Episode 11: Redefining Authority with Jaclyn Mellone
Jaclyn Mellone 0:00
I don't look at authority as a title or a designation. And I don't look at it, as you know - we say building authority, I don't look at it as a destination. It's really a decision. We're in a new era of authority here where it's not this, "Oh, that person is an authority figure." I mean, I'm sure people still say that about certain people. But I think it's beliefs like that, that's what's really getting in the way of individuals who do have the talent and the expertise, being able to show up in a bigger way. Because they really, they might subconsciously be waiting for someone to put them in that role of an authority. Where in the era we're at, you have to do that for yourself.
Matt Johnston 0:37
The human experience is the greatest project any of us will undertake. It's often the one we spend the least amount of time working on. My name is Matt Johnston. I'm a self-professed personal development junkie, a retired pro golfer, I now work for an organization that provides employee and health benefits to hundreds of thousands of people. It should be common sense to realize that what happens at work is what people bring home and what happens at home comes with them to work, but that's too often ignored. That's why each week I hope to uncover a little more around what it means to be a human working and living in the 21st century. We'll be learning from experts, having conversations and getting insights into all those things that fall at the intersection of life and work, emotional and physical health skills and money. All the relationships we navigate each day, and of course the purpose and meaning we all desire. This is The Human Assignment.
Hello, and welcome back to the show. My guest today is Jaclyn Mellone. Jaclyn is a coach, strategist, keynote speaker, mother, guac lover, and the host of the Go-To Gal podcast. Jaclyn helps experts exponentially grow their business by becoming the go-to authority in their space. She does this by helping your clients get out of their own way, package their expertise to scale, position themselves as the go-to authority and have their dream clients and opportunities landing on their lap.
Her signature approach combines restructuring her clients' business models, reframing their mindsets and revamping their marketing so they can become a go-to authority from the inside out. Jaclyn supports experts at all stages, from freelancers to global brands. She's spoken at marketing conferences all over the US. She's grown her social media channels to over 50,000 followers and she's been featured widely across media channels like Entrepreneur, Yahoo Finance, Reader's Digest Parents, Well + Good and many, many podcasts and radio appearances. Jaclyn has proudly built this Go-To Gal empire while in her slippers from her living room in Rochester, New York.
I love this conversation. I was connected to Jaclyn by my buddy, Mike Kelly, who's been on the podcast and he just said you got to have Jaclyn on the show. She's helping a lot of people with her message. She's just she's genuinely inspiring. She's smart. And just the way she shows up is supportive to people. So, as you'll hear in this show, Jaclyn is super positive. And one of those people that just gives you energy by talking to her. I think that her message around authority, and how we can all become an authority in our chosen fields is great. And I also wanted to have her on the show because I think she's an example of someone who's building a great business while balancing life, being a mom, a partner, a contributing member to her community. I've been listening to her podcasts, and I find that her tactical business advice is terrific. And I'm getting a lot out of it.
I find her perspective on mindset, her perspective on family and balancing work to be really actionable and relatable, so I highly recommend checking Jaclyn out online, check out her podcast, the go to gal podcast. Her website is Jaclyn Mellone dot com. That's J-A-C-L-Y-N Mellone, M-E-L-LO-N-E dot com. You can find her on Instagram at Jaclyn Mellone or the Go-To Gal Instagram page. If you're enjoying the show and you want to support us, the best way you can do so is by heading over to iTunes and giving us a review as always. So, without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Jaclyn Mellone.
Matt Johnston 4:32
Jacqueline, welcome to the podcast.
Jaclyn Mellone 4:34
Oh, thanks so much for having me, Matt.
Matt Johnston 4:37
I so appreciate you taking the time. As I was saying before we I pressed record here, my boy, Mike Kelly -who I've had on the podcast when I first started this - he said you got to have Jaclyn Mellone on here and he actually sent me a Voxer a couple days ago. I said, "Hey, I've got Jacqueline's coming on." He said, "Man, that Jacqueline is," here his words, "genuinely inspiring and she's just like, super helpful to people." If that doesn't subscribe like, that is so Mike's wording. But I’ve been bingeing on your podcast over the last few days in prep. You've got a fan for life here. So, I'm fired up to talk. I'm thrilled for what you're doing in the world. So excited to have you here.
Jaclyn Mellone 5:23
Well, I'm so thankful for Mike for connecting us and that's what it's all about right? It's relationships and when you're able to meet people, and they're able to connect you to other people and now here we are. I love that first of all, and two, I love that my podcast is called Go-To Gal, but we actually have quite a few male listeners. And this is something where sometimes I'm like, I don't even know what I could change the name to, to include men. But I'm glad that men aren't turned off by it and they're still like, "Alright, I can still listen it doesn't matter." We have some go to guys and I love that.
Matt Johnston 5:57
It's funny like, with the Go-To Gal, I mean, you're my go-to gal now, so I just assumed it was that.
Jaclyn Mellone 6:03
Oh, I like that. You didn't even interpret it was just like, "Oh, well Jacqueline's the go-to gal." Oh, I like that. All right, good. Perfect.
Matt Johnston 6:11
Where did Where did Go-To Gal come from?
Jaclyn Mellone 6:15
You know? That's a great question. So, years ago, I had a totally different business. And I was trying to build this branded business that was slow - actually fast to grow in terms of audience size - but slow to grow in terms of revenue. And while I was doing that, I by accident, grew a personal brand business, which we can get into more of the details of this story in a little bit. But it's important to say that with that personal brand business, I ended up eventually dropping the other business and just being a personal brand. So, for years and years, it was just Jaclyn Mellone dot com. I only had my personal brand, but my tagline was, "I help you become the go-to gal in your space," because I mainly worked with women, right? Then from that tagline came, a course. Then I created a course, a program that was called Go-To Gal.
And last year right about this time, I had been podcasting for three years with a co-host, who we started as strangers and ended as biz besties. as we like to say, Jessica Stansberry. We had the All Up in Your Lady Business podcast, from fall of 2015, to December of 2018, over 300 episodes. And when we started the podcast, we were both pretty new to the online business world. We both had a lot of experience behind us, but new to the online space, and immediately by joining together in a podcast, the podcast was immediately bigger than both of us in our brands, right. But a lot has happened over the past several years. And we got to a point where our audiences were different when we were talking about was not as in sync as it used to be, and it just made sense to go different ways. I ended up taking over the podcast and taking over that rebranding that feed.
And that was the big moment of what is this name gonna be you know, it didn't feel right to keep the old podcast name just as it being me and go-to gal had really been brewing under the surface for a year of just starting as this thing I would say in passing with my tagline to being its own thing and a course and it just felt like okay, now this is time to really make this, the brand and so I did and that was probably one of the most impactful things I've ever done. In my business. I mean, podcasting has been a huge part of my journey and helping me get to where I am. But in this last year, having a podcast that was all centered around my business, and really being able to build that that community and lean into more content that was really specific for the niche of both the people I'm serving, but the way that I can help them, has been tremendous. It's funny how things happen and now I still have a personal brand but now I also have this this Go-To Gal brand.
Matt Johnston 9:09
You have, I think it's like 77 episodes out on this on the new podcast - The Go-To Gal podcast. And I want to dig into a little into who you're helping, what that brand is all about in a few minutes. Today I want to talk about building a business, the realities of building a business while raising a family. You're coming at us from Rochester, from your living room it looks like, in Rochester, New York. You've got the cutest dog in the world behind you, I'm looking at a white what - kind of what kind of...?
Jaclyn Mellone 9:39
He is - I was gonna say, if you know what kind of dog he is I would be very impressed - his breed is Bolinas, which is not very common. But he's like a cousin to a bichon frise.
Matt Johnston 9:51
Okay, lying on the couch, looking like lying on the couch. The sun is hitting his forehead is over your left shoulder.
Jaclyn Mellone 10:03
Living the dream.
Matt Johnston 10:04
Yeah, totally. I want to one day I want to come back and be that dog right there. But I want to focus on this concept of authority today. And I think that this may lead into the brand, your business. And I thought that we might be able to start by - I listened to a recent podcast of yours. You were up in Toronto, in my neck of the woods recently.
Jaclyn Mellone 10:25
Yeah.
Matt Johnston 10:27
And the focus of your podcasts was - you listened to Seth Godin, who is the godfather of marketing, marketing 2.0, maybe, and you had many complimentary things to say about Seth, but the focus of the podcast was on one particular thing in his presentation you disagreed with. And I think that this may lead us into - hopefully this leads us in into what you're doing and who you're helping and the focus of your business. But can you talk about how you disagree with Seth Godin?
Jaclyn Mellone 10:56
Sure. Which I was even a little bit like, "Oh, like, who says bad things about Seth Godin?" Like he's amazing. I'm all for picking on people that are - you know, not really. But you know, there's certain things that it's like, "Okay, that's controversial," but I don't think by nature Seth is controversial? He's like, everybody loves Seth, everybody looks up to him. And this was a little bit like, "Ooh, do I say this?" And I would love, I would love to have this conversation with Seth, because this was a comment that he made as part of his keynote, right? It was a passing comment. It wasn't a key point that he lingered on. But being someone who helps people become the go-to gal, the go-to guy and really own that authority in their space, when he uses the word authority, I'm gonna perk up and pay extra attention, right? In his keynote, he was telling one story, but really many stories about individuals who were able to really impact change.
And that's how his view of marketing is, is that marketing is here to serve the purpose of impacting change. And he was telling the story of one individual, I won't get into the whole story because you know, I make a short story long. But essentially, this individual did not have any leadership rank or traditional position of authority, quote, unquote, in the job that he had. But he was able to really make an impact on his community locally, and then very, very quickly turned that into national and global impact. Seth was telling the story and really emphasized that this individual did not have any authority. And what stood out to me with hearing this story and hearing the immense impact this individual was able to have was "But Seth, like maybe he didn't have a title, but he had authority." He had knowledge on the topic. He had passion on the topic, and he was able to assume that role of authority, not wait for someone to come around and give him a promotion. You know, designate him with a certain title, but he was able to step into that role of authority in and of himself and because of that make a tremendous impact around the world.
And when I look at my clients, and my listeners and our whole community with Go-To Gal, that's what people are doing is nobody is putting them into a position of authority. They are deciding for themselves, that that's how they're going to show up, both in their head and out there in the world. But it really - I don't look at authority as a title or a designation. And I don't look at it as you know, we say building authority, I don't look at it as a destination. It's really a decision. And then when I heard his story and all of that, it was like, okay, no, this is a we're in a new era of authority here where it's not this, "Oh, that person is an authority figure."
I mean, I'm sure people will still say that about certain people. But I think it's beliefs like that. That's what's really getting in the way of individuals who do have the talent and the expertise, being able to show up in a bigger way because they really, they might subconsciously be waiting for someone to put them in that role of an authority. We're in the era we're at. You have to do that for yourself.
Matt Johnston 14:18
Oh, yes. As I look at your bio, here, Jaclyn helps people become the go-to authority in their space. Who are these people that you're working with? Who is becoming an authority in their space? And tell us a little more about what that means?
Jaclyn Mellone 14:34
Sure. So with my clients specifically, I mainly work with freelancers, service providers, coaches, consultants, people in that arena, but I'll say in terms of people I've worked with just over the course of years, and where I see the industry heading, is that people buy from people and having a personal brand is really powerful, especially in today's day and age. So whatever kind of business you have, even if you're not in one of those categories, product-based businesses, I actually was shocked. I'm, I'm starting to do a little bit more with product-based businesses on the podcast because I recently did a survey and found out like, 15% of our audience are product-based businesses, like physical products and that surprised me.
Matt Johnston 15:18
But when you select physical products from like a mug to a sweater to...?
Jaclyn Mellone 15:25
Yeah, like physical products, exactly. Selling you know, gift items, you know, things like that. And, you know, protein bars, yeah, product like, like physical products, not necessarily just digital products, which is what I which is why I had a separate line item on the survey because I was very curious about this. But that said, it doesn't matter what kind of business you have. Being able to leverage building your personal brand in order to help your business exponentially grow is a strategy that really all businesses can leverage right now.
Matt Johnston 15:59
Jaclyn, you - I mean, you are you are certainly an exemplar of this as I listened to your podcast, I'm sold on your services because of you. You just you're so relatable you're felt like it. I mean, listen the last few minutes anyone listening to this podcast. But you're like a badass, you know, I'm listening to this and you've got episodes where it's just you and a microphone. And you must go off for 45 minutes just dropping wisdom after wisdom after wisdom. From the outside looking in, I mean, I'm guessing you were just you were born to do this. I guess what I want to where I'm going with this question is, through your own personal experience, potentially, how does one get there? Because it feels kind of intimidating. You know, like, where's step one to becoming an authority?
Jaclyn Mellone 16:45
No, that's such a good question. And it does not happen overnight. It definitely has the snowball effect over time. And when I laugh as you're saying all these comments, thank you, I appreciate but it's been such a journey. For me, and I actually used to joke that - I still joke - but I am like, I used to be confident before I started a business. Like, I don't know what happened. But I had a ton of confidence coming into building a business. And then as soon as I really started to start taking action on things and putting myself out there, it brought up all of these vulnerabilities and insecurities and self-doubt that I'm like, "What is this?" Like, where did that come from?
I just wasn't prepared for it. And what it what I realized now in retrospect, and it also led me on this really big personal growth and discovery journey, parallel to my entrepreneurial journey, was that I was never really stretching myself that far outside of my comfort zone. And when you're operating from that place of being in that comfort zone, which I like to redefine, because when we think comfort zone, we think like, "Oh, you're staying put," but the opposite of growing is not standing still the opposite of growing interest. shrinking the Webster's dictionary, it's dying, which is slightly more dramatic. The shrinking, the opposite of growing is shrinking. And when you're in that comfort zone, that's what you're doing.
And when I look back on my career before I started a business, sure, it wasn't this like downhill thing, but it was taking me further and further away from where I really wanted to go. And when I stepped out of that shrinking zone and into growth mode, which was hella uncomfortable and brought up all these things, that's when I was really able to start building this business. And now, I look at that as an indication that I'm on the right path if I start to get too comfortable, and I don't have any of those feelings come up. I know that I'm not challenging myself. And the inverse of that is now when I do have those feelings come up, I reframe it, instead of saying things like, "Oh, why do I feel like this?" or "I shouldn't feel like that anymore." Kind of like it's bad enough that you have the emotion but then you start judging yourself or even having emotion around things. Right.
Now I reframe that as, “Oh, this is a sign of growth.” And then I have those tools to overcome that. I just wanted to first say like, this is a mindset journey for all of us. And I actually look at imposter syndrome and self-doubt and comparison itis as I like to say, it's all signs that we're on the right path, and that we're actually challenging ourselves to grow.
Matt Johnston 19:24
I thank you.
Jaclyn Mellone 19:25
No, I didn't actually answer your question.
Matt Johnston 19:29
I wish I had asked that question.
Jaclyn Mellone 19:33
Oh, but what is that first step to becoming an authority and it's hard for me to say exactly without knowing someone's business, but I will say that most of my clients when they come to me, they are usually have some type of a business already. They're doing something, they're usually doing a lot of things. Often, they are overworked and underpaid. They're not really recognized as the authority that They want to be. And our first step in getting them to really reposition themselves, their brand their offers, as an authority is to niche down. That's really - it's like step one of "You can't be an authority if you're trying to be an authority on everything, and you're trying to be that authority for everyone."
It's really important that you shrink it down and really get clear on what is it that you do the best. And who do you do it the best for. Because sure, you can eventually build a brand or maybe you do more than just you know, one area of things or you serve an entire population, but nobody starts there. It's really important that to make a big splash, to make a big impact and to cut through all the noise that's out there in our online world, that you're able to be really clear on how you help people and be really clear on who those people are. So, you can do what you need to do to really get known in a small space is that go-to authority. And then we can keep expanding that circle.
But if you're trying to serve too big of an audience, or if you're trying to offer everything in the world as a product or a service, right, if you go to your website, and you're trying to be Amazon, in terms of product based businesses, or for service based businesses, if you're, you know, trying to offer all different kinds of services, it's really hard to command top dollar, no one's really going to look at you as that expert or authority. And it's also harder to actually be the best at what you do. When you're trying to serve so many different people that have different needs and struggles, it's hard to really understand them.
And when you're trying to do so many different things, it's really hard to sharpen your knife, it's hard to really be that that person who is the best at what you do, right? So this doesn't just help with positioning, but it also helps with the confidence building and the actual execution of you get better because when you're able to narrow down what you do and who you do it for, literally every client you have makes you better and more valuable for the next client. You can see how this could really exponentially grow.
Matt Johnston 22:06
Well said, and I'm taking that in. I needed to hear that. So Jaclyn, how do you - just going to speak into your path, how did you get to the point where - we talked a little earlier about the business that you had or the podcast and business that you had before you rolled into Go-To Gal. How did you get to be this? You've got a really big audience online. You are focused, I show up, I know who you're serving. How did you get into this?
Jaclyn Mellone 22:37
All by accident. So, my first business that I alluded to before that branded business was called Chasing Dreams and Littles. You want to talk about, you know, managing work and life balance with two little kids. That was that was where my heart was. When I first started the business. I was actually working full time with my dad at the time in a family business. I'd helped him start business back in 2004, I left and did marketing for several actually online entrepreneurs for a number of years.
Some of that even in the personal branding space, ironically. And then I came back to the family business before we started our family because I felt like I wanted that flexibility. I was always torn between my mom was a stay at home mom and like the best stay at home mom, I'd get off the bus and just like tell her everything about my day. And I just always envisioned myself being that mom, but I literally am my dad, my mom jokes like how did I raise you to be him? We are the same person. There's nothing bad when starting a business. But in 2004 he started his business and I'm like, well if you're quitting your job - because he was the top producer his company and so he decided to go out on his own. Like if you're quitting your job, I'm quitting my job. I'm gonna come help you.
So I saw - but what I learned through that was that he had this passion for real estate, commercial real estate and you think that if you're around it enough, because he's so passionate, that it's just going to like rub off on you or something or osmosis. But I never got that same feeling about real estate. But what I realized was like that way that he was about real estate, I wanted that I wanted to wake up being so excited for what I would do in the morning. And he used things that used to make me roll my eyes when we work together because he'd call me like 10 o'clock at night or on like a Saturday morning and want to talk about deals in business and I would just be like, "Oh Dad, like, I don't want to talk about this now." Now, what I'm doing now like, wake me up in the middle of the night I will get out of bed, I will talk about business anytime day or night. Like it just lights me up. That was what I was searching for.
So that to say when I started this business, I had Chasing Dreams and Littles and it was like, "Okay, I'm working for my dad, but I want to be able to have this." I already had one. I had a daughter who was two and I knew I wanted to have another stream of income. So, when we had our - I had to take a lot of time off with my daughter, we had some complications there and everything. I was in the hospital for a few weeks, she was in the NICU for 25 days, and then I didn't really want to leave her. So, I spent a lot of time home with her. And that hurt us financially. And with having one child and knowing we wanted to have another one, I'm like, "Okay, I need to come up with another way to make money. So, I have another stream of income where I can stop doing real estate for a period of time or maybe ever and have this other revenue stream."
And I wanted to - and I saw friends of mine who were starting businesses from home after they had their first or second child and I wanted to be a part of that community. So, I started this online - I started as an Instagram account. I started by building community, which a lot of people judged me for. "You don't have a business you have an Instagram account," like I had some like haters or whatever, that were just like "You don't have a…” - you know, and I didn't I did not even try to sell a product for four or five months, right?
I just was building a community and getting to know that audience. And that's not necessarily the path I would recommend for everyone. But by doing that, I was able to really understand this market that I wanted to serve. And I was able to really grow. I mean, in that four or five months, I grew Instagram following from zero to 6,000 followers, which is not like the biggest Instagram following in the world, but in a short period of time that caught people's attention.
Matt Johnston 26:28
How did you do that? What was your focus on the Instagram account?
Jaclyn Mellone 26:32
It all comes back to brand strategy, right? Because I made it all about them, and I was just learning and one, I was just having fun with it. And I think people can sense your energy around things, right. And this also goes back to something that you really had me thinking about with this whole Seth Godin conversation of like, you know, who can be an authority and a lot of times, I mean, if you're gonna position yourself as like the expert on that, I hope that you have that experience, right? There's integrity involved here. But I think that we're also entering into an era where in order to be an authority, you don't necessarily have to be the most expert on something. But you can also it's all about how you position it. And when I started Chasing Dreams and Littles, I wasn't even a mom, business owner myself, right? Like, I didn't even have a business yet. I just had an Instagram account. But I didn't lie and say that that's what I was right? I just started building a community and made it all about them. And I was really just that person who was bringing everyone together and starting the conversation, and almost to a fault. Honestly, I had all these years of marketing experience behind me but something about starting a business online, brought up all that insecurity. And I was like, I am not good enough to be doing this. So funny. Funnily enough, I don't know if the funnily is a word, but I don't know what the other-
Matt Johnston 27:52
It works here. We're adding it to the to the dictionary.
Jaclyn Mellone 27:56
We're just gonna go with that. I started that business and there - I mean, I think my name was somewhere attached to it - but I it was not a personal brand. I was not the face of it. This was before there was any like Facebook Live or Instagram stories. And I used to just post quote cards like it really was like a faceless business. And I joked that like I used to be in like the witness protection program, I was so afraid of anybody finding out that I was doing this in my personal life.
I was on Facebook, and whenever I would join a group, it used to like post to your Facebook timeline that you joined, like entrepreneurs, whatever group, I would go and hide it from my timeline and the filters like immediately because I was like, I don't want to know what I'm doing. So, it's like the opposite of a personal brand, right? Even though I knew better even though I literally had a job of direct as Director of Marketing for a company that did personal branding, so I knew better, but I was letting all of this insecurity and self-doubt get in my way. And when I did launch my first product, my first move was a membership for that, for that business. I was even afraid to be the coach of my own program. I actually hired a coach and I said to her would you do our coaching calls half with just you and me and then the other half will you coach my membership? Literally, this is what I did.
Matt Johnston 29:17
As you're saying this, I get it like this is your you're speaking to me right now.
Jaclyn Mellone 29:20
Yeah, it's - and I share this to say like - if that's where you are, that's where a lot of us are. And I'm glad I did it because that's how you learn. I did something right; a lot of people will let that make them not do anything. But for me, it was like okay, like I can do this I can build this business and I have my face on and then I can have my coach my own program and like all that stuff. So ridiculous. And after three months of that membership, I remember being like okay, I think I should like do my own coaching calls now. And I was so afraid everyone was gonna leave and they didn’t, and it was great. But I will say all of that. As much as our Instagram was growing. And I, you know, you said like, how was it growing so quickly? It was massive engagement by me, and really being clear on the brand strategy and what was going to resonate and connect with that audience, right.
But what I was lacking there was really positioning myself as an authority and making it clear how I could help them and really having someone who they could connect with, right. So yeah, people join the membership, but it wasn't I mean, it took I could spend numbers and make it sound fancy, you know, "Oh, I did my first challenge after four months, and I had the 6,000 followers and I turned it into I think we did like a 300 person challenge. And we converted 29 of them to the membership," right? But the reality is, I was making like $800 a month. Like, this isn't like, "Oh, wow," that's like, I was not like, I was used to making a lot of money. This was not really good. This was not gonna be my ticket out of real estate, right.
Matt Johnston 30:58
You're making money.
Jaclyn Mellone 31:01
It was something and it was recurring revenue. So, you know, there's that, but yeah, it wasn't really gonna make that difference and it was so slow to grow. But the funny thing that happened was, as your eyebrows kind of raised when I said 6,000 followers in four months, other people were doing the same. And as I was joining these Facebook groups to get support, and I joined a paid membership to get support for myself and all of that. Just being me in the group and building relationships and asking for help and sharing wins and losses and the journey. People were like, "How are you doing that right?" People perk up, they're like, "What are you doing on Instagram?"
And that led to when I say building a personal brand by accident because I never set out to be an Instagram expert, and I certainly do not consider myself an Instagram expert now. But there was a period of time where I rode that wave, because people were perking up and it opened up all these opportunities that were so easy and it was so frustrating for me at the time because I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna say yes to these things," because, well, somewhere in that timeline I got pregnant. So, the first week of November of 2015, I launched my podcast, we launched that membership and I found out I was pregnant with baby number two. And so, I looked at that due date as a deadline. I'm like, "Okay, I gotta, like, I gotta get this thing going. Because now I got this baby come in and I need to be making money. I'm gonna really have this going after he arrives."
And so as much as I didn't set out to be this Instagram expert, these opportunities were literally just landed on my lap and people were asking me to be on their podcasts and talk about it and asking me to you know, tagging me in Facebook groups and can I hire you for this? And can I hire you to run my Instagram? And all these things. My mentors Jill and Josh Stan with Screw the Nine to Five, asked me to speak at their conference in San Diego. So, all these things were happening. It's like, "Okay, I'm just I'm just gonna say yes, I'm just gonna lead into this a little bit." And at the time, I used to joke but I was robbing Peter to pay Paul like okay, I will do this Instagram thing, that's gonna bring in the money that I can use to get this membership going. And that's what I did for a while and looking back. I think trying to grow them both separately. I'm so glad it happened because that's what opened up my eyes to "Oh yeah, like that personal branding thing that I used to do in my career, like that's happening by accident now."
And that's the business, it's easier to grow. And I knew I didn't want to stay in the Instagram expert space. But that was like that first door for me to be like, "Okay, let me - how do I lean into this?" And eventually I ended up dropping the branded business and just being just being me and just being a personal brand and being really clear on how it was that I could help people. Right. And oh, by the way, that Instagram strategy that was working, yeah, sure. I could tell you some stuff about hashtags, but it was really working because I had this solid brand strategy. Combining what I knew about brand strategy, and personal brand strategy and integrated into what I had learned about the online space and all of that, when I was able to really own that and stop trying to build two things at the same time, that's when I was able to not just get clear but then things were really able to take off.
Matt Johnston 34:19
You know what I what I love about that story and your path and I've heard this consistently in the podcast but also in you know, over and over again with people who are who are having success, is you just have to start somewhere. You started with you know, with an Instagram following and ad as you said, backed into this. That's a great lesson for me and I think and I think anyone else listening, because we can - I come from the world of sports, and I was a golfer and so you could read every golf book in the world, you could talk to all the experts, you could go on Facebook Live all day, and you could spend a lifetime learning the strategy but get on the driving range and put a golf club in the mud. You know, you're not going to get better.
Jaclyn Mellone 35:00
That's such a good analogy that is it's so true. It's so true.
Matt Johnston 35:03
We have a saying in golf that the answers are in the dirt, right? So, you got to start digging. So, but the other piece of that is that the timing wasn't perfect either. You just had your first child. You launched the page with your second child.
Jaclyn Mellone 35:21
No, it's so true at the time. I was like, oh man, we wanted to have a second child. I probably wasn't expecting it like then right. But looking back at the time, I was like, "Oh, this is like horrible timing." But looking back, it's like when is the perfect time? And I think having that. I think having that pressure of a due date for me and the way that I work is what really got me to focus and do things that were hard and invest money and have uncomfortable conversations. I went to my dad that fall because I was working with my dad, right? I went to my dad that fall and was like listen, like I am serious about getting this membership off the ground. I am going to work with from home for the month, like I have these clients, I'm going to continue serving them, I'm not going to bring on new business this month, but I just need to be to be home to focus and to get this thing off the ground and he was so supportive of that.
And then once I did into the new year, same thing, I went back to him and was like, "Alright, I got this membership going, it's not really making that kind of money I want to make, I'm not gonna drop the clients that I have, but I'm gonna work from home and I'm gonna really go after this." So, when the baby comes, I have this business and he was just, he's always been my mentor and the person who's nudged me into going outside of my comfort zone in many ways throughout my entire upbringing. And I think he just saw my eyes sparkle with it and was like, "Alright, go for it. Like how can I support you?" But that like, going to my dad and having already left his business once. Having already left the business once, to go back and say like, "I think I'm leaving again," but it's like one big foot out the door. It's not 100% of the door. That was really scary. And I think having those things in place forced me to really get serious myself instead of just dabbling. Where I think a lot of people think they have forever and without that timeline, it's easy to just keep putting off all those uncomfortable steps.
Matt Johnston 37:18
With that said with the timeline and now two kids at home, how do you manage it all?
Jaclyn Mellone 37:25
Oh, my goodness. I feel like I should be asking someone else this question. I certainly don't feel like an expert. Actually, with the Chasing Dreams and Littles days the hashtag that I came up with for that business was "The juggle is real." And that was like our - and the juggle is still very real. So now I have a six-year-old and a three year old and I have a husband who also has a successful - he's not in his own business, but he has a successful career and he travels and so between the two of us it's a lot to juggle sometimes. But I will say, what helps us the most and me the most is, one having massive amounts of help that I'm very grateful for. And I don't say that lightly. I mean, it's not by accident that we have help, right? I won, we bought a house two miles down the road from my parents, but we also pay for help too. I know that I can't do everything myself.
And I just try to look at things differently and really know what's important to me. When Marshall was - I was working full time before I had Marshall, my second child, and then he was born, and I went from literally having my daughter between daycare and my mom in full time coverage to now having an infinite home full time. It was a really big shift. And I had it in my head like okay, three months, you get a nanny, and I started interviewing nannies at three months. And nothing felt right. I wanted part time and I couldn't find the right person and just wasn't working out. And that's when I started to zoom things out and look at look at that money that I was going to spend a little bit more holistically and say, "Okay, well, what needs to get done? Why am I hiring a nanny? Where do I need support?"
And I'm one of those people that just love the baby stage. During those first 10 months, I actually ended up hiring out for my business. That's really when I built the majority of my team and spending a lot of money on that. And I kept my baby home with me for 10 months. That was important to me. Now, I actually still don't have full time childcare. I have about 26 hours a week of child-free time. And I probably get a little creative with another five hours a week. Naptime or things of that nature, I get creative to squeeze in a little bit more, but I want to get my daughter off the bus. I want to have you know, some of those mornings home with my son. And so just knowing at each stage, what do I want, it doesn't always have to look a certain way and I encourage other people to think like that to. There isn't just one way to do this, you know, then I wanted more help in the business and less help at home. Now I'm like, I want help everywhere. The reason why I said grateful for the help too is because one of the hang ups that I had was on the days that my mom had my kids, I feel really guilty and if it wasn't - especially if it wasn't the most productive day, or maybe I was trying to do something that wasn't working, or whatever it was, I would have this like lingering guilt feeling of, "Oh, like, you know, I'm asking her for this like big favor, and she's doing me this big favor and they're there and maybe I should be with them," or whatever that was.
And when I let go of that, and when I just leaned into more of the gratitude of like, "How amazing is this that I have a mom who wants to spend time with my kids?" And that my kids jump up and down - we call her Uma, it's her grandma name - and they're like, "Uma day! Uma day!" And they just love Uma day. And now I just sink into the gratitude of it of how amazing it is that to have her help or my husband's help with certain things. I try to be present with work when I'm doing work and present with them when I'm with them. But I'm all for getting all the help that I need and all the areas I certainly cannot do it alone.
Matt Johnston 41:12
You are just, you know, today's the first time we've met but I have had the chance to listen to a few your podcasts now, and you are you are incredibly positive. And that I love that reframe. I was listening before we started to a recent - I think you dropped it today - but it was solely focused on the mindset and you had some really creative steps that you take towards mindset. But one of the things that I really liked is - actually like the whole thing but - was our focus on hygiene like, your mental hygiene, I think you called it. Can you share some of the things some of your routines that keep you in the game?
Jaclyn Mellone 41:56
Sure, and I like to think of it as mental hygiene because a lot of times people think that like, mindset is something - it's like an inconvenience. It's like, "Oh, it's like I'm having these thoughts. I should just shut them down." That was me for the longest time, was like anything that was inconvenient or that might be, I would just like shoved down all the thoughts and feelings. And then once I learned to not do that, then it was like, "Oh, now I have to this is something I need to like take care of in the moment," like very reactionary.
But when I started to proactively get ahead of my mindset, and really intentionally start the day with, how do I want to feel today? And what can I do to intentionally put myself in that in that state? Right, and started doing those things every day, that's when, one I think you're like ahead of the curve with the mindset stuff. So maybe when it hits you, it doesn't hit you as hard, but to you're able to just intentionally get into that state that you want to. And it makes everything else in life so much easier and better and more positive and all of the things right. So, a couple of things that I do are one, meditate. I love meditation for some of my clients, they really prefer prayer and I found that the two really have a very similar outcome. And I think it's just really taking that time to have silence. I don't do total silence; I like to have guided medication - meditations and but guided meditations -
Matt Johnston 42:35
Meditation is the perfect medication.
Jaclyn Mellone 42:36
Meditation is the perfect medication but having a guided meditation and having that time for connection and that could be connection for you to yourself, but oftentimes, it's for connection with you know, whether it's you call it God or universe or you know, whatever that is, but I think people do need that time to just clear our heads at the very least, and to have that that connection. So, I find that doing that really allows me to refuel. I'm very extroverted. But I also work from home by myself. And I don't know if it's like having two kids that just always want to climb all over me for like at my ripe old age of 36, I feel like I need more alone time than ever before. And having that, that quiet time really allows me to just re-center my energy and just feel re-energized from that.
So, meditation for sure. And then after that I do a daily gratitude practice. And with that, I literally just take my notebook that has a lined notebook and however many lines are on the page and I write down all of the things that I'm grateful for that day. Now, the key here is a lot of people will do a gratitude practice and they put down the same things every day. It's like, "Oh, I'm grateful for my husband. I'm grateful for my kids." And when you when we do that, it becomes almost sterile, right? Because you're doing the same thing every day you lose that connection to it. And the power of doing a gratitude practice is to is to get into that state of gratitude, you have to feel it. Like if you write down 20 things that you're grateful for, and you don't have an emotional response. I don't think it actually helped you. I really stretched myself to be really specific with those things. And the specific reason of why I'm grateful for my husband that day are grateful for each child separately that day, I always put Luman, my cute dog, on the list as well.
But then I also stretch myself to think outside the typical things and the small things that are easy to look over, or a lot of times what needs to be on that list the most are things that I'm not feeling very grateful for maybe that don't feel like positive things. Or also things about myself. You know, a lot of times when people do gratitude, they default to being grateful for things outside of themselves. But as we're really trying to shift into being the best possible versions of ourselves, building that authority from the inside out. It's really important that you're acknowledging yourself as much as you're acknowledging the things and people around you.
Matt Johnston 43:53
Nice.
Jaclyn Mellone 45:05
Yes. I would say those two are, are the most impactful things that I do every day. I also try to move a little bit. I'm not a big workout person, I would love to, like get in that habit. But what I've been having a lot of fun with lately is just dance parties, either by myself or with my daughter, my dance partner. We have a we have a fireplace. I'm like, I'm gonna say it's a traditional fireplace, but I don't know if most fireplaces are like this all over the world or just where I live, but there's like a like a step up at the bottom of the fireplace. So that's our stage.
Matt Johnston 46:48
Naturally.
Jaclyn Mellone 46:50
And just, I mean with her after school, or a lot of times just by myself in the morning and I like it's so goofy, but getting into like one, music really helps with changing your emotional state. And when you're by yourself two, sometimes it's hard to channel that right kind of energy, especially for an extrovert that I would get from being around other people. But it's just a way to infuse more fun into my day. And that's something I've been really focused on lately is just, how can this be more fun? Where's the joy in this? Because back what I mentioned before, like, why was that Instagram account working? Like sure all those things, but I also think it was there was just like, this natural excitement behind it. And when we're able to get out of that zone of everything has to be done a certain way and like thinking our business caps on have to be you know, so like, professional or whatnot. I find that when I'm able to lean more into the joy of things, that's when I know they just things feel easier and I think they connect with people more too.
Matt Johnston 47:51
That's awesome. So, my three take - a prayer, meditation, gratitude and dance parties. I'm gonna sign me up, you know, the bookstore is littered with how to start your morning. I think you should add to that with those. Those three, right? Yes, typically number three. So, the last part you mentioned being an extrovert and I think I will, I'm looking at time here, so we'll wrap this up pretty quickly. But I want to just check in on something that I think that that's something that you're offering to your - as a service, but is you talked about being an extrovert, you're working from home. You live in Rochester, New York, and you're running an online business and you're building a community and bringing people together in in small communities and I just thought I wanted to touch on the on the importance of community, especially with people that are now working from home, raising families and kids and it's easy to sort of get in your world. I really enjoyed hearing this over and over again on your podcast, was you focused on the need to connect with others who are doing similar things to you. So, I'd love to hear your, your experience with community and what you're trying to do in terms of building community.
Jaclyn Mellone 49:12
Yes. This was something that's second nature to me. When I helped my dad start his business back in 2004, it was all built on relationships, and I really learned through him how you create relationships. So that was just ingrained in me throughout my career. And when I started building this business online, it was just second nature that I would start building relationships. I really didn't think anything of it. I just assumed everybody was doing that, right. And it took me a while to realize that not everyone in the online world was valuing relationships or putting in that time and how much of a disadvantage that was for them.
And so, it's no accident that the Go-to Gal brand, that like built into that like to be a go-to, to be the go-to authority. You have to be the go-to for other people. Like community is literally built in to the brand. Because it is that important. We can't do this alone. And why would we want to? I think both for the business growth side of it, but also for the mindset side of it being around other people, relationships are everything. I encourage people to be connecting with people who might be, you know, collaborators for them. Even sometimes people that are, they would consider competition but who do similar things and be in different industries, or people who they look up to people influencers, they follow online, people who'd be prospects, you know, anyone who's really in that industry.
And going back to the beginning of our conversation with niching down, you know, when you draw that circle of that space you're serving, who is in that space, and how can you connect with them? You know, that's that connection is what's going to help break through the noise of what's out there. So, one of the ways - and this is something that I think I teach a lot in my programs - is like proactively going out and building relationships and being intentional and creating Win-Win scenarios. And one of the like, simplest ways to do that is how we met, right as Mike connecting the two of us. It's like, that's such an easy way people are like, how do I - like you're meeting people, connect two people that you know, how powerful is that, right? And then they both think of you as that person who was able to connect them, and you're able to just keep growing and growing this circle.
But back to um, so it's something I teach in a lot of courses in terms of like certain people don't think like that. At first, I was like, really, that's what you want to know? And we unpack it a little bit more, for step by step for maybe the people that aren't as they be extroverted or sometimes it's just not the experience that they've had. But recently, I started doing masterminds and I've always been part of masterminds myself. And what I found is by bringing people together in a mastermind group, Where we're able to have a small intimate space really create true deep connection, people aren't just able to get the help and support that they need to grow their business by the whole concept of a mastermind is you're getting the small group together. And the some of the group, everyone putting their minds together is going to be greater than any one individual on their own. Right. So, everyone kind of coming together to help each other with business challenges or opportunities or whatever might, you know, whether it's stuff about mindset or stuff about business that together everyone's able to contribute and be smarter than just one person could be on their own.
But what I found is the side effect of having these masterminds is the relationships that are built and in a world that can feel really lonely and isolated, especially if you're building a business from home by yourself, being able to have those true relationships, not just "Oh, yeah, like I'm Facebook friends with that person," but someone who's really - you've been there for they've been there for you - and that space where you're able to really create that relationship, mental health-wise is just so tremendous. So, this is something I started doing. I've actually done online for several years. But going back to that first membership, we had masterminds for that group. But I look back and there were things that I that I didn't do right with that I just, I picked group leaders and they were really self-run. But what I realized was that some of them were going really great. And some of them were just bitch fest. And I know this because people will come tell me and be like, you know, because they weren't professionally run.
Yeah. Over the years, you know, I've learned from those mistakes and be like, "Okay, how can I make this better?" And now with the ones that I currently run, I'm actually a part of them myself, but I have a team member professionally run them. That way, I don't have to be the one that's the timekeeper and everything, but I can still be there to contribute. But that way, we make sure that we're on time we're on task and they are professionally run.
Matt Johnston 53:54
I've been in several groups over the years different form groups or mastermind groups. And the structure at the outset is so critical. So how can people learn? You're running masterminds now? And I hear some of the - you talk about them on your podcast, people can find information about that on your website. Is that correct?
Jaclyn Mellone 54:15
Yes. Or if you go to Jaclyn Mellone forward slash mastermind, I don't know for full currently, be enrolling them. But if you are interested, feel free to apply. And I get a tremendous amount of joy in curating groups. So, if we have a few people who are interested, that would be a good match, I will actually go out and find people that I know in my community that would be well suited in that group and invite them in too. So that's something that I invite people to apply, but once I have a group, and I'm like, okay, we need a couple more people like "Who else would be a good fit?" I love being able to do that.
So, we don't - may not be running them now, but apply if you're interested. But outside of that, if someone's listening and really curious about wanting to build more authority, wanting to really start stepping into that, both from the mindset perspective but also from the strategic business growth and marketing perspective, I do have a free guide 30 Days of Authority Building Action Plan, where I give you something to do every single day for 30 days. Authority building can feel very abstract, but what I love about this is it's super actionable. And it's something to take action on for 30 straight days, where you really start to just build momentum like crazy.
Matt Johnston 55:26
Awesome. I'm going to be hitting that right after I get off the phone.
Jaclyn Mellone 55:31
Yeah, so that's Jaclyn Mellone dot com, forward slash plan, and you'll get that whole 30-day action plan.
Matt Johnston 55:37
Awesome, well Jaclyn, I so appreciate you taking the time today. I could talk to you all day and I hope that we can get together again and continue the conversation. But I just want to thank you so much for everything that you're doing, everything you're putting out in the world. The podcast is such a great resource for anyone to learn more about authority and how they can become an authority in their space. As Mike says, you're genuinely an inspiration. So, I just thank you for being you.
Jaclyn Mellone 56:12
Well, thank you so much. This is - I could chat with you all day too and just have loved this conversation. Thank you for the opportunity.
Matt Johnston 56:19
Before we go, we've got your website Jaclyn Mellone dot com is there. We'll put all the links in the show notes. Is there anything else that you want to do you want to share? Places that people can find you? Guacamole recipes?
Jaclyn Mellone 56:36
I will share my guacamole recipe if you're interested, DM on Instagram. You know on Instagram, we have Go-To Gal, go dot to dot gal. Actually, have at Jaclyn Mellone account too, but they link to each other. And then they Go-To Gal podcasts. We put out a new episode every Monday and Thursday. So, we'd love to have you join me over there too.
Matt Johnston 56:55
Awesome. Cool. Well, thanks so much, Jaclyn. And to be continued.