In this inspiring episode of The One Small Change Podcast, Yvonne McCoy is joined by Jennie Bellinger, a podcasting and network marketing coach. Jennie Bellinger shares how a series of small and unexpected decisions led her from teaching to entrepreneurship, and eventually to building a thriving coaching business and two successful podcasts. She details the practical steps she took to monetize her show even before launching, debunks common podcasting myths, and offers actionable strategies for both aspiring podcasters and guests. The conversation highlights the importance of mindset, taking imperfect action, building authentic relationships, and how small changes can yield remarkable transformations.

Guest Bio:

Jennie Bellinger is a dynamic business coach, speaker, and podcaster specializing in network marketing and podcast monetization. With a background as a middle school science teacher, she transitioned into entrepreneurship during the 2010 recession, finding success in direct sales and later as a certified professional coach. Jennie Bellinger is noted for helping women in network marketing increase sales, build teams, and develop confidence, and now empowers entrepreneurs to leverage podcasting as a tool for both growth and income.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to One Small Change

05:30 Building a Network Marketing Career

07:35 Helping women style jewelry confidently

12:30 Struggles convincing clients to join

15:51 Nurturing relationships with opportunities

18:09 Making money with a new podcast

22:41 Explaining practical application

26:14 Choosing workout classes that work for you

28:10 Discovering Pilates benefits

30:36 Encouragement for personal growth

Quote from the Guest:

"Imperfect action is better than no action at all."

Link:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/badasspodcastmastery/

https://badassdirectsalesmastery.com/

Welcome to The One Small Change, and I am thrilled as always that

you have chosen to join me and embark on this journey of

exploration and transformation. For those of you who don't know,

I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of

entrepreneurial experience. But here's the thing, I have a passion for

discovering growth through the power of seemingly small change,

and part of what I do is I try to bring really interesting people

to you every week that you can expand your

perspective and grow your business and see what's possible for

you, um, without having to do huge things and make

potentially a small change. And our guest today

is Jennie Bellinger, and she is going to share a small or

unexpected or insignificant decision that sparked a remarkable

transformation and growth in her life, whether it was

personal or

Jennie, thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited because you're

going to be talking about a topic I need. Well,

thank you for having me here. I am so excited

for this episode today. So tell everybody

who you are, what you do, and how, you know, you got

to be the expert that you are at what you do.

Yeah. So mine is a bit of

like a winding, long winding journey that, you know, I am

the preeminent

example of the millennials who have already gone through multiple

job changes because I'm an elder millennial, you

know, younger end of the Gen X generation in that

I've now already had 3 different

businesses. And, uh,

2 careers. So I think that's the

thing that makes you, that makes you unique.

Yeah. Because not many people are going to have those kinds of experiences

that you had. Right, exactly. So, you know, I

started as a middle school science teacher, took some time off to, you know, become

a mom and, and do the mom things for a little while. And

then when it was time for me to go back into the workforce, uh,

we were in the middle of that recession. back in 2010.

And so schools didn't have a lot of money to hire a teacher that had

experience. And so I went through

18 nos between April and August of

that year, you know, different interviews, like, we love

you, we wish we could hire you, but we can't. We're going to hire the

brand new college graduate. I was like, okay,

you know, so I finally took the sign from the universe that that was

not where I was meant to go in my next journey of life, next step

in the journey of my life. And so finally said, okay, fine, if I'm not

doing this, what? And that's when entrepreneurship, like,

literally fell into my lap. And I had the opportunity just to

jump in with a jewelry company that,

you know, would go into women's homes and share the jewelry, you

know, network marketing style. And I got really good at it

because— It was fun, you know, like how much fun. I think

you'll like that too. Right? I mean, for me, it,

it felt like playing Barbies at 30-something,

you know, like, because I got to walk in, have all these pretty

things, and be like, here, go put them on, play, just, just play.

And that's what we did. We would be like, oh my God, that necklace would

look so good on you, and you should try these earrings, and you should do

that, you know. It was so much fun and it was easy. So

here's, here's, you're saying that this is

easy. Yeah. But what you did for people in

that playing was help them see themselves in a

different light. Yeah. Fill a vacuum that they had. And that's really

what good sales is about. Mm-hmm. That

people can identify themselves. I jokingly say,

When I was a teenager, we, you know, I came from a strict home and

we didn't do makeup and stuff like that. Right. Mm-hmm. And I feel

like in my 70s, I'm now becoming a teenager, like, oh, I want to

do this. I'm doing, you know, toner. I'm doing, you know, that kind of

stuff. And so, you know, we have those holes

that, you know, we, we like, we want to try it, but, you know, whatever.

And so if you as a person in whatever you're

doing can make that person feel like, I can do this.

It's okay. I'm not alone. Do you know

what a wonderful gift, whether it's jewelry, it's makeup,

it's knowledge, whatever. Yeah. And it really

was. It was, you know, I got the opportunity and I

had many women, you know, come back to me later and talk about

how the shift for them was They

knew a little bit more about how to put jewelry together and they

felt more confident. So when they left their house,

they, they, you know, backs were a little straighter. They felt a little more

confident and they got more compliments. So then they were feeling better about themselves because

people were noticing differences. They didn't know what it was, which was so interesting.

Like, yeah. Did you change your hair? Did you do something? Did you lose weight?

I don't know what's different about you. And it, Many times was just the fact

that they just knew what to do with jewelry now to actually layer it

and do whatever. Mm-hmm. And, you know,

getting good at that sales piece and working with my clients, but

then also starting to build a team. And, you know, I

became known for, you know, being able to help women,

uh, promote in the business, earn the trips,

earn the cars, earn Earn the bonuses, earn the whatever.

And that started getting

outside of the company that I was with. And so,

you know, jewelry was my first business. My second business was I ended up becoming

a coach in the network marketing space and helping

people in network marketing, mostly women. But that's just because,

I mean, the numbers are there. 76% of the industry is female.

So helped a lot of women with their businesses get

better at sales, get more comfortable in sales, know how to grow a

team, and know how to lead and lead very comfortably.

Let me ask you a question. What was, um,

like the, the biggest hurdle for women or

anybody to make sales? Oh,

it's to get over that inner block. of

asking for money, because that's how they were

seeing it, is I'm asking for money. And I'm like,

no, what you're doing is telling people how they can buy the thing that they

already want. You're only asking for money, you're only being pushy and

gross if you're trying to sell something to somebody who doesn't want it. Yes,

right. I mean, I think that is so important.

I used to jokingly say When I first got into sales,

I thought kind of like used cars, used car salesmen,

or the lady goes, hon, you look great in that pink

polka dot dress when you knew you looked

horrible. You know, but if you, if

you think of sales as a service, you're actually helping

them to get what they want and what they need. Exactly.

And you're being selfish if you don't help them. Exactly. And, and

that's the thing is it's really about

helping people see, okay, what's the problem that you're solving with the,

the, the product or service that you have, right? So as

long as you're talking to people who have that problem, then it's really up to

them to decide whether or not that's the solution that they want,

right? So many times women would show up to these parties

wanting to you know, have a good time. And they were like, yeah, I'll

probably buy some jewelry to help my friend. But by the end of it, they

were like, oh my gosh, I had no idea I was going to learn

how to actually put jewelry on, right?

They didn't realize that there was a way to do it so that they felt

more confident and could put looks

together and not just throw a necklace on, throw on a

pair of matching earrings, and da da, you know. Yeah. and maybe a bracelet and

a ring or whatever. There's, there were things that they could learn, right?

So it was by helping make it edutainment,

you know, because a lot of what I did had, you know, little bits of

humor to it. Mm-hmm. Because, you know, if women laugh, if people

laugh, they're going to then associate this was a good time. So even if

they didn't buy, they had a good time with Jennie. Mm-hmm.

Right, was really what it was about. So, um,

you know, but getting into the network marketing coaching piece, you know, I

became a certified professional coach so that I was, you

know, because I knew my company's stuff,

but when I started venturing out and working with people in other

companies, I wanted to make sure I wasn't like screwing anything up. So

I became a certified professional coach so that way I felt more

comfortable and confident in my coaching and what I was

offering and how I was really helping people. And not just— I wasn't a

trainer, I wasn't a consultant, but I was

actually helping them figure out what are their goals, not what are the goals

you think you're supposed to have, but what are the goals that actually

matter to you? Yeah. Right. And in

this process of starting a coaching business, I

realized, oh my gosh, people are not out on Google looking

for me. How weird is that?

And I was trying to figure out, like,

how do I get the word out about what I'm doing now, you know, as

a network marketing coach? Because people didn't know that network marketing coaches

existed. I mean, there really were maybe a couple of

big names, and none of them were female at the time.

And so I realized that I needed to get the word out.

And I was trying to figure out what to do. And somebody said, you should

start a podcast. And I went,

you're crazy. I'm trying to, trying to build a business here. I don't,

I don't need to learn how to do a podcast. And then

one of my friends who's in the podcasting world said, well, what if your

podcast could build your business at the same time? Would you do it then? I

was like, I'm listening.

And so then from there, once I figured that out and I

hired a coach to help me with that. And it was the gentleman who

presented the idea of what if it could build your business at the same time?

And that's when I said, you know, okay, let's do this. And so we

built my first podcast. And in the process of

building my first podcast, I built my first coaching business.

And that's— and I did it with the podcast

without an audience at all. My first podcast had money

in the bank. before it ever went live?

Okay, so, so I think that's

what we need to talk about because that's what makes you

an expert at what you do. So tell us more.

Tell me more. Yeah, absolutely. So one

of the, one of the things that I've now, looking back,

realized was a, a, a benefit that I had at the time

was that I didn't have a limiting belief that,

that a podcast had to have like millions of downloads and a massive

audience to make money. Because my friend presented the

option to me that my podcast could make money with

not even a small audience, but with no audience. And I was like, well, if

you show me how, I'll do it. And I did. I was his very

first client who did everything he said, and I made money. Very

quickly, and it was because I leveraged the show

as a way to get in front of people who I had been

trying to talk to for like

months, if not like a year or more.

You know, people who I had seen on social media—they had a network marketing

business. I could see that they were struggling.

But they, when I would reach out to them to offer a coaching session, they

wouldn't take me up on it. Because they were like, they were

telling themselves stories in their head about what a coach does

and how much they cost. And they didn't know what I could do

for them. But without talking to them, I couldn't

tell them what I could do for them.

But what I could do was reach out to them and say, oh my gosh,

Yvonne, I see that you have this amazing network marketing

business. I've been watching you on Facebook posting

about it. Would, would you be willing to

be one of my first guests on my new podcast that's all about network

marketers sharing their stories and, and talking

about their business and how this is helping them and

helping their family? And it becomes a piece of marketing material for you. Would you

be interested in that? And then Yvonne would go, why, of

course you want, you want me on your podcast?

It got my foot in the door with people who I had been trying. I

had been like banging on the door without trying to be pushy

or whatever, you know, like we had just talked about. So

here I am trying to get in the door and all I

needed to do was give them a place where they could come talk about themselves.

And so how does that— how does— how

does that turn into money on the first show? It sounds

like— it sounds like a miracle. I mean— Right. So,

so what I did was, before I ever launched the show,

I made sure I had 10 interviews in the can, because I

know myself well enough as somebody who lives with ADHD that if I

Didn't set up a system and a process in place to have a

number of episodes already recorded. So I've always got something

going that I'm not in that perpetual, oh

crap, I've got to get an episode out this week. Because that's a great way

for me to just like shut down and not do anything. Mm-hmm. Right?

It's better to keep me in constant motion. Right? So I'm

constantly recording episodes. So I've always got

something in the can somewhere. So I had 10 episodes,

10 interviews, I should say. I actually had 13 episodes in the can

when I launched. So I launched with my welcome

episode and a couple of solo episodes sharing more about me and my

coaching and who I am and what I'm doing. But then I had these other

10 interviews with women in network marketing.

2 of those 10 became my coaching

client before we went live.

So through the process of having conversations with them,

not trying to sell them, but just having

conversations, because then they wanted to know, so why are you starting

the podcast? Well, I'm starting the podcast so people know who I am and

what I do. Oh, what do you do?

Well, I help people like you who are in network marketing

increase their sales without feeling gross, grow their team

without bugging friends, family, and complete strangers, and

become confident leaders of their team. So,

so this is the thing that I want to say. You're talking— you're saying this

about network marketing. Yeah, this is true of anything.

Yeah, podcast world. And here's the other thing I think that

people, um, you know, I have my Be

Found framework, and one of them is nurture your relationships. And

here's the thing, if you can give

people something that opens the door— I call it the

appetizer, right? So one of my appetizers is

I have my Sunday Scoop, which is a newsletter that I post events

that anybody can post their event in. That's like that's a win

for you. I mean, you know, you can do it when you're ready. It's no

pressure. And people are like, oh my God, this is great, you know.

Um, the other thing is when I do, do my

connection calls, I try to say, okay, tell me

about yourself. Let's play. Let me see if I can help you with that. Right?

Mm-hmm. And so that's an appetizer. So those

people, a lot of them go, this is— I mean, look what you did for

me in 30 minutes. Let's talk about working together, right? Or

they'll say, you know, I'm not ready for this, but

I know somebody who is, and they can talk about you

because they've experienced you. Yeah, right. Nobody's

gonna buy— nobody buys an ad per se. I

mean, you know, it, it, it's not going to get you a

long-term client. And so I think, you know, what you're saying

is absolutely fantastic. What I do with my podcast is

I do, um, podcasting for partners. So I

also do panels and summits, but I only invite people who have been on

my podcast to be on those. It's a way of continuing the

relationship and making it deeper. And I know

that they promoted the podcast, so they'll promote the other thing.

And, you know, you invite the people you have fun with. Yeah.

Right. So, so that's all right. We— I can't believe that

we've been talking as long as we have. So let's, let's make sure we don't

run out of time. Sure. Tell me, tell us

like 3 things that you think that people should do or can do

right away, whether they are starting a podcast or if they're a guest on a

podcast. Well, either side of the coin. Yeah, the

first step is believing that it is possible for a

podcast to make money with no audience, because I've done it

twice and many of my clients now have done it.

So if we all can do it, then it's possible for other

people. So if someone's thinking about starting a podcast, it is possible to

make money early. So don't listen to the people who are like, oh

no, you have to have like so many downloads or so many followers on

YouTube before you could— that's ad revenue.

What I do is not based on ad revenue, right? And

what I help my clients with is not based on ad revenue. Now, do I

say you can do ad revenue or should or whatever?

I don't know. It depends on the show. So there are many

models. Oh, so many different. Yeah. You need to pick a

model that you're comfortable with. Yeah, exactly. And so if

somebody wants to do the ad revenue model, great, go ahead. But

here's the thing, 95% of podcasts

have not created a new episode in the last 90 days because they're not

monetized. They're not getting an ROI and they're

not incentivized enough to build to that

audience of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours on YouTube in order to

make ad revenue. And so

it really starts with that mindset of it's possible to make money

earlier than other people think it is. And so that's number one.

Love it. Number 2 is done is better

than perfect. Done

is better than perfect. If we all worried about being perfect, nobody would have

anything out there ever, because I mean, look at it. The biggest

names in the industry, Apple,

Dell, Intel, like big technology names,

you know, software companies will put out

a product or a service that isn't perfect.

There are Apple computers that

break down. Something happens to it. It's not

perfect, right? Software doesn't always work initially. It

sometimes has some bugs that they didn't find when they put it

in front of 10 beta users or whatever, you know? And you know what else?

I don't have to worry about being perfect. That, that'll never be my issue. But,

but the other part is people relate to that. I mean,

you know, there's nothing worse to me— when I was

really hugely overweight, having the skinny

person say, now I want you to do this. I'm like, my

body can't do that. Right.

You know, you need to, you need to modify this for me. And it

doesn't even, you know, it's like there's no connection or realization

of what's going on. And so it's kind of like, I

always say, whatever happens happens. I'm not editing. Yep.

Get what you get. Exactly. I mean, I regularly— so I,

I have 2 podcasts out there now, and on my first podcast, there's

370-ish episodes out there. And quite

regularly, I'll flub something, flub a line or whatever, and I'll

go, oh, well, isn't it nice to know you don't have to be perfect to

be a podcaster? And then I keep moving on. Yeah, absolutely.

I've done it that way for years because it gives the people who

listen permission to not be perfect. Oh, if Jennie can be

successful and not be perfect, then I can be

successful and not be perfect. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Right. And, and, and yeah. And so 3 would be

take action. When you learn something

that somebody says, hey, this has worked for me, and

they tell you what to do, then go do the things, right?

Take Action, because imperfect action is better

than no action at all. Because I actually learned this from one of my

information minus

implementation equals information.

Actually, worse than that, because information

minus implementation puts you back

into limiting beliefs. I can't do it. So,

it costs you even more. I mean, I absolutely— I mean, that's one of the

things that I say all the time is there used to be a

time when information made you an expert. No more. Because

you can find information everywhere. That's right. What makes you an

expert is being able to take that information and

show you how to implement it. And I have this really weird

question, which I won't go into. I'll tell you at another time. But the

idea of it is How would I use this?

Yeah, right. If you can tell me how I would use it, then that

clears up a whole lot of things and what the, you know, what I'm gonna

get from it, right? As opposed, as opposed to just like,

this is a great thing, you should do it, right? Yeah, absolutely.

You've got a gift for us. I do, I do.

So I have, for anybody who's interested in the

podcasting space and wants to know more, either they're already in

the podcasting space Or they are thinking about getting into it. I

have a 25-minute on-demand webinar, meaning watch

it anytime you want. So if you're listening to this episode at 2 o'clock in

the morning in your pajamas with insomnia, great. Click the link

and you can go watch this 25-minute webinar that

shares how I've monetized 8 different ways

in my 2 podcasts. Wow. And it's my way of saying,

here's 8 cookie-cutter ways that I know work

because I've done them in either one or both of my

shows. I literally have made money in

the bank from doing this thing that I'm telling you about. And

it shares what is possible. And then if they want to know more,

it lets them know what, what the next possible step may be that they could

take action on. So it's a great webinar,

25 minutes. And if I don't speak fast enough, they can speed it

up if they want to. They can pause it. They can do whatever They need

to. Here's the thing. If this is

something that you're interested in, 25 minutes is nothing,

right? If it's going to get you much closer to what you're

doing. And what I find is the things that you react to

are things that you're already interested in. So you don't have to do all 8

of them. You can pick 1 or 2 and go, wait, I can add this

to what I already have. Now I'm ready. You know, now it's going to build.

And I think sometimes people don't connect the dots like that. So they really

get leveraged action, you know, about what they're doing.

I mean, it's, it's, you know, so I'm telling you right now,

if you can't find 25 minutes in your life

to do something that you want to do,

it's not about podcasting. It's about taking a look at your life.

Yeah, exactly. And so What

I have— what I— that, that is so unbelievably true,

right? Because we make time for the things that we really want, the things that

really matter. We make time. It's— if you're saying, I'll

find time, or if there's time, it doesn't really

matter to you. And that's something I want—

I want people to like allow that to sink in because that's a

conversation that they need to have with themselves to be like, how much

does this really matter? Am I going to prioritize it enough to put it in

my calendar. So what I tell people is when I share about the

webinar, I say, can you find 25 minutes in the next 24

hours?

Can you do it? And the other thing is, I think,

without, you know, being too, too mean,

we all have certain learning styles. Yeah. For instance, I

have to put it in my calendar. Or I know I won't do it.

Same. And it's interesting because I've started doing

these express exercise classes, and they have

recorded ones, and they have ones that are live. I know that

I have a much better shot of going to the live ones because

it's there and it's gone. The ones,

you know, so for something like this, I know I need to put it in.

I need to put it in when I I know that I'm probably gonna

listen to it, not watch it, and, and, you know, while I'm

doing something else like folding laundry or, you know, whatever.

But then I'll do it. Yeah, exactly. You know, but for

me to just sit down like this to listen, I'm

probably— so you have to know yourself. I mean, I,

you know, I get that. But again, if

25 minutes is gonna get you money,

and you can't make time for that, then how important is your goal to

begin with is what I'm going to say. All right. Enough of that.

I have had so much fun and I know that we could

keep talking and I know that we will be talking in the future.

So I'm going to ask you, when was the last time you did something new

for the first time? I love it. I

just started working with a new personal trainer,

actually, and she is in a style

style of training that is very different. And I

had no idea what I was in for when I started because

it's, it's, um, it's something called functional patterns.

And what it is, is it just gets you to hold your body in different

ways. So I don't know if you've noticed, every once in a while I'm like

straightening my back more because I'm trying to remember to, to, to do what

she's trained me to do. And in doing

this, it was It's interesting because it puts your body in

positions that you've never had to do before.

Like, yeah. What I, what I hear about that is

I started doing Pilates last year. And what

I find that I find so amazing is just

holding your hand a little bit different and doing the

same exercises works different muscles. And it

just, you know, it's like you can do something It seems like nothing.

And the next day I can't move. My husband has

started calling me— if I have a really good workout, my husband calls me his

little hobbit because I'm like this.

But it is amazing. Like, whether you put— if you're holding on to a bar,

if you put your thumb with the rest of your fingers, you work different

muscles than if you put your thumb under the bar. I mean, how

small is that? Right. You can really feel it. So,

I get what she's talking about. All right, we're running out of time. I

hate it when I'm having such a good time and I have to—

but, you know, it's kind of one of those things where it makes you want

more. Good! Yeah. That's the way

it should be, right? Yes, absolutely! And, you know,

Yvonne, just for you, I'll come back anytime.

We will talk for sure. So, not a problem. So, anyway, guys,

this is the commercial and I want to make sure that you subscribe and share

and engage. on social media with the podcast. Tell your friends,

especially if you find something that's interesting. And every one of the guests have

brought an amazing gift. So, I mean, you've got like a whole

library there because we've got over 100 episodes. A

couple of them are just me because I like to talk, but there

are plenty of things there for everybody. So, um, the

reason I did this, like I said, is because I want to introduce people into

your world that are going to help your business grow, people that you may not

have thought about. And so I hope that, you know, you'll continue to join

me for the One Small Change and listen

to some of the episodes, get some of the gifts.

Jennie, tell me what you're— what you want people to take away. You've said a

couple of really great things already. So. Yeah, I,

like I mentioned before, really the important piece is

what's the one thing you're going to take action on?

What's the one thing that matters to

you that will move you, you and your business or your goal

Further, faster. Do that one thing.

And I hope that will be put on your calendar when to listen to the

25-minute webinar. All right, guys, gotta go. We don't want

to, but we have to. So I hope that you remember, the

change may seem simple, but it's not always easy, and it requires

courage, resilience, and a willingness to step out of your comfort zone.

If you are not feeling uncomfortable, then you're not doing

anything new. You're stagnating and the world is going forward. So that

means you're actually going backwards. So I hope you will

continue to join me for the One Small Change so you can see

what innovative possibilities there are. And until the very

next time, stay very, very curious. Ginni,

thank you so much. Thank you, Yvonne.

I love it. Bye.