We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Maxwell recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Like many people, the pandemic forced change upon a large portion of the population, myself included. I had just had my best financial month for my corporate training and speaking business when the world shut down overnight, cancelling my future contracts with it.

Faced with trying to piece my business together again, I needed to reevaluate who I could help instead. The shift happened in the shower – where all good ideas reveal themselves, and what hit me was who my ideal client was.

The answer? Myself. A past version of me – the one that needed the answers I already had.
With that came everything I needed to create an entirely new strategy to help multi-passionate entrepreneurs build a personally aligned business they loved. In truth, it’s exactly what I needed too.

You see, my expertise is in DISC Personalities. I help people understand themselves and better communicate with others, and yet, I hadn’t even used the very skills I’d been honing for nearly 20 years for myself.

Like most people, we look for the most profitable approach first, often overlooking other areas which may end up costing us more in the long run.

That day in the shower, it felt like a Pandora’s box had been opened and everything came pouring out. I sat down and wrote for hours, outlining how every entrepreneur can identify their Ideal Client, Natural Niche, and Obvious Offers simply by knowing who THEY are, supported by the concepts that DISC Personality metrics can show us.

For the first time, I understood why other successful entrepreneur’s business strategies didn’t work for me – because we’re all built differently and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to anything.

As a result, I used personality metrics to create a new step-by-step strategy for people to understand themselves first through a series of probing questions, which begins to reveal a unique and individualized outcome for a business that is tailored and fully aligned to the client.

Jennifer, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The core of my work revolves around collective individualism, meaning every person brings a unique approach and perspective to the whole. Celebrating and highlighting the natural skills and talents of each individual creates fulfillment and satisfaction in our personal work, while also benefiting the communities we choose to contribute to.

Identifying those natural skills and talents can sometimes feel elusive to people simply because we’re too close to it, and we tend not to value that which comes easy to us. My job is to hold up the mirror for people, revealing natural strengths using proven personality metrics.

This powerful approach is helpful for new or pivoting entrepreneurs with 1:1 coaching, small group coaching, as well as groups who strive for more E.P.I.C. (Every. Person. Is. Critical.) team cohesion as a whole.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I had to learn about myself that directly impacted my business is to stop taking advice from people who aren’t built like me and don’t think like me.

To clarify, there’s nothing wrong with good or even great advice…and it might be great for a majority of people – but if it’s not the right advice for you, then it’s useless at best, and detrimental at worst.

The most effective strategy I can suggest is to find someone just like you (in terms of temperament and personality – and be honest with yourself – wanting to be like Gary Vee and actually being like Gary Vee are two different things), that’s at the level you want to be at, and consider their advice for the path you want to take.

Ultimately, there’s nothing ‘wrong’ with you. If what you’re doing isn’t working, it might just be that the strategy isn’t designed to work for your type of personality. Figure that out first, and you’ll grow in leaps and bounds very quickly.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

For me, the best source for new clients is my approachable communication style through writing and speaking as that tends to resonate with my preferred audience. When I speak, I book more clients.

But that may not be true for others. Each entrepreneur should look at their own track record to find how their natural skills and talents support their business.

For someone else, it might be that they are fantastic at numbers and data, in which case, visually demonstrating the results visually they can achieve for potential clients would be a better approach in obtaining new clients.

The truth remains that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to growing a business. While we can all agree that sales and marketing remain an important priority, the focus on where the wins are may vary.

My simple ‘advice’ is – whatever is working for you, do more of that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jennifermaxwell.ca
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferrmaxwell/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferrmaxwell/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/jenniferrmaxwell
• Other: https://jennifermaxwell.thrivecart.com/inspired-entrepreneur-academy-mini/

Image Credits
Haley Photography