Mar 7, 2018
What do you do when the business you thought was the amalgamation of everything you loved, ends up drowning you in 700k worth of debt?
For Jena Rodriguez, the decision to quit didn’t come easy.
Jena started out from corporate America, ventured into fashion
design and makeup artistry, then jumped into entrepreneurship in
2006. She took the leap of faith and bought a woman’s boutique and
cosmetic franchise, which brought all of her interests
together.
She thought it was the best thing ever, until she found herself
sitting in front of a bankruptcy attorney one year later. Even
though she made multiple 6-figures, it wasn’t enough to keep her
business afloat. She had to pull the plug.
Today on the podcast she shares with us her entrepreneurial journey
- from filing for bankruptcy, to working with her husband, to
firing her husband, and eventually becoming the CEO of Brave
Masters, Inc.
Click the play button below to listen to the rest of the episode.
Don’t forget to subscribe!
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"I was $700,000 in debt"
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She had to pull the trigger and call it quits, so she filed for
bankruptcy on her first business.
The next day, she had to choose: whether to quit and go back to the
J-O-B and the comfort zone, or get back up and choose a new
direction. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but what was
clear was she didn’t want to work for someone else.
Her husband at the time was a musician and ran a web and graphic
design company. She became his partner and grew that business over
the years, until she reached that point in 2012 when that no longer
served her.
She ended up firing her husband and rebranded the business as Brand
with Jena.
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"Entrepreneurship is not the easy way - it’s the brave way."
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Being brave is absolutely part of who she is and has been a staple
in everything she did since she was a child. She really started to
recognize that conversation a couple of years ago when she was
asking "What does it take to become an entrepreneur?"
It was on another podcast that she said, "Entrepreneurship is not
the easy way - it’s the brave way."
That statement took a life of its own, and she realized that that
was her underlying message, passion and purpose, which is to help
people really realize their unrealized potential.
Bravemasters is about being true and authentic to the brand that
you are.
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The Marketing Mix
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There are multiple ways to market, and she calls it "The Marketing
Mix" - having the offline and the online going on simultaneously.
We’re in such an amazing world where we can be online and reach all
kinds of people that we wouldn’t have had access to before, and at
the same time people want the human connection.
In her business, not only does she speak in person but she also
speaks via video like Facebook Live. She says that video really is
the next best thing to getting people to connect with who you are
as a live person versus just something written.
Mentions
Connect with Jena on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
http://bravemasters.com/