Jen Fontanilla

I think it's the mindset stuff. Strategy is important and you have to have some kind of plan, but you have to constantly recommit to trusting yourself. There are so many times you're going to want to say 'I'm done, I don't even want to do this anymore.' I talk to my other business friends who are entrepreneurs, and we've all had conversations like 'I think I just want to get a job' - that's the easy button! But after you talk yourself off the ledge and you're done with the crazy talk, you pick yourself back up, stop and pause, and ask yourself: what is the one thing I can keep doing right now, at this very moment, that's going to keep me moving 1% forward? Sometimes you just need to take a step back because we're going to be in different stages - we're going to be in valleys and at peaks. When you feel overwhelmed, just stop, calm down, and ask what's the one thing you can do right now. If you just kept saying that, you look up one day and realize you made a lot of progress. It may not have felt like it, but if you look back in hindsight, you kept it moving forward. The other thing is that we have to give ourselves so much grace. It's hard when there are so many people in your space who are successful, and you see people with six-figure businesses when you're just trying to hit six figures. It's easy to feel defeated. We have to keep trusting ourselves, making that 1% progress, and giving ourselves grace. We didn't have to solve the entire universe's problems - you're helping somebody in some capacity. When I have kept my head in that space of those things I just listed, that's what keeps you going forward.

I've learned how to be very grounded and centered, even when income is like a roller coaster - you just made five figures and then nothing's coming in. Learning how to be centered, having centered awareness and being very grounded, and having the tools to navigate through those things is so important. One of my mentors quoted Vadim Zelen, saying you're just 'Transurfing the universe' - you learn how to glide through things and observe from a place where you say 'this is happening for me' and ask 'what's the best thing I can do right now?' versus allowing yourself to get into a frenzy. I've always been a pretty calm person when it comes to crisis - I'm that person that can just stay steady. I tell people all the time, I can't make sound decisions if you're all over the place. You also have to get really good at saying no. You have to have really good, clear boundaries and be really good about discerning. As you get older, you start to realize what is so important to you and whether things are still in alignment. With all these multiple projects, decisions, collaborations, podcasts, and whatever else - there's a billion things that are very noisy - you can't say yes to everything. You've got to get really good about asking yourself: is this in alignment with where I'm trying to go? That's the simplest thing you can filter with, and you'll find there are a lot of things you shouldn't take on.