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Megan Swan, Jac Relke
Welcome back to Energetically You where we talk all things optimal wellness, abundant mindset and confidence in our decision making. I'm your host Megan Swan, a wellness coach and consultant and founder of Megan Swan Wellness. I help high performance humans, leaders and modern companies thread more wellness into their lifestyle and or company culture so that ultimately it becomes a way of living life and business and not another checkmark on the to do list. I'm on a mission to empower more people through optimal wellness today, I am so thrilled to welcome Jacqueline Relke. She's the founder and CEO of the JW method JW Consulting Inc, and a million dollar workspace. She is also founded the million dollar MBA program achieved success officer to the modern ambitious woman, she helps women unapologetically shatter the glass ceiling. Jacqueline is an ex corporate sales executive that soared up the corporate ladder by the age of 24 years old, cumulatively managing over 700 million combined in her career in capital markets, on the trading floor and in private sector. Now running her own multi six figure advisory and consulting agency Jac is on a mission to make you a million dollar woman. Let's dive in. Welcome, Jac, I'm so excited to this conversation. I feel like I might get to know you in some ways I haven't yet discovered. And I'm so curious to hear a little bit more about your story and how you got to where you are today. So welcome. How are you?
Thank you, I'm so excited to be here. This is so long overdue. And I'm just excited to dive into all the things and peel back some of the layers and know share some more of my story and how we've gotten to where we are today.
Amazing. So let's start with the ex corporate part. And can you take us back to the decision making on your part to you know, carve out your own path? Was it kind of this slow builds to knowing what you needed to do? Or was it like a snap decision? Paint the picture.
Yeah, so I mean, for those of you who aren't aware, I started my career working in capital markets on the trading floor. So I covered a third of Canada at the age of 21 years old, and sold equity derivatives structured products. And I was given a third of Canada and about $500 million to manage at a very young age, and it was very much sink or swim. And for those you who aren't aware of the trading floor, it's literally Wolf of Wall Street on steroids. So if you think about it, like one woman to call it 400 Men, let's say so especially as a young, high performing woman, and one who's in sales and is on the road, traveling three weeks of the month, you know, I was given the nickname PTA Planes, Trains and Automobiles because I was quite literally always on one. It really kind of shapes who you are as a woman. And as a business woman very young. I left that actually within a couple of years, and I was recruited out to actually go run a sales team at a private equity strip and rebuild. So I was basically brought in as the new executive team to help them rebuild their entire sales portfolio, to build the valuation of the business to eventually package out and sell. But the interesting thing was, it was again, a male dominated industry. Again, I'm learning that suppose they're quite hard to escape, no matter how much EDI and I know corporations do to diversify and ensure equality between men and women and ethnicities within their cultures and organizations. And I went to kind of the same issues, the burnouts, the manipulation, the sexual harassment from male colleagues and managers, and just as uncomfortable situations. So I always had this idea that I wanted to support other women who are in similar environments, but didn't really know what it would look like or what form it would take. I actually ended up leaving that job because it was extremely toxic and not an environment that I wanted to work in much longer. And at that point in time, my ex boyfriend at the time, was actually relocating to New York City for a job to work at an alternative asset firm. And he basically looked at me and was like, I'm going to New York so more or less fine away, and I was sitting there and we live at this beautiful condo in the Shangri La on For the fourth floor that overlooked all of Toronto, and I remember sitting there and just thinking, you know, Jacqueline, if there's any time to take a chance on yourself, it is literally right now. And that is the moment I actually decided to start my original company, which was J Wellness, which was a corporate wellness and empowerment company for women. And originally, it started with like work posting workouts and talking about work life balance, and building a work life balance guide for 11, nine, nine, and then eventually, it just spiraled and kept going into the monstrosity that it is today. But it really was this pivotal moment in my life where I was like, you know, what, I had gone through all of the shifts to help women not go through the same or to make it easier or so that the impact is lessened during their experience. And I took a bet on myself, and I've never looked back.
Amazing. So are there any skills that you didn't get from those first years in toxic work cultures that you don't use today?
Well, it's actually quite interesting, because when I worked in corporate when I worked on the trading floor, I was a very structured, type A, OCD woman. So my calendar was time blocked by the minutes again, I was traveling so much that I would account for literally like Ubers to and from the airports, I would have, like showers blocked into my calendar, like every point of my calendar was really accounted for, because it was the only way I could stay sane, given, you know, basically the workload that I had. And it's very interesting, because now, do I leverage time blocking and some of those methodologies to aid in my success in my business? Absolutely. But in my transition from corporate to entrepreneur, I actually had to let go a lot of those rigid tendencies, because I've had to learn that messy, but strategic action is actually the most the best way to grow and scale a business. So it's interesting, actually, my best friend actually calls me type B, not type A anymore, because I really checked those type A tendencies at the door, when I left corporate, which is very interesting, because that was a, a definer, or marker for so long of how I identified myself a type A OCD. planner, and today, I can confidently say that does not resonate with who I am at all.
Yeah, so let's talk a little bit more about messy action and sort of the difference in the speed in which you can grow when you're your own beast, if you will, you're calling the shots, and you don't need to check in with, you know, a massive team, can you speak to some of the advantages that you've or maybe, maybe I'm putting words in your mouth, like, I'm assuming freedom that you felt, being your own boss, and just doing it your way?
Yeah, so I mean, if there's one thing that I've really learned is, you are going to stop and inhibit your success, way more than anyone else ever will. So I think being such a perfectionist, I really got in my own way, in the early stages of my business, and it stopped me from experiencing success earlier. And when I was able to kind of find the freedom, the flexibility to say, okay, Jacqueline, you don't have to be perfect, you just have to start. And if you launch this, and you go to market, and it's not as successful, or even if it fails, you're gonna learn from that, and you're going to become better from that, versus if you sit behind your computer and try to perfect it and bring nothing to market that's not going to advance you, or your skill set or your business in any way. So, I mean, definitely, you know, the level of freedom that we've experienced. And also in terms of, you know, we talk a lot about culture, the, the, the importance that it's had on our team culture at JW, because, again, we I believe, even with my team, that it can take strategic get messy action, trying something new. And it's really created this culture for clients and for our team to say, okay, you can try something if it doesn't work, you're going to learn from it versus well, that decision paralysis that we talked about quite a lot at JW, which is like, again, you're so scared to make a decision that you're inhibiting your success versus I would rather launch something and hit 50% of the sales call. But say for example, and learn why didn't we get to that 120% of my sales goal, then we sit on the background and not have anything to go with at all. So I mean, we built you know, a seven figure business structure and under 12 months at JW, and it's honestly because we listen to the market, we put our ear to the market and we took message strategic action. Did it work every time? Absolutely not. And I have no shame in saying that. But what we've learned through through those quote unquote failures are the reason why we are who we are today. And that is why I encourage entrepreneurs to be entrepreneurial and make mistakes, because your biggest growth spurts in your business will come from those learning experiences from taking the action.
So was there people in particular, were there people in particular that surprised you? Or maybe like it was all in your head that there was going to be this pushback from you, you know, leaving corporate, I'm guessing there was a lot of people that had strong opinions within your workspace, but maybe without was that a reality for you? Or is that something that maybe, you know, made you take longer to make? The decision in the end didn't really exist?
Yeah. So I mean, I talked about this a lot early on in JW, where I always said, I felt like I had an army of people I had to prove wrong, right. Like, you know, when I left the trading floors, like who does she think she is leaving this amazing job that, you know, 10s of 1000s of people would beg for to have this young? Who does she think she is? And then when I left to go work at this, this private company, who does she think she is thinking she can run a Global Sales Team at 23 years old. So yeah, when I decided to launch my own consulting firm, at 23 years old, there was a lot of doubt in my mind, there was a lot of impostor syndrome that exists, because that that that voice in my back of my head being like they're watching you to see if he'll fail, was more prominent in the early stages than the belief in success that I have for myself. And I can tell you, as a new business owner, that was very scary, because it almost made me early on make decisions out of fear, versus decisions based on aligned action. And that's why I think confidence and working through again, anything you're feeling from, like an impostor syndrome standpoint, is so important, especially as a female founder, because there are people watching you, and there are people who are going to see and people who, quite frankly, will want you to fail. But you can't let those individuals tarnish your success or create doubt in your own mind. Because again, that is going to be felt in everything that you tried to produce. So I mean, I definitely felt that pressure early on to say, okay, if I'm not successful, it almost felt like Megan, I was sitting there saying, or people were sitting there saying how long until you think she's back on the trading floor. And that was a reality that I honestly felt the pressure for probably 16 months in my business. So to put that in perspective, that's a reality, I probably only shook eight months ago.
And I mean, did people actually ever say anything to you, either, what you were imagining that they were thinking or when you have now at the point of success? Have they congratulated you? Or it's just a sort of awkward silence?
Yeah, it's funny, because I mean, I'm big on reading people, as I know you are and it's through the unspoken words in those Hey, how are you? How are you doing? Give me the updates, what have you been up to? And the inquisitiveness of their questions that you can really between read between the lines, rather, and see that they're really trying to dig to see if you're successful? I mean, has the praise come through? No, have those closest to me who have always been in my corner, been championing my success the entire time and even more now that I'm having, you know, the success that I've talked about, you know, having or wanting for a long time? Absolutely. But it's very interesting that, you know, I, this was a big lesson I've learned this year. Again, there are people who want to see you doing good, but only when it serves them. And if you start doing really good, and it no longer serves them, those are the people who are going to turn against you the quickest. And it's very unfortunate to see but during, I guess, this upcoming, if you will, of the business, I've really learned those who were the ones cheering on the sidelines, versus those ones that I've been felt a feeling in the background being like, is she going to fail is she actually going to pull this off? It's like oil and water. And that's kind of been the biggest eye opening to me this year is I've seen the oil and water. And it's made me very, very grateful to have the people again, who are there championing me because it just makes their support all that much more meaningful. And it gives you it gave me really the will to keep on going. And when I started to see that divergence of people who I thought maybe were there but clearly we're not Yeah.
So that kind of perfectly spins us into talking about the million dollar workspace because I think, you know, having community around all of these stuff, you know, around impostor syndrome and self doubt all and you came from a background where, you know, you have the finances piece. And I don't think a lot of women do in the least in the online space, or a lot of people going into business, you know, they, well, maybe you can speak first off, you know, how much do you think that that is essential? Or do you think that that's really more of a skill and some of the other skills you need to be a successful entrepreneur are not so transferable?
The finance piece? Yeah. I mean, yes, it's the biggest gap that exists for entrepreneurs, quite frankly, it's the whole reason I have a business to a very large degree, right, I got I'm, I'm very mindful that I'm fortunate that I have a degree in finance, I worked in finance, again, numbers and spreadsheets and running, you know, business projections. And modeling is something that I enjoy to to deal with music art, right. But I'm also very aware that, you know, that is, like the be all end all for someone to do themselves. Right. So I do think it is, it is the single most important skill other than resilience that entrepreneurs need to have. But unfortunately, it's the biggest gap we see within the industry, right? Like no one teaches you how to track your finances, or no one teaches you how to actually structure your business, and diversify your revenue to make sure you're not dependent on one source that could be snatched away, you know, at the you know, snap of the fingers. If something changed in the online space. And the I suppose the wind changing, we now can completely wipe out business lines and the business in this turbulent industry. So I do think finances and resilience are my two biggest skill sets or qualities that I really look for in an entrepreneur, but also like willingness to learn, I think, you know, when it comes to finances, specifically for entrepreneurs, that can be very daunting. And my biggest thing is, you don't have to be an expert. But you need to be able to basically understand the financial health of your business to make smart investment decisions. And as a CEO, or as a founder, if you are not able to make those strategic decisions that are going to help you grow and scale your company, because you don't have the knowledge. And there's a knowledge gap, you have a fiduciary fiduciary duty to your company and to your clients to make sure that you're at least closing that knowledge gap, to make decisions that are not only going to best serve you and the health of your company. But that's also better serve your clients as well, because I'm sure everyone can relate to this. But when you feel like you're drowning financially, or when you feel like you don't understand your finances, and you're not able to understand, you know, what your profitability is, or you have what we call leaky bucket syndrome, where you know, money's coming in, but it's going out just as quickly, you don't understand where the leak in the bucket is, it could be very earth shattering to your confidence and for me, so that confidence is what is felt on the end of the clients. And that energetic exchange of being able to sit there and say, Okay, I at least understand my finances, even if they're not that great, I have a path to understand what I need to do to save my business, grow my business, scale my business, whatever it might be. And that energetic exchange is felt on the end of your client, which is then in turn going to help your business grow as well. So it really is a never ending feedback loop that I can not place the importance on. And yeah, I think
what you do really well is create safe spaces for women in particular to, you know, admit that they don't know this piece, which I think is hard enough in itself, right? You're claiming to have your own business and there's so many of us that don't have the at least the depth of what's required. And yeah, so I love having community around this. However, we also just talked about sort of figuring reading between the lines and figuring people out. Can you maybe speak to how someone goes about finding a community and sort of the best practices in collaborating and and, you know, bringing people closer in?
Yeah, so I think when it comes to let's start with finding a community, I really believe that it has to be led by someone you Believe in, because if you don't believe in the person who's leading the charge and is bringing the community of people together, that person is a direct correlation to the people who are in the community, right? So like attracts like, right. So again, if the person who is leading the charge is someone who you want to be in your circle, and you want more people who either aspire to grow similar to them, or are complementary to them, that's kind of what I always say, look for first. Secondly, you know, we did talk about that, you know, being careful. And I think that's a big piece, it's not really spoken about in the online space, you know, in the MBA program, we have a whole module that we actually added in at the last minute, on ethics and on leadership, because, again, this is not a regulated industry. And I think that there is a lot of misrepresentation that occurs. And I think that's why it's very important to again, choose your community and your people wisely. And one thing that I have really learned in choosing community is that it's quality over quantity. And, you know, we could blast the workspace and have 500 members, but we are really strategic about who we target and the conversations that we have, because it really only takes one bad egg to ruin the experience for everyone else, right. So I think, you know, being able to be in tune to say, okay, is this leader, one that's ethical, and one that I look up to, and one that will foster the community in which I hope to seek and grow within, and then be to that is really looking at the support and the resources. So, you know, I always say to people who want to join the workspace, you know, these are the ways in which we support you master classes, you know, workout classes, wellness seminars, there's the replay library, all the resources, all these things, but if they're not in a place to take that messy yet strategic action, and join the workshops, or you know, be involved in the community, they're not going to get the investment out of that. Right. So I also think having a very candid discussion with yourself to say, what is my goal of getting up joining this community? Number one, To what do I hope to get out of being in this community, and three is now the right time for me to join cut actually dedicate the mental and physical energy to be a part of this community to get the results that I'm hoping for? And I think not enough people give themselves the self awareness to say, does this actually make sense for me? And then I had that conversation a lot with people in that, you know, is the time is it the time for you to join a community now? Or do you actually need some like one on one quick support business structuring, and then have the community to help you implement it? So I think self awareness is a big part of community. But I again, you will, you know, community for me is such a, you know, Pivotal and integral part of what we do at GW because, I mean, we could do it alone, but why the hell would you want to communities meant to be there for a reason, and we are truly stronger together. And that's why it's really interesting, because the people who do come into the workspace, you know, the level of collaborations or partnerships or money that's exchanged and people finding clients is so powerful, because again, the power of community is truly the difference between what I consider a thriving entrepreneur, and one who is spinning their wheels and struggling to secure clients, because they're not leveraging the power of collaborations, partnerships and community to make their word and their messaging spread further.
Can you speak a little bit more to the, you know, essentially getting out of your comfort zone? Like maybe it's the person who even like it's too much for them to consider joining a community and getting in a small but public space? Or maybe it's like making the decision to bet on yourself and start something.
Yeah, so I mean, growth exists out of your comfort zone, right? And I would not be who I am today, if I didn't put myself in extremely uncomfortable situations that have forced me to grow. Now, with that being said, Did I always have the confidence, the thick skin and the backbone to do that? Absolutely not. It took being in uncomfortable situations, over and over and over again, and the resilience and, you know, me being so resolute and my vision and my passion and what I want to accomplish in the world that made that that growth, and that discomfort worth it. So that's why I always say to people is growing is never going to be easy, it is never going to be comfortable. But are you so resolute and sure in where you're going, and what you're launching and what you're doing, that you are willing to make that investment and not bet on yourself to make that happen. A great example. And I, you know, I've actually never talked publicly about this. So Megan, you're up there getting the tea first on your podcast. But when I moved to the United States, I had to liquidate all of my investments, because TFSA is tax free savings accounts in Canada are not viewed as tax free accounts in the United States. So all of my life savings that I've been saving up since I was 13 years old babysitting opening a savings account, when I was literally 13 and squirreling my money away, then all the work I put towards putting money away when I worked on the trading floor, I had to liquidate it. And I sat there and was like, Oh, my goodness, this is terrifying. And I could have sat there, I could have transferred that into a US based investment account. But I sat there and said, You know what, Jacqueline, you're gonna bet on yourself, now's the time to do it. And I invested all of that money into JW. So I took the biggest bet on myself that I could quite literally take. And if it was not, for me doing that, I would not have had the springboard to get me where I am today. So the moral of that story is, growth will always be uncomfortable. And you might be sitting there making an OSHA decision that scares you. But it is through again, the tenacity that you have in terms of being so resolute in your vision and in your purpose. It makes that decision, all that easier. Now, if you're someone who's extremely timid or extremely scared, again, confidence is a muscle that you have to exercise over and over and over again. So I always say start small, if that means you join a community had a very low ticket investment, and you join one call with your camera's off, and you mute yourself and you don't participate, but you just listen. And you may be engaged through the chat function, be proud of yourself, for putting yourself out of your comfort zone. And taking that step. If you're at a point where you're at the entrepreneurial breaking point where again, you are either going to go into the ground, you're gonna go upward, and there's only two directions in which you're going, and you need to make an investment. And you need to make sure again, that you have the, the the confidence and just the belief in yourself that okay, do you actually believe that I'm meant to be doing what I'm doing? And I'm going to have the impact in the world that I know I'm going to have? If the answer is yes, take that jump because that investment will pay off. And I think that's the biggest thing is a lot of people are scared to make investments, because people have been burned a lot in this space. I know I have I know, you know, you had to Meghan's so I think to a very large degree, that is, again, comes back to the ethics and the leadership portion is find the people that you believe in, and you know, they're good people, they're pure of heart, and find that one uncomfortable next step for you. And if you can, again, take 10 Uncomfortable next steps in 2023, you will not even recognize recognize yourself when you go to do your 2024 planning. And I can take that from personal experience, because I don't recognize the person I am today versus three months ago, six months ago, sure. It's not 12 months ago when I was still in Canada fighting for my visa. But it is through these uncomfortable decisions, that we have seen exponential growth within the company. And just more just more belief in myself in terms of where we're going and have made decisions that much easier to make.
Perfect transition. So can you maybe share with us some of your practices that have helped you expand your vision like even in the I think we've known each other for over a year now. in that timeframe, your public vision at the very least I know you're very strategic and maybe it was always a part of your private vision but as dramatically shifted, right. So what what's the process that you have gone through or maybe some practices that you do that help you find that clarity to really just expand? Yeah,
so Uh, I believe in frequent, ruthless and intentional audits and planning. So, for us, for example, right now we are planning we, as an AI me Hello, I am we we are planning our 2023. And that's also I think to your right, you got to future pace, I believe I have a team of 30 behind me. So I say we even though I'm one singular person, we have been planning our 2023 quite extensively. And in doing that we run extensive start, stop, pivot continue analysis is and analyses to be able to determine what is working and what is not. I also think that being a leader in this space means that you give yourself the time to not only look at your business, but look at the market and the industry and other people's business. And honestly ask yourself the question, who don't I want to become? And I think that is the most powerful question. I have asked myself. And to your point, we've had a metamorphosis this year, 10 times over again, I've archived my entire Instagram feed, because I don't recognize who that woman was on my feed over the last year, right. But has really come from me looking at the industry and saying, Okay, what do I agree with? What don't I agree with? And where do I want to position myself in this industry? Right? That has really been the most powerful question I have asked that has led to the immense transformation of JM yo JW method and the million dollar woman. But more importantly, it's really through the quarterly analysis. So we always try to what we call pecha, falling sore. So every single quarter, we always make sure we run an extensive analysis of what just passed and said, Okay, revenue, what was our top revenue streams? How do we do more of that? If our revenue was not diversified? Enough? Okay, how do we need to adjust our forward facing marketing and sales strategy to make sure that we are, excuse me diversifying our revenue and income streams? So we are not again, dependent on one, it's looking at your partners and saying, Am I aligned with people who I want to be an extension of my business, I think that's also a big learning curve for entrepreneurs is it's quality over quantity, and you don't want every single person in your business, and quite frankly, on the mat frequently and ruthlessly, is very important. And you know, my mom always used to say to me, Jacqueline, it's not personal, it's business. And that was one of the top things I really had to learn this year in terms of cleaning up and continuing our vision. More so off of that is, again, looking at the data. So again, we talked about finances earlier on finances and data go hand in hand, again, your girl analytical, so give me a good data set. And I love being able to run fancy graphs and dashboards to extrapolate the data and run regressions for you and modeling, but really looking at the data and saying, okay, am I positioned? Well? Am I seeing the results that I want? And if not, what do I have to change to actually bring the results I'm looking for so I cannot champion quarterly analysis enough. And more importantly, extensive year end analysis. And, you know, we talked a lot about this at our first million dollar wellness summit, but cutting the dead weight, what baggage Do you want to leave behind in 2022, and not being scared to make those decisions, because again, you will be moving, more strategic, more aligned, and more intentional, which is going to yield 10x more results than if you were just to continue to do what everyone else is doing. And carry all that old baggage with you.
Yeah, I love that. So let's close the circle you left corporate. Now you are working with corporates. So can you tell us some of the positive trends you see in corporate culture? And how how is it that you made that decision to go back and close that loop? Yeah.
So you talk about the public plan and the private plan. So corporate always was in the private plan. It has always been our goal to be back in corporate to help you know women high performing juniors and high performing women executives shattered the glass ceiling. And what I will say is I do believe the COVID-19 global pandemic was the best thing that ever happened to corporate North America. only because it has forced corporations to think differently about work life balance, it has forced corporations to think differently in regards to how they support their women or, you know, you know, employees who have families, again, when you're on a call, and you have your children running around you and the nanny stick and you have laundry going off in the dishwasher, and all these things are happening, I really think has taken away this persona, that things have to be prim and proper and perfect all the time in corporate. I also think it has exposed vulnerabilities and weaknesses within corporations in terms of the retention of their employees. Again, we have seen again, the great resignations since COVID, where a lot of individuals are leaving, again, their corporate jobs, to switch into more companies like tech companies, or startups, because of their flexible work policies and their flexible pay policies, and how they really champion women and you know, their ESG initiatives and diversity and inclusion, versus like the more corporate dinosaurs, which really only care about driving profit to their bottom line at all costs. Right. So that is really the big conversation that we are currently having with clients at JW is, again, you know, we have developed our entire EDI rating audit system, we're developing an algorithm for it, which basically does an analysis for corporations to say, how is your culture basically structured to attract and retain, you know, women, minorities, high performers, and your top executives? And are you again, that dinosaur? Or are you that nimble company who has taken the COVID 19 global pandemic and has learned from it right? More over than that? Right? You know, again, I talked about when I worked on the training for Michigan, and how I dealt with things like, you know, sexual harassment and working in a male dominated industry, and you couldn't really talk out because I was like, Okay, if I say anything, am I going to be perceived as a whistleblower? Or, you know, am I not going to get promoted? Or am I, my phone is gonna be cut in half, because I said the wrong thing to the wrong person. And that's one thing that really has resonated in our conversation with corporations is, you know, your biggest leaky bucket, if you will, is retaining your women. But your women aren't actually answering your corporate surveys properly, or honestly, because they are scared of the repercussions of doing so. So that's where we've really worked to develop external mentorship, and executive coaching for women specifically, and high performers, within you know, these large cap organizations, because if they're able to understand confidentially and unbiased, why people are leaving, and we are then able to take that data set and go to leadership and go to HR and say, This is what the data is saying, Are you going to fix it? That is the gap we're working to close. So it's really interesting to see how my whole, my short six year journey has come full circle, because the whole reason why I left corporate, and the whole reason why I started this company, two and a half years later, and a million variations, we're getting back to the core essence, which is, can we fundamentally help large cap organizations change the way that they support their women support, again, through diversity of their employees, and just honestly become better human beings, and understand that their employees are just that human beings, and at the end of the day, building the cultures and the leadership styles to be able to allow their businesses to flourish, which will directly impact their bottom line, which is also quite frankly, so poetic and full circle.
So what can you maybe share with us about your vision for 2023? The public or the private? Or JW?
All the things? So yes, we have a lot going on at JW in 2023. Obviously, the JW method, which is our consulting firm, for the ambitious woman, is going to be moving into a more gender agnostic positioning than the market. A lot of people have always said to me, Jacqueline, I don't really understand what you do. And that has kind of been the hardest question to answer, because the answer is we do it all. But frankly, at JW, I'm very fortunate to have the team and the brain power to be able to do so. So we're switching to a more industry Eggs are gender agnostic. We are industry agnostic as well approach to our consulting and advisory firm in 2023. And more importantly, again, the end goal has always actually been to launch my own private equity venture capital firm, to be able to invest in women owned businesses. So we are actually now becoming the global go to consulting firm for business growth or pre funding founder so people who are in that zero to one stage pre funding who need help with business, structuring growth, financials, all the things that we talked about today. That's how we are positioned in the market, which is completely new and has not been said publicly. So again, spilling the tea on Meghan's podcast today. And that's also why we have the MBA program now. So the million dollar MBA program is our practical MBA for, again, the ambitious entrepreneur who wants to start grow and scale a million dollar business in 12 months. So between that the workspace and our million dollar woman summits as well, we are really shifting away from a advisory model that is capped in terms of capacity into this business model where we're very strategic about the few individuals that we work with on the consulting side. And then we have obviously the workspace for community, the MBA for practical and tactical knowledge, and then the summers for the in person integration experiences to really round out the entire service suite. Piggybacking off of that, we obviously have our corporate consulting arm and initiative, which is going to be huge at JW. So again, I mentioned briefly we're launching EDI, EDI, and I rating and audit system and developing an algorithm that we're going to be working with large cap organizations to fundamentally change the way in which they support their women and their minorities and obviously continue to grow and evolve their culture to increase their retention. And we are launching a large, large, large million dollar workspace corporate initiative as well to give that same community and support that we just talked about, to high performing women and corporates. And to tie it all together, we are ending the year with a bang with the structuring and launch of million dollar woman private equity, which is again going to be our way to take all the brilliant entrepreneurs that we work with in touch on an annual basis, and be able to actually strategically invest and give back to entrepreneurs. And be able to further again, just the conversation in the venture capital private equity world, which is women deserve a seat at the table. So we are going to give the direct means to give more women seat at the table. So just like a few things. That's the Spark Notes to Megan, if you saw the whole point 23 play we would be here for three hours.
It's Coles notes. I think that's like a Canadian ism Coles. Now it's called spark. Talking about calls now Oh, my God, I guess calls is a Canadian book store.
SparkNotes SparkNotes.
You're brilliant. You're an inspiration. Any last words you want to leave us with in terms of somebody who is who's just not feeling the same confidence at this point of the game?
Yeah, I mean, again, like I said, if I had the confidence that thick skin and the backbone that I had today, and I was on that trading for 21 years old, the trader for better washed out, I mean, I still took the trading floor by storm. But this is all to say that you might not feel confident right now. Again, as I shared, there was probably 12 to 16 months in my business where I did not feel confident. I felt like I had an army of people I had to prove wrong, but don't let it stop you. Because there will be people in your corner like Megan to me, and you know, all those other people from the training pool who truly were cheering me on the sideline, too. Even if you don't have the answers, there's someone close to you who does, right. And that's another thing too is again, we talked about this when we talked about community, you could do it alone, but why the hell do you want to? I would not be where I was today if I did not surround myself with the right people to support me in my journey. And sure would I have made retained a lot more money to my bottom line if I maybe didn't bring in as many people as I did. Sure. But for me, this is where really impact over income comes into the conversation. And if people don't believe in you and your vision, you will not have a business. So being able to have that confidence and that resolute you know, just assurance in yourself who you are and your purpose and where you are going, that will carry you through the times where your confidence is rock bottom. And even if you feel like you can't make it through, I can promise you, you can take it from me this year. And just keep going. But again, don't do it alone. And if you don't feel like confidence, find your person or your people, and surround yourself in the right rooms and in the right group that are going to help give you that confidence to keep on going even when things get hard.
Yeah, I think one of my favorite things that you reminded us of at the summit was if you're the smartest person in any room next year, you're not in the right rooms.
Amen. I was in a room on Wednesday, and I had no place to be in that room. But I still can't wait to hear about that. I
guess I'll hear about it tomorrow. Yeah,
I again, I put myself in the middle of a summit that I had no business being at. But I was like, You know what half these people are decision makers I should probably be shaking hands with. So I put on my Valentino heels, I put on that dress, I did my makeup, and I walked myself into that room and made myself a place in that room. So again, if you are the smartest person in the room next year, you are in the wrong room. So do what you need to do to get your competence to a point where you're putting yourself in these positions in these rooms. Because again, these are going to be the conversations, the Connect connections, the network, and the people who are going to get you from, again, plain and not, you know, you know, call it zero to 250 or $500,000 range to talking 10s of 20s and hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue and business opportunities. So get comfortable with being hella uncomfortable because that is the only way you're going
to grow. All right. So where are we sending people? What's the best way for people to reach out if they're interested in the workspace, the million dollar MBA, the just working with your one on one.
I mean, I would say Instagram, but I've completely taken my Instagram offline guys, that's not really an option. I mean, my Instagram is little relative even though I'm ghost I'm still 1,000,000% there. But at the end of the day million dollar workspace is you know, kind of our go to point if you want access to me and JW and the overall JW community recommend that and our website as well. Again, I take a call with anyone and anyone who comes across my calendar. So again, if you want to book a call and just have a conversation or a chat, my calendar is always open so Instagram even though I'm go since still there, I promise. And then obviously million dollar workspace and just connecting directly with me through our website is the best way to reach us. Beautiful.
Well thank you so much for your time and your wisdom and we'll be in touch soon.
Thank you for having me. Megan.
Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you and I hope that you enjoyed this conversation. I would be really appreciative if you feel so called to support the show by either subscribing to the show on your favorite podcast platform, leaving us a review and passing this episode or another favorite episode on to a friend. I hope you have a beautiful week wherever you are in the world. Sending you my love