March 20, 2025 • 32 mins
Julie's Big Gorgeous Goals: Official Workbook is here! Order your copy today.
Jess Schultz, the founder and CEO of Amplify Group, shares her unique journey from finance to entrepreneurship. She emphasizes the value of support and progressive networks for women in business.
As the founder and CEO of Amplify Group, Jess Schultz is a go-to market supercharger for B2B startups looking to achieve scalable goals. She loves to build companies, teams and pipelines; as well as connecting people to other people, resources, and solutions. She is on a mission to keep learning and growing everyday. Jess started her career in Capital Markets, then shifted to Saas Sales, then Venture Capital, and is now a proud founder and operator. She brings a unique perspective to her client engagements, having worked at large enterprises, and small businesses, as an investor and as a 'classically trained' salesperson.
You can learn more about Amplify Group on their website.
You can also connect with Jess on LinkedIn or Instagram.
You can connect with Julie on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Find Julie's writing at her blog or by ordering her book Big Gorgeous Goals and the brand new official companion workbook!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julie (00:04):
Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring
stories of women entrepreneurswho have grown their businesses
to seven and eight figuresrevenue.
If you're in the mix of growinga bigger business, these
stories are for you.
Join us as we explore where thetough spots are, how to
overcome them and how to prepareyourself for the next portion
(00:27):
of the climb.
I'm your host, Julie Ellis.
I'm an author, entrepreneur anda growth and leadership coach
who co-founded, grew and exitedan eight-figure business.
This led me to exploring whysome women achieve great things,
and that led to my book Big,Gorgeous Goals.
(00:47):
Let's explore the systems,processes and people that help
us grow our businesses to newheights.
If you're interested in growingyour business, this podcast
will help.
Now let's get going.
Hello and welcome to thisepisode of Figure 8.
Today I am chatting with JessSchultz, and Jess is right now
(01:11):
the founder and CEO of AmplifyGroup.
But, like any good entrepreneur, she has a pretty eclectic
story of the path she took toget there.
She's a great team builder ofpeople, of companies, of
pipelines, and she started hercareer in capital markets and
moved to SaaS sales and thenventure capital, and now she
(01:33):
herself is a founder andoperator, and I think what she's
doing is really exciting, soI'm very happy to welcome you
today, Jess, Thanks for joiningme.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, thanks for joining me.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, no problem.
No problem, I think your pathis.
I always love the eclectic pathbecause I feel like mine has
been, you know, kind of indifferent spaces than you, but
(01:56):
that same level of you know youpivot and go somewhere else and
just keep moving up in yourcareer.
What can you tell me about howyou got started and how you
ended where you are?
Jess (02:09):
Sure, I started as a finance major in college because
I was good at math and myparents were CPAs, so that just
seemed like a natural thing todo.
I didn't.
We didn't get much careercounseling.
I don't know if that's changed.
I hope it has.
Um, so I, after I graduated, Iwent into finance at a bank.
(02:30):
Um, just cause I didn't know,honestly, I just wasn't aware of
all the opportunities reallywithin finance, so bank was just
kind of a natural thing.
Um, so I worked.
Uh, I was fortunate enough toget my first job at Deutsche
Bank in London, which is anamazing experience.
And then after that I workedfor Merrill Lynch for many years
in both Chicago and New York.
(02:52):
I was always in the capitalmarket sector of the bank, so
more of like the institutionalside, not the retail side,
enjoyed it, learned a ton, butcandidly, it was just not
lighting me up maybe is one wayto say it Very high stress, very
, very misogynistic, very highlyregulated, and so I was looking
(03:14):
for something different.
But I had, almost at that point, like eight or nine years of
experience in that sector.
So my thought was you know,everything's moving, electronic
and and software and and SAS waslike like, almost like a new
term at that point.
So I went and worked at atrading software company where I
(03:38):
sold, I was selling software tothe same cast of characters,
same that I worked with at thebank, but it was a software
company versus a bank.
So it was a very differentcorporate culture, which was
nice.
Learned a ton about technologythere because trading software
is highly technical.
(03:58):
But then I always kind of hadmy eye on getting out of the
trading world altogether.
So once I had some experiencein software sales, then I
transitioned to a company calledTrinet and that was a pretty
big pivot because it was sellingHR services and software to
startups and small businesses.
So really different thananything I'd done up to that
(04:19):
point.
But I was excited about theopportunity One.
It's just like a need to haveproduct, which as a salesperson
I love selling something thatyou need to have versus a nice
to have, and I really believedin the value, prop and the value
that they were providing thestartups and SMBs.
(04:39):
And then it was also anopportunity to work with venture
capital and private equity.
So they had Trinet, had had alot of success with that as a
go-to-market strategy on thecoasts and they wanted someone
to build that out in the Midwest.
So I joined and got exposure tothat world which I fell in love
with.
I just loved the optimism andthe ambition that startups have
(05:04):
at those early stages and likeworking with those investors was
really fun.
So I did that for about threeyears and then one of the VCs
that I worked with quitefrequently was like oh, we're
actually looking to expand ourteam.
Would you want to come workhere?
And that wasn't a career pathI'd ever envisioned honestly for
(05:24):
myself.
But I was like you know, whatdo you want with me?
I'm like a derivatives girlturned salesperson.
I don't, you know, I don't havethe traditional like iBanking
or M&A background.
And they were like no, actuallylike we love your background.
We think venture capital is 90%sales in many ways, and once I
(05:46):
joined I agreed with them it isa lot of sales motions, similar
sales motions so joined the firm, worked there for about a year.
It was a great experience, butI just I missed being more, I
guess, more of an operator.
Like when you're an investor,there's only so much influence
(06:07):
and involvement that you'regoing to have, especially as a
minority investor where youdon't have a huge ownership
stake, and so I really missedbeing intimately involved with
businesses, and I realized in mytime there that a lot of the
founders that I was working within our portfolio had the same
go-to-market challenges and Ididn't feel like there was many
(06:28):
really great solutions for themin the market, and so I created
Amplify three years ago tobasically serve those needs that
I didn't feel like were beingmet.
So that's what I do now.
Julie (06:40):
Yeah, and it's such a journey from big, big corporate
to working with entrepreneurs,especially in the stage you're
working with them at wherethey're in that go to market,
you know, up to series, A kindof kind of phase right.
Jess (06:56):
Yep, yeah, it's a little volatile and a little crazy, but
I like it.
Julie (07:03):
Yeah, I think it's interesting too because I mean,
obviously you kind of grew upyour career in pretty male
dominated industries, um, and doyou see diversity now with the
kinds of entrepreneurs thatyou're working with, are you
able to create sort of that, youknow, kind of environment that
you want?
Jess (07:23):
Yeah, I mean, that's one nice thing, I guess, about
owning your own business is youget to write the rules to some
degree.
And another woman that I metwith like early on in starting
my company, I met with severalother people that do similar
work to me, just to try to getpeer to peer feedback on you
know how to structure things, etcetera.
But something she said to meI'll never forget she was like I
(07:46):
have a no asshole policy.
If I don't work with assholes,if they're an asshole, they got
to go.
And I was like I'm going toinstitute that right away.
So, similarly, I'm thankfulthat I haven't had to quote,
unquote, fire many clients.
I've been grateful to work witha lot of really wonderful
people, men and women but I dohave a no asshole policy and
(08:09):
thankfully I do get to work.
I feel like every founder thatI do support is very progressive
and very respectful, and I'vebeen grateful to work with a lot
of female founders.
It's been awesome.
Julie (08:21):
Well, that's good.
So when a founder, what would?
When a founder comes to you, um, just tell me kind of what that
path and journey looks like interms of how you work together
and what you do for them.
Jess (08:34):
Yeah.
So, um, nine times out of 10, Istart them out with what I call
a go-to-market audit.
Um, and, and I'm a firmbeliever that when you're having
like growth challenges or youhave growth goals, it's not
there's no silver bullet,there's no like, oh, it's just
this one thing.
If we do this one thing,everything cashes.
(08:56):
It's gonna rain cash.
Usually it's a more complexRubik's cube to put together to
really like take the company tothe next level.
So I and I am saying I have is,you know, I hope a doctor
wouldn't give you a prescriptionwithout an exam.
I similarly don't want to comein and prescribe things until I
really, you know, have aneducated understanding of where
(09:18):
your business is today, whereyou want to go.
So we spent 30 days doing thatgo-to-market audit, which is a
deep dive of like what is theirproduct, who's their target
customer, who are theircustomers today, how did they
get them?
I do a lot of competitiveanalysis on like other
competitors they have in thespace, get more color.
(09:40):
So it's really like a holisticprocess that I go through to
come up with okay, based oneverything I learned and
observed and what I know youtold me about your goals.
Here's what I think we need todo in the next 30, 60, 90 days
to get you where you want to go,and then we move into like
(10:03):
execution mode.
So the audit itself is like a30-day process and then the
execution really varies businessto business.
But most businesses work withme six to 12 months to get them
to the point of maturity thatthey don't need me around like
full time anymore.
Well, I'm not full time, butthey don't need me as much
anymore.
Julie (10:19):
Yeah, or they've been able to, you know, get to a
point of traction where they canhire people in-house to do
those kinds of jobs and kind ofit's, you know, moving along
that scale of, or that continuumof, scaling up.
Yes, correct, kim, because well, as you said earlier, there are
(10:42):
not a lot of people slash,nobody really kind of doing
exactly where you know whereyou're playing in the space,
nobody's really doing it.
Jess (10:53):
There are a couple other people.
No one else does it quite thesame way I do.
I mean and I guess that's trueof everyone, right?
I think what you mostly see outthere is like there are people
that do.
They might call themselves afractional CRO, but I think
they're really more like afractional VP of sales, meaning
they come in and act as like asales coach and mentor and just
(11:15):
help with the sales process.
And then there's fractionalCMOs or fractional marketing
folks that will help you withcontent or digital marketing
activities.
I'm a little unique in that Ido both like the sales coach and
strategy plus the marketing,just because I feel like it's so
important to do both at thatearly stage, and usually my
(11:35):
target customer can't afford tohave two of me, so yeah, Well, I
think that's the real, you know, as you hit the seven figures.
Julie (11:46):
It's the real problem of you need all the people, you
need the whole team, but youcannot afford the whole team.
Yeah, yeah.
And so how do you like it feelslike it makes sense that those
two come together and, you know,maybe when the company's bigger
they break back out, but itfeels like it makes a lot of
sense for you to think aboutthem in a holistic way.
(12:08):
Yep, yeah.
Jess (12:29):
Yeah, and so now, as much as you know it always is.
But I think you know someoneonce called it to me like life
tuition, and I think it's kindof like entrepreneur tuition,
like you have to pay yourtuition, you're going to make,
you're going to do some thingsright, you're going to do some
things wrong, and you just youlive, you learn, you pivot.
(12:53):
I think for me, scaling what Ido has been very challenging,
like scaling myself, becauseexactly what you just mentioned,
like in a, I'm a bootstrappedbusiness.
So in a perfect world, if Iwere to, you know, if I had the
(13:14):
money, I would hire a copywriterand a designer and a SDR, right
, I would have like a whole teamof people that have like
functional disciplines.
But that's not reallyfinancially feasible to bite off
like that payroll all at once.
And then so for me I tried tohire people that were more even
though I kind of hate the termlike Swiss army knives, like
(13:34):
people that had more than oneskill set that could kind of
like bob and weave into clientengagements like I do.
But it's really hard to findthose people, to be honest, and
it's not that they don't exist,but sometimes they exist and
they have salary demands thatwould make it challenging for
the margins and the math to justmake sense.
So I think, like just staffingand figuring out how to staff
(13:59):
and scale what I do into anagency I haven't figured that
out.
So I did try and I scaled backdown to being a solopreneur in
2024, just for my own sanity andbank account.
But I do still personallybelieve that there's way more
demand for what I'm doing thanthere is supply and I think it's
(14:23):
such a win-win for me or anyother consultant and for the
customer, especially for thestartup market.
You know they don't need me orsomeone like me full time.
And for me, I love, like thevariety of working on multiple
businesses at the same time.
I think a lot of people thatmaybe have a similar personality
(14:45):
to me would, too.
You get kind of bored if you'rejust work, if you're just
selling the same thing for threeyears straight, but there's a
lot of fun and in getting toswitch and work on different
businesses and so like it'sreally rewarding and it's great
money, like I mean, candidly, Ido make better money doing what
I do now than I did like fulltime at an organization.
(15:07):
So I think like anyway, it's areally good win, win for both
sides.
So I would like to find ways tohelp more people become me or
like do what I do, so to speak.
So I'm trying to figure out howI do that, and my first attempt
this year it's brand new is tostart off offering coaching,
(15:32):
like one-on-one coaching, forpeople that either already are a
fractional go-to-market leaderor want to become a fractional
go-to-market leader, and I'mhoping, through those like
one-on-one engagements, I'llreally intimately learn like
what people need to get to up,to level up themselves and to
really like build their ownbusiness.
So I hope to be, and then Ihope to somehow maybe turn that
(15:55):
into like a digital course or acommunity.
I don't, I don't know what thatbecomes as a phase two, but
something that is more, I guess,approachable to the masses.
Um, in particular, with theemployment environment that
we're seeing, there's a lot ofreally good people out there
that have lost their jobs at bigcompanies, and so I think, like
(16:16):
if I can activate more of themto be to like fill a role like
this.
So, anyway, that's kind of along-winded answer, but that's
I'm.
I'm trying to solve the problemof like how do I scale myself
and and how do we scale peopleto do what I'm doing for more
companies, because I think it'sreally a need.
Julie (16:37):
Yeah, and I would agree with that.
Like finding the right product,market fit, how you go to
market what's happening allaround that time as you sort of
start to get sales, build salesand get feedback from those
early customers so that you canget to those you know out of
your seed round and up to seriesA.
Like all of that, happeningrelatively quickly is important
(17:02):
and having a structured process,I think, probably helps
entrepreneurs a lot.
Jess (17:07):
A hundred percent yeah.
Julie (17:09):
Yeah, Just because I mean they're trying to do everything
right, they're trying to, and,and the CEO is always the first
salesperson.
I mean, that's the, you know,they're trying to do everything
right, they're trying to, andthe CEO is always the first
salesperson.
I mean, that's the, you know,they're the one who had the
dream, the vision and imaginedit, and so they are the best
salesperson for a period of time.
But often, you know, no one hasall the skills they need to do
(17:31):
all the roles that they arecurrently trying to fill.
Jess (17:36):
Yep, and I think there's a lot of noise out there,
candidly, like there's a lot ofgo-to-market advice, and so I
think for founders sometimes too, it's like hard to know what to
listen to, like how to likebreak through the noise and and
I think sometimes they get takenadvantage of as well Like
companies come in and try tosell them like 10K a month PR
(17:56):
retainers, and it's like that'sjust totally unnecessary
sometimes for, like the stage oftheir company or whatever.
So I think I hope to educatemore people and that's what I
try to do through my content, etcetera is like here's what you
really need to know for thisstage, here's what really
matters and here's why, andhere's what you really need to
know for this stage.
Like here's what really mattersand here's why and here's what
(18:18):
you should be spending on it,and anything else is just like
predatory, you know like and notnecessary, and like it just
doesn't have to be ascomplicated as some people like
to make it seem.
Julie (18:31):
Yeah Well, and it's so easy to see an entrepreneur who
is is so blessed with advisors,but they have so much advice
coming at them that they don'tknow actually what's right for
them, what to believe, what tofollow and take up and what to
shed.
And you know, I do a lot oftalking to people about, like,
(18:53):
who are the like three or fourcornerstone advisors that you
are really pulling in and taking, keeping close, you know,
because you can't, like it justbecomes so noisy and you just
you can see the freezing up thathappens right, and the
inability to move forward.
Jess (19:13):
The analysis paralysis yes .
Julie (19:18):
Yeah, and especially yeah , you.
You know, you see it at a tableand it's like conflicting
advice coming from every singleperson and you're like how do
you decide?
How do you cause it is hard todecide and there there probably
are multiple paths.
How do you know which is thebest one?
So, and it's where yourbackground, I think, brings an
interesting like this sort ofrigorousness and discipline that
(19:39):
you can bring from, like, yourcapital markets background and
that sort of thing, and then thesales piece and how you can
bring those together to helpthem really figure out how
they're going to get off theground and start to fly.
Jess (19:54):
Yep, no, completely agreed .
I'm very process oriented and Ithink that's a requirement,
like another little saying I sayoften, which is like clarity is
how you begin, but consistencyis how you win, and so it's like
about creating the rightprocesses that are repeatable
and scalable, and then it's justrunning that play over and over
(20:14):
and over again and it's, Ithink, too many times they
startups, well, they don't knowwhere to begin because there's a
lot of analysis, paralysis, orthen they start and stop things
a lot and there's not a lot ofconsistency or commitment, and
so then they don't ever reallysee anything work and it's like,
well, yeah, because thatnothing will work after one week
or one month.
You know, in general, you gotto give it a little more time.
Julie (20:38):
And that can be so hard as an entrepreneur, because you
started out in the beginningwhere you were like decision,
decision, decision, go here, gohere, go here, oh, let's pivot,
oh, let's pivot.
And it didn't matter.
You were getting the littletraction in the small state you
were in and make crossing thatbridge right Of like, oh, I
can't just decide to make toturn right tomorrow.
(21:00):
I have to, you know, reallythink about it and make sure
it's the right thing.
And how long is it going totake if we do turn right?
And you know like everydecision has that many more
implications as you get a teamaround you and you start getting
the traction Totally.
Sometimes that feels boring topeople too, right?
Jess (21:25):
Yeah, and I think the thing they at least from what
I've observed I think the reasonwhy they pivot a lot is because
they don't know how longsomething should take, just in
general, and they don't knowwhat good looks like, so they
don't really know.
Like you know simple thingsright, like is this open rate on
my email good?
I don't know, so I don't know.
Does the email suck?
Is it my subject line?
Like they don't.
So I try.
(21:46):
That's where I try to educate.
Like I focus a lot on that islike educating.
Like, okay, if, for example,you want to pursue SEO as a
strategy that's a long-termstrategy we have to have at
minimum, a four to six monthcommitment and this is how we're
going to know it's working.
These are the metrics we'regoing to see as leading
indicators that it makes senseto continue to invest and this
(22:08):
is how we're going to even.
These are the metrics we'regoing to look forward to know if
it's even worth investing infor your business.
And so, like I think it's justeducating them on.
These are the.
There is some data that existsand that we can use to help them
feel more confident aboutmaking the commitment and
sticking to the commitment.
Julie (22:28):
Yeah, and then in the you know, and then how do they
build their own data to tracktheir progress once they get
started?
Jess (22:34):
Yeah, exactly.
Julie (22:36):
Yeah, yeah, because that's the.
It is the piece of like.
In a world where we haveendless data, it's amazing how
hard it is to find the rightpieces and the right information
to kind of hone in, that areuseful instead of like just part
of a big ocean.
Jess (22:57):
Yep, no, it's so true.
We're like inundated with toomuch data sometimes.
Julie (23:01):
Yeah, yeah.
And so, therefore, picking outthe parts that we need feels
overwhelming.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I know I often think aboutlike we talked about this in our
own business.
We had an unlimited amount ofdata at our hands and we, you
know, would often sort of likelament that we weren't using it
(23:22):
all, but.
But I sort of have that feelingof like but but if if we're
pulling it for the sake of youknow, like it's garbage in and
garbage out, like yes, we haveit, we need to use these pieces.
We need to figure out whatpieces of us, of it, are most
useful for us at any given pointin time.
Jess (23:42):
Totally agree.
Um, and I had something you'llprobably resonate with, but my
fractional CFO cause.
I hired one of those Cause.
I was like, even though I knowfinance, I've never run a
business finance and so I needto learn that skill set.
And he said something soimportant to me.
I remember I was trying to tracksomething related to client
(24:03):
margins and he's like Okay,Jessica, he's like I'm going to
ask you a question that I wantyou to ask yourself whenever
you're having one of thesemoments.
And I was like, all right.
And he's like Are you going todo anything once you have that
information?
And I was like, all right.
And he's like are you going todo anything once you have that
information?
And I was like, no, like, like,for that moment, anyway, you
know, he's like are you actuallygoing to do anything different?
And at least at that point inmy business, even if I had the
(24:27):
data I was seeking, I couldn't.
There wasn't much I could dowith my current team size and
whatever, like.
So it was such a goodrealization moment where I was
like am I going to do anythingif I have it?
No, okay, then I don't reallyneed it Right.
Julie (24:41):
And then you can sort of think, okay, and if I ever do
need it, I know we can get it.
And then so right now, causeit's also that like you could
have them pull it or or you know, like sort through it or
whatever would need to happen togive you something served up to
you that was useful, but it's awaste of money and time to have
(25:03):
them do it for the sake ofthrowing it in the garbage.
Jess (25:05):
Essentially, yeah, so sometimes I think we all get
fixated on like I need to knowthis answer, but it's like, do I
?
Julie (25:12):
What do I really need to know?
Yeah, yeah, and I think that'swhere, like having that process
of like how you go in, yougather information and then you
know you've got to at some point, lift back up, you've got to go
to work, but you've got to havea process where you lift back
up and like do the check,because things don't stay the
same.
Jess (25:33):
Agreed.
Yeah, especially in the salesand marketing world, I feel like
, well, at least that's theworld I live in, so I know.
I'm sure it's probably true fora lot of other disciplines too,
though, but things are changingall the time.
Julie (25:47):
Yeah, they really are.
And yeah, you think of, I mean,and now with AI and all of the
other business tools that are,you know, that's revolutionizing
a lot of parts of what we alldo revolutionizing a lot of
parts of what we all do.
Jess (26:04):
Yep, I'm a big like I mean .
Now you brought up AI but I'm abig believer, though.
You should only use AI, in myopinion, um, to automate or to
do something If you already knowhow to do it, like like you
actually know how to do it.
And I feel like the thing thatpeople fall victim to is like
they don't know how to write agood cold email period, and then
they just use AI to write acold email, and I'm like, well,
(26:25):
if you don't even know what goodlooks like, you can't even
check AI.
So then what?
So that's, I don't know.
That's my own rule of thumbwith AI is.
Julie (26:32):
I'm like I only use it if it's something that I actually
know how to do, because then Ican at least validate that the
results are what I would expect,or yeah, I think that's a
really great point about it,because it's true that, yeah,
it's again, it's the if youdon't know what garbage looks
like, you can't determine ifit's going to help you.
(26:53):
Like, even though you feel likeit saved you a lot of time, it
still might not be worth it,right?
So I think it's a tool and, yes, it's inevitable to use it, but
I think it's a really greatpoint about being able to assess
(27:13):
what you get from it andwhether it's what you really
want.
Jess (27:16):
Right, yeah, yeah.
So some of the young people, Ithink, think might not get as
far as they think, becausethey're just going to use AI to
do stuff they don't really know.
Julie (27:24):
But yeah, and so who is it that you want to work with?
What's the profile?
I mean, we talked about kind ofsize, of where that business is
and where they're headed, butwhat kinds of businesses?
What are the verticals that youlook at when you think about
working with some of theseentrepreneurs?
Jess (27:47):
Yeah, for me, like a hard requirement is that it's B2B,
like a B2B go to market motion.
I just don't know enough aboutconsumer, even though I'm
fascinated by it, but that's atotally different growth
strategy.
So it has to be B2B, has to besoftware, which is just my own
personal thing.
There's a lot of challengeswith scaling a services business
, some of which I alluded toearlier on this call.
(28:07):
So I just anyway, that's justnot a challenge I choose to
tackle.
So B2B software and thenvertically.
I worked in capital markets fora long time so I tend to attract
a lot of fintech clients justbecause I have that core subject
matter expertise.
And then I also sold benefitsin HR, so I know a decent amount
(28:32):
about health care and insuranceand benefits.
So I've attracted a lot ofclients in that space.
But I've certainly worked witha handful of B2B businesses
within other verticals too.
I would say, like, maybe theother requirement for me is that
it's a more complex sale orlike a higher ticket item.
(28:55):
So if it's like a $99 a month,you sign up with your credit
card, I'm probably not the bestperson, or I'm not the best
person like that kind of growthmotion, like a product led
growth or like that.
More transactional sale is notmy expertise or my passion.
I'm more of like the 30k annualcontract value to like a
(29:16):
million dollars Like how do weclose this really complex sale
that has multiple stakeholdersinvolved?
So maybe that's more of arequirement than the vertical
specific.
Julie (29:28):
Well, and that makes sense, you know, going back to
what you said earlier about howyou kind of your process is that
you really pull everythingapart and look at what they're
doing and look at where, how andwhere the best opportunities
are for them to chase, how to goafter them, and then you pull
it back together and that makesa lot of sense when you think of
that size of a, of a sale.
Jess (29:49):
Yeah, cause the more transactional stuff is a lot
more like marketing automationand there's nothing wrong with
it, like that's great.
It's just a little, I don'tknow.
Julie (29:59):
They're all hard in their own way, but it's different,
it's the truth, all businessesare hard in their own way and I
think, like generally speaking,in the entrepreneur community,
we are all we feel all verydriven there.
You're talking about verydriven, successful people, and
so it is like hard to understandwhat you don't know or that you
(30:21):
know.
That, like always feeling likeyou're on a learning curve can
feel really hard, and it's thesame.
I think it's so interestingbecause when you work with other
entrepreneurs, you see it inthem, but it's also true for
yourself.
Jess (30:32):
oh, 100% and uh, another woman I know.
She says it's hard to see thelabel inside the bottle, and I'm
sure she got that fromsomewhere.
But I love that saying andbecause it's true like it's
easier for me to diagnoseproblems in someone else's
business than it is even in myown, so like I've hired my own
host of advisors and consultantsbecause I'm like, come give me
(30:53):
some objectivity.
Like sometimes it's hard for meto see my own label.
Julie (30:59):
It's a great point and I think it's hard for me to see my
own label.
It's a great point and I thinkit's easy for that to build
accountability for you with thepeople that you bring in to help
you and that then you know youcan go on your own path of
looking at what you need to doto grow and scale Well.
Thank you so much for joiningme today.
I really appreciate it.
It was a great conversationwith you and I'm so glad we got
introduced.
Thank you for having me.
(31:25):
I really appreciate it.
It was a great conversationwith you and I'm so glad we got
introduced.
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
Please remember to hitsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform so you won'tmiss any episodes.
Figure 8 isn't just a podcast.
It's a way of seeing the big,gorgeous goals of women
entrepreneurs coming to life.
If you're interested inlearning more, you can find my
book Big Gorgeous Goals onAmazon, anywhere you might live.
(31:47):
For more about my growth andleadership training programs,
visit www.
julieellis.
ca to see how we might worktogether.
Read my blog or sign up to getyour free diagnostic.
Are you ready for growth?
Once again, that's www.
(32:07):
julieellis.
ca.
When we work together, we allwin.
See you again soon for anotherepisode of Figure 8 .
Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring
stories of women entrepreneurswho have grown their businesses
to seven and eight figuresrevenue.
If you're in the mix of growinga bigger business, these
stories are for you.
Join us as we explore where thetough spots are, how to
overcome them and how to prepareyourself for the next portion
(00:27):
of the climb.
I'm your host, Julie Ellis.
I'm an author, entrepreneur anda growth and leadership coach
who co-founded, grew and exitedan eight-figure business.
This led me to exploring whysome women achieve great things,
and that led to my book Big,Gorgeous Goals.
(00:47):
Let's explore the systems,processes and people that help
us grow our businesses to newheights.
If you're interested in growingyour business, this podcast
will help.
Now let's get going.
Hello and welcome to thisepisode of Figure 8.
Today I am chatting with JessSchultz, and Jess is right now
(01:11):
the founder and CEO of AmplifyGroup.
But, like any good entrepreneur, she has a pretty eclectic
story of the path she took toget there.
She's a great team builder ofpeople, of companies, of
pipelines, and she started hercareer in capital markets and
moved to SaaS sales and thenventure capital, and now she
(01:33):
herself is a founder andoperator, and I think what she's
doing is really exciting, soI'm very happy to welcome you
today, Jess, Thanks for joiningme.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, thanks for joining me.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, no problem.
No problem, I think your pathis.
I always love the eclectic pathbecause I feel like mine has
been, you know, kind of indifferent spaces than you, but
(01:56):
that same level of you know youpivot and go somewhere else and
just keep moving up in yourcareer.
What can you tell me about howyou got started and how you
ended where you are?
Jess (02:09):
Sure, I started as a finance major in college because
I was good at math and myparents were CPAs, so that just
seemed like a natural thing todo.
I didn't.
We didn't get much careercounseling.
I don't know if that's changed.
I hope it has.
Um, so I, after I graduated, Iwent into finance at a bank.
(02:30):
Um, just cause I didn't know,honestly, I just wasn't aware of
all the opportunities reallywithin finance, so bank was just
kind of a natural thing.
Um, so I worked.
Uh, I was fortunate enough toget my first job at Deutsche
Bank in London, which is anamazing experience.
And then after that I workedfor Merrill Lynch for many years
in both Chicago and New York.
(02:52):
I was always in the capitalmarket sector of the bank, so
more of like the institutionalside, not the retail side,
enjoyed it, learned a ton, butcandidly, it was just not
lighting me up maybe is one wayto say it Very high stress, very
, very misogynistic, very highlyregulated, and so I was looking
(03:14):
for something different.
But I had, almost at that point, like eight or nine years of
experience in that sector.
So my thought was you know,everything's moving, electronic
and and software and and SAS waslike like, almost like a new
term at that point.
So I went and worked at atrading software company where I
(03:38):
sold, I was selling software tothe same cast of characters,
same that I worked with at thebank, but it was a software
company versus a bank.
So it was a very differentcorporate culture, which was
nice.
Learned a ton about technologythere because trading software
is highly technical.
(03:58):
But then I always kind of hadmy eye on getting out of the
trading world altogether.
So once I had some experiencein software sales, then I
transitioned to a company calledTrinet and that was a pretty
big pivot because it was sellingHR services and software to
startups and small businesses.
So really different thananything I'd done up to that
(04:19):
point.
But I was excited about theopportunity One.
It's just like a need to haveproduct, which as a salesperson
I love selling something thatyou need to have versus a nice
to have, and I really believedin the value, prop and the value
that they were providing thestartups and SMBs.
(04:39):
And then it was also anopportunity to work with venture
capital and private equity.
So they had Trinet, had had alot of success with that as a
go-to-market strategy on thecoasts and they wanted someone
to build that out in the Midwest.
So I joined and got exposure tothat world which I fell in love
with.
I just loved the optimism andthe ambition that startups have
(05:04):
at those early stages and likeworking with those investors was
really fun.
So I did that for about threeyears and then one of the VCs
that I worked with quitefrequently was like oh, we're
actually looking to expand ourteam.
Would you want to come workhere?
And that wasn't a career pathI'd ever envisioned honestly for
(05:24):
myself.
But I was like you know, whatdo you want with me?
I'm like a derivatives girlturned salesperson.
I don't, you know, I don't havethe traditional like iBanking
or M&A background.
And they were like no, actuallylike we love your background.
We think venture capital is 90%sales in many ways, and once I
(05:46):
joined I agreed with them it isa lot of sales motions, similar
sales motions so joined the firm, worked there for about a year.
It was a great experience, butI just I missed being more, I
guess, more of an operator.
Like when you're an investor,there's only so much influence
(06:07):
and involvement that you'regoing to have, especially as a
minority investor where youdon't have a huge ownership
stake, and so I really missedbeing intimately involved with
businesses, and I realized in mytime there that a lot of the
founders that I was working within our portfolio had the same
go-to-market challenges and Ididn't feel like there was many
(06:28):
really great solutions for themin the market, and so I created
Amplify three years ago tobasically serve those needs that
I didn't feel like were beingmet.
So that's what I do now.
Julie (06:40):
Yeah, and it's such a journey from big, big corporate
to working with entrepreneurs,especially in the stage you're
working with them at wherethey're in that go to market,
you know, up to series, A kindof kind of phase right.
Jess (06:56):
Yep, yeah, it's a little volatile and a little crazy, but
I like it.
Julie (07:03):
Yeah, I think it's interesting too because I mean,
obviously you kind of grew upyour career in pretty male
dominated industries, um, and doyou see diversity now with the
kinds of entrepreneurs thatyou're working with, are you
able to create sort of that, youknow, kind of environment that
you want?
Jess (07:23):
Yeah, I mean, that's one nice thing, I guess, about
owning your own business is youget to write the rules to some
degree.
And another woman that I metwith like early on in starting
my company, I met with severalother people that do similar
work to me, just to try to getpeer to peer feedback on you
know how to structure things, etcetera.
But something she said to meI'll never forget she was like I
(07:46):
have a no asshole policy.
If I don't work with assholes,if they're an asshole, they got
to go.
And I was like I'm going toinstitute that right away.
So, similarly, I'm thankfulthat I haven't had to quote,
unquote, fire many clients.
I've been grateful to work witha lot of really wonderful
people, men and women but I dohave a no asshole policy and
(08:09):
thankfully I do get to work.
I feel like every founder thatI do support is very progressive
and very respectful, and I'vebeen grateful to work with a lot
of female founders.
It's been awesome.
Julie (08:21):
Well, that's good.
So when a founder, what would?
When a founder comes to you, um, just tell me kind of what that
path and journey looks like interms of how you work together
and what you do for them.
Jess (08:34):
Yeah.
So, um, nine times out of 10, Istart them out with what I call
a go-to-market audit.
Um, and, and I'm a firmbeliever that when you're having
like growth challenges or youhave growth goals, it's not
there's no silver bullet,there's no like, oh, it's just
this one thing.
If we do this one thing,everything cashes.
(08:56):
It's gonna rain cash.
Usually it's a more complexRubik's cube to put together to
really like take the company tothe next level.
So I and I am saying I have is,you know, I hope a doctor
wouldn't give you a prescriptionwithout an exam.
I similarly don't want to comein and prescribe things until I
really, you know, have aneducated understanding of where
(09:18):
your business is today, whereyou want to go.
So we spent 30 days doing thatgo-to-market audit, which is a
deep dive of like what is theirproduct, who's their target
customer, who are theircustomers today, how did they
get them?
I do a lot of competitiveanalysis on like other
competitors they have in thespace, get more color.
(09:40):
So it's really like a holisticprocess that I go through to
come up with okay, based oneverything I learned and
observed and what I know youtold me about your goals.
Here's what I think we need todo in the next 30, 60, 90 days
to get you where you want to go,and then we move into like
(10:03):
execution mode.
So the audit itself is like a30-day process and then the
execution really varies businessto business.
But most businesses work withme six to 12 months to get them
to the point of maturity thatthey don't need me around like
full time anymore.
Well, I'm not full time, butthey don't need me as much
anymore.
Julie (10:19):
Yeah, or they've been able to, you know, get to a
point of traction where they canhire people in-house to do
those kinds of jobs and kind ofit's, you know, moving along
that scale of, or that continuumof, scaling up.
Yes, correct, kim, because well, as you said earlier, there are
(10:42):
not a lot of people slash,nobody really kind of doing
exactly where you know whereyou're playing in the space,
nobody's really doing it.
Jess (10:53):
There are a couple other people.
No one else does it quite thesame way I do.
I mean and I guess that's trueof everyone, right?
I think what you mostly see outthere is like there are people
that do.
They might call themselves afractional CRO, but I think
they're really more like afractional VP of sales, meaning
they come in and act as like asales coach and mentor and just
(11:15):
help with the sales process.
And then there's fractionalCMOs or fractional marketing
folks that will help you withcontent or digital marketing
activities.
I'm a little unique in that Ido both like the sales coach and
strategy plus the marketing,just because I feel like it's so
important to do both at thatearly stage, and usually my
(11:35):
target customer can't afford tohave two of me, so yeah, Well, I
think that's the real, you know, as you hit the seven figures.
Julie (11:46):
It's the real problem of you need all the people, you
need the whole team, but youcannot afford the whole team.
Yeah, yeah.
And so how do you like it feelslike it makes sense that those
two come together and, you know,maybe when the company's bigger
they break back out, but itfeels like it makes a lot of
sense for you to think aboutthem in a holistic way.
(12:08):
Yep, yeah.
Jess (12:29):
Yeah, and so now, as much as you know it always is.
But I think you know someoneonce called it to me like life
tuition, and I think it's kindof like entrepreneur tuition,
like you have to pay yourtuition, you're going to make,
you're going to do some thingsright, you're going to do some
things wrong, and you just youlive, you learn, you pivot.
(12:53):
I think for me, scaling what Ido has been very challenging,
like scaling myself, becauseexactly what you just mentioned,
like in a, I'm a bootstrappedbusiness.
So in a perfect world, if Iwere to, you know, if I had the
(13:14):
money, I would hire a copywriterand a designer and a SDR, right
, I would have like a whole teamof people that have like
functional disciplines.
But that's not reallyfinancially feasible to bite off
like that payroll all at once.
And then so for me I tried tohire people that were more even
though I kind of hate the termlike Swiss army knives, like
(13:34):
people that had more than oneskill set that could kind of
like bob and weave into clientengagements like I do.
But it's really hard to findthose people, to be honest, and
it's not that they don't exist,but sometimes they exist and
they have salary demands thatwould make it challenging for
the margins and the math to justmake sense.
So I think, like just staffingand figuring out how to staff
(13:59):
and scale what I do into anagency I haven't figured that
out.
So I did try and I scaled backdown to being a solopreneur in
2024, just for my own sanity andbank account.
But I do still personallybelieve that there's way more
demand for what I'm doing thanthere is supply and I think it's
(14:23):
such a win-win for me or anyother consultant and for the
customer, especially for thestartup market.
You know they don't need me orsomeone like me full time.
And for me, I love, like thevariety of working on multiple
businesses at the same time.
I think a lot of people thatmaybe have a similar personality
(14:45):
to me would, too.
You get kind of bored if you'rejust work, if you're just
selling the same thing for threeyears straight, but there's a
lot of fun and in getting toswitch and work on different
businesses and so like it'sreally rewarding and it's great
money, like I mean, candidly, Ido make better money doing what
I do now than I did like fulltime at an organization.
(15:07):
So I think like anyway, it's areally good win, win for both
sides.
So I would like to find ways tohelp more people become me or
like do what I do, so to speak.
So I'm trying to figure out howI do that, and my first attempt
this year it's brand new is tostart off offering coaching,
(15:32):
like one-on-one coaching, forpeople that either already are a
fractional go-to-market leaderor want to become a fractional
go-to-market leader, and I'mhoping, through those like
one-on-one engagements, I'llreally intimately learn like
what people need to get to up,to level up themselves and to
really like build their ownbusiness.
So I hope to be, and then Ihope to somehow maybe turn that
(15:55):
into like a digital course or acommunity.
I don't, I don't know what thatbecomes as a phase two, but
something that is more, I guess,approachable to the masses.
Um, in particular, with theemployment environment that
we're seeing, there's a lot ofreally good people out there
that have lost their jobs at bigcompanies, and so I think, like
(16:16):
if I can activate more of themto be to like fill a role like
this.
So, anyway, that's kind of along-winded answer, but that's
I'm.
I'm trying to solve the problemof like how do I scale myself
and and how do we scale peopleto do what I'm doing for more
companies, because I think it'sreally a need.
Julie (16:37):
Yeah, and I would agree with that.
Like finding the right product,market fit, how you go to
market what's happening allaround that time as you sort of
start to get sales, build salesand get feedback from those
early customers so that you canget to those you know out of
your seed round and up to seriesA.
Like all of that, happeningrelatively quickly is important
(17:02):
and having a structured process,I think, probably helps
entrepreneurs a lot.
Jess (17:07):
A hundred percent yeah.
Julie (17:09):
Yeah, Just because I mean they're trying to do everything
right, they're trying to, and,and the CEO is always the first
salesperson.
I mean, that's the, you know,they're trying to do everything
right, they're trying to, andthe CEO is always the first
salesperson.
I mean, that's the, you know,they're the one who had the
dream, the vision and imaginedit, and so they are the best
salesperson for a period of time.
But often, you know, no one hasall the skills they need to do
(17:31):
all the roles that they arecurrently trying to fill.
Jess (17:36):
Yep, and I think there's a lot of noise out there,
candidly, like there's a lot ofgo-to-market advice, and so I
think for founders sometimes too, it's like hard to know what to
listen to, like how to likebreak through the noise and and
I think sometimes they get takenadvantage of as well Like
companies come in and try tosell them like 10K a month PR
(17:56):
retainers, and it's like that'sjust totally unnecessary
sometimes for, like the stage oftheir company or whatever.
So I think I hope to educatemore people and that's what I
try to do through my content, etcetera is like here's what you
really need to know for thisstage, here's what really
matters and here's why, andhere's what you really need to
know for this stage.
Like here's what really mattersand here's why and here's what
(18:18):
you should be spending on it,and anything else is just like
predatory, you know like and notnecessary, and like it just
doesn't have to be ascomplicated as some people like
to make it seem.
Julie (18:31):
Yeah Well, and it's so easy to see an entrepreneur who
is is so blessed with advisors,but they have so much advice
coming at them that they don'tknow actually what's right for
them, what to believe, what tofollow and take up and what to
shed.
And you know, I do a lot oftalking to people about, like,
(18:53):
who are the like three or fourcornerstone advisors that you
are really pulling in and taking, keeping close, you know,
because you can't, like it justbecomes so noisy and you just
you can see the freezing up thathappens right, and the
inability to move forward.
Jess (19:13):
The analysis paralysis yes .
Julie (19:18):
Yeah, and especially yeah , you.
You know, you see it at a tableand it's like conflicting
advice coming from every singleperson and you're like how do
you decide?
How do you cause it is hard todecide and there there probably
are multiple paths.
How do you know which is thebest one?
So, and it's where yourbackground, I think, brings an
interesting like this sort ofrigorousness and discipline that
(19:39):
you can bring from, like, yourcapital markets background and
that sort of thing, and then thesales piece and how you can
bring those together to helpthem really figure out how
they're going to get off theground and start to fly.
Jess (19:54):
Yep, no, completely agreed .
I'm very process oriented and Ithink that's a requirement,
like another little saying I sayoften, which is like clarity is
how you begin, but consistencyis how you win, and so it's like
about creating the rightprocesses that are repeatable
and scalable, and then it's justrunning that play over and over
(20:14):
and over again and it's, Ithink, too many times they
startups, well, they don't knowwhere to begin because there's a
lot of analysis, paralysis, orthen they start and stop things
a lot and there's not a lot ofconsistency or commitment, and
so then they don't ever reallysee anything work and it's like,
well, yeah, because thatnothing will work after one week
or one month.
You know, in general, you gotto give it a little more time.
Julie (20:38):
And that can be so hard as an entrepreneur, because you
started out in the beginningwhere you were like decision,
decision, decision, go here, gohere, go here, oh, let's pivot,
oh, let's pivot.
And it didn't matter.
You were getting the littletraction in the small state you
were in and make crossing thatbridge right Of like, oh, I
can't just decide to make toturn right tomorrow.
(21:00):
I have to, you know, reallythink about it and make sure
it's the right thing.
And how long is it going totake if we do turn right?
And you know like everydecision has that many more
implications as you get a teamaround you and you start getting
the traction Totally.
Sometimes that feels boring topeople too, right?
Jess (21:25):
Yeah, and I think the thing they at least from what
I've observed I think the reasonwhy they pivot a lot is because
they don't know how longsomething should take, just in
general, and they don't knowwhat good looks like, so they
don't really know.
Like you know simple thingsright, like is this open rate on
my email good?
I don't know, so I don't know.
Does the email suck?
Is it my subject line?
Like they don't.
So I try.
(21:46):
That's where I try to educate.
Like I focus a lot on that islike educating.
Like, okay, if, for example,you want to pursue SEO as a
strategy that's a long-termstrategy we have to have at
minimum, a four to six monthcommitment and this is how we're
going to know it's working.
These are the metrics we'regoing to see as leading
indicators that it makes senseto continue to invest and this
(22:08):
is how we're going to even.
These are the metrics we'regoing to look forward to know if
it's even worth investing infor your business.
And so, like I think it's justeducating them on.
These are the.
There is some data that existsand that we can use to help them
feel more confident aboutmaking the commitment and
sticking to the commitment.
Julie (22:28):
Yeah, and then in the you know, and then how do they
build their own data to tracktheir progress once they get
started?
Jess (22:34):
Yeah, exactly.
Julie (22:36):
Yeah, yeah, because that's the.
It is the piece of like.
In a world where we haveendless data, it's amazing how
hard it is to find the rightpieces and the right information
to kind of hone in, that areuseful instead of like just part
of a big ocean.
Jess (22:57):
Yep, no, it's so true.
We're like inundated with toomuch data sometimes.
Julie (23:01):
Yeah, yeah.
And so, therefore, picking outthe parts that we need feels
overwhelming.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I know I often think aboutlike we talked about this in our
own business.
We had an unlimited amount ofdata at our hands and we, you
know, would often sort of likelament that we weren't using it
(23:22):
all, but.
But I sort of have that feelingof like but but if if we're
pulling it for the sake of youknow, like it's garbage in and
garbage out, like yes, we haveit, we need to use these pieces.
We need to figure out whatpieces of us, of it, are most
useful for us at any given pointin time.
Jess (23:42):
Totally agree.
Um, and I had something you'llprobably resonate with, but my
fractional CFO cause.
I hired one of those Cause.
I was like, even though I knowfinance, I've never run a
business finance and so I needto learn that skill set.
And he said something soimportant to me.
I remember I was trying to tracksomething related to client
(24:03):
margins and he's like Okay,Jessica, he's like I'm going to
ask you a question that I wantyou to ask yourself whenever
you're having one of thesemoments.
And I was like, all right.
And he's like Are you going todo anything once you have that
information?
And I was like, all right.
And he's like are you going todo anything once you have that
information?
And I was like, no, like, like,for that moment, anyway, you
know, he's like are you actuallygoing to do anything different?
And at least at that point inmy business, even if I had the
(24:27):
data I was seeking, I couldn't.
There wasn't much I could dowith my current team size and
whatever, like.
So it was such a goodrealization moment where I was
like am I going to do anythingif I have it?
No, okay, then I don't reallyneed it Right.
Julie (24:41):
And then you can sort of think, okay, and if I ever do
need it, I know we can get it.
And then so right now, causeit's also that like you could
have them pull it or or you know, like sort through it or
whatever would need to happen togive you something served up to
you that was useful, but it's awaste of money and time to have
(25:03):
them do it for the sake ofthrowing it in the garbage.
Jess (25:05):
Essentially, yeah, so sometimes I think we all get
fixated on like I need to knowthis answer, but it's like, do I
?
Julie (25:12):
What do I really need to know?
Yeah, yeah, and I think that'swhere, like having that process
of like how you go in, yougather information and then you
know you've got to at some point, lift back up, you've got to go
to work, but you've got to havea process where you lift back
up and like do the check,because things don't stay the
same.
Jess (25:33):
Agreed.
Yeah, especially in the salesand marketing world, I feel like
, well, at least that's theworld I live in, so I know.
I'm sure it's probably true fora lot of other disciplines too,
though, but things are changingall the time.
Julie (25:47):
Yeah, they really are.
And yeah, you think of, I mean,and now with AI and all of the
other business tools that are,you know, that's revolutionizing
a lot of parts of what we alldo revolutionizing a lot of
parts of what we all do.
Jess (26:04):
Yep, I'm a big like I mean .
Now you brought up AI but I'm abig believer, though.
You should only use AI, in myopinion, um, to automate or to
do something If you already knowhow to do it, like like you
actually know how to do it.
And I feel like the thing thatpeople fall victim to is like
they don't know how to write agood cold email period, and then
they just use AI to write acold email, and I'm like, well,
(26:25):
if you don't even know what goodlooks like, you can't even
check AI.
So then what?
So that's, I don't know.
That's my own rule of thumbwith AI is.
Julie (26:32):
I'm like I only use it if it's something that I actually
know how to do, because then Ican at least validate that the
results are what I would expect,or yeah, I think that's a
really great point about it,because it's true that, yeah,
it's again, it's the if youdon't know what garbage looks
like, you can't determine ifit's going to help you.
(26:53):
Like, even though you feel likeit saved you a lot of time, it
still might not be worth it,right?
So I think it's a tool and, yes, it's inevitable to use it, but
I think it's a really greatpoint about being able to assess
(27:13):
what you get from it andwhether it's what you really
want.
Jess (27:16):
Right, yeah, yeah.
So some of the young people, Ithink, think might not get as
far as they think, becausethey're just going to use AI to
do stuff they don't really know.
Julie (27:24):
But yeah, and so who is it that you want to work with?
What's the profile?
I mean, we talked about kind ofsize, of where that business is
and where they're headed, butwhat kinds of businesses?
What are the verticals that youlook at when you think about
working with some of theseentrepreneurs?
Jess (27:47):
Yeah, for me, like a hard requirement is that it's B2B,
like a B2B go to market motion.
I just don't know enough aboutconsumer, even though I'm
fascinated by it, but that's atotally different growth
strategy.
So it has to be B2B, has to besoftware, which is just my own
personal thing.
There's a lot of challengeswith scaling a services business
, some of which I alluded toearlier on this call.
(28:07):
So I just anyway, that's justnot a challenge I choose to
tackle.
So B2B software and thenvertically.
I worked in capital markets fora long time so I tend to attract
a lot of fintech clients justbecause I have that core subject
matter expertise.
And then I also sold benefitsin HR, so I know a decent amount
(28:32):
about health care and insuranceand benefits.
So I've attracted a lot ofclients in that space.
But I've certainly worked witha handful of B2B businesses
within other verticals too.
I would say, like, maybe theother requirement for me is that
it's a more complex sale orlike a higher ticket item.
(28:55):
So if it's like a $99 a month,you sign up with your credit
card, I'm probably not the bestperson, or I'm not the best
person like that kind of growthmotion, like a product led
growth or like that.
More transactional sale is notmy expertise or my passion.
I'm more of like the 30k annualcontract value to like a
(29:16):
million dollars Like how do weclose this really complex sale
that has multiple stakeholdersinvolved?
So maybe that's more of arequirement than the vertical
specific.
Julie (29:28):
Well, and that makes sense, you know, going back to
what you said earlier about howyou kind of your process is that
you really pull everythingapart and look at what they're
doing and look at where, how andwhere the best opportunities
are for them to chase, how to goafter them, and then you pull
it back together and that makesa lot of sense when you think of
that size of a, of a sale.
Jess (29:49):
Yeah, cause the more transactional stuff is a lot
more like marketing automationand there's nothing wrong with
it, like that's great.
It's just a little, I don'tknow.
Julie (29:59):
They're all hard in their own way, but it's different,
it's the truth, all businessesare hard in their own way and I
think, like generally speaking,in the entrepreneur community,
we are all we feel all verydriven there.
You're talking about verydriven, successful people, and
so it is like hard to understandwhat you don't know or that you
(30:21):
know.
That, like always feeling likeyou're on a learning curve can
feel really hard, and it's thesame.
I think it's so interestingbecause when you work with other
entrepreneurs, you see it inthem, but it's also true for
yourself.
Jess (30:32):
oh, 100% and uh, another woman I know.
She says it's hard to see thelabel inside the bottle, and I'm
sure she got that fromsomewhere.
But I love that saying andbecause it's true like it's
easier for me to diagnoseproblems in someone else's
business than it is even in myown, so like I've hired my own
host of advisors and consultantsbecause I'm like, come give me
(30:53):
some objectivity.
Like sometimes it's hard for meto see my own label.
Julie (30:59):
It's a great point and I think it's hard for me to see my
own label.
It's a great point and I thinkit's easy for that to build
accountability for you with thepeople that you bring in to help
you and that then you know youcan go on your own path of
looking at what you need to doto grow and scale Well.
Thank you so much for joiningme today.
I really appreciate it.
It was a great conversationwith you and I'm so glad we got
introduced.
Thank you for having me.
(31:25):
I really appreciate it.
It was a great conversationwith you and I'm so glad we got
introduced.
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
Please remember to hitsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform so you won'tmiss any episodes.
Figure 8 isn't just a podcast.
It's a way of seeing the big,gorgeous goals of women
entrepreneurs coming to life.
If you're interested inlearning more, you can find my
book Big Gorgeous Goals onAmazon, anywhere you might live.
(31:47):
For more about my growth andleadership training programs,
visit www.
julieellis.
ca to see how we might worktogether.
Read my blog or sign up to getyour free diagnostic.
Are you ready for growth?
Once again, that's www.
(32:07):
julieellis.
ca.
When we work together, we allwin.
See you again soon for anotherepisode of Figure 8 .
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