Shownotes
Feeling overwhelmed by the pace of online business lately? You’re not alone. In this solo episode, Jess shares a grounded and personal look at what it really takes to grow a sustainable business in a season full of noise, trends, and pressure to “do more.”
From navigating the chaos of constant content strategies to choosing calm over burnout, Jess explores the real-life lessons she's learned while supporting multi-six- and seven-figure clients behind the scenes—and building her own business that values systems, intention, and peace.
If you’ve ever felt behind, scattered, or just plain tired of chasing the next big thing, this episode is your permission slip to slow down and refocus on what actually matters:
✔ Your people
✔ Your systems
✔ Your energy
✔ Your values
💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why doing more isn’t always the path to growth
- How to simplify your offers and reclaim your energy
- The "garden framework" for building a business in alignment with your season
- What actually drives sustainable success (hint: it’s not your follower count)
- The real cost of chaos—and how to stop paying it
- A powerful tool (WAIM Unlimited) to help you grow with clarity, calm, and confidence
🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned:
- 🧠 Join WAIM Unlimited — Final Enrollment!
- Get lifetime access to 70+ workshops, coaching sessions, and future AI-powered tools.
Bonus: When you join through Jess’s link, you’ll also receive a Notion Success Call to help you personalize your dashboard and stay organized. Email your receipt to Jess@jessicadwalther.com to set up your call.
Meet Your Hosts
Jessica Walther is the founder and CEO of The Launch Collaborative and Sustainable Success Systems. As a launch strategist and systems consultant, Jess is dedicated to helping solo business owners and small-but-mighty teams build businesses that deliver both peace and profit. She specializes in creating sustainable growth strategies that align with her clients' values and lifestyles.
Rachel Lopez is the founder and CEO of Gal Marketing Agency, a boutique email marketing and strategy firm. With over a decade of experience, Rachel helps heart-driven entrepreneurs craft intentional marketing strategies that attract, nurture, and convert leads sustainably. Her human-first approach ensures that marketing efforts feel authentic and effective .
Together, Jess and Rachel blend systems, storytelling, and soulful strategy to help you grow a business that's deeply aligned with your life—not just your revenue goals.
Connect With Us:
Learn with Us
Get Jess's Sustainable Success Systems Starter Kit, a Notion Business Management Systems that takes your business from overwhelmed to organized with 4 foundational workflows. <<Learn More Here>>
Diagnose Common Launch Problems and Fix Them Fast! Get the Launch Cure Guide : https://www.thelaunchcollaborative.com/launch-cure
Get Rachel's Guide to a High-Converting Email list to learn 4 shifts to elevate your emails & embrace sustainability in your marketing. <<Get it Here>>
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Transcripts
I was scrolling through my phone yesterday morning, which, let's be honest, is not the most ideal way to start the day.
Speaker A:And I counted about seven or eight different game changing business strategies in my feed in the first couple of minutes.
Speaker A:And to be honest, this kind of gave me a mild panic attack.
Speaker A:There was an AI tool that was going to change everything.
Speaker A:Google's new VO3, which is going to replace human content creators with really realistic looking AI creators, a fail strategy that promised to 10 times your sales, and someone claiming that if you're not on the latest social media platform, you're basically invisible.
Speaker A:And I thought to myself, no wonder why we are all so freaking exhausted.
Speaker A:I think we can all feel it.
Speaker A:The business world feels like it's moving really fast right now and shifting every 15 minutes.
Speaker A:There's new tools coming out, new trends, new platforms popping up and fizzling out faster than I could even figure out what they're doing.
Speaker A:And meanwhile, you and me, our small little business owners, are trying to run actual businesses, help rural people make a living in this economy, being able to support our family in this economy, and constantly feeling or wondering if we are falling behind because we just didn't jump on the latest trend.
Speaker A:And honestly, like, as someone who preaches sustainability intentionality in their business for a living, I still feel the tug or fight with that little voice inside my head that says you should be doing more.
Speaker A:So what do we do when we're trying to build something sustainable in a world that seems to reward the loudest and the fastest approach to business?
Speaker A:So that's what we're going to be exploring here today.
Speaker A:Because I do think and believe in my heart that there is another way, a calmer way, and it just be might be exactly what you need to hear today.
Speaker A:So if you're new around here, welcome.
Speaker A:My name is Jess.
Speaker A:I'm here solo on the Growing A Deeply Rooted Business podcast.
Speaker A:As Rachel and I shift into our summer slower schedule, we love to take our summer Fridays.
Speaker A:So during the summer we record some solo episodes by ourselves so we can do just that.
Speaker A:So here's the thing about sustainable growth.
Speaker A:If you've been around here for a while, you know that I work behind the scenes in multiple different businesses and I know I get to see and I love to observe and analyze really what sets those entrepreneurs who are able to find a sustainable momentum in their business to those who are a little wandering and like chaotic and lost.
Speaker A:And I've been able to see what actually works.
Speaker A:And I've also, through my own experience, been able to see what doesn't work.
Speaker A:Last year I definitely got veered off on the wrong course.
Speaker A:I was trying to launch a bunch of different offers as I have a bunch of different interests.
Speaker A:I'm constantly fighting that tension between creating something sustainable and, and creating something new.
Speaker A:I think as visionary entrepreneurs, we love to be creative and we love to create new.
Speaker A:But last year I found myself being tugged in a bunch of different directions because it was really feeling like fomo, that if I didn't strike while the iron was hot, I was not going to get to maximize my momentum.
Speaker A:And I think you can all guess what happened.
Speaker A:My creativity completely died.
Speaker A:My calendar became a very nightmarish maze of never ending calls.
Speaker A:And my clients, I knew that I wasn't supporting them fully.
Speaker A:They got the scattered version of me instead of the focused, intentional person that they hired.
Speaker A:And that's when I realized that growth that depletes you isn't really growth, or creating just to create isn't growth.
Speaker A:It's just really busy work.
Speaker A:So at the end of last year, I pulled back to only one or two core offers so that I was able to build some more sustainability around my business.
Speaker A:And I, I'm not the only one.
Speaker A:This happens, I see it everywhere.
Speaker A:People pushing themselves to do more faster because they think that's what success looks like.
Speaker A:But the most of the sustainable businesses I know, they don't do more.
Speaker A:They're not focused on more.
Speaker A:They're focused on doing a few things really well.
Speaker A:My most successful clients have one core offer.
Speaker A:They prioritize one clear platform and they really are okay with that.
Speaker A:Last month I had a client who I was serving.
Speaker A:She was trying to juggle a podc on YouTube, a bunch of different lead magnets, a couple courses in her service business, and she was drowning.
Speaker A:And it's no wonder that she was drowning because she had this business model that didn't fit her actual capacity.
Speaker A:So we stripped it back to just her pour our service and one lead magnet that actually worked and made sense to lead to our offer.
Speaker A:And her revenue didn't drop.
Speaker A:It actually increased because she could finally focus.
Speaker A:So here's the thing that keeps us up through the night.
Speaker A:We think we're behind.
Speaker A:We think someone else launched faster, has more followers, seem to practice the code that we don't know about.
Speaker A:But you're not behind.
Speaker A:You're just craving something more grounded, something that supports you, something that works for your pace of life and the piece that you're trying to work towards.
Speaker A:I know that analogies.
Speaker A:Is that what I'M about to do are a little cheesy.
Speaker A:But I really love and I've always related running a business to tending a garden.
Speaker A:And I have a little small garden in my backyard.
Speaker A:And I didn't try to plant 40 different vegetables at once.
Speaker A:I chose what vegetables would make sense for what season we are currently in and what I actually wanted to eat and enjoy.
Speaker A:And I committed to nurturing that.
Speaker A:When I first started off in this business, when I first left corporate, I used to think that I had to plant every single idea that I had.
Speaker A:Launch this offer, create this new lead magnet, test this new strategy.
Speaker A:And now I really try to ask myself, what am I available to take care of right now?
Speaker A:What will grow the best with the energy I have, not the energy or the team that I wish I had.
Speaker A:So maybe the season is about nurturing your existing clients and really dialing into your core service.
Speaker A:Maybe it's about creating one new offer and giving it your full attention it needs to actually grow.
Speaker A:Maybe it's about clearing the weeds or getting rid of the things in your business that are draining your energy without getting much back.
Speaker A:But you don't need to do it all at once.
Speaker A:It's not about doing less because you're lazy or because you're scared.
Speaker A:It's about doing the right things so that you can do them exceptionally well.
Speaker A:And when we try to take on too much, when we try to keep up with every trend, every new platform, every new opportunity, we really stop trusting ourselves.
Speaker A:We start looking outside of ourselves for validation.
Speaker A:Instead of checking in with what actually works for our business and our goals, we could often fall into the trap of creating a business that looks impressive from the outside, but feels chaotic and unsustainable in the inside.
Speaker A:And I've seen it happen with clients.
Speaker A:I've felt it in my own body.
Speaker A:Waking up with that like, tight chest panic feeling because I've had too many tabs open in my brain and nowhere to process them.
Speaker A:I had a conversation with someone last week who told me she felt like she was failing at entrepreneurship because she couldn't keep up with content that she was supposed to be creating.
Speaker A:She had a six figure business.
Speaker A:Six figures.
Speaker A:But she felt like she was a failure because she her Instagram wasn't growing fast enough.
Speaker A:That's the cost of chaos.
Speaker A:It makes us forget what actually matters.
Speaker A:So what does matter?
Speaker A:And what should we actually be paying attention to when everything feels like it's moving fast?
Speaker A:Your people, These are the ones that are already saying yes to their offer.
Speaker A:The ones who are referring the friends, the ones whose problem you actually, actually solve.
Speaker A:They matter more than any algorithm.
Speaker A:Your systems, the boring stuff that keeps your business running smoothly and you're bringing at peace.
Speaker A:The way that you onboard clients, the way that you deliver your work, the way that you follow up.
Speaker A:These aren't the sexiest part of businesses.
Speaker A:And I know because trying to market these things as a sustainable systems expert, it's really hard versus saying I'm gonna give you six figures.
Speaker A:But these are the things that are going to create the foundation for sustainable growth.
Speaker A:Your energy.
Speaker A:This one is a non negotiable.
Speaker A:If you're running on empty in your business, if you're burnt out, if you're depleting, nothing else is going to work.
Speaker A:If you're not working, your creativity will suffer, your decision making will get cloudy and you'll start to make choices from a place of scarcity instead of abundance.
Speaker A:And your values, what do you actually believe in?
Speaker A:About business, about service, about what success looks like.
Speaker A:When you get really clear on these, it becomes so much easier to say no to shiny objects and to say yes to what actually aligns with who you are.
Speaker A:So I want to give you permission to slow down, permission to choose depth over width, permission to focus on what's working instead of constantly chasing what's new.
Speaker A:And permission to build a business that supports your life instead of swallowing it.
Speaker A:This isn't about complacency.
Speaker A:This isn't about being afraid of growth.
Speaker A:This is about being intentional.
Speaker A:This is about building something that can weather this uncertain time because it's rooted in something stronger that is deeper than trends.
Speaker A:Speaking of building something rooted in four days, the doors to WAME Unlimited are going to be opening for the last time.
Speaker A:And if you've followed my journey for a while, you know that I absolutely adore and rave about my business.
Speaker A:Coaches Jason and Caroline Zook.
Speaker A:They are like the smartest humans that I have ever witnessed.
Speaker A:And I'm constantly blown away by how they are both able to stay super intentional and grounded in their business, but also ahead of the curve.
Speaker A:My business would not be here without wame.
Speaker A:And anytime I'm feeling a little bit scattered or uncertain, I can just log onto their platform and be able to come up with a clear action step for growth or develop a system that'll actually help me achieve what I'm trying to achieve.
Speaker A:So this is going to be like the last official launch of their program called waim, which is a online group coaching program.
Speaker A:It's got over 70 different courses, like about real Tangible, actionable strategies.
Speaker A:Each workshop comes with a a packet and they really take you from idea concept creation all the way down to launching and serving your clients.
Speaker A:They basically got a resource for everything and like a cool little roadmap that helps you identify where you're at right now and what strategic step you need to focus on in your business.
Speaker A:They also do monthly coaching sessions and that's all the stuff that they are going to be retiring.
Speaker A:But when you buy wame, it's the most unique genius offer.
Speaker A:You get unlimited access to anything that Jimmy Sen and Caroline create in the future.
Speaker A:And they've been completely nerding out about AI.
Speaker A:They've been one of my main resources for how to implement AI in my business and my client's business.
Speaker A:And they've actually been creating a bunch of AI powered tools that help creators work faster.
Speaker A:So you're not only going to get access to the coaching and training that includes 80 different workshops, templates and coaching sessions, but you're also going to get access to all the future AI tools that they create.
Speaker A:So that means your business will not just be supported today, it'll be future proof with tools designed specifically for online business owners like us.
Speaker A:And if you join through my link, I'm including my notion success call.
Speaker A:When you join Wayne, you also get a notion dashboard.
Speaker A:So I'll walk you through how to get that set up and how to personalize it towards your business.
Speaker A:So if you've ever thought about joining wame, this is your moment.
Speaker A:I'll put my link down in the show notes.
Speaker A:So here's what I want you to remember from today.
Speaker A:The business world is always going to be feeling like it's moving super fast.
Speaker A:There will always be new tools, new strategies and new things that you could be doing.
Speaker A:But your job is not to do everything.
Speaker A:Your job is to do the right things for your business, the people and your life.
Speaker A:And if you need this reminder, you're not behind, you're not missing out.
Speaker A:You're building something that lasts and that takes time.
Speaker A:It takes intention and it takes the courage to choose your own path instead of trying to follow everyone else.
Speaker A:Trust yourself.
Speaker A:Trust your timeline.
Speaker A:Trust that slow and steady will win the race.
Speaker A:And that's exactly how you build a business that you will actually enjoy running.
Speaker A:If you found this episode helpful, make sure you like it.
Speaker A:Subscribe to our channel.
Speaker A:Rachel will be back next week with a solo episode.
Speaker A:Share this with a business bestie and if you have any comments, hit us up on Instagram.
Speaker A:Thanks for listening.
Speaker A:Until next week.
Speaker A:I'm rooting for you.
