In this episode of the Talking Tech podcast, Jennifer Lindsey expresses her enthusiasm for returning to the podcast she loves. Feeling a sense of freshness and closure to the previous chapter, Jennifer is eager to embark on a new one. As she reflects on the significance of resolutions, she emphasizes the importance of intentional success throughout the year.

Jennifer, having experienced multiple up-levels in her life and business since starting in her 20s, understands the necessity of setting intentional goals for growth. Moving from an employee to a business owner, and progressing from six to seven figures, each level demands a willingness to step out of one’s comfort zone.

With January symbolizing a time of excitement and goal-setting, Jennifer encourages listeners to translate their aspirations into actionable steps. Recognizing that growth occurs beyond comfort zones, she shares insights into the discomfort that accompanies each new level of achievement.

She highlights the significance of a robust recovery rate in navigating the challenges of business ownership. Drawing from personal experience, she underscores the need to build resilience and recover effectively from stress and discomfort.

Listeners are prompted to take practical steps by envisioning the specifics of their next level and incorporating non-negotiable actions into their calendars. Jennifer shares her own journey of prioritizing health and wellness, emphasizing the importance of self-care as an investment that permeates all aspects of life.

As the episode concludes, Jennifer invites the audience to join a free workshop series starting on January 29th, designed for those looking to start or grow their businesses.

Register for this free workshop here: https://aic-ultrasound.com/start-your-biz-workshop

Follow Jen on social media!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/advancedimaginginc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdvancedImagingUltrasound
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-aic/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBpSP6v–s4xXXx2tH362ng

Transcript:

New Year, new beginnings. Happy 2024. I’m so excited to be back with the podcast. I love a new year. It feels fresh. It feels like we’ve closed something out in an old chapter and ready to start a new one. I actually get double the feeling because my birthday’s in January, so I get kind of that new fresh chapter times two, and we hear so much about resolutions, right? I know most of us set them and forget them by February or March, but what if we could really intentionally set our year up for success? What would that look like? What would we need to do to get there? You know, if we really, truly want to look at being that next level version of ourselves, right? And I know, gosh, I’m in my mid forties now. Remember when that used to sound so old when we were little, right?

(01:02)
I feel like I’m in my twenties. It’s crazy. But you know, I feel like I’ve gone through this uplevel now multiple times. We started our ultrasound business 20 years ago, next month, right? So I was in my twenties when we started our business, and I’ve had to do an uplevel for every level of business that we’ve gotten to, right? You start out in that first, next level of yourself is business owner, right? Going from an employee of someone’s to business owner, right? And then that next level version of yourself after that is a six figure a year business owner, right? And so you’re looking for mentors. You’re looking for people that are at that level that you can kind of look up to and look after and see what they’re doing. See where they’re at, see what actions they’re taking. After you hit that six figures, you’re looking for multiple six figures, then seven figures.

(02:02)
Some people will go onto eight figures, right? So I have had to uplevel myself many a time for the last 44 years of my life, but I will tell you every time we do it, we have to get uncomfortable. I say this all the time in my content, I say it all the time to my clients. That next level version of yourself comes with discomfort. Growth does not happen inside our comfort zone. And we have to be willing to play full out to get out of our comfort zone, to actually get to that next level, that upleveled self that we want so bad. And so I think January is a perfect time to chat about this because it’s when people, you know, have that feeling of excitement towards that next level, that what are my resolutions, right? in air quotes that I want to achieve for the year.

(03:03)
I wanna help you put together today some action items, right? That we can put in play today to actually get you to that next level version of yourself, whatever that may be. You know, there’s always a next level, this, you know, kind of growing as a human never ends, right? It never ends. And I know, again, truly, personally for me, I’ve had to do this so many times because the person that’s a business owner, right, is not the same version of me that was someone’s staff, right? The version of a six figure a year business owner is not the same version of me that it was in the infancy of our business, right? The seven figure a year business owner is not the same person I was when we were a six figure a year business. If you plopped me at the start of our business into our business now, I would be in the corner rocking like a baby, okay?

(04:11)
We have to continue to uplevel ourselves and really get into that place for us where we are stretching the capacity, right? And so it’s going to create a scenario where we’re gonna have to get uncomfortable. And I talk about this a lot as well. Our brains love to keep us in comfort. They do. And they will lie to us and say something is dangerous, when it’s really not dangerous, it’s just uncomfortable. And so, I, you know, I heard this the other day from one of my mentors. We need to work on recovery rate and capacity building. Let me explain what I mean by that. Again, if you put me the version of myself that I was in life as a brand new business owner into the business that we have today, that is seven figures a year, multiple divisions, multiple staff, multiple vendors, all of the things that we have to have in place today to run that level of business, if you would’ve put the me from 20 years ago there, I would not have been able to handle it.

(05:31)
The stress would have just, I would’ve quit, right? Because my recovery rate from things that happen on a day-to-day basis, my capacity for holding those things have grown at every level of myself, right? Every next level version of myself. What, you know, back then would’ve caused me great grief and strife. Today, I can, you know, look at that and say, okay, that’s not a big deal. Let’s do X, Y, Z, get that taken care of, right? But if you would’ve put me from that version of myself into today, those things would have been crippling. So that’s what I mean by getting a better recovery rate and building the capacity to hold these types of things. And this is something that I really talk with my Ultrasound Business Academy clients with on a regular basis, right? The things that are going to make them nervous and uncomfortable today at the beginning of their business once they start doing them over and over and over again, right?

(06:45)
Like going out and meeting with physicians and talking about their new business services and pitching and feeling like they’re selling and following up and feeling like they’re bugging people, right? All of the things that our brains lie and tell us are the wrong thing to do, right? Don’t bug the people too much. You know, we don’t wanna bug people. We can’t be reaching out so often as we’re going through the sales process, you know, our brains try to keep us comfortable and keep us outta the uncomfort. And so they pull us back instead of allowing us to play full out. And we have to understand that the next level is where we are going to feel comfortable, but we have to get through the discomfort, the pain, the fear, the nerves to move past that growth part of it to get to that next level person, right?

(07:46)
So my clients who do that over and over again, just like I did, can now go into a room with multiple doctors and their recovery rate, their capacity for holding those feelings is so much bigger now, and they’ve grown so much from the experiences that they’ve had that they can walk into those situations. And if they’ve got nerves, it’s nerves for, you know, two or three seconds instead of nerves for two or three days, you know, heading up to that first meeting or head, you know, after the first meeting, just stressed about that, I say the right thing. Did I do the right thing? Right? We become a different person, but we have to move through that pain and discomfort to get to that next level. We can get over those things when our recovery rate becomes quicker, when our capacity to hold those things becomes bigger as we move to that next level version of ourselves, you know, they end up being a blip on our radar instead of things that are huge peaks and huge valleys as we’re going through them.

(09:00)
So what I want you to do right now, if you are able to grab a piece of paper, or if you’re driving, listening to this podcast and need to pause until you get where you’re going, grab a piece of paper and I want you for whatever you’re looking to actually uplevel in 2024 to write down what that upleveled version looks like, right? So if it’s your health, let’s give an example. What does that look like for you? Is that losing 10 pounds, looking toned, right? Being ready to be in a bathing suit for your vacation this summer, right? What does that next level look like? If it’s your business, maybe it’s starting your ultrasound business in 2024, what does that look like? Is that, you know, I want six figures a year. I wanna craft my own schedule. I wanna mark out the days that my kids are off.

(09:52)
I wanna be able to, you know, be the chaperone for their field trips. What does that actually look like for you? And I want you to be real specific. So I want you to write down, close your eyes, literally, and think for a moment about what that next level looks like. Feel it, own it. What are the details? How do you feel? What excites you about that? And write that down. Now that’s just part one, okay? Because to get there, we have to craft now a calendar with the action items on it to actually get that done. So health and wellness was something very important for me to uplevel last year, and I did a very good job with that. I’m actually very proud of myself, but I did this exact exercise. What does that look like for me? Right? I have a metabolic issue.

(10:46)
I’m an older mom, right? I had my kid at 37 so I am gonna be older when he is, you know, 10. I’m gonna be 47. So like, I need to make sure my health is on par so that I wanna be able to run around with my grandkids, you know? And those are things I have to start thinking about now. I can’t say in 20 years I wanna be super healthy and I’ve lost out on all these years being unhealthy, right? So that’s an example for me. So I’m continuing that on in 2024. So I have a list of what that looks like for me, but my calendar has to match up to that. And so what needs to be on your calendar? And they have to be set as non-negotiables. And when you do it in that way, this was so mind opening for me when we set things for ourselves, because I know women who are listening, you understand what I’m talking about. And I think I have a specific personality that’s even worse.

(11:52)
But I think most women, a lot of times we feel bad doing things for ourselves, marking time out on our calendar for us, when we have a career or a business, a family, you know, responsibilities, we have all these things that we need to do and to mark out time on our calendars to do something that we feel is only for us, makes us feel rotten. And so it took me a lot of years, especially after I had my son to mark those times out on my calendar and say, me making time for my health and going to the gym and lifting weights and, you know, running a few times a week and taking the time to meal prep and do those things that I need to do. It’s not selfish because it helps me in every other area of my life. You cannot be a high achieving, I mean, in your career or as a business owner, I’m talking to those of you who are looking to start a business or have started one.

(12:59)
You know, you cannot be a high achieving CEO of a company and be unhealthy. It’s not gonna last a long time. I’m here to tell you from personal experience, to be honest with you, because there’s years, again, as I mentioned, those things got put by the wayside because I had other responsibilities that in my mind were more important until I realized was driving my own self into the ground, physically, mentally, all of those things, working 24/7 as hard as I could until I realized that’s not sustainable. And in a way to build a business. So putting myself first and understanding that me marking out on my calendar to go to the gym, right? To take a walk in the middle of the day if I need to. Like, those things don’t really take up that much time. And it over and above brings in benefits way beyond health.

(13:58)
It helps me in my home life. It helps me with my, you know, mental capacity to deal with things when I’m feeling good physically and have energy and all of that. You know, it helps in my business. There’s so many things that making sure that your health is on point benefits you, right? So those things are non-negotiables in my calendar. And do I sometimes, you know, drift away from that and start questioning again? Yes. I wanna be completely transparent because nobody’s perfect. And when I find myself doing that, I have to go back to “Jennifer, this is a non-negotiable. This helps you in so many areas of your life. It is not selfish. Put that in your calendar and it’s just as important as a meeting. Okay?” So I want you to do that for yourself. If it is, let’s say, starting your business in 2024, I want you to take a look at your calendar and say, okay, backtrack from where your goals are.

(14:55)
Right? For my business, I wanna have X, Y, Z in 2024, right? That might be my first six figures or my first five contracts or whatever your goal is. And then what action items do I need to have in my calendar and set aside time in your schedule every single week to work on those action items. Make them a non-negotiable. They are not selfish. This is bringing you to that next level self where it’s not just a dream in your head anymore. It’s action items written down, specifically set aside every single week for you to accomplish. Now if you are wondering, “what do I put in my calendar, Jennifer, if I’m looking to start my business in 2024?” you are in luck because we are doing our first free workshop of the year, starting on January 29th. It’s a workshop series all about starting your six figure ultrasound business.

(15:54)
I’m teaching the frameworks we’ve used to build our own business. It’s what I teach our clients inside the Ultrasound Business Academy. We are doing a high level overview. We’ll have a workbook, we’ll have case studies from clients. I am going live every single day for multiple sessions. We will have replays for those of you who can’t make it live, head over to the show notes to grab the link to register. It’s completely free. The last one we did was absolutely incredible. I cannot tell you the takeaways that people had from this workshop and I can’t wait to teach it again. So we are starting again on January 29th. Head to the show notes. I would absolutely love to see you there. We are gonna have you walking away with those next steps that you need to be putting on your calendar to make those dreams you have for that ultrasound business in 2024, a reality. And I cannot wait to see you there.