Jessica Osborn [00:00:00]:
Today we are sharing the amazing story of this woman, a mother of two who was an Etsy store owner, started a brand new coaching business and reached half a million in revenue per month within her first five months without using ads and doing it all herself. This is an absolutely incredible story. Please stay tuned because it's coming right up.
Jessica Osborn [00:00:31]:
The guest joining me on the podcast today is the lovely Dylan Jarris. She's a seasoned e commerce entrepreneur who transitioned from corporate e commerce to creating her own Etsy shop which surpassed $1 million in profit in six and a half years. And then she expanded to Amazon and Shopify. But in 2022, she launched her Etsy coaching program quickly enrol 4,000 students and scaled to eight figures in revenue in her first 14 months without using ads. So her organic success has built her a thriving community. Well over a hundred thousand YouTube subscribers and she has a top Etsy podcast. Etsy seller success with Dylan Jarris. She has just had so much success there in creating this audience of people and helping them to launch their own Etsy store stores and obviously scale them as well.
Jessica Osborn [00:01:31]:
In 2024, she created an SEO software called ET SEO which is serving thousands of Etsy sellers in improving the SEO on their online Etsy stores. Dylan's also a devoted wife and mother, so she brings integrity, resilience to everything she builds and she's just an absolutely beautiful person. Shared so much with us in today's interview. She really took us behind the scenes scenes on, you know, the simple things that she's done that has created that success that she has had. So I'm sure you can't wait to hear all about it. Let me introduce you to her.
Jessica Osborn [00:02:17]:
Okay. I'm here with the beautiful Dylan Jaros. Hey Dylan, how are you? Welcome to the podcast.
Dylan Jahraus [00:02:24]:
Thank you for having me, Jessica. I'm so, so excited to be here.
Jessica Osborn [00:02:28]:
Yes. And I really appreciate you joining me while you're in the middle of packing up your house and moving or selling your house. I think there's so much going on in life, but here we go. We've made time to connect and do this episode. So appreciate you doing that. Now you are the founder of the Ultimate Etsy course, which is just. I've had a look at some of the stuff you've done. Super interested to hear about it, but also to hear your journey because as I understand it, you also help businesses to grow and you work with service based businesses as well.
Jessica Osborn [00:03:03]:
So would you like to tell us a bit about what it is that you do? Who do you Help and then. Yeah, we can kind of get into a bit of your story from there.
Dylan Jahraus [00:03:12]:
Yeah, yeah. So for the last two and a half years I've been doing something that I never thought I would end up doing and I've been helping other businesses, entrepreneurs grow their e commerce businesses. So that has been for the last two and a half years and we've helped about 4,000 Etsy sellers with their Etsy shops and scaling onto other platforms as well. And it's really through a model of one on one coaching and it grew really quickly. So yeah, we scaled up to. It was about half a million a month by month five, a million a month by month 14 and we hadn't done ads yet so I was just, you know, my hair was on fire. Yeah. And yeah.
Dylan Jahraus [00:03:58]:
And then now we have a team of about 35 people and it's become really a well oiled machine.
Jessica Osborn [00:04:06]:
Wow, that's incredible. So you did this with just one to one coaching? Did I get that right?
Dylan Jahraus [00:04:12]:
Yeah. So it started as one to one coaching. Well, it was in a group, so a community group forum. They ask their questions, I respond. And then we had a course and then expanded onto having a coaching team where we now include one on one calls and private message coaching. So it's this whole layered level of coaching so people get exactly what they need.
Jessica Osborn [00:04:35]:
Yeah, incredible. So yeah, tell me a bit about how did you even get into this in the first place. Take me back to you starting a business. Have you always been an entrepreneur and in entrepreneurship or did you have a previous life in working a 9 to 5 job or what was that like for you?
Dylan Jahraus [00:04:55]:
Yeah, so I, I grew up with entrepreneurial parents which I think, you know, whether you realize it at the time or not, it kind of puts plants little seeds into your mind of what is possible if in entrepreneurship space. And one, my mom was a, she had her own dental practice. My dad had a fencing construction company and grew up just seeing the options it created for them. Got went, went to college, studied buying product development business, international business and got into the e commerce space and there was a little, there was a little pit stop in fashion journalism. Have you seen the movie the Devil Wears Prada?
Jessica Osborn [00:05:38]:
Yeah.
Dylan Jahraus [00:05:39]:
Yeah. Okay. That was, that was the internship basically.
Jessica Osborn [00:05:42]:
It was, it was awesome.
Dylan Jahraus [00:05:46]:
Yeah, that was. Quickly learned what we don't want to do for our career. Yeah, yeah. Did that in New York for, for a summer and then got into to e commerce. Worked for some big companies, Zappos in Zulily. But then I ended up meeting someone in the military. And he, he was this, you know, six foot six, six like tall guy, super handsome submarine officer, like everything I dreamed of. And we moved to San Diego.
Dylan Jahraus [00:06:17]:
They don't have E commerce here. Really. And so yeah, that was before remote working was like a thing. So I was starting all these side hustles and Etsy was one of those side hustles.
Jessica Osborn [00:06:32]:
So I can.
Dylan Jahraus [00:06:33]:
Yeah, that was one thing. Put everything into that. Made like, let's see, we got up to 1.7 million, went on to Amazon and Shopify and then started teaching.
Jessica Osborn [00:06:44]:
Yeah. Amazing. So you kind of grew an Etsy business, an Etsy shop that you were running and then realized, hey, I could teach other people how to do this. So now do you still run your own Etsy shops or have you. Are you just focusing more on helping other business owners?
Dylan Jahraus [00:07:01]:
Yes. So we had it. So we, I started teaching Etsy after we did about a million in profit. So it was about six years in and then I did both for about two years. And at the point where we had over 30 employees on the coaching side, I just realized this is way too much. I have two kids as well, so it's like too hard. Yeah. So I sold it.
Dylan Jahraus [00:07:29]:
I sold it to one of our clients in a couple few months ago now. Yeah.
Jessica Osborn [00:07:33]:
Yeah. Amazing. So can you tell me a bit about the transition between having that very product based business, you're creating things to sell and selling them? I guess there's a whole lot of stuff in that type of business that isn't in one where you've got a digital product and you're doing coaching. So just actually having the product and storing it and shipping it and selling it. What did you find are the key differences between those business models and what. Yeah, I guess I'm just interested to hear your insights on the shift between the two.
Dylan Jahraus [00:08:13]:
Yeah. So with the product side of things, you can be working in your pajamas like hair messy and house messy and you are just cranking out orders and you're communicating with customers, you know, written communication like messaging and you don't really, really care who the customer is. You're just happy for the sales. But then when you get into the service side of things now you're dealing with personalities and people and this is suddenly a people business where you are, you are selling development of a person and you. I learned pretty quickly it's okay to choose your customers here and not everyone is going to be the right fit. And you have to be thoughtful about that.
Jessica Osborn [00:09:04]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think that's a Lesson a lot of people learn, it's like, not all clients are the same. Like, just because somebody might want to work with you, they're not necessarily the best fit. So how do you determine, you know, what makes a good fit? Client. Client for you?
Dylan Jahraus [00:09:21]:
Yes. So one thing is with, with this program, it's high ticket. So, you know, you're getting on a call with us before you sign up. You can't not just sign up on your own. Thank goodness. You know, it's that way because now we can vet our potential clients before we bring them on. And if it's not the right fit, like if, if someone shows up and they are, maybe they've been thinking about having a business for three years, four years, and they are procrastinating and they're overthinking and then they get on a call and they're still not sure. They're not ready to take action and it's not the right fit and they may never be ready.
Dylan Jahraus [00:10:03]:
Usually, yeah. And sometimes, you know, there's people who are looking for a get rich quick scheme and they've seen a lot of those and we specifically say ours is not. But you can kind of tell if they're looking for an easy way to make money. And really, if you want, you know, good money long term, it's not going to be easy. So we turn them away as well.
Jessica Osborn [00:10:28]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gosh, I so resonate with that. It's like, guys, this is a business. It's not something that you're doing this month and then, oh, next month we're going to change all over again. It's like, if you want to do this, you're, you know, you're in it for the long term. This is, you're creating your future here and something that, you know you're going to do for a while. I think it's interesting because, you know, you mentioned you sold a business. And my first business, when I started it, I started it with all of the, I bought into it, all of this sort of corporate business, you know, background.
Jessica Osborn [00:11:01]:
And I was like, right, well, I'm creating this thing and it's got a great opportunity and market and what will happen when I want to sell it. And I kind of had all these things already mapped out and I thought that was the right thing to do. And I did end up selling that business. But starting this one, I was like, I don't even care. There is no exit plan because I'm not planning on exiting. Right. This is actually a business that I want to do for forevermore. And so now I'm like, if someone's asking like, what's the exit plan? I'm like, are you actually in this for the right reasons? And are you really doing a business because you feel it or are you doing this because you want it to be a job? And yeah, I think thought that was like a really interesting thing.
Jessica Osborn [00:11:41]:
How do you feel about your businesses right now? And is that something that you look at with your clients coming in? They someone that's like, you know, I'm looking for the, how do I get out of it? How do I make something and get out and sell it? You know, would that be something that would put them in the not right bucket for you as well? Or how do you see that?
Dylan Jahraus [00:12:01]:
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I like to help people create a business where they at least have the option to sell it if they wanted to, just because that just makes it more valuable and it gives you a little more breathing room. Like a lot of my clients, they might have aging parents or kids who might need them and they want to have the option to be able to be there and maybe have a good exit instead of shutting a business down and just letting it die. So I do try to think through those things with them and prepare them for the option. But I did have a mentor, you know, Alex and Layla Hermosi.
Jessica Osborn [00:12:41]:
Yes. Yeah, yeah.
Dylan Jahraus [00:12:42]:
So we did some work with them a couple years ago and they asked, they're like, Dylan, what is the goal for this business? Like, and I think they were wondering if I was trying to hit a certain revenue. And I said, like, I mean like, there's not a number I'm trying to hit here. I just want to like, blow this thing up and grow it. And I think, you know, when they're looking at who they like to work with, I think that was something that they look for. Because if you have just a number you're trying to hit, then, you know.
Jessica Osborn [00:13:14]:
Once you get there, then what, what's next?
Dylan Jahraus [00:13:17]:
Yeah, like, okay, well is, is, is, you know, check the box and what do you do? Yeah, so, yeah, people who I like to work with, growth minded people who they're always wanting to achieve and expand.
Jessica Osborn [00:13:32]:
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And you know, and I think that that's such a good point about, you know, and I maybe I kind of positioned the whole not wanting to sell thing in a way that I didn't fully intend. I think that, you know, I'd say to my clients, hey, when it comes to that point that you want to get out of your business. And then that's when you create the exit plan. Like, there's always a way. There's always things that you can do. There are always options. There isn't.
Jessica Osborn [00:13:59]:
Like, there's only one opt. Like, I always go by the premise there's multiple options at any point in time. And it's just about once you get to that point, you'll be able to figure out what your options are. And it's so hard to see into the future. Like, you don't have a crystal ball. So when you're starting the business, that's really not your ideal thing to focus on or worry about is, how am I going to get out of it? At the end, it's like, hey, actually, let's create the thing first. And then if and when you do want to get out, you'll have options to do that, you know, especially if you've created, like you say, create something of value, create something that's really valuable. And absolutely there'll be somebody will be there who wants to either take it over or buy parts of it or however that exit plan might look.
Jessica Osborn [00:14:43]:
But there are definitely ways of doing it. And the growth mind, you know, that is so crucial. I think that it's interesting, the more that you learn about different people and you experience the ways people look at things, you see such a difference between the real fixed mindset look outlook and the growth mindset and the opportunities. What do you think? Because I think this is a challenge. A lot of people who do have that growth mindset or the entrepreneurial mind, they see opportunities everywhere. That's like, oh, my goodness, I've woken up this morning and I've got this great idea. And it can be really easy to get pulled and swayed in those different areas. What have you experienced in your business life, which, you know, obviously you've grown some very successful businesses here.
Jessica Osborn [00:15:31]:
So have you stayed focused and on track? Have you had lots of ideas that you've just had to sort of put to the side and not do or, you know, how do you manage that? Because I can tell you are an entrepreneur to the. To the bones, as in, you've been born into an entrepreneurial family. So I'm sure that you experience that as well.
Dylan Jahraus [00:15:52]:
Yeah. And I find, you know, the more successful a business becomes, the more options you have and the harder it is to discern what do I say no to, or do I say yes to what is the bigger opportunity. So discerning that has been actually, you know, a big challenge over the Last year and a couple years ago I was, or actually was my. What were we, about nine months in? We're doing about 900k a month. And I thought, wow, like, what if I started teaching people how to build courses and do coaching with. Without spending money on ads to get to a level like this? And Alex Hermosi was actually one who said, like, why would you do that? You're nine months into building this machine. He's like, if you want to do something else, he's like, build a software to go with your current. For your current customers.
Dylan Jahraus [00:16:46]:
So we ended up doing that and, and launching a software last fall for our current clientele. And that fulfilled some of that urge.
Jessica Osborn [00:16:59]:
Tell me about that. Because I actually have a background in working with some IT firms back in my corporate days. And so I know the IT startup, the software and what it's like actually on the inside. How did you find actually going into that world and creating a piece of software?
Dylan Jahraus [00:17:19]:
Like, has it been, oh my gosh, I'm shocked that I did it because I am the girl who does not update her phone, like iOS ever, until it breaks. And then my husband's like, you need to update. There's been updates for six months that you haven't done. And now your device is broken. Also. I never, I've never shut down my computer. I only let it crash and then that forces the shutdown. I am not a techie girl.
Dylan Jahraus [00:17:51]:
And the fact that we have a software that I technically founded is kind of wild to me. But I had the concept and I knew the problem we were trying to solve. And it was really just a matter of getting the right dev teams in place and hiring a project manager or a product manager who knew the language.
Jessica Osborn [00:18:12]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think the right people, clearly. And if you have the vision, then you don't need to get into the back end of all that nitty gritty, which is good. Hiring those people definitely helps. So I'm curious about, you know, you've grown this business. You said that when you started coaching, you know, and correct me if I got this wrong, but you reached half a million per month within the first five months. How, how quickly did you bring on team members? Because, you know, what did that sort of look like from a business point of view? Was this the coaching program, like a group program? You know, there's one to one.
Jessica Osborn [00:18:53]:
A lot of the time people are thinking, oh, how can you do that when it's a high touch model? So I'd love to hear a bit about you Know your tips, we know what you learned, what was something that really helped you to, to scale and reach that amount in that short amount of time.
Dylan Jahraus [00:19:12]:
Yeah. So one big thing is I didn't realize how long term this was going to be. I think until we met the. Met the Hormoses and their team, I didn't realize how long term this would be. So that's why I wasn't even thinking ahead about hiring. So I actually. It was such a mistake, I'll tell you. I was doing all the content, build the course, all the customer service, all of like, the emails, the coaching, every single thing up until we were at 600,000amonth.
Dylan Jahraus [00:19:46]:
And that's me taking sales calls to get to 600,000. And so. And then I realized, wow, I need help. I am like going to kill myself if I go at this pace. Like, I'm not going to survive. My. I was getting like chest pains and. Yeah, yeah.
Dylan Jahraus [00:20:06]:
And I just was like 24 7, always on the device, on the phone, responding. Coaching. You know, we had, gosh, like maybe close to a thousand students that I was coaching. And. And I didn't have any help. And so, yeah, got to that point. So then I hired sales team first, then email marketing next. And then an operator, coo.
Dylan Jahraus [00:20:31]:
Next. Yeah.
Jessica Osborn [00:20:32]:
Yeah. Wow. I can't imagine you doing all of that yourself and having two kids as well. Like, how are you actually surviving? Because I don't know if I could. I have two kids and the amount of things that we want to do, you know, they do all these sports and stuff after school. So every day after school, literally, like at the pool, at the gym, at the soccer fields, wherever, taking them to all their different sports and, you know, while I can sort of sit there and get a little bit of work done while they're doing that, sometimes I'm also like, well, now I need to do some exercise and go to the gym and do something for myself so that I'm, you know, staying healthy too. How did you manage to balance, you know, motherhood, just life in general, the things that you need to do and being able to do all of that. It sounds like not sleeping.
Jessica Osborn [00:21:22]:
Tell me what the real the truth was.
Dylan Jahraus [00:21:24]:
The truth is an amazing husband who really picked up the slack because we had a one year old just turned. He just turned one when I started this business. And then a five year old, he just turned five. So, you know, we're in like preschool and we had a nanny who helped until the little one went off to a Montessori program. But my Husband, you know, he, he really picked up the slack. So bath time, you know, making lunches, he allowing me to film and take these calls. He really picked up where I couldn't.
Jessica Osborn [00:22:01]:
Yeah, yeah. That's incredible. So I'm curious now to find out about when you did this shift. So you decided to start this business. You'd had the Etsy shop and you're running all of that, but then you're like, right, I'm going to teach people how to do this for themselves. Did you have an audience? Did you start by reaching out to your existing, I guess shop shoppers, like the people who are buying from you and be like, hey, would you like to learn this from me? Or you know, how did you shift there? Because they're two very different businesses. Or did you find that you kind of were able to bring your audience along? What was that starting off point like?
Dylan Jahraus [00:22:43]:
So no one knew? No one. None of my customers knew what I was doing and that was intentional. But with Etsy, you're selling pretty products on a marketplace when you're building a service based business. Where are you finding your customers? How are they finding you? So I, I kind of went back to a strategy that I used when I was a blogger back in college and that's how my husband found me. He found a blog that I had built up and he like cold reached out and asked, invited me to a military ball. But so like I had experience. Yeah, that's a whole journey there. But he, yeah, I, I had experience building up an organic audience and content and consistency of content and giving value.
Dylan Jahraus [00:23:30]:
So this time I did it on YouTube. Now the whole reason for the shift, it's actually pretty open about it. I ended up getting vascular disease in my legs from standing up making the products.
Jessica Osborn [00:23:43]:
Oh, wow.
Dylan Jahraus [00:23:44]:
Yeah, yeah, I was standing up. You know how nurses stand up all the time? Like yeah, they have to wear those stockings. Compression. Yeah, I did too because I was, yeah, I was working like 14 hour, 16 hour days on my feet. So I had surgery because the vascular disease got so bad and then I kept working on my feet and it came back again and I realized I'm like 32, I can't keep doing this. So I started training an assistant to run the Etsy shop, which gave me a lot of time to start something new.
Jessica Osborn [00:24:27]:
Yeah. Yeah. Oh wow. That is incredible. So you literally kind of started from scratch, almost from nothing and started a YouTube channel with content and, and it grew from there.
Dylan Jahraus [00:24:40]:
Yes, and YouTube, I mean I will stand by this long form content for customer Acquisition and for, you know, creating a warm audience who's ready to buy it is like priceless. So worth the time investment.
Jessica Osborn [00:24:53]:
Yeah, yeah. Amazing. And so tell me a bit about. Just because I'm sure other people are curious, I always like to ask the questions I think someone listening would hit, you know, ask. When you're thinking about that YouTube content, what sort of things, like what were you sharing in the videos that you're making? What kind of content were you producing?
Dylan Jahraus [00:25:14]:
Yes, it was all about Etsy shops and how to fix your shop and things you might be doing wrong and really sharing everything I knew from corporate e commerce and just doing like seven, eight minute videos, five things to, you know, improve your SEO or whatever. It was kind of like almost. I treated the YouTube videos like a blog post.
Jessica Osborn [00:25:36]:
Yeah, yeah.
Dylan Jahraus [00:25:37]:
My previous days. Yeah. And so it works pretty well.
Jessica Osborn [00:25:40]:
Yeah, Amazing. That's so cool. So tell me now, you know you've got a team, you said you got 35 people who are helping you run the business. What has been your biggest win? Like, as in like, wow, if I could just repeat doing that, I would do that again again. Or I wish I'd known that soon. Do you have something that, you know, you know, you really hit your stride now? Obviously it sounded like you hit it pretty quickly, but you know, what was that thing that you would have told your past self or previous self, hey, here's the thing that you should go and do, like the Golden Nugget.
Dylan Jahraus [00:26:19]:
Yeah. So consistency with content, like long form, so podcast and YouTube consistency with that, which we have not missed two episodes a week on both of those platforms. But recently this year, starting in January, we started doing a monthly webinar and free, totally free, running it to our email list. We have like, we had about 55 people on the or 55,000 on the email list. So running that to them and then having an offer, usually it's the first week of the month, second week of the month. And that really creates so much consistency for our sales team.
Jessica Osborn [00:26:59]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. And so it is running like a beautiful machine because you know what's happening every month you've got your webinar and then you've got your offer. So tell me, are they the same webinar that you're running every month or are you changing up the topic and creating something new each month?
Dylan Jahraus [00:27:17]:
So, okay, so what we do is we run the webinar, we edit it down a little bit, put it into voomly and then run ads to that. So then that becomes evergreen Ads. And then next month it's a new webinar that we then do the same thing. So now we have a new set of ads for every webinar. Wow. Yeah.
Jessica Osborn [00:27:39]:
Yeah. Amazing. And so each of them are kind of becoming their own entry point into your program. So once they watch the webinar, are they still getting on a call then? You said that that's how you do your sales is a one to one call.
Dylan Jahraus [00:27:51]:
So, yeah, they are. I, I don't think I ever want to just let anyone in anymore. Yeah.
Jessica Osborn [00:28:01]:
Oh, that's incredible. Could you tell us what you think your biggest mistake has been? Because I think, I love that, you know, the consistency. It just sounds excellent. You don't have to overthink it. You're just doing the same thing each month and you've got a really good system in place. But what, what do you think you've done that you're like, oh my goodness, I wish I hadn't done that. Or it was a big lesson or learning that you've had.
Dylan Jahraus [00:28:24]:
Yeah. So I, I made a really bad hire and it was out of desperation because I was so overwhelmed that I was just willing to see what looks good on paper and then hope for the best. And this was in a high level executive role and I, I really didn't have enough comparison. This was one of my, this was my first executive hire and I only had interviewed three people and it just, it was a bad decision and I, you know, looking at references is so important and I didn't do that. So, yeah, I would say a desperate hire. And anytime I get into a point of desperation where I'm like, we need more help, I really, really make myself slow down in that.
Jessica Osborn [00:29:16]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So what do you do now that's different apart from slowing down and kind of taking the time? Is there anything that you've implemented into your hiring process? Something that you use that you think, well, this helps me to check that this person is going to be the right cultural fit or, you know, it helps you to sort of weed out those ones that might look great on paper or maybe do a really good interview. And then you get them in and they're like, oh, okay. The reality is different. So, yeah, I'm curious if you've found a secret method. Yeah.
Dylan Jahraus [00:29:50]:
So one, we use a recruiter now who's been fantastic for placing good candidates with us. But the other thing is a couple of interview questions. One is, tell me how you feel about work, life, balance. Because the thing is, people don't know Unless they watch a ton of my content. Like what I would prefer, they might think, oh, she wants me to have good work, life balance. They don't know that I'm like crazy. I'll be messaging them at like 10 o' clock at night. So the ones, the ones who like have really firm boundaries.
Dylan Jahraus [00:30:28]:
Like that just doesn't work super well for me. I'll be honest. People who like, yeah, I shut off, you know, I'm in the pacific time, so if they're eastern and they're like, hey, shut off at 2 o' clock and like you won't hear from me till Monday, I'm like, well, what if there's a fire? Like, can I, can I call you? So that I just found that I like to ask that question because the, the people who are really comfortable in startup environments, they will say something like, you're a startup. Like there's no set working hours. And they know that.
Jessica Osborn [00:31:03]:
Yeah, yeah.
Dylan Jahraus [00:31:04]:
So I find out with that question. Yeah, yeah.
Jessica Osborn [00:31:08]:
That is really interesting. I love that. And you know, I think that there's been some cool things that we've done in the past just to understand their personality a little bit and putting in some questions here or there that if they're just sending you the bog standard response, they haven't actually read your question. It shows you straight away that they're not, not really paying attention, that they're just sort of putting out their CV to everybody. But yeah, I really agree with the whole thing about the balance and the time. Do you think that the right people in that space as well sort of know you work hard and yes, it may be some sort of different hours and things, but that they also know it's not just about being there all the time and stuffing around. It's like, be effective, take some time off. You know, like the rest is as important as the work as well.
Jessica Osborn [00:32:01]:
You want to keep going. So how do you find the people who aren't sort of, I guess have that mindset of the longer I'm sitting on my computer that means the better work I'm doing versus the person who, because I've had such different people working for me in the past and you know, the ones who I find who are really motivated, they. They're not necessarily the ones that in the office the longest, they're actually in the office the shortest amount of time, but they're most far more productive and they will churn out so much more, get much more done and at a higher value than the people who are thinking. I just need to be working. And that's showing that I'm a good employee.
Dylan Jahraus [00:32:41]:
Completely. Yes. We give them a test project without a deadline and that will tell us everything. So you know, let's say it's a social media manager. Okay, here's like some raw footage. Create a reel, send it back to me. This is like the test interview, test project. Okay.
Dylan Jahraus [00:32:57]:
Some people will. You don't say when, don't say like send it back by Friday. You just say, just send it back to me. And then you watch who sends it back and how quickly they do it. I love. Yeah, because it's like you're giving them, you're being vague on purpose, you know, and like letting, seeing what their pace really is.
Jessica Osborn [00:33:18]:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I guess what they're going to do on a day to day basis when you're like, hey, this is what we want to do, are they going to get it done or are they waiting for, for the deadline so that they get told when to do it? And I think it doesn't matter what deadline you give someone, they will. For some people it's like the deadline dictates when it gets done by. So if you give them three weeks, it'll take three weeks. If you give them three days, it'll take three days. Obviously that's a little bit broad. Some things do take longer. But it's like that whole, that old scenario.
Jessica Osborn [00:33:51]:
A lot of us are wired in like that. So I think it's really interesting to, you know, I do that reflection on myself sometimes. I'm like, am I just making this take longer because I didn't put a deadline on it or I've given myself a longer deadline, therefore I'm fluffing around and then as soon as I'll, you know, if I go right now we're just getting it done today and that's it. And then what does it happen?
Dylan Jahraus [00:34:12]:
Yeah. So comparing the balance of the quality and the speed of the turnaround is so insightful for people. And you can spot a perfectionist immediately. And you can also just spot people who will miss details pretty quickly too. So I love, I love doing a test project even if it's really small. Like how would you respond to this email? Or giving them like three emails to respond to and then seeing what they do. Like, it's fascinating. Yeah.
Jessica Osborn [00:34:40]:
Yeah, that's so good. So tell me what is next? What's your plan? Like, what are you doing with your business? I don't usually ask this question, but I'm really curious to hear what you have to say about where's the future for, you know, what you're doing right now.
Dylan Jahraus [00:34:58]:
Yes. So I went to a. An event, a mastermind with Amy Porterfield last week in Nashville, and I was kind of at this crossroads and I wanted her advice on what to do here because I really want to start teaching how to scale profitably, you know, without relying on ads for service based businesses or for really anyone in kind of the online space, not just e commerce. And she. And I'm like, I just need some clarity around if it's the right move. She's like, well, action creates clarity, so start taking action on it. So I'm gonna start speaking more about this, doing some more content about this and let that action create some clarity. Hopefully that's my plan.
Jessica Osborn [00:35:44]:
Yeah, yeah. Love it. So great. So if anyone is wanting to connect with you and follow you on socials and sort of get into your world, where can we best find you?
Dylan Jahraus [00:35:55]:
Yeah. So Ylan Jarris on Instagram, J A H R A U S and then our website, dylanjaras.com you can check it out. And I'm like, I'm on social every day, so I'll see you there.
Jessica Osborn [00:36:09]:
Amazing. Thanks so much, Dylan. This has been such a great chat. I know that you've got so much to share, but we've touched on plenty of things there. Is there anything that you feel that we've left out that you really want to lead the audience with today?
Dylan Jahraus [00:36:24]:
No, I think just that theme action creates clarity. That's really been inspiring me the last couple of weeks. So I would just write that down and see if that can inspire you too.
Jessica Osborn [00:36:34]:
Yeah, yeah. Love it. It so does. Because you can spend forever sitting there ruminating over it and not be any clearer. Right. So taking that action absolutely gives you the clarity. I love that. What a great nugget to leave us with.
Jessica Osborn [00:36:47]:
Thank you, Dylan. It's been amazing and yeah, I hope we connect again soon.
Dylan Jahraus [00:36:52]:
Thanks, Jessica. This was great.
