Jen Hansard & Jadah Sellner –  Founders of SimpleGreenSmoothies.com; A Chance meeting to building a business; Facing struggles; the birth of Simple Green Smoothies, Momentum & Building a Brand; Reflection.

Today’s Sponsor: Needls

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Special Note: During the show, it was mentioned that Simple Green Smoothies was currently earning 7-figures. Please excuse our mistake as Simple Green Smoothies is ALMOST near 7-figures. Go Jen & Jadah!!

Segment 1: (Length :05:00) – General Updates; Introduction to Jen Hansard & Jadah Sellner and their background to becoming the creators of SimpleGreenSmoothies.com; A Chance meeting to building a business.

Jen’s finer points:

“We just had our first babies and we’re in this whole new world that we knew nothing about and we found this mom community that we were able to connect with and bond over. We embraced this new life together and learned the importance of community. Doing life together is so much better than doing it alone.“

“My husband and I totally changed careers . . . We came from great health insurance, so much support, so many friends and great jobs. We felt strangely called to Florida to start a church. And when you start a church you have no income.”

“We utterly failed at that (the church). We had to figure out beyond that how we were going to survive. It was really hard so I started doing design work. I would post on Facebook the designs I was working on and Jadah actually started seeing the design work I was doing. That’s when we reconnected.”

“For anyone that’s scared to put their personal work out into the world, I strongly encourage you to do so and share it with others. Even if it’s not the greatest thing in the world that you created, it doesn’t have to be. Just let people know what you’re doing and the connections you can make can truly change the direction of your life.”

Jadah’s finer points:

“We moved to Hawaii in 2008. We decided to open our own brick and mortar business – a play and learning center for kids. My husband and I were just burning out wearing all the hats in the business. Our relationship was suffering. We were $42,000 in debt. We couldn’t afford to pay rent and for our brick and mortar lease and closed down.”

We moved to California in 2011 and we moved in with my in-laws. Our daughter was 4 years old and no health insurance. This is when Jen and I connected and grew our first business idea together.”

Segment 2: (Length :07:00) – Talking with Jen Hansard & Jadah Sellner; the birth of Simple Green Smoothies.

Jen finer points:

“At this time we were personally struggling. I was so exhausted. I had two little kids who were 1.5 years old and 3. I’m trying to make some money for my family so we can get by. We had no health insurance and I was so scared that we were going to get sick and end up in a hospital and not be able to afford it.“

“Jadah shared with me Green Smoothies and this was something that had helped her so much with weight loss and energy so I began drinking them with my family and we weren’t getting sick. I was getting more energy than any cup of coffee was doing for me.”

“This is good stuff and it’s working so let’s keep drinking Green Smoothies and share the message.”

“We went from making nothing our first whole year. We hustled our butts off and at the end of the year we went through expenses and what we brought in. It was negative. . . We had to find a way to bring in money too. That’s when Jadah said let’s make an eBook.”

“Jadah understood how dire straights we were. Something had to change and we couldn’t keep living like this.”

“We would say to each other, ‘Just keep on swimming’ because it felt like if we didn’t keep moving we were going to drown. And so it meant keep working harder; find different ways. We just had this feeling that it was going to work out eventually, but we just had to keep going and have that endurance to make it. Instagram was our saving grace.

Jadah’s finer points:

“Simple Green Smoothies was actually never supposed to be it’s own business. Jen and I were super passionate about parenting and the family spnoge blog.”

“In the summer of 2011 I interned with my Husband’s Aunt who does Internet online marketing. I asked her if I could intern with her, buy her Starbucks and pick up her dry cleaning just to learn about this whole other world because I knew Brick and Mortar business was not the jam for me.”

“At that time, she (husband’s aunt) introduced me to Green Smoothies and so that period of interning with her completely transformed my life. She sold eBooks online so to Jen I was like, ‘We’ve got to make an eBook’.

“When I told my friend about this, she said, ‘health and wellness is blowing up on Instagram. You need to be on Instagram’. . . We didn’t want to start another social media platform, but we were like let me just try this, just throw spaghetti at the wall. Instagram became one of those spaghetti, thrown at the wall, it probably won’t work, but let’s do it anyways.”

We started sharing our Green Smoothies recipes 2 to 3 times per week on Instagram in the summer of 2012. That’s where the business idea really formed for Simple Green Smoothies.”

Segment 3: (Length :07:00) – Momentum & Building a Brand; Reflection.

Jen’s finer points:

“Within 3 months our Instagram we had 20,000 and the end of the year we had 60,000.”

“We were getting so much engagement. People were just relating to what we were sharing everyday. We were growing so fast so the next step was going from Instagram to creating a website. That was where my skills came in from because I was in the design world.”

“When you figure out what niche market you’re going into, don’t just research those around you that are doing what you want to do cause that’s going to limit where you’re going to take your brand.

“We looked at brands that have really built this presence that people wanted to be associated with that we wanted that for ourselves as well. I had vision boards of these other high end brands that had nothing to do with health and wellness or green smoothies and that’s what we built Simple Green Smoothies around. We went bigger than ourselves.”

Jadah’s finer points:

“Jen and I had a really big vision and a really big dream when we first started this online business. We wanted to free up our time to spend more time with our families. We’re now in a re-envisioning stage right now where we’ve kind of hit a little over 3 years with Simple Green Smoothies.”

“What do we want to step into as women; as leaders; as world changers. So we’re right in that re-dreaming, re-envisioning stage right now for our business.”

Segment 4: (Length :03:00) – Hustler Thought of the Day:

“That’s when we went from being exhausted and defeated—to being energized and empowered. It blew our minds that one simple change could make such an impact in our lives.”

– Jen Hansard & Jadah Sellner – SimpleGreenSmoothies.com

Jen’s finer points:

“Never had I thought I would be where I am today. When you let go of expectations of what you think your life should be like and instead just dream about it and be open for change and serendipitous events, that’s when mind blowing events just happen.”

“I encourage anyone out there that is trying to put your business and life inside a box of how it should be, that you just open up the top of it and really jump out of it and let adventure happen. Don’t limit yourself.”

Jadah’s finer points:

“Let go of expectations and focus on experimentation. Everything’s a test in entrepreneurship, and really connect to what you want to create.”

“Let go of the when and how it’s going to happen. Just trust and surrender to the process.”

GENERAL NOTES:

Jen Hansard & Jadah Sellner – Founders of SimpleGreenSmoothies.com

• Two moms who went from seriously struggling to wildly successful by converting their lack of energy into an elixir (Simple Green Smoothies) that has become a social media sensation grossing nearly 7 figures in revenue this year.

• They’ve seen the amazing health benefits of green smoothies firsthand— from losing 27 pounds to gaining more energy.

• Their wildly popular website has changed the lives of over 1 million people through their free 30-DayGreen Smoothie Challenge and now they share even more recipes and tips in their new book: Simple Green Smoothies: 100+ Tasty Recipes to Lose Weight, Gain Energy, and Feel Great in Your Body.

• Simple Green Smoothies has successfully garnered 404,000 Instagram followers and ~312,000 Facebook likes and a book with Rodale, which just became a bestseller.

• Jen lives in Brooksville, Florida with her husband, son, and daughter, and their rabbits, guinea pig, and chicken. Jadah lives in Walnut Creek, California, with her husband and daughter.

• Get the book at:  www.simplegreensmoothies.com/book.