Jacqueline Relke of The JW Method: Five Things You Need To Create a Highly Successful Career As a Life or Business Coach
Confidence sells. It is attractive, it drives authority, it drives credibility, and most importantly it drives RESULTS. When you are confident and professional, The Halo Effect causes you to come off as more successful, capable and competent. And this has little do do with how you *actually look* — It is all about your attitude and how you feel in your own skin. It is about your energy.
The coaching industry is now tremendous. It is a 15 billion dollar industry. Many professionals have left their office jobs to become highly successful coaches. At the same time, not everyone who starts a coaching business sees success. What does someone starting a career as a life coach, wellness coach, or business coach need to know to turn it into a very successful and rewarding career?
In this interview series, called “Five Things You Need To Create a Highly Successful Career As a Life or Business Coach” we are interviewing experienced and successful life coaches, wellness coaches, fitness coaches, business and executive coaches and other forms of coaches who share the strategies you need to create a successful career as a life or business coach.
In this particular interview, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Jacqueline Relke.
Jacqueline Relke is the Founder and CEO of The JW Method and JW Consulting Inc. A Chief Success Officer to The Modern Ambitious Woman, Jacqueline helps women unapologetically shatter the glass ceiling. As an ex-corporate sales executive that soared up the corporate ladder by the age of 24, she has cumulatively managed over $700,000,000 in sales in 4 short years. Now running her own Multi-6-Figure Advisory + Consulting Agency, Jacqueline is on a mission to make you a Million Dollar Woman.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and what brought you to this particular career path?
Thank you for having me! I am very excited to dive in.
My career started rather unconventionally, working in Capital Markets on the trading floor when I was 21 years old, before I even graduated from university with my degree in finance. I was given ⅓ of Canada to cover and a casual few hundred million in structured product sales coverage. I earned my stripes the old-fashioned way — with a ton of hard work, hustle, and sacrifice.
I spent 70 hours a week in the office/traveling/on the trading floor, and 3 weeks out of every month you’d find me traveling for work — All while my father, and greatest inspiration, was battling stage 4 throat and neck cancer. In fact, I was gone so much I gained the nickname PTA — “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” — because I was literally always on one.
My efforts quickly became noticed, on and off the trading floor, which led to a job offer in the private sector. Within 6 months I was promoted to Director of Sales, running a global sales team by 23. Little did I know I would be in for the ride of a lifetime — ultimately ending in me choosing my morals and ethics over company equity, leading to an abrupt exit.
I found myself sitting in our 44th condo in Toronto drinking my morning coffee in February 2020, with a looming global pandemic and a move on the horizon to NYC, when it dawned on me… I didn’t go through all of this sh*t to not help other women going through the same. I wanted to help ambitious, high-performing women shatter the glass ceiling.
That is when The JW Method was born.
Now I run a multi-6-figure strategic advisory and consulting firm in NYC, where I am a catalyst for change for The Modern Woman + The Modern Entrepreneur + The Modern Corporation. My mission is to help ambitious leaders and women unapologetically shatter the glass ceiling.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Resilience, ambition and confidence.
Resilience: Resilience is arguably the most important. As an entrepreneur you are going to fail, more than once. It is how you turn your failures into learning experiences through resilience that separates the goods from the greats. You need to be able to maintain optimism, take decisive action and show relentless tenacity through adversity as a business leader. After all, success is just a perfectly curated story of well-managed failures.
Ambition: I have always had extraordinary ambition. I started working on the trading at 21, before I even graduated from university. I was promoted to Director of Sales, running a global sales team at 23. I launched my own consulting company at 24, amongst a global pandemic. I am sponsoring myself to obtain my E-2 Treaty Visa to become a US Resident, taking JW Consulting Inc. Global. I will make Forbes 30 under 30. I will impact over 1,000,000 ambitious women and make 7 figures by 27.
I used to shrink my ambition because it made me feel like a black sheep and a change agent. But now I stand unapologetically in it. I have learned that my growth will trigger those who are stagnant, and that my authenticity will trigger those who are unaligned. I refuse to let their comfort stop my ambition.
Which leads me to my final character trait.
Confidence: Confidence has, and always will be, my best asset. When you exude unshakable confidence it makes your energy infectious. This energy is what attracts your dream clients and converts them with ease. It has been proven that there is a direct correlation between how confident you are and how much money you make. This is why confidence is a key pillar of everything I do with my clients. Confidence is attractive. It drives authority. It drives credibility. It creates allure, which is sexy. And contrary to popular belief, this actually has little to do with how you *actually look*. It is about the energy you exude and the attitude you carry. Make it your best asset and watch your success soar.
How have habits played a role in your success? Can you share some success habits that have helped you in your journey?
This question made me laugh because any person in my life knows that I attribute my success to my habits and routines. I have learned that taking care of your energy is self-care and it is OKAY to be selfish with your time and energy as a founder and leader. I swear by my morning routine and my cardinal rule is I give an hour to myself, before I give an hour to anyone else. I move my body, I reflect, I practice gratitude, and I plan my day for success.
For this reason, I am religious about prioritizing my energy management: Your energy is your power. It is your currency. If you are not managing it, you are missing out on one of the biggest accelerators of success. For me energy management means setting boundaries with clients (response times, days of work etc.), writing down very tactical goals daily (I call these non-negotiables), and saying no to things/people I don’t want to do/be around.
As yes, balance — A core principle of The JW Method. I believe every woman should focus 50% on their balance, wellness and boundaries, and 50% on their success, ambition and goals.
Three things that help me unwind, reconnect and reset during a busy week are:
1) Consistently doing my morning routine: I am a firm believer that you need to give an hour to yourself before you give an hour to anyone else. I move my body, I reflect, I practice gratitude, and I plan my day for success.
2) I prioritize energy management: Your energy is your power. It is your currency. If you are not managing it, you are missing out on one of the biggest accelerators of success. For me energy management means setting boundaries with clients (response times, days of work etc.), writing down very tactical goals daily (I call these non-negotiables), and saying no to things/people I don’t want to do/be around.
3) I ensure I am balancing the 4 facets of wellness: Mental, Physical, Spiritual and Financial. I work out 4–5 days a week (not including my morning 20 minutes of movement), I practice gratitude and mindset journaling daily, I track the hell out of my finances, and I always release all anxiety, stress, tension, ambition, goals and manifestations to the universe.
This will be intuitive to you but it will be helpful to spell this out directly. Can you help explain a few reasons why it is so important to create good habits? Can you share a story or give some examples?
Creating good habits is a form of self-respect. How are you supposed to build a respect for business, yourself and your clients if you don’t respect yourself?
You need to hydrate. You need to sleep. You need to exercise. You need to set goals. You need to manage your finances. You need to create routines. You need a support system.
And you need to do all of these things consistently. As Robin Sharma says: “Small, daily, seemingly insignificant improvements, when done consistently over time, do yield staggering results.”
If you want to become an elite producer and high impact performer you need to prioritize consistent habits and routines daily.
Speaking in general, what is the best way to develop good habits? Conversely, how can one stop bad habits?
Set realistic goals, make a plan and stick to them. I’m not going to sugarcoat it — forming new habits and routines is hard. If it was easy, everyone would do it right?! This is why I work with my clients on 3 things:
- Creating Daily Non-Negotiables: 3–5 things daily that you get done, without negotiation.
- Creating Bulletproof Morning Routines: to set goals, move your body, learn, reflect and grow.
- Creating a CEO Schedule: You need to balance supporting your clients, supporting your business and supporting yourself. My CEO schedule is: Client work M/W/T and CEO Days T/F.
The first step of stopping bad habits is acknowledging that they exist. If you operate from ego and cannot notice your bad habits and flaws, it will be very hard for you to grow personally and professionally. Next is accountability. If you are serious about change, hire someone to help you, tell a loved one to help hold you accountable, join a support group or community. The key to change is accountability and vulnerability.
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?
“Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t put a ceiling in yourself.” — Oprah Winfrey
It resonates with me so much because I help women unapologetically shatter the glass ceiling. Corporate structures, industry, society, friends and family all put ceilings on us. It is your job, and your job only, to shatter that glass ceiling. How are you supposed to do that if you are putting a ceiling on yourself?! Stand unapologetically in your goals, believe they are possible, and watch your success skyrocket.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I am launching a community for The Modern Ambitious Woman called M$Workspace™ — where high-end luxury support is delivered over a glass of Champagne to make you a million dollar woman. This is a space where no dream is too big. A space for the ambitious woman to unapologetically shatter the glass ceiling. A space for the ambitious woman to become confident, bold, unapologetic, aligned and powerful.
This community is designed for The Ambitious Woman who is a high achiever, who wants to scale her business and career strategically. More importantly, they want support from a community of other like minded ambitious women.
I am very passionate about M$Workspace™ because it is everything I wish I had when I was in corporate climbing the corporate ladder, and when I was a new entrepreneur scaling my business. I am on a mission to dismantle the phrase “it is lonely at the top”, because when ambitious women are brought together we are a force to be reckoned with.
Keep your eye out for its launch on June 16th 2021.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Many coaches are successful, but some are not very successful. From your experience or perspective, what are the main factors that distinguish successful coaches from unsuccessful ones? What are your “Five Things You Need To Create a Highly Successful Career As a Life or Business Coach”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.
5 Things you need to create a high successful career as a life or business coach:
- Solid Foundations, Scalable Structures and Simple Strategies
Build a solid foundation first, then focus on scaling second. You need to ensure that you have strong systems, scalable structures, and simple strategies in place before you start signing clients.
2. Track the hell out of your finances and invest in boosting your financial confidence
Tracking the hell out of finances. If you have the million dollar mindset and M$I to have your money working FOR YOU, but you don’t have a solid system to track your finances, your money will quickly start working AGAINST YOU.
As a CEO, founder, mentor or coach you need to know your damn numbers. Take the time to invest in your financial literacy and confidence as a business owner. Know your sales projections, revenue forecasts, pricing, cash flow, expenses, investments, debt, and profit/loss like the back of your hand. Nothing creates unshakeable confidence in yourself and your business like having a rock solid foundation and tracking the heck out of your numbers. By working on financial literacy and business structures with my clients, I have seen revenues increase as much as 157%+ quarter over quarter.
When I came into industry I noticed an immense gap in financial knowledge and confidence for women, entrepreneurs and small business owners. My network was so deeply craving a trusted source to discuss budgeting, finances, and investments. I quickly gained the name in the industry, “The Spreadsheet Guru”, and the go-to-woman to create million dollar businesses and million dollar women.
By having my ear to the market (a common trading floor term “keeping your ear to the floor”, retrofitted for my new role), I launched The Financial Blueprint of The Million Dollar Woman and M$Workspace™ to help women with just that.
3. Make Sales Sexy and Confidence your Best Asset
One of my missions in 2021 is to make sales sexy and confidence your best asset. Every client I work with, I hear the same thing about sales: “I am not good at sales”. “Sales is sleazy”. “I am not confident in my sales capabilities”. “Sales people are untrustworthy”. “Sales makes my skin crawl”.
I believe sales should be sexy and confidence inspiring for everyone. Think of sales (lead nurturing, generation and conversion) as dating. It is fun, it is flirty, and to be honest it is less about you and more about getting to know the person across the table! This fun, flirty stage allows you to build trust and see if you are a good fit — because guess what, 50% of your prospects are not a good fit for what you are selling!!!!!
Sales becomes sexy when you have fun with it. Confidence becomes your best asset when you set boundaries and have unshakable self worth.
So how do I work with clients to make sales sexy and confidence their best asset?
✶ Simplifying their Goals/Vision/Mission + Align
✶ Completing a Sales Confidence Breakthrough Exercise
✶ Shifting Sales Mindset from “Sleazy” to “Sexy”
✶ Writing their Unique Sales Pitch
✶ Creating sexy as hell “Magnetic Marketing Phrases”
✶ Analyzing Financial Systems + Streamline
✶ Creating Customized Lead/Sales Tracking
✶ Creating Integrated Cash Flow/Expense/ PnL Tracking
✶ Having fun!!!
As ambitious women, as business owners, as women climbing the corporate ladder, as entrepreneurs, sales and confidence is sexy. If you use it to your advantage, it will become your secret weapon by driving authority, credibility and results.
Confidence sells. It is attractive, it drives authority, it drives credibility, and most importantly it drives RESULTS. When you are confident and professional, The Halo Effect causes you to come off as more successful, capable and competent. And this has little do do with how you *actually look* — It is all about your attitude and how you feel in your own skin. It is about your energy.
This confidence creates allure. Allure is mysterious, It is sexy. And you guessed it — when sales is sexy, your revenue soars.
4. Build a personal brand rooted in Integrity, authenticity and your unique differentiator
Personal branding is everything. Your reputation and brand introduces you before you do. Make sure it is polished.
A strong brand that’s positioning to attract your ideal client. Defining your visual aesthetics, values and mission so your brand can further define its heritage.
I get asked all the time how I scaled my business to multi-6-figures in under 8 months, going from solopreneur to a stacked agency team + strategic partnership model.
And as much as I want to tell you it was some crazy complex model, it is really quite simple. I found a problem that needed to be solved, developed an innovative way to solve it, focused on simplicity above all else, created iron-glad brand affinity, stayed rooted in my values, made sure authenticity and alignment was at the root of everything I did, and ensured every move I made was done without comparison.
Leadership is no longer about positions of power. It’s about having an impact through the genius-level work that you do. Being a leader is about resisting the societal norm to be ordinary, without letting mediocrity erode your potential. It is about using innovation to fuel your staggeringly awe-inspiring success by focusing on impact first, and income second.
✶ Your Brand Should be TRUSTWORTHY
✶ Your Communication Should be RELEVANT
✶ Your Content Should be CONVERSATIONAL
✶ Your Strategy Should be IMPACTFUL
✶ Your Nurturing Cycle Should be LONG TERM
When you are able to be rooted in your authenticity and integrity, will using innovation to fuel your success you will shatter the glass ceiling because you don’t let comparison stop your ambition.
5. Create Multiple Streams of Income (M$I)
Always have M$I (multiple streams of income). M$I has enabled me to work smarter not harder, diversifying away from income dependence.
Diversifying your income (just like you would your investments), whether you are in corporate or entrepreneurship, is extremely important as it creates stability and increased opportunities.
Of the 46.8 MILLION Millionaires in the world, 65% of them have at least THREE streams of income — diversifying their income dependence from any one stream (Credit Suisse’s latest global wealth report).
M$I enables you to work smarter, not harder (a key principle at The JW Method). We need to get your business, career and money working FOR YOU.
If you’re an entrepreneur, M$I can look like:
✶ Optimized Service/Product Suite (EX: Intensive → Group → Private → Consulting)
✶ Passive Products/Courses
✶ Corporate Consulting
✶ Speaking Engagements/Keynotes
✶ Investment Income
✶ Strategic Partnerships
✶ Freelance Work
✶ Commission Affiliates
If you’re in corporate, M$I can look like:
✶ Salary + Bonus
✶ Commissions
✶ Employee Share Purchase Plan/Stock Share
✶ Earned Equity
✶ Side Business Income
✶ Investment Income
✶ Speaking Engagements
If you currently don’t have an optimized M$I stack, we got to have a chat.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen coaches make when they start their business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Conforming to the commercialization of the industry. We are not born to be cookie-cutter, carbon copies of someone else’s ideal. There is a reason why all of my million dollar ideas come to me in the shower. I am not sitting behind a computer comparing. I am staying in my lane and innovating.
Just because you hire a coach does not give you the right to copy their intellectual property. Just because you like someone’s branding does not give you the right to copy their vibe. Just because you like how successful someone is does not give you the right to copy their services.
If you truly want to be successful you need to stop being a sheep in the heard and start making the tough decisions to challenge the industry norm, become an innovator, a disruptor, a savant, and create your own path to success. When you are in alignment with your goals, deeper purpose, vision and mission. Beautiful things happen.
You are only in competition with yourself.
Your potential is not meant to be a carbon copy of someone else’s success. People are meant to inspire you, motivate you and push you. But this game of life is you v you. You should not aspire to be better than anyone else, but rather be better than your own damn self.
This is why I am my client’s Chief Success Officer. I am a change agent, a trailblazer, a disrupter and I focus on getting my clients out of this world results, by focusing on INNOVATING and not COMPARING.
Based on your experience and success, what are a few of the most important things a coach should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience? Please share a story or an example for each.
Focusing on the client experience before the “client experience” even starts! At The JW Method we teach a 3-pronged client experience: the prospecting client experience, the converting client experience, and the continuing client experience. You must over deliver at every step along the way, focus on emotional connection and deep levels of value, support and education.
Everyone talks about the “continuing client experience” but very few talk about the prospecting client experience or the converting client experience.
The prospective client experience is everything from your brand messaging, voice, values and delivery, to your initial connection point and nurturing conversation. This stage is always about authentic connection and trust creation every step of the way. This includes how you pitch for consultation calls, how you deliver the education and value of your offer, and how you follow-up with clients.
Your converted client experience is the celebration moment. It is the champagne toasting, confetti popping excitement of a client deciding to transform their life or business — so treat it like that! Satisfy their emotional values and celebrate their commitment through your communication style. You also need to ensure you are delivering your proposals, contracts, client gifting and on-boarding process in a transparent and collaborative manner. A white glove client experience is one where they feel supported every step of the way.
The continued client experience is the luxury, high-end client touch points where you deliver quality support and deliverables with a focus on transparency. White glove client experiences start with the founder. You must always deliver 100x value to your clients. This is done through communication, luxury touch points, overdelivering on commitments and always being available to support your clients.
Lead generation is one of the most important aspects of any business, and particularly in coaching. What are the best ways for a coach to find customers? Can you share some of the strategies you use to generate good, qualified leads?
I am so glad you asked. Sales, lead generation and revenue are some of my favorite conversations! I will start by saying referrals will always be king. There is a reason why 73% of executives prefer to work with sales professionals referred by someone they know, and referred customers LTV is 16% higher than that of non-referred clients. You must focus on creating champion clients in your business.
Secondly, at The JW Method we focus on our proprietary 5-pronged lead generation strategy:
- one consistent strategy, one clear message, one clear ICA — deployed for a minimum of 6 months.
- two types of lead generation established — in-bound generation + out-bound generation.
- three crystal clear tiers of concise, dynamic and transformative offers.
- four client touch points and client experiences established — prospective, converting, converted, continued.
- five different omni-channel lead generation presences (ex: Instagram, LinkedIn, publications, referrals, email).
Focus on all 5 and you will not only have a hell of a lead generation strategy, but a full pipeline.
Coaches are similar to startup founders who often work extremely long hours and it’s easy to end up burning the candle at both ends. What would you recommend to your fellow coaches about how to best take care of their physical and mental wellness when starting their business?
As a founder, my top priority (other than delivering for my clients) is ensuring I am balancing the 4 facets of my wellness: Mental, Physical, Spiritual and Financial. I follow Robin Sharma’s 5am Club Morning Routine religiously (20 minutes exercise, reflection and learning), I work out 4–5 days a week, I practice gratitude and mindset journaling daily, I track the hell out of my finances, and I am continually working to release all anxiety, stress, and tension, while fueling my ambition, goals and success.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I want to shatter the glass ceiling and bureaucratic systems in large corporate institutions for both sales teams and high-performing millennial talent.
Sales is at the core of my DNA. I want to support large institutions in re-defining sales in the modern age. Building connections and closing high ticket deals is fun for me. I want to take The JW Method “Making Sales Sexy” principles into large, dare I say bureaucratic organizations, and educate sales teams on the importance of combining new age and old age sales techniques to innovate and transform their business.
I also believe the future is millennial. I am extremely passionate about restructuring talent acquisition and retention programs for high performing millennials. As we enter a post-pandemic world, I do not believe large institutions are primed to experience heightened success within their millennial teams. Institutions need to develop a millennial success and retention strategy to increase their relevance and relationships. This will be achieved through the development of an intergenerational management style, intentional transparency and the right type of mentorship. Once the gap is bridged and millennials are retained/engaged, the institutions can then focus on driving more revenue to their bottom line.
We are blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Whitney Wolfe, hands down. Her journey with launching Bumble sounds very similar to mine starting The JW Method — with a societal glass ceiling to shatter. I admire her morals, values, drive and her ability to speak candidly about patriarchal topics. Add to the list her immense success, being the youngest female founder to take her company public at 31, making Forbes 30 under 30 and times 100 list, it is just awe-inspiring.
Just like Whitney, I will be a “self-made” billionaire. I would love to have a glass of chardonnay (because #onbrand yellow) and be inspired.
“I don’t need to justify myself anymore. I’m f-cking done” — I mean… Need I say more?!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Website: www.thejwmethod.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilrelks/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinerelke/
M$Workspace: https://m-workspace.mn.co/share/BZlar1fdpaQAdh31?utm_source=manual
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!
