, or we could help each other get other clients: the whole reason you show up to a virtual networking thing, right? I didn't want to do any of those things. And I also didn't want to be a burden to my family because I was starting a business. I wanted the business to stay self-sustaining.

Jessica: So I had a few clients right out of the gate, and it was only a few months in, and I decided to hire three people. I hired three virtual assistants. That was one of the smartest things I ever did: I hired in a group of three. I also took control of how this was going to affect my bottom line. And I was very transparent and honest and respectful to the VAs. Some of these people are still with me today, nine years later. That is really rare in the world of virtual assistant work, I'm just going to say. But it was because I respected them and said, look, here's the project I have. Here's how much I can pay per hour. Here's how many hours I have allotted for the project. Once that project is done, I may have more projects, but it may be a week or two, it may be a month before I have a project again. I told all three of them that. So I paid them by project. I had a budget for that project. Then we reconvened to see where they were and what they got done, which gave me an idea of how much this would really cost me and what I needed done. And I had three people, so when one was sick or needed a vacation, or, in some cases in the world of VAs, you just never heard from them again, I wasn't having to start from square one: find the people, interview the people, train the people. I had people who knew what I needed. I always had at least several people running all the time.

I hired three virtual assistants. That was one of the smartest things I ever did.

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Jessica: I remember sitting in my living room on a Wednesday afternoon, after I had had a full day of virtual networking, and I was sitting there playing Yahtzee with my family, and I was present. We had had dinner. We were about to go on a nice walk by the water. And sitting there, it occurred to me, as it wasn't my turn at that second: hey, all those people I talked to are getting added to my system right now. They're getting connected with a lovely message. They're getting sent my calendar link. And then over the course of the next few days, my calendar was full of great one-on-ones with wonderful people that soon either became my client, or I collaborated with them, or we referred each other to customers. I got to have the time that I valued so much and still got a chance to grow my business in this way, and still didn't have to put myself into debt to do it. And for me, that is the success story that led to me adding that division to our company.

Kathi: Yeah, I think it's so important. I also have three VAs. I've had a VA for the past 18 years, another for eight, and my newest one for three, I think. It's good to just be forthright, say what you need, and then have them discuss it. Is this working? Is this not working? What's happening with it?

Jessica: Yeah.

Kathi: So I think it's really smart. A lot of entrepreneurs, especially a lot of people that I speak with, don't want to release that control. And what they don't realize is that when you release that control, you have control of your life, just like you said. The reason we start businesses is to have freedom. Now, I want to go back a minute, because you said you went into business kicking and screaming. So why did you start? What happened?

Jessica: So my career, I started very young. I got into sales and marketing when I was in high school. I was the youngest person ever hired by a conference resort center that was on the water near where I lived, the youngest person hired to work the front desk, out in front with the people. I learned about the corporate events and the weddings that came, and the sales process, and I began to learn about sales very young. Then in my early twenties, I worked for a radio station. That's a hard job. And I learned about sales from that. Then, later in my career, I managed a large sales division for a marketing firm in Alexandria, Virginia, where I interviewed, hired, trained and managed sales teams and managed projects for Disney, Verizon, some of the bigger names, bigger power and gas companies in the region, in the DC metro, the Delmarva, they call it, the Maryland, DC, Virginia region. From there I spent about another 15 to 17 years with another company where I presented, and that's where I started my speaking career. So for over 25 years I spoke at national conferences: for the Fortune 1000, for power companies across the world, for hospitals, universities, county government entities, public school systems, all kinds of national associations and organizations all over the world. I was teaching workshops at their conferences. I was keynote speaking. I was doing all kinds of things. And I was far too young and far too new, still learning sales, even at that point in my career, that I didn't know I was supposed to be afraid of speaking. Nobody told me, so I just went and did what I knew I was supposed to do.

Kathi: Yeah. But what caused you to start your own agency?

Jessica: That's what happened. All those things broke down. That was how I learned about what I do now. I was promised certain things working with the company for a very long time. Although I value the humans that work there and all my contacts and everything I learned, and all that was great, it wasn't where I believed it was going to lead me, and it was just time, the writing on the wall, to peacefully and respectfully part ways. And then I did work with three other organizations that very quickly did not keep their promises within their contracts. At that point I was the key revenue for our family, and we had had our last child. My husband had become the full-time caregiver for our newborn, and the company had been paying him to travel with me and follow me around speaking and all these wonderful things. After the third company, after really being asked to do something unethical as a sales manager that I wasn't comfortable doing, and I'm just not doing anything that's beyond my values, I turned to my husband. He owns his own contractor license. He's a general contractor, so he's owned his own company too. I said to him, look, you're going to have to go back to work, because my heart was broken. And I thought, I'm never going to work again. I'm never going to sell anything again. I'll market you, honey. You go back out, and I will homeschool and care for our kid and take over, because that's what we were doing. And so we swapped places within a few days. Literally, probably in less than a week, I had full business contacts for him, and he had a waiting list of six months for clients and customers, because I'm just really good at marketing. I'm no supermodel and I can't sing real well, but boy, can I do that.

Jessica: So I had him situated, and for three solid years I hid. I didn't cross the threshold of the home office. I didn't go online. I didn't answer email. I wasn't on any of the platforms. I didn't have anything but my cell phone, and I took care of my child and homeschooled. Well, I got a phone call from the local county chamber of commerce, because he knew I was a speaker at all the major conferences. Every major employer had been my customer. I was pretty well known in my region for business success. And he said, where are you? I said, I am not in the business space anymore and don't plan on returning. He said, well, we need you to come and teach a class on this social media platform, because he knew I had used it to have my success with CFOs of Staples and New Balance and Big Lots and some of the larger organizations I had made presentations to. That was one of the ways I had done that. And I politely said no, and seven times he called me back. By the seventh, my quote of people matter most… I was like, okay, here's the deal. I'm going to come, I'm going to teach, I'm going to leave. I love chambers, but I'm not a member of the chamber right now. I'm not joining. I don't have a business. I don't want a business. I'm not working for anyone. I don't want to work for anyone. I'm going to come, I'm going to teach, I'm going to leave. All the presentations I had done were informational. They were educational and teaching, but they weren't for education only. Here I was going just to teach. There was no product.

Kathi: Like a workshop. Right. They weren't going to sell.

Jessica: Yeah, it was a workshop. They booked it at a megachurch in our region, which had a setting very similar to a college lecture hall. I showed up in my cute suit and my cute little heels and my pearls and my laptop and set everything up with the technology, and they were all in stadium seating, and it was standing room only. This place was packed to the gills. And the guy, for comic relief, put out: she's coming out of the woodwork. We don't know for how long or for anything but just this. So if you want to see her, now is your only chance.

Kathi: That's funny.

Jessica: And we filled the place. That was hugely humbling and a very nice feeling. And then I started to teach, and the room went dead silent, and all you could hear was literally frantic scratching on paper. That energy sucked into me, and I turned around, and it dawned on me mid-sentence, because in the back of my mind I'm thinking, everybody knows this.

Kathi: Yeah. Well, everybody didn't know this. Everybody does not know what you know.

Jessica: I didn't know that, right? And the energy and the excitement and the questions and the engagement, and the hour after the event was over, still standing in my heels with a line of people who said, please help us. And then for six months, because I was that stubborn, I was helping people for free. And then I got the call back a second time saying, okay, since your event we have had more calls and more inquiries, and we're having the women's business conference, and it's going to be at the college, and everyone would like you to keynote and speak. At that point my husband says, get a business card, we're building you a website. Suck it up, buttercup. You've got a business whether you like it or not.

Kathi: Did he semi-retire and go back to caregiving, and then you were on your way?

Jessica: No. We kind of tag-teamed it. He did some days with her. I continued to homeschool and do the homeschool co-op and participate in that, and just scheduled my business around it. And then eventually my business grew with such success so quickly that by her third-grade year we put her in a local school, as close to homeschooling and intimate and wonderful as you can get without homeschooling.

Kathi: Well, that's a really good story. And I think a point to be noted here for everyone listening is that you are an expert in something. Everybody is an expert in something, and an expert just means that you know a little bit more than the people that you're speaking to, right? We all have expertise in our life, but a lot of people don't claim it. You spent a long time not claiming it. And it's true: whenever you're doing a workshop and people are just like little sponges, you get such a rush. It's just a happy space to teach.

Jessica: Yeah, I love it. The energy was very joyful for me. And I'm Italian, and I'm a happy, joyful, energetic person. At least I think I'm funny. So having some humor helps. Even if they're laughing at me or with me, there's always some laughter. And I just found that I really enjoy teaching, and I didn't know that about me. So that was a discovery that also occurred.

Kathi: Yeah, it's something interesting. People have put me in as a consultant, and just in the past year I've said, I'm not really a consultant. I'm a teacher. That's what I am through and through: a teacher. That's what I love best. And actually, according to my code of ethics, I have to transfer skills, or I've breached my code for my board certification. Teaching is all about that, and transferring skills is what makes people thrive. So what would you tell someone who is struggling right now and just not living their dream? They've started their business. What would be a piece of advice that you would give them? What would be a first step for them to start making progress and start making more money?

Jessica: If they're not living their dream, if they're not doing the business that's their passion, I'd say stop, take a step back, re-evaluate, and figure out if there is a way to make revenue with your passion. And I believe 100 percent of the time that's a yes. Whatever passion someone has, there is a way to make money with that. You may not be able to start it out right away and make the transition. And I always say, I'm the Italian mother of seven, but I'm not your mama. I'm not giving you financial, legal or medical advice. I am simply telling you what's worked for me. So I did not tell you to quit your job and just go jump into your passion if that's going to jeopardize your family or your life. But I would say really take a hard look at how you could make your passion your side hustle until you can build a plan where it can take over whatever you're doing, because life is too short to do something you don't love, is what I think.

Whatever passion someone has, there is a way to make money with that.

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Kathi: Yeah. And what I find is that most people start their business because they have this passion to show people what they know and what they're passionate about, but the marketing wheel often falls off, or they don't have that engine to drive the marketing down the road. So what I'm asking is, for those listening who maybe don't have the marketing mechanism, where's the first place to start to build that and begin marketing their business? What do you think is the easy entryway for them?

Jessica: Well, there's a couple of things. If you're not a marketing expert, and that's not your comfort zone and where you feel good, there are lots of people to help you. And whether you have a budget for that help or not, there are still people to help you: your local economic development office, the SBA, SBDCs, women's business centers, all kinds. SCORE is a mentor-based program for startups. There's even Startup Grind. There are all kinds of organizations that are totally free for you to use. And one of the things they can help you design is a marketing plan. You can use ChatGPT for a marketing plan and strategy. You can just get yourself a checklist and a plan and then choose three things that you can implement at least every single month. But working with a professional is great if you have the luxury of doing so. A lot of small businesses are even going to fractional CMOs. I just interviewed one on my podcast who does that professionally, and that's all they do. They're almost on a consultant basis. They work for only a handful of companies, and they're not a full-time employee. They're not paid like an employee, so it saves the company lots of money, but the company has this dedicated person all year, every year, helping grow the company to the point where one day they maybe do hire an on-site, full-time employee. So these are different strategies that you might strive for. Start with the local free options that will support you. Work with a consultant, like me, for a temporary space, then get yourself to a fractional CMO. So move in stages, if this is your desire. And think about what your ultimate marketing outcome is. Everyone thinks it's just to have sales and grow the business, but it really isn't. What do you want to do with your business? Are you looking to sell it one day? Are you looking to have it run without you one day? All of your marketing strategy needs to be what your endgame is. And that's probably one of the things I wish I had known sooner: I should have been building out for my legacy much sooner than I began thinking of it.

All of your marketing strategy needs to be what your endgame is.

Kathi: Yeah, most of us don't think of legacy when we start a business. We're just inspired and on fire, and we're going to do what we love to do because we want to get paid to do it, and we don't think about the long term. So that leads me to the next question. What would you tell your 18-year-old self now? What advice would you give her, now that you've been around the block a few times?

Jessica: I would tell her not to be so afraid to start my own business sooner. Part of why I didn't want to start a business is because I thought, well, I know what I know. I know about marketing and selling for other people. I don't know anything about running a business. What I didn't realize was that I didn't need to know that. It's the who, not how, right? I didn't have to know all the hows, like that great book everyone's talking about. I just needed to know some of the whos that could teach me and help me and consult me, and pay them to support me in the spaces of my business that I wasn't good at. So I would tell myself that. I believe that we're all energy and that we're all connected. And every time I take the time to give myself vacation time, listen to a new audiobook, take a workshop or a training, every single time I improve myself, I make a difference in the world, because I can then be a better community member, a better collaborator with my joint venture partners, a better wife, a mother, and just a better everything, and make a bigger difference in the world every time I improve myself. I would tell myself that I'm a great teacher and that I'm funny, and I would tell myself to track my successes better. Because now, to go back through the timeline of my amazing history and all the things I've achieved, I really have to dig. I'm a bit of a packrat, so I have filing cabinets and date planners from a hundred years ago, but I'm still going to have to do my research, because I didn't run a cool timeline about the coolness of me. Let me build that legacy, right? And I'd tell myself to celebrate more often. And oh my god, I would tell myself to kayak, because I didn't kayak until way too late in my life, and kayaking is the joy of my life. I even do business from kayaks. I even attend virtual meetings from my kayak. I love it.

Kathi: You live on an island, right?

Jessica: I do. I live in Solomons Island, Maryland. Yes.

Kathi: Yeah. Kayaking is brilliant. It's so funny, because you could do business anywhere. You're out there kayaking around, you're having a business meeting. My husband does that with disc golf. He has masterminds all the time playing disc golf, and that's pretty funny. That's the beauty of being an entrepreneur. We can do anything we want wherever we want. We can lead business anywhere that feels comfortable for us. We're not confined to the four walls. So, okay, my next question. This is my year of celebration. I really just want to celebrate all of my victories. How do you celebrate your victories?

Jessica: I definitely think kayaking, and taking more time at the beach for myself. I don't know, I just do that anyway. We've done so much vacation. I was looking at the amount of time that's passed in the year, and the amount of time we've worked versus the amount of time we've been on vacation, and I'm not sure, but vacation might be winning.

Kathi: Yay. I love that.

Jessica: And you know what, though? I think more, in my wisdom, I celebrate out loud with other people. And actually, that's one of my favorite joy stories, and one of the things I want to be remembered by in my legacy when I'm no longer here. I was walking one day on the boardwalk with my husband. I'm an animated person, and I'm Italian. We talk with our hands. We're walking on the boardwalk, walking the island, and when you do that you pass people, and you make this lap more than once, so you might pass them again. I guess we had passed this couple earlier, and I'm talking with my hands, and we're getting ready to pass them again. These are people I don't know. And I'm saying to my husband, I love what I do. I love the podcast, and people like me. They have fun, and I get comments, and I just feel so joyful, and I feel like people feel that, like I'm really able to put that energy out there in the world. I was just sharing with my husband, feeling joyful publicly, and this woman stopped with her husband and said, yes, I do feel your joy. I felt it the first time we walked by. And she hugs me. This perfect stranger hugs me. And she hugs my husband, who is like, okay, I'm being hugged now. And her husband's like, yes, yes, I know. And they both just shake hands, but we hug each other again, and we chat for a while. This woman didn't know who I am or what I did. She's not liking or following me on any platform. And I'm thinking, that's what I want to make sure I'm remembered for putting in the world: that perfect strangers were truly compelled to reach out and hug. That to me is one really great legacy to leave in the world.

Kathi: It's so true. And back to your speaking about energy earlier, I think the more energy that we have, the more the world will resonate with better and better energy. We're all energetic beings. So the more that we can amplify happiness, joy, freedom, prosperity, the more others will have it. So from a metaphysical standpoint, I'm with you, girl. I'm with you, sister. Okay, so I know that you have something you're going to offer the listeners here. What is it that you are going to drop for them to grab?

Jessica: I have a video training on a free tool, and I have helped people not just in the United States but in other countries access this tool in their library system. You might say, oh, but my library system doesn't have it. Well, someone near you or in your state does, or even a state over. And if you had to pay 30 bucks to get access to it… that's what it cost me to join a library in a state that I'm not in. I use this free database tool for research. The library systems have a lot to offer you. So I actually do a video training on how to use this specific system. If your library doesn't have the one that is shown in the training video, you can ask your local library: do any of the libraries anywhere in the state of Maryland invest in database research systems for the use of a business owner? And what other business tools and resources do they offer that the library system is paying for with your money, by the way?

Kathi: Our tax dollars. Right.

Jessica: Right. That, as a business owner, you can use. So I show you in this training what the platform is, how to use it and how to research with it. It gives great in-depth information on these different companies: how many years they've been in business, whether they're public or private, what their government coding is, so their SIC and NAICS, if you know what that is, and whether they have job postings out there. That's especially useful if you're a coach or a consultant or a leadership coach. That is a great clue. They're telling you, hello, we're in need of something here. So in the meantime, while they're not hiring for that position, you may be able to offer some services that provide workshops or consulting to fill their need while they're trying to fill that space. That's an opportunity for you. They're giving you clues. And there's so much more: press releases, email and contact people, all kinds of stuff in these databases.

Jessica: I know exactly where I'm going. Soon we're making a trip to Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, Ireland and New York again, with specific things we want to do in mind, and Pennsylvania. These are the places I am going, and I could list off the handful of places I'm going and the research I'm going to need to do for each one of those so that I can actually get there. That's the same thing you have to do for the customers you want to work with. I was honored and had the privilege of doing a leadership training. I've also done lots of workshops and trainings for all levels, and I had the honor of teaching this workshop for 40 of Microsoft's executive leaders. And I have a pair of New Balance shoes I got right off the line from going to New Balance corporate headquarters. So if there's a company where you're like, I want to provide my great service for that company, whether it's big or small, you need to spend the time and learn about them: know who they are, what cause they care about, what's going on in their industry, what their press releases are. This free training will gift you the ability to make that list based on your criteria and then begin to do the research for those targeted future clients of yours, just like I have my targeted future destinations. If you want someone to put money in your bank account, you need to invest in your research bank account with them, right? You need to do your homework.

If you want someone to put money in your bank account, you need to invest in your research bank account with them.

Kathi: I think that's fantastic. I've never heard of a tool like that. We all use ChatGPT and all that stuff, but I love the library. I grew up with my father, and our favorite thing on Sundays was going to the library. He was a minister, and he would be writing his sermon afterwards, and I'd be running around the library having fun looking at all the books I could possibly find. That's one of my best memories. So that makes my heart sing, to say I can tap into all the libraries with this. I'm going to jump into it. And it's a system that people just don't really use anymore. You don't see that many people… I speak at libraries.

Jessica: Me too. Me too. It's fun. And you can use this right from your home office or your business office or wherever. You don't need to go into the library to have access to it. All of these are virtual tools that the library is paying for, for you. But people just don't realize to even look, right?

Kathi: And like you say, we're paying for it already. So that's a really generous gift. I love that. We're going to drop the link below, so make sure to grab it, you guys. You will get some leads. And I love the fact too that you're like, okay, I'm going to go to the Virgin Islands. What clients are there? Now it's a complete business write-off. I'm going to Hawaii. I'm going to write off that expense too, because I'm going to get paid while I'm there. I love to do that myself. I think it's smart and savvy, and it's fun, because you end up being in these other places and you end up staying a little bit longer than you thought you were going to stay. So what's not to like about that? Is there anything that I should have asked you, Jessica, that we haven't discussed at this point?

Jessica: Well, we talked a little bit about legacy, but I always want people to ask, Jessica, what kind of legacy do you plan on leaving behind? I am developing a very strong plan. I want that legacy of strangers who walk up and hug me, like we talked about. I want to leave resources, both money and knowledge, and a tribe for my family and my community. I want them to be left with a nurturing community and education: what books they should read in their lifetime and what things they should learn in their lifetime, in addition to money and resources. I want to leave my family and the community land and buildings that will last for hundreds of years. We want to develop a nonprofit, which we've already started work towards, because I do believe in cause marketing. I've already written one song, and I'm writing several others to be published and produced. I want to leave songs behind, because songs last long after you're gone. I paint, and I want to leave art and trainings and many, many books, and I hope they'll be enjoyed for hundreds of years. And I want to leave a plan that is duplicatable, to be left to and left to and left to, so that all this continues in our family.

Kathi: I love it. I love it. Well, you're a busy woman who takes a lot of time off and gets a lot of stuff done, and you're my kind of girl. I love that. I think that's great. Cause marketing, we touched on that just a little bit. You're giving to give, you're giving to get.

Jessica: Well, you're giving to give, and then you end up getting. It's a reciprocity law. It's a side effect that's guaranteed. You shouldn't give for the purpose of receiving, but you will anyway. And it's simple to do. One example is running the podcast for eight years: every single guest that comes on, we ask to share a cause that's close to their heart. We take a moment of the time we're spending anyway promoting and edifying one another and getting things out to our community, and we push to give awareness and inspire someone to give time, treasure and talent to the causes that our guests care about, or to the causes that the people who are watching care about. And we encourage them to put their causes in the comments and the chat, so that when we do push it out and share it, it can get to more people. And the best and most exciting thing that could happen from that is we might inspire someone to just choose to do something good that day, right?

Kathi: Exactly. Just a little something. Something adds up all the time.

Jessica: Yeah.

Kathi: Well, thank you. It's been a pleasure. Everybody, make sure to download this resource. Jump into it. See what you can find. See what kind of leads you can uncover. And if you find some gigs, let us know, because we will broadcast it for you and celebrate with you as you do things using this tool, because it's a cool tool. Okay, Jessica, thank you so much. I'm sure we'll be touching base and connecting in the future many, many times.

Jessica: Thank you for having me.

Kathi: Yeah. Bye.