We were lucky to catch up with Janelle Lynnae recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Janelle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
I used to lack the confidence I needed to take big leaps of faith. I talked to big talk but I didn’t walk a big walk. I would talk about moving to California or Australia so I could live by the beach (I was living in Colorado at the time). I would talk about starting a company one day. I would talk about the massive impact I wanted to have on the world. I had all of these big dreams that I would constantly talk about and then I would tell myself that I would do it one day, in the future, when the timing made more sense!
But what I started to realize is that I was constantly talking about the future but never making any of it a reality right now. Eventually, I got tired of hearing myself talk. And I got tired of waiting for life to happen the way I wanted it to. I was ready to take risky, messy action and start seeing the manifestation of these big dreams.
So the first thing I had to do was get really clear on what limiting beliefs were holding me back. I am of the mindset that your beliefs lead to your thoughts, your thoughts lead to your actions, and your actions lead to results. So if you’re not getting the result you want a certain area of life it’s crucial to look at the beliefs around what’s possible for you in that area.
My BELIEF at that time was that it didn’t really matter if I did it or not. “I’m not special. I’m not smart enough. Why try if no one even cares?” So I intentionally switched my mindset into thinking: “if someone else can do it, why can’t I?” and it’s not about impressing other people, it’s about making myself proud.
I moved to San Diego CA by myself at the age of 24 without a job, a friend, significant other… nothing. Just me and about $4,000 in my bank account. I found roommates online and took odd end jobs at first and I figured it out on the fly! It was really freakin hard and I remember I cried all the time the first 6 months thinking, it would have been so much easier to stay in Colorado! Why did I do this to myself?!
But after those 6 months, I found my flow, got my new career going, built a new community and began to realize if I could move to a brand new city by myself, I could do anything I put my mind to. Everything is figureoutable! The decision to move changed my entire life and started a ripple effect of taking risky action again and again to live a life I can now say that I’m very proud of.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I teach women how to shift negative thought patterns into empowered and confident ways of thinking and being. I give tangible tools to help women conquer limiting beliefs, advance in her career and become who she’s meant to be. My mission is to help every individual step into her power and see herself as the valuable badass that she is. I’m a Confidence Coach, national speaker, author, thought leader, corporate workshop facilitator, and TikTok extraordinaire ;)
I’m a best selling author of the book ‘FLEX YOUR CONFIDENCE MUSCLE – How to Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs and Finally Take Action’. This book is designed to help you slow down, to stop busying yourself with work and your never ending to do list… so you can get honest with yourself about what’s holding you back from living your dream life. To give yourself permission to be the woman you were authentically created to be, not who you think you should be.
And I have a free workbook that is my top tool for creating REAL confidence in less than 60 mins that is available here: https://janellelynnae.lpages.co/confidence/?utm_source=stan-store-link&utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=storefront
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The lesson I had to unlearn is that making a lot of money makes me a bad person. I’ve had to overcome SO many limiting beliefs around money!! Money doesn’t grow on trees. You can’t love both God and money. Rich people are greedy. Just make enough to live comfortably, you don’t need anything more than that.
A lot of these beliefs came from my well meaning parents and the church. My parents are incredible and did everything they could for me and my 3 brothers- we weren’t poor, but we were lower middle class and to be honest, I thought that made us holier. My dad was a pastor and my mom was a stay at home mom, so we didn’t have a lot of money. But I was convinced it was better that way.
The truth is that money makes you more of who you already are! And money is a powerful resource. And since I’m a very generous person that gives a lot of money to causes, it’s GOOD for me to make more money so I can ensure that it’s going to go to saving girls out of sex trafficking or helping homeless people find a job! (And of course I’ll spend some of it on myself too because that’s also perfectly okay :))
Some of my favorite money mindset books are “You Are a Badass at making Money by Jen Sincero” and “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T Harv Ecker”.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Vulnerability, value, intentionality, and consistency.
Vulnerability- People try to be so perfect on social media and just like if you were hanging out with a friend in real life that was acting to be super perfect you would be annoyed with them and feel disconnected to them, the same goes for connecting with people on social media. Share the things that you least want to share about yourself. I talk about my previous thoughts of thinking I was going to die in a car accident, I talk about how I sometimes excessively pop pimples and I‘ve shared sad things that make me cry while I’m sharing them. People always tell me how connected they feel to me because I show them so much of how I’m feeling. I honestly try to be as imperfect as possible on social media. But obviously at the same time I honestly have such an incredible life that people do see that side too!
Value – Post quality over quantity. Some people post 3-5x a day because they think that will grow their audience. And that might work, but are those quick hit posts really adding value to someone’s life? Give away your most valuable things for free. That’s why I love TikTok, if you don’t add tangible value to peoples lives, you will not grow there. It’s not just pretty pictures. It’s YouTube but quicker!
Intentionality – this is one I am still learning the art of in social media to be honest. I’m finding how important it is to show up with a strategy around sharing things that will drive your ideal client to ultimately want to buy. Call to actions over and over again telling the viewers to follow, comment or click the link in bio. People want to be told what to do! Guide them.
Consistency – this one is a no brainer but you gotta keep showing up. It’s just like the gym. It would be better to do 3-4 posts a week spread out then to do 3-4 posts on Monday, then forget the rest of the week. Yo-yo dieting doesn’t work. Small, messy action. Over and over again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nextlevelconfident.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janelle_lynnae/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janellelynnae/
- Other: My book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=flex+your+confidence+muscle&crid=213M72YOM0EGO&sprefix=flex+you%2Caps%2C215&ref=nb_sb_ss_retrain-deeppltr_1_8 https://www.tiktok.com/@janelle_lynnae Free Confidence Building Workbook: https://janellelynnae.lpages.co/confidence/?utm_source=stan-store-link&utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=storefront
Image Credits
Shel Francis Creative Brittany Curry Aaryn Mae Exposures