Jill Stanton: Tips From A 6-Figure Community-Driven Business

 
 

I first met Jill Stanton when she and her husband Josh were living in Thailand, bootstrapping and building what would later become the Screw the Nine to Five. I'm so proud and excited to see how far they've come, and I'm thrilled to share their wisdom in today's episode. One of the best things about Jill and Josh is their authenticity which is inherent throughout their branding for ScrewU and Screw The Nine To Five. In today's episode, Jill brings the same level of transparency and authenticity to the conversation, and it shows.

Jill and Josh Stanton started their first online business in 2012. They were clear that they wanted to create a movement, but didn’t have a lot of direction. Jill will admit, they've tried it all – blogs, podcasts, a Facebook group, videos, online courses – but what they found is that it's just as important to trim the fat as it is to double down on what you're good at. It isn’t necessary for Jill and Josh to do all the things. They learned to focus on what they love doing, and chose to go all in on that.

“We’ve been on this three year journey of figuring out what we do like, and cutting what we don’t, and creating a business that not only serves, but feels good to us.”

If you are interested in screwing the nine-to-five lifestyle, but you don’t know where to start, Jill offers some great tips. First, start by doing a brain dump: figure out what you’re good at, what you’re skilled at, and what you enjoy doing. Identify the things that you are most drawn to and research them. Develop related skills, and try to identify a problem that you can solve.

If you are having trouble coming up with something, ask your friends and pay attention to the things that people ask for your advice on. This might shine a light on the skills and knowledge you have that other people don’t.

“When you are first starting out, you don’t know what you don’t know.”

One thing that Jill and Josh have learned about entrepreneurs is that many of the people building their business in the personal brand space go through a particular progression, and they created a model called Momentum Marketing which they'll soon be teaching inside their membership community. These are the five phases they've identified:

  1. The Grind – Coming up with an idea, validating the idea, doing research, putting a plan in place, building a website, setting up social media, and creating any other assets that need to be prepared.
  2. The Hustle – Build visibility by creating consistent content each week, emailing your list regularly, joining communities, developing an offer, and forming relationships. It’s hard work, but you can’t skip it.
  3. The Engine – Creating sales funnels, running webinars, and other things that create consistent, sustainable monthly income.
  4. The Traffic – After you’re making a certain amount of revenue, start playing around with paid ads, hiring a team, and focusing on big picture growth.
  5. The Profit – You’re supervising launches, taking yourself out of the day-to-day aspects of your business, and focusing on the managerial aspects.

Jill and Josh are currently overhauling their ScrewU course program to reflect the five stages of Momentum Marketing. The goal is to cut down on things that are overwhelming and give entrepreneurs only the things they need to focus on at each stage.

A huge aspect of Screw the Nine to Five is its community, which Jill and Josh put a lot of time into building. A lot of entrepreneurs want to create an active community, particularly on Facebook, but it’s not for everyone. If you're considering creating a community to support your business, get clear on why you think this model is necessary, and then commit to the work that it inevitably requires.

“If you’re not willing to show up every day, and really put that time and effort in to building that up, then I don’t even think you should start a community. In fact, I think if you’re not 100% devoted to giving those people your time, especially in the beginning, then you could have even more success showing up in other people’s communities.”

If you show up in a big way, and give more than you get, then you will provide value to the community and people will come to you. One way Jill mitigates the time requirement is to automates her social media posts with an app like Meet Edgar.  She also elicits the help of her virtual assistants to respond to messages, and uses Google docs to clarify which notifications (among the hundreds received each day) require Jill herself to respond.

If you do have a strong community, then you might be interested in hosting a retreat or live event in the future. Jill believes that, if you’re going to do a live event, you have to be very clear on the purpose of it. “When we had a clear purpose, everything flowed much easier.” Jill urges that you enlist some help, but she also warns that it’s still probably going to exhaust you.

It was so much fun catching up with Jill and I’m really excited to share with you so many valuable strategies for starting an online business, building a community and Screwing the Nine to Five.

THE BOLD LIFE MOVEMENT

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SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:

  • If someone is interested in “screwing the nine-to-five” lifestyle, what are first steps that they can take?
  • Inside the Screw community, what are some things that people can expect?
  • What advice would Jill like to give people who want to start a community on Facebook?
  • What are awesome tools that are integral to Screw The Nine To Five?
  • If an entrepreneur is interesting in hosting a retreat or live event, does Jill have any lessons she has learned?
  • Are there steps that Jill and Josh took to get so good at marketing their business?

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:

  • Strategies for screwing the nine-to-five lifestyle
  • How to start an online business using the Momentum Marketing model
  • When it is appropriate to build an online community, and how to start building it
  • Why authenticity is an important aspect of a brand
  • Plus much more…

DON’T STOP HERE…