Every coach has faced it: that moment of doubt, hesitation, or panic that whispers, “What if I fail?” For many, this fear leads to procrastination, perfectionism, or abandoning their dream altogether.

In this powerful episode of The Abundant Coach, co-host Jennifer Joy Jiménez takes you behind the curtain of her own entrepreneurial journey—from losing tens of thousands of dollars on product launches to building a thriving, multi-million-dollar coaching business.

She shares raw, real lessons about failure, reframes it as a stepping stone instead of a stop sign, and gives you practical tools to help yourself—and your clients—overcome fear of failure.

Key Takeaways:

• Why fear of failure is really about identity, not just money or time
• The clever disguises fear uses to keep you stuck
• How failure can reveal your most profitable strategies
• A 3-step method to shift from fear-based to vision-based decision making

Stop Letting Fear Hold You Back

Finally build the coaching business of your dreams! Join the Life Coach Accelerator 5-Day Challenge—completely free.

In just five days, you’ll:

• Discover your why and who you’re meant to help
• Learn the most important steps to create a sustainable business
• Overcome the money blocks and fears that keep most coaches stuck
• Gain the tools to attract clients and confidently charge what you’re worth

👉 Reserve your spot now!

Your coaching future is waiting.

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Welcome to the Abundant Coach. This is a weekly podcast about creating

full spectrum success with a thriving coaching business, while making

a profound difference in the world. Each week, you'll discover

insights, strategies, and inspiration to help you attract your ideal

clients. Create real transformation and grow your coaching business

while living your purpose with true freedom and fulfillment. Hi there!

Unknown

Welcome back to the Abundant Coach. My name is Jennifer Joy Jiménez.

It is my absolute pleasure to be your host for today's episode. I am

one of the co-founders of Brave Thinking Institute. We are the premier

training center for transformational coaching. I run a multi-million

dollar speaking, teaching coaching business, and I want to start with

a confession that one of my very first endeavors as an entrepreneur,

really a change agent.

Unknown

Someone wanting to help give content. Coach people teach, you know,

programs was a now this dates me. I just turned 50 this year. So just

putting things into perspective when my youngest, who's now 19, was in

my womb, I produced a DVD as a way to teach to coach. My background is

wellness and fitness. That product cost me $50,000 and I never

recouped that money.

Unknown

Cut to later, about a decade later, I'm now launching my coaching and

wellness business, and that product cost me $20,000 to build. Now,

this is more of an online product trait, something that I'm launching

online. It's no longer DVDs are long gone. By then I thought I did

everything right. I partnered with somebody who had a couple hundred

thousand people on their email list.

Unknown

We did an affiliate launch. We sold 800 units of this original

coaching program, and product. The problem was we sold it for $28. It

was a 28 day and $28 challenge. An online challenge. I don't know if

any of you ever remember the Oprah Winfrey, you know, and Deepak

Chopra 14 day meditation challenge. It was kind of like that for

wellness.

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And so if you're doing the math 800 people, that's amazing. However,

we only generated $22,400 in sales, which basically if you subtract

the $20,000 it cost me to create it and launch it, we only made $2,400

in profit. Now, I don't know about you, but I've got a family of five.

We live in Southern California that is not going to cut it.

And so if you're doing the math 800 people, that's amazing. However,

we only generated $22,400 in sales, which basically if you subtract

the $20,000 it cost me to create it and launch it, we only made $2,400

in profit. Now, I don't know about you, but I've got a family of five.

We live in Southern California that is not going to cut it.

Unknown

And it's definitely not something that's reproducible month in and

month out. It's just not sustainable. So as much as it felt good to

sell 800 units, it was an absolute gut punch. So why does this matter

and how does it really relate to you? Failure. Right. Failure. We

we've all we all have our stories. Right? Maybe you tried to launch

your coaching business years ago and failed.

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And then that led to years of just kind of twiddling your thumbs, or

you've tried something on social media and it didn't work out, or you

tried to launch your VIP program and it no one bought it. And so then

you kind of reverted back to your lower price programs. Or maybe

you're selling one off sessions. So whatever your version of this

story is, failure can either be a stop sign, right?

Unknown

Or it can be a stepping stone. And that's what it was for me. I didn't

let those first initial big product launches, where I invested tens of

thousands of dollars and never really fully recoup my money to stop me

from. Ultimately, today, I am a highly successful entrepreneur. I run

a multi-million dollar generating, successful speaking, teaching and

coaching business in the wellness space and it is sustainable and we

do generate hundreds of thousands of dollars every single month in

revenue.

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So how did I get there? And one of the most important things is that

not to allow the fear of failure to keep you from making your move,

and most importantly, making your great difference in the world. So

today's episode is for you. If that's something that you have

struggled with, right? Is that sort of feeling like you're two steps

forward and three steps back, or that a failure in the past really

keeps you from taking those big, bold, brave actions?

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Or maybe you just want some additional tips for your own coaching

clients. That's fine too. We're going to talk about turning failure

really into your stepping stone. So here's what we're going to cover

today. What's really behind the fear of failure. How it disguises

itself in your life and in your clients lives, and really, how to

shift from fear based to vision driven decision making, right, and why

failure can actually be your best business partner.

Or maybe you just want some additional tips for your own coaching

clients. That's fine too. We're going to talk about turning failure

really into your stepping stone. So here's what we're going to cover

today. What's really behind the fear of failure. How it disguises

itself in your life and in your clients lives, and really, how to

shift from fear based to vision driven decision making, right, and why

failure can actually be your best business partner.

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So let's dive in to our number one topic. And that is what's really

behind the fear of failure. Most people think that failure, or the

fear of failure is about not wanting to lose money, or all the waste

of time or credibility. But really, what I've learned and what I found

is at the root, the root of fear.

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Right? And I love the acronym f e a r, which stands for false evidence

Appearing real. Oftentimes we're just simply fearing the unknown, or

we're carrying a past failure into our present moment when we're not

the same person we were a year ago or ten years ago when we failed. So

we can't possibly repeat that exact same result because we're not the

same person.

Unknown

But the fear of failure is really usually about a deeper identity.

What will people think of me if I fall short, or if I put myself out

there and fail? Will this prove the naysayers that I'm really not cut

out for this? Will I finally confirm my worst fear that I'm not

enough? You know, a lot of people struggle with the imposter syndrome.

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Have you ever felt like you were an imposter? You know, and it doesn't

matter if you have three degrees hanging on the wall. Oftentimes some

of in my experience, some of my most successful clients who are the

most educated are the ones that some of them have. The greatest fears

of failure. That's one of the reasons why they have so many degrees on

the wall, is to cover up some of those internal, fears and, you know,

feeling really of inadequacy, right, that they're inadequate.

Unknown

So fear is primal. Our brains are wired to avoid risk because

historically, failure could mean not only danger, but failure could

mean death. So today, though, the problem with the fear that can

really cause us to be in fight or flight or freeze, right isn't a

sabertooth tiger right that we're facing? It's Instagram posts or zoom

launches or VIP client offers, but our nervous system doesn't actually

know the difference between a client saying no and being eaten by a

sabertooth tiger.

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So there are some tools that we can use to really not only help

ourselves face our fear and do it afraid, right? But most importantly,

our clients. So many of your clients, my clients, they want to go for

the big thing. They want to take that big leap. They are frozen in

fear. So our clue number two or topic number two is how fear disguises

itself.

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So fear really it rarely and almost never announces itself to us,

right? So we're thinking we want to do something. We want to put

ourselves out there. Maybe your client wants to go on that date, or

they want to launch that new business, or they want to quit their day

job, or they really want to start getting healthier.

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And they've tried and failed over and over and over again, and they

just can't handle the thought of failing again. Right. And that's

self-sabotage, right? So fear doesn't say, hi there. This is fear. I'm

here to stop you. Right? Instead, it's super clever and it disguises

itself as logic, perfectionism, procrastination over researching. What

does that look like? So logic, now's not the right time.

Unknown

We call that also dissuasion. It tries to talk you out of it, right?

Doesn't say hey, I'm fear keeping you from your goals and dreams. It

just actually sounds like your logical mind. And a lot of those

statements sound very logical. So you're like, you know, yeah, you

maybe that's right. Maybe I shouldn't do it right now. I should get my

ducks in a row first.

Unknown

That's fear speaking perfectionism. I just need to tweak it a little

more. Right? How many times have you maybe written a blog or gone to

post something on social and you're like, oh, and there's just this

overactive inner critic or this overactive perfectionist part of you

that just wants to look perfect and have it look good, right?

Procrastination.

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So again, it doesn't announce that it's procrastination and that it's

wanting to sabotage you. It just says, you know what, let's do it

after the holidays. Or you know what? I'm going to start that thing

when I get back from vacation, like after Thanksgiving. Then I'll

start the new wellness plan, right? So we all know that one. And over

researching or overcompensating.

So again, it doesn't announce that it's procrastination and that it's

wanting to sabotage you. It just says, you know what, let's do it

after the holidays. Or you know what? I'm going to start that thing

when I get back from vacation, like after Thanksgiving. Then I'll

start the new wellness plan, right? So we all know that one. And over

researching or overcompensating.

Unknown

So I just need one more certification or one more. Let me go back to

school, get my PhD, then I'll write that book. Right. And here's what

I know a really good book. Nobody really cares. I mean, depending on

what you're writing the book about. But even so, even if you think it

needs the research and the science and the PhD, you can interview

those people.

Unknown

You don't have to have a PhD yourself unless it's your big dream, and

then you know, all the better for it or go for it right? You get my

point. So my, you know, $20,000 failure story, right when I created

that first low. And it's kind of like a lead magnet coaching program

product, I thought that I had the winning formula I'd seen, you know,

I'm looking at Oprah doing this 14 day meditation challenge.

Unknown

That's $14. I'm like, I could do that. That would be amazing, right?

I'm doing the math and thinking we have hundreds of thousands of

people on our list that could we could generate 100 grand doing that.

You know? So I had partnered with someone who had a massive list. I

priced it low, so lots of people would purchase it.

Unknown

And then my goal was to use that momentum to scale, right, and to

rinse and repeat. Well, 800 people said yes, right? It felt amazing.

But the math didn't work. Obviously spending $20,000 to make a $28

product and ending up with $2,400 in profit. And then the thing that I

didn't think through was, now what? I wasn't swimming in partners or

affiliates who had hundreds of thousands of people on their list.

Unknown

And typically people who do have that kind of list, they're booked out

for the next year in partnerships or affiliate launches. Right? So it

wasn't sustainable and I didn't really have. The biggest issue was

these 800 people were hungry to do the next thing. And I hadn't

thought through my upsell plan or really have a bigger strategy around

that.

Unknown

So here's the turning point. What I realized was, as I began to launch

my coaching business, where a lot of back back in the day, right,

everybody was telling you to have a free gift or a low priced beginner

program, that then people would do the $500 thing and then the $1,500

thing, and then eventually they might get to the $5,000 or 10 or 15 or

$20,000 coaching package.

So here's the turning point. What I realized was, as I began to launch

my coaching business, where a lot of back back in the day, right,

everybody was telling you to have a free gift or a low priced beginner

program, that then people would do the $500 thing and then the $1,500

thing, and then eventually they might get to the $5,000 or 10 or 15 or

$20,000 coaching package.

Unknown

Right. And they needed to start low. That was sort of my my thinking.

And I was afraid to have somebody I met just off the street or at the

coffee shop or somebody that was referred to me somehow in my mind

back then, I didn't think they'd be ready to jump right into a $10,000

coaching program. Well, man, was I wrong.

Unknown

What I realized very quickly and what helped me go from making almost

no money as a coach to today generating millions, is turning that

triangle on its head and turning it the other way around. Actually

having opportunities, whether it be a free workshop or today, I do

things like free Facebook challenges or a free webinar, but it's a

free opportunity for people to get to know you into a one on one, get

to know you conversation aka sales.

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Call people the right people, and if you've done a good job of

creating, know, like and trust factor will jump immediately into your

10,000 or more coaching program. And that's what I ended up doing,

right? So instead of saying this doesn't work, I'm not cut out for

this. Instead, I asked a really important question. I said, what is

this here to teach me?

Unknown

When I walked away from that launch with only $2,400 in my pocket,

which I and I ended up splitting, by the way, with the affiliate. So

$1,200 in my pocket, right? The lesson was clear. What I ended up

doing was I built my business on a handful of high end VIP clients. So

think about ten clients. At $10,000, that's $120,000 in revenue,

taking the profit from that right to fund the lower priced programs,

lead magnets and the larger growth plan.

Unknown

So ultimately, as painful as that first failure was, it really became

my blueprint for a more sustainable model. And it taught me something

that I carry to this day, that you, whether you win or you quote

unquote, lose money, right? Or whether it's a success or, you know,

perceived failure, it's all learning. It's all learning. And I

actually have found in my own business and in my mentors that have

helped me build what I am doing today, oftentimes is the failures that

teach us the most.

So ultimately, as painful as that first failure was, it really became

my blueprint for a more sustainable model. And it taught me something

that I carry to this day, that you, whether you win or you quote

unquote, lose money, right? Or whether it's a success or, you know,

perceived failure, it's all learning. It's all learning. And I

actually have found in my own business and in my mentors that have

helped me build what I am doing today, oftentimes is the failures that

teach us the most.

Unknown

So our fourth topic is shifting from fear based decision making to

vision based decision making. So as we're making decisions right, do I

put myself out there? Do I really go for it? Do I raise my prices?

Whatever, whatever the decision is that you would love to take, right?

When fear of failure pops up or disguised right as procrastination, as

dissuasion, as you know, perfectionism as maybe I should go back to

school, get one more degree.

Unknown

And those thoughts right that are keeping you in your safe zone and

your comfort zone, want you to play small and protect you. We want to

press the pause. We want to be able to expand into our metacognitive

self, shine the light of awareness on those behaviors, and then really

shift into what we like to call here at Brave Thinking Institute.

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Vision based decisions and those come from actually your future self,

the successful you, the one who's already living your dream. Now

here's the shift. All right. So when failure pops up, you want to

shift from number one. You want to acknowledge it. You can't shift

fear if it's running you. And a lot of times fear does subconsciously

and invisibly run a lot of the decisions that we make.

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So don't pretend that it's not there and start to notice when you

procrastinate, start to notice when you can feel yourself shrinking

back into your comfort zone, or when you want to go for something big

and something feels like it's in the way, so you want to acknowledge

it. The second step is to ask your future self, but here's what's

really important you've got to have one in order to do this next step,

you must have a vision.

Unknown

You must have a vision. Three years from now, if we could wave a magic

wand and it's all worked out, you don't have to know how you're going

to get there. That's actually none of your business. But the other

question is, what would you love? How many clients would you love to

be working with? How many hours would you love to be working?

Unknown

What kind of income would you love to generate? Would you love to

travel the world and have that laptop lifestyle where you're coaching

from Milan or Paris or Mexico, or maybe just from your backyard by the

pool? You know, maybe you've purchased your dream house with the funds

you made from your coaching business, whatever that is. But in order

to do this next step, you must have a vision.

Unknown

And not just, you know, when I what I find with clients is oftentimes

when I say, do you have a vision? They're like, yeah. And I said,

well, pull it out. Let me see it. Let's read it together. I'm like,

well, I have some of it written on a little journal, and I have some

of it in a half written in a document, and the rest of it's in my

mind, I'll say, great.

Unknown

Your first step is to get a compelling, crystal clear vision written

as if it's happening today in Technicolor. Clarity, specificity,

feeling energy, putting yourself in the middle of it as if it's

already happening. That's super crucial and important because then

from that place, let's imagine you have that. Okay, if you don't, then

I would recommend you schedule an appointment with yourself to create

that vision.

Unknown

Super important. That is one of the main ingredients that has helped

me go from, you know, being in struggle money mode to being a, you

know, multiple seven figure generating coach today is having a vision.

I know it sounds simple, but sometimes, you know, it's important to do

the simple things to get to really where you want to go, right?

Unknown

So you have this vision. Let's imagine to feel the fear in order to

override the fear, you want to ask that version of you. So for me

today, it's the Jennifer make and millions the Jennifer who lives in

her dream home, the Jennifer who travels internationally leads

retreats. What would she do in this moment? Ask the future. You what

you would do.

Unknown

Would you let fear get in the way? Would you procrastinate? Would you

tinker with the thing another year until you write the book? Or put

the book out there or whatever it is? Right. And then the third step

is to act from that place, not from the fear based you, but from the

vision driven you, the you that's living the dream.

Unknown

So acknowledge the fear, ask the future you what they would do, and

then take action from that place of the dreams already realized. All

right. Our fifth topic is how to respond when the fear of failure

rises up. You can't eliminate fear entirely, but you can change your

relationship with it. So of course, we just talked about the shifting

fear.

Unknown

But how do you respond in the moment? Like split second response? The

first is to name it, actually identify, oh, this is fear talking. It's

not my logical mind. It's not the real me. It's definitely not the

future version of me. This is just fear talking. Then you want to

reframe it and just say, you know what? This is nothing wrong.

Unknown

If you feel the butterflies or you feel like you're kind of having a

little mini anxiety attack as you're about to speak on stage, this

just means I'm being stretched beyond my comfort zone. Reframe it.

It's no big deal. It's going to be fine. Then redirect that energy.

Channel that energy into preparation, into practice, into aligned

action. One of my favorite things, when I feel one of the areas of

fear that I really transformed is speaking on stages.

Unknown

Now I speak on stages to thousands of people. Just last year alone, I

was on over 40 different podcasts and it's come a long way. I

definitely had quite a bit of fear when I first launched, so one of

the things that I love to do A is make sure I'm prepared. Just like

when I was a professional dancer, I had this moment one of the times I

was going to speak in an event, and I was feeling a lot of anxiety and

I was like, where's this coming from?

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Or why am I feeling this way? You know, I have experience on stages.

What's going on? And I realized, oh, why do I feel so comfortable even

when the fear is there as a professional dancer. Why? Because I've put

in the tens of thousands of hours you know, I've rehearsed when you go

to do a 5 or 10 minute routine on a professional stage, you don't wing

it, because if you wing it, you get wing, it results.

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You practice, you hone your craft so that when you get out there, even

when you have the butterflies, you can do a triple pirouette and land

on one foot and nail it. Right. So I realized that I asked myself,

okay, am I putting in that kind of preparation? What a professional

athletes do? So there's a difference between procrastination and

perfectionism and really honing your craft.

You practice, you hone your craft so that when you get out there, even

when you have the butterflies, you can do a triple pirouette and land

on one foot and nail it. Right. So I realized that I asked myself,

okay, am I putting in that kind of preparation? What a professional

athletes do? So there's a difference between procrastination and

perfectionism and really honing your craft.

Unknown

And there comes a time when you've put in the time, and now it's just

time to get out there and do the thing. And one of the best ways is to

channel that energy into practicing and aligned action. Coming from

the vision. And then our sixth topic is a challenge that I would love

to give you. And that challenges for this week over the next seven

days.

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Okay, seven day challenge. Would you be willing to receive this

challenge? So here's what it is. Take one leap that you've been

avoiding because of the fear of failure. What's one thing you know

you'd love to do or you've been wanting to do, or you've been putting

off doing because of fear? When you really get honest with yourself,

it's the voice of procrastination, or the voice of perfectionism, or

the voice of tinkering, or I'm not enough ness or whatever that is.

Unknown

And we're going to press the pause button. We're going to set that

aside. We're going to channel your energy. You're going to make the

call. You're going to launch the offer. You're going to post the

video. You're going to launch that book. You're going to decide to

write the book, whatever it is, not because you're guaranteed to

succeed, but because either way, you're going to grow.

Unknown

And ultimately, what we're all here to be and do and experience is, I

believe this is a spiritual life. School, and that it isn't even about

the book itself and writing the book, but it's about who you become in

the process. So I will leave us with that. And if this episode has

given you even a little more courage to take even one more step

forward, then my encouragement is for you to subscribe so you don't

miss next Monday's show, because we're going to tackle another fear

that keeps coaches stuck.

Unknown

And that is the fear of visibility. We're going to dive into how to

overcome it and finally put yourself out there. But until then,

remember your dreams and all the people that are looking for you

really are worth the risk. And failure isn't failure at all. It's just

a stepping stone on your way to your vision. It's been an absolute

pleasure to be your host today.

And that is the fear of visibility. We're going to dive into how to

overcome it and finally put yourself out there. But until then,

remember your dreams and all the people that are looking for you

really are worth the risk. And failure isn't failure at all. It's just

a stepping stone on your way to your vision. It's been an absolute

pleasure to be your host today.

Unknown

I look forward to connecting again very soon. Thanks for joining me

this week on the Abundance Coach. To dive even deeper, visit our

website at BTI dot com slash coach Certification. If you love today's

episode, be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you

listen to your favorite podcast. And while you're at it, please rate

and review. I'll see you in the next episode.