75. 3 Budget-Friendly Solutions for Building Accountability
That gnawing feeling when another week slips by without progress on your business goals isn't a character flaw. The promise you made to yourself to finally write that business plan, record that podcast episode, or share your first offer sits untouched, and you're left wondering what's wrong with you.
The truth is, you're not missing discipline or motivation. You’re missing structure and accountability. Through working with brilliant moms who felt "broken" because they couldn't seem to follow through on their business goals, I've seen how creating simple accountability systems transforms everything.
Tune in this week to discover why trying to "figure it out yourself" is actually costing you precious time and energy, and three ways to create accountability that actually works (even if you're on a budget). If you've been struggling to follow through on your business goals, this episode is your permission slip to stop doing it alone.
Ready for clarity and a simple action plan to get your business started? Schedule a free 1-hour consultation with me here!
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
Why losing built-in accountability from corporate or motherhood routines makes business progress feel impossible.
How to create your own metrics that measure progress before revenue shows up.
The hidden cost of trying to figure everything out alone versus investing in support.
What makes accountability groups work.
How structure actually creates freedom and invites creativity rather than killing it.
The 3 most effective ways to create accountability when you're building a business.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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If you want to realize your dreams of leaving corporate and starting your own business, join me for a free strategy session by clicking here!
Full Episode Transcript:
We all want revenue immediately, but it takes a little bit of time to build our brand and to figure out our offers and to figure out our zone of genius. And so we can feel like we're investing a lot of energy with no results, but it's just that we have to create our own metrics of wins and of results for ourselves because of it being a lagging indicator.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Have you ever promised yourself that this would be the week? The week you'd finally sit down and write that business plan, or record that podcast episode, or post that first offer or introduction about your business on social media. But then the week slips away, and instead of celebrating progress, you're sitting there thinking, "What is wrong with me? Why can't I just do what I say I'm going to do?"
If that sounds familiar, I want you to take a deep breath. There is nothing wrong with you. Okay? You're not lazy, you're not unmotivated, you're definitely not broken. You've just lost something that you used to have, and you might not even realize it. You've lost built-in accountability. And that's what we're going to talk about today.
If you're new to this podcast, welcome. I'm Jenna Rykiel, and I'm a business coach for moms who are ready to leave their traditional role, whether that be a traditional 9 to 5 or a stay-at-home mom role. But those who are ready to leave and build a life of freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment through their business on their own terms. And every week on this podcast, we talk about obstacles and actions for starting a business. So if you're thinking about starting a business or if you've already started a business, but it's not going as planned and doesn't feel like it's working, please subscribe to the podcast and join me every Wednesday morning.
I'm going to talk about creating more formal forms of accountability in this episode, but even subscribing to this podcast or any business podcast, that's going to be a system of accountability. Your phone or app will download it each week as a reminder to listen and take action in your business. There are so many tools and resources out there. Let this podcast be one of them.
Okay, mom friends, let's dive in. When we worked in corporate, accountability wasn't something we had to even think about. It was woven into every part of our day. You had a boss expecting deliverables, you had weekly meetings, you had quarterly reviews and deadlines and metrics. You even had maybe bonuses tied to your performance. There were systems in place that ensured you followed through. Not because you were more disciplined then or determined, but because accountability was built in.
Now, as moms starting businesses, we step into this completely new world. There's no manager asking for updates, there's no quarterly review reminding us to reflect on progress, no one waiting for our presentation or spreadsheet. And for moms who left corporate and transitioned into staying home with the kids before starting a business, this can feel even more disorienting. Because motherhood brings its own version of accountability. Nap schedules, meal times, school pickups, the rhythm of our days is dictated by others' needs, and while it's exhausting most of the time, it's also predictable, which is nice.
So when we decide to start a business, something that depends entirely on us to drive it forward, it can feel like hitting a wall. Suddenly there's no one expecting us to follow through but ourselves. And when that follow through doesn't happen, we assume it's a character flaw. We think, maybe I'm just not cut out for this. But the truth is, you're likely not missing discipline, you're missing structure and accountability.
Before we get into some of the most tried and true methods of creating accountability and structure for yourself, I want to talk about why moms struggle with this so much. Particularly why moms struggle to ask for help. I see this all the time in my coaching sessions. The word that comes up all the time is unsupported. Moms tell me, I just feel so unsupported. And when we dig into that, I find that it's often not because they don't have methods of support available to them, it's because they don't accept it.
We've been conditioned to think that asking for help means we're failing. We tell ourselves I should be able to handle this. We wear independence like a badge of honor, even when it's slowly draining us. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. We feel unsupported, so we do everything ourselves, which of course, makes us feel even more unsupported. And it doesn't just show up at home in different ways. It shows up in business too.
And I'm talking about this because I see it all the time with my clients and I also see it with myself. So it's not just that if this is triggering because you don't live around family, so you actually don't have childcare support, that's not only what I'm talking about. There are often threads of different ways that we feel unsupported in our life and business. And there's resources out there always. So it's not just childcare, it's not just our partners leaning in more. This shows up in a lot of different facets of life and business. Even in and especially maybe in ways that it shows up at work with management and resources.
And that just comes to mind because I have a client who is specifically dealing with this with a manager that really wants to support her, and her initial reaction was to say that she was fine and she could handle it, even though we talked about it so often in our coaching sessions that she was stretched too thin at work and needed help. So this shows up everywhere.
And we often have this stigma against paying for help. You know, whether that be childcare or house cleaning or coaching, people spend hundreds of dollars each month on organic groceries or streaming services. But when it comes to investing in something that would genuinely make our lives easier, we hesitate. And just to clarify, groceries are so expensive either way, but the organic groceries hits home for me because we do try and get organic groceries when we can, organic fruits, and it is just so much more expensive. So it's not so much that you can go through month to month without buying groceries, but sometimes we prioritize certain expenses and we hesitate to make certain investments that would actually make a huge difference in our life.
Another great example of this that comes to mind that I think about is sleep consultants. Moms can be exhausted with newborns or babies that are a couple months old that aren't sleeping. And we all know there's an entire industry of experts who can help. We all follow them on social media for tips and tricks, but instead of hiring them, we Google endlessly, we join Facebook groups, we are on Instagram scrolling, and we hope for the best or we give up and say my baby just doesn't sleep. And it's not about the sleep. It's about the belief underneath that if I can't figure it out myself, I'm failing.
And that same belief shows up when we try to start a business. We think we should be able to figure it out on our own. But let me tell you, that belief is costing time, peace, and progress. I know because I tried to start my own business initially without help or accountability from someone who knew far more than me, and it failed before it even started. I didn't sign 1 client. I didn't even get as far as creating a website or language around what I did. I spent 6 years mulling over what I needed to do to actually create a successful business. Meanwhile, when I started taking myself and my goals seriously and saw it as an investment in my future, and when I hired a coach, I created a business that created revenue within the first 6 months.
And that first 6 months included a few months of stepping back because I was navigating transitioning out of my corporate role. I was getting married, I was moving across the country, and still, the guidance and accountability I had created for myself created results immediately when I had spent so long and so much time and energy with no revenue or results trying to figure it out on my own.
I recently had coffee with another coach, somebody that I met in a mastermind that we are both a part of, and she'd been an entrepreneur for 6 years, but wasn't seeing the results she wanted. She was a mom, working full-time, trying to build her business in the margins, she said. And she told me something that stuck with me, that you're always paying in time or in money. And like me, for years, she tried to figure everything out on her own to save money, but it ended up costing her and me so much time, years of it. And the stress of doing it alone for her created so much tension and conflict in her marriage and a feeling that she was constantly unworthy and behind.
And when she finally invested in coaching, like the same program that I recently invested in, though I've been in tons of different masterminds and worked with quite a few coaches just because I love the different perspectives, I love the different methods of accountability. But this was her first real investment in herself and in her practice. She started creating more results in just the first 6 months of the container than she had in the previous 5 years combined. She said something that I'll never forget. She said, "I had this flawed belief that I needed to figure it out on my own. I had a do it yourself mentality and it cost me so much time."
And I felt so connected to her when she was talking about this because I went through that and I experienced that without being able to put language to it until her and I met. And this is why accountability is so important because it saves so much time and energy. It's no longer only on us to figure things out and to muster the desire and motivation. We now have someone in our corner or system in our corner, which I'll talk about both. I'll talk about people and systems, right? To help us create results.
And that's the power of accountability. When someone else knows what you're working toward and cares enough to help you stay on track, to stop spinning your wheels and really to start creating results. You gain back so much time and energy. Every mom I've ever talked to wants and needs more time and energy. And yet, instead of tapping into resources that are available to us, we waste a lot of time and energy trying to figure it out ourselves. And I know because I've been there, just like my friend in the mastermind with me.
And yes, the container that we're both a part of, that container of accountability sometimes costs us money, but we've gained so much time and energy because we've been able to create results through that container, and that is priceless.
So, how do we create built-in accountability for ourselves? Especially when we don't have a boss anymore and our kids can't exactly double as our project managers, right? They're actually pulling us away from our businesses instead of holding us accountable to it.
There are 3 ways that I teach my clients to do this. The first is to create your own metrics. We're so used to measuring success by results, right? Revenue, clients, followers. But in the early stages of your business, those results are lagging indicators, which means that they don't show up immediately. So instead, I want you to create measurements and metrics that are within your control.
So for example, creating a metric around how many emails you send out each week to people in your network or potential clients, or how many coffee chats you schedule each week. A metric around content creation and how many hours you spend creating content from your beautiful brain around your area of expertise. These are your new corporate metrics. They give you small wins that you can celebrate and remind yourself that you're making progress even when the results haven't shown up yet.
This system of accountability also requires zero investment. It's just an added step where you are intentional and thoughtful about ways that you can keep yourself on track each week. Just having a doable goal of outreach or tasks each week will absolutely help you to see and feel progress and it will help you to stay accountable and create a system of accountability to and for yourself.
I talk about this at length in episode 19, how to stay motivated when you aren't seeing results because this is something that early on in our business, we all experience. We all want revenue immediately, but it takes a little bit of time to build our brand and to figure out our offers and to figure out our zone of genius. And so we can feel like we're investing a lot of energy with no results, but it's just that we have to create our own metrics of wins and of results for ourselves because of it being a lagging indicator.
The second thing that I want to encourage and that I talk to my clients about is finding another human to hold you accountable. Now for my clients, that's built in the coaching. We meet every week for 60 minutes and I also host a weekly group coaching session that offers a little bit of community accountability. But if you don't have a coach or an accountability group, I want to encourage you to find another human being. Okay? Accountability thrives in relationships. So whether it's a peer or an entrepreneurship group or even a friend, all of those work for accountability, but the key is buy-in. So wanting to make sure that everybody who is a part of the accountability group has buy-in.
And I've been a part of free accountability groups before where people constantly reschedule or stop showing up and it always seems to fizzle out. There's just no skin in the game. But when you're invested, whether that's financially or emotionally, it changes everything. So I want to encourage you if you are wanting to limit the amount of financial investment you're making in accountability, you can create that with friends and with peers and with other entrepreneurs, but remember that financial buy-in and investment really helps to hold people accountable.
I remember being in another mastermind years ago that encouraged accountability partners. And every Friday, I met with my accountability buddy on Zoom. We didn't even talk much in the group, we just co-worked. Cameras on, mics off, and it worked beautifully. We showed up because we'd both paid to be a part of the mastermind, and this buddy system was something that the program encouraged, and we both wanted to extract the most value from our investment. So we showed up each week. It was 8:00 AM for me and 6:00 AM for her because we were in different time zones at the time, and I am still in awe that she woke up so early for it. But we did it, both of us.
I should also share though, that as soon as the mastermind ended, the habit fizzled and it disappeared because accountability isn't just about intention, it's about investment. So if you're really trying to start and build a business on a shoe string, you absolutely can tap into free resources, entrepreneurship groups, other entrepreneurs or friends that agree to meet regularly for accountability, but there really is a whole new energy when there is financial investment, when there is skin in the game.
The third thing I'll talk about and this is kind of cheating because I said it was 3 things that I talk about with my clients, but this is something they've already mastered. The third thing I would say is to hire a coach. Okay, I know I'm biased, but I'll say it anyway. Coaching is the most powerful form of accountability that I've ever experienced, both as a client and as a coach. Okay, when you have someone who listens to your biggest dreams and then holds space for you to take consistent action towards them, everything changes. You stop hiding behind excuses, you stop doubting whether you can do it, and you start actually doing it. Because now someone else knows what's at stake.
When you share your excuses with a coach, she will say, "So what? Do you want to make this happen or not?" When you share your doubts with a coach, she will say, "I know you can do this because I've seen it done so many times before." When you aren't doing the thing you said you were going to do, she will say, "Let's figure out how you can start actually doing it instead of making this mean you are flawed." Or at least that's what my coaches have said to me. Those are exact things that I've said to my own clients.
One of my clients came to me after leaving her corporate job and she was obviously brilliant, capable, and ready to build her business, but she hadn't created any results yet. And she told me she felt broken. Like she was missing something. She was missing the ability to be consistent, to create the results. And within our first week together, we identified that she didn't have any systems or structure. She was just floating through her days, waiting for motivation and creativity to strike. And so we created a simple accountability plan.
And one of her goals was to start waking up early. She told me she wanted to be the kind of person who got things done before the rest of the house woke up. That's when she wanted to work out and really take care of herself, but she hadn't been able to do it. And she thought it meant that it was something wrong with her. And in that first week of working together, she was waking up at 5:00 AM consistently. Not at all because I told her to, because I never recommend cutting into our sleep. Honestly, sleep is so important. So it wasn't because I told her to do it, it was because she decided to and now she's had someone holding her to that commitment. She said out loud why it was important and now she had a system in place to make it happen. She wasn't broken. She just didn't have the accountability that her corporate role used to provide. Once she created that for herself, she was unstoppable.
Another client had worked in government for years. She loved structure but also craved creativity. And when she transitioned into entrepreneurship, she felt lost. She had no clear schedule, no external pressure, no rhythm to her days. And she thought adding that structure back into her life would kill her creativity. But when we reframed it, we looked at it as structure and systems of accountability actually being able to create creativity. So looking at it as, you know, what if scheduling time for creative work invites inspiration instead of waiting for it to strike. And that shifted and changed everything. She started treating her business time as sacred just like her meetings used to be and built consistency she hadn't felt in years.
Both of these women learned that accountability isn't restrictive, it's actually freeing because when you know someone's beside you, you can finally stop doubting yourself and start doing the work. If you take 1 thing from this episode today, let it be this. If the results aren't there yet, you're not broken. You just might not have systems of accountability in place to make it happen.
We're not meant to do big brave things alone, even though it feels like we have to figure it out on our own. But we thrive in community, in partnership, in accountability. And if you've been spinning your wheels, telling yourself you'll start when you feel ready or when the timing is better, maybe it's not readiness you're missing. Maybe it's built in accountability.
So I want to invite you to take one step today or this week. I want you to ask yourself, what's one system of accountability that I can create this week? Who can I share my goals with? Where can I get support I need to follow through? And if you're realizing that having a coach might be the missing piece, just like it was for me and the peer that I talked about in the mastermind, someone to hold you accountable and challenge your thinking and help you build your business one step at a time, I would love to help. You can schedule a free consultation to see if coaching is right for you and all of the business goals that you have.
I want to encourage you to check it out. Go to Jenna.Coach, or click the link in the show notes. Absolutely, just having the conversation is another form of accountability, right? Investing one hour of time to talk about your goals and put it out in the world, even if you never hire a coach, I promise you, that one hour will feel so energizing. You deserve support. You deserve structure, and you deserve to see what's possible when accountability meets ambition. I know you have the ambition. You might just need more accountability.
So take those action steps this week. Remember, you can also subscribe to the podcast. That is a form of accountability. Listen in and get new ideas and perspectives and actions that you can take each week. And I will see you next week, my friend. Thanks for listening.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Have you ever promised yourself that this would be the week? The week you'd finally sit down and write that business plan, or record that podcast episode, or post that first offer or introduction about your business on social media. But then the week slips away, and instead of celebrating progress, you're sitting there thinking, "What is wrong with me? Why can't I just do what I say I'm going to do?"
If that sounds familiar, I want you to take a deep breath. There is nothing wrong with you. Okay? You're not lazy, you're not unmotivated, you're definitely not broken. You've just lost something that you used to have, and you might not even realize it. You've lost built-in accountability. And that's what we're going to talk about today.
If you're new to this podcast, welcome. I'm Jenna Rykiel, and I'm a business coach for moms who are ready to leave their traditional role, whether that be a traditional 9 to 5 or a stay-at-home mom role. But those who are ready to leave and build a life of freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment through their business on their own terms. And every week on this podcast, we talk about obstacles and actions for starting a business. So if you're thinking about starting a business or if you've already started a business, but it's not going as planned and doesn't feel like it's working, please subscribe to the podcast and join me every Wednesday morning.
I'm going to talk about creating more formal forms of accountability in this episode, but even subscribing to this podcast or any business podcast, that's going to be a system of accountability. Your phone or app will download it each week as a reminder to listen and take action in your business. There are so many tools and resources out there. Let this podcast be one of them.
Okay, mom friends, let's dive in. When we worked in corporate, accountability wasn't something we had to even think about. It was woven into every part of our day. You had a boss expecting deliverables, you had weekly meetings, you had quarterly reviews and deadlines and metrics. You even had maybe bonuses tied to your performance. There were systems in place that ensured you followed through. Not because you were more disciplined then or determined, but because accountability was built in.
Now, as moms starting businesses, we step into this completely new world. There's no manager asking for updates, there's no quarterly review reminding us to reflect on progress, no one waiting for our presentation or spreadsheet. And for moms who left corporate and transitioned into staying home with the kids before starting a business, this can feel even more disorienting. Because motherhood brings its own version of accountability. Nap schedules, meal times, school pickups, the rhythm of our days is dictated by others' needs, and while it's exhausting most of the time, it's also predictable, which is nice.
So when we decide to start a business, something that depends entirely on us to drive it forward, it can feel like hitting a wall. Suddenly there's no one expecting us to follow through but ourselves. And when that follow through doesn't happen, we assume it's a character flaw. We think, maybe I'm just not cut out for this. But the truth is, you're likely not missing discipline, you're missing structure and accountability.
Before we get into some of the most tried and true methods of creating accountability and structure for yourself, I want to talk about why moms struggle with this so much. Particularly why moms struggle to ask for help. I see this all the time in my coaching sessions. The word that comes up all the time is unsupported. Moms tell me, I just feel so unsupported. And when we dig into that, I find that it's often not because they don't have methods of support available to them, it's because they don't accept it.
We've been conditioned to think that asking for help means we're failing. We tell ourselves I should be able to handle this. We wear independence like a badge of honor, even when it's slowly draining us. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. We feel unsupported, so we do everything ourselves, which of course, makes us feel even more unsupported. And it doesn't just show up at home in different ways. It shows up in business too.
And I'm talking about this because I see it all the time with my clients and I also see it with myself. So it's not just that if this is triggering because you don't live around family, so you actually don't have childcare support, that's not only what I'm talking about. There are often threads of different ways that we feel unsupported in our life and business. And there's resources out there always. So it's not just childcare, it's not just our partners leaning in more. This shows up in a lot of different facets of life and business. Even in and especially maybe in ways that it shows up at work with management and resources.
And that just comes to mind because I have a client who is specifically dealing with this with a manager that really wants to support her, and her initial reaction was to say that she was fine and she could handle it, even though we talked about it so often in our coaching sessions that she was stretched too thin at work and needed help. So this shows up everywhere.
And we often have this stigma against paying for help. You know, whether that be childcare or house cleaning or coaching, people spend hundreds of dollars each month on organic groceries or streaming services. But when it comes to investing in something that would genuinely make our lives easier, we hesitate. And just to clarify, groceries are so expensive either way, but the organic groceries hits home for me because we do try and get organic groceries when we can, organic fruits, and it is just so much more expensive. So it's not so much that you can go through month to month without buying groceries, but sometimes we prioritize certain expenses and we hesitate to make certain investments that would actually make a huge difference in our life.
Another great example of this that comes to mind that I think about is sleep consultants. Moms can be exhausted with newborns or babies that are a couple months old that aren't sleeping. And we all know there's an entire industry of experts who can help. We all follow them on social media for tips and tricks, but instead of hiring them, we Google endlessly, we join Facebook groups, we are on Instagram scrolling, and we hope for the best or we give up and say my baby just doesn't sleep. And it's not about the sleep. It's about the belief underneath that if I can't figure it out myself, I'm failing.
And that same belief shows up when we try to start a business. We think we should be able to figure it out on our own. But let me tell you, that belief is costing time, peace, and progress. I know because I tried to start my own business initially without help or accountability from someone who knew far more than me, and it failed before it even started. I didn't sign 1 client. I didn't even get as far as creating a website or language around what I did. I spent 6 years mulling over what I needed to do to actually create a successful business. Meanwhile, when I started taking myself and my goals seriously and saw it as an investment in my future, and when I hired a coach, I created a business that created revenue within the first 6 months.
And that first 6 months included a few months of stepping back because I was navigating transitioning out of my corporate role. I was getting married, I was moving across the country, and still, the guidance and accountability I had created for myself created results immediately when I had spent so long and so much time and energy with no revenue or results trying to figure it out on my own.
I recently had coffee with another coach, somebody that I met in a mastermind that we are both a part of, and she'd been an entrepreneur for 6 years, but wasn't seeing the results she wanted. She was a mom, working full-time, trying to build her business in the margins, she said. And she told me something that stuck with me, that you're always paying in time or in money. And like me, for years, she tried to figure everything out on her own to save money, but it ended up costing her and me so much time, years of it. And the stress of doing it alone for her created so much tension and conflict in her marriage and a feeling that she was constantly unworthy and behind.
And when she finally invested in coaching, like the same program that I recently invested in, though I've been in tons of different masterminds and worked with quite a few coaches just because I love the different perspectives, I love the different methods of accountability. But this was her first real investment in herself and in her practice. She started creating more results in just the first 6 months of the container than she had in the previous 5 years combined. She said something that I'll never forget. She said, "I had this flawed belief that I needed to figure it out on my own. I had a do it yourself mentality and it cost me so much time."
And I felt so connected to her when she was talking about this because I went through that and I experienced that without being able to put language to it until her and I met. And this is why accountability is so important because it saves so much time and energy. It's no longer only on us to figure things out and to muster the desire and motivation. We now have someone in our corner or system in our corner, which I'll talk about both. I'll talk about people and systems, right? To help us create results.
And that's the power of accountability. When someone else knows what you're working toward and cares enough to help you stay on track, to stop spinning your wheels and really to start creating results. You gain back so much time and energy. Every mom I've ever talked to wants and needs more time and energy. And yet, instead of tapping into resources that are available to us, we waste a lot of time and energy trying to figure it out ourselves. And I know because I've been there, just like my friend in the mastermind with me.
And yes, the container that we're both a part of, that container of accountability sometimes costs us money, but we've gained so much time and energy because we've been able to create results through that container, and that is priceless.
So, how do we create built-in accountability for ourselves? Especially when we don't have a boss anymore and our kids can't exactly double as our project managers, right? They're actually pulling us away from our businesses instead of holding us accountable to it.
There are 3 ways that I teach my clients to do this. The first is to create your own metrics. We're so used to measuring success by results, right? Revenue, clients, followers. But in the early stages of your business, those results are lagging indicators, which means that they don't show up immediately. So instead, I want you to create measurements and metrics that are within your control.
So for example, creating a metric around how many emails you send out each week to people in your network or potential clients, or how many coffee chats you schedule each week. A metric around content creation and how many hours you spend creating content from your beautiful brain around your area of expertise. These are your new corporate metrics. They give you small wins that you can celebrate and remind yourself that you're making progress even when the results haven't shown up yet.
This system of accountability also requires zero investment. It's just an added step where you are intentional and thoughtful about ways that you can keep yourself on track each week. Just having a doable goal of outreach or tasks each week will absolutely help you to see and feel progress and it will help you to stay accountable and create a system of accountability to and for yourself.
I talk about this at length in episode 19, how to stay motivated when you aren't seeing results because this is something that early on in our business, we all experience. We all want revenue immediately, but it takes a little bit of time to build our brand and to figure out our offers and to figure out our zone of genius. And so we can feel like we're investing a lot of energy with no results, but it's just that we have to create our own metrics of wins and of results for ourselves because of it being a lagging indicator.
The second thing that I want to encourage and that I talk to my clients about is finding another human to hold you accountable. Now for my clients, that's built in the coaching. We meet every week for 60 minutes and I also host a weekly group coaching session that offers a little bit of community accountability. But if you don't have a coach or an accountability group, I want to encourage you to find another human being. Okay? Accountability thrives in relationships. So whether it's a peer or an entrepreneurship group or even a friend, all of those work for accountability, but the key is buy-in. So wanting to make sure that everybody who is a part of the accountability group has buy-in.
And I've been a part of free accountability groups before where people constantly reschedule or stop showing up and it always seems to fizzle out. There's just no skin in the game. But when you're invested, whether that's financially or emotionally, it changes everything. So I want to encourage you if you are wanting to limit the amount of financial investment you're making in accountability, you can create that with friends and with peers and with other entrepreneurs, but remember that financial buy-in and investment really helps to hold people accountable.
I remember being in another mastermind years ago that encouraged accountability partners. And every Friday, I met with my accountability buddy on Zoom. We didn't even talk much in the group, we just co-worked. Cameras on, mics off, and it worked beautifully. We showed up because we'd both paid to be a part of the mastermind, and this buddy system was something that the program encouraged, and we both wanted to extract the most value from our investment. So we showed up each week. It was 8:00 AM for me and 6:00 AM for her because we were in different time zones at the time, and I am still in awe that she woke up so early for it. But we did it, both of us.
I should also share though, that as soon as the mastermind ended, the habit fizzled and it disappeared because accountability isn't just about intention, it's about investment. So if you're really trying to start and build a business on a shoe string, you absolutely can tap into free resources, entrepreneurship groups, other entrepreneurs or friends that agree to meet regularly for accountability, but there really is a whole new energy when there is financial investment, when there is skin in the game.
The third thing I'll talk about and this is kind of cheating because I said it was 3 things that I talk about with my clients, but this is something they've already mastered. The third thing I would say is to hire a coach. Okay, I know I'm biased, but I'll say it anyway. Coaching is the most powerful form of accountability that I've ever experienced, both as a client and as a coach. Okay, when you have someone who listens to your biggest dreams and then holds space for you to take consistent action towards them, everything changes. You stop hiding behind excuses, you stop doubting whether you can do it, and you start actually doing it. Because now someone else knows what's at stake.
When you share your excuses with a coach, she will say, "So what? Do you want to make this happen or not?" When you share your doubts with a coach, she will say, "I know you can do this because I've seen it done so many times before." When you aren't doing the thing you said you were going to do, she will say, "Let's figure out how you can start actually doing it instead of making this mean you are flawed." Or at least that's what my coaches have said to me. Those are exact things that I've said to my own clients.
One of my clients came to me after leaving her corporate job and she was obviously brilliant, capable, and ready to build her business, but she hadn't created any results yet. And she told me she felt broken. Like she was missing something. She was missing the ability to be consistent, to create the results. And within our first week together, we identified that she didn't have any systems or structure. She was just floating through her days, waiting for motivation and creativity to strike. And so we created a simple accountability plan.
And one of her goals was to start waking up early. She told me she wanted to be the kind of person who got things done before the rest of the house woke up. That's when she wanted to work out and really take care of herself, but she hadn't been able to do it. And she thought it meant that it was something wrong with her. And in that first week of working together, she was waking up at 5:00 AM consistently. Not at all because I told her to, because I never recommend cutting into our sleep. Honestly, sleep is so important. So it wasn't because I told her to do it, it was because she decided to and now she's had someone holding her to that commitment. She said out loud why it was important and now she had a system in place to make it happen. She wasn't broken. She just didn't have the accountability that her corporate role used to provide. Once she created that for herself, she was unstoppable.
Another client had worked in government for years. She loved structure but also craved creativity. And when she transitioned into entrepreneurship, she felt lost. She had no clear schedule, no external pressure, no rhythm to her days. And she thought adding that structure back into her life would kill her creativity. But when we reframed it, we looked at it as structure and systems of accountability actually being able to create creativity. So looking at it as, you know, what if scheduling time for creative work invites inspiration instead of waiting for it to strike. And that shifted and changed everything. She started treating her business time as sacred just like her meetings used to be and built consistency she hadn't felt in years.
Both of these women learned that accountability isn't restrictive, it's actually freeing because when you know someone's beside you, you can finally stop doubting yourself and start doing the work. If you take 1 thing from this episode today, let it be this. If the results aren't there yet, you're not broken. You just might not have systems of accountability in place to make it happen.
We're not meant to do big brave things alone, even though it feels like we have to figure it out on our own. But we thrive in community, in partnership, in accountability. And if you've been spinning your wheels, telling yourself you'll start when you feel ready or when the timing is better, maybe it's not readiness you're missing. Maybe it's built in accountability.
So I want to invite you to take one step today or this week. I want you to ask yourself, what's one system of accountability that I can create this week? Who can I share my goals with? Where can I get support I need to follow through? And if you're realizing that having a coach might be the missing piece, just like it was for me and the peer that I talked about in the mastermind, someone to hold you accountable and challenge your thinking and help you build your business one step at a time, I would love to help. You can schedule a free consultation to see if coaching is right for you and all of the business goals that you have.
I want to encourage you to check it out. Go to Jenna.Coach, or click the link in the show notes. Absolutely, just having the conversation is another form of accountability, right? Investing one hour of time to talk about your goals and put it out in the world, even if you never hire a coach, I promise you, that one hour will feel so energizing. You deserve support. You deserve structure, and you deserve to see what's possible when accountability meets ambition. I know you have the ambition. You might just need more accountability.
So take those action steps this week. Remember, you can also subscribe to the podcast. That is a form of accountability. Listen in and get new ideas and perspectives and actions that you can take each week. And I will see you next week, my friend. Thanks for listening.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
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